cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Expression of the beta-adrenergic receptor-adenylylcyclase system in basal and columnar airway epithelial cells

Catecholamines acting through the beta-adrenergic receptor (beta AR) coupled-adenylylcyclase system stimulate a variety of responses by airway epithelial cells which affect airway caliber and the response to inflammatory stimuli. Although the tracheobronchial epithelium (TBE) is composed of several phenotypically differentiated cell types, surprisingly little is known about the expression of the beta AR system by the major subpopulations of TBE cells (i.e., basal and columnar). We, therefore, examined the function of the beta AR system in columnar and basal cell-enriched populations of rabbit tracheocytes. Cells were collected from 35 rabbits in 17 separate experiments and separated into basal and columnar cell-enriched fractions by centrifugal elutriation. The columnar fraction demonstrated a significantly greater (P 0.50 for both comparisons). beta AR subtype assessed by beta 1AR and beta 2AR subtype selective antagonists demonstrated that the beta 2AR subtype predominated (i.e., > 90%) in both cell populations (P > 0.5).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Perceived Maternal Parenting Styles, Cultural Values, and Prosocial Tendencies Among Mexican American Youth

The present study aimed to extend research on parenting and positive development of Latino youth. Participants were 207 Mexican American adolescents (M age = 10.9 years, SD = 0.83 years; 50% girls) who completed measures of their parents' supportive and firm parenting, their own endorsement of respect and traditional gender role values, and their tendency to engage in six forms of prosocial behaviors. Maternal nativity was also considered as an initial predictor of parenting, adolescents' cultural values, and adolescents' prosocial behaviors. Overall, the results demonstrated that maternal nativity was associated with traditional gender roles and specific forms of prosocial behaviors. Parenting dimensions were differentially associated with respect and traditional gender role values and prosocial behaviors. Cultural values, in turn, were associated with multiple forms of prosocial behaviors. Gender differences in the processes were also explored.
Government Investment in Banks: Creeping Nationalization or Prudent, Temporary Aid

This Article explores government investment in banks and discusses some of the implications of the investments. In addition to detailing government bank stock investment during the current financial crisis, the article recounts the government’s prior extensive investment in preferred stock of banks during the Great Depression through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the government’s investment in one large bank, the Continental Illinois National bank, to prevent its failure in 1984. The implications of government investments in banks are explored first through the lends of history and then considering the current objections and concerns raised about creeping government nationalization of banks.
Intracapsular and Extracapsular Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy in Pediatric Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Importance Limited information exists regarding clinical outcomes of children undergoing extracapsular tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy (ETA) or intracapsular tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy (ITA) for treatment of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). Objectives To quantify polysomnography (PSG) and clinical outcomes of ETA and ITA in children with OSAS and to assess the contribution of comorbid conditions of asthma and obesity. Design, Setting, and Participants Retrospective cohort study using medical records at a tertiary pediatrics inner-city hospital. Medical records from 89 children who underwent ETA or ITA between October 1, 2008, and December 31, 2013, were analyzed. The dates of our analysis were January 6, 2014, to April 11, 2014. Inclusion criteria required no evidence of craniofacial or neurological disorders, confirmation of OSAS by PSG within the 2 years before surgery, and a second PSG within the 2 years after surgery. Interventions Each child underwent ETA or ITA after being evaluated by a pediatric otolaryngologist and obtaining written parental informed consent. Main Outcomes and Measures Main primary outcomes were derived from PSG. Secondary outcomes included treatment failure, defined as residual OSAS with an obstructive apnea-hypopnea index of at least 5 events per hour. Comparisons were made between and within groups. Logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with treatment failure. Results Fifty-two children underwent ETA, and 37 children underwent ITA. Children in the ETA group were older (7.5 vs 5.2 years,P = .001) and more obese (60% [31 of 52] vs 30% [11 of 37],P = .004). However, both groups had similar severity of OSAS, with median preoperative obstructive apnea-hypopnea indexes of 17.0 in the ETA group and 24.1 in the ITA group (P = .21), and similar prevalences of asthma (38% [20 of 52] vs 38% [14 of 37]). After surgery, significant improvement was noted on PSG in both groups, with no differences in any clinical outcomes. There was no association between procedure type, age, or body mass indexzscore and treatment failure. However, in a subset of patients with asthma and obesity, ITA was associated with residual OSAS (odds ratio, 16.5; 95% CI, 1.1-250.2;P = .04). Conclusions and Relevance Both ETA and ITA are effective modalities to treat OSAS, with comparable surgical outcomes on short-term follow-up. However, when comorbid diagnoses of both asthma and obesity exist, OSAS is likely to be refractory to treatment with ITA compared with ETA.
The disruption of order: Achim Freyer's scenography for opera

This article presents a close analysis of the operatic productions of the German scenographer Achim Freyer. Although a crucially important designer--director in opera and a key visual artist in theatre, Freyer’s oeuvre has received comparatively little treatment in Anglophone scholarship. I argue that his work forms part of a broad new paradigm in operatic scenography, which departs from previously dominant modes. This change is a complex one, bound up sociologically and politically with the globalization of opera; its aesthetics include new and reimagined modes of stylization, abstraction and theatricality. While Freyer’s work fits within this model, it must also be analyzed on its own terms, to appreciate the radicalism and creativity of his approach. In examining Freyer’s repertoire of scenographic gestures, I trace the development of a number of key stylistic tropes, including his abiding love of the grotesque, strategies of theatricality and meta-theatricality, modes of abstraction, treatment of the ...
“Solid”, “Sullied” and Mutability: A Study in Imagery

ID Hamlet wish that his "sallied flesh", his "sullied flesh" ot his "solid flesh" would melt? The concurrence of the First and Second Quartos in reading "sallied flesh" as against the Folio's "solid flesh" has given rise to this famous Shakespearian crux. Now the precise relation of Q2 to the corrupt Qi is a matter of question. But one fact is certain: In Act I of Hamlet, where our disputed reading occurs (I.ii.i29), the Second Quarto, normally our authority, has been seriously contaminated by the influence of QI.1 If, then, we regard "sallied" as an instance of contamination, we remain with the Folio's reading as the only one with any transcriptional link to Shakespeare's manuscript. That "sallied" was an obvious case of corruption had been generally assumed, and the preponderance of editorial opinion adopted "solid flesh". The eminent exception to this tradition in modern times was, of course, J. Dover Wilson, who, adopting a suggestion made in i885 by George Macdonald, emended the text to "sullied flesh" and explained the metaphor as alluding to dirty snow in the process of thawing. Hamlet, we were told, felt personally defiled by his mother's marriage; hence, his "sullied" flesh. "Solid flesh", Professor Wilson ventured to think, was "a little ridiculous".2 Wilson's theory won few converts, and his reading was in the main rejected as far-fetched and conflicting with the obvious sense of the passage. But recently, new arguments have been adduced in support of sullied. Challenging the view that sallied is a misprint, Professor Fredson Bowers maintains that sallied is in fact a rare Elizabethan variant of sullied and that bibligraphical logic and prob-. ability lead to the conclusion that the compositor of Q2 did not pick up sallied from Qi but found it in his manuscript and correctly set it.3 Whether Professor Bowers' thesis concerning the word sallied will win general acceptance among linguists remains to be seen. But even granting the linguistic point, it remains difficult to understand why Professor Bowers concludes that contamination from Qi must be ruled out as a logical impossibility.
Changes of Variance in First-Order Autoregressive Time Series Models -With an Application

SUMMARY A two-stage method is presented for detecting step changes of variance in first-order autoregressive time series models. Potential change points are initially located using a "moving-block" procedure. Given initial change points, an iterative likelihood argument is used to develop estimators of the change points, variances and autoregressive parameters. The efficacy of the method is examined with computer simulation experiments, and a numerical example using stock market data is discussed.
Feasibility demonstration of a massively parallelizable optical near-field sensor for sub-wavelength defect detection and imaging.

To detect and resolve sub-wavelength features at optical frequencies, beyond the diffraction limit, requires sensors that interact with the electromagnetic near-field of those features. Most instruments operating in this modality scan a single detector element across the surface under inspection because the scattered signals from a multiplicity of such elements would end up interfering with each other. However, an alternative massively parallelized configuration, capable of interrogating multiple adjacent areas of the surface at the same time, was proposed in 2002. Full physics simulations of the photonic antenna detector element that enables this instrument, show that using conventional red laser light (in the 600 nm range) the detector magnifies the signal from an 8 nm particle by up to 1.5 orders of magnitude. The antenna is a shaped slot element in a 60 nm silver film. The ability of this detector element to resolve λ/78 objects is confirmed experimentally at radio frequencies by fabricating an artificial material structure that mimics the optical permittivity of silver scaled to 2 GHz and “cutting” into it the slot antenna. The experimental set-up is also used to demonstrate the imaging of a patterned surface in which the critical dimensions of the pattern are λ/22 in size.
On Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in Connecticut: the problem with subspecialty services.

Background: Medicaid is the federal program, administered by states, for health care for the poor. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has added a large number of new recipients to this program. Hypothesis: Medicaid programs in some, if not many, states do not provide patients uniform access to subspecialty care guaranteed by the federal statutes. Insofar as the ACA does not address this pre-existing “sub-specialty gap” and more patients are now covered by Medicaid under the ACA, the gap is likely to increase and may contribute to disparities of health care access and outcomes. Methods: A brief description of previous studies demonstrating or suggesting a subspecialty gap in Medicaid services is accompanied by perspectives of the authors, using published literature — most notably the Denver, Colorado health care system — to propose various solutions that may be deployed to address gaps in subspecialty coverage. Results: All published studies describing the Medicaid subspecialty gap are qualitative, survey designs. There are no authoritative objective data regarding the exact prevalence of gaps for each subspecialty in each state. However, surveys of caregivers suggest that gaps were prevalent in the United States prior to initiation of the ACA. Even fewer papers have addressed solutions (in light of the paucity of data describing the magnitude of the problem), and proposed solutions remain speculative and not grounded in objective data. Conclusions: There is reason to believe that a substantial proportion of U.S. citizens — those who are guaranteed a full complement of health services through Medicaid — have difficult or no access to some subspecialty services, many of which other citizens take for granted. This problem deserves greater attention to verify its existence, quantify its magnitude, and develop solutions.
Islamic political activism among Israel’s Negev Bedouin population

AbstractThis paper examines Islamic political activism among the Bedouin Arab citizens of Israel who reside in the Negev/Naqab (southern Israel). It describes how a religious-political movement became the dominant political force among the non-Jewish communities of the Negev, in doing so, this paper explores the link between religious-political ideology, represented by the Islamic movement, and tribalism, the dominant social-cultural influence among this population. While this paper is a first cut at trying to understand these linkages, I suggest that Israeli Islamist political leaders have mobilized support in two interconnected ways. First, they have attracted support through dawa (religious education), social-welfare activities, and mobilizing symbols. Second, Islamic political activists have worked within and exploited one of the most salient features of Bedouin life, tribalism, by recruiting support from the lower-status, largely urbanized, and landless tribes. These activities have taken place withi...
The Premature Jewish Neoconservatives

For poor, young Jewish intellectuals in New York in the 1930s, City College was where the action was. In dingy, horseshoe-shaped alcoves lining the college lunchroom, the students spent hour after hour in ideological debate that was often more spirited and stimulating than the classroom lectures. There were separate alcoves for Catholics, Zionists, and Orthodox Jews, but the pro-Stalinist and anti-Stalinist radicals made the most noise and commanded the most attention. The Stalinists in Alcove Two outnumbered the other factions and controlled the student newspaper, which defended the Moscow trials in editorials. They had close to fifty allies among City College's left-leaning faculty, and, Irving Howe remembered, one in their group, Julius Rosenberg, would later be executed along with his wife, Ethel, for conspiring to steal America's atomic secrets. The group in Alcove One was a mixed bag. Although they were all pretty radical in their college days, many would later make their names as prominent neoconservatives. They were united in their opposition to the Soviet dictator and often sought to provoke his backers (who were not permitted to speak to them) in Alcove Two. On other political issues, however, they disagreed with one another as often as not. For example, while Howe and Irving Kristol backed the revolutionist Leon Trotsky, who broke away from Stalin and was later murdered in Mexico, Nathan Glazer and Daniel Bell were anti-Trotskyites.
Studying the Effect of Laser Welding Parameters on the Quality of ZEK100 Magnesium Alloy Sheets in Lap Joint Configuration

Magnesium has unique properties which makes it superior to many other metals. It has the best strength-to-weight ratio and the lowest density among structural metals. Therefore, it has been used in a variety of industries, including the automotive, aerospace, and electronics industries. However, because of magnesium metallurgical properties, fusion welding poses a significant challenge. Laser welding is one of the most efficient joining processes for welding magnesium alloys because of its low heat input. Low alloy magnesium ZEK100 has been used in the automotive industry; however, little research has been published on the welding of this alloy. In this study, a fiber laser is used to weld samples in a lap joint configuration in order to study the effect of process parameters on weld profile geometry including penetration depth and width on top surfaces and interfaces as well as its quality. Process parameters include laser power, scanning speed and gap between two sheets. Observations include weld bead surface quality, weld bead profile and micro-hardness. The obtained results show that each process parameter has a different effect on weld profile geometry and its quality. Then a regression model is used in order to obtain the geometry of the weld bead based on different process parameters. The performance evaluation of the regression model reveals that a well-related model is established.Magnesium has unique properties which makes it superior to many other metals. It has the best strength-to-weight ratio and the lowest density among structural metals. Therefore, it has been used in a variety of industries, including the automotive, aerospace, and electronics industries. However, because of magnesium metallurgical properties, fusion welding poses a significant challenge. Laser welding is one of the most efficient joining processes for welding magnesium alloys because of its low heat input. Low alloy magnesium ZEK100 has been used in the automotive industry; however, little research has been published on the welding of this alloy. In this study, a fiber laser is used to weld samples in a lap joint configuration in order to study the effect of process parameters on weld profile geometry including penetration depth and width on top surfaces and interfaces as well as its quality. Process parameters include laser power, scanning speed and gap between two sheets. Observations include weld bead s...
Improved fiber-optic magnetometer based on iron garnet crystals

We demonstrate a single-lead fiber optic magnetic field sensor system based on ferrimagnetic iron garnet crystals. This system automatically compensates for magnetic domain fluctuations in the transducer. Noise floors of 1.1 nT/Hz1/2 at 1 kHz are demonstrated without ferrite flux concentrators. Use of a single distal ferrite flux concentrator improves the sensitivity and noise floor by 17 dB with a frequency response of ~180 MHz; this represents a 3x improvement in gain-bandwidth product over previous reports. Using a pair of flux concentrators yields a 29 dB improvement and a noise floor of 35 pT/Hz1/2 at 1 kHz.
Zen Is not a Philosophy, but…

Religion is difficult to understand with sufficient depth and subtlety. Zen is no exception. In one sense, Zen may be said to be one of the most difficult religions to understand, for there is no formulated Zen doctrine or theological system by which one may intellectually approach it. Accordingly, it is not surprising to find various superficial understandings or misunderstandings of Zen among Westerners interested in Zen, whose cultural and religious traditions are entirely different from those in which Zen has developed.
Theory of global cooling

Due to the consequence of industrial CO2 emission, the surface temperature of Earth is rising at an alarming rate, causing accelerating deadly effects on the environment and living beings. Thus, an approach to mitigate global warming has been proposed by breaking down industrial CO2 and converting it into useful products. Lithium nitride (Li3N), the only stable alkali metal nitride that reacts readily with CO2, has been proposed to use as a means to break down CO2. For this, a chemical reactor has been proposed to install at industrial CO2-releasing tower to capture CO2 and allow a heat-releasing reaction into the bioreactor in the presence of Li3N to convert it into carbon (C), nitrogen (N2), oxygen (O2), and lithium cyanamide (Li2CN2). In order to confirm this theoretical viability of this technology, a series of global environmental issues has also been discussed to neutralize global warming by utilizing this simple technology. The by-products lithium cyanamide (Li2CN2) is environmentally benign and can be used as fertilizer, and subsequently, the additional products (C, N2, and O2) from this reaction naturally will mitigate the atmospheric and biospheric chemical cycle. The technology indeed would be an innovative field of carbon management science which will not only break down the deadly CO2 but also produce useful products like Li2CN2 (a fertilizer) and C, N2, and O2 to balance the atmosphere and biosphere; thus, global warming comes to an end in the near future.
Airway pressure release ventilation during ex vivo lung perfusion attenuates injury

Abstract Objective Critical organ shortages have resulted in ex vivo lung perfusion gaining clinical acceptance for lung evaluation and rehabilitation to expand the use of donation after circulatory death organs for lung transplantation. We hypothesized that an innovative use of airway pressure release ventilation during ex vivo lung perfusion improves lung function after transplantation. Methods Two groups (n = 4 animals/group) of porcine donation after circulatory death donor lungs were procured after hypoxic cardiac arrest and a 2-hour period of warm ischemia, followed by a 4-hour period of ex vivo lung perfusion rehabilitation with standard conventional volume-based ventilation or pressure-based airway pressure release ventilation. Left lungs were subsequently transplanted into recipient animals and reperfused for 4 hours. Blood gases for partial pressure of oxygen/inspired oxygen fraction ratios, airway pressures for calculation of compliance, and percent wet weight gain during ex vivo lung perfusion and reperfusion were measured. Results Airway pressure release ventilation during ex vivo lung perfusion significantly improved left lung oxygenation at 2 hours (561.5 ± 83.9 mm Hg vs 341.1 ± 136.1 mm Hg) and 4 hours (569.1 ± 18.3 mm Hg vs 463.5 ± 78.4 mm Hg). Likewise, compliance was significantly higher at 2 hours (26.0 ± 5.2 mL/cm H 2 O vs 15.0 ± 4.6 mL/cm H 2 O) and 4 hours (30.6 ± 1.3 mL/cm H 2 O vs 17.7 ± 5.9 mL/cm H 2 O) after transplantation. Finally, airway pressure release ventilation significantly reduced lung edema development on ex vivo lung perfusion on the basis of percentage of weight gain (36.9% ± 14.6% vs 73.9% ± 4.9%). There was no difference in additional edema accumulation 4 hours after reperfusion. Conclusions Pressure-directed airway pressure release ventilation strategy during ex vivo lung perfusion improves the rehabilitation of severely injured donation after circulatory death lungs. After transplant, these lungs demonstrate superior lung-specific oxygenation and dynamic compliance compared with lungs ventilated with standard conventional ventilation. This strategy, if implemented into clinical ex vivo lung perfusion protocols, could advance the field of donation after circulatory death lung rehabilitation to expand the lung donor pool.
Effectively Handling New Relationship Formations in Closeness Centrality Analysis of Social Networks Using Anytime Anywhere Methodology

The flood of real time social data, generated by various social media applications and sensors, is enabling researchers to gain critical insights into important social modeling and analysis problems such as the evolution of social relationships and analysis of emergent social processes. However, current computational tools have to address the grand challenge of analyzing large and dynamic social networks within strict time constraints before the available social data can be effectively utilized. The computational issues are further exacerbated by the network size, which can range in the millions of nodes, and by the need for analytical tools to work with various computational architectures. Existing methodologies primarily deal with dynamic relationships in social networks by simply re-computing the results, and relying on massive parallel and distributed processing resources to maintain time constraints. In previous work, we introduced an overarching parallel/distributed algorithm design framework called the anytime anywhere framework, which leverages the inherent iterative property of graph algorithms to generate partial results, whose quality increase with the processing time, and which efficiently incorporates network changes. In this paper, we focus on closeness centrality algorithm design for dynamic social networks where new relationships are formed due to edge additions. Using both theoretical analysis and empirical results, we will demonstrate how this algorithm efficiently reuses the partial results and reduces the need for re-computations.
The Prevalence and Demographic Associations of Presenting Near-Vision Impairment Among Adults Living in the United States

Purpose To estimate prevalence of presenting near-vision impairment (PNVI) among people aged ≥50 years in the United States (US) and examine associations with sociodemographic characteristics. Design Cross-sectional study. Methods A total of 11 016 of 12 781 (88.5%) US adults aged ≥50 years participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2008 with recorded near visual acuity. PNVI was defined as presenting near vision worse than 20/40; functional near-vision impairment (FNVI) was defined as at least "moderate difficulty" with either reading newsprint or near work. Prevalence of PNVI and FNVI were estimated accounting for National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey multistage probability sampling design. Multivariable regression models were used to determine sociodemographic characteristics associated with PNVI. Results A total of 13.6% of participants had PNVI, with 25.9% reporting concurrent FNVI. Higher odds of PNVI was associated with nonwhite race, older age, male sex, less than high school education, lack of private health insurance, income less than poverty level, lacking/not using near-vision correction at time of examination, and impaired distance vision. Although the majority of participants with PNVI (82.9%) had normal distance vision or uncorrected refractive error, less than half (46.1%) used near-vision correction. Not using near correction was associated with nonwhite race, younger age, male sex, and lack of access to health care. Conclusions Approximately 1 in 8 Americans aged ≥50 years have PNVI, with 1 in 4 reporting concurrent FNVI. Demographic factors shown to be important in access to eye care likely influence PNVI and utilization of near-vision correction in the US. As the majority of PNVI is likely correctable with spectacles, allocation of resources to provide corrective lenses to those in need likely has great public health implications.
Sperner’s Colorings and Optimal Partitioning of the Simplex

We discuss coloring and partitioning questions related to Sperner’s Lemma, originally motivated by an application in hardness of approximation. Informally, we call a partitioning of the (k − 1)-dimensional simplex into k parts, or a labeling of a lattice inside the simplex by k colors, “Sperner-admissible” if color i avoids the face opposite to vertex i. The questions we study are of the following flavor: What is the Sperner-admissible labeling/partitioning that makes the total area of the boundary between different colors/parts as small as possible?
Drainage of Agricultural Lands Using Interceptor Lines

Results of theoretical research on design of interceptor drain line; report gathers together theories regarding function and behavior of interceptor drain.
Solubility of solvents in polyethylene below the melt temperature

Abstract Polyethylene, the most ubiquitous polymer in use, is a semi-crystalline material. Solvents enter only the amorphous phase. The solubility in that phase, however, cannot be characterized by the amorphous solubility found above the melt temperature. The polymer chains that have ends attached to the crystalline structure but extend into the amorphous phase are referred to as tie chains, and they affect the overall solvent solubility. Six different polyethylenes covering a range of densities were studied. Below the melt temperature all the samples exhibited an increase in solubility with increasing temperature. The solubility of the penetrants, however, is not the same for different types of polyethylene. A model which incorporates an elasticity factor that accounts for the stress effects on the solubility in the tie chains was found to be valuable. When incorporated into a version of the UNIFAC free-volume model there was good correlation between of the solubilities. The present work indicates that the tie chain fraction, f, tends to increase with density.
Standardized Note Templates Improve Electronic Medical Record Documentation of Neurovascular Examinations for Pediatric Supracondylar Humeral Fractures.

Background Optimization of the electronic medical record (EMR) is essential to support the clinician and to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care. The present report describes the development and implementation of a standardized template that is embedded in the EMR and is focused on a comprehensive physical examination during the evaluation of pediatric supracondylar humeral fractures. We compared the completeness of physical examinations as well as the timing of detection and documentation of neurovascular injuries before and after implementation of the template. We hypothesized that the use of a template would increase the completeness of examinations and would lead to earlier documentation of neurovascular injuries. Methods A multidisciplinary quality-improvement task force was created to address neurovascular documentation practices for patients who underwent operative treatment of supracondylar humeral fractures. Following a series of formative and process evaluations, a standardized EMR template was implemented. Neurovascular examination documentation practices that were in use before (pre-template group, n = 224) and after (template group, n = 300) the implementation of the template were compared. Logistic regression analyses of the 2 groups were used to compare the likelihood of a complete neurovascular examination and the timing of neurovascular injury identification. Results There was significant improvement in the documentation of the vascular (odds ratio [OR], 70.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 39.5 to 126.6; p < 0.0001), motor (OR, 17.6; 95% CI, 9.5 to 32.7; p < 0.0001), and sensory (OR, 23.9; 95% CI, 12.9 to 44.4; p < 0.0001) examinations in the template group. Neurological injuries were more likely to be identified preoperatively in the template group compared with the pre-template group (OR, 6.8; 95% CI, 1.7 to 27.1; p = 0.0067). Conclusions The incorporation of a standardized template in the EMR improved the completeness and timing of documentation of neurological injury. Standardized EMR templates developed by a clinically driven multidisciplinary task force have the potential to improve the quality of clinical documentation and to ease communication among providers. Level of Evidence Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Protectionist Empire: Trade, Tariffs, and United States Foreign Policy, 1890–1914

Between 1890 and 1914, the United States acquired overseas colonies, built a battleship fleet, and intervened increasingly often in Latin America and East Asia. This activism is often seen as the precursor to the country's role as a superpower after 1945 but actually served very different goals. In contrast to its pursuit of a relatively liberal international economic order after 1945, the United States remained committed to trade protection before 1914. Protectionism had several important consequences for American foreign policy on both economic and security issues. It led to a focus on less developed areas of the world that would not export manufactured goods to the United States instead of on wealthier European markets. It limited the tactics available for promoting American exports, forcing policymakers to seek exclusive bilateral agreements or unilateral concessions from trading partners instead of multilateral arrangements. It inhibited political cooperation with other major powers and implied an aggressive posture toward these states. The differences between this foreign policy and the one the United States adopted after 1945 underscore the critical importance not just of the search for overseas markets but also of efforts to protect the domestic market.
Novel Microbial Diversity and Functional Potential in the Marine Mammal Oral Microbiome.

The vast majority of bacterial diversity lies within phylum-level lineages called "candidate phyla," which lack isolated representatives and are poorly understood. These bacteria are surprisingly abundant in the oral cavity of marine mammals. We employed a genome-resolved metagenomic approach to recover and characterize genomes and functional potential from microbes in the oral gingival sulcus of two bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). We detected organisms from 24 known bacterial phyla and one archaeal phylum. We also recovered genomes from two deep-branching, previously uncharacterized phylum-level lineages (here named "Candidatus Delphibacteria" and "Candidatus Fertabacteria"). The Delphibacteria lineage is found in both managed and wild dolphins; its metabolic profile suggests a capacity for denitrification and a possible role in dolphin health. We uncovered a rich diversity of predicted Cas9 proteins, including the two longest predicted Cas9 proteins to date. Notably, we identified the first type II CRISPR-Cas systems encoded by members of the Candidate Phyla Radiation. Using their spacer sequences, we subsequently identified and assembled a complete Saccharibacteria phage genome. These findings underscore the immense microbial diversity and functional potential that await discovery in previously unexplored environments.
Audibility of Patient Clinical Alarms to Hospital Nursing Personnel

ABSTRACT The audibility of patient clinical alarms to nursing personnel was tested during the first shift on a medical/surgical in-patient ward at William Beaumont Army Medical Center. This study was conducted during normal hospital operations, and we tested the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations 2004 National Patient Safety Goal, Section 6b to determine whether patient alarms could sufficiently compete against environmental background noises. Patient clinical alarms were audible at distances of ≥95 feet with room doors open but were not sufficiently audible to hospital staff members when room doors were closed or during floor-buffing activities. This study suggests that, under these circumstances, hospitals may not meet Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations 2004 National Patient Safety Goal, Section 6b. Because the audibility of patient clinical alarms directly affects patient safety, satisfaction, and quality of care, we provide recommendations for engi...
Masculine stances and the linguistics of affect: on masculine ease

The connections between sociolinguistic conceptions of stance and the notion of affect are explored. After an explication of sociolinguistic theory, a view of stance based on three dimensions of ev...
Loquacious-PD removes phosphate inhibition of Dicer-2 processing of hairpin RNAs into siRNAs.

Abstract Drosophila Dicer-2 processes RNA substrates into short interfering RNAs (siRNAs). Loquacious-PD (Loqs-PD), a dsRNA-binding protein that associates with Dicer-2, is required for processing of a subset of RNA substrates including hairpin RNAs into siRNAs. Inorganic phosphate—a small molecule present in all cell types—inhibits Dicer-2 from processing precursor of microRNAs (pre-miRNAs), which are processed by Dicer-1. Whether or how Loqs-PD modulates the inhibitory effect of inorganic phosphate on Dicer-2 processing of RNA substrates is unknown. To address this question, I performed in vitro hairpin RNA processing assay with Dicer-2 in the presence or absence of Loqs-PD and/or inorganic phosphate. I found that inorganic phosphate inhibits Dicer-2 alone, but not Dicer-2 + Loqs-PD, from processing blunt-end hairpin RNAs into siRNAs. Thus, Loqs-PD removes the inhibitory effect of inorganic phosphate on Dicer-2 processing of blunt-end hairpin RNAs, allowing siRNA production in the presence of inorganic phosphate.
Suicidality Disclosed Online: Using a Simulated Facebook Task to Identify Predictors of Support Giving to Friends at Risk of Self‐harm

Although peer support in response to online disclosures of suicidality may be imperative for suicide prevention efforts, little is known as to how often support is provided or what predicts giving support. This study addresses this issue by investigating the odds of providing peer support in response to simulated online disclosures of suicidality. While interacting with a simulated Facebook newsfeed, participants (N = 690, Mage = 20.24, 527 female) were given the opportunity to leave comments on two posts disclosing low, moderate, or severe risk for suicide. Participants also completed questionnaires on their symptoms of depression and anxiety, experience with a loved one's suicidality, and Facebook use strategies. Only 33.6% of participants left a positive, supportive comment on at least one of the two suicide posts. Content severity, experience with a loved one's suicide attempts, and use of Facebook to meet people were predictive of providing positive comments. These findings suggest that young adults vary in their propensity to provide support after encountering a suicide disclosure online and that giving support is driven by a combination of contextual and intrapersonal factors.
Development of Quantitative Thinking

For understanding development of quantitative thinking, the distinction between nonsymbolic and symbolic thinking is fundamental. Nonsymbolic quantitative thinking is present in early infancy, culturally universal, and similar across species. These similarities include the ability to represent and compare numerosities, the representations being noisy and increasing logarithmically with actual quantity, and the neural correlates of number representation being distributed in homologous regions of frontoparietal cortex. Symbolic quantitative thinking, in contrast, emerged recently in human history, differs dramatically across cultural groups, and develops over many years. As young children gain experience with symbols in a given numeric range and associate them with nonverbal quantities in that range, they initially map them to a logarithmically-compressed mental number line and later to a linear form. This logarithmic-to-linear shift expands children's quantitative skills profoundly, including their ability to estimate positions of numbers on number lines, to estimate measurements of continuous and discrete quantities, to categorize numbers by size, to remember numbers, and to estimate and learn answers to arithmetic problems. Thus, while nonsymbolic quantitative thinking is important and foundational for symbolic numerical capabilities, the capacity to represent symbolic quantities offers crucial cognitive advantages.
Prediction of malignant breast lesions from MRI features: a comparison of artificial neural network and logistic regression techniques.

Rationale and Objectives Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging is a clinical imaging modality for the detection and diagnosis of breast lesions. Analytic methods were compared for diagnostic feature selection and the performance of lesion classification to differentiate between malignant and benign lesions in patients. Materials and Methods The study included 43 malignant and 28 benign histologically proved lesions. Eight morphologic parameters, 10 gray-level co-occurrence matrix texture features, and 14 Laws texture features were obtained using automated lesion segmentation and quantitative feature extraction. Artificial neural network (ANN) and logistic regression analysis were compared for the selection of the best predictors of malignant lesions among the normalized features. Results Using ANN, the final four selected features were compactness, energy, homogeneity, and Law_LS, with an area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.82 and accuracy of 0.76. The diagnostic performance of these four features computed on the basis of logistic regression yielded an AUC of 0.80 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.688–0.905), similar to that of ANN. The analysis also showed that the odds of a malignant lesion decreased by 48% (95% CI, 25%–92%) for every increase of 1 standard deviation in the Law_LS feature, adjusted for differences in compactness, energy, and homogeneity. Using logistic regression with z-score transformation, a model composed of compactness, normalized radial length entropy, and gray-level sum average was selected, and it had the highest overall accuracy, 0.75, among all models, with an AUC of 0.77 (95% CI, 0.660–0.880). When logistic modeling of transformations using the Box-Cox method was performed, the most parsimonious model with predictors compactness and Law_LS had an AUC of 0.79 (95% CI, 0.672–0.898). Conclusion The diagnostic performance of models selected by ANN and logistic regression was similar. The analytic methods were found to be roughly equivalent in terms of predictive ability when a small number of variables were chosen. The robust ANN methodology uses a sophisticated nonlinear model, while logistic regression analysis provides insightful information to enhance the interpretation of the model features.
Research and Practice: An Applied Examination of the Parental Perceptions of Developmental Outcomes Scale

To support practitioners’ need for reliable and valid measures of the youth camp experience, this study compares the results of two analytic approaches—(1) composite-based paired samples t tests and (2) a latent structural equation model approach—using the Parental Perceptions of Developmental Outcomes (PPDO) scale in a sample of 930 parents of youth attending residential summer camps. Through a retrospective pretest (RPT) design, parents reported statistically significant growth across the five dimensions of the PPDO (responsibility, exploration, self-regulation, attitude, and communication) in both analytic approaches. The study results indicated similar effect sizes and conclusions were reached using both analytical approaches, suggesting a more practitioner-friendly approach (composite) may tell the same story as a more complex and research-oriented (latent) approach. This finding, as well as the revalidation of the PPDO in this sample, indicates the PPDO's usefulness in applied and research contexts. Subscribe to JOREL
Deer browsing alters sound propagation in temperate deciduous forests

The efficacy of animal signals is strongly influenced by the structure of the habitat in which they are propagating. In recent years, the habitat structure of temperate forests has been increasingly subject to modifications from foraging by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Increasing deer numbers and the accompanying browsing have been shown to alter vegetation structure and thus the foraging, roosting, and breeding habitats of many species. However, despite a large body of literature on the effects of vegetation structure on sound propagation, we do not yet know what impact deer browsing may have on acoustic communication. Here we used playback experiments to determine whether sound fidelity and amplitude of white noise, pure tones, and trills differed between deer-browsed and deer-excluded plots. We found that sound fidelity, but not amplitude, differed between habitats, with deer-browsed habitats having greater sound fidelity than deer-excluded habitats. Difference in sound propagation characteristics between the two habitats could alter the efficacy of acoustic communication through plasticity, cultural evolution or local adaptation, in turn influencing vocally-mediated behaviors (e.g. agonistic, parent-offspring, mate selection). Reduced signal degradation suggests vocalizations may retain more information, improving the transfer of information to both intended and unintended receivers. Overall, our results suggest that deer browsing impacts sound propagation in temperate deciduous forest, although much work remains to be done on the potential impacts on communication.
Queer eyes and gendered violence in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India

ABSTRACTThis article reads Bapsi Sidhwa’s Partition novel Cracking India in terms of the routine gendered violence that pervades the lives of its female characters. A significant strand of Sidhwa c...
Acute and Chronic Subcutaneous Administration of ZD100, a Novel pGC-A/cGMP Peptide Activator, Demonstrates Robust Antihypertensive Efficacy in Rodents

Introduction Hypertension remains a prevalent challenge that induces high morbidity and mortality in the general population. It is also known to be an important risk factor for heart failure (HF) incidence. There remains an urgent need for the development of antihypertensive agents with novel mechanisms of action, particularly for resistant hypertension which markedly increases risk for HF. ZD100 (also called MANP) is a novel designer natriuretic peptide that potently activates particulate guanylyl cyclase A receptor (pGC-A) and its second messenger cGMP, is highly resistant to neprilysin degradation and mediates vasodilation with marked natriuresis and diuresis and inhibition of aldosterone, supporting its potential effectiveness for hypertension. The use of ZD100 for hypertension, however, is limited by its delivery method in which its activity to date was only tested with continuous intravenous infusion in short-term acute studies. Subcutaneous (SC) injection of peptide therapeutics has demonstrated impressive safety, greater convenience and lower medical cost. Importantly, the long term effects of ZD100 in experimental hypertension remain unknown. Hypothesis We hypothesize that ZD100 SC administration yields favorable cardiovascular (CV) and renal actions in normal rats and chronically ZD100 reduces blood pressure (BP) in a hypertensive rat model. Methods In normal Sprague Dawley rats, acute SC ZD100 (low: 1.94 mg/kg, high: 3.88 mg/kg, n=5) or vehicle (0.9% saline, n=5) were administered and BP, urine output, urinary sodium excretion, and plasma cGMP, ZD100, and aldosterone were measured. In sodium-deficient-diet induced hypertensive Sprague Dawley rats, daily SC injection for 7 days of ZD100 (3.88mg/kg, n=10) or vehicle (n=9) were performed and CV, renal and neurohumoral parameters were obtained at day 7. Data are presented as absolute changes from baseline values and expressed as Mean±SEM. *p Results Acute SC ZD100 induced potent and dose-dependent BP lowering effects over 360 min compared to vehicle in normal rats (high: -29.0±8.2*, low: -14.8±5.5, veh: -6.3±3.6 mmHg). In parallel, robust diuresis, natriuresis and GMP activation were seen with ZD100. Specifically, diuresis and natriuresis increased 3-5 fold by ZD100 compared to vehicle. We then determined its chronic CV and renal actions in a hypertensive model in rats. ZD100 SC daily for 7 days elevated plasma ZD100 levels and exhibited BP lowering effects compared to vehicle (ZD100: -6.1±4.9*, veh: +10.5±5.7 mmHg), with increased plasma levels of cGMP (ZD100: 112±18*, veh: 33±5 pmol/mL) and a trend for diuretic and natriuretic enhancement and aldosterone suppression. Conclusion Our study thus supports the effectiveness of chronic SC use of ZD100, a novel and best-in-class pGC-A/cGMP peptide activator in experimental hypertension and supporting its clinical development in hypertension.