cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The use of cone beam computed tomography as an aid in evaluating and treatment planning for mandibular cancer.

Purpose The workup for oral malignancy involving the mandible typically involves a head and neck exam, laboratory studies, a panoramic radiograph, and computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging of the head and neck to evaluate the primary lesion and cervical lymph nodes. Panoramic plain film radiography of the mandible is often unreliable for detecting bony invasion; therefore, other imaging studies are necessary before staging is complete. Bony invasion is typically imaged with the use of conventional CT scanners. In this article we relate the use of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) to image the mandible with less cost and morbidity to the patient and its use in the evaluation and treatment planning of mandibular cancer. Materials and Methods A retrospective review of 3 patients with mandibular malignancies was performed. All patients had a panoramic radiograph, magnetic resonance imaging, and chest radiograph, in addition to laboratory studies. CBCT scans were ordered, after bony involvement was suspected, and compared with the other imaging studies. Results Two patients with squamous cell carcinoma of anterior mandible and 1 patient with osteogenic sarcoma were reviewed. In all cases CBCT aided the evaluation of the mandible. The cone beam panoramic view, as part of the CBCT, was used to determine extent of resection. Conclusion CBCT can accurately aid in evaluating and treatment planning for malignant tumors of the mandible with less cost and decreased radiation to the patient relative to conventional CT.
Particle concentration in exhaled breath.

Measurements were made of the number concentration of particles in exhaled breath under various conditions of exercise. A laser light scattering particle spectrometer was used to count particles exhaled by test subjects wearing respirators in a challenge environment of clean, dry air. Precautions were taken to ensure that particles were not generated by the respirators and that no extraneous water or other particles were produced in the humid exhaled air. The number of particles detected in exhaled air varied over a range from <0.1 to ∼4 particles/cm3 depending upon the test subject and his activity. Subjects at rest exhaled the lowest concentration of particles, whereas exercises producing a faster respiration rate caused increased exhalation of particles. Exhaled particle concentrations can limit the usefulness of nondiscriminating, ambient challenge aerosols for the fit testing of highly protective respirators.
Fickle Families and the Kindness of Strangers: Social Capital in the Lives of Low-Income Single Mothers

This article is a qualitative study that examines the social capital in the lives of 20 formerly homeless and nearly homeless single mothers with children in their care. The findings for this study indicate that the mothers' close social ties simultaneously served as a resource and a hindrance to their progress into sustainable work or education. Findings also show that nearly all of the women in this study benefited from “weak” ties by receiving information or other kinds of resources from strangers or friends of friends. Implications for policy and practice are also discussed.
Reweaving the social fabric: antecedents of social support facilitation.

Contemporary society leaves many individuals without a continuing support group. Continued integration into a network of supportive social relationships is demonstrably related to the prevention of breakdown in health in the widest variety of mental and physical forms. Yet the task of assuring continuity of supportive relationships has not been central to any professional discipline. The facilitation of social support is likely to become more central to community health education.To address this issue we examine seven different forms of intervention which address the problem of augmenting supportive relationships. The goal is to extract the essence of the professional role in the provision of social support and to suggest its relevance to community health education.
Spatial variation of fiber quality and associated loan rate in a dryland cotton field

A field study was conducted in 2006 in a dryland cotton field in Texas, USA, to explore the spatial variation of cotton fiber quality and the loan rate associated with it. A total of 66 cotton samples were hand-harvested, and the fiber quality properties investigated included the High Volume Instrument measurements of micronaire, length, uniformity, strength, elongation, reflectance (Rd) and yellowness (+b). Conventional statistics showed a generally low level of variation in fiber quality with coefficients of variation <10%. Variogram analysis showed that all fiber quality properties were spatially correlated. Contour maps of individual fiber quality properties were produced from block kriged estimates. Fiber length, uniformity, strength and Rd were positively correlated, and all of these were negatively correlated with +b. The spatial distribution of most fiber quality properties was similar to that of soil apparent electrical conductivity, suggesting that water holding capacity could be a limiting factor for cotton fiber quality. Maps of individual fiber quality properties were combined with the United State Department of Agriculture—Commodity Credit Corporation Loan Schedule for Upland Cotton to create a loan rate map that is associated with fiber quality. A loan rate difference of 20 cents kg–1 was observed within the field. This level of difference indicated that fiber quality at the field level can have a large impact on producers’ revenue. A site-specific management system encompassing both lint yields and fiber quality is strongly recommended for cotton production.
LB_Keogh supports exact indexing of shapes under rotation invariance with arbitrary representations and distance measures

The matching of two-dimensional shapes is an important problem with applications in domains as diverse as biometrics, industry, medicine and anthropology. The distance measure used must be invariant to many distortions, including scale, offset, noise, partial occlusion, etc. Most of these distortions are relatively easy to handle, either in the representation of the data or in the similarity measure used. However rotation invariance seems to be uniquely difficult. Current approaches typically try to achieve rotation invariance in the representation of the data, at the expense of discrimination ability, or in the distance measure, at the expense of efficiency. In this work we show that we can take the slow but accurate approaches and dramatically speed them up. On real world problems our technique can take current approaches and make them four orders of magnitude faster, without false dismissals. Moreover, our technique can be used with any of the dozens of existing shape representations and with all the most popular distance measures including Euclidean distance, Dynamic Time Warping and Longest Common Subsequence.
The good, the bad and the early adopters: providers' attitudes about a common, commercial EHR

Rationale, aims and objectives To describe primary care providers' (PCP) attitudes about the impact of a mature, commercial electronic health records (EHR) on clinical practice in settings with experience using the system and to evaluate whether a provider's propensity to adopt new technologies is associated with more favourable perceptions. Method We surveyed PCPs in 11 practices affiliated with three health systems in Texas. Most practices had greater than 5 years of experience with the Epic EHR. The effect of early adopter of technology status was evaluated using logistic regression. Results One hundred forty-six PCPs responded (70%). Most thought the EHR had a positive impact on routine tasks, such as prescription refills (94%), whereas fewer agreed for complex tasks, such as delivery of guideline-concordant care for chronic illnesses (51%). Two-thirds (62%) thought it interfered with eye contact with patients, and 40% reported that it interfered with in-visit communication. Early adopters of technology reported greater positive effects of the EHR, even after adjusting for age, ranging from 2% to 15% higher on satisfaction ratings. Conclusion PCPs practicing in settings with considerable experience using a common commercial EHR identified many positive effects, as well as two key areas for improvement – patient centredness and intelligent decision support. Providers with a propensity to adopt new technologies have more favourable perceptions of the EHR.
The cross‐border education policy context: Educational hubs, trade liberalization, and national sovereignty

Policies for importing and exporting international branch campuses are increasingly being formalized, with a number of countries explicitly encouraging educational trade as an economic development goal.
Experimental investigation of teleoperation performance for miniature rotorcraft

This paper identifies a baseline level of performance that will be used for assessing teleoperation systems for miniature rotorcraft. The experimental results show the performance measured while operating a miniature rotorcraft in a typical RC mode (the pilot directly observes the helicopter) as well as a simple teleoperation mode (the pilot operates the vehicle using video from an onboard camera). The importance of this work is to create a performance benchmark that can be used as a reference point when testing more advanced teleoperation systems. The paper will give a brief overview of the experimental architecture, define the performance metrics being used, and describe the flight tasks being investigated. The performance metrics calculated from experimental data will then be presented along with some conclusions about the findings. This paper is the beginning of a process to systematically investigate different visual cues and control augmentations that can simplify the teleoperation task for an operator. The goal of this research is to gain a detailed understanding of how the human pilot's performance during teleoperation is affected by the system configuration and to identify the bounds on the performance.
Hypoplasia of Descending Aorta As A Rare Cause of Hypertension A Report of 5 Cases

Five cases of hypoplasia of the descending thoracic and/or abdominal aorta as a rare cause of hypertension are presented. Similarities and dissimilarities between this lesion and classical coarctation of the aorta are discussed. Management of the resulting hypertension is usually medical, as surgical therapy is extremely difficult due to the diffuse involvement of the entire aorta and its branches.
Parametrizing simple closed geodesy on Γ3\ℋ

We exhibit a canonical geometric pairing of the simple closed curves of the degree three cover of the modular surface, 0 3 n , with the proper single self-intersecting geodesics of Crisp and Moran. This leads to a pairing of fundamental domains for0 3 with Markoff triples. The routes of the simple closed geodesics are directly related to the above. We give two parametrizations of these. Combining with work of Cohn, we achieve a listing of all simple closed geodesics of length within any bounded interval. Our method is direct, avoiding the determination of geodesic lengths below the chosen lower bound.
Tellurite glass waveguide material: processing and characterization

Although the success of demonstrating tellurite glass as a waveguide material in many applications, including tellurite fiberization, Nd 3+ -doped tellurite fiber laser, and 1.5 um ultra-broad band Er 3+ -doped optical amplifier, the advance of tellurite is still necessary in the areas of improving the quality of waveguide and understanding the correlations among processing, structure, and desired property, such as nonlinearity, rare-earth spectroscopy, nanocrystalline doping, and microstructured holey fiber. In the paper, we report some initial experimental results on fiberization processing of KNbO 3 -Na 2 O-ZnO-TeO 2 and Er 2 O 3 -WO 3 -TeO 2 systems. The report, in particular, focuses on the thermal characteristics of these glasses.
Voluntary Breathing Influences Corticospinal Excitability of Nonrespiratory Finger Muscles

The present study aimed to investigate neurophysiologic mechanisms mediating the newly discovered phenomenon of respiratory-motor interactions and to explore its potential clinical application for motor recovery. First, young and healthy subjects were instructed to breathe normally (NORM); to exhale (OUT) or inhale (IN) as fast as possible in a self-paced manner; or to voluntarily hold breath (HOLD). In experiment 1 (n = 14), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was applied during 10% maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) finger flexion force production or at rest. The motor-evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded from flexor digitorum superficialis (FDS), extensor digitorum communis (EDC), and abductor digiti minimi (ADM) muscles. Similarly, in experiment 2 (n = 11), electrical stimulation (ES) was applied to FDS or EDC during the described four breathing conditions while subjects maintained 10%MVC of finger flexion or extension and at rest. In the exploratory clinical experiments (experiment 3), four patients with chronic neurological disorders (three strokes, one traumatic brain injury) received a 30-min session of breathing-controlled ES to the impaired EDC. In experiment 1, the EDC MEP magnitudes increased significantly during IN and OUT at both 10%MVC and rest; the FDS MEPs were enhanced only at 10%MVC, whereas the ADM MEP increased only during OUT, compared with NORM for both at rest and 10%MVC. No difference was found between NORM and HOLD for all three muscles. In experiment 2, when FDS was stimulated, force response was enhanced during both IN and OUT, but only at 10%MVC. When EDC was stimulated, force response increased at both 10%MVC and rest, only during IN, but not OUT. The averaged response latency was 83 ms for the finger extensors and 79 ms for the finger flexors. After a 30-min intervention of ES to EDC triggered by forced inspiration in experiment 3, we observed a significant reduction in finger flexor spasticity. The spasticity reduction lasted for ≥ 4 wk in all four patients. TMS and ES data, collectively, support the phenomenon that there is an overall respiration-related enhancement on the motor system, with a strong inspiration-finger extension coupling during voluntary breathing. As such, breathing-controlled electrical stimulation (i.e., stimulation to finger extensors delivered during the voluntary inspiratory phase) could be applied for enhancing finger extension strength and finger flexor spasticity reduction in poststroke patients.
When a Date Changes from Fun to Dangerous Factors Affecting Women's Ability to Distinguish

Women's ability to perceive risk of acquaintance sexual assault is key to decreasing its likelihood. This study examined the relationship between women's recognition of known situational risk factors and global perceived risk, prior victimization, and drinking habits. Women consistently distinguished between clear and ambiguous situational risk factors although these were not related to perceived global risk. They also manifested positivity bias, the tendency to underestimate their own risk of being assaulted relative to other women. Both prior victimization and drinking habits were related to risk judgments. This study raises important issues concerning developing effective defensive strategies for combating sexual assault.
Quantitative structure–activity relationships of monoterpenoid binding activities to the housefly GABA receptor

BACKGROUND: Monoterpenoids are a large group of plant secondary metabolites. Many of these naturally occurring compounds have shown good insecticidal potency on pest insects. Previous studies in this laboratory have indicated that some monoterpenoids have positive modulatory effects on insect GABA receptors. In this study, the key properties of monoterpenoids involved in monoterpenoid binding activity at the housefly GABA receptor were determined by developing quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models, and the relationship between the toxicities of these monoterpenoids and their GABA receptor binding activities was evaluated. RESULTS: Two QSAR models were determined for nine monoterpenoids showing significant effects on [ 3 H]-TBOB binding and for ninep-menthane analogs with at least one oxygen atom attached to the ring. The Mulliken charges on certain carbon atoms, the log P value and the total energy showed significant relationships with binding activities to the housefly GABA receptor in these two QSAR models. CONCLUSIONS: From the QSAR models, some chemical and structural parameters, including the electronic properties, hydrophobicity and stability of monoterpenoid molecules, were suggested to be strongly involved in binding activities to the housefly GABA receptor. These findings will help to understand the mode of action of these natural insecticides, and provide guidance to predict more monoterpenoid insecticides. c � 2012 Society of Chemical Industry
ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN FEMININITY AND WOMEN'S POLITICAL BEHAVIOR DURING MIDLIFE

The contention that femininity makes women unsuited for political participation has roots in feminist theory and political science. This study investigated whether the desirable and undesirable dim...
Meshfree simulation of failure modes in thin cylinders subjected to combined loads of internal pressure and localized heat

This paper focuses on the non-linear responses in thin cylindrical structures subjected to combined mechanical and thermal loads. The coupling effects of mechanical deformation and temperature in the material are considered through the development of a thermo-elasto-viscoplastic constitutive model at finite strain. A meshfree Galerkin approach is used to discretize the weak forms of the energy and momentum equations. Due to the different time scales involved in thermal conduction and failure development, an explicit–implicit time integration scheme is developed to link the time scale differences between the two key mechanisms. We apply the developed approach to the analysis of the failure of cylindrical shell subjected to both heat sources and internal pressure. The numerical results show four different failure modes: dynamic fragmentation, single crack with branch, thermally induced cracks and cracks due to the combined effects of pressure and temperature. These results illustrate the important roles of thermal and mechanical loads with different time scales. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Conditioned Media Downregulates Nuclear Expression of Nrf2.

Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor-2 (Nrf2) is a redox-sensitive transcription factor that activates several antioxidant and cytoprotective genes in response to oxidative stress. The role of Nrf2 activators and the intracellular regulation of Nrf2 have been studied extensively. In comparison, little is known about the self-regulation of Nrf2 due to experimental techniques commonly used to synchronize cellular signaling. Here we report that endogenous Nrf2 was downregulated in the nucleus of HeLa and MDA-MB-231 cells serum starved for 24 h. Nrf2 expression was rescued by the addition of unconditioned media irrespective of its serum content. No concomitant change was observed in the expression of the primary inhibitor of Nrf2, Kelch-like ECH-associated protein-1. Nrf2 was upregulated by tert-butyl hydroquinone, although there was limited increase in Nrf2 in conditioned media-treated cells as compared to unconditioned media-treated cells. Decreasing the fraction of conditioned media in culture resulted in a dose-dependent increase in Nrf2 protein level. Taken together, our data suggests the existence of a complex self-regulatory mechanism for endogenous Nrf2 signaling.
Missing you maintains us: Missing a romantic partner, commitment, relationship maintenance, and physical infidelity

Working from the perspective of interdependence theory and models of relationship maintenance, this study examined the functional role of missing a romantic partner during a brief geographic separation. Eighty-eight undergraduate students involved in romantic relationships completed a measure of commitment prior to separation, and measures of missing a romantic partner, relationship maintenance, and physical infidelity during their winter break. Commitment was associated with participants’ self-reports of missing their romantic partners. Further, commitment predicted participants’ use of relationship maintenance strategies (i.e., positivity, openness, and assurances) and physical infidelity during the separation. These associations were mediated by how much participants missed their romantic partners. Findings are discussed in terms of interdependence theory and the growing literature on geographic distance between relationship partners.
Analysis of partial iris recognition using a 1D approach

Iris recognition has been shown to be very accurate for human identification. We investigate the performance of the use of a partial iris for recognition. A partial iris identification system based on a one-dimensional approach to iris identification is developed. Experiment results show that a more distinguishable and individually unique signal is found in the inner rings of the iris. The results also show that it is possible to use only a portion of the iris for human identification.
Tumor-associated mutations in a conserved structural motif alter physical and biochemical properties of human RAD51 recombinase

Human RAD51 protein catalyzes DNA pairing and strand exchange reactions that are central to homologous recombination and homology-directed DNA repair. Successful recombination/repair requires the formation of a presynaptic filament of RAD51 on ssDNA. Mutations in BRCA2 and other proteins that control RAD51 activity are associated with human cancer. Here we describe a set of mutations associated with human breast tumors that occur in a common structural motif of RAD51. Tumor-associated D149N, R150Q and G151D mutations map to a Schellman loop motif located on the surface of the RecA homology domain of RAD51. All three variants are proficient in DNA strand exchange, but G151D is slightly more sensitive to salt than wild-type (WT). Both G151D and R150Q exhibit markedly lower catalytic efficiency for adenosine triphosphate hydrolysis compared to WT. All three mutations alter the physical properties of RAD51 nucleoprotein filaments, with G151D showing the most dramatic changes. G151D forms mixed nucleoprotein filaments with WT RAD51 that have intermediate properties compared to unmixed filaments. These findings raise the possibility that mutations in RAD51 itself may contribute to genome instability in tumor cells, either directly through changes in recombinase properties, or indirectly through changes in interactions with regulatory proteins.
Lensless Imaging with a Controllable Aperture

In this paper we propose a novel, highly flexible camera. The camera consists of an image detector and a special aperture, but no lens. The aperture is a set of parallel light attenuating layers whose transmittances are controllable in space and time. By applying different transmittance patterns to this aperture, it is possible to modulate the incoming light in useful ways and capture images that are impossible to capture with conventional lens-based cameras. For example, the camera can pan and tilt its field of view without the use of any moving parts. It can also capture disjoint regions of interest in the scene without having to capture the regions in between them. In addition, the camera can be used as a computational sensor, where the detector measures the end result of computations performed by the attenuating layers on the scene radiance values. These and other imaging functionalities can be implemented with the same physical camera and the functionalities can be switched from one video frame to the next via software. We have built a prototype camera based on this approach using a bare image detector and a liquid crystal modulator for the aperture. We discuss in detail the merits and limitations of lensless imaging using controllable apertures.
RISK FACTORS FOR CORONARY HEART DISEASE IN WOMEN

In the United States, coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death in men by age 45 and in women by age 65. CHD is the leading cause of death in both sexes and is responsible for approximately one of every four fatalities among women as well as men. CHD death rates among both men and women in the United States have decreased dramatically in recent decades. Since the 1960s, there has been an approximately 2% per year decrease in CHD mortality in the United States. Most western European countries as well as Japan have also experienced marked declines in CHD over the past several decades. 43 Eastern European countries, in contrast, which have more recently adopted Western lifestyle habits, are now experiencing substantial increases in CHD death rates, replicating the patterns seen in western European countries and the United States several decades ago. Although CHD continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States and other advanced industrial countries, the dramatic decline in CHD mortality in these societies during the past two to three decades provides strong evidence concerning the large degree to which CHD risk can be modified. Although advances in medical diagnosis and treatment of CHD have contributed significantly to the decline in mortality, preventive measures—both lifestyle changes and improvements in the medical management of coronary risk factors—have been estimated to account for the majority of the secular decrease in heart disease mortality. 12 Most of the modifiable risk factors for CHD and strategies for prevention of CHD are similar for both men and women. The magnitude of the effect of some factors differs between men and women, however, and there are some risk factors as well as preventive interventions that are unique to women. 34
The Chronic Exercise–Cognition Interaction: fMRI Research

Many studies have shown a positive relationship between physical activity and mental health. In particular, physical activity and cardiovascular fitness have been linked with better cognitive control, learning and memory, and reduced risk for neurodegenerative disease. However, there is still very little understanding of the neural and cerebrovascular mechanisms that account for these relationships. Four broad mechanistic theories include the cardiovascular fitness hypothesis, motor fitness hypothesis, cerebrovascular reserve, and a bioenergetic source of the effects. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) provides an important tool for examining how the brain is affected by physical activity and exercise with respect to these theories. In this context, I review basic fMRI methodology, provide a summary of fMRI research on the exercise–cognition interaction, and discuss important methodological considerations and future directions.
Preliminary Investigation of Entertainment Strategies Involving Alcohol: Implications for Professional Sales Education and Training in Business Markets

ABSTRACTPurpose: With increased numbers of business to business (B to B) firms hiring professional sales students, it is important that both sales educators and sales managers understand entertainment’s influence and its potential consequences in the professional sales environment. This study examines the perceived role entertainment plays in today’s sales process and the importance of integrating entertainment topics into sales education and sales training. The purpose of this study is to update the sales entertainment literature, record its current importance in the age of sales systemization, and propose entertainment strategies and guidelines that can be shared in both corporate sales training programs and university professional sales curricula.Methodology/approach: Partial least squares (PLS) methodology (SmartPLS 2.0) was used to examine the model and assess the relationships between the constructs and their indicators. Data was first gathered via online and in person surveys distributed to a total...
A Rawlsian Approach to International Criminal Justice and the International Criminal Court

Traditionally, the United States has adopted a foreign policy that refuses to ratify the International Criminal Court treaty. This lecture explores the moral and legal responsibilities that the U.S. has in preventing and punishing mass atrocities across the globe. It argues that not only would American support of the ICC reinforce our deep faith in the rule of law, it is also a moral imperative to endorse this international institution. This lecture suggests that Americans have special talents to bring to this endeavor, as well as a collective responsibility to recognize and remember our shared humanity and to help improve the lot of those who are less fortunate. Drawing inspiration from the great American legal philosopher John Rawls, the author suggests that America’s moral obligations should arise not just from national self-interest, but should also produce the greatest payoff for the least advantaged among us. From this original position, as Rawls calls it, rules that promote social equality are the most desirable as they protect everyone. This lecture begins with the birth of international criminal law after the great wars of the last Century, and briefly discusses efforts to build a system of international criminal justice. Finally, the author concludes with why the United States should not only support, but also one day lead, the new International Criminal Court, and the world, in ending impunity for the commission of crimes against humanity.
Expansion of the Publications of the Department of State

In all countries, the publications of the foreign office hold a peculiar position among government documents. Statesmen appear to be more reticent in informing the public on foreign relations than in regard to any other governmental function. This reticence seems to obtain in democracies as well as autocracies. There are exceptions, such as post-war Germany and Soviet Russia, where the new governments entered upon a policy of disclosing almost everything in past diplomacy for the purpose of exposing the incompetency of the Hohenzollern and Romanov regimes. But these exceptions are conspicuously few. It is, of course, too much to expect foreign offices to publish all diplomatic correspondence and official reports. Some of these communications concern private persons whose affairs should not be exhibited to public gaze. Other papers contain tentative proposals and counter-proposals made in the course of negotiations, and should not, in fairness to all governments involved, be published at the time. Finally, much of the correspondence is merely routine. Nevertheless, it will probably be generally conceded that in a democracy the people ought to have opportunity for wide information regarding the conduct of foreign relations. In the United States the chief official sources of information include: the President's annual message, Foreign Relations , the Treaty Series , mimeographed press releases, the Register of the Department of State and other lists, and occasional documents issued by the Department of State. It has been the practice of the President to devote a large portion of his annual message to Congress to a resume of international relations for the year.
Lessons from transgenic mouse lines expressing sickle hemoglobin.

Conclusions and Future WorkThe transgenic mice lines already developed have a significant potential to increase our understanding of the pathogenesis of kidney, lung, and retina damage in sickle-cell anemia. Second generation transgenic mice, interbreeding of existing lines, promise to improve this score even more. The capacity of eliciting sickle complications by hypoxic treatment renders these animals particularly useful in the study of the renal concentration defect and priapism.While the shortcomings of the transgenic models (i.e., when mice do not behave as humans) have discouraged those who naively expected a “perfect” model, they also have the potential of furthering our comprehension of the disease, by allowing replacement experiments and by exposing the relative importance of pathogenic determinants.Even the less severe phenotypes among the transgenic mouse model will demonstrate their usefulness. A panoply of different levels of severity will assist in the study of specific pathogenic mechanisms...
The analysis of the proton magnetic resonance spectra of monosubstituted benzenes: Part I. Additivity rule for the ring proton coupling constants

Abstract A complete analysis of the high resolution proton magnetic resonance spectraof monosubstituted benzenes has been performed as an AA′BB′C spin system, and the chemical shifts as well as the coupling constants are determined for 20 kinds of the compounds with great accuracy. The magnitude of each coupling constant is plotted against the electronegativity of the substituents, and empirical relations between the coupling constant and the electronegativity are given. An additivity rule for the coupling constants in the ring protons is presented, which permits an estimate of the ortho- and the meta -coupling constants in the disubstituted benzenes by making use of the ones in the monosubstituted derivatives.
The Particularities of Engagement: Intersubjectivity in Occupational Therapy Practice:

Some therapeutic practices, and occupational therapy in particular, require heightened forms of engagement and involve jointly coordinated actions that are grounded in intersubjective processes. These interactional processes enable people to be together in particular ways, co-create and share experiences, and coordinate actions. Qualities of engagement in therapeutic practices are analyzed in terms of the interrelatedness of the social actors and the investment in the doing of the occupations. Interpretive examples are provided from an interdisciplinary, longitudinal, urban ethnographic study of a cohort of African-American children, their families, and the practitioners with whom they engage in healthcare encounters. Findings include the use of vehicles for engagement to enhance participation, transactional features of jointly constructed clinical activities, and experiential and developmental aspects of children's engagement in therapeutic practices. Engagement is discussed as a mediator of effectivenes...
Differing Impacts Of Market Concentration On Affordable Care Act Marketplace Premiums

Recent increases in market concentration among health plans, hospitals, and medical groups raise questions about what impact such mergers are having on costs to consumers. We examined the impact of market concentration on the growth of health insurance premiums between 2014 and 2015 in two Affordable Care Act state-based Marketplaces: Covered California and NY State of Health. We measured health plan, hospital, and medical group market concentration using the well-known Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) and used a multivariate regression model to relate these measures to premium growth. Both states exhibited a positive association between hospital concentration and premium growth and a positive (but not statistically significant) association between medical group concentration and premium growth. Our results for health plan concentration differed between the two states: It was positively associated with premium growth in New York but negatively associated with premium growth in California. The health plan concentration finding in Covered California may be the result of its selectively contracting with health plans.
Probucol normalizes cholesteryl ester transfer in type 2 diabetes

Abstract Aims Accelerated cholesteryl ester transfer (CET) protein (CETP) activity is believed to promote macrovascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) by increasing the cholesterol burden of the apoB – containing triglyceride-rich lipoprotein (TGRLP) CE acceptors and promoting small dense LDL formation. While previous studies have shown that this same abnormality is present in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and was normalized by the anti-oxidant drug probucol, its effects on CET in T2D are unknown. Patients and methods The net mass transfer of CE from HDL to the apoB lipoproteins (VLDL+LDL) was studied in intact plasma from seven T2D patients before and two months after treatment with probucol (1g/day). Results Before treatment, CET was significantly greater than controls at 1 and 2h ( p p p Conclusions By normalizing CET in T2D, probucol likely reduces the formation of atherogenic lipoproteins. This effect on CET is achieved through qualitative alterations in CETP's lipoprotein substrates and not through changes in CETP or HDL. Since probucol also has potent anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties, it may have a new role to play in lipoprotein remodeling that reduce cardiovascular risk in T2D.
Investigation of HIV and syphilis infection status of new detainees in the regulatory sites of Urumqi in 2014

Objective To survey the status of HIV and syphilis infection,and summarize the behavioral characteristics of the regulatory sites in Urumqi.Methods The peripheral blood of the 651 persons who are new in the compulsory rehabilitation institute of Urumqi.The HIV antibody screening was performed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA),and the protein was confirmed by Western blot(WB) test.Syphilis was detected by a fast plasma reaction prime ring card test(RPR) and confirmed by particle agglutination test(TPPA).Results There were 71 cases positive,and the positive rate of HIV antibody was 10.91%.Among them,the male was about67.61%(48 cases) and the female was about 32.39%(23 cases).Syphilis was positive in 67 cases,and the positive rate was 10.29%,among which the male was 38.81%(26 cases) and the female was 61.19%(41 cases).Conclusion The male positive HIV antibody was more than that in female.Syphilis of the female is more than that of male.
Interactions of a Photoreactive Steroid Anesthetic (F4N3-Alphaxalone) with Human α1β3γ2 GABA-A Receptors

Alphaxalone, a synthetic neurosteroid, acts as a general anesthetic in vivo and potentiates γ-aminobutyric acid type-A receptors (GABAAR) in vitro. To identify alphaxalone binding site(s) in a GABAAR, a photoreactive alphaxalone analog was synthesized by attaching a fluorinated aryl azide at the 11-position of alphaxalone through an ester linkage (11β-[p-azidotetrafluorobenzoyl]-3α-OH-pregnane-20-one or F4N3-alphaxalone). In vivo, F4N3-alphaxalone anesthetized tadpoles at concentrations (EC50 = 0.7 μM) similar to alphaxalone (EC50 = 1.9 μM, loss of righting reflex). In vitro using human α1β3γ2L GABAAR expressed in oocytes, F4N3-alphaxalone potentiated GABAEC10 responses at concentrations (EC50 = 0.6 μM) similar to those producing anesthesia and left-shifted the GABA response curve. For human α1β3γ2L GABAARs expressed in HEK cells and purified in detergent-lipid, F4N3-alphaxalone (10 µM) potentiated photolabeling by [3H]azietomidate and [3H]R-mTFD-MPAB to the same extent as alphaxalone (10 µM) or GABA (300 µM), which indicated that these anesthetic steroids must bind to sites distinct from the previously characterized intersubunit anesthetic binding sites in the transmembrane domain. To identify binding sites for F4N3-alphaxalone, purified α1β3γ2L or α1β3 GABAARs were photolabeled with [3H]F4N3-alphaxalone ± anesthetics or other drugs. Based upon analysis by SDS-PAGE, [3H]F4N3-alphaxalone was incorporated efficiently into each subunit. Ivermectin at 10 µM reduced photolabeling at the subunit level by 19 ± 4%, but alphaxalone (30 μM), etomidate (1 mM), or R-mTFD-MPAB (60 µM) produced <10% inhibition. Reversed-phase HPLC fractionation of enzymatic digests of isolated subunits and N-terminal sequence analyses established photolabeling of tryptophans, including β3Trp-237/β3Trp-241 in βM1, β3Trp-426 in βM4, α1Trp-288 in αM3, and α1Trp-412 in αM4, with no inhibition by alphaxalone. Since alphaxalone and F4N3-alphaxone are potent GABAAR modulators, the lack of pharmacological specificity of photolabeling suggests a mechanism of action not dependent upon high affinity binding sites. Supported by GM 58448.
Evaluating decorators for haptic collaboration over Internet

One of the known problems with shared object manipulation in collaborative virtual environments (CVE) is the disruptive effect of network lag in collaboration sessions. It is widely recognized that delay and jitter cause significant problems for CVEs. Most solutions to this problem revolve around techniques to compensate for this lag at the networking level. More recently, the usage of visual queues indicating network lag to the user have shown to be effective. In this article we examine the latter for tele-haptic applications, and we find out an appropriate visual queue specifically for the low delay and jitter requirement necessary for closely-coupled collaborative tasks.
Large Temperature Fluctuations due to Cold-Air Pool Displacement along the Lee Slope of a Desert Mountain

AbstractLarge temperature fluctuations (LTFs), defined as a drop of the near-surface temperature of at least 3°C in less than 30 min followed by a recovery of at least half of the initial drop, were frequently observed during the Mountain Terrain Atmospheric Modeling and Observations (MATERHORN) program. Temperature time series at over 100 surface stations were examined in an automated fashion to identify and characterize LTFs. LTFs occur almost exclusively at night and at locations elevated 50–100 m above the basin floors, such as the east slope of the isolated Granite Mountain (GM). Temperature drops associated with LTFs were as large as 13°C and were typically greatest at heights of 4–10 m AGL. Observations and numerical simulations suggest that LTFs are the result of complex flow interactions of stably stratified flow with a mountain barrier and a leeside cold-air pool (CAP). An orographic wake forms over GM when stably stratified southwesterly nocturnal flow impinges on GM and is blocked at low level...
Facets of Agency in Stories of Transforming From Childless by Choice to Mother

Family scholars have explored in depth how and why some women choose to never have children. However, some childless-by-choice (also termed childfree or voluntarily childless) women—who have declared their desire and intention to never have children—ultimately become mothers because of changes in choice or circumstance. Through a qualitative analysis of interviews with mothers who once articulated themselves as permanently childless by choice, this article presents three facets of agency in women's stories about childbearing transformations: accidental conception, ambiguous desire, and purposeful decision. Participant interviews indicated that each facet of agency was enabled and constrained by multiple individual, relational, and cultural considerations, including self-described biological urges, partners' childbearing desires and intentions, and cultural stigma against abortion. Pathways from childless by choice to mother often encompass multiple facets of agency and include movements in and out of various fertility desires and intentions before conceiving.
Inhibitory effects of CAI in glioblastoma growth and invasion.

While distant metastases are rare in patients with primary brain malignancies, local growth and invasion are common and life-threatening.Regional infiltration is responsible for the failure of local therapies,resulting in tumor recurrence, progression, and death. The process of invasion requires cellular adhesion, local proteolysis and migration. CAI, carboxyamide-triazole, is an anticanceragent developed as an inhibitor of selected signal transduction pathways.Studies on the effects of CAI on human glioblastoma growth and invasiveness are presented. CAI inhibited proliferation of 6 of 8 cell lines tested in a dose-dependent fashion in vitro (IC50 range 1.5—44 μM), with no effect on the U373 line. Inhibition of adhesion to tissue culture plastic was observed for the H4, T98G, and U373 lines pretreated with CAI; H4 and T98G were inhibited in adhesion to collagentype IV. Incubation with CAI decreased production of the 72 kDa and 92 kDa type IV collagenases in all cell lines, ranging from 16 to 93% inhibition. These observations show that the effects of CAI on cell line behavior can vary between lines that are similar in origin. Despite variability in the inhibitory effects for proliferation and adhesion, CAI is consistently able to inhibit the invasive phenotype of all glioma cell lines in vitro using the Matrigel barrier assay (IC50range 13—28 μM). These observations suggest that CAI may have benefit in the treatment of gliomas and high grade astrocytomas.
Violence Against Women

The contested relationship between gender violence and the “culture concept” can be found in the cultural defense of gender violence, gender violence linked to postcolonial retraditionalizations of family life, the underpolicing of gender violence associated with communities labeled as culturally backward, and the overpolicing of activities categorized by human rights advocates as harmful traditional practices. Culture has been used to defend, explain, or excuse gender violence, and seen as a barrier to the elimination of gender violence. Here, however, the authors analyze how culture has been mobilized strategically as a resource in the struggle against gender violence.
LoRa propagation at 433 MHz in tropical climate environment

LoRa employs chirp spread spectrum technology and being considered as one of the promising system for Low-Power-Wide-Area-Network (LPWAN) to support the growth of Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Designed to operate in the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) bands, LoRa had been tested and evaluated mainly in Europe and US in the 868 MHz and 915 MHz modulation bands. This paper provides some initial results in the performance of LoRa signal propagation of 433 MHz modulation in tropical climate environments.
A Systematic Review of Sleep, Hypertension, and Cardiovascular Risk in Children and Adolescents

Many of the risk factors for heart disease have recently been shown to develop during childhood such as left ventricular hypertrophy and fibrous plaque lesions. As risk for cardiovascular disease in children and adolescents has risen, sleep duration has decreased, and inadequate sleep in children and adolescents has been found to be associated with cardiovascular disease risk. The aims of this manuscript are to provide an updated systematic review of the literature assessing sleep, hypertension, and cardiovascular risk and evaluate the strength of the evidence based on the available research. A systematic review was conducted using six databases from January 1, 2015 through March 9, 2018. We sought studies which looked at the relationship between sleep duration, sleep timing, or sleep quality and outcome variables of hypertension, inflammation, obesity, glucose or insulin, and lipids in children and adolescents. We found 24 studies which met our criteria. Nine studies included hypertension as an outcome variable; fifteen included obesity; thirteen included glucose or insulin; eight included lipids; and three included measures of inflammation. The existing literature on sleep and cardiovascular disease in children and adolescents is limited and relatively weak. Only one RCT was identified, and the overwhelming majority of studies had a high risk of bias. The strongest evidence of an association with sleep is with obesity, hypertension, and insulin sensitivity. Further research using more standardized methods and objective measures is needed to determine if a causal relationship truly exists between sleep and cardiovascular risk.
The Cosmic Mouth

There is a carved stone head dating back to Neolithic times found in Knowth, Boyne Valley, Ireland that has spiral eyes, snake spirals on both sides and a fluted design along the forehead and chin. Most striking is the wide open mouth gaping from the center of the head. According to Marija Gimbutas (2006), mytho-archaologist, the open mouth symbolizes “the generative Divine Source.” When the spout of a container was shaped in the open mouth formation, the liquid poured from it “reenacted” the Goddess function of offering sacred moisture, from which all life springs (pp. 64, 65).