cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Reliability and criterion validity of self-measured waist, hip, and neck circumferences.

Waist, hip, and neck circumference measurements are cost-effective, non-invasive, useful markers for body fat distribution and disease risk. For epidemiology and intervention studies, including body circumference measurements in self-report surveys could be informative. However, few studies have assessed the test-retest reliability and criterion validity of a self-report tool feasible for use in large scale studies. At home, mothers of young children viewed a brief, online instructional video on how to measure their waist, hip, and neck circumferences. Afterwards, they created a homemade paper measuring tape from a downloaded file with scissors and tape, took all measurements in duplicate, and entered them into an online survey. A few weeks later, participants visited an anthropometrics lab where they measured themselves again, and trained technicians (n = 9) measured participants in duplicate using standard equipment and procedures. To assess differences between self- and technician-measured circumferences, duplicate measurements for participant home self-measurements, participant lab self-measurements, and technician measurements each were averaged and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests conducted. Agreement between all possible pairs of measurements were examined using Intraclass Correlations (ICCs) and Bland-Altman plots. Participants (n = 41; aged 38.05 ± 3.54SD years; 71 % white) were all mothers that had at least one child under the age of 12 yrs. Technical error of measurements for self- and technician- duplicate measurements varied little (0.08 to 0.76 inches) and had very high reliability (≥0.90). Intraclass Correlations (ICC) comparing self vs technician were high (0.97, 0.96, and 0.84 for waist, hip, and neck). Comparison of self-measurements at home vs lab revealed high test-retest reliability (ICC ≥ 0.87). Differences between participant self- and technician measurements were small (i.e., mean difference ranged from −0.13 to 0.06 inches) with nearly all (≥93 %) differences within Bland-Altman limits of agreement and <10 % exceeding the a priori clinically meaningful difference criterion. This study has demonstrated a simple, inexpensive method for teaching novice mothers of young children to take their own body circumferences resulting in accurate, reliable data. Thus, collecting self-measured and self-reported circumference data in future studies may be a feasible approach in research protocols that has potential to expand our knowledge of body composition beyond that provided by self-reported body mass indexes.
Reirradiation of the breast: is this an option?

Breast-conservation therapy (BCT) is a well-characterized treatment for early-stage breast cancer that has been studied for decades. The risk of local recurrence following BCT for invasive breast cancer ranges from 8.8% to 14.3% at 20 years.
Nursing management of the child with a tracheotomy

The management of medically fragile children with tracheotomies can be challenging to the pediatrician. This management includes the well child care for these children as well as coordination of the often complex care associated with the underlying condition. Various diseases exist that cause airway obstruction, respiratory failure, or chronic aspiration, necessitating tracheotomies. Tracheotomies require astute observation and skilled care to minimize complications.
Global versus local consistency: effects of degree of within-category consistency on performance and learning

We examined the effects of varying degrees of global (higher-order) and local (stimulus specific) consistency on performance and learning in a visual search task. Participants performed a semantic-category, visual search task across 9792 trials of practice. Semantic categories were either completely consistent (all category exemplars served only as targets, never as distractors), completely inconsistent (across trials category exemplars served as both targets and distractors), or partially consistent (25%, 50%, or 75% of the category exemplars served only as targets while the remaining exemplars served as both targets and distractors). Following training, category learning was assessed by examining performance on untrained exemplars of the trained categories
ENUMERATION AND IDENTITY OF LACTOBACILLI IN DIETARY PRODUCTS.

A medium was developed for selectively enumerating bile-resistant lactobacilli by adding 0.15% oxgall to lactobacillus selective agar (BBL). Lactobacilli were not found in many products sold as sources of Lactobacillus acidophilus , whereas others contained widely different numbers of lactobacilli capable of forming colonies on the bile medium. Of seven products from which lactobacilli were isolated, only three contained L. acidophilus . One of these products was from a pharmacy and the other two were from dairy processor(s).
Choosing between percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary artery bypass graft surgery for nondiabetic patients with multivessel disease.

Approximately 30–60% of patients with acute coronary syndrome present with multiple significant coronary lesions and patients with multivessel CAD have worse prognosis including significant increase in death or MI when compared with patients with single vessel CAD (1). Similarly, in patients with stable ischemic heart disease, multivessel CAD portends worse prognosis when compared with patients with single vessel CAD (2).
Microbial recognition and danger signals in sepsis and trauma

Early host recognition of microbial invasion or damaged host tissues provides an effective warning system by which protective immune and inflammatory processes are initiated. Host tissues responsible for continuous sampling of their local environment employ cell surface and cytosolic pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) that provide redundant and overlapping identification of both microbial and host alarmins. Microbial products containing pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), as well as damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) serve as principle ligands for recognition by these PRRs. It is this interaction which plays both an essential survival role in response to infection and injury, as well as the pathologic role in tissue and organ injury associated with severe sepsis and trauma. Elucidating the interaction between ligands and their respective PRRs can provide both a better understanding of the host response, as well as a rational basis for therapeutic intervention. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Immune and Metabolic Alterations in Trauma and Sepsis edited by Dr. Raghavan Raju.
Subretinal Glial Membranes in Eyes With Geographic Atrophy.

Purpose Muller cells create the external limiting membrane (ELM) by forming junctions with photoreceptor cells. This study evaluated the relationship between focal photoreceptors and RPE loss in geographic atrophy (GA) and Muller cell extension into the subretinal space. Methods Human donor eyes with no retinal disease or geographic atrophy (GA) were fixed and the eye cups imaged. The retinal posterior pole was stained for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP; astrocytes and activated Muller cells) and vimentin (Muller cells) while the submacular choroids were labeled with Ulex Europaeus Agglutinin lectin (blood vessels). Choroids and retinas were imaged using a Zeiss 710 confocal microscope. Additional eyes were cryopreserved or processed for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to better visualize the Muller cells. Results Vimentin staining of aged control retinas (n = 4) revealed a panretinal cobblestone-like ELM. While this pattern was also observed in the GA retinas (n = 7), each also had a distinct area in which vimentin+ and vimentin+/GFAP+ processes created a subretinal membrane. Subretinal glial membranes closely matched areas of RPE atrophy in the gross photos. Choroidal vascular loss was also evident in these atrophic areas. Smaller glial projections were noted, which correlated with drusen in gross photos. The presence of glia in the subretinal space was confirmed by TEM and cross cross-section immunohistochemistry. Conclusions In eyes with GA, subretinal Muller cell membranes present in areas of RPE atrophy may be a Muller cell attempt to replace the ELM. These membranes could interfere with treatments such as stem cell therapy.
White Paper AGA: POWER — Practice Guide on Obesity and Weight Management, Education, and Resources

The epidemic of obesity continues at alarming rates, with a high burden to our economy and society. The American Gastroenterological Association understands the importance of embracing obesity as a chronic, relapsing disease and supports a multidisciplinary approach to the management of obesity. Because gastrointestinal disorders resulting from obesity are more frequent and often present sooner than type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease, gastroenterologists have an opportunity to address obesity and provide an effective therapy early. Patients who are overweight or obese already fill gastroenterology clinics with gastroesophageal reflux disease and its associated risks of Barrett's esophagus and esophageal cancer, gallstone disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease/nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, and colon cancer. Obesity is a major modifiable cause of diseases of the digestive tract that frequently goes unaddressed. As internists, specialists in digestive disorders, and endoscopists, gastroenterologists are in a unique position to play an important role in the multidisciplinary treatment of obesity. This American Gastroenterological Association paper was developed with content contribution from Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, The Obesity Society, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, endorsed with input by American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, and Obesity Medicine Association, and describes POWER: Practice Guide on Obesity and Weight Management, Education and Resources. Its objective is to provide physicians with a comprehensive, multidisciplinary process to guide and personalize innovative obesity care for safe and effective weight management.
Version space learning for verification on temporal differentials

Configuration files provide users with the ability to quickly alter the behavior of their software system. Ensuring that a configuration file does not induce errors in the software is a complex verification issue. The types of errors can be easy to measure, such as an initialization failure of system boot, or more insidious such as performance degrading over time under heavy network loads. In order to warn a user of potential configuration errors ahead of time, we propose using version space learning specifications for configuration languages. We frame an existing tool, ConfigC, in terms of version space learning. We extend that algorithm to leverage the temporal structuring available in training sets scraped from versioning control systems. We plan to evaluate our system on a case study using TravisCI configuration files collected from Github.
Coverage control with anytime updates for persistent surveillance missions

Coordination schemes for multi-agent surveillance missions typically require ideal data transfer between spatially separated agents, an assumption that is too restrictive for many realistic missions. This paper develops dynamic coverage control algorithms that only require unplanned and sporadic exchanges between mobile agents and a central base station. In particular, the proposed schemes are designed to operate within a decomposition-based multi-agent surveillance framework, which pairs dynamic partitioning with single-agent routing. The present work extends our previous work [13] by introducing two alternative coverage update rules that operate in anytime. We show that these variations add robustness to premature algorithmic termination, while preserving many desirable properties, namely, production of connected coverage regions, assurance of persistent coverage, and convergence to a Pareto optimal configuration in certain conditions.
Epistemic Practices and Science Education

Epistemic practices are the socially organized and interactionally accomplished ways that members of a group propose, communicate, assess, and legitimize knowledge claims. Drawing from studies of science and education, this chapter argues that epistemic practices are interactional (constructed among people through concerted activity), contextual (situated in social practices and cultural norms), intertextual (communicated through a history of coherent discourses, signs, and symbols), and consequential (legitimized knowledge instantiates power and culture). Through a review of science studies, the argument for the relevance of a focus on epistemic practices is developed. This chapter draws from the empirical studies of scientific practice to derive implications for science teaching and learning. There has been considerable empirical work from multiple disciplinary perspectives (cognitive science, sociology, anthropology, and rhetoric) informing perspectives about science and the inner workings of scientific communities. These studies examine the practices, discourses, and cultures of scientists and scientific communities. These perspectives are applied to three types of educational approaches for science learning (through inquiry, engineering, and socioscientific issues) to examine ways that engaging in epistemic practices supports goals of scientific literacy . The chapter shows how a focus on the knowledge construction processes in schools offers contributions to thinking about science education.
The Application of Molecular Methods Towards an Understanding of the Role of the Vaginal Microbiome in Health and Disease

Abstract The human vagina harbours one of the most ecologically interesting and important microbial ecosystems of our holobiome. The healthy human vagina is typically dominated by Lactobacillus species. Therein, vaginal lactobacilli provide the first line of protection against potential pathogens and, consequently, in the protection and maintenance of female gynecologic and reproductive health. Although much of our understanding of this system was elucidated from early studies and the application of traditional microbiological techniques, newer and more sophisticated technologies have added considerably to the depth of that understanding. Among these, molecular-based techniques have both augmented and reinforced these findings, providing a refined understanding of microbial:microbial and microbial:host interactions within the vaginal microbial ecosystem, while also providing new and important insights. Studies based upon 16S rRNA gene sequencing have enabled the vaginal microbiome of reproductive-aged women to be categorized into five major microbial community states and revealed that not all Lactobacillus spp. are equal in their maintenance of reproductive health. Further, recent genomic, proteomic, metagenomic, metabolomic, and immunological studies have provided novel insight into potential mechanisms by which various Lactobacillus species may uniquely interact with the host and contribute towards vaginal health and the mechanisms through which the system may be perturbed. Herein, we provide a comprehensive review of our contemporary understanding of the vaginal microbiota's role in maintaining female gynecologic and reproductive health, summarizing seminary findings, and highlighting where molecular techniques have improved our overall understanding of the vaginal microbiota.
Reaching Vichy via Budapest: On Zigzags, Waves and Triangles in Intellectual Life

Are there patterns in an individual life and its contingencies that point to more general truths—or at least, to questions of general interest? In this ego-history, Susan Suleiman traces her itinerary from the 1970s to the present, and from structuralism to the study of memory and history relating to World War II France. She traces the non-linear path that has taken her from her first book, Authoritarian Fictions: The Ideological Novel as a Literary Genre (1983), to her latest one, The Nemirovsky Question: The Life, Death, and Legacy of a Jewish Writer in 20th-Century France (2016). Suleiman suggests that intellectual itineraries do not move in a straight line, perhaps especially in the case of people who have experienced geographical and linguistic displacement.
Stochastic Swift-Hohenberg Equation with Degenerate Linear Multiplicative Noise

We study the dynamic transition of the Swift-Hohenberg equation (SHE) when linear multiplicative noise acting on a finite set of modes of the dominant linear flow is introduced. Existence of a stochastic flow and a local stochastic invariant manifold for this stochastic form of SHE are both addressed in this work. We show that the approximate reduced system corresponding to the invariant manifold undergoes a stochastic pitchfork bifurcation, and obtain numerical evidence suggesting that this picture is a good approximation for the full system as well.
Adjoint methods for uncertainty quantification in applied computational electromagnetics: FEM scattering examples

We present methods for quantifying uncertainty and discretization error of numerical electromagnetics solvers based on adjoint operators and duality. We briefly introduce the concept of the adjoint operator and describe applications of adjoint solutions for predicting and analyzing numerical error and approximating sensitivity of a given quantity of interest to a given parameter. Forward solutions are based on the higher order finite element method (FEM).
Anti-inflammatory agents as cancer therapeutics.

Abstract Cancer prevention sometimes referred to as tertiary prevention or chemoprevention makes use of specific xenobiotics or drugs to prevent, delay, or retard the development of cancer. Over the last two decades or so cancer prevention has made significant strides. For example, prevention of lung cancer through smoking cessation; cervical cancer prevention through regular Pap smear tests; colon cancer prevention through screening colonoscopy; and prostate cancer reductions by prostate-specific antigen measurements in conjunction with regular prostate examinations. The seminal epidemiological observation that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) prevent colon and other cancers has provided the impetus to develop novel chemoprevention approaches against cancer. To that end, a number of “designer drugs” have been synthesized that are in different stages of development, evaluation, and deployment. Some include the cyclooxygenase-2-specific inhibitors (coxibs), nitric oxide-releasing NSAIDs (NO-NSAIDs and NONO-NSAIDs), hydrogen sulfide-releasing NSAIDs, modulators of the lipoxygenase pathway, prostanoid receptor blockers, and chemokine receptor antagonists. In addition to these novel agents, there are also a host of naturally occurring compounds/micronutrients that have chemopreventive properties. This chapter reviews these classes of compounds, their utility and mechanism(s) of action against the background of mediators that link inflammation and cancer.
Supportive Care for Patients with Leukemia: A Historical Perspective

Once upon a time, the delivery of therapy to patients with acute leukemia was profoundly constrained by problems with venous access, life threatening infections due to unavailability of effective and non-toxic broad spectrum antibiotics and anti-fungal agents, hemorrhage due to a lack of readily available high quality platelet transfusions, severe vomiting resulting in weight loss and inanition, and a considerable risk of hepatitis from blood product transfusions. Indeed, the therapeutic nihilism which permeated the medical literature in the late 1960s and early 1970s derived as much from doubts about the ability to keep patients alive following chemotherapy as from skepticism about the effectiveness of the chemotherapy itself. In fact, the current “standard” chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), so-called “3 & 7” (anthracycline and cytarabine), and multi-agent therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is essentially identical to what was used and developed in the 1970s.
The Mechanism of Hedonistic Choice

The two variants of the existing theory of value in Economies have a long history which, in the period before 1870, merges with the general stream of reasoning about value in the works of the philosophers. It is not part of our purpose to trace the history through the works of different writers, showing how one set of ideas has developed out of another, though the reader may be referred to some recent works which take this inquiry for their province.1 In order to expound the present-day theory of value in Economics, however, it is necessary to indicate the new starting-point which was chosen by some economists around 1870, out of which they began to develop their theories.
The Lady Doctor and the Vamp: How Louisa May Alcott, Theda Bara, and Thomas Dixon, Jr., Killed the Poisonous Woman

Crosby tracks the medicinal poisoner into the era of early cinema and investigates how the figure split into the New Woman doctor/“New Negro” doctor and the female vampire. The first supported an egalitarian and feminist version of the nation and the second was deployed to define American civilization as “Anglo-Saxon” and masculine. In this chapter, Crosby examines how writers like Louisa May Alcott, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps self-consciously appropriated and built upon Cassy in their woman doctor Bildungsromans of the 1880s. Crosby then details how early cinema pioneers such as Theda Bara, D. W. Griffith, and Thomas Dixon, Jr., built on the vampiric reframing of the medicinal poisoner to create Hollywood’s first sex symbol, the Vamp, and the monstrous “yellow vampire” of The Birth of a Nation. The chapter ends with a brief look at reactions to Dixon/Griffith, particularly Oscar Micheaux’s “race film,” Within Our Gates.
Ultra low-loss polaritons in hexagonal boron nitride (Conference Presentation)

Conventional optical components are limited to size-scales much larger than the wavelength of light, as changes to the amplitude, phase and polarization of the electromagnetic fields are accrued gradually along an optical path. However, advances in nanophotonics have produced ultrathin, so-called “flat” optical components that beget abrupt changes in these properties over distances significantly shorter than the free space wavelength. While high optical losses still plague many approaches, phonon polariton materials have demonstrated long lifetimes for localized modes in comparison to plasmon-polariton based nanophotonics. Our work predicts a further 14-fold increase in the optic phonon lifetime and we experimentally report a ~3-fold improvement through isotopic enrichment of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). We establish commensurate increases in the phonon polariton propagation length via direct imaging of polaritonic standing waves by means of infrared nano-optics. Our results provide the foundation for a materials-growth-directed approach towards realizing the loss control necessary for the development of phonon polariton based nanophotonic devices.
Neurocognitive and Psychosocial Outcomes in Pediatric Brain Tumor Survivors

The late neurocognitive and psychosocial effects of treatment for pediatric brain tumor (PBT) represent important areas of clinical focus and ongoing research. Neurocognitive sequelae and associated problems with learning and socioemotional development negatively impact PBT survivors’ overall health-related quality of life, educational attainment and employment rates. Multiple factors including tumor features and associated complications, treatment methods, individual protective and vulnerability factors and accessibility of environmental supports contribute to the neurocognitive and psychosocial outcomes in PBT survivors. Declines in overall measured intelligence are common and may persist years after treatment. Core deficits in attention, processing speed and working memory are postulated to underlie problems with overall intellectual development, academic achievement and career attainment. Additionally, psychological problems after PBT can include depression, anxiety and psychosocial adjustment issues. Several intervention paradigms are briefly described, though to date research on innovative, specific and effective interventions for neurocognitive late effects is still in its early stages. This article reviews the existing research for understanding PBT late effects and highlights the need for innovative research to enhance neurocognitive and psychosocial outcomes in PBT survivors.
The effect of art therapy on the quality of life in patients with a gynecologic cancer receiving chemotherapy.

Abstract Objectives Most art therapy research has involved patients with malignancies other than gynecologic cancer. The current study aimed to assess the impact of an art therapy intervention on the quality of life (QOL) in patients with gynecologic cancer who were receiving chemotherapy. Methods This was a prospective, non-randomized, pilot study. Eligible patients had a primary or recurrent gynecologic malignancy scheduled to be treated with at least 6 cycles of chemotherapy over 18 weeks. The intervention consisted of five sessions of art therapy during the chemotherapy. Patients completed a Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) questionnaire prior to starting chemotherapy, and again at completion of the fifth session. Differences between the FACT-G scores were examined by paired t-tests. An increase in the mean FACT-G score indicated an improvement in QOL. At each session, the patients completed a separate, supplemental questionnaire to subjectively rate the benefit of the session and to express their experience with the art intervention. Results Twenty-four patients enrolled. Eight did not complete the study, leaving 16 evaluable patients. The mean FACT-G score pre-chemotherapy was 82.3 (95% CI: 75.5, 89.2), and post-art therapy was 78.6 (95% CI: 71.7, 85.5). The mean change in QOL was −3.7 points (95% CI: −10.7, 3.2, p = 0.270). A supplemental questionnaire indicated that 15 of 16 patients felt that art therapy was beneficial at each session. Conclusions FACT-G scores did not significantly change over the course of chemotherapy in patients with gynecologic cancers receiving art therapy. Several published studies have indicated that chemotherapy is associated with a decline in QOL. Our results suggest art therapy may help to prevent or mitigate this decline.
Thermographic Laplacian-Pyramid Filtering to Enhance Delamination Detection in Concrete Structure

Abstract Despite decades of efforts using thermography to detect delamination in concrete decks, challenges still exist in removing environmental noise from thermal images. The performance of conventional temperature-contrast approaches can be significantly limited by environment-induced non-uniform temperature distribution across imaging spaces. Time-series based methodologies were found robust to spatial temperature non-uniformity but requires extended period to collect data. A new empirical image filtering method is introduced in this paper to enhance the delamination detection using blob detection method that originated from computer vision. The proposed method employs a Laplacian of Gaussian filter to achieve multi-scale detection of abnormal thermal patterns by delaminated areas. Results were compared with the state-of-the-art methods and benchmarked with time-series methods in the case of handling non-uniform heat distribution issue. To further evaluate the performance of the method numerical simulations using transient heat transfer models were used to generate the ‘theoretical’ noise-free thermal images for comparison. Significant performance improvement was found compared to the conventional methods in both indoor and outdoor tests. This methodology proved to be capable to detect multi-size delamination using single thermal image. It is robust to non-uniform temperature distribution. The limitations were discussed to refine the applicability of the proposed procedure.
Coordinating Leadership Supports for Teachers’ Instructional Improvement:

Principals and instructional coaches are asked to organize their schools to support teachers’ ongoing professional learning. Prior studies have examined what principals do to support coaches rather...
Seasonal influenza vaccination and absenteeism in health-care workers in two subsequent influenza seasons (2016/17 and 2017/18) in an Italian pediatric hospital

Background: Seasonal influenza in Health-Care Workers (HCWs) is a topic of growing interest in public health for its organizational implications. The study aims at measuring absenteeism due to infl...
Socrates and the Ti Esti Question

Socrates is frequently identified with the well-known question is ti esti? (What is it?). Most of his interlocutors are deceived by the extreme simplicity of this question and his detractors believe he does not know what an arete is. To this Socrates replies that he not only does not know what it is arete, but he has never met anyone who has done it. Using a term in ordinary speech does not insure that one has the kind of knowledge Socrates is seeking. The problem is not that arete is a technical or unfamiliar term but that as Socrates’ discussion with Meno soon reveals, it is a disputed one.
In Teens with Severe Obesity, Can Bariatric Surgery Wait until Adulthood?

Conventionally, physiological and psychological differences between children and adults have directed their clinical care pathways, including treatment strategies, physician specialties, and health...
Tea consumption and breast cancer risk in a cohort of women with family history of breast cancer

Laboratory studies have observed chemopreventive effects of black and green tea on breast cancer development, but few epidemiologic studies have identified such effects. We investigated the association between tea consumption and breast cancer risk using data from 45,744 U.S. and Puerto Rican women participating in the Sister Study. Frequency and serving size of black and green tea consumption were measured at cohort enrollment. Breast cancer diagnoses were reported during follow-up and confirmed by medical record review. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). We further investigated potential variation according to estrogen receptor (ER) status, menopausal status and body mass index (BMI). Overall, 81.6 and 56.0% of women drank black or green tea, respectively. A total of 2,809 breast cancer cases were identified in the cohort. The multivariable model suggested an inverse association between black (≥5 vs. 0 cups/week: HR = 0.88, 95% CI 0.78, 1.00, p-trend = 0.08) and green tea (≥5 vs. 0 cups/week: HR = 0.82, 95% CI 0.70, 0.95, p-trend < 0.01) consumption and breast cancer risk. We did not observe differences by ER characteristics, menopausal status or BMI. In conclusion, our study suggests drinking at least five cups of green or black tea per week may be associated with decreased breast cancer risk.
Mechanisms preventing Break-Induced Replication during repair of two-ended DNA double-strand breaks

DNA synthesis during homologous recombination (HR) is highly mutagenic and prone to template switches. Two-ended DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) are usually repaired by gene conversion with a short patch of DNA synthesis, thus limiting the mutation load to the vicinity of the DSB. Single-ended DSBs are repaired by Break-Induced Replication (BIR) that involve extensive and mutagenic DNA synthesis spanning even hundreds of kilobases. It remains unknown how mutagenic BIR is suppressed at two-ended DSBs. Here we demonstrate that BIR is suppressed at two-ended DSBs by several proteins coordinating the usage of both DSB ends: ssDNA annealing protein Rad52 and Rad59, D-loop unwinding helicase Mph1, and DSB ends tethering Mre11-Rad50-Xrs2 complex. Finally, BIR is also suppressed when a normally heterochromatic repair template is silenced by Sir2. These findings suggest several mechanisms restricting mutagenic BIR during repair of two-ended DSBs.
Breast cancer survival following MRI detection in a high‐risk screening program

Guidelines for high-risk screening with MRI were introduced by the American Cancer Society in 2007, based on superior sensitivity of MRI over mammography, albeit without proven mortality reduction. The mortality end point is still unconfirmed, but international data are maturing with improved survival apparent, albeit subject to lead time and length bias. In this observational study of survival, we review 41 consecutive patients whose cancers (85.3% invasive) were detected through 2039 asymptomatic MRI screenings. With a minimum follow-up of 5 years and median follow-up of 10.2 years (range: 5.0-15.1), disease-specific survival is 100%.
Use of Patient Navigators to Reduce Barriers in Living Donation and Living Donor Transplantation

The transplant community is facing an important and growing crisis in healthcare disparities, which limits the access of vulnerable populations to successful transplant and its most ideal form, living donor transplantation [1–6]. The time is now to implement strategies that facilitate access to timely living donor transplant and relieve the pressure on a burdened deceased donor waiting list. Patient navigation programs have arisen as distinctive model of patient-centered healthcare delivery to overcome existing disparities in access to healthcare. Originally used in oncology [7–9] and gaining momentum across other specialties, navigators function as educators, sponsors, and allies to patients and their potential donors. Similarly, they provide unique insight, context, and valuable feedback to transplant providers who may be insufficiently aware of the challenges faced by the transplant candidates and the potential donors they care for. Ultimately, patient navigators can help decrease the risk of premature transplant process withdrawal, increase the likelihood of work-up completion, demystify living donor misconceptions and misunderstandings, and help maintain engagement of transplant candidates and their donors. While data are still emerging, the future of patient navigation seems promising, particularly as an intervention to help equalize the access to living donor transplantation to the most vulnerable and under-resourced transplant candidates. In this review, we explore the role of patient navigation programs in solid organ transplantation and how they could help reduce the inequities in living donation and living donor transplantation.
The Cities on the Hill: How urban institutions transformed national politics, by Thomas K. Ogorzalek

The Cities on the Hill is an intricately crafted, complex, path-breaking, and hopefully path-defining work that provides a comprehensive and detailed model of American urban political development d...
Diagnosis and long-term follow-up of 4-hydroxy butyrate aciduria in 9 cases

Objective To study the clinical and laboratory diagnosis and follow-up of 4-hydroxy butyrate aciduria in children. Methods From June 2012 to July 2017, 9 cases in Tianjin Children′s Hospital were analyzed.According to their clinical features, multidimensional analysis was performed by using head magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), urine gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) semi-quantitative testing and gene mutation analysis of ALDH5A1. Results The onset age of the 9 cases was less than 1 year old, and all had psychomotor retardation, in which 4 cases with epileptic seizures, 1 case with consciousness disturbance and 1 case with involuntary movement.All the cases underwent head MRI and 4 cases showed bilateral symmetry pallidal lesions, including 1 case with symmetry abnormality of the midbrain cerebral peduncle, 1 case with encephalomalacia in left temporal cortex and 4 cases with widening of the ventricle and extracerebral space.By the urine GC/MS semi-quantitative testing, all 9 the cases showed increasing 4-hydroxy butyric acid and by the ALDH5A1 gene mutation analysis, all 9 the cases were detected with gene mutation (3 cases belonging to c. 1568C>T homozygous mutation, 1 case belonging to c. 839T>G homozygous mutation and the other 5 cases belonging to compound heterozygous mutation, which included c. 691G>A, c.1568C>T; c.1383_2delA, c.1568C>T; c.527G>A, c.691G>A; c.904G>A, c.1022C>A; c.398_399delA, c.638G>T). Nine cases were given symptomatic treatment, and 4 cases with epileptic seizures were given antiepileptic drugs.During the follow-up of the above 9 cases, 1 case died of status epilepticus, 1 case had been under control for 5 years, and 2 cases were effectively treated.Psychomotor retardation was improved in varying degrees in 8 cases.Involuntary movement disappeared in 1 case while 2 cases still showed increasing 4-hydroxy butyric acid by means of urine GC/MS semi-quantitative testing. Conclusions Most of 4-hydroxy butyrate aciduria occurs within 1 year old, with psychomotor development as the first manifestation, which can be associated with epilepsy.The head MRI is characte-rized by a symmetrical Globus pallid abnormal signal.Urine GC/MS shows an increase in 4-hydroxy butyrate, which is the basis for biochemical diagnosis of the disease.Its accumulation in the body mainly damages the central nervous system.ALDH5A1 is a disease-causing gene, in which c. 1568C>T site has a high mutation frequency, and it is speculated that this site may be a hot spot mutation in Chinese children.Patients with epilepsy may die from status epilepticus and may be used as a clinical indicator to judge the severity of the disease.There is no specific treatment, and the patients combined with epilepsy can be treated with anti-epileptic drugs.Valproic acid should be avoided as it can aggravate the condition. Key words: 4-hydroxy butyrate aciduria; Clinical feature; Head magnetic resonance imaging; Urine gas chromatography-mass spectrometry semi-quantitative testing; ALDH5A1 gene mutation; Follow-up
Clinical value of TRFIA and ELISA in the detection of five indicators of hepatitis B virus

Objective To investigate the clinical value of time-resolved fluoroisnmunoassay (TRFIA) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in the detection of five indicators of hepatitis B virus. Methods A total of 180 patients with hepatitis B were selected. And 2 samples of fasting venous blood of 2 ml were taken from each patient and then were detected by TRFIA and ELISA repectively. The detection results of five indicotors of hepatitis B virus were compared. Results The positive rate of hepatitis B e antibody (HBeAb) and hepatitis B core antibody (HBcAb) detected by TRFIA was 52.78% (95/180) and 70.56% (127/180) respectively, the positive rate of HBeAb and HBcAb detected by ELISA was 42.22% (76/180) and 59.44% (107/180), respectively, and there was a statistical difference in positive rate of HBeAb and HBcAb between the two groups (P 0.05). Conclusions Both TRFIA and ELISA can be used in the detection of five indicators of hepatitis B virus. Compared with ELISA, the positive detection rate of TRFIA is higher, which is worthy of clinical application and promotion. Key words: Time resolved fluoroisnmunoassay; Five indicators of hepatitis B virus; Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
Agile: A Learning-enabled Power and Performance-Efficient Network-on-Chip Design

In this paper, we uniquely combine power-gating and DVFS with the aim of maximizing the NoC power savings and improving performance. The proposed NoC design, called Agile, consists of several architectural designs and a reinforcement learning (RL) based control policy to mitigate the negative effects induced by the combined power-gating and DVFS. Specifically, a simple bypass switch is deployed to maintain network connectivity, avoiding frequently waking up the powered-off router. An optimized pipeline can simplify pipeline stages of the bypass switch to reduce network latency. Reversible link channel buffers can be dynamically allocated to where they are needed to improve throughput. In addition, the RL control policy predicts NoC traffic and decides optimal power-gating decisions, voltage/frequency levels and NoC architecture configurations at runtime. Furthermore, we explore the use of an artificial neural network (ANN) to efficiently reduce the area overhead of implementing RL. We evaluate our design using the PARSEC benchmarks suite. The full system simulation results show that the proposed design improves the overall power savings by up to 58% while improving the performance up to 11% as compared to state-of-the-art designs.
Use of a Structured Method of Antimicrobial Stewardship at a City Hospital by Pharmacy Students.

The objective of this study was to determine the utility of a structured method of antimicrobial stewardship by Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience students and assess student perceptions of the tool. Pharmacy students on rotation were trained to utilize a structured team antibiotic review form (TARF) as a tool to participate in antimicrobial stewardship. Students completed anonymous evaluations regarding their confidence in performing stewardship after completing their rotation, and preceptors quantified total student interventions. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics. The Fisher’s Exact Test was used to compare students’ confidence before and after using TARFs. Twenty-six students participated in antimicrobial stewardship using TARFs, resulting in 889 interventions. Nearly 96% of students reported that TARFs helped them evaluate patient antibiotics in a way that was easy to follow and that TARFs provided them with an organized and structured way to systematically evaluate antibiotics. All students felt that the TARFs increased their knowledge on how to evaluate antibiotics. Significantly more students were confident in participating in antimicrobial stewardship after using the TARF. TARF use allowed students to substantially contribute to stewardship, and provided them with a structured guide allowing for improved student knowledge and confidence.
A damage-mechanics model for fracture nucleation and propagation

In this paper, a composite model for earthquake rupture initiation and propagation is proposed. The model includes aspects of damage mechanics, fiber-bundle models, and slider-block models. An array of elements is introduced in analogy to the fibers of a fiber bundle. Time to failure for each element is specified from a Poisson distribution. The hazard rate is assumed to have a power-law dependence on stress. When an element fails it is removed, the stress on a failed element is redistributed uniformly to a specified number of neighboring elements in a given range of interaction. Damage is defined to be the fraction of elements that have failed. Time to failure and modes of rupture propagation are determined as a function of the hazard-rate exponent and the range of interaction.
The Impact of Gay Social Networking Applications on Dating in the Deaf Gay Community

Dating between Deaf gay men who are American Sign Language (ASL) users and hearing gay men who use spoken language has historically been a challenge, creating a binary in Deaf-hearing relationships. The dating game has been revolutionized by the creation of geo-social networking (GSN) apps, where people communicate through the medium of written English and digital photographs. Furthermore, GSN apps have created a network for meeting other men who identify as Deaf and gay, as well as revealing the existence of a sexual fetish for Deaf partners. The main research question driving this investigation is: What are the impacts of gay GSN apps upon the dating and mating rituals of Deaf gay men in the United States? Using Grounded Theory Methodology, findings indicate that GSN apps have lifted previously-encountered communication barriers between Deaf and hearing men, creating a causeway for communication that gives rise to increased comfort, but leads to an increase in rejection based on being Deaf.
A retrospective evaluation of highly active antiretroviral therapy simplification in patients with end-stage renal disease receiving hemodialysis:

Antiretroviral (ARV) therapy in people living with HIV (PLWH) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on hemodialysis (HD) is complicated, requiring renally adjusted nucleoside reverse transcriptase inh...
Stochastic Resonance Behavior of DNA Translocation with an Oscillatory Electric Field

Stochastic resonance (SR) describes the synchronization between noise of a system and an applied oscillating field to achieve an optimized response signal. In this work, we use simulations to investigate the phenomenon of SR of a single stranded DNA driven through a nanopore when an oscillating electric field is added. The system is comprised of a MspA protein nanopore embedded in a membrane and different lengths of DNA is driven from one end of the pore to the other via a constant potential difference. We superimposed an oscillating electric field on top of the existing electric field. The source of noise is due to thermal fluctuations, since the system is immersed in solution at room temperature. Here, the signal optimization we seek is the increase in translocation time of DNA through the protein nanopore. Normally, translocation time scales linearly with DNA length and inversely with driving force in a drift dominanted regime. We found a non monotonic dependence of the mean translocation time with the frequency of the oscillating field. This non-monotonic behavior of the translocation time is observed for all lengths of DNA, but SR occurs only for longer DNA. Furthermore, we also see evidence of DNA extension being influenced by the oscillating field while moving through the nanopore.
An improvement of the Marcinkiewicz multiplier theorem

We provide an improvement of the Marcinkiewicz multiplier theorem on ℝn by relaxing the integrability hypothesis on the multiplier. In particular, when r> 1 and min(s1, …, sn) > 1/r, we replace the product-type Sobolev norm $${\left\| {{{(I - \partial _1^2)}^{{s_1}/2}} \cdots {{(I - \partial _n^2)}^{{s_n}/2}}[\Phi \,g]} \right\|_{{L^r}}}$$ by the larger Sobolev norm $${\left\| {{{(I - \partial _1^2)}^{{s_1}/2}} \cdots {{(I - \partial _n^2)}^{{s_n}/2}}[\Phi \,g]} \right\|_{{L^{q,1}}}}$$ built upon the Lorentz space with first indices q = 1/min(s1,…,sn) and 1. Here si > 0 are distinct numbers and Φ is a function with compact support away from the origin.
A conserved behavioral role for a nematode interneuron neuropeptide receptor.

Neuropeptides are evolutionarily-conserved modulators of many aspects of animal behavior and physiology, and expand the repertoire of processes that can be controlled by a limited number of neurons. Deciphering the neuropeptidergic codes that govern distinct processes requires systematic functional analyses of neuropeptides and their cognate receptors. Even in well-studied model organisms like Caenorhabditis elegans, however, such efforts have been precluded by a lack of mutant reagents. Here, we generated and screened 21 C. elegans neuropeptide G-protein coupled receptor mutants with no pre-existing reagents for the touch-evoked escape response, and implicated six receptors expressed in diverse neuron classes representing multiple circuit levels in this behavior. We further characterized the mutant with the most severe phenotype, frpr-14, which was defective in multiple behavioral paradigms. We leveraged this range of phenotypes to reveal that FRPR-14 modulation of different pre-command interneuron classes, AVH and AIB, can drive distinct behavioral subsets, demonstrating cellular context-dependent roles for FRPR-14 signaling. We then show that Caenorhabditis briggsae CBR-FRPR-14 modulates an AVH-like interneuron pair to regulate the same behaviors as C. elegans but to a smaller extent. Our results also suggest that differences in touch-evoked escape circuit architecture between closely-related species results from changes in neuropeptide receptor expression pattern, as opposed to ligand-receptor pairing. This study provides insights into the principles utilized by a compact, multiplexed nervous system to generate intraspecific behavioral complexity and interspecific variation.