cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Asymmetric papilledema in idiopathic intracranial hypertension: prospective interocular comparison of sensory visual function.

Purpose Visual loss is the main morbidity of idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH). The relationship between papilledema grade and visual loss is unclear. The goal of this study was to determine whether there is a relationship between papilledema grade and visual loss. Methods Fundus photographs of 478 patients with IIH were reviewed, and their degree of papilledema was graded using Frisen's scheme. We identified 46 patients (10%) with IIH and highly asymmetric papilledema, as defined by an interocular difference of two or more grades. Nine of these patients with active asymmetry agreed to return for a series of visual tests. They underwent three visual field tests-Humphrey visual field analyzer 24-2, motion perimetry, and ring perimetry. The perimetry outcome measures were mean deviation, foveal threshold, and means for eccentric zones (3 degrees, 9 degrees, 15 degrees, and 21 degrees). The patients participated also in visual acuity, Farnsworth-Munsell 100-hue, Pelli-Robson contrast sensitivity, and foveal flicker fusion testing. Their relative afferent pupillary defect was graded using neutral density filters. Results The intereye comparisons showed vision to be worse in the eye with the high-grade papilledema for all outcome measures. The magnitude of the loss with the perimetry tests increased with eccentricity. The measures of central visual function, although in the normal range, were relatively depressed in the eye with high-grade papilledema. Conclusions Visual loss in patients with asymmetric papilledema caused by IIH was most pronounced in the eye with the higher grade of papilledema. Foveal visual functions, although they remained in the normal range, were also decreased in patients with high-grade papilledema. In patients with high-grade papilledema, visual loss appeared to affect the entire visual field, and the peripheral field showed the most deficit. Our findings showed that high-grade papilledema was associated with visual dysfunction in patients with IIH.
Implementing Effective Youth Violence Prevention Programs in Community Settings

The past decade has seen remarkable growth in the field of youth violence prevention. There is an increased understanding of the biological and contextual factors that place youth at risk for violence, enhanced awareness of the importance of identifying protective factors, and a proliferation of rigorously designed empirical studies that has allowed for the categorization of many prevention efforts as efficacious, promising, or ineffective. As society’s view of youth violence shifts from one that perceives youth violence solely as a juvenile justice issue to a broader perspective that recognizes youth violence as a public health issue, greater attention is being focused on: clarifying the nature of youth violence and patterns in its occurrence and prevalence; using epidemiological methodologies to identify putative causal, risk, and protective factors; developing and evaluating the effectiveness and generalizability of interventions; and widespread dissemination of effective interventions (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS), 2001). All these factors combine to set the stage in the coming decade for even greater progress in understanding the roots of youth violence and finding ways to prevent and treat it. A major challenge that remains to be addressed by researchers, practitioners, and policy makers alike is to find ways to facilitate the utilization
The Association of Hispanic Ethnicity with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) affects 10-15% of reproductive age women and is a recognized risk factor for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The more severe form of NAFLD, known as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), results in liver inflammation with or without fibrosis, and is now a leading cause of cirrhosis. Ethnic differences are apparent in NAFLD, with higher prevalence in Hispanics, although the role of Hispanic ethnicity on risk for NAFLD/NASH in women with PCOS is not known. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate ethnic differences in the prevalence and risk of NAFLD/NASH in women with PCOS. Study design Among PCOS women followed in a large academic medical center the association of Hispanic ethnicity with elevated biomarkers of NASH, including plasma cytokeratin 18 (CK18) M30 fragments and/or ALT levels (n=303), was assessed. Prevalence of hepatic steatosis by Controlled Attenuation Parameter (CAP) imaging was also evaluated in a subset of PCOS women (n=35). Results The median cohort age (n=303) was 28 years (IQR 8), and 15.5% (n=47) were Hispanic, the majority of whom reported white race (94%). Most Hispanic women had hepatic steatosis on imaging, which was markedly higher than in non-Hispanics (83% vs 24%, p=0.005). Approximately 17% of PCOS women had elevated ALT or elevated CK18, which was more common in Hispanics than non-Hispanics, at 34% vs 14%, respectively, p=0.002. On univariate analysis, Hispanic ethnicity was associated with two-fold higher odds of NASH (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.0-3.9, p=0.038), and the association persisted after adjustment for HOMA-IR and waist circumference (AOR 3.1, 95% CI 1.1-8.9, p=0.034). Conclusion NAFLD/NASH is an important condition to be considered by PCOS providers and Hispanic women with PCOS are a particularly high-risk group that may warrant routine screening.
The Invention of Race in the Middle Ages

Book Review: Geraldine Heng, The Invention of Race in the Middle Ages. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. 504 pp.; 10 ills. Hardcover, £34.99 (9781108422789)
Bayesian Online Changepoint Detection Of Physiological Transitions

Transition dynamics between two states can help elucidate the behavior of sequential events in physiological signals. By detecting transitions between healthy and pathological states within individual patients, we can help clinicians focus attention on critical transitions, to either preemptively treat adverse events or to detect changes resulting from treatments. We introduce a novel application of singlepoint Bayesian online changepoint detection to predict clinical state transitions, and apply this framework to detecting pathological transitions in preterm infants with episodes of apnea and bradycardia. Bayesian analysis of sequential physiological events provides insights on how to objectively classify clinically important state transitions that can be triggered by external or intrinsic mechanisms.
Effects of arachidonic acid and its major prostaglandin derivatives on bovine myoblast proliferation, differentiation, and fusion.

Abstract Many studies have shown positive effects of prostaglandins (PGs) on various steps of skeletal muscle formation such as myoblast proliferation and myotube hypertrophy. In animals, PGs are synthesized through the action of the rate-limiting enzymes cyclooxygenase (COX) -1 and COX-2 from arachidonic acid (AA), a conditionally essential fatty acid. As a step toward exploring the possibility of using dietary supplementation of AA to improve skeletal muscle growth in cattle, which are major meat-producing animals, we determined the effects of AA and its major PG derivatives PGE2, PGF2α, and PGI2 on proliferation, differentiation, and fusion of primary bovine myoblasts in vitro. In the proliferation experiment, myoblasts were cultured in a growth medium to which was added 10 μM AA, 1 μM PGE2, 1 μM PGF2α, 1 μM PGI2, or vehicle control for 24 h, and the proliferating cells were identified by 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU) labeling. This experiment revealed that AA, PGE2, PGF2α, and PGI2 each increased the number of proliferating cells by 13%, 24%, 16%, and 16%, respectively, compared to the control (n = 7, P
Treating patients with pain: how to make it less painful

When I lecture about pain to large groups of health-care providers, I begin by asking the audience, ‘Please raise your hands if you care for people with pain’; virtually everyone raises their arm a...
Real-time traffic light detection from videos with inertial sensor fusion

With the exponential growth of smartphone usage and its computational capability, there is an opportunity today to build a usable navigation system for the visually impaired. A smartphone contains many sensors for sensing the surrounding environment such as GPS, cameras, and inertial sensors. However, there are many challenges for building a navigation system, such as low-level methods of environment sensing, accuracy, and efficient data processing. In this paper, we address some of these challenges and present a system for traffic light detection, which is fundamental for pedestrian navigation by the visually impaired in outdoors. In this system, we analyze the video feed from a smartphone's camera using model-based computer vision techniques to detect traffic lights. Specifically, we utilize both color and shape information as they are the most prominent features of the traffic lights. Additionally, we use the inertial sensors of a smartphone to compute the 3D orientation of a smartphone to predict a segment of a video frame, which is highly probable to contain the traffic lights. By processing only that segment, we improve the computational time by an order of magnitude on average. We evaluated this system in various lighting conditions such as cloudy, sunny, and at night, and achieved over 96% accuracy in the traffic light detection and recognition.
Multiscale Hessian filtering for enhancement of OCT angiography images

The comprehensive architectural analysis of the retinal vasculature would greatly aid with the diagnosis and management of many ocular diseases. Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a powerful micrometerlevel resolution, high sensitivity, and potentially large field of view retinal imaging modality that allows assessment of 2D and 3D microvascular networks. However, the quality of retinal OCTA images are often degraded by the noise and poor vascular contrast. Digital image filters are widely used in medical diagnostic to selectively enhance specific local intensity profiles or structures such as vasculatures. Most successful feature enhancement filters employ Hessian matrix and eigen values-based approach. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of multiscale Hessian filters for the enhancement of the OCTA images of a mouse retina. We show that the enhancement filter based on the ratio of Hessian eigenvalues proposed by Jerman et al. (Jerman filter) performs better than the most commonly used Frangi’s method. This improved performance included close-to-uniform response in all vascular structures and enhancement of visibility of vascular structures with non-circular cross-sections. To evaluate and compare performance, different multi-scale Hessian filtering was performed on OCTA images of different inner retina vascular beds of a mouse eye.
The Price of Interpretability

When quantitative models are used to support decision-making on complex and important topics, understanding a model's ``reasoning'' can increase trust in its predictions, expose hidden biases, or reduce vulnerability to adversarial attacks. However, the concept of interpretability remains loosely defined and application-specific. In this paper, we introduce a mathematical framework in which machine learning models are constructed in a sequence of interpretable steps. We show that for a variety of models, a natural choice of interpretable steps recovers standard interpretability proxies (e.g., sparsity in linear models). We then generalize these proxies to yield a parametrized family of consistent measures of model interpretability. This formal definition allows us to quantify the ``price'' of interpretability, i.e., the tradeoff with predictive accuracy. We demonstrate practical algorithms to apply our framework on real and synthetic datasets.
Rebirth of extraterrestrial seismology

The InSight mission on Mars is currently providing us with the first seismic data from a planetary body other than our own Earth since the 1970s. Past efforts will inform this next chapter in planetary seismology.
Dangerous Liaisons: The Time Is Out of Joint

Anne is an older woman, with a history of severe, complex trauma, including abandonment and multiple rounds of sexual abuse, which started in her early childhood and was followed by sexual exploita...
A roadmap for development of neuro-oscillations as translational biomarkers for treatment development in neuropsychopharmacology

New treatment development for psychiatric disorders depends critically upon the development of physiological measures that can accurately translate between preclinical animal models and clinical human studies. Such measures can be used both as stratification biomarkers to define pathophysiologically homogeneous patient populations and as target engagement biomarkers to verify similarity of effects across preclinical and clinical intervention. Traditional "time-domain" event-related potentials (ERP) have been used translationally to date but are limited by the significant differences in timing and distribution across rodent, monkey and human studies. By contrast, neuro-oscillatory responses, analyzed within the "time-frequency" domain, are relatively preserved across species permitting more precise translational comparisons. Moreover, neuro-oscillatory responses are increasingly being mapped to local circuit mechanisms and may be useful for investigating effects of both pharmacological and neuromodulatory interventions on excitatory/inhibitory balance. The present paper provides a roadmap for development of neuro-oscillatory responses as translational biomarkers in neuropsychiatric treatment development.
Microfluidic-assisted fabrication of reverse micelle/PLGA hybrid microspheres for sustained vascular endothelial growth factor delivery

In this study, poly (d, l-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) composite microspheres containing anhydrous reverse micelle (R.M.) dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) nanoparticles loaded vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were produced using microfluidic platforms. The VEGF-loaded R.M. nanoparticles (VRM) were achieved by initial self-assembly and subsequent lipid inversion of the DPPC vesicles. The fabricated VRMs were encapsulated into the PLGA matrix by flow-focusing geometry microfluidic platforms. The encapsulation efficiency, in vitro release profile, and the bioactivity of the produced composite microspheres were investigated. The release study showed that VEGF was slowly released from the PLGA composite microspheres over 28 days with a reduced initial burst (18 ± 4.17% in the first 24 H). The VEGF stability during encapsulation and release period was also investigated, and the results indicated that encapsulated VEGF was well preserved. Also, the bioactivity assay of the PLGA composite microspheres on human umbilical vein endothelial cells was confirmed that the encapsulated VEGF was utterly active. The present monodisperse and controllable VEGF-loaded microspheres with reproducible manner could be widely used in tissue engineering and therapeutic applications.
Dust pollution from the Sahara and African infant mortality

Estimation of pollution impacts on health is critical for guiding policy to improve health outcomes. Estimation is challenging, however, because economic activity can worsen pollution but also independently improve health outcomes, confounding pollution–health estimates. We leverage variation in exposure to local particulate matter of diameter <2.5 μm (PM2.5) across Sub-Saharan Africa driven by distant dust export from the Sahara, a source uncorrelated with local economic activity. Combining data on a million births with local-level estimates of aerosol particulate matter, we find that an increase of 10 μg m–3 in local annual mean PM2.5 concentrations causes a 24% increase in infant mortality across our sample (95% confidence interval: 10–35%), similar to estimates from wealthier countries. We show that future climate change driven changes in Saharan rainfall—a control on dust export—could generate large child health impacts, and that seemingly exotic proposals to pump and apply groundwater to Saharan locations to reduce dust emission could be cost competitive with leading child health interventions. Air pollution harms health but rises with economic activity, which aids health. This study uses long-range Saharan dust to isolate impacts, finding a significant rise in Sub-Saharan infant mortality from particulate pollution.
A Bbs5 mouse model reveals pituitary cilia contributions to developmental abnormalities.

Primary cilia are critical sensory and signaling compartments present on most mammalian cell types. These specialized structures require a unique signaling protein composition relative to the rest of the cell to carry out their functions. Defects in ciliary structure and signaling result in a broad group of disorders collectively known as ciliopathies. One ciliopathy, Bardet-Biedl Syndrome (BBS; OMIM 209900), presents with diverse clinical features, many of which are attributed to defects in ciliary signaling during both embryonic development and postnatal life. For example, patients exhibit obesity, polydactyly, hypogonadism, developmental delay, and skeletal abnormalities along with sensory and cognitive deficits, but for many of these phenotypes it is uncertain which are developmental in origin. A subset of BBS proteins assembles into the BBSome complex, which is responsible for mediating transport of membrane proteins into and out of the cilium, establishing it as a sensory and signaling hub. Here we describe two new mouse models for BBS resulting from a congenital null and conditional allele of Bbs5. Bbs5 null mice develop a complex phenotype including craniofacial defects, skeletal shortening, ventriculomegaly, infertility, and pituitary anomalies. Utilizing the conditional allele, we show that the male fertility defects, ventriculomegaly, and pituitary abnormalities are only found when Bbs5 is mutated prior to P7 indicating a developmental origin. In contrast, mutation of Bbs5 results in obesity independent of the age of Bbs5 loss. Compared to other animal models of BBS, Bbs5 mutant mice exhibit pathologies that suggest a specialized role for Bbs5 in ciliary function.
Imbalanced Learning for Hospital Readmission Prediction using National Readmission Database

In this paper, we propose to use imbalanced learning for hospital readmission prediction. The goal is to predict whether a patient, based on his/her current hospital visit records, is likely going to be re-admitted or not within 30-days after being discharged from the current hospital visit. The main challenge of hospital readmission prediction is twofold: (1) the readmission visits (i.e., the positive class) are a small portion of the total hospital visits, representing a severe class imbalance problem for learning; (2) due to privacy and health regulation, the information available for patient characterization is limited; and is often only limited to the payment level information. However, there are over 80,000 procedures code, representing a high dimensionality and high sparsity problem for learning. Motivated by the above challenges, in this paper, we design an imbalanced learning strategy to create features from patient hospital visit, by combining patient demographic information, ICD-10 clinical modification (CM) and procedure codes (PCS), and Clinical Classification Software Refined (CCSR) conversion. Instead of directly using ICD-10-CM/PCS code to characterize patients, we convert each patient’s visit to CCSR code space with a smaller feature space. By using random sampling approach to balance the sample distributions in the training set, our method achieves good performance to predict patient readmission.
MATCOR, a program for the cross-validation of material properties between databases

Abstract Data analytics approaches are increasingly often used to facilitate property-specific materials discovery. The uncertainties in these approaches can be greatly affected by the fidelity of the data sets that are used to train the data models. Therefore, data curation is an essential step for obtaining well-constrained model predictions. This can be a challenging task, especially for data sets that are too large for human quality control. We developed MATCOR, an open source, user-friendly, easily adaptable software to facilitate the data curation process. MATCOR processes lists of material identifiers in either AFLOW or Materials Project format and searches for the best matching materials entry in the other database. This is a non-trivial task due to differences in labeling and/or non-unique usage of material labels. MATCOR uses a combination of characteristics such space group, compound formula, crystal structure and use of Hubbard-U to provide the best possible comparison between databases. The capabilities of MATCOR are demonstrated for density, elastic properties, magnetic properties, and band gap correlations between AFLOW and Materials Project. We find that density shows the highest correlation among the tested properties, 93% of verified densities agree to within ±2%. Bulk- and shear-moduli showed deviations of less than ±10% for 80.6% and 65.1% of the materials, respectively. The classification of materials as non-magnetic/paramagnetic and metallic/gapped are consistent among the two databases for 91% and 69% of the materials, respectively. These examples show that MATCOR can be used to automate and thereby accelerate the data curation process prior to materials discovery through data analytical models.
‘Noe Place to Talk In’: Two More Brawling Playgoers and the 1626 Attempt to Close the Blackfriars Playhouse

Drawing on two previously unnoticed documents, this note identifies two new named early modern playgoers and connects their playgoing to the 1626 petition to close the Blackfriars theatre.
Commission on Cancer Facility Type is Associated with Overall Survival in Patients with Gastric Adenocarcinoma in the United States

In the United States, “high-volume” centers for gastric cancer treat significantly fewer cases per year compared with centers in Asia. Factors associated with oncologic outcomes, aside from volume, are poorly understood. Patients with gastric adenocarcinoma between 2004 and 2015 were analyzed in the NCDB cohort. Commission on Cancer facility types were classified as either Academic/Research Programs (ARP) or Non-Academic Programs (NAP). Factors associated with treatment at facility type were assessed by logistic regression. Overall survival was compared between facility types by Cox proportional hazard models. Thirty-nine percent of patients were treated at ARPs. In multivariable analysis, patients treated at ARPs were younger, healthier (Charlson–Deyo score), and had lower AJCC stage. Treatment at an ARP was associated with superior median OS compared with treatment at a NAP (17.3 months vs. 11.1 months, respectively, P < 0.001,) and in each stage of disease. Treatment of stages II and III patients at ARPs increased over time. Among patients with stages II and III disease, adherence to therapy guidelines was higher and postoperative mortality was lower at ARPs. Although patients at ARPs tend to have favorable characteristics, superior overall survival may also be due to better adherence to therapy guidelines and capacity to rescue after surgical complications.
Who's Leading This Dance?: Theorizing Automatic and Strategic Synchrony in Human-Exoskeleton Interactions.

Wearable robots are an emerging form of technology that allow organizations to combine the strength, precision, and performance of machines with the flexibility, intelligence, and problem-solving abilities of human wearers (de Looze et al., 2016). Active exoskeletons are a type of wearable robot that gives wearers the ability to effortlessly lift up to 200 lbs., as well as perform other types of physically demanding tasks that would be too strenuous for most humans (Sarcos, 2019). Synchronization between exoskeleton suits and wearers is one of the most challenging requirements to operate these technologies effectively (Zaroug et al., 2019). In this conceptual paper, we extend interpersonal adaption theory (IAT) to the exoskeleton context and explicate (a) the antecedents that are most likely to shape synchrony in human-exoskeleton interactions, (b) automatic and strategic synchrony as adaptive behaviors in human-exoskeleton interactions, and (c) outcome variables that are especially important in these processes. Lastly, we offer a discussion of key methodological challenges for measuring synchrony in human-exoskeleton interactions and offer a future research agenda for this important area.
Tort Law and Feminism, forthcoming in Oxford Handbook on Feminism and the Law in the U.S.

Tort law has not been a sympathetic audience for feminist legal scholars. Despite decades of compelling feminist advocacy and scholarship, tort law has largely resisted attempts to orient it towards pursuing goals of social justice or equality. Nevertheless, some feminist redirection has been achieved, mostly through statutory intervention, thus laying the groundwork for further development. This chapter imagines what tort law might look like if it more fully embraced feminist reforms. Focusing on four foundational concepts in tort law – duty, third-party liability, harm, and damages – this chapter uses the tools, insights, and arguments of modern feminist tort scholarship to envision the doctrinal landscape of a tort law rooted in gender justice and social equality. Noting the places where feminist paths have already been forged, this chapter explores how reconceptualizing the duty of care, expanding third-party liability, recognizing a broader range of intimate and harassment-based harms, and eliminating gender and racial bias from damage awards could transform tort from an instrument that perpetuates existing social inequalities into a mechanism of social justice offering recompense and remedy to all who are wrongfully injured.
Modeling of the Case Depth and Surface Hardness of Steel During Ion Nitriding

Modeling of the ion nitriding process allows solving many problems of operations management, forecasting of results and development of new treatment regimes, which is an urgent issue today. The goal of the paper was modeling of the case depth and surface hardness of 38Cr2MoAl А steel during ion nitriding. The experimental data showed that the case depth varies from 20 to 620 µm in the ion nitriding temperature range of 500-560 °С and duration of 1-12 hours, with the surface hardness varying from 8 to 12 GPa. The mathematical models in the form of quadratic polynomials, describing the dependence of the nitrided case depth and surface hardness on the temperature and duration of thermochemical treatment were obtained. The graph-analytical description of variations in the nitrided case depth and surface hardness depending on variations in temperature and duration of treatment, which allows determining the specific conditions of ion nitriding 38Cr2MoAl steel is constructed.
Assessing Program-Level Objectives of Space Exploration Architectures Using Portfolio-Optimization Methods

The large number and significant variety of systems available for space exploration missions produce countless potential architecture combinations. Compounding this are the scheduling intricacies o...
GNNfam: utilizing sparsity in protein family predictions using graph neural networks

We present GNNfam, a pipeline for predicting protein families from protein sequences. GNNfam aligns proteins using pairwise sequence aligner LAST, creates a sparse graph based on the alignment scores, and employs graph neural networks (GNNs) to predict protein families. Unlike alignment-free deep learning methods such as DeepFam, GNNfam can control the sparsity of the protein similarity graph to prune uninformative edges. We develop three pruning strategies to improve the prediction accuracy, convergence, and running time of the downstream graph neural networks. We also demonstrate that semi-supervised GNNs outperform traditional graph clustering-based methods by a large margin. When trained with three labeled sequence datasets from the SCOPe and COG databases, GNNfam achieves more than 90% test accuracy when predicting protein families and performs significantly better than clustering, embedding and other deep learning methods. GNNfam is available at https://github.com/HipGraph/GNNfam.
Diet with sucrose ameliorates Solenopsis invicta virus 3 (Solinviviridae: Invictavirus) infection in Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) worker ants

Mortality and virus titer were monitored in Solenopsis invicta colony fragments to examine the impact of diet sucrose supplementation. Mortality on d 21 reached a mean of 111.8 ± 22.0 worker ants in Solenopsis invicta virus 3-treated colonies without sugar supplementation, which was significantly greater (F = 10.0; df = 3,14; P < 0.0009) than the Solenopsis invicta virus 3-infected colonies with sugar supplementation (33.5 ± 5.8), Solenopsis invicta virus 3-uninfected colonies without sugar supplementation (17.3 ± 10.7), and Solenopsis invicta virus 3-un-infected colonies with sugar supplementation (6.7 ± 2.5).
Ordinary Families, Extraordinary Lives: Assets and Poverty Reduction in Guayaquil, 1978-2004

Fifty years after Oscar Lewis's famous depiction of five Mexican families caught in a ""culture of poverty,"" Caroline Moser tells a very different story of five neighborhood women and their families strategically accumulating assets to escape poverty in the Ecuadoran city of Guayaquil. In Ordinary Families, Extraordinary Lives , Moser shows how a more sophisticated understanding of the complexities of asset accumulation as well as poverty itself can help counter inaccurate stereotypes about global poverty. It provides invaluable insight into strategies that may help people in developing countries improve their wellbeing. The similar socioeconomic characteristics and economic circumstances of the Guayaquil families in 1978, when Moser began her research, set the stage for a natural experiment. By 2004, these circumstances varied widely. Moser captures the causes and consequences of these developments through economic data, anthropological narrative, and personal photos. She then places this compelling story within the broader context of political, economic, and spatial changes in Guayaquil and Ecuador. Moser describes how households in a Third World urban slum relentlessly and systematically fought to accumulate human, social, and financial capital assets. Her longitudinal account of their odyssey captures long-term trends and changes in perception that are missed in snapshot assessments. Chapters in this holistic story cover diverse issues such as housing and infrastructure, community mobilization and political negotiation, employment, family dynamics, violence, and emigration.
Sensory marketing : research on the sensuality of products

Preface and Acknowledgments. A. Krishna, Introduction. Part 1. Haptics. J. Peck, Does Touch Matter? Insights from Haptic Research in Marketing. R.L. Klatzky, Touch: A Gentle Tutorial with Implications for Marketing. A.C. Morales, Understanding the Role of Incidental Touch in Consumer Behavior. T.L. Childers, J. Peck, Information and Affective Influences of Haptics on Product Evaluation: Is What I Say How I Feel? Part 2. Olfaction. M. Morrin, Scent Marketing: An Overview. R.S. Herz, The Emotional, Cognitive and Biological Basics of Olfaction: Implications and Considerations for Scent Marketing. M.O. Lwin, M. Wijaya, Do Scents Evoke the Same Feelings Across Cultures?: Exploring the Role of Emotions. M. Morrin, J. Chebat, C. Gelinas-Chebat, The Impact of Scent and Music on Consumer Perceptions of Time Duration. Part 3. Audition. J. Meyers-Levy, M.G. Bublitz, L.A. Peracchio, The Sounds of the Marketplace: The Role of Audition in Marketing. E. Yorkston, Auxiliary Auditory Ambition: Assessing Ancillary and Ambient Sounds. D.W. Dahl, Understanding the Role of Spokesperson Voice in Broadcast Advertising. M. Carnevale, D. Lerman, D. Luna, Hear is the thing: Auditory Processing of Novel Non-word Brand Names. Part 4. Vision. P. Raghubir, Visual Perception: An Overview. A. Chattopadhyay, G.J. Gorn, P. Darke, Differences and Similarities in Hue Preferences between Chinese and Caucasians. E.A. Greenleaf, Does Everything Look Worse in Black and White? The Role of Monochrome Images in Consumer Behavior. B.E. Kahn, X. Deng, Effects on Visual Weight Perceptions of Product Image Locations on Packaging. Part 5. Taste. A. Krishna, R.S. Elder, The Gist of Gustation: An Exploration of Taste, Food, and Consumption. P. Rozin, J. Hormes, Psychology and Sensory Marketing, with a Focus on Food. P. Chandon, Estimating Food Quantity: Biases and Remedies. A. Krishna, N. Aydinoglu, B. Wansink, Do Size Labels Have a Common Meaning Among Consumers? Part 6. The Future. R.S. Elder, N. Aydinoglu, V. Barger, C. Caldara, H.E. Chun, C.J. Lee, G. Mohr, A. Stamatogiannakis, A Sense of Things to Come: Future Research Directions in Sensory Marketing.
Adjuvant temozolomide-based chemoradiotherapy versus radiotherapy alone in patients with WHO III astrocytoma: The Mainz experience.

It is currently unclear whether adjuvant therapy for WHO grade III anaplastic astrocytomas (AA) should be carried out as combined chemoradiotherapy with temozolomide (TMZ)—analogous to the approach for glioblastoma multiforme—or as radiotherapy (RT) alone. A retrospective analysis of data from 90 patients with AA, who were treated between November 1997 and February 2014. Assessment of overall (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) was performed according to treatment categories: (1) 50 %, RT + TMZ according to protocol, (2) 11 %, RT + TMZ with dose reduction, (3) 26 %, RT alone, and (4) 13 %, individualized, primarily palliative therapy. No dose reduction was necessary in the RT alone group. Median OS was 85, 69, and 43 months for treatment categories 1/2, 3, and 4, respectively. These differences were not statistically significant. PFS was 35, 29, 48, and 33 months for categories 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively; again without significant differences between categories. In a subgroup of 39 patients with known IDH1 R132H status, the presence of this mutation correlated with significantly longer OS (p = 0.01) and PFS (p = 0.002). Complete or partial tumor resection and younger age also correlated with a significantly better prognosis, and this influence persisted in multivariate analysis. In the IDH1 R132H subgroup analysis, only this marker retained an independent prognostic value. A general superiority of combined chemoradiotherapy compared to RT alone could not be demonstrated. Biomarkers for predicting the benefits of combination therapy using RT and TMZ are needed for patients with AA.
Die menschlichen Avitaminosen

Die erste Periode der Vitaminforschung, die wir in die Jahre von 1910 bis 1920 verlegen wollen, diente als Lehrzeit. Die Vitarninhypothese, die jetzt nicht mehr als Hypothese aufgefast werden kann, hat diese Probejahre uberstanden und wird in einer mehr oder weniger modifizierten Form, aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach, fortbestehen. Die Periode der Begeisterung, in welcher alle moglichen pathologischen Zustande als Avitaminosen aufgefast wurden, ist voruber und wir wollen bei den folgenden Besprechungen recht objektiv sein. Beim Studium der bekannten oder auch vermuteten Avitaminosen stosen wir auf die ernste Schwierigkeit, das die meisten Arzte zwei Lagern angehoren. Die einen sind Verfechter der Vitamine, die anderen dagegen wollen von den Vitaminen nichts wissen. Der dadurch entstandene Zustand ist nicht gerade dazu behilflich eine rasche Losung der uns hier interessierenden Fragen herbeizufuhren. Besitzt man eine vorgefaste Meinung, so sieht man alle Tatsachen in einem Lichte, das sich diesen Meinungen am besten anpast. Wir finden auch wenig Zusammenarbeit zwischen dem Experi-mentalforscher und dem Kliniker. Dies ware um so wunschenswerter, weil die meisten Experimentalforscher uber wenig klinische Erfahrung verfugen, wahrend dem nur klinisch tatigen Arzt ofters eine breite, wissenschaftliche Kenntnis der Ernahrungsvorgange fehlt.
On Consistent Subsets of Large Sets of Satisfiable Sentences

We extend some results of Adam Kolany to show that large sets of satisfiable sentences generally contain equally large subsets of mutually consistent sentences. In particular, this is always true for sets of uncountable cofinality, and remains true for sets of denumerable cofinality if we put appropriate bounding conditions on the sentences. The results apply to both the propositional and the predicate calculus. To obtain these results, we use delta sets for regular cardinals, and, for singular cardinals, a generalization of delta sets. All of our results are theorems in ZFC.
The impact of pre-endoscopy proton pump inhibitor use on the classification of non-erosive reflux disease and erosive oesophagitis.

Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2010; 32: 1266–1274 Summary Background Factors associated with non-erosive reflux disease (NERD) and erosive oesophagitis (EO) are incompletely understood and the overlap between the two entities is debated. Aim To compare clinical, demographic, and endoscopic findings in a large cohort of NERD and EO patients. Methods After they completed a validated GERD questionnaire, patients who presented for index endoscopy were enrolled and categorized as NERD or EO. Analysis was performed using Chi-square, Mann–Whitney U-test and multivariate logistic regression. Results A total of 696 GERD patients [455 (65.4%) NERD; 241 (34.6%) EO]; mean age 57 years; 92% men and 82% Caucasian were prospectively enrolled. Using logistic regression, patients on PPI were more likely to be classified as NERD (OR: 3.2; P < 0.001). NERD patients were older (OR: 1.50; P = 0.05), less likely to have nocturnal symptoms (OR: 0.63; P = 0.04) and hiatal hernia (OR: 0.32; P < 0.001). Compared with PPI-naive NERD patients, those on PPI were more likely to have nocturnal symptoms (69% vs. 29%, P = 0.048) and less likely to have mild-moderate symptoms (63% vs. 79%, P < 0.001) – similar to the EO group. Conclusions Pre-endoscopy PPI usage contributes significantly to the classification of GERD patients into the NERD-phenotype. NERD patients on PPI therapy demonstrate some features that are significantly different from PPI-naive patients, but similar to EO patients. This observation supports the notion that some PPI NERD patients are actually healed EO patients, and that an overlap does exist between the GERD phenotypes.
The striatal mosaic in primates: striosomes and matrix are differentially enriched in ionotropic glutamate receptor subunits

The cellular and subcellular distributions of the ionotropic alpha- amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid (AMPA)-preferring glutamate receptor (GluR) in monkey striatum were demonstrated immunocytochemically using anti-peptide antibodies to individual subunits of the AMPA receptor. These antibodies specifically recognize GluR1, GluR4, and an epitope common to GluR2 and GluR3 (designated as GluR2/3). On immunoblots, the antibodies detect proteins ranging from 102 to 108 kDa in total homogenates of monkey striatum, hippocampus, and cerebellum. By immunoblotting, GluR1 and GluR2/3 are considerably more abundant than GluR4 in the caudate nucleus. Within the caudate nucleus, putamen, and nucleus accumbens, numerous neuronal perikarya, dendrites, and spines show GluR1 and GluR2/3 immunoreactivities. GluR1- and GluR2/3-enriched striatal neurons have the morphology, transmitter specificity, and distribution of medium-sized (10–20 microns) spiny neurons; large (20–60 microns) round neurons exhibit GluR4 immunoreactivity. GluR1 immunoreactivity, but not GluR2/3 or GluR4 immunoreactivity, is more intense in the ventral striatum (i.e., nucleus accumbens) than in the dorsal striatum, and GluR1 is enriched within dendritic spines in the neuropil of the nucleus accumbens and striosomes in the dorsal striatum. In the caudate nucleus, these patches of dense GluR1 immunoreactivity align with regions low in calcium binding protein immunoreactivity and high in substance P immunoreactivity. Within striosomes, GluR1 immunoreactivity is more abundant than GluR2/3 immunoreactivity; GluR4 immunoreactivity is sparse in striosomes, but the matrix contains large, GluR4-positive cholinergic neurons. This study demonstrates that, within monkey striatum, subunits of ionotropic AMPA GluR have differential distributions within striosomes and matrix. Furthermore, the results suggest that neurons within striatal striosomes and matrix may express different combinations of GluR subunits, thus forming receptors with different channel properties and having consequences that may be relevant physiologically and pathophysiologically. Neurons within these two striatal compartments may have different roles in the synaptic plasticity of motor systems.
Assessing SWAT's performance in the Kaskaskia River watershed as influenced by the number of calibration stations used

The Future Midwestern Landscapes (FML) project is part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Ecosystem Services Research Program. The goal of the FML project is to quantify changes in ecosystem services across the Midwestern region as a result of the growing demand for biofuels. Watershed models are an efficient way to quantify ecosystem services of water quality and quantity. By calibrating models, we can better capture watershed characteristics before they are applied to make predictions. The Kaskaskia River watershed in Illinois was selected to investigate the effectiveness of different calibration strategies (single-site and multi-site calibrations) for streamflow, total suspended sediment (TSS) and total nitrogen (TN) loadings using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool. Four USGS gauges were evaluated in this study. Single-site calibration was performed from a downstream site to an upstream site, and multi-site calibration was performed and fine-tuned based on the single-site calibration results. Generally, simulated streamflow and TSS were not much affected by different calibration strategies. However, when single-site calibration was performed at the most downstream site, the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) values for TN ranged between -0.09 and 0.53 at the other sites; and when single-site calibration was performed at the most upstream site, the NSE values ranged between -8.38 and -0.07 for the other sites. The NSE values for TN were improved to 0.5 - 0.59 for all four sites when multi-site calibration was performed. The results of the multi-site calibration and validation showed an improvement on model performance on TN and highlighted that multi-site calibrations are needed to assess the hydrological and water quality processes at various spatial scales. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Phase-sensitive amplification of pulses in nonlinear optical fibers

Analysis of the nonlinear Schrodinger (NLS) equation and jump conditions governing pulse propagation in a nonlinear optical fiber with periodically-spaced, phase-sensitive parametric amplifiers (PSAs) shows that the averaged pulse evolution is governed by a fourth-order nonlinear diffusion equation similar to the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky and Swift-Hohenberg equations. A consequence of this diffusive dynamics is that dispersive radiation from evolving pulses is almost totally eliminated, and stable optical pulses propagate over long distances without deformation. Here the asymptotic derivation of this averaged fourth-order equation is reviewed, and comparisons are given between numerical solutions of the averaged equation and the full NLS equation with PSAs. It is shown that the main difference between the two computations is due to a small amount of high-frequency dispersive radiation. The numerical requirements for resolving these high-frequency components is also discussed.
Cramer-Rao lower bounds for biased image reconstruction

Since image reconstruction and restoration are ill-posed problems, unbiased estimators often have unacceptably high variance. To reduce the variance, one introduces constraints and smoothness penalties, which yields biased estimators. This bias precludes the use of the classical Cramer-Rao (CR) lower bound for the variance of an unbiased estimator. This paper presents a uniform bound for minimum variance subject to a bias gradient constraint. Since the bound is independent of any estimator, one can explore the fundamental tradeoff between bias and variance in ill-posed problems. We apply the bound to a linear Gaussian model, and demonstrate the optimality of a simple penalized least-squares estimator. >
Large porous particles for sustained protection from carbachol-induced bronchoconstriction in guinea pigs.

Purpose. To determine whether a new formulated albuterol aerosol could sustain inhibition to bronchoconstriction for approximately one day in guinea pigs challenged with carbachol.
Can I stay a BIT longer? The effect of bilateral investment treaties on political survival

Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) have proliferated throughout the international system. While ostensibly commercial in purpose, do BITs have domestic political ramifications? I argue that BITs affect a leader’s tenure through their effect on the property rights environment in developing countries. BITs, by segmenting a country’s property rights environment for foreign and domestic firms, reduce the incentive for foreign firms to lobby for property rights protections in the host country thus leading to a stagnating domestic property rights environment. In autocracies, a stagnating domestic property rights regime benefits domestic business elites who can continue to stymie small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The political benefits of BITs, however, decrease as a country becomes more democratic. Using a dataset of developing country leaders over the period 1965-2011, I find support for my hypothesis that BITs are associated with a decreased hazard of losing office and that the effect diminishes with higher levels of democracy. My results highlight the consequences of the legalization of global investment on the domestic political economy.
Does Engagement Matter? Marital Intentions and Relationship Quality Among Cohabiting African Americans

Despite growing cohabitation rates, few studies have examined the relationship between engagement status and relationship quality among cohabiting couples, especially among Black Americans. This study used data from 30 cohabiting Black couples (n = 60) to examine whether perceptions of love, commitment, relationship satisfaction, and intimacy problems differ by whether cohabitors are engaged to be married. Results indicated that engaged Black cohabitors reported higher love scores than non-engaged Black cohabitors. They also had slightly more intimacy problems, but only in bivariate models. There were no significant differences in commitment or satisfaction between engaged and non-engaged Black cohabitors. Additional analyses revealed no variation in effect of engagement on relationship quality by gender. Results suggest that practitioners and policymakers should be careful not to make assumptions about relationship quality according to engagement status or gender in cohabiting Black relationships. The me...
Supersymmetric approximations to the 3D supersymmetric O ( N ) model

We develop several nonperturbative approximations for studying the dynamics of a supersymmetric O(N) model which preserve supersymmetry. We study the phase structure of the vacuum in both the leading order in large-N approximation as well as in the Hartree approximation, and derive the finite temperature renormalized effective potential. We derive the exact Schwinger-Dyson equations for the superfield Green functions and develop the machinery for going beyond the next to leading order in large-N approximation using a truncation of these equations which can also be derived from a two-particle irreducible effective action.