cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Acute Coronary Insufficiency Due to Acute Hemorrhage: An Analysis of One Hundred and Three Cases

The occurrence of 59 cases of acute coronary insufficiency among 103 patients with acute hemorrhage, chiefly from the gastrointestinal tract, emphasizes the frequency and gravity of this generally unrecognized complication of bleeding. Clinical, electrocardiographic and anatomic manifestations of myocardial ischemia and subendocardial necrosis are prone to appeal in previously diseased hearts, although they may develop in otherwise normal hearts. Consequently, prompt and adequate blood replacement is required in patients with coronary arteriosclerosis, enlarged hearts, valvular heart disease, etc. to prevent as well as to treat coronary insufficiency secondary to hemorrhage.
Individual organisms as units of analysis: Bayesian-clustering alternatives in population genetics.

Summary Population genetic analyses traditionally focus on the frequencies of alleles or genotypes in ‘populations ’ that are delimited a priori. However, there are potential drawbacks of amalgamating genetic data into such composite attributes of assemblages of specimens: genetic information on individual specimens is lost or submerged as an inherent part of the analysis. A potential also exists for circular reasoning when a population’s initial identification and subsequent genetic characterization are coupled. In principle, these problems are circumvented by some newer methods of population identification and individual assignment based on statistical clustering of specimen genotypes. Here we evaluate a recent method in this genre – Bayesian clustering – using four genotypic data sets involving different types of molecular markers in non-model organisms from nature. As expected, measures of population genetic structure (FST and WST) tended to be significantly greater in Bayesian a posteriori data treatments than in analyses where populations were delimited a priori. In the four biological contexts examined, which involved both geographic population structures and hybrid zones, Bayesian clustering was able to recover differentiated populations, and Bayesian assignments were able to identify likely population sources of specific individuals.
History of the New York Roentgen Society.

The New York Roentgen Society (NYRS) was founded in April 1912, seventeen years after the discovery of the X-ray by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen in 1895. The original name of the Society was the Roentgen Society of New York. The NYRS is the second oldest local Radiology society in the country, founded shortly after the founding of the Philadelphia Roentgen Ray Society, at a time when there were no state Radiology societies and only two national Radiology organizations, the American Roentgen Ray Society and the American Radium Society. The purpose of the Society was to “form a close association of the ethical Radiologists of the city of New York and surrounding areas, for the advancement of the science and practice of Radiology and its maintenance as a specialty of medicine.” The Society's first president was Dr. Edward Leaming, who served a 2-year term from 1912 to 1914. The past presidents of the Society include many luminaries in the field. From its early days, the NYRS included Therapeutic Radiologists, now known as Radiation Oncologists. Training programs included both specialties until the 1970s. A Radiation Oncology Chairman was elected in addition to the President starting in 1972, with Dr. Arvin Glicksman as the first to hold that position. Dr. Florence Chu was the first woman to become the Radiation Oncology Chairman in 1980, and Dr. Ruth Rosenblatt became the first woman president of the Society in 1989. The Society's membership has grown over the years to over 1200 members, including residents and fellows. Dr. Roentgen was awarded an honorary membership in the Society in 1914, the only American honorary membership he ever accepted. Honorary membership was also awarded to Dr. Marie Sklodowska Curie when she was a guest speaker at the NYRS in 1921. From an early date, meetings of the Society were held on a regular basis at the New York Academy of Medicine on the third Monday of the month from September to March. The
A Critical Examination of Distortion Measurement in Hearing Aids

This study was designed to examine relationships between measures of total distortion (TD) and individual 2nd and 3rd harmonic distortion in various types of hearing aids. Measures of 2nd harmonic, 3rd harmonic, and TD were determined for six instruments. Analysis of the results revealed that little additional information is obtained from a measure of TD as opposed to individual harmonic measures. Furthermore, in two instances TD measures resulted in erroneously high distortion readings because of ambient and system noise. It is recommended that in less than ideal acoustic environments, measures of 2nd and 3rd harmonic distortion be used in lieu of TD.
BEYOND THE MATERIAL AND THE MECHANICAL: OCCAM'S RAZOR IS A DOUBLE‐EDGED BLADE

. To confine scientific narrative to only material and mechanical causes is to ensure incomplete and at times contrived descriptions of phenomena. In the life sciences, and particularly in the field of ecology, causality takes on qualitatively distinct forms at different hierarchical levels. The notion of formal cause provides for entirely natural and quantitative explanations of ecosystem behavior.
Pxl1p, a Paxillin-like Protein in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, May Coordinate Cdc42p and Rho1p Functions during Polarized Growth

Rho-family GTPases Cdc42p and Rho1p play critical roles in the budding process of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. However, it is not clear how the functions of these GTPases are coordinated temporally and spatially during this process. Based on its ability to suppress cdc42-Ts mutants when overexpressed, a novel gene PXL1 was identified. Pxl1p resembles mammalian paxillin, which is involved in integrating various signaling events at focal adhesion. Both proteins share amino acid sequence homology and structural organization. When expressed in yeast, chicken paxillin localizes to the sites of polarized growth as Pxl1p does. In addition, the LIM domains in both proteins are the primary determinant for targeting the proteins to the cortical sites in their native cells. These data strongly suggest that Pxl1p is the “ancient paxillin” in yeast. Deletion of PXL1 does not produce any obvious phenotype. However, Pxl1p directly binds to Rho1p-GDP in vitro, and inhibits the growth of rho1-2 and rho1-3 mutants in a dosage-dependent manner. The opposite effects of overexpressed Pxl1p on cdc42 and rho1 mutants suggest that the functions of Cdc42p and Rho1p may be coordinately regulated during budding and that Pxl1p may be involved in this coordination.
Acroplaxome, an F-actin-keratin-containing plate, anchors the acrosome to the nucleus during shaping of the spermatid head

Nuclear shaping is a critical event during sperm development as demonstrated by the incidence of male infertility associated with abnormal sperm ad shaping. Herein, we demonstrate that mouse and rat spermatids assemble in the subacrosomal space a cytoskeletal scaffold containing F-actin and Sak57, a keratin ortholog. The cytoskeletal plate, designated acroplaxome, anchors the developing acrosome to the nuclear envelope. The acroplaxome consists of a marginal ring containing keratin 5 10-nm-thick filaments and F-actin. The ring is closely associated with the leading edge of the acrosome and to the nuclear envelope during the elongation of the spermatid head. Anchorage of the acroplaxome to the gradually shaping nucleus is not disrupted by hypotonic treatment and brief Triton X-100 extraction. By examining spermiogenesis in the azh mutant mouse, characterized by abnormal spermatid/sperm head shaping, we have determined that a deformity of the spermatid nucleus is restricted to the acroplaxome region. These findings lead to the suggestion that the acroplaxome nucleates an F-actin-keratin-containing assembly with the purpose of stabilizing and anchoring the developing acrosome during spermatid nuclear elongation. The acroplaxome may also provide a mechanical planar scaffold modulating external clutching forces generated by a stack of Sertoli cell F-actin-containing hoops encircling the elongating spermatid nucleus.
Scalable load-balance measurement for SPMD codes

Good load balance is crucial on very large parallel systems, but the most sophisticated algorithms introduce dynamic imbalances through adaptation in domain decomposition or use of adaptive solvers. To observe and diagnose imbalance, developers need system-wide, temporally-ordered measurements from full-scale runs. This potentially requires data collection from multiple code regions on all processors over the entire execution. Doing this instrumentation naively can, in combination with the application itself, exceed available I/O bandwidth and storage capacity, and can induce severe behavioral perturbations. We present and evaluate a novel technique for scalable, low-error load balance measurement. This uses a parallel wavelet transform and other parallel encoding methods. We show that our technique collects and reconstructs system-wide measurements with low error. Compression time scales sublinearly with system size and data volume is several orders of magnitude smaller than the raw data. The overhead is low enough for online use in a production environment.
Immigration and the politics of security

(1998). Immigration and the politics of security. Security Studies: Vol. 8, The Origins of National Interests, pp. 71-93.
The Right to Keep and Bear Arms Under the Tennessee Constitution: A Case Study in Civic Republican Thought

State constitutional rights to arms are of considerable interest, both for their own sake and as sources of insight into the meaning of the Federal Constitution's right to keep and bear arms. This article examines the origins and scope of the right to arms provided in the Tennessee Constitution, including Tennessee cases that, interestingly, were cited as authority by the United States Supreme Court in the 1939 case of United States v. Miller, one of the Supreme Court's few cases to address Second Amendment issues in any depth.
Can prenatal infection contribute to psychiatric disease in offspring

While it may seem incredible that environmental factors experienced in utero can contribute to the onset of a disease more than two decades later, epidemiologists have long suspected that a wide variety of maternal infections during pregnancy could increase the risk of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in adult offspring. Although animal models of maternal immune activation have consistently reproduced behavioral deficits in offspring, the functional mechanisms underlying these effects have been unclear. Now, Canetta et al. report reduced functional GABAergic transmission specifically by the parvalbumin (PV)-positive subclass of interneurons in the medial prefrontal cortex of adult offspring exposed prenatally to maternal immune activation. This deficit occurred prior to any loss of PV neuron cell number and could not be explained by anatomical deficits or alterations in the intrinsic excitability of PV interneurons. Instead, reduced GABAergic release probability was consistent with a decrease in the amount of presynaptic GABA available for release, resulting from a strong trend in reduced levels of the GABA synthesizing enzyme (GAD67) in the PV neurons of these mice. This is consistent with findings of decreased GAD67 in PV neurons in postmortem brain tissue from patients with schizophrenia. The authors used an optogenetics approach to demonstrate that decreased PV to pyramidal neuron functional connectivity was sufficient to reproduce the cognitive deficits and anxiety-related behavior they observed in mice exposed prenatally to maternal immune activation. Using optogenetics, they decreased PV interneuron activity with green light stimulation in healthy mice and replicated the cognitive deficits and anxiety-related behavior found in mice exposed prenatally to maternal immune activation. Together, these findings are convergent with those from a number of studies using genetic mouse models of schizophrenia, which have also hinted that abnormal PV interneuron function can contribute to this disorder. S. Canetta et al. , Maternal immune activation leads to selective functional deficits in offspring parvalbumin interneurons. Mol. Psychiatry 10.1038/mp.2015.222 (2016). [[Abstract]][1] [1]: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/mp.2015.222
The NPC derived C15 LMP1 protein confers enhanced activation of NF-κB and induction of the EGFR in epithelial cells

The Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) LMP1 protein is frequently expressed in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and is essential for the transforming effects of EBV. Analysis of LMP1 genes isolated from tumor biopsies has revealed considerable sequence variation including deletion of amino acids 343-352. Several studies have suggested that this sequence variation could enhance the transforming potential of LMP1. LMP1 has profound effects on cellular gene expression mediated in part through activation of the NF-kappa B transcription factor. In addition, LMP1 engages the TRAF signaling pathway resulting in the induction of EGFR expression. In this study, the LMP1 proteins derived from the laboratory strain B95-8 and the NPC strain C15 were analysed for their ability to activate NF-kappa B and also to induce expression of the EGFR. The data suggest that the C15-LMP1 protein activates NF-kappa B more efficiently and induces higher levels of the EGFR. Analysis of chimeric LMP1 proteins indicates that the amino terminal 181 amino acids of C15-LMP1 confer this increased signaling capability, and that deletion of amino acids 343-352 does not affect these properties. Finally, these data provide evidence that five amino acid changes within the transmembrane domain in the C15-LMP1 protein lead to enhanced NF-kappa B activation and EGFR induction.
A Novel Approach of Face Detection Based on Skin Color Segmentation and PCA

Face detection plays an important role in security,information processing and other applications.A novel approach of face detection based on skin color segmentation and PCA is presented.Firstly,a color segmentation method,based on edge and mathematical morphology,was proposed after the establishment of skin color model.Secondly,knowledge-based face detection method was applied to verify the face candidates in oder to reduce the number of face candidates.Finally,PCA-based face detection algorithm was applied for testing.Experimental results showed that this method can not only be applied effectively on many faces of different sizes and complex background situations,but also had a high detection rate on images under partly-blocked,color-interfered and other complex environments.
Background of Manager and Firm Performance:An Empirical Study in China

This paper empirically analyzes the correlation between the background of manager and firm performance based on the WB`s survey data which includes 1109 non-listed-company samples in China. We find that education background of manager does have positive effect on firm performance, especially in the long-term stage of manager tenure. Meanwhile our result indicates that as a whole overseas education, ex-position and appointment background of manager are not significantly related to firm performance. However, we find government appointment background and overseas education background are negatively related to firm performance in the short-term stage and the long-term stage of manager tenure respectively.
Use of Direct-Fed Microbials in Layer Hen Production—Performance Response and Salmonella Control

The intestinal microbial ecosystem of poultry is a dense and diverse population that can be utilized to improve production efficiency and enhance the safety of food. Strategies that harness this complex natural resource have been developed that improve production efficiency, animal health, and food safety on the farm. Products used in laying hens to increase the efficiency of egg production and safety of the food supply include: probiotics (DFM) and competitive exclusion (CE) cultures depending on the age of the hen and production goals. The efficacy (or lack thereof) of each approach or individual product is due to specific microbial ecological factors within the layer gut and its native microbiome, as well as external environmental factors that alter the competitive pressures of the gut. This review explores the efficacy of these products in improving production efficiency, gut architecture, skeletal fitness, the immune system, as well as the safety of eggs and egg production.
Smart Meters and Smart Devices in Buildings: a Review of Recent Progress and Influence on Electricity Use and Peak Demand

Electric grids face significant challenges with peak and variable demand and greenhouse gas emissions. As new technologies develop, they are used to modernize grids through improved monitoring and management of building electricity use. In this review, a range of technologies are discussed, including the state of their implementation and their current and future potential influence on building electricity contributions. Recent literature has focused on the use of these devices individually for modeling building performance, influencing occupant behavioral energy efficiency, and model predictive control for more dynamically operated buildings. The results suggest that while smart meters are the most common device, other grid-connected technologies have the potential to further improve monitoring and management of the grid. However, there still remains significant gaps in the literature that require further study to take full advantage of the diversity of connected technologies to achieve a more energy-efficient built environment that can more dynamically consume electricity.
Gold and copper leaching from gold-copper ores and concentrates using a synergistic lixiviant mixture of glycine and cyanide

Abstract The presence of cyanide soluble copper in the cyanidation of gold-copper ores and concentrates significantly increases the cyanide consumption in order to achieve sufficient gold recovery. In addition, cyanide recovery or cyanide detoxification/destruction processes are also required which adds extra cost to the process. This research introduces a leaching approach to extract gold, silver and copper from gold-copper ores and concentrates using a synergistic lixiviant leaching process using glycine in the presence of low concentrations of cyanide. The effects of glycine and cyanide concentrations on gold, silver and copper leaching kinetics and recovery were studied. It is shown that, in the presence of glycine, gold, silver and copper extraction increase significantly in solutions containing copper-cyanide species at a very low, or zero, free cyanide concentration. It has also been shown that the gold dissolution rate in glycine-cyanide system is almost three times higher than the gold dissolution rate in the conventional cyanidation. Kinetic studies were conducted to evaluate the effects of glycine concentration, pH, and CN/Cu ratio on the dissolution of gold and silver. It has also been shown that the gold dissolution rate increases by increasing the glycine concentration up to 2.0 g/L (Gly:Cu molar ratio of 2.2:1) and any further glycine addition has no significant effect on the dissolution of gold. It is shown that the presence of glycine in solutions containing copper (I)-cyanide species can significantly enhance the dissolution of precious and base metals. The proposed leaching approach significantly reduces the cyanide consumption by at least 75% and most of the copper is present as cupric glycinate in the final leach solution. In addition, gold, silver and copper extraction was higher than the conventional cyanidation process utilising similar cyanide dosages for all the gold-copper sources studied.
Effects of triclosan on bacterial community composition and Vibrio populations in natural seawater microcosms

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products, including antimicrobials, can be found at trace levels in treated wastewater effluent. Impacts of chemical contaminants on coastal aquatic microbial community structure and pathogen abundance are unknown despite the potential for selection through antimicrobial resistance. In particular, Vibrio , a marine bacterial genus that includes several human pathogens, displays resistance to the ubiquitous antimicrobial compound triclosan. Here we demonstrated through use of natural seawater microcosms that triclosan (at a concentration of ~ 5 ppm) can induce a significant Vibrio growth response (68–1,700 fold increases) in comparison with no treatment controls for three distinct coastal ecosystems: Looe Key Reef (Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary), Doctors Arm Canal (Big Pine Key, FL), and Clam Bank Landing (North Inlet Estuary, Georgetown, SC). Additionally, microbial community analysis by 16 S rRNA gene sequencing for Looe Key Reef showed distinct changes in microbial community structure with exposure to 5 ppm triclosan, with increases observed in the relative abundance of Vibrio naceae (17-fold), Pseudoalteromonadaceae (65-fold), Alteromonadaceae (108-fold), Colwelliaceae (430-fold), and Oceanospirillaceae (1,494-fold). While the triclosan doses tested were above concentrations typically observed in coastal surface waters, results identify bacterial families that are potentially resistant to triclosan and/or adapted to use triclosan as a carbon source. The results further suggest the potential for selection of Vibrio in coastal environments, especially sediments, where triclosan may accumulate at high levels.
Numerical study of impact of surface roughness on thermoelastic loss of micro-resonators

In this work, a numerical investigation on thermoelastic damping (TED) in micro-resonators with surface roughness has been reported. A numerical approach using the finite element method (FEM) is implemented for creating surface roughness on the top and bottom of beam resonators. Quality (Q) factor for fundamental flexural mode is numerically obtained using eigenfrequency analysis. The results of the simulations reveal that the local thermodynamic balance becomes upset in the presence of asperities on the surfaces of the rough resonators and the restoration of this balance is accompanied by many local irreversible heat flow processes that give rise to the bulk TED of the resonator. The effect of the resonator thickness and surface asperity height on the surface Q TED is investigated.
ACCOUNTING IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY

Although the account-books of the East India Company for the period 1600–1657 are lost, an almost complete series of minutes and other documents make the exploration of accounting in this great mercantile company possible. The present study provides a brief historical note on the rise of the English joint-stock company and then proceeds to examine (1) the general state of accounting affairs; (2) the functional organization of the accounting activity; and (3) the order and method of accounting in the East India Company.
Response to Stimulant Medication across Six Measures of School-Related Performance in Children with ADHD and Disruptive Behavior.

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder display disruptive behavioral disorders that tend to interfere with academic and social progress and that may respond only partially to classr...
Associative Control of Schedule-Induced Polydipsia

This article reviews data from two types of experiments concerned with associative control of schedule-induced polydipsia. The first section discusses the contribution of Pavlovian conditioned signals for pellet delivery (CS +); the second section reviews investigations of the role of signals for nonreinforcement (CS −). We conclude that both lines of research highlight the importance of associative factors in the development and maintenance of adjunctive drinking.
Corrosion in a closed-loop electronic device cooling system with water as coolant and its detection

This paper presents highlights of an investigation to develop methods of monitoring corrosion risk of a water-based, closed-loop cooling system and also to identify the mechanism of reliability threats by corrosion. The current investigation finds that an array of multiple, in-line sensors is necessary to track the change in stability of the cooling system against corrosion. The coolant pressure and the flow-rate sensors are necessary to detect clogging resulting from scale deposition. On the other hand, pH and electrical conductivity sensors are needed to measure the cumulative corrosion activity. It is further found that the corrosion activity is alarmingly high in a closed-loop cooling system with a high Cu surface area relative to the coolant volume. Slowly developing failure both by flow blockage and a localized corrosion within a cold plate is observed. The rate of failure is seen to be fastest, when the starting coolant is untreated, while it decreases with deionization and inhibition treatment of water.
Dalfampridine Treatment in Nonarteritic Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy (NAION) (P5.202)

Objective: To assess whether dalfampridine can improve visual function in patients with NAION over 6 months out. Background: Based on the benefits of dalfampridine in MS and stroke, we hypothesized that patients with chronic stable deficits after NAION would have improved visual function with administration of dalfampridine. Therefore, we performed a pilot clinical trial to determine whether this was true. Design/Methods: The pilot study employed a double masked crossover design. Patients with NAION at least 6 months old were randomized to a 2 weeks course of either dalfampridine 10 mg bid orally or 2 weeks of placebo (Period 1). This was followed by a 2 week washout period with no treatment, followed by 2 weeks with the alternative treatment (Period 2). Results: The primary outcome of the study was visual acuity (VA). During treatment with drug, VA improved on average by 0.10 logMAR(Diff=−0.10 95% CI:−0.22 to 0.01). By contrast, there was no evidence of change in logMAR under placebo (Diff=0.01 95% CI:−0.10 to 0.13). There was no significant difference between treatments (Drug-Placebo: −0.12 (−0.28, 0.04); p=0.15). Seven patients did show improvement in VA of 0.1 logMAR or more on drug and not placebo, and 5 patients showed improvement of VA of 0.3 logMar or more on drug and not placebo. Conclusions: This study failed to find a statistically significant benefit of dalfampridine in NAION, an infarct in the optic nerve. However, 7 patients did show improvement as defined by VA of 0.1 logMAR or more on drug and not placebo, and 5 patients showed an improvement of VA as defined by 0.3 logMar or more on drug and not placebo. This suggests a possible subgroup of “responders” similar to the findings of dalfampridine in MS. A larger and perhaps longer clinical trial might clarify whether dalfampridine is beneficial for a subgroup of NAION patients. Study Supported by: Acorda Therapeutics Disclosure: Dr. Moster has nothing to disclose. Dr. Sergott has received personal compensation for activities with Biogen-Idec, EMDSerono, Teva, Lundbeck, Pfizer, Thrombogenics, Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis, BioClinica, Covance, Basilea, Heidelberg Engineering, Merck and Co., Glaxo, and United States Department of Defense. Dr. Leiby has nothing to disclose.
Environmental tin exposure in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults and children: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011-2014.

Abstract Tin is a naturally occurring heavy metal that occurs in the environment in both inorganic and organic forms. Human exposure to tin is almost ubiquitous; however, surprisingly little is known about factors affecting environmental tin exposure in humans. This study analyzed demographic, socioeconomic and lifestyle factors associated with total urinary tin levels in adults (N = 3522) and children (N = 1641) participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011–2014, a nationally representative health survey in the United States. Urinary tin levels, a commonly used biomarker of environmental tin exposure, were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Detection frequencies of tin were 87.05% in adults and 91.29% in children. Median and geometric mean levels of urinary tin in the adult population were 0.42 μg/L and 0.49 μg/L, respectively. For children, median and geometric mean levels of urinary tin were 0.60 μg/L and 0.66 μg/L, respectively. Age was identified as an important factor associated with urinary tin levels. Median tin levels in the ≥60 year age group were almost 2-fold higher than the 20–39 year age group. Tin levels in children were 2-fold higher than in adolescents. Race/ethnicity and household income were associated with tin levels in both adults and children. In addition, physical activity was inversely associated with urinary tin levels in adults. These results demonstrate that total tin exposures vary across different segments of the general U.S. population. Because the present study does not distinguish between organic and inorganic forms of tin, further studies are needed to better characterize modifiable factors associated with exposures to specific tin compounds, with the goal of reducing the overall exposure of the U.S. population.
Effect of Degree of Substitution of Octenyl Succinate Starch on the Emulsification Activity on Different Oil Phases

Octenyl succinic starch (OSA starch) was synthesized from an aqueous medium and pyridine medium using previously established literature methods. Such a substitution would conceivably impart some hydrophobicity to the already hydrophilic starch chain. Thus, an amphiphilic character could be introduced wherein while the water solubility of the final product would be retained or enhanced, interactions with hydrophobic phases could be enhanced. These products find a variety of applications. The emulsifying activity of OSA starch was tested against different oil phases. It was found that the activity was dependent on the oil phase chosen. The activity was largely independent of the concentration of the substrates when the modification was conducted in an aqueous medium. Products from an organic medium did show an increase in activity with concentration. This difference in activity was attributed to the molecular weight of the final product, which seemed to be lower for the products from an organic medium as suggested by viscometry. The granular state of starch could also have a great effect on the properties of modified starch.
LGBTQ-Inclusive Hospice and Palliative Care: A Practical Guide to Transforming Professional Practice.

Kimberly Acquaviva, a leader in the fields of human sexuality education and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender aging research, has written the first text to focus specifically on the palliativ...
How does education lead to healthier behaviours? Testing the mediational roles of perceived control, health literacy and social support

Objectives: Educational attainment is increasingly recognised as a unique dimension of socioeconomic status (SES) and a powerful determinant of health behaviour—and thus physical health and mortali...
Accounting in Media and Information Firms

The chapter proceeds by presenting the major financial statements of organizations. Profit accounting is the first such document used for projects and limited partnerships. The other major financial documents for investors are the balance sheet, the income statement, the cash flow statement, and pro forma financial statements. There is a discussion as to how these financial statements are used to evaluate company performance and valuation, covering various ratios and metrics such as leverage, P/E, performance measures, and financial returns. A discussion of balance sheet assets follows. When it comes to liabilities, topics covered are stock options, pension plans, and off-balance-sheet financing. The chapter continues with income statements and their various definitions such as EBITDA, before dealing with managerial accounting—capital budgeting, profit centers, overheads, internal transfer pricing, and the tracking of costs. All of these accounting activities are assisted by an increasingly powerful information technology. The case study centers on Disney’s accounting practices.
Identifying El Niño–Southern Oscillation influences on rainfall with classification models: implications for water resource management of Sri Lanka

Abstract. Seasonal to annual forecasts of precipitation patterns are very important for water infrastructure management. In particular, such forecasts can be used to inform decisions about the operation of multipurpose reservoir systems in the face of changing climate conditions. Success in making useful forecasts is often achieved by considering climate teleconnections such as the El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) as related to sea surface temperature variations. We present a statistical analysis to explore the utility of using rainfall relationships in Sri Lanka with ENSO and IOD to predict rainfall to the Mahaweli and Kelani River basins of the country. Forecasting of rainfall as the classes flood, drought, and normal is helpful for water resource management decision-making. Results of these models give better accuracy than a prediction of absolute values. Quadratic discrimination analysis (QDA) and classification tree models are used to identify the patterns of rainfall classes with respect to ENSO and IOD indices. Ensemble modeling tool Random Forest is also used to predict the rainfall classes as drought and not drought with higher skill. These models can be used to forecast the areal rainfall using predicted climate indices. Results from these models are not very accurate; however, the patterns recognized provide useful input to water resource managers as they plan for adaptation of agriculture and energy sectors in response to climate variability.
Development of a bead-based immunoassay using virus-like particles for detection of alphaviral humoral response

There is a pressing need for sustainable and sensitive immunodiagnostics for use in public health efforts to understand and combat the threat of endemic and emerging infectious diseases. In this proof-of-concept work, we describe an immunodiagnostic approach based on the utilization of virus-like particles (VLPs) in a magnetic bead-based platform for multiplexed detection of antiviral humoral response. A retroviral-based VLP, that presents Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus E1/E2 glycoprotein antigen on its surface, was synthesized and coupled to magnetic beads to create VLP-conjugated microspheres (VCMs). Using these VCMs, IgM and IgG antibodies were detectable in nonhuman primate (NHP) and human clinical serum samples at dilutions of 1 × 10 Basile et al. [4] and greater. We also extended the VCM methodology to an Old World alphavirus, chikungunya virus, demonstrating the flexibility of this approach toward different VLP architectures. When multiplexed on the MAGPIX® platform, this method provided differential detection between Old World and New World alphaviral IgM. This flexible, immunodiagnostic method, based on the MAGPIX® platform, demonstrates compatibility of particulate antigens with bead-based assays, improves sensitivity by up to 2-logs, and has faster sample-to-answer time over traditional methods.
Integrating Oral Health Curricula into Midwifery Graduate Programs: Results of a US Survey.

Introduction Midwives are a significant segment of the US maternal and primary health care workforce and play a pivotal role in addressing women's oral health care needs during pregnancy and throughout their life span. The purpose of this research was to assess oral health curricular integration in midwifery programs and examine factors that influence integration and satisfaction with graduates' level of oral health competence. Methods A cross-sectional, national survey of midwifery programs was conducted using an electronically distributed 19-item, self-administered questionnaire completed by the Directors of Midwifery Education. Data analysis included univariate and bivariate statistics. Results All of the responding midwifery programs (N = 33) were educating their graduates about oral health; however, less than a quarter (22.6%) of program directors were satisfied with their graduates' competency. Significant factors promoting integration were routine teaching by a dental professional and a formal relationship with a dental school, dental residency, or dental hygiene program. Programs with 4 or more hours of oral health curriculum were more likely to have a faculty oral health champion, use simulation in evaluation of their learners, and include interprofessional oral health education. Discussion With adequate oral health education, midwives are ideally positioned to integrate oral health in pregnancy care as well as well woman care throughout the life span, thereby expanding access to oral health care.
An Efficient Latch-free Database Index Based on Multi-dimensional Lists

In the interests of improving database performance, researchers have considered lock-free data structures for their attractive progress guarantees and scalability. This paper considers the performance of a recently developed lock-free structure, multi-dimensional list (MDList), used as a database index in SOS, a high-performance, object-oriented database. In our tests, we find that MDList outperforms the existing locking structures in multi-threaded workloads. This is the first known use of MDList as an index structure in databases.
Pseudohypoxic Brain Swelling After Uncomplicated Lumbar Decompression and Fusion for Spondylolisthesis

Background Pseudohypoxic brain swelling (PHBS), also known as postoperative intracranial hypotension−associated venous congestion, is a rare complication after neurosurgery characterized by rapid and often severe postoperative deterioration in consciousness and distinct imaging findings on brain magnetic resonance imaging. Imaging findings associated with PHBS include computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging findings that resemble hypoxic changes and intracranial hypotensive changes in basal ganglia and thalamus, telencephalic, and infratentorial regions without notable changes in intracranial vasculature. Case Description This report describes the case of an L4-5 microdiskectomy with posterior decompression and fusion complicated by clinical and radiographic findings resembling PHBS without a known intraoperative durotomy. Conclusions Spine surgeons should be alerted to the possibility that PHBS may occur in patients even after an operation without known durotomy or cerebrospinal fluid leakage and with spontaneous clinical resolution unrelated to suction drainage changes or epidural blood patches.
Optimal Projections in the Distance-Based Statistical Methods

This paper introduces a new way to calculate distance-based statistics, particularly when the data are multivariate. The main idea is to pre-calculate the optimal projection directions given the variable dimension, and to project multidimensional variables onto these pre-specified projection directions; by subsequently utilizing the fast algorithm that is developed in Huo and Szekely (Technometrics, 58(4):435–447, 2016) for the univariate variables, the computational complexity can be improved from O(m2) to O(nm ⋅log(m)), where n is the number of projection directions and m is the sample size. When \(n \ll m/\log (m)\), computational savings can be achieved. The key challenge is how to find the optimal pre-specified projection directions. This can be obtained by minimizing the worse-case difference between the true distance and the approximated distance, which can be formulated as a nonconvex optimization problem in a general setting. In this paper, we show that the exact solution of the nonconvex optimization problem can be derived in two special cases: the dimension of the data is equal to either 2 or the number of projection directions. In the generic settings, we propose an algorithm to find approximate solutions. Simulations confirm the advantage of our method, in comparison with the pure Monte Carlo approach, in which the directions are randomly selected rather than pre-calculated.
Sea Bright, New Jersey reconstructed: agent-based protection theory model responses to Hurricane Sandy

Coastal flooding is the most expensive type of natural disaster in the United States. Policy initiatives to mitigate the effects of these events are dependent upon understanding flood victim responses at an individual and municipal level. Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) is an effective tool for analyzing community-wide responses to natural disaster, but the quality of the ABM’s performance is often challenging to determine. This paper discusses the complexity of the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) and Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) for human decision making regarding hazard mitigations. A combined (PADM/PMT) model is developed and integrated into the MASON modeling framework. The ABM implements a hind-cast of Hurricane Sandy’s damage to Sea Bright, NJ and homeowner post-flood reconstruction decisions. It is validated against damage assessments and post-storm surveys. The contribution of socio-economic factors and built environment on model performance is also addressed and suggests that mitigation for townhouse communities will be challenging.
A framework to efficiently smooth L1 penalties for linear regression

Penalized linear regression approaches that include an L1 term have become an important tool in day-to-day statistical data analysis. One prominent example is the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso), though the class of L1 penalized regression operators also includes the fused and graphical Lasso, the elastic net, etc. Although the L1 penalty makes their objective function convex, it is not differentiable everywhere, motivating the development of proximal gradient algorithms such as Fista, the current gold standard in the literature. In this work, we take a different approach based on smoothing. The methodological contribution of our article is threefold: (1) We introduce a unified framework to compute closed-form smooth surrogates of a whole class of L1 penalized regression problems using Nesterov smoothing. The surrogates preserve the convexity of the original (unsmoothed) objective functions, are uniformly close to them, and have closed-form derivatives everywhere for efficient minimization via gradient descent; (2) We prove that the estimates obtained with the smooth surrogates can be made arbitrarily close to the ones of the original (unsmoothed) objective functions, and provide explicitly computable a priori error bounds on the accuracy of our estimates; (3) We propose an iterative algorithm to progressively smooth the L1 penalty which increases accuracy and is virtually free of tuning parameters. The proposed methodology is applicable to a large class of L1 penalized regression operators, including all the operators mentioned above. Using simulation studies, we compare our framework to current gold standards such as Fista, glmnet, gLasso, etc. Our simulation results suggest that our proposed smoothing framework provides estimates of equal or higher accuracy than the gold standards while keeping the aforementioned theoretical guarantees and having roughly the same asymptotic runtime scaling.
Biblical Natural Law vs. Law and Economics Views on Contract Law

The Biblical Natural Law of the Founding Fathers provides a better basis for contract law than the Law and Economic Theory. The Law and Economics Theory distorts the roles of judges and goes against the proper rooting of contract in the individual rights to own property and to enter contracts.
Finite State Graphon Games with Applications to Epidemics

We consider a game for a continuum of non-identical players evolving on a finite state space. Their heterogeneous interactions are represented by a graphon, which can be viewed as the limit of a dense random graph. The player's transition rates between the states depend on their own control and the interaction strengths with the other players. We develop a rigorous mathematical framework for this game and analyze Nash equilibria. We provide a sufficient condition for a Nash equilibrium and prove existence of solutions to a continuum of fully coupled forward-backward ordinary differential equations characterizing equilibria. Moreover, we propose a numerical approach based on machine learning tools and show experimental results on different applications to compartmental models in epidemiology.
Measuring Response Style Stability Across Constructs With Item Response Trees

Individual response style behaviors, unrelated to the latent trait of interest, may influence responses to ordinal survey items. Response style can introduce bias in the total score with respect to...
Suicidal Ideation and Attitudes Regarding Help Seeking in US Physicians Relative to the US Working Population.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prevalence of suicidal ideation (SI) and attitudes regarding help seeking among US physicians relative to the general US working population. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: A secondary analysis of a cross-sectional survey of US physicians and a probability-based sample of the US working population was conducted between October 12, 2017, and March 15, 2018. Among 30,456 invited physicians, 5197 (17.1%) completed the primary survey. Suicidal ideation in the last year, attitudes regarding help seeking, symptoms of depression, and burnout were assessed by standardized questions. RESULTS: Among the 4833 physicians who responded regarding SI, 316 (6.5%) reported having suicidal thoughts in the last 12 months. Most physicians (3527 [72.9%]) reported that they would seek professional help if they had a serious emotional problem. Physicians with SI were less likely to report that they would seek help (203/316 [64.2%]) than physicians without SI (3318/4517 [73.5%]; P=.001). On multivariable analysis, symptoms of depression (odds ratio [OR], 4.42; 95% CI, 1.89 to 11.52), emotional exhaustion (OR, 1.07 each 1-point increase; 95% CI, 1.03 to 1.11), and self-valuation (OR, 0.84 each 1-point increase; 95% CI, 0.70 to 0.99) were associated with SI. Among individuals aged 29 to 65 years, physicians were more likely than workers in other fields to report SI (7.1% vs 4.3%; P<.001), a finding that persisted on multivariable analysis. CONCLUSION: In this national study conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic, 1 in 15 US physicians had thoughts of taking their own life in the last year, which exceeded the prevalence of SI among US workers in other fields.
FeO2: Federated Learning with Opt-Out Differential Privacy

Federated learning (FL) is an emerging privacy-preserving paradigm, where a global model is trained at a central server while keeping client data local. However, FL can still indirectly leak private client information through model updates during training. Differential privacy (DP) can be employed to provide privacy guarantees within FL, typically at the cost of degraded final trained model. In this work, we consider a heterogeneous DP setup where clients are considered private by default, but some might choose to opt out of DP. We propose a new algorithm for federated learning with opt-out DP, referred to as \emph{FeO2}, along with a discussion on its advantages compared to the baselines of private and personalized FL algorithms. We prove that the server-side and client-side procedures in \emph{FeO2} are optimal for a simplified linear problem. We also analyze the incentive for opting out of DP in terms of performance gain. Through numerical experiments, we show that \emph{FeO2} provides up to $9.27\%$ performance gain in the global model compared to the baseline DP FL for the considered datasets. Additionally, we show a gap in the average performance of personalized models between non-private and private clients of up to $3.49\%$, empirically illustrating an incentive for clients to opt out.