cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Use of compression stockings in chronic venous disease: patient compliance and efficacy.

Compressive stockings are considered the centerpiece of treatment in chronic venous disease (CVD). It is known that stockings fail in some patients for varied reasons: they are ineffective despite wear in some, but more commonly patients are unable or unwilling to use them as prescribed. Detailed statistics regarding stocking compliance have not been available except in a few selected series focused on leg ulcers. This study focuses on use, compliance, and efficacy of compression stockings among a large cohort of patients referred to a tertiary venous practice. A total of 3,144 new CVD patients were seen from 1998 to 2006. As a referral practice, patients had been under the care of primary-care physicians or specialists for variable times before. A detailed history of past and present compressive regimens was part of our initial evaluation of CVD patients. These data were entered into a time-stamped electronic medical record and later analyzed. Only 21% of patients reported using the stockings on a daily basis, 12% used them most days, and 4% used them less often. The remaining 63% did not use the stockings at all or abandoned them after a trial period in the past. The primary reasons given for nonusage were as follows: unable to specify a reason, 30%; not prescribed by the primary physician, 25%; did not help, 14%; binding/"cutting off" of circulation, 13%; "too hot" to wear, 8%; limb soreness, 2%; poor cosmetic appearance, 2%; unable to apply without help, 2%; contact dermatitis or itching, 2%; and other (cost, work situation, etc), 2%. Multiple factors were cited by 8%. Surprisingly, there was no difference in compliance between men and women (39% vs. 38%) or among different decile age groups. Compliance was relatively better at 50% in patients who gave a prior history of deep vein thrombosis (n = 675) compared to 35% in those without such a prior history (n = 2,437) (p 10 years, 44% (p < 0.003). Symptoms were still persistent in about a third (37%) of the patients despite apparent compliance with prescribed stockings. Compressive stockings are inapplicable in about a quarter of patients due to the condition of the limb or the general health of the patient. They are ineffective despite wear in about a third of patients seen. In the remainder, noncompliance with prescribed compressive stockings is an apparent major cause of treatment failure. Noncompliance is very high in patients with CVD regardless of age, sex, etiology of CVD, duration of symptoms, or disease severity. The reasons for noncompliance can be grouped into two interdependent major categories: (1) wear-comfort factors and (2) intangible sense of restriction imposed by the stockings.
The role of Steller sea lions in a large population decline of harbor seals

We provide the first direct evidence that Steller sea lions will prey on harbor seals. Direct observations of predation on marine mammals at sea are rare, but when observed rates of predation are extrapolated, predation mortality may be found to be significant. From 1992 to 2002, harbor seals in Glacier Bay declined steeply, from 6,200 to 2,500 (~65%). After documenting that Steller sea lions were preying on seals in Glacier Bay, we investigated increased predation by sea lions as a potential explanation for the large decline. In five independent data sets spanning 21-25 yr and including 14,308 d of observations, 13 predation events were recorded. We conducted a fine-scale analysis for an intensively studied haul-out (Spider Island) and a broader analysis of all of Glacier Bay. At Spider Island, estimated predation by sea lions increased and could account for the entirety of annual pup production in 5 of 8 yr since 1995. The predation rate, however, was not proportional to the number of predators. Predation by Steller sea lions is a new source of mortality that contributed to the seal declines; however, life history modeling indicates that it is unlikely that sea lion predation is the sole factor responsible for the large declines.
Veterinary experiences with the Cornell STAR system of accelerated lambing

Abstract The system of five lambing periods per year limits risks associated with having the entire flock pregnant or in the barn at one time, and favours coccidiosis control by the small spread in lamb age. However, continual presence of susceptible sheep perpetuates contagious ecthyma and amplifies worm burdens on pasture. Pregnancy toxaemia threatens early lambing prolific ewes, paratuberculosis is easily spread if thin ewes are housed with the lambing flock, and newly weaned lambs are exposed to diseases carried by unthrifty lambs from the preceding lambing period if management is not excellent.
Hernias and Abdominal Wall Defects

A hernia is a protrusion of visceral contents through the abdominal wall. There are two key components of a hernia. The first is the defect itself, namely the size and location of the fascial opening, and the second component is the hernia sac, which is a protrusion of peritoneum through the defect. The hernia sac may contain abdominal contents such as small intestine, colon, or bladder, or the sac may be empty. A sliding hernia exists when a retroperitoneal organ, usually the sigmoid colon, cecum, bladder, or ureter, forms part of the wall of the sac; these organs may be injured during hernia repair. A Richter’s hernia exists when the antimesenteric portion of intestine (not the complete circumference of bowel) protrudes into the hernia sac. A Littre’s hernia exists when the sac contains a Meckel’s diverticulum. If the sac and its contents can be returned to the abdominal cavity, a hernia is termed reducible. If it cannot be returned to the abdominal cavity, as is sometimes the case with a small fascial defect and a large hernia, the hernia is termed irreducible or incarcerated. If an irreducible hernia contains intestine or other viscera whose blood supply is compromised, the hernia is strangulated. This condition can lead to a life-threatening situation in which the hernia sac contains gangrenous bowel and requires emergent exploration.
RIM function in short- and long-term synaptic plasticity.

RIM1alpha (Rab3-interacting molecule 1alpha) is a large multidomain protein that is localized to presynaptic active zones [Wang, Okamoto, Schmitz, Hofmann and Sudhof (1997) Nature (London) 388, 593-598] and is the founding member of the RIM protein family that also includes RIM2alpha, 2beta, 2gamma, 3gamma and 4gamma [Wang and Sudhof (2003) Genomics 81, 126-137]. In presynaptic nerve termini, RIM1alpha interacts with a series of presynaptic proteins, including the synaptic vesicle GTPase Rab3 and the active zone proteins Munc13, liprins and ELKS (a protein rich in glutamate, leucine, lysine and serine). Mouse KOs (knockouts) revealed that, in different types of synapses, RIM1alpha is essential for different forms of synaptic plasticity. In CA1-region Schaffer-collateral excitatory synapses and in GABAergic synapses (where GABA is gamma-aminobutyric acid), RIM1alpha is required for maintaining normal neurotransmitter release and short-term synaptic plasticity. In contrast, in excitatory CA3-region mossy fibre synapses and cerebellar parallel fibre synapses, RIM1alpha is necessary for presynaptic long-term, but not short-term, synaptic plasticity. In these synapses, the function of RIM1alpha in presynaptic long-term plasticity depends, at least in part, on phosphorylation of RIM1alpha at a single site, suggesting that RIM1alpha constitutes a 'phosphoswitch' that determines synaptic strength. However, in spite of the progress in understanding RIM1alpha function, the mechanisms by which RIM1alpha acts remain unknown. For example, how does phosphorylation regulate RIM1alpha, what is the relationship of the function of RIM1alpha in basic release to synaptic plasticity and what is the physiological significance of different forms of RIM-dependent plasticity? Moreover, the roles of other RIM isoforms are unclear. Addressing these important questions will contribute to our view of how neurotransmitter release is regulated at the presynaptic active zone.
Gestational Variation of Glycerophosphate Acyltransferase Activity in Maternal Guinea Pig Lung and Possible Role of Thyroid Hormone in its de Novo Synthesis

We have observed earlier that the pattern of gestational variation of microsomal glycerophosphate acyltransferase (GAT) activity is similar in maternal and fetal guinea pig lung. Furthermore, there is a close resemblance between these patterns and that of the gestational variation of fetal plasma thyroid hormone. It is known that triiodothyronine (T3) injected to pregnant rats can cross the placenta to some extent and cause an increase in phosphatidylcholine synthesis in fetal lung. It is possible, therefore, that the gestational increase of GAT activity in maternal and fetal lung is associated with an increase in maternal plasma thyroid hormone. The objective of this study was to investigate whether intramuscular injection of T3 to adult guinea pig causes any change in the activity of GAT in lung and, if so, to determine the mechanistic basis. The results indicated that T3 significantly increased the GAT activity in the microsomes but not in the mitochondria. Actinomycin D or cycloheximide abolished the ...
Inhibition of factor VIIa-tissue factor coagulation activity by a hybrid protein

Lipoprotein-associated coagulation inhibitor (LACI) appears to inhibit tissue factor (TF)-induced blood coagulation by forming a quaternary inhibitory complex containing factor Xa, LACI, factor VIIa, and TF. A genetically engineered hybrid protein consisting of the light chain of factor Xa and the first Kunitz-type inhibitor domain of LACI is shown to directly inhibit the activity of the factor VIIa-TF catalytic complex. Unlike inhibition of factor VIIa-TF activity by native LACI, inhibition by the hybrid protein is not dependent on factor Xa. In an assay of TF-induced coagulation, 50% TF inhibition occurs with hybrid protein at 35 nanograms per milliliter, whereas LACI at 2.5 micrograms per milliliter is required for an equivalent effect. gamma-Carboxylation of glutamic acid residues in the factor Xa light chain portion of the hybrid protein is required for inhibitory activity, indicating that the first Kunitz-type domain of LACI alone is not sufficient for inhibition of factor VIIa-TF.
WORLD AGRICULTURE IN DISARRAY REVISITED

In World Agriculture in Disarray I argued that the result of government intervention in agriculture would be to increase the costs of farm policies to taxpayers and consumers and to restrict agricultural trade. A review of the current situation in world agriculture confirms these projections. The policies of the major countries in relation to agriculture have clearly not succeeded in their aims and at the same time have created many problems, particularly in the sphere of agricultural trade. The solution to the crisis in the farm sector must take account of the inherent characteristics of agriculture itself.
Computer-Guided Total Hip Arthroplasty

Computed-assisted orthopedic surgery (CAOS) has been recently defined as the ability to use sophisticated computer algorithms to allow the surgeon to determine three-dimensional (3D) placement of total hip implants in situ.1 A rapid ongoing evolution of technical advances has allowed the ability to move from cumbersome systems requiring a preoperative computed tomography (CT) scan of the patient’s hip joint to more elegant systems that use image-free registration or the simple use of fluoroscopy at the time of surgery. In total hip replacement, several reports have cited the accuracy with which implants can be placed using computer-aided robotic devices or surgical navigation.
Efficient visual-search model observers for PET.

Objective:Scanning model observers have been efficiently applied as a research tool to predict human-observer performance in F-18 positron emission tomography (PET). We investigated whether a visual-search (VS) observer could provide more reliable predictions with comparable efficiency.Methods:Simulated two-dimensional images of a digital phantom featuring tumours in the liver, lungs and background soft tissue were prepared in coronal, sagittal and transverse display formats. A localization receiver operating characteristic (LROC) study quantified tumour detectability as a function of organ and format for two human observers, a channelized non-prewhitening (CNPW) scanning observer and two versions of a basic VS observer. The VS observers compared watershed (WS) and gradient-based search processes that identified focal uptake points for subsequent analysis with the CNPW observer. The model observers treated “background-known-exactly” (BKE) and “background-assumed-homogeneous” assumptions, either searching ...
Optimum fuel cell utilization with multilevel DC-DC converters

Static characteristics of fuel cells show more than a 30% difference in the output voltage between no-load to full-load conditions. This inevitable decrease, which is caused by internal losses, reduces the utilization factor of the fuel cells at low loads. Additionally, the converters fed by these fuel cells have to be derated to accommodate higher input voltages at low currents. To increase the utilization of fuel cells and to avoid derating of semiconductors, this paper proposes a level reduction control using a multilevel DC-DC converter. Level reduction is done by inhibiting a certain number of fuel cells when the load current decreases. The inhibited fuel cells can be used in other applications such as charging batteries to further increase their utilization and the efficiency of the system.
Effect of emitter doping on device characteristics

The effect of emitter surface doping and emitter diffusion depth on the bandgap narrowing, temperature coefficient of collector current, temperature coefficient of current gain, and burst noise characteristics have been studied. The experimental investigation was done by fabricating two groups of n-p-n transistors. The first group of transistors was fabricated with three different emitter surface concentrations ( C_{0} = 5 \times 10^{21} , 2 × 1020, and 6 × 1019atoms/cm3) and fixed emitter depth ( X_{JE}= 1.5 µm), and the second group of transistors was fabricated with three different emitter depths (X JE = 0.8, 1.5, and 2.2 µm) and fixed emitter surface concentrations ( C_{0} = 2 \times 10^{20} atoms/cm3). The heavy doping (5 × 1021atoms/cm3) was found to have introduced a narrowing of the bandgap energy and a corresponding degradation in gain. An annealing experiment was conducted by heating the devices to 800°C for 16 h in nitrogen, and this experiment had the effect of recovering the bandgap narrowing and improving the gain. The temperature coefficient of collector current \alpha_{T}=(1/I_{c}) \cdot (\DeltaI_{c}/\DeltaT) was determined for fixed V BE and the temperature coefficient of current gain \beta_{T}=(1/\beta)(\Delta\beta/\DeltaT) was calculated for fixed I c . For the first group of transistors, α T was found to have changed from 0.04 to 0.065 (1/°C) when C 0 was changed from 6 × 1019to 5 × 1021atoms/cm3. The corresponding change in β T was from 4 × 10-4to 1 × 10-3(1/°C), indicating that the current gain for this group of transistors was much more sensitive to doping than to the collector current. For the second group of transistors, however, α T and β T were found to have changed by the same orders of magnitude as X JE was changed from 0.85 to 2.2 µm: α T changed from 0.032 to 0.062 (1/°C) and β T changed from 3 × 10-3to 6 × 10-3(1/°C). Emitter doping also showed a relationship to burst noise characteristics. Ninety-five percent of devices with low C 0 (6 × 1019atoms/cm3) were found to be free of burst noise.
Convention center development: pros, cons and unanswered questions

Abstract Over recent years there has been tremendous growth in the convention business and commensurately in the number of convention centers. However, while the expansion in the quantity and size of centers continues unabated, a number of issues have come to light that question the validity of continuing on the current path. This paper considers these issues by assessing the pros and cons of building convention centers. This task is accomplished by analyzing and critiquing the existing literature on the subject while concluding with a summary of those research questions that remain either unaddressed or unsettled.
The Life History of Phoxichilidium tubulariae (Pycnogonida: Phoxichilidiidae)

Abstract Phoxichilidium tubulariae exhibits an encysted protonymphon development. Its fast developmental mode reduced the typical number of pycnogonid molts and developmental time from months as described for other pycnogonid species to fewer than 21 days. This developmental strategy exploited the seasonal abundance of Tubularia larynx. The larvae hatched, infested the hydroid, and developed inside the gastrovascular cavity. The larvae developed for several molts and then emerged, destroying the hydranth. Annual population dynamics of P. tubulariae were seasonal; density of adult animals was highest in mid-to-late summer with reproduction being greatest in July and August. The abundance of pycnogonids peaked as the hydroid population declined.
Promoting Organ Donation through Challenge Campaigns

Context—Four challenge campaigns in 2012 and 2013 were undertaken to promote organ donor registrations in New York State. Challenge campaigns relied on community advocates statewide to initiate month-long outreach efforts with top teams earning monetary rewards and public recognition. Objective—To significantly increase the number and proportion of New York residents who have consented to donation through the electronic registry. Design—Four month-long campaigns undertaken in fall and spring of 2012 and 2013. Setting—Statewide recruitment efforts organized by New York Alliance for Donation and the 4 organ procurement organizations in New York State. Participants—Adult residents of New York State. Intervention—Project staff recruited team leaders across New York State and used online and offline resources to recruit teams, educate team leaders, and bolster outreach efforts. Main Outcome Measures—Number of completed registration forms within month-long campaign periods. Also investigated were statistics on ...
Truncation Error Analysis of Finite Difference Approximations to the Transport Equation

The truncation error of difference approximations to the transport equation is examined, and difference equations which are uniformly second-order accurate are derived. Resulting angular quadrature...
A New Family of Trepostome Bryozoans from the Ordovician Simpson Group of Oklahoma

A new family, Bimuroporidae, is proposed for a clade of Ordovician trepostome bryozoans. The family is united by several characteristics, including a zooidal ontogenetic progression from mesozooid to autozooid and an integrate wall structure. Discriminant and cladistic analyses of colonies from the Ordovician Simpson Group outcropping in the Arbuckle Mountains and Criner Hills of south-central Oklahoma permit the recognition of eight species belonging to this family. Four species assigned to the new genus Bimuropora are described: B. dubia (Loeblich), B. pollaphragmata n. sp., B. conferta (Coryell), and B. winchelli (Ulrich), as well as four species assigned to the genus Champlainopora Ross: C. chazyensis (Ross), C. ramusculus n. sp., C. pachymura (Loeblich), and C. arbucklensis n. sp.
Education Programs: Outreach as an Administrative Function

Scholarship, then, is one kind of educational enterprise, but not the only one. The possible products of scholarship comprise a continuum, and that continuum reflects the needs of a public comprised of many parts. The Post editorial mirrors the thinking of those of us within the archival community who support archival education programs. It is quoted to provide reassurance at the outset to other archivists who may feel that they are being pressured to abandon the scholarly community in the interests of popularization, or to view as somehow outmoded their talents as technical archivists. They are neither, by any means. Gaining intellectual control of records remains the archivist's special work, without which no other activities proceed. We archivists are not, therefore, being asked to abandon technical archival work to open the doors to all comers. Nor does it any longer seem necessary to persuade archivists to offer education programs. The numbers of these increase regularly, as a recent SAA survey
Death Penalty Disposition in China What Matters

In theory, sentencing decisions should be driven by legal factors, not extra-legal factors. However, some empirical research on the death penalty in the United States shows significant relationships between offender and victim characteristics and death sentence decisions. Despite the fact that China frequently imposes death sentences, few studies have examined these sanctions to see if similar correlations occur in China's capital cases. Using data from published court cases in China involving three violent crimes-homicide, robbery, and intentional assault-this study examines the net impact of offender's gender, race, and victim-offender relationship on death sentence decisions in China. Our overall multiple regression results indicate that, after controlling for other legal and extra-legal variables, an offender's gender, race, and victim-offender relationship did not produce similar results in China when compared with those in the United States. In contrast, it is the legal factors that played the most significant role in influencing the death penalty decisions. The article concludes with explanations and speculations on the unique social, cultural, and legal conditions in China that may have contributed to these correlations.
Effect of Administration of Intermedin upon Melanin Content of the Skin of Rana pipiens.

SummaryThe administration of intermedin, prepared from hog pituitary glands, results in a decrease, after four weeks, of twenty per cent in the melanin content of the skin of Rana pipiens. Subsequently, there is a rapid increase, reaching levels 40% above normal after a total of 8 weeks.
Computational Modeling for Conjugate Heat Transfer of Shock-Surface Interactions on Compliant Skin Panels

Aerothermal interactions play an important role in the analysis and optimization of high speed vehicles, impacting the design of the aerodynamic, structural, control, and propulsion systems at both the component and multi-disciplinary levels. This study aims to develop a CFD-FEM based partitioned aerothermal solver, for investigating the thermal response of surface panels subject to shock turbulent boundary layer interactions (STBLIs). The focus of the study is assessment of different time marching approaches for the partitioned conjugate heat transfer problem, and also the degree of coupling in STBLIs. An additional consideration is the potential for structural compliance in the system, which leads to a non-stationary shock impingement location. Preliminary results for the initial thermal response of a vibrating skin panel indicate that a one-way coupled and quasi-steady approximation yield similar panel temperatures to a fully unsteady, two-way coupled analysis. Furthermore, a static approximation, where the flow is predicted a priori without consideration of the surface motion, significantly under predicts the peak temperature rise and affected length of the panel.
Effects of hypertension and coronary constriction on cardiac function, morphology, and contractile proteins in rats

In an attempt to elucidate the effects of two major risk factors of heart failure in humans, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease, renal hypertension and coronary artery constriction were induced singularly and in combination in rats, and the functional, structural, and biochemical alterations of the myocardium were examined 12-13 wk later. Renal hypertension (RH), coronary narrowing (CN), and their association (NH) resulted in left ventricular failure demonstrated by a significant increase in left ventricular end-diastolic pressure, a decrease in +dP/dt and -dP/dt, and a reduction in stroke volume and cardiac output. Measurements of ventricular loading documented that RH was characterized by elevations in systolic and diastolic wall stress of 42 and 160%, respectively. Corresponding changes with NH were 80 and 315%. CN was accompanied by an augmentation of diastolic wall stress only (280%). The abnormalities in mural stress were coupled with reductions in systolic and diastolic wall thickness-to-chamber radius ratios of 39 and 29% after CN. These anatomic parameters were preserved with RH, whereas the systolic wall thickness-to-chamber radius ratio was reduced 31% with NH. Structurally, multiple foci of replacement fibrosis were found with each intervention. The sites of tissue injury and their volume percent in the myocardium were comparable with CN and RH but were significantly more numerous and occupied a larger fraction of the ventricular wall in the presence of NH. Biochemically, the calcium dose-response curve of myofibrillar Mg2+ adenosinetriphosphatase (ATPase) activity did not vary with CN, RH, and NH. In contrast, a marked decrease in Ca2+ myosin ATPase activity was found in NH rats in association with a shift in myosin isoenzymes from V1 to V3. In conclusion, multiple physiological, morphological, and biochemical factors may participate in the generation of the abnormalities in ventricular loading with hypertension and/or coronary artery stenosis.
Epidemiological survey of a case of human infection with avian influenza A(H10N8) virus in Nanchang,Jiangxi,2014

In February 2014,a cases of severe pneumonia with unknown origin was reported to Nanchang Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention.The case had poultry exposure history,and the clinical manifestations of the case included fever and tussicula.The chest X ray examination showed pathological changes.No secondary infections were detected in close contacts of the case in a 7 day followup.According to the epidemiological history,clinical manifestations and laboratory detection results,the case was diagnosed with human infection with avian influenza A(H10N8) virus.
How to Win Your Betting Pool with Jensen's Inequality and the Law of Large Numbers

We determine the optimal strategy for a winners-take-all betting pool with sufficiently many participants using only elementary tools.
Bone site-specific delivery of siRNA

Small interfering RNAs (siRNA) have enormous potential as therapeutics to target and treat various bone disorders such as osteoporosis and cancer bone metastases. However, effective and specific delivery of siRNA therapeutics to bone and bone-specific cells in vivo is very challenging. To realize the full therapeutic potential of siRNA in treating bone disorders, a safe and efficient, tissue- and cell-specific delivery system must be developed. This review focuses on recent advances in bone site-specific delivery of siRNA at the tissue or cellular level. Bone-targeted nanoparticulate siRNA carriers and various bone-targeted moieties such as bisphosphonates, oligopeptides (Asp)8 and (AspSerSer)6, and aptamers are highlighted. Incorporation of these bone-seeking targeting moieties into siRNA carriers allows for recognition of different sub-tissue functional domains of bone and also specific cell types residing in bone tissue. It also provides a means for bone-formation surface-, bone-resorption surface-, or osteoblast-specific targeting and transportation of siRNA therapeutics. The discussion mainly focuses on systemic and local bone-specific delivery of siRNA in osteoporosis and bone metastasis preclinical models.
Niacin: Time to Believe Outcomes Over Surrogate Outcomes: If Not Now, When?

Long-acting niacin, a blockbuster drug for many years, emerged during an era in which the simple assumption was that favorably modifying patients’ lipid profiles was tantamount to lowering their risks for cardiovascular disease. The implicit assumption in the medical community and among regulators was that improving lipid profiles would improve outcomes even as the mechanism of the drug action was not clear. This approach holds sway today as evidenced by the recent approval of the PCSK9 inhibitor drugs before the completion of the definitive phase 3 outcome trials.1,2 The evidence suggests that the way in which a risk factor is modified matters for whether it produces a benefit.3 Long-acting niacin is a particularly interesting case because it was included in one of the earliest outcome trials, the Coronary Drug Project, initiated in 1966, although the results were equivocal.4 With 5 to 8 years of follow-up, niacin failed to improve mortality, the primary end point. The 5-year rates of death were 21.2% for niacin and 20.9% for placebo. Death rates because of coronary heart disease were also close and not significantly different: 15.9% for niacin and 16.2% for placebo. The niacin group did have a lower risk of nonfatal myocardial infarction, one of the secondary end points. It should also be noted that because …
The Majority that Wasn't: Stare Decisis, Majority Rule and the Mischief of Quorum Requirements

In this Paper, I consider the question of precedential value in settings in which a case is decided by a majority of judges hearing a case but less than a majority of judges authorized to decide the case - a situation I refer to as a "minority majority." In analyzing the question of treatment of minority majorities, the Paper makes three broad contributions to the literature. First, it disaggregates the requirements that undergird the notion that a Court opinion receive precedential effect into three categories: quorum requirements, action requirements, and voting rule requirements. The Paper's second broad contribution is its normative analysis of the precedent question. The Paper identifies two categories of plausible responses to the problem. First, one might increase the stringency of the requirements that fall under the first two categories - that is, quorum and action requirements in order to minimize possible minority majority cases. Second, one might address the problem by varying the precedential effect of cases decided by minority majorities. Specifically, one might accord them "full" precedential effect, no precedential effect, narrow precedential effect, or limited precedential effect. The Paper argues that affording narrow and limited precedential effect may be desirable, and that affording no precedential effect on the court that issued the decision is an underexamined option. The third contribution that the Paper makes is to use the discussion of the normative question to shed light on broader issues. These include the legitimacy of courts, the relationship between legitimacy and stare decisis; the proper breadth of court opinions and holdings; and questions of institutional choice as to who should decide how these questions are resolved; and the importance of judicial minimalism.
Integrating Human Support Into Behavioral Intervention Technologies: The Efficiency Model of Support

A growing number of interventions use websites, mobile applications, and wearable devices to deliver and enhance mental health treatments. These technologies are used more often and are more effective when provided along with human support. Integrating human support, however, requires developed models for providing this support. This article presents the Efficiency Model of Support, a new model for understanding the provision of human support in the context of behavioral intervention technologies. The Efficiency Model of Support defines the ratio of benefit accrued from an intervention to resources devoted to it as a critical consideration in support provision. The Efficiency Model of Support serves to consolidate the current findings and guide future research and practice with regard to human support and technology.
Ventriloquism as communicative music

This essay explicates connections between communication theory and Francois Cooren’s discussion of ventriloquism. Cooren provides a theoretical and practical exposition of a situated and contextually shaped communicative agent. Ventriloquism offers a practical depiction of the limits of individualism, or unrestrained individual autonomy. Ventriloquism suggests that we live within sounds and voices that continually affect a communicator; one cannot confuse the influence of random and, at times, orchestrated sounds and voices with ownership grounded within a single communicative agent. Ventriloquism explicates everyday life as orchestrated by ongoing communicative music of sounds and voices.
Syntax-Directed Verification of Circuit Function

This paper introduces a new technique, called syntax-directed verification, for proving properties of circuits composed of standard cells. The lengths of proofs using this technique are independent of the size of the circuits, but depend only on the number of standard cell types and the complexity of the rules for interconnecting them. Syntax-directed verification is thus well-suited to VLSI, in which large circuits are built using relatively few types of cells. The paper describes the syntax-directed verification method, and presents an example of its use.
A digitally-tuned triple-band transformer power combiner for CMOS power amplifiers

This paper presents the design and implementation of a CMOS transformer combiner that can be reconfigured to have similar efficiencies at widely separated frequency bands. Conventional transformer combiners employ a fixed tuning capacitance in the secondary network to optimize the efficiency for single frequency standard. In this work, we present a modified transformer combiner where digitally-switchable capacitors introduced at low-swing nodes within the combiner network enable frequency reconfiguration using CMOS switches. A 65 nm CMOS triple-band (2.5/3/3.5 GHz) power amplifier (PA) chip employing the reconfigurable combiner is also presented.
Ética aplicada a la gestión de datos masivos

It should be considered Big Data (BD) as a socio-technological phenomenon because it is transforming the culture of communication. Storing, managing and using data, in many cases for profit, poses problems related to privacy, property, identity, privacy, trust or reputation. Although they are not new problems, it is true that are now being overwhelmed these issues because the main characteristics of BD: volume, variety, veracity, value and, specially, velocity. The specific thesis of this work poses that it is no possible to elude for longer the ethical components of these actions related to BD. We are facing a new scenario where the most evident vanishes, and allows pointing the most obvious: think ethics in a necessarily revolutionary way, since a new moral subject has already supplanted the subject —human— responsible in decision-making processes. Firstly, we will focus on the areas in which we can establish that this applied ethics operates. Immediately after, we will address what we have called the problem of identification of the moral subject, and then we will argue the possible adoption of a new Copernican turn that allows us to establish the (possible) attributions of rationality that could unfold this unprecedented moral subject represented by machines.
microRNAs in Neurodegeneration: Current Findings and Potential Impacts

Significant advancements have been made in unraveling and understanding the non-coding elements of the human genome. New insights into the structure and function of noncoding RNAs have emerged. Their relevance in the context of both physiological cellular homeostasis and human diseases is getting appreciated. As a result, exploration of noncoding RNAs, in particular microRNAs (miRs), as therapeutic agents or targets of therapeutic strategies is under way. This review summarizes and discusses in depth the current literature on the role of miRs in neurodegenerative diseases.
Epitope selection and their placement for increased virus neutralization in a novel vaccination strategy for porcine epidemic diarrhea virus utilizing the Hepatitis B virus core antigen

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is a member of the Alphacoronaviridae genus within the Coronaviridae family. It is the causative agent of porcine epidemic diarrhea, a disease that can have mortality rates as high as 100% in suckling piglets. PEDV causes severe economic loss, and has been in existence for decades. A panzootic starting in 2010 renewed interest in the development of a universal vaccine toward PEDV. This report details several design changes made to a Hepatitis B virus core antigen (HBcAg)-based recombinant vaccine strategy, and their effect in vivo. Initially, several multi-antigen vaccine candidates were able to elicit antibodies specific to three out of four B-cell epitopes inserted into the chimeric proteins. However, a lack of virus neutralization led to a redesign of the vaccines. The focus of the newly redesigned vaccines was to elicit a strong immune response to the YSNIGVCK amino acid motif from PEDV. Genetically modified new vaccine candidates were able to elicit a strong antibody (Ab) response to the YSNIGVCK epitope, which correlated with an increased ability to neutralize the CO strain of PEDV. Additionally, the location of the inserted PEDV epitopes within the vector protein was shown to affect the immune recognition toward the native HBcAg during vaccination.
A Pilot, Randomized Controlled Trial of HIV Self-Testing and Real-Time Post-Test Counseling/Referral on Screening and Preventative Care Among Men Who Have Sex with Men.

Abstract HIV self-testing (HST) could be an effective strategy for helping those at high risk test more regularly. However, concerns about HST's lack of follow-up care and referral have so far limi...
Optimal actuator design for linear systems with multiplicative noise.

This paper addresses optimal actuator design for linear systems with process noise. It is well-known that the control that minimizes a quadratic cost in the state and control for a system with linear dynamics corrupted by additive Gaussian noise is of feedback type and its design depends on the solution of an associated Riccati equation. We consider here the case where the noise is multiplicative, by which we mean that its intensity is dependent on the state. We show how to derive the actuator that minimizes a linear quadratic cost. The solution requires to optimize a function defined on a manifold of low rank matrices; we provide a gradient descent algorithm to perform this optimization and show that this gradient descent converges to the global minimum almost surely.
Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of nitric oxide mimetic agents

Drug discovery focusing on NO mimetics has been hamstrung due to its unconventional nature. Central to these challenges is the fact that direct measurement of molecular NO in biological systems is exceedingly difficulty. Hence, drug development of NO mimetics must rely upon measurement of the NO donating specie (i.e., a prodrug) and a downstream marker of efficacy without directly measuring the molecule, NO, that is responsible for biological effect. The focus of this review is to catalog in vivo attempts to monitor the pharmacokinetics (PK) of the NO donating specie and the pharmacodynamic (PD) readout of NO bioactivity.
Measuring the burden of multimorbidity among Medicare beneficiaries via condition counts and cumulative duration.

Objective The study's purpose was to describe the cumulative duration of 19 chronic conditions among Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries and examine variation in total expenditures explained by cumulative duration and condition counts. Design, setting, study design, and data extraction In a retrospective cohort of FFS beneficiaries age ≥68, 2015 Medicare enrollment and claims data (N = 20 124 230) were used to identify the presence or absence of 19 diagnosed chronic conditions, and to construct MCC categories (0-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6+) and cumulative duration of each of 19 conditions from the date of first possible occurrence in claims (1/1/1999) to the end of follow-up (date of death or 12/31/2015). Total Medicare expenditures were estimated using linear models adjusted for demographic characteristics. Principal findings Multimorbidity was common (71.7 percent with 2+ conditions). The mean cumulative duration of all 19 conditions was 23.6 person-years, which varied greatly by age and number of conditions. Condition counts were more predictive of Medicare expenditures than cumulative duration (R-squared for continuous measures = 0.461 vs 0.272; R-squared for quartiles = 0.408 vs 0.266). Conclusions The cumulative duration of chronic conditions varied widely for Medicare beneficiaries, especially for those with 6+ conditions, but was less predictive of total expenditures than condition counts.
Synthesizing Disparate LiDAR and Satellite Datasets through Deep Learning to Generate Wall-to-Wall Forest Inventories of New England

Abstract Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) has become a common tool for generating remotely sensed forest inventories. However, regional modeling of forest attributes using LiDAR has remained challenging due to varying parameters between LiDAR datasets, such as pulse density. Here we develop a regional model using a three dimensional convolutional neural network (CNN). This is a form of deep learning capable of scanning a LiDAR point cloud as well as coincident satellite data, identifying features useful for predicting forest attributes, and then making a series of predictions. We compare this modeling approach to the standard modeling approach for making forest predictions from LiDAR data, and find that the CNN outperformed the standard approach by a large margin in many cases. We then apply our model to publicly available data over New England, generating maps of fourteen forest attributes at a 10 m resolution over 85 % of the region. Our estimates of attributes that quantified tree size were most successful. In assessing aboveground biomass for example, we achieved a root mean square error of 36 Mg/ha (44 %). Our county-level mapped estimates of biomass were in good agreement with federal estimates. Estimates of attributes quantifying stem density and percent conifer were moderately successful, with a tendency to underestimate of extreme values and banding in low density LiDAR acquisitions. Estimate of attributes quantifying detailed species groupings were less successful. Ultimately, we believe these maps will be useful to forest managers, wildlife ecologists, and climate modelers in the region.
Clustering Attitudes and Behaviors of High/ Low Involvement Grocery Shopper

The purpose of this exploratory and quantitative study was to examine the attitudes and behaviors of 14,807 grocery shoppers. These respondents across the US were asked to answer attitudinal, behav...
Towards an Egalitarian Pedagogy for the Millennial Generation: A Reflection

This is a first person account and a reflection. The chapter presents a preliminary outline of what I call an egalitarian pedagogy for the millennial generation (emulating Freire). The attempt is based on an ongoing reflection on the practice of teaching organizational informatics for about two decades, first in a business school and then, in an information school. I describe how I arrived at this position, and outline some underlying principles for such a pedagogy. The chapter points to possibilities for repurposing existing and emerging teaching practices towards this pedagogical perspective, and concludes by positioning the egalitarian perspective as a viable alternative.
Marine Animal Classification With Correntropy-Loss-Based Multiview Learning

To analyze marine animals’ behavior, seasonal distribution, and abundance, digital imagery can be acquired by a camera or a Lidar. Depending on the quantity and properties of acquired imagery, the animals are characterized as either features (shape, color, texture, etc.) or dissimilarity matrices derived from different shape analysis methods (shape context, internal distance shape context, etc.). For both cases, multiview learning is critical in integrating more than one set of feature/dissimilarity matrix for higher classification accuracy. This paper adopts correntropy loss as the cost function in multiview learning, which has favorable statistical properties for rejecting noise. For the case of features, the correntropy-loss-based multiview learning and its “entrywise” variation are developed based on the multiview intact space learning algorithm. For the case of dissimilarity matrices, the robust Euclidean embedding algorithm is extended to its multiview form with the correntropy loss function. Results from simulated data and real-world marine animal imagery show that the proposed algorithms can effectively enhance classification rate as well as suppress noise under different noise conditions.
Appropriate Placement and Treatment of Transgender Prisoners: Constitutional Concerns and Arguments for Alternative Housing and Treatment Policies

This article examines the appropriate placement and treatment of transgender prisoners. It first examines the current prison housing standard in the United States, which is to house transgender prisoners according to birth-sex or to administratively segregate such prisoners from the general population, and the risk of violence and harm this standard housing policy creates. This article then outlines alternative housing policies that adhere to housing a prisoner based on their affirmed gender, rather than birth sex, and how such policies have been demonstrated to ameliorate violence and harm. This article further notes the need for transgender prisoners’ access to hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery, along with reformed housing policies, in the broader evaluation of prisoners’ welfare. This article then examines how the standard housing and treatment policies employed by most prisons, may violate constitutional law and concludes with a discussion of the need for a certain precision in policy language, when creating appropriate (and constitutional) treatment and housing policies for transgender prisoners.
A Scaffolded Approach to Teaching National Culture: From Hall to Hofstede to GLOBE

This chapter shares the background of a scaffold approach in teaching the GLOBE (global leadership and organizational behavior effectiveness) cultural dimensions. The student learns how to develop a GLOBE cultural lens that can be applied to the cross-cultural factors involved with doing international business. The nine GLOBE cultural dimensions become a soft set of business tools that consciously increase the effectiveness of cross-cultural management.