cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Questions about New Diagnostic Criteria for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

Dear Editor, I have read the proposed new diagnostic criteria for complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) in Harden et al. [1] and found that they [1] are almost identical to the diagnostic criteria published in 2005 [2]. I found minor changes in the new diagnostic criteria for CRPS, allodynia to temperature sensation in the sensory category of objective signs and >1°C temperature asymmetry in the vasomotor category of objective signs [1]. The latter is very important, but is not mentioned in the new …
Human Cytomegalovirus Protein Kinase UL97 Forms a Complex with the Tegument Phosphoprotein pp65

UL97 is a protein kinase encoded by human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and is an important target for antiviral drugs against this ubiquitous herpesvirus, which is a major cause of life-threatening opportunistic infections in the immunocompromised host. In an effort to better understand the function(s) of UL97 during HCMV replication, a recombinant HCMV, NTAP97, which expresses a tandem affinity purification (TAP) tag at the amino terminus of UL97, was used to obtain UL97 protein complexes from infected cells. pp65 (also known as UL83), the 65-kDa virion tegument phosphoprotein, specifically copurified with UL97 during TAP, as shown by mass spectrometry and Western blot analyses. Reciprocal coimmunoprecipitation experiments using lysates of infected cells also indicated an interaction between UL97 and pp65. Moreover, in a glutathione S-transferase (GST) pull-down experiment, purified GST-pp65 fusion protein specifically bound in vitro-translated UL97, suggesting that UL97 and pp65 do not require other viral proteins to form a complex and may directly interact. Notably, pp65 has been previously reported to form unusual aggregates during viral replication when UL97 is pharmacologically inhibited or genetically ablated, and a pp65 deletion mutant was observed to exhibit modest resistance to a UL97 inhibitor (M. N. Prichard, W. J. Britt, S. L. Daily, C. B. Hartline, and E. R. Kern, J. Virol. 79:15494-15502, 2005). A stable protein-protein interaction between pp65 and UL97 may be relevant to incorporation of these proteins into HCMV particles during virion morphogenesis, with potential implications for immunomodulation by HCMV, and may also be a mechanism by which UL97 is negatively regulated during HCMV replication.
Advantage and Choice: Social Relationships and Staff Assistance in Assisted Living

Objectives. To understand how “ cumulative inequality ” (CI), expressed as individual advantage and choice, and “ external social supports ” contribute to the quality of social relationships and perceptions of staff assistance for older individuals in different assisted living (AL) settings. Methods. Data are from 429 cognitively intact AL residents aged 60 years and older interviewed for the Florida Study of Assisted Living. Bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses show how individual advantage and choice and external social networks infl uence respondents ’ social relationships and staff assistance in AL. Results. Controlling for resident and facility characteristics, being able to pay privately enhances resident satisfaction with staff assistance and having control over the move to AL is positively associated with perceptions of staff relationships and assistance. Maintaining contact with pre-AL friends predicts quality of coresident relationships, as does family contact. Regular contact with family buffers some of the disadvantages associated with CI for perceptions of staff relationships but not perceptions of staff assistance. Discussion. Individual advantage and choice infl uence the quality of staff relationships and assistance for AL residents but matter little for coresident relationships. External social relationships buffer some of the risks associated with CI for perceptions of staff relationships but not perceived quality of staff assistance. Findings highlight outcomes associated with CI, including predictable risks that disadvantaged elders face in particular types of AL settings, differential advantages others enjoy that infl uence positive perceptions of staff relationships and staff assistance, and the enduring importance of supportive social relationships.
Provider Opinions Regarding Expanding Access to Hormonal Contraception in Pharmacies.

Abstract Purpose Expanding access to hormonal contraception may reduce the barrier created with the current prescription requirement. The goal of this study was to gain a better understanding of health care providers' opinions on expanding access to hormonal contraception (oral pill, transdermal patch, vaginal ring, and injectable) and the role of pharmacists as direct providers of this reproductive health service. Methods A voluntary, self-administered survey was distributed to participating national professional associations' physician and midlevel provider members who provide reproductive health services. Outcomes of providers' opinions on expanded access to hormonal contraception in pharmacies were analyzed by provider type ( n = 482). Findings Almost three-quarters (74%) of the 482 providers surveyed, 76% of physicians and 70% of midlevels, were supportive of expanding access for the pill, patch, and ring contraceptives to include pharmacist-initiated access. Despite overall support for pharmacist-initiated access, more than 70% of respondents were concerned that expanded access would result in decreased reproductive health preventive screening. Slightly fewer providers supported or were neutral towards behind-the-counter (65% for pill/patch/ring, 55% injectable) and over-the-counter (47% for pill/patch/ring, 36% injectable) access than for pharmacist-initiated access. Conclusions The majority of reproductive health providers support pharmacist-initiated access to the pill, patch, ring, and injectable contraceptives. There is some support for behind-the-counter and over-the-counter access. Provider concerns about lower rates of reproductive health preventive screenings and pharmacist training issues would need to be appropriately addressed along with any policy changes.
Visual outcomes after pars plana vitrectomy for epiretinal membranes associated with pars planitis

Abstract Objective To evaluate the results of pars plana vitrectomy and membrane stripping for visually significant macular epiretinal membranes associated with chronic idiopathic pars planitis. Design Consecutive noncomparative case series. Participants and methods The records of all patients who underwent pars plana vitrectomy for pars planitis from 1988 through 1997 were retrospectively reviewed. Seven eyes of five patients who were diagnosed with visually significant epiretinal membranes associated with pars planitis and who underwent vitrectomy and membrane stripping were analyzed. Patients were diagnosed with pars planitis based on characteristic clinical signs and pertinent negative laboratory test results. Intervention Pars plana vitrectomy and epiretinal membrane stripping. Main outcome measures Visual acuity and inflammatory grade were compared between the last preoperative visit and the most recent follow-up visit. Intraoperative and postoperative complications were also analyzed. Results The mean patient age was 31 years (range, 6 to 45 years). The mean duration of uveitis was 6.4 years (range, 6 months to 13 years). All patients were treated with combinations of periocular, topical, and oral corticosteroids before surgery. Five eyes had laser retinopexy, and two eyes had cryopexy to the inferior retina at the time of surgery. Five eyes had at least 3 Snellen lines of visual acuity improvement, and visual acuity in one eye worsened by 2 lines. Mean preoperative visual acuity was 20/73 (range, 20/50 to 20/300), and mean final visual acuity was 20/37 (range, 20/25 to 20/70). Five eyes had a final visual acuity of 20/40. Vitritis improved in all cases. Mean follow-up was 23 months (range, 3 to 54 months). Six of seven eyes had progressive cataract development, four of which underwent cataract extraction. No other intraoperative or postoperative complications occurred. Conclusions Removal of epiretinal membranes associated with pars planitis can be safely performed and may result in improved visual acuity. Patients often require subsequent cataract extraction to obtain the best long-term final acuity.
Ecometrics: The traits that bind the past and present together

We outline here an approach for understanding the biology of climate change, one that integrates data at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Taxon-free trait analysis, or “ecometrics,” is based on the idea that the distribution in a community of ecomorphological traits such as tooth structure, limb proportions, body mass, leaf shape, incubation temperature, claw shape, any aspect of anatomy or physiology can be measured across some subset of the organisms in a community. Regardless of temporal or spatial scale, traits are the means by which organisms interact with their environment, biotic and abiotic. Ecometrics measures these interactions by focusing on traits which are easily measurable, whose structure is closely related to their function, and whose function interacts directly with local environment. Ecometric trait distributions are thus a comparatively universal metric for exploring systems dynamics at all scales. The main challenge now is to move beyond investigating how future climate change will affect the distribution of organisms and how it will impact ecosystem services and to shift the perspective to ask how biotic systems interact with changing climate in general, and how climate change affects the interactions within and between the components of the whole biotic-physical system. We believe that it is possible to provide believable, quantitative answers to these questions. Because of this we have initiated an IUBS program iCCB (integrative Climate Change Biology).
A two-dimensional simulation technique for quantifying the uncertainty of a combined travel demand model

Uncertainties are unavoidable in the travel demand model. The purpose is to provide a framework for analyzing and quantifying the uncertainty involved in travel demand forecasting models. Instead of using the traditional four-step approach to travel demand modelling that lacks behavioral interpretation and consistency, the combined travel demand model is adopted. A partial linearization algorithm is used for solving this multidimensional travel choice problem. A two-dimensional Monte Carlo simulation technique is proposed to handle the uncertainties. It separately simulates the variability and uncertainty of the combined travel demand model so that individual and collective effects can be better assessed and quantified. Numerical experiment is also conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed framework
Long-term benefit of rituximab in MuSK autoantibody myasthenia gravis patients.

Despite the efficacy of standard immunotherapy, a subset of myasthenia gravis (MG) patients remains medically refractory. Muscle-specific kinase autoantibody positive (MuSK+) patients, in particular, do not respond well to treatment, exhibit more bulbar symptoms and have more frequent exacerbations as compared to acetylcholine receptor antibody positive (AChR+) patients.1 ,2 Autoreactive B cells are appropriate candidates for targeted drug therapy as they play an important role in the pathogenesis of MG.2–4 Rituximab, a chimeric monoclonal antibody that targets the CD20 antigen on B lymphocytes, is the only B cell–directed biologic currently approved for clinical use. Several groups, including our own, have observed the benefits of rituximab in both AChR+ and MuSK+ patients.2–7 The durability of this positive response has varied among different reports. One group reported sustained benefit after a mean follow-up of 31 months in the combined AChR+ and MuSK+ cohort and 40 months in the MuSK+ subpopulation.3 Here, we report our experience with the sustained effects of rituximab in nine refractory MuSK+ patients in a follow-up period ranging from 2 to 5.5 years. A retrospective study was performed of generalised MuSK+ MG patients referred to our neuromuscular clinic from 2003 to 2011. Nine MuSK+ patients were identified with refractory disease and treated with rituximab. The group consisted of eight females and one male with a median age of 40. Patients were defined as refractory when they: (1) could not lower …
The temperature gradient between 100 and 120 km

Oxygen density profiles inferred from Ogo 6 green nightglow emission vary too sharply between 100 and 120 km to be consistent with temperature gradients in standard model atmospheres, and the eddy diffusion coefficient K determined from these observations reaches its maximum below 115 km. For three atomic oxygen profiles obtained at geographic latitudes of -27.69, +48.89, and +59.10 the temperature profiles required to create a downward flux that varies with altitude as the integrated photolytic production rate above that altitude are calculated, assuming K to be invariant with altitude and latitude. The oxygen distribution can be reconciled with a constant eddy coefficient above 100 km if the temperature gradient reaches a value between 10 and 20 deg K/km for low values of the eddy coefficient (about 500,000 sq cm/sec) or between 30 and 50 deg K/km for a higher eddy coefficient (about 1.6 million sq cm/sec). The maximum gradient for the Jacchia (1971) model is about 10 deg K/km. These temperature profiles predict Ar/N ratios consistent with those measured by sounding rockets. The low K profiles are large enough to remove a large part of the solar energy deposited below 120 km by thermal conduction.
Effect of Lower On-Treatment Systolic Blood Pressure on the Risk of Atrial Fibrillation in Hypertensive Patients

There is a well-established association between hypertension and atrial fibrillation (AF); indeed, even upper normal systolic blood pressures (SBP) are long-term predictors of incident AF. These findings suggest that more aggressive BP control may reduce the risk of new AF. However, whether lower achieved SBP is associated with a lower incidence of AF remains unclear. The risk of new-onset AF was examined in relation to last in-treatment SBP before AF diagnosis or last in-study measurement in the absence of new AF in 8831 hypertensive patients with ECG left ventricular hypertrophy with no history of AF, in sinus rhythm on their baseline ECG, randomly assigned to losartan- or atenolol-based treatment. Patients with in-treatment SBP ≤130 mm Hg (lowest quintile at last measurement) and SBP between 131 and 141 mm Hg were compared with patients with in-treatment SBP ≥142 mm Hg (median SBP at last measurement). During follow-up of 4.6±1.1 years, new-onset AF was diagnosed in 701 patients (7.9%). In multivariate Cox analyses, compared with in-treatment SBP ≥142 mm Hg, in-treatment SBP ≤130 mm Hg entered as a time-varying covariate was associated with a 40% lower risk (95% confidence interval, 18%–55%) and in-treatment SBP of 131 to 141 mm Hg with a 24% lower risk (95% confidence interval, 7%–38%) of new AF. Thus, achieved SBP ≤130 mm Hg is associated with a lower risk of new-onset AF in hypertensive patients with ECG left ventricular hypertrophy. Further study is needed to determine whether targeting hypertensive patients without AF to lower SBP goals can reduce the burden of new AF in this high-risk population. Clinical Trial Registration URL: http://clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00338260.
Predicting and Interpolating State-Level Polls Using Twitter Textual Data

Spatially or temporally dense polling remains both difficult and expensive using existing survey methods. In response, there have been increasing efforts to approximate various survey measures using social media, but most of these approaches remain methodologically flawed. To remedy these flaws, this article combines 1,200 state-level polls during the 2012 presidential campaign with over 100 million state-located political tweets; models the polls as a function of the Twitter text using a new linear regularization feature-selection method; and shows via out-of-sample testing that when properly modeled, the Twitter-based measures track and to some degree predict opinion polls, and can be extended to unpolled states and potentially substate regions and subday timescales. An examination of the most predictive textual features reveals the topics and events associated with opinion shifts, sheds light on more general theories of partisan difference in attention and information processing, and may be of use for real-time campaign strategy.
The ethics of heroism in medieval and American Indian tales.

Oral-traditional stories detail their heroes' growth through a narrative pattern of exile and return that places the heroes in situations repeatedly challenging their strength and resolve. Through the motif of the quest, medieval and American Indian tales alike reaffirm general psychological truths that bear upon our understanding of human nature. Stories about heroes are stories about us: about our desires to grow up, to defeat death, to prove ourselves in difficult situations, and to achieve recognition or admiration among our peers (Becker, 1973, p. 4). In this way, medieval and American Indian tales are about self-actualization. They maintain that "one has within oneself proclivity toward growth and unity of personality ... and an automatic thrust toward expression" of these qualities (Yalom, 1980, p. 9). All forms of literature, however, reflect ideas peculiar to their cultures. The ways in which these basic human truths are represented in medieval and American Indian tales suggest the differing religious or social concerns that have informed these truths and have given them shape. To a large degree, the medieval knight's view of "self" and "other" encompasses the view that Western humanity has had (and continues to have) of itself. This is a view conditioned upon the superiority of the "self" as measured against the inferiority of the "other," reinforced through existing social (hierarchial) and religious (Judeo-Christian) codes of behavior. Such codes are not only inadequate to the task of interpreting American Indian perceptions of "self" and "other," they are inimical to the ethical foundation underlying them. Scott Momaday remarks that "you cannot understand how the Indian thinks of himself in relation to the world around him unless you understand his conception of what is appropriate; particularly what is morally appropriate within the context of that relationship" (Basso, 1984, p. 46). For the American Indian hero, self-actualization is self-transcendence. By "becoming a part of something greater" than himself, the American Indian hero sustains a moral vision that not only reveals his "latent nobility" but also protects, even strengthens, the relational fabric of his community. By reading these and other American Indian tales, Western healers may become more sensitive to the moral conflicts uniquely experienced by American Indians and to the needs of others who desire to revise or strengthen their own moral structures by including ideas of relatedness and relationship.
Clinically significant factors in dowel design

When a method of intracoronal reinforcement is selected, many factors must be weighed. The hazards include (1) the induced stresses and the risk of fracture during placement of the dowel, (2) the probability of root perforation during post space preparation, (3) the wedging action of tapered dowels, and (4) the incidence of fracture with self-threading pins in devitalized teeth. The amount of tooth structure that remains after endodontic therapy and post space preparation is paramount. Endodontic and restorative treatment must be aimed at preserving tooth structure to provide strength and resistance to fracture of the pulpless tooth. To fabricate a large-diameter dowel with a strength that greatly exceeds that of the endodontically treated root decreases the prognosis for clinical success.
Compact multi-level folded-line bandpass filters

A simple design methodology for compact multi-level, multi-conductor folded-line bandpass filters is presented. Several new folded-line filter topologies are proposed. Simple closed-form design equations are presented for the extraction of an equivalent coupled-line representing the folded-line filter section. The new folded-line filters exhibit a significant reduction in footprints compared to the conventional designs.
ExtraVirt: detecting and recovering from transient processor faults

Reliability is becoming an increasingly important issue in modern processor design. Smaller feature sizes and more numerous transistors are projected to increase the frequency of transient faults [4, 5]. Our project, ExtraVirt, leverages the trend toward multi-core and multi-processor systems to survive these transient faults. Our goals are (1) to add fault tolerance without modifying existing operating systems, applications or hardware, (2) to minimize the time spent executing software that cannot tolerate faults, and (3) to minimize the time and space overhead needed to detect and recover from faults. We accomplish these goals by leveraging virtual-machine technology and by sharing memory and I/O devices across replicas. ExtraVirt extends prior work on VM-level fault tolerance[2] by detecting and recovering from non-fail-stop faults and by running multiple replicas efficiently on a single machine.
Arterial spin labeling perfusion cardiovascular magnetic resonance of the calf in peripheral arterial disease: cuff occlusion hyperemia vs exercise

Assessment of calf muscle perfusion requires a physiological challenge. Exercise and cuff-occlusion hyperemia are commonly used methods, but it has been unclear if one is superior to the other. We hypothesized that post-occlusion calf muscle perfusion (Cuff) with pulsed arterial spin labeling (PASL) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) at 3 Tesla (T) would yield greater perfusion and improved reproducibility compared to exercise hyperemia in studies of peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Exercise and Cuff cohorts were independently recruited. PAD patients had an ankle brachial index (ABI) between 0.4-0.9. Controls (NL) had no risk factors and ABI 0.9-1.4. Subjects exercised until exhaustion (15 NL-Ex, 15 PAD-Ex) or had a thigh cuff inflated for 5 minutes (12 NL-Cuff, 11 PAD-Cuff). Peak exercise and average cuff (Cuff mean ) perfusion were compared. Six participants underwent both cuff and exercise testing. Reproducibility was tested in 8 Cuff subjects (5 NL, 3 PAD). Controls had greater perfusion than PAD independent of stressor (NL-Ex 74 ± 21 vs. PAD-Ex 43 ± 10, p = 0.01; NL-Cuff mean 109 ± 39 vs. PAD-Cuff mean 34 ± 17 ml/min-100 g, p < 0.001). However, there was no difference between exercise and Cuff mean perfusion within groups (p > 0.6). Results were similar when the same subjects had the 2 stressors performed. Cuff mean had superior reproducibility (Cuff mean ICC 0.98 vs. Exercise ICC 0.87) and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (Cuff mean 0.992 vs. Exercise 0.905). Cuff hyperemia differentiates PAD patients from controls, as does exercise stress. Cuff mean and exercise calf perfusion values are similar. Cuff occlusion hyperemia has superior reproducibility and thus may be the preferred stressor.
Human umbilical cord blood endothelial progenitor cells decrease vein graft neointimal hyperplasia in SCID mice.

Aims Vein graft endothelial damage is a key step in the development of neointimal hyperplasia, leading to vein graft failure. We sought to determine whether exogenous endothelial progenitor cells could promote vein graft re-endothelialization, and thereby ameliorate neointimal hyperplasia.
Avian abundance in CRP and crop fields during winter in the midwest

Abstract We compared the abundance and species composition of birds in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) fields with the same aspects in row-crop fields during the winter (January and February) over several years (1992–1995) for six midwestern states (Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Nebraska). Field techniques were standardized in all states. CRP fields consisted of either permanent introduced grasses and legumes (CP1) or permanent native grasses (CP2), and the plant species seeded in CRP fields differed within and among states. Vegetation characteristics of CRP fields varied considerably from state to state, but vertical density and total canopy cover (primarily grasses) were particularly high in Nebraska. Mean annual total bird abundance ranged from 0.1 to 5.1 birds per km of transect in CRP fields and from 0.1 to 24.2 in row-crop fields. The total number of bird species recorded in CRP fields in the six states ranged from 6 to 32; the range for row-crop fields was 8 to 18. The most abund...
Thoughts on a State Records Program

"Archives! Who needs them?!" This comment was attributed to a consultant working under the direction of a team of businessmen charged with recommending efficiencies and economies in the operations of a state government in New England. The team recommended abolishing the state archives and records management program as a "marginal luxury" of state government.1 Officials in that state disregarded this recommendation, but the attitude that government records programs are a "marginal luxury" still exists among some governmental decision makers and many members of the public. It reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of government records in society. It also reveals a shortcoming of government archivists who fail to articulate the role of government records and the need for an active state records program. That state archives and records management programs are under-supported, not fully utilized, and misunderstood is documented by Edwin C. Bridges in his analysis of reports on state archives programs from the initial round of the NHPRC-funded state historical records assessment and reporting projects.2 Analysis of reports from the second round of these projects does nothing to refute his conclusion that "American state archives are in an impoverished condition and are currently unable to provide adequate care for their records."3 "The image of state records administrators that emerges from these reports," writes Bridges, "is of a small, haggard band of defenders surrounded by forces that threaten to overwhelm them and desperately struggling just to survive."4 His use of the cliche, "the cycle of poverty," aptly describes conditions in many state programs. If this is the situation, then why have a state records program anyway? Is it a "marginal luxury?" In times of fiscal constraint, can a state afford to support its state archives program? What is the role of records in state government? The answer to this last question is the key to answering the others. It is to this question that archivists must thoughtfully respond so that government decision makers, the citizens who elect them, and the bureaucracy that serves them, can vividly understand the reasons to support a state archives and records management program. "Government is the one institution that in one way or another, at one time or another, touches the lives of every single individual within its jurisdiction. It not only affects the lives of all citizens, but inherent in that contact between government and citizen is a complex interdependence of rights and obligations, of mutual responsibility and accountability."5 The
Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov: Plant Geographer, Geneticist, Martyr of Science

Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov (1887-1943), one of the pioneers of 20th century plant breeding, is best known for seminal work in identifying centers of origins and diversity for cultivated plants. Vavilov studied genetics with William Bateson from 1913 to 1914 at the John Innis Horticultural Institute. In 1921, he was chosen by Vladimir Lenin to head the Branch of Applied Botany in Petrograd (St.Petersburg) and rose to bethe Director of the All-Union Institute of Agriculture in Leningrad, where he oversaw agricultural research for the entire country. By 1934, Vavilov established more than 400 research institutes and experiment stations with a staff of 20,000. His efforts established the Soviet Union as a world leader ingeneticsandplantbreedinginthe1920sandearly1930s.Vavilovcarriedoutanextensiveseriesofexpeditionsworldwide, including the United States, to collect germplasm; and he created the world's largest repository, over 250,000 seed accessions. However, as a result of famine in the Soviet Union in the late 1920s, partly as a result of forced collectivization of peasants, Vavilov came in conflict with an ambitious agronomist, Trofim Lysenko, who came to prominence with an agricultural technique proposed in 1928, of exposing chilled, soaked seeds of wheat (dubbed vernalization) to extend production in northern areas of Russia. Lysenko's rejection of Mendeliangenetics won the supportof Joseph Stalin, leading to the arrest and death sentence of Vavilov, although this was later commuted to 20 years imprisonment. Vavilov died of starvation inprison in 1943, thusentering the select groupof martyrs of science alongwithGordianoBruno, Galileo Galilei, Antoine Lavoisier, and Georgii Karpechenko.
What is the truth behind pump thrombosis in the HeartMate II device? A National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute perspective based on data from the Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support.

The clinical community faces major issues in caring for the 100,000 to 300,000 advanced heart failure patients in the United States. 1 For these patients, left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) may provide life-saving options for use as destination therapy or as a bridge to heart transplantation. Emerging and changing patterns of adverse events in continuous-flow LVADs present challenges to optimizing use of LVADs in this very ill population. These patterns have only recently been uncovered following more widespread use as compared with the controlled clinical trials, in which they performed admirably. In this issue of the journal, Kirklin et al 2 and Smedira et al 3 report on parallel analyses of HeartMate II pump thrombosis data derived from the Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support (INTERMACS) registry. Kirklin and colleagues report a reversal in the first half of 2014 of a trend that had been increasing over the previous several years. They hypothesize that modifications in anti-coagulation therapy, among other strategies, are working to reduce the apparent increases in pump thrombosis observed between 2010 and 2013. Smedira and colleagues report a flattening of the pump thrombosis rate, but suggest that clinicians may reconsider and recalibrate their decision thresholds for recommending device implant, transplant and medical therapies. As this collaboration evolved, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), along with the NHLBIappointed study chair for INTERMACS, further explored the same INTERMACS data sets to give perspective to the 2 analyses described. Modeling choices within the analyses were assessed along with the uncertainty of statistical estimates of recent trends. Different approaches to estimating the magnitude of risk in the presence of censoring events are described. Consideration of these approaches is important for interpretation of the trends described and critical to making research and clinical decisions involving patients receiving these devices. The results of this collaborative approach demonstrate the capabilities and limitations of INTERMACS for capturing important trends in ventricular assist device (VAD) utilization and outcomes. They also show how these data may be used in concert with data from other reliable sources to inform public health, regulatory and research decisions.
Presynaptic Mechanisms Underlying Neurotransmitter Synthesis, Storage, Release, and Inactivation

Neurons communicate with each other and with other cells by using one of two forms of neurotransmission: electrical or chemical. In the CNS of higher vertebrates, chemical transmission predominates. An understanding of chemical neurotransmission is important for physicians because most drugs that affect the nervous system do so by modifying chemical neurotransmission. You will learn more about the mechanisms of drug action in the pharmacology component of your curriculum. Here, we consider the basic cell biological mechanisms that underlie neurotransmitter synthesis, storage, release, and inactivation.
American Indian and Alaska Native Children and Families

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children confront tremendous adversity with service systems that are under-resourced and often based on service models that are oblivious to native cultures and contexts (Gone & Trimble, 2012; Sarche & Spicer, 2008, 2012). While there is great deal of overlap between the needs of AI/AN children and families and those from other populations, here we emphasize the unique opportunities that arise for advocacy for tribes, given their direct relationship with the federal government, and for models that are informed by specific local tribal cultures. For many Americans, AI/AN issues seem to be of little contemporary relevance. AI/AN people may seem eerily absent from American society (Wilson, 1998), but AI/AN communities are rapidly growing with strong assertions of tribal sovereignty with regard to economic development, education, and health services. These dynamics shape the environment for advocacy on children’s issues and provide a unique perspective on relationships between researchers and advocacy. In the case we focus on here, the work of the American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start Research Center, research was designed to respond directly to advocacy from tribal communities.
Sciurus niger (Fox squirrel)

Many chromosomes are morphologically similar so that matching pairs is somewhat arbitrary. However, identification of the Y chromosome is unequivocal.
The California State Assembly: Where the People Don’t Matter - On the Campaign Financing of Assembly Candidates and the Puzzling Lack of Public Outcry

This paper explores why electoral competitiveness is so low in California State Assembly races by examining the nature of campaign contributions, and the public’s engagement with the Assembly. Once the engaged electorate elects their candidate of choice, that candidate is then freed from the burden of voter-accountability and does not rely as heavily on the engaged electorate’s support for reelection. The intent of this paper is to show that the unremarkable electorate composed of everyday citizens has a shrinking impact on successive campaign races, yet that same unremarkable electorate is ambivalent to the dubious nature of this predicament.
Life After Transitional Housing for Homeless Families

Federal legislation to support the development of transitional housing programs for homeless people (TH) was first introduced in 1986, and ultimately incorporated into the first Stewart B. McKinney Act in 1987 as part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Supportive Housing Program (SHP). HUD’s division of Community Planning and Development has had responsibility for the SHP since 1989, when a new administration brought all the McKinney Act housing programs together within the new Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs, which manages and directs the program. By 1996 there were about 4,400 transitional housing programs offering about 160,000 beds (Burt et al. 1999). By 2007 there were almost 7,300 transitional housing programs offering about 211,000 beds. About 53 percent of the TH beds reported in 2007 are designated for families (HUD 2008), creating a capacity to serve about 40,000 families at a time.
Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Applied in the Full p-i-n a-Si:H Solar Cell Device Configuration

Assessment of the performance of single-junction hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) p-i-n configuration solar cells has been developed with a combination of real-time spectroscopic ellipsometry (RTSE) and current-voltage (I-V) measurements. For each layer, RTSE measurements enabled the determination of thickness and optical properties in the form of the complex dielectric function (e = e 1 + ie 2 ) spectra. RTSE tracked changes in a as a function of depth and was used to extract profiles in the i-layer bandgap and crystallite fraction in the n-layer. Through mapping I-V characteristic measurements, spatial variations in device performance were determined. By comparing individual devices at the location of the RTSE beam spot, the influence of a and thickness for each layer on device performance was identified through simulations of quantum efficiency yielding the shortcircuit current. This study compares two devices prepared with different superstrate preheating processes and finds that the combination of RTSE and I-V measurements along with quantum efficiency simulations were able to identify plasma damage to the transparent conducting oxide as the likely cause for variation in device performance. This comparison serves as one example of how the optically obtained information, such as thickness and a for each layer, can be used to understand the final device performance.
Autonomous Control of Parafoils Using Upper Surface Spoilers

The limited control authority and sensing capability of current airdrop systems make it extremely difficult for an autonomous system to recover from unanticipated changes in the wind profile near the ground. The addition of glide slope control to conventional lateral control of guided airdrop systems has shown the ability to provide dramatic improvements in landing accuracy. Additionally, upper surface aerodynamic spoilers using canopy bleed air have been shown to be an extremely effective means of both lateral and longitudinal control of parafoil and payload aircraft. The current work investigates the effect on landing accuracy of an autonomous parafoil and payload aircraft using upper surface spoilers for lateral and longitudinal control combined with a specialized control law to leverage the added authority this control mechanism provides. When used for lateral control alone, upper surface spoilers provide sufficient lateral control authority to achieve the same landing performance as typical airdrop systems utilizing the typical trailing edge brake control. Simulation results demonstrate that when using the spoilers for simultaneous lateral and longitudinal control, nearly a factor of 4 improvement is obtained in landing accuracy compared to conventional control strategies.
Earthquake Damage Prediction of Multistory Masonry Building Based on MATLAB Neural Network Method

Using the MATLAB artificial neural network toolbox to establish BP neural network model based on Bayesian regularization algorithm,a method of earthquake damage prediction for multistory masonry building based on the survey data of earthquake damage from earthquake events is proposed.The input earthquake damage factors include building story number,construction quality and house integrity.The output value is building's destructiveness under seismic action.The result shows that the method can predict earthquake damage of multistory masonry building with good achievement.
Analysis stress-strain of the rosette-laminated C/C divergent section overwrapped with insulation during curing

The stress strain field of the rosette laminated divergent section overwrapped with insulation during curing and the effects of the interlaminar defects of carbon carbon material on the thermal stress are analyzed based on the finite element method.Analyzed results show that the difference of the linear expansion coefficients between the carbon carbon divergent section and it's insulation can cause the thermal stress after curing. The defects in the carbon carbon divergent section can result in a great growth of the interlaminar shear stress near the defects and even lead to the damage of the construction integrity. The results are referable to the design and technology of C/C divergent section.
The Effect on Bonding Behavior of Giving a Mother Her Premature Baby's Picture

To investigate the effect on bonding behavior of giving mothers their premature baby's picture, 40 mother-infant dyads were randomly assigned to experimental (E) and control (C) groups. The E mothers were given a picture of their baby. The C mothers did not receive pictures. Both groups had visitation rights 24 hours a day. Two bonding observation measures were obtained--pretest and posttest. Results showed that E mothers exhibited significantly more bonding behaviors on posttest measured by (a) a bonding observation checklist, and (b) a physical examination observation checklist, than the C mothers.
Non-invasive Imaging of Sendai Virus Infection in Pharmacologically Immunocompromised Mice: NK and T Cells, but not Neutrophils, Promote Viral Clearance after Therapy with Cyclophosphamide and Dexamethasone.

In immunocompromised patients, parainfluenza virus (PIV) infections have an increased potential to spread to the lower respiratory tract (LRT), resulting in increased morbidity and mortality. Understanding the immunologic defects that facilitate viral spread to the LRT will help in developing better management protocols. In this study, we immunosuppressed mice with dexamethasone and/or cyclophosphamide then monitored the spread of viral infection into the LRT by using a noninvasive bioluminescence imaging system and a reporter Sendai virus (murine PIV type 1). Our results show that immunosuppression led to delayed viral clearance and increased viral loads in the lungs. After cessation of cyclophosphamide treatment, viral clearance occurred before the generation of Sendai-specific antibody responses and coincided with rebounds in neutrophils, T lymphocytes, and natural killer (NK) cells. Neutrophil suppression using anti-Ly6G antibody had no effect on infection clearance, NK-cell suppression using anti-NK antibody delayed clearance, and T-cell suppression using anti-CD3 antibody resulted in no clearance (chronic infection). Therapeutic use of hematopoietic growth factors G-CSF and GM-CSF had no effect on clearance of infection. In contrast, treatment with Sendai virus—specific polysera or a monoclonal antibody limited viral spread into the lungs and accelerated clearance. Overall, noninvasive bioluminescence was shown to be a useful tool to study respiratory viral progression, revealing roles for NK and T cells, but not neutrophils, in Sendai virus clearance after treatment with dexamethasone and cyclophosphamide. Virus-specific antibodies appear to have therapeutic potential.
Maturation of Lobster Stomatogastric Ganglion Rhythmic Activity

The stomatogastric ganglion of the adult lobster,Homarus americanus generates extremely regular pyloric rhythms with a characteristic period of 0.5–1.5 Hz. To study the changes in the pyloric rhyth...
Inductorless Design of Wireless CMOS Frontends

Inductors are used in RF design to extend the bandwidth by resonating out the load and/or parasitic capacitance. However, on-chip inductors are large and cannot be ported easily from one process to the next. Due to modern CMOS scaling, inductorless RF design is becoming possible. In this paper we describe a new methodology for designing the RF frontends necessary for the UWB 3.1GHz -10.6 GHz bandwidth in a 0.13 mum CMOS technology. To validate our design methodology two receiver RF frontends were designed; a traditional inductor based design and an inductorless design. A common-gate LNA transconductor is followed by a capacitive peaking LNA-mixer pair (CPLM). Simulation results show that a CPLM with the same bandwidth has better linearity, comparable noise figure and uses only 17 % more power. The silicon area savings for the inductorless LNA and I/Q mixers is roughly 90 % in comparison to traditional inductor based designs illustrating its compact size and improved portability.
Chemotherapy or Chemoradiotherapy Followed by Surgical Resection for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

N. Mirkovic, MD Department of Radiation Oncology, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago, Maywood, IL 60153, USA K. S. Albain, MD Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago, Maywood, IL 60153, USA The integration of chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy together with surgery in a combinedmodality approach for non-metastatic non-small cell lung cancer has been the focus of intense clinical research over the past two decades. Many questions are debated, including whether preoperative therapy should be used at all in early stage disease or whether a surgical resection should ever be performed after combined-modality treatment of more advanced stage III cancers. If the answer to either of these is ‘yes,’ then questions remain regarding which patient population should be treated and with what specifi c induction regimen. Induction therapy followed by surgery is discussed for two distinct patient populations with different rationales and expectations. The fi rst group involves patients with stages I, II and selected early stage III NSCLC. The standard of care in this group of patients has been surgical resection. However, despite complete resection of all known disease, many of these patients remain at high risk for relapse and death. Distant metastases are the most common site of relapse in this patient population. The addition of systemic therapy prior to surgery in this patient population has the aim of decreasing the rate of distant spread and thus improving their survival. Radiation therapy plays limited role in this group of patients. The second large group for which a combinedmodality treatment plan that incorporates surgery may be benefi cial includes patients with locally advanced disease, for whom the current standard of care is concurrent chemotherapy and radiotherapy (chemoRT). Cure rates produced with this chemoRT alone are modest, with long-term survival in reported randomized phase III trials between 8%–15% (Sause et al. 2000; Dillman et al. 1996). Both local and distant failure rates are very high. The rate of persistent local disease was reported to be as high as 83% after treatment with chemotherapy and full-dose radiotherapy (Arriagada et al. 1991). Persistent locoregional disease is a major problem, not only because of the local effects of the CONTENTS
Cost-effectiveness of alternative adjuvant bisphosphonate regimens in postmenopausal women with early breast cancer.

6565 Background: The benefit of bisphosphonate drugs in adjuvant breast cancer care has been a topic of clinical debate. A recently presented meta-analysis of clinical trials by Coleman et al (2013...