cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Early Childhood Temperament in Pediatric Bipolar Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Recent theories suggest that children with pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD) may exhibit more difficult temperaments premorbidly, including traits such as behavioral disinhibition and difficulty with emotion regulation. We investigated temperament characteristics retrospectively during infancy and toddlerhood in subjects with PBD (n=25), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n=25), and healthy controls (n=25). Children with PBD were reported to experience increased difficult temperament in both infancy and toddlerhood compared to children with ADHD. Several characteristics of difficult temperament were associated with residual symptoms of mania and depression. Difficult premorbid temperament characteristics may be a specific indicator of a bipolar diathesis, or might signal underlying dysfunction in affective processes that significantly increase risk for a mood disorder.
Inhibition of collagen fibril formation

Background The overall aim of presented study is to test the inhibition of the formation of collagen fibrils as the novel approach to reduce accumulation of pathological fibrotic deposits. The main hypothesis is that by interfering with the initial steps of the extracellular process of collagen fibril formation, it is possible to reduce the formation of fibrotic tissue.
Polychronicity, Big Five Personality Dimensions, and Sales Performance

Hypothesized relations among polychronicity, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and supervisor performance ratings were developed and tested in a sample of 174 computer retail sales employees. Polychronicity was significantly related to supervisor ratings of customer service (r = .22), sales performance (r = .22), and overall performance (r = .23). Although Conscientiousness was unrelated to the performance outcomes, Extraversion was significantly related to supervisor ratings of customer service (r = .27), sales performance (r = .20), and overall performance (r = .25). In addition, polychronicity provided incremental validity above the contribution of Big Five personality dimensions in predicting supervisor ratings of customer service, sales performance, and overall performance. Future directions for research examining relations between polychronicity and job performance across different work settings are discussed.
Stream periphyton response to grazing and changes in phosphorus concentration

Grazing by the large caddisfly larva, Dicosmoecus gilvipes (Trichoptera; Limnephilidae), drastically reduced periphyton biomass in laboratory channels at a current velocity of 20 cm s−1. Reduction in biomass as chl a and AFDW ranged from 88 to 93% and 82 to 85%, respectively. On average, grazing rate increased with in-channel SRP (soluble reactive phosphorus) content from 6 to 10 µg 1−1. Grazing rates averaged 25.9–29.3 µg chl a m−2 d−1 and 10.8–12.2 µg chl a mg−1 d−1 based on area and grazer biomass, respectively, with most variability among treatments being due to the grazing effect. Grazing tended to shift the algal community increasingly to filamentous blue-green algae regardless of enrichment. After three weeks, Phormidium comprised over 61% of the community in grazed treatments but only 35% in ungrazed treatments. The stalked diatom Gomphonema comprised only 4% of the grazed community, but 11% in the three ungrazed channels with similar values for Scenedesmus. A model that includes grazing was calibrated to the data and produced a reasonable expectation of periphyton biomass over a range in SRP concentrations. While the model with constant grazer abundance predicts a gradually increasing grazed biomass as SRP increases, grazer production in natural streams may actually increase to accommodate the increased food production.
Aorto-Left Renal Artery Bypass as an Adjunct to Suprarenal Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair

Renal ischemia remains a vexing issue in the repair of suprarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms (SR-AAAs). Multiple reconstruction methods have been described, including fish-mouth anastomoses, renal artery reimplantation, and aortorenal interposition grafts. We present an alternative method of SR-AAA repair that minimizes renal ischemia time. We describe our approach in two patients with SR-AAAs. Both patients had normal preoperative renal function. Maximal aneurysm diameters were 6.0 and 7.4 cm. In each case, the abdominal aorta was exposed via the retroperitoneal approach and the supraceliac aorta was dissected from the surrounding tissue. A partially occluding side-biting aortic clamp was placed at this level to facilitate placement of a synthetic 6 mm interposition graft that was sewn in an end-to-side fashion to the suprarenal aorta first. These grafts were then sewn end-to-end to the left renal artery, completing the aorto-left renal bypass. Left renal ischemia times were 12 and 14 min. The aneurysm was then repaired with a beveled proximal anastomosis, accommodating the right renal artery orifice. Both patients had minimal postoperative renal dysfunction, with peak creatinine levels of 1.9 and 1.4 mg/dl. At discharge, both patients had a creatinine level of 1.1 mg/dl. Urinary output remained normal throughout the hospital stays, and neither patient required dialysis. Retroperitoneal aortic exposure with preliminary aorto-left renal artery bypass is an effective method of treating SR-AAAs. Proximal anastomosis can be done with less urgency and minimal right renal ischemia, by revascularizing the left kidney first.
Ultrasound guided subcostal transversus abdominis plane (TAP) infiltration with liposomal bupivacaine for patients undergoing robotic assisted hysterectomy: A prospective randomized controlled study

Abstract Introduction Optimal pain control after major surgery contributes to a patient's recovery and satisfaction. The use of liposomal bupivacaine in subcostal transversus abdominis plane (TAP) blocks for postoperative pain control after robot assisted abdominal surgery has yet to be studied. Methods We conducted a prospective randomized controlled observer-blinded study comparing bilateral subcostal TAP blocks with bupivacaine to bilateral subcostal TAP blocks with liposomal bupivacaine. These were performed prior to the patient undergoing robot assisted hysterectomy. The patients' pain scores, opioid use, side effects, and satisfaction were followed for 72h after injection. Results Total opioid use in the first 72h after injection was significantly decreased in the group that received liposomal bupivacaine compared to bupivacaine. Patients in the liposomal bupivacaine group had significantly lower maximal pain scores at all time periods studied as well as decreased incidence of nausea/vomiting. There was a trend toward decreased length of stay in the liposomal bupivacaine group. Conclusion Subcostal TAP blocks with liposomal bupivacaine decreased the total opioid requirement for the first 72h after robot assisted hysterectomy when compared to subcostal TAP blocks with bupivacaine.
Psychologically Inspired Anticipation and Dynamic Response for Impacts to the Head and Upper Body

We present a psychology-inspired approach for generating a character's anticipation of and response to an impending head or upper body impact. Protective anticipatory movement is built upon several actions that have been identified in the psychology literature as response mechanisms in monkeys and in humans. These actions are parameterized by a model of the approaching object (the threat) and are defined as procedural rules. We present a hybrid forward and inverse kinematic blending technique to guide the character to the pose that results from these rules while maintaining properties of a balanced posture and characteristics of the behavior just prior to the interaction. In our case, these characteristics are determined by a motion capture sequence. We combine our anticipation model with a physically-based dynamic response to produce animations where a character anticipates an impact before collision and reacts to the contact, physically, after the collision. We present a variety of examples including threats that vary in approach direction, size, and speed.
Race and Reconciliation: Redressing Wounds of Injustice, by John B. Hatch: Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009. xvi + 401 pp., $90.00 (cloth), $38.95 (paper).

Race and Reconciliation is an ambitious study of recent trends in sociopolitical reconciliation within and among nation-states. At 401 pages the book is one of the most exhaustive considerations of...
A study of transfer function generation for time-varying volume data

The proper usage and creation of transfer functions for time-varying data sets is an often ignored problem in volume visualization. Although methods and guidelines exist for time-invariant data, little formal study for the timevarying case has been performed. This paper examines this problem, and reports the study that we have conducted to determine how the dynamic behavior of time-varying data may be captured by a single or small set of transfer functions. The criteria which dictate when more than one transfer function is needed were also investigated. Four data sets with different temporal characteristics were used for our study. Results obtained using two different classes of methods are discussed, along with lessons learned. These methods, including a new multiresolution opacity map approach, can be used for semi-automatic generation of transfer functions to explore large-scale time-varying data sets.
Bayesian and likelihood inference from equally weighted mixtures

Equally weighted mixture models are recommended for situations where it is required to draw precise finite sample inferences requiring population parameters, but where the population distribution is not constrained to belong to a simple parametric family. They lead to an alternative procedure to the Laird-DerSimonian maximum likelihood algorithm for unequally weighted mixture models. Their primary purpose lies in the facilitation of exact Bayesian computations via importance sampling. Under very general sampling and prior specifications, exact Bayesian computations can be based upon an application of importance sampling, referred to as Permutable Bayesian Marginalization (PBM). An importance function based upon a truncated multivariatet-distribution is proposed, which refers to a generalization of the maximum likelihood procedure. The estimation of discrete distributions, by binomial mixtures, and inference for survivor distributions, via mixtures of exponential or Weibull distributions, are considered. Equally weighted mixture models are also shown to lead to an alternative Gibbs sampling methodology to the Lavine-West approach.
Brand identification and advertising: the case of a generic trademark

A model is constructed of a market in which buyers do not gather information about the attributes of the various brands in a product class and sellers influence buyers' choices by disseminating advertising messages consisting of copies of their respective trademarks. The causes and problems of a trademark becoming the common descriptive name for a product class (generic) as opposed to a brand distinguishing mark are analysed. Advertising spillover effects operate to diffuse and to reinforce the advertising of the seller with the generic trademark as well as that for the other sellers in the market. The net result depends on the relative magnitudes of these spillover effects
Microfabricated pressure sensing particles with integrated retroreflectors

We report the microfabrication of engineered colorimetric pressure-sensing particles (PSPs) suitable for pressure measurements within microfluidic environments. Each 18-µm diameter particle consists of a semi-transparent elastic shell enclosing a compressible reference vacuum cavity. The flexible shell and compressible cavity form an optical resonator that determines its color. The particle color and corresponding pressure are interrogated optically using conventional white light microscopy. The particle shell includes a molded retroreflector that improves the angular readout efficiency. The particles exhibit a spectral shift pressure sensitivity of −19 nm/MPa with angular interrogation range >15 deg.
Combined Inhibitory Effects of Green Tea Polyphenols and Selective Cyclooxygenase-2 Inhibitors on the Growth of Human Prostate Cancer Cells Both In vitro and In vivo

Purpose: Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors hold promise for cancer chemoprevention; however, recent toxicity concerns suggest that new strategies are needed. One approach to overcome this limitation is to use lower doses of COX-2 inhibitors in combination with other established agents with complementary mechanisms. In this study, the effect of (−)epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a promising chemopreventive agent from green tea, was tested alone and in combination with specific COX-2 inhibitors on the growth of human prostate cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo . Experimental Design: Human prostate cancer cells LNCaP, PC-3, and CWR22Rν1 were treated with EGCG and NS398 alone and in combination, and their effect on growth and apoptosis was evaluated. In vivo , athymic nude mice implanted with androgen-sensitive CWR22Rν1 cells were given green tea polyphenols (0.1% in drinking water) and celecoxib (5 mg/kg, i.p., daily, 5 days per week), alone and in combination, and their effect on tumor growth was evaluated. Results: Combination of EGCG (10-40 μmol/L) and NS-398 (10 μmol/L) resulted in enhanced ( a ) cell growth inhibition; ( b ) apoptosis induction; ( c ) expression of Bax, pro-caspase-6, and pro-caspase-9, and poly(ADP)ribose polymerase cleavage; ( d ) inhibition of peroxisome proliferator activated receptor γ; and ( e ) inhibition of nuclear factor-κB compared with the additive effects of the two agents alone, suggesting a possible synergism. In vivo , combination treatment with green tea polyphenols and celecoxib resulted in enhanced ( a ) tumor growth inhibition, ( b ) lowering of prostate-specific antigen levels, ( c ) lowering of insulin-like growth factor-I levels, and ( d ) circulating levels of serum insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 compared with results of single-agent treatment. Conclusions: These data suggest synergistic and/or additive effects of combinatorial chemopreventive agents and underscore the need for rational design of human clinical trials.
Community Approaches To Providing Care For The Uninsured

Faced with rising uninsurance rates and little response at the state or federal levels in recent years, communities have developed various strategies to provide care for uninsured people. This paper profiles local strategies in the Community Tracking Study sites, focusing on efforts that go beyond traditional safety-net access. Our findings suggest that more-recent community efforts—which tend to be privately sponsored—are relatively modest in scope compared with more-mature programs that enjoy public financing. Although local strategies can fill some holes, communities often do not have the resources necessary to fully address the problems of the uninsured on their own.
Dimensionality-reduction using connectionist networks

A method is presented for using connectionist networks of simple computing elements to discover a particular type of constraint in multidimensional data. Suppose that some data source provides samples consisting of n-dimensional feature-vectors, but that this data all happens to lie on an m-dimensional surface embedded in the n-dimensional feature space. Then occurrences of data can be more concisely described by specifying an m-dimensional location of the embedded surface than by reciting all n components of the feature vector. The recording of data in such a way is known as dimensionality-reduction. A method is presented for performing dimensionality-reduction in a wide class of situations for which an assumption of linearity need not be made about the underlying constraint surface. The method takes advantage of self-organizing properties of connectionist networks of simple computing elements. The authors present a scheme for representing the values of continuous (scalar) variables in subsets of units. >
Herzleiden und Chirurgie

Patienten mit schwereren Herzveranderungen vertragen in der Regel grosere chirurgische Eingriffe auffallend gut. Dies gilt insbesondere beim Fehlen einer Herzinsuffizienz mit Stauung. Oft ist eine angstliche Einstellung gegenuber Patienten dieser Gruppe unberechtigt.
Pentoxifylline for Sickle-Cell Disease

OBJECTIVE:To review the use of pentoxifylline for the prevention and treatment of acute vasoocclusive episodes (VOEs) in sickle-cell disease (SCD).DATA SOURCES:Searches of MEDLINE (1965–April 2000), International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (1970–April 2000), and Science Citation Index Expanded (1989–April 2000) were performed using the key search terms sickle-cell disease, pentoxifylline, oxypentifylline, and Trental.DATA SYNTHESIS:Patients with SCD commonly suffer from painful VOEs. Pentoxifylline may be useful in this condition due to its ability to increase red blood cell deformability and inhibit platelet aggregation. Laboratory evidence, an animal model, and case reports suggest a benefit, but available clinical studies are methodologically poor, and data analysis is often inappropriate or absent. Limited data suggest that pentoxifylline is beneficial for treatment of a VOE in progress, but no data exist demonstrating a reduction in the number of VOEs with chronic pentoxifylline therapy.CONCLUSIONS:Doc...
Percutaneous Arterial Closure Devices

Advances in interventional angiography such as covered stent technology and adjunctive anticoagulation and antiplatelet therapy for arterial recanalization have reached the margins of percutaneous application. In these circumstances, compression methods of arterial closure require prolonged compression or long arterial sheath dwell times that increase procedural time, complication rates, and patient discomfort. Percutaneous arterial closure devices offer the potential of rapid hemostasis and shorter times to ambulation and discharge. These benefits have costs, in terms of the price of the devices and complications of their use. A Web search identified approved and pending devices. A Medline search identified device studies that were reviewed to assess the efficacy and complication rates of device-mediated closure versus the gold standard of manual compression. Studies that compared devices were evaluated to determine if any particular device was superior. The arterial closure devices were equivalent to manual compression in the establishment of hemostasis in the diagnostic population. However, complication rates were higher. In the therapeutic populations, the devices were as efficacious as manual compression, without correction of anticoagulation, and the complication rates were similar. No individual device was clearly superior.
Endophyte Mycotoxins in Animal Health

Fescue toxicosis and perennial ryegrass staggers are two of the most common toxic plant diseases plaguing livestock in the United States, and result from consumption of forage containing the endophyte-produced mycotoxins ergovaline and lysergic acid (fescue toxicosis) and lolitrem B (ryegrass staggers). Our group has developed analytical assays for detecting these compounds, which serve a dual purpose (1) high-performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence assays are used to measure these compounds in feed material in order to promote “safe feed” through diagnostic testing in a service laboratory environment, and (2) highly sensitive and specific liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry assays are utilized to study the fate and metabolism of these compounds in a diversity of livestock matrices so that a more refined understanding as to the etiology of the diseases these compounds cause can be achieved. A discussion applying these techniques to both current and anticipated studies is given, with an emphasis on impacts to trade and food safety regulation.
Compensation of Interchannel Crosstalk Induced by Optical Fiber Nonlinearity in Carrier Phase-Locked WDM System

A scheme that compensates the waveform distortion induced by nonlinear interchannel crosstalk such as four-wave mixing (FWM) and cross-phase modulation as well as self-phase modulation in phase-locked wavelength-division-multiplexing transmission systems is proposed. Reduction of FWM-induced waveform distortion by controlling the phase relationship between neighbouring channels and its cancellation by precompensation is successfully demonstrated
UNIO: A Unified I/O System Framework for Hybrid Scientific Workflow

Recent years have seen an increasing number of Hybrid Scientific Applications. They often consist of one HPC simulation program along with its corresponding data analytics programs. Unfortunately, current computing platform settings do not accommodate this emerging workflow very well. This is mainly because HPC simulation programs store output data into a dedicated storage cluster equipped with Parallel File System PFS. To perform analytics on data generated by simulation, data has to be migrated from storage cluster to compute cluster. This data migration could introduce severe delay which is especially true given an ever-increasing data size. While the scale-up supercomputers equipped with dedicated PFS storage cluster still represent the mainstream HPC, ever increasing scale-out small-medium sized HPC clusters have been supplied to facilitate hybrid scientific workflow applications in fast-growing cloud computing infrastructures such as Amazon cluster compute instances. Different from traditional supercomputer setting, the limited network bandwidth in scale-out HPC clusters makes the data migration prohibitively expensive. To attack the problem, we develop a Unified I/O System Framework UNIO to avoid such migration overhead for scale-out small-medium sized HPC clusters. Our main idea is to enable both HPC simulation programs and analytics programs to run atop one unified file system, e.g. data-intensive file system DIFS in brief. In UNIO, an I/O middle-ware component allows original HPC simulation programs to execute direct I/O operations over DIFS without any porting effort, while an I/O scheduler dynamically smoothes out both disk write and read traffic for both simulation and analysis programs. By experimenting with a real-world scientific workflow over a 46-node UNIO prototype, we found that UNIO is able to achieve comparable read/write I/O performance in small-medium sized HPC clusters equipped with parallel file system. More importantly, since UNIO completely avoids the most expensive data movement overhead, it achieves up to 3x speedups for hybrid scientific workflow applications compared with current solutions.
Introduction: Life Course Studies – Trends, Challenges, and Future Directions

The Handbook of the Life Course, published in 2003 (“Handbook I”), aspired to provide “an overview of key theoretical perspectives, concepts, and methodological approaches that, while applied to diverse phenomena, are united in their general approach to the study of lives across age phases” (Mortimer, Jeylan T & Michael J. Shanahan (Eds). 2003. Handbook of the Life Course. New York: Springer). Given the sustained usefulness of Handbook I, we agreed to edit a new “Handbook II” not as a second edition (i.e., an update), but rather as a second volume (i.e., with a distinct charge): to identify and explore new and emerging problems, concepts, methods, research questions, and analytic strategies. In this preface, we briefly consider the growth of life course studies and then turn to a broad overview of the content of Handbook II. This overview reveals many recommendations for future life course research. These range from increasing international scope and comparison; continued study of age- and cohort-related and intergenerational mechanisms; merging of survey data with other types of data; strengthening of causal inferences and obtaining more precise links among concepts, measures, and models; improvements in the measurement of key concepts; and integration of life course research with policy concerns, extending from the beginning of a research project to its conclusion. This brief summary does not capture the richness of Handbook II; we urge interested readers to peruse its contents.
On the Triggering of Shear Faults During Brittle Compressive Failure: A New Mechanism

Direct observations are presented of the micromechanical events that contribute to the localization of deformation within brittle compressive shear faults. The observations were made on ice and show that faults are composed of both wing cracks and splay cracks. The latter features initiate from one side of inclined parent cracks and create sets of slender microcolumns fixed on one end and free on the other. It is proposed that the fault-triggering mechanism is the breaking of near-surface microcolumns owing to frictional sliding across their free ends. A lower-bound estimate of the compressive strength of ice is found to be in order of magnitude agreement with experiment.
Mirror, mirror on the wall: which microbiomes will help heal them all?

Clinicians have known for centuries that there is substantial variability between patients in their response to medications—some individuals exhibit a miraculous recovery while others fail to respond at all. Still others experience dangerous side effects. The hunt for the factors responsible for this variation has been aided by the ability to sequence the human genome, but this just provides part of the picture. Here, we discuss the emerging field of study focused on the human microbiome and how it may help to better predict drug response and improve the treatment of human disease. Various clinical disciplines characterize drug response using either continuous or categorical descriptors that are then correlated to environmental and genetic risk factors. However, these approaches typically ignore the microbiome, which can directly metabolize drugs into downstream metabolites with altered activity, clearance, and/or toxicity. Variations in the ability of each individual’s microbiome to metabolize drugs may be an underappreciated source of differences in clinical response. Complementary studies in humans and animal models are necessary to elucidate the mechanisms responsible and to test the feasibility of identifying microbiome-based biomarkers of treatment outcomes. We propose that the predictive power of genetic testing could be improved by taking a more comprehensive view of human genetics that encompasses our human and microbial genomes. Furthermore, unlike the human genome, the microbiome is rapidly altered by diet, pharmaceuticals, and other interventions, providing the potential to improve patient care by re-shaping our associated microbial communities.
Analytical modeling of tensor metasurfaces

In this paper, the sheet impedance tensors of patterned metallic claddings used in metasurfaces are found analytically. In the homogeneous (metamaterial) limit, simple expressions are derived under normal and oblique incidence for the sheet impedances of two separate topologies: skewed and three-branch unit cells. Variations of these geometries are also examined. The analysis allows the tensorial electrical surface properties to be directly related to realizable geometries. The analytical results are compared to those of full-wave simulations, and close agreement is observed. The present work will expedite the design of tensor metasurfaces.
Fluorinated Azabicycloesters as Muscarinic Receptor Ligands for Application with PET

Human muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (MAR) play an important role in a number of physiological and behavioral responses (1). A correlation has been established between changes in the MAR density and human memory as well as to other specific neurodegenerative disorders such as Huntington’s chorea or Alzheimer’s dementia (2–9). MAR density has been observed, also, to decrease under the effect of several chemical agents such as organophosphorus compounds (10), barbiturates, ethanol or antidepressants (11). Most of the studies on human MAR were done on post-mortem samples obtained at autopsy and stored for variable times (12–15) which may not reflect the actual in vivo status of such receptors. To carry out preliminary in vivo studies, the choice will be directed primarily to experimental animals. However, animal models for many of the neurodegenerative disorders may be inadequate (16). Several studies showed a dramatically increasing number of dementia cases (17) which is leading to decreased survival among this group (18, 19). Such a dramatic increase in Alzheimer’s dementia cases and the inability to determine the density and distribution of MAR in vivo have stimulated the interest of many researchers to investigate MAR mapping.
Measuring Symmetry in Children With Cleft Lip. Part 3: Quantifying Nasal Symmetry and Nasal Normalcy Before and After Unilateral Cleft Lip Repair.

Objective: The purpose of this project was to develop objective computer-based methods to measure nasal asymmetry and abnormality in children undergoing treatment of unilateral cleft lip (UCL) and to determine the correlation of these measures to clinical expectations. Participants: Thirty infants with UCL undergoing cleft lip repair; 27 children with UCL aged 8 to 10 years who had previously undergone cleft lip repair; 3 control infants; 3 control children aged 8 to 10 years. Interventions: To measure nasal symmetry, we used a process of depth mapping and calculated the Depth Area Difference. To measure abnormality, we used the reconstruction error from Principle Component Analysis (PCA) that was based upon characteristics of a dataset of over 2000 images of normal control subjects. Main Outcome Measures: Depth Area Difference and PCA Reconstruction Error for cleft type, changes with surgery, and individual subjects ranked according to cleft severity were assessed. Results: Significant differences i...
A novel immunomodulatory treatment involving mycophenolate mofetil and corticosteroids for pediatric autoimmune cytopenias.

Background Successful treatment of both pediatric autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) and immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), specifically those that are refractory to first-line therapies, remains unsatisfactory in terms of long-term remission and medication side effects. Here, we propose a novel combination therapy of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), an adjunct immunosuppressive, and short-term corticosteroids for the treatment of persistent or chronic autoimmune cytopenias in children. This combination may allow for rapid decrease of steroid usage as well as prolonged count stabilization with minimal toxicity to the patient. Procedure Prospective case series of nine patients, six with persistent or chronic ITP and three with persistent or chronic AIHA, between the ages of 5 and 19 years who are being treated with combination therapy consisting of corticosteroids and MMF. Results All patients with ITP (Patients 4–9) and AIHA (Patients 1–3) met complete response (CR) criteria, as they all initially achieved platelet counts 100 × 109 l–1 or more or hemoglobin level greater than or equal to 10 g/dl, respectively, while on combination therapy and then maintained this level or higher while on MMF alone after steroids were discontinued. Conclusions Our results are very promising, as MMF appears to be an effective and well-tolerated adjunct immunosuppressant that allows for rapid weaning of steroid usage, minimal adverse side effects to the patients, and long-term stabilization of counts, a goal that has not been achieved successfully with other secondary treatment modalities. Therefore, this novel combination therapy may be an excellent alternative for the treatment of persistent or chronic autoimmune cytopenias in the pediatric population.
Approximating precision in simulation projections: an efficient alternative to Monte Carlo methods

Etude des methodes de Monte Carlo, methodes de propagation qui permettent des predictions de croissance et de production. Une comparaison est faite entre les approximations obtenues avec les differentes methodes
Atrial Fibrillation and the Risk of Stroke: Does Timing Matter?

Stroke is the most concerning complication of atrial fibrillation (AF) as it leads to significant morbidity and mortality. Given the aging population and increasing burden of cardiovascular comorbidities, the overall prevalence of AF is increasing across the world.1,2 In addition, evolving medical technology and cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED) have enhanced our ability to identify subclinical AF. These devices have the potential to identify asymptomatic AF patients, who are at risk for thromboembolic complications and may benefit from anticoagulation therapy. Article see p 1040 Multiple studies using CIEDs have demonstrated that short durations of asymptomatic AF are associated with an increase in thromboembolic risk.3–9 One of the initial studies that evaluated the burden and timing of subclinical AF as a risk factor for stroke was the Asymptomatic Atrial Fibrillation and Stroke Evaluation in Pacemaker Patients and the Atrial Fibrillation Reduction Atrial Pacing Trial (ASSERT), which consisted of 2580 hypertensive patients (mean CHADS2 score 2.3) without any history of clinical AF.4 All patients had dual-chamber devices, and the primary analysis assessed atrial arrhythmias for >6 minutes in the 3-month postprocedural period. Approximately 10% of participants had AF identified during this timeframe. After a median follow-up of 2.5 years, the annualized thromboembolic rate was 1.7% in those individuals with CIED-detected AF when compared with 0.7% in controls, corresponding to a 2.5-fold increased hazard of stroke associated with AF episodes >6 minutes in duration.4 In addition to correlating the overall burden or duration of AF and stroke risk, the ASSERT investigators evaluated the timing of AF episodes and thromboembolic risk. Of the 51 patients from the ASSERT study that had an ischemic stroke or other embolic event, only 51% or 26 patients had subclinical AF. Of these 26 patients with AF, only 4 had …
Non-deep CNN for multi-modal image classification and feature learning: An Azure-based model

Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) are useful methods for identification of previously unknown embedded patterns in images. Several object and facial recognition along with image segmentation tasks have benefited from the non-linear abstraction of hybrid features using CNN. This work presents a novel CNN model parametrization work-flow developed on the cloud-computing platform of Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio (MAMLS) that is capable of learning from the feature maps and classifying multi-modal images with different variabilities using one common flow. This two-step work-flow trains CNN models using 70/30 data split. First, the CNN layers are fixed and the optimal kernel and normalization parameters are identified that maximize classification accuracy on the test data. Next, using the optimal kernel and normalization parameters, the best CNN architecture that maximizes classification accuracy is detected. Finally, the activated feature maps (AFMs) from the optimally parameterized CNN model are analyzed to learn new features that can enhance image-based classification accuracies. The proposed flow achieves classification accuracies in the range of 92.5–99.2% that can be further enhanced by doubling the samples based on the features learned from the AFMs. The proposed non-deep CNN models in the MAMLS platform are capable of processing image data sets with 400–4 million samples using a common flow without exponential increase in the computation time. Thus, optimally parametrized non-deep CNN models are capable of identifying novel features that may enhance image-based classification accuracies.
Teach a Confidence Interval for the Median in the First Statistics Course.

Summary Few introductory statistics courses consider statistical inference for the median. This article argues in favour of adding a confidence interval for the median to the first statistics course. Several methods suitable for introductory statistics students are identified and briefly reviewed.
Emergent international liquidity agreements: central bank cooperation after the global financial crisis

Central bank currency swap agreements have proliferated rapidly among emerging market economies (EMEs) since 2008. More than 80 such agreements have been signed in recent years. The accumulation of these agreements has resulted in the emergence of a new $1 trillion liquidity system by 2015. What explains the rapid proliferation of these agreements? What are the political and economic implications of the liquidity network for the international monetary system and the global financial architecture? I specify two key consequences of the global financial crisis and its aftermath that have led EME central banks to seek out swap agreements: volatile international capital flows and a recognition of the risks of dollar dependence in trade. I conclude that these liquidity agreements are unlikely to induce much change in the international monetary system. However, the system is transforming the global financial architecture through the creation of large liquidity lines for systemically important EMEs.
Homotopical Properties of the Simplicial Maurer–Cartan Functor

We consider the category whose objects are filtered, or complete, L ∞ -algebras and whose morphisms are ∞-morphisms which respect the filtrations. We then discuss the homotopical properties of the Getzler–Hinich simplicial Maurer–Cartan functor which associates to each filtered L ∞ -algebra a Kan simplicial set, or ∞-groupoid. In previous work with V. Dolgushev, we showed that this functor sends weak equivalences of filtered L ∞ -algebras to weak homotopy equivalences of simplicial sets. Here we sketch a proof of the fact that this functor also sends fibrations to Kan fibrations. To the best of our knowledge, only special cases of this result have previously appeared in the literature. As an application, we show how these facts concerning the simplicial Maurer–Cartan functor provide a simple ∞-categorical formulation of the Homotopy Transfer Theorem.
Debunking myths about Aldo Leopold's land ethic

Abstract Aldo Leopold's land ethic has been extremely influential among people working in conservation biology, environmental ethics, and related fields. Others have abandoned the land ethic for purportedly being outdated or ethically untenable. Yet, both acceptance of the land ethic and rejection of the land ethic are often based on misunderstandings of Leopold's original meaning – misunderstandings that have become so entrenched as to have the status of myths. This essay seeks to identify and then debunk six myths that have grown up around the land ethic. These myths include misunderstandings about how we should understand key terms like “stability” and “biotic community” as well as the scope and main message of the land ethic. Properly understanding Leopold's original meaning, a meaning derived from ideas he developed after a lifetime of scientific theorizing and hands-on practical knowledge, prevents hasty rejection and provides a sounder basis for conservation policy.
Rare Osteochondroma Associated with Natural Mortality of a Wild White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

Abstract: Within a 6-mo period, a radio-collared, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) doe from Delaware, US, developed a fatal head mass consistent with osteochondroma. We suspected a retroviral etiology, but test results were negative. Population implications were not suspected, but this case is concerning as these tumors are not thought to cause mortality.
An Epilogue to Succession Planning: Understanding the Value of Your Enterprise

Conventional practice evaluates a company in a static mode and therefore lacks a holistic understanding of how value is created. This chapter proposes a value driver theory approach for understanding the enterprise/shareholder value creation process, which is an integral part of succession management. Using a Value Creation Process Chart, we show and discuss how value is measured, determined, and created in private and public enterprises. Succession planning in practice has to date largely focused on filling vacancies as they arise on an ad hoc basis. We describe succession planning as a strategic process and discuss its impact on the value creation capability of an organization. We conclude with suggestions for managers to focus on value creation and the role of succession managers in business exit planning.
1682l Influencing search engine optimisation to drive audiences to our information. lessons learned from google, bing, weibo, and yahoo

Introduction Search engines have become the global gateway for information. Despite the expanded use of search engines there is little evidence of how governments and quasi-government organisations are optimising their search engine strategies to guide searchers to their safety and health information. The objective of this presentation is to discuss our findings summarised as the seven cardinal factors of search engine optimisation. Methods Within a specific NIOSH program we collected data and performed a series of basic content analysis reviews and extracted a range of metrics including but not limited to what specific actions resulted in changes of page rank for selected topic pages, the effect of selected referring domains, the importance of authority and the impact of social media initiatives in improving search results. In addition, we conducted interviews of web leaders in industry at a pre-selected Google event and summarised the applicable findings. Results A few core findings were clearly evident as follows: keywords are still important. However search algorithms are being modified to discover meaning beyond a simple query labelled ‘semantic search.’ ‘Authority’ is being measured and being a government entity or an entity recognised with a proven record of producing scientifically useful evidence is of real benefit. Regular fresh content is essential and simple language and coherent writing are recognised and rewarded. Finally, and most importantly social media drives search and must be a part of an organisations overall communication strategy. Conclusion Search engines are famously creative in encouraging breakthroughs that deliver information to searchers and therefore are constantly changing their algorithms. Recognising the importance of these changes and their online effect is essential. The application of the seven cardinal factors to improve our overall SEO strategies will provide us a roadmap for success in engaging our communities.
Micro)Glia as Effectors of Cortical Volume Loss in Schizophrenia.

Contrary to the notion that neurology but not psychiatry is the domain of disorders evincing structural brain alterations, it is now clear that there are subtle but consistent neuropathological changes in schizophrenia. These range from increases in ventricular size to dystrophic changes in dendritic spines. A decrease in dendritic spine density in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is among the most replicated of postmortem structural findings in schizophrenia. Examination of the mechanisms that account for the loss of dendritic spines has in large part focused on genes and molecules that regulate neuronal structure. But the simple question of what is the effector of spine loss, ie, where do the lost spines go, is unanswered. Recent data on glial cells suggest that microglia (MG), and perhaps astrocytes, play an important physiological role in synaptic remodeling of neurons during development. Synapses are added to the dendrites of pyramidal cells during the maturation of these neurons; excess synapses are subsequently phagocytosed by MG. In the PFC, this occurs during adolescence, when certain symptoms of schizophrenia emerge. This brief review discusses recent advances in our understanding of MG function and how these non-neuronal cells lead to structural changes in neurons in schizophrenia.
Do’s and Don’ts of Effective Teaching

The work of scholars in various academic fields has much to contribute to the success of those who would be effective teachers. In like fashion, the day-to-day experiences of practitioners in school classrooms have much to contribute. This chapter is a compilation of some practical suggestions gathered from the experience of many years in the classroom, from observing other beginning and experienced teachers, and from reading and talking to people who have thought seriously about teaching and for whom the quality of teaching matters a lot. Theoretical supports for some of these suggestions abound in the literature. Where they do not, the practitioner would say that existing theory needs to be reexamined or that future scholarship will provide the supports. In short, in this chapter we do not hesitate in going from the practical to the theoretical, rather than vice versa. Finally, please do not interpret our suggestions as “preachiness.” They are offered as views, not dogma.
Guidelines for Developing Hybrid Systems

Expert systems perform reasoning using pre-established rules for a well-defined and narrow domain. They combine knowledge bases of rules and domain-specific facts with information from clients or users about specific instances of problems in the knowledge domains of the expert systems. Ideally, reasoning can be explained and the knowledge bases easily modified, independent of the inference engine, as new rules become know.
Physics-based forecasting of man-made earthquake hazards in Oklahoma and Kansas

Reinjection of saltwater, co-produced with oil, triggered thousands of widely felt and several damaging earthquakes in Oklahoma and Kansas. The future seismic hazard remains uncertain. Here, we present a new methodology to forecast the probability of damaging induced earthquakes in space and time. In our hybrid physical–statistical model, seismicity is driven by the rate of injection-induced pressure increases at any given location and spatial variations in the number and stress state of preexisting basement faults affected by the pressure increase. If current injection practices continue, earthquake hazards are expected to decrease slowly. Approximately 190, 130 and 100 widely felt M ≥ 3 earthquakes are anticipated in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively, with corresponding probabilities of potentially damaging M ≥ 5 earthquakes of 32, 24 and 19%. We identify areas where produced-water injection is more likely to cause seismicity. Our methodology can be used to evaluate future injection scenarios intended to mitigate seismic hazards. Reinjection of saltwater, co-produced with oil, has the potential to trigger damaging earthquakes. Here, using Oklahoma and Kansas as an example, the authors present a new physics-based methodology to forecast future probabilities of potentially damaging induced-earthquakes in space and time.
Associations Between Chronic Disease, Polypharmacy, and Medication-Related Problems Among Medicare Beneficiaries.

BACKGROUND: Mismanaged polypharmacy among older adults costs the health care system approximately $2 billion each year. Medication therapy management (MTM), a service designed to optimize medicatio...
Multi Servers, Finite Queue (M/M/k/N)

This chapter explores a multi-server, finite capacity system with exponential inter-arrival and service times. An example is a beauty shop with two hair stylists and with room for only five customers in the shop. The difference, equilibrium and reduced equations are listed. The probability on n units, and the performance measures are developed. Examples are presented to guide the reader.