cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Role of nicotinic receptors and acetylcholine in mucous cell metaplasia, hyperplasia, and airway mucus formation in vitro and in vivo.

Background Airway mucus hypersecretion is a key pathophysiologic feature in a number of lung diseases. Cigarette smoke/nicotine and allergens are strong stimulators of airway mucus; however, the mechanism of mucus modulation is unclear. Objectives We sought to characterize the pathway by which cigarette smoke/nicotine regulates airway mucus and identify agents that decrease airway mucus. Methods IL-13 and γ-aminobutyric acid type A receptors (GABA A Rs) are implicated in airway mucus. We examined the role of IL-13 and GABA A Rs in nicotine-induced mucus formation in normal human bronchial epithelial (NHBE) and A549 cells and secondhand cigarette smoke–induced, ovalbumin-induced, or both mucus formation in vivo . Results Nicotine promotes mucus formation in NHBE cells; however, the nicotine-induced mucus formation is independent of IL-13 but sensitive to the GABA A R antagonist picrotoxin. Airway epithelial cells express α7-, α9-, and α10-nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), and specific inhibition or knockdown of α7- but not α9/α10-nAChRs abrogates mucus formation in response to nicotine and IL-13. Moreover, addition of acetylcholine or inhibition of its degradation increases mucus in NHBE cells. Nicotinic but not muscarinic receptor antagonists block allergen- or nicotine/cigarette smoke–induced airway mucus formation in NHBE cells, murine airways, or both. Conclusions Nicotine-induced airway mucus formation is independent of IL-13, and α7-nAChRs are critical in airway mucous cell metaplasia/hyperplasia and mucus production in response to various promucoid agents, including IL-13. In the absence of nicotine, acetylcholine might be the biological ligand for α7-nAChRs to trigger airway mucus formation. α7-nAChRs are downstream of IL-13 but upstream of GABA A Rα2 in the MUC5AC pathway. Acetylcholine and α7-nAChRs might serve as therapeutic targets to control airway mucus.
Lateral Dominance and Reading Disability

Theory and research on the relation of lateral dominance to the causation of reading disability is reviewed. Direct measures of cerebral hemisphere functioning indicate that the left hemisphere is dominant for speech, sequential processing, and logical thinking in nearly all right-handers and the majority of left-handers, while the right hemisphere is dominant for holistic or Gestalt perception, nonverbal reasoning, and music. However, the electroencephalograph, which is the only direct indicator of cerebral dominance that does not require surgery, does not differentiate well between disabled and normal readers. Indirect measures include measures of handedness, directionality, dichotic listening, and tachisto-scopic presentation of visual stimuli to visual half-fields. Research on the relation of such measures to reading disability is reviewed.
Exposure to Cannabis in Popular Music and Cannabis Use among Adolescents

Background Cannabis use is referenced frequently in American popular music, yet it remains uncertain whether exposure to these references is associated with actual cannabis use. We aimed to determine if exposure to cannabis in popular music is associated independently with current cannabis use in a cohort of urban adolescents. Methods We surveyed all 9th grade students at three large US urban high schools. We estimated participants' exposure to lyrics referent to cannabis with overall music exposure and content analyses of their favorite artists' songs. Outcomes included current (past 30 days) and ever use of cannabis. We used multivariable regression to assess independent associations between exposures and outcomes while controlling for important covariates. Results Each of the 959 participants was exposed to an estimated 27 cannabis references per day [correction added on 19 January 2010, after first online publication: 40 has been changed to 27] (standard deviation = 73 [correction added on 19 January 2010, after first online publication: 104 has been changed to 73]). Twelve per cent (n = 108) were current cannabis users and 32% (n = 286) had ever used cannabis. Compared with those in the lowest tertile of total cannabis exposure in music, those in the highest tertile of exposure were almost twice as likely to have used cannabis in the past 30 days (odds ratio = 1.83; 95% confidence interval = 1.04, 3.22), even after adjusting for socio‐demographic variables, personality characteristics and parenting style. As expected, however, there was no significant relationship between our cannabis exposure variable and a sham outcome variable of alcohol use. Conclusions This study supports an independent association between exposure to cannabis in popular music and early cannabis use among urban American adolescents.
A Probabilistic Rip Current Forecast Model

ABSTRACT Dusek, G. and Seim, H., 2013. A probabilistic rip current forecast model A probabilistic rip current forecast model is created using a logistic regression formulation. Given input variables of nearshore significant wave height, vector mean wave direction, tidal elevation, and whether the forecast occurs in a 72-hour postwave event window, the probabilistic model predicts the likelihood of hazardous rip current occurrence. The model is trained using rip current observations made by lifeguards at Kill Devil Hills (KDH), North Carolina, in 2008–2009. Validation uses a hindcast at KDH over the summers of 2001–2007 and is compared with a hindcast of the National Weather Service (NWS) rip current model presently used at KDH. Using rip current rescues to indicate hazardous rip current occurrence, the probabilistic model has a Brier Score of 0.15 (0 is perfect prediction), compared with a minimum Brier Score of 0.45 for the NWS model, and represents a 67% or better improvement in prediction. Utilizing de...
Configuration Estimates Improve Pedestrian Finding

Fair discriminative pedestrian finders are now available. In fact, these pedestrian finders make most errors on pedestrians in configurations that are uncommon in the training data, for example, mounting a bicycle. This is undesirable. However, the human configuration can itself be estimated discriminatively using structure learning. We demonstrate a pedestrian finder which first finds the most likely human pose in the window using a discriminative procedure trained with structure learning on a small dataset. We then present features (local histogram of oriented gradient and local PCA of gradient) based on that configuration to an SVM classifier. We show, using the INRIA Person dataset, that estimates of configuration significantly improve the accuracy of a discriminative pedestrian finder.
Fourth-order partial-coherence effects in the formation of integrated-intensity gratings with pulsed light sources

We performed theoretical calculations of the relative diffraction efficiency of partially coherent light-induced integrated-intensity gratings using pulsed sources, paying particular attention to thermal gratings. We provided a simple intuitive picture of the phenomenon and then calculated exact expressions that, unlike instantaneous-intensity-grating results, necessarily require the use of fourth-order coherence functions. Assuming several radiation models, we evaluated these expressions and found that the results proved to be insensitive to the specific radiation model assumed. The application of these results to a previously performed pulsed-laser experiment yielded a better fit to the data than an expression involving only second-order coherence, which is valid only in the cw limit. We included the effects of grating decay and, in addition, compared the use of integrated-intensity gratings for ultrashort-pulse-length measurement with standard techniques. Finally, we calculated expressions for the relative diffraction efficiency of integrated-intensity gratings created with excitation beams from two separate and independent sources of different frequency, and we report an experiment whose results were found to agree with this theory.
Enhanced Access to Mental Health Information—A Multi-Type Library Collaboration

The purpose of this article is to describe the experience of a multi-type library collaboration to enhance access to mental health information in northeastern Pennsylvania. When our medical library learned about the availability of funding in the area of mental health, we decided that a multi-type library collaboration would be the best approach. As a result, The Commonwealth Medical College–Medical Library received a National Network of Libraries of Medicine–Middle Atlantic Region Outreach to Consumers Award to partner with the Lackawanna County Library System to enhance access to mental health information in northeastern Pennsylvania.
Treatment of Hypopigmented Sarcoidosis with 8‐Methoxypsoralen and Long Wave Ultraviolet Light

A patient with hypopigmented sarcoidosis involving the face was treated with topical 8-methoxypsoralen and long wave ultraviolet light. Satisfactory repigmentation occurred within eight months of tri-weekly therapy. Electron microscopic study of involved, untreated skin showed abnormalities of melanocytes, including cytoplasmic vacuolization and the presence of melanosome complexes. Treated skin showed sparsity of melanosomes within the central portions of some melanocytes and large numbers of melanosomes within melanocytic dendrites. The clinical and ultrastructural findings suggest the possibility of toxic damage to melanocytes, perhaps with abnormalities of melanosome transfer, in lesions of hypopigmented sarcoidosis. These abnormalities appear to be responsive to psoralen-UVA therapy.
Occurrence of Diaporthe phaseolorum var. meridionalis on Soybean in Illinois.

Both Diaporthe phaseolorum var. caulivora and D.phaseolorum var. meridionalis cause stem canker on soybean, with D. phaseolorum var. caulivora reported in the northern regions and D. phaseolorum var. meridionalis reported in the southern regions of the United States (1). During the 1999 and 2000 growing seasons, fungi were isolated from soybean plants from growers' fields exhibiting stem canker symptoms. Stem tissue along the margin of the canker was cut into 1- to 5-mm3 pieces, surface-disinfected for 4 min in 0.5% NaOCl solution, rinsed twice, and plated on water or potato dextrose agar (PDA). Fungi of interest were hyphal tipped, grown on PDA at 21°C with 24 h of light, and identified by culture and spore morphology after 3 to 4 weeks. Typical D. phaseolorum var. meridionalis isolates produced white, lanose colonies that turned tan with age. Most of the D. phaseolorum var. meridionalis isolates produced pycnidia with alpha spores and beaked perithecia after 25 to 30 days (2). Brown to black stromata formed in irregular shapes. Of the 16 D. phaseolorum var. meridionalis isolates identified, 11 were from Illinois, 1 each from Indiana and Ohio, and 3 from Kentucky. In Illinois, four isolates were from the northern part of the state, and the rest were from the central and southern areas of the state. In addition to D. phaseolorum var. meridionalis, other isolates obtained from soybean plants included D. phaseolorum var. caulivora, D. phaseolorum var. sojae, and Phomopsis longicolla. References: (1) J. A. McGee and D. C. Biddle. Plant Dis. 71:620, 1987. (2) A. W. Zhang et al. Phytopathology 88:1306, 1998.
Stromelysin-1-deficient fibroblasts display impaired contraction in vitro.

Targeted disruption of the stromelysin-1 gene in mice causes a delay in excisional wound healing due to a failure in wound contraction. Therefore, we postulated that stromelysin-1 activity is responsible for initiating contraction. To test this hypothesis, we compared the contractile capacity of fibroblasts from stromelysin-1 knockout mice (strom-1 KO) with that of normal fibroblasts using a collagen gel contraction model. Fibroblast cultures were established from explants of skin and lung parenchyma from strom-1 KO and wild-type mice, then transferred to the surface of collagen gels. The extent of contraction was determined by measuring greatest gel diameter. Results demonstrated that (1) all fibroblasts contracted collagen gels in a uniform concentric fashion, (2) skin fibroblasts from both sets of mice exhibited greater gel contraction than did lung fibroblasts, and (3) strom-1 KO fibroblasts demonstrated significantly less contraction (21-23%) than wild-type fibroblasts. These data support the hypothesis that absence of stromelysin-1 results in defective fibroblast contraction that may contribute to delayed wound healing.
High-dimensional underactuated motion planning via task space control

Kinodynamic planning algorithms have the potential to find feasible control trajectories which accomplish a task even in very nonlinear or constrained dynamical systems. Underactuation represents a particular form of a dynamic constraint, inherently present in many machines of interest (e.g., walking robots), and necessitates planning for long-term control solutions. A major limitation in motion planning techniques, especially for real-time implementation, is that they are only practical for relatively low degree-of-freedom problems. Here we present a model-based dimensionality reduction technique based on an extension of partial feedback linearization control into a task-space framework. This allows one to plan motions for a complex underactuated robot directly in a low-dimensional task-space, and to resolve redundancy with lower-priority tasks. We illustrate the potential of this approach with an extremely simple motion planning system which solves the swing-up problem for multi-link underactuated pendula, and discuss extensions to the control of walking.
Fondaparinux and the Management of Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia: The Journey Continues

Objective:To review the available literature addressing the role of fondaparinux in the management of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT).Data Sources:Primary articles were identified by a MEDLINE search (2004–June 2009) of English-language literature using the MeSH headings fondaparinux, heparin, low-molecular-weight heparin, and thrombocytopenia. Relevant consensus guidelines (2006–June 2009) were also identified.Study Selection and Data Extraction:All published studies and case reports, as well as relevant consensus guidelines, evaluating the use of fondaparinux for the management of HIT were included.Data Synthesis:The role of fondaparinux in the management of HIT is a therapeutic controversy challenging clinicians today. An open-label, prospective pilot study of 7 patients with acute HIT supports fondaparinux as an alternative anticoagulant. Additionally, a total of 12 patients with HIT from a larger case study and retrospective cohort were successfully treated with fondaparinux. Much of the suppo...
Implementing Multiphase Resonant Clocking on a Finite-Impulse Response Filter

Rotary clock is a resonant clocking technique that delivers on-chip clock signal distribution with very low power dissipation. Since it can only generate clock signals with multiple phases that are spatially distributed, rotary clock is often considered not applicable to industrial very large scale integration (VLSI) designs. This paper presents the first rotary-clock-based nontrivial digital circuit. Our design, a low-power and high-speed finite-impulse response (FIR) filter, is fully digital and generated using CMOS standard cells in 0.18 mum technology. We have shown that the proposed FIR filter is seamlessly integrated with the rotary clock technique. It uses the spatially distributed multiple clock phases of rotary clock and achieves high power savings. Simulation results demonstrate that our rotary-clock-based FIR filter can operate successfully at 610 MHz, providing a throughput of 39 Gb/s. In comparison with the conventional clock-tree-based design, our design achieves a 34.6% clocking power saving and a 12.8% overall circuit power saving. In addition, the peak current consumed by the rotary-clock-based filter is substantially lower by 40% on the average. Our study makes the crucial step toward the application of rotary clock technique to a broad range of VLSI designs.
Rule set reduction in fuzzy decision trees

The ID3 algorithm forms the basis for many decision trees' algorithms and programs. Trees produced by this algorithm are known to be very sensitive to small changes in attribute values. Fuzzy ID3 is an extension of ID3; it integrates fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic with ID3. This integration reduces the sensitivity of the produced decision trees to small changes in attribute values, and helps in overcoming the effects of spurious precision in the data. In a previous work, we presented a modified version of the fuzzy ID3 algorithm that integrates information gain and classification ambiguity to select the split attribute and showed that the modified version can achieve better accuracy on a wide range of datasets. However the number of generated fuzzy rules was very high. In this paper, we introduce a new threshold value on the membership value of an object to propagate from a parent node to child nodes in the fuzzy decision tree. In addition we introduce a new syntax for fuzzy rules; the new syntax utilizes partial membership ratios of different classes in a leaf node. The modified version achieved a significant reduction in the number of generated fuzzy rules, and results in a huge decrease in run-time and better accuracy.
The FLP, the Transfer Taxes, and the Income Tax

Despite repeated calls for reform, Congress has declined to act to curb transfer tax avoidance through the use of family limited partnerships (“FLP’s"). Use of FLP’s allows taxpayers to substantially leverage their exemption from estate tax, and reduce the effective rate of tax on even the most liquid investment assets. This article reviews the current state of the law in the Tax Court on FLP’s, renews the call for Congressional action, and explains why FLP’s are not just a “death tax” problem.
Epigenetic regulation of cardiac development and function by Polycomb Group and Trithorax Group Proteins

Heart disease is a leading cause of death and disability in developed countries. Heart disease includes a broad range of diseases that affect the development and/or function of the cardiovascular system. Some of these diseases, such as congenital heart defects, are present at birth. Others develop over time and may be influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Many of the known heart diseases are associated with abnormal expression of genes. Understanding the factors and mechanisms that regulate gene expression in the heart is essential for the detection, treatment, and prevention of heart diseases. Polycomb Group (PcG) and Trithorax Group (TrxG) proteins are special families of chromatin factors that regulate developmental gene expression in many tissues and organs. Accumulating evidence suggests that these proteins are important regulators of development and function of the heart as well. A better understanding of their roles and functional mechanisms will translate into new opportunities for combating heart disease.
“That’s what friends do”: Informal caregiving for chronically ill midlife and older lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults

This study examines the relationships between friends; a caregiver who provides care to a care recipient, who is a lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) adult over age 50 in need of assistance due to chronic physical or mental health conditions. Using a sample of 18 care pairs (n = 36), this work examines qualitative interview data. Findings from the study include: (a) both the care recipient and the caregiver receive benefits from the friendship; (b) caregiving alters and challenges the friendship; and (c) friends assume differential levels of commitment and responsibility in providing care. Studying this population of LGB adults expands our knowledge about the diversity of care arrangements and needs within a relational context.
Theory of self-resonance after inflation. I. Adiabatic and isocurvature Goldstone modes

We develop a theory of self-resonance after inflation. We study a large class of models involving multiple scalar fields with an internal symmetry. For illustration, we often specialize to dimension-four potentials, but we derive results for general potentials. This is the first part of a two part series of papers. Here in part 1 we especially focus on the behavior of long-wavelength modes, which are found to govern most of the important physics. Since the inflaton background spontaneously breaks the time-translation symmetry and the internal symmetry, we obtain Goldstone modes; these are the adiabatic and isocurvature modes. We find general conditions on the potential for when a large instability band exists for these modes at long wavelengths. For the adiabatic mode, this is determined by a sound speed derived from the time-averaged potential, while for the isocurvature mode, this is determined by a speed derived from a time-averaged auxiliary potential. Interestingly, we find that this instability band usually exists for one of these classes of modes, rather than both simultaneously. We focus on backgrounds that evolve radially in field space, as set up by inflation, and also mention circular orbits, as relevant to $Q$-balls. In part 2 [M. P. Hertzberg et al., Phys. Rev. D 90, 123529 (2014)] we derive the central behavior from the underlying description of many-particle quantum mechanics, and introduce a weak breaking of the symmetry to study corrections to particle-antiparticle production from preheating.
N-Methyl-d-Aspartic Acid Receptor Expression in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex of Elderly Patients With Schizophrenia

OBJECTIVE: The N-methyl-d-aspartic acid (NMDA) class of glutamate receptors has received attention in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia because of the similarity between some schizophrenic symptoms and symptoms caused by NMDA antagonists. To determine if NMDA receptor abnormalities were present at the mRNA level, expression of NMDA receptor (NR) subunits NR1, NR2A, and NR2B was measured in specimens from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the occipital cortex of elderly patients with schizophrenia and normal elderly subjects. METHOD: Postmortem specimens from antemortem assessed and diagnosed elderly patients with schizophrenia (N=26) were compared with those from a neuropathologically and neuropsychiatrically normal elderly comparison group (N=13) and from patients with Alzheimer’s disease (N=10). The mRNA expression of the NR1, NR2A, and NR2B subunits and of postsynaptic density 95 (PSD-95), a protein associated with postsynaptic NMDA receptors, was studied with quantitative real-time reverse tra...
Faces in Motion: Selectivity of Macaque and Human Face Processing Areas for Dynamic Stimuli

Face recognition mechanisms need to extract information from static and dynamic faces. It has been hypothesized that the analysis of dynamic face attributes is performed by different face areas than the analysis of static facial attributes. To date, there is no evidence for such a division of labor in macaque monkeys. We used fMRI to determine specializations of macaque face areas for motion. Face areas in the fundus of the superior temporal sulcus responded to general object motion; face areas outside of the superior temporal sulcus fundus responded more to facial motion than general object motion. Thus, the macaque face-processing system exhibits regional specialization for facial motion. Human face areas, processing the same stimuli, exhibited specializations for facial motion as well. Yet the spatial patterns of facial motion selectivity differed across species, suggesting that facial dynamics are analyzed differently in humans and macaques.
Hardware Algorithms for Nonnumeric Computation

This paper is concerned with the design of hardware algorithms for nonnumeric computation. The subset of nonnumeric operations considered is derived from string processing languages such as Snobol or high-level database languages used in database management architectures. Being uniformly structured, the hardware could be implemented using LSI technology yielding an estimated pattern matching rate of about 100 million characters/s. The proposed nonnumeric processor will find applications in the environment of parallel (or associative) database management architectures, processing of large unstructured textual files, as a stand-alone microprocessor in digital communications which need simple search and update operations, or as a nonnumeric CPU that can be used along with the conventional CPU to expedite string processing operations.
Evolution and a free society: Spencer, Kropotkin and popper

Abstract Despite the negative connotations often associated with ‘Social Darwinism’, theorists representing a wide range of political opinion have drawn on Darwinian ideas to support their own positions. An examination of the views of Spencer, Kropotkin and Popper, as representatives of the Right, the Left and the Centre, provides an interesting basis for a consideration of the application of Darwin's thesis to social and political life. Although these theorists develop very different visions of the good society, they are all Darwinists, and they all use an evolutionary model to support their visions of a free society. A comparison between their different use and interpretation of Darwinism, and a critical evaluation of their positions, displays the significance of Darwinism as well as identifying some of the major difficulties which arise in the attempt to apply this perspective to a consideration of political issues.
The influence of lipid-containing plaque composition assessed by near-infrared spectroscopy on coronary lesion remodelling.

Aims Vessel remodelling is commonly observed in coronary atherosclerosis, but factors influencing remodelling, such as plaque lipid content, remain poorly described. Methods and results Remodelling index (RI) was calculated as the ratio of lesion to proximal and distal references external membrane area and was categorized as follows: positive (PR; RI > 1.05), intermediate (IR; RI 0.95–1.05), and negative remodelling (NR; RI < 0.95). RI was studied by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) as a function of lipid content metrics, including the maximal 4 mm lipid core burden index of the segment (maxLCBI4 mm) and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) lesion plaque burden (PB). The authors further stratified the analysis according to obstructive (≥50%) and non-obstructive (<50%) lesions using quantitative coronary angiography. Receiver-operating characteristic curves were performed to describe the maxLCBI4 mm level associated with PR. From May 2012 to November 2014, 100 de novo lesions from 67 patients underwent simultaneous NIRS-IVUS. PR was found in 28% of the lesions. There was a positive linear correlation between RI and maxLCBI4 mm ( ρ = 0.58; P < 0.001). Although PR lesions had a larger PB than NR or IR ( P < 0.001), the correlation of RI with maxLCBI4 mm was stronger compared with plaque volume ( ρ = 0.18; P = 0.07) and with per cent PB ( ρ = 0.41; P < 0.001). This relationship remained significant for obstructive ( ρ = 0.72; P < 0.001) and non-obstructive lesions ( ρ = 0.48; P < 0.001). By receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis, values of maxLCBI4 mm ≥ 439 were predictive for PR (area under the curve = 0.79, 95% confidence interval: 0.69–0.89). Conclusion In vivo coronary lesion remodelling is positively correlated with lipid plaque content assessed by NIRS rather than simply PB. Thus, the use of NIRS can potentially aid in further stratifying vulnerable lesions.
Evolutionary patterns of naticid gastropods of the Chesapeake Group; an example of coevolution?

The naticid gastropod predator–prey system has been cited as a possible example of coevolution. Previous work indicated that Miocene bivalves from the Chesapeake Group responded to naticid drilling with a predation-avoidance strategy of gradual thickness increase over evolutionary time. The present study examined whether the predators, Euspira heros (Say) and Neverita duplicata (Say), coevolved by increasing their efficiency in response to prey adaptation. Neither predator showed significant trends in most characters thought to affect predator efficiency, including measures of globosity and aperture size relative to shell height. Stasis occurred for all such characters except Euspira aperture height, which showed a statistically significant decrease of 9 percent through the section. Morphologic trends occurred in two additional characters, shell thickness relative to height, and shell height. Euspira increased in thickness by 63 percent through the section; Neverita decreased in thickness by 37 percent (through slightly less section) and simultaneously increased mean height by 60 percent. The size increase exhibited by Neverita could be interpreted as a coevolutionary response to increased prey defenses. Naticids are subject to predation by other naticids, however; the trends in size and thickness may be viewed instead as an evolutionary strategy to escape naticid predation, including cannibalism. Although the possibility of coevolution is difficult to eliminate, Chesapeake Group naticids appear to have evolve more in response to their own predators than to evolution of their prey.
Embolization of cerebral arteriovenous malformations with silk: histopathologic changes and hemorrhagic complications.

PURPOSE To evaluate the safety of silk as an embolic agent for preoperative embolization of cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) by assessing the histopathologic changes and hemorrhagic complications associated with its use. METHODS Histopathologic specimens, medical records, and radiologic records of 73 patients with AVMs embolized with silk (alone or in combination with other agents) were reviewed retrospectively. Forty-eight histologic specimens obtained at surgery were analyzed for inflammatory responses and compared with the time interval between embolization and surgery. Postembolization angiograms were assessed for vasculitis and CT scans were reviewed for evidence of hemorrhage after embolization. RESULTS There was no angiographic evidence of vasculitis. Histologic evidence of vasculitis was absent or mild in 92% of cases and histologic evidence of perivascular inflammation was absent or mild in 73% of cases. The frequency of histologic changes associated with vasculitis, perivascular inflammation, and vessel necrosis varied with the time interval between embolization and AVM resection. Intracranial hemorrhage, as a direct complication of silk use, occurred in one patient. Another patient had subarachnoid hemorrhage 24 hours after embolization, caused by rupture of a posteroinferior cerebellar artery aneurysm. Intraventricular high-density material appeared on routine postembolization CT scans in two other patients who had intraventricular AVM extension. This high-density material was thought to be contrast extravasation from intrinsically leaky AVM nidus vessels and not frank hemorrhage. CONCLUSION Embolization of AVMs with silk does not result in marked inflammation or increased hemorrhagic complications as compared with other agents.
Filing Formal Objections: A Polemic

For all of the complaints lodged against formalism, the use of mathematics in economics, and the employment of axiomatics in economic theory, there is no evidence whatsoever that the complainers understand the reality of mainstream economics. The complainers are fond of the charge that mainstream economics does not address the real economy and does not address economic reality; they say that mainstream economics is enamored of a make believe or fictitious or artificial neoclassical world. The facts however are exactly the opposite. It is the critics who have no knowledge apparently of what goes on in mainstream economics. They misperceive reality. They have been so busy taking in one another's washing, criticizing and re-criticizing a fifty year old general equilibrium model, that they believe it unimportant actually to open their eyes to see what is going on in mainstream economics.
Adult Children’s Responses to Parent “Stubbornness”

Purpose of the study People cope with relationship tensions in different ways. One such tension that is frequently reported is how adult children respond to conflicts with their aging parents when they see their parents as insisting, resisting, or persisting in their behaviors-acting in ways commonly attributed to stubbornness. Design and methods Middle-aged adults (N = 383) completed measures regarding their parents' stubbornness, their responses to that stubbornness, depressive symptoms, positive and negative relationship quality, and support they provide their parents. Multiple regression and multilevel models were utilized to examine whether middle-aged offspring's responses to perceived parent stubbornness were associated with the offspring's reported depressive symptoms, positive and negative relationship quality, and provision of support. Results Adult children most frequently endorsed responding to parents' "stubborn" behaviors by "just letting their requests go." Results revealed associations of adult children's response strategies with their reports of depressive symptoms (more letting go), positive relationship quality (less letting go and more reasoning), negative relationship quality (more arguing, more rewording their request, and less reasoning), and the amount of support they provide to their parents (more arguing, more reasoning, and more waiting to address the concern another day). Implications Adult children's responses to perceived parent stubbornness are linked to individual and relationship functioning, as well as the support the children provide. Interventions to develop adaptive responses when there are differences in goals may prove useful for families.
A simple device for concentration of parasite eggs, larvae, and protozoa.

A device for the concentration of parasite eggs, larvae and protozoa from a 1 gram fecal sample is described. It consists of separable upper chamber and lower 15 ml conical centrifuge tube connected by a midpiece which incorporates a filter of stainless steel mesh. A small plastic tube for air venting passes through the filter. Emulsification of the sample is done in the upper chamber by shaking with 10% formalin, glass beads, and Triton X-100. The emulsified sample is then filtered into the lower chamber. Ether is added through the upper chamber to wash remaining eggs and larvae into the lower chamber, which is then capped, shaken, and centrifuged. Following centrifugation, the top plug of debris is removed and the tube is drained and swabbed clean, leaving a small, packed sediment, containing the parasite eggs and larvae. The device yielded as much as 300 times the egg yield of the direct wet mount and was comparable to standard concentration methods. The increased separation of eggs and larvae in this device is probably due to the physical characteristics that are imparted to the fecal solids during shaking with ether, glass beads, and Triton, and passage through the wire gauze.
American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and American College of Endocrinology Protocol for Standardized Production of Clinical Practice Guidelines, Algorithms, and Checklists--2014 Update and the AACe G4G Program.

ABSTRACT In 2010, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) published an update to the original 2004 guidelines. This update hybridized strict evidence-based medicine methods with subjective factors and improved the efficiency of clinical practice guidelines (CPG) production, clinical applicability, and usefulness. Current and persistent shortcomings involving suboptimal implementation and protracted development timelines are addressed in the current 2014 update. The major advances include 1) formulation of an organizational educational strategy, represented by the AACE Council on Education, to address relevant teaching and decision-making tools for clinical endocrinologists, and to generate specific clinical questions to drive CPG, clinical algorithm (CA), and clinical checklist (CC) development; 2) creation and prioritization of printed and online CAs and CCs with a supporting evidence base; 3) focus on clinically relevant and question-oriented topics; 4) utilization of "cascades," where there can be more than 1 recommendation for 1 clinical question; and 5) incorporation of performance metrics to validate, optimize, and effectively update CPG, CAs, and CCs. Efforts continue to translate these clinical tools to electronic formats that can be integrated into a paperless healthcare delivery system, as well as applying them to diverse clinical settings by incorporating transcultural factors. (Endocr Pract. 2014;20:000-000)
Copper-Encapsulated Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanotube Arrays

A new procedure is described for the fabrication of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (VACNTs) that are decorated, and even completely encapsulated, by a dense network of copper nanoparticles. The process involves the conformal deposition of pyrolytic carbon (Py-C) to stabilize the aligned carbon-nanotube structure during processing. The stabilized arrays are mildly functionalized using oxygen plasma treatment to improve wettability, and they are then infiltrated with an aqueous, supersaturated Cu salt solution. Once dried, the salt forms a stabilizing crystal network throughout the array. After calcination and H2 reduction, Cu nanoparticles are left decorating the CNT surfaces. Studies were carried out to determine the optimal processing parameters to maximize Cu content in the composite. These included the duration of Py-C deposition and system process pressure as well as the implementation of subsequent and multiple Cu salt solution infiltrations. The optimized procedure yielded a nanoscale hybrid ma...
Traffic-Aware Joint Allocation of Uplink Control and Communication Channels in Multicast Systems

In multicast wireless access systems such as a trunked mobile radio system, channel allocation is performed based on multicast groups instead of radio units. Thus, in these systems, the call source units are these groups, which we also call the users . In a practical system, these users are finite in number, and each user or group may consist of many radio units. In this paper, we discuss the coupling of uplink control and communication segments (layers) of such finite source systems, in which the performance of one layer directly affects that of the other. The conventional studies model these system segments separately and, thus, are unable to capture the coupling issues in networks with the finite sources' constraint. We first propose a novel model that incorporates this coupling by jointly quantifying both the collision loss at the control layer and congestion loss at the communication layer. Under our proposed framework, we further optimize the number of uplink control and communication channels to minimize the joint total loss rate given a constraint on the total number of available channels. In addition, we demonstrate the capability of our proposed model in estimating the invisible actual traffic load and provide guidelines for developing an algorithm for the traffic-aware allocation of channels, based on the proposed model.
A method for downstream analysis of gene set enrichment results facilitates the biological interpretation of vaccine efficacy studies

Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) is a widely employed method for analyzing gene expression profiles. The approach uses annotated sets of genes, identifies those that are coordinately up- or down-regulated in a biological comparison of interest, and thereby elucidates underlying biological processes relevant to the comparison. As the number of gene sets available in various collections for enrichment analysis has grown, the resulting lists of significant differentially regulated gene sets may also become larger, leading to the need for additional downstream analysis of GSEA results. Here we present a method that allows the rapid identification of a small number of co-regulated groups of genes - "leading edge metagenes" (LEMs) - from high scoring sets in GSEA results. LEM are sub-signatures which are common to multiple gene sets and that "explain" their enrichment specific to the experimental dataset of interest. We show that LEMs contain more refined lists of context-dependent and biologically meaningful genes than the parental gene sets. LEM analysis of the human vaccine response using a large database of immune signatures identified core biological processes induced by five different vaccines in datasets from human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). Further study of these biological processes over time following vaccination showed that at day 3 post-vaccination, vaccines derived from viruses or viral subunits exhibit patterns of biological processes that are distinct from protein conjugate vaccines; however, by day 7 these differences were less pronounced. This suggests that the immune response to diverse vaccines eventually converge to a common transcriptional response. LEM analysis can significantly reduce the dimensionality of enriched gene sets, improve the identification of core biological processes active in a comparison of interest, and simplify the biological interpretation of GSEA results.
Defining the role of ultrafiltration therapy in acute heart failure: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Ultrafiltration (UF) has emerged as an alternative therapy for acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) due to its physiological benefits such as improvement in neurohormonal activation. We performed a systematic review and a meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and the impact on outcomes for UF therapy as compared to conventional medical treatment. The PubMed and Cochrane databases were searched from inception to December 2015 for randomized controlled trials that examined UF therapy in ADHF and used diuretic-based regimens as the control group. In accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement, we explored the impact on weight change, fluid removal, renal function, rehospitalization rate, and mortality. Mantel–Haenszel odds ratio (OR) was calculated for dichotomous data and weighted mean difference (WMD) for continuous data. Seven studies with a total of 771 patients met our selection criteria. UF therapy led to greater weight loss (WMD 1.35, 95 % CI 0.49–2.21, p < 0.01) and fluid removal (WMD 1.81, 95 % CI 1.01–2.62, p = <0.01) while the impact of UF on renal function was comparable with medical treatment (WMD 0.06, 95 % CI −0.11 to 0.22, p = 0.48), UF decreased heart failure rehospitalization rate (OR 0.60, 95 % CI 0.37–0.98, p = 0.04) but did not change mortality (OR 1.03, 95 % CI 0.68–1.57, p = 0.89). Compared with diuretic-based medical treatment, UF therapy is more efficient in decongestion of patients with ADHF. It does not have a deleterious impact on renal function and can improve heart failure-related rehospitalization rate, albeit without conferring a survival benefit.
Excitation controller design based on iterative learning control

A method to design the excitation controller of single-machine infinite-bus system is proposed based on iterative learning control theory,which removes the restriction of perfect tracking in limited time span. It takes the memory and modification of expected control ud(t) instead of output control u(t),and fits the controller parameters by using the least square method. The control law can be obtained by making minimal the difference between set control and expected control. An excitation control system for generator is simulated with Matlab. Results show its good dynamic performance and strong robusticity.
Investigating temporal changes and effects of elevation on the prevalence of a rickettsial blood parasite in red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) in Virginia, USA

Amphibians are host to a number of vector-transmitted blood parasites. One parasite for which there is little information is a recently described intracellular bacteria in the order Rickettsiales, found in red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) in the eastern USA. This parasite was observed in 16.7 % of individuals across three states in the summer of 2008. Here, we resampled one of the locations from the 2008 study (Mountain Lake, Virginia, where site-level prevalence was 22 %) to determine if the incidence of infection has changed in 5 years. We also examined red-backed salamanders at seven other nearby sites that varied in elevation (670–1310 m) to ascertain if the pathogen shows any corresponding variation. We collected a total of 113 salamanders across the eight sites. We found no evidence that prevalence of the pathogen has changed; overall prevalence was 12.4 %, which was not significantly different from the 2008 estimate, and prevalence at the Mountain Lake site (28.6 %) also did not differ from the 2008 estimate. When comparing prevalence across elevations, we found that the highest-elevation sites tended to have highest levels of infections; one in five salamanders was infected with rickettsial bacteria at these locations. Ironically, these high-elevation sites appeared to have the highest salamander densities, and the largest salamanders, which usually point to healthy populations. Since salamander habitats in the Appalachian highlands are predicted to shrink in the future, our results suggest that the remnant, mountaintop populations will remain highly infected with this mysterious parasite.
Asymptomatic Pseudotumors in Patients with Taper Corrosion of a Dual-Taper Modular Femoral Stem: MARS-MRI and Metal Ion Study.

Background Modularity in total hip arthroplasty facilitates intraoperative restoration of patient anatomy. Although dual-taper modular total hip arthroplasty offers potential advantages for optimizing the hip center of rotation, it has been associated with modular taper corrosion. This corrosion has led to adverse local tissue reactions (pseudotumors) at the neck-stem junction and elevated metal-ion levels. However, the occurrence of taper-corrosion-related pseudotumors in patients who remain asymptomatic following total hip arthroplasty with a dual-taper modular femoral stem remains largely unknown. The aims of this study were (1) to determine the prevalence of asymptomatic pseudotumors by utilizing metal artifact reduction sequence magnetic resonance imaging (MARS-MRI) and (2) compare serum metal-ion levels between symptomatic and asymptomatic patients with a dual-taper modular stem total hip replacement. Methods We performed a retrospective cross-sectional study of 97 consecutive patients who had been treated with a dual-taper modular femoral stem total hip arthroplasty. Eighty-three patients were stratified into symptomatic and asymptomatic groups and evaluated with MARS-MRI, measurement of serum metal-ion levels, and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) functional hip score. Results The prevalence of pseudotumors as determined with MARS-MRI was 15% in our asymptomatic patients and 36% in the overall cohort. The median serum cobalt level and cobalt/chromium ratio were significantly higher in patients with a pseudotumor than in those without a pseudotumor (8.0 versus 2.0 μg/L [p = 0.004] and 10.3 versus 2.4 μg/L [p = 0.012], respectively). However, there was no significant difference in the serum cobalt level or cobalt/chromium ratio between symptomatic patients with a pseudotumor and asymptomatic patients with a pseudotumor (7.6 versus 6.2 μg/L [p = 0.37] and 8.3 versus 10.6 μg/L [p = 0.46], respectively). The UCLA scores of asymptomatic patients with a pseudotumor were similar to those of patients without a pseudotumor (6.7 versus 6.6). Conclusions The prevalence of asymptomatic taper-corrosion-related pseudotumors on MARS-MRI in this study demonstrated that the absence of symptoms does not exclude the presence of adverse local tissue reactions. Elevated cobalt levels and cobalt/chromium ratios were associated with the presence of pseudotumors in asymptomatic and symptomatic patients. Cross-sectional imaging such as MARS-MRI is indicated for patients with elevated metal-ion levels. A longitudinal study is required to determine whether asymptomatic patients with taper-corrosion-related pseudotumors will develop symptoms with time. Level of evidence Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.