cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Inflammation and the Osteogenic Regulation of Vascular Calcification: A Review and Perspective

Arterial biomineralization processes have been afflicting humans for ≥5 millennia, as realized in 2003 via the computed tomographic imaging of Otzi, the intriguing “ice mummy” discovered in the Tyrolean Alps.1 Patchy abdominal atherosclerotic calcification was readily detected in the postmortem of this ≈40-year-old hunter of the early Copper Age, by 2000 years a predecessor of King Tutankhamen.1 Today, an epidemic of vascular calcification is emerging within our aging and dysmetabolic populace.2,3 Although vascular calcification was once considered only a passive process of dead and dying cells, work from laboratories worldwide has now highlighted that arterial biomineralization is an actively regulated form of calcified tissue metabolism.4,5 Moreover, as in skeletal development – where unique biology controls matrix mineralization in membranous bone, endochondral bone, dentin, and enamel,6,7 mechanistic diversity exists in the pathobiology of vascular calcium deposition.2,4,5,8 Five common forms of vascular calcification, each possessing unique histoanatomic characteristics and clinical settings with overlapping yet distinct molecular mechanisms, have been described to date4,5,9 (Table 1⇓⇓). Although we touch on the subject, the reader is referred to other contemporary reviews for in-depth consideration of pathogenic differences.2,4,5 View this table: Table 1. Common Histoanatomic Forms of Vascular Calcification and Clinical Settings 2,4,5,11,99 View this table: Table 1. Continued View this table: Table 1. Continued In this brief review and perspective, we recount recent data that emphasize inflammation and oxidative stress signaling as key contributors to the pathogenesis of vascular mineral deposition.10 Furthermore, we highlight differences between the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR)-deficient and apolipoprotein E (apoE)-deficient murine models (Table 2) that help articulate the multifaceted contributions of dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, and uremia to arterial calcium deposition.2,4,11 We end by summarizing the importance of considering these disease stage- and context-specific contributions arterial mineralization when crafting therapeutic strategies to address the disease burden of vascular …
The View from the Ivory Tower: What Do University Alliances Offer Technology Firms?

The article reports on a study relating to the impact of university alliances on technology firms. Researchers studied nearly 2,500 university alliances formed by 147 publicly traded biotechnology firms. The companies with university alliances were found to have lower research and development expenses. The alliances also produced higher levels of innovative output in some instances. The benefits didn't translate into better overall financial performance for firms engaged in university alliances.
Novel influenza H1N1 in pregnancy: a report of two cases.

Background. Pregnant women are a high-risk group for morbidity and mortality from influenza. During the current pandemic of H1N1 influenza, few cases of H1N1 have been reported in pregnancy. Cases. We report two cases of H1N1 influenza which occurred in single institution in the course of one month. The first patient developed acute respiratory distress syndrome, required intubation, and eventually died. The second patient had influenza H1N1 that did not have any major sequela. Conclusion. H1N1 influenza in pregnancy can be associated with severe complications. Widespread vaccination, when available, prompt diagnosis, and adequate treatment with antiviral medications when infection occurs are required.
5-Lipoxygenase-activating Protein Gene Expression KEY ROLE OF CCAAT/ENHANCER-BINDING PROTEINS (C/EBP) IN CONSTITUTIVE AND TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR (TNF) α-INDUCED EXPRESSION IN THP-1 CELLS

We examined expression of the 5-lipoxygenase activating protein (FLAP), which is critical for inflammatory cell leukotriene synthesis. A 3.4-kb segment of the FLAP gene 5'-untranslated region accounted for a 22-fold increase in promoter activity when transfected into the monocyte-like cell line, THP-1, and demonstrated no activity in non-inflammatory cells. Virtually all of the promoter activity was mediated by the first 134 bp upstream of the transcription start site, a region that contains CCAAT/enhancer-binding proteins (C/EBP) consensus binding sites, at -36 to -28 bp (distal) and -25 to -12 bp (proximal). DNase I footprint analyses demonstrated THP-1 nuclear extract proteins bind to the proximal site. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay analyses revealed that C/EBP alpha, delta, and epsilon bind to the proximal site and C/EBP alpha and epsilon bind to the distal site, constitutively. Transfection studies indicated that mutation of both the proximal and distal sites decreased constitutive FLAP promoter activity. Overexpression of C/EBP alpha, beta, and delta transactivated promoter activity and increased native FLAP mRNA accumulation. Mutation of both C/EBP sites essentially abolished promoter induction by C/EBP overexpression. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha induced FLAP mRNA expression, FLAP promoter activity, and C/EBP alpha, delta, and epsilon binding to the proximal and distal promoter consensus sites. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays demonstrated that C/EBP alpha, delta, and epsilon bound to this region of the 5'-untranslated region, whereas C/EBP beta does not bind even under conditions of overexpression and stimulation. We conclude that the FLAP gene is transactivated by members of the C/EBP family of transcription factors in inflammatory cells and that these factors play an important role in FLAP gene induction by TNFalpha.
Epistaxis and the Nasostat

The most effective method of treating epistaxis is to identify and cauterize the bleeding vessel. If this cannot be done, other methods must be used. Anterior packs without a choanal plug are not reliable. Gauze posterior packs are traumatic and should not be used. The Foley catheter with anterior gauze packs is quite satisfactory but the Nasostat, which can also be used with anterior packing when necessary, will, in most cases, control the bleeding without subjecting the patient to the discomfort of nasal packs. In addition, when used properly, it is safe and easily tolerated. The technique and its complications are described.
The head of the company: Conceptions of role and identity

Not only is the head of a business organization usually the single most important member of the firm, but the role he plays is quite unlike those of other members. Where do these men come from? What makes them as they are? How do they learn to adapt to the role? This paper reports one of a very few comprehensive studies of the role of head of the firm, with some striking and unexpected findings.
Mission cyber security situation assessment using impact dependency graphs

The paper proposes a conceptual framework and a method for assessing impact that cyber attacks might have to cyber assets, services, and missions. The paper describes the model of a cyber attack based on an extended conceptual graph. It introduces the notion of a cyber-terrain as a multilevel information structure containing assets and services, and their inter-dependencies. It also describes the model of a mission, and impact dependency graph that in a uniform way presents the dependencies between the cyber terrain and missions. The paper presents an algorithmic base how to calculate impacts that cyber attacks cause to the directly attacked assets, how the direct impacts propagate through the inter-asset, service, and mission dependencies and affect the operational capacity of ongoing missions.
Resurrecting the Body: Has Postmodernism Had Any Effect on Biology?

While postmodernism has had very little influence in biology (for reasons discussed in the paper), it can provide a framework for discussing the context in which biology is done. Here, four biological views of the body/self are contrasted: the neural, immunological, genetic, and phenotypic bodies. Each physical view of the body extrapolates into a different model of the body politic, and each posits a different relationship between bodies of knowledge. The neural view of the body models a body politic wherein society is defined by its culture and laws. The genetic view privileges views of polities based on ethnicity and race. The immune body extrapolates into polities that can defend themselves against other such polities. The phenotypic view of the body politic stands in opposition to these three major perspectives and integrates them without giving any predominance. The view of science as a "neural" body of knowledge contends that science is aperspectival and objective. The perspective of the "immune" body is that science exists to defend the interests of its creataors. The genetic view of science is that science is the basis of all culture. The extrapolation of the phenotypic body to science insists upon the utilitarian rationale for scientific interprises. In all instances, the genetic view of the body/body politic/body of science is presently in ascendance.
Overcoming hurdles in translating visual search research between the lab and the field

Research in visual search can be vital to improving performance in careers such as radiology and airport security screening. In these applied, or "field," searches, accuracy is critical, and misses are potentially fatal; however, despite the importance of performing optimally, radiological and airport security searches are nevertheless flawed. Extensive basic research in visual search has revealed cognitive mechanisms responsible for successful visual search as well as a variety of factors that tend to inhibit or improve performance. Ideally, the knowledge gained from such laboratory-based research could be directly applied to field searches, but several obstacles stand in the way of straightforward translation; the tightly controlled visual searches performed in the lab can be drastically different from field searches. For example, they can differ in terms of the nature of the stimuli, the environment in which the search is taking place, and the experience and characteristics of the searchers themselves. The goal of this chapter is to discuss these differences and how they can present hurdles to translating lab-based research to field-based searches. Specifically, most search tasks in the lab entail searching for only one target per trial, and the targets occur relatively frequently, but field searches may contain an unknown and unlimited number of targets, and the occurrence of targets can be rare. Additionally, participants in lab-based search experiments often perform under neutral conditions and have no formal training or experience in search tasks; conversely, career searchers may be influenced by the motivation to perform well or anxiety about missing a target, and they have undergone formal training and accumulated significant experience searching. This chapter discusses recent work that has investigated the impacts of these differences to determine how each factor can influence search performance. Knowledge gained from the scientific exploration of search can be applied to field searches but only when considering and controlling for the differences between lab and field.
Using the Kaldor‐Hicks Tableau Format for Cost‐Benefit Analysis and Policy Evaluation

This note describes the Kaldor-Hicks (KH) tableau format as a framework for distributional accounting in cost-benefit analysis and policy evaluation. The KH tableau format can serve as a heuristic aid for teaching microeconomics-based policy analysis, and offer insight to policy analysts and decisionmakers beyond conventional efficiency analysis. © 2005 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management
Optimizing code parallelization through a constraint network based approach

Increasing employment of chip multiprocessors in embedded computing platforms requires a fresh look at conventional code parallelization schemes. In particular, any compiler-based parallelization scheme for chip multiprocessors should account for the fact that interprocessor communication is cheaper than off-chip memory accesses in these architectures. Based on this observation, this paper proposes a constraint network based approach to code parallelization for chip multiprocessors. Constraint networks have proven to be a useful mechanism for modeling and solving computationally intensive tasks in artificial intelligence. They operate by expressing a problem as a set of variables, variable domains and constraints and define a search procedure that tries to satisfy the constraints (an acceptable subset of them) by assigning values to variables from their specified domains. This paper demonstrates that it is possible to use a constraint network based formulation for the problem of code parallelization for chip multiprocessors. Our experimental evaluation shows that not only a constraint network based approach is feasible for our problem but also highly desirable since it outperforms all other parallelization schemes tested in our experiments.
New Insights on the Role of SERCA During Vessel Remodeling in Metabolic Syndrome.

The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the adult population in developing countries, as it is currently conceived by the current definitions, has been estimated to range from 22 to 39% and varies depending on the definition used and on ethnicity (1–3). Metabolic syndrome is associated with future coronary heart disease events (4), and this forms the underlying basis for the study by Dineen et al. in this issue of Diabetes (5). Patients with metabolic syndrome have been shown to have an increased mean intimal-medial thickness (0.98 vs. 0.92 mm, P < 0.01) of the common carotid and an increase in the number of components of metabolic syndrome, which is associated with an increasing trend in the mean intimal-medial thickness, suggesting that metabolic syndrome can effect vessel wall modeling (6). Defining the biology of these early mural changes should allow for a better delineation of how metabolic syndrome influences the response to injury after coronary intervention. Individuals with metabolic syndrome and a Framingham risk score greater than 20% have an increased risk of major coronary events over the next 10 years compared with people without metabolic syndrome and the same risk score (7). Metabolic syndrome is associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction with a corresponding population-attributable risk of 14.5%. The clustering of greater than three risk factors with subthreshold values is also associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction (odds ratio 1.50 [95% CI 1.24–1.81]) compared with component factors with values in a normal range (8). The presence of metabolic syndrome increases the risk of mortality by 1.6-fold and cardiovascular death by 2.4-fold in patients who present with an acute coronary syndrome (9). The presence of metabolic syndrome correlates with a heightened inflammatory …
Acid-base effects on intestinal Cl- absorption and vesicular trafficking.

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An Economic Disturbance Theory of Mergers

Introduction, 624. — Economic disturbances and valuation discrepancies, 626. — Pursuit of monopoly and economies of scale as determinants of merger, 629. — Statistical tests, 631. — Security prices and valuation discrepancies, 637.
Deposit‐feeder diets in the Bering Sea: potential effects of climatic loss of sea ice‐related microalgal blooms

Climate warming in seasonally ice-covered seas is expected to reduce the extent and duration of annual sea ice. Resulting changes in sea ice related blooms of ice algae or phytoplankton may in turn alter the timing, magnitude, or quality of organic matter inputs to the sea floor. If benthic taxa rely differently on direct consumption of settling fresh microalgae for growth and reproduction, altered blooms may lead to reorganization of deposit-feeding assemblages. To assess the potential for such changes, we examined the diets of five abundant deposit-feeders (three infaunal bivalves, a polychaete, and a brittle star) with different feeding modes over the course of the spring bloom in May–June 2007 in the north-central Bering Sea (30–90 m depth). Short-term data from gut contents reflected feeding modes, with the bivalves Macoma calcarea, Ennucula tenuis, and Nuculana radiata, and the brittle star Ophiura sarsi, responding more quickly to deposition of fresh algae than did the head-down polychaete Pectinaria hyperborea. Fatty acid biomarkers also indicated rapid ingestion of settling algae by the bivalves (especially Macoma) and the brittle star, while Pectinaria continued to ingest mainly bacteria. Fatty acid biomarkers did not indicate any unique dietary importance of ice algae released from melting ice. Longer-term inference from stable isotopes suggested that fresh microalgae contributed little to overall carbon assimilated by any of these species. Instead, deposit-feeders appeared to select a consistent fraction from the pool of sediment organic matter, probably heterotrophic microbes, microbial products, and reworked phytodetritus that form a longer-term sediment “food bank.” Redistribution of settled organic matter via scouring and accumulation by currents, as well as the multi-year life spans of macroinvertebrates, may further overwhelm effects of short-term variations in the timing, magnitude, and dispersion of blooms in the water column. More diet data are needed from midsummer to account for any lag in assimilation of fresh microalgae at these cold temperatures. Nevertheless, our results suggest that if annual sea ice cover is reduced, increased production of phytoplankton during longer ice-free periods could replace inputs of ice-associated microalgae to the sediment food bank used by deposit-feeders.
EFFECT OF TALLOW AND CHOLINE CHLORIDE ADDITION TO THE DIET OF SOWS ON MILK COMPOSITION, MILK YIELD AND PREWEANING PIG PERFORMANCE

Four trials were conducted with a total of 188 crossbred sows to determine the effect of feeding diets supplemented with tallow (0 or 8%) and choline chloride (220 or 770 mg/kg diet) prior to parturition and during lactation on preweaning pig performance. On d 100 of gestation, sows were allotted to four factorially arranged dietary treatments: 0% tallow-220 mg/kg choline chloride, 0% tallow-770 mg/kg choline chloride, 8% tallow-220 mg/kg choline chloride, 8% tallow-770 mg/kg choline chloride. Diets without tallow were fed at the rate of 1.82 kg/d with an additional .18 kg/d of cornstarch, whereas sows receiving diets supplemented with tallow were fed 1.82 kg/d. Daily metabolizable energy intake was constant for all diets (approximately 6,240 kcal). Following parturition, the diets were fed ad libitum for a 21-d lactation period. Pig survival to 21 d, in relation to the number of pigs born alive/litter, did not differ significantly between litters from sows receiving tallow (94.0%) and litters from sows receiving the control diet (92.5%). Although not significantly different, there was a trend toward slightly heavier pigs (6.35 vs 6.11 kg) and litters (53.97 vs 51.94 kg) after the 21-d lactation period in the groups nursing sows receiving tallow-supplemented diets. Litter performance was not improved by the addition of choline to sows' diets. A second study was conducted to measure the effect of energy source on milk yield and composition. Twelve crossbred sows was allotted to two dietary treatments (0 and 8% tallow), each supplemented with 770 mg choline chloride/kg of diet. The composition of colostrum and milk was determined on d 0, 9 and 18, and milk yield was measured on d 12 and 19. Throughout the lactation period, sows fed the tallow supplemented diet produced higher concentrations of total milk solids (22.15%, P less than .10) and fat (14.9%, P less than .01) than the control group (21.37 and 12.0%, respectively). Milk protein content, averaged over the lactation period, was lower (P less than .10) for sows receiving tallow (8.60 vs 9.22%); however, the depression appeared to be related to the colostrum samples, because values for the two treatment groups were similar on d 9 and 18. The mean milk yield was 9.44 kg/d for sows receiving tallow and 8.72 kg/d for those fed the control diet. Therefore, not only did sows in the tallow group produce a greater concentration of milk solids and fat, but the total quantity of the milk constituents available to the offspring was increased.
A new LCR meter right angle phase self-calibration method for use in rf resistance calibrations by using capacitance standards

This paper describes how to calibrate the right angle phase of a Four-Terminal-Pair (4TP) LCR meter. The meter uses the right angle signal to process synchronous detector as a vector receiver. The right angle calibration method uses, at least, one programmable phase signal generator and a phase shift circuits. The signal generator and the phase shifter do not require a precision 90 degree angle. As a result, the right angle phase deviation of the LCR meter is better than 100 murad at 10 MHz. This method is also applicable to the phase calibration of a vector network analyzer.
Enhanced glucose tolerance in pancreatic-derived factor (PANDER) knockout C57BL/6 mice

Pancreatic-derived factor (PANDER; also known as FAM3B) is a uniquely structured protein strongly expressed within and secreted from the endocrine pancreas. PANDER has been hypothesized to regulate fasting and fed glucose homeostasis, hepatic lipogenesis and insulin signaling, and to serve a potential role in the onset or progression of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Despite having potentially pivotal pleiotropic roles in glycemic regulation and T2D, there has been limited generation of stable animal models for the investigation of PANDER function, and there are no models on well-established genetic murine backgrounds for T2D. Our aim was to generate an enhanced murine model to further elucidate the biological function of PANDER. Therefore, a pure-bred PANDER knockout C57BL/6 (PANKO-C57) model was created and phenotypically characterized with respect to glycemic regulation and hepatic insulin signaling. The PANKO-C57 model exhibited an enhanced metabolic phenotype, particularly with regard to enhanced glucose tolerance. Male PANKO-C57 mice displayed decreased fasting plasma insulin and C-peptide levels, whereas leptin levels were increased as compared with matched C57BL/6J wild-type mice. Despite similar peripheral insulin sensitivity between both groups, hepatic insulin signaling was significantly increased during fasting conditions, as demonstrated by increased phosphorylation of hepatic PKB/Akt and AMPK, along with mature SREBP-1 expression. Insulin stimulation of PANKO-C57 mice resulted in increased hepatic triglyceride and glycogen content as compared with wild-type C57BL/6 mice. In summary, the PANKO-C57 mouse represents a suitable model for the investigation of PANDER in multiple metabolic states and provides an additional tool to elucidate the biological function and potential role in T2D.
Global deadline-monotonic scheduling of arbitrary-deadline sporadic task systems

The multiprocessor Deadline-Monotonic scheduling of sporadic task systems is studied. A new sufficient schedulability test is presented and proved correct. It is shown that this test offers non-trivial quantitative guarantees, including a processor speedup bound.
Impact of Vitamin K Administration on INR Changes and Bleeding Events Among Patients With Cirrhosis

Background: The efficacy of vitamin K in lowering an elevated INR in the setting of cirrhosis is not well established. Objectives: The purpose of this investigation is to determine the effect of vitamin K administration on the INR and bleeding eventsamong hospitalized patients with cirrhosis. Methods: This is a retrospective investigation of patients hospitalized at an academic institution from 2010 to 2012. Adults with an ICD9 code supporting cirrhosis were segregated into matched cohorts based on provision of vitamin K. Multivariable logistic regression of factors associated with INR decrease and bleeding events was completed. Results: The final matched cohort (n = 276) contained 130 patients who received vitamin K and 146 who did not receive this therapy. ICU care (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.91; 95% CI = 1.54-5.49; P = 0.01), receipt of a blood product (AOR = 2.40; 95%CI = 1.35-4.24; P = 0.03), and baseline INR > 1.6 (AOR = 1.72; 95% CI = 1.00-2.95; P = 0.05), but not vitamin K administration (AOR =...
Developing a Critical Stance as an E-Learning Specialist: A Primer for New Professionals

E-learning specialists tend to be very pragmatic in orientation, building programs and developing courses, and curriculum in response to problems and opportunities encountered in practice. This is done out of conviction that technology can open up doors of quality and access hitherto closed. Yet e-learning programs do not have unilaterally positive impacts—sometimes programs aggravate social distance and widen the achievement gap of already disadvantaged groups. In this chapter, we explore issues surrounding the social impacts of e-learning practice, encouraging a critical stance toward our work. We take the position that e-learning programs have the best chance for positive impacts through the informed, intentional practices and commitments of individual professionals, aligned with a professional community that shares these values and encourages critical and reflective practice.
The Forgotten Employee Benefit Crisis: Multiemployer Plans on the Brink

This article provides a first time look at the numerous challenges facing multiemployer or Taft-Hartley benefit plans in the post-global recession and health care reform world. These plans have provided pension, health, and welfare benefits to union members of smaller employers in itinerant industries for over sixty years and even today, these plans collectively have over ten million participants in over 1500 plans. Multiemployer plans are increasingly mired in financial trouble and are finding it more difficult to continue to provide adequate retirement and health benefits to their members. Although they once represented one of the great triumphs in American labor relations, these plans are now becoming just another part of the growing employee benefits crisis confronting the United States. The purpose of this article is to consider, and respond to, the various financial, healthcare, and judicial challenges that threaten the on-going viability of these plans. By addressing these challenges in a systematic manner, this article seeks to provide a more sustainable path forward so that multiemployer benefit plans can continue to provide crucial employee benefits to the next generation of union workers.
A Conservation Odyssey

Herein lies the story of Craig Packer's struggle to save lions in the wild. We learn the names and personalities of politicians and decision makers on the international stage and in Tanzania. We gain insights about the hunting industry, especially officials in the Wildlife Division, which oversees hunting in Tanzania, about Safari Club International, about corruption in Tanzania, and about the author himself. There is a lot of science here, too, concerning the function of lion manes, how field experiments are conducted, and why lions become man-eaters.
Stochastic subgradient descent method for large-scale robust chance-constrained support vector machines

Robust chance-constrained Support Vector Machines (SVM) with second-order moment information can be reformulated into equivalent and tractable Semidefinite Programming (SDP) and Second Order Cone Programming (SOCP) models. However, practical applications involve processing large-scale data sets. For the reformulated SDP and SOCP models, existed solvers by primal-dual interior method do not have enough computational efficiency. This paper studies the stochastic subgradient descent method and algorithms to solve robust chance-constrained SVM on large-scale data sets. Numerical experiments are performed to show the efficiency of the proposed approaches. The result of this paper breaks the computational limitation and expands the application of robust chance-constrained SVM.
Effectiveness of Advertising in Different Media. The Case of U.S. Army Recruiting

The U.S. military spends roughly $100 million annually to place advertisements to promote enlistments. Army data for 1981 to 1984 exhibit substantial cross-sectional and times series variation in advertising intensities, which enables estimation of advertising effects separately for four media (television, radio, magazines, and newspapers) using a functional form allowing media-specific, S-shaped response functions and relatively flexible, media-specific lag structures. We find that army advertising was very productive in producing enlistments; response functions for television, radio, and magazines are consistent with widespread advertising practice; lag patterns differ substantially over media; and the army's allocation of spending across media was nearly optimal.
A reconfigurable robot with tensegrity structure using nylon artificial muscle

This paper describes the design and experimental investigation of a self-reconfigurable icosahedral robot for locomotion. The robot consists of novel and modular tensegrity structures, which can potentially maneuver in unstructured environments while carrying a payload. Twisted and Coiled Polymer (TCP) muscles were utilized to actuate the tensegrity structure as needed. The tensegrity system has rigid struts and flexible TCP muscles that allow keeping a payload in the central region. The TCP muscles provide large actuation stroke, high mechanical power per fiber mass and can undergo millions of highly reversible cycles. The muscles are electrothermally driven, and, upon stimulus, the heated muscles reconfigure the shape of the tensegrity structure. Here, we present preliminary experimental results that determine the rolling motion of the structure.
Seeking an Anchorage. Stability and Variability in Tonal Alignment of Rising Prenuclear Pitch Accents in Cypriot Greek.

Although tonal alignment constitutes a quintessential property of pitch accents, its exact characteristics remain unclear. This study, by exploring the timing of the Cypriot Greek L*+H prenuclear p...
Persistent hyperexcitability in isolated hippocampal CA1 of kainate-lesioned rats.

1. Subcutaneous kainate injection in rats evoked acute seizures and led to cell loss in the hilus and areas CA1 and CA3, which resembled the pattern of hippocampal sclerosis often associated with t...
Clinical Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Biologic Therapeutics for Treatment of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multifactorial autoimmune disease with potentially severe clinical manifestation that mainly affects women of child-bearing age. Patients who do not respond to standard-of-care therapies, such as corticosteroids and immunosuppressants, require biologic therapeutics that specifically target a single or multiple SLE pathogenesis pathways. This review summarizes the clinical pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic characteristics of biologic agents that are approved, used off-label, or in the active pipeline of drug development for SLE patients. Depending on the type of target, the interacting biologics may exhibit linear (non-specific) or non-linear (target-mediated) disposition profiles, with terminal half-lives varying from approximately 1 week to 1 month. Biologics given by subcutaneous administration, which offers dosing flexibility over intravenous administration, demonstrated a relatively slow absorption with a time to maximum concentration of approximately 1 day to 2 weeks and a variable bioavailability of 30-82 %. The population pharmacokinetics of monoclonal antibodies were best described by a two-compartment model with central clearance and steady-state volume of distribution ranging from 0.176 to 0.215 L/day and 3.60-5.29 L, respectively. The between-subject variability in pharmacokinetic parameters were moderate (20-79 %) and could be partially explained by body size. The development of linked pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic models incorporating SLE disease biomarkers are an attractive strategy for use in dosing regimen simulation and optimization. The relationship between efficacy/adverse events and biologic concentration should be evaluated to improve clinical trial outcomes, especially for biologics in the advanced phase of drug development. New strategies, such as model-based precision dosing dashboards, could be utilized to incorporate information collected from therapeutic drug monitoring into pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic models to enable individualized dosing in real time.
America's College Promise: Situating President Obama's Initiative in the History of Federal Higher Education Aid and Access Policy.

Purpose: America’s College Promise (ACP) is a legislative initiative introduced by President Obama to increase access to higher education, to build the economy, and to support his earlier American Graduation Initiative. This legislation has the potential to settle among the ranks of the most influential federal higher education aid and access legislation passed in the 20th century, and influence the next administration’s higher education agenda. The purpose of this article is to situate ACP in that historical hierarchy and position the initiative within the literature regarding federal policy directed toward student aid and access. Particular attention is given to federal policies relevant to community colleges and the dependence of this initiative on community colleges as this research may help multiple constituencies shape the direction of this policy as it unfolds, and offer a framework for implementation. Proposed model: Through historical analyses of federal policies, scholarly critiques, and public ...
Letter to a quiet pioneer

Dear Richard,The last time I saw you was at UMass, my university and a place where I had never seen you before, although I guess you had been here many years before when you were a doctoral student...
Formative graphing with a Microsoft Excel 2013 template.

Observant behavior analysts graph data formatively, or at least once per week, to improve clinical decision-making. In service settings, applied behavior analysts commonly graph with Microsoft Excel. Although numerous field-specific and field-tested tutorials explain how to create new graphs with Mi
Do health care ratings differ by race or ethnicity

Article-at-a-Glance Background There is growing evidence that Asians and Pacific Islanders perceive their health care more negatively than whites and other racial and ethnic subgroups. This study of differences in health care experiences by race and ethnicity was the first to use nationally representative data. Method Data from the 1998 National Research Corporation Healthcare Market Guide® survey were analyzed. A total of 120,855 respondents were included in the study. Four global satisfaction ratings (overall health plan satisfaction, medical care satisfaction, recommend plan to others, and intent to switch plans) and four composite measures (access to care, providers' delivery of care, customer service, and cost/benefits of care) were examined. Results Nonwhite survey respondents—particularly those in the other/multiracial and Asian/Pacific Islander groups—rated their health plan coverage and medical care lower than whites. Discussion The results of this study are consistent with those of other recent (and comparable) studies in which these racial and ethnic groups are represented. Most strikingly consistent, however, are the lower ratings of Asians/Pacific Islanders and the comparable (and higher) ratings (compared to whites) of African Americans. Why Asians/Pacific Islanders are considerably less satisfied with their medical care than all other racial and ethnic groups in the United States needs to be explored. Access to care and quality of care improvement efforts should be directed at all ethnic minority groups, particularly for limited English-speaking, other/multiracial, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander subgroups.
Critical thresholds for eventual extinction in randomly disturbed population growth models

This paper considers several single species growth models featuring a carrying capacity, which are subject to random disturbances that lead to instantaneous population reduction at the disturbance times. This is motivated in part by growing concerns about the impacts of climate change. Our main goal is to understand whether or not the species can persist in the long run. We consider the discrete-time stochastic process obtained by sampling the system immediately after the disturbances, and find various thresholds for several modes of convergence of this discrete process, including thresholds for the absence or existence of a positively supported invariant distribution. These thresholds are given explicitly in terms of the intensity and frequency of the disturbances on the one hand, and the population’s growth characteristics on the other. We also perform a similar threshold analysis for the original continuous-time stochastic process, and obtain a formula that allows us to express the invariant distribution for this continuous-time process in terms of the invariant distribution of the discrete-time process, and vice versa. Examples illustrate that these distributions can differ, and this sends a cautionary message to practitioners who wish to parameterize these and related models using field data. Our analysis relies heavily on a particular feature shared by all the deterministic growth models considered here, namely that their solutions exhibit an exponentially weighted averaging property between a function of the initial condition, and the same function applied to the carrying capacity. This property is due to the fact that these systems can be transformed into affine systems.
Power of Touch: Working with Survivors of Sexual Abuse Within Dance/Movement Therapy

Touch is the first language humans learn; one learns to touch in the womb long before they develop an ability to communicate in other forms. This article speaks to the importance of touch in working with a survivor of sexual abuse. Dance/movement therapy (DMT) understands the importance of integrating the body into psychotherapy. Dance/movement therapist’s abilities to meet the individual where they are at somatically support their work with survivors in a touch model. This article, by reviewing existing literature and research in the field of the application of touch in the psychotherapeutic relationship, in combination with the research that states essential goals for survivors of sexual abuse within therapy, attempts to suggest ways in which DMT can enhance and support the use of touch in working with survivors. This article also suggests that touch is a healing component in psychotherapy, particularly in regards to working with survivors to reclaim and relearn their relationship to their bodies.
The Role of DNA Damage and Repair in Neurotoxicity Caused by Cancer Therapies

Abundant evidence in patients and in animal models demonstrates that cancer therapies have two major neurological side effects: cognitive dysfunction commonly termed “chemobrain” and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). Although a number of cancer therapies result in neurotoxicity, this chapter focuses on ionizing radiation and drugs that act through causing DNA damage. To date, the cellular mechanisms for cognitive dysfunction or CIPN have not been identified. Furthermore, there are no standard and effective treatments available to prevent or reverse therapy-induced neurotoxicity. One promising area that requires further exploration is the ability of DNA repair mechanisms to reverse the neurotoxic effects of a number of anticancer drugs. Studies in animal models show that enhancing the base excision repair pathway attenuates neuronal damage by chemotherapeutic agents, suggesting that manipulating DNA repair mechanisms may be a novel approach to diminish neurotoxicity during or after cancer therapy.
A Knowledge-Based Design for Hypertext-Based Document Retrieval Systems

This paper presents some aspects of an ongoing research that. aims at incorporating knowledge-based search mechanisms into hypertext-based document retrieval systems. We propose an information structure that is grounded on a semantic network-based thesaurus. It serves to represent the documents and concepts (terms) involved in information retrieval. The second important component of our design is heuristics-based search mechanisms that were derived from our prior cognitive modeling study (which investigated the search strategies of expert searchers). By incorporating these components into a navigation-based hypertext, we attempt to create a system that facilitates effective and efficient information retrieval in a complex retrieval environment.
Exploiting Language Variation to Better Understand the Cognitive Consequences of Bilingualism

Within the past decade, there has been an explosion of research investigating the cognitive consequences of bilingualism. However, a controversy has arisen specifically involving research claiming a "bilingual advantage" in executive function. In this brief review, we re-examine the nature of the "bilingual advantage" and suggest three themes for future research. First, there must be a theoretical account of how specific variation in language experience impacts aspects of executive function and domain general cognition. Second, efforts toward adequately characterizing the participants tested will be critical to interpreting results. Finally, designing studies that employ converging analytical approaches and sensitive methodologies will be important to advance our knowledge of the dynamics between bilingual language experience and cognition.
The effect of extreme HCL deposition on soil acid neutralization following simulated shuttle rocket launches

This study evaluated the effect of extreme HCl deposition on soil acid neutralization following simulated shuttle rocket launches. Four soils along a soil chronosequence from Vandenberg Air Force Base were selected and evaluated as a function of pH spike addition (pH=1.0, 2.5, 4.0, and 5.6) and time (0 to 4 mo) in a leaching-incubation experiment. The pH=1.0 treatment led to a rapid soil extract pH decrease to 2.5 in poorly buffered soils and increased leaching of basic cations (Ca, Mg, K, and Na), Al, and Si. In general, there were no significant differences among the pH= 2.5, 4.0, and 5.6 treatments. Acid neutralization capacity increased with increasing soil age. The acid neutralization process involved two steps. In Step 1, acid is neutralized by direct or indirect exchange with exchangeable basic cations. The most likely mechanisms for this step are: (1) the direct exchange of H′ for basic cations followed by an interchange reaction between surface H′ and structural Al, and (2) the indirect exchange through H+ neutralization by polyhydroxyl-Al complexes with concurrent base displacement. Acid neutralization by a gibbsite-like mineral is an unlikely mechanism controlling the initial acid neutralization step. Eventually a pure acidic (H-A l) complex develops. In Step 2, further acid neutralization is governed by mineral dissolution via the acidic cations (H′, All').
Including Disability in Diversity

For over a decade, AccessComputing has worked to increase the participation of people with disabilities in computing fields. A key component of this work is to influence institutional change in educational institutions, computing organizations, government labs, and industry companies. This paper considers lessons learned in working with these partners in ensuring that disability is included in larger conversations around diversity.
PROMISing New Tool Correlates Well with Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire in Left Ventricular Assist Device Patients

Purpose Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) is a computerized assessment that has been validated across multiple disciplines and chronic disease states. There is limited use of PROMIS in the heart failure patient population. We describe PROMIS scores in a large LVAD patient cohort and compare functional domain measurement to the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ-12). Methods LVAD patients completed the PROMIS computer adaptive test for physical function, pain and depression in addition to the KCCQ-12 survey at outpatient visits. PROMIS instruments are standardized to a mean score of 50 for the general population. Only KCCQ-12 completed within 90 days of a PROMIS score were included in the analysis. The nonparametric Spearman's rank correlation measure was used to estimate the strength of the relationship between the PROMIS function score and the KCCQ-12 measure. Results From June 2017 to August 2018, 271 PROMIS scores were completed from 132 different LVAD patients (55 ± 11 years old; 81% male; 58% BTT). Time since LVAD implantation ranged from 32 days to over 8 years (median 945 days). Compared to the general population, LVAD patients reported worse functional status but similar levels of pain and depression (Figure 1). KCCQ-12 was captured for 73 different patients and demonstrated significant positive correlation between the instruments (0.713, p Conclusion The PROMIS score shows a good correlation with the KCCQ-12 in LVAD patients. Further study is needed to determine its utility in predicting outcomes.
Anti‐PD‐1 Immunotherapy‐Induced Flare of a Known Underlying Relapsing Vasculitis Mimicking Recurrent Cancer

Safe use of immune checkpoint blockade in patients with cancer and autoimmune disorders requires a better understanding of the pathophysiology of immunologic activation. We describe the immune correlates of reactivation of granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA)-an antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis-in a patient with metastatic urothelial carcinoma treated with pembrolizumab. After PD-1 blockade, an inflammatory pulmonary nodule demonstrated a granulomatous, CD4+ T-cell infiltrate, correlating with increased CD4+ and CD8+ naive memory cells in the peripheral blood without changes in other immune checkpoint receptors. Placed within the context of the existing literature on GPA and disease control, our findings suggest a key role for PD-1 in GPA self-tolerance and that selective strategies for immunotherapy may be needed in patients with certain autoimmune disorders. We further summarize the current literature regarding reactivation of autoimmune disorders in patients undergoing immune checkpoint blockade, as well as potential immunosuppressive strategies to minimize the risks of further vasculitic reactivation upon rechallenge with anti-PD-1 blockade. KEY POINTS: Nonspecific imaging findings in patients with cancer and rheumatological disorders may require biopsy to distinguish underlying pathology.Patients with rheumatologic disorders have increased risk of reactivation with PD-(L)1 immune checkpoint blockade, requiring assessment of disease status before starting treatment.Further study is needed to evaluate the efficacy of treatment regimens in preventing and controlling disease reactivation.