cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Calpain- and caspase-mediated αII-spectrin and tau proteolysis in rat cerebrocortical neuronal cultures after ecstasy or methamphetamine exposure

Abuse of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or Ecstasy) and methamphetamine (Meth or Speed) is a growing international problem with an estimated 250 million users of psychoactive drugs worldwide. It is important to demonstrate and understand the mechanism of neurotoxicity so potential prevention and treatment therapies can be designed. In this study rat primary cerebrocortical neuron cultures were challenged with MDMA and Meth (1 or 2 mM) for 24 and 48 h and compared to the excitotoxin N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA). The neurotoxicity of these drugs, as assessed by microscopy, lactate dehydrogenase release and immunoblot, was shown to be both dose- and time-dependent. Immunoblot analysis using biomarkers of cell death showed significant proteolysis of both alphaII-spectrin and tau proteins. Breakdown products of alphaII-spectrin (SBDPs) of 150, 145, and 120 kDa and tau breakdown products (TBDPs) of 45, 32, 26, and 14 kDa were observed. The use of the protease inhibitors calpain inhibitor SJA6017 and caspase inhibitors z-VAD-fmk and Z-D-DCB, attenuated drug-induced alphaII-spectrin and tau proteolysis. The calpain inhibitor reduced the calpain-induced breakdown products SBDP145 and TBDP14, but there was an offset increase in the caspase-mediated breakdown products SBDP120 and TBDP45. The caspase inhibitors, on the other hand, decreased SBDP120 and TBDP45. These data suggest that both MDMA and Meth trigger concerted proteolytic attacks of the structural proteins by both calpain and caspase family of proteases. The ability of the protease inhibitors to reduce the damage caused by these drugs suggests that the treatment arsenal could include similar drugs as possible tools to combat the drug-induced neurotoxicity in vivo.
The Ultrastructure of Rat Renal Tubules in Experimental Calcium Oxalate Nephrolithiasis

Formation of calcium oxalate crystals in the rat kidney was induced by a lithogenic challenge made by intraperitoneal injection of various amounts of sodium oxalate utilizing 0.22M sodium oxalate solution in 0.9% saline. The rat kidneys were fixed by retrograde aortic perfusion with a glutaraldehyde-paraformaldehyde mixture at different time intervals following the lithogenic challenge. The kidneys were sliced into small pieces and processed for transmission and scanning electron microscopy. Normal rat kidneys were fixed and used as controls. Two major problems were encountered in the ultrastructural study of renal tubules containing calcium oxalate crystals. First, the small number of crystals in the renal tissue of animals injected with the lesser doses of sodium oxalate made systemic study difficult. Second, crystals could not be infiltrated with plastic and caused sectioning problems for transmission electron microscopy. This problem was solved by treating the crystals with hydrochloric acid or EDTA, which resulted in their partial digestion facilitating plastic infiltration.
On-line arithmetic modules for recursive digital filters

An online multiply-add (MA) module is designed for implementing second-order direct-form IIR filters. The MA module is implemented in a 0.7- mu m HCMOS gate array technology. An array of MA modules is developed to perform the second-order recursive computations at 128 Msamples/s with two levels of scattered lookahead. A conventional (bit-parallel) design using similar lookahead is implemented in the same technology. The 104-Msample/s conventional design implements a carry-free recursive loop and uses radix-4 recoding to reduce the number of partial products. The online array has a sampling rate higher than the conventional implementation for 12 or more bits. >
The efficacy of two desensitization procedures: An analogue study

Abstract Twelve female subjects rated very much afraid of laboratory rats were randomly assigned to three treatment groups. The Direct treatment group received Reciprocal Inhibition Therapy to the actual fear stimulus; the Indirect treatment group to the imagined fear stimulus; and the Controls received no therapy. Each of the three groups was subdivided into high and low general anxiety groups on the basis of their Bendig Emotionality Scale scores. Comparison of fear change measures led to the following conclusions: (a) Real-life desensitization leads to a significant decrease in fear; when anxiety level is not considered there is no difference in fear reduction between the two desensitization treatments; (b) under Imaginal desensitization, highly anxious subjects show a greater decrease in fear than slightly anxious subjects.
Parent-Child Interactions in France, Germany, and Italy: The Effects of Gender and Culture.

Previous research has demonstrated that mothers and fathers interact differently with their children and these interactions have important consequences for children's social development. The present study examines gender differences in parent-child interactions and the similarity of these patterns in France, Germany, and Italy. Samples in these countries were used because within Western societies they represent differing cultural expectations concerning the behavior of men and women. Parent-child dyads interacting on playgrounds were observed for affection, play, vocalization, showing and sharing, aggression, discipline, caregiving, soothing, and controlling behaviors. Gender and country differences were found. French and Italian fathers engaged in more play than mothers, but the opposite was found in Germany. French children showed and shared more than did the other children. Overall, French and Italian parents and children were more interactive than were German dyads. Although gender generally influence...
Using Additive Manufacturing to Print a CubeSat Propulsion System

Small satellites, such as CubeSats, are increasingly being called upon to perform missions traditionally ascribed to larger satellite systems. However, the market of components and hardware for small satellites, particularly CubeSats, still falls short of providing the necessary capabilities required by ever increasing mission demands. One way to overcome this shortfall is to develop the ability to customize every build. By utilizing fabrication methods such as additive manufacturing, mission specific capabilities can be built into a system, or into the structure, that commercial off-the-shelf components may not be able to provide. A partnership between the University of Texas at El Paso, COSMIAC at the University of New Mexico, Northrop Grumman, and the NASA Glenn Research Center is looking into using additive manufacturing techniques to build a complete CubeSat, under the Small Spacecraft Technology Program. The W. M. Keck Center at the University of Texas at El Paso has previously demonstrated the ability to embed electronics and wires into the addtively manufactured structures. Using this technique, features such as antennas and propulsion systems can be included into the CubeSat structural body. Of interest to this paper, the team is investigating the ability to take a commercial micro pulsed plasma thruster and embed it into the printing process. Tests demonstrating the dielectric strength of the printed material and proof-of-concept demonstration of the printed thruster will be shown.
Health-related quality of life and depressive symptoms in children with suspected sleep-disordered breathing.

Study Objectives: Snoring and sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) are highly prevalent among children. The increasing trends of obesity in the pediatric population further predict an exacerbation of this public health problem. However, the impact of SDB on mood and quality of life and the confounder effect of obesity in this setting are unclear. Design: We studied a group of 85 clinically referred children, aged 8 to 12 years, with snoring and suspected SDB and 35 asymptomatic children (controls). All children completed validated questionnaires for the presence of depression (Children's Depression Inventory) and for health-related quality of life (PedsQL), and parents completed the Parent Report version of the PedsQL. Children referred to the Sleep Medicine Center for sleep-disordered breathing were further subdivided according to their body mass index > 95% for age and sex (n = 44) and with BMI < 95% for age and sex as ClinN1 (n = 41). Results: Parentally reported quality of life and physical health differed between obese and nonobese children. However, both groups with SDB had more-impaired quality of life and depressive symptoms than did controls. Conclusions: Children with suspected SDB, regardless of the severity of apnea-hypopnea index or the presence of obesity, had more impairments in quality of life and depressive symptoms than did children who did not snore.
Dependent Loss Reserving using Copulas

Modeling dependencies among multiple loss triangles has important implications for the determination of loss reserves, a critical element of risk management and capital allocation practices of property-casualty insurers. In this article, we propose a copula regression model for dependent lines of business that can be used to predict unpaid losses and hence determine loss reserves. The proposed method, relating the payments in different run-off triangles through a copula function, allows the analyst to use flexible parametric families for the loss distribution and to understand the associations among lines of business. Based on the copula model, a parametric bootstrap procedure is developed to incorporate the uncertainty in parameter estimates. To illustrate this method, we consider an insurance portfolio consisting of personal and commercial automobile lines. When applied to the data of a major US property-casualty insurer, our method provides comparable point prediction of unpaid losses with the industry's standard practice, chain-ladder estimates. Moreover, our flexible structure allows us to easily compute the entire predictive distribution of unpaid losses. This procedure also readily yields accident year reserves, calendar year reserves, as well as the aggregate reserves. One important implication of the dependence modeling is that it allows analysts to quantify the diversification effects in risk capital analysis. We demonstrate these effects by calculating commonly used risk measures, including value at risk and conditional tail expectation, for the insurer's combined portfolio of personal and commercial automobile lines.
Dynamic Design Using the Kalman Filter for Flexible Systems With Epistemic Uncertainty

Most engineered systems have to exhibit a high degree of reliability and robustness. They are high in cost and complexity and often incorporate highly sophisticated materials, components, design and other technologies. Therefore, they face uncertainties in categories ranging from technical issues to market changes. This includes a wide range of epistemic uncertainties, such as demand or budget uncertainty; due to increasingly dynamic markets it has become important for systems to cope with these uncertainties. In this paper, a Kalman filter approach is applied to control the design as uncertainties are resolved in a discrete time frame. It is shown how the Kalman filter approach treats the design as a stochastic control problem, in which the design is controlled throughout its lifecycle to compensate for sources of epistemic uncertainty, as the uncertainties are resolved. The proposed method is applicable to flexible systems where changing the design is possible. A design framework is proposed encompassing a set of definitions, metrics, the methodology, and a case study of a spaceborne system.Copyright © 2015 by ASME
STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY. Assembling the wheel of death.

Inflammation is an essential defense strategy mounted by the innate immune system to eradicate infections and repair tissue damage. The inflammasome is an intracellular signaling complex involved in inflammation initiation and perpetuation. These multimeric protein assemblies promote the activation of proteases and the maturation of proinflammatory cytokines, as well as a form of cell death (pyroptosis) that incites further inflammation ( 1 ). Excessive inflammasome activation has been implicated in chronic inflammatory disorders such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer's disease ( 2 ). However, inflammasomes also play protective roles in response to microbial pathogens. On pages 404 and 399 of this issue, Zhang et al. ( 3 ) and Hu et al. ( 4 ) report the structural basis for activation of an inflammasome implicated in both infectious disease response and autoinflammatory disorders (see the first figure).
Some helicosporous fungi from Hawaii

Fourteen helicosporous fungi collected in Hawaii are reported and selected species illustrated. Helicoma machaerinae which appears to occur as a biotrophic parasite on the sedge Machaerina angustifolia, is described and illustrated as a new species. Helicoma westoni and H. atroseptatum are reported, apparently for the first time, outside of their type localities. As there are few previous reports of helicosporous fungi in Hawaii, most of the fungi reported represent new records for the state.
Biotin ligase tagging identifies proteins proximal to E-cadherin, including lipoma preferred partner, a regulator of epithelial cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesion.

Known proteins associated with the cell-adhesion protein E-cadherin include catenins and proteins involved in signaling, trafficking and actin organization. However, the list of identified adherens junction proteins is likely to be incomplete, limiting investigation into this essential cell structure. To expand the inventory of potentially relevant proteins, we expressed E-cadherin fused to biotin ligase in MDCK epithelial cells, and identified by mass spectrometry neighboring proteins that were biotinylated. The most abundant of the 303 proteins identified were catenins and nearly 40 others that had been previously reported to influence cadherin function. Many others could be rationalized as novel candidates for regulating the adherens junction, cytoskeleton, trafficking or signaling. We further characterized lipoma preferred partner (LPP), which is present at both cell contacts and focal adhesions. Knockdown of LPP demonstrated its requirement for E-cadherin-dependent adhesion and suggested that it plays a role in coordination of the cell–cell and cell–substrate cytoskeletal interactions. The analysis of LPP function demonstrates proof of principle that the proteomic analysis of E-cadherin proximal proteins expands the inventory of components and tools for understanding the function of E-cadherin.
Relationship of the American Heart Association's Impact Goals (Life's Simple 7) With Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease: Results From the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Cohort Study

Background As part of its 2020 Impact Goals, the American Heart Association developed the Life's Simple 7 metric for cardiovascular health promotion. The relationship between the Life's Simple 7 metric and incident chronic kidney disease (CKD) is unknown. Methods and Results We estimated the association between Life's Simple 7 and incident CKD in 14 832 Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study participants. Ideal levels of Life's Simple 7 health factors were the following: nonsmoker or quit >1 year ago; body mass index <25 kg/m2; ≥150 minutes/week of physical activity; healthy dietary pattern (high in fruits and vegetables, fish, and fiber‐rich whole grains; low in sodium and sugar‐sweetened beverages); total cholesterol <200 mg/dL; blood pressure <120/80 mm Hg; and fasting blood glucose <100 mg/dL. At baseline, mean age was 54 years, 55% were women, and 26% were African American. There were 2743 incident CKD cases over a median follow‐up of 22 years. Smoking, body mass index, physical activity, blood pressure, and blood glucose were associated with CKD risk (all P <0.01), but diet and blood cholesterol were not. CKD risk was inversely related to the number of ideal health factors ( P ‐trend<0.001). A model containing the Life's Simple 7 health factors was more predictive of CKD risk than the base model including only age, sex, race, and estimated glomerular filtration rate (Life's Simple 7 health factors area under the ROC curve: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.72, 0.74 versus base model area under the ROC curve: 0.68, 95% CI: 0.67, 0.69; P <0.001). Conclusions The AHA's Life's Simple 7 metric, developed to measure and promote cardiovascular health, predicts a lower risk of CKD.
Study on effective mechanism of mycophenolic acid on antiangiogenesis in flk-GFP zebrafish

Objective To identify small molecules with potential of antiangiogenesis (mycophenolic acid,MPA) from approved drugs and do further study for its mechanism of action. Methods The flk-GFP zebrafish serves as a model for rapid observation of angiogenesis in living embryos. We screened 1 120 compounds library and revealed that MPA exhibited effect of inhibition of blood vessels but had no other detrimental effects on general embryonic development. The mechanism of MPA action was further analyzed by microangiographic studies and 3 subtypes IMPDH, the possible target of MPA,morpholino oligos(MO)-knock.Results The inhibition of angiogenesis caused by MPA is dose-dependent. The circulation of these embryos was also blocked as revealed by microangiographic analysis, suggesting potent inhibition of angiogenesis.It was showed that IMPDH 2 is mainly expressed in the ventral regions of the developing trunk and IMPDH2 antisense morpholino can inhibit angiogenesis of zebrafish (n200, 50% showed phenotype).Conclusion MPA can induce antiangiogenesis by inhibiting IMPDH2.
Survey of intentional harmful behavior among students in Yuxi City

Objective To investigate the main reason and influencing factors of intentional harm behavior amongstudents of high school, junior high school students for the evidence of future health intervention. Methods Questionnairessurvey of Chinese Adolescent Health Behavior were was conducted, all data were recorded using Epidata 3.0, put into Excel,and analyzed by SPSS 11.5. Result The main causes for students' intentional hurt in university, high school, junior highschool were that they had study stress in the past year(68.6%), felt lonely in the past year(57.9%), being mocked in the pastmonth(45.9%), being often played pornographic joke in the past month(30.5%),etc. In additon, in the past 30 days, self-mutilation accouted for 13.2%; suicidal thoughts for 10.5%, making suicidal plans for 6.8%, attempting to suicide for 2.5%;thoughts of running away from home for 35.8%. Conclusion There was high incidence of intentional harmful behavioramong the university, high school, junior high school students in Yuxi. Therefore, harm prevention be strengthened and bebrought into student health management work.Besides effective measures be taken for barrier establishment of schools-family-community for prevention and control of students' intentional harm.
Child passenger safety regulation comparison between Europe and United States and the developing trends

Regulations such as FMVSS 213 in the USA and ECE R44 in Europe have been widely used for child passenger safety.These two regulations and other relevant references were analyzed and compared,which shows that ECE R44 is superior to FMVSS 213 in test conditions,child injury criteria,and fixed forms of child restraint systems,and is inferior to FMVSS 213 in child dummies used at present.When stipulating Chinese regulations for child passenger safety,ECE R44 should be focused with the advantages of FMVSS 213 also included.Therefore,the future research in child passenger safety should include the child injury biomechanics,child dummy improvement,seatbelt position determination,and dummy posture control.
U.S. Department of Energy Instrumentation and Controls Technology Research for Advanced Small Modular Reactors

Instrumentation, controls, and human–machine interfaces (ICHMI) are essential enabling technologies that strongly influence nuclear power plant performance and operational costs. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has recognized that ICHMI research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) is needed to resolve the technical challenges that may compromise the effective and efficient utilization of modern ICHMI technology and consequently inhibit realization of the benefits offered by expanded utilization of nuclear power. Consequently, key DOE programs have substantial ICHMI RD&D elements to their respective research portfolio. This article describes current ICHMI research to support the development of advanced small modular reactors.
A systems approach to renal inflammation in SLE

Lupus disease and its complications including lupus nephritis (LN) are very disabling and significantly impact the quality of life and longevity of patients. Broadly immunosuppressive treatments do not always provide the expected clinical benefits and have significant side effects that contribute to patient morbidity. In the era of systems biology, new strategies are being deployed integrating diverse sources of information (molecular and clinical) so as to identify individual disease specificities and select less aggressive treatments. In this review, we summarize integrative approaches linking molecular disease profiles (mainly tissue transcriptomics) and clinical phenotypes. The main goals are to better understand the pathogenesis of lupus nephritis, to identify the risk factors for renal flare and to find the predictors of both short and long-term clinical outcome. Identification of common key drivers and additional patient-specific key drivers can open the door to improved and individualized therapy to prevent and treat LN.
Outcomes among pediatric heart transplant recipients after dual-therapy cytomegalovirus prophylaxis

Postoperative cytomegalovirus prophylaxis with cytomegalovirus immunoglobulin or ganciclovir has decreased the incidence of cytomegalovirus disease in cytomegalovirus-negative recipients of cytomegalovirus-positive donor organs. In adults, these drugs have also been used to treat recipients who developed symptomatic cytomegalovirus disease. This report describes outcomes of predominantly cytomegalovirus-negative pediatric cardiac transplant recipients of cytomegalovirus-positive donor organs who received cytomegalovirus immunoglobulin plus ganciclovir as cytomegalovirus prophylaxis, as well as results of this combination therapy when used to treat cytomegalovirus disease. We reviewed the records of children who received donor hearts at our institution between 1989 and 1994. Cytomegalovirus-negative patients who received cytomegalovirus-positive donor organs were given prophylaxis consisting of ganciclovir (5 mg/kg every 12 hours for 14 days, followed by maintenance dosage of 5 to 6 mg/kg every day for 14 days) plus 7 scheduled cytomegalovirus immunoglobulin infusions. Cytomegalovirus infection was documented by culture, polymerase chain reaction, and cytomegalovirus immunoglobulin M seroconversion of a 4-fold or greater rise in cytomegalovirus immunoglobulin G titers. After infection, patients were diagnosed with cytomegalovirus disease when they developed clinical symptoms. These episodes were treated with cytomegalovirus immunoglobulin infusions plus ganciclovir (5 mg/kg every 12 hours) until symptoms resolved. Of 40 cardiac transplant recipients, 10 cytomegalovirus-negative and 9 cytomegalovirus-positive patients received cytomegalovirus-positive donor organs. Five patients (3 of whom were seronegative and had received dual-agent prophylaxis) developed cytomegalovirus disease, which resolved with dual-agent therapy. During an average 15-month follow-up period, no significant morbidity or mortality was attributable to cytomegalovirus disease. Post-transplant dual-therapy cytomegalovirus prophylaxis appears to be as safe and effective in children as in adults, when our results are compared with the published results of studies in adults. Dual-agent treatment eradicated symptoms among patients who developed cytomegalovirus disease. This regimen may allow safer use of the cytomegalovirus-positive donor pool for pediatric recipients.
Barnette, Frankfurter, and Judicial Review

This article is an edited version of Marquette University Law School’s 2012 E. Harold Hallows Lecture.West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, as every first-year law student learns, is the flag-salute case. It is a tale of two cases, not one. For the story must take account of the Supreme Court’s astonishing about-face: The Court rejected a challenge to compelled flag salutes in 1940 (in Minersville School District v. Gobitis) before embracing the identical claim in Barnette, only three years later.But first this is a story about people, about two American families, the Gobitas and Barnett families. When people lend their names to landmark cases, the credit is fleeting, save for the lingering acclaim that goes with attaching the family name to the constitutional principle for which the case stands. Not only did time soon forget the sufferings of the Gobitas and Barnett families, but the Court added the indignity of misspelling their names, forever linking the principle against compelled speech to families (or at least names) that do not exist. Although it would be difficult to conclude that both cases were wrongly decided, I must start by acknowledging that both were wrongly captioned.
Correction to "Barriers to Obtaining Sera and Tissue Specimens of African-American Women for the Advancement of Cancer Research".

The authors have drawn to the attention of the editor in chief of the journal errors in the following paper: Katherine J. Strissel, Dequina A. Nicholas, Myriam Castagne-Charlotin, Naomi Ko and Gerald V. Denis. Barriers to Obtaining Sera and Tissue Specimens of African-American Women for the Advancement of Cancer Research. Clinical Medicine Insights: Women’s Health. 2016;Suppl 1:57–61. doi:10.4137/CMWH.S34698.
Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli : A review of trends, diagnosis, and treatment

Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) is an increasingly recognized cause of acute diarrhea among both children and adults. Travelers to developing regions such as India, Jamaica, and Mexico are at increased risk. Contamination of food and water plays a central role in transmission. The clinical presentation of EAEC infection is characterized by watery diarrhea, usually unaccompanied by blood or mucus. The gold standard for diagnosis is the HEp-2 cell adherence assay; the unique "stacked-brick" aggregative pattern of adherence is characteristic of this pathogen. However, because laboratory diagnosis is not routinely available, symptomatic infections are usually treated empirically. In most regions, EAEC strains are susceptible to the fluoroquinolones and rifaximin.
Bigger data, less wisdom: the need for more inclusive collective intelligence in social service provision

Social service organizations have long used data in their efforts to support people in need for the purposes of advocacy, tracking, and intervention. Increasingly, such organizations are joining forces to provide wrap-around services to clients in order to “move the needle” on intractable social problems. Groups using these strategies, called Collective Impact, develop shared metrics to guide their work, sharing data, finances, infrastructure, and services. A major emphasis of these efforts is on tracking clients and measuring impacts. This study explores a particular type of Collective Impact strategy called Promise Neighborhoods. Based on a federal grant program, these initiatives attempt to close the achievement gap in particular geographic communities. Through an analysis of publicly available documents and information, the study analyzes the ways these strategies enact (and fail to enact) a collective intelligence for the common good. The analysis focuses specifically on issues surrounding data collection and use, youth agency, leadership and governance, and funding streams. Together, these foci develop a story of an increasingly used “intelligence” with a limited sense of “collective” and a narrow vision of a “common good.” Using this as a platform, the paper explores alternatives that might develop more robust practices around these concepts.
Towards a platform for community-centric smart connected services

All cities can be seen as a collection of commons. Commons are spaces, services and resources shared by the citizenry. Any change in the state of any one of the commons could lead to a potential action or a cascade of actions. In this paper we illustrate the use of a platform with three components: 1) Eventshop, an event processor, 2) Krumbs a micro-reporting application and, 3) predictive analytics module. The combination of EventShop and micro-reporting provides us with the needed data streams to address a given problem. We illustrate their use in the context of the Trash collection project with Downtown DC and an emergency flood management system. We also provide an architecture for what if analysis based on prior data for planning and augmenting real-time response.
Frequency Diffeomorphisms for Efficient Image Registration

This paper presents an efficient algorithm for large deformation diffeomorphic metric mapping (LDDMM) with geodesic shooting for image registration. We introduce a novel finite dimensional Fourier representation of diffeomorphic deformations based on the key fact that the high frequency components of a diffeomorphism remain stationary throughout the integration process when computing the deformation associated with smooth velocity fields. We show that manipulating high dimensional diffeomorphisms can be carried out entirely in the bandlimited space by integrating the nonstationary low frequency components of the displacement field. This insight substantially reduces the computational cost of the registration problem. Experimental results show that our method is significantly faster than the state-of-the-art diffeomorphic image registration methods while producing equally accurate alignment. We demonstrate our algorithm in two different applications of image registration: neuroimaging and in-utero imaging.
Update on Cooling for the ITER ECH Waveguide Transmission Line

The ITER Electron Cyclotron Heating (ECH) system provides 20 MW of microwave power from 24 gyrotron sources. The power is transmitted through evacuated, corrugated waveguide transmission lines. The...
Aplicación de un cuestionario de síntomas de sueño en pacientes con sospecha de Síndrome de Apnea e Hipopnea Obstructiva del Sueño

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a frequent sleep-related breathing disorder being associated with cardiovascular, metabolic and neurobehavioral consequences. Most patients with OSAS are untreated because they are not timely diagnosed. Aim: to determine the association of sleep symptoms and body mass index in patients with OSAS diagnosed by polysomnography. Material and methods: We studied 144 patients aged 47 ± 14 years (75% males) in whom a polysomnography was done. These patients answered a sleep symptom questionnaire and the Epworth sleepiness scale. Their weight and body mass index was also recorded. Results: Snoring and the presence of pauses during breathing were the symptoms with the higher sensitivity to predict the presence of OSAS. Body mass index was significantly higher among patients with OSAS. No differences in the Epworth scale were observed between patients with and without OSAS. Conclusions: Snoring and apneas while sleeping are symptoms that should lead to the suspicion of the presence of OSAS.
Mental Illness as a Career

The topics encompassed within this handbook reveal the sociology of mental health to be multifaceted: juxtaposing etiological theories with those that contest the very existence of mental disorder, differentiating causal explanations of illness episodes with interpretations of societal reactions, and contrasting the objective criteria of diagnosis with the subjective experience of human misery—despair, confusion, compulsion, addiction, fear. The subjects of investigation are diverse as well: individuals beset by feelings, thoughts, or behaviors they cannot escape or control; social groups whose risk of impairment is unusually great; cross- and subcultural groups differing in the experience of distress, its manifestations, and the social reactions it evokes; institutions whose business is counting, classifying, treating, and paying for mental illness; and the historically specific and local understandings we as sociologists have of these phenomena.
Assessing glacial modification of bedrock valleys using a novel approach

Abstract Analysis of valley cross sections is an established technique for evaluating the effects of glacial erosion. Here, we present a semiautomated approach for assessing glacial modification of bedrock valleys by quantifying morphological variability in valley cross sections extracted in bulk from digital elevation models (DEMs). This method can be tailored to derive cross sections of user-specified width and spacing and can generate cross-sectional data sets of multiple orders of magnitude. We demonstrate the technique by extracting ~27,000 cross sections from the Sierra Nevada, California, and computing measures of valley morphology including a form ratio, a quadratic curve fit, and a power law curve fit for each cross section. In addition, we introduce a novel metric, the V-index, which is calculated by comparing valley cross-sectional area to that of an ideal V-shaped cross section and is, thus, an expression of the deviation from an ideal V-shaped form. Statistical comparisons of the different measures suggest that the V-index is a robust alternative to traditional morphological measures because it can accommodate irregular valley cross sections and discriminate between glacial and nonglacial forms. We document the distribution of valley forms throughout the Sierra Nevada using the V-index to identify range-scale patterns in cross-sectional morphology and to investigate the role of lithology on glacial modification of bedrock valleys.
STRUCTURE OF FREQUENCY DOMAIN MODELS FOR RANDOM WAVE BREAKING

We consider the form of a breaking wave dissipation term for use in spectral or stochastic wave evolution models. A time-domain Boussinesq model is tested for accuracy in modelling evolution of second and third moment statistics in shoaling and breaking waves. The structure of the dissipation term in the time domain is then used to infer the corresponding structure of the term in the frequency domain. In general, we find that the dissipation coefficient is distributed like l/S^(f), where Sv(f) is the spectral density of the surface displacement rj. This implies an /2 dependence for the coefficient in the inner surfzone, as opposed to a constant distribution over frequency as suggested by Eldeberky and Battjes (1996).
Deformation mechanisms and mechanical properties of porous magnesium/carbon nanofiber composites with different porosities

This study investigated mechanical properties and deformation mechanisms of porous magnesium–carbon nanofiber composites with different porosities manufactured through powder metallurgy. Compressive stress–strain curves of the samples exhibit three phases: Phase I of linear elastic deformation at low stress state, Phase II of a stress plateau, and Phase III of densification. The manufactured porous composites with different porosities show different deformation mechanisms. The composites with low porosity (i.e., 24 and 34%) manifest stretch-dominated deformation with hard (i.e., tension, compression) modes, while the composite with high porosity (i.e., 50%) demonstrates bending-dominated deformation with soft (i.e., bending) modes. The yield strength and the ultimate compressive strength decreased at an increasing rate with the increase in the porosity from 24 to 50%. Theoretical estimations were obtained for the yield strength of dense magnesium composites based on Gibson and Ashby model.
Middle Paleolithic Spear Point Technology

It is generally acknowledged that the early Upper Paleolithic in western Eurasia (ca. 25,000–35,000 B.P) witnesses the appearance of a wide range of projectile weapons. Many of the stone, bone, and antler armatures of these weapons exhibit functional and stylistic variation similar to that seen among the hunting weapons of recent human groups (Knecht 1993; Peterkin 1993). Because of this, some prehistorians describe this “explosion” of early Upper Paleolithic projectile technology as part of a broader saltatory event marking the appearance of “modern” human behavior patterns (Mellars 1989; Trinkaus 1989). Yet, human fossils with essentially modern postcranial skeletal morphology occur in African Middle Stone Age (MSA) and southwest Asian Middle Paleolithic sites dating to more than 80,000–100,000 B.P (Stringer and Gamble 1993). The Middle Paleolithic cultural associations of these early modern humans raise important questions about the antiquity of “modern” behavior patterns, including the use of multi-component subsistence aids, such as stone-tipped spears. The absence of such weapons in the Middle Paleolithic could suggest important behavioral differences between the earliest modern humans and their Upper Paleolithic counterparts. Finding such weapons in Middle Paleolithic contexts, on the other hand, could suggest a precedent of considerable geological antiquity for the “explosion” of Upper Paleolithic projectile technology.
The Witch of Edmonton: Witchcraft, Inversion, and Social Criticism

The witchcraft plot in The Witch of Edmonton is decidedly secondary. The historical context helps us understand it: while belief in witchcraft was near universal, uncertainty always hovered over individual cases. The social criticism articulated by the witch in the play, with its attack on the abuse of the poor (especially poor women) by their neighbours is central to the impact of the play. If those in power are held accountable, the responsibilities of the patriarchs who failed Frank Thorney — his father and master — are also in question. The witch calls into question all those given authority in society.
Autism Spectrum Disorder with Seizures: Collaboration through Case Example

Anyone who evaluates children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) knows that they can be the most complex but rewarding patients. From a medical perspective, there are higher rates of seizure disorders (Canitano, Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 16(1):61–66, 2007), genetic disorders (De Rubeis and Buxbaum, Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep 15(6):1–9, 2015), in utero complications (Deykin and MacMahon, Am J Dis Child 134(9):860–864, 1980), and other abnormal neurological findings (Ecker et al., Lancet Neurol 14:1121–1134, 2015; Fein, The Neuropsychology of Autism, Oxford University Press, New York, 2011; Lange et al., Autism Res 8(1):82–93, 2014). Parents of children with ASD are the fiercest advocates for their children. These parents seek out traditional but also nontraditional treatments and evaluations in pursuit of answers regarding their child, in hopes of a cure. The case selected here highlights the complexities associated with ASD but, more importantly, demonstrates the collaborative role that neurology and neuropsychology play in providing optimal care for an ASD child.
BIPOLAR DISORDER AS FAILURE OF INTERHEMISPHERIC INHIBITION

This paper has three parts. In the first part we introduce G. Munevar’s hypothesis about the neuroscience of bipolar disorder. According to this hypothesis, bipolar disorder is a failure of interhemispheric inhibition in the frontal lobe. When the electrical activation of the left side overwhelms that of the right, the left frontal lobe dominates, thus leading to exaggerated states of ela- tion (or others that also constitute mania). Dominance in activation by the right side, in turn, leads to states of depression. The neuroscience literature already offers a large amount of support for this hypothesis, as we explain. The second part describes our own study using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to successfully decrease positive moods in 25 healthy individuals. This result was obtained by connecting the tDCS electrodes to the right hemisphere of the frontal lobe of participants while they viewed arousing pictures (from the International Affective Picture Scale), which accords with the hypothesis. The third part gives a working outline for a potential new study to establish the hypothesis of frontal lobe interhemispheric inhibition failure in bipolar disorder. This study would use a new functional brain imaging technology based on qEEG: standardized weighted low-resolution electromagnetic tomography (swLORETA). If successful, this study may lead to electrical-stimulation therapy for bipolar disorder patients.
Blunt versus penetrating trauma: Is there a resource intensity discrepancy?

Abstract Background The rising cost of healthcare requires responsible allocation of resources. Not all trauma centers see the same types of patients. We hypothesized that patients with blunt injuries require more resources than patients with penetrating injuries. Methods This was a retrospective analysis of all highest-level activation trauma patients at our busy urban Level I Trauma Center over five years. Data included demographics, injuries, hospital charges, and resources used. A p value Results 4578 patients were included (2037 blunt and 2541 penetrating). Blunt patients were more severely injured, more often admitted, required more radiographic studies, had longer hospital, intensive care unit, and mechanical ventilation days, and therefore, higher hospital charges. Conclusions Within one center, patients with blunt injuries required more resources than those with penetrating injuries. Understanding this pattern will allow trauma systems to better allocate limited resources based on each center's mechanism of injury distribution.
Surgical Deroofing for Bilateral Auricular Pseudocysts

Auricular pseudocysts are an uncommon, benign cystic lesion of the auricular cartilage that most commonly occur at the triangular fossa or scapha. Few reports of bilateral cases are present in the literature. Etiology of both unilateral and bilateral auricular pseudocysts is unknown. We report a case of bilateral auricular pseudocysts presenting synchronously in a 2-month-old female. Surgical deroofing with bolstering of the auricles led to an excellent aesthetic outcome with no evidence of recurrence, and we therefore recommend this treatment for the management of bilateral auricular pseudocysts.
Public Discourses on Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions to COVID-19 and Vaccination Programs in Korea (preprint)

The Korean government’s non-pharmaceutical interventions to the COVID-19 epidemic have successfully lowered the number of infected patients and the overall mortality rate. Nonetheless, the public health authority’s various mitigation strategies and vaccination efforts have faced several challenges posed by politically motivated Christian fundamentalism and ultraconservative mainstream media. This paper examines how these conservative forces – both religious and political – have undermined the public health authority’s various mitigation efforts and discusses how to address the problems from a public policy point of view. The paper argues that a comprehensive legal reform including the introduction of effective punitive damages in the media market is a necessary minimum to address some of these problems.
Impact of Concrete Mix Ingredients and Surface Treatments on Epoxy Overlay Performance

Epoxy overlays are applied on bridge decks after curing concrete in patches and repairs for 28 days. A tensile bond pull-off strength of at least 250 pounds per square inch (psi) is expected from a...
Theology Without Metaphysics: God, Language and the Spirit of Recognition

Preface 1. Therapy for metaphysics 2. Concepts, rules, and the spirit of recognition 3. Meaning and meanings 4. Reference and presence 5. Truth and correspondence 6. Emancipating theology Index.
An Evolutionary Algorithms Approach to Phylogenetic Tree Construction

Phylogenetics is an approach used by biologists to investigate the evolutionary relationships among organisms. Typical software packages use heuristic search methods to navigate through the space of possible hypotheses (phylogenies) in an attempt to find one or more “best” hypotheses, as exhaustive search is not practical in this domain. We have developed a system called Gaphyl, which uses an evolutionary algorithms approach to search for phylogenies, and an evaluation metric from a common phylogenetics software package (Phylip). The evolutionary algorithms approach to search yields improvements over Phylip on the tasks investigated here.
Metaphor at Work

In their work on corporate tragedies, Mitroff and Kilmann [1984] repeatedly stressed that an institution’s most fundamental need is to know what assumptions it is making about itself and the outside world. “As a result” they argued, “there is nothing more important that it can do than to periodically raise to the surface for explicit examination and challenge its key operating assumptions” (p. 116). For them, this is the essence of strategic thinking.
In-Situ Processing and Theoretical Model for Deposition of Laser Ablated High-Tc YBa2Cu3O7 Superconducting Thin Films

We have theoretically analyzed and developed a model for the interaction of pulsed laser beams with bulk YBa2Cu3O7 targets resulting in evaporation, plasma formation and deposition of thin films. In this model, the laser generated plasma is treated as an ideal gas initially at high temperature and pressure, and is then allowed to expand in vacuum. The three-dimensional isoentropic expansion of this plasma gives rise to spatial thickness and composition variations observed in YBa2Cu3O7 thin films. The solution of the hydrodynamic gas equations show that the deposition characteristics are dependent on the dimensions and temperature of the plasma, and the mass of the plasma species. The effect of pulse energy density and other parameters on the deposition characteristics is also analyzed. Some of the theoretical results are compared with the experimental values obtained by pulsed excimer laser evaporation of bulk YBa2Cu307 targets. We also discuss some of the superconducting and the microstructural characteristics of in-situ processed epitaxial films fabricated at substrate temperatures between 500–650°C by XeC1 laser irradiation on bulk YBa2Cu3O7 targets in an oxygen ambient of 200 millitorr. An application of a positively biased ring between the substrate and target was found to reduce the deposition temperature to 500°C, although the quality of epitaxial growth decreased significantly below 500°C. Excellent quality epitaxial single crystal superconducting thin films were fabricated on (100) SrTiO3 and (100) LaA1O3 substrates at temperatures between 550–650°C. The films were nearly defect free with minimum ion channeling yields of 3% and 3.5% for YBa2Cu3O7 films on (100) LaA103 and (100) SrTiO3, respectively. Superconducting YBa2Cu307 films on (100) YSZ substrates, although epitaxial, possessed much larger defect concentrations as a result of lattice mismatch. Very high critical current densities (at 77K and zero magnetic field) exceeding 6.0 × 106 Amps/cm2 were obtained on YBa2Cu3O7 films on (100) LaA1O3 substrates which represents the best values quoted in the literature. The effect of silver doping on critical current densities in these films is also discussed.
Estimation of Safe Distance from the Robot Arm as a Guide for Limiting Slow Speed of Robot Motions

The main objective of this laboratory study was to determine the minimum distance from the robot considered as safe for monitoring purposes, and the corresponding perception of danger for close int...
Book Review Essay

Robert H. Haveman. 1987. Poverty Policy and Poverty Research Lawrence M. Mead. 1986. Beyond Entitlement: The Social Obligations of Citizenship William Julius Wilson. 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, The Underclass and Public Policy