cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The organizational social context of mental health services and clinician attitudes toward evidence-based practice: a United States national study

Evidence-based practices have not been routinely adopted in community mental health organizations despite the support of scientific evidence and in some cases even legislative or regulatory action. We examined the association of clinician attitudes toward evidence-based practice with organizational culture, climate, and other characteristics in a nationally representative sample of mental health organizations in the United States. In-person, group-administered surveys were conducted with a sample of 1,112 mental health service providers in a nationwide sample of 100 mental health service institutions in 26 states in the United States. The study examines these associations with a two-level Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) analysis of responses to the Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale (EBPAS) at the individual clinician level as a function of the Organizational Social Context (OSC) measure at the organizational level, controlling for other organization and clinician characteristics. We found that more proficient organizational cultures and more engaged and less stressful organizational climates were associated with positive clinician attitudes toward adopting evidence-based practice. The findings suggest that organizational intervention strategies for improving the organizational social context of mental health services may contribute to the success of evidence-based practice dissemination and implementation efforts by influencing clinician attitudes.
MIP-Based Post-Contingency Corrective Action With Quick-Start Units

This letter provides a new methodology for the post-contingency corrective action in security-constrained unit commitment (SCUC). It formulates a mixed integer programming (MIP) subproblem instead of linear programming (LP) when considering corrective actions based on quick-start units. Test results show that a better solution is achieved by applying MIP.
Value-Added Measures and the Future of Educational Accountability

Quantitative social scientists seek to develop ever-better tools for measuring and improving school teacher performance. One approach uses data on individual students' past test scores to predict subsequent scores and then subtracts the (counterfactual) prediction from the actual scores to estimate teachers' “value added.” But there is considerable debate about what educational benefits these measures might yield. I discuss scholarly agreements and disagreements about statistical properties of teacher value-added measures and argue that most key research questions cannot be answered by the types of studies that now dominate the literature ( 1 ).
Quality of Life in Patients With Chronic Rhinosinusitis and Sleep Dysfunction Undergoing Endoscopic Sinus Surgery: A Pilot Investigation of Comorbid Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Importance Patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) have reduced sleep quality linked to their overall well-being and disease-specific quality of life (QOL). Other primary sleep disorders also affect QOL. Objective To determine the impact of comorbid obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on CRS disease-specific QOL and sleep dysfunction in patients with CRS following functional endoscopic sinus surgery. Design, Setting, and Participants Prospective multisite cohort study conducted between October 2011 and November 2014 at academic, tertiary referral centers with a population-based sample of 405 adults. Intervention Functional endoscopic sinus surgery for medically refractory symptoms of CRS. Main Outcomes and Measures Primary outcome measures consisted of preoperative and postoperative scores operationalized by the Rhinosinusitis Disability Index (RSDI) survey, the 22-item Sinonasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Obstructive sleep apnea was the primary, independent risk factor. Results Of 405 participants, 60 (15%) had comorbid OSA. A total of 285 (70%) participants provided preoperative and postoperative survey responses, with a mean (SD) of 13.7 (5.3) months of follow-up. Significant postoperative improvement ( P P = .03), RSDI physical (−10.7 [9.2] vs −7.3 [9.1]; P = .03) and functional (−8.4 [8.7] vs −5.1 [7.5]; P = .03) subdomain scores, and SNOT-22 rhinologic symptom domain scores (−9.1 [7.7] vs −5.7 [6.9]; P = .008). Participants without OSA also reported greater improvements on mean (SD) PSQI global (−1.9 [4.0] vs −0.5 [3.7]; P = .03), sleep quality (−0.4 [0.8] vs −0.03 [0.7]; P = .02), and sleep disturbance (−0.4 [0.7] vs −0.1 [0.7]; P = .03) scores. The majority of these associations were found to be durable after adjustment for alternate independent cofactors using stepwise linear regression modeling. Conclusions and Relevance Patients with CRS and comorbid OSA have poor QOL with substantial disease-specific QOL improvements following surgery. Patients who present with CRS should be assessed for primary sleep disorders and, if identified, should be treated concurrently for both CRS and OSA to improve sleep dysfunction to optimize surgical outcomes. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier:NCT01332136
Estimating polyacrylamide concentration in irrigation water

One practice used to control irrigation-induced erosion amends irrigation furrow inflows with water-soluble, anionic polyacrylamide (PAM) at low concentrations (0.25-10 mg L -1 ). Researchers wish to determine the fate of PAM, once added to furrow water streams. We developed and tested an instrumented flocculation test for quantifying PAM concentration in irrigation water. A kaolinite mineral standard is mixed with a PAM-amended water sample, agitated, then placed in a spectrophotometer. The PAM concentration in the suspension was correlated with settling-related transmittance changes. One highly correlated (r = 0.91-0.98) parameter, the time needed to initiate suspension clearing (clarity-shift inflection, CSI), was used as the procedure endpoint. The procedure was sensitive to variations in the amount of kaolinite added, and sample volume, water salinity, and original sediment content. A 10% change in these factors altered measured CSIs by 10 to 50%. The sediment affected CSI by increasing the sample's dissolved organic C concentration. The procedure detected as little as 0.1 mg L -1 PAM dissolved in irrigation water ; in samples containing >4 mL settled sediment per liter, the PAM detection limit was approximately 0.25 mg L -1 . Precision ranged from ±0.06 to 0.11 mg L -1 for 0 to 2.5 mg L -1 PAM and ±0.39 to 0.86 mg L -1 for 2.5 to 10.0 mg L -1 PAM. The PAM concentration in runoff from irrigated furrows equaled that of the inflow stream after 3 h continuous treatment at 10 mg L -1 . The CSI test provides a simple and accurate method of determining polyacrylamide in surface waters.
Aldehyde stress and up-regulation of Nrf2-mediated antioxidant systems accompany functional adaptations in cardiac mitochondria from mice fed n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Diets replete with n-3 poly-unsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) are known to have therapeutic potential for the heart, although a specifically defined duration of n-3 PUFA diet required to achieve these effects remains unknown, as does their mechanism of action. This study was undertaken to establish whether adaptations in mitochondrial function and stress tolerance in the heart is evident following a short- (3 weeks) and long-term (14 weeks) dietary intervention of n-3 PUFAs, and to identify novel mechanisms by which these adaptations occur. Mitochondrial respiration (mO2), H2O2 emission (mH2O2) and Ca2+ retention capacity (mCa2+) were assessed in mouse hearts following dietary intervention. Mice fed n-3 PUFA’s for 14 weeks showed significantly lower mH2O2 and greater mCa2+ compared to all other groups. However, no significant differences were observed after 3 weeks of n-3 PUFA diet, or in mice fed a high fat diet devoid of n-3 PUFAs for 14 weeks. Interestingly, at 14 weeks n-3 PUFA mice had significantly greater glutathione reductase activity, reflected by a substantially higher GSH/GSSG ratio. Levels of protein adducts of 4-hydroxyhexenal, an aldehyde formed from peroxidation of n-3 PUFAs, were significantly elevated in n-3 PUFA fed mice, even at 3 weeks. These findings demonstrate distinct time-dependent effects of n-3 PUFAs on mitochondrial function and stress tolerance in the heart. In addition, they are first to provide direct evidence that increases in non-enzymatic lipid oxidation products precede these mitochondrial and redox-mediated adaptations, thereby revealing a novel mechanism for n-3 PUFA action in heart.
Citing and Building on Meta-Analytic Findings: A Review and Recommendations

Meta-analysis is commonly used to quantitatively review research findings in the social sciences. This article looks at what happens next, after a meta-analysis is published. The authors examine ho...
Learning and Memory After Neonatal Exposure to 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (Ecstasy) in Rats: Interaction With Exposure in Adulthood

This study determined whether developmental and adult 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) exposures in rats have interactive effects on body temperature, learning, other behaviors, and monoamine concentrations in the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and striatum. Learning was assessed in the Cincinnati water maze (CWM), Morris water maze (MWM), and novel object recognition (NOR). On acquisition trials in the MWM, significant differences from developmental MDMA exposure were found on latency, cumulative distance, path length, and angle of first bearing to the goal, but the early and adult MDMA exposure group performed no worse than the developmental-only MDMA group. In the reversal trials, however, an interaction was seen: latency to the goal, cumulative distance, and angle of first bearing were increased in animals treated both developmentally and in adulthood with MDMA compared with those treated only developmentally. Other tests (elevated zero maze, CWM, NOR, and open-field activity) did not show an interaction, nor did hippocampal concentrations of serotonin or dopamine. However, several behavioral tests showed neonatal MDMA effects, including increased errors in the CWM, reduced time spent with a new object in the NOR test, and reduced locomotor activity in the open-field. By contrast, adult MDMA decreased the number of entries into open quadrants of the elevated zero maze. Litter effects were controlled by treating litter as the experimental unit and using mixed models repeated measures analyses. Correlational analyses suggested that the MWM reversal interaction involves multiple monoamine changes. The results indicate that developmental MDMA exposure can interact with adult exposure to interfere with some aspects of learning.
BDNF Enhances Quantal Neurotransmitter Release and Increases the Number of Docked Vesicles at the Active Zones of Hippocampal Excitatory Synapses

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is emerging as a key mediator of activity-dependent modifications of synaptic strength in the CNS. We investigated the hypothesis that BDNF enhances quantal neurotransmitter release by modulating the distribution of synaptic vesicles within presynaptic terminals using organotypic slice cultures of postnatal rat hippocampus. BDNF specifically increased the number of docked vesicles at the active zone of excitatory synapses on CA1 dendritic spines, with only a small increase in active zone size. In agreement with the hypothesis that an increased docked vesicle density enhances quantal neurotransmitter release, BDNF increased the frequency, but not the amplitude, of AMPA receptor-mediated miniature EPSCs (mEPSCs) recorded from CA1 pyramidal neurons in hippocampal slices. Synapse number, independently estimated from dendritic spine density and electron microscopy measurements, was also increased after BDNF treatment, indicating that the actions of BNDF on mEPSC frequency can be partially attributed to an increased synaptic density. Our results further suggest that all these actions were mediated via tyrosine kinase B (TrkB) receptor activation, established by inhibition of plasma membrane tyrosine kinases with K-252a. These results provide additional evidence of a fundamental role of the BDNF–TrkB signaling cascade in synaptic transmission, as well as in cellular models of hippocampus-dependent learning and memory.
Data in Modula-2

Let’s define data as information that is stored and manipulated by a computer. Manipulation of data is performed by programs — that’s where Modula-2 comes in. Within a Modula-2 program there are two different forms of data: constants and variables.
A model of the vertical mixing in Lake Erie in summer

A vertical one-dimensional model is proposed to describe the vertical mixing in the central portion of the central basin of Lake Erie in summer. The model explicitly describes the various mechanisms which operate in the well mixed upper and bottom layers. The model predictions are in good agreement with the observed thermal structure over the entire water column during a month-long simulation period. The central basin of Lake Erie has been the subject of intensive investigation in recent years due, in large part, to concern over the depletion of dissolved oxygen in the hypolimnion during the stratified summer period (Burns and Ross 1972; Burns 1976). The central basin encompasses an area about 80 km wide and 200 km long but with a mean depth of only 18 m and a maximum depth of 26 m. During summer, the lake is strongly stratified and is characterized by an upper mixed layer (UML), a strong temperature gradient region, and a near-isothermal bottom mixed layer (BML) (see
Hyperthermophilic Enzymes: Sources, Uses, and Molecular Mechanisms for Thermostability

Enzymes synthesized by hyperthermophiles (bacteria and archaea with optimal growth temperatures of >80°C), also called hyperthermophilic enzymes, are typically thermostable (i.e., resistant to irreversible inactivation at high temperatures) and are optimally active at high temperatures. These enzymes share the same catalytic mechanisms with their mesophilic counterparts. When cloned and expressed in mesophilic hosts, hyperthermophilic enzymes usually retain their thermal properties, indicating that these properties are genetically encoded. Sequence alignments, amino acid content comparisons, crystal structure comparisons, and mutagenesis experiments indicate that hyperthermophilic enzymes are, indeed, very similar to their mesophilic homologues. No single mechanism is responsible for the remarkable stability of hyperthermophilic enzymes. Increased thermostability must be found, instead, in a small number of highly specific alterations that often do not obey any obvious traffic rules. After briefly discussing the diversity of hyperthermophilic organisms, this review concentrates on the remarkable thermostability of their enzymes. The biochemical and molecular properties of hyperthermophilic enzymes are described. Mechanisms responsible for protein inactivation are reviewed. The molecular mechanisms involved in protein thermostabilization are discussed, including ion pairs, hydrogen bonds, hydrophobic interactions, disulfide bridges, packing, decrease of the entropy of unfolding, and intersubunit interactions. Finally, current uses and potential applications of thermophilic and hyperthermophilic enzymes as research reagents and as catalysts for industrial processes are described.
Primary granulocytic sarcoma presenting as an external auditory canal mass in a newborn with a draining ear

Summary Granulocytic sarcoma is an uncommon harbinger of myeloproliferative disorders. Known to herald the onset or relapse of hematologic dysfunction, primary granulocytic sarcomas may be the only sign of illness in a patient whose bone marrow aspirate and hematologic work-up return normal. The importance of early recognition of this tumor, often misdiagnosed initially, is that expedient treatment with chemotherapy can greatly reduce the development of systemic disease and improve overall survival. This case is the first report of a primary granulocytic sarcoma presenting with sole finding of an external auditory canal mass in an otherwise healthy newborn twin male. After an extensive immunohistochemical evaluation, the biopsy demonstrated monoblastic sarcoma, an uncommon subtype of granulocytic sarcoma more commonly seen in infants. Further hematologic work-up was negative including normal bone marrow aspirate and biopsy. After 6 months of chemotherapy, repeat bone marrow biopsy were again normal and CT scan showed complete resolution. In a review of the literature, there was one report of leukemic recurrence in an adult female in the nasopharynx, external auditory meatus, and bone marrow.
Does hydraulic lift or nighttime transpiration facilitate nitrogen acquisition

Water movement from roots to soil at night in the process of hydraulic lift (redistribution) rehydrates the rhizosphere and has been proposed to improve plant nutrient acquisition. Another process that has now been found in many plant species is nighttime transpiration and this could also affect nutrient relations by influencing supply of mobile nutrients to roots at night. The effects of these soil/root water relations interactions have not been adequately tested. We chose ten Sarcobatus vermiculatus (Hook.) Torrey shrubs with different magnitudes of hydraulic lift (i.e. diel range in soil water potential) to test the hypothesis that the magnitude of lift would be positively related to the amount of nitrogen (N) uptake over a period of days. A 15N tracer was injected in the 20–30 cm soil layer at locations with hydraulic lift to determine plant 15N acquisition by shallow roots conducting hydraulic lift. Half of the plants were also placed in large humidified tents (i.e. “bagged”), which suppressed nighttime transpiration, and thus were expected to have greater magnitudes of hydraulic lift, although they did not. All plants took up the 15N tracer, but contrary to our hypothesis the magnitude of hydraulic lift had no significant effect on the amount of 15N acquired over a 9-day period following labeling. However, plants that were bagged tended to have lower 15N acquisition (P = 0.07). These data indicate that decreased nighttime transpirational water loss or some other effect of bagging may decrease nutrient acquisition by these nutrient-limited phreatophytic shrubs and more generally suggests a possible nutritional benefit of nighttime transpiration by plants. This suggestion needs more thorough testing to elucidate an important potential link between plant water and nutrient relations.
Characteristics of Child Victims of Physical Violence Research Findings and Clinical Implications

This article reviews recent empirical studies that examine the short- and long-term sequelae of physical child maltreatment (PCM). The current status of research examining the impact of PCM on children's development (e.g., medical, cognitive) and psychosocial functioning (e.g., psychiatric disorders, behavioral, interpersonal, academic, affective) is reviewed. Major findings are discussed in the context of pertinent qualifications of existing evidence. To encourage clinical-research advances in this area, recent developments and future directions pertaining to the areas of conceptualization, assessment/methodology, and intervention are described.
Overview of current management of sleep disturbances in children: II—Behavioral interventions

Effective interventions are needed to ameliorate the prevalent, persistent, and enduring consequences of childhood sleep disturbances. This review considers behavioral and cognitive-behavioral approaches to treating childhood sleep disturbances. Behavioral approaches apply the principles of learning (stimulus-response) theory to effect changes in observable behaviors, whereas cognitive-behavioral approaches combine behavioral methods and cognitive approaches (ie, those involving manipulation of thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs) to change both observable behaviors and unobservable behaviors such as cognition or emotions. Cognitive-behavioral approaches require verbal communication and are commonly used with older, more cognitively sophisticated children. Behavioral/cognitive-behavioral approaches can be used alone or in combination with pharmacotherapy when appropriate. The confluence of evidence from case studies, case series, uncontrolled studies, and the few well-controlled trials that have been conducted on these approaches provides reason for cautious optimism about the efficacy of behavioral interventions, the clinical utility of which should increase as their benefits are better defined.
Infant mortality statistics from the 1999 period linked birth/infant death data set.

Objectives—This report presents 1999 period infant mortality statistics from the linked birth/infant death data set (linked file) by a variety of maternal and infant characteristics. Methods—Descriptive tabulations of data are presented. Results—In general, mortality rates were lowest for infants born to Chinese and Japanese mothers (2.9 and 3.4 per 1,000, respectively). Infants of Cuban, Central and South American, Mexican, and nonHispanic white mothers had low rates, while rates were higher for infants of Puerto Rican and highest for non-Hispanic black mothers (13.9). Filipino mothers also had low rates. Rates were high for infants of Hawaiian and American Indian mothers. Infant mortality rates were higher for those infants whose mothers had no prenatal care, were teenagers, had 9–11 years of education, were unmarried, or smoked during pregnancy. Infant mortality was also higher for male infants, multiple births, and infants born preterm or at low birthweight. The three leading causes of infant death—Congenital malformations, low birthweight, and Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)–taken together accounted for 45 percent all infant deaths in the United States in 1999. Cause-specific mortality rates varied considerably by race and Hispanic origin. For infants of black mothers, the infant mortality rate for low
Optical Coherence Microscopy and Cellular Imaging

Optical coherence microscopy (OCM) uses coherence gating to achieve superior performance than confocal microscopy. A femtosecond Nd:Glass laser and nonlinear fiber light source achieve cellular imaging of cancer tissues in the pathology laboratory.
Hysteretic damping of structural materials under biaxial dynamic stresses

Results of damping measurements for mild steel under biaxial dynamic stresses are discussed. Experimental methods are described, and a phenomenological theory of damping is presented to set the context for the discussion. The experiments indicate that dilatational as well as distortional stresses are important in the damping of polycrystalline materials.
Interfacial Electrical Properties of DNA-Modified Diamond Thin Films: Intrinsic Response and Hybridization-Induced Field Effects

We have investigated the frequency-dependent interfacial electrical properties of nanocrystalline diamond films that were covalently linked to DNA oligonucleotides and how these properties are changed upon exposure to complementary and noncomplementary DNA oligonucleotides. Frequency-dependent electrical measurements at the open-circuit potential show significant changes in impedance at frequencies of >104 Hz when DNA-modified diamond films are exposed to complementary DNA, with only minimal changes when exposed to noncomplementary DNA molecules. Measurements as a function of potential show that at 105 Hz, the impedance is dominated by the space-charge region of the diamond film. DNA molecules hybridizing at the interface induce a field effect in the diamond space-charge layer, altering the impedance of the diamond film. By identifying a range of impedances where the impedance is dominated by the diamond space-charge layer, we show that it possible to directly observe DNA hybridization, in real time and w...
Inhibitors of Sexual Attraction of Male Codling Moths

A series of ester and ether derivatives of ( E,E )-8,10-dodecadien-1-ol (8,10-D), the sex pheromone of the codling moth, Laspeyresia pornonella (L.), were impregnated on separate rubber sleeve stoppers and exposed in traps in the field to determine their ability to inhibit attraction of male codling moths. For each series of derivatives, the number of carbon atoms in a straight chain added to 8,10-D ranged from 1 to 4. When only one carbon atom was added, the derivatives were not significantly inhibitory. When 4 were added, the derivatives were moderately inhibitory. When 2 or 3 were added, the derivatives were potent inhibitors. Branching in the ether derivatives decreased the potency of the inhibitors.
Study on major behavioral risk factors of chronic diseases among rural inhabitants in Yuhuan County

Objective To grasp the prevalences of major behavioral risk factors of chronic diseases among adults in rural Yuhuan,China. Methods A cross-sectional study was carried out in rural communities in Yuhuan County,Zhejiang Province,China. A total of 125 479 subjects aged 35 years or above participated in this study.SPSS 16. 0 was used for statistical analysis. Results Among 125 479 eligible subjects,the prevalences of smoking,drinking,high-salt diet and irregular physical exercise were 23. 6%,19. 3%,19. 7% and 91. 9% respectively.Conclusions The major behavioral risk factors of chronic diseases are prevalent in Yuhuan,and more efforts should be taken to monitor and control these risk factors.
Effect of borehole variations on borehole compensated sonic logging(BCSL) based on 2D finite-difference method(FDM)

The slowness time of BCSL was numerically calculated in different lithology of the formation and in borehole variations using 2D FDM.The correction curve of the slowness time was obtained using linear bivariateregression method.It was shown that the lithology of the formation can have certain effect on slowness time of BCSL.The compensated ability of BCSL is different when the borehole varies.When the diameter of the borehole is constant,the compensated ability is getting gradually worse with the increase of the borehole enlargement along the axis.The ability is the worst when the slowness time is the largest,then the compensated ability begins to improve gradually.When the length of the borehole enlargement or cave-in along borehole axis is constant,the compensated ability is getting worse with the increase of the diameter of the borehole enlargement or the decrease of the diameter of the borehole cave-in.The linear bivariateregression method in this paper is proved better than the method of traditional arithmetic average.
84 CELL-SPECIFIC RESPONSES IN AN APOPTOTIC MODEL OF VIRAL MYOCARDITIS.

Viral myocarditis results in chronic dilated cardiomyopathy or death in up to 20% of affected children and 50% of affected adults. The pathogenesis is poorly understood and proposed mechanisms of cardiac injury include direct virus-mediated cellular toxicity as well as secondary host-mediated immune responses. The reovirus model of myocarditis provides an excellent system to study direct virus-mediated injury. Prior studies show that apoptosis (APO) occurs in hearts of reovirus-infected animals and inhibition of APO protects against myocarditis. We hypothesized that induction of cardiac myocyte and fibroblast APO are both potentially important co-determinants of myocarditic phenotype. Primary rat cardiac myocytes and fibroblasts were separately infected with 6 reovirus strains that differ in their capacity to induce myocarditis in vivo. We evaluated the presence and extent of virus-induced APO in these two cell types by assessing nuclear morphology/cellular viability, caspase-3 activation, and annexin V binding. Using the percentage of cells binding annexin V, at 48 hours post-infection, myocarditic reovirus strains 8B and T3A induced high levels of APO in myocytes (78.4 ± 1.1 and 50.2 ± 1.6, respectively, compared to mock-infected control cells, p
Impedance cardiography: can it replace thermodilution and the pulmonary artery catheter?

Clinical assessment of cardiac output (CO) is inaccurate, yet the use of the pulmonary artery catheter (PAC) for thermodilution (TD) measurement of CO (COTD) has declined significantly. Can noninva...
Matrix Metalloproteinase(MMP)-2 Expression Related to Stretch Injury of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament in the Knee

Purpose : Tissue remodeling is essential for the natural healing of damaged tissue. The matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) that degrade the extracellular matrix to play a central role in this process. This study was designed to examine the basic relationship between MMP-2 and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. Materials and Methods : After the femur-ACL-tibia complex was harvested from rats, the continuous release of MMP-2 in the stretch group was evaluated. The complexes were divided into three groups. To stretch the complexes, in group I, 5 and 12 N weights were used for 10, 30, and 60 minutes. In group II, 5 and 15 N weights were used for 5, 10, 30, 60, and 120 minutes. And in group III, 5, 8, 10, 12, and 15 N weights were used for 30 and 60 minutes. MMP-2 activity was evaluated using 0.05% gelatin zymography. Results : MMP-2 was expressed and the signal intensity was increased according to the stretch duration and magnitude. In the tissue analysis, active MMP-2 was markedly present and the expression was increased in response to the stretch in the supernatant samples. Conclusion : MMP-2 was released immediately after ligament injury and its activity was increased in proportion to the stretch duration and magnitude. It is believed that MMP-2 expression plays an important role in the remodeling process after an ACL injury.
The Kingdom of God and the ‘Good Life’ on Earth

As we saw in Chapter 3, all the great religions seem to entertain a highly significant notion of an ideal society, referred to variously as Rdma-Rdjya, Sukhdvati, or the kingdom of God. The precise meaning of these (and other related concepts, for example, heaven) varies between religions and, even within a religious tradition, is interpreted somewhat differently by various sects, churches and theologians. But I think that there is sufficient resemblance among the concepts for us to be able to specify a few general features, without being bogged down, I hope, in abstruse theological controversy or culture-specific historical detail.
Entangled in Palestinian Unity: Almost Persona Non Grata

The chapter describes the author’s rollercoaster experience with the Israeli government when he was almost declared persona non grata over his involvement in resolving payment of salaries of Hamas civil servants in the Strip, a cause of tremendous tension after formation of the Palestinian government of national consensus, which had left the issue unresolved. This contributed to the implosion of Gaza, precipitating the third war. In the aftermath of that war, the UN after all conducted an extraordinary operation of transferring cash funding for salaries in Gaza with Israel's tacit knowledge. The question arises: could a devastating war have been averted if the UN would have been enabled to make a more timely payment in order to sustain stability in Gaza?
How white college students enact whiteness: an investigation of the attitudinal, behavioural and cultural components that comprise white racial identity at a historically white college

Historically, white colleges and universities often normalise white culture and white identities while maintaining a facade of diversity and inclusion in ways that foster racial tension and exclusi...
Prolonged Ketosis in a Patient With Euglycemic Diabetic Ketoacidosis Secondary to Dapagliflozin

Since the approval of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors by the US Food and Drug Administration for type 2 diabetes, there have been several reports of euglycemic diabetic ketoacidosis in patients using this class of medication. We present a case of euglycemic diabetic ketoacidosis where ketonemia and glucosuria persisted well beyond the expected effect of dapagliflozin. Our patient is a 50-year-old woman with type 2 diabetes since age 35 who was taking metformin and dapagliflozin. She presented with fatigue, constipation, and 3 days of reduced oral intake. Laboratory data indicated anion gap acidosis, ketonemia, severe hypokalemia, and minimally elevated blood glucose. She was treated with sliding scale short-acting insulin and electrolyte replacement until hospital day 6, when endocrinology was consulted. An insulin drip was initiated due to persistent ketonemia and reopening of the anion gap, despite improved oral intake and normoglycemia. On stopping the insulin drip on day 9, the β-hydroxybutyrate increased again. It finally stabilized within normal range with the initiation of basal subcutaneous insulin. This case indicates that clinical effects of dapagliflozin persist much longer than the reported half-life of 12.9 hours would predict. To prevent this potentially dangerous complication, patients taking SGLT2 inhibitors who become ill should discontinue the medication, undergo ketone evaluation, and start basal insulin, if ketones are positive. In addition, patients should be educated to stop their SGLT2 inhibitor at least 1 week prior to elective procedures.
Response of beach-nesting American Oystercatchers to off-road vehicles: An experimental approach reveals physiological nuances and decreased nest attendance

ABSTRACT Shorebird populations face increasing challenges as rising sea levels and growing human populations constrain their breeding habitats. On recreational beaches, the nesting season often coincides with a season of high visitor use, increasing the potential for conflict, which may negatively influence beach-nesting shorebird species. We designed a field experiment to study the responses of nesting American Oystercatchers (Haematopus palliatus) to off-road passenger vehicles (ORVs) at Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout National Seashores in North Carolina, USA. We used continuous video and heart rate recordings to assess changes in the behavior and physiology of incubating oystercatchers. We conducted driving experiments affecting 7 nesting pairs in 2014 and 19 nesting pairs in 2015, between April and July of each year. Experimental treatments were repeated throughout the incubation period for each nest. Although responses were highly variable within and among pairs, paired randomized permutation tests i...
Russia’s Scriptural “Reformation” in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries

The Russian Orthodox Church never experienced a movement that placed the authority of Scriptures over that of the Church, which was characteristic of the Protestant reformations in Western Europe. Nevertheless, an increased emphasis on the Scriptures and a desire to translate the Bible into the vernacular arose in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Russia. Aside from the work of the Russian Bible Society, scholars have not shed much light on this trend as it occurred within clerical education. This article argues that the episode of the Bible Society was a critical chapter within a larger story of important theological and pedagogical shifts within Russian Orthodox education and values. The roots of the Russian biblical translation effort extend back to the eighteenth century, when ethnic Russian clerical scholars gained the linguistic abilities in Greek and Hebrew to translate based on the ancient texts, and when more attention began to be paid to both vernacular Russian instruction and Scriptural study in the ecclesiastical schools. These trends flourished more deeply in the first half of the nineteenth century. Thus, although Russia did not undergo a reformation in the Western sense of the word, it underwent similar internal reforms that brought the Scriptures into a more central role in the church without undermining Church authority and tradition.
PET/MRI: Motion Correction

Simultaneous PET/MR imaging allows the use of motion estimates derived from one modality to perform motion compensation of the data acquired with the other technique. Some of the most recently proposed MR-based PET motion estimation and correction techniques will be discussed in this chapter. First, the MR-based techniques for head, respiratory, cardiac, and bulk motion characterization will be introduced. Next, the algorithms for performing the actual motion correction using these estimates will be briefly covered. Finally, the various methods proposed for the qualitative and quantitative assessment of the impact of motion correction will be reviewed.
A VOID MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUE FOR LOCAL BOILING

AbstractA beta attenuation method has been developed for measuring void fractions which is sensitive enough for use during local boiling. Comparisons are made with gamma attenuation methods, the effects of preferential void location are demonstrated, and typical void fractions measured during forced-convection, subcooled boiling of water are presented. The technique has been found to be readily applicable to the accurate determination of void fractions during either saturated or subcooled boiling of water and organic liquids.
Strategy and Options in Clinical Trials

At the present time there are a large number of clinical trials being conducted to find better ways of treating cancer. These trials come in many varieties. Some are based on small numbers of patients, others on large number of patients; some are multi-institutional, others are carried out within a single institution; some are randomized, others are non-randomized. However, regardless of the scientific quality and the care with which a trial is carried out, if the clinical investigator claims that the therapy under investigation is beneficial, it is likely to influence patient treatment everywhere. The problem of choosing the “best” treatment for the cancer patient is difficult and for many cancer sites unresolved. One reason for this is that the outcome depends on many factors; e.g. anatomic stage, pathology, demographic factors, physical status of patient, prior history, extra disease symptoms, as well as special characteristics of the natural history of the disease site. One point of universal agreement is that the treatment outcome with most patients is not well predicted because of the wide fluctuations and complex nature of the natural history of the disease. Poorly conducted trials may ignore the influence of characteristics of the natural history of the disease and report a positive effect of therapy which may be an artifact.
Introduction: Imagining the Unimaginable

This book is an imaginative geography of “after” worlds … “after,” that is, another century of (a) profound climate change in the form of unprecedented anthropogenic planetary warming and (b) an expanding and deepening “postmodern” culture-shift, one which already has begun to transmogrify modern assumptions in a way eerily reminiscent of how, five centuries prior, those then-new ways of mind and being consumed the seeds of tradition, habit, and belief and spit out strange fruit.
An Agent-based Mathematical Model about Carp Aggregation †

This work presents an agent-based mathematical model to simulate the aggregation of carp, a harmful fish in North America. The referred mathematical model is derived from the following assumptions: (1) instead of the consensus among every carps involved in the aggregation, the aggregation of carp is completely a random and spontaneous physical behavior of numerous of independent carp; (2) carp aggregation is a collective effect of inter-carp and carp-environment interaction; (3) the inter-carp interaction can be derived from the statistical analytics about large-scale observed data. The proposed mathematical model is mainly based on empirical inter-carp force field, whose effect is featured with repulsion, parallel orientation, attraction, out-of-perception zone, and blind. Based on above mathematical model, the aggregation behavior of carp is formulated and preliminary simulation results about the aggregation of small number of carps within simple environment are provided. Further experiment-based validation about the mathematical model will be made in our future work.
Validity of the WHIPLASHED as a tool to identify bipolar disorder in women.

Abstract Background : The aim of this study was to investigate the validity of the WHIPLASHED clinician-administered interview, a mnemonic of questions on clinical factors and illness course used to screen for bipolar disorder, as a self-report questionnaire. Methods : Participants (n = 82) were females recruited from an outpatient academic women's mental health clinic. Relevant symptom data were extracted from a self-report questionnaire designed to parallel the WHIPLASHED interview questions. A score of ≥5 on WHIPLASHED was defined as a positive screen for bipolar spectrum disorder by its developer. We examined the capacity of self-reported WHIPLASHED scores ≥5 to differentiate bipolar from unipolar depression in women. Diagnostic assessments were conducted with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview. Results : Women were diagnosed with unipolar (n = 54) and bipolar (n = 28) depression. The majority of subjects were white (67%), employed (68%) and married (57%) with a mean age of 36.8 years. The receiver operating characteristic curve demonstrated that WHIPLASHED had strong predictive ability (AUC = 0.877) in differentiating bipolar from unipolar depression. A cutoff score of ≥5 generated 96% sensitivity and 52% specificity, while raising the threshold to 6 generated 89% sensitivity and 76% specificity for a bipolar disorder diagnosis. Limitations : Our sample was small and composed of female patients at a single treatment center. Conclusions : In this sample, WHIPLASHED was a valid screening tool to differentiate bipolar from unipolar depression. While existing instruments focus on primary symptoms of bipolar disorder, the WHIPLASHED is useful in exploring subtypes of bipolar disorder in which depression dominates the clinical course.
The Effect of Debt Covenant Violation on the Use of Off-Balance-Sheet Operating Lease and Long-Term Debt

Under current U.S. lease accounting standards, operating leases are considered off-balance-sheet (OBS) financing, thus allowing firms to use an operating lease as hidden debt. We show that firms’ leverage, debt covenant violations, and tight covenant slacks have a large impact on the use of corporate OBS operating leases as well as long-term debt. Our results show that high risk profile firms in terms of their debt financing, characterized as those who have high leverage, or have violated their debt covenants, or are close to covenant violations, on average significantly reduce the use of OBS operating leases. However, for these high risk profile firms who have their business operating in industries where OBS leases are widely used, they significantly increase the use of OBS operating leases. In other words, our results indicate that firms, who belong to industries where operating leases are heavily used, use OBS leases as a substitute (an alternative source of financing) to long-term debt in their financing activities when their debt financing condition is weakened. We find that this significant increase in OBS operating leases is even more prominent during the economic recession periods. Our findings of the use of OBS leases following debt covenant violations or when being close to violations, provide incremental evidence to the finance and accounting literature that has documented the significant impact of moral hazard and incentive conflicts between firms and their creditors on their debt financing policy.
Abstract P4-06-12: Understanding how precancerous lesions progress to breast cancer using mouse models

There are distinct cell subpopulations in normal epithelial tissue, including stem cells, progenitor cells, and more differentiated cells, all of which have been extensively studied for their susceptibility to tumorigenesis and intertumoral heterogeneity. However, normal cells usually have to progress through a precancerous lesion state before becoming a full-blown tumor. Precancerous early lesions are heterogeneous too. It remains unclear whether distinct subsets of precancerous cells contribute to the eventual cancer and intertumoral heterogeneity. By using mouse models of breast cancer that are tailored to address this question, we demonstrated that both precancerous stem cells (PcSCs) and more differentiated cells in the precancerous lesion can be induced to form cancer readily upon introduction of constitutively active versions of either HRAS or BRAF. However, the resulting tumors were dramatically different in protein profiles and histopathology: PcSCs gave rise to adenocarcinoma while more differentiated precancerous cells yielded metaplastic carcinoma with severe squamous differentiation and more robust activation of MEK/ERK signaling. In contrast, constitutively activated PIK3CA caused both PcSCs and more differentiated precancerous cells to progress into adenocarcinoma. Therefore, both cell types in precancerous lesions and the genetic mutations that these cells suffer contribute to the characteristics of the resulting cancer. This work identifies previously unknown players in cancer heterogeneity and suggests that cancer prevention should target precancerous cells broadly and not be limited to PcSC. Citation Format: Wen Bu, Weiyu Jiang, Yi Li. Understanding how precancerous lesions progress to breast cancer using mouse models [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-06-12.
Increasing Doses of Blueberry Polyphenols Alters Colonic Metabolism and Calcium Absorption in Ovariectomized Rats

SCOPE: Blueberries are rich sources of bioactive polyphenols that may provide health benefits when consumed regularly, leading to their increased marketing as dietary supplements. However, the metabolic changes associated with consuming concentrated doses of purified polyphenols, as may be present in dietary supplements, are unknown, especially when considering the colonic metabolites formed. This study aimed to evaluate the pharmacokinetics of high doses of purified blueberry polyphenols. METHODS AND RESULTS: 5‐month old, ovariectomized Sprague‐Dawley rats are acutely dosed with purified blueberry polyphenols (0, 75, 350, and 1000 mg total polyphenols per kg body weight (bw)) and ⁴⁵Ca to measure calcium absorption. Blood and urine are collected for 48 h after dosing and phenolic metabolites measured via ultra high‐pressure liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC‐MS/MS). The most prominent metabolites are colonically generated cinnamic and hippuric acids. Smaller amounts of other phenolic acids, flavonols, and anthocyanins are also detected. Most metabolites follow a dose–response relationship, though several show saturated absorption. Maximal metabolite concentrations are reached within 12 h for a majority of compounds measured, while some (e.g., hippuric acid) peaked up to 24 h post‐dosing. Calcium absorption is significantly increased in the highest dose group (p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: These results indicate that increased doses of blueberry polyphenols induce changes in intestinal phenolic metabolism and increase calcium absorption.