cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Radiation-associated cataracts among interventional physicians and support staff

Abstract The lens is especially sensitive to ionization from radiation which alters the protein in its organized collagen fibers, making them opaque. Professional and ancillary personnel are at risk for developing radiation-induced cataracts since the radiation can have an accumulative effect. Appropriate detection devices, protective clothing, and shields in the exam area as well as safe techniques can reduce, if not eliminate this danger.
ID: 101: ROTHIA MUCILAGINOSA BACTEREMIA: 8 YEAR REVIEW OF A SINGLE INSTITUTION EXPERIENCE

Background Rothia spp. are gram positive bacteria which are known to cause infections in the immune compromised host. Literature is limited on the epidemiology and clinical significance of Rothia bacteremia. Methods We reviewed medical records of all patients with blood cultures positive from 2006–2014. Descriptive analysis was performed as well as comparative analysis of neutropenic patients (absolute neutrophil count ≤1000 /μL) at the time of bacteremia with non-neutropenic patients at the time of bacteremia. Fische9s exact tests were used for comparisons of proportions and medians, respectively, with p-values Results 29 patients with Rothia bacteremia were identified. Median age was 58 years (range 27–73), with no significant gender difference (p=0.94). Charlson co-morbidity score of 4 or greater was found in 20 (69%) of patients; 20 (69%) patients had a hematologic malignancy or bone marrow transplant. While there were 14 deaths, only 1 was possibly attributed to Rothia infection. Neutropenia was observed in 21(72%) patients at the time of bacteremia. Neutropenic patients were less likely than non-neutropenic patients to have polymicrobial infection (24% vs. 63%, p=0.083); and were also more likely to have multiple positive blood cultures (76% vs. 0%; p value=0.0003). There was no difference between the two groups in need for ICU care, mortality or attributable mortality. Statistically significant difference was seen for steroid use (81% vs. 13%, p=0.0014), and fluroquinolone use (86% vs.13% p= Conclusions Rothia bacteremia is seen in patients with medical co-morbidities, predominantly in patients with leukemia. A significant association was seen with prior use of steroid and fluroquinolone prophylaxis in neutropenic patients who developed Rothia bacteremia. Rothia bacteremia in neutropenic hosts was mostly monomicrobial and less likely thought to be a contaminant.
Neotropical Anobiidae: New Genera and Species, and Taxonomic Notes (Coleoptera)

The new genera CALYTHECA (with the two new species C. convexa , and C. elongata ), HADROTINUS (with the new species H. striatus ), and TRICHOBIOPSIS (with the new species T. excavata ) are described and illustrated. Xyletinus wagneri Pic is transferred to Hadrotinus; Eupactus distinctipennis Pic is transferred to Tricorynus (NEW COMBINATION) and redescribed; and Calymmaderus donkieri (Pic) is redescribed.
Chronic granulomatous disease of childhood. Probable diffuse gastric involvement.

Diffuse gastric infiltration in a child with CGD is described as a cause for gastric outlet obstruction.
Discounting: A Review of the Basic Economics

Environmental economics provides a good entry point to a discussion of discounting, as intertemporal issues play a particularly central role: the time scale of many environmental processes is radically longer than conventional economic time scales. Global warming and loss of biodiversity provide perfect illustrations. Global warming may have its main impacts on human societies one hundred or more years hence, and likewise the costs of loss of species diversity in terms of simplification of ecosystems and loss of genetic variability are likely to be felt most strongly by generations quite remote from us. This is not to say that there will be no short-run impacts from these phenomena. There will be, but they are likely to be dwarfed by consequences that will become apparent only over very long periods. So to assess and evaluate properly these changes we need to look relatively far into the future—possibly a century at least. More generally, environmental assets such as watersheds, species diversity, rangelands, marine ecosystems, and climate regimes are assets that are in principle very longlived. They have functioned as they do today for millennia, and if well managed will continue to do so equally far into the future. In this, they are rather different from the assets that humans construct and that we are used to valuing. These typically have life spans measured in years or decades. So to appreciate fully the contributions that environmental assets can make to human welfare we need a very long view. This does not sit easily with the economist’s standard practice of discounting the future at a real rate of at least 3 percent or 4 percent.
Mutagenesis techniques in plant tissue cultures.

Mutant plant cell cultures can be useful in the study of the physiology and genetics of plants, as well for the improvement of crops. For recent reviews of mutant cell selection from tissue cultures, the reader is referred to Duncan and Widholm (1), Bright et al. (2), Flick (3), and Chapters 39 - 42 , in this vol. Often these mutants have been obtained through selection procedures exploiting spontaneous mutations. However, the use of mutagens in culture systems has been shown to result in higher frequencies of mutant cells. Although mutagens can increase the frequency of the desired mutation in a population of cells, the frequency of undesirable mutations would also be increased. These undesirable mutations can make the produced material unusable because of properties such as slow growth, lack of plant regeneration, and sterility. Thus, one has to weigh the benefits of mutagenesis against the detrimental effects.
Cartesian Operations on Distributed Datasets Using Virtual Partitioning

The Cartesian product is a technique used in a wide range of algorithms. Performing a Cartesian product on a distributed dataset poses a variety of challenges. The process requires enormous amounts of data to be shuffled between nodes, and the computation effectively squares the size of the input data. As a result, for large scale analyses, this sort of pairwise operation is likely to be the bottleneck of any computational pipeline. Existing approaches provide solutions, however, quickly incur large delays as the size of the input dataset increases. In this paper, we introduce the Cartesian Scheduler, a generalized mechanism that allows Cartesian products to be performed efficiently in big data ecosystems such as an Apache Spark cluster. We present a few experiments to highlight the efficiency and flexibility of our approach and compare our proposed method with the current state-of-the-art Cartesian operations.
Exploring the cross-sectional association between transit-oriented development zoning and active travel and transit usage in the United States, 2010-2014

Background: In response to traditional zoning codes that contribute to car-dependent, sprawling, and disconnected neighborhoods, communities are reforming their land use laws to create pedestrian-friendly areas that promote physical activity. One such reform is the adoption of transit-oriented developments or districts (TODs). TODs are higher-density, compact, mixed use areas located around transit stops that are designed to encourage walking. Purpose: To identify the characteristics of communities that have adopted TODs in their land use laws and examine if communities that have included TODs in their zoning codes are more likely to have adults that commute by any form of active transportation (i.e., walking, biking, or public transportation) or by using public transportation specifically. Methods: Zoning codes effective as of 2010 were obtained for a purposeful sample of the largest 3,914 municipal jurisdictions located in 473 of the most populous US counties and consolidated cities within 48 states and the District of Columbia. They were evaluated to determine whether they included TOD districts or regulations using a coding tool developed by the study team. Descriptive statistics together with t-tests and Pearson’s chi-squared independence test were used to compare characteristics of jurisdictions with and without TOD zoning. Multivariate linear regressions were used to compute the adjusted association between TOD zoning and taking public or active transportation to work. Results: Jurisdictions with TOD zoning were located more in the South and West than non-TOD jurisdictions and were more populous, higher income, more racially diverse, and younger. Jurisdictions with TOD zoning had significantly higher percentages of occupied housing with no vehicle than those without TOD zoning. TOD zoning was associated with significantly higher rates of public transportation to work (β=2.10, 95% CI=0.88, 3.32) and active transportation to work (β=2.48, 95% CI=1.03, 3.94). Conclusions: Communities that have or are considering developing public transit infrastructure may want to modify their zoning codes to include TODs to promote physical activity and active travel to work.
Potential Impacts of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles on Locational Marginal Prices

This paper analyzes the potential impacts of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) on locational marginal prices (LMPs). PHEVs are the next generation of hybrid electric vehicles with batteries that can be recharged by plugging into a standard electric power outlet. On the one hand, PHEVs produce less emissions, have higher mileage, and reduce dependency on foreign supplies of oil. On the other hand, economic and technical obstacles still exist, and potential impacts on both transportation and electric power systems need to be studied. Simulation results from a PJM five-bus test example show that, if the electricity load increases by 10% due to recharging PHEVs, the load-weighted mean and standard deviation of LMPs would increase by more than 26% and 62%, respectively. The effects of battery stations that provide hot-swap services are also studied. If the load increases by 10%, by taking advantage of the spatial price differences and shipping batteries between different locations, the battery stations could recharge the batteries at 73% of what it would cost for PHEV drivers to recharge in home garages. At the same time, the mean of LMPs would only increase by about 6% and the standard deviation would even decrease.
Regulation of T-Cell Activation and Differentiation

Enhancers regulate spatiotemporal gene expression and impart cell-specific transcriptional outputs that drive cell identity. Super-enhancers (SEs), also known as stretch-enhancers, are a subset of enhancers especially important for genes associated with cell identity and genetic risk of disease. CD4+ T cells are critical for host defence and autoimmunity. Here we analysed maps of mouse T-cell SEs as a non-biased means of identifying key regulatory nodes involved in cell specification. We found that cytokines and cytokine receptors were the dominant class of genes exhibiting SE architecture in T cells. Nonetheless, the locus encoding Bach2, a key negative regulator of effector differentiation, emerged as the most prominent T-cell SE, revealing a network in which SE-associated genes critical for T-cell biology are repressed by BACH2. Disease-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms for immune-mediated disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, were highly enriched for T-cell SEs versus typical enhancers or SEs in other cell lineages. Intriguingly, treatment of T cells with the Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor tofacitinib disproportionately altered the expression of rheumatoid arthritis risk genes with SE structures. Together, these results indicate that genes with SE architecture in T cells encompass a variety of cytokines and cytokine receptors but are controlled by a 9guardian9 transcription factor, itself endowed with an SE. Thus, enumeration of SEs allows the unbiased determination of key regulatory nodes in T cells, which are preferentially modulated by pharmacological intervention. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Fourier ptychography (FP): a computational framework for high-resolution, high-throughput imaging

Fourier ptychography is recently developed computational approach for high-resolution, high-throughput imaging. In this talk, we will report our recent developments of the FP approach for gigapixel microscopy, phase imaging, 3D imaging, spectrum-multiplexing, and super-resolution imaging.
Like No Other Place: Albuquerque’s Archaeological Odyssey

Few cities in the Western Hemisphere have as long and varied a culture history as that found in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sites of every major cultural period covering a 12,000-year span can be found within a 30-min drive from the city’s downtown, from PaleoIndian campsites to pueblo villages, and thousands of petroglyphs which all reflect pre-European occupation. The 1540–1542 expedition of Francisco Vazquez de Coronado was the first European contact in the western USA. Many important colonial and historic period sites are found in the area as well. Community efforts to preserve this extraordinary cultural record date back to the 1960s. Open space land acquisitions in the 1970s specifically identified archaeological site protection as a key factor in evaluating areas for purchase. Despite these efforts, early attempts to pass a city archaeological ordinance in the early 1980s did not come to fruition until 2007. In the absence of specific local ordinances, planners and community preservationists resorted to passing multiple land-use plans and encouraging federal involvement. Open space studies, funding, and acquisition ensured that other key elements of the cultural landscape were preserved, culminating in the establishment of Petroglyph National Monument in 1990. The overall result in Albuquerque is a large-scale land base with many sites and associated landscapes that preserves significant time periods, places, and diverse multicultural traditional community assets.
Emotion and Imitation: The Jesus Figure in Erasmus’s Gospel Paraphrases

The Jesus figure poses a challenge for Erasmus in his Paraphrases on the New Testament (1517–1524): how to develop a character whose eschatological foreknowledge prevents him from playing a human, participatory role in the gospel narrative? Erasmus partly compensates this lack of agency with rhetorical accommodatio, emphasizing the adaptive gradualness by which Jesus teaches the exegetical meaning of events and miracles to other biblical characters. Yet in doing so, Erasmus instrumentalizes emotion well beyond oratorical movere, allowing us to re-appreciate Jesus as a literary character. After a brief analysis of the Disputatiuncula de taedio, pavore, tristicia Iesu (1503), which evinces Erasmus’s understanding of the role of emotions in the scriptural Jesus, my essay focuses on the affective interactions between Jesus and his disciples in various episodes from the gospel paraphrases. I argue that Erasmus’s paraphrastic text grants a key role to the emotions in the transmission of faith and gospel wisdom ...
The effects of volume versus intensity of long-term voluntary exercise on physiology and behavior in C57/Bl6 mice.

Abstract Cardiovascular exercise (CVE) is associated with healthy aging and reduced risk of disease in humans, with similar benefits seen in animals. Most rodent studies, however, have used shorter intervention periods of a few weeks to a few months, begging questions as to the effects of longer-term, or even life-long, exercise. Additionally, most animal studies have utilized a single exercise treatment group – usually unlimited running wheel access – resulting in large volumes of exercise that are not clinically relevant. It is therefore incumbent to determine the physiological and cognitive/behavioral effects of a range of exercise intensities and volumes over a long-term period that model a lifelong commitment to CVE. In the current study, C57/Bl6 mice remained sedentary or were allowed either 1, 3, or 12 h of access to a running wheel per day, 5 days/weeks, beginning at 3.5–4 months of age. Following an eight-month intervention period, animals underwent a battery of behavioral testing, then euthanized and blood and tissue were collected. Longer access to a running wheel resulted in greater volume and higher running speed, but more breaks in running. All exercise groups showed similarly reduced body weight, increased muscle mass, improved motor function on the rotarod, and reduced anxiety in the open field. While all exercise groups showed increased food intake, this was greatest in the 12 h group but did not differ between 1 h and 3 h mice. While exercise dose-dependently increased working memory performance in the y-maze, the 1 h and 12 h groups showed the largest changes in the mass of many organs, as well as alterations in several behaviors including social interaction, novel object recognition, and Barnes maze performance. These findings suggest that long-term exercise has widespread effects on physiology, behavior, and cognition, which vary by “dose” and measure, and that even relatively small amounts of daily exercise can provide benefits.
Microfluidic Droplet Manipulations and Their Applications

“Droplet microfluidics” enables the manipulation of discrete fluid packets in the form of microdroplets that provide numerous benefits for conducting biological and chemical assays. Among these benefits are a large reduction in the volume of reagent required for assays, the size of sample required, and the size of the equipment itself. Such technology also enhances the speed of biological and chemical assays by reducing the volumes over which processes such as heating, diffusion, and convective mixing occur. Once the droplets are generated, carefully designed droplet operations allow for the multiplexing of a large number of droplets to enable large-scale complex biological and chemical assays. In this chapter, four major unit operations in droplets are discussed: droplet fusion, droplet fission, mixing in droplets, and droplet sorting. Combined, these operations allow for much complexity in executing chemical reactions and biological assays at the microscale. A broad overview of potential applications for such technology is provided throughout. While much research effort has been focused on the development of these individual devices, far fewer attempts to integrate these components have been undertaken. A review of many microfluidic unit operation devices is provided here, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each approach for various applications.
Optimal interpretative strategy for preoperative parathyroid scintigraphy in the setting of multigland disease

558 Objectives To establish the optimal scintigraphic imaging protocol for preoperative localization of multigland disease (MGD). Methods We studied 56 patients with surgically proven MGD, who underwent preoperative parathyroid scintigraphy. All imaging examinations were reviewed without the knowledge of the final diagnosis or other imaging and laboratory test results. All patients underwent parathyroid scintigraphy utilizing the same I-123/Tc-99m sestamibi (MIBI) protocol. The planar images were performed with pinhole collimation in anterior and bilateral anterior oblique projections. A retrospective evaluation was performed of the individual components of the examination, resulting in seven imaging strategies: Early MIBI (ES), delayed MIBI (DS), early and delayed MIBI (EDS), I-123/early MIBI subtraction (SUBT), all planar images (AP), SPECT, and all images (ALL). Abnormailities were graded on a 5-point scale (0=definitely normal to 4=definitely abnormal) for each of the four expected parathyroid gland locations. Imaging results were correlated with operative and surgical pathology findings. ROC curves were generated for each reader and each imaging strategy, and sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and accuracy for each imaging strategy were calculated. Results 159 parathyroid lesions were removed from 56 patients. The accuracy of ALL imaging for correct localization of the abnormal parathyroid glands was 63%, 63%, 61%, and 61% for the four readers. For all four readers, the accuracy of ES, DS, EDS, SUBT, SPECT and AP imaging in diagnosing the correct location of the abnormal parathyroid gland was not statistically different from ALL. Conclusions Reviewing ES, DS, EDS, SUBT, SPECT and AP images is as accurate as ALL images for localizing abnormal parathyroid glands in MGD. Scintigraphic strategies optimal for preoperative localization of single-gland disease may be redundant and unnecessary in patients with a high pretest likelihood of MGD
Introduction to Preschool Issues in Autism

This volume in the Plenum series, Current Issues in Autism, addresses the manifestations and treatment of autism and related disorders of communication and behavior in infants, toddlers, and preschool children with autism. As such, it has much in common with previous volumes while reflecting changes both in our understanding of autism and in society that make a focus on young children particularly compelling.
Virtues and Their Vices

I: THE CARDINAL VIRTUES II: THE CAPITAL VICES AND CORRECTIVE VIRTUES III: INTELLECTUAL VIRTUES IV: THE THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES V: VIRTUE ACROSS THE DISCIPLINES
A Review of Diagnosis and Service Disparities Among Children With Autism From Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups in the United States

Abstract As rates of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United States have continued to rise, there is evidence of racial and ethnic disparities in ASD prevalence and services access. Compared to White children, children from racial and ethnic minority groups are less likely to be diagnosed with ASD and more likely to be mis-diagnosed or diagnosed later; and once diagnosed, they receive fewer ASD services. In this article, we review current knowledge about ASD disparities, including the complex and multifaceted causes. We highlight areas where further research is needed. Finally, we review promising practices to address ASD disparities, arguing that efforts to reduce disparities are needed at multiple levels such as parent education, widespread adoption of screening in healthcare and community settings, and effective interventions developed for community and school settings.
Racial Socialization Practices Among White American Parents: Relations to Racial Attitudes, Racial Identity, and School Diversity:

This study examines racial socialization practices among White American parents (N = 154) of children aged 8 to 12 years, using both quantitative and qualitative measures, as well as the relations ...
A moment-based polarimetric radar forward operator for rain microphysics

AbstractThere is growing interest in combining microphysical models and polarimetric radar observations to improve our understanding of storms and precipitation. Mapping model-predicted variables i...
Should I Cast an Ill-Informed Ballot? Examining the Contours of the Normative Obligation to Vote:

Proparticipatory norms play a central role in driving turnout. However, a broad norm that people are supposed to vote cannot explain why some people fail to participate or why rates of participatio...
Has the Fed's Expansion of Capital Only Driven Speculation? And Are We Really in a Asset-Driven Recession?

The current economic condition of the world economies presents an unusual number of aspects. While inflation is low as is unemployment, wage stagnation and wild increases in asset prices, especially equities, are incongruent. Yet central banks have massively increased liquidity and this has largely ended up in private banks or speculation, while consumer spending is stagnant, store closings at record highs, off-shoring of cash by major corporations is rampant and reinvestment unusually low. The possibility of a new form of recession presents itself.
The Mammalian Parasphenoid: Its Occurrence in Marsupials

In non-mammalian amniotes, the parasphenoid is a midline dermal element with a narrow rostral portion, the cultriform process, linked to the interorbital septum and an expanded distal portion, the alae or wings, forming part of the ventral skull base. In mammals, the parasphenoid has not been found in extant monotremes and only a handful of reports of a reduced parasphenoid (a remnant of the cultriform process) have been made for extant marsupials and placentals. Most reports are in serially-sectioned perinatal specimens where the contrast between the intramembranous origin of the parasphenoid and the overlying endochondral basisphenoid facilitates delimiting the different elements forming the skull base. The only report of a parasphenoid remnant in adult marsupials is in the white-eared opossum, Didelphis albiventris, and it was published more than 100 years ago. Here, we report the results of a survey of 576 specimens of Didelphidae and 115 other Marsupialia in the extant collections of the Section of Mammals, Carnegie Museum of Natural History. We observed what we interpret as a parasphenoid remnant in some juveniles and adults from ten of the 27 didelphid species studied: Didelphis albiventris, Didelphis marsupialis, Didelphis virginiana, Marmosa murina, Monodelphis arlindoi, Monodelphis domestica, Philander opossum, Thylamys elegans, Thylamys pusilla, and Thylamys venustus. This element was variable in its presence within the collection, as well as in its size, form, and position. In our largest specific sample, the Virginia opossum, Didelphis virginiana, a parasphenoid was present in 55% of 238 specimens. It is uncertain if the variable occurrence reflects a true absence of the parasphenoid or its loss during specimen preparation. Outside of Didelphidae, we noted a substantial parasphenoid in the microbiothere Dromiciops gliroides, contributing to a midline septum that partially divides the nasopharynx into two channels, and a probable small one in the macropodid Thylogale sp.In extinct mammals and non-mammalian cynodonts, a midline mesocranial ridge interpreted by prior authors as composed of or including a parasphenoid has a wide distribution, supporting the presence of this structure as primitive for Mammalia. It is suggested here that the Miocene platypus Obdurodon has a well-developed parasphenoid further supporting the presence of a parasphenoid as a plesiomorphic feature for Mammalia that is independently lost in some therians and apparently in extant monotremes.
Lipidomic and transcriptomic analysis of western diet-induced nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in female Ldlr -/- mice.

Background Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease worldwide, particularly in obese and type 2 diabetic individuals. NAFLD ranges in severity from benign steatosis to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH); and NASH can progress to cirrhosis, primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and liver failure. As such, NAFLD has emerged as a major public health concern. Herein, we used a lipidomic and transcriptomic approach to identify lipid markers associated with western diet (WD) induced NASH in female mice. Methods Female mice (low-density lipoprotein receptor null (Ldlr -/-) were fed a reference or WD diet for 38 and 46 weeks. Transcriptomic and lipidomic approaches, coupled with statistical analyses, were used to identify associations between major NASH markers and transcriptomic & lipidomic markers. Results The WD induced all major hallmarks of NASH in female Ldlr -/- mice, including steatosis (SFA, MUFA, MUFA-containing di- and triacylglycerols), inflammation (TNFα), oxidative stress (Ncf2), and fibrosis (Col1A). The WD also increased transcripts associated with membrane remodeling (LpCat), apoptosis & autophagy (Casp1, CtsS), hedgehog (Taz) & notch signaling (Hey1), epithelial-mesenchymal transition (S1004A) and cancer (Gpc3). WD feeding, however, suppressed the expression of the hedgehog inhibitory protein (Hhip), and enzymes involved in triglyceride catabolism (Tgh/Ces3, Ces1g), as well as the hepatic abundance of C18-22 PUFA-containing phosphoglycerolipids (GpCho, GpEtn, GpSer, GpIns). WD feeding also increased hepatic cyclooxygenase (Cox1 & 2) expression and pro-inflammatory ω6 PUFA-derived oxylipins (PGE2), as well as lipid markers of oxidative stress (8-iso-PGF2α). The WD suppressed the hepatic abundance of reparative oxylipins (19, 20-DiHDPA) as well as the expression of enzymes involved in fatty epoxide metabolism (Cyp2C, Ephx). Conclusion WD-induced NASH in female Ldlr -/- mice was characterized by a massive increase in hepatic neutral and membrane lipids containing SFA and MUFA and a loss of C18-22 PUFA-containing membrane lipids. Moreover, the WD increased hepatic pro-inflammatory oxylipins and suppressed the hepatic abundance of reparative oxylipins. Such global changes in the type and abundance of hepatic lipids likely contributes to tissue remodeling and NASH severity.
Airport Accessibility and Navigation Assistance for People with Visual Impairments

People with visual impairments often have to rely on the assistance of sighted guides in airports, which prevents them from having an independent travel experience. In order to learn about their perspectives on current airport accessibility, we conducted two focus groups that discussed their needs and experiences in-depth, as well as the potential role of assistive technologies. We found that independent navigation is a main challenge and severely impacts their overall experience. As a result, we equipped an airport with a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon-based navigation system and performed a real-world study where users navigated routes relevant for their travel experience. We found that despite the challenging environment participants were able to complete their itinerary independently, presenting none to few navigation errors and reasonable timings. This study presents the first systematic evaluation posing BLE technology as a strong approach to increase the independence of visually impaired people in airports.
Sedation and Anesthesia in Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Catheterization: A Prospective Multicenter Experience

Sedation/anesthesia is critical to cardiac catheterization in the pediatric/congenital heart patient. We sought to identify current sedation/anesthesia practices, the serious adverse event rate related to airway, sedation, or anesthesia, and the rate of intra-procedural conversion from procedural sedation to the use of assisted ventilation or an artificial airway. Data from 13,611 patients who underwent catheterization at eight institutions were prospectively collected from 2007 to 2010. Ninety-four (0.69 %) serious sedation/airway-related adverse events occurred; events were more likely to occur in smaller patients (<4 kg, OR 4.4, 95 % CI 2.3–8.2, p < 0.001), patients with non-cardiac comorbidities (OR 1.7, 95 % CI 1.1–26, p < 0.01), and patients with low mixed venous oxygen saturation (OR 2.3, 95 % CI 1.4–3.6, p < 0.001). Nine thousand three hundred and seventy-nine (69 %) patients were initially managed with general endotracheal anesthesia, LMA, or tracheostomy, whereas 4232 (31 %) were managed with procedural sedation without an artificial airway, of which 75 (1.77 %) patients were converted to assisted ventilation/general anesthesia. Young age (<12 months, OR 5.2, 95 % CI 2.3–11.4, p < 0.001), higher-risk procedure (category 4, OR 10.1, 95 % CI 6.5–15.6, p < 0.001), and continuous pressor/inotrope requirement (OR 11.0, 95 % CI 8.6–14.0, p < 0.001) were independently associated with conversion. Cardiac catheterization in pediatric/congenital patients was associated with a low rate of serious sedation/airway-related adverse events. Smaller patients with non-cardiac comorbidities or low mixed venous oxygen saturation may be at higher risk. Patients under 1 year of age, undergoing high-risk procedures, or requiring continuous pressor/inotrope support may be at higher risk of requiring conversion from procedural sedation to assisted ventilation/general anesthesia.
Homeland Violence and Diaspora Insecurity: An Analysis of Israel and American Jewry

Jews and Jewish institutions have suffered the majority of reported religion-motivated hate crimes in the United States for nearly two decades. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in 2014 the 609 reported anti-Semitic incidents made up 59% of all religious bias hate crimes alone. Rates of reported anti-Semitic hate crimes vary considerably over the course of a year. Yet, little scholarly attention has been given to what factors cause reported anti-Semitic hate crimes to fluctuate so substantially in the United States. This paper hypothesizes that violent Israeli military engagements are critical in explaining weekly surges of reported anti-Semitic hate crimes. Utilizing FBI hate crime data from 2001 to 2014 and fixed effects negative binomial regression models, consistent findings underscore that violent Israeli military engagements significantly increase the likelihood of a state reporting anti-Semitic hate crime. Most dramatically, their occurrence increases the likelihood of reported hate crime intimidating individuals or characterized as violent by nearly 35%. This paper underscores that homeland perpetrated violence can directly impact the security of diaspora communities.
Hypercoagulable workup in a community hospital setting: to test or not to test; that is the question

Background: Thrombophilia tests are often ordered unnecessarily and/or inappropriately, with significant impact on healthcare costs, hospital resources, time, and potential harm to the patient. Objective: To identify the incidence of unnecessary and inappropriate thrombophilia testing in a community hospital setting. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed electronic medical records for patients who underwent inpatient thrombophilia testing at The Brooklyn Hospital Center from 1/1/2018 to 12/31/2018. The indications, and details of the tests, and associated costs were recorded. Results: A total of 62 patients were included (mean age 45.8, 67.7% female). In 57/62 (91.9%) patients, tests were ordered in the acute phase of thrombosis. At the time the tests were ordered, 29/62 (46.8%) patients were on anticoagulation. Positive results were found in 21/62 (53.2%) patients, but was repeated in only 1/21 (4.7%) patient. Results for 51/62 (82%) patients were obtained after discharge. The hematology-oncology service was consulted in 5/62 (8.1%) cases and recommended testing in only 1 (1.6%) patient. Only 1 (1.6%) patient had both an appropriate indication and appropriate testing. Costs for the 273 total tests were $26,400. Conclusion: Thrombophilia tests were often ordered inappropriately and unnecessarily. We recommend testing only for patients with inpatient status under recommendation from the hematology-oncology service.
Comparative Anatomy of the Mammalian Corneal Subbasal Nerve Plexus

Purpose The subbasal nerve plexus (SNP) is the densest and most recognizable component of the mammalian corneal innervation; however, the anatomical configuration of the SNP in most animal models remains incompletely described. The purpose of the current study is to describe in detail the SNP architecture in eight different mammals, including several popular animal models used in cornea research. Methods Corneal nerves in mouse, rat, guinea pig, rabbit, dog, macaque, domestic pig, and cow eyes were stained immunohistochemically with antiserum directed against neurotubulin. SNP architecture was documented by digital photomicrography and large-scale reconstructions, that is, corneal nerve maps, using a drawing tube attached to a light microscope. Results Subbasal nerve fibers (SNFs) in mice, rats, guinea pigs, dogs, and macaques radiated centrally from the corneoscleral limbus toward the corneal apex in a whorl-like or spiraling pattern. SNFs in rabbit and bovine corneas swept horizontally across the ocular surface in a temporal-to-nasal direction and converged on the inferonasal limbus without forming a spiral. SNFs in the pig cornea radiated centrifugally in all directions, like a starburst, from a focal point located equidistant between the corneal apex and the superior pole. Conclusions The results of the present study have demonstrated for the first time substantial interspecies differences in the architectural organization of the mammalian SNP. The physiological significance of these different patterns and the mechanisms that regulate SNP pattern formation in the mammalian cornea remain incompletely understood and warrant additional investigation.
‘In Need of Music’: Musical Settings of Elizabeth Bishop

Beginning in 1957, poems of Elizabeth Bishop have been set to music by four Pulitzer Prize-winning composers and a popular Brazilian singer and songwriter. This chapter will discuss the way each of these composers—Ned Rorem, Elliott Carter, John Harbison, Yehudi Wyner, and Luciana Souza—approached her writing. Special emphasis will be given to the two major song cycles (Carter and Harbison), which have been recorded and widely performed.
Reevaluation of Myoglobin for Acute Chest Pain Evaluation

Myoglobin is an early marker of cardiac injury, although positive results occur in the absence of cardiac myonecrosis. We studied data for 537 patients admitted to the emergency department with symptoms suggestive of myocardial injury who underwent testing troponin I (TnI), creatine kinase isoenzyme (CK- and myoglobin at the point of care. Physicians blinded to the myoglobin results. Myoglobin had a sensitivity of 69.7% and a negative predictive value of .4% for the diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) on “first-draw” specimens. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis suggested that myoglobin demonstrated optimal sensitivity for ACS, while TnI had optimal specificity. CK-MB was neither the most specific nor the most sensitive marker. More than 80% the patients with false-positive myoglobin results admitted to the hospital. These data invalidate concerns regarding the putative overtreatment effect of -positive cases owing to myoglobin results. Furthermore, our data suggest that myoglobin is superior to CK-MB as an adjunct to TnI.
The 2018 update of the US National Seismic Hazard Model: Where, why, and how much probabilistic ground motion maps changed

The 2018 US Geological Survey National Seismic Hazard Model (NSHM) incorporates new data and updated science to improve the underlying earthquake and ground motion forecasts for the conterminous Un...
Securing Industrial Control Systems Using Physical Device Fingerprinting

The advent of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) has introduced new connectivity modalities, communication protocols, and optimized architectures to coordinate Things on a network. BACnet MS/TP is a protocol that has the potential to deliver a reliable IoT back-end for industrial systems. However, conventional security threats can severely affect trust between the nodes in the network, leading to critical infrastructure failures. Hence, we analyze the opportunities and challenges for hardware solutions in securing BACnet controllers in this work. First, we look into the security threats and develop practical attack models. Then, we demonstrate how we model clocks in the network for fingerprinting. Next, we propose a distributed security monitor for deployment across the BACnet MS/TP nodes. We also illustrate how clock fingerprinting data can enable the security monitor to prevent intrusion and tampering. Finally, we experimentally verify our attacker model, attack scenarios, and the effectiveness of hardware-oriented security solutions for intrusion prevention and tampering on an industrial standard BACnet MS/TP network.
Applying the Transtheoretical Model to Stuttering Management Among Adolescents: Part I. Scale Development

Purpose This article is the first in a two-part series on the application of the Transtheoretical Model to stuttering management among adolescents. In this article, we describe the process of devel...
The Math You Need, When You Need It (TMYN): Leveling the Playing Field

The Math You Need, When You Need It (TMYN) is a set of online tutorials designed to help students develop and review mathematical skills that are applied in undergraduate geoscience courses. We present results of a three-year study of more than 4000 students in 106 geoscience courses at a variety of post-secondary schools who were assigned TMYN tutorials as supplemental mathematics instruction. Changes in student scores from preto post-test suggest that the support provided by programs such as TMYN can begin to reduce the gap between mathematically well-prepared and underprepared students; in essence, TMYN levels the quantitative playing field for all geoscience students. On average, both highand low-performing students who fully participated in the use of TMYN as a part of their course showed learning gains, although gains were larger for students who performed poorly on the pre-test. Our findings emphasize the conclusion that students who interact with context-specific quantitative problems can potentially improve their mathematical skills, regardless of initial level of mathematical preparation. We suggest that this type of support could generalize to other science courses.
Beyond the Limits of Recreation: Social Costs of Gambling in Southern Nevada

This study seeks to find the dollar value of social costs of gambling. The authors use data from a survey of 99 members of Gamblers Anonymous (GA) groups in southern Nevada. The GA members were asked many questions about their behavior while they were active gamblers, such as how often they missed work because of gambling, how much they borrowed because of gambling, how much they stole because of gambling and their experiences with the judicial system and welfare systems because of gambling. Societal costs of each behavior were calculated and annualized. It was determined that each of the compulsive gamblers imposed social costs of $19,711 on others in southern Nevada. Of these costs, $1,428 (7.2%) were governmental costs, while $6,616 (33.6%) represented economic losses for southern Nevada. Using estimates of the numbers of pathological and problem gamblers in Nevada, it was determined that the overall social costs of compulsive and problem gambling in southern Nevada ranged from $314 million to $545 million per year.
Solving Moral Problems

I have now completed my defense of the view that moral judgments are capable of truth and falsity, and that we can have moral knowledge. In the first chapter I argued that moral judgments are no different in principle from statements of fact in other areas of discourse. In Chapters 2 through 8 I have expounded a moral theory which I believe would be acceptable to almost everyone, philosophers and non-philosophers alike; in fact, most of what I argued in Chapter 2 and Chapter 8 could apply to any moral theory, even a non-cognitivist one. Throughout I have tried to deal with objections which have been raised against similar specific tenets in the past. While other possible theories might be equally coherent and equally able to accommodate all well established moral beliefs, I do maintain that any such theory would — as I believe mine does — incorporate the fundamental truth conditions of moral judgments.
SRCMap: energy proportional storage using dynamic consolidation

We investigate the problem of creating an energy proportional storage system through power-aware dynamic storage consolidation. Our proposal, Sample-Replicate-Consolidate Mapping (SRCMap), is a storage virtualization layer optimization that enables energy proportionality for dynamic I/O workloads by consolidating the cumulative workload on a subset of physical volumes proportional to the I/O workload intensity. Instead of migrating data across physical volumes dynamically or replicating entire volumes, both of which are prohibitively expensive, SRCMap samples a subset of blocks from each data volume that constitutes its working set and replicates these on other physical volumes. During a given consolidation interval, SRCMap activates a minimal set of physical volumes to serve the workload and spins down the remaining volumes, redirecting their workload to replicas on active volumes. We present both theoretical and experimental evidence to establish the effectiveness of SRCMap in minimizing the power consumption of enterprise storage systems.
Delineation of viable tumor volume using FDG-PET validated with macroscopic sectioning of pathological specimens

1313 Objectives To accurately define viable tumor volume within the tumor with FDG -PET using a percentage of maximum tumor activity, and validate its accuracy with macroscopic coronal sections from animal tumor specimens. Methods Rat mammary tumor cells were allowed to grow in immumo-competent rats interscapularly. When a tumor reached 3-4 cm in diameter, 3-5 coronal sections were marked on the tumor surface, FDG injected, and PET images acquired for each rat. The rat was sacrificed on the imaging bed and transferred to -21° C freezer. The tumor9s anatomical orientation was maintained. The tumor was sectioned along the marking after 6 hours. Each cross section was digitalized with a flat panel color scanner, and co-registered to the corresponding PET slide. A spectrum of thresholds (15%-90% of the maximum tumor activity in 5% increments) were applied to the PET image, and compared to the viable tumor area outlined on the specimen cross section. Sensitivity was defined as the thresholded PET area covering viable tumor divided by the viable area of the entire tumor, and specificity as the non-viable area within the tumor that is not covered by thresholded PET divided by non-viable area of the entire tumor. Sensitivity, specificity and ROC curves were calculated for each cross section. Results A threshold of 50% of maximum tumor activity produced a mean sensitivity of 68.5%+/-11.5% and a mean specificity of 97.2%+/-3%. A lower percentage was required to reach higher sensitivity. A threshold of 20% produced a mean sensitivity of 99.1%+/-0.9% and a mean specificity of 69.1%+/-19.1%. A threshold of 25% produced a mean sensitivity of 97.6%+/-1.9%, and a mean specificity of 76.5%+/-17.4%. The mean area under the ROC curve was 0.97+/-0.03. Conclusions FDG-PET accurately reflects the heterogeneity of viability within tumor in animal model. 50% of maximum tumor activity covers about 2/3 of the viable tumor volume. In order to increase coverage to 95%, the delineation threshold should be lowered to 25%. Research Support T32 research training grant
A search for luminosity - Spectral hardness correlations in SIGNE gamma-ray burst data

We use simple 2-parameter models to fit gamma-ray burst spectra from the SIGNE experiments aboard the Venera 13 and 14 spacecraft in order to estimate burst luminosity and spectral hardness. We then look for correlations between these two parameters. The hardness is characterized by kT and Ec for thermal bremsstrahlung and thermal synchrotron fits, respectively. The spectra are integrated over 1/2 s or longer, depending on photon statistics. We find that generally luminosity increases with spectral hardness. We fit power laws of the form L varies as kT sup gamma to 12 bursts. A wide range of indices with gamma = 0.5-2.5 is found, broader than that reported by Golenetskii et al. (1983).