cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Ulcers caused by bullous morphea treated with tissue-engineered skin

Bullous morphea is an uncommon form of localized scleroderma. The exact pathogenesis is unknown and treatment of the accompanying ulcers is problematic. We report a patient with bullous morphea with long-standing ulcers whom we successfully treated with the tissue-engineered skin Apligraf (Organogenesis Inc., Canton, MA). The patient experienced rapid improvement in granulation tissue and the ulcers healed 4 months after a single application. The rationale for the use of Apligraf is based on experience with patients with venous ulcers who have surrounding peri-ulcer fibrosis. This condition, termed lipodermatosclerosis, has been reported as a poor prognostic factor for healing, yet many ulcers associated with lipodermatosclerosis may respond to treatment with tissue-engineered skin. Taken in concert, these results suggest a role for tissue- engineered skin in the treatment of chronic wounds with surrounding fibrosis.
Serum cystatin C is superior to serum creatinine as a marker of kidney function: A meta-analysis

Abstract Background: Serum cystatin C (Cys C) has been proposed as a simple, accurate, and rapid endogenous marker of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in research and clinical practice. However, there are conflicting reports regarding the superiority of Cys C over serum creatinine (Cr), with a few studies suggesting no significant difference. Methods: We performed a meta-analysis of available data from various studies to compare the accuracy of Cys C and Cr in relation to a reference standard of GFR. A bibliographic search showed 46 articles until December 31, 2001. We also retrieved data from eight other studies presented and published in abstract form. Results: The overall correlation coefficient for the reciprocal of serum Cys C ( r = 0.816; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.804 to 0.826) was superior to that of the reciprocal of serum Cr ( r = 0.742; 95% CI, 0.726 to 0.758; P P r = 0.846 versus r = 0.784; P Conclusion: In this meta-analysis using currently available data, serum Cys C is clearly superior to serum Cr as a marker of GFR measured by correlation or mean ROC-plot AUC. © 2002 by the National Kidney Foundation, Inc.
A photonic biosensor system on a CMOS chip

Silicon photonic biosensors using SiN x /SiO 2 waveguides fabricated in a commercial CMOS process are read out with an integrated polysilicon photodetector array buried under the waveguide. Increased surface refractive index, such as that generated by the specific binding of target molecules, locally decreases evanescent coupling to the detector array resulting in reduced photocurrent from elements under the higher index region. The operating principle of this local evanescent array coupled (LEAC) sensor differs from those of other waveguide sensors and has been explored using numerical simulations. Experimental studies have been performed using adsorbed bovine serum albumin (BSA) nanofilms as well as antigen-antibody pairs.
TCT-286 Effect Of BMI On The Bleeding Outcomes Following Radial vs. Femoral Access Percutaneous Coronary Interventions

Patients with low and high BMI are noted to have higher bleeding/vascular complications following PCI. It is not clear if reduction in bleeding outcomes following PCI performed via radial compared to femoral access exhibits a U-shaped relationship with BMI. CathPCI registry data on 5,628 PCI
In vitro response of human gingival epithelial S-G cells to resveratrol.

Abstract Resveratrol, a natural hydroxystilbene found in grapes and wine, may play an active role in the prevention of heart disease and cancer. Little is known of the biological activity of this molecule to cells of the oral cavity. The data presented herein provide an in vitro cytotoxicity profile of resveratrol to human gingival epithelial S-G cells. For comparative purposes, initial studies were performed with various human cell types. Based on midpoint cytotoxicity values with the neutral red (NR) assay, the sequence of sensitivity to resveratrol was: tongue squamous carcinoma SCC-25 cells>S-G cells>RHEK-1 keratinocytes≫fibroblasts (gingiva, periodontal ligament, and pulp). The neoplastic (SCC-25) and immortal, nonmalignant (S-G and RHEK-1) cells were one to three times more sensitive to resveratrol than were the low-passaged normal human fibroblasts. For the short-term assays, the sequence of sensitivity of the S-G cells to resveratrol was: BrdU ELISA (DNA synthesis)>NR (lysosomal integrity)>alamarBlue (redox status of the cell)>WST-1 (mitochondrial dehydrogenase activities). Arrest of cell growth, due to inhibition of DNA synthesis, may explain the leveling of toxicity between day 2 and 3 for a 3-day continuous exposure to resveratrol. Irreversible damage to cell proliferation was noted in S-G cells exposed to 75–150 μM resveratrol for 2 days and then subsequently maintained for another 3 days in resveratrol-free medium. The cytotoxicity of resveratrol was neither potentiated nor ameliorated in the presence of an hepatic S9 microsomal fraction. The cytotoxicity of hydrogen peroxide to S-G cells was lessened by N-acetyl- l -cysteine and quercetin, but not by resveratrol. For nitric oxide, only N-acetyl- l -cysteine reduced toxicity. The ability of resveratrol to function as an antioxidant was, therefore, not noted under these test conditions.
Toward real-time modeling of human heart ventricles at cellular resolution: simulation of drug-induced arrhythmias

We have developed a highly efficient and scalable cardiac electrophysiology simulation capability that supports groundbreaking resolution and detail to elucidate the mechanisms of sudden cardiac death from arrhythmia. We can simulate thousands of heartbeats at a resolution of 0.1 mm, comparable to the size of cardiac cells, thereby enabling scientific inquiry not previously possible. Based on scaling results from the partially deployed Sequoia IBM Blue Gene/Q machine at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and planned optimizations, we estimate that by SC12 we will simulate 8 -- 10 heartbeats per minute -- a time-to-solution 400 -- 500 times faster than the state-of-the-art. Performance between 8 and 11 PFlop/s on the full 1,572,864 cores is anticipated, representing 40 -- 55 percent of peak. The power of the model is demonstrated by illuminating the subtle arrhythmogenic mechanisms of anti-arrhythmic drugs that paradoxically increase arrhythmias in some patient populations.
Ring-d-bridged steroid analogs. IX. 19-nor-14α, 17α-ethano-16α-carbomethoxy-4-pregnene-3, 20-dione.☆

Abstract The synthesis of 19-nor-14α, 17α-ethano-16α-carbomethoxypregn-4-ene-3,20-dione (X) from 3β-acetoxy-14α, 17α-ethano-16α-carbomethoxy-pregn-5-ene-20-one (III) is described. In the Clauberg Assay (subcutaneous administration), 16α-carbomethoxypregn-4-ene-3,20-dione has been found to have approximately 3.5% the activity of progesterone. Introduction of a 14α, 17α-ethano bridge further reduces the activity by more than a factor of 4. In contrast to this, the 19-nor compound (X) appears to be at least 167% as active as progesterone and over 25X as active as 14α,17α-ethano-16α-carbotnethoxypregn-4-ene-3,20-dione (XII). The significance of these facts with respect to the possible mode of progesterone binding to the Clauberg receptor is discussed.
Big Data and NoSQL with Amazon DynamoDB

This technical talk will briefly introduce the NoSQL approach, describe why it's important for Big Data tasks, and then switch to DynamoDB, a NoSQL managed database that runs on the Amazon Web Services cloud. The talk will then cover DynamoDB's data model, compare it with other NoSQL solutions, and provide some examples and a demo of the service.
Decidualized umbilical endometriosis

A case of umbilical endometriosis is presented to highlight the challenges in its diagnosis. The etiology, clinical findings, histologic evaluation, prognosis and treatment options are discussed. While cyclic symptomatology may lend evidence to the diagnosis of umbilical endometriosis, history and clinical findings are often equivocal. Decidualization of umbilical endometriosis can be initially confused with a malignant process on histologic evaluation. The potential for malignant degeneration appears low. Surgical intervention is the treatment of choice.
Stratification by skin color in contemporary Mexico

Latin America is often used as a backdrop against which U.S. race relations are compared. Yet research on race in Latin America focuses almost exclusively on countries in the region with a large re...
Factors Influencing RNs' Perceptions of Quality Geriatric Care in Rural Hospitals.

The rapidly aging population and their frequent use of hospital services will create substantial quality challenges in the near future. Redesigning rural hospital work environments is the key to im...
A novel memory access mechanism for arbitrary-view-projection volume rendering

Direct rendering of volume data is both conceptually simpler and more capable of producing visually superior results than other rendering methods. Special hardware architecture for direct volume rendering enables interactive exploration of volume data from arbitrary projection angles, which would otherwise take significantly longer due to its enormous computation and memory requirements. This paper proposes a new architecture called FAVOR, which features a novel memory access scheme that eliminates the most critical bottleneck in hardware rendering machines, and provides conflict-free parallel accesses to volume data. A preliminary performance analysis shows that the extra overhead incurred by this scheme is rather marginal, within 20% of the target performance for a 16 frames/s volume rendering rate at the 512 /spl times/ 512 /spl times/ 512 resolution.
A simplified FPGA implementation of neural network algorithms integrated with stochastic theory for power electronics applications

Recently, artificial neural networks (ANNs) have found many promising applications in power electronics. However, the hardware implementation of ANN requires too many resources due to its parallel structure. The unavailability of real-time ANN hardware at an attractive price limits its applications. This paper proposes a simplified ANN hardware architecture using FPGA for the power electronic applications, and applies the proposed structure to a neural network based wind speed sensorless control system for wind turbine driven generators. This approach provides the solution for the low cost FPGA ANN chip. In order to reduce the scale of the digital circuits to implement ANN, stochastic principles are introduced to employ the simplified feed-forward neural network. By using this method which the real numbers are performed using random streams of bits instead of binary number, the normal digital approaches of arithmetic operations such as multiplication are replaced by stochastic arithmetic which could save digital resource significantly. In this paper, VHDL based FPGA techniques are also applied to analyze the performance of the proposed structure
Multicoloring for Fast Sparse Matrix-Vector Multiplication in Solving PDE Problems

A new multicoloring technique is proposed for parallel sparse matrix-vector multiplication, which dominates the computing cost of iterative PDE (partial differential equation) solvers. The new technique enables parallel solution of grid-structured nonsymmetric PDE problems on shared-memory multiprocessors through resolving memory access conflicts by multiple processors. The coloring scheme is formulated as an algebraic mapping which can be implemented with low overhead.
Illicit Drug Use by College Students: Three-Year Trends, 1970-1972

We have previously reported the 3-year trends in marijuana use among college students at a large Southwestern state university (Ferraro and Billings, 1974). Between 1970 and 1972 there were two significant trends in marijuana use which are worthy of special note. First, the student’s initial use of marijuana occurred at a younger age. Second, an increasing number of students were using marijuana. However, the rate at which marijuana use was increasing appeared to be diminishing between 1971 and 1972 as compared to the preceding 2-year period. We now report similar 3-year trends in the illicit use of hallucinogens, stimulants, barbiturate-sedatives, and narcotics for the same student population.
US Attitudes About Banning Menthol in Cigarettes: Results From a Nationally Representative Survey

Menthol is a cigarette flavoring that makes smoking more appealing to smokers. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has regulatory authority to ban mentholated cigarettes to reduce youth uptake and encourage adult cessation. Survey findings indicate that more than half of all Americans (56.1%) and of Blacks alone (68.0% in one sample and 75.8% in another) support banning menthol. Endorsement of a ban—especially by Blacks, who have the highest rates of menthol cigarette use—would support FDA action to ban menthol to protect the public's health.
Optimal soft-output detector for channels with intersymbol interference and timing errors

We address the issue of detecting transmitted (or recorded) symbols when there is a timing error in the sampled waveform, along with intersymbol interference (ISI) and additive channel noise. We built a special trellis to jointly characterize the timing uncertainty and the channel ISI. The method derived here provides the joint maximum a posteriori probability detection of each input symbol and the quantized timing offset of each sample. It also generates "soft" decisions, which are essential for soft-decision iterative decoding algorithms.
Double trouble: a patient with both HLA-B27 anterior uveitis and HLA-A29 birdshot chorioretinitis

Birdshot chorioretinitis (BSCR) is a rare ocular inflammatory disorder associated with HLA-A29 and characterized by bilateral choroidal lesions, vitritis, macular edema, and retinal vasculitis. Ocular inflammation associated with HLA-B27 is typically a recurrent, unilateral, acute anterior uveitis (AAU) that is frequently associated with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). To date, there are no reports of patients with both HLA-A29-positive BSCR and HLA-B27 AAU/AS in the English literature. A 50-year-old man with a history of bilateral anterior uveitis, vitritis, retinal vasculitis, and cream-colored depigmented oval choroidal lesions was found to be HLA-A29 and HLA-B27 positive. His lumbar spine and sacroiliac joint films revealed fusion of the spine, known as `bamboo spine' compatible with the diagnosis of ankylosing spondyloarthropathy. He had chronic ocular inflammation that was difficult to control with systemic steroids and immunomodulatory agents. This is the only report of a patient with both HLA-A29-positive BSCR and HLA-B27-positive AS and associated anterior uveitis. The severity of his disease suggests that patients who test positive for both HLA-A29 and HLA-B27 carry a poor visual prognosis. Prompt diagnosis and treatment with local or systemic corticosteroids or steroid-sparing agents may control the disease.
F64Intrauterine therapy of fetal obstructive uropathy

Background The aim of our study was the evaluation of the usefulness of fetal bladder drainage in cases of obstructive uropathy before the 24th week of gestation. Methods Since January 1997 we have diagnosed 9 cases of fetal obstructive uropathy before the 24th week of gestation. In all cases, oligohydramnios or ahydramnios was also diagnosed. After evaluation of kidneys function on the basis of fetal urine samples, obtained from punctures of fetal bladder (three times in each fetus) we selected 7 fetuses for in-utero shunting. 2 fetuses presented features of renal cystic dysplasia and its renal function prognostic factors were poor. Those fetuses were not offered intrauterine decompression. Results All the newborns in which intrauterine decompression of the obstructive uropathy was made have had a good perinatal outcome. The mean apgar score was 8 (7–10 points). The weight at delivery was between 1700 and 3300 g. No pulmonary hypoplasia was observed. All the deliveries took place after the 33rd week of gestation (33–38 hbd). The minimum time of drainage was 11 weeks, the maximum 18 weeks. Conclusions Early bladder drainage enables delivery of newborns without pulmonary hypoplasia. Drains with a good ‘shape memory’ enable good results, because they are not prone to migration. Shunting should be performed only in selected cases which would not be better managed by early delivery, but who have not yet developed renal dysplasia.
Efficient search and hierarchical motion planning using dynamic single-source shortest paths trees

All previous robot motion planners based on approximate cell decomposition exhibit redundancy between successive searchers for a sequence of empty cells. A search method that eliminates this redundancy is presented. It is founded on the ability to efficiently maintain a single-source shortest paths tree embedded in the connectivity graph that is subject to the dynamic modifications that result from incremental subdivision of cells. The convergence of the algorithm is controlled by the vertex cost function, which relies on an estimate for the proportion of free space in a cell. The planner is fully implemented, and empirical results are given to illustrate the performance improvements of the dynamic algorithm compared to Dijkstra's algorithm. >
Optimizing queries using materialized views: a practical, scalable solution

Materialized views can provide massive improvements in query processing time, especially for aggregation queries over large tables. To realize this potential, the query optimizer must know how and when to exploit materialized views. This paper presents a fast and scalable algorithm for determining whether part or all of a query can be computed from materialized views and describes how it can be incorporated in transformation-based optimizers. The current version handles views composed of selections, joins and a final group-by. Optimization remains fully cost based, that is, a single “best” rewrite is not selected by heuristic rules but multiple rewrites are generated and the optimizer chooses the best alternative in the normal way. Experimental results based on an implementation in Microsoft SQL Server show outstanding performance and scalability. Optimization time increases slowly with the number of views but remains low even up to a thousand.
Somatic Symptoms in Sexually Abused Children

Contrasted a nonabused sample of 3 to 12-year-old children (n = 847) with a sexually abused sample (n = 252) with regards to somatic symptoms assessed via parent report, including the Child Behavior Checklist. Using ANCOVA, and controlling for family income, maternal education, age, and sex, the girls 3-6 years old who were abused and the boys 7-12 years old who were abused were reported to have the greatest number of somatic symptoms. Force and number of perpetrators were abuse-specific variables directly related to the number of somatic symptoms. Results suggest that for some children sexual abuse is related to an increased report of subjective somatic complaints. Language: en
Residual Elimination Algorithm Enhancements to Improve Foot Motion Tracking During Forward Dynamic Simulations of Gait

Patient-specific gait optimizations capable of predicting post-treatment changes in joint motions and loads could improve treatment design for gait-related disorders. To maximize potential clinical utility, such optimizations should utilize full-body three-dimensional patient-specific musculoskeletal models, generate dynamically consistent gait motions that reproduce pretreatment marker measurements closely, and achieve accurate foot motion tracking to permit deformable foot-ground contact modeling. This study enhances an existing residual elimination algorithm (REA) Remy, C. D., and Thelen, D. G., 2009, “Optimal Estimation of Dynamically Consistent Kinematics and Kinetics for Forward Dynamic Simulation of Gait,” ASME J. Biomech. Eng., 131(3), p. 031005) to achieve all three requirements within a single gait optimization framework. We investigated four primary enhancements to the original REA: (1) manual modification of tracked marker weights, (2) automatic modification of tracked joint acceleration curves, (3) automatic modification of algorithm feedback gains, and (4) automatic calibration of model joint and inertial parameter values. We evaluated the enhanced REA using a full-body three-dimensional dynamic skeletal model and movement data collected from a subject who performed four distinct gait patterns: walking, marching, running, and bounding. When all four enhancements were implemented together, the enhanced REA achieved dynamic consistency with lower marker tracking errors for all segments, especially the feet (mean root-mean-square (RMS) errors of 3.1 versus 18.4 mm), compared to the original REA. When the enhancements were implemented separately and in combinations, the most important one was automatic modification of tracked joint acceleration curves, while the least important enhancement was automatic modification of algorithm feedback gains. The enhanced REA provides a framework for future gait optimization studies that seek to predict subject-specific post-treatment gait patterns involving large changes in foot-ground contact patterns made possible through deformable foot-ground contact models.
Impact of Burnout on Self-Reported Patient Care Among Emergency Physicians

Introduction: Burnout is a syndrome of depersonalization, emotional exhaustion and sense of low personal accomplishment. Emergency physicians (EPs) experience the highest levels of burnout among all physicians. Burnout is associated with greater rates of self-reported suboptimal care among surgeons and internists. The association between burnout and suboptimal care among EPs is unknown. The objective of the study was to evaluate burnout rates among attending and resident EPs and examine their relationship with self-reported patient care practices. Methods: In this cross-sectional study burnout was measured at two university-based emergency medicine residency programs with the Maslach Burnout Inventory. We also measured depression, quality of life (QOL) and career satisfaction using validated questionnaires. Six items assessed suboptimal care and the frequency with which they were performed. Results: We included 77 out of 155 (49.7%) responses. The EP burnout rate was 57.1%, with no difference between attending and resident physicians. Residents were more likely to screen positive for depression (47.8% vs 18.5%, p=0.012) and report lower QOL scores (6.7 vs 7.4 out of 10, p=0.036) than attendings. Attendings and residents reported similar rates of career satisfaction (85.2% vs 87.0%, p=0.744). Burnout was associated with a positive screen for depression (38.6% vs 12.1%, p=0.011) and lower career satisfaction (77.3% vs 97.0%, p=0.02). EPs with high burnout were significantly more likely to report performing all six acts of suboptimal care. Conclusion: A majority of EPs demonstrated high burnout. EP burnout was significantly associated with higher frequencies of self-reported suboptimal care. Future efforts to determine if provider burnout is associated with negative changes in actual patient care are necessary.
Computer Analysis of Flow toward Artesian Wells

The purpose herein is to present a finite difference method programmed for a high-speed computer, for the analysis of unsteady flow towards fully and partially penetrating artesian wells.
Strained Si-on-Insulator Fabricated from Elastically-Relaxed Si/SiGe Structures

Blanket pseudomorphic Si0.8Ge0.2/Si layer structures grown by Rapid thermal Chemical Vapor Deposition (RTCVD) on SOI substrates were etched to form 5µm × 5µm slabs, supported by a single pedestal at the center. Symmetric tri-layer slabs, 20nm Si/236nm Si0.8Ge0.2/20nm Si supported by a SiO2 pedestal are flat and x-ray diffraction measurements of the strain and the thickness of the layers confirmed that the strain is shared between the Si and SiGe layers according to the ratio of the thickness of the SiGe and Si layers. These tri-layer structures were then firmly attached to the substrate using a filling material. A thermal oxide layer was grown on the upper and lower surface of the free-standing structures and then polycrystalline Si was deposited to fill the space between the free-standing structure and the Si substrate, thus attaching the bottom strained Si layer to the substrate. The polycrystalline Si was subsequently removed by reactive ion etching except from under the Si/SiGe/Si slab. The top SiO2 and Si layers as well as the SiGe layer were then removed selectively by wet etching. Raman spectroscopy measurements show that the strain in the attached strained Si-on-insulator layer is e = 0.0067.
Deep-Sea Field Test of the CH4 Hydrate to CO2 Hydrate Spontaneous Conversion Hypothesis

We have carried out a small-scale deep-sea field test of the hypothesis that CH4 gas can be spontaneously produced from CH4 hydrate by injection of a CO2/N2 gas mixture, thereby inducing release of the encaged molecules with sequestration of the injected gas. Pressure cell studies have shown that, under some pressure and temperature conditions, this gas mixture can induce formation of a solid N2/CO2 hydrate with no associated liquid water production. We transported a cylinder of pure CH4 hydrate, contained within a pressure vessel, to the sea floor at 690 m depth off shore Monterey, CA, using the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Ventana. Upon opening the pressure vessel with the vehicle robotic arm, we emplaced the hydrate specimen on a metal stand and covered this with a glass cylinder full of a 25% CO2/75% N2 gas mixture, thereby fully displacing the surrounding seawater (T = 4.92 °C). We observed complete and rapid dissociation of the CH4 hydrate with release of liquid water and creation of a mixed gas ...
Cytokine involvement in the regulation of sleep.

ConclusionsSleep can clearly be modulated by exogenous administration of cytokines, and is also likely to be regulated, in part, by endogenous cytokines. The synthesis of small peptide fragments from cytokines and the development of specific receptor antagonists and antibodies provide promising new tools with which to further examine the mechanisms reponsibile for cytokine-induced changes in vigilance. Although the mechanisms and sites of action mediating these somnogenic properties are not yet fully elucidated, the somnogenic responses to microbial challenge may represent amplifications of normal, physiological processes.
Twisted Interests: People in Interest of S.A.H. and the State of Open Adoptions in South Dakota

In People in Interest of S.A.H. (SD 1995), the South Dakota Supreme Court held that "open adoptions" (that is, post-adoption visitation rights retained by by the natural parents) could only be mandated when the court finds that it is in the best interests of the child by clear and convincing evidence. The court also instructed trial courts to weigh the needs of the child, the effect on integration with the new family, and the potential effect on the pool of other prospective adoptive parents. This decision, while initially (and briefly) securing judicial enforcement of consensual open adoptions, presents an inordinately difficult standard for mandating open adoptions.
Inherited Susceptibility to Complex Disease

Many common complex diseases have a moderate to high heritability. Susceptibility to specific complex diseases is controlled by individual genetic, epigenetic, and environmental components, as well as interactions between and wihin these components. For many complex diseases the genetic component is comprised of rare high- and moderate-penetrance risk alleles, and many low-penetrance ‘modifier’ alleles. Now that human genetic variation can be accessed through resequencing, and high-throughput methods of genotyping are possible, research into the common genetic polymorphisms that control susceptibility to complex diseases is rapidly progressing. This chapter will cover what is currently known about three of the most prevalent and highly heritable complex diseases: cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and prostate cancer.
A Novel Acoustoelastic-Based Technique for Stress Measurement in Structural Components

The acoustoelastic theory has been widely utilized for nondestructive stress measurement in structural components. Most of the currently available techniques operate at the high-frequency, weakly-dispersive portions of the dispersion curves, and rely on time-of-flight measurements to quantify the effects of stress state on wave speed. This adversely affects the sensitivity and accuracy of such techniques, and renders their accuracy limited by the precision within which time-of-flight can be determined.
Judaism and Sexuality

Judaism is a highly decentralized religion, thus there is no single or unified Jewish perspective on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues. Some Jewish communities ordain openly LGBT rabbis and celebrate sexual and gender diversity, while in other communities, Jewish leaders denounce homosexuality and demand clear boundaries and distinctive roles for women and men. But the majority of the Jewish world lies somewhere in between. In the Jewish tradition, “homosexuality” is not prohibited. Jewish law focuses on specific sexual acts, not a person's sexual orientation, identity, or desires. Sex between men has generally been understood as prohibited by two verses in Leviticus (Lev. 18:22 and 20:13). Sex between women is not prohibited in the Torah. However, it is seen as a violation of Jewish law based on rabbinic interpretations of passages in the Torah that are seen as indirectly referencing female–female sexual intimacy. Keywords: religion; Judaism; Jewish; LGBTQ
Chinese abolitionism: the Chinese Educational Mission in Connecticut, Cuba, and Peru*

This article explores a little known facet of transnational opposition to forced labour through the earliest case of ‘Chinese abolitionism’. It analyses the transnational formation of the first Sino-American actor network in the United States and its deployment in the 1874 investigations of coolie conditions in the forced labour regimes of Cuba and Peru. At the core of this actor network was the Chinese Educational Mission and its milieu of sociability, which served as a crucible of transnational cooperation between the first Chinese America experts and their US supporters. The flows of information, cosmopolitan ideas, and personnel across this network led to an unprecedented reinterpretation of the global coolie trade as a key concern in Qing foreign relations and a serious international problem that paralleled the problem of slavery. Two Qing interventions harnessed the actor network’s social capital, framing coolie abuse as an international atrocity, accelerating the abolition of the coolie trade, and signalling the need for a Chinese Foreign Service in Western countries for the protection of Chinese overseas.
Projecting corn and soybeans yields under climate change in a Corn Belt watershed.

Climate change may have positive or negative effects on agricultural yields depending on location and mitigation and adaptation practices. This research investigates future corn and soybean yields in the Raccoon watershed, in the US Corn Belt, using projected climate data. We used the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model to estimate the impact of climate change for 2015–2099 with data downscaled from eight atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) with three emissions pathways reflecting low, medium and high greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. Soil properties were gathered from the Soil Survey Geographic Database and data on crop rotations was derived from CropScape, a geospatial cropland data layer product of the US National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Our findings indicate that 20-year mean yields of both corn and soybean for 2080–2099 simulated in EPIC using all eight AOGCMs under low and medium carbon scenarios will increase in comparison to the 20-year mean yields for 2015–2034. However, under the high carbon scenario, 20-year means of both corn and soybean yields for 2080–2099 will decline in comparison to the 20-year mean yields for 2015–2034, pointing to the effects of climate change. We also examined the possible impact of carbon fertilization on yields. Our results show that carbon fertilization of soybean, a C3 plant, may contribute to an increase in yield of 2% to 20% while its contribution to the growth of corn, a C4 plant, will be much lower.
The American Nietzsche? Fate and Power in the Pragmatism of Justice Holmes

Richard Posner is one of the few legal minds to have noticed the affinity between the philosophies of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and Friedrich Nietzsche. This article examines that affinity, showing how Holmes's pragmatism both comports with and departs from Nietzsche's existentialism. Holmes's pragmatism shares with Nietzsche's existentialism a commitment to skepticism, perspectivalism, experiential knowledge, and aesthetics, as well as an abiding awareness of the problematic nature of truth and the fallibility of the human mind. We demonstrate here that Holmes was familiar with Nietzsche's writings and that the two thinkers turned away from Christian ethics and glorified the life struggle in distinctly evolutionary terms. Both men celebrated the individual capacity to exercise the will for purposes of personal autonomy, greatness, and creative or aesthetic achievement. Nietzsche, however, did not share Holmes's belief in the pragmatic potential of meliorism, which marks the distinction between their notions of fate. The thinking of Nietzsche and Holmes converges in the person of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was a manifest influence on both Holmes and Nietzsche and whose thinking on fate and power, inflected as it is by aesthetic pragmatism, shapes our understanding not only of Holmes and Nietzsche in isolation but also of Holmes and Nietzsche as paired, ambitious philosophers concerned about the role of fate and power in human activity.
Two-stage coal flotation to remove pyritic sulfur, arsenic, selenium and mercury

This study focuses on partial leaching of coal pyrite with sodium sulfite in order to increase its degree of liberation from the coal matrix, which might help to increase the removal of coal pyrite, together with trace elements of arsenic (As), selenium (Se) and mercury (Hg) by froth flotation. The U.S. Bureau of Mines’ two-stage reverse flotation process was applied to further reject coal pyrite in the second stage, where pyrite was floated while coal was depressed. The residts show that the leached coal flotation with sodium sulfite produced lower pyritic sulfur content in the clean coal by approximately 25% compared to the flotation of unleached coal. The synergism mechanism between the leaching and the two-stage flotation is delineated. The rejection of trace elements (As, Hg and Se) after the two-stage flotation process with unleached coal followed approximately that of pyritic sidfur (64.6%). However, after the two-stage flotation with leached coal, the rejection ofSe was as high as that of pyritic sulfur (77.9%), while the rejections of As and Hg were 20% lower than that of pyritic sulfur, or followed approximately the same rejections obtained through the two-stage flotation with unleached coal.
Pica in Individuals with Developmental Disabilities

Pica is a feeding and eating disorder characterized by the ingestion of nonfood, nonnutritive substances. Pica affects individuals of all ages, gender, geographical location, and socioeconomic status and is the most commonly observed feeding disorder among children and adolescents with developmental disabilities (DD). If left untreated, pica can lead to serious medical problems and, in some cases, death. As such, pica is often categorized as a challenging behavior and requires immediate intervention. Behavioral interventions (i.e., antecedent modifications, response-contingent interventions, and punishment-based interventions) have been successful in reducing and eliminating pica. This chapter reviews the etiology, cultural considerations, screening measures, and treatment methods for pica.
Evaluating the impact of clinical librarians on clinical questions during inpatient rounds

Objective: The investigation sought to determine the effects of a clinical librarian (CL) on inpatient team clinical questioning quality and quantity, learner self-reported literature searching skills, and use of evidence-based medicine (EBM). Methods: Clinical questioning was observed over 50 days of inpatient pediatric and internal medicine attending rounds. A CL was present for 25 days and absent for 25 days. Questioning was compared between groups. Question quality was assessed by a blinded evaluator, who used a rubric adapted from the Fresno Test of Competence in Evidence-Based Medicine. Team members were surveyed to assess perceived impacts of the CL on rounds. Results: Rounds with a CL (CLR) were associated with significantly increased median number of questions asked (5 questions CLR vs. 3 NCLR; p <0.01) and answered (3 CLR vs. 2 NCLR; p <0.01) compared to rounds without a CL (NCLR). CLR were also associated with increased mean time spent asking (1.39 minutes CLR vs. 0.52 NCLR; p <0.01) and answering (2.15 minutes CLR vs. 1.05 NCLR; p =0.02) questions. Rounding time per patient was not significantly different between CLR and NCLR. Questions during CLR were 2 times higher in adapted Fresno Test quality than during NCLR ( p <0.01). Select participants described how the CL’s presence improved their EBM skills and care decisions. Conclusions: Inpatient CLR were associated with more and improved clinical questioning and subjectively perceived to improve clinicians’ EBM skills. CLs may directly affect patient care; further study is required to assess this. CLs on inpatient rounds may be an effective means for clinicians to learn and use EBM skills.
Bordetella pertussis (Pertussis).

1. Heather L. Daniels, DO* 2. Camille Sabella, MD* 1. *Center for Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Cleveland Clinic Children’s, Cleveland, OH * Abbreviations: CDC: : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention DTaP: : diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis vaccine DTwP: : diphtheria, tetanus, and whole cell pertussis vaccine IHPS: : infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis PCR: : polymerase chain reaction Tdap: : tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid, and acellular pertussis vaccine Th: : T-helper After completing this article, readers should be able to: Bordetella pertussis is a fastidious gram-negative coccobacillus responsible for the respiratory infection commonly known as “whooping cough.” The organism is spread by respiratory droplets and is highly contagious among close contacts. The typical incubation period is 7 to 10 days, but it may be as long as 21 days. Neither natural infection nor pertussis vaccination results in long-lasting immunity, contributing to endemic infection and 3- to 5-year cycles of pertussis epidemics. Several active components, which play a role in immunity and are responsible for the organism’s ability to cause disease, are produced by B pertussis . (1) Pertussis toxin, filamentous hemagglutinin, pertactin, and agglutinogen allow the organism to adhere to ciliated epithelium of the respiratory tract, where it exerts its effects. Pertussis toxin also induces cell cytoxicity, inhibits neutrophilic and monocytic responses, and delays induction of specific immune responses. Pertussis toxin is postulated to be responsible for the systemic manifestations of pertussis, …
Architectural and compiler mechanisms for accelerating single thread applications on multicore processors

Multicore systems have become the dominant mainstream computing platform. One of the biggest challenges going forward is how to efficiently utilize the ever increasing computational power provided by multicore systems. Applications with large amounts of explicit thread-level parallelism naturally scale performance with the number of cores. However, single-thread applications realize little to no gains from multicore systems. This work investigates architectural and compiler mechanisms to automatically accelerate single thread applications on multicore processors by efficiently exploiting three types of parallelism across multiple cores: instruction level parallelism (ILP), fine-grain thread level parallelism (TLP), and speculative loop level parallelism (LLP). A multicore architecture called Voltron is proposed to exploit different types of parallelism. Voltron can organize the cores for execution in either coupled or decoupled mode. In coupled mode, several in-order cores are coalesced to emulate a wide-issue VLIW processor. In decoupled mode, the cores execute a set of fine-grain communicating threads extracted by the compiler. By executing fine-grain threads in parallel, Voltron provides coarse-grained out-of-order execution capability using in-order cores. Architectural mechanisms for speculative execution of loop iterations are also supported under the decoupled mode. Voltron can dynamically switch between two modes with low overhead to exploit the best form of available parallelism. This dissertation also investigates compiler techniques to exploit different types of parallelism on the proposed architecture. First, this work proposes compiler techniques to manage multiple instruction streams to collectively function as a single logical stream on a conventional VLIW to exploit ILP. Second, this work studies compiler algorithms to extract fine-grain threads. Third, this dissertation proposes a series of systematic compiler transformations and a general code generation framework to expose hidden speculative LLP hindered by register and memory dependences in the code. These transformations collectively remove inter-iteration dependences that are caused by subsets of isolatable instructions, are unwindable, or occur infrequently. Experimental results show that proposed mechanisms can achieve speedups of 1.33 and 1.14 on 4 core machines by exploiting ILP and TLP respectively. The proposed transformations increase the DOALL loop coverage in applications from 27% to 61%, resulting in a speedup of 1.84 on 4 core systems.
America’s Racial Realities

Many people believe that America’s racial problems have largely ended. To determine the extent of current problems, we gathered data on racial disparities in six areas: health, family structure, residential segregation, economics, education, and criminal justice. We found that many important and substantial disparities exist today, including: Asian women born in the United States have a life expectancy that is 21 years longer than Black men born in counties with a large number of Blacks and high homicide rates Black infant mortality is three times the Asian and twice the Hispanic and White rates Blacks are 12 % of population but are 47 % of new HIV cases Black children are twice as likely as Hispanic, three times as likely as White, and five times as likely as Asian children to live in single-mother families Among children born from 1985–2000, 66 % of the Black kids but only 6 % of the White kids grew up in high-poverty neighborhoods Black male earnings declined from 52 % of White male earnings in 1980 to 28 % in 2008 Asians and Whites have much higher income and wealth than Hispanics and Blacks Black and Hispanic poverty rates are about twice those of Whites and Asians Black and Hispanic children are much less proficient in reading and math than White and Asian children Blacks are 3.5 times as likely as Whites to be suspended or expelled from school Seventy-eight percent of White, 58 % of Hispanic, and 52 % of Black males graduate from high school 4 years after entering ninth grade In large metro areas 99 % of Black, 96 % of Hispanic, 6 % of Asian, and 3 % of White elementary school students attend schools that have 50 % or more low-income students The lifetime likelihood of imprisonment is 1 in 3 for Black men, 1 in 6 for Latino men, and 1 in 17 for White men
Hybrid Pursuit-Evasion Game between UAVs and RF Emitters with Controllable Observations: A Hawk-Dove Game

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be used to chase radio frequency (RF) emitters by sensing the signal sent out by the RF emitters. Meanwhile, the RF emitter can evade from the UAVs, thus forming a pursuit-evasion game. In contrast to traditional pursuit-evasion games, in which the players can always observe each other, the RF emitter can stop transmitting such that the UAVs lose the target. However, stopping the transmission also incurs cost to the RF emitter since it can no longer convey information to destinations. Hence, the RF emitter can take both continuous actions, i.e., the moving direction, and discrete actions, i.e., whether to stop transmission. Meanwhile, there are both discrete states, i.e., whether the RF transmitter is transmitting, and continuous states, i.e., the locations of UAVs and RF emitter, thus forming a hybrid system. We will study the game theoretic properties of this novel game and derive the optimal strategies for both parties under certain assumptions.
Eating Disorders:: Present Level of Training and Perceived Education Needs Among Dietitians

Abstract We developed a survey to characterize dietitians' involvement in the treatment of eating disorders and to determine the appropriateness of current training. The survey was mailed to 601 Florida Registered Dietitians. Completed surveys were returned by 170 dietitians. Respondents were asked to place themselves in one of three categories: Category A: participates in the identification/diagnosis of eating disorders (n=l 10); Category B: participates in the identification/diagnosis of eating disorders and refers patients to another dietitian/practitioner for treatment (n=23); and Category C: participates in the identification/diagnosis of eating disorders and is involved in the treatment of eating disordered patients (n=37). Dietitians were asked if they believe that the level of eating disorders education provided in dietetic education programs is adequate and if they desire to learn more about eating disorders. They were asked to indicate if they possess specialized training for the treatment of eating disorders and whether they would pursue a certification in eating disorders, if such a certification were offered. Category C dietitians were asked to further describe their participation in the treatment of eating disorders. Dietitians (68% of the respondents), primarily those in Category C (89%), desire more knowledge on eating disorders. Insufficient training is perceived to be an obstacle for dietitians' participation in the treatment of eating disorders. Seventy-nine percent of dietitians believe the level of training provided in dietetic education programs should be increased. They also perceive a need for specialized training and believe that a specialty certification in eating disorders would enhance the dietetics profession (81%). Dietitians currently treating eating disordered patients express interest in pursuing such a credential (46%). These results indicate a need for advanced dietetic training in eating disorders and suggest that a specialty credential in eating disorders may be warranted.
Fast Stochastic Block Partition for Streaming Graphs

The graph partition problem continues to be challenging, particularly for streaming graph data. Although optimal graph partitioning is NP-hard, stochastic methods can provide approximate solutions in reasonable time. However, such methods are optimized for static, not dynamic graph data. In this paper, we describe a new efficient algorithm we have developed for stochastic block partitioning on time-varying, streaming graph data. Our algorithm is a refinement of the baseline algorithm of the IEEE HPEC Graph Challenge [1]. Our incremental algorithm efficiently updates its previous internal state as new pieces are streamed in, and generates a complete partition at every time step. Compared to the naive baseline which performs a complete partitioning from scratch at every time step, our algorithm offers speedups between 1.96x for $\mathbf{N}=500$ and 3.56x for $\mathbf{N}=20\mathbf{k}$ overall, for a graph streamed over 10 parts, with similar accuracy. At the margin, the speedup in processing time for additional streaming pieces over the baseline is between 7.1x for $\mathbf{N}=500$ to 25.1x for $\mathbf{N}=20\mathbf{k}$ .