cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Energy-Efficient Information-Driven Coverage for Physical Movement Monitoring in Body Sensor Networks

Advances in technology have led to the development of various light-weight sensor devices that can be woven into the physical environment of our daily lives. Such systems enable on-body and mobile health-care monitoring. Our interest particularly lies in the area of movement-monitoring platforms that operate with inertial sensors. In this paper, we introduce the notion of compatibility graphs and describe how they can be utilized for power optimization. We first formulate an action coverage problem that will consider the sensing coverage from a collaborative signal processing perspective. Our solution is capable of eliminating redundant sensor nodes while maintaining the quality of service. The problem we outline can be transformed into an NP-hard problem. Therefore, we propose an ILP formulation to attain a lower bound on the solution and a fast greedy technique. Moreover, we present a system for dynamically activating and deactivating sensor nodes in real time. We then use our graph representation to develop an efficient formulation for maximum lifetime. This formulation provides sufficient information for finding activation duties for each sensor node. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our techniques on data collected from several subjects.
A general solution to the maximization of the multidimensional generalized Rayleigh quotient used in linear discriminant analysis for signal classification

A more general solution and a new didactic demonstration of the maximization of the multidimensional case of the generalized Rayleigh quotient are described. This solution is not only the well-known eigenvectors solution widely available in the literature but also a general transformation that is not necessarily orthogonal. The demonstration uses only basic linear algebra and simple Lagrangian maximization to find the transformation matrix that maximizes the multidimensional generalized Rayleigh quotient for linear discriminant analysis, widely used in signal classification applications.
Posterior capsule opacification in pediatric eyes with and without traumatic cataract.

Purpose To compare the rate of visually significant posterior capsule opacification (PCO) in pediatric eyes with and without traumatic cataract. Setting Storm Eye Institute, Charleston, South Carolina, USA. Design Retrospective case control study. Methods Eyes operated on for traumatic cataract and having in-the-bag single-piece hydrophobic intraocular lens (IOL) implantation were identified. The control group of eyes operated on for nontraumatic cataract was matched with reference to age, management of the posterior capsule, type of IOL, and follow-up duration. Results Data from 58 eyes were studied. Age at surgery was comparable between the study group and the control group (7.3 versus 7.8 years) ( P = .7). The rate of PCO was statistically significantly different between the 2 groups (12/29 eyes versus 2/29 eyes) ( P = .002). This difference was more marked for those with intact posterior capsules (9/12 eyes [75%] and 1/12 eyes [8%] ( P = .001) compared with eyes with primary posterior capsulectomy and vitrectomy (3/17 [18%] and 1/17 [6%] ( P = .6). For eyes with intact posterior capsules, the duration between cataract surgery and intervention for PCO was 4 to 15 months in the traumatic cataract group; 1 eye in the nontraumatic cataract group required intervention 20 months after surgery. Conclusions Eyes with traumatic cataract were more likely to develop PCO than eyes without traumatic cataract. The results also suggest that PCO develops faster in eyes with traumatic cataract. Primary posterior capsulectomy and vitrectomy should be considered for children having traumatic cataract surgery, irrespective of age at the time of surgery. Financial Disclosure Neither author has a financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned.
Epileptogenic but MRI-normal perituberal tissue in Tuberous Sclerosis Complex contains tuber-specific abnormalities

Recent evidence has implicated perituberal, MRI-normal brain tissue as a possible source of seizures in tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). Data on aberrant structural features in this area that may predispose to the initiation or progression of seizures are very limited. We used immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy to compare epileptogenic, perituberal, MRI-normal tissue with cortical tubers. In every sample of epileptogenic, perituberal tissue, we found many abnormal cell types, including giant cells and cytomegalic neurons. The majority of giant cells were surrounded by morphologically abnormal astrocytes with long processes typical of interlaminar astrocytes. Perituberal giant cells and astrocytes together formed characteristic “microtubers”. A parallel analysis of tubers showed that many contained astrocytes with features of both protoplasmic and gliotic cells. Microtubers represent a novel pathognomonic finding in TSC and may represent an elementary unit of cortical tubers. Microtubers and cytomegalic neurons in perituberal parenchyma may serve as the source of seizures in TSC and provide potential targets for therapeutic and surgical interventions in TSC.
The Amino Acid Content of Sweat in Normal Adults

NTEREST in the clinical and biochemical I significance of the amino acid composition of body fluids dates from the monumentary work of Garr0d.l The vast amount of knowledge of the aminoacidurias? and, more recently, of the amino acid composition of blood and cerebrospinal fluid in various states of hereditary diseases far surpasses similar knowledge of the amino acid composition of sweat.
Socially relevant simulation games: a design study

Socially Relevant Simulation Games (SRSG), a new medium for social interaction, based on real-world skills and skill development, creates a single gaming framework that connects both serious and casual players. Through a detailed case study this paper presents a design process and framework for SRSG, in the context of mixed-reality golf swing simulations. The SRSG, entitled "World of Golf", utilizes a real-time expert system to capture, analyze, and evaluate golf swing metrics. The game combines swing data with players' backgrounds, e.g., handicaps, to form individual profiles. These profiles are then used to implement a golf simulation game using artificially controlled agents who inherit the skill levels of their corresponding human users. The simulation and assessment modules provide the serious player with tools to build golf skills while allowing casual players to engage within a simulated social world. A framework that incorporates simulated golf competitions among these social agents is presented and validated by comparing the usage statistics of 10 PGA Golf Management (PGM) students with 10 non-professional students.
Dating Hemingway's early style/parsing Gertrude Stein's modernism

In the relatively short history of Hemingway studies, a significant controversy has erupted as to how early and to what degree Gertrude Stein influenced Ernest Hemingway's early style. The earlier commentators (whose works date roughly from 1952 to 1973) agree that Gertrude Stein significantly influenced Hemingway's early style from 1921 to 1924. For instance, Philip Young writes that “similarities between his prose and hers suggest indeed that he learned a lot. What she had tried to do in the days when Hemingway was a boy was remarkably like what the young man was going one day to try to do, too.” Charles Fenton concurs, writing that Hemingway responded to Stein's method “between 1922 and 1924, the period of Miss Stein's greatest personal importance to him.” Carlos Baker reports that Stein provided sound advice and that “nearly any 23-year-old author could profit by it,” which is “what Hemingway did whenever he sat down at the typewriter.” Finally, Sheldon Grebstein concludes that “Hemingway brought [Stein's] experiments to fruition and made it [her style] a major resource of his style.”
Transition planning in early intervention: Nurse practitioner implications

The effective transition of young children with disabilities from early intervention services that they receive before age 3 years to services that they will receive as preschoolers is an important priority. Mandates in federal law have created new responsibilities for professionals who provide these early childhood services. As part of a multidisciplinary team, pediatric nurse practitioners can play a key role in facilitating these transitions. This article describes the PRIME Transition Model, a comprehensive, research-based model that outlines these responsibilities and presents guidelines, transition checklists, timelines, and medical and legal information.
Mineral/melt partitioning of trace elements during hydrous peridotite partial melting

This experimental study examines the mineral/melt partitioning of incompatible trace elements among high-Ca clinopyroxene, garnet, and hydrous silicate melt at upper mantle pressure and temperature conditions. Experiments were performed at pressures of 1.2 and 1.6 GPa and temperatures of 1,185 to 1,370 °C. Experimentally produced silicate melts contain up to 6.3 wt% dissolved H2O, and are saturated with an upper mantle peridotite mineral assemblage of olivine+orthopyroxene+clinopyroxene+spinel or garnet. Clinopyroxene/melt and garnet/melt partition coefficients were measured for Li, B, K, Sr, Y, Zr, Nb, and select rare earth elements by secondary ion mass spectrometry. A comparison of our experimental results for trivalent cations (REEs and Y) with the results from calculations carried out using the Wood-Blundy partitioning model indicates that H2O dissolved in the silicate melt has a discernible effect on trace element partitioning. Experiments carried out at 1.2 GPa, 1,315 °C and 1.6 GPa, 1,370 °C produced clinopyroxene containing 15.0 and 13.9 wt% CaO, respectively, coexisting with silicate melts containing ~1–2 wt% H2O. Partition coefficients measured in these experiments are consistent with the Wood-Blundy model. However, partition coefficients determined in an experiment carried out at 1.2 GPa and 1,185 °C, which produced clinopyroxene containing 19.3 wt% CaO coexisting with a high-H2O (6.26±0.10 wt%) silicate melt, are significantly smaller than predicted by the Wood-Blundy model. Accounting for the depolymerized structure of the H2O-rich melt eliminates the mismatch between experimental result and model prediction. Therefore, the increased Ca2+ content of clinopyroxene at low-temperature, hydrous conditions does not enhance compatibility to the extent indicated by results from anhydrous experiments, and models used to predict mineral/melt partition coefficients during hydrous peridotite partial melting in the sub-arc mantle must take into account the effects of H2O on the structure of silicate melts.
Automatic registration of color separation films

The problem of registration of four-color halftone separations for color printing is addressed. A method is presented for automatic registration of color separation films. An operator manually selects two windows from the reference negative (generally cyan) with a digitizing cursor, and each window covering approximately 6 mm/sup 2/ (0.25 in/sup 2/) is digitized into a 640*640 array. On each negative and for each window, the macro edges are extracted, and the contours are approximated by line segments. The segments from corresponding windows on different negatives are then matched with the reference ones to provide an estimate of the translation between them. The two translations (from the two windows) provide the parameters of the rigid planar transform between negatives (rotation and translation) and permit the punching of registration holes into the pictures for each negative. The system has been implemented in the RegiStar machine, built to perform the mechanical tasks associated with the algorithm. It is able to handle a set of four-color separations in about 5 min, from image acquisition to punching of registration holes on the films, maintaining an accuracy of 12 mu m (0.5 mil) for binary patterns and 25 mu m (1 mil) for true halftones. This speed is obtained by using an off-the-shelf Mercury array processor attached to an IBM personal computer. >
Evidence for indirect dietary regulation of cholecystokinin release in rats

Food ingestion stimulates cholecystokinin (CCK) release from the proximal intestine, but the mechanisms involved are not well understood. To investigate this effect in vivo in intact rats, plasma C...
Neoplasms of Urinary Bladders of Hamsters Treated With 2-Acetylaminofluorene and Indole

Tested in hamsters was the effect of neonatal treatment with 2-acetylaminofluorene (AAF) followed by prolonged feeding in combination with indole on the development of bladder tumors. Neonatal males and females were given intraperitoneal injections of AAF, 5 mg/100 g body weight, 3 times weekly until weaning. They were then fed a synthetic diet containing 0.06% AAF and 1.6% indole. The 26 hamsters surviving 10-12 months developed transitional cell carcinomas of the bladder, all but 2 of which were invasive. No hamsters had malignant tumors in the liver. Seven hamsters developed peliosis of the spleen.
Long-term Outcomes of Robot-assisted Laparoscopic Pyeloplasty for Ureteropelvic Junction Obstruction.

Objective To describe the long-term outcomes of robot-assisted laparoscopic pyeloplasty (RALP) for the correction of ureteropelvic junction (UPJ) obstruction. Methods A retrospective electronic medical record review of RALPs from October 2002 to July 2014 was performed, with additional follow-up for patients released from regular urological care obtained by phone. RALP success was defined as resolution of symptoms of UPJ obstruction, improved hydronephrosis radiographically, or resolution of obstruction on follow-up Tc-99m mercaptoacetyltriglycine renal scan, intravenous pyelogram, or Whitaker test. RALP failure was defined as persistence of symptoms with obstruction demonstrated on functional imaging or requirement for a subsequent UPJ procedure. Results A total of 129 cases were identified, with an average patient age of 34.3 years. Stented RALP was performed in 80.6% of cases whereas 19.4% of patients underwent stentless RALP. A dismembered technique was performed in 90.7% of pyeloplasties, whereas 9.3% were nondismembered Fenger, Y-V, or flap pyeloplasties. Five intraoperative complications and 18 postoperative complications (Clavien I-IIIb) were described. One hundred twenty-nine patients received follow-up for a mean of 33.8 months (range 1-147 months). RALP was successful in 125/129 (96.9%), with an 8-year failure-free survival of 91.5%. When considering only stented pyeloplasties, the 8-year failure-free survival was 96.3%. Conclusion RALP is a safe and effective minimally invasive method for correction of UPJ obstruction, resulting in lasting improvement in symptoms and resolution of obstruction for most patients.
Ancient Ethical Practices of Dualism and Ethical Implications for Future Paradigms in Nursing

Paradigms contain theoretical structures to guide scientific disciplines. Since ancient times, Cartesian dualism has been a prominent philosophy incorporated in the practice of medicine. The discipline of nursing has continued the body-mind emphasis with similar paradigmatic thinking and theories of nursing that separate body and mind. Future trends for paradigm and nursing theory development are harkening to former ways of thinking. In this article the author discusses the origins of Cartesian dualism and implications for its current usage. The author shall illuminate what it potentially means to engage in dualism in nursing and discuss possible ethical implications for future paradigm and theory development in nursing.
Professional Development Through Mentoring

Enhanced professional development occurs when faculty act as mentors for their peers, regardless of their years of seniority or stage of their career. This chapter begins with a discussion on mentoring faculty who are women and faculty from minoritized racial and ethnic groups before turning to specific ways in which colleagues may engage in mentoring to enhance professional development. Mutual benefits may be gained through mentoring that occurs in a variety of faculty relationships, including co-teaching and team teaching, reflective practice, teaching circles, and curriculum development. Each of these opportunities for mentoring will be presented in this chapter, beginning with co-teaching. Faculty who co-teach share expertise from their respective fields and in doing so learn from each other as they teach their students. Mentoring occurs in reflective practice as mentors pose thoughtful questions and ideas to engage one another in enhancing professional practice. Through teaching circles, small groups of faculty study topics related to their teaching practice, pose questions, and share ideas. Lastly, curriculum development will be described as a method for faculty to engage in mentoring to promote professional development.
Part 4: Masking and Randomization—Are They Worth the Trouble?

IN THE PREVIOUS installment of this series on statistics in nutrition,1 I described and compared observational studies and clinical trials. In part 4, I will focus on some practical considerations of implementing a clinical trial. A recent experience led me to appreciate the way in which a clinical investigator might view the requirements for randomization and for masking the identity of treatment assignments in a clinical trial. By describing this experience, I hope to illustrate the careful planning and coordination required to produce an unbiased and valid clinical trial. The purpose of a clinical trial is to provide a comparison of the effectiveness of two or more treatments, one of which might serve as a control. There are several requirements for a valid trial: (1) Subjects must be assigned at random to a given treatment. (2) The identity of the treatment assigned to each subject should be "masked." Ideally, neither the subject, the clinical staff, nor the data analyst should know the treatment assignment. This is known as "doublemasking." It used to be known as "doubleblinding," but "masking" has replaced "blinding" as the more accepted term.2 Randomization and double-masking help to ensure that the comparison among treat-
A Cortical Circuit for Sexually Dimorphic Oxytocin-Dependent Anxiety Behaviors

The frequency of human social and emotional disorders varies significantly between males and females. We have recently reported that oxytocin receptor interneurons (OxtrINs) modulate female sociosexual behavior. Here, we show that, in male mice, OxtrINs regulate anxiety-related behaviors. We demonstrate that corticotropin-releasing-hormone-binding protein (CRHBP), an antagonist of the stress hormone CRH, is specifically expressed in OxtrINs. Production of CRHBP blocks the CRH-induced potentiation of postsynaptic layer 2/3 pyramidal cell activity of male, but not female, mice, thus producing an anxiolytic effect. Our data identify OxtrINs as critical for modulation of social and emotional behaviors in both females and males and reveal a molecular mechanism that acts on local medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) circuits to coordinate responses to OXT and CRH. They suggest that additional studies of the impact of the OXT/OXTR and CRHBP/CRH pathways in males and females will be important in development of gender-specific therapies.
Self-reported pregnancy exposures and placental DNA methylation in the MARBLES prospective autism sibling study

Human placenta is a fetal-derived tissue that offers a unique sample of epigenetic and environmental exposures present in utero. In the MARBLES prospective pregnancy study of high-risk younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), pregnancy and environmental factors collected by maternal interviews were examined as predictors of placental DNA methylation, including partially methylated domains (PMDs), an embryonic feature of the placental methylome. DNA methylation data from MethylC-seq analysis of 47 placentas of children clinically diagnosed at 3 years with ASD or typical development using standardized assessments were examined in relation to: child's gestational age, birth-weight, and diagnosis; maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index, smoking, education, parity, height, prenatal vitamin and folate intake; home ownership; pesticides professionally applied to lawns or gardens or inside homes, pet flea/tick pouches, collars, or soaps/shampoos used in the 3 months prior to or during pregnancy. Sequencing run, order, and coverage, and child race and sex were considered as potential confounders. Akaike information criterion was used to select the most parsimonious among candidate models. Final prediction models used sandwich estimators to produce homoscadisticity-robust estimates of the 95% confidence interval (CI) and P-values controlled the false discovery rate at 5%. The strongest, most robust associations were between pesticides professionally applied outside the home and higher average methylation over PMDs [0.45 (95% CI 0.17, 0.72), P = 0.03] and a reduced proportion of the genome in PMDs [-0.42 (95% CI - 0.67 to -0.17), P = 0.03]. Pesticide exposures could alter placental DNA methylation more than other factors.
Ancilla-aided recovery of quantum super-sensitivity diminished by decoherence (Conference Presentation)

It is well-known that the super-sensitivity of phase estimation in two-photon interferometery is diminished by the effect of decoherence. Specific to the paradigm of local phase estimation, any presence of decoherence removes all sensitivity to small shifts in the neighborhood of certain phases. For estimates of the phase difference between two arms of an interferometer using two-photon coincidence measurements, all sensitivity is lost for phase differences in the neighborhood of π/2. The benefit of employing an ancillary optical degree of freedom alongside the principal interfering degree of freedom was recently found to fortify super-sensing two-photon states against the debilitating effect of spectral distinguishability: an effect that reduces the visibility of two-photon interference. In the present work, we investigate the use of an ancillary degree of freedom when measuring a phase shift by use of a two-photon Mach-Zehnder-interferometer contaminated by a depolarizing channel causing decoherence: an effect that reduces both two-photon and single-photon interference visibility. We model our input state as single photons entering both input ports of an interferometer. The principal interferometer-path modes are coupled to polarization, and decoherence is modeled by replacing the density matrix describing this input with a maximally mixed state with some probability p. We calculate the sensitivity through the quantum fisher information, finding that the process of fortifying input states retains sensing at or above the standard quantum limit in the neighborhood of phase differences around π/2, for all probabilities below 1/4 — an advantage impossible without employing the ancillary degree of freedom.
Caress: An Enactive Electro-acoustic Percussive Instrument for Caressing Sound

This paper documents the development of Caress, an electroacoustic percussive instrument that blends drumming and audio synthesis in a small and portable form factor. Caress is an octophonic miniature drum-set for the fingertips that employs eight acoustically isolated piezo-microphones, coupled with eight independent signal chains that excite a unique resonance model with audio from the piezos. The hardware is designed to be robust and quickly reproducible (parametric design and machine fabrication), while the software aims to be light-weight (low-CPU requirements) and portable (multiple platforms, multiple computing architectures). Above all, the instrument aims for the level of control intimacy and tactile expressivity achieved by traditional acoustic percussive instruments, while leveraging real-time software synthesis and control to expand the sonic palette. This instrument as well as this document are dedicated to the memory of the late David Wessel, pioneering composer, performer, researcher, mentor and all-around Yoda of electroacoustic music.
Current Status on Circulatory Assist and Cardiomyoplasty

Over the past decade, the average patient undergoing an open heart procedure has become older and presents with significantly more comorbid risk factors. The most recent data analysis of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons national cardiac surgery database demonstrates that emergency operation, renal insufficiency, left ventricular dysfunction, reoperation, mitral valve insufficiency, advanced age, peripheral vascular disease, and diabetes mellitus are now frequent risk factors in bypass patients.1 The number of women undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) continues to increase and they now account for 30% of the patient population. The mean age of patients over the past decade has increased from 58 years in 1980 to a mean of 65 years in 1993. Average left ventricular ejection fraction has steadily worsened over the same time period from 65% to 51%. While operative mortality is 1.8% for elective bypass operations, it climbs to 4.7% for emergent first operations, and to an alarming 12.5% for emergency reoperations. Thus, the safety of cardiopulmonary bypass can no longer be measured by its effectiveness in low-risk young patients requiring a relatively simple operation. One of the continuing challenges for the cardiac surgery team is to develop methods to reduce postoperative morbidity and mortality in high risk patients with multisystem dysfunction.
Genotoxic Lemons Become Epigenomic Lemonade.

Active regulatory elements in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are incompletely characterized, since extant approaches immunophenotypically define and isolate rare HSCs. In the current issue of Cell Stem Cell, Wunsche et al. (2018) use γ-retroviral insertion sites from a human gene therapy trial to identify the active enhancer landscape of functionally characterized HSCs.
Macroscopic Alignment of Silver Nanoplates in an Adaptable Dichroic Polarizer

Morphological control to precisely tailor the energy absorption bands of plasmonic particles is improving constantly, with efforts to improve the monodispersity of the designed particles leading to sharper plasmonic features in controlled spectral regions. Transitioning these highly tailored plasmonic additives into a robust polymer composite platforms while retaining their specified plasmonic features has proven challenging, with the elevated temperatures and mechanical forces involved in composite manufacturing resulting in particle agglomeration and morphology alterations. In this work, thermally stable protecting layers are developed onto tailored silver nanoplate (Ag-NPL) plasmonic additives to facilitate their survivable processing at elevated temperature. The produced coatings allow for their implementation in a facile, low-cost method to produce uniform dichroic optical polarizers based on the protected Ag-NPLs in a polymer matrix. Nanocomposites are obtained through an extrusion and injection molding process, which is shown to induce alignment of anisotropic particles based on sheer forces. As the optical position of the resonances is dependent on the morphology of the additive, and unlike other methods where the anisotropy in the NP is induced in situ, our method can be easily adapted to varying optical regimes by modifying the size and shape of the initial additive. Furthermore, the method presented in this work forgoes the need for a polymer stretching alignment mechanism which enables the ability to use various types of anisotropic particles with visible and near-infrared operating regimes.
New conceptual framework for fashion business ideation, negotiation, and implementation undergraduate curricula for sustainable development

ABSTRACTFashion business curricula pay little attention to soft-skills that are directly helping to achieve sustainability goals. This study offered a new conceptual framework based on extensive review of literature in the areas of creativity, communication, leadership, and sustainability while incorporating essential skills needed for enhancing sustainability goals of fashion business operations. To ensure sustainability goals are being met, the study argued that during the idea generation stage, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration skills are necessary; during the negotiating stage, active listening, interpersonal skills, and emotional control skills are critical; and the implementation stage requires administrative skills and creative visioning skills. The conceptual model could be useful for future fashion business curriculum development that would emphasise the achievement of sustainability by incorporating these skills. This research calls for new educational research agendas to investig...
Enhanced diffusion of Cr in 20Cr-25Ni type alloys under proton irradiation at 670 °C

Abstract Alloy 709 (Fe-20Cr-25Ni-1.5Mo-0.26Nb in weight percentages) and its model alloy (Fe-20Cr-25Ni) were subjected to 2 MeV proton irradiation up to 1.5 displacements per atom at ∼670 °C for 90 h. Significant compositional changes were observed in the irradiated zone of both alloys, which was correlated with the radiation-enhanced diffusion. The radiation-enhanced diffusion coefficient of Cr was experimentally determined by fitting the Cr depletion profiles and theoretically analyzed considering vacancy-assisted lattice diffusion, dislocation pipeline diffusion, etc. The estimation of the radiation-enhanced diffusion in the 20Cr-25Ni type alloy in this study is useful in predicting its performance in radiation damage environment. The methodology of investigating radiation-enhanced diffusion adds to the nuclear-material screening capability of ion-irradiation technologies.
A Pilot Study of the Association of Amino-Terminal Pro-B-Type Natriuretic Peptide and Severity of Illness in Pediatric Septic Shock.

Objectives: Biomarkers that can measure illness severity and predict the risk of delayed recovery may be useful in guiding pediatric septic shock. Amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide has not been assessed in pediatric septic patients at the time of presentation to the emergency department prior to any interventions. The primary aim was to assess if emergency department amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide is associated with worse outcomes and severity of illness. Design: Prospective observational pilot study. Settings: Tertiary free-standing children’s hospital. Patients: Children 0–17 years old with a diagnosis of septic shock were enrolled. Patients with preexisting cardiac and renal dysfunction were excluded. Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: Amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide analysis was performed on samples obtained in the emergency department prior to any intervention. The association between biomarkers and clinical outcomes and illness severity using Pediatric RISk of Mortality 3 were assessed. Eighty-two patients with septic shock underwent analysis. The median (interquartile range) amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide levels was 394 pg/mL (102–1,392 pg/mL). Each decile change increase in amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide was associated with a change in ICU length of stay by 8.7%, (95% CI, 2.4–15.5), hospital length of stay by 5.7% (95% CI, 0.4–11.2), organ dysfunction by 5.1% (95% CI, 1.8–8.5), a higher inotropic score at 12, 24, and 36 hours, and longer time requiring vasoactive agents. There was a significant correlation between baseline amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide and the Pediatric RISk of Mortality 3 score (Spearman rho = 0.247; p = 0.029). Conclusions: This pilot study shows an association between emergency department amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide on presentation and worse septic shock outcomes and amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide levels correlates with an ICU severity score.
The Use of Patient-Reported Outcomes to Screen for Underrecognized Psychiatric Co-Morbidities in Adolescent and Young Adult Cardiac Transplant Recipients

Purpose For adolescents and young adults, receiving a heart transplant is a profoundly challenging experience. This pilot study examined the burden of psychiatric co-morbidities and resiliency factors in post-transplant patients using patient-reported outcomes (PRO). Methods Patients transplanted between ages 15-25 years at one of three tertiary care centers were asked to complete six PRO measures—PROMIS® measures to assess depression, anxiety, satisfaction with social roles (SSR), and physical functioning (PF); Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale for DSM-5 (PDS-5) for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10 for resiliency. Formal psychiatric diagnoses and demographics were collected retrospectively from chart review. Comparisons were made between PRO measures and formal diagnoses, with further comparison between those transplanted for congenital heart disease (CHD) and cardiomyopathy (CM). PROMIS® scores were dichotomized at their literature-reported cutoffs for depression and anxiety. Fisher's exact test, McNemar's test for paired samples, and Wilcoxon rank-sum test were used as appropriate. Results We enrolled 14 patients (median age at transplant 17.9 years [IQR 16.5, 20.7 yr]; 86% male and 64% with CM). Of 13 with complete data, 8/13 patients (62%) had at least mild PTSD symptoms and 3/13 (23%) had PDS-5 scores indicating probable PTSD diagnosis. Only one patient carried a formal diagnosis of PTSD. 5/13 (39%) patients had probable depression by PROMIS®. Compared to CM patients, CHD patients had more severe PTSD symptoms (p = 0.035), higher depression scores (p = 0.018) and lower PF and SSR PROMIS® scores (p = 0.017 and 0.003, respectively). Conversely, CM patients had higher resiliency scores (p = 0.021). Conclusion In this pilot study, we found high prevalence of PTSD and depression symptoms with discordant formal psychiatric diagnoses. This suggests that these disorders may be underrecognized in the adolescent and young adult heart transplant population. The routine use of PRO measures should be tested in an expanded prospective study to further evaluate their screening utility for psychiatric co-morbidities among members of this vulnerable population.
Sepharadim/conversos and premodern Global Hispanism

Sepharadim participated in the Hispanic vernacular culture of the Iberian Peninsula. Even in the time of al-Andalus many spoke Hispano-Romance, and their Hebrew literature belies a deep familiarity...
Integrative proteomics reveals an increase in non-degradative ubiquitylation in activated CD4 + T cells

Despite gathering evidence that ubiquitylation can direct non-degradative outcomes, most investigations of ubiquitylation in T cells have focused on degradation. Here, we integrated proteomic and transcriptomic datasets from primary mouse CD4+ T cells to establish a framework for predicting degradative or non-degradative outcomes of ubiquitylation. Di-glycine remnant profiling was used to reveal ubiquitylated proteins, which in combination with whole-cell proteomic and transcriptomic data allowed prediction of protein degradation. Analysis of ubiquitylated proteins identified by di-glycine remnant profiling indicated that activation of CD4+ T cells led to an increase in non-degradative ubiquitylation. This correlated with an increase in non-proteasome-targeted K29, K33 and K63 polyubiquitin chains. This study revealed over 1,200 proteins that were ubiquitylated in primary mouse CD4+ T cells and highlighted the relevance of non-proteasomally targeted ubiquitin chains in T cell signaling.
Ghost cities of China: Identifying urban vacancy through social media data

Abstract “Ghost Cities” have become a phenomenon of global interest since 2009 when popular media highlighted the existence of Ordos, a large Chinese city that was almost entirely vacant. The term is used to describe housing vacancy associated with overdevelopment and can refer to small communities, neighborhoods, or even whole cities that lie vacant. Ghost Cities are particularly prevalent in China where housing vacancy has become a serious concern for many second and third-tier cities. Measuring the extent of these vacant areas has been challenging due to Chinese data restrictions. This research tests whether it is possible to collect data, scraped from Chinese social media open access API's including Dianping (Chinese Yelp), Amap (Chinese MapQuest), Fang (Chinese Zillow), and Baidu (Chinese Google Maps) to develop a computational model to identify areas considered to be Ghost Cities. The model created for this study is based on the idea that thriving communities need access to basic amenities. Therefore Hansen's gravitational model was applied to give an “amenities score” for residential locations based on their accessibility to restaurants, banks, grocery stores, beauty salons, KTV, medical facilities, schools, and malls Moran's I spatial autocorrelation was applied to the amenity scores below the mean to determine spatially clustered residential locations with low scores. The results were considered potential Ghost Cities and were visited in Chengdu and Shenyang to confirm the accuracy of the model. These site visits showed that the model identified transitional, underperforming, or vacant housing in these cities, illustrating that it is possible to use data scraped from social media to identify underused residential developments.
Drawing is Integrating: An Examination of Students’ Graphic Representations of Multiple Texts

In this study, integration, or students’ connection formation across texts, was examined across two tasks: when undergraduates were asked to complete a writing assignment and a novel, diagram const...
Outcomes after ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm repair in the era of centralized care

Abstract Objective Little is known about the relationship between case volume and patient outcomes of those treated for ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (rAAA) after either endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) or open aneurysm repair (OAR). This study evaluated the impact of hospital case volume on outcomes after rAAA. Methods Patients with rAAA were identified in the Society for Vascular Surgery Vascular Quality Initiative database from 2003 to 2017, excluding patients from years in which a limited number of hospitals were included (2003-2009, 2017). Patients were stratified according to type of aneurysm repair and further stratified according to aortic surgical volume of the treating facility. Univariate and multivariable analyses were performed. Results Between 2010 and 2016, of 2895 patients who presented emergently with rAAA, 1246 underwent ruptured OAR (rOAR) and 1649 underwent ruptured EVAR (rEVAR). Before adjustment for demographics, comorbidities, and clinical characteristics, there were no differences in 1-year patient survival based on hospital OAR or EVAR volumes among patients undergoing rOAR or rEVAR. After adjustment for confounding variables, patients treated with rOAR at the highest volume OAR hospitals had a 33% lower hazard of mortality at 1 year relative to patients treated with rOAR at the lowest volume OAR hospitals. Preoperative interfacility transfer was associated with a 27% lower hazard of mortality after rOAR. There was no significant difference in hazard of mortality among patients undergoing rEVAR when they were stratified according to hospital EVAR volumes after adjustment for all other covariates. Conclusions Outcomes after rAAA repair are associated with hospital volume among patients undergoing rOAR but not among patients undergoing rEVAR. Thus, centralization of care may have an important impact on outcomes when OAR is indicated, suggesting a benefit for preoperative interfacility transfer of care when it is feasible.
The Spanish Language 5-Item Oral Health Impact Profile

Objective To test validity and reliability of the Spanish version of the 5-item Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-Sp5). Methods Spanish-speaking dental patients (n = 331, response rate = 61%, age: 42.9 + 12.3 years, 59% female) with a scheduled appointment at HealthPartners dental clinics in Minnesota, USA, were investigated. To assess score reliability, we computed Cronbach's alpha, expecting 'good' reliability (alpha > 0.70). To assess score validity, we correlated the OHIP-Sp5 summary score with five OHRQoL measures [49- and 14-item OHIP-Sp, the Spanish version of the General Oral Health Assessment Index (GOHAI-Sp), the Spanish version of the Oral Impacts on Daily Performances (OIDP-Sp) and a Global Oral Health Assessment]. We expected a pattern of 'very large' (r > 0.70) correlation coefficients for OHIP-Sp5 relationships with the two longer OHIP-Sp versions and 'large' (r > 0.50) correlation coefficients for the other three measures. Results Patients had a mean OHIP-Sp5 score of 3.7 (SD = 4.0). The Instrument's reliability was, as expected, 'good', according to the Cronbach's alpha statistic of 0.83. The Instrument's validity was supported by the expected pattern of validity coefficients. OHIP-Sp5 summary scores correlated with OHIP-Sp14 as well as with OHIP-Sp49 (both r = 0.95: 'very large' effect) and with GOHAI-Sp, OIDP and the Global Oral Health Assessment with r = -0.80, 0.73, and -0.56 (absolute effect magnitude all 'very large' or 'large'), respectively. Conclusions The Spanish version of OHIP-5 is a brief and psychometrically sound instrument to measure oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in Spanish-speaking populations. It can effectively replace longer OHIP instruments and would be applicable across all settings of clinical practice and research.
Oxysterols provide innate immunity to bacterial infection by mobilizing cell surface accessible cholesterol

Cholesterol 25-hydroxylase (CH25H) is an interferon-stimulated gene that converts cholesterol to the oxysterol 25-hydroxycholesterol (25HC). Circulating 25HC modulates essential immunological processes including antiviral immunity, inflammasome activation and antibody class switching; and dysregulation of CH25H may contribute to chronic inflammatory disease and cancer. Although 25HC is a potent regulator of cholesterol storage, uptake, efflux and biosynthesis, how these metabolic activities reprogram the immunological state of target cells remains poorly understood. Here, we used recently designed toxin-based biosensors that discriminate between distinct pools of plasma membrane cholesterol to elucidate how 25HC prevents Listeria monocytogenes from traversing the plasma membrane of infected host cells. The 25HC-mediated activation of acyl-CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) triggered rapid internalization of a biochemically defined fraction of cholesterol, termed 'accessible' cholesterol, from the plasma membrane while having little effect on cholesterol in complexes with sphingomyelin. We show that evolutionarily distinct bacterial species, L. monocytogenes and Shigella flexneri, exploit the accessible pool of cholesterol for infection and that acute mobilization of this pool by oxysterols confers immunity to these pathogens. The significance of this signal-mediated membrane remodelling pathway probably extends beyond host defence systems, as several other biologically active oxysterols also mobilize accessible cholesterol through an ACAT-dependent mechanism.
Evaluation of Skeletal Muscle Ultrasound For The Assessment of Body Composition In Healthy Controls And Patients With Heart Failure

Introduction Wasting of skeletal muscle mass, termed sarcopenia, is common in patients with advanced heart failure (HF). Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is the reference standard, but limitations include expense, ionizing radiation and non-portability. The use of a bedside skeletal muscle ultrasound (US) device to screen for low muscle mass may bolster efforts to identify and treat sarcopenia among patients with HF. Hypothesis We hypothesized that skeletal muscle US measurements would be strongly associated with DXA appendicular lean mass (ALM) measurements in healthy controls and patients with HF. Methods We recruited healthy volunteers and patients with HF (with or without advanced therapies) and measured skeletal muscle mass via Hologic Discovery A full-body DXA scan and A-mode BodyMetrix Pro US at 7 anatomical locations (dominant side). Upper body strength was evaluated using a handgrip strength test and lower body strength by 5 timed sit-to-stands. Sarcopenia was determined by international ALM criteria. Linear regression was used to evaluate the relationship between US measures of muscle thickness and DXA-measured ALM, with a stepwise selection model defining which anatomic locations of US muscle thickness were the strongest descriptors of DXA ALM (plus additional candidate covariates age, height and sex). Pearson correlation coefficients were used to evaluate the relationship between upper extremity US muscle thickness and handgrip strength, and lower extremity US muscle thickness and sit-to-stand time. Results Skeletal muscle mass was assessed in 17 healthy controls (7 females, mean age: 24 years, BMI: 24, ALM: 27 kg, Sarcopenia: 0%) and 11 patients with HF (1 female, mean age: 64 years, BMI: 28, ALM: 24 kg, Sarcopenia: 18%). Linear regression analyses revealed that age (p=0.04) and height (p Conclusion US measurements for lateral thigh, forearm and maximum bicep are the strongest descriptors of DXA-measured ALM. These findings suggest that skeletal muscle ultrasound performed at these 3 anatomical landmarks can be used to screen for sarcopenia in patients with HF and will be prospectively validated in a future study.
'Introduction' to the Research Handbook on the History of Corporate and Company Law (Edward Elgar: 2018)

The Research Handbook on the History of Corporation and Company Law is a collection of 25 chapters surveying the history of corporation law from ancient times to the present in jurisdictions across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. This Introduction briefly summarizes the chapters, and suggests ways in which they shed new light not only on historical questions but on present-day issues facing corporate law scholars.
Primary neuroendocrine tumours of the heart: case report and literature review.

Neuroendocrine tumours occur most frequently in the gastrointestinal tract, lungs, and pancreas. Primary malignant cardiac tumours are uncommon and are usually sarcomas, lymphomas, or, infrequently, mesotheliomas. Primary cardiac neuroendocrine carcinomas are exceedingly rare; only nine have been reported in the literature to date. We report the tenth case of this disorder in a 44-year-old man with a well-differentiated low-grade primary cardiac neuroendocrine carcinoma treated with surgery who remains in remission more than a year later. Our case and review of the literature demonstrate that surgical treatment for well-differentiated primary cardiac neuroendocrine carcinomas can be effective.
El día que mi padre comenzó a hablar. Trauma y memoria de la Guerra Civil española en Un largo silencio de Miguel Gallardo

En 1997 Miguel Gallardo tomo las paginas escritas por su padre en las que resumia parte de su vida y su participacion en la Guerra Civil espanola para dibujar Un largo silencio, un comic hibrido que podria ser clasificado como una (auto)biografia. Esta novela grafica muestra el impacto causado por los recuerdos traumaticos de los sobrevivientes en las siguientes generaciones y la importancia de llegar a acuerdos con el pasado. Antes que obras mas recientes de la novela grafica espanola, el trabajo de Gallardo discute el problema en torno a la memoria de la Guerra Civil en Espana actual. Este trabajo analizara las tecnicas utilizadas por el autor para trasladar la vida de su padre a las paginas de un comic hasta convertir Un largo silencio en la (re)construccion de una memoria traumatica que, al final, sera la suya propia.