cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Orthopaedic trauma patients and smoking: Knowledge deficits and interest in quitting

Abstract Background Smoking is associated with increased complications in fracture care. Smoking cessation has a positive impact on outcomes. It is unknown whether orthopaedic trauma patients understand the ill effects of smoking on fracture care and whether knowledge can improve cessation interest. We hypothesized that (1) smokers less fully understand the negative effects of smoking than do nonsmokers, (2) an increased proportion of orthopaedic trauma patients are further in the process of change to quit smoking, (3) increased knowledge predicts increased readiness to quit, and (4) minimal education through a survey can improve interest in smoking cessation. Methods Single-centre cross-sectional cohort survey study. Patients were approached consecutively for participation. Patients 18 years or older with a new fracture in our clinic for follow-up were eligible. Smokers and nonsmokers were included and surveyed regarding demographics. Smokers were asked questions about fractures and general knowledge questions regarding the effects of smoking on health. Smokers' interest in smoking cessation was assessed with direct questions, and transtheoretical model stage of change was queried before and after survey administration. Results One hundred twelve patients participated (44 smokers, 68 nonsmokers; 75 male patients, 37 female patients). Forty-eight percent of smokers stated that the fracture made them more likely to quit. Smokers answered more questions incorrectly than did nonsmokers ( p =0.003). An increased percentage of smokers were in favourable stages of change compared with a population-based tobacco survey (68% versus 54%, p =0.008). Survey administration increased interest in quitting in 48%, and 11% modified their stage of change towards quitting. Smokers scoring higher on knowledge questions had more than 2-fold increased odds of being in a favourable stage of change ( p =0.013; odds ratio, 2.13; 95% confidence interval, 1.744–3.855). Conclusions Compared with nonsmokers, smokers less fully understand the negative effects of smoking on fracture care and general health. A large proportion of orthopaedic trauma patients who smoke are interested in smoking cessation and are possibly further along the pathway to change than expected. Brief education through a survey can increase interest in quitting. Formal education intervention may improve cessation rates and fracture outcomes.
Distinguishing autochthony, parautochthony and allochthony using taphofacies analysis; can cold seep assemblages be discriminated from assemblages of the nearshore and continental shelf?

Identifying ancient cold seep faunas is intertwined with the problem of distinguishing autochthony from parautochthony. Cold seep faunas are autochthonous assemblages. Taphofacies from an allochthonous microtidal inlet, a parautochthonous inner shelf and an autochthonous upper slope (representing cold seep faunas) were compared to identify their distinguishing characteristics and to facilitate cold seep recognition. The taphonomic signature of the allochthonous inlet assemblage is dominated by abrasion and edge alteration. Bivalves are completely disarticulated
Separation of peptide components of urinary kinin (substance Z).

SummaryDuring the purification of Substance Z (urinary kinin), three biologically active peptide components were separated. Isotope dilution studies, biological and chromatographic studies suggested the first peptide to be identical with bradykinin. The investigations also indicated that the two other peptides were kallidin and Met-Lys bradykinin.
Turnover of serum protein in adrenalectomized rats.

SummaryThe turnover of serum protein in the rat iS unaffected by adrenalectomy, or by the administration of adrenal cortical lipoextract (ACE) to adrenalectomized animals.
Party organizational strength and public support for parties

Theory: Theories of party organizational resurgence suggest that the strength of party organizations counteracts weakness and decline in other portions of the party system. Hypotheses: Higher levels of total party organizational strength in an area lead to more supportive attitudes toward political parties as institutions. Consistent with Progressive fears of concentrated power, an imbalance in the organizational strength of the two parties in an area fosters more critical attitudes toward parties. Methods: NES survey data and county party organizational strength data from the Party Transformation Study are used in ordinary least squares and logit analysis to test three models of the relationship between party strength and public support toward parties. Results: Strong party organizations contribute to public support for parties, particularly when strength is not exercised by one party alone. Total party strength is significantly related to public support only in a limited pooled analysis, but the organizational strength gap between the two parties is significantly related to public support as expected and is robust across several alternative measures of perceived party performance.
Nonlocal effects in single-photon superradiance

We consider influence of nonlocal (retardation) effects caused by the finite value of the speed of light on collective emission of a single photon by atomic ensembles. Using a fully quantum mechanical description of light and atoms we obtain an evolution equation for the atomic system that takes into account retardation. We found an exact analytical solution of this equation for the atomic slab geometry that yields insight on how the crossover between local and nonlocal dynamics occurs. In particular, it shows that initially nonlocal evolution, accompanied by collective oscillations of atomic population, becomes local at large time. In addition, atomic excitation in some parts of the sample rises above its initial value. We propose an experiment in which the transition between local and nonlocal regimes can be observed by increasing the size of the atomic sample or atomic density.
Assessment of CFD Capability for Hypersonic Shock Wave Boundary Layer Interactions, Part II

The goal of this study is to assess CFD capability for prediction of laminar shock wave/ boundary layer interactions at hypersonic velocities. More specifically, the flowfield over a double cone configuration is simulated using both perfect and real gas models. Computations are compared with experimental data obtained from measurements conducted in the LENS XX shock tunnel at CUBRC. Four separate cases of freestream conditions are simulated to examine the numerical methods in a wide range of enthalpies. The results of this investigation can provide factors for design optimization of hypersonic air vehicles.
Adult Education in California

In the past chapters, we have described the conventional system of education in California. We now turn to a sector which is becoming increasingly significant in terms of numbers and impact: California has the largest program of adult education in the United States notwithstanding the fact that most of the attention, discussion and financial resources are oriented to elementary, secondary, and college and university programs.
Acoustics Property of Mobile Acoustic Decoy

According to the acoustic simulation mechanism of mobile acoustic decoy, this paper establishes a simulation model of the radiated noise property of mobile acoustic decoy and a simulation model of sound reflection. It analyzes three differences of acoustic characteristics between mobile acoustic decoy and submarine: 1) directivity difference, i.e. the directivity of radiated noise of submarine borders on isotropy while the directivity of the simulated radiated noise of decoy lies on the emissive directivity of transmitting transducer; 2) target strength difference, i.e. the target strength of submarine changes following the incident angle of sound wave, while the simulated target strength of decoy lies on the emissive directivity of transmitting transducer; 3) dimension difference, i.e. the dimensional characteristic of decoy differs from that of submarine. It is suggested to make use of the directivity difference between simulated radiated noise of decoy and radiated noise of submarine and the difference between dimensional characteristics of decoy and submarine to counter against mobile acoustic decoy.
Syria Crisis and It's Impacts on China's Middle East Policy

The social change can not be adapted by social institutions is the main reason of Syria crisis.Bashar's political and economic reform can not resolve the profound social contradiction,but deepen the polarization of wealth,result in the backward development of social and the crisis of political legitimacy.So the Arab nationalism which pursued by Syria Ba'ath party is ineffective.Both Arab identity and the severe drought trigger Syria crisis.Recently Ba'athist regime is powerful in cohesion and military,Syria crisis will stalemate on short terms,and it's trend depends on the international community.China's "creative involvement" in Syria crisis with non-interference principle and multilateral mechanism will not only help to maintain security and stability of Middle East,but also be an opportunity for China to expand the political influence,reinforce soft power,and realize the peaceful rise.
Research and Implementation of an IED Configuration Tool Applicable to Digital Fault Recorder and Analyzer

In order to adapt to the development of smart grid,an IED configuration tool is developed for the digital fault recorder and analyzer according to the specification of IEC61850.This paper introduces the function of the substation configuration language(SCL)and the intelligent electronic device(IED)configuration tool.According to the design mode of software engineering and customer requirements,the system structure of the IED configuration tool is designed by Model-View-Control(MVC)mode.The paper also introduces in detail the characteristics of this configuration tool,and its theory and research process.
Edward Drinker Cope's final feud

A notoriously combative Quaker naturalist, Edward Drinker Cope relished a good fight. His infamous quarrel with Yale palaeontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, which climaxed in 1890 when it became front-page fodder for the New York herald, was one of the great scandals of nineteenth-century American science. But it was not his last. By the 1890s, his once prodigious vertebrate palaeontology research programme was in tatters. Marsh's many triumphs had demoralized him, while a ruinous succession of unlucky mining investments had depleted his family fortune. Cope, the quintessential gentleman-naturalist, was compelled to pawn his fossil collections and seek a paying position in a university or museum. Unfortunately, he lacked the tact and the proper temperament to adapt himself to an increasingly professionalized American scientific establishment. Struggling and dissatisfied professionally, and facing a painful, life-threatening illness, Cope picked one final feud with Chicago's Field Columbian Museum and its e...
EROSION ALONG THE ILLINOIS SHORE OF LAKE MICHIGAN

In the consideration of problems of coastal engineering in general, and of shore and beach erosion in particular, one is quite naturally apt to immediately focus attention upon our ocean shores to the exclusion of inland areas. Many are perhaps not appreciative of the fact that the five inland fresh-water lakes comprising the Great Lakes system are bordered by eight states having a combined length of shore line of approximately 3,000 miles. (See Fig. 1) Only in recent years has there been a general awakening of interest in the many and varied problems of erosion which occur along these inland coasts. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the problems existing on the Illinois shore and to outline the steps which have been taken at the State level in seeking a solution to those problems.
Association Between the Amount of Vaginal Mesh Used With Mesh Erosions and Repeated Surgery After Repairing Pelvic Organ Prolapse and Stress Urinary Incontinence.

Importance Mesh, a synthetic graft, has been used in pelvic organ prolapse (POP) repair and stress urinary incontinence (SUI) to augment and strengthen weakened tissue. Polypropylene mesh has come under scrutiny by the US Food and Drug Administration. Objective To examine the rates of mesh complications and invasive reintervention after the placement of vaginal mesh for POP repair or SUI surgery. Design, Setting, and Participants This investigation was an observational cohort study at inpatient and ambulatory surgery settings in New York State. Participants were women who underwent transvaginal repair for POP or SUI with mesh between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2012, and were followed up through December 31, 2013. They were divided into the following 4 groups based on the amount of mesh exposure: transvaginal POP repair surgery with mesh and concurrent sling use (vaginal mesh plus sling group), transvaginal POP repair with mesh and no concurrent sling use (vaginal mesh group), transvaginal POP repair without mesh but concurrent sling use for SUI (POP sling group), and sling for SUI alone (SUI sling group). Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcome was the occurrence of mesh complications and repeated invasive intervention within 1 year after the initial mesh implantation. A time-to-event analysis was performed to examine the occurrence of mesh erosions and subsequent reintervention. Secondary analyses of an age association ( Results The study identified 41 604 women who underwent 1 of the 4 procedures. The mean (SD) age of women at their initial mesh implantation was 56.2 (13.0) years. The highest risk of erosions was found in the vaginal mesh plus sling group (2.72%; 95% CI, 2.31%-3.21%) and the lowest in the SUI sling group (1.57%; 95% CI, 1.41%-1.74%). The risk of repeated surgery with concomitant erosion diagnosis was also the highest in the vaginal mesh plus sling group (2.13%; 95% CI, 1.76%-2.56%) and the lowest in the SUI sling group (1.16%; 95% CI, 1.03%-1.31%). Conclusions and Relevance The combined use of POP mesh and SUI mesh sling was associated with the highest erosion and repeated intervention risk, while mesh sling alone had the lowest erosion and repeated intervention risk. There is evidence for a dose-response relationship between the amount of mesh used and subsequent mesh erosions, complications, and invasive repeated intervention.
CD28 Costimulation Induces Transcription of SKP2 and CKS1, the Substrate Recognition Components of the Skp1-Cullin-F-box Ubiquitin Ligase, SCFSkp2.

Cellular immune responses require expansion of antigen-specific T cell clones from the pool of resting T lymphocytes that perform immune surveillance. Regulation of this proliferative potential is critical for defense against pathogens and avoidance of autoimmunity. Costimulation through the T cell receptor and accessory molecule, CD28, triggers replication of T lymphocytes in response to antigen that is mediated via both IL-2-dependent and IL-2-independent mechanisms. This event is associated with decreased abundance of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27kip1 and increased cyclin D/cdk4 and cyclin E/cdk2 enzymatic activity. We have previously reported that in contrast to p27kip1 protein, the abundance of P27KIP mRNA transcript is unchanged in response to TCR/CD28 T cell activation. Ubiquitin-targeted degradation by the proteasome regulates the abundance of p27kip1 protein and ubiquitination of p27kip1 occurs in primary human T cells activated through the TCR and CD28. Ubiqutination of p27kip1 is mediated by a Skp1-Cullin-F-box (SCF) family ubiquitin ligase, SCFskp2. The SCFskp2 holoenzyme is comprised of the core components Roc1, Cul1, Skp1, and the substrate recognititon components, an F-box (cyclin F homology) protein, Skp2, that in cooperation with a smaller subunit, Cks1, mediates recognition of p27kip1 substrate. Targeted deletion of the murine Skp2 or Cks1 genes results in accumulation of p27kip1 in multiple cell types. T cell proliferation in response to TCR/CD3-plus-CD28 costimulation is reduced in Skp2−/− mice in comparison to wild-type controls, confirming the role of Skp2 in CD28 costimulation mediated degradation of p27kip1 and T cell proliferation. Here, we examined the mechanisms that regulate Skp2 and Cks1 abundance in primary T lymphocytes in response to TCR/CD3-plus-CD28 costimulation. Using primary human T lymphocytes we observed that the SCFskp2 core components Roc1, Cul1 and Skp1 are constitutively expressed and their levels remain unchanged upon TCR/CD3-plus-CD28 costimulation. In contrast, TCR/CD3-plus-CD28 costimulation lead to striking induction of SKP2 and CKS1 mRNA, and this event is dependent on PI3K/PKB and MEK/ERK signaling pathways. We determined that the SKP2 promoter lies directly upstream of the translation start site and contains binding sites for SP1, Elk-1 and E2F transcription factors. Mutagenesis of SP1 and Elk-1 sites abrogated TCR/CD3-plus-CD28-mediated SKP2 promoter-driven reporter activity, whereas mutagenesis of E2F site enhanced reporter activity, suggesting that SKP2 promoter may act as a node of integration for mitogenic and anti-mitogenic signals. Thus, in primary T lymphocytes CD28 costimulation can directly regulate cell cycle progression by inducing transcription of the substrate recognition components of SCFskp2 ubiquitin ligase that targets p27kip1 for degradation.
Incidence of Self Reported Metal Allergy in Total Knee Replacement

Introduction While prosthesis survival in Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) exceeds 90% at 10 year, failures do occur. One area of concern has been the potential for metal allergy or metal sensitivity causing persistent pain, swelling or early failure of the implant in some patients. Definitive tests for diagnosing metal allergy and metal sensitivity have not been developed and this field remains controversial. In most cases where metal sensitivity is a concern, metals such as Chromium and Nickel are implicated. Despite the lack of good diagnostic tests for identifying these patients, several orthopedic prosthesis manufacturers have developed implants made of Titanium or ceramic designed for use in patients where concerns exist regarding metal allergy. In the absence of good diagnostic tests, use of these devices in patients that self identify is one option. To date, little information has been presented about the incidence of self reported metal sensitivity in patients undergoing joint replacement. This study was undertaken to determine the incidence of self reported metal allergy or sensitivity in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty. Methods An IRB approved, retrospective chart review was performed in a consecutive series of 194 patients who had undergone TKA at one institution, with one surgeon. Self reported metal sensitivity and allergy had been routinely elicited from each individual who had not undergone implantation of a previous metallic device, during pre-operative consultation. Results 36 of the 194 patients had a previously well functioning implanted metal device. In addition, data was missing in 19 patients. Therefore, data from 139 out of 158 consecutive patients who had no prior implanted metal devices was available. 20 of 139 patients (14%) reported a known metal allergy or sensitivity. This included 19 of 86 females (22%) and 1 of 53 males (2%). This difference was statistically significant (P=0.001). Conclusions If self reported prior metal sensitivity or allergy is used to guide prosthesis selection in TKA, approximately 14% of patients would be candidates for “hypo-allergenic” prostheses. If only particular sizes of components are offered in these alternative materials, smaller sizes or female gender specific sizes should be considered due to the higher incidence of self reported metal allergies in female patients.
First experience: Open small incision rectus sheath approach renal transplant: A case series.

Abstract Background Prevention of wound complications is an important goal in surgery, and reduction of modifiable risks factors are an important step towards protecting patients from further complications. Renal transplantation has sought to be more inclusive giving access to transplantation to complex patient populations, many of which have an increased risk of complications specifically obese recipients. Surgical techniques continue to advance and may contribute to reducing complications. We hypothesized that the Anterior Rectus Sheath (ARS) Approach would provide an open transplant with minimal damage and less wound complications, including fluid collections such as lymphoceles, when compared to the conventional technique (CON) with equivalent graft function and survival. Materials and methods The ARS approach was adopted at our center in November of 2012. Medical records for 44 patients that underwent kidney transplantation at our Center between May 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013 were reviewed with data collected up to August 2015. Two were excluded (2 intraperitoneal transplants), leaving 22 in the ARS group and 20 in the CON group. Results Demographics, data, and perioperative factors were found to be similar, but operative and post-operative findings indicated significant differences between the groups. Significant reductions of wound complications, including fluid collections, were observed and operative time, incision length, and drain usage were improved with the ARS technique. Secondary outcome assessing overall patient outcomes showed no significant difference. Conclusion This retrospective review case series quantified that this easily adopted modification of the conventional transplant technique is a safe, effective, and swift approach to renal transplantation with favorable graft results and improved surgical outcomes with less post-operative wound complications.
Discovery of Novel Allosteric HCV NS5B Inhibitors. 2. Lactam-Containing Thiophene Carboxylates.

Lomibuvir (1) is a non-nucleoside, allosteric inhibitor of the hepatitis C virus NS5B polymerase with demonstrated clinical efficacy. Further development efforts within this class of inhibitor focused on improving the antiviral activity and physicochemical and pharmacokinetic properties. Recently, we reported the development of this series, leading to compound 2, a molecule with comparable potency and an improved physicochemical profile relative to 1. Further exploration of the amino amide-derived side chain led to a series of lactam derivatives, inspired by the X-ray crystal structure of related thiophene carboxylate inhibitors. This series, exemplified by 12f, provided 3–5-fold improvement in potency against HCV replication, as measured by replicon assays. The synthesis, structure–activity relationships, in vitro ADME characterization, and in vivo evaluation of this novel series are discussed.
Promoting Access through Segregation: The Emergence of the "Prioritized Curriculum" Class.

The continuously evolving standards-based reform (SBR) movement is one of the most prominent features of today's educational policy landscape. As SBR has continued to drive educational policy, loca...
Quantitative muscle ultrasound detects disease progression in Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Objective: We assessed changes in quantitative muscle ultrasound data in boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and healthy controls to determine if ultrasound can serve as a biomarker of disease progression. Two approaches were used: grey scale level (GSL), measured from the ultrasound image, and quantitative backscatter analysis (QBA) measured directly from the received echoes. Methods: GSL and QBA were obtained from six unilateral arm/leg muscles in 36 boys with DMD and 28 healthy boys (age 2-14 years) for up to 2 years. We used a linear mixed-effects model with random intercept and slope terms to compare trajectories of GSL, QBA, and functional assessments. We analyzed separately a subset of boys who initiated corticosteroids. Results: Compared to healthy boys, increasing GSL in DMD boys >7.0 years was first identified at 6 months (e.g., anterior forearm slope difference of 1.16 arbitrary units/month p=0.004, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.38,1.94]); in boys ≤7 years, differences in GSL first appeared at 12 months (0.82 arbitrary units/month, p=0.04 95%CI [0.075,1.565] in rectus femoris). QBA performed similarly to GSL (e.g., DMD boys >7 years of 0.41dB/month, p=0.01, 95%CI [0.096,0.72] in anterior forearm at 6 months). US identified differences earlier than functional measures including 6-minute walk and supine-to-stand tests. However, neither QBA nor GSL showed an effect of corticosteroid initiation. Interpretation: QBA performs similarly to GSL and both appear more sensitive than functional assessments for detecting muscle deterioration in DMD. Additional studies will be required to determine if quantitative muscle ultrasound can detect therapeutic efficacy. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
International Student Handbook

For the past 15 years, the number of international students in American higher education has increased steadily (Institute of International Education, 2014). According to the Institute of International Education (2014), "The United States hosts more of the world’s 4.5 million globally mobile college and university students than any other country in the world" (para. 1). The 29th edition of International Student Handbook published by the College Board (2015) is the most recent guide for prospective international students interested in postsecondary education in the United States.
Abstract 252: Dysregulation of β-Adrenergic Signaling in Hearts with Hyperinsulinemia

Introduction: Epidemiological studies have demonstrated an increased risk of heart failure in diabetics, but the mechanisms linking diabetes mellitus (DM) to heart failure remain unclear. A uniform metabolic disturbance that characterizes type 2 diabetes is hyperinsulinemia, which accelerates adverse left ventricular (LV) remodeling in pressure overload hypertrophy. Hypothesis: We hypothesize that hyperinsulinemia might affect LV contractility by directly impairing β-adrenergic receptor (βAR) signaling. Methods and Results: Insulin receptor and β 2 AR form a cell surface complex, which dissociates upon insulin stimulation in the heart and cardiomyocytes. Insulin dose-dependent significantly inhibits PKA activities induced by a βAR agonist isoproterenol, and subsequently impairs isoproterenol-induced PKA phosphorylation of phospholamban and contractile responses in myocytes. Mechanistically, insulin action is mediated via IR and β 2 AR dependent manner. Insulin induces both PKA and GRK2-mediated phosphorylation of the β 2 AR, leading to enhanced β 2 AR/Gi coupling that inhibits adenylyl cyclase-mediated cAMP production. Pretreatment with Gi inhibitor pertussis toxin abolishes the insulin-mediated impairment of β-adrenergic stimulation of cAMP signaling. Further studies reveal that chronic insulin stimulation increases phosphodiesterase 4D protein levels in cardiac myocytes, and that the expression of phosphodiesterase 4D is also increased in animal models with high fat feeding or after 2-weeks of transaortic constriction. This leads further attenuation of βAR-induced cAMP activity for contraction response. Inhibition of phosphodiesterase 4 with rolipram rescues cAMP signaling induced by isoproterenol after insulin treatment. Last, PDE4D protein levels are significantly induced in the myocardium in diabetic patients with heart disease compared to those non-diabetic patients with heart disease. Conclusions: This is the first evidence showing that hyperinsulinemia might adversely impact cardiac contractility by inhibiting βAR signaling, which is due to IR-induced β 2 AR/Gi coupling and phosphodiesterase 4 expression in the βAR signaling cascades.
Microbiota, metabolome, and immune alterations in obese mice fed a high-fat diet containing type 2 resistant starch.

cope : We examined the intestinal and systemic responses to incorporating a type 2 resistant starch (RS) into a high fat diet fed to obese mice. Methods and results : Diet-induced obese, C57BL/6J mice were fed a HF diet without or with 20% (by weight) high-amylose maize resistant starch (HF-RS) for six weeks. Serum adiponectin levels were higher with RS consumption, but there were no differences in weight gain and adiposity. With HF-RS, the expression levels of ileal TLR2 and Reg3g and cecal occludin, TLR2, TLR4, NOD1 and NOD2 were induced; whereas colonic concentrations of the inflammatory cytokine IL-17A declined. The intestinal, serum, liver, and urinary metabolomes were also altered. HF-RS resulted in lower amino acid concentrations, including lower serum branched chain amino acids, and increased quantities of urinary di/trimethylamine, 3-indoxylsulfate, and phenylacetylglycine. Corresponding to these changes were enrichments in Bacteroidetes (S24-7 family) and certain Firmicutes taxa (Lactobacillales and Erysipelotrichaceae) with the HF-RS diet. Parabacteroides and S24-7 positively associated with cecal maltose concentrations. These taxa and Erysipelotrichaceae, Allobaculum, and Bifidobacterium were directly correlated with uremic metabolites. Conclusion : Consumption of RS modified the intestinal microbiota, stimulated intestinal immunity and endocrine-responses, and modified systemic metabolomes in obese mice consuming an otherwise obesogenic diet. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Political Risk and Diaspora Direct Investment

I argue that diasporans are better informed about the political and economic situation in the homeland than are other potential foreign investors; that higher levels of information allows diaspora investors to anticipate and respond to changes in risk more effectively; and that this makes migrant-induced FDI more sensitive to political risk than is other FDI. I conduct empirical analysis on a dataset of bilateral FDI flows from 30 OECD countries to 105 developing countries from 1994-2008: I find that migrant-induced FDI is more sensitive to political risk than is other FDI, and particularly that migrant-induced FDI is more sensitive to decreases in political risk. This has three central implications. First, it is inappropriate to pool across all types of foreign direct investors when analyzing how they experience and respond to political risk. Second, it is diasporans’ access to information, rather than their non-pecuniary motivations directly, that drives the causal relationship between migrant stocks and FDI flows. Third, diaspora direct investment has the potential to motivate and sustain governance reform and stabilization in fragile states, but it is no more likely than other FDI to substitute for, or precede, these improvements.
The reconstructed City Palace and Humboldt Forum in Berlin: restoring architectural identity or distorting the memory of historic spaces?*

Since German unification in 1990, Berlin has undergone drastic reconstruction. Remnants of the past were unearthed and vestiges of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) dismantled, as the city strug...
Quantum coherence–driven self-organized criticality and nonequilibrium light localization

Self-organized criticality emerges in dynamical complex systems driven out of equilibrium and characterizes a wide range of classical phenomena in physics, geology, and biology. We report on a quantum coherence-controlled self-organized critical transition observed in the light localization behavior of a coherence-driven nanophotonic configuration. Our system is composed of a gain-enhanced plasmonic heterostructure controlled by a coherent drive, in which photons close to the stopped-light regime interact in the presence of the active nonlinearities, eventually synchronizing their dynamics. In this system, on the basis of analytical and corroborating full-wave Maxwell-Bloch computations, we observe quantum coherence-controlled self-organized criticality in the emergence of light localization arising from the synchronization of the photons. It is associated with two first-order phase transitions: one pertaining to the synchronization of the dynamics of the photons and the second pertaining to an inversionless lasing transition by the coherent drive. The so-attained light localization, which is robust to dissipation, fluctuations, and many-body interactions, exhibits scale-invariant power laws and absence of finely tuned control parameters. We also found that, in this nonequilibrium dynamical system, the effective critical "temperature" of the system drops to zero, whereupon one enters the quantum self-organized critical regime.
Promises and Limitations of Functional Expansions in Nonlinear Model-Based Control

The application of functional expansion (FEx) models for the analysis and control of nonlinear processes is reviewed. Nonlinear analysis tools analogous to the linear pole/zero and frequency response concepts are presented, as well as the concept of a nonlinearity measure. FEx model-based controllers are developed based on the internal model control structure. Strengths and weaknesses of the methods are discussed, and the developed concepts are applied to a simulation example.
Natural radionuclides in six selected fish consumed in south Iraq and their committed effective doses

Natural radionuclides in six selected fish collected from Shatt Al-Arab River south Iraq have been analysed by means of a gamma-ray spectrometry (HPGe) and estimated of committed effective dose intakes of the radionuclides 226Ra, 232Th and 40K. The concentration of 226Ra, 232Th and 40K have been found to vary from 0.86 ± 0.21 to 6.41 ± 0.81 Bq kg−1 with an average of 2.79 ± 0.61, from 1.18 ± 0.17 to 5.69 ± 0.13 with an average of 3.23 ± 0.44 Bq kg−1 and from 86.34 ± 18.21 to 120.21 ± 28.74 with an average of 101.52 ± 19.06 Bq kg−1, respectively. The results showed the concentration of radionuclides exceeded the results reported in the wide world. The dose due to consumption of fish by the public has also been determined and it has been below the dose limit recommended by World Health Organization.
The Effect of Risk on Investment: New Evidence

Previous results on the relation between risk and investment are mixed, partly due to endogeneity. To allievate the effects of this bias, we adopt a generalized method of moments (GMM) dynamic panel estimator to investigate the relation. We find that the puzzling positive sensitivity of investment (i.e. firm’s investment rate) to systematic risk as frequently documented in previous studies disappears. Further, we show that the more irreversible the firm’s investments are, the more valuable is the option to delay investment when risk is high, which supports the model with irreversible investment.
Heat–Viscoelastic Plate Interaction via Bending Moment and Shear Forces Operators: Analyticity, Spectral Analysis, Exponential Decay

We consider a heat–plate interaction model where the 2-dimensional plate is subject to viscoelastic (strong) damping. Coupling occurs at the interface between the two media, where each component evolves through differential operators. In this paper, we apply “high” boundary interface conditions, which involve the two classical boundary operators of a physical plate: the bending moment operator $$B_1$$ and the shear forces operator $$B_2$$ . We prove three main results: analyticity of the corresponding contraction semigroup on the natural energy space; sharp location of the spectrum of its generator, which does not have compact resolvent, and has the point $$\lambda =-\,1$$ in its continuous spectrum; exponential decay of the semigroup with sharp decay rate. Here analyticity cannot follow by perturbation.
Adulthood, Morality, and the Fully Human: A Mosaic Of Peace

Not until the final chapter does it become explicit that John Shea’s new book is really about religious education, although this is implicit throughout. Gradually, with the hard-won wisdom of a lif...
It's Not Your Father's Podiatry School Advances in Podiatric Medical Education.

This paper discusses the innovative changes in podiatric medical education found in today's schools and colleges of podiatric medicine, including changes in philosophy, resources and technology, cu...
Ideological State Apparatuses, Perversions of Courtly Love, and Curatorial Violence in “White Bear”

Throughout Black Mirror (2011–), creator Charlie Brooker interrogates themes of technological complicity and wrongdoing, complicating punishment and apparatuses of state justice. In “White Bear,” the ostensible victim, Victoria Skillane, is forced into a state of abject suffering that she performs in an endless loop for the public’s need for release from her—nonviolent—involvement in the abduction and death of young Jemima Sykes. Brooker centers on two central indictments: first, that Victoria excused herself of responsibility over Jemima and merely filmed the child’s trauma; and, second, that visitors to the White Bear State Park remain at such an emotional remove from Victoria that they likewise deny themselves any empathetic connection to Victoria.
Clinging to Excel as a Security Blanket: Investigating Accountants' Resistance to Emerging Data Analytics Technology

In this paper, we offer a proposal to investigate whether accountants are heeding the call to adapt to the emerging data analytics mindset, or if the accounting profession is clinging to the famili...
From Drinking Philosophers to Wandering Robots

In this paper, we consider the multi-robot path execution problem where a group of robots move on predefined paths from their initial to target positions while avoiding collisions and deadlocks in the face of asynchrony. We first show that this problem can be reformulated as a distributed resource allocation problem and, in particular, as an instance of the well-known Drinking Philosophers Problem (DrPP). By careful construction of the drinking sessions capturing shared resources, we show that any existing solutions to DrPP can be used to design robot control policies that are collectively collision and deadlock-free. We then propose modifications to an existing DrPP algorithm to allow more concurrent behavior, and provide conditions under which our method is deadlock-free. Our method do not require robots to know or to estimate the speed profiles of other robots, and results in distributed control policies. We demonstrate the efficacy of our method on simulation examples, which show competitive performance against the state-of-the-art.
Mechanism-Driven Read-Across of Chemical Hepatotoxicants Based on Chemical Structures and Biological Data

Hepatotoxicity is a leading cause of attrition in the drug development process. Traditional preclinical and clinical studies to evaluate hepatotoxicity liabilities are expensive and time consuming. With the advent of critical advancements in high-throughput screening, there has been a rapid accumulation of in vitro toxicity data available to inform the risk assessment of new pharmaceuticals and chemicals. To this end, we curated and merged all available in vivo hepatotoxicity data obtained from the literature and public resources, which yielded a comprehensive database of 4089 compounds that includes hepatotoxicity classifications. After dividing the original database of chemicals into modeling and test sets, PubChem assay data were automatically extracted using an in-house data mining tool and clustered based on relationships between structural fragments and cellular responses in in vitro assays. The resultant PubChem assay clusters were further investigated. During the cross-validation procedure, the biological data obtained from several assay clusters exhibited high predictivity of hepatotoxicity and these assays were selected to evaluate the test set compounds. The read-across results indicated that if a new compound contained specific identified chemical fragments (ie, Molecular Initiating Event) and showed active responses in the relevant selected PubChem assays, there was potential for the chemical to be hepatotoxic in vivo. Furthermore, several mechanisms that might contribute to toxicity were derived from the modeling results including alterations in nuclear receptor signaling and inhibition of DNA repair. This modeling strategy can be further applied to the investigation of other complex chemical toxicity phenomena (eg, developmental and reproductive toxicities) as well as drug efficacy.
Examination of the Current Literature on How Robots Can Contribute on Hotel Service Quality

Robots have an important role on the development of hotel services. Although the use of robots on hotels is still in a primitive level, there is evident that the use of robots can leverage the quality of services. Nonetheless, there is a need to move on with more research and more empirical evidence. For this reason, the author has made a research proposal for a quantitative research. This is going to be addressed with a questionnaire given on both customers and employees/managers of hotels, so to see both views’ on this matter. It would be the first major research in Greece and surely a significant contribution on the existing knowledge.
Non-opioid pharmacologic treatment of chronic spinal cord injury-related pain.

Purpose: Spinal cord injury-related pain is often a severe debilitating condition that adversely affects the patient’s physical health, psychological wellbeing and quality of life. Opioid medicatio...
Patients' understanding of oncology clinical endpoints: A literature review.

Abstract Objectives Oncology clinical trials use a variety of clinical endpoints. Patients’ understanding of the differences between clinical endpoints is important because misperceptions of treatment efficacy may affect treatment decisions. The objective of this literature review is to find and synthesize available empirical publications assessing patients’ understanding of common oncology clinical endpoints. Methods We conducted a literature search of 5 databases and 3 conferences, limiting the search to articles and abstracts published in English through September 2018. We reviewed the titles and abstracts for inclusion, then reviewed full texts to determine if they reported empirical research studies focused on (1) clinical endpoints, (2) oncology, and (3) patient understanding. The original search identified 497publications, of which 13 met the inclusion criteria. Results Available literature yields little information on this topic.The few publications that do exist suggest that healthcare professionals and cancer patients generally do not discuss clinical endpoint concepts and that patients can be confused about the purpose of a treatment based on misperceptions about endpoints. Conclusions Research is needed on how to discuss oncology clinical endpoints with patients. Practice Implications Patient-friendly definitions of clinical endpoints may help healthcare providers communicate important information about treatments to patients.
Variable Temperature NMR Experiment Studying Restricted Bond Rotation.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has become a cornerstone tool for studying a variety of molecular features in advanced chemistry laboratories. In this experiment, students prepare a p...
Telesimulation for COVID-19 Ventilator Management Training With Social-Distancing Restrictions During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Background. In early 2020, the novel coronavirus pandemic forced communities around the globe to shut down and isolate. Routine graduate medical education activities have also been suspended as res...
Phytoplankton Community Structure in a Seasonal Low-Inflow Estuary Adjacent to Coastal Upwelling (Drakes Estero, CA, USA)

Low-inflow estuaries (LIEs) in Mediterranean climates located within regions of wind-driven coastal upwelling have seasonally minimal freshwater inflow, are supplied by nutrient-rich upwelled water, and often used for sustainable shellfish mariculture supported by a rich pelagic food web. They likely support endemic estuarine phytoplankton supplemented during the upwelling season with phytoplankton supplied from the ocean. There are few descriptions of LIE algal assemblages. This study characterizes the spatio-temporal phytoplankton community dynamics in a low-inflow estuary located along the northern California coast with high frequency sampling to assess seasonal influences on functional groups, blooms, and endemic populations. Phytoplankton biomass and community composition were measured in Drakes Estero monthly from June 2016 to November 2017. We predicted blooms with diatoms in summer and dinoflagellates in fall but had no prediction for non-bloom situations and what phytoplankton would occur year-round. Flagellates were ubiquitous throughout the Estero at all times. Two summer blooms occurred with diatoms characteristic of upwelling (Chaetoceros, Skeletonema, Asterionellopsis, Thalassiosira) and two blooms in fall with dinoflagellates dominated by Prorocentrum and high densities of the raphidophyte Heterosigma. Harmful algal bloom (HAB) taxa were observed, some at levels reported to have negative effects. Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling analyses showed the diatoms to be associated with upwelling, cooler temperatures and high nitrate, and the dinoflagellates and flagellates associated with warmer temperatures and reduced upwelling. Dinoflagellate and flagellate communities, especially HAB taxa, might be promoted with warmer temperatures or longer warm seasons accompanying climate change; an important consideration for managers of LIEs, especially those containing mariculture facilities.
Evaluation of pharmaceutical pictograms by older “turkers”: A cross-sectional crowdsourced study

Abstract Background Well-designed pharmaceutical pictograms may improve patients’ understanding of medication instructions. However, the iterative participatory design process required to produce effective pictograms can be costly in terms of money, time, and effort. Crowdsourcing has been applied to bring down the costs of the participatory design process, but the feasibility of using this approach with older adults remains largely unknown. Objectives To evaluate the feasibility of using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), a leading crowdsourcing platform, for participatory pictogram evaluation with older adults (55+) and to evaluate the comprehensibility of USP pictogram, identify common misinterpretations, and explore the relationship between selected participant characteristics and their pictogram comprehension performance. Methods 108 older adults (56.5% female; 57–80 years of age) were recruited via MTurk to complete a cross-sectional online survey that asked them to interpret 15 USP pictograms and answer questions about their health and health literacy. Results It was feasible to perform pictogram evaluation with older adults on MTurk, as shown by ease of recruitment and high data quality. Of the 15 pictograms tested, seven (46.7%) resulted in a comprehensibility score below the threshold established by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), eight (53.3%) elicited common misinterpretations, and two (13.3%) resulted in ANSI-defined “critical confusion.” Age (P = 0.04) was associated with pictogram comprehension performance. Certain issues with the pictogram subtitles emerged during the evaluation. Conclusions MTurk is a feasible platform for participatory pictogram evaluation, even for a sole target of older adults. The USP should develop a pictogram user manual, redesign pictograms confusing to older adults, and establish policies and procedures to ensure that pictogram subtitles conform to evidence-based best practices and standards for patient-centered written drug information.
Simple, low degree-of-freedom load-lock and in-vacuum sample transfer

A mechanism is described for the loading and unloading of samples from an instrument housing in a way that achieves strong mechanical contact between the sample and housing. A single linear–rotary magnetically coupled feedthrough is required to effect transfer. An additional load-lock mechanism requires only a single linear magnetic feedthrough, which remains in the UHV part of the chamber. The load-lock itself has no motion feedthroughs, which simplifies design and maximizes the pump-down speed. 3D-printing technology allows for intricately detailed parts to be used in both the sample transfer and load-lock mechanisms.