cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Clustering and selection of multiple criteria alternatives using unsupervised and supervised neural networks

There are decision-making problems that involve grouping and selecting a set of alternatives. Traditional decision-making approaches treat different sets of alternatives with the same method of analysis and selection. In this paper, we propose clustering alternatives into different sets so that different methods of analysis, selection, and implementation for each set can be applied. We consider multiple criteria decision-making alternatives where the decision-maker is faced with several conflicting and non-commensurate objectives (or criteria). For example, consider buying a set of computers for a company that vary in terms of their functions, prices, and computing powers. In this paper, we develop theories and procedures for clustering and selecting discrete multiple criteria alternatives. The sets of alternatives clustered are mutually exclusive and are based on (1) similar features among alternatives, and (2) preferential structure of the decision-maker. The decision-making process can be broken down into three steps: (1) generating alternatives; (2) grouping or clustering alternatives based on similarity of their features; and (3) choosing one or more alternatives from each cluster of alternatives. We utilize unsupervised learning clustering artificial neural networks (ANN) with variable weights for clustering of alternatives, and we use feedforward ANN for the selection of the best alternatives for each cluster of alternatives. The decision-maker is interactively involved by comparing and contrasting alternatives within each group so that the best alternative can be selected from each group. For the learning mechanism of ANN, we proposed using a generalized Euclidean distance where by changing its coefficients new formation of clusters of alternatives can be achieved. The algorithm is interactive and the results are independent of the initial set-up information. Some examples and computational results are presented.
The role of environmental factors and tree injuries in soil carbon respiration response to fire and fuels treatments in pine plantations

The need to understand how forest management practices affect soil CO2 exchange with the atmosphere (soil respiration) has increased with the recognition of a likely feedback effect of climate warming on soil respiration rates. Previous research addressing the mechanisms driving soil respiration has yielded inconsistent and/or conflicting results. This study looked to alternative above-ground forest characteristics to help explain spatial variability in soil respiration in a 30-year-old Sierra Nevada pine plantation. Fire hazard mitigation is one of the predominant management goals in these and other western US forests. Therefore, this analysis examined how fuels treatments, including shredding of understory vegetation (mastication), prescribed fire, and a combination thereof, affected soil respiration and its relationship to environmental factors and post-fire tree injuries. Multiple regression models indicated that mastication had no significant impact on soil respiration, but the roles of soil temperature and forest floor depth (O horizons) in the models increased after the treatment. Burning reduced soil respiration by ∼14%, and increased its sensitivity to tree proximity and the exposure of bare mineral soil. Scorch height in burned stands was negatively correlated with soil respiration. Models incorporating only tree injury or tree proximity parameters explained between 63% and 91% of the variability in burned plantations. This work suggests that measures of above-ground forest features can increase understanding of management impacts on soil respiration, and the mechanisms by which these impacts occur. These results are especially applicable in Mediterranean climates, where moisture stress reduces the effectiveness of soil microclimate in explaining soil respiration.
Priming is not necessary for selective-attention failures: semantic effects of unattended, unprimed letters.

Certain experimental effects indicate that unattended stimuli are sometimes processed semantically (e.g., B. A. Eriksen & C. W. Eriksen, 1974; Stroop, 1935). Previously, such effects have been demonstrated primarily in situations in which the identities of the unattended stimuli would have been primed by task relevance, and it is possible that such priming is necessary for unattended stimuli to be processed semantically. Six experiments examined the importance of such priming in the selective-attention paradigm of Eriksen and Eriksen. (1974). Subjects classified target letters presented in the relevant center position of a three-letter visual display, ignoring simultaneously presented irrelevant flanker letters on each side of it. Across trials, identities of the flankers were correlated with, and therefore predictive of., correct responses. Although subjects had been instructed to ignore the flankers and later seemed to have no awareness of their correlation with responses, response times indicated that subjects learned and were influenced by the predictive relationship of the flanker to the response. This effect provides an example of semantic processing of unattended stimuli that have not been primed by either task relevance or long-term relevance. It is also of interest as an example of associative learning that is both incidental and apparently unconscious.
A Histone Deacetylation Inhibitor and Mutant Promote Colony-Type Switching of the Human Pathogen Candida albicans

Most strains of Candida albicans undergo high frequency phenotypic switching. Strain WO-1 undergoes the white-opaque transition, which involves changes in colony and cellular morphology, gene expression, and virulence. We have hypothesized that the switch event involves heritable changes in chromatin structure. To test this hypothesis, we transiently exposed cells to the histone deacetylase inhibitor trichostatin-A (TSA). Treatment promoted a dramatic increase in the frequency of switching from white to opaque, but not opaque to white. Targeted deletion of HDA1, which encodes a deacetylase sensitive to TSA, had the same selective effect. These results support the model that the acetylation of histones plays a selective role in regulating the switching process.
Properties of the Deoxyribonucleic Acid Contained in the Defective Particle Coliphage 15

Escherichia coli strain 15 TAU, which requires thymine, arginine, and uracil for growth and harbors an apparently defective prophage, was induced by exposure to ultraviolet light (580 ergs/mm(2)) or to mitomycin C (5 mug/ml). Phage particles (coliphage 15) were recovered from the resulting lysate by treatment with deoxyribonuclease, filtration, and several cycles of differential centrifugation. Analysis of the phage particles obtained by using cesium chloride density gradient centrifugation in a preparative ultracentrifuge resulted in the resolution of three components. The major component had a peak density of 1.52 to 1.53 g/cm(3) followed by components with densities of 1.5 and 1.49 g/cm(3). The guanine plus cytosine content of coliphage 15 deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was determined by both analytical ultracentrifugation in cesium chloride and by thermal denaturation in standard saline citrate buffer. Respective values of 46.4 +/- 1% and 46.6 +/- 1% guanine plus cytosine content were obtained. Coliphage 15 DNA formed molecular hybrids with messenger ribonucleic acid (RNA) from both uninduced and ultraviolet-induced cultures of E. coli 15 TAU, but did not hybridize with E. coli ribosomal RNA. The molecular weight of coliphage 15 DNA was determined by constant velocity sucrose density gradient centrifugation to be about 33 x 10(6) daltons.
Voltage Clamp Experiments on Single Muscle Fibers of Rana pipiens

A voltage clamp for single muscle fibers has been developed. Stability of the system was achieved when an artificial node was created by enclosing a single muscle fiber in a petroleum jelly seal which served as an analogue of the myelin sheath. Typical voltage clamp records were obtained with large inward transient currents followed by a delayed rectification of the outward currents. These currents looked qualitatively similar when the transverse tubular system was destroyed. Errors in current measurement, especially those due to anomalous rectification, are discussed.
Crystal growth and dendritic solidification

We present a numerical method which computes the motion of complex solid/liquid boundaries in crystal growth. The model we solve includes physical effects such as crystalline anisotropy, surface tension, molecular kinetics and undercooling. The method is based on two ideas. First, the equations of motion are recast as a single history-dependent boundary integral equation on the solid/liquid boundary. A fast algorithm is used to solve the integral equation efficiently. Second, the boundary is moved by solving a "HamiltonJacobi"-type equation (on a fixed domain) formulated by Osher and Sethian for a function in which the boundary is a particular level set. This equation is solved by finite difference schemes borrowed from the technology of hyperbolic conservation laws. The two ideas are combined by constructing a smooth extension of the normal velocity off the moving boundary, in a way suggested by the physics of the problem. Our numerical experiments show the evolution of complex crystalline shapes, development of large spikes and corners, dendrite formation and side-branching, and pieces of solid merging and breaking off freely.
Incidence of Complications for Subtotal Ionized Field Ablation of the Tonsils

Abstract Objective: Ionized field ablation, or coblation-assisted subtotal tonsillectomy, has been described as a new alternative technique for the management of tonsillar disease. This study was designed to review the incidence of complications in patients undergoing this procedure. Study design: A 10-surgeon retrospective chart review of the intraoperative and postoperative complications of patients undergoing ionized field ablation subtotal removal of tonsils was performed. Postoperative pain, dietary restrictions, and activity level were not reviewed. Results: Of the 528 patients who underwent ionized field ablation of their tonsils, the incidence of intraoperative and postoperative complications compared favorably with those reported in retrospective studies in the literature for traditional subcapsular tonsillectomy. Significant postoperative bleeding occurred in less than 1%, and only 1 patient required surgical control of bleeding in the operating room. No patients required transfusions of any blood products. Conclusions: Ionized field ablation subtotal tonsillectomy may offer an alternative to traditional subcapsular tonsillar surgery with a decreased incidence of postoperative complications. Further study is necessary to establish the complication rate of this technique. (Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2002;127:531-8.)
Preventable Mortality as a Predictor of Community Social Organisation: Examining Reverse Causality

Community social organisation brings individuals together, providing opportunities for collective responses to perceived neighbourhood issues and concerns. This paper considers how rates of neighbourhood mortality influence levels of community organisation. Certain types of mortality may actually enhance, not disrupt, the level of social organisation. Because urban neighbourhoods experience dramatically different mortality rates, the paper examines whether the relationship between mortality and community social organisation varies based on the causes of death and the ages of those dying. Analyses from Chicago neighbourhoods suggest that the rate at which children die from preventable causes such as homicide, suicide and accidents results in an increased likelihood that residents join neighbourhood watch organisations and participate in actions to address community problems. The effect of youth mortality is shaped in part by dense network exchanges among residents.
Investigation on Capacitor Voltage Regulation in Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Converters With Fundamental Frequency Switching

Multilevel power electronic converters have gained popularity in high-power applications due to their lower switch voltage stress and modularity. Cascaded H-bridge converters are a promising breed of multilevel converters which generally require several separate dc voltage sources. By utilizing the redundant switching states, it is possible to replace the separate dc voltage sources with capacitors and keep only the one with the highest voltage level. Redundancy in the charge and discharge modes of the capacitors is assumed to be adequate for their voltage regulation. However, the effects of the output current of the converter as well as the time duration of the redundant switching states have been neglected. In this paper, the impacts of the connected load to the cascaded H-bridge converter as well as the switching angles on the voltage regulation of the capacitors are studied. This paper proves that voltage regulation is only attainable in a much limited operating conditions that it was originally reported. In addition, based on the analysis of the converter, a simplified formula is found which can be used to find those modulation indices that regulate the voltage of the capacitor. This formula can be used in harmonic minimization problems while capacitor voltage regulation is ensured. Simulation and laboratory results are provided to confirm the analysis.
Bovine Genome Database: new tools for gleaning function from the Bos taurus genome

We report an update of the Bovine Genome Database (BGD) (http://BovineGenome.org). The goal of BGD is to support bovine genomics research by providing genome annotation and data mining tools. We have developed new genome and annotation browsers using JBrowse and WebApollo for two Bos taurus genome assemblies, the reference genome assembly (UMD3.1.1) and the alternate genome assembly (Btau_4.6.1). Annotation tools have been customized to highlight priority genes for annotation, and to aid annotators in selecting gene evidence tracks from 91 tissue specific RNAseq datasets. We have also developed BovineMine, based on the InterMine data warehousing system, to integrate the bovine genome, annotation, QTL, SNP and expression data with external sources of orthology, gene ontology, gene interaction and pathway information. BovineMine provides powerful query building tools, as well as customized query templates, and allows users to analyze and download genome-wide datasets. With BovineMine, bovine researchers can use orthology to leverage the curated gene pathways of model organisms, such as human, mouse and rat. BovineMine will be especially useful for gene ontology and pathway analyses in conjunction with GWAS and QTL studies.
Can Intratympanic Dexamethasone Protect against Cisplatin Ototoxicity in Mice with Age-Related Hearing Loss?:

Objective. To determine whether intratympanic (IT) dexamethasone ameliorates cisplatin-induced ototoxicity in a mouse model of presbycusis.Study Design. Controlled experimental study.Setting. Translational science experimental laboratory.Subjects and Methods. Auditory brainstem response (ABR) thresholds of 24-month-old CBA/J-NIA mice treated with cisplatin were compared 7 days after daily IT injections of dexamethasone (24 mg/mL) or saline.Results. Because of high (100%) mortality at 16 mg/kg, a single cisplatin dose of 14 mg/kg intraperitoneally was used. At this latter dose, pre-IT and post-IT treatment ABR thresholds were available in 13 of 16 mice. In IT saline–treated ears, cisplatin produced up to 9.5-dB ABR threshold elevations. In IT dexamethasone–treated ears, little protection against cisplatin was observed at 8 or 16 kHz where mean ABR thresholds were elevated. At 24 and 32 kHz, mean ABR threshold elevations were minimal at 0.6 to 1.4 dB. This protection was statistically significant (P ≤ .02)....
Generating semantic annotations for frequent patterns with context analysis

As a fundamental data mining task, frequent pattern mining has widespread applications in many different domains. Research in frequent pattern mining has so far mostly focused on developing efficient algorithms to discover various kinds of frequent patterns, but little attention has been paid to the important nextstep - interpreting the discovered frequent patterns. Although some recent work has studied the compression and summarization of frequent patterns, the proposed techniques can only annotate a frequent pattern with non-semantical information (e.g. support), which provides only limited help for a user to understand the patterns.In this paper, we propose the novel problem of generating semantic annotations for frequent patterns. The goal is to annotate a frequent pattern with in-depth, concise, and structured information that can better indicate the hidden meanings of the pattern. We propose a general approach to generate such anannotation for a frequent pattern by constructing its context model, selecting informative context indicators, and extracting representative transactions and semantically similar patterns. This general approach has potentially many applications such as generating a dictionary-like description for a pattern, finding synonym patterns, discovering semantic relations, and summarizing semantic classes of a set of frequent patterns. Experiments on different datasets show that our approach is effective in generating semantic pattern annotations.
A predictive control method for nonlinear parabolic PDE systems

The problem of receding horizon control for a class of nonlinear distributed processes is investigated. The main focus of the manuscript lies in the development of a computationally efficient method to identify the optimal control action with respect to predefined performance criteria. An optimal control problem is formulated and is solved using standard, gradient-based, search algorithms. Employing nonlinear transformations and assuming piece-wise constant control action, the dynamic optimization problem is reformulated as a nonlinear optimization one with analytically computed sensitivities. The proposed method lies at the interface between collocation and shooting methods, since the distributed states are discretized explicitly in space and time and their sensitivity to the control action is analytically computed, reminiscent of collocation methods, while the states now enter the optimization problem explicitly as a nonlinear function of the control action and are eliminated from the equality constraints, thus reducing the number variables, evocative of shooting methods.
Cerebral oximetry guides treatment during Blalock-Taussig shunt procedure.

J E EREBRAL OXIMETRY using near-infrared spectro copy (NIRS) as a noninvasive monitor of regional cere xygenation (rSO2) is increasingly being used during cong tal heart surgery. 1,2 The authors describe NIRS-guided therap uring the creation of a systemic-pulmonary shunt in an i ith pulmonary atresia and a bovine aortic arch because ase shows the utility of measuring rSO 2 when cerebral oxy enation may be altered by surgical manipulation or pa hysiology.
Health Care Reform: Understanding Individuals’ Attitudes and Information Sources

Since passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law by President Barrack Obama, little is known about state-level perceptions of residents on the ACA. Perceptions about the act could potentially affect implementation of the law to the fullest extent. This 3-year survey study explored attitudes about the ACA, the types of information sources that individuals rely on when creating those attitudes, and the predictors of these attitudes among state of Indiana residents. The respondents were split between favorable and unfavorable views of the ACA, yet the majority of respondents strongly supported individual components of the act. National TV news, websites, family members, and individuals' own reading of the ACA legislation were identified as the most influential information sources. After controlling for potential confounders, the respondent's political affiliation, age, sex, and obtaining ACA information from watching national television news were the most important predictors of attitudes about the ACA and its components. These results mirror national-level findings. Implications for implementing health care reform at the state-level are discussed.
A Tool for Training and Assistance in Emergency Response Planning

This paper presents research on developing a new type of software tool for training and assisting the personnel in emergency response planning. The tool, called Disciple-VPT, would include a library of virtual planning experts, each with a certain level of expertise (such as basic, intermediate or advanced) in one of the 15 emergency support functions defined by the US national response plan. Disciple-VPT can be used in a variety of training exercises where responders learn from virtual experts how to collaborate in emergency response planning. The development of Disciple-VPT is facilitated by the Disciple-VE learning agent shell that can be taught by a subject matter expert how to plan, trough examples and explanations, in a way that is similar to how the expert would teach an apprentice
EFFECT OF CYSTACANTH BODY SIZE ON ADULT SUCCESS

Laboratory-reared cystacanths of Leptorhynchoides thecatus (Acanthocephala: Rhadinorhynchidae) were used to study the effect of cystacanth size on adult success and the factors that influence cystacanth size within the intermediate host. To assess how host size and intensity of infection influence cystacanth size, infected amphipods (Hyalella azteca) were measured, and sex, length, and width of cystacanths were determined. After a subset of cystacanths was measured, small- and large-size classes of cystacanths were designated. To determine how cystacanth size relates to adult size, green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus) were fed 10 large or small cystacanths. Fish were dissected 6 wk after infection, and worms were removed. After adult worms were permanently mounted on slides, their length and width were measured. Intensity of infection and amphipod size significantly influenced cystacanth size in that large amphipods harbored larger cystacanths than did small amphipods and heavy infections produced smaller cy...
Learning Materials Science Via the Web Using Nanospheres and Scanning Probe Microscopes

The Interactive Nano-Visualization for Science and Engineering Education (IN-VSEE) project at Arizona State University (ASU) has developed a remotely operable scanning probe microscope (SPM), a visualization gallery of images, and a number of educational modules with materials themes. It exploits the incredible potential of materials science for teaching at the high school and college level about fundamental concepts that cross traditionally separated disciplines. The packing of spheres is a topic that is ideal for linking together the different science and engineering disciplines because of the ubiquity and relevance of spheres in the materials world and the universality of the rules that govern their packing over a large range of sizes. Students can perform a number of discovery-based learning activities, over the web by simultaneously using IN-VSEE’s web-accessible module (e.g., The Music of Spheres) and by accessing the remotely-operable SPM for experimenting with nanosphere samples that they prepare. With these resources students can pose materials questions and are empowered to design their experiments to increase their understanding of real materials. The fundamental concepts (e.g., packing geometry, density, surface composition, long-range/short-range ordering, intermolecular forces, etc.) they learn through these materials science experiments are applicable to many other curricular, research, and technology areas.
In defence of utility: the medical humanities and medical education

The idea that a study of the humanities helps to humanise doctors has become a leitmotif within the field. It is argued that the humanities (especially, literature) help to foster insights beyond those provided by biomedical training. Healthy young medics, it is claimed, can thereby gain significant insights into patienthood, and obtain important skills that may be valuable for their professional life. But the instrumentality of the humanities is not the only justification proffered for its inclusion in medical curricula. In this paper I critically examine the two overarching justifications recurrently cited in the mainstream literature-namely, (1) the instrumental worth and (2) the intrinsic value of the medical humanities in educating doctors. Examining these theses (and focusing on the views of a leading medical humanities scholar) I show that the bifurcation into instrumental versus non-instrumental justifications is not supported by the argumentation. Instead, I find that the particulars of the supposedly intrinsic justifications amount to an unambiguously instrumental defence of the humanities. Contextualizing the present investigation to probe further, I describe a long history of debate about the role of the humanities in British education and find that it rests on unsupported dichotomies (utility vs non-utility, theoretical vs applied, educated vs trained). I conclude that the medical humanities' manifesto would be more intellectually honest and coherent, and provide a more robust defence of its value in medical education, if it chose to embrace a wholly instrumental rationale for its role.
Information theory methods in communication complexity

This dissertation is concerned with the application of notions and methods from the field of information theory to the field of communication complexity. It consists of two main parts. In the first part of the dissertation, we prove lower bounds on the randomized two-party communication complexity of functions that arise from read-once boolean formulae. A read-once boolean formula is a formula in propositional logic with the property that every variable appears exactly once. Such a formula can be represented by a tree, where the leaves correspond to variables, and the internal nodes are labeled by binary connectives. Under certain assumptions, this representation is unique. Thus, one can define the depth of a formula as the depth of the tree that represents it. The complexity of the evaluation of general read-once formulae has attracted interest mainly in the decision tree model. In the communication complexity model many interesting results deal with specific read-once formulae, such as disjointness and tribes. In this dissertation we use information theory methods to prove lower bounds that hold for any read-once formula. Our lower bounds are of the form n(f)/cd(f) , where n(f) is the number of variables and d(f) is the depth of the formula, and they are optimal up to the constant in the base of the denominator. In the second part of the dissertation, we explore the applicability of the information-theoretic method in the number-on-the-forehead model. The work of Bar-Yossef, Jayram, Kumar & Sivakumar [BYJKS04] revealed a beautiful connection between Hellinger distance and two-party randomized communication protocols. Inspired by their work and motivated by the open questions in the number-on-the-forehead model, we introduce the notion of Hellinger volume. We show that it lower bounds the information cost of multi-party protocols. We provide a small toolbox that allows one to manipulate several Hellinger volume terms and also to lower bound a Hellinger volume when the distributions involved satisfy certain conditions. In doing so, we prove a new upper bound on the difference between the arithmetic mean and the geometric mean in terms of relative entropy. Finally, we show how to apply the new tools to obtain a lower bound on the informational complexity of the ANDk function.
Bromolysergic Acid Diethylamide in Physiological Studies of Lepidopterous Larvae1

Bromolysergic acid diethylamide produces virtually complete paralysis of the somatic musculature of 5th-instar larvae of Galleria mellonella (L.). Dorsal vessel and foregut activity are maintained during paralysis. The method described permits study of heart and foregut physiology under quiescent body wall conditions.
Effect of glucose diuresis on renal excretion of bicarbonate.

SummaryUnder conditions favoring the excretion of bicarbonate, the rate of excretion of bicarbonate decreased, while the rates of excretion of other electrolytes increased, during an osmotic (glucose) diuresis. Possible explanations for this observation are discussed in relation to present concepts of osmotic diuresis and of the excretion of bicarbonate.
Economic uses of lichens

Some of these lowly plants have long served as fodder for the reindeer herds of Lapplanders, while others have been the sources of industrial dyes, as those used in the manufacture of Harris Tweed cloth.
Linkage mapping in prairie cordgrass (Spartina pectinata Link) using genotyping-by-sequencing

Prairie cordgrass (Spartina pectinata Link) is a polyploid Chloridoid grass with tetraploid (2n = 40), hexaploid (2n = 60), and octoploid (2n = 80) cytotypes and is a potential dedicated energy crop with promising yields in marginal environments. Efforts to breed prairie cordgrass are currently hampered by the lack of a linkage map, the lack of a Chloridoid reference genome, and the lack of information on inheritance patterns (disomic versus polysomic). Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) was applied to a population of 85 progenies from a reciprocal cross of heterozygous tetraploid parents. A total of 26,418 SNPs were discovered, with a distribution of allele frequencies suggesting disomic inheritance. A filtered set of 3034 single-dose, high-coverage SNPs was used for pseudo-testcross mapping with 63 progenies, resulting in two parental maps of 20 linkage groups containing 1522 and 1016 SNPs and a nearly 1:1 ratio of coupling to repulsion phase linkages, again suggesting disomic inheritance. Genomic contigs from tef, another Chloridoid grass, were used as a bridge to associate genetic markers in prairie cordgrass with unique positions in the sorghum genome, providing a glimpse into synteny between Chloridoids and other grasses. GBS enabled rapid generation of a linkage map that will aid in future breeding and genomics efforts in prairie cordgrass.
Abstract A82: Medicaid disenrollment in Tennessee and disparities in stage at diagnosis and surgery for female breast cancer

Purpose: To assess the effects of Medicaid disenrollment on stage at diagnosis and delay in surgery for female breast cancer among nonelderly women. Background: Although Medicaid expansions have received considerable attention in the literature, Medicaid contractions have received much less attention. Tennessee9s Medicaid program experienced a dramatic Medicaid contraction when the program disenrolled approximately 170,000 nonelderly adults after implementing a new benefit policy in 2005. Despite the fact that this was the largest disenrollment in the history of Medicaid, little is known about the effects of this policy change on access to care and health outcomes. This is the first study, to our knowledge, to consider the effect of disenrollment on stage at diagnosis and delay in surgery for breast cancer. Methods: We use 2002-2008 data from Tennessee Cancer Registry which collects data on newly diagnosed cases of malignant disease that occur to Tennessee residents from all hospitals, laboratories, facilities and healthcare practitioners. The sample used for this study consists of women aged 21 to 64 who were diagnosed with breast cancer and living in Tennessee during the period of study. We merge data on zip code median income with the Tennessee Cancer Registry data and estimate a difference-in-differences model. We calculate the changes in stage at diagnosis, more than 60-days delay in surgery, and more than 90-days delay in surgery for female breast cancer among women who were diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery as the first-line treatment. The difference-in-differences model compares women who were living in low-income zip codes (and thus more likely to be subject to disenrollment) with women who lived in high-income zip codes before and after Tennessee9s 2005 Medicaid disenrollment. We control for age, race/ethnicity, marital status, insurance coverage, and year fixed effects. Results: Preliminary results suggest that nonelderly women who lived in low-income zip codes were 2.8 percentage points (p Conclusions: While many states are expanding Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act, there has been discussion among policymakers in some states to reduce eligibility once full federal funding expires. This study provides evidence on the potential impact of Medicaid disenrollment on delays in diagnosis and performing urgent surgeries to treat late stages of breast cancer among low-income women in states that may consider future changes to Medicaid eligibility. Citation Format: Wafa W. Tarazi, Cathy J. Bradley, Harry D. Bear, David W. Harless, Lindsay M. Sabik. Medicaid disenrollment in Tennessee and disparities in stage at diagnosis and surgery for female breast cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eighth AACR Conference on The Science of Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; Nov 13-16, 2015; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2016;25(3 Suppl):Abstract nr A82.
Training anesthesia personnel to perform bleeding times.

Template bleeding time results generated by residents in anesthesiology correlate well with those obtained by trained laboratory personnel ( p
The effects of cardiopulmonary bypass on coronary blood flow in the dog

The effects of cardiopulmonary bypass on autoregulation, maximum coronary flow, and regional blood flow in the heart were investigated in 25 dogs. A Gregg cannula was inserted into the left main coronary artery, and pressure-flow relations were then measured in the autoregulating state or with vasodilation produced by intracoronary adenosine infusion before, during, and after cardiopulmonary bypass. Seventeen of the dogs had radioactive microspheres injected to investigate regional blood flow changes at the same times. (1) Autoregulation was not present after bypass for at least 3 hours. (2) Blood flow was shifted toward the subendocardium on bypass (increased subendocardial/subepicardial ratio) and tended to return to prebypass distribution following bypass. (3) Blood flow after bypass was not significantly different to the subendocardium and subepicardium. (4) Response to a coronary vasodilator (maximum coronary flow) was significantly affected by cardiopulmonary bypass: blood flow to all layers of the heart could be increased with adenosine after bypass. (5) Global lactate and oxygen metabolism were not adversely affected by bypass. We conclude that cardiopulmonary bypass abolished the normal autoregulation of coronary flow; this may predispose the incompletely revascularized patient to a "coronary steal" syndrome. However, the heart with normal coronary arteries is not underperfused in any layer after bypass. Thus, the bypass technique is not the cause of the subendocardial ischemia that sometimes complicates cardiac operations.
Combined Periacetabular Osteotomy and Proximal Femoral Osteotomy for Severe Hip Deformity

The Bernese periacetabular osteotomy (PAO) has been established as an effective technique to correct residual acetabular dysplasia. In hips with more severe deformity involving the proximal femur, an isolated PAO may result in insufficient femoral head coverage and/or incongruency. Performing an adjunctive proximal femoral osteotomy (PFO) at the time of the PAO can be done under the same anesthesia setting and improve the containment, congruency, coverage of the femoral head, and hip biomechanics. In general, there are two scenarios where the addition of a PFO can improve the surgical outcome of the PAO: (1) severe dysplasia of the hip with significant coxa valga and/or femoral version abnormalities; (2) Perthes-like deformity with aspherical femoral head, coxa breva, and a high greater trochanter. With proper preoperative planning and assessment of the need for combined correction intraoperatively, the clinical outcomes have been equivalent to those patients undergoing isolated PAO. Thus, with proper patient selection and surgical planning, combined acetabular reorientation and proximal femoral osteotomy can be effective for reconstruction of the severely deformed hip.
Unexplained Anemia In the Elderly (UAE) Predominates as the Major Anemia Category In Racially Diverse Cohort of Older Persons Despite An Intensive Evaluation

Abstract 3215 Introduction: Anemia is a common condition among older adults associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Previous studies indicate that no discernible etiology (i.e., UAE) occurs in around 1/3rd of elderly anemia pts. Limited data exist regarding prospective and careful evaluation to establish the full spectrum and incidence of the diverse etiologies of anemia in the elderly. In addition, minimal data are available for non-white populations. Methods: We prospectively studied 174 subjects 65 yrs and older referred to the University of Chicago Hematology Clinic primarily for evaluation of anemia defined by hemoglobin (Hb) Results: Median age was 76 yrs and 60.3% of pts were female. African-Americans (AA) accounted for 69% of pts and whites were 27%. Hypertension and diabetes were frequent at 79% and 39%, respectively. The median hemoglobin (Hb) was 10.2 g/dL and mean MCV of 88. Approximately 17% of pts had received red blood cell (RBC) transfusion in the prior 3 months. Median eGFR was 61.5. C-reactive protein was 9 3 mg/dL in 52%. BM examination was performed in 24.8%. Prevalence of anemia etiologies versus UAE are summarized in Table 1. UAE predominated at 43.7%, followed by IDA at 25%. BM established a hematologic malignancy in 13 (7.5%), including six cases of MDS (4%) and two cases of AML (0.5%). Hematologic parameters in UAE showed the following mean values: Hb of 10.8 g/dL; MCV of 89.9 fL; RDW of 14.6 (normal Conclusions: The data confirm UAE is a hypoproliferative normocytic anemia with suppressed EPO levels that rarely requires RBC transfusions. An intensive hematologic evaluation reveals a wide number of etiologies for anemia among older adults, including 7.5% with hematologic malignancies. Nevertheless, UAE predominates as the most common anemia category in the elderly in both whites and AA9s. Anemia Etiology Among Older Adults Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
How do cancer risk perception, benefit perception of quitting, and cancer worry influence quitting intention among current smokers: A study using the 2013 HINTS

ABSTRACTWe proposed a conceptual model to explain current smokers’ quitting intentions based on theories from cognitive perspectives and theories that recognize the impact of affect. The model was tested by participants of the 2013 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS 4) who identified themselves as current smokers (N = 481). Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses were conducted. Findings suggest that intention to quit smoking is directly predicted by benefit perception of quitting, but not by cancer risk perception or cancer worry; cancer worry has a positive influence on both cancer risk perception and benefit perception of quitting; the indirect path from cancer worry to quitting intention through benefit perception of quitting is significant. Theoretical and practical implications of findings were discussed.
Spread from the Sink to the Patient: In Situ Study Using Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP)-Expressing Escherichia coli To Model Bacterial Dispersion from Hand-Washing Sink-Trap Reservoirs

There have been an increasing number of reports implicating Gammaproteobacteria as often carrying genes of drug resistance from colonized sink traps to vulnerable hospitalized patients. However, the mechanism of transmission from the wastewater of the sink P-trap to patients remains poorly understood. Herein we report the use of a designated hand-washing sink lab gallery to model dispersion of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-expressing Escherichia coli from sink wastewater to the surrounding environment. We found no dispersion of GFP-expressing E. coli directly from the P-trap to the sink basin or surrounding countertop with coincident water flow from a faucet. However, when the GFP-expressing E. coli cells were allowed to mature in the P-trap under conditions similar to those in a hospital environment, a GFP-expressing E. coli-containing putative biofilm extended upward over 7 days to reach the strainer. This subsequently resulted in droplet dispersion to the surrounding areas (<30 in.) during faucet operation. We also demonstrated that P-trap colonization could occur by retrograde transmission along a common pipe. We postulate that the organisms mobilize up to the strainer from the P-trap, resulting in droplet dispersion rather than dispersion directly from the P-trap. This work helps to further define the mode of transmission of bacteria from a P-trap reservoir to a vulnerable hospitalized patient.IMPORTANCE Many recent reports demonstrate that sink drain pipes become colonized with highly consequential multidrug-resistant bacteria, which then results in hospital-acquired infections. However, the mechanism of dispersal of bacteria from the sink to patients has not been fully elucidated. Through establishment of a unique sink gallery, this work found that a staged mode of transmission involving biofilm growth from the lower pipe to the sink strainer and subsequent splatter to the bowl and surrounding area occurs rather than splatter directly from the water in the lower pipe. We have also demonstrated that bacterial transmission can occur via connections in wastewater plumbing to neighboring sinks. This work helps to more clearly define the mechanism and risk of transmission from a wastewater source to hospitalized patients in a world with increasingly antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can thrive in wastewater environments and cause infections in vulnerable patients.
Skilled Labor Risk and Compensation Policies

We measure U.S. listed companies’ skilled labor risk, i.e., the potential failure in attracting and retaining skilled labor, by the intensity of discussions on this issue in 10-K filings. We show that this measure effectively captures firm risk due to the mobility of skilled labor. We find that an increase from the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile in the skilled labor risk would increase the skilled labor wage by 22% (or $15,593), and also leads to a higher equity-based incentive pay. The skilled labor risk also interacts with other corporate policies such as financial leverage, cash holdings, and M&As.
A Comprehensive Analysis of Alternative Splicing in Paleopolyploid Maize.

Identifying and characterizing alternative splicing (AS) enables our understanding of the biological role of transcript isoform diversity. This study describes the use of publicly available RNA-Seq data to identify and characterize the global diversity of AS isoforms in maize using the inbred lines B73 and Mo17, and a related species, sorghum. Identification and characterization of AS within maize tissues revealed that genes expressed in seed exhibit the largest differential AS relative to other tissues examined. Additionally, differences in AS between the two genotypes B73 and Mo17 are greatest within genes expressed in seed. We demonstrate that changes in the level of alternatively spliced transcripts (intron retention and exon skipping) do not solely reflect differences in total transcript abundance, and we present evidence that intron retention may act to fine-tune gene expression across seed development stages. Furthermore, we have identified temperature sensitive AS in maize and demonstrate that drought-induced changes in alternative splicing involve distinct sets of genes in reproductive and vegetative tissues. Examining our identified AS isoforms within B73 x Mo17 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) identified splicing QTL (sQTL). 43.3% of cis-sQTL regulated junctions are actually identified as alternative spliced junctions in our analysis, while 10 Mb windows on each side of 48.2% of trans-sQTLs overlap with splicing related genes. Using sorghum as an out-group enabled direct examination of loss or conservation of AS between homeologous genes representing the two subgenomes of maize. We identify several instances where AS isoforms that are conserved between one maize homeologue and its sorghum orthologue are absent from the second maize homeologue, suggesting that these AS isoforms may have been lost after the maize whole genome duplication event. This comprehensive analysis provides new insights into the complexity of AS in maize.
Development and evaluation of a migration timing forecast model for Kuskokwim River Chinook salmon

Abstract Annual variation in adult salmon migration timing makes the interpretation of in-season assessment data difficult, leading to much in-season uncertainty in run size. We developed and evaluated a run timing forecast model for the Kuskokwim River Chinook salmon stock, located in western Alaska, intended to aid in reducing this source of uncertainty. An objective and adaptive approach (using model-averaging and a sliding window algorithm to select predictive time periods, both calibrated annually) was adopted to deal with multidimensional selection of four climatic variables and was based entirely on predictive performance. Forecast cross-validation was used to evaluate the performance of three forecasting approaches: the null (i.e., intercept only) model, the single model with the lowest mean absolute error, and a model-averaged forecast across 16 nested linear models. As of 2016, the null model had the lowest mean absolute error (2.64 days), although the model-averaged forecast performed as well or better than the null model in the majority of retrospective years. The model-averaged forecast had a consistent mean absolute error regardless of the type of year (i.e., average or extreme early/late) the forecast was made for, which was not true of the null model. The availability of the run timing forecast was not found to increase overall accuracy of in-season run assessments in relation to the null model, but was found to substantially increase the precision of these assessments, particularly early in the season.
Restoring hardwood trees to lake riparian areas using three planting treatments

Lake riparian areas provide wildlife habitat for a wide variety of species. Residential development throughout such lakeshore areas of the United States has increased exponentially in recent decades. Awareness of the vulnerability and importance of lakeshore ecosystems has increased concurrently. Lakeshore habitat restoration projects have been implemented to mitigate some of the negative impacts of human shoreline development, and containerized (CT) trees are frequently one of the highest costs associated with such restoration projects. As an alternative, we tested the effectiveness of using dormant bare-root (BR) trees in restoration projects along two lakeshores in northern Wisconsin, U.S.A. In addition, we experimented using BR stock that was incorporated into gravel medium at a local nursery and planted later in the summer months. We monitored growth and survival of four native tree species in these three planting treatments over a 3–4-year period. CT red maple (Acer rubra), paper birch (Betula paperifera), and northern red oak (Quercus rubra) increased in size significantly faster than BR and/or gravel culture (GC) counterparts, whereas CT showy mountain ash (Sorbus decora) growth rates were similar to those of BR and GC stock. Mortality was generally low, but for those species/planting treatments with higher mortality (paper birch and red oak), CT trees were more likely to survive than BR or GC trees. Our results show that the success of deciduous BR and/or GC tree stock relative to CT trees is species dependent, and for some species, CT trees' higher growth rates and survivorship could offset their higher costs.