cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Does a normal screening ultrasound of the abdominal aorta reduce the likelihood of rupture in emergency department patients

Abstract Introduction Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) development is a multifactorial process that is more prevalent among people ≥ 65 years of age. Major risk factors are obesity, male sex, history of smoking (at least 100 cigarettes in a person’s lifetime), and history of AAA in a first-degree relative. The United States Preventative Task Force has recommended a one-time ultrasound screening for men aged 65–75 years. Based on studies, negative results on a single ultrasound examination around the age of 65 years appear to virtually exclude the risk for future AAA rupture or death. While ultrasonography (US) is the confirmatory study of choice, computed tomography (CT) can also be used in the diagnosis of AAA. The goal of this study is to determine if AAA rupture can reliably be excluded in individuals with abdominal pain who have had a normal caliber aorta on CT or US after the age of 65 years. Materials and methods A retrospective study (approved by institutional review board) of emergency department (ED) patients in an urban academic center was performed. Subjects were included if they met the following criteria: age ≥ 65 years; an initial CT or US as an ED patient, inpatient, or outpatient for any indication, which identified an abdominal aorta Results During the study period, 606 subjects were enrolled. Demographic data are listed in Table 1. Three subjects (0.5%) exhibited an abnormal-sized aorta on ED evaluation. None of these three subjects had an AAA intervention. The average size of the abnormal aorta in these three subjects was 3.3 cm (S.D. 0.17). Conclusion Based on these results, it appears that AAA and rupture may reliably be excluded in ED patients with abdominal pain who have previously had a normal caliber aorta on CT or US after the age of 65 years. A prospective, multicenter study would help validate these findings.
What's the Big Deal?: The Ethics of Public-Private Partnerships Related to Food and Health

Public-private partnerships have become increasingly attractive to public sector entities (including government agencies and academic research institutions), particularly in the wake of diminishing public funds to support health research and public health interventions. When such partnerships are formulated, the participants tend to emphasize synergies between the missions or goals of the public and private partners. However, the missions of public and private sector actors usually diverge in significant ways. Consequently, these partnerships can have serious implications for the integrity and trustworthiness of public officials and institutions, and for trust and confidence in those officials and institutions. In this article, I employ the institutional corruption framework to highlight systemic concerns presented by public-private partnerships related to food and health. I argue that prevailing analytical approaches to such partnerships tend to downplay or ignore these systemic effects and their ethical implications. I offer some guidance for public sector actors wishing to think more critically and systemically about public-private partnerships. Public sector actors need to reconsider partnership as a default paradigm for engagement with the private sector. They also need to be more vocal about which goals they can and cannot achieve given limitations in the available sources of public funding.
Personality Traits and Its Effect on Brand Commitment: An Empirical Investigation

The proliferation of new brands, increased use of sales promotions, the explosion of alternative forms of distribution and a reduction in advertising impact, make maintaining brand commitment, increasingly difficult. This study empirically examines the roles of personality traits on brand commitment. More specifically, this study investigates the effects of personality traits of preference for consistency (PFC), resistance to change, agreeableness, introversion, openness to experience, and conscientiousness on consumers’ brand commitment. Based on our study, the elemental trait of conscientiousness was found to be positively related to preference for consistency but no significant relationship was found between preference for consistency and resistance to change, however a significant relationship was found between resistance to change and brand commitment. Hence, it is suggested that in order to maximize returns, it is necessary to have brand-committed customers.
Venous Thromboembolic Disease in Foot and Ankle Surgery

Controversy permeates the use of prophylaxis against venous thromboembolic disease (VTED) after foot and ankle surgery. Underpinning these debates are the unique perspectives offered by several specialty societies, the disparate incidences of VTED among varied orthopaedic patient populations, inconsistency in the quality of relevant research, and uncertainty about the applicability of broader governmental quality measures. As a result, foot and ankle clinicians continue to be forced to make decisions on the basis of incomplete information and contradictory guidelines. The inaccuracy inherent in projecting hip and knee arthroplasty studies onto the foot and ankle population—which comprises a vast array of demographics, diagnoses, and procedures—amplifies this uncertainty. Specialty societies, including the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) and the …
Oil & Gas Drilling in National Parks

While a great deal of public attention addresses the Halliburton loophole of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and Bureau of Land Management efforts to regulate hydraulic fracturing on public lands, less attention has been paid to the National Park Service “9B Regulations,” which provide a national regulatory framework governing the exercise of nonfederal oil and gas rights in national parks. This article begins with a review of law pertaining to oil and gas drilling in national parks. The article examines the tension in striking a balance between environmental protection, conservation of national lands and achieving energy independence, including National Park Service proposals to revise the 9B regulations. The article concludes that because it is impractical to purchase the mineral rights in NPS units, it is critical to revise the 9B rules to: (1) create protocols that bring exempt operations within the 9B regulations; (2) raise the bond and financial assurance requirements; (3) create access and user fees that reflect fair use; (4) allow administrative fines to be assessed for minor violations; (5) ensure all drilling meets modern safety standards including measures to preclude park damage after well closure; (6) require a baseline environmental assessment as a permit condition; and (7) require operators to map and record in land records the exact location of all pipes and other equipment installed in the land.
Identity, Relationship Satisfaction, and Disclosure Predicting Suicide Risk Among Sexual Minority Women

We tested the usefulness of combining the Interpersonal–Psychological Theory of Suicide and minority stress models in studying suicidality among sexual minority women. According to the Interpersonal–Psychological Theory of Suicide, perceptions of being a burden on others and feelings of failed belongingness predict suicidal ideation. In a sample of sexual minority women (n = 51), we tested first, if the interaction of perceived burdensomeness and failed belongingness predicted lifetime suicidal behavior; second, if identity affirmation was negatively related to perceived burdensomeness and if this relation was moderated by disclosure; and third, if relationship satisfaction was negatively related to failed belongingness and if this relation was moderated by acceptance concerns. The proposed interaction of perceived burdensomeness and failed belongingness predicted lifetime suicide attempts. Moreover, among sexual minority women with greater disclosure of their sexual minority identities, low identity affi...
Serological confirmation of group C streptococcal pneumonia.

Lancefield group C streptococci are a common cause of infections in animals but less frequently cause disease in humans. Studies by Duma [1] and Mohr [2] showed that only O^o-OJ^o of streptococci isolated from cultures of human blood were identified as group C. Pneumonia due to group C Streptococcus has been reported in eight individuals [2-7]: five patients were previously healthy, one was a chronic smoker, one had a hiatus hernia and a bleeding esophageal ulcer, and one had underlying Hodgkin's disease. We describe a patient with pneumonia due to group C Streptococcus, peritonitis with underlying congenital heart disease, and chronic renal failure who was receiving continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. The etiologic role of the group C Streptococcus in the illness of this patient was confirmed by isolating the organism from the blood and peritoneal fluid and by demonstrating a significant rise in antibody titer to group C streptococcal carbohydrate antigen in convalescent sera.
Effect of surgical intervention on circulating tumor cells in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck using a negative enrichment technology.

Background The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of surgical intervention on detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN.) Methods We utilized a negative depletion technique to identify cytokeratin (CK)-positive CTCs. The numbers of CTCs immediately before and after surgical resection were compared. Results Seventy-six blood samples from 38 patients with SCCHN were examined. Seventy-nine percent of the patients had CTCs detected before and after surgery. A total of 7.89% had no CTCs before surgery, yet had CTCs identified after surgery. Overall, 60.5% of patients had an increased number of CTCs/mL after surgery with a mean increase of 6.63-fold. A statistically significant increase in CTCs was seen after surgery (p = .02). Conclusion The timing of sample collection in patients with SCCHN who have surgical intervention can potentially impact the number of CTCs identified. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck, 2016
Additive contributions of childhood adversity and recent stressors to inflammation at midlife: Findings from the MIDUS study

We examined the joint contributions of self-reported adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and recent life events (RLEs) to inflammation at midlife, by testing 3 competing theoretical models: stress generation, stress accumulation, and early life stress sensitization. We aimed to identify potential mediators between adversity and inflammation. Participants were 1,180 middle-aged and older adults from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Biomarker Project (M age = 57.3 years, SD = 11.5; 56% female). A composite measure of inflammation was derived from 5 biomarkers: serum levels of C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, fibrinogen, E-selectin, and ICAM-1. Participants provided self-report data regarding ACEs, RLEs, current lifestyle indices (cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, physical exercise, waist circumference), current depressive symptoms, and demographic/biomedical characteristics. We also used indices of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical outflow (12-hr urinary cortisol) and sympathetic nervous system output (12-hr urinary norepinephrine and epinephrine). Analyses indicated that ACEs and RLEs were independently associated with higher levels of inflammation, controlling for each other's effects. Their interaction was not significant. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that associations between ACEs and inflammation were mediated through higher urinary norepinephrine output, greater waist circumference, smoking, and lower levels of exercise, whereas higher waist circumference and more smoking partially mediated the association between RLEs and inflammation. In support of the stress accumulation model, ACEs and RLEs had unique and additive contributions to inflammation at midlife, with no evidence of synergistic effects. Results also suggested that norepinephrine output and lifestyle indices may help explain how prior stressors foster inflammation at midlife.
Evaluating the Structure of the Education Unit

The organization and administration of teacher education programs has become an important issue on many college and university campuses because controversy exists over which unit within an institution should be responsible for teacher education. For example, in many institutions students desiring to become secondary teachers must enroll in a College of Arts and Sciences, while at others they enroll in a School, College, or Department of Education (SCDE). There is no one system of organization and administration that can be uniformly applied or said to apply across all of the 1,250+ institutions in the United States which prepare teachers.
Synthesis of (±)-Centrolobine Using a Gold-Catalyzed Cycloetherification

A total synthesis of the diarylheptanoid (±)-centrolobine is described. The 2,6-cis-tetrahydropyran core of the natural product was constructed using a gold-catalyzed intramolecular cyclization of a secondary alcohol onto an allyl aryl ether. A B-alkyl Suzuki cross-coupling of the vinyl tetrahydropyran fragment with an aryl iodide completed the assembly of the centrolobine skeleton.
Physical Activity as a Factor in Growth and Maturation

The influence of regular physical activity on children and adolescents is considered in the context of: (1) commonly used indicators of growth and maturation; (2) indicators of health status and physical fitness; and (3) training for sport. Physical activity has no apparent effect on stature or on indicators of biological maturation, but it is an important factor in the regulation of body weight and specifically fatness and bone mineral, physical fitness and several indicators of chronic disease risk. Systematic training for sport does not affect height and biological maturation. Menarche occurs later in athletes in some but not all sports, but the relationship between later menarche and training is not causal. Constitutional factors in the selection and retention of young athletes in a sport need careful consideration. Training for sport has beneficial effects on body composition and physical fitness. Data on chronic disease risk factors in young athletes are limited.
The Transcendent Fantasy in Mass Killers

ABSTRACTThrough the use of ethnographic content analysis this article examines four common fantasy themes: the role of fantasy in creating a temporary refuge and/or a permanent escape; revenge, and the methodical targeting of specific victims or murder-by-proxy; sadistic, sexual, and misogynistic payback; attention-seeking/reaction seeking—the drive for infamy in eight contemporary and notorious mass killers. Each type of fantasy script is distinct and is shaped in the context of the particular offender’s: destabilizing life events, real or perceived losses, and interpretation of the four common fantasy themes. The killer derives immense pleasure and catharsis from his fantasy script and themes.
Current Device Designs to Incorporate Supra-aortic Arch Trunks for Endovascular Repair

Incorporation of aortic arch vessels with fenestrated and branched stent grafts is the last frontier for total endovascular repair of complex aortic aneurysms. The arch poses significant challenges because of its curved and angulated anatomy, proximity to the aortic valve and coronary arteries, variable anatomy of the supra-aortic trunks, and significant hemodynamic forces. Since the first repairs done with branched and fenestrated endografts, there has been increasing clinical experience and improvements in device designs. Novel developments have focused on the development of off-the-shelf designs based on branch technology. Clinical investigations are under way by several stent manufacturers using stents intended to extend the landing to zone 0 (proximal arch) and zone 2 (distal arch). This chapter summarizes some of the device specifications and indications for use.
A Successful Debrief Program for House Staff

Challenging end-of-life encounters can be stressful and may lead to burnout. Monthly debriefing sessions are led by a physician and clinical social worker (LCSW). Sessions focus on experiences and emotional reactions rather than case details. Themes identified included; feeling unsupported after difficult deaths, identifying with patients emotionally, and conceptualizing a "good" versus "bad" death. Debriefing provides opportunities for residency physicians to reflect on the affective side of their work and helps promote resiliency.
Temperature-Dependent Characterization, Modeling, and Switching Speed-Limitation Analysis of Third-Generation 10-kV SiC MOSFET

The temperature-dependent characteristics of the third-generation 10-kV/20-A SiC MOSFET including the static characteristics and switching performance are carried out in this paper. The steady-state characteristics, including saturation current, output characteristics, antiparallel diode, and parasitic capacitance, are tested. A double pulse test platform is constructed including a circuit breaker and gate drive with >10-kV insulation and also a hotplate under the device under test for temperature-dependent characterization during switching transients. The switching performance is tested under various load currents and gate resistances at a 7-kV dc-link voltage from 25 to 125 ˚C and compared with previous 10-kV MOSFETs. A simple behavioral model with its parameter extraction method is proposed to predict the temperature-dependent characteristics of the 10-kV SiC MOSFET. The switching speed limitations, including the reverse recovery of SiC MOSFET's body diode, overvoltage caused by stray inductance, crosstalk, heat sink, and electromagnetic interference to the control are discussed based on simulations and experimental results.
Children with Heavy Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Exhibit Atypical Gait Characteristics.

Background Impaired motor function in children with histories of prenatal exposure to alcohol has been previously reported but, to date, no studies using quantitatively based analyses have been performed to assess gait in these children. Methods Gait of children with (n = 18) or without (n = 26) prenatal alcohol exposure was assessed using an electronically instrumented walkway. Children completed blocks of trials traversing the walkway with different combinations of walking condition (increased, self-paced, and decreased cadence) and direction (forward and backward). Gait velocity, cadence, stride length, step width, foot angle, and double support time, as well as the variability of these temporal–spatial markers, were used to assess gait. Results Results indicated that, in comparison with typically developing children, alcohol-exposed children produced exaggerated foot angle and increased step width. Additionally, alcohol-exposed children produced greater intrasubject variability of gait velocity and walking cadence while walking forward and backward, and greater variability in step width when walking backward and for all 3 walking conditions. Conclusions The results indicate that selected gait markers are adversely affected by prenatal exposure to alcohol. Clinicians and front-line personnel (e.g., teachers) should provide movement enriched experiences to help ameliorate these alcohol-related deficits.
Scaling of Strength and Lifetime Distributions of Quasibrittle Structures

Engineering structures such as aircraft, bridges, dams, nuclear containments and ships, as well as computer circuits, chips and MEMS, should be designed for failure probability < 10− 6–10− 7 per lifetime. The safety factors required to ensure it are still determined empirically, even though they represent much larger and much more uncertain corrections to deterministic calculations than do the typical errors of modern computer analysis of structures. The empirical approach is sufficient for perfectly brittle and perfectly ductile structures since the cumulative distribution function (cdf) of random strength is known, making it possible to extrapolate to the tail from the mean and variance. However, the empirical approach does not apply to structures consisting of quasibrittle materials, which are brittle materials with inhomogeneities that are not negligible compared to structure size. This paper presents a refined theory on the strength distribution of quasibrittle structures, which is based on the fracture mechanics of nanocracks propagating by activation energy controlled small jumps through a nano-structure and an analytical model for the multi-scale transition of strength statistics. Based on the power law for creep crack growth rate and the cdf of material strength, the lifetime distribution of quasibrittle structures under constant load is derived. Both the strength and lifetime cdf’s are shown to be size- and geometry- dependent. The theory predicts intricate size effects on both the mean structural strength and lifetime, the latter being much stronger. The theory is shown to match the experimentally observed systematic deviations of strength and lifetime histograms of industrial ceramics from the Weibull distribution.
Information and municipal expenditures: is monitoring effective in reducing overspending?

Municipal financial decisions involve the interaction of political actors (including voters, elected officials, and bureaucrats) pursuing their own interests. Although voters should determine public choices through elected officials, bureaucrats have the incentives and may have the monopoly power to dominate the process. This study investigates the relationships among municipal spending, fiscal manipulation, and financial monitoring. Fiscal illusion (as measured by revenue complexity) is employed as an empirical surrogate for bureaucratic manipulation and it is hypothesized that financial audits are an effective monitoring technique for moderating possible bureaucratic manipulation. The results of the study suggest that expenditure levels are related to political power and that fiscal illusion is significant for explaining expenditure levels, especially for cities having qualified opinions. Weak support is provided for the hypothesis that the financial audit is a monitoring technique that may constrain bureaucratic overspending. These findings have important implications for both public administration and governmental accounting and suggest the need for further research on monitorig effectiveness.
Socioeconomic and Cultural Conditions of Migrant Workers

For too many years the nation has been enabled to ignore the deplorable living and working conditions of a powerless population forced to lead a mobile life
Contrast Medium Delivery for Vascular MDCT: Principles and Rationale

Optimal vessel opacification remains one of the most crucial but difficult aspects of multiple detector-row CT angiography (MD-CTA). With each new generation of MDCT scanners, acquisition times have become, and will become substantially shorter. Thus, controlling the level and time-course of arterial enhancement and correct synchronizing CT acquisition relative to arterial enhancement has become more difficult and “less forgiving.”
Mineral status of grazing beef cattle in the warm climate region of Florida.

An experiment was conducted to determine the mineral status of purebred Brahman beef cattle grazing Bermuda-Bahia pastures grown on sandy, well-drained soils in Central Florida. Soil, plant, blood serum and liver tissue concentrations of calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, manganese and cobalt were generally adequate. Sixty-nine per cent of forages and 40% of serum samples were deficient in phosphorus. Seventy-five per cent of soils, 38% of forages and 18% of liver samples were deficient in copper. Sixty-nine per cent of forage samples were low, less than 30 ppm, in iron. All samples of forage, liver and serum were deficient in selenium. Likewise, all soil and forage samples and 47 and 88% of serum and liver samples, respectively, were deficient in zinc. Mineral elements most likely deficient and needed in supplements for grazing cattle on sandy, well-drained soils in the warm climate region of Central Florida are phosphorus, copper, selenium and zinc.
Vascular Geometry of Arterial Chemoreceptors: Learning about the Carotid Body by Studying Paraganglia of the Superior Laryngeal Nerve

The morphology of the carotid body’s vasculature is one of the organ’s most distinctive features. Blood vessels that determine the environment of the chemoreceptors are so large and numerous that more than one fourth of carotid body’s volume is blood.
Distal Femoral Varus Osteotomy for Correction of Valgus Deformity

Lower extremity malalignment in association with arthritis or cartilage deficiency is a common clinical entity. Identification and management of limb malalignment, either alone or in conjunction with cartilage restoration, is increasingly recognized as an essential part of the treatment algorithm. Although osteotomies around the knee have been described extensively in the literature, most studies report on the use of proximal tibial valgus osteotomy for varus deformities. The use of varus-producing osteotomies for valgus deformity is less common and few clinical studies have been published. These studies generally report the outcome of small cohorts of patients undergoing medial closing wedge osteotomies for treatment of lateral compartment arthritis and have documented acceptable outcomes at intermediate term follow-up [1–7]. The use of opening wedge osteotomies on the tibial side for varus deformity has become well established as a favored alternative and is now used more commonly than closing wedge techniques [8]. However, little is known regarding the analogous opening wedge technique for femoral osteotomy used to correct valgus deformity. Our experience with the opening wedge distal femoral varus osteotomy has been favorable and is an integral component of our management of patients with cartilage or meniscal pathology of the lateral compartment of the knee.
Optimizing PCR Detection of West Nile Virus from Body Fluid Specimens to Delineate Natural History in an Infected Human Cohort

West Nile virus (WNV), a mosquito-borne arbovirus, remains a major global health concern. In this study, we optimized PCR methods then assessed serially-collected whole blood (WB), urine (UR), saliva, and semen specimens from a large cohort of WNV-positive participants to evaluate the natural history of infection and persistent shedding of WNV RNA. Viral RNA extraction protocols for frozen WB and UR specimens were optimized and validated through spiking experiments to maximize recovery of viral RNA from archived specimens and to assess the degradation of WNV RNA in stored UR specimens. The resultant procedures were used in conjunction with PCR detection to identify WNV-positive specimens and to quantify their viral loads. A total of 59 of 352 WB, 10 of 38 UR, and 2 of 34 saliva specimens tested positive for WNV RNA. Although a single semen specimen was positive 22 days post onset, we could not definitively confirm the presence of WNV RNA in the remaining specimens. WNV RNA-positive UR specimens exhibited profound loss of viral RNA during storage, highlighting the need for optimal preservation pre-storage. This study provides optimized methods for WNV RNA detection among different fluid types and offers alternative options for diagnostic testing during the acute stages of WNV.
Teachers, Textbooks, and Orthographic Choices in Quechua: Comparing Bilingual Intercultural Education in Peru and Ecuador across Decades.

One of the central paradoxes of textbook authorship in Indigenous languages is that some of those for whom the textbooks are intended find it challenging to read them. Here, through examining cases...
A Balescu-Lenard type kinetic equation fot the collisional evolution of stable self-gravitating systems

A kinetic equation for the collisional evolution of stable, bound, self gravitating and slowly relaxing systems is established, which is valid when the number of constituents is very large. It accounts for the detailed dynamics and self consistent dressing by collective gravitational interaction of the colliding particles, for the system's inhomogeneity and for different constituent's masses. The evolution of the one-body distribution function is described in action angle space. The collision operators are expressed in terms of the collective response function allowed by the existing distribution functions at any given time and involve particles in resonant motions. The set of equations which describe the coupled evolution of the distribution functions and of the potential is derived for spherical systems. In the homogeneous limit, which sacrifices the description of the evolution of the spatial structure of the system, but retains the effects of collective gravitational dressing, the kinetic equation reduces to a form similar to the Balescu-Lenard equation of plasma physics.
Progression of the Radiologic Severity Index is associated with increased mortality and healthcare resource utilisation in acute leukaemia patients with pneumonia.

Background Pneumonia is a major cause of mortality and morbidity, but the development of new antimicrobials is lacking. Radiological assessment of pneumonia severity may serve as an effective intermediate endpoint to reduce barriers to successful completion of antimicrobial trials. We sought to determine whether the Radiologic Severity Index (RSI) correlated with mortality and healthcare resource utilisation in patients with acute leukaemia undergoing induction chemotherapy. Methods We measured RSI (range 0–72) on all chest radiographs performed within 33 days of induction chemotherapy in 165 haematological malignancy patients with pneumonia. Peak RSI was defined as the highest RSI score within 33 days of induction. We used extended Cox proportional hazards models to measure the association of time-varying RSI with all-cause mortality within the first 33 days after induction chemotherapy, and logistic regression or generalised models to measure the association of RSI with total daily cost and healthcare resource utilisation. Results After adjustment for clinical variables, each one-point increase in RSI was associated with a 7% increase in all-cause 33-day mortality (HR 1.07, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.09, p Conclusions Greater radiological severity as measured by RSI was associated with increased mortality and morbidity in acute leukaemia patients with pneumonia. RSI is a promising intermediate marker of pneumonia severity and is well suited for use in antimicrobial trials.
Evaluating a framework for policymakers

With respect to framework presented in K Shores and S Loeb’s article, I answer two questions: How well does the framework map onto a real-world situation marked by conflict over fair opportunity? W...
Intervening in Student Identity in Mathematics Education: An Attempt to Increase Motivation to Learn Mathematics.

Students’ relationships with mathematics continuously remain problematic, and researchers have begun to look at this issue through the lens of identity. In this article, the researchers discuss identity in education research, specifically in mathematics classrooms, and break down the various perspective on identity. A review of recent literature that explicitly invokes identity as a construct in intervention studies is presented, with a devoted attention to research on identity interventions in mathematics classrooms categorized based on the various perspectives of identity. Across perspectives, the review demonstrates that mathematics identities motivate action and that mathematics educators can influence students’ mathematical identities. The purpose of this paper is to help readers, researchers, and educators understand the various perspectives on identity, understand that identity can be influenced, and learn how researchers and educators have thus far, and continue to study identity interventions in mathematics classrooms.
Genomic heritability of song and condition in wild singing mice

Abstract Courtship displays are dramatic examples of complex behaviors that vary within and among species. Evolutionary explanations for this diversity rely upon genetic variation, yet the heritability of complex phenotypes is seldom investigated in the field. Here, we estimate genomic heritability of advertisement song and body condition in a wild population of singing mice. The heritability of song exhibits a systematic pattern, with high heritability for spectral characteristics linked to vocal morphology, intermediate heritability for rhythmic patterns, and lower but significant heritability for measures of motivation, like song length and rate. Physiological measures of condition, like hormonal markers of adiposity, exhibited intermediate heritability. Among singing mice, song rate and body condition have a strong phenotypic correlation; our estimate suggests a comparable genetic correlation that merits further study. Our results illustrate how advances in genomics and quantitative genetics can be integrated in free-living species to address longstanding challenges in behavior and evolution.
Effect of Sitagliptin on Islet Function in Pancreatic Insufficient Cystic Fibrosis With Abnormal Glucose Tolerance.

PURPOSE Impaired incretin secretion may contribute to the defective insulin secretion and abnormal glucose tolerance (AGT) that associate with worse clinical outcomes in pancreatic insufficient cystic fibrosis (PI-CF). The study objective was to test the hypothesis that dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor-induced increases in intact incretin hormone (glucagon-like peptide-1 [GLP-1] and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide [GIP]) concentrations augment insulin secretion and glucagon suppression and lower post-prandial glycemia in PI-CF with AGT. METHODS Twenty-six adults from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania CF Center with PI-CF and AGT (defined by oral glucose tolerance test glucose [mg/dL]: early glucose intolerance [1-hour ≥155 & 2-hour <140], impaired glucose tolerance [2-hour ≥140 and <200 mg/dl], or diabetes [2-hour ≥200]) were randomized to a 6-month double-blind trial of DPP-4 inhibitor sitagliptin 100 mg daily or matched-placebo; 24 completed the trial (n=12 sitagliptin; n=12 placebo). Main outcome measures were mixed-meal tolerance test (MMTT) responses for intact GLP-1 and GIP, insulin secretory rates (ISR), glucagon suppression, and glycemia and glucose-potentiated arginine (GPA) test-derived measures of β- and α-cell function. RESULTS Following 6-months of sitagliptin vs. placebo, MMTT intact GLP-1 and GIP responses increased (P <0.001), ISR dynamics improved (P <0.05), and glucagon suppression was modestly enhanced (P <0.05) while GPA test responses for glucagon were lower. No improvements in glucose tolerance or β-cell sensitivity to glucose, including for second-phase insulin response were found. CONCLUSIONS In glucose intolerant PI-CF, sitagliptin intervention augmented meal-related incretin responses with improved early insulin secretion and glucagon suppression without affecting post-prandial glycemia.
Yarden Katz. Artificial Whiteness: Politics and Ideology in Artificial Intelligence. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2020. 352p. Paperback, $28.00 (ISBN: 9780231194907).

In Artificial Whiteness: Politics and Ideology in Artificial Intelligence , Yarden Katz encourages the reader to step away from discourse that frames Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a purely technological development. Instead, the reader is guided through AI’s epistemological roots, the espoused values and priorities of its progenitors, its sources of research funding, and the marriage among academia, industry, and the American military that birthed it. By providing this context, Katz is able to more thoroughly examine and interrogate AI’s principal service to structural white supremacy and imperialism, as well as how that service has been masked by a “progressive veneer” in recent years.
Brain-specific PAPP-A knock-out mice?

Abstract PAPP-A knock-out (KO) mice are a valuable model for investigating the effects of down-regulating localized insulin-like growth factor (IGF) action, which has been shown to extend lifespan and healthspan when the PAPP-A gene is globally deleted. Based on previous mouse models of brain-specific reduction in IGF signaling associated with longevity, we sought to generate brain-specific PAPP-A KO mice and determine effects on metabolism and lifespan. Mice with the PAPP-A gene floxed (fPAPP-A) were crossed with Nestin promoter-driven Cre recombinase transgenic mice. This cross-breeding of mice for Nestin-Cre and mice with other floxed target alleles has been used extensively to investigate brain-specific effects. Our cross-breeding generated four genotypes for study: fPAPP-A/Nestin positive (brain-specific PAPP-A KO); fPAPP-A/Nestin negative (Control for floxed PAPP-A); WT/Nestin positive (Control for Nestin-Cre); WT/Nestin negative (Wild-type Control). The basic genotype screen of neonatal tail snip DNA clearly indicated PAPP-A gene status and the presence (pos) or absence (neg) of Nestin-Cre. We then determined tissue specificity of PAPP-A gene excision. We had expected fPAPP-A/pos mice to be relatively brain-specific for PAPP-A gene deletion and the controls (fPAPP-A/neg, WT/neg and WT/pos mice) to show no effect on PAPP-A expression in brain or other tissues. However, in fPAPP-A/neg mice we found evidence of PAPP-A excision in all tissues examined, i.e., in the presumed absence of Nestin-Cre, indicating germline recombination. We further found that fPAPP-A/pos mice showed near complete excision of the PAPP-A gene in brain, but some also showed germline recombination affecting all tissues tested. To determine if the level of excision indicated by tissue genotyping approximated PAPP-A mRNA expression, we performed RT-qPCR. fPAPP-A/pos mice that showed markedly decreased whole brain PAPP-A mRNA expression (~80%), with little or no effect on expression in the other tissues tested, were designated as “brain-specific” PAPP-A KO. fPAPP-A/pos mice that showed germline recombination had similar decreases in PAPP-A expression in brain but also showed 40–65% decreased PAPP-A mRNA expression in other tissues as well, which was especially striking in kidney, tibia, thymus and spleen. These were designated as “non-specific” PAPP-A KO mice. With unknown and unpredictable specificity until harvest, we chose to assess a surrogate marker of lifespan i.e., thymic involution, in 15- to 18-month-old fPAPP-A/pos and WT/pos mice, the latter an important control for a possible effect of Nestin-Cre per se. Diminished thymic involution as indicated by increased thymic weight (135%, P = 0.035) and decreased histological disruption was seen in “non-specific” PAPP-A KO mice, similar to what was previously reported in 18-month-old global PAPP-A KO mice. There was no significant difference between “brain-specific” PAPP-A KO and control mice. This study highlights the importance of thorough characterization of assumed tissue-specific mouse models and awareness of potential germline recombination for proper data interpretation.
A Review of Autoerotic Fatalities

Written for medical, mental health, and law enforcement groups and medicolegal investigators this easy-to-read, well-documented book is an excellent addition to the medical examiner's bookshelf. Attorneys, insurance adjusters, and sex educators will also find this text beneficial.
Linguistic Analysis Versus Metaphysics

Philosophers who do not wish to enter into speculations centered on metaphysical questions similar to those which have occupied abstract thinkers for many centuries should at least display the good manners of the recusant. Otherwise, it makes those having nothing to say except that what some other philosophers say is not so, seem like genuine philosophers. Professor Lazerowitz has written a book which makes him appear in this light1. And it is a fashionable guise which by now wears the aspect of a well-established tradition. For the logical positivists and the linguistic analysts the attack upon metaphysics is a kind of garden sport, and they do it occasionally just to keep their muscles limber. But while they are only running for their supper, we are running for our lives. When the metaphysician turns and bites back, his teeth do not inject the same venom, for he is only defending himself.
As easy as “click”: end-user web engineering

We are investigating the feasibility of end-user web engineering. The main target audience for this research is webmasters without programming experience – a group likely to be interested in building web applications. Our target domain is web-based data collection and management applications. As an instrument for studying the mental models of our audience and collecting requirements for an end-user web programming tool, we are developing Click, a proof-of-concept prototype. We discuss end-user related aspects of web engineering in general and describe the design rationale for Click. In particular, we elaborate on the need for supporting evolutionary prototyping and opportunistic and ad hoc development goals. We also discuss strategies for making end-user web engineering scalable and for encouraging end-user developers to continually increase their level of sophistication.
High field conduction and current noise: Implications of mechanisms contributing to breakdown in thin films of RbI

Von Hippels1 photoconductivity experiments on solid dielectrics and his observations of vacancy and space charge formation ushered in two decades of research on the effects upon breakdown of: electrode mechanisms such as Schottky emission2 and Fowler-Nordheim emission;3 bulk-limiting mechanisms such as space charge limited currents4 and Poole-Frenkel defects;5 models and evidence for current controlled negative resistance;6 and other space charge formation mechanisms.7, 8
Clinical Pediatric Oncology, edited by Wataru W. Sutow, Teresa J. Vietti and Donald Fernbach. Saint Louis: The C. V. Mosby Company, 1973, 602 pp., $35.50

The specialty of pediatric oncology has evolved into a coordinated multidisciplinary effort to provide optimum therapy for children with malignancy. This book represents a readable and well-referenced text for the pediatrician who may encounter only an occasional malignant condition in his practice, but it is also an updated encyclopedia of knowledge for those experienced in the field of medical oncology. Emphasis has been placed on current approaches which integrate the talents and experiences of investigators and consultants from the Pediatric Division of the Southwest Cancer Chemotherapy Study Group.
Multiple functional motifs in the chicken U1 RNA gene enhancer.

Abstract The DNA sequence requirements of chicken U1 RNA gene expression have been examined in an oocyte transcription system. An enhancer region, which was required for efficient U1 RNA gene expression, is contained within a region of conserved DNA sequences spanning nucleotide positions -230 to -183, upstream of the transcriptional initiation site. These DNA sequences can be divided into at least two distinct subregions or domains that acted synergistically to provide a greater than 20-fold stimulation of U1 RNA synthesis. The first domain contains the octamer sequence ATGCAAAT and was recognized by a DNA-binding factor present in HeLa cell extracts. The second domain (the SPH domain) consists of conserved sequences immediately downstream of the octamer and is an essential component of the enhancer. In the oocyte, the DNA sequences of the SPH domain were able to enhance gene expression at least 10-fold in the absence of the octamer domain. In contrast, the octamer domain, although required for full U1 RNA gene activity, was unable to stimulate expression in the absence of the adjacent downstream DNA sequences. These findings imply that sequences 3' of the octamer play a major role in the function of the chicken U1 RNA gene enhancer. This concept was supported by transcriptional competition studies in which a cloned chicken U4B RNA gene was used to compete for limiting transcription factors in oocytes. Multiple sequence motifs that can function in a variety of cis-linked configurations may be a general feature of vertebrate small nuclear RNA gene enhancers.
Observations of layers in ozone vertical profiles from SAGE II (v 6.0) measurements

[1] Layered structures in the vertical profiles of ozone mixing ratio as retrieved by the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE II) version 6.0 have been studied in the altitude range 10–28 km in the middle and high latitudes (30–75 N and S). 12 years of data (1985–1990, 1994–1999) have been used to build a climatology of layers with thickness of a few kilometers. The occurrence peaks near 12–13 km, then decreases sharply up to about 20 km before increasing again in the 20–28 km range. The seasonal variation indicates that layering activity maximizes during winter-spring in both hemispheres. This is similar to earlier results on thinner structures or laminae. A significant number of layers were observed in summer at altitudes >20 km in both hemispheres primarily at high latitudes (>60 N and S).
Two-Stage Learning Kernel Algorithms

This paper examines two-stage techniques for learning kernels based on a notion of alignment. It presents a number of novel theoretical, algorithmic, and empirical results for alignment-based techniques. Our results build on previous work by Cristianini et al. (2001), but we adopt a different definition of kernel alignment and significantly extend that work in several directions: we give a novel and simple concentration bound for alignment between kernel matrices; show the existence of good predictors for kernels with high alignment, both for classification and for regression; give algorithms for learning a maximum alignment kernel by showing that the problem can be reduced to a simple QP; and report the results of extensive experiments with this alignment-based method in classification and regression tasks, which show an improvement both over the uniform combination of kernels and over other state-of-the-art learning kernel methods.
Pitavastatin Reduces Inflammation in Atherosclerotic Plaques in Apolipoprotein E-Deficient Mice with Late Stage Renal Disease.

Objectives Chronic renal disease (CRD) accelerates atherosclerosis and cardiovascular calcification. Statins reduce low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol levels in patients with CRD, however, the benefits of statins on cardiovascular disease in CRD remain unclear. This study has determined the effects of pitavastatin, the newest statin, on arterial inflammation and calcification in atherogenic mice with CRD.
Computational GOMSL Modeling towards Understanding Cognitive Strategy in Dual-Task Performance with Automation

The objective of this study was to assess the use of a computational cognitive model for describing human performance with an adaptively automated system, with and without advance cueing of control mode transitions. A dual-task piloting simulation was developed to collect human performance data under auditory cueing or no cueing of automated or manual control. GOMSL models for simulating user behavior were constructed based on a theory of increased memory transactions at mode transitions. The models were applied to the same task simulation and scenarios performed by the humans. Comparison of results on human and model output demonstrated the model to be generally descriptive of performance; however, it was not accurate in predicting timing of memory use in preparing for manual control. Interestingly, the human data didn't reveal differences between cued and no cue trials. A refined GOMSL model was developed by modifying assumptions on the timing and manner of memory use, and considering human parallel pro...