cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
SAT-based distributed reactive control protocol synthesis for Boolean networks

This paper considers the synthesis of distributed reactive control protocols for a Boolean network in a distributed manner. We start with a directed acyclic graph representing a network of Boolean subsystems and a global contract, given as an assumption-guarantee pair. Assumption captures the environment behavior, and guarantee is the requirements to be satisfied by the system. Local assumption-guarantee contracts, together with local control protocols ensuring these local contracts, are computed recursively for each subsystem based on the partial order structure induced by the directed acyclic graph. By construction, implementing these local control protocols together guarantees the satisfaction of the global assumption-guarantee contract. Moreover, local control protocol synthesis reduces to quantified satisfiability (QSAT) problems in this setting. We also discuss structural properties of the network that affect the completeness of the proposed algorithm. As an application, we show how an aircraft electric power system can be represented as a Boolean network, and we synthesize distributed control protocols from a global assumption-guarantee contract. The assumptions capture possible failures of the system components, and the guarantees capture safety requirements related to power distribution.
Harnessing endogenous opioids for pain relief: Fantasy vs reality

Objective: To review evidence demonstrating efficacy and feasibility of harnessing the activity of endogenous opioid analgesic systems for pain management. Methods: The authors sought to summarize a wealth of data that establish proof of concept that the analgesic activity of endogenous opioids can be exploited to clinically benefit from the enormous pain-relieving abilities of these peptides without contributing to the current crisis of death by synthetic opioid overdose. Results: There is a plethora of studies demonstrating that not only can endogenous opioids mediate placebo-induced antinociception but they are also active in modulating clinical pain. Earlier studies convincingly demonstrate the effectiveness of psychological strategies to coopt endogenous opioid analgesic systems to produce pain relief. The challenge is to define pharmacological targets for activating endogenous opioid analgesia reliably in a clinical setting. Based on insights gleaned from mechanisms underlying the ebb and flow of analgesic responsiveness to the spinal application of endomorphin 2, multiple signaling proteins were identified that activate endogenous spinal opioid analgesia. Notably, this was achieved in the absence of any exogenous synthetic opioid. Conclusions: Utilization of drugs that harness endogenous opioid antinociception in accordance with varying physiological states represents a novel approach for effective pain management while mitigating the present epidemic of death by synthetic opioid overdose.
Estimation of solar EUV flux from TIMED/GUVI data

Abstract This paper examines the relationships between the integrated solar EUV (26–34 nm and 5–45 nm) flux and the measured radiance in the N2 Lyman-Birge-Hopfield (LBH) 140–150 nm range (LBHS) under sunlit conditions. We find that both the (26–34 nm) and (5–45 nm) solar fluxes are linearly correlated with the daily median LBHS radiances with correlation coefficients of 0.979 and 0.963 respectively. Such a linear correlation can provide an alternative way to estimate the integrated solar EUV flux, a key heating and ionization source for the thermosphere and ionosphere. A direct measurement of the solar EUV spectrum is challenging due to a rapid degradation of EUV instruments. We demonstrate that using an FUV instrument to infer the change in the solar EUV flux, to the accuracy needed for aeronomic applications, leads to a more stable estimation of the solar EUV inputs especially over the long time scales that are important for understanding secular changes in the upper atmosphere.
Catholic Schools and Immigrant Students: A New Generation:

Background/Context: This article considers the role of Catholic schools, an institution born of the adaptation of previous immigrant waves, in the education of new immigrants and their native-born counterparts. The new immigrants enter a landscape in which education plays a much bigger role than it did for their predecessors and yet faces many challenges. Public schools, particularly in urban centers, struggle with financial difficulties and new standards of accountability. Although scholars and the media have praised Catholic schools for performing better than public schools in promoting academic achievement among urban low-income minority students, the Catholic system also faces fiscal difficulties, declining enrollments, and school closings. Purpose/Objective/Research Questions/Focus of Study: We examine the use of Catholic school by families of different ethnic backgrounds and how attendance relates both to religious affiliation and to socioeconomic class. We also analyze whether attending or graduating from Catholic high school has a positive effect on educational attainment and on the incidence of arrest and incarceration for men, and early childbearing for women. Finally, we seek to understand why immigrant families choose Catholic schools and how their children experience them. Research Design: We draw on data collected for the Immigrant Second Generation in Metropolitan New York Study (ISGMNY). The study includes survey data on 3,415 young adults aged 18‐32 who were interviewed between 1998 and 2001. Respondents include second-generation immigrants and native-born individuals. The study also includes qualitative data from in-depth interviews. For this article, we use interviews conducted with 74 respondents from immigrant and native-born groups who attended Catholic high schools,
Role of interventional pain management in patients with chronic pelvic pain

Patients with chronic pelvic pain are often referred to a variety of specialists in gynecology, urology, and gastroenterology with the hope of finding a diagnosis and treatment. We describe a 51-year-old woman with long-standing chronic pelvic pain secondary to endometriosis who was successfully treated with superior hypogastric plexus blocks. Physicians should consider referring patients to interventional pain specialists for assistance with pain control after thorough diagnostic evaluation.
Intensive Blood Pressure Lowering in Patients with Moderate to Severe Grade Acute Cerebral Hemorrhage: Post Hoc Analysis of Antihypertensive Treatment of Acute Cerebral Hemorrhage (ATACH)-2 Trial

Objective: To study the effect of intensive blood pressure reduction in patients with moderate to severe intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) within the subjects recruited in Antihypertensive Treatment of Acute Cerebral Hemorrhage 2 trial. Design: Randomized, multicenter, 2 group, open-label clinical trial. Setting: A total of 110 sites in the USA, Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Germany. Patients: A total of 1,000 patients underwent randomization from May 2011 till September 2015. Interventions: We analyzed the effect of intensive (goal 110–139 mm Hg) over standard (goal 140–179 mm Hg) systolic blood pressure (SBP) reduction using intravenous nicardipine within 4.5 h of symptom onset in moderate to severe grade subjects with ICH in a non-prespecified analysis. Moderate to severe grade was defined by Glasgow Coma Scale score <13 or baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score ≥10 or baseline intraparenchymal hemorrhage volume ≥30 mL or presence of intraventricular hemorrhage. The primary outcome was death or disability (score 4–6 on the modified Rankin scale) at 3 months after randomization ascertained by a blinded investigator. Measurements and Main Results: Of a total of 682 subjects who met the definition of moderate to severe grade (mean age 61.9 ± 13.1 years, 62.5% men) with a mean baseline SBP of 174.7 ± 24.8 mm Hg, the frequency of hematoma expansion was significantly lower among subjects randomized to intensive SBP reduction than among subjects randomized to standard SBP reduction (20.4 vs. 27.9%, relative risk [RR]: 0.7; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.55–0.96). The primary endpoint of death or disability was observed in 52.5% (170/324) of subjects receiving intensive SBP reduction and 48.9% (163/333) of subjects receiving standard SBP reduction (RR: 1.1; 95% CI: 0.9–1.2). Conclusions: Intensive SBP lowering reduced the frequency of hematoma expansion but did not reduce the rate of death or disability in patients with moderate to severe grade ICH.
Heterogeneous Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Unknown Environment Mapping.

Reinforcement learning in heterogeneous multi-agent scenarios is important for real-world applications but presents challenges beyond those seen in homogeneous settings and simple benchmarks. In this work, we present an actor-critic algorithm that allows a team of heterogeneous agents to learn decentralized control policies for covering an unknown environment. This task is of interest to national security and emergency response organizations that would like to enhance situational awareness in hazardous areas by deploying teams of unmanned aerial vehicles. To solve this multi-agent coverage path planning problem in unknown environments, we augment a multi-agent actor-critic architecture with a new state encoding structure and triplet learning loss to support heterogeneous agent learning. We developed a simulation environment that includes real-world environmental factors such as turbulence, delayed communication, and agent loss, to train teams of agents as well as probe their robustness and flexibility to such disturbances.
Cocaine‐Specific Effects on Exosome Biogenesis in Microglial Cells

Cocaine is a highly addictive stimulant and a well-known drug, with multiple effects on physiology. Cocaine can have direct effects on all cell types in the brain, including microglia. Microglia can be activated by other conditions, such as infection, inflammation, or injury. However, how cocaine regulates microglia and the influence of cocaine on microglial-derived exosomes remains unknown. Exosomes are nanovesicles that are responsible for intercellular communications, signaling, and trafficking necessary cargo for cell homeostasis. In this study, we hypothesized that cocaine affects exosome biogenesis and composition in BV2 microglial cells. BV2 microglial cells were cultured in exosome-depleted RPMI-1640 media and were treated according to the experimental designs. We observed that cell viability decreased by 11% at 100 µM cocaine treatment but was unaffected at other concentrations. After treatments, the exosomes were isolated from the condition media. Purified exosomes were characterized and quantified using transmission electron microscope (TEM) and nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA). By NTA, there was a significant decrease in particles/mL after cocaine treatment. There was a 39.5%, 58.1%, 32.3% and 28.1% decrease in particles/mL at 100 nM, 1 μM, 10 μM and 100 μM cocaine, respectively. The characterization of exosomes and exosomal protein was performed by western/dot blot analyses. Tetraspanins CD11b, CD18 and CD63 were relatively unchanged after cocaine treatment. The heat shock proteins (Hsps), Hsp70 and Hsp90, were both significantly increased at 10 μM and 100 μM, but only hsp70 was significantly increased at 10 nM. The Rab proteins were assessed to investigate their role in cocaine-mediated exosomal decrease. Rab11 was significantly decreased at 10 nM, 100 nM, 1 μM, 10 μM and 100 μM by 15%, 28%, 25%, 38% and 22%, respectively. Rab27 was decreased at all concentrations but only significantly decreased at 100 nM, 1 μM and 100 μM cocaine by 21%, 24% and 23%, respectively. Rab35 had no significant changes noted when compared to control. Rab7 increased at all cocaine concentrations but only a significant increase in expression at 100 nM and 10 μM by 1.32-fold and 1.4-fold increase. Cocaine was found to alter exosome biogenesis and composition in BV2 microglial cells. Western and dot blot analyses verified the identities of purified exosomes, and the specific protein compositions of exosomes were found to change in the presence of cocaine. Furthermore, cocaine exposure modulated the expression of exosomal proteins, such as Hsps and Rab GTPases, suggesting the protein composition and formation of microglial-derived exosomes were regulated by cocaine.
Accurate physical density assessments from clinical spectral results

Physical density assessments may provide valuable insights for a range of diagnostic purposes in abdominal, pulmonary, and breast imaging. These purposes include differentiating iso-attenuating cysts from lesions, aiding in function tests of viral pneumonia, and quantifying breast cancer risk. Physical density assessments also provide a natural and intuitive measurement of human tissue that may be useful for measuring global body mass distributions and comparing measurement techniques. In this work, we present a spectral physical density map generated from clinical dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) datasets. We utilized available DECT estimates for effective atomic number, monoenergetic attenuation, and electron density as inputs into the Alvarez-Macovski model and the relation between a material’s physical and electron densities. To achieve higher accuracy assessments, these underlying equations were parametrized and fit to published tissue composition and density data that had been supplemented with simulated iodine enhancements. Validating the fits with phantom experiments, we observed measurements that are within ± 0.02 g/ml of their nominal values. Our assessments thus fall inside the margin-of-error for the ground-truth densities declared by the phantom manufacturer. Though we validated our density maps only on a dual-layer DECT implementation, the development and optimization of this new spectral result were independent of any other spectral CT technology. Because of this independence and the high accuracies of the maps, we encourage future clinical trials testing the potential applications of this new result for diagnostic imaging.
Multi-Agent Systems for Search and Rescue Applications

The goal of this review is to evaluate the current status of multi-robot systems in the context of search and rescue. This includes an investigation of their current use in the field, what major technical challenge areas currently preclude more widespread use, and which key topics will drive future development and adoption. Work blending machine learning with classical control techniques is driving progress in perception-driven autonomy, decentralized multi-robot coordination, and human–robot interaction, among others. Ad hoc mesh networking has achieved reliability suitable for safety-critical applications and may be a partial solution for communication. New modular and multimodal platforms may overcome mobility limitations without significantly increasing cost. Multi-agent systems are not currently ready for deployment in search and rescue applications; however, progress is being made in a number of critical domains. As the field matures, research should focus on realistic evaluations of constituent technologies, and on confronting the challenges of simulation-to-reality transfer, algorithmic bias in autonomous agents that rely on machine learning, and novelty-versus-reliability incentive mismatch
Patient experiences at dental school clinics: A comparative analysis of online reviews.

Purpose/objectives Online review sites have become popular platforms for health care consumers to rate their experiences. An analysis of online reviews can help dental school clinics learn from patient feedback that is not accessible through formal patient surveys. This study's objectives were to characterize patient-generated reviews posted on the Yelp and Google review sites and assess any associations between dental schools' ratings and their respective characteristics. Methods This cross-sectional study analyzed patient-generated Yelp and Google reviews regarding their experiences at 65 dental school clinics between June and August 2019. Quantitative analysis of selected dental school characteristics and patient ratings was performed using analysis of variance, with effect size measured by the omega-squared (ω2 ) statistic. Statistical significance was set at p = 0.05. Qualitative analysis of review content was conducted using NVivo software. Results Among 65 dental schools in the Unite States, 63 schools (96.9%) had reviews available on Google, and 55 schools (84.6%) had reviews available on Yelp. A total of 4702 patient reviews were included in the analysis (2516 [53.5%] from Google [mean rating = 3.6 ± 0.6 stars] and 2186 [46.5%] from Yelp [mean rating = 3.1 ± 0.9 stars). A school location in the South/Midwest was significantly associated with a higher Yelp rating compared with a school location in the Northeast/West (ω2 = 0.140, 95% confidence interval = 0.002-0.310, p = 0.003). Qualitative analysis found that review content was predominantly negative; while subthemes in care delivery generated positive responses to care quality, those regarding the pre-care and post-care categories garnered negative responses. This finding was particularly true for comments addressing staff helpfulness, billing and payment, and clinic functioning. Conclusions This study's findings indicated that dental programs' online reviews were predominantly negative and covered categories that were not addressed in existing satisfaction surveys.
The response of the U.S. aviation industry to demand and supply shocks in the oil and jet fuel markets

Abstract The article disentangles shocks to the global crude oil and U.S. jet fuel markets into demand and supply shocks that underlie both markets, and then examines the effects of these shocks on the U.S. airline industry. I specify a block-recursive structural vector autoregressive (VAR) model that allows for global crude oil market variables to affect the jet fuel market contemporaneously, but not vice versa. Impulse response functions show that oil supply shocks have no significant impact on oil and jet fuel prices, while aggregate demand and precautionary demand shocks cause oil and jet fuel prices to rise. In addition, my results indicate that jet fuel shocks, whether demand or supply, have no significant effects on global crude oil prices. On the other hand, jet fuel demand and supply shocks both significantly increase the price of jet fuel. Furthermore, jet fuel demand shocks have positive impacts on the U.S. aviation industry, while the effects of jet fuel supply shocks are generally negative.
Living Environment Considerations on Obesity Prevention Behaviors and Self-Efficacy among Chinese Americans.

The aim of this study is to ascertain if the living environment (type of residential neighborhood and number of household members) will elucidate differences in obesity risk reduction behaviors and self-efficacy in Chinese Americans. A cross-sectional survey design was used to recruit participants from Los Angeles County and New York City metropolitan areas. A total of 650 adults were recruited from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Descriptive statistics were measured for 19 behaviors reflecting food intake and portion size control and items measuring self-efficacy and attitudes. T-tests were applied for the two categories of living environment. The mean age of the sample was 36.3 years. The ‘high income’ neighborhood group indicated a greater frequency of behaviors, including choosing steamed over fried foods (p < 0.01) and using small amounts of oil (p < 0.05). In general, this group exhibited more favorable attitudes and stronger self-efficacy to perform health behaviors. Multiple regression analyses point to the impact of self-efficacy in predicting behaviors. Nutrition professionals must assess client’s living environments in the adoption of obesity prevention behaviors and the fostering of behavioral confidence.
Intermediate term outcomes after transvaginal uterine-preserving surgery in women with uterovaginal prolapse.

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS There is growing interest in and performance of uterine-preserving prolapse repairs. We hypothesized that there would be no difference in pelvic organ prolapse (POP) recurrence 2 years following transvaginal uterosacral ligament hysteropexy (USLH) and sacrospinous ligament hysteropexy (SSLH). METHODS This is a retrospective cohort study with a cross-sectional survey of women who underwent transvaginal uterine-preserving POP surgery from May 2016 to December 2017. Patients were included if they underwent either USLH or SSLH. POP recurrence was defined as a composite of subjective symptoms and/or retreatment. A cross-sectional survey was used to assess pelvic floor symptoms and patient satisfaction. RESULTS A total of 47 women met the criteria. Mean age was 52.8 ± 12.5 years, and all had a preoperative POP-Q stage of 2 (55.3%) or 3 (44.7%). Thirty (63.8%) underwent SSLH and 17 (36.2%) underwent USLH. There were no differences in patient characteristics or perioperative data. There was no difference in composite recurrence (26.7% [8] vs 23.5% [4]) and retreatment (6.7% [2] vs 0%) retrospectively between SSLH and USLH groups at 22.6 months. Survey response rate was 80.9% (38) with a response time of 30.7 (28.0-36.6) months. The majority of patients (84.2%) reported POP symptom improvement, and both groups reported great satisfaction (89.5%). In respondents, 13.2% (5) reported subjective recurrence and 5.3% (2) underwent retreatment, with no differences between hysteropexy types. There were no differences in other pelvic floor symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Although 1 in 4 women experienced subjective POP recurrence after transvaginal uterine-preserving prolapse repair and <5% underwent retreatment at 2 years, our results must be interpreted with caution given our small sample size. No differences in outcomes were identified between hysteropexy types; however, additional studies should be performed to confirm these findings. Both hysteropexy approaches were associated with great patient satisfaction.
Can Robots Get Some Human Rights? A Cross-Disciplinary Discussion

An autonomous household robot passed a self-awareness test in 2015, proving that the cognitive capabilities of robots are heading towards those of humans. While this is a milestone in AI, it raises questions about legal implications. If robots are progressively developing cognition, it is important to discuss whether they are entitled to justice pursuant to conventional notions of human rights. This paper offers a comprehensive discussion of this complex question through cross-disciplinary scholarly sources from computer science, ethics, and law. The computer science perspective dissects hardware and software of robots to unveil whether human behavior can be efficiently replicated. The ethics perspective utilizes insights from robot ethics scholars to help decide whether robots can act morally enough to be endowed with human rights. The legal perspective provides an in-depth discussion of human rights with an emphasis on eligibility. The article concludes with recommendations including open research issues.
The Ecology of the Metacity: Shaping the Dynamic, Patchy, Networked, and Adaptive Cities of the Future

The chapter builds a metacity framework and details its features and utility. We start by outlining the general strategy for dealing with spatial complexity on various scales by using nested, spatial mosaics (Wu and Wu, Chap. 11, this volume). We then turn to a description of the three kinds of mosaics that are needed to understand and work with urban structure and change in the metacity: processes, choices, and outcomes. The relationship of these three mosaics to urban adaption and resilience is then considered. Resilience and adaptation, and their relationship to the socially constructed goals of sustainability, require a regional focus that does not stumble at de jure or perceived urban/rural boundaries. We end with a fuller description of the metacity as a synthetic tool, relating it to key insights from the chapters in this book. We conclude with a sense of the excitement that the metacity concept brings to the linkage of ecology, social processes, and urban design, as well as its capacity to address the diversity of urban forms that exist or are emerging around the world.
Predicting Tasks in Goal-Oriented Spoken Dialog Systems using Semantic Knowledge Bases

Goal-oriented dialog agents are expected to recognize user-intentions from an utterance and execute appropriate tasks. Typically, such systems use a semantic parser to solve this problem. However, semantic parsers could fail if user utterances contain out-of-grammar words/phrases or if the semantics of uttered phrases did not match the parser’s expectations. In this work, we have explored a more robust method of task prediction. We define task prediction as a classification problem, rather than “parsing” and use semantic contexts to improve classification accuracy. Our classifier uses semantic smoothing kernels that can encode information from knowledge bases such as Wordnet, NELL and Freebase.com. Our experiments on two spoken language corpora show that augmenting semantic information from these knowledge bases gives about 30% absolute improvement in task prediction over a parserbased method. Our approach thus helps make a dialog agent more robust to user input and helps reduce number of turns required to detected intended tasks.
State of Uncertainty: Citizenship, Statelessness and Discrimination in the Dominican Republic

The phenomenon of statelessness is a grave and growing problem. Millions of stateless individuals are among the least visible but most vulnerable populations in the world. They are not recognized as citizens by any government and thus are forced to function at the edges of society. Without citizenship, people often have no effective legal protection, no ability to vote, and limited access to education, employment, health care, marriage and birth registration. This Note examines the root causes and overall impact of statelessness on a global scale. It also takes a closer look at the history and impact of the systematic, discriminatory denial of citizenship for Dominicans of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic in light of the 2005 Inter-American Court of Human Rights landmark decision against the Dominican Republic affirming nationality as a human right.
A Method to Extend Functionality of Pointer Input Devices

We describe a general method for extending any pointer input device with an arbitrary set of commands. The proposed interface can be trained by the user to recognize certain cursor movement patterns and interpret them as special input events. Methods for extraction and recognition of such patterns are general enough to work with low-precision pointing devices, and they can be adjusted to provide computer access for people with disabilities. The core of the system is a trainable classifier, in the current implementation an artificial neural network. The architecture of the neural network automatically adjusts according to complexity of the classification task. The system demonstrated good accuracy and responsiveness during extensive experiments. Some tests included a severely motion-impaired individual.
Immigration and Immigrants

Abstract Public opinion polls conducted from 1964 to 1999 found that Americans' desire to reduce immigration increased dramatically, but there existed a wide variation regarding which nationalities were to be restricted. Furthermore, the majority believed that many immigrants wind up on welfare and raise taxes for Americans and, hence, cause problems for the United States. This article reports on these findings and their implications for current political attitudes toward immigration and recent change and proposed changes inimmigration laws and programs.
Clinical Approach to the Weak Patient in the Intensive Care Unit

Motor weakness in a patient in the intensive care unit (ICU) may be related to (1) pre-existing neuromuscular disorder that leads to ICU admission, (2) new-onset or previously undiagnosed neurological disorder, or (3) complications of non-neuromuscular critical illness. Neuromuscular syndromes related to ICU treatment consist of critical illness polyneuropathy, critical illness myopathy, and prolonged neuromuscular blockade, and are now recognized as a frequent cause of newly acquired weakness in ICU patients. Clinical features include quadriparesis, muscle wasting, and difficulty weaning from the ventilator. Evaluation of these patients is based on knowledge of clinical setting and predisposing factors, focused neurological examination, detailed electrophysiological investigation, serum creatine kinase level, other laboratory studies as needed, and histological examination of muscle biopsy. If a central nervous system (brain or spinal cord) lesion is suspected, neuroimaging studies are required. In addition to conventional nerve conduction and needle electromyography, phrenic nerve conduction, diaphragm electromyography, blink reflex, and (recently) the technique of direct muscle stimulation have been employed. Critical illness polyneuropathy is an axonal motor and sensory neuropathy that often follows sepsis and multiorgan failure. Risk factors for critical illness myopathy are corticosteroids and neuromuscular blocking drugs, acute respiratory illness, and organ transplant. Three subtypes (acute necrotizing myopathy, thick myosin filament loss myopathy, and type II fiber atrophy) are recognized. Major differential diagnoses of critical illness related paralysis are incidental Guillain-Barre syndrome and unmasked myasthenia gravis. Rarely, atypical presentation of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, polymyositis or other myopathies, and precipitation of porphyria or rhabdomyolysis due to drugs used in the ICU have been described. Recently a poliomyelitis-like flaccid paralysis due to West Nile virus infection was reported. A subgroup of patients with myasthenia gravis with muscle-specific tyrosine kinase antibody is noted to present as respiratory crisis. Muscle biopsy in ICU paralysis syndromes may be helpful in arriving at a specific diagnosis or to classify the type of critical illness myopathy. Nerve biopsy is only rarely indicated.
A Multi-Step Nonlinear Predictive Controller - An Introduction

A new model predictive formulation to control MIMO nonlinear processes is presented. It directly extends the model predictive concepts that have been exploited for the control of linear systems (e.g., IMC and Q/DMC). This new algorithm uses a multi-step predictor, unlike the algorithms by Economou, et al. [2] and Li and Biegler [5], which were limited to a single predictive step. This paper summarizes the features of the multi-step predictor which exhibits superior performance over single-step methods. Furthermore, this multi-step algorithm does not require iterative calculations, as required by Economou, et al., and is more efficient for each predictive step. The algorithm also easily handles constraints involving the state variables and manipulated inputs.
Acamprosate and naltrexone treatment for alcohol dependence: an evidence-based risk-benefits assessment

This paper provides an evidence-based risk-benefit assessment of acamprosate and naltrexone in the treatment of alcohol dependence. A risk-benefit assessment is based on the premise that the choice of treatment depends on a number of factors, notably the adverse event profile and efficacy. An evidence-based approach attempts to operationalize how such risk-benefit assessments are made to inform physician choices. This approach involves a systematic assessment of all published double-blind, placebo-controlled trials. Based on this review, we conclude acamprosate and naltrexone are both useful in the treatment of alcohol dependence. However, the two drugs act in different ways in the brain, and their clinical profiles are different. Treatment effects seem to be more reliable for acamprosate, and this drug is better tolerated. The safety of the two drugs in combination has been supported by two independent double-blind studies, and combination treatment may offer an advantage for some patients.
In vivo priming effect during various stages of ontogeny of an influenza A virus nucleoprotein peptide

In vivo priming of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) by an influenza virus nucleoprotein (NP) peptide was studied at various stages of development. Adult mice immunized twice with the NP peptide in complete Freund's adjuvant and incomplete Freund's adjuvant, respectively, produce significant CTL responses. Neonates immunized at birth with large amounts of NP peptide and boosted twice with the peptide during adulthood, also mount a weak but significant CTL response. By contrast, offspring from mothers immunized with the NP peptide at days 15, 17, and 19 of pregnancy showed unresponsiveness to the peptide subsequent to a similar regimen of peptide immunization at the age of 1 month. The data indicate that the contact of T cell precursors with antigen during fetal life induces CTL tolerance, whereas, after birth the precursors are not susceptible to tolerogenic signals.
Propagation effects on the peak profile in two-dimensional optical photon echo spectroscopy

The effect of pulse propagation on the lineshape in a two-dimensional photon echo spectrum is investigated using the coupled Maxwell Bloch equations. Reshaping of excitation and signal pulses due to propagation results in broadening of peak profiles. The amount of broadening is not symmetric along the two dimensions and depends on pulse intensity and relaxation mechanism. It is found that relaxation mechanisms that give the same lineshape at low optical density (OD) can give different lineshapes at high OD. Even at relatively low OD the reshaping can be quite severe, and might result in misinterpretation of the obtained spectrum.
Effects of norepinephrine on pineal tryptophan hydroxylase, using an improved [14C]CO2-trapping microtechnique

Abstract The synthesis of many biogenic amines involves hydroxylation and/or decarboxylation reactions. These enzymes are often measured by trapping and by determining the concentrations of their end products [ 14 C]CO 2 , from carboxyl-labeled substrates. An improved [ 14 C]CO 2 -trapping technique has been developed for microassay of tryptophan hydroxylase activity. This technique allows hydroxylation and decarboxylation reactions to be carried out sequentially in microculture tubes containing reaction mixtures in less than 50 μl. The incubation vessel consists of two microculture tubes connected by a latex tubing serving as a sleeve. One of the two microculture tubes was used to carry out enzymatic reactions and the other one was filled with CO 2 -trapping agent to trap [ 14 C]CO 2 . The utility of this technique was tested by measuring the effects of biogenic amine on tryptophan hydroxylase in bovine pineal expiants in culture. The bovine pineal tryptophan hydroxylase was found to have a specific activity of 8.93 pmol/mg protein/min, and its activity was linear with respect to both incubation time and to protein concentrations. In addition, treatment with norepinephrine of both rat pineal gland and bovine pineal expiants in culture for 2, 4, and 6 hr had no effect on the activity of tryptophan hydroxylase. It is believed that this technique may be adapted easily to measure numerous CO 2 -generating enzymatic reactions whenever the amounts of protein or the size of tissue demands the application of a microtechnique.
Arthroscopic acromioplasty: a 6- to 10-year follow-up

Arthroscopic acromioplasty has become a common procedure for the treatment of chronic impingement syndrome. Short-term studies have consistently shown good results; however, long-term data have not previously been reported in the literature. Of 102 consecutive patients undergoing arthroscopic acromioplasty at our institution from 1984 to 1988, 82 patients (83 shoulders) were available for evaluation. The patients were reviewed after a mean of 8 years, 5 months from their original surgery. There were 16 failures (19%) with unsatisfactory results following surgery; 13 patients (15%) required further surgery to relieve persistent pain. Thirty-three percent of all patients previously involved in sports were unable to return to overhead and throwing sports due to pain and lack of power with throwing. Overall, 81% of patients in our series had good to excellent results after 6 to 10 years. To optimize the indications for the procedure, other causes of impingement, such as occult instability and degenerative joint disease, should be ruled out. Throwers may have difficulty returning to their sport at the same level of intensity, and should be addressed independently.
Serum macroglobulin induces prion protein transition

The accumulation of the protease-resistant (PrPRes) abnormal form of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) plays a central role in Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies. In this report we describe a blood serum protein, which is precipitated by 9% PEG-6000, migrates in a sucrose gradient with a density of 1.21–1.17 g/ml, has a molecular mass of approximately 720 kDa and amino acid sequence as α2-Macroglobulin (α2-M). This protein can potentiate the conversion of the human recombinant prion protein (23–231 AA) as well as PrPC from the brain of mouse, hamster or cow from the sensitive to the resistant form. Under physiological conditions (pH 7.5; 0.15 M NaCl; 37°C for 30 min; a nanomolar concentration range of PrP) the small, highly structured RNA (shs RNA) may activate the conversion process. We describe the design of an assay for screening for the biomolecules that prevent the PrP transition. Based on our experimental data we discuss the role of the α-helix to β-sheet conformational change in the PrPSen to PrPRes conversion as well as the role of the α2-M during the initial stage of amyloidogenesis as well as the shs RNAs involvement in the formation of amyloid aggregates in neurodegenerative diseases.
An essay on the teaching of leadership to undergraduates in business schools

Business schools across the United States since the late 1800s have taught accounting concepts, business tactics, and management skills in their predominately management-oriented core curricula. They strive to provide students with an effective toolbox designed to improve market share and the bottom line. The teaching of management exposes the student to analytical skills for problem solving, task master efficiency, and the importance of schedules and directing employees to follow them. However, there appears to be a dichotomy within the business education community: many academicians believe business schools need refurbishment; some see a need to revisit the historic, broader approach; others see the need for greater technical expertise. Whether utilizing the classical approach of previous years or the more modern methodology, are undergraduate business students exposed sufficiently to the attributes of leadership and the responsibilities of being a leader in the world of business? Effective leaders are ...
Belief functions and statistical inference

The Dempster Shafer theory of belief functions is a method of quantifying uncertainty that generalizes probability theory. We review the theory of belief functions in the context of statistical inference. We mainly focus on a particular belief function based on the likelihood function and its application to problems with partial prior information. We also consider connections to upper and lower probabilities and Bayesian robustness. La theorie de Dempster et Shafer au sujet des fonctions de confiance permet de quantifier l'incertitude d'une facon qui generalise la theorie des probabilities. On presente un survol de la theorie des fonctions de confiance dans le contexte de Cinference statistique. L'accent est mis sur une fonction de confiance particuliere basee sur la fonction de vraisemblance. On discute de son application a des problemes avec information a priori partielle. On analyse aussi les liens avec les concepts de probabilites inferieure et superieure, et avec la robustesse bayesienne.
The clinician in the driver's seat: part 2 - intelligent uses of space in a drag/drop user-composable electronic health record.

Abstract User-composable approaches provide clinicians with the control to design and assemble information elements on screen via drag/drop. They hold considerable promise for enhancing the electronic-health-records (EHRs) user experience. We previously described this novel approach to EHR design and our illustrative system, MedWISE. The purpose of this paper is to describe clinician users’ intelligent uses of space during completion of real patient case studies in a laboratory setting using MedWISE. Thirteen clinicians at a quaternary academic medical center used the system to review four real patient cases. We analyzed clinician utterances, behaviors, screen layouts (i.e., interface designs), and their perceptions associated with completing patient case studies. Clinicians effectively used the system to review all cases. Two coding schemata pertaining to human–computer interaction and diagnostic reasoning were used to analyze the data. Users adopted three main interaction strategies: rapidly gathering items on screen and reviewing (‘opportunistic selection’ approach); creating highly structured screens (‘structured’ approach); and interacting with small groups of items in sequence as their case review progressed (‘dynamic stage’ approach). They also used spatial arrangement in ways predicted by theory and research on workplace spatial arrangement. This includes assignment of screen regions for particular purposes (24% of spatial codes), juxtaposition to facilitate calculation or other cognitive tasks (‘epistemic action’), and grouping elements with common meanings or relevance to the diagnostic facets of the case (20.3%). A left-to-right progression of orienting materials, data, and action items or reflection space was a commonly observed pattern. Widget selection was based on user assessment of what information was useful or relevant. We developed and tested an illustrative system that gives clinicians greater control of the EHR, and demonstrated its feasibility for case review by typical clinicians. Producing the simplifying inventions, such as user-composable platforms that shift control to the user, may serve to promote productive EHR use and enhance its value as an instrument of patient care.
701-6 Dissociation Between Minimal Luminal Diameter and Clinical Outcome at 6 Month Follow-up in Randomized Trials of Percutaneous Revascularization

There is considerable controversy as to whether quantitative coronary angioplasty is a meaningful surrogate index for clinical outcomes after coronary intervention. If a larger MLD reduces the incidence of restenosis, this in turn should be associated with a decrease in the incidence of subsequent clinical events. To study this phenomenon, we analyzed 6 major randomized trials evaluating a variety of approaches to reduce restenosis following percutaneous revascularization. In 3 of the 6 trials compared to the control arm, treatment was associated with significant decrease in the incidence of clinical events secondary to restenosis (myocardial infarction, death and need for repeat revascularization) and an improvement in the MLD at the time of follow-up catheterization. However, a similar or greater absolute MLD improvement did not yield clinical benefit in 2 trials, and 1 trial showed only clinical benefit. MLD (mm) Event Rate p Difference Treatment Control Angiopeptin 0.01 22% 30% 0.03 CAVEAT I 0.11 28% 30% NS BENESTENT 0.12 23% 33% l0.05 ACCORD 0.16 32% 32% NS CAVEAT II 0.17 22% 33% 0.04 STRESS 0.20 20% 27% 0.08 The magnitude of the difference in MLD between the control and treatment arms of each group is small in comparison with the difference in clinical events detected, and there is no correlation between the magnitude of MLD benefit and outcomes. Conclusion While in some individual trials there is concordance in angio-clinical results, there is little evidence for this with inter trial comparison. This suggests a treatment (medical or device) or trial specific relationship rather than a direct linkage between MLD and clinical outcomes.
Ventricular performance in human hearts aged 61 to 73 years.

Abstract The effects of increasing and decreasing cardiac preload by 15% on the left ventricular (LV) performance of 11 carefully screened normal subjects aged 61 to 73 years were examined. Comparisons were made with 11 subjects aged 21 to 28 years. Two-dimensional echocardiograms were obtained before and at the termination of 5 degrees of head-down tilt for 90 minutes and at the termination of graded lower body negative pressure to −40 mm Hg. Heart rates and blood pressures were unchanged after physiologic interventions. Changes in LV end-diastolic and stroke volumes were similar but of a smaller magnitude in the older subjects compared with changes in younger subjects. When LV end-diastolic volumes obtained at each extreme of preload variation were compared, the range of mean change was less in the older (23 ml, 26%) than in the younger subjects (31 ml, 41%). Control LV end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes were greater in the older subjects. This study shows that despite larger control LV volumes, alterations in preload produce changes in the LV end-diastolic and stroke volumes of these older subjects that conform to the normal LV function curve, but that these responses are diminished compared with changes in younger subjects, suggesting an age-related change in diastolic stiffness.
Interrelationships between Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms and Hydrocotyle umbellata L.

The interrelationships between two floating aquatic macrophytes, Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms and Hydrocotyle umbellata L., were investigated under outdoor conditions during September–December in Gainesville, Florida, using nutrient non-limiting growth media. The carrying capacity for each species was investigated in monoculture, while reciprocal replacement series analysis was used for the intermixed combinations. Plants grown in mixed culture produced more biomass yield than plants grown in monoculture. The biomass of H. umbellata grown intermixed with E. crassipes at all densities was higher than that for H. umbellata grown in monoculture at similar plant density. The root-to-shoot ratios of E. crassipes plants in monoculture or in mixed culture were similar, but decreased four-fold during the 14-week growth period. The root-to-shoot ratio of H. umbellata in mixed culture was much lower (by three-six-fold) than for H. umbellata in monoculture. The resultant short roots were also less efficient as a storage organ for nitrogen (four-six-fold lower) and phosphorus (14-fold lower) than the long roots of H. umbellata grown in monoculture. More nitrogen and phosphorus were accumulated in the shoots of E. crassipes than in its roots.
Mathematics for Equity: A Framework for Successful Practice. Edited by Na'ilah Suad Nasir, Carlos Cabana, Barbara Shreve, Estelle Woodbury, and Nicole Louie. New York: Teachers College Press. © 2014. 288 pages. ISBN: 978-0807755419.

Mathematics for Equity: A Framework for Successful Practice is a guide for instructors, school administrators, and district leaders to establishing, through a systemic approach, equity in both teac...