cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Gender differences in indices of opioid dependency and medical comorbidity in a population of hospitalized HIV-infected African-Americans

We examined gender differences in drug use patterns and in medical presentation among 520 hospitalized, HIV-infected African-Americans. Substance abuse history was self-reported, and medical data were obtained by chart review. Overall, 321 (65%) reported ever having used heroin, with equivalent rates in men and women. Women were more likely to report current use, to have sought treatment, and tended to feel more dependent on heroin than men. Among heroin users, women were more likely to be admitted for conditions related to drug use, rather than AIDS, and to have CD4 counts > 200/mm3. These gender differences in opioid dependency and medical comorbidity may indicate a need for alternative treatment approaches for men and women.(Am J Addict 2004; 13:281–291)
Effects of adenovirus‐mediated liver‐selective overexpression of protein tyrosine phosphatase‐1b on insulin sensitivity in vivo

Aim: Protein tyrosine phosphatase-1B (PTP-1B) is an intracellular PTP known to dephosphorylate and inactivate upstream tyrosine phosphoproteins in the insulin signalling cascade. We and others reported increased abundance of catalytically impaired PTP-1B in tissue lysates from obese human subjects with and without type 2 diabetes, while genetic knockout of PTP-1B improves insulin sensitivity and prevents nutritionally mediated insulin resistance and obesity. The aim of the present work was to further elucidate the role of PTP-1B in glucose metabolism in vivo. Methods: We used adenoviral constructs incorporating cDNAs for either wild-type (W/T) or a catalytically inactive C215S (C/S) mutant PTP-1B to achieve liver-selective PTP-1B overexpression in young Sprague–Dawley rats using tail vein injection, based on the high degree of hepatotropism of adenovirus 5 (Ad5). An Ad5-lacZ construct encoding β-galactosidase was used as a control for viral effects alone. A hyperinsulinaemic euglycaemic clamp was used to study whole body glucose disposal and endogenous glucose production rates. Results: Control studies in HIRcB cells confirmed catalytic activity and inactivity of W/T and C/S respectively. Mean PTP-1B abundance was 2.24 ± 0.02- and 2.33 ± 0.04-fold of saline-treated control in liver lysates of W/T and C/S rats respectively. Liver selective overexpression was confirmed by analysis of tissue lysates from liver, fat and muscle tissues. Ad5 treatment did not result in a statistically or clinically significant liver injury, as determined by serum alanine aminotransferase and histological examination. Seven days post injection, no significant difference in rate of weight gain, fasting blood glucose or insulin levels were seen in any group. Similarly, under steady-state glucose clamp conditions, glucose disposal rate (Rd), endogenous glucose production rate (EGP) and serum insulin levels were similar in all groups. Conclusion: We conclude that moderate medium-term overabundance, to a degree resembling that seen in insulin-resistant states, of PTP-1B in liver tissue does not alter insulin action on glucose metabolism and that the major site of action of PTP-1B is presumably at insulin-responsive target tissue or tissues other than the liver.
NEW PERMIAN POLYPLACOPHORA (MOLLUSCA) FROM MALAYSIA

Extraordinarily large, thick shelled polyplacophorans occur in the Permian limestone in the province of Perak, Malaysia. Three new genera and species are proposed: Hadrochiton pileus, Pyknochiton lunatus, and Kraterochiton magnificus. The occurrence of K. magnificus extends the range of the family Acutichitonidae into the Middle Permian.
THE FIRST EVIDENCE OF DRILLING PREDATION IN INOCERAMIDS

The inoceramid bivalves first appeared in the Permian of Australia (Browne and Newell, 1966; Waterhouse, 1970), thrived during certain intervals in the Jurassic (e.g., the Toarcian; Harries and Little, 1999), and dominated many benthic marine communities globally from the late Early through the Late Cretaceous. Despite excellent preservation (the prismatic, outer calcitic layer is retained in many cases), ubiquitous presence in Late Mesozoic marine deposits, and intense study (e.g., Troger, 1967; Kauffman et al., 1977; Crampton, 1996; Walaszczyk and Cobban, 2000; Walaszczyk et al., 2001), no evidence of predatory drilling in inoceramids has been reported to date. Indeed, evidence of predation of any sort on inoceramids throughout their evolutionary history is limited (Harries and Ozanne, 1998; though see Ozanne and Harries, 2002, for an exception to this). There have been several documented examples of non-predatory borings in inoceramids likely made post mortem by organisms such as bryozoans (Morris, 1990) and acrothoracian barnacles. Rare instances of potential nondrilling predatory attacks on inoceramids by fish (Speden, 1971) and ptychodid sharks (Kauffman, 1972), also have been described (see summary in Harries and Ozanne, 1998). A number of factors may account for the absence of predatory drilling in inoceramids, including: 1) in most instances inoceramids favored oxygen-deficient habitats that excluded at least some drilling predators; 2) the flexibility of the inoceramid prismato-nacreous valves may have made them difficult to puncture or pierce; and 3) in the U.S. Western Interior Seaway (WIS), the region from which these specimens were collected, the paucity of drilled inoceramid specimens also coincides with the delayed onset of all drilling predation as compared to published global patterns. Here, we document the only known examples of predatory drilling on inoceramids preserved in the fossil record. The specimens in this study were collected in …
Puffery on the Market: A Behavioral Economic Analysis of the Puffery Defense in the Securities Arena

Puffery statements in the securities arena are statements that are optimistic, general, broad or so vague that they are considered immaterial as a matter of law and thus are shielded from liability. The courts’ underlying assumption is that investors disregard puffery statements and do not rely on them when making investment decisions.In light of the mounting scholarly criticism of the puffery defense, this Article aims to analyze how the federal courts in recent years have defined and addressed the puffery defense and whether investors indeed disregard puffery statements when making investment decisions.The first part of the Article analyzes 233 federal courts cases in the five year period between 2009 and 2013. The analysis reveals that despite the rising popularity of the puffery defense, the courts’ decisions lack reasoned analysis. In addition, the courts have not elaborated on their presumption that investors do not rely on puffery statements and its validity.The second part of the Article describes the existing limited research with respect to the effect of puffery statements on consumers and investors. In an attempt to fill the gap in the literature, I conducted a survey that aimed to test whether puffery statements affect investors’ decisions. The main finding of the survey is that the courts’ assumption that puffery statements do not affect investment decisions is correct in most instances. These results should soften the criticism that scholars have raised with respect to the courts’ assumption. At the same time, the results call for a cautious analysis of strong puffery statements, such as factual statements, as well as cautious implementation of general notions in behavioral economics.
A ‘FIXAÇÃO’ DO PODER: O QUE OS DESASTRES PODEM NOS DIZER SOBRE GESTÃO

Este artigo discute as respostas a desastres gerenciais contemporâneas. As politicas neo-liberais nas ultimas duas decadas tem limitado o alcance (e em alguns casos), a capacidade do estado. Eles tem restringido o que o Estado deve fazer diretamente ao criar espacos de intervencao da sociedade civil. Estas tendencias tem afetado profundamente resposta a desastres contemporânea, tais como com os recentes terremotos no Haiti e Chile. Atraves de uma triade conceitual eu explico como o poder torna-se "fixo", como as intervencoes gerenciais para alivio de desastres ao privar o controle local sobre a direcao e a qualidade de alivio. Eu tambem considerar como tal poder pode ser "nao fixado", considerando-se alguns esforcos no uso das midias sociais e politicas de assistencia humanitaria para aumentar o nivel da voz da comunidade na resposta a catastrofes.
Fine and ultrafine particulate organic carbon in the Los Angeles basin: Trends in sources and composition

In this study, PM2.5 and PM0.18 (particles with dp<2.5 μm and dp<0.18 μm, respectively) were collected during 2012-2013 in Central Los Angeles (LA) and 2013-2014 in Anaheim. Samples were chemically analyzed for carbonaceous species (elemental and organic carbons) and individual organic compounds. Concentrations of organic compounds were reported and compared with many previous studies in Central LA to quantify the impact of emissions control measurements that have been implemented for vehicular emissions over the past decades in this area. Moreover, a novel hybrid approach of molecular marker-based chemical mass balance (MM-CMB) analysis was conducted, in which a combination of source profiles that were previously obtained from a Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) model in Central LA, were combined with some traditional source profiles. The model estimated the relative contributions from mobile sources (including gasoline, diesel, and smoking vehicles), wood smoke, primary biogenic sources (including emissions from vegetative detritus, food cooking, and re-suspended soil dust), and anthropogenic secondary organic carbon (SOC). Mobile sources contributed to 0.65 ± 0.25 μg/m(3) and 0.32 ± 0.25 μg/m(3) of PM2.5 OC in Central LA and Anaheim, respectively. Primary biogenic and anthropogenic SOC sources were major contributors to OC concentrations in both size fractions and sites. Un-apportioned OC ("other OC") accounted for an average 8.0 and 26% of PM2.5 OC concentration in Central LA and Anaheim, respectively. A comparison with previous studies in Central LA revealed considerable reduction of EC and OC, along with tracers of mobile sources (e.g. PAHs, hopanes and steranes) as a result of implemented regulations on vehicular emissions. Given the significant reduction of the impacts of mobile sources in the past decade in the LA Basin, the impact of SOC and primary biogenic emissions have a larger relative impact and the new hybrid model allows the impact of these sources to be better quantified.
Tracking cross-contamination transfer dynamics at a mock retail deli market using GloGerm.

Ready-to-eat (RTE) deli meats are considered a food at high risk for causing foodborne illness. Deli meats are listed as the highest risk RTE food vehicle for Listeria monocytogenes. Cross-contamination in the retail deli market may contribute to spread of pathogens to deli meats. Understanding potential cross-contamination pathways is essential for reducing the risk of contaminating various products. The objective of this study was to track cross-contamination pathways through a mock retail deli market using an abiotic surrogate, GloGerm, to visually represent how pathogens may spread through the deli environment via direct contact with food surfaces. Six contamination origination sites (slicer blade, meat chub, floor drain, preparation table, employee's glove, and employee's hands) were evaluated separately. Each site was inoculated with 20 ml of GloGerm, and a series of standard deli operations were completed (approximately 10 min of work). Photographs were then taken under UV illumination to visualize...
Interference contrast microscopy in the laboratory.

Comparisons were made between ordinary two-dimensional microscopic methods and interference contrast microscopy, a technic which provides a relief or “three-dimensional” image. Interference contrast microscopy was of assistance in the accurate recognition and structural differentiation of certain biologic products such as cells, urinary casts, and microorganisms. Interference contrast microscopy may be used in both clinical and research settings. It is particularly useful in teaching structure and object recognition to both the student and the experienced observer.
Debt for all: towards a critical examination of organizational roles in debt practices and financialization

In this chapter, I lay the groundwork for a critical examination of organizations engaged in businesses surrounding debt practices and financialization in contemporary societies. I draw on the literature to discuss that in the business of debt, the winners are likely to be elite borrowers and powerful financial organizations; the losers are likely to be non-elite borrowers who face various constraints as evidenced by their debt profile, have low power compared to financial organizations in the contract and in terms of influencing regulations, are bound by personal responsibility in the face of systemic problems, and suffer the disciplinary effects of debt on their overall life. Building on this background, I argue that contemporary practices of debt have an overall impact on society that is largely in conflict with moral philosophy and I illustrate this with a discussion of Rawlsian philosophy. Furthermore, I critically examine the other side of debt – debt-ownership and its expansion through securitization. I draw on Bourdieu’s idea of “illusio” to argue that the project of financial democracy via financialization as it is currently executed, while supported by the rhetoric of access and opportunity, may actually serve to strengthen the dominant positions of elite actors in society.
Novel therapeutic targets for reduction of intraocular pressure in primary open angle glaucoma

Glaucoma is a major cause of blindness in China and the world. Currently, all therapeutic means in treating open-angle glaucoma are limited to control the progression of optic neuropathy by lowering intraocular pressure (IOP). Clinically available medicines lower IOP by either enhancing the uveoscleral pathway or inhibiting aqueous humor production. Since the primary cause of IOP elevation in POAG is elevated outflow resistance in the trabecular outflow pathway, current medicines are not able to correct the underlying pathogenesis and pathophysiology of the disease. In this review article, we discuss a series of new therapeutic targets and therapeutic approaches that are designed to directly modify the pathological changes related to the reduction in trabecular outflow in glaucoma patients. Some of these targets and approaches may produce a significant breakthrough in the treatment of this devastating disease. (Chin J Ophthalmol, 2016, 52: 471-475) Key words: Glaucoma, open-angle; Molecular targeted therapy; Trabecular meshwork; Drug discovery
Migration and Dialect Contact

A great deal of research during the past 40 years and earlier investigates the outcomes of large-scale contact between mutually intelligible dialects. In the context of well-established types of dialect convergence, this article summarizes research from the past 10 years on migration-induced dialect contact. I devote particular attention to ongoing dialect contact in the urban settings of London, England; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Xining, China; Amman, Jordan; and New York City, United States. In all cases, the data show evidence of the expected process of dialect leveling, but linguistic innovations emerging from dialect contact are also prominent. Social network and identity factors are predicted to define much future dialect contact research.
The Identification of Macrophage-enriched Glycoproteins Using Glycoproteomics.

Prostate cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths of men in the United States. Whereas the localized disease is highly treatable by surgical resection and radiation, cancer that has metastasized remains incurable. Immune cells that primarily scavenge debris and promote prostate cancer angiogenesis and wound repair are M2 macrophages. They are phenotypically similar to M2 tumor-associated macrophages (M2-TAMs) and have been reported to associate with solid tumors and aide in proliferation, metastasis, and resistance to therapy. As an invasive species within the tumor microenvironment, this makes M2-TAMs an ideal therapeutic target in prostate cancer. To identify novel surface glycoproteins expressed on M2 macrophages, we developed a novel method of creating homogeneous populations of human macrophages from human CD14+ monocytes in vitro. These homogeneous M1 macrophages secrete pro-inflammatory cytokines, and our M2 macrophages secrete anti-inflammatory cytokines as well as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). To identify enriched surface glycoproteins, we then performed solid-phase extraction of N-linked glycopeptides followed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) on our homogeneous macrophage populations. We discovered five novel peptides that are enriched exclusively on human M2 macrophages relative to human M1 macrophages and human CD14+ monocytes. Finally, we determined whether these surface glycoproteins, found enriched on M2 macrophages, were also expressed in human metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) tissues. Using mCRPC tissues from rapid autopsies, we were able to determine M2 macrophage infiltration by using immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry. These findings highlight the presence of macrophage infiltration in human mCRPC but also surface glycoproteins that could be used for prognosis of localized disease and for targeting strategies.
Plasmonic nano-additives for polymer composites: Preservation of tailored functionality

The transition of highly functional nanomaterials into scalable composite manufacturing processes often leads to the deterioration of the desired nanomaterial properties. In this work, selective coating methodologies are employed to protect optically-tailored nanoplasmonic materials against the high temperature/high shear environments associated with extrusion and injection molded polymer nanocomposites. Optically tuned plasmonic nanomaterials including silver nanoplates, gold nanorods, gold nanostars, and noble metal shells have been produced with tailored resonances across the visible and nIR spectrum. Protective coatings are created on the materials, including PEG, polymer stabilizers, and silica shells, to enhance the survivability of the nanomaterial's morphology/physical properties during high-stress processing conditions. The stability and thermal effects of the processing on the additives is fully investigated, and the methods are optimized to allow for the creation of plasmonic polymer nanocomposites that preserve their tailored resonance properties at elevated processing temperatures. An additional focus will be presented towards coupling the plasmon energy to hybridized RAMAN tags and chromophore molecules in the developed composites.
Immunogenicity of the meningococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine in pediatric kidney transplant patients

Immunosuppressed kidney transplant patients may have suboptimal response to vaccinations. The aim of this study was to determine antibody response to a quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MenACWY-D) in adolescents with a kidney transplant. This was a prospective, single-center, cohort study. Adolescent patients (11–22 years old) with a functioning kidney transplant for at least 3 months and no previous meningococcal vaccination were eligible for enrollment. Antibody levels to all serogroups were measured before vaccination (baseline) and at 4 weeks and 1, 2 and 3 years after vaccination. Seropositivity was defined as a titer ≥ 1:8 at baseline, and seroconversion as a fourfold or greater increase in antibody titer from baseline at 4 weeks post-vaccination. Geometric mean titers (GMTs) were calculated at each time point and compared to published GMTs from vaccinated healthy adolescents. Nineteen patients were enrolled. No patient had seroprotective titers against all four serogroups at baseline. At 4 weeks post-vaccination 41% of patients seroconverted to all four serogroups, with seroconversion rates of 88, 53, 71 and 94% for serogroups A, C, W and Y, respectively. GMTs were significantly lower in adolescents with a kidney transplant than in healthy adolescents at 1 month (p = 0.02) and 3 years (p = 0.04) post-vaccination. There were no significant adverse events, episodes of rejection or death in any patient. Adolescents with a kidney transplant may not respond adequately to MenACWY-D and may experience more rapid declines in antibody titers than healthy adolescents. Further study is needed to determine if alternative dosing schedules can improve antibody response in this population.
Engineering biologically extensible hydrogels using photolithographic printing.

Abstract Biomaterials for tissue engineering that recapitulate the mechanical response and biological function of native tissue are highly sought after to lessen the burden of damaged or diseased tissue. Poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogels are a popular candidate because of their favorable bioactive properties. However, their mechanical behavior is very dissimilar to that of biological tissue, which behaves in a mechanically anisotropic, nonlinear, and viscoelastic fashion. It has been previously shown that PEGDA hydrogels can be patterned in alternating linear strips of different stiffnesses to generate anisotropic behavior, but these constructs still have a linear stress-strain response. In this study, we imparted nonlinear mechanical properties to PEGDA hydrogels by fabricating composite hydrogel constructs consisting of a stiff sinusoidal reinforcement embedded into a softer base matrix. This was achieved by polymerizing low molecular weight (MW) PEGDA hydrogel precursor into a stiff sinusoidal shape and then polymerizing this construct into a high MW precursor. Samples were generated with different relative stiffness between the two components and a range of sinusoid periodicities to assess the tunability of the resulting stress-strain curve. Tensile testing indicates that the sinusoidal patterning gives rise to nonlinear stress-strain behavior. Varying the relative stiffness was shown to tune the slope of the linear region of the stress-strain curve, and varying periodicity was shown to affect the length of the toe region of this curve. We conclude that composite hydrogels with stiff sinusoidally-patterned reinforcements display mechanical properties more similar to those of biological tissue than uniform or linearly-patterned hydrogels. Statement of Significance Hydrogel biomaterials are a popular candidate for engineering constructs that can mimic the properties of native tissue for disease modeling and tissue-engineering applications. Studies have shown that poly(ethylene) glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogels can be fabricated to display many biological aspects of native tissue. However, they are unable to recapitulate fundamental mechanical properties of such tissue, such as anisotropy and nonlinearity. Photolithographic techniques have been employed to generate anisotropic linear PEGDA hydrogels via patterned reinforcement. The present study indicates that such techniques can be modified to generate PEGDA constructs with a sinusoidal reinforcement that display a strongly nonlinear response to tensile loading. This work sets the stage for more intricate patterning for providing increased control over hydrogel mechanical response.
Work and Job Satisfaction

Jones elaborates on the key role of “work” in the model, reflecting on its close connection to social capital even in areas as innocuous as the school reunion. The relationship of work to personal feeling (“job satisfaction”) is here elaborated: Americans have worked more hours in each decade in every age group, regardless of gender and for both black and white Americans. The gender gap and the black-white differential in hours have both lessened significantly. While there is no marked difference in job satisfaction between men and women, white Americans exhibit higher levels of job satisfaction than black Americans. College graduates, who work the most hours, also have the highest level of job satisfaction.
Challenges to network security on college campuses

With the growth of hacking, denial of service (DoS) attacks, virus/worm propagation, and other modes of computer crime, network security has become a growing challenge in all types of organizations throughout the United States and the rest of the world. With the more open nature of libraries, secondary schools, and colleges/universities, cybercriminals are looking increasingly at these locations as a point from which to launch their attacks. In response to these increasing attacks, organizations are beginning to look at areas to improve the protection of their Information Technology infrastructure. However, due to current economic conditions and the hierarchy of needs on most higher education campuses, these institutions are falling behind their commercial counterparts in providing, at least, minimal protection for their systems. While most higher education campuses are behind the norm on computer security, two-year campuses are especially vulnerable to network security threats. Their open labs, limited staff, and limited budgetary resources make them a desirable target for the cybercriminal. This paper focuses on the challenges that these institutions have faced in attempting to protect their data and the network infrastructure from illegal activity. Data was collected from over fifty institutions from seven states. These state were: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. Results generated from these two-year institutions indicated that, while network security has become a priority over the past five years, there exists a significant discrepancy between the security measures thought to be necessary by the IT administration and the actual safeguards that were currently in place, or even planned for implementation. Research also identified several of the challenges that have caused this discrepancy between network security needs and those already in place. These included lack of staff, lack of funding, and lack of upper management support.
Employed women with alcohol problems who seek help from employee assistance programs. Description and comparisons.

After a brief description of employee assistance programs (EAP), we present data collected from 6,400 employees from 84 worksites who used the services of EAPs, a portion of whom were assessed by the EAP as having alcohol-related problems and/or recieved scores on the Alcohol Dependence Scale (ADS) indicative of a potential alcohol-related problem. In addition, data were collected at intake from the EAP administrators, and employment status of the employee clients was assessed 18 to 24 months later. These data indicate that EAPs are effective in sustaining the employment of most women with alcohol-related problems who seek services from EAPs and that EAPs’ goal of early intervention is especially realized among women with alcohol problems. Other conclusions include: women with alcohol problems do not enter EAPs through routes that are strikingly different from those of men; many of the gender differences that are revealed are associated with job status differences; employed women with alcohol problems are detached from nuclear families, with markedly low rates of current marriage; even when married, spouses are less likely to play a role in the referral of women with alcohol problems than the spouses of the men; and, there is no clear indication that women are the target of any form of discrimination in the process of EAP utilization. However, women are considerably more likely to have less adequate insurance coverage, according to the EAP administrators’ assessment reported at client intake, than their male counterparts, leading to treatment choices that may be less than appropriate.
Sex-limitation and G × E Interaction

As described in Chapter 8, the basic univariate ACE model allows us to estimate genetic and environmental components of phenotypic variance from like-sex MZ and DZ twin data. When data are available from both male and female twin pairs, an investigator may be interested in asking whether the variance profile of a trait is similar across the sexes or whether the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences are sex-dependent. To address this issue, the ACE model may be fitted independently to data from male and female twins, and the parameter estimates compared by inspection. This approach, however, has three severe limitations: (1) it does not test whether the heterogeneity observed across the sexes is significant; (2) it does not attempt to explain the sex differences by fitting a particular sex-limitation model; and (3) it discards potentially useful information by excluding dizygotic opposite-sex twin pairs from the analysis. In the first part of this chapter (section 11.2), we outline three models for exploring sex differences in genetic and environmental effects (i.e., models for sex-limitation) and provide an example of each by analyzing twin data on body mass index (BMI).
Neural Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Neural tissue engineering and regenerative medicine is a research area that emerges at the interfaces of neuroscience, cell biology, and engineering, where research tools in cell biology and neuroscience are combined with engineering principles to facilitate the regeneration/repair of neural tissues and organs that are damaged due to ischemic, thermal, chemical, mechanical, pathological, or aging factors. Cells, biomaterial scaffolds, and bioactive agents may contribute to nervous system repair in different ways. Research data on the applications of individual components of cells, biomaterials, or agents, or their combinations in neural repair are reviewed. Emphasis is placed on the design of biomaterials scaffolds, choice and manipulation of cells (e.g., stem cell engineering), and appropriate delivery systems for the constitution of a tissue engineering approach that leads to anatomical reconstruction and functional recovery in the damaged nervous system.
The Foundation's View of the Lawyers for Housing Project

Government and Law Officer, the Ford Foundation I will discuss the Lawyers for Housing project from the point of view of the Ford Foundation, and give the historical perspective of why we are involved. I can perhaps best give the perspective of the Foundation by reading the justifica tion within the Foundation for the project. Despite more liberal federal sup port legislation, the proliferation of private nonprofit housing spon sors, greater willingness of pri vate lending institutions to invest in slum reconstruction and some signs of more enlightened atti tudes on the part of private build ers, housing construction for low income people continues to fol low far behind need. There are many reasons for the snail's pace of progress in low income hous ing?the thin flow of subsidy funds, antiquated building codes and zoning laws, the bureacratic delays inherent in the com plicated regulations that govern federal, state and local programs, and the shortage of technical as sistance to the many unsophisti cated and inexperienced commu nity groups which are trying to get housing projects underway, to mention only a few. The legal profession has an important role to play in easing each of the three latter blocks to progress. There is almost no step in the long process of generating construction of low and moderate income housing that does not need a lawyer's ser vices. The real estate owner who wishes to develop his land, a de veloper-builder seeking an oppor tunity, a community group wish ing to organize a neighborhood corporation to rehabilitate
Argument Structure and Disciplinary Perspective: The Linked-Convergent Versus Multiple-Co-ordinatively Compound Distinctions

The pragma-dialectical multiple-co-ordinatively compound distinction is not the same as the linked-convergent distinction. Multiple argumentation consists of a series of independent arguments each intended to be sufficient to justify accepting or rejecting some viewpoint. In co-ordinatively compound argumentation, the arguments are only sufficient together. In a critical discussion, the proponent may present a number of arguments for his viewpoint, because he must withdraw some during the course of the discussion or because he seeks to convince a plurality of challengers and trusts that each challenger will find at least one argument acceptable. The unit of dialectical analysis is the entire discussion, while the unit of logical analysis is the individual argument. The linked-convergent distinction, then, applies to co-ordinatively compound arguments and is required for the proper logical evaluation of arguments. If one convergent premise is unacceptable, the remaining premises may still be acceptable and adequate grounds for the conclusion. But if a linked premise is unacceptable, the entire reason of which it is a factor is unacceptable. Keeping these two pairs of distinctions separate can help resolve conflicts in accounts of making the linked-convergent distinction. We apply this to discussions by Thomas, Nolt, and Yanal. We argue that what Walton calls the Suspension/Insufficient Proof Test characterizes co-ordinatively compound structure rather than linked structure. We conclude the chapter by arguing that dialectics and logic will have different perspectives on modalities, rebuttals, and counter-rebuttals. Dialectics is concerned with whether the force of commitment indicated by a modality is justified; logic with whether the strength of the connection claimed between premises and conclusion actually holds. Logic requires recognizing that arguments may involve a dialectical tier containing defeaters and counter-rebuttals. Dialectics can represent the counter-rebuttal as a premise additional to those of the core argument in a co-ordinatively compound argument.
BRCA1-associated R-loop affects transcription and differentiation in breast luminal epithelial cells.

BRCA1-associated basal-like breast cancer originates from luminal progenitor cells. Breast epithelial cells from cancer-free BRCA1 mutation carriers are defective in luminal differentiation. However, how BRCA1 deficiency leads to lineage-specific differentiation defect is not clear. BRCA1 is implicated in resolving R-loops, DNA-RNA hybrid structures associated with genome instability and transcriptional regulation. We recently showed that R-loops are preferentially accumulated in breast luminal epithelial cells of BRCA1 mutation carriers. Here, we interrogate the impact of a BRCA1 mutation-associated R-loop located in a putative transcriptional enhancer upstream of the ERα-encoding ESR1 gene. Genetic ablation confirms the relevance of this R-loop-containing region to enhancer-promoter interactions and transcriptional activation of the corresponding neighboring genes, including ESR1, CCDC170 and RMND1. BRCA1 knockdown in ERα+ luminal breast cancer cells increases intensity of this R-loop and reduces transcription of its neighboring genes. The deleterious effect of BRCA1 depletion on transcription is mitigated by ectopic expression of R-loop-removing RNase H1. Furthermore, RNase H1 overexpression in primary breast cells from BRCA1 mutation carriers results in a shift from luminal progenitor cells to mature luminal cells. Our findings suggest that BRCA1-dependent R-loop mitigation contributes to luminal cell-specific transcription and differentiation, which could in turn suppress BRCA1-associated tumorigenesis.
Trial distinctiveness in visuospatial working memory: effects on individual differences

ABSTRACTPrevious research has shown that proactive interference (PI) negatively affects performance on working memory (WM) tasks, particularly when to-be-remembered items are similar across trials,...
Nanofluid of Petroleum Sulfonate Nanocapsules for Enhanced Oil Recovery in High-Temperature and High-Salinity Reservoirs

Petroleum sulfonate (PS) salt surfactants that are insoluble in high-salinity water were encapsulated into 10–60 nm oil swollen micelles dispersed by a cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine zwitterionic c...
Quantifying the impact of urban road networks on the efficiency of local trips

Abstract City-level circuity factors have been introduced to quantify and compare the directness of vehicular travel across different cities. While these city-level factors help to improve the quality of distance approximation functions for city-wide vehicle movements, more granular factors are needed to obtain accurate shortest path distance approximations for last-mile transportation systems that are typically characterized by local trips. More importantly, local circuity factors encode valuable information about the efficiency and complexity of the urban road network, which can be leveraged to inform policy and practice. In this paper, we quantify and analyze local network circuity leveraging contemporary traffic datasets. Using the city of Sao Paulo as our primary case study and a combination of supervised and un-supervised machine learning methods, we observe significant heterogeneities in local network circuity, explained by dimensional and topological properties of the road network. Locally, real trip distances are about twice as long as distances predicted by the L 1 norm. Results from Sao Paulo are compared to seven additional urban areas in Latin America and the United States. At a coarse-grained level of analysis, we observe similar correlations between road network properties and local circuity across these cities.
Cybersecurity Breaches and Information Technology Governance Roles in Audit Committee Charters

Cybersecurity is a serious and growing risk for organizations. Firms with board of director involvement in information technology governance (ITG) may be better equipped to deal with this risk. Yet...
A generic physics-informed neural network-based constitutive model for soft biological tissues.

Abstract Constitutive modeling is a cornerstone for stress analysis of mechanical behaviors of biological soft tissues. Recently, it has been shown that machine learning (ML) techniques, trained by supervised learning, are powerful in building a direct linkage between input and output, which can be the strain and stress relation in constitutive modeling. In this study, we developed a novel generic physics-informed neural network material (NNMat) model which employs a hierarchical learning strategy by following the steps: (1) establishing constitutive laws to describe general characteristic behaviors of a class of materials; (2) determining constitutive parameters for an individual subject. A novel neural network structure was proposed which has two sets of parameters: (1) a class parameter set for characterizing the general elastic properties; and (2) a subject parameter set (three parameters) for describing individual material response. The trained NNMat model may be directly adopted for a different subject without re-training the class parameters, and only the subject parameters are considered as constitutive parameters. Skip connections are utilized in the neural network to facilitate hierarchical learning. A convexity constraint was imposed to the NNMat model to ensure that the constitutive model is physically relevant. The NNMat model was trained, cross-validated and tested using biaxial testing data of 63 ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm tissue samples, which was compared to expert-constructed models (Holzapfel-Gasser-Ogden, Gasser–Ogden–Holzapfel, and four-fiber families) using the same fitting and testing procedure. Our results demonstrated that the NNMat model has a significantly better performance in both fitting (R2 value of 0.9632 vs 0.9019, p=0.0053) and testing (R2 value of 0.9471 vs 0.8556, p=0.0203) than the Holzapfel–Gasser–Ogden model. The proposed NNMat model provides a convenient and general methodology for constitutive modeling.
Reimagining Ambulatory Care as a Key to Population Health.

SUMMARY Ambulatory care is a key to achieving better population health-not traditional ambulatory (outpatient) care, but rather ambulatory care reimagined. Ambulatory care is so vital that we at Intermountain Healthcare redesigned our entire organization to prioritize it and give it the attention it deserves.Historically, outpatient care was a point of access that connected many patients with specialty care, where hospitals made their money. Doctors in private practices referred their patients to the hospitals with which they were affiliated, and that arrangement provided the hospitals with a stream of patients on which they relied financially. Today, ambulatory care plays an entirely different role in the context of population health. Healthcare providers are paid a flat fee per person and gain a benefit when people stay healthy. In this new context, ambulatory care is a mechanism to get ahead of health problems and avoid more extensive treatments.This change then begs a question: How do healthcare providers support their essential services if ambulatory care is working to reduce the stream of patients to hospitals? The answer has three parts, and it is the reason we redesigned Intermountain Healthcare and began to roll out a series of new products and initiatives to implement that redesign.
Evaluation and Augmentation of Köppen-Geiger Climate Zone Based off of Real-World Satellite Weather Data

Photovoltaic (PV) power is a critical resource for meeting future energy demands. As integration of photovoltaic systems increases it is important to categorize climate parameters by conditions that are known to affect the viability of PV. A widely used classification is Koppen Geiger Climate zone which divides the world into five main climates and subcategories based on humidity and average temperature. Despite Koppen Geiger climate classifications widespread popularity it was not designed with parameters that determine the performance or degradation of modules. This paper presents an evaluation of the Koppen Geiger climate classification using real-world weather data from 357 PV sites. Two types of clustering algorithms were applied. The clustering algorithms had difficulty distinguishing between temperature categories. Furthermore, machine learning algorithms were used to predict the climate zone classification. The randomforest model had the highest prediction accuracy of 76%. Both clustering and machine learning failed to capture the seasonality of data resulting in poor performance.
Peritoneal Dialysis Patient Selection

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is highly underutilized worldwide with wide regional variation. In the United States, only 9% of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients are on PD compared to rates as high as 79% in other countries. This exceptionally low rate is a worrying statistic for a developed country such as the United States and requires immediate attention. A recent NKF-KDOQI conference identified clinical, operational, societal, and policy-related factors that prevent access to PD as a modality of choice. When educated about their options, most patients would choose home dialysis as their preferred modality. Clinical studies and research from around the world have consistently shown that as a home-based dialysis therapy, PD is associated with improved patient survival, better preservation of residual kidney function, lower risk of infection, and increased patient satisfaction all while reducing financial stress to governments. According to Devoe et al. (2016), there is a strong association between patient-targeted dialysis modality education and selecting and receiving PD (Devoe DJ, et al. Patient education and peritoneal dialysis modality selection: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Am J Kidney Dis. 2016;68:422–33). Despite significant and widely accepted benefits of home dialysis, its utilization rate has remained unacceptably low in the United States (<2% for home hemodialysis (HHD) and < 10% for PD), rates far below that of other industrialized nations (Chan CT, et al. Exploring barriers and potential solutions in home dialysis: an NKF-KDOQI conference outcomes report. Am J Kidney Dis. 2018;73(3):363–71).
Prediction or Guess? Decide by Looking at Two Images Generated by a "MATLAB MySQL" Algorithm

In the field of data mining, predictive modeling refers to the usage of a statistical model built on a training data set in order to make predictions about new prospects contained in the scoring data set. A model should not be used to predict when it encounters unseen data in the scoring set because such predictions would be a guess or a speculation. This paper proposes an algorithm that will produce two simple images and a “level of guessing” (LOG) pie chart. These images will tell the analyst whether or not it is appropriate to use a statistical predictive model to make predictions on a particular scoring set. The proposed algorithm will offer a solution to the scoring adequacy problem based on subsets of the original data. The algorithm will be implemented with a user interface built with MATLAB code, which acts on MySQL databases that contain the data.
Do Financial Incentives of Introducing Case Mix Reimbursement Increase Feeding Tube Use in Nursing Home Residents

OBJECTIVES To determine whether adoption of Medicaid case mix reimbursement is associated with greater prevalence of feeding tube use in nursing home (NH) residents.
Urbanicity Moderates Associations between Family Income and Adolescent Academic Achievement

Research has shown that family income's relations to early childhood achievement is stronger in large inner cities and weaker in less urbanized areas. Research has not yet considered whether links between family income and achievement in adolescence differ across the urban to rural landscape. Using nationally representative data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999 (N ≈ 9,350), this study examines differences in family income's links with eighth-grade achievement across large urban, small urban, suburban, and rural communities. The point at which income-achievement links plateau occurs later in the income distribution in less urbanized areas. The magnitude of the association between family income and reading and science skills also differs across the urban-rural continuum, such that family income has stronger relations to reading and science achievement in urban cities and weaker links in suburban and rural communities.
Personality and Obese Body Mass Index

This study investigated the relationship between obese range Body Mass Index (BMI) and personality variables as measured by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2). The sample consisted of 129 obese participants referred for preoperative psychological evaluation. Each completed an MMPI-2 and clinical interview. Multilevel linear regression analysis was used to assess the contribution of personality variables to the prediction of variance in obese range BMI. Age, Scale 9 (Hypomania), and Scale 4 (Psychopathic Deviate) emerged as statistically significant predictors of BMI. Each predicted 7.8%, 6.4%, and 3.1% of the variance of participant BMI, respectively, with a combined prediction power of 17.3%. F-scores for the final, best fit model, with age on Level 1 and Scale 9 and Scale 4 on Level 2, were statistically significant (p<.0009). Results suggest severely obese bariatric surgery candidates may be more prone to impulsivity, irritability, and instability. However, limited predictive power of MMPI-2 scales indicates restricted clinical utility.
The Carboxymethylation of Human Metmyoglobin

The reactivity of bromo- or iodoacetate with the methionyl, lysyl, and histidyl side chains of human myoglobin has been examined. Each of the side chains reacts as expected if it is assumed that the conformation of human myoglobin closely resembles that of sperm whale myoglobin. The three methionyl side chains, which are expected to be buried, are not carboxymethylated unless the conformation of native myoglobin is disrupted. Carboxymethylation of the lysyl side chains proceeds without difficulty at the appropriate pH, a result in accord with the predicted location of these side chains on the surface of the molecule. Four of the 9 histidyl residues cannot be carboxymethylated in native human myoglobin. This is to be expected if certain of the imidazole side chains are involved in internal bonding as in the case of sperm whale myoglobin.