cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The epidemiology of necrotizing fasciitis including factors associated with death and amputation

The high morbidity and mortality of necrotizing fasciitis (NF) supports the need for epidemiological studies to characterize the disease and identify patient factors associated with adverse outcomes. A multi-site medical record review of patients diagnosed with NF was performed (n=80, mortality 15%). Variables collected were hypothesized to have association with adverse outcomes from NF, and multivariable analysis was used to detect any such association in this population. Select factors associated with mortality included evidence of underlying conditions (P=0.002), advanced age (P=0.04), young age (P=0.03), and evidence of sepsis (P=0.006). Select factors associated with amputation included diabetes mellitus (P=0.006), evidence of underlying conditions (P=0.03), and cutaneous gangrene noted on admission (P=0.006). These findings demonstrate the important association of NF and extremes of age with mortality and morbidity and support the value of early suspicion with prompt diagnosis and treatment in order to prevent adverse outcomes since the associated risk factors are not immediately modifiable.
How clinicians make (or avoid) moral judgments of patients: implications of the evidence for relationships and research

Physicians, nurses, and other clinicians readily acknowledge being troubled by encounters with patients who trigger moral judgments. For decades social scientists have noted that moral judgment of patients is pervasive, occurring not only in egregious and criminal cases but also in everyday situations in which appraisals of patients' social worth and culpability are routine. There is scant literature, however, on the actual prevalence and dynamics of moral judgment in healthcare. The indirect evidence available suggests that moral appraisals function via a complex calculus that reflects variation in patient characteristics, clinician characteristics, task, and organizational factors. The full impact of moral judgment on healthcare relationships, patient outcomes, and clinicians' own well-being is yet unknown. The paucity of attention to moral judgment, despite its significance for patient-centered care, communication, empathy, professionalism, healthcare education, stereotyping, and outcome disparities, represents a blind spot that merits explanation and repair. New methodologies in social psychology and neuroscience have yielded models for how moral judgment operates in healthcare and how research in this area should proceed. Clinicians, educators, and researchers would do well to recognize both the legitimate and illegitimate moral appraisals that are apt to occur in healthcare settings.
Modeling of Microturbine Power Generation Systems

This article presents the modeling and simulation of a microturbine generation system suitable for isolated as well as grid-connected operation. The system comprises of a permanent magnet synchronous generator driven by a microturbine. A brief description of the overall system is given, and mathematical models for the microturbine and permanent magnet synchronous generator are presented. Also, the use of power electronics in conditioning the power output of the generating system is demonstrated. Simulation studies have been carried out in MATLAB/Simulink under different load conditions.
Stability-based actuator scheduling in distributed processes with control and communication constraints

This work focuses on control of distributed processes modeled by linear parabolic partial differential equations (PDEs) with constrained and quantized control inputs. Using a suitable finite-dimensional model that captures the PDE's dominant dynamics, we first characterize the inherent conflict in the control design objectives when both control constraints and quantization are simultaneously present, and the implications of this conflict for the spatial placement of the control actuators. At the heart of this conflict is the fact that control constraints limit the set of initial conditions starting from where stability can be achieved, while quantization constrains the set of terminal states that the system can be steered to. Using Lyapunov-based techniques, we explicitly characterize both the stability and terminal regions in terms of the control constraints, the quantization levels and the actuator spatial locations. The analysis reveals that the actuator configuration with the largest stability region also possesses the largest terminal region. This implies that steering the closed-loop state from large initial conditions to arbitrarily small terminal sets may not be possible using a single actuator configuration. To resolve this conflict, we devise an actuator scheduling strategy that orchestrates a finite number of transitions between different actuator configurations based on where the closed-loop state is with respect to the stability and terminal regions at any given time. The theoretical results are illustrated using a diffusion-reaction process example.
An operational approach to corrective software maintenance

The author argues that maintenance practitioners are served well by an operational view of a system, in which the sequential behavior is emphasized, as opposed to the visual hierarchy of functions viewpoint. The traditional and operational view of software development are compared, and an entity-relationship model of operational software development is offered. A typical corrective maintenance action is traced through the operational model database to illustrate the support offered. Finally, several research directions are proposed. >
Genetic aspects of susceptibility to air pollution

Inter-individual variation in human responses to air pollutants suggests that some subpopulations are at increased risk, and it is increasingly clear that genetic background is an important susceptibility factor. Genetically standardised animal models provide useful investigative tools. Linkage analyses using inbred mice identified chromosomal segments (quantitative trait loci (QTL)), with genes controlling susceptibility to the lung inflammatory (chromosome 17), injury (chromosome 11), and hyperpermeability (chromosome 4) responses to ozone (O3) exposure. An immune dysfunction response induced by exposure to sulphate-associated particles is linked to the identical chromosome 17 and 11 QTLs described for O3 susceptibility, thus similar genetic mechanisms may be controlling pulmonary responses to these pollutants. Candidate genes within the QTLs on chromosomes 4 and 17 include the toll-like receptor 4 and the pro-inflammatory cytokine, tumour necrosis factor‐α, respectively. Functional analyses strongly support a role for these candidate genes in determining susceptibility to O3 and particulates. Because striking linkage homology exists between the human and mouse genomes, candidate susceptibility genes identified in the mouse are likely to aid research aimed at understanding human genetic factors that contribute to differential susceptibility. To date, no studies have examined the interaction between age and genetic background in the development of air pollution-induced lung disease. However, investigations have suggested an influence of age on genetic susceptibility to lung cancer and other diseases, which indicate that an interaction between age and genetic background may be important in air pollution disease pathogenesis. The author was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (HL57142, ES09606, and P30 ES00002) and the Environmental Protection Agency (R826724).
Reactive security: responding to visual stimuli from wearable cameras

Consumer electronic devices like smartphones increasingly feature arrays of sensors that can 'see', 'hear', and 'feel' the environment around them. While these devices began with primitive capabilities, newer generations of electronics offer sophisticated sensing arrays that collect high-fidelity representations of the physical world. For example, wearable cameras are becoming more prevalent with new consumer lifelogging products including the Narrative Clip, Autographer, and Google Glass. These wearable cameras give computing devices a persistent sense of sight, raising important concerns about protecting people's privacy. At the same time, these devices also provide opportunities for enhancing security, by allowing trusted devices to observe and react to the physical environment surrounding the user and the device. We propose Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) to mediate access to sensors and their data using attributes of the context and content of sensor information. Attributes extracted from sensor data could be used to trigger policy actions ranging from sharing or not sharing images, to invoking system changes in reaction to outside visual stimuli such as automatically shutting down network interfaces when in the presence of unknown people. While prior work has addressed some specific actions, like preventing potentially private images from being shared based on their location, in this paper we present and advocate for a more general working definition of ABAC that applies to sensors and sensor data. We also present use cases for how this reactive security approach may help protect the privacy and security of users.
Nickel aluminide containing refractory-metal dispersoids: 1: Synthesis by reactive mechanical alloying

Abstract Nickel and aluminum powders were mechanically alloyed with 10 or 30 vol.% refractory metal powders (molybdenum or tungsten) for times up to 50 h. Intermetallic synthesis takes place after 10–20 h alloying, with concomitant dispersion of the inert refractory metal phase, resulting in an NiAl matrix containing fine refractory dispersoids. The reactive synthesis step is direct, without intermediate intermetallic products. In a separate processing route, the compound NiMo was first synthesized by hydrogen reduction of nickel oxide and molybdenum oxide. Subsequent reactive mechanical alloying of NiMo powders with metallic nickel and aluminum powders yielded the same phases as the direct route from elemental powders. However, the dispersion step is more efficient with brittle NiMo than with ductile molybdenum, leading to a finer molybdenum dispersion size in the reacted powders. All mechanically alloyed powders are stable on exposure for 1 h at 1000 °C in a reducing atmosphere, but oxidize rapidly in air between 425 °C and 1000 °C.
Clinician perspectives on using pharmacogenomics in clinical practice

Aim: To describe the knowledge and attitudes of clinicians participating in a large pharmacogenomics implementation program. Materials & methods: Semi-structured interviews with 15 physicians and nurse practitioners were conducted. Results: Three categories of themes were identified: preparation and knowledge, pharmacogenomics usage in practice, and future management of genomic variants. Providers expressed an inability to keep up with the rapid pace of evidence generation and indicated strong support for clinical decision support to assist with genotype-tailored therapies. Concerns raised by clinicians included effectively communicating results, long-term responsibility for actionable results and handoffs with providers outside the implementation program. Conclusion: Clinicians identified their own knowledge deficits, workflow integration and longitudinal responsibility as challenges to successful usage of pharmacogenomics in clinical practice.
Bcl-2 in LPS- and allergen-induced hyperplastic mucous cells in airway epithelia of Brown Norway rats

Environmental toxins, infection, and allergens lead to a transient mucous cell hyperplasia (MCH) in airway epithelia; however, the mechanisms for reducing mucous cell numbers during recovery are largely unknown. This study investigated Bcl-2 expression in mucous cells induced by a neutrophilic or eosinophilic inflammatory response. Brown Norway rats intratracheally instilled with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) showed an inflammatory response characterized primarily by neutrophils. Secreted mucin was increased fourfold at 1 day, and the number of mucous cells was increased fivefold 2, 3, and 4 days post-LPS instillation compared with those in noninstilled rats. None of the mucous cells in non- or saline-instilled control animals expressed Bcl-2, whereas 20-30% of mucous cells were Bcl-2 positive 1 and 2 days post-LPS instillation. Brown Norway rats immunized and challenged with ovalbumin (OVA) for 2, 4, and 6 days showed an inflammatory response characterized primarily by eosinophils. Secreted mucin increased fivefold, and mucous cell number increased fivefold after 4 and 6 days of OVA exposure compared with water-immunized control rats challenged with OVA aerosols. Approximately 10-25% of mucous cells were Bcl-2 positive in OVA-immunized and -challenged rats. These data demonstrate Bcl-2 expression in hyperplastic mucous cells of Brown Norway rats regardless of the type of inflammatory response and indicate that apoptotic mechanisms may be involved in the resolution of MCHs.
Molecular Simulation and Modeling of the Structure and Properties of Polymer Nano-Particles

In this study of polymer nano-particles using molecular dynamics simulations we have analyzed the thermal and mechanical properties of the particles generated with up to 60,000 Two groups of atoms were singled out for analysis: those in the central and adjacent fluid slices at the beginning of the simulation The fraction of kinetic energy in the z direction was followed in each group of atoms. Typical results are shown in Fig. 2. The fraction of z kinetic energy steadily decreases in the central region atoms, averaging about the thermal equilibrium value, 1/3, within less than 5 ps. The adjacent region atoms suddenly gain z kinetic energy within about the first 0.1 ps and then a decreasing trend similar to that for the central region atoms. No coherent transfer of z kinetic energy is observed. In short, the motion very rapidly thermalizes, which is consistent with the results of visualization. In several simulations, positions of every fluid atom were saved every 0.05 ps. The movies showed that within 2 ps, the atoms in the initial plug essentially interspersed themselves within the adjacent fluid volume and then randomly dispersed. This behavior was observed at each nanotube radius. atoms. It is found that surface effects provide interesting properties that are different from those of the bulk polymer system. In particular, the melting point and glass transition temperature were found to be dramatically dependent on the size of the polymer particles. This study also demonstrated that the nano-scale PE particles have dynamical flexibility and behave like an elastomer. The result is quantified by the fractal dimension and compressive modulus. We are currently extending this model and methodology to larger size particles and other types of polymer systems to study the interfacial tension between incompatible polymers, shear flow effects, and thermal properties of blended polymer particles.29 The molecular dynamics simulations used here should provide useful insights to explain and predict the properties and behavior of ultra fine polymer particles to be used in future new materials and devices.
A Specific Example: Scattering from Spherical Square Well Potentials

To solve a very specific example, let us look first at the scattering from a spherical square well potential, with
Extinction and Risk

This is an early portion of a forthcoming work of practical moral philosophy, one arguing that humanity, as a species, should want to survive. This particular piece argues that neo-classical economics places an emphasis on short-term gain over precaution and in doing so places lives of individual humans — and even the species itself — at risk. We need to change our economic principles and priorities — if we want to survive.
From Mice to Men and Back: An Assessment of Preclinical Model Systems for the Study of Lung Cancers

Abstract Introduction Studies of preclinical models are essential for determining the biology of lung cancers and testing new and novel therapeutic approaches. We review the commonly used preclinical models for lung cancers and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses. Methods We searched the MEDLINE database via PubMed using combinations of the following medical subject headings: lung cancer; animal models, mice; cell line, tumor; cell culture, mice; transgenic, mice; SCID, transplantation; heterologous; and genetic engineering. We reviewed the relevant published articles. Results Multiple examples of the three major preclinical models—tumor cell lines, patient-derived xenografts, and genetically engineered mouse models—exist and have been used by investigators worldwide, with more than 15,000 relevant publications. Each model has its strengths and actual or potential weaknesses. In addition, newer forms of these models have been proposed or are in use as potential improvements over the conventional models. Conclusions A large number and variety of models have been developed and extensively used for the study of all major types of lung cancer. While they remain the cornerstone of preclinical studies, each model has its individual strengths and weaknesses. These must be carefully evaluated and applied to the proposed studies to obtain the maximum usefulness from the models.
Overcoming Faculty Fears about Civic Work: Reclaiming Higher Education's Civic Purpose.

This chapter describes fears that may lead to faculty resistance to civic engagement and suggests approaches to conquering these fears in order to further develop the civic capacities of our students and institutions.
Empirical insights into the stochasticity of small RNA sequencing

The choice of stochasticity distribution for modeling the noise distribution is a fundamental assumption for the analysis of sequencing data and consequently is critical for the accurate assessment of biological heterogeneity and differential expression. The stochasticity of RNA sequencing has been assumed to follow Poisson distributions. We collected microRNA sequencing data and observed that its stochasticity is better approximated by gamma distributions, likely because of the stochastic nature of exponential PCR amplification. We validated our findings with two independent datasets, one for microRNA sequencing and another for RNA sequencing. Motivated by the gamma distributed stochasticity, we provided a simple method for the analysis of RNA sequencing data and showed its superiority to three existing methods for differential expression analysis using three data examples of technical replicate data and biological replicate data.
Diverse humoral and cell-mediated effects of antisperm antibodies on reproduction * †

No single test to detect the presence of antisperm antibodies has correlated precisely with subsequent fertility. The purpose of this study was to determine whether heterogeneous effects of antibodies could potentially explain this observation. The effects of serum on sperm motility, complement-mediated sperm lysis, mouse macrophage-mediated sperm phagocytosis, and sperm IgG opsonization were assessed in several patients with known antisperm antibodies. Each patient's serum produced its own unique profile. Motility ranged from normal (70% to 85%) to 10% using different subjects' serum. Antibody-dependent complement-mediated sperm lysis ranged from 35% to 65%. Normal sperm incubated with normal serum had approximately 200 molecules of IgG per sperm, whereas normal sperm incubated with patient sera had 546 to 900 molecules of IgG per sperm. In all cases where serum enhanced IgG sperm opsonization, there was enhanced mouse macrophage-mediated phagocytosis of the opsonized sperm (a three- to fourfold increase). These data suggest that antisperm antibodies may affect reproduction by different mechanisms, including direct humoral effects (immunoglobulin and/or complement) and indirect cell-mediated effects (macrophage-mediated sperm phagocytosis). However, the mechanism(s) involved are unique to each individual's antibody. The heterogeneity of these potential mechanisms may explain why the presence of antisperm antibodies as measured by a single assay correlate poorly with infertility.
Crystal Structures of D-N-(2-Adamantyl)phenylglycinol and L-N-(2-Adamantyl)diphenylphenylalinol: Chiral Amino Alcohols Utilized as Ligands for Catalytic Asymmetric Hydroamination

ABSTRACTAmino alcohols are important ligands for the asymmetric catalytic hydroamination of aminoallenes to form chiral pyrrolidines. Herein, we report the crystal structures of two chiral amino alcohols, D-N-(2-Adamantyl)phenylglycinol and L-N-(2-Adamantyl)diphenylphenylalinol, that function as ligands within transition metal complexes that catalyze the hydroamination of aminoallenes. Both molecules crystallize in the noncentrosymmetric orthorhombic space group P212121. Inter- and intramolecular hydrogen bonding plays an important role in stabilizing each alcohol in the solid state in the absence of a transition metal. The presence of these hydrogen bonds has been verified by single crystal X-ray diffraction and their overall strength determined by computational methods.
Truck Fleet of Northern Plains Grain Farms

A survey of farm operators in the Northern Plains region of North Dakota, northern South Dakota, western Minnesota, and eastern Montana was conducted to gather information about the transportation of crops, the inventory and characteristics of the farmer-owned truck fleet, and on-farm storage capacity. The objective of the study was to provide information about farm truck inventory in the Northern Plains region. There was no other source for this information, and it should be unique and complementary to other farm-to-market information and national commodity flow publications. Farmers may use the results for their own investment and productivity assessments. Local and regional planners and policy makers can use the information for calibrating travel demand and freight flow models for investment and asset management choices.
Neutron-Induced Atomic Excitation and Neutron Moderation

The excitation of electrons in atoms due to neutron-nucleus scattering has been examined. The cross section for neutron scattering with an accompanying excitation of a particular electron has been derived. In addition, a procedure for estimating the probability of any electron excitation in neutron scattering has been formulated. Using these probability estimates the effect of electronic excitations in neutron moderation problems has been connected to a small fractional increase (of the order of l0−4) in the average logarithmic energy decrement. In special cases this small increase may lead to effects of about 1%.
Support vector regression to estimate the metabolic equivalent of task of exergaming actions

Sedentary behavior is a root cause of several chronic conditions affecting health of adults and children in the United States and worldwide. The chronic conditions that result from this cause not only health concerns for these individuals but significant economic burden. Exergaming, or the merger of exercise and health information with video games, presents a solution that attempts to address the sedentary behavior of adults and children by making physically interactive video games that increase energy expenditure. Such games, particularly those that use the body as the controlling device for the game through the use of accelerometers, have elicit moderate levels of physical activity when measuring the metabolic equivalent of task (MET) of the associated activities. This work presents the support vector regression scheme in order to better correlate accelerometer measurements with MET values. Energy expenditure data collected on 14 individuals and their accelerometer data have regressions with the mean absolute difference (error) of the associated MET approximations is under 2 and as low as 0.58 for full gameplay, an improvement of well over 1 MET for all activities over related work.
Attenuation artifacts and time-of-flight PET

Attenuation artifacts in PET are seen when attenuation correction (AC) is not performed and when AC is performed but is based on an incorrect attenuation map. PET attenuation artifacts are generally more profound than the straightforward differences in photon attenuation through surrounding tissue from one source location to another. Effects such as the apparent radioactivity in gas pockets in the body or concave contours of the body surface, distortions, and a pronounced body contour are all in addition to the expected nonuniformities due to depth in the body. We have investigated the effects of time-of-flight (TOF) reconstruction on PET artifacts. Uniformity without AC (NAC) was investigated in a large tapering F-18-fillled phantom that increases from a small end to the size of a large patient. Throughout the length of the phantom, the NAC images with TOF were more uniform that the non-TOF images. A whole-body phantom with oval cross section was imaged with uniform F-18 background and a 5.5 cm air-filled sphere at one section, and a 5.5 cm hot (8x background) sphere at another section. In NAC images, the air-filled lesion was artificially hotter than background with non-TOF, but comparable to background with TOF. When this section was corrected with a uniform AC (as if the gas pocket had moved before transmission scan), the non-TOF image showed the sphere to be artificially hot (hotter than background) whereas the TOF images reduced the artifact. In the section with the hot sphere, the NAC distortions typical near the bladder (higher counts anterior and posterior to bladder; depleted areas lateral to bladder) were greatly diminished with TOF images. While AC is necessary for quantitation in PET, the use of TOF and NAC may be useful in providing more interpretable images in some situations were an attenuation map is impossible to obtain, or introduces errors of its own. TOF may also lessen some artifacts in corrected images.
A burning problem: cannabis lessons learned from Colorado

AbstractWith recent increases in cannabis’ popularity, including being legalized in several states, new issues have emerged related to use. Increases in the number of users, new products, and home growing all present distinct concerns. In the present review, we explored various cannabis-related concerns (i.e. use, acquiring, growing, and public health/policy) that have arisen in Colorado in order to provide information on emerging issues and future directions to mitigate negative outcomes that could occur in states considering, or that already have implemented, a legalized cannabis market. Specific to Colorado, issues have arisen related to edibles, vaporizers/'e-cannabis', concentrates, growing, quantifying use, intoxicated driving, and arrests. Understanding cannabis dosing (including dose-dependent effects and related consequences), standardizing quantities, evaluating the safety of new products, and developing harm reduction interventions are important next steps for informing public policy and promot...
Risk Factors: Gender and Sex

Stroke is the third leading cause of death for women, and roughly 60% of stroke deaths in the United States are in women. Since women live longer than men, stroke-related disability and institutionalization more strongly affects women than men throughout much of the developed world. Clinical and basic science research is beginning to unveil the many unique aspects of stroke pathobiology in women vs. men, and some of these findings may lead to new, gender-specific therapy in future. This chapter focuses on sex differences in stroke risk factors, with focus on risk factors that are more prevalent in women than men (e.g., atrial fibrillation, diabetes mellitus, migraine with aura, and depression) and female-specific risk factors that bear consideration (e.g., pregnancy, menopausal hormone status and use of replacement therapies, preeclampsia, and oral contraceptive use).
Phantom experiments using soft-prior regularization EIT for breast cancer imaging.

Objective A soft-prior regularization (SR) electrical impedance tomography (EIT) technique for breast cancer imaging is described, which shows an ability to accurately reconstruct tumor/inclusion conductivity values within a dense breast model investigated using a cylindrical and a breast-shaped tank. Approach The SR-EIT method relies on knowing the spatial location of a suspicious lesion initially detected from a second imaging modality. Standard approaches (using Laplace smoothing and total variation regularization) without prior structural information are unable to accurately reconstruct or detect the tumors. The soft-prior approach represents a very significant improvement to these standard approaches, and has the potential to improve conventional imaging techniques, such as automated whole breast ultrasound (AWB-US), by providing electrical property information of suspicious lesions to improve AWB-US's ability to discriminate benign from cancerous lesions. Main results Specifically, the best soft-regularization technique found average absolute tumor/inclusion errors of 0.015 S m-1 for the cylindrical test and 0.055 S m-1 and 0.080 S m-1 for the breast-shaped tank for 1.8 cm and 2.5 cm inclusions, respectively. The standard approaches were statistically unable to distinguish the tumor from the mammary gland tissue. An analysis of false tumors (benign suspicious lesions) provides extra insight into the potential and challenges EIT has for providing clinically relevant information. Significance The ability to obtain accurate conductivity values of a suspicious lesion (>1.8 cm) detected from another modality (e.g. AWB-US) could significantly reduce false positives and result in a clinically important technology.
Giggle incontinence: Evolution of concept and treatment.

Summary Background Giggle incontinence is a sudden and involuntary episode of urinary incontinence that is provoked by an episode of laughter. Decades of case studies and small research studies have formed the basis of what is known about giggle incontinence; however, much remains unknown about this type of incontinence, leaving the recommendations for clinical management somewhat unguided. Methods A systematic review of 22 articles on the topic of “giggle incontinence” and related terms was conducted, including all published articles and commentaries since the term was first seen in print in 1959. Results This review provides a historical context for the diagnosis, a summary of what is known about its etiology, and a summary of current treatments. Conclusions There is disagreement about the pathophysiology of laughter incontinence, with two differing explanations. The first emphasizes the neurologic origin of the cascade of events during laughter and urination, and draws a likeness to cataplexy and other CNS disorders, and emphasizes treatment with methylphenidate. The second emphasizes urologic dysfunction, with biofeedback and bladder retraining as the recommended therapy. Comprehensive treatment of children with laughter incontinence requires an appreciation of both concepts. Since inception of the concept there has been question about the appropriateness of the term “giggle incontinence.” This review encourages discussion among readers/clinicians about the term and the essential qualities of the diagnosis.
Evaluation and management of lower back pain in young athletes

Lower back pain in young athletes is a common problem. The prevalence of back pain from different causes in adolescent age group is between 20% and 30%. However, the incidence of low back pain in young athletes varies widely in different sports. Overuse injuries are the most common cause of low back pain in young athletes. In case of overuse injuries, the cause and effect relationship between back pain and specific condition is often difficult to establish. In adolescent athletes, the most common underlying identified cause of low back pain is lumbar spondylolysis. During adolescent growth spurt, the severity of the pain generally correlates with adolescent growth spurt. Participation in sports starting at an early age and for a longer duration tends to increase the risk for back pain. Numerous conditions cause low back pain in athletes. These include acute trauma, chronic overuse or repetitive trauma, and referred pain. Our focus in here will be on selected conditions that cause recurrent or chronic low back pain.
Determination of Mn-BOPP Concentrations Using Neutron Activation Analysis and MRI

Many investigators are experimenting with new BNCT compounds in an attempt to introduce more boron in cancer cells. Accurate determination of boron levels in tissues and blood is rather tedious, requiring specialized equipment to perform prompt γ-ray analysis, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy or boron MRI1. Although these methods are sensitive with detection levels near or below 1 ppm boron, none of the facilities required for those techniques are available at the University of Virginia and similarly, at many other universities. Under such circumstances, alternative methods of analysis would be useful.
ModGen: theorem proving by model generation

ModGen (Model Generation) is a complete theorem prover for first order logic with finite Herbrand domains. ModGen takes first order formulas as input, and generates models of the input formulas. ModGen consists of two major modules: a module for transforming the input formulas into propositional clauses, and a module to find models of the propositional clauses. The first module can be used by other researchers so that the SAT problems can be easily represented, stored and communicated. An important issue in the design of ModGen is to ensure that transformed propositional clauses are satisfiable iff the original formulas are. The second module can be easily replaced by any advanced SAT problem solver. ModGen is easy to use and very efficient. Many problems which are hard for general resolution theorem provers are found easy for ModGen.
Abstract 413: Predictors of Exercise Capacity in Patients With Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: A Multi-modality Imaging Study

Background: There is variation in exercise capacity in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) patients, despite similar degree of diastolic dysfunction, left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO) and mitral regurgitation (MR). Pulse wave velocity (PWV), measured by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR), is a marker of aortic stiffness and is abnormal in HCM vs. controls. We tested the association between maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max) and various clinical/imaging predictors in HCM patients with preserved ejection fraction. Methods: Fifty consecutive, newly referred HCM patients (62% men, 44 +/− 13 years, 78 % on beta-blockers, 18 % hypertensives) underwent Doppler echocardiography (echo), cardiopulmonary exercise testing and CMR for symptom evaluation. Deceleration time (DT, msec), myocardial performance index (MPI or isovolumic contraction time + isovolumic relaxation time/ejection time), post exercise MR and LVOT gradient (mm Hg) were measured on echo. VO2 max (ml/kg/minute) was measured. LV volumetric indices were measured by CMR. PWV (m/s) was measured on velocity-encoded CMR as Δx/Δt (Δx = aortic path length between mid-ascending and mid-descending aorta, and Δt = time delay between arrival of the foot of PW between 2 points). Results: On echo, maximal post-exercise LVOT gradient, degree of MR, DT, MPI, degree of MR and VO2 max were 104±52 (range 65–198), 1±1, 240±79, 0.7±0.5 and 25±6 respectively. On CMR, mean basal septal thickness (cm), PWV, EF, ESV and EDV index (ml/m2), were 1.9±0.5 (range 1.6 –2.3), 9.2±7, 64 %±6, 32 ±8, 87±16, 110±29 and respectively. Regression analyses testing the predictors of VO2 max are shown in table. There was no association between age and PWV (r = 0.01, p-value 0.9). Conclusion: In HCM patients, age and PWV are stronger predictors of VO2 max compared to LV thickness, MR, LVOTO and diastolic indices. Aortic stiffness might additionally influence exercise capacity in HCM patients, and could be a potential therapeutic target.
Personalized Boosters After a Computerized Intervention Targeting College Drinking: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background Problematic drinking among emerging adult college students is extensive. Computer-delivered interventions (CDIs) have strong appeal because they can be quickly delivered to large numbers of students. Although they are efficacious in the short term, CDIs are not as efficacious as in-person interventions longer term. This study examined the utility of emailed boosters containing personalized feedback after a CDI to enhance and extend reductions among emerging adult college drinkers. Sex and age were explored as potential moderators. Methods Participants were 537 college students (67.4% female) aged 18 to 24 years (M age = 19.65, SD = 1.67) who consumed at least 1 alcoholic drink in the past 2 weeks. They were randomly assigned to CDI-only, CDI + booster email, or an assessment-only control condition, and were assessed up to 9 months postintervention. A booster email with personalized feedback was sent to the CDI + booster email group 2 weeks after completion of the CDI. Results Moderation findings for age revealed that the booster may be an effective means to strengthen and extend intervention effects for emerging adults who are of legal drinking age. However, effects were negligible for underage drinkers. Although the booster effect for the overall sample demonstrated a trend in the expected direction, it failed to reach significance. Booster effects were not significantly moderated by sex. Intervention effects were not moderated by either age or sex. Conclusions The present investigation contributes to a limited body of research on boosters to augment main intervention effects in college drinkers. Our study demonstrated that a brief CDI plus a simple email booster with personalized feedback resulted in significant reductions in drinking outcomes for emerging adults of legal drinking age. Efforts to further develop and refine intervention booster strategies represent a promising future direction to minimize harmful drinking among college students.
Vaccinia Virus: A Novel Expression System for Receptors and Ion Channels

The molecular cloning of the wide variety of ion channels and receptors would be less rewarding without the opportunity to functionally express these clones in foreign cells. Ideally they are re-introduced into cells whose intracellular milieu is similar to the protein’s natural environment; this increases the likelihood of correct biosynthesis, posttranslational modification, sorting, assembly, and targeting of the expressed proteins.
Promoting sophisticated fraction constructs through instructional changes in a mathematics course for PreK-8 prospective teachers

In a previous study, we validated the fractions schemes and operations trajectory (Norton and Wilkins 2012; Steffe in J Math Behav 20(3): 267–307, 2002; Steffe and Olive Children’s fractional knowledge. Springer, New York, 2010; Wilkins and Norton 2011) with PreK-8 prospective teachers and explored PreK-8 prospective teachers’ understanding of fractions based on fraction schemes and operations (Lovin et al. 2016). In that study, we found that most of the prospective teachers had constructed the lower-level fraction schemes and operations, but less than half had constructed the more sophisticated ones. In the current study, we explored ways of evoking the more sophisticated fraction schemes and operations, in particular, by implementing simple instructional changes to a mathematics course for PreK-8 prospective teachers. One change focused on fraction language, specifically encouraging the use of iterative fraction language (e.g., 3/5 is three equal-size pieces, each of which is 1/5 of the whole). Another change focused on intentional number choice, specifically emphasizing improper fractions. After focused fraction instruction that included these instructional changes, we found significant increases in PreK-8 prospective teachers’ interiorization of coordinating three levels of units as well as in PreK-8 prospective teachers’ construction of the reversible partitive fraction scheme and the iterative fraction scheme. We conclude with implications for practice and research in mathematics courses intended for PreK-8 prospective teachers.
Prefrontal cortex modulates firing pattern in the nucleus reuniens of the midline thalamus via distinct corticothalamic pathways

The thalamus has long been recognized for its role in relaying sensory information from the periphery, a function accomplished by its "first-order" nuclei. However, a second category of thalamic nuclei, termed "higher-order" nuclei, have been shown instead to mediate communication between cortical areas. The nucleus reuniens of the midline thalamus (RE) is a higher-order nucleus known to act as a conduit of reciprocal communication between the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and hippocampus. While anatomical and behavioural studies of RE are numerous, circuit-based electrophysiological studies, particularly those examining the impact of cortical input and the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) on RE neuron firing, are sparse. To characterize RE neuron firing properties and dissect the circuit dynamics of the infralimbic subdivision of the mPFC (ilPFC), the TRN and RE, we used in vivo, extracellular, single-unit recordings in male Sprague Dawley rats and manipulated neural activity using targeted pharmacological manipulations, electrical stimulation and a projection-specific implementation of designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs). We show that ilPFC inhibition reduces multiple burst firing parameters in RE, whereas ilPFC stimulation drives burst firing and dampens tonic firing. In addition, TRN inhibition reduces the number of spontaneously active neurons in RE. Finally, inhibition of ilPFC terminals in RE selectively enhances a subset of burst firing parameters. These findings demonstrate that ilPFC input, both via direct projections and via the TRN, can modulate RE neuron firing pattern in nuanced and complex ways. They also highlight the ilPFC-TRN-RE circuit as a likely critical component of prefrontal-hippocampal interactions.
Abstract 5914: The porcine model for onocolytic adenovirus-based therapy

Oncolytic adenoviruses (Ad) are promising tools in the development of cancer therapeutics. A majority of Ad-based therapies utilize serotypes of species C, with Adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) being the most commonly employed. Previously, clinical trials have demonstrated the low efficiency of Ad5 vectors, mainly due to absence of the Ad5 primary receptor (Coxsackie Adenovirus Receptor, CAR) in cancer cells. Engineering Ad vectors utilizing the species B (Ad3, Ad35, Ad11) receptors have greatly improved the oncolytic potential of Ad-based therapies. However, the lack of a viable animal model has impeded clinical translation of these tropism-modified vectors. Mouse models are insufficient because Ad does not replicate in murine tissue. Non-human apes are not feasible due to availability and cost. Cotton rats and Syrian hamsters, although permissive of Ad5 replication, are not suitable for Ad3-, Ad35-, and Ad11-retargeted vectors due to the lack of species B primary receptors (CD46 and desmoglein 2) in rodent systems. In this study, we explored pigs as a model to study performance of the group B oncolytic adenoviruses by employing the fiber-modified Ad5/Ad3 chimeric vector. As a control, the Ad5 fiber-unmodified virus was used. First, we demonstrated the ability of swine cell lines to support replication of both Ad5 and Ad5/Ad3. Second, we analyzed binding, gene transfer, cytolytic, and replication ability of Ad5 and Ad5/Ad3 in various non-human cell lines (swine, hamster, murine, rat, bovine, canine). Our data confirmed that while hamster cell lines (HP1 and HapT1) were able to support binding and replication of Ad5-based vectors, they failed to support that with the Ad3-retargeted vectors. Additionally, we showed that among all tested cell lines, only porcine cells (PK15 and PTK75) were supportive of both binding and replication of the Ad3-retargeted virus. Of note, Ad5/Ad3 outperformed Ad5 in its cytolytic effect in porcine cell lines. These in vitro results prompted evaluation of the vectors in vivo. Immunocompetent Yorkshire pigs were systemically injected with a single dose of Ad5- and Ad5/3- expressing luciferase (Luc) from the Ad E3 region. Quantitative PCR analyses of the primary organs collected 7 days post-infection revealed Ad5 and Ad5/3 viral DNA in the lungs and spleen. Replication-dependent Luc expression was also observed in these tissue samples suggesting active viral replication. The quantity of viral DNA in other tissue such as the kidneys, liver, and pancreas was negligible. The results of these in vitro and in vivo studies indicate that pigs are a promising model to assess unmodified and tropism-modified adenoviral vectors. Citation Format: Malavika Chandrashekar, Lisa Koodie, Michele Dunning, George Ruth, Richard Bianco, Masato Yamamoto, Julia Davydova. The porcine model for onocolytic adenovirus-based therapy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5914.
Routine vaccination coverage of children aged 1-7 years in Zhejiang province, China.

Background: This study was to evaluate the coverage, completeness and timeliness of routine vaccination among children aged 1–7 years in Zhejiang province.Methods: Demographic information and immun...
Seeking Food Justice and a Just City through Local Action in Food Systems: Opportunities, Challenges, and Transformation

First paragraphs: Producing social change and supporting social justice has always required multiscalar strategy and action. Federal policy actions can be transfor­mative, but are sensitive to extreme philosophical shifts and partisan conflict in federal leadership. When federal leadership is unstable, local and regional government action provides a critical space for maintaining movement forward and presenting opposition when federal policies are not supportive. These dynamics are evident in many spheres of policy, such as housing, transportation, economic development, education, health, and food systems. We can see this tension in food systems today, as federal policies regarding agricultural subsidies and proposals to tighten food assistance programs (e.g., SNAP) can be in opposition to local goals of sup­porting sustainable and just local food systems. Local activities and practitioners must be agile to work within an ever-changing federal policy landscape....
African Americans are less likely to receive curative treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma.

African Americans are less likely to receive curative treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma