cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Use of Radioiodine after Thyroid Lobectomy in Patients with Differentiated Thyroid Cancer: Does It Change Outcomes?

Background Radioiodine (RAI) lobe ablation in lieu of completion thyroidectomy is not recommended. This study describes RAI use patterns and outcomes in patients with well-differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) after thyroid lobectomy (TL). Study Design A total of 170,330 patients diagnosed with DTC between 1998 and 2011 were identified using the National Cancer Database. Demographic, tumor, and treatment variables were analyzed using both univariate and multivariate regression. Results A total of 32,119 patients (20%) underwent TL as the definitive procedure. Mean age at diagnosis was 48 years, median tumor size was 1 cm, 4% had extrathyroidal extension, 4% had positive lymph nodes, and Conclusions Nearly one quarter of TL patients received RAI. The strongest predictors of RAI use were larger cancers and advanced stage. Use of RAI in these patients was associated with improved overall survival. Future studies and guidelines will need to more clearly address this practice and educate providers about the appropriate use of RAI in TL patients.
Surgical timing of treating injured extremities

The management of some orthopaedic extremity injuries has changed over the past decade because of changing resource availability and the risks of complications. It is helpful to review the current literature regarding orthopaedic extremity emergencies and urgencies. The effects of the techniques of damage control orthopaedic techniques and the concept of the orthopaedic trauma room have also affected the management of these injuries. The available literature indicates that the remaining true orthopaedic extremity emergencies include compartment syndrome and vascular injuries associated with fractures and dislocations. Orthopaedic urgencies include open fracture management, femoral neck fractures in young patients treated with open reduction and internal fixation, and talus fractures that are open or those with impending skin compromise. Deciding when the definitive management of orthopaedic extremity injuries will occur has evolved as the concept of damage control orthopaedics has become more commonly accepted. Patient survival rates have improved with current resuscitative protocols. Definitive fixation of extremity injuries should be delayed until the patient's physiologic and extremity soft-tissue status allows for appropriate definitive management while minimizing the risks of complications. In patients with semiurgent orthopaedic injuries, the use of an orthopaedic trauma room has led to more efficient care of patients, fewer complications, and better time management for surgeons who perform on-call service for patients with traumatic orthopaedic injuries.
Channel profile engineering for MOSFET's with 100 nm channel lengths

The effective inversion electron mobility and several short-channel effects are examined for different channel doping profiles in NMOSFETs with L/sub eff/ near 100 nm using device simulators. For given threshold voltage, the effective mobility depends on the doping profile shape when the ionized dopant impurity scattering near the surface is nonnegligible as may be the case with the high doping required for proper scaling to L/sub eff//spl les/100 nm. In this regime, super-steep retrograde profiles result in higher effective mobility values than conventional step doping profiles while allowing deeper drain/source junctions. >
Power Allocation for Distributed BLUE Estimation with Full and Limited Feedback of CSI

This paper investigates the problem of adaptive power allocation for distributed best linear unbiased estimation (BLUE) of a random parameter at the fusion center (FC) of a wireless sensor network (WSN). An optimal power-allocation scheme is proposed that minimizes the L2-norm of the vector of local transmit powers, given a maximum variance for the BLUE estimator. This scheme results in the increased lifetime of the WSN compared to similar approaches that are based on the minimization of the sum of the local transmit powers. The limitation of the proposed optimal power-allocation scheme is that it requires the feedback of the instantaneous channel state information (CSI) from the FC to local sensors, which is not practical in most applications of large-scale WSNs. In this paper, a limited-feedback strategy is proposed that eliminates this requirement by designing an optimal codebook for the FC using the generalized Lloyd algorithm with modified distortion metrics. Each sensor amplifies its analog noisy observation using a quantized version of its optimal amplification gain, which is received by the FC and used to estimate the unknown parameter.
Mercury-Dependent Inhibition of Selenoenzymes and Mercury Toxicity

Selenoenzymes are required to prevent and reverse oxidative damage in the brain and neuroendocrine system, but these enzymes are vulnerable to irreversible inhibition by methylmercury (MeHg). Selenoenzyme inhibition appears likely to cause most if not all of the pathological effects of mercury toxicity. This biochemically based understanding seems to explain why certain tissues are affected by mercury, why the latency effect is unique to mercury poisoning, why selenium status is inversely related to mercury toxicity, why fetal exposures are so much more harmful than adult exposures, and why prenatal inhibition of selenoenzymes by high MeHg results in sustained loss of their activities.
The Definition, Classification, and Etiology of Diabetes

The term “diabetes mellitus” actually denotes a heterogeneous syndrome characterized by chronic hyperglycemia and often associated with specific microvascular and macrovascular complications. Conceptually, diabetes should be viewed as an entity embracing a wide variety of causes of disturbed glucose tolerance. In this sense, “diabetes” should be viewed as an expression of several unrelated disorders rather than a single disease, analogous to hypertension, anemia, or arthritis. Once this heterogeneity is accepted, it becomes easier to view the disorder as the “the diabetic syndrome” and not as a single disease.
The other side of the firewall

Keywords: Conflict of interest; firewall; funding; gambling industry; National Center for Responsible Gaming; research
Parity violation in electron scattering

By comparing the cross sections for left- and right-handed electrons scattered from various unpolarized nuclear targets, the small parity-violating asymmetry can be measured. These asymmetry data probe a wide variety of important topics, including searches for new fundamental interactions and important features of nuclear structure that cannot be studied with other probes. A special feature of these experiments is that the results are interpreted with remarkably few theoretical uncertainties, which justifies pushing the experiments to the highest possible precision. To measure the small asymmetries accurately, a number of novel experimental techniques have been developed.
Changes in human lung collagen and lipids with age.

Summary1) Hydroxyproline content of human lung increases with age. 2) The collagen content of human lung increases with age. 3) The lipid content of human lung decreases with age. 4) The shrinking temperature of human pleura increases with age. 5) The hydroxyproline content of collagen isolated from human pleura increases with age.
Multi-photon Microscopy to Image Neuronal and Vascular Function in the Mammalian Brain

I will review the application of two-photon laser scanning microscopy to problems in neuroscience as well as discuss current needs and challenges for the analysis of neuronal circuits and signaling in neocortical and other forebrain structures in mouse.
Interactions Between Phosphate and Nystatin in Candida stellatoidea

SummaryGlucose fermentation by Candida stellatoidea was inhibited by sodium arsenate and by the fungistatic antibiotic, nystatin. Mutants selected for resistance to one inhibitor simultaneously developed increased resistance to the other inhibitor. The inhibitory effects of arsenate and nystatin on glucose fermentation by the sensitive parental strain were reversed by appropriate concentrations of phosphate.
Constructing a Supercomputing Framework by Using Python for Hybrid Parallelism and GPU Cluster

This paper reports the construction of a new software framework, SOLVCON, for high-fidelity solutions of linear and nonlinear hyperbolic partial differential equations (PDEs). Applications of SOLVCON include gas dynamics, aero-acoustics, stress waves in solids, electromagnetic waves, etc. The default numerical scheme employed in SOLVCON is the space-time Conservation Element and Solution Element (CESE) method. SOLVCON is organized based on the two-loop structure found in all finite-volume methods for time-marching solutions: (i) the outer temporal loop for time-marching, and (ii) the inner spatial loops for calculating flux conservation. Built as a software framework that enforces inversion of control, solver kernels in SOLVCON are completely segregated from supportive functionalities and are made pluggable to the framework. As such, SOLVCON is inherently a multi-physics software package. SOLVCON also aims at reducing turnaround time for high-resolution calculations by incorporating hybrid parallelism, i.e., simultaneously using shared- and distributed-memory parallel computing. The code for General-Purpose Graphic Processing Unit (GPGPU) and multi-threaded computing are modularized as optional parts of the solver kernels. Based on the two-loop algorithm, the software structure of SOLVCON has been organized into 5 layers of Python modules. To handle large data sets associated with high-fidelity solutions of PDEs, special modules were developed for parallel input and output (I/O) and in situ visualization. SOLVCON is developed by using Python programming language because it is efficient to be coded and maintained and its unique capability of interfacing with other programming languages for high-performance computing (HPC). By using SOLVCON for typical computational tasks, 99% of the execution time is used in spatial loops, which are implemented by using C with multi-threading computing, and/or CUDA for GPGPU computing. The use of Python does not impair the performance. To model complex geometry, SOLVCON uses unstructured mesh consisting of mixed elements, i.e., triangles and quadrilaterals for two-dimensional problems, and tetrahedra, prisms, and pyramids for three-dimensional problems. SOLVCON has been routinely used for computational tasks running on clusters composed of more than a thousand CPUs. For a supersonic cross flows passing a jet, a benchmarking CFD problem, with 1.3 billion degrees of freedom, SOLVCON delivers the full transient results, including visualized results, in 3 days. SOLVCON has been open-sourced and released (http://solvcon.net) under the term of GNU General Public License.
Prey and Predator

The man whose memory is honored in this paper is Thaddeus William Harris. Harris' active years were in the first half of the 19th century, when he and Say were the pioneers of American entomology. Harris is best known for his report on Insects of Massachusetts Injurious to Vegetation , published in 1841. It is interesting to scan the subjects of his shorter papers. They deal with the biology of the salt-marsh caterpillar, a shrew mouse, the rose beetle, and so on through various beetles, moths, flies, and midges. In those days men were able to remain biologists, not merely toxicologists, entomologists, and neurophysiologists, but in actual fact biologists. By comparison it makes me feel humble to think that much of my past 10 years have been spent hidden in the ear of a moth.
Application of Biofeedback Electrical Stimulation Combined with Pelvic Floor Muscle Training in Postpartum Rehabilitation Treatment of Pelvic Floor Function

Objective To study the effect of biofeedback electrical stimulation combined with pelvic floor muscle training in the postpartum rehabilitation treatment of pelvic floor function.Methods 320 puerperants who were rechecked at 42d after the delivery in our hospital from September 2011 to January 2013 were divided into two groups,patients in the observation group were treated with biofeedback electrical stimulation combined with pelvic floor muscle training,patients in the control group were given without treatment intervention,then the pelvic floor muscle tension,vaginal muscle voltage and urinary incontinence rate of two groups at 3 month after the treatment were compared.Results The improvement of pelvic floor muscle tension and vaginal muscle voltage of observation group were significantly better than those of control group(P0.05),the urinary incontinence rate was significantly lower(P0.05).Conclusion The biofeedback electrical stimulation combined with pelvic floor muscle training can effectively improve the pelvic floor muscle tension and decrease the urinary incontinence rate,so it can improve the life quality of puerperants.
Implications of CA19-9 elevation for survival, staging, and treatment sequencing in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma: A national cohort analysis.

Background Optimal management of patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICCA) and elevated CA19-9 remains undefined. We hypothesized CA19-9 elevation above normal indicates aggressive biology and that inclusion of CA19-9 would improve staging discrimination. Methods The National Cancer Data Base (NCDB-2010-2012) was reviewed for patients with ICCA and reported CA19-9. Patients were stratified by CA19-9 above/below normal reference range. Unadjusted Kaplan–Meier and adjusted Cox-proportional-hazards analysis of overall survival (OS) were performed. Results A total of 2,816 patients were included: 938 (33.3%) normal; 1,878 (66.7%) elevated CA19-9 levels. Demographic/pathologic and chemotherapy/radiation were similar between groups, but patients with elevated CA19-9 had more nodal metastases and less likely to undergo resection. Among elevated-CA19-9 patients, stage-specific survival was decreased in all stages. Resected patients with CA19-9 elevation had similar peri-operative outcomes but decreased long-term survival. In adjusted analysis, CA19-9 elevation independently predicted increased mortality with impact similar to node-positivity, positive-margin resection, and non-receipt of chemotherapy. Proposed staging system including CA19-9 improved survival discrimination over AJCC 7th edition. Conclusion Elevated CA19-9 is an independent risk factor for mortality in ICCA similar in impact to nodal metastases and positive resection margins. Inclusion of CA19-9 in a proposed staging system increases discrimination. Multi-disciplinary therapy should be considered in patients with ICCA and CA19-9 elevation. J. Surg. Oncol. 2016;114:475–482. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Education and Training in Hemostasis: Perspectives of the Early Practitioner and Expert Practitioner

Hemorrhagic emergencies in otolaryngology can present significant challenges to the early practitioner. The development of procedural skills, clinical decision making, effective communication strategies, and leadership remain critical to ensuring positive patient outcomes. Procedural task trainers and simulation-based complex scenarios provide safe and effective learning environments for young practitioners to build confidence and develop such skills. This article reviews the principles of managing epistaxis and postoperative neck hematoma geared toward early learners by providing a road map for educators to use in simulation-based curriculums.
Raja Junankar, Economics of Immigration: Immigration and the Australian Economy

Abstract. The Economics of Immigration: Immigration and the Australian Economy is a compilation of academic articles written by P.N. Junankar and coauthors on the topic of immigration in Australia. From the effects of immigration on Australia’s economy to the Australian labor market environment immigrants encounter, this book addresses important questions regarding immigration that are relevant to any economy. Keywords. Australia, International migration, International economics. JEL. F00, F22, J15.
A rare presentation of acute heart failure secondary to aggressive uterine leiomyosarcoma metastatic to the myocardium initially diagnosed as hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy.

Uterine sarcoma is the cause of 3–9% of all uterine malignant neoplasms and has a 2-fold higher incidence in black women as compared to white women. Cellular atypia and abundant mitoses (≥10 per 10 high power fields) as seen in this patient are associated with an increased risk for metastases. Metastases to the heart are infrequently reported with a handful of cases in the literature. We present a case of a 51-year-old woman with aggressively metastatic uterine leiomyosarcoma causing acute heart failure 4 months after initial presentation.
Short- and long-term effects of 56 Fe irradiation on cognition and hippocampal DNA methylation and gene expression

Astronauts are exposed to 56Fe ions that may pose a significant health hazard during and following prolonged missions in deep space. We showed previously that object recognition requiring the hippocampus, a structure critical for cognitive function, is affected in 2-month-old mice irradiated with 56Fe ions. Here we examined object recognition in 6-month-old mice irradiated with 56Fe ions, a biological age more relevant to the typical ages of astronauts. Moreover, because the mechanisms mediating the detrimental effects of 56Fe ions on hippocampal function are unclear, we examined changes in hippocampal networks involved in synaptic plasticity and memory, gene expression, and epigenetic changes in cytosine methylation (5mC) and hydroxymethylation (5hmC) that could accompany changes in gene expression. We assessed the effects of whole body 56Fe ion irradiation at early (2 weeks) and late (20 weeks) time points on hippocampus-dependent memory and hippocampal network stability, and whether these effects are associated with epigenetic changes in hippocampal DNA methylation (both 5mC and 5hmC) and gene expression. At the two-week time point, object recognition and network stability were impaired following irradiation at the 0.1 and 0.4 Gy dose, but not following irradiation at the 0.2 Gy dose. No impairments in object recognition or network stability were seen at the 20-week time point at any irradiation dose used. Consistent with this pattern, the significance of pathways for gene categories for 5hmC was lower, though not eliminated, at the 20-week time point compared to the 2-week time point. Similarly, significant changes were observed for 5mC gene pathways at the 2-week time point, but no significant gene categories were observed at the 20-week time point. Only the 5hmC changes tracked with gene expression changes. Dose- and time-dependent epigenomic remodeling in the hippocampus following 56Fe ion exposure correlates with behavioral changes.
Church Resistance to Nazism in Norway, 1940–1945. By Arne Hassing. (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2014. Pp. xx, 384. $50.00.)

In the last twenty years, Victoria Barnett, Doris Bergen, Claude R. Foster, Susannah Heschel, Michael Phayer, Kevin Spicer, and others have published books regarding the Protestant and Catholic Kir...
Mandatory Interviews with Older Adults as an Undergraduate Social Work Education Strategy Integrating Generalist Practice Skills and Exposure to Older Adults

Infusion of aging content into the baccalaureate social work curriculum has received increased consideration recently as a lack of student preparation to work with older adults and rising numbers of this population's need has come to light. Student resistance to working with this population has been well documented. Learning activities on an undergraduate level must meet multiple curricular goals such as teaching assessment skills across the life span. A qualitative content analysis of student interview assignments highlighted themes related to required exposure to seniors. Emergent themes included student inexperience, use of stereotypes of older adults, fear of aging, increased comfort in discussing sensitive or taboo topics, and self-discovery and realization of competence. Requiring interviews with older adults had positive outcomes for the small student sample studied. Implications for future social work education, research, and practice are discussed.
An Adequate Revolution: Achebe Writes Africa Anew

Achebe’s seminal contribution not only to African, English, and world literature, but also to a generational shift in African and international perceptions of Africa, is tied to his multifaceted use and representation of language. In Things Fall Apart the words of the Igbo characters comprise the vehicle by which Achebe answers two slanders by European writers against Africans: that they are physically savage and verbally undeveloped. The words, moreover, that encourage peace, that stem violence, in the novel are realized through dialogue. Such dialogue not only responds to distorted portrayals of African language and society, but also celebrates the dignity of African people and their cultures.
Potential Toxicity and Underlying Mechanisms Associated with Pulmonary Exposure to Iron Oxide Nanoparticles: Conflicting Literature and Unclear Risk.

Abstract: Fine/micron-sized iron oxide particulates are incidentally released from a number of industrial processes, including iron ore mining, steel processing, welding, and pyrite production. Some research suggests that occupational exposure to these particulates is linked to an increased risk of adverse respiratory outcomes, whereas other studies suggest that iron oxide is biologically benign. Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs), which are less than 100 nm in diameter, have recently surged in use as components of novel drug delivery systems, unique imaging protocols, as environmental catalysts, and for incorporation into thermoplastics. However, the adverse outcomes associated with occupational exposure to IONPs remain relatively unknown. Relevant in vivo studies suggest that pulmonary exposure to IONPs may induce inflammation, pulmonary fibrosis, genotoxicity, and extra-pulmonary effects. This correlates well with in vitro studies that utilize relevant dose, cell type(s), and meaningful end points. A majority of these adverse outcomes are attributed to increased oxidative stress, most likely caused by particle internalization, dissolution, release of free iron ions, and disruption of iron homeostasis. However, because the overall toxicity profile of IONPs is not well understood, it is difficult to set safe exposure limit recommendations that would be adequate for the protection of at-risk workers. This review article will focus on known risks following IONPs exposure supported by human, animal, and cell culture-based studies, the potential challenges intrinsic to IONPs toxicity assessment, and how these may contribute to the poorly characterized IONPs toxicity profile.
PRL‑3 increases the aggressive phenotype of prostate cancer cells in vitro and its expression correlates with high-grade prostate tumors in patients

The increased expression of phosphatase of regenerating liver-3 (PRL‑3) has been shown to be associated with the aggressive and metastatic phenotype of different solid tumors. However, it is not known whether PRL‑3 plays a similar role in the progression of prostate cancer (PCa). In this study, immunoblot analysis of androgen receptor (AR)-positive PCa lines (LNCaP and LNCaP‑SF) revealed the constitutive cytoplasmic expression of PRL‑3, and stimulation with R1881 (AR agonist) rapidly increased the nuclear translocation of PRL‑3. The AR-negative cell lines exhibited negligible PRL‑3 expression, and the ectopic overexpression of PRL‑3 increased both the proliferative and invasive potential of PC3 and DU145 cells. In addition, we measured PRL‑3 protein expression in human prostate tumor sections. A high-density prostate tumor microarray (TMA) was immunostained to assess whether PRL‑3 expression and its subcellular localization (cytoplasmic and nuclear levels) is associated with the Gleason score (GS), Gleason grade (GG) and tumor stage (T-stage). Digital image analysis (DIA) revealed that PRL‑3 expression was significantly higher in the malignant cores, as compared to the non‑malignant areas. Increases in both total and nuclear PRL‑3 levels were also associated with a higher GS and GG. Metastatic tumors (T4‑stage) had lower cytoplasmic, but higher nuclear PRL‑3 levels. Furthermore, the nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio for PRL‑3 in the tumors graded as GS7 could effectively distinguish between indolent (3+4) and aggressive (4+3) disease. Thus, our experiments using PCa lines suggested that PRL‑3 is an AR-regulated gene and its androgen-induced nuclear localization may increase the aggressive behavior of PCa cells. Furthermore, the digital analysis of immunostained tumor sections suggested that PRL‑3 may be an effective biomarker of high-grade PCa, and its nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio may be used to distinguish between indolent vs. aggressive tumors.
A College at the Crossroads: The Case of the College of Business Administration at Abu Dhabi University:

The College of Business Administration at Abu Dhabi University, a private university in the United Arab Emirates, has been experiencing a decline in enrollment for several years. This decline in en...
Associations Between Neighborhood Characteristics, Social Cohesion, and Perceived Sex Partner Risk and Non-Monogamy Among HIV-Seropositive and HIV-Seronegative Women in the Southern U.S.

Neighborhood social and physical factors shape sexual network characteristics in HIV-seronegative adults in the U.S. This multilevel analysis evaluated whether these relationships also exist in a predominantly HIV-seropositive cohort of women. This cross-sectional multilevel analysis included data from 734 women enrolled in the Women’s Interagency HIV Study’s sites in the U.S. South. Census tract-level contextual data captured socioeconomic disadvantage (e.g., tract poverty), number of alcohol outlets, and number of non-profits in the census tracts where women lived; participant-level data, including perceived neighborhood cohesion, were gathered via survey. We used hierarchical generalized linear models to evaluate relationships between tract characteristics and two outcomes: perceived main sex partner risk level (e.g., partner substance use) and perceived main sex partner non-monogamy. We tested whether these relationships varied by women’s HIV status. Greater tract-level socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with greater sex partner risk (OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.06–1.58) among HIV-seropositive women and less partner non-monogamy among HIV-seronegative women (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.51–0.92). Perceived neighborhood trust and cohesion was associated with lower partner risk (OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.69–1.00) for HIV-seropositive and HIV-seronegative women. The tract-level number of alcohol outlets and non-profits were not associated with partner risk characteristics. Neighborhood characteristics are associated with perceived sex partner risk and non-monogamy among women in the South; these relationships vary by HIV status. Future studies should examine causal relationships and explore the pathways through which neighborhoods influence partner selection and risk characteristics.
A structural model exploring gender differences in perceived constraints to competition climbing

Competition climbing has recently been thrust into the spotlight with its integration into the Olympics starting in 2020. A growing body of research has focused on the leisure experience of competi...
Measurement of the impact of identical twin voices on automatic speaker recognition

Abstract Most speaker recognition systems operate on low-level speech features that are dependent on the physical anatomy of the speaker as well as, to a lesser extent, learned habits of speaking. It is reasonable to believe that identical twins could lessen the discriminatory power of these systems. However, accurate measurements of these individuals’ impact have not been possible due to experiments using limited, available databases of twins. In this paper, verification trials using read and conversational speech samples collected from 167 pairs of identical twins resulted in consistently lower verification accuracies based on comparisons of the equal error rate (EER) from a similarly collected non-twins database. An EER of 2.012% and twin misidentification rate of 2.4% resulted when test utterances consisted of read speech. Verification accuracy of identical twins is lower compared to previous works as a result of the inclusion of more individuals and more diverse speech data.
Quantitative Cone-Beam CT of Bone Mineral Density Using Model-Based Reconstruction

Purpose: We develop and validate a model-based framework for artifact correction and image reconstruction to enable application of Cone-Beam CT (CBCT) in quantitative assessment of bone mineral density (BMD). Compared to conventional quantitative CT, this approach does not require a BMD calibration phantom in the field-of-view during an object scan. Methods: The quantitative CBCT (qCBCT) imaging framework combined fast Monte Carlo (MC) scatter estimation, accurate models of detector response, and polyenergetic Poisson likelihood (PolyPL, Elbakri et al 2003). The underlying object model assumed that the tissues were ideal mixtures of water and calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Accuracy and reproducibility of qCBCT was evaluated in benchtop test-retest studies emulating a compact extremity CBCT system (axis-detector distance=56 cm, 90 kVp x-ray beam, ~16 mGy central dose). Various arrangements of Ca inserts (50 – 500 mg/mL) were placed in water cylinders of ~11 cm to ~15 cm diameter and scanned at multiple positions inside the fieldof- view for a total of 20 configurations. In addition, a cadaveric ankle was imaged in five configurations (with and without Ca inserts and water bath). Coefficient of variation (CV) of BMD values across different experimental configurations was used to assess reproducibility under varying imaging conditions. The performance of the model-based qCBCT framework (MC + PolyPL) was compared to FDK with water beam hardening correction and MC scatter correction. Results: The PolyPL framework achieved accuracy of 20 mg/mL or better across all insert densities and experimental configurations. By comparison, the accuracy of the FDK-based BMD estimates deteriorated with higher mineralization, resulting in ~120 mg/mL error for a 500 mg/mL Ca insert. Additionally, the model-based approach mitigated residual streaks that were present in FDK reconstructions. The CV of both methods was ~15% at 50 mg/mL Ca and less than ~8% for higher density inserts, where the PolyPL framework achieved 20-25% lower CV than the FDK-based approach. Conclusion: Accurate and reproducible BMD measurements can be achieved in extremity CBCT, supporting clinical applications in quantitative monitoring of fracture risk, osteoporosis treatment, and early osteoarthritis.
The Effects of Contingent Lullaby Music on Parent-Infant Interaction and Amount of Infant Crying in the First Six Weeks of Life

Abstract Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a live music intervention provided by the mother on full term infants' amount of crying and parent-infant interaction in the first six weeks of life. Design and methods A randomized posttest-only experimental/no-contact control group design was used for this study. A sample of 66 mothers with healthy, newborn infants were recruited. The researcher wrote an original lullaby with each mother in the experimental group and gave instructions as to how to use the lullaby as reinforcement for infant quiet, non-crying behavior. Mother-infant dyads were assessed over a six-week period for infant crying amounts and parent-infant interaction behaviors. Demographic variables, postpartum depression, and value of music were assessed as well to detect associations between variables and groups. Results Results indicated that there were significant differences between groups for mean crying time per week and mother-infant interaction behaviors. Analysis by demographic variables such as mother parity, socioeconomic status, and marital status showed no significant group differences on infant crying or interaction scores. Mothers who used the contingent music intervention were more motivated to sing and valued the use of music with their infants more than mothers in the control group. Conclusions The outcomes of this study demonstrate importance of parental singing for mother-infant bonding. Practice implications Implementing early intervention services, such as music therapy in the postpartum unit, can provide new mothers useful music applications that can enhance mother-infant interaction, especially mothers living in high stress or negative environments.
Intraindividual changes in brain GABA, glutamate, and glutamine during monitored abstinence from alcohol in treatment-naive individuals with alcohol use disorder.

Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1 H-MRS) studies have demonstrated abnormal levels of a variety of neurometabolites in treatment-seeking individuals with moderate-severe alcohol use disorder (AUD) following acute withdrawal. In contrast, few studies have investigated neurochemical changes across early abstinence in less severe, treatment-naive AUD. The present study, which represents the primary report of a research grant from ABMRF/The Alcohol Research Fund, measured dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) GABA, glutamate, and glutamine levels in treatment-naive AUD (n = 23) via three 1 H-MRS scans spaced across a planned week of abstinence from alcohol. In addition to AUD participants, 12 light drinkers completed two scans, separated by 48 hours, to ensure that results in AUD were not produced by between-scan differences other than abstinence from alcohol. 1 H-MRS spectra were acquired in dACC at each scan using 2D J-resolved point-resolved spectroscopy. Linear mixed modeling results demonstrated a significant increase in GABA, but not glutamate or glutamine (Ps = .237-.626), levels between scans 1 and 2 (+8.88%, .041), with no difference between scans 2 and 3 (+1.00%, .836), in AUD but not LD (F = 1.24, .290) participants. Exploratory regression analyses tentatively revealed a number of significant prospective associations between changes in glutamine levels and heavy drinking, craving, and withdrawal symptoms. Most notably, the present study demonstrated return from abnormally low to normal GABA levels in treatment-naive AUD within 3 days of their last drink; the pattern of results was consistent with glutamate and glutamine disturbances being exclusive to relatively more severe AUD.
Channel and filter parallelism for large-scale CNN training

Accelerating large-scale CNN training is needed to keep training times reasonable as datasets grow larger and models become more complex. Existing frameworks primarily scale using data-parallelism, but this is limited by the mini-batch size, which cannot grow arbitrarily. We introduce three algorithms that partition channel or filter data to exploit parallelism beyond the sample dimension. Further, they partition the parameters of convolutional layers, replacing global all reduces with segmented allreduces---smaller, concurrent allreduces among disjoint processor sets. These algorithms enable strong scaling, reduced communication overhead, and reduced memory pressure, enabling training of very wide CNNs. We demonstrate improved strong and weak scaling, including up to 4.1x reductions in training time for residual networks and 4x reductions in allreduce overhead. We also show that wider models provide improved accuracy on ImageNet. We study the current limitations of our algorithms and provide a direction for future optimizations of large-scale deep learning frameworks.
Dislocation cross-slip in precipitation hardened Mg–Nd alloys

Abstract An integrated experimental characterization and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation approach was used to explore the dislocation-precipitate interactions in a dilute Magnesium–Neodymium (Mg–Nd) precipitation hardened alloy. In situ indentation in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) and postmortem TEM characterization of deformed samples and MD simulations revealed that basal type dislocations interacted differently with β1 (Mg3Nd) and β‴ (Mg3-7Nd) precipitates. For β‴ precipitates, the basal dislocations directly shear the precipitates. For β1 precipitates, such shearing becomes much more difficult because it requires the creation of antiphase boundaries in the ordered lattice of β1 precipitates. Screw dislocations were observed to cross-slip from basal to the prismatic plane, which could be parallel to the broad facet of β1 precipitates. It is postulated that double cross-slip (basal to prismatic to basal) via the Hirsch mechanism may enable screw dislocations to overcome the β1 precipitates. MD simulations also revealed that an edge dislocation is unable to bypass the precipitate via the generation of screw dislocation segments plus the double cross-slip mechanism. The edge dislocation can bow around the precipitate, and the segment that adopts a screw character can cross-slip to the prismatic plane but with increasing applied stress, cross-slips back to the original basal plane to continue glide via precipitate shearing. The implication of glide dislocation - β1-precipitate interaction mechanisms on the strength and ductility of β1 precipitate dominant microstructures is discussed.
Transition From an Acute Care Ventilator to a Home Ventilator in Children Post-Protocol Initiation

Background: Transitioning to a home ventilator can present many challenges and may not always be accomplished initially. A previous study of changing to a home ventilator for long term ventilation revealed several attempts in some cases before successful transition was achieved.1 As a result, a protocol was developed to standardize the process for trialing the home ventilator in efforts to reduce the number of failed transitions which may impact length of stay (LOS). The protocol includes a readiness assessment, stepwise approach for transition to the home ventilator and criteria for unsuccessful transition and return to the acute care ventilator. Methods: This study was approved by the local Institutional Review Board. A retrospective analysis was conducted to evaluate transition from an acute care to a home ventilator following protocol initiation. Medical records were reviewed for children with a tracheostomy requiring ventilation who were changed to a home ventilator after the protocol was implemented. Age, diagnosis, ventilator settings, LOS and number of transition attempts to a home ventilator were reviewed. Results: A total of 27 ventilator dependent patients with chronic respiratory failure were included in the study. The mean age at the time of the initial home ventilator trial was 14 months. The majority, 78%, were preterm infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia. Following initiation of the protocol, 52% were successful on the first attempt to transition to a home care ventilator while 33% required a second attempt. In 15%, a third or fourth trial was necessary before transition was successful. The maximum number of attempts was 4 and the mean was 1.8. Mean LOS was 9.1 months. Prior to the protocol, the mean number of attempts was 3.8, 18% were successful on the first trial with a home ventilator, and the mean LOS was 14.5 months.1 Conclusions: Children requiring long-term ventilation have complex medical needs. Many factors including disease process and social determinants can impact the transition from an acute care to a home ventilator. A protocol to establish readiness to transition and standardize the approach to transition from an acute care to a home ventilator may assist in decreasing the number of attempts to change devices and reduce LOS. 1. Lowe G, Cockerham J, Willis R, Carroll J, Agarwal, A. Transitioning Chronically Ventilated Pediatric Subjects from the Servo-i to a Home Care Ventilator. Respir Care 2015;60(10):OF40.
Outdoor performance of a tandem InGaP/Si photovoltaic luminescent solar concentrator

Abstract We report the design, fabrication and outdoor characterization of a tandem luminescent solar concentrator/Si multi-junction photovoltaic module. Our tandem LSC/Si device consists of an InGaP LSC functioning as a top cell and a passivated contact Si bottom cell. The LSC comprises of an InGaP microcell array coupled to a polymer waveguide, loaded with CdSe/CdS core-shell quantum dot luminophores. The light trapping efficiency of the LSC waveguide is enhanced by encapsulation with photoluminescence trapping mirrors consisting of dielectric multilayer thin films. We demonstrate the performance of the LSC/Si device through a series of outdoor tests under various irradiance conditions conducted at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. We report the first outdoor testing data of an LSC/Si tandem module, displaying maintained performance across varied diffusivity conditions for the LSC component. Finally, we model the tandem module performance using a ray optic simulation-based multiphysics model and forecast a pathway for high efficiency tandem LSC/Si module performance.
Diffusion-Based Smoothers for Spatial Filtering of Gridded Geophysical Data

We describe a new way to apply a spatial filter to gridded data from models or observations, focusing on low-pass filters. The new method is analogous to smoothing via diffusion, and its implementa...
Strategic Emphasis and a Firm’s Choice of Governance Mode: The Moderating Role of Internal Leadership & External Monitoring

A firm’s strategic emphasis, i.e., its relative focus on value appropriation vs. value creation, provides insights on how the firm expects to position itself for future growth. In addition to organizing activities in-house, firms also rely on external modes of governance such as alliances, joint ventures (ventures), and acquisitions in their pursuit of growth. In this paper, the authors investigate how strategic emphasis would influence a firm’s choice of governance mode and find that firms with a greater emphasis on value appropriation (relative to value creation) are likely to prefer acquisitions, followed by ventures and then alliances. The authors further examine the moderating role of internal leadership (marketing presence in the TMT and CEO marketing background) and external monitoring (analyst coverage and institutional investors). The findings shed light on how strategic emphasis impacts governance of interfirm relationships.
Prevalence and risk factors of bronchiectasis in rheumatoid arthritis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract Objectives We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis for the prevalence and risk factors of rheumatoid arthritis-related bronchiectasis (RA-BR). Methods We queried PubMed and EMBASE databases to identify published literature related to prevalence and risk factors for RA-BR among patients with RA. Data extraction included study design, country, year, method of RA-BR detection, RA characteristics, numerator of RA-BR cases and denominator of patients with RA, and associations with RA-BR presence. We performed a meta-analysis using random or fixed effects models to estimate the prevalence of RA-BR among RA. Results Out of a total of 253 studies, we identified 41 total studies that reported on prevalence (n = 34), risk factors (n = 5), or both (n = 2). The included studies had heterogeneous methods to identify RA-BR. Among the 36 studies reporting prevalence, 608 RA-BR cases were identified from a total of 8569 patients with RA. In the meta-analysis, the pooled overall prevalence of RA-BR among RA was 18.7% (95%CI 13.7–24.3%) using random effects and 3.8% (95%CI 3.3–4.2%) using fixed effects. Among studies that used high-resolution chest computed tomography (HRCT) imaging, the prevalence of RA-BR was 22.6% (95%CI 16.8–29.0%) using random effects. When only considering retrospective studies (n = 12), the pooled prevalence of RA-BR among RA was 15.5% (95%CI 7.5–25.5%); among prospective studies (n = 24), the pooled prevalence was 20.7% (95% CI 14.7–27.4%). Risk factors for RA-BR included older age, longer RA duration, genetics (CFTR and HLA), and undetectable circulating mannose binding lectin (MBL) as a biomarker. Conclusion In this systematic review and meta-analysis, the prevalence of RA-BR was nearly 20% among studies with HRCT imaging, suggesting that bronchiectasis may be a common extra-articular feature of RA. Relatively few factors have been associated with RA-BR. Future studies should standardize methods to identify RA-BR cases and investigate the natural history and clinical course given the relatively high prevalence among RA.
New evidence prompts rethinking the clinical management of community acquired pneumonia in patients admitted to general medical services.

A critical appraisal and clinical application of peptide as prognostic indicators in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Effects of Gossypol on the Reproductive System of Male Rats

Gossypol acetic acid administered orally at 30 mg/kg body weight/day for five weeks inhibited the fertility of male rats without an apparent loss of libido. Sperm in the ejaculate were rendered immotile and were reduced in number. Serum testosterone and LH were reduced significantly from pretreatment values, whereas FSH values were not altered. Leydig cells from treated animals produced less testosterone than did control Leydig cells when incubated with LH. Furthermore, testosterone production by normal Leydig cells that were incubated with LH and gossypol was inversely related to gossypol concentration. Ultrastructural examination of epididymal spermatozoa revealed degeneration in the tail region, particularly in the mitochondrial sheath of the middle piece. Within the seminiferous epithelium, late spermatids displayed a similar degeneration, although not as severe. After a six-week recovery period, normal fertility was re-established and normal litters were produced. Sperm motility and number, serum testosterone and LH levels, and sperm structure all returned to normal.
Sodium-potassium-activated adenosine triphosphatase of Electrophorus electric organ. II. Effects of N-ethylmaleimide and other sulfhydryl reagents.

Abstract The sulfhydryl reagents, N-ethylmaleimide (NEM), N-butylmaleimide, p-chloromercuribenzoate, and p-chloromercuriphenylsulfonate, inhibit the Na+-K+-ATPase and Mg++-activated ATP-ADP transphosphorylation catalyzed by electric organ microsomes of Electrophorus. The first two reagents also cause the appearance of a sodium-dependent ATP-ADP transphosphorylation in the presence of 3 mm MgCl2. The sodium-dependent ATP-ADP transphosphorylation catalyzed by the NEM-treated microsomes has several features in common with the sodium-dependent ATP-ADP transphosphorylation catalyzed by the native microsomes (0.3 mm MgCl2). Both reactions specifically require adenosine nucleotides, sodium ions, and a divalent cation (preferably Mg++); both are inhibited by Ca++, ouabain, and K+, but not by oligomycin. With respect to the transphosphorylation, sodium increases the affinity of the microsomes for Mg++, while NEM treatment reduces it. The effects of NEM lend support to a multistep reaction scheme for the Na+-K+-ATPase and indicate that Na+ is required for the initial phosphorylation.