cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Incentives in U.S. Healthcare Operations

In my dissertation, I aim to understand incentives in U.S. healthcare operations based on my collaboration with various health organizations. In my first essay, I investigate the underlying operational and economic drives behind physicians’ test-ordering behavior in an outpatient setting, motivated by a collaborative study with University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Eye Center. I model the physician-patient interaction under the strategic queueing framework, and show that insurance coverage is a key driving force of overtesting. Our further analysis reveals that simply expanding cost-sharing does not constitute the solution: (i) While existing studies hold that lower out-of-pocket expenses lead to higher consumption levels, we refine this statement by showing that the copayment and the coinsurance rate drive the consumption toward different directions. (ii) Setting a low reimbursement ceiling alone cannot eliminate overtesting. (iii) The joint effect of misdiagnosis concerns and insurance coverage can lead to both overtesting and undertesting even when there is no reimbursement ceiling. These and other results continue to hold under more general conditions and so are robust. We also consider other extensions, including patient heterogeneity and information asymmetry in physician type. Motivated by the influenza vaccine industry, in my second essay, I study a supply chain contracting problem under the presence of uncertainties that are related to product design, delivery, and demand, respectively. The supply chain consists of a manufacturer and a retailer, where the retailer places an order before the flu season starts and the manufacturer decides when to produce the products. Because production after the design freeze can result in late deliveries and hence lost sales, the manufacturer may initiate production prior to the design freeze at its own risk. I show that a negative feedback loop in the firms’ incentives may arise in this supply chain; as a result, some of the traditional coordinating contracts (e.g., revenue sharing) could perform even worse than a wholesale price contract. To break the negative feedback loop requires complex contracts that are reported in practice but never studied in the literature. In view of the complexity of the coordinat-
Marriage as a Public Issue

Summary Over the past fifty years, powerful cultural and social forces have made marriage less central to Americans’ family lives. In reaction, the United States is now engaged in a wide-ranging debate about the place of marriage in contemporary society. In this article, Steven Nock examines the national marriage debate. He begins by reviewing the social and demographic trends that have changed the role of marriage and the family: the weakening link between marriage and parenthood caused by the contraceptive revolution, the declining significance of marriage as an organizing principle of adult life, and the increasingly accepted view that marriage and parenthood are private matters, relevant only to the individuals directly involved. He then considers the abundant scientific evidence on the positive consequences of marriage for both the economic well-being and the health of American adults. He notes that based partly on the evidence that marriage is good for adults and children, numerous public and private groups, including religious activists, therapeutic professionals, family practitioners, educators, and federal and state government officials, have initiated programs to strengthen marriage, lower divorce rates, reduce out-of-wedlock births, and encourage responsible fatherhood. He then reviews some of those programs. Nock observes that although large cultural and social forces are driving the decline in marriage, most of the new programs attempting to restore or strengthen marriage in the United States focus on changing individuals, not their culture or society. He argues that the problem cannot be addressed solely at the individual level and cautions that given how little researchers and professionals know about how to help couples get or stay married, expectations of policies in these areas should be modest. But despite the shortage of effective strategies to promote marriage, he notes, a political, cultural, and scientific consensus appears to be emerging that the best arrangement for children is to live in a family with two loving parents. He believes that the contemporary marriage debate is an acknowledgment of the cultural nature of the problem, and views it as a crucial national conversation among Americans struggling to interpret and make sense of the place of marriage and family in today’s society.
Suppression of insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) promotes mammary tumor metastasis.

The insulin receptor substrate (IRS) proteins are cytoplasmic adaptors that organize signaling complexes downstream of activated cell surface receptors. Here, we show that IRS-1 and IRS-2, despite significant homology, play critical yet distinct functions in breast cancer, and we identify specific signaling pathways that are influenced by IRS-1 using the polyoma virus middle-T (PyV-MT) transgenic mouse model of mammary carcinoma and Irs-1 null (Irs1−/−) mice. The absence of Irs-1 expression enhanced metastatic spread significantly without a significant effect on primary tumor growth. Orthotopic transplant studies revealed that the increased metastatic potential of Irs1-deficient tumor cells is cell autonomous. Mammary tumors that developed in PyV-MT::Irs1−/− mice exhibited elevated Irs-2 function and enhanced phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt/mTor activity, suggesting that one mechanism by which Irs-1 impedes metastasis is to suppress Irs-2-dependent signaling. In support of this mechanism, reduction of Irs-2 expression in Irs1−/− tumor cells restored mTor signaling to wild-type levels. PyV-MT::Irs1−/− tumors also exhibited a significant increase in vascular endothelial growth factor expression and microvessel density, which could facilitate their dissemination. The significance of our findings for human breast cancer is heightened by our observation that Irs-1 is inactivated in wild-type, metastatic mammary tumors by serine phosphorylation. Collectively, our findings reveal that inactivation of IRS-1 enhances breast cancer metastasis and support the novel hypothesis that IRS-1 has metastasis suppressor functions for breast cancer.
Relative time of redroot pigweed emergence affects dry matter partitioning

Abstract The partitioning coefficient is defined as the proportion of new dry matter partitioned among different plant parts. Partitioning coefficients can be used to model plant dry matter accumulation. In 1994 and 1995, field studies were conducted at two locations near Manhattan, KS, to determine the influence of density and relative time of emergence of redroot pigweed on dry matter partitioning to stem, leaves, and reproductive parts throughout the season. Redroot pigweed was grown with sorghum and in monoculture at densities of 2, 4, and 12 plants m−1 of row each year at each location. Dry matter partitioning during vegetative growth was not influenced by plant density. However, partition coefficients during the reproductive growth stage changed as a linear function of the time of pigweed emergence relative to the sorghum leaf stage. The later the emergence time relative to sorghum leaf stage, the higher the partitioning coefficient values for leaf (PCleaf) and stem (PCstem) and the lower the partit...
Warm Pool SST Variability in Relation to the Surface Energy Balance

The warm tropical oceans underlie the most convective regions on earth and are a critical component of the earth’s climate, yet there are differing opinions on the processes that control warm pool SST. The Indo‐Pacific warm pool is characterized by large-scale variations in SST approaching 308C on intraseasonal timescales. In this study, surface heat flux anomalies associated with composite warm episodes over three spatial scales in both the Pacific and Indian Ocean basins are examined. The current study benefits from the recently available National Centers for Environmental Prediction‐National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis dataset that enables the examination of variability in surface evaporation with moderate confidence. Solar flux estimates from the reanalysis are somewhat less reliable than evaporation estimates, however, and two techniques that infer surface shortwave radiation from satellite retrievals of cloud properties are considered. Error in all measurements is quantified. Both shortwave and evaporative flux variability play significant roles in modifying the temperature of the warm pool, though the relative importance of individual flux anomalies depends on SST tendency and geographical location. There also exist differences in the relative heating roles of the flux anomalies among episodes within a fixed location, though in instances the resolved differences are less than likely flux estimation error. Differences also exist between the ocean basins. A more pronounced annual cycle exists in the eastern Indian Ocean, and SST there is less sensitive to surface thermal forcing. Finally, the analysis offers evidence that SST is not regulated by a simple atmospheric thermodynamic response to the surface. Instead, the relationship between warm pool variability and large-scale dynamical features of the Tropics (e.g., intraseasonal oscillation and the seasonal monsoon) is demonstrated. The conclusions are shown to be robust to spatial scale and are consistent with a recent analysis of Tropical Oceans and Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean‐Atmosphere Response Experiment observations.
History of Childhood Sexual Abuse in Women with Depressive and Anxiety Disorders: A Comparative Study

The present study was designed to determine the reported prevalence of childhood sexual abuse in sample populations of females with depressive and anxiety disorders. Reported prevalence of childhoo...
Revisiting separation properties of convex fuzzy sets

Separation of convex sets by hyperplanes has been extensively studied on crisp sets. In a seminal paper from L. A. Zadeh [1] separability and convexity are investigated, however there is a flaw on the definition of degree of separation. We revisited separation on convex fuzzy sets that have level-wise (crisp) disjointness with non-empty interior at certain level and introduced the concept of minimal level of separation for such fuzzy sets. On this context, the smallest level in which a separation by a hyperplane occurs coincides with the maximal degree of the (fuzzy) intersection. Moreover, this property suggests an algorithm for finding the maximal grade of a (fuzzy) intersection based on hyperplane separability level-wise of fuzzy sets.
Survival of Histoplasma capsulatum in experimental histoplasmosis in mice.

SummaryYeast phase H. capsulatum when inoculated, intraperitoneally, into white Swiss male mice may be recovered frequently from reticuloendothelial tissues as late as 45 weeks after infection. The lungs and heart's blood usually clear within 16 weeks post-inoculation. Mice surviving previous sublethal challenge or those previously given 1 dose of heat-killed organisms show little variation in these respects, when challenged, from those receiving primary challenge.
The Influence of Streamline Curvature on Low Aspect Ratio Rotating Wings

The role of streamline curvature is explored as the source of a trend observed in low aspect ratio rotating wings. It is experimentally demonstrated that wings rotating at a fixed pitch will vary in force production according to the location of the axis of rotation along the chord. This trend with the relative location of the rotating axis diminishes with increasing aspect ratio but the steady phenomenon is relevant to the study of low aspect ratio winged flyers like birds and insects. It is explored whether the source of this trend is due to streamline curvature which affects the effective chord, twist, and camber distributions of the wing. These effects are modeled in a low fidelity blade element model and compared with the experimental results. It was found that this simple model was not sufficient to predict the magnitude of the observed trends, though virtual camber may provide a significant contribution to the trends, and it is therefore speculated that higher fidelity models are required to capture all the constituent effects which are likely to include those attributable to a complex wake structure.
Proteins as Initiators of Controlled Radical Polymerization: Grafting-from via ATRP and RAFT

Many recent developments in polymer chemistry have advanced the synthesis of materials in which synthetic polymers are immobilized to biological (macro)molecules to enhance the solubility, stability, activity, or therapeutic utility of the biological entity. In particular, the versatility and robust nature of controlled radical polymerization (CRP) has enabled access to a diverse family of new polymer bioconjugates. While nitroxide-mediated, atom transfer radical (ATRP), and reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerizations have all proven useful for the preparation of well-defined end-functional polymers capable of being efficiently conjugated to biological molecules, ATRP and RAFT have proven especially proficient for the synthesis of conjugates by direct polymerization of vinyl monomers from biological components functionalized to contain a group capable of initiating chain growth. This Viewpoint highlights several recent advances that have relied on grafting-from by CRP, with par...
Juvenile muscular atrophy of the distal upper extremities associated with x‐linked periventricular heterotopia with features of Ehlers‐Danlos syndrome

Introduction Juvenile muscular atrophy of the distal upper extremities (JMADUE) is a rare, sporadic disorder that affects adolescent males and is characterized by progressive but self-limited weakness of the distal upper extremities. The etiology is unknown, but cervical hyperflexion has been hypothesized. Methods We report a case of an adolescent male who presented with typical JMADUE but also had joint hypermobility and multiple congenital anomalies, including periventricular heterotopias, suggesting a multisystem syndrome. Results Subsequent diagnostic testing confirmed a diagnosis of JMADUE, and sequencing of the filamin-A gene showed a novel, pathogenic mutation that confirmed an additional diagnosis of X-linked periventricular heterotopias with features of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (XLPH-EDS). Conclusions The concurrent diagnosis of these 2 rare conditions suggests a pathogenic connection. It is likely that the joint hypermobility from XLPH-EDS predisposed this patient to developing JMADUE. This supports the cervical hyperflexion theory of pathogenesis. This case also expands the phenotype associated with FLNA mutations. Muscle Nerve 54: 794-797, 2016.
Regional Distribution of Salt-Rich Dust Across Southwest Asia Based on Predictive Soil-Geomorphic Mapping Techniques

Understanding the source regions of soluble salt-rich dust is critical for military operations, monitoring potential environmental health impacts to military personnel, and for mitigating abrasion and corrosion to military materiel operating in desert regions. Arid regions are characterized by saline soils which are formed by a lack of precipitation and influenced by surrounding and underlying geology, among other factors. The dust content in soils and surface sediments in southwest Asia is commonly associated with specific landforms. This paper uses a soil-geomorphic conceptual model that integrates geographic datasets of Landsat imagery, soil and landforms, precipitation data, and geologic maps to produce derivative map-based predictions of the spatial distribution and content of salt-rich dust-sized particle in soils and surface sediments in the region. The derivative map is based on three regional dust and salt content maps and the assignment of a five-fold rating class and numerical factor value system to individual map polygons [e.g., Very High (5), High (4), Moderate (3), Low (2), Very Low (1)]. The three regional maps include: (1) dust content based on the identification of distinct landform assemblages from 15-m resolution compressed LANDSAT TM+ imagery at a scale of 1:750,000, (2) salt content developed from 1 km2-resolution mean annual precipitation data, and (3) geologic-based salt content developed from published geologic maps. This study presents an initial step towards the prediction of salt-rich dust sources at regional scales that is aimed to provide information to planning military operations and for mitigating the hazards of dust on military personnel and equipment operating in desert regions. The approach used to predict dust and salt sources could also be used to refine atmospheric dust loading models that require knowledge of the spatial distribution of geomorphic-based input parameters.
An Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Based Power Generation Scheduling Model Leading in Factor of Penalty Price due to SO_2 Emission and Its Practical Algorithm

Under the presupposition that the startup and shutdown states of units are determined, the respective advantages and defects of four kinds of energy consercation and emission reduction based power generation scheduling models are compared and the fourth kind of model is analyzed in detail.Because of leading factor of penalty price due to SO2 emission into the fourth kind of model, it is considered that the fourth kind of model can coordinate the two optimization objects, namely the energy conservation and emission reduction, so it is practicable.Taking daliy load data of a certain provincial power grid for example, four day-ahead power generation scheduling models are contrasted and analyzed.By means of modifying the factor of penalty price due to SO2 emission in the fourth kind of model, the economy and the feature of environment protection of power generation schedulilng are coordinated flexibly, thus the practicalilty and effectiveness of the fourth kind of model are verified.
Pragmatic source code reuse via execution record and replay

A key problem during copy-paste source code reuse is that, to reuse even a small section of code from a program as opposed to an API, a programmer must include a huge amount of additional source code from elsewhere in the same program. This additional code is notoriously large and complex, and portions can only be identified at runtime. In this paper, we propose execution record/replay as a solution to this problem. We describe a novel reuse technique that allows programmers to reuse functions from a C or C++ program, by recording the execution of the program and selectively modifying how its functions are replayed. We have implemented our technique and evaluated it in an empirical study in which eight programmers used our tool to complete four tasks over four hours each. The participants found our technique to be easier than manually reusing the code as part of their project. We also found that the resulting code was smaller and less complex than it would have been had the participants manually reused the code. Copyright c © 0000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Core Terms in Undergraduate Statistics

We surveyed undergraduates to learn the extent to which they experience rapport with their instructors, assess the relation between rapport and student attitudes and behaviors, and determine instructor qualities and behaviors that appear related to establishing rapport. Most students reported experiencing rapport with at least 1 teacher and indicated that rapport is positively related to their enjoyment of the teacher and subject matter. They also reported that rapport motivates them to engage in several
The Bieri–Strebel Theorems

Proofs of two theorems on finitely generated groups by Bieri and Strebel are included in detail. The first theorem gives a dichotomy for finitely presented groups with an infinite cyclic quotient: such a group is either an ascending HNN-extension or else contains a free group of rank 2. An immediate consequence of the second theorem is that a solvable finitely presented group is either finite or else is virtually an ascending HNN-extension of a finitely generated solvable group.
Fast Food Consumption and Body Mass Index

Fast food consumption has been considered a major cause of obesity all over the world. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between the average frequencies of eating a meal from a fast-food restaurant per week and Body Mass Index (BMI). Our analysis based on a nationwide survey of Americans indicates that a meal from a fast food restaurant per week, on an average, is associated with an increase of BMI of 0.16 or 0.17 after adjusting for race, gender, education, marital status, age and income. However, our analysis does not find a similar effect for meals eaten from any other restaurant. Our analysis also finds that the higher is a person’s BMI, the more importance a person assigns to the cause of his obesity being the kinds of foods marketed in restaurants and grocery stores.
The Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor and Its Ligands Inhibit Myofibroblast Formation and Activation: Implications for Thyroid Eye Disease

Thyroid eye disease (TED) is a degenerative disease that manifests with detrimental tissue remodeling, myofibroblast accumulation, and scarring in the orbit of affected individuals. Currently, there are no effective therapies for TED that target or prevent the excessive tissue remodeling caused by myofibroblast formation and activation. The canonical cytokine that induces myofibroblast formation is transforming growth factor (TGF)-β. The TGF-β signaling pathway is influenced by aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) signaling pathways. We hypothesized that AHR agonists can prevent myofibroblast formation in fibroblasts from patients with TED, and thus AHR ligands are potential therapeutics for the disease. Orbital fibroblasts explanted from patients with TED were treated with TGF-β to induce myofibroblast formation, contraction, and proliferation. We found that AHR ligands prevent TGF-β-dependent myofibroblast formation, and this ability is dependent on AHR expression. The AHR and AHR ligands block profibrotic Wnt signaling by inhibiting the phosphorylation of GSK3β to prevent myofibroblast formation. These results provide new insight into the molecular pathways underlying orbital scarring in TED. These novel studies highlight the potential of the AHR and AHR ligands as future therapeutic options for eye diseases and possibly also for other scarring conditions.
Coping with the enduring unpredictability of opioid addiction: An investigation of a novel family-focused peer-support organization

Abstract Background Opioid overdose deaths have become a major public health crisis. While efforts have focused mostly on helping opioid-addicted individuals directly, family members suffer also from the grave and enduring unpredictability associated with opioid addiction and often play a vital role in helping addicted loved ones access care. Little is known, however, about resources to help affected family members. Here we describe results from the first quantitative and qualitative investigation of a free and growing support organization for family members of addicted individuals ("Learn to Cope" [LTC]; www.learn2cope.org), organized around three key questions: 1. Who participates, how often, and in what ways? 2. What are the demographic and clinical histories of their addicted loved-ones? 3. How do participants benefit? Method Survey with LTC members at meetings and online ( N =509; 95% participation rate). Results 1. Participants were primarily middle-aged mothers (77%) of opioid-addicted adult male children, attending LTC meetings several times per month, using LTC online resources several times a week, and meeting with LTC members between meetings. 2. Their addicted loved-ones were mostly male (73%), addicted to opioids (88%), with a criminal history (70%), with just under half (41%) having suffered at least one prior overdose. Almost three-quarters (71%), however, reported their loved one was "in recovery", with 30% having a year or more. 3. Benefits since beginning participation included gains in understanding and coping with addiction, feeling better able to help and communicate with their loved-one, and reductions in self-blame and stress. Of members trained in Narcan administration (66%), 86% had received training at LTC meetings; LTC members reported having deployed Narcan for over 44 overdose reversals. Conclusion The growing availability of LTC may provide a needed source of support and information for family members of opioid-addicted loved-ones and may help reduce overdose deaths through Narcan training and distribution.
Which nonautoimmune myopathies are most frequently misdiagnosed as myositis

Purpose of review To discuss the spectrum of nonautoimmune myopathies that may be misdiagnosed as autoimmune myopathy. Recent findings Inherited myopathies, such as dysferlinopathy, calpainopathy, and facioscapulohumeral dystrophy may be misdiagnosed as autoimmune myopathy, especially when they have inflammatory muscle biopsies. Inclusion body myositis is frequently misdiagnosed as polymyositis when rimmed vacuoles are absent on muscle biopsy, and a careful neuromuscular evaluation is not performed. Hypothyroid myopathy can be misdiagnosed as immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy if thyroid function tests, including a T4 level, are not obtained. Self-limited statin myopathy can be distinguished from statin-associated autoimmune myopathy because patients with the former do not have autoantibodies recognizing 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase. Summary Autoimmune myopathies can usually be distinguished from nonautoimmune myopathies based on a combination of the patient history, neuromuscular exam, laboratory findings, and/or muscle biopsy features.
Impact and educational outcomes of a small group self-directed teaching strategy in a clinical neuroscience curriculum.

The complexity of the material being taught in clinical neuroscience within the medical school curriculum requires creative pedagogies to teach medical students effectively. Many clinical teaching strategies have been developed and are well described to address these challenges. However, only a few have been evaluated to determine their impact on the performance of students studying clinical neuroscience. Interactive, 2-hour, self-directed small-group interactive clinical case-based learning sessions were conducted weekly for 4 weeks to integrate concepts learned in the corresponding didactic lectures. Students in the small groups analyzed cases of patients suffering from neurological disease that were based on eight learning objectives that allowed them to evaluate neuroanatomical data and clinical findings before presenting their case analysis to the larger group. Students' performances on the formative quizzes and summative tests were compared to those of first-year medical students in the previous year for whom the self-directed, small-group interactive clinical sessions were not available. There was a significant improvement in the summative performance of first-year medical students with self-directed clinical case learning in the second year (Y2) of teaching clinical neuroscience (P < 0.05) when compared with first-year students in the first year (Y1) for whom the self-directed learning approach was not available. Student performance in the formative assessments between Y1 and Y2 was not significantly different (P = 0.803). A target of ≥70% student scoring above 80% in the final summative examination was met. The current study revealed evidence for the impact and educational outcomes of a self-directed, clinical teaching strategy in a clinical neuroscience curriculum for first-year medical students. Anat Sci Educ 11: 478-487. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.
Juvenile hormone reveals mosaic developmental programs in the metamorphosing optic lobe of Drosophila melanogaster

ABSTRACT The development of the adult optic lobe (OL) of Drosophila melanogaster is directed by a wave of ingrowth of the photoreceptors over a 2-day period at the outset of metamorphosis, which is accompanied by the appearance of the pupal-specific transcription factor Broad-Z3 (Br-Z3) and expression of early drivers in OL neurons. During this time, there are pulses of ecdysteroids that time the metamorphic events. At the outset, the transient appearance of juvenile hormone (JH) prevents precocious development of the OL caused by the ecdysteroid peak that initiates pupariation, but the artificial maintenance of JH after this time misdirects subsequent development. Axon ingrowth, Br-Z3 appearance and the expression of early drivers were unaffected, but aspects of later development such as the dendritic expansion of the lamina monopolar neurons and the expression of late drivers were suppressed. This effect of the exogenous JH mimic (JHM) pyriproxifen is lost by 24 h after pupariation. Part of this effect of JHM is due to its suppression of the appearance of ecdysone receptor EcR-B1 that occurs after pupation and during early adult development.
Oxygen-dependent regulation of immune checkpoint mechanisms

Immunotherapy of cancer has finally materialized following the success of immune checkpoint blockade. Since down-regulation of immune checkpoint mechanisms is beneficial in cancer treatment, it is important to ask why tumors are infamously filled with the immunosuppressive mechanisms. Indeed, immune checkpoints are physiological negative feedback mechanisms of immune activities, and the induction of such mechanisms is important in preventing excessive destruction of inflamed normal tissues. A condition commonly found in tumors and inflamed tissues is tissue hypoxia. Oxygen deprivation under hypoxic conditions by itself is immunosuppressive because proper oxygen supply could support bioenergetic demands of immune cells for optimal immune responses. However, importantly, hypoxia has been found to up-regulate a variety of immune checkpoints and to be able to drive a shift toward a more immunosuppressive environment. Moreover, extracellular adenosine, which accumulates due to tissue hypoxia, also contributes to the up-regulation of other immune checkpoints. Taken together, tissue oxygen is a key regulator of the immune response by directly affecting the energy status of immune effectors and by regulating the intensity of immunoregulatory activity in the environment. The regulators of various immune checkpoint mechanisms may represent the next focus to modulate the intensity of immune responses and to improve cancer immunotherapy.
China, “QI,” and the Challenges of Engaged Scholarship

This essay is a meditation on the challenges of living a life of engaged scholarship. Everett Mendelsohn’s commitment to this kind of life in his own career is the occasion for some reflections on the variety of types of engagement in which an historian and cultural critic of science may become involved, and the different kinds of dialectics between activism and analysis they may entail. The essay then offers a series of vignettes and choice moments associated with a particular project that posed new challenges to the author’s sense of how to maintain a knife-edge balance between engagement and detachment in her own work. The events in question here begin with some research associated with an historical-ethnographic book project about the making of Western mind-body medicine; and then evolve into new project concerned with bringing Chinese meditative and medical qigong practices into cross-cultural dialogue with Western laboratory science.
An image guided stereotactic body radiation therapy (IGSBRT) program of single fraction spine treatment

An image guided stereotactic body radiation therapy (IGSBRT) program of single fraction spine treatment has been implemented into the clinical practice at University of Florida. Dose prescription is 15Gy and 8 to 9 coplanar intensity modulated beams are used. An on-board image guidance system from Elekta SynergyO S linear accelerator is used to localize the target and obtain the amount of adjustment needed. Once the Medical Intelligence Blue Bag vacuum mold is attached to the indexed position of the couch and the patient is positioned on it, a volumetric cone-beam CT image (ini-CT) is acquired and registered to the reference CT image that is used for planning. Depending on the registration result, a precise translational adjustment is made using Medical Intelligent HexaPOD™ 6D Robotic Treatment CouchTOP, which takes less than 20 sec. After the adjustment of patient position, another volumetric cone-beam CT image (veri-CT) is acquired to verify the target alignment. Two more volumetric cone-beam CT images are obtained, one in the middle of the treatment (mid-CT) and the other at the end of treatment (end-CT). Intra-fraction patient displacement was evaluated by analyzing both mid-CT and end-CT images. For the first 6 cases, mean lateral, longitudinal and vertical displacements were 0.7±0.5, 0.9±0.5, and 0.4±0.3 mm, respectively. Mean treatment time (between ini-CT and end-CT) was 39±5 min. Including setup and walk-in/out, total procedure time is about 60 min.
Animal Behavior: Antiquity to the Sixteenth Century

The importance of early humans and earlier civilizations for the modern study of animal behavior is often overlooked. They used knowledge about animals as prey to capture food and as predators to avoid being eaten. Domestication of companion animals and livestock began with early ancestors and continues even today. Greeks, particularly Aristotle, advanced the study of biology, including animal behavior, by introducing aspects of the scientific method and making voluminous natural history observations. Middle Eastern scholars provided precursors to the food chain concept, struggle for existence, and environmental determinism. After the Middle Ages, at the dawn of the Renaissance, extended natural history observations through trade and travel and further development of the scientific method lead to the emergence of animal behavior as a legitimate subject for scientific discourse.
Legislators’ Sources of Behavioral Health Research and Preferences for Dissemination: Variations by Political Party

Objectives:This study sought to characterize primary sources of behavioral health research and dissemination preferences of state legislators and assess differences by political party.Methods:A 201...
Diminishing Interfacial Effects with Decreasing Nanoparticle Size in Polymer-Nanoparticle Composites.

Using molecular simulations on model polymer nanocomposites at fixed filler loading, we show that interfacial polymer dynamics are affected less with decreasing nanoparticle (NP) size. However, the glass transition temperature ${T}_{g}$ changes substantially more for an extremely small NP. The reason for this apparent contradiction is that the mean NP spacing decreases with decreasing particle size. Thus, all polymers are effectively interfacial for sufficiently small NPs, resulting in relatively large ${T}_{g}$ shifts, even though the interfacial effects are smaller. For larger NPs, interfacial relaxations are substantially slower than the matrix for favorable NP-polymer interactions. The minority ``bound'' polymer dynamically decouples from the polymer matrix, and we only find small changes in ${T}_{g}$ relative to that of the bulk polymer for large NPs. These results are used to organize a large body of relevant experimental data, and we propose an apparent universal dependence on the ratio of the face-to-face distance between the NPs and the chain radius of gyration.
The Impact of Texas “Wealth Equalization” Program on the Academic Performance of Poor and Wealthy Schools

The purpose of this study is to examine the propositions of “money matters/doesn’t matter” in a zero-sum public school system. Specifically, this study seeks to assess the impact of Texas Wealth Equalization Program on the academic performance of contributing wealthy school districts and the receiving poor school districts. Although the primary interest of this study is the aforementioned two sets of school districts, the study also incorporates a set of intermediate districts into the analysis in order to control for the possible threat of history. The study uses three state and national assessment tools to measure school performance. The results show that answer to the propositions of “money matters/doesn’t matter” is contextual. Controlling for the possible threat of history, the findings show that transfer of nearly $3.4 billion from wealthy to poor school districts did not result in lower academic achievement among the students of rich school districts while it resulted in modest performance improvement in poor districts. Policy implications of Wealth Equalization are discussed.
Humeral Head Shape in Native and Prosthetic Joint Replacement.

BackgroundNonspherical prosthetic humeral head designs have become increasingly popular as they better approximate the native shoulder anatomy and biomechanical properties and is supported by the e...
Associations between baseline serum biomarker levels and cachexia/precachexia in pretreated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.

3054Background: We previously reported associations of pretreatment serum biomarkers with clinical outcomes in a cohort of advanced NSCLC patients that progressed on front-line therapy. This study ...
Anatomy of spin-orbit torque (Conference Presentation)

In magnetic heterostructures, an in-plane electrical current can manipulate the magnetization direction of the free ferromagnetic layers through spin-orbit torques. Spin-orbit torques are transfers of angular momentum from the crystal lattice to the magnetization using conduction electrons as the medium for transfer. Traditionally, spin-orbit torques have been attributed to two causes: the spin Hall effect and the Rashba-Edelstein effect. However, this framework is incomplete because 1) experiments cannot reproducibly distinguish these mechanisms and 2) theory predicts other torques of comparable strength. Using the Boltzmann equation and first principles calculations, we have investigated the allowed interfacial contributions to spin-orbit torque. These investigations led to the discovery of a novel effect, interface-generated spin currents, which first principles calculations reveal are strong in relevant heavy metal/ferromagnet bilayers (such as Pt/Co). This work has also resulted in simple drift-diffusion models that can capture interfacial spin-orbit effects through the appropriate boundary conditions. Following this work, our group has performed first principles calculations showing that ferromagnets generate spin currents via the intrinsic mechanism that could exert spin-orbit torques at interfaces. In this talk, we discuss how both novel interfacial spin-orbit effects and spin current generation in ferromagnets could play an important role in spin-orbit torque. Recent experiments done in heterostructures, including those with a single ferromagnetic layer, provide evidence that ferromagnetic layers and interfaces cause the spin-orbit torques discussed here. Shedding light on these mechanisms will help clarify the nature of spin-orbit torque, which is crucial for realizing its potential for magnetic memories.
Single crystal neutron and magnetic measurements of Rb2Mn3(VO4)2CO3 and K2Co3(VO4)2CO3 with mixed honeycomb and triangular magnetic lattices

Two new alkali vanadate carbonates with divalent transition metals have been synthesized as large single crystals via a high-temperature (600 °C) hydrothermal technique. Compound I, Rb2Mn3(VO4)2CO3, crystallizes in the trigonal crystal system in the space group P1c, and compound II, K2Co3(VO4)2CO3, crystallizes in the hexagonal space group P63/m. Both structures contain honeycomb layers and triangular lattices made from edge-sharing MO6 octahedra and MO5 trigonal bipyramids, respectively. The honeycomb and triangular layers are connected along the c-axis through tetrahedral [VO4] groups. The MO5 units are connected with each other by carbonate groups in the ab-plane by forming a triangular magnetic lattice. The difference in space groups between I and II was also investigated with Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations. Single crystal magnetic characterization of I indicates three magnetic transitions at 77 K, 2.3 K, and 1.5 K. The corresponding magnetic structures for each magnetic transition of I were determined using single crystal neutron diffraction. At 77 K the compound orders in the MnO6-honeycomb layer in a Neel-type antiferromagnetic orientation while the MnO5 triangular lattice ordered below 2.3 K in a colinear ‘up–up–down’ fashion, followed by a planar ‘Y’ type magnetic structure. K2Co3(VO4)2CO3 (II) exhibits a canted antiferromagnetic ordering below TN = 8 K. The Curie–Weiss fit (200–350 K) gives a Curie–Weiss temperature of −42 K suggesting a dominant antiferromagnetic coupling in the Co2+ magnetic sublattices.
Machine Learning With Feature Domains Elucidates Candidate Drivers of Hospital Readmission Following Spine Surgery in a Large Single-Center Patient Cohort.

Background Unplanned hospital readmissions constitute a significant cost burden in healthcare. Identifying factors contributing to readmission risk presents opportunities for actionable change to reduce readmission rates. Objective To combine machine learning classification and feature importance analysis to identify drivers of readmission in a large cohort of spine patients. Methods Cases involving surgical procedures for degenerative spine conditions between 2008 and 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. Of 11 150 cases, 396 patients (3.6%) experienced an unplanned hospital readmission within 30 d of discharge. Over 75 pre-discharge variables were collected and categorized into demographic, perioperative, and resource utilization feature domains. Random forest classification was used to construct predictive models for readmission from feature domains. An ensemble tree-specific method was used to quantify and rank features by relative importance. Results In the demographics domain, age and comorbidity burden were the most important features for readmission prediction. Surgical duration and intraoperative oral morphine equivalents were the most important perioperative features, whereas total direct cost and length of stay were most important in the resource utilization domain. In supervised learning experiments for predicting readmission, the demographic domain model performed the best alone, suggesting that demographic features may contribute more to readmission risk than perioperative variables following spine surgery. A predictive model, created using only enriched features showing substantial importance, demonstrated improved predictive capacity compared to previous models, and approached the performance of state-of-the-art, deep-learning models for readmission. Conclusion This strategy provides insight into global patterns of feature importance and better understanding of drivers of readmissions following spine surgery.
Downhole measurement of enthalpy in geothermal wells – An analytical, experimental and numerical study

Abstract The enthalpy of two-phase geothermal fluids is typically monitored at the surface to understand the performance of a geothermal field. Surface enthalpy, however, cannot reflect real reservoir conditions downhole because of the heat loss along the wellbore. In addition, with only the surface enthalpy, the energy contributions from separate feed zones cannot be evaluated individually. A technique for determining downhole enthalpy in two-phase geothermal wells using surface inputs and chloride concentrations was developed in this study, including analytical models, experimental work and numerical studies, so that the downhole flowing enthalpy, the energy contribution from each feed zone and the heat loss along the wellbore can be evaluated. Chloride always stays in the liquid phase and becomes more concentrated as the geothermal fluid ascends to the surface and boils, and the change in chloride concentration along the wellbore can be utilized to calculate the change in the flowing steam fraction and the enthalpy. Analytical models to implement this idea were established for geothermal wells with a single feed zone or multiple feed zones, and the calculation procedures are elaborated with detailed flow diagrams and examples. The analytical models involve mass balance, energy balance and an assumption that the chloride concentration in the liquid from the feed zone is determinable. Inputs to the analytical model include two-phase mass flow rates and enthalpy at the surface and chloride concentrations at the surface and in the downhole. Temperature or pressure measurements are utilized to apply the energy balance in the model for multiple feed zones. Experiments were conducted to test the feasibility of an accurate determination of chloride concentration in two-phase fluids and validate the assumption in the analytical model. Chloride concentration distribution in the mixing area at the inlet of the feed zone was determined and visualized in the experiments. At the same time, similar mixing processes were visualized by a numerical simulation using ANSYS Fluent, and results from the numerical simulation are consistent with those from the experiments. Therefore, both the experiments and the simulation support the assumption in the analytical model that chloride concentration in the liquid from the feed zone can be determined accurately. It is demonstrated that the proposed method provides a fast and cost-effective way to determine the downhole two-phase flowing enthalpy in geothermal wells with multiple feed zones and estimate flow rates and energy contribution from each individual feed zone.
Data Augmentation for Deep-Learning-Based Electroencephalography.

Abstract Background Data augmentation (DA) has recently been demonstrated to achieve considerable performance gains for deep learning (DL)—increased accuracy and stability and reduced overfitting. Some electroencephalography (EEG) tasks suffer from low samples-to-features ratio, severely reducing DL effectiveness. DA with DL thus holds transformative promise for EEG processing, possibly like DL revolutionized computer vision, etc. New method We review trends and approaches to DA for DL in EEG to address: Which DA approaches exist and are common for which EEG tasks? What input features are used? And, what kind of accuracy gain can be expected? Results DA for DL on EEG begun 5 years ago and is steadily used more. We grouped DA techniques (noise addition, generative adversarial networks, sliding windows, sampling, Fourier transform, recombination of segmentation, and others) and EEG tasks (into seizure detection, sleep stages, motor imagery, mental workload, emotion recognition, motor tasks, and visual tasks). DA efficacy across techniques varied considerably. Noise addition and sliding windows provided the highest accuracy boost; mental workload most benefitted from DA. Sliding window, noise addition, and sampling methods most common for seizure detection, mental workload, and sleep stages, respectively. Comparing with existing methods Percent of decoding accuracy explained by DA beyond unaugmented accuracy varied between 8 % for recombination of segmentation and 36 % for noise addition and from 14 % for motor imagery to 56 % for mental workload—29 % on average. Conclusions DA increasingly used and considerably improved DL decoding accuracy on EEG. Additional publications—if adhering to our reporting guidelines—will facilitate more detailed analysis.