cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Eye movements during visual mental imagery

It has long been debated whether eye movements play a functional role in visual mental imagery. A recent paper by Laeng and Teodorescu presents new evidence that eye movements are stored as a spatial index that is used to arrange the component parts correctly when mental images are generated.
A call to action for evidence‐based safer conception interventions for HIV‐affected couples desiring children in Sub‐Saharan Africa

resolved and the follow-up period was two months. Both adolescents had no history of diabetes, smoking, sexual activity, or corticosteroid/contraceptive use. The age of menarche in both girls was 11 years. Predisposing factors for mastitis and breast abscess include skin lesions, mammary duct ectasia, trauma related to sexual foreplay, nipple piercing, and shaving or plucking periareolar hair [3,4]. None of these factors was identified in the cases described. Breast malignancy, tuberculosis, and protozoal and fungal infections are differential diagnoses for mastitis [3]. In both cases, management with oral antibiotic therapy and ultrasound-guided needle aspiration was successful. Surgical drainage should be reserved for unresolved cases following aspiration. This is especially valid for adolescents as surgery may affect the breast bud, resulting in impaired breast development [3]. Conflict of interest
Reducing Weight Undertraining in Structured Discriminative Learning

Discriminative probabilistic models are very popular in NLP because of the latitude they afford in designing features. But training involves complex trade-offs among weights, which can be dangerous: a few highly-indicative features can swamp the contribution of many individually weaker features, causing their weights to be undertrained. Such a model is less robust, for the highly-indicative features may be noisy or missing in the test data. To ameliorate this weight undertraining, we introduce several new feature bagging methods, in which separate models are trained on subsets of the original features, and combined using a mixture model or a product of experts. These methods include the logarithmic opinion pools used by Smith et al. (2005). We evaluate feature bagging on linear-chain conditional random fields for two natural-language tasks. On both tasks, the feature-bagged CRF performs better than simply training a single CRF on all the features.
Switched linear systems on time scales with relaxed commutativity constraints

A fundamental stability result for arbitrarily switched linear systems in continuous time assumes that the set of system coefficient matrices are commutative with one another. This result was recently generalized to include arbitrarily switched linear system on arbitrary time scales T, with additional constraints imposed upon the graininess of the time scales. In the following analysis we explore the case when pairs of switched systems are non-commutative by visualizing the space of common Lyapunov solutions graphically. We deduce that there are cases in which a common Lyapunov solution exists for a non-commutative switched system if the time scale graininess is limited to some upper bound1.
Mobility‐Tenure Decisions and Financial Credit: Do Mortgage Qualification Requirements Constrain Homeownership?

Housing analysts have generally assumed that mortgage qualification requirements significantly constrain homownership, however there has been no empirical evidence of this effect. By explicitly modeling and estimating the impact of mortgage qualification requirements on households' mobility and tenure decisions, this paper provides the first empirical evidence of the effect of these criteria on homeownership. The estimation results suggest that in 1986, mortgage qualification criteria did not provide a large constraint on homeownership. However, they also show that the impact of these criteria increases as the flow costs of owning decrease relative to those of renting. This implies that the nationwide significance of these constraints will vary with fluctuations in the macro economy, and that policies designed to limit the effect of these requirements will be more successful in economic environments favorable to homeownership.
The 2009 Feinberg Lecture The Continuum of Stroke Research and Policy

Background and Purpose— This annual Feinberg Award lecture is intended to present examples of the broad scope of stroke-related research and to show how different investigative approaches can advance the field to improve stroke patient’s outcomes. In keeping with one of the objectives of the American Heart/American Stroke Association, this lecture also provides a perspective and highlights opportunities for beginning clinical investigators. Summary of Report— Clinically, the continuum of stroke research and care can be divided into primary prevention, acute interventions, secondary prevention, and poststroke recovery. From a technical/methodological standpoint, fundamental laboratory studies yield insights into basic disease mechanisms and applied laboratory studies further explore the biological basis of disease and evaluate possible therapeutic interventions. The results of these laboratory-based observations can inform clinical study design whereas questions raised by clinical observations can be explo...
Magnetization-transfer measurements of individual rate constants in the presence of multiple reactions

Abstract Magnetization-transfer techniques, such as saturation or inversion transfer, are extremely useful methods for measuring chemical-exchange rate constants which are comparable to spin-lattice relaxation rate constants of the exchanging spins. Although such determinations are relatively simple for a two-site exchange case, complications arise when multisite exchanges are involved. This severely restricts the applicability of this type of measurement, especially in whole cells and tissues where many reactants are utilized by more than one enzyme. In this paper, it is shown that a multisite exchange problem can first be reduced effectively to a two-site exchange, and a single rate constant can subsequently be measured simply and unequivocally. Application of this procedure to equilibrium and nonequilibrium chemical-exchange problems are discussed.
Leader-Member Exchange Model of Leadership: A Critique and Further Development

Following a review of literature on the leader-member exchange model of leadership, the model's methodological and theoretical problems are discussed. First, it is argued that leader-member exchange is a multidimensional construct and should be measured accordingly. Second, it is noted that the leader-member exchange developmental process has not been fully explicated. In addressing these problems, a three dimensional conceptualization of the leader-member exchange construct is proposed and a model of the leader-member exchange developmental process is presented.
Power-adaptation strategies for DS/CDMA communications with successive interference cancellation in Nakagami-fading channels

In this paper, power adaptation for direct-sequence code-division multiple-access communications that employs a successive interference cancellation (SIC) receiver is considered. The transmission power is adapted so that, with the channel variations, the received power levels of each user have appropriate disparities. Under the constraint of average transmission power, we consider two strategies in adjusting the disparity between received signal powers. With the first strategy, the average bit-error rate (BER) for a given user averaged over channel fading statistics is minimized, while with the other, the instantaneous BER is equal for all users. We find that the performance difference between the two strategies becomes negligible as the average transmission power or line-of-sight component increases. We also discuss the impact of appropriate disparity in received power levels on the BER performance of SIC receivers.
Retroactive and proactive inhibition in young and elderly adults using an unpaced modified free recall test.

The role of interference as an age-related variable in RI and PI as a function of anticipation interval and transfer paradigm was studied by employing different transfer paradigms (A-B, A-C; A-B, C-B; A-B, C-D), and by varying the anticipation interval (2 sec. or 4 sec.). 60 young (M = 27.42 yr.) and 60 elderly adults (M = 68.73 yr.) learned 2 lists of paired adjectives to an 8/8 criterion and then recalled the lists by means of a written modified method of free recall. Significant age differences in RI and PI were found, with the old Ss showing disproportionately more RI under the 2-sec. A-B, A-C high interference condition. Neither anticipation interval nor transfer paradigm contributed to age differences in PI. Results indicated that adult age differences in RI and PI as measured by the unpaced modified free-recall procedure essentially agree with those in RI and PI studies using relearning and paced recall tests.
Spurious results of EFIE and CFIE applied to dielectric/optical waveguides

It is proven that the surface Electric Field Integral Equation (EFIE) has a non-unique solution when applied to a dielectric waveguide of arbitrary cross section. The Method of Moments (MOM) is used to numerically solve the EFIE applied to an optical fiber of arbitrary cross section. The fiber is assumed to consist of a dielectric core of arbitrary cross section surrounded by an infinite dielectric cladding. The numerical results for a circular fiber verify the existence of spurious results. On the other hand, no spurious results were observed when the surface Combined Field Integral Equation (CFIE) was used to solve the problem of an optical fiber of arbitrary cross section. However, it can be proven that spurious results may exist when CFIE is applied to a fiber with hollow core. The core may have one or more air tubes. Numerical results verified this claim when CFIE is applied to a circular coaxial dielectric waveguide that consists of a circular core with one or two circular air holes.
Courage as identity work: : accounts of workplace courage

This study focuses on the intersection of identity dynamics and workplace courage. I examine accounts of courage submitted by business professionals and articulate the identity processes underlying the accounts. The narratives illustrate four storylines that reflect four distinct forms of courage and one storyline that reflects a lack of courage. In the accounts, identity tensions precipitate courageous acts, and courage-based identity work is used to reconcile the tensions. The findings suggest that in accounts of workplace courage, courageous behavior is viewed as an important form of identity work that helps individuals to minimize incongruities between their self- and social identities.
Adenosine-mediated synaptic inhibition: Partial blockade by barium does not prevent anti-epileptiform activity

Adenosine-induced inhibition of evoked postsynaptic potentials (PSPs) and epileptiform burst firing in the CA1 subfield of rat hippocampal slices was studied with intracellular recordings in vitro. Adenosine (50 μM) caused a membrane hyperpolarization which was abolished during superfusion with 2 mM Ba2+. The adenosine-induced inhibition of the PSPs was still evident, although the magnitude of the effect was significanty reduced. Adenosine also reduced Ba2+-induced burst firing, but less effectively than it did bursts evoked by TEA (5 mM). The results suggest that adenosine inhibits synaptic transmission and epileptiform activity by at least 2 mechanisms: a postsynaptic barium-sensitive increase in gK and a presynaptic effect independent of this adenosine-evoked outward potassium conductance. © Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Parallel solutions of very large sparse Lyapunov equations by balanced BBD decompositions

In this paper, a method for the parallel solution of large sparse matrix equations is presented. The method is based on the balanced bordered block diagonal (BBD) decomposition which is applied in conjunction with the successive over-relaxation (SOR) iterative method to solve large Lyapunov equations in the Kronecker sum representation. A variety of experimental results will be presented, including solutions of Lyapunov equations with matrices as large as 1993/spl times/1993.
Measuring and Detecting Molecular Adaptation in Codon Usage Against Nonsense Errors During Protein Translation

Codon usage bias (CUB) has been documented across a wide range of taxa and is the subject of numerous studies. While most explanations of CUB invoke some type of natural selection, most measures of CUB adaptation are heuristically defined. In contrast, we present a novel and mechanistic method for defining and contextualizing CUB adaptation to reduce the cost of nonsense errors during protein translation. Using a model of protein translation, we develop a general approach for measuring the protein production cost in the face of nonsense errors of a given allele as well as the mean and variance of these costs across its coding synonyms. We then use these results to define the nonsense error adaptation index (NAI) of the allele or a contiguous subset thereof. Conceptually, the NAI value of an allele is a relative measure of its elevation on a specific and well-defined adaptive landscape. To illustrate its utility, we calculate NAI values for the entire coding sequence and across a set of nonoverlapping windows for each gene in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae S288c genome. Our results provide clear evidence of adaptation to reduce the cost of nonsense errors and increasing adaptation with codon position and expression. The magnitude and nature of this adaptation are also largely consistent with simulation results in which nonsense errors are the only selective force driving CUB evolution. Because NAI is derived from mechanistic models, it is both easier to interpret and more amenable to future refinement than other commonly used measures of codon bias. Further, our approach can also be used as a starting point for developing other mechanistically derived measures of adaptation such as for translational accuracy.
CARDIAC MR IMAGE SEGMENTATION WITH INCOMPRESSIBILITY CONSTRAINT

Automatic segmentation of the left ventricle (LV) from cardiac images remains an open problem. While current methods are already sufficient to outline endocardial (ENDO) surface automatically, these methods are problematic for finding reliable epicardial (EPI) surfaces. It is mainly due to the low myocardium/background contrast. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm that is motivated by the approximate incompressibility of myocardium during a cardiac cycle and takes it as an important constraint. We design in a probabilistic framework a deformable model that evolves according to the regional intensity distribution while maintaining the volume of myocardium. Experiments on 225 sets of volumetric cardiac MR images validate the accuracy and robustness of this method
Ion beam scattering by ion-acoustic turbulence

Measurements are reported of the attenuation of an ion beam in a multidipole double-plasma (DP) device. In addition to charge-exchange collisions of the beam ions with the gas atoms, ion scattering by the three-dimensional turbulence produced by the beam itself is found to contribute significantly to the beam attenuation.
Androgyny and rhetorical sensitivity: The connection of gender and communicator style

As currently conceptualized, both gender and communicator style can be described as the product of many small behaviors that individuals enact throughout the day, as well as filters for interpreting and making sense of human behavior. This study examined whether gender can be expressed productively through communicator style. Both categorical and continuous versions of each of these variables were obtained from survey data using the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) (Bem, 1974) and the RHETSEN scale (Hart, Carlson, & Eadie, 1980). After taking into account the tendency for the diverse individuals included in this sample to respond with high levels on both masculine and feminine items, results generally showed that Rhetorically Sensitive communicators tended to be non‐differentiated in gender role, Noble Selves were more likely to be masculine, and Rhetorical Reflectors were androgynous. BSRI scores suggest that people may now accept the desirability of androgyny and flexibility in gender‐based characteristics...
Design Space of Foil Bearings for Closed Loop Supercritical CO2 Power Cycles Based on Three-Dimensional Thermo-Hydrodynamic Analyses

The closed loop Brayton cycle with super critical CO2 (S-CO2) as an operating fluid is an attractive alternative to conventional power cycles due to very high power density. Foil gas bearings using CO2 is the most promising for small S-CO2 turbomachinery but there are many problems to address; large power loss due to high flow turbulence, lack of design/analysis tool due to non-ideal gas behavior, and lack of load capacity when they are used for large systems.This paper presents high level design/analysis tool involving three-dimensional thermo-hydrodynamic analyses of radial foil bearings considering real gas effect and flow turbulence inside the film. Simulations are performed for radial foil bearing with 34.9mm in diameter lubricated with CO2 and N2 under various ambient conditions up to above 40 bar gauge pressure. The simulation results using the turbulence model still under-predict the measured data in open literature. However, the error between the prediction and measurements decreases as either speed or ambient pressure increases. In addition, general behavior of substantial increase in power loss with ambient pressure agrees with the measured data. The simulation results indicate the importance of detailed THD analysis of the foil bearings for prediction of power loss under severe turbulent condition.A conceptual layout of rotor system for 10MWe S-CO2 loop is also presented along with realistic rotor weight and bearing load. A hybrid foil bearings with diameter of 102mm is suggested for gas generator rotor, and its power losses and minimum film thicknesses at various operating conditions are presented.Copyright © 2015 by ASME
An extraction approach to borderline tooth size to arch length problems in patients with satisfactory profiles

Abstract Patients with mild to moderate tooth size to arch length discrepancies(TSALD), and profiles on the full side of the satisfactory range ("borderline" patients), can be treated with the extraction of premolars without a detrimental effect on the face. Pre- and posttreatment facial photographs of 51 consecutively treated four second premolar extraction patients were judged by 95 laypersons. Their assessment was that the "mouth area" of these patients was improved or not adversely affected 92% of the time. The stability of borderline patients treated with extractions of premolars was determined to be well within clinically accepted standards (
Endemic asthma inhaler abuse among antisocial adolescents

Background:Approximately 40 million prescriptions were dispensed in the U.S. for asthma inhalers in 2006. Although the pervasive distribution of asthma inhalers warrants greater attention to possible misuse of these products, few investigations have examined asthma inhaler misuse. The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence, correlates and consequences of asthma inhaler misuse among antisocial youth. Method:A cross-sectional survey with face-to-face interviews assessing substance use, psychiatric symptoms, and antisocial behaviors among adolescents (N=723) in residential treatment. Results:More than 26% (N=193) of youth were diagnosed with asthma; 91.2% of asthmatic youth had received a prescription for an inhaler. Of the 373 youth who had used a prescribed or non-prescribed asthma inhaler, 23.6% (N=88) reported using an inhaler to get high (i.e., were inhaler misusers). Asthma inhaler misusers had an earlier onset of antisocial conduct, significantly greater levels of current psychiatric distress and lifetime suicidality, higher rates of lifetime substance use problems and volatile solvent abuse, and significantly higher levels of temperamental impulsivity and fearlessness than did inhaler non-users or users. Caucasian racial status, current level of psychiatric distress, and lifetime volatile solvent abuse significantly distinguished lifetime asthma inhaler users and misusers in multivariate logistic regression analyses. Asthma inhaler misusers were significantly more likely to report euphoria, memory problems, slurred speech, blurred vision, confusion, dizziness, and a variety of other acute reactions to asthma inhaler use than were asthma inhaler users. Conclusions:Asthma inhaler misuse for the purposes of getting high was prevalent among antisocial youth, co-occurred with other psychiatric and substance use problems, and was associated with adverse consequences. © 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Fine-Scale Morphology of Tubeworm Slump, Monterey Canyon

Multibeam bathymetry and chirp seismic reflection profiles collected using an autonomous underwater vehicle reveal the morphology and shallow seafloor structure of Tubeworm Slump on the flank of Monterey Canyon at an unprecedented resolution. The data show smaller subsidiary deformation above the headwall, on the headwall, within the sediment drape that covers the sole of the slide, and on the sidewall of Monterey Canyon below Tubeworm Slump. The AUV data indicate that the existing slump scar represents a composite of gravity-driven deformation generated by multiple failure events.
Symposium: Post-Zoning: Alternative Forms of Public Land Use Controls

Brooklyn Law School’s 2012 David G. Trager Public Policy Symposium, "Post-Zoning: Alternative Forms of Public Land Use Controls," called for a critical new appraisal of modern land use regulation. Over the years, zoning has widened its reach and flexibility through innovations such as overlay districts and planned unit developments. But these regulatory tweaks continue to take the separation of incompatible land uses as their point of departure. In this Introduction, we sketch zoning’s origins and suggest why its traditional goals may no longer be tenable. New challenges, from finer-grained externalities within communities to sea-level rise, demand that zoning respond to change at broader and narrower scales. The impressive set of papers collected in the Symposium address, in varied and creative ways, zoning’s ability to adapt to new pressures on land use from sublocal to global. Included in this issue are papers by Vicki Been, Alejandro Camacho, Richard Epstein, Lee Fennell, William Fischel, Nicole Garnett, Rachel Godsil, Gerald Korngold, John Nolon, and Stewart Sterk.
Cross-cutting Messages and Voter Turnout: Evidence from a Same-Sex Marriage Amendment

Does disagreement stimulate political participation, or discourage it? Some researchers find that exposure to cross-cutting views demobilizes voters. Selection bias in the way individuals expose themselves to disagreement and other sources of endogeneity pose challenges to causal inference. I address these concerns by using an experimental design that exogenously assigns cross-cutting or reinforcing messages. A random sample of North Carolina Democrats and Republicans received postcards summarizing either liberal or conservative opinions on a statewide same-sex marriage amendment. I find that individuals exposed to disagreement demobilize by 1.0 to 1.6 percentage points, with the majority of the combined effect attributable to a 2.0-percentage point decrease in turnout among Republicans receiving a Democratic message. I observe a similar level of demobilization when defining disagreement on the basis of predicted issue position on same-sex marriage in place of partisan affiliation. The effects are stronge...
Depleted interstitial cells of Cajal and fibrosis in the pylorus: Novel features of gastroparesis.

Background Depletion and ultrastructural changes of interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) in the gastric body and antrum have been observed in gastroparesis. This research was performed to investigate the ICC population in the muscularis propria and fibrosis of the muscular layer of the pylorus in gastroparesis. Methods Full thickness pyloric and antral biopsies were obtained from 17 gastroparetic and 6 non-gastroparetic controls. Biopsies were stained with C-Kit for ICC and Trichrome for collagen fibrosis. Interstitial cells of Cajal depletion in the antrum was defined as mean ICC count <10 per 20 high power fields (HPF) based on established data. Key Results The average pyloric ICC count was ≥10/HPF in the control patients. Twelve (70.5%) gastroparetic patients had pyloric ICC loss. Only five patients (29.4%) had ICC loss in the antrum. Gastric emptying (GE) was not significantly different in patients with depleted vs normal pyloric ICC. However, GE at 2 h was slower in patients with antral ICC <10/HPF compared to those with normal antral ICC populations. Collagen fibrosis was observed in the pylorus of 14 (82.3%) patients. Inclusion bodies in the muscularis propria of the pylorus were identified in four patients, all with diabetic gastroparesis. Conclusions & Inferences In gastroparetic patients, ICC loss in the pylorus is twice as common as in the antrum and fibrosis in the pyloric smooth muscle is nearly three times more common than the antrum. These findings can provide one explanation for pyloric dysfunction which is a contributing factor to the pathophysiology of gastroparesis.
Lifelong learning is central to the practice of public relations and communications management

Remarks by Maria P. Russell, delivered on Saturday, October 18, 2014 at the Autumn Gala Dinner of the Master of Communications Management program, which is offered in partnership between McMaster and Syracuse Universities. Russell was the founder of the Master of Science of Communications Management at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse Uniersity and has been its director for twenty years. The author discusses her long career in public relations, as a practitioner, academic and active professional association member. She discusses five trends that Richard Edelman, chairman of Edelman Public Relations has put forward. Russell finishes the speech with a quote from Ann Lamott ©Journal of Professional Communication, all rights reserved.
Parameter choices for a muon recirculating linear accelerator from 5 to 63 GeV

A recirculating linear accelerator (RLA) has been proposed to accelerate muons from 5 to 63 GeV for a muon collider. It should be usable both for a Higgs factory and as a stage for a higher energy collider. First, the constraints due to the beam loading are computed. Next, an expression for the longitudinal emittance growth to lowest order in the longitudinal emittance is worked out. After finding the longitudinal expression, a simplified model that describes the arcs and their approximate expression for the time of flight dependence on energy in those arcs is found. Finally, these results are used to estimate the parameters required for the RLA arcs and the linac phase.
Parathyroid 4D CT and Scintigraphy: What Factors Contribute to Missed Parathyroid Lesions?

ObjectiveTo determine the prevalence of missed lesions for parathyroid 4-dimensional computed tomography (4D CT) and scintigraphy and to describe the factors leading to missed lesions for both modalities.Study DesignCase series with chart review.SettingSingle center, hospital based.Subjects and MethodsForty patients undergoing 4D CT and scintigraphy before parathyroidectomy between July 2009 and October 2013 were included. Radiology reports and imaging were reviewed and correlated with operative notes to identify cases with missed lesions and the reasons for those misses. All lesions were then classified according to the following factors: multigland disease, lesion size, patient body weight, and multinodular goiter.ResultsOf the 40 patients, 6 had multigland disease, resulting in 51 lesions; 12 and 29 lesions were missed on 4D CT and scintigraphy, respectively. The sensitivity for detection of all lesions was 76% for 4D CT and 43% for scintigraphy. Sensitivities for single-gland disease were 88% for 4D C...
BIM phosphorylation enhances its pro-apoptotic activity through down-regulation of the interaction with MCL-1

Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 47, 2006 4071 BIM, a pro-apoptotic “BH3-only” member of the BCL-2 family, is required for apoptosis induced by chemotherapeutic drugs (i.e. Taxol, dexamethasone, and Gleevec). For instance, BIM down-regulation by gene-targeting or small interfering RNA (siRNA) shows strong resistance to treatment with these drugs. This indicates that BIM could be a key regulator in anticancer therapy against human malignancies. In this study, we focus on the post-translational modification of BIM and its effect with other BCL-2 family members. We used HeLa cells to study the precise mechanisms of BIM-mediated apoptosis by Taxol treatment. Down regulation of BIM by siRNA improves cell viability, confirming its importance. Taxol treatment results in phosphorylation of BIM prior to the onset of apoptosis. Using pharmacological inhibitors, inhibition of Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) prevents BIM phosphorylation and reduces apoptosis, but the inhibition of extracellular signal-regulated kinase, p38-mitogen activated protein kinase or phosphoinositide 3-kinase has no effect. Transient expression of non-phosphorylatable mutations (Ser100, Thr112 and Ser114) eradicates the phosphorylation-specific BIM band-shift on SDS-PAGE. Most importantly, non-phosphorylatable mutations significantly curtail taxol-induced apoptosis. After Taxol treatment, the BIM/ anti-apoptotic protein MCL-1 interaction is dramatically decreased and the BIM/ multi-domain pro-apoptotic effector Bax interaction is increased, although the localization and overall protein expression levels of these proteins are constant. In contrast, a non-phosphorylatable BIM mutant treated by Taxol does not show significant change of the interaction with MCL-1 and Bax. These results demonstrate that phosphorylation of BIM is required for down-regulating the interaction with MCL-1 and up-regulating the interaction with Bax, and this regulation enhances the pro-apoptotic activity of BIM. The mechanisms of Taxol-induced BIM phosphorylation and the interaction with other Bcl-2 family members provide new insights into BIM regulation and function.
Swimming Between: An examination of the Inherent Complexity within Social Justice

Classrooms tend to be absolute spaces, places where fluidity is rejected and nearly everything—from people, to ideas, to practices and policies—is viewed and organized through binary logic. Because binary logic is implicitly accepted as the natural order in schools and the structures resulting from it are highly unmalleable, individuals who differ from the norm are expected to assimilate and adapt so as not to disrupt the structure. Those who are too different from the norm to fit in or who refuse to accept the binary structure are viewed as problems and are often ostracized or blamed for disturbing the system. Even when evidence to dispute the binary logic emerges, such evidence is often ignored or rejected in favor of maintaining the status quo. As such, the need for educators with a social justice orientation is needed. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the process one teacher used to create inclusive spaces for students who identify with differences in order to develop a more cri...
Are dietitians prepared to work with handicapped infants? PL 99-457 offers new opportunities

PL 99-457 mandates nutrition as one of eight disciplines to be included on the team providing services to handicapped infants (up to age 3) and their families. A case-managed range of services is required to enable the child to benefit from early interventions. Findings from a survey of a sample of entry-level Plan IV/V Programs, Coordinated Programs in Dietetics, and dietetic internships randomly selected from The American Dietetic Association's 1988 Directory of Dietetic Programs indicate that the growth and development of handicapped infants and their nutrition care are underexposed in most didactic and experiential components of the education of entry-level dietitians. A working group of nine nutritionists with expertise in both dietetic education and nutrition care of handicapped children met at a national conference and recommended competencies that they thought would enable entry-level registered dietitians to join interdisciplinary teams working with handicapped infants and their families. Registered dietitians on the team that prepares the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) can strive to ensure that infants are well nourished and therefore more responsive to the other therapies proposed in the plan.
Professionalization, Policy, Performance Assessment and Privatization in Mathematics

This chapter reviews the particular affordances and constraints of the intersection of professionalization, policy, performance assessment, and privatization in a mathematics teacher education program as viewed through the lens of the secondary mathematics edTPA and its initial implementation in our adolescent (grades 7–12) teacher education program in New York. We begin with a discussion of pedagogy in mathematics and how observed pedagogy and other factors influenced the development of standards for curriculum and evaluation in mathematics as spearheaded by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). We then discuss how the development of the content area standards in mathematics led to the development of professional standards for mathematics teachers, along with standards for assessment, and an eventual revision of the original NCTM standards for curriculum and evaluation. This leads into a discussion of how these standards, incentivized by the NCTM, led to several mandatory policy initiatives, and might have influenced the development of the edTPA Next, we discuss the affordances and constraints of mandated, high-stakes performance assessment in mathematics teacher education as they become explicit in the first year of implementation in an urban teacher preparation program, where state policy mandated the edTPA performance assessment as a requirement for initial certification. Initial results, including pass rates, are reported, along with anecdotal data about students’ reactions to the program and its implementation of the edTPA, and their reactions to the edTPA itself.
Seirai Yūichi, translated by Paul Warham, Ground Zero, Nagasaki: Stories

It is a marvel that this collection of historically rich stories is comprised of works set in contemporary Nagasaki. Each of the six pieces takes the reader into the past, most often to 9 August 19...
Cash Flow Engineering and Forward Contracts

The chapter focuses on two main ideas. First, it considers the engineering aspects of future and forward contracts. Second, it develops the first contractual equation. This equation is manipulated to obtain synthetic loans, synthetic deposits, and synthetic spot transactions. A careful use of such contractual equations may provide useful techniques that are normally learned only after working in financial markets. All financial instruments can be visualized as bundles of cash flows. They are designed so that market participants can trade cash flows that have different characteristics and different risks. The chapter also illustrates concepts like synthetic, cash flows, forward contracts, currency forwards, synthetics and pricing, and uses many applications to explain these concepts.
Amorphous carbon at low densities: An ab initio study

Abstract In this paper, we present new computer models of low-density amorphous carbon, and study the structural, electronic and vibrational properties all based upon plane-wave density functional methods. The static structure factor and real space pair-correlation function is in agreement with available experimental data. We observe chains of sp bonded carbon in the models, along with sp 2 and sp 3 structures in varying concentrations. These models provide atomistic insight into the microstructure of the system, delineating variation in bonding ( s p 2 , s p 3 and s p ) preferences as a function of density. For these low densities, the vibrational density of states is computed for the first time, along with localization of modes and the specific heat with comparison to experiments. We contrast the amorphous three dimensional networks with amorphous graphene, which bears a striking similarity in the radial distribution functions, but shows a distinct signature in the vibrational density of states. The vibrational modes are analyzed and discussed, and animations of particularly interesting modes are provided as Supplementary Material. The modes are generally well extended, but are more complex than simple molecular pictures that are sometimes invoked, in some cases even revealing mixing among modes of different type.
Role of plasma adiponectin /C-reactive protein ratio in obesity and type 2 diabetes among African Americans.

Background: Obesity is a modifiable risk factor for hypertension and T2D. Objective(s): We examined relations between fasting plasma adiponectin (ADIP), C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations and markers of T2D in African Americans (AA). Methods: Fasting plasma ADIP, CRP, Insulin (IN), HOMA-IR, lipid profiles, body fat percent (%BF), waist circumference (WC), body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure measures were determined in AA women (W: n=77) and men (M: n=34). Participants were classified into: 1) Normal fasting glucose (FG) and Normal %BF; 2) Normal FG and High %BF; and 3) High FG. Results: Compared to men, women had significantly higher mean ADIP (W: 31.4±2.9 vs. M: 18.0±4.4 ng/L), CRP (W: 3.2±0.3 vs. M: 2.0±0.5 mg/L), %BF (W: 41.2±0.9 vs. M: 27.2±1.3), and BMI (W: 32.3±0.7 vs. M: 29.2±1.1 kg/m2). Women with normal FG and %BF had significantly higher ADIP (64.0±6.0) and lower CRP (1.3±0.6) concentrations than normal FG/ high %BF (ADIP: 37.0±5.0 and CRP: 3.1 0.5) and high FG (ADIP: 15.1±4.1 and CRP: 4.0 0.5) groups. Women with high ADIP to CRP ratio had favorable metabolic and anthropometric profiles. Conclusion: Low ADIP and high CRP are associated with excessive %BF and FG in AA women. ADIP/CRP, may be useful for detecting metabolic dysregulation. Keywords: Obesity, type 2 diabetes, inflammation
Complete Genome Sequences of Four Avian Paramyxoviruses of Serotype 10 Isolated from Rockhopper Penguins on the Falkland Islands.

ABSTRACT The first complete genome sequences of four avian paramyxovirus serotype 10 (APMV-10) isolates are described here. The viruses were isolated from rockhopper penguins on the Falkland Islands, sampled in 2007. All four genomes are 15,456 nucleotides in length, and phylogenetic analyses show them to be closely related.
Background and Related Work

Topic detection and tracking aims at extracting topics from a stream of textual information sources, or documents, and to quantify their “trend” in real time. These techniques apply on pieces of texts, i.e. posts, produced within social media platforms. Topic detection can produce two types of complementary outputs: cluster output or term output are selected and then clustered. In the first method, referred to as document-pivot , a topic is represented by a cluster of documents, whereas in the latter, commonly referred to as feature-pivot , a cluster of terms is produced instead. In the following, we review several popular approaches that fall in either of the two categories. Six state-of-the-art methods: Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) , Document-Pivot Topic Detection (Doc-p) , Graph-Based Feature-Pivot Topic Detection (GFeat-p) , Frequent Pattern Mining (FPM) , Soft Frequent Pattern Mining (SFPM) , BNgram are described in detail, as they serve as the performance benchmarks to the proposed system.
Transgender-Parent Families

Transgender-parent families develop their families within a context of systemic discrimination and marginalization. Because they transgress the heteronormative nuclear family ideal, transgender-parent families may uniquely destabilize traditional gender norms within family relationships. Drawing on interdisciplinary research and theory, the current chapter examines how discrimination may impact transgender parents, their partners, and their children. Attention is given to how the timing of “transitioning” for transgender parents influences individual and family development. Given the diversity of transgender identifications (e.g., male to female; female to male), the current chapter examines how different gender identifications of transgender parents may shape family formation. Lastly, focus is given to exploring how social location, with regard to variables such as race, socioeconomic status, and geographic location, may uniquely impact processes of transitioning as well as the experiences of transgender-parent families more broadly.
Cerebral Metabolic Abnormalities in Thiamine Deficiency

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses cerebral metabolic abnormalities in thiamine deficiency. Severe thiamine deprivation may affect the nervous system by causing peripheral neuropathy and Wernicke's encephalopathy. The latter disorder consists of ocular disturbances, ataxia, and impaired mental function. These changes seem to progress with time and are more easily reversible in the initial stages of the disorder. A second major mechanism for the pathogenesis of low thiamine encephalopathy assumes an abnormality in cerebral neurotransmitters. Decreased pyruvate decarboxylase activity may result in reduced production of acetyl CoA with subsequent decreased synthesis of cerebral acetylcholine. Decreased concentrations of acetyl CoA and acetylcholine have been reported in thiamine-deficient brain. The chapter describes a theory that stipulates that thiamine plays a direct role in nerve impulse conduction and is, therefore, necessary for normal neuronal electrical activity.
Animal models of toxic and metabolic sensory neuropathies

Peripheral neuropathies, excluding those caused by mechanical damage, are most commonly associated with infection, autoimmune disorders, and exposure to neurotoxins or metabolic disease. The sensory nervous system may be selectively damaged, as occurs in platinum toxicity, or there may be a more generalized sensorimotor neuropathy. Symptoms of sensory dysfunction range from sensory loss to inappropriate or exaggerated pain perception and a variety of sensory disorders may occur together or in chronological sequence. For example, while sensory loss is the predominant symptom of diabetic polyneuropathy, 5-10% of patients exhibit a painful neuropathy that may either precede or co-exist with sensory loss. Pain, paresthesias or dysesthesias are a common feature of many peripheral neuropathies but are difficult to quantify in animal models. It is particularly unfortunate that both leprosy and HIV have proven extremely difficult to model in animals that lend themselves to experimental studies of nociceptive processing. As a result, little is yet known of the mechanisms that produce these most prevalent of neuropathies. In recent years, sensory dysfunction has been described in animal models of chemical neurotoxicity and diabetes mellitus. Such models are of value as they allow investigation of the etiology of neuropathic pain and because they provide test systems in which to study potential therapeutic agents that may prevent or ameliorate neuropathic pain. In this chapter we will briefly consider the animal models of toxic neuropathies, which largely produce sensory loss, and then focus upon data obtained from the widely studied animal models of diabetic neuropathy.
A randomized controlled trial comparing two voiding trials after midurethral sling with or without colporrhaphy.

To compare the force of the stream (FOS) voiding trial with the standard voiding trial (SVT) after outpatient midurethral sling (MUS) whether or not colporrhaphy was performed. This is a randomized controlled non-inferiority trial of patients scheduled for MUS or colporrhaphy. Sample size of 102 patients was calculated for 80% power. Patients were randomized to FOS or SVT. Primary outcome was the number of unexpected postoperative visits (UPOVs) for voiding dysfunction (VD) or urinary tract infection (UTI). Voiding dysfunction was defined as urinary retention or post-void residual (PVR) > 200 cc. Subjects rated FOS using a visual analog scale (VAS). Criterion for non-inferiority was an upper limit of < 10% for the 95% CI. Analyses were performed using SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute. Cary, NC). One hundred two subjects were included (49 FOS, 53 SVT). Immediate postoperative catheterization for FOS and SVT was 8.2% (n = 4) and 9.4% (n = 5), respectively. Recovery time was significantly less for FOS versus SVT (p = 0.0002). Total UPOVs were five (10.2%) and two (3.8%) for FOS and SVT, respectively. Two FOS subjects who had MUS + colporrhaphy passed their VT and had subsequent UPOVs for VD. No evidence of non-inferiority was noted when comparing FOS to SVT for total UPOVs: CI: 6.0% (−5.2, 17.2) for postoperative VD [CI: 6.1% (−4.0, 16.2)] or UTIs [CI: 0.3% (−9.4, 10.1)]. No evidence of non-inferiority was noted comparing FOS with SVT for unexpected postoperative visits for voiding dysfunction or UTI. This study shows the need for larger studies to assess the use of the FOS method in patients undergoing surgery for prolapse with or without MUS.
Breast Cancer Outcomes in a Racially and Ethnically Diverse Cohort of Insured Women

Background: It is unknown how subse­quent breast cancer outcomes vary by bio­logic subtype and race/ethnicity in a diverse cohort of breast cancer survivors. Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study of 6,154 insured breast cancer survivors (AJCC TNM stages 0–IV) diagnosed between 1996-2007 and followed them through 1/1/2010 for subsequent breast cancer events (recurrence, contralateral breast cancer, metastasis, mortality). We compared subsequent breast cancer rates by race/ethnicity groups and biologic subtype (luminal A, luminal B, HER2-enriched, and triple negative). We calculated hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% CIs using multivariable Cox proportional hazards models, adjusted for sociodemographics, cancer treatments, and tumor characteristics. Results: The cohort was diverse: 62.4% non-Hispanic White, 13.2% Hispanic, 14.9% African American, and 9.5% Asian. We identified 1,456 subsequent breast cancer events over 22,830 person-years. Although certain Asian women had higher crude subsequent breast cancer rates com­pared with Whites, within each biologic subtype category, these disparities disap­peared in the multivariable analyses. After accounting for race/ethnicity, compared with women with luminal A tumors (refer­ence), women with luminal B (adjusted HR=3.65, 95% CI: 3.08-4.32), HER2- enriched (adjusted HR=2.81, 95% CI: 2.25-3.51) and triple negative (adjusted HR=1.25, 95% CI: 1.01-1.54) tumors had statistically increased risks of subsequent breast cancer. Factors that were statistically significantly associated with increased risk included higher stage, larger tumor size, positive lymph nodes, and no adjuvant endocrine or chemotherapy (all P <.025). Discussion: Our data suggest that dispari­ties in subsequent breast cancer outcomes were more strongly associated with tumor characteristics and non-use of adjuvant treatments than race/ethnicity. Ethn Dis. 2018;28(4):565-574; doi:10.18865/ed.28.4.565.
Cons: Should Sperm DNA Fragmentation Testing Be Used in Men with Varicocele?

The American Urology Association (AUA) and the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) recommend at least two semen analyses in the initial evaluation of the infertile male. However, a normal semen analysis does not necessarily indicate successful male fertility; indeed, there is great overlap in semen analysis results between fertile and infertile men. There exists an opportunity for new variables and diagnostic tests with greater sensitivity in diagnosing infertility factors, with the ultimate goal being targeted treatments to facilitate successful conception and live birth. Sperm DNA integrity assays have gained popularity as a possible tool to identify infertility. Measured as sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF), it is not currently recommended in the routine work-up for the infertile male, neither by the ASRM, the AUA, nor the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE).