cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Operations Management: Is There a Disconnect Between College Textbook Content and Employer Needs?

The authors sought to determine the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) employers seek when recruiting operations management personnel and whether sufficient emphasis is being afforded to these areas in introductory operations management courses. Eighty-three job postings were obtained from online employment sites and analyzed to determine the relevant KSAs sought by employers. Ten textbooks, with publication dates ranging from 2004 to 2010, were randomly selected and examined to determine if a uniform body of knowledge existed. Eight knowledge areas common to all the textbooks emerged. Additionally, topics not afforded similar textbook coverage occurred more frequently in the advertisements.
A compact dielectric elastomer tubular actuator for refreshable Braille displays

Abstract Electroactive polymer actuators stimulated by appropriate levels of electric field are particularly attractive for human-assist devices such as Braille. The development of a full page refreshable Braille display is very important for the integration of the visually impaired into the new era of communication. In this paper, development of a compact dielectric elastomer actuator suitable for Braille application is reported. The actuators are fabricated from commercially available silicone tubes. The tube has been rendered mechanically anisotropic through asymmetric levels of applied pretension in circumferential and axial directions in order to direct the actuation strain in the axial direction of the actuator. Key performance parameters, such as displacement, force, and response time of the actuator are investigated. The test results demonstrate the potential of the compact, lightweight, and low cost dielectric elastomer as actuators for a refreshable full page Braille display.
Consistent and breakthrough pain in diverse advanced cancer patients: a longitudinal examination.

Although cancer pain, both consistent and breakthrough pain ([BTP]; pain flares interrupting well-controlled baseline pain), is common among cancer patients, its prevalence, characteristics, etiology, and impact on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) are poorly understood. This longitudinal study examined the experience and treatment of cancer-related pain over six months, including an evaluation of ethnic differences. Patients with Stage III or IV breast, prostate, colorectal, or lung cancer, or Stage IIeIV multiple myeloma with BTP completed surveys on initial assessment and at three and six months. Each survey assessed consistent pain, BTP, depressed affect, active coping ability, and HRQOL. Among the respondents (n ¼ 96), 70% were white, 66% were female, and had a mean age of 56 � 10 years. Nonwhites reported significantly greater severity for consistent pain at its worst (P ¼ 0.009), least (P # 0.001), on average (P ¼ 0.004), and upon initial assessment (P ¼ 0.04), and greater severity for BTP at its worst (P ¼0.03), least (P ¼ 0.02), and at initial assessment (P ¼ 0.008). Women also had higher levels of some BTP measures. Ethnic disparities persisted when data estimation techniques were used. Examined longitudinally, consistent pain on average and several BTP measures reduced over time, although not greatly, indicating the persistence of pain in the cancer experience. These data provide evidence for the significant toll of cancer pain, while demonstrating further health care disparities in the cancer pain experience. J Pain Symptom Manage 2009;37:831e847. 2009 U.S. Cancer Pain Relief Committee. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Localization of a blood pressure QTL on rat chromosome 1 using Dahl rat congenic strains

Saad, Yasser, Michael R. Garrett, Soon Jin Lee, Howard Dene, and John P. Rapp. Localization of a blood pressure QTL on rat chromosome 1 using Dahl rat congenic strains. Physiol. Genomics 1: 119–125...
Use of Medicare Summary Notice Inserts to Generate Interest in the Medicare Stop Smoking Program

Abstract Purpose Evaluations of outreach strategies that effectively and efficiently reach the senior population often go unreported. The Medicare Stop Smoking Program (MSSP) was a seven-state demonstration project funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The 1-year recruitment plan for MSSP included a multifaceted paid media campaign; however, enrollment was slower than anticipated. The purpose of this substudy was to test the effects of including envelope-sized advertisement inserts with Medicare Summary Notices (MSNs) as a supplemental recruitment strategy. Methods Information obtained from enrollees on where they had learned about the program as well as overall enrollment rates were analyzed and compared with the time periods during which the inserts were included in MSN mailings. Results Average call volume to the enrollment center increased by 65.7% in Alabama, the pilot state, and by more than 200% in the subsequent demonstration states. Despite the introduction of the MSN inserts ...
Controlling the microstructure of vapor-deposited pentaerythritol tetranitrate films

We have demonstrated that the microstructure of thick pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) films can be controlled using physical vapor deposition by varying the film/substrate interface. PETN films were deposited on silicon and fused silica with and without a thin layer of sputtered aluminum to demonstrate the effects of the interface on subsequent film growth. Evolution of surface morphology, average density, and surface roughness as a function of film thickness were characterized using surface profilometry, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. Significant variations in density, pore size, and surface morphology were observed in films deposited on the different substrates. In addition, x-ray diffraction experiments showed that while films deposited on bare fused silica or silicon had only weak texturing, films deposited on a sputtered aluminum layer were highly oriented, with a strong (110) out-of-plane texture.
High‐throughput discovery and characterization of fetal protein trafficking in the blood of pregnant women

Although the measurement of fetal proteins in maternal serum is part of standard prenatal screening for aneuploidy and neural tube defects, attempts to better understand the extent of feto-maternal protein trafficking and its clinical and biological significance have been hindered by the presence of abundant maternal proteins. The objective of this study was to circumvent maternal protein interference by using a computational predictive approach for the development of a noninvasive, comprehensive, protein network analysis of the developing fetus in maternal whole blood. From a set of 157 previously identified fetal gene transcripts, 46 were classified into known protein networks, and 222 downstream proteins were predicted. Statistically significantly over-represented pathways were diverse and included T-cell biology, neurodevelopment and cancer biology. Western blot analyses validated the computational predictive model and confirmed the presence of specific downstream fetal proteins in the whole blood of pregnant women and their newborns, with absence or reduced detection of the protein in the maternal postpartum samples. This work demonstrates that extensive feto-maternal protein trafficking occurs during pregnancy, and can be predicted and verified to develop novel noninvasive biomarkers. This study raises important questions regarding the biological effects of fetal proteins on the pregnant woman.
Effects of a Short Burst of Gait Training With Body Weight-Supported Treadmill Training for a Person With Chronic Stroke: A Single-Subject Study

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a short-burst dose of intense gait training with body weight-supported treadmill training (BWSTT) on walking speed, endurance, and quality of life of a participant with chronic stroke. A single-subject experimental (A-B-A-A) design with immediate and 3-month retention phases was used. The participant was a 66-year-old woman, 1 year after left cerebrovascular accident. Repeated baseline walking performance was established during 2 weeks of testing using the comfortable 10-meter walk test (CWT) and the 6-minute walk test (6MWT). The Stroke Impact Scale (SIS) was measured one time during baseline. Baseline testing was followed by ten 30-minute sessions of BWSTT over a 2-week duration. Retention testing was conducted immediately and 3 months following the intervention. Statistically significant improvements from baseline with the CWT and the 6MWT were achieved and maintained by the participant across all subsequent measurement phases. Improvements considered to be clinically meaningful changes in the SIS domains of strength and mobility achieved immediately after the intervention were not maintained at 3-month retention testing. For the participant in this study, the short-burst dosage of BWSTT provided a feasible and effective means for improving goal-oriented functional walking ability.
Defining and Monitoring Service-Level Agreements for Dynamic e-Business

Fueled by the growing acceptance of the Web Services Architecture, an emerging trend in application service delivery is to move away from tightly coupled systems towards structures of loosely coupled, dynamically bound systems to support both long and short business relationships. It appears highly likely that the next generation of e-Business systems will consist of an interconnection of services, each provided by a possibly different service provider, that are put together on an "on demand" basis to offer an end to end service to a customer.Such an environment, which we call Dynamic e-Business (DeB), will be administered and managed according to dynamically negotiated Service Level Agreements (SLA) between service providers and customers. Consequently, system administration will increasingly become SLA-driven and needs to address challenges such as dynamically determining whether enough spare capacity is available to accommodate additional SLAs, the negotiation of SLA terms and conditions, the continuous monitoring of a multitude of agreed-upon SLA parameters and the troubleshooting of systems, based on their importance for achieving business objectives.A key prerequisite for meeting these goals is to understand the relationship between the cost of the systems an administrator is responsible for and the revenue they are able to generate, i.e., a model needs to be in place to express system resources in financial terms. Today, this is usually not the case.In order to address some of these problems, this paper presents the Web Service Level Agreement (WSLA) framework for defining and monitoring SLAs in inter-domain environments. The framework consists of a flexible and extensible language based on the XML schema and a runtime architecture based on several SLA monitoring services, which may be outsourced to third parties to ensure a maximum of accuracy.WSLA enables service customers and providers to unambiguously define a wide variety of SLAs, specify the SLA parameters and the way how they are measured, and tie them to managed resource instrumentations. A Java-based implementation of this framework, termed SLA Compliance Monitor, is publicly available as part of the IBM Web Services Toolkit.
Spiking neural networks' model with spike frequency adaptation for e-nose

We create a spiking neural network of Integrate and Fire neurons with spike frequency adaption based on parameters adjusted for our e-nose device, and investigate the use of this model for odor classification. Addition of spike frequency adaptation term brings the model closer to the response of the olfactory system. Data from Cyranose 320, a polymer based 32-sensor array, is used to test the system and create unique dynamic spiking patterns. The results for four analytes are presented.
Effect of Toki‐Shakuyaku‐San (TJ‐23) on the activity of choline acetyltransferase in the brain of menopausal rats

This study was designed to examine the effect of TJ-23 on the synthesis of acetylcholine menopausal rats. TJ-23 (500 mg/kg body weight) was administered daily through drinking water for either 1 or 3 months. Treatment with TJ-23 for 1 month resulted in an increase in the choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity in the ventral hippocampus, but there was no statistically significant change in the frontoparietal cerebral cortex. Treatment with TJ-23 for 3 months resulted in a decrease in the ChAT activity in the frontoparietal cortex, but there was no statistically significant change in the hippocampus. Furthermore, treatment with TJ-23 for 3 months resulted in a decrease in the ChAT activity in the amygdala-pyriform cortex complex. From these observations, it is inferred that TJ-23 treatment brings on the synthesis of acetylcholine in the frontoparietal cerebral cortex and hippocampus, and furthermore, treatment with the same regimen brings on different time sequences of acetylcholine synthesis in the frontoparietal cerebral cortex and hippocampus in menopausal rats.
Valvular Heart Disease Aortic Regurgitation

Aortic regurgitation (AR) is characterized by diastolic reflux of blood from the aorta into the left ventricle (LV). Acute AR typically causes severe pulmonary edema and hypotension and is a surgical emergency. Chronic severe AR causes combined LV volume and pressure overload. It is accompanied by systolic hypertension and wide pulse pressure, which account for peripheral physical findings, such as bounding pulses. The afterload excess caused by systolic hypertension leads to progressive LV dilation and systolic dysfunction. The most important diagnostic test for AR is echocardiography. It provides the ability to determine the cause of AR and to assess the severity of AR and its effect on LV size, function, and hemodynamics. Many patients with chronic severe AR may remain clinically compensated for years with normal LV function and no symptoms. These patients do not require surgery but can be followed carefully for the onset of symptoms or LV dilation/dysfunction. Surgery should be considered before the LV ejection fraction falls below 55% or the LV end-diastolic dimension reaches 55 mm. Symptomatic patients should undergo surgery unless there are excessive comorbidities or other contraindications. The primary role of medical therapy with vasodilators is to delay the need for surgery in asymptomatic patients with normal LV function or to treat patients in whom surgery is not an option. The goal of vasodilator therapy is to achieve a significant decrease in systolic arterial pressure. Future therapies may focus on molecular mechanisms to prevent adverse LV remodeling and fibrosis.
Rapid Synthesis of Alkoxyamine Hydrochloride Derivatives from Alkyl Bromide and N,N′-Di-tert-butoxycarbonylhydroxylamine [(Boc)2NOH]

Abstract The conventional route to alkoxyamine hydrochloride derivatives is by reaction of alkyl bromides with N-hydroxyphthalimide or N-hydroxysuccinimide followed by addition of hydrazine and HCl. Transformation of an alkyl bromide to the corresponding alkoxyamine hydrochloride can be accomplished more rapidly in good yields without using hazardous hydrazine by reaction of (Boc)2NOH (N,N′-di-tert-butoxycarbonylhydroxylamine) and alkyl bromide followed by addition of HCl. Alkoxyamine hydrochlorides are powerful reagents in organic synthesis that can be used to synthesize alkoxyimino derivatives after condensation with a ketone or aldehyde.
NF-κB-mediated induction of mdr1b expression by insulin in rat hepatoma cells

The expression of P-glycoproteins encoded by themdr gene family is associated with the emergence of multidrug resistance phenotype in animal cells. However, the mechanisms controlling the expression of these genes have not been well elucidated. Here, we report that the expression of ratmdr1b gene in cultured H-4-II-E hepatoma cells can be induced by insulin. Transient transfection assays using reporter gene constructs containing various 5′ mdr1b sequences showed that the sequence located between base pairs −243 and −163 is important for insulin's induction of mdr1b promoter activity. Further analyses revealed that a NF-κB-binding site (located between base pairs −167 and −158) is required for insulin-induced promoter activity. Gel mobility shift assay demonstrated that insulin stimulates the binding of nuclear p50/p65 subunits to the mdr1b NF-κB sequence. Cotransfection of plasmids expressing either the p50/p65 NF-κB subunits or Raf-1 kinase or both resulted in increased expression of the gene containing wild-type but not NF-κB site-mutated mdr1b promoter. Finally, expression of either the antisense p65 subunit of NF-κB or dominant negative Raf-1 kinase blocked insulin's induction of themdr1b promoter activity. Taken together, our results suggest that the insulin-induced mdr1b expression is mediated by transcription factor NF-κB via the Raf-1 kinase signaling pathway.
Registration of MR prostate images with biomechanical modeling and nonlinear parameter estimation

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) have been shown to be very useful for identifying prostate cancers. For high sensitivity, the MRI/MRSI examination is often acquired with an endorectal probe that may cause a substantial deformation of the prostate and surrounding soft tissues. Such a probe is removed prior to radiation therapy treatment. To register diagnostic probe-in magnetic resonance (MR) images to therapeutic probe-out MR images for treatment planning, a new deformable image registration method is developed based on biomechanical modeling of soft tissues and estimation of uncertain tissue parameters using nonlinear optimization. Given two-dimensional (2-D) segmented probe-in and probe-out images, a finite element method (FEM) is used to estimate the deformation of the prostate and surrounding tissues due to displacements and forces resulting from the endorectal probe. Since FEM requires tissue stiffness properties and external force values as input, the method estimates uncertain parameters using nonlinear local optimization. The registration method is evaluated using images from five balloon and five rigid endorectal probe patient cases. It requires on average 37 s of computation time on a 1.6 GHz Pentium-M PC. Comparing the prostate outline in deformed probe-out images to corresponding probe-in images, the method obtains a mean Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) of 97.5% for the balloon probe cases and 98.1% for the rigid probe cases. The method improves significantly over previous methods (P < 0.05) with greater improvement for balloon probe cases with larger tissue deformations.
Simulating the Effects of Wetland Loss and Inter-Annual Variability on the Fitness of Migratory Bird Species

Long-distance migratory shorebirds require wetland stopover sites where they can forage and deposit sufficient fat to complete their migration and, in the spring, reproduce. Conservation biologists are concerned that continental-scale reductions in wetland availability and quality due to human disturbance, climate change, and natural drought events are negatively impacting these species by eliminating critical stopovers along migratory flyways. We describe an individual-based migration model driven by remotely sensed land surface data, climate data assimilation models, and biological field data to examine the impact of changing environmental conditions on migration routes, temporal patterns, and fitness. We used an evolutionary programming approach to evaluate birds' adaptive responses to variation in refueling potential in the landscape. Birds' shifted their migratory routes and extended their stopovers as the mean quality of the landscape decreased and spatial variation in refueling potential increased. We discuss possible applications of our model for understanding inter-annual climate variation, climate change, and wetland loss.
An Assessment of the Impact of Antishattering Tips and Artifact Removal Techniques on Bulk Cloud Ice Microphysical and Optical Properties Measured by the 2D Cloud Probe

A recent study showed that the ratio of the number of distribution functions derived from 2D cloud probes (2DCs) with standard tips to those with antishatter tips used during the 2008 Indirect and Semidirect Aerosol Campaign (ISDAC) and Instrumentation Development and Education in Airborne Science 2011 (IDEAS-2011) was greater than 1 for ice crystals with maximum dimension D , 500mm. To assess the applicability of 2DC data obtained without antishatter tips previously used in parameterization schemes for numerical models and remote sensing retrievals, the impacts of artifacts on bulk microphysical and scattering properties were examined by quantifying differences between such properties derived from 2DCs with standard and antishatter tips, and with andwithouttheuseofshatterdetectionalgorithmsusingtheISDACandIDEAS-2011data.Usingeithermodified tips or algorithms changed the quantities dominated by higher-order moments, such a si ce water content, bulk extinction, effective radius, mass-weighted terminal velocity, median mass diameter, asymmetry parameter, and single-scatter albedo, at wavenumbers from 5 to 100cm 21 and wavelengths of 0.5‐5mm by less than 20%. This is significantly less than the fractional changes quantities dominated by lower-order moments, such as number concentration. The results suggest that model parameterizations and remote sensing techniques based on higherorder moments of ice particle size distributions obtained in conditions similar to those sampled during IDEAS2011 and ISDAC derived from 2DCs are not substantially biased by shattered remnants.
Surveillance of congenital malformations in infants conceived through assisted reproductive technology or other fertility treatments

Background As assisted reproductive technology (ART) becomes more common, it is important to understand the associated risks. The objective of this study was to determine if congenital malformations are associated with ART or other fertility treatments in New York. Methods In a retrospective cohort study of all live births in upstate New York from 1997 to 2005, exposure was defined using ART or other fertility treatments as noted on birth certificates. Outcomes were assessed from the New York State Congenital Malformations Registry. Specific malformations were examined to determine if there is elevated risk for exposed singleton infants compared with infants conceived naturally. Results The study included 7120 in the ART group, 11,890 in the other fertility treatments group and 1,118,162 in the comparison group. The relative risk for a congenital malformation was 1.43 (95% CI 1.19–1.72) for singleton infants conceived through ART compared with singleton infants conceived naturally. The specific defects associated with ART were patent ductus arteriosus, hypospadias, and obstructive defect in the renal pelvis and ureter, while spina bifida, other specific anomalies of the spinal cord, atresia or stenosis of the pulmonary valve, hypospadias, and obstructive defects of the renal pelvis and ureter were associated with other fertility treatment. Conclusion Assisted reproductive technology is associated with a slight excess risk of birth defects. The specific congenital malformations with elevated risks for singleton infants vary depending on the exposure. Further research is necessary to understand the mechanism related to the increase in risk. Birth Defects Research (Part A) 103:119–126, 2015 © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Contrast enhancement for backpropagation

This paper analyzes the effect of data-contrast to a backpropagation (BP) network and introduces a data preprocessing algorithm that can improve the efficiency of the standard BP learning. The basic idea is to transform input data to a range that associates the high-slope region of the sigmoid function where a relatively large modification of weights occurs. A simple uniform transformation to such a desired range, however, can lead to a slow and unbalanced learning if the data distribution is heavily skewed. To facilitate data processing on such distribution, the authors propose a modified histogram equalization technique which enhances the sparing between the data points in the heavily concentrated regions of the distribution.
Unsteady Flow of Fluids in Closed Systems

Theoretical study made of unsteady flow created in 2 types of 2-dimensional reservoir-conduit systems when valve at end of conduit is opened suddenly; significant facts regarding acceleration of fluid and effect of nonuniformity in velocity distribution are summarized.
Objectification in Action Self- and Other-Objectification in Mixed-Sex Interpersonal Interactions

Although the process of sexual objectification is theorized to occur within interpersonal interactions, we believe this is the first study to examine sexual objectification and self-objectification...
Initial Experiments with the Leap Motion as a User Interface in Robotic Endonasal Surgery

The Leap Motion controller is a low-cost, optically-based hand tracking system that has recently been introduced on the consumer market. Prior studies have investigated its precision and accuracy, toward evaluating its usefulness as a surgical robot master interface. Yet due to the diversity of potential slave robots and surgical procedures, as well as the dynamic nature of surgery, it is challenging to make general conclusions from published accuracy and precision data. Thus, our goal in this paper is to explore the use of the Leap in the specific scenario of endonasal pituitary surgery. We use it to control a concentric tube continuum robot in a phantom study, and compare user performance using the Leap to previously published results using the Phantom Omni. We find that the users were able to achieve nearly identical average resection percentage and overall surgical duration with the Leap.
Observations on diagnostic kits for the determination of plasma fibrinogen.

Six commercial kits, marketed for the purpose of determining plasma fibrinogen concentration, were evaluated. Four of the kits were quantitative and two were qualitative ( i.e. , distinguished normal from subnormal). The four quantitative kits were compared with a reference thrombin-clottable protein technic. The two qualitative kits were evaluated by their performance on plasma samples known to have normal and subnormal fibrinogen concentrations. Only one of the quantitative kits performed satisfactorily in both accuracy and recovery experiments. Only one of the qualitative kits determined a plasma fibrinogen value of 100 mg. per dl. or less to be subnormal. An analysis of kit package inserts and reagent cost per test is also given.
Rethinking the Measurement of Officer Experience and Its Role in Traffic Stop Searches

The role officer experience plays in shaping behavioral choices has received considerable attention. Officer experience has most often been captured by measuring years of service in policing litera...
Neurologic symptoms with electrolyte and water imbalance.

Imbalances of electrolytes and water can cause nervous system disorders even though the nervous system regulates fluid and electrolytes to some extent. Some of the more serious neurologic consequences of fluid-electrolyte imbalance are discussed here. Many clinical circumstances predispose patients to dangerous elevation or depression of serum sodium and potassium concentrations. A conspicuous source is imprudent fluid therapy. Restoring balance is far from simple; injudicious dilution or replacement can tip the scale in the other direction.
Increased β-adrenergic receptor density in an experimental model of cardiac transplantation

We examined β-adrenergic receptor density, basal, maximal isoproterenol and fluoride-stimulated adenylate cyclase activities, and morphologic characteristics of rabbit and rat native and heterotopic isograft cardiac tissue. Four weeks after graft placement there were only subtle histologic differences between native and graft tissue. Membrane preparations from isografts of rabbits demonstrated increases in β-receptor density (maximum [3H]DHA binding = 111 ± 19.3 fmol/mg versus 52.4 ± 4.9 in native hearts, p
Permutation Matrices, Wreath Products, and the Distribution of Eigenvalues

We consider a class of random matrix ensembles which can be constructed from the random permutation matrices by replacing the nonzero entries of the n×n permutation matrix matrix with M×M diagonal matrices whose entries are random Kth roots of unity or random points on the unit circle. Let X be the number of eigenvalues lying in a specified arc I of the unit circle, and consider the standardized random variable (X−E[X])/(Var(X))1/2. We show that for a fixed set of arcs I1,...,I N , the corresponding standardized random variables are jointly normal in the large n limit, and compare the covariance structures which arise with results for other random matrix ensembles.
KNOWLEDGE-DIRECTED INFERENCE IN BELIEVER1

The BELIEVER theory is an attempt to specify an information processing system that constructs intentional interpretations of an observed sequence of human actions. A frame-based system, AIMDS, is used to define three domains: the physical world; the plan domain, where interpretations are con structed using plan structures composed from plan units; and the person domain, which consists of the psychological description of the actor. The system achieves a shift of representation from propositions about physical events to statements about beliefs and intentions of the actor by hypothesizing and attributing a plan structure to the actor. A paradigm for approaching a part of the interpretation problem is described in this chapter. Understanding is viewed as a process of assimilating incoming patterns with existing knowledge and expectations. The essential process of “expectation matching” is attended to in detail and a simple example is presented to illustrate the paradigm and its possible extensions.
A multi-solver framework for electromagnetic scattering from complex objects

A multi-solver framework is presented for solving scattering from objects with multiple regions. The regions with complicated materials and structures are modeled by the finite element method, and the homogeneous regions with impedance and conducting boundaries are modeled by the method of moments. To construct a global system, the Robin-type transmission condition is employed to couple adjacent regions. An absorbing boundary condition-based preconditioner and the multilevel fast multipole algorithm are used in the iterative solution. An example is given to show the accuracy and the flexibility of the proposed method.
Sexual and gender minority breast cancer patients choosing bilateral mastectomy without reconstruction: "I now have a body that fits me"

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) breast cancer patients have begun embracing the choice to “go flat” or opt out of reconstruction after bilateral mastectomy, though little is known about this popul...
Molecular mechanisms of chronic traumatic encephalopathy

The prevalence of neurodegenerative disorders is rapidly increasing. While Alzheimer's disease and dementia generally correlate with longer lifespans, neurodegenerative disorders like chronic traumatic encephalopathy often affect individuals at young age. Historically, the underlying disease mechanisms of these chronic disorders—the slowly changing biochemical composition during aging and the repeated, rapidly changing biomechanical environment during head impact—have been viewed as distinct events. Recent studies suggest that Alzheimer's disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy share common degenerative pathways on the molecular and cellular levels. Here we examine this current trend and explore the molecular, cellular, tissue, and organ level mechanisms of neurodegeneration through the lens of biomedical engineering. Understanding the underlying disease mechanisms across the spatio-temporal scales of neurodegeneration provides new opportunities to modulate, slow down, and possibly revert molecular dysfunction, axonal death, tissue atrophy, and loss of brain function.
Experimental Utility and Clinical Potential of Irreversible Opioid Antagonists

In opioid pharmacology, irreversible, insurmountable antagonists have been critical experimental tools to characterize μ-opioid receptors and receptor function with respect to such important concepts of receptor theory as spare receptors, affinity, and efficacy. In the present chapter, we present the specific pharmacological characteristics of four insurmountable antagonists with primary actions at μ-opioid receptors: β-chlornaltrexamine (β-CNA), β-funaltrexamine (β-FNA), buprenor-phine, and clocinnamox. After alkylation or long-lasting blockade, fewer receptors are available for agonist interaction, and an agonist may produce a reduced maximum effect. After insurmountable antagonist administration, the method of partial irreversible blockade can be applied to estimate the apparent affinity constant for an agonist (K A ), relative efficacy estimates for agonists, and the fraction of receptors remaining for agonist interaction after alkylation (o). Insurmountable antagonists have been exploited to uncover how compounds bind within receptors, to help understand such phenomena as tolerance and dependence, and to determine the rate of turnover of μ-opioid receptors in different species. Probably the most frequent use of opioid insurmountable antagonists has been the estimate of agonist efficacy values with the goal of understanding the relationship of agonist efficacy to functional outcomes. More recently, investigators in clinical experimental pharmacology are using these tools, principles, and results generated from preclinical laboratory animal experiments to understand the role of agonist relative efficacy to behavioral data collected in humans. The development of tools that allow the quantitative assessment of multiple dependent measures (analgesia, reinforcing effects, and respiratory suppression) within and between different medications clearly has important clinical applications.
Prognostic significance of genomic alterations of metastatic neuroblastomas.

A36 Background: Patients with metastatic neuroblastomas have quite different outcomes depending upon their age at diagnosis and MYCN amplification status. Accurate classification of patients, using genetic features of their tumors identified through microarray studies, would improve prediction of outcome and facilitate more appropriate selection of therapy. Ob jectives: 1) Develop algorithms for analysis of high-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays that would lead to improved identification of copy number alterations (CNA) in neuroblastoma tumors; 2) Identify subgroups of stage 4 neuroblastoma patients based on genomic features (amplifications or deletions) obtained from SNP arrays; and 3) Develop a genomic classifier that would improve prediction of outcome. Method: 43 patients with metastatic neuroblastoma (15 MYCN amplified, 28 non-amplified) tumors were analyzed using Affymetrix 50K Xba SNP arrays. A novel algorithm was developed using Sparse Bayesian Learning (SBL) to identify CNA. The accuracy of the algorithm was determined using simulated genomic data and four neuroblastoma cell lines’ data generated on Affymetrix 50K Xba, 250K Sty, 250K Nsp, and Illumina-550K platforms. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to define regions with DNA copy number abnormalities and diagonal linear discriminant analysis (DLDA) was used to build and assess error rates of classifiers using combination of these regions. Loss of heterozygosity data were also used as features to build prognostic models. Results : The SBL algorithm had greater accuracy identifying CNAs as compared to other algorithms (e.g. CBS, HMM, GLAD) and with 100-fold increase in computational speed as compared to CBS. SBL identified 106 major breakpoints in the 4 neuroblastoma cell lines tested of which 67% were represented on at least two microarray platforms. The concordance of SBL and CBS algorithms was 95% and the identified CNAs included all the major known neuroblastoma CNAs. In a proof of principle experiment, the PCAs for chromosomes 2p, 1p, and 19q were identified as the top features in a DLDA analysis distinguishing tumors based on their MYCN status. The cross validated error rate for this analysis was 15% (training error rate of 9%). Analysis of loss of heterozygosity data for the 28 patients whose tumors lacked MYCN amplification, identified low and high risk subgroup with PFS of 64% and 32%, respectively. Conclusions : Accurate identification of genomic features of metastatic neuroblastomas from SNP arrays could be identified through a novel bayesian algorithm. These features can then be used to assign patients to low or high molecular risk groups even though their tumors are clinically indistinguishable.
Harvesting the Buccal Fat Pad Does Not Result in Aesthetic Deformity in Cleft Patients: A Retrospective Analysis

Background:Buccal fat is often used as a pedicled flap in cleft palate repairs to minimize scarring and fortify tenuous closures. Although many surgeons have adopted this technique, others have remained circumspect because of the concern for subsequent facial asymmetry.Methods:Patients who underwent
A Cable-Drop Compensated LDO for Rechargeable Battery Powered Systems With Load Current Management in Two-Cable or Three-Cable Structures

This paper presents a low-dropout (LDO) regulator structure that is aimed at rechargeable battery powered systems where direct sensing of the load voltage is not available. The cable connecting the regulated output to the load may create a voltage drop and cause error to the load voltage. Conventional methods address this issue by increasing the LDO output voltage to compensate the cable voltage drop. The proposed architecture extends this idea by including a calibration block that updates the required compensation voltage to track the cable resistance shift due to cable length or temperature change. The measured cable-drop error was reduced from 2.4% to ∼0.1% by iterating the proposed calibration process three times. Under the condition of time-varying temperature, the measured calibration process effectively reduced the cable-drop error due to the temperature-coefficient of the cable resistance. The proposed system also includes a current management block, by which the priority is set between the load current and the battery charging current. This paper proposes two architectures, the two-cable and the three-cable structures, to implement both the cable-drop calibration and the current management functions. Other functions such as input under-voltage-lockout and output current-limiting are also included and have been verified by experiment.
Isolation, Culture, and Differentiation of Bone Marrow Stromal Cells and Osteoclast Progenitors from Mice

Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) constitute a cell population routinely used as a representation of mesenchymal stem cells in vitro. They reside within the bone marrow cavity alongside hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), which can give rise to red blood cells, immune progenitors, and osteoclasts. Thus, extractions of cell populations from the bone marrow results in a very heterogeneous mix of various cell populations, which can present challenges in experimental design and confound data interpretation. Several isolation and culture techniques have been developed in laboratories in order to obtain more or less homogeneous populations of BMSCs and HSCs invitro. Here, we present two methods for isolation of BMSCs and HSCs from mouse long bones: one method that yields a mixed population of BMSCs and HSCs and one method that attempts to separate the two cell populations based on adherence. Both methods provide cells suitable for osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation experiments as well as functional assays.
Gaussian variable packet-error coding

We consider the problem of communicating a Gaussian source over several paths in a network, some unknown subset of which are subject to adversarial errors. The aim is to encode the source in such a way that one can provide a mean-square error distortion guarantee at the receiver that improves as the number of path-errors decreases. We show that a natural design based on error-correcting and error-detecting codes is not order-optimal in the rate as the distortion constraint tends to zero, but a hybrid scheme that involves a form of uncoded transmission is.
Design challenges in electrodepositing metal-anionic clay nanocomposites: Synthesis, characterization, and corrosion resistance of nickel-LDH nanocomposite coatings

Abstract A method was developed to electrochemically synthesize metal-anionic clay nanocomposite coatings. The coatings consist of Zn-Al layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanoplatelets incorporated into a nickel matrix (Ni-LDH), and were evaluated for their corrosion resistance versus pure nickel coatings on steel substrates. The LDH nanoplatelets incorporated into the nickel coatings were synthesized from zinc and aluminum nitrate salts using a refluxing coprecipitation method. These nitrate platelets were intercalated with sodium dodecylsulfate, increasing the gallery spacing from 9.06 A to 37.6 A, followed by refluxing in butanol to delaminate the LDH crystal sheets, giving a 1.5 g/L loading of LDH in the continuous phase. The average platelet size was found to be 631 ± 43 nm. Aliquots of the delaminated LDH colloid were added to a modified nickel bath for electrodeposition. Challenges for electrodepositing these metal anionic clay nanocomposites from an aqueous bath are reviewed and discussed. EDS analysis confirms the presence of the nanoplatelets in the metal coating. The resulting nanocomposite films have a preferred (220) orientation and crystallite sizes ranging from 25 to 60 nm as measured by XRD. Corrosion resistance of the coatings was also improved over the pure nickel coatings and measured in 3.5% NaCl with potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Suggestions for future design and improved properties are discussed for these types of nanocomposite coatings.
Hypofractionated Stereotactic Radiotherapy for Recurrent Malignant Gliomas

Objective: The results of hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) for the treatment of unselected patients with malignant glioma recurrent after conventional therapy were analyzed. Materials and Methods: Between January 1997 and March 1999, 21 patients with recurrent malignant glioma received SRT at UCLA. All patients received prior conventional radiotherapy (median 6000 cGy). The interval from initial diagnosis to SRT varied from 3 to 99 months (median 11). Tumor volume ranged from 4.5 to 33.7 cc (median 12). Fifteen patients had glioblastoma multiforme and 3 had anaplastic astrocytoma with an oligodendroglial component. Two patients with prior low-grade astrocytoma and one with an unbiopsied brainstem tumor did not have pathological confirmation of tumor grade at time of relapse. Five patients had multifocal recurrences and 11 had imaging evidence of indistinct tumor. Twelve patients had progressive disease after receiving salvage chemotherapy. Patients received 4–6 daily fractions of 400 to 600 cGy. Median total SRT dose was 2500 cGy. Follow-up ranged from 1 to 20 months and no patients were lost. Results: The actuarial median and one-year survival were 6.7 months and 15%, respectively. Fifteen patients died of progressive glioma and one of a pulmonary embolus. Sixteen patients relapsed after SRT: 11 local, 4 local plus distant, one marginal. All patients with distant relapse also had local failure at some time. The median time to local relapse for the 14 patients with an initial component of local failure was 5 months. There were trends to superior survival for those with an initial diagnosis of nonglioblastoma and those with frontal/occipital lobe recurrences. No patient developed documented radionecrosis. Two patients underwent operation following SRT. Histopathological analysis of the operative specimen revealed malignant glioma. Conclusions: The authors conclude that hypofractionated SRT is a feasible, safe alternative for patients with recurrent malignant glioma. Local failure represents the overwhelming pattern of relapse after SRT, regardless of the clinical or imaging characteristics of patients with recurrent tumor. Improving the outcome for this group of patients may require a multimodality approach of SRT plus concurrent chemotherapy.
The Symmetrized Square-Root Potential: Exact Solutions and Application to the Two-Dimensional Massless Dirac Equation

We determine bound-state solutions and associated energy eigenvalues of a boundary-value problem that is governed by the Schrodinger equation for a symmetrized, inverse square-root potential. We use these results to construct a scalar potential for which the two-dimensional massless Dirac equation admits zero-energy solutions.
Encoding of Promiscuity in an Aminoglycoside Acetyltransferase.

Aminoglycoside antibiotics are a large family of antibiotics that can be divided into two distinct classes on the basis of the substitution pattern of the central deoxystreptamine ring. Although aminoglycosides are chemically, structurally, and topologically diverse, some aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes (AGMEs) are able to inactivate as many as 15 aminoglycosides from the two main classes, the kanamycin- and neomycin-based antibiotics. Here, we present the crystal structure of a promiscuous AGME, aminoglycoside-N3-acetyltransferase-IIIb (AAC-IIIb), in the apo form, in binary drug (sisomicin, neomycin, and paromomycin) and coenzyme A (CoASH) complexes, and in the ternary neomycin–CoASH complex. These data provide a structural framework for interpretation of the thermodynamics of enzyme–ligand interactions and the role of solvent in the recognition of ligands. In combination with the recent structure of an AGME that does not have broad substrate specificity, these structures allow for the direct determinat...
Reduced Target Facilitation and Increased Distractor Suppression During Mind Wandering

The perceptual decoupling hypothesis suggests a general mechanism that while mind wandering, our attention is detached from our environment, resulting in diminished processing of external stimuli. This study focused on examining two possible specific mechanisms: the global suppression of all external stimuli, and a combination of reduced target facilitation and increased distractor suppression. An attentional capture task was used in which certain trials measured distractor suppression effects and others assessed target facilitation effects. The global suppression account predicts negative impacts on both types of trials, while the combined mechanisms of reduced target facilitation and increased distractor suppression suggest that only target-present trials would be affected. Results showed no cost of mind wandering on target-absent trials, but significant distractor suppression and target facilitation effects during mind wandering on target-present trials. These findings suggest that rather than perceptual decoupling globally suppressing all stimuli, it is more selective, falling in line with evidence on strong top-down modulation.
Transitional multilingual education policies in Africa: necessary compromise or strategic impediment?

AbstractDespite advances in multilingual education (MLE) scholarship, education in most African societies remain characteristically congruent with colonial normative monolingual and transitional multilingual policies, which limit the use of native language(s) as media of instruction to early primary schooling. This contributes to poor educational and social outcomes far below the projected benefits of MLE. Convinced that the complex relationships between language and education have been discerned, MLE scholarship has become increasingly advocacy oriented to corresponding policies and practices, with purportedly widespread resistance from parents, policymakers, and educators. This focused ethnographic inquiry into the perspectives of parents, educators, researchers, and policymakers on MLE finds mixed messages in MLE advocacy that foment localized resistance to and disincentivize full native language-based MLE (NLB-MLE) policy changes. Specifically, transitional multilingualism, a compromise with NLB-MLE o...