cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Decreased Quality of Life Is Significantly Associated With Body Composition in Patients With Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Background & Aims We studied impaired quality of life (QOL) and its determinants among individuals with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Methods We collected data from 341 patients with NAFLD who completed the short form 36 (SF-36) questionnaire. Body composition and liver fibrosis were assessed in patients with NAFLD using bioelectrical impedance and transient elastography, respectively. Advanced fibrosis was defined as liver stiffness measurements (LSMs) of 12.1 kPa or greater. SF-36 scores of patients with NAFLD were compared with SF36 scores of individuals with chronic medical illnesses and the general population obtained from the published literature. Results Among patients with NAFLD, percent body fat was negatively associated with scores from all 8 SF-36 scales, whereas lean body mass was positively associated with scores from 5 of 8 SF-36 scales. On multivariable analysis, SF-36 PF scores were negatively associated with type 2 diabetes, body mass index, and LSM and positively associated with lean body mass and level of alanine aminotransferase. Patients with NAFLD, and even those without advanced fibrosis, had significantly lower mean QOL scores than the control group or the general population. Conclusions Individuals with NAFLD, even those without advanced fibrosis, have lower QOL than controls. Body composition associates with QOL in patients with NAFLD; both of the modifiable factors independently associated with QOL are related to body composition. Further studies are needed to investigate if interventions to improve body composition can increase QOL for patients with NAFLD.
What Is Global Engineering

This chapter presents the field of Global Engineering, and identifies that engineers should be concerned with the unequal and unjust distribution of access to basic services, such as water, sanitation, energy, food, transportation, and shelter, and as engineers we should place an emphasis on identifying the drivers, determinants, and solutions to increasing equitable access to reliable services. Engineers must become activists and advocates, leveraging our professional skills and capacity to generate evidence and positive impact toward rectifying inequalities and improving lives. Engineers must reject the ahistorical, technocratic and neo-colonial conceit that poverty can be solved through products or projects, or on a community scale that requires the poorest people to overcome historical and structural inequalities and injustices. Global Engineering envisions a world where everyone has safe water, sanitation, energy, food, shelter, and infrastructure, and can live in health, dignity, and prosperity. This chapter adapts and updates the 2019 publication in Sustainability, “Toward a New Field of Global Engineering” (Thomas 2019).
Introduction to the special issue on engineering economy education

The Engineering Economist has included articles that advance engineering economy education since Billy Goetz’s (1959) contribution, “Engineering Economy: Teaching and Practice,” in 1959. The journa...
Toward heteroepitaxially grown semipolar GaN laser diodes under electrically injected continuous-wave mode: From materials to lasers

III-nitrides based light-emitting diodes and laser diodes (LDs) have shown great success as solid-state lighting sources, but the development of common c-plane (0001) polar GaN emitters is facing limitations due to quantum-confinement Stark effect, efficiency drop, low efficiency at green range, and peak wavelength blue-shift. Efficient semipolar or nonpolar GaN light emitting diodes and LDs have been successfully demonstrated by growing on semipolar or nonpolar free-standing GaN substrates. The small size and high cost of high crystal quality semipolar or nonpolar free-standing GaN substrates, which are sliced from hydride vapor phase epitaxy grown c-plane bulk GaN substrate, have severely limited their commercial development and application. Achieving scalable heteroepitaxial semipolar GaN materials with a very low density of basal-stacking faults (BSFs) on a foreign substrate remains very challenging. The recent breakthrough in the demonstration of continuous-wave (CW) semipolar (20 2 ¯1) LDs at room-temperature on semipolar GaN/sapphire template marks a milestone in exploring high crystal quality heteroepitaxial semipolar GaN materials and low-cost semipolar emitters. Here, we review the key progress through the past years about the development of heteroepitaxial semipolar GaN materials including epitaxial lateral overgrowth, orientation controlling epitaxy, BSFs burying by neighboring Ga-polar (0001) GaN with air voids, facet-engineering orientation control epitaxy, resulting in a low density or free of basal stacking faults. Furthermore, we discuss the heteroepitaxially grown pulsed semipolar (11 2 ¯2) blue LDs and CW semipolar (20 2 ¯1) LDs.
Complications Associated With Placing A Port Versus An External Catheter During Induction Therapy In Children Diagnosed With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Purpose: To compare rates of common CVC associated complications by type of CVC placed at start of Induction therapy in children treated for newly diagnosed ALL at the Jimmy Everest Center (JEC) at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Methods: A retrospective chart review analyzed data from newly diagnosed ALL patients treated at the Jimmy Everest Center …
Resection of intermediate stage hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background Although the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging system has been largely adopted in clinical practice, recent studies have questioned the prognostic stratification of this classification schema, as well as the proposed treatment allocation of patients with a single large tumor. Methods Patients who underwent curative-intent hepatectomy for histologically proven hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) between 1998 and 2017 were identified using an international multi-institutional database. Overall survival (OS) among patients with BCLC stage 0, A, and B was examined. Patients with a single large tumor were classified as BCLC stage A1 and were independently assessed. Results Among 814 patients, 68 (8.4%) were BCLC-0, 310 (38.1%) were BCLC-A, 279 (34.3%) were BCLC-A1, and 157 (19.3%) were BCLC-B. Five-year OS among patients with BCLC stage 0, A, A1, and B HCC was 86.2%, 69.0%, 56.9%, and 49.9%, respectively (p < 0.001). Among patients with very early- and early-stage HCC (BCLC 0, A, and A1), patients with BCLC stage A1 had the worst OS (p = 0.0016). No difference in survival was noted among patients undergoing surgery for BCLC stage A1 and B HCC (5-year OS: 56.9% vs. 49.9%; p = 0.259) even after adjusting for competing factors (hazard ratio 0.83, 95% confidence interval 0.54-1.28; p = 0.40). Conclusions Prognosis following liver resection among patients with BCLC-A1 HCC was similar to patients presenting with BCLC-B tumors. Surgery provided acceptable long-term outcomes among select patients with BCLC-B HCC. Designation into BCLC stage B should not be considered an a priori contraindication to surgery.
The Na/K-ATPase Signaling and SGLT2 Inhibitor-Mediated Cardiorenal Protection: A Crossed Road?

In different large-scale clinic outcome trials, sodium (Na+)/glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors showed profound cardiac- and renal-protective effects, making them revolutionary treatments for heart failure and kidney disease. Different theories are proposed according to the emerging protective effects other than the original purpose of glucose-lowering in diabetic patients. As the ATP-dependent primary ion transporter providing the Na+ gradient to drive other Na+-dependent transporters, the possible role of the sodium-potassium adenosine triphosphatase (Na/K-ATPase) as the primary ion transporter and its signaling function is not explored.
Testing and improving technology forecasts for better climate policy.

Many policy decisions rely on predictions of how technology performance is likely to change as a function of time or of human efforts in research or manufacturing. In climate policy, such predictions are especially important because of the central role that carbon-free technology must play in mitigating climate change, and the need for government policy to accelerate technological development and adoption. However, making bets on which technologies to support, or what carbon price is reasonable for shifting markets toward emissions reductions, requires predictions of technological progress. If these predictions are off, taxpayers’ dollars are wasted and progress on climate change mitigation is slowed. Yet how accurate have past predictions of technological change been? An important new paper in PNAS (1) addresses this topic by comparing the performance of two common approaches to predicting technology cost change. This prediction problem is difficult because of the limited data available on technology costs, and the gaps in our understanding of why technologies improve at different rates. In the unrealistic scenario where all technologies steadily improved at the same pace, predictions of their future state would be easier. However, rates of improvement with time differ significantly. A few clean energy technologies have improved rapidly while others have improved more slowly. In the case of US nuclear fission plants, costs have actually risen (2, 3) while the costs of solar energy and lithium-ion batteries have both fallen by more than 95% (4, 5). Alongside these cost trends, nuclear installations in the United States have stalled, while renewable energy markets are booming and electric vehicles using lithium-ion batteries are becoming competitive with internal combustion engine vehicles. If back in, say, 1990 forecasts had been more uniformly accurate in predicting the rapid cost improvement observed for some critical energy technologies, would we have made faster … [↵][1]1Email: trancik{at}mit.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
JavaParser: A fine-grain concept indexing tool for java problems

Multi-concept nature of problems in the domain of programming languages requires fine-grained indexing which is critical for sequencing purposes. In this paper, we propose an approach for extracting this set of concepts in a reliable automated way using JavaParser tool. To demonstrate the importance of fine-grained sequencing, we provide an example showing how this information can be used for problem sequencing during exam preparation.
An Objection to the Laplacean Chalmers

I discuss David Chalmers’ Laplacean thesis of “scrutability.” This is the view that a Laplacean intellect could infer all truths about the universe from a “compact class” of basic truths. It is argued that despite Chalmers’ remarks to the contrary, the thesis is problematic owing to quantum indeterminacy. Chalmers attempts to “frontload” various principles into the compact class to help out. But although such frontloading may succeed in principle, Chalmers does not frontload enough to avoid the problem.
Manufacturing strategy in business units

Presents a study which explored a relationship between production process focus and performance at the business unit level using the profit impact of marketing strategies (PIMS) database. The relationship between production process focus and financial performance for business units was partially supported using return‐on‐sales (ROS), and was not supported with return‐on‐assets and return‐on‐income. Indicates that the degree of production process focus is not directly related to a business unit′s performance. The implication is that the degree of production process focus must be recognized as part of a manufacturing strategy that is consistent with an overall business strategy.
It's Elementary in Appalachia: Helping Prospective Teachers and Their Students Understand Sexuality and Gender.

Abstract The most blatant discrimination that exists today in schools is that directed toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex students (1/g/b/t/i/q). English and language arts teacher education programs can help foster critical awareness among future teachers of sexuality and gender as well as provide the pedagogical skills and curriculum resources to bring these issues into their classrooms. Using Debra Chasoff's film It's Elementary as an entry point, the author demonstrates how children's literature and related resources are used in a teacher education program in Appalachia. The language arts classroom can be a space where students discuss 1/g/b/t/i/q literature, confront the cultural naturalization of heterosexuality, and reflect on their role as critical educators.
Heart Failure, Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury and Cardiac Troponin

Over the forty years since its discovery, there has been a profound transition in thinking with regard to the role of troponin in the control of cardiac function. This transition involved a change in perception of troponin as a passive molecular switch responding to membrane controlled fluctuations in cytoplasmic Ca2+ to a perception of troponin as a critical element in signaling cascades that actively engage in control of cardiac function. Evidence demonstrating functionally significant developmental and mutant isoform switches and post-translational modifications of cardiac troponin complex proteins, troponin I (cTnI) and troponin T (cTnT) provided convincing evidence for a more complicated role of troponin in control of cardiac function and dynamics. The physiological role of these modifications of troponin is reviewed in this monograph and has also been reviewed elsewhere (Solaro and Rarick, 1998; Gordon et al., 2000; Solaro et al., 2002a; Kobayashi and Solaro, 2005). Our focus here is on studies related to modifications in troponin that appear important in the processes leading from compensated hypertrophy to heart failure. These studies reveal the potentially significant role of post-translational modifications of troponin in these processes. Another focus is on troponin as a target for inotropic agents. Pharmacological manipulation of troponin by small molecules remains an important avenue of approach for the treatment of acute and chronic heart failure (Kass and Solaro, 2006).
Mechanistic Studies on Thiaminase I OVEREXPRESSION AND IDENTIFICATION OF THE ACTIVE SITE NUCLEOPHILE

Thiaminase I (EC 2.5.1.2) catalyzes the replacement of the thiazole moiety of thiamin with a wide variety of nucleophiles. Here we report the sequencing of a thiaminase I clone from Bacillus thiaminolyticus, the overexpression of the cloned gene in Escherichia coli, and the purification and characterization of the enzyme. Recombinant thiaminase I functions as a monomer with a Km for thiamin of 3.7 +/- 0.6 microM and a kcat of 34 s-1. Electrospray ionization Fourier-transform mass spectrometry identified a single sequencing error and demonstrated heterogeneity, finding molecular weights of 42,127, 42,198, and 42,255 due to added Ala and Gly-Ala at the amino terminus. Similar analysis of the 4-amino-2-methyl-6-chloropyrimidine inactivated enzyme indicated that the active site nucleophile involved in catalysis of the substitution reaction is located between Pro79 and Thr177. Subsequent cysteine-specific labeling and site-directed mutagenesis identified Cys113 as the active site nucleophile.
Quais são as funções dos mecanoreceptores da articulação do ombro?: uma revisão da literatura

Nontraumatic glenohumeral instability is the most common shoulder pathology among young people causing pain and "impingement syndrome symptoms". This instability usually affects athletes who perform overhand activities such as throwing and swimming. The glenohumeral stability is usually provided by rotator cuff musculature and capsule-ligament structures (glenoid labrum, glenohumeral ligaments and capsule). In order to control the synergistic relationship between muscles and capsuloligamentous structures, the somatosensory system located in the glenohumeral joint plays an essential function. These mechanoreceptors, Pacini, Ruffini and Golgi tendon organs are functionally distributed in the shoulder joints, and they have a complex relationship with the shoulder's musculature. According to the latencies obtained between stimuli in shoulder joints and muscular responses, suggests the consideration that mechanoreceptors not only contribute to detection of movement direction and joint position sense, but are also implicated in the control of movements and coordination. Rehabilitation programs for altered movement patterns using proprioceptive techniques appear to be justifiable. Also, to enhance proprioceptive techniques, more attention should be focused on shoulder exercises that use sequences and coordination in their execution.
Data-driven and calibration-free lamb wave source localization with sparse sensor arrays

Most Lamb wave localization techniques require that we know the wave’s velocity characteristics; yet, in many practical scenarios, velocity estimates can be challenging to acquire, are unavailable, or are unreliable because of the complexity of Lamb waves. As a result, there is a significant need for new methods that can reduce a system’s reliance on a priori velocity information. This paper addresses this challenge through two novel source localization methods designed for sparse sensor arrays in isotropic media. Both methods exploit the fundamental sparse structure of a Lamb wave's frequencywavenumber representation. The first method uses sparse recovery techniques to extract velocities from calibration data. The second method uses kurtosis and the support earth mover’s distance to measure the sparseness of a Lamb wave’s approximate frequency-wavenumber representation. These measures are then used to locate acoustic sources with no prior calibration data. We experimentally study each method with a collection of acoustic emission data measured from a 1.22 m by 1.22 m isotropic aluminum plate. We show that both methods can achieve less than 1 cm localization error and have less systematic error than traditional time-of-arrival localization methods.
Acoustic imaging of the New England shelf-slope water mass interfaces

PULSED high frequency acoustics has been shown to have unique applications in the detection and measurement of oceanic phenomena such as internal waves1–3 and dispersion of ocean-dumped sewage sludge4,5 or dredge material6. With moderate to high pulse repetition rates, a virtually continuous record of water column scattering strength is available to depths of the order of 500 m from a ship travelling at speeds of 4 or 5 knots. We used this feature to detect acoustically the interfaces associated with an intrusion of cold New England shelf water into the warmer slope water during a 9-d period in June 1976.
Reduction in sexual risk behaviors among college students following a comprehensive health education intervention.

Abstract Sexually active college students are at risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV infection. As a result, health education initiatives to prevent these infections are commonplace, but few controlled research studies have evaluated behavioral changes as a result of on-campus sex education. In a nonrandomized control trial, sexual risk behaviors of 341 students who had received a comprehensive health education intervention in a first-year seminar were compared with 227 students who were not enrolled in the seminar. The seminar curriculum included an intervention addressing facts about sexually transmitted diseases, safer sex, values, decision making, and assertiveness skills. Sexual abstinence (no sexual intercourse), number of sexual partners, consistent condom use, and methods of contraception were assessed at baseline and after 3 months. Compared with students who had not received the intervention, men in the seminar reported increased sexual abstinence but no change in co...
Studies of soiling and detergency

A study was made of the desorption of carbon-14 labeled fatty acid, fatty alcohol, hydrocarbon, triglyceride, and hydrophobic and hydrophilic particulate carbon from cellulose, Nylon, and polyethylene terephthalate films into aqueous solutions of cationic, anionic, and nonionic deter-gents. Use of the polymers in film form as end-windows of a Geiger counter and labeling of the soils with radioactive carbon-14 allowed con-tinuous monitoring of the amount of sorbed material and normalized the usual complication of fiber and fabric geometry so that results ob-tained with different polymers could be directly compared. An excellent correlation was established be-tween fatty soil removal from polyethylene terephthalate film and fabric surfaces; thus re-sults obtained with film substrates have practical significance. Wash variables were carefully con-trolled and were altered one at a time to learn their effect on the soil-removal process. Results are discussed in terms of the possible mechanisms of soil removal.
Efficient detection of primary users in cognitive radio networks

This paper proposes an approach to detect the primary user during the communication of the secondary users, using the concept of interference detection in the presence of a desired signal. The detection problem is first formulated as a multi-class classification problem. The pattern with medium bit error rate (BER) and low interference to signal power ratio (ISR) is identified as the most difficult case. A classifier based on a support vector machine (SVM) is proposed to solve this problem. Simulation results yield 76% classification accuracy with ISR larger than -10 dB and a heterogenous channel condition between the primary link and secondary link. Both the channel vacation time and the usage of idle time can be reduced by the proposed approach.
Microwave Thermal Noise Standards

Calibrated microwave thermal noise standards usually consist of a matched resistive element thermally isolated by a transmission line. They are used for microwave radiometry, antenna temperature calibrations, loss measurements, low-noise amplifier performance evaluation, and low-level CW signal level calibrations. The formula used to account for the distributed loss and temperature along the transmission line is derived and simplifying approximations and limitations are noted. Exact (hf/kT<<1) and approximate (hf/kT<<1, /spl pound/<<1) solutions for various loss and temperature distributions are tabulated. A FORTRAN computer program is available for a general solution that uses the transmission-line temperature and loss distributions for input data. The single largest source of calibration error is usually the microwave insertion loss measurements. The construction, calibration, and errors are discussed for a field-operational liquid-nitrogen-cooled waveguide noise standard. This standard is precisely calibrated and has a nominal noise temperature of (78.09 /spl plusmn/ 0.12 peak)/spl deg/K.
A preliminary investigation of the concurrent validity of reading comprehension rate: A direct, dynamic measure of reading comprehension

Reading comprehension rate (RCR) is a direct measure of reading skills that may be useful in formatively evaluating students reading beyond the fourth-grade level. To investigate the concurrent validity of RCR, we correlated RCR, reading comprehension level (RCL), and words correct per minute (WC/M) with the Broad Reading Cluster Scores of the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ-III ACH) across 88 students in 4th, 5th, and 10th grades. Results showed that aloud-RCR was significantly correlated with the WJ-III ACH scores for 4th-grade (r = .90; n = 22), 5th-grade (r = .87; n = 29), and 10th-grade (r = .65; n = 37) students. Regression analysis specified a one-predictor model for 4th-grade students (aloud-RCR), a two-predictor model for 5th-grade students (WC/M and aloud-RCR), and a one-predictor model for 10th-grade students (WC/M). Discussion focuses on directions for future research and applied issues related to RCR probe passage development. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 373–388, 2007.
Determining system parameters for optimal performance of hybrid DS/FFH spread-spectrum

In recent years there has been great interest in using hybrid spread-spectrum (HSS) techniques for commercial applications in addition to their inherent uses in military communications because they accommodate high data rates with high link integrity, even in the presence of significant multipath effects and interfering signals. A highly useful form of this transmission technique for many types of command, control, and sensing applications is the specific code-related combination of standard direct sequence (DS) modulation with "fast" frequency hopping (FFH), denoted hybrid DS/FFH, wherein multiple frequency hops occur within a single data-bit time. However, the optimum parameter sets for specific HSS applications have not been examined heretofore in the literature. In this paper, an optimization approach is formulated that maximizes the hybrid DS/FFH communication system performance in terms of biterror probability and solves for the resulting system design parameters. The optimization objective function is non-convex and can be solved by applying the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions. Specific system design parameters of interest are the length of the DS code sequence, number of frequency-hopping channels, number of channels corrupted by wide-band jamming, and number of hops per bit. The proposed formulation takes into account the effects from wide- and partial-band jamming, multiuser interference, and/or varying degrees of Rayleigh and Rician multipath fading. Numerical results are used to illustrate the method's viability.
The Body Politic: The relevance of an intersectional framework for therapeutic performance research in drama therapy

Abstract Bringing feminism into conversation with drama therapy, this article explores the relevance of an intersectional framework for therapeutic performance research. The author analyzes the relationship between intersectionality, health, and performance ethnography and then discusses a past performance from an intersectional lens to highlight the potential psychological, social, and political health benefits of performance research. The author concludes with a discussion of the implications of this analysis for a socially engaged, therapeutic, performance research practice in drama therapy.
The replication of measles virus in the presence of tunicamycin.

Abstract The glycoproteins of measles are involved in a number of biological activities, including infectivity and cell fusion. In order to study the role of carbohydrates in the function of viral glycoproteins, tunicamycin (TM) was used to inhibit the addition of sugars to glycoproteins. One microgram per milliliter of the drug, administered 2 hr postinfection to cell cultures infected with virus, caused a 10 3 –10 4 reduction in the production of infectious progeny virus. This inhibition occurred at either 33 or 37° and affected both the Edmonston and Joy wild-type measles strains. The release of material with the density of virions was inhibited 85–90%. Synthesis of the nonglycosylated viral proteins (L, P, NP, M) appeared to be normal in the presence of the drug, while changes were observed in the synthesis of H, the large viral glycoprotein, and F 1 a component of the fusion protein. Particles released from TM-treated cultures lacked the normal H and F 1 proteins. Virion preparations contained a polypeptide, termed p90, which migrated more slowly than H on SDS-PAGE and was also found in preparations of particles released from cultures infected in the presence of 2-deoxy- d -glucose. Normal cultures pulsed for 2 hr with [ 35 S]methionine late in infection released virions that had incorporated the label into the L, p90, P, NP, and M polypeptides.
Quantitative determination of the total local polarity (charge separation) in molecules

We introduce a polarity index Π that is proposed as a measure of the charge separation in a molecule. Π can be viewed as the average deviation of the electrostatic potential on the surface of the molecule. It permits a quantitative assessment of total local polarity, even in a molecule that has zero dipole moment. In support of our formulation of Π, we show that it is related to an empirical polarity-polarizability parameter and also to the dielectric constant.
Strain Aging of Niobium in the Temperature Range 100 to 200 °C

Strain aging experiments have been conducted on polycrystalline niobium, containing approximately 100 ppm by weight of interstitial impurities. For aging temperatures in the so-called stage III recovery region, which lies between 100 to 200 °C, recovery occurs in two separate and independent substages. The first substage is thought to be caused by the detrapping of self-interstitials which are then able to migrate through the lattice and form new defect configurations. The second substage is probably connected with the migration of oxygen interstitials. The study indicates that the pinning of dislocations may also occur during the recovery and, under suitable conditions, dislocations may be successively pinned by self-interstitials, oxygen interstitials, and carbon (or nitrogen) interstitials. Deformationsalterungsexperimente wurden an polykristallinem Niobium durchgefuhrt, das ungefahr 100 ppm (Gew.) Zwischengitterverunreinigungen enthielt. Fur Alterungstemperaturen im Bereich des sog. Erholungszustands III, der zwischen 100 und 200 °C liegt, tritt die Erholung in zwei getrennten und unabhangigen Unterzustanden auf. Es wird angenommen, das der erste Subzustand durch Detrapping von Zwischengitterdefekten verursacht wird, die dann durch das Gitter wandern und neue Defektanordnungen bilden konnen. Der zweite Subzustand ist wahrscheinlich mit der Wanderung von Sauerstoff auf Zwischengitterplatz verbunden. Es wird gezeigt, das die Verankerung von Versetzungen auch wahrend der Erholung auftreten kann, und das unter geeigneten Bedingungen die Versetzungen sukzessive durch Zwischengittereigendefekte, Sauerstoffzwischengitterdefekte und Kohlenstoff-(oder Stickstoff-)zwischengitterdefekte verankert werden konnen.
Comparative study of titanium dioxide thin films produced by electron-beam evaporation and by reactive low-voltage ion plating

Titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) is often used as a high refractive-index material for multilayer optical coatings. However, the optical properties of TiO(2) films depend strongly on the deposition process and its parameters. A comparative study of TiO(2) films fabricated by conventional electron-beam evaporation and by reactive low-voltage ion plating that uses different phases of Ti-O as starting materials is reported. Results on the variability of TiO(2) thin films are analyzed in relation to process parameters. The potential of fabricating high and low refractive-index multilayer stacks with TiO(2) only, by employing two different deposition processes, is presented with a practical example.
Takotsubo cardiomyopathy after electroconvulsive therapy.

Background Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is a novel acute cardiac syndrome characterized by transient regional systolic dysfunction of the left-ventricular apex and mid-ventricle, with hyperkinesis of the basal left ventricular segments, which has been associated with severe emotional or physical stress. Method This is the second published case report of takotsubo cardiomyopathy occurring in the setting of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Results The patient, a 52-year-old woman, experienced chest pain and discomfort shortly after ECT treatment. She was shown to have moderate left-ventricular dysfunction, with mid-cavity left-ventricular hypo- to akinesis, and hyperkinesis in the basilar region, consistent with a diagnosis of takotsubo cardiomyopathy. There was full resolution of her symptoms within 48 hours of the initial event. Discussion This report highlights a previously undocumented complication of ECT and adds to the growing list of stressors responsible for cases of takotsubo cardiomyopathy. The prognosis is favorable, and recovery is generally complete, especially with early recognition of the syndrome and proper supportive treatment.
Decision Making for Postpartum Depression Treatment.

Depression and its many sequelae affect multiple domains of perinatal health. Successful treatment increases the likelihood of optimal function in these critical areas. Examples are physiological regulation, cognition, psychosocial relationships, compliance with self-care, minimal use of recreational drugs and alcohol, decreased cigarette use, healthful nutritional choices for infants and family, ability to understand and integrate health information, and accessing well baby care and pediatric appointments. Postpartum wellness improves the probability of postpartum feelings of wellbeing, functionality, capacity to enjoy the family and infant, normal infant growth, neurodevelopment and health, and the ongoing maturation of mother–infant interactions. A major function of physicians and other healthcare professionals is framing treatment choices for patients with postpartum depression and guiding them through the decision making process. Deber and colleagues1 developed an approach that focused on the importance of identifying treatment options for a particular disease, considering alternate choices that include no treatment and reviewing potential outcomes with an empathic approach. Another review combined the perspectives of perinatal psychiatrists, decision-making theorists, obstetricians, and forensic psychiatrists to describe the risk–benefit considerations regarding psychiatric treatments during pregnancy.2 We have elaborated the ideas and concepts from this pioneering research to develop an approach to treatment decision making for post-partum depression. Our focus is the clinician’s artful application of information about treatments to the individual patient.
Atom-Aid: Detecting and Surviving Atomicity Violations

Hardware can play a significant role in improving reliability of multithreaded software. Recent architectural proposals arbitrarily group consecutive dynamic memory operations into atomic blocks to enforce coarse-grained memory ordering, providing implicit atomicity. The authors of this article observe that implicit atomicity probabilistically hides atomicity violations by reducing the number of interleaving opportunities between memory operations. They propose atom-aid, which creates implicit atomic blocks intelligently instead of arbitrarily, dramatically reducing the probability that atomicity violations will manifest themselves.
New relationships between production and patent activity during the high-growth life cycle stage for materials

Abstract A comparison of the life cycle plots for the production and patent activity for several materials indicates that the two life cycle plots may be correlated to such an extent that they may be superimposed to a large degree, for all growth-stages, simply by an origin shift. Over fifty metallic and non-metallic materials have been studied. This origin shift may be indicative of the presence of Stage III (high-growth stage). The drive force ratio for innovation-enhanced supply also scales with the origin shift. When the drive force ratio is equal to one, the materials in their Stage III life, are balanced in the amount of resources which impact production and patents. One of the key findings is that materials may be grouped into two groups depending on their drive ratio and the lag ratio in the data sets of the production and patent activity. In the first group, innovation is unable to influence the production activity and consequently materials tend to slide towards Stage IV (i.e. the stage of low average growth with high oscillation) regardless of the fact that patents may impact unit production significantly in this group. The existence of a Stage V (final death stage) is also discussed. It appears that materials that have been recognized to be highly toxic are particularly prone to a Stage V type behavior.
COMPARISON OF CORROSION RATE-MEASURING DEVICES FOR DETERMINING CORROSION RATE OF STEEL-IN--CONCRETE SYSTEMS

Abstract The principles of the various corrosion rate-measuring instruments (3LP, Nippon Steel Company, and GECOR devices) are presented. The corrosion rate determined by these devices is compared with that obtained by standard electrochemical and nonelectrochemical corrosion rate-measuring methods. For corroding steel coupons in acid, very good agreement was found between the electrochemical and nonelectrochemical rate-determining systems, but for passive specimens, the agreement was not so good. A linear relationship was observed between the results obtained by the Nippon device and impedance spectroscopy for small mortar specimens irrespective of the test solution, exposure to solution, or test cycle. The significance of this relationship is discussed. Testing of large concrete specimens shows that for passive steel-in-concrete systems, all devices were incapable of confining the signal distribution from the counter electrode to the rebar area directly below the counter electrode when the size of the w...
Catalytic Amplification of Patterning via Surface-Confined Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization on Mixed Primer Layers Formed by Contact Printing

Thin films of polymers synthesized from strained olefins were formed on Si(100) via ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) initiated by a Ru−alkylidene catalyst bound to the surface by means of the alkylidene ligands. Specifically, a mixture of 7-octenyltrichlorosilane (3) and octyltrichlorosilane (4) was deposited onto Si/SiO2 surfaces via contact printing, and this assembly was subsequently treated with RuCl2(PCy3)2(CHPh) (1). The resulting surface-tethered Ru alkylidene complex reacts with norbornene derivatives to give thin polymer films. The growth of the polymer film, as monitored by ellipsometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and atomic force microscopy (AFM), is strongly influenced by the initial concentration of the catalyst at the surface and by the monomer reactivity. The catalyst concentration at the Si/SiO2 surface was controlled by adjusting the relative ratio of 3 and 4 in the “primer” used in the contact-printing step. These studies revealed that the success of the catalyt...
Planning and designing the care transitions innovation (C‐Train) for uninsured and Medicaid patients

BACKGROUND: Uninsured and Medicaid patients are particularly vulnerable as they transition from hospital to home. Transitional care improvement programs require time and capital, incentives for which may be unclear for those lacking a third-party payor. This article describes our experience developing a hospital-funded transitional care program for uninsured and Medicaid patients. METHODS: We performed an inpatient needs assessment, convened multi-stakeholder work groups, and engaged institutional change-agents to inform program development and a business case. RESULTS: We mapped needs to specific program elements, including a transitional care nurse, pharmacy consult and provision of medications for uninsured patients, medical home linkages including community payment for medical homes, and monthly quality improvement meetings. A business case was informed by local needs and utilization data, and compelled the hospital to invest in up-front resources for this population. DISCUSSION: We are studying our program's impact on 30-day readmission and emergency department rates through a clustered, randomized controlled trial. Lessons from our experience may be useful to others aiming to improve care for socioeconomically disadvantaged patients. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2012; © 2012 Society of Hospital Medicine
The Legacy of Andrew Isserman at the US National Science Foundation

Andrew Isserman received support from the US National Science Foundation (NSF), and he contributed to the agency’s work by evaluating proposals. His most significant contribution to NSF was his proposition that cumulative knowledge associated with successive projects undertaken in a specific line of inquiry, which could be expressed as a logistic function taking the form of a sigmoid curve. This articulation has been used for more than two decades to assess when projects no longer yield the same levels of new knowledge as previous work in a line of inquiry. More recently, the Isserman Curve has become a part of the NSF Geography and Spatial Science Program’s strategic efforts to identify and support potentially transformative research and research that may have especially significant longer-term value.
Neutralization of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 by sCD4-17b, a Single-Chain Chimeric Protein, Based on Sequential Interaction of gp120 with CD4 and Coreceptor

We designed a novel single-chain chimeric protein, designated sCD4-17b, for neutralization of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). The recombinant protein contains domains 1 and 2 of soluble CD4 (sCD4), connected via a flexible polypeptide linker to a single-chain variable region construct of 17b, a human monoclonal antibody that targets a conserved CD4-induced epitope on gp120 overlapping the coreceptor binding region. We hypothesized that the sCD4 moiety would bind gp120 and expose the 17b epitope; the 17b moiety would then bind, thereby blocking coreceptor interaction and neutralizing infection. The sCD4-17b protein, expressed by a recombinant vaccinia virus, potently neutralized a prototypic R5 clade B primary isolate, with a 50% inhibitory concentration of 3.2 nM (0.16 microg/ml) and >95% neutralization at 32 nM (1.6 microg/ml). The individual components (sCD4 and 17b, singly or in combination) had minimal effects at these concentrations, demonstrating that the activity of sCD4-17b reflected the ability of a single chimeric molecule to bind gp120 simultaneously via two independent moieties. sCD4-17b was highly potent compared to the previously characterized broadly cross-reactive neutralizing monoclonal antibodies IgGb12, 2G12, and 2F5. Multiple primary isolates were neutralized, including two previously described as antibody resistant. Neutralization occurred for both R5 and X4 strains and was not restricted to clade B. However, several primary isolates were insensitive over the concentration range tested, despite the known presence of binding sites for both CD4 and 17b. sCD4-17b has potential utility for passive immunization against HIV-1 in several contexts, including maternal transmission, postexposure prophylaxis, and sexual transmission (topical microbicide).
Extraction efficiencies for pesticides in crops: 14C-benomyl extraction from mustard green and radishes

14C-labeled benomyl [methyl 1-(butylcarbamoyl)-2-benzimidazolecarbamate] suspended in a commercial benomyl formulation was sprayed on mustard greens and radishes. At 3 intervals after application, the crops were extracted with methanol, acetonitrile, or acetone. Crops were either blended and leached or repetitively blended followed by Soxhlet extraction. Essentially all of the extractable radioactivity was removed by blending. The 14C was more difficult to extract from radishes than from mustard greens as time increased. Respective percentages of 14C extracted at 1, 7, and 14 days were 99, 98, and 97 from mustard greens and 96, 88, and 79 from radishes. Methanol exhibited the highest extraction efficiency, and the blend-Soxhlet process was better than the blend-leach process. Thin layer chromatography of the organic-soluble extracts indicated that the majority of 14C was recovered as methyl 2-benzimidazole carbamate (MBC), a breakdown product of benomyl. Acid hydrolysis of the extracted tissues released 30--50% of the residual 14C.
Interactions between groundwater and surface water in a virginia coastal plain watershed. 2. Acid—base chemistry

An intensive study was conducted on the biogeochemical processes controlling the acid-base chemistry of Reedy Creek, a wetland-influenced coastal plain stream located near Ashland, Virginia. In the context of the hydrological processes determined by Eshleman et al., the present research sought to: (1) identify the sources and sinks of anthropogenic and organic acidity within the watershed, (2) determine the seasonal and spatial variability in the stream base flow chemistry, (3) determine the episodic variability in stream stormflow chemistry and (4) quantify a watershed sulphate budget for the 1990 water year. Sulphate is the primary acidic anion in groundwater and surface water at the Reedy Creek watershed. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and anion deficit data suggest that organic acids are less important than sulphate in contributing acidity to the stream. In groundwater sampled from wells installed along two transects perpendicular to the stream, sulphate concentrations were higher and alkalinity lower in the groundwater in the hill-slope than in the stream. Sulphate concentrations and alkalinity observed in groundwater in the wetland were usually between those of the hillslope and stream. These data suggest that the wetland is a sink for sulphate and acidity; sulphate reduction may be an important mechanism for generating alkalinity in the wetland. The DOC concentrations were higher in the stream and wetland groundwater than in hillslope groundwater. No consistent spatial patterns in sulphate concentrations were observed in surface water chemistry under base flow conditions. Anion deficit, DOC and the sum of base cation concentrations were usually higher at upstream sites than downstream sites. At all sites, sulphate concentrations were higher and alkalinity lower in winter and spring than during summer and autumn. Calculated anion deficits were lower in winter and spring than during summer and autumn, reflecting an increase in the contribution of organic acidity during the growing season. Seasonality was not observed in DOC concentrations. Stream discharge was found to be positively correlated with base flow sulphate concentrations and inversely correlated with alkalinity. A sulphate mass balance indicated that approximately 30% of the estimated 24.9kg SO2−2/ha yr wet atmospheric input was exported from the watershed as sulphate in stream runoff in the water year 1990.
Hysteresis-Based Mechanism for the Directed Motility of the Ncd Motor

Abstract Ncd is a Kinesin-14 family protein that walks to the microtubule's minus end. Although available structures show its α -helical neck in either pre- or post-stroke orientations, little is known about the transition between these two states. Using a combination of molecular dynamics simulations and structural analyses, we find that the neck sequentially makes intermediate contacts with the motor head along its mostly longitudinal path, and it develops a 24° twist in the post-stroke orientation. The forward (pre-stroke to post-stroke) motion has an ∼4.5 k B T (where k B is the Boltzmann constant, and T = 300 K) free-energy barrier and is a diffusion guided by the intermediate contacts. The post-stroke free-energy minimum is higher and is formed ∼10° before reaching the orientation in the post-stroke crystal structure, consistent with previous structural data. The importance of intermediate contacts correlates with the existing motility data, including those for mutant Ncds. Unlike the forward motion, the recovery stroke goes nearly downhill in free energy, powered in part by torsional relaxation of the neck. The hysteresis in the energetics of the neck motion arises from the mechanical compliance of the protein, and together with guided diffusion, it may be key to the directed motility of Ncd.