cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Iron nanoparticle contrast enhanced microwave imaging for emergent stroke: A pilot study.

Abstract Emergent stroke is mostly evaluated using hospital based imaging. Quick imaging allows for rapid administration of IV thrombolysis and outcome improvement. Microwave imaging (MI) is an emerging portable imaging modality. Iron oxide nanoparticles are known to interact with microwave frequency electromagnetic radiation. In this manuscript, we provide proof of concept for a novel iron oxide nanoparticle enhanced microwave imaging device for differentiating emergent ischemic stroke from hemorrhagic stroke. A MI device was constructed. Attenuation of the microwave signal transmitted with or without iron oxide nanoparticles was measured over a 1–2 GHz frequency range in a silicone brain phantom, in New Zealand white rabbits, and in a human. Observed differences in signal attenuation were used to reconstruct an image following induction of a left sided anterior circulation stroke in a New Zealand white rabbit. An increase in microwave signal attenuation exists across a frequency range of 1.3–2 GHz when iron oxide nanoparticles are introduced into a silicone phantom model, in New Zealand white rabbits, and in a human volunteer. Using this increase in signal attenuation following nanoparticle administration, we localize induced ischemia in a New Zealand white rabbit. To the best of out knowledge, we provide the first evidence that superparamagnetic Iron oxide nanoparticles may be used as contrast in the setting of MI. Our data suggest infusion of intravenous iron oxide nanoparticles with follow on microwave imaging may ultimately allow for more timely administration of thrombolytic mediation in the setting of acute ischemic stroke.
Training and Supervision Around the World

Increasingly, evidence supports the utility of using parent–child interaction therapy (PCIT) to address childhood disorders in a number of populations. To increase the reach of PCIT to a greater number of families and insure the faithful application of PCIT with clients, effective dissemination efforts must also be investigated. This chapter describes the PCIT International training model and investigates the extant international research on PCIT training and supervision. Attention is paid to how training and training materials have been adapted for audiences outside the United States, although many studies have not fully described the training process used. The chapter also attempts to translate the current research findings into specific guidance in how trainers can address organizational (e.g., lack of agency support) and trainee (e.g., aversion to manualized treatments) barriers and increase trainee fidelity to the PCIT model. For example, it may be useful for trainers to have open discussions of trainees’ personal views of the treatment, provide information on how PCIT can be applied to meet the unique needs of each family, work extensively with agency administrators to prepare the organization for implementing PCIT, and continue to follow-up on these issues throughout the supervision process. The chapter also describes how components of the PCIT model, such as an emphasis on in vivo practice and feedback and the integration of assessment, can be applied to the training process. Finally, a case scenario is provided to explicate how these suggestions can be used to meet the needs of specific trainees.
Measurement of Sauter mean diameter in diesel sprays using a scattering–absorption measurement ratio technique:

A new diagnostic for the quantification of Sauter mean diameter in high-pressure fuel sprays has been recently developed using combined optical and X-ray measurements at the Georgia Institute of Te...
Fair Allocation of Heterogeneous and InterchangeableResources

Motivated by the proliferation of heterogeneous processors such as multi-core CPUs, GPUs, TPUs, and other accelerators for machine learning, we formulate a novel multiinterchangeable resource allocation (MIRA) problem where some resources are interchangeable. The challenge is how to allocate interchangeable resources to users in a sharing system while maintaining desirable properties such as sharing incentive, Pareto efficiency, and envy-freeness. In this paper, we first show that existing algorithms, including the Dominant Resource Fairness used in production systems, fail to provide these properties for interchangeable resources. Then we characterize the tradeoff between performance and strategyproofness, and design the Budget-based (BUD) algorithm, which preserves Pareto efficiency, sharing incentive and envyfreeness while providing better performance over currently used algorithms.
The Association Between Mental Illness and Violence

This chapter reviews previous empirical research results investigating the association between mental illness and violence. Over the last several decades, the USA has suffered from a large number of mass shootings, and more often than not, mental illness is blamed. Mental illness can explain only a very small fraction of general violence, however, and even less specifically for gun violence. Only a few specific mental disorders can be associated with violence, most commonly first-episode psychosis, and schizophrenia with positive symptoms such as hallucinations and command delusions. The most common diagnosis in the USA, depression, is not associated with violence except in the rare cases in which psychosis is presented. The chapter concludes with a discussion about the duty to report, access to health care, and help-seeking.
Early life stress reduces voluntary exercise and its prevention of diet-induced obesity and metabolic dysfunction in mice

The development of obesity-related metabolic syndrome (MetS) involves a complex interaction of genetic and environmental factors. One environmental factor found to be significantly associated with MetS is early life stress (ELS). We have previously reported on our mouse model of ELS, induced by neonatal maternal separation (NMS), that displays altered regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and increased sensitivity in the urogenital organs, which was attenuated by voluntary wheel running. Here, we are using our NMS model to determine if ELS-induced changes in the HPA axis also influence weight gain and MetS. Naive (non-stressed) and NMS male mice were given free access to a running wheel and a low-fat control diet at 4-weeks of age. At 16-weeks of age, half of the mice were transitioned to a high fat/sucrose (HFS) diet to investigate if NMS influences the effectiveness of voluntary exercise to prevent diet-induced obesity and MetS. Overall, we observed a greater impact of voluntary exercise on prevention of HFS diet-induced outcomes in naive mice, compared to NMS mice. Although body weight and fat mass were still significantly higher, exercise attenuated fasting insulin levels and mRNA levels of inflammatory markers in epididymal adipose tissue in HFS diet-fed naive mice. Only moderate changes were observed in exercised NMS mice on a HFS diet, although this could partially be explained by reduced running distance within this group. Interestingly, sedentary NMS mice on a control diet displayed impaired glucose homeostasis and moderately increased pro-inflammatory mRNA levels in epididymal adipose, suggesting that early life stress alone impairs metabolic function and negatively impacts the therapeutic effect of voluntary exercise.
Functional analysis of molecular and pharmacological modulators of mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation

Fatty acid oxidation (FAO) is a key bioenergetic pathway often dysregulated in diseases. The current knowledge on FAO regulators in mammalian cells is limited and sometimes controversial. Previous FAO analyses involve nonphysiological culture conditions or lack adequate quantification. We herein described a convenient and quantitative assay to monitor dynamic FAO activities of mammalian cells in physiologically relevant settings. The method enabled us to assess various molecular and pharmacological modulators of the FAO pathway in established cell lines, primary cells and mice. Surprisingly, many previously proposed FAO inhibitors such as ranolazine and trimetazidine lacked FAO-interfering activity. In comparison, etomoxir at low micromolar concentrations was sufficient to saturate its target proteins and to block cellular FAO function. Oxfenicine, on the other hand, acted as a partial inhibitor of FAO. As another class of FAO inhibitors that transcriptionally repress FAO genes, antagonists of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs), particularly that of PPARα, significantly decreased cellular FAO activity. Our assay also had sufficient sensitivity to monitor upregulation of FAO in response to environmental glucose depletion and other energy-demanding cues. Altogether this study provided a reliable FAO assay and a clear picture of biological properties of potential FAO modulators in the mammalian system.
Abstract P3-01-02: B2 adrenergic receptor-mediated signaling regulates the immunosuppressive potential of myeloid-derived suppressor cells

Chronic stress is thought to suppress immunity; however, details about how chronic stress affects tumor growth and anti-tumor immune responses are still missing or poorly understood. Catecholamines (epinephrine, norepinephrine) released during sympathetic nerve stimulation can activate adrenergic receptors present on nearly every cell type including myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). MDSCs are increasingly recognized as critical players in tumor immunology because, in addition to their fundamental roles in suppressing effector NK cells, CD8+ T cells and CD4+ T cells, they also play a direct role in promoting tumor growth, differentiation and metastasis. Here, we demonstrate that the chronic adrenergic stress (as manipulated by a) housing temperature (which affects norepinephrine (NE) production, b) use of b-AR agonists or antagonists, or c) using β2-AR knockout mice regulates the accumulation and the pro-tumor phenotype of MDSCs. This same result was seen using two different murine models of breast cancer (4T1 and AT-3) and through the use of β2-AR knockout mice, we found that these effects are dependent on β2-adrenergic receptor (β2-AR) signaling. Using an agonist of β-AR signaling, we found that the activation of β2-AR signaling increases the expression of immunosuppressive molecules such as arginase-I and PDL-1 in MDSCs and enhances their immune-regulatory functions. β2-AR expression in MDSCs was induced by tumor promoting cytokines such as granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). The survival of MDSCs is increased upon the activation of β2-AR on MDSCs in a Fas-FasL dependent manner. The regulation by β-AR signaling on MDSCs is dependent upon phosphorylation of STAT3 as a pivotal transcription factor in the function and expansion of MDSCs while MDSCs lacking β2-AR had poorer survival in both spleen and tumor. In murine tumor models, we found that the tumor promoting effects of β2-AR activation can be prevented by simple treatment of mice with β-blockers or by peripheral sympathectomy using 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA). Furthermore, treatment with β-AR agonist increases the generation and immunosuppressive functions of MDSCs derived from human PBMCs in vitro. These data reveal a major, physiologically relevant role for nervous activity and adrenergic stress in MDSC-tumor biology and underscore the clinical potential for blockade of a previously unrecognized β2-AR-MDSC axis to improve immunotherapy. Keywords: β2 adrenergic receptor, MDSC, Chronic Stress, Tumor, STAT3 Citation Format: Hemn Mohammadpour, Cameron R. MacDonald, Guanxi Qiao, Minhui Chen, Bowen Dong, Bonnie L. Hylander, Philip L. McCarthy, Scott I. Abrams, Elizabeth A. Repasky. B2 adrenergic receptor-mediated signaling regulates the immunosuppressive potential of myeloid-derived suppressor cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P3-01-02.
Reliability in Internet of Things: Current Status and Future Perspectives

The Internet of Things (IoT) aims to transform the human society toward becoming intelligent, convenient, and efficient with potentially enormous economic and environmental benefits. Reliability is one of the main challenges that must be addressed to enable this revolutionized transformation. Based on the layered IoT architecture, this article first identifies reliability challenges posed by specific enabling technologies of each layer. This article then presents a systematic synthesis and review of IoT reliability-related literature. Reliability models and solutions at four layers (perception, communication, support, and application) are reflected and classified. Despite the rich body of works performed, the IoT reliability research is still in its early stage. Challenging research problems and opportunities are then discussed in relation to current underexplored behaviors and future new aspects of evolving IoT system complexity and dynamics.
The generous consumer: Interpersonal generosity and pro-social dispositions as antecedents to cause-related purchase intentions

Abstract Cause-related marketing is prevalent in today’s marketing environment. The purpose of this research is to build and test a conceptual model surrounding the idea of a generous consumer – and what may lead a consumer to buy products affiliated with cause-related marketing. To do this, we examine the impact of pro-social consumer behaviors (i.e., social responsibility, empathy, moral reasoning, and self-report altruism (SRA) past helpfulness) on interpersonal generosity. Further, we explore the role of both pro-social consumer behaviors and interpersonal generosity on cause-related purchase intentions. Findings indicate that several pro-social consumer behaviors are predictors of cause-related purchasing intentions. Additionally, it is found that interpersonal generosity mediates other pro-social behaviors in determining consumer receptiveness to cause-related market exchanges.
The Newtonian Potential

The nonhomogeneous system ( 3.8)—that is, $$\begin{aligned} A(\partial _x)u(x)+g(x)=0,\quad x\in S^+\,\, \mathrm{or}\,\,x\in S^-, \end{aligned}$$ where \(A(\partial _x)\) is defined by ( 3.9)—can be reduced to its homogeneous version if we know a particular solution of it. Our aim is to construct such a solution and to determine conditions under which this solution has all the required smoothness properties.
Leveraging Social Media to Understand Public Perceptions toward Micromobility Policies: The Dallas Scooter Ban Case

In this study, comments made on social media by City of Dallas residents were analyzed following a citywide scooter ban to reveal hidden attitudes towards micromobility. Using text mining techniques, results showed that the majority of residents were in fact against the ban. By applying term frequency-inverse document frequency (tf-idf), key terms mentioned by ban supporters and opponents were uncovered. Latent Dirichlet Allocation further showed that topics such as Bike, Public Safety, Authorities, Cars, and Feelings were discussed most frequently within resident comments. Findings demonstrate the potential for social media to clarify public perceptions towards public services such as micromobility.
Impact of an Empowerment and Employability Program for Adolescent Girls: Evidence From India

Existing research indicates that self-efficacy, aspirations, skills, and an enabling environment are essential for the economic empowerment of adolescent girls. In India, due to deeply rooted patriarchal views and social norms, adolescent girls face a range of social restrictions on their ability to make any decisions about their education or life choices. Plan-It Girls, a multi-level, multi-stakeholder program seeks to build adolescent girls’ agency and promote gender equality to support their aspirations. It equips girls with a gender perspective, life skills, and employability skills to help them transition from school to work through a gender-integrated curriculum while also engaging with significant stakeholders to shift gender norms and create an enabling environment for girls to reach their potential. This evaluation employed a quasi-experimental longitudinal cohort design, with the objective of understanding the program’s impact on the empowerment and employability of adolescent girls. The findings indicate that self-esteem and self-efficacy can be bolstered, and gender attitudes can be shifted in the short run with such a program. Though there were differences by age and program site, overall, the program was found to be effective in equipping girls with employability skills and preparing them for school-to-work transition. The program was impactful in empowering girls during adolescence when they had early exposure to the program. Adolescence is also when gender attitudes are deepening. As such, the program is considering more intentional focus on this age range in future programming efforts.
Stress concentration factors around a circular hole in two fiber reinforced materials under large deformations

Abstract In this paper, we study the deformation and the stress concentration factor due to a small circular hole in a thin nonlinearly elastic large sheet reinforced by two families of fibers under a state of plane stress undergoing large deformations. We restrict our attention to the class of materials wherein the fibers are mechanically equivalent, rendering the body orthotropically symmetric with respect to the planes whose normals are along the angular bisectors of the angles between the fibers. Furthermore, we limit ourselves to the problems of equibiaxial, uniaxial and pure shear deformations of the body whose fibers are symmetrically oriented with respect to the Cartesian coordinate axes. These deformations indicate strong influence of the fiber angle on the stress concentration factors and a significant difference in the stress concentration factor distribution around the hole when using a constitutive relation based on a partial set of invariants ( I 4 , I 6 ) versus an extended constitutive relation that incorporates the full set of invariants appropriate for a body reinforced with fibers and reduces appropriately to the orthotropic linearized elastic case. We show how two constitutive relations that exhibit a similar biaxial behavior in the absence of discontinuities show noticeable differences under uniaxial and pure shear deformation with the dissimilarities magnified in the presence of discontinuities like a circular hole.
Inhibition of adrenergic b1-AR/Gas signaling promotes cardiomyocyte proliferation through activation of RhoA-YAP axis

The regeneration potential of the mammalian heart is incredibly limited, as cardiomyocyte proliferation ceases shortly after birth. {beta}-adrenergic receptor ({beta}-AR) blockade has been shown to improve heart functions in response to injury; however, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here we inhibited {beta}-AR signaling in the heart using a cardiomyocyte specific {beta}1-adrenergic receptor ({beta}1-AR) blocker (metoprolol) to examine its role in heart maturation and regeneration at the neonatal stage. We found that metoprolol robustly enhanced cardiomyocyte proliferation and promoted cardiac regeneration post myocardial infarction, resulting in reduced scar formation and improved cardiac function. Moreover, the increased cardiomyocyte proliferation was also induced by the genetic deletion of Gnas, the gene encoding G protein alpha subunit (Gs), a downstream effector of {beta}-AR. Genome wide transcriptome analysis revealed that the cardiomyocytes of {beta}-blocker treated and Gnas cKO hearts maintained an immature proliferating status even at the young-adult age, and that the loss of Gs function enhanced the activity of the Hippo-effector YAP, which is associated with immature cardiomyocyte proliferation. Moreover, the increased YAP activity is modulated by RhoA signaling. Our pharmacological and genetic studies reveal a previously unrecognized {beta}1-AR-Gs-YAP signaling axis for regulating cardiac regeneration. These results suggest that inhibiting {beta}-AR-Gs signaling promotes the regenerative capacity and extends the cardiac regenerative window in mice by activating YAP-mediated transcriptional programs. Thus, targeting {beta}-AR-Gs signaling may serve as a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of ischemic heart.
MEK inhibitors: a new class of chemotherapeutic agents with ocular toxicity

A new class of chemotherapeutic agents, MEK inhibitors, has recently been developed and is proving to be an effective treatment for a number of cancers. A pattern of ocular adverse events has followed these drugs through clinical trials and their association with retinopathy is only just beginning to be recognized. We present two cases of MEK inhibitor-associated retinopathy followed by a review of the current literature on ocular toxicity associated with MEK inhibitors. Patients undergoing treatment with MEK inhibitors appear to have high rates of multifocal serous retinal detachments as well as retinal vein occlusions. We present the first report of cystoid macular edema associated with MEK inhibitor use. The mechanism of these adverse events is still unclear though they seem to be related to oxidative stress and blood retinal barrier breakdown. Management of the ocular toxicity can range from observation to topical treatments or intravitreal injections. Fortunately most ocular adverse events appear to be self-limited and do not require discontinuing the MEK inhibitor. Discontinuation or decreased dosing of MEK inhibitors may be reserved for cases of severe sight-threatening ocular toxicity.
Pseudoverification of mixed aminoacyl transfer ribonucleic acids. The generality of the process.

Abstract A mixture of unresolved tRNAs from Escherichia coli B has been acylated with a mixture of 18 3H-amino acids, and the purified, correctly acylated aminoacyl-tRNAs were incubated with pure isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase under conditions in which it hydrolyzes some noncognate aminoacyl-tRNAs (see the preceding paper). A micromethod was used to resolve and identify the 3H-amino acids released. The results indicate that isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase can interact with and deacylate 15 of the 18 aminoacyl-tRNA species used. The occurrence of this reaction indicates an interaction between these tRNAs and isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase. In addition, the specificity of the verification, or hydrolysis, reaction is illuminated by the particular nature of the residues which are resistant to hydrolysis.
Integrated horn antennas for millimeter-wave applications

This paper reviews the development of integrated horn antennas since their introduction in 1987. The integrated horn is fabricated by suspending a dipole antenna on a thin dielectric membrane in a pyramidal cavity etched in silicon. Recent progress resulted in optimized low and high-gain designs with single and double-polarizations for remote-sensing and communication applications. A fullwave analysis technique have resulted in an integrated antenna with performance comparable to that of waveguide-fed corrugated horn antennas. The integrated horn design can be easily extended to large arrays for imaging and phased array applications while still leaving plenty of room for the rf and w processing circuitry. Theoretical and experimental results at microwave frequencies and at 90, 240 and 802 GHz will be presented.
Thromboembolism oral contraceptives and cigarettes.

The relationship between oral contraceptives and death from thromboembolism shown by studies of vital statistics and the contribution of cigarette smoking to these deaths are reviewed. In 1968 a British study showed that a slight increase in deaths from thromboembolism had occurred in young women proportional to the increase in use of the pill. A study on U.S. thromboembolism deaths in 1962-1966 similarly showed increasing mortality among women compared to men. Another analysis of U.S. data on deaths among women 15-44 years of age in 1966 provided estimates of relative risk of 3 to 9-fold for pill users increasing with age. Data from women of 20-44 years from England Wales and Northern Ireland in 1966 yielded a 7-fold risk for pill users compared with nonusers and an excess death estimate of 3 per 100000 for users. A U.S. study of data from 1956 1961 and 1966 estimated the excess thromboembolism deaths at 3.6 per 100000 pill users. Although British reports showed no increased risk of thromboembolism for those who smoked 15 or more cigarettes daily a U.S. rebuttal claimed that these data could be rearranged to show increased risk for pill users who smoked heavily compared to nonsmoking nonusers. A U.S. retrospective study also originally published no relationship but could be recalculated to show that smoking and pill use were associated in both the case and the control groups.
Positron emission tomography-computed tomography in the diagnostic evaluation of smoldering multiple myeloma: identification of patients needing therapy

We studied 188 patients with a suspected smoldering multiple myeloma (MM) who had undergone a positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) scan as part of their clinical evaluation. PET-CT was positive (clinical radiologist interpretation of increased bone uptake and/or evidence of lytic bone destruction) in 74 patients and negative in 114 patients. Of these, 25 patients with a positive PET-CT and 97 patients with a negative PET-CT were observed without therapy and formed the study cohort (n=122). The probability of progression to MM within 2 years was 75% in patients with a positive PET-CT observed without therapy compared with 30% in patients with a negative PET-CT; median time to progression was 21 months versus 60 months, respectively, P=0.0008. Of 25 patients with a positive PET-CT, the probability of progression was 87% at 2 years in those with evidence of underlying osteolysis (n=16) and 61% in patients with abnormal PET-CT uptake but no evidence of osteolysis (n=9). Patients with positive PET-CT and evidence of underlying osteolysis have a high risk of progression to MM within 2 years when observed without therapy. These observations support recent changes to imaging requirements in the International Myeloma Working Group updated diagnostic criteria for MM.
Plasmin-induced platelet aggregation is accompanied by cleavage of aggregin and indirectly mediated by calpain

We recently reported that thrombin-induced platelet aggregation 1) is accompanied by cleavage of aggregin, a 100-kDa membrane protein and a putative ADP receptor, 2) is indirectly mediated by intracellularly activated calpain, and 3) requires the occupancy of high-affinity thrombin receptors. Because of the similarities between responses after platelet activation induced by thrombin and plasmin (greater than or equal to 1.0 casein unit/ml), we investigated whether or not plasmin-induced platelet aggregation proceeds by the same mechanism that underlies thrombin-induced platelet aggregation. We found that the rate of plasmin-induced aggregation of washed intact platelets and that of platelets modified by 5'-p-fluorosulfonylbenzoyladenosine (FSBA, an affinity analogue of ADP, which covalently modifies aggregin) were similar, indicating that the aggregation is independent of the ADP effect. Plasmin completely cleaved [3H]FSBA-labeled aggregin in intact platelets. A mixture of metabolic inhibitors (2-deoxy-D-glucose, gluconolactone, and antimycin A) completely inhibited plasmin-induced platelet aggregation and plasmin-induced cleavage of aggregin, demonstrating that an energy-requiring step is involved in the reaction. The synthetic hexapeptide affinity reagent Phe-Gln-Val-Val-Cys(NpyS)-Gly-NH2 (NpyS = 3-nitro-2-thiopyridine), a potent and specific inhibitor of thrombin-induced platelet aggregation and platelet calpain, completely inhibited plasmin-induced platelet aggregation and plasmin-induced cleavage of aggregin. These results suggest that, like thrombin, plasmin-induced platelet aggregation is accompanied by the cleavage of aggregin and these responses are indirectly mediated by the intracellularly activated calpain.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
A phenomenology of occupation‐based hand therapy

Background/aim The existing tension between holistic, occupation focused approaches and the medical model in occupational therapy is most evident in the area of hand therapy. Occupation-based hand therapy has been proposed as a means to alleviate this tension. However, there is a lack of research on occupation-based hand therapy. Clearly describing and defining what constitutes occupation-based hand therapy can facilitate efficacy research and help promote occupation-based practice in keeping with the philosophy of the profession. Methods The qualitative approach of phenomenology as described by Moustakas was used. Participants who were occupational therapists with more than 5 years of experience who self -identified as occupation-based practitioners were recruited to the point of saturation using criterion and chain sampling for a final total of 10 participants. Data were collected through audio recorded telephone interviews and electronic mail. The data were reduced and distilled into a description of the experience of providing occupation-based hand therapy. Results Participants described the experience of providing occupation-based hand therapy around the concepts of influences, psychosocial benefits, procedural elements of practice and challenges. Conclusion Findings of this study can assist occupational therapists to develop a more occupation-based intervention program through focusing on occupation-based theory, being intentional, using occupation-focused interventions and building an occupation focused context. Findings can also inform future research into the efficacy of occupation-based hand therapy, appropriate timing for balancing occupation with tissue protection, and the effects of therapist experience on their ability to use an occupation-based approach in hand therapy.
Guiding students through programming puzzles: value and examples of Java game assignments

Solving puzzles can be a challenging, yet rewarding, experience for novice programmers and experts alike. Furthermore, game examples and assignments that are concise offer many learning opportunities for early programmers. As described herein, such opportunities focus on: array manipulation, random solution searching, object-oriented analysis and design, and general creative problem solving.
FoxOs cooperatively regulate diverse pathways governing neural stem cell homeostasis

The PI3K-AKT-FoxO pathway is integral to lifespan regulation in lower organisms and essential for the stability of long-lived cells in mammals. Here, we report the impact of combined FoxO1, 3, and 4 deficiencies on mammalian brain physiology with a particular emphasis on the study of the neural stem/progenitor cell (NSC) pool. We show that the FoxO family plays a prominent role in NSC proliferation and renewal. FoxO-deficient mice show initial increased brain size and proliferation of neural progenitor cells during early postnatal life, followed by precocious significant decline in the NSC pool and accompanying neurogenesis in adult brains. Mechanistically, integrated transcriptomic, promoter, and functional analyses of FoxO-deficient NSC cultures identified direct gene targets with known links to the regulation of human brain size and the control of cellular proliferation, differentiation, and oxidative defense. Thus, the FoxO family coordinately regulates diverse genes and pathways to govern key aspects of NSC homeostasis in the mammalian brain.
Can We Rely on Patients' Reports of Adverse Events?

BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that patients can report a variety of adverse events (AEs) not captured by traditional methods such as a chart review. Little is known, however, about whether patient reports are useful for measuring patient safety. OBJECTIVES: To examine the degree to which physician reviewers agreed that patient reports of "negative effects" constituted AEs, and to identify questionnaire items that affected reviewers' judgments. METHODS: We surveyed patients discharged from Massachusetts hospitals in 2003 to elicit information about negative effects associated with hospitalization. Physician reviewers judged whether patient-reported negative effects represented AEs, and classified the severity of the event. Likelihood ratios were calculated to assess whether patient responses to questionnaire items affected reviewers' judgments. RESULTS: Of the 2582 patients surveyed, 753 patients reported 1170 negative effects, and 71.2% of these effects were classified as AEs by physician reviewers. Negative effects most likely to be classified as AEs involved newly prescribed medications and changes to previously prescribed medications. Additional information elicited from follow-up survey questions modestly affected reviewers' classification of serious AEs. Negative effects reported by women, younger patients, those reporting better health status, and those not admitted through the emergency department were more likely to be classified as AEs. CONCLUSIONS: Many patients were able to identify care-related AEs. Patient responses to questions about the sequelae of the events provided limited additional information for physicians to use in gauging the presence and severity of the event. Patient reports complement other incident-detection methods by providing information that is credible and unavailable from other sources.
Three-dimensional reconstruction of specular surface for a gas tungsten arc weld pool

Observing the weld pool and measuring its geometrical parameters are key issues for developing the next generation intelligent welding machine and modeling the complex welding process. In the past few years, different techniques have been applied, but the dynamic specular weld pool surface and the strong weld arc complicate these approaches and make observation difficult. To resolve the problem, a new three-dimensional sensing system using structured light is proposed for a gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) process. In the system, a dot-matrix laser pattern is projected on the specular weld pool surface, which can reflect light onto an imaging plane. The reflected images are captured by a high-speed camera and can successfully be processed by image processing algorithms developed. With the acquired information, a three-dimensional reconstruction scheme is proposed and discussed in this paper. A surface reconstruction method with several slope-based algorithms is first developed to rebuild the region of weld pool surface which reflects the laser pattern. Then a two-dimensional piecewise model is provided to calculate weld pool boundary by utilizing the edge condition. Finally the optimal estimate of the three-dimensional weld pool surface is synthesized. The acceptable accuracy of the results verified the effectiveness of the reconstruction scheme.
Literacy Education and Reading Programs in the Secondary School: Status, Problems and Solutions.

The status of literacy education and the reading program at the secondary school level is examined. Current problems and possible solutions for those problems are discussed. Results of a survey of ...
Electrolyte Therapy for Refractory Seizures in Familial Dysautonomia

Summary: Purpose: Video-EEG in a family of three patients with slow development and familial dysautonomia demonstrated absence seizures associated with 3-Hz generalized spike-and-wave discharges. The seizures were refractory to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Methods: Treatment was given with rice-based cereal electrolyte oral solution. Results: Treatment induced seizure freedom and normalization of EEG in all three patients. Repeated video-EEG monitoring with discontinuation of AEDs and maintenance of the oral hydration therapy was associated with recurrence of epileptic activity. All three patients have remained seizure free (∼1 year) with a combination of topiramate and electrolytic therapy. Conclusions: Rice-based oral electrolyte hydration therapy may play a role in prevention and control of seizures in patients with familial dysautonomia.
The Effects of Aging and Extraction on the Surface Free Energy of Douglas Fir and Redwood

The effects of aging and extraction on the polar and dispersion components of the surface free energy of redwood and Douglas-fir were investigated. Extracted Douglas-fir and extracted and unextracted redwood have similar dispersion and polar force contributions to the total surface free energy, with the polar forces marginally predominant. Unextracted Douglas-fir has predominantly dispersion forces, an observation probably related to low or nonpolar extractives in this species. Loss of surface free energy with aging appears to be related to environmental rather than wood factors.
Machine Vision Condition Monitoring of Heavy-Axle Load Railcar Structural Underframe Components:

To ensure the safe and efficient operation of the approximately 1.6 million freight cars (wagons) in the North American railroad network, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT), Fed...
Suppression of stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical fibers through phase-modulation: a time dependent model

We describe a time-dependent model that describes the evolution of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in fibers under phase-modulated pump conditions. In order to accurately model fast modulations, the triply-coupled system of differential equations describing the interaction of SBS through optical and phonon fields is solved numerically. SBS is initiated from noise by using a Langevin term. We initially consider single-frequency sinusoidal modulations as a function of modulation amplitude and frequency. We then investigate the effects of SBS mitigation when a single-frequency seed is phase modulated with a broad-band white-noise source (WNS).
A function of lung surfactant protein SP-B

The primary function of lung surfactant is to form monolayers at the alveolar interface capable of lowering the normal surface tension to near zero. To accomplish this process, the surfactant must be capable of maintaining a coherent, tightly packed monolayer that avoids collapse during expiration. The positively charged amino-terminal peptide SP-B1-25 of lung surfactant-specific protein SP-B increases the collapse pressure of an important component of lung surfactant, palmitic acid (PA), to nearly 70 millinewtons per meter. This alteration of the PA isotherms removes the driving force for "squeeze-out" of the fatty acids from the primarily dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine monolayers of lung surfactant. An uncharged mutant of SP-B1-25 induced little change in the isotherms, suggesting that a specific charge interaction between the cationic peptide and the anionic lipid is responsible for the stabilization. The effect of SP-B1-25 on fatty acid isotherms is remarkably similar to that of simple poly-cations, suggesting that such polymers might be useful as components of replacement surfactants for the treatment of respiratory distress syndrome.
Public good provision under dictatorship and democracy

The allocation of a government budget between a public good and transfers is modeled under different systems of government. The relatively even distribution of political power among groups in a democracy favors spending on nonexclusive public goods. The more concentrated pattern of political power in a dictatorship favors spending on transfers targeted to powerful groups. The hypothesis on public good provision is examined using cross-country data on public good provision and empirical indicators of political regime. Dictatorial governments are found to provide public schooling, roads, safe water, public sanitation, and pollution control at levels far below democracies.
Optimal Fractional Frequency Reuse and Power Control in the Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Heterogeneous wireless networks have emerged as a new paradigm to meet the fast growing wireless network capacity and coverage demands. Due to the co-deployment of high power and low power nodes in the same network using the same spectrum, more advanced interference coordination and radio resource management schemes are required than in the traditional cellular network in order to achieve a high network capacity and good user experience. In this paper, we propose an optimal fractional frequency reuse and power control scheme that can effectively coordinate the interference among high power and low power nodes. The scheme can be optimized to maximize the sum of the long term log-scale throughput among all the user equipments (UEs). Towards that end, the Lagrange dual function is first derived for the proposed optimization problem. Gradient descent method is then used to search the optimal solution for the convex dual problem. Due to the strong duality condition, the optimal solution for the dual problem is also the optimal solution for the primal problem. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can greatly improve the wireless heterogeneous network performance on system capacity and user experience.
Empowering African American Custodial Grandparents

The increase in grandparent-headed households is receiving much attention as the needs and concerns of these grandparents become more widely known. However, to the extent that services focus on the problems of this population, there is an inherent danger in overlooking their unique strengths and abilities. Empowerment training builds on these strengths to enable people to develop self-efficacy and their own problem-solving skills. In so doing, those empowered grandparents further empower the communities in which they live. This article describes an empowerment training project and its curriculum that was developed for a group of African American grandparents. The program resulted in strengthened parenting skills, and development of the participants into community peer educators.
Psychometric properties and administration of the wrist/hand subscales of the Fugl-Meyer Assessment in minimally impaired upper extremity hemiparesis in stroke.

Abstract Page SJ, Levine P, Hade E. Psychometric properties and administration of the wrist/hand subscales of the Fugl-Meyer Assessment in minimally impaired upper extremity hemiparesis in stroke. There is a need for time-efficient, valid measures of distal paretic upper extremity (UE) movement. The purposes of this study were to (1) determine the psychometric properties of the wrist stability and mobility and wrist/hand scale of the upper extremity Fugl-Meyer (w/h UE FM) as a "stand-alone" measure of distal UE movement; and (2) provide detailed instructions on w/h UE FM administration and scoring. The upper extremity Fugl Meyer (UE FM) and Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) were administered on 2 separate occasions to each of 29 subjects exhibiting stable, mild UE hemiparesis (23 men; mean age ± SD, 60.8±12.3y; mean time since stroke onset for subjects in the sample, 36.0mo). Fifty-eight observations were collected on each measure. w/h UE FM internal consistency levels (measured by Cronbach α) were high (.90 and .88 for first and second testing sessions, respectively). The intraclass correlation coefficient for the UE FM was .98, while the intraclass correlation coefficient for the w/h UE FM was .97. Concurrent validity measured by Spearman correlation was moderately high between the w/h UE FM and ARAT (.72, P .001). From these data, it appears that the w/h UE FM is a promising tool to measure distal UE movement in minimally impaired stroke, although more research with a larger sample is needed. A standardized approach to UE test administration is critical to accurate score interpretation across patients and trials. Thus, the article also provides instructions and pictures for w/h UE FM administration and scoring.
Mechanical properties and failure mechanism of wood cell wall layers

Abstract In this paper, the deformation and failure behavior of a model nanocomposite that mimics the wood cell wall layer is studied using molecular dynamics simulation. The effect of microfibril angle (MFA) on the mechanical properties of the cellulose microfibril-reinforced nanocomposite is investigated. The measured elastic modulus in the simulations is found to be comparable with the estimation based on experimental measurements. Further more, the simulation results show that it is the local buckling of cellulose microfibril that causes the initiation of failure of the fiber-reinforced nanocomposites, i.e., the wood cell wall layers. Since kink band formation is the compressive failure mode of wood cell walls as well as the macroscopic wood, this suggests that the compressive failure of the micron-scale wood cell wall as well as the macroscopic wood may originate at the nanoscale as a consequence of the bulking of microfibrils. The effect of water on the mechanical properties of wood cell wall is also studied.
Raf-1-induced growth arrest in human mammary epithelial cells is p16-independent and is overcome in immortal cells during conversion.

Using an estrogen-inducible retroviral system, we demonstrate that oncogenic Raf-1 induces growth arrest and morphological changes in finite lifespan human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC). This arrest does not rely on expression of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (CKI) p16INK4a, nor on changes in expression of the CKIs p21Cip1, p14ARF, p27Kip1 or p57Kip2. The Raf-induced arrest is independent of viral oncogene mediated inactivation of p53 and pRB, or c-myc overexpression. Flow cytometric analysis demonstrates that cells arrest in both G1 and G2. The Raf-induced arrest is mitigated or eliminated in some immortally transformed HMEC. Immortal HMEC that have both overcome replicative senescence and undergone the recently described conversion process maintain growth in the presence of transduced oncogenic Raf-1; they also gain EGF-independent growth and a low frequency of anchorage-independent growth. However, HMEC that have overcome replicative senescence but have not undergone conversion and HMEC immortalized by transduction with the catalytic subunit of telomerase, hTERT, remain severely growth arrested. These results indicate that the molecular mechanisms responsible for the Raf-1-induced growth arrest may vary among different finite lifespan cell types, and that in HMEC, this mechanism is altered during the conversion process, rather than as a direct consequence of overcoming senescence or expressing hTERT.
Comments, with reply, on 'Reverse-engineering someone else's software: is it legal?' by P. Samuelson

The commenter disagrees with the arguments in the above-titled article by P. Samuelson (ibid., vol.7, no.4, p.90-6, Jan. 1990) that reverse-engineering programs should be legal and that the unauthorized copies of the program created in decompilation are just 'incidental' and thus do not infringe the program's copyright. He also disagrees with Samuelson's contention that there is a trend for the courts to find copyright infringement only where the program that results from the reverse engineering is substantially similar in expression to the decompiled program. He presents a detailed argument to support his viewpoint. Samuelson presents additional information is support of her position. >