cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Integration of contextual exercises in computer-aided design education

ABSTRACTThe authors have implemented a series of contextual CAD modeling exercises in a freshman CAD class to transform adaptive expertise in the CAD education. The students were interviewed before and after the exercises to capture their manifestation of adaptive expertise. At the end of semester, a CAD modeling test was given to the students. The CAD modeling procedures were evaluated based on the model attributes and students’ screen-recordings. The data analyses examine the role of learner-centered contextual exercise in CAD modeling process, and the correlations between the adaptive expertise in CAD modeling procedure. The findings show that the contextual exercises have positive effects on improving students’ adaptive expertise and CAD skills.
Neuropsychiatric Disorders Among Aging Women: Assessing Risk Factors and Tailoring Treatment

The older adult female population is fast growing, and sex differences exist for the majority of psychiatric and cognitive disorders affecting this group. Estradiol, with its variability during the reproductive years, particularly during the menopause transition, and its fall in the postmenopause, plays an important role in women’s risks for neuropsychiatric changes. This review aims to review the evidence related to aging in women and common issues faced, including mood, anxiety, psychotic, and cognitive disorders. Important considerations regarding management of these disorders in aging women will also be addressed.
Achieving facial harmony through orthodontics.

Abstract A substantial body of science allows the application of objective measurement techniques to augment a clinician's subjective assessment of facial harmony and beauty. These techniques have found wide application in all clinical disciplines involved with the enhancement of facial beauty, including esthetic dentistry, plastic surgery, orthognathic surgery, and prosthodontics. This paper will explore the applications of those techniques to the field of orthodontics.
High pressure neurologic syndrome type 2 seizure in mice

Progressive compression in helium/oxygen (heliox) atmospheres elicits in mice and many other vertebrates tested a complex series of effects known as the high pressure neurologic syndrome (HPNS). The most dramatic behavioral manifestations of the syndrome are two successive and distinct convulsive seizures. HPNS type 1 and type 2. In the present study, a maximum likelihood estimation procedure was applied to 11 models of inheritance of the difference in the time elapsed until manifestation of the type 2 seizure in heliox-compressed C57BL/6 and BALB/c mouse strains, their F1 hybrid, and the backcross generations. The "preferred" model specifying interaction between two major unlinked autosomal loci was confirmed indirectly by further breeding tests. The tests also showed that type 1 and type 2 seizure thresholds are uncorrelated but type 1 always preceded type 2. A challenge to the latter result involving mating backcross mice with high type 1 and type 2 seizure thresholds to mice with low type 1 and type 2 seizure thresholds produced no instance of alteration of the seizure order.
IMPACTS OF INLET STRUCTURES ON CHANNEL LOCATION

Barnegat Inlet, New Jersey, has undergone a variety of structural changes in an attempt to provide a navigable channel from bay to ocean. These structures have included shoreline revetments, arrowhead jetties with their crest elevation at mean tide level, a sand dike to better align interior channel flow, a raised impermeable jetty, and now parallel jetties. Each of these structures has had significant influence on inlet hydraulics and sedimentation, which in turn has impacted channel location.
Higher Birth Weight Improves Rates of Exclusive Breastfeeding Through 3 Months

Background. Exclusive breastfeeding through 3 months is a Healthy People 2020 goal, yet most US infants who initiate breastfeeding receive formula before 3 months. The effect of birth weight on exclusive breastfeeding has not been previously studied. Methods. We analyzed data from a randomized trial of probiotics for healthy infants to determine the effect of birth weight and other predictors available at birth on any breastfeeding and exclusive breastfeeding through 3 months. We used backward stepwise logistic regression to examine the effect of maternal age, education, feeding plan, delivery method, and parity and infant birth weight and gestational age on the outcomes of any and exclusive breastfeeding through 3 months. Results. Birth weight was strongly associated with exclusive breastfeeding through 3 months (odds ratio = 6.23 [95% confidence interval = 2.27-17.1] per kilogram birth weight), adjusting for maternal college education and maternal plan to breastfeed exclusively. However, birth weight wa...
Reciprocity: Retrospect and Prospect

Reciprocity is coming under increasing scrutiny by antitrust authorities. This article analyzes key court cases involving reciprocity, describes reciprocal practices, and appraises reciprocity's competitive and economic welfare effects. T HE concept of reciprocity is as old as business itself. Viewed simply, it involves doing business with one's friends. Expressed as a cliche: "You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours." But many reciprocity arrangements are more complex than these statements would indicate and result in the use of elaborate administrative structures to run them and coercive tactics to enforce them. In the last several decades a body of case law has developed which distinguishes legal from illegal reciprocity. Certain reciprocal practices appear to be clearly illegal, yet the status of others is in doubt. This article seeks to provide further insight into this important issue. It first describes the forms which reciprocity takes, lists the factors favoring its use, measures the extent of its use, describes the significant court cases covering reciprocity, traces its competitive effects, and concludes which reciprocal practices are and are not feasible.
The investigation of operation situation of hepatitis outpatient services in Community Health Services Centers in Pudong New Area

Objective: To understand the operation situation of hepatitis outpatient services in Pudong New Area for providing the scientific basis for further rational use of community health center resources and improving viral hepatitis prevention and control.Methods: Twenty-seven hepatitis outpatient clinics in Community Health Services Centers(excluding former Nanhui District) in Pudong New Area were investigated.Results: Hepatitis outpatient clinics were established in 27 Community Health Service Centers,among which one was set up in traditional Chinese medicine department.Patient visits were less than 41 each month.Diagnosis and cure abilities were limited.These hepatitis outpatient clinics played minor role in preventing viral hepatitis' spread,and their resources were poorly used.Conclusion: The rational allocation of health resources based upon the actual needs of health services was a solution to the current unreasonable establishment of hepatitis outpatient clinics in Community Health Service Centers.
Investigation and analysis of training base construction for sanitary inspection

Objective:To understand the construction of sanitary inspection training base and to improve the professional level of the base.Methods:Twenty-three higher technical and vocational colleges and primary sanitary inspection institutions were investigated with self-designed questionnaire.Results:The significant difference was found in teacher resource,floor space and equipment of training base among different colleges,and the training programs of the colleges can only meet the requirements of inspector in county CDCs.Conclusion:The training base of sanitary inspection should be constructed based on full use of the industry teachers,equipments and other resources,as well as on-site teaching through college-enterprise cooperation.
Clinical application of montelukast treatment to pediatric asthma

Objective To discuss about the clinical effects of montelukast in treating pediatric asthma. Methods Eighty patients with pediatric asthma treated with montelukast in our hospital from July 2011 to August 2012 were analyzed by clinical data statistics to find the clinical results in 1, 4 weeks and 12 weeks treatment with its clinical effect scored and peak expiratory flow (PEF) and the change in first second forced expiratory volume (FEV 1 ) tested in order to determine the effect of montelukast in pediatric asthma treatment. Results Clinical statistics proved significantly improvement of health after the treatment of the 80 patients admitted. The initial score of PEF, FEV 1 , clinical effect were 108.25 ± 18.10, 72.45 ± 2.34, 5.66 ± 0.47, while in the end of the treatment cycle, the final score of PEF, FEV 1 , clinical effect were 140.21 ± 24.10, 92.10 ± 8.12, 3.21 ± 0.71, with statistically significant differences (P 0.05) existed. Conclusion Montelukast can effectively control the inflammation of the lungs of patients with pediatric asthma, relive suffering and improve health condition with sound treatment effects. It will help children sleep quality as well as improve the quality of life.
Agrarischer Protest in der Moderne

Die sich wandelnde Bedeutung des Agrarsektors in der modernen Massengesellschaft ist ein groses Thema der Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, und sie last sich unter sehr verschiedenen Aspekten betrachten. So erinnert das Begriffspaar Land, Landwirtschaft einerseits und Moderne andererseits an die klassische Studie von Barrington Moore uber die „Sozialen Ursprunge von Diktatur und Demokratie“.23 In seiner einflusreichen Deutung mas Moore Bauern und Grundbesitzern die Rolle von politischen Schlusselfaktoren im Entstehungsprozes der modernen Welt bei. Demzufolge ebnete allein eine fruhe „Zahmung des Agrarsektors“24 den Weg in den burgerlichen Kapitalismus und in die liberale Demokratie, wie dies in England und Frankreich der Fall war; umgekehrt fuhrte eine fortbestehende Hegemonie der grundbesitzenden Oberschicht in den Faschismus (Deutschland und Japan) oder — auf revolutionarem Wege — in den Bolschewismus (Rusland und China). Hiergegen last sich einwenden, das die Bedeutung des Agrarsektors fur die Entwicklungsdynamik der modernen Industriegesellschaften moglicherweise uberschatzt wird, zumal wenn sie in ein geradezu deterministisches Interpretationsmodell gezwungen wird. Daruber hinaus reproduziert Moores Arbeit politikhistorisch-landerspezifische Wege, die in einer europaischen Perspektive eigentlich wenn nicht aufgehoben, so doch eingebunden werden sollten.
Deciphering the Effect of Metformin on Prostate Cancer Risk by Ethnicity.

See related article by Wang, et al., p. xxx Prostate cancer still remains the most common malignancy in American men. In this issue, Wang and colleagues studied the effect of metformin on prostate cancer incidence in the Veterans Administration Health Care System ([1][1]). According to their
Some Extensions to Interregional Commodity-Flow Models

Some interregional commodity-flow models, developed in the tradition of interregional input-output modeling, take on detailed characterizations of transportation networks to extend their explanatory reach, whereas others, developed in the tradition of spatial-interaction modeling, assume detailed characterizations of production. This chapter demonstrates how features of models within each of these two traditions can be integrated in two new specifications: a partial-equilibrium static formulation and a dynamic formulation of location, production, and interaction. This chapter also introduces several extensions to extant commodity-flow models, including explicit treatment of trade in intermediate goods, so-called new economic geography behavioral foundations for production and interindustry and interregional trade, and endogenous determination of capital investment and employment. These extensions enable commodity-flow models to be used to analyze the impacts of recent structural changes.
Examining user surprise as a symptom of algorithmic filtering

The Facebook News Feed prioritizes posts for display by ranking them more prominently in the News Feed, based on users' past interactions with the system. This study investigated constraints imposed on social interactions by the algorithm, by triggering participants' awareness of "missed posts" in their Friends' Timelines that they did not remember seeing before. If the algorithm prioritizes posts from people that users feel closer to and want to stay in touch with, participants should be less likely to report missed posts from close Friends. However, the results showed that relationship closeness had no effect on the likelihood of noticing a missed post, after controlling for how many Facebook Friends participants had and the accuracy of participants' memories for their Friends' Facebook activity. Also, missed posts from close Friends were more surprising, even when participants believed that the actions of the system caused the missed posts, indicating that these instances represent participants' unmet expectations for the behavior of their News Feeds. Because Facebook posts present opportunities for feedback important for social support and maintaining social ties, this could indicate bias in the way the algorithm promotes content that could affect users' ability to maintain relationships on Facebook. These findings have implications for approaches to improve user control and increase transparency in systems that use algorithmic filtering. HighlightsThe study examined how the Facebook News Feed algorithm constrains interaction.Facebook users were prompted to notice posts from Friends that they had missed.Relationship closeness did not affect the likelihood of noticing missed posts.Missed posts from close Friends were more surprising, indicating unmet expectations.Believing the algorithm caused missed posts was related to greater surprise.
Leadership and Vision

Organizations have evolved into complex entities that exist within even more complex and dynamic societal and global systems. Understanding the complexities and facing today’s challenges may require different leadership skills. Traditional leadership theories, vocabulary, and perspectives on leadership vision are insufficient in guiding the knowledge economy. Vision can mean a long-term goal or an idealized future state, but vision can also mean the ability to see. This chapter explores a new perspective on leadership vision by turning to new science theories such as the quantum field theory and the holographic principle.
Histone Lysine-to-Methionine Mutations Reduce Histone Methylation and Cause Developmental Pleiotropy

Epigenetic modifications play critical roles in diverse biological processes. Histone Lys-to-Met (K-to-M) mutations act as gain-of-function mutations to inhibit a wide range of histone methyltransferases and are thought to promote tumorigenesis. However, it is largely unknown whether K-to-M mutations impact organismal development. Using Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) as a model system, we discovered that a transgene exogenously expressing histone 3 Lys-36 to Met mutation (K36M) acts in a dominant-negative manner to cause global reduction of H3K36 methylation. Remarkably, this dominant repressive activity is dosage-dependent and causes strong developmental perturbations including extreme branching and early flowering by affecting the expression of genes involved in developmental and metabolic processes. Besides the established pathological roles of K-to-M mutations in tumor cells, we demonstrate a physiological outcome for K-to-M induced H3K36 hypomethylation. This study provides evidence for a conserved dominant-negative inhibitory role of histone K-to-M mutation across the plant and animal kingdoms. We also highlight the unique ability of K36M mutations to alter plant developmental processes leading to severe pleiotropic phenotypes. Finally, our data suggests K-to-M mutations may provide a useful strategy for altering epigenetic landscapes in organisms where histone methyltransferases are uncharacterized.
Theoretical study of the double Compton effect with twisted photons

Double Compton scattering of high-energy twisted photons is investigated within the framework of relativistic quantum electrodynamics. We investigate the dependence of the angular distributions of the scattered photons on the parameters of the incident photon beam, such as momentum cone opening angle and projection of orbital angular momentum. Numerical calculations of the angular distributions of the scattered photons are presented for incoming twisted photons and compared to the standard case of incident plane-wave photons. The dependence of the angular distributions of the double-Compton-scattered photons for initially twisted photons prepared in a superposition of two vortex states is also presented.
Political and Economic Implications of Authoritarian Control of the Internet

During the early days of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, the Mubarak regime shut down all Egyptian Internet access with the exception of one service provider, Noor ADSL. Analysts have noted that President Mubarak, in attempting to restrict Internet access, suffered from the dictator’s digital dilemma, and have speculated that Noor’s exceptional treatment was due to its role as a telecommunications provider for the Egyptian Stock Exchange. This paper shows, through an analysis of events, that stock exchange connectivity could not have been the rationale for Noor’s continued services and that transaction cost economics, as described by North’s theory of the state, provides a more thorough explanation for Mubarak’s selective intervention with regard to Internet service. Decisions made during this series of events have implications beyond the Arab Spring. Insights are drawn from the particular case of Noor’s role in the Egyptian Revolution and, in the process, a model is developed for future examination of the general case of the potential for loss of critical Internet infrastructure service under authoritarian governments.
Treating hematological malignancies with cell therapy: where are we now?

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) is becoming an increasingly successful and widespread form of treatment for different types of cancer. Compared to chemotherapy or monoclonal antibodies, ACT is an active biological strategy, with infused immune cells featuring dynamic migration, expansion and long-term persistence properties. ACT in hematological malignancies offered the initial proof of principle of the feasibility for this innovative ‘live-drug’.Areas covered: In this review, the authors summarize the clinical results achieved with two specific strategies in hematological malignancies: chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and T cell receptor (transgenic TCR) redirected T cells. Moreover, they discuss the recent pre-clinical studies aimed at increasing the feasibility, safety and efficacy of ACT.Expert opinion: ACT can promote cancer regression in patients with leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Nevertheless, more precise targeting of tumor cells and containment of side effects are need...
Evolving Models and Ongoing Challenges for HIV Preexposure Prophylaxis Implementation in the United States.

Background:The use of preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2012, but delivery to at-risk persons has lagged. This critical review analyzes the current state of PrEP implementation in the United States, by reviewing barriers and innovat
The Experience and Expression of Uncertainty in Close Relationships

Close relationships are an important and desired aspect of the human experience; however, as individuals pursue intimacy and connection with others, they will encounter a variety of questions about the nature, status, and future of their relationships. Consequently, uncertainty is an inevitable and unavoidable element of close relationships. It can arise in response to a variety of relational circumstances and can shape the ways that partners think, feel, and act toward one another. This book summarizes the expansive body of theoretical and empirical research regarding the nature of uncertainty, the conditions that promote uncertainty about relational involvement, and the emotional, cognitive, and communicative outcomes of uncertainty for individuals and their relationships. Based on the robust accumulation of data about uncertainty in close relationships, the book also offers recommendations for coping with ambiguous relational circumstances and proposes new directions for conceptualizing and studying uncertainty in close relationships.
A 16Gb 1.2V 3.2Gb/s/pin DDR4 SDRAM with improved power distribution and repair strategy

Advances in silicon technology bring high-performance mobile devices and networks that connect people all over the world. In the meantime, data centers with high computational capabilities boost the prosperity of the social world. Emerging data centers keep requiring higher density memory, with higher data rates for processing large amounts of data. However, the implementation of high density DRAM is hindered by large chip area, causing degradation of the power distribution network (PDN) and higher yield losses due to the higher probability of die defects. This paper presents a 16Gb 3.2Gb/s/pin DDR4 SDRAM that features an improved PDN and a repair strategy. The PDN is reinforced by power pads with regulators in the middle of the bank area and a staggered power-up scheme for 3D stacked (3DS) DRAM. Yield is enhanced by introducing ECC for redundant cell operation and by developing an advanced built-in self-repair scheme that automatically corrects bit-errors at the application level.
Eating Disorder Examination (EDE)/(EDE-Q)

The Eating Disorder Examination (EDE) is a semi-structured, investigator-based interview that assesses the cognitive and behavioral symptoms associated with eating disorders (Fairburn and Cooper 1993; Fairburn et al. 2008). Cognitive symptoms (e.g., dissatisfaction with shape, dietary restraint) are assessed for the past 28 days and are rated on a 7-point Likert scale from 0 to 6, with higher scores representing more severe pathology. These items can be used to create four lower-order subscales (restraint, eating concern, shape concern, weight concern) as well as a higher-order global score. Behavioral symptoms (e.g., objective bulimic episodes (OBEs), subjective bulimic episodes (SBEs), compensatory behaviors) are each assessed over the past 3 months and are rated using frequency scores (i.e., the number of times a behavior occurred). The EDE was originally developed as a dimensional measure of eating disorder pathology; however, the EDE can also be used to derive DSM-IV (v.16 and earlier) and DSM-5 (v.17) diagnoses. The EDE does not assess lifetime symptoms and does not assess symptoms of feeding disorders. The interview is available for free online (http:// credo-oxford.com/7.2.html), takes approximately 60 min to administer, and requires training in eating disorder pathology, assessment techniques, and the specific rules that govern EDE ratings. The Eating Disorder ExaminationQuestionnaire (EDE-Q) is a self-report questionnaire version of the EDE (Fairburn and Beglin 1994, 2008). The EDE-Q uses the same rating scales as well as nearly identical items and phrasing as the interview. Thus, the questionnaire can be used to derive the same subscales as the interview. One difference between the EDE and EDE-Q is that the EDE-Q only assesses eating disorder pathology during the past month, whereas the EDE includes several items that assess symptoms in months 2 and 3. Despite this difference, algorithms can be used to derive proxy DSM-IV and DSM-5 diagnoses from the EDE-Q. The EDE-Q is available for free online (http:// credo-oxford.com/7.2.html) and takes approximately 15 min to administer.
Tricuspid valve endocarditis in the era of the opioid epidemic.

BACKGROUND AND AIM We reviewed our institutional experience with tricuspid valve endocarditis to understand the impact of the opioid epidemic on the incidence of right heart endocarditis. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed all cases of tricuspid endocarditis managed surgically from January of 2011 to May of 2017. There were no exclusion criteria. RESULTS A total of 126 patients were identified. There were seven cases in 2011 and 36 in 2016. The average age of the patients decreased from 52.85 ± 19.6 years in 2011 to 39.2 ± 12.9 in 2017. Caucasians comprised 71% of the patients in 2011 and 75% in 2016. Tricuspid valve replacement was performed in 74 patients (58.73%) and repair was performed in 52 (41.27%). Thirty-day mortality was 11.11%. Reoperation, stroke and renal failure requiring dialysis during the index hospitalization were 5.6%, 0.8%, and 8%, respectively. Staphylococcus aureus, found in 43% of cases, was the most common isolate throughout the study period. Streptococcus was the second most common causative agent. CONCLUSIONS In a span of 5 years, our institution has noted a fivefold increase in surgical volume for tricuspid endocarditis, most likely related to the impact of the opioid epidemic.
Robust non-reciprocal lasing in topological cavities of arbitrary geometries

We present non-reciprocal topological cavities operating at telecommunication wavelengths. The unidirectional stimulated emission has an isolation ratio of about 10 dB between the output ports.
A Mathematical Model of the Inflammatory Response to Pathogen Challenge

The human body's immune response to bacterial challenge, even when successful in controlling the infection, can result in negative consequences for the host, including reduced functionality of associated tissues. We present and analyze a low-dimensional mathematical model of this immune response to pathogen invasion, incorporating the coordinated actions of active immune cells, and both pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. The model simulates both the positive (pathogen reduction) and negative (local tissue dysfunction) effects of the immune response and includes the important role of immunologic memory in the process of a return to stasis. This differential equation-based model is sufficiently general to be applicable to a wide range of human tissues and organs.
Nuclear Spins and Magnetic Moments of Rb 85 and Rb 87

The atomic beam method of "zero moments" has been applied to measure the nuclear spins and h.f.s. separations, $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\nu}$, of the $^{2}S_{\frac{1}{2}}$ states of ${\mathrm{Rb}}^{85}$ and ${\mathrm{Rb}}^{87}$. We find the spin of ${\mathrm{Rb}}^{85}$ to be 5/2 and that of ${\mathrm{Rb}}^{87}$ 3/2, in agreement with the most probable values given by Kopfermann. With the value of $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\nu}$ for sodium as a standard we were able to measure the $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\nu}$'s of the Rb isotopes with a precision of 1 percent. We find these values to be 0.1018 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ for ${\mathrm{Rb}}^{85}$ and 0.229 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ for ${\mathrm{Rb}}^{87}$, as compared with Kopfermann's values of 0.105 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ and 0.240 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ respectively. The magnetic moments calculated from the modified Goudsmit formula, are 1.44 nuclear magnetons for ${\mathrm{Rb}}^{85}$ and 2.92 for ${\mathrm{Rb}}^{87}$. The ratio of magnetic moments, $\frac{{\ensuremath{\mu}}_{87}}{{\ensuremath{\mu}}_{85}}$, is found to be 2.026, with a precision of 0.2 percent. The $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\nu}$ for Cs was also measured with a precision of 1 percent. The result, 0.307 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, is in excellent agreement with the value 0.3067 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ of Granath and Stranathan.
Obesity, the Metabolic Syndrome, and Pulmonary Hypertension

Pulmonary hypertension may be caused by many different conditions, classified broadly into five categories by the World Health Organization. The primary determinants of pulmonary vascular pressure are left atrial pressure, pulmonary vascular resistance, and flow through the pulmonary circulation. In this chapter, the effects of obesity on each of these components are considered. Currently, there is ample evidence that obesity and its attendant systemic diseases play a role in increasing left atrial pressure and may affect flow through the pulmonary vasculature. Hypoxia is a potent pulmonary vasoconstrictor, and increased pulmonary vascular resistance is well described in patients with hypoxemia associated with sleep-disordered breathing or obesity hypoventilation. There is also a growing body of literature that fat cytokines such as adiponectin and insulin resistance associated with obesity may contribute to the development of primary pulmonary vascular disease such as pulmonary arterial hypertension. In addition to examining the role obesity may play in pulmonary hypertension etiology, this chapter will review the difficulty obesity poses to accurately diagnosing pulmonary vascular disease and the role of obesity in pulmonary hypertension therapy.
Multivariate Analysis of Radiologists' Usage of Phrases that Convey Diagnostic Certainty.

Rationale and Objectives To quantify the use of Diagnostic Certainty Phrases (DCP) in radiology reports, including DCPs with good agreement (including “diagnostic of,” “unlikely” and “represents”) in connoting degree of certainty between providers based on previous studies; and to assess whether modality, presence of a trainee, radiologic subspecialty, and individual radiologists are associated with the usage of DCPs with good agreement. Materials and Methods This retrospective, IRB-approved study was conducted at an academic medical center. Radiology reports that contain DCPs were identified using information retrieval from all reports generated in 2016, excluding mammograms, obstetrical ultrasound, bone densitometry, and interventional studies. DCPs connoting good agreement were further noted. Of the reports that contained DCPs, a two-level hierarchical generalized linear model with attending as the level-two variable was performed comparing the use of DCP with good agreement while considering trainee involvement, modality, and subspecialty. Results A total of 159,151 reports out of 370,881 were found to have at least one DCP (43%). Reports of CT scans had the most number of DCP (68% of all CT reports). Breast and abdomen subspecialties were associated with use of DCP with good agreement. There was significant variation in use of DCP with good agreement between physicians that could not be explained by modality, trainee presence, and subspecialty. Conclusion Phrases to convey diagnostic certainty were commonly used in radiology reports. There is wide variation in usage of DCP with good agreement. Future interventions to reduce variation in use of DCPs may reduce ambiguity and improve quality of radiology reports.
Empty Curriculum, Empty Mind: Teaching Mindfulness with Military Veterans:

This conceptual essay places the Buddhist notion of sunyata, or emptiness, at the heart of the enterprise of teaching mindfulness with military veterans. It is a term that brings before us the nece...
Unilateral nevoid telangiectasia, diagnostic and therapeutic challenge

The Unilateral Nevoid Telangiectasia consists of a rare vascular dermatitis whose etiology remains undefined making it difficult to treat Due to the scarcity of data in the literature its diagnosis and its treatment represent a challenge There is a predominance of this pathology in females in the proportion of The main hypothesis for its etiopathogeny is hyperestrogenism This justifies the performance of pregnancy tests dosage of liver enzymes or serologies for hepatotrophic viruses to investigate situations that raise estrogen The diagnosis is exclusively clinical The therapeutic modality instituted is laser therapy Both the Nd YAG nm long pulse laser and pulsed dye laser are effective for the treatment of vascular lesions
Common spatial pattern and wavelet decomposition for motor imagery EEG- fTCD brain-computer interface.

Abstract Background Recently, hybrid brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) combining more than one modality have been investigated with the aim of boosting the performance of the existing single-modal BCIs in terms of accuracy and information transfer rate (ITR). Previously, we introduced a novel hybrid BCI in which EEG and fTCD modalities are used simultaneously to measure electrical brain activity and cerebral blood velocity during motor imagery (MI) tasks. New method In this paper, we used multi-scale analysis and common spatial pattern algorithm to extract EEG and fTCD features. Moreover, we proposed probabilistic fusion of EEG and fTCD evidences instead of concatenating EEG and fTCD feature vectors corresponding to each trial. A Bayesian approach was proposed to fuse EEG and fTCD evidences under 3 different assumptions. Results Experimental results showed that 93.85%, 93.71%, and 100% average accuracies and 19.89, 26.55, and 40.83 bits/min average ITRs were achieved for right MI vs baseline, left MI versus baseline, and right MI versus left MI respectively. Comparison with existing methods These performance measures outperformed the results we obtained before in our preliminary study in which average accuracies of 88.33%, 89.48%, and 82.38% and average ITRs of 4.17, 5.45, and 10.57 bits/min were achieved for right MI versus baseline, left MI versus baseline, and right MI versus left MI respectively. Moreover, in terms of both accuracy and speed, the EEG- fTCD BCI with the proposed analysis techniques outperformed all EEG- fNIRS studies in comparison. Conclusions The proposed system is a more accurate and faster alternative to EEG-fNIRS systems.
Successful Implementation of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Support as a Bridge to Heart-Lung Transplantation in an Eisenmenger's Syndrome Patient With Paradoxical Coronary Embolism.

We report a case of a 23-year-old female with a history of unrepaired ventricular septal defect and pulmonary arterial hypertension with Eisenmenger’s syndrome (ES) presenting with chest pain. Elec...
A Relational Theory of Risk: a Case Study of the Asian Longhorned Beetle Infestation in Worcester, MA

The rise of globalization and global increases in temperature have prompted the spread of invasive species, which poses a major threat to the ecosystem benefits provided by urban forests. Stakehold...
Multi-state semi-markov modeling of recurrent events: estimating driver waiting time at semi-controlled crosswalks

Abstract At “semi-controlled” crosswalks, signs and markings are present, but delay to pedestrians and motorists is largely the result of the “negotiation” between the two parties to determine who yields. This paper proposes a novel approach using multi-state semi-Markov models to investigate motorists’ delay and their interactions with pedestrians. Motorist waiting behavior can be divided into a series of gap acceptance decisions as part of a Markov Chain. Each gap acceptance decision is modeled as a specific transition between two states in the Markov Chain. To demonstrate the reliability of the proposed models, multi-state semi-Markov models are estimated for the waiting behavior of more than 1,000 drivers in the presence of pedestrians at semi-controlled crosswalks. The multi-state semi-Markov models are capable of dealing with specific challenges related to (i) the need to account for recurrent events and (ii) a generalized framework for vehicle delay estimation and simulation at semi-controlled crosswalks. The extent to which motorists behave more aggressively and impatiently as their delay increases is demonstrated. Differences in behavior for operators of buses and trucks were also identified. The semi-Markov method is also able to deal effectively with the “pulsing” arrival patterns of pedestrians at crosswalks as university classes begin and end nearby and handle temporal heterogeneity. Finally, to address aggressive driver behavior, several safety implications are discussed.
Bottleneck Problems: An Information and Estimation-Theoretic View

Information bottleneck (IB) and privacy funnel (PF) are two closely related optimization problems which have found applications in machine learning, design of privacy algorithms, capacity problems (e.g., Mrs. Gerber’s Lemma), and strong data processing inequalities, among others. In this work, we first investigate the functional properties of IB and PF through a unified theoretical framework. We then connect them to three information-theoretic coding problems, namely hypothesis testing against independence, noisy source coding, and dependence dilution. Leveraging these connections, we prove a new cardinality bound on the auxiliary variable in IB, making its computation more tractable for discrete random variables. In the second part, we introduce a general family of optimization problems, termed “bottleneck problems”, by replacing mutual information in IB and PF with other notions of mutual information, namely f-information and Arimoto’s mutual information. We then argue that, unlike IB and PF, these problems lead to easily interpretable guarantees in a variety of inference tasks with statistical constraints on accuracy and privacy. While the underlying optimization problems are non-convex, we develop a technique to evaluate bottleneck problems in closed form by equivalently expressing them in terms of lower convex or upper concave envelope of certain functions. By applying this technique to a binary case, we derive closed form expressions for several bottleneck problems.
The Impact of Educational Resources and Perceived Preparedness on Medical Education Performance.

Undergraduate medical education has evolved necessarily with the increasing utilization of technology and the availability of ancillary resources developed for medical students. However, medical educational resources are expensive and there have been few studies validating these resources for their ability to significantly modify student exam performance. A post-exam survey was devised to evaluate medical students for resource usage, student-perceived preparedness, and exam performance. Students who felt more prepared for exams performed better than students who felt less prepared (p = .017). Students who watched didactic lectures online and those who utilized peer-to-peer tutoring outperformed students who did not use these resources (p = .035, p = .008). Analyses of the data show that none of the purchased resources utilized significantly improved student exam performance. The majority of students used between six and eight resources for exam preparation. There may be a slightly negative association with the quantity of resources used and exam scores (p = .18). Contrary to traditional confidence studies that correlate overconfidence with underperformance, medical students who reported feeling more prepared for exams performed better than students who felt less prepared. Medical students may have a more complete grasp of their knowledge base and deficits, which may enable a more accurate match between exam expectations and academic performance. This post-exam survey method can be customized and applied to evaluate resource utility as it pertains to specific undergraduate medical education curricula at individual institutions.
Integrative data analysis of self-efficacy in 4 clinical trials for alcohol use disorder.

BACKGROUND Self-efficacy has been proposed as a key predictor of alcohol treatment outcomes and a potential mechanism of success in achieving abstinence or drinking reductions following alcohol treatment. Integrative data analysis, where data from multiple studies are combined for analyses, can be used to synthesize analyses across multiple alcohol treatment trials by creating a commensurate measure and controlling for differential item functioning (DIF) to determine whether alcohol treatments improve self-efficacy. METHOD The current study used moderated nonlinear factor analysis (MNLFA) to examine the effect of treatment on self-efficacy across four different treatment studies (N = 3720; 72.5% male, 68.4% non-Hispanic white). Self-efficacy was measured using the Alcohol Abstinence Self-Efficacy Scale (AASE) in the COMBINE Study (n = 1383) and Project MATCH (n = 1726), and the Drug Taking Confidence Questionnaire (DTCQ) in two studies of Telephone Continuing Care (TEL Study 1: n = 303; TEL Study 2: n = 212). DIF was examined across time, study, treatment condition, marital status, age, and sex. RESULTS We identified 12 items from the AASE and DTCQ to create a commensurate measure of self-efficacy using MNLFA. All active treatments, including cognitive-behavioral treatment, a combined behavioral intervention, medication management, motivation enhancement treatment, telephone continuing care, twelve-step facilitation, and relapse prevention, were associated with significant increases in self-efficacy from baseline to posttreatment that were maintained for up to a year. Importantly, treatment as usual in community settings, which consisted of weekly group therapy that included addiction counseling and twelve-step recovery support, was not associated with significant increases in self-efficacy. CONCLUSIONS Alcohol self-efficacy increases following treatment and numerous evidence-based treatments are associated with significant increases in self-efficacy, which are maintained over time. Community treatment that focuses solely on addiction counseling and twelve-step support may not promote increases in self-efficacy.
Urbanization, Water Quality, and the Regulated Landscape

Watershed scientists frequently describe urbanization as a primary cause of water quality degradation, and recent studies conclude that even in lightly-developed watersheds, urbanization often precludes attainment of water quality standards. This article considers legal responses to this pervasive problem. It explains why traditional legal measures have been ineffective, and it evaluates several recent innovations piloted in the northeastern United States and potentially applicable across the nation. Specifically, the innovations involve using impervious cover TMDLs, residual designation authority, and collective permitting. More generally, the innovations involve transferring regulatory focus from end-of-the-pipe to landscape-based controls. I conclude that the innovations, while raising some new problems, represent a promising shift, and it discuss additional reforms and research needed to better reconcile legal water quality standards and traditional land development patterns.
Analysis of tones in the double loop /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ modulator with unstable filter dynamics

In this paper we analyze the tone behavior of the double loop /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ modulator with unstable filter dynamics. We show that some unstable limit cycles have an attractor region in their neighborhood which results in tones in the spectrum corresponding to the fundamental or harmonics of these limit cycles. We develop the tools to determine whether or not an unstable limit cycle has an attractor in its neighborhood and obtain a method to approximate the boundaries of these attractors. >
Leo Strauss in Peking

Das politische Ideengebaude von Leo Strauss, das die Vorstellung von einer geistigen Aristokratie enthalt, die fur eine gerechte und nicht korrupte Regierung sorgen soll, basiert auf Konzepten der antiken und korrespondiert mit Konzepten der klassischen chinesischen politischen Philosophie. Das erklart das aktuelle Interesse, das Leo Strauss und andere deutsche und lateinische politische Denker unter chinesischen Intellektuellen finden.
Energy conservation policies for web servers

Energy management for servers is now necessary for technical, financial, and environmental reasons. This paper describes three policies designed to reduce energy consumption in Web servers. The policies employ two power management mechanisms: dynamic voltage scaling (DVS), an existing mechanism, and request batching, a new mechanism introduced in this paper. The first policy uses DVS in isolation, except that we extend recently introduced task-based DVS policies for use in server environments with many concurrent tasks. The second policy uses request batching to conserve energy during periods of low workload intensity. The third policy uses both DVS and request batching mechanisms to reduce processor energy usage over a wide range of workload intensities. All the policies trade off system responsiveness to save energy. However, the policies employ the mechanisms in a feedback-driven control framework in order to conserve energy while maintaining a given quality of service level, as defined by a percentile-level response time. We evaluate the policies using Salsa, a web server simulator that has been extensively validated for both energy and response time against measurements from a commodity web server. Three daylong static web workloads from real web server systems are used to quantify the energy savings: the Nagano Olympics98 web server, a financial services company web site, and a disk intensive web workload. Our results show that when required to maintain a 90th-percentile response time of 50ms, the DVS and request batching policies save from 8.7% to 38% and from 3.1% to 27% respectively of the CPU energy used by the base system. The two polices provide these savings for complementary workload intensities. The combined policy is effective for all three workloads across a broad range of intensities, saving from 17% to 42% of the CPU energy.
Friends in High Places: The Effects of Relational Status and Leadership in Decision-Making Groups

Leaders often establish personal relationships with their subordinates. These relationships are quite useful to both leaders and their followers. Such personal connections allow leaders to better motivate their subordinates, more efficiently communicate with them, increase trust, and receive informal feedback. In exchange, subordinates receive more resources, job variety, promotions and compensation (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995). Despite these benefits of personal relationships, leaders are often unable to or fail to establish close relationships with all their subordinates. As a result, leaders create an inner circle of friends and an outer circle of excluded subordinates who are overlooked for their contributions and advice (Dansereau, Graen, & Haga, 1975). This pattern of leadership behavior is commonly referred to as the vertical dyad model of leadership also known as leader-member exchange (LMX) (Yukl, 1999).
Methodological Issues in Comparative Effectiveness Research: Clinical Trials

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Cooperative Studies Program has been conducting comparative effectiveness clinical trials for nearly 4 decades in many disease areas, including cardiovascular disease/surgery, diabetes mellitus, mental health, neurologic disorders, cancer, infectious diseases, and rheumatoid arthritis. The features that have made this program advantageous for conducting comparative effectiveness clinical trials are described along with methodological considerations for future trials based on lessons learned from its experience conducting these types of studies. Some of the lessons learned involve managing risk factors, clinical equipoise, patient preferences, evolving technology, the use of usual care as a comparator and pharmaceutical issues related to study drug blinding. These issues are not unique to the VA but can play an important role in enabling valid comparisons between treatments that may have differences in delivery or mechanisms of action and could affect the execution and feasibility of conducting a clinical trial with a comparative effectiveness aim. We also outline some future directions for comparative effectiveness clinical trials.