cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Corticosterone Blocks Ovarian Cyclicity and the LH Surge via Decreased Kisspeptin Neuron Activation in Female Mice

Stress elicits activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which leads to enhanced circulating glucocorticoids, as well as impaired gonadotropin secretion and ovarian cyclicity. Here, we tested the hypothesis that elevated, stress-levels of glucocorticoids disrupt ovarian cyclicity by interfering with the preovulatory sequence of endocrine events necessary for the LH surge. Ovarian cyclicity was monitored in female mice implanted with a cholesterol or corticosterone (Cort) pellet. Cort, but not cholesterol, arrested cyclicity in diestrus. Subsequent studies focused on the mechanism whereby Cort stalled the preovulatory sequence by assessing responsiveness to the positive feedback estradiol signal. Ovariectomized mice were treated with an LH surge-inducing estradiol implant, as well as Cort or cholesterol, and assessed several days later for LH levels on the evening of the anticipated surge. All cholesterol females showed a clear LH surge. At the time of the anticipated surge, LH levels were undetectable in Cort-treated females. In situ hybridization analyses the anteroventral periventricular nucleus revealed that Cort robustly suppressed the percentage of Kiss1 cells coexpressing cfos, as well as reduced the number of Kiss1 cells and amount of Kiss1 mRNA per cell, compared with expression in control brains. In addition, Cort blunted pituitary expression of the genes encoding the GnRH receptor and LHβ, indicating inhibition of gonadotropes during the blockage of the LH surge. Collectively, our findings support the hypothesis that physiological stress-levels of Cort disrupts ovarian cyclicity, in part, through disruption of positive feedback mechanisms at both the hypothalamic and pituitary levels which are necessary for generation of the preovulatory LH surge.
Current understanding of genetic factors in idiopathic scoliosis

“Scoliosis” is derived from the Greek word meaning “crooked” and was used for the first time by Galen (AD 131–201) to describe an “S-shaped” or “C-shaped” spinal deformity (Fig. 9.1). Although defined as a lateral curvature as visualized by plane radiography, the deformity is actually three-dimensional and involves changes in the frontal, sagittal, and transverse planes of the spinal column. Patients treated for scoliosis generally belong to one of the three categories. In so-called congenital scoliosis, the structural curvature of the spine is clearly secondary to radiographically visible vertebral malformations and is typically obvious at an early age. Other patients may have scoliosis as part of other pathological conditions.
The relationship between participation in extracurricular activities and Utah's proficiency assessments of students in a suburban school district

iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Introduction to the Study 1 Background of the Study 4 Statement of the Problem 5 Purpose of the Study 6 Research Questions 7 Null Hypothesis 8 Limitations and Delimitations 9 Definition of Terms 10 Methodology 11 Significance of the Study 12 Summary 13 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE Introduction 14 History of Extracurricular Activities 15 Impact of Extracurricular Activities on Academic Success 17 Benefits of Participation in Extracurricular 22 Factors Threatening Athletics in Schools 28 The Value of the Grade Point Average 30 No Child Left Behind and Adequate Yearly Progress 32 Summary 34
Glycol methacrylate in light microscopy: a routine method for embedding and sectioning animal tissues.

Glycol methacrylate (GMA), a water and ethanol miscible plastic, was introduced to histology as an embedding medium for electron microscopy. This medium may be made soft enough for cutting thick sections for routine light microscopy by altering its composition. A procedure for the infiltration, polymerization, and sectioning of animal tissues in GMA for light microscopy is presented which is no more complex than paraffin techniques and which has a number of advantages: (I) The GMA medium is compatible with both aqueous fixatives (formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, Bouin's, and Zenker's) and non-aqueous fixatixes (Carnoy's, Newcomer's, ethanol, and acetone). (2) Undue solvent extraction of the tissue is avoided because adequate dehydration occurs during infiltration of the embedding medium. Separate dehydration and clearing of the tissue prior to embedding is eliminated. (3) When polymerized, the supporting matrix is firm enough that hard and soft tissues adjacent to one another may be sectioned without distort...
Standards Setting for Derivatives by the Industry's Technological Community

Problems in the OTC derivatives market have led to calls for more extensive regulation of this complex market. At the same time, members of the community that produces, markets, and trades these instruments are working toward solutions to the market's problems. Recent research in the management of technology area has described the process by which a technological community emerges to facilitate the development and commercialization of new technologies. A technological community has emerged in the derivatives area that transcends the boundaries of individual firms, industries, and populations and includes public and private sector actors. One of the manifestations of a new industry's legitimization is the emergence within the technological community of standard setting organizations. For OTC derivatives, the emergence of the Group of Thirty, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc., and the Derivatives Policy Group are indications of the maturity of this market. The authors argue that government financial regulators should rely on these standard setting organizations (with oversight from government regulators) to develop solutions to problems in the derivatives industry.
Lessons in Democracy: Mobilizations for African American Education

This paper describes key historical and contemporary examples of African Americans and their allies coproducing education for their communities. I argue that such examples, which arise within contexts where the state lacks the will or capacity to meet the educational needs desired by these communities, reveal a vibrant realm of public engagement often overlooked by those who decry the lack of civic engagement. Ultimately, these examples reveal a latent democratic potential in these and similar communities that may well be a source of civic capacity for solving community problems.
Media Intrusion and Evolving Legal Standards of Privacy

(1987). Media Intrusion and Evolving Legal Standards of Privacy. Free Speech Yearbook: Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 117-124.
Single-Molecule Investigation of Response to Oxidative DNA Damage by a Y-Family DNA Polymerase

Y-family DNA polymerases are known to bypass DNA lesions in vitro and in vivo and rescue stalled DNA replication machinery. Dpo4, a well-characterized model Y-family DNA polymerase, is known to catalyze translesion synthesis across a variety of DNA lesions including 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2′-deoxyguanine (8-oxo-dG). Our previous X-ray crystallographic, stopped-flow Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET), and computational simulation studies have revealed that Dpo4 samples a variety of global conformations as it recognizes and binds DNA. Here we employed single-molecule FRET (smFRET) techniques to investigate the kinetics and conformational dynamics of Dpo4 when it encountered 8-oxo-dG, a major oxidative lesion with high mutagenic potential. Our smFRET data indicated that Dpo4 bound the DNA substrate in multiple conformations, as suggested by three observed FRET states. An incoming correct or incorrect nucleotide affected the distribution and stability of these states with the correct nucleotide completely sh...
Osteoprotegerin rich tumor microenvironment: implications in breast cancer

Osteoprotegerin (OPG) is a soluble decoy receptor for tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL). It belongs to the tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily (TNFRSF). OPG was initially discovered to contribute to homeostasis of bone turnover due to its capability of binding to receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kB). However, apart from bone turnover, OPG plays important and diverse role(s) in many biological functions. Besides having anti-osteoclastic activity, OPG is thought to exert a protective anti-apoptotic action in OPG-expressing tumors by overcoming the physiologic mechanism of tumor surveillance exerted by TRAIL. Along with inhibiting TRAIL induced apoptosis, it can induce proliferation by binding to various cell surface receptors and thus turning on the canonical cell survival and proliferative pathways. OPG also induces angiogenesis, one of the hallmarks of cancer, thus facilitating tumor growth. Recently, the understanding of OPG and its different roles has been augmented substantially. This review is aimed at providing a very informative overview as to how OPG affects cancer progression especially breast cancer.
Charity and terror in eighteenth-century Jamaica: The Kingston Hospital and Asylum for Deserted ‘Negroes’

ABSTRACTThe Hospital and Asylum for Deserted Negroes in Kingston, Jamaica, was a major site of care for indigent blacks in one of the most densely populated urban centers on one of Britain's most valuable sugar islands. When the hospital opened, sometime after 1788, blacks outnumbered whites ten to one in Jamaica, and the island's whites continued to enact oppressive measures to control the colony's restive black population. This article shows how the Hospital and Asylum for Deserted Negroes became a strategic component in this scheme, joining an expansive network of workhouses and gaols the colonial government used to instill racialized law and order. From its early inception, one of the hospital's unspoken goals was to prevent lawlessness in a space marred by slave resistance. Finally, this article demonstrates how the early development of Jamaica's public health medical infrastructure was, in a large part, nurtured by the slave system.
Update on PSA Testing

The use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing for prostate cancer screening has increased dramatically over the past decade. Determining the most efficient way to use PSA testing and how to interpret total PSA levels and changes in PSA values over time remain challenging. Guidelines for early detection of prostate cancer have a direct impact on the number of unnecessary tests performed and are critical for developing a successful screening approach for prostate cancer. The age at which PSA screening should begin, PSA testing intervals, and the importance of understanding fluctuations in PSA values over time are discussed in the framework of recent discoveries in the field. Results from ongoing randomized trials will confirm whether prostate cancer screening is an effective method for reducing deaths from prostate cancer and what approaches will provide the most cost-effective screening strategies.
The inhibition of cat lateral superior olive unit excitatory responses to binaural tone bursts. I. The transient chopper response.

1. The temporal properties of lateral superior olivary (LSO) unit discharges to binaural tone bursts were studied to determine the general time course and statistical properties of these discharges...
Therapy-Associated Myeloid Dysplasia in a Long-Surviving Patient with Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer remains a diagnosis of poor prognosis with a median survival time of four-six months in patients with advanced stage of the disease. Although, with the development of novel chemotherapy agents some patients are able to live a little longer if they respond to therapy. However, long-term complications of chemotherapy or radiotherapy are not known due to the short survival period of patients with pancreatic cancer. We present a case of a 55-year-old-woman who developed therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome (t-MDS) during a survival of approximately eight years during which she received multiple chemotherapies and radiation therapy. She presented with progressive fatigue and pancytopenia, which led to further work-up and led to the diagnosis of t-MDS. The latency period to developing hematologic abnormalities as well as the presence of the chromosome 5 and 7 abnormalities in this patient are likely consistent with t-MDS and possibly related to the use of chemotherapeutic agents such as oxaliplatin or irinotecan and radiation therapy.
TRAF6 and C-myb Show Novel Functions in the Nucleus of Lymphoma B Cells.

Abstract The tumor necrosis factor (TNF) family (TNF-R; CD40; BAFF-R) plays a key role in neoplastic as well as normal B cell growth and survival mechanisms. TNF receptor-associated factor-6 (TRAF-6) is an adapter molecule that regulates several important signaling pathways critical for cell growth and cell survival. It is a member of seven closely related TRAF proteins that serve as signaling molecules, coupling to TNF-receptor superfamily to intracellular signaling, particularly in the CD40 Signalosome. TRAF6 has shown to be over-expressed and play an important role in cell growth and cell survival through the activation of the key transcription factor NF-kB in aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma B cells (NHL-B), common B cell neoplasm that have been increasing in recent years. Although much of TRAF-6 functions have focused primarily as an adaptor molecule in signaling pathways in the cytoplasm, the role of TRAF-6 in other cellular compartments has not been investigated. Here, we demonstrate, by confocal microscopy as well as cellular fractionation studies that TRAF-6 resides not only in the cytoplasm but also in the nucleus of lymphoma B cells. Immunoprecipitation studies show that TRAF6 is auto-ubiquitinated in the cytoplasm but not in the nucleus, suggesting that nuclear TRAF6 functions differently than cytoplasmic TRAF6. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChiP) cloning assays using anti-TRAF6 polyclonal antibody reveal over 200 clones, one of which contains a 130 bp fragment belonging to the proximal 5′ end of the c-myb oncogene promoter. Further experiments demonstrate that nuclear TRAF6 co-localized with SUMO1 and c-myb, suggesting that TRAF-6 may enter the nucleus through SUMO1 interaction and serve as an E3 sumo ligase, in addition to its known adapter role in cytoplasmic signaling. Over-expression studies show that TRAF6 enhances c-myb sumoylation in lymphoma B cells, where this oncogene is over-expressed. C-myb correlates with TRAF6 protein and mRNA expressions in NHL-B cells, suggesting that TRAF6 may be involved in the modulation of c-myb expression through sumoylation, regulating key genes that are regulated by c-myb. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting c-myb results in inhibition of lymphoma cell survival, suggesting that SUMO1/TRAF6/c-myb interactions are important in cell survival pathways in aggressive NHL-B. Such pathways could represent novel targets for the development of therapeutic agents for aggressive B cell lymphomas.
Creating Semiconductor Value through Advanced Package Technology

Over the past few years, there has been a significant shift from PCs and notebooks to smartphones and tablets as drivers of advanced packaging innovation. In fact, the overall packaging industry is doing quite well today as a result, with solid growth expected to create a market value in excess of $30B USD by 2020. This is largely due to the technology innovation in the semiconductor industry continuing to march forward at an incredible pace, with silicon advancements in new node technologies continuing on one end of the spectrum and innovative packaging solutions coming forward on the other in a complementary fashion. The pace of innovation has quickened as has the investments required to bring such technologies to production. At the packaging level, the investments required to support the advancements in silicon miniaturization and heterogeneous integration have now reached well beyond $500M USD per year. Why has the investment to support technology innovation in the packaging community grown so much? O...
A simple and efficient method to enhance audiovisual binding tendencies

Individuals vary in their tendency to bind signals from multiple senses. For the same set of sights and sounds, one individual may frequently integrate multisensory signals and experience a unified percept, whereas another individual may rarely bind them and often experience two distinct sensations. Thus, while this binding/integration tendency is specific to each individual, it is not clear how plastic this tendency is in adulthood, and how sensory experiences may cause it to change. Here, we conducted an exploratory investigation which provides evidence that (1) the brain's tendency to bind in spatial perception is plastic, (2) that it can change following brief exposure to simple audiovisual stimuli, and (3) that exposure to temporally synchronous, spatially discrepant stimuli provides the most effective method to modify it. These results can inform current theories about how the brain updates its internal model of the surrounding sensory world, as well as future investigations seeking to increase integration tendencies.
The impact of duty cycle workflow on sign-out practices: A qualitative study of an internal medicine residency program in Maryland, USA

Objectives Although JCAHO requires a standardised approach to handoffs, and while many standardised protocols have been tested, sign-out practices continue to vary. We believe this is due to the variability in workflow during inpatient duty cycle. We investigate the impact of such workflows on intern sign-out practices. Design We employed a prospective, grounded theory mixed-method design. Setting The study was conducted at a residency programme in the mid-Atlantic USA. Two observers randomly evaluated three types of daily sign-outs for 1 week every 3 months from September 2013 to March 2014. The compliance of each observed behaviour to JCAHO’s Handoff Communication Checklist was recorded. Participants Thirty one interns conducting 134 patient sign-outs were observed randomly among the 52 in the programme. Results In the 06:00 to 07:00 sign-back, the night-cover focused on providing information on overnight events to the day interns. In the 11:00 to 12:00 sign-out, the night-cover focused on transferring task accountability to a day-cover intern before departure. In the 20:00 to 21:00 sign-out, the day interns focused on transferring responsibility of their patients to a night-cover. Conclusion Different sign-out periods had different emphases regarding information exchange, personal responsibility and task accountability. Sign-outs are context-specific, implying that across-the-board standardised sign-out protocols are likely to have limited efficacy and compliance. Standardisation may need to be relative to the specific type and purpose of each sign-out to be supported by interns.
Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC): Analysis of age and stage distribution and survival between African American and Caucasian women in a predominant low-income population.

e12586Background: Triple negative breast cancers (TNBC) represent roughly 15% of all breast cancer and are associated with decreased overall survival. A higher incidence of TNBC has been seen in younger and African American patients. We investigated the effect of age and race relative to outcomes of patients with TNBC seen at a state charity hospital system. Methods: This retrospective review identified 194 pts with TNBC diagnosed between 1993-2011 at LSUHSC-Shreveport, a state charity hospital. TNBC was defined as ER/PR both <1% and HER2neu not overexpressed by FISH analysis. The patient’s race, age at diagnosis, stage at diagnosis, treatment, relapse free survival (RFS), overall survival and survival following confirmed metastatic disease were analyzed. Results: There was no statistical difference in frequency of stage between groups. Although not statistically significant, there was a trend to worse RFS in AA and in young pts of both races. Younger age at diagnosis did have an inferior median survival ...
Analysis, modeling and implementation of a new 1.8V fierce-gate crystal oscillator based on the constant cell in 28nm CMOS technology for automotive radar applications

The majority of analog and digital integrated circuits with built in crystal oscillator use the Gated Pierce design where the oscillator is built around a single CMOS inverting gate. In most applications that require a high level of precision and stability of the performances versus Process, Voltage and Temperature (PVT) variations, this design is not suitable. The inverter cell itself is very sensitive to PVT variations, negatively affecting the overall performances of a crystal oscillator. This paper shows a new Pierce-Gate crystal oscillator based on the constant gm cell, implemented in 28nm CMOS TSMC technology. The oscillator can work with any crystal frequency between 20 MHz and 100 MHz, the power supply is 1.8V and the output is a 50% duty cycle square waveform. Simulations and measurements show that the new designed crystal oscillator is superior in terms of phase noise performances (−123 dBc/Hz at 100 Hz offset at 60 MHz and −163 dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset at 60 MHz), phase noise variation over PVT, Power Supply Rejection Ratio (PSRR), output frequency and output duty cycle stability, and input impedance with respect to the state of the art counterparts. The implemented crystal oscillator is very challenging and suitable for automotive radar applications.
Demographic history influences spatial patterns of genetic diversityin recently expanded coyote (Canis latrans) populations.

Human-mediated range expansions have increased in recent decades and represent unique opportunities to evaluate genetic outcomes of establishing peripheral populations across broad expansion fronts. Over the past century, coyotes (Canis latrans) have undergone a pervasive range expansion and now inhabit every state in the continental United States. Coyote expansion into eastern North America was facilitated by anthropogenic landscape changes and followed two broad expansion fronts. The northern expansion extended through the Great Lakes region and southern Canada, where hybridization with remnant wolf populations was common. The southern and more recent expansion front occurred approximately 40 years later and across territory where gray wolves have been historically absent and remnant red wolves were extirpated in the 1970s. We conducted a genetic survey at 10 microsatellite loci of 482 coyotes originating from 11 eastern U.S. states to address how divergent demographic histories influence geographic patterns of genetic diversity. We found that population structure corresponded to a north–south divide, which is consistent with the two known expansion routes. Additionally, we observed extremely high genetic diversity, which is atypical of recently expanded populations and is likely the result of multiple complex demographic processes, in addition to hybridization with other Canis species. Finally, we considered the transition of allele frequencies across geographic space and suggest the mid-Atlantic states of North Carolina and Virginia as an emerging contact zone between these two distinct coyote expansion fronts.
Novel use of fibrin sealant for scleral suture free placement of a glaucoma drainage device in advanced scleral thinning.

Abstract Purpose This reports a case using fibrin glue to secure a glaucoma drainage device plate to the sclera where there is a concern with the use of suture. Observations A 13-year-old patient with congenital aniridia and associated glaucoma refractory to topical medications underwent implantation of a glaucoma drainage device (GDD) for improved intraocular pressure (IOP) control. The patient had substantial scleral thinning with staphyloma formation, potentially making the use of traditional suturing techniques problematic. Fibrin glue was used to attach the GDD plate, as well the tube and patch graft which has been previously described, without sutures. The patient tolerated the procedure well with a 41% reduction in IOP at six months follow-up with no migration of the GDD from its original position. Conclusions and importance The use of fibrin glue in ophthalmology can be expanded to include attachment of the GDD plate to the sclera in patients with suturing contraindications.
Data dialog: facilitating collaborative decision making through data-driven conversations

Shared decision-making is a process that requires active participation from the patient in making treatment related decisions [5]. Through this process, both patients and clinicians develop a shared understanding about the patients' lifestyle choices and how they affect symptoms to make informed treatment related decisions. However, there are communication and process barriers to developing this understanding, including lack of medical knowledge on the part of the patients and lack of standard processes for clinicians to follow. With Data Dialog, we propose a data-driven approach to information exchange between patients and clinicians, using visualizations as 'boundary objects' for communication and collaboration. We outline a number of scenarios in which Data Dialog can be useful, and discuss opportunities and challenges that need to be addressed.
Latent variable models for uncovering motor cortical ensemble dynamics

Neural activity is dynamic at various spatiotemporal scales. We consider a general class of latent variable models for analyses of neuronal ensemble spikes. Specifically, the latent variable follows a Markovian dynamics, and the observations are modulated by the latent state variable through an assumed or unknown mapping function. The inference of latent variable models lead to novel solutions for unsupervised decoding analysis, data visualization, variable and model selection. We propose two unsupervised analysis paradigms and assess the validity of the proposed approaches by computer simulations and experimental population spike data recorded from monkey's primary motor cortices during orofacial movement.
Biochemical and metabolic engineering approaches to enhance production of therapeutic proteins in animal cell cultures

Abstract Over the past two decades, recombinant protein therapeutics have altered the landscape of treatments for infectious diseases, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. Unfortunately, these biopharmaceuticals are among the most expensive of all drugs to manufacture. Furthermore, variability in host metabolic phenotypes from run-to-run can affect product yield and quality in unexpected ways. The rapid emergence of biosimilars is transforming cost competition in the biopharma industry, driving trends toward smaller, flexible single-use facilities and continuous biomanufacturing. As a result, there is a critical need to identify engineering strategies at both the process and cellular levels that can be applied to maximize the productivity of animal cell cultures used to manufacture protein therapeutics. Doing so will translate into lower drug production costs and shed light on the intermediary pathways that enable high protein expression. Identifying specific biochemical pathways that control the production rate and quality of recombinant proteins will enable a vertical advance in our ability to rationally engineer industrial host lines with high-productivity metabolic phenotypes. This review will highlight both the technical and economic drivers behind the rapidly changing landscape of cell culture research, while emphasizing several important knowledge gaps that remain to be filled.
SECONDARY OSTEOPOROSIS : Diagnostic Considerations

This article discusses the important secondary causes of osteoporosis that contribute significantly to bone loss and that seem to increase fracture risk, including hypogonadism, endogenous and exogenous thyroxine excess, hyperparathyroidism, malignancies, gastrointestinal diseases, medications, vices, and connective tissue diseases.
P014 Next generation sequencing is capable of detecting contaminating alleles from malignancy for a bone marrow transplant recipient

HLA typing using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) for bone marrow transplant (BMT) patients has been recognized to outperform traditional molecular typing methodologies in detecting contaminating alleles from malignancy. Here we report a case with ambiguous HLA typing that was clearly resolved by NGS. A 61 year old female with atypical chronic myeloid leukemia was evaluated for allogeneic BMT. Initial HLA typing by NGS on peripheral blood (PB) of the patient and her 2 siblings showed that one sibling was most likely HLA identical, and the other was haplo-identical to the patient, except an extra HLA-DRB1* allele was detected in the patient. NGS presented a mixture of DRB1*03:01 and 03:16 for the patient and DRB1*03:01 only for both siblings (Table 1a). The difference between DRB1*03:01 and 03:16 is located in Exon 2 at NT 229 as C and T, respectively. The number of NGS reads (R#345) from the patients’ PB at this position showed 10 reads mapping to DRB1*03:01 and 335 to DRB1*03:16, indicating 2.9% DRB1*03:01 and 97.1% DRB1*03:16. To investigate the possible involvement of malignant cells, DNA from the patients’ buccal swab (BS) was typed by NGS and also revealed a mixture of DRB1*03:01 and 03:16. The number of NGS reads (R#543) showed 420 and 123 reads (77.3% and 22.7%) mapped to the DRB1*03:01 and 03:16, respectively (Table 1b). Confirmatory typing of the patients’ PB and BS verified the initial typing result, thus concluding the DRB1*03:16 allele originated in the malignancy of the patient. BMT was performed with the HLA identical sibling. Parallel testing by NGS typing and engraftment monitoring by short tandem repeat (STR) was performed with post-BMT PB. Interestingly, NGS analysis indicated 63.1% of DRB1*03:01 and 36.9% of DRB1*03:16, which presented a close correlation with 61% and 39% donor and recipient chimerism, respectively, as detected by STR (Table 1c). This case study highlights the great potential of NGS in detecting minor component alleles from malignancy in a semi-quantitative manner.
PPT-GPU: performance prediction toolkit for GPUs identifying the impact of caches: extended abstract

In the early days, computers only had central processing units or CPUs. High performance computing capabilities are now in high demand. Emerging applications such as deep learning, augmented and virtual reality, and video processing require accelerators especially graphics processing units (GPUs). GPUs became an integral component in any HPC system. Memory access and management are important parts of any high-performance system. Therefore, identifying the impact of the memory subsystem on modern accelerators used in high-performance computing is very important. In this paper, we identify the impact of GPUs on-chip memory on different workloads and introduce our ongoing work, PPT-GPU, a performance prediction tool that enables GPU code developers and architects to test new algorithms in a fast, scalable, and accurate-enough way by predicting the performance of different workloads under different GPU architectures.
The impact of stress on epidermal barrier function: an evidence-based review.

Background The epidermal barrier functions to limit skin infection and inflammation by inhibiting irritant and immunogen invasion. Abundant evidence suggests that psychological stress stemming from crowding, isolation, nicotine smoking, insomnia, mental arithmetic tasks, physical pain, real-life stressors (examinations and marital strain) and lack of positive personality traits may impart both acute and chronic epidermal dysfunction. Objectives To review the relationship between stress and epidermal barrier dysfunction. Methods A review of the PubMed and Embase databases was conducted to identify all English-language case-control, cross-sectional and randomized control trials that have reported the effect of stress on epidermal barrier function. The authors' conclusions are based on the available evidence from 21 studies that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results Psychological stressors upregulate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis to stimulate local and systemic stress hormone production. This ultimately leads to aberrant barrier dysfunction, characterized by decreased epidermal lipid and structural protein production, decreased stratum corneum hydration and increased transepidermal water loss. Conclusions This evidence-based review explores the adverse effects of psychological stressors on epidermal barrier function. Future investigations using more real-life stressors are needed to elucidate further their impact on skin physiology and identify practical stress-relieving therapies that minimize and restore epidermal barrier dysfunction, particularly in at-risk populations. What's already known about this topic? The literature reports the negative effect of stress on prolonged wound healing. Less is known about the relationship between stress and epidermal barrier dysfunction, a chronic, superficial wound involving the upper epidermal layers. What does this study add? Psychological stressors impact epidermal barrier function by activating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis to stimulate local and systemic stress hormone production. Stress hormones negatively affect the epidermal barrier by decreasing epidermal lipids and structural proteins, decreasing stratum corneum hydration and increasing transepidermal water loss. Identification of such stressors can promote stress-avoidance and stress-reduction behaviours that protect epidermal barrier function and prevent certain dermatological conditions.
Introduction to the Transplant Patient

Liver and kidney transplant patients presenting to the emergency department with abdominal pain offer unique challenges in diagnosis and management. In addition to the usual abdominal pathologies, the emergency provider must consider unusual causes of pain that stem from anatomical complications related to the transplant procedure itself, the intended and adverse effects of the immunosuppressive medication regimen, and organ rejection. Infection is very common, but presentation can be subtle. The risk of infection due to drug-resistant bacteria, as well as viruses, fungi, and parasites, is much higher in this population. The timing of presentation in relation to the date of transplant is critical to determine as this influences the key considerations in the differential and guides antimicrobial therapy. Finally, early communication with the patient’s transplant team or surgeon is crucial to guide appropriate workup and disposition decisions.
Discovery of a Meteor of Interstellar Origin

The first interstellar object, `Oumuamua, was discovered in the Solar System by Pan-STARRS in 2017, allowing for a calibration of the abundance of interstellar objects of its size $\sim 100\;$ m. One would expect a much higher abundance of smaller interstellar objects, with some of them colliding with Earth frequently enough to be noticeable. Based on the CNEOS catalog of bolide events, we identify the $\sim 0.45$m meteor detected at 2014-01-08 17:05:34 UTC as originating from an unbound hyperbolic orbit with 99.999\% confidence. We infer that the meteor had an asymptotic speed of $v_{\infty} \sim 42.1 \pm 5.5\; \mathrm{km \; s^{-1}}$ outside of the solar system. Its origin is approximately towards R.A. $49.4 \pm 4.1^{\circ}$ and declination $11.2 \pm 1.8^{\circ}$, implying that its initial velocity vector was $58\pm6\; \mathrm{km\;s^{-1}}$ away from the velocity of the Local Standard of Rest (LSR). Its high LSR speed implies a possible origin from the deep interior of a planetary system or a star in the thick disk of the Milky Way galaxy. The local number density of its population is $10^{6{^{+0.75}_{-1.5}}} \; \mathrm{AU^{-3}}$ or $9 \times 10^{21{^{+0.75}_{-1.5}}} \; \mathrm{pc^{-3}}$ (necessitating 0.2 - 20 Earth masses of material to be ejected per local star). This discovery enables a new method for studying the composition of interstellar objects, based on spectroscopy of their gaseous debris as they burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.
Supporting Adoptive Parents: A Study on Personal Self-Care

This study explored the personal self-care practices of adoptive parents (N = 229) in one southeastern state. Overall, findings indicate that adoptive parents only engage in moderate modest self-ca...
Gestational Weight Gain and Postpartum Depression in Women with Class III Obesity.

Objective We investigated the association between gestational weight gain (GWG) and postpartum depression (PPD) in women with class III obesity. Study Design This is a retrospective cohort of women with body mass index (BMI) ≥ 40 kg/m2 at entry to care, first prenatal visit ≤14 weeks gestation, with singleton, nonanomalous pregnancies who delivered at term from July 2013 to December 2017. Women missing data regarding PPD were excluded. Primary outcome was PPD; classified as Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) score >13/30 or provider's report of depression. Participants were classified, according to Institute of Medicine GWG guidelines (11–20 pounds), as either less than 11 pounds (LT11) or at/more than 11 pounds (GT11). Bivariate statistics compared demographics and pregnancy characteristics. Logistic regression used to estimate odds of primary outcome. Results Of 275 women, 96 (34.9%) gained LT11 and 179 (65.1%) gained GT11 during pregnancy. The rate of PPD was 8.7% (n = 24), 9 (9.4%) in the LT11 group and 15 (8.4%) in the GT11 group (p = 0.82, odds ratio: 1.13, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.48, 2.69). When controlling for entry BMI and multiparity, adjusted odds of PPD was 1.07 (95% CI: 0.44, 2.63). No correlation was found between GWG and EPDS. Conclusion A relationship between GWG and PPD in class III obese women was not found in this cohort.
Prevalence and influencing factors of intestinal parasitic diseases among rural children in Henan Province

OBJECTIVE To understand the epidemic status and influencing factors of intestinal parasitic diseases among rural children in Henan Province. METHODS According to the Scheme for The National Survey on Current Status of Major Human Parasitic Diseases in China, the survey counties were selected based on the ecological zones and economic levels in Henan Province between 2014 and 2015. Then, the included counties were stratified according to the topography and economic levels. A township was randomly sampled from each stratum, and a village was randomly sampled from each township as the study site. Finally, a total of 104 study sites from 35 counties were enrolled for the survey of intestinal parasitic diseases in children. At least 250 fresh stool samples were collected from each study site for detection of intestinal helminth eggs with the Kato-Katz technique, for the identification of Necator americanus and Ancylostoma duodenale with the fecal culture method, and for the detection of intestinal protozoa trophozoite and cyst with the physiological saline smear and iodine staining techniques. In addition, the Enterobius vermicularis and tapeworm eggs were detected in children aged 3 to 6 years using the adhesive cellophane-tape perianal swab method. RESULTS The overall prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections was 3.21% (214/6 671) among rural children in Henan Province, and the prevalence of intestinal helminthes (2.62%, 175/6 671) was higher than that of intestinal protozoa (0.60%, 40/6 671). A total of 12 species of intestinal parasites were found, including 4 nematodes species, one trematode species, and 7 protozoa species, and the highest infection was seen in E. vermicularis (2.47%, 161/6 671). Among the four ecological zones in Henan Province, the greatest prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections was detected among children in the Qinba Mountain Ecological Zone (5.85%, 90/1 538). There was no gender-specific difference in the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections in children (P > 0.05); however, there were age- (χ2 = 32.762, P < 0.05) and education level-specific differences in the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections in children (χ2 = 67.507, P < 0.05), with the greatest prevalence of E. vermicularis infection seen in all species of intestinal parasites in children at all age groups. Multivariate non-conditional logistic regression analysis showed that high education level, high coverage of harmless toilets, drinking tap water and deworming were protective factors for intestinal parasitic infections in children in Henan Province. The overall prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections appeared a tendency towards a gradual decline among children in Henan Province as compared to the previous two surveys. CONCLUSIONS The overall prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections shows a tendency towards a remarkable decline among children in Henan Province. E. vermicularis infection should be given a priority for future parasitic disease control activities among rural children in Henan Province.
A multipeptide vaccine plus toll-like receptor agonists in melanoma patients, with evaluation of the vaccine site microenvironment and sentinel immunized node (Mel58; NCT01585350).

TPS3125 Background: Recent data show clinical activity of cancer vaccines containing a defined cancer antigen, and a peptide vaccine for melanoma. However, immune responses to peptide vaccines are ...
Reconciling Intent with Action: Factors Associated with the Alignment between Transfer Intent and Coursework Completion Patterns among Two-Year College Students in STEM

In this study, we explored the alignment between initial transfer intent and subsequent course-completion patterns among 1,668 first-time STEM-aspiring students at two-year institutions. Using surv...
CHAPTER 10 – HARMONIC OSCILLATOR

Publisher Summary This chapter presents the Schrodinger solutions. It discusses the harmonic oscillator by means of a matrix formulation. Hamiltonian for a one-dimensional harmonic oscillator is derived through the elements of mass, frequency, momentum, and displacement. The eigenvalues of the Hamiltonian and therefore the eigenvalues of the number operator N must be nondegenerate. The energy levels of the harmonic oscillator must have a constant spacing with an energy between adjacent levels. The eigenvalues of N and the corresponding eigenstates may be displayed in the form of a ladder. The chapter further discusses the relation between the Heisenberg operator and the Schrodinger operator through a number of equations.
Molecular characteristics of norovirus in 4 outbreaks of gastroenteritis in Heilongjiang province in 2016

Objective To study the molecular characteristics of norovirus in 4 outbreaks of gastroenteritis in Heilongjiang province in 2016. Methods Fecal specimens of patients were collected from 4 outbreaks of acute viral gastroenteritis. Real-time PCR was performed to identify the infection with Norovirus (NoV). The NoV genes were amplified and sequenced for the positive samples, followed by performing phylogenetic analysis. Results There were total 4 outbreaks of viral gastroenteritis caused by NoV. A total of 102 stool specimens were obtained from cases with acute gastroenteritis. NoV was detected in 35 cases including 14 strains of genogroup I NoV and 21 strains of genogroup II NoV. Six genotypes including GII.2, GII.17, GII.Pe, GII.P12/GII.3, GI.6, GI.Pd/GI.3 were detected. Conclusions NoV was the pathogen causing the gastroenteritis outbreaks in Heilongjiang province, and multigenotype NoV co-circulated in Heilongjiang province. Key words: Norovirus; Outbreaks; Genotype
Predictability of CRP and D-Dimer levels for in-hospital outcomes and mortality of COVID-19

Systemic inflammation elicited by a cytokine storm is considered a hallmark of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study aims to assess the clinical utility of the C-reactive protein (CRP) an...
Causal Pathways for Specific Language Impairment: Lessons From Studies of Twins

Purpose This review article summarizes a program of longitudinal investigation of twins' language acquisition with a focus on causal pathways for specific language impairment (SLI) and nonspecific language impairment in children at 4 and 6 years with known history at 2 years. Method The context of the overview is established by legacy scientific papers in genetics, language, and SLI. Five recent studies of twins are summarized, from 2 to 16 years of age, with a longitudinal perspective of heritability over multiple speech, language, and cognitive phenotypes. Results Replicated moderate-to-high heritability is reported across ages, phenotypes, full population estimates, and estimates for clinical groups. Key outcomes are documentation of a twinning effect of risk for late language acquisition in twins that persists through 6 years of age, greater for monozygotic than dizygotic twins (although zygosity effects disappear at 6 years); heritability is greater for grammar and morphosyntax than other linguistic dimensions, from age 2 years through age 16 years, replicated within twin samples at subsequent age levels and across twin samples at age 16 years. Conclusion There is consistent support for legacy models of genetic influences on language acquisition, updated with a more precise growth signaling disruption model supported by twin data, as well as singleton data of children with SLI and nonspecific language impairment. Presentation Video https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13063727.
Evaluation of Dexmedetomidine Dosing in Obese Critically Ill Patients.

Background:Dexmedetomidine is a highly selective α2-adrenoreceptor agonist that produces dose-dependent sedation, anxiolysis, and analgesia without respiratory depression. Due to these ideal sedati...
Pharmacist Contraception Services: All About Access

ABSTRACT As increasing numbers of U.S. states and jurisdictions grant pharmacists the authority to prescribe contraception, it is essential that pharmacists understand reproductive justice principles. Many structural barriers exist surrounding pharmacist contraception services that limit patient access to and ability to utilize these services. Pharmacists should offer comprehensive and all-inclusive reproductive health care services and referrals as part of their role as contraception providers.
The Common Patrimony of America and Europe

In The Revolt of the Masses, the late Jose Ortega y Gasset observed that American civilization could not long endure, were it severed from European civilization. Ortega’s opinion, however, is not shared by certain American writers, among whom — especially in this century — there exists a tendency to arrogate to American culture cultural achievements that really are the product of four or five thousand years of civil social order. Mr. Roger Burlingame, for instance, in a recent book called The American Conscience, implies that conscience itself first appeared along the Atlantic seabord of America in the seventeenth century. Mr. Burlingame, by the way, is hot against American political ‘isolationists’; but I need scarcely remark that Mr. Burlingame himself is an isolationist of the mind. For Ortega was right. American culture, and the American civil social order, share with modern European civilization a common patrimony. The principal articles in that patrimony are the Christian faith, the Roman concept of law, and the great body of Western literature. From out this inheritance grow certain beliefs concerning the nature of man and the nature of society which remain common — however much weakened in our century — to both Europe and America.