cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Screening for domestic violence: recommendations based on a practice survey

How do practicing psychologists identify female victims of domestic violence? When asking about harm to self and others, do they also ask if the client is in danger of being harmed by another in an intimate relationship? A national survey of practicing psychologists revealed that 95% agreed that it is their responsibility to assist victimized clients, but fewer than 19% routinely screen for domestic violence. Psychologists report several barriers to screening at intake, which coupled with low screening rates, suggest that psychologists are missing important opportunities to assist clients who are at risk for assault. Several recommendations designed to improve psychologists' screening rates for domestic violence are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Extended wavelength InGaAs-Based avalanche photodiodes for single photon counting applications

We present our design and characterization on SPADs and NFADs with InGaAs/GaAsSb Type II SL absorber regions on InP substrates with extended wavelength detection up to 2.4µm wavelengths for single photon counting applications. Packaged devices showed very low variation at −40oC, with ∼100nA dark current at 2 volts below breakdown voltage. The measured DCR was 106 Hz at 2 volts excess bias at 223K.
Hume's Science of Emotions: Feeling Theory without Tears

We must rethink the status of Hume’s science of emotions. Contemporary philosophers typically dismiss Hume’s account on the grounds that he mistakenly identifies emotions with feelings. But the traditional objections to Hume’s feeling theory are not as strong as commonly thought. Hume makes several important contributions, moreover, to our understanding of the operations of the emotions. His claims about the causal antecedents of the indirect passions receive support from studies in appraisal theory, for example, and his suggestions concerning the social dimensions of self-conscious emotions can help guide future research in this field. His dual-component hypothesis concerning the processing of emotions, furthermore, suggests a compromise solution to a recalcitrant debate in cognitive science. Finally, Hume’s proposals concerning the motivational influences of pride, and the conventional nature of emotional display rules, are vindicated by recent work in social psychology.
An active surface model for volumetric image segmentation

In this paper, we introduce a graph cut based active surface model that incorporates graph cuts optimization tools with implicit surface representation to solve the segmentation problem. We will introduce a discrete formulation of the surface evolution problem, prove that the discrete energy function is graph representable and propose how to optimize it using graph cuts. The advantage of this model is two fold: First, Graph cuts are mostly global optimization tools which makes the model very robust and not sensitive to initialization, moreover, the dynamic labeling associated with graph cuts optimization tools makes the model very fast. Second, the implicit representation of the surface makes it robust to topology changes.
Taiwan's Participation in Inter-Governmental Organizations: An Overview of Its Initiatives

Emboldened by the ascendance of economic issues on the global agenda and the erosion of security-driven bipolar structures, Taiwan in the late 1980s decided to use its economic advantages for diplomatic gain. Examination of changes in three phases of Taiwan9s initiatives indicates that its inter-governmental organization strategies and targets correlate well with domestic politics and external factors.
Computational software for building biochemical reaction network models with differential equations

The cell is a highly ordered and intricate machine within which a wide variety of chemical processes take place. The full scientific understanding of cellular physiology requires accurate mathematical models that depict the temporal dynamics of these chemical processes. Modelers build mathematical models of chemical processes primarily from systems of differential equations. Although developing new biological ideas is more of an art than a science, constructing a mathematical model from a biological idea is largely mechanical and automatable. This dissertation describes the practices and processes that biological modelers use for modeling and simulation. Computational biologists struggle with existing tools for creating models of complex eukaryotic cells. This dissertation develops new processes for biological modeling that make model creation, verification, validation, and testing less of a struggle. This dissertation introduces computational software that automates parts of the biological modeling process, including model building, transformation, execution, analysis, and evaluation. User and methodological requirements heavily affect the suitability of software for biological modeling. This dissertation examines the modeling software in terms of these requirements. Intelligent, automated model evaluation shows a tremendous potential to enable the rapid, repeatable, and cost-effective development of accurate models. This dissertation presents a case study that indicates that automated model evaluation can reduce the evaluation time for a budding yeast model from several hours to a few seconds, representing a more than 1000-fold improvement. Although constructing an automated model evaluation procedure requires considerable domain expertise and skill in modeling and simulation, applying an existing automated model evaluation procedure does not. With this automated model evaluation procedure, the computer can then search for and potentially discover models superior to those that the biological modelers developed previously.
Precision machine design: macromachine design philosophy and its applicability to the design of micromachines

Macromachine design philosophies that may be of use to micromachining designs are reviewed. Definitions are provided for the precision engineering terms accuracy, repeatability, resolution, and Abbe error. Topics covered include predicting errors to mechanical systems, such as linear motion system errors, axis of rotation errors, and thermal growth errors, as well as issues relating to bearings, position measurement systems, and kinematic and elastically averaged design. >
Epidemiology of Infections after Solid-Organ Transplantation

Infections are a major determinant of the outcome of solid-organ transplantation. Their incidence varies because of a number of factors. The type of organ transplanted, the degree of immunosuppression, the need for additional antirejection therapy, and the occurrence of technical or surgical complications all affect the incidence of infection after transplantation. There are 3 general time frames to consider. In the first month, bacterial and candidal infections predominate. From the second through the sixth months, infections "classically" associated with transplantation become manifest. Beyond the sixth month, the clinical course is largely determined by the presence or absence of chronic rejection.
Best Practices in Promoting Reading Comprehension in Students with Learning Disabilities 1976 to 1996

AbstractIn this review, the best practices for facilitating reading comprehension for students with learning disabilities are described and summarized. these best practices were derived from the results of an extensive literature review of research in reading comprehension with students with learning disabilities. analysis of all relevant literature revealed consistently high effects for some reading comprehension strategies. strongest outcomes were observed for teacher-led questioning and self-questioning strategies, followed by text-en hancem ent strategies, and, finally, strategies involving basic skills instruction and reinforcement. the few studies that were located in the area of whole language yielded less positive outcomes. implications for effective practice are described.
Arm regeneration in Mississippian crinoids: evidence of intense predation pressure in the Paleozoic?

Abstract Although direct predator-prey interactions are unobservable in the fossil record, predation has been used to explain many evolutionary trends. Evidence of predation supporting such hypotheses is often presented as isolated instances of preserved sublethal damage, and less commonly, as the frequency of such injuries. For instance, numerous morphological and ecological trends and innovations observed in Phanerozoic crinoids have been causally linked to predation, and whereas the high frequency of arm regeneration in living crinoids is generally assumed to represent intense predation, attempts to assess regeneration frequency and patterns in paleontological samples are few. Can the frequency of fossil injuries be assessed to test hypothesized predation-driven trends, or are such data unavailable? To address this question, we analyzed regeneration in crinoids from the lower Mississippian (Kinderhookian) Maynes Creek Formation near Le Grand, Iowa, a locality renowned for the preservation of thousands ...
Detecting communities using bibliographic metrics

We propose an efficient and novel approach for discovering communities in real-world random networks. Communities are formed by subsets of nodes in a graph, which are closely related. Extraction of these communities facilitates better understanding of such networks. Community related research has focused on two main problems: community discovery and community identification. Community discovery is the problem of extracting all the communities in a given network where as community identification is the problem of identifying the community to which a given set of nodes from the network belong. In this paper we first give a brief survey of the existing community-discovery algorithms and then propose a novel algorithm to discovering communities using bibliographic metrics. We also test the proposed algorithm on real-world networks and on computer-generated models with known community structures. Index Terms—Community discovery/identification, graph clustering. I. INTRODUCTION Recent studies on real-world random networks have revealed several interesting and significant properties like degree distribution, average distance between pairs of nodes, and network transitivity. These properties differentiate real- world networks from the classical Erdos and Renyi random graphs. One such property is community structure. These networks are locally dense but globally sparse. Each of these locally dense regions may be viewed a community. The term community has been defined in more than one way. Initially cliques and near-cliques were used to define communities with the idea that high connectivity corresponds to similarity between those nodes. Kleinberg while studying web graphs introduced the concept of "hubs" and "authorities". Authorities are web pages which are highly referenced and hubs are web pages that reference many authority pages. Later Gibson, Kleinberg and Raghavan define communities in web graph as a core of central, authoritative pages connected together by hub pages (1). Kumar, et al. define communities as bipartite cores: a bipartite core in a graph G consists of two (not necessarily disjoint) sets of nodes L and R, such that every node in L is adjacent to every node in
Generating Fine-Grained Reviews of Songs from Album Reviews

Music Recommendation Systems often recommend individual songs, as opposed to entire albums. The challenge is to generate reviews for each song, since only full album reviews are available on-line. We developed a summarizer that combines information extraction and generation techniques to produce summaries of reviews of individual songs. We present an intrinsic evaluation of the extraction components, and of the informativeness of the summaries; and a user study of the impact of the song review summaries on users' decision making processes. Users were able to make quicker and more informed decisions when presented with the summary as compared to the full album review.
Approximation of the Singularities of a Bounded Function by the Partial Sums of Its Differentiated Fourier Series

Abstract In our earlier work we developed an algorithm for approximating the locations of discontinuities and the magnitudes of jumps of a bounded function by means of its truncated Fourier series. The algorithm is based on some asymptotic expansion formulas. In the present paper we give proofs for those formulas.
Appraising the Current Role of Chemotherapy for the Treatment of Sarcoma

Sarcomas are a heterogeneous group of relatively rare mesenchymal neoplasms. They can be grouped into two general categories: soft tissue sarcoma (STS) and primary bone sarcoma, which are treated differently. Because sarcomas are relatively rare and complex with a wide variety of different histopathologic subtypes, evaluation by multidisciplinary teams who have expertise in the field is recommended. Treatment guidelines for the use of chemotherapy in patients with STS and bone sarcoma have been published by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. The role of adjuvant chemotherapy in resected STS remains controversial. Although chemotherapy improves disease-free survival, the long-term overall survival benefit remains unproven. Chemotherapy is typically used as palliative treatment for most subtypes of metastatic STS. In contrast, chemotherapy has a proven role in the treatment of primary bone tumors and Ewing sarcoma, but it has not demonstrated efficacy in the treatment of chondrosarcoma. The standard chemotherapy regimens used in sarcoma are associated with significant toxicity, including long-term complications. Less intense and less toxic regimens are the focus of ongoing clinical research. Newer cytotoxic agents with an improved safety profile, such as trabectedin and palifosfamide, are currently in development. Future research needs to focus on identification of subpopulations of patients that are most likely to benefit from chemotherapy.
Improved cementing techniques and femoral component loosening in young patients with hip arthroplasty. A 12-year radiographic review

To assess the effect of improved methods of femoral cementing on the loosening rates in young patients, we reviewed 50 'second-generation' cemented hip arthroplasties in 44 patients aged 50 years or less. The femoral stems were all collared and rectangular in cross-section with rounded corners. The cement was delivered by a gun into a medullary canal occluded distally with a cement plug. A clinical and radiographic review was undertaken at an average of 12 years (10 to 14.8) and no patient was lost to follow-up. No femoral component was revised for aseptic loosening, and only one stem was definitely loose by radiographic criteria. By contrast, 11 patients had undergone revision for symptomatic aseptic loosening of the acetabular component and 11 more had radiographic signs of acetabular loosening.
Simulation of a robust fuzzy controller for linear synchronous motor systems

The direct torque control has been utilized as a general formalism methodology for AC rotary motors. However, the technical skill in the implementation of permanent magnet linear synchronous motors does not seem to be performed yet. Based on the reason, this paper focuses on the use of a modified flux estimator to implement direct thrust control method for the motor systems. This paper presents a fuzzy controller and a direct thrust control policy for the motor control systems. The advantage of the proposed approach is that the clear presentation of the system behavior and readiness for implementation. Finally, some results of the simulation are met as expected.
Effects of rat sex differences and lighting on locomotor exploration of a circular open field with free-standing central corners and without peripheral walls.

A typical open field consists of a square enclosure, bounded by four straight walls joined by identical corners. For decades behavioral researchers have used the open center and more sheltered perimeter of such fields to examine the effects of drugs, sex differences, and illumination on the behavioral expression of fear and anxiety. The present study “reversed” the relative security of the center and periphery of a circular field to re-examine the functional relation of open field behavior to experience, sex differences and lighting. Across six daily exposures, males in both the light and dark rapidly increased their preference for the center. Females in the light developed a similar pattern, though more slowly; females in the dark continued to spend the great majority of their time in the open periphery, including the edge of the field. The behavior of all groups, but especially the dark females, strongly supports the continued importance of environmental assessment in open field behavior.
Passive Versus Aggressive Strategies: A Game Theoretic Analysis of Military and Immune Defense

This paper describes a basic passive-versus-aggressive defense model and analyzes it in terms of defense strategies against an intelligent enemy. In response to varying combinations of passive and aggressive defense, we assume that the enemy can up or down regulate the growth activity. This leads to a differential game formulation of battle scenarios. First, we examine military counterterrorist activities in a civilian population. We then consider immune defense against hepatitis B in the liver. The underlying principles in these two examples are similar, although the model features are slightly different. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the benefits and limitations of the proposed model in terms of understanding biological systems and developing strategic army defense plans.
Traditions and Trends in the Study of the Commons

Acknowledgements: We wish to acknowledge the support of the managing editorial team of the International Journal of the Commons, Erling Berge and Tine De Moor. We also wish to thank David Price and Patty Lezotte for their help with the edition of all articles in this issue. Furthermore we thank Tine De Moor, Charlotte Hess, Arun Agrawal, and John Kerr for their useful comments on earlier versions of this article.
Studies on a Tissue-Specific Histone from Pig Brain

I would like to describe some of the biochemical properties and the localization by immunochemical techniques of a tissue-specific basic protein isolated from pig brain. Much of this study is the result of efforts by Mr. Lawrence Tomasi of my laboratory. The protein was isolated as previously described.(1)
Surgical Team Stability and Risk of Sharps-Related Blood and Body Fluid Exposures During Surgical Procedures.

OBJECTIVE To explore whether surgical teams with greater stability among their members (ie, members have worked together more in the past) experience lower rates of sharps-related percutaneous blood and body fluid exposures (BBFE) during surgical procedures. DESIGN A 10-year retrospective cohort study. SETTING A single large academic teaching hospital. PARTICIPANTS Surgical teams participating in surgical procedures (n=333,073) performed during 2001–2010 and 2,113 reported percutaneous BBFE were analyzed. METHODS A social network measure (referred to as the team stability index) was used to quantify the extent to which surgical team members worked together in the previous 6 months. Poisson regression was used to examine the effect of team stability on the risk of BBFE while controlling for procedure characteristics and accounting for procedure duration. Separate regression models were generated for percutaneous BBFE involving suture needles and those involving other surgical devices. RESULTS The team stability index was associated with the risk of percutaneous BBFE (adjusted rate ratio, 0.93 [95% CI, 0.88–0.97]). However, the association was stronger for percutaneous BBFE involving devices other than suture needles (adjusted rate ratio, 0.92 [95% CI, 0.85–0.99]) than for exposures involving suture needles (0.96 [0.88–1.04]). CONCLUSIONS Greater team stability may reduce the risk of percutaneous BBFE during surgical procedures, particularly for exposures involving devices other than suture needles. Additional research should be conducted on the basis of primary data gathered specifically to measure qualities of relationships among surgical team personnel. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2016;37:512–518
The Maryland Electricity Market: A Primer

In 1999, Maryland chose to join several other coastal states in restructuring its electricity markets, in an effort to bring cheaper electricity into the state to supply heavy manufacturers who were considering relocating to places with cheaper supply. Initially, this policy change appeared successful as electricity rates fell for both households and businesses. However, by the mid-2000s, electricity rates in Maryland and other "deregulated" markets were climbing heavily as a result of climbing national demand and rising generator fuel costs. The restructuring then became branded a failure.This paper describes the history of he electricity market in Maryland (through 2009), noting the economic and political forces that shaped the market. It also critically examines proposals in the mid- to late 2000s to change that market, theorizing their possible effects.
Sowing the American Dream: How Consumer Culture Took Root in the Rural Midwest

From 1840 to 1900, midwestern Americans experienced firsthand the profound economic, cultural, and structural changes that transformed the nation from a premodern, agrarian state to one that was urban, industrial, and economically interdependent. Midwestern commercial farmers found themselves at the heart of these changes. Their actions and reactions led to the formation of a distinctive and particularly democratic consumer ethos, which is still being played out today. By focusing on the consumer behavior of midwestern farmers, "Sowing the American Dream" provides illustrative examples of how Americans came to terms with the economic and ideological changes that swirled around them. From the formation of the Grange to the advent of mail-order catalogs, the buying patterns of rural midwesterners set the stage for the coming century. Carefully documenting the rise and fall of the powerful purchasing cooperatives, David Blanke explains the shifting trends in collective consumerism, which ultimately resulted in a significant change in the way that midwestern consumers pursued their own regional identity, community, and independence.
Campaign-level dynamic network modelling for spaceflight logistics for the flexible path concept

Abstract This paper develops a network optimization formulation for dynamic campaign-level space mission planning. Although many past space missions have been designed mainly from a mission-level perspective, a campaign-level perspective will be important for future space exploration. In order to find the optimal campaign-level space transportation architecture, a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulation with a generalized multi-commodity flow and a time-expanded network is developed. Particularly, a new heuristics-based method, a partially static time-expanded network, is developed to provide a solution quickly. The developed method is applied to a case study containing human exploration of a near-Earth object (NEO) and Mars, related to the concept of the Flexible Path. The numerical results show that using the specific combinations of propulsion technologies, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), and other space infrastructure elements can reduce the initial mass in low-Earth orbit (IMLEO) significantly. In addition, the case study results also show that we can achieve large IMLEO reduction by designing NEO and Mars missions together as a campaign compared with designing them separately owing to their common space infrastructure pre-deployment. This research will be an important step toward efficient and flexible campaign-level space mission planning.
Abstract 5322: CD44+ prostate cancer cells are regulated by microRNA-708: A novel role of microRNA with potential prognostic and diagnostic significance in prostate cancer .

A challenging aspect of prostate cancer (PCa) is the high rates of recurrence associated with the disease. About 40% of men with localized prostate cancer suffer from relapse after initial therapy. In these cases, androgen ablation therapy is used to reduce tumor burden/circulating PSA to low or undetectable limits. However, most patients suffer from disease recurrence, as monitored by rising PSA and tumor progression to hormone refractory/castration resistant prostate cancer that is essentially untreatable. Tumor recurrence has been attributed to the existence of tumor-initiating cells (TIC) within the bulk of the tumor; CD44 is an important marker for these cells. In this study, we demonstrate that miR-708 is a key negative regulator of CD44+ subpopulation of PCa cells. miR-708 was underexpressed in CD44+ cells from PCa xenografts. Reconstitution of miR-708 in PCa cell lines or CD44+ PCa cells led to decreased tumorigenicity in vitro. Intratumoral delivery of synthetic miR-708 oligonucleotides triggered regression of established tumors in a murine xenograft model of human prostate cancer. Conversely, miR-708 silencing in a purified CD44- population of PCa cells promoted tumor growth. Functional studies validated CD44 to be a direct target of miR-708. Also, we identified Androgen Receptor (AR) and the serine/threonine kinase AKT2, a member of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway as functional targets of miR-708. Clinically, low miR-708 expression was associated significantly with poor survival outcome, tumor progression and recurrence in prostate cancer patients. In view of these results we propose that reduced miR-708 expression leads to prostate cancer initiation, progression and development by regulating expression of CD44, AR, AKT2, which in turn regulate proliferative, invasive and migratory abilities of prostate cancer cells. Therefore, miR-708 may represent a novel therapeutic target for prostate cancer. Citation Format: Sharanjot Saini, Sumit Arora, Shahana Majid, Varahram Shahryari, Soichiro Yamamura, Inik Chang, Takeshi Chiyomaru, Shinichiro Fukuhara, Guoren Deng, Yuichiro Tanaka, Rajvir Dahiya. CD44+ prostate cancer cells are regulated by microRNA-708: A novel role of microRNA with potential prognostic and diagnostic significance in prostate cancer . [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 5322. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-5322
74 PARENTAL CORONARY HEART DISEASE INCREASES VULNERABILITY OF THE ARTERIAL WALL TO METABOLIC SYNDROME AND AGING: THE BOGALUSA HEART STUDY.

Introduction Genetic susceptibility is considered an important mediator of the impact of cardiovascular risk factors on coronary heart disease (CHD). This study assessed the hypothesis that parental CHD, a surrogate measure of genetic susceptibility, increases the vulnerability of arterial structure-function dynamics to the adverse effects of metabolic syndrome and the aging process even in asymptomatic young adults with parental CHD. Methods The study cohort consisted of 1,073 black and white subjects (31% black, 43.4% male) aged 25 to 44 years enrolled in the Bogalusa Heart Study. Arterial structure-function dynamics was assessed in terms of carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) measured by B-mode ultrasonography and aortofemoral pulse wave velocity (af-PWV) by echo-Doppler. Metabolic syndrome was defined by the NCEP guidelines. Results Subjects with a positive parental history of CHD had greater carotid IMT (0.839 vs 0.802 mm, p = .017), higher af-PWV (5.4 vs 5.2 m/sec, p = 0.097), and higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome (12.1% vs 7.6%, p = .019) compared with those without such a history. Carotid IMT and af-PWV were significantly increased with increasing number of components of metabolic syndrome and age (both p Conclusions Parental CHD increases the susceptibility of arterial structure-function dynamics, especially carotid artery IMT, to metabolic syndrome and the aging process even in asymptomatic young adults.
Growth disorders in children.

The assessment of growth patterns in children has become an important parameter to consider in the detection of endocrine abnormalities. Two such disorders, short and tall stature, are discussed, and emphasis is placed on their etiology, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and treatment.
The Mathematics of Failure and Reliability

This chapter focuses on the mathematical methods employed in analyzing product quality and failure data. These data are obtained through measurement, testing, and service experience with the objective of obtaining the most probable values of parameters that characterize quality control, failure rates, and projected lifetimes of components and devices. As we shall see, statistical analysis is part of all quality and yield assessments associated with the processing and manufacture of devices. In particular, the use of reliability mathematics and analysis in predicting the fate of products during service is a recurring theme of this book.
Effects of Mountaintop Removal Mining on Population Dynamics of Stream Salamanders

OF THESIS EFFECTS OF MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL MINING ON POPULATION DYNAMICS OF STREAM SALAMANDERS Mountaintop removal mining (MTR) is a notorious stressor of stream ecosystems in the Central Appalachians. Valley fills (VF) lead to reduced occupancy, abundance, and species richness of stream salamanders. Multiple factors may be responsible for these reductions, but specifically habitat fragmentation and degradation may reduce colonization rates and increase local extinction rates. From 2013-2015, repeated counts of salamanders were conducted in stream reaches impacted by MTR/VF and compared to counts in reference reaches to answer the question: do stream salamander population dynamics differ between stream reaches impacted by MTR/VF and reference stream reaches? I also investigated dynamics of stream habitat using measures relevant to stream salamander persistence. Accordingly, I examined number of cover objects, percent detritus, hydroperiod, and specific conductance. From the salamander capture data, colonization and survival probabilities were lower in MTR/VF reaches than reference reaches. MTR/VF reaches also had fewer cover objects, higher percent detritus, constant stream flow, and elevated specific conductance. Although specific conductance was increased in MTR/VF reaches, it was not strongly correlated with colonization and survival. I suggest reduced rates of colonization and survival in MTR/VF stream reaches are driven by inhibited dispersal and reduced individual survival due to degraded terrestrial and aquatic environments.
Local minima in training of deep networks

There has been a lot of recent interest in trying to characterize the error surface of deep models. This stems from a long standing question. Given that deep networks are highly nonlinear systems optimized by local gradient methods, why do they not seem to be affected by bad local minima? It is widely believed that training of deep models using gradient methods works so well because the error surface either has no local minima, or if they exist they need to be close in value to the global minimum. It is known that such results hold under strong assumptions which are not satisfied by real models. In this paper we present examples showing that for such theorem to be true additional assumptions on the data, initialization schemes and/or the model classes have to be made. We look at the particular case of finite size datasets. We demonstrate that in this scenario one can construct counter-examples (datasets or initialization schemes) when the network does become susceptible to bad local minima over the weight space.
Paths to Success: Individual and Regional Determinants of Self-Employment Entry in Post-Communist Russia

Since the collapse of state socialism, self-employment has become a path to relative material success in Russia. Fifteen hypotheses regarding the effects of individual and regional characteristics ...
Nursery pig growth performance and tissue accretion modulation due to porcine epidemic diarrhea virus or porcine deltacoronavirus challenge.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) and porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV) are both members of the family which induce clinical signs of diarrhea, dehydration, and in some circumstances, mortality. Most research has been focused on isolation, genome sequencing, pathogenicity, and virulence of these viruses, but there is little information on long-term growth performance and tissue accretion of pigs inoculated with PEDV or PDCoV. Therefore, our objective was to determine the effect of PEDV or PDCoV infection on growth performance and tissue accretion over 42 d following inoculation. A total of 75 Choice Genetics Large White Pureline barrows and gilts (BW = 10.81 ± 0.81 kg) at approximately 2 wk post-wean and naive for PEDV and PDCoV were selected. Pigs were allotted based on BW and sex, stratified across 3 treatments with 8 pens per treatment. Treatments were: 1) Control ( = 8); 2) PEDV inoculated ( = 8); and 3) PDCoV inoculated ( = 8). On day post inoculation (dpi) 2, 5, 7, and 14 pigs were euthanized for tissue collection and analyses from these tissues are discussed elsewhere. Pen feed intake and BW were recorded on dpi 2, 5, 7, and weekly thereafter until dpi 42. On 1 designated pig per pen, initial and final body composition was determined using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and tissue accretion rates were calculated over 6 wk test period. Peak PEDV infection was noted at 3 dpi compared with 4 dpi for PDCoV pigs as determined by fecal swab quantitative real-time PCR (RT-PCR). Control pigs remained negative for PEDV and PDCoV throughout the experiment. Overall, Control and PDCoV pigs did not differ in ADG, ADFI or G:F ( > 0.05). Compared to Control and PDCoV pigs, the overall 42 d ADFI was reduced in the challenged PEDV pigs ( < 0.05) by 19 and 27%, respectively. PEDV did not significantly reduce the overall ADG or G:F compared with Control and PDCoV pigs; however, the biggest reduction in ADG and ADFI for PEDV pigs was within 14 dpi compared to the Control pigs ( < 0.05). Whole body tissue accretion was altered due to PED, with fat, lean, protein, and bone mineral accretion reductions by 24, 20, 21, and 42%, respectively ( < 0.05) compared with Control pigs. Overall, nursery pig performance was greatly impacted by PEDV challenge. Surprisingly, the PDCoV challenge did not negatively influence nursery pig performance. This study provides further insight into the longitudinal impact swine enteric coronaviruses have on growing pigs.
Abstract A29: A qualitative study of underserved patients' experiences with navigation in cancer care

Context: Patient navigation, defined as the process of assessment and alleviation of barriers to health care, is a promising strategy for improving cancer care for underserved populations. Objective: To examine how navigation influences patients9 perspectives on their cancer care and to define the most effective (i.e., meaningful or valuable) aspects of navigation from the patient9s point of view. Design: Post-study patient interviews from a randomized controlled trial (usual care vs. navigation services) of patient navigation from cancer diagnosis through treatment completion Setting: Patients recruited from 16 primary care, hospital and community oncology practices in Monroe County, NY. Participants: 35 patients (32 female, 3 male) newly diagnosed with breast (n= 28) or colorectal (n=7) cancer who completed the study and were interviewed from May 2007 through March 2008. Instrument: Semi-structured interview asking patients about their specific experiences with cancer care including their expectations and experience of patient navigation or, for non-navigated patients, other sources of assistance. Results: Patients who received navigation were very positive about their experience with navigation services. Valued aspects of navigation included emotional support, assistance with information needs and problem-solving (such as with insurance or financial stressors), and logistical coordination of cancer care. Unmet cancer care needs expressed by patients randomized to standard care consisted of lack of assistance or support with childcare, household responsibilities, coordination of care, and emotional support. Conclusions: Instrumental (e.g., tangible benefits not directly related to emotional support) benefits were the most important expectations for navigation from navigated and non-navigated patients. However, when describing their actual experience of navigation, navigated patients frequently mentioned receiving emotional support as well as assistance with information needs, problem-solving, and logistical aspects of cancer care coordination.
A Card-Sorting Activity to Engage Students in the Academic Language of Biology.

The activity described in this article is designed to provide biology students with opportunities to engage in a range of academic language as they learn the discipline-specific meanings of the terms “drug,” “poison,” “toxicant,” and “toxin.” Although intended as part of an introductory lesson in a comprehensive unit for the high school level, this approach to teaching academic language can be adapted for use with older or younger students and can be modified to teach other terms.
Learning from monkey "talk"

A fundamental problem for understanding the evolution of human language has been the lack of significant parallels among nonhuman primates. Most researchers have focused on vocal plasticity—that is, the ability to learn novel sounds or modify call structure in response to social or environmental variables. Although songbirds, whales, dolphins, and some other mammals have this ability, nonhuman primates have appeared not to have it ( 1 ). Other studies found that nonhuman primates do not have a vocal tract that would allow them to produce the sounds of human speech ( 2 ) and that primates cannot take turns, a critical aspect of human conversation ( 3 ). All three points have been challenged by recent research (see the table), suggesting that nonhuman primates may after all be valuable models for understanding the evolution of speech and language.
Are Older and Younger Entrepreneurs Similar

This study provides descriptive research that explores the phenomena of similarities of older and young entrepreneurs who have been largely ignored in entrepreneurial research. Based on the 2003 National Survey of Small Business Finances conducted every five years by the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors, the data were collected and compiled from June 2004 and March 2005. Selected from the Dun and Bradstreet master file, firms that were at least five years old and managed by the founder and sole owner were examined. The filtered sample consisted of 308 firms. The firms’ profiles based on owners' and firms' age tended to be very similar. The findings point to the need for more current data on entrepreneurs in today’s uncertain economy, as well as empirical research on issues related to characteristics and motivations leading to entrepreneurship for both older and younger entrepreneurs.
Estimating the date of first publication in a large-scale digital library

One prerequisite for cultural analysis in large-scale digital libraries is an accurate estimate of the date of composition of the text---as distinct from the date of publication of an edition---for the works they contain. In this work, we present a manually annotated dataset of first dates of publication of three samples of books from the HathiTrust Digital Library (uniform random, uniform fiction, and stratified by decade), and empirically evaluate the disparity between these gold standard labels and several approximations used in practice (using the date of publication as provided in metadata, several deduplication methods, and automatically predicting the date of composition from the text of the book). We find that a simple heuristic of metadata-based deduplication works best in practice, and text-based composition dating is accurate enough to inform the analysis of "apparent time."
First-Year Students’ Research Challenges: Does Watching Videos on Common Struggles affect Students’ Research Self-Efficacy?

Abstract Objective – The purpose of this quantitative study was to measure the impact of providing research struggle videos on first-year students’ research self-efficacy. The three-part video series explicated and briefly addressed common first-year roadblocks related to searching, evaluating, and caring about sources. The null hypothesis tested was that students would have similar research self-efficacy scores, regardless of exposure to the video series. Methods – The study was a quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group design. The population included all 22 sections (N = 359) of First-Year Writing affiliated with the FASTrack Learning Community at the University of Mississippi. Of 22 sections, 12 (N = 212) served as the intervention group exposed to the videos, while the other 10 (N = 147) served as the control group. A research self-efficacy pretest – posttest measure was administered to all students. In addition, all 22 sections, regardless of control or intervention status, received a face-to-face one-shot library instruction session. Results – As a whole, this study failed to reject the null hypothesis. Students exposed to the research struggle videos reported similar research self-efficacy scores as students who were not exposed to the videos. A significant difference, however, did exist between all students’ pretest and posttest scores, suggesting that something else, possibly the in-person library session, did have an impact on students’ research self-efficacy. Conclusion – Although students’ research self-efficacy may have increased due to the presence of an in-person library session, this current research was most interested in evaluating the effect of providing supplemental instruction via struggle videos for first-year students. As this was not substantiated, it is recommended that researchers review the findings and limitations of this current study in order to identify more effective approaches in providing instructional support for first-year students’ research struggles.
Political Trust in a Cynical Age

This article reviews recent survey-based research on citizens’ trust in government, focusing particularly on the United States. It addresses the long-term decline in trust and potential causes for this decline, with an emphasis on the effects of partisanship, polarization, performance, process, and media priming. While dispositions can anchor trust levels, the dominant research findings show that the sources of variation and change in trust are political, if multifaceted, in nature. We discuss new versions of standard measures, call for a renewed look at the distinction between trust in authorities and trust in the regime, review ongoing work on how and why trust matters, and recommend broadening the foci of mistrust to include antiestablishment sentiments and attacks on electoral integrity. How trust intervenes between perceptions of political processes and compliance with authoritative commands is a critical domain for additional research. We conclude with a caveat against confidence that the decline in...
Comment on “A Conceptual Framework for Quality Healthcare Accessibility: a Scalable Approach for Big Data Technologies”

ᅟFloating Catchment Area (FCA) metrics incorporate the supply of health care resources, potential population demand for those resources, and the distance separating people and supply locations to characterize the spatial accessibility of health care resources for populations. In this work, I challenge a number of assertions offered in a recently published FCA-based paper and provide a critique of the authors' proposed metric. Within my critique, I present a number of broad observations and recommendations regarding FCA metrics and their implementation in a Geographic Information System (GIS). In doing so, I aim to initiate a broader discussion of access to health care, spatial accessibility, and FCA metrics that transcends disciplinary boundaries.
Merging Economics and Ecology in Ecological Restoration

The late Kenneth Boulding contended, “Mathematics brought rigor to economics. Unfortunately it also brought mortis.” Although it would be fair to say that economics is not the only discipline suffering from this type of rigor mortis, the public’s disappointment with mainstream economic theory has been more pronounced because of mainstream economic failures in solving real-life problems (Blag 1998; Wilson 1998; Gowdy 2000). Even the 1996 Nobel Laureate of Economics, William Vickrey, dismissed his prize-winning 1961 paper as “one of my digressions into abstract economics…..At best, it’s of minor significance in terms of human welfare” (Cassidy 1996, 50). Is the future of the dismal science that dismal?We argue not, precisely because of the earlier self-reflections prompted by the chorus of critics. “Those scholars working on the frontiers of economics have firmly put behind them the inward-looking reductionism” and, as a result, economics is enjoying a “remarkable creative renaissance” refocusing its efforts to help solve real-life problems (Coyle 2007).
Re-evaluating Continual Learning Scenarios: A Categorization and Case for Strong Baselines.

Continual learning has received a great deal of attention recently with several approaches being proposed. However, evaluations involve a diverse set of scenarios making meaningful comparison difficult. This work provides a systematic categorization of the scenarios and evaluates them within a consistent framework including strong baselines and state-of-the-art methods. The results provide an understanding of the relative difficulty of the scenarios and that simple baselines (Adagrad, L2 regularization, and naive rehearsal strategies) can surprisingly achieve similar performance to current mainstream methods. We conclude with several suggestions for creating harder evaluation scenarios and future research directions. The code is available at this https URL
Prothrombin Complex Concentrates for Warfarin Reversal Before Heart Transplantation.

Background Anticoagulation therapy with warfarin is common before heart transplantation and complicates perioperative management. Methods This single-center, noninterventional, retrospective cohort study evaluated heart transplant patients before and after institution of a prothrombin complex concentrates-based preoperative warfarin reversal protocol for heart transplantation. Patients with international normalized ratio (INR) greater than 1.5 who received prothrombin complex concentrate (PCC) before heart transplant surgery were compared with a control group before implementation of a PCC protocol. Coprimary endpoints were utilization of individual blood products. Secondary endpoints included in-hospital mortality, reoperation for bleeding, delayed sternal closure, thromboembolic events, duration of chest tube use, time to extubation, intensive care unit length of stay, and hospital length of stay. Results The study included 106 consecutive heart transplant patients (PCC cohort = 57, historical control cohort = 49). There was a significant reduction in fresh frozen plasma utilization in the PCC cohort (6 units versus 8 units, p = 0.002). Rates of packed red blood cells and platelet transfusion were similar between groups. There was a significant increase in the incidence of cryoprecipitate utilization in the PCC cohort, which can likely be attributed to decreased antifibrinolytic utilization. There were no differences in secondary endpoints between groups, including thromboembolic events. Conclusions This study found that a PCC-based warfarin reversal protocol significantly reduced fresh frozen plasma utilization compared with historical controls without affecting other clinically important surgical outcomes. These data suggest that PCC is a valuable tool for INR normalization that could safely reduce fresh frozen plasma administration and offer a practical alternative to traditional approaches for INR reversal before heart transplantation.