cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
VEGFA and VEGFR2 Gene Polymorphisms and Response to Anti-Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Therapy Comparison of Age-Related Macular Degeneration Treatments Trials (CATT)

Importance Individual variation in response and duration of anti–vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy is seen among patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Identification of genetic markers that affect clinical response may result in optimization of anti-VEGF therapy. Objective To evaluate the pharmacogenetic relationship between genotypes of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the VEGF signaling pathway and response to treatment with ranibizumab or bevacizumab for neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Design, Setting, and Participants In total, 835 of 1149 patients (72.7%) participating in the Comparison of Age-Related Macular Degeneration Treatments Trials (CATT) at 43 CATT clinical centers. Intervention Each patient was genotyped for 7 SNPs in VEGFA (rs699946, rs699947, rs833069, rs833070, rs1413711, rs2010963, and rs2146323) and 1 SNP in VEGFR2 (rs2071559) using TaqMan SNP genotyping assays. Main Outcomes and Measures Genotypic frequencies were compared with clinical measures of response to therapy at 1 year, including the mean visual acuity, mean change in visual acuity, at least a 15-letter increase, retinal thickness, mean change in total foveal thickness, presence of fluid on optical coherence tomography, presence of leakage on fluorescein angiography, mean change in lesion size, and mean number of injections administered. Differences in response by genotype were evaluated with tests of linear trend calculated from logistic regression models for categorical outcomes and linear regression models for continuous outcomes. The method of controlling the false discovery rate was used to adjust for multiple comparisons. Results For each of the measures of visual acuity evaluated, no association was observed with any of the genotypes or with the number of risk alleles. Four VEGFA SNPs demonstrated an association with retinal thickness: rs699947 ( P = .03), rs833070 ( P = .04), rs1413711 ( P = .045), and rs2146323 ( P = .006). However, adjusted P values for these associations were all statistically nonsignificant (range, P = .24 to P = .45). Among the participants in 2 as-needed groups, no association was found in the number of injections among the different genotypes or for the total number of risk alleles. The effect of risk alleles on each clinical measure did not differ by treatment group, drug, or dosing regimen ( P > .01 for all). Conclusions and Relevance This study provides evidence that no pharmacogenetic associations exist between the studied VEGFA and VEGFR2 SNPs and response to anti-VEGF therapy. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier:NCT00593450
Mechanical stimuli and IL-13 interact at integrin adhesion complexes to regulate expression of smooth muscle myosin heavy chain in airway smooth muscle tissue

Airway smooth muscle phenotype may be modulated in response to external stimuli under physiological and pathophysiological conditions. The effect of mechanical forces on airway smooth muscle phenotype were evaluated in vitro by suspending weights of 0.5 or 1 g from the ends of canine tracheal smooth muscle tissues, incubating the weighted tissues for 6 h, and then measuring the expression of the phenotypic marker protein, smooth muscle myosin heavy chain (SmMHC). Incubation of the tissues at a high load significantly increased expression of SmMHC compared with incubation at low load. Incubation of the tissues at a high load also decreased activation of PKB/Akt, as indicated by its phosphorylation at Ser 473. Inhibition of Akt or phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5 triphosphate-kinase increased SmMHC expression in tissues at low load but did not affect SmMHC expression at high load. IL-13 induced a significant increase in Akt activation and suppressed the expression of SmMHC protein at both low and high loads. The role of integrin signaling in mechanotransduction was evaluated by expressing a PINCH (LIM1-2) fragment in the muscle tissues that prevents the membrane localization of the integrin-binding IPP complex (ILK/PINCH/α-parvin), and also by expressing an inactive integrin-linked kinase mutant (ILK S343A) that inhibits endogenous ILK activity. Both mutants inhibited Akt activation and increased expression of SmMHC protein at low load but had no effect at high load. These results suggest that mechanical stress and IL-13 both act through an integrin-mediated signaling pathway to oppositely regulate the expression of phenotypic marker proteins in intact airway smooth muscle tissues. The stimulatory effects of mechanical stress on contractile protein expression oppose the suppression of contractile protein expression mediated by IL-13; thus the imposition of mechanical strain may inhibit changes in airway smooth muscle phenotype induced by inflammatory mediators.
Roy’s Specific Life Values and the Philosophical Assumption of Veritivity:

Roman Catholic beliefs that form the basis for Roy's life values are discussed to help others understand veritivity and the Roy adaptation model more clearly. Veritivity, the main philosophical assumption of the Roy adaptation model, shapes it, and Roy's assumption of humanism in a unique way. Veritivity has a theocentric focus, with anthropological values. Roy views human beings as individuals in community with a loving Creator and with others. Truth, freedom, and moral ends are discussed in terms of veritivity and in terms of contemporary values.
Electromagnetic Models of Co/Cross Polarization of Bicontinuous/DMRT in Radar Remote Sensing of Terrestrial Snow at X- and Ku-band for CoReH2O and SCLP Applications

In this paper, we study the scattering properties of the terrestrial dry snow by modeling the snow structure as Bi-continuous media. The model is applied to study the snow scattering characteristics at X-band and Ku-band that are two frequencies in the proposed Cold Regions Hydrology High-resolution Observatory (CoReH2O) mission by ESA and the proposed Snow and Cold Land Process (SCLP) mission by NASA. There are two variables in the Bi-continuous media that can be adjusted to generate various snow microstructures. The different snow structures are illustrated. The extinction properties and phase matrices are studied through the Monte Carlo simulations. For each realization, the Maxwell Equations are solved numerically to take into account the coherent wave interactions among the inhomogeneties. We demonstrated the frequency dependences of scattering coefficients, which can vary depending on the setup parameters of the bicontinuous media. The power law are compared with experiment data of extinction coefficients of terrestrial snow. The calculated extinction and phase matrices are combined in the Dense Media Radiative Transfer theory (DMRT). We obtain the 1st order solution by using the iterative method. The surface scattering from the snow-ground interface is included by searching the look up table of NMM3D. The results of co-polarization and cross polarization are compared with the POLSCAT Ku-band airborne data and X-band TerraSAR-X satellite data in North Slope, Alaska.
Head impacts during high school football: a biomechanical assessment

rotational acceleration occurred in defensive linemen and with impacts to the front of the helmet. Impacts with the highestmagnitude jerk, force, and impulse and shortest duration occurred in the offensive skill, defensive line, offensive line, and defensive skill players, respectively. Top-of-the-helmet impacts yielded the greatest magnitude for the same variables. Conclusions: We are the first to provide a biomechanical characterization of head impacts in an interscholastic football team across a season of play. The intensity of game play manifested with more frequent and intense impacts. The highest-magnitude variables were distributed across all player groups, but impacts to the top of the helmet yielded the highest values. These high school football athletes appeared to sustain greater accelerations after impact than their older counterparts did. How this finding relates to concussion occurrence has yet to be elucidated.
Creating the Dropout: An Institutional and Social History of School Failure

Introduction Long-Term Demographic Patterns The Changing Mission of High Schools Early Attitudes Toward Attrition "Social Dynamite" The Limits of Dropout Programs Omissions Dropout Tides The Demeaning Dropout Debate Sources Index
Millimeter-wave GaAs monolithic multipliers

This paper describes the design, fabrication and experimental results for planar monolithic multipliers with output frequencies in W- and D-band. The multipliers are fabricated using FGC (Finite Ground Coplanar) lines which provide a low loss, low dispersion near-TEM structure. This structure allows circuit fabrication on full thickness wafers with no via holes. A variety of circuits have been designed and fabricated. Different W-band multipliers have an output efficiency of 22.9%, a peak output power of 66 milliwatts and an output bandwidth greater than 8 GHz in W-band. Initial D-band results show an uncalibrated output of approximately 100 /spl mu/W at 160 GHz.
PolyPoint: Guiding Indoor Quadrotors with Ultra-Wideband Localization

We introduce PolyPoint, the first RF localization system which enables the real-time tracking and navigating of quadrotors through complex indoor environments. PolyPoint leverages the new ScenSor transceiver from DecaWave to acquire the timestamps necessary for accurate time-based location estimation and leverages the benefits of antenna and frequency diversity to iteratively refine a tag's position. PolyPoint produces quadrotor position estimates at a rate of 20 Hz with median error below 40 cm and average error of 56 cm in line-of-sight conditions. PolyPoint approaches the localization accuracy necessary to safely navigate quadrotors indoors, a feat currently achieved by costly and delicate optical motion capture systems.
The Hell Creek Formation and the Cretaceous–Tertiary Boundary in the Northern Great Plains: An Integrated Continental Record of the End of the Cretaceous

The Hell Creek Formation and the Cretaceous–Tertiary Boundary in the Northern Great Plains: An Integrated Continental Record of the End of the Cretaceous, J.H. Hartman, K.R. Johnson, and D.J. Nichols, (eds.), 2002, Geological Society of America Special Paper 361, Boulder, USA, 520 p. (Softcover, GSA Members, US$ 96.00, Non-Members, US $120.00) ISBN: 0-8137-2361-2. These days, who publishes a large volume devoted to a single geological formation? The approach seems positively nineteenth century; however in this case, the work is timely, appropriate, and important. The Hell Creek Formation (HCF) is the well-known and oft-cited nexus of terrestrial Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) boundary research. It contains the whole package: palynomorphs, a megaflora, a K/T boundary with all the trimmings (Iridium, microtektites, the boundary couplet, soot), extraordinarily abundant vertebrates (including those K/T poster children, dinosaurs) and, by terrestrial standards, something approaching continuous sedimentation. It breathes promise of containing the keys to all questions K/T-ish; and indeed, it has been implicated by innumerable authors to sustain their takes on what transpired 65 Ma. The only problem is that those viewpoints have historically been contradictory and mutually exclusive. Special Paper 361 is, as it claims, “an integrated continental record of the end of the Cretaceous.” The key word is “integrated.” The central geological theme underscores and reaffirms the importance of the geosciences to the apparently biological questions that are the focus of so many extinction analyses. And while on the face of it some of the geological contributions appear not to bear directly upon more glamorous extinction …
The Cobleskill Creed, Guiding Principles Supporting Community and Character

An off-campus housing party led to serious violence, leaving a first year student lying in a snow bank in subfreezing weather, severely beaten, unconscious, clinging for his life. This act of violence challenged one college campus to question its own character. In response, the campus came together to create the “Cobleskill Creed,” a set of values statements which serve as the institution’s guiding principles for character development. This paper will discuss the issue of violence and character development, explore this significant incident and its aftermath and document the intentional work of the State University College of New York at Cobleskill community to develop the Cobleskill Creed and integrate it into the fabric of the institution.
Safety Nets Can Help Address the Risks to Nutrition from Increasing Climate Variability

Models of climate change predict increased variability of weather as well as changes in agro-ecology. The increased variability will pose special challenges for nutrition. This study reviews evidence on climate shocks and nutrition and estimates the economic consequences in terms of reduced schooling and economic productivity stemming from nutritional insults in childhood. Panel data covering up to 20 y indicate that that short-term climate shocks have long-term impacts on children that persist, often into their adult lives. Other studies document the potential for relief programs to offset these shocks providing that the programs can be implemented with flexible financing, rapid identification of those affected by the shock, and timely scale-up. The last of these presumes that programs are already in place with contingency plans drawn up. Arguably, direct food distribution, including that of ready-to-use therapeutic food, may be part of the overall strategy. Even if such programs are too expensive for sustainable widespread use in the prevention of malnutrition, scalable food distribution programs may be cost effective to address the heightened risk of malnutrition following weather-related shocks.
Special Report: NCBI disease corpus: A resource for disease name recognition and concept normalization

Information encoded in natural language in biomedical literature publications is only useful if efficient and reliable ways of accessing and analyzing that information are available. Natural language processing and text mining tools are therefore essential for extracting valuable information, however, the development of powerful, highly effective tools to automatically detect central biomedical concepts such as diseases is conditional on the availability of annotated corpora. This paper presents the disease name and concept annotations of the NCBI disease corpus, a collection of 793 PubMed abstracts fully annotated at the mention and concept level to serve as a research resource for the biomedical natural language processing community. Each PubMed abstract was manually annotated by two annotators with disease mentions and their corresponding concepts in Medical Subject Headings (MeSH(R)) or Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM(R)). Manual curation was performed using PubTator, which allowed the use of pre-annotations as a pre-step to manual annotations. Fourteen annotators were randomly paired and differing annotations were discussed for reaching a consensus in two annotation phases. In this setting, a high inter-annotator agreement was observed. Finally, all results were checked against annotations of the rest of the corpus to assure corpus-wide consistency. The public release of the NCBI disease corpus contains 6892 disease mentions, which are mapped to 790 unique disease concepts. Of these, 88% link to a MeSH identifier, while the rest contain an OMIM identifier. We were able to link 91% of the mentions to a single disease concept, while the rest are described as a combination of concepts. In order to help researchers use the corpus to design and test disease identification methods, we have prepared the corpus as training, testing and development sets. To demonstrate its utility, we conducted a benchmarking experiment where we compared three different knowledge-based disease normalization methods with a best performance in F-measure of 63.7%. These results show that the NCBI disease corpus has the potential to significantly improve the state-of-the-art in disease name recognition and normalization research, by providing a high-quality gold standard thus enabling the development of machine-learning based approaches for such tasks. The NCBI disease corpus, guidelines and other associated resources are available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/CBBresearch/Dogan/DISEASE/.
Creating point sources for codling moth (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) with low-volume sprays of a microencapsulated sex pheromone formulation.

Studies were conducted to examine the deposition of microcapsules and the attractiveness of treated apple leaves, Malus domestica Borkhausen, for codling moth, Cydia pomonella L., after low-volume concentrated sprays [24.7 g (AI) in 12 liters of water/ha] of a microencapsulated (MEC) sex pheromone formulation (CheckMate CM-F). Nearly 30% of leaves collected from sprayed zones within tree canopies had no microcapsules, whereas 20% had >20 microcapsules. Microcapsule density was correlated with leaf area, and significant differences in the density of microcapsules per leaf were found because of both height and depth in the canopy relative to the sprayed zone and leaf surface. In general, the highest concentration of microcapsules was deposited on the underside of leaves in the sprayed zone. However, deposition was greater on the upper than the bottom surface of leaves in the canopy below the spray zone and in the tops of trees on the opposite side of the canopy. Field-aged MEC-treated apple leaves elicited upwind flight and moth contact in flight tunnel tests for at least 5 wk. Precipitation reduced the attractiveness of leaves, particularly for leaves treated only on their upper versus bottom surface. Traps in unsprayed orchards baited with MEC-treated artificial leaves were attractive for 5 wk. Moth catches in similar traps placed in MEC-sprayed plots were low but increased significantly over 3–4 wk. These data suggest that, after a brief initial period of sensory disruption, low-volume MEC sprays create point sources of sex pheromone (leaves) within the orchard that may enhance mating disruption through competitive attraction.
Long Term Care Insurance Beyond the CLASS Program

The Community Living Assistance and Supports (CLASS) program, created under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, established a federally-administered, voluntary insurance program that allows for working adults to purchase insurance to cover the cost of long term support services. The CLASS program is the first step towards moving away from a welfare-based system, improving consumer choice, and creating a stable funding source for long term care needs. Enrollees in the CLASS program who meet benefit eligibility requirements and need care assistance will receive a cash benefit to pay for supportive services such as home health care, adult day services, assisted living, nursing home care, housing modification, assistive technologies, and transportation assistance. The authors apply David Gil’s (1992) model of social policy analysis to assess the effectiveness of this policy alternative to aid in the development of a viable national long term health care solution for the anticipated ongoing health and support service needs of the older adult population.
Effect of 2450 MHz Microwave Radiation on Concanavalin A or Ionophore-induced Histamine Release from Rat Peritoneal Mast Cells

(1981). Effect of 2450 MHz Microwave Radiation on Concanavalin A or Ionophore-induced Histamine Release from Rat Peritoneal Mast Cells. International Journal of Radiation Biology and Related Studies in Physics, Chemistry and Medicine: Vol. 39, No. 6, pp. 671-675.
Structure, magnetism, and magnetostrictive properties of mechanically alloyed Fe81Ga19

Abstract In this work, structure–magnetic property correlations and the magnetostrictive response of mechanically alloyed powders of composition Fe81Ga19 were investigated using a variety of structural and magnetic probes. X-ray diffraction analysis of the as-milled powders suggests the presence of a chemically-disordered body-centered cubic phase. Thermal annealing of powder compacts results in formation of a secondary phase that demonstrates the cubic ordered L12 crystal structure. Magnetostriction measurements indicate that the magnetoelastic properties of the polycrystalline Fe81Ga19 compacts can be tailored by increasing the milling time duration followed by an anneal of the as-milled powders at 900 °C for 2 h in an Ar gas environment (O2
The Potential Explanatory Role of Perceived Stress in Associations Between Subjective Social Status and Health-Related Quality of Life Among Homeless Smokers

Homeless individuals smoke at high rates relative to the general population and are at heightened risk of tobacco-related illnesses and poor health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Homeless smokers also report low subjective social status (SSS) or perceived social standing relative to others. SSS may contribute to poor HRQoL, potentially through perceived stress. The current study examined the role of perceived stress in the association of SSS and HRQoL among 227 (70.9% male, Mage = 43.2) homeless smokers. Participants completed self-report measures of SSS, perceived stress, and HRQoL. Perceived stress partially explained the relation between SSS (United States and Community) and HRQoL in covariate-adjusted analyses. Results suggested that perceived stress is a pathway through which SSS contributes to HRQoL among homeless smokers. Findings broaden current understanding of the impact of social disadvantage and perceived stress on HRQoL among homeless smokers.
Exercise training and myocardial energetics in patients with heart failure: when more is less.

Heart failure is the major cause of morbidity and mortality in the developed world, with over 5 million people afflicted in the U.S. alone ([1][1]). From 30% to 40% of patients die within the first year after receiving the diagnosis of heart failure ([1][1]). Further, heart failure consumes a
Simulation of Directed Nanocrack Patterns for the Fabrication of Nanowires [PowerPoint Submission]

While material fracture is generally considered undesirable, recent experimental work has indicated that cracking can be utilized to create small scale nanowire structures with diameters of 100nm and smaller. Typical nanowire fabrication techniques include the use of a scanning tunneling microscope and electrochemical deposition. Compared to fracture fabricated nanowire structures current fabrication techniques are either extremely slow or require large amounts of post-processing. To become a viable nanowire fabrication technique the cracking of materials must be directed. We propose a computational model to predict propagation paths in large scale crack systems. We utilize the level set method to investigate the creation of nanoscale crack patterns. The level set method allows for large scale simulations of many crack tips while easily accommodating large scale deformations. Unlike traditional methods such as finite elements explicit modeling of the cracks is not needed. We show that the use of multiple materials and etched regions can effectively direct the cracking of a thin film. Using these patterns nanowire structures can be constructed which would be difficult to obtain otherwise.
Metabolic regulation of mitochondrial dynamics

Mitochondria are renowned for their central bioenergetic role in eukaryotic cells, where they act as powerhouses to generate adenosine triphosphate from oxidation of nutrients. At the same time, these organelles are highly dynamic and undergo fusion, fission, transport, and degradation. Each of these dynamic processes is critical for maintaining a healthy mitochondrial population. Given the central metabolic function of mitochondria, it is not surprising that mitochondrial dynamics and bioenergetics reciprocally influence each other. We review the dynamic properties of mitochondria, with an emphasis on how these processes respond to cellular signaling events and how they affect metabolism.
‘What happened next?’: Developmental changes in mothers’ questions to children

Developmental changes in the questions mothers asked during book-sharing interactions with their preschool children and associations between mothers’ questions and children's narrative contribution...
Brief intervention for daily marijuana users identified by screening in primary care: A subgroup analysis of the ASPIRE randomized clinical trial.

ABSTRACTBackground: The use of brief intervention for decreasing frequent marijuana use holds potential, but its efficacy in primary care is not known. Methods: Objective: To assess the impact of 2 brief interventions on marijuana use among daily/or almost daily marijuana users. Design: Subgroup analysis of a 3-arm randomized clinical trial of 2 brief counseling interventions compared with no brief intervention on daily marijuana use in a primary care setting (ASPIRE). Participants: ASPIRE study participants who both reported 21–30 days of marijuana use during the past month and identified marijuana as their drug of most concern. Interventions: (1) brief negotiated interview (BNI), a 10–15-minute structured interview, and (2) an adaptation of motivational interviewing (MOTIV), a 30–45-minute intervention. Control group participants received only a list of substance use treatment resources. Main measures: The primary outcome was number of days of marijuana use in the past 30 days at the 6-month follow-up. ...
Socializing robots: constructing robotic sociality in the design and use of the assistive robot PARO

The goal of introducing robots into everyday use has led to their reconceptualization as social technologies, for which interacting with people is a fundamental and necessary function. Robot sociality in this context is generally defined as a set of individual properties of the artifact, such as a human-like appearance or the ability to read social cues. In this paper, we propose an alternative view of robot sociality as an emergent relational property of the interactions between the robot and its social context, actively constructed by designers, users, and other actors affected by robots. We illustrate this perspective through the example of the robot PARO, a commercial social robot commonly used in eldercare, which we analyzed in a series of observational studies of the social processes of its design in the laboratory and its use in an eldercare facility. Our analysis shows how the robot as a social technology is constructed through the actions and sense making of various actors and the situated dynamics of interaction in particular institutional contexts. We first describe the social factors and rationale that influenced PARO's design in the laboratory, and then discuss how the robot is scaffolded by users in a nursing home in the midwestern United States. Our studies go beyond the typical focus on one-on-one interaction between people and robots as the unit of analysis of human---robot interaction, to incorporate the broader social context as a necessary component of the successful design and implementation of social robots in society.
Differences in Skull Base Thickness in Patients with Spontaneous Cerebrospinal Fluid Leaks

BACKGROUND This study was designed to determine if differences in overall skull base thickness exist in patients with spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid (SCSF) leaks and to compare our institution's 10-year experience with the endoscopic repair of these leaks to the existing literature. A retrospective cohort study was performed in a tertiary rhinologic practice. METHODS A retrospective study by two blinded independent reviewers compared the skull base thickness on computerized tomography (CT) imaging in our SCSF leak patients to nonleaking controls and patients with traumatic CSF leaks. Surgical outcomes were compared with a pooled analysis of the published literature. RESULTS SCSF leaks were seen most commonly in obese, middle-aged women of African American descent. SCSF leak patients were shown to have thinner skull bases in the region of the ethmoid roof, lateral lamella, and anterior face of the sella (p < 0.05) compared with patients with traumatic leaks and nonleaking controls. No racial difference in skull base thickness was observed when patients were matched according to leak type. The success rate of primary endoscopic intervention in our patients was high at 94% and comparable with the published literature. CONCLUSION Differences in skull base thickness exist in SCSF patients, but whether this predisposes to such leaks or is a consequence of the underlying pathophysiology remains unknown. The endoscopic endonasal approach provides a highly effective means of repairing such leaks with success rates comparable with the endoscopic repair of other leak types. Adjuvant measures including weight reduction, lumbar drain, and acetazolamide use may increase success rates and should be considered in their management.
Evidence for a Marking Pheromone Deterring Repeated Oviposition in Apple Maggot Flies

Immediately following oviposition (but rarely following attempted boring without oviposition), apple maggot, Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh), females were observed to circle around the fruit for about 30 seconds, dragging their fully-extended ovipositors on the fruit surface behind them. The results of field and laboratory experiments indicated that during such dragging, a pheromone deterring repeated boring is deposited on the fruit surface. Where the fruit was small (15-mm-diam cherries) and the drive to oviposit moderate (as among the field population), there was almost total deterrence for 4 days (i.e. until termination of the experiment) to any repeated boring in a fruit so marked by a single female. Where the fruit was large (55-mm-diam apples) or the drive to oviposit strong (as among laboratory flies deprived of oviposition sites), marking by only one female was insufficient to elicit strong deterrence. It is suggested that deposition of this marking pheromone is an important factor mediating uniformity in egg dispersion among available fruits, and that the amount of fruit surface area marked following a single oviposition is related to the amount of food or space required by one larva to grow to maturity. The potential utility of the pheromone in population suppression is also discussed.
Time above 1500 copies: a viral load measure for assessing transmission risk of HIV-positive patients in care

Objective We examined HIV transmission potential of patients in care by analyzing the amount of person-time spent above a viral load threshold that increases risk for transmission. Design Observational cohort and supplemental data. Methods The cohort included HIV patients who received care at six HIV clinics in the United States, from 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2013, and had two or more viral load tests during this interval. Person-time (in days) above a viral load of 1500 copies/ml out of the total observation time was determined by inspecting consecutive pairs of viral load results and the time intervals between those pairs. The person-time rate ratios comparing demographic and clinical subgroups were estimated with Poisson regression. Results The cohort included 14 532 patients observed for a median of 1073 days with a median of nine viral load records. Ninety percent of the patients had been prescribed antiretroviral therapy. On average, viral load exceeded 1500 copies/ml during 23% of the patients' observation time (average of 84 days per year, per patient). Percentage of person-time above the threshold was higher among patients who had more than a fourth of their viral load pairs exceeding a 6-month interval (34% of observation time), patients not on antiretroviral therapy (58% of time), new/re-engaging patients (34% of time), patients 16-39 years of age (32% of time), and patients of black race (26% of time). Conclusion HIV patients in care spent an average of nearly a quarter of their time with viral loads above 1500 copies/ml, higher among some subgroups, placing them at risk for potentially transmitting HIV to others.
Gamma spectra resulting from the annihilation of positrons with electrons in a single core level.

The first gamma spectra associated with the annihilation of positrons with individual core levels (Cu $3p$ and Ag $4p$) are presented. The spectra were obtained by measuring the energy of $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ rays time coincident with Auger electrons emitted as a result of positrons annihilating with a selected core level. Relativistic calculations show good agreement with experiment over a limited range of momenta. However, statistically significant differences indicate that the measurements can provide an impetus to new calculations of many body effects in positron-core electrons annihilation.
Identity and Crisis in Middle Aged Men

The authors selectively review disparate literature bearing on the issue of the male mid-life transition. There is considerable evidence that the entrance into middle age is associated with stress and often maladaptive patterns of reaction. There is little available information, however, on the specific nature of the stressors, their differential impact, or the factors associated with the individual's attempted style of adaptation to them. Through the process of exploring relevant findings from sociology, social and clinical psychology, and popular fiction we attempt to specify a working model of the experience of entering middle age. The authors see this model as being of heuristic value in that it specifies a number of dimensions to be operationalized which may, together, provide a more holistic view of the changes in the self-system undergone by the middle aged male.
Photoinduced Optical Transparency in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Containing Graphene Nanoribbons

We describe the use of few-layer graphene nanoribbons, either attached to counter electrodes or dispersed into electrolyte, to induce optical transparency of an iodide/triiodide redox couple in a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). We then evaluate the effect of reversible bleaching of the electrolyte on the DSSC performance. This bleaching effect is related to an energy transfer from photoexcited quantum-dot-like regions to the triiodide (I3–) radical ions in the electrolyte, saturating their absorption in the visible optical range. DSSC power conversion efficiency using few-layer graphene nanoribbons at the counter electrode (5.8%) did not deteriorate when the electrolyte became optically transparent. The increased transparency of the electrolyte resulted in a decreased photocurrent density (from 17.6 to 14.2 mA/cm2), an unchanged open circuit voltage of 750 mV, and a slightly increased fill factor (from 0.45 to 0.55). When the few-layer graphene nanoribbons were introduced into the electrolyte directly b...
Introduction of a Tradeoff Index for Efficient Trade Space Exploration

The development of many-objective evolutionary algorithms has facilitated solving complex design optimization problems, that is, optimization problems with four or more competing objectives. The outcome of many-objective optimization is often a rich set of solutions, including the non-dominated solutions, with varying degrees of tradeoff amongst the objectives, herein referred to as the trade space. As the number of objectives increases, exploring the trade space and identifying acceptable solutions becomes less straightforward. Visual analytic techniques that transform a high-dimensional trade space into two-dimensional (2D) presentations have been developed to overcome the cognitive challenges associated with exploring high-dimensional trade spaces. Existing visual analytic techniques either identify acceptable solutions using algorithms that do not allow preferences to be formed and applied iteratively, or they rely on exhaustive sets of 2D representations to identify tradeoffs from which acceptable solutions are selected. In this paper, an index is introduced to quantify tradeoffs between any two objectives and integrated into a visual analytic technique. The tradeoff index enables efficient trade space exploration by quickly pinpointing those objectives that have tradeoffs for further exploration, thus reducing the number of 2D representations that must be generated and interpreted while allowing preferences to be formed and applied when selecting a solution. Furthermore, the proposed index is scalable to any number of objectives. Finally, to illustrate the utility of the proposed tradeoff index, a visual analytic technique that is based on this index is applied to a Pareto approximate solution set from a design optimization problem with ten objectives.Copyright © 2015 by ASME
Abstract 536: RNA-Seq Identifies Differential Expression of Platelet Transcripts Between People With Hyper- and Hypoaggregation to Collagen

Background: Platelet aggregation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of myocardial infarction, and high platelet aggregability is associated with increased risk of events. We hypothesized that inter-individual variability in platelet function is associated with differences in the mRNA transcripts found in platelets from hyper-aggregators and hypo-aggregators. Methods: Eight African American (discovery cohort) and four European American (validation cohort) males with family history of early onset coronary artery disease were enrolled. Individuals were divided into hyper- and hypo-aggregators based on maximal aggregation to collagen using whole blood impedance aggregometry. RNA was extracted from leukocyte-depleted platelet-rich plasma and approximately 70 million 100bp paired-end reads per sample were obtained using an Illumina HiSeq 2500. RNA-seq analysis was performed using Bowtie/TopHat/Cufflinks software pipeline. Genes with expression ≥ 1 fragments per kilobase of transcript per million reads (FPKM) were considered to be expressed. On log2 scale, ≥ 2-fold (discovery cohort) and ≥ 1-fold (replication cohort) change in gene expression were considered to be significantly differentially expressed. Results: Among the 9,373 expressed genes, the most highly expressed nonubiquitous genes included GP1BB, GP9, PPBP, PF4, & TUBB1, confirming our methods. Hyper-aggregability was associated with up-regulation of 239 genes and down-regulation of 29 genes in the discovery cohort (44 and 2 replicated in validation cohort respectively). Pathway analysis found that genes related to sphingosine-1P3 (such as RHOA [ras homolog family member A], GNAZ [G protein, alpha z polypeptide], VEGFA [vascular endothelial growth factor A]) and platelet aggregation pathways (such as GP9 [platelet glycoprotein IX], TLN1 [talin 1], ITGB3 [platelet glycoprotein IIIa]) were up-regulated in hyper-aggregators. Conclusion: RNA-seq and pathway analyses found that hyper- and hypo-aggregators have significant differences in gene expression. Increased expression of sphingosine-1P3 and platelet aggregation pathway genes in hyper-aggregators highlights the relationship of signal transduction with increased platelet aggregation.
Generalization of Darcy’s Law: Non-Darcian Liquid Flow in Low-Permeability Media

Darcy’s Law was discovered by Henry Darcy (1803–1858) based on experimental observations of steady-state water flow through sand columns. It states that water flux in saturated porous media is linearly proportional to hydraulic gradient. For low-permeability porous media, however, Darcy’s law is not adequate because of the strong fluid–solid interaction that results in non-linear flux-gradient relationships. This chapter presents a new phenomenological relationship between water flux and hydraulic gradient, or a generalized Darcy’s law. The traditional form of Darcy’s law and two other generalizations for low-permeability media, proposed by other researchers, are shown to be special cases of the generalization. The consistency between the generalization and experimental observations from different sources is demonstrated. The generalized Darcy’s law and its variations are used to attack several key technical issues facing the geoscience community, including the relative importance of diffusion in the excavation damaged zone for a shale repository of high-level nuclear waste, the accurate measurement of relative permeability for multiphase flow in a low-permeability porous medium, non-Darcian flow behavior during imbibition of fracturing fluids into a shale gas reservoir, and formation of the pressure seal in shale formations.
Barbara Könneker, Wesen und Wandlung der Narrenidee im Zeitalter des Humanismus: Brant-Murner-Erasmus

(1968). Barbara Konneker, Wesen und Wandlung der Narrenidee im Zeitalter des Humanismus: Brant-Murner-Erasmus. The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory: Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 154-156.
A Case of Amiodarone-induced Hepatitis and Review of the Literature

Amiodarone causing side effects on the liver is often discussed in the literature. Amiodarone-induced hepatitis occurs in less than 3% of patients on amiodarone and is easily overlooked. We present a rare case of amiodaroneinduced hepatotoxicity causing failure to thrive in an 81 year old man with a history of cryptogenic cirrhosis and further endeavor to discuss a literature review of amiodarone induced hepatotoxicity. Amiodarone-induced hepatitis should be kept in the differential diagnosis of chronic liver disease even in patients with a previous diagnosis of cirrhosis. If the clinical suspicion is high, a liver biopsy is required to make a diagnosis because liver function tests may not be helpful in someone who already has cirrhosis of the liver. Direct hepatotoxicity and idiosyncrasy contribute to liver injury. Chronic liver injury is hypothesized to cause failure to thrive.
Ozone Sensitivity and Catalase Activity in Pigmented and Non-Pigmented Strains of Serratia Marcescens.

Background Ozone exposure rapidly leads to bacterial death, making ozone an effective disinfectant in food industry and health care arena. However, microbial defenses may moderate this effect and play a role in the effective use of oxidizing agents for disinfection. Serratia marcescens is an opportunistic pathogen, expressing genes differentially during infection of a human host. A better understanding of regulatory systems that control expression of Serratia's virulence genes and defenses is therefore valuable. Objective Here, we investigated the role of pigmentation and catalase in Serratia marcescens on survival to ozone exposure. Method Pigmented and non-pigmented strains of Serratia marcescens were cultured to exponential or stationary phase and exposed to 5 ppm of gaseous ozone for 2.5 - 10 minutes. Survival was calculated via plate counts. Catalase activity was measured photometrically and tolerance to hydrogen peroxide was assayed by disk-diffusion. Results Exposure of S. marcescens to 5 ppm gaseous ozone kills > 90% of cells within 10 minutes in a time and concentration-dependent manner. Although pigmented Serratia (grown at 28°C) survived ozonation better than unpigmented Serratia (grown at 35°C), non-pigmented mutant strains of Serratia had similar ozone survival rates, catalase activity and H2O2 tolerance as wild type strains. Rather, ozone survival and catalase activity were elevated in 6 hour cultures compared to 48 hour cultures. Conclusion Our studies did not bear out a role for prodigiosin in ozone survival. Rather, induction of oxidative stress responses during exponential growth increased both catalase activity and ozone survival in both pigmented and unpigmented S. marcescens.
Transumbilical multi-port laparoscopic pyeloplasty versus transumbilical single-site laparoscopic pyeloplasty for ureteropelvic junction obstruction in children: A retrospectively comparative study

Summary Introduction Laparoscopic pyeloplasty has achieved good cosmetic and functional outcomes. Both transumbilical single-site and transumbilical multi-port approaches are currently being used. No comparison of transumbilical single-site laparoscopic pyeloplasty (TSLP) and transumbilical multi-port laparoscopic pyeloplasty (TMLP) has been reported in the literature. Objectives We present a retrospective comparison study to evaluate clinical outcomes of TSLP and TMLP for children with ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO). Study design A retrospective study was carried out comparing TSLP and TMLP performed by a single surgeon between July 2012 and June 2014. The patient data of the two groups (90 in each group) were evaluated. All patients underwent urine analysis, ultrasonography, magnetic resonance urography, and diuretic renogram using 99Tc-diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid scan preoperative and postoperative follow-up. Data were analyzed using the SPSS 20.0 software package. Results Median ages, years Median operative time, minutes Median POASA scores TSLP group 3.2 ± 0.23 111.3 ± 16.7 8.2 ± 1.36 TMLP group 3.4 ± 0.35 98.9 ± 14.2 7.3 ± 1.28 p value 0.39 0.01 0.02 Discussion To our knowledge, our series is the first report in the literature that compares the outcomes of TSLP and TMLP in children. Our study suggested that there were no significant differences in start of oral feeding, drain removal, hospital stay, postoperative renal pelvic anteroposterior diameter and differential renal function at 6 months, postoperative complications, and success rate between the two groups. It demonstrated that TMLP is as effective and safe as TSLP. Although the cosmetic result of the TSLP group is satisfactory, TMLP requires three 0.5-cm ports around the umbilicus and does not change the shape of the umbilicus. Hence, the cosmetic result of the TMLP group is better than that of the TSLP group. TSLP involves some technical challenges. However, TMLP facilitates the procedure and renders the operation easier. Our findings confirmed that the operative time of TMLP group is shorter than that in TSLP group, and also showed that TMLP is relatively easy to perform compared with TSLP. Conclusion TMLP is a feasible and safe operation for pediatric UPJO. TMLP is shorter in operative time and has a better cosmetic result than TSLP. We propose TMLP as a more viable treatment option for pediatric UPJO.
Extended Follow-up of Patients Treated With Bendamustine for Lymphoid Malignancies.

Abstract Introduction Bendamustine, typically in combination with rituximab, is an effective treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Despite its acceptable short-term toxicity profile, long-term toxicities are less well established. This study investigated the long-term adverse effects of bendamustine and responses to subsequent treatments. Patients and Methods Charts of 194 patients were retrospectively reviewed; 54% had received prior treatment (76% attained complete response [CR] or partial response [PR]). Results Patients who did not achieve a CR or PR did not respond well to subsequent treatments. Malignancies following bendamustine were diagnosed in 11% (21) of patients (first line [7] and salvage [14]), including squamous (8) or basal cell (4) skin cancers; prostate cancer (3), renal cancer (3), bladder cancer (2), melanoma (2), lung cancer (1), and histiocytic sarcoma (1). There were no occurrences of therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome or acute myelogenous leukemia reported. Infections occurred in 63% of patients; however, no deaths were attributable to bendamustine. Conclusion Bendamustine is an effective therapy with limited long-term sequelae in patients with lymphoid malignancies.
Exploring detailed characteristics of autonomic dysreflexia

Objectives: Identify clinical and pathophysiologic insights into autonomic dysreflexia (AD) in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI).Study Design: Analysis of prospectively gathered AD dataset.Set...