cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Toward a Theory of Persuasive Hope: Effects of Cognitive Appraisals, Hope Appeals, and Hope in the Context of Climate Change

Hope has the potential to be a powerful motivator for influencing behavior. However, hope and messages that evoke hope (hope appeals) have rarely been the focus of theoretical development or empirical research. As a step toward the effective development and use of hope appeals in persuasive communication, this study conceptualized and operationalized hope appeals in the context of climate change prevention. Then, the study manipulated components of the hope evocation part of a hope appeal. Specifically, the components were designed to address appraisals of the importance, goal congruence, future expectation, and possibility of climate protection, resulting in a 2 (strong/weak importance) × 2 (strong/weak goal congruence) × 2 (strong/weak future expectation) × 2 (strong/weak possibility) between-subjects pretest-posttest factorial design. Two hundred forty-five undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of the 16 message conditions and completed the study online. The study tested whether the four appraisals predict feelings of hope. It determined whether message components that address importance, goal congruence, future expectation, and possibility affect appraisals, feelings of hope, and persuasion outcomes. Finally, this study tested the effects of feelings of hope on persuasion outcomes. This study takes an important step toward enabling the effective use of hope appeals in persuasive communication.
Analysis of angiogenesis genes from paraffin-embedded breast tumor and lymph nodes.

Background Angiogenesis is important in tumor growth and metastasis. Germ-line polymorphisms critical to the angiogenesis pathway have been shown to confer prognostic information in multiple tumor types. These genes include vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS).
Small-molecule glycoprotein IIb/IIIa antagonists and bleeding risk in women: too much of a good thing?

Initial treatment strategies for patients who present with non–ST-segment–elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTE ACSs) recommend early administration of both antiplatelet and antithrombotic therapies. Clinical trials have borne out the efficacy of upstream use of small-molecule glycoprotein IIb/IIIa (GP IIb/IIIa) antagonists in high-risk patients identified by positive cardiac serum markers and ST-segment ECG changes. In troponin-positive patients, these agents were found to be equally efficacious in men and women.1 The magnitude of risk reduction is significant; a meta-analysis has demonstrated an ≈9% relative reduction in the odds of death or myocardial infarction at 30 days in patients treated with GP IIb/IIIa antagonists.1 Article p 1380 Despite these clinical benefits, the decision to treat with a GP IIb/IIIa antagonist must consider, and adjust for, the increased risk of major bleeding inherent with the use of these agents. Meta-analyses have found a 32% increased risk of moderate to major bleeding in GP IIb/IIIa antagonist–treated patients, with an increased incidence of adverse hemorrhagic events in women compared with men (3.0% versus 2.2%).1,2 It is of particular interest that female gender has been identified consistently as a risk factor for hemorrhagic events.3 In women, the increased incidence of bleeding after GP IIb/IIIa antagonist administration has been attributed to advanced age at presentation, higher-risk clinical characteristics, and smaller body surface area (BSA) compared with their male counterparts, as well as altered platelet function and gender-specific differences in pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic effects.4–6 Although these risk factors were suggested by clinical trial results, “real-world” experience often differs significantly.7 Therefore, registry studies may provide valuable insight into the factors contributing to the increased risk of bleeding in women treated with small-molecule GP IIb/IIIa antagonists. In this issue of Circulation , Alexander et al8 examine the influence of gender on bleeding complications in …
Firm Preferences for Environmental Regulation

This paper summarizes the findings of two papers that examine the effect of environmental regulation on the production decisions and profits of polluting and green firms. Using a game-theoretic framework, we find conditions under which the green firm favors regulation (a standard finding), but also derive conditions for the opposite – and more surprising – scenario, whereby the green firm opposes environmental regulation, while the brown firm favors it. We also show that similar preference reversals can occur towards uniform and fine-tuned regulation. Our study highlights the role that firm heterogeneity plays in determining firm preferences towards environmental regulation.
Mice Deficient for Both Corticotropin-Releasing Factor Receptor 1 (CRFR1) and CRFR2 Have an Impaired Stress Response and Display Sexually Dichotomous Anxiety-Like Behavior

Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and its family of peptides are critical coordinators of homeostasis whose actions are mediated through their receptors, CRF receptor 1 (CRFR1) and CRFR2, found throughout the CNS and periphery. The phenotypes of mice deficient in either CRFR1 or CRFR2 demonstrate the critical role these receptors play. CRFR1-mutant mice have an impaired stress response and display decreased anxiety-like behavior, whereas CRFR2-mutant mice are hypersensitive to stress and display increased anxiety-like behavior. To further elucidate the roles of both CRF receptors and determine their interaction in behaviors, we have generated mice deficient in both CRFR1 and CRFR2. The behavioral phenotype of these mice demonstrates a novel role of the mother's genotype on development of pup anxiety. We have found that although the female double-mutant mice display anxiolytic-like behavior, the male double-mutant mice show significantly more anxiety-like behavior compared with the females. We have also determined that the dam's CRFR2 genotype affects the anxiety-like behavior of the male mice, such that a pup born to a heterozygous or mutant dam displays significantly more anxiety-like behavior regardless of that pup's genotype. Double-mutant mice also display an even greater impairment of their hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis response to stress than that of the CRFR1-mutant mice. CRF mRNA levels are elevated in CRFR1- and double-mutant mice, and urocortin III and vasopressin mRNA levels are increased in CRFR2- and double-mutant mice. These results indicate that both CRFR1 and CRFR2 have critical roles in gene regulation and the maintenance of homeostasis in response to stress.
Forwarding on Froggers Networks: Principle of Data Flow Equilibrium

Network with link intermittency is becoming an important sub-class of emerging networks of interest. Such a network like delay tolerant network (DTN) that exhibits long delay. However, it also demands higher order of magnitude of intermediate storage. In this research, we present a study of the transit reservoir requirements of this important class of network. We provide a framework to analytically determine the storage requirements. We also present a novel forwarding principle of data-flow-equilibrium, which can minimize the transit buffer requirement without impacting the delay optimality. Both-by analytical derivation of the upper bounds, and by extensive simulation we demonstrate that the principle can drastically reduce the transit buffer requirement without increasing the transport delay.
Inducing Ontological Co-occurrence Vectors

In this paper, we present an unsupervised methodology for propagating lexical cooccurrence vectors into an ontology such as WordNet. We evaluate the framework on the task of automatically attaching new concepts into the ontology. Experimental results show 73.9% attachment accuracy in the first position and 81.3% accuracy in the top-5 positions. This framework could potentially serve as a foundation for ontologizing lexical-semantic resources and assist the development of other largescale and internally consistent collections of semantic information.
Idiopathic Type 1 diabetes

The purpose of this article is to review the available pathophysiological and clinical studies of patients with idiopathic Type 1 diabetes. Idiopathic Type 1 diabetes is a common form of diabetes most commonly seen in obese African American individuals living in large urban areas. This type of diabetes usually presents with the typical signs and symptoms of Type 1 diabetes such as diabetic ketoacidosis but its subsequent clinical course often resembles Type 2 diabetes. The natural history and pathogenesis of idiopathic Type 1 diabetes is unknown because most of these studies on these patients were done shortly after diagnosis. For the most part, these patients have been treated as if they had Type 2 diabetes with diet and/or oral agents but recent studies suggest that patients have a very variable response to diet and oral agents. They seem to have better long-term glycemic control with the use of insulin therapy. Although the pathogenesis of this disease is unknown, it may be related to lipotoxicity, glucose toxicity or transcription factors involved in fuel metabolism.
Family Support and Substance Use Outcomes for Persons With Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders

This paper explores the relationship between direct support from family members and friends and substance use outcomes for people with co-occurring severe mental illness and substance use disorders. Data are from a 3-year randomized trial of 203 patients in treatment for dual disorders. Informal (family) caregivers for 174 participants were asked about economic assistance and direct care that they provided to participants. Associations between family support and substance use outcomes were examined with bivariate comparisons of abstainers and nonabstainers and with regression models using change in substance use and cumulative substance use as dependent measures. Family economic support was associated with substance abuse recovery in bivariate and regression analyses. Caregiving hours were significantly associated with substance use reduction but not with cumulative substance use. Informal support was not associated with changes in psychiatric symptoms. The findings suggest that direct family support may help people with dual disorders to reduce or eliminate their substance use. Further research is needed to confirm this connection and to establish the mechanisms by which support is useful.
Effects of short-term maternal separations on weaning stress in foals

Abstract Weaning is a complex process resulting in a number of physiological challenges that may have prolonged effects on foal welfare. We predicted that intensified maternal behaviour during early development reduces the negative effects associated with the weaning process. In this study, we subjected foals (n = 5) to 10 min separations from the dam at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 weeks of age and measured changes in a number of tactile and non-tactile maternal interactions. During weaning at 6 ± 0.5 months, we investigated the changes in salivary cortisol, heart rate and behavioural markers of stress in foals from the separation treatment group and compared them with control foals (n = 5). Mares initiated contact with their foals 0.3 ± 0.06 times during 30 min and this increased to 1.77 ± 0.06 times after separations (P
Advanced high brightness lasers

Summary form only given. High power semiconductor lasers-both diffraction-limited and high-brightness multimode have steadily increased in power, brightness, and wavelength range over the 1990s. In the past few years, advances in device design such as flared amplifiers, curved-and angled-grating cavities, and advances in microoptical beam correction have led to order of magnitude improvements in brightness and enabled new applications in displays, fiber communications, and solid-state laser pumping. This talk will address these recent device enhancements and the physical mechanisms that have been overcome and remain to be overcome in increasing the performance of high-brightness laser diodes.
In defense of J.A. Stratton (pulse transmission in lossy media)

The author shows that Maxwell's equations can be employed to predict pulse transmission in lossy media. He concludes that Harmuth and company are wrong in stating that Stratton's classic treatise contains a 'fundamental misunderstanding' in the application of the Laplace transform technique. >
ACCURACY OF PERCEPTION OF ATTITUDE: AN INTERGENERATIONAL INVESTIGATION

A group of 23 college students and a group of 21 60 + -yr.-olds responded to the Purpose-in-Life Test and the Collette-Lester Fear of Death Scale, both subjectively and in a manner they perceived the other generation would respond. Actual differences were found on two of the five measures; the older generation reported significantly higher purpose in life and less fear of personal death. Both groups rated the other as having less purpose in life and more fear of death and dying. The 60 + -yr.-old group was accurate in perceiving the college students' feeling of purpose in life, elevation of fear of personal death, and level of fear of the death of another, while the students accurately predicted the older group's ratings on the scales designed to measure the fear of dying of oneself and the feat of another's dying. A significant positive correlation was found between the raters' subjective response to Feat of Death of Others and their perceptions of the probable response of the other generation. Results, ...
A Realist Sexual Ethics

A very liberal sexual ethics now holds sway in Western culture, such that mutual consent alone is widely seen as morally legitimizing almost any sexual activity between adults. It is further commonly assumed by both philosophers and nonphilosophers that arguing for some alternative to liberal sexual ethics requires appeal to ethical commands specific to some religious tradition or other. The purpose of this paper is to challenge that assumption by suggesting some purely naturalistic and independently-plausible premises that can be used to argue for a much more conservative system of sexual ethics than is widely accepted today.
Minireview: MicroRNA Function in Pancreatic β Cells

MicroRNAs are small noncoding ribonucleotides that regulate mRNA translation or degradation and have major roles in cellular function. MicroRNA (miRNA) levels are deregulated or altered in many diseases. There is overwhelming evidence that miRNAs also play an important role in the regulation of glucose homeostasis and thereby may contribute to the establishment of diabetes. MiRNAs have been shown to affect insulin levels by regulating insulin production, insulin exocytosis, and endocrine pancreas development. Although a large number of miRNAs have been identified from pancreatic β-cells using various screens, functional studies that link most of the identified miRNAs to regulation of pancreatic β-cell function are lacking. This review focuses on miRNAs with important roles in regulation of insulin production, insulin secretion, and β-cell development, and will discuss only miRNAs with established roles in β-cell function.
A binomial and species-independent approach to trap capture analysis of flying insects.

Traps for monitoring of sying insect pests constitute a critical part of integrated pest management strategies. However, interpretation of trap captures is hampered by 1) factors associated with the performance of traps (i.e., lure, trap design, placement); 2) an often poorly deÞned relationship between trap captures and population density; and 3) interpretation approaches being highly speciÞc to a certain insect species, trapping method, or trapping environment. The main purpose of this study was to identify a trap capture interpretation approach with little sensitivity to characteristics speciÞc to a given data set, which would allow easier comparison of trapping data sets and make it easier to standardize sampling plans across insect pests and trapping environments. Based on Þts of trapping data sets to standard distributions (normal, Poisson, and negative binomial), evaluations of the index of aggregation, k, and linear regression coefÞcients from TaylorOs power law, we concluded that these characteristics varied considerably among data sets, which means that enumerative sampling plans may not be appropriate. Across 13 trapping data sets of six insect species, we showed a consistent nonlinear relationship between average trap captures and number of traps with zero captures and that the k can be stabilized by converting trapping data into binomial data. A trap interpretation approach based on number of zero captures is both easy to use, was found to be species-independent, and means that it may be possible to establish meaningful and reliable action thresholds based on trap captures of sying insects. Although developed using trapping data from food facilities, this approach may have application to trapping data from other environments as well.
Mark-Up Pricing Under Demand Uncertainty

This paper extends the mark-up rule relating a firm’s profit-maximizing price to its marginal cost and its elasticity of residual demand to the news vendor problem with endogenous pricing. Two adjustments are necessary. First, the relevant elasticity of demand is the elasticity of the average quantity sold with respect to price. Second, marginal cost is the marginal cost per unit of an expected unit sold, computed as the marginal cost of an additional unit produced divided by the expected fraction of the marginal unit produced that the firm sells. Applying this rule clarifies why increased uncertainty about demand can cause an increase in output with additive uncertainty and a reduction in output with multiplicative uncertainty.
One Weird Trick to Stop Selfish Miners: Fresh Bitcoins, A Solution for the Honest Miner (Poster Abstract)

In “Majority is not Enough: Bitcoin Mining is Vulnerable”, Eyal and Sirer study a Bitcoin mining strategy called selfish mining [1]. Under selfish mining, miners strategically withhold blocks to cheat Bitcoin’s mining incentive system. This represents a ‘tragedy of the commons’ in which selfish behavior is incentivized over honest behavior, eventually causing most miners to adopt the selfish strategy, despite it being harmful to Bitcoin [2] as a whole.
A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION

It was the turbulent spring of 1970. My second semester as a graduate teaching fellow at SUNY/Buffalo was drawing to a close, and it was time to start thinking about the focus for my oral qualifying examination. Beyond that, an even more terrifying prospect loomed before me like a ghostly, 300-page shadow, what to choose as my Ph.D. dissertation topic? I remember stopping timidly into the offices of various English Department e minences grises —Leslie Fiedler, Marcus Klein, Robert Creeley—and speaking with them about my newly kindled passion for modern poetry. In those heady days just after the untimely death of Charles . . .
Eye Safety Practices in U.S. Dental School Restorative Clinics, 2006

This study was conducted to determine how much progress U.S. dental schools have made in providing eye protection during restorative (adult operative and fixed prosthodontic) procedures since a 1979 survey. A seven-question survey was placed at a website, and fifty-five different U.S. dental schools were asked to complete the survey. Thirty-one schools responded (56 percent). Eighty-four percent of schools had safety glasses available for patients, but only 77 percent required usage during restorative procedures. Similarly, while 87 percent of schools required dental students working in restorative clinics to wear safety glasses, just 73 percent enforced the policy. Additionally, 84 percent provided blue light protection on curing lights and required students to wear eye protection while doing lab procedures. Compared to the 1979 survey, considerable progress has been made over the last twenty-seven years in protecting dental school patients and students from ocular injuries. Because one would hope to have 100 percent compliance on this issue, there is room for improvement in promoting patient eye safety and teaching good habits to dental students.
PQ data as a tool for improving power system operation and maintenance

This article shows the use power quality data as a tool for improving power system operation and maintenance. PQ data are used in existing system like customer service, system troubleshooting and periodic generation of compatibility reports. Existing use of PQ data is primarily a reactive response rather that proactive response. A very small percentage of the PQ data is mined for information. The untapped PQ monitoring database if properly utilized could provide valuable information that will allow utilities to take proactive actions for system improvement. Adaptive trending and flag generation event waveform signature recognition and flag generation, forwarding of flagged information to engineer and knowledge base to make decisions from the flag can provide information from data in an automated manner.
SNACKING, AVERSIVE IMAGERY, AND WEIGHT REDUCTION

Summary.-This study was designed to explore the relationship between reduced snacking and weight loss and to evaluate the effectiveness of an aversive imagery procedure. Twenry-two participants completed an 11-wk. program designed to reduce the frequency of snacking. Reading an aversive "fat sheet" immediately prior to or after snacking, combined with a point system, was no more effective in reducing snacking than was the point system alone. Although incidence of snacking was significantly reduced, weight loss was greatest during the baseline period, when snacking was most frequent. The correlation between weekly weight loss and weekly number of snacks was nonsignificant. These results suggest that a single-minded focus on the reduction of snacking is unlikely to produce significant weight loss for most dieters. A widespread assumption among dieters and weight control counselors alike is that the reduction of between-meal eating (snacking) can contribute significantly to weight loss. For example, a frequent claim is that eliminating even one small snack per day, such as a handful of peanuts, will produce an annual weight loss of about twenty pounds. Of course, this assumes that the dieter will not compensate by eating more frequent or larger meals or other snacks. The present study was designed to examine the relationship between reduced snacking and weight loss and to evaluate the effectiveness of aversive imagery (Cautela, 1967) in the reduction of snacking. Advertising at a midwestern university was used to recruit participants for an 11-wk. weight-loss program, which was specifically designed to modify snacking. Of 40 initial participants, 18 (45% ) did not complete the program and were excluded from the data analyses.' The resulting sample, who averaged 29% overweight, were 6 men and 16 women. During baseline (Week 1) and follow-up (Week 11 ) , participants were instructed to keep detailed daily records of all food intake, without attempting to modify their eating. During the treatment period (Weeks 2-10), each participant received three treatments, in consecutive 3-wk. blocks: rwo of the treatments involved reading a one page, aversive "fat sheet," immediately prior to or after snacking. These treatments also employed a point system that reinforced absence of snacking and the use 'Requesc reprints from the author, Psychology Department, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL 61920. Those who dropped from the program did not differ significantly from the completers on sex, initial percent overweight. initial treatment condition, frequency of snacking during baseline or treatment, or weight change during treatment. The dropouts did lose significantly less weight than the completers during baseline (0.6 vs 1.8 Ib.), perhaps indicating that the dropouts had lower motivation or greater difficulty losing weight.
Understanding the underlying mechanism of the spacing effect in verbal learning: a case for encoding variability and study-phase retrieval

ABSTRACTThe spacing effect refers to the mnemonic benefit of spacing repeated study events across time compared to massing (i.e. cramming) repeated study events. Due to the robustness of this finding, substantial research has been devoted to uncovering the spacing effect’s underlying mechanism. Specification of such a mechanism has been guided by consistent findings across methodologies and several experimental manipulations that serve as boundary conditions. Past reviews of the spacing effect literature have generally considered subsets of these factors but never an exhaustive set. Thus, the current review considers more comprehensively six consistent findings in the extant spacing effect literature pertaining to human memory to better discriminate among the previously proposed theories. Review of the literature provides substantial evidence indicating the need for an encoding variability mechanism [e.g. Glenberg, A. M. (1976). Monotonic and nonmonotonic lag effects in paired-associate and recognition me...
Vinblastine and methotrexate for advanced bladder cancer.

AbstractFifty-seven patients with advanced measurable urothelial tract cancer, 52 of whom had an adequate trial, were treated weekly with 3 to 4mg. per m.2 vinblastine and 30 to 40mg. per m.2 methotrexate.Of 3 patients with unidimensional parameters 2 showed improvement lasting 16 and 27 months, which was documented by serial cystoscopic examinations. An additional 2 patients had measurable disease that could have been encompassed in a preoperative radiotherapy field. Both patients are free of disease at more than 12 and 14 months, respectively. Of the 47 patients with bidimensionally measurable parameters 19 (40 per cent) achieved a complete or partial remission lasting a median of 8 months, with a range of 1 to 24 months. Of 25 patients with intra-abdominal or pelvic disease 7 achieved a complete or partial remission and 5 also had a minor remission. Of note, 18 of 38 patients who had received no prior chemotherapy achieved a remission versus 1 of 9 who had been treated previously (p equals 0.06). Respo...
Listening to refugees: How traditional mental health interventions may miss the mark

Understanding the dynamics of mental health of recently resettled refugees is an essential component of any comprehensive resettlement program, yet establishing the components of a successful and acceptable mental health intervention is an elusive task. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 resettled refugees from five countries who had received treatment for depression, post-traumatic stress symptoms, or anxiety. Themes generated from the interviews emphasized the need for strong group-based social support as well as a focus on practical needs such as acquiring and maintaining employment, language and literacy training, and access to care.
From bauxite to cooking pots: Aluminum, chemistry, and West African artisanal production.

The history of aluminum’s transformation from a precious to a commonplace metal over the course of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries has frequently been told as a narrative about intrepid...
Lattice Materials with Reversible Foldability

The authors introduce a new class of lattice materials, where a controlled simultaneous folding of the lattice walls results in a significant size reduction while preserving the overall shape of the original lattice. This reversible folding scheme results in 67 and 50% reduction in size at each level for lattices with triangular and square grid topologies, respectively, while the design enables multiple levels of folding to achieve a desired final size. The authors study the elastic properties and the phononic band structure of the lattice at different stages of folding, using analytical and finite element methods. The proposed concept provides new opportunities for the development of multifunctional deployable structures through significant changes in the size and properties of lattice materials by folding.
Screening with whole-body MRI (WB-MRI) in pediatric patients with Li Fraumeni syndrome (LFS).

10071 Background: LFS is a rare hereditary cancer syndrome characterized by a high risk of developing a wide range of malignancies. Germline mutations in the tp53 gene confer approximately a 12-fol...
Synthesis of β-carbolines via a silver-mediated oxidation of tetrahydro-β-carbolines

Abstract The oxidation of tetrahydro-β-carbolines to β-carbolines using silver carbonate was developed as an alternative to current methods. The oxidation is extremely mild and provides the products in modest to good yields after purification. A number of functional groups are tolerated by this methodology, including reduction-sensitive groups which are often cleaved with other methods. Though the mechanism is not fully understood, the reaction proceeds in an open flask, is not sensitive to light or moisture, and provides a viable synthetic route to compounds that are not easily prepared via other methodologies.
A regularized clustering approach to brain parcellation from functional MRI data

We consider a data-driven approach for the subdivision of an individual subject's functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scan into regions of interest, i.e., brain parcellation. The approach is based on a computational technique for calculating resolution from inverse problem theory, which we apply to neighborhood selection for brain connectivity networks. This can be efficiently calculated even for very large images, and explicitly incorporates regularization in the form of spatial smoothing and a noise cutoff. We demonstrate the reproducibility of the method on multiple scans of the same subjects, as well as the variations between subjects.
Mentor's Introduction for Asavari Thatte

This is an introduction of the study and doctoral dissertation of Asavari Thatte. The introduction positions the story of Totto-chan, the young protagonist of a book which takes place in Japan during World War II, with Asavari Thatte’s dissertation about the Learning Home, a non-profit school in India. Through narrative inquiry, the study encourages readers to consider lived experiences and embodied pursuits of learning at the Learning Home through interconnected relationships of curriculum, place, and design.
The Effect of Computerized Physician Order Entry Template Modifications on the Administration of High-Risk Medications in Older Adults in the Emergency Department

Older adults are more susceptible to adverse events when administered certain medications at doses appropriate for younger adults. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of default geriatric dosing on computerized physician order entry (CPOE) templates on the subsequent administration of recommended starting doses of opioids, benzodiazepines (BZDs) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to older adults in the emergency department (ED). This was a before–after comparison of the frequency of the recommended starting doses of high-risk medications to adults aged 65 years and older. Computerized records were queried for the administration of the above medication classes in two academic EDs over two similar 4-month periods in 2015 and 2016. Between study periods, the doses of high-risk medications on ED CPOE templates were adjusted for older adults based on established pharmacy guidelines and expert consensus. There was a significant improvement in the rate of recommended dose administration of all medications of interest (27.3 vs. 32.5%, p < 0.001). Not surprisingly, the medications that were maximally impacted were also those most frequently prescribed, with a significant increase in the recommended dosing of opioids (29.0 vs. 35.2%, p < 0.001) accounting for the majority of the change. Although there were no differences in BZDs as a group, there were significant differences in selected BZDs such as midazolam and diazepam. Changes in the recommended dosing of NSAIDs could not be determined due to low numbers of administered doses in both phases of the study. Simple changes in the CPOE template resulted in increased administration of the recommended starting doses of high-risk medications to older adults in the ED.
Alternative pathway (cyanobacteria to eukaryota)

It is quite evident from the fossil record that prokaryotic cells were the first cell type evolved. After a long interval of nearly two billion years eukaryotic cells appeared. There is little doubt that this cell type arose from the bacterial cell. How this occurred has been the subject of much speculation. In this chapter we will present evidence that supports the idea that the eukaryotic cell arose by slow gradual change in a prokaryotic cell. This process of arriving at the eukaryotic cell has been termed the ‘Autogenous Theory’ (Klein and Cronquist 1967; Klein 1970; Cavalier-Smith, 1975; Taylor 1976).
Parameter-less population pyramid for large-scale tower optimization

Abstract The parameter-less population pyramid (P3) is a recent evolutionary computation algorithm proposed for black box optimization. Shown to be efficient for a variety of benchmark problems, P3 replaces the conventional constant population model with expanding sets of expanding populations. We investigated how this new metaheuristic optimization algorithm would transfer to optimize large-scale tower structure problems involving different constraints: geometric and mechanical. P3 is examined by optimizing two discrete tower design problems, 26-story and 35- story tower structures. The performance of P3 is compared with other well-known evolutionary algorithms for black-box optimization including random restart hill climbing, parameter-less hierarchical Bayesian optimization algorithm, differential evolution, and a modified genetic algorithm. The results show that does P3 not only finds the best final solutions, but it also reaches high quality solutions much faster than the other algorithms This fast optimization is vital for the tedious and large-scale structural engineering problems. Finally, the unique search features used in the P3 and the implications for future studies are discussed.
Excitation--Contraction Uncoupling and Vasodilators for Long-Term Cold Preservation of Isolated Hearts

Publisher Summary Many approaches have been taken to preserve hearts for long periods. The usual clinical approach to reduce myocardial reperfusion damage is to flush the clamped aortic root with a cold, high-potassium (KCl cardioplegic) solution to arrest the heart prior to harvest. Another experimental approach for preserving hearts is to perfuse isolated hearts for one day with a cold, but normal, extracellular ionic solution containing metabolic inhibitors and vasodilators. This chapter compares several treatments for preserving hearts after long-term hypothermic perfusion. Four hypothermia groups of isolated guinea pig hearts have been perfused at about one-third normal coronary flow at 3.8°C for 23 hr. The major objective has been to determine of which four cold perfusate solutions best preserves myocardial perfusion and function. The results indicate that low-flow cardiac perfusion with a normal ionic solution containing butanedione monoxime (BDM), adenosine (ADE), and nitroprusside (NP) gives better long-term protection in in vitro hearts than solutions containing BDM alone or high KCl; moreover, high-KCl solution protects no better than extracellular solutions containing normal KCl. Because responses to ADE, acetylcholine (Ach), and NP have been blunted after reperfusion in all hypothermia groups, it appears that both the endothelium and vascular smooth muscle are damaged. It follows that if coronary flow is sufficiently reduced because of damage to resistance vessels or to their endothelial lining on reperfusion, myocardial contractility would likely be depressed as oxygen supply decreases relative to demand.
Nanoparticle Tracking for Protein Aggregation Research.

Protein aggregates are the pathological agents in several neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease. In the pharmaceutical industry, protein aggregation poses significant challenges to the manufacture of biologics. Nanoparticle tracking is an emerging technology that allows particle-by-particle measurement of aggregate size and concentration. The technique is solution based, and requires no labeling. Here we describe protocols for using nanoparticle tracking in protein aggregation research, and provide a few examples for illustrative purposes.
Distress in Emerging Adults: Further Evaluation of the Painful Feelings About Divorce Scale

Young adults from divorced families experience clear emotional distress despite most not meeting diagnostic criteria for emotional disorders. Laumann-Billings and Emery (2000) developed the Painful Feelings About Divorce (PFAD) scale to assess the emotional distress emerging adults feel regarding childhood parental divorce. The study sample is undergraduates predominately between the ages of 18 and 22. This study adds to the literature by (a) further demonstrating the PFAD scale reliability and validity, (b) including participants with both divorced and separated but never married parents, and (c) assessing generalizability of the PFAD with a more diverse socioeconomic sample.
Assessment of Chen and Other Methods for Estimating Intensity-Duration-Frequency Functions

AbstractEstimation of intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) functions at ungauged locations is sometimes done using the method introduced by Chen in 1983 [Chen, C. 1983. “Rainfall intensity-duration-f...
Not Necessarily Proper: Comstock's Errors and Limitations

In United States v. Comstock, the Supreme Court upheld § 4248 of the Adam Walsh Act, which allows for the civil commitment of federal prisoners deemed “sexually dangerous” for an indefinite period after they’ve completed their sentences. The case dealt with that most basic of constitutional questions: Where does Congress find its authority to enact a particular law? Justice Breyer, writing for the majority, found warrant for § 4248 in Congress’s power “to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution” its other powers. But which of Congress’s enumerated powers does § 4248 execute? And is § 4248 necessary and proper for executing that power? Unfortunately, the Court focused mainly on the second question, arguing that Congress has “broad authority” to enact laws to further its enumerated powers. Moreover, the five-factor “test” Breyer offered asked not whether § 4248 was necessary and proper for executing an enumerated power but for “a jumble of unenumerated ‘authorities,’” as Justice Thomas put it in a searching dissent joined by Justice Scalia. Fortunately, Justice Breyer’s opinion was joined in full by only four other justices — with Justices Kennedy and Alito writing separately to emphasize the strict requirements that federal laws invoking the Necessary and Proper Clause must meet (even if those requirements were satisfied here). These concurrences, along with an impracticable majority opinion and a logically powerful dissent, suggest that Comstock may have limited application beyond the four corners of civil commitment law. Most prominently, Comstock seems to have little effect on the ongoing Obamacare litigation.
An introduction to real-time embedded systems

A vast majority of all microprocessors manufactured today are used in embedded systems. These systems are distinguished by their interaction with unique hardware, concurrent measurement and control of analog environmental variables, predictable response times, reliability, and safety. Unfortunately, very few undergraduate computer science programs address the special issues involved in the specification, design, implementation, testing, or verification of real-time embedded software. As result, most embedded software is developed by electrical engineers with a course or two in C programming. As computing hardware continues to decline in price and increase in power, applications we had never dreamed of in the past are now possible. The inevitable increase in software complexity requires development team members with skills beyond basic C programming -- the skills of a computer science graduate.
From the Fireside Chats to the First Political Tweet: The Origin and Diffusion of Political Communication Innovations from the Radio to the Internet

Many argue that the increasing sophistication and innovation of political communication is primarily a technology driven process created by the development and application of new information and communication technologies (ICTs). The reality is, however, that the process of innovating political communication strategies is a very human one, conducted by politicians, strategists, and political organizations of all shapes and sizes. If these decisions are based ultimately on human choice, then what leads some political organizations to innovate their political communication strategies earlier than others? Each organization weighs the risks of early innovation against the potential benefits, and chooses their actions accordingly. However these decisions are not based simply on how risky the organization may or may not be. In this study I compare political communication innovations and diffusion rates of major campaign innovations that have taken place over the past century. I find that the resources, challenger status, and competitiveness of each organization ultimately characterized more innovative campaigns, however these characteristics accounted for a relatively small amount of the variation in innovation speed overall. Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this study was the realization that a consistent amount of time exists between the first use of a new technology and its consistent use. This diffusion of political communication innovations is also consistently influenced by the penetration rate of each of the new ICTs. Together this leads to the important finding that although the decision process to be among the first to innovate varies to a large degree, the process of the diffusion of these political communication innovations does not.
Spin Polarization in Ion-Atom Collisions Studied with Ion Storage Techniques

Spin-dependent charge transfer collisions and spin exchange collisions have been studied for ion-atom systems. The measurements were carried out using a radiofrequency quadrupole ion trap and an atomic beam apparatus. The polarization of the collision partners was changed by radiofrequency and optical pumping techniques. The ion storage exchange collision method and reorientation spectroscopy are described.
On the dependability and feasibility of layperson ratings of divergent thinking

A new system for subjective rating of responses to divergent thinking tasks was tested using raters recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. The rationale for the study was to determine if such raters could provide reliable (aka generalizable) ratings from the perspective of generalizability theory. To promote reliability across the Alternative Uses and Consequence task prompts often used by researchers as measures of Divergent Thinking, two parallel scales were developed to facilitate feasibility and validity of ratings performed by laypeople. Generalizability and dependability studies were conducted separately for two scoring systems: the average-rating system and the snapshot system. Results showed that it is difficult to achieve adequate reliability using the snapshot system, while good reliability can be achieved on both task families using the average-rating system and a specific number of items and raters. Additionally, the construct validity of the average-rating system is generally good, with less validity for certain Consequences items. Recommendations for researchers wishing to adopt the new scales are discussed, along with broader issues of generalizability of subjective creativity ratings.
A Policy Synthesis-Based Framework for Robot Rescue Decision-Making in Multi-Robot Exploration of Disaster Sites

_ In this work we investigate the problem of intelligent decision-making of robot rescue in the context of disaster-site exploration. We consider the performance of a policy synthesis-based framework with a focus on the robustness of the generated policies with respect to uncertainties in the state estimates. Online state estimation is required to execute a policy; however, this must be done with a limited amount of data and a considerable amount of uncertainty. As a result, there is inherently some amount of error when making a decision. By systematically introducing varying amounts of error into the estimates of state parameters, we provide an empirical sensitivity analysis as it relates to the availability of information and impact on mission performance. We show that our policy synthesis-based framework can achieve superior performance, compared to two feasible baseline approaches with respect to the probability of mission failure, when there is up to 15 % error in the estimation of critical state components.
Optical Signatures of Transiently Disordered Semiconductor Nanocrystals

The optoelectronic properties of semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) have led to efforts to integrate them as the active material in light-emitting diodes, solid-state lighting, and lasers. Understanding related high carrier injection conditions is therefore critical as resultant thermal effects can impact optical properties. The physical integrity of NCs is indeed questionable as recent transient X-ray diffraction studies have suggested that nanoscopic particles reversibly lose crystalline order, or melt, under high fluence photoexcitation. Informed by such studies, here, we examine CdSe NCs under elevated fluences to determine the impact of lattice disordering on optical properties. To this end, we implement intensity-dependent transient absorption using both one- and two-pump methods where the latter effectively subtracts out the NC optical signatures associated with lower fluence photoexcitation, especially band-edge features. At elevated fluences, we observe a long-lived induced absorption at a lower en...
What Will Search Engines be Changed by NLP Advancements

I think that the vision of a search engine is "Natural Search" with which users input his or her search intent in a natural way such as using natural language or an image and immediately obtains the desired accurate information which is concisely and comprehensibly expressed. During this process, NLP is undoubtedly one of the most crucial technologies. In the past, the search engine uses limited and shallow NLP technologies because NLP technology is not as mature as people have expected. In recent years, we have witnessed that NLP has made huge advances in various tasks such as semantic parser, question-answering, machine translation, machine reading comprehension and text generation. I think that now it is the time to consider applying these new technologies to a search engine to further improve the intelligence and naturalness of the search process. It is necessary to understand the new progress of NLP and their potential impact to a search engine. In this talk, I first provide an overview of advancements of methodology and technology in NLP filed in recent years. Then I will share my thoughts about the promising change of search engines brought by these new NLP technologies. I will further elaborate my thoughts on changing search engine with a set of intelligent question-answering techniques comprising semantic parser, question-answering and machine reading comprehension. Although these new promising NLP have rapidly brought meaningful change to a search engine, there are still many problems unsolved. As a conclusion, a list of the challenging topics will be proposed with my initial thoughts of solutions.
Modification of nano-silver bioactivity by adsorption on carbon nanotubes and graphene oxide.

Objective: The toxicity of silver nanomaterials in various forms has been extensively evaluated, but the toxicity of silver nanocarbon composites is less well understood. Therefore, silver-carbon n...