cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Continuity and Change in Nebraska Quiltmakers, 1870-1989:

Using information garnered from questionnaires completed during Nebraska Quilt Project (NQP), we developed a profile of Nebraska quiltmakers in four time periods (1870-1919, 1920-1945, 1946-1969, and 1970-1989) and examined how quiltmaking practices and motivations changed over time. Quiltmaking in Nebraska continues to be predominately an activity of rural women; however, it has become increasingly popular among urban women since the 1970s. The majority of Nebraska quiltmakers of all periods were rural homemakers of German descent, affiliated with either a Methodist or Lutheran church. Proportionately fewer Catholic women quilted than did members of other denominations. And, proportionately more women of English and Scottish ancestry were quiltmakers than would be expected based on percentages of those ancestry groups among Nebraskans as a whole. Of those quiltmakers who were gainfully employed, most worked in fields traditionally chosen by women. These findings are consistent with the conservative natur...
Ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer endobiliary obliteration of hepatic segments in a patient with isolated bile leaks.

A 54-year-old woman with a symptomatic giant hepatic hemangioma underwent an extended left hepatic trisegmentectomy complicated by 250–350 mL/d postoperative bilious drainage. After 5 months of therapy, drainage was unabated, and the patient was no longer a surgical candidate. Sinography revealed three distinct isolated bile duct leaks involving segments 6, 7, and 8. Endobiliary segmentectomy was achieved by obliterating the isolated systems with ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer (Onyx; ev3, Plymouth, Minnesota) during three fluoroscopic procedures. Bilious leaks were successfully eliminated, and compensatory hypertrophy of noninvolved liver occurred. At 2 years from the last embolization procedure, the patient remained asymptomatic with no bilious leak.
Statistical Learning: From Acquiring Specific Items to Forming General Rules

Statistical learning is a rapid and robust mechanism that enables adults and infants to extract patterns embedded in both language and visual domains. Statistical learning operates implicitly, without instruction, through mere exposure to a set of input stimuli. However, much of what learners must acquire about a structured domain consists of principles or rules that can be applied to novel inputs. It has been claimed that statistical learning and rule learning are separate mechanisms; in this article, however, we review evidence and provide a unifying perspective that argues for a single statistical-learning mechanism that accounts for both the learning of input stimuli and the generalization of learned patterns to novel instances. The balance between instance-learning and generalization is based on two factors: the strength of perceptual and cognitive biases that highlight structural regularities, and the consistency of elements’ contexts (unique vs. overlapping) in the input.
Neural Plasticity in the Gustatory System

Sensory systems adapt to changing environmental influences by coordinated alterations in structure and function. These alterations are referred to as plastic changes. The gustatory system displays numerous plastic changes even in receptor cells. This review focuses on the plasticity of gustatory structures through the first synaptic relay in the brain. Unlike other sensory systems, there is a remarkable amount of environmentally induced changes in these peripheral-most neural structures. The most consistent and largest changes occur to stimuli that also impact on homeostatic systems, especially when the environmental manipulation is instituted during early development.
Positive and negative obstacle detection using the HLD classifier

Autonomous robots must be able to detect hazardous terrain even when sensor data is noisy and incomplete. In particular, negative obstacles such as cliffs or stairs often cannot be sensed directly; rather, their presence must be inferred. In this paper, we describe the height-length-density (HLD) terrain classifier that generalizes some prior methods and provides a unified mechanism for detecting both positive and negative obstacles. The classifier utilizes three novel features that inherently deal with partial observability. The structure of the classifier allows the system designer to encode the capabilities of the vehicle as well as a notion of risk, making our approach applicable to virtually any vehicle. We evaluate our method in an indoor/outdoor environment, which includes several perceptually difficult real-world cases, and show that our approach out-performs current methods.
Obesity Metaphors: How Beliefs about the Causes of Obesity Affect Support for Public Policy

Context: Relatively little is known about the factors shaping public attitudes toward obesity as a policy concern. This study examines whether individuals' beliefs about the causes of obesity affect their support for policies aimed at stemming obesity rates. This article identifies a unique role of metaphor-based beliefs, as distinct from conventional political attitudes, in explaining support for obesity policies. Methods: This article used the Yale Rudd Center Public Opinion on Obesity Survey, a nationally representative web sample surveyed from the Knowledge Networks panel in 2006/07 (N = 1,009). The study examines how respondents' demographic and health characteristics, political attitudes, and agreement with seven obesity metaphors affect support for sixteen policies to reduce obesity rates. Findings: Including obesity metaphors in regression models helps explain public support for policies to curb obesity beyond levels attributable solely to demographic, health, and political characteristics. The metaphors that people use to understand rising obesity rates are strong predictors of support for public policy, and their influence varies across different types of policy interventions. Conclusions: Over the last five years, the United States has begun to grapple with the implications of dramatically escalating rates of obesity. Individuals use metaphors to better understand increasing rates of obesity, and obesity metaphors are independent and powerful predictors of support for public policies to curb obesity. Metaphorical reasoning also offers a potential framework for using strategic issue framing to shift support for obesity policies.
An internal model control strategy for nonlinear systems

An internal model control (IMC) strategy for nonlinear single-input single-output systems is proposed. The controller is designed to provide nominal performance, and a nonlinear filter is added to make the controller implementable and to account for plant/model mismatch. An important advantage of the new approach is that the assumption of full-state feedback inherent in most input-output linearization schemes is eliminated. However, the proposed IMC strategy is restricted to open-loop stable systems with stable inverses. Under mild assumptions, the closed-loop system possesses the same stability, perfect control, and zero offset properties as linear IMC. Simulation results for a continuous fermentor illustrate the advantages of the nonlinear IMC strategy.
Primary Amyloidosis of Celiac/Para-Pancreatic Lymph Nodes Diagnosed by Endosonography-Guided Fine Needle Aspiration A Case Report

Introduction. Primary amyloidosis is a disorder resulting from the deposition of fibrillary protein in extracellular tissue. Diagnosis of primary amyloidosis in the celiac/para-pancreatic lymph nodes via endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration has not been reported in the literature. In this article, we report our first observation. Our patient is a 64-year-old Caucasian man who was referred to our institution from an outlying hospital for recurrent abdominal pain. Radiological imaging revealed an enlarged abdominal lymph node that was already biopsied under computed tomography needle guidance but diagnosis was not achieved on pathological examination. At our institution, endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration showed enlarged para-celiac/pancreatic lymph nodes. Endosonography-guided fine needle aspiration revealed the diagnosis of primary amyloidosis. The patient tolerated the procedure well with follow-up as an outpatient. Conclusions. Lymph node involvement in amyloidosis is not uncommon. However, the involvement of the pancreatic/celiac lymph nodes by amyloidosis is obscure in this case. This case shows a rare presentation of amyloidosis diagnosed for the first time by the technique of endosonography-guided fine needle aspiration. In the future, this might serve as an establishment to standardize diagnosing abdominal lymph node amyloidosis, once suspected, by endosonography-guided fine needle aspiration.
Mutagenesis Studies on the Amino Acid Residues Involved in an Iron-Binding Domain and a Catalytic Site of Human 5-Lipoxygenase

Lipoxygenase is ubiquitously distributed in plants and animals. They all catalyze the incorporation of a molecular oxygen into polyunsaturated fatty acid containing a cis, cis-1,4-pentadiene moiety. Human 5-lipoxygenase catalyzes the oxygenation of arachidonic acid at carbon 5 to yield its hydroperoxide 5-HPETE and the subsequent dehydration of the hydroperoxide to form leukotriene A4 (LTA4), which are the early steps in the biosynthesis of leukotrienes.
Analysis-by-synthesis

Integrate crowd simulators to a multi-camera tracking system and improves the performance.Compared two simulators. The one with a more realistic simulation strategy has better results.The experiments are conducted on a very challenging dataset for crowds with multiple views. For tracking systems consisting of multiple cameras with overlapping field-of-views, homography-based approaches are widely adopted to significantly reduce occlusions among pedestrians by sharing information among multiple views. However, in these approaches, the usage of information under real-world coordinates is only at a preliminary level. Therefore, in this paper, a multi-camera tracking system with integrated crowd simulation is proposed in order to explore the possibility to make homography information more helpful. Two crowd simulators with different simulation strategies are used to investigate the influence of the simulation strategy on the final tracking performance. The performance is evaluated by multiple object tracking precision and accuracy (MOTP and MOTA) metrics, for all the camera views and the results obtained under real-world coordinates. The experimental results demonstrate that crowd simulators boost the tracking performance significantly, especially for crowded scenes with higher density. In addition, a more realistic simulation strategy helps to further improve the overall tracking result.
“Art Porn Provocauteurs”: Queer Feminist Performances of Embodiment in the Work of Catherine Breillat and Lena Dunham

Catherine Breillat and Lena Dunham share a devotion to questioning sexual norms and norms of representation through embodied female performance of sex/uality. Exploring and affirming that which is typically deemed abject or shameful, especially for women, Breillat and Dunham reveal and revise heteropatriarchal uses of female nudity and sexuality, in and out of pornography, that conceal and deny women’s humanity. In so doing, these ‘provocauteurs’ stretch definitional and representational boundaries of ‘feminist’ and ‘porn’. Through examination of Breillat’s films A Real Young Girl (1976), Romance (2000), Fat Girl (2001), Sex is Comedy (2002), and Anatomy of Hell (2004), and of Dunham’s HBO series Girls (2012–), this chapter considers how these screen provocauteurs’ mutual re-envisioning of sex/uality generates a hybridised, politicised mode of feminist ‘art porn’.
Memories of the Tokko: An Analysis of the Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots

ABSTRACTThe present article examines the Chiran Tokko Heiwa Kaikan [Chiran Peace Museum for Kamikaze Pilots] located in Chiran, Japan, a popular kamikaze pilot memorial site to study the memories of kamikaze pilots the museum promotes. By examining the museum, I discuss militaristic ideas promoted by the museum that are coupled with ambiguous pacifist discourse, presumably for pragmatic reasons. Through my analysis, I also attempt to illustrate the importance of considering geographical location such as a town, city, or prefecture where political and economical considerations play important roles in the establishment and maintenance of commemorative sites.
Effect of High Concentrations of Glucose on Fibroblasts, Leucocytes, and Epithelial Cells

ConclusionsUnder the conditions of these experiments, fibroblasts from a 24-year-old strain tolerate glucose concentrations of 390, 650, and 1,150 mg. % over a period of 7 days. There is no evidence of an inhibiting or toxic effect. The higher concentrations, namely, 2,090 and 3,200 mg. %, have an inhibiting effect from the very beginning and are ultimately toxic.∗Blood leucocytes are more sensitive and less tolerant to abnormal concentrations of glucose, as shown by the fact that these cells deteriorate more quickly in the higher concentrations of glucose than do fibroblasts and epithelial cells. Migration of the polymorphonuclear cells is stimulated by concentrations of 390, 650, and 1,150 mg. %. These concentrations do not injure the cells. The higher concentrations, although stimulating in the beginning, later become inhibiting and quite toxic. The monocytes appear to be stimulated by glucose in all the concentrations except the very highest. The cells are active in all, but appear coarsely granular i...
Evolutionary Genomics and Proteomics

Since the first publication of the sequence of an entire genome of a living organism—Haemophilus influenzae—in 1995, sequences of almost 1,000 genomes have been reported or are presently being assembled. The majority are bacterial, with the number of archaeal and eukaryotic organisms being close to 100 each. And this is even before the full arrival of the era of ultrafast and, hopefully, ultracheap sequencing technologies that are expected to yield thousands of genomes per year, if not per month. While a large effort will to be devoted to the sequencing of representatives from novel species, most of the work will be directed to obtaining genomes from many organisms of the same species. Why do we need so many genomes? The answer lays primarily in the hope that a comparative genomics approach will contribute to the understanding of the molecular basis of differences, on one hand, between humans in susceptibility to different infections and somatic disorders and, on the other hand, between microorganisms in their abilities to cause human infections. Benefits to agriculture as well as breeding our beloved pets will also be enormous. Indeed, we will finally get an answer to the most important question of all—why do Labrador Retrievers love to swim?
Data from Unethical Experiments

These ethical questions are given even more consequence by the concern about what to do with data which has been garnered from experiments that are judged to be clearly unethical. This question has been an important one since the doctors’ trials at Nuremberg. We might imagine, for example, a researcher today, whose protocol had been declined by an ERC in the country of origin, simply deciding to take that same protocol to a different part of the world where there are no formal requirements for ethical review, or at least where there are much less strict requirements, and there simply conducting the research outside the purview of strict ethical oversight. In this situation, a protocol that has been formally judged ethically inadequate might still manage to be conducted and to gather some data. What should be done with the data garnered from that experiment?
Techniques for measuring cellular zinc

The development and improvement of fluorescent Zn2+ sensors and Zn2+ imaging techniques have increased our insight into this biologically important ion. Application of these tools has identified an intracellular labile Zn2+ pool and cultivated further interest in defining the distribution and dynamics of labile Zn2+. The study of Zn2+ in live cells in real time using sensors is a powerful way to answer complex biological questions. In this review, we highlight newly engineered Zn2+ sensors, methods to test whether the sensors are accessing labile Zn2+, and recent studies that point to the challenges of using such sensors. Elemental mapping techniques can complement and strengthen data collected with sensors. Both mass spectrometry-based and X-ray fluorescence-based techniques yield highly specific, sensitive, and spatially resolved snapshots of metal distribution in cells. The study of Zn2+ has already led to new insight into all phases of life from fertilization of the egg to life-threatening cancers. In order to continue building new knowledge about Zn2+ biology it remains important to critically assess the available toolset for this endeavor.
Needleless Electrohydrodynamic Cojetting of Bicompartmental Particles and Fibers from an Extended Fluid Interface

Electrohydrodynamic cojetting can result in fibers (electrospinning) and particles (electrospraying) with complex, bicompartmental architectures. An important consideration for application of bicompartmental particles and fibers is the limited throughput derived from the use of parallel capillaries, which require laminar flow to form a multifluidic interface. Here, a novel synthesis approach that takes advantage of an extended bicompartmental fluid interface formed at the sharp edge of a 2D plate is reported. Upon application of an electrical potential to the plate, several electrified fluid jets form spontaneously. Depending on the processing conditions, either bicompartmental particles or fibers with well-defined architectures are prepared. Importantly, this needleless process yields production rates that are more than 30 times higher than those of conventional needle-based techniques. Fiber properties, such as morphology or size, are independent of the flow rate, indicating that this process is physically self-regulating by adjusting the number of jets ejecting from the extended fluid interface. The needleless preparation of bicompartmental particles and fibers is an important technological breakthrough that can enable further advances ranging from drug delivery and tissue engineering to industrial applications.
Applications of Gene Transfer in Hematologic Malignancy

Although gene transfer was originally conceived as a means to replace or correct defective genes in patients with inherited disorders, the process has shown broad potential for intervention in hematologic malignancy and for study of hematopoietic stem cell biology.
The Physician Self-Referral Dilemma: Enforcing Antitrust Law as a Solution

As health care reform pervades the United States, lawmakers have subjected physician self-referrals to heightened scrutiny. Recent evidence indicates that sending patients to facilities in which a physician has an ownership interest often causes overutilization, overpricing, and lower quality of care. This Note analyzes how physician self-referral arrangements can have negative effects on competition. To combat the adverse effects, the Note examines how enforcing antitrust laws can ameliorate the self-referral dilemma and aid in restoring competition to the health care market. This solution will maintain the doctor's right to invest while protecting the patient's vulnerability.
Characteristics of Long-term Nonprogressors and Viremia Controllers Infected with HIV-1 via Contaminated Blood Donations or Transfusions Conducted 20 Years Earlier.

To characterize long-term nonprogressors (LTNPs) and viremia controllers (VCs), infected with HIV-1 through contaminated blood donation or transfusion between 1992 and 1996 in Henan, China. LTNPs and VCs were defined by CD4+T lymphocyte (CD4) count and viral load (VL). Of 29, 294 patients infected with HIV-1 via contaminated blood donation or transfusion that had conducted for more than 20 years, 92 were LTNPs/VCs. There were 70 LTNPs (0.24%), 43 VCs (0.15%), and 48 LTNPs+VCs-(0.16%). VCs had a significantly lower CD4 nadir, compared to LTNPs and LTNPs+VCs-, and no significant differences for the highest VL and HIV-1 DNA. Cases P4 and P5 were LTNPs, while their VL reached approximately 4.3 log copies/mL. P6 was a VC, but with CD4 < 500 cells/μL constantly. Data from the LTNPs/VCs cohort provided valuable information, future research is needed.
Moral and religious convictions: Are they the same or different things?

People often assume that moral and religious convictions are functionally the same thing. But are they? We report on 19 studies (N = 12,284) that tested whether people’s perceptions that their attitudes are reflections of their moral and religious convictions across 30 different issues were functionally the same (the equivalence hypothesis) or different constructs (the distinct constructs hypothesis), and whether the relationship between these constructs was conditional on political orientation (the political asymmetry hypothesis). Seven of these studies (N = 5,561, and 22 issues) also had data that allowed us to test whether moral and religious conviction are only closely related for those who are more rather than less religious (the secularization hypothesis), and a narrower form of the political asymmetry and secularization hypotheses, that is, that people’s moral and religious convictions may be tightly connected constructs only for religious conservatives. Meta-analytic tests of each of these hypotheses yielded weak support for the secularization hypothesis, no support for the equivalence or political asymmetry hypotheses, and the strongest support for the distinct constructs hypothesis.
Mobile assisted diabetic retinopathy detection using deep neural network

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a major microvascular complication resulting from diabetes and continues to have a serious impact on global health systems. Globally about 95 million people suffer from DR. This paper focuses on detection aspects of a mobile application developed to perform DR screening in real time. The application is powered by a tensorflow deep neural network architecture that is trained and tested on 16,798 fundus images. These images are preprocessed to remove noise and prepare them to be fed into neural network. Preprocessing steps involve averaging all the images using a 5×5 filter to improve the quality of images and then these images are resized to 256×256 pixels. After preprocessing the input dataset is fed into the neural network. The convolutional neural network model used in this project is MobileNets, which is used for mobile devices. The neural network has 28 convolutional layers and after each layer there is batchnorm and ReLU nonlinear function except at the final layer. The output from last layer is a class label either DR or no DR. The final accuracy of the model is 73.3%. This model is optimized to work on mobile devices and does not require Internet connection to run.
35: Oral rapamycin prevents carcinogen and inflammation-induced skin carcinogenesis through an IFN-γ-dependent mechanism

Background Cancer prevention is a cost-effective alternative to treatment. Oral rapamycin (eRapa) prevents distinct cancers and extends life in mice [1] , making it a candidate broad-spectrum cancer prevention agent. Rapamycin, an inhibitor of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), has significant immune effects that are unstudied in cancer. We hypothesize that eRapa prevents cancer through improved cancer immune surveillance, which we tested in a carcinogen-induced, inflammation-driven skin cancer model. Methods eRapa was used at 14 ppm microencapsulated rapamycin. Skin cancer. Wild-type C57BL/6 (WT) or syngeneic β δ knockout (KO) and interferon (IFN)- γ KO mice (lacking all T cells or IFN- γ , respectively) got eRapa or control for 1 month, followed once with the carcinogen 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA), then twice weekly applications with the inflammatory agent 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol (TPA) for 24 weeks. Flow cytometry assessed cells and IFN- γ . Statistics. Tumors (unpaired t test and 2-way ANOVA) and malignant degeneration (Fischer exact test). Results eRapa reduced benign ( p = .004) and malignant ( p = .03) tumors in WT mice. T cells and IFN- γ mediate cancer immune surveillance so their effects on eRapa cancer prevention were studied. eRapa reduced skin tumors in β δ KO mice lacking all T cells ( p = .04), but not in IFN- γ KO mice ( p = .13), consistent with loss of beneficial eRapa-induced, non-T cell IFN- γ . In support, WT or IFN- γ KO T cell transfer into IFN- γ KO mice did not alter eRapa cancer prevention in this model. In WT mice on DMBA/TPA, eRapa increased IFN- γ producing dermal natural killer (NK) cells ( p γ KO mice, suggesting that eRapa-mediated IFN- γ facilitated local NK cell accumulation. Conclusions eRapa prevents carcinogen and inflammation-induced skin cancer, which involves a non-T cell that could be an NK cell, and is IFN- γ dependent. We also show that eRapa prevents cancer and extends life in distinct mouse cancer models, which paves the way for use of mTOR inhibitors as broad spectrum human cancer prevention agents.
Impact of pharmacy services on initial clinical outcomes and medication adherence among veterans with uncontrolled diabetes

Diabetes remains a growing public health threat but evidence supports the role that pharmacists can play in improving diabetes medication use and outcomes. To improve the quality of care, the Veterans Health Administration has widely adopted care models that integrate clinical pharmacists, but more data are needed to interpret the impact of these services. Our objective was to assess clinical pharmacy services’ impact on outcomes and oral antidiabetic medication (OAD) use among veterans with uncontrolled diabetes in the first year of therapy. This was a retrospective cohort analysis using the Veterans Affairs (VA) Corporate Data Warehouse to identify the first diagnosis of and initiation of OAD therapy for uncomplicated, uncontrolled diabetes (A1C > 7.0%) during 2002–2014. Receipt of clinical pharmacy services was identified using codes within VA electronic health records, and clinical values were obtained at or near the initial fill date and 365 days later. Use of OADs was assessed by proportion of days covered (PDC) for one year following the first filled prescription. Veterans having received clinical pharmacy services were matched 1:1 to those having not seen a clinical pharmacist in the first year of therapy, and generalized linear models assessed changes and differences in outcomes. The analysis included 5749 patients in each cohort. On average, patients saw a clinical pharmacist 2.5 times throughout the first year of OAD therapy. Adherence to OAD medications was higher in veterans having seen a pharmacist (84.3% vs. 82.4%, p < 0.0001) and more such patients achieved a PDC of at least 80% (72.2% vs. 68.2%, p < 0.0001). After one year of OAD therapy, mean change in hemoglobin A1C was greater among those receiving pharmacy services (− 1.5% vs. -1.4%, p < 0.0001). Pharmacist participation in diabetes patients’ primary care positively affects the multifaceted needs of patients with this condition and comorbid chronic disease.
Urbanisation Alters Fatty Acids in Stream Food Webs

Fatty acids are essential to macroinvertebrate growth and reproduction and can indicate food web structure and nutritional quality of basal resources. However, broad‐scale examinations of how catchment land cover and associated stressors affect the proportions of fatty acids (FAs) in stream food webs are few. Here, we: (1) examine relationships among proportions of FAs among benthic periphyton and macroinvertebrate collector/gatherers, shredders, and predators; and (2) test if relationships between periphytic and macroinvertebrate FAs were altered due to the intensity of urban development in catchments. Proportions of the ≥20‐C eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA 20:5ω3), arachidonic acid (ARA 20:4ω6), and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6ω3) indicated collector/gatherers had a diet richer in periphyton than in shredders, which had significantly lower proportions of these FAs. Collector/gatherers were in turn likely to be high‐quality sources of ω3 and ≥ 20‐C FAs for predators, which also had significantly greater EPA and ARA proportions than those in shredders. Linoleic (18:2ω6) and α‐linolenic acid (18:3ω3) comprised the greatest proportions of FAs in shredders, which suggested a diet dominated by leaf litter and associated hyphomycetes. As catchment urbanisation increased, proportions of total ω3 FAs and EPA in periphyton were significantly greater. This pattern also was seen through macroinvertebrate consumers and predators, given that proportions of these FAs in macroinvertebrates also were significantly correlated with factors associated with catchment urbanisation. The significant increase in total ω3 FAs and EPA proportions within shredders indicated that periphyton growth, and their FAs, increased on leaf litter, probably due to greater nutrient concentrations associated with catchment urbanisation. Proportions of total ω6 FAs in biota were not significantly correlated with factors associated with urban development, which could indicate that they were of sufficient abundance for consumers regardless of urban intensity or possible changes in their sources. Our study provides an informative first step that identified notable differences in proportions of FAs among macroinvertebrates in urban streams and an increase in proportions of total ω3 FAs and EPA in periphyton, consumers, and predators as catchment urbanisation increases. Identifying how FA relationships within food webs change in response to catchment alterations and stressors could inform land use and management decisions by linking environmental changes to measures important to ecosystem outcomes.
Weak Galerkin based a posteriori error estimates for second order elliptic interface problems on polygonal meshes

Abstract In this paper, we present a posteriori error estimate of weak Galerkin (WG) finite element methods based on the second order elliptic interface problems. This estimate can be applied to polygonal meshes or meshes with hanging nodes. The reliability and efficiency of the designed error estimator has been proved in this work. Extensive numerical tests are performed to validate our algorithm. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the adaptive mesh refinement guided by the proposed error estimator.
Laparoscopic Approach to Pelvic Organ Prolapse

Vaginal approaches have been considered the optimal mode of access for surgical treatment of pelvic organ prolapse due to decreased morbidity, shorter hospital stay, and lower cost as compared to the abdominal approach. However, abdominal sacrocolpopexy has been considered the gold standard treatment of apical prolapse due to better long-term outcomes and less dyspareunia than vaginal surgeries (Maher et al. 2011). Advances in laparoscopic techniques have made it possible to maintain the favorable outcomes of abdominal procedures while also providing the reduced recovery times of vaginal surgery (Paraiso et al. 1999). Minimally invasive surgical techniques and considerations for the treatment of pelvic organ prolapse are addressed in this chapter.
Hydrotreating of reduced oxygen content bio-oils produced by formate-assisted pyrolysis

Abstract An important aspect of the hydrotreating step is to maximize carbon retention (carbon efficiency) in the finished product. In this work, pyrolysis oils of three different oxygen contents (18, 21, and 26 wt%) prepared using formate-assisted pyrolysis were hydrotreated under similar conditions (300 °C and 52–97 bar) using a commercial nickel alumina-silica catalyst in a single-stage process. Reduced oxygen content in the feed resulted in improved hydrotreating carbon efficiencies and reduced catalyst plugging due to carbon solids formation. In the case of the 18% oxygen feedstock, the reactor was stopped due to running out of liquid feed with up to 350 h time-on-stream (TOS) whereas the 26% oxygen feed resulted in reactor plugging at 200 h TOS. For samples selected near the end of each run, hydrotreated oil yield and carbon yield in the oil improved with reduced oxygen in the feed. These yields were 79 and 92%, respectively, for the 18% oxygen feed and reduced to 52 and 61%, respectively for the 26% oxygen feed. The lower oil yields and carbon oil yields were a result of increased production of gases and unaccounted mass and carbon, possibly due to coke formation in the catalyst bed. Increasing reactor pressure from 52 to 97 bar when hydrotreating the 18% oxygen content oil also improved mass and carbon yields of the oil product after a rapid increase in oxygen content in the oil. Comparison to literature data and economic impacts is presented.
Vehicular Air Pollution in Houston, Texas: An Intra-Categorical Analysis of Environmental Injustice

This article contributes to distributive environmental justice (EJ) research on air pollution by analyzing racial/ethnic and related intra-categorical disparities in health risk from exposure to on-road hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in Harris County, Texas. Previous studies in this urban area have not examined intra-ethnic heterogeneity in EJ outcomes or disproportionate exposure to vehicular pollutants. Our goal was to determine how the EJ implications of cancer risk from exposure to on-road HAP sources differ across and within each major racial/ethnic group (Hispanics, non-Hispanic Blacks, and non-Hispanic Whites), based on data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment (2011) and American Community Survey (2009–2013). Statistical analyses are based on generalized estimating equations which account for clustering of analytic units. Results indicated that Hispanics and non-Hispanic Blacks are exposed to significantly higher cancer risk than non-Hispanic Whites. When each racial/ethnic group was disaggregated based on contextually relevant characteristics, individuals who are in poverty, foreign-born, renters, and have limited English proficiency are found to be disproportionately located in areas exposed to significantly higher cancer risk, regardless of their major racial/ethnic designation. Our findings underscore the need to conduct intra-categorical EJ analysis for uncovering inequalities that get concealed when broadly defined racial/ethnic categories are used.
Can patient and fracture factors predict opioid dependence following upper extremity fractures?: a retrospective review.

Since the early 1990s, opioids have been used as a mainstay for pain management surrounding fracture injuries. As opioid dependence has become a major public health issue, it is important to understand what factors can leave patients vulnerable. The purpose of this study was to examine what risk factors, patient or injury severity, contribute most to postoperative opioid dependence following surgical treatment of proximal humerus fractures (PHFs). A retrospective review of all patients who underwent an open reduction and internal fixation of PHF was performed within a large multisite hospital system. Recorded variables included age, gender, ASA class, BMI, fracture type, time to surgery, pre- and postoperative opioid prescriptions, physical and psychological comorbidities, smoking status, and complications. Pre- and postoperative opioid dependence was defined as prescription opioid use in the 3 months leading up to or following surgery. Odds ratio calculations were performed for each variable, and a multivariate logistic regression was used to compare all predictors. A total of 198 surgically treated PHFs were included in the cohort with an average age of 59.9 years. Thirty-nine cases were determined to be preoperatively opioid dependent while 159 cases were preoperatively opioid naive. Preoperative opioid dependence was found to be a significant risk factor for postoperative narcotic dependence, carrying a 2.42 times increased risk. (CI 1.07–5.48, p = 0.034). Fracture type was also found to be a risk factor for postoperative dependence, with complex 3- and 4-part fracture patients being 1.93 times more likely to be opioid dependent postoperatively compared to 2 part fractures (CI 1.010–3.764, p = 0.049). All other factors were not found to have any significant influence on postoperative opioid dependence. Our results demonstrate that the most important risk factors of postoperative opioid dependence following proximal humerus fractures are preoperative dependence and fracture complexity. It is important for orthopedic surgeons to ensure that patients who have more complex fractures or are preoperatively opioid dependent receive adequate education on their increased risk and support to wean off of opioids following surgery. III
Telerehabilitation for Rural Veterans: A Qualitative Assessment of Barriers and Facilitators to Implementation.

Purpose Telerehabilitation (TR) is increasingly being used to meet the rehabilitation needs of individuals living in rural areas. Nevertheless, reports on TR implementation for rural patients remain limited. As part of a broader evaluation, this study investigated barriers and facilitators to the implementation of a national TR program to meet the needs of rural Veterans Health Administration (VHA) patients. Methods This study applied a qualitative approach to the RE-AIM framework to investigate barriers and facilitators impacting TR implementation. We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with ten program managers and medical directors within the VHA at three time points during the first 18 months of implementation. Interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results Three themes were identified describing key cultural, infrastructural and logistical, and environmental barriers impacting the reach, adoption, and implementation of TR. Within the themes, facilitators for TR were also identified to include, allowing providers flexibility in implementing TR, mentorship and development of creative approaches to TR training, overcoming infrastructural and logistical TR barriers through championing, and continuous sharing of lessons learned in a community of practice. Discussion This study explicates salient barriers and facilitators encountered during the first 18 months of implementation of a TR program within a national healthcare system in the United States. Implementing TR to meet the rehabilitation needs of Veterans in resource-limited rural environments requires creative approaches and flexibility, as well as perseverance and consistent championing in order to overcome cultural challenges. This, in combination with infrastructural challenges, such as lack of broadband, adds greater complexity to meeting the needs of rural patients. This study provides new and in-depth understanding of the processes by which TR is implemented in a large healthcare system and points to practical real-world lessons in implementing TR for rural patients.
Radiographic and Clinical Outcomes of Hallux Valgus and Metatarsus Adductus Treated With a Modified Lapidus Procedure.

Background:Previous studies have found an increased rate of deformity recurrence in hallux valgus (HV) patients with concomitant metatarsus adductus (MA) undergoing metatarsal osteotomies. The purp...
Flipping the switch on the hub cell: Islet desynchronization through cell silencing

Pancreatic β cells, responsible for secreting insulin into the bloodstream and maintaining glucose homeostasis, are organized in the islets of Langerhans as clusters of electrically coupled cells. Gap junctions, connecting neighboring cells, coordinate the behavior of the islet, leading to the synchronized oscillations in the intracellular calcium and insulin secretion in healthy islets. Recent experimental work has shown that silencing special hub cells can lead to a disruption in the coordinated behavior, calling into question the democratic paradigm of islet insulin secretion with more or less equal input from each β cell. Islets were shown to have scale-free functional connectivity and a hub cell whose silencing would lead to a loss of functional connectivity and activity in the islet. A mechanistic model representing the electrical and calcium dynamics of β cells during insulin secretion was applied to a network of cells connected by gap junctions to test the hypothesis of hub cells. Functional connectivity networks were built from the simulated calcium traces, with some networks classified as scale-free, confirming experimental results. Potential hub cells were identified using previously defined centrality measures, but silencing them was unable to desynchronize the islet. Instead, switch cells, which were able to turn off the activity of the islet but were not highly functionally connected, were found via systematically silencing each cell in the network.
Opioid epidemic and prescribing in hospice and palliative care: a review of the literature

Background: Rising rates of opioid abuse worldwide have led to the implementation of policies to curb opioid prescribing. It is unknown what impact these policies have on prescribing within the set...
Neuroprotection against Apoptosis

Lithium, a mood-stabilizer, robustly protects cultured rat brain neurons against a variety of apoptotic insults including glutamate-induced excitotoxicity. This neuroprotection involves inactivation of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors, presumably through reduced phosphorylation of Tyr1472 in the NR2B subunit. Lithium also up-regulates cytoprotective Bc1-2, but down-regulates proapoptotic p53 and Bax. In addition, it activates the cell survival PI-3 kinase/Akt pathway and suppresses glutamate-induced activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling. Release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and activation of its receptor, TrkB, is a prerequisite for lithium protection against excitotoxicity. In an animal model of acute stroke, post-insult lithium treatment at therapeutic levels reduces ischemia-induced brain infarction and improves behavioral outcome. Lithium also reduces brain damage induced by intra-striatal infusion of an excitotoxin. Collectively, our results suggest that lithium might have clinical utility for the treatment of excitotoxicity-related neurodegeneration.
Nutrition knowledge and supplement use among elite U.S. army soldiers.

Abstract : A U.S. Army Special Forces (SF) unit was studied to determine the characteristics of those who were dietary supplement users, assess their nutrition knowledge, and identify the nutrition information sources they use. SF-qualified (n=119) and non-SF, support soldiers (n=38) participated in the study. Results show that most soldiers (87%) reported current supplement use with more SF (90%) than non-SF, support soldiers (76%) using supplements (p </= 0.05). Supplements that SF soldiers reported using most were multivitamins, sports bars or sports drinks, and vitamin C. The mean nutrition knowledge score for all soldiers was 48.5 +/- 15.2% correct responses. Most soldiers incorrectly believe that protein is used for short-term athletic events (64%) and that vitamins provide energy (58%). The most common information sources reportedly used were popular magazines and books (75%), friends and team mates (55%), physicians and nurses (34%), radio and television (34%), and the internet (31%)
Privatization: Selling America To the Lowest Bidder

Excerpt] Elected officials and citizens are now learning in hundreds of communities that privatization is not the way to improve the quality and efficiency of public services. Cities such as New York and Phoenix, where privatization proliferated in the early 1980s, are now bringing work back "in-house." And in the federal government, despite a massive privatization campaign waged by the Reagan Administration, resistance by agency directors has resulted in a job loss of only 0.7% of all nondefense federal jobs. (The job loss rises to 2.1% if civilian defease department jobs are included.) A recent report by the U.S. Government Accounting Office concludes that privatization of federal employees' jobs is neither cheaper nor better.
Use of spectral analysis in defense against DoS attacks

We propose using spectral analysis to identify normal TCP traffic so that it will not be dropped or rate-limited in defense against denial of service (DoS) attacks. The approach can reduce false positives of attacker identification schemes and thus decrease the associated unnecessary slowdown or stoppage of legitimate traffic. For the spectral analysis, we use the number of packet arrivals of a flow in fixed-length time intervals as the signal. We then estimate the power spectral density of the signal, in which information of periodicity, or lack thereof, in the signal reveals itself. A normal TCP flow should exhibit strong periodicity around its round-trip time in both flow directions, whereas an attack flow usually does not. We validate the effectiveness of the approach with simulation and trace analysis. We argue that the approach complements existing DoS defense mechanisms that focus on identifying attack traffic.
Intelligent Agent Battlespace Augmentation

The anticipated dynamics of the future battlefield will require greatly increased mobility, information flow, information assimilation, and responsiveness from a tactical operation center (TOC) and platforms (tanks, armored personnel carriers, etc.). Three significant and related trends in the evolution of the tactical battlefield address these requirements. The first is the increased automation of the brigade nerve center or TOC. Much of this automation will be provided by software agent technology. The second is the digitization of current battlefield platforms. This digitization greatly reduces the uncertainty concerning these platforms and enables automated information exchange between these platforms and their TOC. The third is the rapid development of robotics or physical agents for numerous battlefield tasks such as clearing buildings of hazards (such as snipers) or performing wingman functions for a future combat vehicle. This paper illustrates the potential synergy between these seemingly disparate developments, particularly related to battlefield visualization, multi-resolution analysis, software agents, and physical agents. Battlefield visualization programs are currently focussed on representing the physical environment. This greatly contributes to situation awareness at the TOC and platform levels. As intelligent agents, both software and physical agents, are developed, battlefield visualization must be enhanced to include the state, behavior, and results of the actions of these agents. Multiresolution data and analysis will enhance visualization, software agent and physical agent performance.