cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Failure to rescue in the surgical oncology population: Implications for nursing and quality improvement

Purpose/Objectives: To analyze the frequency, type, and correlates of postoperative complications for surgical patients with cancer to illustrate practical application of the failure to rescue concept in oncology nursing practice. Design: Secondary analysis of inpatient claims. Setting: Data obtained from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council were linked with data from the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry. Sample: 24,618 patients with solid tumors hospitalized for tumordirected surgery in 164 acute care hospitals from 1998–1999. Methods: Frequency distributions examined the incidence of each complication, the proportion of patients who died with the complication, and complication frequency by tumor type. Chi-square tests compared the frequency of complications for patients who were admitted routinely or via the emergency department. Main Research Variables: 30-day mortality, postoperative complications, and tumor type. Findings: The most frequent complication in the sample was gastrointestinal bleeding (13.2%); however, 37.1% of patients who died had respiratory compromise as a complication. Admission through the emergency department was significantly associated with experiencing a complication (71.9% versus 43.9%). Conclusions: Treatable but serious postoperative complications are frequent and can be fatal in the surgical oncology population. Complication frequency and fatality vary significantly by cancer type. Implications for Nursing: The complications studied are detectable by nurses and can be managed successfully with timely intervention. Recognition of complications at an early stage and evidence-based management may assist nurses in patient rescue and, ultimately, improve quality of care.
Primary complex motor stereotypies in older children and adolescents: clinical features and longitudinal follow-up.

BACKGROUND: Complex motor stereotypies are rhythmic, repetitive, fixed, and purposeless movements that stop with distraction. Once believed to occur only in children with autism spectrum or other developmental disorders, their presence in otherwise typically developing children (primary) has been well-established. In primary complex motor stereotypies, little information is available about the long-term outcome of these movements or existing comorbidities. METHODS: Forty-nine healthy participants (31 boys), ages 9 to 20 years with primary complex motor stereotypies who were previously diagnosed at a pediatric movements disorder clinic, were identified from medical records. Parents or the young adult (if older than age 18), completed a telephone interview evaluating family history, outcome, and comorbidities including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety, and tics/Tourette syndrome. Standardized questionnaires assessing attention-deficit hyperactivity, obsessive compulsive disorder, and anxiety were used to validate parent report of comorbidities. RESULTS: Stereotypy onset occurred before age 3 years in 98%. In all but one individual, stereotypies persisted at the time of phone follow-up (follow-up range: 6.8-20.3 years). Positive family history of complex motor stereotypies was identified in 39%. Most participants (92%) had concern for at least one comorbid disorder, including parent-/patient-reported clinically elevated levels of anxiety (73%), attention-deficit hyperactivity (63%), obsessive compulsive disorder (35%), and tics/Tourette syndrome (22%). CONCLUSION: Primary motor stereotypies typically begin in early childhood and, although reduced in frequency and duration, persist at least through the teenage years. Repetitive movements are associated with a variety of comorbidities that often have a greater functional impact than the stereotypic behavior.
International Variation in Bank Accounting Information Content

This study explores the cross-country impact of financial system and banking regulations on the information content of bank earnings and book value. Test results provide empirical evidence that financial system and banking regulations have a joint effect on the association of equity price with earnings and book value components in Germany, France, the United Kingdom and United States. This effect is explainable by the objective bank function, which shows that earnings of the period determine the terminal book value, thus consistent with the clean surplus accounting approach. Cross-country variation in bank accounting information content calls for caution in interpreting international bank financial and operating ratios.
Extended Field of View Real-Time Ultrasound A Review

The technique of extended field-of-view real-time imaging is discussed with illustrative examples. Advances in computer technology enable a panoramic image to be formed as a real-time transducer is moved across the patient. Registration of multiple-image frames is accomplished without position sensors using image feature matching. Advantages and limitations of extended field-of-view imaging are presented.
Influence of Earth curvature on the subsurface electromagnetic fields of a line source

The subsurface magnetic field produced by an oscillating line source of current on the Earth's surface is considered. Particular attention is given to evaluating the effect of non-flatness of the ground on the structure of the field at the buried receiving point. It is indicated that the wave-tilt ratio will still be a useful parameter in contemplated schemes for direction-finding in mine rescue operations.
VEGF scaffolds enhance angiogenesis and bone regeneration in irradiated osseous defects.

Bone regeneration is challenging in sites where the blood supply has been compromised by radiation. We examined the potential of a growth factor (VEGF) delivery system to enhance angiogenesis and bone formation in irradiated calvarial defects. VEGF-releasing polymers significantly increased blood vessel density and vascular perfusion in irradiated defects and increased bone formation relative to control conditions. Introduction: Radiation therapy causes damage to tissues and inhibits its regenerative capacity. Tissue injury from radiation is in large part caused by a compromised vascular supply and reduced perfusion of tissues. The aim of this study was to determine if delivery of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) from a biodegradable PLGA (copolymer of d,l-lactide and glycolide) scaffold could enhance neovascularization and bone regeneration in irradiated osseous defects. Materials and Methods: An isolated area of the calvarium of Fisher rats was irradiated (12 Gy) 2 weeks preoperatively, and two 3.5-mm osseous defects were created in this area, followed by the placement of PLGA scaffolds or VEGF scaffolds (PLGA scaffolds with incorporated VEGF) into the defects. Laser Doppler perfusion imaging was performed to measure perfusion of these areas at 1, 2, and 6 weeks. Implants were retrieved at 2, 6, and 12 weeks, and histologic and μCT analyses were performed to determine neovascularization and bone regeneration. Results: Histological analyses revealed statistically significant increases in blood vessel formation (>2-fold) and function (30%) within the VEGF scaffolds compared with PLGA scaffolds. Additionally, evaluation of bone regeneration through bone histomorphometric and μCT analyses revealed significantly greater bone coverage (26.36 ± 6.91% versus 7.05 ± 2.09% [SD]) and increased BMD (130.80 ± 58.05 versus 71.28 ± 42.94 mg/cm3) in VEGF scaffolds compared with PLGA scaffolds. Conclusions: Our findings show that VEGF scaffolds have the ability to enhance neovascularization and bone regeneration in irradiated osseous defects, outlining a novel approach for engineering tissues in hypovascular environments.
Breastfeeding: The Essential Principles

1. Latha Chandran, MBBS, MPH* 2. Polina Gelfer, MD† 1. *Editorial Board 2. †Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY After completing this article, readers should be able to: 1. Understand the physiology of lactation. 2. Discuss the biologic specificity of human milk. 3. Delineate the benefits of breastfeeding for the infant, the mother, and the community. 4. Know relative and absolute contraindications to breastfeeding. 5. Describe current recommendations for breastfeeding. Breastfeeding practice is the biologic norm for Homo sapiens and dates back some 40,000 years. Until the last several decades, breastfeeding was the norm, and wet-nursing was the only alternative to allow infants to survive. Although pediatricians overwhelmingly agree that breastfeeding is best for babies, in the United States today, only 68% of all new mothers even attempt it, and at least 50% abandon it quickly. The United States Public Health Service Healthy People 2010 Initiative calls for an increase in the rate of breastfeeding to 75% at birth, 50% at age 6 months, and 25% at 1 year of age (Figure⇓). The presence or absence of breastfeeding affects the economics of the family and the community. Multiple studies confirm that the annual cost to the United States health care system from women not breastfeeding is several billion dollars. Promoting breastfeeding can decrease costs for public health programs such as The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, parental employee absenteeism as a result of decreased infant illness, environmental burden for disposal of formula cans and bottles, and energy demands for production and transport of artificial feeding products. Figure. Breastfeeding rates in 2003 and United States Healthy People 2010 breastfeeding objectives. From Centers for Disease Control and Prevention breastfeeding national immunization data. During pregnancy, the breast grows larger, the diameter of the areola increases, pigmentation increases, the nipples become more erect, and the veins become more prominent. Various hormones stimulate breast growth: prolactin and placental lactogen stimulate nipple and areolar growth; estrogen …
Phase I/II study of treatment of locally advanced (T3/T4) non-oat cell lung cancer with concomitant boost radiotherapy by the radiation therapy oncology group(RTOG 83-12) : long term results

Abstract Purpose : This pilot study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of high dose-per-fraction radiotherapy given to the tumor primary concurrently with conventional fractionated radiotherapy to the electively irradiated regional lymph nodes (concomitant boost). This article reports the late results of toxicity and survival. Methods and Materials : Fifty-nine patients with histologically proven clinical Stage T3–T4, N1—3 nonsmall cell lung cancer were prospectively enrolled in this study. Fifty-six were evaluable for late effects. The treatment delivered 2.68 Gy daily to the primary tumor, 5 days a week, to a total dose of 75 Gy in 28 fractions in 5.5 weeks. At the same treatment sessions, the electively irradiated nodal areas received 1.8 Gy daily 5 days per week, to a total dose of 50.4 Gy. All doses were calculated with heterogeneity corrections for lung density. Results : Presently, one patient remains alive at 7.7 years. Median survival was 10.0 months with 1-, 2-, 3-,, and 5-year survival rates of 41%, 25%, 18%, and 4%, respectively. Three patients developed severe late complications, including pulmonary fibrosis and osteonecrosis. The remainder of the patients, however, developed only grade 1 or 2 pulmonary fibrosis and/or pneumonitis. Conclusion : We conclude that concomitant boost radiotherapy in the manner reported resulted in acceptable late toxicity. The 2- and 3-year survivals compared favorably with the best-reported results in the literature with either hyperfractionated or chemoradiotherapy treatment. Studies that deliver higher radiotherapy doses to the gross tumor combined with chemotherapy are in order.
Evaluation of the Conformational Switch Model for Alfalfa Mosaic Virus RNA Replication

Key elements of the conformational switch model describing regulation of alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV) replication (R. C. Olsthoorn, S. Mertens, F. T. Brederode, and J. F. Bol, EMBO J. 18:4856-4864, 1999) have been tested using biochemical assays and functional studies in nontransgenic protoplasts. Although comparative sequence analysis suggests that the 3′ untranslated regions of AMV and ilarvirus RNAs have the potential to fold into pseudoknots, we were unable to confirm that a proposed pseudoknot forms or has a functional role in regulating coat protein-RNA binding or viral RNA replication. Published work has suggested that the pseudoknot is part of a tRNA-like structure (TLS); however, we argue that the canonical sequence and functional features that define the TLS are absent. We suggest here that the absence of the TLS correlates directly with the distinctive requirement for coat protein to activate replication in these viruses. Experimental data are evidence that elevated magnesium concentrations proposed to stabilize the pseudoknot structure do not block coat protein binding. Additionally, covarying nucleotide changes proposed to reestablish pseudoknot pairings do not rescue replication. Furthermore, as described in the accompanying paper (L. M. Guogas, S. M. Laforest, and L. Gehrke, J. Virol. 79:5752-5761, 2005), coat protein is not, by definition, inhibitory to minus-strand RNA synthesis. Rather, the activation of viral RNA replication by coat protein is shown to be concentration dependent. We describe the 3′ organization model as an alternate model of AMV replication that offers an improved fit to the available data.
Application of the revised lung cancer staging system (IASLC Staging Project) to a cancer center population.

Objective The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) proposed a revision to the Union Internationale Contre le Cancer (UICC-6) staging system for non–small cell lung cancer. The goal of our study was to compare these systems in patients undergoing surgery for non–small cell lung cancer to determine whether one system is superior in staging operable disease. Methods Pathologic stages in 1154 patients undergoing complete resection over a 9-year period were analyzed. Patients were assigned a stage based on both IASLC and UICC-6 systems. We tested for statistically meaningful differences between the two staging systems using the Wilcoxon signed rank test and the permutation test. Results The IASLC system is more effective than the UICC-6 system at ordering and differentiating patients ( P = .009). Application of the IASLC system resulted in 202 (17.5%) patients being reassigned to a different stage ( P = .012), with the most common shifts occurring from IB to IIA and IIIB to IIIA. The 5-year and median survivals of the IASLC IIIA patients including those shifted from the UICC-6 IIIB were 37% and 35 months, respectively. Reclassifying UICC-6 IIIB to IASLC IIIA did not reduce survival for the newly characterized IIIA cohort. Conclusion Our data confirm that the proposed IASLC staging system is more effective at differentiating stage than the UICC-6 system. Reclassifying patients from UICC-6 IIIB to IASLC IIIA will shift some patients from a stage previously considered unresectable to a stage frequently offered surgical resection. Further study and validation of the IASLC system are warranted.
Swift/T: scalable data flow programming for many-task applications

Swift/T, a novel programming language implementation for highly scalable data flow programs, is presented.
Analysis of fast synaptic pathways in myenteric plexus of guinea pig ileum

Most fast excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs) recorded from guinea pig ileum myenteric plexus are mediated by acetylcholine acting at nicotinic receptors and ATP acting at P2X receptors. These studies examine length and polarity of projection of neurons releasing mediators of fEPSPs. Under ketamine-xylazine anesthesia, animals were sham treated or myenteric pathways were interrupted. After severed axons degenerated, fEPSPs were recorded at the operated site using conventional, intracellular electrophysiological methods and were classified as nicotinic or mixed on the basis of sensitivity to hexamethonium. Cholinergic and noncholinergic fEPSPs were recorded from small, operated segments, suggesting that some neurons have projections between adjacent ganglia. The mean amplitudes of nicotinic and mixed fEPSPs were reduced after circumferential and descending pathways degenerated. The proportion of nicotinic vs. mixed fEPSPs recorded from tissues lacking descending projections was greater than that recorded from sham-treated tissues, suggesting that fibers releasing noncholinergic mediators project aborally. Descending projections communicate with neurons in ganglia at least three rows aboral to their origin. The data suggest that fast noncholinergic neurotransmission could contribute to hexamethonium-resistant descending inhibition during the peristaltic reflex.
On-Line Conferencing in a Marketing Course: Description, Analysis and Reflection

Several on-line conferencing products are available commercially, having quickly become popular for use on Web sites. This paper gives one experience using an on-line conferencing product called “WebBoard” in a ‘Strategic Internet Marketing’ class, resulting in greater group interaction outside class between students and between students and faculty. Further, this paper suggests a rubric for analysis of the quality of postings from WebBoard to focus teaching and analytical skills. Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives is the source of the categories used in content analysis.
Impact of anatomical noise on model observers for prostate SPECT

Scanning observers have been proposed for detection-localization tasks in medical imaging, but handling anatomical noise with these observers can be challenging. We have introduced visual-search (VS) observers as an alternative. The VS observer is a two-step process which mimics human perception through an initial search before a more detailed candidate analysis. Both the scanning and VS observers often outperform humans. In this paper, we analyze the performance of a VS observer with various inefficiency models as a means of matching human-observer performance. The observers were applied to prostate SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) images. Prostate imaging protocols with In-111 and medium energy, parallel hole (MEPH) collimators were simulated. This was followed by a detailed localization receiver operator characteristic (LROC) study with human and model observers. Area under the LROC curve was used for observer performance evaluation. Results indicate that the VS observer applied with a combination of perceptual inefficiencies can quantitatively match human performance.
A Methodology for Identifying Innovator Characteristics of New Brand Purchasers

One aspect of consumer behavior which has recently received particular attention from researchers is the hypothesized relationship between various demographic and behavioral characteristics of consumers and innovativeness. Numerous studies have identified various demographic and behavioral characteristics reportedly possessed by consumer innovators; as a result, we appear to be making progress in identifying differences among the various categories of adopters1 [1, 2, 4, 6-14, 16, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25-30]. When studying characteristics of innovators, researchers usually compare buyers and nonbuyers of a certain product(s) within a given time period after the product has been introduced or examine willingness to buy in laboratory purchase situations (as is often the case when university researchers use students as subjects). Any differences found between buyers and nonbuyers or between those indicating a willingness to buy and those unwilling to buy are designated as differences between innovators and noninnovators.
Historians and Radical Republicans: A Meaning for Today

In December of 1861, Timothy Howe, the junior Republican senator from Wisconsin, analyzed the situation in Washington for his niece in the Badger State. "Everything about us portends the coming of a rupture in the ranks of the war party and if so, a fierce struggle between the two factions. The organization of a party designing either to rule the administration or to supplant it has I think already commenced. Emancipation-the utter extinction of slavery will be the watchword and the effort of one faction. Where the other faction will plant itself is not so certain." In the most literal sense, Howe's prophecy was never fulfilled during the course of the Civil War: complete rupture of the Republican party did not occur. But there is much evidence that shows persistent differences within the administration party at Washington. The roll calls and speeches in the Congress reveal continuing contention beween particular Republican senators, and sometimes the lawmakers noted such disagreement. James H. Lane proclaimed on the floor of the Senate that he was a radical; Sen. Edgar Cowan referred to "the ultra school of the Republican party." Although once characterizing Cowan as a dog, Benjamin F. Wade spoke of "earnest, up and down, through thick and thin Republicans" while others were "weak brethren. " William P. Fessenden characterized Wade and his friends as gentlemen who "seem to think that they are the representatives of all righteousness. " This catalogue could be considerably extended.' In his diary Attorney General Edward Bates referred to "extreme men in Congress," and during the legislative session of 1864 references to Jacobins and radicals dot his entries. Gideon Welles and Salmon P. Chase distinguished between radicals and others in their journals, as did a minor functionary, the
A Comparison between Cultural Characteristics of Super Hybrid Rice Pioneer-combination in Changsha and Sanya

The demonstration culture of five super hybrid rice pioneer-combinations was conducted in Changsha and Sanya in 2008.The ecological conditions,upgrowth characteristics,economic traits and grain quality traits of super hybrid rice pioneer-combinations,which were cultured in Sanya and Changsha,were compared and analyzed.The results showed that these two places have their own advantages as well as disadvantages for super high-yielding cultivation.Finally,ultra-high-yielding cultivation strategies were put forward.
Flesh in the Street

Much has been written in various media outlets regarding the causes of, meanings of, and, to some extent, solutions to events in Ferguson. Also debated is whether or not a genuine social movement is emerging, what form it is taking, and if it can be sustained as places like New York, Cleveland, and Baltimore take Ferguson’s place on the front page. While much of this work assumes the Ferguson Protest Movement and the now more widely known Black Lives Matter movement to be one and the same, a closer look suggests that the Ferguson protestors maintain organizational and political distinctions unique to this particular group and place. With this in mind, it is important to consider two questions. What was specifically different about the death of Michael Brown and the place in which he lived and died, such that this event sparked sustained protests around the world? And what is different about the core group of protestors that emerged from the events in Ferguson, Missouri? This essay considers a potential paradigm shift in the struggle against the well-honed logics of racialization in the United States and offers a little hope toward the future. As leaders of the early protests in Ferguson would later describe, the need to place their bodies directly on the front lines of the militarized police action initially rose as a response to the spectral flesh of Michael Brown’s body and had as much to do with pushing back against the historical disciplining of their bodies in space—as bodies out of place—as it did with protesting yet another police officer abusing deadly force. This was the critical factor that sparked another kind of flesh in the street in the form of the Ferguson Protest Movement. This intentionally orchestrated spectacle—of unapologetic Black life and flesh—in turn breathed new life into a fledgling movement that simply insisted that Black lives matter .
Design and Implementation of Voice Communication System Based on Link Stability for Ad Hoc Environment

In some special fields such as military、emergency rescue、disaster relief、anti-terrorism,voice communications without infrastructure are really needed.This paper combines technologies of Ad Hoc network、embedded system and multimedia development to complete a set of voice communication system,which includes control center and Ad Hoc embedded terminals.By means of selecting the route based on stable link and RTP real time transporting,the latency and jitter were effectively decreased to guarantee the QoS(quality of service) of the voice communication system.Field tests show that this system is easy to build and strongly adaptive to mobility.The performance of the system is stable,and voice communication is generally fluent.All of these meet the design requirements.
Trends and Developments in Sri Lanka’s Livestock Industry

Agricultural sector contributes to Sri Lanka’s Gross domestic Product by 10.8% whereas livestock sub-sector contributes 0.8% only.
The mixed reality of things: emerging challenges for human-information interaction

Virtual and mixed reality technology has advanced tremendously over the past several years. This nascent medium has the potential to transform how people communicate over distance, train for unfamiliar tasks, operate in challenging environments, and how they visualize, interact, and make decisions based on complex data. At the same time, the marketplace has experienced a proliferation of network-connected devices and generalized sensors that are becoming increasingly accessible and ubiquitous. As the Internet of Things" expands to encompass a predicted 50 billion connected devices by 2020, the volume and complexity of information generated in pervasive and virtualized environments will continue to grow exponentially. The convergence of these trends demands a theoretically grounded research agenda that can address emerging challenges for human-information interaction (HII). Virtual and mixed reality environments can provide controlled settings where HII phenomena can be observed and measured, new theories developed, and novel algorithms and interaction techniques evaluated. In this paper, we describe the intersection of pervasive computing with virtual and mixed reality, identify current research gaps and opportunities to advance the fundamental understanding of HII, and discuss implications for the design and development of cyber-human systems for both military and civilian use.
The Illusion of Freedom: Tyranny, Whiteness, and the State of US Society

ABSTRACTDespite boasting its self-characterization as the “land of the free,” US American “freedom” is, at times, tainted with historical amnesia, hypocrisy, and inhumanity. This article examines today's socio-political climate by drawing from de Tocqueville's (2003) prediction that American democracy is a tyranny of the majority. Because tyranny relies on gaslighting and dismissing facts, no definitive portraiture of freedom is made; therefore, the tyrannized wonder whether they are truly living within freedom or, instead, in collective submission to its illusion. This article examines this phenomenon in order to investigate how whiteness (re)produces conditions of disillusionment and tyranny. By employing hermeneutics of whiteness as a methodology, the authors investigate how whiteness infiltrates thoughts/epistemology, speech/rhetoric, emotions/emotionality, and nationalistic symbols/semiotics. The authors analyze implications for US education and offer a plea for all to consider.
On the effect of upwind emission controls on ozone in Sequoia National Park

Abstract. Ozone ( O3 ) air pollution in Sequoia National Park (SNP) is among the worst of any national park in the US. SNP is located on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains downwind of the San Joaquin Valley (SJV), which is home to numerous cities ranked in the top 10 most O3 -polluted in the US. Here, we investigate the influence of emission controls in the SJV on O3 concentrations in SNP over a 12-year time period (2001–2012). We show that the export of nitrogen oxides ( NOx ) from the SJV has played a larger role in driving high O3 in SNP than transport of O3 . As a result, O3 in SNP has been more responsive to NOx emission reductions than in the upwind SJV city of Visalia, and O3 concentrations have declined faster at a higher-elevation monitoring station in SNP than at a low-elevation site nearer to the SJV. We report O3 trends by various concentration metrics but do so separately for when environmental conditions are conducive to plant O3 uptake and for when high O3 is most common, which are time periods that occur at different times of day and year. We find that precursor emission controls have been less effective at reducing O3 concentrations in SNP in springtime, which is when plant O3 uptake in Sierra Nevada forests has been previously measured to be greatest. We discuss the implications of regulatory focus on high O3 days in SJV cities for O3 concentration trends and ecosystem impacts in SNP.
National Trends in Nonstatin Use and Expenditures Among the US Adult Population From 2002 to 2013: Insights From Medical Expenditure Panel Survey

BackgroundEvidence supporting nonstatin lipid‐lowering therapy in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk reduction is variable. We aim to examine nonstatin utilization and expenditures in the ...
Toward Virtual Data Scientist and Super-Intelligence with Visual Means

The Big data challenge includes dealing with a big number of, heterogeneous and multidimensional, datasets, of all possible sizes, not only with the data of big size. As a result, a huge number of Machine Learning (ML) tasks, which must be solved, dramatically exceeds the number of the data scientists, who can solve these tasks. Next, many ML tasks require the critical input, from the subject matter experts (SME), and end users/decision makers, who are not ML experts. A set of tools, which we call a “virtual data scientist” is needed to assist the SMEs, and end users to construct the ML models, for their tasks, to meet this Big data challenge, with a minimal contribution from data scientists. This chapter describes our vision of such a “virtual data scientist”, based on the visual approach of the General Line Coordinates.
OXYGEN AS A TWO-LEVEL TUNNELING SYSTEM IN SiO2

ABSTRACT Evidence has accumulated that oxygen atoms are responsible for the two-level tunneling systems (TLS) which result in a number of low-temperature acoustic anomalies in amorphous SiO 2 . By means of MINDO/3 and MNDO computer codes we have found off-centered oxygen atoms in sufficiently elongated Si-O-Si bonds, in agreement with Strakna. We can fit this behavior to a pseudo-Jahn-Teller effect with plausible parameters. By considering a distribution of strained bonds, we can account for the small electric dipole moments of TLS, a major difficulty in earlier attempts to relate the anomalies to displacements of a single oxygen atom.
Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD): The Lipid Disease of the Liver and the Effect of Statins

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is currently the most common liver disease. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is the advanced form of NAFLD to which a subpopulation of NAFLD patients progress. While NAFLD is manifested by hepatic steatosis, NASH has the additional features of inflammation, cell injury and ballooning, and mitochondrial changes and/or fibrosis. The understanding of the pathogenesis of NAFLD has been evolving but is still not complete. Fat accumulation in the liver is the first step in the disease process. It occurs when there is increased caloric intake and de novo lipogenesis. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs), Farnesoid X receptor (FXR) and liver X receptor (LXR) have been shown to play a role in pathogenesis. Many mechanisms are known to be involved in the progress of NAFLD to NASH, including oxidative stress, endotoxins, cytokines, mitochondrial dysfunction and induction of the cytochrome P450 system. More recently discovered possible mechanisms include gut microbiota, dietary fructose, toll-like receptors (TLRs), nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain receptors (NOD-like receptors), and the hedgehog signaling pathway.
Growth responses of Urtica dioica L. to different water table depth

The study has examined the effect of water table depth (WTD) on production, biomass allocation, allometric relationships and transpiration rate in Urtica dioica. The essential importance of WTD for occurence and spread of Urtica has been documented. Water table depths were: 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, and 10 cm below the soil surface. Thirty individuals of Urtica for each WTD, established from apical parts of young rhizomes, has been planted in containers and placed at WTD from the 8th May to the 24th July. The height of all individuals and the length and width of the largest leaf blade of each individual were measured after 42, 55 and 83 days. Transpiration rate was measured after 53 and 82 days. Above-ground biomass of all individuals was harvested on 24 of July and was separated into individual organs. Various biometric parameters were measured. Results showed that biomass, plant height, branching of stems and rhizomes and rhizomes length decreased in containers with a more shallow WTD. Particularly, allometric relationships between plant height and other characteristics such as basal diameter, length of longest branch and rhizome were affected by the water level. The biometric parameters were highly dependent on plant height. Transpiration strongly decreased with decreasing WTD. Therefore, the high water level in the soil suppresses growth of particular organs and water regime of Urtica plants/. Generally, long-term high water content in the soils of floodplains, particularly during floods, limits rapidly, particularly vegetative spread of Urtica in the wetland habitats.
Protracted Brain Dysfunction after Alcohol Withdrawal in Monkeys

The alcohol withdrawal syndrome includes a broad spectrinn of severity. The milder stages of the syndrome include such symptoms as slight tremor, malaise and general irritability, and the more severe stages of the syndome are characterized by delirium tremors. While the nature of the underlying mechanisms is not established, the evidence presently available suggests that there may well be different mechanisms for different manifestations associated with withdrawal.
Structure and Magnetism Evolution from FeCo Nanoparticles to Hollow Nanostructure Conversion for Magnetic Applications

Hollow nanostructures have witnessed an increasing interest in emerging fields, including energy storage electrodes, nanocatalysis, photonics, and biomedical carriers. The fundamental mechanisms for hollowing conversion chemistry of complex nanoalloys are indispensable to grow such nanostructures with controlled compositions and functionalities. Here, we study the Kirkendall effect on magnetic Fe–Co bimetallic alloys with the formation of hollow nanostructures for exchange interactions. The rich diffusion kinetics of binary Fe–Co alloys accompanied by its conversion from solid, core–shell to hollow nanostructures have been captured through X-ray diffraction pattern and electron microscopy. We further report the cation exchange improved magnetic performance of hollow nanostructures by increasing the crystallinity.
Grain boundary structure and migration in graphene via the displacement shift complete lattice

Abstract We describe grain boundary structure and migration in graphene using the concept of dislocations in the displacement shift complete lattice. The equivalence of displacement shift complete lattice dislocations and grain boundary kinks in graphene is shown both topologically and energetically. Topologically, a grain boundary kink and a displacement shift complete lattice dislocation both translate the coincident site lattice. The energetic equivalence is established through comparison of atomistic and continuum elasticity models of metastable states to show that DSC dislocations are well-described by elasticity theory. The continuum results are fitted to the atomistic results with one adjustable parameter, the DSC dislocation core radius. The atomistic results reveal that low sigma boundaries have large energy barriers to grain boundary motion, which match continuum results obtained for smaller core radii dislocations. The larger energy barriers for low sigma boundaries are consistent with experimental results reporting isolated, low sigma boundaries in grown graphene. The trends in the dislocation Burgers vector and fitted core radii across grain boundaries of different misorientation are expressed in a unified model. The analysis provides a framework for understanding grain boundary motion in graphene and can serve as a basis for engineering the atomic structure of graphene.
Functional trait trade-off and species abundance: insights from a multi-decadal study.

Phylogenetically informed trait comparisons across entire communities show promise in advancing community ecology. We use this approach to better understand the composition of a community of winter annual plants with multiple decades of monitoring and detailed morphological, phenological and physiological measurements. Previous research on this system revealed a physiological trade-off among dominant species that accurately predicts population and community dynamics. Here we expanded our investigation to 51 species, representing 96% of individual plants recorded over 30 years, and analysed trait relationships in the context of species abundance and phylogenetic relationships. We found that the functional-trait trade-off scales to the entire community, albeit with diminished strength. It is strongest for dominant species and weakens as progressively rarer species are included. The trade-off has been consistently expressed over three decades of environmental change despite some turnover in the identity of dominant species.
Prediction of Mathematical Expression Declarations based on Spatial, Semantic, and Syntactic Analysis

Mathematical expressions (ME) and words are carefully bonded together in most science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) documents. They respectively give quantitative and qualitative descriptions of a system model under discussion. This paper proposes a general model for finding the co-reference relations between words and MEs, based on which we developed a novel algorithm for predicting the natural language declarations of MEs--the ME-Dec. The prediction algorithm is applied in a three-level framework, where the first level is a customized tagger to identify the syntactic roles of MEs and the part-of-speech (POS) tags of words in the ME-word mixed sentences. The second level screens the ME-Dec candidates based on the hypothesis that most ME-Dec are noun phrases (NP). A shallow chunker is trained from the fuzzy process mining algorithm, which uses the labeled POS tag series in the NTCIR-10 dataset as input to mine for the frequent syntactic patterns of NP. In the third level, using distance, word stem, and POS tag respectively as the spatial, semantic, and syntactic features, the bonding model between MEs and ME-Dec candidates is trained on the NTCIR-10 training set. The final prediction results are made upon the majority votes of an ensemble of Naive Bayesian classifiers based on the three features. Evaluation of the model on the NTCIR-10 test set, the proposed algorithm achieved 75% and 71% average F1 score in soft matching and strict matching, respectively, which outperforms the state-of-the-art solutions by a margin of 5-18%.1
Aspire High School Internship – Redesigning a Wide-Angle Camera Lens to Study the Aurora Borealis

Through the Aspire high school internship program at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, I have been able to learn hands on skills that have helped me determine the path for my future. Gaining exposure and the opportunity to collaborate in a technical professional environment has provided me with the valuable knowledge, engineering skills, and new learning approaches that augment my traditional academia. My assignment in the Geospace and Earth Science Group has been to repackage a camera lens for a mission proposal to study the Aurora Borealis from orbiting satellites. The mission goal supports space weather science in determining Earth’s interaction with surrounding space. To experiment with the engineering design process, I worked on the deconstruction of a practice lens. I determined the distances between the inner lenses to experiment designing and fabricating several lens holders. Through trial and error, I created the Version Three lens holder prototype that will be used in the design of the final wide-angle lens. After the final lens angle was calculated, two lenses with proper specifications were purchased. One of the lenses will be deconstructed and the other one will be used for a computerized tomography (CT) scan. This scan will provide the distances between the internal lenses that are necessary in the design of the final holders. This internship has allowed me to conduct research, consult experts, design and fabricate prototypes, learn time management skills, understanding the cost of off the shelf parts compared to the cost of labor, learning new technical skills, and networking.
Dual-energy CT evaluation of gastrointestinal bleeding

Gastrointestinal bleeding is a common cause for hospital admissions and is an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Although endoscopy is accepted as the standard initial diagnostic modality for the evaluation of gastrointestinal bleeding, multiphasic computed tomography (CT) imaging has become an alternative diagnostic tool. Dual-energy CT with post-processing techniques may have additional advantages over single-energy computed tomography in evaluation of gastrointestinal bleeding. In this article, we discuss the role of dual-energy CT in the evaluation of gastrointestinal bleeding with potential advantages over conventional CT and limitations.
Systems dynamic modeling: planning beyond the worker

Using Systems Dynamic Modeling, we propose a novel formulation that considers workers as a decision variable with other parameters that are beholden to known, but random demand. Previous applications within the literature focus on estimating manpower to meet production demand for a particular process. We extend that work by including system constraints that are more realistically represent the problem under consideration. The proposed model was used to find configurations of workers, shifts, and work stations that achieve a minimized deviation between output and demand while maintaining a near constant workforce. The system under consideration is a manufacturing environment and the model posits the production of certain product lines that are each composed of a series of disparate operations. The model was tested using real production data and the results show that Systems Dynamic Modeling is an effective method in estimating the long-run resource requirements for the variable demand profiles.
What we can learn from the Gupta brothers

This article is a reflection on the “Indian” angle of South Africa’s “state capture” scandal. I argue that it is the Indian-born Gupta brothers – rather than Presidents Trump or Zuma – who offer us...
Negative Consequences of Dichotomizing Continuous Predictor Variables

Abstract Marketing researchers frequently split (dichotomize) continuous predictor variables into two groups, as with a median split, before performing data analysis. The practice is prevalent, but its effects are not well understood. In this article, the authors present historical results on the effects of dichotomization of normal predictor variables rederived in a regression context that may be more relevant to marketing researchers. The authors then present new results on the effect of dichotomizing continuous predictor variables with various nonnormal distributions and examine the effects of dichotomization on model specification and fit in multiple regression. The authors conclude that dichotomization has only negative consequences and should be avoided.
Differences in Symptoms and Severity of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Between Blacks and Whites.

Rationale: Prior work suggests that Black persons have more severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) upon clinical presentation. However, the extent to which this may reflect differences in symptoms or...
Investigating age- and sex-specific effects of socialization on voluntary ethanol administration using a novel vapor paradigm

Introduction: Adolescence is characterized as a transitional developmental period between childhood and adulthood that is associated with increased freedom and novel experiences that are frequently peer-influenced. Due to newfound independence, there is a higher prevalence of alcohol consumption, which is heightened by the rewarding effects of alcohol. However, the contributions of social interaction and sexual dimorphism in alcohol intake are not fully understood. Here we use a novel self-administration ethanol vapor system to investigate the sexual dimorphic nature of socially facilitated EtOH exposure. Methods: Adolescent and adult male and female Sprague-Dawley rats underwent a novel voluntary intermittent EtOH vapor paradigm. Nosepoke initiated self-administration vapor chambers administered 20mg/L of vaporized EtOH or air into the chamber following each nose poke. Beginning postnatal day 30 or 70 animals were placed in vapor chambers for 4hr every other day for 40 sessions. All animals underwent 10 sessions with their cagemate (social access) followed by 10 sessions in isolation (isolated access), a 10-day forced abstinence period, 10 sessions isolated access, and 10 sessions social access. Results: These data reveal that while female rats voluntarily self-administered more EtOH vapor per body weight than age-matched males, male rats increased EtOH preference over sessions regardless of age. In addition, all rats regardless of sex or age voluntarily self-administered more EtOH vapor per body weight during the social access session than during the subsequent isolated access sessions. Conclusion: These data demonstrate that female and male rats, regardless of age are vulnerable to socially facilitated voluntary EtOH exposure. This is consistent with human data that show increased levels of alcohol consumption among adolescents and young adults is associated with higher levels of alcohol use within social groups. These data demonstrate that the self-administration EtOH vapor system is an effective alternative to other methods of voluntary EtOH administration.
Marginalization Through Curricularization of Language Teaching: Creating and Exposing Deficits in an Adult Language and Literacy Program:

Research supports the premise that adult language and literacy instruction should build on prior linguistic knowledge and the lived experiences of the students. Despite these widely held tenets, cl...
Charles F. Ferguson, MD: America's first full time pediatric otolaryngologist

Abstract This historical review highlights the career of Charles F. Ferguson, MD for whom the annual clinical science awards bestowed by the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology are named. Dr. Ferguson was the first full time pediatric otolaryngologist in the United States. His career at Boston Children’s Hospital spanned almost four decades. Disorders of the larynx, trachea and bronchi were his principal professional focus, with a specific expertise in bronchoesophagology. His pioneering work in pediatric airway endoscopy and the development of techniques to diagnose congenital airway malformations led to his receipt of the Chevalier Jackson Award from the American Bronchoesophagological Association, and the James Newcomb Award from the American Laryngological Society. He notably edited the first Pediatric Otolaryngology textbook in 1972. His life’s work help set the foundation for the creation of the American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology in 1984, six years following his retirement. The Charles Ferguson Clinical Science Awards were established to sustain his legacy.