cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
AlloDerm and DermaMatrix implants for parotidectomy reconstruction: A histologic study in the rat model

Background. We analyzed tissue incorporation, immune response, and neovascularization of AlloDerm and DermaMatrix in a rat model of postparotidectomy reconstruction. Methods. In 8 male Sprague-Dawley rats, 3-dimensionally folded AlloDerm implants were placed in the left postparotidectomy bed and 3 in the anterior dorsum as controls. The same was done for DermaMatrix on the right side and posterior dorsum. Two animals were euthanized at 4, 8, and 12 days. A blinded pathologist assessed the degree of fibroblast proliferation, neovascularization, and inflammation. Results. When compared with the dorsum, DermaMatrix implants in the parotid bed had significantly higher numbers of inflammatory cells at 8 and 12 days (p ¼ .049 and .0046). AlloDerm acted more consistently between the postparotidectomy bed and dorsum. Conclusions. AlloDerm reacts similarly when comparing the postparotidectomy bed to the dorsum. DermaMatrix induces a more marked inflammatory reaction in the postparotidectomy bed when compared with the dorsum. V C 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 35: 242-249, 2013
Response of medium- and large-sized terrestrial fauna to corridor restoration along the middle Sacramento River

A fundamental challenge in restoration ecology is to understand when species are expected to colonize newly created habitat. Determining this is important for assessing progress toward restoration goals and, more generally, for gaining insight into ecosystem functioning and dynamics. We studied this question as it relates to mid- to large-sized terrestrial fauna in restored riparian habitats at the Sacramento River National Wildlife Refuge, in northern California. We used camera traps to document use of 16 riparian corridor sites of varying restoration age. Comparisons of species richness (diversity) and visitation frequency (activity) were made across different-aged sites. We found that predator diversity and activity levels tended to be higher in restored forests than in remnant forests, and that they tended to be highest in young restored forests. This trend persisted when data from variable sampling periods were pooled, although significant differences occurred more often in wet and cold sampling periods. The trend did not always hold for the animal community at large (consisting of both predator and non-predator species). We conclude that restoration age affects predator diversity and activity levels in restored and remnant floodplain forests, and that predator communities can establish soon after restoration. Our results suggest that restoring natural river processes that promote habitat regeneration may benefit mid- to large-sized terrestrial predators that appear to mostly use early successional habitat.
The role of strong interactions in cosmology.

A cosmological model is constructed which is a Friedmann model, but with a finite ultimate temperature (T F). The model predicts the temperature of the cosmic-microwave background in terms of 4 parameters: the present energy density of matter in the Universe and the parameters which may have characterized hot, dense, hadronic matter during the early Universe (A, T F, B). The latter are defined by the level density for hadronic matter: $$\sigma (m)\underrightarrow {m \to \infty } Am^{ - B} exp [m/T_F ]$$ . The calculation of the microwave temperature gives similar results for Hagedorn (B=5/2) and Frautschi (B=3) models. Both models clearly favour a low cosmic density ((10−31÷10−33) g/cm3) over a high density (10−29 g/cm3). This result suggests that hot, dense, hadronic matter in thermal contact with radiation in the early Universe conspired to produce the open Universe of today.
The biology of monoclonal lymphokines secreted by T cell lines and hybridomas.

Publisher Summary Because of recent methodological developments in two major areas—namely, the ability to immortalize functional T lymphocytes by somatic cell hybridization or viral transformation and cloning of such functional T cell lines—the biology of monoclonal lymphokines (LK) has come under light. Combination of these two methodologies enables to establish cloned T cell lines that secrete only one or very few LK species in practically unlimited quantities. Purified LK has a tremendous potential as therapeutic tools. This potential should first be explored in experimental models and, subsequently, translated into clinical situations. The suppression of immunity in an antigen-specific or nonspecific manner may be beneficial in autoimmune diseases, organ transplantation, and IgE-mediated allergic responses. On the other hand, the potentiation of immune responses would be desirable in all kinds of diseases that result in generalized immunosuppression, for example, cancer, viral disease, and parasitic infections. The best evidence for the intensity and productivity of research on LK production by cloned T cell lines should probably come in the form of a long list of related reports. Thymus-dependent T lymphocytes play a pivotal role in the complex interactions between various effector and regulatory cells of the reticuloendothelial system. T cells are known to interact with B cells, with macrophages, and among themselves. It has been documented that soluble mediators produced predominantly by activated T cells can have profound regulatory effects on the immune system, and others, of the multicellular organism. The technique of somatic cell hybridization for immunologically relevant cells has provided a revolutionary tool for immunological studies. Because the search for antigen-specific neoplastic T cells has been so unsuccessful, in contrast to the many antigen-binding plasmacytomas that were discovered, immunologists have sought other ways for creating deliberately neoplastic T cells expressing antigen-specific function.
Immunology of the Acetylcholine Receptor

Myasthenia gravis is a spontaneously occurring autoimmune disease in which antibodies and lymphocytes are specifically reactive with nicotinic ACh receptors of skeletal muscle. Antibodies reactive with junctional receptors of human muscle are found in 90% of patients with myasthenia gravis and not at all in other diseases. Their capacity to cross the placenta suggests their involvement in the pathogenesis of neonatal myasthenia. The role of the thymus in myasthenia gravis remains a mystery, but it has a recently been established that the thymus contains nicotinic ACh receptors and that anti-receptor antibodies are present in myasthenic thymuses. Antibodies of myasthenic patients detect only partial cross reactivity between ACh receptors of different species. However, greater antibody binding is observed with receptors isolated from denervated rat muscle than with receptors from normal rat muscle. This suggests that extrajunctional and junctional ACh receptors might express different antigenic determinants. Although human antibodies bind minimally to ACh receptors of the electric organs of eels and marine rays, lymphocyte reactivity to electric eel receptors is found in high incidence in myasthenic patients. This suggests that electric organ and mammalian muscle ACh receptors may share more lymphocyte-defined than serologically-defined antigenic determinants. Both cellular and humoral immune responses to ACh receptors can be induced experimentally. Sufficient antigenic homology exists between receptors of different species that electric organ receptors are capable of inducing in mammals experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis. Syngeneic muscle receptor also is immunogenic in rats. Induction of both myasthenia and antibodies to ACh receptor requires participation of thymus-derived lymphocytes. The majority of ACh receptors in myasthenic rat muscle exist complexed with antibody, but antibody is not bound directly to the receptor's ACh-binding site. Anti-receptor antibodies in vitro are capable of impairing the electrophysiological function of ACh receptors with minimal blocking of the ACh-binding site and in the absence of complement. Thus, myasthenia gravis and its experimental model provide unique biological tools for studying the structure, function and pathology of cell membrane receptors.
Curie law for systems described by kappa distributions

We derive the magnetization of a system, Pierre Curie's law, for paramagnetic particles out of thermal equilibrium described by kappa distributions. The analysis uses the theory and formulation of the kappa distributions that describe particle systems with a non-zero potential energy. Among other results, emphasis is placed on the effect of kappa distribution on the phenomenon of having strong magnetization at high temperatures. At thermal equilibrium, high temperature leads to weak magnetization. Out of thermal equilibrium, however, strong magnetization at high temperatures is rather possible, if the paramagnetic particle systems reside far from thermal equilibrium, i.e., at small values of kappa. The application of the theory to the space plasma at the outer boundaries of our heliosphere, the inner heliosheath, leads to an estimation of the ion magnetic moment for this space plasma, that is, .
Keeping with the Principle of Neutrality: Why Courts Should Not Extend Elmbrook's Mistaken Establishment Clause Analysis

As a consequence of the multiple tests and forms of analyses used in deciding Establishment Clause cases, courts have come to contrasting conclusions not only on how to properly implement the Clause, but also in their final holdings of cases arising from similar factual scenarios. In Doe ex rel. Doe v. Elmbrook School District, the Seventh Circuit held that using a religious building to host a public school graduation was a violation of the Establishment Clause. By doing so the court took the first step that could start courts down a slippery slope when examining future Establishment Clause cases under the endorsement test. In addition to their initial analysis, the Seventh Circuit also greatly expanded the reach of what Justice Kennedy’s coercion test was meant to cover. The final consequences of following this analysis could result in the invalidation of secular government events and programs any time they utilize a religious building for the event.This Comment takes a detailed look at the legal reasoning behind the decision and discusses its flaws and consequences, particularly those that flow from analyzing the case from the lens of the reasonable observer. To prevent courts from sliding down this slippery slope, this Comment argues courts should not rely on the endorsement test looking through the lens of a reasonable observer when government utilizes a religious building. Further, this Comment argues that courts should limit application of the coercion test strictly to cases only in which an actual government direction or instruction to participate in a formal religious exercise has been identified.
Water Relations and Desiccation Tolerance of Migrating Garden Millipedes (Diplopoda: Paradoxosomatidae)

The water relations and desiccation tolerance of migrating adult garden millipedes, Oxidus gracilis Koch, were examined. Both sexes contained about 60% total body water (TBW), and the percentage TBW lost increased linearly with desiccation time. Knock-down caused by desiccation occurred at 6.6 h for females and 5.2 h for males. The cuticular permeability was not significantly different between sexes and ranged between 77 and 79 μg cm−2 h−1 mmHg−1. Desiccation significantly affected millipede movement. Desiccation for 1 h at 30°C and 0–2% RH caused a 54 and 28.9% decrease in movement for female and male O. gracilis , respectively. A biologically based cultural control strategy is presented.
Das Fußhebelwerk für den VW Golf und VW Touran

Das Fushebelwerk des neuen Golf uberzeugt durch seinen einfachen modularen Aufbau. Durch den gezielten Einsatz von Leichtbau-Werkstoffen bei gleichzeitiger Vereinfachung der Montagevorgange konnten gegenuber dem Vorgangermodell Kosten und Gewicht erheblich reduziert werden.
(Na + K + 2Cl) cotransport in cultured embryonic chick heart cells

Pages C72–C730: Shi Liu, Ron Jacob, David Piwnica-Worms, and Melvyn Lieberman. “(Na + K + 2Cl) cotransport in cultured embryonic chick heart cells.” Page C721: first and second sentences, second pa...
Public eating, private pain: Children, feasting, and food security in Vanuatu

ABSTRACTThis article describes how the private problem of food insecurity in Vanuatu becomes public when children seek community feasts to cope with inadequate family food resources. Ethnographic data reveal that community members, particularly women who serve food at feasts, are increasingly aware of the rise in hungry children attending feasts. This is the subject of gossip, as public eating becomes a way that children inadvertently reveal private pain and familial struggle. Data illustrate that negotiating the public and private space in which food insecurity is displayed and communicated is a critical lens for understanding how eating behaviors shape cultural identities.
Heat strain, volume depletion and kidney function in California agricultural workers.

Background Agricultural work can expose workers to increased risk of heat strain and volume depletion due to repeated exposures to high ambient temperatures, arduous physical exertion and limited rehydration. These risk factors may result in acute kidney injury (AKI). Methods We estimated AKI cumulative incidence in a convenience sample of 283 agricultural workers based on elevations of serum creatinine between preshift and postshift blood samples. Heat strain was assessed based on changes in core body temperature and heart rate. Volume depletion was assessed using changes in body mass over the work shift. Logistic regression models were used to estimate the associations of AKI with traditional risk factors (age, diabetes, hypertension and history of kidney disease) as well as with occupational risk factors (years in farm work, method of payment and farm task). Results 35 participants were characterised with incident AKI over the course of a work shift (12.3%). Workers who experienced heat strain had increased adjusted odds of AKI (1.34, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.74). Piece rate work was associated with 4.24 odds of AKI (95% CI 1.56 to 11.52). Females paid by the piece had 102.81 adjusted odds of AKI (95% CI 7.32 to 1443.20). Discussion Heat strain and piece rate work are associated with incident AKI after a single shift of agricultural work, though gender differences exist. Modifications to payment structures may help prevent AKI.
Globalization and Moral Personhood: Dyadic Perspectives of the Moral Self in Rural and Urban Thai Communities:

Although the psychology of globalization is a burgeoning area of research, literature on the topic remains primarily theoretical to date. This study empirically examined the moral psychological imp...
Demographic analysis of a low resource, socioculturally diverse urban community presenting for infertility care in a United States public hospital

Infertility is a prevalent disease of reproductive health that exerts an impact on an estimated 80 million people worldwide. For many, involuntary childlessness becomes a central and preoccupying issue in their lives, the impact of which is exacerbated by lack of access to basic care and treatment. These effects maybe further magnified among immigrant communities, a growing but highly marginalized population that has been shown in other areas of reproductive health to experience worse health outcomes and delays in access to care. To date, few studies have examined the unique medical and sociocultural considerations of infertility among immigrant populations in the United States. Our study is a cross-sectional analysis of women presenting for infertility evaluation at a county hospital serving a low resource, socioculturally diverse largely immigrant communities in comparison to infertile women from a largely affluent population presenting to a high resource, comprehensive fertility center. We employed surveys to evaluate demographics and socioeconomic parameters as well as abstracted data from medical records to obtain infertility diagnoses. Multivariate regression analysis was applied to examine impact of sociocultural factors as predictors of duration of untreated infertility disease burden experienced by patients. Eighty-seven women were included in our analysis. In the county hospital/low resource clinic (LR), the mean age was 32.9 ± 4.9 vs 36.4 ± 6.3 years in the fee-for-service/high resource clinic (HR). The mean reported duration of infertility in LR and HR patients was 3.4 ± 3.0 vs 2.3 ± 1.5 years. 70% of LR patients were monolingual non-English speakers vs 5.4% of HR patients. 59% of LR patients reported an annual household income of less than $25,000 and 70% did not have a college degree. 81.1% of HR patients reported an income of higher than $100,000, and 81.1% had completed college or graduate school. The most common infertility diagnosis in the LR was anovulation (38%) and tubal factor (28%) compared to diminished ovarian reserve (37.8%) and male factor (51.4%) in the HR. After controlling for age at the initiation of pregnancy attempt, lower education level, lower income, and immigrant status were significantly correlated with a longer duration of infertility. Women presenting for infertility care to a low resource county medical center represent immigrant communities and are generally of younger age, but with a longer duration of infertility. This study identifies lower educational level, income, and immigrant status as barriers in access to care.
A Bayesian hierarchical model for climate change detection and attribution

Regression-based detection and attribution methods continue to take a central role in the study of climate change and its causes. Here we propose a novel Bayesian hierarchical approach to this problem, which allows us to address several open methodological questions. Specifically, we take into account the uncertainties in the true temperature change due to imperfect measurements, the uncertainty in the true climate signal under different forcing scenarios due to the availability of only a small number of climate model simulations, and the uncertainty associated with estimating the climate variability covariance matrix, including the truncation of the number of empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) in this covariance matrix. We apply Bayesian model averaging to assign optimal probabilistic weights to different possible truncations and incorporate all uncertainties into the inference on the regression coefficients. We provide an efficient implementation of our method in a software package and illustrate its use with a realistic application.
Dazz Manufacturing Company

While maintaining Lean manufacturing standards, the plant manager for the Clarksburg, Virginia, location of a manufacturer of coated abrasives must evaluate a capital investment of $8 million. The investment would reduce labor needs and provide reduced setups. A discounted cash flow analysis must be performed to analyze the investment. Relevant costs and valuation of production flexibility are key issues.This case is taught jointly in two of Darden's first-year courses, Financial Management and Policies and Operations. Excerpt UVA-OM-1503 Aug. 27, 2013 DAZZ MANUFACTURING COMPANY Dorothy Hoffman, plant manager for the Clarksburg, Virginia, location of DAZZ Manufacturing Company, angrily tossed the monthly shipping report back onto her desk and swore under her breath. The Clarksburg plant had again failed to improve its dismal performance meeting shipping dates. Only 60% of its June shipments had met the well-established four-week service standard of the coated-abrasives industry. Hoffman knew that prompt customer service was necessary to maintain DAZZ's competitive position in the industry, but so far, she had seen little improvement in this aspect of the plant's performance. Hoffman was considering the possibility of replacing some of the plant's equipment and revising the production schedule in hopes of more closely meeting her customer-service targets. An investment of $ 8 million would provide a significant reduction in setup times for a major portion of DAZZ's production process. Hoffman believed in lean thinking, the latest management philosophy, but knew the board of directors would need more than just her faith that the lean investment was worthwhile. What Hoffman needed was hard-number justification. Company Background DAZZ was a leading producer of abrasives, including such products as sandpaper and grinding wheels. Industrial firms were the company's primary market. DAZZ had four manufacturing plants in the midsouthern and southeastern United States. DAZZ's Clarksburg plant produced all the company's coated-abrasive products—a line consisting of approximately 5,000 finished items in numerous grades, shapes, and sizes. The Clarksburg plant had $ 126.5 million in annual sales, giving it an 18% share of the U.S. coated-abrasives market and making DAZZ the third-largest of the four major domestic producers. In recent years, DAZZ had achieved a 28% gross margin and 8% operating margin on sales of its coated-abrasive products. . . .
The Oldest Biogenous Pelagic Sediments Above Mesozoic Oceanic Basement: A Review

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the data's from ocean drilling and ophiolites and then reviews the alternative hypotheses to explain the temporal shift from siliceous to carbonate sediments as the first biogenous deposits on oceanic crust. The chapter shows that prior to Oxfordian time, basal biogenous sediments were mainly siliceous, radiolarian-rich and essentially carbonate-free. Relatively low production rates of calcareous plankton kept the carbonate compensation depth (CCD)mainly shallower than the crest of spreading ridges. The middle Cretaceous is exceptional in having less carbonate-rich basal pelagic sediments. The dominant controls on the nature of basal pelagic biogenous sediments are the level of the carbonate compensation depth relative to the crest of active ocean spreading ridges, where new oceanic crust is formed. This depth fluctuates in both space and time, but has irregularly deepened since Middle Jurassic times, when calcareous coccolithophorids increased markedly in abundance. Selective preservation, especially in the early-burial diagenetic environment, accentuates the contrasts between radiolarian-rich sediments below the CCD and calcareous sediments above.
The Passing of Creativity: Two Histories: James Ensor and Arthur Rimbaud

This essay explores the “passing of creativity” in James Ensor, the artist and Arthur Rimbaud, the poet. The former was burnt out by his thirty-fifth year. The latter abandoned poetry at age nineteen. I argue that in both men, their art was driven by revengeful needs; Ensor never transcended that imperative; Rimbaud had said it all and quit the field.
Understanding Collaborative Decision Making Around a Large-Scale Interactive Tabletop

We present findings from an empirical study of how groups of eight users collaborate on a decision-making task around an interactive tabletop. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine co-located collaboration in larger groups (of 8-12 users) seated around a large-scale high-resolution multi-touch horizontal display. Our findings shed light on: 1) the effect of collaboration patterns of larger groups on equity of participation; 2) the role of participants' position around the tabletop in forming collaborations; and 3) the mechanisms, which facilitate coordination and collaboration in larger group interacting around large-scale tabletops; We also contribute computational methods that leverage image processing to analyze interaction around large-scale tabletops. Finally, we discuss implications for the design of large-scale tabletop systems for supporting co-located collaboration in larger groups.
Inflammatory dermatoses, infections, and drug eruptions are the most common skin conditions in hospitalized cancer patients.

Background Dermatologic conditions cause morbidity and mortality among hospitalized cancer patients. An improved understanding is critical for implementing clinical and research programs in inpatient oncodermatology. Objective To characterize inpatient dermatology consultations at a large comprehensive cancer center. Methods Retrospective database query of new admissions and medical record review of initial inpatient dermatology consultations comparing inpatients consulted and not consulted during January-December 2015. Results In total, 412 of 11,533 inpatients received 471 dermatology consultations (54% male, median age 59.5 years). Patients with hematologic cancers were 6 times more likely to receive dermatologic consultations compared with nonhematologic cancers (odds ratio 6.56, 95% confidence interval 5.35-8.05, P Limitations The study's retrospective nature and single-institution setting are potential limitations. Conclusion Hematologic malignancies are a significant risk factor for dermatology inpatient consultations. A significantly longer length of stay was associated with dermatology consultations, suggesting high comorbidities in these patients. Increased dermatologic care of these inpatients might improve quality of life, dermatologic health, and ability to receive anticancer agents.
Parametric and Seminonparametric Analysis of Nonlinear Time Series

In many applications the functional form of a nonlinear process is neither likely to be known nor fit conveniently into commonly used parametric frameworks, such as bilinear models (Granger and Andersen, 1978), threshold autoregressions (Tong, 1983), exponential autoregressions (Ozaki, 1981), random-coefficient autoregressions (Tsay, 1987), or ARCH models (Engle, 1982). In this case it seems to be more appropriate to work with suitable approximations of the underlying process.
Primary Atypical Lipomatous Tumor of the Orbit: A Case Report.

Purpose To describe a case of primary atypical orbital lipomatous tumor (ALT). Case report A 35-year-old man presented with a two-month history of left eye proptosis and vertical diplopia. His visual acuity was 20/30 OD and 20/60 OS. External examination showed proptosis and downward displacement of the left eye with mild lid erythema. Extraocular movements were reduced in the left eye, with 10% and 70% motility in upgaze and abduction/adduction, respectively. Imaging showed a mass (22 × 16 × 46 mm) in the superior left orbit that infiltrated the orbital fat and the superior rectus muscle. A biopsy of the mass showed mature adipose tissue intermingled with fibrous zones of hyperchromatic stromal cells with nuclear atypia. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis demonstrated positive amplification for MDM2/CEP12. The MDM2 to CEP12 ratio was 5:7. A diagnosis of ALT was confirmed. An orbital exenteration was recommended, which the patient declined. Conclusion Although rare, the differential for unilateral proptosis with or without diplopia should include orbital liposarcomas including the ALT subtype. Imaging, biopsy, staining, and/or FISH analysis for proto-oncogenes can assist with diagnosis and staging, while the standard treatment is exenteration.
Workload Allocation in Hierarchical Cloudlet Networks

Edge cloudlets are promising to mitigate the high network delay incurred by the remote cloud in executing workloads offloaded from a user equipment (UE). However, the response time of a task request consists of both the network delay and computing delay. Considering the spatial and temporal dynamics of workloads among cloudlets, if the workload of an edge cloudlet is heavy, the computing delay in the cloudlet may be unbearable. In this letter, we design a hierarchical cloudlet network and propose a workload allocation scheme to minimize the average response time of UEs’ requests by deciding which cloudlet a UE is assigned to and how much computing resource is provisioned to serve it. The performance of the proposed scheme is validated by extensive simulations.
Modulating the Growth Rate, Aspect Ratio, and Yield of Copper Nanowires with Alkylamines

This article shows how the chain length of alkylamine capping agents and the corresponding stability of their self-assembled monolayers on a Cu surface determines the growth rate, yield, and dimensions of Cu nanowires produced in a solution-phase synthesis. Of the 10 linear alkylamines that were tested, only those with 12 or more carbon atoms induced growth of nanowires. The length, yield, and growth rate of nanowires were larger for shorter alkylamines. As the Cu nanowire growth rates were up to 1050 times smaller than the calculated diffusion-limited growth rates—and the alkylamine chain length had no significant effect on the in situ generation of the reducing agent—we conclude the rate of alkylamine-mediated Cu nanowire growth is limited by charge transfer. Electrochemical measurements indicate longer alkylamines form more effective passivation layers that greatly decrease the rate at which Cu–alkylamine complexes are reduced onto a Cu surface. Molecular dynamics simulations show that the energy requi...
Space-Time Control of Broadband Light in a Multimode Fiber

Strong modal dispersion of a highly multimode fiber causes a space-time scrambled output field. Using pulse shaping, impulse responses at specific output spots can be characterized and spatial-temporal focusing can be achieved.
Electrophysiological evidence for an independent effect of memory retrieval on referential processing

Abstract In this study, we show that the difficulty of re-activating and retrieving the representations of potential referents from memory (retrieval difficulty) influences referential processing, and that this effect is independent of the number of potential referents for a pronoun or the probability of possible referential interpretations (referential coherence). In two experiments, we varied retrieval difficulty by manipulating whether two referential candidates were modified by extra semantic information or not, creating representationally rich (modified) or bare (unmodified) referential candidates, respectively, and we measured event-related brain potentials (ERPs) on following pronouns. We observed a sustained frontal negative shift (the Nref effect) on pronouns following bare, and therefore difficult-to-retrieve, referential candidates relative to those following representationally rich candidates, regardless of the ambiguity of pronouns and the probability of either referential interpretation. Since referential coherence was held constant across the conditions, the results suggest that retrieval difficulty affects referential processing independently of coherence. We discuss the implications for memory-based theories of language processing.
Uncommon FDG distribution on PET/CT imaging in a patient with end-stage renal disease

1279 Learning Objectives 1. To describe uncommon FDG distribution on PET/CT imaging; and 2. to discuss clinical management prior to FDG PET/CT imaging in patients with end-stage renal disease. FDG PET/CT imaging has been widely used for clinical staging, treatment response and tumor recurrence in cancer patients. The quality of FDG PET/CT imaging can be affected by various factors, such as glucose concentrations, imaging time post FDG injection, environment, and patient weight. However, there are seldom reports that end-stage renal failure affects FDG PET/CT imaging in cancer patients. Here we report a male patient with end-stage renal failure presented for tumor recurrence monitoring by FDG PET/CT imaging. The patient should have been dialyzed regularly, but he missed dialysis prior to the imaging. After routine procedure of FDF PET/CT imaging, whole body imaging demonstrated relatively diffuse distribution of FDG in skeletal muscles, bilateral lungs, liver, spleen, heart and brain. There was absence of FDG activity in bilateral kidneys and bladder. This uncommon distribution of FDG on PET/CT cancer imaging raised important issues for the management of patient with end-stage renal failure before and after PET/CT imaging. Cases represented illustrate whole body PET/CT imaging with corresponding clinical history, other imagines and clinical chemistry reports.
Staff Support Groups for High-Stress Medical Environments

ABSTRACTRecent changes in health care delivery have added new demands to the already stressful work of medical staff, which makes the benefits of staff support groups all the more cogent. The author describes a conceptual approach to such groups and analyzes the systems issues that need to be understood to penetrate a complex institution successfully. Staff stressors are outlined along with the staff's psychological responses. Specific goals for support groups are considered and the profound technical differences between psychotherapy and support groups are delineated. The developmental stages of staff groups and their associated themes are described in tandem with practical guidelines about starting, maintaining and terminating such groups. Special requirements of leadership style and related countertransference issues are reviewed.
Fate, Transformation, and Toxicological Impacts of Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products in Surface Waters.

With the growth of the human population, a greater quantity of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) have been released into the environment. Although research has addressed the levels ...
Motivation for sport participation and eating disorder risk among female collegiate athletes

In light of conflicting research regarding eating disorder risk and sports participation, the current study examined the relationship between specific aspects of sports participation (i.e., level o...
Disentangling the role of cars and transit in employment and labor earnings

We examine the relationship between transportation access on the one hand and individuals’ employment and labor earnings on the other. We improve on existing studies by bringing a large national panel data set to bear on this question, attempting to disentangle the mechanisms by which individuals improve their economic standing and, finally, comparing the economic benefits to the direct costs of car ownership. To do this, we use nine waves from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics from 1999 to 2015. We find that access to a car is a strong predictor of future economic benefit for individuals, and that at very high levels of transit access, carless individuals can also fare equally well. Access to an automobile is strongly associated with employment, job retention, and earning more money over time. Though having a car is associated with economic benefits, owning and operating a car is expensive; yet, our findings suggest that the benefits may outweigh the costs for most people living outside neighborhoods with truly excellent transit service.
Policy Issues in the Clinical Development and Use of Predictive Biomarkers for Molecular Targeted Therapies

The policy issues for the development, validation, and clinical implementation of predictive biomarkers for molecularly targeted therapies present a number of challenges. First, there is significant uncertainty in the current regulatory framework for biomarker tests for molecularly targeted therapies. Second, there is concern over the adequacy of the current oversight of laboratories conducting biomarker testing. Third, there is a lack of alignment between the processes for regulatory and reimbursement decisions. All these challenges cause uncertainty and confusion among clinicians, patients, test manufacturers, and payers.
Privacy Preserving Adjacency Spectral Embedding on Stochastic Blockmodels.

For graphs generated from stochastic blockmodels, adjacency spectral embedding is asymptotically consistent. Further, adjacency spectral embedding composed with universally consistent classifiers is universally consistent to achieve the Bayes error. However when the graph contains private or sensitive information, treating the data as non-private can potentially leak privacy and incur disclosure risks. In this paper, we propose a differentially private adjacency spectral embedding algorithm for stochastic blockmodels. We demonstrate that our proposed methodology can estimate the latent positions close to, in Frobenius norm, the latent positions by adjacency spectral embedding and achieve comparable accuracy at desired privacy parameters in simulated and real world networks.
Influenza-Like Symptom Prediction by Analyzing Self-Reported Health Status and Human Mobility Behaviors

Human mobility behaviors are of great importance to predict influenza-like symptoms. However, most existing studies focus on analyzing population-level outcomes instead of individual-level. One challenge for individual-level influenza symptom prediction is a shortage of a sufficiently large dataset that contains individual health status as well as the mobility behavior information at the same time. Besides, the quality of the collected data is not high enough, due to the carelessness and low variation of reporting behaviors. Also, the number of individuals with influenza symptom onset is much smaller than that of ones without symptoms, i.e., the imbalanced data problem. These challenges further increase the difficulty of accurately predicting influenza-like symptoms. To address these challenges, in this paper, we propose a novel and powerful selective ensemble support vector machines (SESVM). The proposed SESVM can select the best basic SVM classifier by running on the randomly split sub training sets, which consist of the positive samples and the split negative ones. By randomly splitting the dataset multiple times, we can obtain many predictions by each best basic SVM classifier. SESVM finally aggregates all the predictions together to produce the final results. We conduct Experiments on a new longitudinal individual self-reported weekly survey dataset with mobility behaviors, and the results show that the proposed SESVM outperforms all the existing approaches for the influenza symptom prediction task.
The Legacy of the Seminal Publication by Guillain, Barré, and Strohl: The History Behind the Eponym

The report, "On a syndrome of radiculoneuritis with hyperalbuminosis of the cerebrospinal fluid without a cellular reaction. Remarks on the clinical characteristics and tracings of the tendon reflexes," published in 1916, included superb longitudinal clinical observations of progressive areflexic paralysis in 2 French soldiers, unique laboratory findings from the still new at that time technique of lumbar puncture, and electrophysiological studies. The classic observation of the albumino-cytologic dissociation in the spinal fluid, even over 100 years later, is still one of the most important laboratory findings used by clinicians to confirm the suspected diagnosis of the Acute Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy, typically eponymously referred to as Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS). The contribution of Andre Strohl, who reported the electrophysiological abnormalities observed in their patients with novel myographic studies of tendon reflexes, led to eventual widespread use of electrodiagnostic techniques in bedside diagnosis of neuromuscular conditions. Since 1916, the clinicopathological spectrum of GBS has expanded continuously, with better understanding of the etiology, pathology, and electrodiagnostic findings. However, most of the seminal observations and conclusions presented by Guillain, Barre, and Strohl have withstood the test of time. Their landmark publication has become a standard of excellence in the history of clinical neurology. Deservedly, "GBS" is one of the most recognized medical eponyms around the world.
Changes in salivary microbial sensing proteins CD14 and TLR2 with aging

Soluble toll-like receptor-2 (sTLR2) and soluble CD14 (sCD14) in saliva are defense proteins that bind specific microbe-associated molecular patterns. Since the oral flora changes with aging, the objective of this study is to determine and compare the concentration of sTLR2 and sCD14 in the saliva of healthy individuals in age groups from the first to the sixth decade of life. Unstimulated whole saliva was collected after obtaining informed consent. The concentration of sCD14 and sTLR-2 was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Statistical differences between the age groups were determined by analysis of variance. The relationship between the two markers in each age group was evaluated by Pearson’s correlation coefficient and linear regression analyses. The concentration of salivary sTLR2 was highest in the youngest, and that of the sCD14 was highest in the oldest age group. While the salivary sCD14 and the sTLR2 exhibited a moderate negative correlation in the youngest, the relationship between the two markers was inversed in the oldest age group. The results of our exploratory study suggest a need to adjust for age-dependent changes in sCD14 and sTLR2 in healthy saliva while assessing the two proteins as biomarkers.
Introduction: Literary Cultures and Twenty-First-Century Childhoods

Representing twenty-first-century childhoods in print and in digital formats, determining young people’s roles in recent social and political history, and isolating trends in present-day literary culture and childhood is a daunting and near-impossible prospect, complicated by social and political change, the proliferation of niche audiences, and emergent identity categories that deserve the utmost respect and consideration. The project of identifying literary cultures of childhood navigates controversial opinions about what constitutes contemporary youth and reckons with the slipperiness of the child-as-referent. This collection of chapters asks how the written word and related media presently comprehend, describe, and shape the contemporary child and childhood. As a snapshot of our current moment, this collection identifies emergent trends, points to how longstanding conventions around childhood and literature are faring, and observes destabilizing factors in literature and media for and about children. Readers might think of these chapters as a core sample of literary practice and a speculation on the century to come, with a convenient numerical marker (the year 2000 to date) and without the luxury of hindsight. Areas of inquiry include Children’s Rights and Role Models; Social Justice and Diversity in Literature for Young Readers; Identity and Subjective Agency; and the Anthropocene, posthumanism, and environmental standpoints in literature for and about young readers.
The Nature and Function of the Religious Studies Book Review: Structure, Function, and Pedagogy

This essay (as part of the Editor's Corner) offers an overview of the book review as a tool for teaching, researching, and engaging in scholarly conversations. It functions as a guide for those entering academic publishing and is designed as a resource for students and instructors.
Science on demand

Characterizing science as a public good, as Steve Fuller notes, is a part of an ideological construal of science, linked to a particular portrayal of science in the postwar era that was designed to provide a rationale for the funding of pure or basic science. The image of science depended on the idea of scientists as autonomous truth-seekers. But the funding system, and other hierarchies, effectively eliminated this autonomy, and bound scientists tightly to a competitive system in which the opportunity to pursue ideas in science depended on peer approval in advance. Funding agencies then turned to assessments of impact. John Ziman had already recognized the effects of these changes in the nature of science, and characterized it as “reliable knowledge” produced on demand from funders. As the competition for funds increased, there were further changes in the nature of science itself toward “reliable enough” knowledge. This made science into a “good”, but a good in the sense of results produced for funders, a transformation that left the original epistemic aims of science behind.
Jacket for Upper Body Immobility Using a Wrapping Process

Lack of upper body mobility is experienced by many people and can be a temporary or permanent state. People who cannot lift or turn their torso, shoulders and arms have a range of difficulties in donning, doffing and securing clothing. An historical patent inspired my work and informed my design process. The purpose of this creative work was to develop a garment for someone who lacks mobility in their upper body, by removing the necessity of lifting the arms to put them into traditional sleeves. Instead, the garment wraps around the person. The process was guided by the principles of universal design. The contribution to the field is to show that normative processes for garment pattern and construction development can be challenged to provide improved functionality and maintain aesthetic quality. In addition, it shows that historical work can teach and lead us to new developments for the good of society.
Foreign direct investment in China

China has emerged as the most dynamic FDI‐host country in the world, and the impact of FDI on the Chinese economy has burgeoned in ways that no one anticipated. This paper focuses on four issues: (a) the factors behind the FDI boom; (b) how China has succeeded in utilizing FDI so far; (c) China's FDI strategy; and (d) its future development. China's special advantages in attracting and using FDI come from three sources: the huge market with cheap labour, the large number of rich overseas Chinese as investors, and the effective FDI strategy and policy implemented by the central government. Whether or not China will be a winner in future depends on how it balances between technology transfers and domestic market protection.
Infinite joins and meets

A Boolean algebra is a non-empty set A in which two binary operations ∪,∩ and one unary operation — are defined which have, roughly speaking, the same properties as the set-theoretical union, intersection and complementation of subsets of a fixed space. Since the elements of A have many properties of sets, we shall denote them by capital letters A, B,... used generally to denote sets. For arbitrary elements A, B ∈ A, A ∪ B and A ∩ B are elements in A, uniquely determined by A and B and called respectively the join and the meet of A and B. For each element A ∈ A, —A is an element in A, uniquely determined by A and called the complement of A. The operations ∪, ∩, — are characterized by a set of axioms assuring that these operations have properties analogoues to those of union, intersection and complementation of sets respectively. Many equivalent sets of axioms characterizing ∪, ∩, — are known1. We assume here the following one2: