cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Cryopreserved bioprostheses

The process of cryopreservation is described. Three types of tissue are then considered: allograft heart valves, allograft veins and the musculoskeletal soft tissues of the knee. The problems with each of these tissue types are examined. >
Japanese Labor Economics as Economic Analysis

A review article on two books, each of which proposes to apply standard economic anlaysis to an aspect of economic life (labor markets) and a society (Japan) where years of conventional wisdom has suggested that such analysis may be out of place. Robert Evans, Jr.'s Labor Economies of Japan and the United States compares numerous aspects of the allegedly impersonal labor market of the United States; he finds the differences surprisingly small and the parallels surprisingly large. Koji Taira's Economic Development and the Labor Market in Japan is primarily a series of studies in the quantitative economic history of Japan, concentrating upon the labor market. The two books overlap to a great extent, and combine to question if not overthrow the anti-economic notion that standard analysis is out of place in dealing with labor problems even in a country with the anti-economic traditions of pre-Meiji Japan.
Mechanistic studies of the oxygen evolution reaction mediated by a nickel-borate thin film electrocatalyst.

A critical determinant of solar-driven water splitting efficiency is the kinetic profile of the O2 evolving catalyst (OEC). We now report the kinetic profiles of water splitting by a self-assembled nickel–borate (NiBi) OEC. Mechanistic studies of anodized films of NiBi exhibit the low Tafel slope of 2.3 × RT/2F (30 mV/decade at 25 °C). This Tafel slope together with an inverse third order rate dependence on H+ activity establishes NiBi as an ideal catalyst to be used in the construction of photoelectrochemical devices for water splitting. In contrast, nonanodized NiBi films display significantly poorer activity relative to their anodized congeners that we attribute to a more sluggish electron transfer from the catalyst resting state. Borate is shown to play two ostensibly antagonistic roles in OEC activity: as a promulgator of catalyst activity by enabling proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) and as an inhibitor in its role as an adsorbate of active sites. By defining the nature of the PCET pre-equilib...
Aromatic interactions modulate the 5'-base selectivity of the DNA-binding autoantibody ED-10.

We present detailed computational analyses of the binding of four dinucleotides to a highly sequence-selective single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) binding antibody (ED-10) and selected point mutants. Anti-DNA antibodies are central to the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and a more complete understanding of the mode of binding of DNA and other ligands will be necessary to elucidate the role of anti-DNA antibodies in the kidney inflammation associated with SLE. Classical molecular mechanics based molecular dynamics simulations and density functional theory (DFT) computations were applied to pinpoint the origin of selectivity for the 5′-nucleotide. In particular, the strength of interactions between each nucleotide and the surrounding residues were computed using MMGBSA as well as DFT applied to a cluster model of the binding site. The results agree qualitatively with experimental binding free energies, and indicate that π-stacking, CH/π, NH/π, and hydrogen-bonding interactions all contribute to ...
Survey on food waste from catering business in urban of Beijing

Objective To describe the distribution and its management of the food waste from by the catering business in Beijing, provide the basis for the development of strategies on food waste management. Methods A descriptive epidemiological study was conducted, and all of 218 catering units were investigated by questionnaire". The questionnaire contained full information on general situation of the catering unit, food waste production. Results The total daily food waste amount was 14822.9 kg. Daily food waste per capita and per meal was associated with different unit categories and meals: Large catering units had most food waste, whereas fast-food restaurant and snack shops had least food waste.Dinner produced the most food waste, while breakfast produced the least food waste. Food waste production tended to be the least during November to February of next year, and increased to the largest amount during June to September. Only42.2% of the catering units classified the food waste, the percent for kitchen waste and waste oil were 85.9% and 14.1%.54.1% of the food residue was disposed safely, of which the proportion of resource utilization was 28.7%. Conclusion Food waste production was on a relatively high level in Beijing and the food waste classification rate and resource utilization rate needed improve. Recommendations included decreasing the source of food waste and make classification of the food waste from publicity, legislation, access to the catering business and regulatory aspects.
Design and Implementation of Avionics TACAN

In this study,the principles of distance measuring and bearing measuring of TACAN were introduced. TACAN equipment was implemented on the FPGA + DSP hardware platform using IF digital processing structure using SDR idea. Its performances meet relative requirements through testing fully. It indicates that the scheme used in this experiment is feasible.
Prediction of Recurrence for Advanced Breast Cancer: Traditional and Contemporary Pathologic and Molecular Markers

Approximately 50% of patient with breast cancer ultimately develop metastases, among which only 10% to 15% of patients live 5 years or more. Patients with locally advanced (stage III) breast cancer have a 5-year survival rate of approximately 20% to 30%. Thus, despite high remission rates obtained with current therapies, the poor long-term results associated with the apparent plateau of response achievable with systemic therapies emphasize the necessity of identifying accurate prognostic factors for this group of patients. This will allow an informed discussion with the individual patient. In addition, prognostic information could be used to guide the therapy and also to identify those subgroups of patients who may benefit with less-aggressive therapies. Furthermore, in the context of randomized studies, prognostic factors can be used to stratify patients. Prognostic factors have been extensively studied in early-stage breast cancer. In comparison, only a few studies exist on biologic prognostic factors in advanced breast cancer. Based on the limited information available, it appears that the biologic factors prognostic for locally advanced breast cancer are similar to those reported for early-stage breast cancer. Apparently, certain factors have a prognostic value irrespective of the stage of the disease at the time of presentation. This would then suggest that certain factors maintain their significance as the breast cancer progresses from an overtly local to a systemic disease. It is already well recognized that histologic grade is a significant prognostic factor for early-stage as well as metastatic breast disease. Hormone receptors have been reported to be of prognostic value at all stages of disease. Proliferation rate assessed by a variety of techniques as well as determination of the Nottingham Primary Prognostic Index provides important information about the rate of the growth of the tumor. Thymidine labeling index and S-phase fraction also provide information in regard to response to chemotherapy. DNA ploidy has been reported to be of significance in prediction of response to adjuvant chemotherapy and to a lesser extent to hormone therapy. The value of DNA ploidy in relation to survival in advanced breast cancer, however, remains controversial. Other prognostic factors such as oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, and growth factors have also shown some predictive value in advanced breast cancer. Similar to what has also been suggested in early breast cancer, much research still needs to be done to clarify the role of currently available prognostic factors and to identify new, more powerful discriminants.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Persistently Auxetic Materials: Engineering the Poisson Ratio of 2D Self-Avoiding Membranes under Conditions of Non-Zero Anisotropic Strain.

Entropic surfaces represented by fluctuating two-dimensional (2D) membranes are predicted to have desirable mechanical properties when unstressed, including a negative Poisson’s ratio (“auxetic” behavior). Herein, we present calculations of the strain-dependent Poisson ratio of self-avoiding 2D membranes demonstrating desirable auxetic properties over a range of mechanical strain. Finite-size membranes with unclamped boundary conditions have positive Poisson’s ratio due to spontaneous non-zero mean curvature, which can be suppressed with an explicit bending rigidity in agreement with prior findings. Applying longitudinal strain along a singular axis to this system suppresses this mean curvature and the entropic out-of-plane fluctuations, resulting in a molecular-scale mechanism for realizing a negative Poisson’s ratio above a critical strain, with values significantly more negative than the previously observed zero-strain limit for infinite sheets. We find that auxetic behavior persists over surprisingly ...
On a generalization of the binomial sequence transformation

A generalization of binomial sequence transformation and its properties are introduced. The new transformation leads to a new operation on sequences, arithmetic-geometric differences. This operation provides a significant simplification on the traditional difference tables, which have been used to identify the recurrence relation of a sequence.
Lung and stomach cancer associations with groundwater radon in North Carolina, USA.

Background The risk of indoor air radon for lung cancer is well studied, but the risks of groundwater radon for both lung and stomach cancer are much less studied, and with mixed results. Methods Geomasked and geocoded stomach and lung cancer cases in North Carolina from 1999 to 2009 were obtained from the North Carolina Central Cancer Registry. Models for the association with groundwater radon and multiple confounders were implemented at two scales: (i) an ecological model estimating cancer incidence rates at the census tract level; and (ii) a case-only logistic model estimating the odds that individual cancer cases are members of local cancer clusters. Results For the lung cancer incidence rate model, groundwater radon is associated with an incidence rate ratio of 1.03 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.01, 1.06] for every 100 Bq/l increase in census tract averaged concentration. For the cluster membership models, groundwater radon exposure results in an odds ratio for lung cancer of 1.13 (95% CI = 1.04, 1.23) and for stomach cancer of 1.24 (95% CI = 1.03, 1.49), which means groundwater radon, after controlling for multiple confounders and spatial auto-correlation, increases the odds that lung and stomach cancer cases are members of their respective cancer clusters. Conclusion Our study provides epidemiological evidence of a positive association between groundwater radon exposure and lung cancer incidence rates. The cluster membership model results find groundwater radon increases the odds that both lung and stomach cancer cases occur within their respective cancer clusters. The results corroborate previous biokinetic and mortality studies that groundwater radon is associated with increased risk for lung and stomach cancer.
Ixazomib, an oral proteasome inhibitor, induces rapid mobilization of hematopoietic progenitor cells in mice.

Introduction: Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) is the most commonly used drug for stem cell mobilization. Unfortunately, 5-30% of patients fail to collect sufficient hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) to proceed to transplant. New strategies are needed to increase HSPCs collection in these patients. We previously reported that bortezomib directly and rapidly mobilizes HSPCs in mice by modulating the VLA-4/VCAM-1 axis (Ghobadi A et al. Blood 2014, 124: 2742-2753). Ixazomib (MLN9708) is a next-generation small-molecule proteasome inhibitor that has several potential advantages over bortezomib including oral route of administration. Here we study the effect of ixazomib on stem cell mobilization in mice. Methods: DBA mice were treated with: (1) ixazomib via oral gavage (o.g., 8 mg/kg), (2) a single intravenous (iv) dose of bortezomib (0.8 mg/kg), (3) AMD3100 (5 mg/kg) SC, and (4) control diluent for ixazomib (2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin [HPBCD]). Blood was harvested at baseline and 12, 15, and 24 hours (h) after ixazomib and bortezomib administration and at 3 hours and 12 hours after AMD3100 administration. Harvested peripheral blood (PB) was plated on MethoCult media (Stem Cell Technologies) for colony forming unit-cells (CFU-C) enumeration. Results: Compared to vehicle (ixazomib diluent, 2-hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin [HPBCD]), ixazomib mobilized significantly more peripheral blood colony forming unit-cells (CFU-C) at 12 - 15 h after administration (mean peak CFU-C: 105/ml vs. 870/ml respectively, i.e., a 0.6 vs. 5-fold increase in CFU-C , P 0.66). There was no statistically significant difference in peak HSPC mobilization between the ixazomib (12 h after ixazomib administration) and AMD3100 groups (3 h after AMD3100 administration) (mean peak of 870/ml vs. 1240/ml respectively, P = 0.36) suggesting that ixazomib is a potent HSPC mobilizing agent (Figure 1D) with intermediate mobilization kinetics compared to AMD3100 (2-3 hours) and G-CSF (5-6 days) and with identical kinetics to IV bortezomib (12-15 hours). Conclusion: Ixazomib is a potent and modestly rapid HSPC mobilizer agent in mice. Kinetics and magnitude of HSPC mobilization by ixazomib is identical to bortezomib. Trials to assess proteasome inhibitors as mobilizing agents are currently underway at Washington University. ![Figure][1] Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare. [1]: pending:yes
Second primary tumors in endometrial cancer patients: Analysis of SEER data

B85 Purpose >Endometrial carcinoma is the most common cancer of the lower female genital tract in the United States. Its incidence is growing in the US and worldwide. Hormonal levels, production and balance have been implicated as risk factors. Little information is available on second primary cancers (SPC) in endometrial cancer patients. The study of SPC may help understanding the role of hormones and other risk factors in the etiology of endometrial cancer. >Design/Methods >Using the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results data, the risk of second primary cancer in endometrial cancer cases was compared with that of the general population of women and with women with other primary cancers. Data were analyzed according to three age groups roughly corresponding to menopausal status: ≤44 years, 45-54 years, ≥55 years. We included 9585 women who had a first diagnosis of endometrial cancer between 1973 and 2002 and who developed a SPC at least 1 month subsequent to their cancer diagnosis. >Results >The lifetime risk of SPC in endometrial cancer patients was higher in premenopausal women (age Conclusions >Premenopausal and perimenopausal patients with endometrial cancer develop an excess SPC compared with the general population and in comparison with females with other cancers. Chemo and/or local radiotherapy could be responsible for the excess of digestive tract SPC. Hereditary mutations in non-polyposis colorectal cancer genes, which are implicated in the development of early endometrial and early colorectal cancers, could also play a role in this excess risk. Prevention and early detection of SPC is especially important in younger women who would like to preserve their fertility. More studies are needed to investigate modifiable risk factors for endometrial cancer and determine whether preventive measures for endometrial cancer such as exercise and weight loss can also prevent SPC.
Abstract 4142: A role for apolipoprotein E in invasion in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA Oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) have a poor patient prognosis, which is attributed to their invasive nature. Our goal was to identify a novel gene that is important in OSCC invasion. We utilized genome-wide expression data generated from OSCC patient tumor samples with varying degrees of invasiveness, as measured by the histological parameter worst pattern of invasion (WPOI). RNA extracted from tumors that were classified as either WPOI 5 or WPOI 3, two categories of tumors that have been previously shown to correlate with local recurrence and poor overall survival, were evaluated utilizing two microarray platforms. When both gene expression datasets were analyzed, we identified 104 genes that were overexpressed at least 1.5-fold in the WPOI type 5 tumors compared to the less invasive WPOI type 3 tumors. Fifty genes were chosen based on functional criteria to be assessed using in vitro invasion assays following treatment with siRNA pools. In our initial screen, 16 of these genes showed significant reductions in in vitro invasion when their expression was knocked down by siRNA treatment in the UMSCC1 cell line. The gene with the greatest effect on invasion from the screen was Apolipoprotein E (APOE). In addition to in vitro invasion, we also observed that matrix degradation and mature invadopodia numbers were decreased with APOE knockdown in the UMSCC1 cell line, suggesting that APOE affects invasion in part through regulating invadopodial activity. We observed that APOE knockdown resulted in decreased phospho-cJun and phospho-ERK1/2 in the UMSCC1 and PCI-15B cell lines. Since cJun is a component of the AP1 transcription factor, we assessed AP1 promoter activity using a luciferase reporter assay. We found that AP1 promoter activity decreased with APOE knockdown in both cell lines. Our proposed model is that APOE knockdown suppresses the cells’ ability to invade via decreased activation of ERK1/2 and cJun, thus reducing AP1 transcriptional activity. Further studies are being done to determine which downstream targets of AP1 are being altered with APOE knockdown and if those targets are known to be implicated in invasion. Citation Format: Sangeeta K. Jayakar, Olivier D. Loudig, Margaret Brandwein-Gensler, Ryung Kim, Thomas J. Ow, Michael B. Prystowsky, Geoffrey Childs, Jeffrey E. Segall, Thomas J. Belbin. A role for apolipoprotein E in invasion in oral squamous cell carcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 4142. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-4142
Plasmonic-electrochemical dual modality microfluidic sensor for cancer biomarker detection

A dual-modality microfluidic immunosensor is reported for the detection of cancer biomarker proteins using graphene oxide assembled periodic gold nanoposts array. The sensor uniquely provides both electrochemical and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) signatures on a single platform. Sensitivities for both electrochemical and SPR detection schemes are found to be 3.94 μΑ/μΜ/cm2 in a range of 1×10−15 M to 0.1×10−6M, and 2.9 nm/μM/cm2 in a range of 1×10−15 M to 1×10−9M, respectively, for the detection of epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (ErbB2) breast biomarker. The present dual-modality sensor approach enables improved detection reliability and precision, and reduced false reads.
Intratympanic (IT) Therapies for Menière's Disease: Some Consensus Among the Confusion.

Aminoglycosides and corticosteroids are commonly used to treat Meniere’s disease. Intratympanic (IT) administration of these medications allows high inner ear concentrations without significant adverse systemic effects. As a direct result, IT therapy has grown in popularity. Recent studies have compared patient outcomes between IT aminoglycosides and corticosteroids. This review summarizes these findings. Trials comparing IT corticosteroids to IT placebo or oral therapy have had conflicting results. Most recently, Lambert et al. investigated the effect of IT dexamethasone in a sustained-release formulation compared to placebo. Their findings demonstrated improvement in some secondary measures of vertigo with the sustained-release formulation. IT gentamicin is known to be effective in controlling vertigo in Meniere’s disease. In a recent study from 2016, Patel et al. compared IT gentamicin and IT methylprednisolone in a double-blind, randomized controlled trial and identified no significant differences between the two in vertigo control. IT injections of aminoglycosides and corticosteroids can improve vertigo control. Hearing and vestibular loss however may result with IT aminoglycosides. Corticosteroids demonstrate limited hearing loss but may not have the same efficacy in controlling vertigo. Further investigation in the etiology of Meniere’s disease is needed to tailor the proposed treatment to suit the disease mechanism.
Utility of Information Transmission for Transportation

Abstract In this presentation we shall consider the effect of information transmittal on transportation control and mobility in general. We claim that the information transmittal technologies and capabilities harnessed for transportation, may make some of the reasons for transportation decline. Thus it. is important to analyze the utility of information in transportation and understand both how it makes it more efficient. But it should also be noted that the same technologies can help individuals in solving their problems without travelling. It is anticipated that analytical approaches can be devised to formulate this problem. However, in this presentation we shall utilize simulation studies to quantify an analysis.
Molecular Predicators of Duodenal Familial Adenomatous Polyposis Chemoprevention: Do Chemopreventive Drugs Hit Their Presumed Molecular Targets?

Patients with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) have an increased risk of developing duodenal adenomas and adenocarcinomas. In previous trials, sulindac (a cyclooxygenase inhibitor) alone failed to significantly suppress duodenal tumorigenesis in FAP patients, but sulindac plus the tyrosine kinase inhibitor erlotinib significantly reduced duodenal polyp burden. Delker and colleagues report in this issue (beginning on page 4) on transcriptome analyses that aimed to identify the molecular targets mediating the response to sulindac–erlotinib. Their exploratory transcriptome analyses suggested that sulindac–erlotinib suppressed duodenal polyposis via inhibiting Wnt/β-catenin, EGFR, and cyclooxygenase pathways. This perspective discusses the significance and limitations of the study. Cancer Prev Res; 11(1); 1–3. ©2017 AACR. See related article by Delker et al., p. 4
Pipeline Flex Embolization of Flow-Related Aneurysms Associated with Arteriovenous Malformations: A Case Report.

Background: An estimated 0.1% of the population harbors brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). Diagnosis and workup of AVMs include thorough evaluation for characterization of AVM angioarchitecture and careful assessment for concomitant aneurysms. The presence of coexisting aneurysms is associated with an increased risk of intracranial hemorrhage, with a published risk of 7% per year compared to patients with AVMs alone with a risk of 3%. Comprehensive AVM management requires recognition of concomitant aneurysms and prioritizes treatment strategies to mitigate the aggregate risk of intracranial hemorrhage associated with AVM rupture in patients with coexisting aneurysms. Endovascular treatment of these flow-related aneurysms can offer a cure, while avoiding open surgery. Successful flow-diverting embolization techniques, efficacy, and outcomes have been previously described for a variety of aneurysm types and locations. However, use of a flow diverter has not been previously described for the treatment of high-flow aneurysms on AVM-feeding vessels. Case Presentation: We report 2 cases of large AVMs within eloquent cortex associated with flow-related aneurysms in patients presenting initially with suspected intracerebral hemorrhage secondary to AVM rupture. Discussion: No consensus currently exists to guide treatment of intracranial aneurysms associated with AVMs. Surgical management addressed AVM embolization initially, as the vasculopathology with the highest rupture risk. Subsequently, Pipeline embolization of the associated aneurysms with adequate antiplatelet treatment was performed before scheduled radiosurgery to decrease the risk of AVM rupture or rebleed. This represents a novel and promising use of the Pipeline Embolization Device. Additional cases and longer follow-up will be needed to further assess the efficacy of this technique.
Toward whole cell modeling and simulation: comprehensive functional genomics through the constraint-based approach.

The increasing availability of various system-level, or so-called ‘omics’, datasets, in concert with existing data from the primary research literature, is facilitating the development of genome-scale metabolic models for many organisms. By incorporating the metabolic reaction stoichiometry as well as other physicochemical properties into systemic network reconstructions, these models account for the constraints that restrict an organism’s phenotypic behavior. Accordingly, unlike many contemporary modeling strategies, this constraint-based modeling approach does not attempt to predict network behavior exactly; rather, it seeks to clearly distinguish those network states that a system can achieve from those that it cannot. A variety of analytical tools have been designed and developed to probe these models, thus enabling studies that investigate the metabolic capabilities of a number of organisms, that generate and test experimental hypotheses, and that predict accurately metabolic phenotypes and evolutionary outcomes. This chapter introduces the concepts that underlie the constraint-based modeling approach, and describes several of its applications with an emphasis on those potentially relevant to the drug development field. In addition, while this chapter focuses on the primary application of the constraint-based approach to date, namely in modeling metabolic networks, the latter sections of the chapter discuss its relatively recent application to modeling other cellular systems. Finally, the chapter concludes with an assessment of future directions focusing on the efforts that will be required to utilize the constraint-based approach in generating a holistic model of a viable organism.
AnS 490-H: Part II; How to Educate the Public While Providing a Portable Environmentally Enriched Wagon to a North American Porcupine

The objective of this project was to determine if a portable environmentally enriched wagon provided a North American Porcupine with the ability to express natural behaviors during a formal educational presentation at the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. The study was broken up into three phases: baseline, habituation, and public. One researcher recorded all phases on a video camera in color at 30 frames per second. All information will be presented descriptively. Time on educational presentation: The average time during baseline was ~13 minutes. Once the wagon was introduced, the average formal educational presentation length increased to ~19 minutes (public). In conclusion, the portable environmentally enriched wagon maintained Clover’s interest and it resulted in a richer behavioral repertoire that the general public were able to see during the finalized education presentations.
Generalizability of Goal Recognition Models in Narrative-Centered Learning Environments

Recent years have seen growing interest in automated goal recognition. In user-adaptive systems, goal recognition is the problem of recognizing a user’s goals by observing the actions the user performs. Models of goal recognition can support student learning in intelligent tutoring systems, enhance communication efficiency in dialogue systems, or dynamically adapt software to users’ interests. In this paper, we describe an approach to goal recognition that leverages Markov Logic Networks (MLNs)—a machine learning framework that combines probabilistic inference with first-order logical reasoning—to encode relations between problem-solving goals and discovery events, domain-specific representations of user progress in narrative-centered learning environments. We investigate the impact of discovery event representations on goal recognition accuracy and efficiency. We also investigate the generalizability of discovery event-based goal recognition models across two corpora from students interacting with two distinct narrative-centered learning environments. Empirical results indicate that discovery event-based models outperform previous state-of-the-art approaches on both corpora.
Pleading for a place in modern Egypt: negotiating poverty and patriarchy, 1908–1913

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the petitions of a poor woman, Jalila Saʿd, who sought educational opportunities and property from the Egyptian government between 1908 and 1913. Her interest in procuri...
Development of a Predictive Model for Role Strain in Registered Nurses Returning to School

This study identified the individual characteristics that are expected to predict and explain role strain in registered nurses (RNs) returning to school. A model was developed and tested to predict and explain role strain. The characteristics expected to predict role strain were personality, stage of career development, and marital status. Personality was assessed by the Comrey Personality Scales, stage of career development was assessed by the Career Concerns Inventory, and the criterion variable role strain was assessed by the Lengacher Role Strain Inventory. A convenience sample of 123 RN students were asked to participate in the study and 86 RNs volunteered. The data were analyzed using multiple stepwise regression analysis. Results of the stepwise regression analysis identified 13 variables as significant predictors of role strain. A double cross-validation regression procedure was completed to validate the results of the multiple regression analysis. In subsample A of the cross-validation analysis, six variables were found to be significant predictors of role strain, while in subsample B, 12 variables were significant predictors.
The State as a Service Firm, The Production of Order

We begin with a brief examination of the production of order, which was the original function of governments, and remains the primary objective of much state activity. Beginning in this way will allow us to develop en passant the economists’ traditional view of the proper role of government in society. Our focus on the production of order should not be misconstrued, however. We do not wish to deny that modern states produce many other outputs, although in some sense, all of these may be considered to affect the level of order, if only because the latter will depend on the totality of society. It is clear that many people desire outputs other than order as ends in and of themselves. Consider equity, for example. There may be people who derive satisfaction from their perceptions of society as equitable, or who simply wish to insure themselves against possible losses in the economic game. In the case of state schooling, people may desire schooling for themselves and for their children (and wish others to pay for it), or they may desire to live in an educated society. Perhaps they believe that democracy works better with an educated population, and they desire to live in a well-working democracy. It matters not whether these views are right or wrong, or even if these tastes are those of the authors of the present work. Such issues are entirely irrelevant. As scientists we have no basis for judging other people’s tastes and as economists no basis for saying that it is wrong for a firm to do whatever business it can find. At various times, however, we will point out the consequences of allowing such services to be produced by such a central and highly monopolistic authority as the typical state.
The Nature of Plants

The “Nature of Plants” provides a general overview of the unique structure, function, and evolution of plants and serves as a general introduction to the larger textbook. The chapter begins discussing the importance of pigments that provide the ability to harvest light via photosynthesis, leading the way for producing anabolic compounds necessary for growth. This chapter contains information that identifies other important aspects of plants such as cell walls, plant life cycles, meristematic growth, and fruit dispersal that is limited to the angiosperms. A general discussion of plant evolution, organs, and plant diversity is included. The chapter concludes by clarifying the importance of scale in understanding plant structures and by identifying the many ways that the terms, primary and secondary, are associated with plant development and anatomy.
Decentralized Flood Forecasting Using Deep Neural Networks

Predicting flood for any location at times of extreme storms is a longstanding problem that has utmost importance in emergency management. Conventional methods that aim to predict water levels in streams use advanced hydrological models still lack of giving accurate forecasts everywhere. This study aims to explore artificial deep neural networks performance on flood prediction. While providing models that can be used in forecasting stream stage, this paper presents a dataset that focuses on the connectivity of data points on river networks. It also shows that neural networks can be very helpful in time-series forecasting as in flood events, and support improving existing models through data assimilation.
Benign Anal Disease: Implementation of an Educational Program Across Specialties.

Abstract Background Benign anal diseases, including hemorrhoids, fissures, abscesses, fistulas, and anal condylomata, affect 10%-15% of our population. Most patients seen by nonsurgical providers experience delayed treatment. We examined at our institution whether an educational session on anorectal diseases would benefit trainees from medical and surgical specialties. Materials and Methods The study took place at Oregon Health & Science University, a primary institutional practice with 130 resident participants. An exploratory study using a 10-point pretest and posttest regarding these diseases was designed and administered to medical subspecialties, including general surgery (GS), emergency medicine, internal medicine, and family medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, and pediatric residents. Intervention was a 50-min presentation highlighting anatomy, history and physical findings, and disease treatment. The posttest was repeated after 6 mo to evaluate retention and overall satisfaction, and differences were evaluated. Results With the exception of GS, posttest scores improved. Internal medicine improved most significantly. GS residents scored better on the pretest than other specialties; their posttest scores, however, declined. The survey demonstrated residents with prior education scored better on the pretest. PGY-1 and PGY-2 residents improved most on their posttest. On 6-mo retest, 17.6% of residents responded and posttest performance was 72%. Conclusions Nonsurgical residents have limited knowledge about benign anal diseases but demonstrate improvement after educational intervention. Surgery residents performed well, but demonstrate regression to the mean, common in test taking, but may also require a more advanced lecture. Formal institutional, regional, and national educational interventions are needed to improve the understanding of these diseases.
Speaking on Behalf of: Representation, Delegation, and Authority in Computational Text Analysis

Computational tools can often facilitate human work by rapidly summarizing large amounts of data, especially text. Doing so delegates to such models some measure of authority to speak on behalf of those people whose data are being analyzed. This paper considers the consequences of such delegation. It draws on sociological accounts of representation and translation to examine one particular case: the application of topic modeling to blogs written by parents of children on the autism spectrum. In doing so, the paper illustrates the kinds of statements that topic models, and other computational techniques, can make on behalf of people. It also articulates some of the potential consequences of such statements. The paper concludes by offering several suggestions about how to address potential harms that can occur when computational models speak on behalf of someone.
Randomized Trial of Screening and Brief Intervention to Reduce Injury and Substance Abuse in an urban Level I Trauma Center.

Abstract Background The TIP (Traumatic Injury Prevention) Project evaluated the impact on post-injury drug use of two brief motivational interventions compared to brief advice (BA) among injured patients who use drugs. Method Three-group, single blind, randomized controlled trial in a Level 1Trauma Center enrolled 395 admitted patients with drug positive toxicology screen or verbal report of drug use in the previous 30 days. 34% were Hispanic, 45% non-Hispanic White, 16% non-Hispanic Black. 88% smoked marijuana, 28% used cocaine and 11% prescription opioids. Brief Advice (BA) provided advice to abstain from drugs, educational materials and referral to community resources. Brief Motivational Intervention (BMI) additionally included a 30-45 minute session, with assessment feedback, based on motivational interviewing. BMI + B included a telephone booster 4-weeks post-intervention. Drug use as measured by percent days abstinent and total abstinence, derived from the Timeline Follow back was the primary outcome. Results A significant reduction from baseline was observed at 3, 6, and 12 months in the primary outcomes of any drug use (excluding alcohol); cannabis and cocaine, the most frequently used drugs, were analyzed individually. There were no between group differences or group X time interactions. Similarly, there were no between groups differences on secondary outcomes including perceived health status, re-injury, arrest, incarceration, alcohol and drug treatment, employment, AA attendance, homelessness, physical abuse, and problems associated with alcohol and drug use. Conclusions The study does not support use of these enhanced motivational interventions over brief advice for trauma patients with a positive screen for drug use.
Unitary Branching Rules and Tableaux

In this chapter, representations of both \(\mathrm{GL}(n, \mathbb{C})\) and \(\mathrm{GL}(n - 1, \mathbb{C})\) occur. To distinguish the two, we will modify the notation introduced before Theorem 36.3 as follows. If λ is a partition (of any k) of length \( \leqslant \) n, or more generally an integer sequence \(\lambda = (\lambda _{1}, \ldots, \lambda _{n})\) with \(\lambda _{1} \geqslant\lambda _{2} \geqslant\cdots \), we will denote by \(\pi _{\lambda }^{\mathrm{GL}_{n}}\) or more simply as π λ the representation of \(\mathrm{GL}(n, \mathbb{C})\) parametrized by λ. On the other hand, if μ is a partition of length \( \leqslant \) n − 1, or more generally an integer sequence μ = (μ 1,…,μ n−1) with \(\mu _{1} \geqslant\mu _{2} \geqslant\cdots \), we will denote by \(\pi _{\mu }^{\mathrm{GL}_{n-1}}\) or (more simply) as π μ ′ the representation of \(\mathrm{GL}(n - 1, \mathbb{C})\) parametrized by μ.
The Case Against Solicitation of Consent for Apnea Testing.

Berkowitz and Garrett (2020) provide an excellent overview of the ethical and legal discussion about the need for consent prior to apnea testing (Berkowitz and Garrett 2020). However, we disagree w...
Treatment of primary spontaneous pneumothorax in pediatric patients: 15-year experience at a single-institution

Background: Primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) is a relatively uncommon condition in children. Due to the lack of pediatric-specific guidelines the treatment strategy varies among different centers. Thisstudy demonstrates a single-institution experience in the treatment of primary spontaneous pneumothorax in pediatric patients. Materials and methods: Retrospective review of 49 patients with the diagnosis of primary spontaneous pneumothorax between 2003 and 2018 who were treated conservatively or invasively at the surgical department of Children’s Hospital Zagreb. Results: During the period of 15 years there were 49 patients noted with spontaneous pneumothorax at the surgical department of Children’s Hospital Zagreb. The patient age ranged from 11 to 18 years (mean 15.28). 36 patients were male and 13 female, with a male to female ratio of 2.77:1. Pneumothorax occurred on the left side in 31 patients, on the right side in 15 patients, and on both sides in 3 patients. Clinical presentation in all patients was sudden, powerful chest pain. Other symptoms include dyspnea, cough. In all patients, a plain x-ray was made, and later the vast majority of patientsunderwent computed tomography (CT) scan. The CT scans detected 13 cases of apical bullae, 2 large bullae, 1 bulla in 6. segment and 1 parenchymal inflammation. Eight patients with stable clinical presentation andsmall pneumothorax underwent hospital observation. Eighteen patients were successfully managed with chest tube drainage without recurrence. Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) was performed on 19 patients with only two recurrences. Open thoracotomy was performed on 4 patients. Conclusion: Due to the variation of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches from different centers, the creation of guidelines and standardized practice for the pediatric patient is necessary.
On a New Property of the Steiner Inellipse

We consider an old problem of partitioning a triangle into three similar triangles and three parallelograms by lines parallel to the sides of the triangle through a given interior point M. In this ...
Urine gross alpha/beta bioassay method development using liquid scintillation counting techniques

In the case of a radiological or nuclear incident, valuable information could be obtained in a timely manner by using liquid scintillation counting (LSC) technique through fast screening of urine samples from potentially contaminated persons. This work describes the optimization of LSC parameters on PerkinElmer (PE) Tri-Carb and Quantulus GCT series instruments to develop a rapid method for screening urine in an emergency response situation.
Diagnosis and Classification

In this chapter we attempt to survey the copious clinical and empirical literature on classification of sexual offenders. Because of the enormity of the task, we have divided the chapter into four major sections. In the first section, we look at the various ways in which a valid system for classifying sexual offenders can assist in our clinical and forensic work with this population. In that section, we also address the utility of the DSM-IV for classifying sex offenders, as well as other psychiatric considerations in the classification of sex offenders. In the second section, we discuss a number of the prominent single dimensions that have been used for classifying sex offenders. In some cases, such as sex of victim, these single dimensions have enjoyed widespread use. Although single dimension classification has limited utility, the research spawned by these efforts has contributed significantly to our thinking about the taxonomic problems presented by sex offenders. In the third section, we focus on child molesters, the many clinical systems that have been proposed for these offenders, common types that have more or less consistently appeared in these systems, and finally a brief presentation of an empirically based taxonomy for child molesters. In the fourth section, we focus on rapists, the clinical systems proposed for these offenders, followed by a brief discussion of an empirically based taxonomy for rapists. We have not included in this chapter detailed descriptions of the programmatic research that produced these empirical systems. The interested reader will be referred to the relevant literature for information on the development and validation of these models.
A Scalable Lower Bound for the Worst-Case Relay Attack Problem on the Transmission Grid

We consider a bilevel attacker-defender problem to find the worst-case attack on the relays that control transmission grid components. The attacker infiltrates relays and renders the components connected to them inoperable, with the goal of maximizing load shed. The defender responds by minimizing the resulting load shed, re-dispatching using a DC optimal power flow (DCOPF) problem on the remaining network. Though worst-case interdiction problems on the transmission grid have been studied for years, none of the methods in the literature are exact because they rely on assumptions on the bounds of the dual variables of the defender problem in order to reformulate the bilevel problem as a mixed integer linear problem. The result is a lower bound, and additionally, the more conservatively the dual variables are bounded, the weaker the linear programming relaxations are and hence the more difficult it is to solve the problem at scale. In this work we also present a lower bound, where instead of bounding the dual variables, we drop the constraints corresponding to Ohm's law, relaxing DCOPF to capacitated network flow. This is a restriction of the original bilevel problem. We present theoretical results showing that, for uncongested networks, approximating DCOPF with network flow yields the same set of injections, and thus the same load shed, which suggests that this restriction likely gives a high-quality lower bound in the uncongested case. Furthermore, we show that in this formulation, the duals are bounded by 1, so we can solve our restriction exactly. Last, because the big-M values in the linearization are small and network flow has a well-known structure, we see empirically that this formulation scales well computationally with increased network size. Last, we find that this bound is almost always as tight as we can get from guessing the dual bounds, even for more congested networks.
Major histocompatibility complex genes and locus organization in the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis).

We performed a meta-analysis of the newly assembled Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) genome to characterize the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) of the species. The MHC gene clusters of the Komodo dragon are gene dense, complex, and contain counterparts of many genes of the human MHC. Our analysis identified 20 contigs encompassing ~ 6.9 Mbp of sequence with 223 annotated genes of which many are predicted orthologs to the genes of the human MHC. These MHC contigs range in size from 13.2 kb to 21.5 Mbp, contain an average of one gene per 30 kb, and are thought to occur on at least two chromosomes. Eight contigs, each > 100 kb, could be aligned to the human MHC based on gene content, and these represent gene clusters found in each of the recognized mammalian MHC subregions. The MHC of the Komodo dragon shares organizational features of other non-mammalian taxa. Multiple class Iα and class IIβ genes are indicated, with linkage between classical class I and immunoproteasome genes and between framework class I genes and genes associated with the mammalian class III subregion. These findings are supported in both Komodo genome assemblies and provide new insight into the MHC organization of these unique squamate reptiles.