cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Physician knowledge and adherence to prescribing antibiotic prophylaxis for sickle cell disease

Objective The purpose of this research was to examine how physician characteristics were associated with: (i). physician knowledge of and adherence to sickle cell guidelines; and (ii). the types of educational programs about sickle cell disease desired by physicians. Methods A survey was developed to assess the research objective. After the survey was pre-tested and an institutional review board exemption was obtained, it was sent to a systematic random sample of 375 pediatricians and all 125 practicing hematologists in North Carolina. They were asked to answer a six-item knowledge test relating to the antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines. Results The response rate was 57%, of which 61% were pediatricians. Over half (56%) were in a practice with at least one pediatric sickle cell patient. Fifty-nine percent of physicians answered five or more questions correctly on the knowledge test. The question most physicians answered correctly (97%) pertained to the necessity of antibiotics for children with sickle cell disease. The question most frequently answered incorrectly (62%) pertained to prescribing antibiotics to a child with unconfirmed sickle cell disease. Logistic regression results indicated that the number of sickle cell patients seen in practice influenced the number of questions answered correctly. Sixty-six percent of physicians prescribed prophylactic antibiotics for 100% of their patients with sickle cell disease and therefore were 100% adherent. Eighty-one percent of pediatricians compared with 12% of hematologists were 100% adherent in prescribing antibiotics. Hematologists and those practicing at a medical school or university were less likely to be 100% adherent in prescribing antibiotic prophylaxis. Conclusion The majority of physicians surveyed were relatively knowledgeable about sickle cell guidelines, however there may be a need for continuing education programs that focus on the issues of prescribing antibiotics to a child with unconfirmed sickle cell disease and penicillin dosage.
Function and redox state of mitochondrial localized cysteine-rich proteins important in the assembly of cytochrome c oxidase.

The cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) complex of the mitochondrial respiratory chain exists within the mitochondrial inner membrane (IM). The biogenesis of the complex is a multi-faceted process requiring multiple assembly factors that function on both faces of the IM. Formation of the two copper centers of CcO occurs within the intermembrane space (IMS) and is dependent on assembly factors with critical cysteinyl thiolates. Two classes of assembly factors exist, one group being soluble IMS proteins and the second class being proteins tethered to the IM. A common motif in the soluble assembly factors is a duplicated Cx9C sequence motif. Since mitochondrial respiration is a major source of reactive oxygen species, control of the redox state of mitochondrial proteins is an important process. This review documents the role of these cysteinyl CcO assembly factors within the IMS and the necessity of redox control in their function.
Prisoner Reentry: Public Safety and Reintegration Challenges

Changes in sentencing practices, coupled with a decrease in prison rehabilitation programs, have placed new demands on the U.S. parole system. Nearly 700,000 parolees are “doing time” on the streets. Most have been released to a parole system that provides few services and imposes conditions that almost guarantee failure. This article examines the state of parole in today's corrections environment—from indeterminate and determinate sentencing policies to investing in prisoner reentry programs. Specifically, the article analyzes the following collateral consequences involved with recycling parolees in and out of families and communities: community cohesion and social disorganization, work and economic well-being, family matters, mental and physical health, political alienation, and housing and homelessness. The future of parole is also discussed, and the author urges a rethinking of discretionary parole release.
Life on Capitol Hill: A pharmacist's perspective.

Daily life on Capitol Hill is different than the occasional glimpse that many of us observe on a professional society’s legislative day, school field trip, or family visit. When I decided to pursue a Congressional Fellowship, I anticipated that I would enter a field in which I would no longer be
Physiological Aspects of Female Sexual Development

The scientific inquiry into human sexuality is in many ways incomplete. Political, religious, and cultural taboos contribute to the difficulties of gathering and disseminating information. Unfounded, though popular conceptions of sexuality contribute to sexual repression and oppression. The following discussion of physiological aspects of female sexual development will assist the reader to differentiate better between myth and fact when encountering information about sexuality and to reserve acceptance of data that are not fully substantiated.
Development of High-Performance Optical Silicone for the Packaging of High-Power LEDs

Silicone materials with a relatively high-refractive index have been introduced for the encapsulation of high-power light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and LEDs with relatively short wavelengths. However, most of those existing silicone encapsulants still suffer from thermal and radiation induced degradations and thus lead to reliability issues and a shorten lifetime. A new high-performance silicone has been developed and its performance is compared with other commercial silicone and optical grade epoxy in high-power white LEDs. The new materials had been found to suffer less loss in the lumen output during the aging test and high-temperature/high-humidity test, as well as the Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC) reliability test. It is concluded that this material is excellent for the packaging of high-power white LEDs and high-power colored LEDs, because of its ability in maintaining high-transparency and great radiation/thermal resistance.
Volcanic and anthropogenic contributions to global weathering budgets

We evaluate whether the global weathering budget is near steady state for the pre-anthropogenic modern environment by assessing the magnitude of acidity-generating volcanic exhalations. The weathering rate induced by volcanic acid fluxes, of which the CO flux is the most important, can be expressed as an average release rate of dissolved silica, based on a model 2 feldspar-weathering scheme, and the ratio of carbonate-to-silicate rock weathering. The theoretically predicted flux of silica from chemical weathering is slightly smaller than the estimated global riverine silica flux. After adjustment for carbonate weathering, the riverine dissolved bicarbonate flux is larger than the volcanic carbon degassing rate by a factor of about three. There are substantial uncertainties associated with the calculated and observed flux values, but the modern system may either not be in steady state, or additional, ''unknown'' carbon sources may exist. The closure errors in the predicted budgets and observed riverine fluxes suggest that continental weathering rates might have had an impact on atmospheric CO levels at a time scale of 10 3 -10 4 years, and that enhanced weathering rates during glacial periods might have been a 2 factor in the reduced glacial atmospheric CO levels. Recent anthropogenic emissions of carbon and sulfur have a much 2 larger acid-generating capacity than the natural fluxes. Estimated potential weathering budgets to neutralize these fluxes are far in excess of observed values. A theoretical scenario for a return to steady state at the current anthropogenic acidity . emissions disregarding the temporary buffering action of the ocean reservoir requires either significantly lower pH values in continental surface waters as a result of storage of strong acids, and ror higher temperatures as a result of enhanced atmospheric CO levels in order to create weathering rates that can neutralize the total flux of anthropogenic and natural 2
Getting Active In The Classroom

This paper presents active learning theory and how implementation of dynamic instruction strategies can transform the K-12 classroom. A multi-part study was conducted to determine both the level of active learning knowledge among participants and applicability of newly acquired approaches within the participants’ classrooms. First, teachers were surveyed regarding their knowledge of active learning; second, they were educated on the concept and trained in methods; third, participating instructors implemented active learning techniques; and, fourth, participants were surveyed after conducting a minimal number (one active learning activity a week for six weeks) of lessons that integrated active learning theory. The goals of this study were to assess the level of readiness of the K-12 teacher to implement active learning, educate them on active learning, have them utilize active learning principles and share the results.
Polarization-insensitive single-pump optical parametric amplifier by depolarization of the pump

We demonstrate a polarization-insensitive single-pumped optical-parametric-amplifier by depolarizing the pump using a polarization controller followed by a piece of polarization-maintaining fiber with /spl sim/ 100-ps DGD. The polarization-dependent-gain is reduced from 8 dB to <1 dB.
Science and Religion in Early America: Cotton Mather's Christian Philosopher

Science and religion both constitute vital dimensions of experience, but people differ in their views on proper relations between the two. In modern times, when science increasingly dominates the outlook of society, many regard science and religion as incompatible and strive to maintain them in watertight compartments. In 1972, for example, the National Academy of Sciences, responding to a demand that creationism be given equal time with the theory of evolution in biology classrooms and textbooks, adopted a resolution stating that “religion and science are … separate and mutually exclusive realms of human thought whose presentation in the same context leads to misunderstanding of both scientific theory and religious belief.” The battle over creationism continues, with the National Academy of Sciences and orthodox religious groups both insisting on the incompatibility of the two spheres.
The use of report cards and outcome measurements to improve the safety of surgical care: the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program

Postoperative adverse events occur all too commonly and contribute greatly to our large and increasing healthcare costs. Surgeons, as well as hospitals, need to know their own outcomes in order to recognise areas that need improvement before they can work towards reducing complications. In the USA, the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (ACS NSQIP) collects clinical data that provide benchmarks for providers and hospitals. This review summarises the history of ACS NSQIP and its components, and describes the evidence that feeding outcomes back to providers, along with real-time comparisons with other hospital rates, leads to quality improvement, better patient outcomes, cost savings and overall improved patient safety. The potential harms and limitations of the program are discussed.
Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Initiation in an Area with Elevated Rates of Cervical Cancer

Abstract Purpose We assessed human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination of adolescent girls living in communities with elevated cervical cancer rates. Methods During July to October 2007, we conducted interviews with a probability sample of parents (or guardians) of 10- to 18-year-old girls in five North Carolina counties with cervical cancer rates substantially higher than the national average. Estimates are weighted. Results We interviewed 889 (73%) of 1220 eligible parents; 38% were black. Overall, 10.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] 7.7%–13.5%) of daughters had received at least 1 dose of HPV vaccine. Only 6.4% of 10- to 12-year-olds had initiated vaccination, versus 17.5% of 16- to 18-year-olds (odds ratio [OR] 3.1, 95% CI 1.4–6.9). Older age of daughters and doctor's recommendation were the only factors independently associated with vaccine initiation. Main reasons reported for not initiating HPV vaccine were: needing more information (22%) or never having heard of the vaccine (14%), believing daughter is too young (16%) or not yet sexually active (13%), and not having gone to the doctor yet (13%). Only 0.5% of parents cited concern about HPV vaccine making a teenage girl more likely to have sex as a main reason for not vaccinating. Of 780 parents with unvaccinated daughters, 62% reported their daughters “probably” or “definitely” will, and 10% reported their daughters “definitely won't” get HPV vaccine in the next year. Conclusions Approximately 1 year after its introduction, HPV vaccine had been initiated by only 10% of adolescent girls in an area with elevated cervical cancer rates; however, most parents intended for their daughters to be vaccinated. Additional efforts are needed to ensure that parents' intentions to vaccinate are realized.
Competitive processes in cross-situational word learning.

Cross-situational word learning, like any statistical learning problem, involves tracking the regularities in the environment. However, the information that learners pick up from these regularities is dependent on their learning mechanism. This article investigates the role of one type of mechanism in statistical word learning: competition. Competitive mechanisms would allow learners to find the signal in noisy input and would help to explain the speed with which learners succeed in statistical learning tasks. Because cross-situational word learning provides information at multiple scales—both within and across trials/situations—learners could implement competition at either or both of these scales. A series of four experiments demonstrate that cross-situational learning involves competition at both levels of scale, and that these mechanisms interact to support rapid learning. The impact of both of these mechanisms is considered from the perspective of a processlevel understanding of cross-situational learning.
Estradiol Receptors in the Oviduct and Uterus of the Rabbit

The changes in estradiol binding in the cytosol of tubal and uterine tissues of rabbits at different times after mating are described. The results are compared with receptor activity in tissues from castrated and estrous animals. Estradiol binding time is affected by incubation temperature. Estradiol binding was found in the 4S and 8S regions by analysis of sucrose gradients of uterine and tubal cytosols. 3 hours after coitus the level of receptor was not different from the estrous state. However 12 hours after coitus a significant decline in concentration had occurred in both tissues. 3 days after mating the levels increased again then decreased to the lowest levels at 6 days postcoitus. The changes in estradiol receptor concentrations seem to be related to variations in ovarian hormone production and tubal contractility from the time of mating to implantation and may thus be important in regulating tubal and uterine function.(AUTHORS MODIFIED)
President-Centered and Presidency-Centered Explanations of Federal Clemency Policy

This study revisits President-centered and Presidency-centered perspectives of Presidential behavior through an empirical analysis of federal executive clemency policy in the United States. A review of the extant literature provides a framework within which to develop and test hypotheses. Specific variables are then tested in a multivariate model of clemency policy from 1934 to 1994. The dependent variable (which measures degrees of leniency) is derived from a data set consisting of over 41,000 clemency applications and over 11,000 'positive' clemency decisions made in eleven administrations. ARIMA models of clemency policy suggest that while some personal background characteristics of the president may be important considerations, the clemency policy of administrations is best understood by the political environment and more administrative factors. Thus, with respect to clemency, the Presidency-centered orientation appears to be more appropriate.
Democratic Theory and the Problem of Rights: Reflections on Labor Regimes

Reproaching Prussian parliamentary liberals in 1862 for imagining that they could rely on a liberal reading of constitutional rights to counter arbitrary action by the Prussian regime, Lasalle said: "Constitutional issues are not at bottom juristic issues, but questions of power. The real national constitution has its being only in the actual power relations subsisting in the nation. Written constitutions have value and durability only when they accurately represent the prevailing power relations." (Die Verfassungsreden. Eduard Bernstein, ed. Berlin: Cassirer, 1919 vol. 2, p. 60.)
Iodine complexes in inert solvents: Part VIII. Spectrophotometric studies of the iodine-naphthalene complex

Abstract Here are reported spectrophotometric measurements at temperatures between 1°C and 45°C for naphthalene plus iodine dissolved in each of carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, cyclohexane, n -heptane, and n -hexane together with analyses of data by both the Ketelaar and the Scott methods. Heat of formation values for the complex are given.
Retinal implant electrode arrays with 10V SOI CMOS circuitry

The interface between stimulation electrodes (which deliver electrical pulses) and retinal tissue is the most important interface in the retinal prosthesis application. As a member of the DOE Artificial Retina project, we have been developing a micromachined electrode array to address the critical mechanical and electrical coupling at this interface. Our design incorporates mechanical springs at each electrode site to allow controlled mechanical contact between the electrode array and the retinal surface, as well as built-in 10V capable CMOS electronics to handle routing of signals and to monitor integrated sensors. This process is also directed towards addressing other MEMS sensor/actuator systems that require higher voltages (/spl sim/10V).
Adenovirus-mediated gene transfer to human fetal lung ex vivo.

Gene therapy of the fetus or newborn infant is a potentially useful approach for prevention or treatment of specific lung diseases. To begin to address issues such as efficiency, duration, and cell...
Autoimmunity, Complement, and Immunodeficiency

Testing for autoimmune diseases is a very common practice. This chapter will discuss various methodologies for testing for autoimmune diseases as well as interpretation of such tests. In addition, the biological and pathological role of the complement system with its major components will be discussed. The activation pathways of the complement system and its regulation (along with laboratory assessments) will also be considered. The normal components of the immune system will be highlighted in this chapter. This will include both humoral immunity and its components, as well as cell-mediated immunity and its components. The HLA system will also be discussed. B cell, T cell, and combined immunodeficiency will be considered along with various neutrophil defects.
Still at the Drawing Board Improving Quality of Life in Heart Failure

Among the estimated 5.7 million people living with heart failure (HF) in the United States, HF with preserved ejection fraction (HF-PEF) or mildly reduced left ventricular dysfunction represents approximately 90% of women and 70% of men.1 Although patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction may have worse mortality,2 other outcomes are similar including impaired quality of life.3 Although this HF-PEF population has a higher representation of women, elderly and minorities, there is an underrepresentation of randomized clinical trials to determine therapies that may improve outcomes. Thus, trends in mortality have remained unchanged in this population despite improvements in mortality among the patients with HF with low ejection fraction in epidemiology cohorts.4 The increase in hospitalization rates for acute decompensated HF, overall costs of managing these complex patients, and high prevalence in the general population5 support the expanded efforts of researchers to determine novel interventions for improving outcomes. In addition to reducing mortality and hospitalizations, increasing exercise capacity, and attenuating disease progression, improving the patient's sense of well-being is an additional important goal of novel therapy. Article see p 217 The term “quality of life” (QOL) has been used for decades by researchers, clinicians, patients, and health policy experts. The foundation of QOL may date back to 1948 when the World Health Organization expanded the concept of health beyond merely the absence of disease, but included the overall well-being of the patient.6 Given the logical importance of QOL, there has been a surge of articles with QOL listed as a key word in MEDLINE from 5 articles in 19736 to >4000 articles today when restricting the search to HF. The emergence of standardized metrics for determining the validity, reliability, responsiveness, and interpretability of instruments for measuring QOL (also known as psychometric properties of the instrument) …
Systems Technology in Supportive Medical Diagnosis and Therapy

Abstract The paper outlines the supportive role that systems technology should provide to improve, optimize, and augment the decisions of the responsible physician. Examples of supportive systems as related to both research and health care delivery are presented to demonstrate the use of systems technology to health science applications.
Recent advances in gas storage and separation using metal–organic frameworks

Abstract Gas storage and separation are closely associated with the alleviation of greenhouse effect, the widespread use of clean energy, the control of toxic gases, and various other aspects in human society. In this review, we highlight the recent advances in gas storage and separation using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). In addition to summarizing the gas uptakes of some benchmark MOFs, we emphasize on the desired chemical properties of MOFs for different gas storage/separation scenarios. Greenhouse gases (CO2), energy-related gases (H2 and CH4), and toxic gases (CO and NH3) are covered in the review.
Simulation of an Improved Beam Combiner Module (BCM) for Spatial Domain Multiplexing (SDM)

Spatial Domain Multiplexing (SDM) is a MIMO architecture that can significantly increase the bandwidth of optical fibers. A stable multiplexer is crucial for SDM. This paper presents a simulation for an improved multiplexer for SDM.
J. M. W. Turner and the Great Western Railway, and John Everett Millais and an Ancient Oak

The J. M. W. Turner painting Rain, Steam, and Speed – The Great Western Railway has a special importance as one of the earliest canvases to show how the Industrial Revolution altered the British landscape. Could nineteenth-century railroad timetables help us to understand the origin of this painting? Can we identify the railway bridge in the canvas? Turner first exhibited this work at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1844. Remarkably, an eyewitness account of a June 1843 trip by Lady Jane Simon on the Great Western Railway apparently described the moment that inspired Turner to create Rain, Steam, and Speed. Some art historians have accepted the veracity of Lady Simon’s story, but others have been skeptical and regard her account as unreliable.
Willers, Bill (Ed.). Learning to Listen to the Land

(1993). Willers, Bill (Ed.). Learning to Listen to the Land. Journal of Leisure Research: Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 405-407.
Suboptimal and anytime heuristic search on multi-core machines

In order to scale with modern processors, planning algorithms must become multi-threaded. In this paper, we present parallel shared-memory algorithms for two problems that underlie many planning systems: suboptimal and anytime heuristic search. We extend a recently-proposed approach for parallel optimal search to the suboptimal case, providing two new pruning rules for bounded suboptimal search. We also show how this new approach can be used for parallel anytime search. Using temporal logic, we prove the correctness of our framework, and in an empirical comparison on STRIPS planning, grid pathfinding, and sliding tile puzzle problems using an 8-core machine, we show that it yields faster search performance than previous proposals.
Biomechanics of Impact Injury

Physicians diagnose and treat. Engineers break and build. The field of biomechanics is a wonderful bridge between the two. Those who study the biomechanics of trauma get to work with fine people in both areas in an effort to elucidate mechanisms of injury. Presumably, definition of these mechanisms can lead to injury mitigation and perhaps even enhanced treatment outcomes. In the forensic arena, determination of injury mechanism can be a critical component in settling legal disputes, as illustrated by the case studies at the end of this chapter.
B-Cell Lymphoma

A 70-year-old male presented to his primary care physician complaining of a left neck mass. He was otherwise healthy and asymptomatic. He was referred for fine needle aspiration to further characterize his neck mass. The fine needle aspiration revealed that the mass was an enlarged lymph node with an admixture of small lymphocytes and scattered highly atypical lymphoid cells consistent with lymphoma. Subsequently, an excisional biopsy was performed of the left neck lymph node. A touch preparation of the lymph node showed small mature lymphocytes and larger degenerated lymphoid cells. Sections of the node revealed a nodular proliferation of atypical lymphoid cells with an increased number of large atypical cells (Fig. 11.1). Flow cytometric immunophenotyping failed to identify any unique cell populations. Immunostaining for CD3 (pan T-cell marker), CD10 (common acute lymphoblastic leukemia antigen), CD20 (mature B-cell marker), CD21 (part of the B-cell coreceptor complex, positive on follicular dendritic cells), CD30 (marker of activated B and T cells), CD45 (leukocyte common antigen), CD57 (human natural killer-1 protein), and BCL2 (B-cell lymphoma-2 protein, antiapoptotic protein) was performed. The stains for CD3 and CD20 demonstrated that both B and T cells were present. CD3 stained many small lymphocytes within the nodules. CD20 stained both small and large atypical lymphoid cells. CD10 and CD21 highlighted the follicular dendritic network. In addition to staining for CD20, the large atypical cells also stained for CD30, CD45, and BCL2. CD57 positive cells were increased in the nodules but did not occur as a rim around the larger atypical cells.
Glycopyrrolate/eFlow CS: The First Nebulized Long-Acting Muscarinic Antagonist Approved to Treat Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Objective: To review the pharmacology, efficacy, and safety of the first nebulized long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA), glycopyrrolate (GLY)/eFlow closed system (CS) nebulizer, approved for ma...
The Vietnam Women's Movement for the Right to Live: a non-communist opposition movement to the American war in Vietnam

This article examines the political and diplomatic struggles in urban South Vietnam from the perspective of women in the Vietnamese Women’s Movement for the Right to Live (WRL) during the Vietnam W...
XBully: Cyberbullying Detection within a Multi-Modal Context

Over the last decade, research has revealed the high prevalence of cyberbullying among youth and raised serious concerns in society. Information on the social media platforms where cyberbullying is most prevalent (e.g., Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) is inherently multi-modal, yet most existing work on cyberbullying identification has focused solely on building generic classification models that rely exclusively on text analysis of online social media sessions (e.g., posts). Despite their empirical success, these efforts ignore the multi-modal information manifested in social media data (e.g., image, video, user profile, time, and location), and thus fail to offer a comprehensive understanding of cyberbullying. Conventionally, when information from different modalities is presented together, it often reveals complementary insights about the application domain and facilitates better learning performance. In this paper, we study the novel problem of cyberbullying detection within a multi-modal context by exploiting social media data in a collaborative way. This task, however, is challenging due to the complex combination of both cross-modal correlations among various modalities and structural dependencies between different social media sessions, and the diverse attribute information of different modalities. To address these challenges, we propose XBully, a novel cyberbullying detection framework, that first reformulates multi-modal social media data as a heterogeneous network and then aims to learn node embedding representations upon it. Extensive experimental evaluations on real-world multi-modal social media datasets show that the XBully framework is superior to the state-of-the-art cyberbullying detection models.
The Tangent copy-number inference pipeline for cancer genome analyses

Abstract Motivation Somatic copy-number alterations (SCNAs) play an important role in cancer development. Systematic noise in sequencing and array data present a significant challenge to the inference of SCNAs for cancer genome analyses. As part of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), the Broad Institute Genome Characterization Center developed the Tangent copy-number inference pipeline to generate copy-number profiles using single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array and whole-exome sequencing (WES) data from over 10,000 pairs of tumors and matched normal samples. Here, we describe the Tangent pipeline, which begins with DNA sequencing data in the form of .bam files or raw SNP array probe-level intensity data, and ends with segmented copy-number calls to facilitate the identification of novel genes potentially targeted by SCNAs. We also describe a modification of Tangent, Pseudo-Tangent, which enables denoising through comparisons between tumor profiles when few normal samples are available. Results Tangent Normalization offers substantial signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvements compared to conventional normalization methods in both SNP array and WES analyses. The improvement in SNRs is achieved primarily through noise reduction with minimal effect on signal. Pseudo-Tangent also reduces noise when few normal samples are available. Tangent and Pseudo-Tangent are broadly applicable and enable more accurate inference of SCNAs from DNA sequencing and array data. Availability and Implementation Tangent is available at https://github.com/coyin/tangent and as a Docker image (https://hub.docker.com/r/coyin/tangent). Tangent is also the normalization method for the Copy Number pipeline in Genome Analysis Toolkit 4 (GATK4). Contact matthew_meyerson@dfci.harvard.edu, rameen@broadinstitute.org, gadgetz@broadinstitute.org
On the feasibility of estimating soluble sugar content using millimeter-wave

With the development of novel sensing techniques, continuous monitoring, data-driven inferences, precision irrigation control, and intelligent Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems, agriculture sector is witnessing a revolution. Specialized devices based on infrared and laser are developed to assist farmers in assessing the produce quality, especially its sugar content. However, such devices are expensive and not readily available to consumers. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of using 60 GHz millimeter-wave (mmWave) signal as a ubiquitous and non-invasive way to estimate the Soluble Sugar Content (SSC) in fruits. With the rapid development in the mmWave technology, 60 GHz WiFi is likely to become pervasive in future mobile devices. Our study shows that when 60 GHz WiFi signals reflect from a fruit, the reflection can be used to infer the fruit's sugar content. We identify the underlying reasons of variations in reflection signals with varying SSC and study the impact of size, shape and density of fruits on reflections. We then develop statistical features based on received signal strength and amplitude, and use them to design regression-based estimation models. With an extensive evaluation with 300 fruit samples, we find that our proposed technique can estimate SSC in three different type of fruits with an average correlation coefficient of 85%. Our prediction errors are within the range of user's taste perception.
Subjektive Gesundheitstheorien: Inhalt, Dynamik und ihre Bedeutung für das Gesundheitshandeln im Alltag

Mit dem Ziel, konzeptionelle Grundlagen fur die Gesundheitsforderung empirisch zu begrunden, werden in dieser Arbeit die Gesundheitsvorstellungen von Laien untersucht, insbesondere ihre subjektiven Gesundheitstheorien. Eine qualitative Interviewstudie bei gesunden berufstatigen Erwachsenen aus Handwerks- und Verwaltungsberufen erbringt eine Typologie von subjektiven Gesundheitstheorien, in der zwei Dimensionen, namlich Einflusbereiche und dynamische Einflusprozesse, in komplexer Weise kombiniert werden. Es wird gezeigt, das diese Laientheorien notwendige kognitiv-motivationale Bedingung fur die Erklarung des Gesundheitshandelns im Alltag sind. Durch die Einbeziehung des biographischen und sozialen Kontextes lassen sich weitere motivationale Bedingungen rekonstruieren, namlich den subjektiven Stellenwert von Gesundheit und die mogliche Integration des intendierten Handelns in den Alltag. Die Ergebnisse werden als erste Schritte zu einer psychosozialen Theorie des Gesundheitshandelns interpretiert.
Rare case of bilateral wrist and foot drop from SLE-related vasculitic polyneuropathy.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a heterogeneous, chronic, inflammatory, autoimmune disease characterised by multiorgan involvement and the production of multiple autoantibodies. Neurological manifestations in SLE patients are frequently reported—the prevalence is 37%–90%. We present a unique case where the patient presented with bilateral wrist and foot drop for 4 days, which later led to the diagnosis of SLE-related vasculitic polyneuropathy. During the course of treatment, the patient received prednisone, rituximab and hydroxychloroquine. At 6-month follow-up, patient had reported significant improvement in her weakness with increased mobility in upper and lower extremities. Prompt diagnosis and treatment are necessary in these cases to prevent disease progression and morbidity.
How Consumers Process Complex Information Related to Food Biotechnology: The Case of Citrus Greening

The purpose of this study was to understand how consumers process information about different applications of biotechnology in food. The context of this study was the case of citrus greening, a bac...
Platelet activation in experimental murine neonatal pulmonary hypertension.

Serotonin (5-HT) contributes to the pathogenesis of experimental neonatal pulmonary hypertension (PH) associated with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Platelets are the primary source of circulating 5-HT and is released upon platelet activation. Platelet transfusions are associated with neonatal mortality and increased rates of BPD. As BPD is often complicated by PH, we tested the hypothesis that circulating platelets are activated and also increased in the lungs of neonatal mice with bleomycin-induced PH associated with BPD. Newborn wild-type mice received intraperitoneal bleomycin (3 units/kg) three times weekly for 3 weeks. Platelets from mice with experimental PH exhibited increased adhesion to collagen under flow (at 300 s-1 and 1,500 s-1 ) and increased expression of the αIIbβ3 integrin and phosphatidylserine, markers of platelet activation. Platelet-derived factors 5-HT and platelet factor 4 were increased in plasma from mice with experimental PH. Pharmacologic blockade of the 5-HT 2A receptor (5-HT 2A R) prevents bleomycin-induced PH and pulmonary vascular remodeling. Here, platelets from mice with bleomycin-induced PH demonstrate increased 5-HT 2A R expression providing further evidence of both platelet activation and increased 5-HT signaling in this model. In addition, bleomycin treatment increased lung platelet accumulation. In summary, platelets are activated, granule factors are released, and are increased in numbers in the lungs of mice with experimental neonatal PH. These results suggest platelet activation and release of platelet-derived factors may increase vascular tone, promote aberrant angiogenesis, and contribute to the development of neonatal PH.
Chapter 84 – Egg Coverings

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses protective coverings females provide their eggs, which reflect the full range of environments exploited by insects. Egg coverings fall into two major categories: those produced by follicle cells and those produced by accessory glands of the reproductive tract. Follicle cells secrete the chorion or insect eggshell. The design of the chorion is important in fertilization, egg respiration, and water balance. Coverings produced by accessory glands provide additional protection from the elements, predators, and parasites. The vitelline envelope is considered to be the first layer of the chorion. Next, a layer of wax is secreted, giving the egg greater resistance to desiccation. Then, several more chorionic layers are produced, commonly with sheet-like inner and outer layers separated by a pillared region enclosing air spaces. The eggshell is a layer of armor protecting the egg and developing embryo from the elements, predators, and parasites. Eggshell shape, texture, and color can also provide protection through camouflage and warning coloration.
Do Mobile Phones Help Expand Social Capital? An Empirical Case Study

The rapid adoption of mobile phones, particularly in developing countries, has led a number of researchers to investigate their impact on socioeconomic activity in the developing world. However, until the recent advent of smart communication devices, mobile phones were primarily a relations management technology that enabled people to stay connected with each other. In this article, we focus on this basic function and analyze how people use this technology as a tool to expand their social capital. We use a dataset containing more than three billion call detail records from Rwanda’s largest telecommunication operator, covering the whole country during the period from 1 July 2014 to 31 March 2015, and combine these records with data from the fourth Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey conducted by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda in 2015. We found that people’s calling patterns significantly correlated with the income level of their region, which also dictated the destinations of their calls, with middle-income regions acting as a link between the richest and the poorest regions. From these results, we propose a framework for understanding the role of mobile phones in the development of social capital.
A Hybrid Binary-Cascaded Multilevel Inverter With Simple Floating-Capacitor-Voltage Control

This article presents a single-sourced hybrid binary-cascaded multilevel inverter (BCMLI) with front-end high-frequency-link (HFL) converters. The purpose of HFL converters is to boost a dc-source voltage to three bus voltages in a binary ratio. In this article, one of the HFL converters is removed from the system and the voltage of the floating capacitor caused by the removal is controlled by a newly proposed floating-capacitor-voltage (FCV) control. Compared with the conventional BCMLI, the system size and cost can be significantly reduced while maintaining promising features, including 15-level output, high voltage gain, galvanic isolation, and reactive-power capability remain unchanged. The proposed FCV control utilizes one of the switching angles at the voltage-level transitions as the control variable in a single-loop design, which facilitates control simplicity in the proposed system. The hybrid BCMLI with the proposed FCV control shows relative advantages of voltage gain, isolation capability, reactive supply, and simple control system over the state-of-the-art hybrid inverter topologies with FCV control methods. The details of the hybrid BCMLI, modulation schemes, proposed FCV control design, and comparative assessment are included in this article. In order to validate the proposed system and FCV control, a set of experiments with a 1-kW BCMLI prototype has been conducted for wide-range load levels and power factors.
Afoxolaner as a Treatment for a Novel Sarcoptes scabiei Infestation in a Juvenile Potbelly Pig

A 2 month old female Vietnamese pot bellied pig presented to a veterinary teaching hospital with a referring complaint of pruritus. A human caretaker of the pig had recently been diagnosed with a Sarcoptes spp. dermatitis. Microscopic examination of the skin scrape samples and BLAST analysis confirmed the species of the mite as most closely related to Sarcoptes scabiei var. canis (AY493391). The pig was treated with afoxolaner as previous treatment with ivermectin was not efficacious. Recheck examinations and follow up revealed the pig to be non-pruritic and resolving. Afoxolaner may be a therapeutic option when treating Sarcoptes spp. infections in companion pigs.
Evaluation of 30-day complication rates following vaginal anterior compartment repair with and without graft augmentation in a propensity score matched cohort.

To determine if graft augmentation with anterior colporrhaphy (AC+G) is associated with higher complication rates compared to native tissue repair (AC). Retrospective cohort study using data from the ACS-NSQIP database between 2010 and 2017. CPT codes were used to identify women undergoing AC+G and AC. Propensity scores for the likelihood of undergoing AC+G were calculated and were used to match to women undergoing native tissue repair at a ratio of 1:2. The primary outcome was the composite complication rate. Descriptive statistics are reported as means with standard deviations for parametric data and as medians and interquartile ranges for non-parametric data. Pairwise comparisons were performed using Fisher’s exact test, Wilcoxon rank-sum and Student’s t test as appropriate. Multivariable logistic regression was then used to adjust for confounders to identify statistically significant factors associated with the likelihood of experiencing a complication after prolapse repair. 582 women met inclusion criteria for AC+G and were matched with 1164 women undergoing AC. There were no differences in preoperative characteristics between groups. There was no difference in the composite complication rate, (10.8% vs. 8.5%, p = 0.13) between groups. Dependent functional status (aOR 4.31, 95% CI 1.96–13.58) was the strongest predictor of the likelihood of a complication: other significant predictors were operating time greater than 20 min (aOR 1.68, 95% CI 1.19–2.38) and ASA class greater than 2 (aOR 1.44, 95% CI 1.01–2.05). There is no increase in 30-day complication rates in women undergoing AC+G compared to a matched cohort of those undergoing AC alone.
Gendered Racism in the Lives of Black Women: A Qualitative Exploration:

Historically, Black women have experienced multiple adversities due to gendered racism. While research demonstrates that gendered racism is associated with negative physical and mental health impli...
Positive microscopic surgical margins: Is there an association with survival in resected small gastrointestinal stromal tumors?

Abstract Background Few studies evaluate the relationships between surgical approach, histologic margin, and overall survival in gastrointestinal stromal tumor. We test the hypothesis that margin positive resection is associated with compromised overall survival. Methods We queried the National Cancer Data Base to identify patients undergoing resections for gastrointestinal stromal tumors ≤3 cm in size between 2010 and 2015. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with positive microscopic margins on final pathology. Cox proportional hazard methods were used to evaluate factors associated with overall survival. Results 2064 patients met inclusion criteria; 135 (6.5%) had a microscopically positive surgical margin. On multivariable regression, minimally invasive approach was not associated with risk of a positive margin (OR 1.06 95% CI [0.71, 1.59]). On Cox analysis, positive margin status was not associated with OS (R1: 1.03, CI [0.46–2.31], reference R0). Conclusions Positive microscopic surgical margins are not associated with compromised overall survival in patients undergoing resection of small gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Minimally invasive surgical approaches do not compromise oncologic outcomes in these cases.
A Statistical Model for Melody Reduction

A commonly-cited reason for the poor performance of automatic chord estimation (ACE) systems within music information retrieval (MIR) is that non-chord tones (i.e., notes outside the supporting harmony) contribute to error during the labeling process. Despite the prevalence of machine learning approaches in MIR, there are cases where alternative approaches provide a simpler alternative while allowing for insights into musicological practices. In this project, we present a statistical model for predicting chord tones based on music theory rules. Our model is currently focused on predicting chord tones in classical music, since composition in this style is highly constrained, theoretically making the placement of chord tones highly predictable. Indeed, music theorists have labeling systems for every variety of non-chord tone, primarily classified by the note's metric position and intervals of approach and departure. Using metric position, duration, and melodic intervals as predictors, we build a statistical model for predicting chord tones using the TAVERN dataset. While our probabilistic approach is similar to other efforts in the domain of automatic harmonic analysis, our focus is on melodic reduction rather than predicting harmony. However, we hope to pursue applications for ACE in the future. Finally, we implement our melody reduction model using an existing symbolic visualization tool, to assist with melody reduction and non-chord tone identification for computational musicology researchers and music theorists.
CXCR4 allows T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia to escape from JAK1/2 and BCL2 inhibition through CNS infiltration.

Targeting the JAK/STAT and BCL2 pathways in patients with relapsed/refractory T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) may provide an alternative approach to achieve clinical remissions. Ruxolit...
Evidence and Implications From a Natural Experiment of Prenatal Androgen Effects on Gendered Behavior

Sex and gender are key to people’s lives, and are the focus of scientific and popular interest and controversy. Sex-related psychological characteristics reflect more than socialization; they are i...