cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Art of Fugue

Fugue for J. S. Bach was a natural language; he wrote fugues in organ toccatas and voluntaries, in masses and motets, in orchestral and chamber music, and even in his sonatas for violin solo. The more intimate fugues he wrote for keyboard are among the greatest, most infl uential, and best-loved works in all of Western music. They have long been the foundation of the keyboard repertory, played by beginning students and world-famous virtuosi alike. In a series of elegantly written essays, eminent musicologist Joseph Kerman discusses his favorite Bach keyboard fugues—some of them among the best-known fugues and others much less familiar. Kerman skillfully, at times playfully, reveals the inner workings of these pieces, linking the form of the fugues with their many different characters and expressive qualities, and illuminating what makes them particularly beautiful, powerful, and moving. “Beautifully produced and even more beautifully written, suffused with humanistic learning, warmth, generosity, and wit.”—Early Music “Kerman’s hearing is sharp, his thinking precise and original, and his prose elegant and sapid.”—Michael Steinberg, author of The Symphony: A Listener’s Guide “Astonishing, stimulating, marvelous, and accessible.”—Stephen Kovacevich JOSEPH KERMAN (1924–2014) was Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, author of Concerto Conversations, Write All These Down, and Opera as Drama, among other books. He was a founding editor of the journal 19th-Century Music and a regular contributor to the New York Review.
Surface Water-Groundwater Connection at the Los Alamos Canyon Weir Site: Part 2. Modeling of Tracer Test Results

to highly vesicular, to highly fractured. Although this unit is widespread, transport behavior in the Cerros del Field observations of bromide transport in the unsaturated zone Rio basalt is currently poorly understood, and better are used to constrain simulations that provide estimates of bulk poros
Generalization Bounds for Supervised Dimensionality Reduction

We introduce and study the learning scenario of supervised dimensionality reduction, which couples dimensionality reduction and a subsequent supervised learning step. We present new generalization bounds for this scenario based on a careful analysis of the empirical Rademacher complexity of the relevant hypothesis set. In particular, we show an upper bound on the Rademacher complexity that is in O( √ Λ(r)/m), where m is the sample size and Λ(r) the upper bound on the Ky-Fan r-norm of the operator that defines the dimensionality reduction projection. We give both upper and lower bounds in terms of that Ky-Fan r-norm, which strongly justifies the definition of our hypothesis set. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first learning guarantees for the problem of supervised dimensionality reduction with a learned kernel-based mapping. Our analysis and learning guarantees further apply to several special cases, such as that of using a fixed kernel with supervised dimensionality reduction or that of unsupervised learning of a kernel for dimensionality reduction followed by a supervised learning algorithm.
HAS THE FOURTH AMENDMENT GONE TO THE DOGS?: UNREASONABLE EXPANSION OF CANINE SNIFF DOCTRINE TO INCLUDE SNIFFS OF THE HOME

This Article argues that a canine drug-detection sniff of a private home is a “search” under the Fourth Amendment because the sniff is a sense-enhancing tool that provides police information about a home’s interior. Scientific research now establishes that drug-detection dogs do not alert to contraband, but instead to break-down products of the illegal drug — decomposition odor constituents that are in no way illegal or even unique to contraband. Therefore, a positive canine sniff produces nothing more than an inference that contraband is also present; sense-enhanced police inferencing that is analogous to the technology-assisted inferencing about a home’s interior that the Court rejected in Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27 (2001), and United States v. Karo, 468 U.S. 705 (1984). Drug-detection dogs are “natural” technological aids to law enforcement — based on the extensive scientific research conducted to improve canine drug-detection training and to develop breeding and cloning programs that result in detection dogs with enhanced drug-detection capabilities — which implicate Kyllo’s concerns regarding “advancing technology” used to infer the existence of contraband inside a private home. Further, canine home-sniffs are more intrusive than ordinary “knock and talks” with human officers because (1) detection dogs are often selected for the intimidation that they produce; (2) law enforcement has a long history of using dogs to oppress people of color; and (3) dogs are considered unclean to members of some religions. A canine drug-detection sniff of a private home must be supported by a dog-sniff warrant issued on the basis of probable cause to perform the sniff, not probable cause to search physically the premises.
Evaluating the linear and nonlinear optical properties of a mixed tellurite chalcogenide glass

A new type of tellurite chalcogenide glass is proposed and simulated at the microscopic molecular level using GAMESS. The ab initio study shows that the optical linear polarizability α and second-order hyperpolarizability γ per unit increase ∼1.5 times and ∼2 times respectively by replacing O with S in chain-like structures Te≪O x ≫Te (X=O or S), resulting in an estimation of linear refractive index n 0 and third-order susceptibility χ(3) that is ∼1.5 times and ∼20 times larger than the base tellurite glass, respectively.
Direct-band-gap, Pseudo Single Crystal GeSn on Amorphous Layers towards 3D Integrated Photonics and Flexible Photonics

High-crystallinity, direct-band-gap Ge0.89Sn0.11 is achieved at <450°C on amorphous dielectric layers and flexible substrates. The geometrically confined growth of pseudo-single-crystal Ge0.89Sn0.11 enables monolithic, large-scale 3D Si photonics.
Occurrence of Food-Borne Diarrhea in Jing'an District of Shanghai and Analysis on Countermeasures

Objective To survey the status quo of food-borne diarrhea in Jing'an district and to provide basic information for food-borne disease surveillance network,so as to put forward the corresponding countermeasures.Method Conducting a household survey on 201 residents selected by cluster sampling method.The subjects were investigated by questionnaires on the general conditions,their knowledge and behavior on food safety,the incidence of foodborne diarrhea,and the evaluation and needs on food hygiene and safety.The database was built with Epidata and analyzed with statistic software SAS.Results The prevalence rate of diarrhea in the year was 25.87% and the rate of diarrhea in two weeks was 4.98%,and the prevalence rate of food borne diarrhea in the year was 5.97% and the rate of food-borne diarrhea in two weeks was 1.49%.The prevalence rate of diarrhea was not affected by gender,age,occupation,education,marital status and health status significantly,but the prevalence rate of food-borne disease varied significantly with the income(P 0.01) and the ways of preparing foods(P 0.05).The risks were 6.41 times higher in residents not using knife separately for preparing raw and cooked foods and the risks were 5.23 times higher in residents not using chopping block separately than those using knife and chopping block separately for preparing raw and cooked foods(P 0.05).The prevalence of diarrhea was affected by the manner of disposing bad smelled or deteriorated foods.The risks for eating deteriorated food after cooking again were 10.05 times higher than not eating.The risks for residents without refrigerator at home were 5.03 times higher than those with refrigerator at home.Conclusion A proportionate of food-borne diseases still occurred in Jing'an district.The hygienic awareness in the process of food in kitchen should be strengthened;and personal hygiene and good dietary habit should be developed.The knowledge on food safety should be promoted widely.
Abstract B16: Understanding the barriers and facilitators to adherence to oral chemotherapy in a multiethnic cohort of youth with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)

Purpose: Lack of adherence to therapy is well known in youth with ALL. Through grounded theory methodology, we aimed to build a theory describing the process of adherence to oral chemotherapy, and to identify barriers and facilitators to adherence. As Hispanics could potentially be a vulnerable sub-group due to sociocultural barriers, we specifically sought to explore the process of adherence and to identify barriers and facilitators in Hispanic (HISP) and non-Hispanic white (NHW) youth with ALL to lay the foundation for development of culturally sensitive interventions. Procedures: Qualitative, grounded theory methodology guided study conduct and analysis. HISP and NHW patients with ALL diagnosed at ≤21 years (yr) were interviewed; a separate interview was conducted with the parent. NHW patients and parents served as the referent group. Patients Summary of Findings: Median age of patients was 9.9 yr (2.7 – 18.9) at diagnosis and 16 yr (6 – 23) at study participation; 53% were males. Median age of parents at study participation was 45 yrs (34–60). “Making the connection” was identified as the working model to explain the process of adherence to oral chemotherapy in youth with ALL. Youth who demonstrated an understanding of the association between taking oral chemotherapy and control/cure of their leukemia described medication-taking behaviors and patterns most consistent with adherence to their prescribed regimen. Youth who lacked this understanding described medication-taking behaviors and patterns less consistent with adherence despite the fact that they all clearly articulated the life-threatening nature of their illness. Three stages were identified in the process of adherence: Getting sick, Figuring it out, and Being adherent/Maintaining adherence. Themes associated with adherence included Forming alliances, Taking an active role, Delineation of roles/responsibilities, Overcoming challenges, Staying motivated, and Parental vigilance. Significant barriers were consistently described by all study participants, including problems with medication palatability, side effects, forgetfulness, and isolation from peers. However, youth who “made the connection” between taking oral chemotherapy as prescribed and leukemia control reported overcoming barriers - or adhering despite barriers that could not be overcome - while youth who failed to “make the connection” consistently cited barriers as reasons for not taking prescribed medication. Facilitators to “making the connection” included a positive relationship with the healthcare provider and having one parent freed from other responsibilities to focus efforts on the care of the youth with ALL. Conclusion: This is the first report to describe the process of adherence to oral chemotherapy in the context of a multiethnic cohort of youth with ALL. Additional study is needed to identify effective interventions to improve adherence in youth who fail to “make the connection.”
Shifting Moralities: Post-9/11 Responses to Shattered National Assumptions

In the wake of 9/11 Americans experienced a collective trauma. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were deeply disorienting for a nation that had taken for granted its own inviolability. As a group we experienced the extreme anxiety and disequilibrium that accompanied a sense that the world was now threatening and dangerous. The 9/11 attacks were assaults on our buildings, our people, our way of life, our society; they put deep cracks in our myth of American exceptionalism.
Population and Law

One of the most important changes that the American people are currently undergoing concerns assumptions about the world around them. These assumptions help constitute a mental map with which to perceive and deal with experience.1 Traditionally, Americans have assumed that the human species could dominate nature, that their ability to change the world was unlimited, and that all problems were solvable. Experience is making these assumptions untenable, and new assumptions are gradually being adopted. The new assumptions emphasize that the human species is part of a complex community of many interdependent animal and plant species on the planet, that interdependence creates feedback within the community and sometimes results in unintended consequences flowing from a given action, and that change and growth have physical and biological limits. These assumptions, which stem from the branch of biological science known as ecology, encourage a recognition of the problems arising from the increase in human numbers, because increased population has created pressures on physical and biological resources. The science of ecology gave rise to these assumptions, which the American people are now beginning to accept, because they constitute an effective means to understand the world. As one observer has noted: [S]cience is a search for constancies, for invariants. It is the enterprise of making those identifications in experience which prove to be most significant for the control or appreciation of the experience yet to come. The basic scientific question is, “What the devil is going on around here?”2
Approximately achieving the feedback interference channel capacity with point-to-point codes

Superposition codes with rate-splitting have been used for all approximately optimal strategies for the interference channel, with and without feedback. As rate-splitting requires fore-knowledge of channel parameters or statistics, in this paper we explore schemes for the interference channel (with feedback) that do not use superposition or rate-splitting. We demonstrate that point-to-point codes designed for inter-symbol-interference channels, along with time-sharing can approximately achieve the entire rate region of the interference channel with feedback. We show that such a scheme also approximately achieves the rate-region for the interference channel with fading, for a large class of fading distributions.
A linguistic analysis of games: Verbs and nouns for content estimation.

This paper outlines a linguistic approach to understanding the content of games. Understanding game verbs as the fundamental unit of interaction within game environments it provides perspective on popular play experiences. The benefits of such analysis include a scalable view of the self reported content of games and the ways in which problems are being solved in games. The content of games is contrasted with the content of books for comparison. The findings indicate games are relatively limited in the diversity of verbs they use. The results also demonstrate greater emphasis on gender, and life or death in popular books than in popular mobile games. The occurrence of violent language like war and kill occur significantly more often in best-selling book descriptions than in best-selling mobile games. The most common game verbs from this research are use, touch, get, have, take, like, earn, try, create and make. Author
Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy in Inotrope-Dependent Heart Failure Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Abstract Objectives The purpose of this study was to evaluate outcomes after cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in inotrope-dependent patients with heart failure (HF) to ascertain the viability of CRT in these patients. Background During the last decade, significant numbers of trials have demonstrated the beneficial effect of CRT in the treatment of patients with HF and systolic dysfunction, prolonged QRS complex duration, and New York Heart Association functional class III or IV. However, it is currently undetermined whether CRT may benefit patients who require inotropic support. Methods The authors systematically searched Medline, Embase, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library through March 2017 for studies evaluating outcomes after CRT in inotrope-dependent patients with HF. The study analyzed 8 studies including 151 patients. Most of the patients were in New York Heart Association functional class IV (80.1%), and all had severe systolic HF, with a left ventricular ejection fraction 130 ms). Results The pooled analysis demonstrated that 93% of the reported patients (95% confidence interval: 86% to 100%) were weaned from inotropic support after CRT, and the overall 12-month survival rate was 69% (95% confidence interval: 56% to 83%). Conclusions This study suggests that rescue CRT may be considered a viable therapeutic option in inotrope-dependent patients with HF. In these patients, rescue CRT may allow them to be weaned from inotropic therapy, improve their quality of life, and decrease the rate of mortality; furthermore, rescue CRT may serve as a possible bridge to cardiac transplantation or left ventricular assist device therapy.
Community structure of the gut microbiota in sympatric species of wild Drosophila

Many aspects of animal ecology and physiology are influenced by the microbial communities within them. The underlying forces contributing to the assembly and diversity of gut microbiotas include chance events, host-based selection and interactions among microorganisms within these communities. We surveyed 215 wild individuals from four sympatric species of Drosophila that share a common diet of decaying mushrooms. Their microbiotas consistently contained abundant bacteria that were undetectable or at low abundance in their diet. Despite their deep phylogenetic divergence, all species had similar microbiotas, thus failing to support predictions of the phylosymbiosis hypothesis. Communities within flies were not random assemblages drawn from a common pool; instead, many bacterial operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were overrepresented or underrepresented relative to the neutral expectations, and OTUs exhibited checkerboard distributions among flies. These results suggest that selective factors play an important role in shaping the gut community structure of these flies.
In vitro fungicidal effects of methylene blue at 625‐nm

The aim of the study is to confirm the effectiveness of photodynamic therapy (PDT) as a significant inhibitor of Trichophyton rubrum (T. rubrum) and to determine the most appropriate dose and rate of delivery. Trichophyton rubrum is the most common dermatophyte worldwide, responsible for the majority of superficial fungal infections. The traditional treatment of T. rubrum has known adverse effects. An alternative treatment is warranted. Photosensitised T. rubrum specimens were treated with 625-nm light at doses of 3, 12, 24, 40 and 60 J/cm2 . Colony counts were performed and compared to untreated controls. Doses of 24, 40 and 60 J/cm2 all produced kill rates of over 94%. A lower rate of delivery (7.80 mW/cm2 ) was shown to be a greater inhibitor of T. rubrum than a higher rate of delivery (120 mW/cm2 ). Photodynamic therapy with methylene blue (MB) at 625 nm using a low rate of delivery at doses of 24, 40 and 60 J/cm2 is an effective inhibitor of T. rubrum. A rate of delivery of 7.80 mW/cm2 is a significantly greater inhibitor of T. rubrum than a rate of 120 mW/cm2 when applying 625-nm light in PDT using MB.
Effect of Lattice Structure of Bismuth Sesquioxide on the Electrochemical Energy Storage Characteristics

Bismuth oxides have been researched over the last several years due to its low cost compared to other metal oxides. During our experiments two methods were researched to improve the performance of Bi2O3 for supercapacitance capabilities. One method was using an electrodeposition technique to deposit the bismuth sesquioxide onto ITO glass, another was creating Bi2O3 powder and pressing it into a Ni foam substrate. For electro-deposition method, α phase showed the highest capacitance of 2027 F/g when calculated from cyclic voltammetry, while charge discharge cycles it was 24 F/g. Ni foam powder s phase had the greater capacitance of 2559 F/g for cyclic voltammetry and charge discharge was 56 F/g.
Genetic variation in remnant populations of the woolly spider monkey (Brachyteles arachnoides)

The muriqui or woolly spider monkey (Brachyteles arachnoids) is an endangered primate endemic to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, <5% of which remains. The known muriqui population consists of <700 individuals separated into approximately 15 geographically isolated forest fragments. I present data on the distribution of genetic variation within and between two such remnant populations (FE and FBR) and summarize the implications of these results for long-range management of species genetic diversity. Eleven of 32 allozyme loci were polymorphic, representing an overall level of polymorphism of 34.4% and a mean heterozygosity per locus of 11%. Both values are among the highest reported for New World monkeys. Genetic differentiation between the two localities is highly significant (FST = 0.413, p < 0.001). Genetic distance between them is an order of magnitude greater than that between other populations of platyrrhine subspecies, but this could be an artifact of the small sample size from FBR. High levels of genetic diversity apparently characteristic of this species persist because (1) fragmentation and size reduction of muriqui populations has occurred very rapidly relative to the muriqui life span—although both polymorphism and heterozygosity were lost between generations in the largest population, the high genetic diversity present in the parent population was still in evidence; and (2) genetic diversity before population fragmentation by human activity was not distributed uniformly throughout the species' historic distribution. Thus, remnant muriqui populations are important genetic reservoirs of alleles that are unique or rare in the species gene pool as a whole. These results emphasize the need for the integration of conservation management efforts throughout the species range.
Proteome of human perilymph.

Current diagnostic tools limit a clinician’s ability to discriminate between many possible causes of sensorineural hearing loss. This constraint leads to the frequent diagnosis of the idiopathic condition, leaving patients without a clear prognosis and only general treatment options. As a first step toward developing new diagnostic tools and improving patient care, we report the first use of liquid chromatography-tandem mass-spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) to map the proteome of human perilymph. Using LC-MS/MS, we analyzed four samples, two collected from patients with vestibular schwannoma (VS) and two from patients undergoing cochlear implantation (CI). For each cohort, one sample contained pooled specimens collected from five patients and the second contained a specimen obtained from a single patient. Of the 271 proteins identified with high confidence among the samples, 71 proteins were common in every sample, and used to conservatively define the proteome of human perilymph. Comparison to human cerebrospinal fluid and blood plasma, as well as murine perilymph, showed significant similarity in protein content across fluids; however, a quantitative comparison was not possible. Fifteen candidate biomarkers of VS were identified by comparing VS and CI samples. This list will be used in future investigations targeted at discriminating between VS tumors associated with good versus poor hearing.
Current Issues in Hazardous Chemical Waste Disposal

The management of hazardous chemical waste has become an issue surrounded by considerable controversy and emotion in the USA. In fact, the emotion and controversy have often tended to lead considerations astray. Citizen and environmental groups become locked in combat with industrial interests leaving various levels of government caught in the cross fire. It seems appropriate at a conference such as this to spend a few moments in reflection to try to bring the critical issues in hazardous chemical waste management into focus. I will spend the first portion of my talk identifying what I consider to be those critical issues, and then I will close with a brief description of a developing technology which is typical of the kind of advances required for an ultimate solution to hazardous chemical disposal.
3D Channel-structured graphene as efficient electrodes for capacitive deionization.

Abstract Capacitive deionization (CDI), which is one of up-and-coming water treatment technologies, is based on ion electrostatic adsorption on electrode surface. Herein, three-dimensional channel-structured graphene (CSG), which was synthesized via exothermic reaction between liquid potassium and carbon monoxide gas, was demonstrated as an efficient electrode material for CDI. Namely, the CSG electrode exhibited a specific capacity of 207.4 F/g at 0.2 A/g in 1 M NaCl aqueous solution. In a batch-mode recycling system, the electrosorption capacity of CSG can achieve 5.70 and 9.60 mg/g at 1.5 V in 50 and 295 mg/l NaCl aqueous solutions, respectively. The excellent electrosorption capacity of CSG, especially under low saline concentration, can be attributed to the synergistic effect of its large surface area (711.9 m2/g), unique channel structure, and oxygen functional groups.
Increasing Social Initiations During Shared Book Reading: An Intervention for Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorder:

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often delayed in acquiring social initiation skills utilized during common early childhood activities. A multiple probe design was utilized to asses...
Bidirectional visible light communications for the internet of things

With the exponential growth of the Internet of Things, people now expect every household appliance to be smart and connected. At the same time, smartphones have become ubiquitous in our daily life. Their continuous performance improvement and their compatibility with a broad range of radio protocols as WiFi, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or NFC make them the most convenient way to interact with these smart objects. However, providing wireless connectivity with BLE or NFC means adding an extra chipset and an antenna, increasing the object size and price. Previous works already have demonstrated the possibility of receiving information through visible light using an unmodified smartphone thanks to its camera. Also, LED-to-LED communication for smart devices like toys has been shown previously. However, past efforts in LED to camera communication for IoT device communication have been limited. In this work, we design LightIoT, a bidirectional visible-light communication (VLC) system between a low-cost, low-power colored LED that is part of an IoT device and an off-the-shelf smartphone. The IoT device is thus able to send and receive information through its LED, while the smartphone uses its camera to receive data and its flashlight to send information. We implement and experimentally evaluate a LED-to-camera VLC system, designed specifically for small LEDs. The proposed solution exploits the rolling shutter effect of unmodified smartphone cameras and an original decoding algorithm, achieving a throughput of nearly 2 kb/s. Based on the insight gained from an extensive experimental study, we model, for the first time in the literature, the LED-to-camera communication channel. We propose a Markov-modulated Bernoulli process model, which allows us to easily study the performance of different message retransmission strategies. We further exploit this model to implement a simulator for LED-to-Camera communications performance evaluation. In order to achieve bi-directional communications, we evaluate flashlight-to-LED communications using non-rooted smartphones and small LEDs. With these constraints, our implementation achieves a throughput of 30 bits/second. While limited, this is enough for a feed-back channel coming to support the required redundancy mechanisms. Some of these redundancy mechanisms are based on random linear coding, never tested previously in VLC. Therefore, we design and implement, for the first time in the literature, a pseudo random linear coding scheme especially fitted for line-of-sight LED-to-camera conditions. Experimental evaluation highlights that this type of approach increases the goodput up to twice compared to classical retransmission strategies. Finally, we compare the energy consumption of LightIoT with the one of a BLE module with similar activity. Our results show that using the LED for communication purposes reduces the energy consumption under a normal usage behavior.
Human Interactions and User Association in Device-to-Device Communications in Terms of Biological Jamming

Human interactions are different than physiological cellular interactions. However, there can be a direct relation made to show that the human movement is similar to the microscopic cellular movement and interactions. Generally, movement interferes with Device-to-Device (D2D) communication, resulting in under-performance when not achieving sufficient inter-contacts. In this context, we propose observing D2D communication as a resultant of human motion, mimicking cellular movement and user association affected by dense and normal User Equipment (UE) device distribution. Cellular movement in the context of this paper refers to biological cells, not wireless communication cells. The results of our work show an inherent relationship between throughput and cellular convex hull. To provide better insight over the biomimicry a new parameter is introduced to close the gap between irregular and regular cellular distribution, which in turn can decrease the complexity in decision making of resource allocation of D2D communication.
Thermodynamic modelling of temperature effects on the mineralogy of Portland cement systems containing chloride

Abstract Thermodynamic equilibrium based modelling was carried out to quantify the influence of temperature on the mineralogy of hydrated ordinary Portland cement. In typical Portland cement system hydrated at 25 °C interlayer sites in the AFm phase are occupied by OH, SO4 or CO3 ions. Chloride which can be added as a set accelerating admixture or ingress from the outside environment, has the ability to displace hydroxide, sulfate and carbonate from the AFm structure leading to the formation of ‘Friedel's salt’ (Cl-AFm). However temperature variations may cause important compositional changes or even destabilization of Friedel's salt. A description of phase relations and changing balances between AFm and AFt (ettringite) phases is presented in a range of temperatures between 5 and 85 °C. With an increasing temperature Friedel's salt is predicted to decompose at the expense of monosulfoaluminate (SO4-AFm) formation. Due to the higher stability of hydroxy- AFm (OH-AFm) at lower temperature the OH substitution in the Friedel's salt is expected to be slightly higher as compared to room temperature.
Delayed Response to Epidural Blood Patch for Post-Lumbar Puncture Headache

This case report illustrates a successful but delayed response to epidural blood patch for the treatment of post-lumbar puncture headache. An explanation for the delay in response is offered.
Contemporary Epidemiology of Chronic Liver Disease and Cirrhosis

Background & Aims Accurate estimates for the contemporary burden of chronic liver disease (CLD) are vital for setting clinical, research, and policy priorities. We aimed to review the incidence, prevalence, and mortality of CLD and its resulting complications, including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods We reviewed the published literature on the incidence, prevalence, trends of various etiologies of CLD and its resulting complications. In addition, we provided updated data from the Centers for Disease Control and Global Burden of Disease Study on the morbidity and mortality of CLD, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Lastly, we assessed the strengths and weaknesses of available sources of data in hopes of providing important context to these national estimates of cirrhosis burden. Results An estimated 1.5 billion persons have CLD worldwide and the age-standardized incidence of CLD and cirrhosis is 20.7/100,000, a 13% increase since 2000. Similarly, cirrhosis prevalence and mortality has increased in recent years in the United States. The epidemiology of CLD is shifting, reflecting implementation of large-scale hepatitis B vaccination and hepatitis C treatment programs, the increasing prevalence of the metabolic syndrome, and increasing alcohol misuse. Conclusions The global burden of CLD and cirrhosis is substantial. Although vaccination, screening, and antiviral treatment campaigns for hepatitis B and C have reduced the CLD burden in some parts of the world, concomitant increases in injection drug use, alcohol misuse, and metabolic syndrome threaten these trends. Ongoing efforts to address CLD-related morbidity and mortality require accurate contemporary estimates of epidemiology and outcomes.
The Oxford Handbook of Public Choice: a masterful compendium

This is a review article of The Oxford Handbook of Public Choice, edited by Roger Congleton, Bernard Grofman, and Stefan Voigt. This two-volume collection has 90 chapters, with each chapter averaging 20.4 pages (excluding the volumes’ indexes). My subtitle conveys my judgment of this work. The articles are written for serious readers, and they give clear and concise statements of the material they cover. Someone who reads one of the articles will arrive in the vicinity of the frontier of the mainstream of public choice theorizing as this has developed since the middle of the twentieth century. Despite my position from somewhere outside the public choice mainstream, I acknowledge readily and enthusiastically the ability of the essays in this Handbook to convey the contemporary state of public choice theorizing. The editors and authors deserve congratulations for their fine work.
The Kyrgyz horse: enactments and agencies in and beyond a tourism context

The horse has a strong cultural and historical importance in Kyrgyzstan. With a mountainous topography, the rural areas of this Central Asian country are best accessed by horse. Among all the touri...
Abstract WP308: Impact of Ethnicity on Access to Sleep Apnea Screening and Testing In Stroke Survivors

Introduction: Sleep apnea (SA) following stroke is present in approximately 72% of patients. SA leads to increased stroke risk and is associated with poorer prognosis. Aggressive risk factor modifi...
Brain activation to cannabis- and alcohol-related words in alcohol use disorder.

Abstract Cannabis abuse commonly co-occurs with alcohol use disorder (AUD). With increased acceptance and accessibility to cannabis in the US, it is imperative to understand the psychological and neural mechanisms of concurrent alcohol and cannabis use. We hypothesized that neural alcohol-cue conditioning may extent to other drug-related stimuli, such as cannabis, and underwrite the loss of control over reward-driven behavior. Task-activated fMRI examined the neural correlates of alcohol- and cannabis-related word cues in 21 abstinent AUD and 18 control subjects. Relative to controls, AUD showed behavioral attentional biases and frontal hypoactivation to both alcohol- and cannabis-related words. This cue-elicited prefrontal hypoactivation was related to higher lifetime alcohol consumption (pcorrected
Intrinsic Motivation in Game-Based Learning Environments

Game-based learning environments (GBLEs) are appealing because of their potential as motivational learning tools, and to date, many different motivational constructs have been investigated. Within this literature, there has been particular emphasis paid to the construct of intrinsic motivation. However, wide variation in the operationalization of intrinsic motivation as well as the employment of numerous brief and unstandardized questionnaires in the assessment of intrinsic motivation has led to a lack of clarity across studies. The purpose of this paper is to examine how researchers have implemented and assessed intrinsic motivation in GBLEs. Agreeing upon definitional and measurement approaches for intrinsic motivation in GBLEs may be a crucial step in understanding the attraction of games and the effectiveness of instruction. The study of intrinsic motivation in GBLEs is an emerging endeavor and going forward we recommend a more focused and consistent operationalization of the construct across studies but broader consideration of its measurement.
Seventy years change and development of pediatric infectious diseases in China

以国家高等医药院校教材《小儿传染病学》新中国成立初的第1版仅描述16个病至21世纪的第4版增为72种病，21世纪第1部《儿科感染病学》共8篇84章来说明新中国成立70年来儿科感染性疾病的发展和变迁。由于执行一系列的卫生政策，实施"国家免疫计划"，这70年来，较为猖獗、病死率高的16种病及其他严重危害儿童身体健康的感染性疾病已被消灭或控制而不再有疫情发生，感染性疾病防控领域取得了丰硕成果。但是，仍会有新发及突发感染性疾病出现，还要坚持以预防为主、防治结合的方针，必须为保护祖国下一代的健康和生命安全不断努力。
Cyberattack Action-Intent-Framework for Mapping Intrusion Observables

The techniques and tactics used by cyber adversaries are becoming more sophisticated, ironically, as defense getting stronger and the cost of a breach continuing to rise. Understanding the thought processes and behaviors of adversaries is extremely challenging as high profile or even amateur attackers have no incentive to share the trades associated with their illegal activities. One opportunity to observe the actions the adversaries perform is through the use of Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) which generate alerts in the event that suspicious behavior was detected. The alerts raised by these systems typically describe the suspicious actions via the form of attack 'signature', which do not necessarily reveal the true intent of the attacker performing the action. Meanwhile, several high level frameworks exist to describe the sequence or chain of action types an adversary might perform. These frameworks, however, do not connect the action types to observables of standard intrusion detection systems, nor describing the plausible intents of the adversarial actions. To address these gaps, this work proposes the Action-Intent Framework (AIF) to complement existing Cyber Attack Kill Chains and Attack Taxonomies. The AIF defines a set of Action-Intent States (AIS) at two levels of description: the Macro-AIS describes 'what' the attacker is trying to achieve and the Micro-AIS describes "how" the intended goal is achieved. A full description of both the Macro is provided along with a set of guiding principals of how the AIS is derived and added to the framework.
Optimization Tools for Radiation Treatment Planning in Matlab

This chapter describes a suite of optimization tools for radiation treatment planning within the Matlab programming environment. The data included with these tools was computed for real patient cases using a Monte Carlo dose engine. The formulation of a series of optimization models is described that utilizes this data within a modeling system. Furthermore, visualization techniques are provided that assist in validating the quality of each solution. The versatility and utility of the tools are shown using a sequence of optimization techniques designed to generate a practical solution. These tools and the associated data are available for download from www.cs.wisc.edu/~ferris/3dcrt.
HUCBC Treatment Improves Cognitive Outcome in Rats With Vascular Dementia.

Background and purpose: Vascular dementia (VaD) is the second common cause of dementia after Alzheimer's disease in older people. Yet, there are no FDA approved drugs specifically for VaD. In this study, we have investigated the therapeutic effects of human umbilical cord blood cells (HUCBC) treatment on the cognitive outcome, white matter (WM) integrity, and glymphatic system function in rats subject to a multiple microinfarction (MMI) model of VaD. Methods: Male, retired breeder rats were subjected to the MMI model (800 ± 100 cholesterol crystals/300 μl injected into the internal carotid artery), and 3 days later were treated with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) or HUCBC (5 × 106, i.v.). Sham rats were included as naive control. Following a battery of cognitive tests, rats were sacrificed at 28 days after MMI and brains extracted for immunohistochemical evaluation and Western blot analysis. To evaluate the glymphatic function, fluorescent tracers (Texas Red dextran, MW: 3 kD and FITC-dextran, MW: 500 kD) was injected into the cisterna magna over 30 min at 14 days after MMI. Rats (3-4/group/time point) were sacrificed at 30 min, 3 h, and 6 h, and the tracer movement analyzed using laser scanning confocal microscopy. Results: Compared to control MMI rats, HUCBC treated MMI rats exhibit significantly improved short-term memory and long-term memory exhibited by increased discrimination index in novel object recognition task with retention delay of 4 h and improved novel odor recognition task with retention delay of 24 h, respectively. HUCBC treatment also improves spatial learning and memory as measured using the Morris water maze test compared to control MMI rats. HUCBC treatment significantly increases axon and myelin density increases oligodendrocyte and oligodendrocyte progenitor cell number and increases Synaptophysin expression in the brain compared to control MMI rats. HUCBC treatment of MMI in rats significantly improves glymphatic function by reversing MMI induced delay in the penetration of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) into the brain parenchyma via glymphatic pathways and reversing delayed clearance from the brain. HUCBC treatment significantly increases miR-126 expression in serum, aquaporin-4 (AQP4) expression around cerebral vessels, and decreases transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) protein expression in the brain which may contribute to HUCBC induced improved glymphatic function. Conclusions: HUCBC treatment of an MMI rat model of VaD promotes WM remodeling and improves glymphatic function which together may aid in the improvement of cognitive function and memory. Thus, HUCBC treatment warrants further investigation as a potential therapy for VaD.
Phosphorylation triggers presynaptic phase separation of Liprin-α3 to control active zone structure

Liquid-liquid phase separation enables the assembly of membrane-less subcellular compartments, but testing its biological functions has been difficult. The presynaptic active zone, protein machinery in nerve terminals that defines sites for neurotransmitter release, may be organized through phase separation. Here, we discover that the active zone protein Liprin-α3 rapidly and reversibly undergoes phase separation upon phosphorylation by PKC at a single site. RIM and Munc13 are co-recruited to membrane-attached condensates, and phospho-specific antibodies establish Liprin-α3 phosphorylation in vivo. At synapses of newly generated Liprin-α2/α3 double knockout mice, RIM, Munc13 and the pool of releasable vesicles were reduced. Re-expression of Liprin-α3 restored these defects, but mutating the Liprin-α3 phosphorylation site to abolish phase condensation prevented rescue. Finally, PKC activation acutely increased RIM, Munc13 and neurotransmitter release, which depended on the presence of phosphorylatable Liprin-α3. We conclude that Liprin-α3 phosphorylation rapidly triggers presynaptic phase separation to modulate active zone structure and function.
Random forest model for feature-based Alzheimer’s disease conversion prediction from early mild cognitive impairment subjects

Abstract Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) conversion prediction from the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) stage has been a difficult challenge. This study focuses on providing an individualized MCI to AD conversion prediction using a balanced random forest model that leverages clinical data. In order to do this, 383 Early Mild Cognitive Impairment (EMCI) patients were gathered from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). Of these patients, 49 would eventually convert to AD (EMCI_C), whereas the remaining 335 did not convert (EMCI_NC). All of these patients were split into training and testing data sets with 95 patients reserved for testing. Nine clinical features were selected, comprised of a mix of demographic, brain volume, and cognitive testing variables. Oversampling was then performed in order to balance the initially imbalanced classes. Our results showed that a random forest model was effective (93.6% accuracy) at predicting the conversion of EMCI patients to AD based on these clinical features. Additionally, we assessed the importance of each clinical feature at both the individual and model level for interpretation of the prediction itself. Our model could impact the clinical environment as a tool to predict the conversion to AD from a prodromal stage or to identify ideal candidates for clinical trials.
Students’ meaningful learning experiences from participating in organic chemistry writing-to-learn activities

Teaching organic chemistry requires supporting learning strategies that meaningfully engage students with the challenging concepts and advanced problem-solving skills needed to be successful. Such meaningful learning experiences should encourage students to actively choose to incorporate new concepts into their existing knowledge frameworks by appealing to the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of learning. This study provides a qualitative analysis of students’ meaningful learning experiences after completing three Writing-to-Learn (WTL) assignments in an organic chemistry laboratory course. The assignments were designed to appeal to the three domains necessary for a meaningful learning experience, and this research seeks to understand if and how the WTL assignments promoted students’ meaningful learning. The primary data collected were the students’ responses to open-ended feedback surveys conducted after each assignment. These responses were qualitatively analyzed to identify themes across students’ experiences about their meaningful learning. The feedback survey analysis was triangulated with interviews conducted after each assignment. The results identify how the assignments connected to students’ existing knowledge from other courses and indicate that assignment components such as authentic contexts, clear expectations, and peer review supported students’ meaningful learning experiences. These results inform how assignment design can influence students’ learning experiences and suggest implications for how to support students’ meaningful learning of organic chemistry through writing.
Utility of Verification Testing to Confirm Attainment of Maximal Oxygen Uptake in Unhealthy Participants: A Perspective Review.

Maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) is strongly associated with endurance performance as well as health risk. Despite the fact that VO2max has been measured in exercise physiology for over a century, robust procedures to ensure that VO2max is attained at the end of graded exercise testing (GXT) do not exist. This shortcoming led to development of an additional bout referred to as a verification test (VER) completed after incremental exercise or on the following day. Workloads used during VER can be either submaximal or supramaximal depending on the population tested. Identifying a true VO2max value in unhealthy individuals at risk for or having chronic disease seems to be more paramount than in healthy and active persons, who face much lower risk of premature morbidity and mortality. This review summarized existing findings from 19 studies including 783 individuals regarding efficacy of VER in unhealthy individuals to determine its efficacy and feasibility in eliciting a ‘true’ VO2max in this sample. Results demonstrated that VER is a safe and suitable approach to confirm attainment of VO2max in unhealthy adults and children, as in most studies VER-derived VO2max is similar of that obtained in GXT. However, many individuals reveal higher VO2max in response to VER and protocols used across studies vary, which merits additional work identifying if an optimal VER protocol exists to elicit ‘true’ VO2max in this particular population.