cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Myristoylation of cGMP-dependent protein kinase dictates isoform specificity for serotonin transporter regulation.

By transporting serotonin (5-HT) into neurons and other cells, serotonin transporter (SERT) modulates the action of 5-HT at cell surface receptors. SERT itself is modulated by several processes, including the cGMP signaling pathway. Activation of SERT by cGMP requires the cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG). Here we show that in HeLa cells lacking endogenous PKG, expression of PKGIα or PKGIβ was required for 8-bromoguanosine-3′,5′-cyclic monophosphate (8-Br-cGMP) to stimulate SERT phosphorylation and 5-HT influx. Catalytically inactive PKG mutants and wild-type PKGII did not support this stimulation. However, a mutant PKGII (G2A) that was not myristoylated substituted for functional PKGI, suggesting that myristoylation and subsequent membrane association blocked productive interaction with SERT. PKG also influenced SERT expression and localization. PKGI isoforms increased total and cell surface SERT levels, and PKGII decreased cell surface SERT without altering total expression. Remarkably, these changes did not require 8-Br-cGMP or functional kinase activity and were also observed with a SERT mutant resistant to activation by PKG. Both PKGIα and PKGIβ formed detergent-stable complexes with SERT, and this association did not require catalytic activity. The nonmyristoylated PKGII G2A mutant stimulated SERT expression similar to PKGI isoforms. These results suggest multiple mechanisms by which PKG can modulate SERT and demonstrate that the functional difference between PKG isoforms results from myristoylation of PKGII.
Unique features of herniated discs at the cervicothoracic junction: clinical presentation, imaging, operative management, and outcome after anterior decompressive operation in 10 patients.

OBJECTIVE: Disc herniations at the C7-T1 level are unusual (4% of all herniated cervical discs) and are often incorrectly diagnosed because of unusual neurological findings and suboptimal imaging studies. Furthermore, the anterior approach may be problematic because the manubrium and slope of the vertebral bodies away from the surgeon obscures the end plates. The recurrent laryngeal nerve and the thoracic duct may be injured by respective right- or left-sided approaches. A posterior approach to this level has, therefore, been advocated, but results of C7-T1 herniations treated anteriorly have not been specifically addressed in the literature. We, therefore, reviewed our experience in the operative management of patients undergoing single level anterior cervical discectomy and fusion at the C7-T1 interspace for the 10 years ending June 2004 with regard to clinical presentation, imaging, problems of operative exposure, and neurological outcome. METHODS: Of 268 patients with single level anterior cervical discectomy and fusions (ACDFs), 10 (3.7%) had C7-T1 disc herniations. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records, operative reports, and imaging studies of these 10 patients. RESULTS: All patients presented with C8 motor deficit without myelopathy. The operation was carried out through an anterior approach with a skin incision 3 cm above the clavicle. Visualization of the C7-T1 disc space was achieved in all without difficulty. Eight of 10 patients are neurologically intact. CONCLUSION: The C7-T1 disc herniates laterally because of the absence of Luschka joints at this level. Central herniation with myelopathy is rare. An anterior approach was easily accomplished in all patients. Recovery of motor function was related to duration and severity of DreoDerative deficit.
Difference-frequency wave loads on a large body in multi-directional waves

Abstract The second-order difference-frequency wave forces on a large three-dimensional body in multi-directional waves are computed by the boundary integral equation method and the so-called FML formulation (assisting radiation potential method). Semi-analytic solutions for a bottom-mounted vertical circular cylinder are also developed to validate the numerical method. Difference-frequency wave loads on a bottom-mounted vertical cylinder and stationary four legs of the ISSC tension-leg platform (TLP) are presented for various combinations of incident wave frequencies and headings. These force quadratic transfer functions (QTF) can directly be used in studying slowly varying wave loads in irregular short-crested seas described by a particular directional spectrum. From our numerical results, it is seen that the slowly varying wave loads are in general very sensitive to the directional spreading function of the sea, and therefore wave directionality needs to be taken into account in relevant ocean engineering applications. It is also pointed out that the uni-directionality of the sea is not necessarily a conservative assumption when the second-order effects are concerned.
Dynamic multicomponent hemiaminal assembly.

A simple approach to generating in situ metal templated tris-(2-picolyl)amine-like multi-component assemblies with potential applications in molecular recognition and sensing is reported. The assembly is based on the reversible covalent association between di-(2-picolyl)amine and aldehydes. Zinc ion is the best for inducing assembly among the metal salts investigated, while 2-picolinaldehyde is the best among the heterocyclic aldehydes studied. Although an equilibrium constant of 6.6 * 103 M-1 was measured for the assembly formed by 2-picolinaldehdye, di-(2-picolyl)amine, and zinc triflate, the equilibrium constants for other systems are in the 102 M-1 range. X-ray structural analysis revealed that zinc adopts a trigonal bipyramidal geometry within the assembled ligand. The diversity and equilibrium of the assemblies are readily altered by simply changing concentrations, varying components, or adding counter anions.
Guidelines for power and time variables for microwave ablation in an in vivo porcine kidney.

Purpose. Microwave technology provides an emerging thermal ablation technique for solid organ tumors. We propose guidelines and recommend optimal time and power for use. Methods. Microwave ablations using a VivaWave Microwave Ablation System (Valleylab, Boulder, CO) were performed in vivo in a porcine kidney model. The independent variables were power (20, 30, 40, 45, 50, 60 W) and time (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 15, 20 min) with the outcome variable diameter of ablation. Following ablations, kidneys were procured for gross and histological evaluation. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used followed by Tukey tests when appropriate. A P value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results. In 308 total ablations, a minimum of 7 ablations were performed in 35 of 42 power and time variables (83%). The outcome variable, ablation diameter, was affected significantly by time, power, and time/ power interaction (P < 0.0001). For each time point, a one-way ANOVA showed an overall significant difference in ablation size X wattage (P < 0.0001). Tukey tests showed that, at each time point, ablation sizes at 45, 50, and 60 W were not significantly different. After determining that 45 W was optimal, a one-way ANOVA showed an overall significant difference in ablation sizes for time points at 45 W (P < 0.0001). Tukey tests showed that, at 45 W, ablation sizes at 10 min were significantly larger than ablation sizes at 8, 6, 4, and 2 min. Conclusions. We propose guidelines for use of a novel microwave ablation system and recommend use at 45 W for 10 min.
Agenesis of corpus callosum

This 20-month-old girl was found to have an abdominal mass. She was known to have an 8p+ karyotype with multiple congenital anomalies including the Pierre Robin sequence. Computed tomography disclosed agenesis of the corpus callosum. The child died following resection of a nephroblastoma. The neuropathological findings are illustrated and discussed.
Pleas'd by a Newe Inuention?: Assessing the Impact of "Early English Books Online" on Teaching and Research at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Abstract The authors conducted a study of the use of Early English Books Online (EEBO) in research and teaching at one institution. The findings highlight the strengths and weaknesses of EEBO for research and teaching and the importance of librarian–faculty collaboration in instructing students to use large, electronic full-text primary-source corpora effectively.
Evaluating the Behavior of International Cartel Members

Some phenomena of interest in international trade can be understood by looking at only one country, pushing others into the background. Sometimes, though, to preserve the essence of a problem one must attempt to take explicit account of the interaction of nations. This viewpoint invites one to treat a collective body-in this case a group of countries-as a deciding unit. There is no shortage of applications that call for such thinking. Among them are the GATT negotiations and NAFTA, international commodity agreements, and international cartels. In each of these, the idea of treating the collective as an organic decision-maker is alluring, and to be sure much has been gained in this fashion. There are also dangers that attend adopting such a modeling strategy. Our purpose is to lay out these dangers-their source and effects-and then to introduce briefly some remedies that have become available lately. Does a group optimize? The essence of the methodology of economics inheres in the treatment of decision-makers as optimizers, attributing to them an objective criterion and the impulse to behave optimally. Can this methodology be used in studying group decision making? Arrow showed that in a certain formal sense it can-
Calculations of acceptor ionization energies in GaN

The $\mathbf{k}\ensuremath{\cdot}\mathbf{p}$ Hamiltonian and a model potential are used to deduce the acceptor ionization energies in GaN from a systematic study of the chemical trend in GaAs, GaP, and InP. The acceptors studied include Be, Mg, Ca, Zn, and Cd on the cation sites and C, Si, and Ge on the anion sites. Our calculated acceptor ionization energies are estimated to be accurate to better than 10% across the board. The ionization energies of C and Be (152 and 187 meV, respectively) in wurtzite GaN are found to be lower than that of Mg (224 meV). The C was found to behave like the hydrogenic acceptor in all systems and it has the smallest ionization energy among all the acceptors studied.
Experimental and analytical study of the bi‐directional behavior of the triple friction pendulum isolator

SUMMARY This paper presents a non-linear, kinematic model for triple friction pendulum isolation bearings. The model, which incorporates coupled plasticity and circular restraining surfaces for all sliding surfaces, is capable of capturing bi-directional behavior and is able to explicitly track the movement of each internal component. The model is general so that no conditions regarding bearing properties, which effect the sequence of sliding stages, are required for the validity of the model. Controlled-displacement and seismic-input experiments were conducted using the shake table at the University of California, Berkeley to assess the fidelity of the proposed model under bi-directional motion. Comparison of the experimental data with the corresponding results of the kinematic model shows good agreement. Additionally, experiments showed that the performance of TFP bearings is reliable over many motions, and the behavior is repeatable even when initial slider offsets are present. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
International Social Insurance for Natural Disasters

This paper deals with shifts in responsibility at two different levels. One is the classic shift from private law (civil liability or tort) to public law (government funds for specific purposes). The other one is the less common shift from national to international compensation.
ABC's of Controlled Medications: What Patients Need to Know about their Prescription Pain Medicine

This commentary is written in response to Dr. Compton's 2011 (22 [1&2], 5–7) editorial in the Journal of Addictions Nursing, which focused on the prevention and treatment of prescription opiate/opi...
Perceptions of social‐sexual communication at work: The effects of message, situation, and observer characteristics on judgments of sexual harassment

Abstract Social‐sexual communication at work may contribute to either the initiation of an organizational romance or sexual harassment. We examined forces that influence perceptions of sexual messages as harassing rather than flirtatious. We presented 94 working adults with questionnaires soliciting workplace attitudes and experiences. Then, participants reviewed newsletters describing male and female coworkers in a fictitious organization. Finally, participants evaluated the degree of sexual harassment evident in six hypothetical interactions wherein one of the employees introduced in the newsletter makes a suggestive remark to his or her coworker. Newsletters and questionnaires manipulated the explicitness of messages, the initiator's status as supervisor versus subordinate, the attractiveness of the message initiator and target, and the initiator's sex. Message explicitness accounted for 88% of the variance in perceptions of harassment. A five‐way interaction among message and situational cues suggeste...
Developing a context-based performance measure for persons with schizophrenia: the test of grocery shopping skills.

Objective This article describes how authenticity and directness, desired characteristics of performance measures, were applied to the development of a context-based Test of Grocery Shopping Skills (TOGSS) for persons with schizophrenia. Method The steps used in developing the measure included interviewing consumers with schizophrenia to identify issues in grocery shopping, conceptualizing how authenticity and directness could be applied to shopping performance, and selecting grocery items to be used in the test. The two forms of the TOGSS were administered to 26 persons with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders to evaluate reliability (stability, equivalence, interrater) and validity (convergent, generalizability) of the TOGSS. Results The correlations between the two forms of the TOGSS over two different testing periods were significant, ranging from .64 to .83. Subscale scores were moderately correlated (R = .52 to .94) with a similarly constructed test of drugstore shopping. Conclusion A systematic method can be used to develop a context measure of performance. The TOGSS has beginning evidence of reliability and validity. With further study, the test will be useful in assessing the independent living skill of grocery shopping in persons with psychiatric disorders.
Interview with Bernard M. Rosenthal

Bernard M. Rosenthal is an antiquarian bookseller based in Berkeley, California. His specialties include continental manuscripts and early printed books, the history of scholarship, bibliography, and paleography. Rosenthal was born in Munich in 1920 to a family with many connections to the book trade. His mother was the daughter of Leo Olschki, a renowned Italian bookseller. His father, who specialized in medieval and illuminated manuscripts, was the son of Jacques Rosenthal, a highly regarded seller of rare books in Munich. Other members of his extended family also were involved in the commercial book world as dealers, printers, and publishers. After . . .
Restraint and age at onset of obesity

Abstract Dietary restraint in 30 obese females was examined in relation to age at onset of obesity. Juvenile-onset obese individuals were found to experience significantly more restraint in their eating behavior than adult-onset obese individuals, based on responses to Herman's revised Restraint Questionnaire. Restraint score was significantly correlated with both age at onset and duration of obesity, but not with weight, percent overweight, or present age. Possible biological and psychosocial contributors to the age at onset effect are discussed, as are implications of restraint differences for treatment.
Specific Learning Disability and Its Newest Definition Which Is Comprehensive? and Which Is Insufficient?

The American Psychiatric Association's proposed definition of specific learning disability ("specific learning disorder") for the DSM-5 reflects current thinking and best practice in learning disabilities. It continues the core conceptualization of learning disability (LD) as well as proposes identification criteria to supplant the discredited aptitude-achievement discrepancy formula. Improvements can be found along with long-standing and new controversies about the nature of LD. The proposed definition both provides a model of a currently acceptable definition and reflects critical issues in the operationalization of LD that the field continues to neglect.
The read-copy-update mechanism for supporting real-time applications on shared-memory multiprocessor systems with Linux

Read-copy update (RCU) is a synchronization mechanism in the Linux™ kernel that provides significant improvements in multiprocessor scalability by eliminating the writer-delay problem of readers-writer locking. RCU implementations to date, however, have had the side effect of expanding non-preemptible regions of code, thereby degrading real-time response. We present here a variant of RCU that allows preemption of read-side critical sections and thus is better suited for real-time applications. We summarize priority-inversion issues with locking, present an overview of the RCU mechanism, discuss our counter-based adaptation of RCU for real-time use, describe an additional adaptation of RCU that permits general blocking in read-side critical sections, and present performance results. We also discuss an approach for replacing the readers-writer synchronization with RCU in existing implementations.
Endothelial selectins and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 promote hematopoietic progenitor homing to bone marrow

The adhesive mechanisms allowing hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) homing to the bone marrow (BM) after BM transplantation are poorly understood. We investigated the role of endothelial selectins and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) in this process. Lethally irradiated recipient mice deficient in both P-and E-selectins (P/E−/−), reconstituted with minimal numbers (≤5 × 104) of wild-type BM cells, poorly survived the procedure compared with wild-type recipients. Excess mortality in P/E−/− mice, after a lethal dose of irradiation, was likely caused by a defect of HPC homing. Indeed, we observed that the recruitment of HPC to the BM was reduced in P/E−/− animals, either splenectomized or spleen-intact. Homing into the BM of P/E−/− recipient mice was further compromised when a function-blocking VCAM-1 antibody was administered. Circulating HPC, 14 hr after transplantation, were greatly increased in P/E−/− mice treated with anti-VCAM-1 compared with P/E−/− mice treated with just IgG or wild-type mice treated with either anti-VCAM-1 or IgG. Our results indicate that endothelial selectins play an important role in HPC homing to the BM. Optimal recruitment of HPC after lethal doses of irradiation requires the combined action of both selectins and VCAM-1 expressed on endothelium of the BM.
Mechanical determinants of nectar-feeding energetics in butterflies: muscle mechanics, feeding geometry, and functional equivalence

We develop a mechanistic model for nectar feeding in butterflies that integrates the two basic components of the feeding process: the fluid dynamics of nectar flow through the food canal and the contractile mechanics of the muscular, cibarial pump. We use the model to predict the relation between rate of energy intake during feeding and nectar concentration. We then identify nectar concentations that maximize energy intake rates (the optimal concentrations). We illustrate the model using measurements of the food canal and cibarium of Pieris butterflies. The model predicts an overall optimal range of nectar concentration of 31-39% sucrose for butterflies, which is in agreement with previously reported laboratory values. The model also predicts an interaction among the geometries of the food canal, the cibarial cavity, and the cibarial muscles, that allows us to identify the combinations of food canal, cibarium, and muscle dimensions that yield the highest rates of energy intake. Nectar-feeding is "functionally equivalent" in butterflies and hummingbirds: two physically different feeding mechanisms can yield identical energy intake rates. This equivalence results from a mathematical and physical similarity between quasi-steady-state fluid flow in hummingbrid tongues and the force-velocity characteristics of contracting cibarial muscle in butterflies.
Acute Dissecting Ascending Aortic Aneurysm Resulting from Coronary Arteriography: Successful Surgical Treatment

Acute dissecting aneurysm of the ascending aorta is a rare complication of selective coronary arteriography. A case is reported of successful surgical repair of the aneurysm and simultaneous revascularization of the coronary arteries with autogenous vein bypasses. This complication of coronary arteriography may be avoided by gentle and careful insertion of the catheter and by avoiding injection when the position of the catheter is uncertain. The technique of repair is applicable to other clinical problems requiring repair of associated aortic and coronary arterial disease.
Alignment of Liquid Crystal Molecules on Various Surfaces: Myths, Theories, Facts

Over 70 years ago, Mauguin1 produced an aligned liquid crystal layer by sandwiching p-azoxyanisole between two glass plates, the surfaces of which had been rubbed unidirectionally with paper. Ever since that classic experiment, scientists have been attempting to study and understand the mechanism of rubbing and the microscopic nature of the liquid crystal/surface interaction.
Edge router multicasting with MPLS traffic engineering

Explicit routing in MPLS is utilized in traffic engineering to maximize the operational network performance and to provide quality of service (QoS). However, difficulties arise while integrating native IP multicasting with MPLS traffic engineering, such as point-to-multipoint or multipoint-to-multipoint LSP layout design and traffic aggregation. In this paper, we have proposed an edge router multicasting (ERM) scheme by limiting the branching point of the multicast delivery tree to only the edges of MPLS domains. As a result, multicast LSP setups, multicast flow assignments, and multicast traffic aggregation are reduced to unicast problems. We have studied two types of ERM routing protocols in the paper. The first approach is based on modifications to the existing multicast protocols, while the second approach applies a Steiner tree-based heuristic routing algorithm in the edge router multicasting environment. The simulation results demonstrate that the ERM scheme based on Steiner tree heuristic can provide near-optimal performance. The results also demonstrate that ERM provides a traffic engineering friendly approach without sacrificing the benefits of native IP multicasting.
Generating Natural-Language Video Descriptions Using Text-Mined Knowledge

We present a holistic data-driven technique that generates natural-language descriptions for videos. We combine the output of state-of-the-art object and activity detectors with "real-world" knowledge to select the most probable subject-verb-object triplet for describing a video. We show that this knowledge, automatically mined from web-scale text corpora, enhances the triplet selection algorithm by providing it contextual information and leads to a four-fold increase in activity identification. Unlike previous methods, our approach can annotate arbitrary videos without requiring the expensive collection and annotation of a similar training video corpus. We evaluate our technique against a baseline that does not use text-mined knowledge and show that humans prefer our descriptions 61% of the time.
Collection and Transfer of Preimplantation Mouse Embryos

An improved method of collection and transfer of preimplantation mouse embryos focusing on increasing the predictability of the mating process and utilizing artificial insemination and artifical induction of pseudopregnancy is presented. Donor females were superovulated by the injection of 10 IU pregnant mares serum followed 60 hours later by 10 IU human chorionic gonadotropin. Immature C3HeB/J females were treated with 6 IU of the 2 hormones on exactly the same schedule. In some foster mothers the estrous cycle was phased with the administration of 1.5 or 3.0 IU of the gonadotropins. Artificial insemination and artificial inductions of pseudopregnancy were performed 12 hours after the 2nd injection. The appropriate time of artificial insemination or induction was predicted in animals untreated with hormones on the basis of estrous smears. A modification of artificial insemination techniques refraining from use of the artificial penis and vaginal tampon was used. Embroys were flushed from the oviducts of females 36 hours after insemination. Attainment of the 2-celled stage was evidence of fertilization. Embroys were maintained in vitro and then transferred to foster mothers at the early blastula stage. 5 embroys were transferred to each uterine horn. Implantation was evaluated. The yield of embroys was doubled through the use of artificial insemination. 1 male was used to inseminate up to 20 females. It was found that selection of recipients from normally cycling females was preferable to hormone priming.
Helicobacter pylori infection and light chain gammopathy

Objective. Helicobacter pylori provokes a host of immune alterations upon colonizing the gastric mucosa. Design. We report 22 individuals with confirmed Helicobacter pylori infection who were also managed for the concurrent elevation of immunoglobulin free light chain (kappa and lambda) levels. Result. Of the 22 patients, 15 patients (68.2%) had elevated free light chain levels: 6 patients (40%) had only kappa chain elevation, 2 patients (13.3%) had only lambda chain elevation, and 7 patients (46.7%) had both kappa and lambda chain elevation. Twenty out of the 22 patients (90.9%) were microbiologically confirmed cured with 3 patients being lost to follow-up for repeat levels. Of the 3 patients who were lost to follow-up, 1 patient had only kappa chain elevation, 1 patient had only lambda chain elevation, and 1 patient had both kappa and lambda chain elevation. For those who were cured (19 patients), 5 patients with kappa elevation had normalized values, 4 patients with lambda elevation had normalized values, and 2 patients with combined kappa and lambda elevation had normalized values. For 6 out of the 19 patients, the light chain levels remained elevated. Conclusion. We speculate that the Helicobacter pylori infection disrupts the immunoglobulin system with potential implications being discussed below.
Academic Aide — Free online math question database for academic improvement

Lack of funding is a common problem for many public schools and small private tutoring centers. Some schools have a policy that prevents students from taking textbooks home to study. Sometimes teachers will take money out of their own pocket to let students use existing online services to improve education quality. However, those internet services are not guaranteed to have materials that are best fit for individuals' teaching style. In some cases, the best fit material simply does not exist on the internet, and creating it would take many hours. We have created Academic Aide to combat this exact problem. Academic Aide is a free online database that allow users to generate and share content in a well organized manner. We allow users to create problems that fit their needs and upload it to the website. People from around the world can access to these problems at no cost. If the type of problem is not available on the website, the user can simply create their own. We believe that Academic Aide will be a place for people to learn from each other, create their own content and share it with people around the world. Academic Aide is the result of a project-based learning approach for undergraduate computer science students.
The Sources of Labor History: Problem and Promise

THE recently evidenced interest in the documentary resources of American labor history presages a growing awareness of the need to preserve and to open labor union archives. Historical and archival attention, presumably, will focus on the general-headquarters files of international (national) unions. Logically, this is sound. But suppose national-headquarters records should be unavailable, incomplete, or even nonexistent? The researcher either sullenly retires, perhaps never to return to this field, or he does as I did and turns to the uncommon sources of information on labor activity. My concern here is with these hidden or, if you prefer, less publicized sources. The incidents and persons mentioned in this article are drawn from my research experience among industrial unions conceived and organized during the depression era. Union records have been lost, removed, misplaced, scattered about, and even purposely destroyed. This is unfortunate, but it is a condition that has existed or does exist in almost every Amer-
The Lexical Analyzer for the QuickBasic Compiler

Your BNF definition of the language, expanded into a reference manual perhaps using the bnf Analyzer software described in Chapter 4, is the detailed design, or requirements document, for your compiler. It explains, in enough usable detail, the semantic effect at runtime of user statements.
Modern Therapies in AA Amyloidosis

AA amyloidosis is a condition that develops in patients who have long-standing inflammatory conditions. The chronic inflammatory state leads to misfolding of the AA amyloid protein and resultant deposition in tissues. In the twenty-first century, rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and systemic juvenile arthritis as well as autoinflammatory diseases such as familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) and tumor necrosis factor receptor associated periodic syndrome (TRAPS) and the group of diseases known as the cryopyrinopathies comprise a major portion of AA amyloidosis cases both in the United States and in Europe. Currently, there is not any established therapy for AA amyloidosis and treatment is targeted at reducing the underlying inflammatory condition. The development of the tumor necrosis factor inhibitors as well as the IL-1 and IL-6 antagonists has been paramount in the treatment of autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases and there are case reports of their efficacy in treating patients with AA amyloidosis. A clinical trial is currently under way using a medication that attempts to prevent AA amyloid deposition.
Commentary: Routh Early Career Award: Confessions of an Early Career Psychologist

Growing up, I always wanted to be a doctor; I just did not expect to be the kind of doctor I am today. As the sister of a long-term survivor of pediatric osteosarcoma, I learned what it was like for a family to cope with a life-threatening childhood illness. Although still fascinated by medicine, my experiences led me in a new direction. I wanted to understand people’s experiences as they were treated for, and moved forward from, a serious medical condition. What makes some kids and families cope better than others? And how can we help kids and families thrive despite medical challenges?
Clinical performances of the EuroSCORE II in a single-centre, contemporary cardiac surgical cohort

Risk adjusted perioperative mortality rate following cardiac surgery has been widely used as an indicator of quality of care as well as for comparison of outcomes among institutions and surgeons.
The End of Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus: The Sceptical Case Restated

An earlier article of mine, Kovacs (2009a), discussed OT 1424-1530, whose genuineness was impugned most recently by Dawe (2001; 2006). I argued that 1424-67 (which I call A) are genuine, but that 1468-1530 (which I call B) are spurious. Sommerstein (2011), accepting my defence of A, undertook the defence of all but a few lines of B as well, dismantling much of my case against it and adding the argument that the transmitted ending mirrors the play's beginning and is therefore presumptively Sophoclean. The present article, in part a reply to Sommerstein's reply, restates some of my earlier arguments and also presents new evidence for the spuriousness of B.
Turning the Tide on Poverty: History, theoretical frameworks, and methods

AbstractDesiring to enhance understanding of the key elements that promote community-based democratic engagement and spur people to engage in the vitality of their communities, in 2008 the Turning the Tide on Poverty project launched in six southern US states. Inspired by the successes of the Horizons project in the northwestern US, Tide was a collaborative effort led by the Southern Rural Development Center with partners that included the Kettering Foundation, Everyday Democracy, the Farm Foundation, and land-grant universities. Researchers and Cooperative Extension personnel from southern universities developed a strategy to involve residents in the process of addressing challenges in their impoverished communities. The purpose of this article is to present a brief history and overview of the project, to locate the project within theoretical frameworks, and to discuss the methods used for data collection and analysis. In so doing, we provide a context for the scholarly examination of Tide that follows i...
(Un)solving global challenges: African short stories, literary awards and the question of audience

Recent discussions on the African short story tend to focus on the efforts to promote short-story writing, especially through literary prizes. Critics sceptical of such prizes argue that writers may be tempted to write only on topics that the audience hosting the prize is eager to read about. Only rarely do such conversations on the African short story critically engage with the stories. Doing so would reveal that four recent award-winning African short stories, Folarin’s ‘Miracle', Bulawayo’s ‘Hitting Budapest', Osondu’s ‘Waiting', and Owuor’s ‘The Weight of Whispers', set into relief global problems such as poverty, hunger, political strife and immigration to carry a caustic critique of the very audience to whose tastes they are believed to pander. I locate this critique in examples of refusals of assistance, roundabout comments and misconstruals of meaning as the ways in which the solutions are deferred. I call these examples gaps between problems and solutions that all four authors use to point out th...
Depression and its influencing factors among employees of a large- scale enterprise in Pear River Delta

Objective: To screen ratio of depressive employees of a large- scale enterprise in Pear River Delta and analyze its influencing factors. Methods: A total of 1089 employees were investigated. The self- designed questionnaire of basic information of social demography and the depression subscales of patient health questionnaire( PHQ- 9) were used for the questionnaire survey.Results: Among the 1089 employees,there were 491 cases with depression with a detection rate of 49. 31. %,wherein 340 cases( 34. 14%) had mild depression,96 cases( 9. 64%) had moderate depression,39 cases( 3. 92%) had moderate and severe depression,and 16 cases( 1. 61%) had severe depression. Conclusions: The ratio of the depressive employees of the large- scale enterprise is high. Therefore,the work of psycho- education for the employees should be highly emphasized.
Building Collegiate E-Loyalty: The Role of Perceived Value in the Quality-Loyalty Linkage in Online Higher Education

E-service quality of online higher education reflects the student’s perception of quality of online exchanges across four dimensions: fulfillment, efficiency, system availability and privacy. This study links e-service quality to intentions to remain loyal as mediated by perceived value in an online higher education environment. AMOS is used to examine the structural model based on responses to a student self-report online survey (n=127). Results indicate a strong causal linkage between e-S-QUAL and Loyalty Intentions as mediated by Perceived Value. Further, the direct linkage between e-S-QUAL and Loyalty Intentions was found to be insignificant, substantiating the proposed full mediation model.
Massive MIMO Systems in Noncontiguous Bands With Asymmetric Traffics

Massive MIMO systems offer large spectrum efficiency improvements but when applied to systems with noncontiguous bands as commonly encountered in practice, their performance gains are largely offset by the overhead in acquiring channel state information (CSI). This paper presents three schemes to enable overhead-efficient massive MIMO in noncontiguous bands with frequency-selective channels. By incorporating CSI errors, CSI overhead, pilot contamination, and guard interval cost, achievable rate or throughput expressions of uplink and downlink of the proposed schemes are derived. Novel resource adaptation mechanisms between uplink and downlink are proposed and analyzed. Compared with the conventional frequency division duplexing scheme, analytical/numerical studies elaborate substantial spectrum efficiency enhancement, and flexible resource adaptation capability of the proposed schemes.
The metabolic sensor Sirt1 and the hypothalamus: Interplay between peptide hormones and pro-hormone convertases

The last decade had witnessed a tremendous progress in our understanding of the causes of metabolic diseases including obesity. Among the contributing factors regulating energy balance are nutrient sensors such as sirtuins. Sirtuin1 (Sirt1), a NAD + - dependent deacetylase is affected by diet, environmental stress, and also plays a critical role in metabolic health by deacetylating proteins in many tissues, including liver, muscle, adipose tissue, heart, endothelium, and in the complexity of the hypothalamus. Because of its dependence on NAD+, Sirt1 also functions as a nutrient/redox sensor, and new novel data show a function of this enzyme in the maturation of hypothalamic peptide hormones controlling energy balance either through regulation of specific nuclear transcription factors or by regulating specific pro-hormone convertases (PCs) involved in the post-translational processing of pro-hormones. The post-translational processing mechanism of pro-hormones is critical in the pathogenesis of obesity as recently shown that metabolic and physiological triggers affect the biosynthesis and processing of many peptides hormones. Specific regulation of pro-hormone processing is likely another key step where final amounts of bioactive peptides can be tightly regulated. Different factors stimulate or inhibit pro-hormones biosynthesis in concert with an increase in the PCs involved in the maturation of bioactive hormones. Adding more complexity to the system, the new studies describe here suggest that Sirt1 could also regulate the fate of peptide hormone biosynthesis. The present review summarizes the recent progress in hypothalamic SIRT1 research with a particular emphasis on the tissue-specific control of neuropeptide hormone maturation. The series of studies done in mouse and rat models strongly advocate for the first time that a deacetylating enzyme could be a regulator in the maturation of peptide hormones and their processing enzymes. These discoveries are the culmination of the first in-depth understanding of the metabolic role of Sirt1 in the brain. It suggests that Sirt1 behaves differently in the brain than in organs such as the liver and pancreas, where the enzyme has been more commonly studied.
Depression, Hormones and Immunity

The last decade or two have witnessed a sharp and steady increase in research and interest in the affective disorders. Clinically, major depressive illness has been delineated from other psychiatric disorders with depressed mood and clinical subtypes of depression have been proposed to reflect the heterogeneity among subgroups of depression. In addition to descriptive and clinical criteria, subtypes of depression have also been differentiated by biological markers such as sleep electroencephalography (EEG) records (1), urinary 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy phenylglycol (MHPG) excretion (2), cerebrospinal fluid 5-hydroxyindol acetic acid (HIAA) concentrations (3) and the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) (4). Particularly relevant to the theme of this book are studies in neuroendocrine and immune regulation in depression. In this chapter we will first summarize major advances in the study of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity in the depressive disorders, then review some of the preliminary work in the immunology of depression.
Human Papillomavirus Vaccination: Current Indications and Future Directions

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections affecting both men and women worldwide. The development of the prophylactic HPV vaccines is a significant pharmaceutical innovation with potential to reduce HPV-related morbidity. However, barriers to the universal use and acceptability of the HPV vaccines continue to exist in both economically privileged and disadvantaged countries. It may be decades before the impact of preventive vaccines on HPV-related diseases caused by the considerable burden of HPV infections will be seen. Collaborative efforts must continue to promote vaccine implementation.
Sustainability Frontiers: Critical and Transformative Voices From the Borderlands of Sustainability Education

In Sustainability Frontiers: Critical and Transformative Voices From the Borderlands of Sustainability Education (2015), David Selby and Fumiyo Kagawa successfully unite a global array of researche...
Enhanced feature mining and classifier models to predict customer churn for an E-retailer

Customer Churn, an event indicating a customer abandoning an established relation with a business is an important problem researched well, both for academic and commercial interest. Through this work, we propose an improved churn prediction model that emphasizes on an effective data collection pipeline through varied channels capturing explicit and implicit customer footprints. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the improvement in classifier efficiency using an extended feature set and feature selection algorithms. Prominent features playing a vital role in customer churn are also ranked. The contributions through this paper can be broadly categorized into 3 folds: First, we discuss how popular data mining tools in Hadoop stack help extract several implicit customer interaction metrics including Sales and Clickstream logs generated as a result of customer interaction. Second, through Feature Engineering techniques we verify that some of the new features we propose have a definite impact on customer churn. Finally, we demonstrate how Regularized Logistic Regression, SVM and Gradient Boost Random Forests are the best performing models for predicting customer churn verified through comprehensive cross-validation techniques.
Production of recombinant tau oligomers in vitro

The pathological aggregation of the tau protein is a common characteristic of many neurodegenerative diseases. There is strong interest in characterizing the potentially toxic nature of tau oligomers. These nonfibrillar, soluble multimers appear to be more toxic than neurofibrillary tangles made up of filamentous tau. However, reliable production, purification, and verification of tau oligomers can provide certain challenges. Here, we provide a series of methods that address these issues. First, recombinant tau is produced using Escherichia coli, purified through affinity, size-exclusion, and anion-exchange chromatography steps and quantified using an SDS Lowry protein quantitation assay. Aggregation of tau is induced using arachidonic acid, and oligomers are purified by centrifugation over a sucrose step gradient. Finally, we describe a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay that utilizes the tau oligomer-specific TOC1 antibody to confirm the presence of oligomeric tau. Together, these steps provide a very simple and reliable method for producing tau oligomers that can be used in downstream applications.
Preoperative Antibiotics for Dialysis Access Surgery: Are They Necessary?

Background Current guidelines recommend preoperative antibiotics in all vascular surgery cases. However, we hypothesize that patients undergoing arteriovenous fistula (AVF) and arteriovenous graft (AVG) creation have low rates of postoperative surgical site infection (SSI) and that preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis in these patients may not be necessary. Methods This is a retrospective review of all patients who underwent AVF and AVG creation from November 2014 through July of 2016 at a single institution. At our institution, preoperative antibiotic use is surgeon dependent. Patients who received preoperative antibiotics were compared with those who did not. The primary outcome measured was the development of postoperative SSI. Results There were 304 patients identified and 294 patients with 30 day postoperative follow-up. Of the 294 patients, 23 (7.8%) received an AVG, and 271 (92.2%) received an AVF. There were 244 (83%) patients who received preoperative antibiotics and 50 (17%) who did not. Overall, there were 2 (0.68%) SSIs identified. Both patients with postoperative SSI underwent AVF creation and received preoperative antibiotics. There was no statistically significant difference in SSI rate between antibiotic and nonantibiotic groups (P = 1.0), and no difference when comparing patients that received AVG (0%) and AVF (0.73%) (P = 1.0). Conclusions The rate for postoperative SSI following hemodialysis access surgery is very low both for patients undergoing AVF and AVG. Furthermore, there was no difference in SSI rate between antibiotic and nonantibiotic groups. Given these findings, we conclude that preoperative antibiotics for AVF creation may not be necessary.
A longitudinal pilot study to evaluate non-visual icons in a mobile exertion application

This paper describes an evaluation of a mobile exertion application, developed to promote physical activity among adult users. To extend previous work, we aimed to identify changes in walking behavior over time, and to determine the efficacy of non-visual cues presented via the phone. Data was gathered using three methods: automated logging, participant-maintained diaries and interviews. Findings revealed that participants were able to respond most effectively to multimodal icons to modify their pace over a two week period. However, their preferences were noted to change depending on the situational context. The study has also highlighted the complexities associated with data collection techniques for mobile evaluations.
Genetic Testing for Male Infertility

The end result of mitosis, meiosis, and spermiogenesis is the production of a functionally competent and genetically normal spermatozoon. These processes are under strict genetic regulation and a variety of genetic mishaps may therefore eventuate in disruption of the spermatogenic process. In addition, the reproductive ductal structures must form properly for the released spermatozoa to be transported successfully to the ejaculate. Permutations and mutations in the genes underlying this complex sequence and series of events can lead to reproductive failure. Darwinian evolution is commonly thought to reflect changes in the genome that confer upon the organism an adaptive advantage. These alterations are maintained in subsequent offspring, leading to “improvement” in a species or the eventual formation of a new species altogether. However, the maintenance of reproduction is also of great importance, as these new genetic and phenotypically beneficial changes must not come at the expense of the reproductive axis. The fidelity of this axis must be preserved (or even improved) and is an underlying, but equally significant, theme of the evolutionary process.