cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Two Cases of Body Dysmorphic Disorder in Women with Eating Disorders

We report two cases of comorbid body dysmorphic disorder comorbid with bulimia nervosa. In both individuals the perceived physical defect was separate from the body dissatisfaction and body image distortion common in women with eating disorders. We discuss the obsessional nature of body dysmorphic disorder and eating disorders and the presence of extreme self-focused attention as features of these cases. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.
Prepulse facilitation and prepulse inhibition in schizophrenia patients and their unaffected siblings.

Abstract Background Deficits in schizophrenia patients and their first-degree relatives have been reported in prepulse inhibition (PPI), a phenomenon that measures an early stage of information processing (sensorimotor gating). It is less clear whether these information processing deficits extend to prepulse facilitation (PPF), which measures a later stage of generalized alerting or orienting. Methods This study examined three separate issues: first, whether schizophrenia patients have deficits in PPI and PPF; second, whether the siblings of patients show deficits in these processes; and third, whether prepulse duration influences the degree of the deficits. These issues were examined in 76 schizophrenia patients, 36 of their siblings, and 41 normal control subjects. Results Patients and siblings did not differ from control subjects in PPI, perhaps due to the use of different procedural parameters compared with other laboratories that have consistently found PPI deficits in schizophrenia patients. Patients and their siblings produced significantly less PPF than control subjects. For both PPI and PPF, prepulse duration was not a significant factor. Conclusions These results imply that PPF deficits reveal a generalized alerting or orienting deficit that is present in both schizophrenia patients and their siblings, suggesting that this deficit may be tapping an endophenotypic vulnerability factor.
Multidetector computed tomographic characteristics of nonabsorbable polymer versus titanium ligature clips in a vascular model.

Objective Multidetector cardiac computed tomography is commonly performed to evaluate coronary bypass grafts, but titanium clips result in significant image artifact. Multidetector cardiac computed tomographic characteristics of newly developed nonabsorbable polymer clips are unknown. This study was undertaken to compare the image characteristics of polymer clips and titanium clips applied to a vascular model. Methods A vascular model was created with two porcine internal thoracic arteries. Branches were ligated with 5 titanium clips on one vessel and 6 polymer clips on the other. Vessels were imaged under pressure with normal saline solution in a 16-detector computed tomographic scanner. Image intensity was quantified in absolute Hounsfield units for clips and adjacent lumen and then normalized to the average lumen intensity. Results No difference in absolute intensity was found between polymer clips and adjacent lumen (polymer clip 1021.2 ± 19.0 absolute Hounsfield units, adjacent lumen 1001.7 ± 15.7 absolute Hounsfield units, P = .095). A statistically significant difference was noted between titanium clips and adjacent lumen (titanium clips 3408.8 ± 177.3 absolute Hounsfield units, adjacent lumen 1072.7 ± 52.1 absolute Hounsfield units, P P Conclusion The use of polymer clips in coronary bypass grafts should result in significantly improved multidetector cardiac computed tomographic image quality.
What Beats Having Two Parents? Educational Outcomes for African American Students in Single- versus Dual-Parent Families.

A superficial investigation of census data could lead one to conclude, contrary to popular opinion, that single-parent family configurations work to the educational advantage of students. For example, the census indicates that as more African American children were raised in single-parent families, fewer of them dropped out of school. In 1970, 31.5% of African American children lived with one parent; however, by 1991, that number had skyrocketed to 57.5%. During this same time period, trends in dropout rates for African American students significantly declined. More specifically, for 16to 17-year-olds, 12.8% were high school dropouts in 1970, but by 1990, that number had declined to 6.9% (Progress and Peril, 1993).' In an effort to interpret such data, there has been an enormous amount of research investigating the effects of family configuration on the achievement of students (see Schneider & Coleman, 1993)
A test for slow crack growth failure in polyethylene under a constant load

Abstract A test method is described which measures the slow crack growth behavior of polyethylenes. The method involves a constant load test on a notched specimen under plane strain conditions in air at various temperatures. The results of the test method as obtained by ten laboratories show that the intralaboratory precision is 12% of the mean and the precision of the means from the interlaboratory data is 16%. The high precision in the data is partly based on the use of a specially designed notching machine for producing high quality notches in the specimens. The test method simulates the same fracture process that occurs during the long time failure of polyethylenes, but accelerates the fracture process probably faster than any other test method using a constant load in air.
Gay Neighborhoods and the Rights of the Vicarious Citizen

Drawing on a combination of qualitative methods using data collected from gay neighborhoods in Chicago and Washington, DC, this article develops the notion of vicarious citizenship—the exercise of ...
The current status of suicide and self-injury in eating disorders: a narrative review

The aim of this paper is to review recent literature on suicide and self-injury in eating disorders (ED) including anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and binge eating disorder (BED). Among psychiatric diagnoses, EDs are associated with increased mortality rates, even when specialized treatment is available. Of the mortalities that are reported in individuals with EDs, suicide is among the most commonly reported causes of death. Additionally, suicidal and non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors occur frequently in this clinical population. A literature search was undertaken using the databases of Medline/PubMed and PsycInfo to identify papers describing suicidality in individuals with ED diagnoses. The authors identified studies and review articles published between 2005-2013 (inclusive) that describe the relationship between EDs and suicide, and associated behaviors including self-injurious behaviors, or non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). The initial search resulted in 1095 papers that met the a priori search criteria. After careful review, 66 papers were included. The majority of papers described clinical cohorts that were studied longitudinally. The diagnosis described most frequently in selected studies was AN. There are limited current data about the prevalence of suicide and NSSI among individuals with EDs. Among the published studies that focus specifically on the relationship between EDs and suicidality, most describe AN in more detail than other EDs. Nonetheless, rates of mortality, and specifically rates of suicide, are undeniably high in ED populations, as are the rates of self-harm. Therefore, it is critical for clinicians and caretakers to carefully evaluate these patients for suicide risk and to refer promptly for appropriate treatment.
An Efficient Fully Ad-Hoc Multi-Hop Broadcast Protocol for Inter-Vehicular Communication Systems

In this paper, a fully Ad-Hoc Multi-hop Broadcast protocol (AMB) is proposed for inter-vehicular networks. The AMB is an ad-hoc extension of the UMB protocol which handles broadcast in intersections with the help of repeaters. The AMB protocol eliminates the most important drawback - infrastructure dependence - of the UMB protocol by employing an efficient intersection broadcast mechanism. When there is an intersection in the path of the message dissemination, new directional broadcasts to all road segments are initiated by the vehicle closest to the intersection with a fully ad-hoc algorithm without apriori topology information. The simulation results confirm that our protocol has a very high success rate and efficient channel utilization. Consequently, it is concluded that there is no need for infrastructure support unless the the line-of-sight among different road segments incident to an intersection is blocked with obstacles.
Nanomechanical Testing of Hydrated Biomaterials: Sample Preparation, Data Validation and Analysis

Implants, tissue engineering scaffold materials, drug delivery and bio-micro electromechanical systems (BioMEMs) all use polymer or hydrogel materials. These applications require both mechanical performance and successful integration of the material into a biological environment. Mechanical strength, storage and loss moduli, wear resistance and surface adhesion properties are all critical in biomedical device design and can be determined using nanoindentation. The difficulty of obtaining large samples of specialized materials, and the complexity of testing soft materials in traditional materials testing apparatus, make nanoindentation an attractive alternative. Our previous research using nanoindentation to measure the surface mechanical properties of non-hydrated polymers led to improvement in nanoindentation testing protocols. One of the major challenges in using this technique for hydrogels and tissues is maintaining and controlling hydration of the materials during the test. Here we describe the design of a microfluidic platform for nanoindentation that facilitates continuous hydration of hydrogel samples and high throughput nanomechanical testing. Data from creep experiments on synthetic, hydrated poly-2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (poly-HEMA) are presented. In addition, we show data to validate the materials properties determined from nanomechanical testing by complementary testing. Finally, the data is fitted to a phenomenological model for viscoelastic materials, specifically the three-element standard linear solid model used by Cheng et al. [1].
Calcitriol and Genistein Actions to Inhibit the Prostaglandin Pathway: Potential Combination Therapy to Treat Prostate Cancer

We present an overview of the prostaglandin (PG) pathway as a novel target for the treatment of prostate cancer (PCa) using a combination of calcitriol and genistein, both of which have known antiproliferative properties. Calcitriol inhibits the PG pathway in PCa cells in 3 separate ways: by decreasing cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression, stimulating 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH) expression, and decreasing EP (PGEz) and FP (PGF 2α ) receptors. These actions of calcitriol result in reduced levels of biologically active PGE 2 , leading ultimately to growth inhibition of the PCa cells. We also demonstrate the advantages of using calcitriol in combination with genistein for the treatment of PCa. Genistein, a major component of soy, is a potent inhibitor of the activity of CYP24, the enzyme that initiates the degradation of calcitriol. This leads to increased half-life of bioactive calcitriol, thereby enhancing all of calcitriol's actions including those on the PG pathway. In addition to inhibiting CYP24 enzyme activity, genistein has its own independent actions on the PG pathway in PCa cells. Like calcitriol it inhibits COX-2 expression and activity, leading to decreased synthesis of PGE 2 . It also inhibits the EP and FP receptors, thereby reducing the biological function of PGE 2 . Thus, the combination of calcitriol and genistein acts additively to inhibit the PG pathway. Both calcitriol and genistein are relatively safe and have little toxicity associated with their intake. We postulate that the combination of calcitriol and genistein is an attractive therapeutic option for the treatment of PCa.
Strategies for the Synthesis of Fusicoccanes by Nazarov Reactions of Dolabelladienones: Total Synthesis of (+)-Fusicoauritone

A synthetic pathway leading to (+)-fusicoauritone (1) is highlighted by the use of a Julia condensation for preparation of an eleven-membered dolabelladienone precursor for subsequent Nazarov cyclization to yield the 5-8-5 tricyclic diterpene skeleton.
A Video-Dimension Analyzer

A dual-window video densitometer was developed for the measurement of dimensions of televised scenes. Filter and hold circuitry used to convert the output into analog signals proportional to the dimension being measured obviate the use of specialized computers. The system was utilized to study the change of dimension of the in vivo human heart.
Inpatient Characteristics of the Child Admitted With Chronic Pain

OBJECTIVE: To define the demographic, diagnostic, procedural, and episode of care characteristics for children admitted with chronic pain. METHODS: We used the Pediatric Health Information System database to obtain data on demographic characteristics, length of stay, readmission rates, diagnoses, and procedures for children admitted with chronic pain. Patients with sickle cell disease, cancer, burns, cerebral palsy, transplants, and ventilator-dependent children were excluded. RESULTS: A total of 3752 patients with chronic pain were identified from 2004 through 2010. Admissions increased by 831% over this time period. The mean age of these patients was 13.5 years, the most common race was white (79%), and female subjects outnumbered male subjects by 2.41 to 1. The most common admission and principal discharge diagnosis was abdominal pain; comorbid diagnoses were common, with a mean of 10 diagnoses per patient. In total, 65% of patients had a comorbid gastrointestinal diagnosis and 44% had a psychiatric diagnosis. The mean length of stay was 7.32 days, with an expected length of stay of 4.24 days; 12.5% were readmitted at least once within 1 year. They underwent a mean of 3.18 procedures per patient. CONCLUSIONS: The average child admitted with chronic pain is a teenaged female with a wide variety of comorbid conditions, many of which are gastrointestinal and psychiatric in nature. Admissions for chronic pain are rising and account for substantial resource utilization. Future studies should further characterize this population, with the overall objective of improving outcomes and optimizing cost-effective care. * Abbreviations: CRPS — : complex regional pain syndrome ED — : emergency department ICD-9 — : International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision NEC — : not elsewhere classified NOS — : not otherwise specified PHIS — : Pediatric Health Information System RSD — : reflex sympathetic dystrophy
The Relationship Between Learning Disability and Delinquency A Review and Reappraisal

Data are presented on the prevalence of learning disabilities among populations of delinquents. Current hypotheses proposed to explain the relatively high prevalence rate are examined in the context of the research literature pertaining to the psychosocial characteristics of youngsters with learning disabilities and the research literature pertaining to delinquency. A multifactorial explanation is offered, according to which the probability of a youngster with a learning disability becoming delinquent is seen as a consequence of the interaction between specific elements of learning disabilities and specific psychosocial correlates of delinquency.
Accurate and efficient curve detection in images: the importance sampling Hough transform

The Hough transform is a well known technique for detecting parametric curves in images. We place a particular group of Hough transforms, the probabilistic Hough transforms, in the framework of importance sampling. This framework suggests a way in which probabilistic Hough transforms can be improved: by specifying a target distribution and weighting the sampled parameters accordingly to make identification of curves easier. We investigate the use of clustering techniques to simultaneously identify multiple curves in the image. We also use probabilistic arguments to develop stopping conditions for the algorithm. Results from applying our method and two popular versions of the Hough transform to both simulated and real data are shown.
Isometric knee extension force measured using a handheld dynamometer with and without belt-stabilization

Although evidence suggests that tester strength limits the magnitude of isometric force that can be measured using a handheld dynamometer (HHD), previous studies have not investigated the actual limits of force magnitude that can be measured by trained testers when a belt is or is not used to stabilize the dynamometer. Therefore, the primary aims of this study were to determine: 1) the magnitude of knee extension forces that could be measured with a HHD with and without belt-stabilization and 2) the relationship between tester characteristics and knee extension strength measured with and without belt-stabilization. The characteristics of 20 trained testers (10 men, 10 women) were determined. Thereafter, they measured isometric knee extension strength using the MicroFET HHD with and without belt-stabilization. Paired t-tests were used to compare maximal knee extension forces under two conditions. Pearson product–moment correlations were calculated to determine the relationship between tester characteristic...
An economic answer to unsolicited communication

We explore an alternative approach to spam based on economic rather than technological or regulatory screening mechanisms. We employ a model of email value which supports two intuitive notions: 1) mechanisms designed to promote valuable communication can often outperform those designed merely to block wasteful communication, and 2) designers of such mechansisms should shift focus away from the information in the message to the information known to the sender. We then use principles of information asymmetry to cause people who knowingly misuse communication to incur higher costs than those who do not. In certain cases, though not all, we can show this approach leaves recipients better off than even an idealized or "perfect" filter that costs nothing and makes no mistakes. Our mechanism also accounts for individual differences in opportunity costs, and allows for bi-directional wealth transfers while facilitating both sender signaling and recipient screening.
Negative clinical trials in sarcoidosis: failed therapies or flawed study design?

In this issue of the European Respiratory Journal , Judson et al. [1] report the results of a large clinical trial involving two new potential therapies in sarcoidosis, a subcutaneous anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) agent, golimumab, and a novel anti-p40 (a component of both interleukin (IL)-12 and IL-23) agent, ustekinumab. The rationale for the use of anti-TNF agents in sarcoidosis is compelling, as TNF plays a central role in granuloma formation [2]. The use of anti-p40 (anti-IL-12/IL-23) also has a solid rationale based on the role of IL-12 in promoting T-helper (Th) type 1 immune responses and its upregulation in sarcoidosis. The role of the IL-23/Th17 pathways in sarcoidosis is less well established but the benefits of blocking IL-23 together with IL-12 is conceptually appealing in sarcoidosis [3]. Given the clear rationale for testing these therapies in sarcoidosis, it is disappointing that neither therapy showed clinical benefit assessed by either primary or secondary end-points. These negative results follow a large trial of infliximab by many of these same investigators. In a randomised, placebo-controlled trial of infliximab in pulmonary sarcoidosis by Baughman et al. [4], there was a statistically significant 2.5% increase in forced vital capacity (FVC) % predicted with infliximab versus placebo and no significant differences for any of the major secondary end-points at 6 months. Although the authors suggest this was a robust response, healthcare payers (both corporations and governments) concluded that infliximab demonstrated only minimal improvement for patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis and cite this research as a reason to deny coverage of this therapy. Several studies find infliximab beneficial for progressive nonpulmonary manifestations of sarcoidosis [5, 6], but in aggregate, these studies have not led to regulatory approval for infliximab in sarcoidosis in either Europe …
Incorporating domain knowledge into topic modeling via Dirichlet Forest priors

Users of topic modeling methods often have knowledge about the composition of words that should have high or low probability in various topics. We incorporate such domain knowledge using a novel Dirichlet Forest prior in a Latent Dirichlet Allocation framework. The prior is a mixture of Dirichlet tree distributions with special structures. We present its construction, and inference via collapsed Gibbs sampling. Experiments on synthetic and real datasets demonstrate our model's ability to follow and generalize beyond user-specified domain knowledge.
Validity of instruments to assess students' travel and pedestrian safety

Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs are designed to make walking and bicycling to school safe and accessible for children. Despite their growing popularity, few validated measures exist for assessing important outcomes such as type of student transport or pedestrian safety behaviors. This research validated the SRTS school travel survey and a pedestrian safety behavior checklist. Fourth grade students completed a brief written survey on how they got to school that day with set responses. Test-retest reliability was obtained 3-4 hours apart. Convergent validity of the SRTS travel survey was assessed by comparison to parents' report. For the measure of pedestrian safety behavior, 10 research assistants observed 29 students at a school intersection for completion of 8 selected pedestrian safety behaviors. Reliability was determined in two ways: correlations between the research assistants' ratings to that of the Principal Investigator (PI) and intraclass correlations (ICC) across research assistant ratings. The SRTS travel survey had high test-retest reliability (κ = 0.97, n = 96, p < 0.001) and convergent validity (κ = 0.87, n = 81, p < 0.001). The pedestrian safety behavior checklist had moderate reliability across research assistants' ratings (ICC = 0.48) and moderate correlation with the PI (r = 0.55, p =< 0.01). When two raters simultaneously used the instrument, the ICC increased to 0.65. Overall percent agreement (91%), sensitivity (85%) and specificity (83%) were acceptable. These validated instruments can be used to assess SRTS programs. The pedestrian safety behavior checklist may benefit from further formative work.
Effects of feeding distillers dried grains with solubles, high-protein distillers dried grains, and corn germ to growing-finishing pigs on pig performance, carcass quality, and the palatability of pork.

An experiment was conducted to investi- gate pig performance, carcass quality, and palatability of pork from pigs fed distillers dried grains with solu- bles (DDGS), high-protein distillers dried grains (HP- DDG), and corn germ. Eighty-four pigs (initial BW, 22 ± 1.7 kg) were allotted to 7 dietary treatments with 6 replicates per treatment and 2 pigs per pen. Diets were fed for 114 d in a 3-phase program. The control treat- ment was based on corn and soybean meal. Two treat- ments were formulated using 10 or 20% DDGS in each phase. Two additional treatments contained HP-DDG in amounts sufficient to substitute for either 50 or 100% of the soybean meal used in the control treatment. An additional 2 treatments contained 5 or 10% corn germ, which was calculated to provide the same amount of fat as 10 or 20% DDGS. Results showed that for the entire experiment, pig performance was not affected by DDGS or HP-DDG, but final BW increased (linear, P < 0.05) as corn germ was included in the diets. Carcass composition and muscle quality were not affected by DDGS, but LM area and LM depth decreased (linear, P < 0.05) as HP-DDG was added to the diets. Lean meat percentage increased and drip loss decreased as corn germ was included in the diets (quadratic, P < 0.05). There was no effect of DDGS on fat quality except that belly firmness decreased (linear, P < 0.05) as dietary DDGS concentration increased. Including HP-DDG or corn germ in the diets did not affect fat quality, ex- cept that the iodine value increased (linear, P < 0.05) in pigs fed HP-DDG diets and decreased (linear, P < 0.05) in pigs fed corn germ diets. Cooking loss, shear force, and bacon distortion score were not affected by the inclusion of DDGS, HP-DDG, or corn germ in the diets, and the overall palatability of the bacon and pork chops was not affected by dietary treatment. In conclu- sion, feeding 20% DDGS or high levels of HP-DDG to growing-finishing pigs did not negatively affect overall pig performance, carcass composition, muscle quality, or palatability but may decrease fat quality. Feeding up to 10% corn germ did not negatively affect pig per- formance, carcass composition, carcass quality, or pork palatability but increased final BW of the pigs and re- duced the iodine value of belly fat.
Family Support and BSW Field Experience Through a University-Based Supervised Visitation Program

Supervised visitation programs, which provide supervision of visits between noncustodial parents and their children in safe and comfortable environments, are expanding throughout this country. With this expansion they are also providing more family support services, especially parent coaching and therapeutic interven tion. These programs offer ample learning opportunities for social work students in field placements. The program described here, which operates on a university campus and utilizes BSW students to monitor visits and conduct feedback sessions with visiting parents after each visit, may serve as a model for the development of more university- based programs. Initial research supports the effectiveness of services provided by undergraduate students in this program.
Treatment of Asthma in Children: the Case Against Inhaled Corticosteroids as First Line Agents

With the increasing awareness of the importance of inflammation in the pathogenesis of asthma even in relatively mild patients [1], more and more emphasis is being put on anti-inflammatory approaches to treatment.
Interpersonal Consulting Skills for Instructional Technology Consultants: a Multiple Case Study

Building a trust-based relationship with faculty is one of the most important attributes of effective Instructional Technology Consultants (ITC) in order to integrate emerging technologies into higher education. Utilizing a multiple case study research design, four experienced ITCs at a large urban research university located in the Midwest showed that interpersonal skills are crucial when consulting with faculty on course design, technology integration, and teaching. By applying eight interpersonal consulting skills (active listening, paraphrasing, summarizing, open questioning, closed questioning, explaining concepts, explaining procedures, and informal conversation), ITCs developed trust-based relationships with faculty and generated an atmosphere conducive to change. While research on interpersonal skills is limited in the field of Instructional Design (ID), other fields, such as counseling or medicine, offer promising methods and results for teaching these skills. This article concludes with a presentation of methods for teaching interpersonal skills in counseling and medical preparation programs that could be adopted in the Instructional Design curricula.
771 Non Invasive Blood Pressure (BP) Measurement with the Terumo Elemano™ Is More Reliable during Return of Pulsatile Flow in Patients on Continuous Flow (CF) LVAD Support

Non Invasive Blood Pressure (BP) Measurement with the Terumo ElemanoTM Is More Reliable during Return of Pulsatile Flow in Patients on Continuous Flow (CF) LVAD Support O. Saeed, J. Patel, C. Nucci, S. Patel, D. Goldstein, S. Maybaum. Department of Internal Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY; Department of Surgery, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY.
Evaluation of the Oxidation Resistance of Silicon Carbide Ceramics

Five kinds of silicon carbide ceramics were oxidized in flowing dry air at 1300°C for 360h and 1000h, and oxidation behaviour was studied by measuring the weight gain and thickness of oxide layer and of unoxidized substrate, in which the weight loss by evaporation of some species from the oxide layer during oxidation was taken into account. The change of thickness of substrate was complicated, and some samples expanded during oxidation. Therefore, no direct correlation is possible between evapolation and dimensional change of substrate. To evaluate the oxidation resistance correctly, the thickness, density and texture of the oxide layer must be examined together with the weight gain.
BACK TO THE BASICS: A CASE OF PAPILLARY MUSCLE RUPTURE

Post myocardial infarction papillary muscle rupture (PMR) is a very rare but often catastrophic complication. A 70 year-old man presented to referring hospital with angina pectoris at rest since ten days. Physical exam revealed blood pressure of 107/59 mmHg, heart rate of 125, 32 per minute
Conrad, Wells, and the Two Voices

THROUGHOUT the nineteenth century, Art, or the Life of Art, brought with it characteristics of death, decay, dissolution, pessimism, and nihilism, even when it stood, theoretically at least, for transcendence and transformation. The world of Art, so closely akin to the unconscious and preconscious, fell into the role described for it by Plato, as “frantic and possessed.” Socrates reasons, in a well-known passage, that “the poet is an airy thing, a winged and a holy thing ; and he cannot make poetry until he becomes inspired and goes out of his senses and no mind is left in him.”1 The Poet, the Artist, the Creator is, as we know, both ecstatic and calculating. He calls attention to thoughts and acts that lie deep within us and that we try to disguise with logic; in brief, the Artist plays on our unconscious (what we cannot control) by appealing to our consciousness (what, we think, we can control).
Stasis and change in Holocene small mammal diversity during a period of aridification in southeastern Utah

Biological conservation depends on understanding and disentangling the effects of decadal- to centennial-scale dynamics from the millennial-scale dynamics documented in the fossil record. The American Southwest is expected to become increasingly arid over the next few decades and will continue to experience large-scale human land use in various forms. A primary question is whether the ecological fluctuations recorded over the past few decades fall outside the range of variation expected in the absence of recent land use and management. I excavated and quantified mammal diversity change in two fossil-bearing alcoves, East Canyon Rims 2 and Rone Bailey Alcove, located in San Juan County, Utah. AMS radiocarbon dates on 33 bone samples from these sites span ~4.4–0.5 kyr and shed light on pre-industrial faunal dynamics in the region over the course of environmental change. Localities with comparable small mammal diversity have not been reported from this region previously, so these deposits provide novel insig...
Effect of advancing age on thyroid hormone secretion rate of female rats.

SummaryThe TSR of 27 female rats was estimated at the ages of 25, 55, 85 and 115 days. A marked reduction (42.1%) from a TSR of 1.52 μg L-T4/100 g bw when started at the age of 25 days to 0.88 μg L-T4/100 g bw when started at the age of 115 days was observed. The reduction in TSR at 55, 85 and 115 days age was respectively 19.7%, 9.8% and 20% from that of the previous month.
Predictors of β-Blocker Initiation After Myocardial Infarction in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A Retrospective Study of a Privately Insured US Population

Background: Beta-blockers remain important for secondary prevention after myocardial infarction (MI). Despite clinical guideline recommendations, underutilization of this pharmacotherapy continues ...
A Linguistic Analysis of the Title of Xiandai Hanyu Guifan Cidian

A survey of the 2004 massive debate on the titling of dictionaries in China is given.The impropriety and illegality of the titling of Xiandai hanyu guifan cidian (Normative Dictionary of Modern Chinese) are proven in terms of logical semantics,presupposition,pragmatic intention and effect,legal application,and so on.Results show that this dictionary does not possess the conditions for the so called "normative," and besides,it tends to degrade the products of its kind,thus misleading customers.
Weight maintenance in pediatric burned patients

Weight change, defined as the difference between the preadmission and discharge weights, has often been used as an indiator of the adequacy of nutrition support. Weight change has been found to be uninterpretable in burned patients because excision and grafting contribute to weight loss but do not reflect systemic physiology. Also, normal growth during hospitalization contributes to weight gain but is not included in traditional methods of assessing weight change of children. We examined weight change corrected for escharectomies and growth in 42 adult and pediatric burned patients. Thirty-five of the patients had weight loss within 10% of their premorbid weight. Moreover, weight loss was correlated with three observable patient characteristics: age, percent initial burn size, and preburn weight. It was concluded that the dietary regimen of providing twice the predicted basal metabolic rate in terms of calories, based on ideal body weight, was dequate to prevent significant weight loss in most patients but that further refinement is necessary to improve individual reliability. Furthermore, significant weight losses may not affect morbidity/mortality as previously thought.
Just What the Doctor Ordered: Using Parks to Improve Children's Health.

For children today, time spent outdoors is becoming more of a luxury—or in some cases, a chore—than a staple. In recent years “nature deficit disorder” among kids has evolved from a turn of phrase1 to a cultural indictment.2,3 Smartphones and other screens are increasingly vying for kids’ attention,4 but blame lies elsewhere, too: just as recess is being reduced or phased out in many schools, children’s activities are being increasingly structured and scheduled, and concerns over neighborhood crime and safety can impede their ability to play freely outdoors.5 A 2013 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that nearly three-quarters of high-school students had less than one hour of physical activity per day,6 while childhood obesity rates are trending steadily upward.7
The Inter-American System of Protection: Its Contributions to the International Law of Human Rights

Over a period of fifty years, the nations of the Western Hemisphere have developed a relatively sophisticated and progressive system of international human rights protection for their citizens. Though the region is often thought of as Latin America, the system also comprises the independent nations of the Caribbean, which include Spanish-speaking Cuba and the Dominican Republic, French-speaking Haiti, and about a dozen English-speaking island nations, plus English-speaking United States and Canada. Also included is Suriname, whose official language is Dutch; and Brazil, where Portuguese is spoken. The cultural diversity of the region is, however, even greater than these officially recognized languages suggest, given the many different indigenous peoples (in some countries comprising the majority of the population) and the vast contingents from Europe, Africa, and Asia whose ancestors came as immigrants or slaves.
An Absence of Theory

Governments are not market institutions. That may seem obvious. Why, then, does economics have no analysis of this non-market system of production, no explanation for how it works, and so no understanding of the fundamental dynamics and forces that drive the public economy? There is a void. This conceptual vacuum with regard to non-market dynamics has not drawn the interest even of heterodox economists; instead, it has invited neoclassical claims that market principles do, or should, govern the public economy. This in turn has opened the barn door to the marketization of government.
The Reproductive Rights Debate in the Age of Human Rights

Chapter 1 situates this project within the abortion debate in the USA, focusing on the more recent developments: the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010 and the Supreme Court ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby in 2014. The analysis of the pro-life discourse and public policy is based on data collection from multiple fields. The discourse analysis is based on qualitative and quantitative data collected mainly through the analysis of newspaper items and pro-life websites. The analysis of public policy is based on data collected at state and federal levels regarding abortion and abortion-related services. The chapter ends with an introduction of the framework of analysis, focusing on human rights, reproductive rights, and right-wing politics.
Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4 Regulates Hematopoietic Stem Cell Maintenance in Vivo.

The secreted signaling molecule Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4 (BMP4) is expressed by osteoblasts and other cell types that comprise the hematopoietic microenvironment. Therefore, we hypothesized that BMP4 may play an important regulatory role in the maintenance and function of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). As the deletion of BMP4 is lethal during early embryogenesis, we exploited a viable BMP4 hypomorph in which a point mutation in BMP4 reduces, but does not abolish the amount of active BMP4 ligand. In these mutants, peripheral blood cell lineages and bone marrow cellularity are normal during steady state conditions. However, consistent with our hypothesis, 40% fewer c-kit+, Sca-1+, lineage- (KSL) cells were present in the femurs of mutants (7.4 x103 ± 0.4 x103 SEM) than in age-and sex-matched wild-type (WT) controls (12.4 x103 ± 1.3 x103, p<0.005). Transplantation of mutant KSL cells produced levels of hematopoietic engraftment indistinguishable from transplanted WT KSL cells, consistent with a stem cell extrinsic effect of BMP4. To functionally assess the mutant hematopoietic microenvironment, unfractionated WT bone marrow cells (BM) were transplanted into lethally irradiated mutants or WT controls. Although WT cells could engraft mutant primary recipients to the same degree as WT recipients, serial transplantation of these WT cells into secondary WT hosts revealed a marked depletion of hematopoietic reconstitution activity. Specifically, nearly a 4-fold reduction of donor cells was found in the peripheral blood of secondary recipients that received BM from reconstituted mutant hosts (p<0.0005). To determine whether such defects in the mutant microenvironment exist in the absence of myeloablative conditioning and transplantation, a parabiotic mouse model was employed. CD45.1 WT mice were joined to CD45.2 BMP4 hypomorphs for 8 weeks and then separated. As early as one month following separation, a greater than 2- fold reduction in circulating WT donor cells was detected in mutant hosts relative to the number of mutant donor cells detected in the WT hosts (p<0.005). Analysis of BM at 24 weeks following separation revealed a striking 23- fold reduction in WT donor hematopoietic cells in the mutant host BM compared to the number of mutant hematopoietic cells detected in WT host BM. Together, our findings reveal a novel, critical role for BMP4 in maintaining HSCs in vivo.
Perceptions and Educational Strategies of Louisiana Agricultural Education Teachers When Working with Students with Special Needs

A teacher’s willingness to accept inclusion has been identified as an indicator of the quality of experience that a student with special needs will have in the classroom The purpose of this exploratory study was twofold: (1) to describe the overall perceptions of working with students with special needs and (2) to determine how teachers in Louisiana are currently working with students with special needs. A total of 152 teachers attended the Louisiana agricultural education teacher’s summer conference with 43% completing a three part survey instrument. Data analysis indicated that teachers are confident in their ability to work with students with special needs and they agree that they can incorporate various areas of inclusion within their programs. However, they disagreed that they have received adequate in-service opportunities related to special education. Regarding educational strategies, teachers in this study identified all of the given inclusion strategies as being used regularly in their programs with the exception of tutoring after school. They also identified these educational practices as being highly effective within their programs. Due to the exploratory nature of this study, additional research is recommended to further investigate the in-service and training needs of teachers in Louisiana.
Smart nanosensors for pesticide detection

In modern agricultural practices farmers have been attempting to save crops from the attacks of insects and other microorganisms including bacteria, nematodes, weeds, and pests. However, due to constant application, these pesticides enter the food chain through various ways, such as water, air, and soil, and severely affect the environment, as well as human health because they are carcinogenic and cytotoxic in nature. Over the past decade, considerable attention has been given to the development of rapid, sensitive, specific, and economically viable methods for pesticide detection to ensure food safety and security. Nanotechnology is a fast-growing field that enables the development of materials with brand new properties that can be used as inexpensive, portable nanosensors (by combining a biological recognition mechanism with a physical transduction technique) for rapid and real-time detection of pesticides at decentralized locations. This chapter presents state-of-the-art updates in the technology of pesticide biosensors. The chapter will provide a critical evaluation of recent advances in this area and newer trends in biosensors, such as tailor-designed biomolecules that include aptamers and molecularly imprinted polymers, optical, electrochemical, and piezoelectric materials, and so forth. A conclusive remark will also highlight the existing challenges and future prospects in this new area of agricultural nanotechnology.
History of Cytogenetics

Many reviews of the history of biology have been written. Different approaches have been used in writing these reviews. This is not just another list of dates to be added to the multitude that has already been published. Instead, the author presents some of the people who have contributed to the advancement of a science, the motives that led them to choose their subject of investigation, the reasons for choosing those subjects, and the prior advances that made their contributions possible. Cytogenetics was developed from two originally separate sciences—cytology and genetics. Cytogenetics deals with the study of heredity through the methods of cytology and genetics. The science is concerned with the structure, number, function, and movement of chromosomes and the numerous variations of these properties as they relate to the transmission, recombination, and expression of the genes. It also deals with nonchromosomal hereditary factors.
Immunostimulation by LPS and Its Derivatives

Of the vast number of biological properties attributed to endotoxins, their unique capacity to stimulate the body’s natural defenses in an immunologically non-specific way is unquestionably their most important property. That the effect of endotoxin on the immune system is not a singular, well-defined interaction becomes obvious from studies in vivo and in vitro. The non-specific effects of endotoxin upon resistance to various pathogens have been reported by many investigators (7, 18, 26, 44) and are attributed to many different cellular and non-cellular mechanisms (3). Alterations of the hemopoietic system include an early appearance of leukopenia followed several hours later by marked leukocytosis (20, 25). The histological picture of the bone marrow, spleen, thymus, and lymph nodes also follows a bi-phasic response which is initially characterized by intensely degenerative-appearing tissue, hypocellularity and loss in size and weight. Within 24 to 48 hours, cell-rich foci appear, giving rise to hyperplasia several days thereafter (44, 20, 50). This is the result of increased production of granulocytes, lymphocytes, myelocytes, and macrophages. Functional changes are also evident during this time.
On singular ES-FEM for fracture analysis of solids with singular stress fields of arbitrary order

Abstract The singular edge-based smoothed finite element method (sES-FEM) using triangular (T3) mesh with a special layer of five-noded singular elements (sT5) connected to the singular point, was proposed to model fracture problems in solids. This paper aims to extend the previous studies on singular fields of any order from −0.5 to 0, by developing an analytical means for integration to obtain the smoothed strains. We provide a more efficient practical formulae to estimate the stress intensity factor(SIF) for singular fields of mentioned order. The sT5 element has an additional node at each of the two edges connected to the crack tip, and the displacements are enriched with necessary terms to simulate the singularity. A weakened weak (W2) formulation is used to avoid the differentiation to the assumed displacement functions. The stiffness matrix is computed by using the smoothed strains calculated analytically from the enriched shape functions. Furthermore, our analytical integration techniques reduces the dependency on the order of numerical integration during the computation of the smoothed strain matrix. Several examples have been presented to demonstrate the reliability of the proposed method, excellent agreement between numerical results and reference observations shows that sES-FEM is an efficient numerical tool for predicting the SIF for singular fields.
Perioperative electrophysiology study in patients with tetralogy of Fallot undergoing pulmonary valve replacement will identify those at high risk of subsequent ventricular tachycardia

Background Ventricular tachyarrhythmias are the most common cause of death in patients with repaired tetralogy of Fallot (TOF), but predicting those at risk remains a challenge. An electrophysiology study (EPS) has been proposed to risk stratify patients with TOF. Objective We sought to evaluate a perioperative EPS-guided approach to risk stratify patients with TOF undergoing pulmonary valve replacement (PVR) and guide concomitant cryoablation. Methods A prospective cohort study of patients with TOF undergoing an EPS at the time of PVR from 2006 to 2017 was conducted at 2 centers. Patients inducible at the time of pre-PVR had undergone concomitant cryoablation in addition to PVR. A repeat post-PVR EPS was performed in those initially inducible to guide implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implantation. Results Of 70 patients who underwent a pre-PVR EPS, 34 (49%) had inducible sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT): 25 monomorphic VT and 9 polymorphic VT. Among patients undergoing cryoablation, 14 (45%) had inducible VT and underwent ICD implantation. During a mean follow-up period of 6.1 ± 3.2 years, 3 patients (21%) had appropriate ICD shocks for symptomatic VT. There was an average of 2.3 shocks (range 1–4 shocks), and the mean time to first shock post–device implantation was 3.6 years (range 2.9–4.3 years). Among patients with negative pre- or post-PVR EPS results, 2 had VT requiring radiofrequency ablation and/or subsequent ICD implantation. There were no arrhythmic deaths. Conclusion A pre-PVR EPS identified patients with higher-risk TOF undergoing PVR. Despite empirical VT cryoablation at the time of PVR, a high percentage of patients remained inducible for VT. In this high-risk cohort, post-PVR EPS evaluation is important to identify patients at risk of VT despite cryoablation.