cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Telehealth treatment of patients in an intensive acute care psychiatric setting during the COVID-19 pandemic: comparative safety and effectiveness to in-person treatment

BACKGROUND Most research evaluating telehealth psychiatric treatment has been conducted in outpatient settings. There is a great lack of research assessing the efficacy of telehealth treatment in more acute, intensive treatment settings such as a partial hospital. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, much of behavioral health treatment has transitioned to a virtual format. In the present report from the Rhode Island Methods to Improve Diagnostic Assessment and Services (MIDAS) project, we examined the effectiveness of our partial hospital program (PHP). METHOD The sample included 207 patients who were treated virtually from May 2020 to September 2020 and a comparison group of 207 patients who were treated in the in-person partial program a year earlier. Patients completed self-administered measures of patient satisfaction, symptoms, coping ability, functioning, and general well-being. RESULTS For both the in-person and telehealth methods of delivering partial hospital level of care, patients were highly satisfied with treatment and reported a significant reduction in symptoms and suicidality from admission to discharge. On the modified Remission from Depression Questionnaire, the primary outcome measure, both groups reported a significant (P 0.8) was found in both treatment groups. The only significant difference in outcome between the patients treated in the different formats was a greater length of stay (mean ± SD of 13.5 ± 8.1 vs 8.5 ± 5.0 days, t = 7.61, P < .001) and greater likelihood of staying in treatment until completion (72.9% vs 62.3%, χ2 = 5.34, P < .05) in the virtually treated patients. CONCLUSIONS Telehealth partial hospital treatment was as effective as in-person treatment in terms of patient satisfaction, symptom reduction, suicidal ideation reduction, and improved functioning and well-being. The treatment completion rate was higher in the telehealth cohort, and several patients who were treated virtually commented that they never would have presented for in-person treatment even if there was no pandemic. Telehealth PHPs should be considered a viable treatment option even after the pandemic has resolved.
Massive advancing non-exudative type 1 choroidal neovascularization in CTRP5 Late Onset Retinal Degeneration: longitudinal findings on multimodal imaging and implications for age-related macular degeneration

PURPOSE To describe longitudinal multimodal imaging findings of nonexudative choroidal neovascularization in CTRP5 late-onset retinal degeneration. METHODS Four patients with CTRP5-positive late-onset retinal degeneration underwent repeated ophthalmoscopic examination and multimodal imaging. All four patients (two siblings and their cousins, from a pedigree described previously) had the heterozygous S163R mutation. RESULTS All four patients demonstrated large subretinal lesions in the mid-peripheral retina of both eyes. The lesions were characterized by confluent hypercyanescence with hypocyanescent borders on indocyanine green angiography, faintly visible branching vascular networks with absent/minimal leakage on fluorescein angiography, Type 1 neovascularization on optical coherence tomography angiography, and absent retinal fluid, consistent with nonexudative choroidal neovascularization. The neovascular membranes enlarged substantially over time and the birth of new membranes was observed, but all lesions remained nonexudative/minimally exudative. Without treatment, all involved retinal areas remained free of atrophy and subretinal fibrosis. CONCLUSION We report the existence of massive advancing nonexudative Type 1 choroidal neovascularization in CTRP5 late-onset retinal degeneration. These findings have implications for age-related macular degeneration. They provide a monogenic model system for studying the mechanisms underlying the distinct events of choroidal neovascularization development, enlargement, progression to exudation, and atrophy in age-related macular degeneration. They suggest that choroidal hypoperfusion precedes neovascularization and that nonexudative neovascularization may protect against atrophy.
Affirmative Action in Higher Education: What Canada Can Take from the American Experience?

Group preferences in the form of affirmative action are presumptively constitutional under the Canadian Charter, but not under the United States Constitution. Yet, despite Canada’s constitutional pre-commitment to affirmative action, many Canadian political leaders continue to contest the propriety of affirmative action. The debate in Canada could intensify similar to way in which it has unfolded in the United States, and could, perhaps, influence the Supreme Court of Canada’s interpretation of the Charter. Focusing on higher education, which has become the battleground for affirmative action in the United States, the author crystallizes some of the most important questions with which America courts have had to grapple in addressing the affirmative-action matter. Although the author suggests that the Supreme Court of Canada may wish to borrow from the American experience, just as lower Canadian courts have in the past, he also cautions that there are some aspects of the affirmative action question (such as defining exactly what diversity means) for which the United States Supreme Court has little to offer.
Occupational exposures in the operating room: Are surgeons well-equipped?

Background Occupational health hazards are ubiquitously found in the operating room, guaranteeing an inevitable risk of exposure to the surgeon. Although provisions on occupational health and safety in healthcare exist, they do not address non-traditional hazards found in the operating room. In order to determine whether surgeons or trainees receive any form of occupational health training, we examine the associations between occupational health training and exposure rate. Study design A cross-sectional survey was distributed. Respondent characteristics included academic level, race/ethnicity, and gender. The survey evaluated seven surgical disciplines and 13 occupational hazards. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the association between academic level, surgical specialty, and exposure rate. Results Our cohort of 183 respondents (33.1% response rate) consisted of attendings (n = 72, 39.3%) and trainees (n = 111, 60.7%). Surgical trainees were less likely to have been trained in cytotoxic drugs (OR 0.22, p<0.001), methylmethacrylate (OR 0.15, p<0.001), patient lifting (OR 0.43, p = 0.009), radiation (OR 0.40, p = 0.007), and surgical smoke (OR 0.41, p = 0.041) than attending surgeons. Additionally, trainees were more likely to experience frequent exposure to bloodborne pathogens (OR 5.26, p<0.001), methylmethacrylate (OR 2.86, p<0.001), cytotoxic drugs (OR 3.03, p<0.001), and formaldehyde (2.08, p = 0.011), to name a few. Conclusion Although surgeon safety is not a domain in residency training, standardized efforts to educate and change the culture of safety in residency programs is warranted. Our study demonstrates a disparity between trainees and attendings with a recommendation to provide formal training to trainees independent of their anticipated risk of exposure.
TC10 regulates breast cancer invasion and metastasis by controlling membrane type-1 matrix metalloproteinase at invadopodia.

During breast cancer metastasis, cancer cell invasion is driven by actin-rich protrusions called invadopodia, which mediate the extracellular matrix degradation required for the success of the invasive cascade. In this study, we demonstrate that TC10, a member of a Cdc42 subfamily of p21 small GTPases, regulates the membrane type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP)-driven extracellular matrix degradation at invadopodia. We show that TC10 is required for the plasma membrane surface exposure of MT1-MMP at these structures. By utilizing our Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) biosensor, we demonstrate the p190RhoGAP-dependent regulation of spatiotemporal TC10 activity at invadopodia. We identified a pathway that regulates invadopodia-associated TC10 activity and function through the activation of p190RhoGAP and the downstream interacting effector Exo70. Our findings reveal the role of a previously unknown regulator of vesicular fusion at invadopodia, TC10 GTPase, in breast cancer invasion and metastasis. Hulsemann et al. examine the role of TC10, a p21 small GTPase, in breast cancer invasion and metastasis, by regulating membrane type-1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1- MMP) at invadopodia. The authors also develop a FRET biosensor for TC10, which is used to further investigate p190RhoGAP-dependent regulation of spatiotemporal TC10 activity.
The Triple System of Family Law

The Article analyzes the role of class in family structure and family law. Building on Jacobus ten Broek’s classic articulation of a “dual system” of family law, we explore the nascent development of a parallel third system of family law. In the early sixties, ten Broek argued that family law had two parts that differ in substance, purpose, and procedure. One system focused on private arrangements and supported the families of those who were economically self-sufficient. Ten Broek maintained, however, that a parallel second system existed, one imposed on those who sought public assistance. In this second system: i) the state, not individual family members, controls the litigation and the settlements; ii) the law imposed may not necessarily reflect the community norms or the parties’ understanding of the terms of their own relationships; and iii) the purpose of the litigation is to protect the public fisc and reaffirm mainstream norms, whether or not the results are in the interests of the parties to the litigation. Since then, a middle group of families has emerged. It is more likely than the marginalized group to get married but also more likely than the elite group to divorce, remarry, and cohabit; their nonmarital birth rate, while increasing, remains lower than that of the marginalized group. Within this group, the heretofore largely invisible fight within family law is over how to set the terms for families where women are increasingly the more reliable breadwinners and homemakers, without the ability to lock in understandings that would reflect their greater assumption of family responsibilities. Development of the laws in this third system accordingly requires recognition that the critical choice is whether to accept women’s greater authority within the family or accelerate the move away from committed relationships altogether.
Modification of Ontogenetic Patterns in Mammalian Brain

Publisher Summary Normal morphological and physiological developmental patterns in feline cerebral and cerebellar cortex are summarized in this chapter in order to provide a basis for the analysis of the pathophysiological effects of two types of injuries to the immature brain. Surgical interruption of axons of pyramidal neurons markedly accelerates the development of intracortical axon-collaterals that establish synaptic relations with adjacent arciform pyramidal neurons. One consequence of this re-organization of synaptic pathways is reflected in the development of powerful excitatory synaptic activities in traumatized regions of immature neocortex. Effects of x-irradiation of cerebellar cortex in newborn kittens are defined primarily in terms of loss of the external granular layer and modification of Purkinje cell morphogenesis. Major alterations in electrophysiological properties of irradiated cerebellar cortex are seen in evoked responses to folial surface and motor cortex stimulation. These alterations are considered expressions of radiation-induced maturation acceleration and re-organization of synaptic pathways and possible changes in membrane properties of Purkinje cell dendrites. The data obtained in these ontogenetic studies of pathophysiological processes indicate that different types of insults to the immature brain may produce similar overt effects, that is, changes in excitability by entirely different mechanisms.
Object-Oriented Multidatabase Systems: A Solution for Advanced Applications

The first book to use object-oriented techniques for multidatabase problems. The authors show how to solve the problems of databases talking to each other using an object-oriented approach.
Sampling Hard to Reach Populations: A Survey on Forced Migration During Maoist Insurgency in Nepal

Most research on forced migration acknowledges the fact that acquiring accurate data on refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) is challenging, if not impossible. With the help of a national human rights organization, embedded in communities across Nepal, I employed a weighted multi-stage cluster sampling technique to survey over 1800 individuals from 56 village development committees (VDCs) drawn from 11 of the 75 districts of Nepal to study individual coping behaviors during a decade-long insurgency in Nepal. This national sample represents districts that were hard-hit during the conflict, all three topographical regions, all five development regions, and both rural and urban parts of Nepal.
Using neural nets to optimize retrieval in a fuzzy relational database

This paper examines the theory behind Fuzzy Sets and Back-Propagation Neural Nets, and how neural nets can be used to replace fuzzy sets and improve the query performance in a Fuzzy Relational Database (FRDB).Neural Nets and Fuzzy Relations are complementary theories that can be used together effectively in a Fuzzy Relational Database. This paper brings the theories of Fuzzy Sets, Neural Nets and Fuzzy Relational Databases together into one system.
Access to Knowledge in Brazil: New Research on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development

Foreword Introduction From Free Software to Free Culture: The Emergence of Open Business Exceptions and Limitations to Copyright in Brazil: A Call for Reform Biotechnology in Brazil: Promoting open innovation Access to Medicines: Pharmaceutical Patents and the Right to Health.
A simplified surgical technique for the treatment of the vault in vaginal hysterectomy

Abstract The surgical steps in the various techniques to remove the uterus by vaginal hysterectomy are quite uniform; however, the handling of the vaginal cuff differs with each and all techniques reviewed. The technique here described is a simplified method that secures hemostasis, establishes drainage of the anterior vaginal wall, and creates a vaginal canal adequate for sexual function. Emphasis is placed on the inclination of the vagina, a step that brings the vaginal axis almost perpendicular to the body axis, obviating the constant bearing-down effect of the intra-abdominal pressure on the apex of the vagina. Prevention of subsequent enterocele formation is achieved by the occlusion of the weak spot between the uterosacral ligaments, the site of the hernial sac formation.
Knowledge and Attitudes About Geriatrics of Medical Students, Internal Medicine Residents, and Geriatric Medicine Fellows

Objectives: To evaluate the attitudes and knowledge of medical students (MS1–3), internal medicine residents (postgraduate years 1 to 3 (PGY1–3)), and geriatric medicine fellows about elderly patients before implementation of a new geriatrics curriculum. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: An academic medical center. Participants: Two hundred eleven people participated: 54 MS1, 52 MS2, 50 MS3, 20 PGY1, 12 PGY2, 12 PGY3, and 11 geriatric medicine fellows. Measurements: Each participant completed a questionnaire, including a 16-item geriatrics attitude scale, and a 23-item knowledge test (both revised versions of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Geriatrics Survey). Pearson correlation coefficients and t tests were used for statistical analyses. Results: Both surveys demonstrated high internal consistency (α=0.70 and 0.71, respectively). Knowledge test scores increased with advancing level of training. MS1 and MS2 scored significantly lower and fellows scored significantly higher than others. PGY3 scored significantly higher than PGY1 on the knowledge test. All groups demonstrated positive attitudes toward geriatric patients (score>3.5). MS1 and fellows had significantly more favorable attitudes scores than more advanced students and residents. Conclusion: The results suggest that the UCLA Attitudes Scale and Knowledge Test can be used reliably to assess attitudes and knowledge level across all levels of medical education and training. The information from this study will be used to implement a more structured and comprehensive geriatrics curriculum across all trainee levels to improve attitudes and knowledge in the care of the geriatric patient.
Internationalization of the Political Science Major: A Comparative Analysis of Undergraduate Course Requirements and Offerings

Calls for the internationalization of higher education typically highlight the importance of providing students with the tools to understand and operate in a global environment. Reports from the political science discipline, in particular, stress the need for expansion of the international content of the field’s undergraduate curriculum. Appropriately, the same studies also draw attention to the practical challenges associated with curriculum internationalization efforts: funding constraints, geographic insulation, and institutional resistance. Though instructive, such evaluations tend to employ evidence that is specific to certain regions of the country or to certain types of institutions. In this paper, I attempt to give further context to the aforementioned works. I present statistical information on international course offerings and requirements (for the political science major) from more than five hundred U.S. colleges and universities. Then, I assess the extent to which the information supports existing arguments regarding the state of curriculum internationalization. Finally, I offer provisional suggestions for addressing challenges to curriculum internationalization.
A Pilot Study: Reports of Benefits from a 6-Month, Multidisciplinary, Shared Medical Appointment Approach for Heart Failure Patients

ABSTRACT Heart failure continues to be the leading cause of hospitalization among older adults. Noncompliance with medications, dietary indiscretion, failure to recognize symptoms, and failed social support systems contribute to increased morbidity. Multidisciplinary medical approaches have proven successful for heart failure. In 2004, the Naval Medical Center San Diego started a multidisciplinary shared medical appointment for patients with complicated cases of heart failure. Patients enrolled in the heart failure clinic were monitored prospectively for 6 months. Validated questionnaires concerning satisfaction with care, self-care management, depression, and quality-of-life measures were administered at baseline and 6 months after enrollment. Thirty-nine individuals were enrolled in the clinic, with 33 completing 6 months of follow-up monitoring to date. Hospital admissions for any cause decreased from 11 to eight, whereas congestive heart failure-related admissions decreased from four to two. There was...
Implementing a Mixed-Mode Design for Collecting Administrative Records: Striking a Balance between Quality and Burden

Administrative records are increasingly being used by Federal agencies in lieu of, to augment, or as a quality control tool for survey data. As agencies’ use and reliance on administrative records grow, it becomes increasingly important to understand how the data are assembled, organized, managed, and reported. This paper will focus on answering the question: “How does the mode in which administrative records are reported or obtained from record-keeping entities affect the quality of those data?” We analyze the data from the Energy Supplier Survey (ESS) of the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS). During the ESS, administrative records are reported by companies who supply energy to the households surveyed for the RECS. Respondents self-select mode from a fixed set of mode options, the most common being online teleform, electronic file submission, and paper/pen. Reported data were edited by analysts using tools such as bills collected during the household interview. In this paper we explore whether the reporting mode had an effect on the number of edit failures and errors in the data, by controlling for factors such as number of administrative records reported. We find that errors in the data did differ by the mode selected by the respondent.
Effects of long-term estrogen replacement therapy: I. Metabolic effects

Two groups of hypoestrogenic women are analyzed by retrospective comparisons. Patients were observed by a single group of physicians for at least five years; 301 patients were treated with replacement estrogen and 309 patients were untreated. Incidence figures for various metabolic diseases present at entry and both during and after estrogen therapy were compared by the usual statistical analysis and by statistical adjustments for certain group differences (Mantel-Haenszel statistic). The long-term administration of estrogen to these relatively young women with hypoestrogenism was associated with significantly lower rates of development of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, osteoporosis, and fractures. Detrimental effects were a higher rate of abnormal uterine bleeding and an increase in the likelihood of developing adenocarcinoma of the endometrium. Effects of estrogen preparation, dosage, method of therapy, duration of therapy, and the addition of synthetic progestins are presented.
Good Readers Get Smart: Reading Orientations in a Second-Grade Classroom

The primary goal of this research is to better understand my students' reading orientations – what they believe it means to be a successful reader. I also seek to identify the relationship between those beliefs and my teaching. The data come primarily from six focal students in my second-grade classroom in an urban public charter elementary school in Oakland, California. Focal students were observed, interviewed, and asked to discuss and rank vignettes of readers with varying reading behaviors, skills, and habits. In addition, I drew on systematic reflections about my own teaching and students. Results showed that focal students shared reading orientations toward aspects of fluency, such as accuracy, and knowledge-level comprehension skills, such as retelling events from a story. Results also showed that students' responses correlated closely with teaching points emphasized both within my classroom and around the school. These results, in combination with data from observations, led me to discover that st...
Mercury Removal from Coal by Leaching with SO2

This paper is about the pretreatment of coal to remove mercury content prior to coal combustion. The minute amount of mercury in Pittsburgh No. 8 coal (0.177 ppm) was removed by flowing a gas stream containing 10% oxygen and 1000 ppm SO2 into a coal−water slurry at 30 mL/s. A total of 50 g of 35−65 mesh coal was leached each time in 500 mL of solution. The temperature was varied from 50 to 80 °C, and the initial solution pH varied at 5.7, 1.8, and 1.5. It was found that the mercury removal increased from 44.2% at 50 °C to 88.6% at 75 °C at the natural pH (5.7) and after 3 h of reaction time. The pyrite conversions were much lower than those of mercury. Both the mercury and pyrite removals increased as the pH decreased at 71 °C. Mercury removal was high enough to consider the application of this technology to a commercial process.
Analyticity and the indeterminacy of translation

The subject of this paper is the analytic-synthetic distinction and its relation to the indeterminacy of translation. In particular, I am con cerned with the question of whether a denial of the analytic-synthetic distinction need involve one in the general scepticism about meaning which is dramatized by the claim that translation is indeterminate. My answer to this question is complex, largely because of a complexity or unclarity in the way in which the analytic-synthetic distinction has been thought of. Proponents of that distinction have taken it to be an epistemological cleavage among statements; they have also assumed that analyticity is simply truth by virtue of meaning, and so must be acceptable if the notion of meaning is. They have thus assumed that the notion of meaning has the power to divide statements into two epistemologically quite distinct kinds. Once articulated in this way, this assumption is at least not obvious; I hope to cast doubt upon it. My strategy is as follows. Drawing largely on the work of Quine, I present two arguments (in sections 1 and 2, respectively). The second is an attack on the notion of meaning, and rests upon, or is equivalent to, the indeterminacy of translation. The first argument seems to rely upon nothing so controversial, and is explicitly an attack on the idea that the analytic-synthetic distinction is of general epistemological importance. Separating the two arguments illuminates the complex debate between Carnap and Quine over analyticity; it also suggests that one can accept the first argument (thereby rejecting the philoso phical use of the analytic-synthetic distinction) without accepting the general scepticism about meaning which is the burden of the second argument.1
Where Are We Going? Are We There Yet?

Libraries need to make progress with user centered search and discovery work. Context specific resource and search recommendations, alternative approaches, efficient federated searching, and live synchronous help must be a more vital part of the online landscape which libraries present to users. Staff must view the virtual and physical presence as parts of the whole spectrum of service and be comfortable in both environments.
RNAi‐mediated depletion of the 15 KH domain protein, vigilin, induces death of dividing and non‐dividing human cells but does not initially inhibit protein synthesis

Vigilin/Scp160p/DDP1 is a ubiquitous and highly conserved protein containing 15 related, but non-identical, K-homology (KH) nucleic acid binding domains. While its precise function remains unknown, proposed roles for vigilin include chromosome partitioning at mitosis, facilitating translation and tRNA transport, and control of mRNA metabolism, including estrogen-mediated stabilization of vitellogenin mRNA. To probe sites of vigilin action in vertebrate cells, we performed nucleic acid binding and RNA interference studies. Consistent with a potential role in chromosome partitioning, human vigilin exhibits a higher affinity for Drosophila dodecasatellite single-stranded DNA than for vitellogenin mRNA 3′-UTR. Direct observation and flow cytometry in non-mitotic, serum-starved, HeLa cells showed that RNAi-mediated vigilin knockdown is rapidly lethal, indicating an essential function for vigilin distinct from its proposed role in chromosome partitioning. Pulse labeling experiments revealed that rates of protein synthesis and degradation are unaffected by the several fold reduction in vigilin levels early in siRNA knockdown indicating that vigilin is not a global regulator of translation. These data show that vigilin is an essential protein in human cells, support the view that vigilin’s most essential functions are neither chromosome partitioning nor control of translation, and are consistent with vigilin playing a critical role in cytoplasmic mRNA metabolism.
Remote context fear conditioning remains hippocampus-dependent irrespective of training protocol, training–surgery interval, lesion size, and lesion method

Abstract Systems consolidation involves the reorganization of brain circuits that support long-term memory. It is a prolonged process that can take days, weeks, or longer. An animal model of systems consolidation was established in the early 1990s and provided compelling support for the initial observations in humans, that hippocampal damage disproportionally impairs recent memory compared to remote memory. Context fear conditioning was the most frequently and successfully used task to study systems consolidation and demonstrate temporally graded retrograde amnesia. However, recent studies have failed to support these early findings of temporal gradients and instead reported that both recent and remote memories are equally impaired. Thus, the status of context fear conditioning as method to study the process of systems consolidation is at present uncertain. Accordingly, we evaluated classically conditioned fear memory in large groups of rats with hippocampal damage by manipulating several procedural variables including the training protocol, the training–surgery interval, the extent of hippocampal damage, and the method of damaging the hippocampus. The results indicate that hippocampal damage profoundly impairs context fear conditioning. These findings are unambiguous and independent of any particular procedural manipulation we evaluated. We suggest that the preponderance of currently available evidence indicates that context fear memory remains hippocampus-dependent indefinitely.
Humanistic Psychology and the Contemporary Crisis of Reason

Abstract Humanistic psychology has a long-standing tradition of challenging implicit assumptions about the nature of subjectivity. These challenges and critiques have exposed psychology's “natural attitude” and in so doing, have led it in a more liberatory direction. However, the role of the rational, especially as it has been used to sustain an oppressive status quo, remains an undertheorized topic within humanistic psychology. For example, privileging the role of the rational within humanistic discourse has inadvertently contributed to dichotomous and essentialist views of femininity and masculinity. To truly appreciate the sociopolitical grounding of identity and experience, humanistic psychology must be willing to examine and relinquish its (over) investment in rationality.
Suprasellar displacement of intracavernous internal carotid artery: case report.

Objective and importance We present a previously undescribed variant of the cavernous internal carotid artery (ICA) and review the literature concerning other variants of the cavernous ICA. Clinical presentation The patient, a 53-year-old woman with fibromuscular dysplasia and multiple intracranial aneurysms, underwent cerebral angiography in preparation for clipping of a terminal ICA bifurcation aneurysm that demonstrated a redundant loop of the cavernous ICA abutting the supraclinoid carotid artery. Intervention The patient underwent a pterional craniotomy to approach a terminal ICA bifurcation aneurysm. During the procedure, an unexpected vascular anomaly was discovered. On further dissection, we confirmed that the vascular abnormality was a segment of the ICA that had herniated through the superomedial cavernous sinus wall. Conclusion This case demonstrates that the cavernous ICA may become dehiscent from the cavernous sinus wall and herniate into the suprasellar space. Knowledge and anticipation of anatomic variants of the cavernous carotid artery are essential to avoid inadvertent vascular injury during surgery.
A Family of Mortality Jump Models Applied to U.S. Data

Mortality models are fundamental to quantify mortality/longevity risks and provide the basis of pricing and reserving. In this paper, we consider a family of mortality jump models and propose a new generalized Lee-Carter model with asymmetric double exponential jumps. It is asymmetric in terms of both time periods of impact and frequency/severity profiles between adverse mortality jumps and longevity jumps. It is mathematically tractable and economically intuitive. It degenerates to a transitory exponential jump model when fitting the U.S. mortality data and is the best fit compared with other jump models.
The conformation and orientation of copper(II)-bleomycin intercalated with DNA

Abstract EPR data are used to describe the conformation and identity of the atoms coordinated to Cu(II) in Cu(II)-bleomycin bound to oriented DNA fibers. The fibers were slowly drawn from viscous solutions of Cu(II)-bleomycin-DNA containing one Cu(II)-bleomycin to 200 basepairs. EPR measurements were made at room temperature and 90 K for different orientations of the external magnetic field with respect to the helical axes of the fibers. The g-values ( g  =2.21 , g⊥ =2.04) and the hyperfine constant ( A  =175 G ) are consistent with values expected for Cu(II) chelated to a square planar array of ligands. In the oriented fibers, the square planar arrays do not all have the same orientations with respect to the fiber axes. At room temperature the chelated ions have rotational freedom in which the normal to the planar array has almost complete freedom of rotation about axes perpendicular to the DNA fiber axes. The normal maintains an angle of 75° with respect to the axis, in the plane of the basepair, about which it rotates. Nine superhyperfine peaks on the high field side of the EPR spectrum were partially resolved. The number and splitting (12 G) of these superhyperfine peaks indicate that four nitrogen atoms are chelated to Cu(II) in a square planar array. These data on Cu(II)-bleomycin bound to DNA give information on the orientation of the metal-containing portion of bleomycin which lies outside the double helix.
“I Think About It All The Time”: A 12-Year-Old Girl’s Internal Crisis With Racism and the Effects on her Mental Health

I conducted an ethnographic study, situated within the conceptual framework of Critical Race Theory, which illustrates one child’s experiences with racism. The study was conducted in an urban after-school program, and explores issues of racism in both the school and community settings. Utilizing the storytelling aspect of Critical Race Theory, I explore the racial experiences of a 12-year-old African-American girl, and the dichotomous emotions of sadness and anger that emerge. I describe the risk to this child’s emotional well-being, and suggest a need within the mental health field to create a framework to deal with the trauma caused by racism.
Systematic Errors Occur in the Discrimination of Complex Audio Signals

Previous research suggests that the temporal pattern of dissimilar sounds may be a basis for confusion. To extend this research, the present study used complex sounds formed by simultaneously playing components drawn from four sound categories. Four temporal patterns, determined by sound duration and duty cycle were also used, producing a total of 16 basic components. The density (i.e., number of components played simultaneously) ranged from one to four. Subjects heard a sequence of two complex sounds and judged whether they were same of different. For trials in which the sounds differed, there were three possible manipulations: the addition of a component, the deletion of a component, and the substitution of one component for another.Overall accuracy was 94 percent across the 144 dissimilar sound complexes. As density increased, a significantly greater number of errors occurred for all classes of manipulations. Changes in individual temporal patterns across a variety of manipulations of sounds involving ...
A79: Pulmonary Hemorrhage in Pediatric Systemic Lupus Erythematous: Clinical Course and Outcomes

Background/Purpose: Pulmonary hemorrhage (PH) is a rare and devastating manifestation of SLE, occurring in 1–5% of adult cohorts with mortality rates ranging from 70%-90%. The majority of PH reported in SLE refers to the adult population, and there is a paucity of data in pediatrics. Therefore, we describe our experience with PH in pediatric SLE, outlining disease presentation, treatment, and outcomes. Methods: We reviewed records of pediatric SLE patients who presented with pulmonary involvement diagnosed between January 2000 and August 2010. Inclusion criteria included > 4 SLE classification criteria and PH based on pulmonary evaluation by BAL, lung biopsy and/or characteristic imaging with worsening anemia. We describe our pediatric cohort, presenting symptoms, diagnostic modalities, various interventions and overall outcomes. Results: Seven of 401 (1.7%) SLE patients met inclusion criteria for PH. Patients were predominantly male (71.4%) and Hispanic (57.1%). Median age of PH presentation was 13.5 years (range 2.0–15.2). Episodes were primarily within the first 3 months of SLE diagnosis (71.4%) and were a presenting manifestation for SLE in 28.6% of our patients. All patients presented with a new cough, dyspnea, hypoxemia, anemia and abnormal CXR. Hemoptysis was present in 28.6%. Four out of 6 children had chest CT findings with diffuse ground glass opacities (66.6%) and 3 with nodules (50%). Additional non-pulmonary features included fever (71.4%), renal disease (57.1%), cytopenias (71.4%), cardiac disease (50.0%), and positive antiphospholipid antibodies (85.7%). Eighty-five percent required supplemental oxygen and 57.1% required mechanical ventilation. Hemosiderin-laden macrophages without infection were observed in 3 BAL's. Out of the two lung biopsies performed, both revealed diffuse hemorrhage and one demonstrated immunoglobulin and complement deposition. All were treated with pulse doses of methylprednisolone infusions. Other therapeutic interventions included cyclophosphamide (42.8%), plasma exchange (42.8%), rituximab (85.7%) and IVIG (14.2%). Survival rate was 87.5%. All patients were maintained on corticosteroids and 66.6% received monthly cyclophosphamide infusions. Subsequent outpatient therapies included IVIG (33.3%), azathioprine (16.6%) or rituximab (16.6%). No patients had recurrences of PH. No survivors required supplemental oxygen nor developed interstitial lung disease (median follow-up 2.6 years, range 1.5–5.0). Conclusion: In our review of pSLE patients with PH, the prevalence of this complication approximated that of adult SLE cohorts. However, in contrast to the adult population, PH presented earlier in the course of SLE in children. Additionally, outcomes were favorable with initiation of aggressive, multi-modal immunosuppressive therapy with no recurrences. The mortality rate was much lower than described in adult cohorts.
Production history matching to determine reservoir properties of important coal groups in the Upper Pottsville formation, Brookwood and Oak Grove fields, Black Warrior Basin, Alabama

The Black Warrior Basin of Alabama is one of the most important coal mining and coalbed methane production areas in the United States. Methane control efforts through degasification that started almost 25 years ago for the sole purpose of ensuring mining safety resulted in more than 5000 coalbed methane wells distributed within various fields throughout the basin. The wells are completed mostly in the Pratt, Mary Lee, and Black Creek coal groups of the Upper Pottsville formation and present a unique opportunity to understand methane reservoir properties of these coals and to improve their degasification performances. The Brookwood and Oak Grove fields in the Black Warrior Basin are probably two of the most important fields in the basin due to current longwall coal mining activities. In this work, methane and water productions of 92 vertical wellbores drilled, some completed 20 years ago, over a current large coal mine district located in these two fields, were analyzed by history matching techniques. The boreholes were completed at the Mary Lee coal group, or at combinations of the Pratt, Mary Lee, and Black Creek groups. History matching models were prepared and performed according to properties of each coal group. Decline curve analyses showed that effective exponential decline rates of the wells were between 2% and 25% per year. Results of production history matching showed, although they varied by coal group, that pressure decreased as much as 80% to nearly 25 psi in some areas and resulted in corresponding decreases in methane content. Water saturation in coals decreased from 100% to between 20 and 80%, improving gas relative permeabilities to as much as 0.8. As a result of primary depletion, permeability of coal seams increased between 10 and 40% compared to their original permeability, which varied between 1 and 10 md depending on depth and coal seam. These results not only can be used for diagnostic and interpretation purposes, but can be used as parameter distributions in probabilistic simulations, as illustrated in the last section of this paper. They can also be used in conjunction with spatial modeling and geological considerations to calculate potential methane emissions in operating mines.
Tensions in Talking Diversity

Diversity policies and programs continue to be a prominent yet problematic feature of organizational life. This study explored tensions arising as 30 employees talk about their experience with Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), Affirmative Action (AA), and diversity in a midwestern human service organization. Tensions related to fairness and fear emerged as interpretive themes prompting majority group members to avoid interacting about racial differences and minority group members to do the work of making difference meaningful. We argue that formal policies and diversity programs be re-imagined so as to ease interaction constraints between groups.
Degree of host susceptibility in the initial disease outbreak influences subsequent epidemic spread

Disease epidemics typically begin as an outbreak of a relatively small, spatially explicit population of infected individuals (focus), in which disease prevalence increases and rapidly spreads into the uninfected, at-risk population. Studies of epidemic spread typically address factors influencing disease spread through the at-risk population, but the initial outbreak may strongly influence spread of the subsequent epidemic.We initiated wheat stripe rust Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici epidemics to assess the influence of the focus on final disease prevalence when the degree of disease susceptibility differed between the at-risk and focus populations.When the focus/at-risk plantings consisted of partially genetic resistant and susceptible cultivars, final disease prevalence was statistically indistinguishable from epidemics produced by the focus cultivar in monoculture. In these experimental epidemics, disease prevalence was not influenced by the transition into an at-risk population that differed in disease susceptibility. Instead, the focus appeared to exert a dominant influence on the subsequent epidemic.Final disease prevalence was not consistently attributable to either the focus or the at-risk population when focus/at-risk populations were planted in a factorial set-up with a mixture (~28% susceptible and 72% resistant) and susceptible individuals. In these experimental epidemics, spatial heterogeneity in disease susceptibility within the at-risk population appeared to counter the dominant influence of the focus.Cessation of spore production from the focus (through fungicide/glyphosate application) after 1.3 generations of stripe rust spread did not reduce final disease prevalence, indicating that the focus influence on disease spread is established early in the epidemic.Synthesis and applications. Our experiments indicated that outbreak conditions can be highly influential on epidemic spread, even when disease resistance in the at-risk population is greater than that of the focus. Disease control treatments administered shortly after the initial outbreak within the focus may either prevent an epidemic from occurring or reduce its severity.
Charged Higgs bosons and decays of heavy flavored mesons

Abstract We explore the possibility that charged Higgs bosons exist. The role of e + e − experiments carried out above heavy quark thresholds is stressed. Striking experimental signatures are predicted.
Use of paired stimuli in modification of articulation.

A pictured key word which contained a correctly articulated target phoneme in final position was paired with 10 pictured training words which contained the incorrectly articulated target phoneme in the final position and 10 additional times with pictured training words which contained the incorrectly articulated target phoneme in initial position. Each child was instructed only to name the paired pictures in the fixed pattern of key word-training word. During contingent pairing, reinforcement was immediate and dispensed for all correct responses. Each of three children achieved 100% correct articulation of the target phonemes in the 20 training words. A multiple baseline procedure was used. The total amount of training time from onset of contingent-pairing to 100% correct was 3 hr. for Subject A, 48 min. for Subject B, and 2 hr. 24 min. for Subject C.
The problem with problem‐based medical education: Promises not kept

More than a decade after a student-centered, problem-based learning (PBL) was implemented at many medical schools in the United States and other countries world wide, the debate about the merits of PBL medical education continues to embroil its proponents and those who favor the more traditional lecture-based approach to learning. The author, while believing that the premise of PBL medical education is still valid, is disappointed that poor implementation of PBL has compromised its potential. Several reasons that may explain why PBL has failed to live up to its promises and expectations include: first, inadequate support of the curriculum from basic scientists who either do not support the concept itself or who place much greater value on research than on teaching; second, poor oversight and inadequate assessment of the PBL curriculum on the part of administrators and faculty charged with its implementation; and third, excessive reliance on insufficiently knowledgeable or motivated clinician educators to teach basic science information and principles in the latter years of the curriculum. This essay is intended to stimulate discussion and analysis of the extent to which PBL medical education has failed to deliver on its promises.
The partition of unity finite element approach with hp-refinement for the stationary Fokker-Planck equation

Abstract In this paper, the stationary Fokker–Planck equation (FPE) is solved for nonlinear dynamical systems using a local numerical technique based on the meshless partition of unity finite element method (PUFEM). The method is applied to stationary FPE for 2-, 3- and 4-D systems and is argued to be an excellent candidate for higher dimensional problems and the transient problem. Local refinement is applied by introducing higher order polynomials in selected subdomains (local p -refinement) to keep the problem size small while ensuring high approximation accuracy. Various local approximations are blended using novel pasting functions that provide any desired order of continuity. Results are compared with existing global and local techniques. Local p -refinement is touted as an important step towards breaking the curse of dimensionality in numerical solution of FPE.
Structure of O 16

An exact shell-model calculation is presented that gives a good description of the properties of ${\mathrm{O}}^{16}$ and neighboring nuclei.