cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Juncture phenomena and the segmentation of a linguistic corpus.

The present study was an attempt to check the usefulness of the terminal juncture as a means of segmenting a linguistic corpus. Of importance are scorer agreement as to the occurrence of both juncture and hesitation phenomena, and consistency in perception of both types of phenomena. The perception of the pitch contour accompanying a terminal juncture is also examined.
Network Competition and Restructuring of Network Industries

This paper analyzes the going-up of the final price in network industries in China and finds that changing the vertical structure of a network industry without changing the network monopoly may undermine the consumer benefits. Introducing the network competition into the restructuring of network industries is a better avenue to improve the efficiency and consumer welfare. Network work competition comes not only from competition among networks but also from open access and bypass.
Inhibition of chicken myogenesis invitro by partially purified interferon

Abstract Continuous treatment of cultured chicken myoblasts with partially purified chicken interferon (IFN) inhibited myotube formation and the expression of MM-creatine kinase (MM-CK) at day 3, followed by continued MM-CK inhibition and concomitant stimulation of BB-creatine kinase (BB-CK) at day 4. Inhibition of MM-CK was also seen in IFN-treated cells prevented from fusing with EGTA. The degree of inhibition at day 3 depended on IFN dose over a range of 2.5–250 international units (IU)/ml; there was no evidence of cytotoxicity. Thus, IFN appears to inhibit the expression of muscle-specific traits during myogenesis.
Clinical aspects of lung transplantation

Lung transplantation, which was a universally unsuccessful procedure at the start of the last decade, has now become a viable therapeutic option. Improvements in operative technique, patient selection, and immunosuppression have contributed to the dramatic improvement in outcome. Few aspects of lung transplantation are standardized, and the procedure is being continually refined. Actuarial 1 year survival rates are approaching 70%, and it appears that these rates will continue to improve. Scarity of donor lungs is rapidly becoming a serious impediment to the performance of lung transplantation in the United States.
Community - Based Participatory Research with Hispanic/Latino Leaders and Members

Hispanic/Latinos (H/L) are being studied for healthcare disparities research utilizing community-based participatory research (CBPR). CBPR’s active participation of community members and researchers suggests improvement in community health. Yet there are no known studies that inductively investigated the lived experience of H/L community leaders and members with CBPR using interpretive phenomenology. Data were obtained from observations, field notes, biographical interviews, individual interviews and focus groups. The findings supported that community members wanted to collaborate with researchers utilizing the CBPR approach so that culturally sensitive interventions can be created to encourage health-seeking behaviors in their community. Keywords: Hispanic/Latino, Community-Based Participatory Research, Interpretive Phenomenology Hispanic/Latino’s (H/L) represent 14% of the United States (U. S.) population and are
Neuropeptides stimulate pro-inflammatory mediator secretion from human microglia through mammalian target of rapamycin signaling, which is inhibited by the flavonoids luteolin and tetramethoxyluteolin (IRM9P.457)

Despite the rise in diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD, 1:68 children), the pathogenesis and treatment remain unknown. Mounting evidence supports the involvement of brain inflammation and immune dysfunction. Microglia, the brain-resident immune cells are critical gatekeepers of neuronal function show aberrant growth and activation in ASD brains. Some ASD patients also have elevated serum levels of neurotensin (NT) and corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), which are stress-related neuropeptides. Moreover, 1-5% of ASD cases have mutations in proteins that inhibit signaling through the mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1), which regulates immune cell proliferation and mediator production. We hypothesized that NT and CRH act synergistically to stimulate human microglia through activation of mTORC1 leading to pro-inflammatory mediator release. We show that unstimulated human microglia express the NT receptor-3, but not the CRH receptor-1 (CRHR-1). Stimulation with NT and CRH significantly increases the gene expression of CRHR-1, as well as expression and secretion of the pro-inflammatory interleukin IL-1beta, CXCL8, CCL2, and GM-CSF. Pretreatment with mTORC1 inhibitors and the natural flavonoids luteolin and tetramethoxyluteolin, significantly decreases mediator secretion. Our results implicate the involvement of mTORC1 signaling for microglia activation, which is inhibited by novel flavonoids that could be developed into effective ASD treatments.
Sexing chick mRNA: A protocol based on quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction

Abstract The accurate identification of sex in birds is important for research on avian sex determination and differentiation. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based methods have been widely applied for the molecular sexing of birds. However, these methods have used genomic DNA. Here, we present the first sexing protocol for chick mRNA based on real-time quantitative PCR. We demonstrate that this method can accurately determine sex using mRNA from chick gonads and other tissues, such as heart, liver, spleen, lung, and muscle. The strategy of this protocol also may be suitable for other species in which sex is determined by the inheritance of sex chromosomes (ZZ male and ZW female).
Forging optimal solutions to the edge-coloring problem

The applications of a modified version of the simulated annealing algorithm for solving the edge-coloring problem, which consists of partitioning the edges of a graph into the minimum number of disjoint subsets such that no two edges in a given subset are adjacent, was investigated. With the exception of coloring bipartite graphs, finding a minimum edge coloring of a graph is NP-Complete. The traditional simulated annealing algorithm was modified to incorporate an additional perturbation (disruptive) operator. The details of the modifications to the simulated annealing algorithm, and the technique we chose to represent solutions for the edge-coloring problem are presented in the paper. We also describe two perturbation operators used by our modified technique, along with the heuristic function used to evaluate solutions. Our algorithm for solving the edge-coloring problem was tested on over sixty test graphs from the literature. In every case, our algorithm found the optimal edge coloring. We compared our algorithm to a grouping genetic algorithm technique for solving this problem published recently in the literature. Our results over a wide variety of test graphs were vastly superior to the grouping genetic algorithm technique.
Relevance of CEA and LDH in relation to KRAS status in patients with unresectable colorectal liver metastases.

BACKGROUND While the significance of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and Kirsten rat sarcoma (KRAS) status as individual prognostic factors for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer has been addressed, the relationship and interdependence between these prognostic factors on survival is limited. METHODS Patients with unresectable colorectal liver metastases with known KRAS status, and with baseline CEA and LDH levels who were treated with hepatic arterial infusion and systemic chemotherapy were identified. Patients were divided into two groups: hepatic-only disease and extra-hepatic disease. RESULTS A total of 193 patients were included: 121 with hepatic-only and 72 with extra-hepatic disease. In the hepatic-only group, median overall survival (OS) was 55 months. On multivariate analysis, KRAS mutated tumors (HR 1.7, P 200 U/L (HR 2.0, P 200 ng/mL (HR 2.1, P = 0.051), LDH >200 U/L (HR 3.8, P < 0.05), and right-sided tumors (HR 2.8, P < 0.05) had lower OS. CONCLUSIONS This analysis verifies two distinct patterns in terms of biomarkers in patients with unresectable colorectal liver metastases. In patients with hepatic-only disease, KRAS mutation and elevated LDH negatively influenced survival. In patients with extra-hepatic disease, elevated LDH negatively impacted survival.
Chapter 12 Regulation of Membrane Protein Organization at the Neuromuscular Junction

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the regulation of membrane-protein organization at the neuromuscular junction. Agrin is an extracellular-matrix protein released by the motor neuron at the time of synapse formation. It resides in the synaptic cleft of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ), where it forms part of the stable basal lamina. In this location, agrin induces the formation of Ach receptor (AchR) clusters under the nerve-muscle synapse. The underlying molecular mechanisms of agrin's actions are likely to involve tethering AChR to the cytoskeleton. Several lines of evidence support this hypothesis. First, agrin induces cluster formation by redistributing AChR already present on the muscle-cell membrane and has no effect on AchR-subunit synthesis. Second, AChR clusters are more resistant to detergent extraction than unclustered receptors. Third, many spectrin-like molecules, including syntrophin, utrophin, p-spectrin, the 87-kDa protein, and rapsyn, are specifically co-localized with AChRs at the NMJ. These molecules are likely to serve as a link between AChRs and the actin cytoskeleton. Agrin binds to α-dystroglycan (DG), a glycoprotein complex (GC) member. The GC is linked to the cytoskeleton by binding dystrophin or utrophin, spectrin-like proteins known to bind F-actin. These data provide a model in which agrin, by binding to a-DG, traps the AChRs as they diffuse into the agrin-receptorcytoskeleton complex.
Turkey's Islamists: Accidental Democrats

When it was founded in 2001, the current ruling party in Turkey, the Justice and Development Party (JDP), unequivocally declared its commitment to democracy and secularism (JDP 2014 ). Nevertheless, the party's implementation of reforms aimed at strengthening Turkey's democracy after coming to power in 2002 surprised many observers because the JDP's top leaders had been known Islamists. The speed and dedication with which the government introduced and implemented laws aimed at “European-style normalization” even impressed the EU, leading to the historic decision of 17 December 2004 to open negotiations with Turkey for full membership (Kirisҫi 2004 ). Such commitment seemed to be a rarity and therefore did not escape the attention of scholars either. It led to the publication of several academic works, four of which are the subject of this review essay.
Application-driven traffic sensor system acceptance tests for intelligent transportation systems

Transportation agencies strive to keep people and goods moving. Operation and maintenance of transportation infrastructure is key to accomplish their objectives. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applications rely on massive detection grids that collectively demand significant maintenance resources. Resource constraints force transportation agencies to look for innovative ways to optimize their operational and maintenance costs while serving their users at intended performance levels. This paper presents a Systems Engineering (SE) view to derive traffic detection sensor requirements for components and subsystems based on application-specific needs. The goal of the approach is to obtain stakeholders view of an acceptable performance based on the top-level functionality for a given ITS application. The proposed approach uses a simulation model to obtain quantitative evidence of the minimum performance for the detection system.
Heat-Assisted Recording: Advances in Recording Integration

Differences between heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) and conventional perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) for signal processing of the written track by one and two reader multisensor magnetic recording (MSMR) are explored using spinstand measurements. Tracks written with HAMR heads are shown to have more curvature compared with those written with modern PMR writers. We introduce two signal processing techniques in order to determine the merits and explore the recording physics tradeoffs for this complex system. To first order, we see twice as much bit error rate (BER) gain for the HAMR written track—on readback—using two reader MSMR, than the PMR. This difference we assign to the lower electronic signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio for the HAMR written track. In order to replicate practical conditions, we stress the MSMR system by applying increased adjacent track squeeze and displacing the two readers from the center of the track. Under these conditions we can resolve differences between the PMR and HAMR systems. Increased adjacent track squeeze appears to trim the broad and curved track edges, until the on-track signal starts to degrade. Increased offset of the readers from the center of the track offers improved the media (spatial) SNR, but we fail to harvest all those gains into BER across the range. We hypothesize that this is due to increasing distortion, a combination of track edge noise and reading of the encroaching tracks.
Decision-Making Preferences About Secondary Germline Findings That Arise From Tumor Genomic Profiling Among Patients With Advanced Cancers

PurposeIn patients with advanced cancers, tumor genomic profiling (TGP) can reveal secondary germline findings (SGFs) with regard to inherited disease risks. This study examined the process by which patients with advanced cancers would decide about whether to learn these SGFs and their preferences about specific challenging decision scenarios, including whether patients should be required to receive SGFs and whether SGFs should be returned to the family after a patient’s death.Patients and MethodsWe conducted qualitative semistructured interviews with 40 patients with advanced breast, bladder, colorectal, or lung cancer who had undergone TGP. Data were collected on participants’ perspectives about the hypothetical decision to learn their SGFs, including their anticipated approach to the decision-making process, and their preferences about challenging decision scenarios. Data were evaluated by thematic content analysis.ResultsWe identified themes with regard to participants’ preferred degree of decisional ...
Evolving insights on weedy rice

Abstract Agricultural weeds that have evolved from de-domesticated (feral) crop plants cause millions of dollars in annual yield losses worldwide and are one of the primary barriers to global crop productivity. Weedy rice (Oryza sativa f. spontanea) is a de-domesticated form of rice that has evolved multiple times independently from different cultivated rice varieties. This weedy crop relative has recently emerged as a genomic model system for studying the genetic basis of agricultural weed evolution and the mechanisms that govern the parallel evolution of independently-evolved weed strains. In this review we highlight findings from recent genetics and genomics studies that have led to our current understanding of weedy rice evolution.
Temporal Deformable Residual Networks for Action Segmentation in Videos

This paper is about temporal segmentation of human actions in videos. We introduce a new model - temporal deformable residual network (TDRN) - aimed at analyzing video intervals at multiple temporal scales for labeling video frames. Our TDRN computes two parallel temporal streams: i) Residual stream that analyzes video information at its full temporal resolution, and ii) Pooling/unpooling stream that captures long-range video information at different scales. The former facilitates local, fine-scale action segmentation, and the latter uses multiscale context for improving accuracy of frame classification. These two streams are computed by a set of temporal residual modules with deformable convolutions, and fused by temporal residuals at the full video resolution. Our evaluation on the University of Dundee 50 Salads, Georgia Tech Egocentric Activities, and JHU-ISI Gesture and Skill Assessment Working Set demonstrates that TDRN outperforms the state of the art in frame-wise segmentation accuracy, segmental edit score, and segmental overlap F1 score.
Informed Consent and Competency

Clinical issues related to informed consent and competency are present in all areas of medicine and are, quite possibly, the most relevant in the disciplines of psychiatry and neurology. The very nature of the specialty (involving disease of mind or brain) often calls into question the ability of the patient to understand the medical procedures or treatment that are being proposed.
Religious Coping and Heart Transplantation: From Threat to Health

Previous research has established the existence of homogeneous religious coping profiles in cardiac-transplantation candidates labeled as the deferring/collaborators, self-directors, and the eclectic religious copers. However, their prospective impact on outcome has not yet been established. This paper examines potential differences between pre-cardiac transplantation religious coping cluster groups on post-cardiac transplantation quality of life (physical functioning, mental health, and general health). Results indicated that the religious coping profiles of deferring/collaborators and self-directors had significantly better scores on mental health and general health than did the eclectics. Implications for religious-coping research and clinical practice are discussed.
Regulation of Galanin-Like Peptide (GALP) in the Brain and Posterior Pituitary: A Review

Galanin-like peptide (GALP) is a recently discovered neuropeptide. GALP shares a partial sequence homology with galanin, and it binds and activates several galanin receptor subtypes. In the brain, the distribution of GALP-containing cell bodies is restricted to the arcuate nucleus (Arc), median eminence (ME) and infundibular stalk (IS) of the medial basal hypothalamus. In the Arc, GALP neurons express the signaling form of the leptin receptor (Ob-Rb). Levels of GALP mRNA in the Arc are reduced with fasting and induced by leptin, reminiscent of leptin’s effect on the expression of proopiomelanocortin and cocaine-amphetamine regulated transcript. GALP neurons in the Arc send efferent projections to areas in the rostral hypothalamus, where they appear in close proximity to gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) cell bodies and fibers. When GALP is delivered into the brain, it stimulates the release of LH through a GnRH-dependent mechanism. GALP is also expressed in pituicytes in the neuronal lobe of the pituitary, and its expression there is induced by dehydration and salt-loading. The purpose of this review is to summarize the existing knowledge about GALP, discuss its possible physiological significance and provide a perspective for future investigations.
Recent Results in Preclinical and Clinical Drug Development of Chemopreventive Agents at the National Cancer Institute

A primary goal of the Chemoprevention Program of the Division of Cancer Prevention and Control (DCPC) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is the development of safe and effective chemopreventive agents. This NCI effort is organized as an applied drug development science program, with clinical trials as the final endpoint. The objective of this paper is to establish a perspective for the applied research in drug development that is sponsored by the Chemoprevention Program, and to present recent results and progress in the development of the most promising chemopreventive agents.
Folk theorizing the quality and credibility of health apps

Increase in availability and accessibility of health apps raises important questions regarding strategies smartphone owners use to determine what health apps to download. As mobile health apps aim ...
Are rare cancer survivors at elevated risk of subsequent new cancers

Although rare cancers account for 27% of cancer diagnoses in the US, there is insufficient research on survivorship issues in these patients. An important issue cancer survivors face is an elevated risk of being diagnosed with new primary cancers. The primary aim of this analysis was to assess whether a history of rare cancer increases the risk of subsequent cancer compared to survivors of common cancers. This was a prospective cohort study of 16,630 adults with personal and/or family history of cancer who were recruited from cancer clinics at 14 geographically dispersed US academic centers of the NIH-sponsored Cancer Genetics Network (CGN). Participants’ self-reported cancer histories were collected at registration to the CGN and updated annually during follow-up. At enrollment, 14% of participants reported a prior rare cancer. Elevated risk was assessed via the cause-specific hazard ratio on the time to a subsequent cancer diagnosis. After a median follow-up of 7.9 years, relative to the participants who were unaffected at enrollment, those with a prior rare cancer had a 23% higher risk of subsequent cancer (95% CI: -1 to 52%), while those with a prior common cancer had no excess risk. Patients having two or more prior cancers were at a 53% elevated risk over those with fewer than two (95% CI: 21 to 94%) and if the multiple prior cancers were rare cancers, risk was further elevated by 47% (95% CI: 1 to 114%). There is evidence suggesting that survivors of rare cancers, especially those with multiple cancer diagnoses, are at an increased risk of a subsequent cancer. There is a need to study this population more closely to better understand cancer pathogenesis.
Measurements and Analysis of DSRC for V2T Safety-Critical Communications

Despite the evolution of wireless technology, enabling safety-critical applications, only a few systems have been developed for improving the safety at railroad crossings. We present a Vehicle-to-Train (V2T) communications architecture for an early warning application carried over Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) radios. We conduct DSRC performance measurements at railroad crossings in suburban environments in the US to evaluate its feasibility. Two types of measurement setups are proposed: direct warning and indirect warning. Our results show that DSRC can be deployed and configured for effectively providing a V2T communications system to warn drivers of an approaching train.
Indeterminate Biliary Strictures

No standard definition for indeterminate biliary stricture exists. Biliary strictures are typically referred to as indeterminate in cases with nondiagnostic lab work, cross-sectional imaging, and brushings and/or intraductal biopsies obtained during endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) or in cases of benign results but a strong clinical suspicion of malignancy. Indeterminate biliary strictures pose a diagnostic challenge for endoscopists. This diagnostic dilemma can either delay surgical intervention and targeted treatment for malignant lesions or results in unnecessary surgical resections in patients with benign strictures. A benign cause is found in approximately 15–24% of surgical resections for presumed malignant strictures (Bowlus et al., Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 13:28-37, 2016; Singh et al., Gastroenterol Rep (Oxf) 3:22, 2015). Traditional diagnosis using ERCP with brush cytology and fluoroscopic-guided biopsies lacks sensitivity and precision in distinguishing between benign or malignant lesions. Diagnostic accuracy of malignancy has improved with the combination of newly discovered circulating tumor markers, advancement in ancillary cytology, targeted tissue acquisition techniques, and better-quality imaging and endoscopic modalities including peroral cholangioscopy (POC), intraductal endoscopic ultrasonography (IDUS), and confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE). Despite these advancements, up to 20% of biliary strictures remain indeterminate after additional evaluation and ultimately undergo surgical intervention for definitive diagnosis (Bowlus et al., Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 13:28-37, 2016). No standard approach to evaluating a patient with an indeterminate biliary stricture exists. Often, multiple modalities and repeat procedures are required to achieve a definitive diagnosis. This chapter discusses the various modalities that may be utilized in working up an indeterminate biliary stricture.
Stimulating Cerebellar Outflow Reveals Temporal Control of Motor Cortical Activity

Nashef et al. (2019) show that high-frequency stimulation of the superior cerebellar peduncle produces a temporary cerebellar deficit. While the deficit is present, motor cortex neurons that receive cerebellar input maintain their directional tuning but lose their noise correlation.
Identity, incarnation, and the imago Dei

A number of thinkers suggest that, given certain conditions, it’s possible that any concrete human nature could have been united hypostatically to the second Person of the Trinity. Oliver Crisp argues that a potency to have been possibly hypostatically united to the Logos is an important part of what it means for a human person to be made in the image of God. Against this line of reasoning, and building on an argument in print by Andrew Jaeger, I argue two things: first, that many metaphysics of human persons on offer fail to allow the Logos possibly to unite hypostatically to just any concrete human nature. And this is because, given the necessity of identity (if x = y, necessarily x = y), every metaphysics that deploys an identity relation between a human person and her human nature or some essential component of her human nature fails to allow concrete human natures to be identical to any other person than they in fact are or else to lack some essential component that is identical to any other person than it in fact is. And, in the Incarnation, the Logos does not unite with a person. Second, supposing the preceding line of reasoning goes through, I argue that Oliver Crisp’s thesis about the imago Dei is mistaken, provided that it relies on a metaphysics of human persons that deploys an identity relation between a person and her concrete human nature or else some essential component of her concrete human nature.
Technologists vs. Policy Makers

Discusses the differences between technologists and policy makers. Technologists want solutions; policy makers want consensus. Explores how this impacts policy decisions involving technological development.
Design and Implementation of an Intelligent Single Line to Ground Fault Locator for Distribution Feeders

Power quality disturbances became a major issue in modern commercial distribution grids; hence, an innovative attempt to diagnose the faults is necessary for their optimal management. This paper presents a hybrid approach using Stockwell Transform (ST) and Machine Learning Techniques (MLT) to detect, classify and locate the single-line-to-ground (SLG) faults in a modeled distribution feeder to a laboratory scale. The three-phase current signals are processed with ST to extract useful features whereas the Machine Learning Techniques (MLT) including the Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network (MLP-NN) and Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) were employed to diagnose the SLG faults based on the extracted features. The presented results proven to be highly satisfactory for the proposed hybrid SLG fault diagnosis methodology under the presence of measurement noise and load demand uncertainties.
Deforestation in the Global South: Assessing Uneven Environmental Improvements 1993–2013:

In recent decades forest degradation declined around the globe. While encouraging, improvements emerged unevenly in the Global South. What explains these variable trends? Using longitudinal panel m...
Mechanistic basis for PI3K inhibitor antitumor activity and adverse reactions in advanced breast cancer

The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway is involved in several physiological processes, including glucose metabolism, cell proliferation, and cell growth. Hyperactivation of this signaling pathway has been associated with tumorigenesis and resistance to treatment in various cancer types. Mutations that activate PIK3CA, encoding the PI3K isoform p110α, are common in breast cancer, particularly in the hormone receptor-positive (HR+), human epidermal growth factor receptor-2-negative (HER2−) subtype. A number of PI3K inhibitors have been developed and evaluated for potential clinical use in combinations targeting multiple signaling pathways in cancer. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of PI3K inhibitor mechanisms of action for antitumor activity and adverse events in advanced breast cancer (ABC). Published results from phase 3 trials evaluating the efficacy and safety of PI3K inhibitors in patients with ABC and relevant literature were reviewed. Although PI3K inhibitors have been shown to prolong progression-free survival (PFS), the therapeutic index is often unfavorable. Adverse events, such as hyperglycemia, rash, and diarrhea are frequently observed in these patients. In particular, hyperglycemia is intrinsically linked to the inhibition of PI3Kα, a key mediator of insulin signaling. Off-target effects, including mood disorders and liver toxicity, have also been associated with some PI3K inhibitors. Recent clinical trial results show that specifically targeting PI3Kα can improve PFS and clinical benefit. Broad inhibition of class I PI3Ks appears to result in an unfavorable safety profile due to off-target effects, limiting the clinical utility of the early PI3K inhibitors.
Management of methemoglobinemia secondary to iNO use in a newborn with congenital diaphragmatic hernia

Abstract Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) is a defect in the development of the diaphragm in which abdominal viscera herniate into the chest resulting in pulmonary hypoplasia and hypertension. A common treatment strategy to reach physiologic stability before surgical repair is the use of inhaled Nitric Oxide (iNO). This usage of iNO can result in methemoglobinemia as seen in a female newborn that was born with a right CDH and was started on iNO on the second day of life. We saw an uptrend in methemoglobin to 3.3% with an increase in lactate to 7.5 which was counteracted with a blood transfusion and weaning off the iNO which successful maintained her at physiologic status until her CDH could be repaired at day 9 of life. The general guidelines on how to treat methemoglobinemia secondary to iNO shows that asymptomatic patients can be treated with weaning alone and those with moderate symptoms can be treated with methylene blue. In our patient with a high lactic acidosis and rapidly increasing methemoglobin levels, an exchange transfusion was indicated.
Pass/Fail Scoring of USMLE Step 1 and the Need for Residency Selection Reform:

The Federation of State Medical Boards and the National Board of Medical Examiners recently announced a change in the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 scoring convention to take effect, at the earliest, on January 1, 2022. There are many reasons for this change, including decreasing medical student stress and incentivizing students to learn freely without solely focusing on Step 1 performance. The question remains how this will affect the future of the otolaryngology-head and neck surgery match. By eradicating Step 1 grades, other factors, such as research, may garner increased importance in the application process. Such a shift may discriminate against students from less well-known medical schools, international medical graduates, and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, who have fewer academic resources and access to research. Residency programs should try to anticipate such unintended consequences of the change and work on solutions heading into 2022.
HIV Prevention, Care, and Treatment Among Black Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM)

Black men who have sex with men (MSM) have been severely affected by HIV burden in the United States. A multitude of epidemiologic, structural, and psychosocial factors has contributed to the disparate HIV incidence and prevalence rates of black MSM. The objective of this chapter is to better understand the prevention, care, and treatment considerations for black MSM. Thus, this chapter examines (1) theoretical approaches to HIV prevention with a specific focus on the role of stigma, marginalization, and structural inequalities in black MSM communities; (2) factors associated with disproportionate HIV infection rates and HIV sexual behavior in black MSM; (3) the role of primary and secondary prevention in black MSM communities; (4) culturally congruent treatment and care in black MSM communities; and (5) psychosocial support and mental health needs in black MSM communities.
Rectilinear propagation of quasi-monopolar vorticity patches

This study presents a class of steadily translating two-dimensional approximately circular vortices. The proposed solutions take the form of a superposition of two nearly concentric vorticity patches with zero net vorticity. Exact quasi-monopolar solutions of this type are found for propagation speeds that are much less than typical azimuthal velocities. While all V-states obtained are shown to be formally unstable, a large subset of configurations is characterized by very low growth rates. Fully nonlinear simulations reveal that such nearly stable eddies can propagate large distances from the point of origin while maintaining their structure and intensity. Therefore, the proposed solutions can serve as models of geophysical vortices that are known to drift relative to the ambient fluid, often exhibiting remarkable longevity and resilience to external perturbations.
Longer Ubiquinone Side Chains Contribute to Enhanced Farnesol Resistance in Yeasts

Ubiquinones (UQ) are intrinsic lipid components of many membranes. Besides their role in electron-transfer reactions there is evidence for them acting as free radical scavengers, yet their other roles in biological systems have received little study. The dimorphic fungal pathogen Candida albicans secretes farnesol as both a virulence factor and a quorum-sensing molecule. Thus, we were intrigued by the presence of UQ9 isoprenologue in farnesol-producing Candida species while other members of this genera harbor UQ7 as their major electron carrier. We examined the effect of UQ side chain length in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and C. albicans with a view towards identifying the mechanisms by which C. albicans protects itself from the high levels of farnesol it secretes, levels that are toxic to many other fungi including S. cerevisiae. In this study, we identify UQ9 as the major UQ isoprenoid in C. albicans, regardless of growth conditions or cell morphology. A S. cerevisiae model yeast engineered to make UQ9 instead of UQ6 was 4-5 times more resistant to exogenous farnesol than the parent yeast and this resistance was accompanied by greatly reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. The resistance provided by UQ9 is specific for farnesol in that it does not increase resistance to high salt (1M NaCl) or other oxidants (5 mM H2O2 or 1 mM menadione). Additionally, the protection provided by UQ9 appears to be structural rather than transcriptional; UQ9 does not alter key transcriptional responses to farnesol stress. Here, we propose a model in which the longer UQ side chains are more firmly embedded in the mitochondrial membrane making them harder to pry out, so that in the presence of farnesol they remain functional without producing excess ROS. C. albicans and Candida dubliniensis evolved to use UQ9 rather than UQ7 as in other Candida species or UQ6 as in S. cerevisiae. This adaptive mechanism highlights the significance of UQ side chains in farnesol production and resistance quite apart from being an electron carrier in the respiratory chain.
LESS: Pelvic Reconstructive Urological Surgery

Over the last two decades, laparoscopic urologic surgery has become an established approach for the treatment of various urological diseases. Since the very beginning, pioneers in laparoscopic urology were at a disadvantage not just from the viewpoint of defining and learning a new procedure, but also from the lack of appropriate instruments. In the early days, laparoscopic urological procedures were primarily extirpative. With increasing experience and the development of new tools, laparoscopic surgery became more widespread. Nowadays, even complex reconstructive urological procedures can be performed laparoscopically that compare favorably to conventional open surgery.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Features of Extradural Spinal Neoplasia in 60 Dogs and Seven Cats

This retrospective study describes the MRI features of extradural spinal neoplasia in 60 dogs and seven cats to identify potential distinguishing features between tumor classes and individual tumor types within each class. In dogs, mesenchymal tumors were most common (48%), with undifferentiated sarcomas being the predominant tumor type. Round cell neoplasms were second most common (35%), with lymphoma and multiple myeloma/plasma cell tumor comprising the majority of cases. Only two benign tumors were identified. In cats, lymphoma was most common (5/7), with one case of mesenchymal neoplasia and one case of metastatic carcinoma. Despite some overlap, certain imaging features were able to help prioritize differential diagnoses. The combined features that predicted round cell neoplasia (84%) included the preservation of vertebral shape, homogeneous contrast enhancement, and lesion centering on bone. The combined features that predicted mesenchymal neoplasia (73%) included altered vertebral shape, heterogeneous contrast enhancement, and lesion centering on paraspinal soft tissues. Round cell neoplasms were more likely to have cortical sparing, preservation of overall shape, lesion centering on bone, small soft tissue tumor size, and homogeneous contrast enhancement. Both epithelial and mesenchymal neoplasms were more likely to have cortical lysis, a cavitary component to the soft tissue mass and medium to large soft tissue mass size. The findings of this study can aid in prioritizing differential diagnoses in cases of extradural spinal neoplasia in cats and dogs, which can impact case management, but tissue sampling remains the gold standard for definitive diagnosis.
Inpatient and post-discharge outcomes following inhalation injury among critically injured burn patients.

Inhalation injury is associated with high inpatient mortality, but the impact of inhalation injury after discharge and on non-mortality outcomes is poorly characterized. To address this gap, we evaluated the effect of inhalation injury on postdischarge morbidity, mortality, and hospital readmissions among patients who sustained burn injury, as well as on in-hospital outcomes for context. This was a retrospective cohort study of patients with cutaneous fire/flame burns admitted to a burn center intensive care unit from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2015, with or without inhalation injury. Records were linked to statewide hospital admission and vital statistics databases to assess postdischarge outcomes. Mixed-effects Poisson regression was used to assess mortality, complications, and readmissions. The overall cohort included 830 patients with cutaneous burns; of these, 201 patients had inhalation injury. In-hospital mortality was 31% among inhalation injury patients vs 6% in patients without inhalation injury (adjusted OR 2.35; 95% CI 1.66-3.31). Inhalation injury was also associated with an increased risk of in-hospital pneumonia and tracheostomy (P < .05 for all). Inhalation injury was not associated with greater postdischarge mortality, all-cause readmission, readmission for pulmonary diagnosis, or readmission requiring intubation. Among the subset of patients with bronchoscopy-confirmed inhalation injury (n = 124; 62% of inhalation injuries), a higher injury grade was not associated with greater inpatient or postdischarge mortality. Inhalation injury was associated with increased early morbidity and mortality, but did not contribute to postdischarge mortality or readmission. These findings have implications for shared decision making with patients and families and for estimating healthcare utilization after initial hospitalization.
Rate-compatible low-density parity-check codes

Rate-compatible coding is appropriate for communication systems that experience a range of operating SNRs but seek to adhere to a single underlying codec structure. This paper constructs rate-compatible low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes by carefully selecting degree distributions, followed by a combination of information nulling and parity puncturing. Techniques that suppress error floors are included as part of the construction methodology.
Sc(OTf)3-Catalyzed Formal [3 + 3] Cycloaddition Reaction of Diaziridines and Quinones for the Synthesis of Benzo[e][1,3,4]oxadiazines

A formal [3 + 3] cyclization reaction of diaziridines and quinones has been developed offering 1,3,4-oxadiazinanes in generally high yields (up to 96%). The reaction was catalyzed by Sc(OTf)3 with a large substrate scope for both diaziridines and quinones. The synergistic activation of 1,3-dipolar diaziridines and the dipolar quinones was found to be essential to enable this reaction.
OutViz: Visualizing the Outliers of Multivariate Time Series

This paper proposes OutViz, a dual view framework for representing and filtering multivariate time series data to highlight abnormal patterns in a dataset. The first view of the proposed visualization incorporates a parallel coordinate chart that allows the user to analyze the scores of features extracted from a dimensionality reduction density-based clustering outlier detection algorithm to determine why a particular time series is predicted to be an outlier. Also included on the parallel coordinates chart is an outlier score rank axis that allows the user to select a range of time series data to be filtered and displayed on the second view of the framework. The second view of our proposed framework uses a multi-line chart to represent how each time series variable changes over a range of time. Each time series is represented as a line with the position on the horizontal axis representing a point in time, while the vertical axis encodes the data value. Use cases using real-world multivariate time series data are demonstrated to show the advantages of using the proposed framework for data analytics as well as some findings uncovered while using OutViz on life expectancy data from 236 countries between the year 1960 and 2018, and carbon dioxide emissions data from 210 countries between the year 1960 and 2016.
Photochemical reduction of nanocrystalline maghemite to magnetite.

We present a method for thephotochemical conversion of the inverse spinel iron oxides in which the mixed-valent magnetite phase (Fe3O4) is accessed from the maghemite phase (γ-Fe2O3) via a stable, colloidal nanocrystal-to-nanocrystal transformation. Anaerobic UV-irradiation of colloidal γ-Fe2O3 nanocrystals in the presence of ethanol as a sacrificial reductant yields reduction of some Fe3+ to Fe2+, resulting in a topotactic reduction of γ-Fe2O3 to Fe3O4. This reduction is evidenced by the emergence of charge-transfer absorption and increased d-spacing in UV-irradiated nanocrystals. Redox titrations reveal that ∼43% of Fe in = 4.8 nm nanocrystals can be reduced with this method and comparison of optical data indicates similar reduction levels in = 7.3 and 9.0 nm nanocrystals. Addition of excess acetaldehyde during photoreduction shows that the extent of reduction is likely pinned by the hydrogenation of acetaldehyde back to ethanol and can be increased with the use of an alkylborohydride sacrificial reductant. Photochemical reduction is accompanied by increased magnetization and emergence of magnetic features characteristic of Fe3O4. Overall, this work provides a reversible, post-synthetic strategy to obtain Fe3O4 nanocrystals with well-controlled Fe2+ compositions.
SAFETY AGAINST DYNAMIC FORCES

This paper describes that portion of the current effort by the researchers interested in structural dynamics which has direct bearing on the safety analysis from the viewpoint of a probabilistic approach. Otherwise, the entire field of research dealing with structural dynamics has to be reviewed since any research effort in this field is or is supposed to be done for the ultimate goal of attaining a better understanding of structural behavior in reference to its safety. In what follows, a particular emphasis is place upon the safety analysis of those structures subject to natural forces, e.g., strong-motion earthquakes, stormy winds, and severe wind-induced waves.
Evaluation of the Bleeding Patient

Publisher Summary This chapter addresses the diagnostic workup of patients who present with or develop bleeding diatheses in the hospital or clinic settings. By far the most commonly performed tests in the evaluation of bleeding patients are the platelet count, prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), and bleeding time (BT). Normal primary hemostasis requires an adequate number of platelets in addition to normal qualitative platelet function. The platelet count itself does not provide any information about qualitative function. A normal reference range for the platelet count is between 150,000 and 400,000/ml. The PT and the aPTT are laboratory tests used to assess a patient's ability to form a fibrin clot by screening for defects in the coagulation cascade. The PT assesses the extrinsic pathway of coagulation and the aPTT assesses the intrinsic pathway. The BT is a controlled, in vitro test of primary hemostasis and reflects platelet function and vascular and connective tissue integrity. Settings in which a BT may provide useful information include evaluation of suspected platelet function disorders or other abnormalities relating to primary hemostasis, or assessing platelet functionality in the setting of uremia. Patients who have a platelet count less than 100,000/ml will likely have an abnormal BT because of the low platelet count, obviating its usefulness. Patients who have taken aspirin should not be evaluated with a BT because aspirin causes unpredictable variability in the test. Furthermore, the literature suggests that a prolonged BT because of aspirin does not correlate well with bleeding after surgical challenge. von Willebrand disease is often associated with a prolonged BT, but more specific tests make a BT unnecessary for this diagnosis.
Autonomous Soccer Robots

The Robocup 97 competition provides an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the techniques and methods of artificial intelligence, autonomous agents and computer vision. On a soccer field the core capabilities a player must have are to navigate the field, track the ball and other agents, recognize the difference between agents, collaborate with other agents, and hit the ball in the correct direction. USC's Dreamteam of robots can be described as a group of mobile autonomous agents collaborating in a rapidly changing environment. The key characteristic of this team is that each soccer robot is an autonomous agent, self-contained with all of its essential capabilities on-board. Our robots share the same general architecture and basic hardware, but they have integrated abilities to play different roles (goalkeeper, defender or forward) and utilize different strategies in their behavior. Our philosophy in building these robots is to use the least possible sophistication to make them as robust as possible. In the 1997 RoboCup competition, the Dreamteam played well and won the world championship in the middle-sized robot league.