cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The value of time and the effect of fines on child car safety seat usage

We report the results of a survey on child car safety seat usage and test the hypothesis that the opportunity cost of time is a significant determinant of proper seat use: We find that parents with high wage rates are less likely to properly use a car seat. We predict that a fine of $1775 along with a certainty of being apprehended once in a four year period would be needed to induce 95% compliance with child car safety seat laws.
Investigating the sensitivity of surface-level nitrate seasonality in Antarctica to primary sources using a global model

Abstract Determining the sources of total nitrate (TNIT ≡ NO 3 − + HNO3) reaching Antarctica is a long-standing challenge. Here we analyze the monthly sensitivity of surface-level TNIT in Antarctica to primary sources using a global 3-D chemical transport model, GEOS-Chem, and its adjoint. Modeled seasonal variation of TNIT concentrations shows good agreement with several measurement studies, given that the lack of post-depositional processing in the model leads to an expected underestimate of maximum values in November through January. Remote NOx sources have the greatest impact May–July, during when the model background concentrations are sensitive to NOx emissions from fossil fuel combustion, soil, and lightning originating from 25°S to 65°S. In this season, NOx is transported to Antarctica as TNIT, which is formed above continental source regions at an altitude of 5–11 km. In other seasons, more NOx is transported as a reservoir species (e.g., peroxyacetyl nitrate, PAN) through the free troposphere, transforming into TNIT within a cone of influence that extends to 35°S and above 4 km altitude. Photolysis of PAN over Antarctica is the main driver of modeled NOx seasonality. Stratospheric production and loss of tracers are relatively unimportant in monthly sensitivities in GEOS-Chem, driving only a few percent of surface level variability of TNIT. A small peak concentration in August is captured by the model, although some measured values in August fall outside the range of simulated concentrations. Modifications to the model to represent sedimentation of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) lead to increased surface level August TNIT concentrations. However, this simple representation does not explicitly account for PSC particle deposition or disappearance of the tropopause in the middle of winter, and thus the influence of stratospheric nitrate sources estimated in this study is likely a lower bound.
Primary percutaneous coronary intervention for ST-elevation myocardial infarction using an intravenous and subcutaneous enoxaparin low molecular weight heparin regimen.

Background Enoxaparin use in PCI has been investigated, however its role in primary PCI is less known. Objective To evaluate the role of combination IV + SC enoxaparin in primary PCI in STEMI. Methods 83 consecutive patients with STEMI who underwent primary PCI between January 1, 2005 and January 15, 2008 were included. Anticoagulation was based on our institution’s STEMI protocol; either IV + SC enoxaparin, or IV unfractionated heparin (UFH). Clinical endpoints included MACE, bleeding and net adverse cardiac events (NACE). Results 45 patients received UFH and 37 received IV + SC enoxaparin. There was no difference in the rate of mortality, MACE, or NACE. There was a trend toward more TIMI major and GUSTO moderate and severe bleeding in the UFH group. Conclusions Application of IV + SC enoxaparin strategy for primary PCI in STEMI appears both safe and efficacious. A prospective randomized trial will be necessary to evaluate the safety and efficacy more thoroughly.
Phase I trial of high-dose mitoxantrone plus cyclophosphamide and filgrastim in patients with advanced breast carcinoma.

PURPOSETo determine the maximum-tolerated dose (MTD) of mitoxantrone that could be safely used in combination with cyclophosphamide and filgrastim in patients with advanced breast carcinoma.PATIENTS AND METHODSTwenty-seven patients with metastatic (n = 24) or locally advanced (n = 3) breast carcinoma received escalating doses of mitoxantrone (16, 20, 24, 28, or 32 mg/m2) plus cyclophosphamide at one of three dose levels: group 1, 1,200 mg/m2; group 2, 2,400 mg/m2; and group 3,600 mg/m2. All patients also received filgrastim 5 micrograms/kg administered subcutaneously beginning on day 2 and continuing until the post-nadir absolute neutrophil count (ANC) was > or = 10,000/microL. Treatment was repeated every 3 weeks if the ANC was > or = 2,000/microL and platelet count > or = 90,000/microL for a maximum of six cycles. Dose escalation occurred within each group if zero of three or one of four patients had dose-limiting toxicity during the first cycle.RESULTSThe MTD of mitoxantrone was 24 mg/m2 in group 1, le...
Novel extraction of German cockroach (Dictyoptera: Blattellidae) fecal pellets enhances efficacy of spray formulation insecticides.

Methanol extracts of German cockroach, Blattella germanica (L.), fecal pellets have limited use as pheromone attractants in the urban environment because of their unpleasant color and odor. To eliminate these characteristics, a novel aqueous extract of German cockroach feces was formulated. Fecal material was extracted with methylene chloride and mixed with water. The aqueous phase of the extract was colorless and relatively odorless compared with methanol fecal extracts. Aqueous extract was bioassayed and compared with methanol extracts for aggregation activity. The efficacy of chlorpyrifos and boric acid formulations was tested with and without the addition of fecal extracts. In tests with chlorpyrifos, the addition of the aqueous extract produced significantly greater mortality in young nymphs than either chlorpyrifos alone or chlorpyrifos + methanol extract. There were no differences in mortality between the 2 extract + boric acid treatments during the test period, and both enhanced mortality.
Health Savings Accounts and Other Account-Based Health Plans

This paper examines accounts that can be used to pay for health care services on a tax-favored basis. Starting with health savings accounts (HSAs), the function of these accounts is described, followed by a discussion of issues related to the accounts, whether expectations for the accounts will be met, and recent evidence on their impact. The introduction and use of HSAs is one piece of a larger movement toward more consumer involvement in the financing and delivery of health care. Some employers have used high-deductible account-based health plans as a way of encouraging more consumer involvement in the health benefits. Other employers have increased deductibles and co-payments. Many have added incentives for employees to use less-costly physicians, hospitals, and prescription drugs. Taken together, these changes may mean that the way in which health care is delivered and paid for in the future could look a lot different than it does today.
Aztec Archaeology and Ethnohistory: Living as an Aztec: Social Status and Daily Life

One’s father [is] the source of lineage, the beginning of lineage.... He advises, he admonishes one. He is exemplary; he leads a model life ... he is thrifty ... establishes order.... One’s bad father [is] lazy, incompassionate, negligent, unreliable ... a shirker, a loafer, a sullen worker. Bernardino de Sahagun 1950–1982: book 10, 1; originally written by 1569 One’s mother ... [is] sincere, vigilant, agile, [she is] an energetic worker – diligent, watchful, solicitous, full of anxiety.... She caresses, she serves others.... One’s bad mother [is] evil, dull, stupid, sleepy, lazy ... disrespectful, inconsiderate, disregarding, careless ... she expounds nonconformity. Bernardino de Sahagun 1950–1982: book 10, 2; originally written by 1569 It would have been an impossible task to write the preceding chapters without making fairly frequent reference to nobles and commoners, so deeply were these divisions of Aztec social life woven into all aspects of their existence. Yet a bit more can still be said about the strictly social side of their defined relationships and the inner workings of the Aztec social hierarchy. Everyone occupied a position in this hierarchy and carried out (or not) a prescribed role or roles relative to his or her station in life. Whatever niche or niches an individual occupied, that person’s location in the social hierarchy and primary associations within a family network essentially defined his or her life’s opportunities and restrictions. An Aztec’s life story was initially established by the circumstances of birth – birth in the sense of parentage, birth in the sense of gender, and birth in the sense of a fate-laden astrological date. Beyond these dictates, an individual was faced with opportunities – for both achievement and disaster. A man could demonstrate courage or cowardice on the battlefield; a woman could exhibit energy or laziness on the domestic scene. Men and women could be respectful, obedient, and diligent, or they could turn to gambling, thievery, or excessive drinking. These and other of life’s options were played out in a dynamic social setting that featured an intense social hierarchy, complex city-state and imperial bureaucracies, community and family institutions, and associations based on achievements, occupations, and religion.
Polyvinylferrocene for Noncovalent Dispersion and Redox-Controlled Precipitation of Carbon Nanotubes in Nonaqueous Media

We report noncovalent dispersion of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in organic liquids with extremely high loading (∼2 mg mL(-1)) using polyvinylferrocene (PVF). In contrast to common dispersants, PVF does not contain any conjugated structures or ionic moieties. PVF is also shown to be effective in controlling nanotube dispersion and reprecipitation because it exhibits redox-switchable affinity for solvents, while maintaining stable physical attachment to CNTs during redox transformation. This switchability provides a novel approach to creating CNT-functionalized surfaces. The material systems described here offer new opportunities for applications of CNTs in nonaqueous media, such as nanotube-polymer composites and organic liquid-based optical limiters, and expand the means of tailoring nanotube dispersion behavior via external stimuli, with potential applications in switching devices. The PVF/CNT hybrid system with enhanced redox response of ferrocene may also find applications in high-performance biosensors and pseudocapacitors.
Exhumation by debris flows in the 2013 Colorado Front Range storm

The relative importance of extreme events in the long-term exhumation of landscapes is difficult to determine; the degree to which modern records capture long-term mean process rates is therefore commonly unknown. In September 2013, a massive precipitation event in the Front Range of Colorado (USA) triggered over 1100 landslides and debris flows in a historically sedate landscape. Here we employ topographic differencing, utilizing repeat aerial lidar, to quantify net sediment transport volumes in 120 of these mass movements within an area of 102 km 2 west of Boulder, Colorado. Comparing our results against published long-term erosion rates, we find that these mass movements evacuated the equivalent of hundreds to thousands of years of hillslope weathering products. We conclude that (1) rare debris flows perform the majority of sediment transport and channel erosion within steep channels along the eastern edge of the Front Range, potentially explaining discrepancies between modern sediment yields and long-term erosion rates in such settings, and (2) the high spatial density of debris flows along the corridors bounding steep canyons suggests that the landscape switches to debris-flow dominance as knickpoints pass headward along the canyons.
Composite Biomolecular/Solid State Nanostructures

Parallel nanometer molecular lithography has recently been demonstrated to be a parallel fabrication process for structures with features defined by single molecules [1]. In this process two dimensional (2d) monolayer protein crystals are used as patterning elements in the parallel fabrication of structures on the 10nm length scale (nanostructures). The parallelism of this technique is in contrast to such serial fabrication methods as x-ray and electron-beam lithography.
The Roots of a Quaternion

(1942). The Roots of a Quaternion. The American Mathematical Monthly: Vol. 49, No. 8, pp. 519-520.
Study on Clinical Features of Rotavirus Diarrhea and G Type Serum in Infants and Children in Maanshan and Suzhou Areas

Objective To investigate the clinical features and distribution of G types of rotavirus diarrhea in infants and children in Suzhou and Maanshan areas.Methods 1267 stool specimens were collected from children under 5 years with acute diarrhea. Enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) and nested polymeras chain reaction (Nested-PCR) were used to detect rotavirus and serotypes.Results In 1267 stool specimens, 378 were detected RV positive, and serotype G was the prevalent type in the two cities with number of 250 and the G3 and G1 types were the most prevalent which accounted for 40%(100/250) and 44.40 % (111/250), respectively. While the G2 ,G4, G9 types and mixed infections were 8,3,3,4 and the un-identified type was 8.40%(21/250). G1 type was the most prevalent in Maanshan are which accounted for 58.54% in all cases,while the G3 type accounted for the most of case(47.85%) in Suzhou area.Conclusions The results indicated that rotavirus was the most important etiologic agent in Maanshan and Suzhou areas,G1 and G3 were the most prevalent types,respectively. J Appl Clin Pediatr,2005,20(3):208-210
The Evolution of the British Labour Party and Irish Nationalism, 1914–1921

The First World War and its immediate aftermath played a crucial role in both the transformation of the Irish political landscape and the rapid development of the British Labour Party from peripheral political grouping to alternative party of government. Although the political progress made by the Labour Party in this period was by no means uninterrupted, and indeed at times was faltering and halting, by 1921 it found itself on the brink of power as the official opposition to Lloyd George’s peacetime coalition government. Labour now provided a progressive alternative to the Conservative Party, potentially uniting trade unionists and ideological socialists with the former Liberal-voting middle class. As a result, it now hovered in expectation of soon becoming the governing party, and the leadership became determined to conduct itself prudently and responsibly in order to realise its potential.
Cultural Pervasiveness or Objective Violence?: Three Questions about KOS as Cultural Arbiters

Knowledge organization and knowledge organization systems are pervasive in human experience, yet the effect of this pervasiveness is overlooked and little analyzed. Several authors have called for a theory of knowledge organization that embraces cultural and social realities alongside domain-centric ontologies. Examples of leading studies point to pervasive and occasionally oppressive discourses embracing race, sex and gender and economics. Three research questions are presented about how to study knowledge organization systems as cultural arbiters and how to incorporate temporality and atemporality into the methodology of subject ontogeny.
Disparities in receipt of lymph node assessment among early stage female breast cancer patients

A65 Accurate staging of breast cancer requires assessment of axillary lymph node involvement. We evaluated factors associated with receipt of lymph node assessment among women with early stage breast cancer using data from the National Cancer Database (NCDB), a hospital-based registry jointly sponsored by the American Cancer Society and American College of Surgeons. Records for all women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer (T1a, T1b, T1c, and T2N0) from 2003-2005 were extracted from the NCDB. Analyses explored the impact of patient race/ethnicity, insurance status, and age on receipt of any axillary lymph node procedure (axillary lymph node dissection or sentinel lymph node biopsy) while controlling for other sociodemographic and clinical factors using multivariate logistic regression. A total of 196,732 women met the study inclusion criteria; 11% did not receive any axillary lymph node assessment. Compared to White patients, Black patients had greater likelihood (odds ratio [OR] 1.10, p
Long-Term Outcomes of Youth Treated for an Anxiety Disorder: A Critical Review.

Pediatric anxiety disorders are common, disabling, and chronic conditions. Efforts over the past two decades have focused on developing and testing effective treatments. Short-term efficacy of both Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors has been established. Data are emerging on the long-term (i.e., 2 years or longer) effectiveness of these treatments, but this literature has yet to be adequately synthesized. This study presents a systematic and critical qualitative review of published long-term follow-up (LTFU) studies of youth treated for an anxiety disorder. A comprehensive search of several databases identified 21 published reports (representing 15 LTFU cohorts of treated youth) meeting specified inclusion criteria. LTFU assessments occurred a mean of 5.85 years after initial treatment (range 2–19 years). Diagnostic rates at LTFU and predictors (e.g., demographic, baseline child clinical variables, treatment type) of outcomes at LTFU were also examined. A discussion of the limitations of this literature is provided to qualify interpretations of findings and to inform future studies. Findings can aid clinicians and families in making treatment decisions and setting reasonable expectations for the long-term prognosis after treatment for anxiety.
Head Start administrator and teacher perceptions of parental influence on preschool children’s nutrition education:

Parents play a significant role in molding their children’s nutrition knowledge and behavior. The purpose of the present study was to explore parental influence on preschooler’s nutrition education...
Teacher reflections on using inquiry-based instruction to engage young children in conversations about wealth and poverty

Abstract In the midst of growing levels of economic inequality in the United States, elementary school teachers play a critical role in teaching their students about wealth and poverty and what it means to be responsible and justice-oriented citizens. Inquiry-based learning, a student-centered, participatory, and collaborative instructional method, is one approach that can be used to talk with young students about societal issues, but it has not been systematically applied to the study of student learning about issues related to economic inequality. In this qualitative study, we examined the successes and challenges faced by a team of three elementary school teachers as they designed and implemented an arts-infused inquiry unit focused on wealth and poverty with kindergarten, first, and second grade students. Through a series of six interviews, teachers discussed how they planned and implemented the units and shared reflections on engaging in this novel work. Next steps for educational practice and research focused on supporting teachers in teaching about wealth and poverty are discussed.
Means, Medians, and Multivariate Mixed Design Data

SYNOPTIC ABSTRACTThis article proposes the use of component-wise means and medians for the purpose of estimation and inference in a multivariate mixed design context. That is, for data that is essentially a combination of paired and independent samples. A general limiting distribution result is derived and this result leads to the joint asymptotic distribution of the estimates. Subsequently, this result yields Wald-type mean and median-based procedures that can be used for hypothesis testing and confidence regions. The proposed methodology is illustrated with an example. Furthermore, the mean-based procedure is compared against its median-based analogue in a simulation study. Results indicate that the mean-based procedure is superior to the median-based procedure in small neighborhoods of the multivariate normal distribution, while the median-based procedure is superior to the mean-based procedure for heavy-tailed distributions.
The representation of time and location in memory for sentences

Two theoretical approaches to the representation of Time and Location Markers in Memory were contrasted. According to predictions derived from one approach, the amount of forgetting will be the same for two-proposition sentences and sentences with a single proposition and a Time or a Location marker. According to the other approach, the amount of forgetting will be the same for one-proposition sentences and sentences with a Time or a Location Marker. Propositional structure and the level of within-sentence associations were orthogonally varied to create eight within-subject experimental conditions. Ninety subjects studied 40 sentences and were required to recall then. Four dependent variables were used: number of sentences completely recalled, number of sentences partially recalled, number of sentences where information was lost from within the proposition, and number of sentences where a complete proposition was lost. The results suggest that Time and Location markers are represented in memory as arguments in a proposition rather than as separate propositions. Level of associations within the sentence seems to have a different effect when the sentence is composed of one or two propositions. The results also suggest that there may be differences between the representations of Time and Location markers.
Psycho-Spiritual Dreams in the Nineteenth Century, Part I: Dreams of Death:

This historical examination focuses on dreams at a time when these manifestations of sleeping consciousness first drew the interest of the new psychologists in addition to that of philosophers, cle...
Impact of Stealthy Attacks on Optimal Power Flow: A Simulink-Driven Formal Analysis

Optimal Power Flow (OPF) is a crucial part of the Energy Management System (EMS) as it determines individual generator outputs that minimize generation cost while satisfying transmission, generation, and system level operating constraints. OPF relies on a core EMS routine, namely state estimation, which computes system states, principally bus voltages/phase angles at the buses. However, state estimation is vulnerable to false data injection attacks in which an adversary can alter certain measurements to corrupt the estimator's solution without being detected. It is also shown that such a stealthy attack on state estimation can increase the OPF cost. However, the impact of stealthy attacks on the economic and secure operation of the system cannot be comprehensively analyzed due to the very large size of the attack space. In this paper, we present a hybrid framework that combines formal analytics with Simulink-based system modeling to investigate the feasibility of stealthy attacks and their influence on OPF in a time-efficient manner. The proposed approach is illustrated on synthetic case studies demonstrating the impact of stealthy attacks in different attack scenarios. We also evaluate the impact analysis time by running experiments on standard IEEE test cases and the results show significant scalability of the framework.
Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics and Lattice Dynamics-Based Force Field for Modeling Hexagonal Boron Nitride in Mechanical and Interfacial Applications

Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is an up-and-coming two-dimensional material, with applications in electronic devices, tribology, and separation membranes. Herein, we utilize density-functional-theory-based ab initio molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and lattice dynamics calculations to develop a classical force field (FF) for modeling hBN. The FF predicts the crystal structure, elastic constants, and phonon dispersion relation of hBN with good accuracy and exhibits remarkable agreement with the interlayer binding energy predicted by random phase approximation calculations. We demonstrate the importance of including Coulombic interactions but excluding 1–4 intrasheet interactions to obtain the correct phonon dispersion relation. We find that improper dihedrals do not modify the bulk mechanical properties and the extent of thermal vibrations in hBN, although they impact its flexural rigidity. Combining the FF with the accurate TIP4P/Ice water model yields excellent agreement with interaction energies predi...
Uridine Nucleosidase from Malt

Uridine nucleosidase (EC 3.2.2.3) has been purified from malt by a factor of over 900 by combined ammonium sulfate precipitation, calcium phosphate gel treatment, Trisacryl M diethylaminoethyl chro...
RHODOPSIN C-TERMINAL SEQUENCE QVS(A)PA DIRECTS ITS SORTING TO THE ROS IN RETINAL PHOTORECEPTORS

Several mutations that cause severe forms of autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa (ADRP) cluster in the C-terminal region of rhodopsin. Recent studies have implicated the C-terminal domain of rhodopsin in its trafficking on specialized post-Golgi membranes to the rod outer segment (ROS) of the photoreceptor cell. In addition, aberrant subcellular localization of rhodopsin has been observed in transgenic animals carrying C-terminal mutations. To test if sequence within the C-terminal domain regulates rhodopsin sorting to the ROS, we tested the effects of synthetic peptides that mimic this domain on intracellular trafficking of rhodopsin reconstituted in the frog retinal cell free system. The rhodopsin C-terminal sequence QVS(A)PA is highly conserved among different species. Synthetic peptides corresponding to the C-terminal of frog (AA 330-354) and bovine (AA 324-348) rhodopsin inhibited post-Golgi trafficking by 60% and 50%, respectively, and arrested newly synthesized rhodopsin in the trans-Golgi network (TGN). Peptides corresponding to the cytoplasmic loops and several control peptides had no effect. To assess the role of the last 5 amino acids QVS(A)PA in rhodopsin trafficking, and to model three naturally occurring mutations: Q344ter (lacking the last 5 amino acids QVAPA), V345M and P347S, we introduced equivalent substitutions into the frog C-terminal peptide. Each of these substitutions completely abolished the inhibitory activity of the peptides. Our data could help to explain detrimental effect of mutant rhodopsin in patients with ADRP. We propose that amino acids QVS(A)PA comprise a sorting signal that is recognized by specific factor(s) in the trans-Golgi network. A lack of recognition of this sequence, due to mutations in the last five amino acids causing ADRP most likely results in abnormal post-Golgi membrane formation and in an aberrant subcellular localization of rhodopsin.
Reduction of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella on laboratory-inoculated alfalfa seed with commercial citrus-related products.

Alfalfa sprouts contaminated with the bacterial pathogens Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella have been the source of numerous outbreaks of foodborne illness in the United States and in other countries. The seed used for sprouting appears to be the primary source of these pathogens. The aim of this study was to determine whether the efficacy of commercial citrus-related products for sanitizing sprouting seed is similar to that of high levels of chlorine. Five products (Citrex, Pangermex, Citricidal, Citrobio, and Environne) were tested at concentrations of up to 20,000 ppm in sterile tap water and compared with buffered chlorine (at 16,000 ppm). Alfalfa seeds were inoculated with four-strain cocktails of Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 to give final initial concentrations of ca. 9.0 and 7.0 CFU/g, respectively. Treatments (10 min) with Citrex, Pangermex, and Citricidal at 20,000 ppm and chlorine at 16,000 ppm produced similar log reductions for alfalfa seed inoculated with four-strain cocktails of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella (3.42 to 3.46 log CFU/g and 3.56 to 3.74 log CFU/g, respectively), and all four treatments were significantly (P < 0.05) more effective than the control treatment (a buffer wash). Citrobio at 20,000 ppm was as effective as the other three products and chlorine against Salmonella but not against E. coli O157:H7. Environne was not more effective (producing reductions of 2.2 to 2.9 log CFU/g) than the control treatment (which produced reductions of 2.1 to 2.3 log CFU/g) against either pathogen. None of the treatments reduced seed germination. In vitro assays, as well as transmission electron microscopy, confirmed the antibacterial nature of the products that were effective against the two pathogens and indicated that they were bactericidal. When used at 20,000 ppm, the effective citrus-related products may be viable alternatives to chlorine for the sanitization of sprouting seed pending regulatory approval.
Nonmammalian Psychosexual Differentiation

Nonmammalian vertebrates have traditionally played a significant role in the study of morphological sexual differentiation, but they have been relatively neglected in the study of behavioral sexual differentiation (psychosexual differentiation). Several recent developments, however, have sparked new interest in other vertebrate classes. These include the discovery of gross anatomical sexual dimorphism in songbird brains (Nottebohm and Arnold, 1976), the possibility of major species or class differences in the pattern of psychosexual differentiation (Adkins-Regan, 1981), and a generally greater tendency to view reproductive physiology and behavior as part of overall reproductive strategies to be explained within an evolutionary/ecological context. It is also becoming apparent that certain nonmammalian species are potentially very valuable as models for studying the role of hormones in brain and behavioral development, in part because they lack some problems inherent in mammals. For example, most birds, fish, and amphibians have no external copulatory organs, and so the effects of hormones administered early in life on adult copulatory behavior are not confounded by alterations in copulatory organs. In egg-laying species, there is no maternal gestation to complicate treatments given during embryonic life. Many nonmammalian species are sufficiently independent of the parents at birth or hatching so that they can be easily reared without parents; thus, a confound is avoided wherein the parents behave differently toward hormone-treated and control offspring (as has been shown to happen in rats, C. L. Moore, 1982).
James Joyce’s “Ivy Day in the Committee Room” and The Five Codes of Fiction

James Joyce’s short story “Ivy Day in the Committee Room” from his book Dubliners has often been criticized for being chaotic or at least random. Traditional methods of analysis, such as plot analysis, do not yield an idea of coherent structure. They thus appear to support the criticisms. However, when the story is subjected to an analysis based on Roland Barthes’ five codes from his book S/Z, the story is revealed to have both an overall structure and an intricate, detailed sub-structure of twelve scenes. The overall structure is largely provided by the operation of what Barthes called the Enigma Code. The detailed structure is provided by what Barthes called the Action Code. Barthes suggests using the Action Code to create a table, and one appears in this article. Barthes says that the elements in the table will “articulate” with each other; and an examination of the table created to Barthes’ specifications shows that the elements do indeed articulate both horizontally and vertically. Thus, an interesting irony arises in that both Joyce’s story and Barthes’ book have been accused of anarchistic construction, yet when Barthes’ system is applied to Joyce’s story the rigorous structure of the story emerges and the orderliness of the five code system is confirmed.
Treatment of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Infections in Children: a Reappraisal of Vancomycin

In the last 50 years, vancomycin has been the agent of choice to treat infections due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). However, vancomycin treatment failure is not uncommon, even when MRSA strains are fully susceptible to vancomycin. Treatment with vancomycin requires careful monitoring of drug levels as there is a potential for nephrotoxicity. Resistance to clindamycin is not infrequent, which also limits therapeutic options for treating infections due to MRSA in children. This paper reviews the current data on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics and clinical efficacy of vancomycin in children. Resistance to vancomycin in MRSA (MIC >2 mg/L) is infrequent; there is increasing evidence in the literature that vancomycin maybe ineffective against increasing proportion of isolates with MICs between 1 and 2 mg/L. Recent studies and meta-analyses have demonstrated that strains with high vancomycin MICs are associated with poor outcomes especially in patients with bacteremia and deep tissue infections due to MRSA. This gradual increase in vancomycin MIC has been reported as MIC creep or vancomycin heteroresistance. Patients infected with MRSA isolates that exhibit MIC creep experience poorer clinical outcomes, including delayed treatment response, increased mortality, increase rate of relapse, and extended hospitalization. There are limited data to guide vancomycin dosing in children with MRSA. Although the vancomycin area under the curve AUC24/MIC ratio > 400 has been shown to predict clinical efficacy in adults, this relationship has not been documented very well for treatment outcomes in MRSA infections in children. Use of higher vancomycin dosages in attempts to achieve higher trough concentrations has been associated with increased nephrotoxicity. New recently approved antibiotics including ceftaroline, dalbavancin, and tedizolid offer a number of advantages over vancomycin to treat staphylococcal infections: improved antimicrobial activity, superior pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, tolerability, and dosing, including once-daily and weekly regimens, and less need for monitoring drug levels.
Chapter 19 – Environmental Impact of Geothermal Power Plants

Publisher Summary This chapter aims to present a comprehensive picture of the environmental advantages offered by geothermal power plants as well as their possible detrimental effects. Certain environmental impacts associated with the development of geothermal sites and the operations of plants are inevitable. There have now been more than one hundred years of experience in developing geothermal fields, and in building, operating, upgrading, and even decommissioning geothermal plants of various types. Most countries have laws that regulate the construction and operation of power plants with the intent of preserving the natural environment and safeguarding the health and well-being of people as well as the flora and fauna of the region. Abatement technology is available and usually deployed to mitigate the most potentially harmful impacts. Compared with other types of power plants, geothermal plants hold significant advantages for many of these impacts. There is great concern worldwide about atmospheric emissions of carbon dioxide, CO2, owing to its heat-trapping properties and the fear of its effect on the global climate. In an attempt to control global warming, rules and regulations are being discussed around the world that would penalize plants that emit carbon into the atmosphere. Geothermal reservoir production at rates much greater than recharge can lead to surface subsidence. Geothermal binary plants are environmentally benign, essentially zero-emission plants, especially when fitted with air-cooled condensers.
Modeling cancer clinical trials using HL7 FHIR to support downstream applications: A case study with colorectal cancer data.

Abstract Background and objective Identification and Standardization of data elements used in clinical trials may control and reduce the cost and errors during the operational process, and enable seamless data exchange between the electronic data capture (EDC) systems and Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. This study presents a methodology to comprehensively capture the clinical trial data element needs. Materials and methods Case report forms (CRF) for clinical trial data collection were used to approximate the clinical information need, whereby these information needs were then mapped to a semantically equivalent field within an existing FHIR cancer profile. For items without a semantically equivalent field, we considered these items to be information needs that cannot be represented in current standards and proposed extensions to support these needs. Results We successfully identified 62 discrete items from a preliminary survey of 43 base questions in four CRFs used in colorectal cancer clinical trials, in which 28 items are modeled with FHIR extensions and their associated responses for colorectal cancer. We achieved promising results in the data population of the CRFs with average Precision 98.5 %, Recall 96.2 %, and F-measure 96.8 % for all base questions. We also demonstrated the auto-filled answers in CRFs can be used to discover patient subgroups using a topic modeling approach. Conclusion CRFs can be considered as a proxy for representing information needs for their respective cancer types. Mining the information needs can serve as a valuable resource for expanding existing standards to ensure they can comprehensively represent relevant clinical data without loss of granularity.
LEPTON FAMILY SYMMETRY AND NEUTRINO MASS MATRIX

The standard model of leptons is extended to accommodate a discrete Z3×Z2 family symmetry. After rotating the charged-lepton mass matrix to its diagonal form, the neutrino mass matrix reveals itself as very suitable for explaining atmospheric and solar neutrino oscillation data. A generic requirement of this approach is the appearance of three Higgs doublets at the electroweak scale, with observable flavor violating decays.
Disaggregation of Remotely Sensed Soil Moisture in Heterogeneous Landscapes Using Holistic Structure-Based Models

In this paper, a novel machine learning algorithm is presented for disaggregation of satellite soil moisture (SM) based on self-regularized regressive models (SRRMs) using high-resolution correlated information from auxiliary sources. It includes regularized clustering that assigns soft memberships to each pixel at a fine scale followed by a kernel regression that computes the value of the desired variable at all pixels. Coarse-scale remotely sensed SM was disaggregated from 10 to 1 km using land cover (LC), precipitation, land surface temperature, leaf area index, and in situ observations of SM. This algorithm was evaluated using multiscale synthetic observations in NC Florida for heterogeneous agricultural LCs. It was found that the rmse for 96% of the pixels was less than 0.02 m 3/m3. The clusters generated represented the data well and reduced the rmse by up to 40% during periods of high heterogeneity in LC and meteorological conditions. The Kullback–Leibler divergence (KLD) between the true SM and the disaggregated estimates is close to zero, for both vegetated and bare-soil LCs. The disaggregated estimates were compared with those generated by the principle of relevant information (PRI) method. The rmse for the PRI disaggregated estimates is higher than the rmse for the SRRM on each day of the season. The KLD of the disaggregated estimates generated by the SRRM is at least four orders of magnitude lower than those for the PRI disaggregated estimates, whereas the computational time needed was reduced by three times. The results indicate that the SRRM can be used for disaggregating SM with complex nonlinear correlations on a grid with high accuracy.
Do Infants With Robin Sequence Have Improved Feeding and Weight Gain After Mandibular Distraction

Purpose Infants with Robin sequence (RS) typically have impaired weight gain, presumed to result primarily from upper airway obstruction. Operations that improve airway obstruction are therefore theorized to facilitate feeding and weight gain, but the relationship between airway intervention and feeding improvement remains unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate weight gain over the first 3 years of life in patients with RS. Methods This is a retrospective cohort study of patients with RS treated at Boston Children's Hospital from 1995 to 2016. The primary predictor variable was type of intervention (no operation, tongue-lip adhesion, mandibular distraction osteogenesis [MDO]). The primary outcome measure was weight-for-age Z-score. A control group of patients with isolated cleft palate without RS was also included. Individuals with tracheostomy or insufficient growth data were excluded. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and statistical significance was set at P Results A total of 222 subjects were included: no operation, n = 61 (27.5%); tongue-lip adhesion, n = 78 (35.1%); MDO, n = 22 (9.9%); and control, n = 61 (27.5%). Mean age at tongue-lip adhesion was 37 ± 99 days compared with 247 ± 312 days for MDO (P Conclusions Patients with RS who had an airway operation in the first year of life demonstrated poorer early weight gain but caught up to controls by 2 years of age. Patients that had MDO before 3 months of age had faster weight gain than those that had later operations. Neither age at operation nor type of intervention affected growth outcomes by 3 years of age, which were comparable with controls.
Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT) for Multiple Synchronous Oligometastases (< 5) Lung Lesions: Early Clinical Outcomes.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE(S) Lung cancer patients with multiple oligometastases (< 5) lesions with associated co-morbidities may not retain their treatment position for the extended Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT) treatment times with individual isocenters for each lesion due to distress or shortness of breath. SBRT of multiple lung lesions synchronously (in one course) using a single-isocenter volumetric arc therapy (VMAT) plan with flattening filter free (FFF) beam or tomotherapy will shorten treatment courses, improve patient comfort by reducing treatment time, and improve clinic efficiency. We report our early clinical results of treating oligometastatic lung disease with synchronous single-course lung SBRT. MATERIALS/METHODS Fifty-six patients with multiple oligometastatic lung lesions (two n = 51, three n = 4, five n = 1, total 119 lesions) were treated synchronously with either highly conformal single-isocenter non-coplanar VMAT-SBRT (49 patients) or tomotherapy (7 patients). The most common prescriptions were 50-55 Gy/5 fractions or 54 Gy/3 fractions prescribed to 70-80% isodose line. The VMAT-SBRT plans were calculated with an advanced dose calculation algorithm for 6 MV-FFF beam and tomotherapy used superposition/convolution algorithm (with 6MV) for heterogeneity corrections. All plans were evaluated with RTOG-0618/0813 criteria. Treatments were delivered every other day with daily cone beam-CT/MVCT guidance. Highly conformal SBRT treatments were delivered in less than 10 min per fraction, on average. Local control rates, radiation-induced pneumonitis and rib toxicity were determined. Mean follow up interval was 11.4 months (range, 2.1 to 35.3 months). RESULTS All plans met RTOG-0618/0813 requirements for target(s) coverage, dose to organs at risk including lung and ribs and all patients tolerated SBRT. Six patients died before follow up and five were lost to follow up. Five patients have initial post-treatment imaging pending. Of forty evaluable patients, all achieved complete response to SBRT in all lesions. However, 18 patients developed distant metastases. During the follow-up interval, almost 50% of the patients developed radiographic changes that were asymptomatic in nature, however no patient developed grade+2 (or higher) pneumonitis, had rib fracture or developed chest wall pain. CONCLUSION A single course of lung SBRT to synchronous multiple lung lesions using a single-isocenter VMAT plan or tomotherapy is feasible, fast, safe and highly effective, with promising early local control rates and no adverse pulmonary side effects or rib toxicity. Although 18 patients developed distant metastases, the local control achieved in the treated lesions could preserve the patient's quality of life or delay systemic therapy even in these patients. Longer clinical follow up is warranted and planned. AUTHOR DISCLOSURE L. Downes: None. D. Pokhrel: None. L. Critchfield: None. M.E. Bernard: None. M.E. Randall: None. R.C. McGarry: None.
A Course in Complex Analysis and Riemann Surfaces

From i to z: the basics of complex analysis From z to the Riemann mapping theorem: some finer points of basic complex analysis Harmonic functions Riemann surfaces: definitions, examples, basic properties Analytic continuation, covering surfaces, and algebraic functions Differential forms on Riemann surfaces The theorems of Riemann-Roch, Abel, and Jacobi Uniformization Review of some basic background material Bibliography Index
A Case Study: Enhancement of Business Process Management Through System Automation

Student transcripts prior to the year 1999 at Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO) registrar’s office are in traditional paper format. Currently, the manual process takes about twenty minutes per record while the computerized processing can be done in less than five minutes. The goal of this research is threefold: 1) to study the effectiveness of the computerized system compared to the manual process; 2) to increase small public Historically Black Colleges and Universities HBCU campus (SUNO) operational efficiencies through the reduction of paper work and manual operation; 3) to increase the use of enhanced information and technological tools, processes and management.
Microclimate and substrate depth influence green roof plant community dynamics

The depth of growing media on green roofs can strongly influence plant growth and survival. The setting of the roof, including wind exposure, shading and the nature of the building below the green roof can also impact microclimate and plant performance, but the effects of roof setting have been little investigated. We conducted a five-year experiment in which green roofs differing in substrate depth and the nature of the underlying and surrounding structures (heated/air-conditioned vs. non-air-conditioned space underneath; height of green roof relative to roof surface) were planted with the same mixture of 11 species. After five years with no irrigation or weeding, planted species were still present in all treatments, but communities were dominated by ruderal species that colonized from the surrounding area. Both substrate depth and exposure affected plant community composition with exposure making a larger difference. Plant community change was greatest after the driest year of the study, suggesting that substrate depth and exposure largely exerted influence over plant communities via drought. The system installed over non-air-conditioned space had much more variable substrate temperatures and higher maximum and lower minimum temperatures. Installation of green roofs over non-air-conditioned spaces and over well-insulated buildings is common and the effects on plants of more extreme microclimates caused by these roof settings should be incorporated into plant selection criteria.