cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Psychology and Population Health Management

Population health management, broadly defined, is an integrated approach to improve the health of an entire population by targeting the systems and policies that affect health care quality, access, and outcomes. From a clinical psychology perspective, population health involves clinical applications and interventions targeted at an entire patient population rather than individual patients. The traditional practice of clinical psychology in medical settings has targeted the assessment and treatment of individual patients most often seen for one-on-one counseling. Decades of applied clinical research has resulted in the development of evidence-based cognitive-behavioral interventions for psychological, medical, and dental conditions that can be delivered by clinical psychologists. Indeed, the largest effect sizes and greatest improvements in clinical symptoms can most often be obtained using these empirically supported treatments delivered to individual patients. For a variety of reasons, however, it is only a minority of patients who have access to and benefit from these cognitive-behavioral therapies. Less intensive clinical interventions delivered to an entire population of health care beneficiaries have the potential to have an even greater impact on the overall patient population than more effective treatments delivered to a small percentage of patients.
Clear Speech Variants: An Acoustic Study in Parkinson's Disease

Purpose The authors investigated how different variants of clear speech affect segmental and suprasegmental acoustic measures of speech in speakers with Parkinson's disease and a healthy control gr...
Emotional Modulation of Pain

Abstract Pain is a tremendously malleable experience, and emotions are one of many psychological factors that modulate it. This chapter examines the emotion–pain relationship and provides a motivational framework for understanding it. It is suggested that a valence-by-arousal interaction characterizes the influence of emotions on pain in healthy humans. Specifically, positively valenced emotions generally inhibit pain, with greater inhibition resulting from greater positive arousal. By contrast, negatively valenced emotions with low-to-moderate arousal facilitate pain, with greater facilitation resulting from greater negative arousal. However, negatively valenced emotions with high arousal inhibit pain. Emerging evidence suggests that a failure to emotionally modulate pain could be a risk factor for the development of chronic pain; however, additional research is needed to confirm these preliminary data.
Meaning, Medicine, and the “Placebo Effect”: The extent (and limits) of meaning

It is clear that what I refer to as the meaning response is far larger and more significant than what happens when people take placebos. Figure 12.1 shows a representation of the relationship between the two situations; they overlap in an important way. Both the placebo effect and the meaning response involve more than simply the reactions of people to inert medications. People taking placebos in an RCT may exhibit regression to the mean (or movement to homeostasis), or bias, or more. Similarly, the physiological or psychological response to meaning - the meaning response - occurs in many more areas than clinical trials. Sightings Other authors have extended this net even further than I have. Harvard historian Anne Harrington has described what she calls “sightings, … fauna that live in the same larger territory of human psychobiological functioning in which the placebo effect makes its home as well” (Harrington in press). Among her sightings are these: “A room with a view.” A study at a suburban Pennsylvanian hospital showed that surgical patients who stayed in a room with a window view of a natural setting got better faster than a matched sample of patients who had a view of a brick wall (Ulrich 1984). “Psychosocial dwarfism.” A number of studies in the US and Europe have shown that children deprived of a secure bond with a loving caretaker - children in orphanages or abusive situations (even those whose material needs are met) - may grow up physically stunted. They have been shown to have reduced levels of growth hormones. Simply removing them from the situation and providing them with a loving secure home (probably involving people who will talk with them, that is, make life meaningful) can be sufficient to reverse the damage (Mouridsen and Nielsen 1990). […]
Splayed Recurrence Analysis of Iterated Dynamical Systems

Splayed Recurrence Analysis (SRA) is a new method for identifying and quantifying recurrent events in iterated systems. The technique is fully applicable to difference equations, Poincare sections of continuous time series, and independent random events. Inspiration for SRA comes from American roulette wheel gaming. It has been postulated that non-random wheel determinism is introduced by unbalanced wheels (mechanical) and non-random repeated motions of house spinners (human). Primary data were taken from actual roulette outcomes in which ball landing slots were reported sequentially according to spin orders. These data were stored in a matrix [slot #, spin #] and lines were passed through all possible pairs of points in the matrix and extrapolated to the border. Centers of points falling exactly on these extended lines, including the initial pair, were scored as recurrent points. Necessarily, there were gaps between points which led to point-to-point intervals being splayed-out. Six variables were extracted from the recurrent points comprising lines: (1) number of recurrent points per line; (2) intervals between recurrent points; (3) lengths of lines; (4) slopes of lines; (5) entropy of line lengths; (6) density of recurrent points. Besides the American roulette data, these SRA strategies were also applied to natural random numbers, chaotic models, and natural phenomenon. No differences could be detected for roulette data and naturally occurring random processes. But SRA was able to detect non-random structures in mathematically chaotic systems as well as in eruption times of the Old Faithful geyser. Because the methodology does not depend upon embeddings and delays as required for nonlinear analyses, SRA is classified as fully linear.
Time Delays in Transdermal Alcohol Concentrations Relative to Breath Alcohol Concentrations.

Aims Monitors of transdermal alcohol concentration (TAC) provide an objective measurement of alcohol consumption that is less invasive than measurements in blood, breath or urine; however, there is a substantial time delay in the onset of TAC compared to blood or breath alcohol concentrations (BrACs). The current study examined the characteristics of the delay between peak TAC and peak BrAC. Methods Data was aggregated from three experimental laboratory studies ( N = 61; 32 men, 29 women) in which participants wore a TAC monitor and BrAC was monitored while drinking one, two, three, four and five beers in the laboratory. Analyses examined the sex- and dose-related differences in peak BrAC and TAC, the time-to-peak BrAC and TAC, and time lag between the peak BrAC and TAC values. Results The times-to-peak were an increasing function of the number of beers consumed. At each level of beer consumption the peak TAC averaged lower than peak BrAC and times-to-peak TAC were longer than for BrAC. The time-to-peak BrAC and TAC was longer for women than men. The congruence between peak TAC and BrAC increased as a function of the beers consumed. No sex difference in the time lag between peak BrAC and TAC was detected. Conclusions The congruence between TAC and BrAC and time lags between TAC and BrAC are related to the number of beers consumed. Peak values of TAC and BrAC became more congruent with higher doses but the time lag increased as a function of the amount of alcohol consumed. Short summary The time delay (or lag) and congruence between transdermal vs. BrACs increases as the number of beers increases. Though sex differences are evident in peak transdermal and BrACs, no sex differences were evident in the time lag and the congruence between transdermal and breath alcohol concentrations.
Addressing Intimate Partner Violence With Latina Women: A Call for Research:

Latina women, especially those who are immigrants, have an increased vulnerability to intimate partner violence, yet they also have a low rate of using formal services (i.e. health care and legal services). Existing research focused on Latina women's help seeking for intimate partner violence has identified multiple factors, such as the presence of children, cultural values, and type of victimization, that influence women's formal help seeking. Immigrant Latina women in particular commonly report many barriers to formal services; however, heterogeneity and nuanced patterns of help seeking exist across Latina survivors. While research has focused mainly on understanding factors that are barriers to help seeking by Latina women, there is an overwhelming dearth of research about interventions and factors that facilitate effective help-seeking experiences for Latina IPV survivors. In an effort to improve Latina IPV survivors' access to services, we examine the gaps in research across dimensions of access to care (i.e. availability, affordability, accessibility, accommodation, and acceptability of services). Research within each of these facets of access to services for Latina survivors is lacking. This brief commentary illustrates the sparse data to inform evidence based interventions for Latina IPV survivors and is a call for research in order to determine best practices and to move the knowledge base from the vast descriptive base to evidence-based, culturally appropriate and acceptable interventions.
Harnessing relationships for domain-specific subgraph extraction: A recommendation use case

Applications on the Web such as search engines and recommendation systems are increasingly adapting semantic approaches by leveraging knowledge graphs. While some applications require processing of the whole knowledge graph, most are domain-specific and require only a relevant subset of it. For example, a movie or a book recommendation system would require a subgraph that comprises knowledge relevant to the specific domain. In such scenarios, processing the whole knowledge graph, particularly the commonly used, large, and openly available knowledge graphs on the Web, is computationally intensive and the irrelevant portion may negatively impact the performance of the application. This necessitates the identification and extraction of relevant subgraphs that adequately captures entities and their relationships for a given application domain and/or task. In this work, we present an approach to identify a minimal domain-specific subgraph by utilizing statistic and semantic-based metrics. Our approach highlights the importance of relationships as first-class elements to capture the domain specificity of a subgraph. We demonstrate the applicability of this approach for a recommendation use case on two domains, i.e. movie and book. Our evaluation demonstrates a reduction of 80% to 90% of the knowledge graph with orders of magnitude decrease in time for computation without compromising accuracy.
DeepRecon: Dynamically reconfigurable architecture for accelerating deep neural networks

Deep learning models are computationally expensive and their performance depends strongly on the underlying hardware platform. General purpose compute platforms such as GPUs have been widely used for implementing deep learning techniques. However, with the advent of emerging application domains such as internet of things, developments of custom integrated circuits capable of efficiently implementing deep learning models with low power and form factor are in high demand. In this paper we analyze both the computation and communication costs of common deep networks. We propose a reconfigurable architecture that efficiently utilizes computational and storage resources for accelerating deep learning techniques without loss of algorithmic accuracy.
Gregory the Great: Ascetic, Pastor, and First Man of Rome. By George E. Demacopoulos. (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2015. Pp. vii, 236. $28.00.)

For decades now, the Roman papacy has been atop the ecumenical agenda as Christians turn to popes of the first millennium to see if their papacies offer possible models of leadership that could be ...
Survivors’ Perspectives on Recovery From Commercial Sexual Exploitation Beginning in Childhood:

This study explored the process of exiting and recovery from commercial sexual exploitation beginning in childhood, utilizing semistructured interviews with 11 adult female survivors who had been out of the commercial sex industry for at least six months. The narratives were analyzed using consensual qualitative research. Participants described a complex interface of internal motivation and external resources in the exiting process. They identified a need for comprehensive, nonjudgmental services across all stages of change, in order to support a profound reconstruction of identity and community. Subgroup comparisons revealed that women who were exploited at younger ages were more vulnerable to coercive and dehumanizing exploitation and required especially intensive services. These results support the methods of many survivor-led programs for sexually exploited youth. Implications of survivors’ perspectives for counseling, research, and advocacy are discussed.
How Much Information is Too Much? Effects of Computer Anxiety and Self-Efficacy

Decision makers’ cognitive capabilities cannot keep pace with the ongoing exponential growth in the available amount of data. Seeking to understand the resulting consequences, this paper addresses three research questions: How does information load in teams affect decision quality in the context of an integrated information system? How do the attributes of team members affect decision quality? How do the attributes of team members moderate the effects of information load in teams on decision quality? Building on prior literature, the proposed research model includes a curvilinear relationship between information load and decision quality, moderated by the decision-makers’ computer self-efficacy (CSE) and computer anxiety. The model is tested using empirical data from 95 dyads making decisions within a business simulation. The results generally support the research model. More specifically, information load has a curvilinear relationship with decision quality, which is attenuated and reinforced by CSE and computer anxiety, respectively.
Early Soil Physics into the Mid-20th Century

The history of soil physics in its earliest manifestations is the history of soil science inasmuch as the earliest scientific observations and measurememts appear generally to be of soil physical properties. In fact, physical properties of soil have been noted in numerous cultural contexts, and it would be difficult to identify at just what point in historical time observations of such properties were sufficiently analytical, or measured with sufficient care, to be referred to as scientific. Hence, the best that can be said is that soil physics began in antiquity. Where and in what early culture it began would be equally difficult to determine and most histories inevitably will bear the mark of the cultural background of the writer. Moreover, the history of soil physics involves innumerable people, of diverse interests and backgrounds, increasing almost unmanageably by the beginning of the 20th century. By mid-century, the beginning of the contemporary period of the author’s professional career, even the subfields of soil physics have become too extensive to cover adequately in a short history. Hence, selection of persons and topics to include becomes increasingly difficult and little attempt is made here at complete and comprehensive coverage, leaving the task to future historians with perspective improved with time. What is covered here must of necessity bear the mark of the writer and his own interests.
Metabolic Effects of Abdominal Fats in Animal Models and Humans

The prevalence of obesity has reached epidemic levels since the mid-1990s. Obesity is a major health problem in developed countries; it is estimated that approximately 300 million people worldwide are obese. Obesity is characterized by the excessive accumulation of adipose tissue, which predisposes the body to several chronic diseases. However, it is well established that accumulation of abdominal rather than total body fat in obese or nonobese patients is the major contributor to the growing global disease burden. Human and animal studies have shown that excessive accumulation of abdominal adipose tissue causes chronic low-grade inflammation, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes, and increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases and cancer. There is also strong evidence that abdominal obesity increases mortality and shortens the life span. Preventing obesity and, more importantly, restricting abdominal fat accumulation are the main challenges for scientists and medical practitioners for improving the health span and life span of human populations.
Aging research in multi-ethnic rural communities: gaining entrée through community involvement.

For aging research in rural multi-ethnic communities to be successful, research barriers must be anticipated, understood, and accommodated or reduced. This paper describes 'gaining entree' into rural multi-ethnic communities in order to conduct effective aging research. The result of carefully 'gaining entree' is increased communication with and more in-depth understanding of the study participants. An elder-centered conceptual model of rural communities is presented to demonstrate the points at which entree can most efficiently be gained. Barriers from the perspectives of the researcher and the elderly research participants are discussed, and recommendations are given to overcome these barriers. Using examples from the Rural Nutrition and Health Study (RUN), the model is evaluated and a series of general recommendations for conducting aging research successfully in rural multi-ethnic communities is presented. By intensifying the quality of involvement of the research team with and knowledge of the community, the overall quality of the research data is enhanced.
Effects of Anti-Hapten Antibodies on the Biological Activities of Nucleic Acids

The serological activities of DNA, RNA, and of various free and complexed polynucleotides has been comprehensively reviewed by Levine and Van Vunakis (1966) and by Plescia and Braun (1967).
KETAMINE-LIKE DISCRIMINATIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STEREOISOMERS OF METAZOCINE, CYCLAZOCINE, AND SKF 10,047 IN RHESUS MONKEYS

The optical isomers and racemic forms of the N-substituted benzomorphans, metazocine, cyclazocine, and SKF 10,047, were studied in rhesus monkeys trained to emit 100 consecutive responses on one of two levers following a sham injection and, within the same daily session, to emit 100 consecutive responses on the other lever following a s.c. injection of ketamine (1.0 or 1.8 mg/kg). In tests of stimulus generalization, ketamine-appropriate responding was produced by the d-isomers of metazocine, cyclazocine, and SKF 10,047, and by the racemic form of metazocine. The racemic forms and 1-ismers of cyclazocine and SKF 10,047 and the 1-isomer of metazocine did not produce ketamine-appropriate responding. Following pretreatment with naltrexone (1 mg/kg), however, racemic SKF 10,047 did produce ketamine-appropriate responding. These results suggest that the actions of the 1-isomers of cyclazocine and SKF 10,047 at narcotic receptors interfered with the ability of their racemic forms to produce ketamine-appropriate responding.
School climate perceptions of ethnically diverse students: Does school diversity matter?:

Student perceptions of school climate have been linked to a number of outcome variables; specifically, more positive perceptions of school climate are associated with academic achievement, social a...
CHAPTER I – Introduction and Generalities

This chapter is devoted to a motivational introduction and to preliminaries on real and abstract analysis to be used in the rest of the book. The main probabilistic result is the Kolmogorov-Bochner theorem on the existence of general, not necessarily scalar valued stochastic processes. Also included is a result on the existence of suprema for sets of measurable functions. Several useful complements are included as problems.
Gender Policing in Mainstream Hindi Cinema: A Decade of Central Female Characters in Top-Grossing Bollywood Movies

This study examines the depiction of reward and punishment in the context of central female characters (CFCs) adherence to prescriptive gender norms in Bollywood films. One hundred top-grossing movies from 2003–4 to 2013–14 were content analyzed for the depiction of reward and punishment toward the CFCs. Irrespective of the year of release, all movies that included a CFC depicted that character following some form of prescriptive gender norms. CFCs in old as well as new movies were rewarded when they adhered to gender norms and punished when they violated gender norms. Instances of punishment were higher in old movies than in new movies; violation of prescriptive gender norms was not related to punishment in new movies, and new movies also lacked identifiable female protagonists on average compared with old movies. Findings are explained in context of Hindi mainstream cinema’s role in promoting benevolent sexism.
Obergefell y el largo camino hacia el matrimonio igualitario

El objetivo de este articulo es examinar los aspectos mas relevantes de la sentencia dictada en 2015 por el Tribunal Supremo de los Estados Unidos de America en el caso Obergefell et al. v. Hodges, y la forma en que los argumentos que los sentenciadores de mayoria desarrollaron podrian iluminar la discusion sobre el matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo en nuestro pais. Asi, se procurara determinar que anclajes constitucionales identificaron los jueces en su sentencia, y la forma en que esta se hace cargo de re-interpretar el ordenamiento constitucional a partir de la evolucion que una institucion como el matrimonio ha experimentado y de la necesidad de igualar a las minorias sexuales en ese ambito.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LIPOPROTEIN(A) AND PROGRESSION OF AORTIC STENOSIS IN A LARGE DYSLIPIDEMIC POPULATION

Elevated lipoprotein (a) [Lp(a)] has been associated with faster aortic stenosis (AS) progression. However, our group has shown that Lp(a) was not associated with mitral annular calcification (MAC) or mitral stenosis progression. We now aim to study its association with AS progression in
I. Mineral nutrient profiles and relationships of ‘Honeycrisp’ grown on a genetically diverse set of rootstocks under Western New York climatic conditions

Abstract We measured mineral nutrient concentrations in leaves, fruit flesh and fruit peel from field grown apple trees grown on a genetically diverse group of rootstocks from year 5 through year 8 of planting (2014–2017) and identified relationships between nutrients in leaves and fruit of ‘Honeycrisp’ apple. We also evaluated the constancy of rootstock influence on scion nutrient profiles over the four years. Boron concentration in both leaf and fruit was consistent in different seasons, with rootstocks M.9 (several clones), B.9, M.26EMLA, PiAu51-11 and B.71-7-22 resulting in consistently low boron levels, while G.935, CG.2034, CG.4004, G.222 and CG.5087 provided consistently high boron levels. Unlike boron, calcium concentration in scion tissues was somewhat variable in different seasons suggesting a role for climate and perhaps management factors in the rootstock induced absorption and translocation of calcium. We identified a group of rootstocks that yielded high calcium levels in scion tissues (G.214, B.10, G.41, B.9, G.935, G.11, CG.4003) while another group yielded low calcium levels (M.26, M.9-T337, G.202, CG.4004, G.814). We also identified a group of rootstocks that induced low potassium values in scion tissues (CG.4003, G.935, G.222, and G.202), whereas B.70-20-21, B.67-5-32, B.70-20-20 yielded consistently higher values. Rootstock B.10 and CG.2034 induced consistently higher potassium values in fruit tissues. The ratio of K/Ca in leaves and fruit was the best predictor of bitter pit in ‘Honeycrisp’ apples, suggesting that rootstock induced levels for both nutrients play a role in this disorder and that the addition of potassium fertilizers on potassium-efficient rootstocks might increase the susceptibility to bitter pit. Rootstocks CG.4003, B.10, G.41 N, and G.214 seemed to produce fruit with lower levels of bitter pit. Our data indicates that some rootstocks are more efficient at absorbing nutrients than others, which implies that fertilizer recommendations developed using one rootstock, such as M.26 or M.9, might be too high for other rootstocks which are more efficient and could thus be causing tree and fruit physiological disorders. Newer rootstocks might be already supplying the needed amounts of minerals to scion tissues.
Clinical practice. Gastroesophageal reflux disease.

A 53-year-old man, who is otherwise healthy and has a 20-year history of occasional heartburn, reports having had worsening heartburn for the past 12 months, with daily symptoms that disturb his sleep. He reports having had no dysphagia, gastrointestinal bleeding, or weight loss and in fact has recently gained 20 Ib (9 kg). What would you advise regarding his evaluation and treatment?
Solar and RF Energy Harvesting Design Model for Sustainable Wireless Sensor Tags

Modern society expects connectivity and autonomy amidst the internet of things (IoT) paradigm. Automation and sustainability of consumer and industrial systems is paramount to satisfy demand and transform standards. Low-power wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have proven widely successful for bridging the gap but typically depend on batteries. The next generation of devices can be batteryless or self-sustainable with energy harvesting (EH). This work presents an EH design and analysis model for a system to collect solar and radio frequency energy and store the energy until needed for WSN activities. The viability of the model is demonstrated with two micro-controller-based implementations and applied to data center monitoring.
Effects of Ti, Y, and Hf additions on the thermal properties of ZrB2

Abstract Reactive hot pressing was utilized to synthesize and densify four ZrB2 ceramics with impurity contents low enough to avoid obscuring the effects of dopants on thermal properties. Nominally pure ZrB2 had a thermal conductivity of 141 ± 3 W/m K at 25 °C. Additions of 3 at% of Ti, Y, or Hf decreased the thermal conductivity by 20 %, 30 %, and 40 %, respectively. The thermal conductivity of (Zr,Hf)B2 was similar to ZrB2 synthesized from commercial powders containing the natural abundance of Hf as an impurity. This is the first study to demonstrate that Ti and Y additions decrease the thermal conductivity of ZrB2 ceramics and report intrinsic values for thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity of ZrB2 containing transition metal additions. Previous studies were unable to detect these effects because the natural abundance of Hf present masked the effects of these additions.
MRI in pediatric and congenital heart disease patients with CIEDs and epicardial or abandoned leads

BACKGROUND Heart Rhythm Society guidelines outlining magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) excluded children and epicardial or abandoned leads due to theoretical risks of harm. Research investigating these risks is lacking. The primary objective of our study is to determine the incidence of adverse events to patients or CIEDs from MRI imaging. The secondary objective is to describe CIED-related artifact on MRI images. METHODS A single-center retrospective review was performed on all patients with CIEDs who underwent 1.5 Tesla MRI between July 2007 and May 2019. We subdivided patients among four cohorts: (1) patients <18 years of age, (2) epicardial leads, (3) abandoned endocardial leads, and (4) abandoned epicardial leads. Descriptive statistics pre- and post-MRI and at follow-up within 1.5 years were conducted. RESULTS Fifty-four MRIs were performed on 40 patients. Median age was 21.2 years (IQR 12.0-25.0). Eighteen (33%) MRIs contained abandoned leads; 20 (37%) contained epicardial leads. Three patients, one with abandoned epicardial leads and two with abandoned endocardial leads, experienced mild discomfort at the CIED site. One adult with endocardial leads experienced a pause in the heart rate while programmed in a nonpacing mode. No clinically important changes to CIED parameters occurred. Nine MRIs (17%), especially those with functional cardiac imaging, were uninterpretable due to image artifact. CONCLUSION In this study, pediatric and adult CHD patients with CIEDs, many with epicardial or abandoned leads, underwent MRIs without clinically significant complications. In some, CIED artifact reduced cardiac MRI image quality due to CIED position.
Nutrition transition and double burden of malnutrition in Africa: A case study of four selected countries with different social economic development

Background Disease and lifestyle patterns have been changing rapidly especially in Africa due to transformation in economic development and urbanization. Research on the magnitude and consequences of these transformations in Africa is limited. This study investigates the shifts in nutritional status in children and adults in four selected low-, middle- and high-income countries in Africa, identifies factors associated with the shifts, and provides recommendations for future studies. Methods Malawi, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa were selected based on their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Nationally representative data were obtained from the 2017 Global Nutrition Report, Demographic Health Surveys (DHSs), and the World Health Organization (WHO) database. Prevalence of underweight, overweight, and obesity were assessed and compared across the countries, gender, residence, and over time. Results: South Africa had the highest GDP and largest prevalence of overweight and obesity rates in children 18 (13.3% and 51.9%, respectively). Malawi, with the lowest GDP, had the highest stunting rate (37.0%). In all 4 countries, but most notably in South Africa, trends indicated that the increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity was much greater than the declining rate of underweight. Malawi, Kenya, and Ghana had a slight decline in overweight prevalence in children under 5 years. Conclusions Nutritional shifts are occurring in Africa and seem to be heavily influenced by economic development. The double-burden of malnutrition presents prioritization challenges for policymakers. Attention needs to be shifted towards prevention of obesity, at least in the higher income countries in Africa.
Iontophoresis to Overcome the Challenge of Nail Permeation: Considerations and Optimizations for Successful Ungual Drug Delivery

Iontophoresis is a widely used drug delivery technique that has been used clinically to improve permeation through the skin for drugs and other actives in topical formulations. It is however not commonly used for the treatment of nail diseases despite its potential to improve transungual nail delivery. Instead, treatments for nail diseases are limited to relatively ineffective topical passive permeation techniques, which often result in relapses of nail diseases due to the thickness and hardness of the nail barrier resulting in lower permeation of the actives. Oral systemic antifungal agents that are also used are often associated with various undesirable side effects resulting in low patient compliance. This review article discusses what is currently known about the field of transungual iontophoresis, providing evidence of its efficacy and practicality in delivering drug to the entire surface of the nail for extended treatment periods. It also includes relevant details about the nail structure, the mechanisms of iontophoresis, and the associated in vitro and in vivo studies which have been used to investigate the optimal characteristics for a transungual iontophoretic drug delivery system. Iontophoresis is undoubtedly a promising option to treat nail diseases, and the use of this technique for clinical use will likely improve patient outcomes. Graphical abstract
Machine Learning Techniques for Determining Students' Academic Performance: A Sustainable Development Case for Engineering Education

This research paper presents the approach of machine learning analysis techniques on education. For the large dataset, data mining techniques are used to extract hidden information and create insight. We hypothesized that the prediction algorithm and dimensional reduction algorithm could be used on an educational dataset to extract the hidden information and analyze the information to create insight. Machine learning algorithms can be used to predict student academic performance. Since some of the features in our dataset are correlated so, before applying the prediction algorithm, we applied the dimensional reduction algorithm to reduce the dimension of our dataset and extract the important features. For the prediction analysis, we used three supervised machine learning algorithms, namely K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Decision Tree, and Logistic Regression. Before we applied these machine learning algorithms, we applied the dimension reduction algorithm for the feature extraction purpose using two algorithms, namely Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA). We compared the performance of these machine learning algorithms. For the student academic performance, their final Examination result was taken as the target value, which was predicted by using the above-mentioned supervised algorithm. Our work shows that the dimensional reduction algorithm, followed by the prediction algorithm, achieved the acceptable prediction accuracy for determining student academic performance. Our result also highlights the advantage of employing machine learning techniques on educational data and explains how it helps to provide engineering education insight for the sustainable development of Engineering education as a whole.
About the recommendation of the GINA strategy report on asthma step 1.

There is not yet sufficient evidence to transfer the use of as-needed low dose ICS–formoterol, as GINA has recommended since 2019, instead of as-needed SABA to patients affected by step 1 asthmahttps://bit.ly/2G1IieN
Engagement in social pretend play predicts preschoolers’ executive function gains across the school year

Abstract Recent experimental evidence suggests that engaging in pretend play can improve children's executive functions (EFs). Yet, evidence regarding how play relates to the development of EF remains sparse. The current study investigated whether preschoolers’ social and solitary pretend play over the course of one preschool year predicted growth in inhibitory control, a key component of EF. Participants were 132 Spanish-speaking preschoolers (Mage = 53 months) from 10 Head Start classrooms in the southwest United States. Multiple 15-s naturalistic observations of children's interactions (e.g., social, solitary) and activities (e.g., pretense, non-pretense) were gathered across free-play classroom contexts. Among observed play behaviors, social pretense was the only predictor of inhibitory control growth in preschool contexts. The current study speaks to the importance of continued research on play-based interventions, especially in diverse populations, and corroborates a growing body of theoretical and empirical evidence for the importance of pretend play in the development of EF.
Preliminary Support for Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to Reduce Psychological Distress in Patients with Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD).

Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) can occur as an atypical cause of myocardial infarction. Preliminary evidence suggests that SCAD patients experience high rates of post-event psychological distress. It is unknown whether psychosocial interventions may reduce the distress burden. Seven SCAD patients (mean age = 53.3 years) completed a CBT-based support group. All seven participants completed measures for anxiety, depression, and cardiac-related quality of life at baseline and post-intervention, and five participants completed measures at 3-month follow-up. Six of 7 participants scored above the clinical threshold on a measure of anxiety at baseline and posttreatment. At follow-up, 3 of 5 participants scored below the clinical threshold. For depression, 3 of 7 reported elevated depressive symptoms at baseline. By follow-up, 1 of 5 endorsed elevated depressive symptoms. This is the first known psychosocial intervention study of patients with SCAD. Anxiety symptoms improved for most patients by follow-up with some patients having improved depressive symptoms. Although the sample size is limited, this pilot study suggests a potential benefit of group psychosocial interventions for SCAD survivors.
Transcultural Nurse Views on Culture-Sensitive/Patient-Centered Assessment and Care Planning: A Descriptive Study.

Introduction:Culture-sensitive (CS) and patient-centered (PC) care are considered essential to achieve high-quality equitable care. The purpose of this study was to determine how expert nurses inco...
Land Capability Evaluation

Thus far, we have reviewed models which are very site specific in their focus. Even if they are used for regional evaluations, they must begin with site specific data at a fairly large scale. Model outputs are also very explicit, being predictive and deterministic. Thus, given a particular environmental policy, a particular action can be evaluated to determine if the standards set are going to be met. The subject of this chapter is a set of methods that are entirely different in focus. These methods tend to be regional in orientation, broad in scope, and very subjective at the policy decision points.
Stereospecific binding of aldosterone to renal chromatin.

Abstract In an earlier study, 51% of total renal nuclear content of 3H-aldosterone was recovered bound to nuclear proteins readily extractable with Tris-3 mm CaCl2. Modifications in the methods used to prepare renal nuclear fractions resulted in the isolation of 3H-aldosterone bound to chromatin to the extent of 55% of the total nuclear content of the steroid. The chromatin binding system was stereospecific for aldosterone and related mineralocorticoids. In competition studies, the order of affinities for the 3H-aldosterone binding sites was d-aldosterone g 9α-fluorocortisol g cortisol g 17α-estradiol ≌ progesterone = 17α-isoaldosterone. Actinomycin D did not compete for the 3H-aldosterone binding sites in renal chromatin. The binding affinities were in accord with the relative potencies of these steroids as mineralocorticoids. In addition, spirolactone blocked the binding of 3H-aldosterone to chromatin at the molar ratio needed to block the action of the steroid on sodium transport. Based on differential susceptibility to specific hydrolases (i.e. DNase, RNase, trypsin, and chymotrypsin), CsCl density centrifugation, chemical analysis of 0.3 m KCl extracts of labeled chromatin, and glycerol density centrifugation, the primary binding unit appears to be a 4 S, nonhistone chromosomal protein. The aldosterone-binding protein is heatlabile and tends to be stabilized by 20% glycerol. The possibility that the formation of the aldosterone-chromosomal binding system initiates steroidal action on active sodium transport is discussed.
Pictures in Cell Biology: GSK-3 and regulation of kinesin function

Kinesins mediate trafficking of membrane-bounded organelles towards microtubule plus-ends. Different proteins and cargos are targeted for different locations, but, until recently, little was known about regulation of kinesin-based motility. Phosphorylation of kinesin light chains by glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK-3) [1xGlycogen synthase kinase 3 phosphorylates kinesin light chains and negatively regulates kinesin-based motility. Morfini, G et al. EMBO J. 2002; 23: 281–293Crossref | Scopus (261)See all References[1] has now been shown to provide one such regulatory mechanism. GSK-3 inhibits anterograde, but not retrograde, transport in squid axoplasm and reduces amounts of kinesin bound to membranes. Kinesin activities other than cargo binding are unaffected by GSK-3 phosphorylation. As predicted, active GSK-3 is localized preferentially in regions known to be sites of membrane delivery.In this set of images (Fig. 1Fig. 1), distributions for tubulin [green; (c)] and total GSK-3 [red; (a)] are compared in a rat hippocampal neuron and oligodendrocyte. Microtubule-containing regions in both neurons and glia co-label for GSK-3 [yellow (b)]. This distribution is similar to that seen for kinesin [1.xGlycogen synthase kinase 3 phosphorylates kinesin light chains and negatively regulates kinesin-based motility. Morfini, G et al. EMBO J. 2002; 23: 281–293Crossref | Scopus (261)See all References, 2.xMonoclonal antibodies to kinesin heavy and light chains stain vesicle-like structures, but not microtubules, in cultured cells. Pfister, K.K et al. J. Cell Biol. 1989; 108: 1453–1463Crossref | PubMedSee all References]. However, in locations where membrane proteins are delivered, such as tips of elongating processes (i.e. growth cones) or membrane sheets of oligodendrocytes, GSK-3 immunoreactivity is distinct from that of microtubules. Moreover, the GSK-3 in growth cones and similar regions is preferentially activated, consistent with a role for GSK-3 phosphorylation of kinesin in regulating delivery of some membrane proteins to specific subcellular domains.Fig. 1Localization of glycogen synthase kinase 3 [GSK-3; (a)] and tubulin (c) in a rat hippocampal neuron and oligodendrocyte. In the merged image (b), GSK-3 is shown in red and tubulin in green; colocalization is shown in yellow. Rat hippocampal cultures were a generous gift of Ann Marie Craig, Washington University, St Louis, MO, USA.View Large Image | Download PowerPoint Slide
'Don't Tell Me, I Don't Want to Know": Understanding People's Reluctance to Obtain Medical Diagnostic Information.

Prominent theories of health-protective behavior predict increasing information seeking as a function of increasing disease severity, yet diagnostic screens for serious diseases are notoriously underutilized. We suggest that in addition to severity, disease treatability impacts people's willingness to submit to medical tests. In two studies, participants were relatively likely to seek a diagnostic test for a disease they believed to be serious and treatable (Study 1) and to avoid a test for a disease they believed to be serious but untreatable (Study 2). Implications for health-behavior models and persuasive health communication are discussed.
Ursodiol does not prevent hepatic venoocclusive disease associated with Mylotarg therapy [4]

Ursodiol is variably reported to reduce stem cell transplantation (SCT)-associated hepatic venoocclusive disease (VOD). VOD developed in 10 of 85 (12%) patients receiving Mylotarg-based regimens with ursodiol 300 mg bid for 21 days beginning on the day prior to cytotoxic therapy - an incidence seen with these regimens when administered without ursodiol.
Circularly polarized UHF up- and downlink antennas integrated with CubeSat solar panels

A solution for conformal ultra-high frequency (UHF) antennas based on cavity backed slot and integrated with the solar panels of a cube satellite (CubeSat) is presented. Designs for both uplink (485-MHz), and downlink (500-MHz) with polarizations are explained. The antennas promise excellent performance and resolve one of the biggest challenges in CubeSat communications.
Prolonged stationary-phase growth of T-strain mycoplasmas in broth culture

Growth of T-strain mycoplasmas in standard broth cultures has been characterized by rapid growth to peak titers of 10(6) to 10(7) color change units/ml at 20 to 24 hr, followed by a sharp decline in the viability over the next few hours. In a vacuum-flow (V-F) system utilizing negative pressure equal to 10 cm of water and air flow on the surface of broth, T strains were seen to enter the stationary phase of growth after 24 hr, and viability titers after 72 hr were >/= 10(4) color change units/ml. Maintenance of organisms in the stationary phase required both vacuum and air flow, a medium depth of 1 mm, and 1% urea in the broth. Concentration of ammonia in broth cultures under V-F remained below 200 mug/ml during 72 hr of observation. Ammonia levels in standard broth cultures exceeded 200 mug/ml after 24 hr, coincident with the decline in viability. Air passed over the medium surface in the V-F system contained large amounts of ammonia; the amount increased during each succeeding 24-hr period of observation.
AN INVESTIGATION OF DATA COLLECTION METHODS FOR AUDITORY STIMULI : PAIRED COMPARISONS VERSUS A COMPUTER SORTING TASK

Two experiments were performed to determine whether a computer sorting task could be used to collect data for auditory stimuli. Within each experiment, subjects were assigned to either a paired comparison task or a computer sorting task. For the first experiment, the stimuli were 18 graph representations constructed to vary on three parameters (shape, frequency, and amplitude). The stimuli for the second experiment were 30 sentences produced by actors portraying five emotions (anger, fear, happiness, sadness, and neutral). Multidimensional scaling solutions were produced and comparisons were made between the paired comparison and computer sorting task in each experiment. The results suggest that the computer sorting task is a viable alternative to the paired comparison task traditionally used for the investigation of the perception of auditory stimuli.
Carotid and vertebral‐basilar transient ischemic attacks: Effect of anticoagulants, hypertension, and cardiac disorders on survival and stroke occurrence— A population study

A population of 199 patients from Rochester, MN, was followed from the time of their first carotid or vertebralbasilar transient ischemic attack(TIA). Patients treated with anticoagulants had no significant difference in survival from untreated patients. Among patients with carotid TIA who received anticoagulants, the net probability of stroke was slightly but not significantly lower than in untreated patients. The difference favoring treated patients with vertebral-basilar TIA was significant starting at three months. The rate of intracranial hemorrhage was higher among all patients receiving anticoagulant treatment than among untreated patients and was significantly higher among those 55 to 74 years old. Almost all the hemorrhages occurred after a year or more of anticoagulant treatment and in patients more than 65 years old. Patients with high diastolic blood pressure had a significantly higher net probability of stroke than did patients with lower blood pressure and those receiving antihypertensive drugs. By implication, treatment of hypertension was effective in preventing stroke in patients with TIA. Linear discriminant analysis and actuarial analysis indicated that diastolic blood pressure and anticoagulant therapy were the only factors that influenced stroke occurrence. There was no suggestion that previous myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, valvular heart disease, cardiac arrhythmia, or congestive heart failure–individually or in combination–influenced the occurrence of stroke or survival.