cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Activation of the PAK-Related Kinase by Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Nef in Primary Human Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes and Macrophages Leads to Phosphorylation of a PIX-p95 Complex

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) Nef enhances virus replication in both primary T lymphocytes and monocyte-derived macrophages. This enhancement phenotype has been linked to the ability of Nef to modulate the activity of cellular kinases. We find that despite the reported high-affinity interaction between Nef and the Src kinase Hck in vitro, a Nef-Hck interaction in the context of HIV-1-infected primary macrophages is not detectable. However, Nef binding and activation of the PAK-related kinase and phosphorylation of its substrate could be readily detected in both infected primary T lymphocytes and macrophages. Furthermore, we show that this substrate is a complex composed of the recently characterized PAK interacting partner PIX (PAK-interacting guanine nucleotide exchange factor) and its tightly associated p95 protein. PAK and PIX-p95 appear to be differentially activated and phosphorylated depending on the intracellular environment in which nef is expressed. These results identify the PIX-p95 complex as a novel effector of Nef in primary cells and suggest that the regulation of the PAK signaling pathway may differ in T cells and macrophages.
BRIPPED scan for evaluation of ED patients with shortness of breath.

Abstract Objective The BRIPPED scan is an ultrasound evaluation of pulmonary B-lines, right ventricle size, inferior vena cava collapsibility, pleural and pericardial effusion, pneumothorax, left ventricle ejection fraction, and lower extremity deep venous thrombosis. The primary goal was to evaluate the effect of the BRIPPED scan on the physician's list of differential diagnoses for patients presenting with shortness of breath. Methods This prospective randomized control trial was performed on patients presenting to the emergency department with shortness of breath. Primary data analysis was performed using an ordinal quasi-symmetry model to compare the magnitude of change in the differential diagnoses between 2 groups. Secondary outcome measures included changes in physician orders or interventions, time to disposition, time to perform the BRIPPED scan, and the interrater reliability of the interpretation of the scan. Results A total of 104 patients and 24 physicians were enrolled in this study. Fifty-two patients were randomly assigned to each cohort. Among the BRIPPED cohort, there was significant movement of likelihood for several etiologies of shortness of breath on the physician differential. There was no significance in the change of differential diagnosis between the BRIPPED and control cohorts. The average (SD) time to perform the scan was 5.7 (1.3) minutes (95% confidence interval, 5.4-6 minutes). Conclusion The BRIPPED scan is a rapid ultrasound evaluation of shortness of breath in the emergency department. BRIPPED influenced physician differential diagnoses to the same degree as laboratory and radiographic testing. BRIPPED did not alter the final diagnosis in this patient population.
Computational Morphodynamics: A Modeling Framework to Understand Plant Growth

Computational morphodynamics utilizes computer modeling to understand the development of living organisms over space and time. Results from biological experiments are used to construct accurate and predictive models of growth. These models are then used to make novel predictions that provide further insight into the processes involved, which can be tested experimentally to either confirm or rule out the validity of the computational models. This review highlights two fundamental challenges: (a) to understand the feedback between mechanics of growth and chemical or molecular signaling, and (b) to design models that span and integrate single cell behavior with tissue development. We review different approaches to model plant growth and discuss a variety of model types that can be implemented to demonstrate how the interplay between computational modeling and experimentation can be used to explore the morphodynamics of plant development.
Effects of Bonding Process Parameters on Wafer-to-Wafer Alignment Accuracy in Benzocyclobutene (BCB) Dielectric Wafer Bonding

Wafer-level three-dimensional (3D) integration is an emerging technology to increase the performance and functionality of integrated circuits (ICs). Aligned wafer-to-wafer bonding with dielectric polymer layers (e.g., benzocyclobutene (BCB)) is a promising approach for manufacturing of 3D ICs, with minimum bonding impact on the wafer-to-wafer alignment accuracy essential. In this paper we investigate the effects of thermal and mechanical bonding parameters on the achievable post-bonding wafer-to-wafer alignment accuracy for polymer wafer bonding with 200 mm diameter wafers. Our baseline wafer bonding process with softbaked BCB (∼35% cross-linked) has been modified to use partially cured (∼ 43% crosslinked) BCB. The partially cured BCB layer does not reflow during bonding, minimizing the impact of inhomogeneities in BCB reflow under compression and/or slight shear forces at the bonding interface. As a result, the non-uniformity of the BCB layer thickness after wafer bonding is less than 0.5% of the nominal layer thickness and the wafer shift relative to each other during the wafer bonding process is less than 1 μm (average) for 200 mm diameter wafers. The critical adhesion energy of a bonded wafer pair with the partially cured BCB wafer bonding process is similar to that with soft-baked BCB.
Tensor Decomposition Reveals Concurrent Evolutionary Convergences and Divergences and Correlations with Structural Motifs in Ribosomal RNA

Evolutionary relationships among organisms are commonly described by using a hierarchy derived from comparisons of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) sequences. We propose that even on the level of a single rRNA molecule, an organism's evolution is composed of multiple pathways due to concurrent forces that act independently upon different rRNA degrees of freedom. Relationships among organisms are then compositions of coexisting pathway-dependent similarities and dissimilarities, which cannot be described by a single hierarchy. We computationally test this hypothesis in comparative analyses of 16S and 23S rRNA sequence alignments by using a tensor decomposition, i.e., a framework for modeling composite data. Each alignment is encoded in a cuboid, i.e., a third-order tensor, where nucleotides, positions and organisms, each represent a degree of freedom. A tensor mode-1 higher-order singular value decomposition (HOSVD) is formulated such that it separates each cuboid into combinations of patterns of nucleotide frequency variation across organisms and positions, i.e., “eigenpositions” and corresponding nucleotide-specific segments of “eigenorganisms,” respectively, independent of a-priori knowledge of the taxonomic groups or rRNA structures. We find, in support of our hypothesis that, first, the significant eigenpositions reveal multiple similarities and dissimilarities among the taxonomic groups. Second, the corresponding eigenorganisms identify insertions or deletions of nucleotides exclusively conserved within the corresponding groups, that map out entire substructures and are enriched in adenosines, unpaired in the rRNA secondary structure, that participate in tertiary structure interactions. This demonstrates that structural motifs involved in rRNA folding and function are evolutionary degrees of freedom. Third, two previously unknown coexisting subgenic relationships between Microsporidia and Archaea are revealed in both the 16S and 23S rRNA alignments, a convergence and a divergence, conferred by insertions and deletions of these motifs, which cannot be described by a single hierarchy. This shows that mode-1 HOSVD modeling of rRNA alignments might be used to computationally predict evolutionary mechanisms.
Sensing performance of electrically conductive fabrics and suspension lines for parachute systems

The electronic sensing capabilities of parachute fabrics and suspension lines coated with conducting polymers, single-walled carbon nanotubes, and their composites are described. A new synthetic method is described to obtain a thin, strongly adhering coating of conducting polymers on commercial parachute fabrics and suspension lines using oligoanilines as an undercoating. The results indicate that both materials have a sensing ability; however, the coated suspension lines show superior performance compared to the coated parachute fabrics.
Excessive daytime sleepiness in adults with brain injuries

Abstract Masel BE, Scheibel RS, Kimbark T, Kuna ST. Excessive daytime sleepiness in adults with brain injuries. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2001;82:1526-32. Objectives: To determine the prevalence, demographics, and causes of excessive daytime sleepiness in adults with brain injuries after the acute phase of their injury and to investigate the relations between self-report and objective measures of hypersomnolence. Design: A case series of patients enrolled consecutively into a residential rehabilitation program. Setting: University sleep laboratory, live-in rehabilitation center. Patients: Adults with brain injuries ( n = 71); mean time ± standard deviation from injury to study, 38 ± 60 months. Interventions: A polysomnogram and Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) were performed in each subject. Each subject also completed the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaires. Main Outcome Measures: Sleep patterns, by polysomnogram. Daytime hypersomnolence, diagnosed by mean sleep latency on the MSLT ≤ 10 minutes. Sleep apnea–hypopnea syndrome, diagnosed by Apnea-Hypopnea Index greater than 10 events/hr. Periodic limb movement disorder, diagnosed by a Periodic Leg Movement Index greater than 10 events/hr. Results: Mean sleep latency was ≤ 10 minutes in 47% of the cohort and ≤ 5 minutes in 18.3%. Subjects were classified into 3 groups: nonhypersomnolent ( n = 38, 53%), hypersomnolent with abnormal indices ( n = 12, 17%), or hypersomnolent with normal indices ( n = 21, 30%). Among the 3 groups, no significant differences were present in Glasgow Coma Scale score, length of coma, or time since brain injury. No differences across groups were found in nature of the injury, gender, or medications. No significant correlation existed between the ESS or PSQI results and mean sleep latency on the MSLT. Conclusions: Hypersomnia is common in adults with brain injuries, with a relatively high prevalence of sleep apnea–hypopnea syndrome, periodic limb movement disorder, and posttraumatic hypersomnia. Subjects with objectively measured sleepiness were not identified on self-reporting questionnaires, suggesting their inability to perceive their hypersomnolence. © 2001 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Learning to Translate with Products of Novices: A Suite of Open-Ended Challenge Problems for Teaching MT

Machine translation (MT) draws from several different disciplines, making it a complex subject to teach. There are excellent pedagogical texts, but problems in MT and current algorithms for solving them are best learned by doing. As a centerpiece of our MT course, we devised a series of open-ended challenges for students in which the goal was to improve performance on carefully constrained instances of four key MT tasks: alignment, decoding, evaluation, and reranking. Students brought a diverse set of techniques to the problems, including some novel solutions which performed remarkably well. A surprising and exciting outcome was that student solutions or their combinations fared competitively on some tasks, demonstrating that even newcomers to the field can help improve the state-of-the-art on hard NLP problems while simultaneously learning a great deal. The problems, baseline code, and results are freely available.
Research needs for water quality management in the 21st century: A spatial decision support system

How can we better manage watersheds so that they can produce the products and services we desire? Most individuals want a product/service mix that includes production of food and-fiber, housing, urban services, industrial sites, wildlife habitat, water quality, etc. Many individuals, communities and states are struggling with how to manage the resources within the watershed to achieve an acceptable mix of products and services (e.g. making the right tradeoffs). Making these decisions requires greater thought about what types of data and information are needed in making informed choices. In addition, the data, information and knowledge needs to be easily accessible and usable by the decision makers and not constrained to one type of operating system or particular brand of hardware or software. One viable option is to make this data, information and decision aids accessible via the Internet where the data and decision aids reside on a central server and users can interact with them for analysis. This paper details our ideas concerning the research needs (information and knowledge) as well as the decision making supports necessary for individuals and communities to make better choices regarding the tradeoffs among potential goods, services and levels of environmental amenities …
The Limits of Finnis's Nontheistic Account of Human Dignity and Rights

(2012). The Limits of Finnis's Nontheistic Account of Human Dignity and Rights. Jurisprudence: Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 267-276.
Abstract TMP28: Aspirin Attenuates Inflmmation in the Wall of Human Cerebral Aneurysms

Background: Inflammatory cells and molecules play a critical role in formation and rupture of cerebral aneurysms. Recently, an epidemiologic study reported that aspirin decreases the risk of aneurysm rupture. The goal of this study was to determine effects of aspirin on inflammatory cells and molecules in the wall of human cerebral aneurysms, using radiographic and histological techniques. Methods: Ten prospectively enrolled patients harboring 11 unruptured intracranial aneurysms were randomized into aspirin -treated (81 mg daily) and untreated (control) groups. Aneurysms were imaged at baseline using ferumoxytol-enhanced MRI to estimate uptake by macrophages. After three months, all 10 patients were re-imaged before undergoing microsurgical clipping. Aneurysm tissues were collected for immunostaining with monoclonal antibodies for cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), microsomal prostaglandin E2 synthase-1 (mPGES-1) and macrophages. Results: A decrease in signal intensity on ferumoxytol-enhanced MRI was observed after three months of aspirin treatment. Expression of COX-2 (but not COX-1), mPGES-1, and macrophages was lower in the aspirin group than the control group. Conclusion: This study provides radiographic and histological evidence that aspirin attenuates the inflammatory process in the wall of human cerebral aneurysms.
Are cattle surrogate wildlife? Savanna plant community composition explained by total herbivory more than herbivore type

The widespread replacement of wild ungulate herbivores by domestic livestock in African savannas is composed of two interrelated phenomena: (1) loss or reduction in numbers of individual wildlife species or guilds and (2) addition of livestock to the system. Each can have important implications for plant community dynamics. Yet very few studies have experimentally addressed the individual, combined, and potentially interactive effects of wild vs. domestic herbivore species on herbaceous plant communities within a single system. Additionally, there is little information about whether, and in which contexts, livestock might functionally replace native herbivore wildlife or, alternatively, have fundamentally different effects on plant species composition. The Kenya Long-term Exclosure Experiment, which has been running since 1995, is composed of six treatment combinations of mega-herbivores, meso-herbivore ungulate wildlife, and cattle. We sampled herbaceous vegetation 25 times between 1999 and 2013. We used partial redundancy analysis and linear mixed models to assess effects of herbivore treatments on overall plant community composition and key plant species. Plant communities in the six different herbivore treatments shifted directionally over time and diverged from each other substantially by 2013. Plant community composition was strongly related (R2 = 0.92) to residual plant biomass, a measure of herbivore utilization. Addition of any single herbivore type (cattle, wildlife, or mega-herbivores) caused a shift in plant community composition that was proportional to its removal of plant biomass. These results suggest that overall herbivory pressure, rather than herbivore type or complex interactions among different herbivore types, was the main driver of changes in plant community composition. Individual plant species, however, did respond most strongly to either wild ungulates or cattle. Although these results suggest considerable functional similarity between a suite of native wild herbivores (which included grazers, browsers, and mixed feeders) and cattle (mostly grazers) with respect to understory plant community composition, responses of individual plant species demonstrate that at the plant-population-level impacts of a single livestock species are not functionally identical to those of a diverse group of native herbivores.
Factors Contributing to Cowpea Curculio Resistance in Southern Peas

Preference of adult Chalcodermus aeneus Boheman for pods of certain lines of southern peas and the success of adults in penetrating the pods accounted for most of the differences between resistant and susceptible lines. Preference appeared to result from differences in amounts of a feeding stimulant present in pods, and adults showed a similar pattern of preference for seedlings of the lines. Successful penetration of the pods was correlated negatively with pod wall thickness, but other factors may have been involved. Larval antibiosis, if it was present, was not an important resistance factor in the lines tested.
Sampling Scheme for Determining Population Intensity of Tetranychus cinnabarinus (Boisduval) (Acarina: Tetranychidae) in Cotton

The spatial dispersion of Tetranychus cinnabarinus was studied for 2 year sin in insecticide-treated and untreated cotton. Spider mite distributions and population density were not affected by the pesticides tested. The linear regression of log variance against log mean ( r 2 = 0.95) provided a better fit to the data than did the linear regression of mean crowding on the mean ( r 2 = 0.80). The former regression was used as a basis for a sampling plan designed to estimate population densities of T. cinnabarinus with fixed levels of precision.
Measuring Molecular Dynamics and Activation Energies for Quaternary Acyclic Ammonium and Cyclic Pyrrolidinium Ionic Liquids Using 14N NMR Spectroscopy

The 14N NMR spin−lattice (R1) and spin−spin (R2) relaxation rates were determined as a function of temperature for a series of tetra-alkyl acyclic ammonium and cyclic pyrrolidinium ionic liquids (ILs). Through the use of the R2/R1 ratio method, it was shown that for the majority of these ILs, the reorientational dynamics are not in the extreme narrowing regime, but instead are in the dispersive relaxation regime, thus allowing a unique solution for the correlation time to be determined. The temperature variation of the R2 relaxation rate, along with the temperature variation of the calculated correlation times, allowed activation energies for the reorientational dynamics to be measured and compared. In addition, these NMR relaxation experiments enabled the 14N quadrupolar coupling product to be extracted, which revealed surprising temperature dependence. Collectively, the 14N NMR results allow the impact of cation and anion identity on the local reorientational dynamics of these ILs to be delineated.
Case Management with the Nurse Manager in the Role of Case Manager in an Interventional Cardiology Unit

Varying external and internal factors are motivating changes in how physicians and nurses deliver patient care within health-care institutions. A care delivery system that has received increasing attention in the literature is case management. This chapter describes how a community hospital implemented case management for patients undergoing percutaneous coronary angioplasty and cardiac catheterization while developing the new role of clinical manager to serve in the role of case manager. The process for planning and implementing such a role change is discussed, and initial evaluative data are presented.
Epigenetics and Personalized Pain Management

Chronic pain adversely affects the quality of life and imposes a large burden on health care systems. Though much effort has been directed at elucidating the role of genetic risk factors underlying pain, susceptibility, and treatment responses, the pain field can benefit tremendously from entirely new approaches rendering novel perspectives on how we treat pain. This chapter highlights advances in the field of pain epigenetics including DNA methylation, posttranslational modifications of histones, and RNA-mediated gene silencing. Investigating how epigenetic alterations can lead to chronic pain, influence risk factors, and help determine treatment response can lead to the identification of novel pain targets or intervention strategies to complement existing therapies. Patient-specific diagnosis and treatment strategies based on the unique profile of the individual will be highly beneficial in treating chronic pain.
Antigen-Specific Development of Mucosal Foxp3+RORγt+ T Cells from Regulatory T Cell Precursors

Foxp3+retinoic acid-related orphan receptor (ROR)γt+ T cells have recently been characterized as an immunoregulatory population highly enriched in the colon lamina propria. However, their developmental origin and relationship to RORγt- regulatory T and Th17 cells remain unclear. In this study, we use a fixed TCRβ system to show that the TCR repertoire of the Foxp3+RORγt+ population is mostly distinct compared with other colonic T cell subsets. However, of these TCRs, a fraction is also found in the Th17 subset, suggesting that TCR repertoire overlap may contribute to the reported ability of Foxp3+RORγt+ cells to regulate Th17 immunity. Naive transgenic T cells expressing a Foxp3+RORγt+-restricted TCR first acquire a Foxp3+RORγt- phenotype before coexpressing RORγt, suggesting that Foxp3+RORγt+ cell development can occur via an RORγt- regulatory T cell intermediate.
The stem cell/cancer stem cell marker ALDH1A3 regulates the expression of the survival factor tissue transglutaminase, in mesenchymal glioma stem cells

// Kelly E. Sullivan 1 , Kathy Rojas 1 , Richard A. Cerione 1,2 , Ichiro Nakano 3 and Kristin F. Wilson 1 1 Department of Molecular Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA 2 Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA 3 Department of Neurosurgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA Correspondence to: Richard A. Cerione, email: // Kristin F. Wilson, email: // Keywords : cancer stem cells, tissue transglutaminase, aldehyde dehydrogenase, glioblastoma, retinoic acid Received : August 31, 2016 Accepted : March 13, 2017 Published : March 22, 2017 Abstract Tissue transglutaminase (tTG), a dual-function enzyme with GTP-binding and acyltransferase activities, has been implicated in the survival and chemotherapy resistance of aggressive cancer cells and cancer stem cells, including glioma stem cells (GSCs). Using a model system comprising two distinct subtypes of GSCs referred to as proneural (PN) and mesenchymal (MES), we find that the phenotypically aggressive and radiation therapy-resistant MES GSCs exclusively express tTG relative to PN GSCs. As such, the self-renewal, proliferation, and survival of these cells was sensitive to treatment with tTG inhibitors, with a benefit being observed when combined with the standard of care for high grade gliomas (i.e. radiation or temozolomide). Efforts to understand the molecular drivers of tTG expression in MES GSCs revealed an unexpected link between tTG and a common marker for stem cells and cancer stem cells, Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1A3 (ALDH1A3). ALDH1A3, as well as other members of the ALDH1 subfamily, can function in cells as a retinaldehyde dehydrogenase to generate retinoic acid (RA) from retinal. We show that the enzymatic activity of ALDH1A3 and its product, RA, are necessary for the observed expression of tTG in MES GSCs. Additionally, the ectopic expression of ALDH1A3 in PN GSCs is sufficient to induce the expression of tTG in these cells, further demonstrating a causal link between ALDH1A3 and tTG. Together, these findings ascribe a novel function for ALDH1A3 in an aggressive GSC phenotype via the up-regulation of tTG, and suggest the potential for a similar role by ALDH1 family members across cancer types.
Identifying sources of distress in patients with breast cancer.

e17707 Background: Multiple factors can contribute to distress experienced after a diagnosis of breast cancer; tools are needed to identify the concerns of this population. Lay navigators can use d...
Guest-Dependent Stabilization of the Low Spin State in Spin-Crossover Metal-Organic Frameworks

Computer simulations are carried out to characterize the variation of spin-crossover (SCO) behavior of the prototypical {Fe(pz)[Pt(CN)4]} metal-organic framework (MOF) upon adsorption of chemically and structurally different guest molecules. A detailed analysis of both strength and anisotropy of guest molecule-framework interactions reveals direct correlations between the mobility of the guest molecules inside the MOF pores, the rotational mobility of the pyrazine rings of the framework, and the stabilization of the low-spin state of the material. On the basis of these correlations, precise molecular criteria are established for predicting the spin state of {Fe(pz)[Pt(CN)4]} upon guest adsorption. Finally, predictions of the SCO temperature upon adsorption of various toxic gases demonstrate that in silico modeling can provide fundamental insights and design principles for the development of spin-crossover MOFs for applications in gas detection and chemical sensing.
Family policies and working women’s fertility intentions in South Korea

The effects of family policies on fertility intentions have been underexplored under the ultra-low fertility context in East Asia. Using the 2007–2008 Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Famili...
Teaching, Learning and Living: Joining Practice and Research

By tracing the development of Ann Lieberman’s commitment to exploring the complex, entwined nature of teaching, learning and living, this book reflects on how research in teacher leadership and development has progressed and changed over the last fifty years. This personal account highlights Lieberman’s learning as she engaged in research to build collaborative ways of working. Portraying the fight for teacher participation in research studies about teaching, schooling and teacher improvement so that the complexity of their lives would be represented, and writing about the consideration of teacher’s work in any efforts for school improvement, the book discusses the initial collaboration between researchers and teachers. It then proceeds to outline a number of research projects that document the changing relationship of research and teaching and offers guidance on some of the most important and successful programs and strategies in the field. It questions issues such as how to create a culture in the school that is supportive of teachers, and how research can best assist teachers to improve their work. Teaching, Learning and Living is a personal, historical and professional look at the growth in knowledge that began to change the views of research and teaching and is a must-read for anyone interested in the development of teacher education.
Implementing Risk Stratification in Primary Care: Challenges and Strategies.

Introduction: Primary care risk stratification (RS) has been shown to help practices better understand their patient populations9 needs and may improve health outcomes and reduce expenditures by targeting and tailoring care to high-need patients. This study aims to understand key considerations practices faced and practice experiences as they began to implement RS models. Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews about experiences in RS with 34 stakeholders from 15 primary care practices in Oregon and Colorado and qualitatively analyzed the data. Results: Three decisions were important in shaping practices9 experiences with RS: choosing established versus self-created algorithms or heuristics, clinical intuition, or a combination; selecting mechanisms for assigning risk scores; determining how to integrate RS approaches into care delivery. Practices using clinical intuition found stratification time-consuming and difficult to incorporate into existing workflows, but trusted risk scores more than those using algorithms. Trust in risk scores was influenced by data extraction capabilities; practices often lacked sufficient data to calculate their perceived optimal risk score. Displaying the scores to the care team was a major issue. Finally, obtaining buy-in from care team members was challenging, requiring repeated cycles of improvement and workflow integration. Discussion: Practices used iterative approaches to RS implementation. As a result, procedural and algorithmic changes were introduced and were influenced by practices9 health IT, staffing, and resource capacities. Practices were most successful when able to make iterative changes to their approaches, incorporated both automation and human process in RS, educated staff on the importance of RS, and had readily accessible risk scores.
Integrating Sleep Education Into Nursing and Allied Health Programs Using Technology

Background: Insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are the two most prevalent sleep disorders reported in the United States, and affect many Americans each year (Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). These disorders are expected to become more prevalent due to the rise in poor sleep habits and obesity in the United States (CDC, 2014, 2012). Unfortunately, healthcare professionals are not fully aware of or knowledgeable about sleep and its related disorders, or its profound impact on an individual9s health (Allen and Seaman 2013, Ingram et al 2015). The use of a hybrid or online sleep learning module may provide an alternative to traditional learning platforms. Methods: Before conducting this study, Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was obtained. This study compared the impact of sleep knowledge acquisition when using a hybrid method of instruction compared to a fully online learning module. A quasi-experimental design using a four-group convenience sample was conducted at a mid-size regional university in the mid-Atlantic United States. A convenience sample of 64 4th-year nursing students (RN) and 39 respiratory therapy (RT) students was used. The Dartmouth Sleep Knowledge and Attitude Survey (DSKAS) was the assessment tool used to compare scores between the hybrid (H) and online (O) groups, and across disciplines, RN and RT. The data were analyzed using SPSS. Analysis of co-variance (ANCOVA) was used when comparing groups9 post-test data. The learning tool contained information that targeted basic sleep knowledge, signs and symptoms of sleep disorders, the most common sleep disorders, and diagnostic and treatment options for both diseases. Results: The data suggest that the sleep learning module facilitated an increase in knowledge of sleep medicine for all participants, 2.89 to 6.18, t (102) = -16. 17, p .05, as well as between disciplines, RN 6.34, RT 5.93, F (1, 97) = .746, p > .05. Conclusions: The conclusion supported by the data suggests that the sleep learning module and associated activities facilitated an increase in knowledge of sleep medicine, as students appeared to be able to recognize classical signs and symptoms of OSA and Insomnia more after being exposed to the sleep learning module using either an online or hybrid learning environment.
The Benefits and Bias in Neurodevelopmental Evaluation for Children with Congenital Heart Disease

Neurodevelopmental (ND) impairment is common in children with congenital heart disease (CHD). While routine ND surveillance and evaluation of high-risk patients has become the standard-of-care, capture rate, barriers to referral, and potential patient benefits remain incompletely understood. Electronic data warehouse records from a single center were reviewed to identify all eligible and evaluated patients between July 2015 and December 2017 based on current guidelines for ND screening in CHD. Diagnoses, referring provider, and payor were considered. Potential benefit of the evaluation was defined as receipt of new diagnosis, referral for additional evaluation, or referral for a new service. Contingencies were assessed with Fisher’s exact test. In this retrospective, cohort study, of 3434 children identified as eligible for ND evaluation, 135 were evaluated (4%). Appropriate evaluation was affected by diagnostic bias against coarctation of the aorta (CoArc) and favoring hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) (1.8 vs. 11.9%, p<0.01). Referrals were disproportionally made by a select group of cardiologists, and the rate of ND appointment non-compliance was higher in self-pay compared to insured patients (78% vs 27%, p<0.01). Potential benefit rate was 70–80% amongst individuals with the three most common diagnoses requiring neonatal surgery (CoArc, transposition of the great arteries, and HLHS). Appropriate ND evaluation in CHD is impacted by diagnosis, provider, and insurance status. Potential benefit of ND evaluation is high regardless of diagnosis. Strategies to improve access to ND evaluations and provider understanding of the at-risk population will likely improve longitudinal ND surveillance and clinical benefit.
Quasi-religious Belief in Darwin and Darwinism: “Straw-Men” Scientist Believers Everywhere

Narratives that describe models of how the world works involve some form of idealization, but all models are subjective and influenced by many human factors including the location, period of time, and profession of the narrator. Charles Darwin is a particularly fascinating case. Many scientists have tended—and continue—to idealize him as a person and a scientist, as well as his evolutionary ideas, in particular those related to “adaptationism” and the “struggle for existence.” In fact, many still defend that there is no need for any kind of new or even “extended” evolutionary theories: what we have from Darwin, or from the subsequent “Modern Synthesis,” is enough, as if the thousands of studies made in the last decades, including the discovery of the DNA, the genomes of humans and other species, or the crucial evolutionary role played by epigenetics, did not add anything relevant to how we understand biological evolution. Interestingly, such reactions are somehow comparable with those of some religious leaders that, when certain scientific discoveries contradict narratives of a religious text, argue that these are just “minor” details that do not put those narratives into question. An example concerns certain adaptationist narratives, which as Gould noted cannot be falsified: by assuming a priori that a structure has to have an “adaptive function,” even when hypotheses that the function is A, B, C, or D are contradicted, one tries to show that perhaps the function is E, or F, and so on, instead of being at least open to the hypothesis that perhaps those “negative results” mean that the structure has no current “adaptive function.” Such circular reasoning is deeply related to another common feature of humans-the-storytelling-animals: our continuous search for “purpose.” As the founder of biology, Aristotle, famously stated, nature “does nothing in vain”—a teleological notion that deeply influenced Darwin, and continues to influence us. The aim of this paper is not to criticize Darwin—I profoundly admire his life, travels, persistence, naturalism, and brilliant ideas such as that of natural selection. Instead, here, I discuss subjects such as adaptationism and the notions of progress, purpose, and “struggle for life” and their links to racism and misogyny to call attention to the remarkable parallel between religious thinking and the inflexible way in which many defend Darwin’s, Darwinist, or Neo-Darwinist ideas, even when such ideas might have contributed to enduring biases and prejudices within both the scientific community and broader society.
Pairing Technology With 6 Traits of Writing Instruction

Individuals with disabilities continue to struggle with writing. Most students with disabilities do not measure at even the most basic level in writing assessments. Technology offers tools to suppo...
Association Between Tinnitus Pitch and Consonant Recognition in Noise.

Purpose Difficulties in speech-in-noise understanding are often reported in individuals with tinnitus. Building on our previous findings that speech-in-noise performance is correlated with subjecti...
X-ray and neutron scattering of polymers

Abstract Elastic neutron and X-ray scattering provide an analytical technique to monitor the structure of polymers and other soft materials. Standard small-angle scattering instruments provide insight into structure over length scales that range from a few angstroms to 100s of nm. This chapter details the fundamental relationships between the observed scattering pattern and nanoscale structure and provides specific examples of analyses that are available to extract desired information. Comparison of the fundamental bases for scattering contrast and accessible lengths scales for X-rays and neutrons is presented to provide a foundation to choose the scattering method that provides target structural characteristics for a given system. The importance of tunable scattering contrast with deuteration in the neutron scattering of soft materials is described to emphasize the ability to extract specific structural characteristics in complex multicomponent systems. Novel sample environments that take advantage of the penetration of most materials by neutrons and rapid data capture of synchrotron sources are also described. Finally, a series of specific examples that utilize X-ray and neutron scattering to elucidate the structure, transport, and kinetics of assembly in a range of soft materials are offered.
Singularity Models for the Ricci Flow: An Introductory Survey

At the time this article is being written (May 2003) much of the mathematical world is waiting with intense interest to see the results of Grisha Perelman’s effort [22>, 23] to resolve William Thurston’s Geometrization Conjecture [28] for closed 3-manifolds by completing the program [16] begun by Richard Hamilton. It is still too early to give an accurate and fair assessment of the full impact of Perelman’s work. But in order to aid the many mathematicians who may be inspired by that work to look more closely at the Ricci flow, this does seem like an appropriate time to write a brief and purely expository introduction to the topic, intended for the non-expert. Readers desiring more information are encouraged to read the more advanced survey articles [6] and [7], as well as to consult Hamilton’s and Perelman’s original papers.
Evolution of Advection Upstream Splitting Method Schemes

This paper focuses on the evolution of advection upstream splitting method(AUSM) schemes. The main ingredients that have led to the development of modern computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods have been reviewed, thus the ideas behind AUSM. First and foremost is the concept of upwinding. Second, the use of Riemann problem in constructing the numerical flux in the finite-volume setting. Third, the necessity of including all physical processes, as characterised by the linear (convection) and nonlinear (acoustic) fields. Fourth, the realisation of separating the flux into convection and pressure fluxes. The rest of this review briefly outlines the technical evolution of AUSM and more details can be found in the cited references. Keywords: Computational fluid dynamics methods, hyperbolic systems, advection upstream splitting method, conservation laws, upwinding, CFD
Multiscale and Stabilized Methods

Abstract : This article presents an introduction to multiscale and stabilized methods, which represent unified approaches to modeling and numerical solution of fluid dynamic phenomena. Finite element applications are emphasized but the ideas are general and apply to other numerical methods as well. (They have been used in the development of finite difference, finite volume, and spectral methods, in addition to finite element methods.) The analytical ideas are first illustrated for time-harmonic wave-propagation problems in unbounded fluid domains governed by the Helmholtz equation. This leads to the well-known Dirichlet-to-Neumann formulation. A general treatment of the variational multiscale method in the context of an abstract Dirichlet problem is then presented which is applicable to advective-diffusive processes and other processes of physical interest. It is shown how the exact theory represents a paradigm for subgrid-scale models and posteriori error estimation. Hierarchical p-methods and bubble function methods are examined in order to understand and, ultimately, approximate the "fine-scale Green's function" which appears in the theory. Relationships among so-called residual-free bubbles, element Green's functions, and stabilized methods are exhibited. These ideas are then generalized to a class of non-symmetric, linear evolution operators formulated in space-time. The variational multiscale method also provides guidelines and inspiration for the development of stabilized methods which have attracted considerable interest and have been extensively utilized in engineering and the physical sciences. An overview of stabilized methods for advective-diffusive equations is presented. A variational multiscale treatment of incompressible viscous flows, including turbulence is also described. This represents an alternative formulation of Large Eddy Simulation which provides simplified theoretical framework of LES with potential for improved modeling.
Overview of the Use of Genetically Modified Organisms and Pesticides in Agriculture

Sustainable agricultural development is critically needed because of rapid human population growth and the serious food shortages that exist in the world today.1 The world population is projected to double from six billion to twelve billion in about fifty years, based on the current rate of growth.2 Even if a policy of 2.1 children per couple were adopted tomorrow, instead of the current 2.9 children, the world population would continue to increase for approximately seventy years before stabilizing at nearly twelve billion.3 The "population momentum," or current young age distribution, in most countries is responsible for the continued population growth, even assuming a change in the average to 2.1 children per couple. Clearly, nations with a median population age of only sixteen years will continue to grow for the full seventy years.4 Population growth creates a need for more food, water, shelter, and jobs. Signaling the seriousness of the human population explosion are the recent World Health Organization reports indicating that more than 800 million people are malnourished.5 This is the largest number, in both absolute and relative terms, of malnourished people ever reported in history. Malnourishment is extremely serious because it increases susceptibility to other major diseases such as malaria, diarrhea, and AIDS.6 Sick and diseased people find it difficult to work or even to
ANALYSIS OF METERED TAXI FARES

This paper examines the rationale behind the pricing mechanism of conventional metered taxi fares and presents an analytical framework for combining the total distance traveled and the time elapsed on the basis of realistic approximations. This analytical framework suggests that the metered taxi fare calculation is equivalent to a linear combination of total distance traveled and total time elapsed with suitable weighting factors assigned to distance and time. The weights for distance and time are based on relatively simple parameters, only one of which, the average running speed, is not under the direct control of the taxi operator.
Purification and Properties of Rat Liver Fructokinase

Abstract New spectrophotometric and radiochemical assay procedures for measuring fructokinase (ATP:d-fructose 1-phosphotransferase, EC 2.7.1.3) activity are reported. This enzyme has been purified from the liver of adult rats by acid and heat treatment, ammonium sulfate fractionation, and chromatography on Sephadex G-200 and diethylaminoethyl cellulose. The enzyme preparation has a specific activity of 15 to 30 units per mg of protein at 25° and has been purified 450-fold from an acid-treated homogenate (approximately 1,000-fold from the 100,000 x g supernatant). Purified liver fructokinase has a Km of 0.2 to 0.5 mm for fructose and 1 to 2 mm for magnesium adenosine triphosphate, and the enzyme reaction produces equimolar amounts of fructose 1-phosphate and ADP. The enzyme phosphorylated d-fructose with ATP, 2'-dATP, or 3'-dATP and also phosphorylated l-sorbose, d-xylulose, and l-galactoheptulose with ATP. It is stimulated by cysteine and other thiols, inhibited by p-chloromercuribenzoate, and has an activation energy of about 11 kcal per mole and a Q10 of 2.
Parental Care at Midlife: Balancing Work and Family Responsibilities Near Retirement

The costs of providing care informally at home to frail elderly persons can be substantial, especially if caregivers are forced to interrupt their careers or retire early when they provide care. This report describes findings from a recent Urban Institute study of the characteristics of persons in their fifties and early sixties who provide care to their elderly parents and the trade-offs that families face when they divide their time between the provision of informal care and paid work. Estimates were based on a sample of men and women between the ages of 53 and 65 in the 1994 and 1996 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. Only 11 percent of women and 6 percent of men at midlife devoted more than 100 hours per year to assisting their parents in 1994 with personal care, chores, or errands. However, for those who did provide informal care the costs were high. Results from simultaneous panel data models indicated that women who assisted their parents reduced their annual labor supply by 459 hours, which translated on average to about $7,800 in pre-tax lost earnings per year in 1994 dollars. The estimated effect was almost identical for men, who reduced their labor supply by 462 hours when they helped their parents. Although some proposed legislation would compensate caregivers for lost earnings and benefits with tax and Social Security credits, it is difficult to design policies that narrowly target those who reduce hours of work to help their parents.
Central Banks’ Role in Bank Supervision in the United States and United Kingdom

Driven in part by the question of bank supervision in euro-area countries, a growing body of literature addresses whether central banking and bank supervision should be combined. This paper address this debate in light of recent legislation in the United Kingdom and the United States. Recent legislation in the United Kingdom stripped the Bank of England of its responsibility for bank supervision and established the Financial Services Authority as an integrated supervisor of financial services. In the United States, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 expanded the regulatory authority of the Federal Reserve. In light of international trends, I consider how the separation of monetary policy and bank supervision in the United Kingdom versus the combination of those functions in the United States stacks up against the empirical and theoretical literature. I conclude that the approaches in both countries rely on untested elements. I make predictions for the future role of the central banks in the United States and United Kingdom and some recommendations for reform.