cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Toddler feeding: Expectations and experiences of low-income African American mothers

Objective To ascertain maternal expectations and experiences with mealtimes and feeding of toddlers among low-income African American mothers in two mid- to large-size cities in the United States.Design Qualitative focus group study.Setting Two Early Head Start programme sites in a Midwestern state which serve low income families.Method Twenty-seven low-income African American mothers took part in two focus groups which were conducted by a facilitator, according to a semi-structured topic guide. Focus group data were supplemented with demographic family data.Results Four major themes emerged: (1) maternal perceptions of healthy toddlers, (2) maternal food choices for toddlers, (3) maternal expectations about toddler autonomy and self-regulation of feeding, and (4) mealtime context and interaction.Conclusions and implications Data provided examples of maternal expectations and experiences, suggesting the development of healthy feeding patterns among some toddlers and provided evidence of less healthy feedi...
Design of Cellular Shear Bands of a Non-Pneumatic Tire -Investigation of Contact Pressure

In an effort to build a shear band of a lunar rover wheel which operates at lunar surface temperatures (40 to 400K), the design of a metallic cellular shear band is suggested. Six representative honeycombs with aluminum alloy (7075-T6) are tailored to have a shear modulus of 6.5MPa which is a shear modulus of an elastomer by changing cell wall thickness, cell angles, cell heights and cell lengths at mesoscale. The designed cellular solids are used for a ring typed shear band of a wheel structure at macro-scale. A structural performance such as contact pressure at the outer layer of the wheel is investigated with the honeycomb shear bands when a vertical force is applied at the center of the wheel. Cellular Materials Theory (CMT) is used to obtain in-plane effective properties of a honeycomb structure at meso-scale. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) with commercial software ABAQUS is employed to investigate the structural behavior of a wheel at macro-scale. A honeycomb shear band designed with a higher negative cell angle provides a lower contact pressure along the contact patch associated with an in-plane shear flexible property.
Effects of window size and thermal mass on building comfort using an intelligent ventilation controller

A prototype microcomputer-controlled thermostat was developed that can manage airflow according to cooling the needs in a building and the resources in the environment. This intelligent control system measures both indoor and outdoor temperature and uses decision rules to control a whole-house fan, in addition to the furnace and air conditioner. No such residential thermostat is currently commercially available. This paper presents the controller strategy that optimizes cooling with outdoor air. This paper also quantifies the effects of modifying the amount of thermal mass and the window area on indoor comfort when using this controller. These test confirm that smaller windows and more mass performed better than larger windows and less mass, and that higher volumes of controlled ventilation outperformed fixed ventilation rates.
21st Century Opportunities For Gigascale Integration (GSI)

Summary form only given. What are the critical limits that are most likely tlo determine how many billions of transistors we will manufacture in future commercially viable silicon chips? For nearly four decades, silicon microelectronics has progressed at an unmatched exponential pace in both performance and productivity. The switching energy or power-delay product of a binary transition has been reduced by about five decades and the number of transistors per chip has been increased by approximately eight decades, while the price range of a chip has remained nearly constant. The National Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors projects a 64 billion bit DRAM chip by 2010. Perhaps the most compelling question confronting the surging US$150 billion world-wide semiconductor industry is, "How much fiuther will the laws of physics (and economics) enable this progress to continue?" My current view is that early 21st century opportunities for gigascale integration (GSI) will be govemed by a hierarchy of theoretical and practical limits whose five levels can be codified as: 1) fundamental; 2) material; 3) device; 4) circuit; and 5) system. In this discussion I intend to review recent enhancements of this hierarchy and identify those critical limits that appear to present the most formidable challenges to continued progress toward GSI.
Radiation damage in a-SiO2 exposed to intense positron pulses

Abstract In addition to its numerous technological applications amorphous silica (a-SiO2) is also well suited to the creation and study of exotic atoms such as positronium (Ps) and muonium. In particular, a dense Ps gas may be created by implanting an intense positron pulse into a porous a-SiO2 sample. However, such positron pulses can constitute a significant dose of radiation, which may damage the sample. We have observed a reduction in the amount of Ps formed in a thin film of porous a-SiO2 following irradiation by intense positron pulses, indicating the creation of paramagnetic centers. The data show that the primary effect of the irradiation is the inhibition of Ps formation, with no significant change in the subsequent Ps lifetime, from which we deduce that damage centers are created primarily in the bulk material and not on the internal surfaces of the pores, where they would be accessible to the long-lived Ps. We find that the damage is reversible, and that the system may be returned to its original state by heating to 700 K. The implications of these results for experiments with dense Ps in porous materials are discussed.
An efficient parallel ADI algorithm for solving 3-D convection diffusion equations with Neumann boundary conditions

Convection diffusion equations are widely used to model various important phenomena and processes in science and engineering. The calculation of numerical solutions for three-dimensional models is very computation intensive. The alternate direction implicit (ADI) algorithm is very efficient for this kind of equations and suitable for parallel computing. However, when Neumann boundary conditions are involved in the equations, it is difficult to maintain the original order of accuracy. We discuss a method to deal with Neumann boundary conditions when the ADI algorithm is used. The new method maintains the second order accuracy and is very scalable on multiprocessor parallel computers.
Conserved features at the 5 end of Drosophila R2 retrotransposable elements: implications for transcription and translation

R2 non-LTR retrotransposable elements insert site-specifically into the 28S ribosomal genes of insects. The sequence of the 5' end of full-length R2 elements from thirteen species of Drosophila were compared. Sequences within the 5' untranslated region (5' UTR) revealed little to suggest the presence of a promoter. Protein translation initiates within the 5' UTR and requires the bypassing of a highly conserved termination codon preceding the single R2 open reading frame. This bypassing probably involves a conserved RNA secondary structure which brings a potential initiation codon into close proximity to this termination codon. The most highly conserved sequence within the 5' UTR has properties similar to internal ribosomal entry sites. Based on these findings, we propose that R2elements are co-transcribed with the 28S gene and are translated as part of a large ribosomal subunit.
Time-resolved measurements using conventional analog network analyzer

A new method of making precise time-resolved measurements using an unmodified analog network analyzer is described. This technique is most useful in wafer probing unpackaged acoustic devices in production conditions or in characterizing development acoustic devices that are packaged to allow easy physical access to the device and which may, therefore, exhibit high levels of RF feedthrough.
Analysis of Strain Compensation in Quantum Dot Embedded GaAs Solar Cells

The effects of strain within stacked layers of InAs quantum dots (QDs) were investigated. InAs QD test structures with and without strain compensation (SC) were analyzed using atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The affects of strain compensation on test structure morphology and on GaAs-based QD solar cell performance was studied as a function of the thickness of the SC layer. X-ray diffraction analysis of the QD embedded test structures reveals a relationship between the SC thickness and the observed crystalline quality. Air mass zero illuminated current vs. voltage data and spectral responsivity measurements were used for the solar cell comparison. When SC is employed, QD insertion shows a lower open circuit voltage, in reference to a baseline device without QDs, but leads to an enhancement in the short circuit current of the device.
Time travel proxy: using lightweight video recordings to create asynchronous, interactive meetings

Time Travel Proxy (TTP) enables participating in meetings that you cannot attend in real time, either because of time conflicts or global time zone differences. TTP uses lightweight video recordings to pre-record your contributions to a meeting, which are played on a tablet that serves as a proxy for you during the meeting. Reactions and responses in the meeting are also captured in video to give you feedback of what happened at the meeting. A working prototype of TTP was deployed and studied within four developer teams in their daily stand-up meetings. The study found that the affordances of video helped integrate the time traveler into the social context of the meeting, although the current prototype was better at enabling the time traveler to contribute to the meeting than it was in conveying the meeting experience back to the time traveler.
Microlaparoscopic tubal ligation under local anesthesia.

Abstract Local anesthesia to perform laparoscopic tubal ligation is of increased interest due to potential safety and cost benefits. We performed tubal ligation using microlaparoscopic techniques with local anesthesia and continuous intravenous sedation in 16 women desiring sterilization. Operating and recovery times and patient satisfaction were recorded and compared with values for 30 similar women undergoing microlaparoscopic tubal ligation under general anesthesia. Mean±SD operating and recovery times for local and general anesthesia were 29.3±8.1 versus 33.6±11.1 minutes, and 83.9±59.4 versus 114.5±69.8 minutes, respectively. Patient satisfaction was high. The potential for cost savings when performed in an outpatient or clinic setting is significant.
Pioglitazone for Hepatic Steatosis in HIV/Hepatitis C Virus Coinfection

Abstract Chronic hepatitis C infection frequently coexists with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and together are associated with increased hepatic steatosis. Steatosis is a risk factor for progression of liver disease and may persist despite a sustained virologic response to hepatitis C treatment. Therefore, therapies to target hepatic steatosis are important for individuals with HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfection. We completed a 48-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of pioglitazone (45 mg/day) in 13 subjects with HIV/HCV coinfection. The primary outcome variable was hepatic fat content, measured by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) imaging. Individuals randomized to pioglitazone had a significant decrease in hepatic fat content measured by MRS from baseline (15.1 ± 7.0%) to week 48 (7.6 ± 3.9%), with a mean difference of −7.4% (p = 0.02, n = 5). There was no significant change in hepatic fat content with placebo. Glycemic control as measured by oral glucose challenge...
Estimation of catalyst deactivation parameters from operating reactor data

Techniques are presented for estimating the parameters of catalyst deactivation models from the operating data of industrial reactors. In the case of a first-order deactivation model, the partial differential equations describing the main reaction and deactivation are transformed to an ordinary differential equation for which estimation techniques are well established. The general power deactivation model can only be treated approximately and the case of a bifunctional catalyst must be treated by special methods. A numerical example is presented for the oxidation of butene to butadiene.
A new interpretation of metamaterial behavior in terms of coupling between resonant inclusions

Typically, most of the studies on metamaterials ignore the interaction between split-ring resonators and cut-wires, and also between identical resonators of the two arrays. They view the electromagnetic response of metamaterials as though it is a simple summation of responses of the individual elements. The elements are assumed to be ldquonot seenrdquo by the waves, which are thought to propagate in a quasi-uniform medium. This long-wave approximation has been used to justify the description of the effective medium parameters in terms of expressions obtained for the individual resonators. This has led to very simple concepts on the basis of which left-handed properties of metamaterials have been explained.
Spatially constrained skin electroporation with sodium thiosulfate and urea creates transdermal microconduits.

Controlled transport of molecules through the skin’s main barrier, the stratum corneum (SC), is a long standing goal of transdermal drug delivery. Traditional, needle-based injection provides delivery of almost any water soluble compound, by creating a single large aqueous pathway in the form of the hollow core of a needle, through which drug is delivered by pressure-driven flow. We extend previous work to show that SC-spanning microconduits (here with diameters of about 200 mm) can be created in vivo by skin electroporation and low-toxicity, keratolytic molecules (here sodium thiosulfate and 21 urea). A single microconduit in isolated SC can support volumetric flow of the order of 0.01 ml s by a pressure difference 2 of only 0.01 atm (about 10 Pa), demonstrating that the SC barrier has been essentially eliminated within this microscopic area. © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
War, terrorism, and public health.

Kill one person, and it is considered murder. Kill ten thousand person, and it is considered foreign policy.-Anonymous
Thermal Annealing on P3HT/PC70BM Solar Cells Incorporated with Au and CuO Nanoparticales

In this work, thermal annealing is investigated to augment photovoltaic conversion efficiency (PCE) in bulk heterojunction polymer solar cells (BHJ-PSCs). Active layer (P3HT/PC70BM) and PEDOT: PSS film of these PSCs contain copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO-NPs) and gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) respectively. Thermal annealing of P3HT/PC70BM thin films was performed at 150oC for 30 minutes. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) examination show an increased crystallinity of the heat-treated samples. Atomic force microscopic analysis (AFM) shows increased surface roughness after annealing, producing extra locations for crystallization of P3HT. Ultraviolet (UV)-visible as well as external quantum efficiency (EQE) spectra show enhanced self-organization, enhancing both crystallinity of P3HT and phase separation of the spin coated P3HT / PC70BM polymer films. However, ultraviolet-visible spectra do not show remarkable enhancement in light absorption with increasing gold concentration of PEDOT:PSS thin film owing to localised surface plasmonic resonance (LSPR) being distributed horizontally through the PEDOT:PSS film. PCE improved by 24% in the heat treated (Au/PEDOT: PSS)/(CuO/P3HT/PC70BM) solar cells.
Interferon-induced antiviral actions and their regulation.

Publisher Summary This chapter emphasizes additional aspects of the part played by the interferons (IFNs) in determining the outcome of encounters between viruses and host cells. Specifically, it reviews the biosynthesis of IFNs with particular stress on molecular mechanisms by which the IFN-α/β genes are activated transcriptionally by virus infection. The induction of IFN-γ by immune activation of lymphocytes is also discussed. Subsequently, the means by which IFN stimulates nuclear transcription of specific genes are examined. The chapter reviews the IFN-induced proteins that possess documented roles in antiviral mechanisms, primarily to highlight recent observations. It also describes the strategies employed by viruses to confound the IFN-induced antiviral activities. The major conclusion of this chapter is that there is a prominent and instructive overlap between mechanisms of regulation of the interferon-stimulated genes (ISG) and the IFN-α/β genes themselves. This network of interacting gene-regulator influences has become more salient as some pathways of gene induction by IFNs have been elucidated.
Learning and Classification in a Noisy Environment by a Simulated Cortical Network

A central issue for classification of real-world data is the effect of noise on performance A biologically-based model of the primary olfactory (piriform) cortex [1] and a conventional backpropagation algorithm (BP) were compared for their ability to classify input patterns in the presence of noise. Two training exercises were performed, one in which the algorithms were trained on data containing a single level of noise and one in which noise levels ranging from 0 to 10% were used. Having been trained in these two conditions, the algorithms were tested for their recognition performance on data with a range of noise from 0 to 30%. It was found that BP classification performance decreased with increasing noise. In contrast, performance of the biological olfactory model was not significantly decreased with noise, and thus it outperformed BP. The biological model hierarchically partitions the input space during learning; analysis revealed that noisy instances spawned subpartitions in the regions of outliers, thereby reducing recognition errors.
Religious-body Affirmations Protect Body Esteem for Women Who Base Self-worth on Appearance or Others’ Approval

Women who base their self-worth on appearance or others’ approval are especially vulnerable to low body esteem when they view media images of thin models. We explored one way religion might mitigate the harmful media effects in these women. We tested whether basing self-worth on appearance or others’ approval was positively related to body comparisons and body surveillance. We tested whether reading religious body-affirming statements enhanced feelings of being loved, which would increase body esteem in women who base self-worth on appearance or others’ approval. This experiment manipulated the type of body-affirming statements (religious, spiritual, control) and assessed women's body esteem before and after they viewed thin models. Results showed basing self-worth on appearance or others’ approval was positively related to body comparisons and surveillance. Furthermore, reading religious body-affirmations increased feeling loved, which in turn increased weight esteem in women who based self-worth on appe...
Measurement of the optical dielectric function of monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides: MoS 2 , Mo S e 2 , WS 2 , and WS e 2

This chapter presents the complex in-plane dielectric function from 1.5 to 3 eV for monolayers of four transition metal dichalcogenides: MoSe2, WSe2, MoS2, and WS2. The results were obtained from optical reflection spectra using a Kramers–Kronig constrained variational analysis. From the inferred dielectric functions, we obtain the absolute absorbance of the monolayers. We also provide a comparison of the dielectric function for the monolayers with the respective bulk materials [1].
Current Evidence for Selecting Disaster Interventions for Children and Adolescents

The field of child disaster mental health has seen remarkable growth over the last several decades, and awareness of the needs of children in the context of disasters has translated into the creation and evaluation of multiple interventions. The sheer volume of intervention studies and the systematic attention to examining the evidence base are impressive. Many different types of interventions have been used with children and adolescents including preparedness interventions, psychological first aid, debriefing, psychoeducation, cognitive behavioral interventions, exposure and trauma narratives, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), stress management, traumatic grief interventions, and medication management. Other approaches warrant attention especially those that incorporate culturally informed practices. The evidence suggests that intervention is superior to no intervention with the strongest support for cognitive behavioral interventions. Until additional comparative studies are conducted, however, it is premature to declare one intervention approach superior to others. The evidence supports preparedness interventions for resiliency building and enhancing safety response, but studies are needed to assess the effect of these interventions on self-protection activities during an event. In the acute post-disaster phase, psychological first aid is currently endorsed albeit based on minimal evidence suggesting the need for documentation of outcomes and additional study. Over the course of recovery, decisions about what interventions to use should consider and reflect the time since the event, the exposure and experiences of the children being served, the venue for service delivery, and the training of providers. Studies have not dismantled interventions to determine which components and/or common factors are responsible for benefit. Given the need to augment the evidence base, rigorous evaluation is recommended for all interventions.
Hyperaesthetics: Making Sense of Our Technomediated World

correlates theories of art and artmaking with a burgeoning hyperaesthetics through theoretical comparison and interpretational modes of critical inquiry. In an attempt to provide a theoretical and methodical study of hyperaesthetics, the author presents the ways that traditional artistic strategies such as perspective, multiple representations, and media transparency reveal connections with-and reveal ways of understanding-such contemporary technological conditions as transparent hypermediacy, multiplicity, erasure, and networked identity. The author describes a technology-inspired art appreciation class experience to illustrate the ways that such connections between artistic strategies and technological issues may inform contemporary art education practices. This experience provides evidence as well as inspiration for an exciting new direction in art education theory and practice in this technomediated world-the quest for a theory of hyperaesthetics.
Designing and Implementing Concept-Based Curriculum

In the media, in the educational literature, and in the general public discourse today, there is a wide awareness of the information overload to which we are currently subject. Given our accessibility to information and the ever-increasing capacity of the informational tools close to our fingertips, the role of schools becomes much more a responsibility of helping students find and make sense of information than of delivering it.
Stochastic modeling and control for tracking the periodic movement of marine animals via AUVs

This paper presents a graph-based model of periodic migrations of tagged fish populations and two multi-AUV stochastic controllers developed to track these fish from the model. The model presented in this paper characterizes patterns in the historical movement of tagged fish and is used to develop stochastic tracking by a “model based control” and a “feedback control”. These two controllers permit swarms of AUVs to track the transition probabilities of the tagged population between vertices of the model. To validate these controllers, a periodic model is developed for a simulated population based on three months of geolocation data from a kelp bass (Paralabrax clathratus), and AUV teams utilizing both controllers are simulated in tracking this population. Results show the viability of stochastic controls for multi-AUV tracking of populations whose behavior is well-approximated by the graph-based model. Preliminary trials with physical AUV systems indicate the plausibility of hardware implementation.
Specialty fruit production in the Pacific Northwest: adaptation strategies for a changing climate

Specialty fruit crops represent a substantial portion of the value of agricultural production in the Pacific Northwest. Climate change may threaten water sources, lengthen the dry season, raise temperatures during both the winter chilling period and the growing season, and facilitate the spread of fungal diseases and insects. Such changes have the potential to substantially reduce net returns due to increased input costs and altered yields and product quality. Many management strategies that are already being used to prolong growing seasons in marginal production areas and to improve production and quality in established production regions may also be useful as adaptation strategies under a changing climate. These strategies mostly involve moderating temperatures and controlling or compensating for mismatches between phenology and seasonal weather conditions.
Fictionalizing the real: imagined publics and constructions of self in Etty Hillesum’s diary

AbstractThe diary of Etty Hillesum, a Dutch Jew living in Amsterdam under German occupation during World War II, seems, like many wartime diaries, a seductive point of access to unmediated first-hand experience – but we should not too quickly confuse ‘intimate’ for ‘immediate’. We must ask: When Hillesum writes her diary, for whom is she writing? To what extent is she constructing the character of Etty, and for what purposes? How can we see, in this constructed self and consciousness of an imagined audience, evidence of reconciliation and struggle with the events of the war and her role within it as an initially protected, socially privileged member of the Jewish Council? Drawing from James Young’s suggested ‘poetics’ of Holocaust diaries as well as Bloom’s notion of the ‘public private diary’, I perform a close reading of the evolution of the narrative voice created by Hillesum in order to demonstrate the complex negotiations performed by the (female) (Holocaust) diarist to construct a self for an evolvi...
2-DoF ankle-foot system: Implementation of balance for lower extremity exoskeletons

Exoskeletons are increasingly being used for assistance or augmentation of gait for individuals with ambulation disabilities. The current state of lower extremity exoskeletons focuses on the motion at the hips and knees while having limited range of motion or passive joints for the ankles. Kinematic analyses of human gait and quiet standing have shown how the ankles play a vital role in balance in the anteroposterior and the mediolateral directions. This article puts forth a design for a powered ankle-foot system that would give the user access to their full anatomical range of motion driven by two custom linear actuators located along the posterior of the shank. The design also accounts for the user's safety in both the hardware and software portions of the design, allowing for redundancy. The design will be incorporated into a lower extremity exoskeleton that our lab has been developing and will provide the first strategy when balancing.
Theory of Earthquake Prediction with Special Reference to Monitoring of the Quality Factor of Lithosphere by the Coda Method

Three important elements of a theory of earthquake prediction are (1) the loading of tectonic stress, (2) the friction law governing fault slip, and (3) the structural heterogeneity of the earthquake source region. From recent seismological studies of the earthquake source process and the structure of source regions, we suggest that the heterogeneity of a fault zone is a 2-dimensional cross-section of the 3-dimensional heterogeneity of the lithosphere in a tectonically active region. We further suggest that the time-varying quality factor of an earthquake source region measured by the local earthquake coda Q may be an earthquake precursor. Because it is easy to measure the coda Q completely and uniformly over a large area, we propose to use the coda Q as a reference to which other precursors may be compared for their reliability check. In addition to the possibility of coda Q being a quantitative and dependable precursor, we have two other sources of optimism for the emergence of a sound theory of practical earthquake prediction. They are (1) the possibility of permanence of asperities and barriers over many repeated earthquakes on a given fault segment, and (2) the possibility of extrapolating the friction law developed in the laboratory to an earthquake fault using results from the study of rupture processes and recurrence phenomena on the fault.
The Heterosporium Disease of California Poppy

Although Heterosporium eschscholtziae Hark. has been known in California since 1884, it did not cause economic loss until 1947 when severe yield reduction in commercial seed fields occurred.The dis...
Neurologically acquired laryngomalacia in a pediatric patient with Moyamoya: A case report and literature review

Acquired laryngomalacia in the pediatric population is rare, especially from a neurogenic cause. This case report describes a pediatric patient who developed laryngomalacia following a neurologic insult. A proposed physiologic pathway is reviewed. A thorough literature review was performed to identify cases of acquired laryngomalacia ascribed to a neurologic cause and are compared to this case.
Project-Based Learning Progressions: Identifying the Nodes of Learning in a Project-Based Environment

This chapter describes the background of learning progressions and project-based learning and their application for learning and instruction for students at age levels that range from the elementary-school level to undergraduate college students in STEM career fields. The use of learning progressions as methods of both assessment and instruction is also examined. The chapter describes both learning progressions and project-based learning individually and then explains how the two can be combined into what we have called a project-based learning progression and how this may be beneficial to teaching and learning at the K-12 level. This chapter concludes by describing that there may be evidence to suggest that a learning progression occurs through project-based learning paradigms.
Evaluating the effect of industry specialist duration on earnings management

Abstract This study examines whether auditor industry specialist duration (i.e., the cumulative number of years an audit firm can be deemed an industry specialist) affects earnings management. Using a sample of 17,546 observations during the period of 2006 to 2014, we find that audits performed by firms with longer industry specialist durations are associated with lower levels of earnings management, as proxied by the absolute value of discretionary accruals. This finding enhances the industry specialization literature by showing that, in the long run, specialist auditors constrain the accrual management activities of their clients. However, we also find that audits performed by firms with longer industry specialist durations are associated with greater levels of real earnings management. In turn, this is consistent with real earnings management surfacing as an unintended consequence of specialist auditors being able to better constrain the accrual management activities of their clients (Chi, Lisic, & Pevzner, 2011).
Locomotor activity and discriminative stimulus effects of five novel synthetic cathinone analogs in mice and rats.

Abstract Background The development of novel synthetic psychoactive substances continues to accelerate. There are little or no data on the pharmacological mechanisms, behavioral effects, or abuse liability of many of the newer compounds, despite increasing reports of severe adverse effects in recreational users. Methods The current study investigated the discriminative stimulus and locomotor stimulant effects of a group of synthetic cathinone analogs: N-ethylpentylone, dimethylone, dibutylone, clephedrone, 3′,4′-tetramethylene-α-pyrrolidinovalerophenone (TH-PVP). Locomotor activity was assessed in an open-field assay using Swiss-Webster mice. Discriminative stimulus effects were assessed in Sprague-Dawley rats trained to discriminate either cocaine, methamphetamine or MDMA from vehicle. Results N-Ethylpentylone, dimethylone, dibutylone and clephedrone increased locomotor activity. Maximal effects were similar among the test compounds. Relative potencies were: methamphetamine > N-ethylpentylone > clephedrone > dimethylone > MDMA > cocaine > dibutylone. TH-PVP dose-dependently depressed locomotor activity. N-Ethylpentylone, dimethylone, dibutylone and clephedrone substituted fully for the discriminative stimulus effects of methamphetamine. N-Ethylpentylone, dibutylone and clephedrone fully substituted for cocaine, whereas dimethylone produced a maximum of 67% drug-appropriate responding. Dimethylone, dibutylone and clephedrone fully substituted for MDMA, whereas N-ethylpentylone produced only 50% drug-appropriate responding. TH-PVP produced a maximum of 38% methamphetamine-appropriate responding, 50% cocaine-appropriate responding, and less than 1% MDMA-appropriate responding. Conclusions These data provide initial evidence that the novel psychoactive substances N-ethylpentylone, dimethylone, dibutylone, and clephedrone demonstrate potential for abuse as psychostimulants and/or club drugs, given their ability to stimulate locomotor activity and their substitution for the discriminative stimulus effects of methamphetamine, cocaine and/or MDMA. TH-PVP has minimal activity in the assays tested and may have little or no abuse liability.
The association between the introduction of quantitative assessment of postpartum blood loss and institutional changes in clinical practice: an observational study

Abstract Background Imprecise visual estimates of blood loss contribute to morbidity from postpartum hemorrhage. We examined the impact of quantitative assessment of postpartum blood loss on clinical practice and outcomes. Methods An observational study comparing blood loss, management and outcomes between two historical cohorts (August 2016 to January 2017 and August 2017 to January 2018) at an academic tertiary care center. Patients in the intervention group (second period) had blood loss quantified compared with visual estimation for controls. Results We included 7618 deliveries (intervention group n=3807; control group n=3811). There was an increase in the incidence of hemorrhage (blood loss >1 L) in the intervention group for both vaginal (2.2% vs 0.5%, P Conclusions Quantifying blood loss may result in increased vigilance for vaginal and cesarean delivery. We identified an association between quantifying blood loss and improved identification of postpartum hemorrhage, patient management steps and cost savings.
Embedding Edge-attributed Relational Hierarchies

Relational embedding methods encode objects and their relations as low-dimensional vectors. While achieving competitive performance on a variety of relational inference tasks, these methods fall short of preserving the hierarchies that are often formed in existing graph data, and ignore the rich edge attributes that describe the relation facts. In this paper, we propose a novel embedding method that simultaneously preserve the hierarchical property and the edge information in the edge-attributed relational hierarchies. The proposed method preserves the hierarchical relations by leveraging the non-linearity of hyperbolic vector translations, for which the edge attributes are exploited to capture the importance of each relation fact. Our experiment is conducted on the well-known Enron organizational chart, where the supervision relations between employees of the Enron company are accompanied with email-based attributes. We show that our method produces relational embeddings of higher quality than state-of-the-art methods, and outperforms a variety of strong baselines in reconstructing the organizational chart.
Description of Placement Procedures for Common Methods Used in Equine Emergency Rescue Using a Simplified Loops System

Entrapped, stranded and recumbent equids often require emergency rescue. The success of the rescue is often affected by secondary injuries from struggling of the horse to rise and from injury secondary to attempted rescue by pulling on the head or limbs of the equid. Therefore, having ready access to simplified rescue equipment which can be easily applied would be desirable. The devices currently available for these manipulations are not always readily available at the site of an incident. Here, we describe and illustrate the step-by-step use of a Loops System consisting of 183 cm round slings, which can be positioned on the recumbent horse utilizing commercially available and reasonably priced equipment. The Loops System is basically composed of four round slings placed in such a way that utilizes the skeletal system for support. The procedures are illustrated utilizing a recumbent life-size horse model or mannequin. We suggest that the Loops System kit may allow enhanced ability for responders to provide care to a recumbent horse.
Virtue ethics and the commitment to learn: overcoming disparities faced by transgender individuals

The purpose of this paper is to utilize virtue ethics as the appropriate paradigm by which to improve health care delivery to transgender individuals. Health disparities for transgender individuals occur external to the medical environment as well as internal to the medical profession. A commitment to virtue ethics should be undertaken to improve the care to transgender individuals. In this manuscript I call on virtue ethics to address the intersectionality of such environmental structures for the promotion of the good of the patient as per the telos of medicine by Edmund Pellegrino, consistent with the eudaimonia of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Virtue ethics is the appropriate paradigm for which bioethics can address the framework that poses barriers to access to health care and maintenance of health through a lack of competent, knowledgeable and compassionate providers for the transgender population. Further, I pose that ascribing to improving the care to the individual transgender patient involves a call to action to overcome social ecological spheres of influence that are affecting the health of the individual and thereby the population of the transgender individuals as a whole. Through virtue ethics, the virtuous physician improves the health of the transgender individual and the character of themselves and the profession of medicine.
EphB2 receptor cell-autonomous forward signaling mediates auditory memory recall and learning-driven spinogenesis.

While ephrin-B ligands and EphB receptors are expressed to high levels in the learning centers of the brain, it remains largely unknown how their trans-synaptic interactions contribute to memory. We find that EphB2 forward signaling is needed for contextual and sound-evoked memory recall and that constitutive over-activation of the receptor’s intracellular tyrosine kinase domain results in enhanced memory. Loss of EphB2 expression does not affect the number of neurons activated following encoding, although a reduction of neurons activated after the sound-cued retrieval test was detected in the auditory cortex and hippocampal CA1. Further, spine density and maturation was reduced in the auditory cortex of mutants especially in the neurons that were dual-activated during both encoding and retrieval. Our data demonstrates that trans-synaptic ephrin-B-EphB2 interactions and forward signaling facilitate neural activation and structural plasticity in learning-associated neurons involved in the generation of memories. Talebian and Henkemeyer show that the Ephrin B receptor 2 (EphB2) is important for memory. They reveal that loss of EphB2 in mice leads to fewer neurons being activated during memory retrieval, reduced synaptic complexity and a reduction in context recall and tone recall memories.
The Efficiency of Online "Inked" Videos Versus Recorded PowerPoint Lectures on Teaching Pathophysiology to Medical Students in Pre-Clerkship Years: A Pilot Study.

Background:As online learning develops an increasingly important role in medical education, new online teaching modalities are arising all the time. One such teaching modality that is gaining popul...
Associations between paediatric fatigue and eating behaviours.

Background: In adults, poor sleep quality is associated with increased obesogenic eating behaviours; less is known about this relationship in youth. The objectives of this study were to assess the strength of association between fatigue-related quality of life (QoL) and eating behaviours among youth and to describe the associations in participants with percent body fat (%BF) above and below the 90th percentile for sex and age. Methods: Caregiver-reported measures of fatigue (Pediatric QoL Multidimensional Fatigue Scale) and eating behaviours (Child Eating Behaviour Questionnaire) were obtained from participants aged 8-17 years. %BF was measured by iDXA and grouped by sex- and age-specific percentiles. Multiple linear regression adjusting for age, sex and race/ethnicity was used. Results: Of the 352 participants (49% male), 44.6% had %BF >90th percentile. General, sleep/rest and cognitive fatigue QoL was inversely associated with food approach behaviours: food responsiveness, enjoyment of food, emotional overeating and desire to drink. For participants with %BF >90th percentile, higher general fatigue QoL was associated with higher satiety responsiveness (0.13; 95% confidence interval [CI 0.03, 0.24]). For participants with %BF ≤90th percentile, higher general fatigue QoL was associated with less satiety responsiveness (-0.16; 95% CI [-0.31, -0.01]). Conclusion: Less fatigue symptoms were associated with less behaviours associated with food approach among paediatric participants. For participants with %BF >90th percentile, less symptoms of general fatigues corresponded with more satiety. Though causation has yet to be established, youth with elevated %BF should be screened for fatigue symptoms and offered counselling on sleep hygiene or a sleep medicine referral to help mitigate weight gain.
Evaluating the effect of silver nanoparticles on bacteriophage lytic infection cycle-a mechanistic understanding.

Abstract Bacteriophages and engineered nano-material (AgNPS) interactions is a relatively unexplored area of research. To answer the fundamental question whether bacteriophage lytic growth cycle is affected by the presence of AgNPs, laboratory experiments were performed with phages of Klebsiella pneumoniae, Delftia tsuruhatensis, Salmonella typhimurium, and Shigella flexneri using silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with coating materials. One-step growth curves of bacteriophages indicated that the presence of these nanoparticles, and the associated ions of silver, produced pronounced effects on the lytic infection of certain bacteriophages. Effects included 96% reductions in post-infection phage yield in terms of plaque forming units (PFUs) after phages were incubated with silver nanoparticles and 28%–43% reductions from the presence of Ag+ alone. However, when Klebsiella pneumonia phage KL and Salmonella typhimurium phage Det7 were exposed to silver nanoparticles coated with poly-N-vinyl-2 pyrrolidone (PVP), an increase in final phage yield by as much as 250% was observed compared with the same phage not incubated with nanoparticles. A proposed mechanism, observed by transmission electron microscopy and verified using synthetic biology by which the nanoparticle binding phenotype can be produced, is that the binding of metal nanomaterial to phage virions results in potentially inhibitory effects. This binding was found to be dependent on the presence of exposed positively charged C-terminal amino-acid residues on the phage capsid surface, implied at first by amino-acid sequence comparisons between capsid proteins of the different phages used in this study. This was then proven experimentally using targeted DNA editing methods to fuse positive charged amino-acid residues to the coat protein C-terminus of non-binding phage. This induced the AgNP binding phenotype, as observed by TEM, DLS size measurements, and growth curve data that show the mutant constructs to be functionally inhibited after exposure to AgNPs. This research sets up a first platform for further research in the unexplored area of phage and AgNP interactions and provides useful findings.
Role of angiotensin-converting enzyme in myeloid cell immune responses

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), a dicarboxypeptidase, plays a major role in the regulation of blood pressure by cleaving angiotensin I into angiotensin II (Ang II), a potent vasoconstrictor. Because of its wide substrate specificity and tissue distribution, ACE affects many diverse biological processes. In inflammatory diseases, including granuloma, atherosclerosis, chronic kidney disease and bacterial infection, ACE expression gets upregulated in immune cells, especially in myeloid cells. With increasing evidences connecting ACE functions to the pathogenesis of these acquired diseases, it is suggested that ACE plays a vital role in immune functions. Recent studies with mouse models of bacterial infection and tumor suggest that ACE plays an important role in the immune responses of myeloid cells. Inhibition of ACE suppresses neutrophil immune response to bacterial infection. In contrast, ACE overexpression in myeloid cells strongly induced bacterial and tumor resistance in mice. A detailed biochemical understanding of how ACE activates myeloid cells and which ACE peptide(s) (substrate or product) mediate these effects could lead to the development of novel therapies for boosting immunity against a variety of stimuli, including bacterial infection and tumor.
Data-driven learning of non-autonomous systems

We present a numerical framework for recovering unknown non-autonomous dynamical systems with time-dependent inputs. To circumvent the difficulty presented by the non-autonomous nature of the system, our method transforms the solution state into piecewise integration of the system over a discrete set of time instances. The time-dependent inputs are then locally parameterized by using a proper model, for example, polynomial regression, in the pieces determined by the time instances. This transforms the original system into a piecewise parametric system that is locally time invariant. We then design a deep neural network structure to learn the local models. Once the network model is constructed, it can be iteratively used over time to conduct global system prediction. We provide theoretical analysis of our algorithm and present a number of numerical examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.