cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Visualizing collaborative electronic health record usage for hospitalized patients with heart failure

Objective To visualize and describe collaborative electronic health record (EHR) usage for hospitalized patients with heart failure. Materials and methods We identified records of patients with heart failure and all associated healthcare provider record usage through queries of the Northwestern Medicine Enterprise Data Warehouse. We constructed a network by equating access and updates of a patient’s EHR to a provider-patient interaction. We then considered shared patient record access as the basis for a second network that we termed the provider collaboration network . We calculated network statistics, the modularity of provider interactions, and provider cliques. Results We identified 548 patient records accessed by 5113 healthcare providers in 2012. The provider collaboration network had 1504 nodes and 83 998 edges. We identified 7 major provider collaboration modules. Average clique size was 87.9 providers. We used a graph database to demonstrate an ad hoc query of our provider-patient network. Discussion Our analysis suggests a large number of healthcare providers across a wide variety of professions access records of patients with heart failure during their hospital stay. This shared record access tends to take place not only in a pairwise manner but also among large groups of providers. Conclusion EHRs encode valuable interactions, implicitly or explicitly, between patients and providers. Network analysis provided strong evidence of multidisciplinary record access of patients with heart failure across teams of 100+ providers. Further investigation may lead to clearer understanding of how record access information can be used to strategically guide care coordination for patients hospitalized for heart failure.
Probabilistic method for predicting the variability in fatigue behavior of 7075-T6 aluminum

This paper assesses the applicability of a probabilistic model to estimating fatigue life variability for 7075-T6 aluminum. The test specimens for the experimental program were 7075-T6 aluminum single edge notch tension specimens tested under constant amplitude loading (cmax - 120 MPa, R = 0.01). The shortest observed fatigue life was 37,000 cycles and the longest 650,000 cycles. A plastic replication procedure was used to identify crack nucleation sites and monitor crack growth. The initiation sites were identified by examining the plastic replicas and the fracture surfaces of the failed specimens. In agreement with previous studies, the fatigue cracks formed in the center of the notch from material inclusions. For the prediction model, the distribution of inclusion sizes (0.2 (o.m2-45 jam2) within the material were used as the distribution of initial flaw sizes. It was assumed that the crack formation life was a small percentage of the total life, and thus life predictions were based entirely on crack propagation. The cumulative distributions for the fatigue lives from the experimental work and the numerical model were compared to assess the effectiveness of the model. While Experimental crack formation lives as long as 50-70% of the total life were observed in some of the- tests, the model predicted failures well in the shorter life regime. The predicted lives were conservative, and in the shortest life region, the predictions were within 15% of the observed lives.
Simulating the three-dimensional distribution of sediment units in braided-stream deposits

Full hydrogeological characterization of a sediment body must include a detailed description of its three-dimensional internal geometry. Where either direct methods or remote sensing are inadequate, computer simulations can be used to approximate the internal structure. A computer code, BCS-3D, was developed that simulates the three-dimensional internal geometry of sediment units for braided-stream deposits. Code development was based on the assumption that (1) a certain part of the surface (geomorphological) system is captured and preserved in the sedimentological record, and (2) characteristics of sediment units are a function of the localized flow energy as expressed by the Froude number. BCS-3D uses a random-walk approach to describe the formation of braided-channel networks. The concept of hydraulic geometry is incorporated to translate a two-dimensional topological network to a three-dimensional topographic surface. A series of these surfaces is stacked vertically with some offset, to produce a three-dimensional description of the internal architecture. Individual elements in the architecture are associated with specific sediment units based on a description of flow energy in the form of the Froude number. No comprehensive data set is available to validate this approach fully. However, the model was compared with and adequately matched a composite set of measurements from two studies in systems with similar physical characteristics, the Ohau River in New Zealand and the Squamish River in British Columbia, Canada.
Pressure-Induced Water Transport in Membrane Channels Studied by Molecular Dynamics

A method is proposed to measure the water permeability of membrane channels by means of molecular dynamics simulations. By applying a constant force to the bulk water molecules and a counter force on the complementary system, a hydrostatic pressure difference across the membrane can be established, producing a net directional water flow. The hydraulic or osmotic permeability can then be determined by the ratio of the water flux and the pressure difference. The method is applied and tested on an aquaglyceroporin channel through a series of simulations totaling 5 ns in duration.
Advances in rover technology for space exploration

As NASA's two Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) continue their second year of operation at the red planet, the importance of surface mobility to space science is ever more apparent. In this paper we discuss some key problems in advancing performance of autonomous planetary rovers for future missions. Among the topics covered are the safe and accurate traverse of rough, science rich terrain, accurate localization and navigation of large terrain expanses, time-efficient and precise placement science instruments on targets of interest, on-board science data processing, and development of higher-level on-board "decision" skills. We also briefly discuss the development of a class of multi-robot systems that move beyond objectives of planetary science toward eventual emplacement and maintenance of planetary outposts for human-robotic exploration as articulated in the recent Vision for Space Exploration by George W. Bush.
The Effects of Cognitive Misfit on Students' Accounting Task Performance

ABSTRACT : Accounting educators have long been interested in the effects of cognitive style on student performance. Research suggests that students' cognitive styles can moderate their success across a variety of assessment methods (i.e., multiple-choice versus written reports versus case study) (Au 1997) and instructional methodologies (Ott et al. 1990). Not clear, however, is the impact of cognitive style on a student's accounting task performance. Several studies have examined the relationship between accounting students' cognitive styles and their performance on accounting tasks, but the results have been mixed (Jones and Davidson 2007; Togo 1993; Arunachalam et al. 1997; Swanson et al. 2005). Using Chan's (1996) theory of cognitive misfit, this study proposes that diminished performance will occur when there is incongruence between a student's cognitive style and the cognitive demands of an accounting task. The Felder-Solomon Index of Learning Styles was used to classify students' cognitive styles as...
Legislatures, Courts, and Statutory Control of the Bureaucracy across the U.S. States

How do state legislatures use statutory language to control policy implementation by state agencies? In this article, I consider—in a specific policy area and time period—the extent to which this d...
Prospects for inferring pairwise relationships with single nucleotide polymorphisms.

An extraordinarily large number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are now available in humans as well as in other model organisms. Technological advancements may soon make it feasible to assay hundreds of SNPs in virtually any organism of interest. One potential application of SNPs is the determination of pairwise genetic relationships in populations without known pedigrees. Although microsatellites are currently the marker of choice for this purpose, the number of independently segregating microsatellite markers that can be feasibly assayed is limited. Thus, it can be difficult to distinguish reliably some classes of relationship (e.g. full-sibs from half-sibs) with microsatellite data alone. We assess, via Monte Carlo computer simulation, the potential for using a large panel of independently segregating SNPs to infer genetic relationships, following the analytical approach of Blouin et al. (1996). We have explored a 'best case scenario' in which 100 independently segregating SNPs are available. For discrimination among single-generation relationships or for the identification of parent-offspring pairs, it appears that such a panel of moderately polymorphic SNPs (minor allele frequency of 0.20) will provide discrimination power equivalent to only 16-20 independently segregating microsatellites. Although newly available analytical methods that can account for tight genetic linkage between markers will, in theory, allow improved estimation of relationships using thousands of SNPs in highly dense genomic scans, in practice such studies will only be feasible in a handful of model organisms. Given the comparable amount of effort required for the development of both types of markers, it seems that microsatellites will remain the marker of choice for relationship estimation in nonmodel organisms, at least for the foreseeable future.
Thrombosis and Fibrinolysis in Acute Myocardial Infarction

The development of coronary thrombosis in response to rupture of atherosclerotic plaques is the primary determinant of the evolution of stable atherosclerotic coronary disease to unstable ischemic syndromes and acute myocardial infarction. Activation of the tissue factor pathway of coagulation and adhesion of platelets are critical events in the initiation of thrombosis. However, subsequently, other factors may determine the extent of thrombosis by modulating the intensity of procoagulant and fibrinolytic activity. Marked procoagulant activity, attenuation of physiologic fibrinolytic activity, or both appear to be risk factors for myocardial infarction. The results of recent studies have provided considerable insight into potential mechanisms for thrombosis in response to rupture of atherosclerotic plaque and have identified potential novel antithrombotic interventions to inhibit the progression of coronary thrombosis.
Geographic Named Entity Disambiguation with Automatic Profile Generation

Knowledge rich approach of processing documents has been viewed as a method to improve over simple bag-of- word representation. Extracting location information from documents and link them to some ontology such as world gazetteer through a disambiguation process becomes an interesting and important topic. Lacking of training data is a problem in disambiguation method. In this paper we described a method to automatically extract training data from large collection of documents based on local context disambiguation, and then sense profiles are generated automatically for disambiguation use. Another topic of this paper is to describe a linear combination method to combine different types of evidences of disambiguation. We explored three different evidences including location sense context in training documents, local neighbor context, and the popularity of individual location sense. Our results show that combining the three evidences generates reasonable results.
The Vilification of Victimized Children in Historical Perspective

This chapter explores the vilification of psychiatric patients with childhood histories of sexual victimization or exploitation by the “medical men” and social workers who shaped the emerging specialty of psychiatric social work in the United States during the early decades of the 20th century. It examines conceptions of evil that converged in diagnostic constructions of these patients, all of whom were involuntarily hospitalized at Boston Psychopathic Hospital and who exhibited seemingly irrepressible sexual behavior, regarded as deviant by society.
A Review of: “Statistical Evidence in Medical Trials: What Do the Data Really Tell Us?, by S. D. Simon”

Understanding statistical concepts is important for clinicians to better communicate with biostatisticians (Dhar and Kianifard, 2006). This book facilitates such communication by covering a wide ra...
Contact with Nature

Nature contact may benefit health, a relationship supported by both theoretical and empirical considerations. Nature contact may take many forms in the built environment, such as plantings in buildings, views out windows, biophilic building design, community gardens, and parks and greenspace. Evidence supports many benefits of such nature contact, ranging from stress reduction to improved recovery from illness and surgery. Much remains to be learned about the benefits of nature contact, such as what kinds of nature contact offer the greatest benefit, at what “dose” and frequency, and for which people. Providing nature contact may not only improve health but also yield co-benefits such as more energy-efficient buildings, improved access to healthy foods, and conservation of natural resources.
Reinforcement Learning and Hippocampal Dynamics

Recent experimental findings on hippocampal representational dynamics such as route replay and sweeps match intuitive notions from reinforcement learning including transiently representing potential trajectories and reward locations. We explore these intuitions within a formal reinforcement learning framework and examine how these representational dynamics might be integrated with reinforcement learning algorithms. We suggest that hippocampal representational dynamics can be best integrated within a model-based reinforcement learning framework and show how this framework can be used to cultivate specific quantitative predictions for the control processes that direct and utilize hippocampal representations.
Lapped textures

We present for creating texture over an surface mesh using an example 2D texture. The approach is to identify interesting regions (texture patches) in the 2D example, and to repeatedly paste them onto the surface until it is completely covered. We call such a collection of overlapping patches a lapped texture. It is rendered using compositing operations, either into a traditional global texture map during a preprocess, or directly with the surface at runtime. The runtime compositing approach avoids resampling artifacts and drastically reduces texture memory requirements.Through a simple interface, the user specifies a tangential vector field over the surface, providing local control over the texture scale, and for anisotropic textures, the orientation. To paste a texture patch onto the surface, a surface patch is grown and parametrized over texture space. Specifically, we optimize the parametrization of each surface patch such that the tangential vector field aligns everywhere with the standard frame of the texture patch. We show that this optimization is solved efficiently as a sparse linear system.
Realization, Powers, and Property Identity

This paper is about the relation between two metaphysical topics: the nature of properties, and way the instantiation of a property is sometimes "realized in" something more fundamental. It is partly an attempt to develop further, but also to correct, my earlier treatments of these topics. In my published work on realization, including my book Physical Realization, I was at pains to insist that acceptance of my view about this does not commit one to the causal theory of properties I have defended in several places. I held that it commits one to the claim that within any given world, proper ties with the same causal profile are identical, but not to the requirement that a property must have the same causal profile in any world in which it can be instantiated. I now think that this was a mistake. There is an argument from the account of realization I have offered to the conclusion that, if physicalism is true, properties of macroscopic objects have their causal profiles essentially. In what follows I will present that argument. Along the way I will correct what now seem to me mistakes in my earlier presenta tions of the account of realization. And I will conclude with an additional argument for the causal theory of properties, one that does not tie it to the assumption that physicalism is true or to my account of realization.
From forest to delta: recent themes in South Asian environmental history

ABSTRACTThis article will follow the field of South Asian environmental history from its insular beginnings in the 1980s and 1990s, through its initial contact with other fields, to its current integration into the heart of contemporary South Asian historiography. It will argue that 1999 represented a turning point in the field. Three works published that year – S. Sivaramakrishnan’s Modern Forests, Sumit Guha’s Environment and Ethnicity in India, and Ajay Skaria’s Hybrid Histories – reached out from environmental history to incorporate a diverse range of theoretical and methodological influences. Since then, environmental historians have become more geographically and intellectually eclectic, just as historians from other fields have begun to borrow and incorporate environmental optics into other historical work. This new work, both that which takes the environment as the central focus of analysis, and that which draws on environmental optics in writing other histories, highlights the breakdown of an epi...
Phylogenetics, classification, and biogeography of the treefrogs (Amphibia: Anura: Arboranae)

A phylogenetic analysis of sequences from 503 species of hylid frogs and four outgroup taxa resulted in 16,128 aligned sites of 19 genes. The molecular data were subjected to a maximum likelihood analysis that resulted in a new phylogenetic tree of treefrogs. A conservative new classification based on the tree has (1) three families composing an unranked taxon, Arboranae, (2) nine subfamilies (five resurrected, one new), and (3) six resurrected generic names and five new generic names. Using the results of a maximum likelihood timetree, times of divergence were determined. For the most part these times of divergence correlated well with historical geologic events. The arboranan frogs originated in South America in the Late Mesozoic or Early Cenozoic. The family Pelodryadidae diverged from its South American relative, Phyllomedusidae, in the Eocene and invaded Australia via Antarctica. There were two dispersals from South America to North America in the Paleogene. One lineage was the ancestral stock of Acris and its relatives, whereas the other lineage, subfamily Hylinae, differentiated into a myriad of genera in Middle America.
Uncertainty evaluation in determination of cadmium in rice by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry

[Objective]To analyze the whole determination process of cadmium in rice by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry,study the influencing factors of uncertainty,and evaluate the uncertainty.[Methods]The content of cadmium in rice was detected by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry according to the method of GB /T 5009.15-2003.In accordance with the requirements of JJF 1059-1999,the uncertainty components and the uncertainty of measurement results were evaluated.[Results]The result showed that the content of cadmium in rice was)(175 ±12) μg/kg,which was within the range of the standard value and uncertainty of standard material(180 ± 20) μg /kg.[Conclusion]The results of cadmium content in rice,which are determined by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry in this laboratory,are accurate and reliable.
Translational research: application to HIV/AIDS.

Scientific discoveries typically begin with basic laboratory research followed by transition to clinical care of the patient.
Digital Technologies, Complex Systems, and Extreme Events: Measuring Change in Policy Networks

The increasing incidence and mounting costs of extreme events globally in developed and developing societies alike create a compelling need to design effective methods of anticipating and reducing risk in practice. Three basic issues confound systematic measurement of the likely impact of hazards upon global communities: (1) scale of operations, (2) degree of uncertainty, and (3) rate of change in the interaction between hazards and human communities. Each of these issues involves access to, and flow of, information among a complex set of participating organizations and jurisdictions and can be partially addressed by advances in information technology, if designed and used appropriately. We examine different methods of digital data collection, analysis, and modeling that have been used to assess the complex, dynamic interactions between known hazards and communities at risk. We present applications of three digital technologies in reference to three different types of hazards: 2012 Superstorm Sandy, 2012 Pittsburgh International Airport fuel leak scenario, and the 2013 Yarnell Hill, Arizona, wildland fire. We conclude with a preliminary design for a complexity index to measure the interactions among operations, uncertainty, and rate of change over time in a region of risk and calibrate these measures against the existing capacity of a region’s sociotechnical system to manage risk.
The Legal Basis for Food Safety Regulation in the USA and EU

The earliest food laws in the United States, dating from the 1600s to 1800s, were designed to combat economic deception and to protect American exports. The Food and Drugs Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act, both passed in 1906, were the first federal food laws to protect American consumers. The 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act regulated non-meat and poultry products until passage in 2010 of the Food Safety Modernization Act. The meat industry is regulated largely by the 1906 Federal Meat Inspection Act. European food law has been influenced by the formation of the European Economic Community and later the European Union. Food safety laws in the latter half of the twentieth century focused on developing a common market, but with the introduction of the General Food Law in 2002, the focus shifted to assuring high levels of food safety. The adoption of the Food Hygiene I and II principles in 2004 completed the EU food law.
Rethinking Basis in the Age of Virtual Currency

In Notice 2014-21, the IRS announced that virtual currencies like Bitcoin would be treated as property—and not foreign currency—for income tax purposes. As a result, taxpayers may owe tax each time they sell or spend such currency. The IRS also declared that the traditional “stand-alone” basis rules would apply to virtual currency. This decision permits taxpayers to manipulate their tax liability by picking and choosing which virtual coins to dispose of. In this Article, I argue that taxpayers should be required to pool the basis of their virtual currency to ensure that tax gains and losses match realized economic gains and losses.Over the years, politicians of both stripes have proposed pooling basis for securities and inventory, to no avail. The rise of virtual currencies offers a rare opportunity to re-examine the basis rules for such assets. Allowing taxpayers to manipulate their tax results without changing their economic gains or losses undermines the tax system and permits taxpayers to take advantage of the time value of money to reduce their real-world taxes. In the second half of this article, I argue that either Congress or the IRS, exercising its regulatory authority, should require taxpayers to pool basis for a wide variety of fungible assets, including securities and inventory.
Accuracy of intuition in clinical decision-making among novice clinicians.

Aims To assess the reliance on intuitive and analytical approaches during clinical decision-making among novice clinicians and whether that reliance is associated with accurate decision-making. Background Nurse educators and managers tend to emphasize analysis over intuition during clinical decision-making though nurses typically report some reliance on intuition in their practice. We hypothesized that under certain conditions, reliance on intuition would support accurate decision-making, even among novices. Design This study utilized an experimental design with clinical complication (familiar vs. novel) and decision phase (cue acquisition, diagnosis and action) as within-subjects’ factors, and simulation role (observer, family, auxiliary nurse and primary nurse) as between-subjects’ factor. Methods We examined clinical decision-making accuracy among final semester pre-licensure nursing students in a simulation experience. Students recorded their reasoning about emerging clinical complications with their patient during two distinct points in the simulation; one point involved a familiar complication and the other a relatively novel complication. All data were collected during Spring 2015. Results Although most participants relied more heavily on analysis than on intuition, use of intuition during the familiar complication was associated with more accurate decision-making, particularly in guiding attention to relevant cues. With the novel complication, use of intuition appeared to hamper decision-making, particularly for those in an observer role. Conclusion Novice clinicians should be supported by educators and nurse managers to note when their intuitions are likely to be valid. Our findings emphasize the integrated nature of intuition and analysis in clinical decision-making.
The Role of Race on Survival after Alternative Donor Hematopoietic Progenitor Cell Transplant for Pediatric Acute Leukemia: Provocative Single Center Data.

Abstract Allogeneic blood or bone marrow transplant (BMT) can be a curative treatment for many children and adolescents with acute leukemia. With advances in unrelated donor transplant, others and we have shown that unrelated donor BMT can have similar survival to matched sibling BMT. There are several reports describing outcomes after matched related donor transplantation among various ethnic groups. Thus far, there are no published studies comparing outcomes among ethnic groups after alternative donor transplantation. Anecdotally, however, there have been concerns regarding outcomes among racial and ethnic groups, especially African-Americans. In order to address this question, we utilized our institutional database to analyze survival among children and adolescents receiving an alternative donor BMT at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin from 1988-present. We compared survival in Caucasians and African-Americans undergoing unrelated donor and mismatched related donor transplantation (including haploidentical donors). One hundred and twenty four Caucasians underwent matched and mismatched unrelated donor transplantation compared to 11 African Americans. The 2-year probabilities of overall survival were significantly better for Caucasians at 53% (95% CI 44–62) than for African Americans, 18% (95% CI 2–45), p=0.01. Fifty-four Caucasians and 9 African Americans received mismatched family donor transplantation. Corresponding probabilities of overall 2-year survival were 38% (95% CI 25–51) and 30% (95% CI 5–64), respectively. Interestingly, our data show no statistically significant difference in survival after mismatched related donor transplantation between the Caucasian and African-American cohorts. Our data should be interpreted cautiously as the number of African Americans transplanted at our institution is few. Additionally, our analysis is limited by our inability to adjust for disease status at transplantation, HLA disparity and other known risk factors that may impact survival. Nevertheless these observations from a single institution cannot be ignored and warrant further analysis in a larger cohort such that outcomes after transplantation may be adjusted appropriately for relevant risk factors. We believe that a national database/registry study will have the numbers necessary to answer the questions that need to be asked regarding outcomes with alternative donor transplantation in the African-American population. We also believe that as cell processing and supportive care technologies improve mismatched family member transplantation outcomes, these advances could have a significant impact in improving leukemia-free survival for African-American children and adolescents.
Development and Characterization of a Novel CD34 Monoclonal Antibody That Identifies Sheep Hematopoietic Stem/Progenitor Cells.

Abstract To date, the cell surface marker CD34 has been the antigen most widely used for identification and isolation of HSC in humans and numerous other species. CD34 is an integral membrane sialomucin present on roughly 1–3% of BM mononuclear cells (MNC) in a normal adult human, yet its precise function remains largely unknown. The CD34+ population is now known to produce durable reconstitution of all blood lineages in both autologous and allogeneic transplantations, providing evidence that CD34 is expressed on some of the most primitive long-term engrafting HSC. We and others have used the fetal sheep model extensively to study the potential and behavior of human HSC. Unfortunately, no reagents exist that allow sheep HSC to be identified or purified, impeding the development of experimental HSC transplantation strategies in this clinically relevant large animal model. We therefore developed monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) to the ovine homologue of CD34. We PCR cloned and sequenced an 858bp cDNA corresponding to the extracellular domain of the sheep CD34 antigen, which was found to share 92% homology with the bovine CD34 homologue. When aligned to human CD34, the sheep homologue shared 90% homology from nucleotides 1–84, 78% homology from nucleotides 453–858, and exhibited minimal homology between nucleotides 85 and 452. This cDNA was cloned into an expression vector and used to genetically immunize mice and create monoclonal antibodies. One antibody (8D11) was selected for all subsequent studies. Using flow cytometry, 8D11 identified a small, discrete population of CD45+ cells within the peripheral blood, cord blood, and BM of sheep. This population comprised 0.5–2.5% of the total sheep BM MNC, a proportion in close accord with the previously reported incidence of CD34+ cells in adult human BM. The ability of 8D11 to enrich for sheep hematopoietic progenitors was tested by magnetically sorting 8D11+cells and assessing colony-forming potential (CFU) and the CAFC frequency. Ovine CD34+ cells were 35- to 150-fold enriched for CFU and CAFC as compared with BM mononuclear cells, whereas CD34-negative cells were correspondingly depleted of progenitors. G-CSF mobilization of sheep resulted in a 14-fold increase in the levels of circulating CD34+ cells on day 4, providing further evidence of the utility of 8D11 as a marker of primitive hematopoietic cells in the sheep model. Antibody 8D11 also robustly labeled the lining of blood vessels in both frozen and paraffin-embedded sheep tissues, further extending the utility of this antibody to include analysis of tissue sections. In conclusion, this first successful generation of a monoclonal antibody to sheep CD34 will greatly facilitate the use of the sheep as a clinically relevant large animal model system to study allogeneic HSC transplantation both in utero and in post-natal recipients using bone marrow, mobilized peripheral blood, and cord blood as cell sources.
Nanotechnology for Cancer Chemotherapy

This chapter will provide an in-depth discussion on the development of nanometer-sized carriers for the treatment of cancer. Anti-cancer drugs given systemically remain problematic due to their non-specificity. These cytotoxic drugs destroy both cancerous and normal cells of the body, thus leading to potentially fatal side effects. In recent developments, new cytotoxic drugs have yielded compounds with poor physiochemical properties which require alternate routes in their delivery to the diseased tissue. The use of nanoparticles for the delivery of chemotherapeutics to cancer lesions and their microenvironment has offered solutions to the problems associated with conventional administration, delivery, and formulation of chemotherapeutics. Nanoparticles, submicron-sized colloidal structures, have shown to extravasate across tumor vascular walls, penetrate into the tumor interstitium, target surface receptors on cancer cells, and control the release of the anti-cancer drug locally. The design in the surface of the colloidal carrier is important in achieving a biocompatible, long circulating, and targeted drug delivery particulate system. The rational approach in engineering colloidal carriers with the potential to treat cancer is discussed and examples of drug delivery systems which have demonstrated therapeutic efficacy are provided.
Conception and Management of a Poorly Understood Spectrum of Dermatologic Neoplasms: Atypical Fibroxanthoma, Pleomorphic Dermal Sarcoma, and Undifferentiated Pleomorphic Sarcoma.

Atypical fibroxanthoma (AFX) and pleomorphic dermal sarcoma (PDS) tumors share many clinical, etiologic, and histologic features and likely represent components of a tumor spectrum. In dermatologic oncology, differentiating between AFX and PDS is pivotal as tumors with histological features consistent with PDS are more likely to behave in a clinically aggressive manner. Importantly, the term “pleomorphic dermal sarcoma” (PDS) is a more appropriate designation than “undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma” (UPS) for describing deeper, more aggressive, histologically high-grade cutaneous tumors that otherwise resemble AFX. Surgery remains the gold standard for treatment. In the setting of AFX, excision with the Mohs micrographic technique appears to offer superior tumor control rates while maintaining greater tissue preservation over wide local excision and should be considered first line. In the setting of PDS, optimal management is less clear given the paucity of available data. However, due to its greater propensity to recur and metastasize, extirpation with complete tumor margin control appears paramount. The roles of imaging and SLNB in management and clinical outcomes of AFX and PDS are unclear given the lack of available data. In reality, these tools are unlikely to be helpful in most cases of AFX. However, in the setting of PDS, emerging literature indicates that these tumors are inherently higher risk, and thus, imaging and SLNB may be helpful in select cases. Additionally, radiation therapy may be of adjuvant benefit for these tumors when clear surgical margins cannot be obtained. While traditional chemotherapy has been largely ineffectual, the recent discovery of key oncogenetic mutations has allowed for the identification of several potential molecular drug targets that may have a therapeutic role with future study. In the unfortunate setting of metastatic disease, a multidisciplinary approach is optimal. Further studies are needed to establish definitive conclusions regarding risk stratification and best management practices.
Package and Printed Circuit Board Design of a 19.2 Gb/s Data Link for High-Performance Computing

A 19.2 Gb/s per lane link with IBM's latest POWER8 processor module has been analyzed. This paper presents the overview of the high-speed link design from the signal integrity point of view. Design approaches in package and printed circuit board (PCB) to support the target data-rate have been discussed. The end-to-end communication bus is modeled from extracted post-route design with a 3-D full-wave extractor and has been simulated with IO properties at system level. Bath-tub curves are generated from data gathered in functioning systems running this 19.2 Gb/s link to confirm the operation of the link meets the required bit-error-rate criteria as the modeling and simulation predicted.
Predicting 1-year disability and mortality of injured older adults

Abstract Purpose The growing incidence of elderly patients injured from falls, combined with a growing understanding of the contribution of cognition and frailty to mortality, prompted this work. Our objective was to develop a clinical risk prediction model for prognosticating disability and mortality among injured older adults 1 year after hospitalization. Methods Secondary analysis of prospective longitudinal data from an urban Level 1 trauma center. A proportional odds regression model was used to model mortality and functional status as ordinal outcomes. Death was treated as the lowest functional status, and 3 ordered groups of the Barthel Index were treated as higher functional status. 188 patients aged 65 and older who were admitted through the emergency department from 2013 to 2014 with a primary injury diagnosis comprised the prospective cohort. Follow-up assessments were performed at 30-days, 90-days, 6-months, and 1-year. Predictors in the model included: baseline physical function, baseline cognition, two physical frailty measures, age, injury severity, a comorbidity index, gender, living location, mechanism of injury, and hospital admitting service. Results The full model yielded an R2 of 0.45, and Life Space Assessment, Vulnerable Elders Survey, and Injury Severity were the most influential predictors. Approximated models (to encourage clinical use) yielded an R2 of 0.86. Calibration assessment (i.e., accuracy) demonstrated a mean squared error Conclusions A moderate statistical signal was discovered that contributed to a highly accurate clinical prediction model. Approximated models and nomograms could be used by clinicians, patients, and families in shared decision making during hospitalization.
Scheduling of drone-based material transfer system in semiconductor manufacturing

The idea of deploying unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones, for delivery in logistics operations has inspired this research. One conceivable scenario is to use a drone to transfer jobs between locations in a future semiconductor factory. Each job might be characterized by origin, destination, priority, and precedence-relationship. In particular, the precedence-relationship occurs when drones are competing for limited number of ports (similar to helicopter landing platform). The objective is to minimize the maximum completion time of all delivery jobs performed by a fleet of drones. Two exact approaches are presented: a mixed integer programming and a constraint programming, and tested for real-time perspective with problem instances up to 50-drone and 100-job.
Role of Student Affairs in International Student Transition and Success

International student mobility has grown significantly in recent years, with over 4.1 million students in 2013 who studied abroad around the world (Institute of International Education [IIE], 2016). With the changes in student demographics and increased mobility, student affairs professionals are in a unique role to support international student transition and success. Unfortunately, current research and practice in higher education tends to place a high level of responsibility on the international student to successfully transition to a new campus environment or places the responsibility on the international student affairs/student services office to solely work with these students. Given the multi-faceted needs of international students, we argue that it is critical for student affairs professionals across functional areas to be prepared to support this diverse population.
Infinite Systems of Differential Equations

One of the most tantalizing areas of modern mathematical physics is the theory of turbulence. The complexity of the physical process, combined with the nonlinearity of the hydrodynamical equations, precludes any direct analytic approach and forces us to study various types of approximation techniques. A quite useful technique in many investigations is the analysis of “model equations” which, hopefully, exhibit many of the essential characteristics of the more realistic and correspondingly more recalcitrant equations.
Transition matrix: basic properties

In Part II it will be convenient to begin with the analysis of a denumerable set of real valued functions, later (in § 4) to be identified as the transition probability functions of a continuous parameter Markov chain. Although the questions treated in the next three sections are of a purely analytic nature some of the methods used will be probabilistically inspired. Occasionally the results are given in a more general form then is required by later applications.
Adaptive Learning by Robot Swarms in Unfamiliar Environments

Although the goal of this book is to design swarms methodically, it is not always possible to theoretically determine the values of all parameter settings a priori. In this situation, the behavior of the swarm can be improved via optimization of the parameters. Traditionally, the optimization of swarm behaviors occurs offline (i.e., in simulation prior to actual task execution), and the swarm must be retrained whenever environmental conditions change. However, online adaptation (i.e., during the process of task execution) is much more practical. Offline approaches are unrealistic because, in general, the environment cannot be anticipated a priori due to numerous factors. In this chapter, we demonstrate the utility of an online swarm adaptation technique, called Daedalus, that is combined with physicomimetics. The task addressed here is that of a swarm of robots that needs to learn to avoid obstacles and get to a goal location. In our approach, swarms exhibit fault-tolerance, adaptability and survivability in unfamiliar environments. The success of our approach is greater than that of previous approaches that have been applied to this task.
Pyrrolidine, Tropane, Piperidine, and Polyketide Alkaloids

A number of alkaloids are derived from ornithine and lysine by decarboxylation, conversion by amine oxidases to the corresponding aldehyde, and cyclization to a 5-membered ring system (pyrrolidine alkaloids) and a 6-membered ring system (piperidine alkaloids). Several other alkaloids that coinciden-tally have similar structures have been discussed under the groups of alkaloids to which they are most closely related.
Transformation of engineered nanomaterials through the prism of silver sulfidation

Understanding the structure transformation of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) is a grand measurement challenge, which impacts many aspects of ENMs applications, such as their efficacy, safety, and environmental consequence. To address the significant knowledge gap regarding the fundamental kinetic rate and extent of ENM transformation in the environment, we present a comprehensive and mechanistic structural investigation of the transformation, aggregation, and dissolution behavior of a polyvinylpyrrolidone-coated silver nanoparticle (AgNP) suspension upon sulfidation in moderately reduced hard water with fulvic acid and dissolved Na2S. This reaction is among the most prevalent and industrially and environmentally relevant ENMs transformation. Using ex situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and both in situ and ex situ synchrotron-based small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), we find that sulfidation of faceted AgNPs strongly depends on the crystallographic orientation of the facets, with nanometer-scale passivation layers developed on {111} and {100} facets and continuous nucleation and growth on {110} facets. Nanobeam electron diffraction and atomic resolution imaging show Ag and Ag2S domains both possess a high degree of crystalline order, contradicting amorphous structures as previously reported. In situ SAXS/XRD allowed simultaneous determination of the morphological changes and extent of sulfidation of AgNPs. SAXS/XRD results strongly indicate sulfidation follows first-order reaction kinetics without any aggregation. Aided by their size monodispersity, for the first time, using direct, in situ morphology and atomic-structure probes whose results mutually corroborate, we unequivocally determined the sulfidation rate constant of AgNPs under an environmentally relevant condition (~0.013 min-1 for 68 nm diameter AgNPs). A rigorous analysis of the long-term sulfidation product of the AgNPs under different S/Ag ratios using ex situ SAXS/XRD clearly demonstrates that the silver mass in the original AgNP and transformed Ag/Ag2S NP is preserved. This result has important environmental implications, strongly suggesting that Ag+ ions, a known highly effective antimicrobial agent, are not leached into the solution during sulfidation of AgNPs. The combined nondestructive methodology can be extended to unfold the structure transformation pathway and kinetics in a broad range of ENM systems.
Low-dose computed tomography lung cancer screening as a teachable moment for smoking cessation among African American smokers: A feasibility study.

AbstractLow-dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening may be a teachable moment for smoking cessation among African Americans. African Americans have been understudied within the context of LDCT and smoking cessation. The study objective was to evaluate the feasibility of recruiting African Americans to a future longitudinal trial and to obtain sample size estimates for that trial. Participants (N = 18) were African Americans eligible for LDCT screening who completed a questionnaire at three time points. Self-efficacy and intention to quit smoking were compared. The results of the current study show that it is feasible to recruit African Americans eligible for LDCT.
The Impact of HCV Viremia in Heart Transplant Recipients from Donors with HCV Infection on Acute and Humoral Cellular Rejection

Purpose Transmission of HCV infection can induce an inflammatory response, but its impact on accentuating the immune response on the allograft is unknown. Methods From January to October 2018, 25 hepatitis C seronegative patients were transplanted with 12 patients from HCV viremic donors (NAT+). Incidence of acute cellular and humoral rejection were compared between the 2 groups. All patients received standard triple immunotherapy and those who developed HCV were treated with glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (Mavyret) for 8 weeks. Results For all patients, the retrospective flow cytometry crossmatch was negative for both T and B cells and no DSA were detected. Hep C viremia developed at 1-week post-transplant in all recipients of HCV donors. At a mean follow up of 147 ± 88 days in the HCV group: there were 4 grade 2R/ 3A rejection (33%) and 7 grade 1R/2 (58%). In the nonviremic group: there were 2 patients who had grade 2R/3A (20%) and 4 had grade 1R/2 (30%). No grade 3R or humoral rejection was identified in either group. Only grade 1R/2 rejection was statistically significant between the 2 groups. There was no difference in the type of inflammatory cells in the endomyocardial biopsy between the two groups. Conclusion Early biopsy of heart transplantation from donors with active hepatitis C is not associated with high grade cellular or any humoral rejection. The 1R/2A rejections seems to be more frequent in the HCV group and did not correlate with the level of viremia. Longer follow up and the impact on chronic allograft vasculopathy would need to be assessed in the future.