cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Roux-en-Y gastric bypass 10-year follow-up: the found population

Abstract Background The long-term durability of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) remains ill-defined in the American population secondary to poor follow-up after bariatric surgery. Objectives This study evaluated the population lost to follow-up to better define the long-term durability of RYGB for weight loss and co-morbidity amelioration. Methods All patients (n = 1087) undergoing RYGB at a single institution between 1985 and 2004 were evaluated. Univariate differences in preoperative co-morbidities, postoperative complications, annual weight loss, and 10-year co-morbidities were analyzed to compare outcomes between patients with routine follow-up and those without. Using electronic medical record review for all encounters at our academic medical center and telephone survey, we obtained data for patients lost to follow-up. Results Among 1087 RYGB patients, 151 (14%) had consistent 10-year follow-up in our prospectively collected database, with yearly clinic visits beyond 2 years postoperatively. Electronic medical record review and telephone survey data were collected on an additional 500 (46%) patients, resulting in 60% of patients having 10-year follow-up after RYGB. There was no statistical difference in any preoperative or postoperative variables between the 2 groups. We found no difference in co-morbidity prevalence preoperatively or at 10 years between groups. Examination of percent excess body mass index lost at yearly intervals revealed no difference between the groups at each interval up to 10 years ( P = .36). Conclusion We found no difference in 10-year outcomes, including weight loss and co-morbidity reduction, between patients with routine clinic visits and those lost to follow-up. These 10-year data address the gap in knowledge resulting from poor long-term follow-up after bariatric surgery.
Directions and Trends in FORTRAN (Abstract)

Work is currently underway by the X3J3 Committee of the American National Standards Institute to draft new proposals for the future ANSI FORTRAN Standard. These proposals include a model architecture for the language containing: a core language module, a language extension module and an obsolete features module as well as application area support modules. In addition new extensions are being provided in the language for data structures, array processing, name management and internal procedures among other extensions. This paper reports on the current status of these draft proposals and the expected trends and directions these proposals are taking.
Notes from the Library in Volume 15:2

"The Edinburgh Dispensatories" by David L. Cowen "The N.J. Phamaceautical Association Proceedings" by David L. Cowen
An Examination of the Practical and Ethical Issues Surrounding False Memoirs in Cataloging Practice

False memoirs are, in essence, autobiographical works that are presented initially as nonfiction, but are proven to be entirely or partially fabricated. These works are described as nonfiction when they are cataloged initially, but when the controversy surrounding them comes to light, there is uncertainty about what, if anything, to do about the contents of the bibliographic record if the work is retained in the collection. This study examines the practical concerns of cataloging false memoirs, such as changing the class number, modifying subject headings, and adding notes, as well as the ethical implications of these actions.
Determining the frequency of asbestos use in automotive brakes from a fleet of on-road California vehicles.

Asbestos is a known human carcinogen, and recent regulation in California limits asbestiform fibers in brakes to trace levels beginning in 2014, although there is no corresponding federal requirement. In order to gauge the current prevalence of asbestos use in automotive brake applications, the California Air Resources Board tested brake linings from 137 light- and medium-duty vehicles and 54 heavy-duty vehicles. Only about 3% of the light- and medium-duty vehicle brake linings contained chrysotile asbestos. All of those brake linings were drum-type shoes, which are generally being phased out. No asbestos was found in low mileage vehicles presumed to have their original stock linings from the vehicle manufacturer. Additionally, no asbestos was found in the heavy-duty vehicle brake shoe linings sampled. Given the small percentage of vehicle brake linings with asbestos observed, it appears that the prior federal ban that was subsequently overturned, in combination with a threat of litigation, has reduced as...
Temperature Dependent Thermopower and Resistance Measurements of CNT-MgB2 Composites

The temperature dependent resistance R(T) and thermopower S(T) of sintered single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) and magnesium diboride (MgB2) composites containing 5wt%, 10wt%, and 15wt% of SWCNTs have been measured and compared to their pure counterparts. The thermopower of both MgB2 (in the normal state) and SWCNT remain positive over the entire temperature range (10K to 300K) with room temperature values being ∼ 8μV/K and 57μV/K, respectively. The thermopower of the sintered composites decreased with decreasing temperature and switched from positive to negative near 70K. The superconducting critical temperature (Tc) of the samples ranges from 38K-41K. The room-temperature resistance ratio (RRR) is seen to depend on the sample composition. The temperature width (ΔT) is observed to increase with increasing SWCNT concentration. The normal state resistance data were fitted with the generalized Block-Gruneisen function obtaining Debye temperature of ∼ 900K.
Cr- and Ce-Doped Ferrite Catalysts for the High Temperature Water−Gas Shift Reaction: TPR and Mossbauer Spectroscopic Study†

Cr and Ce-doped Fe2O3 catalysts are investigated for high temperature water gas shift (WGS) reaction. The chosen doping atomic ratios of Fe/metal for this investigation ranged from 10:0.2 to 10:2.5...
Characterizing the Effect of Salt and Surfactant Concentration on the Counterion Atmosphere around Surfactant Stabilized SWCNTs Using Analytical Ultracentrifugation

Accurate characterization of dispersed-phase nanoparticle properties such as density, size, solvation, and charge is necessary for their utilization in applications such as medicine, energy, and materials. Herein, analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) is used to quantify bile salt surfactant adsorption on length sorted (7,6) single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as a function of bulk surfactant concentration and in the presence of varying quantities of a monovalent salt—sodium chloride. These measurements provide high precision adsorbed surfactant density values in the literature for only the second SWCNT structure to date and report the quantity of adsorbed surfactant across a broad range of bulk surfactant concentrations utilized in SWCNT dispersion processing. Second, the measurements presented herein unambiguously demonstrate, via AUC, a direct relation between the size of the counterion cloud around a surfactant-stabilized SWCNT and solution ionic strength. The results show that changes in the size of...
Methods to estimate plant available water for simulation models

Abstract Agricultural simulation models are increasingly being used in decision support tools at regional and national scales for crop production and water management. These models require hydrologic inputs; in particular plant available water (PAW) is a critical parameter that helps determine if precipitation infiltrates and is stored as soil water, is lost directly to the atmosphere through soil evaporation, or is transported as groundwater flow. Accurate or realistic estimations of PAW for many geographic regions and soil types must be readily available as model input for simulating crop growth and many downstream processes, such as water quality, soil erosion, sediment loss, nutrient/pesticide fate and transport, and greenhouse gas emissions. In this study, we present a new algorithm for PAW estimation, termed the BNW algorithm, which was developed primarily based on principles of soil properties. The new BNW algorithm outperformed several commonly used algorithms for overall soil pedon fit and by USDA texture class. The BNW algorithm has the best fit and accuracy on sandy clay and sandy clay loam soils. Incorporation of the BNW algorithm into process based simulation models will improve the accuracy of crop production estimates and environmental impacts estimates at regional and national scales.
Effect of medical wet tissue on disinfection of object surface

OBJECTIVE To observe the effect of medical wet tissue on the diinfeciton of object surface.METHODS The suspension quantitative bactericidal test method was used for the identification of test disinfectant wipes for neutralizer,bactericidal disinfectant wipes for laboratory experiment was observed.Disinfection wet tissue of medical surface and chlorine-containing disinfectant were used respectively on the variety of materials and the tables of case Ⅲ,Ⅳ surfaces by using swab wipe sampling and bacteria count methods,the application effects of two disinfection methods in the hospital were detected.RESULTS The bacteria daub was taken on disinfection wet tissue directly,saturated for 2min,the logarithm value on average of killing Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were both 3.00;the disinfection wet tissue was applied on surface to wipe and disinfection for 2min,the logarithm value for killing natural bacteria on the surface was 1.23;chlorine-containing disinfectant was applied on surface to wipe and disinfection for 10min,the logarithm value for killing natural bacteria on the surface was 1.18,the total bacteria colony on the objects surface after disinfection by the two sterilization methods were both less than 10 CFU/cm2.CONCLUSION The medical wet tissue is superior to chlorine-containing disinfectant in the disinfection of the object surface and is with simple operation,which is worthy of being promoted.
Simulation Research of Synchronization Techniques of DS/FH Hybrid System Based on Simulink

A MATLAB/Simulink synchronization system of DS/FH Hybrid System simulation was designed and implemented by using Waited Searching Self-synchronization method.With analysis of theory of Waited Searching Self-synchronization method,the model of synchronization system was built,and its working process was analyzed.The simulation results show that using Simulink to simulate synchronization system of DS/FH Hybrid System can make the synchronization process clearer,easier and be useful to hardware development.
Modulation of erythropoiesis by novel human bone marrow cytochrome P450- dependent metabolites of arachidonic acid

In the hematopoietic system the adherent stromal cells produce cytokines necessary for proliferation and differentiation of hematopoietic cells. In the present study, we showed the ability of adherent stromal cells to generate novel metabolites of arachidonic acid via the NADPH-cytochrome P450-dependent monooxygenase system. These metabolites were recovered in the incubation media, suggesting their release from cells. The formation of arachidonic acid metabolites was inhibited by 7-ethoxyresorufin and SKF-525A, but not by indomethacin or BW-755C. By using two-step high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), bone marrow-adherent stromal cells and incubation media showed the presence of metabolites in a peak eluted at 19 to 20 minutes. The isolated HPLC peak was used to measure its effect on colony-forming unit-erythroid (CFU-E) growth and compare it with that of synthetic cytochrome P450 arachidonate metabolites, 19- and 20- hydroxyeicosatetraenoic (HETE) acid. These bone marrow cytochrome P450 arachidonic acid metabolites at picomolar concentration potentiated erythropoietin (Epo)-induced CFU-E growth by fourfold to sixfold. Addition of 19- and 20-HETE to the bone marrow culture resulted in a potentiating effect on CFU-E number in a dose-dependent manner. 20-HETE was much more potent in stimulating CFU-E growth than 19-HETE at a similar concentration of 10(-11) mol/L. The potentiating effect of 20- HETE resulted in a shifting to the left of the dose-response curve to Epo. To substantiate the finding of an active NADPH-dependent cytochrome P450-metabolizing system, we further examined the ability of adherent cells to metabolize exogenous pharmacologic compounds such as benzo(a)pyrene, a substrate for the heme-cytochrome P450 system, aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase. The adherent stromal cytochrome P450 metabolizes benzo(a)pyrene at comparable levels to blood vessel endothelial cells. These novel observations underscore the importance of adherent stromal cytochrome P450 to metabolize endogenous substrates, including arachidonic acid, to compounds that may interact in a paracrine manner with Epodependent hematopoietic cells.
Economic uncertainty, monetary uncertainty and the Korean demand for money

Economic uncertainty and monetary uncertainty are said to affect public’s holding of money in either direction. In this paper, we consider the Korean demand for money, and after including two GARCH-based measures of output uncertainty and monetary uncertainty, we show that both measures exert significant effects on the demand for money in Korea in the short run. However, only the adverse effects of output uncertainty lasts into the long run. Indeed, including the two uncertainty measures yield a stable demand for money in Korea.
The physical acoustics of energy harvesting

Energy harvesting systems based on the transformation of acoustic vibrations into electrical energy are increasingly being used for niche applications due to the reduction in power consumption of modern day electronic systems. Typically these applications involve extracting energy at remote or isolated locations where local long term power is unavailable or inside sealed or rotating systems where cabling and electrical commutation are problematic. The available acoustic power spectra can be in the form of longitudinal, transverse, bending, hydrostatic or shear waves of frequencies ranging from less than a Hz to 10's of kHz. The input stress/vibration power can be generated by machines, humans or nature. We will present a variety of acoustic energy harvesting modes/devices and look at the commonalities of these devices. The common elements of these systems are: an input mechanical power spectrum, an effective acoustic impedance matching, a conversion of the input mechanical energy into electrical energy using piezoelectric or biased electrostrictive transducers and a matched electrical load. This paper will focus of the physical acoustics of these energy harvesting systems and identify the elements of these devices and look at the current limits of the harvested electrical power from these devices. Recent results on an acoustic electric feed-through device demonstrated acoustic power conversions of the order of 70 W/cm2 and 25 W/cm3 using a pre-stressed stacked PZT ceramics operating at 16 kHz with an efficiency of 84%. These results suggest the piezoelectric is not the limiting element of these devices and we will show that the main impediment to increased power is the vibration source amplitude, frequency, inertia and the size limitations of the energy harvesting systems or in the case of human powered systems the requirement that the device remains unobtrusive. Although the power densities of these devices may be limited there are plenty of applications that are feasible within the available power densities due to the wonders of CMOS.
How are nitrosothiols formed de novo in vivo

The biological mechanisms of de novo formation of cellular nitrosothiols (as opposed to transnitrosation) are reviewed. The approach is to introduce chemical foundations for each mechanism, followed by evidence in biological systems. The general categories include mechanisms involving nitrous acid, NO autoxidation and oxidant stress, redox active and inactive metal ions, and sulfide/persulfide. Important conclusions/speculations are that de novo cellular thiol nitrosation (1) is an oxidative process, and so should be considered within the family of other thiol oxidative modifications, (2) may not involve a single dominant process but depends on the specific conditions, (3) does not involve O2 under at least some conditions, and (4) may serve to provide a “substrate pool” of protein cysteine nitrosothiol which could, through subsequent enzymatic transnitrosation/denitrosation, be “rearranged” to accomplish the specificity and regulatory control required for effective post-translational signaling.
Nanotechnology based Diagnostics for Neurological Disorders

Nanotechnology involves probing and manipulating matter at the molecular level. Nanotechnology based molecular diagnostics have the potential to alleviate the suffering caused by many diseases, including neurological disorders, due to the unique properties of nanomaterials. Most neurological illnesses are multifactorial conditions and many of these are also classified as neurobehavioral disorders. Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington disease, cerebral ischemia, epilepsy, schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders like Rett syndrome are some examples of neurological disorders that could be better treated, diagnosed, prevented and possibly cured using nanotechnology. In order to improve the quality of life for disease afflicted people, a wide range of nanomaterials that include gold and silica nanoparticles, quantum dots and DNA along with countless other forms of nanotechnology have been investigated regarding their usefulness in advancing molecular diagnostics. Other small scaled materials like viruses and proteins also have potential for use as molecular diagnostic tools. Information obtained from nanotechnology based diagnostics can be stored and manipulated using bioinformatics software. More advanced nanotechnology based diagnostic procedures for the acquisition of even greater proteomic and genomic knowledge can then be developed along with better ways to fight various diseases. Nanotechnology also has numerous applications besides those related to biotechnology and medicine. In this article, we will discuss and analyze many novel nanotechnology based diagnostic techniques at our disposal today
Differences in Effectiveness and Use of Robotic Surgery in Patients Undergoing Minimally Invasive Colectomy

We compared patient outcomes of robot-assisted surgery (RAS) and laparoscopic colectomy without robotic assistance for colon cancer or nonmalignant polyps, comparing all patients, obese versus nonobese patients, and male versus female patients. We used the 2013–2015 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program data to examine a composite outcome score comprised of mortality, readmission, reoperation, wound infection, bleeding transfusion, and prolonged postoperative ileus. We used propensity scores to assess potential heterogeneous treatment effects of RAS by patient obesity and sex. In all, 17.1% of the 10,844 of patients received RAS. Males were slightly more likely to receive RAS. Obese patients were equally likely to receive RAS as nonobese patients. In comparison to nonRAS, RAS was associated with a 3.1% higher adverse composite outcome score. Mortality, reoperations, wound infections, sepsis, pulmonary embolisms, deep vein thrombosis, myocardial infarction, blood transfusions, and average length of hospitalization were similar in both groups. Conversion to open surgery was 10.1% lower in RAS versus nonRAS patients, but RAS patients were in the operating room an average of 52.4 min longer. We found no statistically significant differences (p > 0.05) by obesity status and gender. Worse patient outcomes and no differential improvement by sex or obesity suggest more cautious adoption of RAS.
Outcome of incisional hernia repair in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Abstract Background Incisional Hernia (IH) repair in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) has not been well studied. Methods Outcomes of 170 patients with IBD who underwent IH repair were included in the study. Results The incidence of recurrence after IH repair in IBD is 27%. Patients with Crohn's disease (CD) had larger defects at the time of repair, higher proportion of bowel resection and a longer postoperative stay when compared to Ulcerative colitis (UC). The only significant predictor of recurrence after IH repair was the number of previous bowel resections prior to hernia repair (HR 1.59, p Conclusion Surgical repair results in a recurrence of IH in 27% of patients with IBD. The number of previous bowel resections is the only factor that correlates with development of recurrent IH in IBD.
Moraxella catarrhalis Bacteremia and Preseptal Cellulitis

ABSTRACT:Invasive disease due to Moraxella catarrhalis is rare and has been associated mostly with immune deficiency conditions. We describe the first case of M catarrhalis bacteremia and preseptal cellulitis in an immunocompetent infant. This organism may be evolving from one with low pathogenicity
Solving a large sudoku by co-evolving numerals

Recently we introduced an approach to solving Sudoku problems with co-evolution [4]: Resource-defined Fitness Sharing for Sudoku (RFSS). The idea is to find a set of non-conflicting numerals such that every cell in the puzzle is "covered" by a numeral. Each numeral is a species, and species that don't compete (i.e., don't conflict, according to the rules of Sudoku) are cooperating. Using a well-known co-evolution algorithm, fitness sharing, we were able to co-evolve numerals to solve a large number of example puzzles. The algorithm is deterministic; there is no discovery operator such as crossover or mutation. It consists solely of selection on shared fitnesses. It assumes no knowledge of the domain, no strategies or heuristics for Sudoku, but only the basic rules. The algorithm is general enough to work on any exact cover problem.
Exploring organizational culture and performance of christian churches

This study explores how dimensions of organizational culture are related to performance in a sample of Christian churches. Alternative models of the relationships of four dimensions of organizational culture with multiple measures of church performance were explored using data provided by staff and pastors describing 53 Christian churches. We identified a model that fit the data very well in which the relative strength of four organizational cultural dimensions are predictors of the levels of seven alternative measures of church performance covering membership growth, constituent satisfaction, staff and constituent learning and development, and internal business processes. Church leaders desiring to improve performance could consider focusing on strengthening the culture dimensions that may be related to each area of church operations.
Cost-Benefit and Cost-Effectiveness Analyses in Evaluation Research

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) are used increasingly in both clinical trials of health and human services, and in evaluations of programs to determine their future funding. Definitions of CBA and CEA are given and contrasted with each other and with requests for ‘cost analyses’ and ‘efficiency’ studies. The emerging importance of cost-utility analysis is noted as well. Emerging directions in cost-inclusive assessment are noted, including evaluating costs of using different services to add Quality-Adjusted Life Years and Disability-Adjusted Life Years – nonmonetary measures that can be almost as useful for comparing outcomes of diverse programs as monetary measures, i.e., program benefits. Advantages of conceptualizing ‘costs’ more broadly as the value of the specific types and amounts of resources used to provide services are explained. Ethical problems in cost-inclusive evaluation are highlighted, and possible solutions suggested. Viewing CBA and CEA as crucial parts of improvement-oriented operations research is recommended. Links for manuals and Web sites for cost-inclusive evaluation in health and human services are provided.
Hematopoietic Growth Factors in Older Cancer Patients

Approximately 80% of all malignancies arise in individuals over age 60 [1]. While evidence suggests that chemosensitivity of certain neoplasms may diminish with increasing age [2, 3], similar benefits from systemic chemotherapy have been observed regardless of age, provided adequate treatment doses are employed [4–8]. Nevertheless, older age remains an independent risk factor for substantial reductions in chemotherapy relative dose intensity (RDI) [9], potentially resulting in compromised outcomes. Reduction in chemotherapy dosing for elderly patients is not entirely unfounded.
Influence of captan on in vitro and in vivo digestibility of forage.

Four trials were conducted to examine the effects of Captan (N-trichloromethylthiotetrahydrophthalimide) on digestibility of forage. In the first trial, alfalfa-brome hay was digested in vitro with Captan added to the hay at levels ranging from 0 to 150 ppm. Digestibilities of alfalfa-brome dry matter, cell walls, acid detergent fiber, cellulose and hemicellulose exhibited a curvilinear response to Captan level. Maximum responses occurred at 75 to 100 ppm of added Captan. In the second trial, addition of 75 ppm of Captan to alfalfa-brome hay resulted in a significant increase in in vitro dry matter digestibility when fresh rumen fluid was used as the inoculum, but had no effect when distilled water or autoclaved rumen fluid was used as the inoculum. The influence of Captan on rate of in vitro digestion was also examined. Addition of 75 ppm of Captan to alfalfa-brome hay resulted in an apparent increase (19.5%) in rate of cell wall digestion. Five Angus steers were used in an experiment with a 5 x 5 Latin-square design conducted to examine the effects of Captan on in vivo digestibility. Captan was added at 0, 75, 150, 300 and 600 ppm of air dry diet. Steers fed Captan gained faster (P less than .05) and had higher (P less than .05) gains per unit of feed. Digestibilities of dry matter, cell walls, acid detergent fiber, cellulose, hemicellulose and protein were higher (P less than .01) for steers fed Captan than for those fed the control diet. There were not significant responses in gain or digestibilities as Captan level increased from 75 to 600 ppm.
Active Two-Way Backscatter Modulation: An Analytical Study

Backscatter modulation (BM), usually used for radio frequency identifications, has the potential to be exploited in a wider range of applications such as the Internet of Things and wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we leverage the BM by increasing its down-link (from reader to tag) and up-link (from tag to reader) ranges. We propose two active two-way BM tag configurations, named parallel and series. For both configurations, we use active loads in the tag modulators to maximize the BM range and implement the desired backscattered constellation, subject to no data loss in the down-link path. Contrary to most existing BM studies, we use Thevenin/Norton equivalent circuit, only to calculate the received power at tag, while we derive the tag backscattered power using the antenna scatterer theorem. Moreover, we obtain a closed-form expression of the average bit error probability (BEP) at the reader in Rician fading channel environment for both tag configurations. We compare the proposed active BM tags with the conventional passive BM tags. The simulation results prove that for an average BEP equal to $10^{-{4}}$ , an SNR improvement of up to 19 and 24 dB can be achieved for parallel and series configurations, respectively.
The importance of scale in comparative microbiome research: New insights from the gut and glands of captive and wild lemurs

Research on animal microbiomes is increasingly aimed at determining the evolutionary and ecological factors that govern host-microbiome dynamics, which are invariably intertwined and potentially synergistic. We present three empirical studies related to this topic, each of which relies on the diversity of Malagasy lemurs (representing a total of 19 species) and the comparative approach applied across scales of analysis. In Study 1, we compare gut microbial membership across 14 species in the wild to test the relative importance of host phylogeny and feeding strategy in mediating microbiome structure. Whereas host phylogeny strongly predicted community composition, the same feeding strategies shared by distant relatives did not produce convergent microbial consortia, but rather shaped microbiomes in host lineage-specific ways, particularly in folivores. In Study 2, we compare 14 species of wild and captive folivores, frugivores, and omnivores, to highlight the importance of captive populations for advancing gut microbiome research. We show that the perturbational effect of captivity is mediated by host feeding strategy and can be mitigated, in part, by modified animal management. In Study 3, we examine various scent-gland microbiomes across three species in the wild or captivity and show them to vary by host species, sex, body site, and a proxy of social status. These rare data provide support for the bacterial fermentation hypothesis in olfactory signal production and implicate steroid hormones as mediators of microbial community structure. We conclude by discussing the role of scale in comparative microbial studies, the links between feeding strategy and host-microbiome coadaptation, the underappreciated benefits of captive populations for advancing conservation research, and the need to consider the entirety of an animal's microbiota. Ultimately, these studies will help move the field from exploratory to hypothesis-driven research.
A Variable Length Address Assignment Scheme for 6LoWPAN

Low-Power and Lossy Networks (LLNs) are an enabling technology for many Internet of Things (IoT) applications. To allow LLNs to interoperate with the Internet, an address autoconfiguration protocol must be used to assign network addresses. However, the potentially vast number of IoT devices puts a massive strain on IP addressing. In this paper, we present a variable-length address allocating scheme for 6LoWPAN. Our analysis and evaluation results show that the proposed variable-length addresses could guarantee the scalability property of hierarchical addressing, and alleviate the inefficiency of address space due to fixed-length addresses.
Screening for colorectal cancer using immunological fecal occult blood test in inpatients

We investigated the usefulness of screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) using immunological fecal occult blood test (FOBT) in 472 scheduled inpatients (median age, 68.6 years) who underwent screening for CRC via FOBT (single stool sample) at our hospital. The recall rate for further examination was 26.6% (126/472), and the rate of patients who underwent further examination was only 34.9% (44/126). The overall colorectal neoplasm detection rate, overall CRC detection rate, and positive predictive value for CRC in inpatients were 5.5% (26/472), 1.4% (7/472), and 5.5% (7/126), respectively, which were higher than those of population-based screening for CRC. Screening for CRC using FOBT in inpatients is a non-invasive and efficient method to detect latent CRC.
Physics and Physiology of Thermal Ablations

The role of ablation in tumor management is increasing. Ablation modalities (Fig. 1.1) differ with respect to mechanism of action, but all share the goal of permanent cell death within the target tissue. Radiofrequency ablation is based upon the application of alternating electric current which is delivered to the target tissue through ablation electrode(s) resulting in frictional tissue heating and ultimately coagulative necrosis. Microwave ablation is based upon the generation of an oscillating electromagnetic field resulting in continuous realignment of polar water molecules in the ablation zone which causes frictional tissue heating and ultimately coagulative necrosis. Cryoablation is based upon the infusion of a cryogen, a gas that cools as it expands, into a cryoprobe resulting in creation of ice via the Joule-Thomson effect, with resultant coagulative necrosis of the target tissue. Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a non-thermal ablation technique that permanently creates nanoscale defects in the cell membrane by exposing cells to short and intense electric fields, leading to cell death. The published experience with each ablation modality differs, as do cost, ease of use, and treatment outcomes (Table 1.1).
How Intramolecular Vibrational Energy Transport Changes with Rigidity and Polarity of the Environment

Vibrational energy transport through oligomeric polyethylene glycol (PEG) chains can occur ballistically via optical vibrational chain bands, showing fast and constant transport speed and high efficiency of the transport, thus offering means to transfer significant quanta of energy, exceeding 1000 cm–1, to large distances exceeding 60 A. We report how the intramolecular energy transport time, through-chain transport speed, and end-group cooling rate depend on the rigidity and polarity of the environment. The experiments were performed with end-group labeled PEG oligomers using two-dimensional infrared (2DIR) spectroscopy. The ballistic energy transport was initiated at one end of the chain by exciting an azido moiety at ca. 2100 cm–1 and recorded at another end of the chain by probing the carbonyl stretching mode of succinimide ester. We found that the rigidity of the environment, polystyrene (PS) matrix vs. a solution of similar polarity, did not change the energy transport times much, nor the through-chain transport speed. These results suggest that in mildly polar media, dynamic fluctuations, occurring in solution but largely frozen in a solid matrix, are not the dominant cause of the dephasing of the chain states, despite the presence of fast relaxation components in the solution. The similarity of the transport times in different media suggests that the secondary chain structure does not affect much the transport in PEG chains. The solvent polarity affected the intramolecular transport significantly: the transport efficiency in polar DMSO is ca. 1.6 fold smaller than that in nonpolar CCl4 or PS. The cooling time of the succinimide ester end group is reduced in more polar solvents affecting the waiting time dependence shape and thus the energy arrival time to the reporter. The analysis of different ways of extracting the energy arrival time from the data is presented. The observed dependences of the through-chain transport time on the solvent polarity suggests the presence of multiple wavepackets propagating in the PEG chain with different group velocities.
Imputation of Missing Traffic Flow Data Using Denoising Autoencoders

Author(s): Jiang, Boyuan | Advisor(s): Jayakrishnan, R.; Regan, Amelia | Abstract: In transportation engineering, Spatio-temporal data including traffic flow, speed, and occupancy are collected from different kinds of sensors and used by transportation engineers for analysis. However, the missing data influence the analysis and prediction results significantly. In this thesis, Denoising Autoencoders are used to impute the missing traffic flow data. First, we focused on the general situation and used three kinds of Denoising Autoencoders: “Vanilla”, CNN, and Bi-LSTM to implement the data with a general missing rate of 30%. Each model was optimized by focusing on the main hyper-parameters since the tuning can influence the accuracy of the final prediction result. Then, the Autoencoder models are used to train and test data with an exceptionally high missing rate of about 80%. We do this to test and then demonstrate that even under extreme loss conditions, Autoencoder models are very robust. By observing the hyper-parameter tuning process, the changing prediction accuracy is shown and in most cases, all three models maintain good accuracy even under the worst situations. Moreover, the error patterns and trends concerning different sensor stations and different hours on weekdays and weekends are also visualized and analyzed. Finally, based on these results, we separate the data into weekdays and weekends, train and test the models respectively, and improve the accuracy of the imputation result significantly.
The Charity Hall Mission: An 1820s Boarding School for Native American Children in the Chickasaw Nation

This study focuses primarily on the historical and archaeological investigations of Charity Hall, a Christian mission school that operated within the Chickasaw Nation in northeastern Mississippi between 1820 and 1830. This school and others during this time were funded by the United States government through the 1819 Civilization Fund Act, so I argue that these stations served as outposts for American colonialism before the federal government shifted its Indian policy to one of removal. Additionally, I argue that it is impossible to adequately understand the operation of individual mission schools apart from their networks, which I theorize here as “missionscapes.” The historic component also, therefore, focuses on a broader missionscape that encompassed both the Chickasaw Nation and the neighboring Choctaw Nation during the 1820s and 1830s. More precisely, the historical and archaeological data marshalled here are presented to answer my primary research question: what material tools and practices did missionaries use to “civilize” Native American children and their families prior to Indian removal? One of the chief ways that Chickasaw and Choctaw children were being “civilized” by the missionaries at Charity Hall was through the use of material culture. Their lives were regimented around an alien work schedule, they were clothed in materials procured by charitable societies, and they sat around a dinner table with ceramic and metal implements produced in faraway places, some coming all the way from east Asia. The pastors used practical mastery of both educational and mechanical “arts” to civilize the children in accordance with the wishes of the United States government. Here processes of practice and materiality took on a colonial character due to their being encouraged and enforced in a context where the balance of power was shifting from the Indians to the Americans. The American elites found the Christian missionaries to be ready-made agents to “civilize” Indians and spread political influence internally within both the Chickasaw Nation and the Choctaw Nation. The mission experience, however, ultimately proved to be too costly and slow and therefore paved the way for the removal policies of the 1830s and the abandonment of the “civilization” project altogether.
Cultivating Science Teachers' Understandings of Science as a Discipline.

Current visions of science education advocate that students should engage with science in the classroom in ways that mirror the work of scientists in order to develop science proficiency. For this goal, teachers are tasked with the complex responsibility of supporting students in understanding not only the conceptual knowledge of science, but also its disciplinary practices, norms, and epistemologies. In order for teachers to teach in such ways, they must be afforded opportunities to develop and reflect on their own disciplinary understandings about science. Research Experiences for Teachers’ (RETs) programs, in which teachers engage in research with scientists, may be fertile contexts for the development of teachers’ robust understandings about science. As such, the purpose of this naturalistic single-case study is to explore the ways in which one elementary teacher (Ava) describes shifts in her disciplinary understandings about science after participating in a 6-week summer Research Experience for Teachers’ program. Through examination of interviews and observations, this study takes a critical event narrative analysis approach to unpack the ways in which Ava interprets certain disciplinary understandings about science in light of events during her research experience that to her had lasting and important impact on her understandings of science. We conclude by discussing the implications of this work for research and professional development design.
FastZ: accelerating gapped whole genome alignment on GPUs

Recognizing the importance of whole genome alignment (WGA), the National Institutes for Health maintains LASTZ, a sequential WGA application. As genomic data grows, there is a compelling need for scalable, high-performance WGA. Unfortunately, high-sensitivity, `gapped' alignment which uses dynamic programming (DP) is slow, whereas faster alignment with ungapped filtering is often less sensitive. We develop FastZ, a GPU-accelerated, gapped WGA software which matches gapped LASTZ in sensitivity. FastZ employs a novel inspector-executor scheme in which (a) the lightweight inspector elides DP traceback except in common, extremely short alignments, where the inspector performs limited, eager traceback to eliminate the executor, and (b) executor trimming avoids unnecessary work. Further, FastZ employs register-based cyclic-buffering to drastically reduce memory traffic, and groups DP problems by size for load balance. FastZ running on an RTX 3080 GPU and our multicore implementation of LASTZ achieve 111x and 20x speedups over the sequential LASTZ, respectively.
Immunological reactivity of the lung: VII. Effect of corticosteroids and cyclophosphamide on the Fc receptor function of alveolar macrophages

Abstract The effects of various in vitro and in vivo regimens of either corticosteroid or cyclophosphamide administration on guinea pig alveolar macrophages were studied. Corticosteroid- and cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppression was assessed by the effect of drug administration on the capacity of alveolar macrophages to attach to and/or ingest antibody-coated sheep red blood cells (SRBC). In vitro hydrocortisone (up to 20 μg/ml) had no effect on either the binding or ingestion of antibody-coated SRBC. Two separate regimens of in vivo corticosteroids were given: a single dose of iv hydrocortisone (100 mg/kg), which is a short-acting soluble preparation, and sc doses of cortisone acetate (100 mg/kg for 7 days), which is a depot preparation resulting in sustained levels of plasma cortisol of the magnitude of that found for a brief period of time following iv injection of hydrocortisone. Both regimens resulted in similar degrees of peripheral blood lymphocytopenia and monocytopenia 4 and 24 hr, respectively, following injection. The regimen of hydrocortisone has previously been reported to have no effect on alveolar macrophage cytotoxic effector function in antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), whereas the cortisone acetate regimen markedly suppressed ADCC. In the present study, hydrocortisone had no effect on either the binding or ingestion of antibody-coated SRBC by alveolar macrophages. In contrast, cortisone acetate caused a marked decrease in both the binding and ingestion of antibody-coated SRBC. This suppressive effect was maximal at suboptimal concentrations of antibody on the SRBC and could be overcome by increasing the concentrations of anti-SRBC antibody. Alveolar macrophages from animals treated with daily cyclophosphamide (a regimen which suppresses ADCC) were capable of binding and ingesting antibody-coated SRBC normally. Thus, prolonged exposure to corticosteroids in vivo causes an alteration in membrane Fc receptor function of alveolar macrophages, which can explain this impaired ability to kill target cells. Since cyclophosphamide therapy did not interfere with the binding and ingestion of antibody-coated target cells, it is concluded that the impairment in killing of target cells by alveolar macrophages is not directly related to an alteration of Fc receptor function but to a defect in the actual killing process.
Three dimensional quench and stability in CICC

A coupled thermal and electromagnetic model is formulated and solved to study the effects of radially non-uniform heat pulses and current densities in superconducting cable-in-conduit conductors. The results indicate that quench and stability behavior in cases with non-uniform radial conditions are more complicated and appreciably different than cases where uniform conditions are assumed over the cross-section of the cable. Specific cases are presented for an ITER-like CICC and energy margin calculations are compared with corresponding zero-dimensional estimates.
Percutaneous CT-guided cordotomy for the treatment of pediatric cancer pain

Percutaneous cordotomy using CT guidance has been shown to be a safe and effective means of reducing pain in adults with cancer in 2 large case series. Its effectiveness in pediatric patients, however, has not been reported. Here, the authors present a case of CT-guided percutaneous cordotomy being used effectively for the treatment of unilateral limb pain in a 9-year-old boy suffering from metastatic medulloblastoma. The efficacy and minimally invasive nature of this procedure support its use in selected pediatric cases.
The Foundations of Modern Terrorism: The origins of political violence in the pre-modern era

In the minds of many, all things political begin either with God or Aristotle. In the case of political violence, both originators are relevant. The complex dynamic between the forces of authority on the one hand, and the society over which it presides on the other, has been at work since time immemorial. Violence has always been a necessary part of the contestation over the legitimacy of that authority, and aspirations to power have perpetually suffered from the temptation to seek consequences beyond the realistic possibilities at hand. Rulers, whether religious or secular, who seek to enforce authority and insurgents who contest that power have been drawn to violence across the centuries. This chapter examines a huge swath of chronological time, from Biblical and classical Greco-Roman cultures through the medieval and early modern eras of European history. Although my survey through these periods is of necessity far too brief, the intention is to present the emergence of some of the characteristics of terrorism that would much later coalesce into a functioning and integral part of the contentious relationship between the governments of the modern nation state and their challenging antagonists. The violence of these earlier centuries was presented in both religious and secular frameworks; indeed, often the two were merged so as to be almost indistinguishable. These frameworks include two formats. One focuses on the intellectual products written by the prominent and influential theorists of violence, who felt it necessary to justify their critique, whether of a threatening minority in society or an abusive ruler in government. The other is concerned with the acts of political violence that took place. These events on occasion developed from episodic moments of brutality to periods of widespread fear and repression, which more closely resemble aspects of the core ingredients of modern terrorism that developed later.
They Came from the Newsstand

SUMMARY This paper discusses the artistic and economic relationships that helped shape the graphic design of modern paperbacks as they emerged in the illustrations of the pulp magazine and paperback illustrator, Earle K. Bergey (1901-1952). The examples upon which the discussion is based are taken from the Vintage Paperback Collection and the Pulp Magazine Collection of the Popular Culture Library of Bowling Green State University.