cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Research in the United States relative to geochemistry and health

Abstract Increasing concern regarding the effects of the geochemical environment on health in the United States has fostered research studies in a number of universities and government agencies. The necessity to evaluate the effects of natural and man-made elemental excesses in the environment on health requires the establishment of requirements and tolerance limits for the various elements in water and crops. Maps of the geographic distribution of these elements in rocks, surficial materials and ground and surface waters are also essential for comparison with the occurrence of disease. Funding support for research projects that relate to various parameters of these problems emanates largely from a few federal agencies, and much of the work is conducted at government, university and private facilities. An example of the latter is the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, which has several components that are addressing a variety of comparative studies of the geochemical environment related to health; studies involve specific trace elements (like selenium and magnesium), diseases (like cancer, urolithiasis and cardiovascular disease), other health factors (like aging and nutrition) and links with timely major problems (like the health effects of greatly increasing the use of coal).
Web-based viewing of picture archiving and communications systems images--Part I: Optimal personal computer configuration.

Now that picture archiving and communications systems (PACS) has matured, our challenge is to make the images available to the referring physician and, in a teaching institution, to make these images available for conferences and rounding. One solution is the distribution of the images using web-based technology. We investigated a web-based add-on to our PACS to determine the characteristics of the personal computer that will make this technology useful and affordable. We found that images can be viewed easily through a web-based system. We found that the optimal system to view these images at a reasonable speed and a reasonable cost is on with a mediumrange processor (200 to 300 MHz) and a large amount of inexpensive RAM, at least 64 Mb.
The Correlation Between the New Rigiscan Plus Software and the Final Diagnosis in the Evaluation of Erectile Dysfunction

AbstractPurpose: The computer generated recordings for 2 nights in 40 patients studied with the RigiScan† †Dacomed, Minneapolis, Minnesota. device were reevaluated using the new RigiScan Plus software to test its value in improving the discrimination between psychogenic and organic erectile dysfunction.Materials and Methods: Each man was evaluated for erectile dysfunction with a detailed medical and sexual history, physical examination, biothesiometry, plethysmography, 2 nights of ambulatory RigiScan monitoring and a psychological evaluation that usually included a private interview with the sexual partner. At the conclusion of evaluation each patient was broadly classified as having organic or psychogenic erectile dysfunction. The RigiScan reports were initially independently analyzed without the investigator's knowledge of the final diagnosis by determining the single best erectile event, with a minimal cutoff value of 60 percent erection for 5 minutes as necessary to be considered normal and the sum of...
Achieving reasonable conservatism in nuclear safety analyses

Abstract In the absence of methods that explicitly account for uncertainties, seeking reasonable conservatism in nuclear safety analyses can quickly lead to extreme conservatism. The rate of divergence to extreme conservatism is often beyond the expert analysts’ intuitive feeling, but can be demonstrated mathematically. Too much conservatism in addressing the safety of nuclear facilities is not beneficial to society. Using certain properties of lognormal distributions for representation of input parameter uncertainties, example calculations for the risk and consequence of a fictitious facility accident scenario are presented. Results show that there are large differences between the calculated 95th percentiles and the extreme bounding values derived from using all input variables at their upper-bound estimates. Showing the relationship of the mean values to the key parameters of the output distributions, the paper concludes that the mean is the ideal candidate for representation of the value of an uncertain parameter. The mean value is proposed as the metric that is consistent with the concept of reasonable conservatism in nuclear safety analysis, because its value increases towards higher percentiles of the underlying positively skewed distribution with increasing levels of uncertainty. Insensitivity of the results to the actual underlying distributions is briefly demonstrated.
A Dual Small‐Molecule Rheostat for Precise Control of Protein Concentration in Mammalian Cells

One of the most successful strategies for controlling protein concentrations in living cells relies on protein destabilization domains (DD). Under normal conditions, a DD will be rapidly degraded by the proteasome. However, the same DD can be stabilized or "shielded" in a stoichiometric complex with a small molecule, enabling dose-dependent control of its concentration. This process has been exploited by several labs to post-translationally control the expression levels of proteins in vitro as well as in vivo, although the previous technologies resulted in permanent fusion of the protein of interest to the DD, which can affect biological activity and complicate results. We previously reported a complementary strategy, termed traceless shielding (TShld), in which the protein of interest is released in its native form. Here, we describe an optimized protein concentration control system, TTShld, which retains the traceless features of TShld but utilizes two tiers of small molecule control to set protein concentrations in living cells. These experiments provide the first protein concentration control system that results in both a wide range of protein concentrations and proteins free from engineered fusion constructs. The TTShld system has a greatly improved dynamic range compared to our previously reported system, and the traceless feature is attractive for elucidation of the consequences of protein concentration in cell biology.
Response Bias and the Leadership Opinion Questionnaire Scales

(1979). Response Bias and the Leadership Opinion Questionnaire Scales. The Journal of General Psychology: Vol. 100, No. 1, pp. 161-162.
Neuritic (senile) plaques and filamentous changes in aged rhesus monkeys.

Three rhesus monkeys, whose approximate ages were 16 to 18 years old, and one 22 to 23 years old, were studied for age changes in the nervous system. The brains of all four were slightly shrunken and the meninges were fibrotic. The vessels were stiff and fibrosed, but were not atheromatous. The lateral ventricles were mildly dilated. Bodian preparations of the oldest monkey and of one of the 16− to 18-year-old monkeys revealed the presence of neuritic (senile) plaques. Serial one-micron toluidine blue-stained sections showed that some plaques were closely associated with capillaries. Electron microscopic studies revealed that the plaques were identical to those of human Alzheimer's disease except that the typical twisted tubules were absent. Outside the plaques there were scattered neurites showing degeneration of the type found in the neuritic plaques. Furthermore, two forms of rare pathological fibrillar material were found in 3 animals. One was made up of pairs of helically wound 100 A filaments with a twist every 500 A. The other fibrillar structures were made up of bundles of parallel filamentous elements, each about 130 A thick, with a distinctly granular structure on longitudinal section. A list of other abnormalities includes vascular amyloidosis, lipofuscin accumulation, dark neurons undergoing phagocytosis, myelin remodeling, aggregates of large electron-dense droplets, enlarged mitochondria and mitochondria with paracrystalline inclusions, corpora amylacea, Rosenthal fibers and two types of virus-like particles.
Repair and misrepair of heavy-ion-induced chromosomal damage

Abstract The premature chromosome condensation (PCC) technique was used to investigate chromosomal damage, repair, and misrepair in the G 1 phase of a human/hamster hybrid cell line that contains a single human chromosome. Plateau-phase cell cultures were exposed to either x-rays or a 425 MeV/u beam of neon ions near the Bragg peak where the LET is 183 keV/μm. An in situ hybridization technique coupled to fluorescent staining of PCC spreads confirmed the linearity of the dose response for initial chromatin breakage in the human chromosome to high doses (1600 cGy x-ray or 1062 cGy Ne). On Giemsa-stained slides, initial chromatin breakage in the total genome and the rejoining kinetics of these breaks were determined. As a measure of chromosomal misrepair, ring PCC aberrations were also scored. Ne ions were about 1.5 x more effective per unit dose compared to x-rays at producing the initially measured chromatin breakage. 90% of the x-ray-induced breaks rejoined in cells incubated at 37°C after exposure. In contrast, only 50% of Ne-ion-induced breaks rejoined. In the irradiated G 1 cells, ring PCC aberrations increased with time apparently by first order kinetics after either x-ray or Ne exposures. However, far fewer rings formed in Ne-irradiated cells after a dose giving a comparable initial number of chromatin breaks. Following x-ray exposures, the yield of rings formed after long repair times (6 to 9 hrs) fit a quadratic dose-response curve. These results indicate quantitative and qualitative differences in the chromosomal lesions induced by low- and high-LET radiations.
Temporally consistent caption detection in videos using a spatiotemporal 3D method

Captions are text or logos superimposed on videos during a postproduction process. Caption detection in videos is useful for a variety of applications. For many applications, temporal consistency and stability is very important. Most of the prior work adopts certain post-processing procedures to smooth detected caption bounding boxes over time. Although these approaches mitigate the effect of the temporal inconsistency problem, they are unable to eliminate the problem. In this paper, we present a new caption detection algorithm that detects the 3D bounding boxes of caption regions in spatiotemporal volume space. 2D bounding boxes are then created by slicing the 3D bounding boxes. Since all the 2D bounding boxes corresponding to a caption area are sliced from one 3D bounding box, they are identical over time, thus ensuring temporal consistency of the result. The experiment results show that our new approach not only generates temporally consistent results but also results in higher detection accuracy.
A canonical seed assignment model for key predistribution in wireless sensor networks

A promising solution for trust establishment in wireless sensor networks is the assignment of cryptographic seeds (keys, secrets, etc.) to sensor nodes prior to network deployment, known as key predistribution. In this article, we propose a canonical seed assignment model for key predistribution characterizing seed assignment in terms of the probability distribution describing the number of nodes receiving each seed and the algorithm for seed assignment. In addition, we present a sampling framework for seed assignment algorithms in the canonical model. We propose a probabilistic k-connectivity model for randomly deployed secure networks using spatial statistics and geometric random graph theory. We analyze key predistribution schemes in the canonical model in terms of network connectivity and resilience to node capture. The analytical results can be used to determine the average or worst-case connectivity or resilience to node capture for a key predistribution scheme. Furthermore, we demonstrate the design of new key predistribution schemes and the inclusion of existing schemes in the canonical model. Finally, we present a general approach to analyze the addition of nodes to an existing secure network and derive results for a well-known scheme.
Buoyant density gradient centrifugation of RNA and DNA in alkali iodide solutions.

Abstract Neutral NaI and KI density gradients, generated at 45 000 rev./min in the A 321 rotor of the International Preparative Ultracentrifuge Model B 60 have been used for the banding of DNA and RNA. Native DNA, denatured DNA and double-stranded RNA have under these conditions in NaI an approximate a buoyant density of respectively 1.52, 1.55 and 1.57. In KI the approximate buoyant densities are respectively 1.49, 1.52 and 1.57. The buoyant density of native DNA depends in both solvents linearly on the guanylic acid+cytidylic acid content. Single-stranded RNA forms stable bands only in KI gradients at a buoyant density of 1.62. No aggregation or precipitation occur in this solvent. No fractionation according to base composition has been observed. However formylated RNA, 5-fluorouracil-containing RNA and native unsubstituted RNA all band at different densities (respectively 1.67, 1.63 and 1.62). Possible applications of iodide density gradient centrifugation are discussed.
Simultaneous Electrical and Thermal Modeling of a Contact-Type RF MEMS Switch

Improving the power handling capability of direct contact RF MEMS switches requires a knowledge of conditions at the contact. This paper models the temperature rise in a direct contact RF MEMS switch, including the effects of electrical and thermal contact resistance. The maximum temperature in the beam is found to depend strongly on the power dissipation at the contact, with almost no contribution from dissipation due to currents in the rest of the switch. Moreover, the maximum temperature is found to exceed the limit for metal softening for a significant range of values of thermal and electrical contact resistance. Since local contact asperity temperature can be hundreds of degrees higher than the bulk material temperature modeled here, these results underscore the importance of understanding and controlling thermal and electrical contact resistance in the switch.
Synthesis and test issues for future aircraft inertial systems integration

A survey is presented of the potential benefits, possible pitfalls, and anticipated testing needs of integrating inertial guidance systems with systems dependent on the availability of the electromagnetic spectrum. Commonly referred to as integrated communications, navigation, and identification avionics (ICNIA), these systems of the future offer the combined potential for superb positioning and secure communications. The general characteristics (if current development trends continue) of the next-generation inertial navigation systems (INS) are briefly presented, followed by key modular and conceptual issues in the synthesis of this INS with systems dependent on the EM spectrum. Modular issues as considered here are those related to detailed implementation and resulting efficiency. Conceptual issues are those related to overall military strategy and resulting effectiveness. An example of modular systems integration is given, and a few preparations which can be anticipated for the field testing of integrated systems are presented, followed by concluding comments. >
A spatiotemporal communication protocol for wireless sensor networks

In this paper, we present a spatiotemporal communication protocol for sensor networks, called SPEED. SPEED is specifically tailored to be a localized algorithm with minimal control overhead. End-to-end soft real-time communication is achieved by maintaining a desired delivery speed across the sensor network through a novel combination of feedback control and nondeterministic geographic forwarding. SPEED is a highly efficient and scalable protocol for sensor networks where the resources of each node are scarce. Theoretical analysis, simulation experiments, and a real implementation on Berkeley motes are provided to validate the claims.
Teaching and Learning in Digital Environments: The Resurgence of Resource-Based Learning

The digital age has not simply changed the nature of resources and information; it has transformed several basic social and economic enterprises. Contemporary society—the settings where we live, work, and learn—has likewise changed dramatically. Both the amount of information and access to it have grown exponentially; a significant potential for using varied resources in numerous ways for instruction and learning has emerged. However, several issues related to the educational uses of varied resources (e.g., people, place, things, ideas) must be addressed if we are successfully to implement resource-based learning environments. In this paper, we trace the changing nature of resources and perspectives in their use for learning in the digital age, describe the overarching structures of resource-based learning environments, and identify key challenges to be addressed.
Diffusion Maps: A Superior Semantic Method to Improve Similarity Join Performance

This paper adopts the use of the diffusion maps method for joining long string values, such as paper abstracts, movie summaries, product descriptions, and user feedback, to improve the performance of the existing similarity join methods. In this work, we showed that using attributes of long string values to detect similar records would significantly improve the overall similarity join performance. Most databases include attributes of long string values, and the existing similarity join methods are not efficient in finding the similarity among the values of these long attributes. In this paper, multiple methods were compared according to their ability in joining long string values semantically.
Cutting Edge: A New Approach to Modeling Early Lung Immunity in Murine Tuberculosis

In this study, we report a new approach that allows dissection of distinct pathways regulating induction of early adaptive immunity in response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). We used traceable murine dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophage populations to chart their migratory pattern in response to Mtb, and found that only DCs receiving inflammatory stimuli from Mtb up-regulated their expression of CCR7 and migrated specifically to the draining lymph nodes (LNs). Furthermore, these Mtb-modulated DCs initiated a Th1 response only in the draining LNs. Taken together, these results demonstrate that Mtb-induced modulation of DCs is critical for their migration to regional LNs and ensuing T cell priming.
Quantum statistical corrections to intrabeam scattering rates

Intrabeam scattering (IBS) is a relaxation process which brings a bunch of charged particles in an accelerator closer to its thermal equilibrium distribution. This leads to a time variation of collective quantities of the bunch, most notably of the emittance. The typical relaxation times can be calculated using the formalism of Bjorken and Mtingwa. This formalism treats the particles in the bunch as distinguishable classical particles. In this paper, we extend the previous results to include effects due to quantum statistics. For fermions, the relaxation times will increase due to restricted accessibility of phase-space, while we find a decrease in relaxation times for bosons. The correction factor, however, will be of the order N/sub Particles//spl planck/3/P/sub 0//sup 3//spl epsi//sub x//spl epsi//sub y//spl epsi//sub z/ and will be negligible for today's machines.
Bayesian packet loss detection for TCP

One of TCP's critical tasks is to determine which packets are lost in the network, as a basis for control actions (flow control and packet retransmission). Modern TCP implementations use two mechanisms: timeout, and fast retransmit. Detection via timeout is necessarily a time-consuming operation; fast retransmit, while much quicker, is only effective for a small fraction of packet losses. In this paper we consider the problem of packet loss detection in TCP more generally. We concentrate on the fact that TCP's control actions are necessarily triggered by inference of packet loss, rather than conclusive knowledge. This suggests that one might analyze TCP's packet loss detection in a standard inferencing framework based on probability of detection and probability of false alarm. This paper makes two contributions to that end: first, we study an example of more general packet loss inference, namely optimal Bayesian packet loss detection based on round trip time. We show that for long-lived flows, it is frequently possible to achieve high detection probability and low false alarm probability based on measured round trip time. Second, we construct an analytic performance model that incorporates general packet loss inference into TCP. We show that for realistic detection and false alarm probabilities (as are achievable via our Bayesian detector) and for moderate packet loss rates, the use of more general packet loss inference in TCP can improve throughput by as much as 25%.
A Parametric Analytical Diffusion Model for Indoor Ultra-Wideband Received Signal

A parametric model for indoor ultra-wideband (UWB) impulse response at the receiver is derived analytically based on diffusion phenomenon and stochastic differential equations (SDE). This novel approach considers the channel in continuous space instead of characterizing the discrete multipath components. It was hypothesized that the multiple wave reflections in the rich scatter indoor environment cause diffusion-like behavior in the received signal. Our analysis suggested a geometric Brownian motion with exponential decaying factor as the channel stochastic impulse response. The simple closed form of the model has parameters that can be adjusted for different indoor channel behaviors, i.e., match the power delay profile and channel statistics. The model parameters were estimated for an office building, and its statistics were compared to the statistics of a set of data from experiment. The IEEE channel model (CM3) was used for comparison purposes. The results have shown that our proposed model closely resembles experimentally collected data for dense multipath channels
Adverse Exposures and Universal Precautions Practices Among a Group of Highly Exposed Health Professionals

An anonymous national survey of a representative population of healthcare workers who were thought likely to have frequent and intensive exposures to blood and other body fluids (certified nurse-midwives [CNMs]), was conducted to assess the type and frequency of self-reported occupational exposures to blood and body fluids experienced, the extent to which barrier precautions and other infection control measures were used, whether or not reported use of barriers was associated with a lower perceived rate of exposures and factors that influenced the use of infection control procedures. Of those responding, 74% had soiled their hands with blood at least one time in the preceding six months, 51% had splashed blood or amniotic fluid in their faces and 24% reported one or more needlestick injuries during that same period. Our study also found evidence of an association between the practice of needle recapping and the occurrence of needlestick injury (p = .003). Despite a high level of training and knowledge, only 55% reported routinely practicing universal precautions (UPs). Several factors that potentially influenced the use of UPs were studied, including healthcare worker perceptions of risk of occupational bloodborne infection, knowledge of routes of transmission of bloodborne pathogens and rationale for not using appropriate barriers. Our data suggest that occupational exposures occur frequently and that healthcare workers' (HCWs') perceptions of risk for occupational infection play an important role in influencing use of UPs. This study emphasizes the importance of developing new strategies for UP training.
Collaborative learning and teamwork over the web

Distance learning using internet as q communication medium has been successful for instructional education. The paradigm of instructional education deals with a real time interaction between a tutor and students. The next phase of internet powered distance education is to enable laboratory based education. This can be achieved by providing an interactive, collaborative experience and live access to the equipment while an experiment is being conducted. The key objective of this study is to provide remote access capability for engineering laboratories and create cyber-enabled, hands-on laboratory environments. The primary challenges for a cyber-enabled laboratory include technological issues related to communication infrastructure as well as non-technical issues such as determining collaborative interaction among remote students. Based on these challenges, we have evaluated and developed software & hardware components to provide a streamlined, web-centric laboratory experience for remote access students.
Preface to the Focus Section on the 24 August 2014 Magnitude 6.0 South Napa Earthquake

On 24 August 2014, a M w 6.0 earthquake struck northern California. Its epicenter was located 9 km south‐southwest of the city of Napa, which was impacted drastically by the event. The recorded peak horizontal ground acceleration in downtown Napa was as high as 62% g . This earthquake was the largest earthquake to strike northern California during the past 25 years, since the 1989 M w 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake. The South Napa earthquake killed one and injured approximately 200, and it caused significant damage to residential construction and famous wineries in Napa and the surrounding areas. This Seismological Research Letters focus section, which I had the fortune to edit, contains a selected set of six original technical papers. These papers cover different aspects of the South Napa earthquake from seismological, geodetic, geological, and …
Effects of the SAFE Children preventive intervention on developmental trajectories of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms

This study examined whether a family-based preventive intervention for inner-city children entering the first grade could alter the developmental course of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. Participants were 424 families randomly selected and randomly assigned to a control condition (n = 192) or Schools and Families Educating Children (SAFE) Children (n = 232). SAFE Children combined family-focused prevention with academic tutoring to address multiple developmental-ecological needs. A booster intervention provided in the 4th grade to randomly assigned children in the initial intervention (n =101) evaluated the potential of increasing preventive effects. Follow-up occurred over 5 years with parents and teachers reporting on attention problems. Growth mixture models identified multiple developmental trajectories of ADHD symptoms. The initial phase of intervention placed children on more positive developmental trajectories for impulsivity and hyperactivity, demonstrating the potential for ADHD prevention in at-risk youth, but the SAFE Children booster had no additional effect on trajectory or change in ADHD indicators.
Whole-exome sequencing in neurologic practice: Reducing the diagnostic odyssey

The current issue of Neurology® Genetics emphasizes the unparalleled role of next-generation sequencing (NGS) in defining an expanding spectrum of genetic neurologic disorders. Clinically, NGS encompasses the use of large gene panels, whole-exome sequencing (WES), or whole-genome sequencing (WGS). The impact of NGS technology is twofold. First, researchers have discovered novel genes as the cause of neurologic disorders. This research includes the efforts of Martikainen et al.(1) to define further the phenotype of a previously reported SNCA mutation that is associated with autosomal dominant Parkinson disease. Second and more common is the connection of novel phenotypes with previously described genes. Several articles in the current issue highlight the role of NGS in this effort. For example, Schottman et al.(2) identified REEP1 mutations as the cause of a severe axonal neuropathy with a spinal muscular atrophy with respiratory distress (SMARD) phenotype. This gene was previously associated with a hereditary spastic paraplegia phenotype. Similarly, Shieh et al.(3) expand the phenotype associated with mutations in L1CAM to a neuronal migration phenotype.
Release of Curare-Like Agent from Healthy Muscle and Its Bearing on Myasthenia Gravis.

Summary and Conclusions(1) The effect of serum collected after passive movements of limbs of cats with occluded circulation on the neuro-muscular transmission of the frog was compared to the effect of serum obtained from immobilized limbs with occluded circulation, and from limbs with occluded circulation after intermittent or continuous electrical stimulation of the motor nerve. (2) Serum collected from passively moved limbs depressed the neuro-muscular transmission of the frog, whereas serum collected from immobilized limbs and limbs after intermittent stimulation of the motor nerve did not modify the neuromuscular transmission. Serum collected from limbs after continuous stimulation of the motor nerve depressed the neuro-muscular transmission of the frog to a lesser extent. (3) The following postulate is offered: (a) that during performance of muscle work agents with curare-like effect are passed into the blood; (b) that in healthy subjects the effect of these substances is counteracted by sufficient a...
PTU-065 Influenza Vaccination uptake in Inflammatory Bowel Disease- is there Room to Improve?

Introduction The aim of our study is to assess the seasonal influenza vaccination uptake in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) Methods We have conducted a telephonic survey of our IBD patients in February 2012 to assess the influenza vaccination uptake for winter 2011–2012. Results 140 children had responded to this survey (61.6% of our IBD patients). 84 children had Crohn’s disease, 35 had Ulcerative colitis and 21 had IBD unclassified. Majority of these children (90/140) were on immunosuppressive treatments. 61 children (44%) had received seasonal influenza vaccination in that winter. 21 of them received in October, 20 in November, 13 in December and 3 in January. Out of the 79 children who have not received the influenza vaccine, 42 were not aware of the need for vaccination and did not have the influenza vaccine in the previous winters as well. 10 children were aware of the need for the influenza vaccine; however they opted not to receive the vaccine. 14 children intended to receive the vaccine, however this was deferred due to various reasons like intercurrent illness, family bereavement and difficulties experienced the General Practice surgery. Only one IBD patient needed hospitalisation in 2011 and 2012 with Influenza infection, however this was in July before the vaccination had started. Conclusion Department of Health advises influenza vaccination for immunosuppressed individuals and also for children with medical conditions, who may need treatment with steroids for more than a month. European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO) recommend influenza vaccination for IBD patients on immunomodulators. Experience from Philadelphia, Boston and Poland show that good, but variable, antibody response occurs after influenza vaccination in children and better protection occurs against type A strains. Side effects, both local and systemic, are generally mild. Experience from Australia and Germany show that the seasonal flu vaccination uptake in IBD patients are generally low, 10% and 16% respectively. We would like to hear from other centres about their experience of influenza vaccination uptake in IBD patients. Further efforts need to be done to increase the awareness of influenza vaccination in patients with IBD. Influenza vaccination uptake in our IBD patients are better than reported from other centres, however further work needs to be done both locally and nationally to improve the influenza vaccination uptake. Disclosure of Interest None Declared
Quantitative analysis of the outpatient oral case presentation: Piloting a method

Objective:To measure the content of oral outpatient case presentations and to assess the correlation of objective assessments of this content with subjective ratings provided by the clinic attending physician. Design:Blinded assessment via audiotape of 36 oral case presentations of new patient evaluations by 23 medical residents. Setting:Outpatient general medical clinic. Participants:Duke University Medical Center medical residents during their outpatient rotation. Measurements and main results:Important deficiencies were found in oral case presentation content. Specifically, psychosocial data were often missing (employment history was mentioned in 28% of presentations; illicit drug use, in 17%; household social structure, in 11%; sexual history, in 6%). An assessment and a plan were mentioned only 56% and 69% of the time, respectively. No correlation was seen between an objective “content score” and the attending physician’s subjective rating of the quality of the presentation (r=0.09). Conclusions:1) The outpatient case presentation can be quantitatively assessed in a simple, straightforward manner; 2) outpatient case presentations have important deficiencies in content; and 3) preceptors’ evaluations of case presentations may be based upon factors other than content of the presentation.
Implications of Hypervitaminosis A in Chronic Renal Failure

Numerous studies have shown that elevated levels of vitamin A may be found in the liver and plasma of patients with renal failure. Multiple factors may account for this observation including minimal removal by dialysis, accumulation and/or decreased excretion during progression of renal failure, or inadvertent use of vitamin supplements containing vitamin A. This review highlights the normal absorption and metabolism of vitamin A, clinical signs of vitamin A excess, specific biochemical reactions that may contribute to vitamin A toxicity, and the dangers of hypervitaminosis A in the chronic renal failure patient.
Epidemiological analysis on mumps in Nanjing City from 2006-2010

[Objective]To understand the epidemic situation of mumps in Nanjing City from 2006-2010,provide the scientific basis for developing the prevention and control measures of mumps.[Methods]The data of mumps reported by Nanjing disease surveillance system from 2006-2010 were analyzed by epidemiological method.[Results]During 2006-2010,a total of 8036 cases of mumps were reported,and the annual incidence rate was 29.15/lakh,22.02/lakh,36.65/lakh,27.40/lakh and 10.85/lakh respectively.The peak season was April to July.Most of patients were children aged 6-14 years old,which accounted for 66.80% of the total cases from 2006-2010.[Conclusion]The main reasons for high incidence of mumps from 2006-2010 are low mumps vaccination coverage among children and increasing number of susceptible population.It is necessary to strengthen the monitoring of mumps and management of infection sources,and improve the immunization coverage rate.
Abstract 3894: A xenograft mouse model coupled with in-depth cell surface proteome analysis facilitates further elucidation of K-Ras driven tumorigenesis in lung carcinoma

The purpose of this study was to develop a proteomic approach for analysis of cell surface proteins in tissue specimens and applied it on a K-Ras driven mouse model of metastatic lung carcinoma. Metastatic disease is the leading cause of lung cancer-related mortality in the United States. In spite of continuous efforts, effective treatments targeting oncogenic K-Ras in lung and other K-Ras driven malignancies are slow to develop. To expand the treatment options for lung cancer and facilitate better understanding of metastasis new targets need to be identified and characterized at the surface of cancer cells, preferably in their native tissue microenvironment. Towards this goal we developed a mass-spectrometry (MS)-based glyco-proteomic approach targeting specifically cell surface proteins in tissue specimens and applied it on a xenograft lung cancer mouse model. We used A549 cells expressing endogenous K-RasG12S to induce lung tumor xenografts in BALB/c mice via tail vein injection. A comparative surface glyco-proteomics of cultured A549 cells, dissected tumor tissue (TT), adjacent tumor (AT) tissue and normal mouse lung tissue (NT) obtained from saline-injected age-matched littermates yielded high enrichment (i.e., ≥80%) of surface proteins. It resulted in extensive catalogue/map of more than 400 glycoproteins identified on tumor cell surface. More than 50% of proteins identified on the surface of A549 cultured cells were unambiguously identified in mouse TT, featuring proteins and pathways implicated in metastasis, invadopodia formation and cancer cell migration. These markers also provide insight regarding species determination of tissue origin (i.e., human vs. mouse) differentiation of tumor parenchyma from stroma, and regulation of tumor immune response. Citation Format: Xiaoying Ye, Gordon Whiteley, Dwight Nissley, Frank McCormick, Josip Blonder. A xenograft mouse model coupled with in-depth cell surface proteome analysis facilitates further elucidation of K-Ras driven tumorigenesis in lung carcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 3894.
Scale-Free Exponents of Resting State are Biomarkers of Neuro-Typical and Atypical Brain Activity

Scale-free networks (SFN) arise from simple growth processes, which can encourage efficient, centralized and fault tolerant communication (1). Recently its been shown that stable network hub structure is governed by a phase transition at exponents (>2.0) causing a dramatic change in network structure including a loss of global connectivity, an increasing minimum dominating node set, and a shift towards increasing connectivity growth compared to node growth. Is this SFN shift identifiable in atypical brain activity? The Pareto Distribution (P(D)~D^-β) on the hub Degree (D) is a signature of scale-free networks. During resting-state, we assess Degree exponents across a large range of neurotypical and atypical subjects. We use graph complexity theory to provide a predictive theory of the brain network structure. Results. We show that neurotypical resting-state fMRI brain activity possess scale-free Pareto exponents (1.8 se .01) in a single individual scanned over 66 days as well as in 60 different individuals (1.8 se .02). We also show that 60 individuals with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, and 60 individuals with Schizophrenia have significantly higher (>2.0) scale-free exponents ( 2.4 se .03, 2.3 se .04), indicating more fractionated and less controllable dynamics in the brain networks revealed in resting state. Finally we show that the exponent values vary with phenotypic measures of atypical disease severity indicating that the global topology of the network itself can provide specific diagnostic biomarkers for atypical brain activity.
Poverty Among Pacific Islanders in the United States: Incidence, Change, and Correlates

Although poverty in the United States increased over the 1980s, it decreased for Pacific Islanders. But the incidence and severity of Pacific Islander poverty remained greater than that of other Americans. Poverty among Pacific Islanders declined because their attachment to the labor market increased, as did average education and work experience. The article shows that remittances may increase the poverty of some sending households and plunge other households into poverty. Also, the poverty of elderly and single-female-headed Pacific Islander households is so severe that increased welfare and Social Security payments do not lift them out of poverty. Raised are a number of unresolved issues about the meaning of poverty and the economic status of elderly households.
Off-site transport of nitrogen fertilizer with runoff from golf course fairway turf: A comparison of creeping bentgrass with a fine fescue mixture

Maintaining quality golf course turf often requires irrigation and application of fertilizer. The transport of excess nutrients with runoff water from highly managed and fertilized biological systems to surrounding surface waters has been shown to result in enhanced algal blooms and promotion of eutrophication. Environmental stewardship includes looking for new approaches to reduce adverse environmental impacts of current practices. One strategy is to replace traditional turfgrass with low-maintenance turfgrass species. Fescue grasses have been shown to provide characteristics desirable for golf course fairways. Thus side-by-side studies comparing runoff from plots planted in creeping bentgrass (CGB) or fine fescue mixture (FFM), similarly managed as a golf course fairway, were conducted to measure runoff volumes and the amount of ammonium nitrogen (NH4-N) and nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N) transported off-site with runoff. Greater runoff volumes and mass of applied nutrients were measured in the runoff from the FFM, representing a 38% and 56% median increase in the off-site mass transport of NH4-N and NO3-N with surface flow. Shoot density, thatch depth and soil moisture were the most important factors related to runoff volume. Results of this research will be useful to grounds superintendents and researchers for selecting and developing management strategies to improve environmental stewardship of managed turf while providing desired turf quality.
T-SGX: Eradicating Controlled-Channel Attacks Against Enclave Programs.

Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) is a hardware-based Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) that enables secure execution of a program in an isolated environment, called an enclave. SGX hardware protects the running enclave against malicious software, including the operating system, hypervisor, and even low-level firmware. This strong security property allows trustworthy execution of programs in hostile environments, such as a public cloud, without trusting anyone (e.g., a cloud provider) between the enclave and the SGX hardware. However, recent studies have demonstrated that enclave programs are vulnerable to accurate controlled-channel attacks conducted by a malicious OS. Since enclaves rely on the underlying OS, curious and potentially malicious OSs can observe a sequence of accessed addresses by intentionally triggering page faults. In this paper, we propose T-SGX, a complete mitigation solution to the controlled-channel attack in terms of compatibility, performance, and ease of use. T-SGX relies on a commodity component of the Intel processor (since Haswell), called Transactional Synchronization Extensions (TSX), which implements a restricted form of hardware transactional memory. As TSX is implemented as an extension (i.e., snooping the cache protocol), any unusual event, such as an exception or interrupt, that should be handled in its core component, results in an abort of the ongoing transaction. One interesting property is that the TSX abort suppresses the notification of errors to the underlying OS. This means that the OS cannot know whether a page fault has occurred during the transaction. T-SGX, by utilizing this property of TSX, can carefully isolate the effect of attempts to tap running enclaves, thereby completely eradicating the known controlled channel attack. We have implemented T-SGX as a compiler-level scheme to automatically transform a normal enclave program into a secured enclave program without requiring manual source code modification or annotation. We not only evaluate the security properties of T-SGX, but also demonstrate that it could be applied to all the previously demonstrated attack targets, such as libjpeg, Hunspell, and FreeType. To evaluate the performance of T-SGX, we ported 10 benchmark programs of nbench to the SGX environment. Our evaluation results look promising. T-SGX is an order of magnitude faster than the state-of-the-art mitigation schemes. On our benchmarks, T-SGX incurs on average 50% performance overhead and less than 30% storage overhead.
MHD power law fluid flow and heat transfer analysis through Darcy Brinkman porous media in annular sector

Abstract We have investigated the influence of uniform transverse magnetic field on the forced convective power law fluid flow through the annular sector duct, filled with Darcy Brinkman porous media. A system of equations are obtained from the law of conservation of momentum and energy are transformed into dimensionless form with the help of dimensionless parameter and discretized on the base of control volume method. Algebraic equations are solved with the help of strongly implicit procedure (SIP) or successive over relaxation (SOR) method, depending on the value of flow behaviour index. Characteristics of power law fluid flow and heat transfer rate are studied numerically and graphically against different parameters such as Hartman number, porosity factor, sector angle and ratio of radii of concentric pipes. Limiting case results are obtained for the Newtonian fluid and compared with the literature.
Three-dimensional features, based on beamforming at multiple depths, improves landmine detection with a forward-looking ground-penetrating radar

Forward-looking ground-penetrating radar (FLGPR) has been investigated as a remote sensing modality for buried threat detection (e.g., landmines). Generally in this context, raw FLGPR data is beamformed into two-dimensional images and then automated algorithms are applied to detect buried threats. The beamformed images represent a crude estimate of the energy reflected from the subsurface (i) across a particular spatial extent, and (ii) at a particular depth. Typically, a single focus depth (e.g., −0.25 meters) is used to beamform all of the imagery. In this work we hypothesize that this approach disregards important factors such as the likely variable burial depth of threats, and varying contours of the ground. We examine this hypothesis by beamforming multiple images, each at a separate focus depth, and stack them to form 3-dimensional (3D) volumes. Several popular FLGPR detection algorithms are applied to both the 3D volumes and the conventional 2D images on a large collection of FLGPR data. The results show that the 3D detectors consistently outperform their 2D counterparts. This suggests that the use of a single beamforming focus depth for imaging is a potential performance bottleneck for threat detection in FLGPR data.