cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Hyperacute Stenting for Acute Ischemic Stroke Is Associated with a High Rate of Symptomatic Intracranial Hemorrhage (P02.200)

Objective: To report the safety of acute stent placement in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Background Patients with large vessel occlusions often fail to recanalize with intravenous rt-PA or standard endovascular techniques. Small series have reported excellent recanalization rates with acute stenting. However, its safety is not well known. Design/Methods: We retrospectively reviewed charts of twenty-four consecutive patients treated with stents for large artery occlusions. All eligible patients received intravenous rt-PA before proceeding to endovascular treatment. If there was contraindication to its usage or no neurological improvement occurred after its infusion, the patient underwent immediate angiographic evaluation and treatment. Outcomes were based upon disposition and in-hospital mortality. Results: Twenty-four patients had twenty-seven stents deployed in three scenarios: 1. initial therapy (n=3), 2. after the usage of intra-arterial rt-PA and/or angioplasty (n=19) or 3. as a salvage therapy (n=4). Fourteen patients (58%) received IV rt-PA. The arterial occlusion sites included 11 (44%) proximal M1 middle cerebral artery, 10 (40%) internal carotid artery (8 intracranial, 2 extracranial and 3 involving both), 3 (16%) basilar artery and 1 (4%) vertebral artery. Stents were successfully deployed in 24 out of 27 cases (89%) Poor discharge outcomes were defined as death (n=7), hospice (n=2) or skilled nursing facility (n=5) and occurred in 58% of patients. Good outcomes included home discharge (n=1), inpatient rehabilitation (n=7) or long term acute care facility (n=2) for a total of 42%. The causes attributed to poor outcomes were secondary to either symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH) or stroke progression. Five (21%) patients had sICH where any ICH was seen in 14 (58%) total patients. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the usage of acute stentings in ischemic stroke is associated with a high rate of sICH and its routine use is not recommended. Prospective studies regarding the utility and benefits of stents are warranted. Disclosure: Dr. Fong has nothing to disclose. Dr. Bershad has nothing to disclose. Dr. Morsi has nothing to disclose. Dr. Shaltoni has nothing to disclose. Dr. Mawad has nothing to disclose. Dr. Georgiadis has nothing to disclose. Dr. Suarez has received personal compensation for activities with Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim as a speaker. Dr. Suarez has received research support from the Haas Trust and NINDS. Dr. Venkatasubba Rao has nothing to disclose.
Long-Term Stability of Core Language Skill in Children with Contrasting Language Skills.

This 4-wave longitudinal study evaluated stability of core language skill in 421 European American and African American children, half of whom were identified as low (n = 201) and half of whom were average-to-high (n = 220) in later language skill. Structural equation modeling supported loadings of multivariate age-appropriate multisource measures of child language on single latent variables of core language skill at 15 and 25 months and 5 and 11 years. Significant stability coefficients were obtained between language latent variables for children of low and average-to-high language skill, even accounting for child positive social interaction and nonverbal intelligence, maternal education and language, and family home environment. Prospects for children with different language skills and intervention implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record.
Nitric oxide induces apoptosis by activating K+ channels in pulmonary vascular smooth muscle cells.

Nitric oxide (NO) is an endogenous endothelium-derived relaxing factor that regulates vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation and apoptosis. This study investigated underlying mechanisms involved...
A community-based serosurvey on hepatitis E in Shandong Province

Objective To know the prevalence status of hepatitis E virus( HEV) in Shandong Province and to provide evidence for the policy-making about hepatitis E prevention and control. Methods The remaining blood samples in the latest provincial hepatitis B serosurvey which was carried out in 2006 were used to test anti-HEV IgG by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay( ELISA). The weighted prevalence rates of anti-HEV IgG by the age,gender and residential area were analyzed. Results A total of 6 447 subjects were included in the final analysis. The overall prevalence rate of antiHEV IgG was 11. 47%( 95% CI: 8. 92-14. 02) among natural population in Shandong Province. No significant difference was found between males and females( Ⅹ2= 0. 00,P = 0. 995). The prevalence increased with age. No significant difference could be found for the prevalence of anti-HEV IgG between the rural and urban areas( Ⅹ2= 0. 03,P = 0. 859). The prevalence rate was much higher in eastern areas than those in central and western areas of the province( Ⅹ21= 81. 58,P 0. 001; Ⅹ22= 42. 61,P2 0. 001). Compared with the population who lived in the non-coastal areas,the prevalence was much higher among those who lived in the coastal areas( Ⅹ2= 99. 45,P 0. 001). Conclusions HEV was prevalent in Shandong province and more measures should be taken for its prevention and control,especially in the eastern and coastal areas.
Operative stabilization for flail chest after blunt trauma.

Four patients with severe flail chest have been treated by operative stabilization accomplished by attaching metal plates to involved ribs. Pulmonary function tests were compared with those obtained in other patients treated by conventional internal stabilization with continuous mechanical ventilation (CMV). The procedure appears beneficial in selected patients and warrants further clinical study.
Photodynamic acidification therapy to reduce triple negative breast cancer growth in vivo.

e12574Background: Breast cancer, though much researched, continues to claim the lives of more than half a million women worldwide each year; triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for 15-25% of these mortalities. Treatment options for TNBC are limited to surgery, radiation, and a select few chemotherapies, to which the cancer often becomes resistant. Cancer cells maintain a more basic intracellular pH (pHi ) than healthy cells, making disruption of pH dynamics a potential target for treatment. The ability to induce a decrease of pHi, in a focal manner, would allow for treatment of cancers with a poor response to standard treatments or in cases where standard therapy is not feasible due to comorbidities or the location of the tumor. Methods: In our lab we were able to drop pHi in MDA-MB-231 TNBC, leading to apoptosis, using a photosensitizing agent in vitro. This technique was then tested in vivo using MDA-MB-231 TNBC cells in mice; cells were injected into the mammary fat-pads of athymic female mic...
Other Free-Form Idioms

Direct irregular negatives are not unique in being free-form idioms. In this chapter I will make the case for six other classes: irregular interrogatives like Is the sun larger than some planets?; verb phrases with self-restrictive meanings like broke a finger, verb phrases with numerical determiners like has three children; transparent propositional attitude and speech-act reports; direct relationship statements like The more Bill drinks, the less he remembers; and irregular comparatives like George is more dumb than mendacious. We will see that there are four types of irregular interrogatives corresponding to four of our irregular negations. They are root-implicature queries rather than denials. Negative transparent reports are our tenth type of irregular negation. The meanings of all the compounds in these classes are conventional, direct, and productive, but not fully compositional.
Der Fortschritt in der Entwicklung der Theorien des Para- und Diamagnetismus von 1900 bis 1920

Die Entwicklung der Theorien des Magnetismus in dem Zeitabschnitt, den der vorliegende Uberblick zu behandeln versucht, ist dadurch gekennzeichnet, das die Theoretiker nacheinander versuchten, die magnetischen Erscheinungen zu den Eigenschaften bewegter Elektronen in Beziehung zu setzen.
Racial/Ethnic Disparities in NK/T-Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas in the US: A SEER Analysis

Background: NK/T cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NK/T NHL) are rare high-grade lymphomas that are diagnostically challenging and carry a poor prognosis. Incidence is notably higher in Asian countries as compared to North America and Europe. South Americans have an incidence similar to Asian countries though less well described. In this study we reviewed the incidence and outcomes of NK/T NHL in the US with a specific focus on patient race/ethnicity. Methods: Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database was used to examine the standardized incidence rates (SIR) of NK/T cell NHL among adult (≥18 yrs) patients diagnosed between 1992-2013. Mutually exclusive race/ethnicity categories were: African-Americans (AA), Asians/Pacific Islanders (API), Hispanic whites (HW) and Non-Hispanic whites (NHW). Cases that received a diagnosis at death certificate/autopsy, no follow-up records, or lacking age at diagnosis, sex, or race/ethnicity documentation were excluded. Age adjusted incidence rates (AAIR) were calculated by race. Cox proportional hazards models, adjusted for confounding variables, were used to evaluate association between patient demographics and overall survival (OS). Results: A total of 706 cases met inclusion criteria. Of these, 64% were males and 36% females. AAIR was higher in males irrespective of race/ethnicity. Among different race/ethnic subgroups, API and HW had a higher AAIR than NHW and AA (0.2, 0.18, 0.05 and 0.04, respectively) (Figure 1). Median OS for males and females was similar (1.8 yr and 2 yr, respectively; p=0.76) There was a statistically significant difference in median OS by age for all patients with 4.3 yr for age 18-44 as compared with 0.8 yr for age >75 yr (p Conclusions: Significant disparities exist in the US for NK/T NHL incidence by race and gender, with highest AAIR among the racial minorities of API and HW, which are fastest and second fastest growing minority groups in the US respectively. Increasing age, advanced disease stage and site outside of the nasal cavity or sinus are independent predictors of poor prognosis. Some differences do exist in survival by race. These factors need to be considered for better resource allocation and utilization for this rare, often incurable and aggressive disease. Disclosures Ailawadhi: Pharmacyclics: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy; Amgen Inc: Consultancy; Takeda Oncology: Consultancy. Kelly: Amgen: Consultancy, Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau.
Synthesis of Linkages to Trace Plane Curves

Kempe’s universality theorem introduced in 1876 has recently been proven to ensure that given any algebraic curve a mechanism exists that traces the curve. In this paper, we present two methods to simplify Kempe’s linkages. One method uses gear trains, differentials and belt drives to replace his multiplicator, additor and translator linkages. A second method uses the Scotch yoke mechanism and a summing belt drive to generate a mechanical Fourier series that traces the curve. Examples are provided that demonstrate the two approaches.
Shifts in soil fungi and extracellular enzyme activity with simulated climate change in a tropical montane cloud forest

Tropical montane cloud forests are vulnerable to climate change. The cloud layer is lifting, causing warmer and drier conditions. With climate change, tropical ecosystems have the potential to accentuate global CO2 emissions because of their significant influence over global C cycling. Unfortunately, we do not know how this will affect belowground communities, like soil fungi, and the vital ecosystem processes they control. We performed a soil translocation experiment along an elevation gradient in Monteverde, Costa Rica to assess how fungal communities, soil decomposition, and extracellular enzyme activity (EEA) of C-degrading enzymes may shift with climate change. Soils were translocated to four lower elevation sites. These sites spanned 4 °C increases in temperature and a 20% decline in soil moisture. We used microbial cages to isolate the fungal community and monitor how soil fungi would respond to warmer, drier conditions. Fungal abundance and diversity increased with warmer and drier conditions. Fungal communities also shifted. Specifically, we found changes in the richness of fungal phyla. Richness of lichen-forming fungi, pathogens, wood saprotrophs, and yeasts increased. In addition, we found that EEA was higher under warmer and drier conditions. Our results suggest that high elevation soils may shift towards an increased capacity to decompose C under future climate conditions. Moreover, with climate change, animals or plants in tropical montane cloud forests may be exposed to a greater richness of fungal pathogens. Overall, our study reveals that the lifting cloud layer may affect the fungal community within these forests, which in turn may affect both the structure and function of these forests.
Automated Analysis of Phase Diagrams

We present a study on automated analysis of phase diagrams to aid the materials science community that attempts to lay the groundwork for a large-scale, searchable, digitized database of phases of a wide variety of materials at different physical conditions and compositions. For this work, we concentrate on around 80 thermodynamic phase diagrams of binary metallic alloy systems which give phase information of alloys at varied temperatures and mixture ratios. We use image processing techniques to isolate phase boundaries and subsequently extract areas of the same phase. Simultaneously, document analysis techniques are employed to recognize and group the text used to label the phases; text present along the axes is identified so as to map image coordinates (x, y) to physical coordinates. Labels of unlabeled phases are inferred using standard rules. Once a phase diagram is thus digitized we are able to provide the phase of all materials present in our database at any given temperature and alloy mixture ratio. Using the digitized data, more complex queries may also be supported in the future. We evaluate our system by measuring the correctness of labeling of phase regions.
Local Production of Pharmaceutical Products in Africa: The WHO approach

The WHO Global Strategy and Plan of Action mandated the Director General to support transfer of technology and local production of medicines in developing countries. This paper briefly lays out the conditions for local production in Africa and describes the on-going work program of the WHO Department of Public Health, Innovation, Intellectual Property and Trade (PHI) directed at supporting local production efforts. Encouragement of local production is not without controversy as governments must weigh their interest in pursuing the potential holistic benefits of security of supply, support for research and training, manufacturing employment and balance of payments improvements, with assuring that supplies are purchased at prices competitive with global lowest-priced supplies of assured quality. Ultimately, for local production efforts to be successful medicines must be provided at prices competitive with, and of comparable quality to, imported products. The African Union and national governments within Africa are promoting local production, and are working with the support of a number of multilateral organizations including UNIDO, UNCTAD, UNAIDS and WHO, with increasing interest of the African Development Bank. There is considerable attention both from local investors and multinational industry, and there are opportunities for technology leapfrogging. From the WHO perspective, the key element is to focus attention on the promotion of public health objectives, including through the strengthening of regulatory capacity. The author is consultant adviser to WHO PHI.
Diversity and Environmental Distribution of Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacteria

This chapter discusses archaeal ammonia oxidation and anaerobic ammonia oxidation processes that have important roles in the global nitrogen cycle. It reviews the diversity, distribution, and biogeography of a subset of the ammonia-oxidizing prokaryotes, the aerobic chemolithotrophic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB). The terrestrial AOB are generally restricted to the Betaproteobacteria, while the marine organisms are found both in the Betaproteobacteria and the Gammaproteobacteria. Phylogeny inference based on the current data set does not support that all nitrosomonads are more closely related to each other than to members of the Nitrosospira lineage; especially problematic is the placement of Nitrosomonas cryotolerans and Nitrosomonas sp. Stable clusters based on 16S rRNA phylogeny are problematic within Nitrosospira because of the overall high levels of identity of the 16S rRNA (>97%). Soils are often dominated by Nitrosospira spp., while marine and freshwater systems often have mixtures of the genera of AOB present. During secondary succession, microbial communities develop on the soils that are often depleted in the number and diversity of microorganisms. In marine habitats, Nitrosococcus, Nitrosomonas, and Nitrosospira coexist with ammonia-oxidizing archaea; their relative contributions and diversity are only beginning to be delineated. The functional cohort of AOB, ammonia-oxidizing archaea, and the nitrite-oxidizing prokaryotes will persist as important model organisms for linking the process of nitrification to microbial diversity and biogeography.
An ethnographic study of enrollment obstacles in Rhode Island, USA: struggling to get covered on an Affordable Care Act insurance marketplace

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 expanded access to health insurance coverage in the United States through online marketplaces that provided subsidized insurance coverage. Nonetheless, many ob...
Black Sheep by Day

The chapter brings the reader from nocturnal bohemia back out into the day, exposing Teresina’s bohemians in the context of the ordinary and the normal. Rather than transcending mainstream local life, the bohemians find themselves in constant negotiation with it. The chapter addresses how these bohemians negotiate double lives––participating in both the nightlife of bohemia and the “daylife” of mainstream society. Part of this negotiation means deploying different discourses and practices in different spaces and moments. The chapter argues that it is through such negotiations and its ethos of queerness (e.g., fluidity, flexibility, and openness to possibility) that the community of bohemians makes sense of the contradiction of being both local and cosmopolitan.
Seat vibration for heart monitoring in a moving automobile: extended abstract

Continuous heart rate monitoring in cars can allow ambient health monitoring and help track driver stress and fatigue. We present a data set from accelerometers embedded in a car seat which includes ten people sitting in the passenger seat of a moving car, and surface ECG data of each user to provide ground truth of the heartbeat. This data can be used to analyze the heart activity of people in cars, despite the presence of high levels of noise from car motion, human motion, and the car engine.
Personality and morphology shape task participation, collective foraging and escape behaviour in the social spider Stegodyphus dumicola

Determining the drivers of complex systems is a major challenge felt by virtually all of biology. For complex societies, there is considerable interest in how individuals' traits determine their social roles and how the milieu of trait variants within groups shapes emergent group-level phenotypes. In this study, we tested in spiders whether individual differences in behaviour, morphology, or both shape individuals' participation in foraging. We then tested which aspects of group composition (e.g. morphological composition, personality composition, group size) predict colony-level foraging and escape behaviour. We performed these studies both under (1) standardized laboratory conditions, where colonies' ability to build webs was constrained, and (2) under more free-living conditions in the field. Regardless of the laboratory/field distinction, we found that individual task participation was regulated by individuals' body size and group size: larger individuals and individuals in smaller groups tended to participate more in foraging tasks. At the colony level, colonies composed of bolder spiders attacked prey with a larger number of attackers regardless of the laboratory/field distinction. However, our field assessments of colony foraging revealed that the speed with which colonies responded to prey was determined by their group size, morphological composition and personality composition; none of these effects were detected under laboratory conditions. Finally, we found that colonies took longer to retreat from aversive stimuli when more spiders were outside the nest. Taken together, our results suggest that colonies' social organization and collective behaviour are determined by spiders' morphology, behavioural tendencies and colony demographics.
Hepatocyte PRMT1 protects from alcohol induced liver injury by modulating oxidative stress responses

Protein Arginine methyltransferase 1 (PRMT1) is the main enzyme of cellular arginine methylation. Previously we found that PRMT1 activity in the liver is altered after alcohol exposure resulting in epigenetic changes. To determine the impact of these PRMT1 changes on the liver's response to alcohol, we induced a hepatocyte specific PRMT1 knockout using AAV mediated Cre delivery in mice fed either alcohol or control Lieber-DeCarli liquid diet. We found that in alcohol fed mice, PRMT1 prevents oxidative stress and promotes hepatocyte survival. PRMT1 knockout in alcohol fed mice resulted in a dramatic increase in hepatocyte death, inflammation and fibrosis. Additionally, we found that alcohol promotes PRMT1 dephosphorylation at S297. Phosphorylation at this site is necessary for PRMT1-dependent protein arginine methylation. PRMT1 S297A, a dephosphorylation mimic of PRMT1 had reduced ability to promote gene expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, pro-apoptotic genes BIM and TRAIL and expression of a suppressor of hepatocyte proliferation, Hnf4α. On the other hand, several functions of PRMT1 were phosphorylation-independent, including expression of oxidative stress response genes, Sod1, Sod2 and others. In vitro, both wild type and S297A PRMT1 protected hepatocytes from oxidative stress induced apoptosis, however S297D phosphorylation mimic PRMT1 promoted cell death. Taken together these data suggest that PRMT1 is an essential factor of liver adaptation to alcohol; alcohol-induced dephosphorylation shifts PRMT1 toward a less pro-inflammatory, more pro-proliferative and pro-survival form.
Understanding Clinical Chaplaincy Approach to Biomedical Ethics: An Imminent Need and a Challenge

While we, the medical community, have recognized “Spirituality” as a vital component of health, we have not yet clearly defined the term “spirituality” for clinical education, care, and research. Though we have a robust clinical spiritual care program called Clinical Chaplaincy and, though chaplains work so closely with us, medical professionals, we have not yet conceptualized the framework of Clinical Chaplaincy process nor understood how patients are healed through it. With my year-long clinical chaplaincy residency training I realize that only through our experiential understanding we will be able to conceptualize the pieces of the chaplaincy-puzzle. I also, consider that as medical students, you need to be introduced to the “research lab” where the initial understandings of chaplaincy processes are being generated. A complete clinical “Verbatim case report” of the Clinical Chaplaincy process is provided for the reader to inductively study the “qualitative data” of the spiritual care process. This chapter is meant to provide (1) a comprehensive understanding of a clinical chaplain-patient interaction, (2) to highlight how chaplains guide and accompany their patients in their “mindful walk” through their pain and struggles (3) to finally arrive at a deeply and empathetically centered spot within oneself from where (4) the patient would draw his/her own meaning and purpose in the painful loss leading to their healing. The focus in this chapter is to highlight how the chaplain guides the patient through the ethics of medical decision-making process. In this, the mindfulness-based processes of clinical chaplaincy will also be studied.
Disseminated Langerhans cell histiocytosis in a 51-year-old man with cutaneous involvement and multiple endocrinopathies.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare disorder arising from the abnormal proliferation and subsequent deposition of CD1a+ myeloid dendritic cells in various organs. Clinical features are heterogeneous and primarily depend on specific organ systems involved, ranging from skin rash and osteolytic skull lesions to treatment-refractory multiorgan failure in severe cases. Although LCH predominantly affects the pediatric population, an increasing number of adult-onset cases are being reported.1, 2 We describe the case of a 51-year-old man with disseminated (multisystem) LCH stemming from an in-frame, oncogenic BRAF mutation.
Long-Range Lamellar Alignment in Diblock Bottlebrush Copolymers via Controlled Oscillatory Shear

A simple strategy is presented to achieve well-ordered nanostructures in microphase-separated diblock bottlebrush copolymers (dbBB) for potential opportunities in nanotechnology that require large ...
Population Change in the Former Communist States of Europe and Asia

The 29 former Communist states of Europe and Asia underwent significant demographic change along with the political, economic, and social transitions during the 1990s and 2000s. This included steep declines in fertility, increases in mortality, and large-scale migration including large flows of refugees and internally displaced persons. These demographic trends lead to declines and rapid aging of the population of most countries in the region. In contrast to global population trends, most of the countries in the Eurasia region are projected to decline significantly in the future.
Late onset multiple sclerosis is associated with more severe ventricle expansion.

Abstract Background Late-onset multiple sclerosis (LOMS) is associated with faster disability progression than persons with adult-onset MS (PwAOMS). The differences in brain atrophy are currently unknown. Objectives To determine MRI-derived atrophy rates in persons with late-onset MS (PwLOMS) and compare them to an age-matched and disease duration-matched sample of PwAOMS. Methods 870 persons with MS (290 PwLOMS, 290 age-matched PwAOMS, and 290 disease duration-matched PwAOMS), and 150 healthy controls (HCs), were followed for 5 years and 3 years, respectively. Cross-sectional and longitudinal measures of T2-lesion volume (LV), lateral ventricular volume (LVV) and whole brain volume (WBV) were derived. Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) and Multiple Sclerosis Severity Score (MSSS) were calculated. Both analyses were corrected for false discovery rate. Results Persons with MS exhibited significantly greater annualized WBV loss (-0.88% vs. -0.38%, p Conclusion PwLOMS had higher MSSS and greater ventricle expansion when compared to PwAOMS.
Design Implementation and Evaluation of a Mobile Continuous Blood Oxygen Saturation Monitoring System.

Objective: In this study, we built a mobile continuous Blood Oxygen Saturation (SpO2) monitor, and for the first time, explored key design principles towards daily applications. Methods: We firstly built a customized wearable computer that can sense two-channel photoplethysmogram (PPG) signals, and transmit the signals wirelessly to smartphone. Afterwards, we explored many SpO2 model building principles, focusing on linear/nonlinear models, different PPG parameter calculation methods, and different finger types. Moreover, we further compared PPG sensor placement principles by comparing different hand configurations and different finger configurations. Finally, a dataset collected from eleven human subjects was used to evaluate the mobile health monitor and explore all of the above design principles. Results: The experimental results show that the root mean square error of the SpO2 estimation is only 1.8, indicating the effectiveness of the system. Conclusion: These results indicate the effectiveness of the customized mobile SpO2 monitor and the selected design principles. Significance: This research is expected to facilitate the continuous SpO2 monitoring of patients with clinical indications.
Why Africa cannot prosecute (or even educate) its way out of road accidents: insights from Ghana

The paper sheds light on the problem of the growing embracement of penal populism (fines and prison sentences) as a measure for dealing with road trauma in Africa through a case study of Ghana. It argues that the policy of hunting for rogue drivers to make roads safer in the continent is as ineffective as killing mosquitoes one by one to control malaria. The best remedy is to drain the swamps in which they breed. The swamps, in respect of road trauma in Africa, are the ineffective public transportation systems and the focus on constructing more expensive roads, which encourage the importation of more old cars, and a high dependence on privately run, deregulated commercial passenger transport sectors that are structurally embedded in driver exploitation. These factors coupled with police corruption and the traffic congestions induced by private capital-driven land-use patterns are what underlie safety-adverse driving and road transport problems generally in the continent. More fundamentally, the paper argues that the law enforcement-heavy approach to road trauma essentializes African drivers as having a danger-prone driving culture. This generates (in)discipline concerns that act as a red herring by deflecting attention from the structural factors undermining road safety in the continent: the continuing effects of neoliberal programs funded by international development bodies, and the profiteering and political interests of powerful coalitions of private transport owners’ unions and public officials that have molded and entrenched the continent’s road transport sectors in its present problematic forms to serve particular purposes. The paper hopes to move road safety conversations in Africa away from the present thinking that enforcing greater punishments against drivers, rather than addressing the broader societal systems whose effects manifest in the road transport sector, is “the” answer to the unacceptably high rate of carnages on the continent’s roads.
Supplemental nutrition assistance program 2009 expansion and cardiometabolic markers among low-income adults.

Abstract A 2009 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) policy change that expanded eligibility and increased benefit amounts has been associated with reduced food insecurity. This study tests the hypothesis that the SNAP policy change corresponds with improved stress- and nutrition-sensitive cardiometabolic markers. This study included non-pregnant participants aged 18–59 with annual family incomes ≤185% of the federal poverty guideline from the repeated cross-sectional NHANES study. Those living in SNAP eligible households (income ≤130% of the poverty guideline) were compared to those who were likely non-eligible (income 131%–≤185%). Difference-in-differences analyses compared hemoglobin A1c (%), CRP (mg/dL), total cholesterol (mg/dL), LDL (mg/dL) and waist circumference (cm) across groups before (2007–2008) and after (2009–2010) the SNAP policy change. Sampling weights were applied. Adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, household and health factors, there were statistically significant difference-in-differences estimates for hemoglobin A1c (p = 0.003, n = 3723) and total cholesterol (p = 0.028, n = 3710). SNAP eligible adults had no difference in hemoglobin A1c after the policy change and, among those less than 40 years of age, 5 mg/dL lower total cholesterol levels whereas likely non-SNAP eligible adults had 0.14% higher hemoglobin A1c and no difference in total cholesterol after the policy change. The 2009 SNAP expansion was associated with improved nutrition-sensitive cardiometabolic markers in SNAP-eligible adults. This study found less of an upward trend in hemoglobin A1c levels for young and middle aged adults and decreased total cholesterol for young adults. These results highlight the potential role of SNAP to prevent costly chronic conditions among low-income U.S. adults.
Diazepam induced sleep spindle increase correlates with cognitive recovery in a child with epileptic encephalopathy.

Continuous spike and wave of sleep with encephalopathy (CSWS) is a rare and severe developmental electroclinical epileptic encephalopathy characterized by seizures, abundant sleep activated interictal epileptiform discharges, and cognitive regression or deceleration of expected cognitive growth. The cause of the cognitive symptoms is unknown, and efforts to link epileptiform activity to cognitive function have been unrevealing. Converging lines of evidence implicate thalamocortical circuits in these disorders. Sleep spindles are generated and propagated by the same thalamocortical circuits that can generate spikes and, in healthy sleep, support memory consolidation. As such, sleep spindle deficits may provide a physiologically relevant mechanistic biomarker for cognitive dysfunction in epileptic encephalopathies. We describe the longitudinal course of a child with CSWS with initial cognitive regression followed by dramatic cognitive improvement after treatment. Using validated automated detection algorithms, we analyzed electroencephalograms for epileptiform discharges and sleep spindles alongside contemporaneous neuropsychological evaluations over the course of the patient’s disease. We found that sleep spindles increased dramatically with high-dose diazepam treatment, corresponding with marked improvements in cognitive performance. We also found that the sleep spindle rate was anticorrelated to spike rate, consistent with a competitively shared underlying thalamocortical circuitry. Epileptic encephalopathies are challenging electroclinical syndromes characterized by combined seizures and a deceleration or regression in cognitive skills over childhood. This report identifies thalamocortical circuit dysfunction in a case of epileptic encephalopathy and motivates future investigations of sleep spindles as a biomarker of cognitive function and a potential therapeutic target in this challenging disease.
Stresses in Beams Having Holes of Arbitrary Shape

THE STRESS FIELD IS CALCULATED IN BEAMS CONTAINING AN OPENING OF ESSENTIALLY ARBITRARY SHAPE AND SUBJECTED TO PURE OR CANTILEVER BENDING. THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE CIRCUMFERENTIAL NORMAL STRESS AT THE CONTOUR OF SEVERAL POLYGONAL HOLES IS GIVEN IN GRAPHICAL FORM. /ASCE/
Information-theoretic analysis of iterated Bayesian acoustic source localization in a static ocean waveguide.

Fundamental constructs of information theory are applied to quantify the performance of iterated (sequential) Bayesian localization of a time-harmonic source in a range- and time-invariant acoustic waveguide using the segmented Fourier transforms of the received pressure time series. The nonlinear relation, defined by acoustic propagation, between the source location and the received narrowband spectral components is treated as a nonlinear communication channel. The performance analysis includes mismatch between the acoustic channel and the model channel on which the Bayesian inference is based. Source location uncertainty is quantified by the posterior probability density of source location, by the posterior entropy and associated uncertainty area, by the information gain (relative entropy) at each iteration, and by large-ensemble limits of these quantities. A computational example for a vertical receiver array in a shallow-water waveguide is presented with acoustic propagation represented by normal mode...
A HESS for resource planning in service and manufacturing industries

Abstract A HESS is a Hybrid Expert and Simulation System. Both expert systems and simulation tools are widely applied to management decision making, but simulation tools, in particular, are not easy for managers to use. In this paper we report on the development of a HESS for resource allocation in service and manufacturing industries. The expert system is used as an intelligent user interface to increase the ease of use, promote the accuracy, and increase the intelligibility of simulation input and output to the user./ab]
Information Dispersal and Parallel Computation

1. Introduction 2. Information dispersal 3. Interconnection networks 4. Fault-tolerant parallel routing Part I 5. Fault-tolerant parallel routing Part II 6. Node-disjoint paths in graph theory 7. Simulation of PRAM 8. Asynchronism and sensitivity 9. On-line maintenance 10. A fault-tolerant parallel computer Bibliography Index.
Development of a High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Assay for G418 Sulfate (Geneticin)

We have developed a chromatographic assay with high sensitivity and specificity to quantify G418 sulfate (Geneticin), an antibiotic used routinely in molecular genetics experiments for selecting eukaryotic transformants. With this method, G418 in tissues and plasma samples can be quantitated without the confounding factors often associated with biological assays. After removal of proteins in homogenized tissue or plasma samples with methanol (2:1, vol/vol), the amino group of G418 was derivatized with 1-fluoro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (DNFB) to form the UV-visible G418-DNFB product. The DNFB-derivatized G418 was separated on a reversed-phase C18 column with an acetonitrile and water gradient as the mobile phase. Under these assay conditions, the detection limit for G418 sulfate in buffer, plasma, and tissues was recorded at 78 ng/ml and the linearity was recorded for concentrations up to 100 micrograms/ml. The data obtained from this analysis indicate that this assay can be used for the quantitative determination of G418 sulfate in plasma and tissue samples.
Affective Commitment as a Core Essence of Organizational Commitment: An Integrative Literature Review

This article responds to the call for the identification of a core essence of organizational commitment. Since this call 14 years ago, scholars studying organizational commitment have not come to an agreement as to the nature of organizational commitment, and how it develops. The research’s fragmentation creates a problem in a time when practitioners are looking toward organizational commitment interventions to attract, retain, and develop talent and enhance employee performance. With organizational commitment research remaining confounding and fragmented, further clarification of what commitment is and how it develops is warranted and important to guide future research and evidencebased practice. Through a review of the competing and overlapping organizational commitment theoretical frameworks and the empirical research on the consequences of affective organizational commitment, this article proposes a conceptual framework in which affective commitment, or the emotional attachment to the organization, is an important core essence of organizational commitment.
Numerical simulation of wall-bounded turbulent shear flows

Developments in three dimensional, time dependent numerical simulation of turbulent flows bounded by a wall are reviewed. Both direct and large eddy simulation techniques are considered within the same computational framework. The computational spatial grid requirements as dictated by the known structure of turbulent boundary layers are presented. The numerical methods currently in use are reviewed and some of the features of these algorithms, including spatial differencing and accuracy, time advancement, and data management are discussed. A selection of the results of the recent calculations of turbulent channel flow, including the effects of system rotation and transpiration on the flow are included.
Caribbean tectonics and relative plate motions

During the last century, three different ways of interpreting the tectonic evolution of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean have been proposed, taking into account the Bailey Willis School of a permanent pre-Jurassic deep sea basin, the Edward Suess School of a subsided continental terrain, and the Alfred Wegener School of continental separation. The present investigation is concerned with an outline of an interpretation which follows that of Pindell and Dewey (1982). An attempt is made to point out ways in which the advanced hypotheses can be tested. The fit of Africa, North America, and South America is considered along with aspects of relative motion between North and South America since the early Jurasic. Attention is given to a framework for reconstructing Caribbean plate evolution, the evolution of the Caribbean, the plate boundary zones of the northern and southern Caribbean, and the active deformation of the Caribbean plate.
Hierarchical functional data with mixed continuous and binary measurements.

Summary Motivated by objective measurements of physical activity, we take a functional data approach to longitudinal data with simultaneous measurement of a continuous and a binary outcomes. The regression structures are specified as smooth curves measured at various time-points with random effects that have a hierarchical correlation structure. The random effect curves for each variable are summarized using a few important principal components, and the association of the two longitudinal variables is modeled through the association of the principal component scores. We use penalized splines to model the mean curves and the principal component curves, and cast the proposed model into a mixed effects model framework for model fitting, prediction and inference. Via a quasilikelihood type approximation for the binary component, we develop an algorithm to fit the model. Data-based transformation of the continuous variable and selection of the number of principal components are incorporated into the algorithm. The method is applied to the motivating physical activity data and is evaluated empirically by a simulation study. Extensions for different types of outcomes are also discussed.
Use of Gliadel (BCNU) wafer in the surgical treatment of malignant glioma: a 10-year institutional experience.

Background Gliadel (polifeprosan 20 with carmustine [BCNU] implant) is commonly used for local delivery of BCNU to high-grade gliomas after resection and is associated with increased survival. Various complications of Gliadel wafers have been reported but not consistently reproduced. We set out to characterize Gliadel-associated morbidity in our 10-year experience with Gliadel wafers for treatment of malignant glioma.
Extraneuronal serotonin accumulation in peripheral arteries of the rat

Accumulations of serotonin (5-HT) and norepinephrine (NE) were compared in control and 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) pretreated rat aorta, mesenteric and tail arteries. The distribution of these amines was corrected by subtracting tissue uptake of tritiated sorbitol in the extracellular space. 5-HT greatly accumulated both in control and 6-OHDA pretreated arteries. In contrast, NE accumulation in mesenteric and tail arteries was substantially decreased after 6-OHDA treatment. In the aorta 6-OHDA pretreatment did not affect the accumulation of both amines. These findings suggest that 5-HT accumulation in these arteries is mainly extraneuronal, and NE mainly neuronal. Since the accumulation of 5-HT in the aorta was not influenced by pretreatment with 10 μM NE, the extraneuronal uptake mechanisms for 5-HT and NE appear to be different.
Interactions of Moving Dislocations in Semiconductors with Point, Line and Planar Defects

We demonstrate that strained GeSi/Si heterostructures act as a model system for the study of the interaction of propagating dislocations with point, line and planar defects. In such heterostructures, the effective stress acting on a propagating dislocation may be varied from tens of MPa to of order 1 GPa, and the length of the propagating dislocation segment may be varied from nm to hundreds of nm. Results are presented from the interaction of strain-relieving dislocations with GeSi free surfaces, with point defects generated by ion implantation, and with other dislocations.
Using group support systems for strategic planning with the United States Air Force

Abstract Strategic planning is a critical part of establishing an organization's direction. Although strategic planning is utilized throughout the United States Air Force today in various forms, group sessions can become time-consuming without structured planning and a focus on group communication. Computer-supported strategic planning, making effective use of technology, is one way to improve the strategic planning process. This research implements a group support system (GSS) as a communication tool to facilitate the strategic planning process. The researchers investigate effects of a facilitator's using technology to structure verbal and electronic communication, with the goal of increasing quality output and improving group member satisfaction. This project was completed at Mountain Home Air Force Base with the support of the 366th Wing. As predicted, a GSS facilitator's structuring verbal and electronic communication improved the quality of the strategic plan, reduced time to complete a strategic plan, and increased satisfaction with the strategic planning process. The results did not indicate increased commitment to implement the strategic plans developed by a group using GSS facilitation.
Prototype formation: Central tendency model vs. attribute-frequency model

In this experiment, subjects were shown a series of three-digit numbers. Following this stage, the subjects were shown some old items, some new items, a prototype based on frequently repeated digits, and a prototype based on the mean of the group. Subjects erroneously identified the frequency-related, but not the mean, prototype as an old item. Support was found for the attribute-frequency model of prototypes.
The absolute configuration of pantothenic acid

Abstract The absolute configuration of pantothenic acid has been defined as (R) by conversion of (−)-pantolactone to (S)-(+)-pinacolyl ethyl ether.
Supervising Student Teachers in Sociology

The school itself should serve as a laboratory for the study of social science concepts and generalizations, maintains Dr. Schlechty.
18β-Glycyrrhetinic Acid Inhibits Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Survival and Attenuates Virulence Gene Expression

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has become a major source of infection in hospitals and in the community. Increasing antibiotic resistance in S. aureus strains has created a need for alternative therapies to treat disease. A component of the licorice root Glycyrrhiza spp., 18β-glycyrrhetinic acid (GRA), has been shown to have antiviral, antitumor, and antibacterial activity. This investigation explores the in vitro and in vivo effects of GRA on MRSA pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) type USA300. GRA exhibited bactericidal activity at concentrations exceeding 0.223 μM. Upon exposure of S. aureus to sublytic concentrations of GRA, we observed a reduction in expression of key virulence genes, including saeR and hla. In murine models of skin and soft tissue infection, topical GRA treatment significantly reduced skin lesion size and decreased the expression of saeR and hla genes. Our investigation demonstrates that at high concentrations GRA is bactericidal to MRSA and at sublethal doses it reduces virulence gene expression in S. aureus both in vitro and in vivo.