cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Genome wide screening of candidate genes for improving piglet birth weight using high and low estimated breeding value populations.

Birth weight is an economically important trait in pig production because it directly impacts piglet growth and survival rate. In the present study, we performed a genome wide survey of candidate genes and pathways associated with individual birth weight (IBW) using the Illumina PorcineSNP60 BeadChip on 24 high (HEBV) and 24 low estimated breeding value (LEBV) animals. These animals were selected from a reference population of 522 individuals produced by three sires and six dam lines, which were crossbreds with multiple breeds. After quality-control, 43,257 SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms), including 42,243 autosomal SNPs and 1,014 SNPs on chromosome X, were used in the data analysis. A total of 27 differentially selected regions (DSRs), including 1 on Sus scrofa chromosome 1 (SSC1), 1 on SSC4, 2 on SSC5, 4 on SSC6, 2 on SSC7, 5 on SSC8, 3 on SSC9, 1 on SSC14, 3 on SSC18, and 5 on SSCX, were identified to show the genome wide separations between the HEBV and LEBV groups for IBW in piglets. A DSR with the most number of significant SNPs (including 7 top 0.1% and 31 top 5% SNPs) was located on SSC6, while another DSR with the largest genetic differences in FST was found on SSC18. These regions harbor known functionally important genes involved in growth and development, such as TNFRSF9 (tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member 9), CA6 (carbonic anhydrase VI) and MDFIC (MyoD family inhibitor domain containing). A DSR rich in imprinting genes appeared on SSC9, which included PEG10 (paternally expressed 10), SGCE (sarcoglycan, epsilon), PPP1R9A (protein phosphatase 1, regulatory subunit 9A) and ASB4 (ankyrin repeat and SOCS box containing 4). More importantly, our present study provided evidence to support six quantitative trait loci (QTL) regions for pig birth weight, six QTL regions for average birth weight (ABW) and three QTL regions for litter birth weight (LBW) reported previously by other groups. Furthermore, gene ontology analysis with 183 genes harbored in these 27 DSRs suggested that protein, metal, ion and ATP binding, viral process and innate immune response present important pathways for deciphering their roles in fetal growth or development. Overall, our study provides useful information on candidate genes and pathways for regulating birth weight in piglets, thus improving our understanding of the genetic mechanisms involved in porcine embryonic or fetal development.
Failure mechanisms and optimum design for electroplated copper Through-Silicon Vias (TSV)

Through-Silicon Vias (TSVs) have garnered a lot of interest in recent years because TSV is a key enabling technology for three dimensional (3D) Integrated Circuit (IC) stacking, silicon interposer technology, and advanced wafer level packaging (WLP). There has been significant effort in TSV fabrication and electrical design. However, considerably less work has been done on thermo-mechanical analysis and mechanical design of these structures. Due to the high coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch between Si and the conducting material in the vias, thermo-mechanical reliability is a major concern. This paper uses Finite-Element (FE) models and X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments for the thermo-mechanical analysis of TSVs. Two-dimensional thermo-mechanical Finite-element models have been built to analyze the stress/strain distribution in the TSV structures, and the models show that large stress gradients and plastic deformation exist near the corner of electroplated Cu pads. The stress results from the finite-element models have been compared against XRD experimental data. A fracture mechanics analysis has also been performed, and the fracture analysis shows that Cu/SiO 2 interfacial cracks and SiO 2 cohesive cracks are more likely to initiate and propagate at those corner locations.
Support vector machines using GMM supervectors for speaker verification

Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) have proven extremely successful for text-independent speaker recognition. The standard training method for GMM models is to use MAP adaptation of the means of the mixture components based on speech from a target speaker. Recent methods in compensation for speaker and channel variability have proposed the idea of stacking the means of the GMM model to form a GMM mean supervector. We examine the idea of using the GMM supervector in a support vector machine (SVM) classifier. We propose two new SVM kernels based on distance metrics between GMM models. We show that these SVM kernels produce excellent classification accuracy in a NIST speaker recognition evaluation task.
Method using multiple models to superresolve SAR imagery

This paper introduces a methodology for the superresolution of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images using multiple target and clutter models. The system has two major components: a mechanism that selects the appropriate model for superresolution and a bank of model estimators to accomplish the superresolution. The typical point scatterer model is incorporated into this technique as well as a model for clutter. Other models can be naturally incorporated. This methodology is flexible in that it can utilize many of the well-known modern spectral estimation techniques. The ability to more accurately model targets using models other than the point scatterer as well as the importance of including models for clutter into a superresolution paradigm is addressed. These issues are shown to be relevant to the automatic target recognition/detection problem. We present a comparison of our technique with other SAR imaging methods and discuss the relative benefits afforded by such an approach.© (1998) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
A Method of Eliminating the Electrification of Paraffin Ribbons

An apparatus for effectively eliminating the electrification of paraffin ribbons can be constructed for about $2. The essential parts are: a Ford T-TT induction coil to which is connected two, 4-inch brass or copper strips. To the end of one strip is soldered a copper disc 1 1/2 inches in diameter, which is then covered with heavy tinfoil. To the second strip is soldered one-half of a similar disc and its surface is also covered with several layers of tinfoil. The tinfoil should extend 1/2 inch beyond the straight edge of the half circle copper plate. The foil extending is cut to present 15 or 20 pointed projections. The coil is supplied with current from a toy train transformer yielding 5 to 12 volts or 4 to 6 amps. When the coil is in operation the two discs should be moved apart to a distance just beyond which the spark fails to jump. The apparatus is so set that the two brass strips are parallel to and 1 or 2 inches above the microtome knife. A bell push-button may be inserted into the circuit so that...
Power control in random access ad hoc networks

It has been shown that throughput in wireless networks is enhanced by using scheduled transmissions, low transmitter power, and multiple short hops to relay a packet from its source to its destination. There remain several difficulties with this approach. For example, relaying over many hops can cause large packet delays. The routing and slot assignment protocols can also incur a large overhead penalty. Thus, in many cases, it may be necessary to forego this approach and have nodes transmit directly to their intended receivers using random access techniques. If random channel access is used, a receiver may experience interference from packets intended for other radios. Interference can be limited by having nodes reduce their power to their intended destinations. However, without multi-hop routing, the possibility of a receiver experiencing very strong interference remains because it is likely that some transmitters may not be able to reduce their power levels substantially. Any gains achieved by lowering power levels to reduce interference may be countered by the loss of extra link margin that can protect against interference. Also, because frequency hopping (FH) is relatively immune to the near/far problem, it is not clear that a power control strategy which works well for FH systems would also work well for non-hopping networks. In this paper, the throughput attainable from several deterministic and random power control strategies will be considered for non-hopping and frequency-hop random access networks using a power-based capture model for reception.
A Whole‐Genome Simulator Capable of Modeling High‐Order Epistasis for Complex Disease

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been successful in finding numerous new risk variants for complex diseases, but the results almost exclusively rely on single-marker scans. Methods that can analyze joint effects of many variants in GWAS data are still being developed and trialed. To evaluate the performance of such methods it is essential to have a GWAS data simulator that can rapidly simulate a large number of samples, and capture key features of real GWAS data such as linkage disequilibrium (LD) among single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and joint effects of multiple loci (multilocus epistasis). In the current study, we combine techniques for specifying high-order epistasis among risk SNPs with an existing program GWAsimulator [Li and Li, 2008] to achieve rapid whole-genome simulation with accurate modeling of complex interactions. We considered various approaches to specifying interaction models including the following: departure from product of marginal effects for pairwise interactions, product terms in logistic regression models for low-order interactions, and penetrance tables conforming to marginal effect constraints for high-order interactions or prescribing known biological interactions. Methods for conversion among different model specifications are developed using penetrance table as the fundamental characterization of disease models. The new program, called simGWA, is capable of efficiently generating large samples of GWAS data with high precision. We show that data simulated by simGWA are faithful to template LD structures, and conform to prespecified diseases models with (or without) interactions.
Extraction of illusory linear clues in perspectively skewed documents

The article deals with the recovery of illusory linear clues from perspectively skewed documents, with the purpose of using them for rectification. The computational approach proposed implements the perceptual organization principles implicitly used in textual layouts. The numerous examples provided show that the method is robust and viewpoint and scale invariant.
Gardner's syndrome in a 40-year-old woman: successful treatment of locally aggressive desmoid tumors with cytotoxic chemotherapy

Background Desmoid tumors that present as a part of Gardener's syndrome can present very difficult management problems.
A Taxonomy of Consumer Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction Measures

Government and business have become more concerned with measuring market performance in terms of consumer satisfactions and dissatisfactions (CS/D). This article is concerned with the question of how one ought to measure CS/D. It offers a taxonomy of alternative CS/D measures and presents data from a national urban study of consumer complaints to evaluate four of the proposed categories. Biases in several scales are identified and recommendations are offered for needed improvements in these measures for future CS/D research. Measures of initial non-price problems and unsatisfied non-price voiced complaints appear to be the preferred measures given our present state of knowledge.
The groove between the alpha- and beta-subunits of hormones with lutropin (LH) activity appears to contact the LH receptor, and its conformation is changed during hormone binding.

Abstract Gonadotropins are heterodimeric glycoprotein hormones that control vertebrate fertility through their actions on gonadal lutropin (luteinizing hormone, LH) and follitropin (follicle-stimulating hormone, FSH) receptors. The β-subunits of these hormones control receptor binding specificity; however, the region of the β-subunit that contacts the receptor has not been identified. By a process of elimination we show this contact to be the portions of β-subunit loops one and three found in a hormone groove created by the juxtaposition of the α- and β-subunits. Most other regions of the β-subunit can be recognized by antibodies that bind to human chorionic hormone (hCG)-receptor complexes or replaced without disrupting hormone function. Using a series of bovine LH/hCG and human FSH/hCG β-subunit chimeras we identified key hCG β-subunit residues in the epitopes of two antibodies that bind to hCG-receptor complexes. These epitopes include the surfaces of β-subunit loops one and three near residue 74 on the outside of the hormone groove and parts of the C-terminal end of the “seat belt” that holds the two subunits together. The antibody that recognized residue 74 bound to receptor complexes containing most mammalian lutropins better than to the free hormones, an indication that the outside surface of the β-subunit groove is altered during hormone binding. This region of the β-subunit is furthest from the α-subunit and is recognized equally well in the free β-subunit and in the heterodimer. Thus, the receptor associated increase in antibody binding appears due to an interaction of this portion of the β-subunit with the receptor and not to an effect of the receptor on the relative positions of the α- and β-subunits. Unlike most previous studies designed to identify portions of the β-subunit likely to contact the LH receptor, this indirect approach provides data that are more easily interpreted because it does not rely on the use of mutations that disrupt hormone function. The approach described here should be valuable for studying the receptor interactions of other complex ligands.
Seizure freedom off antiepileptic drugs after temporal lobe epilepsy surgery

Summary Data are limited on seizure recurrence after antiepileptic drug (AED) discontinuation in operated seizure-free patients. We reviewed seizure outcome in patients who came off AEDs after being seizure-free for 2 years following temporal lobe surgery in our center. Thirty-nine (68%) of 57 patients who discontinued AED therapy remained seizure-free. They had a younger age at surgery than the group with seizure recurrence ( p =0.01). Earlier surgery may be a favorable predictor for seizure freedom after AED discontinuation.
Asbestos-Induced Mesothelioma

Asbestos, a group of chemically and physically distinct fibers, is one of the most notorious carcinogens in the lung and pleura. The National Institutes of Health in 1978 estimated that approximately 11 million individuals had been exposed to asbestos in the United States since 1940 (1). Although widely employed in World Wars I and II, the use of asbestos has undergone major changes in recent decades, with severe restrictions in most countries on amphiboles. In developed countries, with the exception of Japan, asbestos production is controlled or banned, while in developing countries, consumption has leveled off or increased (2). Between the 1940s and 1970s, asbestos was utilized extensively in insulation applications (primarily in the building construction industry), and in asbestos-cement pipes. Current usage is generally confined to chrysotile in four products: asbestos cement, friction materials, roof coating and cements, and gaskets. In 1992 approximately 28 million tons of asbestos-cement products were produced in approximately 100 countries (3).
The U.S. Public׳s Investment in Medical Research: An Evolving Social Contract

Medical researchers and their institutions are operating under extraordinary financial stress. More than a decade after completion of the 5-year doubling of the National Institutes of Health budget, the medical research community must confront a significant loss in National Institutes of Health purchasing power and downward pressures in federal discretionary spending. In part, this trend results from a federal budget stalemate over the growth in entitlement programs, particularly spending on medical care. This article considers the changing nature of the federal investment in medical research and the potential for medical researchers and institutions conducting the full spectrum of research to improve health system performance and health equity. In our view, continued federal investments reflect an evolving social contract for research serving the public good; the term contract is used metaphorically to represent a figurative, implicit agreement between the scientific community and the public's representatives in government. Under this conceptual contract, the American people--who are ultimately the funders of research, research training and infrastructure--expect outcomes that lead to better health, security or other benefits. The evolving contract includes expectations for more accountability, transparency, sharing of results and resources, and better integration of research systems and cultures that used to take pride in boundaries and distinctions. We outline here some of the major movements of organizations realigning to social support, which are increasingly essential to sustain public investment in medical research.
Numerical Modeling of Pressure Drop Across High Porosity Metal Foams

This paper discusses the development of a numerical model to predict the overall pressure drop during fluid flow through high porosity metal foams. The porous medium is represented as a 3-D array of circular cylinders. Numerical Modeling of fluid flow through the cylinder array was done using the CFD software ICEPAK from Fluent Inc. The cylinder diameters corresponded to the fiber diameter of the respective metal foam sample. Similarly, the pitch (center to center distance between two adjacent cylinders) in all three directions was set equal to the pore diameter. Following a comprehensive grid dependence study for each cylinder array, the model was exercised for flow velocities from 0.5 to 4.0 m/s. The pressure drop across the array and the pressure gradient in the direction of flow was calculated from the model. A comparison of the numerical results with the experimental data indicated that the computed values were lower by factors of 2.7 to 3.2. The suggestion is that the flow resistance in the idealized 3D cylinder array is much less compared to the actual metal foam. The discrepancy is attributed to the tortuosity, χ, of the metal foam is much higher than the cylinder array. This difference leads to lower values of permeability, which accounts for higher pressure drop. With the tortuosity corrections applied to the numerical values of permeability (and inertial coefficient), the agreement with the experimental data is found to be excellent. The corrected model was next exercised for a wide range of porosity and pore sizes and found to be in good agreement with the experimental data for all the corresponding metal foam samples. NOMENCLATURE A Area (m) C Coefficient d Diameter (m) f Inertial coefficient G Shape function, Eq. (3) K Permeability (m) P Pressure (Pa) Re Reynolds number μ ρVD s Spacing (m) U,V Velocity (m/s) Subscripts D diameter, drag f fiber in inlet p pore Greek Symbols e porosity ∆ difference χ tortuosity μ viscosity (N-s/m) ρ density (kg/m)
Wordplay: An Examination of Semantic Approaches to Classify Safety Reports

Aviation safety reports, such as those of the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP) and the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), provide a valuable record of safety incidents for industry analysts. Unfortunately, the sheer quantity of safety reports often makes it difficult to identify recurring safety issues and their causes. In response, NASA has explored the use of text classification techniques to automatically identify safety issues from the text of safety reports. One common approach for text classification is to use a statistical model of word occurrences in each report (often referred to as a bag of words), and use these models to train a classifier. We performed an experiment to evaluate whether simple semantic approaches could improve classification results with a support vector machine (SVM) classifier by factoring semantic relationships of words into the statistical model. Counter to our intuition, most of these semantic enhancements did not improve classification results. One method of combining meaningful words did show an improvement over the standard approach, however, and is presented along with the results of our study.
Significance of Length of Tibial Spines Relative to Oviposition Processes by Some Leafhoppers (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae)

Several workers have mentioned the chalky white deposits that occur on the elytra of certain cicadellid females. Swain (1936) described the process of oviposition by Oncometopia orbona (F.)[2][1] and the way by which the females subsequently covered their egg clusters with a powdery white substance. He quoted the description by Riley and Howard (1892–93) of the powdery spots on the elytra of Homalodisca coagulata (Say). Turner and Pollard (1959) explained the manner in which the spots of chalky material accumulate on the elytra of H. coagulata, 0. orbona , and Homalodisca insolita (Walker). However, the relationship between the length of tibial spines and the presence of the chalky deposit on the egg clusters of these leafhoppers, as herein reported, apparently was not discussed in previous publications [1]: #fn-1
Can we mix behavioral therapy with hypnotics when treating insomniacs

This study asks whether insomniacs undergoing behavioral training need to do so while totally free of hypnotics. Twenty-six insomniacs participated in the study, which included extensive monitoring of sleep both in the laboratory and at home. All subjects received six sessions of training in sleep hygiene and relaxation. About half the subjects were also given a hypnotic for occasional use; the others were asked to abstain from all hypnotics. Follow-up was performed immediately after treatment and again 10 months later. When compared with a waiting list, 6 hours of behavioral therapy improved insomniacs' sleep latency and sleep efficiency immediately after treatment, whether or not hypnotics were given concomitantly. Immediately following the 6 hours of therapy, those who had combined pharmacotherapy and behavior therapy improved about the same as those who had received behavior therapy alone. However, on the 10-month follow-up, those who had learned sleep hygiene and relaxation without the help of occasional hypnotics had more sleep and a better sleep efficiency than those who had been allowed an occasional hypnotic. We conclude that when teaching sleep hygiene and behavioral therapy to insomniacs, it might be advantageous to disallow the concomitant use of hypnotics as needed.
Functional Bowel Disturbances in Childhood

Children or their advocates may seek medical attention for a number of functional gastrointestinal disorders. Most functional disorders of childhood are relatively transient, and specific for a particular stage of development. Several are common conditions, frequently managed successfully by practicing pediatricians and only occasionally requiring more extensive evaluations and interventions by the pediatric gastroenterologist. These conditions include infantile colic, chronic nonspecific diarrhea of infancy, and recurrent abdominal pain of childhood. Two other conditions—constipation and gastroesophageal reflux—are found in adults, but require a different diagnostic approach and treatment for children. One functional disorder is serious but rare: chronic intestinal pseudoobstruction. In common, all of the conditions to be discussed (with the possible exception of infantile colic) are considered to be related to disturbances in gastrointestinal motility.
Environmental Control of Drilling Fluids and Produced Water

The chapter presents development of Environmental Control Technology (ECT) for oilfield drilling and production processes using the ECT methods of source reduction, source separation, internal recycling, and internal reuse, introduced in Chap. 2. The methods have been used to reduce volume and toxicity of drilling fluid’s discharge from the wellsite. The volume – reducing techniques include non-dispersive/inhibitive mud formulations, closed-loop and dry-drilling systems with dewatering process. Mud toxicity control employs the method of source reduction through substitution or replacement of toxic mud components and the method of source separation for de-oiling rock cuttings for overboard discharge to the sea.
Bilateral cavernous malformations resulting from cranial irradiation of a choroid plexus papilloma

AbstractWe report a case of multiple parietal cavernous malformations in a thirteen year old female who received cranial irradiation following incomplete resection of a choroid plexus papilloma. The cavernous malformations, which developed within the prior parietal radiation ports, were diagnosed nine years after the patients radiation treatment when the patient presented with increasing frequency of seizures. Family history was negative for familial cavernous malformations. Due to the worsening frequency of seizures, the patient underwent resection of these two cavernous malformations with diagnosis confirmed by pathology. Post-operative, there was a significant reduction in seizure frequency. The origin and pathophysiology of cavernous malformations remains controversial. Cranial radiation treatmen~ for tumors, particularly in children, may possibly lead to the development of these lesions, as occurred in this case. This is, to our knowledge, the first case of multiple cavernous malformations occurring ...
Generating Multiple Diverse Summaries

Authors often re-purpose existing content to create shorter versions for other channels. Automatic summarization techniques can be used to generate a candidate content that can be further fine-tuned by the author. Existing work in automatic summarization primarily focus on providing a single succinct summary. However, this may not suit the needs of a content author or curator, who may want to repurpose/select the content from several alternative candidates. In this paper, we propose an approach to generate multiple diverse summaries, so that authors can choose an appropriate summary without compromising on the summary quality. Our approach can be utilized in conjunction with a large class of extractive summarization techniques, and we illustrate our approach with several summarization techniques. We experimentally show that our approach results in fairly diverse summaries, without compromising the quality of the summaries with respect to the single summary generated by the corresponding base methods.
Regularized Difference Criterion for Computing Discriminants for Dimensionality Reduction

Hyperspectral data classification has shown potential in many applications. However, a large number of spectral bands cause overfitting. Methods for reducing spectral bands, e.g., linear discriminant analysis, require matrix inversion. We propose a semidefinite programming for linear discriminants regularized difference (SLRD) criterion approach that does not require matrix inversion. The paper establishes a classification error bound and provides experimental results with ten methods over six hyperspectral datasets demonstrating the efficacy of the proposed SLRD technique.
Catalytic allylic oxidation of internal alkenes to a multifunctional chiral building block

Non-symmetric internal alkenes are selectively converted into allylic functionalized products with high stereoselectivity and regioselectivity. Allylic functionalization has long been used in organic chemistry to install new chiral centres. These 'ene' reactions have been well studied, but general methods for using internal alkenes and activation with heteroatom-based electrophiles are largely unprecedented. Here, Uttam Tambar and colleagues report the application of a sulfur-based electrophile to incorporate heteroatoms at the allylic position of internal cis-alkenes via a chiral-Lewis-acid-catalysed hetero-ene reaction. Symmetric and non-symmetric internal alkenes can be functionalized with high regio-, E/Z- and stereoselectivity to a multifunctional building block, from which a series of products including alcohols, amines and thiols can be derived in a stereospecific manner. The stereoselective oxidation of hydrocarbons is one of the most notable advances in synthetic chemistry over the past fifty years1,2,3. Inspired by nature, enantioselective dihydroxylations, epoxidations and other oxidations of unsaturated hydrocarbons have been developed. More recently, the catalytic enantioselective allylic carbon–hydrogen oxidation of alkenes has streamlined the production of pharmaceuticals, natural products, fine chemicals and other functional materials4,5,6,7. Allylic functionalization provides a direct path to chiral building blocks with a newly formed stereocentre from petrochemical feedstocks while preserving the olefin functionality as a handle for further chemical elaboration. Various metal-based catalysts have been discovered for the enantioselective allylic carbon–hydrogen oxidation of simple alkenes with cyclic or terminal double bonds8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16. However, a general and selective allylic oxidation using the more common internal alkenes remains elusive. Here we report the enantioselective, regioselective and E/Z-selective allylic oxidation of unactivated internal alkenes via a catalytic hetero-ene reaction with a chalcogen-based oxidant. Our method enables non-symmetric internal alkenes to be selectively converted into allylic functionalized products with high stereoselectivity and regioselectivity. Stereospecific transformations of the resulting multifunctional chiral building blocks highlight the potential for rapidly converting internal alkenes into a broad range of enantioenriched structures that can be used in the synthesis of complex target molecules.
Response to "Clinical Evaluation of Bone Strength and Fracture Risk"

We read with great interest the recent review by de Bakker et al that summarized the state of several existing and emerging technologies for estimating bone strength and fracture risk in vivo. Much of their review focused on how well the measurements of selected technologies predicted experimental measurements of bone strength by ex vivo quasistatic mechanical testing (QMT) and on how well they tracked changes in mechanical properties of bone. The authors noted that the association of many common skeletal health measurements (e.g., DXA measures of trabecular bone score and areal and volumetric BMD) are only moderately associated with bone strength. The authors did not include mechanical response tissue analysis (MRTA) in their review. MRTA is a dynamic mechanical bending test that uses a vibration analysis technique to make immediate, direct, functional measurements of the mechanical properties (mass, stiffness, and damping) of long bones in humans in vivo. In this article we note our interest in the ability of MRTA to detect large changes in bone stiffness that go undetected by DXA. We also highlight results of our proprietary improvements to MRTA technology that have resulted in unmatched accuracy in QMT-validated measurements of the bending stiffness and estimates of the bending strength (both R2 = 0.99) of human ulna bones. To distinguish our improved technique from the legacy MRTA technology, we refer to it as Cortical Bone Mechanics Technology (CBMT). Further research will determine whether such CBMT measurements are clinically useful.
Resection of complex occipital arteriovenous malformation with giant varix: demonstration of microsurgical technique

The complexity of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) does not necessarily preclude surgical resection. In this video the authors present a 72-year-old male who was known to have an occipital AVM with a large draining varix for the previous 10 years. The patient had progressively worsening visual and cognitive deficits over several years. Total surgical resection was achieved following single stage preoperative embolization. Although resection of the AVMs is challenging, even in experienced hands, it offers a cure and may improve patient clinical outcome. The video can be found here: https://youtu.be/YI1AwGjJdvo .
My Brain Contains Multitudes: The Value of a Flexible Approach to Identity

Humans value our identities as individuals and as members of groups: We feel a sense of meaning when we construct our life stories (McAdams, 2001) and a sense of belonging when we lose ourselves in...
Characteristics of Adults Seeking Health Care Provider Support Facilitated by Mobile Technology: Secondary Data Analysis.

Background: Mobile health technology is rapidly evolving with the potential to transform health care. Self-management of health facilitated by mobile technology can maximize long-term health trajectories of adults. Little is known about the characteristics of adults seeking Web-based support from health care providers facilitated by mobile technology. Objective: This study aimed to examine the following: (1) the characteristics of adults who seek human support from health care providers for health concerns using mobile technology rather than from family members and friends or others with similar health conditions and (2) the use of mobile health technology among adults with chronic health conditions. Findings of this study were interpreted in the context of the Efficiency Model of Support. Methods: We first described characteristics of adults seeking Web-based support from health care providers. Using chi-square tests for categorical variables and t test for the continuous variable of age, we compared adults seeking Web-based and conventional support by demographics. The primary aim was analyzed using multivariate logistic regression to examine whether chronic health conditions and demographic factors (eg, sex, income, employment status, race, ethnicity, education, and age) were associated with seeking Web-based support from health care providers. Results: The sample included adults (N=1453), the majority of whom were female 57.60% (837/1453), white 75.02% (1090/1453), and non-Hispanic 89.13% (1295/1453). The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 92 years (mean 48.6, standard deviation [SD] 16.8). The majority 76.05% (1105/1453) of participants reported college or higher level of education. A disparity was found in access to health care providers via mobile technology based on socioeconomic status. Adults with annual income of US $30,000 to US $100,000 were 1.72 times more likely to use Web-based methods to contact a health care provider, and adults with an annual income above US $100,000 were 2.41 to 2.46 times more likely to access health care provider support on the Web, compared with those with an annual income below US $30,000. After adjusting for other demographic covariates and chronic conditions, age was not a significant factor in Web-based support seeking. Conclusions: In this study, the likelihood of seeking Web-based support increased when adults had any or multiple chronic health conditions. A higher level of income and education than the general population was found to be related to the use of mobile health technology among adults in this survey. Future study is needed to better understand the disparity in Web-based support seeking for health issues and the clinicians’ role in promoting access to and use of mobile health technology.
From whence does your authority come?: utilizing community relevance in ranking

A web page may be relevant to multiple topics; even when nominally on a single topic, the page may attract attention (and thus links) from multiple communities. Instead of indiscriminately summing the authority provided by all pages, we decompose a web page into separate subnodes with respect to each community pointing to it. Utilizing the relevance of such communities allows us to better model the semantic structure of the Web, leading to better estimates of authority for a given query. We apply a total of eighty queries over two real-world datasets to demonstrate that the use of community decomposition can consistently and significantly improve upon Page-Rank's top-ten results.
A Novel Mechanistic Role for Pyridoxal-5′-Phosphate

ABSTRACT Although PLP normally acts to stabilize carbanions in enzymatic reactions, the metallic cofactors of β-lysine mutase and lysine 2,3-aminomutase suggest that substrate and product radicals may be intermediates. PLP could facilitate the β-lysine mutase and lysine 2,3-aminomutase-catalyzed isomerizations by forming aldimines with the substrate amino groups and participating in azocyclopropyl carbinyl radical rearrangements of the intermediates. A chemical model for this rearrangement is the conversion of N-benzylidene-(2-bromomethyl)-DL-alanine ethyl ester 1 to N-benzylidene-2-methyl-β-alanine ethyl ester 2. The conditions for this reaction indicate the following mechanism: Reaction of 1 with tributyltin hydride under radical initiating conditions generates an imino radical at carbon-3 of 1 by abstraction of the 3-bromine atom. An azocyclopropyl carbinyl radical rearrangement produces the imino radical at carbon-2, which is quenched by hydrogen abstraction from tributyltin hydride to form 2. The previously unknown azocyclopropyl carbinyl radical rearrangement may be a chemical precedent for the hypothetical role of PLP in facilitating the aminomutase reactions.
Some Experimental Techniques

Techniques for the examination of surfaces in electrochemistry (cf. Refs. 1 and 2) remained, until the second half of this century, radically different from those used in surface chemistry.
Executive Functioning as a Component of Suicide Risk Assessment: Clarifying its Role in Standard Clinical Applications

Clinically, because executive dysfunction (e.g., impulsivity, insight, thinking process) is often thought of in the context of those with traumatic brain injuries and other neurologic conditions, its formal assessment has historically been seen as the domain of those who assess and treat patients with neurologic disease. However, mental health counselors (MHCs) could benefit from learning how executive functioning relates to suicide risk assessment and coping strategies. Assessment of executive functions can be incorporated in routine clinical practice without the need for formal neuropsychological measures or other time-consuming procedures. In fact, during standard clinical assessment, mental health professionals often informally assess components of executive functioning such as impulsivity, insight, and thinking processes. This article highlights aspects of executive functioning with which MHCs may already be familiar and demonstrates their clinical utility in enhancing assessment and management of su...
Early class III treatment decision-making

Clinicians make decisions for their patients everyday. Ryan Hamilton, in his course guidebook, How You Decide: The Science of Human Decision Making, summarized the current research on the 4 R's of decision-making that matter: reference points, reasons, resources, and replacement. The authors will apply this principle in the decision- making necessary for the growing Class III patients. First, the decision on whether to treat or not to treat Class III patients in the mixed dentition rely on a thorough diagnosis and objectives for early treatment. For example, elimination of a functional shift of the mandible may be a good reason to institute early treatment. Second, the decision on when to start Phase II treatment relies on the follow-up observation after Phase I treatment. The authors suggested the use of a “checklist” to decide whether patient will be benefited from surgical intervention or nonsurgical orthodontic treatment. If the checklist review has several negative checkpoints, it will help the clinicians to decide on an aggressive stage of 4–8 months therapeutic re-diagnosis to confirm the surgical or nonsurgical decision.
Multidimensional Ultrasonic Heart Imaging

Multidimensional ultrasonic imaging of the heart can provide qualitative and quantitative information describing cardiac structure and function. Two-dimensional echo fails to supply an adequate image set for assessment of specific cardiac function. By developing appropriate scanning techniques to produce compound B-scans using a conventional echo sector scanner, more objective and complete analysis can be performed. This study presents results of in vitro cardiac imaging, preliminary to application to in vivo human hearts. A motor-driven mounted transducer was incrementally rotated over 180° to obtain 50 angles of view. Two excised normal dog hearts and two pig hearts with anatomical defects were scanned with a conventional echo sector scanner. After data collection and reconstruction, three-dimensional surface displays were generated for both the endocardial and epicardial surfaces. From oblique section displays, the structural defects in the abnormal in vitro hearts were clearly visible. With further development, these techniques promise greater facility in analysis and display of three-dimensional echo images and are adaptable for in vivo cardiac imaging as well.
Social Capital and Autism in Young Adulthood: Applying Social Network Methods to Measure the Social Capital of Autistic Young Adults.

Social isolation is a core challenge associated with autism. Interpersonal relationships and the resources and support embedded in the social networks of autistic young adults could impact key adul...
Development of magnification tomosynthesis for superior resolution in diagnostic mammography

Our previous work showed that digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) supports super-resolution (SR). Clinical systems are not yet designed to optimize SR; this can be demonstrated with a high-frequency line-resolution pattern. SR is achieved if frequencies are oriented laterally, but not if frequencies are oriented in the perpendicular direction; i.e., the posteroanterior (PA) direction. We are developing a next-generation tomosynthesis (NGT) prototype with new trajectories for the x-ray source. This system is being designed to optimize SR not just for screening, but also for diagnostic mammography; specifically, for magnification DBT (M-DBT). SR is not achieved clinically in magnification mammography, since the acquisition is 2D. The aim of this study is to investigate SR in M-DBT, and analyze how anisotropies differ from screening DBT (S-DBT). We have a theoretical model of a high-frequency sinusoidal test object. First, a conventional scanning motion (directed laterally) was simulated. In the PA direction, SR was not achieved in either S-DBT or M-DBT. Next, the scanning motion was angled relative to the lateral direction. This motion introduces submillimeter offsets in source positions in the PA direction. Theoretical modeling demonstrated that SR was achieved in M-DBT, but not in S-DBT, in the PA direction. This work shows that, with the use of magnification, anisotropies in SR are more sensitive to small offsets in the source motion, leading to insights into how to design M-DBT systems.
Pneumothorax in COVID19 intubated patients: A case series

Introduction Pneumothorax is a rare complication among mechanically ventilated patients and is even higher in patients with high positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP). Herein we describe a case series of nine patients who were intubated due to acute respiratory disease syndrome (ARDS) secondary to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and developed pneumothorax in due course. Case Description Nine patients with COVID-19 pneumonia who were on ventilators and eventually developed pneumothorax were analyzed retrospectively and outcomes were studied. The characteristics of patients like age, gender, and body mass index (BMI) were compared. Past medical history including smoking history was taking into consideration as well. We compared the total number of days on the ventilator, the highest PEEP they received, and the ventilator day when pneumothorax developed. Treatment: Cases 1,2,3,5,8 and 9 were treated with high dose steroids, hydroxychloroquine, tocilizumab, and convalescent plasma. Case 9 was treated with remdesivir. Case 7 received a high dose of steroids and hydroxychloroquine. Cases 4 and 6 were treated only with hydroxychloroquine. All patients died at the end of their hospital stay. Discussion Patients with COVID19 are at a higher risk of pneumothorax due to severe inflammation. It can be seen in any stage of the disease and might not be associated with the severity of the illness. Bullae formation and pneumothorax can be seen in previously healthy lungs. In our case-series of patients with COVID-19 who developed a pneumothorax, the mortality was noted to be 100%. The majority of patients were non-smokers and had no history of lung disease. Only one patient was a former smoker and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. High PEEP & low Fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2) strategy is commonly used in patients with ARDS who are on a ventilator. As per NIH NHLBI ARDS Clinical Network Mechanical Ventilation Protocol, patients with ARDS and mechanical ventilation can be managed with 2 strategies: high PEEP, low FiO2, or low PEEP, high FiO2. Literature suggests that there is no significant difference between the outcomes in the two strategies. COVID-19 is a new illness with no specific guidelines on the management of ventilators. Intensivists should be cautious while maintaining PEEP in such patients and all efforts should be made to prevent pneumothorax. High FiO2 and low PEEP strategy should be considered while managing patients with COVID19 who are on a ventilator. There is a need for large-scale studies to co-relate with these outcomes.
Was Aristotle a virtue argumentation theorist

Virtue theories of argumentation (VTA) emphasize the roles arguers play in the conduct and evaluation of arguments, and lay particular stress on arguers’ acquired dispositions of character, that is, virtues and vices. The inspiration for VTA lies in virtue epistemology and virtue ethics, the latter being a modern revival of Aristotle’s ethics. Aristotle is also, of course, the father of Western logic and argumentation. This paper asks to what degree Aristotle may thereby be claimed as a forefather by VTA.
Bosch-Boonstra-Schaaf optic atrophy syndrome mimicking septo-optic dysplasia in a 10-year-old child.

We report a case of confirmed Bosch-Boonstra-Schaaf optic atrophy syndrome presenting with suspected optic nerve hypoplasia, corpus callosum agenesis, and low levels of insulin-like growth factor 1. This patient’s presentation demonstrates the clinical overlap of Bosch-Boonstra-Schaaf Optic atrophy syndrome with septo-optic dysplasia and the importance of genetic testing for correct diagnosis.
Triangulation of pharmacoepidemiology and laboratory science to tackle otic quinolone safety.

Background The scientific method requires studies with high internal and external validity. Though both are necessary, they do not go hand-in-hand: The more controlled a study is to enhance internal validity, the less applicable to real-world clinical care, and vice versa. In the many instances where evidence from clinical trials is not available, scientific inference must rely on more extreme approaches on this spectrum, such as mechanistic (limited generalizability/strong bias control) and real-world evidence (RWE) studies (higher generalizability/lesser bias control). Objectives Illustrate how triangulating mechanistic and RWE studies can enhance scientific inference by delivering the supporting evidence for both. Methods We describe our research on an unexpected and highly unlikely drug safety issue: the risk of tympanic membrane (TM) perforations resulting from otic quinolone therapy. Tightly controlled laboratory studies using cell culture and rodent models were complemented with pharmacoepidemiological studies of real-world data to translate mechanistic findings and corroborate RWE. Results We present a cascade of mechanistic and RWE studies investigating fibroblast cytotoxicity, delayed healing of perforated TMs, and spontaneous TM perforations after otic quinolone exposure, all suggesting local tissue toxicity. Conclusion Triangulation of mechanistic and RWE studies allowed incremental progress toward robust evidence on otic quinolone toxicity.