cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Review of Coping in Children Exposed to Mass Trauma: Measurement Tools, Coping Styles, and Clinical Implications

Evidence-based practice requires the use of data grounded in theory with clear conceptualization and reliable and valid measurement. Unfortunately, developing a knowledge base regarding children's coping in the context of disasters, terrorism, and war has been hampered by a lack of theoretical consensus and a virtual absence of rigorous test construction, implementation, and evaluation. This report presents a comprehensive review of measurement tools assessing child and adolescent coping in the aftermath of mass trauma, with a particular emphasis on coping dimensions identified through factor analytic procedures. Coping measurement and issues related to the assessment of coping are reviewed. Concepts important in instrument development and psychometric features of coping measures used in disasters, terrorism, and war are presented. The relationships between coping dimensions and both youth characteristics and clinical outcomes also are presented. A discussion of the reviewed findings highlights the difficulty clinicians may experience when trying to integrate the inconsistencies in coping dimensions across studies. Incorporating the need for multiple informants and the difference between general and context-specific coping measures suggests the importance of a multilevel, theoretical conceptualization of coping and thus, the use of more advanced statistical measures. Attention also is given to issues deemed important for further exploration in child disaster coping research.
Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura— Coagulation Parameters in Twelve Patients

Twelve patients with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura have been studied with emphasis on the changes in blood coagulation and the occurrence of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). No coagulation abnormalities were found in six patients. Minimal abnormalities were present in three patients and major abnormalities compatible with DIC were present in three patients. There was little temporal relationship between the coagulation abnormalities and the clinical pathological course except for the extent of hemolysis. In addition, heparin administration in four patients had no effect on the course of the disease. Intravascular coagulation does not appear to be a primary factor in the pathogenesis of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and the changes suggestive of DIC, when present, may well result from, rather than cause, the hemolytic anemia.
Role of the programming assignment summary as a qualitative assessment of individual student performance: poster session

Homework assignments in a first or second year undergraduate programming course (CS1--CS3) are essential for skills development; instructors who assign homework in CS1--CS3 would like submitted solutions to both accurately reflect student performance, and to indicate the level of student understanding of course topics. Unfortunately, these are hard to gage when students increasingly have access to solutions on the internet and are frequently encouraged (for sound pedagogical reasons) to work on assignments in groups or pairs. Questions that naturally arise include: a. how much of a students' work is original, in other words not acquired from a friend or an open-source repository, and b. how much did an individual student, working in a group or pair, contribute to the final solution. To address these assessment concerns, we incorporated a summary into the list of programming assignment requirements. Though it serves many roles, including as a vehicle for analysis of course topics, it's most important role is as qualitative measure of an individual students' performance, which can then indirectly inform their final quantitative assessment. This poster describes this assignment summary: including its original purpose, example analysis and summary questions, textual analysis of student responses, and, finally, correlations between responses and student assignment scores.
Racial variations in sweat gland distribution.

SummaryTotal number and distribution of active sweat glands were determined for American Negro, Caucasian and Eskimo subjects under conditions of maximal thermal sweating. Both sexes were included ...
Ion irradiation effects in synthetic garnets incorporating actinides

Radiation durability of garnet [A 3 B 2 (XO 4 ) 3 ; I a3d ; Z=8] has been examined by 1.0 MeV Kr 2+ irradiation with in situ transmission electron microscopy over the temperature range of 50 to 1070 K. The targets were five synthetic garnets incorporating various contents of actinides and andradite, Ca 3 Fe 2 Si 3 O 12 . The synthetic garnets were silicates (N series) and ferrate-aluminate series (G series). The critical amorphization temperatures (T c ), above which amorphization does not occur, were determined to be 1050 K for N77, 1130 K for N56, 1100 K for G3, 890 K for G4 and 1030 K for andradite. Tc of the synthetic garnets increased as the average atomic mass of the garnet increased. The maximum transferred energy by ballistic interaction was positively correlated to the atomic mass. The larger cascade size that formed due to the larger Emax might lead to the higher T c .
On Capacity of Pile Foundations

Probabilistic models for soil properties are used to calculate the first two moments and the distribution for the capacity of pile foundations. Resulting properties are used to develop design equations based on partial and complete characterization of soil properties. Partial characterization is limited to the first two moments of soil strength. It is shown that foundation design for specified reliability levels requires a complete probabilistic characterization of soil properties. Designs using only the first two moments of soil properties have variable reliability levels. It is argued that results in this study provide a framework for developing design equations for code specifications.
Survey on Related Knowledge,Attitudes and Practice of Reproductive Aged Women in Gaoming District of Foshan

OBJECTIVE To investigate the related knowledge,attitudes and practice(KAP) among reproductive aged women, and pro-vide evidences for vaccine intervention project. METHODS 461 reproductive aged women who took health examinations in the centerwere received questionnaire survey,from January to December of 2013. To collect serum samples for IgM and IgG antibody detec-tion at the same time. RESULTS The awareness rate of rubella infection among reproductive aged women at the age of fore 25 is48.21%. The awareness rate of whose with college degree or above education background was 61.36%. The awareness rate betweendifferent age,education and residence has statistically significant. The city's awareness rate rubella teratogenicity is higher than therural's.The rate of having positive attitude which adopt the doctor advice was 95.66%. Respondents rubella antibody detection rateand vaccination rate were 3.90% and 13.23%. The positive rate of rubella IgG is 61.19%. CONCLUSION Age,education and resi-dence has influence on the awareness and attitudes at rubella among reproductive aged women. It is needed to improve the overallawareness of rubella and provide targeted training.
On a New Approach to Achieving Strategic Breakthrough in Environmental Law of China——An Attempted Academic Dialogue

In recent years,the environmental law in China has been developing rapidly.The legal system is getting mature.Scholars are trying to use different disciplines such as economic theories to address serious environmental problems and the urgent need for environmental laws.Prof.Wang Xi uses the theory of "governmental failure" to tackle the issue of environmental protection in China and offers some excellent suggestions.This paper reviews Prof.Wang's proposal from a different perspective.It discusses administrative discretion and the enforcement of central governmental legislation as well as introduces US environmental laws.In addition,the author believes that independent judicial review is a prerequisite for sustainable legal environmental protection in China.
Cyclophosphamide and interleukin-12 synergistically upregulate the acquisition of allergic contact dermatitis in the mouse

Cyclophosphamide given before allergen and recombinant interleukin-12 administered at the time of allergic sensitization substantially increase the acquisition of allergic contact dermatitis in the mouse. Since their immunoadjuvant mechanisms appeared different, it seemed probable that combining cyclophosphamide pretreatment with interleukin 12 administration would result in a more intense allergic contact dermatitis than when either agent was used alone. This was tested in different groups of mice sensitized to dinitrofluorobenzene or to oxazolone. Consistently, immunopotentiation of allergic contact dermatitis was significantly greater with the two immunoadjuvants than with either alone. This immunoadjuvant combination is likely to find use in immunization protocols designed to induce a Th-1 helper cell response.
Plague and Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean World: The Ottoman Experience, 1347–1600

This is the first systematic scholarly study of the Ottoman experience of plague during the Black Death pandemic and the centuries that followed. Using a wealth of archival and narrative sources, including medical treatises, hagiographies and travellers' accounts, as well as recent scientific research, Nukhet Varlik demonstrates how plague interacted with the environmental, social, and political structures of the Ottoman Empire from the late medieval through the early modern era. The book argues that the empire's growth transformed the epidemiological patterns of plague by bringing diverse ecological zones into interaction and by intensifying the mobilities of exchange among both human and non-human agents. Varlik maintains that persistent plagues elicited new forms of cultural imagination and expression, as well as a new body of knowledge about the disease. In turn, this new consciousness sharpened the Ottoman administrative response to the plague, while contributing to the makings of an early modern state.
Randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial of celecoxib for radiation-induced oral mucositis.

9620 Background: Oral mucositis (OM) is a painful complication of radiation therapy (RT) for head and neck (H&N) cancer. OM can compromise nutrition, require opioid analgesics and hospitalization f...
Asparagine and glutamine ladders promote cross-species prion conversion

Prion transmission between species is governed in part by primary sequence similarity between the infectious prion aggregate, PrPSc, and the cellular prion protein of the host, PrPC. A puzzling feature of prion formation is that certain PrPC sequences, such as that of bank vole, can be converted by a remarkably broad array of different mammalian prions, whereas others, such as rabbit, show robust resistance to cross-species prion conversion. To examine the structural determinants that confer susceptibility or resistance to prion conversion, we systematically tested over 40 PrPC variants of susceptible and resistant PrPC sequences in a prion conversion assay. Five key residue positions markedly impacted prion conversion, four of which were in steric zipper segments where side chains from amino acids tightly interdigitate in a dry interface. Strikingly, all five residue substitutions modulating prion conversion involved the gain or loss of an asparagine or glutamine residue. For two of the four positions, Asn and Gln residues were not interchangeable, revealing a strict requirement for either an Asn or Gln residue. Bank voles have a high number of Asn and Gln residues and a high Asn:Gln ratio. These findings suggest that a high number of Asn and Gln residues at specific positions may stabilize β-sheets and lower the energy barrier for cross-species prion transmission, potentially because of hydrogen bond networks from side chain amides forming extended Asn/Gln ladders. These data also suggest that multiple PrPC segments containing Asn/Gln residues may act in concert along a replicative interface to promote prion conversion.
Dense LaSrMnO3 composite electrodes for NOx sensing

Abstract Impedancemetric NOx sensors composed of dense La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 (LSM) and LSM composite electrodes were evaluated based on the electrical response, sensitivity, and selectivity to NOx at operating temperatures ranging from 575 - 675 °C under dry and humidified gas environments. The composite electrodes investigated containing 10 wt% Au or 30 wt% Y2O3-ZrO2 (YSZ) were accompanied by a porous YSZ electrolyte. The LSM-Au electrodes demonstrated a higher response to NOx with limited cross-sensitivity to water, in comparison to LSM and LSM-YSZ sensing electrodes. However, the response and recovery time of LSM and LSM-YSZ based sensors was more rapid than that of LSM-Au based sensors. The rate limiting mechanism effecting sensor behavior appeared to be oxygen reduction regardless of the sensor electrode. Transport of atomic oxygen was an additional rate limiting step for the LSM and LSM-YSZ based sensors. Cross-sensitivity analysis indicated the LSM-Au based sensors were more selective to NOx, in comparison to CO, CO2 and CH4. Overall, the 10 wt% Au addition to LSM appeared to enhance sensor sensitivity to NOx by enabling NOx reactions to proceed more readily.
Understanding How Social Network Analysis Can Provide Insights Into Emergent Networks of Systems

The Department of Defense (DoD) is currently faced with a major challenge as individually designed and procured systems become more interoperable and dependent upon each other to provide value to the warfighter. The DoD currently has 79 Major Defense Acquisitions Programs (MDAP) in addition to the thousands of smaller programs and legacy systems that all operate on the battlefield together. DoD Systems engineers must understand how these systems interoperate on the battlefield to deliver the desired effects for the warfighter. However, traditional systems engineering and system of systems analysis tools and methods are inadequate to describe, visualize, and analyze the complex network of systems that have emerged over the past several decades. There is an opportunity to apply and adapt social network analysis (SNA) tools and methods to systems to understand the network, quantify the “ilities,” and anticipate the effect of changes to the network. This chapter examines systems engineering, systems architecture, and systems of systems (SoS) analysis to identify shortfalls in the method to deal with emergent networks of systems. It proposes a combination of individual system architectures to develop the network of systems. It goes on to understand how SNA tools and methods can be adapted to understand networks of systems and identify the potential for the quantification of some of the systems engineering “ilities” through SNA metrics. Finally, it discusses a proposed research path forward to further apply these tools to a more robust representation of the DoD network of systems, further analyze the potential application of SNA tools to networks of systems, and a method to validate and verify the results of this work.
Coupling visualization, simulation, and deep learning for ensemble steering of complex energy models

We describe a new framework that allows users to explore and steer ensembles of energy systems simulations by coupling multiple energy models and interactive visualization through a dataflow API. Through the visual interface, users can interactively explore complex parameter spaces populated by hundreds, or thousands, of simulation runs and interactively spawn new simulations to “fill in” regions of interest in the parameter space. The computational and visualization capabilities reside within a general-purpose dataflow architecture for connecting producers of multidimensional timeseries data, such as energy simulations, with consumers of that data, whether they be visualizations, statistical analyses, or datastores. Fast computation and agile dataflow can enhance the engagement with energy simulations, allowing users to populate the parameter space in real time. However, many energy simulations are far too slow to provide an interactive response. To support interactive feedback, we are creating reduced-form simulations developed through machine learning techniques, which provide statistically sound estimates of the results of the full simulations at a fraction of the computational cost. These reduced-form simulations have response times on the order of seconds, suitable for real-time human-in-the-loop design and analysis. The approximation methods apply to a wide range of computational models, including supply-chain models, electric power grid simulations, and building models. Such reduced-form representations do not replace or re-implement existing simulations, but instead supplement them by enabling rapid scenario design and exploration for large ensembles of simulations. The improved understanding, facilitated by the reduced-form models, dataflow API, and visualization tools, allows researchers to better allocate computational resources to capture informative relationships within the system as well as provide a low-cost method for validating and quality-checking large-scale modeling efforts.
Effect of body mass index and albumin level on outcomes of patients receiving anti PD-1/PD-L1 therapy.

213Background: Obesity has been previously investigated for its role in cancer and promoting tumor growth, at least partially by inducing a chronic inflammatory state. However, it’s unclear how this would play out in the era of immunotherapy, where inflammation has been linked to treatment response. Albumin, a marker of nutritional status, is also a negative inflammatory marker. Patients with low albumin levels have been known to have a poor prognosis. In this study, we aim to assess the association of body mass index (BMI) and albumin level with outcomes of patients treated with immunotherapy. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the outcomes of 198 patients, aged 18 years or older, treated with anti PD-1/PD-L1 at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center from 2014 to 2017. Simple descriptive statistics were created for all covariates. Kaplan Meier and Cox Proportional Hazard regression were performed to assess how categorical and continuous variables were related to overall survival (OS) and pr...
Was the Cat in the Hat Black? by Philip Nel

In today’s racially charged, post-election atmosphere it has become more important than ever to recognize and root out subversive and persistent forms of racism, especially racism geared toward society’s most impressionable members: children. In the book, Was the Cat in the Hat Black? The Hidden Racism of Children’s Literature, and the Need for Diverse Books, Philip Nel discusses in five chapters various ways that classic and modern children’s literature continues to perpetuate white supremacy. While not denying that children’s media has made great strides toward promoting a more diverse view, Nel insists and supports the idea that there is “legacy racism” promoted by classic children’s literature.
On the evolution of stresses due to lattice misfit at a Ni-superalloy and YSZ interface

Abstract The principle of elastic strain energy minimization is used to predict the possible ranges of allowable lattice misfit for the formation of coherent and semi-coherent interfaces between a Ni superalloy substrate and a cubic yttria stabilized zirconia (c-YSZ) ceramic coating. Depending upon the elastic modulus, failure strength in compression and tension, and the Burgers vector of the film material, the magnitude of allowable lattice misfit can vary over a wide range. It is shown that compressive stresses as high as several gigapascals may exist at the coherent YSZ films, and a higher positive lattice misfit can sometimes be more favorable for the formation of a semi-coherent interface than is a lower negative lattice misfit. Both coherency and the effect of lattice misfit on the interfacial stress decrease with an increase in the thickness of the film. The effect of lattice misfit on the evolution of interfacial stresses during film deposition must be considered during the design of dissimilar materials interfaces and for the prediction of interfacial delamination and the fracture of films.
Opening Address: Scientific Objective of the NATO Advanced Study Institute

I consider it a great honor and a privilege to have been selected by the NATO Scientific Affairs Division to organize and direct the first NATO Advanced Study Institute on Fast Reactions in Energetic Systems. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Raymond F. Walker, Chief of Energetic Materials Division, LCWSL, ARRADCOM, for his inspiring perception and invaluable guidance in organizing this meeting. I feel particularly honored by the presence of Dr. George Gamota, Director for Research, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense, Washington, DC, and I would like to thank him for his enthusiastic support of the NATO Institute. We have been very fortunate to attract such a distinguished group of scientists from 15 different countries, and on behalf of the organizing committee and myself, I wish to extend a very sincere welcome to all of you.
Introduction to ACL2

ACL2 is the name for (1)~a programming language based on a subset of Common Lisp, (2)~a logic, and (3)~a mechanical theorem prover for the logic. ACL2 is an industrial-strength theorem prover that has been used successfully in a number of formal verification projects both in the industry and academia. We present the logic of ACL2 and briefly touch upon how computing systems can be defined in ACL2 and how the logic can be used to prove theorems about them.
From Automaticity to Autonomy: The Frontier of Artificial Agents

In the paper we give a definition of autonomy that tries to answer to the main questions this concept brings with it. We also provide an operationalized notion of autonomy. In particular, we interpret autonomy as a concept strictly related with other relevant notions: dependence, delegation, awareness, predictability, automaticity. We analyze more deeply autonomy in collaboration, its relationships with control and finally, the modalities of its possible adjustments.
Toward a Theory of Empathic Arousal and Development

Empathy has long been a topic of interest in psychology, but its nature and development have not been systematically treated. I have for some time been working on a comprehensive theoretical model for empathy, and in this paper, I present the most recent version of this model.
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia with proliferation centers in bone marrow is associated with younger age at initial presentation, complex karyotype, and TP53 disruption.

Summary The presence of expanded proliferation centers (PCs) in lymph nodes involved by chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic lymphoma has been associated with adverse clinical outcomes, but the frequency and significance of PCs in bone marrow (BM) remain unclear. The study group included 36 patients with BM involvement by CLL in which PCs were present. We compared this group with 110 randomly selected BM samples involved by CLL without morphologically discernable PCs. Patients with PCs in BM were younger (median age, 53 years [range,18-71 years] versus 58 years [range, 31-82 years]; P = .007), more frequently experienced B symptoms (27.8% versus 8.2%, P = .0076), more often had Rai stage IV disease (30.6% versus 17.3%, P = .02) and higher serum lactate dehydrogenase (P = .0037) and β2-microglobulin (P = .0001) levels, and lower hemoglobin (P = .026) and platelet counts (P = .0422). TP53 alterations were more common in patients with PCs in BM (45.4% versus 18.7%; P = .0049), as was a complex karyotype (26.4% versus 9%; P = .019). There were no significant differences in the frequency of ZAP70 or CD38 positivity or IGHV mutation status. The median time to first treatment was shorter in patients with PCs in BM (7 months versus 19 months, P = .047), and the frequency of Richter syndrome was higher (14% versus 4%, P = .041). Patients with PCs in BM had significantly shorter overall survival compared with the control group (median, 249.3 months versus undefined; P = .0241). These data suggest that identification of PCs in BM samples involved by CLL is associated with adverse prognostic features.
Local Descent for Temporal Logic Falsification of Cyber-Physical Systems

One way to analyze Cyber-Physical Systems is by modeling them as hybrid automata. Since reachability analysis for hybrid nonlinear automata is a very challenging and computationally expensive problem, in practice, engineers try to solve the requirements falsification problem. In one method, the falsification problem is solved by minimizing a robustness metric induced by the requirements. This optimization problem is usually a non-convex non-smooth problem that requires heuristic and analytical guidance to be solved. In this paper, functional gradient descent for hybrid systems is utilized for locally decreasing the robustness metric. The local descent method is combined with Simulated Annealing as a global optimization method to search for unsafe behaviors.
Context influences preference for and level of physical activity of adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities

The purpose of the current study was to replicate and extend Hustyi, Normand, Larson, and Morley (2012) by determining the effects of different contexts on physical activity displayed by adolescents with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and determining preference for various activities. Results indicated that an exergaming condition produced the highest levels of activity. Results of a preference assessment indicated that 2 out of 3 participants preferred the physical activity context to the sedentary. For the third participant, an intervention was included to increase activity. Although the intervention was successful, participant preference for the sedentary activity context remained unchanged.
Abstract 2443: Predicting the impact of somatic mutations on chromatin conformation using deep learning

DNA in eukaryotes is packed into hierarchical layers of loops resulting in the 3D structure of the genome. 3D genome organization plays vital roles in many biological processes of the cell such as gene regulation, cell division and stem cell differentiation and its disruption can lead to gene dysregulation and diseases, including cancer. We developed a deep learning model to predict the impact of single nucleotide variants, indels and structural variants on 3D chromatin loop structures of the genome. We first built a deep convolutional neural network to learn DNA sequence patterns of boundaries of 3D chromatin loops. The learned patterns of boundaries are then used to train another neural network to learn if two boundaries are likely boundaries of a chromatin loop given their DNA sequences. The model produces a probability indicating the likelihood of the two boundaries to form a chromatin loop (loop probability). It is trained with DNA sequence only, and therefore, it can detect effects of DNA variants on 3D chromatin loops as changes in loop probabilities. We trained our model with 80% of 3D chromatin loop from the cell line GM12878. Our model to predict boundaries of loops can distinguish DNA sequences of boundaries from random sequences with AUC of 0.96 on a balanced test-set from the cell line GM12878 and also performs well on data from the K562 cells with AUC of 0.93. Our result shows that variants in lymphoblastoid cells GM12878 do not change loop probabilities as much as variants in leukemia cells K562 do, consistent with the greater disruptive role of tumorigenic variants in the cancer cells. We next applied our model on whole-genome sequences of 240 malignant lymphoma patients to identify loop-disrupting variants that may act as drivers of cancer. We find that genes in predicted altered loops show more differential expression in tumor samples compared to genes in unchanged loops. Our method can be applied on large cohorts of patients with whole-genome sequences to analyze the chromatin conformation changes caused by somatic variants. Citation Format: Tuan Trieu, Ekta Khurana. Predicting the impact of somatic mutations on chromatin conformation using deep learning [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 2443.
Employed for Higher Pay? How Medicare Payment Rules Affect Hospital Employment of Physicians

Hospitals employ an increasing number of physicians and bill for a growing share of outpatient procedures. We exploit a plausibly exogenous increase in Medicare prices for hospital-employed physicians relative to Medicare prices for other physicians to show that payer reimbursement rules explain part of this trend. The shock we study explains 20 percent of the increase in physician employment and 75 percent of the increase in hospital-billed outpatient procedures between 2009 and 2013.
Tetranucleotide Microsatellite Mutational Behavior Assessed in Real Time: Implications for Future Microsatellite Panels

Background & Aims Fifty percent of colorectal cancers show elevated microsatellite alterations at selected tetranucleotide repeats (EMAST) and are associated with inflammation, metastasis, and poor patient outcome. EMAST results from interleukin 6–induced nuclear-to-cytosolic displacement of the DNA mismatch repair protein Mutated S Homolog 3, allowing frameshifts of dinucleotide and tetranucleotide but not mononucleotide microsatellites. Unlike mononucleotide frameshifts that universally shorten in length, we previously observed expansion and contraction frameshifts at tetranucleotide sequences. Here, we developed cell models to assess tetranucleotide frameshifts in real time. Methods We constructed plasmids containing native (AAAG)18 and altered-length ([AAAG]15 and [AAAG]12) human D9S242 locus that placed enhanced green fluorescent protein +1 bp/-1 bp out-of-frame for protein translation and stably transfected into DNA mismatch repair–deficient cells for clonal selection. We used flow cytometry to detect enhanced green fluorescent protein–positive cells to measure mutational behavior. Results Frameshift mutation rates were 31.6 to 71.1 × 10-4 mutations/cell/generation and correlated with microsatellite length (r2 = 0.986, P = .0375). Longer repeats showed modestly higher deletion over insertion rates, with both equivalent for shorter repeats. Accumulation of more deletion frameshifts contributed to a distinct mutational bias for each length (overall: 77.8% deletions vs 22.2% insertions), likely owing to continual deletional mutation of insertions. Approximately 78.9% of observed frameshifts were 1 AAAG repeat, 16.1% were 2 repeats, and 5.1% were 3 or more repeats, consistent with a slipped strand mispairing mutation model. Conclusions Tetranucleotide frameshifts show a deletion bias and undergo more than 1 deletion event via intermediates, with insertions converted into deletions. Tetranucleotide markers added to traditional microsatellite instability panels will be able to determine both EMAST and classic microsatellite instability, but needs to be assessed by multiple markers to account for mutational behavior and intermediates.
Age-related and noise-induced hearing loss alters grasshopper mouse (Onychomys) vocalizations.

Abstract Age-related and noise-induced hearing loss disorders are among the most common pathologies affecting Americans across their lifespans. Loss of auditory feedback due to hearing disorders is correlated with changes in voice and speech-motor control in humans. Although rodents are increasingly used to model human age- and noise-induced hearing loss, few studies have assessed vocal changes after acoustic trauma. Northern grasshopper mice (Onychomys leucogaster) represent a candidate model because their hearing sensitivity is matched to the frequencies of long-distance vocalizations that are produced using vocal fold vibrations similar to human speech. In this study, we quantified changes in auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) and vocalizations related to aging and noise-induced acoustic trauma. Mice showed a progressive decrease in hearing sensitivity across 4–32 kHz, with males losing hearing more rapidly than females. In addition, noise-exposed mice had a 61.55 dB SPL decrease in ABR sensitivity following a noise exposure, with some individuals exhibiting a 21.25 dB recovery 300–330 days after noise exposure. We also found that older grasshopper mice produced calls with lower fundamental frequency. Sex differences were measured in duration of calls with females producing longer calls with age. Our findings indicate that grasshopper mice experience age- and noise- induced hearing loss and concomitant changes in vocal output, making them a promising model for hearing and communication disorders.
Conservation: Where can elephants roam in the Anthropocene?

Summary Human presence and activities shape African elephant movements more than water and food availability, restricting the area available for their survival.
Is the oculomotor system a cartoon of motor control

Publisher Summary One advantage in studying the oculomotor system is that, it is contained entirely within the cranial vault, such that one can theoretically record from all of its neurons. This has allowed one to start at the motoneuron, characterize its discharge rate, and then step centrally, synapse by synapse, trying to relate the discharge rate of successively premotor neurons to that of the motoneuron, building bridges of causality as one goes. The case is quite otherwise for spinal motor control. Very few recordings have been made of spinal motoneurons and premotor neurons in the spinal cords of behaving animals. As in oculomotor physiology as well, recordings have been made in cerebral cortex and cerebellum, but with no understanding of signal processing in the cord, there is no way to relate these high-level signals to the movements they presumably are causing. While a top-down approach is useful in some cases, beginning at the top in spinal motor control, where signal coding is in its most complex form, it has not been very instructive in understanding movement control. The bottom-up approach, possible in the oculomotor system, has paid off in providing glimpses, however dim, of how premotor circuits generate eye movements. The oculomotor system is a cartoon of motor control in the sense that a cartoon extracts the essence of a picture in just a few lines, avoiding unessential detail. In this regard, oculomotor studies may be expected to contribute to the understanding of motor control in general.
Sleep-Related Leg Cramps: A Review and Suggestions for Future Research

Various medications and behavioral treatments for sleep-related leg cramps have been tried, but the quality of the evidence is low. Quinine seems to be effective, but dangerous. β-Agonists may be one of the more common causes of secondary leg cramps. Statins may not be implicated in leg cramps as much as has been believed. Potassium-sparing diuretics may have a higher incidence of sleep-related leg cramps than potassium-depleting diuretics. Plantar flexion of the feet may elicit most sleep-related leg cramps. More research into behavioral treatments is needed. A standardized sleep-related leg cramp questionnaire would be useful to expand research.
Automatic Verification of Timed Circuits

This paper presents a new formalism and a new algorithm for verifying timed circuits. The formalism, called orbital nets, allows hierarchical verification based on a behavioral semantics of timed trace theory. We present improvements to a geometric timing algorithm that take advantage of concurrency by using partial orders to reduce the time and space requirements of verification. This algorithm has been fully automated and incorporated into a design system for timed circuits, and experimental results demonstrate that this verification algorithm is practical for realistic examples.
Soil ingestion in children: Outdoor soil or indoor dust?

Soil ingestion estimates may play a prominent role in exposure estimation for risk assessments involving tightly bound soil contaminants such as dioxin, PCBs, and lead in soil. Since contamination ...
Nonoperative diagnosis of Hirschsprung's disease in neonates.

Twenty-eight neonates who presented with symptoms suggestive of Hirschsprung9s disease have been studied by the technique of anorectal manometry using newly developed, miniaturized instrumentation. Eight infants have demonstrated the typical lack of relaxation of the smoothmuscle internal anorectal sphincter characteristic of Hirschsprung9s disease. Aganglionosis has been demonstrated histologically in all eight, including two prematures; the remainder have not developed any sign of Hirschsprung9s disease. This miniaturized technique of anorectal manometry may provide an accurate, simple, and atraumatic method for identifying Hirschsprung9s disease in the newborn infant.
Pilot study of the Korean parent training program using a partial group-randomized experimental study.

Problem Korean American (KA) parents need a culturally tailored parent training that helps them bridge the Korean and American cultures and divergent parenting practices. Methods The Korean Parent Training Program (KPTP) was pilot tested with 48 KA mothers of children between 3 and 8 years old using a partial group-randomized controlled experimental study design. Researchers gathered self-report survey and observation data. Findings Analyses, which used generalized estimating equations, indicated the intervention group mothers increased use of effective parenting practices and their children decreased behavioral problems and reported less acculturation conflict with their mothers. Conclusion The KPTP is a promising way to promote effective parenting and increase positive child mental health in KA families.
A Computational Analysis: A Honeycomb Flow Distributor With Porous Approximation for a Thermocline Thermal Energy Storage System

Conversion of direct solar energy, in particular the Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technologies, has a significant role on conventional energy cost and efficiency. A single tank thermocline Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system is accountable for the overall efficiency of this conversion system. A single tank TES system has a thermocline region that produces the temperature gradient between hot and cold storage fluid by density difference. The overall energy storage capacity depends on sustaining of this region at uniform manner. This paper analyzes how the difference in the percentage of porous medium influences the effectiveness of the flow-distribution and hence, the overall performance of the TES system. The effectiveness is assessed by the optimal flow distribution. The optimal distribution is obtained by examining the velocity profile at any horizontal plane. This plane should be uniform for sustaining the thermocline region during the operation period. To achieve a uniform velocity distribution, two symmetric perforated plate flow distributors were placed in the tank. The distributors were positioned near the inlet and outlet, and checked the performance by varying the percentage of porous medium since the distribution is influenced by the porosity. Porous distributors with hexagonal shape pore were considered and Hitec® molten salt was used as a heat transfer fluid. These respective percentages of porosity affect the flow distribution throughout the tank during the flow distribution. The standard deviations of the velocity field at different positions along z-plane and thermal diffusivity were analyzed. The analyses of our cases were done to distinguish a configuration for the minimum thermal diffusivity and velocity deviation from the mean flow.A finite volume based computational fluid dynamics software was used to execute the computational analysis.Copyright © 2013 by ASME
Practical help for history instruction:Making the one-shot count

Abstract While it is generally assumed that active learning, information literacy course are the most effective means of teaching library skills, not every college or university library has the talent, resources, or institutional support required for that level of instruction. Frequently, a student's library instruction is taught as a “one-shot” by a librarian without specialized training in the subject being taught. This essay is addressed to instruction librarians with limited experience in historical research find themselves called upon to conduct “one-shot” instruction sessions for history classes.
A light and electron microscopic study of the effects of retrograde infusion of lipid-soluble radiographic contrast medium into the rat submandibular gland.

Abstract The intraglandular pressure was recorded during continuous retrograde infusion of lipid-soluble contrast medium, as the pressure developing in the gland has been shown to correlate with certain radiographic stages of glandular filling. Infusion was stopped at different points on the pressure curve and the gland was immediately fixed by vascular perfusion. The earliest detectable change, dilatation of the intralobular ducts, was most prominent in the intercalated duct segment. Later, cytoplasmic vacuoles in continuity with the luminal space were seen in the duct cells. Eventually the acinar lumina and intercellular canaliculi became widened. With continued infusion, a greater proportion of the duct and acinar lumina became dilated and the lumina increased successively in size. The most severe changes occurred in the intercalated duct segment and the acini. Due to an uneven distribution of the contrast medium, damaged areas were seen next to areas where the glandular components had a normal appearance. Consequently, the development of the intraglandular pressure could not be directly correlated with specific morphological alterations, but appeared to reflect all events occurring in the tissue at a particular time.
A comparison of two types of structural optimization procedures for satisfying flutter requirements

A comparison is made of results obtained from mathematical programming and optimality criteria procedures for the minimum-mass design of typical aircraft wing structures to satisfy prescribed flutter requirements. The mathematical programming method is based on an interior penalty function approach. A rigorous optimality criterion and an intuitive optimality criterion based on uniform strain energy density are considered. An intuitive resizing procedure is used for both optimality criterion solutions. All results are calculated using the same computer program, changing only the optimization procedure. Both high- and low-aspect-ratio wings are examined. Finite elements are used for structural modeling, and the generalized coordinates for the flutter solution are based on the natural vibration modes of the structure.
TERRITORY SIZE OF A MIGRATORY SONGBIRD IN RESPONSE TO CATERPILLAR DENSITY AND FOLIAGE STRUCTURE

The food value theory of territoriality predicts an inverse relationship between territory size and food density. However, several non-mutually exclusive hypotheses can explain this relationship. We studied the relationship between foliage density, food density, competitor density, and territory size of the Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus), a canopy-dwelling, insectivorous songbird, in the Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia, USA, 1995–1998. First, we established the relationship between territory size and the canopy-tree foliage density. We then utilized the relationship between foliage density and foliage arthropod density (in particular, Lepidoptera larvae) to evaluate whether an inverse correlation between food density and territory size existed and to examine the proximate cues that Red-eyed Vireos used to adjust territory size. Foliage density in a habitat patch was used by Red-eyed Vireos as a proximate cue to set the size of a three-dimensional territory volume that ultimately corresponded ...
Conflict management: A premarital training program in mutual problem solving

Abstract The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured educational program designed to train premarital couples in communication and mutual problem-solving skills. Twenty-six couples participated in an eight-week, 24-hour problem-solving training program, while 28 similar couples participated in an eight-week, 24-hour relationship discussion group. Results indicated that the problem-solving group, as compared to the relationship-discussion group, showed a significant increase in communication and mutual problem-solving skills. Discussion focused on the benefits for premarital couples of learning effective problemsolving procedures as well as the need for follow-up assessments of both behavioral skill level and relationship satisfaction and adjustment.
Relational division in information management

Abstract We present a unified framework for the management of stored data, decision models, and assertions in two-valued logic, based on the algebra of relations and on the operation of relational division. This powerful operation was developed in the context of stored data, and it also has limited applicability to models and assertions. The strength and weakness of division is that it allows universal quantification of certain queries on partitioned relations. We extend this concept by introducing a new operation, relational pseudodivision, which replaces universal with existential quantification and thus enlarges the set of available partitioning operations.
Cross-modal transfer effects on visual discrimination depends on lesion location in the rat visual system

The effects of postoperative visual and auditory training on a brightness discrimination task were examined after lesions of various structures in the visual system. In Experiment 1, rats were trained to avoid shock with visual intensity cues. Twenty-four hours later, each rat received bilateral lesions in one of the following areas of the visual system: (1) sham, (2) visual cortex (VC), (3) pretectal (PT) area, (4) combined PT/VC, (5) superior colliculus (SC), or (6) combined SC/VC. Six days later, each rat received either training with visual or auditory intensity cues, or no training. The next day all rats were retrained on the preoperative visual avoidance task. All lesions except those in the SC condition produced relearning deficits. Auditory training reduced these deficits significantly more than visual training, except in rats with combined SC/VC lesions. In Experiment 2, sham and combined PT/VC lesion rats were given either direct or reversal intensity training using visual or auditory cues before relearning the visual discrimination. Rats given auditory direct training relearned the task faster than rats given reversal training or visual direct training. Postinjury training with an intact sensory system can enhance functional recovery more effectively than training with the damaged system. The differential effects of direct and reversal training suggest that cross-modal training involves both specific and nonspecific transfer that may be mediated through the VC or the SC.
Aggregation of a lyophilized pharmaceutical protein, recombinant human albumin: effect of moisture and stabilization by excipients

In the presence of water vapor at 37°C, lyophilized recombinant human albumin (rHA) undergoes intermolecular thiol-disulflde interchange, eventually forming high-molecular-weight, water-insoluble aggregates. The relationship between the extent of aggregation and the water content of the lyophilized protein was bell-shaped, with maximum aggregation (over 80% after one day) at approximately 50 g water per 100 g dry protein, corresponding to incubation at 96% relative humidity. Nineteen different excipients were co-lyophilized with rHA to test their ability to inhibit aggregation under these conditions. These compounds included low- and high-molecular-weight sugars, as well as various organic acids (amino, hydroxy, and aliphatic), and the simple inorganic salt sodium chloride. Seven of them afforded complete stabilization of rHA against moisture-induced aggregation. The stabilizing potency of the excipients correlated with their water-sorbing capability, presumably due to increasing the moisture level in the vicinity of rHA.