cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
American Population Estimates, Trends in American Immigration, and Neuropsychology: Influences on Assessment and Inferential Processes with Hispanic Populations

A review of the most recent decennial U.S. Census (U.S. Census, 2001) indicates that Hispanics account for approximately 11% of the total American population. The conservative 11% estimate represents a total of approximately 32 million legal individuals of Hispanic origin living in the U.S. Table 2.1 presents a brief description of the most recent census estimates for the U.S. Hispanic population according to country of origin for selected nations (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001). The data collected by the U.S. Census is to a large extent impacted by patterns of American immigration, and although a comprehensive review of such patterns is beyond the scope of this book, a brief examination of American immigration trends for Hispanics will be reviewed. It is first proper to examine the biased nature of American migrations as they relate to Hispanics, in an attempt to understand with greater insight their subsequent impact on the acquisition and application of neuropsychological norms and standards. Close scrutiny of migrational patterns reveals that American migration, legal immigration to the U.S., is not the product of random mechanisms and processes (Hamilton and Chinchilla, 1991; U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1991; Portes and Rumbaut, 1990; Portes and Borocsz, 1989). The nonrandom nature of these migratory patterns is the result of selective factors associated with both the host and sending nations (Portes and Rumbaut, 1990). With regard to host country receiving factors, Garcia (1981), and reviews of historical records, convincingly have noted that the U.S. government has had selective immigration aims in the past that are arbitrary by their very nature and that significantly affect current and past immigration patterns. In addition, revisions in American immigration laws and guidelines during the past decades led to significant alterations in migrational patterns. The Immigration and Naturalization Service (U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1991) notes that the predominant shift occurred due to the elimination of “country specific quotas,” replacing them with quotas partially based on “humanitarian concerns” and shifting American migrational patterns from “European to Asian and Latin American immigration.” This change in immigration
Fabrication of Biodegradable Polymer Foams for Cell Transplantation and Tissue Engineering

Organ transplantation has been successful since the early 1960s as a result of the success in immunologic suppression in the clinical setting (1), and has saved, and is continuing to save, countless lives, but is far from a perfect solution to tissue losses or organ failures. By far the most serious problem facing transplantation is donor scarcity. Approximately 30,000 Americans need liver transplantation each year, but only about 10% of the patients have the chance to receive a donated liver transplant (2). There is a total of approx 100,000 people in the United States with transplants, but there are more than 1 million with biomedical implants (3). Tissue engineering and cell transplantation are fields emerging to resolve the missing tissue and organ problems.
Using Human Demonstrations to Improve Reinforcement Learning

This work introduces Human-Agent Transfer (HAT), an algorithm that combines transfer learning, learning from demonstration and reinforcement learning to achieve rapid learning and high performance in complex domains. Using experiments in a simulated robot soccer domain, we show that human demonstrations transferred into a baseline policy for an agent and refined using reinforcement learning significantly improve both learning time and policy performance. Our evaluation compares three algorithmic approaches to incorporating demonstration rule summaries into transfer learning, and studies the impact of demonstration quality and quantity. Our results show that all three transfer methods lead to statistically significant improvement in performance over learning without demonstration.
Childhood Brain Development, the Educational Achievement Gap, and Cognitive Enhancement

Research on the effects of adversity on the brain of children initially encountered strong skepticism mainly due to the fear of stigmatization and the potential pathologizing of poverty as a disease. Despite initial resistance, an increasing body of work demonstrates a correlation between low socioeconomic status and brain development. This article will focus specifically on the impact of poverty (material, economic, and social) on childhood brain development and educational achievement. Some suggest that the use of cognitive enhancers in healthy students is perfectly acceptable and should be promoted to counterbalance the failure of traditional means to improve educational achievements. In this article, I critically assess the claim that a broad use of cognitive enhancers should be promoted and offer an alternative approach. The first section evaluates the neuroscientific facts and evidence of the impact of poverty on brain development and outlines some of the criticisms raised against the "neuroscience of poverty." The second section focuses on the proposal made by Ray (2016) that promotes the use of cognitive enhancers as a means to address poor educational attainment. I criticize the basis of her argument and propose a different approach I call the clinical ideal. Subsequently, I provide some ethical pointers to allow an ethical and prudent use of cognitive enhancers in the educational setting. The main point of the article is not to reject prima facie the use of cognitive enhancers in socially disadvantaged students but rather provide a more nuanced approach.
140 GROUP G STREPTOCOCCUS: AN UNUSUAL CAUSE OF ENDOCARDITIS IN AN HIV PATIENT.

Introduction Group G streptococci have only occasionally been implicated as a cause of native valve endocarditis. This case report describes a group G streptococcal endocarditis in a drug-resistant HIV patient with severe valvular dysfunction. Case Report A 47-year-old African American male with a past medical history of HIV and CD4 count 10 presented with a 1-week history of fever and left wrist pain. He was not on antiretroviral therapy due to drug-resistant HIV. On examination, temperature was 104°F, BP 115/74, pulse 107, with RR 22/min. He had left wrist tenderness without erythema and swelling. Heart auscultation was unremarkable for any murmur. Laboratory studies revealed leukocyte count of 3,500/μL with 66% bands, creatinine 5.7 mg/dL, and BUN 54 mg/dL. Chest radiography was unremarkable. Urinalysis showed 2+ proteins but no blood. Blood culture grew penicillin-sensitive group G Streptococcus, and the patient was started on parental penicillin G (PCN-G) for cellulitis. On the third day of admission, he developed shortness of breath with hypoxemia. Cardiac auscultation revealed an early diastolic murmur. Chest radiography revealed bilateral pulmonary infiltrates with normal heart size. An echocardiogram showed severe aortic regurgitation with multiple aortic valve vegetations. A diagnosis of infective endocarditis with congestive heart failure was made. He was treated medically with Lasix, along with nitrates. Surgical aortic valve replacement was not an early consideration due to his severely compromised immune status. Over the course of therapy, his hypoxemia resolved and creatinine improved to 3.3 mg/dL. For his HIV therapy, Fuzeon, a fusion protein inhibitor, and HAART were started for resistant HIV genotype and latter discharged with an 8-week intravenous PCN-G home infusion therapy. Surveillance cultures remained negative, and he is currently awaiting aortic valve replacement. Discussion Group G streptococci are gram-positive cocci, which are usually beta-hemolytic. Group G infections are rare but are serious when they occur in settings of underlying predisposing conditions, including diabetes mellitus, alcoholism, immunosuppression, and malignancy. In a series of studies, the most common source of group G bacteremia was found to be cellulitis. In this patient, cellulitis was presumed to be the source of bacteremia. Group G streptococcal endocarditis has a characteristic aggressive course as shown by severe aortic valve dysfunction and acute pulmonary edema in this case. Impaired immunity due to advanced AIDS likely contributed to this aggressive course. Mortality is usually high if it is not recognized early.
Atmospheric Genotoxicants—What Numbers Do We Collect?

To advance the estimation of human environmental risk, especially cancer prevention, from the body-count phase to realistic extrapolation, we need to carry out more sophisticated carcinogenic studies with animals and submammalian species mimicking the human condition. We have seemingly unsurmountable difficulties with our perspective in the study of human carcinogenesis because the paucity of our environmental data and the simplicity of our carcinogen models of purebred animals and “pure” chemicals so misleads us as to obscure reality. Before we can begin to understand human chemical carcinogenesis, we need to know the genetic background of the individual, the key genotoxicant(s) to which the individual is heavily exposed, and the families of genotoxicants in the individuals environment. We are exposed to genotoxicants because of our particular life style (e.g., cigarette smoking, drugs, medicines, and cosmetics), and because the chemicals are present in the life-supporting environment (e.g., food, water, and air) we share with other people.
Determining the biological associates of acute cold pressor post-encoding stress effects on human memory: The role of salivary interleukin-1β.

Abstract Stress generally hurts many aspects of memory, but an interesting finding to emerge from the stress and memory literature is that stress that occurs shortly after learning (i.e., post-encoding stress) usually benefits memory. Although this effect is well established, the biological mechanisms underpinning this effect are not—especially in humans. We addressed this gap in the present study by collecting saliva samples from 80 participants who were randomized to a post-encoding stress (i.e., cold pressor for 3 min) or control task (i.e., warm water for 3 min) and 48 h later completed a recognition memory task. Saliva was collected both prior to and 15 min after the offset of (18 min after the onset of) the stress/control manipulation. Drawing on animal and human work, we examined how five stress-responsive biomarkers—cortisol, salivary α-amylase, progesterone, estradiol, and the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-1β, all assessed in saliva—related to the effects of stress on memory. We found that stress enhanced recollection of negative images and that these effects were selectively related to salivary IL-1β. Moreover, we found that the beneficial effects of stress on memory were statistically mediated by salivary IL-1β. We found no robust associations—either linear or quadratic—between memory and any other biomarker, nor did we find significant interactions between biomarkers in predicting memory. These results suggest that immune system activity indexed by salivary IL-1β may play an important role in contributing to post-encoding stress effects on human memory.
Is psychology suffering from an epidemic of "contagion"? Moving from metaphors to theoretically derived concepts and methods in the study of social influences

The term “contagion” has become increasingly popular as an omnibus catch-all to depict all kinds of mutual influences between people of equal status (or “peers”). We argue that some of these influe...
Cranial nerve outcomes in regionally recurrent head & neck melanoma after sentinel lymph node biopsy.

OBJECTIVE Characterize long-term cranial nerve (CN) outcomes following sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) based management for head and neck cutaneous melanoma (HNCM). METHODS Longitudinal review of HNCM patients undergoing SLNB from 1997-2007. RESULTS Three hundred fifty-six patients were identified, with mean age 53.5 ± 19.0 years, mean Breslow depth 2.52 ± 1.87 mm, and 4.9 years median follow-up. One hundred five (29.4%) patients had SLNB mapping to the parotid basin. Eighteen patients had positive parotid SLNs and underwent immediate parotidectomy / immediate completion lymph node dissection (iCLND), with six possessing positive parotid non-sentinel lymph nodes (NSLNs). Fifty-two of 356 (14.6%) patients developed delayed regional recurrences, including 20 total intraparotid recurrences: five following false negative (FN) parotid SLNB, three following prior immediate superficial parotidectomy, two following iCLND without parotidectomy, and the remaining 12 parotid recurrences had negative extraparotid SLNBs. Parotid recurrences were multiple (4.9 mean recurrent nodes) and advanced (n = 4 extracapsular extension), and all required salvage dissection including parotidectomy. Immediate parotidectomy/iCLND led to no permanent CN injuries. Delayed regional HNCM macrometastasis precipitated 16 total permanent CN injuries in 13 patients: 10 CN VII, five CN XI, and one CN XII deficits. Fifty percent (n = 10) of parotid recurrences caused ≥1 permanent CN deficits. CONCLUSIONS Regional HNCM macrometastases and salvage dissection confer marked CN injury risk, whereas early surgical intervention via SLNB ± iCLND ± immediate parotidectomy yielded no CN injuries. Further, superficial parotidectomy performed in parotid-mapping HNCM does not obviate delayed intraparotid recurrences, which increase risk of CN VII injury. Despite lack of a published disease-specific survival advantage in melanoma, early disease control in cervical and parotid basins is paramount to minimize CN complications. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE 4 (retrospective case series) Laryngoscope, 130:1707-1714, 2020.
Food safety education attitude and practice among health professionals in China, Peru, and the U.S.

Abstract Consumers trust health professionals (doctors, nurses, dietitians, and physicians) for food safety information. However, in the U.S., half health professionals are not confident with their food safety knowledge, and less than half of the health professionals provide food safety education to their patients. Little information on health professional food safety education awareness has been reported outside the U.S. In this study, health professionals from China, Peru, and the U.S. were contacted to explore their likelihood to and barriers to delivering food safety information. A semi-structured interview was used in China and Peru (n = 42) while in the U.S., focus groups (n = 27) and web-based surveys (n = 188) were used. The attitude and practice of health professionals, major barriers to information delivery, the information needed for food safety education, and effective delivery format were evaluated. The results indicated that nearly all the health professionals recognized the necessity of providing food safety education, but only 17 of 42 participants delivered food safety education in China and Peru while more than half participants delivered in the U.S. The three countries shared two main barriers in food safety education: 1) patients demonstrated lack of interest in this topic 2) health professionals did not have enough time to provide the food safety education. The findings provided evidence to guide the decision making for policymakers, educators and health professionals to develop the next-generation food safety education strategies for the public.
A Model Predictive Control Framework for Asymptotic Stabilization of Discretized Hybrid Dynamical Systems

We present a model predictive control (MPC) algorithm for the appropriate discretizations of (nondiscretized) hybrid dynamical systems. The optimization problem associated with the MPC algorithm is formulated with a set-based prediction horizon and the discretized hybrid dynamics as part of its constraints. Sufficient conditions guaranteeing structural properties of the problem and asymptotic stability of a closed set are revealed. These conditions include the existence of a control Lyapunov function assuring an invariance property on the terminal constraint set. In addition, we formulate a method to obtain numerical solutions to the hybrid optimal control problem, amenable to off-the-shelf optimization solvers, and demonstrate this method on the discretization of a prototypical hybrid system.
A systematic review of school meal nudge interventions to improve youth food behaviors.

School meal programs have a large reach and thus are ideal environments in which to implement interventions targeting improved youth eating behaviors and reduced food waste. This systematic review summarizes the evidence on the effectiveness of school meal nudge interventions on influencing children’s eating and waste behaviors. Inclusion criteria required studies have participants in primary or secondary school (grades K-12) with interventions that occurred during school lunch or breakfast in the cafeteria and included at least one of the following outcomes: selection, consumption, waste, or school meal participation. Analyses of intervention outcomes were restricted to studies of strong and moderate quality. Twenty-nine studies were included in the quality assessment. Included interventions fell into three categories: 1) placement/convenience, 2) marketing/promotion, or 3) variety/portions. The 20 strong and moderate quality studies included in outcome analyses generally used strong data collection methods and study designs, but were limited by an overall lack of intervention fidelity checks. Multi-component interventions often did not use methods that allowed for separate analyses of outcomes for different intervention components. School meal nudge interventions were positively associated with food selection, and had an inconsistent relationship with food consumption. There were few studies evaluating the impact of nudge interventions on meal participation or food waste. The limited evidence available links nudges to improved meal participation, as well as undesirable increases in food waste. Future research in this area should use methods that incorporate implementation metrics, attend to systems factors, and allow the outcomes of individual intervention components to be isolated.
Automated trichome counting in soybean using advanced image‐processing techniques

Premise Trichomes are hair-like appendages extending from the plant epidermis. They serve many important biotic roles, including interference with herbivore movement. Characterizing the number, density, and distribution of trichomes can provide valuable insights on plant response to insect infestation and define the extent of plant defense capability. Automated trichome counting would speed up this research but poses several challenges, primarily because of the variability in coloration and the high occlusion of the trichomes. Methods and Results We developed a simplified method for image processing for automated and semi-automated trichome counting. We illustrate this process using 30 leaves from 10 genotypes of soybean (Glycine max) differing in trichome abundance. We explored various heuristic image-processing methods including thresholding and graph-based algorithms to facilitate trichome counting. Of the two automated and two semi-automated methods for trichome counting tested and with the help of regression analysis, the semi-automated manually annotated trichome intersection curve method performed best, with an accuracy of close to 90% compared with the manually counted data. Conclusions We address trichome counting challenges including occlusion by combining image processing with human intervention to propose a semi-automated method for trichome quantification. This provides new opportunities for the rapid and automated identification and quantification of trichomes, which has applications in a wide variety of disciplines.
Condom-vending machines in Italy: a qualitative exploration of gender differences to improve promotion and use.

The purposes of this study were to explore gender differences in condom purchasing from condom-vending machines (CVMs) and identify ways to improve CVM promotion. Semi-structured interviews with 42...
Punchline Detection using Context-Aware Hierarchical Multimodal Fusion

Humor has a history as old as humanity. Humor often induces laughter and elicits amusement and engagement. Humorous behavior involves behavior manifested in different modalities including language, voice tone, and gestures. Thus, automatic understanding of humorous behavior requires multimodal behavior analysis. Humor detection is a well-established problem in Natural Language Processing but its multimodal analysis is less explored. In this paper, we present a context-aware hierarchical fusion network for multimodal punchline detection. The proposed neural architecture first fuses the modalities two by two and then fuses all three modalities. The network also models the context of the punchline using Gated Recurrent Unit(s). The model's performance is evaluated on UR-FUNNY database yielding state-of-the-art performance.
Pathognomonic thoracic radiographic findings are lacking in cats with acute Cytauxzoonosis.

Cytauxzoon felis is a tick-borne haemoprotozoan parasite that often causes fatal disease in domestic cats. Histological studies have described substantial pulmonary pathology due to cytauxzoonosis. Published reports were not found describing the thoracic radiographic signs associated with acute cytauxzoonosis in cats. The purpose of this retrospective descriptive study was to describe thoracic radiographic findings in a group of felines with confirmed acute cytauxzoonosis. A total of 37 cats with confirmed cytauxzoonosis and with available thoracic radiographs were included. A subset of 7 cats in this sample also had histopathologic evaluation of their lung parenchyma. Thoracic radiographs were retrieved and reviewed. A bronchial pulmonary pattern was identified as the most common finding (n = 27/37; 73%). Other radiographic findings included cardiomegaly (n = 19/37; 51%), interstitial pattern (n = 17/37; 46%), pleural effusion (n = 12/37; 32%), arterial vascular distension (n = 10/37; 27%), arterial and venous distension (n = 10/37; 27%), and venous distension (n = 1/37; 3%). The primary histological features present in 7 cats with additional histopathologic evaluation, similar to previously published studies, were vascular occlusion. Our study suggests that, despite severe histologic evidence of disease, there are no pathognomonic thoracic radiographic findings in cats with acute cytauxzoonosis.
μ-Crystallin in Mouse Skeletal Muscle Promotes a Shift from Glycolytic toward Oxidative Metabolism

μ-Crystallin, encoded by the CRYM gene, binds the thyroid hormones, T3 and T4. Because T3 and T4 are potent regulators of metabolism and gene expression, and CRYM levels in human skeletal muscle can vary widely, we investigated the effects of overexpression of Crym. We generated transgenic mice, Crym tg, that expressed Crym protein specifically in skeletal muscle at levels 2.6-147.5 fold higher than in controls. Muscular functions, Ca2+ transients, contractile force, fatigue, running on treadmills or wheels, were not significantly altered, although T3 levels in tibialis anterior (TA) muscle were elevated ~190-fold and serum T4 was decreased 1.2-fold. Serum T3 and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels were unaffected. Crym transgenic mice studied in metabolic chambers showed a significant decrease in the respiratory exchange ratio (RER) corresponding to a 13.7% increase in fat utilization as an energy source compared to controls. Female but not male Crym tg mice gained weight more rapidly than controls when fed high fat or high simple carbohydrate diets. Although labeling for myosin heavy chains showed no fiber type differences in TA or soleus muscles, application of machine learning algorithms revealed small but significant morphological differences between Crym tg and control soleus fibers. RNA-seq and gene ontology enrichment analysis showed a significant shift towards genes associated with slower muscle function and its metabolic correlate, β-oxidation. Protein expression showed a similar shift, though with little overlap. Our study shows that μ-crystallin plays an important role in determining substrate utilization in mammalian muscle and that high levels of μ-crystallin are associated with a shift toward greater fat metabolism.
Diversity in the library : What could happen at the institutional level

A review of library literature shows that while much scholarship has been done on the topic of diversity and diversity programs implemented at large university libraries, little has been written about diversity initiatives at libraries in small liberal arts college settings. This article aims at addressing some of the issues that small college libraries face in dealing with diversity and, in particular, looking at the Operlin Colleg e library's experience in addressing diversity in the workplace
Disparities in the symptomatic presentation of Moyamoya disease in the United States: A nationwide all-payer analysis

Abstract Background Moyamoya disease is a chronic occlusive cerebrovascular disease that can present with either hemorrhagic or ischemic symptoms. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the symptomatology of Moyamoya disease differs according to patient demographic groups. Methods In this study, we used the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) to investigate differences in the presentation of Moyamoya disease by age group, gender, and ethnicity from 2012 to 2016. After propensity score matching was utilized to control for overall comorbidity, the matched cohorts for each symptomatology were compared using a Chi-square test with respect to the potential risk factors of interest (i.e. age, sex, ethnicity) in order to generate multivariate reported P-values. Results A total of 4,474 patients met inclusion criteria. Patients presenting with ischemic stroke were more likely to be 65 years and older (p Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that the distinct presentations of Moyamoya are associated with patient age, gender, and race. This is the largest study of its kind and adds to the collective understanding of this rare but life-threatening condition.
On the natural law defense and the disvalue of ubiquitous miracles

In this paper I explore Peter van Inwagen’s conception of miracles and the implications of this conception for the viability of his version of the natural law defense. I argue that given his account of miraculous divine action and its parallel to free human action, it is implausible to think that God did not prevent natural evil in our world for the reasons van Inwagen proposes. I conclude by suggesting that on the grounds he provides for “epistemic humility” about modal claims and value judgments “unrelated to the concerns of everyday life,” the theist should simply embrace skeptical theism and not further attempt to construct a defense of God’s permission of evil.
Leaving the Fold: Darwin’s Doubt and the Evolution of Protein Folds

I n t r o d u c t I o n In an earlier article (Buratovich 2015), I examined one of the main arguments promulgated by Discovery Institute philosopher of science, Stephen Meyer, in his book Darwin’s Doubt (2013). Meyer maintains that the rapid diversification of animal life during the Cambrian “explosion” required the swift evolution of new genes that provided animals with the genetic information needed to form new cell types. In that article, I showed that not only does the fossil record show evidence of complex multicellular life well before the Cambrian explosion, but also sequenced genomes of modern sponges and cnidarians (corals, Hydra, and sea anemones) possess the genes necessary to build more complex animals, strongly suggesting that the ancestors of these creatures had all the genes necessary for the Cambrian explosion. Thus, it can be concluded that the increase in novel animal forms was due to innovative regulation of these genes during animal development rather than the evolution of new genes themselves. This argument, however, has a potential drawback. The genes that encode the protein components of the signaling pathways used by animals during development had to originate from somewhere. In Darwin’s Doubt, Meyer uses the experiments of protein chemist Douglas Axe (2004) to argue that the “probability of any given mutational trial generating (or ‘finding’) a specific functional protein among all the possible 150 residue amino-acid sequences is 1 chance in 10 77 ” (Meyer 2013:200). Thus, if the evolution of protein folds (miniature, three-dimensional structures that are compacted together to form proteins) is so improbable, how do we account for all of the protein variation present in early animals, without which their varied final body forms would not have been possible? Although Meyer’s argument may seem logical on the surface, manipulations of protein structure, examinations of protein diversity, and protein engineering studies have shown that the argument is terribly flawed. As it turns out, biologists have successfully evolved new protein folds in the laboratory, and the chances of new protein folds evolving naturally are not nearly as improbable as Meyer posits. To understand why, we need to dive into the somewhat esoteric science of protein biochemistry. F o l d t h I s F l a p I n a n d t h I s F l a p ov e r
Domestic Political Institutions and Alliance Politics

Military alliances are one of the most important tools states can use to counter international threats, exert influence over other countries, and accomplish broad foreign policy goals, including peace and stability in the international system. Alliance scholarship can provide valuable insights to policy-makers by answering questions such as which states are likely to ally, when alliances will be upheld, and whether they will be effective. Traditional alliance research focused on international considerations rather than domestic politics as drivers of alliance politics. More recently, however, scholars have shifted their attention to uncovering the ways in which domestic political institutions affect alliance behavior. The main questions underlying this research include: Are states with similar regime types, especially democracies, more likely to ally? Are democracies more reliable alliance partners? Do wartime coalitions involving democracies have a higher chance of victory? Do domestic institutional changes affect alliance maintenance? While the literature has provided conclusive answers to some of these questions, others are characterized by mixed findings. Recently published work has taken on unresolved issues and provided new and original insights. Future research should take these efforts further by unpacking the concepts of “domestic politics” and “alliance politics”. Keywords: military alliances; domestic politics; democracy; international cooperation; regime type; credible commitment; institutional design
Real-time computer systems: current and future trends

The author presents the state-of-the-art of real-time computing systems by emphasizing those developments likely to have impact on future real-time systems. The real-time systems based on industry standards are introduced, and the future trends in operating systems development are discussed. >
Poles Apart on PZU (A)

After a decade-long dispute with the Polish State Treasury, in October 2009, the Dutch insurer Eureko agreed to exit PZU in exchange for compensation. Who was the biggest beneficiary of the settlement: Eureko, the Treasury, or PZU itself? Learning Objective: To identify examples of irrational behavior and estimate the benefits of the settlement for all the parties concerned.
The mitochondrial Ca2+-independent phospholipase A2 becomes active in parallel to OPA1 cleavage (760.1)

Accumulation of depolarizing amounts of Ca2+ or Sr2+, as well as chemical uncoupling have been shown to activate a mitochondrial Ca2+-independent phospholipase A2 (iPLA2). Data generated in isolated mitochondria utilizing various electron transport chain inhibitors indicate that neither redox status of particular electron transport chain complexes nor ROS production are primary regulators of the iPLA2; however, loss of membrane potential (∆Ψ) is shared by all of the treatments that produce activation. Therefore, we hypothesized that the iPLA2 is primarily regulated by ∆Ψ. Here we report that the dynamin-like GTPase OPA1 is cleaved from a long form to a short form in parallel to iPLA2 activation. OPA1 cleavage is known to inhibit mitochondrial fusion generating a pool of fragmented mitochondria, which are thereafter targeted for degradation by agents such as PINK1 and Parkin, and for eventual removal by autophagocytosis. Thus, both iPLA2 activation and OPA1 cleavage may contribute to initiating the turnove...
The 21st Century Mathematics Curriculum: A Technology Enhanced Experience

Technology has the potential to impact the content of the mathematics curriculum in secondary schools as well as the methods used to teach it. Although the United States mathematics curriculum has undergone contentious shifts of emphasis over the last half century, there are points of agreement on what needs to be learned by secondary students. However, current mathematics curricula often result in three separations in students’ understanding and uses of mathematics. The first separation is the artificial distance between school and students’ “real-life” mathematical experiences. The placement of related mathematical concepts into different courses is the second separation. The third separation is the lack of mathematic applications in other curricular subjects. This chapter focuses on the 21st Century Skills, students’ problem posing, and technology integration as vehicles to change classroom mathematics to reconcile these separations. Together, these tools enable mathematics educators to re-conceptualize the mathematics classroom as a place where students learn mathematics by exploring the uses of mathematics across all of the subjects in STEAM education.
Effects of Self-Monitoring on On-Task Behaviors of At-Risk Middle School Students

The purposes of this study were to evaluate the effects of self-monitoring on increasing the on-task behaviors of four at-risk middle school students, and to examine its indirect effects on academic performance. Additionally, we attempted to develop and validate cost- and time-efficient procedures that typical classroom teachers could use. The data from a multiple baseline design across three academic settings, replicated with four students, revealed immediate increases in on-task behavior as each student began to self-monitor in each sequential setting. The data also revealed slightly higher levels of academic performance and, in most instances, gradually accelerating trends. These findings suggest that self-monitoring is a cost- and time-efficient procedure that classroom teachers can use to teach at-risk students to manage their own behaviors.
Support effects in the adsorption of water on CVD graphene: an ultra-high vacuum adsorption study

Experimental data for water adsorption on CVD (chemical vapor deposition) graphene/SiO2 and graphene/Cu studied under ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions are discussed, focusing on support effects and hydrophobicity. Under UHV, it seems that graphene wettability is inversely related to wetting properties of the support. Graphene is not transparent to water wetting on the supports studied here.
Error Bounds for the Lanczos Methods for Approximating Matrix Exponentials

In this paper, we present new error bounds for the Lanczos method and the shift-and-invert Lanczos method for computing $e^{-\tau A} v$ for a large sparse symmetric positive semidefinite matrix $A$. Compared with the existing error analysis for these methods, our bounds relate the convergence to the condition numbers of the matrix that generates the Krylov subspace. In particular, we show that the Lanczos method will converge rapidly if the matrix $A$ is well-conditioned, regardless of what the norm of $\tau A$ is. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the theoretical bounds.
Geometrical properties of Maslov indices in the semiclassical trace formula for the density of states.

We show that in the trace formula of Gutzwiller [J. Math. Phys. 8, 1979 (1967); 10, 1004 (1969); 11, 1791 (1970); 12, 343 (1971)] and Balian and Bloch [Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 60, 401 (1970); 63, 592 (1971); 69, 76 (1972); 85, 514 (1974)], applied to systems of two degrees of freedom, the Maslov index arising in the contribution from each periodic orbit is equal to twice the number of times the stable and unstable manifolds wind around the periodic orbit. As a consequence, we find that the Maslov index of a periodic orbit is equal to the Maslov index defined by either its stable or its unstable manifold. In this way it becomes apparent that the Maslov index occurring in the trace formula is an intrinsic property of the periodic orbit, being independent of the coordinates used to find it. In contrast to the case of torus quantization applied to integrable systems, where only even Maslov indices appear, we find that odd Maslov indices can arise in the trace formula of chaotic systems. These odd Maslov indices arise in the contributions of periodic orbits that are hyperbolic with reflection.
DOSE-RESPONSE CURVE OF PHYTOHAEMAGGLUTININ IN TISSUE CULTURE OF NORMAL HUMAN LEUCOCYTES.

PHYTOHAEMAGGLUTININ (PHA) stimulates division of normal lymphocytes from venous blood in vitro1. Little or no cell division occurs when it is omitted from culture2. Other workers3 have suggested a relationship between the amount of protein in the culture and the rate of cell division, but have not reported a systematic study. The relationship between a single dose of phytohaemagglutinin and the kinetics of cell division has been described1. This communication reports the effect of various doses of PHA on cell division with other conditions constant. The goal of the investigation is a reproducible biological model of the induction of cell division.
Exploration and mining of web repositories

With the proliferation of very large data repositories hidden behind web interfaces, e.g., keyword search, form-like search and hierarchical/graph-based browsing interfaces for Amazon.com, eBay.com, etc., efficient ways of searching, exploring and/or mining such web data are of increasing importance. There are two key challenges facing these tasks: how to properly understand web interfaces, and how to bypass the interface restrictions. In this tutorial, we start with a general overview of web search and data mining, including various exciting applications enabled by the effective search, exploration, and mining of web repositories. Then, we focus on the fundamental developments in the field, including web interface understanding, crawling, sampling, and data analytics over web repositories with various types of interfaces. We also discuss the potential changes required for query processing, data mining and machine learning algorithms to be applied to web data. Our goal is two-fold: one is to promote the awareness of existing web data search/explora-tion/mining techniques among all web researchers who are interested in leveraging web data, and the other is to encourage researchers, especially those who have not previously worked in web search and mining before, to initiate their own research in these exciting areas.
Evaluation of the Alere i Influenza A&B Nucleic Acid Amplification Test by Use of Respiratory Specimens Collected in Viral Transport Medium

The Alere i Influenza A&B assay is a newly developed rapid molecular assay which has the potential to generate results within 15 min from sample collection. In this study, we evaluated the Alere i Influenza A&B assay by using salvaged frozen respiratory specimens that were collected in viral transport medium from children ages 10 months to 19 years. Alere i Influenza A&B assay test results were compared with viral culture and ProFlu(+) real-time reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) assay results. We found that the overall sensitivity and specificity of the Alere i Influenza A&B assay were 93.3% and 94.5% for the detection of influenza A virus and 100% and 100% for the detection of influenza B virus, respectively, compared to viral culture. In comparison to ProFlu(+) real-time RT-PCR, overall sensitivity and specificity of the Alere i Influenza A&B assay for the detection of influenza A virus were 88.8% and 98.3% and 100% and 100% for detecting influenza B virus. Overall, the Alere i Influenza A&B assay performed well compared to either virus cell culture or RT-PCR.
Analysis of enkephalins, β-endorphins and small peptides in their sequences by highly sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection: implications in opioid peptide metabolism

Abstract Sensitivity in the 10–100 pg range for enkephalins, β-endorphin, tyrosine (T), tyrosylglycine (T-G) and tyrosylglycylglycine (T-G-G) was attained by using a high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method with electrochemical detection which is at least 100 times more sensitive than HPLC with UV detection. The chromatographic conditions on a reversed-phase C18 silica column were 50 mM sodium phosphate buffer (pH 2.1) (A) in acetonitrile—methanol (1:1) (B), isocratic mixture, flow-rate 0.6–1 ml/min, UV detection at 205 nm, electrochemical oxidation potential + 1.25 V. The separation of T, T-G and T-G-G was obtained by using 10 % B while the separation of the pentapeptide, enkephalins required 40 % B. Separation of enkephalins from β-endorphin was attained at a shorter retention time using 60% acetonitrile. Under all of these different conditions the retention times did not exceed 15 min. This method can be used to determine tissue levels and pharmacodynamics of enkephalins and β-endorphin. A highly specific measurement of the different enzymes involved in the metabolism of enkephalin has been achieved.
Reinventing the Community College

A discussion of the changing role of community colleges in the US. Should they follow the baccalaureate path, offer four year courses, etc? Suggests that the colleges have to change to remain in existence. Explores some of the options.
Single-plane transesophageal echocardiography for assessing function of mechanical or bioprosthetic valves in the aortic valve position

To assess the value and limitations of single-plane transesophageal echocardiography in the evaluation of prosthetic aortic valve function, 89 patients (69 mechanical and 20 bioprosthetic aortic valves) were studied by combined transthoracic and transesophageal 2-dimensional and color flow Doppler echocardiography. In the assessment of aortic regurgitation, the transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiographic findings were concordant in 71 of 89 patients (80%). In 8 patients, the degree of aortic regurgitation was underestimated by the transthoracic approach; in each case the quality of the transthoracic echocardiogram was poor. In 10 patients, transesophageal echocardiography failed to detect trivial aortic regurgitation due to acoustic shadowing of the left ventricular outflow tract from a mechanical valve in the mitral valve position. Transesophageal echocardiography was superior to transthoracic echocardiography in diagnosing perivalvular abscess, subaortic perforation, valvular dehiscence, torn or thickened bioprosthetic aortic valve cusps, and in clearly distinguishing perivalvular from valvular aortic regurgitation. Transesophageal echocardiography correctly diagnosed bioprosthetic valve obstruction in 1 patient, but failed to diagnose mechanical valve obstruction in another. In conclusion, transesophageal echocardiography offers no advantage over the transthoracic approach in the detection and quantification of prosthetic aortic regurgitation unless the transthoracic image quality is poor. Transesophageal echocardiography is limited in detecting mechanical valve obstruction and in detecting aortic regurgitation in the presence of a mechanical prosthesis in the mitral valve position. However, it is superior to transthoracic echocardiography in identifying perivalvular pathology, differentiating perivalvular from valvular regurgitation and in defining the anatomic abnormality responsible for the prosthetic valve dysfunction. Combined transthoracic and transesophageal examination provides complete anatomic and hemodynamic assessment of prosthetic aortic valve function.
Formation of separated versus contact ion pairs in alkali metal thiolates and selenolates

The solvation and ligation tendencies of alkali metal thiolates and selenolates in relation to metal and donors were investigated by synthesizing a family of target compounds, and analysing their structural features in solution and the solid state. The target compounds were synthesized utilizing hydrogen elimination, involving treatment of the chalcogenol with either sodium or potassium hydride in the presence of various donors. The separated ions were [Na(18-crown-6)(THF)2][SMes*] 1, (Mes* = 2,4,6-tBu3C6H2), [K(18-crown-6)(THF)2][SMes*] 3, and [K(18-crown-6)(THF)2][SeMes*] 4, and K(dibenzo-18-crown-6)(SMes*)·THF 2, displayed potassium–sulfur contacts. Compounds 1–4 were characterized using X-ray crystallography, NMR and IR spectroscopy. Cyclic voltammetry studies were carried out on 1–3, Na(dibenzo-18-crown-6)(SMes*) 5 and K(dibenzo-18-crown-6)(STrip)· THF 6 (Trip = 2,4,6-iPr3C6H2). A concentration dependent equilibrium reaction, which leads to an increase in free thiolate at higher concentrations, was observed for all complexes. NMR experiments using solutions of 5 (8.5 and 0.085 mM, THF-d8) and trimethyl phosphate confirmed the presence of free thiolate at higher concentration.
Urologist-Acquired Renal Access for Percutaneous Renal Surgery

Abstract Objectives. In most endourology programs an interventional radiologist is employed to acquire renal access for percutaneous renal surgery. Over the last 13 years the senior endourologist at Oregon Health Sciences University has acquired access without employing a radiologist. We report our experience with urologist-acquired renal access for percutaneous renal surgery in 522 cases. Methods. We reviewed the records of all patients at our hospital who underwent percutaneous renal surgery between August 1983 and December 1996 with renal access being obtained in the operating room by a urologist. Results. Four hundred fifty-six patients underwent 522 procedures. Indications for percutaneous renal surgery were renal and proximal ureteral calculi (n = 516), retained ureteral stent (n = 3), and intrarenal collecting system tumor (n = 3). We were successful in gaining access to 513 of 522 kidneys (98.3%). Access was obtained via a subcostal approach in 344 procedures, over the 12th rib in 152 procedures, over the 11th rib in 15 procedures, and transabdominally in 2 procedures. Sixty-five patients (12.7%) required a second or multiple sites to facilitate complete removal of calculi. Our overall complication rate was 15.3%. Blood transfusion was required in 5.4% of the cases, ileus developed in 1.9%, pneumothorax in 1.1%, intraoperative hydrothorax in 1.1%, postoperative pleural effusion requiring aspiration in 0.9%, and septic shock in 0.9%. Our overall success rate for stone removal was 94.5%. Conclusions. In our experience, the urologist is able to safely and effectively obtain percutaneous access to the collecting system for percutaneous renal surgery as a one-stage procedure without the aid of interventional radiologists.