cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A space-mapped model of thick, tightly coupled conductors for planar electromagnetic analysis

Accurate modelling of thick metal in a planar electromagnetic analysis can require that the thickness of the metal be divided into a large number of thin sheets or layers, substantially increasing analysis time. This order of modelling is especially important when two thick conductors are separated by less than the metal thickness. This article describes a method to efficiently realize the accuracy of a large number of thin sheets by introducing a "space mapping" layer into a simple model that can be efficiently analyzed.
Law and Politics in Post-Modern California Coalition or Conflict between African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latina/os?

This article considers the future of relations between African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latina/os in the political process in the United States and evaluates the prospects for social change....
Domestic and International Asymmetries in United States–European Union Trade Negotiations

This article studies the determinants of international bargaining power in instances of trade negotiations between the European Union and the United States. The authors' central hypothesis is that an appraisal of the US-EU trade relationship requires an understanding of the ways in which "domestic" political institutions shape the bargaining behavior of international actors. In particular, this article argues that the frequent EU "successes" in its negotiations with the US are the result of the bargaining power that its unique institutional arrangements grant its negotiators. In order to explain the distributional outcomes of interna- tional trade negotiations, the authors explore the "Schelling conjecture" and analyze why it is particularly relevant to the understanding of the unique bargaining power of EU negotiators when they are confronted with their American counterparts. To examine the explanatory power of domestic institutions in episodes of trade negotiations, the article analyzes the US-EC Uruguay Round agricultural negotiations (1986-1993).
Functional Morphology and Morphological Variation

The apparent simplicity of the cellular structure of sponges has generated much interest in this phylum of primitive metazoans, particularly the capacity of some types of adult cells to act in a seemingly embryonic fashion. In at least some species, nonepithelial cells differentiate into a number of functional cell types including spicule-secreting cells (sclerocytes), collagen-secreting cells (spongocytes), and others. Indeed, it is in part this quality which conveys to these multicellular animals their evolutionary uniqueness. Sponges lack reproductive, nervous, muscular, endocrine, circulatory, digestive, excretory, and respiratory systems, and with the exception of epithelial cells they lack anatomically discrete tissues. All sponges, except the Hexactinellida, possess two well-defined types of epithelial tissue: pinacocytes and choanocytes (Levi, 1970); although present among the hexactinellids (glass sponges) both of these tissues have been recently confirmed as syncytial (Reiswig, 1979; Mackie and Singula, 1983). It is possible both structurally and physiologically for a sponge to consist solely of these two cell types and a few approach this condition (Clathrina, Oscarella) (Herlant-Meewis, 1948a; Levi and Porte, 1962; Tuzet and Paris, 1963a).
Image theory for bianisotropic media

Image theory in bianisotropic media in the presence of a perfectly conducting plane is derived. The conventional image theory is shown to apply for crystals with two principal axes parallel to the conducting plane, for gyrotropic media with magnetostatic fields perpendicular to the plane, and for all such media uniformly moving parallel to the plane.
Effects of Alternative Control Methods Against Meloidogyne incognita in Organic Tomato Production

The effects of some alternative control methods consisting of biofumigation, intercropping with attractive plants, grafting, solarization or biological nematicides against Meloidogyne incognita in organic tomato production were evaluated in two successive short growing cycles (2007 autumn and 2008 spring) in unheated greenhouse conditions. Eight treatments were investigated in both growing seasons while four treatments were the same in each year, two were different. Soil solarization was applied for 6 weeks with a covering of 110 μm thickness of clear polyethylene sheets. For the biofumigation treatments, all the plant parts of the broccoli (Brassica olerace var. italica) (14 t ha -1 ) or the leaves and fruits of the castor oil plant (Ricinus communis) (2.5 t ha -1 ) were added to the soil one week before planting the tomatoes. The American Marigold plant (Tagetes erecta) seedlings were transplanted to the plots one week before planting as an intercrop with the tomato plants. As a biological nematicide, BioAct® [Paecilomyces lilacinus, strain 251: 62.5 g kg-1, 1010 cfu g-1 LD 50>5000 mg kg-1 cfu mL-1 (Boyut Foreign Trade Ltd, Turkey)] was applied three times at the firm's recommended rates. Organic manure, acting as a biological nematicide namely Netisin® (BioGlobal Company, Turkey), was applied at a rate of 10 kg ha -1 using a drip irrigation system to the soil twice. In both seasons root galling caused by M. incognita was lower (1.90 in autumn and 2.95 in spring) in the grafted tomato plants on the rootstock Beaufort than the other treatments. In terms of yield, among the tested treatments, grafting (0.922 kg plant-1 in autumn and 1.785 kg plant -1 in spring) and biofumigation with R. communis in autumn (0.924 kg plant-1) and biofumigation with broccoli in the spring (2.315 kg plant-1) gave higher yields. The overall results showed that biofumigation with broccoli and
The New Deal and the “Broker State:” A Review of the Recent Scholarly Literature

Professor Braeman evaluates historians' current assessment of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, finding a new consensus emerging among scholars of that important era in American history.
Congressional Candidates' Issue Agendas On- and Off-line:

We explore differences in House candidates' campaign agendas across Web sites and televised ads, comparing the size and scope of their online and off-line issue priorities, their patterns of partis...
Setting the public agenda: street crime' and drug use in American politics

Social control issues such as “street crime” and drug use have received an extraordinary degree of political attention in the United States since 1964. In this article, I use OLS and other methods to identify which factors are associated with subsequent shifts in levels of public concern about crime and drugs. The results indicate that state claimsmaking activities, and to some extent, media initiative on these issues, are associated with public concern about “street crime” and drug use. This study provides support for “constructionist” accounts of the politicization of crime and drugs by demonstrating that it is the definitional activities of the state and the media, rather than the reported incidence of crime or drug use and abuse, that has shaped public concern regarding those issues.
Id Proteins Contribute to Tumor Development and Metastatic Colonization in a Model of Bladder Carcinogenesis.

Background: Bladder cancer is one of the most common malignant genitourinary diseases worldwide. Despite advances in surgical technique, medical oncology and radiation therapy, cure of invasive tumors remains elusive for patients with late stage disease. Therefore, new therapeutic strategies are needed to improve the response rates with regard to recurrence, invasion and metastasis. Objective: Inhibitor of DNA binding (Id) proteins have been proposed as therapeutic targets due to the key regulatory role they exert in multiple steps of cancer. We aimed to explore the role of Id proteins in bladder cancer development and the pattern of expression of Id proteins in bladder carcinomas. Methods: We used a well-established chemically induced model of bladder carcinogenesis. Wild type and Id-deficient mice were given N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl) nitrosamine (BBN) in the drinking water and urinary bladder lesions were analyzed histopathologically and stained for Id1. We assessed the effects of Id1 inactivation in cultured bladder cancer cells and in a model of metastatic lung colonization. We also performed Id1 staining of human urothelial carcinoma samples and matched lymph node metastases. Results: Id1 protein was overexpressed in the BBN-induced model of bladder cancer. Id1 deficiency resulted in the development of urinary bladder tumors with areas of extensive hemorrhage and decreased invasiveness when compared to wild type mice. Id1 inactivation led to decreased cell growth in vitro and lung colonization in vivo of human bladder cancer cells. Immunohistochemistry performed on human urothelial carcinoma samples showed Id1 positive staining in both primary tumors and lymph node metastases. Conclusions: In summary, our studies reveal the physiological relevance of Id1 in bladder cancer progression and suggest that targeting Id1 may be important in the development of novel therapies for the treatment of bladder cancer.
Mother, May I?

A biographical story about a Japanese-American daughter and her mother who are both diabetic, and how their relationship changes as they seek to help each other with their health conditions.
Neoplastic transformation of rat embryo cells induced in vitro by Rauscher leukemia virus.

SummaryNeoplastic transformation of rat embryo cells in vitro by Rauscher leukemia virus (RLV) is reported. Rat embryo cells infected initially with RLV have replicated infectious virus and produced complement-fixing (CF) antigen characteristic of the murine leukemia-sarcoma virus complex for more than 18 months. Cells from these cultures underwent neoplastic transformation in vitro and produced tumors when injected into homologous hosts. The tumors were serially transplantable, and subsequent transplants continued to carry the initial RLV and to yield CF antigen.The authors wish to thank Mr. H. C. Turner, National Institutes of Health, for supervising CF tests, and Mrs. Ersell S. Richardson and Mrs. M. H. Joglekar for excellent technical assistance. We are also grateful to Dr. L. Rabstein, Microbiological Associates, Inc., for histological examination of tumors.
Comparison of Two Business Jets - Usage and Flight Loads

Usage and flight loads of a Global Express XRS and a Global Express 5000 are analyzed and compared. The XRS was flown as a standard business jet, while the 5000 was used for various missions, including testing flight procedures. The XRS data consisted of 1140 hours and 493800 nm. The 5000 data amounted to 582 hours and 194000 nm. It is shown that the 5000 was used for much shorter missions than the XRS, resulting in almost twice the number of ground-air-ground cycles per 100 hours. Also, the 5000 was flown more aggressively than the XRS, with much larger pitch and roll angle excursions. Exceedance charts are presented for gust and maneuver incremental vertical load factors. Both airframes experienced similar gust loads, but the frequency of the positive maneuver loads obtained from the 5000 was nearly one order of magnitude larger than that of the XRS at incremental values exceeding 0.20 g. Nonetheless, both airframes were operated well within their limitations. This suggests that while two aircraft can be very similar in design, their maintenance schedules have to be adjusted to account for the differences in their missions.
Control of German Cockroach (Dictyoptera: Blattellidae) with Residual Toxicants in Bait Trays

Bait trays that contained a bait base surrounded by a surface treated with residual treatments of pyrethroids, an organophosphate, and a carbamate were evaluated for German cockroach, Blattella germanica (L.), control. LC 50 s of baited residual insecticide deposits were 1-3 μg/cm 2 for λ-cyhalothrin, 7-29 μg/cm 2 for cypermethrin, chlorpyrifos and cyfluthrin, 55-150 μg/cm 2 for permethrin, and 431-852 μg/cm 2 for bendiocarb. Plastic surfaces provided greater mortality of all stages of German cockroaches at 24 h than aluminum foil and filter paper surfaces; for instance, cypermethrin killed 100% of males on plastic compared with 90% on aluminum and 70% on paper. Also, wettable powder formulations killed significantly higher percentages of German cockroaches than did emulsifiable concentrates and technical active ingredient. LT 50 s of cockroaches confined to treated surfaces were 0.94-1.64 min for cypermethrin and λ-cyhalothrin, 2.09-4.11 min for cyfluthrin and permethrin, and 15.12-21.62 min for chlorpyrifos and bendiocarb. The use of an inedible bait base significantly enhanced kill of bait trays treated with cypermethrin; 94% of male cockroaches died in 4 d with baited trays compared with 43% mortality with trays containing no bait.
Ground State Analysis on the Fcc Lattice With Four Pair Interactions

We have partially solved the ground state problem of binary alloys on the fee lattice with pair interactions up to the fourth nearest neighbor distance. Our results extend the study presented by Kanamori and Kakehashi [1], releasing the constraint they imposed on the nearest neighbor correlation. The solution we present increases the number of possible ground state structures by an order of magnitude with respect to previous results. We have applied both the polyhedron and the enumeration method. The latter proved more powerful when including interactions beyond the second nearest neighbor distance.
Use of rat liver altered focus models for testing chemicals that have completed two-year carcinogenicity studies.

Partial hepatectomy (PH) and neonatal rat short-term liver focus models were used to examine the effects of selected chemicals that had been previously tested in the National Toxicology Program (NTP) 2-yr carcinogenicity studies. C.I. Solvent Yellow 14, monuron, chlorendic acid, and 4-hydroxyacetanilide were tested for initiating and promoting activity in the PH model. Chlorendic acid, 4,4'-oxydianiline, 1-amino-2,4-dibromoanthraquinone (ADBAQ), and 4-hydroxyacetanilide were similarly tested in a neonatal rat liver focus model. With the exception of 4-hydroxyacetanilide which was not carcinogenic in the NTP studies, all chemicals tested showed clear evidence of hepatocarcinogenicity. While none of the chemicals showed initiating activity in either the PH or neonatal models, promoting activity, as indicated by increased number, size, or volume fraction of histochemically detected hepatic foci of cellular alteration, was evident for all chemicals with previously demonstrated hepatocarcinogenicity. Liver tumor incidence was documented at 14 months in the PH model and at 300 days in the neonatal model. On the basis of the results obtained from these few chemicals, it is suggested that the use of short-term rat liver focus models may represent a reliable means for identifying chemicals with hepatocarcinogenic potential.
Profile of a Volunteer Blood Donor

The profile of the volunteer blood donor was compiled from 48 replies to a questionnaire circulated to the 76 members of our “8-Pint Blood Donor Club” and was presented at the second annual dinner meeting of the club. Holy Cross Hospital is a 426-bed hospital located in a predominantly middle-class neighborhood with citizens of European descent. In 1973, the hospital used 3,064 units of blood, obtained entirely from volunteer donors. Arguments for and against the concept of volunteer donors have been aptly stated elsewhere and need not be considered here.1,2,3 It has been stated that only 3% of potential volunteer donors actually donate blood. We felt it might be of interest to those who are involved in collecting volunteer donors and who wish to expand their donor base, to compare the present profile with their own donor population.
Method, Content and Format of ISEE Data Distribution

The ISEE Data Pool that will be available to the IMS will include observations of the magnetic field, plasma, 20–50 keV and 50–100 keV electrons and protons, number density and energy density for low-energy electrons and ions, E-field bandpass channel — 400 Hz, B-field bandpass channel — 400 Hz, He/H ratio at 1 keV/unit charge and protons in the energy intervals 170–400 keV, 10–30 meV, 30–60 meV. The basic time interval is 5 min, although the magnetic field will have a basic time interval of 1 min and the energetic protons will be 15 min averages. Microfilm plots of these data on a scale of 1 day per page and 1 Bartels’ rotation per page will be available, in addition to magnetic tapes of the data.
Characterization and evaluation of high frequency convex array transducers

High frequency, 20 MHz convex array transducers have been fabricated and characterized. An array geometry of 111 µm pitch, 23.6 mm radius of curvature, 52° maximum view angle, 7 mm elevation width, 192 elements and 30 mm geometric focus were chosen to cover the entire eyeball in one imaging plane. Pulse-echo measurements of all 192 elements showed that 8 elements were open with no shorted ones. The average values of measured parameters for all elements excluding open ones were −63.7 dB loop sensitivity, 19.6 MHz −6 dB center frequency and 69.2% −6 dB fractional bandwidth, all with less than 5% standard deviation. Element-to-element variation of measured parameters has been found to be acceptable for imaging purposes. Bovine eye images obtained by convex arrays provided a wider viewing area than those by linear arrays. Strong echoes from retinal layers of the posterior segment of a bovine eye were observed. Real-time images of excised bovine eyes have been acquired by a 64-channel imaging system.
Using the Wisdom Development Theory to Conceptualize Student Professionalism Development in Community Colleges

ABSTRACTHistorically, community colleges have played a vital role in career and vocational preparation for students. In today’s complex and ever-changing work environment, professionalism issues are at the forefront of employers’ concerns related to millennials and other young students and recent graduates. This issue is aggravated by the rise of social media and other trends that pose challenges related to, for example, professionalism in communication. The community college community is an excellent site for a movement towards structured professionalism training and research that is process-centered and that emphasizes lifelong learning. Drawn upon the literature review and our own experiences in career counseling, we expand on the perspectives of professionalism at the individual and group levels. And we present on how community colleges’ offices, instructors, and administrators can use the Model of Wisdom Development to understand whether and how are students developing professionalism.
Lithium Enolates in the Enantioselective Construction of Tetrasubstituted Carbon Centers with Chiral Lithium Amides as Noncovalent Stereodirecting Auxiliaries.

Lithium enolates derived from carboxylic acids are ubiquitous intermediates in organic synthesis. Asymmetric transformations with these intermediates, a central goal of organic synthesis, are typically carried out with covalently attached chiral auxiliaries. An alternative approach is to utilize chiral reagents that form discrete, well-defined aggregates with lithium enolates, providing a chiral environment conducive of asymmetric bond formation. These reagents effectively act as noncovalent, or traceless, chiral auxiliaries. Lithium amides are an obvious choice for such reagents as they are known to form mixed aggregates with lithium enolates. We demonstrate here that mixed aggregates can effect highly enantioselective transformations of lithium enolates in several classes of reactions, most notably in transformations forming tetrasubstituted and quaternary carbon centers. Easy recovery of the chiral reagent by aqueous extraction is another practical advantage of this one-step protocol. Crystallographic,...
How do Students Learn to See Concepts in Visualizations? Social Learning Mechanisms with Physical and Virtual Representations

STEM instruction often uses visual representations. To benefit from these, students need to understand how representations show domain-relevant concepts. Yet, this is difficult for students. Prior research shows that physical representations (objects that students manipulate by hand) and virtual representations (objects on a computer screen that students manipulate via mouse and keyboard) have complementary advantages for conceptual learning. However, physical and virtual representations are often embedded into different social classroom contexts, which may affect social mechanisms through which students construct connections between concepts and representations. Therefore, this paper focuses on the social events that precede concept-representation connections. Twelve high-school students worked collaboratively with physical and virtual representations of chemistry. Frequent pattern mining of discourse data was used to identify social events that often preceded concept-representation connections. Qualitative analysis investigated social mechanisms through which these events may enhance concept-representation connections. Results show that students construct concept-representation connections incrementally. Further, meta-cognitive strategies and instructor prompts often preceded concept-representation connections. Finally, differences between physical and virtual representations were mainly due to different social supports being available in the context in which the representations were embedded. I discuss contributions to literature on learning with multiple representations and to interventions that blend representation modes.
Capitalism’s Insidious Charm vs. Women’s and Sexual Liberation

In her recent work on feminism and capitalism, Nancy Fraser has insisted on the necessity to resist the neoliberal cooptation of feminist discourse and to combine the critique of gender inequality with the critique of capitalism. Arruzza accepts Nancy Fraser’s invitation to think again about the structural connection between gender and sexual oppression and capitalist social relations. She critically discusses the liberal feminist notion that capitalism has led and can still lead to greater emancipation from gender and sexual oppression, and that the oppression of women and of sexuality is only a vestige of a pre-capitalist past. As capitalism generates gender and sexual oppression in various ways and new forms, these kinds of oppression cannot be considered simply as a remnant from a pre-capitalist past.
Tensor encoding and decomposition of brain connectomes with application to tractography evaluation

Recently, linear formulations and convex optimization methods have been proposed to predict diffusion-weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging (dMRI) data given estimates of brain connections generated using tractography algorithms. The size of the linear models comprising such methods grows with both dMRI data and connectome resolution, and can become very large when applied to modern data. In this paper, we introduce a method to encode dMRI signals and large connectomes, i.e., those that range from hundreds of thousands to millions of fascicles (bundles of neuronal axons), by using a sparse tensor decomposition. We show that this tensor decomposition accurately approximates the Linear Fascicle Evaluation (LiFE) model, one of the recently developed linear models. We provide a theoretical analysis of the accuracy of the sparse decomposed model, LiFE_SD, and demonstrate that it can reduce the size of the model significantly. Also, we develop algorithms to implement the optimization solver using the tensor representation in an efficient way.
Pronominal borrowing among the Maya

A central concern in the study of language contact phenomena is the question of what linguistic features are more or less likely to be borrowed, and why. Pronominal borrowing, at least the direct borrowing of the phonological forms, is often ranked among the least common outcomes of language contact. This paper presents an extended case study of contact-induced changes in the system of person markers in several Mayan languages over nearly two thousand years of intense linguistic contact. The contact phenomena discussed appear to include the direct borrowing of pronominal ‘matter’, as well as the diffusion of structural and semantic ‘patterns’ that have led to a high degree of convergence in the overall system of pronominal reference in these languages. Possible social and linguistic motivations for the unusual contact-induced changes are considered.
Facilitating Clinical Studies in Rare Diseases

In recent years, there have been many scientific advances and new collaborations for rare diseases research and, ultimately, the health of patients living with rare diseases. However, for too many rare diseases, there still is no effective treatment, and our understanding of the incidence, prevalence, and underlying etiology is incomplete. To facilitate the studies needed to answer the many open questions there is a great need for the active involvement of all stakeholders, most importantly of patient groups. Also, the creation of streamlined infrastructure for performing multi-site clinical studies is critical, as is the engagement of multi-disciplinary teams with shared focus on a group of diseases. Another essential component of such efforts is to collect standardized data so that downstream meta-analyses and data sharing can be facilitated. To ensure high-quality protocols and datasets, a central data management and coordinating center is important. Since there are more than 6000 rare diseases, instead of focusing on single rare disease, it is more impactful to create platforms and methods that can support a group of rare diseases.
The Geography of Municipal Incorporation: Where Are the Newly Incorporated Municipalities (NIMs)?

Since the 1950s, municipal incorporation activity has been declining precipitously. The rate of new cities formation has decreased by almost 100% since the 1950s. Reasons for this great decline include: the lack of available territory from which to create a new municipality, changes in state laws related to annexation and incorporations, declining rates of suburbanization, and an increasing role of alternative forms of local government boundary change including special district formation. Between January 1, 1990, and December 31, 2009, 434 new municipalities were incorporated within the USA. These 434 new cities contained a combined population of more than 4 million according to 2010 US Census figures. Many of the new municipalities created over the last few decades cluster together around major metropolitan areas. Meanwhile, several states have not had any new incorporations, largely the result of ossified boundaries that limit the amount of unincorporated territory available from which to “carve” a new city and legislative hurdles that prefer alternative forms of local government boundary change. The mean population for new municipalities was almost 10,000, and the median was approximately 1200. However, the populations of new municipalities ranged from 5 to more than 150,000 residents.
Neurophysiological Assessment of Anhedonia in Depression and Schizophrenia

Abstract Anhedonia, broadly defined as the absence of pleasure, is considered a prominent feature of both depression and schizophrenia. However, despite analogous clinical descriptions, differences in symptomatology between the disorders suggest that the term anhedonia in each disorder may capture clinically and neurobiologically distinct phenomena. Particularly, depression seems to be characterized by an episodic deficit in hedonic capacity, while schizophrenia may be characterized by a relatively stable deficit in the retrieval of noncurrent emotional states. In this chapter, we provide an overview of anhedonia, the demonstrated nuances between depression and schizophrenia, and plausible mechanisms including reward sensitivity and emotional reactivity. We describe neurophysiological methodologies utilized to tease apart the time course and intricate nature of these mechanisms, primarily focusing on two neurophysiological components—event-related potentials termed the reward positivity and late positive potential. Reviewing the research, we propose that depression is characterized by experiential deficits in reward consumption and momentary affective experiences, while schizophrenia is distinctly characterized by cognitive deficits rather than deficient experiential capacity in either reward or emotional reactivity.
Sentiment analysis within and across social media streams

Social media offers a powerful outlet for people's thoughts and feelings—it is an enormous ever-growing source of texts ranging from everyday observations to involved discussions. This thesis contributes to the field of sentiment analysis, which aims to extract emotions and opinions from text. A basic goal is to classify text as expressing either positive or negative emotion. Sentiment classifiers have been built for social media text such as product reviews, blog posts, and even Twitter messages. With increasing complexity of text sources and topics, it is time to re-examine the standard sentiment extraction approaches, and possibly to re-define and enrich sentiment definition. Thus, this thesis begins by introducing a rich multi-dimensional model based on Affect Control Theory and showing its usefulness in sentiment classification. Next, unlike sentiment analysis research to date, we examine sentiment expression and polarity classification within and across various social media streams by building topical datasets. When comparing Twitter, reviews, and blogs on consumer product topics, we show that it is possible, and sometimes even beneficial, to train sentiment classifiers on text sources which are different from the target text. This is not the case, however, when we compare political discussion in YouTube comments to Twitter posts, demonstrating the difficulty of political sentiment classification. We further show that neither discussion volume or sentiment expressed in these streams correspond well to national polls, putting in question recent research linking the two. The complexity of political discussion also calls for a more specific re-definition of "sentiment" as agreement with the author's political stance. We conclude that sentiment must be defined, and tools for its analysis designed, within a larger framework of human interaction.
Actinomyces viscosus causing disseminated disease in a patient on methotrexate

Actinomycosis is an uncommon infectious disease caused predominantly by Actinomyces israelii. Actinomycosis usually involves the cervicofacial, thoracic, abdominal, and pelvic region, dissemination is uncommon. Actinomyces viscosus are commensal organisms that make up the normal flora of the oropharynx of humans and has rarely been reported to cause disease. Here, we report a unique case of disseminated actinomycosis with lung and brain lesions caused by Actinomyces viscosus resembling lung cancer with metastasis in a 74 year old male. Cultures from skin lesions confirmed A. viscosus. Although the patient was immunocompromised, antibiotic treatment with a penicillin-based regimen was effective.
Fibrosing Mediastiniti s : a Rare Cause of Unilateral Absent Lung Perfusion on a V/Q Scan

We report a case of a 29-year-old female with a history of asthma, post-partum ARDS, and pulmonary hypertension who presents with severe shortness of breath. The patient describes her shortness of breath as progressive over the past 10 years. Chest radiography and CT angiography of the thorax showed findings consistent with fibrosing mediastinitis with severe stenosis of the left main pulmonary artery. This resulted in appearance of unilateral absent left lung perfusion on quantitative Tc-99-MAA perfusion and Xe-133 ventilation (V/Q) scan.
Functional limitations and employment among disability benefit recipients with musculoskeletal conditions: A mediation analysis

This paper uses the National Beneficiary Survey to study the relationship between functional limitations, health conditions and employment among disability beneficiaries with musculoskeletal conditions in a multivariate mediation analysis.
Hepatic metabolic adaptation in a murine model of glutathione deficiency.

Abstract Glutathione (GSH), the most abundant cellular non-protein thiol, plays a pivotal role in hepatic defense mechanisms against oxidative damage. Despite a strong association between disrupted GSH homeostasis and liver diseases of various etiologies, it was shown that GSH-deficient glutamate-cysteine ligase modifier subunit (Gclm)-null mice are protected against fatty liver development induced by a variety of dietary and environmental insults. The biochemical mechanisms underpinning this protective phenotype have not been clearly defined. The purpose of the current study was to characterize the intrinsic metabolic signature in the livers from GSH deficient Gclm-null mice. Global profiling of hepatic polar metabolites revealed a spectrum of changes in amino acids and metabolites derived from fatty acids, glucose and nucleic acids due to the loss of GCLM. Overall, the observed low GSH-driven metabolic changes represent metabolic adaptations, including elevations in glutamate, aspartate, acetyl-CoA and gluconate, which are beneficial for the maintenance of cellular redox and metabolic homeostasis.
Insurance Plan Adherence to Mandate for Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives in a Large Pediatric Hospital Network.

Abstract Study Objective Long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) are the most effective form of pregnancy prevention for sexually active adolescents, yet usage rates are low. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandated insurers cover LARCs without cost-sharing. Compliance with this policy is not well documented. This study assessed LARC coverage by insurers in a large pediatric health system. Design, Setting, Participants, and Interventions Between June and August 2016, LARC coverage was assessed through content reviews of insurance Web sites, formularies, and summaries of benefits for all Pennsylvania Medicaid plans and the top 20 commercial insurers for a large pediatric health system. Main Outcome Measures The primary outcome was adherence to the ACA mandate for LARC coverage without cost-sharing. Results Among the 37 plans (17 public, 20 private), 21 (56.8%) were adherent and 16 (43.2%) were nonadherent. Among nonadherent plans, 3 plans covered LARC services but required cost-sharing, whereas 13 did not cover LARC services at all. There was not a statistically significant difference in LARC coverage between public and private plans. Conclusion Despite the landmark ACA mandate, insurance coverage of LARCs in pediatric hospitals is low for young women among private and public insurers. Insurer failure to adhere to the ACA among pediatric patients represents a barrier to LARC access for those at high risk of unintended pregnancy.
Fostering Democratic and Social-Emotional Learning in Action Civics Programming: Factors That Shape Students’ Learning From Project Soapbox:

This research examines the factors that shape high school students’ experiences with an action civics program—Project Soapbox—that fosters democratic and social-emotional learning. Drawing on pre- ...
Patient Engagement With an Automated Telephone Symptom Management Intervention: Predictors and Outcomes.

Background Self-management of symptoms related to cancer and its treatment is important for maintaining treatment regimens and improving outcomes. Purpose To determine factors associated with engagement in a symptom self-management intervention among patients initiating oral anticancer treatment. Methods This secondary analysis included 127 patients randomized to the medication adherence reminder and symptom management intervention in a recently completed trial. Patients were recruited from six Comprehensive Cancer Centers, interviewed at intake, and mailed a Symptom Management Toolkit (Toolkit) with self-care management strategies for 18 symptoms. During eight automated telephone weekly calls, patients were asked to use the Toolkit to manage elevated symptoms. Toolkit use and symptoms were tracked weekly, and generalized linear mixed-effects models were used to determine factors predictive of Toolkit use. General linear modeling was used to relate the Toolkit use during intervention to postintervention symptom severity. Results Better cognitive function at intake into the trial and higher symptom burden were predictive of the patients' initial decision to try the Toolkit during Week 1. In subsequent weeks, Toolkit use in the previous week and worsening of symptoms were associated with greater odds of Toolkit use. The extent of Toolkit use modified the relationship between intake and 8 week symptom severity: among patients with higher levels of severity at intake, use of the Toolkit conferred greater benefit at 8 weeks. Conclusions Patients make realistic decisions regarding when to use a self-directed approach to self-management and are likely to use strategies when their symptoms are higher and to forego use once symptoms subside. Clinical trial registration NCT02043184.
Descriptive Study of Rubella Titer Status in Infertility Patients.

Introduction There is a 6.4 percent incidence of rubella exposure during pregnancy in the U.S. Given the severe effects rubella can have on a developing fetus, vaccination of women prior to pregnancy is important. Women seeking fertility treatment therefore present a population of patients primed for the vaccination. This study collected and analyzed rubella-specific immunoglobulin G (RV-IgG) titer statuses and corresponding demographics of infertility patients to identify patients at risk of rubella nonimmunity. Methods The study consisted of a retrospective review of electronic medial records (EMR) of female patients, ages 18 to 50, who were new patients receiving an infertility workup at a Midwestern reproductive endocrinology clinic from Jan. 1, 2010 through Dec. 31, 2014. Of those patients who had RV-IgG titers noted in their EMR, the following demographics were collected: age, race, gravidity and parity, state of residence, and community size. Results There were 750 patients included in the study. Rubella titers were drawn on 72.7 percent of the patients. Of those drawn, 90.8 percent had a positive rubella titer. Most of the participants (92.3 percent) were identified as Caucasian/White. Caucasians/Whites, Asians, and African Americans/Blacks had the highest rates of rubella immunity, while American Indians/Alaskan Natives had the lowest rates of immunity (p=0.0006). Nulligravida participants had a positive rubella titer rate of 94.1 percent, while primigravida participants had a rate of 89.8 percent (p=0.04). Participants living in the largest sampled communities had the lowest rates of positive rubella titers, while those living in the smallest communities had the highest rates of positive rubella titers, although these findings were not statistically significant. Conclusions Of the infertility patients, 27.3 percent did not have an RV-IgG titer drawn as part of their fertility workup. Of the 72.7 percent of patients for whom titers were checked, nearly 10 percent were not immune to rubella. While there are a couple reasons why a patient may not have a positive titer, lack of immunization is the most common reason. Data analysis identified significance in the difference in titer status only with respect to race and gravidity, and those findings, particularly race, must be viewed critically in light of the study population. While the statistical significance of the study may be limited, there is clinical significance in identifying infertility patients at highest risk of rubella nonimmunity so vaccination education and efforts can be focused accordingly.
Limited-Montage EEG as a Tool for the Detection of Nonconvulsive Seizures.

Purpose Prefabricated arrays with a limited number of electrodes offer an opportunity to hasten the diagnosis of seizures; however, their accuracy to detect seizures is unknown. We examined the utility of two limited-montage EEG setups for the detection of nonconvulsive seizures. Methods Thirty previously interpreted EEG segments with nonconvulsive seizures from 30 patients and 60 segments with background slowing or normal EEG from 60 patients were rendered in a bipolar "double banana" montage, a double distance "neonatal" montage, and a circumferential "hatband" montage. Experts reviewed 60 to 180 seconds long segments to determine whether seizures were present and if the EEG data provided were sufficient to make a decision on escalation of clinical care by ordering an additional EEG or prescribing anticonvulsants. The periodic patterns on the ictal-interictal continuum were specifically excluded for this analysis to keep the focus on definite electrographic seizures. Results The sensitivities for seizure of the neonatal and hatband montages were 0.96 and 0.84, respectively, when compared with full montage EEG, whereas the specificities were 0.94 and 0.98, respectively. Appropriate escalation of care was suggested for 96% and 92% of occurrences of seizure patterns in neonatal and hatband montages, respectively. When compared with clinical EEG, the sensitivities of the neonatal and hatband montages for seizure diagnosis were 0.85 and 0.69, respectively. Conclusions Nonconvulsive seizures were detected with high accuracy using the limited electrode array configuration in the neonatal and hatband montages. The sensitivity of the neonatal montage EEG in detecting seizures was superior to that of a hatband montage. These findings suggest that in some patients with nonconvulsive seizures, limited-montage EEG may allow to differentiate ictal and slow patterns.
UV-Curable Cellulose Nanofiber-Reinforced Soy Protein Resins for 3D Printing and Conventional Molding

Plastic wastes pose a serious threat to the environment and there has been strong interest in developing soy protein isolate (SPI)-based plastics to reduce the use of traditional petroleum-based on...
Communication: Fast transport and relaxation of vibrational energy in polymer chains

We investigate ballistic vibrational energy transport through optical phonon band in oligomeric chains in the presence of decoherence. An exact solution is obtained for the excitation density in the space-time representation in the continuous limit and this solution is used to characterize the energy transport time and intensity. Three transport mechanisms are identified such as ballistic, diffusive, and directed diffusive regimes, occurring at different distances and time scales. The crossover between the two diffusive regimes is continuous, while the switch between the ballistic and diffusive mechanisms occurs in a discontinuous manner in accord with the recent experimental results on energy transport in perfluoroalkanes.
Longest Storage Period with Static Hypothermic Preservation in Cardiac Transplantation: Initial Experience in the West Coast

Introduction Improvement in preservation and transportation conditions has the potential to enhance organ quality at the time of transplant, optimize patient outcomes, and prolong the acceptable maximum allograft ischemic time. Herein, we describe our initial successful experience with the static hypothermic preservation system (Paragonix) for a donor heart. Our storage period and allograft ischemic time are the longest reported in the literature. Case Report A 68-year-old woman with HF was listed for transplantation. A donor heart was procured from a hospital located 3.5 hours away. The donor allograft was secured and packaged using the SherpaPak™ device (Fig. 1); total storage period was 283 mins. Heart transplantation was performed in standard fashion. AV conduction and normal sinus rhythm were regained after 7 mins of reperfusion. Total ischemic time was 330 mins, including a warm ischemic time of 20 minutes. The recipient CPB time and aortic cross clamp time were 153 and 50 mins, respectively. The patient recovered well and was discharged on postoperative day 10. At three months post-transplant, the patient continues to have excellent graft function without any evidence of rejection. Summary Historically, Shumway et al. initially obtained donor hearts from operating rooms immediately adjacent to a recipient. Over time, donor distance and allograft ischemic times have increased with advances in cardiac preservation. However, long cold ischemic times may induce PGD, cardiac allograft vasculopathy, and contribute to increased length of stay. Maintaining storage temperatures within the narrow range of 4-8°C is optimal for the preservation of high energy phosphate stores and avoids the risk of cold ischemic injury at temperatures below 2°C. By expanding geographic boundaries and total ischemic times, we believe that regulated static hypothermic preservation is a useful addition to a growing armamentarium of devices and strategies to increase access to transplantation.
Exploring the effects of omitted variable bias in physics education research

Physics education research studies are prone to omitted variable bias because we never know the ``true'' model and can never account for all possible variables.
Fire and browsing interact to alter intra-clonal stem dynamics of an encroaching shrub in tallgrass prairie

The expansion of woody species into grasslands has altered community structure and ecosystem function of grasslands worldwide. In tallgrass prairie of the Central Great Plains, USA, decreased fire frequency and intensity have increased the cover and abundance of woody species. In particular, clonal shrub cover has increased at accelerated rates due to vegetative reproduction and resprouting after disturbance. We measured the intra-clonal stem demography and relative growth rates (estimated change in woody biomass) of the shrub Cornus drummondii in response to fire frequency (4 vs 20 year burn intervals) and simulated browsing during the 2018 and 2019 growing seasons at Konza Prairie Biological Station (Manhattan, Kansas). Overall, infrequent fire (4 year burn interval) increased intra-clonal stem relative growth rates and shrub relative growth rates. Intra-clonal stem relative growth rates were reduced in unbrowsed clones in 2018 due to drought and simulated browsing reduced intra-clonal stem relative growth rates in 2019. Additionally, simulated browsing nearly eliminated flower production within clones but did not affect intra-clonal stem mortality or recruitment within a growing season. Fire in conjunction with simulated browsing reduced estimated relative growth rates for entire shrub clones. Browsed shrubs that experienced prescribed fire in 2017 had reduced intra-clonal stem densities compared to unbrowsed shrubs and stem densities of browsed shrubs did not recover in 2018 or 2019. These results illustrate that infrequent fire alone promotes the expansion of clonal shrubs in tallgrass prairie and multiple interacting disturbances (e.g., fire and browsing) are required to control the spread of clonal shrubs into grasslands.