cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The history of pregnancies that occur following female sterilization.

The International Fertility Research Program collected data on 208 pregnancies occurring among 20749 women following sterilization. The histories of these pregnancies were analyzed from conception to termination. The operators failure to interrupt the tube by electrocoagulation or a tubal occlusion device was the major reason for sterilization failure in the laparoscopic series. Operator error or device deficiency were the causes for failure in the culdoscopic series. Three quarters of pregnancies in this study were conceived within the first year following sterilization and were confirmed during the first trimester. The rate of ectopic pregnancy occurring in this series was higher than the rate for nonsterilized women. It was especially high when electrocoagulation was used. From 1972 to August 1978 the pregnancies were reported to the Program. More than half the pregnancies were diagnosed by a test alone or a pelvic examination. In 38% the reasons for failures were not reported. 123 of the 159 failures were terminated; the remainder were being continued at last follow-up. 15.7% of pregnancies were confirmed during the second trimester; 3.8% were diagnosed beyond the 25th week.
A dynamic nonlinear optimization study of Mountain Pima subsistence technology

A dynamic nonlinear optimization analysis of subsistence patterns of the Mountain Pima of Chihuahua, Mexico, included requirements for adequate amounts of calories, calcium, vitamin A, vitamin C, and balanced protein. Two methods of incorporating nonenergy nutritional needs into a time minimization program were compared. The first was a constraint model with sharp boundaries between adequacy and fatality. The second involved multiplying the total work time by a series of nutrient indexing factors. Each factor was calculated as a function of the ratio between the recommended and actual rates of intake for all months and nutrients considered. Oxalate composition of some resources and seasonal variation in resource availability were taken into account. Two sets of data were analyzed, one for a year of adequate rainfall, the other for a year of severe drought. The predictions of the indexing model agreed more closely with observed intake patterns than did the predictions of the constraint model.
Susceptibility to apoptosis is restored in human leukemia HCW-2 cells following induction and stabilization of the apoptotic effector Bak

We demonstrate that treatment of HCW-2 cells, an apoptotic resistant variant of the human HL-60 promyelocytic leukemia cell line with phorbol-12-myristate acetate (PMA), induced differentiation along the monocytic lineage. During this process there was a dramatic increase in the mitochondrial levels of the apoptosis effector, Bak, due to the stabilization of bak mRNA, which was correlated with the sensitization of HCW-2 cells to respond to the apoptotic effect of staurosporine (STS). Treatment of PMA-differentiated, but not undifferentiated, HCW-2 cells induced processing of Bid, substantial efflux of cytochrome c from mitochondria to the cytosol, activation of caspase-3 and apoptosis. The biological significance of the increased mitochondrial Bak in differentiated HCW-2 cells was supported by the finding that transient transfection of a bak cDNA into HCW-2 cells conferred sensitivity to STS-triggered apoptosis, as determined by pro-caspase-3 processing, cytochrome c efflux and DNA fragmentation. Our results suggest that the induction of Bak, upon monocytic differentiation, may be a critical event that regulates the apoptotic sensitivity of differentiated HCW-2 cells. Oncogene (2000) 19, 4108 - 4116
A primerless molecular diagnostic: phosphorothioated-terminal hairpin formation and self-priming extension (PS-THSP).

There are various ways that priming can occur in nucleic acid amplification reactions. While most reactions rely on a primer to initiate amplification, a mechanism for DNA amplification has been developed in which hairpin sequences at the 3’ terminus of a single-stranded oligonucleotide fold on themselves to initiate priming. Unfortunately, this method is less useful for diagnostic applications because the self-folding efficiency is low and only works over a narrow range of reaction temperatures. In order to adapt this strategy for analytical applications we have developed a variant that we term phosphorothioated-terminal hairpin formation and self-priming extension (PS-THSP). In PS-THSP a phosphorothioate (PS) modification is incorporated into the DNA backbone, leading to a reduction in the thermal stability of dsDNA and increased self-folding of terminal hairpins. By optimizing the number of PS linkages that are included in the initial template, we greatly increased self-folding efficiency and the range of reaction temperatures, ultimately achieving a detection limit of 1 pM. This improved method was readily adapted to the detection of single nucleotide polymorphisms and to the detection of non-nucleic acid analytes, such as alkaline phosphatase, which was quantitatively detected at a limit of 0.05 mU/mL, approximately 10-fold better than commercial assays.
Consensus Lost. Consensus Regained?: Foreign Policy Beliefs of American Leaders, 1976–1980

To what extent there was a foreign policy consensus in the United States during the two decades following World War II continues to be debated. But most students of American foreign policy agree that the war in Vietnam fostered a situation reminiscent of the 1930s when there was little agreement on such basic issues as the nature of the international system, America's national interests and the most likely threats to them, and the appropriate strategies to promote those interests. Many of the ‘axioms’ that guided policy through the initial decades of the postwar era were, after Vietnam, the subject of often intense debate. However, data on the persistence of cleavages, beyond the period immediately following the conquest of South Vietnam, are much scantier. The underlying issue in this paper is that of persistence versus change. Did the patterns of American leadership beliefs a year after the end of Vietnam persist through 1980?; and did the ideological, occupational, and other correlates of foreign policy beliefs change during these four years? Answers to these questions are sought in data from two nationwide surveys of American leaders in 1976 (N = 2,282) and 1980 (N = 2,502). The years 1976–1980 were marked by turbulence at home and abroad. Expectations that the end of the Vietnam and Watergate episodes would provide a period of healing proved to be overly optimistic. It was thus a period during which one might well have expected substantial changes in the content and structure of foreign policy beliefs. Indeed, claims of a convergence of beliefs were in ample supply as leaders in both political parties proclaimed the existence of a post-Vietnam foreign policy consensus. The data presented here, however, offer little evidence of change during the four years ending in 1980, much less of a new consensus.
Using Nontraditional Methods to Teach Pediatric Residents About Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a training experience on the attitudes and beliefs of pediatric residents concerning insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), persons with diabetes, and the use of a multidisciplinary team to empower patients/families. The resident training experience consisted of three days of diabetes lifestyle simulation including attending an educational program designed for newly-diagnosed patients and their families. Residents' attitudes, beliefs, and team function attitudes were measured at preinstruction, postinstruction, and 6 months following instruction. There was no significant change in beliefs about diabetes. Attitudes about persons with diabetes became more positive after the training experience, but did not continue after six months. Residents also expressed a change in team attitudes, specifically, in their acceptance of having the certified diabetes educator (CDE) nurse and the patient/family adjust insulin and manage insulin during illness.
Teleseismic P wave tomography of South Island, New Zealand upper mantle: Evidence of subduction of Pacific lithosphere since 45 Ma

A P wave speed tomogram produced from teleseismic travel time measurements made on and offshore the South Island of New Zealand shows a nearly vertical zone with wave speeds that are 4.5% higher than the background average reaching to depths of approximately 450 km under the northwestern region of the island. This structure is consistent with oblique west-southwest subduction of Pacific lithosphere since about 45 Ma, when subduction beneath the region began. The high-speed zone reaches about 200–300 km below the depths of the deepest intermediate-depth earthquakes (subcrustal to ~200 km) and therefore suggests that ~200–300 km of slab below them is required to produce sufficient weight to induce the intermediate-depth seismicity. In the southwestern South Island, high P wave speeds indicate subduction of the Australian plate at the Puysegur Trench to approximately 200 km depth. A band with speeds ~2–3.5% lower than the background average is found along the east coast of the South Island to depths of ~150–200 km and underlies Miocene or younger volcanism; these low speeds are consistent with thinned lithosphere. A core of high speeds under the Southern Alps associated with a convergent margin and mountain building imaged in previous investigations is not well resolved in this study. This could suggest that such high speeds are limited in both width and depth and not resolvable by our data.
Excitons in ultrathin organic-inorganic perovskite crystals

The new family of layered organic-inorganic perovskite crystals (OIPCs) is a unique addition to the set of available 2D materials. It is a crystalline inorganic solid that is surrounded by well-ordered organic ligands, both of which can be modified separately. This hybrid character endows the material with an unusual degree of tunability and flexibility. Here, the authors present their results on the synthesis and extensive characterization of 2D OIPC single-crystalline bilayers of (C${}_{4}$H${}_{9}$NH${}_{3}$)${}_{2}$PbI${}_{4}$. These materials could significantly expand the range of van der Waals heterostructures that can be produced by their combination with, e.g., graphene, $h$-BN layers, transition metal dichalcogenide layers, etc.
Electro-optically tunable wavelength selective polarisation convertor in Zn:LiTaO/sub 3/

Wavelength dependent TE↔TM convesion with 98% efficiency has been obtained using a periodic, strain inducing SiO2 film on an LiTaO3 waveguide. Electro-optic tuning of the peak wavelength from 616 to 680 nm was demonstrated.
A Preliminary Analysis of Temporal Changes in the Homol'ovi III Chipped Stone Assemblage

ABSTRACTThis preliminary analysis of the Homol'ovi III chipped stone assemblage describes the lithic technology used at this site and examines temporal changes in a sample of the assemblage. The shift from a year-round to a seasonal habitation of the site is used to explain changes in the proportion of certain artifact types. Other temporal differences, such as a marked increase in the proportion of obsidian, are argued to reflect the process of aggregation that occurred in this area around A.D. 1300.
Cultural Identity Among Urban American Indian/Alaska Native Youth: Implications for Alcohol and Drug Use

American Indian / Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth exhibit high rates of alcohol and other drug (AOD) use, which is often linked to the social and cultural upheaval experienced by AI/ANs during the colonization of North America. Urban AI/AN youth may face unique challenges, including increased acculturative stress due to lower concentrations of AI/AN populations in urban areas. Few existing studies have explored cultural identity among urban AI/AN youth and its association with AOD use. This study used systematic qualitative methods with AI/AN communities in two urban areas within California to shed light on how urban AI/AN youth construct cultural identity and how this relates to AOD use and risk behaviors. We conducted 10 focus groups with a total of 70 youth, parents, providers, and Community Advisory Board members and used team-based structured thematic analysis in the Dedoose software platform. We identified 12 themes: intergenerational stressors, cultural disconnection, AI/AN identity as protective, pan-tribal identity, mixed racial-ethnic identity, rural vs. urban environments, the importance of AI/AN institutions, stereotypes and harassment, cultural pride, developmental trajectories, risks of being AI/AN, and mainstream culture clash. Overall, youth voiced curiosity about their AI/AN roots and expressed interest in deepening their involvement in cultural activities. Adults described the myriad ways in which involvement in cultural activities provides therapeutic benefits for AI/AN youth. Interventions that provide urban AI/AN youth with an opportunity to engage in cultural activities and connect with positive and healthy constructs in AI/AN culture may provide added impact to existing interventions.
Policy Report ~ Informe: The Students We Share ~ L@s estudiantes que compartimos

Millions of young people receive part of their education in the U.S. and part in Mexico. However, neither the U.S. nor Mexican schools are prepared to educate students from “the other side.” This commonly results in loss of school credit, poor academic preparation and dropping out, which leads to very limited job opportunities and wasted human talent. This article suggests several ways in which this problem can be addressed. Millones de jovenes reciben parte de su educacion en los Estados Unidos y parte en Mexico. Sin embargo, ni las escuelas de los Estados Unidos ni las de Mexico estan preparadas para educar a los estudiantes “del otro lado”. Esta situacion comunmente resulta en la perdida de creditos escolares, la mala preparacion academica y en el abandono de los estudios, lo que conduce a muy limitadas oportunidades de empleo y al desperdicio de talento humano. Este articulo sugiere varias maneras en las cuales se puede abordar este problema.
Clinical viability of carotid plaque strain estimation using B-mode ultrasound image sequences

It is estimated that approximately 30% of ischemic strokes are caused by rupture of plaque in the carotid artery. Development of techniques focusing on identifying plaques that are vulnerable to rupture is thus indispensable for stroke prevention. Recent studies have demonstrated that motion analysis of plaques from B-mode and RF ultrasound (US) image sequences can be used to estimate plaque strain. However, viability of these methods in a clinical setting, with variable acquisition protocols, has not been demonstrated yet. In this paper, we explore the viability of estimating plaque strain from B-mode US images of asymptomatic patients, acquired in a real clinical setting with different acquisition settings, frame rates, and operators. Our proposed strain measures, shear strain rate entropy and variance, combined with the recently reported maximum absolute shear strain rate, show that the plaques fall into two distinct clusters. Moreover, these clusters show good correlations with plaque echolucency and echogenicity. We conclude that B-mode US imaging is a viable tool for characterizing plaque dynamics in clinical environments. In future studies, we plan to implement this method on multi-center studies for longitudinal monitoring of plaque.
A NUP98-HOXD13 Fusion Gene Impairs B Lymphocyte Development and Function In a Mouse Model for Myelodysplastic Syndrome

Abstract 279 Transgenic mice which express the fusion gene NUP98-HOXD13 (NHD13) have been shown to develop characteristic features of Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) including impaired hematopoietic differentiation and peripheral blood cytopenias in the presence of normocellular or hypercellular bone marrow (BM). It is evident that B-cells play a role in the progression of MDS by immune modulation or as direct targets of mutations resulting in ALL, or as cells that influence the BM microenvironment in which a neoplastic myeloid clone evolves. Choi and colleagues suggested a block in differentiation during the early development of B lymphocytes in the BM of NHD13 mice leading to lymphopenia consistent with the observation in some MDS patients. In this study, we sought to further delineate the role of NHD13 on B lymphocytes which escaped the initial differentiation block in the BM. We hypothesized that NHD13 impairs maturation and function of IgM + B lymphocytes contributing to immunodeficiency. To study this, we performed blood smear examination, Complete Blood Counts (CBC), quantitative ELISA for antibody concentrations, and flow cytometric analysis of B cell fractions from the BM and spleen in 8–12 week-old transgenic and wild type (WT) mice. CBCs revealed significant lymphopenia and ELISA showed higher IgM concentrations (n=10, p NHD13 mice were comparable to WT controls. Next, to assess the peripheral maturation and functional efficiency of B lymphocytes in the context of a comprehensive immune stimulation, a cohort of five WT and five preclinical transgenic mice were injected with 100 μ g dinitrophenol (DNP) followed by a booster dose on day 21. Mice were euthanized on day 28 and whole blood, spleen, lymphnodes and BM were harvested. CBC evaluation revealed significant lymphopenia in NHD13 mice (n=5, p + IgM + B cells (n=5, p + and CD8 + T-cells. Detailed flow cytometric analysis of B-cell fractions in the BM and spleen of DNP-stimulated mice revealed a reduction in subpopulations of B lymphocytes. The earliest B cell lineage population, Pre-Pro B, was comparable to the WT controls. Hardy Pro B fraction B (n=5, p + cells even after escaping the block in the BM. Histopathology of the spleen revealed smaller lymphoid follicles with poorly developed mantle and marginal zone regions in the transgenic mice when compared to WT controls, consistent with the flow cytometric data. This study indicates that when NHD13 mice are immunologically challenged, B lymphocytes undergo impaired differentiation in the BM and maturation in the spleen, as well as reduced antibody class switching and subsequently lower antibody production. Analysis of B cell subsets during development and specific IgG/IgE antibody production, suggest that the NHD13 transgene might impair VDJ gene recombination and class switch recombination that are critical during these phases of B cell development. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Transition from School to Work for Individuals with Severe Handicaps: A Follow-Up Study.

The present study assessed the employment status of 117 transition age young adults with moderate, severe, or profound mental retardation in Virginia. Data were collected by trained interviewers on variables related to employment level, wages earned, types of jobs, assistance available in job identification, and so forth. The findings of this study indicated high unemployment rates of almost 88%, with only 14 of the 117 persons holding competitive jobs in nonsheltered work environments. Wage accumulation was very limited. Implications of these results and other similar studies for future programming are then discussed.
Early stage of oxidation of Mo3Si by in situ environmental transmission electron microscopy

Mo-Si-based superalloys are of interest as a new family of high-temperature materials to replace Ni-based alloys. By means of in situ environmental transmission electron microscope, the transient p...
Development of N 2 O-MTV for low-speed flow and in-situ deployment to an integral effect test facility

A molecular tagging velocity (MTV) technique is developed to non-intrusively measure velocity in an integral effect test (IET) facility simulating a high temperature helium-cooled nuclear reactor in accident scenarios. In these scenarios, the velocities are expected to be low, on the order of 1 m/s or less, which forces special requirements on the MTV tracer selection. Nitrous oxide (N2O) is identified as a suitable seed gas to generate NO tracers capable of probing the flow over a large range of pressure, temperature, and flow velocity. The performance of N2O-MTV is assessed in the laboratory at temperature and pressure ranging from 295 to 781 K and 1 to 3 atm. MTV signal improves with a temperature increase, but decreases with a pressure increase. Velocity precision down to 0.004 m/s is achieved with a probe time of 40 ms at ambient pressure and temperature. Measurement precision is limited by tracer diffusion, and absorption of the tag laser beam by the seed gas. Processing by cross-correlation of single shot images with high signal-to-noise ratio reference images improves the precision by about 10% compared to traditional single shot image correlations. The instrument is then deployed to the IET facility. Challenges associated with heat, vibrations, safety, beam delivery, and imaging are addressed in order to successfully operate this sensitive instrument in-situ. Data are presented for an isothermal depressurized conduction cool-down. Velocity profiles from MTV reveal a complex flow transient driven by buoyancy, diffusion, and instability taking place over short ( 30 min) time-scales at sub-meter per second speed. The precision of the in-situ results is estimated at 0.027, 0.0095, and 0.006 m/s for a probe time of 5, 15, and 35 ms, respectively.
Hypertrophic Mental Tubercles of the Mandible.

Purpose Enlarged mental tubercles are rare benign exostoses that occur in children. The purpose of this study was to report a case series of patients with hypertrophic mental tubercles and propose a theory for their etiopathogenesis. Patients and Methods In this retrospective case series of patients with hypertrophic mental tubercles, we reviewed patients' medical records for age, gender, clinical presentation, findings on physical examination and radiographic images, and management details. Descriptive data were summarized. Results The sample included 14 patients (71% of whom were male patients) who presented at a mean age of 12.9 ± 4.8 years (range, 6 to 21 years). Most patients had bilaterally enlarged mental tubercles (n = 8); unilateral cases were primarily on the left side (5 of 6 patients). On clinical examination, a bony prominence in the parasymphyseal region was noted on palpation and occasionally by visual inspection. No tenderness to palpation or overlying skin changes were noted. Typical radiographic features included asymmetry along the inferior border of the mandible in the parasymphyseal region on panoramic radiographs and prominence and/or enlargement of the mental tubercles on computed tomography scans. No evidence of cortical expansion, perforation, or periosteal reaction was found. Three patients requested contouring of the hypertrophied tubercles. Conclusions Hypertrophic mental tubercles are rare bony exostoses that occur in children in a region where a confluence of facial muscles attach to the mandible. The etiology likely involves bone deposition occurring in an area of muscle pull.
Chemical and Physical Processes in a Dispersing Sewage Sludge Plume

In July 1976, an experiment was conducted to determine the physical and chemical changes occurring during a sewage sludge dump in a thermally stratified water column in the New York Bight with a line dump, a modified line dump, and one spot dump. The results indicate that a rapid dilution occurs in the line dump such that dissolved and particulate trace metals, nutrients, and bulk organic compounds are diluted to near background levels. Only the trace organic compounds, ammonia, and dissolved Cu provide any indication for presence of the plume for a period of 5 hours after dumping. The fecal steroid coprostanol is used as a quantitative sludge tracer to determine the initial 104 dilution of the plume, to measure the amount of mixing as the sludge disperses in the stratified water column, and to determine if any other chemical compounds deviate from conservative mixing. There is physical and chemical fractionation as the sludge settles. Initially, a large portion rapidly settles within a narrow zone below the thermocline. Above the thermocline in the mixed layer, the sludge mixes and disperses more rapidly. Dissolved sludge components and the sludge plume, thereby, undergo dis-solved/particulate fractionation. In the spot dump and modified line dump, the particulate and dissolved sludge are diluted a factor of 10 less than in the line dump and the plume concentrations of measured chemical parameters are a factor of 10 more elevated than background values.
ESTIMATION OF SACCADIC EYE MOVEMENT MUSCLE FORCES USING SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION TECHNIQUES

Publisher Summary This chapter presents an investigation that utilizes system identification techniques to estimate muscle forces during horizontal saccadic eye movements. Parameters were estimated using a time domain parameter estimation routine. The large and brief estimated agonist muscle force, however, was not consistent with physiological evidence. This project uses frequency response methods to estimate muscle forces on a 4th order oculomotor plant during saccadic eye movements. System identification techniques were used to estimate the eigenvalues of the oculomotor plant and muscle forces during saccadic eye movements. While the eigenvalues, pulse width, pulse height, and steady state muscle forces appear to be consistent with the physiological data and estimates of other investigators, the estimates of the time constants appear inconsistent with the observations reported by Robinson. One explanation is that the developed muscle force is not a low-pass filtered pulse step but a more complex signal. While the time response indicates an excellent fit between model and data, there appears a more significant lack of fit in the magnitude frequency response. This lack of fit may be indicative of a more complex muscle force signal.
A New Diagnosis of Left Ventricular Non-Compaction in a Patient Presenting with Acute Heart Failure

Left ventricular non-compaction is an overall rare cardiomyopathy; however, it is increasingly being recognized with advances in imaging technology. We present the case of a 47-year-old man with new diagnosis of heart failure and left ventricular non-compaction. We review the literature regarding diagnostic imaging criteria and management of this condition.
Catalytic fast pyrolysis with metal-modified ZSM-5 catalysts in inert and hydrogen atmospheres

Abstract The objective of this work was to determine the impact of hydrogen-activating metals on catalytic fast pyrolysis over ZSM-5 with and without hydrogen addition. Ga-, Ni-, Cu-, Co-, and Pt-modified ZSM-5 catalysts with metal-to-aluminum molar ratios of 2 were prepared by incipient wetness method. The catalysts were evaluated for hydrocarbon and oxygenate yields and for deactivation by analytical pyrolysis (Py-GC–MS), and post-reaction catalysts for characterization were prepared in a larger fixed-bed reactor. In inert atmosphere, there was a linear correlation between both the hydrocarbon yield and coke formation and density of strong acid sites, and the main impact of the metals was occlusion of active sites in ZSM-5, leading to proportional reductions in hydrocarbon and coke yields. With the addition of hydrogen, several metals (Pt, Ni, Cu, Co) activated hydrogen and further reduced coke formation, leading to improvements in the ratio of hydrocarbons to coke. No metal-modified catalyst out-performed fresh unmodified ZSM-5 in terms of hydrocarbon yield; however, Ni/ZSM-5 and Cu/ZSM-5 in hydrogen produced comparable hydrocarbon yields to ZSM-5 while reducing coke formation.
Creating Scoring Rubric from Representative Student Answers for Improved Short Answer Grading

Automatic short answer grading remains one of the key challenges of any dialog-based tutoring system due to the variability in the student answers. Typically, each question may have no or few expert authored exemplary answers which make it difficult to (1) generalize to all correct ways of answering the question, or (2) represent answers which are either partially correct or incorrect. In this paper, we propose an affinity propagation based clustering technique to obtain class-specific representative answers from the graded student answers. Our novelty lies in formulating the Scoring Rubric by incorporating class-specific representatives obtained after proposed clustering, selecting, and ranking of graded student answers. We experiment with baseline as well as stateof-the-art sentence-embedding based features to demonstrate the feature-agnostic utility of class-specific representative answers. Experimental evaluations on our large-scale industry dataset and a benchmarking dataset show that the Scoring Rubric significantly improves the classification performance of short answer grading.
Polymer Nanocoating of Amorphous Drugs for Improving Stability, Dissolution, Powder Flow, and Tabletability: The Case of Chitosan-Coated Indomethacin

As a result of its higher molecular mobility, the surface of an amorphous drug can grow crystals much more rapidly than the bulk, causing poor stability and slow dissolution of drug products. We show that a nanocoating of chitosan (a pharmaceutically acceptable polymer) can be deposited on the surface of amorphous indomethacin by electrostatic deposition, leading to significant improvement of physical stability, wetting by aqueous media, dissolution rate, powder flow, and tabletability. The coating condition was chosen so that the positively charged polymer deposits on the negatively charged drug. Chitosan coating is superior to gelatin coating with respect to stability against crystallization and agglomeration of coated particles.
Abstract MP44: Association of High-Sensitivity Troponin With Peripheral Neuropathy in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study

Introduction: High-sensitivity cardiac troponin (hs-cTnT) is a marker of myocardial damage and has been associated with diabetes and its major complications, particularly those with a microvascular...
Racial and ethnic disparities in adverse birth outcomes: Differences by racial residential segregation.

Abstract Racial and ethnic disparities in adverse birth outcomes have persistently been wide and may be explained by individual and area-level factors. Our primary objective was to determine if county-level black-white segregation modified the association between maternal race/ethnicity and adverse birth outcomes using birth records from the National Center for Health Statistics (2012). Based on maternal residence at birth, county-level black-white racial residential segregation was calculated along five dimensions of segregation: evenness, exposure, concentration, centralization, and clustering. We conducted a two-stage analysis: (1) county-specific logistic regression to determine whether maternal race and ethnicity were associated with preterm birth and term low birth weight; and (2) Bayesian meta-analyses to determine if segregation moderated these associations. We found greater black-white and Hispanic-white disparities in preterm birth in racially isolated counties (exposure) relative to non-isolated counties. We found reduced Hispanic-white disparities in term low birth weight in racially concentrated and centralized counties relative to non-segregated counties. Area-level poverty explained most of the moderating effect of segregation on disparities in adverse birth outcomes, suggesting that area-level poverty is a mediator of these associations. Segregation appears to modify racial/ethnic disparities in adverse birth outcomes. Therefore, policy interventions that reduce black-white racial isolation, or buffer the poor social and economic correlates of segregation, may help to reduce disparities in preterm birth and term low birth weight.
The Stay Dilemma: Examining Brand and Generic Incentives for Delaying the Resolution of Pharmaceutical Patent Litigation

The Hatch-Waxman Act encourages generic drug companies to challenge the patents on brand name drugs by awarding the first generic challenger 180 days of generic marketing exclusivity, a bounty often worth millions of dollars. Challenging a patent usually triggers patent infringement litigation from the brand name firm. In response to the increased numbers of patent challenges, brand name firms have adopted an “evergreening” strategy — filing for multiple patents for each drug hoping that the generic firm will not be able to successfully challenge all of the patents and that the continued validity of just one of them will prevent generic entry. Evergreening inevitably results in patents of different strengths. Generics have responded to this strategy by challenging only the weaker patents on a drug and then filing for a stay of the subsequent patent infringement lawsuit until the strong patents are about to expire — which is often many years in the future. Generics seek these stays because an early litigation victory would grant a period of exclusivity that they could not use because the strong patents continue to block generic entry. Brand name firms should also favor stays because by delaying the generic’s exclusivity period, the stay also ultimately delays full competition. Yet in two out of three cases, the brand name firm opposed the stay motion. Courts are split on whether to grant the motions but have not addressed the anticompetitive consequences of stays. This Note explores the cases, regulatory background, and economic incentives surrounding the stays and concludes that stay motions should be denied.
The efficacy of spiritual/religious interventions for substance use problems: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Abstract Background Spiritual/religious (S/R) interventions are commonly used to treat substance use problems, but this is the first systematic review and meta-analysis to examine their efficacy for these problems. Methods Ten electronic databases were searched to identify eligible studies (i.e., randomized controlled trials) published between January 1990 and February 2018 that examined S/R interventions’ efficacy for substance use or psycho-social-spiritual outcomes. Two reviewers independently screened studies, extracted data, and assessed risks of bias. Robust variance estimation in meta-regression was used to estimate effect sizes and conduct moderator analysis. Results Twenty studies comprising 3700 participants met inclusion criteria. Four studies used inactive controls, 14 used active controls, and two used both inactive and active controls and were therefore included in estimating both absolute and relative effect sizes. The absolute effect of S/R interventions (compared with inactive controls such as no treatment) was moderate but non-significant (six studies, d = .537, 95% confidence interval [CI] = −.316, 1.390), possibly due to low power. The relative effect of S/R interventions (compared with other interventions) was statistically significant (16 studies, d = .176, 95% CI = .001, .358). Because only 12-step-oriented interventions were compared with other interventions, this finding does not apply to the relative effect of non-12-step-oriented S/R interventions. Moderator analysis showed that relative effect sizes differ significantly by country. Conclusion We found evidence of S/R interventions’ efficacy in helping people with substance use problems. More high-quality efficacy studies of non-12-step-oriented S/R interventions for substance use problems are needed.
Alpha-synuclein stepwise aggregation reveals features of an early onset mutation in Parkinson's disease

Amyloid formation is a process involving interconverting protein species and results in toxic oligomers and fibrils. Aggregated alpha-synuclein (αS) participates in neurodegenerative maladies, but a closer understanding of the early αS polymerization stages and polymorphism of heritable αS variants is sparse still. Here, we distinguished αS oligomer and protofibril interconversions in Thioflavin T polymerization reactions. The results support a hypothesis reconciling the nucleation-polymerization and nucleation-conversion-polymerization models to explain the dissimilar behaviors of wild-type and the A53T mutant. Cryo-electron microscopy with a direct detector shows the polymorphic nature of αS fibrils formed by heritable A30P, E46K, and A53T point mutations. By showing that A53T rapidly nucleates competent species, continuously elongates fibrils in the presence of increasing amounts of seeds, and overcomes wild-type surface requirements for growth, our findings place A53T with features that may explain the early onset of familial Parkinson's disease cases bearing this mutation.
Reactivity of graphene oxide with reactive oxygen species (hydroxyl radical, singlet oxygen, and superoxide anion)

Increases in the production and applications of graphene oxide (GO), coupled with reports of its toxic effects, are raising concerns about its health and ecological risks. To better understand GO's fate and transport in aquatic environments, we investigated its reactivity with three major reactive oxygen species (ROS): HO˙, 1O2, and O2˙−. Second-order degradation rate constants were calculated on the loss of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and steady-state concentration of individual ROS species. Absolute second-order rate constants were determined by competition kinetics to be 6.24 × 104, 8.65 × 102, and 0.108 mg-C−1 L s−1 for HO˙, 1O2, and O2˙−, respectively. Photoreduced GO products had a similar reactivity to HO˙ as GO, with rate constants comparable to polycyclic aromatic compounds, but about two times higher than dissolved organic matter on a per carbon basis. Reaction with HO˙ resulted in decomposition of GO, with loss of color and formation of photoluminescent products. In contrast, reaction with 1O2 showed no effect on DOC, UV-vis spectra or particle size, while reaction with O2˙− slightly reduced GO. These results demonstrate that interactions with ROS will affect GO's persistence in water and should be considered in exposure assessment or environmental application of GO.
Assessing Step Count–Dependent Changes in Femoral Articular Cartilage Using Ultrasound

OBJECTIVES To evaluate changes in the femoral cartilage cross-sectional area (CSA) measured with ultrasound (US) between baseline and 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, and 5000 steps of walking on a treadmill. METHODS Forty-one healthy individuals completed a single testing session. Participants rested with their knees extended on a plinth for 45 minutes to unload the femoral cartilage. Ultrasound was used to acquire images of the femoral cartilage before the treadmill-walking protocol. After the baseline US acquisition, participants walked on a treadmill at their preferred overground walking speed for 1000 steps, after which additional US images of the femoral cartilage were acquired. This process was repeated after 2000, 3000, 4000, and 5000 steps. A 1-way repeated-measures analysis of variance compared the CSA across the 6 step counts. An analysis of variance with repeated measures on time and Bonferroni corrected planned comparisons (.05/5) were used to evaluate differences in the femoral cartilage at each step count compared to baseline. RESULTS The study included 20 male and 21 female participants (mean age ± SD, 21.5 ± 2.8 years; mean body mass index, 24.3 ± 3.4 kg/m 2 ). The CSAs were significantly greater at the 2000-step (1.27 ± 1.75 mm 2 ; P < .001), 4000-step (0.89 ± 1.17 mm2; P < .001), and 5000-step (2.10 ± 1.73 mm 2 ; P < .001) points compared to baseline. The CSA was significantly less at the 3000-step point (1.05 ± 1.29 mm 2 ; P < .001) compared to baseline. CONCLUSIONS Changes in the CSA after walking may be dependent on the number of steps. The participants had a significant decrease in the CSA after 3000 steps of normal walking and a significant increase in the CSA after 2000, 4000, and 5000 steps of normal walking.
Climate change and human health.

Extreme weather events reflect massive and ongoing changes in our climate to which biologic systems on all continents are reacting. Dr. Paul Epstein writes about some of the health effects that may lie ahead if the increase in very extreme weather events continues.
The Impact of a Physician Clinical Support Supervisor in Supporting Patients and Families, Staff, and the Healthcare System During the COVID-19 Pandemic

As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV2), became a pandemic, hospitals activated Hospital Incident Command Systems (HICS). At our institution, we included a role of Physician Clinical Support Supervisor (PCSS) in the HICS structure. The PCSS role was filled by physicians who served hospital leadership positions, such as Physician Advisor, Medical Staff leadership, Chief Quality Officer, and Chief Medical Informatics Officer. In an effort to summarize the lessons learned by implementation of the PCSS role during the COVID-19 pandemic, we evaluated a PCSS working Microsoft Teams™ spreadsheet and the experience of physicians in the PCSS role. Through efficient daily 2-way communication between frontline providers, HICS, and hospital leadership, the PCSS role facilitated rapid change and improved support for frontline staff, patients and families, and the health-care system. We recommend including the role of PCSS in HICS structure in the event of future pandemics or other crises.
Communities as asset: Using positive communication to enhance the holistic well-being of South Africans:

Young South Africans who live in contexts of poverty face many challenges and obstacles in their attempts to rise out of their circumstances. However, adding support in the form of well-being teams...
Review of Charles E. Claggett Jr. & Richard E. Weiss's 'Max Starkloff and the Fight for Disability Rights'

I come away from this book feeling that Max Starkloff was not content with simply surviving. He chose to thrive, and make life more accessible for individuals with disabilities. Yet even someone as ambitious and relent-less as Max needed inspiration and connections in order for hope to appear. As this is a biography, Max is pos-itively portrayed and his large support team is enthusi-astic. But Max was a voice for individuals with disabil-ities who wished to live independently–many of whom were never able to experience independent living as a reality–and his network proved to be beneficial to the entire movement’s future. This book would serve as an excellent supplemental text in the disciplines of sociol-ogy, psychology, leadership, and disability or rehabilita-tion studies.
Liquid chromatography at critical conditions (LCCC): Capabilities and limitations for polymer analysis

Abstract This paper investigates liquid chromatography at critical condition (LCCC) for polymer analysis. Based on controversial claims on the separation of cyclic polymers from linear analogues in the literature, the efficiency of LCCC for separation and purity analysis is questioned. Polyisobutylene (PIB) and poly(3,6-dioxa-1,8-octanedithiols) (polyDODT) were used for the study. The structure of low molecular weight cyclic and linear polyDODT was demonstrated by MALDI-ToF. NMR did not show the presence of thiol end groups in higher molecular weight PIB-disulfide and polyDODT samples, so they were considered cyclic polymers. When a low molecular weight polyDODT oligomer with only traces of cycles, as demonstrated by MALDI-ToF, was mixed with an Mn = 27 K g/mol cyclic sample, LCCC did not detect the presence of linear oligomers at 6 wt%. Based on the data presented here, it can be concluded that the LCCC method is not capable of measuring
Profiled Power-Analysis Attacks by an Efficient Architectural Extension of a CNN Implementation

In a recent line of works, several masking and unmasking AES design have been proposed to secure hardware implementations against power-analysis techniques. Although Machine-learning profiling techniques have been successful in security testing during the last years, evaluation of hardware security still requires improvement because of the growing complexity of leakage models against profiled side-channel attacks. In this paper, we propose an improved profiling method to exploit the power consumption of complex cryptographic functions based on Deep-Learning. In order to learn the 256-class Deep neural network of an AES-128, we build successful Convolutional Neural Networks to break its implementation. It has been shown by our experiments that our model achieved a success rate of $\ge 99$% even with a single trace using Keras library with Tensorflow. For the sake of completeness, we investigate the correct ”key rank” according to the number of traces and as a further performance measure, we use ”recall” metric when attacking the third AES SBox. Our model reaches the key rank $\le 10$ with the recall metric $\ge 0.99$.
“Hopefully you’ve landed the waka on the shore”: Negotiated spaces in New Zealand’s bicultural mental health system:

The multifaceted context of Aotearoa / New Zealand offers insight into the negotiation of cultural discourses in mental health. There, bicultural practice has emerged as a theoretically rights-base...
Comfort zone orientation: Individual differences in the motivation to move beyond one's comfort zone

Abstract Three studies examined the degree to which people value doing things that push them out of their comfort zone. Study 1 showed that the boundaries of people's comfort zones are related to their motives for engaging in a behavior and how they expect to feel if they perform it. Study 2 involved the development of a measure of comfort zone orientation (CZO), the degree to which people value doing things outside of their comfort zone. Predictors of CZO reflected psychological influences on the value people place on stepping outside their comfort zone, including a desire for new and stimulating experiences, low anxiety, and self-efficacy. Study 3 was a laboratory experiment that examined the relationship between CZO and responses to an anxiety-producing task. Participants who valued pushing themselves out of their comfort zone were more confident that they could make themselves perform tasks that fell outside their comfort zone.
Rising Vape Pod Popularity Disrupted Declining Use of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems among Young Adults in Texas, USA from 2014-2019.

AIMS To examine the longitudinal trajectory of young Texan (US) adults' electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) use from 2014 to 2019, and to determine if there are changes in the trajectory among younger and older young adults post-2017, when vape pods surged in popularity in the United States. DESIGN Nine-wave longitudinal study, with 6 months between each of the first eight waves and 1 year between the last two waves. Discontinuous, or piecewise, growth curve models were used to test the hypotheses that (a) the overall current/past 30-day ENDS use trajectory would decline from 2014 to spring 2017 but then increase from fall 2017 to 2019, and (b) the increasing trajectory from 2017 to 2019 would occur only for younger participants, but not older participants. All models included socio-demographic covariates of sex, race/ethnicity, type of college attended at baseline (2- or 4-year) and time-varying age. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS A total of 5218 students (aged 18-25 years at baseline; 63.7% female) from 24 colleges in the five counties surrounding Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, Texas, USA. MEASUREMENTS Participants completed on-line surveys regarding past 30-day ENDS use at all nine waves. FINDINGS Current ENDS use significantly declined from 2014 to spring 2017 [odds ratio (OR) = 0.63, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.59-0.68], and then significantly increased from autumn 2017 to 2019 (OR = 1.14, 95% CI = 1.01-1.29). Further examination indicated the increase in current ENDS use from autumn 2017 to 2019 occurred only for younger [-1 standard deviation (SD) below the mean age, 22.6 years old], but not older (+1 SD above the mean age, 26.2 years old), participants. CONCLUSION The surge in the popularity of vape pods in the United States in late 2017 may have contributed to increasing use of electronic nicotine delivery systems among younger young adults (below 22.6 years) from late 2017 to 2019.