cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Disparities in Care Among Patients With Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices Undergoing MRI

Abstract Importance Abundant data now demonstrate safe use of MRI for patients with non-MR conditional cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs). However, CMS does not currently reimburse these examinations. Objective Determine whether differences in reimbursement between commercial insurance carriers and CMS are impacting the completion rates of MRI examinations ordered in patients with non-MR conditional CIEDs. Methods This study retrospectively examined patients with non-MR conditional CIEDs for whom an MRI was ordered between January 1, 2015, and August 31, 2016. Completion rates of MRI in patients with Medicare or Medicaid insurance were compared with those in patients with commercial insurance. Before November 7, 2015, all patients with non-MR conditional CIEDs underwent MRI examinations at no charge to the patient regardless of insurance. After that date, outpatients with only Medicare or Medicaid insurance coverage received an Advanced Beneficiary Notice that informed them that they would have to pay out of pocket for the entire cost of their MRI examinations. Results Of 143 MRI examinations ordered, 127 met inclusion criteria for analysis. In the post-Advanced Beneficiary Notice period, outpatients with commercial insurance were significantly more likely to complete their MRI examinations (19 of 22 patients, 86%) when compared with patients with Medicare or Medicaid insurance (1 of 36 patients, 3%; P Conclusions Due to CMS coverage policies based on now outdated concepts about MRI safety, patients with non-MR conditional CIEDs and Medicare or Medicaid insurance are undergoing significantly fewer appropriate diagnostic MRI examinations than patients with commercial insurance.
Impact of Redefined Families on Children’s Development

The chapters contained in this book represent families whose structure is at variance with both historical and traditional views. The conventional perspective that families comprise a mother/housewife, a father/sole earner, and a child(ren) is demographically in the minority in U.S. contemporary society (Wetzel, 1990). Each chapter and its research findings reveal a reformulation and redefinition of the parental role. The implications for children extend far beyond the family unit and pervade all institutions and aspects of our society and culture.
Gene Delivery to Joints by Intra-Articular Injection.

Most forms of arthritis are incurable, difficult to treat, and a major cause of disability in Western countries. Better local treatment of arthritis is impaired by the pharmacokinetics of the joint that make it very difficult to deliver drugs to joints at sustained, therapeutic concentrations. This is especially true of biologic drugs, such as proteins and RNA, many of which show great promise in preclinical studies. Gene transfer provides a strategy for overcoming this limitation. The basic concept is to deliver cDNAs encoding therapeutic products by direct intra-articular injection, leading to sustained, endogenous synthesis of the gene products within the joint. Proof of concept has been achieved for both in vivo and ex vivo gene delivery using a variety of vectors, genes, and cells in several different animal models. There have been a small number of clinical trials for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA) using retrovirus vectors for ex vivo gene delivery and adeno-associated virus (AAV)...
A Temporal Examination of Platelet Counts as a Predictor of Prognosis in Lung, Prostate, and Colon Cancer Patients

Platelets, components of hemostasis, when present in excess (>400 K/μL, thrombocytosis) have also been associated with worse outcomes in lung, ovarian, breast, renal, and colorectal cancer patients. Associations between thrombocytosis and cancer outcomes have been made mostly from single-time-point studies, often at the time of diagnosis. Using laboratory data from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), we examined the potential benefits of using longitudinal platelet counts in improving patient prognosis predictions. Ten features (summary statistics and engineered features) were derived to describe the platelet counts of 10,000+ VA lung, prostate, and colon cancer patients and incorporated into an age-adjusted LASSO regression analysis to determine feature importance, and predict overall or relapse-free survival, which was compared to the previously used approach of monitoring for thrombocytosis near diagnosis (Postdiag AG400 model). Temporal features describing acute platelet count increases/decreases were found to be important in cancer survival and relapse-survival that helped stratify good and bad outcomes of cancer patient groups. Predictions of overall and relapse-free survival were improved by up to 30% compared to the Postdiag AG400 model. Our study indicates the association of temporally derived platelet count features with a patients’ prognosis predictions.
Bound orbits of a slowly evolving black hole

Bound orbits of black holes are very well understood. Given a Kerr black hole of mass $M$ and spin $S=a{M}^{2}$, it is simple to characterize its orbits as functions of the orbit's geometry. How do the orbits change if the black hole is itself evolving? How do the orbits change if the orbiting body evolves? In this paper, we consider a process that changes a black hole's mass and spin, acting such that the spacetime is described by the Kerr solution at any moment, or that changes the orbiting body's mass. Provided this change happens slowly, the orbit's actions (${J}_{r}$, ${J}_{\ensuremath{\theta}}$, ${J}_{\ensuremath{\phi}}$) are adiabatic invariants, and thus are constant during this process. By enforcing adiabatic invariance of the actions, we deduce how an orbit evolves due to changes in the black hole's mass and spin and in the orbiting body's mass. We demonstrate the impact of these results with several examples: how an orbit responds if accretion changes a black hole's mass and spin; how it responds if the orbiting body's mass changes due to accretion; and how the inspiral of a small body into a black hole is affected by change to the hole's mass and spin due to the gravitational radiation absorbed by the event horizon. In all cases, the effect is very small, but can be an order of magnitude or more larger than what was found in previous work which did not take into account how the orbit responds due to these effects.
Fluoroquinolone-induced arthralgia and myalgia in the treatment of sinusitis.

Background Because of their broad-spectrum coverage, fluoroquinolone antibiotics are widely used in the treatment of acute sinusitis and acute exacerbations of chronic sinusitis. Generally, they are well tolerated, and adverse effects are usually mild. In our experience with quinolones, patients have frequently complained of arthralgias and/or myalgias. Although tendon rupture has been described as one of the more severe side effects, there are few published reports of arthralgias and/or myalgias associated with these drugs. Methods A retrospective review of fluoroquinolone prescriptions in a tertiary rhinology clinic was completed. Patients treated with oral levofloxacin for sinusitis over a 12-month period were contacted by mail and asked to complete an anonymous survey regarding adverse effects. Of 81 patients identified, 36 responses were received. Results Among respondents, the incidence of arthralgias and/or myalgias was 25%, which was more than twice the incidence of any other adverse effect reported. Occurrence of arthralgias and/or myalgias did not appear to be influenced by respondent age, course length, concurrent use of oral steroids, or a history of arthritis. Among those reporting arthralgia or myalgia, symptoms began after an average of 3 days of therapy and resolved an average of 7.5 days after cessation of treatment. Fourteen percent of respondents were unable to complete their course of therapy because of arthralgias and/or myalgias. Conclusion Although effective and generally well tolerated in the treatment of sinusitis, fluoroquinolone antibiotics may produce adverse effects of arthralgia and/or myalgia.
Biochemistry of Bacterial Flagella

Flagella are the organelles responsible for motility in bacteria. Since they are relatively simple in structure particularly when compared to the flagella of eucaryotic cells, they offer an opportunity to study the basic mechanisms of biological movement as well as the mechanisms involved in the assembly of subcellular organelles and the regulation of their biosynthesis.
Chapter 32 – Evaluation, Investigations and Management of Late Effects of Childhood Cancer

Publisher Summary Chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery may all cause “late effects” involving any organ system. A definition of “late effects” includes any physical or psychological outcome that develops or persists beyond 5 years from the diagnosis of cancer. Some late effects of therapy identified during childhood and adolescence resolve without consequence, while other late effects become chronic and may progress to become adult medical problems. Since the 1970s, outcomes for childhood cancer have shown remarkable and steady improvements. Five-year overall survival from childhood cancer now exceeds 75% and as many as 1 in 450 American adults will be survivors of childhood cancer. Despite these successes, over 60% of survivors will have at least one chronic health condition, over 25% will have a severe or life-threatening condition and almost 20% will die within 30 years of diagnosis. The complications faced by survivors and the care they require, are multisystem and complex. The most common complications include cardiac, endocrine, musculoskeletal and pulmonary complications, as well as treatment-related secondary neoplasms. Survivors also often face societal, emotional and psychological barriers—such as learning challenges, school difficulties and problems obtaining insurance—and almost one in five suffer from stress-related mental disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Extensive, intricate, long-term medical and psychological follow-up is required to maintain survivors' health and quality of life.
Housing Discrimination and Residential Mobility: Impacts for Blacks and Whites

We merge metropolitan-level measures of racial discrimination in housing markets derived from two national housing audit studies, along with tract-level 1980 census data, with the 1979-1985 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to examine the impact of housing discrimination on patterns of residential mobility between neighborhoods of varying racial composition. We find no evidence that housing discrimination in the metropolitan area impedes African Americans' mobility into whiter neighborhoods. Contrary to expectations, in multivariate analyses based on black movers, the level of housing discrimination is positively associated with the percentage of the population that is white in the tract of destination. Housing discrimination against African Americans is positively associated with the rate at which mobile white households move into whiter census tracts. These findings imply that eliminating racial discrimination by real estate and rental agents will fail to increase black residential mobility into racially-mixed and predominantly white neighborhoods. For both black and white households, life-cycle factors, such as age, children, and home ownership, impede mobility out of the current neighborhood. Conditional upon moving, socioeconomic resources, such as education and income, facilitate mobility into whiter neighborhoods.
Common Skin Conditions in Children: Neonatal Skin Lesions

Skin findings during the initial month of life are ubiquitous. One study estimated that more than 95% of newborns have cutaneous findings, which often are distressing to parents but frequently are benign and self-limited. Among them are milia, cutis marmorata, congenital dermal melanocytosis, and the benign neonatal pustular eruptions (eg, benign cephalic pustulosis, erythema toxicum neonatorum, transient neonatal pustular melanosis). Clinicians need to recognize these benign skin conditions and differentiate them from more serious conditions, such as infectious pustular eruptions from bacterial, viral, and fungal causes, and inflammatory conditions, such as Langerhans cell histiocytosis. Notable bacterial pustular eruptions are bullous impetigo and congenital syphilis. Viral pustular dermatoses include neonatal herpes simplex virus infection and varicella zoster virus infection, which consists of congenital varicella syndrome, perinatal varicella, and infantile zoster. Fungal pustular eruptions include congenital and neonatal candidiasis. Seborrheic dermatitis is a self-limited condition that occurs with varying severity; symptomatic treatment is reserved for the more severe forms. Diaper dermatitis encompasses a broad clinical diagnosis, including allergic and irritant contact dermatitis, atopic dermatitis, infections, psoriasis, and other dermatologic conditions. Critical components of newborn skin care are immersion bathing, umbilical cord care, and use of emollients to augment skin barrier function.
Active fume hood sash height monitoring with audible feedback

Abstract Fume hoods in laboratories consume the energy equivalent of up to four American households per hood; however, closing a modern hood’s sash completely can save up to 75% of that energy. Past efforts have attempted to harness this potential energy reduction by reminding users to close the sash when a hood is not in use. In this work, we developed a device to measure the efficacy of these energy-saving methods. The device records the position of the sash and detects motion to determine whether a user is present, and, when fitted with a piezoelectric buzzer, can audibly alert users to close the sash when not in use. We installed this device in laboratories to quantify the energy and cost savings resulting from real-time audible feedback and found that the alarm reduced wasted energy by 87 to 98%. In addition, the platform demonstrated here can be used to quantitatively test other energy-saving methods that rely on user behavioral change in future work.
Mind-wandering as creative thinking: neural, psychological, and theoretical considerations

Creative thinking is understood via a dual-process model involving the generation of creative ideas followed by their subsequent evaluation and refinement. Creative products must also meet a dual-criterion definition requiring that they be both novel and useful. Mind-wandering consists of self-generated thoughts unrelated to a task or the surrounding environment, involving a relatively spontaneous generation stage sometimes (but not always) followed by a more deliberate stage in which thoughts are evaluated and reflected upon. These stages of mind-wandering show brain recruitment similar to the equivalent stages of creative thinking, and moreover, much mind-wandering can be considered novel and useful. We aim to show that there is a profound analogy—perhaps even a direct relationship—between mind-wandering and creative thinking.
Agility Analysis of the James Webb Space Telescope

The agility of a rigid-body spacecraft can be expressed in terms of a geometric, three-dimensional, solid called the agilitoid. Originally developed as a means for explaining the concept of “hidden...
SEVERE SYSTEMIC HYPOXIA IN A NEONATE: THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

Profound systemic hypoxemia in a neonate, unresponsive to supplemental oxygen, is usually secondary to structural heart disease or persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN). Pulmonary arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) and direct communications from the pulmonary artery (PA) to the atria are other
Textile-Based Novel Anchor-Shaped Antenna for Near-Field Wireless Power Transfer

In this paper, a textile-based novel antenna of anchor-shaped geometry is presented. The antenna was fabricated using automated embroidery of conductive thread referred to as Elektrisola-7 onto clothing substrate. Its power transfer efficiency (PTE) was measured and compared with existing textile-based resonators. The measurements suggest that the anchor-shaped antenna is more efficient than previously published on-textile antennas. It exhibited a power transfer efficiency of up to 83 % at 250 MHz and was used to collect up to 2 mW of DC power at proximity (~1 cm), The collected DC power is sufficient to continuously power an LED or LCD temperature sensor. The simplicity, lightweight, flexibility, and the ability to be unobtrusively integrated into garments make the design attractive to wearable technology applications.
Hepatitis B cure: modeling the economics of a potential cost of a cure.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW The cure for hepatitis C virus infection has raised hope for a potential hepatitis B virus (HBV) cure, but the high price tag has led to serious questions about the affordability, and thus to access for all. This review discusses cost-effectiveness models, affordability, and access to a potential new cure for chronic HBV infection. RECENT FINDINGS A cure does not yet exist for HBV, but the antiviral treatments that are currently available help slow down the progression of disease. There is limited research in the area of cost-effectiveness and economic analysis comparing a potential cure. Our preliminary findings from modeling and economic threshold analysis show that cure could be potentially cost-effective or cost-saving. Governments can possibly use the results of economic models for price negotiations. SUMMARY The highest burden of the HBV infection is in low and middle-income countries. Given that the cost of current treatment has dropped dramatically in recent years as the first line treatments have come off patent, the price for a HBV cure needs to be reasonable and affordable to all people.
Effects of short-chain fatty acid on proliferation, metabolic poise, and activation capacity of T cells

Background & Aim T cell Immunotherapy highly relies on optimal activation and differentiation conditions. Cellular metabolism is one of the key factors determining fate and fitness as T cells progress from activation, through differentiation and exhaustion. In general, a glycolytic poise is observed during T cell activation, providing a highly energetic phenotype that supports cell proliferation and growth. In contrast, a more aerobic poise is observed during the development of memory T cell populations; oxidative metabolism is observed to be a crucial factor in determining the longevity of such memory T cells, with fatty acid oxidation playing a particularly significant role. Observations of metabolic substrates influencing T cell function further highlight the critical role played by environmental conditions in determining therapeutic outcomes. These interactions are particularly pertinent in the gut where microbiome-derived metabolites, specifically short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) have been reported to promote the memory potential of CD8+ T cells. Methods, Results & Conclusion In this in vitro study, we utilized the Agilent Seahorse platform to examine the impact of butyrate, one of the major SCFAs produced by microbiota on the metabolic phenotype and reactivation potential of human T cells. In vitro culture in the presence of butyrate induced a more aerobic pose while also causing a reduction in both glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation. In addition, the proliferation rate and average cell size decreased faster in butyrate-treated cells with no observed impact on cell viability. Interestingly, butyrate-treated T cells also showed higher metabolic responsiveness to re-activation exhibiting a bigger glycolytic activation response. These data illustrate that microbiome-derived SCFA can modulate T cells metabolism and suggest that such metabolic modulation could be explored as a means to positively influence T cell fitness and therapeutic improvement.
Refractory Left Focal Motor Status Epilepticus as Initial Clinical Presentation of Acute Basilar Artery Thrombosis

Seizures are uncommon with posterior circulation strokes. They are more often associated with anterior circulation strokes, with only a limited number of cases of status epilepticus reported to be related to brain stem ischemia. The literature includes case reports of generalized tonic-clonic seizures and associated status epilepticus as an initial presentation of acute basilar artery thrombosis. However, there are only rare cases reporting focal motor seizure as status epilepticus in the setting of acute basilar artery thrombosis, an important clinical presentation that should prompt evaluation for acute brain stem ischemia.
Stacking Gaussian processes to improve $$pK_a$$ p K a predictions in the SAMPL7 challenge

Accurate predictions of acid dissociation constants are essential to rational molecular design in the pharmaceutical industry and elsewhere. There has been much interest in developing new machine learning methods that can produce fast and accurate pKa predictions for arbitrary species, as well as estimates of prediction uncertainty. Previously, as part of the SAMPL6 community-wide blind challenge, Bannan et al. approached the problem of predicting $$pK_{a}$$ s by using a Gaussian process regression to predict microscopic $$pK_{a}$$ s, from which macroscopic $$pK_{a}$$ values can be analytically computed (Bannan et al. in J Comput-Aided Mol Des 32:1165–1177). While this method can make reasonably quick and accurate predictions using a small training set, accuracy was limited by the lack of a sufficiently broad range of chemical space in the training set (e.g., the inclusion of polyprotic acids). Here, to address this issue, we construct a deep Gaussian Process (GP) model that can include more features without invoking the curse of dimensionality. We trained both a standard GP and a deep GP model using a database of approximately 3500 small molecules curated from public sources, filtered by similarity to targets. We tested the model on both the SAMPL6 and more recent SAMPL7 challenge, which introduced a similar lack of ionizable sites and/or environments found between the test set and the previous training set. The results show that while the deep GP model made only minor improvements over the standard GP model for SAMPL6 predictions, it made significant improvements over the standard GP model in SAMPL7 macroscopic predictions, achieving a MAE of 1.5 $$pK_{a}$$ .
Comparison of Postoperative, In-Hospital Outcomes After Complete Repair of Tetralogy of Fallot Between 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome and Trisomy 21.

22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11) and trisomy 21 (T21) are frequently associated with tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). We hypothesized that there are differences in postoperative length of stay (LOS) and occurrence of postoperative interventions after complete repair of TOF when comparing children with 22q11 to those with T21. Using the Pediatric Health Information System, we performed a retrospective cohort study of patients who underwent complete repair of TOF from 2004 to 2019. Three groups were identified: 22q11, T21, and controls (those without a coded genetic syndrome). Outcomes were postoperative LOS and composite occurrence (yes/no) of at least one postoperative intervention. Bivariate and multivariate comparisons were made among groups; odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using the control group as the comparator. There were 6924 subjects (n = 493 22q11, n = 455 T21, n = 5976 controls). In bivariate analysis, 22q11 was associated with a longer LOS compared to T21 (OR 2.37 [2.16, 2.60] vs. 1.25 [1.12, 1.39], p < 0.001), and 22q11 more often underwent postoperative intervention (OR 3.42 [CI 2.56, 4.57] vs. 1.38 [CI 0.91, 2.11]; p < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, 22q11 was also associated with longer LOS (adjusted OR 1.35 [1.26, 1.44] vs. 1.12 [1.04, 1.20]; p < 0.001), but there was no difference in the adjusted odds of postoperative intervention. Children with 22q11 are more likely to experience adverse outcomes after repair of TOF compared to those with T21; the differences are most pronounced for LOS.
A case report of Nocardia spp. infective endocarditis in an injection drug user.

Background Nocardia-related endocarditis is rare. Intravenous drug use with nonsterile injection practices is a potential risk factor for nocardia infection. Disseminated nocardiosis with endovascular involvement is rarely reported in immunocompetent individuals. Case presentation A 54-year-old male was diagnosed with infective endocarditis due to Nocardia asteroides with septic emboli in the brain and spleen. The use of a matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) rapid diagnostic system was beneficial in identifying the causative organism. He was empirically treated with combination therapy consisting of three antibiotics. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing indicated that all three antibiotics had favorable minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs). Due to his clinical status, he was not a surgical candidate. Patient passed away after discharge to hospice. Conclusions This case demonstrates unique challenges in the identification, diagnosis, and management of Nocardia-related infective endocarditis. A detailed history of injection practices should guide clinicians in assessing the risk for environmental pathogens. Valvular surgery and combination antibiotic therapy should be recommended for all eligible patients to improve the chances of survival.
“The Fall of a Sparrow”: The (Un)timely Death of Elmer Ellsworth and the Coming of the Civil War

On the morning of May 24, 1861, a group of Union cadets marched into the city of Alexandria, Virginia. The cohort looked peculiar in their flamboyant Zouave uniforms with bright blue shirts and flashy red sashes. They were led by a dashing young colonel named Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth and charged with occupying the city. Noticing a Confederate flag flying high on the roof of a hotel called the Marshall House, Ellsworth and a few of his men entered the building, determined to bring it down. The trip up the stairs was easygoing and the flag was quickly retrieved without incident. But on the way down everything went wrong. The innkeeper, a Confederate sympathizer named James W. Jackson, appeared with a shotgun and fired, piercing Ellsworth’s heart. As he stumbled backward he uttered his final words: “My God!” Almost immediately, Corporal Francis Brownell aimed his rifle directly at Jackson’s forehead and shot his colonel’s murderer. In the coming conflict scores of men and boys would be slaughtered in similar fashion causing Americans to rethink the grim and brutal realities of modern war. The deaths of Ellsworth and Jackson constituted the first official battle fatalities of the Civil War, but many more followed. [excerpt]
Experimental sensitization to subtilisin. II. Production of specific antibodies following inhalation exposure of guinea pigs.

We have previously reported the development of pulmonary sensitivity in guinea pigs exposed for 5 consecutive days to bacterial subtilisin in concentrations ranging from 1.9 to 15.0 mg proteolytic enzyme/m3. Animals exposed to lesser concentrations of 0.0083 and 0.041 mg/m3 failed to demonstrate this sensitivity. In the same study, animals exposed for 11 weeks to a subtilisin concentration of 0.00068 mg/m3 followed by 6 weeks to 0.0051 mg/m3 failed to demonstrate pulmonary sensitivity. We report here the antibody response in these animals. Both an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and a latex agglutination assay were developed for antibody detection. A concentration-related antibody response was detected in animals which had received acute subtilisin exposures of 0.0083 to 1.9 mg/m3. Antibody titers were not increased further upon exposure to higher subtilisin concentrations. A single 3-hr exposure to 1.9 mg/m3 resulted in the same antibody response as that produced following 5 days of exposure to the same concentration. The cumulative 17-week exposure of 1.12 mg/m3·hr subtilisin resulted in 36% (9 of 25) of the animals producing significant levels of IgG or IgM antibodies. None of these animals demonstrated pulmonary sensitivity. These results indicate that the circulating antibody titer reflected antigen exposure levels and occurred at exposures below those necessary for production of pulmonary sensitivity.
A comparison of methods for a priori bias correction in soil moisture data assimilation

Data assimilation is being increasingly used to merge remotely sensed land surface variables such as soil moisture, snow and skin temperature with estimates from land models. Its success, however, depends on unbiased model predictions and unbiased observations. Here, a suite of continental-scale, synthetic soil moisture assimilation experiments is used to compare two approaches that address typical biases in soil moisture prior to data assimilation: (i) parameter estimation to calibrate the land model to the climatology of the soil moisture observations, and (ii) scaling of the observations to the model s soil moisture climatology. To enable this research, an optimization infrastructure was added to the NASA Land Information System (LIS) that includes gradient-based optimization methods and global, heuristic search algorithms. The land model calibration eliminates the bias but does not necessarily result in more realistic model parameters. Nevertheless, the experiments confirm that model calibration yields assimilation estimates of surface and root zone soil moisture that are as skillful as those obtained through scaling of the observations to the model s climatology. Analysis of innovation diagnostics underlines the importance of addressing bias in soil moisture assimilation and confirms that both approaches adequately address the issue.
Liberating Curriculum Through Deliberation

Curriculum: From Theory to Practice presents a stimulating and practical way of approaching curriculum development. A professor of educational history, educational philosophy, and curriculum theory...
Unsupervised analysis of similarities between musicians and musical genres using spectrograms

Since the early days of the information era, digital music has been becoming one of the most consumed types of media, introducingthe need for content-based tools that can search, browse, and retrieve music. Here we describe a method that canquantify similarities between musical genres in an unsupervised fashion, and computes networks of similarities between differentmusicians or musical styles. The method works by converting each song to its 2D spectrogram, and then extracting a largeset of 2883 2D numerical content descriptors. The descriptors are weighted by their informativeness, and then the similaritiesbetween the musical styles are measured using the weighted distances between the musical pieces of each pair of musicians orgenres. The similarities between all pairs provide a similarity matrix, which is visualized by a phylogeny. Experiments using23 well known musicians representing seven musical genres show that the algorithm was able to separate the artists into groupsthat are in agreement with their respective musical genres. The analysis was done in an unsupervised fashion, and without anyhuman definition or annotation of the musical styles.
A gene expression signature that predicts the therapeutic response of the basal-like breast cancer to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Several gene expression profiles have been reported to predict breast cancer response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. These studies often consider breast cancer as a homogeneous entity, although higher rates of pathologic complete response (pCR) are known to occur within the basal-like subclass. We postulated that profiles with higher predictive accuracy could be derived from a subset analysis of basal-like tumors in isolation. Using a previously described “intrinsic” signature to differentiate breast tumor subclasses, we identified 50 basal-like tumors from two independent clinical trials associated with gene expression profile data. 24 tumor data sets were derived from a 119-patient neoadjuvant trial at our institution and an additional 26 tumor data sets were identified from a published data set (Hess et al. J Clin Oncol 24:4236–4244, 2006). The combined 50 basal-like tumors were partitioned to form a 37 sample training set with 13 sequestered for validation. Clinical surveillance occurred for a mean of 26 months. We identified a 23-gene profile which predicted pCR in basal-like breast cancers with 92% predictive accuracy in the sequestered validation data set. Furthermore, distinct cluster of patients with high rates of cancer recurrence was observed based on cluster analysis with the 23-gene signature. Disease-free survival analysis of these three clusters revealed significantly reduced survival in the patients of this high recurrence cluster. We identified a 23-gene signature which predicts response of basal-like breast cancer to neoadjuvant chemotherapy as well as disease-free survival. This signature is independent of tissue collection method and chemotherapeutic regimen.
Potterization, palmerizing, and pegasus

IN HIs recent "Negation, Names, and Nothing,"' Karl H. Potter attempts to correlate his views on empty universes, ontic commitment, and negative predicates in order to resolve what he takes to be certain problems in Quine's work. The present note will show four major respects in which his effort is unsuccessful. It will not be encumbered with a review of his motives, but will assume an acquaintance with his article. 1. Potter feels that the logician's requirements (a) that there be only one empty class, and (b) that the universe of discourse within which quantificational logic takes place be understood to be nonempty in order to avoid the falsity of certain theorems, are unsatisfactory for the reconstructionist's purposes. But, in the first place, if the reconstructionist wants to talk about classes at all, as Potter clearly wants to, he will have difficulty avoiding the definition of class identity which holds that, for any "two" classes C, and C2, (C -= C2) df (X) [(X E Cl) (X e C2)].
Behavioral expectations of retarded and nonretarded children

Abstract Two experiments were conducted to examine the effect of the mental retardation (MR) label on impression formation among retarded and nonretarded children and adolescents. The first experiment, conducted with nonretarded children in a mainstreamed school, indicated that they have pessimistic expectations of retarded children with regard to cognitive and ability-related behaviorsand, to a lesser extent, social behaviors (i.e., getting married). However, their reactions were not as pessimistic nor as “patronizing” as were those demonstrated by college students in previous research. In the second experiment, mentally retarded adolescents indicated that they also have negative behavioral expectations of retarded children, however, their self expectations were negative only for social behaviors. The results suggest that, among retarded persons, the expectations associated with the MR label are negative for social behavior, but apparently less pessimistic for cognitive and ability related tasks.
Hypokalemia before induction of anesthesia and prevention by β2 adrenoceptor antagonism

We have observed that serum potassium levels measured immediately before induction of anesthesia ("preinduction K+") are often lower than those measured 1-3 days preoperatively ("preoperative K+"). The purpose of this investigation was to determine, in two studies, the magnitude of this difference and to elucidate the mechanism by which this occurs. In the first study, preinduction K+ (3.6 +/- 0.4 mEq/L, mean +/- SD) was significantly lower than K+ levels measured during routine preoperative testing (4.4 +/- 0.4 mEq/L, n = 47, P less than 0.001). Twenty-three patients (49%) had preinduction K+ levels that were considered hypokalemic (less than or equal to 3.5 mEq/L), but 22 of these 23 patients had normal preoperative K+ levels. The second study tested the hypothesis that preinduction decreases in serum K+ are mediated by beta 2-adrenergic receptors. Preinduction K+ changes were determined in patients given a single preoperative dose of propranolol (beta 1/beta 2-antagonist), atenolol (beta 1-antagonist), or no beta-blocker (control). The difference between preoperative and preinduction serum K+ in patients receiving propranolol (0.1 +/- 0.4 mEq/L) was significantly attenuated (P less than 0.02) compared with the difference in control subjects (0.5 +/- 0.4 mEq/L), but was not significantly different from controls in patients pretreated with atenolol (0.3 +/- 0.4 mEq/L). These results demonstrate that serum K+ levels measured intraoperatively just before anesthetic induction are consistently and significantly less than those measured 1-3 days preoperatively. The ability of propranolol but not atenolol to block this change suggests that the acute decrease in K+ levels was due to beta 2-adrenergic receptor stimulation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Collisional transfer between and quenching of the 3p 3P and 5P states of the oxygen atom

Abstract Collisional quenching and excitation transfer between the oxygen atom 3p 3P and 5P states have been investigated in a discharge flow apparatus with O2 and N2 collisional partners. The 3P state was excited by two-photon excitation at 225.6 nm from the 2p43P ground state, and temporal profiles of the 3P←3S and 5P← 5S emission at 844.7 and 777.5 nm, respectively, to the lower 3s manifold were recorded. From an analysis of 3P decay curves as a function of quencher pressure, bimolecular rate constants for the removal of the 3P state were determined: k3Q(O2) = (7.8±0.8) × 10−10 and k3Q(N2)= (5.87±0.15)× 10−10 molecule−1 cm3 s−1. The intercept of the O2 Stern-Volmer plot yielded k3r = (2.98± 0.15)×10 7 s−1 for the 3P radiative decay rate. The collisional quenching rate constant for the 5P state by O2 was obtained by analysis of 5P decay curves: k5Q(O2)= (10.8±1.8)× 10−10 molecule−1 cm3 s−1. Rate constants k35 for 3P← 5P excitation transfer were obtained from the ratio of the 5P←5S to 3P← 3S emission intensities as a function of quencher pressure: k35 (O2) ≈ 6× 10−11 and k35 (N2)≈2 ×10 −11 molecule−1 cm3 s−1.
Shrinkage properties of second-growth southern yellow pine

Several factors which may affect the shrinkage of wood had been studied using loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.). It was observed that volumetric, tangential and radial shrinkages decreased as the height increased. Longitudinal shrinkage increased with height. Only tangential shrinkage was significantly affected by the distance from the pith factor. All shrinkages were found to vary significantly according to cardinal directions. For the trees studied, lower volumetric, tangential and radial shrinkages were observed for specimens from the south side of the pith. Longitudinal shrinkage was noticeably higher in this direction.
Heidegger’s Heimat

Nietzsche calls the philosopher the ‘physician of culture’. Heidegger implies something similar when he points out that philosophy of art only began (with Plato) when art (and so life) began to decline.1 Both are making the point that it is the task of authentic philosophy to respond to the needs of the times. The condition Heidegger responds to, it seems to me, is first and foremost the loss of place in the age of modern technology: place not in the sense, merely, of a bounded region of space but in the sense of dwelling- place; Heimat or ‘homeland’. Homeland, says Heidegger, that which is ‘near’ to us. Yet nearness implies farness, fails to appear if ‘remoteness ... remains absent’. In the age of jet travel, television, the internet and the cell- phone, however, everything is being reduced to a ‘uniform distanceless- ness’2 in which nothing is ‘remote’, and so nothing ‘near’, and so nothing a dwelling-place.
Applications of time-domain methods to microwave measurements

Microwave applications of a computer-controlled time-domain measurement system are presented Examples of actual measurements are given showing the acquired time-domain waveforms and their corresponding Fourier transforms. Measurement results are presented for (a) impulse-generator spectrum-amplitude calibration, (b) transmission-line impulse response, (c) picosecond-domain photoconductor response, and (d) pulsed electromagnetic fields.
Helminth infections predispose mice to pneumococcal pneumonia but not to other pneumonic pathogens

Pneumonia is the leading killer of children worldwide. Here, we report that helminth-infected mice develop fatal pneumonia when challenged with Streptococcus pneumoniae. Mice were chronically infected with either the flatworm Taenia crassiceps or the roundworm Heligmosomoides polygyrus. Upon challenge with a pneumonic type 3 strain of S. pneumoniae (A66.1), the worm-infected mice developed pneumonia at a rate and to a degree higher than age-matched control mice as measured by bioluminescent imaging and lung titers. This predisposition to pneumonia appears to be specific to S. pneumoniae, as worm-infected mice did not show evidence of increased morbidity when challenged with a lethal dose of influenza virus or sublethal doses of Staphylococcus aureus or Listeria monocytogenes. The defect was also present when worm-infected mice were challenged with a type 2 sepsis-causing strain (D39); an increased rate of pneumonia, decreased survival, and increased lung and blood titers were found. Pneumococcal colonization and immunity against acute otitis media were unaffected. Anti-helminthic treatment in the H. polygyrus model reversed this susceptibility. We conclude that helminth coinfection predisposes mice to fatal pneumococcal pneumonia by promoting increased outgrowth of bacteria in the lungs and blood. These data have broad implications for the prevention and treatment for pneumonia in the developing world, where helminth infections are endemic and pneumococcal pneumonia is common.
An accelerated, improved single-column procedure for the amino acid analysis of basement membrane and collagen-like proteins

In this paper, a new, more versatile single-column methodology is presented for the analysis of basement membrane and other collagen-like proteins. The methodology is designed for use on the Beckman 121-M microcolumn amino acid analyzer. Excellent analyses of imino acids and amino acids including tryptophan, as well as the amino sugars glucosamine and galactosamine, can be obtained at the same time if the protein is hydrolyzed with 3 n methanesulfonic acid. This methodology is suitable for hydrolyzates from reduced and alkylated basement membrane collagen as well as performic acid oxidized basement membrane collagen and similar collagen-like materials.
Informed Consent for Maternal Serum Alpha‐fetoprotein Screening in an Inner City Population: How Informed Is It?

Objective To determine if women who received information from a provider and viewed a videotape about maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (MSAFP) screening understood enough to sign informed consent. Design A prospective qualitative design using tape recorded interviews of women who were provided information regarding MSAFP testing from a provider and from viewing a videotape. Participants Fifty-three inner city pregnant women (58% Hispanic, 39% African-American, 3% white). Results Two women answered all questions correctly; no one answered all questions incorrectly. Sixty-two percent correctly answered "What is MSAFP?" Sixteen percent thought "something has to be taken from my belly" for the test. Fifty-nine percent understood that children with spina bifida could have difficulty walking or urinary problems. Seventy-two percent thought their infant would be healthy in all respects if the test was negative. Only 45% could describe the follow-up to a positive test. Eighty percent planned to have the test. Many misconceptions were apparent, and for some knowledge items, as many as 80% of the women answered incorrectly. Conclusions Obtaining truly informed consent for a complex test is not a simple process. Participants met a few, but not all, of the criteria for informed consent. Women understood that the test was voluntary, but their comprehension of the meaning and implication of a positive test results was deficient. Despite this, they signed the informed consent document. The larger question of just how much comprehension is required to consider a woman "informed" has not been answered.
Multi-domain grooming in power source aware networks

Traffic grooming is necessary for the efficient use of optical networks. It generally requires a signal-conversion from the optical to the electrical domain and back. Planners have some freedom in selecting the location where this energy-intensive process takes place. A subset of nodes in a network may be powered by renewable energy sources. Those green nodes cause lower green house gas (GHG) emissions than others. We suggest to choose these sites for grooming. We propose a model for GHG emissions caused by network operations. Depending on the level of penetration of renewable sources in the power supplies across the network, emissions can be reduced significantly. Potentially spanning different network domains, we introduce a hierarchical grooming approach to collect and multiplex traffic at those green nodes, groom it there and therefore save emissions. We evaluate the emission model and the hierarchical approaches' performance. Further, we apply them to various network/demand scenarios in an effort to identify favorable conditions for this scheme. We find that by relaxing energy-efficiency requirements in green nodes, and being more stringent in black nodes, we can reduce overall network emissions. The hierarchical approach is scalable and efficiently applicable to operating and future networks.
Database Construction for Speech to Lip-readable Animation Conversion

The training database was one of the critical element in our speech to facial animation conversion system. This system was developed as a communication aid for deaf people. The specific database was constructed from audio and visual records of professional lip-speakers. The standardized MPEG-4 system was used to animate the talking head model. The trained neural net is able to calculate with acceptable error the principal component weights of feature points from the speech frames. The feature point coordinates are calculated from PC weights. The whole system can be implemented in mobile phones. Deaf persons were able to recognize about 50% of words from the speech driven animation in the final test.
Reduced glomerular function and prevalence of gout: NHANES 2009-10.

Background The renal tubule is a major route of clearance of uric acid, a product of purine metabolism. The links between reduced glomerular filtration rate (GFR), hyperuricemia, and gout in the general population are not well understood. The objective of the present study was to estimate prevalence of gout and hyperuricemia among people with impaired GFR in the US general population.
A 34 Gb/s Distributed 2:1 MUX and CMU Using 0.18 $muhbox m$ CMOS

A 34 Gb/s 2:1 serializer consisting of a CMOS MUX and CMU using a 0.18 mum SiGe BiCMOS process is presented. The serializer is based on distributed amplifier topology realized using spiral inductors. The circuit also includes an on-chip 2-channel 27-1 PRBS generator. The 34 Gb/s serial output has single-ended voltage swing of 380 mV with rise/fall time of 13 ps, and measured ISI is less than 5 ps p-p