cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Environmental consequences of social security reform: a second best threat to public conservation

Abstract The work postulates that investments in environmental stewardship function as an informal intergenerational contract in the current social security system. An immediate pension system reform that orders a transition from a pay-as-you-go system to a ‘what you save is what you get’ system can erode incentives to maintain environmental conservation efforts. If environmental conservation is highly productive in the long run, pension reform could (1) damage every generation through time, (2) place perhaps a modest but unnecessary drag on economic performance or, at the other extreme, (3) destabilize the ecological system entirely by destroying a highly prized environmental resource critical to future welfare. Several reform amendments are presented, but one may be especially attractive. By formalizing an intergenerational annuity to reward a generation directly for its public conservation investments through the existing pension structure, inefficiencies can be eliminated, up front sacrifices can be reduced and reforms can employ the existing social security apparatus to collect payroll taxes and to disburse pension benefits to implement the amended intergenerational contract.
Dasatinib is synergistic with cetuximab and cisplatin in triple-negative breast cancer cells.

Abstract Background Patients presenting with triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) have a poorer prognosis compared with those with other subtypes of breast cancer. The majority of TNBCs overexpress epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). However, EGFR inhibition as a monotherapy, as with the monoclonal antibody cetuximab, is ineffective. Src family tyrosine kinases play a critical role in signal transduction downstream of growth factor receptors and are involved in the development of EGFR inhibitor resistance. We hypothesize that dasatinib, an Src family tyrosine kinase inhibitor, may help overcome EGFR resistance to cetuximab, and in combination with cisplatin may enhance growth inhibition and apoptosis and reduce metastatic potential. Methods Growth inhibition, apoptosis, cell migration and invasion, and effects on EGFR, Akt, and mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphorylation were examined in a panel of breast cancer cell lines, including seven TNBC cell lines. Results Six out of seven TNBC cell lines demonstrated a synergistic interaction using the triple-drug combination, compared with only two TNBC cell lines with the cisplatin and cetuximab combination. An induction of apoptosis and decrease in EGFR and mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphorylation, and thus resensitization to EGFR inhibition, was observed using the three-drug treatment regimen. A significant reduction (P Conclusions These findings may have important clinical implications in treating TNBC patients whose tumors co-overexpress both EGFR and c-Src. Identification of this subset of patients may be beneficial in the design of a clinical trial using this treatment regimen.
Obesity Evaluation and Treatment: Expert Committee Recommendations

Objectives. The development of recommendations for physicians, nurse practitioners, and nutritionists to guide the evaluation and treatment of overweight children and adolescents. Methods. The Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services convened a committee of pediatric obesity experts to develop the recommendations. Results. The Committee recommended that children with a body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to the 85th percentile with complications of obesity or with a BMI greater than or equal to the 95th percentile, with or without complications, undergo evaluation and possible treatment. Clinicians should be aware of signs of the rare exogenous causes of obesity, including genetic syndromes, endocrinologic diseases, and psychologic disorders. They should screen for complications of obesity, including hypertension, dyslipidemias, orthopedic disorders, sleep disorders, gall bladder disease, and insulin resistance. Conditions that indicate consultation with a pediatric obesity specialist include pseudotumor cerebri, obesity-related sleep disorders, orthopedic problems, massive obesity, and obesity in children younger than 2 years of age. Recommendations for treatment evaluation included an assessment of patient and family readiness to engage in a weight-management program and a focused assessment of diet and physical activity habits. The primary goal of obesity therapy should be healthy eating and activity. The use of weight maintenance versus weight loss to achieve weight goals depends on each patient9s age, baseline BMI percentile, and presence of medical complications. The Committee recommended treatment that begins early, involves the family, and institutes permanent changes in a stepwise manner. Parenting skills are the foundation for successful intervention that puts in place gradual, targeted increases in activity and targeted reductions in high-fat, high-calorie foods. Ongoing support for families after the initial weight-management program will help families maintain their new behaviors. Conclusions. These recommendations provide practical guidance to pediatric clinicians who evaluate and treat overweight children.
Fabrication of a metal-ceramic fixed partial denture using the prosthetic components of an unidentified implant system.

Since the introduction of dental implants, several implant manufacturing companies have evolved. Clinicians are currently overwhelmed with more than 90 rootform implants to choose from. In addition, a large number of different abutment designs are available, as each implant manufacturer generally provides many restorative solutions. Moreover, components that have been used extensively in the past may not be available. Since there are a large number of implant manufacturers worldwide, it is sometimes almost impossible to first identify an unknown implant system and then select the components that would be appropriate for the prosthesis. As a consequence, successfully osseointegrated implants functioning for a long period of time may be difficult to restore when the existing restoration fails. In these situations, the clinician must identify solutions that will not jeopardize the longevity of the implants and, at the same time, will provide a cost-effective, functional, and esthetic new prosthesis. This article describes the fabrication of a metal-ceramic implant-supported fixed partial denture (FPD) using the transmucosal elements and the fastening screws of a previous copolymer resin implant-supported restoration.
Getting the Goods Delivered in Dense Urban Areas: A Snapshot of the Last Link of the Supply Chain

Data were analyzed from 74 "Freight Mobility Interviews"—surveys conducted with key transportation executives whose products and services are shipped into New York City's central business district (CBD). Quantitative data collected included company profiles, defined by product category; kind of transportation service; type of distribution channel; characteristics of dispatched truck trip; and time and cost for last leg of trip. Major barriers to freight mobility identified by logistics/distribution/ transportation managers were widespread congestion, theft/vandalism, inadequate docking space, and insufficient curbside parking for commercial vehicles. Recommendations to increase productivity in the CBD included off-peak and extended delivery hours, additional truck parking zones, and incentives to upgrade docking areas. Barriers to freight mobility were consistent across industry sectors. Initiatives that have the potential to increase the efficiency of urban goods movement include improved law enforcement...
Early Second-Trimester Sonography to Improve the Fetal Anatomic Survey in Obese Patients

OBJECTIVES Fetal anatomic surveys are difficult to perform on obese patients. However, there are limited data available on methods to improve the rate of complete anatomy scans in these patients. The objective of this study was to determine whether the addition of an early second-trimester fetal anatomy scan improves the rate of complete anatomy scans in obese patients. METHODS We conducted a prospective cohort study of 100 obese patients at a city hospital who were scheduled for a fetal anatomy scan using transvaginal and transabdominal sonography at 14 to 16 weeks (early anatomy scan) and an anatomy scan at 18 to 22 weeks ("routine" anatomy scan). Inclusion criteria were a body mass index of 30 kg/m(2) or higher, singleton pregnancy, and presentation for prenatal care before 16 weeks. Data for the routine anatomy scan alone versus a combination of early and routine anatomy scans was calculated by the McNemar χ(2) test for categorical variables and the Wilcoxon signed ranks test for continuous variables. RESULTS The addition of the early anatomy scan significantly increased the rate of complete anatomy scans from 42% to 51% (P < .01). It also significantly improved visualization of the head, thorax, and abdomen and significantly increased the mean number of items seen (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS The addition of an early second-trimester fetal anatomy scan to a routine anatomy scan performed later in the second trimester significantly improves the rate of complete anatomy scans in obese patients.
Financial Literacy: The Relationship to Saving Behavior in Low- to Moderate-income Households

This study was designed to explore financial literacy in low- to moderate-income households with regard to saving behavior. The study examined the low- to moderate-income household's decision to save regularly and their responses to three questions related to financial literacy and a self-reported perception of financial knowledge. Perceived financial knowledge and planning (usually or most of the time) were good indicators of the decision to save regularly.
Digital communication in VLSI design

With advances in VLSl design. clock sped in digital system designs are increasing in relation to propagation delays. This is causing increasing problems with the traditional synchronous design mcthodologies, cenaidy at the system and board levels, and increasingly even within high performance chips. Because of this problem, and other facton such as limitations in the number of pins in each package, interconnect and communications within a digital system is often a fundamental limitation to system performance. This is especially true in same signal pmcessing applications. where the amount of computafian per sample value is relatively small. and hence the system is often VO bound rather than pmcessing bound. Since pmcessing power is generally increasing faster than U0 resources for existing packaging technologies, U0 will become a bottleneck in an increasing number of applications. Pmblems such as large pmpagation delay have been faced since the earliest days of digital Communication system design, and hence there are a number ofoppRur&3es to apply digital communications principles to VLSI and digitaI system design. In this paper. we discuss some of these oppo!iunities
Requirements for clustering data streams

Scientific and industrial examples of data streams abound in astronomy, telecommunication operations, banking and stock-market applications, e-commerce and other fields. A challenge imposed by continuously arriving data streams is to analyze them and to modify the models that explain them as new data arrives. In this paper, we analyze the requirements needed for clustering data streams. We review some of the latest algorithms in the literature and assess if they meet these requirements.
Scheduling Concurrent Applications on a Cluster of CPU-GPU Nodes

Heterogeneous architectures comprising a multicore CPU and many-core GPU(s) are increasingly being used within cluster and cloud environments. In this paper, we study the problem of optimizing the overall throughput of a set of applications deployed on a cluster of such heterogeneous nodes. We consider two different scheduling formulations. In the first formulation, we consider jobs that can be executed on either the GPU or the CPU of a single node. In the second formulation, we consider jobs that can be executed on the CPU, GPU, or both, of any number of nodes in the system. We have developed scheduling schemes addressing both of the problems. In our evaluation, we first show that the schemes proposed for first formulation outperform a blind round-robin scheduler and approximate the performances of an ideal scheduler that involves an impractical exhaustive exploration of all possible schedules. Next, we show that the scheme proposed for the second formulation outperforms the best of existing schemes for heterogeneous clusters, TORQUE and MCT, by up to 42%.
Pathophysiology of Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and Hypothyroidism

Autoimmune Hashimoto's thyroiditis, the most common endocrine disorder, is primarily a subclinical disease. Whether or not subclinical hypothyroidism should be treated remains controversial. Recent advances have been made in understanding the molecular nature of the antigens that are the target of the immune system in Hashimoto's thyroiditis. The "microsomal antigen" is now recognized to be thyroid peroxidase.
A Randomized Approach for Structural and Message Based Private Friend Recommendation in Online Social Networks

The emerging growth of online social networks have opened new doors for various business applications such as promoting a new product across its customers. Besides this, friend recommendation is an important tool for recommending potential candidates as friends to users in order to enhance the development of the entire network structure. Existing friend recommendation methods utilize social network structure and/or user profile information. However, these techniques can no longer be applicable if the privacy of users is taken into consideration. In this chapter, we first propose a two-phase private friend recommendation protocol for recommending friends to a given target user based on the network structure as well as utilizing the real message interaction between users. Our protocol computes the recommendation scores of all users who are within a radius of h from the target user in a privacy-preserving manner. We then address some implementation details and point out an inherent security issue in the current online social networks due to the message flow information. To mitigate this issue or to provide better security, we propose an extended version of the proposed protocol using randomization technique. In addition, we show the practical applicability of our approach through empirical analysis based on different parameters.
Differentially Expressed Proteins in the Pancreas of Diabetic Mice

The purpose of this study was to identify pancreatic proteins that are involved in the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). C57BL/6J male mice fed a high-fat diet become obese and develop T2DM, which serve as models for the disease in humans. The pancreas is important in producing hormones that regulate blood glucose and it has been postulated to be a key organ in the etiology of T2DM. In this study, proteins were extracted from the pancreas of diabetic and control mice and were resolved by a procedure termed 2 dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE). The pancreatic protein profiles were compared between the control and diabetic mice. Differentially expressed protein spots were identified by mass spectrometry analysis. Among 11 differential protein spots detected, the protein levels of REG1 (3 spots) and REG2 (1 spot) were higher in diabetic mice when compared with controls. Reg1 has been shown to be involved in the regeneration of pancreatic β-cells. The up-regulation of Reg1 and Reg2 in diabetic mice may reflect the effort of the pancreas to ameliorate the hyperglycemic condition by stimulating the proliferation of pancreatic β-cells, therefore, enhancing insulin secretion. Rho GDP-dissociation inhibitor 1 (GDI-1), 1-Cys peroxiredoxin protein, and pancreatic elastase 3B were also up-regulated in diabetic mice relative to controls. Glutathione peroxidase, a GSH-dependent enzyme to remove hydrogen peroxide and fatty acid hydroperoxide and the most abundant isoform in the glutathione peroxidase gene family, was found to be down-regulated in the diabetic mice at later stages. The down-regulation of glutathione peroxidase together with over-production of reactive oxidative species in the pancreas of diabetic mice could contribute to the 94 progressive deterioration of β-cell function. Also, the protein levels of the receptor of activated protein kinase C1 were decreased in diabetic mice when compared with normal controls.
Transparent exopolymer particles: from aquatic environments and engineered systems to membrane biofouling.

Transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) are ubiquitous in marine and freshwater environments. For the past two decades, the distribution and ecological roles of these polysaccharide microgels in aquatic systems were extensively investigated. More recent studies have implicated TEP as an active agent in biofilm formation and membrane fouling. Since biofouling is one of the main hurdles for efficient operation of membrane-based technologies, there is a heightened interest in understanding the role of TEP in engineered water systems. In this review, we describe relevant TEP terminologies while critically discussing TEP biological origin, biochemical and physical characteristics, and occurrence and distributions in aquatic systems. Moreover, we examine the contribution of TEP to biofouling of various membrane technologies used in the desalination and water/wastewater treatment industry. Emphasis is given to the link between TEP physicochemical and biological properties and the underlying biofouling mechanisms....
Multispecies seabird feeding flocks in the Galápagos Islands

I examined the species composition, frequency, distance offshore, and duration of multispecies seabird feeding flocks in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Flocks were comprised of Galapagos Penguins (Spheniscus mendiculus), Flightless Cormorants (Campsohaelius [Nannopterum] harrisi), Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis), Brown Noddies (Anous stolidus), Blue-footed (Sula nebouxii) and Masked Boobies (Sula dactylatra), Magnificent Frigatebirds (Fregata magnificens), and Audubon Shearwaters (Puffinus lherminieri). Pursuit-divers, such as Galapagos Penguins and Flightless Cormorants, increase the longevity of flocks. Species such as boobies may tend to dissipate flocks. This study provides field evidence that the presence of pursuit-diving seabirds has a positive effect on the duration of feeding flocks and that the mechanisms that keep prey close to the surface near shore may differ from those in the open ocean.
Ethical issues in using Twitter for population-level depression monitoring: a qualitative study

Recently, significant research effort has focused on using Twitter (and other social media) to investigate mental health at the population-level. While there has been influential work in developing ethical guidelines for Internet discussion forum-based research in public health, there is currently limited work focused on addressing ethical problems in Twitter-based public health research, and less still that considers these issues from users’ own perspectives. In this work, we aim to investigate public attitudes towards utilizing public domain Twitter data for population-level mental health monitoring using a qualitative methodology. The study explores user perspectives in a series of five, 2-h focus group interviews. Following a semi-structured protocol, 26 Twitter users with and without a diagnosed history of depression discussed general Twitter use, along with privacy expectations, and ethical issues in using social media for health monitoring, with a particular focus on mental health monitoring. Transcripts were then transcribed, redacted, and coded using a constant comparative approach. While participants expressed a wide range of opinions, there was an overall trend towards a relatively positive view of using public domain Twitter data as a resource for population level mental health monitoring, provided that results are appropriately aggregated. Results are divided into five sections: (1) a profile of respondents’ Twitter use patterns and use variability; (2) users’ privacy expectations, including expectations regarding data reach and permanence; (3) attitudes towards social media based population-level health monitoring in general, and attitudes towards mental health monitoring in particular; (4) attitudes towards individual versus population-level health monitoring; and (5) users’ own recommendations for the appropriate regulation of population-level mental health monitoring. Focus group data reveal a wide range of attitudes towards the use of public-domain social media “big data” in population health research, from enthusiasm, through acceptance, to opposition. Study results highlight new perspectives in the discussion of ethical use of public data, particularly with respect to consent, privacy, and oversight.
Analysis of food-borne pathogen contamination situation in retailed food in Guangzhou in 2010

Objective:To understand the contamination status of food-borne pathogenic bacteria in main food in Guangzhou,find out the pathogen source and predict the food-borne disease.Methods:Based on the standard operation procedures in the handbook of National Surveillance on Food-borne Pathogenic Bacteria,seven kinds of food samples were collected for detection of Salmonella,Listeria monocytogenes and Vibrio parahaemolyticus.Results:264 samples were detected,64 strains of pathogens were detected with an overall positive rate of 24.24%.Vibrio parahaemolyticus had the highest positive rate of 37.50%(24 /64),Listeria monocytogenes had the positive rate of5.91%(14 /237),the positive rate of Salmonella was 12.12%(32 /264).Conclusion:The contamination status of food-borne pathogenic bacteria in main consumption of food in Guangzhou was serious.The study on risk factors of food-borne disease and the predictive warning on food safety should be enforced.
Recognition of HLA-A2-restricted mammaglobin-A-derived epitopes by CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes from breast cancer patients.

A breast cancer-associated antigen, mammaglobin-A, is specifically expressed in 80% of primary breast tumors. The definition of immune responses against this highly expressed breast cancer-specific antigen should be of great value in the development of new therapeutic strategies for breast cancer. Thus, the purpose of this study was to identify HLA-A2-restricted mammaglobin-A-derived epitopes recognized by CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL). We identified seven mammaglobin-A-derived candidate epitopes that bind the HLA-A2 molecule (Mam-A2.1-7) by means of a HLA class I-peptide binding computer algorithm from the Bioinformatics & Molecular Analysis Section of the National Institutes of Health. Subsequently, we determined that CD8+ CTLs from breast cancer patients reacted to the Mam-A2.1 (83–92, LIYDSSLCDL), Mam-A2.2 (2–10, KLLMVLMLA), Mam-A2.3 (4–12, LMVLMLAAL), Mam-A2.4 (66–74, FLNQTDETL), and Mam-A2.7 (32–40, TINPQVSKT) epitopes using an IFN-c ELISPOT assay. Interestingly, healthy individuals also showed high reactivity to the Mam-A2.2 epitope. Two CD8+ CTL lines generated in vitro against TAP-deficient T2 cells loaded with the candidate epitopes showed significant cytotoxic activity against the Mam-A2.1-4 epitopes. These CD8+CTL lines recognized a HLA-A2+breast cancer cell line expressing the Mam-A2.1 epitope. In addition, DNA vaccination of HLA-A2+/human CD8+ double-transgenic mice with a DNA construct encoding the Mam-A2.1 epitope and the HLA-A2 molecule induced a significant expansion of epitope-specific CD8+ CTLs that recognize the same HLA- A2+/Mam-A2.1+ breast cancer cell line. In conclusion, these results demonstrate the immunotherapeutic potential of mammaglobin-A for the treatment and prevention of breast cancer.
The North American Experience

Surgeons interested in TORS in 2015 are at a distinct advantage compared to the early adapters, as much of the groundwork has been completed. For the many who have adopted TORS as part of their armamentarium for the treatment of OSA, the environment in North America (USA) has allowed many centers to flourish, each with its own unique experiences. In general the early programs have either centered in large academic institutions or in a handful of private practice community hospitals eager to apply this new technology.
Pharmacological Inhibition of Myocardin-related Transcription Factor Pathway Blocks Lung Metastases of RhoC-Overexpressing Melanoma

Melanoma is the most dangerous form of skin cancer with the majority of deaths arising from metastatic disease. Evidence implicates Rho-activated gene transcription in melanoma metastasis mediated by the nuclear localization of the transcriptional coactivator, myocardin-related transcription factor (MRTF). Here, we highlight a role for Rho and MRTF signaling and its reversal by pharmacologic inhibition using in vitro and in vivo models of human melanoma growth and metastasis. Using two cellular models of melanoma, we clearly show that one cell type, SK-Mel-147, is highly metastatic, has high RhoC expression, and MRTF nuclear localization and activity. Conversely, SK-Mel-19 melanoma cells have low RhoC expression, and decreased levels of MRTF-regulated genes. To probe the dependence of melanoma aggressiveness to MRTF transcription, we use a previously developed small-molecule inhibitor, CCG-203971, which at low micromolar concentrations blocks nuclear localization and activity of MRTF-A. In SK-Mel-147 cells, CCG-203971 inhibits cellular migration and invasion, and decreases MRTF target gene expression. In addition, CCG-203971-mediated inhibition of the Rho/MRTF pathway significantly reduces cell growth and clonogenicity and causes G1 cell-cycle arrest. In an experimental model of melanoma lung metastasis, the RhoC-overexpressing melanoma cells (SK-Mel-147) exhibited pronounced lung colonization compared with the low RhoC-expressing SK-Mel-19. Furthermore, pharmacologic inhibition of the MRTF pathway reduced both the number and size of lung metastasis resulting in a marked reduction of total lung tumor burden. These data link Rho and MRTF-mediated signaling with aggressive phenotypes and support targeting the MRTF transcriptional pathway as a novel approach to melanoma therapeutics. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(1); 193-204. ©2016 AACR.
Liquid chromatographic analysis of the enantiomeric impurities in various (+)-pseudoephedrine samples.

An HPLC method has been developed for the separation of four stereoisomers of ephedrine using precolumn derivatization with S( + )-l-(l-naphthyl)-ethyl isocyanate. The formed derivatives are subsequently separated on a normal-phase column and are detected at a UV wavelength of 220 nm. This method was used to quantitate the differences in the enantiomeric impurity of various samples of ( + )-pseudoephedrine. The reported method can differentiate between samples of ( + )-pseudoephedrine which differ in their enantiomeric impurity by as little as 0.02%. Possible racemization of ( + )-pseudoephedrine in aqueous solutions was also studied. Samples of ( + )-pseudoephedrine from various suppliers and, indeed, different lots from the same supplier, differed significantly in their degree of enantiomeric impurity.
Size does matter

A fundamental biological question is how organ size is regulated during development. Genetic screens in flies have identified components of the Hippo signaling pathway as key regulators of tissue g...
Light Excitation of a Bismuth Iodide Complex Initiates I-I Bond Formation Reactions of Relevance to Solar Energy Conversion.

The titration of iodide into acetonitrile solutions of BiI3 resulted in the formation of [BiI6]3–. Ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) excitation of [BiI6]3– yielded a transient species assigned as the diiodide anion I2•– directly ligated to Bi, [Bi(I2•–)Ix]n. With 20 ns time resolution, transient absorption measurements revealed the appearance of two species assigned on the analysis of the iodine molecular orbitals as an η2 ligated I2•–, [(η2-I2)BiI4]3– (λmax = 640 nm), and an η1 species [(η1-I2)BiI4]3– (λmax = 750 nm). The rapid appearance of this intermediate was attributed to intramolecular I–I bond formation. The [(η2-I2)BiI4]3– subsequently reacted with 1 equiv of iodide to yield [(η1-I2)BiI5]4–. Interestingly, [(η1-I2)BiI5]4– decayed to ground state products with a first-order rate constant of k = 2 × 103 s–1. Under the same experimental conditions, I2•– in CH3CN rapidly disproportionates with a tremendous loss of free energy, ΔGo = −2.6 eV. The finding that metal ligation inhibits this energy w...
On Light, Colors, and the Origins of Spectroscopy

The progress of science can be regarded as layers interconnected into an elaborate network: 1. Paradigms which summarize and predict data: the laws of science. 2. Experimental data: scientific research. 3. Technical devices and procedures: scientific instruments, methods, and materials.
Outpatient dermatology consultation impacts the diagnosis and management of pediatric oncology patients: A retrospective study

Background The impact of dermatology consultation on the care of children with oncologic conditions is unknown. Objective To review outpatient dermatology visits and the resulting impact on diagnosis and management of pediatric oncology patients. Method Retrospective review of pediatric oncology patients with outpatient dermatology visits at a tertiary care center from 2008 to 2015. Results The most common dermatologic diagnoses in 516 patients were skin infections (21.3%) and nonmalignant skin eruptions (33.4%). A diagnosis of significant impact (ie, malignancy, adverse cutaneous drug reaction, graft-versus-host disease, varicella-zoster virus, or herpes simplex virus infection), was made at the dermatology clinic in 14.7% of visits. Consultation resulted in a change in diagnosis in 59.8% of patients, change in dermatologic management in 72.4% of patients, and change in management of noncutaneous issues in 12.4% of patients. Limitations The use of electronic medical records, the nongeneralizable study population, and the retrospective design represent potential limitations. Conclusion Outpatient dermatology consultation can affect the care of pediatric oncology patients with respect to diagnosis and treatment of skin conditions and management of nondermatologic issues.
Improved two-level BVHs using partial re-braiding

We propose a novel approach for improving the quality of two-level BVHs (i.e., a two-level data structure that uses a top-level BVH built over second-level object BVHs). After building an individual, high-quality BVH for each object, our new top-level BVH build approach selectively re-braids (opens and merges) object BVHs during the build process to reduce overlap and improve SAH quality. We demonstrate that compared to the two main state-of-the-art techniques---brute-force re-construction of a single, flat BVH; and building a traditional two-level BVH over objects, respectively---the proposed approach achieves build times significantly faster than the former, while simultaneously yielding traversal performance that is much higher than the latter.
"Otis": A Case Study of an Online Attempt to Purchase Children for Sex.

ABSTRACTThe researchers analyzed court documents to develop a case study of an individual convicted of buying sexual services from exploited children. Findings indicate that the subject deviates from preexisting victim selection processes and demonstrates characteristics inconsistent with existing sexual offender typologies that likens offender behaviors to the hunting techniques and behaviors of predatory animals. As evidenced in the case study, the individual perceived the victims solely as a means of deviant sexual satiation and did not participate in traditionally established victim acquisition techniques. In addition, the researchers propose adopting terminology that adheres to the term consumer rather than buyer as it better represents some offenders’ disconnect and lack of empathy in the victim acquisition process.
Regulation of Spermatogonial Stem Cell Maintenance and Self-Renewal

Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) reside within the stem cell niche along the basement membrane of the seminiferous tubules in the testis, and their actions provide the basis for continuity and regeneration of the spermatogenic lineage. SSCs must balance self-renewal with the production of progenitor spermatogonia in order to sustain optimal sperm production while preventing exhaustion of the stem cell reservoir. Regulation of SSC fate decision is in part influenced by signaling from growth factors, such as Gdnf and Fgf2, which are synthesized by somatic niche support cells. Such growth factors have been shown to directly influence expression of transcription factors such as Id4, Etv5, and Bcl6b within SSCs to stimulate self-renewal. Additionally, the undifferentiated state of both SSCs and progenitors is maintained by virtue of intracellular regulation at transcriptional, translational, and posttranslational levels; both independently and dependently of characterized growth factors released from the niche. This intrinsic regulation not only acts to enrich the expression of genes important for maintaining the undifferentiated state, but also supresses expression of differentiation-driving factors. Although progress in SSC research has previously been dampened by a lack of SSC-specific markers that can be used to isolate pure populations for analysis, recent advances have seen the development of mouse lines in which the SSC population alone is marked by expression of a fluorescent reporter transgene; for example the Id4-eGfp mouse line. Consequently, in-depth analysis of the SSC population in comparison to undifferentiated progenitors and differentiating spermatogonia is now possible. Further progress in characterizing factors involved in SSC maintenance and self-renewal is important for understanding potential underlying causes of idiopathic infertility, and further, is the basis for developing therapeutic strategies aimed at reinstating fertility in patients who have been rendered infertile as a consequence of chemotherapeutic treatments in pre-pubertal life.
The Role of the Japanese Traditional Diet in Healthy and Sustainable Dietary Patterns around the World

As incomes steadily increase globally, traditional diets have been displaced by diets that are usually animal-based with a high content of “empty calories” or refined sugars, refined fats, and alcohol. Dietary transition coupled with the expansion of urbanization and lower physical activity have been linked to the global growth in the prevalence of obesity, overweight and life style-related non-communicable diseases. The challenge is in how to reverse the trend of high consumption of less healthy food by more healthful and more environmentally sustainable diets. The increasing recognition that each individual has specific needs depending on age, metabolic condition, and genetic profile adds complexity to general nutritional considerations. If we were to promote the consumption of low-energy and low salt but nutritious diets, taste becomes a relevant food quality. The Japanese traditional diet (Washoku), which is characterized by high consumption of fish and soybean products and low consumption of animal fat and meat, relies on the effective use of umami taste to enhance palatability. There may be a link between Washoku and the longevity of the people in Japan. Thus Washoku and umami may be valuable tools to support healthy eating.
The Role of Clinics in Determining Older Recent Immigrants' Use of Health Services.

Immigrants are ineligible for federally-funded Medicaid in the U.S. until at least 5 years after arrival. There is little information on where they receive care in light of this restriction. Using Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition, this study examines whether the setting in which older recent immigrants receive care (i.e., health clinic, emergency room or doctor’s office) explains delays in care. Among older adults with a usual source of care, 13.5% of recent immigrants had not seen a health professional in the past year compared to 8.6% of non-recent immigrants and 6.3% of native-born. Approximately 23% of these differences is attributable to recent immigrants’ tendency to receive care in clinics and community health centers. Even when older recent immigrants manage to find a usual source of care, it is of lower quality than that received by their non-recent immigrant and native-born counterparts.
Below and Above the Nation: Bourdieu, Hispanism, and Literary History

This chapter examines the relevance of place to the development of Spanish literary historiography as a field. It draws on Pierre Bourdieu’s form versus function duality to reveal an often-ignored aspect of histories of Spanish literature: their introjection of Europe’s north/south division to assess and categorize regional differences. Originally formulated to explain the creation of an autonomous cultural field in France, the form/function duality frequently translates as north/south in the work of twentieth-century Spanish literary historians. As such, it clues us into links between class, aesthetics, and place that subordinate the southern region of Andalusia to the central region of Castile. This perspective reveals how centralizing nationalism marginalizes regional literary fields not only on linguistic grounds (Catalan, Basque, Galician versus “Spanish”) but also by establishing connections between the south and the function-driven working class and then opposing it to disinterested taste and aesthetic form, associated with Castile.
A novel use of deep learning to optimize solution space exploration for signal integrity analysis

The enhanced complexity of electrical devices has increased the number of variables that directly or indirectly affect the output. Consequently, it has become imperative to explore the massive solution space during integrity analyses, without sacrificing accuracy and development time. In this paper, we offer a simple hybrid algorithm based on a Multi-Layer Perceptron that significantly works better than traditional methods like Least Squares, by balancing the requirements for high accuracy and less development time.
Water source niche overlap increases with site moisture availability in woody perennials

Classical niche partitioning theory posits increased competition for and partitioning of the most limiting resource among coexisting species. Coexisting plant species may vary in rooting depth, reflecting niche partitioning in water source use. Our goal was to assess the soil water partitioning of woody plant communities across northern Arizona along an elevational moisture gradient using stem and soil water isotopes from two sampling periods to estimate the use of different water sources. We hypothesized that niche overlap of water sources would be higher and monsoon precipitation uptake would be lower at sites with higher moisture availability. Pairwise niche overlap of coexisting species was calculated using mixing model estimates of proportional water use for three sources. Across the moisture gradient, niche overlap increased with site moisture index (precipitation/potential evapotranspiration) across seasons, and site moisture index explained 37% of the variation in niche overlap of intermediate and deeper sources of water. Desert trees utilized more winter source water than desert shrubs, suggesting the partitioning of water sources between functional groups. However, seasonal differences in surface water use were primarily found at intermediate levels of site moisture availability. Our findings support classical niche partitioning theory in that plants exhibit higher overlap of water sources when water is not a limiting resource.
Biogeographical gradients in galling species richness : Tests of hypotheses.

Five hypotheses were invoked to account for variation in galling species number per location on plants of different structural complexity, namely herbs, shrubs, and trees, both in Brazil and USA. The hypotheses were: 1) the altitudinal/latitudinal gradient hypothesis; 2) the harsh environment hypothesis; 3) the plant species richness hypothesis; 4) the host plant area hypothesis; 5) the plant structural complexity hypothesis. The altitudinal and the harsh environment hypotheses were correlated and supported with sample data in both localities, with increasing gall species number as altitude/latitude declined and as sites became hotter and drier. The two hypotheses were separated by studying riparian sites and dry hillside sites at the same elevation in Arizona. Galling species frequency was higher in dry sites than in riparian sites, supporting the harsh environment hypothesis. Of the five hypotheses tested only the harsh environment hypothesis predicted that galling insect species number should vary in response to environmental variables such as moisture and temperature. Temperate shrubs supported more galling species than did other plant types, both in dry and mesic sites. The overall difference between galling species richness for tropical and temperate latitudes was not statistically significant. Free-feeding insect herbivore species exhibited the opposite pattern of species richness to gallers, being more speciose in riparian sites. The present study corroborates the hypothesis that the gall forming habit is an adaptation to harsh or stressful environments, and we describe for the first time broad scale geographical patterns in galling insect species richness.
Extended CCR5 Blockade for Graft-versus-Host Disease Prophylaxis Improves Outcomes of Reduced-Intensity Unrelated Donor Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation: A Phase II Clinical Trial

ABSTRACT Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) remains the most common treatment-related complication after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT). Lymphocyte migration plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of GVHD. A previous phase I/II trial demonstrated that CCR5 blockade with maraviroc in the first 30days after allo-HCT resulted in a low incidence of early acute GVHD, primarily in visceral organs, but with no impact on late acute or chronic GVHD. We conducted a phase II trial to examine the efficacy of an extended course of maraviroc, administered through post-transplantation day +90 in addition to standard prophylaxis in 37 recipients of reduced-intensity-conditioned unrelated donor allo-HCT performed to treat hematologic malignancies. Extended maraviroc treatment was safe and feasible. The primary study endpoint, day +180 rate of grade II-IV acute GVHD, was 22 ± 7%, liver GVHD was not observed, and gut GVHD was uncommon. The day +180 rate of grade III-IV acute GVHD was 5 ± 4%. The 1-year rate of moderate to severe chronic GVHD was 8 ± 5% and that of disease relapse was 30 ± 8%. Overall survival at 1 year was 70 ± 8%. Compared with the previously studied short course of maraviroc, the extended course resulted in a significantly higher GVHD-free, relapse-free survival (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], .45; 95% confidence interval [CI], .25 to .82; P = .009) and overall survival (adjusted HR, .48; 95% CI, .24 to .96; P = .037). A combined analysis of both trials showed that high maraviroc trough concentrations on the day of hematopoietic cell infusion were associated with lower rates of acute GVHD. An extended course of maraviroc after reduced-intensity-conditioned unrelated donor allo-HCT is safe and effective in preventing acute and chronic GVHD and is associated with favorable survival.
Effect of cathodic polarization on the floatability of chalcopyrite in the absence of oxygen

Rest potential, cyclic voltammetry and chronopotentiometry measurements were made to study the effects of cathodic polarization of chalcopyrite, simulating the mineral contacted with grinding media under a nitrogen atmosphere. The reaction products on the chalcopyrite surface were identified by XPS, and the mechanism of the cathodic reaction was proposed. Microflotation tests were performed to investigate the effects of surface changes on the floatability of chalcopyrite.
Explicit sparse almost-universal graphs for

For any integer n, let be a probability distribution on the family of graphs on n vertices (where every such graph has nonzero probability associated with it). A graph Γ is -almost-universal if Γ satisifies the following: If G is chosen according to the probability distribution , then G is isomorphic to a subgraph of Γ with probability 1 - . For any p ∈ [0,1], let (n,p) denote the probability distribution on the family of graphs on n vertices, where two vertices u and v form an edge with probability p, and the events {u and v form an edge}; u,v ∈ V (G) are mutually independent. For k ≥ 4 and n sufficiently large we construct a -almost-universal-graph on n vertices and with O(n)polylog(n) edges, where q = ⌈⌉ for such k ≤ 6, and where q = ⌈⌉ for k ≥ 7. The number of edges is close to the lower bound of Ω() for the number of edges in a universal graph for the family of graphs with n vertices and maximum degree k. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2010
Concurrent absorption and secretion of airway surface liquids and bicarbonate secretion in human bronchioles

Although small airways account for the largest fraction of the total conducting airway surfaces, the epithelial fluid and electrolyte transport in small, native airway epithelia has not been well c...
Are Women Disproportionately Represented in Education Compared to Other Roles in Academic Radiology

Rationale and Objectives Women in academic medicine, and radiology specifically, are underrepresented in departmental leadership roles and achieve fewer professional metrics of success. We have observed, however, that women are more broadly represented in medical education leadership. The purpose of this study was to determine if women in academic radiology are overrepresented in educational scholarship and educational leadership compared to general research scholarship and leadership positions, and to determine if there is any difference in the distribution of women in these roles compared to internal medicine. Materials and Methods We performed a PubMed search of education articles in radiology and internal medicine over the last 5 years, and the gender of the authors was determined. Data on gender for authorship of general research topics, departmental leaders, and society leadership was obtained via literature and internet searches and the data was aggregated. Representation ratios (RR of 1.0 = parity) were obtained via risk ratio calculation to compare education versus general scholarship, and the distribution of leadership roles within and between these fields. Results Women make up 28.5% of academic radiologists and 40.1% of academic internists. A higher proportion of education articles were first authored by women than would be expected in both fields with an RR of 1.46 (p Conclusion We found that women in radiology are overrepresented in authorship of education articles, and in departmental and society education leadership roles. This trend was also seen in internal medicine, suggesting that women are more broadly represented in medical education.