cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Association of obesity with hiatal hernia and esophagitis

OBJECTIVE: Although weight loss is commonly recommended for symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux, a relationship between excessive body weight and esophageal reflux has not been established. The aim of this study was to determine whether obesity is associated with the presence of a hiatal hernia (HH) and/or an endoscopic diagnosis of esophagitis. METHODS: Retrospective case control studies were done using 1389 patients who underwent gastric analysis and upper GI endoscopy between 1974 and 1995. After excluding patients with Zollinger-Ellison syndrome, 189 cases of esophagitis with 1024 controls were identified. In a separate analysis of the database, 151 cases of HH with 1053 controls were also identified. Patients were classified by body mass index (BMI) as: thin (BMI 30). RESULTS: Excessive body weight was significantly associated with the presence of HH, the probability of HH increasing with each level of BMI (p < 0.01), as well as with esophagitis (OR 1.8; 95% CI 1.4–2.1). HH was independently associated with esophagitis (OR 4.2 95% CI 2.9–6.1); when controlled for the effect of HH, the association between BMI and esophagitis diminished but remained significant. In the population as a whole, for the presence of esophagitis multiple logistic regression indicates BMI and hiatal hernia were significant factors but gender and race did not appear to be. CONCLUSIONS: Excessive body weight is a significant independent risk factor for hiatal hernia and is significantly associated with esophagitis, largely through an increased incidence of hiatal hernia. Whites are more likely to have the combination of esophagitis and hiatal hernia than are blacks.
Modeling of Blood Flow in the Human Brain

The non-Newtonian properties of blood, i.e., shear thinning and viscoelasticity, can have a significant influence on the distribution of Cerebral Blood Flow (CBF) in the human brain. The aim of this work is to quantify the role played by the non-Newtonian nature of blood. Under normal conditions, CBF is autoregulated to maintain baseline levels of flow and oxygen to the brain. However, in patients suffering from heart failure (HF), Stroke, or Arteriovenous malformation (AVM), the pressure in afferent vessels varies from the normal range within which the regulatory mechanisms can ensure a constant cerebral flow rate, leading to impaired cerebration in patients. It has been reported that the change in the flow rate is more significant in certain regions of the brain than others, and that this might be relevant to the pathophysiological symptoms exhibited in these patients. We have developed mathematical models of CBF under normal and the above disease conditions that use direct numerical simulations (DNS) for the individual capillaries along with the experimental data in a one-dimensional model to determine the flow rate and the methods for regulating CBF. The model also allows us to determine which regions of the brain would be affected relatively more severely under these conditions.Copyright © 2010 by ASME
An aggressive resectional approach to cystic neoplasms of the pancreas

Abstract Background: Prognosis is good after curative resection for serous and mucinous cystic neoplasms of the pancreas. There has been a recent trend to resect all cystic neoplasms, without attempts to preoperatively determine the exact histologic subtype. Our purpose is to report on the results of such an aggressive surgical approach to all cystic neoplasms of the pancreas. Methods: This is a retrospective cohort analysis of 25 patients with cystic neoplasms of the pancreas treated between July 1991 and July 1998. Data include patient demographics, presenting symptom, operative procedure, pathologic diagnosis, periop morbidity and mortality, survival, and symptomatic follow-up data. Results: Twenty-one patients were women, with a mean age of 60 for the entire cohort. Mean follow-up was 24 months (range 6 months to 4.3 years) with complete follow-up possible in 92%. Twenty-three patients had curative resections and 2 had palliative resections. One patient with an uncinate mass had a partial pancreatectomy; 4 patients underwent distal pancreatectomy and 9 had distal pancreatectomy with splenectomy; 11 patients required a pancreatoduodenectomy, and of these, 4 had tumors involving the portal vein, necessitating a portal vein resection. Pathologic analysis revealed 12 serous cystadenomas, 4 mucinous cystadenomas, 3 mucinous cystadenocarcinomas, 5 intraductal papillary cystic neoplasms, and 1 serous cystadenocarcinoma. The overall perioperative complication rate was 40% with 5 major and 5 minor complications. In the 11 pancreatoduodenectomy patients alone, there were 1 major and 4 minor complications. There were no pancreatic fistulas or portal vein thromboses and no operative mortalities. Two patients, both with mucinous cystadenocarcinomas, died of their disease at 6 and 16 months postoperatively. All 11 pancreatoduodenectomy patients have only mild pancreatic insufficiency relieved by daily enzyme replacement. Conclusions: The good outcomes in this study support an aggressive surgical approach to all patients diagnosed with a cystic neoplasm of the pancreas, if medically fit to tolerate surgery. This approach is justified for the following reasons: (1) preoperative differentiation of a benign versus malignant tumor is unreliable and routine testing for this purpose is of questionable utility; (2) potential adverse consequences of nonresectional therapy are significant; (3) perioperative morbidity and mortality of pancreatic surgery is low; and (4) prognosis with curative resection is good.
Postharvest quality and pH of Fusarium inoculated redripe tomatoes stored under controlled atmospheres

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv. BHN 91) fruit were hand harvested at the pink stage of maturity and stored red-ripe at 12.5, 20, and 30°C in air, 3% O 2 + 5% CO 2 , and 0.5% O 2 + 20% CO 2 for up to 16 days. Half the fruit were inoculated with Fusarium solani. Control fruit retained the best appearance in 3% O 2 + 5% CO 2 at both 20 and 30°C. Inoculated fruit at 12.5, 20 and 30°C in air or 3% O 2 + 5% CO 2 remained acceptable for approximately 12, 3, and 2 days, respectively, but deteriorated more rapidly than those in 0.5% O 2 + 20% CO 2 as temperature and time increased. Off-odours were present in all 0.5% O 2 + 5% CO 2 treatments by days 12, 9, and 5 at 12.5, 20, and 30°C, respectively. Subjective evaluations tended to remain higher for 0.5% O 2 + 20% CO 2 even though internal firmness and physical integrity were inferior, and symptoms of anaerobiosis were presumed. A significant time- and temperature-dependent increase in pH of locular and pericarp tissue and supernatant pH occurred in inoculated regions of fruit held in air by day 12, 6 and 3 at 12.5, 20, and 30°C, respectively. In contrast, reduced acidity occurred at 9 and 5 days in 3% O 2 + 5% CO 2 at 20 and 30°C, respectively. Generally, increased pH followed a trend with air >3% O 2 + 5% CO 2 > 0.5% O 2 + 20% CO 2 . Titratable acidity in control fruit declined regardless of atmosphere when held at 12.5°C. Initial locule and supernatant pH was sufficiently low to be considered safe, but the pericarp pH of 4.63 approached the food safety threshold, and exceeded 4.7 with storage. Subsequently, food service establishments should beware of potential contamination when holding ripe fruit due to possible decay and metabiosis, anaerobiosis occurring in dressings, and decreased acidity with ripening.
Intravenous rFVIIa administered for hemorrhage control in hypothermic coagulopathic swine with grade V liver injuries

Abstract : Background: Intravenous administration of recombinant activated human clotting factor VII (rFVIIa) has been used successfully to prevent bleeding in hemophilia patients undergoing elective surgery, but not in previously normal trauma patients. This study was conducted to determine whether rFVIIa was a useful adjunct to gauze packing for decreasing blood loss from grade V liver injuries in hypothermic and coagulopathic swine. Methods: All animals (n = 10, 35 + or - 2 kg) underwent a 60% isovolemic exchange transfusion with 6% hydroxyethyl starch and were cooled to 33 degrees C core temperature. The swine then received a grade V liver injury and 30 seconds later, either 180 m g/kg rFVIIa, or saline control. All animals were gauze packed 30 seconds after injury and resuscitated 5.5 minutes after injury with lactated Ringer s solution to their preinjury mean arterial pressure. Posttreatment blood loss, mean arterial pressure, resuscitation volume, and clotting studies were monitored for 1 hour. Histology of lung, kidney, and small bowel were obtained to evaluate for the presence of microvascular thrombi. Results: At the time of injury, core temperature was 33.3 + or - 0.4 degrees C, hemoglobin was 6 + or - 0.7 g/dL, prothrombin time was 19.1 + or - 1.0 seconds, activated partial thromboplastin time was 29.0 + or - 4.8 seconds, fibrinogen was 91 + or - 20 mg/dL, and platelets were 221 + or - 57 X 105/mL, with no differences between groups ( p greater than 0.05). Clotting factor levels confirmed a coagulopathy at the preinjury point. preinjury point. The post- treatment blood loss was less (p less than 0.05) in group 1 (527 + or - 323 mL), than in group 2 (976 + or - 573 mL). The resuscitation volume was not different (p greater than 0.05). One hour survival in both groups was 100%.
The secrets of selective estrogen receptor modulation: Cell-specific coregulation

A specific increase in the level of a single coactivator appears to enhance estrogen action with tamoxifen at some gene targets in uterine cells but not breast cells.
Comparison of isoeffect relationships in radiotherapy

Irradiation affects numerous physiological processes within cells and tissues and can lead to damage or death. If the damage is not too severe, cells have the ability to repair and regenerate. Many small injuries are repaired more easily than ones causing extensive damage and, consequently, tissues typically respond differently to one large dose of radiation than to many small doses, separated in time. In the radiotherapy of tumors, the choice of the fractionation regimen of dose over time is therefore as crucial as the total radiation dose. The interdependence between total dose, fractionation regimen, and radiation effect has been described mathematically with various isoeffect relationships. These relationships appear to be fundamentally distinct and have been considered unrelated; some even claim that one class of isoeffect relationships is appropriate whereas other relationships are rather useless. We examine how alternative isoeffect models relate to each other and test the reliability of estimating parameter values of one model from the other.
Infrared and Raman spectra, conformational stability, ab initio calculations, and vibrational assignment of 5-chloropent-2-yne

The infrared (3400– 50 cm 21 ) and/or Raman (3400 –10 cm 21 ) spectra of gaseous, xenon solution, liquid and solid 5chloropent-2-yne, CH2ClCH2CCCH3, have been recorded. These data indicate that the molecule exists in the anti (the C –Cl bond is trans to the CxC bond) and the gauche conformations in the vapor and liquid but only the anti conformer remains in the solid state. From a variable temperature infrared study of the xenon solution, the anti conformation has been determined to be more stable than the gauche form by 233 ^ 23 cm 21 (2.79 ^ 0.28 kJ/mol) and it is estimated that 39% of the sample is in the gauche form at ambient temperature. The optimized geometries, conformation stabilities, harmonic force fields, Raman activities, depolarization ratios, and infrared intensities have been obtained from ab initio MP2/6-31G(d) calculations with full electron correlation. These predicted quantities are compared to the corresponding experimental quantities when appropriate. Equilibrium geometries and energies for both conformers have been obtained from ab initio MP2/6-311G(d,p), MP2/6311G(2d,2p) and MP2/6-311G(2df,2pd) calculations. Vibrational assignments for the 24 normal modes for the anti conformer are proposed and several of the fundamentals for the gauche conformer are assigned. The sub-band structure on the pseudodegenerate vibrations of the methyl group indicates that it is almost free internal rotation. From this fine structure, the Coriolis coupling constants, j, have been determined. These experimental and theoretical results are compared to the corresponding quantities of some similar molecules. q 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
On a Class of Fully Nonlinear Parabolic Equations

We consider a class of intial boudnary value problems for parabolic equaitons of the form u$sub:t$esub:=f(t,x,u,Du,au) in a bounded domain Ω where A is an elliptic operator with continous coefficients. Scuh problems can be modeled by nonlinear evolation equaitons in Banach spaces, and we use abstract parabolic equairtions technique to show existence, uniqueness, regularity of a local solution, and to give sufficient conditions for existence in the large. In particular, we don't need growth assumptions on f with respect to Au to get existence in the large. In the case where Ω is a ball, A=D and f=f(t,|x||Du|2, Du) we show that the solution is radially symmetric if the initial value is
Seasonal Synchronization of Influenza in the United States Older Adult Population

Background In temperate regions, influenza epidemics occur annually with the highest activity occurring during the winter months. While seasonal dynamics of the influenza virus, such as time of onset and circulating strains, are well documented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Influenza Surveillance System, an accurate prediction of timing, magnitude, and composition of circulating strains of seasonal influenza remains elusive. To facilitate public health preparedness for seasonal influenza and to obtain better insights into the spatiotemporal behavior of emerging strains, it is important to develop measurable characteristics of seasonal oscillation and to quantify the relationships between those parameters on a spatial scale. The objectives of our research were to examine the seasonality of influenza on a national and state level as well as the relationship between peak timing and intensity of influenza in the United States older adult population.
The relation between the distribution of dihedral angles and the wetting angle during liquid phase sintering

This study presents a Monte Carlo method to simulate the effect of the wetting angle on a dihedral angle distribution and on a degree of the grain boundary penetration of a liquid phase during liquid phase sintering. For the high probability for wetting, the number of the grain boundary penetration of a liquid phase increased while the wetting angle decreased and a few bonded grains maintained a stable grain boundary with high dihedral angles. This finding contradicts the classical prediction that smaller values of mean dihedral angles produce superior wettability.
Institutionalizing Peace through Commerce: Engagement or Divestment in South African and Sudan

Peace through Commerce literature has discussed how business can engage in more responsible behavior in order to mitigate conflict risk and promote conflict resolution. However, in many conflict situations, the question arises at what point does it become impossible for a firm to remain engaged on the ground and still function as an ethical business? This article discusses the role of divestment activist groups in changing institutional norms among MNCs operating in conflict situations. Institutional norms shift from firms conducting “business as usual” without heed to conflict impact, to engagement policies promoting more responsible business practices, to divestment from conflict zones when circumstances are seen to preclude ethical business conduct. Engagement and divestment are explored as tools for discouraging unethical and promoting ethical business activity, considering conflict situations in South Africa and Sudan as case examples.
Phase stability and microstructural characteristics of bulk glassy CdGe1-xSi x As2 alloys

Abstract Bulk glass formation, phase stability and microstructures of alloys in the pseudobinary system CdGeAs2-CdSiAs2 were investigated by thermal analysis (DSC and DTA), X-ray diffraction and analytical transmission electron microscopy (TEM and STEM). CdGe1-xSi x As2 alloys showed greater glass-forming tendency as Si was substituted for Ge in CdGeAs2 up to x∼0.45. Glass formation was in-increasingly difficult in melts with x≥0·5.The best glass-forming ability of the x∼0.45 composition correlated well with a eutectic point (x = 0.5, T ∼ 615°C) observed in the DTA-based liquidus data. Amorphous phase separation occurred in as-quenched glasses with 0 <x < 0·4, and the scale of phase separation decreased from ∼ 40 nm in CdGeAs2 to < 10 nm as x approached 0·4. Vacuum heat treatments of glasses in this composition range led to coarsening of the still amorphous microstructures. For glasses with 0·5 < x < 1·0, the as-quenched microstructures revealed very good homogeneity, but fine-scale phase decomposition (∼...
Growth and characterization of laser-ablated boron nitride thin films

Recent work is reported on the growth and characterization of boron nitride thin films on 1 cm2 Si (100) substrates by a newly developed reactive laser ablation technique. The exact nature of the resulting films is highly process dependent and is analyzed by ion channeling and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The thermal properties of these films are studied by thermal wave analysis, and they are found to be highly dependent on the crystallographic structure. This value is believed to be the best thermal conductivity measured for boron nitride films to date.© (1995) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Application of Signal Analysis to Cavitation

The diagnostic facilities of the cross power spectrum and the coherence function have been employed to enhance the identification of not only the inception of cavitation, but also its level. Two piezoelectric pressure transducers placed in the downstream chamber of a model spool valve undergoing various levels of cavitation allowed for the use of both functions - the phase angle of the complex cross spectrum and the dimensionless coherence function - to sense clearly the difference between noise levels associated with a noncavitating jet from those once cavitation inception is attained. The cavitation noise within the chamber exhibited quite a regular character in terms of the phase difference between instruments for limited cavitation. Varying cavitation levels clearly illustrated the effect of bubble size on the attendant frequency range for which there was an extremely high coherence or nearly perfect causality.
Shape Design Sensitivity Analysis of Displacement and Stress Constraints

ABSTRACT Structural component shape design sensitivity analysis of functionals that define displacement at a point and mean stress over a small region are considered. Shape design sensitivity formulas for several cases, in which the point and region are fixed of moving, are derived. Functionals that define displacement at a point on the boundary and mean stress over a small region that intersects the boundary are also considered. These are important cases in shape design problems, since maximum displacement and stress are very likely to occur on the boundary at an optimum design.
Disparities in park availability, features, and characteristics by social determinants of health within a U.S.-Mexico border urban area.

Abstract Objective To examine disparities in park availability, features, and characteristics by income and the percentage of foreign-born population within a predominately-Hispanic border community. Methods This study occurred in 2010–2011 in El Paso, Texas. All census tracts (n = 112) were categorized as low, medium, or high income and percent foreign-born. The number of parks intersecting each tract was determined using ArcGIS and park features (facilities, amenities) and characteristics (aesthetic features, park and neighborhood quality/safety concerns) were assessed via park audits (n = 144). Analysis of variance and Kruskal–Wallis tests examined differences across income and percent foreign-born tertiles for all park measures. Results The medium income tertile had more parks than the high tertile, and more park facilities than the low or high tertiles, but no differences in park amenities were observed across income groups. As well, none of park availability, facilities, or amenities differed across percent foreign-born tertiles. Finally, parks in the high income tertile had significant fewer park and neighborhood quality/safety concerns and parks in the high percent foreign-born tertile had significantly greater park and neighborhood quality/safety concerns. Conclusion Identifying disparities in park availability, features, and characteristics can aid policymakers and citizens in improving the contribution of parks to community health for all.
Microbiologic and clinical evidence supporting the role of Aeromonas caviae as a pediatric enteric pathogen

Aeromonas caviae was recovered as the sole potential enteric pathogen from the stools of 14 of 17 symptomatic children (10 younger than 1 year of age) while Aeromonas hydrophila, Aeromonas sobria, and Plesiomonas shigelloides were isolated once each. The infants from whom A. caviae was isolated all presented with a watery diarrhea lasting 1 to 3 weeks. None of these infants was breast-fed, and all had a stool pH of greater than 7.5. All of the A. caviae isolates, including a reference strain (ATCC 15468), adhered to HEp-2 cells, and preliminary data showed that they produced a cytotoxin as well. Because A. caviae can survive at an elevated pH, as found in the gastrointestinal tract of formula-fed infants, and because of the adherence and cytotoxin production capabilities of the species, it should be regarded as an enteric pathogen in pediatric patients and most probably among adults as well.
Design of On-Chip Gate Drivers With Power-Efficient High-Speed Level Shifting and Dynamic Timing Control for High-Voltage Synchronous Switching Power Converters

Two integrated high-speed gate drivers to enable high-frequency operation of synchronous rectifiers in high-voltage switching power converters are presented in this paper. The first synchronous gate driver for a CMOS power train consists of a capacitively coupled level shifter (CCLS) that offers negligible propagation delays and no static current consumption, and requires only one off-chip capacitor to enable high-side power pMOS driving capability without any external floating supply. The second synchronous gate driver consists of a low-power high-speed dynamically controlled level shifter (DCLS) with a reliability-enhanced error-suppression technique for driving a dual-nMOS power train. In addition, a dynamic timing control (DTC) is developed to generate proper dead time for power FETs in order to enable soft switching operation of the converter under different input voltages for enhancing the converter reliability. The converter power efficiency can be also improved by minimizing both switching and short-circuit power losses under high-input-voltage conditions. Implemented in a 0.5 µm 120 V CMOS process, both proposed CCLS and DCLS have demonstrated to shift up 5 V signal to 100 V and 40 V, respectively, improving the FoM by at least 10 times and 2.9 times compared to respective state-of-the-art level shifters. The DTC circuit enables proper ZVS operation in a synchronous buck converter with the CCLS-based gate driver over a wide input supply range from 40 V to 100 V, providing a converter maximum power-efficiency improvement of 11.5%.
Tropospheric ozone from space: tracking pollution with the TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) instrument

Two new products have been developed from the TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) satellite instrument to resolve pollution in the tropics and mid-latitudes. The modified-residual technique uses v.7 TOMS total ozone and is applicable to tropical regimes in which the wave-one pattern in total ozone is observed. The second method, the TOMS-direct method is a new algorithm that uses TOMS radiances to extract tropospheric ozone in regions of constant stratospheric ozone. In these regions, tropospheric ozone displays the high mixing ratios seen in urban pollution episodes. Electronic versions of daily and 9-day averaged modified-residual tropospheric ozone ("TTO" data and images) for the Nimbus 7/TOMS observing period (1979-1992) and the Earth Probe/TOMS (8/1996-2000) are available at 1-degree latitude /spl times/ 1.25-degree longitude resolution at http://metosrv2.umd.edu//spl sim/tropo. The 1998-2000 TTO (tropical tropospheric ozone) column amounts have been validated using data from a network of ozonesonde stations; http://code916.gsfc.nasa.gov/Data_services/shadoz.
A metric for characterizing the bistability of molecular quantum-dot cellular automata.

Much of molecular electronics involves trying to use molecules as (a) wires, (b) diodes or (c) field-effect transistors. In each case the criterion for determining good performance is well known: for wires it is conductance, for diodes it is conductance asymmetry, while for transistors it is high transconductance. Candidate molecules can be screened in terms of these criteria by calculating molecular conductivity in forward and reverse directions, and in the presence of a gating field. Hence so much theoretical work has focused on understanding molecular conductance. In contrast a molecule used as a quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) cell conducts no current at all. The keys to QCA functionality are (a) charge localization, (b) bistable charge switching within the cell and (c) electric field coupling between one molecular cell and its neighbor. The combination of these effects can be examined using the cell–cell response function which relates the polarization of one cell to the induced polarization of a neighboring cell. The response function can be obtained by calculating the molecular electronic structure with ab initio quantum chemistry techniques. We present an analysis of molecular QCA performance that can be applied to any candidate molecule. From the full quantum chemistry, all-electron ab initio calculations we extract parameters for a reduced-state model which reproduces the cell–cell response function very well. Techniques from electron transfer theory are used to derive analytical models of the response function and can be employed on molecules too large for full ab initio treatment. A metric is derived which characterizes molecular QCA performance the way transconductance characterizes transistor performance. This metric can be assessed from absorption measurements of the electron transfer band or quantum chemistry calculations of appropriate sophistication.
Inhaled corticosteroids: Current products and their role in patient care

Glucocorticoids have multiple effects on almost all cells implicated in the inflammatory process. They exert their effects by binding to the glucocorticoid receptor located in the cytoplasm of target cells. This activation of the glucocorticoid receptor regulates the transcription of these target cells in ways that interfere with arachidonic acid metabolism, reduce microvascular leakage, inhibit cytokine production and secretion, interfere with the syntheses of leukotrienes and prostaglandins, and increase the responsiveness of b-receptors of the airway smooth muscle. 1 The effect of glucocorticoids on lymphocytes is to inhibit the production of IL-2 and IL-4 and to induce selective apoptosis, which causes cell death. They also reduce the number of eosinophils and neutrophils by inhibiting their influx in the late-phase response and decrease the number of tissue macrophages and monocytes by inhibiting the release of IL-1, interferon, tumor necrosis factor, and various enzymes. Their influence on mast cells is indirectly caused by their effect on the release of mast cell growth factors. Glucocorticoids also substantially reduce the number of circulating basophils. The combined effect of these multiple reactions on the various immunologic cells involved in the inflammatory process is a potent blockade of damaging mediator synthesis and release.
Temporal triggers in active databases

In this paper we propose two languages, called Future Temporal Logic (FTL) and Past Temporal Logic (PTL), for specifying temporal triggers. Some examples of trigger conditions that can be specified in our language are the following: "The value of a certain attribute increases by more than 10% in 10 minutes," "A tuple that satisfies a certain predicate is added to the database at least 10 minutes before another tuple, satisfying a different condition, is added to the database." Such triggers are important for monitor and control applications. In addition to the languages, we present algorithms for processing the trigger conditions specified in these languages, namely, procedures for determining when the trigger conditions are satisfied. These methods can be added as a "temporal" component to an existing database management systems. A preliminary prototype of the temporal component that uses the FTL language has been built on top of Sybase running on SUN workstations. >
Tolerability and effectiveness of a neuroprosthesis for the treatment of footdrop in pediatric patients with hemiparetic cerebral palsy.

Objective To assess the tolerability and efficacy of a commercially available footdrop neuroprosthesis for treatment of footdrop in children with hemiparetic cerebral palsy. Design A prospective, observational pilot study. Setting Marshfield Clinic, Department of Physical Medicine. Participants Ten children, ages 7-12 years, with hemiparetic cerebral palsy, who use an ankle foot orthosis (AFO) for correction of footdrop. Methods Children replaced their AFO with a transcutaneous peroneal (fibular) nerve stimulation neuroprosthesis for 3 months. Main Outcome Measurements The ability to tolerate fitting and programming of the device, device-recorded wear time, a daily-use diary, satisfaction survey, and secondary measures, including passive range of motion and gait laboratory measurement of gait velocity and ankle kinematics. Results All 10 participants (100%) tolerated fitting and programming of the neuroprosthesis and wore the device for 6 weeks. Seven of 10 (70%) wore the device for the entire 3-month study period; 6 of 10 (60%) continued to use the device after study completion. Wear time varied from 2 to 11 hours per day. Tolerability and satisfaction were high; although 6 participants complained of "size" and "bulkiness" of the device, and 2 reported skin irritation. Gait velocity increased in 5 subjects (50%). Seven participants (70%) preferred the neuroprosthesis to their AFO. Conclusion Analysis of the preliminary evidence suggests that electrical stimulation by a footdrop neuroprosthesis is tolerated well by children and is effective for the treatment of footdrop in children with hemiparetic cerebral palsy. Commercially available neuroprostheses may offer a promising alternative treatment option for children with footdrop.
Men's Help Seeking for Depression: The Efficacy of a Male-Sensitive Brochure About Counseling

Although depression among men is becoming better understood, men still underuse counseling services. Hence, there is an important need for improved ways to reach out to depressed men. This study examined the efficacy of a male-sensitive brochure aimed toward improving attitudes about seeking counseling and reducing the self-stigma of seeking counseling among 1,397 depressed men who had not previously sought help for their depression. Results indicate that the male-sensitive brochure, which incorporated current knowledge from the psychology of men and masculinity and mental health marketing, improved participants’ attitudes and reduced their self-stigma toward counseling. Furthermore, the new brochure improved attitudes and reduced stigma to a greater degree than previously developed brochures. Implications for mental health marketing, practice, and research are discussed.
Proanthocyanidins' efficacy in stabilizing dentin collagen against enzymatic degradation: MALDI-TOF and FTIR analyses.

Abstract Objectives To investigate grape seed extract proanthocyanidins’ (PA) capability in improving dentin collagen's sustainability in an enzymatic environment, given that the size and shape of the collagen samples, and the manner to apply PA are both clinically relevant. Methods Human dentin was sectioned into 6-μm-thick films. After demineralisation in 35 wt% phosphoric acid for 15 s, the films were subject to 30 s of treatment at PA concentrations of 0% (control), 0.5%, 1%, 2%, 3.75%, 7.5% and 15% (w/w), respectively. The films were then digested in 0.1 wt% collagenase for 1 h and 24 h. The amount of degraded collagen in the liquid digests was determined by MALDI-TOF mass spectroscopy. The trend of PA's incorporation into dentin collagen was analysed by ATR-FTIR. Results The control exhibited complete digestion in 1 h. In contrast, collagen treated with 0.5% and 1% PA afforded 13.84 ± 4.69% and an undetectable level of degradation, respectively in the first 1 h of digestion, and additional 17.48 ± 4.38% and 4.50 ± 1.68%, respectively in the following 23 h. Collagen treated with ≥2 wt% PA was not significantly digested regardless of digestion time. FTIR spectroscopy revealed that PA incorporation was saturated at ≥2 wt% PA. Conclusion Thirty seconds of PA treatment at 2 wt% and above could provide optimal protection for dentin collagen against collagenase digestion. Clinical significance This study demonstrated PA's extraordinary efficiency in stabilizing demineralised dentin collagen when it is applied in a clinical relevant manner, and identified the optimal conditions for its utilization.
Creating Cultures of Reform

Beginning in the late 1840s advocates of municipal reform in the United States campaigned to throw rascals out of public office, reconstruct the legal foundations of municipal government, and install regimes of at least modest virtue in place of local government's shameless vice. More profoundly, reformers hoped to replace municipal political cultures of partisanship and patronage with different values and expectations. In these efforts reformers met with the militant opposition of party leaders and their constituents; party leaders too had a vision of what local political life ought to be, and of their own central role in making it so.
Prostaglandins: their effects on the carbohydrate metabolism of myometrium from rhesus monkeys.

Slices of myometrium from pregnant rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatto) were incubated in medium containing glucose-U-14C with and without prostaglandin E1, E2, and Fla(PGE1 (PGE2, and PGFla). The addition of PGE1 to the medium increased glucose uptake and the productions of lactate, lactate-14C, and 14CO2 with no change in oxygen consumption. About 68% of the total lactate produced in the control series arose from glucose-U-14C. Although a significant decrease in glycogen levels at the end of 2 hr incubation was not demonstrated with PGE1, some glycogenolysis must have occurred since lactate and lactate-14C production increased to the same extent, with no change in the percent of lactate derived from glucose-U-14C and glvcogen. The metabolic effects of PGE2 and PGFla on myometrium were similar to those of PGE1. Epinephrine did not affect the carbohydrate metabolism or oxygen consumption of the myometrium. In the series treated with both PGE1 and epinephrine, glycogen levels at the end of incubation and incorp...
On Economies of Scale and Integration of Services in Certain Queued Information Transmission Systems

This paper discusses two aspects of the performance and design of certain queued or buffered information transmission systems. Examples are buffered multiplexers and message-switching systems. The first part of the paper examines the theoretical performance of such a system as its output channel capacity and the number of its speed-limited information sources are increased proportionately. The aspects of performance considered are time delay and probability of overflow of the system's finite buffer capacity. Under the assumptions made (described in the text), system performance almost always improves as the size of the system is increased. The second portion of the paper considers the design of a communication system that must serve two classes of users, the two classes differing in average message length. Here the question is that of superiority of integrated or segregated communication system design under a channel-capacity constraint. Using average delay as a performance criterion it is shown that the integrated system is not always superior but becomes superior if there is sufficient excess capacity.
Web 2.0 Use in Higher Education

This study analyzed current uses of emerging Web 2.0 technologies in higher education with the intent to better understand which tools teachers are using in the classroom. A total of 189 faculty in higher education from three western US universities were invited to participate, with 54 completing the survey. The survey included open-ended questions as well to offer an alternative analysis approach. In this study, the respondents claimed that the intrinsic factors of a lack of time and training were the main barriers to use, and reported positive views of Web 2.0 use in class, with 75% saying that these tools would benefit students and 83% saying they would benefit teacher-student interactions. In contrast to these results only 44% of the respondents used at least 4 of the 13 listed Web 2.0 tools with students. The reported uses did not match with the reported benefits, and this would support the results that extrinsic factors (time, training, support), instead of intrinsic factors (beliefs, motivation, confidence) are the main barriers to faculty in this study using more Web 2.0 in education. The top five Web 2.0 tools used, in order of preference, follow: (a) video sharing with tools like YouTube; (b) instant messaging; (c) blogs; (d) social communities, such as Facebook; and (e) podcasts or video casts. This data was originally submitted to the Abraham S. Fischler School of Education in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education.
The Effects of Culturally Congruent Educational Technologies on Student Achievement

Dialectal differences are one explanation for the systematically reduced test scores of children of color compared to their Euro-American peers. In this work, we explore the relationship between academic performance and dialect differences exhibited in a learning environment by assessing 3rd grade students’ science performance after interacting with a “distant peer” technology that employed one of three dialect use patterns. We found that our participants, all native speakers of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), demonstrated the strongest science performance when the technology used AAVE features consistently throughout the interaction. These results call for a re-examination of the cultural assumptions underlying the design of educational technologies, with a specific emphasis on the way in which we present information to culturally-underrepresented groups.
Shaken, not stirred: Western public relations practices in Russia

By contrasting some principles of Western public relations (PR) with political, social and cultural aspects of Russian society, this essay focuses on the applicability of foreign-born approaches in Russia. Although normative Western PR seems irrelevant and even contradictory to the Russian environment at the theoretical level, in reality, some Western ‘ways of doing PR’ have infiltrated Russian PR field, simultaneously changing it and mutating under the field's influence. The process of intertwining foreign and native approaches in certain spheres (mainly those that have been Westernized) in Russia seems to support the conceptualization of globalization as a de-centered process.
Serum Dopamine Level of Workers Occupationally Exposed to Manganese

Objective To study the adverse effects of occupational manganese exposure on serum dopamine. Methods The air manganese concentration at workplaces was measured and the serum dopamine and urinary manganese of 84 welders and 84 controls were determined. Results The concentration of dopamine of exposed workers was lower than that in the controls, there was significant difference between two groups. There existed the dose-effect relationship between serum dopamine level and air- manganese or urine-manganese. Conclusions The results indicated that manganese exposure may cause the change of serum dopamine. Serum dopamine may be one of the early response of manganism.
Fast non-intrusive memory reclamation for highly-concurrent data structures

Current memory reclamation mechanisms for highly-concurrent data structures present an awkward trade-off. Techniques such as epoch-based reclamation perform well when all threads are running on dedicated processors, but the delay or failure of a single thread will prevent any other thread from reclaiming memory. Alternatives such as hazard pointers are highly robust, but they are expensive because they require a large number of memory barriers. This paper proposes three novel ways to alleviate the costs of the memory barriers associated with hazard pointers and related techniques. These new proposals are backward-compatible with existing code that uses hazard pointers. They move the cost of memory management from the principal code path to the infrequent memory reclamation procedure, significantly reducing or eliminating memory barriers executed on the principal code path. These proposals include (1) exploiting the operating system's memory protection ability, (2) exploiting certain x86 hardware features to trigger memory barriers only when needed, and (3) a novel hardware-assisted mechanism, called a hazard lookaside buffer (HLB) that allows a reclaiming thread to query whether there are hazardous pointers that need to be flushed to memory. We evaluate our proposals using a few fundamental data structures (linked lists and skiplists) and libcuckoo, a recent high-throughput hash-table library, and show significant improvements over the hazard pointer technique.
Role of vasopressin and angiotensin in response of splanchnic resistance vessels to hemorrhage.

After hemorrhage, total hepatic flow decreases approximately in proportion to the decrease in cardiac output. This is associated with a slight increase in splanchnic vascular resistance (2,10,15). However, this response is the net result of marked vasoconstriction of the intestinal and splenic resistance vessels and vasodilatation of the hepatic arterial resistance vessels (2,12,14,15,18,20,29). Although these responses of the splanchnic resistance vessels to hemorrhage are well established, the mechanisms have not been investigated until recently.
Incidence of Immune-Related Adverse Events with Program Death Receptor-1- and Program Death Receptor-1 Ligand-Directed Therapies in Genitourinary Cancers.

Program death receptor-1 (PD-1) and program death receptor-1 ligand (PD-L1) inhibitors are increasingly being used in the clinic to treat a growing number of malignancies, including many genitourinary malignancies. These immune based therapies have demonstrated a distinct toxicity profile compared to traditional chemotherapy and the targeted therapies directed at the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway or the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. Autoimmune toxicity targeting the skin, gastrointestinal tract or the endocrine organs are some of the more common adverse events noted with these therapies. Here in, we report the results of a systematic review of the of the incidence of toxicities in genitourinary cancers reported in the phase II or phase III clinical trials using single-agent PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors. Overall, the rate of serious (grade 3-4) adverse events was noted in approximately 15% of patients. The adverse events noted were similar between all the agents tested, highlighting the overall class effect of these therapies. The incidence in genitourinary cancers is similar to those seen in other malignancies. Given the widespread and a high volume real world use of these agents, it is important for oncologists to be familiar with these side effects to minimize the risks for patients while undergoing therapy.
Mediation Supports Risk Management

A mediation protocol would assist the risk management team by minimizing the loss to a health care institution and its physicians from malpractice claims. The mediation protocol would achieve this by: (1) de-escalating the intensity and duration of conflict within the institution; and (2) providing a means to quickly and safely establish communication with malpractice claimants so that the institution can resolve such claims in an efficient manner. Mediation is a viable alternative for resolving conflicts within healthcare institutions because of the ongoing relationships within the institution, and high emotional context underlying monetary claims for adverse treatment outcomes. Mediation can also be used to break down communication barriers in order to achieve earlier resolution of malpractice claims than the traditional litigation system. A mediation protocol would provide institutionalized guidance on the use of mediation. Though risk management personnel intuitively understand the benefits of effective communication, without the existence of any institutionalized guidance, they are at a loss when trying to determine how to achieve such communication. The result of this lack of guidance is that the institution handles the claim in a manner which will inevitably increase the cost of resolving the claim, expose the institution to public notoriety, and prolong the waste of material and emotional resources. A mediation protocol would institutionalize the use of mediation and provide clear guidance about how to resolve a malpractice claim in a manner that is both cost effective and preserves the patient and public relations of the institution.
Abstract 19109: Adverse Limb Events in Patients With Peripheral Artery Disease Presenting With Acute Coronary Syndrome: Observations From SOLID-TIMI 52

Background: While the presence of vascular disease in multiple beds is associated with a well-established risk of major cardiovascular outcomes, the risk of adverse limb events in patients with PAD...
Becoming Human: Kant’s Philosophy of Education and Human Nature

Louden argues that, appearances to the contrary, philosophy of education is of central importance to Kant’s overall philosophical program. Its chief importance stems largely from the commanding position that education holds within his theory of human nature. In Kant’s view, education is fundamentally about the effort to realize our humanity. As he proclaims near the beginning of the Lectures on Pedagogy: “The human being can only become human through education. He is nothing except what education makes out of him” (LP 9:443).
Active SLAM and Loop Prediction with the Segmented Map Using Simplified Models

We previously introduced the SegSLAM algorithm, an approach to the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) problem that divides the environment up into segments, or submaps, using heuristic methods.We investigate a realtime method for Active SLAM with SegSLAM, in which actions are selected in order to reduce uncertainty in both the local metric submap and the global topological map. Recent work in the area of Active SLAM has been built on the theoretical basis of information entropy. Due to the complexity of the SegSLAM belief state, as encoded in the SegMap representation, it is not feasible to estimate the expected entropy of the full belief state. Instead, we use a simplified model to heuristically select entropy-reducing actions without explicitly evaluating the full belief state.We discuss the relation of this heuristic method to the full entropy estimation method, and present results from applying our planning method in real-time onboard a mobile robot.