cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Left ventricular dysfunction as a risk factor for cardiovascular and noncardiovascular hospitalizations in African Americans.

Background A substantial portion of the public health burden of heart failure is due to hospitalizations, many of which are for causes other than cardiovascular disease. We assessed whether left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction was associated with increased risk of both cardiovascular and noncardiovascular hospitalizations in a community sample of African Americans. Methods African American participants from the Jackson, MS, site of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study who underwent echocardiography were followed for 12 years. Hospitalization rates among individuals with and without LV systolic dysfunction were compared using negative binomial regression. Results Among 2,416 participants with echocardiograms, LV systolic dysfunction was found in 61 (2.5%). Participants with LV dysfunction experienced 366 hospitalizations, a rate of 1.27 per person-year, compared with 0.25 per person-year among individuals without LV dysfunction. The incidence rate ratio adjusted for demographics, comorbidities, and other risk factors was 3.11 (95% CI 2.22-4.35). The adjusted rate ratios were 4.76 (95% CI 2.90-7.20) for cardiovascular and 2.67 (95% CI 1.82-3.90) for noncardiovascular diagnoses, with similar findings in the subset of individuals with asymptomatic LV dysfunction. The percentage attributable risks for hospitalizations were 87% and 74% for cardiovascular and noncardiovascular causes (79% and 63% after adjustment). Conclusions African American individuals with LV dysfunction are at an increased risk of hospitalization due to a wide range of causes, with noncardiovascular hospitalizations accounting for nearly half the increased risk. To the extent that estimates of risk focus on cardiovascular morbidity, they may underestimate the true health burden of LV dysfunction.
Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 Second Percentage Improves the Classification of Severity Among Children With Asthma

OBJECTIVE. Spirometry is an important component of the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program guidelines for asthma, yet published data show variable associations between forced expiratory volume in 1 second percentage (FEV1%) predicted, symptoms and health care utilization. The objective of this analysis was to examine the association between FEV1% and future risk of exacerbations among a well-characterized population of children with asthma. METHODS. Using data that are available from the Childhood Asthma Management Program, we examined the relationship between prebronchodilator FEV1% and important clinical outcomes. Multiple observations of FEV1 were available for each patient; multivariate regression analysis, using a general estimating equation approach, was used to control for the correlation between repeated measurements among individuals and potential confounders. FEV1% was categorized into 4 levels and as a continuous variable. Outcomes of interest included mean symptom score (0 –3), episode-free days, and asthma-related events (oral steroid use, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations) during the ensuing 4-month period. Our analysis was limited to the placebo group (N 417). RESULTS. We observed a clear relationship between prebronchodilator FEV1% and important clinical outcomes. In multivariable models that simultaneously controlled for covariates of interest, age at baseline, time, previous event history, and nocturnal awakenings, a significant relationship between FEV1% and asthma symptoms and serious asthma exacerbations (oral steroids, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations) was observed. Compared with children with an FEV1% 100%, children with FEV1% 80% to 99%, 60% to 79%, and 60% were 1.3, 1.8, and 4.8, respectively, more likely to have a serious asthma exacerbation during the ensuing 4 months.
Neuropathology in Drosophila Membrane Excitability Mutants

Mutations affecting ion channels and neuronal membrane excitability have been identified in Drosophila as well as in other organisms and characterized for their acute effects on behavior and neuronal function. However, the long-term effect of these perturbations on the maintenance of neuronal viability has not been studied in detail. Here we perform an initial survey of mutations affecting Na+ channels and K+ channels in Drosophila to investigate their effects on life span and neuronal viability as a function of age. We find that mutations that decrease membrane excitability as well as those that increase excitability can trigger neurodegeneration to varying degrees. Results of double-mutant interactions with dominant Na+/K+ ATPase mutations, which themselves cause severe neurodegeneration, suggest that excitotoxicity owing to hyperexcitability is insufficient to explain the resultant phenotype. Although the exact mechanisms remain unclear, our results suggest that there is an important link between maintenance of proper neuronal signaling and maintenance of long-term neuronal viability. Disruption of these signaling mechanisms in any of a variety of ways increases the incidence of neurodegeneration.
The validity of the diagnostic code for hidradenitis suppurativa in an electronic database

Summary Background Electronic claims and medical record databases are important sources of information for medical research. However, potential sources of error and bias, including inaccurate diagnoses, incomplete data, incorrect data entry and misclassification bias, necessitate studies that assess the validity of these databases. Objectives To assess the validity of the diagnostic code for hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), which is an increasingly studied disease. Methods In this retrospective study, the medical records of 1168 patients in the Massachusetts General Hospital database who had received at least two International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision 705·83 codes were manually screened. Results Of the screened patients, 1046 (89·6%) were confirmed as having HS. The mean age ± SD was 44·0 ± 15·7 years, the median age was 43·0 years and 748 (71·5%) were female. The majority were white (66·7%), while a significant minority were black (13·9%) or Hispanic (13·4%). An increasing number of codes and specific terms used to describe HS in the medical record, including ‘hydradenitis’, ‘boil’, ‘draining’, ‘abscess’, ‘fistula’, ‘cyst’ and ‘nodule’, could be used to improve the positive predictive value of the search. Conclusion Our results highlight the importance of establishing the validity of diagnostic codes in electronic databases, and allow for refinements of appropriate ways to design future searches. Given the potential for misclassification of patients with HS, establishing the validity of diagnostic codes and search strategies in electronic databases represents a crucial step for subsequent studies utilizing these databases.
Continuous magnetic separation of blood components from whole blood

Direct magnetic separations of red blood cells from whole blood have been carried out using a continuous magnetic separation method based on high gradient magnetic separation (HGMS) and a gas-permeable membrane with nitrogen gas. The experimental results have shown good agreements with the theoretical model taking into account the gravitational force. Based on the analysis, the feasibility of a direct magnetic separation device for white blood cells and plasma from whole blood is discussed.
Established and potential strategies against papillomavirus infections

Anogenital cancers, in particular cancer of the cervix, and common, genital and laryngeal warts are primarily caused by infection with human papillomaviruses. Traditionally, the primary goal of treatment is to remove the neoplasia by various surgical approaches; however, all of these have high rates of recurrence. Only a few non-surgical treatments have found their way into clinical practice, and none of them is generally recommended because of side effects, limited efficacy and recurrences. This article summarizes the research on pharmaceutical and immunological approaches that may find a place in clinical practice to complement or replace surgical treatments.
Caregiving in heart failure: relationship quality is associated with caregiver benefit finding and caregiver burden.

Objective: To determine whether relationship quality is associated with caregiver benefit or burden and how depression influences these associations. Background: Caregivers influence outcomes of patients with heart failure (HF). Relationship quality, caregiver benefit and burden are key factors in the caregiving experience. Methods: Nineteen caregivers of HF outpatients completed measures of relationship quality, caregiver benefit, burden and depression. Associations were assessed using Pearson’s correlations. Results: Relationship quality was positively associated with caregiver benefi t( r ¼ 0.45, P ¼ 0.05) and negatively associated with burden (r ¼� 0.80, P < 0.0001) and depression (r ¼� 0.77, P ¼ 0.0001). Relationship quality and burden remained associated after controlling for depression. Conclusions: In this exploratory study, relationship quality was positively associated with caregiver benefit and negatively associated with burden. Future studies are needed to further understand these key caregiving factors, which may lead to opportunities to help caregivers see benefits and reduce burden.
Gaussian interference networks: Sum capacity in the low interference regime

Genie based arguments are used to derive new outer bounds on the sum capacity of the two user, symmetric three user, one-to-many and many-to-one Gaussian interference channels. Using these bounds, it is shown that treating interference as noise achieves the sum capacity in a low interference regime, where the interference parameters are below certain thresholds.
Attitudes of African American premedical students toward genetic testing and screening.

Purpose: Genetic research is progressing at a rapid rate. While most view genetic advances favorably, concerns regarding eugenics and discrimination based on genetic test results have been raised. These concerns have been found among all groups studied; however, they have particular relevance for members of the African American community. Studies have shown that because of a long history of negative experiences, African Americans have a general mistrust of the medical establishment. It is unclear whether these negative attitudes encompass genetic advances. Because there is little empiric data in the literature, it is not known whether African Americans have a positive view of genetic advances or whether they have the same level of mistrust as is seen in their attitudes toward other forms of biomedical research. Methods: This study was conducted as an initial effort to examine the attitudes of African Americans toward recent genetic advances and, specifically, genetic testing. A cohort of 97 college-age minority students, including 78 African Americans, participating in the Health Career Enhancement for Minorities Program (HCEM) at Case Western Reserve University were surveyed. Surveys were made available before and after the summer long course, which included five lectures on basic genetic principles and medical genetics. Results: Both African American students and other minority students initially (questionnaire prior to HCEM course) had an overall positive view of genetic testing. The vast majority supported genetic testing for preventive care (95%) and presymptomatic detection of disease (88%) and agreed that it should be easily available (83%). However, several concerns were expressed as well, including fears about discrimination (68%), privacy (68%), that abortions will become more common (51%), and eugenics (37%). It is interesting that in the postcourse questionnaire, the percentages of positive views remained similar to those of the precourse survey, but the number of respondents expressing concerns increased. Discussion: These results suggest that the minority students surveyed view many aspects of genetic testing and other advances favorably. However, these students expressed concerns about discrimination, privacy, and eugenics. These concerns were increased, not lessened, by exposure to genetics education. One possible explanation for this observation is that the students had a greater understanding of the issues regarding genetic testing after the HCEM lectures and discussion. Of note, there was a greater negative response toward genetic screening programs among the African American students compared with the non–African American minority students. This suggests that the negative attitudes of African Americans toward biomedical research do extend to some aspects of genetics and that educational programs must be designed and implemented if this community is going to receive the maximum benefits of this advancing technology.
Experience and evaluation of oral examinations in a therapeutics course for second-year pharmacy students

Abstract Objective To develop, implement, and assess a patient case-based oral examination in a second-year therapeutics course. Methods During a two-year period, a patient case-based oral examination encompassing cumulative disease states was administered. The oral examination case encompassed up to five disease states which students had been previously tested on by written examination. Students' oral examination answers were evaluated by a standardized rubric and performance was compared to that on a written examination covering similar material. During year two, prior to the administration of corresponding written and oral examinations, students completed a perception of preparedness questionnaire rating themselves on a 4-point Likert scale. Data was evaluated to determine if relationships existed between performance on examination types, course grades, and perceptions of preparedness. Results Average performance on oral examinations was>90% in both the years and did not correlate to performance on the written examinations ( r = 0.12, r = 0.10). Students felt "prepared" for both oral (3.00±0.45) and written examinations (2.99±0.14); however, performance on both oral ( r = 0.13) and written ( r = 0.43) examinations had minimal relationship to perception of preparedness. A relationship was seen between written examination scores and course grades. Benefits and limitations of the process are described. Conclusion While there was no relationship between performance on the oral and written examination, incorporation of a patient case-based oral examination in a therapeutics course offers an additional method of student assessment to reinforce students' clinical knowledge and skills. Utilizing an oral examination with additional focus on oral communication skills evaluation has been suggested for future research.
A joint latent variable model approach to item reduction and validation.

S UMMARY Many applications of biomedical science involve unobservable constructs, from measurement of health states to severity of complex diseases. The primary aim of measurement is to identify relevant pieces of observable information that thoroughly describe the construct of interest. Validation of the construct is often performed separately. Noting the increasing popularity of latent variable methods in biomedical research, we propose a Multiple Indicator Multiple Cause (MIMIC) latent variable model that combines item reduction and validation. Our joint latent variable model accounts for the bias that occurs in the traditional 2-stage process. The methods are motivated by an example from the Physical Activity and Lymphedema clinical trial in which the objectives were to describe lymphedema severity through selfreported Likert scale symptoms and to determine the relationship between symptom severity and a “gold standard” diagnostic measure of lymphedema. The MIMIC model identified 1 symptom as a potential candidate for removal. We present this paper as an illustration of the advantages of joint latent variable models and as an example of the applicability of these models for biomedical research.
Synthesis of phenyldiazenido, phenylhydrazido and diorganohydrazido complexes of molybdenum and tungsten and their reactions with acids: A comparison with analogous unsubstituted hydrazido (NNH2) complexes. The crystal structure of [WCl2(NN(H)Ph)(PMe2Ph)3]

Abstract The phenyldiazenido complexes [MCl(NNPh)(PMe 2 Ph) 4 ] (M = Mo,W) and phenyl- and diorganohydrazido(2-) complexes [WCl 2 (NN(H)Ph)(PMe 2 Ph) 3 ], [MCl 2 (NNRR′)(PMe 2 Ph) 3 ]] (M = Mo, W ; R = R′ = Me, R = R′ = Ph ; M = W, R = Me, R′ = Ph), [MCl 2 (NNPh 2 )(dppe)(PMe 2 Ph)] (M = Mo,W; dppe = Ph 2 PCH 2 CH 2 PPh 2 ), [MCl(NNPh 2 )(dppe) 2 ]Cl (M = Mo,W), and [WCl(NN(Me)Ph)(dppe) 2 ]Cl were synthesized, characterized and their reactions with acids studied. These complexes were prepared in a series of reactions starting with WCl 6 or (MoCl 5 ) 2 involving (i) introduction of the organohydrazido(2 -) group (NNRR′) using the corresponding hydrazine (R = R′ = Me) or hydrazine hydrochloride (R = R′ = Ph; R = Ph,R′ = H or Me), and (ii) incorporation of phosphine ligands under reducing conditions. The particular product formed in the last step depended upon the reduction time. In almost all cases reaction of the complexes with acid (1 M HCl in Et 2 O or H 2 SO 4 in MeOH) resulted in the formation of some amine and a correspondingly smaller amount of ammonia. For example, the yields of aniline and ammonia when [MCl(NNPh)(PMe 2 Ph) 4 ]Cl reacted with H 2 SO 4 in MeOH were ca 0.2 mol and ca 0.1 mol per mol of W, and 0.70 mol and 0.65 mol per mol of Mo, respectively. A comparison of acid reactions of organodiazenido and organohydrazido(2- ) is made with those of unsubstituted hydrazido(2 -) complexes prepared from coordinated dinitrogen. The crystal structure of reddish-brown [WCl 2 (NN(H)Ph)(PMe 2 Ph) 3 ] revealed a distorted octahedral complex in which the hydrazido(2 -) moiety is trans to a chlorine atom and the hydrazido(2 -) phenyl group is coplanar with the plane containing W, N, N and C(Ph) atoms. The second chlorine atom, cis to the hydrazido(2 -) ligand, has a close intermolecular contact (2.62 A) with the hydrazido(2 -) hydrogen atom of a neighbouring molecule and close intramolecular contact (2.76 A) with the endo o -phenyl hydrogen atom of the hydrazido(2 -) ligand. Comparison of structural data with those for [WCl 2 (NNR 2 )(PMe 2 Ph) 3 ] (R 2 = Me 2 or Ph 2 ) indicates significant differences in W-N(1) and W-Cl( trans ) distances between the dimethyl-, and the phenyl- and diphenyl-hydrazido(2 -) complexes, respectively.
UNESCO’s Program for Sexuality Education in Light of a Proper Understanding of International Human Rights

Over the past few years, several international organizations have advocated a need for sexuality education. From June to December 2009, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization [hereinafter UNESCO] published International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education: An Evidence Informed Approach for Schools, Teachers, and Health Educators, and International Guidelines on Sexuality Education: an evidence informed approach to effective sex, relationships, and HIV/STI education (collectively, the Guidelines), outlining the implementation for sexuality education programs for primary and secondary schools. UNESCO published these massive documents with the goal of equipping children and young people with the "knowledge, skills and values to make responsible choices about their sexual and social relationships in a world affected by HIV and AIDS". Unfortunately, this noble goal is quickly abandoned in favor of advocating an approach that is "rights-based, culturally sensitive, respectful of sexual and gender diversity. . ." and encourages teachers and governments to act in the place of the child’s parents in educating children on sexuality. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of UNESCO’s two sexuality education guidelines in light of a proper understanding of the rights of parents, family, and children in binding international law, and to demonstrate that UNESCO’s approach is more focused on sexualizing children through social policy, rather than on health.
Electoral Systems and Real Prices: Panel Evidence for the OECD Countries, 1970–2000

In the article that originally motivated this book, Rogowski and Kayser (2002) performed only a plausibility check of the hypothesized link between electoral systems and real prices, based on cross-sectional analysis of OECD countries in 1990. The cross-sectional evidence was strongly supportive, suggesting that real prices were, controlling for all other influences commonly adduced and employing a broad array of robustness checks, about 10 percent lower in the average OECD country with single-member district (SMD) electoral systems than in those that used some form of proportional representation. As with all new empirical claims – no one had previously even suggested a relationship between electoral arrangements and real prices – healthy skepticism was warranted. Indeed, recent research on related areas of public policy has contrasted with – but not contradicted – these price results, associating proportional electoral arrangements with such outcomes as (a) lower income inequality (Austin-Smith 2000; Birchfield and Crepaz 1998), (b) higher public spending (Persson and Tabellini 2003; Milesi-Feretti et al. 2002) or, in combination with central banking institutions, (c) greater price stability (Keefer and Stasavage 2003). As we noted in the previous chapter, and will treat more extensively later (Chapter 7), these outcomes – some of them desirable on non-utilitarian (e.g., Rawlsian) normative grounds – are almost always purchased at the cost of an overall reduction in social welfare; but it remains a question of (social) taste whether more equal slices are preferred to a larger pie, or whether greater growth is worth greater volatility. In this chapter, we restrict ourselves to a closer study of the price relationship among OECD countries.
Pragmatism and the Cold War

This is a short essay written for the forthcoming *Handbook of American Pragmatism* (Cheryl Misak, ed., Oxford University Press). The author argues that the standard narrative, according to which pragmatism went into eclipse in the years of the Cold War is nonviable.
Transmission Efficiency of Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus and Progression of Huanglongbing Disease in Graft- and Psyllid-inoculated Citrus

Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (Las) is a phloem-limited bacterium associ- ated with huanglongbing (HLB), one of the most destructive diseases of citrus in Florida and other citrus-producing countries. Natural transmission of Las occurs by the psyllid vector Diaphorina citri, but transmission can also occur through grafting with diseased budwood. As a result of the difficulty of maintaining Las in culture, screening of citrus germplasm for HLB resistance often relies on graft inoculation as the mode of pathogen transmission. This study evaluates transmission efficiencies and HLB progression in graft-inoculated and psyllid-inoculated citrus under greenhouse and natural conditions in the field. Frequencies of transmission in graft-inoculated greenhouse-grown plants varied between experiments and were ashighas90% in susceptible sweet orange plants 6 to 12 months after inoculation. Transmission frequency in a tolerant Citrus 3 Poncirus genotype (US-802) was 31% to 75%. In contrast, transmission of Las after controlled psyllid inoculation did not exceed 38% in any of four experiments in this study. Whereas the time from inoculation to detection of Las by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was faster in psyllid-inoculated US-802 plants compared with graft-inoculated US-802 plants, it was similar in graft- and psyllid-inoculated sweet orange plants. HLB symptom expression was indistinguishable in graft- and psyllid-inoculated plants but was not always associated with the number of bacteria in affected leaves. The highest number of Las genomes per gram leaf tissue measured in sweet orange plants was one to four 3 10 7 in graft-inoculated plants and one to two 310 7 in psyllid-inoculated plants. Highest numbers measuredintolerantUS-802plantswereonetothree 310 6 andtwotosix 310 6 ,respectively. Compared with artificial inoculation in a greenhouse setting, natural inoculation of field- grown sweet orange trees occurred at a much slower pace, requiring more than 1 year for infection incidence to reach 50% and a minimum of 3 years to reach 100%.
An In-depth Analysis of the Effect of Text Normalization in Social Media

Recent years have seen increased interest in text normalization in social media, as the informal writing styles found in Twitter and other social media data often cause problems for NLP applications. Unfortunately, most current approaches narrowly regard the normalization task as a “one size fits all” task of replacing non-standard words with their standard counterparts. In this work we build a taxonomy of normalization edits and present a study of normalization to examine its effect on three different downstream applications (dependency parsing, named entity recognition, and text-to-speech synthesis). The results suggest that how the normalization task should be viewed is highly dependent on the targeted application. The results also show that normalization must be thought of as more than word replacement in order to produce results comparable to those seen on clean text.
Transcatheter Valve-in-Valve Implantation for Failing Bioprosthetic Triscupid Valves Completing the Quest

Over the past decade, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has established itself as an important alternative to surgical aortic valve replacement for patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis who have a high or prohibitive surgical risk. The success of this breakthrough technology was propelled by data from several randomized, controlled trials and large registries.1,2 During this period, the technology has been serially refined to overcome many key limitations. Procedural planning and execution have been largely standardized, making TAVR a mature method with reproducible outcomes across a growing spectrum of patients. The general simplicity of the TAVR procedure, in comparison with traditional surgery, combined with excellent outcomes of this minimally invasive treatment option, even in highest-risk patients with native aortic stenosis, has initiated a tidal wave of new technologies using catheter-based devices for treating other valvular heart problems. Article, see p 1582 This phenomenon has coincided with increasing use of bioprosthetic valves as opposed to mechanical aortic valve replacements in cardiac surgery.3 This has presented an opportunity for existing TAVR systems to be harnessed for the treatment of failed bioprosthetic surgical valves. On March 30, 2015, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the expanded use of the CoreValve System for high-risk patients with failed surgical bioprosthetic aortic valves. This approval was based on a small prospective registry of 143 participants conducted in the United States. In the trial, the 30-day and 6-month survival rates without major stroke were 95.8% and 89.3%, respectively. On October 15, 2015, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the expanded use of the SAPIEN XT valve based on the results of the independently adjudicated data from the 197-patient Partner II Trials: Placement of Aortic Transcatheter Valves (PARTNER II) valve-in-valve (VIV) study. The VIV procedure was associated with a high overall 1-year …
Large-eddy simulation study of injector geometry on liquid jet in cross-flow and validation with experiments

In this work, large-eddy simulation of the atomization of a liquid jet in cross-flow is performed. Two different injector geometries are investigated that result in significantly different liquid jets. One of the injectors, referred to as the round-edged injector, produces a laminar flow at the exit plane. The other injector, known as the sharp-edged injector, produces a turbulent flow that enhances the atomization of the liquid jet. The jet penetration, mean droplet size spatial distribution, and mean droplet velocity spatial distribution are compared to experimental results by Gopala, and good agreement is observed. To perform the simulations, we employ a computational methodology that is accurate and robust even when large density ratios and turbulent flows are present. The accurate conservative level set is used to transport the gas-liquid interface. A density correction formulation is used to ensure consistency between the interface transport and momentum transport steps, making a robust scheme for simulating high density ratio flows. A conservative immersed boundary method is used to simulate the injector geometries, which avoids the complexity of generating a body-fitted mesh.
An Examination of Church-State Curriculum in American Higher Education

Xhe growth of church-state studies as an academic discipline within American higher education is a relatively recent phenomenon.1 In the last twenty-five years or so, many colleges, universities, seminar ies, and law schools have expanded their curricula to include courses in the broad field of church and state. Given the interdisciplinary nature of church-state studies, these courses cross many disciplines—religion, history, political science, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, and law—and bear many titles. Nevertheless, these courses all focus on the relationship between the religious and political communities, which in broad terms is the meaning of the term "church and state." To examine the recent emergence of church-state studies in Ameri can higher education, the authors conducted a survey of over 1,500 institutions.2 Included in the survey were all categories of higher edu cation—public colleges and universities, private colleges and universi ties, seminaries, and law schools. Data was collected identifying each institution offering a course or courses in church and state, and de scriptions of all the courses were compiled. The data was then ana lyzed in various ways. The study represents the most comprehensive study yet conducted on the subject of church-state curriculum in American higher education, and is summarized herein. Before pro ceeding to a description of that study, however, it is appropriate to
Development of a Pediatric Screening Tool for Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy

Background: Because Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy (DPN) is presumed uncommon in youth, it has not been routinely assessed in pediatric endocrine practices in the United States. International researchers have reported a 5-87% prevalence of DPN in youth. In a previous study, we demonstrated that of the children who screened positive for DPN, 55% were diagnosed with DPN by a neurologisteven some with good diabetes control and short diabetes duration. Therefore, screening for all children with diabetes is key in the diagnosis of DPN. Previous pediatric DPN studies utilized adult neuropathy screening instruments. To advance the state of the science, a pediatric DPN screening tool is needed. Aims: To develop a conceptually grounded, developmentally appropriate DPN questionnaire screening tool for evaluating youth with type 1 diabetes. Methods: A pediatric DPN conceptual framework was developed through a literature review and interviews with 5 diabetes content experts and 16 youth (aged 8-21). Initial item pools were informed by a systematic review of existing DPN measures and iteratively refined through cognitive interviews with 16 children. Results: Experts supported a DPN conceptual framework comprising three dimensions: pain, paresthesia, and anesthesia. Children confirmed these experiences and identified terms that described the symptoms in patientcentered language (e.g., “buzzing”). Based on child input and review of 15 existing adult DPN measures, we generated an initial item pool of 46 unique item concepts. Upon completion of the cognitive interviews, 16 items were deleted from the initial pool, 3 items revised and retested, and 27 items retained in their original form. The final item pool for this DPN tool is 30 items. Conclusions: Children with type 1 diabetes experience a range of DPN symptoms measurable by self-report. Significant modifications to adult items were added to ensure the content validity, understandability and relevance of a DPN screening tool for children. Future research will focus on evaluating the psychometric properties of the instrument. Clinical Implications: This tool is the first DPN screening tool for the pediatric population-and pending psychometric validation, will enable children at risk for, or in the early stages of DPN, to be more promptly identified.
Studying on Influence Factors of HIV Antibody Gelatin Particle Agglutination Test in the Serum of Syphilis Patients

Objective To Study the influence on HIV antibody gelatin particle agglutination test in the serum of syphilis patients.Methods Three hundred and fifty-nine specimens of syphilis positive serum affirmed by TPPA were detected by TRUST and HIV antibody test including HIV1/2-PA and Determine HIV-1/2.Results One hundred and eighteen syphilitic patients( male 36.65%,female 26.81%) were indeterminate in the HIV1/2-PA test because of interference phenomenon.No interference phenomenon was found in 1606 serum samples without syphilitic.Different interference phenomenon in different TRUST titers: negative 5/101(4.95%),positive 4/30(13.33%),1∶ 2: 4/29(13.79%),1∶4: 6/28(21.43%),1∶8: 9/21(42.86%),1∶16: 17 /29(58.62%) 1:32:22 /41(53.66%),1∶64: 31 /49(63.27%),1:128:16/25(64.00%),1∶256:4 /6(66.67%).There was some interference remained after reabsorption test 64 /118(54.24%).Conclusions There is prominent interference on HIV1/2-PA test in the serum of syphilitic patients.Gender is not significantly relevant to the interference phenomenon,while TRUST titer is a prominently interference factor.It is inferred that reagins in syphilis serum can agglutinate the control particles coated with the lipid constituents contained in E.Coli cell wall in the HIV1 /2-PA test.Reabsorption test has a limited effect on the problem.
Oligomeric States of Proteins Determined by Size-Exclusion Chromatography Coupled With Light Scattering, Absorbance, and Refractive Index Detectors

Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), coupled with "on-line" static laser light scattering (LS), refractive index (RI), and ultraviolet (UV) detection, provides a universal approach for determination of the molar mass and oligomeric state in solution of native proteins as well as glycosylated proteins or membrane proteins solubilized in non-ionic detergents. Such glycosylated proteins or protein-detergent complexes show anomalous behavior on SEC, thus presenting a challenge to determination of molar mass and oligomeric state in solution. In the SEC-UV/LS/RI approach, SEC serves solely as a fractionation step, while the responses from the three detectors are utilized to calculate the molar mass for the polypeptide portion of the native or modified protein. The amount of sugar, lipid, or detergent bound to the polypeptide chain can also be estimated from the SEC-UV/LS/RI analysis.
Standard Form Contracts

Among legal commentators, standard form contracts have long been received with distrust, and the rules governing their interpretation have engendered considerable controversy. While economic analysis has little to say regarding the libertarian objection to standard form contracts or their relationship to personal autonomy, it can help evaluate their effects on efficiency and the distribution of the gains from trade. From such a perspective, standard forms should be analyzed like any other productive input, comparable to design, marketing, and technical support. Whether their use raises any special regulatory or policy concerns, therefore, depends on their implications for the standard litany of market failures: scale economies, monopoly, externalities, imperfect information, and the like. This essay surveys and discusses such implications, concluding that a measure of special legal treatment for form contracts is appropriate on economic grounds.
SU-G-206-01: A Fully Automated CT Tool to Facilitate Phantom Image QA for Quantitative Imaging in Clinical Trials

Purpose: The use of Quantitative Imaging (QI) methods in Clinical Trials requires both verification of adherence to a specified protocol and an assessment of scanner performance under that protocol, which are currently accomplished manually. This work introduces automated phantom identification and image QA measure extraction towards a fully-automated CT phantom QA system to perform these functions and facilitate the use of Quantitative Imaging methods in clinical trials. Methods: This study used a retrospective cohort of CT phantom scans from existing clinical trial protocols - totaling 84 phantoms, across 3 phantom types using various scanners and protocols. The QA system identifies the input phantom scan through an ensemble of threshold-based classifiers. Each classifier - corresponding to a phantom type - contains a template slice, which is compared to the input scan on a slice-by-slice basis, resulting in slice-wise similarity metric values for each slice compared. Pre-trained thresholds (established from a training set of phantom images matching the template type) are used to filter the similarity distribution, and the slice with the most optimal local mean similarity, with local neighboring slices meeting the threshold requirement, is chosen as the classifier's matched slice (if it existed). The classifier with the matched slice possessing the most optimal local mean similarity is then chosen as the ensemble's best matching slice. If the best matching slice exists, image QA algorithm and ROIs corresponding to the matching classifier extracted the image QA measures. Results: Automated phantom identification performed with 84.5% accuracy and 88.8% sensitivity on 84 phantoms. Automated image quality measurements (following standard protocol) on identified water phantoms (n=35) matched user QA decisions with 100% accuracy. Conclusion: We provide a fullyautomated CT phantom QA system consistent with manual QA performance. Further work will include parallel component to automatically verify image acquisition parameters and automated adherence to specifications. Institutional research agreement, Siemens Healthcare; Past recipient, research grant support, Siemens Healthcare; Consultant, Toshiba America Medical Systems; Consultant, Samsung Electronics; NIH Grant support from: U01 CA181156.
A survey and comparative study on different energy efficient MAC-protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks

Medium access control (MAC) plays a crucial role in energy consumption, bandwidth utilization etc. for long term WSN deployment. An improved MAC protocol can ensure efficiency of energy for low sensing ranges. There are several MAC-Protocols with different objectives. The aim of this paper is to study on some energy efficient MAC-Protocols in Wireless Sensor Network. This paper also takes a closer look at the performance of the MAC-Protocols in terms of energy efficiency in different situation. Lastly this paper draws a conclusion comparing the protocols. In this paper the energy efficiency is given higher priority than latency, throughput etc for comparison.
Proteus online: Digital identity and the Internet governance industry

Scholarship on digital identity has historically reflected a Protean discourse, framing arguments in terms of fluidity and constraint. After explicating the Protean discourse that has framed critic...
The Potential for Big Data to Improve Neighborhood-Level Census Data

The promise of “big data” for those who study cities is that it offers new ways of understanding urban environments and processes. Big data exists within broader national data economies, these data economies have changed in ways that are both poorly understood by the average data consumer and of significant consequence for the application of data to urban problems. For example, high resolution demographic and economic data from the United States Census Bureau since 2010 has declined by some key measures of data quality. For some policy-relevant variables, like the number of children under 5 in poverty, the estimates are almost unusable. Of the 56,204 census tracts for which a childhood poverty estimate was available 40,941 had a margin of error greater than the estimate in the 2007–2011 American Community Survey (ACS) (72.8 % of tracts). For example, the ACS indicates that Census Tract 196 in Brooklyn, NY has 169 children under 5 in poverty ±174 children, suggesting somewhere between 0 and 343 children in the area live in poverty. While big data is exciting and novel, basic questions about American Cities are all but unanswerable in the current data economy. Here we highlight the potential for data fusion strategies, leveraging novel forms of big data and traditional federal surveys, to develop useable data that allows effective understanding of intra urban demographic and economic patterns. This paper outlines the methods used to construct neighborhood-level census data and suggests key points of technical intervention where “big” data might be used to improve the quality of neighborhood-level statistics.
Content-based compression and transmission of astronomical Images

The next generation space telescope (NGST) is expected to produce a vast amount of raw images, which need to be stored and disseminated efficiently for astronomical research and education. Therefore, effective compression and transmission methods are very important. This paper proposes a joint compression and transmission scheme for efficient streaming of astronomical images based on their special characteristics. The objective of the joint approach is to maximize the recognition of the astronomical entities presented in the image under the same rate constraint and channel loss behavior. In the compression stage, each astronomical entities is segmented and coded independently using zero-tree based wavelet codec, and robust packetization scheme is employed to prevent error propagation; in the transmission stage, content information of the image is utilized to maximize the perceptual quality of the entities at the presence of packet loss. Experiment results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Knowing the allograft's destiny.

Over the past 50 years the short term outcome of kidney transplantation has improved significantly but maintaining the graft long term has remained a challenge (1). Today, with the help of calcineurin inhibitors, we are able to keep the acute rejection rates low (less than 10%) (2). However, we have very few weapons in our armamentarium to identify and influence the chronic process like transplant glomerulopathy, interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy (1,3). Hence the importance of markers to identify grafts at risk for these chronic changes before they become permanent and irreversible.
Effect of personal exposure to black carbon on changes in allergic asthma gene methylation measured 5 days later in urban children: importance of allergic sensitization.

Asthma gene DNA methylation may underlie the effects of air pollution on airway inflammation. However, the temporality and individual susceptibility to environmental epigenetic regulation of asthma has not been fully elucidated. Our objective was to determine the timeline of black carbon (BC) exposure, measured by personal sampling, on DNA methylation of allergic asthma genes 5 days later to capture usual weather variations and differences related to changes in behavior and activities. We also sought to determine how methylation may vary by seroatopy and cockroach sensitization and by elevated fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO). Personal BC levels were measured during two 24-h periods over a 6-day sampling period in 163 New York City children (age 9–14 years), repeated 6 months later. During home visits, buccal cells were collected as noninvasive surrogates for lower airway epithelial cells and FeNO measured as an indicator of airway inflammation. CpG promoter loci of allergic asthma genes (e.g., interleukin 4 (IL4), interferon gamma (IFNγ), inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS2A)), arginase 2 (ARG2)) were pyrosequenced at the start and end of each sampling period. Higher levels of BC were associated with lower methylation of IL4 promoter CpG−48 5 days later. The magnitude of association between BC exposure and demethylation of IL4 CpG−48 and NOS2A CpG+5099 measured 5 days later appeared to be greater among seroatopic children, especially those sensitized to cockroach allergens (RR [95% CI] 0.55 [0.37–0.82] and 0.67 [0.45–0.98] for IL4 CpG−48 and NOS2A CpG+5099, respectively), compared to non-sensitized children (RR [95% CI] 0.87 [0.65–1.17] and 0.95 [0.69–1.33] for IL4 CpG−48 and NOS2A CpG+5099, respectively); however, the difference was not statistically different. In multivariable linear regression models, lower DNA methylation of IL4 CpG−48 and NOS2A CpG+5099 were associated with increased FeNO. Our results suggest that exposure to BC may exert asthma proinflammatory gene demethylation 5 days later that in turn may link to airway inflammation. Our results further suggest that seroatopic children, especially those sensitized to cockroach allergens, may be more susceptible to the effect of acute BC exposure on epigenetic changes.
Evaluation of Filtration and DNA Extraction Methods for Environmental DNA Biodiversity Assessments across Multiple Trophic Levels.

Metabarcoding of marine environmental DNA (eDNA), the DNA suspended in seawater originating from tissue, cells, or extracellular DNA, offers the opportunity to survey the biological composition of communities across multiple trophic levels from a non-invasive seawater sample. Here we compare results of eDNA metabarcoding of multiple trophic levels from the same seawater samples collected from a kelp forest in Monterey Bay, California in order to establish methods for future cross-trophic level eDNA analysis. Triplicate 1 L water samples were filtered using five different 47 mm diameter membrane filters (PVDF, PES, GFF, PCTE, and NC) and DNA was extracted from triplicates of each filter-type using three widely-used extraction methods (the DNeasy Blood and Tissue kit, the MoBio PowerWater DNA Isolation kit, and standard phenol/chloroform methods) resulting in 45 individual eDNA samples prepared with 15 workflow combinations. Each DNA extract was amplified using PCR primers for the 16S rRNA gene (microorganisms; Bacteria and Archaea), 18S rRNA gene (phytoplankton), and the 12S rRNA gene (vertebrates) genes, and PCR products were sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq platform. The richness and community composition of microbial, phytoplankton, and vertebrate OTUs were not significantly different between any of the 0.2 μm pore-size filter types extracted with the DNeasy or MoBio kits. However, phenol/chloroform extraction resulted in significantly different community structures. This study provides insight into multiple choices for extraction and filtration methods to use eDNA metabarcoding for biodiversity assessment of multiple trophic levels from a single sample. We recommend any combination of either DNeasy or MoBio with PES, PCTE, PVDF, or NC filters for a cross trophic level comparison.
Animated database courseware (ADBC): database design, SQL, transactions and security

Many concepts are difficult to convey in traditional classroom lecture mediums. This is true with many database concepts. One way to supplement classroom teaching is through the use of software animations. This workshop will demonstrate how Animated Database Courseware (ADbC) might be incorporated into a database course. ADbC is an on going project funded by NSF-CCLI [grant # 0717707]. The project includes the development of several animations covering a wide variety of database concepts including database design, SQL, transactions processing and database security. Prototypes which have been developed are freely available at the website: http://adbc.kennesaw.edu.