cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Model for Study of Soviet Foreign Policy

Soviet foreign policy has been a subject of extensive and intensive study ever since the painful birth of the Soviet state. All the writings and investigations, except for the purely descriptive, are based in some degree on one or several key premises and assumptions of authors who used them to explain and interpret Soviet foreign policy. This is understandable and probably inevitable in view of the enormous significance of the subject matter, the vastness of observed behavior in time and in space, and the lack of available information on policy making. Consequently, scientific, intuitive, and even merely hopeful thinking has been applied to the evidences of Soviet foreign policy in an effort to find a method of analysis, a frame of reference, a tool of orientation which might permit some systematization of the whole subject. Clearly, a single seemingly well-constructed theory of Soviet foreign policy which purports to offer a key to broad analysis is too attractive for an analyst to ignore. But however plausible it may seem, it cannot possibly offer the whole answer. Some elements of Soviet foreign policy may be isolated, focalized, dissected, and examined, but others cannot be subject to even speculative, crude estimates.
Monitoring and Modeling Effects of IGF1, Insulin and Green Tea Compound EGCG on Nuclear-Cytoplasmic Distribution of Foxo1-GFP in Skeletal Muscle Fibers

The transcription factor Foxo1 promotes transcription of the ubiquitin ligases MuRF1 and MAFbx/atrogin1, which contribute to muscle fiber protein breakdown, leading to muscle atrophy and wasting. Foxo1 phosphorylated at its protein kinase B (Akt) sites is transported out of nuclei, and Foxo1 dephosphorylated at these sites is transported into nuclei. Foxo1 net nuclear efflux decreases Foxo1 transcriptional activity, thus opposing muscle protein breakdown and atrophy. Here we use quantitative fluorescence confocal imaging of the time course of Foxo1-GFP net nuclear fluxes together with mathematical modeling of Foxo1-GFP nuclear movements to examine the effects of upstream signaling on nuclear Foxo1. IGF1 and insulin, which activate Akt via the PI3k/PDK1/Akt signaling pathway, caused concentration dependent decreases of nuclear Foxo1-GFP. High IGF1 or insulin caused similar rapid and marked Foxo1-GFP net nuclear efflux. ECGC caused a more delayed net loss of nuclear Foxo1-GFP, possibly indicative of need for EGCG to enter the fiber to initiate its effect, whereas IGF1 and insulin work at cell surface receptors. Excluding the delay, the final rate and extent of decay of nuclear Foxo1-GFP was similar for EGCG, IGF1 and insulin. Analysis using our recently presented reduced (2 state)model for Foxo nuclear fluxes (Wimmer et al, 2014) showed that IGF1, insulin and EGCG all markedly and similarly increased the apparent unidirectional rate constant for Foxo1-GFP nuclear efflux, as well as markedly decreasing the apparent unidirectional rate constant for nuclear influx, indicative of increased Foxo1 phosphorylation in both cytoplasm and nuclei, both of which contribute to the observed decrease in nuclear Foxo1-GFP. Thus, IGF1, insulin and EGCG all activate Akt, both in the cytoplasm and within the nuclei. Supported by NIH R01AR056477 and by UMB-UMBC Seed Grant
Single Cell Analysis of Bovine Chromaffin Cells Using Micro Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy

Single cell characterization using electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) has been conducted on bovine chromaffin cells and red blood cells. Measurements were taken using a micro scale electrophysiological analysis system fabricated using micromachining (e.g. MEMS) technologies. Impedance measurements were taken over a frequency range of 40 Hz to 3.0 MHz. The data obtained for the cells was compared to data obtained for air, and phosphate buffered solution.
Energy-Linked Reactions in Photosynthetic Bacteria VIII. Role of Energy-Linked Reactions in the Cell

The role and importance of photosynthetic and oxidative electron transport in producing the ATP needed for cellular biosynthetic reactions is obvious. The role of other energy-linked reactions in the cell is not so apparent. In this paper, I will consider three energy-linked reactions that have been studied in my laboratory; succinate-linked NAD+ reduction (KEISTER & YIKE 1967, KEISTER & MINTON 1969), transhydrogenation (KEISTER & YIKE 1967) and a new reaction that we have just characterized, PPi-driven ATP synthesis (KEISTER & MINTON 1971).
A quad-band compact PIFA operating in the GSM1800/GSM1900/UMTS/LTE2300/LTE2500/ 2.4-GHz WLAN bands for mobile terminals

In this paper, a low-profile quad-band planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) designed to cover the bands of GSM1800 (1710–1880 MHz), GSM1900 (1850–1990 MHz), UMTS (1920–2170 MHz), LTE2300 (2305–2400 MHz), Wi-Fi (2400–2484 MHz) and LTE2500 (2500–2690 MHz) bands has been presented. The antenna element has an area of 2.5×20 mm2 over a small ground plane of size 100×60 mm2. To maintain the small size of the antenna element, folded patch is used and it is etched over the FR4 substrate of 0.7 mm thickness. The antenna is characterized with reflection S-parameter, surface current distributions and radiation patterns.
Cam-Clay plasticity, Part VIII: A constitutive framework for porous materials with evolving internal structure

Abstract Natural geomaterials often exhibit pore size distributions with two dominant porosity scales. Examples include fractured rocks where the dominant porosities are those of the fractures and rock matrix, and aggregated soils where the dominant porosities are those of the micropores and macropores. We develop a constitutive framework for this type of materials that covers both steady-state and transient fluid flow responses. The framework relies on a thermodynamically consistent effective stress previously developed for porous media with two dominant porosity scales. We show that this effective stress is equivalent to the weighted sum of the individual effective stresses in the micropores and macropores, with the weighting done according to the pore fractions. This partitioning of the effective stress into two single-porosity effective stresses allows fluid pressure dissipation at the macropores and micropores to be considered separately, with important implications for individual characterization of the hardening responses at the two pore scales. Experimental data suggest that the constitutive framework captures the laboratory responses of aggregated soils more accurately than other models previously reported in the literature. Numerical simulations of boundary-value problems reveal the capability of the framework to capture the effect of secondary compression as the micropores discharge fluids into the macropores.
Performance Evaluation and Analysis

In Chapter 2, the computer vision problem was defined in terms of three entities; the scene, image, and scene model. The image acquisition process produced an image of the scene, and the vision system’s task was to produce a scene model from the image which matched a manually constructed scene model for the same scene as closely as possible. The issues involved in performing a meaningful comparison of these two kinds of scene models and analyzing the results of such a comparison form the central topics of this chapter, along with a thorough comparative performance evaluation of PIVOT.
Isolation of Polyadenylated RNA

Publisher Summary Polyadenylation is the process by which the poly (A) structure is added to mRNA. It is not coupled directly to transcription termination; rather it is catalyzed by a family of nuclear enzymes which is known collectively as poly (A) polymerase. The poly (A) tail also has a role in transportation of the mature mRNA out of the nucleus. The main focus of this chapter is to highlight the significance of mRNA that is purified by affinity chromatographic selection directed toward the poly (A) tail. The purpose of purifying mRNA, i.e., removing the rRNA and tRNA species, is to increase the statistical representation of the mRNAs in a sample as a function of the total mass of purified RNA. Any approach of this nature is known as an enrichment strategy. The most important aspect of poly (A) selection is keeping the volumes involved as small as possible, so as to keep the sample concentrated. A variety of techniques such as magnetic bead technology for poly (A) purification, oligo (dT)-cellulose column chromatography and rapid, non-column poly (A) purification, are used for the purification of poly (A) mRNA and these methods have one thing in common that is the poly (A) mRNA anneals to an affinity matrix under high ionic strength (high salt) conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to eliminate the electrostatic repulsion that occurs naturally between the target RNA and the thymidylate residues which are linked to the matrix.
The evolutionary ecology (evo-eco) of plant asexual reproduction

The different modes of asexual plant reproduction are reviewed in the context of the evolutionary ecology (evo-eco) of retaining old (and colonizing new) habitats and exploring new ones. The modes of asexual reproduction are contrasted between the green algae and the nonvascular and vascular land plants (bryophytes and tracheophytes, respectively). The chronology of their appearance is also traced in the fossil record. Among bryophytes, the indeterminate growth of protonema and the subsequent fragmentation of gametophytes provide a successful asexual reproductive stratagem, one that is paralleled by indeterminate rhizomaty and subsequent fragmentation of tracheophyte sporophytes. Self-compatible (autogamous) bisexual (monoicous) gametophytes capable of producing viable homozygous sporophytes offer a method for colonizing new sites by means of a single spore, a stratagem that is paralleled in tracheophyte sporophytes by the co-option of sexual reproductive structures (e.g., flowers) to produce diploid embryos asexually (e.g., variants of apomixis such as nucellar embryony). A review of the fossil record and the biology of extant taxa show that some of these modes of asexual reproduction are ancient and present in the green ancestors of the land plants (i.e., the charophycean algae). An overview of the data indicates that asexual reproduction provides a bet-hedging stratagem that can obviate some of the many costs of sexual reproduction, and preserve well-adapted genomes within previously occupied sites.
High-Throughput Continuous Flow Synthesis of Nickel Nanoparticles for the Catalytic Hydrodeoxygenation of Guaiacol

The translation of batch chemistries to high-throughput flow methods addresses scaling concerns associated with the implementation of colloidal nanoparticle (NP) catalysts for industrial processes. A literature procedure for the synthesis of Ni-NPs was adapted to a continuous millifluidic (mF) flow method, achieving yields >60%. Conversely, NPs prepared in a batch (B) reaction under conditions analogous to the continuous flow conditions gave only a 45% yield. Both mF- and B-Ni-NP catalysts were supported on SiO2 and compared to a Ni/SiO2 catalyst prepared by traditional incipient wetness (IW) impregnation for the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of guaiacol under ex situ catalytic fast pyrolysis conditions (350 °C, 0.5 MPa). Compared to the IW method, both colloidal NPs displayed increased morphological control and narrowed size distributions, and the NPs prepared by both methods showed similar size, shape, and crystallinity. The Ni-NP catalyst synthesized by the continuous flow method exhibited similar H-adsorpt...
NaCl Addition to the Top Layer of Corn Ensiled in Bunker Silos1

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to examine fermentation characteristics and the quality of corn silage in response to top-dressing with NaCl after ensiling. Two bunker silos were divided into six sections each. Three alternate sections per silo had salt applied at a rate of 22.5 kg/121-m 2 section. The other three sections were not treated. The silos were covered with black plastic sheeting and secured with tire sidewalls. Four weeks after covering, seven silage samples were taken from the top layer of each of the sections, composited, and analyzed for DM, pH, NDF, ADF, acetic acid, lactic acid, mold, yeast, total aerobic bacteria, clostridia, deoxynivalenol, and zearalenone. The silage samples from the salt-treated sections exhibited several properties that indicated improved fermentation and reduced spoilage, including trends for reduced pH, NDF content, zearalenone concentrations, and total aerobic bacteria counts, when compared with the unsalted silage. Adding salt to the top layer of corn silage is an economically feasible way of reducing top layer spoilage and may reduce silage waste.
On the Next-leading order Heavy-Quark Potential from AdS/CFT

Applying the AdS/CFT correspondence,the expansion of the heavy-quark potential of N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at large N c is carried out to the next-leading term in the large ’t Hooft coupling at zero temperature.The strong coupling corresponds to the semi-classical expansion of the stringsigma model,the gravity dual of the Wilson loop operator,with the next-leading term expressed in terms of functional determinants of fluctuations.The singularities of these determinants are examined and their contributions are evaluated numerically.We find the next-leading order correction is negative and suppressed by minus square root of the ’t Hooft coupling relative to the leading order.
Marital status as a predictor of diurnal salivary cortisol levels and slopes in a community sample of healthy adults

Married people tend to be healthier than both the previously (bereaved, divorced, and separated) and never married, but the mechanisms through which this occurs remain unclear. To this end, research has increasingly focused on how psychological stress experienced by unmarried versus married individuals may differentially impact physiological systems related to health. One key system that is modulated by stress is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, of which cortisol is a key hormonal product. Increased cortisol production and disruption of cortisol's daily rhythm have been linked to poorer health outcomes. This study examined the association between current marital status and these two indices of cortisol in a community sample of 572 healthy men and women aged 21-55. It also tested whether marriage buffers against the effect of stress (perceived stress by marital status interaction) on cortisol production. Participants provided salivary cortisol samples during waking hours on three nonconsecutive separate days to calculate diurnal cortisol levels and slopes. Married individuals had lower cortisol levels than either their never married or previously married counterparts. Differences in cortisol levels were due at least in part to currently married individuals having a more rapid decline in cortisol through the afternoon hours compared to individuals who were never married (but not those who were previously married). Furthermore, there was an interaction between perceived stress and marital status in predicting cortisol levels. Specifically, higher stress was associated with higher cortisol levels for previously married individuals but not for the married or never married. The results of this study support cortisol as one candidate mechanism accounting for the association of marital status and health.
Consistent metagenomic biomarker detection via robust PCA

Recent developments of high throughput sequencing technologies allow the characterization of the microbial communities inhabiting our world. Various metagenomic studies have suggested using microbial taxa as potential biomarkers for certain diseases. In practice, the number of available samples varies from experiment to experiment. Therefore, a robust biomarker detection algorithm is needed to provide a set of potential markers irrespective of the number of available samples. Consistent performance is essential to derive solid biological conclusions and to transfer these findings into clinical applications. Surprisingly, the consistency of a metagenomic biomarker detection algorithm with respect to the variation in the experiment size has not been addressed by the current state-of-art algorithms. We propose a consistency-classification framework that enables the assessment of consistency and classification performance of a biomarker discovery algorithm. This evaluation protocol is based on random resampling to mimic the variation in the experiment size. Moreover, we model the metagenomic data matrix as a superposition of two matrices. The first matrix is a low-rank matrix that models the abundance levels of the irrelevant bacteria. The second matrix is a sparse matrix that captures the abundance levels of the bacteria that are differentially abundant between different phenotypes. Then, we propose a novel Robust Principal Component Analysis (RPCA) based biomarker discovery algorithm to recover the sparse matrix. RPCA belongs to the class of multivariate feature selection methods which treat the features collectively rather than individually. This provides the proposed algorithm with an inherent ability to handle the complex microbial interactions. Comprehensive comparisons of RPCA with the state-of-the-art algorithms on two realistic datasets are conducted. Results show that RPCA consistently outperforms the other algorithms in terms of classification accuracy and reproducibility performance. The RPCA-based biomarker detection algorithm provides a high reproducibility performance irrespective of the complexity of the dataset or the number of selected biomarkers. Also, RPCA selects biomarkers with quite high discriminative accuracy. Thus, RPCA is a consistent and accurate tool for selecting taxanomical biomarkers for different microbial populations. This article was reviewed by Masanori Arita and Zoltan Gaspari.
Taxing the Rich: A History of Fiscal Fairness in the United States and Europe

Kenneth Scheve and David Stasavage, two political scientists, chart and analyze the trends in the taxation of the wealthy in 20 nations, primarily in Western Europe and North America, but also incl...
Tracheal diverticula in advanced cystic fibrosis: Prevalence, features, and outcomes after lung transplantation

Abstract Background Tracheal diverticula (TD) are rare anomalies that may harbor infected secretions, posing potential risk to patients with lung disease. In an end-stage cystic fibrosis (CF) cohort, we describe the characteristics and associated post-lung transplant (LTx) outcomes of TD. Methods Pre-transplant computed tomography (CT)'s were reviewed in CF patients undergoing LTx. TD were characterized radiographically and on autopsy when available. Pre-transplant clinical variables and post-transplant outcomes were compared by TD status. Results Of 93 patients, 35 (37.6%) had TD. 58% of TD had fat-stranding, and post-mortem TD examinations revealed histology carrying intense submucosal inflammation, and purulent contents that cultured identical species to sputum. There was no difference in post-LTx survival [HR 1.77 (0.82–3.82), p =0.147], bacterial re-colonization, or rejection in patients with TD compared to those without. Patients with TD were more likely to die from infection, but the result was not statistically significant [HR 2.02 (0.62–6.63), p =0.245]. Conclusions We found a high prevalence of TD in end-stage CF, where diverticula may represent a large-airway bacterial reservoir. TD were not associated with differences in post-LTx outcomes, but given the infectious concerns further investigation is necessary.
Variation in Local House Price–Rent Ratios

Abstract The price–rent ratio is commonly used as an indicator of housing value. New data sources remove previous technical limitations on ratio construction and use, providing information on a monthly basis at the town, neighborhood, and ZIP Code levels. In this study, I explore the new data and find significant variation in price–rent ratios found across local markets that is correlated with local property tax rates, household income, and age. This work should encourage further study on cross- market ratio analysis, as well as the development of local indices to more effectively assess the possibility that a specific local market may be underpriced or overpriced.
Successful Repair of Type A Aortic Dissection in an Octogenarian With Double Aortic Arch

An 80-year-old woman was transferred to our institution with a subacute type A aortic dissection and a previously undiagnosed double aortic arch. The patient underwent successful repair with aortic valve resuspension, ascending aortic replacement, and repair of the proximal right-sided arch. This is the first reported case of a type A dissection associated with a double aortic arch in the United States.
Methods for Studying Hereditary Factors in Humans

The success stories of scientific breakthroughs discussed in the previous chapter concerned mental retardation, a concept that until 15 to 20 years ago was as undifferentiated as the concept of mental illness. Today a growing number of specific etiologies for many kinds of mental retardation are recognized. This has raised the hope that the same process of new discoveries will take place with mental illness (i. e., that specific genetic entities will be identified). Currently, there is considerable research activity focused on elucidating possible genetic factors in mental illness. In this chapter, we will first review several research paradigms appropriate for the study of hereditary factors in humans. Next we will review some analytic approaches useful for the examination of specific hypotheses about genetic mechanisms. In this review, we will concentrate on the methods and the assumptions, rather than on specific numerical results.
Femtosecond Laser Eyewear Protection: Measurements and Precautions for Amplified High Power Applications.

Ultrafast lasers have become increasingly important as research tools in laboratories and commercial enterprises suggesting laser safety, personal protection, and awareness become ever more important. Laser safety eyewear are typically rated by their optical densities (OD) over various spectral ranges, but these measurements are usually made using low power, large beam size, and continuous beam conditions. These measurement scenarios are vastly different than the high power, small beam size, and pulsed laser beam conditions where ultrafast lasers have extremely high peak powers and broad spectra due to the short pulse durations. Many solid-state lasers are also tunable over a broad wavelength range, further complicating the selection of adequate laser safety eyewear. Eighteen laser eyewear filter samples were tested under real-world conditions using a Ti:Sapphire regenerative amplifier with output pulses centered at 800 nm running from 2 Hz to 1 kHz repetition rate. The typical maximum peak laser irradiance employed was ca. 3 TW/cm2 (800 nm wavelength, 450 μJ/pulse with 80 fs full width at half maximum pulse duration) or less when damage occurred, depending on the sample. While many samples maintained their integrity under these test conditions, many plastic samples showed signs of failure which reduced their OD, in some cases transmitting 4–5 orders of magnitude higher than expected. In general, glass filters performed significantly better than plastic filters, exhibiting less physical damage to the substrate and less absorber degradation.Ultrafast lasers have become increasingly important as research tools in laboratories and commercial enterprises suggesting laser safety, personal protection, and awareness become ever more important. Laser safety eyewear are typically rated by their optical densities (OD) over various spectral ranges, but these measurements are usually made using low power, large beam size, and continuous beam conditions. These measurement scenarios are vastly different than the high power, small beam size, and pulsed laser beam conditions where ultrafast lasers have extremely high peak powers and broad spectra due to the short pulse durations. Many solid-state lasers are also tunable over a broad wavelength range, further complicating the selection of adequate laser safety eyewear. Eighteen laser eyewear filter samples were tested under real-world conditions using a Ti:Sapphire regenerative amplifier with output pulses centered at 800 nm running from 2 Hz to 1 kHz repetition rate. The typical maximum peak laser irradian...
The Role of Chemokines in Fibrotic Dermal Remodeling and Wound Healing

The skin is an essential part of the integumentary organ system, providing protection from pathogens, allowing for water and electrolyte homeostasis, and relaying sensory information from the surroundings. Skin has a sophisticated and orderly architecture of dermal layers, each containing a unique mixture of cell populations, specialized structures, and extracellular matrix components. Following wounding, the dermis undergoes a highly ordered process of repair that consists of overlapping phases of hemostasis and inflammation, proliferation and angiogenesis, and remodeling of the nascent tissue. The activities of chemokines largely orchestrate this healing process. These small cytokines act through various receptors and effects on the extracellular matrix to coordinate migration, survival, and other cellular processes. Several of these chemokine signaling pathways influence the inflammatory cascade early on in healing and the later growth and regression of neovasculature, re-epithelializaiton of the wound area, and ultimately are essential for providing cues when the repair process should halt the process is complete.
Merged plantarflexor muscle activity is predictive of poor walking performance in post-stroke hemiparetic subjects.

Abstract Stroke is the leading cause of long-term disability and individuals post-stroke often experience impaired walking ability. The plantarflexor (PF) muscles are critical to walking through their contributions to the ground reaction forces and body segment energetics. Previous studies have shown muscle activity during walking can be grouped into co-excited muscle sets, or modules. Improper co-activation, or merging of modules, is a common impairment in individuals post-stroke. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of merged PF modules on walking performance in individuals post stroke by examining balance control, body support and propulsion, and walking symmetry. Muscle modules were identified using non-negative matrix factorization to classify subjects as having an independent or merged PF module. The merged group had decreased balance control with a significantly higher frontal plane whole-body angular momentum than both the independent and control groups, while the independent and control groups were not significantly different. The merged group also had higher paretic braking and nonparetic propulsion than both the independent and control groups. These results remained when comparisons were limited to subjects who had the same number of modules, indicating this was not a general effect due to subjects with merged PF having fewer modules. It is likely that a merged PF module is indicative of general PF dysfunction even when some activation occurs at the appropriate time. These results suggest an independent PF module is critical to walking performance, and thus obtaining an independent PF module should be a crucial aim of stroke rehabilitation.
Finding the Answer: Techniques for Locating Students' Answers in Handwritten Problem Solutions

In many academic subjects, especially science, engineering, and math, paper-based problem solving is an important part of education. However, grading such work can be prohibitively expensive in large university courses. As a remedy, we have developed techniques to support the automated grading of handwritten problem solutions. Students complete their work using Livescribe digital pens and draw boxes around the final answers. We developed techniques that identify the answers by locating the boxes. This problem is challenging as the written work contains a mixture of diagrams and equations, and boxes frequently appear as a part of the diagrams. Additionally, the boxes must be segmented from the remainder of the writing. Thus, a simple shape recognizer is inadequate for this task. Our techniques efficiently locate answer boxes within a complex page of free-form writing. Furthermore, our techniques are designed to be robust to the wide range of variations in the way students write. In a test on 2022 pages of homework problems, our techniques correctly located 95.3% of the 4473 answer boxes. These techniques are an important step towards automated grading of handwritten work because once the answer boxes are located, a variety of handwriting recognition methods can be used to interpret the answers.
Pathways to Racial Equity in Higher Education: Modeling the Antecedents of State Affirmative Action Bans:

Eight states currently have bans on affirmative action, yet little research has focused on the characteristics of states that predict ban adoption. To begin filling this gap in the literature, I co...
Refuge in the Bosoms of the Mountains: A Ninth-Century Muslim Appraisal of Monastic Piety

ABSTRACTThis article examines a relatively little-known text, the Kitāb al-ruhbān/Book of Monks, from the ninth-century Muslim moralist, Ibn Abī al-Dunyā. The topical range of Ibn Abī al-Dunyā’s ow...
Children’s selective information sharing based on the recipient’s role

Two experiments investigate whether children ages 5 through 10 (n = 121) take into account an individual’s role when choosing what information to share or with whom to share it. In Experiment 1, ch...
Using a longitudinal case-based approach to teach population health and disease prevention.

Abstract Background and purpose Both colleges of pharmacy in one state separately required a two-credit public and population health course. These courses had been exclusively conducted in a traditional lecture-based format, with little active learning components. Our goal was to redesign and align these required courses across the two colleges of pharmacy using a longitudinal, case-based, active-learning curriculum. Educational activity and setting Two interprofessional faculty from each university met bi-weekly via videoconference or telephone to: (1) develop an integrated, longitudinal, case-based curriculum with lecture/didactic/case-based materials; and (2) identify and implement an evaluation plan. This course curriculum applied problem-based learning and team-based learning approaches to the Clinical Prevention & Population Health Curricular Framework developed by the Healthy People Curriculum Task Force. Findings Course evaluations were used to analyze curricular outcomes. Improvement in course evaluation scores and student survey results remained consistent over three years. Students' written comments have also remained overwhelmingly positive over the three-year implementation period. Summary An interprofessionally developed, longitudinal, case-based curriculum for teaching disease prevention and population health using a social determinants of health approach was determined to be an improved teaching methodology over previous iterations. Although there were challenges in implementing the curriculum across two separate institutions, the overwhelming result was perceived to be positive for both schools, faculty members, and students.
Crowd grounding: finding semantic and behavioral alignment through human robot interaction.

Word embeddings have triggered great advances in natural language processing for non-embodied systems such as scene describers. Embeddings may similarly advance natural language understanding in ro...
Resource Utilization in the First 2 Years Following Operative Correction for Tetralogy of Fallot: Study Using Data From the Optum's De-Identified Clinformatics Data Mart Insurance Claims Database.

Background Despite excellent operative survival, correction of tetralogy of Fallot frequently is accompanied by residual lesions that may affect health beyond the incident hospitalization. Measurin...
CD-SEIZ: Cognition-Driven SEIZ Compartmental Model for the Prediction of Information Cascades on Twitter.

Information spreading social media platforms has become ubiquitous in our lives due to viral information propagation regardless of its veracity. Some information cascades turn out to be viral since they circulated rapidly on the Internet. The uncontrollable virality of manipulated or disorientated true information (fake news) might be quite harmful, while the spread of the true news is advantageous, especially in emergencies. We tackle the problem of predicting information cascades by presenting a novel variant of SEIZ (Susceptible/ Exposed/ Infected/ Skeptics) model that outperforms the original version by taking into account the cognitive processing depth of users. We define an information cascade as the set of social media users' reactions to the original content which requires at least minimal physical and cognitive effort; therefore, we considered retweet/ reply/ quote (mention) activities and tested our framework on the Syrian White Helmets Twitter data set from April 1st, 2018 to April 30th, 2019. In the prediction of cascade pattern via traditional compartmental models, all the activities are grouped, and their summation is taken into account; however, transition rates between compartments should vary according to the activity type since their requirements of physical and cognitive efforts are not same. Based on this assumption, we design a cognition-driven SEIZ (CD-SEIZ) model in the prediction of information cascades on Twitter. We tested SIS, SEIZ, and CD-SEIZ models on 1000 Twitter cascades and found that CD-SEIZ has a significantly low fitting error and provides a statistically more accurate estimation.
Utility of Routine Preoperative Laboratory Testing for Low-risk Patients in Ambulatory Gynecologic Surgery.

Abstract Study Objective To examine the current utilization of routine preoperative laboratory testing in low-risk patients undergoing ambulatory gynecologic surgery and to determine if such testing impacts surgical outcomes. Design The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database was queried for ambulatory gynecologic surgeries between 2015-2018. Low-risk patients included in this study were defined as being American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class 1 or 2. The rate of preoperative laboratory testing prior to ambulatory gynecologic surgery in low-risk patients was determined and factors associated with testing including patient characteristics and comorbidities were evaluated. NSQIP-defined complications were compared between those with and without preoperative laboratory testing. Preoperative laboratory testing was defined as chemistry, hematology, coagulation, or liver function studies obtained within 30 days preoperatively. Setting National health systems that participate in the NSQIP. Patients 19,855 patients who underwent an ambulatory gynecologic procedure. Interventions Preoperative laboratory testing in low-risk patients prior to ambulatory gynecologic surgery. Measurements and Main Results Of 19,855 patients studied, 14,258 (71.8%) received preoperative laboratory testing. Statistically significant differences were seen between patients who underwent preoperative testing and patients who did not. The most frequent preoperative test was a complete blood count (70.4%). Among patients who received preoperative testing, 4,053 (28.4%) were found to have at least one abnormal result. No statistically significant difference was seen in overall postoperative complication rate when comparing patients who received preoperative laboratory testing with those who did not (2.5% vs. 2.2%, p=0.30). Specifically, no statistically significant difference was seen among wound complications (1.0% vs. 1.0% p=0.78), major complications (1.0% vs. 0.8% p=0.11), unplanned return to the operating room (0.1% vs. 0.2%, p=0.40), unplanned readmission (0.7% vs. 0.5% p=0.10), or overall morbidity (2.1% vs. 1.9% p=0.38). Chi-squared analyses were performed to compare categorical variables. Continuous variables were compared using unpaired t-tests. Conclusion This large study utilizing a reputable national database reveals that despite updated evidence-based guidelines that recommend against the practice, preoperative laboratory testing continues to be performed for the majority of low-risk patients undergoing ambulatory gynecologic surgery. This study also further supports current guidelines in demonstrating no difference in surgical outcomes between low-risk patients who did and did not receive preoperative laboratory testing. Preoperative laboratory testing practices for low-risk patients undergoing ambulatory gynecologic surgery do not follow current evidence-based guidelines and should be re-evaluated.
Objective sleep measures after endoscopic sinus surgery in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis

BACKGROUND Poor sleep quality is common in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). Prior studies have demonstrated improvements in patient-reported measures of sleep quality following endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of ESS on objective sleep parameters and identify any associations between specific objective measures and patient characteristics, comorbidities, and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). METHODS Adults with CRS undergoing ESS were prospectively enrolled from 4 centers across North America. Any subject previously diagnosed with a known primary sleep disorder was excluded. Objective sleep indices were recorded using a portable sleep diagnostic device preoperatively and postoperatively. Patient-reported outcome instruments were completed including the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the 22-item Sino-Nasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22). RESULTS Thirty-six patients (mean age 47 years, 56% male) completed baseline and postoperative sleep studies with mean ± standard deviation (SD) follow-up 9.6 ± 7.7 months. Mean PSQI and SNOT-22 before and after ESS was 10.2 ± 3.9 vs 7.8 ± 4.4 (p = 0.001); and 54.6 ± 14.6 vs 28.5 ± 15.3 (p 0.5) despite improvements in PSQI and SNOT-22. Changes in PSQI did not correlate with comorbidities or objective sleep indices (all p > 0.1). CONCLUSION In this multicenter prospective cohort, objective sleep indices were not improved following ESS for CRS despite significant improvements in patient-reported sleep quality and CRS-specific QOL.
Impact of Cell of Origin Classification on Survival Outcomes after Autologous Transplantation in Relapsed/Refractory Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma.

ABSTRACT The cell of origin (COO) classification into germinal center B cell (GCB) and non-GCB types has been shown to predict survival outcomes in newly diagnosed diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). In the relapsed/refractory (R/R) setting, there is building evidence that COO does not predict prognosis after high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation (auto-SCT). The present analysis aimed to compare survival outcomes based on COO classification in R/R DLBCL patients who underwent auto-SCT. This retrospective study included adult patients with R/R DLBCL who underwent auto-SCT at MD Anderson Cancer Center between January 2007 and December 2016. The Hans algorithm using CD10, BCL6, and MUM1 markers was used to classify patients by COO. A total of 122 patients with DLBCL (71 GCB, 51 non-GCB) were included in the analysis. There were no significant differences in patient characteristics between the 2 groups, except for older median age in the GCB cohort (64 years versus 58 years; P
Effects of Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy in Patients With Huntington Disease

Abstract: Objective: To determine the impact of Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy (PEG) tubes in patients with advanced Huntington9s Disease (HD). Methods: A retrospective chart review of patients with HD was conducted to assess pneumonia and pressure ulcer rate, length of life, changes in weight and serological nutritional measures. Surviving and deceased patients with and without PEG tubes were compared using descriptive statistical analysis. Results: 148 records were reviewed (39 patients with PEG). The mean age of patients living with HD was 58.3 years ±12.7 years and age at death (n=62) 57.7 years ±10.3 years. At the time of analysis, mean duration of HD was 14.2 years ±7 years. Groups were similar in gender, age, and weight at admission. In those deceased, insertion of a PEG tube increased length of life with HD by 3.6 years (16.2 ±6.7 vs. 13.2 ±4.9 years). PEG placement significantly reduced cholesterol levels, increased prevalence of skin ulcers and rate of pneumonia. Insertion of a PEG tube did not significantly change weight or albumin levels. Conclusions: PEG tube placement in advanced HD provided benefit in length of life, but weight, other nutritional measures and rate of pneumonia were either not impacted or worsened with the insertion of a PEG tube. Impact on quality of life needs further study, but providers, patients and families should consider all options when discussing preferences for interventions. Classification of Evidence: This study provides Class IV evidence that for patients with advanced HD PEG tube placement increases length of life but has no or negative impacts on nutritional measures.
Big is Not Bad

Our study is motivated by the continuing criticism of large banks and their role in the 2008 financial crisis. The need for the government to provide bailouts under the “Too Big to Fail” umbrella led to a negative perception associated with the term ‘big.’ This study provides an alternate perspective by examining the relation between stock market returns and asset size of bank holding companies around the crisis caused by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. We find evidence that larger banks experienced lower negative returns following the at-tack. This suggests that maybe “big is not bad.” The larger asset size appears to have acted as a cushion in the aftermath of the unexpected sudden shock.
Biomechanics of Neutrophil Tethers

Leukocytes, including neutrophils, which are propelled by blood flow, can roll on inflamed endothelium using transient bonds between selectins and their ligands, and integrins and their ligands. When such receptor-ligand bonds last long enough, the leukocyte microvilli become extended and eventually form thin, 20 m long tethers. Tether formation can be observed in blood vessels in vivo and in microfluidic flow chambers. Tethers can also be extracted using micropipette aspiration, biomembrane force probe, optical trap, or atomic force microscopy approaches. Here, we review the biomechanical properties of leukocyte tethers as gleaned from such measurements and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. We also review and discuss viscoelastic models that describe the dependence of tether formation on time, force, rate of loading, and cell activation. We close by emphasizing the need to combine experimental observations with quantitative models and computer simulations to understand how tether formation is affected by membrane tension, membrane reservoir, and interactions of the membrane with the cytoskeleton.
Falling Into Place: Drop Assembly of Interlocking Puzzles

This paper explores a system for assembling structures by dropping block components into place. During and after assembly, the blocks are held together by geometric interlock, so that fasteners or mortar are only needed to bind the final block to one of its neighbors. Drop assembly is a promising strategy for assembly by swimming or flying robots, as it may allow structures to be built without requiring close contact with the existing structure. The current paper explores a mathematical model of interlock, and presents a particular block design that allows interlock to be achieved using only gravity. Proof-of-concept demonstrations of the system are presented using a low-cost and relatively low-precision robot arm. The paper finally analyzes some of the potential limitations of the approach, particularly including flexing of the structure due to manufacturing tolerance limitations.
Canonical semigroups

We define abstract canonical semigroups modeled after the canonical reductive monoids associated with the canonical compactification of a group of adjoint type. It then becomes possible for us to come up with semigroups having some of the algebraic properties of monoids of Lie type (without first starting with a group).
Choosing Your First Job as a Surgeon and Health Services Researcher

An academic surgeon’s first faculty job is a key determinant of future success. However, the process for finding that job is poorly defined, especially as compared with the standardization of residency and fellowship training. Securing a faculty position involves four distinct phases: identifying what type of job you are looking for, identifying potential positions, screening jobs and successfully negotiating a package that will offer you the best chance of success. At each stage, careful attention to the candidate’s goals, skills, and career mission are essential. In this chapter, we will discuss some guiding principles to help find a job with greatest chance of academic success and personal and professional fulfillment.
Simulating the Solar Dynamo

Mean-field and direct simulations of the hydrodynamics and hydromagnetics of the solar convection zone are discussed with the ultimate aim to understand the generation of differential rotation and magnetic fields. Various arguments constraining the values of the various turbulent diffusion coefficients are presented. It is suggested that the turbulent magnetic diffusivity is much smaller than the eddy viscosity which, in turn, is by up to a factor of ten smaller than the eddy conductivity. The magnetic field obtained from direct simulations is highly intermittent, and there is no clear systematic orientation of bipolar regions emerging from the convection zone. Various mechanisms that might cause such a field orientation are considered. Finally, the application of direct simulations to the determination of mean-field transport coefficients is emphasised.
Recombinant protein complex expression in E. coli

This unit provides procedures to design, create, and utilize polycistronic plasmids that express multicomponent protein complexes in E. coli. Both the original pST39 polycistronic expression system, which permits four genes to be coexpressed from a single plasmid, and the more recent pST44 polycistronic system, which facilitates incorporation of affinity tags and simplifies the construction of variant deletion or point mutation polycistronic plasmids, are described. Emphasis is placed on practical details for creating polycistronic expression plasmids, expressing the protein complex in E. coli, purifying the protein complex, and troubleshooting potential expression problems.