cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Disparities in Initiation and Adherence to Prenatal Care: Impact of Insurance, Race-Ethnicity and Nativity

We used the intersectionality framework to examine impact of racial/ethnic, immigration, and insurance differences on the timing of initiation of prenatal care (PNC) and subsequent adherence. In this cross sectional study independent variables were women’s race/ethnicity; nativity; age; education; and insurance. The dependent variables were late initiation and non-adherence to recommended number of PNC visits. We used multivariate analysis to evaluate the impact of the independent variables on late initiation and non-adherence. Analysis revealed that race/ethnicity/nativity (RE-N) was more consistently associated with late initiation and non-adherence for privately insured than publicly insured persons. While private insurance had a positive impact on initiation and adherence overall, its impact was greater for White women. Having private insurance coverage was most beneficial to White women. We contend that the intersectional approach provides promising avenues for expanding our knowledge of health disparities and of identifying new ways of going about eliminating the persistent and pervasive social inequalities and informing efforts to reduce them.
Inhibition by nicotinic acid of hepatic steatosis and alcohol dehydrogenase in ethanol-treated rats.

Abstract A single intoxicating dose of ethanol (6.0 g/kg) depressed the NAD: NADH2 ratio and increased the NADPH2: NADP ratio in rat liver. Nicotinic acid (NA) treatment prevented the accumulation of nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA), total fats, and neutral fats in the liver of rats given ethanol (EtOH); it also kept blood EtOH elevated. We postulate that NA acted by blocking EtOH oxidation—a block apparently exerted by inhibition of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), mediator of the principal oxidative pathway of ethanol metabolism. It was inferred that NA inhibits the enzyme by binding at the adenosine diphosphate ribose site since the addition of Zn2+in vitro failed to reverse the NA inhibition of rat liver ADH. Blockage at the aforementioned site would thus inhibit coenzyme (NAD) binding to the apoenzyme, resulting in a block in the EtOH oxidation.
Robust text processing and information retrieval

The general objective of this research has been the enhancement of traditional key-word based statistical methods of document retrieval with advanced natural language processing techniques. In the work to date the focus has been on obtaining a better representation of document contents by extracting representative phrases from syntactically preprocessed text and devising suitable weighting schemes for different types of terms. In addition, statistical clustering methods have been developed that generate domain-specific term correlations which can be used to obtain better search queries via expansion.
Potential attractants for detecting and removing invading Gambian giant pouched rats (Cricetomys gambianus).

BACKGROUND: Native to Africa, Gambian giant pouched rats (Gambian rats; Cricetomys gambianus Waterh.) are a threatening invasive species on a Florida island, Grassy Key. Gambian giant pouched rats shifted from a domestic pet to invading species after suspected release from a pet breeder. Because of the large size of Gambian rats (weighing up to 2.8 kg), they pose a serious threat to native species (particularly nesting species) and agricultural crops, especially if Gambian rats invade mainland Florida. Also, Gambian rats pose a threat from disease, as they were implicated in a monkeypox outbreak in the midwestern United States in 2003. The United States Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services has initiated eradication and detection efforts in the Florida Keys, but trapping the sparse population of Gambian rats has proven difficult. RESULTS: Fifteen attractants that could be used in traps for capturing or detecting single or paired Gambian rats were tested. It was found that conspecific scents (i.e. feces and urine) from other Gambian rats were the best treatment for attracting single and paired Gambian rats. Single Gambian rats explored more attractant types than paired Gambian rats. CONCLUSIONS: Effective attractants for use with Gambian rats have been identified, and multiple attractant types should be used to capture or detect the sparse population. It is recommended that mainly urine and feces from Gambian rats be used, but peanut butter, anise, ginger and fatty acid scent could also be useful for attracting the currently small population of Gambian rats on Grassy Key. Published in 2009 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Ultrasonic Linear and Nonlinear Behavior of Fatigued Ti–6Al–4V

The change in ultrasonic nonlinear property of a titanium alloy subjected to cyclic loading has been studied, with an objective to develop a new characterization methodology for quantifying the level of damage in the material undergoing fatigue. In order to determine the degree of nonlinearity, the ultrasonic second harmonic generation technique has been used. The second harmonic signal was monitored during the fatigue process, and a substantial increase in the second harmonic amplitude (180% increase in nonlinear factor) was observed. This indicates that the second harmonic signal is very sensitive to the microstructural changes in the material caused by fatigue.
MAC Protocol Switching: A Novel Tool for Performance Adaptation in Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper presents a distributed MAC protocol switching mechanism for maximizing network throughput in the presence of traffic and topology heterogeneity. The key idea behind dynamic MAC switching is for each node to use its local topology and traffic density information to decide the most suitable MAC protocol that can maximize the MAC layer throughout in the neighborhood. A formal MAC switching rule is developed using analytical formulation of the MAC throughput available in the literature. NS2 based simulation experiments demonstrate that with the proposed MAC switching strategy, nodes in a wireless sensor network are able to achieve maximum MAC throughput by adaptively choosing the appropriate MAC protocol in the presence of heterogeneity in terms of data rate and node population.
An apoA-I mimetic peptide containing a proline residue has greater in vivo HDL binding and anti-inflammatory ability than the 4F peptide.

Modifying apolipoprotein (apo) A-I mimetic peptides to include a proline-punctuated α-helical repeat increases their anti-inflammatory properties as well as allows better mimicry of full-length apoA-I function. This study compares the following mimetics, either acetylated or biotinylated (b): 4F (18mer) and 4F-proline-4F (37mer, Pro). b4F interacts with both mouse HDL (moHDL) and LDL in vitro. b4F in vivo plasma clearance kinetics are not affected by mouse HDL level. Administration of biotinylated peptides to mice demonstrates that b4F does not associate with lipoproteins smaller than LDL in vivo, though it does associate with fractions containing free hemoglobin (Hb). In contrast, bPro specifically interacts with HDL. b4F and bPro show opposite binding responses to HDL by surface plasmon resonance. Administration of acetylated Pro to apoE−/− mice significantly decreases plasma serum amyloid A levels, while acetylated 4F does not have this ability. In contrast to previous reports that inferred that 4F associates with HDL in vivo, we systematically examined this potential interaction and demonstrated that b4F does not interact with HDL in vivo but rather elutes with Hb-containing plasma fractions. bPro, however, specifically binds to moHDL in vivo. In addition, the number of amphipathic α-helices and their linker influences the anti-inflammatory effects of apoA-I mimetic peptides in vivo.
Kinship: Still at the core

Commentary on Piketty, Thomas. 2014. Capital in the twenty-first century . Translated by Arthur Goldhammer. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University.
Transforming growth factor β1-mediated activation of the smooth muscle α-actin gene in human pulmonary myofibroblasts is inhibited by tumor necrosis factor-α via Mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase 1-dependent induction of the egr-1 transcriptional repressor

Transforming growth factor (TGF) β1 is a mediator of myofibroblast differentiation in healing wounds in which it activates transcription of the smooth muscle α-actin (SMαA) gene via dynamic interplay of nuclear activators and repressors. Targeting components of TGFβ1 signaling may be an effective strategy for controlling myofibroblasts in chronic fibrotic diseases. We examined the ability of proinflammatory tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α to antagonize TGFβ1-mediated human pulmonary myofibroblast differentiation. TNF-α abrogated TGFβ1-induced SMαA gene expression at the level of transcription without disrupting phosphorylation of regulatory Smads. Intact mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (Mek)–extracellular signal-regulated kinase (Erk) kinase signaling was required for myofibroblast repression by TNF-α via induction of the early growth response factor-1 (Egr-1) DNA-binding protein. Egr-1 bound to the GC-rich SPUR activation element in the SMαA promoter and potently suppressed Smad3- and TGFβ1-mediated transcription. Reduction in Smad binding to the SMαA promoter in TNF-α–treated myofibroblasts was accompanied by an increase in Egr-1 and YB-1 repressor binding, suggesting that the molecular mechanism underlying repression may involve competitive interplay between Egr-1, YB-1, and Smads. The ability of TNF-α to attenuate myofibroblast differentiation via modulation of a Mek1/Erk/Egr-1 regulatory axis may be useful in designing new therapeutic targets to offset destructive tissue remodeling in chronic fibrotic disease.
BEYOND BLACK AND WHITE: Racial Conflict in the New Multi-ethnic City

Claire Jean Kim, Bitter Fruit: The Politics of Black-Korean Conflict in New York City. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000, 300 pages, ISBN 0-300-07406-9, $45.00.Jennifer Lee, Civility in the City: Blacks, Jews, and Koreans in Urban America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002, 270 pages, ISBN 0-674-00897-9, $35.00.In-Jin Yoon, On My Own: Korean Businesses and Race Relations in America. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1997, 274 pages, ISBN 0-226-959279-9, $45.00.During the past decade, scholars of ethno-racial relations have increasingly grappled with the thorny issue of Black-Korean conflict. This attention is no doubt the result of a number of high profile, sometimes violent, and often prolonged clashes between Blacks and Koreans in large urban settings. On January 18, 1990, an incident between a Black customer and a Korean storeowner at the Family Red Apple Inc. grocery store touched off a yearlong boycott of two Korean businesses in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, NY. The 1992 Los Angeles Rebellion, which was originally sparked by the acquittal of four White police officers accused of beating Black motorist, Rodney King, led to three days of looting, arson, and violence. The event quickly became framed in terms of a conflict between Blacks and Koreans, however, as Koreans owned more than half of the stores that were burned or looted. While the evidence of real and often acute tensions between these groups is irrefutable, in many instances the media has tended to distort the nature, scale, and significance of the clashes by over-dramatizing Black-Korean conflict (Lee 2002), obfuscating Korean-Latino conflict (Bobo et al., 1994; Oliver et al., 1993), and ignoring and therefore silencing Korean voices (Abelmann and Lie, 1995). Thankfully, careful, scholarly analyses of these incidents and the tensions that precipitate them are starting to emerge. Civility in the City, Bitter Fruit, and On My Own are some of the best recent examples of this new literature and are each valuable attempts to increase understanding about the nature of merchant-customer relations in predominantly Black urban neighborhoods.
Knowledge-based management of multi-hop packet radio networks

The authors have developed a knowledge-based model of network management and applied it to multihop packet radio networks for fault diagnosis and transmission control. The model has two distinctive features: (1) a distributed control concept and (2) the use of the blackboard paradigm as a knowledge-based environment. The focus of the effort has been on diagnosing faults and other abnormal conditions and applying corrective actions. For transmission control, the authors have implemented a control policy based on observed channel occupancy. At the transport level, the messages are segmented/reassembled, and a facility has been created to allow nonuniform traffic among different source-destination pairs. The authors present a brief description of the software testbed consisting of a packet radio network simulation and the blackboard environment, describe the control rules that have been implemented, and summarize the results obtained. >
A nonlinear analysis of pulsatile flow in arteries.

An approximate numerical method for calculating flow profiles in arteries is developed. The theory takes into account the nonlinear terms of the Navier-Stokes equations as well as the nonlinear behaviour and large deformations of the arterial wall. Through the locally measured values of the pressure, pressure gradient, and pressure-radius function, the velocity distribution and wall shear at a given location along the artery can be determined. The computed results agree well with the corresponding experimental data.
Property Rights Theory and the Commons: The Case of Scientific Research

For some time now, commentators in and out of the scientific community have been expressing concern over the direction of scientific research. Cogent critics have labeled it excessively commercial, out of touch with its “pure,” public-spirited roots, and generally too much a creature of its entrepreneurial, self-interested times. In most if not all of this hand-wringing, the scientific community's growing reliance on intellectual property rights, especially patents, looms large. Indeed, for many the pursuit of patents is emblematic of just what is rotten in the republic of science today.
Physiological and Psychosocial Assessment and Treatment of Sex Offenders: A Comprehensive Victim-Oriented Program

This paper attempts to define the "optimal" sex offender treatment program based on a review of the empirical literature and on the authors' clinical experience with sex offenders. An important first step in any treatment program is the proper assessment of the condition to be treated. Assessment of sex offenders should include the use of the penile plethysmograph and the polygraph, as well as the more traditional methods of psychosocial assessment. These physiological tools are also useful as adjunct treatment tools. It is asserted that restitution therapy be the operating philosophy of any good treatment program, and that various aspects of client-centered therapy, transactional analysis, rational emotive therapy, and reality therapy are particularly well-suited to the counseling of sex offenders. These modalities should be augmented with antiandrogen medication to dampen the offender's libido so that he may concentrate on the rational process of psychotherapy free of distracting sexual urges and images...
Income Transfers and Assets of the Poor

Contrary to the predictions of the standard life-cycle model, many low-lifetime-income households accumulate little wealth relative to their incomes compared to households with high lifetime income. I use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and a correlated random-effects generalized-method-of-moments estimator to decompose the rich-poor gaps in wealth-to-permanent-income ratio into the portions attributable to differences in characteristics such as labor market earnings, income uncertainty, observed demographics, and the utilization of transfer programs which may have stringent income and liquid-asset tests, and those attributable to differences in the estimated coefficients on the respective characteristics. The results suggest that wealth-to-permanent-income ratios are increasing in permanent labor income and income uncertainty, but that transfer income, with or without asset tests, discourages liquid-asset accumulation. The decompositions indicate that most of the rich-poor wealth gap is attr...
Effect of Inlet Turbulence on Compressor Noise

The sound generated by the interaction of inlet turbulence with a rotating compressor blade row is investigated. Currently, there are two theories relating the rotor geometry and blade aerodynamics to the spectrum of the radiated sound. These theories are extended to include the cascade effect by incorporating a cascade aerodynamic response function for the unsteady lift on the blades into their analyses. To experimentally study this noise source, an aeroacoustic compressor facility was designed and built. The parameters investigated include turbulence intensity and longitudinal integral length scale, blade speed, flow coefficient. The results indicate a definite increase in the overall sound pressure level and an increase in the spectrum level of the sound pressure with an increase in turbulence intensity. For integral length scales smaller than the blade spacing, the total sound power is found to be proportional to (turbulence velocity/integral length), 2 where turbulence velocity is rms value normal to the blade chord. Comparison of theoretical results with experimental data indicates one theory to predict the sound pressure level fairly accurately in a limited frequency range.
Divorce, single parenthood and stepfamilies: Structural implications of these transactions

This article focuses on change in the family structure during the divorce as well as in the sequential stages of single parenthood and the reconstituted family. Special characteristics of these families and the tasks to be undertaken to enable the new unit to function are discussed conceptually and through case illustrations. Family therapy is seen as particularly helpful during the crisis stage when either a parent leaves or a new unit is added to an established one. The necessity of being aware of and working with all parts of the system, both the split-off and the newly-added, is stressed.
Site amplification at five locations in San Francisco, California: A comparison of S waves, codas, and microtremors

Abstract We compare microtremor data to weak-motion S -wave and coda recordings at sites in San Francisco in order to clarify the range of applicability of microtremor data to ground-motion prediction. We also compare S -wave results to coda results. For each type of data, we compute spectral ratios of motions from two soil/rock station pairs and from an uphole/downhole pair in the Marina district. We compute horizontal/vertical ratios (Nakamura9s method) at a soil site, a rock site, and the surface and borehole instruments. In the station-pair analyses, microtremor data show amplifications at the same fundamental frequency as S waves, but the frequencies of other peaks do not agree. The amplification at frequencies higher than 2 Hz is greater in the microtremor data. Station-pair ratios of coda data generally show spectral peaks occurring at the same frequencies, but with levels varying from one to four times the amplification from S -wave ratios. Nakamura9s method of analyzing microtremors agrees better with S -wave station-pair results than the microtremor station-pair method over a limited frequency band that varies from station to station.
1.4.1 Mixed‐Occupancy Vertical Urban Farm Systems

A mixed-use vertical farm is a high-rise structure that is a combination of residences and agricultural subsystems situated near or within urban centers and serving as a localized food production facility. Plants of different varieties are grown year-round in high density hydroponics/aeroponics modules. Vertical urban farming takes advantage of the ability to control the weather and lighting environments to maximize plants growth, yield, and quality. A systems approach is needed to understand and simplify the complex system considering whole life-cycle costs, design, construction, operation, and infrastructure integration for environmental management and residences. Overall, the mixed-use vertical farm is conceived as a high-tech solution for countries or cities that have shortages in water, extremely limited arable space, and the need for competitively-priced farm products. Singapore, a nation incorporating many of these factors, is an example of an excellent candidate for such a system.
CD8+ T Cells Define an Unexpected Role in Live-Attenuated Vaccine Protective Immunity against Chlamydia trachomatis Infection in Macaques

Trachoma, caused by the obligate intracellular organism Chlamydia trachomatis, is the world's leading cause of preventable blindness for which a vaccine is needed. We have previously shown that a plasmid-deficient live-attenuated trachoma vaccine delivered ocularly to macaques elicited either solid or partial protective immunity against a virulent ocular challenge. Solidly protected macaques shared the same MHC class II alleles implicating CD4(+) T cells in superior protective immunity. Understandably, we sought to define T cell immune correlates in these animals to potentially improve vaccine efficacy. In this study, following a 2-y resting period, these macaques were boosted i.m. with the live-attenuated trachoma vaccine and their peripheral T cell anamnestic responses studied. Both solidly and partially protected macaques exhibited a CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell anamnestic response following booster immunization. CD8(+) but not CD4(+) T cells from solidly protected macaques proliferated against soluble chlamydial Ag. We observed a more rapid T cell inflammatory cytokine response in tears of solidly protected animals following ocular rechallenge. Most notably, depletion of CD8(+) T cells in solidly protected macaques completely abrogated protective immunity. Collectively, our findings support the conclusion that CD8(+) T cells play an important but unexpected role in live-attenuated trachoma vaccine-mediated protective immunity.
Protection by Thymidine, an Inhibitor of Polyadenosine Diphosphate Ribosylation, of Streptozotocin Inhibition of Insulin Secretion*

It has been suggested that a result of streptozotocin (Sz)-initiated damage to β-cell DNA is activation of the repair enzyme nuclear poly-ADP-ribose (p-ADPR) synthetase and subsequent depletion of cellular NAD. This reduction of NAD is presumed responsible for the impaired islet function. Using freshly isolated rat pancreatic islets, we have examined the ability of p-ADPR synthetase inhibitors, in particular the previously not studied thymidine, to block Sz-induced damage to the B cell. Islets were incubated in 2 mM glucose and 2 mM Sz with or without p-ADPR synthetase inhibitor and then challenged for 1 h with 25 mM glucose plus 25 μM forskolin or 100 nM phorbol ester without glucose. Sz treatment inhibited insulin secretion about 90% even when stimulated by the nonglucose- containing challenge, indicating that Sz caused a rapid and generalized lesion past glucose-specific signals. Thymidine maintained the insulin secretory response to glucose plus forskolin from Sz-treated islets as, or more, effectivel...
A neutral net linear programming solver

A linear programming solver which can find the optimal solution for primal-dual linear programming (PDLP) problems is presented. The neural net solver is based on an extension model of the Kosko's bidirectional associative memory (BAM). The proposed neural net solver uses the same number of neurons and connections as does the Hopfield model or Chua's canonical nonlinear programming model while it resolves the problems of (1) getting infeasible solutions and (2) employing a large penalty term in the objective function. Simulation results based on RC-active circuit implementation of the neural net solver are presented. The results indicate that when the solver is implemented in hardware with full parallelism, it is capable of solving linear programming problems very quickly and this computation speed seems to be insensitive to the dimension of the underlying problem. >
Interconnect layout optimization under higher-order RLC model

Studies the interconnect layout optimization problem under a higher-order RLC model to optimize not just the delay but also the waveform for RLC circuits with non-monotone signal response. We propose a unified approach that considers topology optimization, wire-sizing optimization and waveform optimization simultaneously. Our algorithm considers a large class of routing topologies, ranging from shortest-path Steiner trees to bounded-radius Steiner trees and Steiner routings. We construct a set of required-arrival-time Steiner (RATS) trees, providing a smooth trade-off among signal delay, waveform and routing area. Using a new incremental moment computation algorithm, we interleave topology construction with moment computation to facilitate accurate delay calculation and evaluation of waveform quality. Experimental results show that our algorithm is able to construct a set of topologies providing a smooth trade-off among signal delay, signal settling time, voltage overshoot and routing cost.
A Multivariable MRAC Scheme Applied to the NASA GTM with Damage

To develop an effective linearization-based adaptive control technique for control of nonlinear aircraft dynamics with large uncertain parametric and structural uncertainties caused by damage, this paper addresses some key issues in applying a multivariable model reference adaptive control (MARC) scheme to the NASA Generic Transportation Model (GTM). It presents solutions to the linearization of the nonlinear GTM dynamics in the presence of damage, the design and analysis of a state feedback multivariable MRAC scheme for the linearized model with damage, the control law for a nonlinear aircraft dynamic system, the invariance characterization of system infinity zero structures of the nonlinear and linearized system models, and the control system simulation of the GTM with uncertain damage. This work shows how a linearization-based MRAC scheme can be applied to a nonlinear aircraft dynamic system with damage, and demonstrates some desired performance of such a control system in a neighborhood of a chosen operating point.
Maximum-Entropy Expectation-Maximization Algorithm for Image Reconstruction and Sensor Field Estimation

In this paper, we propose a maximum-entropy expectation-maximization (MEEM) algorithm. We use the proposed algorithm for density estimation. The maximum-entropy constraint is imposed for smoothness of the estimated density function. The derivation of the MEEM algorithm requires determination of the covariance matrix in the framework of the maximum-entropy likelihood function, which is difficult to solve analytically. We, therefore, derive the MEEM algorithm by optimizing a lower-bound of the maximum-entropy likelihood function. We note that the classical expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm has been employed previously for 2-D density estimation. We propose to extend the use of the classical EM algorithm for image recovery from randomly sampled data and sensor field estimation from randomly scattered sensor networks. We further propose to use our approach in density estimation, image recovery and sensor field estimation. Computer simulation experiments are used to demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed MEEM algorithm in comparison to existing methods.
Voxel-Based Lesion Symptom Mapping of Coarse Coding and Suppression Deficits in Patients With Right Hemisphere Damage

Purpose This study examined right hemisphere (RH) neuroanatomical correlates of lexical–semantic deficits that predict narrative comprehension in adults with RH brain damage. Coarse semantic coding...
Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: Diagnosis, Maternal and Fetal Outcomes, and Management

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), or diabetes first recognized during pregnancy, is associated with increased risk of adverse perinatal outcomes. After GDM delivery, both mothers and offspring are at risk for long-term chronic disease. Clinical recognition and treatment of GDM may reduce peripartum risk, but there is a lack of consensus on how to define, screen and treat GDM. There is also a lack of information on how treatment affects long-term outcomes as well as precise information on the prevalence of long-term outcomes. Consensus regarding the definition of GDM may be achieved in the next several years with completion of the HAPO trial, but further study on the long-term effects of oral medications other than insulin is needed, and greater attention needs to be devoted to improving postpartum screening and to the follow-up and intervention for women and offspring to improve long-term outcomes.
Negotiated Loyalty: Welfare Capitalism and the Shoeworkers of Endicott Johnson, 1920–1940

The rapid rise of a huge and impersonal industrial order in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the often violent reactions that it engendered challenged Americans' facile adherence to laissez faire ideology. Responding to rising labor violence, social critics, theologians, and enlightened industrialists called for a reevaluation of prevailing economic theory and practice, particularly of those elements that contributed to the widening gulf between labor and capital. Corporate leaders raised on Sumnerian concepts of industrial relations questioned the social and economic viability of labor policies founded on principles of conflict and competition. They began experimenting with industrial reforms that aimed at alleviating labor conflict, improving worker morale, and cultivating employee loyalty. In the early decades of the twentieth century, progressive firms gradually assumed more responsibility for the well-being of their employees, initiating a movement that came to be known as welfare capitalism. Welfare advocates asserted that labor was not a mere commodity but a partner, albeit junior, that deserved fair treatment and consideration from capital. They emphasized that labor and capital shared a common goal-increasing production. Both partners would reap the bountiful harvest produced by cooperation. In translating these ideas into concrete reforms-such as company-provided housing, health services, and profit sharing-progressive business leaders hoped to forge between
Stick-Up At Check-In: A Managers Response To Identity Theft In The Hospitality & Tourism Industry

Resolving and decreasing identity theft is a burden shared by businesses managers and consumers; civic groups (non-governmental agencies); and governmental agencies. Terri, a hotel manager of a large international flagship resort is notified by authorities that her hotel and some of its key employees have been the focus of a 3-month long identity theft sting. Terri, has to handle ethical, legal, and organizational issues while facing possible criminal charges. She has a small window of time to try to resolve this issue internally and re-establish trust with all key external stakeholder constituencies. This case can be used in the following undergraduate and graduate courses: business ethics, management information systems, organizational behavior.
The Cuntermeasure and the Proposal on Strengthening Fnancial Afairs Administration of the Udertaking Units

The paper discusses comprehensively the problems involving in the financial affairs administration of the undertaking units,through the undertaking unit′s budget、material assets administration and account administration.the author gives some corresponding improving suggestions and hopes to find the best way of making use of the undertaking unit′s financial capital.
Teaching Bad Apples: A Fun Way to Tackle Difficult Teaching Situations.

Teaching Bad Apples is a game developed in 2014 for current and future teachers. It plays much like Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity, with each player in turn reading a situation card, followed by the other players choosing their response cards. Each situation, however dramatic or bizarre, is authentic, obtained through crowdsourcing, social media, and online teacher forums. After many playtests, including feedback from practicing teachers and teacher educators, we concluded that the most effective way to teach people to deal with these dicey situations is to have players provide wildly inappropriate responses to the authentic situations, and then in the debriefing talk about “what you would really do.” Effectively the game teaches by counterexample, and by making light of these situations it breaks down conversation barriers and then gets into authentic and appropriate reactions. This game format lends itself to teaching content in a variety of areas where dealing with difficult situations is important.
The role of risky behaviors and health education in college students' health information acquisition on the internet

Prior research shows that students use the Internet as a main source of health information. When starting college, students get greater autonomy over their behaviors and responsibility for their own health, which creates a number of health-related information needs. As a result of this newly acquired autonomy, students also frequently engage in various risky behaviors, putting their well-being in jeopardy. This study aimed to answer whether the self-reported frequency in which students engage in risky behaviors and their enrollment in health-related courses affect how frequently they obtain health-related information. A novel aspect of this study is that it incorporated both intentional and opportunistic information acquisition. An analysis of online survey responses from 810 undergraduates attending a mid-western U.S. university showed that the frequency of their engagement in risky behaviors (e.g., the use of substances and alcohol and engagement in high-risk sexual activities) is not significantly associated with the frequency of neither intentional nor opportunistic health information acquisition on the Internet. However, students enrolled in health-related courses more frequently obtain health information by both intentional search and opportunistic discovery. This opportunistic style of was often described in the literature using terms such as passive, unintentional, accidental, serendipitous, encountering or acquiring by chance. The study findings provide valuable directions for librarians and health educators on how to design new and improve existing e-health literacy instructions to better suit students' current needs and information behavior patterns.
Solution Technique for a Coupled System of Equations Describing Advection-Dominated Transport and Biotransformations in the Subsurface

It is now known that microbial activity plays a major role in the development and decay of contaminant plumes, yet little is known concerning microbial growth dynamics and the resulting biodegradation of organic contaminants. In furthering our understanding of the microbial degradation and growth response which occurs in contaminated aquifers, a numerical transport model that can simulate transport/degradation in porous media has been developed for the one- (Molz et al., 2; Widdowson et al., 4) and two-dimensional case (Widdowson et al.; 3). Discussed herein is the numerical solution technique for solving a coupled system of equations governing organic contaminant and electron acceptor transport/degradation and microbial growth/decay (2).
Preoperative Fiducial Marker Placement in the Thoracic Spine: A Technical Report.

Study design A retrospective review. Objective The aim of this study was to demonstrate proof-of-concept of preoperative percutaneous intraosseous fiducial marker placement before thoracic spine surgery. Summary of background data Wrong-level spine surgery is defined as a never event by Center for Medicare Services, yet the strength of data supporting the implementation of Universal Protocol to limit wrong level surgery is weak. The thoracic spine is especially prone to intraoperative mislocalization, particularly in cases of morbid obesity and anatomic variations. Methods We retrospectively reviewed all cases of preoperative percutaneous image-guided intraosseous placement of a metallic marker in the thoracic spine. Indications for surgery included degenerative disc disease (16/19), osteochondroma resection, spinal metastasis, and ligation of dural arteriovenous malformation. All metallic markers were placed from a percutaneous transpedicular approach under imaging guidance [fluoroscopy and computed tomography (CT) or CT alone]. Patient body mass index (BMI) was recorded. Overweight and obese BMI was defined greater than 25 and 30 kg/m, respectively. Results All 19 patients underwent fiducial marker placement and intraoperative localization successfully without complication. Twenty-two thoracic spine levels were localized. The T7, T9, T10, and T11 levels were the most often localized at rate of 18.1% for each level (4/22). The most cranial and caudal levels localized were T4 and T11. About 84.2% (16/19) of the cohort was overweight (57.9%; 11/19) or obese (26.3%; 5/19). The median BMI was 30.2 kg/m (range, 23.9-54.3 kg/m). Conclusion Preoperative percutaneous thoracic fiducial marker placement under imaging guidance is a safe method for facilitating intraoperative localization of the target spinal level, especially in obese patients. Further studies are needed to quantify changes in operative time and radiation exposure. Level of evidence 4.
Regulation of chemo-sensitivity in ovarian cancer via a stroma dependent glutathione pathway

The primary chemotherapeutic agents for epithelial ovarian cancer are platinum-based drugs, which are commonly used in combination with a taxane regimen. These treatments are generally effective at achieving remission, but the remission is often followed by a relapse and acquired resistance to chemotherapy. In order to overcome these barriers of drug resistance, it is important to understand the underlying mechanisms regulating the development of drug-resistant tumors. Tumors evolve through interactions with the surrounding microenvironment, which are comprised of a complex mixture of cells including fibroblasts and immune cells. In ovarian cancer, fibroblasts can make up a significant component of the primary tumor. While fibroblasts are known to influence the behavior of cancer cells directly through secretion of growth factors, and extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, the interactions between fibroblasts and immune cells are less understood. In a recently published study from Cell, Wang and colleagues present intriguing work characterizing the role of fibroblast and T cells in modulating platinum resistance in ovarian cancer. Here, we briefly summarize and comment on their findings in relation to the tumor microenvironment and chemoresistance.
Analysis of histopathological examination of the hysterectomy specimens in a north Indian teaching institute

Background: This was a retrospective study in which the histopathological examination (HPE) of the specimens of all the hysterectomies done for the non-oncological causes in the Mayo Institute of Medical Sciences (MIMS), Barabanki, India from January 2015 to July 2016 were analyzed. The aim of the study was to assess the range of pathological lesions in the hysterectomy specimens and correlation of the preoperative diagnosis with the histopathological diagnosis. Methods: This was a retrospective study which included all the patients who underwent hysterectomy for the non – oncological gynecological causes in Mayo Institute of Medical Sciences, Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, India over a span of 19 months, from January 2015 to July 2016. Results: A total of 152 hysterectomies were done for the non-oncological causes in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, MIMS, during the study period. Among these, 95 (62.5%) were done by the abdominal route and 57 (37.5%) were done by vaginal route. Mean age of the patients were 50.86±6.9 years, the mean age for vaginal hysterectomy being higher as compared to the abdominal hysterectomy. Uterovaginal prolapse (37.5%) was the most common preoperative indication, while the fibroid uterus (25.65%) was the commonest indication for the abdominal hysterectomy. Other common indications were dysfunctional uterine bleeding (DUB, 9.87%) and ovarian mass (7.89%). Fibroid uterus in the myometrium, chronic cervicitis in the cervix and functional cysts in the ovaries were the commonest histopathology noted. Adenomyosis was the most missed pathology preoperatively. Patients operated with a preoperative diagnosis of DUB had least HPE correlation. Unremarkable HPE was found in 12.5% cases, all were operated for uterovaginal prolapse Conclusions: Justification of hysterectomy is proved when the HPE report is compatible with the preoperative diagnosis; hence HPE of all hysterectomy specimens should be done and analyzed.
Design and Implementation of a Prospective Adult Congenital Heart Disease Biobank.

Background:Adults with congenital heart disease (ACHD) comprise a growing, increasingly complex population. The Boston Adult Congenital Heart Disease Biobank is a program for the collection and storage of biospecimens to provide a sustainable resource for scientific biomarker investigation in ACHD.Methods:We describe a protocol to collect, process, and store biospecimens for ACHD or associated diagnoses developed based on existing literature and consultation with cardiovascular biomarker epidemiologists. The protocol involves collecting urine and ∼48.5 mL of blood. A subset of the blood and urine undergoes immediate clinically relevant testing. The remaining biospecimens are processed soon after collection and stored at −80°C as aliquots of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and lithium heparin plasma, serum, red cell and buffy coat pellet, and urine supernatant. Including tubes with diverse anticoagulant and clot accelerator contents will enable flexible downstream use. Demographic and clinical data ...
DIVERSE ORIGINS OF UBIQUITOUS ENVIRONMENTAL CARCINOGENIC HAZARDS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF SAFETY TESTING1

A vast array of chemical carcinogens are present in the environment, many of natural origins and many as a result of man's use and abuse of technology. The background occurrence of such chemical hazards must be taken into account when evaluating the safety of proposed or existing chemical commodities, particularly those which, intentionally or unintentionally, become incorporated into the food supply. This report briefly describes hazardous chemicals present in the environment, how they are detected, how this information relates to potential human problems, and the importance of testing chemicals prior to their use by humans. Our past mistakes with biologically foreign chemical commodities serve as sufficient warning that the wholesale adulteration of the environment is to be avoided.
Tractability in Structured Probability Spaces

Recently, the Probabilistic Sentential Decision Diagram (PSDD) has been proposed as a framework for systematically inducing and learning distributions over structured objects, including combinatorial objects such as permutations and rankings, paths and matchings on a graph, etc. In this paper, we study the scalability of such models in the context of representing and learning distributions over routes on a map. In particular, we introduce the notion of a hierarchical route distribution and show how they can be leveraged to construct tractable PSDDs over route distributions, allowing them to scale to larger maps. We illustrate the utility of our model empirically, in a route prediction task, showing how accuracy can be increased significantly compared to Markov models.
Minimally Invasive Posterior Cervical Fusion Techniques

Minimally invasive techniques were initially limited to decompressive procedures. Over time, these techniques have been adapted and can now be used for instrumentation and arthrodesis. Minimally invasive posterior cervical fusion can be used in the acute setting for traumatic conditions as well as for chronic degenerative cervical spondylotic myelopathy of the atlantoaxial and subaxial spine. In the properly selected patient, these techniques reduce approach-related complications, blood loss, and postoperative pain while preserving the efficacy of open posterior cervical fusions. Therefore, minimally invasive posterior cervical fusion should be a skill that all complex spine surgeons should be able to perform.
La Constitución ecuatoriana de 1861: el debate

El articulo analiza el proceso de elaboracion de la Constitucion ecuatoriana de 1861, sus principales innovaciones y los debates que suscito. Esta carta constitucional amplio el sufragio y modifico la estructura administrativa territorial, y sustituyo la division geografica del Ecuador en departamentos por provincias. Tambien revisa los impactos regionales que produjo la nueva estructura administrativa. Ademas, el estudio realiza una descripcion de la coyuntura en que ascendio Gabriel Garcia Moreno a la jefatura del Estado ecuatoriano y las discrepancias en torno a las libertades individuales, las politicas economicas y las relaciones entre la Iglesia y el Estado catolico.
National Legal Restructuring in Accordance with International Norms: GATT/WTO and China's Foreign Trade Reform

The world in which we are living is rapidly shrinking in terms of the increasing interconnectedness and interdependence in economic life among different national economies. In response to this fundamental change, more and more nation-states have adopted internationally recognized and institutionalized principles and practices in conducting their economic activities. By no means is this trend limited solely to the developed, mostly Western, countries. It also has spread to those newly industrializing countries (NICs),1 and more recently, to the developing world as well. In order to fully participate in international economic exchanges, these developing and newly developed countries find it necessary to play by the rules formulated by the leading industrialized countries and manifested in the legal framework of
3D-Printed Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene-Metal Organic Framework Composite Materials and Their Gas Storage Properties

Abstract Metal organic framework materials (MOFs) have been primarily recognized for their ability to promote selective storage of gas molecules. In their as-synthesized (powdered) form, MOFs are n...