cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Propagation of Uncertainty and the Bootstrap

At the beginning of this book we said that we wanted to lay out the key features of what we called, “the statistical paradigm,” which consists of broadly applicable concepts that guide reasoning from data in diverse contexts. One of its foundations is the idea that data may be used to express knowledge and uncertainty about unknown values of model parameters, especially through confidence intervals.
Social media adoption, message content, and reach: an examination of Red Cross and Red Crescent national societies

This paper examines how and to what extent national-level Red Cross and Red Crescent organisations (i.e. national societies) use the social media platform Twitter. Specifically, we assess (a) adoption rates and influential factors; (b) message types and frequency; and (c) the ability to reach large audiences. Findings demonstrate that while the digital divide (i.e. the disparity between country-level internet access rates) limits adoption, key exceptions signal the potential for further diffusion. This paper also illustrates disparate message types, points out the limits of organisational reach, and presents evidence-based suggestions to improve message amplification.
Acute Hand Ischemia Following Elective Venous Sclerotherapy for Dorsal Hand Varicose Veins

Venous sclerotherapy is an emerging cosmetic treatment option for dorsal hand varicose veins. Although venous sclerotherapy is considered a safe and effective procedure for treatment of venous malformations and varicosities in both the upper and lower extremities, inadvertent injection of the sclerosing agent into the arterial system has led to reported instances of acute ischemic events and distal limb necrosis. This is a rare but well-documented complication of lower-extremity venous sclerotherapy. Only 2 cases have been reported in upper-extremity venous sclerotherapy, both of which occurred during treatment of complex vascular malformations. We report an instance of acute, distal digit ischemia after elective venous sclerotherapy for a dorsal hand varicosity. As this procedure grows in popularity, it is essential for hand surgeons to be aware of this rare but potentially devastating complication.
Marburg ca. 1900–1925: The Treffpunkt of Theology, Philosophy, and New Testament

Many of the intellectual giants in the areas of theology, philosophy, and New Testament were faculty members at the Philips University of Marburg during the early decades of the twentieth century. ...
Dosimetric validation of Monaco treatment planning system on an Elekta VersaHD linear accelerator.

The purpose of this study is to perform dosimetric validation of Monaco treatment planning system version 5.1. The Elekta VersaHD linear accelerator with high dose rate flattening filter-free photon modes and electron energies was used in this study. The dosimetric output of the new Agility head combined with the FFF photon modes warranted this investigation into the dosimetric accuracy prior to clinical usage. A model of the VersaHD linac was created in Monaco TPS by Elekta using commissioned beam data including percent depth dose curves, beam profiles, and output factors. A variety of 3D conformal fields were created in Monaco TPS on a combined Plastic water/Styrofoam phantom and validated against measurements with a calibrated ion chamber. Some of the parameters varied including source to surface distance, field size, wedges, gantry angle, and depth for all photon and electron energies. In addition, a series of step and shoot IMRT, VMAT test plans, and patient plans on various anatomical sites were verified against measurements on a Delta4 diode array. The agreement in point dose measurements was within 2% for all photon and electron energies in the homogeneous phantom and within 3% for photon energies in the heterogeneous phantom. The mean ± SD gamma passing rates of IMRT test fields yielded 93.8 ± 4.7% based on 2% dose difference and 2 mm distance-to-agreement criteria. Eight previously treated IMRT patient plans were replanned in Monaco TPS and five measurements on each yielded an average gamma passing rate of 95% with 6.7% confidence limit based on 3%, 3 mm gamma criteria. This investigation on dosimetric validation ensures accuracy of modeling VersaHD linac in Monaco TPS thereby improving patient safety.
Laboratories: Assigning Space

And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city…” – Genesis 11:4 I began this book with the “L” train in Chicago, crossing the boundaries between Black and white. The train made a journey that most Chicagoans, because of the social and psychological space between the two groups – reinforced by segregation – would not make. On the “L” train, we see the great divisions in Chicago. This journey could be repeated for other cities, of course. A bird's-eye view of most of the world's cities large enough to be diverse shows social boundaries mapped onto geographic boundaries. Not all such boundaries are as extreme as Chicago's, with its hyper-segregation between Black and white, but the connections between groups and place are still present. And for most of us, these connections between groups and place are how we bringmeaning to the cities. In Boston, Southie and theNorth End are just names until we associate them with Irish and Italian, respectively. Those geographic boundaries, I argue, don't just coincide with the social boundaries – they reinforce them. In Figures 1.1 and 1.2 on pages 10–11 (see also Figure 5.2 and Figure 5.3 on pages 132–134), I tried to convey the impact of this social geography by treating the city as a giant puzzle which could be rearranged by an experimenter to disrupt the fit between groups and space by altering the spatial continuity of group boundaries. I claimed that this would break the connection between groups and place and reduce the salience of groups, which in turn would reduce group-based bias. Of course, in real life, we can't add or remove segregation to alter a group's spatial continuity. The only way, so far, we have been able to test the effects of segregation was through thought experiments, as in the maps, and through statistical comparisons across place ( cross-sectional comparisons in the language of statistics). This runs us headlong into what statisticians call the Fundamental Problem of Causal Inference , because the same city cannot be both segregated and unsegregated at the same time. If we compare different cities, theremay be something different about those cities or about the people in those cities – something other than social geography – that is causing differences in group bias.
The OTA'S Guide to Documentation: Writing SOAP Notes (4th Edition) 2017

This is an excellent guide for the occupational therapy assistant (OTA) student to learn the skill of professional documentation. Focusing primarily on the SOAP note, this a chapter-by-chapter guid...
The Effects of Reflux on the Elderly: The Problems with Medications and Interventions

Reflux-related complaints are a frequent cause for otolaryngology consultation, and with the aging population the concerns specific to the elderly reflux patient are critical. The elderly patient is less likely to present with typical laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms. Importantly, elderly patients typically have objective findings more severe than the level of the symptoms. Therefore, upfront invasive esophageal testing as opposed to an initial medical therapy trial is the recommended management strategy. For all patients irrespective of age, lifestyle and diet modifications continue to represent the cornerstone of medical management for LPR and GERD.
An analysis of ϵ-lexicase selection for large-scale many-objective optimization

In this paper we adapt ϵ-lexicase selection, a parent selection strategy designed for genetic programming, to solve many-objective optimization problems, ϵ-lexicase selection has been shown to perform well in regression due to its use of full program semantics for conducting selection. A recent theoretical analysis showed that this selection strategy preserves individuals located near the boundaries of the Pareto front in semantic space. We hypothesize that this strategy of biasing search to extreme positions in objective space may be beneficial for many-objective optimization as the number of objectives increases. Here, we replace program semantics with objective fitness to define ϵ-lexicase selection for many-objective optimization. We then compare this method to multi-objective optimization methods from literature on problems ranging from 3 to 100 objectives. We find that ϵ-lexicase selection outperforms state-of-the-art optimization algorithms in terms of convergence to the Pareto front, spread of solutions, and CPU time for problems with more than 3 objectives.
Competitive Sorption of Nickel and Cadmium in Soils

Competing ions strongly affect heavy metal retention and release in soils. In this study, we evaluated the sorption of Ni and Cd in single and binary Ni-Cd systems in three different soils; Windsor sand, Olivier loam and Webster loam. Nickel and Cadmium sorption isotherms were obtained after 24 hours of reaction and exhibited L-type patterns. Cd adsorption on the two acidic soils (Windsor and Olivier) was larger than Ni. In contrast, for Webster soil with a neutral pH, Ni sorption was larger than Cd. The Freundlich model was utilized to describe Ni and Cd adsorption isotherms. The estimates for Kf indicated that Ni sorption by the soils was significantly inhibited by the presence of Cd. Similarly, the sorption of Cd was suppressed by the presence of Ni ions. It was also found that when the added metal concentration increased in Ni-Cd system, the suppressed effect of the metal ion competition increased. Moreover, kinetic batch experiments were carried out to study Ni retention behavior. Ni sorption increased with increasing reaction time for all soils and the rate of sorption varied among soils. Desorption of Ni was hysteretic in nature, which indicated a lack of equilibrium retention and/or irreversible or slowly reversible processes. Soil samples with highest Ni concentrations were analyzed through EXAFS. The EXAFS results provided evidence of irreversible reaction for Webster soil which exhibited strongest affinity for Ni.
An Introduction to Frequent Pattern Mining

The problem of frequent pattern mining has been widely studied in the literature because of its numerous applications to a variety of data mining problems such as clustering and classification. In addition, frequent pattern mining also has numerous applications in diverse domains such as spatiotemporal data, software bug detection, and biological data. The algorithmic aspects of frequent pattern mining have been explored very widely. This chapter provides an overview of these methods, as it relates to the organization of this book.
Cytokines at the Maternal Fetal Interface: Colony Stimulating Factor-1 as a Paradigm for the Maternal Regulation of Pregnancy

Substantial evidence has accumulated that polypeptide growth factors play pivotal roles in development. Particularly convincing evidence comes from the identification, in a wide range of species, of mutations affecting development as being allelic to genes coding for growth factors or their receptors (Greenwald, 1985, Sprenger et al. 1989, Geissler et al 1989). For example, the faint little ball locus in Drosophila encodes a product which has striking homology to the mammalian EGF receptor (Schejter and Shilo, 1989) and mutants of this locus are embryonic lethals. In mammals, the developmentally important gene loci, w and sl, encodes the c-kit proto-oncogene, a class III tyrosine kinase receptor (Ullrich and Schlessinger, 1990), and its ligand respectively (Qui et al. 1988, Geissler et al., 1988, Flanagan and Leder, 1990) and the osteopctrotic locus, op, whose mutants lack mononuclear phagocytes and have severe skeletal deficiencies, encodes the growth factor, CSF-1 (Wiktor-Jedrzejczak et al. 1990, Yoshida et al. 1990). Further persuasive evidence for the role of growth factors in regulating development is provided by experiments in Xenopus where addition of FGF and TGF-β1 or β2 to cultures of animal cell poles results in induction of mesoderm (Weeks and Melton 1987, Kimelman et al. 1988). Furthermore, one of the classical embryonic inducers in mammals, Mullerian inhibitory substance, is a member of the TGF-β gene family (Cate et al. 1986).
Congener Level PCB Desorption Kinetics of Field-Contaminated Sediments

The purpose of this research was to study congener level PCB desorption kinetics of field-contaminated sediments and develop a simple methodology to analyze the desorption behavior. Batch desorption kinetic studies were conducted using XAD-4 resin. Two-phase desorption kinetics were observed for most PCB congeners, consisting of an initial fast rate followed by an extended period of slow rate. A dual first-order rate model was fitted to the PCB desorption data to estimate PCB concentrations in the fast and slow desorbing pools. The fast and slow desorption rates were found to decrease with increasing chlorina-tion of PCB congeners, decreasing ortho chlorination, and decreasing temperature. Estimated first-order desorption rate constants for the fast pools were found to be two orders of magnitude higher than those for the corresponding slow pools. The log of first-order rate constants for the different PCB congeners were found to be linearly related to the log of octanol-water partition coefficients. There...
Satellite Representation of Features of Ocean Circulation Indicated by CZCS Colorimetry

Abstract Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) images have been used to demonstrate that the major factors which influence the patterns of ocean color and hence the abundance of phytoplankton are associated with the density discontinuities of large scale ocean currents. This argues that variations in color in large scale patterns are reflecting phytoplankton growth. Pigment patterns, therefore, are not passive tracers of surface water movement.
Evolving agent societies that avoid social dilemmas

The social sciences literature abound in problems of providing and maintaining a public good in a society composed of self-interested individuals [8]. Public goods are social benefits that can be accessed by individuals irrespective of their personal contributions. In our previous work we have demonstrated the use of genetic algorithms (GAs) for generating an optimized agent society that can circumvent a particularly problematic social dilemma. In that approach, each chromosome represented the entire agent society and the GA found the best co-adapted society. Though encouraging, this result is less exciting than the possibility of evolving a set of co-adapted chromosomes where each chromosome represent an agent, and hence the population represents the society. In this paper, we describe our approach to using such an adaptive systems approach to using GAs for evolving agent societies. We present experimental results from several domains including the classic problem of the Tragedy of the Commons [17].
The Regulation of Cellulose Biosynthesis in Plants

Cell walls define the shape of plant cells, controlling the extent and orientation of cell elongation, and hence organ growth. The main load-bearing component of plant cell walls is cellulose, and how plants regulate its biosynthesis during development and in response to various environmental perturbations is a central question in plant biology. Cellulose is synthesized by cellulose synthase (CESA) complexes (CSCs) that are assembled in the Golgi apparatus and then delivered to the plasma membrane (PM), where they actively synthesize cellulose. CSCs travel along cortical microtubule paths that define the orientation of synthesis of the cellulose microfibrils. CSCs recycle between the PM and various intracellular compartments, and this trafficking plays an important role in determining the level of cellulose synthesized. In this review, we summarize recent findings in CESA complex organization, CESA posttranslational modifications and trafficking, and other components that interact with CESAs. We also discuss cell wall integrity maintenance, with a focus on how this impacts cellulose biosynthesis.
Medial septal stimulation increases seizure threshold and improves cognition in epileptic rats.

Abstract Background Temporal lobe epilepsy is most prevalent among focal epilepsies, and nearly one-third of patients are refractory to pharmacological intervention. Persistent cognitive and neurobehavioral comorbidities also occur due to the recurrent nature of seizures and medication-related side effects. Hypothesis Electrical neuromodulation is an effective strategy to reduce seizures both in animal models and clinically, but its efficacy to modulate cognition remains unclear. We hypothesized that theta frequency stimulation of the medial septum would increase septohippocampal oscillations, increase seizure threshold, and improve spatial learning in a rat model of pilocarpine-induced epilepsy. Methods Sham and pilocarpine rats were implanted with electrodes in the medial septum, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. EEG was assessed days prior to and following stimulation. Sham and pilocarpine-treated rats received either no stimulation, continuous (throughout each behavior), or pre-task (one minute prior to each behavior) 7.7 Hz septal stimulation during the Barnes maze spatial navigation test and also during assessment of flurothyl-induced seizures. Results Both continuous and pre-task stimulation prevented epilepsy-associated reductions in theta oscillations over time. Additionally, both stimulation paradigms significantly improved spatial navigation in the Barnes maze, reducing latency and improving search strategy. Moreover, stimulation led to significant increases in seizure threshold in pilocarpine-treated rats. There was no evidence of cognitive enhancement or increased seizure threshold in stimulated sham rats. Conclusion These findings have profound implications as theta stimulation of the septum represents a single frequency and target that has the potential to both improve cognition and reduce seizures for patients with refractory epilepsy.
Preliminary Findings of the Brief Everyday Activities Measurement (BEAM) in Older Adults.

Functional losses are common in healthy and cognitively impaired older adults. However, subtle declines in instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) are not always detected in self-reports. Performance IADL measurements are financially and time burdensome, restricting their use in varied settings. To address these limitations, we developed the Brief Everyday Activities Measure (BEAM), a short (< 5 minutes) objective IADL measure that assesses medication and finance management. The BEAM was administered to 209 cognitively non-demented community-dwellers (ages 65–95 years). Community. The BEAM was administered to 209 cognitively non-demented community-dwellers (ages 65–95 years). Participants completed standardized motor, neuropsychological, psychological, and self-report functional assessments. completion time was moderate (0.65, 95% CI [.43 -.78]). Accuracy for total BEAM performance was in the low-moderate range (Kappa = 0.38, p <.001, 95% CI [.18 -.54]). As predicted, lower accuracy and longer time to complete the BEAM were both associated with worse executive functions, attention, and processing speed. Medication and finance management can be efficiently assessed within five minutes. The BEAM may be a valuable screening tool to evaluate these functional abilities.
Why Are the Prices So Damn High

We explore why prices in some sectors are increasing dramatically even as economy-wide technology and productivity improves. Education and healthcare are notable examples of sectors seemingly stricken by constantly rising prices. At the same time, home appliances and telecommunications have become much cheaper. This piece examines and rejects explanations such as bloat and administrative costs and focuses attention on rising labor costs driven by productivity improvements in progressive sectors of the economy, an explanation known as Baumol's Cost Disease.
Protons Show Greater Relative Biological Effectiveness for Mammary Tumorigenesis with Higher ERα- and HER2-Positive Tumors Relative to γ-rays in APCMin/+ Mice

Purpose Exposure to ionizing radiation increases risk of breast cancer. Although proton radiation is encountered in outer space and in medicine, we do not fully understand breast cancer risks from protons owing to limited in vivo data. The purpose of this study was to comparatively assess the effects of γ-rays and protons on mammary tumorigenesis in APCMin/+ mice. Methods and Materials Female APCMin/+ mice were exposed to 1 GeV protons (1.88 or 4.71 Gy) and 137Cs γ-rays (2 or 5 Gy). Mice were euthanized 100 to 110 days after irradiation, at which point mammary tumors were scored, tumor grades were assessed, and relative biological effectiveness was calculated. Molecular phenotypes were determined by assessing estrogen receptor α (ERα) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status. ERα downstream signaling was assessed by immunohistochemistry. Results Exposure to proton radiation led to increased mammary tumor frequency at both proton radiation doses compared with γ-rays. The calculated relative biological effectiveness for proton radiation–induced mammary tumorigenesis was 3.11 for all tumors and >5 for malignant tumors relative to γ-rays. Tumor frequency per unit of radiation was higher at the lower dose, suggesting a saturation effect at the higher dose. Protons induced more adenocarcinomas relative to γ-rays, and proton-induced tumors show greater ERα and HER2 positivity and higher activation of the ERα downstream PI3K/Akt and cyclin D1 pathways relative to γ-rays. Conclusions Our data demonstrate that protons pose a higher risk of mammary tumorigenesis relative to γ-rays. We also show that proton radiation–induced tumors in APCMin/+ mice are ERα- and HER2-positive, which is consistent with our previous data on radiation-induced estrogenic response in wild-type mice. Although this study establishes APCMin/+ as a model with adequate signal-to-noise ratio for space radiation–induced mammary tumorigenesis, further studies will be required to address the uncertainties in space radiation–induced breast cancer risk estimation.
D-mannose vs other agents for recurrent urinary tract infection prevention in adult women: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine whether D-mannose reduces urinary tract infection recurrence (ie, cumulative incidence) in adult women with recurrent urinary tract infection compared with other prevention agents. Secondary outcomes included side effects and compliance with D-mannose use. Data Sources Ovid Medline 1946-, Embase 1947-, Scopus 1823-, Cochrane Library, Web of Science 1900-, and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched through 4/15/2020. Study Eligibility Criteria Systematic review inclusion: randomized controlled trials, prospective cohorts, and retrospective cohorts written in English of women ≥18 years old with recurrent urinary tract infection in which D-mannose was utilized as an outpatient prevention regimen. Systematic review exclusion: lab or animal-based research, study protocols only, and conference abstracts. Meta-analysis inclusion: stated D-mannose dose, follow-up time ≥6 months, a comparison arm to D-mannose, and data available from women ≥18 years of age. Study Appraisal and Synthesis Methods Two independent reviewers made abstract, full text, and data extraction decisions. Study methodologic quality was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. Relative risks, confidence intervals, and heterogeneity were computed. Results Searches identified 776 unique citations. Eight publications met eligibility: 2 using D-mannose only; 6 using D-mannose combined with another treatment. Seven studies were prospective: 2 randomized controlled trials, 1 randomized cross-over trial, and 4 prospective cohort studies. One retrospective cohort study was included. Three studies met meta-analysis eligibility (1 randomized controlled trial, 1 randomized cross-over trial, and 1 prospective cohort). Pooled relative risk of urinary tract infection recurrence comparing D-mannose to placebo was 0.23 (95% confidence interval, 0.14–0.37; heterogeneity=0%; D-mannose n=125, placebo n=123). Pooled relative risk of urinary tract infection recurrence comparing D-mannose to preventative antibiotics was 0.39 (95% confidence interval, 0.12–1.25; heterogeneity=88%; D-mannose n=163, antibiotics n=163). Adverse side effects were reported in 2 studies assessing D-mannose only (1 study (n=10) reported none; the other reported a low incidence (8/103 participants) of diarrhea). Two studies reported compliance, which was high. Conclusion D-mannose appears protective for recurrent urinary tract infection (vs placebo) with possibly similar effectiveness as antibiotics. Overall, D-mannose appears well tolerated with minimal side effects—only a small percentage experiencing diarrhea. Meta-analysis interpretation must consider the small number of studies with varied study design and quality and the overall small sample size.
Quadrupedal Robotic Walking on Sloped Terrains via Exact Decomposition into Coupled Bipedal Robots

Can we design motion primitives for complex legged systems uniformly for different terrain types without neglecting modeling details? This paper presents a method for rapidly generating quadrupedal locomotion on sloped terrains—from modeling to gait generation, to hardware demonstration. At the core of this approach is the observation that a quadrupedal robot can be exactly decomposed into coupled bipedal robots. Formally, this is represented through the framework of coupled control systems, wherein isolated subsystems interact through coupling constraints. We demonstrate this concept in the context of quadrupeds and use it to reduce the gait planning problem for uneven terrains to bipedal walking generation via hybrid zero dynamics. This reduction method allows for the formulation of a nonlinear optimization problem that leverages low-dimensional bipedal representations to generate dynamic walking gaits on slopes for the full-order quadrupedal robot dynamics. The result is the ability to rapidly generate quadrupedal walking gaits on a variety of slopes. We demonstrate these walking behaviors on the Vision 60 quadrupedal robot; in simulation, via walking on a range of sloped terrains of 13°, 15°, 20°, 25°, and, experimentally, through the successful locomotion of 13° and 20° ~ 25° sloped outdoor grasslands.
Reconnaissance of cumulative risk of pesticides and pharmaceuticals in Great Smoky Mountains National Park streams.

Abstract The United States (US) National Park Service (NPS) manages protected public lands to preserve biodiversity. Exposure to and effects of bioactive organic contaminants in NPS streams are challenges for resource managers. Recent assessment of pesticides and pharmaceuticals in protected-streams within the urbanized NPS Southeast Region (SER) indicated the importance of fluvial inflows from external sources as drivers of aquatic contaminant-mixture exposures. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM), lies within SER, has the highest biodiversity and annual visitation of NPS parks, but, in contrast to the previously studied systems, straddles a high-elevation hydrologic divide; this setting limits fluvial-inflows of contaminants but potentially increases visitation-driven contaminant deliveries. We leveraged the unique characteristics of GRSM to test further the importance of fluvial contaminant inflows as drivers of protected-stream exposures and to inform the relative importance of potential additional contaminant transport mechanisms, by comparing the estimated risks of 328 pesticides and pharmaceuticals in water at 16 GRSM stream locations to those estimated previously in SER streams. Extensive mixtures (31 compounds) were only observed in an atypical reach on the boundary of GRSM downstream of a wastewater discharge, while limited mixtures (2–5 compounds) were observed in one stream with elevated visitation pressure (recreational “tube floating”). The insecticide, imidacloprid, used to eradicate hemlock woolly adelgid, was detected in 8 (50%) streams. Infrequent exceedances of a cumulative ToxCast-based, exposure-activity ratio (ΣEAR) 0.001 screening-level of concern suggested limited risk to non-target, aquatic vertebrates, whereas exceedances of a cumulative benchmark-based, invertebrate toxicity quotient (ΣTQ) 0.1 screening level at 8 locations indicated generally high risk to invertebrates. The results are consistent with the importance of fluvial transport from extra-park sources as a driver of bioactive-contaminant mixture exposures in protected streams and illustrate the potential additional risks from visitation-driven and tactical-use-pesticides.
The Fate (and Possible Future) of Liberal Learning: Lessons from Mass Higher Education in the USA

In his classic essay, “Problems in the Transition from Elite to Mass Higher Education,” Martin Trow observed that in every advanced society, the problems of higher education—including ostensibly the ability to deliver a liberal education—inhere in growth. With growth, the character of institutions changes. University attendance increasingly carries varied meanings for students: first conceived as a privilege, then as a right, and finally as an obligation. “Massification” is connoted with an optimism about access to higher education and about the democratization of society. Yet, it is prone to propagating structural and cultural conditions that are antithetical to an authentically rigorous, text-based, discussion-centered, writing-intensive liberal education where students and faculty convene on behalf of education for the mind. The emergence of this problem centers on the seemingly irreconcilable triad of size, quality, and cost; that is, how liberal education is made possible and cost-effective on an increasingly large scale. The solutions suggested here are threefold: the institutionalization of proper information about universities, their purposes and functions; the practice of proper matching of applicants with institutions in institutionally differentiated higher education systems; and the standardization of proper understanding of expectations about what it means to be a bona-fide student in an institution of higher education.
Wronged translators in U.S.-Japan politics

This paper examines how in a political context translators/interpreters can be wronged, i.e. unfairly inculpated, due to complex and subtle power relations, and how in the name of “mistranslation” ...
Assessing the quality of shared decision making for elective orthopedic surgery across a large healthcare system: cross-sectional survey study.

BACKGROUND Clinical guidelines recommend engaging patients in shared decision making for common orthopedic procedures; however, limited work has assessed what is occurring in practice. This study assessed the quality of shared decision making for elective hip and knee replacement and spine surgery at four network-affiliated hospitals. METHODS A cross-sectional sample of 875 adult patients undergoing total hip or knee joint replacement (TJR) for osteoarthritis or spine surgery for lumbar herniated disc or lumbar spinal stenosis was selected. Patients were mailed a survey including measures of Shared Decision Making (SDMP scale) and Informed, Patient-Centered (IPC) decisions. We examined decision-making across sites, surgeons, and conditions, and whether the decision-making measures were associated with better health outcomes. Analyses were adjusted for clustering of patients within surgeons. RESULTS Six hundred forty-six surveys (74% response rate) were returned with sufficient responses for analysis. Patients who had TJR reported lower SDMP scores than patients who had spine surgery (2.2 vs. 2.8; p 0.09). Higher SDMP scores and IPC decisions were associated with larger improvements in global health outcomes for patients who had TJR, but not patients who had spine surgery. CONCLUSIONS Measures of shared decision making and decision quality varied among patients undergoing common elective orthopedic procedures. Routine measurement of shared decision making provides insight into areas of strength across these different orthopedic conditions as well as areas in need of improvement.
Logical Consequence in Modal Logic: Alternative Semantic Systems for Normal Modal Logics

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the alternative semantic systems of normal modal logics. The novelty of the approach discussed in the chapter is twofold: first, to treat modal logics as consequence systems rather than logistic systems; and second, to view modal logics as extensions of non-modal ones. This second feature leads to the realization that certain usually desired properties of modal logics (e.g., compactness, weak completeness, and strong completeness) are at least in part determined by properties of the semantic systems of their non-modal “base.”
Spatial Color Indexing and Applications

We define a new image feature called the color correlogram and use it for image indexing and comparison. This feature distills the spatial correlation of colors and when computed efficiently, turns out to be both effective and inexpensive for content-based image retrieval. The correlogram is robust in tolerating large changes in appearance and shape caused by changes in viewing position, camera zoom, etc. Experimental evidence shows that this new feature outperforms not only the traditional color histogram method but also the recently proposed histogram refinement methods for image indexing/retrieval. We also provide a technique to cut down the storage requirement of the correlogram so that it is the same as that of histograms, with only negligible performance penalty compared to the original correlogram. We also suggest the use of color correlogram as a generic indexing tool to tackle various problems arising from image retrieval and video browsing. We adapt the correlogram to handle the problems of image subregion querying, object localization, object tracking, and cut detection. Experimental results again suggest that the color correlogram is more effective than the histogram for these applications, with insignificant additional storage or processing cost.
State-dependent trapping of flecainide in the cardiac sodium channel.

Flecainide is a Class I antiarrhythmic drug and a potent inhibitor of the cardiac (Nav1.5) sodium channel. Although the flecainide inhibition of Nav1.5 is typically enhanced by depolarization, the contributions of the open and inactivated states to flecainide binding and inhibition remain controversial. We further investigated the state-dependent binding of flecainide by examining its inhibition of rapidly inactivating and non-inactivating mutants of Nav1.5 expressed in Xenopus oocytes. Applying flecainide while briefly depolarizing from a relatively negative holding potential resulted in a low-affinity inhibition of the channel (IC50= 345 μm). Increasing the frequency of stimulation potentiated the flecainide inhibition (IC50= 7.4 μm), which progressively increased over the range of voltages where Nav1.5 channels activated. This contrasts with sustained depolarizations that effectively stabilize the channels in inactivated states, which failed to promote significant flecainide inhibition. The voltage sensitivity and strong dependence of the flecainide inhibition on repetitive depolarization suggests that flecainide binding is facilitated by channel opening and that the drug does not directly bind to closed or inactivated channels. The binding of flecainide to open channels was further investigated in a non-inactivating mutant of Nav1.5. Flecainide produced a time-dependent decay in the current of the non-inactivating mutant that displayed kinetics consistent with a simple pore blocking mechanism (KD= 11 μm). At hyperpolarized voltages, flecainide slowed the recovery of both the rapidly inactivating (τ= 81 ± 3 s) and non-inactivating (τ= 42 ± 3 s) channels. Mutation of a conserved isoleucine of the D4S6 segment (I1756C) creates an alternative pathway that permits the rapid diffusion of anaesthetics out of the Nav1.5 channel. The I1756C mutation accelerated the recovery of both the rapidly inactivating (τ= 12.6 ± 0.4 s) and non-inactivating (τ= 7.4 ± 0.1 s) channels, suggesting that flecainide is trapped and not tightly bound within the pore when the channels are closed or inactivated. The data indicate that flecainide rapidly gains access to its binding site when the channel is open and inhibits Na+ current by a pore blocking mechanism. Closing of either the activation or the inactivation gate traps flecainide within the pore resulting in the slow recovery of the drug-modified channels at hyperpolarized voltages.
The enduring serial : Past, present, and future

The author reflects on the evolution of the definition of a serial over the last fifty years from the one found in the ALA Glossary of Library Terms through its current state to prospects and challenges for the future.
Immunology of Cancer

Cancer or tumor immunology refers to the field of study that seeks to define the role of the immune system in controlling and regulating the growth and survival of malignant cells. From animal studies, it has been known for decades that tumor cells can be recognized and eliminated by the immune system. The basis of immune recognition is the expression of tumor-associated or tumor-specific molecules by tumor cells in a manner that is recognizable to the various components of the immune system. Much has been learned about the antigens, antigen-presenting cells, and effector cells of the immune system over the past several years. This is still a discipline in its infancy, which is yet to fulfill the dream of effective control of human tumors by natural immunological processes. This chapter will review the current state of the science and the prospects of meaningful application of the immune system to human disease. Keywords: Antigen-presenting Cells (APC); B-cell Receptor (BCR); Cluster Determinant (CD); Cytotoxic T Cells (CTL); Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC); Monoclonal Antibodies (mAb); Natural Killer (NK) Cells; T-cell Receptor (TCR); Tumor-associated Antigens (TAA)
Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia with Intestinal Bleeding: Case Report and Therapy with Topical Thrombin

Summary 1.A case is reported of severe intractable hemorrhage due to hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia involving the ileum and jejunum, and requiring the transfusion of 86 pints of whole blood in 84 days to effect survival during efforts at hemostasis. 2.The usual agents which are supposed to affect capillary permeability and coagulation, rutin, vitamin C, vitamin K, and moccasin venom, were used in maximum doses to no avail. 3.Topical thrombin, 5,000 units every 8 hours, instilled into the duodenum was followed by immediate and striking improvement with cessation of bleeding after five days, without recurrence now for six months. 4.The use of topical thrombin in cases of hemorrhage from the upper G.I. tract is discussed, and the probable mechanism of action in this case is postulated.
Apoptosis and Cell-Cycle Arrest in Human and Murine Tumor Cells Are Initiated by Isoprenoids

Diverse classes of phytochemicals initiate biological responses that effectively lower cancer risk. One class of phytochemicals, broadly defined as pure and mixed isoprenoids, encompasses an estimated 22,000 individual components. A representative mixed isoprenoid, gamma-tocotrienol, suppresses the growth of murine B16(F10) melanoma cells, and with greater potency, the growth of human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) and human leukemic (HL-60) cells. beta-Ionone, a pure isoprenoid, suppresses the growth of B16 cells and with greater potency, the growth of MCF-7, HL-60 and human colon adenocarcinoma (Caco-2) cells. Results obtained with diverse cell lines differing in ras and p53 status showed that the isoprenoid-mediated suppression of growth is independent of mutated ras and p53 functions. beta-Ionone suppressed the growth of human colon fibroblasts (CCD-18Co) but only when present at three-fold the concentration required to suppress the growth of Caco-2 cells. The isoprenoids initiated apoptosis and, concomitantly arrested cells in the G1 phase of the cell cycle. Both suppress 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl CoA reductase activity. beta-Ionone and lovastatin interfered with the posttranslational processing of lamin B, an activity essential to assembly of daughter nuclei. This interference, we postulate, renders neosynthesized DNA available to the endonuclease activities leading to apoptotic cell death. Lovastatin-imposed mevalonate starvation suppressed the glycosylation and translocation of growth factor receptors to the cell surface. As a consequence, cells were arrested in the G1 phase of the cell cycle. This rationale may apply to the isoprenoid-mediated G1-phase arrest of tumor cells. The additive and potentially synergistic actions of these isoprenoids in the suppression of tumor cell proliferation and initiation of apoptosis coupled with the mass action of the diverse isoprenoid constituents of plant products may explain, in part, the impact of fruit, vegetable and grain consumption on cancer risk.
Authenticity in Kurosawa

Etude du theme de l'authenticite dans l'oeuvre cinematographique du realisateur japonais A. Kurosawa. Definissant l'authenticite comme un rapport vrai a soi-meme, l'A. montre qu'il existe une tension entre la creation d'une image coherente de soi dans «Ikiru», d'une part, et l'attitude de sincerite revendiquee dans «Rashomon», d'autre part. Soulignant la nature precaire du projet de l'authenticite commun aux artistes et aux philosophes, l'oeuvre de Kurosawa exprime de facon magistrale et originale la double tentation de la coherence au prix de l'autoillusion et de la sincerite au prix de la fragmentation
Inversion of neural network underwater acoustic model for estimation of bottom parameters using modified particle swarm optimizers

Given a complicated and computationally intensive underwater acoustic model in which some acoustic measurement is a function of sonar system and environmental parameters, it is computationally beneficial to train a neural network to emulate the properties of that model. Given this neural network model, we now have a convenient means of performing geoacoustic inversion without the computational intensity required when attempting to do so with the actual model. This paper proposes an efficient and reliable method of performing the inversion of a neural network underwater acoustic model to obtain parameters pertaining to the characteristics of the ocean floor, using two different modified version of particle swarm optimization (PSO): two-step (gradient approximation) PSO and hierarchical cluster-based PSO.
CBDB: The codon bias database

Background In many genomes, a clear preference in the usage of particular codons exists. The mechanisms that induce codon biases remain an open question; studies have attributed codon usage to translational selection, mutational bias and drift. Furthermore, correlations between codon usage within host genomes and their viral pathogens have been observed for a myriad of host-virus systems. As such, numerous studies have investigated codon usage and codon bias in an effort to better understand how species evolve. Numerous metrics have been developed to identify biases in codon usage. In addition, a few data repositories of codon bias data are available, differing in the metrics reported as well as the number and taxonomy of strains examined.
Using Weighting Adjustments to Compensate for Survey Nonresponse

Weighting adjustments are used in some studies to compensate for biased estimators produced by survey nonresponse. Using data from the 2004 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and the NSSE poststratification weighting algorithm, this study found that weighting adjustments were needed for some, but not all institutions. Unfortunately, no simple criterion for determining when weighting adjustments were needed could be identified. In addition, weighting adjustments reduced the precision of estimators for a majority of the institutions. Based on these findings, institutions and researchers concerned about compensating for nonresponse would be well advised to carefully evaluate the need for, and consequences of, weighting before employing weighting adjustments.
Identification of cornerpoints of two-dimensional images using a line search method

Abstract An optimization-based derivative-free line search method is developed to locate all the cornerpoints of two-dimensional polygon images for pattern recognition and inspection purposes. This optimization-based method is also used to approximate a two-dimensional non-polygon object by a polygon to any desired accuracy. The computation time of the proposed method is less than 10% of that required by other well-known methods.
Bioassay screening for toxicants in oil samples from the toxic-oil syndrome outbreak in Spain

A bioassay screening procedure was developed using an agar-plate inhibition assay and applied to a set of 32 oil samples obtained during investigations of the toxic-oil syndrome in Spain. After blind-decoding, it was noted that the assay had singled out the case-associated sample as the most toxic oil from the 32-sample set. Five other oil samples were also selected by the assay. Further evaluation showed that these case-associated, suspect case-associated, and miscellaneous oils had significantly more peroxidation than the controls, as indicated by the thiobarbituric acid assay. Products reactive with dinitrophenylhydrazine were present in greater amounts in the assay-selected oils, also indicating larger amounts of aldehydic and ketonic peroxidation products. A volatile peroxidation product, 4-hydroxy-2,3-nonenal (4-hydroxynonenal), was identified and was very toxic to the bioassay screen. The assay-selected oils had significantly greater amounts of this compound. Heating the toxic oils either removed or destroyed the toxic components as revealed by bioassay testing. The 4-hydroxynonenal and other unidentified toxic products were present in the assay-selected oils before heating and absent after heating. Toxic peroxidation products apparently caused the observed response in the assay-selected oils. These findings may indicate that peroxidation, or some type of free radical process, was associated with the toxicity of these oils to humans. The bioassay procedure should be applied to a larger set of epidemiologically documented oils to determine if this screening process can contribute to a better understanding of the toxic-oil syndrome.
A study of a bimanual synergy associated with holding an object

Abstract The task of supporting an object with one or two hands was used to test the applicability of the notion of synergy. Subjects sat with their dominant forearm supported up to the wrist while holding a cylindrical “cup” between their thumb and fingers. Force transducers recorded the grip force applied normal to the cup's side by the thumb and the force applied normal to the cup bottom. On different series, a supporting force was added to and released from the bottom of the cup by the subject's non-dominant hand or by the experimenter. As predicted, the results indicated feedforward adjustments of the grip force, and of the EMGs, and significant correlations between grip force and supporting force when they were produced by two hands of one person, and the lack of such closely tied changes when the two forces were produced by two different persons. In the latter case, different subjects could demonstrate grip force changes in different directions. The findings suggest that grip force adjustments represented peripheral patterns of a single central process (a single synergy) rather than being separately controlled focal and postural components of the action. PsycINFO classification: 2330
Prospects for the Compression of Morbidity The Challenge Posed by Increasing Disability in the Years Prior to Death

Although an upper limit to life expectancy has been proposed, most projections are for a continued decline in mortality rates and an increase in life expectancy for the next 50 years. Compression o...