cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Self-Management Therapy and Educational Group Therapy for Depressed Elders

A final sample of 34 adults, over the age of 60 and meeting DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria for major depression, were randomly assigned to three conditions. Self-management therapy and educational group therapy were compared to a waiting-list control condition. Treated participants improved, relative to controls, on two of four indices of depression, and three of four secondary measures of outcome, including frequency of self-reinforcement, learned resourcefulness, and self-control knowledge. Both treatments showed significant decreases in depression over the course of treatment and maintained these gains over a 1-year follow-up period. Averaged across depression instruments, 71% of self-management participants and 61% of educational group participants showed clinically meaningful improvement. There were no statistically significant differences between these treatments.
A City Upon a Hill: making scientific progress in brain-based music research in typical development, autism and other disorders

The enrichment of personal and shared musical experiences is a central component of ongoing pursuits of individual happiness and healthy, educated and prosperous communities around the world. In 1630, in America, John Winthrop spoke passionately of what he called “A City Upon a Hill”. Although in a religious setting (Winthrop purged his church of organ music in favor of a cappella metrical psalms) his passion and purpose applies directly to many research endeavors. We and other investigators seek to harness the power and neuroscience of music to enrich and improve the lives of individuals. We describe our vision of a music research “City Upon a Hill” and a scientific plan to build it. From our perspective, the plan starts with the acquisition of detailed knowledge of the “bedrock” of internal musical experiences within the human brain.
Equivalence in Non-Recursive Structural Equation Models

In the last decade, there has been considerable progress in understanding a certain class of statistical models, known as directed acyclic graph (DAG) models, which encode independence, and conditional independence constraints. (See Pearl, 1988). This research has had fruitful results in many areas: there is now a relatively clear causal interpretation of these models, there are efficient procedures for determining the statistical indistinguishability of DAG’s, reliable algorithms for generating a class of DAG models from sample data and background knowledge, etc. Two important elements in these investigations were: First, a purely graphical condition for calculating the conditional independence relations entailed by a DAG. Second, a ‘local’ characterization of equivalence between two graphs, in the sense that all of the same conditional independencies are entailed by each graph. Such a local characterization was essential in allowing the construction of efficient algorithms which could search the whole class of DAG models and to find those which fitted the given data.
ACTIVE SOLAR SYSTEMS

ABSTRACT Active solar heating systems use collectors, storage units, pumps or blowers, and other components, usually in combination with auxiliary energy, to meet a thermal energy need. The basic ideas of collectors and storage are reviewed in the context of systems, and general principles of system design are outlined. Applications are noted, including space heating, water heating and industrial process heating.
Closure methods in gastroschisis

The expected outcome of gastroschisis has evolved from an almost certain death of the child prior to the use of parenteral nutrition to almost certain survival. The primary goal of the surgical intervention is return of eviscerated contents into the abdominal cavity. The optimal surgical technique is dependent on the status of the intestine and the accommodation of abdominal domain. In this review, the various surgical techniques for management are discussed as they have evolved. Ironically, a minimalist surgical intervention originally practiced due to the poor expected outcome is now being adopted as a minimalist surgical approach for abdominal wall closure associated with an expected excellent outcome.
The ephemerality of secondary forests in southern Costa Rica

Secondary forests are increasingly recognized for conserving biodiversity and mitigating global climate change, but these and other desired outcomes can only be achieved after decades of regeneration, and secondary forests are frequently recleared before they recover to predisturbance conditions. We used a time series of aerial photographs (1947‐2014) to evaluate multidecadal persistence of secondary forests across a 320 km² landscape in southern Costa Rica. Secondary forests had relatively short lifespans, with 50% recleared within 20 years and 85% recleared within 54 years of when they were first observed. Larger forest fragments and forests near rivers had a lower reclearance hazard, but forest persistence did not differ over time, indicating that regional forest regeneration may be generally ephemeral. Costa Rica has made an international commitment to restore 1 million ha of degraded land by 2020. Depending on how this is achieved, only half that target may remain forested by 2040.
Medical-Legal Partnerships to Enhance Residency Training in Advance Care Planning

Background and objectives Only about one-third of adult Americans have completed advance directives for end-of-life care, and primary care physicians report that they are not always comfortable discussing advance care planning (ACP) with patients. Current approaches to teaching clinicians about ACP have limited evidence of effectiveness. With the objective of improving residents' comfort and skill discussing ACP with patients, we developed a curriculum that involved clinicians and attorneys working together to teach first-year family medicine residents (R1) about leading ACP discussions with patients. Methods Our curriculum consisted of a 1-hour multimedia training session on ACP followed by a series of direct in-exam room observations. Attorney and/or physician faculty observed residents holding ACP discussions with patients and provided structured feedback to residents about their performance. The initial R1 cohort observed had a series of three direct observations; the subsequent R1 cohort had two direct observations. We developed an evaluation tool with a 5-point developmental scale (beginner, novice, developing, near mastery, mastery) corresponding to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's milestone system to score residents' performance. Results R1 performance improved from the beginner/novice level during the first observed ACP discussion to the novice/developing level during the second or third discussion, representing an increase in competence to that expected of a second- or early third-year resident. Conclusion Based on our initial experience, using medical-legal partnerships to teach residents about ACP may be more effective than previously reported approaches. Validation of our results with a larger sample is needed.
Association between hippocampal dose and memory in survivors of childhood or adolescent low-grade glioma: a 10-year neurocognitive longitudinal study

BACKGROUND Hippocampal avoidance has been suggested as a strategy to reduce short-term memory decline in adults receiving whole-brain radiation therapy (RT). The purpose of this study was to determine whether the hippocampal dose in children and adolescents undergoing RT for low-grade glioma was associated with memory, as measured by verbal recall. METHODS Eighty patients aged at least 6 years but less than 21 years with low-grade glioma were treated with RT to 54 Gy on a phase II protocol. Patients underwent age-appropriate cognitive testing at baseline, 6 months posttreatment, yearly through 5 years posttreatment, year 7 or 8, and year 10 posttreatment. Random coefficient models were used to estimate the longitudinal trends in cognitive assessment scores. RESULTS Median neurocognitive follow-up was 9.8 years. There was a significant decline in short-delay recall (slope = -0.01 standard deviation [SD]/year, P < 0.001), total recall (slope = -0.09 SD/y, P = 0.005), and long-delay recall (slope = -0.01 SD/y, P = 0.002). On multivariate regression, after accounting for hydrocephalus, decline in short-delay recall was associated with the volume of right (slope = -0.001 SD/y, P = 0.019) or left hippocampus (slope = -0.001 SD/y, P = 0.025) receiving 40 Gy (V40 Gy). On univariate regression, decline in total recall was only associated with right hippocampal dosimetry (V40 Gy slope = -0.002, P = 0.025). In children <12 years, on univariate regression, decline in long-delay recall was only associated with right (V40 Gy slope = -0.002, P = 0.013) and left (V40 Gy slope = -0.002, P = 0.014) hippocampal dosimetry. CONCLUSION In this 10-year longitudinal study, greater hippocampal dose was associated with a greater decline in delayed recall. Such findings might be informative for radiation therapy planning, warranting prospective evaluation.
Faster, Higher, Stronger: Redesigning Spreadsheets for Scale

Spreadsheet tools are ubiquitous for interactive adhoc data management and analysis. With increasing dataset sizes, spreadsheet tools fall short—they freeze during heavy computation within the sheet (interactivity); they are hard to navigate when datasets go beyond a certain size (navigability); they only support cell-at-a-time computation, severely limiting analysis capabilities (expressiveness). We have been developing DATASPREAD to holistically unify databases and spreadsheets to leverage the benefits of both, with a spreadsheet-like front-end and a database-like backend. We demonstrate three key features of DATASPREAD to address the aforementioned spreadsheet scalability challenges in interactivity, navigability, and expressiveness1. Our demonstration will let attendees perform typical analysis tasks on Microsoft Excel and DATASPREAD side-by-side, providing a clear understanding of the improvements offered by DATASPREAD over traditional spreadsheet tools.
Influence of operating temperatures on long-duration wax deposition in flow lines

Abstract Operating temperatures have major impacts on wax deposition. Although significant research efforts have been expended on this topic, no satisfactory agreement has been achieved in the available literature. In the present work, we conducted cold-flow flow-loop wax deposition experiments using a waxy condensate with 9.5% wax content to investigate the influence of operating temperatures on wax deposition. To achieve a closer representation of field operation, we varied the oil temperature while keeping the initial wall temperature constant and conducted the tests up to 72 h. It was observed that the deposit forms more slowly but contains higher wax content as the difference between oil temperature and wall temperature increases, and these trends hold at both 48 and 72 h. Moreover, we calculated the diffusive mass flux at different operating conditions using the prevailing theory of molecular diffusion and found that the predicted trends are opposite to experimental observations. These results, along with findings from recent publications, collectively suggest that the long-standing modeling approach based on molecular diffusion is insufficient to completely describe wax deposition phenomenon, and that wax deposit morphology and other deposition mechanisms deserve further attention to close this knowledge gap.
Scalable and Robust State Estimation From Abundant But Untrusted Data

Power system state estimation is an important problem in grid operation that has a long tradition of research since 1960s. Due to the nonconvexity of the problem, existing approaches based on local search methods are susceptible to spurious local minima, which could endanger the reliability of the system. In general, even in the absence of noise, it is challenging to provide a practical condition under which one can uniquely identify the global solution due to its NP-hardness. In this study, we propose a linear basis of representation that succinctly captures the topology of the network and enables an efficient two-stage estimation method in case the amount of measured data is not too low. Based on this framework, we propose an identifiability condition that numerically depicts the boundary where one can warrant efficient recovery of the unique global minimum. Furthermore, we develop a robustness metric called “mutual incoherence,” which underpins theoretical analysis of global recovery condition and statistical error bounds in the presence of both dense noise and bad data. The method demonstrates superior performance over existing methods in terms of both estimation accuracy and bad data robustness in an array of benchmark systems. Above all, it is scalable to large systems with more than 13,000 buses and can achieve accurate estimation within a minute.
Lateral Femoral Cutaneous Nerve Radiofrequency Ablation for Long-term Control of Refractory Meralgia Paresthetica.

BACKGROUND Meralgia paresthetica is a term used to describe a clinical pain syndrome related to the compression or irritation of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve (LFCN). The LFCN is a pure sensory nerve that is susceptible to compression injury. The most common compression locations are: as it courses from the lumbosacral plexus, through the abdominal cavity, under the inguinal ligament, and into the subcutaneous tissue of the thigh. METHODS This case series is a retrospective single-center review of six patients with medically intractable meralgia paresthetica who were treated with radiofrequency ablation. To be considered for radiofrequency ablation, the patient must have been unsuccessful with medical management alone for more than two months and have a clinical diagnosis of meralgia paresthetica. Temporary relief of pain of 50% or greater was considered a positive result. Average pain scores were measured pre- and postprocedure, along with one-, two-, three-, and six-month intervals postoperation. RESULTS All patients demonstrated immediate relief in self-reported pain scores, averaging a 75.5% reduction in pain. At the one-, two-, three-, and six-month follow-ups, patients averaged a reduction of 60.0%, 58.0%, 51.4%, and 40.5%, respectively. Both the postop and one-month follow-up pain scores were lower, statistically significantly so (P < 0.05), whereas the two-, three-, and six-month follow-ups were not statistically different from pretreatment scores. CONCLUSIONS Although our study was small, radiofrequency ablation showed a clear reduction in average pain scores in a subset of patients who had failed standard medical therapy with a reduction in pain at one-month follow-up with relief of symptoms sometimes lasting longer than 12 months.
Hybrid Coronary Revascularization

Hybrid coronary revascularization is a planned combination of minimally invasive, off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting and percutaneous coronary intervention employed together to treat patients with multivessel coronary artery disease. With the combination of these two approaches to treating coronary disease, patients benefit from the long-term advantages of coronary artery bypass grafting and the safety profile of percutaneous coronary intervention. The results of hybrid coronary revascularization have been promising, showing lower procedural morbidity and shorter recovery times when compared to conventional coronary artery bypass grafting while at the same time showing improved freedom from major adverse coronary events when compared to PCI.
The Development and Implementation of Gender Equality Considerations in Public Procurement in Germany

Public procurement is an important part of states’ activities and a major market. As the potential of public purchasing to foster gender equality has increasingly come into focus, regulatory polici...
Altered stress field of the human lens capsule after cataract surgery

The lens capsule of the eye is important in focusing light onto the retina during the process of accommodation and, in later life, housing a prosthetic lens implanted during cataract surgery. Though considerable modeling work has characterized the mechanics of accommodation, little has been done to understand the mechanics of the lens capsule after cataract surgery. As such, we present the first 3-D finite element model of the post-surgical human lens capsule with an implanted tension ring and, separately, an intraocular lens to characterize the altered stress field compared to that in a model of the native lens capsule. All finite element models employed a Holzapfel hyperelastic constitutive model with regional variations in anisotropy. The post-surgical lens capsule demonstrated a dramatic perturbation to the stress field with mostly large reductions in stresses (except at the equator where the implant contacts the capsule) compared to native, wherein maximal changes in Cauchy stress were -100% and -145% for the tension ring and intraocular lens, respectively. However, implantation of the tension ring produced a more uniform stress field compared to the IOL. The magnitudes and distribution of the perturbed stress field may be an important driver of the fibrotic response of inhabiting lens epithelial cells and associated lens capsule remodeling after cataract surgery. Thus, the mechanical effects of an implant on the lens capsule could be an essential consideration in the design of intraocular lenses, particularly those with an accommodative feature.
Older Congolese Refugees’ Resettlement Challenges in the U.S.: A Bioecological Convoy Model

Older Congolese refugees face more challenges upon resettlement in the U. S. compared to younger refugees. We compared the convoy and bioecological models to explicate the challenges faced by older...
Use of 18F-FDG PET/CT as an Initial Staging Procedure for Stage II-III Breast Cancer: A Multicenter Value Analysis

BACKGROUND Metastatic staging imaging is not recommended for asymptomatic patients with stage I-II breast cancer. Greater distant metastatic disease risk may warrant baseline imaging in patients with stage II-III with high-risk biologic subtypes. NCCN Guidelines recommend considering CT of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis (CT CAP) and bone scan in appropriate patients. CT CAP and bone scan are considered standard of care (SoC), although PET/CT is a patient-centered alternative. METHODS Data were available for 799 high-risk patients with clinical stage II-III disease who initiated screening for the I-SPY2 trial at 4 institutions. A total of 564 complete records were reviewed to compare PET/CT versus SoC. Costs were determined from the payer perspective using the national 2018 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and representative reimbursements to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) measured cost of using PET/CT per percent of patients who avoided a false-positive (FP). RESULTS The de novo metastatic disease rate was 4.6%. Imaging varied across the 4 institutions (P<.0001). The FP rate was higher using SoC versus PET/CT (22.1% vs 11.1%; P=.0009). Mean time between incidental finding on baseline imaging to FP determination was 10.8 days. Mean time from diagnosis to chemotherapy initiation was 44.3 days with SoC versus 37.5 days with PET/CT (P=.0001). Mean cost per patient was $1,132 (SoC) versus $1,477 (PET/CT) using the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, with an ICER of $31. Using representative reimbursements to UCSF, mean cost per patient was $1,236 (SoC) versus $1,073 (PET/CT) for Medicare, and $3,083 (SoC) versus $1,656 (PET/CT) for a private payer, with ICERs of -$15 and -$130, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Considerable variation exists in metastatic staging practices. PET/CT reduced FP risk by half and decreased workup of incidental findings, allowing for earlier treatment start. PET/CT may be cost-effective, and at one institution was shown to be cost-saving. Better alignment is needed between hospital pricing strategies and payer coverage policies to deliver high-value care.
Toward Optimizing Electrospun Nanofiber Fuel Cell Catalyst Layers: Microstructure and Pt Accessibility

This work investigates how local ionomer/platinum (Pt) interactions and ionomer distribution in electrospun Pt/Vulcan nanofiber electrodes impact ionomer coverage, proton accessibility, and oxygen ...
Primary carcinoma of the fallopian tube

Abstract A case of primary carcinoma of the fallopian tube is presented. Some of the important phases of the disease are briefly discussed.
A systematic review of stigma interventions for providers who treat patients with substance use disorders.

Abstract Background Stigma surrounding substance use disorders (SUDs) is a frequently cited barrier to treatment engagement. Research consistently demonstrates that healthcare professionals' attitudes towards patients with addiction problems are often negative and may adversely impact service delivery. The current study presents a systematic review of stigma interventions for providers who treat patients with SUDs, in order to evaluate the quality of existing studies and potential for implementation in clinical settings. Methods This systematic literature review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Databases included PubMed, APA PsycInfo and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Of the 1462 records identified between 2011 and 2019, 15 studies were eligible for inclusion. A narrative synthesis of stigma interventions summarized the change in stigmatizing attitudes held by providers. Results Studies included heterogeneous and culturally diverse samples of providers (N = 1324), who varied by age, location, discipline, and experience, with the exception of primarily female providers (75%). Results delineated six types of provider stigma interventions with components including online education, in-person education, in-person contact with consumers in recovery, or some combination of these elements. The highest quality studies incorporated motivational interviewing or communication training interventions, and many interventions combined either in-person mentorship or contact with individuals in recovery. Positive effects on provider attitudes occurred at several levels of educational and consumer contact interventions. Interventions with consumer contact demonstrated long-term maintenance of attitudinal shifts. Despite significant methodological limitations and low-quality assessment ratings, several studies utilized real-world providers and patients, as well as practical, innovative, brief, and potentially cost-effective interventions, particularly in locations with limited technological resources. Conclusions Research on provider stigma interventions increased in recent years, indicating greater worldwide attention to the negative impact of stigma. While educational interventions alone can be helpful in attitudinal change, contact with individuals in recovery from SUDs is a vital component of provider stigma interventions, particularly for lasting effects. This review highlights the importance of including implementation outcomes, such as sustainability and cost-effectiveness, in the study of stigma interventions for providers of addiction treatment.
Potluck: Data Mash-Up Tool for Casual Users

As more and more reusable structured data appears on the Web, casual users will want to take into their own hands the task of mashing up data rather than wait for mash-up sites to be built that address exactly their individually unique needs. In this paper, we present Potluck, a Web user interface that let’s casual users — those without programming skills and data modeling expertise — mash up data themselves. Potluck is novel in its use of drag and drop for merging fields, its integration and extension of the faceted browsing paradigm for focusing on subsets of data to align, and its application of simultaneous editing for cleaning up data syntactically. Potluck also lets the user construct rich visualizations of data in-place as the user aligns and cleans up the data. This iterative process of integrating the data while constructing useful visualizations is desirable when the user is unfamiliar with the data at the beginning — a common case — and wishes to get immediate value out of the data without having to spend the overhead of completely and perfectly integrating the data first. A user study on Potluck indicated that it was usable and learnable, and elicited excitement from programmers who, even with their programming skills, previously had great difficulties performing data integration.
Computational Miniature Mesoscope for large-scale 3D fluorescence imaging

We demonstrate a new wearable fluorescence imaging device named Computational Miniature Mesoscope (CM2), that achieves high-resolution single-shot volumetric imaging across a wide field-of-view.
Common genetic variation associated with Mendelian disease severity revealed through cryptic phenotype analysis

Abstract Clinical heterogeneity is common in Mendelian disease, but small sample sizes make it difficult to identify specific contributing factors. However, if a rare disease represents the severely affected extreme of a spectrum of phenotypic variation, then modifier effects may be apparent within a larger subset of the population. Analyses that take advantage of this full spectrum could have substantially increased power. To test this, we developed cryptic phenotype analysis (CPA), a model-based approach that uses symptom data to infer latent quantitative traits that capture disease-related phenotypic variability. By applying this approach to 50 Mendelian diseases in two large cohorts of patients, we found that these quantitative traits reliably captured disease severity. We then conducted genome-wide association analyses for five of the inferred cryptic phenotypes, uncovering common variation that was predictive of Mendelian disease-related diagnoses and outcomes. Overall, this study highlights the utility of computationally derived phenotypes and biobank-scale cohorts for investigating the complex genetic architecture of Mendelian diseases.
Artificial Neural Network Modelling Using Pre-Operative MRI Features to Predict Obesity in Pediatric Patients With Craniopharyngioma Treated With Proton Therapy

Purpose/objective(s) Survival for children and adolescents diagnosed with craniopharyngioma and treated with surgery and radiation therapy exceeds 90% when measured at 10 years. Quality of life is often impacted by obesity resulting from tumor and treatment. We hypothesized that obesity could be predicted by analyzing pre-operative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) radiomic features. An artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed to predict increase in body mass index (BMI) after surgery and proton therapy using MRI features. Materials/methods Eighty-four patients diagnosed with craniopharyngioma (aged 1-20 years) were included in this study. Surgery and proton therapy were performed on a prospective therapeutic trial. Institutional review board approval was obtained for this retrospective study. BMI was measured every 3 months in the first follow-up year and every 6 months hereafter until 5 years after therapy. The endpoint of this study was defined as the percentile increase of the normalized BMI in the last follow-up year. Radiomics features were extracted from pre-operative MRI images with T1-, T2-weighted, and FLAIR sequences using radiomics software. Images were pre-processed to improve the uniformity of the multicenter MRI datasets. One hundred and five features were calculated, and 5 key features were selected using an embedded feature selection method. A 4-layer ANN with group-Lasso and dropout regularization was developed to predict BMI increase using TensorFlow (Google, USA) toolbox. Patients were divided into 3 groups based on their BMI percentile increase from pre-irradiation baseline with thresholds of 10% and 20%, respectively. Data augmentation and 5-fold cross-validation were used to improve the stability of the ANN model. Results The average accuracy of the testing dataset in the 5-fold cross validation was 82.3% ± 4.3%, 69.1% ± 3.0%, and 84.0% ± 5.0% for T1, T2, and FLAIR images, respectively. The macro average area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.92, 0.88, and 0.92 for T1, T2, and FLAIR images, respectively. The average confusion matrix principal elements were 0.55, 1, and 0.92 for the 3 groups in T1 images, 0.29, 0.96, and 0.82 in T2 images, and 0.59, 0.98, and 0.96 in FLAIR images. Conclusion A predictive model of post-treatment BMI increase for pediatric patients with craniopharyngioma was developed with relatively high accuracy and AUC. This model could facilitate early identification of patients at risk for obesity after treatment for close surveillance and intervention.
MR Imaging of the Ankle and Hindfoot

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is the diagnostic modality of choice for evaluation of traumatic ligamentous and tendinous injuries of the ankle and hindfoot. MRI is also valuable in the detection of occult bony trauma, osteochondral injuries, avascular necrosis, osteomyelitis, and a variety of other osseous conditions. This unit presents basic protocols for T1- and T2-weighted sequences and short tau inversion recovery (STIR) imaging. Additional imaging following intravenous gadolinium is indicated in selected cases.
Structural Polymorphism of CAG RNA Repeats Investigated by Single-Molecule Mechanical Unfolding

Structural polymorphism is an intrinsic characteristic of RNA, especially RNA containing repeated sequences. Transcripts including massively expanded trinucleotide repeats are implicated in many hu...
Robust real-time human activity recognition from tracked face displacements

We are interested in the challenging scientific pursuit of how to characterize human activities in any formal meeting situation by tracking people’s positions with a computer vision system. We present a human activity recognition algorithm that works within the framework of CAMEO (the Camera Assisted Meeting Event Observer), a panoramic vision system designed to operate in real-time and in uncalibrated environments. Human activity is difficult to characterize within the constraints that the CAMEO must operate, including uncalibrated deployment and unmodeled occlusions. This paper describes these challenges and how we address them by identifying invariant features and robust activity models. We present experimental results of our recognizer correctly classifying person data.
Text Categorization through Multistrategy Learning and Visualization

This paper introduces a multistrategy learning approach to the categorization of text documents. The approach benefits from two existing, and in our view complimentary, sets of categorization techniques: those based on Rocchio ?s algorithm and those belonging to the rule learning class of machine learning algorithms. Visualization is used for the presentation of the output of learning.
Understanding graduate school aspirations: the effect of good teaching practices

This study examined the effects of good teaching practices on post-baccalaureate degree aspirations using logistic regression techniques on a multi-institutional, longitudinal sample of students at 4-year colleges and universities in the USA. We examined whether eight good teaching practices (non-classroom interactions with faculty, prompt feedback, frequency of interactions with faculty, teaching clarity and organization, challenging classes and high faculty expectations, frequency of higher-order exams and assignments, academic challenge and effort, and integrated ideas, information, and experiences) influenced post-baccalaureate degree aspirations at the end of four academic years, while controlling for students’ background characteristics and institutional characteristics that are theoretically associated with aspirations. Using pretest and posttest data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, the findings suggest that good teaching practices are positively related to undergraduate students’ aspirations for graduate education. This study contributes to college outcome models by emphasizing the importance of faculty to the undergraduate experience. Finally, this study has implications for higher education policy, including practical applications for those involved with undergraduate and graduate education, including administrators, faculty, staff, and students.
Fuzzy generalized network approach for solving an optimization model for routing in B-ISDN

Routing algorithms are required to guarantee the various quality of service (QoS) characteristics requested by the wide range of applications supported by Broadband Integrated Services Digital Networks (B?ISDN). In this paper the routing problem is formulated as a fuzzy multiobjective optimization model. The fuzzy approach allows for the inclusion and evaluation of several criteria simultaneously. The proposed model takes into consideration the balancing of the load in the network to avoid link saturation and hence the possibility of congestion. A hybrid approach that combines the generalized network concept with the technique of fuzzy programming is recommended to solve the model. The efficiency and applicability of the model is tested under different load conditions by studying several measures of performance.
Reducing effect of softball-to-head impact by incorporating slip-surface in helmet

Abstract In this study we explore the effect of head-helmet interaction, in an effort to better understand the contributing factors that lead to mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI). A Hybrid III anthropomorphic head-form, fit with a Major League Baseball (MLB) approved helmet, was laterally struck with a softball at the center of gravity (CG), at 50.8 mm above the CG, and at 76.2 mm behind the CG. The effect of various frictional interfaces (slip-surfaces) between the helmet padding and Hybrid III head were tested (coefficient of friction (COF) = 1.39, 0.195, 0.096). Analysis of variance compared the effects of the frictional interfaces (FI). The results showed that a slip-surface, placed between a Hybrid III head and helmet, reduced both the resultant head acceleration and the rate of acceleration change. For impact above the CG, acceleration effects showed statistical significance (F = 7.65, p = 0.0023), and Duncan's analysis showed that the mean area under the Y-acceleration curve for COF of 1.39 was greater in comparison to COF of 0.096. It is recommended that a form of slip-surface be incorporated into any head gear, to allow head-helmet relative motion, and to utilize a proper FI in any physical model analyzing the effect of helmet impact for humans.
Fast reduced-order finite-element modeling of lossy coupled wires using lumped impedance elements

Spatial discretization of conducting wires often leads to a highly dense mesh and increases the computational burden. In this paper, lossy coupled wires are replaced by infinitely thin lumped impedance elements, which significantly reduce the modeling complexity while still offering an accurate broadband modeling.
The incidence and prevalence of reported multiple sclerosis

A national survey, sponsored by the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, to determine the incidence, prevalence, and economic impact of multiple sclerosis has just been completed. These data are the first report of the results. Based on the data gathered, it is estimated that on January 1, 1976, there were a reported 123,000 multiple sclerosis patients in the conterminous United States (a rate of 58 per 100,000). The annual incidence for the period 1970-1975 was estimated to be 8,800 (a rate of 4.2 per 100,000). The pattern of the disease being more common among females, whites, persons aged 30-50 years, and individuals living above the 37th parallel was also demonstrated. In addition to demographic characteristics, selected disease characteristics of the incidence and prevalence populations were also examined.
THE INFLUENCE OF FASTING ON THYROPARATHYROIDECTOMIZED ALBINO RATS

Since there is a wide variation in the mortality and morbidity observed in different laboratories following thyroparathyroidectomy of albino rats, it is important to know to what extent postoperative treatment during the first 24 hours affects the results. Barnes and Fogelberg (1) reported that a marked variation occurs in the mortality of a given age and necessitates the use of a large number of animals to justify conclusions. Chandler and Hughes (2) did not observe this variation in mortality provided the animals were returned to an adequate diet immediately after the operation and the temperature of the room did not exceed 80° F. In the most common postoperative procedure animals are kept in a warm room and in a fasting condition for several hours. The importance of the influence of temperature, without reference to food intake, has been reported by several investigators (3, 4, 5). We (6) reported in 1935 a high incidence of tetany at high environmental temperature and a low incidence at low temperatur...
Pharmacokinetics of Antimicrobial Drugs in Cystic Fibrosis : β-Lactam Antibiotics

The pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of beta-lactam antibiotics in patients with cystic fibrosis are discussed. A hypothetical dosing regimen based on these principles is considered. The usual dosing regimens may be suboptimal. New dosage regimens should be studied using prospective, controlled, randomized and blinded clinical trials.
Failures of power and intelligence: Use of Scientific-Technical Information in Government Decision Making

This article assesses the nonuse of scientific-technical information in energy research and development decision making and identifies major conditions and constraints that account for it. It is a study of the Coalcon project, the first federal attempt to demonstrate a synthetic fossil energy technology. The concepts of a failure of power and a failure of intelligence are used to explain the failure to use available technical information in the Coalcon decision. Consequences of crisis on an organization `s use of information are elaborated on.
The effects of differential polyadenylation on expression of the dihydrofolate reductase-encoding gene in Chinese hamster lung cells

Abstract Three differently sized mRNAs are expressed from each of two DHFR (encoding dihydrofolate reductase) alleles present in the Chinese hamster lung (CHL) cell line, DC-3F. The relative abundancy of the transcripts produced from each allele differs dramatically as a result of differential utilization of the multiple poly(A) sites present in the DHFR gene and a genetic polymorphism located within the third poly(A) signal of one allele. We sought to determine whether such differences in polyadenylation affect the steady-state levels of DHFR mRNAs expressed from either allele and, in a more general sense, to ask whether differences in 3′ end RNA processing in a gene containing multiple poly(A) sites affects the final level of gene expression. An SV40 promoter-based transient expression system producing chimeric cat::DHFR transcripts was developed to regenerate the in vivo mRNA polyadenylation patterns associated with each of the two DHFR alleles. The results demonstrate that the total amount of polyadenylated RNA expressed from each of these constructs in vitro is the same regardless of the differential utilization of the poly(A) signals that occurs between them. Moreover, measurement of the individual turnover rates of the DHFR mRNAs expressed in vivo from each allele, as determined by pulse-chase labeling and actinomycin D inhibition studies, revealed no significant allele-specific differences in transcript half-lives. Finally, measuring the steady-state levels of DHFR poly(A)+mRNA in parental DC-3F cells demonstrated that both alleles are expressed to the same extent during normal growth. Thus, even though dramatic allele-specific differences in 3′ end processing of DHFR transcripts occur in vivo, such differences do not appear to influence the steady-state levels of DHFR gene expression.
Complex Predicates, Aspect, and Anti-reconstruction

This paper contrasts two families of approaches to certain affixal verb constructions in Japanese, with particular emphasis on the ’potential’ construction. Scope facts in this construction have been offered as support for complex predicate analyses, in which there is no syntactic constituent consisting of the object and lower verb, to the exclusion of the potential head -rare. We provide a variety of arguments, primarily from aspectual modification properties, which strongly challenge this family of approaches and favor instead VP-complementation approaches in which the potential head selects a thematically complete VP complement. Finally, we show how the scope facts may be accommodated on such a viewpoint, drawing connections to similar properties with other restructuring configurations cross-linguistically.
Forestalling a serious incident: A detective story

Two low-level dust fires and explosions occurred in rotary dryers in one of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co.'s east Texas plants. Although there was no significant damage, the potential for safety or loss incidents initiated a concerted effort to determine the cause. The analytical and explosive hazards efforts showed an iron-adipic compound most probably autooxidized and caused the problem.
Transcriptional Activity Affects the H3K4me3 Level and Distribution in the Coding Region

Histone lysine methylation and CpG DNA methylation contribute to transcriptional regulation. We have shown previously that dimethylated and trimethylated forms of histone H3 at lysine 4 (H3K4me2 and H3K4me3) are primarily depleted from CpG-methylated DNA regions by using patch-methylated stable episomes (minichromosomes) in human cells. This effect on H3K4me2 is clearly not linked to the transcriptional activity in the methylated DNA region; however, transcriptional activity may play a role in the presence of H3K4me3. Here, we present clear evidence of the impact of transcriptional activity on the overall level of H3K4me3 in the coding region and the lack of impact on H3K4me2. Our data also demonstrate the influence of transcriptional activity on the distribution of H3K4me3 and H3K4me2, but not that of total H3, in the 5' end of the coding region relative to the 3' end. The nature of the promoter (viral or endogenous) affects H3K4me3 much more than it affects H3K4me2, suggesting a potential fundamental difference in the recruitment of methyltransferase for H3K4 trimethylation.
Ataxic hemiparesis associated with transcortical motor aphasia

Two patients, ages 51 and 76 years, suddenly developed transcortical motor aphasia combined with pyramidal signs and ataxia of the right extremities that affected the leg more severely than the arm. C
Randomized clinical trial of cystosine arabinoside and 6-thioguanine in remission induction and consolidation of adult nonlymphocytic acute leukemia.

One hundred and forty-seven adults with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia were randomized to one of two treatment regimens utilizing cytosine arabinoside and 6-thioguanine. In regimen A the drugs were administered every 12 hours until marrow cellularity was reduced by at least 50%. In regimen B the drugs were administered every 12 hours for 5 days with five to 7 days rest intervals between courses. Decisions to continue or reinstitute therapy were based solely on marrow cellularity and marrow ratings. The overall response in referee-verified cases in both groups was similar (41%); regimen B proved to be the easier protocol to administer but required greater support. Younger patients or those with an initial high hemoglobin count responded best to these drug regimens. Only 36% of our patients experienced severe marrow hypoplasia (i.e., a 75% or greater reduction in marrow cellularity) prior to complete remission, suggesting that cytosine arabinoside and 6-thioguanine in combination may selectively suppress leukemic cells while sparing normal hematopoietic elements.
Evaluating travel agents' provision of health advice to travellers

Abstract This paper examines the growing interest in the emergent field of travellers' health as evidenced throughout the expanding interdisciplinary literature on travel medicine. It examines the role of travel agents in the tourism distribution channel as the point of sale for tourism products to consumers and argues that the provision of health advice to intending travellers constitutes a major ethical dilemma for a business based on the sale of positive holiday experiences. The paper examines the responses and perceptions from a nationwide survey of travel agents in New Zealand and focuses on the health advice and information associated with outbound travel to Pacific Island destinations.
Immunogenicity alterations induced in isolated Meth A sarcoma surface membranes

Studies on altering the immunogenicity of isolated Meth A surface membranes are described. Balb/c mice, the species of origin of the transplantable Meth A methylcholanthrene-induced lymphosarcoma were immunized IP on days 0 and 1 with isolated Meth A membrane treated in various ways. The mice were challenged IP on day 4 with varying numbers of viable Meth A cells. A 2,500 Meth A cell challenge is uniformly lethal to Balb/c mice. Immunization with unaltered membranes protects 50%–70% of animals against a 50,000 cell challenge. Incorporation of membranes in Freund's complete adjuvant destroys the membranes' immunizing capacity. Pertussis vaccine increases membrane TSTA immunogenicity in an apparently nonspecific way, so that 80%–90% of the mice are protected against a 250,000 cell challenge. Membranes reacted with diazotized arsanilate, neuraminidase, tannic acid, bis-diazobenzidine, and heparin have diminished immunogenicity. Poly-l-lysine and certain lectins enhance immunogenicity. Concanavalin A is the most potent of the lectins. Membranes reacted with this substance protect 60%–70% of animals against a 600,000 cell challenge.
A Model-View Driven Architecture for VR-Based Simulations

Despite recent advances in software and hardware aspects of virtual reality (VR), from the software design point of view VR technology remains primitive. In particular, most existing VR applications suffer from lack of extensibility, maintainability and reusability. Examples of successful architectures include those of web-based applications that utilize such technologies as XML (extensible markup language) and XSL (extensible style sheets) to separate the data models from the view. VR simulations are similar to web-based applications in that they may also consist of some models (e.g., mathematical models) and views (3D representations of the mathematical models). This paper presents an architecture that dynamically generates VR simulations based on XML models that are received as input. Theses XML models are used to define and configure the various elements of an interactive VR application, such as 3D graphics, mathematical or other models and the nature of user interactions (i.e. haptic interaction, physical attributes, etc).
Design of novel coaxial high pass filter for RF applications

The complete design of high power coaxial high pass filter is given analytically and numerically. The coaxial structure consists of two hollow concentric cylinders with a septum located between them at a single azimuthal angle. This septum provides a good high pass filter characteristics and mechanically holds two hollow cylinders together. The attenuation slope in the stop band with this structure is much sharper than the existing filter configurations. This gives faster transition time from stop band to pass band. One end of the coaxial structure is closed and the other end is used as an output port. Excitation port is placed on the side walls of the outside cylinder. The design procedure proposed in this paper has been implemented to obtain a filter configuration at UHF. The new filter is simulated using 3D electromagnetic simulator. Results are then compared with the measured results. Good agreement has been observed between the simulated and measured results.