cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The ecological drivers of nuptial color evolution in darters (Percidae: Etheostomatinae)

Closely related animal lineages often vary in male coloration, and ecological selection is hypothesized to shape this variation. The role of ecological selection in inhibiting male color has been documented extensively at the population level, but relatively few studies have investigated the evolution of male coloration across a clade of closely related species. Darters are a diverse group of fishes that vary in the presence of elaborate male nuptial coloration, with some species exhibiting vivid color patterns and others mostly or entirely achromatic. We used phylogenetic logistic regression to test for correlations between the presence/absence of color traits across darter species and the ecological conditions in which these species occur. Environmental variables were correlated with the presence of nuptial color in darters with colorful species tending to inhabit environments that would support fewer predators and potentially transmit a broader spectrum of natural light compared to species lacking male coloration. We also tested the color preferences of a common darter predator, largemouth bass, and found that it exhibits a strong preference for red, providing further evidence of predation as a source of selection on color evolution in darters. Ecological selection therefore appears to be an important factor in dictating the presence or absence of male coloration in this group of fishes.
Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity among Children and Adolescents in Shandong, China: Urban-Rural Disparity.

Background The pattern of urban-rural disparity in childhood obesity varies across countries. The present study examined the change trend of urban-rural disparity in childhood overweight and obesity from 1985 to 2014 in Shandong, China. Methods Data for this study were obtained from four cross-sectional surveys of school children carried out in 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2014 in Shandong Province, China. In this study, 39 943 students aged 7-18 years were included (14 458 in 1985, 7198 in 1995, 8568 in 2005 and 9719 in 2014). Height and weight of all subjects were measured; body mass index (BMI) was calculated from their height and weight. The BMI cutoff points recommended by the International Obesity Task Force were used to define overweight and obesity. Results The prevalence of overweight and obesity was increasing continuously both in urban and rural areas over the past 29 years (1985-2014). The prevalence of combined overweight and obesity was significantly higher in urban than in rural children and adolescents in 1985, 1995 and 2005 (p 0.05). Conclusion The change trend of urban-rural disparity should be concerned in the future; policies and interventions focused on childhood overweight and obesity should pay attention to rural areas.
Study of Iodine Number of Serum Fatty Acids in Infantile Eczema

The observation that marked skin changes develop in rats suffering from the unsaturated fatty acid deficiency disease described by Burr and Burr1 suggested the possibility that certain dermatological disorders of childhood, such as infantile eczema, might be dependent in part at least upon this type of dietary deficiency. A few preliminary observations on eczematous babies given liberal supplements of unsaturated fatty acids in their diets in addition to the routine treatment were sufficiently encouraging to suggest the desirability of careful study of the blood lipids in this disease. In order to determine whether any relationship might exist between the two clinical entities, similar blood studies were undertaken on eczematous infants and on rats suffering from the unsaturated fatty acid deficiency.The present paper deals exclusively with the results in the cases of infantile eczema. The total iodine absorption of the serum was first determined on one or more occasions in 10 cases of eczema and in 16 no...
Brønsted Acid Catalyzed Monoalkylation of Anilines with Trichloroacetimidates

Trichloroacetimidates are useful alkylating agents for aromatic amines, requiring only a catalytic amount of a Bronsted acid to facilitate the reaction. Monoalkylation predominates under these conditions. Electron-poor anilines provide superior yields, with electron-rich anilines sometimes showing competitive Friedel-Crafts alkylation. A single flask protocol with formation of the imidate in situ is demonstrated, providing a convenient method for the direct substitution of alcohols with anilines. Reaction with a chiral imidate favors a mechanism that proceeds through a carbocation intermediate.
ABNORMAL STRESS ANKLE BRACHIAL INDEX PREDICTS ALL-CAUSE MORTALITY

Stress ankle brachial index (ABI) is commonly used for diagnostic assessment of patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD). There are limited data on prognostic implications of various stress tests. We performed a systematic review to assess the prognostic value of stress ABI. We reviewed
Protein-polyelectrolyte interactions. The concanavalin A precipitin reaction with polyelectrolytes and polysaccharide derivatives.

1. Concanavalin A formed precipitates with polyelectrolytes such as fucoidan, RNA, heparin and bacterial lipopolysaccharides. 2. Precipitate formation also occurred between ficoll and concanavalin A. 3. Precipitate formation between concanavalin A and dextran or soluble starch was induced by the incorporation of phosphate groups into the unreactive glucans. 4. Introduction of polar groups, such as acetate, formate and phosphate, into glycogen resulted in enhanced precipitation with concanavalin A, whereas the opposite effect was noted on incorporation of hydrophobic (methyl) centres. 5. Neutral sugars and salt partially inhibited complex-formation between polyelectrolytes and concanavalin A. 6. Concanavalin A–glycogen complexes could be dissociated with 5% (w/v) trichloroacetic acid or 44% phenol–water. 7. Concanavalin A lost its glycogen-complexing ability after phenol treatment. 8. Evidence is presented for the existence of common binding sites on concanavalin A for both neutral polysaccharides and polyelectrolytes. 9. Hydrogen bonding appeared to play a major role in neutral polysaccharide–concanavalin A precipitate formation, whereas both hydrogen bonding and electrostatic forces were implicated in polyelectrolyte–concanavalin A complex-formation.
On high-frequency radiation scattering sensitivity to surface roughness in particulate media

This paper analyzes the sensitivity of high-frequency radiation scattering in particulate media, to particle surface roughness. Ray-tracing theory and computation are employed. Since the magnitude of the Poynting vector ray, the irradiance, is the appropriate quantity to be tracked, the behavior of the reflectance, which controls the ratio of the reflected and incident Poynting vector magnitudes, is of primary concern. The reflectance is a highly nonlinear function of the refractive indices and angle of incidence. The present work first addresses the relationship between a single scatterer’s sensitivity to its surface roughness and then the response of a large number of scatterers to the surface roughness. The analysis indicates that, for a single scatterer, the sensitivity of the response to roughness decreases, up to a point, and then increases again, i.e., it is nonmonotone. However, for a system of multiple scatterers, this effect vanishes, due to multiple internal reflections which dominate the overall response characteristics. While it was relatively straightforward to compute the overall sensitivity of a single scattering body, for example a sphere, when multiple reflecting bodies are considered, numerical simulations are necessary because the reflected rays from one “rough” body will, in turn, be reflected to another “rough” body, etc. Examples are given for a system of randomly distributed scatterers.
SOMETHING MECHANICAL ENCRUSTED ON THE LIVING OR, “QUE SIGNIFIE LE RIRE?”

AbstractTheories of laughter exemplify the radical difference between descriptive language (“labels”) and actuality (“what occurs, including labels”). This difference is figured by Henri Bergson in his classic treatment of laughter as the mismatch between the mechanical and the living, a differential locus modeled herein with the help of a banana peel.
Wearable and Non-Invasive Assistive Technologies

In this chapter, we have reviewed the state-of-the-art wearable assistive technologies (AT) for people with severe paralysis. More specifically, we have described the concept and architecture of a Tongue Drive System (TDS), which is a tongue-operated wireless and wearable AT that can infer user’s intentions by detecting their volitional tongue movements using an array of magnetic sensors and a small magnetic tracer secured on the tongue. We have presented a dual-mode TDS (dTDS), which incorporates speech recognition and TDS into one device to provide its end user with a more efficacious, flexible, and reliable computer access tool that can be used in a wider variety of daily tasks. Clinical trials by individuals with high-level spinal cord injuries (SCI) demonstrated that TDS can effectively substitute some of the hand and finger functions in controlling computer mouse cursor and driving-powered wheelchairs.
Time-Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy: Charge & Energy Flow in Molecules

The coupling of charge and energy flow processes in molecules underlies photochemistry, photobiology and molecular electronics. Time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy disentangles these processes. Timing-Imaging detection of photoions and photoelectrons in coincidence provides new levels of detail.
Microwave Pasteurization of Milk

Pasteurization of milk was accomplished using microwaves (2450 MHz) as the energy source in a continuous heating apparatus with two-stage regeneration. Treatment was 72 C for 15 sec. Adequacy of pasteurization was measured by phosphatase tests and bacterial plate counts and results were compared to those of controls treated 62.8 C for 30 min. A triangle taste panel found no significant difference between microwave pasteurized milk and the control.
Truncating mutations of SPAST associated with hereditary spastic paraplegia indicate greater accumulation and toxicity of the M1 isoform of spastin

The SPAST gene, which produces two isoforms (M1 and M87) of the microtubule-severing protein spastin, is the chief gene mutated in hereditary spastic paraplegia. Haploinsufficiency is a popular explanation for the disease, in part because most of the >200 pathogenic mutations of the gene are truncating and expected to produce only vanishingly small amounts of shortened proteins. Here we studied two such mutations, N184X and S245X, and our results suggest another possibility. We found that the truncated M1 proteins can accumulate to notably higher levels than their truncated M87 or wild-type counterparts. Reminiscent of our earlier studies on a pathogenic mutation that generates full-length M1 and M87 proteins, truncated M1 was notably more detrimental to neurite outgrowth than truncated M87, and this was true for both N184X and S245X. The greater toxicity and tendency to accumulate suggest that, over time, truncated M1 could damage the corticospinal tracts of human patients. Curiously, the N184X mutation triggers the reinitiation of translation at a third start codon in SPAST, resulting in synthesis of a novel M187 spastin isoform that is able to sever microtubules. Thus microtubule severing may not be as reduced as previously assumed in the case of that mutation.
A Multicenter Analysis of Factors Associated With Apixaban-Related Bleeding in Hospitalized Patients With End-Stage Renal Disease on Hemodialysis.

Background: In 2014, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved a labeling change for apixaban to include recommendations for patients with severe renal impairment and patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on hemodialysis (HD), though these recommendations are largely based on pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data. Objective: Identify variables associated with bleeding events in hospitalized patients with ESRD on HD receiving apixaban. Methods: This retrospective, multicenter cohort study evaluated hospitalized patients with ESRD on HD receiving apixaban from January 1, 2013, through March 31, 2016. Correlational analysis and logistic regression were completed to identify factors associated with bleeding. Results: A total of 114 adults were included in the analysis. The median length of stay (LOS) was 6.2 (interquartile range = 3.8-11.9) days and bleeding events occurred in a total of 17 patients (15%). A weak correlation was identified for higher cumulative apixaban exposure, incre...
Critique [of "What Shall I Give My Children?" The role of the Mentor in Gloria Naylor's The Women of Brewster Place and Paule Marshall's Praisesong for the Widow by Linda Wells]

In her discussion of Mattie Michael and Avey Johnson as mentors in Gloria Naylor9s The Women of Brewster Place and Paule Marshall9s Praisesong for the Widow , Wells uses as a focal point Gwendolyn Brooks9s poem “What Shall I Give My Children?” It is a socially and politically institutionalized assignment that becomes cosmic when experienced by African American women. Joanne M. Braxton expresses it: “As Black American women, we are born into a mystic sisterhood, and we live our lives within a magic circle, a realm of shared language, reference, and allusion within the veil of our blackness and our femaleness . … ”[1] Wells quotes Toni Morrison regarding the black woman: “She has nothing to fall back on; not maleness, not whiteness, not ladyhood, not anything. And out of her reality, she may well have invented herself.” And she invented a self that shaped her identity within the constrictions of a hostile network that wove a tapestry of bonding, the foundation of becoming a mentor, or providing “ancestral presence” to borrow phrases from Braxton, in the image of “the outraged mother.” The roles of mentors and bonding are survival mechanisms, spiritually and physically.
Methods of Auxin Application in Cutting Propagation: A Review of 70 Years of Scientific Discovery and Commercial Practice

Abstract The discovery of auxins as plant growth regulating chemicals in the 1930s and their ability to stimulate adventitious rooting in stem cuttings marked a major milestone in the modern history of plant propagation. Basic and applied research conducted during the past 70 years has provided information regarding absorption and translocation of auxin in cuttings, as well as the effects of timing of auxin application, methods of auxin application, type of auxin, and concentration of auxin on the rooting response of cuttings. The basal quick-dip method, the powder application method, and the dilute soak method have been the most commonly used methods for applying auxin to cuttings in commercial horticulture over the past 7 decades, with the first two methods still in common use today. In addition, a wide variety of other auxin application methods have been reported beginning in the 1930s and continuing to the present. Some of these methods remain primarily of historical interest, several find limited use...
Kevlar and Other Aramid Fibers

The name poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide, doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue, which is presumably why Dupont gave it the much cooler commercial name of Kevlar. Kevlar was invented by Stephanie Louise Kwolek (1923–2014) and Paul Wintrop Morgan (1911–1992) at E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company for which US patent 3287323A “Process for the production of a highly orientable, crystallizable, filament forming polyamide” was awarded in 1966. It is produced by the condensation reaction between 1,4-phenylene-diamine and terephthaloyl chloride: the condensate, that is the chemical left over from the reaction, is hydrochloric acid. Mechanical drawing of the product produces Kevlar fibers. Kevlar can be considered one of a family of aromatic polyamide, which is usually contracted to “aramid”, fibers that include Nomex, Technora, Teijinconex and Twaron.
Environmentally Sound Supply Chain Management

Traditional approaches to environmental management have focused on individual production units within the firm, and have attempted to minimize energy consumed and waste produced by each unit as a separate entity.1Increasingly, however, companies are adhering to the philosophy expounded by industrial ecologists and implementing plans to minimize energy consumption and waste throughout the entire life cycle of a manufactured good - from extraction of virgin materials, through processing of raw materials and energy, to parts fabrication and product assembly, and finally through the use and ultimate disposal of the product. (See, for example, O’Rourke, Connelly, and Koshland (1996), Tibbs (1991), Tibbs (1992), Lowe (1993), Richards et. al. (1994), Ayres (1993), Ehrenfeld (1994).)
The design of a handover protocol for multimedia wireless ATM LANs

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the problems and challenges faced in a wireless ATM LAN environment. In particular, there is a need for a fast, efficient, and continuous handover mechanism. To cater for both high and low rate of mobility and to exploit the advantages of locality, a multi-tier wireless cells clustering architecture is proposed. Mobile handover is the process of passing the responsibility of communication connectivity from one base station (BS) to another. The resulting handover traffic is a function of many factors, such as the number of mobile hosts (MHs), the size of wireless cells, the mobility profile of MHs, the desired channel capacity, and the MH's migration speed and direction. To support fast, efficient, and continuous handover, a hybrid handover protocol based on the incremental re-establishment scheme and the concept of crossover switch discovery is introduced. The protocol has the provision for QoS and can function with or without radio hint situation. More importantly, the protocol can support handovers of heterogeneous mobile connections.
Race/Caste and the Creation and Meaning of Identity in Colonial Spanish America

Tras un analisis de la historiografia reciente, se estudia el problema de la definicion de raza y casta en la frontera de Sonora y Cochabamba. Se mantiene que la identidad racial ha sido historicamente mucho mas subjetiva de lo que se ha supuesto. Consecuentemente, la categorizacion del sistema espanol de castas estaba mas ligada a percepciones espanolas abstractas que a realidades culturales y sociales.
The Impact of the Marketing–R&D Interface on New Product Export Performance: A Contingency Analysis:

On the basis of the literature, a conceptual framework of the relationship between the marketing-research and development (R&D) interface and new product performance in export markets is developed....
Multi-layer Decomposition of Optimal Resource Sharing Problems

We describe a distributed framework for resource sharing problems that we face in communications, microeconomics and various networking applications. In particular, we consider a hierarchical multi-layer decomposition for network utility maximization (NUM), where functionalities are assigned to different layers. The proposed methodology creates solutions having central management and distributed computations. The technique aims to respond to the dynamics of the network by decreasing the communication cost, while shifting more computational load to the edges of the network. The main contribution of this work is the provision of a detailed analysis under the assumption that the network changes are in the same time-scale with the convergence time of the algorithms used for local computations. For this scenario, assuming strong concavity and smoothness of the users' objective functions, we present convergence rates for each layer.
Developing Biologics Tablets: The Effects of Compression on the Structure and Stability of Bovine Serum Albumin and Lysozyme

Oral administration is advantageous compared to the commonly used parenteral administration for local therapeutic uses of biologics or mucosal vaccines, since it can specifically target the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. It offers better patient compliance, even though the general use of such a delivery route is often limited by potential drug degradation in the GI tract and poor absorption. Using bovine serum albumin (BSA) and lysozyme as two model proteins, we studied their solid-state properties, mechanical properties, and tabletability as well as effects of compaction pressure, particle size, and humidity on protein degradation. It was found that BSA and lysozyme are highly hygroscopic, and their tablet manufacturability (powder caking, punch sticking, and tablet lamination) is sensitive to the humidity. BSA and lysozyme exhibited high plasticity and excellent tabletability and remained amorphous at high pressure and humidity. As for protein stability, lysozyme was resistant to high pressure (up to 300 MPa) and high humidity (up to 93%). In contrast, BSA underwent aggregation upon compression, an effect that was more pronounced for smaller BSA particles. High humidity accelerated the aggregation of BSA during incubation, but it did not further synergize with mechanical stress to induce protein degradation. Thus, compression can potentially induce protein aggregation, but this effect is protein-dependent. Therefore, strategies (e.g., the use of excipients, optimized manufacturing processes) to inhibit protein degradation should be explored before their tablet dosage form development.
A Simple Qualitative Model for the Pressure-induced Expansion andWall-stress Response of Fluid-filled Biological Channels

This work investigates the effects of a pressure increase in deformable fluid-filled biochannels, such as arteries and veins. Simple qualitative expressions are developed relating pressure-induced changes to the biochannel expansion, volumetric flow rate, and biochannel wall stress. Such relations are necessary for a rapid analysis in potential applications such as post-traumatic stress, hemorrhagic strokes, atherosclerotic plaque buildup, etc. The relations are based on the development of functions that correct classical pressurized thin-tube expressions for hoop stress for finite deformations.
MODELING OF THE NUCLEATION TEMPERATURE FOR ALLOYS IN THE CU-TI SYSTEM UNDER LASER IRRADIATION CONDITIONS

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of the modeling of the nucleation temperature for alloys in the Cu–Ti system under laser irradiation conditions. Alloys of composition in the vicinity of a deep eutectic are expected to crystallize from the melt in the form of a multiphase structure, particularly if the TO curves of the phases involved do not cross in the eutectic region. In such a case, even during very rapid cooling, the crystallization process is likely to be difficult because of the required mandatory partitioning of the solute, and glass formation may become the alternative mode of solidification. Glass-forming ability is a feature associated with eutectic regions of the phase diagram. After application of very rapid cooling rates preponderance of the amorphous phase was greatest in alloys in the middle of the Cu–Ti phase diagram, gradually diminishing as the binary sides were approached. This behavior with composition is related to three major factors associated with the FCC structure as it competes with glass formation: (1) the driving force for composition-invariant crystallization (Gv), (2) the nucleation temperature (Tn), (3) and the cooling rate (T).
Computer simulation of energy efficient speech production during locomotion over water without regular swimming strokes

Many aquatic animals need to live extended periods of time over water without much concern for fatigue. In contrast, humans are usually prone to fatigue during locomotion over water and unlikely to sustain energy efficient production of speech simultaneously. According to computer simulations, a strategy of backfloating and articulating all four or some of the limbs like oars can move the body efficiently, and the individual is less likely to fatigue and more able to maintain uninterrupted normal speech conversation for a greater period of time. The motion can be easily directed towards the feet to avoid striking the head against an obstacle when distracted by the speech conversation.
Goals of care discussions for patients with blood cancers: Association of person, place, and time with end-of-life care utilization.

Background Patients with blood cancers experience high-intensity medical care near the end of life (EOL) and low rates of hospice use; attributes of goals of care (GOC) discussions may partly explain these outcomes. Methods By using a retrospective cohort of patients with blood cancer who received care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and died in 2014, the authors assessed the potential relationship between timing, location, and the involvement of hematologic oncologists in the first GOC discussion with intensity of care near the EOL and timely hospice use. Results Among 383 patients, 39.2% had leukemia/myelodysplastic syndromes, 37.1% had lymphoma, and 23.7% had myeloma. Overall, 65.3% of patients had a documented GOC discussion. Of the first discussions, 33.2% occurred >30 days before death, 34.8% occurred in the outpatient setting, and 46.4% included a hematologic oncologist. In multivariable analyses, having the first discussion >30 days before death (odds ratio [OR], 0.37; 95% CI, 0.17-0.81), in the outpatient setting (OR, 0.21; 95% CI, 0.09-0.50), and having a hematologic oncologist present (OR, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.21-0.77) were associated with lower odds of intensive care unit admission ≤30 days before death. The presence of a hematologic oncologist at the first discussion (OR, 3.07; 95% CI, 1.58-5.96) also was associated with earlier hospice use (>3 days before death). Conclusions In this large cohort of blood cancer decedents, most initial GOC discussions occurred close to death and in the inpatient setting. When discussions were timely, outpatient, or involved hematologic oncologists, patients were less likely to experience intensive health care use near death and were more likely to enroll in hospice.
Wide-ranging transcriptome remodelling mediated by alternative polyadenylation in response to abiotic stresses in Sorghum

Alternative polyadenylation (APA) regulates diverse developmental and physiological processes through its effects on gene expression, mRNA stability, translatability, and transport. Sorghum is a major cereal crop in the world and, despite its importance, not much is known about the role of post-transcriptional regulation in mediating responses to abiotic stresses in Sorghum. A genome-wide APA analysis unveiled widespread occurrence of APA in Sorghum in response to drought, heat, and salt stress. Abiotic stress treatments incited changes in poly(A) site choice in a large number of genes. Interestingly, abiotic stresses led to the re-directing of transcriptional output into non-productive pathways defined by the class of poly(A) site utilized. This result revealed APA to be part of a larger global response of Sorghum to abiotic stresses that involves the re-direction of transcriptional output into non-productive transcriptional and translational pathways. Large numbers of stress-inducible poly(A) sites could not be linked with known, annotated genes, suggestive of the existence of numerous unidentified genes whose expression is strongly regulated by abiotic stresses. Furthermore, we uncovered a novel stress-specific cis-element in intronic poly(A) sites used in drought- and heat-stressed plants that might play an important role in non-canonical poly(A) site choice in response to abiotic stresses.
A Bourdieusian Analysis of the Sociocultural Capital of Chinese International Graduate Students in the United States

For the last decade, Chinese international graduate students (CIGS) have represented the largest portion of international graduate students in the United States. Previous research studies on language barriers and cultural differences have revealed that CIGS experience difficulties in adapting to the American educational system (Zhang-Wu, 2018). Few researchers have critically examined the experiences of CIGS on a more organizational level. In this qualitative study, we analyzed interviews with CIGS utilizing a Bourdieusian (1986a) framework to identify the social and cultural capital (SCC) that CIGS possessed. We argue that SCC concepts can help theoretically and critically examine the experiences of international students as a minority student group in the United States. The results from our in-depth semistructured interviews imply that CIGS are excluded from access to and possession of the SCC necessary to adapt to academic, cultural, and social life in the United States.
A 125 GeV fat Higgs at large tan β

In this article we study the viability of regions of large tan β within the frame-work of Fat Higgs/λ-SUSY Models. We compute the one-loop effective potential to find the corrections to the Higgs boson mass due to the heavy non-standard Higgs bosons. As the tree level contribution to the Higgs boson mass is suppressed at large tan β, these one-loop corrections are crucial to raising the Higgs boson mass to the measured LHC value. By raising the Higgsino and singlino mass parameters, typical electroweak precision constraints can also be avoided. We illustrate these new regions of Fat Higgs/λ-SUSY parameter space by finding regions of large tan β that are consistent with all experimental constraints including direct dark matter detection experiments, relic density limits and the invisible decay width of the Z boson. We find that there exist regions around λ = 1.25, tan β = 50 and a uniform psuedo-scalar 4 TeV ≲ M A ≲ 8 TeV which are consistent will all present phenomenological constraints. In this region the dark matter relic abundance and direct detection limits are satisfied by a lightest neutralino that is mostly bino or singlino. As an interesting aside we also find a region of low tan β and small singlino mass parameter where a well-tempered neutralino avoids all cosmological and direct detection constraints.
Analysis on Epidemic Characteristics of Scarlatina form 1965 to 2004 in Nanning

Objective: This investigation was to analyze the epidemic characteristics of scarlatina in Nanning and help to institute pertinent preventive and cure measures. Methods: Epidemiological data of scarlatina form 1965 to 2004 in Nanning was analyzed. Results: Before 1980, once there was a major intensive epidemic of scarlatina in Nanning, After entering 1980s, sporadic occurrence of scarlatina in Nanning became the major form and the incidence rate fluctuated below 5/100,000. The incidence in cities was higher than rural regions. The peak of onset was focused on winter and spring. The incidence population gave priority to children whose age was 0-19 years old. Their major occupations were student, scattered children and nursery school children. But compared to thst in the previous time, the structure of age and occupation of people with scarlatina changed after entering 1980s ill Nanning. The proportion of preschool and nursery school children increased (P0. 005) . Conclusion: Children was the population needing emphasized protection during the prevention of scarlatina. Due to the increasing trend of preschool and nursery school children with scarlatina after 1980s in Nanning. surveillance of this disease should be emphasized in the nursery institutions and schools especially the non-state nursery institutions and schools in the area of urban and suburban connection to prevent the outbreak of this disease.
Experimenting with semantic web services to understand the role of NLP technologies in healthcare.

NLP technologies can play a significant role in health-care where a predominant segment of the clinical documentation is in text form. In a graduate course focused on understanding semantic web services at West Virginia University, a class project was designed with the purpose of exploring potential use for NLP-based abstraction of clinical documentation. The role of NLP-technology was simulated using human abstractors and various workflows were investigated using public domain workflow and semantic web service technologies. This poster explores the potential use of NLP and the role of workflow and semantic web technologies in developing healthcare IT environments.
Can’t Dissolve Me Now: A COVID-19 Provoked Venous Thromboembolism Breaks Through Apixaban: Case Report

Author(s): Arena, Alexander W.; Hussein, Ahmad; Kurkowski, Ellen J.; Kulkarni, Miriam L. | Abstract: Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a multisystem process with a growing evidence of its endotheliopathy effects, with subsequent hypercoagulability states.Case Report: WWe present an emergency department case of a COVID-19-provoked deep venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism without a history of venous thromboembolism (VTE), with extension of the VTE despite adherence to apixaban.Conclusion: This case demonstrates the importance of further research and protocols for optimal dosage and treatment to prevent worsening VTE in COVID-19 patients.
Uncertainty about managers’ reporting objectives and investors’ response to earnings reports: Evidence from the 2006 executive compensation disclosures

Abstract We examine whether the information content of the earnings report, as captured by the earnings response coefficient (ERC), increases when investors’ uncertainty about the manager's reporting objectives decreases, as predicted in Fischer and Verrecchia (2000). We use the 2006 mandatory compensation disclosures as an instrument to capture a decrease in investors’ uncertainty about managers’ incentives and reporting objectives. Employing a difference-in-differences design and exploiting the staggered adoption of the new rules, we find a statistically and economically significant increase in ERC for treated firms relative to control firms, largely driven by profit firms. Cross-sectional tests suggest that the effect is more pronounced in subsets of firms most affected by the new rules. Our findings represent the first empirical evidence of a role of compensation disclosures in enhancing the information content of financial reports.
An Exploratory Study of School Psychology Students’ Perceptions of Religious and Spiritual Diversity Training in their Graduate Programs

Religiosity and spirituality are essential aspects of individuals’ cultural identities. However, the field of school psychology has generally avoided in-depth discussion regarding the implications of religious/spiritual diversity within the context of multiculturalism and culturally responsive practice. One aim of this study was to examine school psychology students’ perceptions of their current training relative to religious and spiritual diversity, because graduate training is critical for helping emerging practitioners develop attitudes, knowledge, and skills to employ culturally responsive services. Results showed that students received limited preparation and explicit teaching to address issues related to religious and spiritual diversity; and programs most frequently addressed disability diversity, socioeconomic diversity, and racial/ethnic diversity. Furthermore, the participants most frequently identified practicum experiences as facilitating their capacity to respond to religious and spiritual diversity in their professional practice. Key results suggest that school psychology graduate students may benefit from more explicit instruction during their graduate training to respond to religion and spirituality as aspects of cultural diversity in their professional work.
Fiber nonlinearity based devices for advanced fiber-optic communication and signal processing

This paper presents a summary of new results on the demonstration of noise-free gain with use of an MF-based phase-sensitive nondegenerate optical parametric amplifier and on the demonstration of low-jitter 10 GHz-rate pulse generation simultaneously at multiple wavelengths in the L band by exploiting four-wave mixing in high-nonlinearity fibers (HNLF).
OKLAHOMA’S ADOPTION OF THE MERIT SYSTEM: J. HOWARD EDMONDSON AND COOPERATIVE FEDERALISM

American federalism has proceeded by fits and starts. There have been periods in which states have exercised dominance and other times when the national government has prevailed. Various explanatory models of federalism have been developed by scholars, who have ceaselessly debated their merits. As the current political climate attests, arguments about appropriate national-state relations are ongoing. In spite of the various points of view, there exists at least one indisputable constant--governance in the United States has never been a solo act. Its political script has always included parts for both national and state involvement. The subject of this paper exemplifies this political reality by reviewing Oklahoma’s adoption of its civil service system. As the story is usually told, in 1959 a fearless young governor initiated a breathtaking agenda of good government reforms, including a statewide merit system. What’s missing from the tale, however, is sufficient acknowledgement of the supporting role played by the national government.
Large Deviation Results for Branching Processes

Let Z n be a supercritical simple branching process with a finite offspring mean m and zero extinction probability. Then Z n+1 Z -1 n converges to m with probability one. This note deals with the large deviation aspects of this convergence and shows that under exponential moment hypothesis the rate is geometric. Extensions to multitype case are stated without proof. Some open problems are indicated
Green evolution: landscape design and culture change in ancient Mesoamérica

Los paisajes disenados son parte integral de la vida sedentaria y son diagnosticos de la complejidad social y la evolucion cultural en el mismo modo que lo son las unidades residenciales. Este ensayo propone una serie de tipos ideales de paisajes disenados e investiga como funcionaron, y como sirven de indicadores de la complejidad social. Desde las milpas y calmiles de los agricultores del periodo Formativo hasta los elaborados parques de placer que mostraban la riqueza y poder de los reyes aztecas, los paisajes disenados expresaron la necesidad de la horticultura plebeya, asi como las obras maestras de la produccion cultural de las elites. Paralelo a la evolucion cultural de Mesoamerica, los grupos de elite emergieron y controlaron una proporcion creciente de recursos, lo cual se expreso en la transformacion del paisaje hacia disenos decorativos con significacion ideologica que maximizaba el prestigio y potencial economico de sus posesiones. Dada esta connotacion evolucionista, los paisajes disenados deberian estar entre los rasgos utilizados por arqueologos y etnohistoriadores para analizar las sociedades que estudian
End-to-end scheduling for all-optical data centers

This paper considers the end-to-end scheduling for all-optical data center networks with zero in-network buffer and non-negligible reconfiguration delay. It is known that in the regime where the scheduling reconfiguration delay is non-negligible, the rate of schedule reconfiguration should be limited in such a way as to minimize the impact of reduced duty-cycles and to ensure bounded delay. However, when the scheduling rate is restricted, the existing literature also tends to restrict the rate of monitoring and decision processes. We first present a framework for scheduling with reconfiguration delay that decouples the rate of scheduling from the rate of monitoring. Under this framework, we then present two scheduling algorithms for switches with reconfiguration delay, both based on the well-known MaxWeight scheduling policy. The first one is the Periodic MaxWeight (PMW), which is simpler in computation, but requires prior knowledge of traffic load. The other is the Adaptive MaxWeight (AMW), which, in contrast, requires no prior knowledge. We show the stability condition for both algorithms and evaluate their delay performance through simulations.
Protective immunity induced by rotavirus DNA vaccines

It is estimated that Group A rotavirus diarrhea causes as many as one million deaths per year in children worldwide, and effective vaccines will be essential for their control. Plasmid DNA vaccines encoding murine rotaviral proteins VP4, VP6, or VP7 were tested in adult BALB/c mice for their ability to induce immune responses and provide protection against rotavirus challenge. The vaccines were administered by inoculation into cells of the epidermis with an Accell gene gun. (Auragen, Inc., Middleton, WI, USA). Each vaccine elicited rotavirus-specific serum antibodies as measured by ELISA. Virus neutralizing antibodies were detected in mice receiving plasmid DNAs encoding for outer capsid proteins VP4 and VP7, but not for VP6, an inner capsid protein, and all of the vaccines generated virus-specific CTL responses. Each vaccine was effective in protecting mice against infection after homotypic rotavirus (100 ID50) challenge, showing reductions (P < 0.0002) in viral excretion measured over a 9 day period. Increased rotavirus-specific intestinal IgA antibodies were seen in vaccinated mice after rotavirus challenge, particularly in mice that received the VP6 DNA vaccine. This suggests that intracellular IgA-mediated neutralization may be involved in protective immunity induced by the VP6 DNA vaccine, and may represent a new mechanism for protection by DNA vaccines.
A high-Q AlGaN/GaN phonon trap with integrated hemt read-out

This paper presents novel phonon traps, the main building blocks of self-sustained all-GaN oscillators, implemented on an AlGaN/GaN electro-acoustic platform. The geometry of acoustic cavities has been engineered to efficiently trap the energy in the central region of devices, where the interdigitated excitation/sense electrodes and HEMT read-outs are located. Such an energy trapping method obviates the need for narrow tethers. This facilitates routing of multiple lines connected to the source, gate, and drain of the read-out HEMTs as well as allowing co-integration of different interdigitated transducer (IDT) sets for efficient piezoelectric lateral field excitation. Furthermore, elimination of narrow tethers improves the power handling capability of the GaN resonators, making them suitable for high-power applications. Two types of AlGaN/GaN-based devices are discussed in this work, both operating in the ninth-order width-extensional mode that is excited using Schottky IDTs. In the first device, another set of Schottky IDTs it used for sensing, while the second device utilizes a HEMT to read-out the signal. An unloaded quality factor (Q) of ∼13,000 has been measured at room temperature and atmospheric pressure for a device operating at ∼740 MHz, resulting in a frequency × Q value of 0.96×1013, which is the highest value reported to date for GaN-based resonators and is very close to the intrinsic limits for AlN and GaN, set by phonon-phonon interactions.
Theory for Wavelength-Resolved Photon Emission Statistics in Single-Molecule Fluorescence Spectroscopy

We derive the moment generating function for photon emissions from a single molecule driven by laser excitation. The frequencies of the fluoresced photons are explicitly considered. Calculations are performed for the case of a two-level dye molecule, showing that measured photon statistics will display a strong and nonintuitive dependence on detector bandwidth. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the antibunching phenomenon, associated with negative values of Mandel's $Q$ parameter, results from correlations between photons with well separated frequencies.
WOLMAN'S DISEASE: THREE NEW PATIENTS WITH A RECENTLY DESCRIBED LIPIDOSIS.

Three patients are presented, the first ones of American origin, with a newly identified constitutional lipidosis previously described by Wolman from Israel. The clinical picture as seen to date shows poor weight gain, vomiting and diarrhea, increasing hepatosplenomegaly with abdominal protuberance, and death in nutritional failure by 2-4 months of age. One of the patients in this report had a similarly involved sibling; present data suggest recessive genetic transmission. Foam cells are found in the bone marrow, and vacuolated lymphocytes in the peripheral blood, each entirely similar to those seen in Niemann-Pick disease. Serum lipids are normal, and signs of adrenocortical insufficiency are moderate. An apparently pathognomic radiologic sign is the presence of greatly enlarged adrenal glands, easily visible by virtue of diffuse punctate calcific deposits, with normal shape of the gland preserved. Pathologic studies show disseminated foam cells, laden with cholesterol and neutral fat, most notable in the liver, spleen, lymph nodes, marrow, thymus, and small intestinal mucosa. In addition, neutral fat deposits are found in connective tissue cells, vascular endothelium, bile ducts, hepatic parenchymal cells, and adrenal cortical cells. The adrenal enlargement is produced by increase in the adrenal cortex, with secondary, possibly ischemic, necrosis and calcification. Direct analysis of unfixed tissue has shown that the cholesterol level of the liver is increased 15-20-fold, and of the spleen 4-5 times normal, with apparent major increase in triglycerides as well. Nervous system changes are milder. The accumulated sterol has been demonstrated to be genuine cholesterol in the tissues studied so that the mechanism of the disease does not appear to rest with disturbed biosynthesis of cholesterol.
Confounding in Studies of Adverse Reactions to Vaccines

Several social and medical attributes are associated with both avoidance or delay of vaccination and an increased risk of adverse events such as sudden infant death syndrome or childhood encephalopathy. Studies that fail to control adequately for such confounding factors are likely to underestimate the risks of adverse events attributable to vaccination. This paper reviews the literature on studies of severe adverse events after the administration of pertussis antigen-containing vaccines, with particular attention to the measures taken by different investigators to avoid this problem. Most published studies have reported a deficit of sudden infant death syndrome among vaccinees, which may reflect confounding in their study designs. An expression is derived to explore the extent of underestimation that may be introduced in such studies, under different sets of conditions. Confounding of this sort is a general problem for studies of adverse reactions to prophylactic interventions, as they may be withheld from some individuals precisely because they are already at high risk of the adverse event.
The Rashomon Effect

In this article, Werhane addresses those concerned with ethical reporting and decision-making, and demonstrates extensively how in taking a particular perspective we affect or color the reporting of an event or experience. Werhane uses the Japanese film, Rashomon (Kurosawa 1950), as the focus of her deconstruction. This film tells the story of an event as reported through the experience of four different participants. Each resulting narrative depicts the event and its outcomes differently such that one account seems to contradict another. Werhane employs the film as an analogy for ethical scenarios and management case study narratives. Any particular version of a narrative can become informally fixed as the prototype for subsequent versions even when the information as depicted in the prototype narrative has not been verified. This clearly affects, or even distorts, the reporting of many facts set out in the original event. How the company was involved, either positively or negatively, who was responsible for any fault or incident, and how the case is taught are all nuanced by this Rashomon effect. The Rashomon effect continues to be relevant as a means of critically considering the way in which information is presented.
ARCHAEOMAGNETISM IN ARCHAEOMETRY— A SEMI‐CENTENNIAL REVIEW*

The journal Archaeometry and its first co-editor Martin Aitken played key roles in the development of archaeomagnetism. This paper briefly reviews all papers published in Archaeometry, and a few others, dealing with archaeomagnetic secular variation, archaeomagnetic dating, archaeointensity studies and related applications of magnetic studies to archaeology, to indicate some of the major developments over the past 50 years.