cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Review of effects of alcohol and other licit drugs on driving-related performance

A review is presented of the effects of alcohol and licit drugs on performance related to driving. About 20% of persons of driving age use some licit drug, while a much greater percentage drink alcohol. Alcohol is used in combination with another licit drug by about 10% of persons of driving age. Alcohol is associated with about 50% of fatal traffic accidents, 30% of injury accidents and 10% of non-injury accidents. Other licit drugs, such as diazepam, are involved in about 20% of non-fatal accidents. Alcohol combined with other licit drugs, such as diazepam, is involved in about 10% of injury accidents. The effects of alcohol on driving-related skills is relatively well-documented, but tests on the effects of other licit drugs present variable findings. There is some research which indicates additive or synergistic effects when alcohol is combined with other drugs. Research to date on the effects of licit drugs alone, and in combination with alcohol, has many limitations. There have been comparatively few studies to test decision-making and perceptual-motor skills, such as used in driving or those involving actual driving tasks. However, studies indicate that when combined with alcohol, some licit drugs lead to a deterioration in driving-related performance, but a need exists for further research involving more complex driving-related tests and actual driving situations. Language: en
Abstract 119: The Impact of Medicare Part D on Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Cardiovascular Medication Adherence among the Elderly

Objective: Although Medicare Part D has improved medication adherence among the elderly, its effect on adherence disparities remains unknown. We sought to estimate the impact of Part D on the racial/ethnic disparities in adherence to cardiovascular (CV) medications among Medicare seniors. Approach: We analyzed annual data (2002-2010) from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) on Medicare recipients (65+, “treated” group) and the near-elderly (60-64, control group), who were white, black, or Hispanic, and used ACE inhibitors/Angiotensin receptor blockers, statins, beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, or diuretics. Pooled 2002-2005 and 2007-2010 data covered the pre- and post-Part D periods, respectively. Drug class-specific and average overall adherence were measured over survey year as the proportion of days covered (PDC), then dichotomized at an 80% PDC threshold. Since MEPS had no days’ supply data before 2010, we derived refill days’ supply from dispensed quantities and validated it in 2010 sample. In survey-adjusted logistic regressions, we estimated Part D impact on disparities using a difference-in-difference-in-difference interaction term of race, post period, and treatment group. Following the Institute of Medicine, we differentiated between racial differences in adherence due to variations in demographics, health status, and beliefs across groups, and the inequitable disparities created by the differentials in socioeconomic position, experience with the healthcare system, and discrimination. Empirically, we used a rank-and-replace procedure to replace minority distributions of demographic and health characteristics with their white counterparts. Disparities were then computed as the adjusted adherence differences relative to whites. Findings: Our sample included 17,566 respondents, nationally representing 25 million. In the 2010 sample, continuous PDC and binary adherence distributions, based on actual and derived days’ supply, were very similar: Lin’s concordance coeff. 0.83 and C-statistic 0.93, respectively. Part D was associated with a reduction in Hispanic-white disparity in overall CV medication adherence by 15.38 percentage points (95%CI: 2.41, 28.36; P=0.02), and a non-significant increase in the black-white disparity by 5.32% points (95%CI: -17.19, 6.56; P=0.38). In sensitivity analyses, these effects were robust to various adjustments, and to including 2006 data in the post period. The largest reduction in Hispanic-white disparities was observed in adherence to beta blockers (28.9% points; 95% CI: 5.11, 52.69; P=0.02), whereas black-white disparities in statin adherence increased the most (14.7% points; 95%CI: -31.92, 2.52; P=0.09). Conclusion: With Part D, Hispanic-white adherence disparities appear to have been mitigated. Significant black-white disparities still persist post Part D, meriting further attention.
The Meaning and Measurement of Productivity in Distribution

N SINGLE meaning can be attached to the term "productivity." Definitions must vary according to the purposes to be served. Correspondingly, there can be no one best method of measuring productivity. The best measure will vary with the definition and the purpose. For this reason a meaningful discussion of productivity in distribution and its measurement must start with a clear understanding that the questions generally asked about the productivity
Egg White Lysozyme 2. Effect of Thermostabilization

Abstract THERMOSTABILIZATION of shell eggs, as originally described by Funk (1943), holds many possibilities as a means to improve and maintain shell egg quality in market channels. The influence of this heat treatment on the physical appearance of firm egg white has been noted many times. However, reports of investigations which attempt to relate this treatment with the destruction of the causative agent or mechanism responsible for egg white thinning have not appeared in the literature. The beneficial effects of thermostabilization are the result of two factors. First, as shown by Bose and Stewart (1948), a definite improvement in the initial albumen index was noted immediately after thermostabilization. The degree of improvement was roughly linear with the time of treatment after production. The second factor deals with the rate of firm egg white deterioration after thermostabilization. Funk (1950) demonstrated that the rate of deterioration of untreated eggs and thermostabilized eggs in …
Alternative Derivation of the Euler Axis Kinematic Differential Equation using Eigensystem Derivatives

In selecting the coordinate system for modeling a dynamic, spatial system, several considerations apply. Perhaps foremost is whether the system motion will encounter the singularity present in all Euler angle descriptions. The Euler Axis Kinematic Differential Equation (EAKDE) is an important stepping stone between Euler Angle kinematic descriptions, and Quaternion ones which lack the singularity. Derivations of the EAKDE tend to be geometric in nature. Here we show that the EAKDE can be found from linear algebra arguments alone. Some interesting connections between control theory and spatial dynamics emerge in the process. A new formulation of three degree of freedom equations based on the Cayley parameters is presented with a numerical example.
Unexpected Difficult Intubation due to Lingual Thyroid: A case report

Lingual thyroid is a rare clinical entity that is due to the failure of the thyroid gland to descend early in the course of embryogenesis. It may be present with symptoms of dysphagia and upper airway obstruction. We report here on the case of a 63-year-old female who was scheduled for an operation for lumbar disc herniation and she could not be intubated. The cause of the airway obstruction was an ectopic thyroid at the base of the tongue, which made visualization of the glottis impossible. Several attempts at endotracheal intubation were unsuccessful. Fortunately, the patient was mask ventilated. We awakened the patient and consulted an otolaryngologist, and she was diagnosed with lingual thyroid. After a week, she was operated on using spinal anesthesia. (Korean J Anesthesiol 2006; 51: 236~8)
Heparin-induced lipolysis in hypertriglyceridemic subjects results in the formation of atypical HDL particles.

This study reports on the characterization of high density lipoprotein (HDL) in normotriglyceridemic and hypertriglyceridemic (HTG) subjects, after a fat meal and heparin-induced release of lipases. Samples for detailed analysis of HDL by density gradient ultracentrifugation and nondenaturing gradient gel electrophoresis were collected at 0 h and 5 h after the meal and 15 min after the administration of heparin. The normotriglyceridemic subjects were subdivided into two groups: those who remained normotriglyceridemic 5 h after the meal (NTG) or those who were hypertriglyceridemic at this time point (NTG-HTG). At the outset of the study, mean triglyceride levels were significantly higher (P
A neglected requirement for optimizing treatment of age-related osteoporosis: Replenishing the skeleton’s base reservoir with net base-producing diets

Osteoporosis is a disorder of bone in which the mass of the bone is reduced and the bone's architecture at the microscopic level is disordered. Together those abnormalities predispose affected individuals to experience fractures despite only minimal trauma (i.e., fragility fractures). Age related osteoporosis is a common type of osteoporosis that occurs with aging in both men and women usually beginning after the age of peak bone mass. Research has found that the disorder can be partially reversed by reducing the net amount of acid that is produced when consuming typical Western diets. However, the amelioration that results has not been so dramatic or so consistent that physicians have adopted the procedure as part of the standard treatment for age-related osteoporosis. We propose that reducing the net acid load from the diet is not sufficient to reverse age related osteoporosis because it fails to supply base needed to restore the large amount of base in bone that had been lost by reacting with the net acid load of the diet that had been consumed for years or decades. Reducing the net acid load from the diet might be expected to have little ameliorative effect or merely slow the progression of the disorder. We hypothesize that both to restore osteoporotic bone to, or nearly to, its pre-disease state, as well as to eliminate the risk of fragility fractures, requires consuming diets that produce net amounts of base to restore the base lost from years to decades of consuming diets that produce net amounts of acid. We hypothesize also that the excess base and attendant subclinical metabolic alkalosis will both stimulate the cellular process of bone formation and suppress the cellular process of bone resorption, and thereby implement the restorative process.
Disappearance of quasiparticles in a Bose lattice gas

We use a momentum-space hole-burning technique implemented via stimulated Raman transitions to measure the momentum relaxation time for a gas of bosonic atoms trapped in an optical lattice. By changing the lattice potential depth, we observe a smooth crossover between relaxation times larger and smaller than the bandwidth. The latter condition violates the Mott-Ioffe-Regal bound and indicates a breakdown of the quasi-particle picture. We produce a simple kinetic model that quantitatively predicts these relaxation times. Finally, we introduce a cooling technique based upon our hole-burning technique.
Abstract A02: Breast cancer recurrence patterns among ethnically distinct populations: A single institution large cohort study

African-American (AA) women with breast cancer have worse overall survival compared with European-American (EA) women with breast cancer for reasons that are incompletely understood. A primary risk factor for breast cancer-specific mortality is disease recurrence, yet racial distinctions in recurrence patterns remain poorly characterized. Evaluation of the risk of recurrence upon initial diagnosis is crucial for clinicians to customize an optimal treatment plan. Prognostic factors associated with recurrence include lymph node involvement, larger tumor size, earlier age at diagnosis, and triple-negative receptor status. These poor prognostic indicators have been associated with AA race. In this study, we examined rates and patterns of recurrence in a large cohort of breast cancer patients (n=10504) treated from 2005-2015 at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, GA. We observed that AA breast cancer patients (n=1850) exhibited a higher frequency of recurrences than EA breast cancer patients (n=7931) (p=0.047). Moreover, AA breast cancer patients exhibited a trend towards regional and distant recurrences, which are more fatal, whereas EA breast cancer patients displayed a higher inclination towards local recurrences that show a better prognosis. However, while these trends were robust, they did not achieve significance perhaps owing to the small number of patients in recurrence location subcategories. Importantly, overall survival was worse among AA patients with distant recurrences (n=26) than EA breast cancer patients with distant recurrences (n=80) (p=0.01). Furthermore, among patients who underwent lymph node surgery, regional recurrence was more likely among AAs (n=1030) than EAs (n=5252) (p=0.045). Among patients who received radiation, there was a non-significant trend towards AAs (n=874) exhibiting a greater propensity toward disease recurrence than EAs (n=3734). This study illuminates striking differences in recurrence patterns among AA and EA breast cancer patients by exposing that AA patients are more likely to experience more aggressive non-local recurrences, and are at a greater risk of mortality from distant recurrences. Collectively, these findings help to explain the accelerated progression of the disease and lower survival rates in AA breast cancer patients compared with their EA counterparts, underscoring the urgent need for clinicians to consider race in screening programs and when devising treatment plans. Citation Format: Nikita Wright, Pranay Neema, Remus Osan, Jun Xia, Stephen Wells, Josef G. Venable, Mildred Jones, Padmashree Rida, Ritu Aneja, Guilherme Cantuaria. Breast cancer recurrence patterns among ethnically distinct populations: A single institution large cohort study. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eighth AACR Conference on The Science of Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; Nov 13-16, 2015; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2016;25(3 Suppl):Abstract nr A02.
Dense transcript profiling in single cells by image correlation decoding

Sequential barcoded fluorescent in situ hybridization (seqFISH) allows large numbers of molecular species to be accurately detected in single cells, but multiplexing is limited by the density of barcoded objects. We present correlation FISH (corrFISH), a method to resolve dense temporal barcodes in sequential hybridization experiments. Using corrFISH, we quantified highly expressed ribosomal protein genes in single cultured cells and mouse thymus sections, revealing cell-type-specific gene expression.
Monocular Depth Estimation Using Neural Regression Forest

This paper presents a novel deep architecture, called neural regression forest (NRF), for depth estimation from a single image. NRF combines random forests and convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Scanning windows extracted from the image represent samples which are passed down the trees of NRF for predicting their depth. At every tree node, the sample is filtered with a CNN associated with that node. Results of the convolutional filtering are passed to left and right children nodes, i.e., corresponding CNNs, with a Bernoulli probability, until the leaves, where depth estimations are made. CNNs at every node are designed to have fewer parameters than seen in recent work, but their stacked processing along a path in the tree effectively amounts to a deeper CNN. NRF allows for parallelizable training of all "shallow" CNNs, and efficient enforcing of smoothness in depth estimation results. Our evaluation on the benchmark Make3D and NYUv2 datasets demonstrates that NRF outperforms the state of the art, and gracefully handles gradually decreasing training datasets.
The Corners of Crime: An Introduction

In the mock courtroom at the Red Hook Community Justice Center (RHCJC)—a multi-jurisdictional problem-solving court and community center located in the heart of the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York—a group of African-American and Latino/Hispanic teenagers, fourteen to eighteen years of age (although most are fifteen or sixteen), had gathered for a group interview. Each was hoping to earn a place in a nine- to ten-week-long unpaid training program for the Red Hook Youth Court (RHYC)—a juvenile diversion program designed to prevent the formal processing of juvenile offenders (usually first-time offenders) within the juvenile justice system. The teenagers who are selected from the pool of applicants must complete the training program and pass a “bar exam” in order to serve as RHYC members, where they will help resolve actual cases involving their peers (e.g., assault, fare evasion, truancy, vandalism).
ERBB2 overexpression establishes ERBB3 dependent hypersensitivity of breast cancer cells to Withaferin A

The catalytically deficient ERBB3 strongly synergizes with the receptor tyrosine kinase ERBB2, and elevated levels represent an overall risk factor for unfavorable disease outcomes in breast cancer. Although itself not a target of pan-ERBB kinase inhibitors, it contributes to resistance in ERBB2-targeted treatment regiments. The steroidal lactone Withaferin A (WA) has established broad anticancer properties through several modes of action and was shown to be effective against triple-negative breast cancers at elevated concentrations. We found that ERBB2 overexpression does render cells hypersensitive to WA. Although ERBB2 downregulation is one aspect of WA treatment at high concentrations, it is not causal for the elevated sensitivity at lower dosages. Instead, WA targets the ability of ERBB3 to amplify ERBB2 signaling. ERBB3 receptor levels, constitutive phosphorylation of both ERBB3 and ERBB2, as well as signaling through AKT are eliminated by WA treatment. By targeting ERBB2/ERBB3 as a functional unit, it is also effective in cases in which ERBB2-directed inhibitors, such as lapatinib, alone show reduced potency. Hence, WA or derivatives thereof may present a low toxicity addition to ERBB2-targeting therapeutics, especially in cases in which ERBB3 involvement is driving resistance or reduced overall sensitivity. Mol Cancer Ther; 15(11); 2750-7. ©2016 AACR.
Experimentation in Manufacturing Zinc Orange Pigment

Zinc orange is a rare and relatively undocumented pigment. Mention of this pigment in the literature indicated its short lived availability to artists in the nineteenth century and that it is unstable, but does not address any specific issues related to its degradation. The synthesis of the original pigment is discussed. In addition, a full characterization of the pigment is presented including XRF, FTIR, Raman and optical microscopy. Research into its degradation mechanisms was also undertaken, and the light fastness of the pigment is presented.
In vivo acetylcholine turnover in rat heart

The in vivo uptake of choline (Ch) and synthesis of acetylcholine (ACh) in rat heart were studied using a pyrolysis mass fragmentography (PMF) method. Deuterium labeled Ch was pulse injected (i.v.) into anesthetized rats. Labeled and unlabeled Ch and ACh were measured by PMF in hearts at various times following injection. From these data we calculated the specific activities of Ch and ACh, rate constants for ACh and turnover rates of ACh. After an initial equilibration period of approximately 2 min, the specific activities of Ch and ACh decayed in a parallel manner with half-times of 28.2 and 28.8 min respectively. Between 2 and 60 min the calculated ACh turnover rate was 0.144 nmol/g/min. Unlike brain Ch, heart Ch levels are very stable with time following sacrifice. No advantage was found in using microwave irradiation to stabilize heart ACh and Ch content.
A Model of Concurrent Lithium Dendrite Growth, SEI Growth, SEI Penetration and Regrowth

We present a model that enables simulations of concurrent coupled lithium dendrite growth, SEI formation and growth on the dendrite surface, dendrite penetration of the SEI layer, and SEI regrowth. The concept of SEI coverage density is introduced, which is conceptually similar to SEI thickness but broader. SEI and dendrite growth interacts with each other by evolving dendrite morphology, stretching of SEI by the dendrite surface, and the effect of evolving SEI thickness (coverage density) on lithium deposition reaction. The model shows that even under low current density, small protrusions on lithium surface can still grow into dendrites by penetrating SEI and causing inhomogeneous electrical resistance on dendrite surface. We find that dendrite growth shows two distinct stages: fast acceleration during SEI penetration, and stable growth after reaching an equilibrium SEI thickness at the dendrite tip. Under low current density, increasing current scales up the growth rate of dendrite without much shape change. High current density causes dendrite morphology to change significantly, forming a needle shape. We show that local SEI defects/inhomogeneity can induce dendrite formation and growth. Our study suggests that flat lithium surface, uniform SEI layer, and low SEI resistivity are important to reduce dendrite formation.
Antinociceptive effects of pluronic lecithin organo (PLO)-opioid gels in rats with thermal injury

Opioids are extensively used as analgesics to control burn pain. However, systemic administration of opioids induces multiple adverse effects that are primarily CNS mediated. Alternately, topical application of low dose of opioids directly at the site of injury could attenuate pain while avoiding CNS-mediated side effects. Pluronic lecithin organogels (PLO) have been extensively used as vehicles to deliver topical drugs. In this study, we for the first time assessed the analgesic efficacy of three opioid-PLO formulations (fentanyl, methadone & morphine) in a rat full-thickness thermal injury (FTTI) pain model. Experiments were performed using 44 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. A single 0.1mL topical application of either morphine (5mg/mL, n=6), fentanyl (10μg/mL, n=8), methadone gel (5mg/mL, n=8), ketamine (50mg/mL, n=6), saline (0.1mL, n=8) or PLO gel alone (0.1mL, n=8) was administered to the plantar surface of the injured hindpaw on days 4 and 7 following thermal injury. The anti-hyperalgesic effects were then measured (5, 15, 30, 60 and 120min post-drug application) using the Hargreaves' thermal test. All three opioids produced statistically significant increases in paw withdrawal latency (PWL), taken as a measure of anti-hyperalgesia, in comparison to saline-treated group (P<0.05), at both 4 and 7days post injury, with fentanyl showing greatest efficacy. Taken together, a low dose of topical application of opioids can reduce thermal hyperalgesia in a rat hindpaw FTTI model, supporting the development of topical formulations of these drugs for burn pain treatment in the clinic.
Authentically African: Arts and the Transnational Politics of Congolese Culture

This intimate account of a neglected aspect of Belgian relations with the Congo, before and after Congolese independence, can be read as a sequence of case studies answering the implicit question: ...
Plastics in the Marine Environment

Plastics contamination in the marine environment was first reported nearly 50 years ago, less than two decades after the rise of commercial plastics production, when less than 50 million metric tons were produced per year. In 2014, global plastics production surpassed 300 million metric tons per year. Plastic debris has been detected worldwide in all major marine habitats, in sizes from microns to meters. In response, concerns about risks to marine wildlife upon exposure to the varied forms of plastic debris have increased, stimulating new research into the extent and consequences of plastics contamination in the marine environment. Here, I present a framework to evaluate the current understanding of the sources, distribution, fate, and impacts of marine plastics. Despite remaining knowledge gaps in mass budgeting and challenges in investigating ecological impacts, the increasing evidence of the ubiquity of plastics contamination in the marine environment, the continued rapid growth in plastics production...
Accessible Communication Tools for Surgical Site Infection Monitoring and Prevention in Joint Reconstruction: Feasibility Study

Background: The National Surgical Quality Improvement Program logs surgical site infections (SSIs) as the most common cause of unplanned postoperative readmission for a variety of surgical interventions. Hospitals are making significant efforts preoperatively and postoperatively to reduce SSIs and improve care. Telemedicine, defined as using remote technology to implement health care, has the potential to improve outcomes across a wide range of parameters, including reducing SSIs. Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility and user satisfaction of two automated messaging systems, EpxDecolonization and EpxWound, to improve perioperative care in a quality improvement project for patients undergoing total joint replacement. Methods: We designed two automated text messaging and calling systems named EpxDecolonization, which reminded patients of their preoperative decolonization protocol, and EpxWound, which monitored pain, wound, and fever status postoperatively. Daily patient responses were recorded and a post-usage survey was sent out to participants to assess satisfaction with the systems. Results: Over the 40-week study period, 638 and 642 patients were enrolled in EpxDecolonization (a preoperative decolonization reminder) and EpxWound (a postoperative surgical site infection telemonitoring system), respectively. Patients could be enrolled in either or both EpxDecolonization and EpxWound, with the default option being dual enrollment. The proportion of sessions responded to was 85.2% for EpxDecolonization and 78.4% for EpxWound. Of the 1280 patients prescribed EpxWound and EpxDecolonization, 821 (64.14%) fully completed the postoperative system satisfaction survey. The median survey score (scale 1-9) was 9 for patient-rated overall care and 8 for whether the telemonitoring systems improved patient communication with providers. The majority of patients (69.0%, 566/821) indicated that the systems sent out an ideal number of messages (not too many, not too few). Conclusions: EpxDecolonization and EpxWound demonstrated high response rates and improved patient-rated communication with providers. These preliminary data suggest that these systems are well tolerated and potentially beneficial to both patients and providers. The systems have the potential to improve both patient satisfaction scores and compliance with preoperative protocols and postoperative wound monitoring. Future efforts will focus on testing the sensitivity and specificity of alerts generated by each system and on demonstrating the ability of these systems to improve clinical quality metrics with more authoritative data. [JMIR Perioper Med 2018;1(1):e1]
Binding site for coenzyme A revealed in the structure of pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase from Moorella thermoacetica .

Pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase (PFOR) is a microbial enzyme that uses thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP), three [4Fe-4S] clusters, and coenzyme A (CoA) in the reversible oxidation of pyruvate to generate acetyl-CoA and carbon dioxide. The two electrons that are generated as a result of pyruvate decarboxylation are used in the reduction of low potential ferredoxins, which provide reducing equivalents for central metabolism, including the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway. PFOR is a member of the 2-oxoacid:ferredoxin oxidoreductase (OFOR) superfamily, which plays major roles in both microbial redox reactions and carbon dioxide fixation. Here, we present a set of crystallographic snapshots of the best-studied member of this superfamily, the PFOR from Moorella thermoacetica ( Mt PFOR). These snapshots include the native structure, those of lactyl-TPP and acetyl-TPP reaction intermediates, and the first of an OFOR with CoA bound. These structural data reveal the binding site of CoA as domain III, the function of which in OFORs was previously unknown, and establish sequence motifs for CoA binding in the OFOR superfamily. Mt PFOR structures further show that domain III undergoes a conformational change upon CoA binding that seals off the active site and positions the thiolate of CoA directly adjacent to the TPP cofactor. These structural findings provide a molecular basis for the experimental observation that CoA binding accelerates catalysis by 10 5 -fold.
The Impact of Physics on Technology and Industry

Physics has many facets. It is an assault on the frontiers of the known part of the physical universe aimed at increasing man’s knowledge of the universe in which he lives. Physics is also a beautiful intellectual exercise, the epitome of rationalism bringing together observation, experiment, deductive and inductive logic in a way seldom matched in other endeavors. It is also part of our cultural heritage which more people realize as more transparent ways of presenting physics are found. But it is also important to realize that physics and the other sciences have had great influence on material aspects of the way we live. This influence has been felt primarily through technology and industry and so it is worth examining the impact of physics on technology and industry.
Challenges in the Treatment of Glioblastoma: Multisystem Mechanisms of Therapeutic Resistance

Glioblastoma is one of the most lethal human cancers, with poor survival despite surgery, radiation treatment, and chemotherapy. Advances in the treatment of this type of brain tumor are limited because of several resistance mechanisms. Such mechanisms involve limited drug entry into the central nervous system compartment by the blood-brain barrier and by actions of the normal brain to counteract tumor-targeting medications. In addition, the vast heterogeneity in glioblastoma contributes to significant therapeutic resistance by preventing adequate control of the entire tumor mass by a single drug and by facilitating escape mechanisms from targeted agents. The stem cell-like characteristics of glioblastoma promote resistance to chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy through upregulation of efflux transporters, promotion of glioblastoma stem cell proliferation in neurogenic zones, and immune suppression, respectively. Metabolic cascades in glioblastoma prevent effective treatments through the optimization of glucose use, the use of alternative nutrient precursors for energy production, and the induction of hypoxia to enhance tumor growth. In the era of precision medicine, an assortment of molecular techniques is being developed to target an individual's unique tumor, with the hope that this personalized strategy will bypass therapeutic resistance. Although each resistance mechanism presents an array of challenges to effective treatment of glioblastoma, as the field recognizes and addresses these difficulties, future treatments may have more efficacy and promise for patients with glioblastoma.
Heat Capacity of DPPC/Cholesterol Mixtures: Comparison of Single Bilayers with Multibilayers and Simulations.

The excess heat capacity (ΔCp) of mixtures of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and cholesterol (Chol) is examined in detail in large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs), both experimentally, using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and theoretically, using a three-state Ising model. The model postulates that DPPC can access three conformational states: gel, liquid-disordered (Ld), and liquid-ordered (Lo). The Lo state, however, is only available if coupled with interaction with an adjacent Chol. ΔCp was calculated using Monte Carlo simulations on a lattice and compared to experiment. The DSC results in LUVs are compared with literature data on multilamellar vesicles (MLVs). The enthalpy change of the complete phase transition from gel to Ld is identical in LUVs and MLVs, and the melting temperatures (Tm) are similar. However, the DSC curves in LUVs are significantly broader, and the maxima of ΔCp are accordingly smaller. The parameters in the Ising model were chosen to match the DSC curves in LUVs and ...
See The Dance: Piloting an Arts-Based Intervention in Higher Education

Every year in higher education institutions across the United States many college students from underrepresented minority groups experience prejudice, discrimination, and verbal harassment based on their race and/or ethnicity. Although underutilized as a preventative intervention strategy in higher education, studies show that the arts have enormous potential to reduce risk factors by facilitating anti-bias education in a nonthreatening way. As a proof of concept, this study discusses the social problem, provides a summary of an arts-based intervention design and development process, and reports the results of a pilot test.
Relationship between preoperative geriatric frailty and need for postoperative intensive care unit admission and subsequent short- and long-term mortality.

10011Background: The relationship between age-related impairments in geriatric surgical patients and the need for postoperative intensive care unit (ICU) admission and subsequent outcomes is largel...
Nurse Practitioner Knowledge of Symptoms of Acute Coronary Syndrome

Abstract Nurse practitioners (NPs) are well positioned to teach women at risk for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) to recognize symptoms and take appropriate actions should symptoms occur. However, NPs need to be knowledgeable of varied symptom presentations. This feasibility study used case vignettes of women with possible ACS symptoms to assess NP knowledge of differential diagnosis of symptoms and actions the women should take in response to the symptoms. Findings suggest that NPs had higher accuracy in diagnosing and recommending appropriate actions for women who had abrupt-onset ACS symptoms compared with women with slow, evolving, and less typical symptoms.
Underrepresentation and the Perception of Others’ Racial Attitudes:

Across two experiments, we investigate racial attitude perceptions in low-diversity environments to explore whether friendships with members of numerically underrepresented groups serve as a strong...
The Postcolonial Jew in Anita Desai’s Baumgartner’s Bombay and Caryl Phillips’ The Nature of Blood

Anita Desai’s Baumgartner’s Bombay (1988) and Caryl Phillips’ The Nature of Blood (1997) are novels that feature Jewish protagonists; both represent the history of the Holocaust and diverge from the postcolonial landscapes the authors are associated with. Though the Indian Desai and the Anglo-Caribbean Phillips are distinct as postcolonial subjects, their Jewish protagonists help to create what Rebecca Walkowitz terms “comparison literature,” the “work of books that analyse… the transnational contexts of their own production, circulation, and study.” In other words, Desai and Phillips are interested in the structures and dynamics of ethnic identification in a global context. Through what I term the postcolonial Jew, these novels move beyond the notion of ethnic authenticity to a cosmopolitan view of identity as hybrid and positional. The authenticity of and in these novels does not rely on the authors’ ethnic backgrounds, but is found in their ways of telling history. Their intention is to break from the traditional association of Jews with the Judeo-Christian tradition, to represent them instead as separate from the Occidental tradition. As a result, Desai and Phillips utilise a decentred Jew, one who is constantly in flux, disparate, conflicted, and the embodiment of diaspora. The existential condition of this Jew —the placeless place he is called upon to inhabit, which the reader is invited to visit— and the paradoxical states of belonging and displacement become the conditions of all displaced others and represent the constant deferral of meaning in the narrative act.
Teacher Caring as a Protective Factor: The Effects of Behavioral/Emotional Risk and Teacher Caring on Office Disciplinary Referrals in Middle School.

Risk for behavioral/emotional problems in adolescence is a significant predictor of negative student outcomes, including lower academic achievement and future disciplinary problems. Latinx students are often overrepresented in school disciplinary practices, highlighting the need for further research specifically within this population. Based on the framework of resilience, students’ relationships with teachers may serve as protective factors against behavioral problems for those who are at elevated levels of risk for problematic outcomes. The current study examined associations and interactions among risk for behavioral/emotional problems, office disciplinary referrals (ODRs), and teacher caring within a sample of 1151 predominantly Latinx middle school students. Higher levels of behavioral/emotional risk and lower levels of teacher caring predicted more ODRs, as expected. An interaction between behavioral/emotional risk and teacher caring suggested that the effect of teacher caring was even more pronounced for students who did not present with elevated levels of behavioral/emotional risk; students with normal levels of risk who reported higher levels of teacher caring received significantly fewer ODRs than those students with normal risk who reported lower levels of teacher caring. Implications for practitioners are discussed, with emphasis placed on the importance of culturally responsive practices.
Densest versus jammed packings of bent-core trimers

We identify putatively maximally dense packings of tangent-sphere trimers with fixed bond angles (θ=θ_{0}), and contrast them to the disordered jammed states they form under quasistatic and dynamic athermal compression. Incommensurability of θ_{0} with three-dimensional (3D) close packing does not by itself inhibit formation of dense 3D crystals; all θ_{0} allow formation of crystals with ϕ_{max}(θ_{0})>0.97ϕ_{cp}. Trimers are always able to arrange into periodic structures composed of close-packed bilayers or trilayers of triangular-lattice planes, separated by "gap layers" that accommodate the incommensurability. All systems have ϕ_{J} significantly below the monomeric value, indicating that trimers' quenched bond-length and bond-angle constraints always act to promote jamming. ϕ_{J} varies strongly with θ_{0}; straight (θ_{0}=0) trimers minimize ϕ_{J} while closed (θ_{0}=120^{∘}) trimers maximize it. Marginally jammed states of trimers with lower ϕ_{J}(θ_{0}) exhibit quantifiably greater disorder, and the lower ϕ_{J} for small θ_{0} is apparently caused by trimers' decreasing effective configurational freedom as they approach linearity.
Checking AIRS nonlinearity in flight

Radiances from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) show excellent stability and are traceable to SI standards through the On-Board Calibrator (OBC) blackbody. The OBC can be used to check the nonlinearity by turning off the heater and letting the target float from 308K to roughly 261K while acquiring data. The OBC Float test was performed once prior to launch, and again shortly after launch. However, the OBC Float test did not produce accurate nonlinearity results because the temperature sensors became inaccurate below 290K. This paper summarizes a technique using a reference channel that is highly linear to measure the apparent temperature of the OBC, then using that temperature to determine the nonlinearity of the other channels. This method works well, and we are able to confirm the nonlinearity derived pre-flight for most of the channels. The AIRS has A side and B side channels that have different gain and nonlinearities, but the OBC float test was performed with an A/B optimum data set. We recommend repeating the test with A side and B side only gains selected for the channels.
Use of Mechanical Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Devices for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest, 2010-2016.

Importance Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is a common scenario facing prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) professionals and nearly always involves either manual or mechanical cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Mechanical CPR devices are expensive and prior clinical trials have not provided evidence of benefit for patients when compared with manual CPR. Objectives To investigate the use of mechanical CPR in the prehospital setting and determine whether patient demographic characteristics or geographical location is associated with its use. Design, Setting, and Participants A retrospective cross-sectional study was performed using the 2010 through 2016 National Emergency Medical Services Information System data. Participants included all patients identified by EMS professionals as having out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Main Outcomes and Measures Use of CPR, categorized as manual or mechanical. Results From 2010 to 2016, 892 022 patients (38.6% female, 60.4% male, missing for 1%; mean [SD] age, 61.1 [20.5] years) with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest were identified by EMS professionals. Overall, manual CPR was used for 618 171 patients (69.3%) and mechanical CPR was used for 45 493 patients (5.1%). The risk-standardized rate of mechanical CPR use, accounting for patient demographic and geographical characteristics, rose from 1.9% in 2010 to 8.0% in 2016 (P Conclusions and Relevance Mechanical CPR device use increased more than 4-fold among patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest treated by EMS professionals. Given the high costs of mechanical CPR devices, better evidence is needed to determine whether these devices improve clinically meaningful outcomes for patients treated for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest by prehospital EMS professionals to justify the significant increase in their use.
Commentary on International Experience Opportunities for Athletic Training Students: A Perspective from the National Athletic Trainers' Association International Committee.

Context International experiences (eg, study abroad, international service projects) have many benefits, including increasing cultural sensitivity, that can enhance athletic training student develo...
Fully Implanted Prostheses for Musculoskeletal Limb Reconstruction after Amputation: An In Vivo Feasibility Study

Previous prostheses for replacing a missing limb following amputation must be worn externally on the body. This limits the extent to which prostheses could physically interface with biological tissues, such as muscles, to enhance functional recovery. The objectives of our study were to (1) test the feasibility of implanting a limb prosthesis, or endoprosthesis, entirely within living skin at the distal end of a residual limb, and (2) identify effective surgical and post-surgical care approaches for implanting endoprostheses in a rabbit model of hindlimb amputation. We iteratively designed, fabricated, and implanted unjointed endoprosthesis prototypes in six New Zealand White rabbits following amputation. In the first three rabbits, the skin failed to heal due to dehiscence along the sutured incision. The skin of the final three subsequent rabbits successfully healed over the endoprotheses. Factors that contributed to successful outcomes included modifying the surgical incision to preserve vasculature; increasing the radii size on the endoprostheses to reduce skin stress; collecting radiographs pre-surgery to match the bone pin size to the medullary canal size; and ensuring post-operative bandage integrity. These results will support future work to test jointed endoprostheses that can be attached to muscles.
The Nature, Role, and Measurement of Affect:

To define the appeal of museums, historic sites, and other informal learning settings, one must understand the feeling component of the experience, not just the informational one. This article seek...
Tethered aerobraking design for repeatable maneuvers

Abstract An aerobraking maneuver performed with a tethered system has the benefit of increasing the drag for a given center of mass orbit by dropping the lower subsatellite into the denser atmosphere. While this concept has received significant attention in the literature, the exact means of controlling the attitude prior to the aerobraking fly-through has not been adequately treated. In particular, a scheme for repeated passes in elliptical orbits has not been developed, which would be required, for example, in a debris elimination system. This work uses tether reeling during the exoatmospheric flight in order to control the tether libration to target a desired state prior to the aerobraking trajectory. The design of the control law requires numerical solution of nonlinear equations, but newly developed analytics provide an estimate that reduces computational time and increases the robustness of the algorithm. The results show that the nearly periodic state that is required for successive passes can be achieved for practical tether lengths and power requirements.
Line Graphs of Signed Graphs

Signed graphs are another interesting variation of graphs, usually taken to be graphs in which each edge is either positive or negative. In the literature, there is more than one option for the rule for the labels on the edges of the line graph, and two of these will be considered here. It is therefore useful for us to use different symbols for the signs in the two cases, and hence different arithmetic formulas for the line-graph rule. In the first kind, we use + and − with the rule being the common product of signs. The focus in the resulting signed line graph is whether all cycles have a positive value. In the second, we use 0 and 1 and the rule is the Boolean binary sum. The focus in the resulting signed line graph is on Boolean properties and special colorings.
Underwater Vehicle Control: Minimum Requirements for a Robust Decision Space

Abstract : Development of automated tactical control in underwater vehicles is motivated by the growing need for both decision aids in manned vehicles, as well as for controllers in unmanned autonomous vehicles. While these systems may vary widely in architectural design, ultimately the system interacts with the world via a sequence of decisions or control variable assignments. The choice of these variables, and their domains, ultimately affects both the complexity (i.e. quickness) of the decision process and the precision of the individual decisions or actions. Operating a vehicle situated in the real, dynamic world means there are both real-time requirements and precision requirements. In this paper we examine the precision required in both submarine tactical decision aids and autonomous underwater vehicles, to identify a minimum set of control/decision variables. We also argue that existing techniques for handling the resulting large decision space are inadequate and often lead to damaging oversimplifications. We discuss these common simplifications and their drawbacks, and suggest new techniques that may handle the large spaces, preserving the necessary level of precision in control.