cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
HIV gp120 induces endothelial dysfunction in tumour necrosis factor-α-activated porcine and human endothelial cells

Aims The aim of this study was to determine direct effects and potential molecular mechanisms of HIV gp120, a viral envelope glycoprotein, on endothelial function. Methods and results Fresh porcine coronary artery rings and human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAECs) were treated with recombinant HIV gp120 for 16 h with or without pretreatment with tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) (8 h). With a myograph tension analysis, HIV gp120 with TNF-α pretreatment significantly decreased endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation in response to bradykinin in porcine coronary artery rings compared with untreated control vessels. In addition, HIV gp120 with TNF-α pretreatment significantly reduced endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) expression—both mRNA and protein levels—in porcine coronary artery rings and HCAECs compared with untreated controls. Furthermore, TNF-α pretreatment substantially increased intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression in artery rings and HCAECs. Anti-gp120 or anti-ICAM-1 antibody significantly blocked these effects of HIV gp120. Silencing of ICAM-1 by siRNA oligonucleotides significantly blocked the effect of gp120 on eNOS downregulation in TNF-α-pretreated HCAECs. Conclusion HIV gp120 and TNF-α synergistically reduce eNOS expression and cause endothelial dysfunction in both porcine coronary arteries and HCAECs. ICAM-1 induced by TNF-α pretreatment may mediate HIV gp120-induced endothelial dysfunction, which suggests a novel molecular mechanism of HIV gp120–ICAM-1 interaction inducing endothelial dysfunction.
Injuries and Health Considerations in Ultramarathon Runners

Abstract Ultramarathon runners are a relatively small and unique group of distance runners with somewhat different medical issues than other distance runners. This article outlines some of those differences so that clinicians caring for these runners in the clinic or at competitions might be better prepared.
Amelioration of the hypertension of toxemia by postpartum curettage

Summary 1. Seventy patients with toxemia of pregnancy were subjected to postpartum uterine curettage in an attempt to ameliorate the hypertension. 2. In the 67 patients classified as having acute toxemia, 64 exhibited prompt returns of the blood pressure to normotensive levels. 3. Three patients with essential hypertension without superimposed toxemia of pregnancy showed no blood pressure response by this procedure. 4. The removal of the decidua postpartum in patients with acute toxemia substantiates our concepts on the etiological mechanisms involved in hypertension of this disease
Global environmental standards with heterogeneous polluters

We introduce environmental quality standards into a model of intra-industry trade with heterogeneous polluters. Pollution stems from consumption and pollution intensity declines with product-specific environmental quality. We formally analyze the effects of global environmental standards and three trade-liberalization policies. When consumer preferences for environmental quality are weak (strong) relative to the environmental quality elasticity of production costs, firms discovering dirtier (cleaner) products are more profitable and engage in exporting. More stringent environmental standards or trade liberalization policies enhance per-capita real consumption. The effects of these policies on global pollution and welfare are ambiguous.
Notes on the Life History, Distribution and Ecology of Diotrepha Mirabilis Osten Sacken.

Diotrepha mirabilis , new species and new genus, was described by Osten Sacken in 1878.[*][1] At the time the description was written he had no specimens before him, but based his account on his notes and memory of two specimens: one, designated as the type, taken by himself in Georgia in 1858; the other taken in Texas by a Mr. Boll. These two specimens constitute the only published records of Diotrepha mirabilis from the continent of North America, although Osten Sacken mentioned a third specimen, from Cuba, that he had seen in Loew's collection, as being probably the same species, and Williston[†][2] records the species from St. Vincent, where the collector, Mr. H. H. Smith, made the notes: “Abundant in forest glen 1000 ft.; near a stream; Sept. Alights on the lower sides of leaves.” [1]: #fn-1 [2]: #fn-2
Progenitor Cell Mobilization from Extramedullary Organs

The course of various pathological conditions relies on the mobilization of stem cells and partially differentiated progenitor cells. Bone marrow transplantation studies have demonstrated that medullary hematopoietic and endothelial progenitors can undergo mobilization and trafficking. While the ability of the bone marrow to boost its resources in fighting disease or repairing injury declines with age, other organs have surfaced as reservoirs of various progenitor cell populations. This chapter discusses our current understanding of non-bone marrow-derived progenitor pools, focusing on mesenchymal stem cells. The evidence for the extramedullary progenitor mobilization, with a specific emphasis on white adipose tissue, is presented.
A dimensional model of personality disorder.

Purpose of reviewResearch planning workgroups sponsored by the American Psychiatric Association have called for the development of a dimensional model of personality disorder for a future edition of the diagnostic manual.Recent findingsThis paper provides a brief summary of current research relevant
MO-FG-BRA-04: A Novel Time Weighted Density Correction for Stereotactic Lung Radiotherapy: A Phantom Study

Purpose: Conventional treatment plans for lung radiotherapy are created using either the free breathing (FB) scheme which represents the tumor at an arbitrary breathing phase of the patient's respiratory cycle, or the average computed tomography (ACT) intensity projection over 10-binned phases. Neither method is entirely accurate because of the absence of time dependence of tumor movement. In the present “Hybrid” method, the HU of tumor in 3D space is determined by relative weighting of the HU of the tumor and lung in proportion to the time they spend at that location during the entire breathing cycle. Methods: A Quasar respiratory motion phantom was employed to simulate lung tumor movement. Utilizing 4DCT image scans, volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plans were generated for three treatment planning scenarios which included conventional FB and ACT schemes, along with a third alternative Hybrid approach. Our internal target volume (ITV) hybrid structure was created using Boolean operation in Eclipse (ver. 11) treatment planning system, where independent sub-regions created by the gross tumor volume (GTV) overlap from the 10 motion phases were each assigned a time weighted CT value. The dose-volume-histograms (DVH) for each scheme were compared and analyzed. Results: Using our hybrid technique, we have demonstrated a reduction of 1.9% – 3.4% in total monitor units with respect to conventional treatment planning strategies, along with a 6 fold improvement in high dose spillage over the FB plan. The higher density ACT and Hybrid schemes also produced a slight enhancement in target conformity and reduction in low dose spillage. Conclusion: All treatment plans created in this study exceeded RTOG protocol criteria. Our results determine the free breathing approach yields an inaccurate account of the target treatment density. A significant decrease in unnecessary lung irradiation can be achieved by implementing Hybrid HU method with ACT method second best.
A Blind Test of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis

The Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH) states that North America was devastated by some sort of extraterrestrial event ~12,800 calendar years before present. Two fundamental questions persist in the debate over the YDIH: Can the results of analyses for purported impact indicators be reproduced? And are the indicators unique to the lower YD boundary (YDB), i.e., ~12.8k cal yrs BP? A test reported here presents the results of analyses that address these questions. Two different labs analyzed identical splits of samples collected at, above, and below the ~12.8ka zone at the Lubbock Lake archaeological site (LL) in northwest Texas. Both labs reported similar variation in levels of magnetic micrograins (>300 mg/kg >12.8ka and <11.5ka, but <150 mg/kg 12.8ka to 11.5ka). Analysis for magnetic microspheres in one split, reported elsewhere, produced very low to nonexistent levels throughout the section. In the other split, reported here, the levels of magnetic microspherules and nanodiamonds are low or nonexistent at, below, and above the YDB with the notable exception of a sample <11,500 cal years old. In that sample the claimed impact proxies were recovered at abundances two to four orders of magnitude above that from the other samples. Reproducibility of at least some analyses are problematic. In particular, no standard criteria exist for identification of magnetic spheres. Moreover, the purported impact proxies are not unique to the YDB.
Design of electrode arrays for 3D capacitance tomography in a planar domain

Abstract Electrode design is investigated for electrical capacitance tomography on a 1 mm-thick 3D planar domain. Arrays of square electrodes are located on both sides of the domain, which is filled with dielectric material. Anomalies of interest are voids in the material with low dielectric constant. Simulated tomography is conducted with various electrode patterns over a range of electrode sizes in order to compare performance. The high-aspect-ratio domain requires a large finite element mesh for simulating electric fields and for defining spatial sensitivity responses of electrode pairs. Compared to the canonical 2D pipe cross-section problem, this high-aspect-ratio system requires solving the reconstruction problem on a much larger mesh and is more severely underdetermined. An efficient methodology for characterizing the sensitivity responses of various electrode pairs is developed. An image reconstruction algorithm creates binary images by sequentially composing a list of occupied cells, conditioned with a cell-to-cell energy formulation. A parametric study of four candidate electrode patterns is conducted using electrode sizes between 0.8 mm and 1.6 mm, in which each potential design is used to perform tomographic reconstruction of 100 images. A new image-error metric is proposed, which is used to evaluate each electrode design. It is found that an electrode matrix pattern on each substrate, with the patterns offset, results in lower mean image error than other candidate patterns.
Spectral Coexistence of MIMO Radar and MIMO Cellular System

This paper details designing the precoder of a MIMO-radar spectrally-coexistent with a MIMO cellular system. Spectrum sharing with zero or minimal interference is achieved by using, respectively, the conventional switched null space projection (SNSP) or the newly proposed switched small singular value space projection (SSSVSP). Loss in radar target localization capability due to precoding can be compensated by using SSSVSP instead of SNSP to some extent but increasing the number of radar antenna elements is more effective.
Abstract 3574: A survey of mutations in biomedical literature using a machine based approach

Introduction: Being able to characterize mutations for both pathogenicity and drug response is indispensable to the analysis of tumor genomics and the development of therapeutic options. While a great deal of data has been deposited in various structured, genomic databases, a large portion of insights are primarily and often times solely found in biomedical literature. Medline contains about 26 million literature citations; a number that is unrealistic for a human to read. Thus machine based approaches are needed to comprehensively capture the landscape of reported mutations. Method: An automated pattern matching method is utilized to extract mutations from Medline abstracts as presented in Human Genome Variation Society (HGVS) format and RefSNPs (rs) number. A typical HGVS protein mutation is described as [reference amino acid][position][new amino acid], as in p.His1047Arg, His1047Arg, or simply H1047R in HGVS format. This method identifies and consolidates all mentioned protein mutations and their alternate formulations. Result: Over 300,000 unique abstract-mutation pairs were identified including 90,000 unique mutations. Well known cancer mutations such as BRAF V600E, JAK2 V617F and EGFR L858R are among the most frequent appearing in oncology literature. At the other end, 51,000 mutations are mentioned in just a single abstract, 16,000 mutations in two abstracts, 7,600 in three abstracts, and so forth. Conclusion: The number of mutations appearing in Medline abstracts represents just a small portion of the 2 million unique coding mutations contained in the COSMIC database. While we expect the actual coverage of mutations by literature to be more comprehensive if this approach is extended to the full text body, the number would likely remain small compared with the total reported COSMIC mutations. One of the great challenges in oncology is characterizing variants of unknown significance (VUS), and by first extracting all reported mutations, even those mentioned in only one article, and their specific biological context, we can begin to identify broader patterns in mutations’ pathogenicity and their impact on drug response. Citation Format: Takahiko Koyama, Kahn Rhrissorrakrai, Laxmi Parida. A survey of mutations in biomedical literature using a machine based approach [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3574. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-3574
A novel computational intelligence-based approach for medical image artifacts detection

In this research, a novel computational intelligencebased algorithm to detect artifacts, specifically arrows, in medical images is presented. Image analyses techniques are developed to find the symbols and text automatically. Features are computed from the shape of arrow for the discrimination of arrows from other artifacts. We investigate a biologically-inspired reinforcement learning (RL) approach in an adaptive critic design (ACD) framework to apply Action Dependent Heuristic Dynamic Programming (ADHDP) for arrow discrimination based on the computed features. Experimental results for ADHDP are compared with feed forward multi-layer perception (MLP) back-propagation artificial neural networks (BP-ANN), particle swarm optimization (PSO) for training of a MLP neural network, genetic algorithm (GA) for training of a MLP neural network, k-nearest neighbor (KNN), and support vector machine (SVM).
Rethinking ethnicity, fetal growth and customised charts.

Restricted intrauterine fetal growth is an indicator of poor infant health outcomes. Classifying abnormal fetal growth, however, is challenging because there is no accepted definition of “normal” and “abnormal.” Many standardized fetal growth curves have been created from populations of healthy pregnancies, excluding congenital abnormalities and, historically, have also excluded “non-white” women (Lubochenco, 1963, Pediatrics, 32: 793-800). More recently, assuming that ethnicity is a reliable, valid, and unchanging variable, customized growth charts have adjusted for ethnicity, in addition to maternal height, weight, and parity. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
An Approach to Improve Temporal Response of Single Photon Avalanche Photodiode for Time-resolved Diffuse Optical Tomography (DOT)

A proposed approach of single photon avalanche photodiode based time-resolved DOT is introduced. It is supported by mathematical model of dark count rate as a function of gating voltage to further improve the DOT features
Late Northwest South American Littoral

relative time period: Follows the Early Northwest South American Littoral tradition, precedes the Early Chibcha tradition.
Evaluation methodology of waste management concepts

A methodology has been developed for an overall evaluation of high-level waste disposal concepts. This methodology incorporates the following elements: technical feasibility, safety, research and d...
Understanding the influence of silicone elastomer properties on wedge-shaped microstructured dry adhesives loaded in shear.

Anisotropic, gecko-inspired, microstructured adhesives are one of the most promising solutions for many applications in robotics and biomedical applications that require controllable adhesives to g...
A Qualitative Study of the Postoperative Pain Management Educational Needs of Total Joint Replacement Patients.

Abstract Background The majority of patients undergoing total joint replacement (TJR) experience surgical pain in the early postoperative period and managing pain can be challenging for orthopedic surgeons and their patients. Aims The objective of this study was to better understand the postoperative pain management education needs of elective total joint replacement patients. Design This study had a descriptive phenomenological, qualitative design using individual interviews. Settings Nine orthopedic surgeons offices in 8 states. Participants/Subjects Twenty-seven patients (mean age: 71 years; 74% female; 78% non-Hispanic white) completed the interview. Methods Patients were interviewed using open-ended questions, which included experiences with surgical pain after surgery and how it was managed, experiences with pain medicine, experience using non–medicine-related pain reduction methods, and suggestions for delivery of pain management information. Results Challenges identified for managing postoperative pain included loss of pain control and lack of information about prescribed opioids and nonopioid methods of managing pain. Facilitators included having a caregiver or family member in a health care field and previous experience managing postoperative pain. Participants believed that information about pain management would be helpful and should be delivered at multiple time points. Conclusions With trends toward shorter hospital stays, as well as the growing opioid epidemic and the associated concerns regarding prescribing opioids, home-based pain management should be a priority. Interventions should include education about narcotic use and abuse as well as nonmedication approaches to pain management.
Recurrent Anion Gap Metabolic Acidosis.

Background: Metabolic acidosis refers to any process that increases the hydrogen ions in the body and reduces the bicarbonate concentration. Metabolic acidosis is subdivided based on presence of anion gap (AG), and AG metabolic acidosis is most often due to ketoacidosis, lactic acidosis, renal failure, or toxic ingestions. AG metabolic acidosis is frequently encountered in the clinical practice. Rarely, the underlying cause of the AG metabolic acidosis is considered a diagnostic dilemma as the established algorithm allows the physicians to identify the etiology. Case presentation: A fifty-three-year-old Black woman with well-controlled human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hypertension, and asthma presented with recurrent episodes of severe anion gap metabolic acidosis. The patient’s AG metabolic acidosis always corrected with the administration of intravenous normal saline. Laboratory studies were always negative for common causes of acidosis. Conclusion: Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors-associated lactic acidosis has been reported in the literature. The shift to anaerobic mitochondrial metabolism induced by the HIV medications used in this patient could be explain the recurrent severe metabolic acidosis.
Simple and Versatile Protocol for Preparing Self-Healing Poly(vinyl alcohol) Hydrogels

As the role of polymers in undergraduate chemistry curricula continues to expand, opportunities will emerge for adopting experiments involving smart materials (i.e., materials that change propertie...
From the Frontier: Translating Research to Practice...a Story of Economic Survival

This article is number two in the series From the Frontier: Translating Research to Practice. The narrative describes the interactions between a local health department director and two academicians in addressing the impact of the 2008 financial crisis. In a first set of activities, practice-academic partners used Financial and Operational Ratio and Trend Analysis to identify periods of a negative total margin and the impact of that on the agency’s declining fund balance. The use of private sector processes of retrenchment, repositioning, and reorganization led to a financial turnaround for the agency. In a second set of activities, practice-academic partners analyzed consolidation of multiple local health departments as one option for improving long-term financial stability. These connected activities provide examples of both implementation science and practicebased research.
Mechanistic model of pH and excipient concentration during ultrafiltration and diafiltration processes of therapeutic antibodies

Ultrafiltration and diafiltration (UF/DF) unit operations are widely used for the manufacture of therapeutic antibodies to control drug substance protein concentration, pH, and excipient properties. During UF/DF, molecular interactions and volume exclusion effects often lead to substantial differences in pH and excipient concentrations between the diafiltration buffer and final UF/DF pool. These differences complicate the design process beyond simply specifying a buffer with the desired drug substance pH and excipient conditions. This article describes a UF/DF process model which dynamically and accurately simulates UF/DF retentate pool pH and excipient conditions throughout the UF/DF process. This multiscale model accounts for microscopic descriptions of ion-protein charge interactions using the Poisson-Boltzmann equation as well as macroscopic descriptions of volume exclusion and mass transfer. Model predictions of the final UF/DF pool properties were experimentally verified through comparisons to design of experiment (DoE) data from four monoclonal antibody (mAb) processes, each with differing formulations and UF/DF operating conditions. Additionally, model simulations of the retentate pool properties throughout the UF/DF process were verified for two mAb processes through comparisons to experimental data collected at intermediate process points. Model results were qualified, using statistical equivalence tests, against the outputs from large-scale GMP runs which confirmed that the model accurately captures large-scale process performance. Finally, the model was applied toward the simulation of process scenarios beyond those examined experimentally. These in-silico experiments demonstrate the model's capability as a tool for augmented process design and it is potential to reduce the extent of UF/DF laboratory experiments.
Techniques for Debug of Low Power SoCs

With the ever-increasing demand for portable electronic devices to provide longer battery life, extremely low pow-er consumption becomes an SoC design imperative. Aggressive SoC and system-level power management methods (PMM) are key to this drive towards low power consumption and extended battery life. These methods pose many challenges to the validation of the low-power states, SoC and system-level debug, and overall product time to market (TTM). This paper discusses techniques developed to address these SoC validation and debug challenges efficiently.
Mind the Gap: The Autonomy Perception Gap in the Operating Room by Surgical Residents and Faculty.

Objective Examine the concordance of perceived operative autonomy between attendings and resident trainees. Design Faculty and trainees rated trainee operative autonomy using the 4-level Zwisch scale over a variety of cases and training years. The respective ratings were then compared to explore the effects of experience, gender, case complexity, trainee, trainer, and other covariates to perceived autonomy. Setting This study was conducted over 14 general surgery programs in the United States, members of the Procedural Learning and Safety Collaborative. Participants Participants included faculty and categorical trainees from 14 general surgery programs. Results A total of 8681 observations was obtained. The sample included 619 unique residents and 457 different attendings. A total of 598 distinct procedures was performed. In 60% of the cases, the autonomy ratings between trainees and attendings were concordant, with only 3.5% of cases discrepant by more than 1 level. An autonomy perception gap was modeled based on the discrepancy between the trainee and attending Zwisch ratings for the same case. The mean Zwisch score expected for a trainee was lower than the attending across all scenarios. Trainees were more likely to perceive relatively more autonomy in the second half of the year. The autonomy perception gap decreased with increasing case complexity. As trainees gained experience, the perception gap increased with trainees underestimating autonomy. Conclusions Trainees and attendings generally demonstrated concordance on autonomy perception scores. However, in 40% of cases, a perception gap exists between trainee and attending with the trainee generally underestimating autonomy. The gap worsens as the trainee progresses through residency. This perception gap suggests that attendings and trainees could be better aligned on teaching goals and expectations.
Development of a Novel Wheel Speed Sensor for Enhanced Close-Loop Feedback Control of Vehicle Mobility

The maximization of vehicle mobility in off-road environments requires implementation of real-time control systems that govern individual wheel rotational velocity based on closed-loop feedback from wheel rotation sensors. A paradigm shift in the type of feedback sensor is required to facilitate faster vehicle control loop speeds such that a subsequent paradigm shift can be realized in vehicle mobility control. This anticipated shift in vehicle mobility is facilitated by a transition from the traditional reactive control paradigm (response time of 100–150 ms) to an agile control paradigm (response time of 40–60 ms); wherein adjustments can be made within the tire relaxation time.
New Perspectives in Cultural Resource Management: edited by Francis P. McManamon, London, Routledge, 2019, 229 pp., £36.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-367-874421

Archaeology has experienced a sea change. Near exclusively an academic discipline in the early 1970s, when I entered university, it is now primarily oriented towards cultural resource management (C...
Our Magical Language

The depth of native language knowledge and the skill with which it is executed is rarely contemplated by individuals until confronted with the academic responsibility to study the grammar of a language. Perhaps the first occasion at which reflection on grammatical analysis in American schools takes place is in the third grade when the mechanics of sentence structure are introduced to young children. Students are taught that their language skills which they so ably use can be described and analyzed. As students mature, they recognize that their early confrontation with grammatical analysis doesn’t go away. It continues throughout their years of academic study. To some it becomes a welcome area of study. For many who enjoy writing and public speaking and desire to enter any one of a number of disciplines in which language is used effectively and correctly, the analytical study of language is a welcome area of study. Even those whose interests lie outside the communication fields but are required to write reports and memoranda recognize the importance of attending to the study of their native language. Their recognition of knowing about their language extends beyond syntactic grammar and parts of speech to how one uses language to communicate in a multitude of academic, business, and social settings.
The influence of proton pump inhibitor therapy on the outcome of infliximab therapy in inflammatory bowel disease: a patient-level meta-analysis of randomised controlled studies.

Objective In treating patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), how concomitant medications influence the response to infliximab is largely unexplored. We aim to evaluate whether proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) affect the response to infliximab therapy in patients with IBD. Design Patient-level data of adult patients with moderate-to-severe IBD treated with infliximab were obtained from the Yale Open Data Access Framework. Multivariable analysis and propensity score-matched analysis were performed to assess week 30 remission rates, week 54 remission rates and hospitalisation rates in patients on infliximab therapy with and without PPI exposure. Results Among the five randomised controlled studies, there were 147 and 889 patients on infliximab with and without PPI therapy, respectively. Patients on PPI were older, more likely to be Caucasian and were less likely to be on immunomodulator therapy. Patients on PPI were significantly less likely to achieve week 30 remission on multivariable analysis (OR 0.45, p Conclusion In this patient-level meta-analysis of randomised controlled studies, we found that patients with IBD taking PPI were less likely to achieve remission while on infliximab therapy. The results of our study warrant further investigation into the effect of PPI on IBD outcomes and therapies.
Exploring the moral foundations of crisis management

Abstract Crises are complex, multi-faceted, and ill-defined systems of highly interconnected problems. Profound ethical issues are among their prime components. Therefore, any attempt to manage them is unprofessional at best if it does not include ethical and moral standards. The link between ethics and crisis management, however, is seriously underdeveloped. We explore a pluralistic framework, Moral Foundations Theory (MFT), to take a step toward developing this important link. According to MFT, nature imbues us with “moral intuitions” which are continually shaped by our lifelong experiences. In particular, MFT has two sets of Foundations. We argue that MFT's Individualizing Moral Foundations emphasize the necessity of treating stakeholders fairly and protecting them from potential and actual harm; whereas its Binding Foundations emphasize the necessity of expanding the organization's moral compass to include a broad set of stakeholders, establishing trust and coalitions with them, and creating a culture within which expertise and diverse opinions are respected, and open-mindedness and critical thinking are highly valued. We discuss how organizations can manage moral intuitions to create an environment in which fast, automatic, habitual yet moral and rational judgments consistent with the moral standards of an organization and society at large, can flourish.
Improving Funding and Management of Surface Transportation Infrastructure

Although spending on infrastructure does not, in itself, stimulate the economy, infrastructure investments can contribute to economic growth, since infrastructure is part of the economy’s capital stock. Investments in infrastructure can also benefit the economy by alleviating the problems that poor infrastructure causes. The extent to which infrastructure investment contributes to growth, however, depends on the net benefits of the projects chosen. This paper focuses on how to manage and pay for investment in, and maintenance of, transportation infrastructure in a way that maximizes the net benefits from its use and contributes to economic growth. In this regard, we conclude that federal spending is not the best approach. Instead, a better path to making needed infrastructure improvements is to reduce the role of the federal government (including the funding and management of projects) and to increase reliance on state and local governments, user fees, and private firms.
SymPLe: Complexity-Aware Design for Safety Critical I&C Systems

Complexity significantly erodes confidence and trust in both the design and the operation of safety critical systems. During the design phase, complexity impedes the verification and certification processes that guarantee the prevention and control of system errors (or hazards) during operation. This paper presents a novel architectural framework, known as SymPLe, to manage the complexity of highly-assured systems. This framework explores the impact of architectural Complexity-Awareness during design to enhance the verifiability of a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) instrumentation and control (I&C) platform for nuclear power safety applications. SymPLe leverages model-based design and Complexity-Aware principles such that it is verifiable and implementable under IEC 61508-3 safety integrity level (SIL) 3/4 standards. An independent verification activity demonstrates the benefits of the Complexity-Aware design of the SymPLe overlay architecture.
Kidney Supportive Care in Peritoneal Dialysis: Developing a Person-Centered Kidney Disease Care Plan

Abstract Individuals receiving peritoneal dialysis (PD)—similar to those receiving hemodialysis (HD)—may experience high mortality coupled with high symptom burden and reduced health-related quality of life (HRQoL). In this context, discussion of the risks, benefits, and tradeoffs of PD and/or other kidney treatment modalities should be explored based on individual goals and preferences. Through these principles, kidney supportive care provides a person-centered approach to kidney disease care throughout the spectrum of kidney failure and earlier stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Kidney supportive care is offered in conjunction with life-prolonging therapies including dialysis and kidney transplantation, and is increasingly recognized as an integral part of advancing the care of PD patients. Using "My Kidney Care Roadmap" for shared decision-making (SDM), kidney supportive care guides patients undergoing PD and their clinicians to 1) elicit patient goals, values, and priorities; 2) convey medical prognosis and suitable treatment options; and 3) ask "which of these kidney treatment options will best help me achieve my goals and priorities?" to inform both current and future decisions, including choice of dialysis modalities, time-limited trials, and/or non-dialysis management. Recognizing that patient priorities and choices may evolve, this framework ultimately allows patients to continually reassess their PD care to better achieve goal-directed dialysis.
Evaluation of the Forest Service fitness calculator as a predictor of maximal oxygen consumption

Sio, Timothy H., Master of Science, March 1980, Physical Education. Evaluation of the Forest Service Fitness Calculator as a Predictor of Maximal Oxygen Consumption, ($2 pp.) / Director: Dr. Brian Sharkey/ Aerobic fitness is highly related to job performance when extended periods of arduous physical labor are involved. Inexpensive nonlaboratory methods for the prediction of aerobic capacity are needed to make large scale testing programs practical. This two phase study evaluated the Forest Service Fitness Calculator as a predictor of maximal oxygen consumption (physical fitness). In Phase I, 28 women were tested for maximal oxygen consumption on a bicycle ergometer and the results of this test were compared with scores predicted via a submaximal step test and from a 1.5 mile run field test. Analysis of high, middle, and low fit groups indicated that the step test tended to overpredict those with scores above 37 ml/kg/min. Application of a correction factor resulted in a decreased correlation, increased standard error, and a decreased mean difference. These results indicated the need to seek another method for testing maximal oxygen consumption. In Phase II, 10 women were tested for maximal oxygen consumption via the bicycle ergometer and treadmill tests. The results of the maximal tests were compared with scores predicted by a submaximal step test. Both maximal tests compared favorably with the best step and corrected step scores. The correction factor applied to the step test was found to be a valid indicator of fitness. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Adult supraglottitis subsequent to smoking crack cocaine

Supraglottitis is one possible complication of smoking crack cocaine. From 1992 through 2001, our institution treated nine patients for thermal supraglottitis secondary to crack cocaine inhalation. In this article, we describe two of these cases, and we briefly review what is known about this entity and the mechanism of injury. We also provide our recommendations for management.
An ensemble approach to building Mercer Kernels with prior information

This paper presents a new methodology for automatic knowledge driven data mining based on the theory of Mercer Kernels, which are highly nonlinear symmetric positive definite mappings from the original image space to a very high, possibly infinite dimensional feature space. We describe a new method called Mixture Density Mercer Kernels (MDMK) to learn kernel function directly from data, rather than using pre-defined kernels. These data adaptive kernels can encode prior knowledge in the kernel using a Bayesian formulation, thus allowing for physical information to be encoded in the model. Specifically, we demonstrate the use of the algorithm in situations with extremely small samples of data. We compare the results with existing algorithms on data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and demonstrate the method's superior performance against standard methods. The results show that the Mixture Density Mercer Kernel described here outperforms tree-based classification in distinguishing high-redshift galaxies from low-redshift galaxies by approximately 16% on test data, bagged trees by approximately 7%, and bagged trees built on a much larger sample of data by approximately 2%. The code for these experiments has been generated with the AutoBayes tool, which automatically generates efficient and documented C/C++ code from abstract statistical model specifications. The core of the system is a schema library which contains templates for learning and knowledge discovery algorithms like different versions of EM, or numeric optimization methods like conjugate gradient methods. The template instantiation is supported by symbolic-algebraic computations, which allows AutoBayes to find closed-form solutions and, where possible, to integrate them into the code.
Large-scale turbulent flow around a cylinder in counterflow superfluid 4 He (He ( II ))

The detailed nature of fluid flow over a cylinder is one of the fundamental topics in classical fluid dynamics as it demonstrates flow separation and vortex shedding1. In superfluid helium, either He (II) or the B phase of3He, an important question has been to what extent these quantum fluids show classical fluid turbulent states2,3,4. Although the existence of turbulent structures can be inferred using precise instrumentation5,6, direct visualization of the flow field can provide unequivocal evidence of these phenomena. Here we show the existence of large turbulent structures in He (II) counterflow across a cylinder as obtained by the particle image velocimetry technique. Compared with classical fluid flow, the particle motion driven by He (II) counterflow shows macroscopic eddies downstream of the cylinder but also similar structures are observed in front of the cylinder, behaviour not seen in classical fluids. As Landau’s two-fluid model7 for He (II) describes counterflow as the relative motion of the superfluid and normal fluid components, the current results indicate that both components may be undergoing a kind of flow separation as they pass over the cylinder.
The ON-alpha ganglion cell of the cat retina and its presynaptic cell types

Anatomical circuits converging onto the ON-alpha (Y) ganglion cell were studied by computer-assisted reconstruction of substantial portions of 2 alpha cells from electron micrographs of serial sections. The alpha cells in the area centralis were labeled by a Golgi-like retrograde filling with horseradish peroxidase, and certain presynaptic amacrine processes were labeled by uptake of 3H-glycine. About 4400 synapses contacted the alpha cell. Eighty-six percent were from amacrine cells; the rest were from bipolar cells. About one-quarter of the amacrine synapses were specifically labeled by 3H-glycine and probably belong to the A4 amacrine. The bipolar inputs were provided by several types: cone bipolar CBb1 (85%), cone bipolar CBb5 (2%), the rod bipolar (5%), and some unidentified cone bipolars (11%). Contacts from each type occurred in specific strata, with the consequence that they tended to form spots or annulli over the alpha dendritic field. The CBb1 bipolars formed a moderately dense array (8000/mm2), with a nearest-neighbor distance of 8.6 +/- 1.3 microns. Most members of the array (84%) contacted the alpha cell, providing 1-7 synapses (average, 2.7 +/- 1.6). The placement of contacts from an individual CBb1 followed certain rules: they were restricted to a parent branch of the alpha arbor or to 2 daughter branches, but almost never crossed a branch of the alpha arbor. The synaptic territory of an individual CBb1 was not shared with other b1s (or cone bipolars of any sort), although it was shared with amacrine contacts. Rod bipolar cells also formed a very dense array (54,500/mm2) in the alpha dendritic field, but only a few of these (3%) contacted the alpha cell. The concentric receptive field of the CBb1, combined with the spatial organization of its array, is used to predict the CBb1 contribution to the alpha cell receptive field; this contribution resembles the spatial and temporal organization of the alpha receptive field itself.
Transgenic approaches to the study of respiratory function

Genetically engineered mice have proven an invaluable tool for establishing linkages between individual genes and the generation of complex behaviors, including respiration. This presentation will focus on the use of mice carrying targeted gene deletions (gene knockouts) to elucidate the role of neuronal growth factors in the development of the neural respiratory controller and breathing behavior. In particular, I will focus on the role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) in development of peripheral chemoafferent neurons and central respiratory output. Initial studies in my laboratory demonstrated that mice that are homozygous for a null mutation at the bdnf locus exhibit a severe developmental deficit in control of breathing, characterized by depressed and irregular ventilation and central respiratory output and a lack of hypoxic ventilatory drive [1,2]. These deficits are due at least in part to loss of peripheral chemoafferent neurons that require BDNF for survival during fetal development [1,3,4]. Surprisingly, null mutations in the gdnf gene result in a similar phenotype, despite the fact that BDNF and GDNF are structurally unrelated and signal through wholly different classes of receptors. However, we recently found that BDNF and GDNF are both required for survival of the same population of chemoafferent neurons and that null mutations in either gene results in chemoafferent cell loss [5]. This dual requirement for BDNF and GDNF appears to be related to the fact that both molecules are expressed in the fetal carotid body and act as target-derived survival factors for chemoafferent neurons [5,6]. Loss of chemoafferent input at fetal stages is particularly deleterious for maturation of ventilatory function, as chemoafferent drive is required for stabilization of central respiratory output after birth. Potential implications of these findings for human developmental disorders of breathing will be discussed.
Latitudinal change of remineralization ratios in the oceans and its implication for nutrient cycles

[1] A new three-end-member mixing model is introduced to obtain remineralization ratios of organic matter in the water column. Remineralization ratios (P/N/Corg/−O2) of organic matter in the deep water column change systematically from the northern Atlantic to the Southern Oceans, then to the equatorial Indian and the northern Pacific oceans, more or less along the global ocean circulation route of deep water. Average remineralization ratios of organic matter for the northern Atlantic Ocean are P/N/Corg/−O2 = 1/(16 ± 1)/(73 ± 8)/(137 ± 7), and for the Southern Oceans P/N/Corg/−O2 = 1/(15 ± 1)/(80 ± 3)/(133 ± 5). Those values are similar to the traditional Redfield ratios of P/N/Corg/−O2 = 1/16/106/138 for marine plankton, except for the low Corg/P ratio. Average remineralization ratios for the equatorial Indian Ocean are P/N/Corg/−O2 = 1/(10 ± 1)/(94 ± 5)/(130 ± 7), and for the northern Pacific Ocean P/N/Corg/−O2 = 1/(13 ± 1)/(124 ± 11)/(162 ± 11). The apparent low N/P ratio for both ocean basins suggests that organic nitrogen was converted partly into gaseous N2O and N2 by bacteria through nitrification/denitrification processes in a low-oxygen or reducing microenvironment of organic matter throughout the oxygenated water column. The actual N/P ratio of remineralized organic matter is probably around 15 ± 1. The −O2/Corg ratio of remineralized organic matter also decreases systematically along the global ocean circulation route of deep water, indicating changes in relative proportions of biomolecules such as lipids, proteins, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates. No temporal trends of remineralization ratios are detected when comparing the results obtained by GEOSECS and WOCE data sets.
Religion and American Attitudes on Foreign Policy, 2008: The Case of Militant Internationalism

Despite much speculation about the influence of religious factors over public attitudes on foreign policy, there are still few systematic analyses testing that influence. In this paper, we use the 2008 American National Election Study to investigate support for one central dimension of American foreign policy attitudes, militant internationalism (Wittkopf 1990). We find distinct religious constituencies for this perspective, and demonstrate the influence of both ethnoreligious and theological factors in shaping public attitudes. We also evaluate the impact of other value orientations often related to religion, including moral traditionalism, religious particularism, ethnocentrism and authoritarianism. After introducing controls for ideology, partisanship, and other attitudes, as well as demographic factors, we find that religious variables and related value orientations wield major direct and indirect influences on militant internationalist attitudes.
Robust selective signal suppression using binomial off-resonant rectangular (BORR) pulses.

Purpose To study the selective signal suppression capability of a binomial off-resonant rectangular (BORR) radiofrequency pulse method. Materials and Methods The BORR pulse consists of two consecutive rectangular pulses with a phase difference of π. The exact solution of the Bloch equations was used to simulate its frequency response. The BORR pulse was implemented in a gradient echo sequence and tested on phantoms, the knee, and the breast. Results The frequency response of the BORR pulse acquired on the phantom confirmed the theory. Broad suppression bands ensured high suppression efficiency and robustness in both in vitro and in vivo scans compared with other saturation pulses. Conclusion The BORR pulse method provides a simple, efficient, and robust selective signal suppression alternative for three-dimensional short TR (repetition time) imaging. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2014;39:195–202. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.