cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
38 NOX4, A HOMOLOGUE OF NOX2, REGULATES HYPEROXIA-INDUCED REACTIVE OXYGEN SPECIES PRODUCTION AND ANGIOGENESIS IN HUMAN LUNG ENDOTHELIAL CELLS.

Rationale Nox4, a homologue of Nox2 (gp91phox), is involved in ROS production and signal transduction in vascular cells. In human pulmonary artery endothelial cells (HPAECs), mRNA expression of Nox4 is several folds higher compared to Nox2 and exposure of cells to hyperoxia (95% O2, 24 hours) resulted in up-regulation of Nox4 and p22phox but not Nox1 or Nox3. Nox4 siRNA partially reduced ROS formation and blocked cell motility and capillary tube formation in cells exposed to either normoxia or hyperoxia, suggesting a role for Nox4 in angiogenesis. Methods/Results In HPAECs and human lung microvascular ECs, expression of Nox4 was several folds higher, as shown by real-time PCR, and exposure to hyperoxia (24 hours) up-regulated Nox4 mRNA as well as protein expression. The localization of Nox4 in HPAECs, as determined by immunofluorescence microscopy with Nox4 antibody, revealed that a majority of the native Nox4 protein was localized near the perinuclear region that stained positive for Golgi marker and a small fraction extended throughout the cytoplasm in internal membrane and vesicular structures. Exposure of cells to hyperoxia (3 hours) caused the Golgi to assume a rounded appearance from a saucer-shaped structure where in majority of Nox4 was colocalized. As hyperoxia-mediated cell motility was attenuated by Nox4 siRNA and was dependent on ROS production, we studied the role of Nox4 in capillary tube formation using matrigel assay. Exposure of HPAECs grown on matrigel to hyperoxia (24 hours) increased the number of capillary tubes compared to normoxia and Nox4 siRNA attenuated the capillary tube formation. Conclusion Nox4 participates in ROS production and acts as a signaling protein that plays a pivotal role in regulating key EC functions such as migration and capillary tube formation. Supported by NIH RO1 HL 69909 to V. Natarajan.
Influence of the power supply system of Harbin Metro Line 1 on the grid

Harbin metro traction power rectifier load generated lots of harmonics injected into the power system at run time,it affected and spreaded the entire network of other users.During normal operation,power factor is low,while in the subway outage,and reactive power to send the situation,issued a governance program,to ensure the safe and stable operation of power grid.
Laparoscopic proctectomy for infiltrating endometriosis of the rectum

Proctectomy for deep endometriosis of the rectal wall was performed without laparotomy. Although laparoscopic pelvic surgery and transperineal proctectomy with primary double-stapled anastomosis are established procedures in gynecological and gastrointestinal surgery, this is the first reported case in which these procedures are combined to mobilize the rectum and perform an extracorporeal transanal rectal resection and anastomosis.
City imagery: A summary

Abstract This short article summarizes eight papers which comprised Cities' special feature on urban design throughout 1992.
Diathermy Smoke Plume: Why Do We Put Up With It?

Diathermy is used in most theatres for every case but how many people think about the contents of diathermy plume or surgical smoke? Surgical smoke is an unpleasant smell that leaves many consideri...
Immunologic Aspects of the Hematologic Neoplasms

Understanding the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of the hematologic malignancies now requires knowledge of their immunology. Many of these tumors appear to arise from the immune cells themselves (B or T cell tumors); most have associated disturbances in immune cell function. New immunodiagnostic methods may become potentially useful clinical tools for evaluating extent of disease, tumor cell kinetics, response to treatment, and prognosis.
The Effect of Shock Compression on Graphite-Like Boron Nitride

Well crystallized graphite-1ike boron nitride (g-BN) powder particles were shock treated at a nominal peak pressure of 27 GPa in the Sandia Baby Bear fixture. The microstructure of the recovered BN compacts was found to be sensitive to the pressure and temperature histories within the fixture. G-BN powder densified mainly by particle fracture in the central region of the fixture and by plastic deformation in the outer region of the fixture.
Visions Shaping the Future of Online Education: Understanding Its Historical Evolution, Implications, and Assumptions.

The purpose of this paper was to present a historical background of online education, review its current status, and provide visions shaping its future in an attempt to understand its potential and limitations that will lead to the advancement of the scholarship of teaching and learning. Online instructors must understand the way online education has evolved over the years from previous conceptions of education and the wide array of implications and assumptions involved in the delivery of online education. Recommendations for the advancement of online education, including future research, are given.
Thyroglossal duct papillary carcinoma with squamous metaplasia in a 12-year old female and review of literature

Abstract We are reporting a case of a 12-year old African-American female who presented with a six-month history of a painless, enlarging, midline neck mass. Imaging demonstrated a 4-cm solid mass with cystic components and calcifications. Differential diagnosis included dermoid tumor, teratoma, sarcomatous lesion, thyroglossal duct cyst carcinoma, and ectopic thyroid tissue with malignant transformation. Preoperative thyroid studies were unremarkable. Patient underwent Sistrunk procedure and cervical lymph node dissection. Pathology reported a diagnosis of papillary carcinoma with squamous metaplasia arising from a thyroglossal duct cyst with three of five positive lymph nodes. Post-operative thyroid studies and imaging were unremarkable. After literature review on pediatric cases of thyroglossal duct carcinomas, the decision was made to forgo thyroidectomy and opt for close follow-up. Thyroglossal duct carcinoma is a rare pediatric tumor with approximately 26 cases reported in the literature. Best practice for the extent of surgical resection and post-operative management is still evolving as we gather data on long-term outcomes.
Digitization and Open Access of the Proceedings of the Geoscience Information Society

The Geoscience Information Society (GIS, later GSIS) was established at the 1965 meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA) as an associated society of GSA and is dedicated to improving the...
Volver a Nuestras Raíces: The Reemergence and Adaptation of Traditional Forms of Andean Reciprocity

Resumen Este manuscrito es inspirado por la investigacion etnografica del mantenimiento de las instituciones de propiedad comun y redes de apoyo social en una pequena comunidad quechua en el altiplano en el sur de Peru. Campesinos deben instituir los programas de cria y plantar y cultivar cosechas y otros trabajos de mantenimiento. Ademas de la accion colectiva, la mayoria de las casas tienen su propio jardin y rebano que requieren el apoyo de otros hogares. El uso de la teoria del capital simbolico y modelos de castigo indirecto, explico como formas modificadas de ayni y minga trabajan en conjunto para resolver el problema de parasitismo en una pequena comunidad de pastores de los Andes. En la exploracion de esta interseccion convincente de grupo y la cooperacion diadica, describire la accion colectiva y redes de apoyo social en la comunidad, y considerare sus paralelismos con la reciprocidad andina tradicional. [Andes, ecologia, Peru]
Cold Fusion: Massive Karyotype Evolution in the Antarctic Bullhead Notothen Notothenia coriiceps

Half of all vertebrate species share a series of chromosome fusions that preceded the teleost genome duplication (TGD), but we do not understand the causative evolutionary mechanisms. The "Robertsonian-translocation hypothesis" suggests a regular fusion of each ancestral acro- or telocentric chromosome to just one other by centromere fusions, thus halving the karyotype. An alternative "genome-stirring hypothesis" posits haphazard and repeated fusions, inversions, and reciprocal and nonreciprocal translocations. To study large-scale karyotype reduction, we investigated the decrease of chromosome numbers in Antarctic notothenioid fish. Most notothenioids have 24 haploid chromosomes, but bullhead notothen (Notothenia coriiceps) has 11. To understand mechanisms, we made a RAD-tag meiotic map with ∼10,000 polymorphic markers. Comparative genomics aligned about a thousand orthologs of platyfish and stickleback genes along bullhead chromosomes. Results revealed that 9 of 11 bullhead chromosomes arose by fusion of just two ancestral chromosomes and two others by fusion of three ancestral chromosomes. All markers from each ancestral chromosome remained contiguous, implying no inversions across fusion borders. Karyotype comparisons support a history of: (1) Robertsonian fusions of 22 ancestral chromosomes in pairs to yield 11 fused plus two small unfused chromosomes, like N. angustata; (2) fusion of one of the remaining two ancestral chromosomes to a preexisting fused pair, giving 12 chromosomes like N. rossii; and (3) fusion of the remaining ancestral chromosome to another fused pair, giving 11 chromosomes in N. coriiceps These results raise the question of what selective forces promoted the systematic fusion of chromosomes in pairs and the suppression of pericentric inversions in this lineage, and provide a model for chromosome fusions in stem teleosts.
Polar CI Portal: A Cloud-Based Polar Resource Discovery Engine

The Polar Regions are going through rapid and dramatic changes. These changes have significant global impacts on both the environment and society. Nevertheless, the Polar Regions are still the largest observational data voids on the planet, and polar-related resources are usually distributed across different online systems. This chapter introduces the Polar Cyberinfrastructure (CI) Portal, a one-stop portal that makes it easy for users to discover, share, and access polar resources. The polar resource discovery engine integrates a set of capabilities: (1) semantic-based searching, (2) service quality evaluation, (3) polar-friendly and user-friendly visualization, and (4) scalability of cloud computing. We start by discussing the background and challenges of geospatial cyberinfrastructure for Polar Regions, and then explain the architecture and each building block of the Polar CI portal system. A detailed discussion of the status and functions of key components is included to demonstrate the advantages of the system and its integrated techniques.
“Love Dem Bad”: Embodied Experience, Self-Adoration, and Eroticism in Dancehall

Based on fieldwork in a West Indian community in Brooklyn, New York, this article examines women's presentations of gender and sexuality in “dancehall” reggae dance. While scholarship concerning Black women in popular performance has examined hypersexual representations, it is also important to expand analyses to understand how women are empowered by their bodies through movement, subjectivity, and ecstatic experience. Using dancehall dance as an ethnographic lens, this article demonstrates how scholarship can take into account evolving interpretations of self-presentation to understand nuances of power, movement, embodied experience, and subjectivity. In doing so, it re-imbues Black women's bodies with agency rather than just positioning them as passive objects of historic violence and sexualization. By valuing dancehall dance as a site to celebrate the body's diverse physicality, the article interprets how bodies attain sensuous experience anchored both in self-adoration, and kinesthetic pleasure, which I describe as, “introspective eroticism.” Here, we can also see how signifying gender difference becomes a means through which women assert themselves within male-dominated reggae spaces and how physical experience can transform bodies from objects into subjects.
An Internet of Things (IoT)-based aquaponics facility

Aquaponics, also known as the integration of hydroponics with aquaculture, has emerged to be a successful model of sustainable food production. The symbiotic relationship between fish, plants, and bacteria, in a controlled environment, is contingent upon optimal water quality conditions. This calls for a need to develop continuous water-quality monitoring techniques that are based on intelligent data acquisition, communication, and processing. This work focuses on using Internet of Things (IoT) technology to configure and deploy smart water-quality sensors that provide remote, continuous, and real-time information of indicators related to water quality, on a graphical user interface (GUI). A sensing system comprising of a Raspberry Pi and commercial sensor circuits 1 and probes that measure Dissolved Oxygen (DO), pH, and water temperature was deployed in an aquaponics facility in a town called Manchay, near Lima, Peru2. Data acquired from the sensor system is uploaded to ThingSpeak 3, an IoT analytics platform service that provides real-time data visualization and analysis. Continuous monitoring of this data, and making necessary adjustments, will facilitate the maintenance of a healthy ecosystem that is conducive to the growth of fish and plants, while utilizing about 90% less water than traditional farming.
Parametric Analysis with OpenStudio

The previous chapter introduced the concept of OpenStudio Measures and how they can be applied individually and in combination to a Model to create and compare different Design Alternatives. While an improvement from modifying models by hand, generating results, and comparing them; the manual analysis workflow is still labor intensive, non-scalable, and will not necessarily yield the best solution for a given problem. In this chapter, we will discuss how OpenStudio enables automated creation and search of large building parameter spaces. We’ll also look at how these same approaches may be used to “tune” models of existing buildings to best match measured energy consumption data.
Technological, Ecological and Social Aspects of Herbicide Resistant Crops

Recent advances in the technologies of gene transfer and crop plant regeneration now permit the creation of transgenic herbicide-resistant cultivars for essentially all major crop species. Several cultivars have already been commercialized and more will be marketed within the next few years. These crops have the potential to provide a valuable strategy for weed management if they are used appropriately and in ongoing crop and herbicide rotations. However, several controversies surrounding their development and use may limit or slow their widespread adoption. One of the most widely publicized concerns, the likelihood of herbicide resistance gene escape from resistant cultivars into weedy relatives, is addressed in an accompanying paper in this section. In addition, other problems may arise in transgenic plants, including the loss of expression from the transgene over time and unpredictable pleiotropic effects of the transgene and the enzyme it encodes on physiological aspects of the resistant plant. The genetic mechanisms underlying these phenomena are not completely understood but are under active study in a number of laboratories. Other agronomically important concerns of HRCs include the possibility that genetic modifications for resistance will confer weediness to the cultivar (ie. volunteer plants in subsequent crops) and selecting additional herbicide resistant weeds in the new crop/herbicide regime. Of these concerns, the potential for selecting new resistant weeds may have the highest likelihood of affecting the long-term success of herbicide resistant crops.
Parkinson's disease therapy: treatment of early and late disease.

Purpose To summarize the current strategies for the treatment of early and late Parkinson's disease (PD). Data sources The presented guidelines are based on the review of the literature as well as the author's extensive experience with the treatment of 7000 patients with PD over the past 25 years. Results An analysis of reported data as well as personal experience suggest that while young patients seem to have a slower progression of the disease, they are at a higher risk for developing levodopa induced complications, such as motor fluctuations and dyskinesias. It is, therefore, prudent practice to delay levodopa therapy, particularly in younger patients, until the PD symptoms become troublesome and interfere with social or occupational functioning. Other strategies, such as the use of deprenyl, amantadine, trihexphenidyl and dopamine agonists, should be employed before instituting levodopa therapy. Entacopone and dopamine agonists are useful in smoothing out levodopa related motor fluctuations. Surgical interventions, such as pallidotomy and pallidal or subthalamic deep brain stimulation, are effective therapeutic strategies, but should be reserved only for patients in whom optimal medical therapy fails to provide satisfactory control of symptoms. Conclusion The medical and surgical treatment of patients with PD must be individualized and tailored to the needs of the individual patient.
Role of pro- and anti-apoptotic proteins in prostate cancer cells sensitive and resistant to histone deacetylase inhibitor induced cell death

4676 Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor (HDACi) is a promising class of anti-tumor drugs. The HDACi, suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), has shown anti-tumor activity at well-tolerated doses in patients with both hematological and solid tumors. The anti-tumor mechanism of HDACi is not completely understood. Previous studies have suggested that HDACi can induce both mitochondria-mediated apoptosis and non-caspase dependent transformed cell death. We have examined the effect of SAHA on the expression of proteins that regulate mitochondria apoptosis pathway in four human prostate cancer cell lines (LNCaP, DU145, LAPC4 and PC3), including the proapoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins Bax, Bak, Bok and BH3-only proteins, the antiapoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins Bcl-2, Bcl-XL, Bcl-w, Bfl-1/A1 and MCL-1, inhibitor of apoptotic proteins (IAPs), mitochondrial apoptotic proteins cytochrome C, AIF, EndoG and Smac/Diablo, caspase-3, -8 and -9. SAHA induced over 60% cell death in LNCaP and DU145 within 48 hrs of culture, but less than 40% in LAPC4. PC3 was resistant to SAHA induced cell death. There are significant differences in the expression of these proteins in the 4 cell lines, eg. DU145 lacks detectable Bax or Bim, LAPC4 has no detectable Bak or Bim. SAHA caused different patterns of changes in these pro- and anti-apoptotic proteins in the sensitive cell lines, LNCaP and DU145, than in the PC3 resistant cells. The present data suggest that HDACi induced transformed cell death of certain prostate cancer cells involves effects on apoptosis regulating proteins which determine the sensitivity or resistance to these agents. Further, these studies point to potential for synergistic effects of HDACi that modulates levels of pro- and anti-apoptotic proteins in combination with other agents to overcome the resistance of certain prostate cancer to therapy.
An epidemiological evaluation of fractures and its determinants among Lebanese schoolchildren: a cross-sectional study

The purpose of this study is to establish the prevalence and determinants of fractures among 974 Lebanese schoolchildren aged 8–18. Fractures might be less common in the Lebanese pediatric population compared to western populations. Male gender and high SES are independent risk factors for fractures, while 25(OH)D and BMI have no impact. To establish the prevalence of fractures among Lebanese schoolchildren and its relationship with age, gender, BMI, 25 hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels, and socioeconomic status (SES). In this cross-sectional study, 974 Lebanese schoolchildren aged 8–18 years old, mean age 13.37 ± 2.92 (508 boys and 466 girls), were recruited from 10 schools with different SES. For each participant, a questionnaire was used to collect data regarding history of fractures. Serum 25(OH)D was also measured. The prevalence of Lebanese children sustaining ≥ 1 fracture was 16.9% and was higher in boys compared to girls (22.2% vs 11.1%, p < 0.0001). A 71.3% of fractures were localized in the upper limbs and 20% of participants had at least one displaced fracture. Children who sustained a fracture had a non-significant higher BMI compared to those without (p = 0.096). The percentage of children with fractures was higher in children from high SES compared to those from middle and low SES (respectively 23.3% vs. 16.3% and 13.8%, p < 0.0001). Fractures occurred at a younger age in girls compared to boys, but this difference was non-significant (p = 0.13). 25(OH)D levels were significantly higher in children with fractures compared to those without (p = 0.017). Finally, female gender was protective against upper limb fractures (p = 0.009). In a logistic regression analysis, male gender and high SES were independently associated with fractures, while BMI and 25(OH)D were not. Our study demonstrates that the prevalence of fractures in the Lebanese pediatric population might be lower than western populations. It also confirms that male gender and high SES are independent risk factors for fractures, while 25(OH)D and BMI were not independently associated with fracture risk.
Identifying Fixations in Gaze Data via Inner Density and Optimization

Eye tracking is an increasingly common technology with a variety of practical uses. Eye-tracking data, or gaze data, can be categorized into two main events: fixations represent focused eye movemen...
Water-Based Drilling Fluid Formulation using Silica and Graphene Nanoparticles for Unconventional Shale Applications

Abstract The development of unconventional shales started a new era in the oil and gas industry. These reservoirs represent a challenge to conventional drilling fluids since the fluid invasion, cutting dispersion, or shale swelling can lead to wellbore instability problems. Although oil-based drilling fluids (OBM) are capable to control these issues, environmental and economic concerns limit its application. Recently, nanoparticles (NPs) have introduced a new perspective in drilling fluid technology, offering a unique alternative to improve the performance of water-based drilling fluids (WBM) for shale applications. This research evaluates the potential of using silica nanoparticles (SiO2-NPs) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) to formulate a nanoparticle water-based drilling fluid (NP-WBM). The study considers a bottom-up approach, selecting the NPs based on the Woodford Shale's characterization and focuses its primary objective in finding the most suitable NP combination to enhance the rheological, filtration and inhibition properties of the customized NP-WBM. The shale characterization included X-ray diffraction (XRD), cation exchange capacity (CEC), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The zeta-potential technique was used to assess the stability of the NPs. The NP-WBM was evaluated by means of API filtration test (LTLP), high-temperature/high-pressure (HTHP) filtration test and rheological measurements using a conventional viscometer. Finally, the inhibition capability of the NP-WBM was tested against the Woodford shale through immersion and cutting dispersion tests. NPs' characterization revealed that both additives can provide stable suspensions with zeta-potential values
What goes on in your brain when you read and understand code

Within the last few years, high-resolution medical imaging technologies have grown in popularity for research in software engineering in general and program comprehension in particular. New approaches such function magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) complement more established approaches such as eye tracking and electroencephalograms (EEG), helping us to augment unreliable or subjective self-reporting with more objective measures of the neurobiological correlates of software engineering. This keynote summarizes recent exciting results using such techniques, from multiple authors, contrasting them to more traditional studies. We highlight the "game changing" areas of program comprehension that can be more rigorously targeted with these approaches (including expertise, efficiency, and problem difficulty, among others). We also lay out a number of the challenges associated with such studies (including experimental design, statistical analysis, regulatory compliance, reproducibility, and cost, among others). We conclude with a call to arms, surveying compelling ideas and experiments from psychology that have not yet been applied to program comprehension research.
Abstract 5059: Early life risk factors and childhood cancer risk

Prenatal exposures, including maternal, delivery, and newborn characteristics, may affect childhood cancer risk. Our objective was to examine whether such birth certificate-derived factors are associated with increased risk of subsequent cancer development, including leukemia and central nervous system (CNS) tumors, in children ages zero to 13. Pennsylvania state birth and cancer registry files obtained from the PA Department of Health were linked to create a cohort of children born from 2003 to 2015 who developed cancer from 2003 to 2016. After exclusions, 1,834,796 infants were included with a total of 13,785,309 person-years of observation. Among these, there were 2,355 children diagnosed with any cancer, 748 with leukemia, and 545 with CNS tumors. Older maternal age increased the hazard of developing any childhood cancer, leukemia, and CNS tumors. Children born to severely obese mothers (body mass index ≥40 kg/m2) were at over 50% higher hazard of leukemia (P=0.01) after adjustment for age and other significant risk factors; however, maternal obesity did not significantly increase the risk of childhood CNS tumors. Among the infant characteristics, having a fetal growth ratio 30% higher than expected was significantly associated with increased hazard of any childhood cancer, leukemia, or CNS tumors (hazard ratios 2.19, 1.79, and 1.77, respectively). Other fetal and newborn factors associated with higher risk of total childhood cancer included fetal intolerance of labor, lower gestational age, and having a low Apgar score at birth. This analysis demonstrated significant and independent impacts of maternal obesity and fetal growth rate on childhood cancer development, particularly leukemia, after accounting for multiple risk factors. If confirmed, weight control during pregnancy would be an effective means of childhood cancer prevention. Citation Format: Shaina L. Stacy, Jeanine M. Buchanich, Zhen-qiang Ma, Christina Mair, Linda Robertson, Ravi K. Sharma, Evelyn O. Talbott, Jian-Min Yuan. Early life risk factors and childhood cancer risk [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5059.
Second Generation Drug-Eluting Stents for Endovascular Treatment of Ostial Vertebral Artery Stenosis: A Single Center Experience

Objective: To report a single-center experience using drug-eluting balloon mounted stents (DES) for endovascular treatment of atherosclerotic ostial vertebral artery stenosis (OVAS). Background: Posterior circulation is affected in up to 25% of strokes, 20% of them resulting from atherosclerotic OVAS. The optimal management of symptomatic OVAS remains controversial. DES have been introduced to improve restenosis rates. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed prospectively collected data from patients with dominant OVAS who underwent endovascular treatment with second-generation DES placement. Patient demographics, clinical presentation, comorbidities, stenosis severity, stent features, technical success, complications, and imaging follow-up were assessed. Results: Thirty patients were treated, predominantly male (86.6%). Sixteen patients presented with an acute stroke or TIA and fourteen were treated on an elective basis due to symptomatic chronic stenosis and contralateral occlusion. Comorbidities included hyperlipidemia (83%), hypertension (70%) and prior stroke (63.3%). Mean ostial stenosis at presentation was 80 ± 14.8%. Twenty-one patients had contralateral VA involvement. DES deployment was technically successful in all patients using everolimus eluting stents in 30 lesions and zotarolimus eluting stents in two. One technical complication (stent migration) and three (10%) minor peri-procedural complications occurred. Complications included one asymptomatic ischemic infarct in the posterior circulation, one femoral artery thrombosis and one post-procedure altered mental status secondary to contrast induced neurotoxicity. Mean imaging follow-up was 8.8 months. Two (7.6%) patients had in-stent restenosis and underwent retreatment with angioplasty. There were no procedure-related mortalities. Conclusion: Our study confirms the feasibility of deploying DES for the treatment of ostial vertebral artery stenosis with low peri-procedural risk and low medium-term rates of re-stenosis.
A Philosophical Rationale for a Bio-Psycho-Social-Spiritual Approach to Wellbeing

Most of the time, we human beings recognize the difference between the human care giver and the mechanisms and procedures she or he uses in service of health and healing. Sometimes though, we become accustomed to mechanizing, proceduralizing, or depersonalizing our interactions with others. When that happens, we can lose ourselves, our responsibility, and our goals. We can lose the desire to make a positive difference for others, a desire that lies behind the mechanisms and procedures so essential to our craft, whether we be a scientist, physician, or nurse. This kind of disengagement represents a threat to the wellbeing of those we serve and those with whom we work. It also poses a threat to our own selves. By contrast, an appreciation of others and of ourselves as whole persons—as bio-psycho-social-spiritual beings—builds a foundation supporting the wellbeing of others, and of our own selves.
Marketing’s Ethical Blind Spot: Catering to Consumer Preferences

Marketers are guided by a longstanding mantra: Consumers preferences are king. In many ways, to be the best marketer is to create products and services that are directly aligned with consumer preferences. This paper focuses on the potential ethical issues associated with blindly catering to consumer preferences. The preoccupation with consumer preferences leads marketers to prioritize them, even if the preferences are perverse. This preoccupation can trigger a kind of cultural, group based harm. Marketers and business ethicists alike have historically understood consumer harm narrowly. Traditional accounts of marketing and business ethics have used the theories of John Rawls to argue that certain practices are unethical because they harm individuals. (Rawls 1971) This paper seeks instead to use Iris Marion Young’s criticism of John Rawls to expand the scope of harms to which businesses should be attuned. Her account focuses on harms that reinforce cultural norms while stereotyping minorities, females, the LGBT community and other under-represented cultural groups — so called “cultural imperialism.” (Young 1990). Turning our attention to this kind of group-based harm has two ethical implications for marketers. First, marketers should not cater to customer preferences in ways that create these harms by reinforcing social hierarchies and stereotypes. And second, marketers may even have a positive obligation to counteract and mitigate this kind of cultural harm by promoting cultural diversity in their marketing activities, even if this means going against consumer preferences. The article concludes with a working applicable framework for marketing managers to analyze the potential cultural harms of their activities.
Optical scattering measurements of random anti-reflection subwavelength surface structures on binary gratings

Random anti-reflection sub-wavelength structures (rARSS) on optical component surfaces have been shown to enhance transmission by reducing Fresnel reflection. These structures have a broadband anti-reflection effect, and insensitivity to high angle of incidence and polarization. We have fabricated random anti-reflection surface structures on commercially available linear gratings, using reactive ion etching. An overall enhancement was measured in the specular transmission direction, with suppression of the specular reflection to less than 1%, from initial values between 3 to 8% under 1st Bragg angle of incidence, without effecting the diffractive performance of the grating. We studied the effect of these structures on a 1.595 μm period and 1.166 μm period gratings, with and without rARSS, using scattering measurements for polarized light, at normal, 1st Bragg and 2nd Bragg incidence. The directional transmission distribution function (BTDF) was measured over 180 degrees (full field), to analyze the directionality of the scattered light and the impact of the rARSS on the optical performance of the gratings. Correlations of the surface roughness with the individual diffraction order scattering profile and overall BTDF were investigated.
Reducing cost and waste in pediatric laparoscopic procedures.

Abstract Background In 2017 the healthcare cost in the United States accounted for 17.9% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Furthermore, healthcare facilities produce more than 4 billion pounds of waste annually. Interhospital and intersurgeon variabilities in surgical procedures are some of the drivers of high healthcare cost and waste. We sought to determine the effect of a monthly surgeon report card detailing the utilization and cost of disposable and reusable surgical supplies on cost and waste reduction for pediatric laparoscopic procedures. Methods Starting in July 2017, surgeons were provided with an individual report with supply cost per case, high cost, and disposable supply utilization, and clinical outcomes. Cost, utilization, and clinical outcomes six quarters before and after the intervention were compared. Results A total of 998 pediatric laparoscopic procedures were analyzed. We reduced the median supply cost per case by 43% after the intervention with total cost savings of $71,035 for the first four quarters. We also reduced the use of disposable trocars by 56% and the use of disposable harmonics and staplers by 33%. Conclusions Using a periodic surgeon report card, we significantly reduced supply cost and utilization of disposable items for all pediatric laparoscopic procedures performed at the University of Wisconsin American Family Children's Hospital. Type of study Cost effectiveness study. Level of evidence Level III.
Global Expansion Strategies for Multinationals from Emerging Markets

This chapter examines how emerging-market multinational companies (EMNCs) should go about successfully operating in other emerging and developed markets so they, too, can become global players. The infrastructure, regulatory, socio-economic, socio-political, technological, and cultural systems in emerging markets are drastically different. The authors assert that their business and marketing strategies have been and should be different from those of the traditional conglomerates of the world in order to succeed. Differential advantages of EMNCs include flanking advantage, diaspora advantage, customer advantage, cost advantage, home turf advantage, and the geopolitical advantage. Resource scarcity will drive major technology breakthroughs, such as cloning and nanotechnologies, where key drivers of innovation will be affordability and accessibility of products, technologies, and services. EMNC dominance will be most apparent in sectors where operand resources are dominant. Over time, EMNCs will challenge global leadership sectors where both operand and operant resources are critical. In these sectors, we may see global leadership shared between MNCs and EMNCs. The last frontier will be sectors where primarily operant resources are sufficient.
A new, developmentally-sensitive measure of weight suppression.

Abstract Objective Weight suppression (WS) has demonstrated associations with numerous indices of eating behavior, psychopathology and eating disorder prognosis. However, because WS has traditionally been measured as a simple subtraction of current weight from highest past weight at adult height, this calculation is problematic for most individuals with disordered eating, who usually reach their highest past weight during adolescence. Here we propose a new method for computing WS to address this shortcoming, termed “developmental weight suppression” (DWS), and provide a web-based tool for ease of calculation. Method DWS is calculated as the difference between one's highest premorbid z-BMI (i.e., BMI z-score), and current z-BMI. z-BMIs were calculated using Cole's lambda-mu-sigma (LMS) approach, in accordance with LMS parameters publicly available from the Center for Disease Control (2010). A web-based user interface is available at https://niuxin.shinyapps.io/devws/ , making its computation easier and its adoption by researchers simpler. Discussion By using z-BMIs in place of weights, DWS is more sensitive to the developmentally-relevant factors of age, height, and sex. Preliminary findings suggest that DWS is more strongly related to measures of eating pathology and biological reactions to weight loss than traditionally-computed WS, although more research is needed to test this hypothesis.
Diversity Through Turnover: How to Overcome the Glacial Pace Toward Board Diversity?

Prior to 2009, women made up about 8% of the directors of US corporate boards. That proportion has since risen to 19% in 2019 among public firms, while private firms have not witnessed notable improvement. This study highlights the general lack of board turnover, i.e., long tenure enjoyed by the incumbents, as a key factor in the slow adjustment. Proxy contests (contested board elections) resulting from shareholder activism, by increasing the board turnover rate, have contributed to improved gender diversity on the boards of the target companies, despite the fact that activist directors are no more gender-diverse compared to new directors added to the boards in the absence of such contests.
Solid-state foaming of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene through microcellular 3D printing process:

The lightweight products with superior specific strength are in great demand in numerous applications such as automotive, aerospace, biomedical, sports, etc. This work focussed on the manufacturing...
Deals or No Deals: Integrating Transactional Skills in the First Year Curriculum

In the wake of criticism of legal education from both outside the academy and within, the mandate for developing and graduating practice-ready attorneys has never been clearer. There is a strong desire for law schools to begin graduating students who are practice-ready, meaning that these new attorneys would be prepared for the real practice of law upon graduation. The question of what type of practice remains. At least half, if not more, of all attorneys engage in some form of transactional practice, rather than litigation, or other form of dispute resolution. Transactional practice refers to the art of “planning, negotiating, documenting, and closing the deal.” The fact that so many practicing attorneys engage in transactional work indicates that, in order for law schools to produce truly practice-ready attorneys, law schools must train students for practice in both transactional and litigation fields. If law schools are not teaching transactional skills, then law schools are failing to teach over half of all lawyers the skills necessary to practice law. By changing the status quo, students may leave law school with both a more productive set of lawyering skills and a broader view of how they can contribute to the profession and the communities lawyers serve. If not changed, law schools will have failed in any effort to graduate practice-ready students.This article joins a growing body of scholarship on the pedagogy of transactional law and skills. This article challenges the traditional pedagogy of teaching law students to think like a lawyer and argues that law schools should shift the analytical framework of a litigation-dominated model, which is typically taught in the first year, to a model that incorporates transactional skills teaching into the first year law school curriculum.
Visit Linearity in Primary Care Visits for Patients with Chronic Pain on Long-term Opioid Therapy

Physicians and patients report frustration after primary care visits for chronic pain. The need to shift between multiple clinical topics to address competing demands during visits may contribute to this frustration. This study creates a novel measure, “visit linearity,” to assess visit organization and examines whether visits that require less shifting back and forth between topics are associated with better patient and physician visit experiences. It also explores whether visit linearity differs depending on the following: (1) whether or not pain is a major topic of the visit and (2) whether or not pain is the first topic raised. This study analyzed 41 video-recorded visits using inductive, qualitative analysis informed by conversation analysis. We used linear regression to evaluate associations between visit organization and post-visit measures of participant experience. Patients were established adult patients planning to discuss pain management during routine primary care. Physicians were internal or family medicine residents. Visit linearity, total topics, return topics, topic shifts, time per topic, visit duration, pain main topic, pain first topic, patient experience, and physician difficulty. Visits had a mean of 8.1 total topics (standard deviation (SD)=3.46), 14.5 topic shifts (SD=6.28), and 1.9 topic shifts per topic (SD=0.62). Less linear visits (higher topic shifts to topic ratio) were associated with greater physician visit difficulty (β=7.28, p<0.001) and worse patient experience (β= −0.62, p=0.03). Visit linearity was not significantly impacted by pain as a major or first topic raised. In primary care visits for patients with chronic pain taking opioids, more linear visits were associated with better physician and patient experience. Frequent topic shifts may be disruptive. If confirmed in future research, this finding implies that reducing shifts between topics could help decrease mutual frustration related to discussions about pain.
Arthroscopic-Assisted Fracture Fixation: Distal Radius

Intraarticular malalignment in the treatment of distal radius fractures can be challenging to identify and treat. Arthroscopy is an available tool that has emerged and can be useful in detecting and correcting these issues in the surgical management of distal radius fractures. In addition, it provides the opportunity to examine and potentially treat concomitant soft tissue injuries associated with these fractures. Here we review the rationale and technical points necessary to optimize the use of arthroscopic-assisted distal radius fracture fixa tion.
Power Electronics Assisted Voltage Regulator: An Effective Solution for Mitigating Voltage Variations Caused by High Penetration PV on a Distribution System

The ever-increasing levels of distributed energy resources (DERs), especially solar photovoltaics (PV) tend to detrimentally affect the operation of the distribution systems on which they are installed, causing issues like voltage violations, excessive voltage regulator operations, voltage flicker, etc. Recent improvements in power electronics have led to an increase in the proliferation of power electronics based voltage regulators that are capable of fast voltage compensation. However, being a recent addition, very few studies exist that quantify the benefits of such devices on a distribution system. This work uses a case study to quantify the main benefits of a power electronics assisted voltage regulator (PEVR) in mitigating the impacts of high penetration PV using a supervisory control scheme for the PEVR. This study considers high resolution (1 second) PV and load profiles to capture the accurate operation of the step voltage regulator (SVR) and PEVR. The results from this case study highlight the effectiveness of a PEVR in mitigating excessive voltage variation and tap operations due to high penetration PV. The results also illustrate the trade-off between converter capacity and benefits.
Comedy comes in threes: developing a conceptual framework for the comic triple humour technique

There is an opportunity in humour studies to expand its fundamental theories and develop joke structure analysis tools for humour techniques such as the Comic Triple. Despite its use in the comedic...
Artificial Intelligence Applications in Pediatric Brain Tumor Imaging: A Systematic Review.

Objective Artificial intelligence (AI) has facilitated the analysis of medical imaging given increased computational capacity and medical data availability in recent years. Although many applications for AI in the imaging of brain tumors have been proposed, their potential clinical impact remains to be explored. A systematic review was performed to examine the role of AI in the analysis of pediatric brain tumor imaging. Methods PubMed, Embase, and Scopus were searched for relevant articles up to January 27, 2021. Results Literature search identified 298 records, of which 22 studies were included. The most commonly studied tumors were posterior fossa tumors including brainstem glioma, ependymoma, medulloblastoma, and pilocytic astrocytoma (15, 68%). Tumor diagnosis was the most frequently performed task (14, 64%), followed by tumor segmentation (3, 14%) and tumor detection (3, 14%). Of the 6 studies comparing AI to clinical experts, 5 demonstrated superiority of AI for tumor diagnosis. Other tasks including tumor segmentation, attenuation correction of positron emission tomography scans, image registration for patient positioning, and dose calculation for radiotherapy were performed with high accuracy comparable with clinical experts. No studies described use of the AI tool in routine clinical practice. Conclusions AI methods for analysis of pediatric brain tumor imaging have increased exponentially in recent years. However, adoption of these methods in clinical practice requires further characterization of validity and utility. Implementation of these methods may streamline clinical workflows by improving diagnostic accuracy and automating basic imaging analysis tasks.
Common Divisors and Common Multiples

In Chapters 5 and 6 we obtained a description of divisibility of (not necessarily monic) operator polynomials in terms of spectral triples and invariant subspaces of the linearization. Here we apply these results to study common divisors and common multiples of operator polynomials with compact spectrum.
Randwertaufgaben in der Ebene und im Raum

In den Kapiteln 4 und 5 losten wir eindimensionale Wellen- und Diffusionsprobleme mit der Methode der Variablentrennung und mit Hilfe von Fourierreihen. In diesem Kapitel ubertragen wir diese Methode auf hoherdimensionale Probleme und beginnen mit einem allgemeinen Uberblick. Abschnitt 2 beschaftigt sich mit der ebenen Kreisscheibe, Abschnitt 3 mit der Kugel im Raum. Aufgaben mit Rotationssymmetrien fuhren unweigerlich zu Besselfunktionen und (in drei Dimensionen) zu Legendrefunktionen, die in den Abschnitten 5 und 6 behandelt werden. In Abschnitt 4 untersuchen wir die Knotenpunktmenge der Eigenfunktionen und in Abschnitt 7 schlieslich vervollstandigen wir unsere Betrachtung des Wasserstoffatoms, indem wir Zustande mit Drehimpuls untersuchen.