cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Reproductive health care delivery patterns in a changing market

Providers of reproductive health services, including clinics and office-based physicians, face new challenges as the American health system progresses toward managed care. Although services for low-income women are often subsidized, the average out-of-pocket payments for reproductive health services are the same for women with incomes below and above 200% of the poverty level. Although many women, especially those classified as low income, use clinics, most say that they would prefer to receive care in a private physician's office and in a place where they can get general health care as well. Multivariate analyses indicate the importance of type of insurance and source of primary health care in affecting a woman's selection of her reproductive health care provider. Specialized providers such as family planning clinics need to consider how they can blend with managed care plans.
DRACULA’S APOLOGETICS OF PROGRESS

Religion in Dracula studies has often looked a little like the Un-Dead Lucy, a ghastly simulacrum of living faith. Indeed, readings of the novel frequently depend on a suspicious approach to the novel's professions of piety, one that regards them as a mask for more fundamental concerns: the heroes profess religious concern, but what they really want is to neutralize the New Woman, or racial degeneration, or sexual perversion. Under these conditions, Christianity provides, at best, a potent discourse through which the characters can manage these coded crises. When religion does enter the conversation, critics tend to read the text for clues to Stoker's personal position on the theological controversies of his day: the Catholic-Protestant divide in Ireland, the place of High Church ritualism in Anglican worship, the merit of the doctrine of transubstantiation. As a result, we are left with a Dracula that functions as an elaborate code book, encrypting what Stoker secretly (or not-so-secretly) believed.
WAVE GROUPS IN THE SURF ZONE: MODEL & EXPERIMENTS

Experiments were conducted with regular wave groups incident on a plane beach to analyze the behaviour of the groups in the breaking region and in the surf-zone. The groups were composed of individual cnoidal waves. Emphasis was laid on obtaining measurements in the breaking region and in the surf-zone. It was found that the location of the start of breaking of the individual waves was affected by the groupiness of the waves. The structure of the groups were also seen to be different inside the surf-zone, which changes the forcing for the long wave. The long wave motion is forced at the group frequency and can be resolved into two components, an incident forced wave, which varies along the tank and a free standing wave. The standing wave is generated because the free outgoing long wave is reflected at the wavemaker, where there was no absorption of waves. A conservation model was developed using the kinematic conservation equation and the energy conservation equation. The dispersion relation was used to close the system of equations. Cnoidal theory was used in the shoaling region and bore theory was used in the surf-zone. It was found that the model accurately predicts the group structure and the individual wave location in the shoaling region, but does not do well in the surf-zone.
Recovery of Moraxella bovis (Hauduroy) from the Crops of Face Flies (Diptera: Muscidae) Fed on the Eyes of Cattle with Infectious Bovine Keratoconjunctivitis

Moraxella bovis (Hauduroy), the causative organism of infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis (IBK), was isolated from the crops of 5- to 10-day-old female Musca autumnalis DeGeer which had fed on the eyes of infected cattle in all stages of the disease. The disease was categorized into ten clinical stages. The flies acquired M. bovis from callie up to 79 days after convalescence began.
Ceftaroline: Potential role and implications in an era of escalating antimicrobial resistance

The increasing prevalence of health-care-associated as well as community-associated infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and the failure of MRSA infections to respond to standard therapy with vancomycin may soon change the epidemiology of pathogens causing skin and
Effect of Interparticle Interactions on Agglomeration and Sedimentation Rates of Colloidal Silica Microspheres

The sedimentation half-times ts of initially monodisperse dispersions of 750, 505, and 350 nm silica microspheres were measured in water, in ethanol, and in aqueous NaBr solutions of concentration cNaBr ranging from 50 to 1000 mM, where the particles may have formed clusters. In water and in ethanol, ts was about 8, 18, and 33 h for the 750, 505, and 350 nm particles, respectively. These values were the same as the ones predicted by Stokes’ law, suggesting that the particles were monodisperse and remained so during sedimentation; ts values remained the same with increasing particle weight fraction up to 0.03, indicating no hydrodynamic interactions. Three regions of NaBr concentrations with different settling behavior were found for each size. In region I or at lower cNaBr, the ts values were the same as at no salt conditions, implying that there was no significant agglomeration before particles settled. In region II, ts decreased with increasing cNaBr, suggesting that the agglomeration and sedimentation ...
Summarzation of Natural Gas Purifying Process

Natural gas purifying process has made its progress in 20th century.This article introduced some natural gas purifying processes as follows:amine method,mixing amine method,Benfield method,Sulfinol method process,cool methanol absorption techology,membrane separation technology and some unconventional purifying processes.We explained the characteristics of each process and its application situation.And finally,we pointed out the developing trend of natural gas purifying technology and gave some suggestions on that.
Observations of snowpack ripening in the Sierra Nevada, California, U.S.A.

The transition from a dry, sub-freezing snow cover to isothermal snow freely conducting water was observed near timberline in the Sierra Nevada, California, U.S.A. Although there were few major stratigraphic boundaries in the snowpacks observed, minor textural discontinuities were sufficient to both route water laterally downslope and later create ice layers at these strata. During the first few days of snowmelt, downslope movement of water parallel to the strata allowed water to bypass lower layers of the snow cover on slopes and converge in microtopographic depressions on level terrain, creating isolated drains through the snowpack. In addition to these drains, flow fingers associated with holes in the ice sheets delivered water to the base of the snow several days prior to the thorough wetting of the snowpack. Formation of a series of ice lenses just below the snow surface every night released much more latent heat than did ice-layer development within the bulk of the snowpack or at its base.
Micro-sociology of sport: interaction rituals of solidarity, emotional energy, and emotional domination*

AbstractClose micro-observation has been facilitated by use of videos and body instrumentation for purposes of athletic training and game strategy. Such technologies also allow researchers to examine the crucial details of what happens on and around a sports field. Micro-sociology of sports draws on, and contributes to, Interaction Ritual theory of the emotional dynamics of solidarity, and the micro-sociology of violence. Sport and violence model each other: first, because sport as play-fighting or substitute for war, involves similar mechanisms of winning and losing; and second, violence breaks out on field and around it, in tune to rhythms of the game. The micro-interactional details of focus of attention, energy, rhythm (and their lack), and above all moments of emotional domination, are key processes in all the above.
Enhancing Diagnosis Ability For Embedded Electronic Systems Using Co-Modeling

This paper describes a new modeling and simulation approach in order to enhance the diagnosis ability of an electronic embedded system, including in the automotive field. Our modeling approach integrates the hardware specifications to the functional model in order to establish better system observation. It is based on hardware/software (HW/SW) co- modeling with multilevel of granularity. To reach this objective, we have set up a relationship between the desired diagnosis accuracy and the level of granularity of the HW/SW co-model, for every Electronic Computing Unit (ECU). Our contribution allows the attribution of the right co-simulation hierarchical level by attributing the right simulation accuracy, for each function under observation.
Focus on Elementary: What Is “Good Teaching” for Elementary English Language Learners?

Ms. Jenkins sat in the faculty meeting at the elementary school where she had been working for 12 years. Her principal, Mrs. Morrison, was talking about the importance of supporting the increasing ...
REVISITING HOGUP CAVE, UTAH: INSIGHTS FROM NEW RADIOCARBON DATES AND STRATIGRAPHIC ANALYSIS

The remarkable finds from the trans-Holocene archaeological record excavated at Hogup Cave, Utah, helped define our understanding of Great Basin prehistory. However, many scholars doubt the integrity of the site's depositional sequence and resulting chronological interpretations. To resolve these concerns, we produce several Bayesian chronological models combining 14 new radiocarbon dates with the results of past dating efforts. We first present an examination of the excavation and previously derived dates, finding that several of the most anomalous dates can be accounted for by details in the excavation's field notes. We then report our new dates and construct an initial Bayesian chronological model to serve as a framework for three increasingly complex models synthesizing old and new dates from the site. The best-supported model divides the site's stratigraphy into four occupational phases: Strata 1 through 7 (9790 to 6490 cal B.P.), Stratum 8 (5840 to 3330 cal B.P.), Strata 9 and 10 (2870 to 2760 cal B.P.), and Strata 11 through 16 (2610 to 360 cal B.P.). This result raises several questions to direct future research and dating efforts at Hogup Cave and serves as a model for reevaluating complex stratigraphic sequences in western North America and beyond.
Neurogenic Pelvic Pain

Pelvic neuralgias frequently cause severe pain and may have associated bladder, bowel, or sexual dysfunctions which also impact quality of life. This article explores the etiology, epidemiology, presentation and treatment of common causes of neurogenic pelvic pain, including neuralgia of the border nerves (ilioinguinal, iliohypogastric, and genitofemoral), pudendal neuralgia, clunealgia, sacral radiculopathies caused by Tarlov cysts, and cauda equina syndrome. Treatment of pelvic neuralgia includes conservative measures such as pelvic physical therapy, lifestyle modification, and medications with escalation to more invasive and novel treatments such as nerve blocks, radiofrequency ablation, cryoablation, neuromodulation and neurectomy/neurolysis if conservative treatments are ineffective.
Constructing a confidence interval for the fraction who benefit from treatment, using randomized trial data

The fraction who benefit from treatment is the proportion of patients whose potential outcome under treatment is better than that under control. Inference on this parameter is challenging since it is only partially identifiable, even in our context of a randomized trial. We propose a new method for constructing a confidence interval for the fraction, when the outcome is ordinal or binary. Our confidence interval procedure is pointwise consistent. It does not require any assumptions about the joint distribution of the potential outcomes, although it has the flexibility to incorporate various user-defined assumptions. Our method is based on a stochastic optimization technique involving a second-order, asymptotic approximation that, to the best of our knowledge, has not been applied to biomedical studies. This approximation leads to statistics that are solutions to quadratic programs, which can be computed efficiently using optimization tools. In simulation, our method attains the nominal coverage probability or higher, and can have narrower average width than competitor methods. We apply it to a trial of a new intervention for stroke.
Multiphysics simulation of algal growth in an airlift photobioreactor: Effects of fluid mixing and shear stress

Abstract A multiphysics model has been developed to predict the effects of fluid mixing and shear stress on microalgal growth in an airlift photobioreactor. The model integrates multiphase flow dynamics, radiation transport, shear stress, and algal growth kinetics using an Eulerian approach. The model is first validated by comparing its predictions with experimental data, and then the radiation transport and algal growth kinetics submodels are added to predict biomass accumulation under different flow conditions. The simulations correctly predict biomass growth curves for a wide range of superficial gas flow rates and demonstrate that biomass productivity increases with increased gas flow rate due to better light delivery to microorganisms. However, at the higher gas flow rates considered, shear stress on microorganisms inhibits biomass growth. Lastly, it is shown that the Eulerian approach used here provides a less cumbersome computational approach and provides better predictions than the circulation time and Lagrangian approaches.
Human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome: A survey on the knowledge, attitude, and practice among medical professionals at a tertiary health-care institution in Uttarakhand, India.

Introduction: Health-care professionals are trained health-care providers who occupy a potential vanguard position in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) prevention programs and the management of AIDS patients. This study was performed to assess HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) and perceptions among health-care professionals at a tertiary health-care institution in Uttarakhand, India, and to identify the target group where more education on HIV is needed. Materials And Methods: A cross-sectional KAP survey was conducted among five groups comprising consultants, residents, medical students, laboratory technicians, and nurses. Probability proportional to size sampling was used for generating random samples. Data analysis was performed using charts and tables in Microsoft Excel 2016, and statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Science software version 20.0. Results: Most participants had incomplete knowledge regarding the various aspects of HIV/AIDS. Attitude in all the study groups was receptive toward people living with HIV/AIDS. Practical application of knowledge was best observed in the clinicians as well as medical students. Poor performance by technicians and nurses was observed in prevention and prophylaxis. All groups were well informed about the National AIDS Control Policy except technicians. Conclusion: Poor knowledge about HIV infection, particularly among the young medical students and paramedics, is evidence of the lacunae in the teaching system, which must be kept in mind while formulating teaching programs. As suggested by the respondents, Information Education Communication activities should be improvised making use of print, electronic, and social media along with interactive awareness sessions, regular continuing medical educations, and seminars to ensure good quality of safe modern medical care.
Physical hand interaction for controlling multiple virtual objects in virtual reality

Immersive virtual reality systems often strive to support realistic physical interaction through direct hand control, but it is not often possible to configure the physical environment to exactly match the virtual environment. We study methods that allow physical hand interaction with virtual objects using passive props in scenarios analogous to home-use settings where a user might be seated at a desk or standing at a table. Our approach maps a single physical prop to multiple virtual objects distributed throughout a virtual environment. Leveraging prior work, we explore two adjusted travel techniques to facilitate physically aligning the user with the physical prop when ready to virtually interact with a virtual object: a redirection approach that uses rotational adjustments to gradually align the user during virtual locomotion, and the resetting approach that introduces a discrete rotational update when the user virtually approaches a target for interaction. Additionally, our work explores considerations for using one physical prop to control multiple types of object interactions. We report the results of a controlled study about usability of the two passive-haptic interaction methods as compared to a virtual hand approach without haptics.
Rare Incidence of Acute Liver Injury with Potassium Para-Aminobenzoate Introduction

Acute liver injury is an alarming condition, as it may lead to a devastating outcome. Of the many causes of acute liver injury, review of medications is crucial to identifying the cause of the injury. Some commonly used medications may unpredictably be the underlying cause of liver injury. We present a case of Peyronie's disease treated with potassium para-aminobenzoate that developed acute liver injury. After starting the new treatment, the patient complained of right upper quadrant pain. He was found to have elevated liver enzymes. The condition resolved after stopping potassium para-aminobenzoate use. We report a potassium para-aminobenzoate side effect of liver injury that can be managed conservatively.
A Simple Device Using Capacitance Switches for Data Entry in Man-Machine Systems

A simple design has been developed for the priority input of 32 function switches in a man-machine system. The use of no-bounce capacitance switches required additional logic circuitry to alleviate...
The Impact of Parental Occupation and Socioeconomic Status on Choice of College Major

This study examines the effects of socioeconomic status and parental occupation on choice of college major, with special attention directed toward female and male differences. The study uses multinomial logit analysis and data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) 1990 Survey of Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS). Having a father in a professional or executive occupation has a larger effect on female students than does having a mother in a similar occupation. The opposite holds for males. Women from families with high socioeconomic status are less likely to major in business; the opposite holds for males. Students who believe that being very well off financially is very important are more likely to major in business than are other students.
Why Do Science Teachers Teach the Way They Do and How Can They Improve Practice

Research on teaching, learning and learning to teach can provide needed guidance for teacher education and education policy. As a science teacher educator my practices have been shaped consistently by a program of classroom-based research that began in 1973 and has continued to the present; an approach that was characterised by a dialectical relationship between theory and empirical studies. Over time the theoretical lenses I used to describe, interpret and raise questions evolved to take account of the historical constitution of science education and the sociocultural embeddedness of teaching and learning. Within the context of an ongoing program of research, the issue of metaphor became salient in 1985 during a sabbatical leave at the University of Georgia. Having read Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) Metaphors we live by I began to explore how metaphors were involved in conceptualising the roles teachers considered to have significance to their teaching. For more than a decade I then studied teaching and learning to teach through the lenses of the metaphors teachers used in their talk about science teaching and as referents for teaching science.
Shifting Identities in the Classroom

How does this exchange between a teacher and a 14-year-old student contribute to the student’s social identity? Knowing that the student is a working-class African-American girl, and that the teacher is a middle-class European-American man, we might construe this as a powerful teacher silencing a disempowered student. Widely circulating categories of identity, like ‘working class’ and ‘African American’ are in fact crucial resources that people use, and that operate through people, as they identify themselves and others. This fragment could, of course, be uncharacteristic for the teacher and the student, and there could be mitigating circumstances. If this sort of event recurred, however, we could plausibly argue that the student is being identified as ‘bad’ because this fits with a widely circulating model of identity that includes ‘resistant,’ ‘disruptive’ students who are disproportionately African American and working class.
Real-Time Relative Lane and Position Identification of Surrounding Vehicles Using GPS and DSRC Based Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication

In recent years, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) have contributed significantly towards improving traffic mobility and reducing road accidents. A fundamental requirement to facilitate many ADAS functions is to acquire the position of surrounding vehicles. Accurate position information can be obtained using either sensor-based systems or Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs). For these systems to work well for practical road and weather conditions, advanced techniques and algorithms are needed which make the system complex and expensive to implement. Previously, the authors proposed and demonstrated a method of estimating accurate relative trajectories of surrounding vehicles with lane level resolution using standard GPS receivers and Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) based Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communication. Building upon the previous work, in this paper the authors propose a cost-effective methodology to estimate the relative lane and position of surrounding vehicles in real time, which could facilitate many critical ADAS functions. The proposed methodology was evaluated using field tests on a freeway section, containing sharp curved road segments designed for a maximum degree of curvature for a speed of 120 kmh. The field test results show that the relative lane and position of surrounding vehicles can be identified in real time with 100% accuracy when the distance between the two vehicles was < 50m.
Enduring mental health in the Baltimore epidemiologic catchment area follow-up study

To estimate the prevalence of enduring mental health (EMH) and examine important correlates of EMH 23 years later in the Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area Follow-Up study. We estimated the prevalence of EMH among 964 adults with diagnostic data at all four study waves (1981–2004). Those with EMH were compared to those with any mental or behavioral disorder by demographic, psychosocial, and health characteristics. We used forward selection models to identify the most important predictors of EMH. Twenty-six percent of participants met criteria for enduring mental health across the four waves. Neuroticism, GHQ-20 score, childhood conduct problems, female sex, maternal depression, and poor self-rated health were negatively associated with EMH. We identified several malleable factors associated with a decreased likelihood of enduring mental health. Interventions that target high neuroticism, childhood conduct problems, or maternal depression may increase the likelihood that children achieve EMH later in life. Identifying and treating other factors such as poor self-reported health and greater psychological distress may also keep sub-clinical symptoms from developing into a full mental or behavioral disorder.
High intake of dietary fructose in overweight/obese teenagers associated with depletion of Eubacterium and Streptococcus in gut microbiome.

Background: A western high fat, high carbohydrate diet has been shown to be associated with decreased gut bacterial diversity and reductions in beneficial bacteria. This gut bacteria dysbiosis could develop in early life and contribute to chronic disease risk such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.Objective: To determine how dietary macronutrients are associated with the relative abundance of gut bacteria in healthy adolescents.Methods: Fifty-two obese participants (12-19 years) from two studies, many who were primarily of Hispanic background, provided fecal samples for 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Dietary macronutrients were assessed using 24-hour diet recalls and body composition was assessed using DEXA. General regression models assuming a negative binomial distribution were used to examine the associations between gut bacteria and dietary fiber, saturated fat, unsaturated fats, protein, added sugar, total sugar and free fructose after adjusting for age, gender, race/ethnicity, body fat percentage, study and caloric intake.Results: The genera Eubacterium (Benjamini-Hochberg (BH) corrected p-value = 0.10) and Streptococcus (BH corrected p-value = 0.04) were inversely associated with dietary fructose intake. There were no other significant associations between abundances of gut microbes and other dietary macronutrients, including fiber, fat, protein, total sugar or added sugar.Conclusions: High dietary fructose was associated with lower abundance of the beneficial microbes Eubacterium and Streptococcus, which are involved with carbohydrate metabolism.
Stress and Deformation in Plastic Mudrocks Overturning in Front of Advancing Salt Sheets; Implications for System Kinematics and Drilling

We use evolutionary poromechanical models to study stress and deformation in sediments that are deposited above a salt sheet, then are upturned in front of salt and eventually buried below salt. Sediments in our model represent rocks that are able to deform plastically. We find that high differential stresses develop, leading to shear failure of sediments as they are upturned in front of salt. However, we show that strength and failure evolve together with the salt system because the mode of loading from the advancing salt changes as sediments fold below salt. We also show that the path of salt flow is affected by the continuous changes in sediment strength. We discuss how the present-day geometry of the salt base may provide evidence of the level of shear below salt. We show that our forward modeling approach can help evaluate mechanical trap integrity by identifying areas that experienced elevated shear during earlier stages of the evolutionary process. Overall, our poromechanical models allow us to correlate kinematics of salt emplacement with the stress history of sediments and identify potential drilling hazards.
Repaired Tetralogy of Fallot

While a substantial minority of patients with repaired tetralogy of Fallot (rTOF) have normal exercise performance, as a group their performance is mild-moderately decreased, and there is a cohort with markedly decreased exercise capacity. The factors responsible for the rTOF patient’s exercise intolerance are probably diverse and may vary from patient to patient. In most cases, residual cardiovascular lesions (pulmonary stenosis, pulmonary regurgitation, and especially right ventricular dysfunction) are the most important issues. The dynamic interplay between these variables and their effect on exercise function is complex, however, and can vary over time. The combination of an incompetent pulmonary valve and residual pulmonary artery stenoses is particularly deleterious and results in interesting physiology that is uniquely appreciated in the exercise physiology laboratory. Exercise testing can be safely performed in a wide range of TOF patients. Data from exercise testing in rTOF patients has important prognostic and clinical implications.
Semi-Automatic LaTeX-Based Labeling of Mathematical Objects in PDF Documents: MOP Data Set

Mathematical objects (MO) in PDF documents is paramount in understanding the ontology and mathematical essence in published science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) documents. As of now, Marmot is the only publicly available data set for optimizing and evaluating MO labeling models in PDF documents. Thus, this paper proposes a semiautomatic labeling MO algorithm that uses PDF documents and their corresponding LaTeX source files to generate a new data set consisting of MO bounding boxes (Bbox) in PDF documents, their LaTeX equation, topic, and subject. The first step in labeling each MO is to transform the LaTeX and PDF documents into a string format. Afterwards, a shortest unique string-matching technique is proposed to align PDF pages with LaTeX files. On each page, a similar shortest string-matching technique is employed to align each LaTeX MO with its PDF counterpart. Once an MO is located, the PDF and LaTeX MOs are normalized in order to match symbols between their LaTeX and PDF representations. A number of filtering rules are set to eliminate matches that are considered exceedingly inconsistent. Matches that pass these rules will have their MOs highlighted for final manual inspection. A total of 1,802 pages in the high energy physics (hep-th) field were labelled.1
Gene Therapy in Heart Disease

As the technology for gene therapy develops in vitro and in vivo in animal models, it is becoming clear that the three principal approaches--recombinant retroviruses, recombinant adenovirus, and direct DNA delivery--will ultimately have applications in specific therapeutic situations that take full advantage of the unique features of the specific delivery system: low level persistent expression after ex vivo recombinant retroviral therapy, high level transient expression after in vivo recombinant adenoviral therapy, or moderate level transient expression after in vivo administration of a synthetic DNA complex, which in principle could be repeated as desired.
Nitrous Oxide Inhalant Use Disorder Preceding Symptoms Concerning for Primary Psychotic Illness

Background and objective Nitrous oxide has long been used recreationally for its ability to induce euphoria and other deliriant effects. In modern times, it remains a popular, legal, and widely available option for those seeking altered states. Though substance-induced psychotic symptoms have been mentioned in the literature, the potential long-term negative neuropsychiatric effects related to its use have not been well established. Methods and results This is a patient case report of a young man (N = 1) who initially presented with acute neurological symptoms requiring hospitalization due to heavy nitrous oxide inhalant use, and went on to present with symptoms concerning for a primary psychotic illness over multiple inpatient admissions. He provided both verbal and written consent to share his story for this case report. Discussion and conclusions It is important to consider nitrous oxide use as a possible contributing factor to the development of primary psychotic illness. Scientific significance Current literature suggests that psychosis associated with nitrous oxide use is transient and resolves upon cessation and treatment of vitamin B12 deficiency. Here, we present a patient with risk factors for psychotic illness developing psychotic illness following extensive nitrous oxide use. This report offers a unique perspective of longitudinal follow-up (often not provided with reports on this topic), and illustrates the importance of healthcare providers inquiring about nitrous oxide abuse in patients presenting with early psychotic symptoms. (Am J Addict 2020;00:00-00).
Targeting Tissue Stiffness in Metastasis: Mechanomedicine Improves Cancer Therapy.

Tissue stiffening plays a critical role in cancer progression. In this issue of Cancer Cell, Shen et al. demonstrated that highly activated fibroblasts in metastatic colorectal cancer increase tissue stiffness and angiogenesis. Targeting tissue stiffness improves the outcome of anti-angiogenic therapy and prolongs patient survival.
Aortic Aneurysm Natural Progression is Not Influenced by Concomitant Malignancy and Chemotherapy.

Background Aortic aneurysms occur concomitantly with malignancy in approximately 1.0–17.0% of patients. There is little published information regarding the effects of subsequent oncological therapies on aortic aneurysm growth. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of chemoradiation therapies on the natural progression of small abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), thoracic aortic aneurysm, and thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm. Methods Patients with aortic aneurysms with and without malignancy between 2005 and 2017 were identified within institutional databases using Current Procedural Terminology and International Classification of Disease codes. Inclusion criteria included complete chemotherapy documentation, a minimum of 3 multiplanar axial/coronal imaging or ultrasonography before, during, and after receiving therapy or 2 studies for patients without malignancy. Propensity matching, Cox and linear regression, and Kaplan-Meier survival analyses were performed. Results A total of 159 (172 aneurysms) patients with malignancy and 127 (149 aneurysms) patients without malignancy were included. Average patient demographics were 74.4 ± 9.8-years-old, Caucasian (66.8%), male (70.3%), with hypertension (71.1%), current smoking (24.5%), coronary atherosclerotic disease (26.2%), and AAA (71.0%). The most common malignancy was lung cancer (48.4%) with most chemotherapy regimens including a platinum-based alkylating agent and concurrent antimetabolite (56.0%). The overall median follow-up time was 28.2 (range 3.1–174.4) months. Aortic aneurysms in patients without malignancy grew to larger sizes (4.43 ± 0.96 vs. 4.14 ± 1.00, P = 0.008) with similar median growth rates (0.12 vs. 0.12 cm/year, P = 0.090), had more atypical morphologic features (14.1% vs. 0.6%, P Conclusions Small aortic aneurysms with concomitant malignancies are discovered at smaller initial sizes, grow at similar rates, require fewer interventions, and have fewer ruptures and acute dissections than patients without malignancy. Antimetabolite therapies modestly accelerate aneurysmal growth, and patients receiving topoisomerase inhibitors may require earlier repair. Patients with concomitant disease can be confidently treated according to standard institutional aneurysm surveillance protocols. Overall, we recommend treatment of the malignancy before small aortic aneurysm repair as these aneurysms behave similarly to those in patients without malignancy.
Queer Hunger: Human and Animal Bodies in Djuna Barnes’ Nightwood

This chapter examines Djuna Barnes’ Nightwood to understand the novel’s intersection of queer theory and animal studies. Despite the overlap between ve(getari)ans and the queer community, Nightwood aligns queerness with an animalistic hunger that Robin, one of the two lesbian protagonists, must struggle with quite literally at the end of the novel. Nightwood, and especially the novel’s final scene, raises complicated questions about the relationship between queerness and ve(getari)anism that have implications for how we understand the space between these two marginalized identities. The chapter explores the nuanced and often contradictory dynamic between these positionalities in Barnes’ novel and offer conclusions about her work’s impact on these communities today.
Pollution level and risk assessment of lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic in edible mushrooms from Jilin Province, China.

To evaluate the pollution level of toxic elements in edible mushrooms from Jilin Province, China, the lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic content present in them were monitored and evaluated. A total of 610 edible mushroom samples, including fresh and dried, were collected from nine cities in the Jilin Province. The concentrations of lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic ranged from 0.007 to 3.31, 0.006 to 48.52, 0.003 to 0.56, and 0.008 to 57.34 mg/kg, respectively, in dried samples, and 0.007 to 0.06, 0.006 to 0.17, 0.003 to 0.06, and 0.008 to 0.12 mg/kg, respectively, in fresh samples. The concentration of cadmium and arsenic exceeded the standard (Cd ≤ 0.2 mg/kg, Cd of Lentinus edodes ≤ 0.5 mg/kg, and As ≤ 0.5 mg/kg) in some mushroom samples. The bioconcentration levels of lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic depended on the edible mushroom species, environment, and the physicochemical properties of lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic. The results of the single factor pollution index, a method used to calculate the level of single elements in substances, showed that all edible mushrooms were at the level of unpolluted except Tricholoma matsutake and Pleurotus eryngii. The comprehensive factor (P) for T. matsutake was 1.093. The comprehensive factor pollution index, a method used to calculate the level of combined mixture in substances, was in the unpolluted level, except for T. matsutake. The pollution index results showed that cadmium and arsenic concentrations were lightly polluting in some mushroom samples. The health risk index for arsenic was the highest. Therefore, more attention should be paid to arsenic contamination in T. matsutake and P. eryngii in the Jilin Province, China. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: In this paper, we evaluated the contamination levels and associated safety issues of four toxic elements, lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic, in edible mushrooms. The results showed that cadmium and arsenic concentrations were lightly polluting in some mushroom samples.
Heparin Resistance - Clinical Perspectives and Management Strategies.

Heparin Resistance Heparin resistance is suspected when more heparin than usual is needed to achieve a therapeutic range of activated partial-thromboplastin time. Management may include increasing ...
Managing Pain at End of Life

End-of-life care can be broadly defined as services needed during the terminal stages of an incurable illness with a likely prognosis of ≤1 year. Pain occurs in most patients during the course of a terminal illness and in about half of the patients during their final days. Palliative care during the end of life is designed to enhance comfort and quality of life by addressing physical symptoms, emotional distress, family issues, and spiritual needs. More than half of hospice services are provided for non-cancer, terminal illnesses. Most patients receive hospice services in the home or residential settings.
Fluid updates: beyond strong vs. weak updates

We describe a symbolic heap abstraction that unifies reasoning about arrays, pointers, and scalars, and we define a fluid update operation on this symbolic heap that relaxes the dichotomy between strong and weak updates. Our technique is fully automatic, does not suffer from the kind of state-space explosion problem partition-based approaches are prone to, and can naturally express properties that hold for non-contiguous array elements. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this technique by evaluating it on challenging array benchmarks and by automatically verifying buffer accesses and dereferences in five Unix Coreutils applications with no annotations or false alarms.
On the performance of coherent and noncoherent multiuser detectors for mobile radio CDMA channels

We investigate the performance of several suboptimal multiuser detectors for rapidly time varying mobile radio channels. A modified Jakes (1974) model is used to simulate a realistic mobile fading channel. The use of the Kalman filter for this channel model is examined. We also analyze the performance of several noncoherent multiuser detectors. Analysis and simulation results indicate that the decorrelator is more robust than other considered multiuser detectors.
An automated ESD verification tool for analog design

There is an increasing need for automated ESD verification tools-especially for analog designs. This work will describe the aspects of analog design that increase verification complexity and will present tool requirements based on these aspects. A new verification tool for analog design will then be presented.
Oral immunization with the saliva-binding region of Streptococcus mutans AgI/II genetically coupled to the cholera toxin B subunit elicits T-helper-cell responses in gut-associated lymphoid tissues.

Mice immunized intragastrically (i.g.) with a genetically constructed chimeric protein consisting of the saliva-binding region (SBR) of Streptococcus mutans AgI/II coupled to cholera toxin (CT) A2 and B subunits (CTA2/B) develop serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) and mucosal IgA antibody responses against AgI/II that are enhanced by the coadministration of CT as an adjuvant. To investigate the development of antigen-specific T cells in the gut-associated lymphoid tissues, mice were immunized i.g. with SBR, SBR-CTA2/B, or SBR-CTA2/B plus CT. AgI/II-specific T cells in Peyer's patches (PP), mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN), and spleen were assayed by lymphoproliferation and flow cytometry for the expression of T-cell surface markers, and cytokine mRNA expression was evaluated by reverse transcription-PCR. T-cell responses were consistent with antibody responses but were detectable after the first immunization. Proliferative responses of PP and MLN cells upon stimulation with AgI/II in vitro were low and delayed in mice given SBR alone, and these cells displayed a mixed type 1 and 2 (or Th0) pattern of cytokine expression. Immunization with SBR-CTA2/B resulted in greater AgI/II-specific proliferative responses in PP cells and an increase in the proportion of CD4+ T cells. Coadministration of CT with SBR-CTA2/B led to greater proliferative responses especially in the MLN cells, which then showed an increase in CD4+ cells. Immunization with SBR-CTA2/B (with or without CT) skewed the cytokine expression pattern in PP and MLN cells toward Th2. The results indicate that T helper cells were induced in gut-associated lymphoid tissues by i.g. immunization with SBR-CTA2/B, concomitantly with and prior to the appearance of circulating and mucosal antibodies.
Monetary policy before and after the crisis: what should we be teaching undergraduates?

The economic crisis has seen central banks turn to some rather innovative practices in order to deal with the great recession. In particular, the Federal Reserve in the USA has made considerable use of what has been called ‘quantitative easing’. This practice marked a great departure from standard or textbook treatments of monetary policy, whether neoclassical or in its new consensus form. Yet, for post-Keynesian economists, quantitative easing is a practice fully consistent with the general conduct of monetary policy. The paper argues that the economics profession at large has been teaching the wrong theory of money.
Effect of microstructure on the nucleation of deformation twins in polycrystalline high-purity magnesium: A multi-scale modeling study

Abstract A multi-scale, theoretical study of twin nucleation from grain boundaries in polycrystalline hexagonal close packed (hcp) metals is presented. A key element in the model is a probability theory for the nucleation of deformation twins based on the idea that twins originate from a statistical distribution of defects in the grain boundaries and are activated by local stresses at the grain boundaries. In this work, this theory is integrated into a crystal plasticity constitutive model in order to study the influence of these statistical effects on the microstructural evolution of the polycrystal, such as texture and twin volume fraction. Recently, a statistical analysis of exceptionally large data sets of {1012} deformation twins was conducted for high-purity Mg ( Beyerlein et al., 2010a ). To demonstrate the significantly enhanced accuracy of the present model over those employing more conventional, deterministic approaches to twin activation, the model is applied to the case of {1012} twinning in Mg to quantitatively interpret the many statistical features reported for these twins (e.g., variant selection, thickness, numbers per grain) and their relationship to crystallographic grain orientation, grain size, and grain boundary misorientation angle. Notably the model explains the weak relationship observed between crystal orientation and twin variant selection and the strong correlation found between grain size and the number of twins formed per grain. The predictions suggest that stress fluctuations generated at grain boundaries are responsible for experimentally observed dispersions in twin variant selection.
Gain correction in optimal filtering using floating point arithmetic

The effects of the finite word length in a floating point implementation of the least squares filter is discussed. Optimal precomputable gains are given, and a computationally more attractive approximation is given.
Mozzarella Cheese: Impact of Coagulant Type on Functional Properties

Abstract The objective of this study was to determine the impact of coagulant type and refrigerated storage on functional properties of unmelted and melted Mozzarella cheese. A "no-brine" Mozzarella cheese-making method was used to produce cheese with homogeneous chemical composition. Cultured Mozzarella cheeses were made with three different coagulants ( Endothia parasitica protease, chymosin derived by fermentation, and Mucor miehei protease) in 1 d, and cheese making was replicated on 3 different d. During 50 d of storage at 4°C, texture profile analysis parameters (hardness, cohesiveness, and springiness) of unmelted cheese decreased, meltability increased, apparent viscosity of melted cheese decreased, and free oil formation from melted cheese increased. Overall, the Mozzarella cheese made using E. parasitica protease was softer in unmelted cheese texture, was more meltable, and had lower apparent viscosity and more free oil release on melting than other cheese. In general, cheeses made with chymosin and Mucor miehei protease were similar in functional characteristics.
Effect of 5,6-dichloro-1-β-d-ribofuranosyl benzimidazole on ribonucleotide metabolism and accumulation of mitochondrial RNA and low-molecular-weight cytoplasmic RNA in HeLa cells☆

These results provide additional information on the selective inhibition of RNA synthesis by 5,6-dichloro-1-β-d-ribofuranosyl benzimidazole (DRB). DRB only slightly inhibited the poly(A+) RNA and ribosomal RNA in the mitochondria (maximal inhibition was ~25%) but severely inhibited the poly(A+) RNA in the postmitochondrial supernatant (~95%) and the poly(A+) RNA associated with the cytoplasmic membranes (~80%). Separation of the cytoplasmic low-molecular-weight RNAs showed that DRB inhibited the 5.8 S rRNA, a product of RNA polymerase I, by ~95% while there was only a slight inhibition of the 4 S RNAs (~20%) and 5 S RNA (<5%), products of RNA polymerase III. DRB severely inhibited the appearance in the cytoplasm of 28 S rRNA (~95%) and 18 S rRNA (~80%). These results, along with other recent reports (31–34), may suggest that DRB most severely inhibits RNAs that are extensively processed and/or transcribed from genes that contain extensive intervening sequences. These experiments also indicate that the mechanism of DRB inhibition does not involve alterations in ribonucleotide metabolism. DRB did not affect the phosphorylation of any ribonucleotides to triphosphates or the cellular conversion of [3H]uridine to UTP. Also, the size of the UTP and ATP pools in DRB-treated cells was equal to or greater than those in control cells through a period of 240 min. Significant amounts of DRB triphosphate could not be detected in DRB-treated cells suggesting that this may not be the inhibitory form of DRB. Measurements of the specific activity of the UTP pool allowed direct measurements of the accumulation of picomoles of the individual RNAs in the presence of DRB.