cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The relationship between urine excretion and biogenic amines and their metabolites in cerebrospinal fluid of schizophrenic patients

Concentrations of norepinephrine and metabolites of biogenic amines were measured in lumbar cerebrospinal fluid of 30 patients with chronic schizophrenia, nine of whom were polyuric. The mean level of norepinephrine was two-fold higher (p < or = 0.025) in polyuric patients than in patients whose excretion of urine was within the normal range. CSF levels of histamine's primary metabolite, tele-methylhistamine, an index of brain histaminergic activity, were positively correlated (p < 0.005) with daily urine volume. These results are consistent with the known influence of norepinephrine and histamine on fluid regulation and suggest that norepinephrine and histamine may be involved in psychogenic polydipsia-polyuria in schizophrenic patients.
Disengaged scheduling for fair, protected access to fast computational accelerators

Today's operating systems treat GPUs and other computational accelerators as if they were simple devices, with bounded and predictable response times. With accelerators assuming an increasing share of the workload on modern machines, this strategy is already problematic, and likely to become untenable soon. If the operating system is to enforce fair sharing of the machine, it must assume responsibility for accelerator scheduling and resource management. Fair, safe scheduling is a particular challenge on fast accelerators, which allow applications to avoid kernel-crossing overhead by interacting directly with the device. We propose a disengaged scheduling strategy in which the kernel intercedes between applications and the accelerator on an infrequent basis, to monitor their use of accelerator cycles and to determine which applications should be granted access over the next time interval. Our strategy assumes a well defined, narrow interface exported by the accelerator. We build upon such an interface, systematically inferred for the latest Nvidia GPUs. We construct several example schedulers, including Disengaged Timeslice with overuse control that guarantees fairness and Disengaged Fair Queueing that is effective in limiting resource idleness, but probabilistic. Both schedulers ensure fair sharing of the GPU, even among uncooperative or adversarial applications; Disengaged Fair Queueing incurs a 4% overhead on average (max 18%) compared to direct device access across our evaluation scenarios.
SUNMAP: a tool for automatic topology selection and generation for NoCs

Increasing communication demands of processor and memory cores in Systems on Chips (SoCs) necessitate the use of Networks on Chip (NoC) to interconnect the cores. An important phase in the design of NoCs is he mapping of cores onto the most suitable opology for a given application. In this paper, we present SUNMAP a tool for automatically selecting he best topology for a given application and producing a mapping of cores onto that topology. SUNMAP explores various design objectives such as minimizing average communication delay, area, power dissipation subject to bandwidth and area constraints. The tool supports different routing functions (dimension ordered, minimum-path, traffic splitting) and uses floorplanning information early in the topology selection process to provide feasible mappings. The network components of the chosen NoC are automatically generated using cycle-accurate SystemC soft macros from X-pipes architecture. SUNMAP automates NoC selection and generation, bridging an important design gap in building NoCs. Several experimental case studies are presented in the paper, which show the rich design space exploration capabilities of SUNMAP.
Line impedance measurement: a nondisruptive wideband technique

Line impedance is the basis for many power system calculations. This paper presents a technique for measuring line impedance as a function of frequency on an energized line in normal operation using commercially available equipment. A small sinusoidal current of predetermined frequency is injected into the line, and a network analyzer calculates line impedance at that frequency from the measured magnitude and phase of the injected current and resulting voltage. The measurement is repeated over a range of frequencies to produce a wideband impedance-versus-frequency characteristic. The element values for lumped equivalent circuit models are extracted from the measurement. These values are shown to be frequency dependent. Inexpensive portable equipment for performing this measurement is also briefly introduced.
Positive and negative mood in men with advanced prostate cancer undergoing androgen deprivation therapy: considering the role of social support and stress.

Advanced prostate cancer patients often undergo androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). Advanced disease and adverse ADT side effects are often debilitating and negatively impact mood. Social support has been shown to mitigate detrimental effects of stress on mood. Objective: This study sought to characterize positive and negative mood in this select patient population and determine whether social support moderated relations between stress and mood. Methods: Participants (N=80) completed the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List, Perceived Stress Scale, and Derogatis Affect Balance Scale at a single time point. Hierarchical regression models evaluated relations among social support, stress, and mood controlling for relevant covariates. Standard moderation analyses were performed. Results: Participants reported higher levels of negative and positive mood compared with published means of localized prostate cancer patients. Overall, mood was more positive than negative. Stress levels were comparable to cancer populations with recurrent disease. Moderated regression analyses showed that social support partially buffered the effects of stress on positive mood; men with high stress and low support reported the lowest levels of positive mood. The model with negative mood as the dependent measure did not support moderation; that is, the relationship between stress and negative mood did not differ by level of social support. Conclusion: Among individuals living with advanced prostate cancer, social support may be an important factor that sustains positive mood in the presence of stress. Future work should examine the extent to which social support prospectively impacts health-related quality of life by promoting positive mood. Limitations include cross-sectional design, which precludes causal inferences. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A labyrinthine structure formed from a transverse tubule of mouse ventricular myocardium.

M. S. FORBES and N. SPERELAKIS. From the Department of Physiology, University of Virginia Medical School, Charlottesville, Virginia ~903 INTRODUCTION The transverse (T) tubules of mammalian myo- cardial cells and vertebrate skeletal muscle fibers both are invaginations into the cell interior whose membranes are continuous with the sarcolemma. Some pronounced differences exist between tubules from these two sources, however. One is the ob- vious disparity in size; the diameter of myocardial tubules may reach over 3,000 A
Some Geometric and Algebraic Results on Crossover

In light of recent “No Free Lunch” theorems, crossover is neither inferior nor superior, in general, to other search operators. The present work formally establishes some properties of crossover that may be useful in analysis of when crossover performs well and when it does not. All forms of crossover which preserve the ordering of alleles are included. Alleles are restricted, however, to binary values. In this context, crossover is naturally treated as a bitwise Boolean operator parameterized by a mask indicating which alleles' values to exchange. Interesting properties of the Hamming distances between parents and offspring are derived. Several identities and inequalities of the distances are summarized in a diagram referred to as the crossover rectangle. Various algebraic properties, some counterintuitive, of crossover are also established. The algebraic definition of crossover gives rise to a simple style of formal reasoning about crossover that may prove to be generally useful.
Cost Effectiveness of an Adaptable Computing Cluster

With a focus on commodity PC systems, Beowulf clusters traditionally lack the cutting edge network architectures, memory subsystems, and processor technologies found in their more expensive supercomputer counterparts. What Beowulf clusters lack in technology, they more than make up for with their significant cost advantage over traditional supercomputers. This paper presents the cost implications of an architectural extension that adds reconfigurable computing to the network interface of Beowulf clusters. A quantitative idea of cost-effectiveness is formulated to evaluate computing technologies. Here, cost-effectiveness is considered in the context of two applications: the 2D Fast Fourier transform (2D-FFT) and integer sorting.
A Real Time Decision Support System for Enhanced Crane Operations in Construction and Manufacturing

Cranes are among the most expensive pieces of equipment in many construction projects as well as freight terminal operations, shipyards, and warehouses. Despite their wide range of application, a vast majority of cranes still in use do not feature the advanced automation and sensor technologies. A typical crane operator mostly uses visual assessment of the jobsite conditions which may be enhanced through a signalperson on the ground. However, the lack of an integrated decision support system which takes into account the evolving work conditions and the time and space constraints may lead to delays due to inefficient prioritization of crane service requests. In a longer term, this may affect or even change the project critical path which will ultimately lead to increased project time and cost. This paper presents the latest results of an ongoing study which aims to design and implement an automated crane decision support system to help crane operators fulfill service requests in the most efficient order.
Crude Oil and Alternate Energy Production Forecasts for the Twenty-First Century: The End of the Hydrocarbon Era

Predictions of production rates and ultimate recovery of crude oil are needed for intelligent planning and timely action to ensure the continuous flow of energy required by the world's increasing population and expanding economies. Crude oil will be able to supply increasing demand until peak world production is reached. The energy gap caused by declining conventional oil production must then be filled by expanding production of coal, natural gas, unconventional oil from tar sands, heavy oil and oil shales, nuclear and hydroelectric power, and renewable energy sources (solar, wind, and geothermal). Declining oil production forecasts are based on current estimated ultimate recoverable conventional crude oil resources of 329 billion barrels for the United States and close to 3 trillion barrels for the world. Peak world crude oil production is forecast to occur in 2020 at 90 million barrels per day. Conventional crude oil production in the United States is forecast to terminate by about 2090, and world production will be close to exhaustion by 2100.
Influence of Line Context on Power Function Parameters

Stimuli in experiments in which line-lengths are judged are typically single lines. In studies in which area and volume are judged, the stimuli are typically more complex. An experiment with 22 college undergraduates investigated whether differences in context (single lines versus lines in depicted boxes) influenced the exponent or scaling factor of the power function of length judgments. The scaling factor of the power function was significantly affected by context, but the exponent of the power function was not.
Towards the development of hierarchical data motion power cost models

Data intensive applications comprise a considerable portion of HPC center workloads. Whether large amounts of data transfer occur before, during or after an application is executed, this cost must be considered. Not just in terms of performance (e.g. time to completion), but also in terms of power consumed to complete these necessary tasks. At the system level, scheduling and resource management tools are capable of recording performance metrics and other constraints, and making performance aware decisions. These tools are a natural choice for making power aware decisions, as well. More specifically, power aware decisions about data transfer costs for the entire application workflow. This research focuses on developing data motion power cost models and integrating these models into a task scheduler framework to enable complete power aware scheduling of an entire HPC workflow. We have taken an incremental approach to developing a hierarchical, system wide power model for data motion that starts with core data motion and will eventually encompass data motion across facilities. In this paper, we discuss our current research which addresses multicore data motion and data motion between nodes.
Labeled Grammar Induction with Minimal Supervision

Nearly all work in unsupervised grammar induction aims to induce unlabeled dependency trees from gold part-of-speechtagged text. These clean linguistic classes provide a very important, though unrealistic, inductive bias. Conversely, induced clusters are very noisy. We show here, for the first time, that very limited human supervision (three frequent words per cluster) may be required to induce labeled dependencies from automatically induced word clusters.
Three Dimensional End-to-End Modeling and Directivity Analysis for Graphene-Based Antennas in the Terahertz Band

Terahertz (0.1-10 THz) band communication is envisioned as a key technology to satisfy the increasing demand for ultra-high-speed wireless links. In this paper, a three dimensional (3D) end-to-end model is developed, which includes the graphene-based antenna response and the channel model in the THz band. The developed theoretical model is validated with COMSOL simulations. By using the developed 3D end-to-end model, an in-depth analysis on the 3D channel characteristics is carried out. In particular, the use of a 13-dB-gain antenna leads to the decrease of the delay spread from 0.2 ns to 3.2 ps, and the decrease of the angular spread by a factor of 20. The resulting coherence bandwidth reaches 63 GHz. A target capacity of 100 Gbps can be achieved with the directional antenna for the distance of 0.4m over 0.8-0.9 THz, which is unreachable with the isotropic antenna. However, the directivity is at the cost of the strict antenna alignment, and the deviation needs to be smaller than 12.4o. The provided analysis lays out the foundation for reliable and efficient ultra-high-speed wireless communications in the THz band.
Psychosis in Parkinson’s disease: unexplained observations in a seemingly simple model

It is difficult to imagine a more interesting disorder than Parkinson’s disease (PD).[1] There are motor problems, some of which are generally dopamine responsive (bradykinesia and rigidity), other...
Medical Student Attention to Preventive Medicine: Change with Time and Reinforcement

We followed medical students' attention to documentation in their write-ups of appropriate preventive medicine information, based upon a patient's age, sex, and existing medical conditions, as well as the translation of critical findings to the problem list, for three years. The proportion of relevant items documented was .50 in year one, .80 in year two, and .69 in year three. Significant differences (p less than .001) were found between all three years. Similarly, the proportion of important items translated to the problem list was .04 in year one, .22 in year two, and .18 in year three. There was significant improvement in years two and three as compared to year one (p less than .001). The impact of interventions designed to reinforce the medical student's attention to preventive medicine was also studied. Cued forms on which to record the patient's history were compared to written feedback regarding the student's write-ups. Both significantly improved student performance. The effect of the written feedback also persisted in the follow-up period.
Poisson-Gumbel Mixed Compound Distribution and its application

With the development of offshore engineering, the joint probability study for extreme sea environments has been a subject of increasing interest for both mathematicians and engineers. However, the conventional multivariate probability distribution models do not describe the distribution of the occurrences of extreme sea states induced by typhoon, hurricane or winter storm, and thus fail to reflect the probability characteristics of sea environments in all the aspects. Extreme sea environments are typically to be found in storms like typhoon, and the occurrences of such storms in certain sea areas, varying from year to year, may be fitted to a discrete distribution. By compounding the discrete distribution with a bivariate continuous distribution of two extreme sea environments, a new kind of distribution — Bivariate Compound Extreme Value Distribution (BCEVD) is obtained in this note. This study proposes Poisson-Gumbel Mixed Compound Distribution, one of the particular forms of BCEVD, and gives an example of its application by using it to compute the joint distribution of wind velocities and wave heights and to estimate the 100-year return level, based on the 20-year wind and wave data in the East China Sea. The results show the advantage of PGMCD model in its stable results and simple use.
Chronic Inflammation and γδ T Cells

The epithelial tissues of the skin, lungs, reproductive tract, and intestines are the largest physical barriers the body has to protect against infection. Epithelial tissues are woven with a matrix of immune cells programed to mobilize the host innate and adaptive immune responses. Included among these immune cells are gamma delta T lymphocytes (γδ T cells) that are unique in their T cell receptor usage, location, and functions in the body. Stress reception by γδ T cells as a result of traumatic epithelial injury, malignancy, and/or infection induces γδ T cell activation. Once activated, γδ T cells function to repair tissue, induce inflammation, recruit leukocytes, and lyse cells. Many of these functions are mediated via the production of cytokines and growth factors upon γδ T cell activation. Pathogenesis of many chronic inflammatory diseases involves γδ T cells; some of which are exacerbated by their presence, while others are improved. γδ T cells require a delicate balance between their need for acute inflammatory mediators to function normally and the detrimental impact imparted by chronic inflammation. This review will focus on the recent progress made in understanding how epithelial γδ T cells influence the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory diseases and how a balance between acute and chronic inflammation impacts γδ T cell function. Future studies will be important to understand how this balance is achieved.
Ignoring Disadvantaged Students: Caveats of the ELA Regents Exam

The Comprehensive English Regents Exam, also referred to as the English Language Arts (ELA) Examination, is a widely used measure of student achievement in the K-12 system in New York, yet it is not without criticism. One concern is that the ELA Regents Exam may be contributing to the widening of the gap in graduation rates between English language learners (ELLs) and English-proficient students (NYSED, 2014b). This suggests a threat to the validity of the inferences made based on test scores. When considering the features of test design and the characteristics of the test’s diverse target population under an argument-based validity approach (Bachman, 2003, 2005; Kane, 1992, 2002), a mismatch between the intended consequences of test use and the actual effects on the involved stakeholders can be identified. The purpose of this commentary is to analyze possible threats to validity, with issues ranging from domain analysis and construct definition to test misuse from a language assessment perspective and to discuss the impact of the Regents Examination in ELA on newly-arrived ELLs.
Chapter 3 – Arsenic in the Ocean

Publisher Summary As a member of Group Va of the periodic table, arsenic shares many chemical properties with its nearest neighbors in the group, phosphorus and antimony. Arsenic can occur in estuarine and marine waters and sediments in four valency states, +5, +3, 0, and -3. Elemental arsenic is very rare and As-3 is found only at extremely low Eh values in highly reducing environments. Arsenic has a complex marine biogeochemistry that has important implications for its bioavailability and toxicity to marine organisms and their consumers, including man. The concentration of total arsenic in clean open-ocean waters is 0.5–3 μg/L, with a mean of about 1.7 μg/L. Based on the suspected carcinogenicity of arsenite, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set a human health criterion for total dissolved arsenic in seawater from which fishery products are harvested for human consumption of 0.0175μg/L. Thus, arsenate, arsenite, and methylated arsenic species may occur together in seawater. Arsenate is always the most abundant form of arsenic in oxygenated, biologically productive waters of the ocean, except for a short period of time after stratification of the water column breaks down and large amounts of deep hypoxic water are advected to the surface.
Molecular resolution of endometrial cancer precursors.

CS18-01 Endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinoma is a common gynecologic cancer associated with antecedent unopposed estrogen exposure and monoclonal genetically mutated precancerous lesions. Histologic examination of genetically defined monoclonal precancers has led to improved cancer outcome prediction through routine pathologic diagnosis of premalignant Endometrial Intraepithelial Neoplasia (EIN) lesions (OR 89). The PTEN tumor suppressor gene, inactivated by somatic mutation and/or deletion in up to 80% of endometrioid carcinomas and 68% of premalignant EIN lesions, is the earliest known step in endometrial carcinogenesis. Surprisingly, PTEN inactivation occurs in morphologically unremarkable endometrial glands ("latent precancers") in half of normal women, but the lifetime cancer risk is only 2%. A high rate of PTEN-null endometrial gland emergence in the reproductive years, combined with clonal persistence for years thereafter, links these early events with subsequent carcinoma. One possible modifier of risk is specific interaction between pre-existing mutated cells and hormones. In fact, physiologic requirements for the PTEN tumor suppressor protein are modulated by sex hormones, which act as positive or negative selection factors for these quite common "latent precancers." Nongenetic exposures known to diminish endometrial cancer risk, such as administration of progestins and placement of inert intrauterine devices, are accompanied by declines in the prevalence of latent precancers. Latent endometrial precancers, as detectible by PTEN immunohistochemistry, are the target for, and mediators of, some nongenetic endometrial cancer risk factors.
Dynamic regulation of homer binding to group i metabotropic glutamate receptors by preso1 and converging kinase cascades

In rat sympathetic neurons from the superior cervical ganglia (SCG) expressing metabotropic glutamate receptor mGluR1 or mGluR5, overexpression of scaffolding Homer proteins, which bind to a Homer ligand in their C termini, cause receptor clustering and uncoupling from ion channel modulation. In the absence of recombinant Homer protein overexpression, uncoupling of mGluRs from voltage-dependent channels can be induced by expression of Preso1, an adaptor of proline-directed kinases that phosphorylates the Homer ligand and recruits binding of endogenous Homer proteins. Here we show that in SCG neurons expressing mGluR1 and the tyrosine receptor kinase B, treatment with brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) produces a similar uncoupling of the receptors from calcium channels. We investigated the pathways that mediate this uncoupling and compared it with uncoupling observed with Preso1 expression. Both BDNF- and Preso1-induced uncoupling require residues T1151 and S1154 in the mGluR1 Homer ligand (TPPSPF). Uncoupling via Preso1 but not BDNF was prevented by expression of a dominant negative Cdk5, suggesting that endogenous Cdk5 mediates Preso1-dependent phosphorylation of mGluR1. Dominant negative Cdk5 did not block the BDNF effect but this was sensitive to inhibitors of the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase cascade. Interestingly, the BDNF pathway appeared to require native Preso1 binding to mGluR, because overexpression of the Preso1 FERM domain, which mediates the Preso1-mGluR interaction, prevented BDNF-induced uncoupling. These data suggest that the BDNF/tyrosine receptor kinase B and Cdk5 pathways converge at the level of mGluR to similarly induce Homer ligand phosphorylation, recruit Homer binding, and uncouple mGluRs from channel regulation.
Integrated optic waveguides in gallium lanthanum sulfide glass for mid-IR applications

Chalcogenide integrated optic (IO) waveguides operating in the mid-wave infrared (MWIR) are of interest for a variety of applications. They are potentially useful in compact MWIR laser sources for applications such as gas sensing and infrared countermeasures. Most work on chalcogenide integrated optics to date, however, has focused on arsenic sulfide, As2S3, or glasses with similar compositions. These glasses are known to suffer from a host of photo-induced effects including photo-darkening, photo-induced crystallization, and low optical damage thresholds. Furthermore, they can typically accept only low concentration of rare earth dopants without clustering or crystallization. Gallium lanthanum sulfide (GLS) is an alternative chalcogenide glass with great potential for use in IO devices operating in the MWIR. Like As2S3, GLS exhibits a large transparency window in the MWIR and high optical nonlinearity, but it does not suffer from the same type of photo-induced effects. High rare earth dopant concentrations without clustering are possible in GLS because rare earth ions substitute for lanthanum ions in the glass matrix. IO waveguides have previously been fabricated in GLS by several methods. Formerly, it was hypothesized that patterning GLS via reactive ion etching (RIE) was impossible do the presence of lanthanum and rare earth dopant ions, but we present results for GLS waveguides fabricated via RIE. In addition, we demonstrate 2.7 μm emission from Er3+-doped GLS waveguides resulting from erbium’s 4I11/2→4I13/2 transition.
3-Dimensionally Printed, Native-Like Scaffolds for Myocardial Tissue Engineering.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) and myocardial infarction (MI) account for ≈1 in 7 deaths in the United States, with an estimated 750 000 incidences of MI in the United States each year.1 Although modern medical therapies have reduced the number of coronary heart disease–related deaths over the past 30 years, there is still much room for improvement in coronary heart disease and MI treatment. As cardiac tissue has limited regenerative capability, damaged myocardial tissue downstream of the blocked vessel in MI remodels to nonfunctional fibrotic scar tissue. Cell and tissue-engineered therapies are a promising therapeutic area that may reduce MI scar formation and induce healthy remodeling of damaged heart tissue by providing cells and matrix materials that can integrate with native tissue to restore normal heart function. Article, see p 1318 Tissue engineering takes advantage of a wide range of technologies, including stem cell techniques and 3-dimensional (3D) printing, to recapitulate in vivo tissue structure and function in an in vitro setting. The primary focus of tissue engineering research is regenerative medicine applications that aim to implant cells in a biomaterial scaffold into a diseased or injured tissue and thereby restore tissue functionality. To accomplish this, the tissue-engineered construct must be designed to ensure cell survival by either replacing damaged native tissue or being resorbed as new tissue forms, without inducing immunogenicity. Myocardial tissue engineering is particularly challenging because of the complex nature of the heart’s structure and function. Implanted myocardial tissue constructs should ideally integrate into the surrounding heart tissue both physically and functionally, with implanted cardiomyocytes coupling with neighboring native cells in contraction and electric signal conduction without inducing arrhythmias. However, to functionally couple with native tissue, the cells in the implanted tissue construct must first survive. This has been one of the biggest roadblocks to successful cell …
Performance limitations of temperature–emissivity separation techniques in long-wave infrared hyperspectral imaging applications

Accurate estimation or retrieval of surface emissivity from long-wave infrared or thermal infrared (TIR) hyperspectral imaging data acquired by airborne or spaceborne sensors is necessary for many scientific and defense applications. This process consists of two interwoven steps: atmospheric compensation and temperature–emissivity separation (TES). The most widely used TES algorithms for hyperspectral imaging data assume that the emissivity spectra for solids are smooth compared to the atmospheric transmission function. We develop a model to explain and evaluate the performance of TES algorithms using a smoothing approach. Based on this model, we identify three sources of error: the smoothing error of the emissivity spectrum, the emissivity error from using the incorrect temperature, and the errors caused by sensor noise. For each TES smoothing technique, we analyze the bias and variability of the temperature errors, which translate to emissivity errors. The performance model explains how the errors interact to generate temperature errors. Since we assume exact knowledge of the atmosphere, the presented results provide an upper bound on the performance of TES algorithms based on the smoothness assumption.
A computationally fast multimodal optimization with push enabled genetic algorithm

Multimodal optimization problems have landscape with multiple global/local optima and the task of a multimodal-optimization algorithm is to locate these optimal points. Population based approaches like genetic algorithms have been successfully implemented to find these optimal points in single run. Techniques adopted by these solvers usually attempt at segregating the population into multiple clusters through a modified selection operator. Due to multimodality, relatively more computational effort in terms of number of function evaluations is required to converge at multiple peaks. In one of the recent studies, a non-uniform mapping approach for binary-coded variables was proposed to attain faster convergence in single-objective unimodal problems. This non-uniform mapping approach acts as a push-operator for genetic algorithms with real-coded variables. In this work, we implement push-operator along with a niching algorithm to solve multimodal optimization problems. Results show significant reduction in the number of function evaluations to reach mostly all optimal points of certain benchmark problems. The work also encourages implementation of push-operator in other evolutionary algorithms.
Pediatric obesity-related curricular content and training in dental schools and dental hygiene programs: systematic review and recommendations

Objectives The authors conducted a systematic review to determine: a) What dental schools and dental hygiene programs are doing to promote knowledge and skills related to addressing childhood obesity and to reduce consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and b) What else these schools and programs could do to better equip future oral health professionals to address childhood obesity and reduce consumption of SSBs. Methods The authors searched PubMed, Scopus, Education Full Text (EBSCOHost), and ERIC (EBSCOHost) to identify peer-reviewed publications reporting on obesity or dietetic-related curricula in dental and dental hygiene education within the last 20 years. Three studies met inclusion and exclusion criteria. Outcomes of the identified studies were abstracted and summarized independently by two investigators. Results The first study describes a 2009 survey of pediatric dentistry residents. Approximately, half had received formal training yet they lacked essential knowledge or skills for managing children who were obese. The second study describes nutrition-related coursework offered in the second year of a predoctoral dental school curriculum in Saudi Arabia, and the third study reports on the development of an “oral health rotation” dietetic internship in a pediatric dentistry clinic, in the context of interprofessional education (IPE). Conclusions Evidence of dental schools' and dental hygiene programs' efforts to address obesity and SSB consumption in children in their curricula is scant, while Commission on Dental Accreditation standards make sporadic mentions of diet and nutrition. Opportunities exist to leverage existing resources and innovative, experiential approaches, including IPE, to formally, and effectively address this important issue in predoctoral oral health education.
Patients with Disabilities: Avoiding Unconscious Bias When Discussing Goals of Care.

False assumptions about patients' quality of life can affect prognosis, the treatment options that we present, and the types of referrals that we offer. In this case, the physician equated complex disability with terminal illness.
The effect of beta-turn structure on the passive diffusion of peptides across Caco-2 cell monolayers.

Purpose. To investigate the relationships between the β-turn structure of a peptide and its passive diffusion across Caco-2 cell monolayers, an in vitro model of the intestinal mucosa. Methods. Linear hydrophilic peptides (Ac-TyrProXaaZaaVal-NH2; Xaa = Gly, Ile and Zaa = Asp, Asn) and hydrophobic (Ac-YaaPro-XaaIleVal-NH2; Yaa = Tyr, Phe and Xaa = Gly, Ile: and Ac-PhePro-XaaIle-NH2; Xaa = Gly, He) peptides were synthesized and their effective permeability coefficients (Peff) were determined across Caco-2 cell monolayers. The lipophilicities of the peptides were estimated by measuring their partition coefficients (Po/w) between 1-octanol and HBSS. Two-dimensional NMR (2D-NMR) spectroscopy and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy was used to determine the solution structures of these model peptides. Results. Using 2D-NMR spectroscopy and CD spectroscopy, the hydrophilic Gly-containing peptides (Ac-TyrProGlyZaaVal-NH2; Zaa = Asp, Asn) were shown to exhibit a higher degree of β-turn structure in solution than the Ile-containing peptides (Ac-TyrProIleZaaVal-NH2; Zaa = Asp, Asn). CD spectroscopy was used to show that the Gly-containing hydrophobic peptides (Ac-YaaProGlyIleVal-NH2; Yaa = Tyr, Phe: and Ac-PheProGlyIle-NH2) exhibited a higher degree of β-turn structure in solution than the Ile-containing hydrophobic peptides. The Peff values of all four hydrophilic peptides across unperturbed Caco-2 cell monolayers were very low and no statistically significant differences were observed between the Gly- and Ile-containing penta-peptides within either the Asp or Asn series. The Peff values for the hydrophobic Gly-containing peptides were significantly greater than the Peff values determined for their Ile-containing counterparts. The Gly-containing penta- and tetrapeptides in the Phe series, which exhibited high permeation, were shown to be metabolically unstable. In contrast, the Gly- and Ile-containing pentapeptides in the Tyr series and the Ile-containing penta- and tetrapeptides in the Phe series, which exhibited low permeation, were metabolically stable. Conclusions. Hydrophobic peptides that exhibit significant β-turn structure in solution are more lipophilic as measured by log Po/w and more readily permeate Caco-2 cell monolayers via the transcellular route than hydrophobic peptides that lack this type of solution structure. The ability of these peptides to permeate Caco-2 cell monolayers via the transcellular route also exposed them to metabolism, presumably by cytosolic endopeptidases. Similar secondary structural features in hydrophilic peptides do not appear to sufficiently alter the physicochemical properties fo the peptides so as to alter their paracellular flux through unperturbed Caco-2 cell monolayers.
Some Aspects of Empiricism and Empirical Knowledge

Though it might seem unusual to postpone a discussion of empiricism until after a discussion of Kant, there is a simple reason for doing so. Hegel himself addresses a, if not the, fundamental presupposition of Modern empiricism in the first chapter of the Phenomenology, “Sense-Certainty”: the thesis that we are capable of non-conceptual cognitive apprehension of objects.1 Section II of this chapter discusses this doctrine along with its two main purposes, indicates some of the twentieth-century adherents of these doctrines, and defers thorough analysis of the topic to an analysis of the “Sense-Certainty” chapter—a project lying beyond the bounds of the present study. Despite this deferral, several reflexive problems for empiricism are implied by the questions (discussed above in Chapter One) Hegel raises in the Introduction to the Phenomenology. The gist of the issue is: Can Empiricism be known to be true on empiricist grounds? This issue is discussed in section III of this chapter after considering several formulations of principles of empiricism. Section IV expounds Carnap’s empiricism, for he offers a direct solution (or dissolution) of the problems posed in sections II and III by adopting a liberalized notion of observation and a syntactical construal of the principle of empiricism, a construal rendering that principle non-cognitive and so avoiding the reflexive challenge posed by Hegel. I argue in section V that Carnap’s program fails to replace epistemology with the logic of science and fails to undercut the issue of epistemological realism and so neither handles nor avoids the problems Hegel addresses.2
Our Experience of Tense

Wholly apart from its manifestation in human language, the reality of tense is experienced by us in a variety of ways which are so evident and so pervasive that the belief in the objective reality of past, present, and future and in the passage of time is a universal feature of human experience. Phenomenological analyses of temporal consciousness carried out by philosophers have emphasized the centrality of A-determinations to our experience of time. In his classic phenomenology of time consciousness, Edmund Husserl described our experience of time in terms of retentions of the past and protentions of the future, both anchored in the “now.” We experience on the one hand a sort of “flowing away” (Ablaufsphanomene) consisting of the recession of experience from the “now” into the past: “...this now apprehension is, as it were, the nucleus of a comet’s tail of retentions referring to the earlier now-points of the motion.”1 But we also protend the future in that we anticipate and live toward that which is to come. The transformation of now-consciousness to consciousness of the past and its replacement by a new now-consciousness, says Husserl, “is part of the essence of time consciousness.”2 Thus, our differing attitudes toward the past and future, as well as our apprehension of temporal becoming are constitutive of time consciousness: ”The immanent contents are what they are only so far as during their ‘actual’ duration they refer ahead to something futural and back to something past.... In each primal phase which primordially constitutes the immanent content we have retentions of the preceding and protentions of the coming phases of precisely this content....” 3
Financial Institutions in Economic Development

The sociology of financing development examines the institutions that shape the development of firms and nations—particularly in emerging markets. The principal institutions of the financial system are capital markets and banks that make loans to firms and to nations. In this context sociological research has focused on financial power by examining the organization of, interlocking between, and relations among various institutional forms (e.g., conglomerate), types of banks (foreign, state-owned), and bank–client relations in business development. Cross-national comparisons of economic histories, ideologies, and political systems have deepened the understanding of financing of development. More recently, economic sociologists have been challenged to examine the relations among traditional (banks and securities markets) and newer financial intermediaries (venture capital) to national and regional markets.
Ecological response of nitrification to oil spills and its impact on the nitrogen cycle

Marine oil spills are catastrophic events that cause massive damage to ecosystems at all trophic levels. While most of the research has focused on carbon-degrading microorganisms, the potential impacts of hydrocarbons on microbes responsible for nitrification have received far less attention. Nitrifiers are sensitive to hydrocarbon toxicity: ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and archaea being 100 and 1000 times more sensitive than typical heterotrophs respectively. Field studies have demonstrated the response of nitrifiers to hydrocarbons is highly variable and the loss of nitrification activity in coastal ecosystems can be restored within 1-2 years, which is much shorter than the typical recovery time of whole ecosystems (e.g., up to 20 years). Since the denitrification process is mainly driven by heterotrophs, which are more resistant to hydrocarbon toxicity than nitrifiers, the inhibition of nitrification may slow down the nitrogen turnover and increase ammonia availability, which supports the growth of oil-degrading heterotrophs and possibly various phototrophs. A better understanding of the ecological response of nitrification is paramount in predicting impacts of oil spills on the nitrogen cycle under oil spill conditions, and in improving current bioremediation practices.
Living With Aphasia: Realities, Challenges, and Opportunities

Purpose This article addresses the issues related to the lack of awareness and availability of resources for people living with aphasia. Aphasia as a chronic condition impacts all aspects of a pers...
Quantifying weathering profiles of environmental contaminants from marine and coastal oil spills using signal processing techniques

Complex mixtures such as crude oil consist of hundreds of contaminants, which manifest as peaks in the raw instrument signals from analytical technology such as gas chromatography (GC), mass spectrometry (MS) and combinations thereof. Many of these contaminants, such as alkyl naphthalenes, are well-known for their toxicity to aquatic animals and humans. This poses a risk to public and environmental health as these types of compounds can persist in marine and coastal environments in varying degrees after a major oil spill such as the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, in April 2010. We propose a general approach towards peak feature extraction from the raw instrument signal for identifying well-known (target) and unknown (non-target) toxic contaminants in crude petroleum. Specifically, we present computational methods for determination of weathering profiles of different chemical contaminants commonly found in the ocean in the aftermath of oil spills. Proposed autonomous quantification of large-scale weathering profiles across a wide variety of marine pollutants will enable apportioning the long-term impact of off-shore drilling and oil spills to public and environmental health and safety.
NK cells in treated HIV-infected children display altered phenotype and function.

Background Chronic HIV infection is known to trigger a population redistribution and alteration in the functional capacity of natural killer (NK) cells. Because of improved antiretroviral treatments, there are rising numbers of adolescents and young adults worldwide who are living with HIV infection since birth. Objective We sought to determine how NK-cell phenotypic and functional subsets are altered in treated pediatric patients. Methods NK cells were contrasted among 29 HIV-unexposed and uninfected controls (5-19 years), 23 HIV-exposed but uninfected patients (3-19 years), and 25 HIV-infected patients (3-19 years) using multiparametric flow cytometry. Results Although most NK-cell markers did not differ, activating receptors such as NKp46, DNAX accessory molecule-1, and NKG2C and stimulatory receptors such as CD2 and CD11c were expressed by a higher frequency of NK cells in HIV-infected patients than in controls. Interestingly, there were less differences between HIV-infected and HIV-exposed but uninfected children. There was an inverse relationship between CD4/CD8 T-cell ratio (as a marker of disease progression) and CD11c and NKG2C frequency and CD69 upregulation on stimulation among HIV-infected patients. Conclusions A chronic NK-cell activation phenotype persists in HIV-infected children receiving antiretroviral therapy and is associated with declining CD4/CD8 T-cell ratios. A lower CD4/CD8 T-cell ratio was associated with higher baseline granzyme B (P = .0068; R2 = 0.29) and degranulation potential (P = .022; R2 = 0.22) in stimulated NK cells. Thus, NK cells in HIV-infected children receiving treatment have reduced functional potential and an activated phenotype that distinguishes them from uninfected children.
Progress in Human-Robot Collaboration for Object Handover

This paper reviews the experimental work being accomplished in the broad field of human-robot collaboration (HRC) for object handover. Three fields of research are reviewed: sensor integration and interfacing, robot feedback communications with noise reduction, and how safety can be incorporated into these systems. In various stuides, methods of robot sensing are achieved through sensors, such as physical, visual/audible, and wearable. A robot can be initiated to complete a desired physical task such as object handover according to the sensors information. Once a robot is initiated for a handover, the robot should interpret the handover variables through compatible communication devices. These devices must be equipped with maximum data noise suppression capabilities. Noise will change the signal pattern and the encoded information which reduces the credibility of the data. This leads to environments that are potentially unsafe for both the human and the robot. With appropriate sensors, adequate communication, and safety concerns combined, an efficient object-handover may be implemented to increase workstation performance.
Community College Faculty Perspectives Regarding Quantway

ABSTRACTCommunity colleges have been under increasing pressure to devise alternate math pathways to the traditional sequence of developmental math classes. Considering the important role faculty pl...