cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Human papillomavirus vaccination in commercially-insured vaccine-eligible males and females, United States, 2007-2014.

Abstract Background In the United States, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has recommended routine human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination at age 11–12 years since 2006 for girls and since 2011 for boys. ACIP also recommends vaccination through age 26 for females and through age 21 for males; males may be vaccinated through age 26. We describe vaccine uptake in adolescents and young adults using data from MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters. Methods We analyzed data on persons aged 11–26 years on December 31, 2014 who were continuously enrolled in a MarketScan health plan from age 11 through year 2014, or from 2006 to 2014 if aged ≥11 years in 2006 (916,513 females, 951,082 males). Individuals were grouped based on their age (years) in 2014: 11–12 (born 2002–03), 13–14 (2000–01), 15–16 (1998–99), 17–18 (1996–97), 19–21 (1993–95), and 22–26 (1988–1992). We calculated cumulative coverage with ≥1 HPV vaccine dose by sex, birth cohort, and calendar year. Results In females, the proportion initiating vaccination at age 11–12 years was low in 2008 and 2010 (12.6% and 11.1%) and higher in 2012 (15.7%) and 2014 (19.5%); in males, initiation at age 11–12 was 0.9% in 2010, 8.3% in 2012, and 15.1% in 2014. In females who aged into vaccine eligibility, cumulative coverage by 2014 was higher in older cohorts (17–18: 53%; 15–16: 47%; 13–14: 39%; 11–12: 19.5%). For males, cumulative coverage by 2014 was similar in those aged 13–14, 15–16, and 17–18 years (28.9%, 32.5%, 30.3%), and lower in those aged 11–12 (15.1%), 19–21 (18.4%), and 22–26 years (4.5%). Conclusion The proportion of males and females initiating vaccination at the recommended ages was low. Although more females than males were vaccinated in all cohorts, the male–female differences were smaller in younger than older cohorts. The trajectory of male vaccination uptake could signal higher acceptability in males.
Back Flexion and Extension: The Effects of Static Posture on Children Using Mobile Devices

In 2016, smartphone sales grew five percent, with nearly 1.5 billion smartphones sold worldwide. In the United States (US), there were 220 million users. These 220 million users represent the 77% of American households who own a smartphone. A large number of the smartphone users are children. The intent of this study is to understand the effect smartphone use might have on the musculoskeletal system of young children. Eighteen participants, 11 males and 7 females, ages 10–12, were interviewed. The participants were observed and quantitative data was collected as 17 trials were performed; noting back posture while children used a smartphone and tablet. A goniometer was used to measure back flexion and extension. Measured back flexion ranged from 8.5 to 54° and back extension ranged from 12 to 24°. Results indicate that back support and/or correct posture are important when using mobile devices.
Stability of Split Tablets

The current pharmacy practice of splitting tablets has grown exponentially in the last few years to contain the ever growing cost of health care. At present, there is no scientific evidence in the public domain to demonstrate that the random splitting of tablets would not pose any safety concerns by compromising the quality of the product. The presentation would addresses the quality risk associated with the tablet splitting and the need for generating adequate scientific data before recommending a tablet splitting.
Myocardial Imaging at Rest and During Stress with MAA or Microspheres

Myocardial imaging with isotopically tagged particles injected directly into the coronary circulation was shown to be feasible in humans by Endo et al.1 Subsequent investigators demonstrated the safety and utility of this technique.2–5
Intensive cognitive-communication rehabilitation for college-bound young adults with brain injury

Background: Young individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI) would typically be involved in higher education, yet their post-injury cognitive deficits often preclude their academic advancement. C...
Numerical Study of Pore Density Distribution and Pore Formation Energy

Simulations to quantify the pore density and transmembrane potential due to high-intensity, ultra-short duration electrical pulses have been carried out in the process of electroporation and then pore formation energy is probed by taking account of the strain energy based on the continuum model. Our results demonstrate that pore density would escalate rapidly to higher level though transmembrane potential varies in different membrane surface and the strain energy would lead to pore stability, refraining from pore growth. In addition, calculations show that pore formation energy for one pore system would be higher than that of a two-pore system, and the trend keeps with larger pore radius. It is predicted that the membrane would likely evolve towards high density of multiple pores due to high intensity electric pulses, which is consistent with reports in the literature.
Communication and Teamwork Training in Obstetrics and Gynecology

Patient safety has been a priority since the Institute of Medicine released a landmark report in 1999 recognizing the problem, laying out a comprehensive strategy to better understand why errors occur and encouraging healthcare organizations to implement systems to reduce error and improve outcomes. Multidisciplinary care through teamwork and communication are critical components for delivering safe and effective healthcare. Traditional approaches to healthcare education were felt to be barriers to improving safety; thus it was recommended that healthcare organizations implement teamwork training programs to move from self-sufficiency and individual responsibility to building trust around a shared goal. Simulation adds the opportunity to identify a shared frame of reference by building a shared mental model that can be practiced in a low-stakes environment. An organizational commitment to building a culture of teamwork is essential to a successful transition to a team-based approach to patient care.
The national MD-PhD program outcomes study: Outcomes variation by sex, race, and ethnicity

In 2015, a nation-wide effort was launched to track the careers of over 10,000 MD-PhD program graduates. Data were obtained by surveys sent to alumni, inquiries sent to program directors, and searches in American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) databases. Here, we present an analysis of the data, focusing on the impact of sex, race, and ethnicity on career outcomes. The results show that diversity among trainees has increased since the earliest MD-PhD programs, although it still lags considerably behind the US population. Training duration, which includes time to graduation as well as time to first independent position, was similar for men and women and for minority and nonminority alumni, as were most choices of medical specialties. Regardless of minority status and sex, most survey responders reported that they are working in academia, research institutes, federal agencies, or industry. These similarities were, however, accompanied by several noteworthy differences: (a) Based on AAMC Faculty Roster data rather than survey responses, women were less likely than men to have had a full-time faculty appointment, (b) minorities who graduated after 1985 had a longer average time to degree than nonminorities, (c) fewer women and minorities have NIH grants, (d) fewer women reported success in moving from a mentored to an independent NIH award, and (e) women in the most recent graduation cohort reported spending less time on research than men. Collectively, these results suggest that additional efforts need to be made to recruit women and minorities into MD-PhD programs and, once recruited, to understand the drivers behind the differences that have emerged in their career paths.
Socioeconomic Vulnerability Assessment: A Case Study of Flood Prone Urban Communities of Pakistan

Urban flooding has become a regular phenomenon in many cities in the developing countries over the past years. Pakistan is also facing severe urban flooding in recent years. Socioeconomic vulnerability is essential for reducing disaster risk. The main objective of this study is to assess the socioeconomic vulnerability of flood prone urban areas of Pakistan. Based on high flood risk zones classification by National Disaster Management Authority of Pakistan, three urban centres with different population size (metropolitan, medium city and town) were chosen as a case study. Household survey was conducted, and indices were developed for using on well-defined indicators. A sample size of 210 were collected. The methodology for socioeconomic vulnerability assessment was tested and found operational. The households from medium town were found to be more vulnerable as compared to other two communities. This method can be replicated irrespective of spatial scales, and can be modified for other disasters by streamlining hazard specific indicators.
Prognosis and Management of Recurrent Metastatic Colorectal Cancer

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the Western world (Siegel et al. CA Cancer J Clin 68:7–30, 2018). One-half of patients with colorectal cancer will eventually develop metastatic disease. A subset of patients with disease localized to the liver are cured with surgical resection. Unfortunately, approximately 60% of patients will develop disease recurrence with nearly two-thirds having disease within the liver (Wei et al. Ann Surg Oncol 13:668–76, 2006; Wicherts et al. Ann Surg 248:994–1005, 2008; Choti et al. Ann Surg 235:759–66, 2002; Nanji et al. Ann Surg Oncol 20:295–304, 2013; House et al. J Am Coll Surgeons 210:744–52, 2010; Abdalla et al. Ann Surg 239:818–25, 2004). Techniques including nonanatomic parenchymal-sparing resections, success in induced hypertrophy of the remnant liver by portal vein embolization (PVE), and two-staged hepatectomy as well as associating liver partition and portal vein ligation (ALPPS) have enabled complete extirpation of colorectal liver metastasis (CRLM) at greater rates. Liver-directed therapy, including local and locoregional strategies, has allowed further treatment of liver lesions in distributions unfavorable for resection. Liver-directed therapy is often used in combination with resection with a goal to treat all visible tumors either by resection or tumor destruction with appropriate margins. Tumor recurrence after “curative” resection is a major problem. The majority of patients will die from recurrent disease, and liver metastases are the commonest cause of death for patients with colorectal cancer (House et al. J Am Coll Surgeons 210:744–52, 2010). Of patients who undergo liver resection, 50–75% will develop disease recurrence within 2 years after resection (Kun-Ming et al. World J Surg Oncol 12:155, 2014; Min-Su et al. Ann Surg Treat Res 87(1):14–21, 2014). Many recurrences are extra-hepatic; thus, adjuvant systemic treatment is standard of care after the management of CRLM.
Randomized trial of a symptom monitoring intervention for hospitalized patients with advanced cancer (NCT03396510).

12014Background: Hospitalized patients with advanced cancer experience a high symptom burden, which is associated with poor clinical outcomes and increased health care use. Symptom monitoring inter...
Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy in patients with complex abdominal wall hernias.

Patients with severe obesity and complex abdominal wall hernias (CAWH) present a challenging clinical dilemma. Their body mass index (BMI) is often prohibitive of successful ventral hernia repair (VHR) and the CAWH presents technical challenges when pursuing bariatric surgery. Our hernia center policy is to refer patients with severe obesity for evaluation with the surgical weight loss program. This study describes outcomes of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) in patients with both severe obesity and CAWH. A retrospective analysis was performed on data prospectively collected between 2014 and 2020. CAWH patients referred for and undergoing LSG were included. Revisional bariatric surgery patients were excluded. The dataset was augmented with operative time, BMI changes, length of stay (LOS), hernia characteristics, postoperative complications, time from referral to weight loss surgery, and time from LSG to VHR. Twenty patients (10 males, mean age 54.3 years) met inclusion criteria. Mean BMI at LSG was 45.6 ± 6.1 kg/m2. Mean hernia area was 494.9 ± 221.2 cm2 and 90% had hernia extension into the subxiphoid and/or epigastric regions. Mean time from bariatric referral to LSG was 10.5 ± 5.4 months. Mean LSG operative time was 121.2 ± 50.3 min, and mean LOS was 1.6 ± 0.8 days. One patient had postoperative bleeding necessitating laparoscopic re-exploration. There were no readmissions. Sixteen patients subsequently underwent VHR on average13.5 ± 11.7 months later and on average 22.6 ± 12.5 months after initial hernia consultation. Two patients had a hernia-related complication between the period of initial hernia consultation and ultimate repair. Mean BMI was 37.5 ± 7.5 kg/m2 (mean 20.7 ± 12.3% decrease, p < 0.0001) at mean follow-up of 27.2 ± 17.2 months. LSG can be performed successfully even in patients with CAWH. Outcomes do not appear to differ significantly from typical patients undergoing LSG. Further study with larger cohorts is warranted to better delineate complication rates in this population as well as to determine long-term outcomes.
Project ACTIVE: a Randomized Controlled Trial of Personalized and Patient-Centered Preventive Care in an Urban Safety-Net Setting

Evidence-based preventive care in the USA is underutilized, diminishing population health and worsening health disparities. We developed Project ACTIVE, a program to improve adherence with preventive care goals through personalized and patient-centered care. To determine whether Project ACTIVE improved utilization of preventive care and/or estimated life expectancy compared to usual care. Design: Single-site randomized controlled trial. Cluster-randomized 140 English or Spanish speaking adult patients in primary care with at least one of twelve unfulfilled preventive care goals based on USPSTF grade A and B recommendations. Project ACTIVE employs a validated mathematical model to predict and rank individualized estimates of health benefit that would arise from improved adherence to different preventive care guidelines. Clinical staff engaged the participant in a shared medical decision-making (SMD) process to identify highest priority unfulfilled clinical goals, and health coaching staff engaged the participant to develop and monitor action steps to reach those goals. Change in number of unfulfilled preventive care goals from USPSTF grade A and B recommendations and change in overall gain in estimated life expectancy. In an intent-to-treat analysis, Project ACTIVE increased the average number of fulfilled preventive care goals out of 12 by 0.68 in the intervention arm compared with 0.15 in the control arm (mean difference [95% CI] 0.53 [0.19–0.86]), yielding a gain in estimated life expectancy of 8.8 months (3.8, 14.2). In a per-protocol analysis, Project ACTIVE increased fulfilled preventive care goals by 0.80 in the intervention arm compared with 0.16 in the control arm (mean difference [95% CI], 0.65 [0.25–1.04]), yielding a gain in estimated life expectancy of 13.7 months (6.2, 21.2). Among the 12 preventive care goals, more improvement occurred for alcohol use, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, depression, and smoking. Project ACTIVE improved unfulfilled preventive care goals and improved estimated life expectancy. NCT04211883
Robust Mean Estimation in High Dimensions via Global Outlier Pursuit.

We study the robust mean estimation problem in high dimensions, where less than half of the datapoints can be arbitrarily corrupted. Motivated by compressive sensing, we formulate the robust mean estimation problem as the minimization of the $\ell_0$-`norm' of an \emph{outlier indicator vector}, under a second moment constraint on the datapoints. We further relax the $\ell_0$-`norm' to the $\ell_p$-norm ($0<p\leq 1$) in the objective and prove that the global minima for each of these objectives are order-optimal for the robust mean estimation problem. Then we propose a computationally tractable iterative $\ell_p$-minimization and hard thresholding algorithm that outputs an order-optimal robust estimate of the population mean. Both synthetic and real data experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art robust mean estimation methods. The source code will be made available at GitHub.
Molecular mechanisms of hearing loss in Nager syndrome.

Abstract Nager syndrome is a rare human developmental disorder characterized by hypoplastic neural crest-derived craniofacial bones and limb defects. Mutations in SF3B4 gene, which encodes a component of the spliceosome, are a major cause for Nager. A review of the literature indicates that 45% of confirmed cases are also affected by conductive, sensorineural or mixed hearing loss. Conductive hearing loss is due to defective middle ear ossicles, which are neural crest derived, while sensorineural hearing loss typically results from defective inner ear or vestibulocochlear nerve, which are both derived from the otic placode. Animal model of Nager syndrome indicates that upon Sf3b4 knockdown cranial neural crest progenitors are depleted, which may account for the conductive hearing loss in these patients. To determine whether Sf3b4 plays a role in otic placode formation we analyzed the impact of Sf3b4 knockdown on otic development. Sf3b4-depleted Xenopus embryos exhibited reduced expression of several pan-placodal genes six1, dmrta1 and foxi4.1. We confirmed the dependence of placode genes expression on Sf3b4 function in animal cap explants expressing noggin, a BMP antagonist critical to induce placode fate in the ectoderm. Later in development, Sf3b4 morphant embryos had reduced expression of pax8, tbx2, otx2, bmp4 and wnt3a at the otic vesicle stage, and altered otic vesicle development. We propose that in addition to the neural crest, Sf3b4 is required for otic development, which may account for sensorineural hearing loss in Nager syndrome.
Time delay and power control in spread spectrum wireless networks

Abstract Delay in the computation of the signal-to-interference ratio in communication systems is unavoidable. In the the case of mobile communication, delay is a very critical problem due the fast variation of the communication channel and the need for effective, fast and accurate power control. In this paper we present our approach to dealing with the delay in mobile communication systems as well as our controller to achieve and maintain the desired signal quality. We will concentrate on the code division multiple access (CDMA) systems.
Virilizing Testicular Tumor: In Vivo Studies of Steroid Secretion

Findings in a six-year-old boy with a virilizing tumor of the left testis are presented. His bone age was 14 years. Serum testosterone (5.9 nglml), urinary 17-ketosteroid (29 mg/24 hr), and pregnanetriol (14 mg/24 hr) excretion was elevated. These values were not suppressed after the administration of dexamethasone. Spermatic-peripheral vein concentration differences showed that the tumor secreted 17-hydroxy-pregnenolone, dehydroeplandrosterone (DHEA), dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), progesterone, 17-hydroxyprogesterone, androstenedione, testosterone, estrone, estradiol, 11-desoxycortisol, and corticosterone. The tumor did not secrete cortisol. Electron microscopy study of the tumor revealed a dimorphic population of light and dark cells with many features seen in Leydig cell tumors. However, these were not distinct from those of adrenal rest tumors. Reinke crystalloids were not found. True precocious puberty developed five months after tumor removal, ie, the right testis increased in size, and serum gonadotropins increased. Seven months after tumor removal, the patient was demonstrated not to have impaired cortisol synthesis, ie, urinary 17-hydroxysteroids increased from 1.8 to 38.0 mg/24 hr In response to adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) administration. The differential diagnosis of virilizing testicular tumors lies between Leydig cell adenoma and adrenal rest tumor in California congenital adrenal hyperplasla. The demonstration that the patient did not have Impaired cortisol synthesis is consistent with his tumor being a Leydig cell adenoma.
An immersive game – augsburg cityrun

We present a platform for creating immersive 3D games including a new interface for navigating through virtual scenes. One innovative part of this application is a crowd simulation with an emergent behaviour of virtual characters. While the users has to move very quickly through a crowd of nearly two hundred virtual characters he is supported by a precise, fast operating, and unobtrusive navigation interface.
Private provision of a public good - social capital and solid waste management in Dhaka, Bangladesh

The authors try to identify the determinants of private, community-based provision of a public good - in this case, trash collection. Using survey data for Dhaka, Bangladesh, where some neighborhoods have successfully organized an alternative to the municipal trash collection service, they examine why some communities or neighborhoods display such initiative, while others do not. Their results show that social capital - trust, reciprocity, and sharing - is an important determinant of whether alternative systems arise in Dhaka. More generally, public-private partnerships, or self-help schemes appear more likely to succeed in neighborhoods high in social capital. Other measures of homogeneity of interests are also important. So, interestingly, is the nature of associational activity. Finally, education levels are strongly, and robustly associated with the existence of collective action for trash disposal. How can policymakers encourage such activity? The process through which community residents start cooperating for the common good, is a function of the strength of their relationships. Government attempts to initiate the process, are therefore unlikely to boost social capital directly, but by lowering information, and transaction costs, they may facilitate a virtuous cycle of successful cooperation, and strengthening social ties.
Turfgrass Molecular Genetic Improvement for Abiotic/Edaphic Stress Resistance

Publisher Summary Turfgrasses are subject to many climatic, soil, pest, and use-related stresses. The frequency, duration, and intensity of stresses are increasing in response to factors such as reduced water availability, frequent use of effluent water and irrigation water of lower quality, installation of turfgrass facilities on sites with marginal soil quality, and increasing usage of recreational sites. These factors, when coupled with steady environmental pressure toward reduced water, nutrient, and pesticide inputs, mandate the development of more stress-resistant grasses. This chapter reviews some of the biotechnology methods that lead turf enhancement programs into the 21st century. The scientific methodology must fit within a system or framework with other components in order to significantly improve turfgrasses. The chapter also presents a strategic framework for turfgrass improvement that incorporates gene technology. Enhanced abiotic or edaphic stress tolerance in turf can provide improvements in performance under environmental extremes, functional root systems that perform equally well in stressed and non-stressed environments, improved water use efficiency, and improved nutrient uptake or utilization efficiency.
Trade Imbalances, International Investment, and a Limitation of Lerner's Symmetry Theorem

This paper sounds a caution to international trade economists, demonstrating that the equilibrium trade imbalances implied by most models of international investment disturb the symmetry between import tariffs and export taxes found by Lerner (1936). When trade is unbalanced, Lerner's equivalence result holds only when (i) trade tax revenue is redistributed among consumers, (ii) neither the import tariff nor the export tax would be prohibitive, and (iii) the value of trade imbalance at world prices is invariant to instrument choice. The last condition implies that Lerner symmetry generally will not obtain in many otherwise standard trade models with international investment, since remittances to foreign investors - a source of permanent trade imbalances- typically depend on both relative and absolute local prices, and thus on the government's choice of trade tax instrument. Endogenizing trade policy only exacerbates the asymmetry, since international investment influences government preferences over trade policy instruments as well as levels. Notably, Lerner symmetry can be resurrected by introducing a third policy tool in the form of a direct a tax on international investment returns. Future work therefore should either reinstate Lerner symmetry by adopting investment taxes, or at very the least, acknowledge the trade tax asymmetry inherent to models with international investment.
Space-time clustering of seismicity in California and the distance dependence of earthquake triggering

[1] Using two recent high-resolution earthquake catalogs, I examine clustering in California seismicity by plotting the average rate of earthquakes as a function of both space and time from target events of M 2 to 5. Comparisons between pre- and post-target event activity can be used to resolve earthquake-to-earthquake triggering associated with target events of different magnitudes. The results are more complicated than predicted by computer simulations of earthquake triggering that begin with background events occurring at random times. In particular, at least some of the temporal clustering of seismicity at short scales (0.1 to 5 km) does not appear to be caused by local earthquake triggering, but instead reflects an underlying physical process that temporarily increases the seismicity rate, such as is often hypothesized to drive earthquake swarms. Earthquake triggering for M < 4.5 earthquakes is only resolvable in average seismicity rates at times less than about one day and to distances of less than about 10 km, and its linear density decreases as r � 1.5 to r � 2.5 , significantly steeper than some previous studies have found.
Application of Anomaly Detection Techniques to Identify Fraudulent Refunds

Anomaly detection is a concept widely applied to numerous domains. Several techniques of anomaly detection have been developed over the years, in practice as well as research. The application of this concept has extended to diverse areas, from network intrusion detection to novelty detection in robot behavior. In the business world, the application of these techniques to fraud detection is of a special interest, driven by the great losses companies endure because of such fraudulent activities. This paper describes classification-based and clustering-based anomaly detection techniques and their applications, more specifically the application to the problem of certain fraudulent activities. As an illustration, the paper applies K-Means, a clustering-based algorithm, to a refund transactions dataset from a telecommunication company, with the intent of identifying fraudulent refunds.
Sparsification and sampling of networks for collective classification

Network analysis has been an active area of research for the past few decades. Out of many open research questions that have been extensively studied, relational classification, community detection, link prediction are only to name a few. Collective classification is a well-known relational classification method for classifying entities (nodes) within a network which involves using both node based features and topological features of each node. It involves collective prediction of the unknown labels of all the test nodes in the network using label information of the training nodes. Even though this has been a well researched topic for years, very little has been done to address the following two challenges: (1) how to actively select the labeled nodes from the network to be used for training, and (2) how to efficiently obtain a sparse representation of the original network without losing much information, so that learning can scale to large networks. A lot of work has been done in theoretical computer science which aims towards finding the best approximation of large graphs. However, not much has been done from the perspective of finding an approximate subgraph that will help in classification of network datasets. In this paper, our contribution is in proposing an efficient graph sparsification method and a sampling technique which, along with the state-of-the-art network classifiers, can give comparable runtime and classification accuracies.
To Politicize is not to Control: The Pathologies of Control in Federal Emergency Management:

One of the most significant problems of bureaucracy in a democratic polity is how to achieve a tolerable coexistence between political and managerial control. When these aspects of control get out ...
Regge poles and large-angle scattering

Abstract We study the limiting form of a Regge amplitude for large values of both s and | t |. If such a term dominates the amplitude, a limit on the behavior of the trajectory as t → −∞ is obtained. Results obtained by fitting simply parametrized Regge terms to the pp scattering data near 90° are presented.
Constrained max-min controllability

The max-min controllability concept of Heymann, Pachter, and Stern [1] is examined for a more general class of problems. Both strong and weak max-min controllability are characterized. It is shown that when magnitude constraints on the control are present, the two max-min controllability concepts are not the same. This differs from the result for problems without control magnitude constraints where it has been shown that the two controllability concepts are identical.
Thirty-day outcomes of paraesophageal hernia repair using the NSQIP database: should laparoscopy be the standard of care?

Background Although surgical repair is universally recognized as the gold standard for treatment of paraesophageal hernia (PEH), the optimal surgical approach is still the subject of debate. To determine which surgical technique is safest, we compared the outcomes of laparoscopic (lap), open transabdominal (TA), and open transthoracic (TT) PEH repair using the NSQIP database. Study Design From 2005 to 2011, we identified 8,186 patients who underwent a PEH repair (78.4% lap, 19.2% TA, 2.4% TT). Primary outcome measured was 30-day mortality. Secondary outcomes included hospital length of stay, and NSQIP-measured postoperative complications. Multivariable analyses were performed to compare the odds of each outcome across procedure type (lap, TA, and TT) while adjusting for other factors. Results Transabdominal patients had the highest 30-day mortality rate (2.6%), compared with 0.5% in the lap patients (p Conclusions In the absence of published data indicating improved long-term outcomes after open TA or TT approach, our findings support the use of laparoscopy, whenever technically feasible, because it yields improved short-term outcomes.
Optofluidic integration for medical diagnostics and spectroscopy

We show the capabilities of the applications of microlithography techniques optimized for the microelectronic industry for integrating optics with fluidics and electronics in integrated micro-chips. We also show the opportunities of silicon photonics to generate inexpensive optical systems for data communications and analysis.
Novel High Performance MIMO-OFDM Based Measures for NLOS Identification in Time-Varying Frequency and Space Selective Channels

This paper proposes new measures for non-line-of-sight (NLOS) identification in wireless localization systems. The measures are defined based on the space-time-frequency channel correlation features of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. Here, space-time channel correlation refers to the correlation across antenna elements and time, and frequency channel correlation refers to the correlation across subcarriers. The probability-of-detection performance of these NLOS identification methods is investigated. The results represent a high identification performance when the LOS and NLOS powers are in the same order of magnitude.
Influence of Pathogenic Mutations on the Energetics of Translocon-Mediated Bilayer Integration of Transmembrane Helices

Aberrant protein folding and assembly contribute to a number of diseases, and efforts to rationalize how pathogenic mutations cause this phenomenon represent an important imperative in biochemical research. However, for α-helical membrane proteins, this task is complicated by the fact that membrane proteins require intricate machinery to achieve structural and functional maturity under cellular conditions. In this work, we utilized the ΔG predictor algorithm (www.dgpred.cbr.su.se) to survey 470 known pathogenic mutations occurring in five misfolding-prone α-helical membrane proteins for their predicted effects on the translocon-mediated membrane integration of transmembrane helices, a critical step in biosynthesis and folding of nascent membrane proteins. The results suggest that about 10 % of these mutations are likely to have adverse effects on the topogenesis of nascent membrane proteins. These results suggest that the misfolding of a modest but nonetheless significant subset of pathogenic variants may begin at the translocon. Potential implications for therapeutic design and personalized medicine are discussed.
SU‐GG‐T‐405: Quantitative Analysis of Dose Enhancement Contributed by Different Photon Interactions in X‐Ray Irradiation with the Presence of HZ Materials with Geant4 Monte Carlo Simulation

Purpose: To study the overall dose enhancements and those contributed by different processes quantitatively in the presence of HZ materials and X‐ray with different energies with Monte Carlo method.Method and Materials: A virtual phantom is constructed with three layers, with the first and the third layers made of water, sandwiching the second layer composed of water and HZ materials, including Gold(Au),Platinum (Pt), Gadolinium (Gd), or Iodine (I). The phantom is irradiated by X‐ray with mono and spectrum energies. The dose deposited in the phantom along photon incidence direction is recorded with a space resolution of 0.1mm. The percent depth dose (PDD) curves for these sources are generated with dmax calculated. The overall dose enhancement ratios and those contributed by different processes, such as Pair Production, Compton Scattering, and Photoelectric Effect, are analyzed quantitatively. Results: The dose enhancement ratios (rD–E) for different HZ materials with the same molar concentration increase with the atomic numbers. For example, with concentration at 0.1882 mmol/ml and 0.25MeV X‐ray energy, the overall rD–Es are 152.69%, 150.57%, 127.64%, and 114.32% for Au, Pt, Gd, and I, respectively. Higher energy source gives lower rD–E. For example, a 5 MeV source gives a rD–E of 105.2% for Au. These can be explained by analyzing the dose contribution from each process and the rD–E for that process. Conclusion: A new method is implemented in MC simulation for analyzing percentage dose contribution from different processes to the total dose. This helps to select the right X‐ray energy and HZ atom as well as the concentration in HZ‐enhanced Radiation therapy. Lower energy source gives higher rD–E because more doses are contributed by Photoelectric effect, which gives very high rD–E. At the same molar concentration, materials with larger atomic number give higher rD–E.
Localization of esterase activity in the larval midgut of the armyworm (Pseudaletia unipuncta)

Abstract Esterases are active in the larval midgut of the armyworm, Pseudaletia unipuncta . The esterase activity occurs on the surface and the interior of microvilli of the midgut epithelium. It is not associated, however, with the microvilli of all the midgut epithelial cells. High esterase activity is associated with lipid droplets in the cytoplasm, with mitochondria and with laminated membranes both in the cytoplasm of midgut cells and in the midgut lumen. Activity also occurs in goblet cells and in areas near the basement membrane.
A new multi-objective microgrid restoration via semidefinite programming

This paper presents a new multi-objective microgrid reconfiguration problem formulation. Unlike existing distribution system or microgrid reconfiguration algorithms, we consider the effect of uncertainty arising from the renewable energy generation and investigate the tradeoff between the invented index measuring the reliability of reconfiguration and the total load served. The resulting optimization problem is computationally prohibitive due to the binary circuit breaker variables and the probability constraint accounting for the uncertainty of renewable generation. Nevertheless, a semidefinite programming (SDP) reformulation is developed based on convex relaxation techniques and the scenario-based approximation. Furthermore, weighted-sum method is applied in the reformulation and we eventually obtain the Pareto solution points of the microgrid reconfiguration. Numerical tests validate the intrinsic tradeoff between the two objectives and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution methodology.
Chronic Renal Failure Presenting as Proximal Muscle Weakness in a Child

A 13-year old boy presented with a three-year history of slowly progressive proximal muscle weakness, particularly involving the lower extremities. Chronic renal failure was uncovered in the course of his evaluation. Urologic investigation showed small and poorly functioning kidneys with a BUN of 118 mg/dL and a creatinine of 10.7 mg/dL. There were no anomalies of the proximal or distal collecting systems or history suggestive of recurrent urinary tract infection. The neurologic examination revealed proximal muscle weakness primarily of the lower extremities and especially of the proximal musculature of the pelvic girdle. Nerve conduction studies were normal. The electromyogram (EMG) showed high-voltage polyphasic potentials consistent with neurogenic muscle disease. A biopsy of the right quadriceps muscle demonstrated type II muscle fiber atrophy with histochemical staining. The patient's clinical findings, EMG studies, and muscle biopsy were not specific for either neurogenic or myopathic disease. Following a period of home peritoneal dialysis and renal transplantation, there was significant clinical improvement of the muscle weakness.
Organization Theory and Technocratic Consciousness

The article presents a review of the book “Organization Theory and Technocratic Consciousness,” by Mats Alvesson.
Combining a BCL2 inhibitor with the retinoid derivative fenretinide targets melanoma cells including melanoma initiating cells.

Investigations from multiple laboratories support the existence of melanoma initiating cells (MICs) that potentially contribute to melanoma’s drug resistance. ABT-737, a small molecule BCL-2/BCL-XL/BCL-W inhibitor, is promising in cancer treatments, but not very effective against melanoma, with the antiapoptotic protein MCL-1 as the main contributor to resistance. The synthetic retinoid fenretinide N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)retinamide (4-HPR) has shown promise for treating breast cancers. Here, we tested whether the combination of ABT-737 with 4-HPR is effective in killing both the bulk of melanoma cells and MICs. The combination synergistically decreased cell viability and caused cell death in multiple melanoma cells lines (carrying either BRAF or NRAS mutations) but not in normal melanocytes. The combination increased the NOXA expression and caspase-dependent MCL-1 degradation. Knocking down NOXA protected cells from combination-induced apoptosis, implicating the role of NOXA in the drug synergy. The combination treatment also disrupted primary spheres (a functional assay for MICs) and decreased the percentage of aldehyde dehydrogenase high cells (a marker of MICs) in melanoma cell lines. Moreover, the combination inhibited the self-renewal capacity of MICs, measured by secondary sphere-forming assays. In vivo, the combination inhibited tumor growth. Thus, this combination is a promising treatment strategy for melanoma, regardless of mutation status of BRAF or NRAS.
Wavelet- and Fourier-Transform-Based Spectrum Similarity Approaches to Compound Identification in Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry

The high-throughput gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) technology offers a powerful means of analyzing a large number of chemical and biological samples. One of the important analyses of ...
Correction: Electrostatic control of regioselectivity via ion pairing in a Au(I)-catalyzed rearrangement

Correction for ‘Electrostatic control of regioselectivity via ion pairing in a Au(I)-catalyzed rearrangement’ by Vivian M. Lau et al., Chem. Sci., 2014, 5, 4975–4979.
Occasions and the Reliability of Classroom Observations: Alternative Conceptualizations and Methods of Analysis.

Student–teacher interactions are dynamic relationships that change and evolve over the course of a school year. Measuring classroom quality through observations that focus on these interactions presents challenges when observations are conducted throughout the school year. Variability in observed scores could reflect true changes in the quality of student–teacher interaction or simply reflect measurement error. Classroom observation protocols should be designed to minimize measurement error while allowing measureable changes in the construct of interest. Treating occasions as fixed multivariate outcomes allows true changes to be separated from random measurement error. These outcomes may also be summarized through trend score composites to reflect different types of growth over the school year. We demonstrate the use of multivariate generalizability theory to estimate reliability for trend score composites, and we compare the results to traditional methods of analysis. Reliability estimates computed for a...
When should doppler-determined valve area be better than the Gorlin formula?: Variation in hydraulic constants in low flow states

In low flow states, underestimation errors occur when the Gorlin formula is used to calculate vaive area. A model of valvular stenosis designed to examine changes in the hydraulic discharge coefficient (Cd) and coefficient of orifice contraction (Cc) may explain these errors. Unsteady flow was examined in a pulsatile pump model and in a dog model. Valve areas were calculated from pressure and flow data using: 1) a modified form of the Gorlin formula (assuming constant values for Cd and Cc) and 2) a corrected formula (with values of Cdand Ccobtained from steady state data). Valve area was also calculated using the continuity equation with velocity and flow data (constant Cc). Flow velocities were measured using a newly designed ultrasound Doppler catheter capable of resolving flow velocities of up to 5.5 m/s. Both the corrected formula and continuity equation were highly predictive of actual valve area (r = 0.99, slope or M = 0.96 and r = 0.99, M = 1.06, respectively). The modified Gorlin equation was less accurate and tended to underestimate valve areas (r = 0.87, M = 0.83). This underestimation was most notable at low rates of flow (Gorlin: r = 0.94, M = 0.53; continuity: r - 0.98, M = 1.09). Similarly, both corrected and continuity equations predicted valve area in the dog model (r = 0.93, M = 0.81 and r = 0.94, M = 0.89, respectively) more accurately than the modified Gorlin formula (r = 0.69, M = 0.49). In patients with low cardiac output, hemodynamic formulas, such as the Gorlin formula, which assume a constant value for the hydraulic discharge coefficient (Cd), may be less accurate than formulas using either a corrected value of Cdor Doppler-determined flow velocity and mean systolic flow.
Diffusion and 1/f noise

The noise associated with ion transport through porous membranes is considered as a diffusion process. This is confirmed experimentally by measuring the noise spectra associated with pores of known dimension. It is then shown that one dimensional diffusion through pores of variable length can produce approximate 1/f noise spectra, if the distribution of lengths is proportional to (length)−1.
Cryopreservation of Paddlefish Polyodon spathula Milt

.— A practical procedure for cryopreserving milt of paddlefish Polyodon sparhula was developed to obtain thawed spermatozoa that would fertilize eggs and permit hatching of normal larvae. Milt was mixed with a cryoprotectant medium containing DMSO (2.4 M) in a ratio of 3:1(milt: medium; final concentration of DMSO 0.6 M), stored in 5.0-mL freezing straws, and frozen in dry ice (15 min) and then in liquid nitrogen. A total of three replicates were made; the milt of a different male was used in each replicate. Motility of the thawed spermatozoa decreased to 50%-25% as compared to 100% motility of the fresh (control) spermatozoa. Hatching of paddlefish (16.3 ± 2.2%) from eggs fertilized with thawed spermatozoa was significantly lower (P≤ 0.01) than the hatch rate (90.8 ± 2.5%) for the control. It was suggested that an increase in viable motile spermatozoa to egg would result in better fertilization and hatching of paddlefish.
The role of gene 49 in DNA replication and head morphogenesis in bacteriophage T4

Abstract Mutations in T4 phage genes 33 and 55, genes necessary for the synthesis of late phage-induced proteins, cause the replicating phage DNA to appear in lysates in a form that sediments much more rapidly than the normal 200 s form observed during wild-type infection. We now find that an amber mutation in gene 49 produces this same effect. A temperature-sensitive mutation in gene 49 produces an intermediate DNA form, both at permissive and restrictive temperatubes, indicating that the unusual form of the DNA does not preclude its being converted to phage particles. Mutation in no other late gene tested produces this phenotype. However, we find that inhibition of late protein synthesis with chloramphenicol can partially simulate the effect of gene 33, 55 and 49 mutations. Mutations in gene 49 also prevent the formation of mature 63 s DNA. When the rapidly sedimenting form of replicating phage DNA is isolated and tested as substrate, extracts prepared after T4 infection convert it to slower sedimenting structures. The reaction produces 200 s DNA and apparently terminates with the formation of molecules that sediment between 45 and 65 s. Early-mutant extracts and gene 33-defective and 55-defective extracts do not contain this activity. All late-mutant extracts tested do contain the activity, except those prepared after infection with either of the gene 49 mutants. Suppression of the amber mutation in gene 49 results in a tenfold increase in activity, but the suppressed extracts still possess only 0.1 the wild-type activity. Extracts prepared after ts49 infection also show about 0.1 the wild-type activity, regardless of the temperature of infection or assay. Mixing experiments show that gene 49-defective extracts do not contain an inhibitor of the wild-type activity. Mixed infection with various ratios of 49- to 49+ phage produces extracts containing activity approximately proportional to the number of 49+ gene copies. Lysates from certain of these mixed infections contain both forms of intracellular DNA and therefore complementation is not as complete as expected of a catalytic function. Gene 49 appears to control a product which, when functional, produces 200 s DNA in lysates of infected cells, but when absent results in the appearance of the more rapidly sedimenting DNA form. This gene product may be an enzyme that functions to alter the structure of the intracellular DNA so that it can be cleaved or encapsulated to form phage particles. Since the activity that we detect in extracts is sensitive to anti-T4 antiserum but not to pre-immune serum, it may be a component of the phage particle itself.