cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Triathlete Risk of Pelvic Floor Disorders, Pelvic Girdle Pain, and Female Athlete Triad.

Objectives Our primary objective was to describe the prevalence of pelvic floor disorders (PFDs), pelvic girdle pain (PGP), and the female athlete triad (disordered eating, menstrual irregularities, and osteoporosis) in a female triathlete population. We also evaluated for an association between these conditions. Methods We administered an online survey to women who self-identified as female triathletes. Using validated questionnaires, Epidemiology of Prolapse and Incontinence Questionnaire and Pelvic Girdle Questionnaire, along with the female athlete triad questionnaire, we identified the prevalence of PFDs, PGP, and female athlete triad in this specific population. Demographic and exercise intensity were also queried to characterize these female triathletes. Results Three hundred eleven female triathletes responded to the Internet survey. There was a significant prevalence of PFDs with stress urinary incontinence and anal incontinence symptoms being most common (37.4% and 28%, respectively). Urgency urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse were less common (16% and 5%, respectively). Stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse were more common in parous triathletes (P = 0.001, P = 0.05). Pelvic girdle pain was noted in 18% of these triathletes but was not disabling. Twenty-four percent of participants screened positive for at least 1 arm of the female athlete triad. No association was found between the female athlete triad and PFDs. Conclusions Pelvic floor disorders are common and bothersome in female triathletes. Pelvic girdle pain, while present, does not limit these athletes from their training. These female triathletes may be at risk for the female athlete triad. Female triathletes may be at risk for both metabolic and PFDs and should be screened when identified.
Compact reflex triode with multi cavity adjustment

This study focuses on the achieving wide tunabiltiy of a compact reflex triode virtual cathode oscillator (vircator). The cathode is of a bimodal carbon fiber (CF) material paired with a pyrolytic graphite anode. These materials where chosen for their operating characteristics which including but not limited to, long lifetime > 106 shots, high operating temperatures > 1000 K, and large current densities ∼200 A/cm3. A 12 stage, 158 J pulse forming network (PFN) based Marx generator serves to drive the Vircator at 350 kV, 4 kA with ∼100 ns pulsewidth. The operating frequency of interest is in the range of 1–6 GHz, where the tunability is achieved by varying the size of the anode-cathode (A-K) gap, the length from the back wall to the A-K gap, or/and the distance from the bottom of the cavity to the A-K gap. The primary focus in this experiment was to increase the achievable frequencies by placing a square waveguide within a sealed vacuum tube. This allows the bottom part of the waveguide to be easily adjusted while still maintaining the waveguide integrity. The resulting microwave frequencies are shown along with the systems performance.
A study case on user experience with IMS using instant communication services

The evolution to IP-based next-generation networks, the widely adoption of IMS by both fixed and mobile service providers and the need to better integrate enterprise solutions with telecom services are expected to drive a new wave of enhanced services that will seamlessly combine IT and telecom technologies. Telecom service providers have great expectations from these new networks, helping them to reduce their costs, to extend their reach (with the ability to offer services across multiple access networks to a wide range of personal devices) and to respond more quickly to ever-changing requirements from consumers and enterprise customers. Indeed, these customers are expecting more and more blended lifestyle services including multimedia and interactive services. But, even if network technologies are evolving, the biggest barrier to increased service adoption is still that the user experience does not meet consumer expectations. Then, this paper describes work being undertaken within HP OpenCall Software group and explores strong new user experiences and business models and their associated benefits, technical challenges and implementation choices. This work is based on our experience from using standard IT services in collaboration with the IMS technology in different areas to implement the instant group communication class of applications. As part of this work, three different areas have been analyzed and compared.
Empowering Social Workers to Transform the Dominant Narrative: Advocating for Human Rights over Corporate Profit

Social workers can play an essential role in creating global systemic changes that lead to respect for human rights. For this to take place, social workers need to question and critique current policies and propose alternatives. This is a longitudinal case study (2001–2015) of the campaign to eradicate child labor and human rights infractions from the cocoa industry in the West Africa countries of Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana. The movement to transform the labor practices of the cocoa industry offers a unique insight into the process of a human rights campaign. This study uses the campaign to inform social workers about incorporating effective discursive strategies into a movement’s message. It focuses on the manner in which activists questioned the policies of the cocoa companies and presented alternative methods of doing business. Narratives are created in order to alter public beliefs about the problem in a manner that is in line with stakeholder goals. This process of debating and framing issues in the public sphere results in the social construction of problems and reality (Dahan and Gittens in Journal of Business Ethics, 92, 227–249. doi: 10.1007/s10551-009-0151-8 , 2010). There is “no reality apart from social meanings;” metaphors and stories provide this meaning (Stone, 2011, p. 378). The stakeholders in the cocoa campaign created strategic and competing narratives, designed to garner support for their policies from policy makers. Qualitative framing analysis was employed to explore the stakeholders’ discourse and competing narratives surrounding both the causes of, and solutions to, the Worst Forms of Child Labor (WFCL). Press releases from human rights activists and the cocoa industry were analyzed in order to recount the debate’s history. Findings illustrate that strong resonant frames led to positive changes in the cocoa industry. Stakeholders ultimately transcended the conflict caused by contrasting ideological differences and created policies that indicated a respect for human rights. These policies included using Fair Trade certification, creating supply chain transparency, removing workplace hazards, increasing access to schooling and vocational training, improving the quality of education, and empowering women farmers. These results highlight that activists’ suggestions were incorporated into U.S. government protocols and the cocoa industry’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. Policy implications include empowering social workers to advocate for policies that support those most at need, craft frames so that they resonate with the public and policy makers, create alternative policies to the present neoliberal reality, and hold corporations and governments accountable to human rights treaties and conventions. Social workers are encouraged to challenge mindsets that are embedded in a domination mentality and create alternative policies that elevate human rights.
Abstract 516: Altered Autophagy Contributes to Endothelial Dysfunction in Human Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetes is associated with increased oxidative stress and decreased nitric oxide (NO) bioactivity in the vasculature. Autophagy is a critical multistep pathway that eliminates oxidatively damaged proteins and organelles from the cell. Emerging evidence implicates impaired autophagy in a variety of non-vascular tissues that contributes to the pathogenesis of diabetes in experimental models. We hypothesized that impaired autophagy contributes to endothelial dysfunction associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus in humans. We measured vascular function and markers of autophagy in freshly isolated endothelial cells from patients with diabetes (n=41) and non-diabetic controls (n=41). Diabetes was associated with endothelial dysfunction characterized by lower brachial artery flow-mediated dilation. Endothelial cells from diabetic patients displayed no differences in LC3 puncta compared to those from controls but had higher levels of endothelial p62 (p=0.004), a protein that accumulates with reduced autophagic flux. In endothelial cells from controls, the autophagy inhibitor bafilomycin impaired eNOS activation, confirming that intact autophagy is necessary for NO signaling. Global activation of autophagy with spermidine reversed endothelial dysfunction in cultured endothelial cells exposed to high glucose (p=0.007). In regard to mechanism of impairment, the autophagy initiator rapamycin failed to improve eNOS activation in endothelial cells from diabetics. Further, expression of beclin-1, a key contributor to autophagosome formation, was similar in diabetics and controls, arguing against impaired initiation of autophagy. In endothelial cells from diabetics, blocking the terminal step of autophagy with bafilomycin led to a further accumulation of p62 (P=0.01), suggesting intact but insufficient levels of autophagy. Lamp2a, which facilitates the merger of autophagosomes and lysosomes, was higher in diabetic cells, possibly reflecting a compensatory response to reduced flux. Collectively, these findings provide evidence for inadequate autophagic flux in endothelial cells from diabetic patients that contributes to endothelial dysfunction and may be a target for therapy of diabetic vascular disease.
Mitigating Power Fluctuations in Electric Ship Propulsion With Hybrid Energy Storage System: Design and Analysis

Shipboard electric propulsion systems experience large power and torque fluctuations on their drive shaft due to propeller rotational motion and waves. This paper explores new solutions to address these fluctuations by integrating a hybrid energy storage system (HESS) and exploring energy management (EM) strategies. The HESS combines battery packs with ultracapacitor banks. Two strategies for real-time EM of HESS are considered: one splits the power demand such that high- and low-frequency power fluctuations are compensated by ultracapacitors and batteries, respectively; another considers the HESS as a single entity and designs an EM strategy to coordinate the operations of the ultracapacitors and batteries. For both strategies, model predictive control is used to address power tracking and energy saving under various operating constraints. To quantitatively analyze the performance of HESS and its associated controls, a propeller and ship dynamic model, which captures the underlying physical behavior, is established to support the control development and system optimization. Power fluctuation mitigation and HESS loss minimization, the main objectives, are evaluated in different sea conditions. Simulation results show that the coordination within HESS provides substantial benefits in terms of reducing fluctuations and losses.
Linked Geoscience Data in practice: where W3C standards meet domain knowledge, data visualization and OGC standards

The geoscience community is now facing both the challenge and the opportunity caused by the vast amount of datasets that can be made available on the Web. An efficient “data environment” on the Web has the potential to enable geoscientists to conduct their research in ways that never existed before. Standards developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium have already been used widely to build data services among different subjects in geosciences. In recent years, the Linked Open Data approach initiated by the World Wide Web Consortium has received increasing attention. In this paper, the author presents a pilot study that uses a domain specific knowledge base and data visualization techniques to leverage the functionality of geoscience data services in the Web of Data. The study focuses on the topic of the geologic time scale. Detailed works such as semantic modeling and encoding, multilingual vocabularies, exploratory data visualization, web map service and processing, and the query of linked data are introduced through real-world datasets. This study faces a broad perspective of the Linked Geoscience Data and leverages the functionalities of existing standards into a new level for geoscience applications.
Hybrid electro-optics and chipscale integration of electronics and photonics

Taken together, theory-guided nano-engineering of organic electro-optic materials and hybrid device architectures have permitted dramatic improvement of the performance of electro-optic devices. For example, the voltage-length product has been improved by nearly a factor of 10 4 , bandwidths have been extended to nearly 200 GHz, device footprints reduced to less than 200 μm 2 , and femtojoule energy efficiency achieved. This presentation discusses the utilization of new coarse-grained theoretical methods and advanced quantum mechanical methods to quantitatively simulate the physical properties of new classes of organic electro-optic materials and to evaluate their performance in nanoscopic device architectures, accounting for the effect on chromophore ordering at interfaces in nanoscopic waveguides.
Deep Learning Algorithm for Auto-Delineation of High-Risk Oropharyngeal Clinical Target Volumes With Built-In Dice Similarity Coefficient Parameter Optimization Function.

Purpose Automating and standardizing the contouring of clinical target volumes (CTVs) can reduce interphysician variability, which is one of the largest sources of uncertainty in head and neck radiation therapy. In addition to using uniform margin expansions to auto-delineate high-risk CTVs, very little work has been performed to provide patient- and disease-specific high-risk CTVs. The aim of the present study was to develop a deep neural network for the auto-delineation of high-risk CTVs. Methods and Materials Fifty-two oropharyngeal cancer patients were selected for the present study. All patients were treated at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center from January 2006 to August 2010 and had previously contoured gross tumor volumes and CTVs. We developed a deep learning algorithm using deep auto-encoders to identify physician contouring patterns at our institution. These models use distance map information from surrounding anatomic structures and the gross tumor volume as input parameters and conduct voxel-based classification to identify voxels that are part of the high-risk CTV. In addition, we developed a novel probability threshold selection function, based on the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), to improve the generalization of the predicted volumes. The DSC-based function is implemented during an inner cross-validation loop, and probability thresholds are selected a priori during model parameter optimization. We performed a volumetric comparison between the predicted and manually contoured volumes to assess our model. Results The predicted volumes had a median DSC value of 0.81 (range 0.62-0.90), median mean surface distance of 2.8 mm (range 1.6-5.5), and median 95th Hausdorff distance of 7.5 mm (range 4.7-17.9) when comparing our predicted high-risk CTVs with the physician manual contours. Conclusions These predicted high-risk CTVs provided close agreement to the ground-truth compared with current interobserver variability. The predicted contours could be implemented clinically, with only minor or no changes.
Increasing the Use of Evidence Based Practices in Stroke Rehabilitation

This paper examines stroke rehabilitation as performed by healthcare professionals and the possibility for an improved rate of patient recovery through an “instructional document” that would be att...
Reusing and building a policy library

Policy Reuse is a method to improve reinforcement learning with the ability to solve multiple tasks by building upon past problem solving experience, as accumulated in a Policy Library. Given a new task, a Policy Reuse learner uses the past policies in the library as a probabilistic bias in its new learning process. We present how the effectiveness of each reuse episode is indicative of the novelty of the new task with respect to the previously solved ones in the policy library. In the paper we review Policy Reuse, and we introduce theoretical results that demonstrate that: (i) a Policy Library can be selectively and incrementally built while learning different problems; (ii) the Policy Library can be understood as a basis of the domain that represents its structure through a set of core policies; and (iii) given the basis of a domain, we can define a lower bound for its reuse gain.
Severe headache for 5 weeks

A 39-year-old woman presented to the emergency department because of severe recurrent headache for 5 weeks. There was no history of a significant previous illness. Imaging studies are shown below (Figures ​(Figures11–4). Figure 1 Sagittal T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) image shows a high- signal-intensity mass in the superior sagittal sinus (arrows). Figure 4 Axial fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) MR image demonstrates edema (arrows) in the right occipital lobe. For diagnosis and discussion, see the following page. DIAGNOSIS: Dural sinus thrombosis.
Principles of Orthopedic Rehabilitation

The treatment of many orthopedic conditions is based initially on the principles of rehabilitation, which involves the use of conservative methods to avoid surgery unless all other modalities have been exhausted. This article reviews many common orthopedic conditions and discusses their treatment algorithms.
ω ( G ) for Some Classes of Nonabelian Groups

Almost all attempts to improve the lower bounds for ω(G) have been for abelian groups, in particular direct products of elementary abelian groups. The only classes of nonabelian groups for which attempts have been made to improve the lower bound for ω(G) are the dihedral groups and some of the linear groups of even characteristic. We will present these improvements in this chapter. We will derive improved lower bounds for ω(D2n), D2n the dihedral group of order 2n: these improvements will be obtained from improved lower bounds for \(\omega (\mathbb {Z}_n)\) and improved lower bounds for ω(D2n) when n is a power of 2. While proofs of admissibility show that ω(G) ≥ 1 when G is nonsolvable, very little work has been done on improving this bound. We will show that \(\omega (G)\ge \min \{\omega (\mathbb {Z}_{q-1}),\omega (\mathbb {Z}_{q+1})\}\), when G = GL(2, q) or SL(2, q), q even, q≠2. To establish this bound, we will use partitions of the element sets of the groups. For higher dimensions we will establish lower bounds for ω(GL(n, q)), q even, q≠2, using even-odd decompositions and partitions of the sets of odd-order elements of the groups.
Leveraging Breathing for Continuous User Authentication

This work proposes a continuous user verification system based on unique human respiratory-biometric characteristics extracted from the off-the-shelf WiFi signals. Our system innovatively re-uses widely available WiFi signals to capture the unique physiological characteristics rooted in respiratory motions for continuous authentication. Different from existing continuous authentication approaches having limited applicable scenarios due to their dependence on restricted user behaviors (e.g., keystrokes and gaits) or dedicated sensing infrastructures, our approach can be easily integrated into any existing WiFi infrastructure to provide non-invasive continuous authentication independent of user behaviors. Specifically, we extract representative features leveraging waveform morphology analysis and fuzzy wavelet transformation of respiration signals derived from the readily available channel state information (CSI) of WiFi. A respiration-based user authentication scheme is developed to accurately identify users and reject spoofers. Extensive experiments involving 20 subjects demonstrate that the proposed system can achieve a high authentication success rate of over 93% and robustly defend against various types of attacks.
Studying Vector-Borne Disease Transmission in Public Health Education Using a Geospatial Curriculum Approach:

Geospatial thinking and reasoning (GSTR) skills are currently not routinely integrated into public health curriculum for undergraduate students in colleges or universities. However, integrating GST...
Evaluating the success of a data analysis

A fundamental problem in the practice and teaching of data science is how to evaluate the quality of a given data analysis, which is different than the evaluation of the science or question underlying the data analysis. Previously, we defined a set of principles for describing data analyses that can be used to create a data analysis and to characterize the variation between data analyses. Here, we introduce a metric of quality evaluation that we call the success of a data analysis, which is different than other potential metrics such as completeness, validity, or honesty. We define a successful data analysis as the matching of principles between the analyst and the audience on which the analysis is developed. In this paper, we propose a statistical model and general framework for evaluating the success of a data analysis. We argue that this framework can be used as a guide for practicing data scientists and students in data science courses for how to build a successful data analysis.
Osteointegration in Compliant Self-Adjusting Compression Fixation Shown by Backscatter Electron Microscopy: A Case Report.

Compliant self-adjusting compression implants are a novel approach to increase the durability of megaprosthesis fixation. However, there is no report of current implant designs that documents the bone-prosthetic interface of this implant. A well-fixed compliant, self-adjusting distal femoral replacement was retrieved from a patient undergoing revision unrelated to fixation. The prosthesis-bone interface was preserved, embedded in poly(methyl methacrylate), and sectioned into 2–4-mm slices. Slices were then imaged using backscatter electron microscopy, and ongrowth and ingrowth were quantified using imaging software. The average percentage of bony ongrowth from five successive sections was 52.5%, and the average percentage of ingrowth into the porous titanium surface was 13.5%. We found that bone ongrowth on the cortex between anchor plug and spindle averages more than 50% and up to 70% depending upon the slice examined with backscatter electron microscopy. Bone ingrowth was consistently around 13% on every slice examined. This is a new finding compared with prior spindle designs, likely due to the addition of hydroxyapatite-coated porous metal titanium surface on the spindle. This report is an important step in understanding the mechanism of bony fixation generated by this implant and supports its increased use in oncological and complex reconstructive situations.
Association of Testosterone Therapy With Risk of Venous Thromboembolism Among Men With and Without Hypogonadism

Importance Testosterone therapy is increasingly prescribed in patients without a diagnosis of hypogonadism. This therapy may be associated with increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) through several mechanisms, including elevated hematocrit levels, which increase blood viscosity. Objective To assess whether short-term testosterone therapy exposure is associated with increased short-term risk of VTE in men with and without evidence of hypogonadism. Design, Setting, and Participants This case-crossover study analyzed data on 39 622 men from the IBM MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounter Database and the Medicare Supplemental Database from January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2017, with 12 months of follow-up. Men with VTE cases who were free of cancer at baseline and had 12 months of continuous enrollment before the VTE event were identified byInternational Classification of Diseasescodes. Men in the case period were matched with themselves in the control period. Case periods of 6 months, 3 months, and 1 month before the VTE events were defined, with equivalent control periods (6 months, 3 months, and 1 month) in the 6 months before the case period. Exposures National drug codes were used to identify billed testosterone therapy prescriptions in the case period (0-6 months before the VTE) and the control period (6-12 months before the VTE). Main Outcomes and Measures The main outcome in this case-only experiment was first VTE event stratified by the presence or absence of hypogonadism. Results A total of 39 622 men (mean [SD] age, 57.4 [14.2] years) were enrolled in the study, and 3110 men (7.8%) had evidence of hypogonadism. In age-adjusted models, testosterone therapy use in all case periods was associated with a higher risk of VTE in men with (odds ratio [OR], 2.32; 95% CI, 1.97-2.74) and without (OR, 2.02; 95% CI, 1.47-2.77) hypogonadism. Among men without hypogonadism, the point estimate for testosterone therapy and VTE risk in the 3-month case period was higher for men younger than 65 years (OR, 2.99; 95% CI, 1.91-4.68) than for older men (OR, 1.68; 95% CI, 0.90-3.14), although this interaction was not statistically significant (P = .14). Conclusions and Relevance Testosterone therapy was associated with an increase in short-term risk for VTE among men with and without hypogonadism, with some evidence that the association was more pronounced among younger men. These findings suggest that caution should be used when prescribing testosterone therapy.
Experimental validation and microstructure characterization of topology optimized, additively manufactured SS316L components

Abstract The integration of topology optimization (TO) and additive manufacturing (AM) has the potential to revolutionize modern design and manufacturing. However, few instances of manufactured optimized designs are documented, and even fewer examples of experimentally-tested designs are available. The lack of validation combined with the influence of AM process on material properties leaves a gap in our understanding of process-microstructure-property relationships that is essential for developing holistic design optimization frameworks. In this work, a functional design was topologically optimized and fabricated using both directed energy deposition (DED) and selective laser melting (SLM) methods. This is the first direct comparison of these AM methods in the context of TO. Mechanical properties of SS316L and the optimized components in as-fabricated and heat-treated conditions were investigated under uniaxial displacement-controlled tensile loading and compared to finite element modeling (FEM) predictions. Optimized samples provided regions of both compressive and tensile loading in the test specimen. Experimental results showed the FEM predictions to be conservative. Microstructural analysis revealed that this difference is due to refined microstructures formed during the additive manufacturing process that strengthen the material in regions with high stress levels. Moreover, SLM samples showed higher yield strength compared to DED samples due to a more refined grain size and denser dislocation structures. TO results are sensitive to the AM method, post-processing conditions, and differences in mechanical properties. Thus, a TO for AM framework can be best optimized with the incorporation of microstructure features to account for localized microstructural variations in fabricated components.
Visual exploration of latent space for traditional Chinese music

Abstract Generating compact and effective numerical representations of data is a fundamental step for many machine learning tasks. Traditionally, handcrafted features are used but as deep learning starts to show its potential, using deep learning models to extract compact representations becomes a new trend. Among them, adopting vectors from the model’s latent space is the most popular. There are several studies focused on visual analysis of latent space in NLP and computer vision. However, relatively little work has been done for music information retrieval (MIR) especially incorporating visualization. To bridge this gap, we propose a visual analysis system utilizing Autoencoders to facilitate analysis and exploration of traditional Chinese music. Due to the lack of proper traditional Chinese music data, we construct a labeled dataset from a collection of pre-recorded audios and then convert them into spectrograms. Our system takes music features learned from two deep learning models (a fully-connected Autoencoder and a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) Autoencoder) as input. Through interactive selection, similarity calculation, clustering and listening, we show that the latent representations of the encoded data allow our system to identify essential music elements, which lay the foundation for further analysis and retrieval of Chinese music in the future.
Continuous treatment with cisplatin induces the oocyte death of primordial follicles without activation.

Chemotherapy directly or indirectly affects organs in a short-term or continuous manner. Endocrine organs are especially sensitive to cancer treatment, leading to concerns among patients regarding their quality of life afterward. Side effects to the ovary include damage to the ovarian reserve, resulting in follicle loss, endocrine hormone deficiency, and infertility. It has been previously demonstrated that continuous treatment with 2 mg/kg cisplatin for 15 days can activate primordial follicles, suggesting that the response in the oocytes of primordial follicles was dependent on cisplatin concentration and administration frequency. However, our results demonstrate that continuous treatment with 2 mg/kg cisplatin for 15 days leads to the same consequence as with the continuous treatment of 5 mg/kg cisplatin: the death of oocytes in primordial follicles without indication of activation. Moreover, animals co-injected with melatonin and cisplatin did not display any significant differences from those treated with cisplatin only contrary to the known results. 6-hydroxymelatonin, a metabolite of melatonin, could not prevent follicle destruction, implying that melatonin does not confer the protection of ovarian follicles, either directly or indirectly. Altogether, our data support that fertoprotectants against cisplatin must target molecules that control cell death pathways in the oocytes of primordial follicles.
Capillary ultrahigh-pressure liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for fast and high resolution metabolomics separations

LC-MS is an important tool for metabolomics due its high sensitivity and broad metabolite coverage. The goal of improving resolution and decreasing analysis time in HPLC has led to the use of 5 - 15 cm long columns packed with 1.7 - 1.9 µm particles requiring pressures of 8 - 12 kpsi. We report on the potential for capillary LC-MS based metabolomics utilizing porous C18 particles down to 1.1 µm diameter and columns up to 50 cm long with an operating pressure of 35 kpsi. Our experiments show that it is possible to pack columns with 1.1 µm porous particles to provide predicted improvements in separation time and efficiency. Using kinetic plots to guide the choice of column length and particle size, we packed 50 cm long columns with 1.7 µm particles and 20 cm long columns with 1.1 µm particles, which should produce equivalent performance in shorter times. Columns were tested by performing isocratic and gradient LC-MS analyses of small molecule metabolites and extracts from plasma. These columns provided approximately 100,000 theoretical plates for metabolite standards and peak capacities over 500 in 100 min for a complex plasma extract with robust interfacing to MS. To generate a given peak capacity, the 1.1 µm particles in 20 cm columns required roughly 75% of the time as 1.7 µm particles in 50 cm columns with both operated at 35 kpsi. The 1.1 µm particle packed columns generated a given peak capacity nearly 3 times faster than 1.7 µm particles in 15 cm columns operated at ~10 kpsi. This latter condition represents commercial state of the art for capillary LC. To consider practical benefits for metabolomics, the effect of different LC-MS variables on mass spectral feature detection was evaluated. Lower flow rates (down to 700 nL/min) and larger injection volumes (up to 1 µL) increased the features detected with modest loss in separation performance. The results demonstrate the potential for fast and high resolution separations for metabolomics using 1.1 µm particles operated at 35 kpsi for capillary LC-MS.
Predicting Volume Responsiveness Among Sepsis Patients Using Clinical Data and Continuous Physiological Waveforms

The efficacy of early fluid treatment in patients with sepsis is unclear and may contribute to serious adverse events due to fluid non-responsiveness. The current method of deciding if patients are responsive to fluid administration is often subjective and requires manual intervention. This study utilizes MIMIC III and associated matched waveform datasets across the entire ICU stay duration of each patient to develop prediction models for assessing fluid responsiveness in sepsis patients. We developed a pipeline to extract high frequency continuous waveform data and included waveform features in the prediction models. Comparing across five machine learning models, random forest performed the best when no waveform information is added (AUC = 0.84), with mean arterial blood pressure and age identified as key factors. After incorporation of features from physiologic waveforms, logistic regression with L1 penalty provided consistent performance and high interpretability, achieving an accuracy of 0.89 and F1 score of 0.90.
The Roles of DNA Demethylases in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) are very heterogenous, molecularly diverse, and are characterized by a high propensity to relapse or metastasize. Clinically, TNBC remains a diagnosis of exclusion by the lack of hormone receptors (Estrogen Receptor (ER) and Progesterone Receptor (PR)) as well as the absence of overexpression and/or amplification of HER2. DNA methylation plays an important role in breast cancer carcinogenesis and TNBCs have a distinct DNA methylation profile characterized by marked hypomethylation and lower gains of methylations compared to all other subtypes. DNA methylation is regulated by the balance of DNA methylases (DNMTs) and DNA demethylases (TETs). Here, we review the roles of TETs as context-dependent tumor-suppressor genes and/or oncogenes in solid tumors, and we discuss the current understandings of the oncogenic role of TET1 and its therapeutic implications in TNBCs.
Leptomeningeal disease in a case of recurrent uveal melanoma (P6.107)

Objective: To describe a case of leptomeningeal metastasis in recurrent uveal melanoma (UM). Background: There have been no reported cases of leptomeningeal disease (LMD) from UM. We report the case of a patient with UM with multiple local recurrences and eventual leptomeningeal spread. Design/Methods: Single case report Results: A 33-year-old Caucasian man was diagnosed with a uveal melanoma in the left eye in 2002 and treated with definitive brachytherapy. A prognostic gene expression profile revealed his tumor molecular signature as Class 1B which carries a 3-year distant metastatic risk of 7% and a 5-year distant metastatic risk of 21%. In 2006, he had a local subretinal recurrence and underwent enucleation with placement of an ocular prosthesis. In 2013, MRI orbit revealed another recurrence, which was confirmed on fine needle aspiration. He underwent orbital exenteration with free flap reconstruction. Later that year, repeat imaging revealed third recurrence in the left orbital apex with extension into the left posterior ethmoid air cells and intracranially into the cavernous sinus, for which he underwent radiation therapy. One month after completion of radiation, MRI brain revealed left-sided leptomeningeal enhancement. Conclusions: UM is most commonly seen in 50–80 year-old patients with a median age of 58 years; our patient developed it at a young age of 33. Our patient had unusually higher local recurrences, contrary to known rates of 2 to 8.4% at 5 years. It is known that tumor diameter correlates with local recurrence. Despite having a relatively smaller initial diameter (10mm) compared to patients in literature, our patient had multiple recurrences. The most common metastatic site for UM is known to be the liver (93%), lungs (30%) and bone (23%). There have been no reported cases of LMD from UM, which is another unique aspect of our case. Disclosure: Dr. Reddy has nothing to disclose. Dr. McAleer has nothing to disclose. Dr. Patel has nothing to disclose.
Adversarial Training for Face Recognition Systems using Contrastive Adversarial Learning and Triplet Loss Fine-tuning.

Though much work has been done in the domain of improving the adversarial robustness of facial recognition systems, a surprisingly small percentage of it has focused on self-supervised approaches. In this work, we present an approach that combines Ad-versarial Pre-Training with Triplet Loss AdversarialFine-Tuning. We compare our methods with the pre-trained ResNet50 model that forms the backbone of FaceNet, finetuned on our CelebA dataset. Through comparing adversarial robustness achieved without adversarial training, with triplet loss adversarial training, and our contrastive pre-training combined with triplet loss adversarial fine-tuning, we find that our method achieves comparable results with far fewer epochs re-quired during fine-tuning. This seems promising, increasing the training time for fine-tuning should yield even better results. In addition to this, a modified semi-supervised experiment was conducted, which demonstrated the improvement of contrastive adversarial training with the introduction of small amounts of labels.
Guillain-Barré syndrome in a child with pain: lessons learned from a late diagnosis

UNLABELLED Children with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) often do not present like adults with an ascending paralysis and sensory abnormalities, but typically have pain and gait difficulties as predominant symptoms. We present a case of paediatric GBS that was not diagnosed until late in the course because of limited neurological examination, erroneous interpretation of newly acquired data and insufficient familiarity with the disorder in children. Through this case, essentials of paediatric GBS are reviewed. CONCLUSION Pain and gait difficulties can be the main features of paediatric GBS at presentation. In addition, a comprehensive neurological exam in any case of weakness or diffuse pain combined with ongoing critical interpretation of a disease course allows for adjustment of a preliminary diagnosis towards a potentially life-threatening disease.
Tense and Time

The semantics of tense has received a great deal of attention in the contemporary linguistics, philosophy and logic literatures. This is probably due partly to a renewed appreciation for the fact that issues involving tense touch on certain issues of philosophical importance (viz., determinism, causality, and the nature of events, of time and of change). It may also be due partly to neglect. Tense was noticeably omitted from the theories of meaning advanced in previous generations. In the writings of both Russell and Frege there is the suggestion that tense would be absent altogether from an ideal or scientifically adequate language. (Tense was not the only blemish of natural language to be removed, of course, but tense is a more serious omission than, say, pronouns because it is present in every sentence of the language.) Finally, in recent years there has been a greater recognition of the important role that all of the so-called “indexical” expressions must play in an explanation of mental states and human behavior. Tense is no exception. Knowing that our friend died is cause for mourning, knowing that he dies is just another confirmation of a familiar syllogism.
The isentropic Euler system admits some plane wave superpositions

A class of differentiable solutions is proved for the isentropic Euler equations in two and three space dimensions. The solutions are explicitly given in terms of solutions to inviscid Burgers equations, and several directions of propagation. The relative orientation of the directions is critical. Within the directional constraints, the Burgers solutions are arbitrary. The several velocities add, and the pressures combine nonlinearly. These solutions cannot exist beyond the time when shocks develop in any of the Burgers solutions.
Detection of a gaseous organophosphorus compound using a supported copper + cuprous oxide island film

The modification of electronic properties of a dielectric-supported island film of copper plus cuprous oxide that is exposed to small concentrations (ppm levels) of diisopropyl methylphosphonate (DIMP) is reported. Electron microscopy and electron diffraction measurements confirmed the film's structure and composition. Auger spectroscopy verified the absorption of DIMP. Isothermal direct current measurements suggest a space-charge conduction mechanism whereby carriers are thermally excited, field induced, and transported via shallow trapping and impurity centers. >
Progressive enlargement of an hepatic cell adenoma.

Abstract Over a 5-mo period, an hepatic cell adenoma was noted to increase considerably in size, despite discontinuation of oral contraceptives. Progressive tumor enlargement was documented by hepatic angiography, computed tomographic scan (CT scan) of the liver and 99m Tc liver scan. The repeat hepatic angiogram also revealed that the tumor had become more vascular. Multiple adenomas were in fact seen by all three techniques mentioned above. At surgery, seven hepatic cell adenomas were demonstrated, of which four were resected.
Precision Ground-Based Photometry from Full-Disk Images

It is widely known that the serious study of solar irradiance variations using ground based photometry began with the work of Abbott. His observations, which did not image the sun, were an attempt to determine the absolute value of the total solar irradiance and its variations. Because of the difficulty in correcting for the effects of the terrestrial atmosphere, his measurements do not show clear variations in the ”solar constant.” Ground-based observations that seek to show the small variations in the solar irradiance must be on a relative scale and use the sun itself as a photometric reference. It is commonly assumed that the photospheric intensity of the quiet sun does not change. It will become important at some point to test this assumption.
Combination of ATG and rapamycin prolongs the persistence of ex vivo expanded allogeneic Treg transferred in cynomolgus monkeys (TRAN3P.904)

It has been shown that ex vivo-expanded regulatory T cells (Treg) can promote transplant tolerance in small animal models as well as in phase I clinical trials of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The issue has been raised of establishing Treg banks for cell therapy of organ transplant rejection and autoimmune disease. However, little is known about the persistence, stability and fate of infused Treg, especially third-party allogeneic Treg. In this study, we massively expanded flow-sorted monkey Tregs using artificial APCs. The expanded Tregs maintained expression of Treg signature markers, in vitro suppressive capacity, and demethylation status at the Treg-Specific Demethylation Region. When autologous (auto) and allogeneic (allo) ex vivo expanded Tregs were simultaneously transferred into monkeys, the number of auto-Treg was up to 100 per ml blood for at least 6 days in both control and ATG/rapamycin-treated (IS) monkeys. In contrast, by day 3 after their infusion, allo-Treg could not be detected in control monkeys, while they were maintained up to 100 cells per ml blood for at least 15 days in IS monkeys with the expression of Foxp3 and CD25. The finding that allo-Treg can survive in IS-treated monkeys and maintain Treg phenotype supports the concept and potential utility of Treg banks for clinical application in transplantation and autoimmune disease.
Analgesic Use for Knee and Hip Osteoarthritis in Community-Dwelling Elders

Objective To examine the prevalence and correlates of non-opioid and opioid analgesic use and descriptively evaluate potential undertreatment in a sample of community-dwelling elders with symptomatic knee and/or hip osteoarthritis (OA).
Is crack cheaper than (powder) cocaine

Buts: comparer les prix de la poudre de cocaine et du crack cocaine aux Etats-Unis. Projet: les prix au detail pour le crack et la cocaine sont compares dans 14 villes des Etats-Unis entre 1986 et 1991 en utilisant l'analyse de regression et les t-tests. Mesures: les prix sont estimes a partir de la base de donnees americaine STRIDE (systeme pour recuperer des informations concernant la drogue) reliee aux services administratifs charges de l'application des lois sur la drogue. Resultats: en moyenne, le crack n'est ni plus ni moins cher par unite pure que la poudre de cocaine. Les prix ne sont pas les memes dans chaque ville et pour toutes les annees, mais le crack est egalement susceptible d'etre plus ou moins cher, et les differences ne sont pas importantes par rapport a la variation des prix des deux formes de cocaine entre les villes et au fil des annees. Conclusions: le crack a ete largement repute pour etre moins cher que la poudre de cocaine, et cefait a ete utilise pour aider a expliquer pourquoi les problemes de drogue aux Etats-Unis s'etaient aggraves dans les annees 80. Cependant, le crack n'est pas, en fait, moins cher par unite pure que la poudre de cocaine. D'autres explications doivent donc etre recherchees pour comprendre pourquoi le crack s'est si largement repandu par rapport a la cocaine.
A survey of negative ions from a cesium sputter source

Abstract Some 46 elements have been investigated in a cesium beam sputter ion source with a view to ascertaining which negative ion species are most suitable for use with a tandem accelerator — elemental, hydride, nitride or oxide. Nitride and oxide ions were formed by sputtering the element while spraying nitrogen or oxygen gas respectively onto the sputter surface. Hydrides were formed while spraying hydrogen or ammonia — the latter being particularly effective — or by sputtering a metal containing absorbed hydrogen. The results indicate a fairly strong periodicity and it is probable that the behavior of elements not studied can be predicted. Some conclusions are drawn concerning the most effective sputter cone shape.
Computer Applications to Lunar and Artificial Satellite Laser Ranging

The University of Texas McDonald Observatory has long been a pioneer in acquiring laser ranging data, a data type which has substantially improved our knowledge of the dynamics of the earth-moon system as well as various aspects of geophysics and general relativity. (See Mulholland, 1980; Shelus, 1985; Shelus, 1987.) The McDonald Laser Ranging System (MLRS) is one of only 2 laser ranging stations world-wide having the capability of routine data acquisition on both lunar and artificial satellite targets (Shelus, IEEE, 1985). In this paper we discuss the current applications of modern computer technology to the problems of acquiring and reducing that ranging data. As technology continues to improve, the logical upgrade is the replacement of obsolescent station minicomputers with the resource-rich environment of micro-computers. The goal is to allow the automation of many station ranging functions as well as the enhancement of on-site data quality control, filtering, and analysis. Plans for such upgrades and their implications for dynamical astronomy are discussed.