cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Outcomes Related to Antiplatelet or Anticoagulation Use in Patients Undergoing Carotid Endarterectomy

Background The number of cases involving patients undergoing vascular procedures who are prescribed clopidogrel or warfarin as treatment options continues to rise. Our aim was to examine outcomes related to antiplatelet or anticoagulation therapy in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy (CEA). Methods A retrospective review of 260 consecutive patients undergoing CEA. Data including patient demographics, operative details, perioperative use of aspirin (ASA), clopidogrel, or warfarin, and early and/or late outcome(s) were collected. Endpoints included postoperative morbidity and/or mortality rate(s) and bleeding complications. Results The study included 152 men and 108 women (mean age = 69.3 years), with a mean follow-up of 406 days. In all, 46% of endarterectomies were for a symptomatic disease. The technique of eversion endarterectomy was applied in 126 (48.5%), Dacron-patch in 112 (43.1%), and bovine pericardial-patch in 14 (5.4%) of the cases. Among the patients, 171 were taking ASA, 50 were taking clopidogrel ± ASA, and 10 were taking warfarin (mean INR = 1.62; range, 1.2-2.1); the remaining 29 were not on any antiplatelet therapy. All patients who were on warfarin therapy underwent an eversion endarterectomy. Overall, there were 19 (7.3%) complications (12 major and seven minor). The 30-day stroke rate and stroke death rate was 0.7% and 1.1%, respectively. Patients taking clopidogrel developed more number of neck hematomas (16% vs. 1.7%, p = 0.0004) compared with patients who were on ASA alone. For patients taking clopidogrel, Dacron-patch repair resulted in more hematomas than eversion endarterectomy (35% vs. 4.2%, p = 0.012). There was no difference in the incidence of neck hematoma on the basis of endarterectomy technique in patients who were on ASA alone. The patients taking warfarin neither had a perioperative complication nor developed a neck hematoma. Conclusions In this study, clopidogrel use during CEA resulted in a significant risk for developing a neck hematoma, particularly when using a Dacron-patch. The risk of a neck hematoma in patients who were on clopidogrel was much less when an eversion endarterectomy was performed.
Disparities in mean age and histopathologic grade between human papillomavirus type-specific early cervical neoplasms.

Abstract Noninvasive squamous and glandular precursor lesions associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18 have been reported to vary in morphology. HPV 16 is associated predominantly with high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL; cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN 2 and 3), and HPV 18 is associated with low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (condyloma/CIN 1) and GIN 3/adenocarcinoma in situ (ACIS). This study explored the relationship of morphologic growth pattern in these precursor groups with age of presentation. One hundred fourteen CIN lesions (including those with ACIS), associated with HPV 16 or 18, were subdivided into well-differentiated low- and high-grade SIL (CIN 1 and 2, respectively), poorly differentiated HSIL (CIN 3) with or without ACIS. HPV was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification with Li consensus or type-specific E7 primers and typed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis. Age of the patient was obtained from the pathology report. Mean age for each group was as follows: Low-risk HPVs, 25 years; HPV 18 CIN 1–2, 21.6 yrs; HPV 18 CIN 3/Ads, 35.2 yrs; HPV 16 CIN 1,2, 25.9 yrs; and HPV 16 CIN 3, 29.8 yrs. There were significant differences in mean ages between HPV 18 CIN 1 and 2 and HPV 16 CIN 1 to 2 ( P = .04), HPV 16 CIN 1–2 and CIN 3 ( P = .01) and HPV 18 CIN 1 to 2 and HPV 18 CIN 3/ACIS ( P = .00001). None of the cases of HPV 18—associated CIN3/ACIS was associated with a CINI lesion. The disparity in mean ages between well and poorly differentiated HPV 16/18 related that precursor lesions could reflect factors such as morphologic progression with increasing age, different rates of lesion persistence, depending on grade, or efficiency of detection between the two groups. The marked difference in mean age between HPV 18—associated CIN 1–2 and CIN 3/ACIS, combined with their lack of coexistence in the same cervix, raises alternate possibilities that specific viral or host factors may determine the morphological phenotype associated with some HPV 18 infections. In the latter, the possibility that age independently confers an increased risk for higher-grade lesions should be considered.
Extending The Competitive Profile Matrix Using Internal Factor Evaluation And External Factor Evaluation Matrix Concepts

Internal Factor Evaluation and External Factor Evaluation matrices allow an organization to visualize their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats while a Competitive Profile Matrix utilizes critical success factors to allow an organization to compare itself to other competitors. The authors wondered if substituting basic internal strengths and weaknesses categories, and external opportunities and threats classifications for the conventional CSFs in a forced ranking method could extend the Competitive Profile Matrix to allow additional strategic understanding. The goal of extending the Competitive Profile Matrix using the forced ranking of important organizational factors when evaluating an organization’s relative competitive position against major competitors was successfully realized. An External Competitive Profile Matrix (ECPM) and an Internal Competitive Profile Matrix (ICPM) better draw awareness to internal and external categories that need an organization’s attention.
Introduction: Solar Energy Conversion.

This thematic issue contains reviews of various aspects of Solar Energy Conversion. The sun provides the largest energy source known to man, with more energy from sunlight striking the earth in 1 h than all of the energy consumed on the planet in an entire year. Solar panels provide a known, scalable technology to capture and convert sunlight into electricity. Moreover, the costs of Si-based photovoltaic panels have declined continuously in the past decade, to the point where solar electricity is now cost-competitive in certain regions and niche markets. Nevertheless, solar energy conversion continues to attract fervent efforts devoted to the discovery and development of new materials, concepts, devices, and systems that can provide new and/or dramatically improved functionality and scalability.
Education in Nursing Informatics

Nurses at all levels of practice and specialization are, at their core, knowledge workers. They collect data from numerous human and electronic sources and organize these data for analysis and dissemination to all members of the healthcare team. Nurses and others use information derived from these data as the basis for optimum clinical decision-making. Increasingly, nurses are using technology to facilitate the collection and use of data and information in their practice and nursing educational programs are preparing them to gain related competencies. This chapter provides an overview of the use of technology in nursing practice and the computer competencies, information literacy, and data management content needed in educational programs to prepare nurses for basic, advanced, and informatics practice.
Whole-program optimization for time and space efficient threads

Modern languages and operating systems often encourage programmers to use threads, or independent control streams, to mask the overhead of some operations and simplify program structure. Multitasking operating systems use threads to mask communication latency, either with hardwares devices or users. Client-server applications typically use threads to simplify the complex control-flow that arises when multiple clients are used. Recently, the scientific computing community has started using threads to mask network communication latency in massively parallel architectures, allowing computation and communication to be overlapped. Lastly, some architectures implement threads in hardware, using those threads to tolerate memory latency.In general, it would be desirable if threaded programs could be written to expose the largest degree of parallelism possible, or to simplify the program design. However, threads incur time and space overheads, and programmers often compromise simple designs for performance. In this paper, we show how to reduce time and space thread overhead using control flow and register liveness information inferred after compilation. Our techniques work on binaries, are not specific to a particular compiler or thread library and reduce the the overall execution time of fine-grain threaded programs by ≈ 15-30%. We use execution-driven analysis and an instrumented operating system to show why the execution time is reduced and to indicate areas for future work.
Abstract 324: The Non-Linear Relationship of Advancing Age to Death after Cardiac Valve Replacement in Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease

Background: Age is a known risk factor for mortality after cardiac valve replacement. Little is known of the interaction between age and end stage renal disease (ESRD). To better comprehend the relationship between age as a continuum and cardiovascular outcomes, assessment of nonlinear relationships needs to be undertaken. Methods: We enrolled 3,792 patients (3.1% ESRD) who underwent a cardiac valve surgery between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2012 in Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Age was modeled as a linear variable (every 5 years) and as a cubic spline. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality at 5-years. We subsequently fit unadjusted logistic models and graphed the model-predicted probability of mortality versus age by the 2 aforementioned methods. Results: ESRD patients were slightly younger, had higher baseline comorbidities, prior cardiovascular interventions, and urgent surgeries. The odds of death with advancing age was greatly attenuated in the ESRD cohort (1.05, 95% CI: 0.90-1.2...
Carbidoheptarhenate Complexes of Mercury Hydroxide and Arenethiolate. Crystal Structures of [NEt(3)Bz](2)[Re(7)C(CO)(21)HgOH] and [PPh(4)](2)[Re(7)C(CO)(21)HgSC(6)H(4)Br].

Treatment of [Re7C(CO)21HgCl]2- with AgNO3 in aqueous acetone provides the hydroxomercury derivative [Re7C(CO)21HgOH]2-, which in turn reacts with 4-bromothiophenol to form the thiophenolate-substi...
Neither Noise nor Signal

Context plays a crucial role in learning and memory, but a satisfactory characterization of this role in models of memory remains elusive. Classical and recent studies show that context cannot be meaningfully treated as either the figure or the ground, the noise or the signal, in memory models. This impasse belies certain cognitivist assumptions common to traditional cognitive science. A number of postcognitivist movements in philosophy and cognitive science have offered effective critiques of the basic framework, often borrowed in memory science, that depicts the human cognitive system as a dimensionless executive control unit receiving and transforming signals as input from the environment. These revisionary movements have also offered up alternative dynamic approaches to cognitive modeling and explanation, which can and should be deployed in memory science in order to resolve the impasse surrounding the modeling of context and memory.
Use of Anti-Rh Sera for Demonstrating Agglutination Activating Factor in Rheumatoid Arthritis.∗:

ConclusionsIt has been shown that certain anti-Rh sera can be utilized to sensitize Rh positive cells to the agglutination activating factor (AAF) in rheumatoid arthritis sera. The reaction depends upon some characteristic of anti-Rh sera other than titer alone. The possibility is supported that AAF may be a multicomponent system consisting either of multiple antibodies or of a single antibody with multiple cross specificities.
Toward a molecular paleontology of primate genomes. I. The HindIII and EcoRI dimer families of alphoid DNAs.

Families of related, but nonidentical repetitive DNA sequences, termed the alphoid DNAs, have been identified and characterized in representative species from seven major primate Families. The sequences appear as old as the primate Order itself: they are found in a prosimian (lemur), in a New World monkey, and in all Old World primates examined, including man. The alphoid DNAs are uniquely primate sequences and they may represent the most abundant repetitive DNAs in the primate genome. — A classification scheme for two major families of alphoid DNAs is proposed that is based upon restriction enzyme analysis and Southern blotting with radioactive probes prepared from component α DNA (Maio, 1971) and from the human EcoRI dimer sequences (Manuelidis, 1976). The family of alphoid DNAs that hybridizes readily with component α is termed the HindIII family of alphoid DNAs. This family shows an almost universal distribution among present-day primates. The family of DNA sequences that hybridizes readily with the human EcoRI dimer probe is termed the EcoRI dimer family of alphoid DNAs. This family may be restricted to the great apes and man. The two probes permitted the discrimination of different, but related alphoid families in present-day primates. Multiple alphoid sequence families are found within the genomes of individual primates and the major primate taxa can be characterized by the representations of the various alphoid DNAs within their genomes. — An Appendix is presented (Brown et al., 1981) indicating that competition hybridization effects may influence the autoradiographic banding patterns, and hence, the interpretations of Southern filter-transfer hybridizations when dealing with related repetitive sequences such as the alphoid DNAs that are present in abundance in eukaryotic genomes.
Multiple pathways lead to activation of the survival mechanism in quiescent BALB/c-3T3 cells.

The survival of density-arrested quiescent murine BALB/c-3T3 cells in serum-free Dulbecco's medium requires the presence of cell growth factors or second messenger agonists. The protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin blocks the survival-mediating action of the basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and of 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA), but has little or no effect on the protective action of platelet-derived growth factor or 8-bromoadenosine 3':5'-cyclic monophosphate (Br-cAMP). The effects of anisomycin are concentration dependent in the range from 2.5 to 25 microM and show that the survival-enhancing abilities of bFGF and TPA critically require protein synthesis, whereas those of platelet-derived growth factor and Br-cAMP do not. The survival-mediating action of bFGF and TPA can also be blocked with the RNA synthesis inhibitors actinomycin D and 5,6-dichloro-1-beta-D-ribofuranosylbenzimidazole (DRB), whereas the action of platelet-derived growth factor and Br-cAMP is largely resistant. Results on the time course of action of DRB, a selective inhibitor of the synthesis of mRNA precursor molecules, suggest that the RNA required for the survival-enhancing action of bFGF and TPA is present in cells at the time of serum withdrawal and addition of the survival factor and has a half-life greater than 3 h. The new evidence provides further support for the hypothesis that protection of serum-deprived, density-arrested BALB/c-3T3 fibroblasts against death can be achieved either via pathways that entail the synthesis of protein and RNA (e.g., via diacylglycerol-protein kinase C) or via pathways that do not involve de novo biosynthesis (e.g., via cAMP-protein kinase A).
Heart Rate of the Domestic Fowl

Abstract THE heart rate of the adult domestic fowl has not been measured except in a few isolated physiological experiments where comparisons have been made during growth (Bogue, 1933) or with other species (Buchanan, 1910). These studies have not been sufficiently complete to enable one to given even approximate figures for the common breeds or for the sexes of the same breed. This has been partially due to the fact that the rate is difficult to determine with the stethoscope because of its rapidity, and because special equipment must be employed and this has not been generally available. During recent years the electro-cardiotachometer, developed mainly for the study of the rate of the human heart, has been modified by several investigators making it possible to measure the rapid heart rate of small animals. A summary of previous recorded heart rates of the domestic fowl is given in Table 1. Bogue (1932) . . .
Binding interactions of lysergic acid diethylamide and related agents with dopamine receptors in the brain.

In most brain regions saturable binding of d -[3H]lysergic acid diethylamide ([3H]LSD) appears to involve postsynaptic serotonin receptors. In calf caudate, however, a portion of [3H]LSD binding involves postsynaptic dopamine receptors. Thus, in the hippocampus of calf brain, dopamine competes for [3H]LSD binding sites with a single low-affinity component, while in the caudate dopamine competition for [3H]LSD binding displays both high- and low-affinity components. The high-affinity component, accounting for 15-20% of [3H]LSD binding, displays a Ki value for dopamine of about 30 nM, similar to the KD for the binding of [3H]dopamine itself to postsynaptic dopamine receptors in the calf caudate. Addition of serotonin to the incubations increases the proportion of [3H]LSD binding in the caudate competed for by dopamine with high affinity, presumably by occupying serotonin receptors. d -LSD competes stereospecifically for [3H]dopamine binding in the caudate, consistent with the conclusion that LSD binds to dopamine receptors. Of numerous serotonin agonists and antagonists examined, several ergot alkaloids have high affinity for [3H]dopamine receptor binding in calf caudate, with Ki values similar to that of d -LSD. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Janet Ryan for excellent technical assistance.
Study of the Hemocompatibility of 3C–SiC and a -SiC Films Using ISO 10993-4

Abstract Biomedical devices that function in vivo offer a tremendous promise to improve the quality of life for many who suffer from disease and trauma. The most important consideration for these devices is that they interact with the physiological environment as designed without initiating a deleterious inflammatory response. ISO 10993 outlines the current international guideline for investigating the biocompatibility and hemocompatibility of such devices. We evaluated cubic (3C–SiC) and amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC) since they comprise a very promising candidate material system for neuroprosthetics. Not only have we confirmed the outstanding in vitro response of 3C–SiC and a-SiC, we have added hemocompatibility data, which indicates that these materials are also hemocompatible. The latter was accomplished using platelet-rich plasma in a flow cell and confirms earlier work in our group using the same methodology but in static mode.
Adsorption of Emerging Munitions Contaminants on Cellulose Surface: A Combined Theoretical and Experimental Investigation

This manuscript reports results of an integrated theoretical and experimental investigation of adsorption of two emerging contaminants (DNAN and FOX-7) and legacy compound TNT on cellulose surface. Cellulose was modeled as trimeric form of the linear chain of 1 → 4 linked of β-D-glucopyranos in (4)C1 chair conformation. Geometries of modeled cellulose, munitions compounds and their complexes were optimized at the M06-2X functional level of Density Functional Theory using the 6-31G(d,p) basis set in gas phase and in water solution. The effect of water solution was modeled using the CPCM approach. Nature of potential energy surfaces was ascertained through harmonic vibrational frequency analysis. Interaction energies were corrected for basis set superposition error and the 6-311G(d,p) basis set was used. Molecular electrostatic potential mapping was performed to understand the reactivity of the investigated systems. It was predicted that adsorbates will be weakly adsorbed on the cellulose surface in water solution than in the gas phase.
Alcoholic hepatitis: An important consideration.

Readers comment on enterovirus D-68 (January 2015), eosinophilic esophagitis (February 2015), the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (February 2015), and alcoholic hepatitis (March 2015).
David Oliver: The department of spin.

Some say don’t shoot the messenger. The professionals leading government communications offices are simply politicians’ minions. I don’t believe that. During the current crises in healthcare, ministers may be the lightning rod for our anger. But we need to stop letting the Department of Health’s press office off the hook, challenge and expose its partial truths. The messages it pumps out, inconvenient facts omitted, seep into the media and public consciousness and are often loaded against the services and professionals it claims to support. If you don’t believe me, check the @DeptHealthPress …
Virus Isolation and Production

HIV-1 was first isolated from a primary culture of cells recovered from a lymph node biopsy taken from a young homosexual man [1]. The culture conditions used were those classic for the long-term culture of T lymphocytes, namely, three-day stimulation with phytohemagglutinin and maintenance in Interleukin 2 (IL-2). No virus was recovered from comparable cultures of this patient’s peripheral blood lymphocytes. Subsequently, the frequent isolation of HIV-1 from primary cultures and cocultures of peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with AIDS and pre-AIDS was reported [2,3]. Today, two systems, one based on the helper T lymphocyte and one based on the mononuclear phagocyte, are commonly used for HIV-1 isolation. Because cells of the mononuclear phagocyte series and helper T lymphocytes bear the CD4 molecule, an essential component of the virus receptor [4,5], they are major natural host cells for HIV-1 infection and replication. Although other kinds of cells such as fibroblasts [6], endothelial cells [7], glial cells [8], and enterochromaffin cells [9] have been suggested as potential HIV-1 host cells, the evidence that these kinds of cells represent major sites of virus replication and expression in vivo is limited. With respect to this discussion, these kinds of cells are not commonly considered sources of isolable HIV-1 and they are certainly suboptimal for HIV-1 propagation for most purposes because the magnitude of virus expression is considerably lower than that from the natural host cells. T lymphocytes and mononuclear phagocytes, then, usually serve as the source of virus from clinical specimens. They also often serve as target cells for HIV-1 infection when cocultured with patient material.
Venezuela's Chavismo and Populism in Comparative Perspective: Populist Policy: The Missions of the Chávez Government

Now Venezuela belongs to everyone. Chavez government slogan in 2004 In this chapter my colleagues and I consider the consequences of populism, but in the realm of public policy. We do so by engaging in an analysis of the Missions, which were the principal poverty alleviation programs of the Chavez government after 2003. The Missions represent a significant shift in Chavez's approach to socioeconomic development as well as an enormous outlay of government resources. This analysis of the Missions is a very different topic from the study of organization and the Bolivarian Circles, but one that again reveals the distinct imprint of populist ideas on the actual conduct of politics. The analysis demonstrates the consequences of populism in two ways. First, we show how an economic definition of populism is subsumed under the ideational one. Economic definitions link populism with shortsighted macroeconomic policies. These approaches emphasize one of populism's key consequences; however, rather than showing how policies are framed and the worldview that informs them, they focus on the raw material qualities of economic policy and their long-term sustainability. The tendency to associate populism with bad economics is not entirely wrong (we see these kinds of policies in the case of Missions and in Chavismo more broadly), but definitions of populism emphasizing economic policy put the cart before the horse, failing to appreciate the underlying ideas that drive policy choices. Statist redistributive policies such as the Missions are understandable consequences of a populist worldview in a material context of poverty and inequality.
Pragmatism and Change of View

Foundationalism in epistemology imposes two demands on the beliefs of intelligent inquirers: (1) that current beliefs be justified, and (2) that there be foundational premisses and principles of reasoning that are self-certifying on the basis of which the merits of other current beliefs and principles may be derived. Many anti-foundationalists give up (2) but not (1). They demand that current beliefs be justified by showing these beliefs to be integrated into a systematically satisfactory network of beliefs. Pragmatists belong among those who give up both (2) and (1).Pragmatists do not think that the project of justifying current beliefs is implementable. In this respect, they are sceptics. Such scepticism does not imply that because agent X at time t cannot justify his current beliefs, he should cease having them. Scepticism about reasons does not imply scepticism with respect to belief. In “The Fixation of Belief” Peirce explicitly dismissed doxastic scepticism when he observed that merely writing down a question challenging some current assumption is not sufficient to create the sort of doubt that should occasion an inquiry.
Conformational switching in muscle.

Muscles can be studied as complex systems of many interacting proteins and investigated at many different levels of organization. This talk will describe how we modeled the mechanism of Ca activation, the structure of the muscle proteins, and protein complexes (including actin monomers, tropomysin and troponin complexes, and myosin) to examine two different scientific problems: the mechano-chemical energy transduction mechanism, and the control system of that mechanism. The methods we used—saturation transfer electron paramagnetic resonance, phosphorescence anisotropy, and fluorescence resonance energy transfer—reveal two specific structures: a hinge between the motor and regulatory domains, and a stiff regulatory domain. This indicates that the structure of the myosin head is capable of generating translating conformational changes within the motor domain to the swing of the regulatory domain, and that the regulatory domain is rigid enough to act as a lever arm.
An RBF collocation method for solving optimal control problems

A direct solution to optimal control problems is introduced based on interpolating global radial basis functions (RBFs) on arbitrary collocation points. In the proposed approach, called the RBF collocation method, states and controls are parameterized with any arbitrary global RBF and the continuous-time optimal control problem is discretized using arbitrary collocation points to transcribe it into a nonlinear programming problem. Numerical examples including a multiple UAV navigation problem are provided to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. It is shown that the RBF collocation method is more accurate and also computationally more efficient than a local polynomial (B-spline) method and a global polynomial (Legendre pseudospectral) method for the UAV navigation problem. The fact that RBF method can employ a variety of RBF functions for the interpolation and also a wide range of arbitrary nodes for the discretization means that the proposed method offers a very flexible RBF framework for direct trajectory optimization. The numerical results confirm the efficiency of the proposed method for solving optimal control problems. An optimal control solution is proposed based on interpolating global RBFs on arbitrary nodes.RBF collocation method offers a very flexible RBF framework for solving optimal control problems.A variety of RBF functions can be applied for the interpolation of states and controls.A wide range of arbitrary nodes (collocation points) can be employed for the discretization.
Class f rotor slot armor for medium size turbine-generators

Many different materials have been used for slot liners in turbine-generator rotors. Until the early 1950's, composites using flake mica were in widespread use. These were replaced by the introduction of glass reinforced plastics whose use continues to predominate today. More recently, however, high temperature organic materials have been developed which are suitable for slot armor construction, thus offering the insulation engineer a wide choice in designing materials and composites for slot insulation applications.
Tetra-μ-methacrylato-κ8O:O′-bis[(pyridine-κN)copper(II)]

In the title carboxyl­ate-bridged binuclear copper complex, [Cu2{CH2C(CH3)COO}4(C5H5N)2], the Cu atoms are bridged by four bidentate methacryl­ate groups. The asymmetric unit consists of two half-molecules, each molecule having inversion symmetry. The Cu⋯Cu separations are 2.6181 (8) and 2.6442 (10) A. All bond lengths and angles are normal.
Geometric and Lie-Theoretic Principles in Pure and Applied Deformation Theory

These notes develop a geometric point of view in the theory of deformation of structures, emphasizing the role of the orbit space of a group of symmetries of a system of differential equations acting on the space of solutions. The usual infinitesimal deformation space—which appears as a cohomology group in many special situations—is the tangent space to this space of orbits. The classical theory of deformation of complex structures is presented first as a model, then the deformation of the Cartan-Maurer equations is discussed from a differential form point of view, leading in a very natural way to Chevalley-Eilenberg cohomology. Relations with certain aspects of mathematical physics and control theory are also evident.
Clinical outcome of vertebral compression fracture after single fraction spine radiosurgery for spinal metastases.

e13017 Background: Vertebral compression fracture (VCF) may occur after stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for spine metastases. Recently, single fraction radiosurgery (sfSRS) is used more ...
Using Pill Identification Calls to Poison Centers as a Marker of Drug Abuse at Three Texas Military Bases.

OBJECTIVES Opioid abuse is a growing problem in civilian communities, and it has developed in the military as well. Telephone calls to poison centers requesting pill identification (ID) is a marker of drug abuse. This study identifies the number of pill ID calls made to the poison centers from areas containing and surrounding three Texas military bases during an 8-year period. METHODS We performed a retrospective observational study identifying calls to certified poison centers in Texas from 2002 to 2009 that identified hydrocodone tablets and other pain medications. We noted the calls made from ZIP codes containing and surrounding the three largest military bases in Texas. RESULTS We reviewed 75,537 drug ID calls for any drug from the ZIP codes of interest. Total drug ID calls increased 105% and the number of calls for hydrocodone increased 463%. CONCLUSIONS In our study most of the drug ID calls from military communities in Texas were for hydrocodone. The rate of calls for hydrocodone increased more than the rate of calls for other analgesics from 2002 to 2009. Using drug ID calls as a surrogate of drug abuse, our results suggest that hydrocodone abuse has increased within military communities and that poison center data can be a reliable surrogate for prescription drug abuse near military bases. Future studies are needed to further understand the extent of this problem in military and civilian communities. We can use this information to heighten awareness, influence prescription practices, establish practice guidelines, and develop educational programs to mitigate the increasing rate of prescription analgesic abuse in the United States.
Early versus delayed appendectomy: A comparison of outcomes.

Abstract Background The optimal timing for performing appendectomy in adults remains controversial. Method A one-year retrospective review of adult patients with acute appendicitis who underwent appendectomy. The cohort was divided by time-to-intervention into two groups: patients who underwent appendectomy within 8 h (group 1), and those who had surgery after 8 h (group 2). Outcome measures including perioperative morbidity and mortality, post-operative length of stay, and the 30-day readmission rate were compared between the two groups. Results A total of 116 patients who underwent appendectomy met the inclusion criteria: 75 patients (65%) in group 1, and 41 (35%) in group 2. There were no differences between group 1 & 2 in perioperative complications (6.7% vs. 9.8%, P = 0.483), postoperative length of stay (median [IQR]; 19.5 [11.5–40.5] vs. 20.0 [11.25–58.5] hours, P = 0.632), or 30-day readmission rate (2.7% vs. 4.9%, P = 0.543). There were no deaths in either group. Conclusion Delayed appendectomy performed more than 8 h was not associated with increased perioperative complications, postoperative length of stay, 30-day readmission rate, or mortality.
Electrophoretic identification and genetic analysis of bivalve larvae

Taxonomic identification and genetic analysis of larval marine invertebrates have been vexing problems. We describe a polyacrylamide mini-gel electrophoresis technique for resolving proteins from individual larval bivalves (shell length 250 to 350 μm) and apply this technique to three species of laboratory-cultured larval oysters [Ostrea edulis L., 1758, Crassostrea gigas (Thunberg, 1793) and c. virginica (Gmelin, 1791)] reared during summer 1989. Electrophoretic patterns of proteins clearly discriminate among the three species and allow genetic analysis of a polymorphic allozyme locus (Pgi) in field-collected larvae and juveniles of C. virginica. This technique provides an economical tool for largescale taxonomic, ecologic, and genetic studies of meroplanktonic stages of various species.
Current Management of Liver Metastasis From Colorectal Cancer

To describe the main components of modern treatment for colorectal cancer (CRC) metastatic to the liver. Liver metastasis occurs in 50–60% of patients with CRC, and surgery is the only potentially curative treatment. Surgery should be performed where a complete (R0) resection of all radiologically visible metastases is possible. The presence of extra-hepatic disease no longer precludes liver metastectomy, and combined metastectomy in the liver and the extra-hepatic site can result in acceptable long-term survival. Peri-operative chemotherapy significantly improves PFS and DFS, but not OS. Modern cytotoxic regimens can convert a significant percentage of unresectable patients to resectable status, and the addition of biologic agents can increase the rate of conversion. Several local treatment modalities serve as alternatives, or sometimes as adjuncts, to resection of CRC liver metastasis and systemic chemotherapy. The modern approach to CRC with liver metastasis combines surgery, modern cytotoxic and biologic agents, and modern technologies in the field of ablation, radiation, and endovascular access. The result is that long-term survival, and even cure, is now possible.
Visual Literacy and the Digital Native: Another Look

AbstractA conceptualization of visual proficiency is offered. A survey is described which asked college students (N=358) to identify five photographs, five symbols, and five paintings that are generally recognized to be “famous”. About 27% of all respondents claimed to recognize all the photographs, 23% recognized all the symbols, and 3% recognized all the paintings. About 14% correctly identified all the photographs, 4% correctly identified all the symbols and only 1% correctly identified all the paintings. The findings suggest that today’s college students may be adrift in a sea of images with little ability to see beyond their own generation.
Mathematical Techniques Important in Magnetic Resonance

The useful applications of NMR depend on the local interactions between nuclear spins and their surroundings (chemical shifts, quadrupole splittings,…) or other nuclear species (dipolar or J couplings). The spectra to which these interactions give rise are modified if the spins at the same time experience much stronger disturbances from externally applied fields. These include the static field always used to define the Larmor frequency as well as radiofrequency fields, either steady or modulated in frequency, phase, and/or amplitude. The technique of the average hamiltonian is designed to analyze these modifications, and provides a framework within which one can tailor external fields to control these modifications — in particular to find modifications which eliminate one or another of the natural spin interactions.
Protection against infection in the microbiological laboratory: devices and procedures.

Publisher Summary This chapter explains devices and procedures for the protection against infection in the microbiological laboratory. It discusses some sources of such infections and examines some of the most significant protective measures that have been employed for their control. It is concerned only with protection against laboratory-acquired infectious diseases rather than with the general problems of industrial safety. The safety measures described in this chapter are available for 10 to 20 or more years. Laboratory management bears both a moral and a legal responsibility to ensure a safe work environment. The practical application of any set of safety guides, rules, or regulations must inevitably rest with the laboratory worker and his or her supervisor. To be most effective, training in safety procedures should accompany training in all microbiological laboratory procedures at all levels of education. It is, in the final analysis, the means that can bring the greatest success in reduction of all laboratory accidents.
Development and validation of the Hocus Focus Magic Performance Evaluation Scale for health professions personnel in the United States

PUPROSE This study is to describe the development and validation of the Hocus Focus Magic Performance Evaluation Scale (HFMPES) which is used to evaluate the competency of health professions personnel in delivering magic tricks as a therapeutic modality. METHODS A two-phase validation process was used. Phase I content validation involved 16 magician judges who independently rated the relevance of each of the five items in the HFMPES and established the veracity of its content. Phase II was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the HFMPES. This process involved 2 magicians using the HFMPES to independently evaluate 73 occupational therapy graduate students demonstrating three magic tricks. RESULTS The HFMPES achieved an excellent scale-content validity index of .99. Exploratory factor analysis of the HFMPES scores revealed one distinct factor with alpha coefficients ≥.8 across the three magic tricks. The construct validity of the HFMPES scores was further supported by the evidence from the known-groups analysis in which Mann-Whitney U test showed significant difference in HFMPES scores between participants with different levels of experience in delivering the three magic tricks. The inter-rater reliability coefficients were ≥.75 across the three magic tricks, which indicated that evaluation of the competency of health professions personnel in delivering the three magic tricks can be evaluated precisely. CONCLUSION Preliminary evidence supported the content and construct validity of the HFMPES with good internal consistency and inter-rate reliabilities in evaluating health professions personnel's competency in delivering magic tricks.
Uniqueness of one-parameter exponential curves fitted by non-linear least-squares to non-negative data in monotone non-increasing blocks

For normalized non-negative data in monotone non-increasing blocks sufficiently close to test exponential functions computable in closed form, there is a unique one-parameter exponential decay curv...
Grasping Using Tactile Sensing and Deep Calibration

Tactile perception is an essential ability of intelligent robots in interaction with their surrounding environments. This perception as an intermediate level acts between sensation and action and has to be defined properly to generate suitable action in response to sensed data. In this paper, we propose a feedback approach to address robot grasping task using force-torque tactile sensing. While visual perception is an essential part for gross reaching, constant utilization of this sensing modality can negatively affect the grasping process with overwhelming computation. In such case, human being utilizes tactile sensing to interact with objects. Inspired by, the proposed approach is presented and evaluated on a real robot to demonstrate the effectiveness of the suggested framework. Moreover, we utilize a deep learning framework called Deep Calibration in order to eliminate the effect of bias in the collected data from the robot sensors.
Predictors of enucleation in Coats disease: analysis of 259 eyes of 259 patients at a single center

Purpose To evaluate the effects of clinical features associated with enucleation in eyes with Coats disease. Methods The medical records of all patients with Coats disease at the Ocular Oncology, Wills Eye Hospital from November 1, 1973, to July 31, 2018, were reviewed retrospectively. The clinical features pertaining to need for ultimate enucleation and time to enucleation were compared. Results The records of 351 eyes were reviewed, of which 259 had follow-up at our center and 32 (12%) were managed with enucleation. Reasons for enucleation included neovascular glaucoma (n = 24 [75%]), possible tumor (6 [19%]), and phthisis bulbi (2 [6%]). Compared to nonenucleated eyes, enucleated eyes had more extensive clock hour involvement of telangiectasia (P Conclusions Clinical features that predict risk of and time to enucleation in eyes with Coats disease include iris neovascularization, ultrasonographic presence and millimeter-elevation of retinal detachment, and angiographic extent of light bulb aneurysms.
Spectral Notching via Error Reduction Algorithm with Relaxed PAPR Constraint

It is important to consider the peak-to-average-power ratio (PAPR) metric in discrete time radar waveform design for efficient use of the bounded energy budget. In previous literature, much consideration has been given to both the constant modulus and PAPR constrained waveform designs. However, in this approach, we show a straightforward methodology to design the transmit radar waveform to directly constrain PAPR while also considering prohibited bands for transmission (other users perhaps). Improvement in null-depth is observed for multiple design approaches, possibly enough to enable co-existence for radar and communications. Simulated and experimental results are given to corroborate the theoretical understanding.
30% Ethanol Locks Are Effective in Preventing Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections in Pediatric Intestinal Failure: A Pilot Study.

Background Complications related to central venous lines (CVLs) are common in intestinal failure (IF), including central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs). Replacing heparin with 70% ethanol locks can reduce infection rates; however, concerns exist about potential negative effects on catheter integrity. We hypothesized that a lower ethanol concentration combined with citrate would prevent catheter-related complications, including CLABSIs. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study in pediatric IF patients assessing rates of CLABSIs, catheter repair, catheter replacement, and thrombolytic (alteplase) use for suspected catheter-related thromboses comparing heparin, 70% ethanol, and 30% ethanol-2.8% citrate locks. Results Six patients were included with a total of 8777 catheter days. All patients utilized silicone single-lumen CVLs for venous access. The rate of CLABSIs was highest with heparin at 13.9 events per 1000 catheter days, which significantly dropped to 1.6 per 1000 catheter days on 70% ethanol (P = .02) and remained significantly low at 0.4 per 1000 catheter days when transitioning to 30% ethanol-2.8% citrate locks as compared with heparin (P = .01). No statistically significant differences were noted among the groups in rates of catheter repair and replacement and alteplase use. Conclusion This pilot study provides supportive evidence that a lower ethanol lock concentration may be effective in maintaining a low rate of CLABSIs in pediatric IF patients using silicone CVLs. Although this study did not show significant positive impact on catheter integrity and durability, there are other potential benefits to using lower ethanol concentrations including reduced systemic ethanol exposure in children.
Sessile Liquid Features as Molds for Silicone Elastomers.

Liquid applied to a chemically patterned (wetting/nonwetting, lyophilic/lyophobic) substrate forms a 3-dimensional contoured surface, the shape of which depends on the volume of liquid applied and the shape of the three-phase contact lines of air (or other phase in contact), liquid, and the wetted pattern. The resulting binary contoured interface with air, which consists of flat unwetted regions of the substrate and the mean curvature liquid–vapor interfaces of the sessile structures, can be used as a mold for imprinting solid polymers by curing liquid resins in contact. The success, flexibility with regard to shape, and reproducibility of this molding process depend on numerous issues. These include the substrate surface chemistry, the liquid application method, properties of the liquid (vapor pressure, surface tension, viscosity, and permeability in the resin), the contact angles of the liquid on the patterned substrate, and the resin curing chemistry and conditions. We investigate the room temperature platinum(0)-catalyzed curing of the most commonly studied commercial silicone elastomer, Sylgard 184, using molds composed of sessile drops of liquids on circular wetting features (bare silicon wafer) patterned on covalently attached fluoroalkylsilyl monolayers. Liquids reported are water, glycerol, an ethylene glycol oligomer, and an ionic liquid. The vapor pressure of water and its permeability in dimethyl silicone were important (and problematic) issues that could be controlled by adjusting humidity. The ionic liquid N-ethyl-N′-methylimidazolium methanesulfonate poisoned/inhibited the curing chemistry and affected silicone cross-link density and the resulting feature shape, but its lack of vapor pressure was useful in studying flow coating as a scalable liquid application method. The ethylene glycol oligomer exhibited compatibility with (and diffusion into) the silicone. Glycerol proved to be the most well-behaved and controllable liquid studied and was used to demonstrate that condensation/evaporation can be used to adjust feature shape.