cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Drug and non-drug treatments of children with ADHD and tic disorders

To review the treatment of ADHD in children with chronic tic disorders. Tic disorders are relatively common in school-age children and range from mild to severe. Children with mild tics may not require medication for the treatment of tics. The co-occurrence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and disruptive behavior are common in children with tic disorders and may be associated with significant morbidity. We conducted a literature search to identify reports of tics as an adverse effect to stimulant medication, the treatment of children with ADHD and tics as well as novel treatments that have been proposed for the treatment of ADHD in children with tic disorders. The preponderance of evidence suggests that stimulant medications are safe and effective in the treatment of children with ADHD and tic disorders. A minority of children with tic disorders may show a worsening of tics or not tolerate stimulants for other reasons. The growing list of non-stimulants provides options for clinicians and parents of these children. Treatment planning for children with ADHD and tic disorders involves careful discussion with parents on choosing the best course of action. Stimulants should be part of this discussion. More study is needed on non-pharmacological approaches to the treatment of tics and ADHD in this population.
The galactic habitable zone in elliptical galaxies

The concept of a Galactic Habitable Zone (GHZ) was introduced for the Milky Way galaxy a decade ago as an extension of the earlier concept of the Circumstellar Habitable Zone. In this work, we consider the extension of the concept of a GHZ to other types of galaxies by considering two elliptical galaxies as examples, M87 and M32. We argue that the defining feature of the GHZ is the probability of planet formation which has been assumed to depend on the metallicity. We have compared the metallicity distribution of nearby stars with the metallicity of stars with planets to document the correlation between metallicity and planet formation and to provide a comparison to other galaxies. Metallicity distribution, based on the [Fe/H] ratio to solar, of nearby stars peaks at [Fe/H]≈−0.2 dex, whereas the metallicity distribution of extrasolar planet host stars peaks at [Fe/H]≈+0.4 dex. We compare the metallicity distribution of extrasolar planet host stars with the metallicity distribution of the outer star clusters of M87 and M32. The metallicity distribution of stars in the outer regions of M87 peaks at [Fe/H]≈−0.2 dex and extends to [Fe/H]≈+0.4 dex, which seems favourable for planet formation. The metallicity distribution of stars in the outer regions of M32 peaks at [Fe/H]≈−0.2 dex and extends to a much lower [Fe/H]. Both elliptical galaxies met the criteria of a GHZ. In general, many galaxies should support habitable zones.
Two-Dimensional Markov Chain Analysis of Radiation-Induced Soft Errors in Subthreshold Nanoscale CMOS Devices

Radiation-induced soft errors have been a reliability concern for logic integrated circuits since their emergence. Feature-size and supply-voltage reduction require the analysis of soft-error sensitivity as a function of technology scaling. In this paper, an analytical framework based on Markov chains and queue theory is presented for computation of alpha-particle-induced soft-error rates of a flip-flop operated in the subthreshold regime. The proposed framework is capable of reflecting the technology parameters such as supply voltage Vdd, channel length, process-induced threshold variation, and operating temperature. As an example, the framework is used to investigate the mean time to error of flip-flops built in a 32 nm fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator technology operating in the subthreshold regime subject to two limiting fluxes of alpha particle radiation: high at 100 (α/h.cm2) and ultra-low alpha (ULA) emission 0.002 (α/h.cm2).
Hypertension and Risk of Stroke in an Elderly Population

The contribution of hypertension to risk of all strokes and of nonembolic brain infarction in elderly black and white men and women is examined. The results of the Chicago Stroke Study show that hypertension is significantly associated with increased risk of nonembolic brain infarction, as well as all stroke, in this population of elderly black and white men and women. It is possible that 25% or more of the total incidence of stroke in persons 65 to 74 years of age may be attributable to hypertension.
Early postpartum discharge: recommendations from a preliminary report to Congress.

Nearly 4 million women give birth in the United States each year, the vast majority of them in hospitals, making childbirth the most frequent reason for hospital admission.1 According to generally accepted standards of maternity care, the health care needs of the newborn and mother in the immediate postnatal/postpartum period should be met at the delivery site. These needs include monitoring and support to ensure the infant's stabilization during the initial physiologic transition from intrauterine to extrauterine environments, performance of recommended immunizations, mandatory screening for genetic disorders, and initiation of feeding and assessment of major medical risk factors. Standard inpatient care for mothers in the immediate postpartum period has also included instruction on infant and self-care, and training in breastfeeding and lactation support. Hospital length of stay after childbirth has decreased progressively during the past 25 years, initially in response to public pressure to demedicalize childbirth but then in a more accelerated fashion in response to cost-containment pressures. The trend toward increasingly shorter hospital stays has raised concerns about the potential consequences of reducing the length of time in which necessary care can be delivered to newborns and mothers in the hospital setting. In response to these concerns, the 1992 Guidelines for Perinatal Care, jointly published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), indicated that for otherwise uncomplicated deliveries: 1) the recommended postpartum hospital stay should range from 48 hours for vaginal delivery to 96 hours for cesarean delivery, excluding the day of delivery (most subsequent guidelines and legislation have not made the distinction “excluding the day of delivery”); and 2) discharge within 48 hours of birth is defined as early discharge and discharge in <24 hours as very early discharge.2 Despite the issuance of these guidelines, an increasing …
Police Responses in Officer-Involved Violent Deaths: Comparison of Suicide by Cop and Non-Suicide by Cop Incidents

Officers’ responses in suicide by cop (SbC) situations often include use of deadly force. Given their training and experience, officers’ use of deadly force should mean that they reasonably believe...
Comparative prognostic utility of conventional and novel lipid parameters for cardiovascular disease risk prediction: Do novel lipid parameters offer an advantage?

Background Comparative data on the prognostic utility of novel lipid parameters vs. conventional lipid parameters in predicting coronary events are scant. Objective We sought to compare the predictive value of various lipid measures for coronary events and to further examine the incremental value of novel lipid parameters over traditional cardiovascular risk factors in estimating cardiac risk. Methods We performed a post-hoc analysis of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute limited access dataset of Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis subjects (n = 6693). The lipid measures considered in the estimation of coronary risk were conventional and novel lipid parameters, the latter included total low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL)-particle concentrations (LDL-p, HDL-p and VLDL-p), LDL-p/HDL-p ratio, and LDL-p subfractions. The outcome measured was occurrence of any coronary event (CE) that included myocardial infarction, resuscitated cardiac arrest, cardiac death, and angina. Results During an average follow up of 4.5 years, 228 patients developed coronary events. In the multivariate Cox proportional hazards model, TC/HDL-c (HR: 3.27; 95% CI: 1.95 to 5.47, P Conclusion In our large study cohort, a predictive model for future coronary events incorporating the best-available novel lipid parameter (LDL-p/HDL-p ratio) was comparable with the same model that incorporated conventional lipid ratios such as the TC/HDL-c ratio . The use of LDL-p/HDL-p ratio did not appear to offer incremental value over more traditional risk prediction models.
Numerical Modeling Of The Freezing Process In A Cementitious Matrix

A numerical model has been developed that predicts the freezing process in a cementitious matrix. Freezing point depression due to pore size characteristics is incorporated into the numerical model. An idealized pore size distribution based on a mature paste with a water-cement ratio of 0.6 was adopted. The pore size range was randomly distributed over the test domain. Results are shown for the advancement of the freezing fronts and the progression of the isotherms.
Fund Raising for Recreational Sports

The authors wish to express their sincere thanks to Mr. Dale Hanson, Coordinator of Fund Raising at the University of Minnesota, for his assistance in preparing this article.
Detection of Auditory Signals by Frog Inferior Collicular Neurons in the Presence of Spatially Separated Noise

Ratnam, R. and A. S. Feng. Detection of auditory signals by frog inferior collicular neurons in the presence of spatially separated noise. J. Neurophysiol. 80: 2848–2859, 1998. Psychophysical studi...
Beyond Local Protectionism

This article presents a large-scale, systematic study of politically connected firms in China through compiling a database that includes all the publicly traded firms in China in 1993, 2002, and 2012 through coding the biographies of hundreds of thousands of board members. I find that there has been a significant increase in the percentage of firms that are connected with the national government in the last 20 years, which casts doubt on a popular argument that businesses in China have primarily relied on “local protectionism.” I interpret this as a result of firms’ need to connect with powerful and stable institutions. I test this by examining the impact of the fall of Chen Liangyu on firms in Shanghai.
Dividing organelle tracks into Brownian and motor-driven intervals by variational maximization of the Bayesian evidence.

Many organelles and vesicles in live cells move in a start–stop manner when observed for ~10 s by optical microscopy. Changes in velocity and directional persistence of such particles are a potentially rich source of insight into the mechanisms leading to the start and stop states. Unbiased assessment of the most probable number of states, the properties of each state, and the most probable state for the particle at each moment can be accomplished by variational Bayesian methods combined with a hidden Markov model and a Gaussian mixture model. Our track analysis method, “vbTRACK”, applied this combination of methods to particle velocity v or changes in the direction of travel evaluated from simulated tracks and from tracks of peroxisomes in live cells. When tested with numerical data, vbTRACK reliably determined the number of states, the mean and variance of the velocity or the direction of travel for each state, and the most probable state during each frame. When applied to the tracks of peroxisomes in live cells, some tracks separated into two states, one with high velocity and directionality, the other approximately Brownian. Other tracks of particles in live cells separated into several diffusive states with distinct diffusion constants.
Analysis of National Institutes of Health Funding to Departments of Urology

Objective To elucidate the current portfolio of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to departments of urology at U.S. medical schools. Materials and Methods The NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results was used to generate a comprehensive analysis of NIH research grants awarded to urology departments during 2014. Costs, mechanisms, and institutes were summarized with descriptive statistics. Demographic data were obtained for principal investigators and project abstracts were categorized by research type and area. Fiscal totals were calculated for 2005-2014 and compared with other surgical departments during 2014. Results One hundred one investigators at 36 urology departments received $55,564,952 in NIH funding during 2014. NIH-funded investigators were predominately male (79%) and PhD scientists (52%). Funding totals did not vary by terminal degree or sex, but increased with higher academic rank (P < .001). The National Cancer Institute (54.7%) and National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (32.2%) supported the majority of NIH-funded urologic research. The R01 grant accounted for 41.0% of all costs. The top 3 NIH-funded clinical areas were urologic oncology (62.1%), urinary tract infection (8.8%), and neurourology (7.6%). A minority of costs supported clinical research (12.9%). In 2014, urology had the least number of NIH grants relative to general surgery, ophthalmology, obstetrics & gynecology, otolaryngology, and orthopedic surgery. Conclusion NIH funding to urology departments lags behind awards to departments of other surgical disciplines. Future interventions may be warranted to increase NIH grant procurement in urology.
Toxicity of Vanadium and Chromium for the Growing Chick

Abstract DURING the past several years the essentiality for the chick of several trace elements has been described. Recently, Schwartz and Mertz (1959) showed that trivalent chromium (Cr) is effective in very low concentrations in bringing about glucose removal from the blood of rats on a deficient diet and that chromium appears to be a principal glucose tolerance factor. Little is known, however, about the metabolic or nutritional functions of vanadium (V) in chickens although it is known to play a role in the physiological processes of certain plants. Vanadium occurs in high concentrations in the blood of certain species of Ascidia. It was originally thought to function in the respiratory mechanism of certain of the sea animals in which it was found, but Webb (1939) concluded that the vanadium-containing chromogen had no respiratory function. Beard et al. (1931) in a study of anemia of the rat found that vanadium in…
Quantitative Tagless Copurification: A Method to Validate and Identify Protein-Protein Interactions

Identifying protein-protein interactions (PPIs) at an acceptable false discovery rate (FDR) is challenging. Previously we identified several hundred PPIs from affinity purification - mass spectrometry (AP-MS) data for the bacteria Escherichia coli and Desulfovibrio vulgaris These two interactomes have lower FDRs than any of the nine interactomes proposed previously for bacteria and are more enriched in PPIs validated by other data than the nine earlier interactomes. To more thoroughly determine the accuracy of ours or other interactomes and to discover further PPIs de novo, here we present a quantitative tagless method that employs iTRAQ MS to measure the copurification of endogenous proteins through orthogonal chromatography steps. 5273 fractions from a four-step fractionation of a D. vulgaris protein extract were assayed, resulting in the detection of 1242 proteins. Protein partners from our D. vulgaris and E. coli AP-MS interactomes copurify as frequently as pairs belonging to three benchmark data sets of well-characterized PPIs. In contrast, the protein pairs from the nine other bacterial interactomes copurify two- to 20-fold less often. We also identify 200 high confidence D. vulgaris PPIs based on tagless copurification and colocalization in the genome. These PPIs are as strongly validated by other data as our AP-MS interactomes and overlap with our AP-MS interactome for D.vulgaris within 3% of expectation, once FDRs and false negative rates are taken into account. Finally, we reanalyzed data from two quantitative tagless screens of human cell extracts. We estimate that the novel PPIs reported in these studies have an FDR of at least 85% and find that less than 7% of the novel PPIs identified in each screen overlap. Our results establish that a quantitative tagless method can be used to validate and identify PPIs, but that such data must be analyzed carefully to minimize the FDR.
Research and Design of Demand Side Energy Efficiency Management and Demand Response System

To guide the optimization of demand side energy utilization management level and to participate the peak load shaving of power grid to overall improve the energy utilization efficiency, both the background and the meaning of constructing the demand side energy efficiency management and demand response system are briefly explained; the functions of the demand side energy efficiency management and demand response system in following aspects such as monitoring user energy consumption data, controlling operating states of user's key energy utilization system or devices, responding grid-side demand response event are summarized; the hierarchical structure of this system is proposed and the relationship among hierarchies are described; both physical architecture and functional structure of this system are designed in detail and key technologies of this system are analyzed. The design scheme presented in this paper has been applied in the development and construction of national power demand side management platform and electric energy service management platform of China State Power Grid Corp. to provide technical support for national electric power demand side management. In future, the results of this research contribute to lay the foundation to promote the business of energy efficiency management and demand response in China.
Controlling Internet Front and Opening New Situation of Ideological and Political Work for Students

We should pay high attention to the importance of internet in idological and political work for college students,control internet front and actively find new method and channel for the idological and political work for college students.
Application of on-site training in preventing dermatitis of trichloroethylene

[Objective]To investigate the use of trichloroethylene in enterprises of Longhua New Area of Shenzhen City,and prevent and control the incidence of dermatitis of trichloroethylene through on-site training.[Methods]The method of field investigation was adopted to understand the use situation of trichloroethylene. A total of 93 units who used trichloroethylene were divided into intervention group( 50 units) and control group( 43 units) for experiment. The intervention group received on-site training,the control group received other treatment except on-site training. The results were compared.[Results]The number of units who used trichloroethylene was significantly decreased. The intervention group was significantly different with control group on abandoned trichloroethylene,trichloroethylene identification,sensitive population identification and protective equipment setting( P 0. 01). The difference of intervention group before and after intervention was significant( P 0. 01). [Conclusion]On-site training has a positive meaning for preventing occupational dermatitis of trichloroethylene.
Are contributions of time and money substitutes or complements

ABSTRACTThis article empirically investigates the relationship between donations of time and money using Canadian tax policy reforms that changed the tax price of charitable donations. The 1988 reform where a charitable tax deduction was converted to a credit and the 2000 reform in provincial income taxes provide tax price variations plausibly exogenous to individuals’ unobserved heterogeneity. Our estimates on cross-price effects imply that individuals make more time donations as the tax price of charitable donations increases and hence money and time donations are substitutes, as some theories would imply. This contrasts with earlier findings using cross-sectional data.
Distribution and Pharmacokinetics Models

During processing in vivo, xenobiotics, including pesticides, must be absorbed, distributed, and metabolized; react with a macromolecule or other receptor; and/or be excreted. The overall result of these processes is either the expression of a toxic endpoint or detoxication. Quantitative expression of these processes is critical for risk assessment and is known as pharmacokinetics. However, in the case of toxicants such as pesticides, the term toxicokinetics is frequently used. Noncompartmental, compartmental, and physiologically based models are all considered, including the quantitative methodology for utilizing these models.
Developing a residential building-related social sustainability assessment framework and its implications for BIM

Abstract Social sustainability is an important component of sustainable housing. A holistic view of social sustainability in residential buildings is lacking when it comes to modern tools and systems of building sustainability assessment, which creates gaps in analytical support necessary for sustainable decision-making. In order to pursue this issue, an assessment framework is proposed that uses a hierarchy of readily assessable sustainability indicators, parameters and sub-indicators. The proposed framework, though qualitative in nature, takes quantitative findings as inputs. It uses a weighted aggregation approach to provide a holistic social sustainability performance value of residential buildings and for determining the weights of indicators, parameters and sub-indicators, the study makes use of survey and structured interviews. Based on findings, the importance of social sustainability in residential and commercial buildings in different regions of world is also explored. A case study comprising of low-rise residential buildings provides an insight into the workability of proposed framework. Furthermore as a minor contribution of this research, the current and futuristic responsiveness of BIM towards social sustainability is explored and its role in use of the proposed framework is investigated.
Targeting BCL-2 and ABL/LYN in Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Treatment of Philadelphia chromosome–positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph + ALL) remains a challenge. Although the addition of targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) to standard cytotoxic therapy has greatly improved upfront treatment, treatment-related morbidity and mortality remain high. TKI monotherapy provides only temporary responses and renders patients susceptible to the development of TKI resistance. Thus, identifying agents that could enhance the activity of TKIs is urgently needed. Recently, a selective inhibitor of B cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2), ABT-199 (venetoclax), has shown impressive activity against hematologic malignancies. We demonstrate that the combination of TKIs with venetoclax is highly synergistic in vitro, decreasing cell viability and inducing apoptosis in Ph + ALL. Furthermore, the multikinase inhibitors dasatinib and ponatinib appear to have the added advantage of inducing Lck/Yes novel tyrosine kinase (LYN)–mediated proapoptotic BCL-2–like protein 11 (BIM) expression and inhibiting up-regulation of antiapoptotic myeloid cell leukemia 1 (MCL-1), thereby potentially overcoming the development of venetoclax resistance. Evaluation of the dasatinib-venetoclax combination for the treatment of primary Ph + ALL patient samples in xenografted immunodeficient mice confirmed the tolerability of this drug combination and demonstrated its superior antileukemic efficacy compared to either agent alone. These data suggest that the combination of dasatinib and venetoclax has the potential to improve the treatment of Ph + ALL and should be further evaluated for patient care.
Management of acute complicated mastoiditis at an urban, tertiary care pediatric hospital

Objectives/Hypothesis To describe the presentation and management of acute complicated mastoiditis in children. Study Design Retrospective case series. Methods An analysis of pediatric patients with acute complicated mastoiditis treated at an urban, tertiary care children's hospital from 2007 to 2014 was performed. Results Forty-eight patients presented with a total of 67 complications of acute mastoiditis. Mean age at presentation was 4.8 years (range = 0.1–15.3 years). The most common complications were subperiosteal abscess (n = 22, 45.8%), epidural abscess (n = 16, 33.3%), and sigmoid sinus thrombosis (n = 14, 29.2%). The most common pathogens isolated included Streptococcus pneumoniae (n = 14, 29.2%) and group A streptococcus (n = 10, 20.8%). Multidrug resistance was not associated with complication type. Surgical management included myringotomy ± tympanostomy tube placement in 46 (95.8%) patients (the only surgery in 10), drainage of subperiosteal abscess without mastoidectomy in 18 (37.5%) patients, and mastoidectomy in 21 (43.8%) total patients. Patients presenting with intracranial complications were the most likely to undergo a mastoidectomy. Anticoagulation was used in the management of nine of 14 (64.3%) patients presenting with sigmoid sinus thrombosis. Neurosurgical interventions (n = 7, 14.6% patients) were primarily performed to manage increased intracranial pressure. Conclusions Subperiosteal abscess was the most common complication of acute mastoiditis, and when occurring as the sole complication was successfully managed with antibiotics and surgical intervention that did not include mastoidectomy. Epidural abscess and sigmoid sinus thrombosis were more prevalent than reported in prior series and were managed more aggressively. These patients were more likely to need neurosurgical interventions. Level of Evidence 4. Laryngoscope, 2016
Activation of G12/13 Pathway Is Essential for the Dense Granule Release in Platelets.

Platelet secretion is an important physiological event in hemostasis. A number of agonists such as thrombin and thromboxane A2 induce platelet secretion. ADP does not cause dense granule release in aspirin-treated platelets, although ADP induce platelet shape change, aggregation and alpha granule release through G q and G i pathways. The protease activated receptors 1 and 4, and the thromboxane receptor activate the G 12/13 pathways in addition to the G q pathways. We postulated that the platelet dense granule release reaction depends on both G q and G 12/13 , and in the absence of signaling through either G protein abolishes secretion. In other words, co-stimulation of G q and G 12/13 pathways is a major requirement for dense granule release in platelets. We rationalize that because U46619 and thrombin can activate both G q and G 12/13 , they cause platelet dense granule release, whereas ADP fails to cause platelet secretion from dense granules because it does not activate G 12/13 . As a first step towards testing this hypothesis, we supplemented ADP signaling in aspirin-treated platelets with selective activation of G 12/13 pathways using YFLLRNP, a partial agonist of PAR-1. YFLLRNP selectively active G 12/13 signaling pathway without activating G q or G i pathways at low concentrations. YFLLRNP (60 μM) or 2MeSADP (100 nM) failed to cause dense granule release. However, addition of YFLLRNP (60 μM) and 2MeSADP (100 nM) together caused dense granule release. We proceeded to confirm these results in G q null mice by selectively activating phospholipase C (PLC), a downstream signaling molecule from G q . In aspirin-treated Gα q knockout mouse platelets 80 μM m-3M3FBS, a direct PLC activator, causes calcium mobilization from intracellular stores and platelet shape change, but does not cause dense granule secretion. We have previously shown that G q /PLC pathways downstream of ADP are not sufficient for aggregation and require concomitant signaling from G i for platelet aggregation. Thus, lack of aggregation by PLC activation alone in G? q knockout mouse platelets is consistent with our previous observations. In G? q null mouse platelets, m-3M3FBS (80 μM) or AYPGKF (500 μM) alone failed to cause dense granule release. However, addition of m-3M3FBS (80 μM) and AYPGKF (500 μM) together caused dense granule release. In addition, consistent with our previous findings, co-stimulation of G 12/13 pathways and G i (AYPGKF + 2MeSADP) in G? q knockout mouse platelets caused aggregation, but failed to cause dense granule release. We conclude that supplemental signaling from G 12/13 is required for G q -mediated dense granule release and that ADP fails to cause dense granule release because the platelet P2Y receptors, although activate PLC, do not activate G 12/13 pathways.
Towards Improving Data Validity of Cyber-Physical Systems through Path Redundancy

Cyber-physical systems have shown to be susceptible to cyber-attacks. Incidents such as Stuxnet Attack and Ukraine power outage have shown that attackers are capable of penetrating into industrial control systems, compromising PLCs, and sending false commands to physical devices while reporting normal sensing values. Therefore, one of the critical needs of CPS is to ensure the validity of the sensor values. In this paper, we explore path diversity in SCADA networks and develop Path Redundancy to improve data validity. The proposed solution is shown to be able to effectively prevent data integrity attacks and detect false command attacks from a single compromised path or PLC. We provide detailed analysis on solution design and implement an application of the technique in building automation networks. Our cost-efficient and easy-to-deploy solution improves the resilience of SCADA networks.
Deep-Ultraviolet Emitting AlGaN Multiple Quantum Well Graded-Index Separate-Confinement Heterostructures Grown by MBE on SiC Substrates

Deep-ultraviolet emitting structures based on Al 0.65 Ga 0.35 N/Al 0.8 Ga 0.2 N multiple quantum wells (MQWs), embedded in compositionally graded Al x Ga 1-x N films in the form of graded-index-separate-confinement heterostructure, were grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The graded AlGaN layer blocked threading defects (TDs) in the vicinity of the AlN/AlGaN heterointerface, resulting in a reduction of the TDs in the active layer. The intensity of the transverse-magnetic polarized amplified spontaneous emission spectra with peak emission at 270 nm was found to increase linearly with the number of QWs. Furthermore, while the peak intensity for devices with a single QW varies linearly with the pump fluence, it varies superlinearly for larger number of QWs, suggesting light amplification by stimulated emission. These results are consistent with numerical simulations, which indicate that the confinement of the optical mode in this device structure increases with the number of QWs and simultaneously the threshold under optical pumping decreases with increasing of the number of QWs. Finally, the band structure simulations indicate that the device is in the form of a p-n junction due to polarization-induced p- and n-doping in the compositionally graded Al x Ga 1-x N films on either side of the MQWs, and, thus, could be used for the development of an electrically pumped deep-ultraviolet laser by further optimizing the structures.
Interpretation, Cause, and Avowal: On the Evaluative Dimension of Selfhood

Implicit in Roderick Chisholm’s (1964/2002) argument in favor of the idea of an “immanent cause” is a certain conception of self: as a cause of a particular kind, a source of change whose powers are not themselves dependent upon other, antecedent events. Chisholm presents this concept of causation and the experience of ourselves as agents as intimately intertwined, and he draws on Reid to substantiate the thought that our general grasp of causation is constitutively tied to the experience of ourselves as having the power to bring about a variety of events. On this account, we could not operate with the concept of a cause quite generally if we weren’t in a position to enjoy the experience of making things go otherwise.
Protein Modifications by Nitric Oxide and Reactive Nitrogen Species

Nitric oxide mediates a number of different physiological functions within every major organ system. Nitric oxide is a simple diatomic molecule that possesses a wide range of chemical reactivity and multiple potential reactive targets. Three basic biochemical pathways—interaction with metal centers, reaction with reduced thiols, and production of nitrogen oxides—will be considered and discussed in terms of modulating the biological function of proteins by nitric oxide.
Performance Analysis of Perfectly Matched Layers Applied to Spherical FDTD Grids

A numerical analysis of the performance of the spherical perfectly matched layer (PML) applied to the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) algorithm implemented in spherical staggered grids is presented in this communication. The spherical PML is derived through a complex transformation (analytical continuation) of the radial coordinate. We evaluate the performance of the spherical PML by simulating fields produced by electric dipoles within the spherical FDTD terminated by a spherical PML and computing the reflection error. The influence of several PML parameters on the reflection error is examined.
Implications of Celiac Disease Among Patients Undergoing Gastric Bypass

Bariatric surgery is generally safe and effective, but co-existing malabsorptive processes may increase the risk of complications or nutritional deficiencies. Bariatric surgery has not been well studied in the setting of pre-existing celiac disease. Patients who underwent Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) from January 2002 to December 2015 were retrospectively reviewed for either diagnosis of or serum testing for celiac disease. Identified patients were re-reviewed for adherence to American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) diagnostic criteria. Patient demographics, operative data, and post-operative weight loss and nutritional parameters were collected. Of the > 12,000 patients who underwent bariatric surgery during this study period, there were 342 patients that had abnormal serology or pathology results. Expert review confirmed three patients (0.8%) with celiac disease diagnosed before RYGB procedure. All were female, with an average age of 33 years and a mean BMI of 44.07 kg/m2. At the time of surgery, two of the three patients were following a gluten-free diet. At 6 months follow-up, mean % excess weight loss was 76.5%. The patients following a gluten-free diet preoperatively continued post-operatively. No patients were anemic nor had vitamin B12 or iron deficiencies at 12-month follow-up. Two patients had vitamin D insufficiencies and responded to daily oral supplementation. Though many bariatric patients may carry a presumptive diagnosis of celiac disease, a small percentage of these meet AGA diagnostic criteria. RYGB appears safe in this population with comparable weight loss in non-celiac counterparts. Increased attention to vitamin D levels may be warranted post-operatively.
CaBP1 regulates Cav1 L-type Ca2+ channels and their coupling to neurite growth and gene transcription in mouse spiral ganglion neurons.

Abstract CaBP1 is a Ca2+ binding protein that is widely expressed in neurons in the brain, retina, and cochlea. In heterologous expression systems, CaBP1 interacts with and regulates voltage-gated Cav Ca2+ channels but whether this is the case in neurons is unknown. Here, we investigated the cellular functions of CaBP1 in cochlear spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs), which express high levels of CaBP1. Consistent with the role of CaBP1 as a suppressor of Ca2+-dependent inactivation (CDI) of Cav1 (L-type) channels, Cav1 currents underwent greater CDI in SGNs from mice lacking CaBP1 (C-KO) than in wild-type (WT) SGNs. The coupling of Cav1 channels to downstream signaling pathways was also disrupted in C-KO SGNs. Activity-dependent repression of neurite growth was significantly blunted and unresponsive to Cav1 antagonists in C-KO SGNs in contrast to WT SGNs. Moreover, Cav1-mediated Ca2+ signals and phosphorylation of cAMP-response element binding protein were reduced in C-KO SGNs compared to WT SGNs. Our findings establish a role for CaBP1 as an essential regulator of Cav1 channels in SGNs and their coupling to downstream pathways controlling activity-dependent transcription and neurite growth.
Solvent effects on protein motion and protein effects on solvent motion: Dynamics of the active site region of lysozyme

The stochastic boundary molecular dynamics methodology is applied to the active site of the enzyme lysozyme. A comparison is made of in vacuo dynamics results from the stochastic boundary method and a full conventional molecular dynamics simulation of lysozyme. Excellent agreement between the two approaches is obtained. The influence of solvent on the residues in the active site region is explored and it is shown that both the structure and dynamics are affected. Of particular importance for the structure of the protein is the solvation of polar residues and the stabilization of like-charged ion pairs. The magnitude of the fluctuations is only slightly altered by the solvent; the overall increase in the root-mean-square fluctuations, relative to the vacuum run, is 11%. The solvent effect on dynamical properties is found not to be simply related to the solvent viscosity. Both the solvent exposure and dynamic aspects of protein-solvent interactions, including the relative time scales of the motions, are shown to play a role. The effects of the protein on solvent dynamics and structure are also observed to be significant. The solvent molecules around atoms in charged, polar and apolar side-chains show markedly different diffusion coefficients as well as exhibiting different solvation structures. One key example is the water around apolar groups, which is much less mobile than bulk water, or water solvating polar groups.
Congenital diseases and abnormalities of pigs.

Several congenital developmental anomalies are not listed in this review because they have no proposed cause. It is the author's hope that this article will serve practicing veterinarians and the swine industry by being an informative guide for stimulating independent thought toward diagnosing congenital diseases. Remember that the cause may have exerted its effects weeks or months before being observed. A detailed history of the dam as well as the rest of the herd is important. If possible, a history of neighboring herds should also be examined for similar problems. Either conduct a thorough necropsy with appropriate tissues submitted for diagnostic analysis, or send representative pigs to a diagnostic center for a complete evaluation. If chromosome evaluation is desired, contact the evaluating laboratory for submission procedures. Breeding records should be evaluated for intragenerational frequencies and intergenerational patterns typical of genetic transmission. When evaluating pedigrees, the frequent occurrence of an individual is not proof of its involvement. The frequency of occurrence in the diseased population must be significantly greater than it is in a random population of pigs. Dr. H.W. Leipold, in the pathology department at the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine, maintains an extensive database of congenital anomalies in domestic animals. I recommend that he be contacted in all cases of undiagnosed or unusual cases of congenital disease. He possibly can help with a definitive diagnosis and your contact will help expand this important central database of congenital diseases.
Homosexuality, heterosexuality, and cross-dressing : Perceptions of gender discordant behavior

This study examined attitudes of heterosexual and homosexual males toward heterosexual and homosexual cross-dressers. It was hypothesized that heterosexual males would be equally intolerant of homosexual cross-dressers, heterosexual cross-dressers, and homosexuals who did not cross-dress, but that homosexuals would be more tolerant of noncross-dressing homosexuals than of the other two groups. It was also hypothesized that homosexual subjects, but not the heterosexual subjects, would rate the homosexual noncross-dressers as more masculine than the cross-dressers. Forty-five heterosexual and 45 homosexual male college students read stories about a character who was described as a heterosexual cross-dresser, a homosexual cross-dresser, or a plain homosexual. 83 subjects were Caucasian, 2 were Asian, and 5 were African American; about 60% of the subjects were middle class; 30% were from lower class families and 10% were upper class. Heterosexuals were much less tolerant of all three vignette characters than homosexuals, but neither group rated the characters much differently when they were labeled differently. Homosexuals, but not heterosexuals, rated the plain homosexual as more masculine than the cross-dressing characters. Results also showed that gay males with highly nontraditional attitudes toward women had higher self-esteem.
Who Represents the Needs of Domestic Violence Survivors in State Welfare Policy

A large percentage of women receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) — known colloquially as welfare—have experienced domestic violence in their lives, with studies reporting that upwards of 50% of welfare recipients have been abused at some point. Receiving TANF benefits can provide the financial stability that is necessary for a woman to leave an abusive relationship, though some TANF provisions, such as child support reporting requirements, may also put victims of domestic violence at risk. Under TANF, states may adopt the Family Violence Option and waive many program requirements, including time limits, work requirements, and child support reporting requirements, for victims of domestic violence. Given the importance of TANF for those trying to leave, or who have left, abusive situations, this article asks: Who represents the interests of these women in the states? To answer this question, I employ a mixed methods approach, combining a quantitative analysis of the diversity of interest groups in the states with a case study of Connecticut and New Jersey. I find that feminist and domestic violence organizations do not consistently have a significant effect on the adoption of policy accommodations for survivors, but these groups are speaking out.
Zinc oxide nanorod array as an inhibitory biointerface

One-dimensional zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructure arrays show unique semiconducting, piezoelectric, and wetting properties, and how they interact with cells is critical for their biomedical applications. In this work, we prepare ZnO nanorod arrays (ZnO NRAs) and study their interactions with neonatal rat cardiomyocytes either as a substrate or patch. We find that ZnO NRAs can (1) inhibit cell adhesion and spreading as a substrate and (2) selectively kill underneath cells as a patch. We further identify surface nanomorphology as the dominant factor responsible for the inhibitory effect. These discoveries suggest potential application of ZnO NRAs as a cell inhibitory biointerface.
Sources and methods in the British impressment debate

British naval impressment has been the subject of debate for centuries. In the 18th century, it produced political debates and resistance from maritime communities, and it was generally disliked by naval officers tasked with pressing men into naval service. After the effective end of the practice in 1815, it was hotly debated in parliament and finally abolished in the mid-19th century. Since then, impressment has been the topic of a scholarly debate that has become increasingly active over the last two decades. In the 21st century, impressment matters for its political and moral implications. The modern debate has, regrettably, broken down and entrenched historians into camps where the different sides have begun to talk past one another, rather than examining how different approaches to the subject actually fit together. This article examines the current state of the debate and offers a path forward that illustrates that none of the scholarly approaches are mutually exclusive. Rather, they can be combined to produce a greater historical understanding of the 18th-century Atlantic world.
Semi-Supervised Multitask Learning on Multispectral Satellite Images Using Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) for Predicting Poverty

Obtaining reliable data describing local poverty metrics at a granularity that is informative to policy-makers requires expensive and logistically difficult surveys, particularly in the developing world. Not surprisingly, the poverty stricken regions are also the ones which have a high probability of being a war zone, have poor infrastructure and sometimes have governments that do not cooperate with internationally funded development efforts. We train a CNN on free and publicly available daytime satellite images of the African continent from Landsat 7 to build a model for predicting local economic livelihoods. Only 5% of the satellite images can be associated with labels (which are obtained from DHS Surveys) and thus a semi-supervised approach using a GAN (similar to the approach of Salimans, et al. (2016)), albeit with a more stable-to-train flavor of GANs called the Wasserstein GAN regularized with gradient penalty(Gulrajani, et al. (2017)) is used. The method of multitask learning is employed to regularize the network and also create an end-to-end model for the prediction of multiple poverty metrics.
Identifying optimal input using multilevel radiomics and nested cross-validation for predicting pulmonary function in lung cancer patients treated with radiotherapy

Radiomics is a promising approach to identify patients at high risk of having pulmonary dysfunction caused by radiotherapy. This study aims to identify optimal radiomic input features for predicting pulmonary function. Forced expiratory volume in first second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) were measured for 257 patients between 3 months prior to and 1 week after the first radiotherapy. FEV1/FVC ratio dichotomized at 70% was used as a target variable. Each patient had a radiotherapy planning CT and associated contours of gross tumor volume and left/right lungs. A total of 2,658 radiomic features were extracted and categorized into five levels: shape (S), first- (L1), second- (L2) and higher-order (L3) local texture, and global texture (G) features, as well as four multilevel groups: S+L1, S+L1+L2, S+L1+L2+L3, and S+L1+L2+L3+G. Nested cross-validation (NCV) was used to identify optimal input features. Cross-validated glmnet models optimized with unilevel or multilevel features were used to assess predictive performance on outer CV test sets. In unilevel analysis, the highest test AUC of 0.743±0.067 was obtained from NCV models optimized with L1 features. The best performance was achieved from NCV models optimized with S+L1+L2 features with AUC of 0.752±0.063. Paired Wilcoxon signed rank test results showed that AUC values of NCV models optimized with S, L2, L3, G or S+L1+L2+L3 features were statistically significantly different from those optimized with S+L1+L2 features (P<0.05). The multilevel analysis strategy will help to handle and optimize radiomic input features.