cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Celiac crisis presenting with status epilepticus and encephalopathy

Celiac crisis is a life-threatening presentation of celiac disease which is described in the context of classic gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms of diarrhea, leading to dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. Neurologic manifestations are atypical symptoms of celiac crisis. To the best of our knowledge, there is no published report on seizure or encephalopathy as the presenting manifestation of celiac crisis. We describe a 2-year-old boy presenting with acute status epilepticus and lethargy. Prior to presentation, he had mild abdominal distention and intermittent diarrhea. Laboratory analysis revealed hyponatremia, anemia, hypocalcemia, transaminitis, and hyperglycemia. Electroencephalography revealed severe diffuse encephalopathy, and complete infectious work-up was negative. Initial brain magnetic resonance imaging was normal; however, repeat imaging showed osmotic demyelination syndrome. Given the history of GI symptoms and hyperglycemia, celiac serology was obtained revealing elevated tissue transglutaminase, and a diagnosis was confirmed by Marsh 3c lesions in the duodenum. He significantly improved with steroid therapy in addition to adequate nutrition, fluids, and initiation of a gluten-free diet. Conclusion: We report herein on the first case of celiac crisis presenting with status epilepticus and encephalopathy in the absence of profound GI symptoms. Our case suggests that celiac crisis should be considered in the differential of seizures and encephalopathy in children.
Teaching and Learning Color Consciousness in Black Families: Exploring Family Processes and Women's Experiences With Colorism

Family is regarded as a powerful force in the lives of Black Americans. Often-times, families function as an agent of socialization that counters racism. At the same time, however, Black families can perpetuate skin tone consciousness and bias, or colorism . Although there is an extensive body of revisionist literature on Black families and a growing body of scholarship on the contemporary nature of colorism, there is a dearth of literature addressing the role of Black families in relation to colorism. This research begins to fill this gap by exploring the influence of Black families in the development and maintenance of a colorist ideology and consciousness among Black women. Results of focus group interviews with 26 Black women indicate that color differences are learned, reinforced, and in some cases contested within families, ultimately shaping Black women’s perspectives and experiences with colorism.
Delayed emergency myelopoiesis following polymicrobial sepsis in neonates

Neonates have increased susceptibility to infection, which leads to increased mortality. Whether or not this as a result of implicit deficits in neonatal innate immune function or recapitulation of innate immune effector cell populations following infection is unknown. Here, we examine the process of emergency myelopoiesis whereby the host repopulates peripheral myeloid cells lost following the initial infectious insult. As early inflammatory responses are often dependent upon NF-κB and type I IFN signaling, we also examined whether the absence of MyD88, TRIF or MyD88 and TRIF signaling altered the myelopoietic response in neonates to polymicrobial sepsis. Following neonatal polymicrobial septic challenge, hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) expansion in bone marrow and the spleen were both attenuated and delayed in neonates compared with adults. Similar reductions in other precursors were observed in neonates. Similar to adult studies, the expansion of progenitor stem cell populations was also seen in the absence of MyD88 and/or TRIF signaling. Overall, neonates have impaired emergency myelopoiesis in response to sepsis compared with young adults. Despite reports that this expansion may be related to TLR signaling, our data suggest that other factors may be important, as TRIF(-/-) and MyD88(-/-) neonatal HSCs are still able to expand in response to polymicrobial neonatal sepsis.
The spectral shape of combustion noise

In this paper, it is proposed that the spectral shape of combustion noise is the same as the similarity spectrum of the noise from the large turbulence structures of high-speed jets. This is true regardless of the turbulence level in the combustion process, the equivalence ratio of the fuel or whether the fuel is a gas or a liquid as long as it is hydrocarbon. At the present time, the mechanism by which combustion noise is generated is still not known. So, it is not possible to prove the correctness of the proposal theoretically or computationally. Here, an empirical approach is followed. Comparisons between the similarity spectrum and many sets of combustion noise spectra are made. The spectra are from open flames, low speed jets, can-type combustor, auxiliary power units and turbofan engines noise measurements. Good agreements are found offering favorable support for the proposal. This paper is written in honor of Dr. Marvin E. Goldstein, a world-class aero-acoustician, an accomplished applied mathemati...
Magnetic Order in Disordered Media

A short review of disorder induced effects in magnetic media is presented. Novel concepts essential to non-collinear magnetic structures and their dynamics are briefly discussed and illustrated by experimental examples.
HOW TO SURVIVE AND BECOME RICH AMIDST DEVASTATION: THE SECOND ECONOMY IN ZAIRE

THE ACTIVITIES variously known as the second, irregular, parallel or informal economy, or popularly referred to as the black market, are currently the focus of a lot of attention in both underdeveloped and developed countries. This paper will describe the pervasiveness of these activities in Zaire, where the expansion of the second economy results not only from a situation of gross shortages of goods, declining production and wages too low to live on at the current price structure, but also from the articulation of different modes of production in the Zairian economy. This articulation takes place when commodities are produced at low cost under non-capitalist relations of production and then sold for high prices in capitalist markets. Accumulation of wealth by these means provides opportunities for economic mobility and has significant effects on the process of class formation. Before proceeding further it is necessary to define the second economy. Accounting of the gross national product excludes illegal activities and others which, while not illegal in themselves, are carried out in a manner that avoids taxation. These unreported and unmeasured activities, falling outside a society's techniques for monitoring economic activity, make up the second economy.1 Its activities are thus, by definition, outside the control of the state, or, in Nelson Kasfir's terms, 'autonomous from the state'.2 This feature of the second economy is critical for the study of class in Africa because of the emphasis in the literature'on the primary role of the state in the process of class formation since independence. Recent interest in the second economies of the different countries derives
SHOALING OF FINITE-AMPLITUDE WAVES ON PLANE BEACHES

This work focuses on the shoaling of large water waves with particular application to storm-generated waves and tsunamis The specific objective is the exact simulation on a digital computer of finite-amplitude waves advancing on a beach of constant slope The study is based on the simulation technique called SUMMAC (the Stanford-University-Modified Marker-And-Cell Method) The flow field is represented by a rectangular mesh of cells and by a line of hypothetical particles which defines the free surface Based on the Navier-Stokes equations, finite-difference equations were derived so that the entire flow configuration could be advanced through a finite increment of time The pressure and velocity components are used directly as the dependent variables Through extensive analyses and numerical experiments, this scheme was found to be computationally stable if the cell size and the time increment are properly selected As a specific example, the dynamics of a solitary wave passing from a zone of constant depth onto a sloping beach were simulated Primary attention was focused on the details of the water particle motions and the changes in the amplitude and shape of the wave as it climbed the slope The computed results are compared with the experiments with good agreement.
Forgiveness Interventions to Promote Physical Health

Forgiveness and unforgiveness have been linked to short-term physiological responses. This information provides the basis to hypothesize, if not conclude, that chronic and continuing unforgiveness may present a risk to human physical health, and/or that forgiveness interventions may have a role to play in reducing these physical experiences. This chapter describes how unforgiveness and forgiveness are experienced physically; summarizes the impact that forgiveness interventions are recognized to have on human physiology and health conditions; proposes a model describing these relationships; and identifies a research agenda to move this scholarship forward. The analysis presented here suggests that future research will be able to document the use of forgiveness therapies to address and heal the consequences of stress-related health experiences. It is exciting to recognize that these interventions can have enormous personal and public health impacts.
Antiaccelerator (anticonvertin) activity of canine plasma and serum.

Summary1. Canine plasma and serum possess potent antiaccelerator activity, probably anticonvertin. This activity is retained after dialysis, but is thermolabile and is inactivated by multiple ether extractions. It is found in the precipitate obtained between 50 and 80% saturation with ammonium sulfate. Separation from antithrombin has not been accomplished. 2. An assay procedure for determining relative antiaccelerator activity is described. 3. Normal and hemophilic plasma and normal serum all have approximately the same antiaccelerator activity. 4. It is suggested that this new activity limits the tide of SA during clotting, analogous to antithrombin and the thrombin tide.
Texture and Grain Boundary Structure Dependence of Hillock Formation in Thin Metal Films

The development of hillocks on metal films during annealing is detrimental to downstream processing of integrated circuit structures. This work focuses upon the local character of texture and grain boundary structure near hillocks in metal films. It is apparent from the results that local grain boundary structure and texture strength are important parameters in identifying locations in the films that are preferentially susceptible to failure under given conditions. Results in aluminum and platinum films indicate that non-(111) oriented grains preferentially contain hillocks. In addition, (111) oriented grains with boundaries characterized by high angle rotations about random axes are prone to hillock formation.
Continuity in Visiting Nurse Personnel Has Important Implications for the Patient Experience

Continuity in health care personnel is an important component of high-quality care delivery. This study examines the extent to which continuity in nursing personnel is associated with Home Health C...
Developmental differences in antioxidant compounds and systems in normal and small-phenotype fruit of ‘Hass’ avocado (Persea americana Mill.)

Abstract Antioxidant compounds and reactive oxygen-scavenging systems were investigated in ‘Hass’ avocado fruit set by determinate (DFS) and indeterminate floral shoots (IFS). During early development, DFS produced the largest fruit, IFS the smallest. Normal-phenotype (large) fruit (NPF) from DFS and IFS were faster growing, greater in length, diameter and weight and contained more protein than small-phenotype fruit (SPF) from DFS and IFS, resulting in SPF having greater ascorbic acid and total phenol concentrations and antioxidant capacity per g fresh weight. In contrast, NPF had greater catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, and glutathione reductase activities per g fresh weight than SPF on a greater number of sample dates; SPF had greater superoxide dismutase activity. Per mg protein, ascorbic acid and phenol concentrations, antioxidant capacity, peroxidase, polyphenol oxidase, catalase and ascorbate peroxidase activities were greater in SPF than NPF on more dates and at maturity. Thus, SPF would be a healthier food choice due to their greater antioxidant compounds and capacity compared to NPF.
Training Needs of Staffs in Disease Control and Prevention Institutions in Yaan

Objective To investigate the training needs of the staff in both municipal and county level disease control and prevention( CDC) institutions in Yaan for formulating training program. Methods Questionnaire survey and in-depth interview method were both employed to understand the training needs in these institutions. Results In total 276 staffs were investigated in all the 8 institutions and a proportion of 92. 39% of them needed training. The required training contents included foreign language,computer skills,professional knowledge,profession basic knowledge; the anticipated training approaches were further education,middle or long term study,short term study and on-job training. Conclusion The training requirements in the CDC staffs are strong. Thus,well organized training needs survey and scientific training program are warranted to strengthening the training effect and elevating the professional ability.
Problems in allocation of rehabilitation medical resources and their solutions

The allocation of rehabilitation medical resources both at home and abroad was analyzed followed by the measures proposed for their solution in terms of human power resources,rehabilitation education,increasing government investment for health,working out related supporting measures,and establishing rehabilitation medical information resources sharing platform.
Results of early repair of ventricular septal defect after an acute myocardial infarction.

A 10-year experience with early operation for postinfarction ventricular septal defect is reviewed. Twenty-two patients underwent surgical repair; operative mortality was 36% ( horac C ardiovasc S urg 1992;104:961-5)
Radiative Exchange Between Nonideal Surfaces

In Chapter 6 we saw that, in certain situations, the directional nature of the reflectance of surfaces can strongly influence radiative heat transfer rates. This effect occurs particularly in open configurations, in enclosures with long channels, or in applications with collimated irradiation. Since real surfaces are neither diffuse nor specular reflectors, the actual directional behavior may have substantial impact, as we saw from the data in Fig. 6-17. We also noted that solar collectors did not appear to perform very well because, in our gray analysis, the reradiation losses were rather large. However, experience has shown that reradiation losses can be reduced substantially if selective surfaces (i.e., strongly nongray surfaces) are used for the collector plates. Apparently, there are a substantial number of applications for which our idealized treatment (gray, diffuse—i.e., direction-independent—absorptance and emittance, gray and diffuse or specular reflectance) is not sufficiently accurate.
Chapter 43 – Lectins and polyagglutination information

Publisher Summary This chapter presents some lectins and their specificities. The chapter also discusses polyagglutination types and the expected reactions with lectins. It also provides an overview of lectins, inhibitory sugar, and RBC antigen. The chapter provides an introduction to polyagglutination.
Heavy-traffic limits for a single-server queue leading up to a critical point

Abstract We establish heavy-traffic limits for the arrival and workload processes in a single-server queue with a time-varying arrival-rate function. We establish limits at and before a critical point, the onset of critical loading, where the arrival-rate function approaches its critical value from below. We extend results by Newell (1968) and Mandelbaum and Massey (1995) and present alternative views of the interesting scaling constants that arise in these limits.
SLC46 family transporters facilitate cytosolic innate immune recognition of monomeric peptidoglycans

Tracheal cytotoxin (TCT), a monomer of DAP-type peptidoglycan from Bordetella pertussis, causes cytopathology in the respiratory epithelia of mammals and robustly triggers the Drosophila Imd pathway. PGRP-LE, a cytosolic innate immune sensor in Drosophila, directly recognizes TCT and triggers the Imd pathway, yet the mechanisms by which TCT accesses the cytosol are poorly understood. In this study, we report that CG8046, a Drosophila SLC46 family transporter, is a novel transporter facilitating cytosolic recognition of TCT, and plays a crucial role in protecting flies against systemic Escherichia coli infection. In addition, mammalian SLC46A2s promote TCT-triggered NOD1 activation in human epithelial cell lines, indicating that SLC46As is a conserved group of peptidoglycan transporter contributing to cytosolic immune recognition.
Short selling and the rounding of analysts’ forecasts

Abstract This paper examines the causal effect of short selling on analyst forecast precision by exploiting a regulatory change in short-sale constraints (Regulation SHO) as a natural experiment. I find that short selling increases analysts’ rounding of forecasts, which indicates that analysts allocate less effort to gathering precise information on firms with downward price pressure. In the cross-section, the effect of short selling on analyst forecast precision is stronger for firms with more firm-specific information and firms with low levels of institutional holdings.
Chapter 1 – Why Stem Cell Research? Advances in the Field

Alan Trounson summarizes the major scientific discoveries that fueled the groundswell of knowledge from which today’s stem cell biology research emerged. Key people are noted as well as the organizations that are instrumental in supporting the fledgling stem cell industry.
Getting Around the State and Local Tax Deduction Limit

The 2017 tax bill put a cap of $10,000 on the deduction for state and local taxes, while retaining existing rules for charitable donations. It has been suggested that states could enact 100% state tax credits for people who donate money to the state, so taxpayers could donate instead of pay taxes and thus still be able to deduct as much as they want on their federal tax returns. I disagree, and argue that under the past and present Tax Code these "donations" would and should be treated as quid pro quo items, since the recipient transfers something of value to the donor.
Open-access programs for injury categorization using ICD-9 or ICD-10

The article introduces Programs for Injury Categorization, using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and R statistical software (ICDPIC-R). Starting with ICD-8, methods have been described to map injury diagnosis codes to severity scores, especially the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) and Injury Severity Score (ISS). ICDPIC was originally developed for this purpose using Stata, and ICDPIC-R is an open-access update that accepts both ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes. Data were obtained from the National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB), Admission Year 2015. ICDPIC-R derives CDC injury mechanism categories and an approximate ISS (“RISS”) from either ICD-9 or ICD-10 codes. For ICD-9-coded cases, RISS is derived similar to the Stata package (with some improvements reflecting user feedback). For ICD-10-coded cases, RISS may be calculated in several ways: The “GEM” methods convert ICD-10 to ICD-9 (using General Equivalence Mapping tables from CMS) and then calculate ISS with options similar to the Stata package; a “ROCmax” method calculates RISS directly from ICD-10 codes, based on diagnosis-specific mortality in the NTDB, maximizing the C-statistic for predicting NTDB mortality while attempting to minimize the difference between RISS and ISS submitted by NTDB registrars (ISSAIS). Findings were validated using data from the National Inpatient Survey (NIS, 2015). NTDB contained 917,865 cases, of which 86,878 had valid ICD-10 injury codes. For a random 100,000 ICD-9-coded cases in NTDB, RISS using the GEM methods was nearly identical to ISS calculated by the Stata version, which has been previously validated. For ICD-10-coded cases in NTDB, categorized ISS using any version of RISS was similar to ISSAIS; for both NTDB and NIS cases, increasing ISS was associated with increasing mortality. Prediction of NTDB mortality was associated with C-statistics of 0.81 for ISSAIS, 0.75 for RISS using the GEM methods, and 0.85 for RISS using the ROCmax method; prediction of NIS mortality was associated with C-statistics of 0.75–0.76 for RISS using the GEM methods, and 0.78 for RISS using the ROCmax method. Instructions are provided for accessing ICDPIC-R at no cost. The ideal methods of injury categorization and injury severity scoring involve trained personnel with access to injured persons or their medical records. ICDPIC-R may be a useful substitute when this ideal cannot be obtained.
The School Social Worker and the Community School

School social workers are in a unique position to improve urban education by facilitating innovation and by expanding their professional roles
Using Cases for Interpretation and Evaluation

This chapter discusses that interpretive case-based reasoning is the process of comparing and contrasting a new situation to old ones to better understand it, evaluate it, or project its effects. The first step in the process is to recall cases that are like the new one. One then asks whether the new situation is enough like an old one that it can be interpreted the same way the old one was. The chapter also examines what differentiates an old case from a new situation to ascertain whether or not an old interpretation is likely to hold. Cases make up for people's lack of knowledge about the world and are useful for evaluation and interpretation because, in general, the world is consistent. Interpretive case-based reasoning is used for three tasks: classification, situation assessment, and projection of outcomes. Case-based classification is best exemplified by PROTOS, which diagnoses hearing disorders by finding the case in the case library that is most similar to the new one and assigning the new case with the same classification. It begins by making an initial hypothesis about a classification based on surface similarities.
La ideología nacional de Clorinda Matto de Turner

This article attempts an understanding of the nationalist ideologies of the Peruvian author Clorinda Matto de Turner. These foundational ideologies can only be appreciated in the context of the societies in which she wrote her works and in light of the philological investigation she fostered. This reading of Clorinda Matto takes into account the two principal types of influences on her work, the societal and the literacy. Her nationalist considerations are examined in the context of three types of societies, the Andes, the Peruvian cost, and cosmopolitan Argentina. Her philological research must be understood in terms of ethnicity. Two very important sources in her thought can be found in the colonial authors Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and Juan de Espinosa Medrano. Through them Matto comes to define a national identity based on cultural hybridization, achieved through the philological and historical study of pre-Colombian and colonial Peru. This nationalist view of things is watered down when it comes in contact with Matto's feminist experience in Buenos Aires which suggested the importance of an internationalist approach to humanity.
Tailored treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma with portal vein invasion: experience from a multidisciplinary hepatobiliary tumor program within a NCI comprehensive cancer center

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with portal vein invasion (PVI) has a poor prognosis with limited treatment options. Intra-arterial brachytherapy (IAB) and transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) yield local control but risk accelerating liver dysfunction. The outcomes, survival, and safety of selective liver-directed treatment are reported. Methods: Thirty-seven consecutive patients with HCC and PVI treated between 2009 and 2015 were reviewed from a prospectively collected database. Univariate analysis, Kaplan-Meier plots using the log-rank method, and multivariate analyses were performed. Statistical significance was defined as P Results: Most patients (59%) had PVI identified at initial HCC diagnosis. The liver-directed therapy group (n=22) demonstrated a survival advantage versus the systemic/supportive care group (n=14) [23.6 (5.8, 30.9) vs . 6.0 (3.5, 8.8) months]. Patients indicated for liver directed therapy had unilateral liver involvement (100% vs . 43%, P vs . 208.0, P=0.002), and lower mean Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) score (5.9 vs . 7.2, P=0.04) and tolerated treatment without serious complications. Conclusions: In HCC patients presenting with PVI, liver-directed therapy was safely performed in patients with limited venous involvement and preserved liver function. Liver-directed therapy extended survival for these patients indicated for palliative chemotherapy by traditional guidelines.
Modeling the Speed and Timing of American Sign Language to Generate Realistic Animations

To enable more websites to provide content in the form of sign language, we investigate software to partially automate the synthesis of animations of American Sign Language (ASL), based on a human-authored message specification. We automatically select: where prosodic pauses should be inserted (based on the syntax or other features), the time-duration of these pauses, and the variations of the speed at which individual words are performed (e.g. slower at the end of phrases). Based on an analysis of a corpus of multi-sentence ASL recordings with motion-capture data, we trained machine-learning models, which were evaluated in a cross-validation study. The best model out-performed a prior state-of-the-art ASL timing model. In a study with native ASL signers evaluating animations generated from either our new model or from a simple baseline (uniform speed and no pauses), participants indicated a preference for speed and pausing in ASL animations from our model.
Wednesday, September 26, 2018 7:35 AM–9:00 AM ePosters: P108. A Multicenter retrospective research of anterior debridement, decompression, bone grafting, and instrumentation for cervical tuberculosis

BACKGROUND CONTEXT The incidence of cervical tuberculosis is not high, and only accounts for 3%–5% of spinal tuberculosis. However, the cervical anatomy is complicated, with many of the lesions being adjacent to important structures. The disease has a high risk and high disability rate, which seriously affects the prognosis and quality of life of the patients. Some scholars reported the incidence of paralysis in cervical tuberculosis to be as high as 42.5%. In recent years, anti-tuberculosis drugs in the treatment of spinal tuberculosis are more standardized, and also achieve a good therapeutic effect, but the spinal instability, kyphosis, nerve dysfunction and other complications often occur at follow-up. PURPOSE To observe the clinical effect of anterior debridement, decompression, bone grafting, and instrumentation for cervical spinal tuberculosis in four hospitals. STUDY DESIGN/SETTING A retrospective cohort study. PATIENT SAMPLE One hundred fourty-six patients. OUTCOME MEASURES Clinical outcome, laboratory indexes and radiological results METHODS This research retrospectively analyzed 146 patients with cervical spinal tuberculosis who were treated by anterior debridement, decompression, bone grafting, and instrumentation in four institutions between January 2000 and January 2015. There were 68 males and 78 females with an average age of 31.32±11.69years. All patients received chemotherapy for 18 months after surgery, and fixed by brace for 3 months. Clinical outcome, laboratory indexes and radiological results were analyzed to evaluate the efficacy of anterior approach surgery in the treatment of cervical spinal tuberculosis. RESULTS All cases were followed up about 18-52 months later (average 24 months). At the last follow-up, all patients obtained bone fusion, pain relief and neurological recovery. There was no recurrence in any of the patients, and no internal fixation related complications. There were statistically significant differences before and after treatment in terms of Visual analog scale (VAS), Neck disability index (NDI) and Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) (P CONCLUSIONS One stage anterior-only approach surgery for the treatment of cervical spinal tuberculosis showed excellent efficacy andthe complication rate of anterior approach surgery was 12%., so it is a recommendable surgical method.
Dielectric Disk Accelerator for High Gradient Short Pulse Two-Beam Wakefield Acceleration

In the last two decades, the theoretical and experimental investigations of dielectric accelerating structures for application to wakefield acceleration have predominantly used a dielectric-lined waveguide, due to its simple geometry (i.e. low fabrication cost). However, in comparison with the prevailing metallic disk-loaded accelerators, the dielectric-lined waveguide suffers from a lower Q-factor and lower shunt impedance. We are developing a new dielectric disk accelerator. The preliminary simulation shows that, even with 5×10−4 of loss tangent dielectric material $(E_{r}=50)$ , we can achieve ~200 MΩ/m shunt impedance at 26 GHz traveling wave operation (the beam aperture is kept the same in the comparison), which is 4 times higher than those of the conventional dielectric loaded accelerator. The dielectric disk accelerator can overcome conventional limitations on high gradient, high efficiency dielectric accelerator, leading to a breakthrough in the performance of the two-beam accelerator, one of the most promising technologies in the category of advanced accelerator concepts for high energy physics research applications.
Annotating risk factors for heart disease in clinical narratives for diabetic patients

Display Omitted NLP task focused on identifying risk factors over time in clinical narratives.Corpus of 1304 longitudinal medical records for 296 patients."Light" annotation task for domain expert annotators.Gold standard created through voting.Corpus used for track 2 of 2014 i2b2/UTHealth NLP Shared Task. The 2014 i2b2/UTHealth natural language processing shared task featured a track focused on identifying risk factors for heart disease (specifically, Cardiac Artery Disease) in clinical narratives. For this track, we used a "light" annotation paradigm to annotate a set of 1304 longitudinal medical records describing 296 patients for risk factors and the times they were present. We designed the annotation task for this track with the goal of balancing annotation load and time with quality, so as to generate a gold standard corpus that can benefit a clinically-relevant task. We applied light annotation procedures and determined the gold standard using majority voting. On average, the agreement of annotators with the gold standard was above 0.95, indicating high reliability. The resulting document-level annotations generated for each record in each longitudinal EMR in this corpus provide information that can support studies of progression of heart disease risk factors in the included patients over time. These annotations were used in the Risk Factor track of the 2014 i2b2/UTHealth shared task. Participating systems achieved a mean micro-averaged F1 measure of 0.815 and a maximum F1 measure of 0.928 for identifying these risk factors in patient records.
Toward predicting the evolution of lung tumors during radiotherapy observed on a longitudinal MR imaging study via a deep learning algorithm

Purpose To predict the spatial and temporal trajectories of lung tumor during radiotherapy monitored under a longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study via a deep learning algorithm for facilitating adaptive radiotherapy (ART). Methods We monitored 10 lung cancer patients by acquiring weekly MRI-T2w scans over a course of radiotherapy. Under an ART workflow, we developed a predictive neural network (P-net) to predict the spatial distributions of tumors in the coming weeks utilizing images acquired earlier in the course. The three-step P-net consisted of a convolutional neural network to extract relevant features of the tumor and its environment, followed by a recurrence neural network constructed with gated recurrent units to analyze trajectories of tumor evolution in response to radiotherapy, and finally an attention model to weight the importance of weekly observations and produce the predictions. The performance of P-net was measured with Dice and root mean square surface distance (RMSSD) between the algorithm-predicted and experts-contoured tumors under a leave-one-out scheme. Results Tumor shrinkage was 60% ± 27% (mean ± standard deviation) by the end of radiotherapy across nine patients. Using images from the first three weeks, P-net predicted tumors on future weeks (4, 5, 6) with a Dice and RMSSD of (0.78 ± 0.22, 0.69 ± 0.24, 0.69 ± 0.26), and (2.1 ± 1.1 mm, 2.3 ± 0.8 mm, 2.6 ± 1.4 mm), respectively. Conclusion The proposed deep learning algorithm can capture and predict spatial and temporal patterns of tumor regression in a longitudinal imaging study. It closely follows the clinical workflow, and could facilitate the decision-making of ART. A prospective study including more patients is warranted.
Diffraction imaging using the two-way imaging condition

ABSTRACTDiffraction imaging can increase the spatial resolution of seismic images beyond conventional means to provide interpreters with high-resolution structural and stratigraphic sections. The r...
DC Electric Fields in Electrode-Free Glass Vapor Cell by Photoillumination

Rydberg-atom-enabled atomic vapor cell technologies show great potentials in developing devices for quantum enhanced sensors. In this paper, we demonstrate laser induced DC electric fields in an all-glass vapor cell without bulk or thin film electrodes. The spatial field distribution is mapped by Rydberg electromagnetically induced transparency spectroscopy. We explain the measured with a boundary-value electrostatic model. This work may inspire new ideas for DC electric field control in designing miniaturized atomic vapor cell devices. Limitations and other charge effects are also discussed.
Achievable Information-Theoretic Secrecy in the Presence of a Radar

As the demand for spectrum increases, co-existence between radar and communication systems has been of increased interest. However, the effect of a radar signal on the secrecy capacity of a communication system operating in the environment has not been addressed. Particularly, for military operations, the limited dynamic range of real receivers is important to consider because the radar signal is often large enough to send the receivers into nonlinearity. In this paper, information-theoretic secrecy is considered when a friendly radar is present in the wiretap channel: the intended receiver Bob can cancel the radar signal before recording the signal based on a key sequence which is shared by the radar with the transmitter Alice and with Bob. However, due to the non-linear conversion operation in the eavesdropper Eve's receiver, Eve is inhibited from recovering the transmitted signal even if she obtains the key after storing the received signal. We analyze the information-theoretic secrecy rate of a wiretap channel co-existing with the radar signal without Gaussian assumptions on the radar signal. This analysis is made difficult relative to prior work due to the complex structure of the radar signal and the correlation between the two dimensions. We show that a positive secrecy rate can be achieved, even when the eavesdropper is closer to the transmitter than the intended receiver.
Neuroinvasive Listeria monocytogenes infection triggers accumulation of brain CD8 + tissue-resident memory T cells in a miR-155-dependent fashion

Brain inflammation is a key cause of cognitive decline after central nervous system (CNS) infections. A thorough understanding of immune responses to CNS infection is essential for developing anti-inflammatory interventions that improve outcomes. Tissue-resident memory T cells (TRM) are non-recirculating memory T cells that provide surveillance of previously infected tissues. However, in addition to protecting the brain against reinfection, brain TRM can contribute to post-infectious neuroinflammation. We hypothesized that accumulation of CD8+ TRM in the brain could be reduced by inhibiting microRNA (miR)-155, a microRNA that influences development of cytotoxic CD8+ T lymphocytes during infection. C57BL/6J mice were infected by intraperitoneal injection with a lethal inoculum of Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) then treated with antibiotics. Flow cytometry was used to quantify specific populations of brain leukocytes 28–29 days (d) post-infection (p.i.). To test the degree to which miR-155 altered leukocyte influxes into the brain, infected mice were injected with a miR-155 inhibitor or locked nucleic acid (LNA) scramble control 2d, 4d, 6d, and 8d p.i. along with antibiotic treatment. Bacterial loads in spleen and liver and body weights were measured up to 7d p.i. Brain leukocytes were analyzed 14d and 28d p.i. Confirmatory studies were performed in mutated mice lacking miR-155 (miR-155−/−) Lm infection significantly increased the numbers of brain CD3+CD8+ lymphocytes at 28d p.i. These cells were extravascular, and displayed markers characteristic of TRM, with the predominant phenotype of CD44+CD62L-CD69+CX3CR1−. Further analysis showed that > 75% of brain TRM also expressed CD49a, PD-1, Ly6C, CD103, and CD127. Mice injected with miR-155 inhibitor lost less weight through 7d p.i. than did control mice, whereas bacterial loads in brain, liver, and spleen were not different from controls. By 28d p.i., the numbers of brain CD8+ TRM cells were significantly decreased in mice treated with the inhibitor compared with controls. Similarly, miR-155−/− mice showed significantly reduced numbers of brain CD8+ TRM cells by 28d p.i. Brain CD8+ TRM populations are established during neuroinvasive Lm infection. Accumulation of brain CD8+ TRM cells is reduced by blocking miR-155 and in miR-155−/− mice, indicating that this molecule has a critical role in development of these specialized cells. Administering anti-miR-155 during infection could provide a novel avenue for reducing post-infectious neuroinflammation.
Lipid-Lowering Biotechnological Drugs: from Monoclonal Antibodies to Antisense Therapies-a Clinical Perspective.

While low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) remains a key contributor of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), additional risk factors identified through epidemiological and genetic studies have ushered in a fertile era of drug discovery in lipid-lowering therapy. Unlike contemporary small molecule medications, many of the novel agents are biologics utilizing monoclonal antibody (mAb) or RNA interference (RNAi) technologies. This report aims to review the evidence to date, focusing on completed and ongoing clinical trials and how these new agents will impact clinical practice. We review data from pertinent studies on lipid-lowering biologics in clinical use or have translated to human studies and are undergoing clinical trials. Several targets affecting lipid metabolism have been identified to be causally associated with ASCVD including proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9), angiopoietin-like protein 3 (ANGPTL3), apolipoprotein C3 (APOC3), and lipoprotein (a) (Lp[a]). Biotechnological modalities that have been developed for these targets include mAb, small interfering RNA (siRNA), and anti-sense oligonucleotide (ASO) agents. Agents such as alirocumab and evolocumab have shown efficacy in risk reduction of ASCVD in cardiovascular outcome trials and have been incorporated into evidence-based practice guidelines. Other agents included in this review are in various stages of clinical trials and have shown significant efficacy in the reduction of lipid parameters. The development of new biologics targeting lipid risk factors will provide clinicians additional tools to reduce the risk for ASCVD. Important factors to consider will be cost-effectiveness and improving methods to personalize treatments to risk factors.
513 CD26 enzymatic activity modulates efficient migration of adoptively transferred T cells to solid tumors

Background The inadequate ability of adoptively transferred T cells to eradicate solid tumors limits their use in treatments for patients afflicted with those cancers. Efforts to improve ACT for solid tumors aim to identify strategies that poise T cells for optimal response. We have previously identified a specific subset of CD4 T cells which express high levels of the ubiquitous ectoenzyme dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4), also known as CD26, that produce a tremendous antitumor response in solid tumor models. We therefore sought to investigate the importance of CD26 on T cells destined for ACT. Methods We adoptively transferred tumor specific CD26+ T cells into melanoma tumor-bearing CD26-/- mice, and continuously blocked the CD26 enzymatic activity of the donor cells in vivo with sitagliptin, an established competitive inhibitor of CD26. Results Tumors in sitagliptin-treated mice eventually reached study endpoint, while tumors untreated mice were regressed for 130+ days. Tumor infiltration of donor cells and host CD8 and CD4 cells was diminished with sitagliptin treatment. A 32-plex cytokine array of blood plasma revealed a diminished profile of cytokines and chemokines, indicating that the inflammatory response of the T cells was dampened with sitagliptin treatment. Further experiments characterized the ability of CD26+ T cells to respond to tumor trafficking signals with a transwell migration assay and found that sitagliptin treatment significantly impaired their migratory capacity. However, sitagliptin did not impair the ability of T cells to functionally respond to antigen. Conclusions These data suggest that the enzymatic activity of CD26 is important for the ability of T cells to migrate to the tumor site in order to mount an effective antitumor response. Further investigations into the mechanism behind the role of CD26 are ongoing. Ethics Approval This study was approved by the Medical University of South Carolina’s IACUC, protocol #00488
A switchable dimeric yttrium complex and its three catalytic states in ring opening polymerization

A dimeric yttrium phenoxide complex supported by a ferrocene Schiff base ligand, [(salfen)Y(OPh)]2 (salfen = (N,N′-bis(2,4-di-tert-butylphenoxy)-1,1′-ferrocenediimine), was synthesized and characterized. According to electrochemical studies and 1H NMR spectroscopy, [(salfen)Y(OPh)]2 can be oxidized in a stepwise fashion to access three oxidation states. The catalytic activity of the three states toward the ring opening polymerization of cyclic esters and epoxides was investigated. The activity toward cyclic esters decreases upon oxidation while the opposite trend was observed in epoxide polymerization. Block copolymer syntheses using a redox switch were also performed.
Isolating Cuts, (Bi-)Submodularity, and Faster Algorithms for Global Connectivity Problems.

Li and Panigrahi, in recent work, obtained the first deterministic algorithm for the global minimum cut of a weighted undirected graph that runs in time $o(mn)$. They introduced an elegant and powerful technique to find isolating cuts for a terminal set in a graph via a small number of $s$-$t$ minimum cut computations. In this paper we generalize their isolating cut approach to the abstract setting of symmetric bisubmodular functions (which also capture symmetric submodular functions). Our generalization to bisubmodularity is motivated by applications to element connectivity and vertex connectivity. Utilizing the general framework and other ideas we obtain significantly faster randomized algorithms for computing global (and subset) connectivity in a number of settings including hypergraphs, element connectivity and vertex connectivity in graphs, and for symmetric submodular functions.
Equity Trends in Mathematics Education: A Content Analysis of Meta-analytic Research

The purpose of this quantitative content analysis (QCA) was to characterize equity-related trends in meta-analyses of mathematics education studies. An a priori keyword search and retrieval process produced an initial pool of 156 studies. After applying the prescribed inclusion criteria, the initial pool of studies was reduced to a final sample of 32 studies. These studies were coded and analyzed as part of the QCA. The coding and analysis were guided by a critical quantitative research lens, which examines how numeric trends can help to unpack systemic and systematic practices that support the agenda of the dominant cultural group. The results indicate that 62.5 percent of the reviewed studies lacked an equity focus, while most equity-focused meta-analyses examined challenges related to student ability. Moreover, 14 out of the 16 or 87.5 percent of the equity-related moderators had a statistically significant influence on effect size variance. The results of this study suggest that across most mathematics education meta-analytic studies effect size magnitude is impacted by equity-related moderators that are often absent. The researchers provide implications for meta-analytic thinking and equitable research praxis in mathematics education.
Phylogenetic Endemism Hotspots of North American Birds Are Associated With Warm Temperatures and Long- and Short-Term Climate Stability

Human activities have dramatically altered the distribution and abundance of species, and our impacts are likely to increase in the near future. Conservation efforts are typically faced with scarce resources, forcing us to prioritize areas based in part on estimates of their conservation value. Two major factors in conservation value are a species uniqueness and its extinction risk. Though these ideas are multidimensional, one important component of uniqueness is evolutionary distinctness, while risk is strongly related to geographic range size. These components are combined in an assemblage-level measure called phylogenetic endemism (PE), which measures the degree to which the species in an assemblage are small-ranged and phylogenetically distinct. Broad-scale patterns and correlates of PE are becoming better known for a variety of groups, and have been shown to depend on current climate, geographic isolation and long-term climate stability. Human impacts (e.g. land cover changes), are likely to shape PE as well, though the coarse resolution of most previous studies may make this difficult to detect. Overall, PE patterns at fine spatial and temporal resolutions are not well understood. Here, we fill this gap using data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey. These data comprise a long-term annual record with fine spatial resolution and near-continental extent. We assess geographic patterns and trends in PE, and relate these to a range of putative predictor variables including measures of current climate, land cover, long-term and recent climate change. Bird PE is concentrated in three main hotspots: the west coast, the southeast and south-central Canada east of the Rockies. High PE values tended to occur in regions with high temperatures and stability in temperature. PE patterns are driven more strongly by patterns of range size than phylogenetic distinctiveness, and are trending gradually upward, driven by increasingly frequent sightings of small-ranged species. These results indicate the importance of climate stability on multiple time scales in influencing endemism patterns and suggest a surprisingly minor influence of direct human land use. The increase in PE through time may reflect successful conservation efforts that have led to population recoveries of some small-ranged species.