cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Studying Racial and Ethnic Health Care Disparities Among Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Using the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs

Abstract Background: There is strong evidence that racial and ethnic minorities have worse health care and health outcomes in the United States. However, little is known about racial and ethnic disparities among children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Method: Using data from the 2009/2010 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs, we examined racial and ethnic disparities in the receipt of a medical home among children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, whether these disparities are moderated by family income, and the impact of parent’s language on disparities among the Latino sample. Descriptive bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: There were significant racial disparities in health outcomes between Black and White children and Latino and non-Latino White children. The majority of children in the study, regardless of race or ethnicity, did not meet the criteria for having a medical home. Only 31% of White, 23% of Black children, and 22% of Latino children had a medical home. Racial and ethnic disparities in usual source of care were exacerbated at lower income levels. Surprisingly, Spanish-speaking Latino parents were more likely to report their child had a personal doctor than English-speaking Latino parents. Conclusion: This study provides evidence of racial and ethnic health care disparities among children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Furthermore, this study provides troubling evidence of the small percentage of children in this population who meet medical home criteria. Assertive policy and practice measures are needed not only to reduce racial and ethnic disparities but also to increase the number of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities who have a medical home.
Enhanced induction of a 72 kDa heat shock protein in cultured retroocular fibroblasts.

Fibroblasts in the retroocular connective tissue appear to play a central role in the pathogenesis of Graves 1 ophthalmopathy (GO). We hypothesize that specific attributes, differentiating normal from GO retroocular fibroblasts, may render the latter more vulnerable to the ongoing immunopathological process in GO. We investigated whether GO fibroblasts differ from normal fibroblasts with respect to their sensitivity and capacity to express the inducible 72 kDa heat shock protein (HSP) in response to stressful environmental stimuli. Cultured retroocular fibroblasts derived from patients with GO and normal individuals were exposed to various changes in the culture medium that may simulate conditions in the affected retroocular space in vivo. HSP 72 reactivity was determined using sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis of cellular extracts, followed by immunoblotting with a mouse monoclonal anti-HSP 72 antibody and quantitative scanning densitometry. In addition, indirect immunofluorescence was performed on parallel fibroblast monolayers. Following exposure to heat and acidic pH, deprivation from nutrients, and high monolayer density, GO fibroblasts expressed HSP 72 with significantly greater sensitivity and in significantly higher abundance than did normal fibroblasts. These results demonstrate that changes in the physiological environment induce HSP 72 expression in cultured fibroblasts. The enhanced sensitivity and capacity of GO retroocular fibroblasts to express the inducible HSP 72 in response to stressful stimuli may play a role in the autoimmune process affecting the retroocular space in GO. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 33:466-470,1992 Highly conserved heat shock proteins (HSPs) are involved in basic cellular functions such as protein refolding and degradation, and in transport processes across intracellular compartments. 1 " 3 In addition,
Individual HSV Transcripts

An increasingly complete picture of the phenomenology of animal vims gene expression during productive infection is at hand. In the case of herpesviruses [particularly herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1)], this picture is dependent on the revolution in molecular biology resulting from restriction enzyme analysis of viral DNA and, more recently, from the use of recombinant DNA technology for the construction and analysis of fine probes of HSV-1 DNA transcription. These powerful techniques, along with techniques available from the parallel revolution in immunology and assays of biological activities, suggest that a detailed mechanistic description of the intricacies of HSV replication is technically feasible.
Paraneoplastic syndrome as the presentation of limited stage small cell carcinoma.

Small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) is one of the deadliest forms of lung cancer due to its poor prognosis upon diagnosis, rapid doubling time, and affinity for metastasis. As 60–70% of patients with SCLC have disseminated disease upon presentation, it is imperative to determine the extent of disease burden for treatment. As a neuroendocrine carcinoma, clinicians must pay close attention to abnormal findings in a smoker that could lead to earlier diagnosis and better prognostication. A 64 year-old 20-pack year smoker presented to the emergency department with nausea and vomiting for 3 days. No inciting events were elicited. History and review of symptoms were negative including symptoms most-commonly associated with malignancy such as fevers and weight loss. He also denied any pulmonary symptoms. Physical examination was benign except for right lung end-expiratory wheezing. Our patient was clinically euvolemic. Initial blood laboratories showed a sodium 110, serum osmolarity 227, and urine osmolarity of 579. Fluid restriction led to normalization of his sodium and resolution of nausea & vomiting. Chest radiography was obtained to follow-up on the wheezing, which was read as no acute cardiopulmonary disease by radiology. Due to high suspicion of SIADH from malignancy, a CT of the chest was performed which showed a conglomerate of nodules and opacities in the right upper lobe. Biopsy revealed SCLC. At outpatient follow-up, patient had a PET-CT showing one active mediastinal lymph node as the only site of metastasis. He received three round of chemotherapy, chest and prophylactic cranial radiation, and deemed in remission by oncology. Due to its affinity for metastases, 70% of patients with SCLC present with symptoms related to the spread of cancer to affected organ systems. Given the aggressive nature of this disease, screening measures have been implemented to help diagnose limited stage SCLC. Unfortunately, in our patient and many others, screening guidelines may fail to identify appropriate patients to scan. It is therefore imperative to use our clinical index of suspicion and identify any early presentations (including paraneoplastic syndromes) which may tip off the beginning stages of SCLC. This could improve survival rates by up to 45%.
C57BL/6J and C57BL/6N substrains differentially influence phenotype severity in the Scn1a+/− mouse model of Dravet syndrome

Many disease-relevant phenotypes modeled in inbred mice have been shown to be strain-dependent, indicating the important influence of genetic background on disease phenotypes. Although C57BL/6 mice are one of the most commonly used inbred strains in laboratory research, there are multiple substrains (eg, B6J vs B6N) that have been separated for more than 50 years. Thus, understanding the substrain differences is important for scientific rigor and reproducibility. In this study, seizure susceptibility, spontaneous seizures, and survival were compared between Scn1a +/- mice on (C57BL/6J × 129S6/SvEvTac)F1 (F1J) vs (C57BL/6N × 129S6/SvEvTac)F1 (F1N) strain backgrounds. F1N.Scn1a +/- mice were more susceptible to hyperthermia-induced seizures, yet had milder spontaneous seizures and improved survival relative to F1J.Scn1a +/- mice. Our results indicate that choice of C57BL/6 substrain may significantly alter disease phenotypes and should be considered carefully in experimental design using the Scn1a +/- Dravet mouse model, as well as other mouse models of epilepsy.
Confirm or refute?: A comparative study on citation sentiment classification in clinical research publications.

Abstract Quantifying scientific impact of researchers and journals relies largely on citation counts, despite the acknowledged limitations of this approach. The need for more suitable alternatives has prompted research into developing advanced metrics, such as h-index and Relative Citation Ratio (RCR), as well as better citation categorization schemes to capture the various functions that citations serve in a publication. One such scheme involves citation sentiment: whether a reference paper is cited positively (agreement with the findings of the reference paper), negatively (disagreement), or neutrally. The ability to classify citation function in this manner can be viewed as a first step toward a more fine-grained bibliometrics. In this study, we compared several approaches, varying in complexity, for classification of citation sentiment in clinical trial publications. Using a corpus of 285 discussion sections from as many publications (a total of 4,182 citations), we developed a rule-based method as well as supervised machine learning models based on support vector machines (SVM) and two variants of deep neural networks; namely, convolutional neural network (CNN) and bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM). A CNN model augmented with hand-crafted features yielded the best performance (0.882 accuracy and 0.721 macro- F 1 on held-out set). Our results show that baseline performances of traditional supervised learning algorithms and deep neural network architectures are similar and that hand-crafted features based on sentiment dictionaries and rhetorical structure allow neural network approaches to outperform traditional machine learning approaches for this task. We make the rule-based method and the best-performing neural network model publicly available at: https://github.com/kilicogluh/clinical-citation-sentiment .
Ray-Based Exploration of Large Time-Varying Volume Data Using Per-Ray Proxy Distributions

The analysis and visualization of data created from simulations on modern supercomputers is a daunting challenge because the incredible compute power of modern supercomputers allow scientists to generate datasets with very high spatial and temporal resolutions. The limited bandwidth and capacity of networking and storage devices connecting supercomputers to analysis machines become the major bottleneck for data analysis such that simply moving the whole dataset from the supercomputer to a data analysis machine is infeasible. A common approach to visualize high temporal resolution simulation datasets under constrained I/O is to reduce the sampling rate in the temporal domain while preserving the original spatial resolution at the time steps. Data interpolation between the sampled time steps alone may not be a viable option since it may suffer from large errors, especially when using a lower sampling rate. We present a novel ray-based representation storing ray based histograms and depth information that recovers the evolution of volume data between sampled time steps. Our view-dependent proxy allows for a good trade off between compactly representing the time-varying data and leveraging temporal coherence within the data by utilizing interpolation between time steps, ray histograms, depth information, and codebooks. Our approach is able to provide fast rendering in the context of transfer function exploration to support visualization of feature evolution in time-varying data.
Integrating Mindfulness into Ethics Teaching, Practice and Research

Within the past few years, there seems to be a flourish of interest in mindfulness and its benefits to wellness, leadership, parenting … you name it. Books, articles, and podcasts focusing on mindf...
Psychological inflexibility mediates the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and mental health outcomes

Abstract Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) lead to negative mental health outcomes such as depression and anxiety. Those with more ACEs have an increased risk for these outcomes. Little is known about variables that may mediate the relationship between ACEs and depression and anxiety. Our study investigated psychological flexibility and inflexibility as possible mediators in the relationship between ACEs and depression and anxiety. Specifically, we proposed that having more ACEs would decrease psychological flexibility and increase inflexibility which would, in turn, increase the likelihood of anxiety and depression. College student participants (N = 305) were given the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Scale, the Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale, along with scales for depression and anxiety. Psychological inflexibility, but not psychological flexibility, was found to be a significant mediator between ACEs and both depression and anxiety. Further analyses found that the subscales of Self as Content and Inaction mediated the relationship to both depression and anxiety. In addition, Fusion mediated the relationship between ACEs and anxiety. Feeling as though one's negative thoughts make one a negative person and feeling unable to act in accordance to one's values may be specific ways in which trauma affects depression and anxiety. Getting stuck in one's thoughts may be an additional mechanism through which trauma may lead to anxiety. Treatment implications are discussed.
Discovery of low-molecular weight anti-PD-L1 peptides for cancer immunotherapy

Immunotherapy using checkpoint inhibitors, especially PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, has now evolved into the most promising therapy for cancer patients. However, most of these inhibitors are monoclonal antibodies, and their large size may limit their tumor penetration, leading to suboptimal efficacy. As a result, there has been a growing interest in developing low-molecular-weight checkpoint inhibitors. We developed a novel biopanning strategy to discover small peptide-based anti-PD-L1 inhibitors. The affinity and specificity of the peptides to PD-L1 were examined using various assays. Three-dimensional (3D) spheroid penetration study was performed to determine the tumor penetration capability of the peptides. Anti-tumor activity of the peptides was evaluated in mice bearing CT26 tumor cells. We discover several anti-PD-L1 peptide inhibitors to block PD-1/PD-L1 interaction. The peptides exhibit high affinity and specificity to human PD-L1 protein as well as PD-L1-overexpressing human cancer cells MDA-MB-231 and DU-145. Molecular docking studies indicate that the peptide CLP002 specifically binds to PD-L1 at the residues where PD-L1 interacts with PD-1. The peptide also blocks the CD80/PD-L1 interaction, which may further enhance the immune response of tumor-infiltrating T cells. Compared to antibody, the peptide CLP002 exhibits better tumor penetration in a 3D tumor spheroid model. The peptide CLP002 restores proliferation and prevents apoptosis of T cells that are co-cultured with cancer cells. The peptide CLP002 also inhibits tumor growth and increases survival of CT26 tumor-bearing mice. This study demonstrated the feasibility of using phage display to discover small peptide-based checkpoint inhibitors. Our results also suggested that the anti-PD-L1 peptide represents a promising low-molecular-weight checkpoint inhibitor for cancer immunotherapy.
Implementation of a C-UNB Module for NS-3 and Validation for DLMS-COSEM Application Layer Protocol

The number of sensors and embedded devices in an urban area can be on the order of thousands. New low- power wide area (LPWA) wireless network technologies have been proposed to support this large number of asynchronous, low-bandwidth devices. Among them, the Cooperative UltraNarrowband (C-UNB) is a clean-slate cellular network technology to connect these devices to a remote site or data collection server. C-UNB employs small bandwidth channels, and a lightweight random access protocol. In this paper, a new application is investigated - the use of C-UNB wireless networks to support the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), in order to facilitate the communication between smart meters and utilities. To this end, we adapted a mathematical model for C-UNB, and implemented a network simulation module in NS-3 to represent C-UNB's physical and medium access control layer. For the application layer, we implemented the DLMS-COSEM protocol, or Device Language Message Specification - Companion Specification for Energy Metering. Details of the simulation module are presented and we conclude that it supports the results of the mathematical model.
Interpersonal awe: Exploring the social domain of awe elicitors

In most studies on awe, the stimuli used to elicit the emotion involves nature, music, space, or grand theories – but awe elicited by the actions of other people has generally not been studied in d...
Terminator—Flight Termination System for High Altitude Ballooning

The FFA requires that high altitude sounding balloons possess two methods by which a flight might be terminated. With traditional latex sounding balloons the primary means of flight termination is that the balloon bursts at altitude. Recently low cost small payload zero pressure balloons have become available for use by higher educational ballooning programs. So for both systems, but particularly zero pressure systems there is a need to have user controlled flight termination systems. We present here the design for a timer based system and a radio controlled system employing a hotwire cutter.
Does rattling deter? The case of domestic dogs

Although the rattling of rattlesnakes (Crotalus and Sistrurus) is widely accepted as being aposematic, the hypothesis that rattling deters approach from the snake's potentially dangerous adversaries has not been well tested. In a controlled study using rattling recorded from captive rattlesnakes (C. oreganus helleri) and a variety of comparison sounds or no-sound controls, domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) showed no hesitation to approach camouflaged speakers projecting the recorded rattles. The dogs were equally likely to approach speakers projecting rattling as they were to approach speakers playing control sounds, or speakers that were silent. Furthermore, the dogs spent no less time in front of the speakers projecting the rattles than they did in front of speakers projecting control sounds or no sound. The dogs' reactions may not be representative of other species with whom rattlesnakes come into contact, but the data suggest a need for some circumspection about the role of rattling in the rattlesnake's defensive repertoire. Our results also suggest that dogs may be vulnerable to envenomation because they fail to react to the sound of rattling with avoidance.
Chapter 78 – Androgens

Testosterone is the principal circulating androgen in men, secreted almost entirely by the testes. The effects of testosterone on bone in men are therefore best observed when they are deficient in testosterone and then replaced with testosterone. The effects of physiologic concentrations of testosterone in men, as observed in these situations, are substantial.
51 – The Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone and Its Receptor

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) is the central neuropeptide in vertebrates that controls the synthesis and release of luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone in the anterior pituitary. Its prevalence suggests that it is required for the reproductive success of many species. It is therefore important to understand the factors that control the synthesis and release of GnRH in the brain as well as the mechanisms by which GnRH controls the responses of its targets in the central nervous system and in the anterior pituitary. This chapter focuses on the development and anatomy of the GnRH neuronal system; some of the actions and mechanisms that regulate GnRH neurons; and the localization, regulation, and functional aspects of GnRH receptors in the brain. Finally, the mechanisms of action of GnRH in the anterior pituitary or pituitary-derived cell lines are discussed.
Evaluation of Orthopaedic Trauma Fellowship Web Sites and an Assessment of 21 Content Domains.

Background A program's web site can attract or deter fellowship applications. It can also impact applicants' final rank lists. Web-based information may allow applicants to apply more selectively, decreasing interview costs for themselves and programs. The accessibility and content of program web sites for several orthopaedic subspecialties have been analyzed for inadequacies. The goal of this study was to perform an analysis for the web sites of orthopaedic trauma fellowships. Methods A list of accredited orthopaedic trauma fellowships was obtained from the Orthopaedic Trauma Association (OTA) Fellowship Directory. Web site accessibility was determined by presence of a functional hyperlink in the directory and the web site's searchability using Google®. Web site content was evaluated based on 21 criteria. Results 53 programs were identified, offering 84 positions. 27 had web sites accessible through the OTA fellowship directory via functioning links. 19 additional web sites were accessible using Google®. Seven programs lacked web sites entirely. Web site content varied between programs. Over half of the web sites lacked information for 13 of the 21 content criteria. A complete list of results can be located in Table 1. Conclusions Inadequacies exist in the accessibility and content of OTA accredited Orthopaedic Trauma Fellowship web sites. We draw attention to 21 standard content areas pertinent to applicants that could be considered by the OTA and individual programs to include on their respective web sites. Standardization across web sites may allow for a more direct comparison between programs and improve the match process. Level of Evidence Review Article.
Tumefactive Demyelinating Lesions in Children: A Rare Case of Conus Medullaris Involvement and Systematic Review of the Literature:

Tumefactive demyelinating lesions are an uncommon manifestation of demyelinating disease that mimic primary central nervous system neoplasms and can pose a diagnostic challenge in patients without ...
Parallel I/O on Compressed Data Files: Semantics, Algorithms, and Performance Evaluation

Many scientific applications operate on data sets that span hundreds of Gigabytes or even Terabytes in size. Large data sets often use compression to reduce the size of the files. Yet as of today, parallel I/O libraries do not support reading and writing compressed files, necessitating either expensive sequential compression/decompression operations before/after the simulation, or omitting advanced features of parallel I/O libraries, such as collective I/O operations. This paper introduces parallel I/O on compressed data files, discusses the key challenges, requirements, and solutions for supporting compressed data files in MPI I/O, as well as limitations on some MPI I/O operations when using compressed data files. The paper details handling of individual read and write operations of compressed data files, and presents an extension to the two-phase collective I/O algorithm to support data compression. The paper further presents and evaluates an implementation based on the Snappy compression library and the OMPIO parallel I/O framework. The performance evaluation using multiple data sets demonstrate significant performance benefits when using data compression on a parallel BeeGFS file system.
Deuterium Metabolic Imaging—Rediscovery of a Spectroscopic Tool

The growing demand for metabolism-specific imaging techniques has rekindled interest in Deuterium (2H) Metabolic Imaging (DMI), a robust method based on administration of a substrate (glucose, acetate, fumarate, etc.) labeled with the stable isotope of hydrogen and the observation of its metabolic fate in three-dimensions. This technique allows the investigation of multiple metabolic processes in both healthy and diseased states. Despite its low natural abundance, the short relaxation time of deuterium allows for rapid radiofrequency (RF) pulses without saturation and efficient image acquisition. In this review, we provide a comprehensive picture of the evolution of DMI over the course of recent decades, with a special focus on its potential clinical applications.
VAMBC: A Variational Approach for Mobility Behavior Clustering

Many domains including policymaking, urban design, and geospatial intelligence benefit from understanding people’s mobility behaviors (e.g., work commute, shopping), which can be achieved by clustering massive trajectories using the geo-context around the visiting locations (e.g., sequence of vectors, each describing the geographic environment near a visited location). However, existing clustering approaches on sequential data are not effective for clustering these context sequences based on the contexts’ transition patterns. They either rely on traditional pre-defined similarities for specific application requirements or utilize a two-phase autoencoder-based deep learning process, which is not robust to training variations. Thus, we propose a variational approach named VAMBC for clustering context sequences that simultaneously learns the self-supervision and cluster assignments in a single phase to infer moving behaviors from context transitions in trajectories. Our experiments show that VAMBC significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches in robustness and accuracy of clustering mobility behaviors in trajectories.
Fortifying Vehicular Security through Low Overhead Physically Unclonable Functions

Within vehicles, the Controller Area Network (CAN) allows efficient communication between the electronic control units (ECUs) responsible for controlling the various subsystems. The CAN protocol wa...
Metabolic Emergency in Flight

Abstract Young children with inborn errors of metabolism often present to medical care in extremis, although their symptoms can be nonspecific. Rare metabolic disorders are not always on the statewide newborn screening panels, so infants and children can present later in life with vomiting, altered mental status, seizures, coma, or death, without any indication prior of a metabolic disorder. Swift transport to a pediatric specialty center can be lifesaving and prevent neurologic damage in these patients while awaiting definitive testing for these genetic disorders. Transport of these patients is complicated because they are often critically ill yet do not respond normally to routine resuscitation. In this case, we describe the transport of a patient with a rare, undifferentiated inborn error of metabolism with a pediatric specialty flight team and the considerations made in resuscitation and treatment of this patient in flight.
Reliability and reproducibility of etarfolatide as a folate receptor (FR)-targeted diagnostic imaging agent

400 Objectives FR is overexpressed in many cancers and can be a useful biomarker to select patients for targeted therapy. This study assessed the reliability and reproducibility of 99mTc-etarfolatide, a FR-targeted SPECT imaging agent, to identify patients with FR-positive lesions. Methods Target lesions of patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer were selected according to RECIST 1.0 criteria based on CT scans. SPECT images of the lesions were taken and 99mTc-etarfolatide uptake was assessed by 2 independent nuclear medicine radiologists and 1 adjudicator. A total of 60 patients were classified as FR(10-100%) [≥1positive lesion] or FR(0%) [no positive lesions], and as FR(100%) [all lesions positive] or FR(0-90%) [no or Results For the identification of FR(10-100%) vs FR(0%) patients, the readers’ agreement was 87% (95%CI: 75.4-94.1). Eight cases were read as FR(0%) and FR(10-100%) and required adjudication, with 2 patients classified as FR(0%), and 6 patients classified as FR(10-100%). For the identification of FR(100%) vs FR(0-90%) patients, the agreement rate was 85% (95% CI: 73.4-92.9). Nine cases were read as FR(0-90%) and FR(100%) and needed adjudication, with 2 patients classified as FR(0-90%) and 7 patients classified as FR(100%). The reproducibility of the reads as assessed by the same radiologist was high for the 2 readers in the identification of both FR(10-100%) vs FR(0%) patients (90% and 95%, respectively) and FR(100%) vs FR(0-90%) patients (100% and 95%, respectively). Conclusions 99mTc-etarfolatide imaging is a reliable and reproducible method to identify patients who may benefit from FR-targeted therapy. Research Support This work was supported by Endocyte, Inc., West Lafayette, IN.
A Constructivist Knowledge Base Architecture for Adaptive Intelligent Tutoring Systems

In order to support human learning, knowledge representation in intelligent tutoring systems must support: a constructivist approach to knowledge formation, dynamic additions and deletions of knowledge, the ability to reuse knowledge in multiple contexts, the ability to represent abstractions, and the ability to represent expertise. In order to support these requirements, we propose a network architecture that is fundamentally different from both neural and semantic networks [1]. It is comprised of two fundamental elements: nodes and links. A node represents a fundamental knowledge building block, or knowledge quantum, or a certain abstraction that is fundamentally derived to represent a collection of knowledge quanta. Nodes can belong to one of possible abstraction layers. Links relate nodes within a given layer or in different layers. A fundamental principle underlying our network architecture is that of local connectionism: each node is only aware of its rules of interactions with possible neighboring nodes, whether these nodes lie within the same layer or in other layers. The creation of inter-layer and intra-layer links leading to the formation of the knowledge base must be achieved using learning algorithms that lend themselves to a local connectionism approach, such as spreading activation [2]. Once knowledge is rooted on such a fundamental premise, we believe that it can be readily applied to multiple learning and disciplinary contexts. Fundamental issues that are being addressed by our research include those pertinent to fundamental knowledge representation, knowledge abstraction as well as the nature and development of expertise.
A systematic review of emergency department technology-based behavioral health interventions.

ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2012; 19:318–328 © 2012 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Abstract Objectives: This systematic review evaluated the evidence for use of computer technologies to assess and reduce high-risk health behaviors in emergency department (ED) patients. Methods: A systematic search was conducted of electronic databases, references, key journals, and conference proceedings. Studies were included if they evaluated the use of computer-based technologies for ED-based screening, interventions, or referrals for high-risk health behaviors (e.g., unsafe sex, partner violence, substance abuse, depression); were published since 1990; and were in English, French, or Spanish. Study selection and assessment of methodologic quality were performed by two independent reviewers. Data extraction was performed by one reviewer and then independently checked for completeness and accuracy by a second reviewer. Results: Of 17,744 unique articles identified by database search, 66 underwent full-text review, and 20 met inclusion criteria. The greatest number of studies targeted alcohol/substance use (n = 8, 40%), followed by intentional or unintentional injury (n = 7, 35%) and then mental health (n = 4, 20%). Ten of the studies (50%) were randomized controlled trials; the remainder were observational or feasibility studies. Overall, studies showed high acceptability and feasibility of individual computer innovations, although study quality varied greatly. Evidence for clinical efficacy across health behaviors was modest, with few studies addressing meaningful clinical outcomes. Future research should aim to establish the efficacy of computer-based technology for meaningful health outcomes and to ensure that effective interventions are both disseminable and sustainable. Conclusions: The number of studies identified in this review reflects recent enthusiasm about the potential of computers to overcome barriers to behavioral health screening, interventions, and referrals to treatment in the ED. The available literature suggests that these types of tools will be feasible and acceptable to patients and staff.
Combinatorial screening of mesenchymal stem cell adhesion and differentiation using polymer pen lithography.

Abstract The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a complex, spatially inhomogeneous environment that is host to myriad cell–receptor interactions that promote changes in cell behavior. These biological systems can be probed and simulated with engineered surfaces, but doing so demands careful control over the arrangement of ligands. Here, we describe how such surfaces can be fabricated by utilizing polymer pen lithography (PPL), which is a cantilever-free scanning probe lithographic method that utilizes polymeric pen arrays to generate patterns over large areas. With the advent of PPL, fundamental questions in cell biology can be answered by recapitulating cell–ECM interactions to explore how these interactions lead to changes in cell behavior. Here, we describe an approach for the combinatorial screening of cell adhesion behavior to gain understanding of how ECM protein feature size dictates osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells. The technique outlined here is generalizable to other biological systems and can be paired with quantitative analytical methods to probe important processes such as cell polarization, proliferation, signaling, and differentiation.
Gcvpack – routines for generalized cross validation

These Fortran-77 subroutines provide building blocks for Generalized Cross-Validation (GCV) (Craven and Wahba, 1979) calculations in data analysis and data smoothing including ridge regression (Golub, Heath, and Wahba, 1979), thin plate smoothing splines (Wahba and Wendelberger, 1980), deconvolution (Wahba, 1982d), smoothing of generalized linear models (O'sullivan, Yandell and Raynor 1986, Green 1984 and Green and Yandell 1985), and ill-posed problems (Nychka et al., 1984, O'sullivan and Wahba, 1985). We present some of the types of problems for which GCV is a useful method of choosing a smoothing or regularization parameter and we describe the structure of the subroutines.Ridge Regression: A familiar example of a smoothing parameter is the ridge parameter X in the ridge regression problem which we write.
The Competitive Environment in the Audit Market and the Clarity of Accounting Standards

This paper studies the impact of a change in the competitive environment on the nature of the auditing standards preferred by the accounting profession, client switching and opinion shopping, and auditor independence. While standards can be characterized in many ways, a feature relevant to switching, opinion shopping and independence is the flexibility that the standard allows preparers. We model flexibility as the standard's clarity or the probability that two reasonable individuals, after examining the same set of facts about a client, conclude the same accounting treatment is appropriate. We look at a game where auditors collectively select the amount of flexibility that the standard allows and then compete for a client's business. The client has an ongoing relationship with his current auditor, the incumbent, but will entertain bids on the engagement from an outside or entrant auditor. We demonstrate as the entrant can compete more directly with the incumbent, that is, as the entrant is able to meet with the client and discuss the appropriateness of specific accounting treatments, auditors jointly prefer less flexible standards, and auditor independence is an equilibrium outcome for a larger set of parameter values. If the entrant auditor has no contact with the client and cannot commit to any opinion, auditors jointly maximize their total expected profits by setting flexible or unclear standards which allows the incumbent to charge a high fee and retain the client by accommodating the client's wishes. If the entrant is able to contact the client and learn about the client's case, it is less profitable for the incumbent to accommodate the client. The auditors may honestly form different opinions, and possibly commit to client's desires, causing unprofitable "report" competition. To limit this competition, auditors select clear standards where the expected legal costs make it too costly for either auditor to sacrifice his independence. Other results in the paper are independent of the competitive environment. First, if in equilibrium any auditor compromises his independence, it is the client's incumbent auditor and not the potential entrant auditor. This suggests a new testable implication, beyond the negative impact of a switch itself. Second, increased competition does not always mean equilibrium profits are reduced. Finally, the intuition that more clarity implies more independence may be overturned for some parameter values.
Ad-hoc wireless body area network for augmented cognition sensors

There is a "spaghetti" of wires when physiological sensors are used for augmented cognition tying a user down to a fixed location. Besides being visually unappealing, there are practical issues created by the "spaghetti" that have a negative impact on the adoption of sensor based augmented cognition technologies. A wireless sensor network can support sensors commonly used in augmented cognition. This paper describes the benefits and issues of implementing an ideal wireless network of physiological sensors using Bluetooth and other related types of networking approaches.
The Scientist as Problem Solver.

Abstract : The thesis of this paper is that the scientist is a problem solver. If this thesis is true, then we can dispense with a separate theory of scientific discovery -- the processes of discovery are just applications of the processes of problem solving. However, since the thesis is not obvious to everyone, and since the topic of scientific discovery has interest in its own right, perhaps it is worth while saying a little more about it. In particular, I shall use this opportunity to think aloud, albeit retrospectively, about some of may own scientific work, and to see whether it, too, fits the problem solving mold. Keywords: Scientific discovery, Cognitive psychology.
A statistical perspective to visual masking

A stimulus (mask) reduces the visibility of another stimulus (target) when they are presented in close spatio-temporal vicinity of each other, a phenomenon called visual masking. Visual masking has been extensively studied to understand dynamics of information processing in the visual system. In this study, we adopted a statistical point of view, rather than a mechanistic one, to investigate how mask-related activities might influence target-related ones within the context of visual masking. We modeled the distribution of response errors of human observers in three different visual masking experiments, namely para-/meta-contrast masking, pattern masking by noise, and pattern masking by structure. We adopted statistical models, which have been used previously in studies of visual short-term memory, to capture response characteristics of observers under masking conditions. We tested the following scenarios: (i) mask activity may reduce a target’s signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) without interfering with its encoding precision. (ii) Mask activity may ‘‘interfere” with the encoding of a target and cause decreased precision in observer’s reports. (iii) Decreased performance due to masking may result from the confusion or ‘‘misbinding” of a mask’s features with those of the target, when they are similar as in the case of pattern masking by structure. Our results show that in all three types of masking, the reduction of a target’s SNR was the primary process whereby masking occurred. A significant decrease, correlated with masking strength, in the precision of the target’s encoding was observed in para-/meta-contrast and pattern masking by structure, but not in pattern masking by noise. We interpret these findings as the mask reducing the target’s SNR (i) by suppressing or interrupting the signal of the target in para-/meta-contrast, (ii) by increasing noise in pattern masking by noise, and (iii) a combination of the two in pattern masking by structure.
Evaluation of GoGirlGo!; A practitioner based program to improve physical activity

Background GoGirlGo! (GGG) is designed to increase girls’ physical activity (PA) using a health behavior and PA-based curriculum and is widely available for free to afterschool programs across the nation. However, GGG has not been formally evaluated. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the GGG curricula to improve PA, and self-efficacy for and enjoyment of PA in elementary aged girls (i.e., 5-13 years).
Cellulose hydrolysis by Bacteroides cellulosolvens

Abstract Bacteriodes cellulosolvens efficiently hydrolyzed a variety of cellulosic substrates, facial tissue, ball-milled pulp, crystalline cellulose, filter paper, cotton and steam-exploded decompressed wood chips. Up to 20 g litre−1 cellulose were degraded before the microbe stopped growing. Further cellulose hydrolysis and sugar accumulation were due to the continued action of cellulase enzymes. This growth cessation was not due to low pH, nutrient depletion or to toxic accumulation of any of the major end products (CO2, ethanol, acetic acid, lactic acid, cellobiose, glucose or xylose). H2 accumulation was found to slow the rate of growth, and to shift metabolite production in favour of ethanol at the expense of acetic acid. This H2 effect, which causes decreased energy production, was not responsible for total growth inhibition.
The Inevitability of Client Alienation: a Counter Argument*

We argue that earlier characterizations of clients are inadequate in considering the complexities of organizational-client relations. Some writers assume that client alienation is an inevitable outcome of certain types of bureaucratic structures (e.g., welfare). We show that in the face of large service organizations, some clients fail to experience significant amounts of alienation by forcing organizations to vacate traditional bureaucratic forms and processes. The lack of alienation is accounted for by clients' expertise, political organization, and their access to bureaucracy.
Aging of coprecipitated Cu in alumina: changes in structural location, chemical form, and solubility

Abstract The longterm fate of metals in mineral solid phases is not well established, as aging effects can alter metal forms and solubility. We use a model system (Cu coprecipitation with alumina) to examine copper solubility, chemical form, and structural location during longterm aging (up to 2 y), and as a function of Cu concentration, suspension pH, and rate of coprecipitate formation. Electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy and extractability with EDTA were used to determine the chemical form and structural location of Cu in coprecipitates with alumina. Soluble Cu was measured by differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry (dpasv) and alumina transformation monitored by XRD. Decreased Cu solubility resulted after prolonged aging of the coprecipitates formed at pH 6 and pH 7.5. Longterm aging (up to 2 y at 23°C) induced the transformation of an initially noncrystalline alumina to more ordered products including gibbsite. Results obtained by ESR and EDTA extraction indicate Cu movement towards the surface of the coprecipitate at increased aging time. Copper was initially evenly distributed within the alumina, but segregated at or near the alumina surface forming CuO and/or clusters after longterm reaction (2 y) with alumina.
Enlargement of human cerebral ischemic lesion volumes measured by diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging

We aimed to determine the frequency and time course of the enlargement of ischemic cerebral lesions following human stroke and to study the effect of the state of perfusion on lesion enlargement. Acute lesion volumes were measured on diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance images and compared with lesion volumes measured on T2-weighted images at 7 days or later. Forty-four measurements were performed between 2 and 53 hours after stroke onset in 28 patients. Thirteen patients also had magnetic resonance perfusion imaging performed. In 12 (43%) of 28 patients the initial lesion volume increased by 20% or more. The number of studies showing enlargement of the ischemic lesion volume ranged from 12 (43%) of 28 at or after 2 hours to 10 (38%) of 26 at or after 6 hours, 5 (33%) of 15 at or after 24 hours, and 2 (33%) of 6 at or after 48 hours. In 7 of the 10 patients in whom the hypoperfusion volume acutely exceeded the volume of the abnormality on diffusion-weighted images, lesion volume increased by 20% or more. This study provided evidence that substantial enlargement of human cerebral ischemic lesion volumes can occur beyond the first 6, 12, or 24 hours after onset. A mismatch acutely between the region of hypoperfusion (larger) and the region of diffusion abnormality (smaller) may be predictive of ischemic lesion enlargement.
Kinetics of initiation, propagation, and termination for the [rac-(C(2)H(4)(1-indenyl)(2))ZrMe][MeB(C(6)F(5))(3)]-catalyzed polymerization of 1-hexene.

Metallocene-catalyzed polymerization of 1-alkenes offers fine control of critical polymer attributes such as molecular weight, polydispersity, tacticity, and comonomer incorporation. Enormous effort has been expended on the synthesis and discovery of new catalysts and activators, but elementary aspects of the catalytic processes remain unclear. For example, it is unclear how the catalyst is distributed among active and dormant sites and how this distribution influences the order in monomer for the propagation rates, for which widely varying values are reported. Similarly, although empirical relationships between average molecular weights and monomer have been established for many systems, the underlying mechanisms of chain termination are unclear. Another area of intense interest concerns the role of ion-pairing in controlling the activity and termination mechanisms of metallocene-catalyzed polymerizations. Herein we report the application of quenched-flow kinetics, active site counting, polymer microstru...