cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Optimization of a single insertion electrode array for the creation of clinically relevant ablations using high-frequency irreversible electroporation.

Abstract High-frequency irreversible electroporation (H-FIRE) is an emerging ablation modality, delivering rapid bursts of bipolar microsecond-duration electrical pulses to non-thermally ablate tissue including tumors. With advantages over current electroporation techniques including mitigation of muscle stimulation and reduced susceptibility to heterogeneous tissue properties, H-FIRE may produce more uniform and predictable ablations and can potentially be delivered with a single applicator device. However, the resulting ablations tend to be smaller than those provided with equivalent energy monopolar pulse protocols. Here, we develop numerical simulations that demonstrate the potential for clinically relevant ablations with H-FIRE delivered via a single insertion technique comprised of an expandable array and a distally placed grounding pad. Based on existing in vivo data and new in vitro results, delivery of H-FIRE with a clinical IRE single electrode probe (1 cm long) is predicted to produce a 2.2 cm3 ablation while an optimized eight tine array produces a 3.2 cm3 ablation when the same H-FIRE bursts are delivered (5000 V). We demonstrate that alternative pulse protocols can be used to increase ablation volumes with this optimized array and these results indicate that in vivo investigation of a single insertion array and grounding pad are warranted.
ICOS: Support for "Bare Metal" Computer Architecture Assignments

We present ICOS, a platform for running code on a CPU's "bare metal" (i.e., without a traditional operating system). Our Computer Architecture students use ICOS to carefully time code in order to observe the performance effects of a CPU's branch predictor and superscalar design. Running code using ICOS avoids the noise introduced by context switches, interrupts and other traditional operating sytem features. This increase in consistency provides a clearer picture of the CPU's performance, which can be especially helpful for students who have not had much experience interpreting experimental results.
Suicide in Prison

Suicide is a leading cause of death among inmates housed in state prisons across the United States. Research has shown that the inmates most prone to suicide typically are white, male, between the ages of 25 and 34, have been convicted of a property crime, and are serving prison sentences of less than 10 years. Inmates who commit suicide typically suffer from depression or other psychosocial disorders, and have had prior suicidal thoughts or attempts. Prisoner suicide is typically preceded by life events such as new criminal charges, marital or relationship issues, or a conflict with other inmates. The suicide act most commonly involves hanging or overdosing on medications or other drugs. Research regarding the prevention of suicide in prison has advocated for coordination between mental health counselors and correctional staff, use of suicide risk assessment measures, avoiding segregated housing of suicidal inmates, designing cells that make hanging more difficult, and improving communication with correctional staff about suicidal inmates. Keywords: corrections; mental health; prison
Practice Makes Perfect: Integrating Technology to Teach Language Barrier Solutions

This article highlights how academia and industry leaders in health care communication can partner to provide students practice caring for individuals who are limited English proficient and how such practice opportunities can be integrated into academic programs. Highlighted are key elements to consider when partnering with industry leaders to develop a program for students. A course exemplar provides a comprehensive description of a practice exercise integrated in a nursing physical assessment course. Students obtain hands-on experiences caring for limited English proficient standardized patients using state-of-the-art digital video interpreting technology.
Artificial intelligence in radiology

Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, particularly deep learning, have demonstrated remarkable progress in image-recognition tasks. Methods ranging from convolutional neural networks to variational autoencoders have found myriad applications in the medical image analysis field, propelling it forward at a rapid pace. Historically, in radiology practice, trained physicians visually assessed medical images for the detection, characterization and monitoring of diseases. AI methods excel at automatically recognizing complex patterns in imaging data and providing quantitative, rather than qualitative, assessments of radiographic characteristics. In this Opinion article, we establish a general understanding of AI methods, particularly those pertaining to image-based tasks. We explore how these methods could impact multiple facets of radiology, with a general focus on applications in oncology, and demonstrate ways in which these methods are advancing the field. Finally, we discuss the challenges facing clinical implementation and provide our perspective on how the domain could be advanced.
Rediscoveries and Reformulations: Toynbee's Jesus: Computational hermeneutics and the continuing presence of classical Mediterranean civilization

In The Uses of Enchantment , Bruno Bettelheim argues that “our greatest need and most difficult achievement is to find meaning in our lives” (Bettelheim 1977: 3). Most Americans appear at least partially to have achieved this goal with the help of Jesus. In a recent Gallup sample of 1,509 Americans, nine-tenths said they had been influenced by Jesus as a moral and ethical teacher, three-quarters believed that Jesus was alive in Heaven today, 71 percent said that they were deepening their personal relationships with him: two-thirds held that a person must accept Jesus to gain eternal life. “The Gallup organization says a sample of 1,500 is subject to a margin of error of two to three percentage points” (Briggs 1983). The meaning of the Christian message is much more uncertain and variable than these sampling margins suggest. Few countries in the world are both as religiously Christian and as intellectually ignorant of the tenets of their dominant religion as the same Gallup poll suggests. Nearly three-fifths of the American survey panel did not know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount; 46 percent of the sample could not name the four Gospels considered by all scholars to be the single most important extant source on the life and teachings of Jesus. Moreover, a third of these Americans “believed it was possible to obtain everlasting life without accepting Jesus, and nearly a fourth thought it was possible to be a ‘true Christian’ without believing Jesus was divine” (Briggs 1983).
Iron and Phosphorus

Yeasts require trace levels of various mineral compounds including iron. At low concentrations, iron plays an important role in metabolism as an enzyme activator, stabilizer, and functional component of proteins. At higher-than-trace levels, iron has other roles: altering redox systems of the wine in favor of oxidation, affecting sensory characteristics, and participating in the formation of complexes with tannins and phosphates resulting in instabilities. This complex formation, also termed “casse,” is seen initially as a milky white cloud and later as a precipitate. Two iron-containing casses may form in wines: “white” (ferric phosphate) and “blue” (ferric tannate casse). The former represents the most commonly encountered iron-related casse.
Wall mounted level: a cooperative mixed reality game about reconciliation

Wall Mounted Level is a cooperative mixed-reality game that leverages multimodal interactions to support its narrative of 'reconciliation'. In it, players control their digitally projected characters and navigate them across a hand drawn physical sculpture as they collaborate towards a shared goal: finding one another. The digital and physical characteristics of the game are further reflected in the ways in which players interact with it, by making use of digital input devices and physical 'touch'. The abstract and poster discuss the design choices that were made for creating the varying modes of engagement and the motivation behind player collaboration in 'Wall Mounted Level.
Abstract SY37-03: Mitochondrial genetic contributions to metastatic efficiency

Complex phenotypes, like tumorigenicity or metastasis, require coordinated expression of multiple genes. Additionally, the contributions of some of those genes can be affected by polymorphisms in the protein coding or regulatory sequences (PMID: 22257951). The pathobiology of metastasis remains poorly understood because both intrinsic (i.e., genetic) and extrinsic (i.e., tumor-microenvironment interactions) are involved. A growing body of data indicates demonstrate that there are underlying genetic components that govern the processes involved in cancer spread and colonization. To assess the contributions of mitochondrial genetics in metastasis, we created Mitochondrial Nuclear Exchange (MNX) mice by transferring an oocyte nucleus from strain x into an enucleated oocyte from strain y , and showed that mammary tumor formation and metastasis are regulated by inherited mitochondrial polymorphisms in an oncogenic driver-dependent manner (PMID: 26471915; PMID: 29070615). Since stromal compartments also possess changed mitochondria in the MNX mice, we hypothesized that mitochondrial polymorphisms in non-cancer cell compartments could exert effects on tumor formation and/or metastasis in addition to genetic (cell autonomous) changes. Syngeneic tumor cells were injected into MNX mice with the same nuclear, and therefore same MHC, background. Experimental metastasis was compared between wild-type and MNX mice (i.e., with same or different mtDNA backgrounds, respectively). E0771 mammary carcinoma and B16-F10 melanoma cells (both syngeneic to C57BL/6J), formed significantly (P 10 mice per experiment. C57BL/6J mitochondria confer resistance to metastasis in both cell autonomous and non-cell autonomous experiments. Basal metabolic and ROS differences comparing mouse embryonic fibroblasts isolated from wild-type and MNX mice are among mechanisms being explored. Differential gene expression occurred in tissues isolated from wild-type and MNX mice (PMID: 28663334). Additionally, altered immune and microbiota profiles have been observed. Together, our findings highlight striking influences that mitochondrial haplotypes can exert on tumorigenicity and metastasis via both intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms. Support: Susan G. Komen for the Cure (SAC11037), Natl Fndn Cancer Res. and CA168524. Citation Format: Danny R. Welch. Mitochondrial genetic contributions to metastatic efficiency [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr SY37-03.
Short food supply chains for local food: a difficult path

Agri-food globalization is having a serious adverse impact on small- and medium-sized family farms in the province of Malaga (southern Spain), 43% of which have disappeared over the last 10 years. Short food supply chains (SFSCs) are emerging as a potential option for this type of farm, but as a strategy it is apparently not being implemented strongly enough over the region as a whole. The current case study sought to explore the initiatives carried out by local producers to date in implementing SFSCs throughout the province and to examine, from the standpoint of the production sector, the constraints hindering its development and the strategies currently being adopted with a view to addressing them. The analyses carried out under local producers perspective shows us that although SFSCs are interesting for family farms, in terms of prices, economic profit and social recognition, the abilities and capacities these channels require to producers, jointly with technical, flexibility and time demands, make these channels to be not that successful and attractive. Small producers interested in SFSCs must be aware of the special importance of social linkages and the need to take care of them; as well as of the need of establishing synergies and cooperation with other producers and stakeholders, in order to facilitate the tasks associated and that not every food product suit SFSCs.
We Have Been Assimilated: Some Principles for Thinking About Algorithmic Systems

This text is an opinion piece motivated by an invited keynote address at the 2018 IFIP 8.2 working conference, ‘Living with Monsters?’ (San Francisco, CA, 11 December 2018.) It outlines some principles for understanding algorithmic systems and considers their implications for the increasingly algorithm-driven infrastructures we currently inhabit. It advances four principles exhibited by algorithmic systems: (i) radical complexity, (ii) opacity, (iii) radical otherness, and (iv) infrastructuration or Borgian assimilation. These principles may help to guide a more critical appreciation of the emergent world marked by hybrid agency, accelerating feedback loops, and ever-expanding infrastructures to which we have been all too willingly assimilated.
Understanding spatial and contextual factors influencing intraregional differences in child vaccination coverage in Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh, policy discourse has mostly focused on regional inequities in health, including child immunization coverage. Knowledge of local geographical and contextual factors within regions, however, becomes pertinent in efforts to address these inequities. We used the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2011 to examine factors that influence intraregional differences in vaccination coverage using a multilevel analysis. We found that in spite of the provision of health facilities at each level of administrative governance, only distance to the Upazilla Health Complex was a consistent predictor for each dose of vaccine, highlighting the remote locations of the communities that remain underserved. Our analysis demonstrates the value of subregional analyses that identify the characteristics of communities that are vulnerable to incomplete immunization coverage. Unless specific policy actions are taken to increase coverage in these remote areas, geographic inequities are likely to persist within regions, and desired targets will not be achieved.
Maternal Human Papillomavirus and Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Abstract Introduction: To determine whether maternal human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is associated with preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM). Materials and Methods: We conducted a re...
Use of the Tetanus Toxoid, Reduced Dose Diphtheria and Pertussis Vaccine (Tdap) in Allogeneic Transplant (alloHCT) Recipients.

Abstract The incidence of pertussis in the United States has steadily increased over the last decade particularly in adolescents and adults. In 2005, in an effort to reduce pertussis in these populations, two vaccines containing tetanus, reduced diphtheria and pertussis toxoids (Tdap) were approved. The two Tdap vaccines contained the same amount of tetanus toxoid (TT) but differ in the amount of diphtheria and pertussis toxoid per dose as well as their indicated age range. In 2006, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended that all adolescents and adults receive a single dose of Tdap. Currently, there are limited data on the immunonogenicity of these vaccines in alloHCT patients. Since 2005, 64 alloHCT recipients have received Tdap at our center. The vaccine administered is approved for individuals 11 to 64 yrs of age and contained 2.5 ug of pertussis toxoid (PT), 2.5 Lf diphtheria toxin, and 5 Lf tetanus toxoid (TT) per dose. The median age at HCT was 19 years. The median age (range) at vaccination was 25.2 years (10–64) years. No patient has reported a significant adverse event, including local site reactions or fever >38. Pre and post vaccine titers are currently available in 41 patients transplanted for acute leukemia (n=22), CML (n=4), MDS (n=5), NHL (n=4), Hodgkin's disease (n=1), hemoglobinopathy (n=4), or Wiskott Aldrich syndrome (n=1). Stem cell donors were an HLA matched sibling (n=23) or unrelated donor (n=18). Fifty-nine percent of patients received T-cell-depleted allografts and the remaining 41% received unmodified allografts. Patients were vaccinated at a median of 4.5 years (range: 0.8–14 years) after transplantation. The majority of patients had no detectable pertussis titers prior to immunization. In an effort to provide early protection against pertussis, ten patients received Tdap as their primary tetanus vaccine. The remainder received Tdap as a booster following one (n=4), two (n=3) or 3 (n=24) age appropriate tetanus/diphtheria containing vaccines. Response to TT (seroconversion >0.15 IU/ml or >3 fold increase) was significantly better when Tdap was used as a booster vaccine compared with use as the initial tetanus vaccine (74% vs 20%, p=0.003). Response to TT and diphtheria toxoid was also significantly better in patients who received Tdap following a series of three tetanus/diphtheria containing vaccines, compared with one or two (p=0.03). In contrast, only 7 patients developed a >2 fold increase in antibody titer against PT. Of these 7 responders, 6 were 1 Tdap and/or donor immunization prior to stem cell harvest, should be explored.
Epicureanism and Skepticism about Practical Reason

Epicureans believe that death cannot harm the one who dies because they hold the existence condition, which states that a subject is able to be harmed only while they exist. I show that on one reading of this condition death can, in fact, make the deceased worse off because it is satisfied by the deprivation account of death’s badness. I argue that the most plausible Epicurean view holds the anti-modal existence condition, according to which no merely possible state of affairs can be good or bad relative to the subject who dies. I go on to show how this condition, as well as any other condition that denies the deprivation account, results in skepticism about practical reason. Thus, the Epicurean faces a dilemma. Either our practical reasoning is hopelessly mistaken or death can make us worse off. Given that our practical reasoning seems at least mildly reliable, we should conclude that death can make us worse off.
Novel software for automated morphometric analysis of stented arteries

Morphometric analysis of explanted arteries remains the gold standard in assessing pathological mechanisms of arterial disease, and the efficacy of therapeutic interventions. Software currently used for morphometric analysis (ImageJ, ImagePro, etc.) requires manual tracing of each region of interest by the user to obtain direct and derived data needed for analysis. Manual segmentation of borders between differently stained arterial compartments is time-consuming and prone to bias, even when the operator is blind to the treatment type. Here, we report newly designed morphometric software, floodSeg, which greatly aids analysis through semi-automated segmentation, followed by automated computation and data entry. The program includes tools for both rapid component selection, and precision user-controlled contour correction. In practice, segmentation occurs following the selection of seed points and corresponding threshold values, for each desired component. The flood fill algorithm is used to map out components, followed by Sklansky9s convex-hull algorithm to obtain the outer contours. If necessary, convexity defects can be overcome through manual point placement on top of existing points, and regeneration of the contour. floodSeg was tested using a set of non-uniformly stained stented rat arteries, and compared against manually obtained results. The accuracy of the resulting measurements was within the expected limit based on repeated manual measurements by the same operator, and did not exceed 3%. Most notably, the duration for data acquisition using floodSeg was less than 20% of the time required for manual measurements by an experienced operator. Thus, our contribution is an improvement on widely used software, with significant potential for application in a multitude of areas of pathology practice.
Mechanical properties and characteristics of structural insulated panels with a novel cellulose nanofibril-based composite foam core:

The cellulose nanofibril material utilized in structural composites has attracted considerable attention in recent decades. However, developing and manufacturing such products are still somewhat pr...
PyRTLMatrix: An Object-Oriented Hardware Design Pattern for Prototyping ML Accelerators

As Machine Learning (ML) applications become pervasive and computer architects further integrate hardware support, the need to rapidly explore trade-offs between algorithms and hardware becomes pressing. While prior work on hardware accelerators has led to tremendous performance and energy improvements, it can be difficult to generalize these approaches without resorting to special purpose tools or even languages. Through object-oriented design principles we describe a general and reusable approach for generating parameterized neural network hardware. Specifically, we describe our experiences with high-level hardware design objects for building neural network hardware based on the open-source Python HDL, PyRTL. By thinking at a higher level of abstraction than simple "hardware modules", we open the door to a process by which hardware can be developed with software engineering principles. This creates new opportunities for a tight feedback loop between machine learning algorithm innovation and hardware design reality. Future works considering hardware development for ML applications can benefit from our work analyzing the costs and benefits of abstraction.
Autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders and symptoms in children with neurofibromatosis type 1

AIM To evaluate if autism symptoms and diagnoses are more common in children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) than in typically developing children, to which levels, and to determine if co-occurring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptomatology accounts for this increase. METHOD We searched hospital electronic medical records (EMR) for International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision NF1 and co-occurring diagnoses codes. We recruited a subsample of 45 children (mean age 9y 2mo; SD 2y 7mo; range 5-12y; 22 males, 23 females) and collected parental reports of autism symptomatology, adaptive behavior, and behavioral problems that were compared to those of 360 age- and sex-matched controls from the Simons Simplex Collection (SSC) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; SSC-ASD) or typically developing (SSC-TD). RESULTS The EMR search identified 968 children with NF1; 8.8% had ADHD and 2.1% had ASD co-occurring diagnoses. In the subsample, the mean autism scale score for participants with NF1 was below cut-off for significant autism symptoms. Participants with NF1 had significantly more autism and behavioral symptoms than SSC-TD participants, and significantly less than SSC-ASD participants, with one exception: ADHD symptom levels were similar to those of SSC-ASD participants. In analyses that controlled for internalizing, ADHD, and communication scores, the difference in autism symptom levels between participants with NF1 and typically developing controls disappeared almost entirely. INTERPRETATION Our results do not support an association between NF1 and autism, both at the symptom and disorder levels. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS Diagnoses of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were more common in children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) than in the general child population. Diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder were no more common in children with NF1 than in the general child population. Increases in autism symptoms did not reach clinically significant thresholds. Co-occurring ADHD symptoms accounted for increased autism questionnaire scores. Adaptive behavior in participants with NF1 showed normal socialization but lower communication proficiency.
Patient-derived Organoid Pharmacotyping is a Clinically Tractable Strategy for Precision Medicine in Pancreatic Cancer.

Objective PDAC patients who undergo surgical resection and receive effective chemotherapy have the best chance of long-term survival. Unfortunately, we lack predictive biomarkers to guide optimal systemic treatment. Ex-vivo generation of PDO for pharmacotyping may serve as predictive biomarkers in PDAC. The goal of the current study was to demonstrate the clinical feasibility of a PDO-guided precision medicine framework of care. Methods PDO cultures were established from surgical specimens and endoscopic biopsies, expanded in Matrigel, and used for high-throughput drug testing (pharmacotyping). Efficacy of standard-of-care chemotherapeutics was assessed by measuring cell viability after drug exposure. Results A framework for rapid pharmacotyping of PDOs was established across a multi-institutional consortium of academic medical centers. Specimens obtained remotely and shipped to a central biorepository maintain viability and allowed generation of PDOs with 77% success. Early cultures maintain the clonal heterogeneity seen in PDAC with similar phenotypes (cystic-solid). Late cultures exhibit a dominant clone with a pharmacotyping profile similar to early passages. The biomass required for accurate pharmacotyping can be minimized by leveraging a high-throughput technology. Twenty-nine cultures were pharmacotyped to derive a population distribution of chemotherapeutic sensitivity at our center. Pharmacotyping rapidly-expanded PDOs was completed in a median of 48 (range 18-102) days. Conclusions Rapid development of PDOs from patients undergoing surgery for PDAC is eminently feasible within the perioperative recovery period, enabling the potential for pharmacotyping to guide postoperative adjuvant chemotherapeutic selection. Studies validating PDOs as a promising predictive biomarker are ongoing.
Chordoma and Chondrosarcoma

Chordomas and chondrosarcomas are primary malignant tumors of the skull base and spine that generally follow an indolent course, with limited propensity for metastatic dissemination. Treatment consists of aggressive local therapy including maximal safe surgical resection and radiotherapy with little role for systemic therapy. Notably, these tumors are radioresistant and in proximity to critical neurovascular tissues. Thus, historically, high-dose radiotherapy with proton-based techniques have been most commonly employed. However, stereotactic radiotherapy is increasingly employed, allowing for biological dose-escalation and high target conformity, with early reported outcomes demonstrating comparable efficacy to established proton approaches.
Postoperative Management Strategies in Mechanical Circulatory Support Patients

The advent of continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices (cfLVADs) has extended and improved quality of life on mechanical circulatory support (MCS) and has allowed long-term, successful MCS therapy in the community setting. In response to limited clinical and non-clinical resources for left ventricular assist device (LVAD) patients in the community, and in an effort to provide effective, evidence-based management of expected LVAD-related complications, MCS specialists provide 24/7/365 clinical and emotional support to LVAD patients and caregivers and to non-LVAD medical personnel. This chapter identifies the most common postoperative challenges faced by LVAD patients and clinicians and provides an evidence-based approach to management.
A finite element formulation of Baraff-Witkin cloth

The Baraff-Witkin [BW98] model has been a popular formulation for cloth for 20 years. However, its relationship to the finite element method (FEM) has always been unclear, because the model resists being written as an isotropic, hyperelastic strain energy. In this paper, we show that this is because the Baraff-Witkin model is actually a coupled anisotropic strain energy. We show that its stretching term approximates the isotropic As-Rigid-As-Possible (ARAP) energy, and its shearing term is a cross-fiber coupling energy common in biomechanics. While it has been known empirically for some time that the model can produce indefinite force Jacobians, the conditions under which they occur has never been clear. Our formulation enables a complete eigenanalysis that precisely characterizes exactly when indefiniteness occurs, and leads to fast, analytic, semi-positive-definite projection methods. Finally, our analysis suggests a generalized Baraff-Witkin energy with non-orthogonal warp and weft directions.
A new paradigm for) the problem of the many

This paper offers an original solution to the problem of the many, built on a foundation of powers-based causation. At its most basic, the solution should be understood as a type of maximality response, and on those grounds its originality might be questioned. However, it is argued that novelty of the solution owes as much to the meta-metaphysical context (the paradigm) in which the solution is framed as it does the model of causal powers. A discussion of paradigms in metaphysics is included.
Case 6-2021: A 65-Year-Old Man with Eye Pain and Decreased Vision

A Man with Eye Pain and Decreased Vision A 65-year-old man with Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia was evaluated because of an 8-day history of bilateral eye pain and decreased vision. He had decrease...
StimulEye: A Computer Vision Based Concussion Detector

Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are highly prevalent in contact sports, affecting the physical safety of athletes of all ages. Despite this, there is currently no affordable and objective way to test for concussions on the sidelines. Current sideline concussion tests are either trivial and subjective or overly complex and financially unfeasible. This paper presents a method for concussion detection using a smartphone. The proposed smartphone TBI test uses the camera to analyze the reactions of players’ pupils when subjected to the external stimulus provided by the smartphone’s LED. The results of this research show that sufficient data and accuracy are obtained by the application, StimulEye, to efficiently and accurately detect a concussion.
Stoma creation at the time of large bowel resection during ovarian cytoreductive surgery does not improve 30-day postoperative surgical outcomes

Objectives: Large bowel resections (LBR) are occasionally required to achieve optimal resection during cytoreductive surgery for ovarian cancer. Stoma creation (SC) has been proposed as a protective measure to reduce the incidence and potential consequences of an anastomotic leak after LBR; however there is conflicting data on whether this does indeed reduce rates of leak. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the rate of SC at time of LBR during ovarian cytoreductive surgery (OCS), and to determine whether SC reduces the rates of sepsis and reoperation. Methods: Women who underwent LBR at time of OCS from 2013 to 2018 were identified in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database using corresponding CPT, ICD-9, and ICD-10 codes. SC was determined based on CPT codes. Comparative analyses were then stratified by SC to evaluate demographics, preoperative and intraoperative variables, and surgical outcomes. Statistical tests were performed with R Studio v.1.1.456. Results: A total of 8,750 women who underwent OCS were identified, and 1,603 (18.3%) of these women underwent a concurrent LBR. Among the women who had a LBR, 1,418 (88.5%) had one bowel resection and 185 (11.5%) had multiple bowel resections performed. At the time of LBR, 1,003 (62.6%) had a primary anastomosis without SC, 272 (17.0%) had a colostomy, and 190 (11.8%) had an ileostomy. SC data was not available for 138 (8.6%) women, and these women were excluded from analysis. Preoperatively, women with SC tended to be of older age, and have a higher body mass index (BMI), higher American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) class, higher White blood cell count, and lower albumin level. Women who had multiple bowel resections were more likely to have SC at time of OCS (17.3% vs. 8.4%, p Download : Download high-res image (120KB) Download : Download full-size image Conclusions: Over a quarter of women who had a concurrent LBR at time of OCS underwent SC. These women tended to be older with higher BMI and ASA class. Although the specific indications for SC are not captured in the NSQIP database, SC was associated with higher rates surgical site infection, organ space infection, sepsis, and hospital readmission during the 30-day postoperative period.
The Narrative Tapestry Design Process: Weaving Online Social Support from Stories of Stigma

While many technology-based approaches to support people living with HIV target specific clinical goals, recent work has begun to consider how to design support in the context of HIV stigma. Here, we consider two challenges; the first, and central challenge is how to work with a small group of stakeholders to design for the much larger, but hard to access, population of HIV-positive individuals. Addressing the first challenge, we introduce the Narrative Tapestry design process, which is our main contribution, and helps create a generative third space wherein stakeholders draw on their cultural knowledge to reflect on common experiences of living with HIV. The second challenge is how to design a platform that is less likely to disintegrate as people transition through phases of living with a stigmatized identity. Applying the Narrative Tapestry process led us to insights that both demonstrate the value of the design process and partially address this second challenge. We find that social support can be a critical lifeline following an HIV diagnosis, but that when people have normalized their identity, this need can give way to a desire to address stigma directly. We propose combining social support tools with a set of features that enable people to work as change-agents to address stigma in their local communities. We argue that this type of platform would help to retain senior members who can serve both as community caretakers as well as role models for newcomers.
Secondary Precipitants of Atrial Fibrillation and Anticoagulation Therapy.

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) commonly occurs in the setting of acute conditions. We aimed to identify the acute conditions associated with secondary AF (AF precipitants) including pneumonia/...
Environmental Toxicology: Considerations for Exotic Pets

Wherever companion exotic animals are housed, they may be exposed to potential toxins either inside or outside their primary enclosures. The relatively small body size of many exotic pets may increase their susceptibility to toxicants that they may encounter. Contaminants that are either absorbed by or deposited on the surfaces of plant- and animal-based food items or present in water may be subsequently ingested and absorbed, which often adversely affects the animal’s health.
Ethical issues surrounding the development of business-to-business trading exchanges (marketplaces)

Summary form only given. Business to business (B2B) exchanges are evolving from private electronic links between large manufacturers and their suppliers known as electronic data exchanges (EDI). While the concept is not new, its metamorphosing into e-marketplaces has been primarily due to the development of the World Wide Web and its extensible markup language (XML) companion. The attraction of exchanges is the promise of better prices for buyers, greater channel access for buyers and suppliers and operating efficiencies associated with automation for all. The advantages gained by electronically linking buyers and sellers have a potential dark side in opportunities for legal and ethical violations. The government is concerned about potential anti-competitive practices including price fixing and selectively excluding firms from an exchange. Proprietary information gleaned from an exchange could be used to obtain favorable terms of trade, or participating in an exchange could be predicated upon an agreement not to participate in competing exchanges. These issues are discussed in the paper.
Nursing Diagnosis Development of Longing: Content Validation With Nursing Experts.

AbstractOBJECTIVES:Validate the defining characteristics, related factors, and definition of proposed nursing diagnosis: longing.METHOD:Using Fehring's Diagnostic Content Validation model, expert nurses rated the frequency of longing seen in patients/caregivers. Agreement with the proposed definitio
The Language of Fashion

Reviewed Medium: book Authors: Roland Barthes Translators: Andy Stafford Year: 2006 Pages: v + 224 Publisher: Berg Publishers ISBN: 1845203801 (soft cover). Prices: $17.95 USD(soft cover).
Cost-Aware Cloud Metering with Scalable Service Management Infrastructure

As the cloud services journey through their lifecycle towards becoming commodities, the demand is increasing for "pay-per-use" pricing model. In this model, users are charged for the amount of resources, e.g., Volume of transactions, CPU usage, etc., being consumed during a given time period. Software as a Service (SaaS) providers charging their customers via pay-per-use (e.g., Microsoft Azure Web Services) and facing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) costs per VM per month (e.g., Soft Layer) have to carefully choose and scale their non-revenue generating service management infrastructure to penetrate and stay in the market. In this paper, we focus on the metering and rating aspects of cloud service management, and their scalability with the SaaS business and operational changes. We design a framework for cloud service providers to scale their revenue management systems in a cost-aware manner, where the deployment of these revenue systems dynamically uses existing or newly provisioned SaaS VMs, instead of the extant approach of using dedicated setups. Our experimental analysis shows that service management related tasks can be offloaded to the existing VMs with at most 15% overhead in CPU utilization, 10% overhead for memory usage, and negligible overhead for I/O and network usage. We used traces from IBM production servers to mimic the load on VMs. By dynamically scaling the service management setup, we were able to adapt to increasing metering data processing requirements without incurring additional cost, while preserving the infrastructure footprint.
Blue Light-Induced Phosphorylation of a Plasma Membrane-Associated Protein in Zea mays L

Blue light induces a variety of photomorphogenic responses in higher plants, among them phototropic curvature, the bending of seedlings toward a unidirectional light source. In dark-grown coleoptiles of maize (Zea mays L.) seedlings, blue light induces rapid phosphorylation of a 114-kD protein at fluence levels that are sufficient to stimulate phototropic curvature. Phosphorylation in response to blue light can be detected in vivo in coleoptile tips preincubated in 32Pi or in vitro in isolated membranes supplemented with [[gamma]-32P]ATP. Phosphorylation reaches a maximum level in vitro within 2 min following an inductive light pulse, but substantial labeling occurs within the first 15 s. Isolated membranes remain activated for several minutes following an in vitro blue light stimulus, even in the absence of exogenous ATP. Phosphoamino acid analysis of the 114-kD protein detected phosphoserine and a trace of phosphothreonine. The kinase involved in phosphorylating the protein in vitro is not dependent on calcium. The 114-kD protein itself has an apparent binding site for ATP, detected by incubating with the nonhydrolyzable analog, 5[prime]-p-fluorosulfonyl-benzoyladenosine. This result suggests that the 114-kD protein, which becomes phosphorylated in response to blue light, may also be capable of kinase activity.
Violence and other forms of victimization in residence halls: Perspectives of resident assistants.

In a 1994 study, 374 resident assistants at 12 institutions identified 5,472 incidents that had victimized them and/or their students. Reporting rates (41% to supervisors and 14% to police), incident types; examples of `'most serious” incidents; and gender alcohol, and other related factors are discussed.
Foreign mosquito survivorship in the pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea – the role of the pitcher-plant midge Metriocnemus knabi

There are few reports of mosquito larvae other than those of the species-specific mosquito Wyeomyia smithii (Coq.) in leaves of Sarracenia purpurea L. We investigate why this might be so in two sets of experiments. In the first set, we compare the percent survivorship of W. smithii, Aedes aegypti (L.) and Anopheles stephensi Liston larvae when reared in intact pitcher plant leaves to in vitro rearings and we found that the survivorship of the Aedes and Anopheles larvae was close to zero when reared in the intact pitcher plant leaves compared to 37% and 64%, respectively, when reared in fish-food medium and 78% and 82%, respectively, when reared in pitcher-plant liquid. Wyeomyia smithii larvae had high percent survivorships under all three rearing conditions. In the second set of in vitro experiments, we compared the percent survivorship of W. smithii and Ae. aegypti larvae when reared in pitcher-plant liquid in the presence and absence of the larvae of the pitcher-plant midge, Metriocnemus knabi (Coq.) and found that the percent survivorship for W. smithii was high (90%) whether M. knabi larvae were present or absent. We also found that Ae. aegypti larval survivorship was 82% when M. knabi larvae were absent and less then 2% when present in the culture plates. Based on these findings, we suggest that M. knabi larvae prevent non-Wyeomyia mosquito taxa from exploiting the resources of S. purpurea leaves, thereby maintaining it as an exclusive mosquito niche for W. smithii. This is confirmed by visual observation of M. knabi attacking and devouring Aedes and Anopheles larvae, while at the same time leaving W. smithii larvae unharmed. Possibly the long setae of the W. smithii larva may prevent access to its body wall by the mandibles of the M. knabi larva. Application of these findings to other mosquito-plant associations is suggested.
High-resolution disc electrophoresis of histones. II. Application to whole and fractionated preparations from various laboratories.

Abstract An improved method of disc electrophoresis of histones on polyacrylamide gels has been applied to routine analysis of histones. Similar electrophoretic patterns of high complexity were obtained for unfractionated calf thymus histone prepared by different methods in several laboratories. Thus it would appear that the majority of the spectrum of histone bands demonstrated by this electrophoretic method may be isolated from calf thymus by each of the preparative techniques. All bands observed in unfractionated histone patterns corresponded with specific bands observed in the pattern of histone fractions, suggesting that the high degree of resolution obtained was not due to complexes of the various histone components. All histone fractions were found to be heterogeneous, containing one or more major and several minor components. Lightly staining forerunner components observed in unfractionated histones were found to be concentrated in the F1 fraction and were preferentially removed from the nucleoprotein complex between pH 3.0 and pH 1.8 with H 2 SO 4 . These findings recommend polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis as a valuable technique for following the distribution of both major and minor components during fractionation studies.
Reviewing Two Decades of IL/IR Scholarship: What We've Learned, What's Next

This concluding chapter to Interdisciplinary Perspectives on International Law and International Relations: The State of the Art (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming) provides an overview of what IL/IR scholarship has revealed about the making, interpretation, and enforcement of international law. In each area, we outline the distinctive theoretical, conceptual and empirical contributions that IL/IR has made as well as its lacaune and blindspots. We then turn to theory, and discuss the contributions that each of the classic IR theories has made to IL/IR scholarship, as well as the strengths and limitations of the recent turn to pragmatic, eclectic theoretical approaches found in problem-driven empirical research. Finally, we suggest ways to rebalance the asymmetrical terms of trade in theory between international law and international relations, and briefly outline a future research agenda for IL/IR scholarship.
Efficient predicate abstraction of program summaries

Predicate abstraction is an effective technique for scaling Software Model Checking to real programs. Traditionally, predicate abstraction abstracts each basic block of a program P to construct a small finite abstract model - a Boolean program BP, whose state-transition relation is over some chosen (finite) set of predicates. This is called Small-Block Encoding (SBE). A recent advancement is Large-Block Encoding (LBE) where abstraction is applied to a "summarized" program so that the abstract transitions of BP correspond to loop-free fragments of P. In this paper, we expand on the original notion of LBE to promote flexibility. We explore and describe efficient ways to perform CEGAR bottleneck operations: generating and solving predicate abstraction queries (PAQs). We make the following contributions. First, we define a general notion of program summarization based on loop cutsets. Second, we give a linear time algorithm to construct PAQs for a loop-free fragment of a program. Third, we compare two approaches to solving PAQs: a classical AllSAT-based one, and a new one based on Linear Decision Diagrams (LDDs). The approaches are evaluated on a large benchmark from opensource software. Our results show that the new LDD-based approach significantly outperforms (and complements) the AllSAT one.
An IL-1 receptor and an IL-1 receptor antagonist attenuate muramyl dipeptide- and IL-1-induced sleep and fever

It is hypothesized that the somnogenic and pyrogenic effects of muramyl dipeptide (MDP) are mediated via enhanced interleukin-1 (IL-1) production. To test this hypothesis the effects of intracerebroventricular (icv) administration of a recombinant human soluble type I IL-1 receptor (sIL-1r) and of the IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) on MDP-induced sleep and fever were evaluated in rabbits. The sIL-1r recognized rabbit IL-1 beta, but it did not affect sleep or brain temperature across the dose range tested (1-50 micrograms) when injected icv into normal rabbits. Pretreatment of rabbits with 50 micrograms sIL-1r or 10 micrograms IL-1ra blocked human recombinant IL-1-enhanced nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and fever. Thus both the sIL-1r and the IL-1ra were effective antagonists of IL-1 actions. When the animals were pretreated with either 50 micrograms sIL-1r or with 10 or 100 micrograms of the IL-1ra, the somnogenic effects of 150 pmol MDP were attenuated. However, the sIL-1r had little effect on MDP-induced febrile responses. These results suggest that the sIL-1r and the IL-1ra can function as antagonists of IL-1 actions in vivo and that MDP-induced sleep and fever are partially mediated by IL-1.
Parallel Turbo decoding

Turbo codes are one of the most powerful error correcting codes. The VLSI implementation of Turbo codes for higher decoding speed requires use of parallel architectures. This paper explores the design spaces of both serial and parallel MAP decoders using graphical analysis. Several existing designs are compared, and three new parallel decoding schemes are presented.
THE RATCHETING‐UP EFFECT

I argue for the existence of a ‘ratcheting-up effect’: the behavior of moral saints serves to increase the level of moral obligation the rest of us face. What we are morally obligated to do is constrained by what it would be reasonable for us to believe we are morally obligated to do. Moral saints provide us with a special kind of evidence that bears on what we can reasonably believe about our obligations. They do this by modeling the level of sacrifice a person can realistically bear. Exposure to moral saints thus ‘ratchets-up’ our obligations by combating a type of ignorance that would otherwise defeat those obligations.