cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Moving On: Transition Readiness in Adolescents and Young Adults With IBD.

Background Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) often begins early in life. Adolescents and young adults (AYA) with IBD have to acquire behaviors that support self-care, effective healthcare decision-making, and self-advocacy to successfully transition from pediatric to adult health care. Despite the importance of this critical time period, limited empirical study of factors associated with transition readiness in AYA exists. This study aimed to describe transition readiness in a sample of AYA with IBD and identify associated modifiable and nonmodifiable factors. Methods Seventy-five AYA (ages 16-20) and their parents participated. AYA and parents reported on demographics, patient-provider transition-related communication, and transition readiness. AYA self-reported on disease self-efficacy. Disease information was abstracted from the medical record. Results Deficits in AYA responsibility were found in knowledge of insurance coverage, scheduling appointments, and ordering medication refills. Older AYA age, higher AYA disease-management self-efficacy, and increased patient-provider transition communication were each associated with higher overall transition readiness and AYA responsibility scores. Regression analyses revealed that older AYA age and increased patient-provider transition-related communication were the most salient predictors of AYA responsibility for disease management and overall transition readiness across parent and AYA reports. Conclusions AYA with IBD show deficits in responsibility for their disease management that have the potential to affect their self-management skills. Findings suggest provider communication is particularly important in promoting transition readiness. Additionally, it may be beneficial to wait to transition patients until they are older to allow them more time to master skills necessary to responsibly manage their own healthcare.
Shape-Up and Eat Right Families Pilot Program: Feasibility of a Weight Management Shared Medical Appointment Model in African-Americans With Obesity at an Urban Academic Medical Center

Objectives: Disparities in obesity care exist among African American children and adults. We sought to test the feasibility of a pilot program, a one-year family-group based intervention for African American families with obesity (Shape Up and Eat Right [SUPER]), adopting the shared medical appointment model (SMA) at an urban safety net hospital. Outcomes: Primary outcomes: 1. family attendance rate 2. program satisfaction. Secondary outcomes: change in body mass index (BMI), eating behaviors and sedentary activity. Methods: Adults parents (BMI >25 kg/m2) >18 years and their child(ren) (BMI >85th percentile) ages 6-12 years from adult or pediatric weight management clinics were recruited. One group visit per month (n=12) consisting of a nutrition and exercise component was led by a nurse practitioner and registered dietitian. Height and weight were recorded during each visit. Participants were queried on program satisfaction, food logs and exercise journals, Food Stamp Program’s Food Behavior and The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program Food Checklists. Results: Thirteen participants from lower socioeconomic zip codes consented (n=5 mothers [mean age 33 years, BMI of 47.4 kg/m2 [31.4-73.6 kg/m2]; n=8 children; mean age 9 years, BMI of 97.6th percentile [94th–99th percentile]; 60% enrolled in state Medicaid). Average individual attendance was 23.4% (14-43%; n=13); monthly session attendance rates declined from 100 to 40% by program completion; 2 families completed the program in entirety. Program was rated (n=5 adults) very satisfactory (40%) and extremely satisfactory (60%). Pre-intervention, families rated their eating habits as fair and reported consuming sugar-sweetened beverages or sports drinks, more so than watching more than one hour of television (p<0.002) or video game/computer activity (p<0.006) and consuming carbonated sodas (p<0.004). Post-intervention, reducing salt intake was the only statistically significant variable (p<0.029) while children watched fewer hours of television and spent less time playing video games (from average 3 to 2 hours daily; p< 0.03). Conclusions: Attendance was lower than expected though children seemed to decrease screen time and the program was rated satisfactory. Reported socioeconomic barriers precluded families from attending most sessions. Future reiterations of the intervention could be enhanced with community engagement strategies to increase participant retention.
Context in programming: an investigation of how programmers create context

A programming context can be defined as all the relevant information that a developer needs to complete a task. Context comprises information from different sources and programmers interpret the same information differently based on their programming goal. In fact, the same artifact may create a different context when revisited. Context, therefore, by its very nature is a "slippery notion." To understand how people create context we observed six programmers engaged in exploratory programming and performed a qualitative analysis of their activities. We observe that the interactions with artifacts and a mapping of meaning from those artifacts for a programming activity determines how one creates context.
Inter-rater Agreement for the Diagnosis of Stroke Versus Stroke Mimic.

Background and purpose Patients who present emergently with acute neurological signs and symptoms represent unique diagnostic challenges for clinicians. We sought to characterize the reliability of physician diagnosis in differentiating aborted or imaging-negative acute ischemic stroke from stroke mimic. Methods We constructed 10 case-vignettes of patients treated with thrombolysis with subsequent clinical improvement who lacked radiographic evidence of infarction. Using an online survey, we asked physicians to select a most likely final diagnosis after reading each case-vignette. Inter-rater agreement was evaluated using percent agreement and κ statistic for multiple raters with 95% confidence intervals reported. Results Sixty-five physicians participated in the survey. Most participants were in practice for ≥5 years and over half were vascular neurologists. Physicians agreed on the most likely final diagnosis 71% of the time, κ of 0.21 (95% confidence interval, 0.06-0.54). Percent agreement was similar across participant practice locations, years of experience, subspecialty training, and personal experience with thrombolysis. Conclusions We found modest agreement among surveyed physicians in distinguishing ischemic stroke syndromes from stroke mimics in patients without radiographic evidence of infarction and clinical improvement after thrombolysis. Methods to improve diagnostic consensus after thrombolysis are needed to assure acute ischemic stroke patients and stroke mimics are treated safely and accurately.
Image Perception and Sensing

Publisher Summary This chapter presents basic concepts in human visual perception and color space, as well as basic coverage of common image sensors and displays. Several visual phenomena that are important in image and video perception are discussed including Weber's law, that defines contrast and introduces the concept of just noticeable difference (JND); the contrast sensitivity function, also called the visual magnitude transfer function (MTF); the human visual frequency response; and the concept of spatial adaptation of contrast sensitivity. The basic properties of images, sensors, displays, and the human visual system (HVS), which are discussed in this chapter are essential topics, providing a link between the multidimensional signal processing and the image and video processing. Spatial and temporal properties of human vision are described and a basic spatiotemporal frequency response of the eye–brain system is presented. This information is useful for the design and analysis of image and video signal processing systems, which produce images and video to be seen by human observers.
Thyroid Autoimmunity and Miscarriage

Thyroid autoimmunity describes the condition in which one or more antibodies are directed at the thyroid gland. Examples of these antibodies include the thyroid peroxidase (TPO), thyroglobulin (Tg), and thyroid receptor antibodies (TRAbs). The presence of these antibodies has been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes in some populations. This chapter explores the current literature regarding the association between thyroid autoantibodies and miscarriage in various patient populations, including patients with isolated thyroid autoimmunity, thyroid autoimmunity and subclinical hypothyroidism, thyroid autoimmunity in patients undergoing assisted reproduction, and thyroid autoimmunity in patients with recurrent pregnancy loss. The chapter also discusses current evidence regarding treatment with levothyroxine in these populations. Finally, we summarize the recommendations from the American Thyroid Association and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine for thyroid antibody-positive patients who are either currently pregnant or attempting to conceive.
Fast IP Hopping Randomization to Secure Hop-by-Hop Access in SDN

Moving target defense (MTD) is useful for thwarting network reconnaissance and preventing unauthorized access. While previous research in MTD focuses on protecting the endnodes, we leverage software-defined networking to implement MTD on the data-plane switches, which significantly decreases the controller communication overhead and enables quicker defense response to reduce the attack impact. This paper not only randomizes the IP addresses for MTD but also uses the IP addresses for synchronization across the nodes in the networking path by generating hash-chain-based synchronization signatures. Our scheme is practical as it builds on and encodes the existing IP addresses for randomization to construct a modular solution independent to the routing/flow rule implementation and does not incur additional networking overhead except for the seed distribution (which can occur offline). Our scheme is also effective (the attacker’s required cost to achieve timely network reconnaissance increases by more than an order of magnitude than the previous state-of-the-art having the controller actuate the MTD randomization) and scalable (the relative overhead cost of our scheme becomes smaller as the network grows). We analyze our scheme and implement and experiment it on an Open vSwitch-based testbed and on CloudLab to validate these properties.
Microstructure and corrosion properties of sensitized laser powder bed fusion printed Inconel 718 to dissolve support structures in a self-terminating manner

Abstract This manuscript expands the existing framework for single-material laser powder bed fusion printed dissolvable supports to Inconel 718 (IN718). Prior work with stainless steel leveraged a sensitization heat treatment using sodium hexacyanoferrate to precipitate chromium carbides over the top 100 μm to 200 μm of material, decreasing the corrosion resistance within this top layer relative to the bulk material. The component is then etched at an anodic potential with a high selectivity toward the “sensitized” surface over the base component material. This creates an etching process that self-terminates once the sensitized layer is removed. Since supports are typically less than 200 μm thick, they are completely sensitized and dissolved. Additionally, the surface roughness of the component is often improved once the sensitized region is removed. In this work, two different sensitization heat schedules were investigated: 750 °C for 24 h to understand the impact of preferential chromium carbide precipitation and 1050 °C for 8 h to understand the impact of primary carbide precipitations. At 1050 °C, the formation of a protective oxide scale inhibits material removal in an electrolyte of 0.48 M HNO3. At 750 °C, 70 μm of material is removed after quenching to avoid the precipitation of corrosion resistant oxides. This manuscript investigates the effect of targeting different carbide precipitation regimes and oxides to produce an ideal microstructure for dissolvable supports post-sensitization. To demonstrate the utility of the process, the supports from a mock IN718 turbine blade were removed using this process.
Abstract P541: High Allostatic Load is Associated With Increased Risk of All-cause Mortality - A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Introduction: Allostatic load (AL) is a measure of physiological damage from chronic stress, quantified using a variety of neuroendocrine, metabolic, cardiovascular, and immune biomarkers. While AL...
The Community Empowerment Framework: A Benchmark for Christian Social Work

Despite being a key concept in social work practice, community empowerment has been largely overlooked in the Christian social work literature. One potential explanation for the paucity of publication is arguably a lack of theoretical guidance from scholars who embrace both Christianity and social work. This paper sought to expand the literature by proposing, among other things, the Community Empowerment Framework (CEF) to guide practice within the Christian social work realm. The CEF contains the following nine principles: unit, purpose, power dynamics, needs assessment, inductive reasoning, solidarity, legacy, accountability, democracy, and identity. From these principles arise nine corresponding assumptions. This paper holds major implications for theory, research, and community practice.
Omics for proso millet genetic improvement

Proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) is one of the seven commonly cultivated millets. It is regarded as a climate-smart, ancient, and gluten-free and therefore, is healthy to humans and the environment. The exceptional nutritional properties of the grain resulted in a gradual surge in its demand in the human food market especially for people with diabetes and celiac disease. It is essential to continue the genetic improvement of proso millet to meet its ever-increasing demand. Genetic improvement of proso millet in the United States, however, is impeded by the narrow genetic base in the germplasm and lack of extensive research on its genetics and breeding. There are lots of reports on ‘omics’ (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and phenomics) of many common crops and the technologies are being extensively used in their genetic improvement. However, such studies are scarce in proso millet. The objective of this review article is to summarize available ‘omics’ reports of proso millet and discuss their relevance for its genetic improvement. Relatively more genomics and transcriptomics reports of proso millet are available but only two proteomics and metabolomics reports focusing on grain composition and no phenomics report are available. As more efficient, fast, and cheaper ‘omics’ technologies are available, it is imperative that global proso and other millets breeders and geneticists collaborate strongly for successful utilization of ‘milletomics’ for developing of noble proso millet varieties for future need of this climate-smart superfood grain.
Current state and future perspectives of telemedicine use in surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review protocol

Introduction: The biggest concerns in the current pandemic are enormous workload pressure, psychological distress, caregiver burnout, and, even worse, transmission of the virus among healthcare workers. One of the potentially beneficial tools in reducing the above-mentioned risks for overwhelming the healthcare system is telemedicine. Although the role of telemedicine and related interventions as a crisis management tool has increased, the current state of the implementation of telemedicine in surgery and surgical subspecialties has not been adequately evaluated. Objective and significance: The objective of this review is to screen the literature, extract expert opinions, qualitative, and quantitative data on the current use and future directions in the implementation of telemedicine in surgery and surgical subspecialties during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings would potentially help in understanding the challenges and future directions of telemedicine use in surgery. Methods and analysis: The databases to be searched include PubMed, EMBASE, and MEDLINE (via Ovid). In addition, ClinicalTrials.gov and medRxiv.org will be searched for any ongoing and/or unpublished studies. The reference lists of articles included in the review will be screened to assess the sensitivity of the search. Literature search, quality assessment, followed by data extraction will be performed by two independent researchers. The findings of the data synthesis will be reported in diagrams, tables, and text. This review will consider reports that include expert opinions, qualitative and quantitative data on the implementation of telemedicine in surgery and surgical subspecialties (including patients with surgical disease of any age) during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, future perspectives reported based either on the evidence provided by the data or on expert opinions will be considered. Ethics and dissemination: This study does not require an institutional review board approval given its summary design nature. Findings of this systematic review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Systematic review registration number: PROSPERO does not currently accept registrations for scoping reviews, literature reviews or mapping reviews.
Bilateral Occlusion Reduces the Ocular Deviation in Intermittent Exotropia.

Purpose The most common form of strabismus, intermittent exotropia, is thought to become manifest when the drive to fuse is overcome by excessive divergent muscle tone. This principle is tested by examining the alignment of the eyes in the absence of vision. We compare the ocular deviation in patients with intermittent exotropia under conditions of monocular versus binocular occlusion. Methods This prospective study of a patient cohort referred to our laboratory enrolled 18 patients with typical findings of well-controlled intermittent exotropia. Eye positions were recorded with video eye trackers while patients looked at a fixation spot at a distance of 57 cm. One eye was occluded, and the resulting ocular deviation was measured. Both eyes were then occluded, and the ocular deviation was re-measured. Results The majority of patients (11/18) had a smaller deviation when both eyes were covered. Occlusion of one eye resulted in a mean exotropia of 13.5° ± 4.7°. Occlusion of both eyes reduced the mean exotropia to 6.0° ± 6.5° (paired t-test, P < 0.001), corresponding to a 56% reduction in the ocular deviation. This reduction persisted during prolonged bilateral occlusion but reversed as soon as vision was restored. Conclusions Bilateral occlusion reveals a fixation-free state of alignment that is different from orthotropia and usually less than the exotropia that occurs spontaneously during binocular viewing. This finding demonstrates that the deviation angle in patients with intermittent exotropia is actively mediated by visual feedback, which the fixating eye is capable of providing alone.
The Fault(s) in Negligence Law

According to conventional wisdom, negligence is a unique tort. It is different from strict liability because it is based on fault. Although it shares fault with intentional torts, negligence's version of fault is different because it arises from the objective standard of reasonableness. This orthodox view has existed for nearly a century and has never been challenged. Even today, no one questions the strength of tort law's theoretical superstructure or the truth of the assumptions upon which it is based. In fact, the American Law Institute, which currently is in the process of restating tort law's basic principles, has made no effort to alter or even reexamine this framework. This article contends that such a reexamination is not only desirable, but necessary. Focusing on the theory of negligence, it exposes the many faults in tort law's current theoretical paradigm. The analysis proceeds in four parts. The first part reconsiders and compares the concepts of fault and reasonableness. It argues that the two ideas are not synonymous, and concludes that a classical-liberal conception of reasonableness comes closest to explaining and justifying the modern theory of negligence. To defend this conclusion, the second part of the article turns to two of negligence's "hard cases": the no-duty-to-rescue rule and the standard of care for mental incompetents. It reveals that the fairness-based notion of reasonableness provides a far more satisfying account of these difficult doctrines than the more deontological concept of fault. With the law's internal inconsistency resolved, part three explores negligence's external fit with other tort theories, beginning with intentional torts. It shows that negligence and intentional torts are more alike than different, sharing both a flexible approach to procedure and a substantive commitment to reasonableness. The last part continues the analysis of fit, this time examining the supposedly more impenetrable barrier between negligence and strict liability. Instead of supporting this divide, however, it shows that negligence already contains many de facto strict liability doctrines, and with its core concept of reasonableness, possesses all it needs to relax or stiffen its requirements in all types of cases, including cases now covered by theories of strict liability.
Assessing Parent Implementation of Behavior Support Strategies and Self-Monitoring to Enhance Maintenance:

Teaching parents to serve as interventionists for their children is a common approach to enhance child learning. Research demonstrates that parents are able to implement evidence-based intervention...
Proceedings of the 2008 ACM SIGPLAN workshop on Memory systems performance and correctness: held in conjunction with the Thirteenth International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS '08)

As CPUs rely increasingly on parallelism rather than frequency to improve performance, the memory system emerges as the fundamental barrier to continued improvement in system-level performance. Previous tactics like increasing cache size and associativity become less and less relevant in a world where NUMA memory behaviors and inter-processor contention dominate application performance. MSPC is a forum for exploring these emerging challenges. When we accepted the task of organizing this year's MSPC, we did so with the belief that the memory systems community needed a forum that relaxed the constraints of the research conference format to allow for the exploration of ideas that were too immature or controversial for a full research conference. We further saw this workshop as a critical opportunity to build a community among researchers interested in memory systems. With these objectives in mind, we implemented some significant format changes this year, with the intention of making MSPC less of a mini-conference and more of a place where the freshest and most surprising ideas in this field can be explored with energy and candor. In lieu of the program of ten-page technical papers that MSPC has used in the past, this year we solicited five-page position papers as well as two-page position abstracts. Our goals in doing so were both to permit creation of a viable submission from less mature research, and also to make it easier to recognize the delta in the common case that an MSPC paper is followed by a full conference publication. These changes were motivated in part from experience with HotOS. We received 26 submissions, including 22 five-page position papers and four position abstracts. Each position paper received at least five reviews. The program committee met via teleconference on December 20, 2007. In keeping with the goals of the new format, the program committee aimed to accept position papers that provided both a clear problem statement and some quantitative exploration of the solution space, with the understanding that these would lack the completeness and depth of exploration expected of a full-conference submission. Position papers that presented a problem but lacked an exploration of the solution space were generally not acceptable to the committee, although the two-page position abstract format was more amenable to such submissions. In addition to presentations of the position papers included in this volume, the workshop will also included a panel discussion on "The Next Solution" and a Wild and Crazy Ideas session.
Trends in the Relationship between Socioeconomic Status and Academic Achievement

Family background has repeatedly proven to be a strong predictor of academic achievement. Using data from three large-scale nationally representative surveys of high school seniors, this paper seeks to document whether the gap between students from high and low socioeconomic situations changed between 1972 and 1992. The analysis avoids some of the disadvantages in the literature on the intergenerational transmission of income by using large-scale studies and by using education as a measure of permanent income. As expected, I find that students from the bottom quartile consistently perform below students from the top quartile of socioeconomic status. More importantly, the gap in standardized test scores between student types increased during the 1970's. Though this gap also increased in the 1980's, how much of that increase is due to increased income inequality is unclear.
Effects of Dietary Carbohydrate on Mitochondrial Composition and Function in Two Strains of Rats

BHE and Wistar male, weanling rats were fed either a 65% sucrose or a 65% cornstarch diet. They were killed at 50 d of age; livers were excised and used for the determination of the fatty acids of mitochondrial phospholipid or used to determine the effect of such diets on the dependence on temperature of succinate-supported respiration. Neither diet nor strain affected either the total quantity of phospholipids or the quantities of the individual phospholipids. However, analysis of variance revealed strain and diet differences in the fatty acyl moieties of the phospholipids: sucrose-fed rats had more stearic (18:0) and less linoleic acid (18:2) than did starch-fed rats; BHE rats had more arachidonic acid (20:4) than did Wistar rats. There were no significant differences in either transition temperature or in the lower or upper activation energies determined from the biphasic Arrhenius plot. Although fatty acid compositional differences were observed, these differences had little effect on the membrane-associated, succinate-supported respiration.
Search for Light Neutron-Deficient Nuclei Produced in 800 MeV Proton Spallation Reactions

Defining the limits of particle stability in the light mass region provides a challenge to both the experimentalist and the theorist. The surprising discoveries of the particle stability of the neutron-rich nuclei 11Li (ref. 1), 14Be (ref. 2), 19C (ref. 3), and 32,34Na (ref. 4), which were predicted to be unstable with respect to one or two neutron emission, pointed out significant deficiencies in the understanding of the nuclear mass surface for light nuclei far from the valley of β-stability. Today such measurements of very neutron-rich or very neutron-deficient nuclei remain one of the most critical tests of current nuclear mass theories.
Writing South and North: Ariel Dorfman's linguistic ambidexterity

Ariel Dorfman's Heading South, Looking North: A Bilingual Journey (1998) is a translingual memoir, an account of how its author constructed a new identity in and through a new language. Born in Buenos Aires, Dorfman moved to New York when he was two and a half years old. Traumatized by a hospital stay, he rejected his native Spanish entirely in favor of English for the next ten years, until his family relocated to Santiago, Chile. Antipathy toward Yankee imperialism led the young author to vow never again to write in English. The coup against Salvador Allende, for whom Dorfman worked as an adviser, forced him into exile in the United States, where he has learned to make use of what he calls his “linguistic ambidexterity.” Heading South, Looking North is the nonfictional Bildungsroman of a man who recognizes that his identity is constructed out of language and who, though desperate to be monolingual, is torn between Spanish and English selves. After completing his book in English, Dorfman, a self-proclaimed “bigamist of language,” immediately translated it into Spanish as Rumbo al sur, deseando el norte (1998). Just as Dorfman himself remains suspended between English and Spanish, his text itself, a product of the dialogic imagination that refuses a single linguistic form, exists in the space between the English and Spanish versions. Beginning with the different titles (deseando means “desiring,” not “looking”), Dorfman as self-translator takes liberties that he acknowledges the translators of his novels and plays into Italian and Korean would not dare. A different Dorfman is constructed by each rendition of the life. Dorfman's ambilingual attention to two different communities is apparent in the separate ways he handles cultural references in the English and Spanish editions. Examination of the English and Spanish versions of his memoir reveals what he calls “the anxiety, the richness, the madness of being double.”
Turning values into valuation: Can corporate social responsibility survive hard times and emerge intact?

Purpose – This article aims to explore the recent evolution of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from fringe philosophy to corporate buzzword.Design/methodology/approach – For the period 2008 to mid‐2009, the author surveyed articles in mainstream media and business periodicals focusing on corporate social responsibility; reviewed polls for methodology and results; searched press releases for mention of corporate social responsibility; and interviewed professionals employed in the field. The author sought quantifiable examples of corporate financial support for programs in light of the recessionary economy. The author also looked to define today's corporate social responsibility as a philosophy reflecting the values of environmentalism, corporate transparency, community investment, diversity programs and other social benefits.Findings – CSR is a wide‐ranging global movement advocating good corporate citizenship through such values as sustainability, corporate transparency, business ethics, workforce d...
Note on Two Abuses: Drugs and the Pareto Criterion

This paper shows, by example, how easy it is for an imaginative economist to manufacture plausible assumptions about individual cognition, even when the set of assumptions is limited to those which conform to the economic paradigm of individual rational choice. It examines a recent article which employed the Pareto criterion to discard classes of arguments in favor of using social policy to control drug abuse. It attempts to show that assumptions which seem realistic can be used to rescue each of the arguments which were discarded. The point that is made is not that social policy should be used to control drug abuse but that economists can do little in this field but provide a means for logically analyzing the problem.
Abstract 247: Digitization of Electrocardiogram from Telemetry Prior to In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Background: Telemetry is commonly used to alert clinicians to respond to in-hospital cardiac arrest (I-HCA). Analyzing electrocardiogram (ECG) over an extended period of time prior to I-HCA is often time consuming because digital records of the ECG from telemetry are not available in the majority of hospitals. The objective of this study was to develop an algorithm to digitize full disclosure ECG papers in order to perform automated measurements. Methods: In a multi-center study, full-disclosure ECG papers (25 mm/s paper speed) within one hour of I-HCA of 42 cardiovascular patients with initial rhythms of pulseless electrical activity (PEA) and asystole were obtained from telemetry. Digital ECGs from one of the centers was also available for seven of these patients with a sampling rate of 500 Hz. The duration for each full-disclosure ECG paper was either 7.6 or 10.8 seconds as dictated by each hospital’s monitoring system. An algorithm to digitize the full-disclosure ECG papers was developed according to ...
On black-box reductions between predicate encryption schemes

We prove that there is no black-box construction of a threshold predicate encryption system from identity-based encryption. Our result signifies nontrivial progress in a line of research suggested by Boneh, Sahai and Waters (TCC '11), where they proposed a study of the relative power of predicate encryption for different functionalities. We rely on and extend the techniques of Boneh et al. (FOCS '08), where they give a black-box separation of identity-based encryption from trapdoor permutations. In contrast to previous results where only trapdoor permutations were used, our starting point is a more powerful primitive, namely identity-based encryption, which allows planting exponentially many trapdoors in the public-key by only planting a single master public-key of an identity-based encryption system. This makes the combinatorial aspect of our black-box separation result much more challenging. Our work gives the first impossibility result on black-box constructions of any cryptographic primitive from identity-based encryption. We also study the more general question of constructing predicate encryption for a complexity class F, given predicate encryption for a (potentially less powerful) complexity class G. Toward that end, we rule out certain natural black-box constructions of predicate encryption for NC1 from predicate encryption for AC0 assuming a widely believed conjecture in communication complexity.
Algorithms for the transportation problem in geometric settings

For A, B ⊂ Rd, |A| + |B| = n, let a e A have a demand da e Z+ and b e B have a supply sb e Z+, [EQUATION] = U and let d(.,.) be a distance function. Suppose the diameter of A ∪ B is Δ under d(.,.), and e > 0 is a parameter. We present an algorithm that in O((n√Ulog2n + U log U)Φ(n) log(ΔU/e)) time computes a solution to the transportation problem on A, B which is within an additive error e from the optimal solution. Here Φ(n) is the query and update time of a dynamic weighted nearest neighbor data structure under distance function d(.,.). Note that the (1/e) appears only in the log term. As among various consequences we obtain,• For A, B ⊂ Rd and for the case where d(.,.) is a metric, an e-approximation algorithm for the transportation problem in O((n√U log2n + U log U)Φ(n) log (U/e)) time.• For A, B ⊂ [Δ]d and the L1 and L∞ distance, exact algorithm for computing an optimal bipartite matching of A, B that runs in O(n3/2 log d+O(1)n log Δ) time.• For A, B ⊂ [Δ]2 and RMS distance, exact algorithm for computing an optimal bipartite matching of A, B that runs in O(n3/2+δ log Δ) time, for an arbitrarily small constant δ > 0.For point sets, A, B ⊂ [Δ]d, for the Lp norm and for 0
The association between presence of children in the home and firearm-ownership and -storage practices.

OBJECTIVE: American children's ready access to firearms contributes to high rates of firearm-related injuries. Understanding the factors that influence storage decisions is critical for prevention. This study examined the influence of geography and presence of children <16 years old in the home on firearm-ownership and storage decisions of northeast-Ohio residents. METHODS: Analysis was based on 522 responses to randomized telephone surveys of urban and rural households in northeast Ohio. Relationships between 4 dependent variables (firearm ownership, type of firearm owned, reasons for owning, and storage) and 2 independent variables (geography and presence of children in the home) were evaluated using odds ratios and multinomial logistic regression. RESULTS: Firearms were significantly more common in rural (31%) than in urban (13%) households. Twenty-two percent of gun owners reported securing all firearms with trigger locks or storing them in locked safes, drawers, or gun cabinets; 12% reported storing guns unlocked and either loaded or together with ammunition. Most gun owners (66%) reported storing all firearms unlocked, unloaded, and separate from ammunition. Rural respondents without children were approximately twice as likely as those with children to have handguns, but children did not influence long-gun ownership. In the urban group, the presence of children was not related to likelihood of firearm ownership. Having children in the home was not significantly associated with higher rates of safe storage for either group. DISCUSSION: These results illustrate the inadequacy of 1-size-fits-all interventions and highlight the need to better understand gun owners' reasoning about children and guns to design and implement successful interventions. Physicians and others interested in reducing pediatric exposure to firearms cannot be credible messengers on gun-safety topics if they cannot demonstrate an understanding of the issues from the perspective of patients and their families.
Multislice perfusion imaging in human brain using the C-FOCI inversion pulse: comparison with hyperbolic secant.

Perfusion studies based on pulsed arterial spin labeling have primarily applied hyperbolic secant (HS) pulses for spin inversion. To optimize perfusion sensitivity, it is highly desirable to implement the HS pulse with the same slice width as the width of the imaging pulse. Unfortunately, this approach causes interactions between the slice profiles and manifests as residual signal from static tissue in the resultant perfusion image. This problem is currently overcome by increasing the selective HS width relative to the imaging slice width. However, this solution increases the time for the labeled blood to reach the imaging slice (transit time), causing loss of perfusion sensitivity as a result of T(1) relaxation effects. In this study, we demonstrate that the preceding problems can be largely overcome by use of the C-shaped frequency offset corrected inversion (FOCI) pulse [Ordidge et al., Magn Reson Med 1996;36:562]. The implementation of this pulse for multislice perfusion imaging on the cerebrum is presented, showing substantial improvement in slice definition in vivo compared with the HS pulse. The sharper FOCI profile is shown to reduce the physical gap (or "safety margin") between the inversion and imaging slabs, resulting in a significant increase in perfusion signal without residual contamination from static tissue. The mean +/- SE (n = 6) gray matter perfusion-weighted signal (DeltaM/M(o)) without the application of vascular signal suppression gradients were 1.19 +/- 0. 10% (HS-flow-sensitive alternating inversion recovery [FAIR]), and 1. 51 +/- 0.11% for the FOCI-FAIR sequence. The corresponding values with vascular signal suppression were 0.64 +/- 0.14%, and 0.91 +/- 0. 08% using the HS- and FOCI-FAIR sequences, respectively. Compared with the HS-based data, the FOCI-FAIR results correspond to an average increase in perfusion signal of up to between 26%-30%. Magn Reson Med 42:1098-1105, 1999.
Long-term survival of glial segments during nerve regeneration in the leech

Abstract Nerve injury that severs axons also disrupts ensheathing glial cells. Specifically, crushing or cutting the leech nerve cord separates the glial cell's nucleated portion from an anucleate segment, or `stump'. In experiments reported here, the fate of the stump and the response of the nucleated portion were determined by intracellular recording, by intracellular injection of Lucifer Yellow dye and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) as tracers, and by electron microscopy. The nucleated portion of the glial cell did not divide, degenerate, or grow appreciably. The severed glial stump remained isolated from the nucleated portion but maintained its resting potential and normal morphology for months. Stumps typically began to deteriorate after 3 months. Small macrophage-like cells, or ‘microglia’ increased in number after injury and ensheathed axons, thus partially replacing the atrophying glial stump. Some axons in the nerve cord degenerated; the remainder appeared morphologically and physiologically normal. Thus, both nucleated and anucleate glial segments persisted throughout the one to two months required for axons to regenerate functional connections. Glial cells in the leech are therefore available to guide physically the growing axons or to contribute in other ways to nerve regeneration.
Contact allergens in oral antihistamines.

Background Excipients in various formulations of active drugs occasionally include known contact allergens. Their ingestion may trigger dermatitis or cause it to become widespread or refractory to therapy. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of common contact allergens among the excipients of oral antihistamines available in this country. Methods We gathered the complete ingredient lists of 2119 different preparations of 12 oral antihistamines from the National Library of Medicine data bank and entered them into an electronic database for analysis. Results More than half the formulations (55.0%) contained at least 1 member of the 10 allergen families assessed. Most brompheniramine and doxepin preparations included potentially allergenic excipients, whereas fexofenadine was most often free of them. Sorbitan group members, azo dyes, and propylene glycol were the allergens found most frequently in the antihistamines, each present in over 25% of the products. Elixirs, liquids, solutions, suspensions, and syrups were more likely than nonchewable caplets, capsules, and tablets to contain the allergens tabulated (100% vs 39.3%, respectively). Chewable pills frequently contained azo dyes. Conclusions Ingestion of antihistamines could precipitate a systemic contact dermatitis in a patient sensitized to an allergen present as an excipient in the medicine.
The Politics of “Twoness”: Policy, Clinical Judgment, Relationship, and Evidence-Based Practice

North Carolina has designated its mental health policy as “evidence-based practice” (EBP). The role given to the social worker in this policy is an example of one approach to relationship identified by Carol Gilligan (1993) and Jessica Benjamin (2004), which the latter termed “complementary twoness.” From this position the social worker's clinical judgment is seen to be potentially harmful to the client and thus must be mediated by a more objective means. An alternative position exists in which the relationship between the clinician and client can be understood to be of vital importance. Rather than attempting to mediate this relationship because of the inherent danger, thirdness calls upon us to elevate this relationship and the clinical judgment that is the result of the connection. In this article the authors deconstruct the current social work practice of EBP and policy guidelines in the light of the very nature of therapeutic relationship and latest research on neuroscience.
Oral Live Vaccine Strain-Induced Protective Immunity against Pulmonary Francisella tularensis Challenge Is Mediated by CD4+ T Cells and Antibodies, Including Immunoglobulin A

Francisella tularensis is an intracellular gram-negative bacterium and the etiological agent of pulmonary tularemia. Given the high degrees of infectivity in the host and of dissemination of bacteria following respiratory infection, immunization strategies that target mucosal surfaces are critical for the development of effective vaccines against this organism. In this study, we have characterized the efficacy of protective immunity against pneumonic tularemia following oral vaccination with F. tularensis LVS (live vaccine strain). Mice vaccinated orally with LVS displayed colocalization of LVS with intestinal M cells, with subsequent enhanced production of splenic antigen-specific gamma interferon and of systemic and mucosal antibodies, including immunoglobulin A (IgA). LVS-vaccinated BALB/c mice were highly protected against intranasal (i.n.) SCHU S4 challenge and exhibited significantly less bacterial replication in the lungs, liver, and spleen than mock-immunized animals. Depletion of CD4+ T cells significantly abrogated the protective immunity, and mice deficient in B cells or IgA displayed partial protection against SCHU S4 challenge. These results suggest that oral vaccination with LVS induces protective immunity against i.n. challenge with F. tularensis SCHU S4 by a process mediated cooperatively by CD4+ T cells and antibodies, including IgA.
Ileum motility of monkeys during chronic avoidance conditioning pre- and post-cingulumotomy

Abstract Distal ileum motility was continuously recorded in rhesus monkeys during long-term avoidance conditioning, before and after bilateral cingulum ablation. The results indicated that the diurnal ileum motility patterns were most commonly bimodal and quite regular for individual animals regardless of the conditioning or the lesions. In contrast, the avoidance conditioning did affect the daily motility output of the monkeys. The animals tended to be either hyper- or hypomotile during the avoidance weeks as compared to control weeks. The cingulum monkeys were less consistent in their direction of motility change during avoidance conditioning than those monkeys with cortical control lesions. The cingulum lesions seemed to reverse the ileum-motility output trend evidenced during the pre-lesion avoidance period.
An ecological assessment of community-based interventions for prevention and health promotion: Approaches to measuring community coalitions

Presented an ecological assessment of a community coalition to prevent alcohol, tobacco, and other drug abuse, and related risks. Ecological assessment is defined as occurring at multiple social levels and along a continuum of stages of coalition readiness. The assessment is aided by the triangulation, or combining of assessment methods and strategies. Measures used to assess the coalition's formation, implementation of community initiatives, and production of community impacts are described, along with the triangulation strategies used to enhance the assessment findings.