cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Chapter 1 – Equilibrium Thermodynamics

This chapter outlines various processes of the equilibrium thermodynamics. An ideal thermodynamic system is a model system with simplifications to represent a real system that can be described by the theoretical thermodynamics approach;a simple thermodynamic system is a single state system with no internal boundaries, and is not acted upon by external force fields or inertial forces thermodynamics approach. The chapter discusses reversible and irreversible processes of thermodynamics. A reversible process refers to macroscopic processes that occur while the system remains near equilibrium. Irreversibility occurs due to collisional dynamics in which transfer of mass, energy, and momentum take place. A thermodynamic system may be in stable, metastable, unstable, or in neutral equilibrium. The chapter presents the laws of thermodynamic and discusses entropy and entropy generation. It also presents the Gibbs equation and the equations of state. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the thermodynamic potentials.
'Promises to Keep:' Health Care Providers and the Civil False Claims Act

This article analyzes the government's use of the Civil False Claims Act (FCA) against health care providers by comparing current theories of health care liability to the traditional forms of government contracting fraud historically encompassed by the FCA. In recent years, vehement disagreement over the proper scope of FCA enforcement has threatened to alienate the health care provider community and to divert resources away from the goal of providing quality medical care to federal health care program patients. While the newer theories of health care fraud liability are rooted in the traditional FCA case law, they have stretched that law to encompass a range of activities, a pool of defendants, and a magnitude of damages that are far removed from their factual and legal precursors. The article concludes that these developments should be cause for concern, and cautions that without government sensitivity to these issues, health care providers' widespread dissatisfaction may threaten the success of the federal health care program agenda.
Abstract A81: Cutaneous lymphoma incidence patterns in the United States: A population-based study of 3,884cases

Abstracts: Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research 2008 A81 Background Primary cutaneous lymphomas (CL) represent 27 % of all non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and are a diverse group of lymphoidneoplasms manifesting heterogeneous clinical, histologic, immunophenotypic, cytogenetic, and molecular features. Given their rarity and heterogeneity, cutaneous lymphomas present substantial diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. There have been no prior large population-based descriptive studies focusing on CL in the United States. Methods Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program, we analyzed CL incidence rates (IR) and patient relative survival rates according to race, gender, and histologic type using the 2005 criteria of the World Health Organization/European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (WHO/EORTC) classification. Age-adjusted (2000 US standard) IR were calculated using the SEER*Stat software public use program version 6.4.4 (Surveillance Research Program); IR were expressed as new cases per 1,000,000 person-years and were analyzed by age, gender, race, ethnicity, and year of diagnosis. Results 3,884 CL were diagnosed in 16 SEER registries during 2001 to 2005. Cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCLs) were the most common group of cutaneous lymphomas (72%), while cutaneous B-cell lymphomas (CBCLs) accounted for 28% of all cutaneous lymphomas. IR for both cell types of CL and their histologic subtypes were all higher among males than females. Overall age-adjusted CL IR were highest among Non-Hispanic Whites and Blacks (11.5/1,000,000 person-years), intermediate in Hispanic Whites (7.9), and lowest among Asian/Pacific Islanders (7.2). CTCL IR were highest among Blacks, whereas the IR of CBCL overall and subtypes were highest among Non-Hispanic Whites and lowest among Blacks. The 5-year relative survival rates for patients with CTCL and CBCL were 87% and 89%, respectively. Patients with primary cutaneous diffuse large B-cell lymphoma-leg type had the poorest survival rates (50%). Conclusion CL incidence rates vary markedly by race, gender, and histological type, supporting the notion that the histologic variants of CL represent distinct clinical entities. Further investigations using large populations and molecular tools are warranted to elucidate the etiology of the diverse spectrum of cutaneous lymphomas. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2008;1(7 Suppl):A81.
Micrqporous Silica Gels from Alkylsilicate-Water Two Phase Hydrolysis

Microporous silica gels have been synthesized through a nano-particulate sol-gel route. These gels have uniformly distributed and extremely small pores(< 15Â in diameter). Hydrolysis and condensation reactions leading to these gels were carried out in an alkyl silicate-water (ammonia) two phase system. These reactions took place at the alkyl silicate droplet-water interfacial boundary. No alcohol was added. A clear, stable and uniformly distributed colloidal silica suspension having an average particle size less than 6 nm was prepared by this method. Fast hydrolysis, slow condensation and low solubility all contribute to a high supersaturation level and result in the formation of small particles. This process is consistent with classic nucleation theory. When the particles are produced under acidic rather than under basic reaction conditions, smaller particles are formed due to the slower condensation rate and lower solubility of these silica particles in acidic conditions. At the same pH, alkylsilicates having smaller alkyl groups react faster with water leading to smaller primary particles. Homogeneous nucleation conditions are achieved when the water/alkylsilicate ratio is high.
Urinary Incontinence: Conservative and Medical Management and Injectable Therapy

Postprostatectomy incontinence is a common complication after radical prostatectomy with a significant effect on quality of life. Conservative management is first-line therapy in the management of persistent leakage post catheter removal. Absorbent pads, which are available in a multitude of forms and sizes, are the primary tool of urinary containment. Penile compression devices can be used independently and as an adjunct to reduce daily absorbent product usage. Catheters—condom and urethral—have applications in patients with high volume pad usage who may be suffering from skin excoriation, dermatitis and cellulitis due to urinary leakage. Behavioral therapy includes pelvic floor muscle training, biofeedback, electrical stimulation, and lifestyle modifications. Expectant management, reserving the option for future invasive interventions, is always a viable option. Injectable therapy is a minimally invasive option for incontinence secondary to male intrinsic sphincter deficiency. Success of this treatment has been limited to those with mild incontinence without history of radiation.
Heart Attack Causes Head-Ache - Cardiac Cephalalgia.

Chest pain is the typical symptom of myocardial infarction (MI), and there are many atypical manifestations such as stomachache or dyspnea. Headache is a rare presentation of MI, which has specifically been termed “cardiac cephalalgia” or “cardiac cephalgia”. In this article, we have reported a case of sudden onset headache and neck pain, of whom MI was confirmed by electrocardiography, cardiac markers, and coronary angiogram. The patient’s headache subsided dramatically after coronary angioplasty, and it had not recurred in the following one year. Additionally, diagnostic clues and possible mechanisms of cardiac cephalalgia are discussed as well.
Osteoarthritis: What therapies for this disease of many causes?

Osteoarthritis is a common and sometimes disabling disease. New directions in therapy include inhibitors of selective proteins and transplantation of cultured chondrocytes. At the present time, treatment continues to be in response to a patient's symptoms. Thus, the challenge to physicians is to devise individual treatment plans that safely maximize relief and preservation of joint function.
Dual-function foot orthosis: Effect on shock and control of rearfoot motion

Orthoses have been designed that claim to both reduce shock and control rearfoot motion. It was hypothesized that the dual-purpose soft orthosis would reduce shock and control rearfoot motion greater than a no-orthotic condition. Three-dimensional kinematic and kinetic data were collected along with tibial acceleration while subjects ran in no-orthotic, the dual-purpose orthotic, and a rigid orthotic condition. Variables of interest were eversion excursion, peak eversion, eversion velocity, peak positive acceleration, loading rate, and leg stiffness. None of the evaluated variables were significantly different (p = .05) between the three conditions. These data suggest that shock attenuation and rearfoot motion cannot be controlled by the orthoses used in this study for a group of healthy runners.
Platelet alpha-granule proteins: studies on release and subcellular localization

Abstract Four platelet proteins are secreted by platelets during the release reaction: platelet factor 4 (PF4), 1 β-thromboglobulin (βTG), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), and fibrinogen. The characteristics of release of these proteins and 14C-serotonin (14C-5HT) were studied and compared with secretion of acid hydrolases as described by others. 1. , 2. , 3. , 4. , 5. , 6. Distinct differences were found between the release of PF4, β?TG, and fibrinogen and the release of acid hydrolases. Among these were the following: (1) ADP and epinephrine induced release of PF4 and βTG but not acid hydrolases. (2) Low concentrations of thrombin caused release of PF4, βTG, and fibrinogen, but high concentrations were required for secretion of acid hydrolases. (3) Aspirin and indomethacin inhibited PF4, (βTG. and fibrinogen release, but in vitro addition of aspirin caused minimal inhibition of acid hydrolase secretion. Secretion of protein by platelets also differed from release of 14C-5HT in that PF4, βTG, and fibrinogen were secreted to a greater extent than was 14C-5HT by low concentrations of thrombin, collagen, and U46619 (a structural analogue of prostaglandin H2), and arachidonic acid caused more extensive release of PF4. βTG, and fibrinogen than of 14C-5HT at all concentrations that induced release. When platelets were subjected to subcellular fractionation, specific radioimmunoassay techniques indicated that PF4. βTG, and fibrinogen were localized in the platelet α-granule fraction. The PDGF was localized to the α-granule fraction by the use of a bioassay. This localization was distinct from that of platelet acid hydrolases and dense granule components. Thus there were three types of platelet granule populations, each with unique constituents and with characteristic patterns of release. In vitro release of α-granule proteins by ADP, epinephrine, and arachidonic acid was prevented by inhibition of platelet cyclooxygenase, and this suggested that release was dependent on oxygenation of arachidonic acid by cyclooxygenase. In contrast, release by collagen and thrombin was only partially mediated by this pathway, since high concentrations of these agents bypassed the inactivated cyclooxygenase and induced α-granule protein release. Initial studies were performed to determine whether in vivo release could be inhibited by aspirin. Plasma levels of PF4 and βTG in normal volunteers were decreased following aspirin ingestion, thus suggesting a contribution of cyclooxygen-ase-related platelet release to circulating levels of PF4 and βTG in normal subjects.
Chicken-Specific Kinome Array Reveals that Salmonella enterica Serovar Enteritidis Modulates Host Immune Signaling Pathways in the Cecum to Establish a Persistence Infection.

Non-typhoidal Salmonella enterica induces an early, short-lived pro-inflammatory response in chickens that is asymptomatic of clinical disease and results in a persistent colonization of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract that transmits infections to naive hosts via fecal shedding of bacteria. The underlying mechanisms that control this persistent colonization of the ceca of chickens by Salmonella are only beginning to be elucidated. We hypothesize that alteration of host signaling pathways mediate the induction of a tolerance response. Using chicken-specific kinomic immune peptide arrays and quantitative RT-PCR of infected cecal tissue, we have previously evaluated the development of disease tolerance in chickens infected with Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis) in a persistent infection model (4–14 days post infection). Here, we have further outlined the induction of an tolerance defense strategy in the cecum of chickens infected with S. Enteritidis beginning around four days post-primary infection. The response is characterized by alterations in the activation of T cell signaling mediated by the dephosphorylation of phospholipase c-γ1 (PLCG1) that inhibits NF-κB signaling and activates nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFAT) signaling and blockage of interferon-γ (IFN-γ) production through the disruption of the JAK-STAT signaling pathway (dephosphorylation of JAK2, JAK3, and STAT4). Further, we measured a significant down-regulation reduction in IFN-γ mRNA expression. These studies, combined with our previous findings, describe global phenotypic changes in the avian cecum of Salmonella Enteritidis-infected chickens that decreases the host responsiveness resulting in the establishment of persistent colonization. The identified tissue protein kinases also represent potential targets for future antimicrobial compounds for decreasing Salmonella loads in the intestines of food animals before going to market.
Teaching University Astronomy an a Megalopolis: The “Astrotino” Approach

About every other undergraduate student eventually takes the UCLA elementary astronomy class Astronomy 3 , and the two of us have been teaching about 1,000 of them every year. We will not repeat complaints about their poor and patchy high-school preparation in science, but we must mention it as an important phenomenon in U.S. education. The European system appears to be preferable, in which mathematics, chemistry, physics, and biology are mandatory and taught every year, although only 3 hours per week. It prevents large memory gaps and the spiral-wise parallel development in all four subjects makes it possible to teach on a higher level every subsequent year.
Phase noise improvement for array systems

This paper demonstrates a phase noise improvement technique for array systems by using the phase noise filter (PNF) and the noise's uncorrelated feature. The PNF aims to suppress input signal phase noise, which is however constrained by the PNF's own circuit noise, named as the phase noise sensitivity. In array systems, the noise from each individual PNF are uncorrelated, while the input signal and noise are correlated. By leveraging this feature, the phase noise in array systems will be theoretically improved by 10×log(N), where N is the element number of the array. Both simulation and 2-element array measurement results verify this theory. In the demonstration, the phase noise of 2-element PNF array is improved to ‒118 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset for a 10 GHz clock from the single PNF's sensitivity of ‒116.1/‒115.4 dBc/Hz, respectively. The improvement is 2–3 dB, which is very close to the theoretical value. The phase noise suppression level and input frequency range are similar to the single PNF. The demonstrated ‒118 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset for a 10 GHz clock is the best result in the CMOS process based on the authors' best knowledge.
Transfer via soft homomorphisms

The field of transfer learning aims to speed up learning across multiple related tasks by transferring knowledge between source and target tasks. Past work has shown that when the tasks are specified as Markov Decision Processes (MDPs), a function that maps states in the target task to similar states in the source task can be used to transfer many types of knowledge. Current approaches for autonomously learning such functions are inefficient or require domain knowledge and lack theoretical guarantees of performance. We devise a novel approach that learns a stochastic mapping between tasks. Using this mapping, we present two algorithms for autonomous transfer learning -- one that has strong convergence guarantees and another approximate method that learns online from experience. Extending existing work on MDP homomorphisms, we present theoretical guarantees for the quality of a transferred value function.
How to reduce the memory requirement of the fft t-matrix method

The T-matrix method[1][2] has been a useful tool for studying the acoustic and electromagnetic interaction with a many-body system. One drawback, however, is the high cost of solving the resulting system of linear equations. The computational cost is proportional to N3, solved directly and to N2 per iteration, solved iteratively, while the memory requirement scales as N2. Here, N is the dimension of the matrix and is often very large since it is proportional to the total volume of a scattering object. As a consequence, the O(N2) storage scaling severely limited the technique's use to electrically small problems. Recently, the FFT T-matrix technique[3][4] was introduced to reduce the CPU-per-iteration and memory requirements to O(N log N) and O(N), respectively, making the method significantly more useful.
The processing of animacy information is disrupted as a function of callous-unemotional traits in youth with disruptive behavior disorders.

Atypical amygdala responses to emotional stimuli have been consistently reported in youth with Disruptive Behavior Disorders (DBDs; Conduct Disorder/Oppositional Defiant Disorder). However, responding to animacy stimuli has not been systematically investigated. Yet, the amygdala is known to be responsive to animacy stimuli and impairment in responsiveness to animacy information may have implications for social cognitive development. Twenty-nine youth with DBDs and 20 typically developing youth, matched for IQ, age (Mage = 14.45, SD = 2.05) and gender, completed a dot probe task during fMRI. Stimuli consisted of negative/faces, negative/objects, neutral/faces and neutral/objects images. Youth with DBDs, relative to typically developing youth, showed: i) reduced amygdala and lateral temporal cortex responses to faces relative to objects. Moreover, within the group of youth with DBDs, increasing callous-unemotional traits were associated with lesser amygdala responses to faces relative to objects. These data suggest that youth with DBDs, particularly those with high levels of CU traits exhibit dysfunction in animacy processing in the amygdala. This dysfunction may underpin the asociality reported in these youth.
From sustainable urbanism to climate urbanism

As the negative impacts of climate change become increasingly apparent, many city leaders and policymakers have begun to regard climate action as both a fiscal challenge and strategic economic oppo...
Drugs of Abuse, AIDS, and the FIV Model

Drug abuse is an important route of exposure to human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1). However, the role that drugs of abuse play in lentivirus disease progression remains unclear. There is a pressing need for appropriate animal models to examine the role of drugs of abuse on lentivirus disease progression. The feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV)/cat model is a legitimate system for the study of lentivirus-induced disease. Not only does FIV produce a disease that is very similar to human acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), but it is also similar to HIV-1 at both the molecular and biochemical levels. In this chapter, we will concentrate on the interactions of opiates and methamphetamine with lentivirus-induced disease, emphasizing the use of the FIV model.
Automated Layer Decomposition for Additive/Subtractive Solid Freeform Fabrication

The new additive/subtractive technology (Shape Deposition Manufacturing) enhances Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF) capability in producing near net-shape surface finish. This technology also builds parts in fewer layers compared with conventional layered manufacturing technology. However, to decompose a part into freeform layers usually requires expensive geometric computation. Also, to plan build sequences often requires human intervention because of the complicated spatial relationships among the freeform layers. At present decomposition and build sequence planning are both performed by experienced designers/users. In this paper, a novel decomposition approach based on surface splitting is proposed to facilitate computation and planning of the additive/subtractive SFF processes. The results shown in this paper are from models with 3D planar geometry. Continuous effort is devoted into extending and implementing this new approach for models with 3D freeform geometry.
Pictorial review of the pulmonary vasculature: from arteries to veins

Pathology of the pulmonary vasculature involves an impressive array of both congenital and acquired conditions. While some of these disorders are benign, disruption of the pulmonary vasculature is often incompatible with life, making these conditions critical to identify on imaging. Many reviews of pulmonary vascular pathology approach the pulmonary arteries, pulmonary veins and bronchial arteries as individual topics. The goal of this review is to provide an integrated overview of the high-yield features of all major disorders of the pulmonary vasculature. This approach provides a more cohesive and comprehensive conceptualisation of respiratory pathology. In this review, we present both the salient clinical and imaging features of congenital and acquired disorders of the pulmonary vasculature, to assist the radiologist in identifying pathology and forming a robust differential diagnosis tailored to the presenting patient. • Abnormalities of the pulmonary vasculature are both congenital and acquired. • Pathology of a single pulmonary vascular territory often affects the entire pulmonary vasculature. • Anomalous pulmonary venous flow is named as a function of its location and severity. • Bronchial arteries often undergo dilatation secondary to cardio-respiratory pathology.
Cooperative Cooking: A Novel Virtual Environment for Upper Limb Rehabilitation

Motor rehabilitation technologies commonly include virtual environments that motivate patients to exercise more often or more intensely. In this paper, we present a novel virtual rehabilitation environment in which two people work together to prepare meals. The players’ roles can be fixed or undefined, and optional challenges can be added in the form of flies that must be swatted away. A preliminary evaluation with 12 pairs of unimpaired participants showed that participants prefer cooperating over exercising alone and feel less pressured when cooperating. Furthermore, participants enjoyed the addition of flies and preferred not to have defined roles. Finally, no significant decrease in exercise intensity was observed as a result of cooperation. These results indicate that cooperation could improve motor rehabilitation by increasing motivation, though the virtual environment needs to be evaluated with participants with motor impairment.
Evidence for a de novo, dominant germ-line mutation causative of osteogenesis imperfecta in two Red Angus calves

A genetic disorder, osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is broadly characterized by connective tissue abnormalities and bone fragility most commonly attributed to alterations in Type I collagen. Two Red Angus calves by the same sire presented with severe bone and dental fragility, blue sclera, and evidence of in utero fractures consistent with OI congenita. Comparative analyses with human cases suggested the OI in these calves most closely resembled that classified as OI Type II. Due to the phenotypic classification and shared paternity, a dominant, germ-line variant was hypothesized as causative although recessive genotypes were also considered due to a close relationship between the sire and dam of one calf. Whole-genome sequencing revealed the presence of a missense mutation in the alpha 1 chain of collagen Type I (COL1A1), for which both calves were heterozygous. The variant resulted in the substitution of a glycine residue with serine in the triple helical domain of the protein; in this region, glycine normally occupies every third position as is critical for correct formation of the Type I collagen molecule. Allele-specific amplification by droplet digital PCR further quantified the variant at a frequency of nearly 4.4% in the semen of the sire while it was absent in his blood, supporting the hypothesis of a de novo causative variant for which the germ line of the sire was mosaic. The identification of novel variants associated with unwanted phenotypes in livestock is critical as the high prolificacy of breeding stock has the potential to rapidly disseminate undesirable variation.
Characteristics and Outcomes of Patients with Cardiogenic Shock Complicated by Acute Kidney Injury Requiring Hemodialysis

Purpose In the setting of Cardiogenic Shock (CS), impaired biventricular function can lead to an acute decrease in renal function via reduced renal perfusion and increased renal venous pressure. In a nationally representative sample, we sought to analyze the characteristics and outcomes of patients hospitalized with CS requiring renal replacement therapy (hemodialysis) for acute kidney injury (AKI-HD). Methods We utilized data from the National Inpatient Sample to calculate national rates of in-hospital mortality, use of temporary mechanical support (T-MCS), vascular injury requiring surgery (VI), length of stay (LOS) and hospitalization cost from 2010 to 2015. We compared the in-hospital outcomes between CS with AKI-HD and a propensity score-matched group without AKI-HD Results We identified 6,076 patients (weighted n=29,921) with CS and AKI-HD and 81,865 (weighted n=403,081) with CS not AKI-HD. Patients with CS and AKI-HD were more likely to have diabetes mellitus [40.3% vs. 34.5%, standardized difference (SD) 0.12], pre-existing chronic kidney disease (48.8% vs. 28.2%, SD 0.4) and higher comorbidity burden as assessed by Elixhauser score (score ≥4 in 74.6% vs. 50.6%) compared with CS patients without AKI-HD. After matching 5,513 cases for patient-level and hospital-level characteristics, CS with AKI-HD was associated with significantly higher in-hospital mortality (73.1% vs. 53.5%, p Conclusion AKI-HD occurred in approximately 7% of patients with CS in years 2010-2015 and was associated with significantly increased in-hospital morbidity and mortality, LOS and cost.
Left Thalamus Arteriovenous Malformation Secondary to Radiation Therapy of Original Vermian Arteriovenous Malformation: Case Report

A 70-year-old gentleman with history of hypothyroidism, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and right superior cerebellar aneurysm presented to the neurosurgery service in 2008 with vertigo. Diagnostic cerebral angiography performed that year demonstrated a vermian arteriovenous malformations (AVM). The patient underwent stereotactic proton beam radiosurgery, which resulted in a decrease in flow and size of the lesion, and the patient was lost to follow-up. Now at the age of 80, the patient presented with acute gait instability. Cerebral angiogram demonstrated his stable vermian AVM and a new 1.1 cm AVM nidus in the region of the left posterior thalamus. Although AVMs are often described as congenital lesions, there is a growing body of literature suggesting that AVMs can grow, spontaneously regress, and even arise de novo in response to some insult. Understanding what leads to the growth, remodeling, regression, and hemorrhage of AVMs is crucial in order to better direct therapeutic endeavors. We would argue that this patient's AVM is secondary to endothelial cell damage from radiation therapy. Radiation can cause endothelial cell injury and upregulation of factors, such as vascular endothelial growth factor and transforming growth factor beta expression, which are implicated in AVM development pathways. We believe that this patient's new AVM is secondary to entrance radiation dosing affecting the thalamus during radiation therapy for the original vermian AVM.
Schutz’s Theory of Political Science

Political science is a social science chiefly interested in collectivities, e.g., the state, and can be seen to differ from other social sciences by its focus on power. Following Eric Voegelin , legitimation is sought by Schutz in transcendent realities and there are also central myths, symbols, and forms of representation. Familiar basic concepts are mentioned. Empirical data in this science are collected through interviews, participatory observation, and questionnaires and historical knowledge is plainly relevant. Collective course-of-action types are at least central and as such also distinctive for political science.
Smoking Significantly Impacts Persistence Rates in Embolized Pulmonary Arteriovenous Malformations in Patients with Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia

Background Embolization is the standard of care for treatment of pulmonary arteriovenous malformations (PAVMs). Persistence of PAVMs after embolization occurs for undefined reasons but may include inflammation related to smoking in dysregulated angiogenesis. Purpose To determine whether patients with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) who smoke tobacco are more prone to PAVM persistence after embolization. Materials and Methods Patients with HHT treated for PAVMs between January 2000 and August 2017 were retrospectively identified. Only PAVMs with no previous treatment and patients with both clinical and imaging follow-up were included. Age, sex, PAVM characteristics (size, complexity, and location), embolization material used, microcatheter type, smoking history, active tobacco use, and other risk factors for arterial disease were analyzed by using a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model to determine risk factors for persistence. Results Five-year persistence-free survival rates in nonsmokers, smokers of 1-20 pack-years, and smokers of more than 20 pack-years were 12.2%, 21.9%, and 37.4% respectively. Smokers with more than 20 pack-years relative to nonsmokers had greater risk of persistence after adjusting for arterial feeder size (hazard ratio, 3.8; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.5, 10.0; P = .007). Patients who reported active tobacco use at the time of PAVM embolization had a 5-year cumulative incidence of persistence of 26.3% compared with 13.5% in inactive smokers. After adjusting for arterial feeder size, the risk of persistence was greater in tobacco users versus inactive smokers at the time of treatment (hazard ratio, 2.4; 95% CI: 1.2, 4.7; P = .01). Conclusion Smoking is associated with pulmonary arteriovenous malformation persistence after embolization in patients with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia. Online supplemental material is available for this article. See also the editorial by Trerotola and Pyeritz in this issue.
Cellular and Molecular Characterization of Rituximab-Resistant CD20+ NHL Ramos (Ramos RR1) and Daudi (Daudi RR1) Clones: Development of Cross-Resistance to Cytotoxic Stimuli.

Numerous studies have documented the efficacy of rituximab (either alone and/or in combination with drugs) in eradicating tumor cells in vitro and in vivo . However, a subset of patients does not respond or relapse after initial rituximab treatment. In an attempt to recapitulate the non-responders and/or relapsed situations, rituximab-refractory B-NHL Ramos and Daudi clones were generated by growing the cells in the presence of step-wise increasing concentrations of rituximab followed by multiple rounds of limiting dilution assay. Single cells were then propagated as clones and assayed for cellular and molecular alterations when compared to the parental cell lines. This study investigates two rituximab-resistant clones, namely, Ramos RR1 and Daudi RR1. A partial decrease in surface CD20 expression, namely, decreased MFI compared to parental cells was observed in the clones. Both clones exhibited resistance to complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC). Rituximab was incapable of either inhibiting cellular growth or inducing apoptosis (both in monomeric and cross-linked forms). The clones developed significant cross-resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs and importantly, rituximab had lost its chemo-sensitizing effect on these clones. Detailed analysis revealed a hyper-activated status of the ERK1/2 and NF-κB signaling pathways and rituximab was inefficient in inhibiting these pathways in the clones. Strikingly, selective over-expression of Bcl- xL and the exhibition of higher resistance to a wide array of anti-neoplastic agents were observed in the clones concordant with the protective role of Bcl- xL . However, pharmacological inhibition of the NF-κB and the ERK 1/2 pathways as well as the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib (Velcade) efficiently sensitized the clones to structurally and functionally distinct drugs including topoisomerase II inhibitor, DNA damaging agents, and microtubule poisons, albeit to varying degrees. The above inhibitors also reduced Bcl- xL levels further confirming the pivotal role played by Bcl- xL is clone resistance. The generation of rituximab-resistant clones provides novel means to further investigate the underlying mechanisms that may govern rituximab resistance in patients. Further, these results provide a rational molecular basis for the utilization of pharmacological inhibitors of constitutive signaling pathways in combination with cytotoxic stimuli in the treatment of rituximab-refractory NHL cells.
Sudden Unexplained Infant Deaths and Day of Life 0.

* Abbreviations: SIDS — : sudden infant death syndrome SUID — : sudden unexplained infant death Fifty years ago, an extraordinary group of pathologists, pediatricians, and epidemiologists met to address the limited research and numerous diagnoses applied to unexplained, largely sleep-related pediatric deaths. Their efforts led to the identification of a new category of disease, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Among the observations fueling the creation of the category was the relative sparing of neonates despite what should be increased vulnerability in the early days of life. When Dr Bruce Beckwith, the conference’s leader, asked whether anyone doubted this age-related sparing, not a single objection was raised.1 Yet, humility about what was not yet known led to broader diagnostic criteria of “any infant or young child.” Years later, SIDS was redefined as pertaining to infants <1 year of age.2 Still later, when classification practices scattered because of objections about the concept of SIDS and the varied use of alternative terminologies, the composite of sudden unexplained infant death (SUID) came to stand in.3 In this issue of Pediatrics , big data concur with the pioneering thinkers and draw the demarcation at 1 week. In “Distinct … Address correspondence to Richard D. Goldstein, MD, Division of General Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, Boston Children’s Hospital, 300 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115. E-mail: richard.goldstein{at}childrens.harvard.edu
Activity- and Occupation-Based Interventions to Support Mental Health, Positive Behavior, and Social Participation for Children and Youth: A Systematic Review.

Importance: Children and youth are often challenged to maintain well-being, positive behavior, and social participation. Objective: To identify evidence for occupational therapy interventions for children and youth with and at risk for mental health concerns. Data Sources: Articles published in English-language peer-reviewed journals between January 2010 and March 2017 identified through searches of MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, ERIC, OTseeker, and Cochrane databases. Study Selection and Data Collection: The methodology in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses was used to complete the review. Of 5,310 articles screened by title and abstract, 357 were retrieved for full-text review, and 62 met inclusion criteria. Articles describing interventions that were activity or occupation based were included. Conference proceedings, non–peer reviewed publications, dissertations, theses, and presentations were excluded. Findings: Of the 62 studies included in the review, 20 (32%) were Level I studies, 22 (36%) were Level II studies, and 20 (32%) were Level III studies. Articles were categorized by type: outdoor camps, video and computer games, productive occupations and life skills, meditation, animal-assisted interventions, creative arts, play, sports, and yoga. Moderate to strong evidence supports the use of yoga and sports. Moderate-strength evidence supports the use of play and creative arts. Evidence for the use of animal-assisted interventions, meditation, video and computer games, and productive occupations was of low strength. Conclusion and Relevance: Substantial evidence exists to support the use of activity- and occupation-based interventions to address the mental health, behavioral, and social participation concerns of children and youth. Occupational therapy practitioners should match the desired outcome of therapy with the appropriate intervention to provide the best and most effective services to their clients. What This Article Adds: This review provides additional support for the use of activity- and occupation-based interventions (i.e., those that involve active participation) to improve the behavior, social participation, and mental health of children and youth.
Geographic Variation in Epistaxis Interventions Among Medicare Beneficiaries

Objectives:To quantify the utilization of epistaxis procedures in the elderly population and assess whether the geographic variability of these procedures is associated with hypertension and direct...
Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease associated with intracranial large-vessel vasculitis and recurrent cranial neuropathies.

A 48-year-old Chinese man presented with left pure sensory stroke in the absence of cardiovascular risk factors. Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) showed two fusiform aneurysms. He was discharge...
Spiromastigoides asexualis: Phylogenetic Analysis and Evaluation as a Cause of False-Positive Blastomyces DNA Probe Test Results

This is the first case of Spiromastigoides asexualis human infection, and it notably gave a false-positive Blastomyces DNA probe laboratory result. We further investigated other Spiromastigoides isolates as a cause of false-positive testing results, their phylogenetic relationship, and their susceptibility profiles to clinically available antifungal agents. Other S. asexualis isolates also resulted in positive Blastomyces DNA probe results, while Spiromastigoides species other than S. asexualis did not.
HiC-ACT: Improved Detection of Chromatin Interactions from Hi-C Data via Aggregated Cauchy Test

Abstract Genome-wide chromatin conformation capture technologies such as Hi-C are commonly employed to study chromatin spatial organization. In particular, to identify statistically significant long-range chromatin interactions from Hi-C data, most existing methods such as Fit-Hi-C/FitHiC2 and HiCCUPS assume that all chromatin interactions are statistically independent. Such an independence assumption is reasonable at low resolution (e.g., 40Kb bin), but is invalid at high resolution (e.g., 5 or 10Kb bins) since spatial dependency of neighboring chromatin interactions is non-negligible at high resolution. Our previous hidden Markov random field based methods accommodate spatial dependency but are computationally intensive. It is urgent to develop approaches that can model spatial dependence, in a computationally efficient and scalable manner. Here, we develop HiC-ACT, an aggregated Cauchy test (ACT) based approach, to improve the detection of chromatin interactions by post-processing results from methods assuming independence. To benchmark the performance of HiC-ACT, we re-analyzed deeply sequenced Hi-C data from a human lymphoblastoid cell line GM12878 and mouse embryonic stem cell line (mESC). Our results demonstrate advantages of HiC-ACT in improving sensitivity with controlled type-I error. By leveraging information from neighboring chromatin interactions, HiC-ACT enhances the power to detect interactions with lower signal to noise ratio and similar (if not stronger) epigenetic signatures that suggest regulatory roles. We further demonstrate that HiC-ACT peaks show higher overlap with known enhancers than Fit-Hi-C/FitHiC2 peaks, in both GM12878 and mESC. HiC-ACT, effectively a summary statistic based approach, is computationally efficient (~6 minutes and ~2GB memory to process 25,000 pairwise interactions).
Prognostic value of disease distribution in secondary central nervous system diffuse large B cell lymphoma treated with radiation therapy.

This study aimed to assess the prognostic value of baseline disease distribution for patients with the secondary central nervous system (CNS) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) treated with chem...
Incorporation of a genetics-based information module into standardized diabetes patient education.

Abstract Objective The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of a genetics educational module created to improve understanding about the genetics of diabetes, assess motivation to engage in healthy lifestyle behaviors, and gauge interest in genetic testing for diabetes. Methods Participants were recruited from the Multidisciplinary Comprehensive Diabetes Clinic at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Participants completed a pre-survey to assess three domains: (1) knowledge about diabetes etiology and testing, (2) healthy lifestyle behaviors, and (3) interest in genetic testing. Participants viewed a short, recorded educational module, then completed a post-survey to re-assess the domains. Results Participants increased knowledge about genetics of diabetes (p Conclusions The educational module increased understanding of diabetes and increased motivation to adopt healthy behaviors. The need for patient-friendly educational modules explaining the genetics of diabetes will likely increase with continued discoveries of how genetics contributes to diabetes risk and outcomes. This short, educational module has the potential to provide genetic information in an effective way that is easily adapted in a routine clinic setting.
Improvement of disability in neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome by robotic first rib resection

ABSTRACT Background Robotic transthoracic first rib resection (R-FRR) has advantages over traditional approaches however its impact on post-operative nTOS outcomes is unknown. Our primary objective was to determine improvement of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) of pain and disability following R-FRR in neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome (nTOS). Our secondary objective was to compare improvement of patient-reported pain between R-FRR and supraclavicular FRR (SC-FRR) in nTOS. Methods We queried a prospectively-maintained, single surgeon, single institution database for nTOS patients undergoing R-FRR or SC-FRR with available pre-operative and post-operative PROMs. PROMs included the Disability of the Arm, Hand, and Shoulder (DASH) questionnaire and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for pain. Results Cohort 1 included 37 patients undergoing 40 R-FRRs and was comprised of 32 females, aged 36 years on average. Pre-operative VAS and DASH (6.0 and 64.2, respectively) improved significantly at the first (2.8 and 35.0, P Conclusions R-FRR results in significant improvement in disability and pain in nTOS and may have a greater impact on patient-reported pain than SC-FRR in the early postoperative period.
Techno-Economic Analysis of a Novel Full-Chain Blast Furnace Slag Utilization System

As the main solid waste in the iron and steel industry, the waste heat recovery and comprehensive utilization of blast furnace slag had great significance for energy conservation and sustainable development. This paper proposed a novel full-chain blast furnace slag utilization system to solve the problem of waste heat recovery and high value-added production. Cascade recovery of slag waste heat was realized by using coal gasification reaction and the waste heat recovery ratio reached 73.61%. Meanwhile, two kinds of high value-added products of X-type zeolite and hydrotalcite-like compounds were synthesized simultaneously by using the beneficial components of blast furnace slag after fully recovering waste heat. Ultimately, the economic feasibility of the system was analyzed from two aspects of investment and profit. Under the reasonable economic assumptions, payback period of the project was 0.14 years, 10-year net present value was $ 326493.98 million, return on investment and internal rate of return were 737.74% and 312.82%, respectively. The sensitive factors of the system fluctuated within 40% through sensitivity analysis. The project could still be profitable in the production year. With great economic benefit and anti-risk ability, the novel full-chain blast furnace slag utilization system had potential in energy saving and emission reduction.
Change in Behavior Problems from Childhood Through Adolescence for Children with Fragile X Syndrome

In this study, we examined trajectories of specific domains of behavior problems (i.e., attention problems, depression/anxiety, and aggressive behavior) from age 6 to 18 in a sample of 55 children with fragile X syndrome. We also examined autism status and early parenting as predictors of subsequent behavioral trajectories. We found that attention problems and aggressive behavior declined steadily from childhood through adolescence whereas anxious/depressed behavior demonstrated relative stability over the same period. Youth with highly flexible mothers displayed more optional trajectories of improvement in attention problems.
Proof Pearl: Proving a Simple Von Neumann Machine Turing Complete

In this paper we sketch an ACL2-checked proof that a simple but unbounded Von Neumann machine model is Turing Complete, i.e., can do anything a Turing machine can do. The project formally revisits the roots of computer science. It requires re-familiarizing oneself with the definitive model of computation from the 1930s, dealing with a simple “modern” machine model, thinking carefully about the formal statement of an important theorem and the specification of both total and partial programs, writing a verifying compiler, including implementing an X86-like call/return protocol and implementing computed jumps, codifying a code proof strategy, and a little “creative” reasoning about the non-termination of two machines.
Moving through Barriers: Unlocking the Mysteries of How Enzymes Really Work

Delineating the physical principles that underlie enzyme catalysis remains a major challenge at the biology/chemistry interface. Recent investigations in enzymology have moved beyond the historical...
Intratexturealities: The Poetics of the Freedom Schools.

Freedom Schools, which operated during 1964 after the collaborative efforts of several Civil Rights organizations, provided an opportunity to understand how students can drive the curriculum to meet individual and collective needs within a community. The presence and use of poetry throughout the Freedom Schools was mysterious, given that it is virtually absent in the curriculum guide, memos, and documents prepared by the administrative staff members and teachers. Students’ poetry not only revealed the intersections and layers of lived experience, society, and culture, but also their agency in the context of an anti-oppressive education project.