cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Quantitation of Molecular Endpoints for the Dose-Response Component of Cancer Risk Assessment:

Cancer risk assessment involves the steps of hazard identie cation, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, and risk characterization. The rapid advances in the use of molecular biology approaches has had an impact on all 4 components, but the greatest overall current and future impact will be on the dose-response assessment because this requires an understanding of the mechanisms of carcinogenesis, both background and induced by environmental agents. In this regard, hazard identiecation is a qualitative assessment and dose-response is a quantitative estimate. Thus, the latter will ultimately require a quantitative assessment of molecular endpoints that are used to describe the dose-response for cancer. It has been possible for many years to quantitate alterations at the level of the single gene. For example, analysis of mutation frequency by phenotypic selection, analysis of transcription (mRNA) by Northern blot, analysis of translation (proteins) by Western blot, and analysis of kinetics of metabolism from metabolite levels. However, it is becoming clear that it is necessary when considering risk for adverse health outcomes to develop quantitative approaches for wholecell phenotypesororganeffects. For example,canceris awholetissuephenotype, not afeatureofsinglegenemutations,inspiteofthemultistep (multimutation)mode of formationofa tumor. Thus, there is theneed toquantitate thecircuitryof acell: the metabolic/biochemical pathways, genetic regulationpathways,andsignalingpathwaysinnormalandstressedconditions.Thehypothesispresentedby HanahanandWeinbergof therequirement for 6 acquired characteristics for tumor development, independent of tissue type and species or inducer, seems to provide a viable approach. This hypothesis can be addressed through whole cell molecular assessment using microarrays and quantitative PCR together with the emerging proteomic approaches. This is the world of the new computational cell biology.
Surgical Access to the Internal Nasal Valve

ObjectivesTo measure the width of the nasal septum in the region of the internal nasal valve using radiographic images to support use of open septorhinoplasty for alteration of the internal nasal v...
Coexpression of sialosyl-Tn (NeuAc alpha 2----6GalNAc alpha 1----O-Ser/Thr) and Tn (GalNAc alpha 1----O-Ser/Thr) blood group antigens on Tn erythrocytes.

Abstract Polyagglutinable erythrocytes expressing the rare human blood group phenotype Tn were tested for expression of both Tn (GalNAc alpha 1----O-Ser/Thr) and sialosyl-Tn (NeuAc alpha 2----6GalNAc alpha 1----O-Ser/Thr) antigens by agglutination with a panel of well-characterized monoclonal antibodies specifically directed to Tn and sialosyl-Tn antigens, respectively. Tn erythrocytes from 4 patients were strongly agglutinated by both sialosyl-Tn and Tn-specific monoclonal antibodies, indicating coexpression of sialosyl-Tn and Tn antigens on the cell membrane surface of Tn polyagglutinable erythrocytes. Human polyclonal anti-Tn antisera were found to express weak and variable anti-sialosyl-Tn antibodies in conjunction with the anti-Tn antibodies. The Tn phenotype thus involves not only the classically known Tn antigens but also sialosyl-Tn antigens. However, the human anti-Tn antibodies may be directed mainly toward the Tn antigen (GalNAc alpha 1----O-Ser/Thr).
A novel multi-planar LIDAR and computer vision calibration procedure using 2D patterns for automated navigation

In this research, we propose a unique multi-planar LIDAR and computer vision calibration algorithm. This method only requires the camera and LIDAR to observe a planar pattern at different positions and orientations. Geometric constraints of the ‘views’ from the LIDAR and camera images are resolved as the coordinate transformation coefficients. The proposed approach consists of two stages: solving a closed-form equation, followed by applying a non-linear algorithm based on a maximum likelihood criterion. To the author's best knowledge, this is the first paper for a multi-planar LIDAR and vision system calibration. Compared with the classical methods which use ‘beam-visible’ cameras or 3D LIDAR systems, this approach is easy to implement at low cost. Additionally, computer simulation and real world testing have been carried out to evaluate the performance of this approach. Lastly, application of the technique for automated navigation is presented.
CHIDDAM: a data mining based technique for cache hierarchy determination in commercial applications

In this paper, we present a cache hierarchy design using data mining (CHIDDAM) methodology to improve the memory efficiency for a given type of commercial application and its data set characteristics. Performance analysis, workload characterization, decision tree induction (a classification data mining method), and a greedy search algorithm are used in determining the optimal number of levels and sizes of the cache in the hierarchy. SimICS, a full system simulator, is used to simulate an /spl times/86 machine loaded with Enterprise Linux operating system. Popular representative applications in data mining, such as, C4.5 and Apriori are used as benchmark applications for our simulation analysis. However, the proposed methodology is generic and can be applied to other applications for determine the design details of memory subsystems.
Securing user-controlled routing infrastructures

Designing infrastructures that give untrusted third parties (such as end-hosts) control over routing is a promising research direction for achieving flexible and efficient communication. However, serious concerns remain over the deployment of such infrastructures, particularly the new security vulnerabilities they introduce. The flexible control plane of these infrastructures can be exploited to launch many types of powerful attacks with little effort. In this paper, we make several contributions towards studying security issues in forwarding infrastructures (FIs). We present a general model for an FI, analyze potential security vulnerabilities, and present techniques to address these vulnerabilities. The main technique that we introduce in this paper is the use of simple lightweight cryptographic constraints on forwarding entries. We show that it is possible to prevent a large class of attacks on end-hosts and bound the flooding attacks that can be launched on the infrastructure nodes to a small constant value. Our mechanisms are general and apply to a variety of earlier proposals such as i3, DataRouter, and Network Pointers.
Kidneys and Controversies in the Islamic Republic of Iran: The Case of Organ Sale:

Iran is the only official Shia Islamic country with Ithna-Ashari or Twelver Shiism as the dominant form. For various reasons in part due to the interpretive approach to jurisprudence in Ithna-Ashari Shiism but also due to other aspects of Iranian culture the Iranian approach to medical science and technology is dramatically different from that in most other Islamic countries. In Iran what is and is not considered Islamically acceptable is constantly being renegotiated depending upon social political economic and technological conditions. This kind of flexibility and often pragmatic approach to social problems has major positive and progressive implications for health policy on numerous levels. However the drive to embrace new technologies and capabilities can also precede or override ethical deliberations. Drawing on fundamental religious and ethical debates within the country as well as interviews and observations in an Iranian transplant center this article investigates Islamic discourse perceptions of life death and the body and the case of organ sale/donation in Iran. This article is based on a qualitative pilot investigation conducted in 2002 in Shiraz Iran. Interviews were conducted with health professionals working in transplant centers with recipients of donated organs from living related (LR) and living unrelated (LU) donors and with living commercial donors themselves using a semi-structured open-ended format. Observation was also conducted at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in the Namazi Hospital Organ Transplant Ward. This ward is arguably the largest and most successful kidney transplant ward in Iran and in 2002 was the only center which also conducted liver transplants. Iran is of particular interest in the transplant world because it is the only country where there is an official state-sponsored system of financial remuneration for kidneys and liver portions from living unrelated donors. (excerpt)
How Does Multistep Tumorigenesis Really Proceed

Identifying the cancer cells-of-origin is of great interest, as it holds the potential to elucidate biologic mechanisms inherent in the normal cell state that have been co-opted to drive the oncogenic cell state. An emerging concept, proposed here, states that cancer stem cells, key players in cancer initiation and metastasis, arise when transit-amplifying cells with mutant genomes dedifferentiate and enter the stem cell state. This model contrasts with the notion that cancer stem cells are the direct products of neoplastically transformed normal tissue stem cells.
Biomolecular condensation via ultraviolet excitation in vacuo

Abstract Recently, we reported that 157 nm vacuum ultraviolet irradiation (VUV) of proton-bound peptide dimers trapped in a vacuum, results in the elimination of water and formation of a peptide bond [J. Am. Chem. Soc. 133 (2011) 15834–15837]. Here, we further explore the ability to form a covalent bond between biomolecular ions with photoexcitation. Photoexcitation of long-lived charge-bound complexes appears to be a general phenomenon, resulting in the loss of water and the formation of covalent bonds between many types of molecules. Several examples are described, including: the linear coupling of amino acid chains that produce octapeptides from tetrapeptide complexes; inter-molecular cross-linking of amino acid side chains, and glycosidic bond formation between disaccharide complexes. Simple mechanisms for each case are proposed.
Using linkography to understand cyberattacks

In the realm of cyber security, recent events have demonstrated the need for a significant change in the philosophies guiding the identification and mitigation of attacks. The unprecedented increase in the quantity and sophistication of cyber attacks in the past year alone has proven the inadequacy of current defensive philosophies that do not assume continuous compromise. This has given rise to new perspectives on cyber defense where, instead of total prevention, threat intelligence is the crucial tool allowing the mitigation of cyber threats. This paper formalizes a new framework for obtaining threat intelligence from an active cyber attack and demonstrates the realization of this framework in the software tool, LinkShop. Specifically, using the behavioral analysis technique known as linkography, our framework allows cyber defenders to, in an automated fashion, quantitatively capture both general and nuanced patterns in attacker's behavior - pushing capabilities for generating threat intelligence far beyond what is currently possible with rudimentary indicators of compromise and into the realm of capability needed to combat future cyber attackers. Furthermore, this paper shows in detail how such knowledge can be achieved by using LinkShop on actual cyber event data and lays a foundation for further scientific investigation into cyber attacker behavior.
John Templeton Bowen.

7. Whited JD, Warshaw EM, Kapur K, et al. Clinical course outcomes for store and forward teledermatology versus conventional consultation: a randomized trial. J Telemed Telecare. 2013;19(4): 197-204. 8. Centers for Medicare &Medicaid Services. License for Use of Current Procedural Terminology, Fourth Edition. http://www.cms.gov/apps /physician-fee-schedule/license-agreement.aspx. Accessed July 17, 2015.
Efficacy of and preference for reinforcement and response cost in token economies

Researchers have shown that both differential reinforcement and response cost within token economies are similarly effective for changing the behavior of individuals in a group context (e.g., Donaldson, DeLeon, Fisher, & Kahng, 2014; Iwata & Bailey, 1974). In addition, these researchers have empirically evaluated preference for these procedures. However, few previous studies have evaluated the individual effects of these procedures both in group contexts and in the absence of peers. Therefore, we replicated and extended previous research by determining the individual effects and preferences of differential reinforcement and response cost under both group and individualized conditions. Results demonstrated that the procedures were equally effective for increasing on-task behavior during group and individual instruction for most children, and preference varied across participants. In addition, results were consistent across participants who experienced the procedures in group and individualized settings.
A generalization of a theorem of Amemiya and Ando on the convergence of random products of contractions in Hilbert space

Let {T1, ..., TN} be a finite set of linear contraction mappings of a Hilbert space H into itself, and let r be a mapping from the natural numbersN to {1, ..., N} which assumes each value infinitely often. One can form Sn=Tr(n)...Tr(1) which could be described as a random product of the Ti's. If the contractions have the condition (W): ‖Tx‖<‖x‖ whenever Tx≠x, then Sn converges weakly to the projection Q onto the subspace\( \cap _{i = \mathop 1\limits^N } [x|T_i x = x]\). This theorem is due to Amemiya and Ando. We demonstrate a basic property of the algebraic semigroupS=S(T1, ..., TN) generated by N contractions, each having (W). We prove that if the semigroup of an infinite set of contractions is equipped with this property, and the maps satisfy a minor condition parallel to (W) on each of N maps, then random products still converge weakly. Our proof is different from Amemiya and Ando's. We illustrate our method with a new proof of the fact that if a contraction T is completely non-unitary, then Tn→0 weakly.
Use of morphometric assessment of body composition to quantify risk of surgical-site infection in patients undergoing component separation ventral hernia repair.

Background:Body mass index does not allow accurate risk stratification for individuals undergoing component separation repair of ventral hernias. The authors hypothesized that tissue morphology measurements (morphomics) of preoperative computed tomography scans stratify the risk of surgical site inf
Measuring the Costs of Microbial Mutualism

Nature abounds with mutually beneficial interactions between species, a subject that captivates many biologists. How does mutualism arise, and what is its impact on community processes? To address such questions, we are studying two simple forms of mutualism that are based on exchanges of metabolites between microorganisms. Studying these systems not only provides insights into the early stages of mutualism evolution, it also could reveal basic processes affecting diverse microbial communities.
PCB health effects

When Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were first introduced on the market as dielectric fluids, they were heralded as a major safety breakthrough. Fire safety codes demanded that PCB transformers and capacitors be used in major buildings. Some insurance companies would not write insurance on buildings that did not have PCB transformers.
Influence of Smoking on KAP of Medical Professionals and Its Countermeasures

Objective To study smoking behavior of medical professionals and its influence on smoking control ability. Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted among 886 medical professionals selected from 6 hospitals in Beijing by systematic sampling. Results The knowing rate of smoking be one of the 3 most serious public health problems of non-smoking medical professionals was higher than that of smoking medical professionals. The knowing rate of smoking cessation method of smoking medical professionals was lower than that of non-smoking medical professionals. The rate of persuading patients to stopping smoking of smoking medical professionals was 70.1% and that of non-smoking medical professionals was 84.1%. Conclusion The smoking cessation attitude of non-smoking medical professionals is more active than that of smoking medical professionals. It is more effective to carry out health education by identifying whether medical professional is smoker or not.
Experiment on Displacement Mechanism of Alkalescent Water Composite Flooding

Formation permeability, wettability, temperature, crude oil viscosity and conditions of formation water in Block Wei 95 of Mazhai Oilfield are simulated, a micro-simulating model is used for the first time to study the displacement mechanism of alkalescent water composite flooding. The result indicates that the optimal composite displacement system is to drive remaining oil by ways of oil bead deformation, stretching, and forming oil threads.
Cutaneous polyarteritis nodosa associated with Crohn's disease

A 13-year-old white girl with Crohn's colitis developed recurrent erythematous tender cords and nodules in the lower and upper extremities. Histologic examination of subcutaneous nodules of the right arm revealed granulomatous panarteritis of two muscular arteries in the subcutis. The patient's resected colon showed granulomatous transmural colitis without vasculitis. The association between Crohn's disease and cutaneous polyarteritis nodosa is reviewed and emphasis placed on histologic evaluation of suspicious subcutaneous nodules for correct diagnosis.
Stable Particulate Paramagnetic Materials as Oxygen Sensors in EPR Oximetry

Particulate materials with a strong, exchange-narrowed electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) absorption line, can be used as oxygen sensors in EPR oximetry. Advantages of this kind of sensor include a single, nearly Lorentzian line shape which depends on T2e, size flexibility (from less than a micron to several millimeters), very low toxicity, and good chemical stability in biological environments. Two basic types of particulate sensors have been developed: carbon-based sensors derived from coal or synthesized from wood, and lithium phthalocyanine (LiPc). Both types of material report on local oxygen concentration through a variation in EPR line width with [O2], an approach sometimes called T2 oximetry. Interaction between oxygen molecules and unpaired electrons in the sensor is thought to proceed via Heisenberg spin exchange. Microscopy reveals very different morphology for LiPc and chars, the former being a crystalline structure and the latter being a complex network of channels and pores. These structural differences manifest themselves in the different behaviors of the two classes of sensor materials. Models of coal and char behavior, involving electron spin exchange, can explain the line shape behavior of these materials under various oxygen concentrations. Magnetic resonance and dynamic nuclear polarization can be employed along with other physical methods to develop a detailed picture of char surface area, porosity, and the interaction of the surface with water.
The Roles of Cognitive and Language Abilities in Predicting Decoding and Reading Comprehension: Comparisons of Dyslexia and Specific Language Impairment.

This study aimed to (a) explore the roles of cognitive and language variables in predicting reading abilities of two groups of individuals with reading disabilities (i.e., dyslexia and specific language impairment) and (b) examine which variable(s) is the most predictive in differentiating two groups. Inclusion/exclusion criteria applied to categorize the two groups yielded a total of 63 participants (n = 44 for the dyslexia; n = 19 for the specific language impairment). A stepwise multiple regression approach was conducted to examine which cognitive and/or language variables made the largest contribution to reading abilities (i.e., Phonetic Decoding Efficiency, Word Attack, Sight Word Efficiency, and Passage Comprehension). Results revealed that there were significant differences in which measures of cognitive and language ability predicted individuals with dyslexia and speech and language impairments reading ability, showing that the cognitive and language variables underlying their difficulty with reading abilities were not the same across the two groups. A discriminant function analysis showed that a measure of Verbal Comprehension, Phonological Awareness, and Phonetic Decoding Efficiency can be used to differentiate the two groups. These findings support the tenet that dyslexia and specific language impairment are two subgroups of reading disabilities and that thorough diagnostic evaluations are needed to differentiate between these two subgroups. Distinctions of this nature are central to determining the type and intensity of language-based interventions.
Hegemony of the “Great Equalizer” and the Fragmentation of Common Sense: A Gramscian Model of Inflated Ambitions for Schooling

Increasingly over the past 50 years, the mission statement of schooling in dominant US-American discourse has coalesced around a Great Equalizer narrative of education; that is, it has identified schools as the primary means through which individuals can achieve social mobility. In this article, I employ a Gramscian framework to describe how this dominant yet illusory definition of purpose disorients well-intentioned educational actors and often pits them unwittingly against each other. I show that as a result of a false narrative about what schools do for society, a fragmented common sense has arisen amongst teachers, politicians, scholars and activists to the detriment of a collective theory of change. To guard against fragmentation and avert educational actors' consent to a hegemonic social order, I argue that the first step toward collective resistance is acknowledging the limited impact schools have on the socioeconomic layout of society. Accordingly, educational actors hoping to ameliorate inequalit...
Deciding to reveal sexual information and sexuality education in mother-daughter relationships

AbstractCommunication privacy management theory informed this study of nine mothers and their 18- or 19-year-old daughters who were interviewed to understand privacy rule foundations that influence their decisions to reveal or conceal sexual information. Findings reveal the salience of motivation and the risk–benefit ratio when making decisions about revealing or concealing private information. Namely, mothers may have many motivations to talk to their daughters, whereas daughters are motivated to discuss sex with a trusted source. Mothers’ perceived risks of talking about sex included judgement from other parents, and daughters were concerned about disappointing their parents. Additionally, a privacy rule emerged during joint mother–daughter interviews that stipulated ‘we talk about everything but the details’, and mothers volunteered their privacy rule acquisition of talking about sex with daughters differently from the ways their mothers talked to them. The findings augment sex education research by sh...
Bridging with Tirofiban during Oral Antiplatelet Interruption: A Single-Center Case Series Analysis Including Patients on Hemodialysis.

Introduction Surgical patients requiring an interruption in dual-antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) within 6 months of cardiac stenting are at risk for thrombotic events. Bridging with short-acting intravenous antiplatelet agents has been proposed to minimize the risk of thrombotic and hemorrhagic complications. Methods This was a retrospective analysis of a tirofiban bridging strategy that did not use an initial bolus loading dose. Tirofiban infusions were initiated 24to 48 hours after the last oral antiplatelet dose at a rate of 0.01 μg/kg/min (0.05 μg/kg/min if renal dysfunction) and continued until 4 hours prior to surgery or until DAPT could be resumed. Co-primary end points were occurrence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) and bleeding. Results Twenty patients requiring DAPT interruption within 6 months of cardiac stenting for either a surgical procedure or who were otherwise unable to take any medications by mouth were included. The median time from stent implantation to DAPT interruption was 33 days (range 3 to 146 days). Two patients experienced a MACE during their hospital stay. No major bleeding events occurred; minor bleeding occurred in four patients during tirofiban therapy. Five patients in this analysis had end-stage renal disease requiring hemodialysis. Of these patients, no MACE or major bleeding events occurred. Conclusions This analysis observed that a tirofiban bridging strategy without an initial bolus loading dose has comparable efficacy and safety as previously published reports. A tirofiban infusion without bolus dosing may be a safe option for antiplatelet bridging in patients with a recent cardiac stent implant to prevent stent thrombosis. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Reward Magnitude Shifts in Turtles (Pseudemys Scripta Elegans)

Turtles were trained with a large or small magnitude of reward in a staight-alley runway. After 17 days of training with a given reward magnitude, half of the turtles in each group were shifted to the other magnitude of reward. Downward shifted turtles did not increase their running times. Upward shifted turtles decreased their running times. An explanation for failure to obtain downward shifts is presented.
Common Mistakes in Teaching Elementary Math―And How to Avoid Them

Learn the most effective ways to teach elementary math, no matter how much experience you have with the subject. In this book, Fuchang Liu takes you through many common mistakes in math instruction and explains the misunderstandings behind them. He points out practices that should be avoided, helping you to adjust your lessons so that all students can achieve success. You’ll discover how to… - Increase your confidence with core math principles and reasoning - Set your students on the path toward eventually developing more complex math skills - Improve student achievement by approaching problems in logical yet creative ways - Overcome common challenges faced by students and teachers - Teach problem solving for different learning styles Every chapter reconsiders well-established ways of teaching all areas of elementary math, from addition and subtraction to statistics and graphs. Helpful examples and tips are scattered throughout the book, offering revisions to the way these topics are often presented in the classroom. Also included are group study ideas for principals and instructional coaches so your school or district can work on the book together. With this practical guide, you’ll be ready to help students truly develop their math understanding.
The Archaeology of War: A North American Perspective

This article reviews recent archaeological research on warfare in prestate societies of native North America. This survey comprises six regions: Arctic/Subarctic, Northwest Coast, California, Southwest/Great Basin, Great Plains, and Eastern Woodlands. Two lines of evidence, defensive settlement behavior and injuries in human skeletal remains, figure prominently in archaeological reconstructions of violence and warfare in these regions. Burning of sites and settlements also has been important for identifying the consequences of war and investigating more subtle aspects of strategy and directionality. Weaponry and iconography have to date provided important but more limited insights. Although considerable disparities exist between regions in the archaeological evidence for intra- and intergroup violence, all regions show a marked increase after A.D. 1000. These findings suggest that larger forces may have been responsible for escalating violence throughout North America at this time.
Robust feature selection via l2,1-norm in finite mixture of regression

Abstract Finite mixture of Gaussian regression (FMR) is a widely-used modeling technique in supervised learning problems. In cases where the number of features is large, feature selection is desirable to enhance model interpretability and to avoid overfitting. In this paper, we propose a robust feature selection method via l2,1-norm penalized maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) in FMR, with extension to sparse l2,1 penalty by combining l1-norm with l2,1-norm for increasing flexibility. To solve the non-convex and non-smooth problem of (sparse) penalized MLE in FMR, we develop an new EM-based algorithm for numerical optimization, with combination of block coordinate descent and majorizing-minimization scheme in M-step. We finally apply our method in six simulations and one real dataset to demonstrate its superior performance.
Flow field computations of combustor-turbine interactions relevant to a gas turbine engine

The current demands for high performance gas turbine engines can be reached by raising combustion temperatures to increase power output. High combustion temperatures create a harsh environment that leads to the consideration of the durability of the combustor and turbine sections. This paper presents a computational study of a flow field that is representative of what occurs in a combustor and how that flow field convects through the first downstream stator vane. The results of this study indicate the development of the secondary flow field in the turbine is highly dependent on the incoming total pressure profile. The endwall heat transfer is found to also depend strongly on the secondary flow field.Copyright © 2003 by ASME
The antidiarrheal efficacy of a proprietary amino acid mixture in gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine patients.

509Background: Based on SEER database, gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumor incidence has increased 6 fold from 1 in 100,000 cases to about 6 in 100,000 cases over past 3 decades. North Amer...
Abstract 163: Implementation of a Physician Order Set Improves Adherence to Cardiac Care Unit Policy: A Quality Improvement Initiative

Objective: To determine if using physician order sets within the electronic health record improves adherence with local policy in the Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) at University of Florida Health - Jacksonville (UFH-J) Background: In 2015, CCU at UFH-J implemented a policy to guide the utilization of wearable cardioverter-defibrillators (WCD) in patients with heart failure and ejection fraction less or equal to 35%. Adherence to this policy was sparse and needed improvement. Methods: We hypothesized that developing an electronic order set would improve adherence to existing CCU policy. The policy to be addressed was the CCU WCD policy. Pre-intervention data from January 1-June 30, 2016 was analyzed for compliance. We evaluated policy compliance in heart failure patients admitted to the CCU. On July 1, 2016, a CCU admission order set, including a section on the WCD policy, launched. The order set was developed with multi-disciplinary input from nursing, nutrition, pharmacy, and physicians. To ensure adequate time for adjustment to the order set, the post-intervention data set was collected from January 1 - June 30, 2017. Results: Implementation of the CCU admission order set resulted in a 23% absolute increase in compliance with the CCU WCD policy. Additional benefits of the implementation of the order set that were not directly evaluated in this study include standardization of initial evaluation and patient care, improvement in the selection of the appropriate diet for cardiac patients with other dietary considerations including diabetes and renal disease, and an increase in the utilization of cardiac rehabilitation upon discharge. Conclusion: Implementation of an order set is an effective way to improve adherence to patient care policy. Further studies to assess impact of physician order sets on morbidity and mortality, especially in patients with a WCD are warranted.
Hydralazine reduces elevated sleep apnea index in spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) rats to equivalence with normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats.

The effects of lowering blood pressure (BP) by hydralazine (HY) (2 mg/kg) on spontaneous (SA) and post-sigh (PSA) sleep apneas have been studied in spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) rats by monitoring their respiration and sleep by the EEG for 6 hours. Normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats, from which the SHR rat strain was derived, were used as an appropriate control. The SHR rats had more SA (p < 0.02) and PSA (p < 0.0001) apneas/hour than WKY rats during nonrapid eye movement sleep and their mean BP was higher by 40 mm Hg (p < 0.0001) than WKY rats. Administration of HY to SHR rats equalized their BP with the arterial pressure of WKY rats and reduced the SA and the PSA apneas/hour to equivalence with WKY normotensive rats. These results demonstrate that even in the context of lifelong hypertension, acute normalization of BP significantly reduces sleep apneas in rats. They further suggest that improved management of BP may be of clinical benefit to patients with apnea who have long-standing hypertension.
Corporate Social Responsibility – Customer Expectations and Behaviour in the Tourism Sector

This paper presents the results of a study, describing consumer’s expectations regarding Corporate Social Responsibility in tourism in connection with concrete requirements regarding tourism offers as well the actual travel behaviour. To be more specific it is about holiday travels of German tourists with at least one overnight stay in the tourism year 2007/2008.
Direct and indirect effects of high-albedo roofs on energy consumption and thermal comfort of residential buildings

Abstract Over the past three decades, high-albedo roofing has been promoted as a strategy to mitigate the urban heat island effect and reduce cooling energy demand and costs. In addition, high-albedo roofs can increase thermal comfort in non-conditioned buildings. Energy saving and thermal comfort benefits from these roofs have two components: 1- Direct benefits to individual buildings by reducing absorbed shortwave radiation through the roof, and 2- Neighborhood-scale indirect benefit resulting from reduced ambient air temperatures, particularly when high-albedo surfaces are deployed on a large scale. This study is an effort to quantify the relative importance of these direct and indirect benefits and identify how they are affected by building and climate characteristics. We used whole-building energy simulations of a set of archetypical single family residential buildings in three locations with distinct characteristics within the Los Angeles area (one coastal, and two inland). Our simulations show that benefits from the indirect effect can be the same order of magnitude as the direct effects. More importantly, these benefits depend on the climate and building characteristics. The highest energy and thermal comfort benefits were observed in a low-performance building (defined by airtightness and ceiling insulation level) in Long Beach, where simulations indicated an energy savings of 41% and thermal comfort improvement of 23% due to a combination of direct and indirect effects.
Epidemiology of Thyroid Cancer

Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy. The major histologic subtypes for thyroid cancer is papillary, follicular, medullary, and anaplastic accounting for 80%, 10%, 5%, and < 2%, respectively. The incidence of thyroid cancer has been increasing exponentially with approximately 53,990 new cases being expected to be diagnosed in the USA in 2018. Because of the rising incidence and the good prognosis of thyroid cancer, prevalence rates are significantly higher than incidence with rates ranging from 0.03 to 36%. The mortality of thyroid cancer has remained relatively stable, despite an annual percent increase of 0.82% of rates in the USA from 1992 to 2012. Risk factors for thyroid cancer are also being reviewed in this chapter. Finally, the issue of overdiagnosis of thyroid cancer is addressed in the chapter. We believe that the increased incidence is likely the result of two coexisting processes: increased detection (apparent increase) and increased number of cases (true increase) due to unrecognized thyroid-specific carcinogens.
Generating polarization-entangled photon pairs in domain-engineered PPLN

Using a periodically poled LiNbO 3 crystal that is domain-engineered for two simultaneous type-II down-conversion processes, we demonstrated polarization-entangled photon-pair generation.
Clinical efficacy of daratumumab, pomalidomide, and dexamethasone in patients with relapsed or refractory myeloma: Utility of re-treatment with daratumumab among refractory patients.

Background The efficacy of daratumumab (DARA) both as a monotherapy and in combination with standard-of-care regimens in multiple myeloma (MM) has been established in clinical trials. This article presents a retrospective analysis of the safety and efficacy of DARA in combination with pomalidomide (POM) and dexamethasone (ie, daratumumab, pomalidomide, and dexamethasone [DARA-POM-D]) and, more importantly, the long-term follow-up of a cohort that was naive to DARA and POM as well as a cohort in which the utility of re-treatment was evaluated among patients who were DARA- and/or POM-refractory. Methods Thirty-four consecutive patients with relapsed and/or refractory MM treated with DARA-POM-D at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University from January 2015 through July 2016 were included in the analysis. The study was approved by Emory University's institutional review board. All received prior proteasome inhibitors and immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs) and were refractory to their last line of therapy. Results All patients were lenalidomide-refractory, and 91% were bortezomib-refractory. Two cohorts were identified on the basis of prior exposure to DARA and/or POM. Cohort 1 (12 patients) was DARA- and POM-naive, and cohort 2 (22 patients) was DARA- and/or POM-refractory. A subgroup of 12 patients in cohort 2 (cohort 3) was DARA- and POM-refractory. The combination's tolerability was consistent with the results of the published phase 1b study (EQUULES) that evaluated the combination and no new safety signals were observed. The overall response rates (ORRs) were 91.7%, 40.9%, and 33.3% in cohorts 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Deep responses, including 4 stringent complete responses, were observed in cohort 1. In cohort 2, the ORR comprised 8 partial responses (PRs) and 1 very good PR. The median progression-free survival (PFS) was not reached in cohort 1 at a median follow-up of 41 months, and it was 3.2 months in cohort 2. DARA-POM-D not only was effective in DARA- and POM-naive patients but also produced clinical responses in a third of patients re-treated with these drugs. Conclusions A better than quadrupled PFS benefit observed in cohort 1 in comparison with the previously reported benefit in the EQUULEUS trial (which led to US Food and Drug Administration approval of the DARA-POM-D combination) highlights the fact that the introduction of monoclonal antibody combination strategies and IMiDs as earlier lines of therapeutic options potentially could deliver better clinical outcomes. One-third of patients refractory to separate lines of DARA and/or POM responded when they were re-treated with a combination, and this resulted in survival benefits equivalent to those of other antimyeloma agents/combinations available for DARA-refractory patients.
Loss of interleukin‐10 exacerbates early Type‐1 diabetes‐induced bone loss

Type-1 diabetes (T1D) increases systemic inflammation, bone loss, and risk for bone fractures. Levels of the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 (IL-10) are decreased in T1D, however their role in T1D-induced osteoporosis is unknown. To address this, diabetes was induced in male IL-10 knockout (KO) and wild-type (WT) mice. Analyses of femur and vertebral trabecular bone volume fraction identified bone loss in T1D-WT mice at 4 and 12 weeks, which in T1D-IL-10-KO mice was further reduced at 4 weeks but not 12 weeks. IL-10 deficiency also increased the negative effects of T1D on cortical bone. Osteoblast marker osterix was decreased, while osteoclast markers were unchanged, suggesting that IL-10 promotes anabolic processes. MC3T3-E1 osteoblasts cultured under high glucose conditions displayed a decrease in osterix which was prevented by addition of IL-10. Taken together, our results suggest that IL-10 is important for promoting osteoblast maturation and reducing bone loss during early stages of T1D.
Expanding and Innovating Short-Form Documents into Long-Form Documents

In doing your job as a professional engineer, solving real-world engineering problems sometimes requires you to engage in creative, out-of-the-box thinking to invent new solutions or technologies. Yet invention is not always the best path for addressing engineering problems. In other cases, your education and applied experience already equip you with existing solutions, technologies, systems, or methods that match need satisfactorily or upon which you can innovate a new solution rather than create one from scratch.
Comparing the treatment needs of participants with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders in drug and veterans treatment courts

Objective: Despite the growing research on the effectiveness of specialty courts, including drug treatment courts (DTCs) and veterans treatment courts (VTCs), little is known about the unique treat...
Optimal Management of a Pandemic in the Short Run and the Long Run

Social policy to limit interactions can slow the spread of infection, but this benefit comes at the cost of reduced output. We solve an optimal control problem to choose the degree of interaction to maximize an objective function that rewards output and penalizes excess deaths. Optimal policy restricts the degree of interaction—permanently and perhaps substantially—but, surprisingly, not so much as to eradicate the disease. This finding holds regardless of how much weight the objective function places on excess deaths, provided the weight is finite. Complete eradication is optimal only if achieved by science or medicine.
The Persistent Impact of Childhood Trauma: Current Mental Health Challenges Faced by Women in Jail

The purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between childhood trauma and current mental health status of 110 women incarcerated in a Midwestern jail. The K6 distress scale was used...
Potential Blood Transfusion Adverse Events Can be Found in Unstructured Text in Electronic Health Records using the 'Shakespeare Method'

ABSTRACT Background Text in electronic health records (EHRs) and big data tools offer the opportunity for surveillance of adverse events (patient harm associated with medical care) (AEs) in the unstructured notes. Writers may explicitly state an apparent association between treatment and adverse outcome (“attributed”) or state the simple treatment and outcome without an association (“unattributed”). We chose the case of transfusion adverse events (TAEs) and potential TAEs (PTAEs) because real dates were obscured in the study data, and new TAE types were becoming recognized during the study data period. Objective Develop a new method to identify attributed and unattributed potential adverse events using the unstructured text of EHRs. Methods We used EHRs for adult critical care admissions at a major teaching hospital, 2001-2012. We formed a transfusion (T) group (21,443 admissions treated with packed red blood cells, platelets, or plasma), excluded 2,373 ambiguous admissions, and formed a comparison (C) group of 25,468 admissions. We concatenated the text notes for each admission, sorted by date, into one document, and deleted replicate sentences and lists. We identified statistically significant words in T vs. C. T documents were filtered to those words, followed by topic modeling on the T filtered documents to produce 45 topics. For each topic, the three documents with the maximum topic scores were manually reviewed to identify events that occurred shortly after the first transfusion; documents with clear alternative explanations for heart, lung, and volume overload problems (e.g., advanced cancer, lung infection) were excluded. We also reviewed documents with the most topics, as well as 20 randomly selected T documents without alternate explanations. Results Topics centered around medical conditions. The average number of significant topics was 6.1. Most PTAEs were not attributed to transfusion in the notes. Admissions with a top-scoring cardiovascular topic (heart valve repair, tapped pericardial effusion, coronary artery bypass graft, heart attack, or vascular repair) were more likely than random T admissions to have at least one heart PTAE (heart rhythm changes or hypotension, proportion difference = 0.47, p = 0.022). Admissions with a top-scoring pulmonary topic (mechanical ventilation, acute respiratory distress syndrome, inhaled nitric oxide) were more likely than random T admissions (proportion difference = 0.37, p = 0.049) to have at least one lung PTAE (hypoxia, mechanical ventilation, bilateral pulmonary effusion, or pulmonary edema). Conclusions The “Shakespeare Method” could be a useful supplement to AE reporting and surveillance of structured EHR data. Future improvements should include automation of the manual review process.
An examination of the flow characteristics of crude oil: Evidence from risk-neutral moments

This paper examines the information content of risk-neutral moments to explain crude oil futures returns. Implied volatility and higher moments are extracted from observed crude oil option prices using a model-free implied volatility framework and the Black–Scholes model. We find a tenuous and time-varying association between returns and implied volatility and its innovations. Specifically, changes in implied volatility are found to be meaningfully associated with crude returns only over the period spanning the recent financial crisis. The results lead us to conclude that crude oil prices are determined primarily in a flow demand/supply environment. Finally, we document that oil risk is priced into the cross-section of stock returns in the oil and transportation sectors.
Physiological aspects of the omasum and abomasum

The abomasum can be envisioned as a structure having a somewhat primitive contractile pattern and the capability of secreting large volumes of acid fluid. In addition, it may have the capacity of absorbing a portion of the chemical products resulting from rumen fermentation. Both the secretory activity and the motility patterns of the abomasum can be apparently altered by the nature of the ingesta presented to it. Are thesephysiological aspects relevant when clinical disorders of the bovine abomasum are considered? Perhaps they are very relevant. A subsequent paper will attempt to relate research information to certain clinical disorders of the abomasum and to speculate on possible pathophysiologic processes involved.