cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Antitrust, Professional Sports, and the Public Interest:

In a number of important cases, antitrust tribunals have intervened in ways that have significantly affected how professional sports are conducted in the United States. This article focuses on 10 important decisions where the courts ruled against sports leagues and will consider whether the public would have been better off with or without antitrust intervention. It is concluded that, in each of these cases, the private ordering challenged by antitrust litigation was not in the public interest. Although in many of the cases an optimal result would be some middle ground between the status quo and the demands of the antitrust plaintiff, in all cases, an optimal result was encouraged or facilitated by intervention.
Political Context and the Survey Response: The Dynamics of Racial Policy Opinion

Several recent studies suggest that the social dynamics at work in the survey interview may play a significant role in determining the answers individuals give to survey questions, most notably on questions relating to racial policies. In this note I reexamine and extend the conclusions of my previous study (1999) that finds opinion polls overstate support for policies designed to promote racial equality. I use data from the early 1970s to show that the strong social desirability effects I find in the 1990s do not characterize opinion in earlier eras. The analyses reported here indicate that while we need to pay attention to and account for the social context surrounding sensitive issues when gauging public opinion, we must also pay attention to changes in that context over time.
Why Enzymes Are Proficient Catalysts: Beyond the Pauling Paradigm

Pauling proposed that “enzymes are molecules that are complementary in structure to the activated complexes of the reactions that they catalyze, ..., [rather than] entering into reactions”. This paradigm has dominated thinking in the field. While complementarity of the type proposed by Pauling can account for acceleration up to 11 orders of magnitude, most enzymes exceed that proficiency. Enzymes with proficiencies ((kcat/KM)/kuncat) > 1011 M-1 achieve over 15 kcal/mol of “transition state binding” not merely by a concatenation of noncovalent effects but by covalent bond formation between enzyme or cofactor and transition state, involving a change in mechanism from that in aqueous solution. Enzymes enter into reactions with substrates and do not merely complement the transition states of the uncatalyzed reactions.
Image filtering by gradient inverse inhomogeneous diffusion

A method is developed for the synthesis of a nonlinear adaptive filter based on solutions to the inhomogeneous diffusion equation. The approach is based on the specification of the first derivative of the signal in time (scale). A general solution is derived and is then specialized to the scale invariance case, in which the diffusion coefficient is shown to be the gradient inverse. A novel discrete realization of the inhomogeneous diffusion equation is developed for the noise removal problem, and experimental results are shown. The proposed algorithm not only removes noise but simultaneously enhances and localizes edges. It is extremely simple and parallel, and does not require the detection of any of the many possible line and edge configurations. Since the algorithm is sensitive to the local context, it satisfies human vision requirements more than conventional methods which rely on minimizing the mean square error. >
Trauma-Related Guilt: Conceptual Development and Relationship With Posttraumatic Stress and Depressive Symptoms

Despite high prevalence and concerning associated problems, little effort has been made to conceptualize the construct of posttraumatic guilt. This investigation examined the theoretical model of trauma-related guilt proposed by Kubany and Watson (2003). This model hypothesizes that emotional and physical distress related to trauma memories partially mediates the relationship between guilt cognitions and posttraumatic guilt. Using path analysis, this investigation (a) empirically evaluated relationships hypothesized in Kubany and Watson's model, and (b) extended this conceptualization by evaluating models whereby guilt cognitions, distress, and posttraumatic guilt were related to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms depression symptom severity. Participants were male U.S. Iraq and Afghanistan veterans (N = 149). Results yielded a significant indirect effect from guilt cognitions to posttraumatic guilt via distress, providing support for Kubany and Watson's model (β = .14). Findings suggested distress may be the strongest correlate of PTSD symptoms (β = .47) and depression symptoms (β = .40), and that guilt cognitions may serve to intensify the relationship between distress and posttraumatic psychopathology. Research is needed to evaluate whether distress specific to guilt cognitions operates differentially on posttraumatic guilt when compared to distress more broadly related to trauma memories.
The Probability of Sale for Residential Real Estate

This work investigates the determinants of the probability of sale during a given marketing span for residential properties. The inconsistent empirical relationship between property price and prope...
Models of disaster response: lessons learned from Filipino immigrant mobilizations for Hurricane Katrina evacuees

Hurricane Katrina forced one of the largest internal migrations of people in USA history. Among the evacuees were 28,000 Filipino Americans, many of whom fled to Houston. In a short period of time, Filipino American Houstonians relocated their co-ethnics with host families, facilitated documents needed for US federal aid (FEMA), provided material assistance, and addressed evacuee medical needs through the establishment and staffing of a crisis triage clinic. Drawing on ethnographic and survey data, we contend that two key lessons can be gained from the Filipino case that local, state, and federal agencies can draw on for future emergency preparedness and disaster management. First, federal, state, and local agencies should better implement its partnership plans with identified ethnic- and faith-based organizations in order to both network and mobilize diverse resources more efficiently. Second, this implementation should include a more effective communication plan to coordinate efforts among people of all...
Human Computation

Tasks like image recognition are trivial for humans, but continue to challenge even the most sophisticated computer programs. This talk discusses a paradigm for utilizing human processing power to solve problems that computers cannot yet solve. Traditional approaches to solving such problems focus on improving software. I advocate a novel approach: constructively channel human brainpower to perform the tasks that computers cannot yet perform. For example, the ESP Game, described in this talk, is an enjoyable online game - many people play over 40 hours a week - and when people play, they help label images on the Web with descriptive keywords. These keywords can be used to significantly improve the accuracy of image search. People play the game not because they want to help, but because they enjoy it.
The Presumption of Innocence and Pretrial Detention in Malawi

Malawi is one of the few countries in the world that explicitly protects the right to be presumed innocent before and during trial in its Constitution. While many countries today claim to uphold this right, most of them apply it only after trial has commenced-when it is arguably too late for the defendant to prepare an adequate defense. These countries have in effect chosen to prevent crime at the expense of the constitutional liberty of their citizens. While some Malawian courts have generally upheld the presumption of innocence before trial statutory law allows them to consider the nature of the crime the defendant has allegedly committed in determining whether to grant bail or not. Courts should abide by the precepts of the Constitution and preserve the presumption of innocence before trial to avoid predictions of guilt and detention before trial as a means of crime control. Moreover, streamlining bail procedures for all criminal defendants and involving communities in bail procedures could strengthen the right to liberty and contribute to the fulfillment of the promises of dignity and freedom guaranteed to all individuals in the Constitution.
Blood Sugar, Insulin, and Dextrose Tolerance in Albino Rat Treated with Carbon Monoxide

Conclusions1. Acute carbon monoxide asphyxia raises the blood sugar in direct proportion to the percentage of COHb induced. 2. Repeated exposure to carbon monoxide seems not to change the insulin tolerance significantly but to reduce the dextrose tolerance below the limits of normal variation. It reduces the fasting blood sugar 6-8 mg below that of untreated litter mates.
The missing early history of contingency tables

R´ ESUM´ E. —L'apparente absence d'une histoire des tableaux de con- tingence avant 1900 est exploree, et trois hypotheses sont avancees pour expliquer cette absence de developpements anciens sur le sujet : diffi- cultes de calcul, manque de donnees, et obstacles conceptuels. Finale- ment, l'importance du modele de quasi-symetrie dans cet historique est brievement notee. ABSTRACT. —The apparent lack of a history of contingency tables before 1900 is explored, and three explanatory hypotheses are considered for the absence of early development on this topic: computational difficulty, lack of data, and conceptual hurdles. Finally, the importance to this history of the model of quasi-symmetry is briefly noted.
The Effect of Legalization on the Labor Markets of Latin American Immigrants: A Gendered Comparison

The impact of legalization on the labor market outcomes of those Latin American immigrants granted amnesty by the Immigration, Reform, and Control Act of 1986 is considered, paying special attention to differences between men and women. I utilize the Legalized Population Survey (1988 and 1992) to test several hypotheses taken from the literature about legalization. Contrary to previous research indicating that legalization was beneficial only to male immigrants, I show that legalization improved the labor market outcomes of both men and women using several measures of improvement. I also show that returns to human capital significantly increased after legalization for both Latin American males and females.
Imaging Sensors that asks 20 questions: Fulfilling Dr. Healy’s Vision

Dennis painted a vision in launching his Integrated Sensing Processing program more than 12 years ago. In this talk I will elaborate on how it will look in the context of imaging systems. Article not available.
It's a game of give and take: Modeling behavior in a give-or-take-some social dilemma

We investigate a new give-or-take-some (GOTS) dilemma paradigm that merges traditional give-some and take-some dilemmas. In this hybrid social dilemma, individuals can choose to give or to take resources from a shared resource pool. Previous empirical work by McCarter, Budescu, and Scheffran (2011) found that the composition of the group and the individuals’ endowments influenced their tendency to give and/or take. We reanalyze results from two experiments from McCarter, Budescu, et al. (2011) using the new paradigm and propose a simple model of individual behavior based on the players’ perceptions of their relative standing in the group and their perception of fair allocations. We also use these data to fit the model at the individual level and use it to provide a general framework for interpreting the group results.
Two-dimensional photonic crystal sensors for visual detection of lectin concanavalin A.

We fabricated a two-dimensional (2-D) photonic crystal lectin sensing material that utilizes light diffraction from a 2-D colloidal array attached to the surface of a hydrogel that contains mannose carbohydrate groups. Lectin–carbohydrate interactions create hydrogel cross-links that shrink the hydrogel volume and decrease the 2-D particle spacing. This mannose containing 2-D photonic crystal sensor detects Concanavalin A (Con A) through shifts in the 2-D diffraction wavelength. Con A concentrations can be determined by measuring the diffracted wavelength or visually determined from the change in the sensor diffraction color. The concentrations are easily monitored by measuring the 2-D array Debye ring diameter. Our observed detection limit for Con A is 0.02 mg/mL (0.7 μM). The 2-D photonic crystal sensors are completely reversible and can monitor Con A solution concentration changes.
Functional recovery from neuroinvasive West Nile Virus: A tale of two courses.

OBJECTIVE In 2012, the highest numbers of West Nile Virus (WNV) cases were reported by the Center for Disease Control since 2003. This outbreak included over half of the identified patients being classified with one of the more debilitating neuroinvasive subtypes of WNV. Despite improvements in diagnosis and treatment options in symptom management, longitudinal research on WNV neurocognitive and functional outcomes is limited by sample size, retrospective review, and/or reliance on self-report measures for cognitive status and level of independence. This study describes the cases of 2 patients diagnosed with WNV as they complete rehabilitation across the continuum of care. RESEARCH METHOD Review of two cases that experience different rehabilitation outcomes 4-18 months post diagnosis. RESULTS The cases presented here demonstrate the potentially differential courses of recovery and outcomes for physical (e.g., balance, ambulation, upper extremity function), cognitive (e.g., attention, executive functions, memory, language, visuospatial), and emotional functioning, as assessed via measures administered by the patient's physical therapists and neuropsychologists. These patients were evaluated as part of the standard clinical practice to monitor changes, track recovery, and provide recommendations across the continuum of care from admission to discharge from acute inpatient rehabilitation, during outpatient day neurorehabilitation, and while receiving outpatient neuropsychology services. CONCLUSIONS These cases highlight the variability in rehabilitative course for individuals diagnosed with WNV. Consistent follow-up with patients is recommended to ensure management of remitting and chronic symptoms.
Immunoglobulin light chain alters mesangial cell calcium homeostasis

Abstract This study examined the hypothesis that certain immunoglobulin light chains directly altered mesangial cell calcium homeostasis. Intracellular Ca2+ concentration (intracellular [Ca2+]) signaling was determined in suspensions of rat mesangial cells using the acetoxymethyl ester of fura 2 with a calcium removal/replacement protocol. Pretreatment of cultured rat mesangial cells with a glomerulopathic kappa-light chain (gle) produced reversible dose- and time-dependent attenuation of ATP- and thrombin-evoked [Ca2+] transients (189 +/- 24 vs. 126 +/- 10 nM, P < 0.05 with ATP; 198 +/- 5 vs. 117 +/- 3 nM, P < 0.05 with thrombin) and capacitative calcium influx (199 +/- 14 vs. 142 +/- 17 nM, P < 0.05 for ATP; 252 +/- 19 vs. 198 +/- 18 nM, P < 0.05 for thrombin). Mesangial cells treated with gle and supplemented with myo-inositol (450 microM) did not demonstrate the attenuation of the ATP-evoked [Ca2+] transient and capacitative calcium influx. Gle also decreased mean [Ca2+] transient (80 +/- 7 vs. 56 +/- 1 nM, P < 0.05) and capacitative calcium influx (306 +/- 10 vs. 241 +/- 4 nM, P < 0.05) in response to thapsigargin, a Ca2+-adenosinetriphosphatase inhibitor. This inhibition was not reversed by exogenous myo-inositol. Another kappa-light chain (10 microg/ml) did not affect mesangial cell calcium signaling. Deranged mesangial cell calcium homeostasis by certain light chains may play a central pathogenetic role in glomerulosclerosis associated with deposition of immunoglobulin light chains.
The role of post-mortem MRI in the neonatal intensive care unit

Post-mortem examination can provide important information about the cause of death and play a significant role in the bereavement process. Autopsies reveal previous unknown medical problems approximately 20 to 30% of the time. A non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging-based post-mortem examination (PM-MRI) may provide an alternative for families who do not consent to an autopsy. This study was a prospective observational study of recently expired neonates and infants. Subjects underwent a full body MRI scan (brain, chest, abdomen and pelvis) followed by conventional autopsy if the family desired to have one. MRI results were compared with autopsy findings and the ante-mortem clinical diagnosis. A follow-up survey was conducted to investigate family perceptions of the PM-MRI process. Thirty-one infants underwent full PM-MRI. Of 31 infants, 19 (61%) had complete agreement between the clinician’s impression and PM-MRI. Twenty-four infants also had conventional autopsy, with 14/24 (58%) infants having PM-MRI results consistent with autopsy findings. PM-MRI was superior at detection of free intraperitoneal/intrathoracic air and hepatic iron overload. Whole-body PM-MRI did not have the resolution to detect focal/microscopic injury, vascular remodeling and some forms of brain injury. Of those families who remembered the PM-MRI findings, the majority felt that the information was useful. PM-MRI studies may provide an important adjunct to conventional autopsy and a substitute when the latter is not possible for personal or religious reasons. Clinicians should be aware of, and communicate with the family, the resolution limits of the whole-body PM-MRI to detect certain types of injury.
Medial Closing-Wedge Distal Femoral Osteotomy for Genu Valgum With Lateral Compartment Disease

Lateral compartment disease combined with valgus alignment can lead to progressive knee joint degeneration. In the symptomatic patient with isolated lateral compartment disease, a varus-producing distal femoral osteotomy can unload the diseased lateral compartment. This osteotomy may be combined with other cartilage or meniscal restorative techniques to optimize knee joint preservation and pain relief. The osteotomy can be performed with a medial closing-wedge or lateral opening-wedge technique. Both techniques have been reported to improve knee-related quality of life in patients with lateral compartment disease. Advantages of the medial closing-wedge technique are direct bone apposition leading to inherent stability of the construct, as well as reliable bony healing, and less hardware irritation. Advantages of the lateral opening-wedge technique are a single bony cut and therefore more of an ability to adjust correction intraoperatively. However, this technique requires bone grafting and has a high rate of hardware irritation or removal. We present a surgical technique for the medial closing-wedge distal femoral osteotomy using an anteromedial-distal femoral locking plate.
Age-related differences in the influence of task-irrelevant information on the neural bases of phonological and semantic processes

Although aging is often associated with cognitive decline, there is considerable variability among individuals and across domains of cognition. Within language, several indicators of semantic processing show stability throughout the lifespan. However, older adults have increased difficulty with phonological aspects of language, especially in language production. While these behavioral patterns are established, the neurobiology associated with these behaviors are less clear. Previously we have shown that, older adults were slower and less accurate in phonological compared to semantic decisions, and that older adults did not exhibit brain-behavior relationships. In the present study, we examined phonological and semantic processes in the presence of task-irrelevant information. Older and younger adults made phonological and semantic decisions about pictures in the presence of either phonologically-related or semantically-related words, which were unrelated to the task. Behavioral results indicated that overall older adults had slower reaction times and lower accuracy compared to younger adults, and that all adults were less efficient when making phonological compared to semantic decisions. Patterns of brain activation for the semantic condition showed that all adults engaged typical left-hemisphere language regions, and that this activation was positively correlated with efficiency. In contrast, the phonological condition elicited activation in bilateral precuneus and cingulate, but only younger adults showed a significant relationship between activation and efficiency. Our results suggest that the relationship between behavior and neural activation when processing phonological information declines with age, but that the core semantic system continues to be engaged throughout the lifespan, even in the presence of task-irrelevant information.
Patterns of Attention: How Data Visualizations Are Read

Data visualizations are used to communicate information to people in a wide variety of contexts, but few tools are available to help visualization designers evaluate the effectiveness of their designs. Visual saliency maps that predict which regions of an image are likely to draw the viewer’s attention could be a useful evaluation tool, but existing models of visual saliency often make poor predictions for abstract data visualizations. These models do not take into account the importance of features like text in visualizations, which may lead to inaccurate saliency maps. In this paper we use data from two eye tracking experiments to investigate attention to text in data visualizations. The data sets were collected under two different task conditions: a memory task and a free viewing task. Across both tasks, the text elements in the visualizations consistently drew attention, especially during early stages of viewing. These findings highlight the need to incorporate additional features into saliency models that will be applied to visualizations.
The miR-29 transcriptome in endocrine-sensitive and resistant breast cancer cells

Aberrant microRNA expression contributes to breast cancer progression and endocrine resistance. We reported that although tamoxifen stimulated miR-29b-1/a transcription in tamoxifen (TAM)-resistant breast cancer cells, ectopic expression of miR-29b-1/a did not drive TAM-resistance in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. However, miR-29b-1/a overexpression significantly repressed TAM-resistant LCC9 cell proliferation, suggesting that miR-29b-1/a is not mediating TAM resistance but acts as a tumor suppressor in TAM-resistant cells. The target genes mediating this tumor suppressor activity were unknown. Here, we identify miR-29b-1 and miR-29a target transcripts in both MCF-7 and LCC9 cells. We find that miR-29b-1 and miR-29a regulate common and unique transcripts in each cell line. The cell-specific and common downregulated genes were characterized using the MetaCore Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis algorithm. LCC9-sepecific miR-29b-1/a-regulated GO processes include oxidative phosphorylation, ATP metabolism, and apoptosis. Extracellular flux analysis of cells transfected with anti- or pre- miR-29a confirmed that miR-29a inhibits mitochondrial bioenergetics in LCC9 cells. qPCR,luciferase reporter assays, and western blot also verified the ATP synthase subunit genes ATP5G1 and ATPIF1 as bone fide miR29b-1/a targets. Our results suggest that miR-29 repression of TAM-resistant breast cancer cell proliferation is mediated in part through repression of genes important in mitochondrial bioenergetics.
A simple proof that the (n2 − 1)-puzzle is hard

Abstract The 15 puzzle is a classic reconfiguration puzzle with fifteen uniquely labeled unit squares within a 4 × 4 board in which the goal is to slide the squares (without ever overlapping) into a target configuration. By generalizing the puzzle to an n × n board with n 2 − 1 squares, we can study the computational complexity of problems related to the puzzle; in particular, we consider the problem of determining whether a given end configuration can be reached from a given start configuration via at most a given number of moves. This problem was shown NP-complete in [1] . We provide an alternative simpler proof of this fact by reduction from the rectilinear Steiner tree problem.
Inertial Manifolds: The Reduction Principle

In the previous chapters, we have seen several illustrations of finite dimensional structures within the infinite dimensional dynamical systems. For example, many dissipative systems have global attractors, and oftentimes, the attractor A has finite Hausdorff and fractal dimensions. During the last few years it has been shown that some infinite dimensional nonlinear dissipative evolutionary equations have inertial manifolds. We will give the definition shortly.
Associations between maternal phenol and paraben urinary biomarkers and maternal hormones during pregnancy: A repeated measures study.

Abstract Background: A number of phenols and parabens are added to consumer products for a variety of functions, and have been found at detectable levels in the majority of the U.S. population. Among other functions, thyroid hormones are essential in fetal neurodevelopment, and could be impacted by the endocrine disrupting effects of phenols and parabens. The present study investigated the association between ten maternal urinary phenol and paraben biomarkers (bisphenol S, triclosan, triclocarban, benzophenone-3, 2,4-dichlorophenol, 2,5-dichlorophenol, and ethyl, butyl, methyl and propyl paraben) and four plasma thyroid hormones in 439 pregnant women in a case–control sample nested within a cohort study based in Boston, MA. Methods: Urine and blood samples were collected from up to four visits during pregnancy (median weeks of gestation at each visit: Visit 1: 9.64, Visit 2: 17.9, Visit 3: 26.0, Visit 4: 35.1). Linear mixed models were constructed to take into account the repeated measures jointly, followed by multivariate linear regression models stratified by gestational age to explore potential windows of susceptibility. Results: We observed decreased total triiodothyronine (T3) in relation to an IQR increase in benzophenone-3 (percent change [%Δ] = −2.07; 95% confidence interval [CI] = −4.16, 0.01), butyl paraben (%Δ = −2.76; 95% CI = −5.25, −0.26) and triclosan (%Δ = −2.53; 95% CI = −4.75, −0.30), and triclocarban at levels above the LOD (%Δ = −5.71; 95% CI = −10.45, −0.97). A 2.41% increase in T3 was associated with an IQR increase in methyl paraben (95% CI = 0.58, 4.24). We also detected a negative association between free thyroxine (FT4) and propyl paraben (%Δ = −3.14; 95% CI = −6.12, −0.06), and a suggestive positive association between total thyroxine (T4) and methyl paraben (%Δ = 1.19; 95% CI = −0.10, 2.47). Gestational age-specific multivariate regression analyses showed that the magnitude and direction of some of the observed associations were dependent on the timing of exposure. Conclusion: Certain phenols and parabens were associated with altered thyroid hormone levels during pregnancy, and the timing of exposure influenced the association between phenol and paraben, and hormone concentrations. These changes may contribute to downstream maternal and fetal health outcomes. Additional research is required to replicate the associations, and determine the potential biological mechanisms underlying the observed associations.
Perinatal high fat diet and early life methyl donor supplementation alter one carbon metabolism and DNA methylation in the brain.

One carbon metabolism is regulated by the availability of nutrients known as methyl donors, and disruption of this pathway can affect multiple physiological systems. DNA methylation, critical for the regulation of gene expression, is linked to one carbon metabolism, and can be altered by perinatal diet. In this study, dams (n = 12/group) were fed HF or standard control (SC) diet through pregnancy and lactation, and male and female offspring were then fed either SC or methyl donor-supplemented diet (MDS) between 3 and 6 weeks of age (n = 20-26/group). Concentration of one carbon intermediates and other related metabolites were assessed within brain tissue (prefrontal cortex, PFC) through the use of mass spectrometry at 6 weeks of age. In addition, the expression of target genes and enzymes that participate in DNA methylation or are relevant to one carbon metabolism were measured. We found that MDS increases the concentration of folate intermediates in the PFC, and that this increase is blunted in male offspring from dams fed a HF diet. In addition, perinatal HF diet increased the concentration of cysteine in the PFC of both male and female offspring, consistent with oxidative stress. Furthermore, both maternal HF diet and postnatal MDS altered global DNA methylation in the PFC in males but not females. Collectively, these data demonstrate sex differences in changes in one carbon metabolites in the prefrontal cortex in response to early life high fat diet and methyl donor supplementation. Read the Editorial Highlight for this article on page 358.
Small Fires Burning: Bruce Nauman and the Activation of Conceptual Art

In 1968, a year of mounting opposition to the Vietnam War, a young Bruce Nauman laid waste to a work of contemporary art. His antagonism was unleashed on Various Small Fires (1964) by Ed Ruscha, a ...
High-temperature annealing enabled iridium oxide nanofibers for both non-enzymatic glucose and solid-state pH sensing

Abstract As a new class of multifunctional material, high-temperature annealing enabled iridium oxide nanofibers (IrO2 NFs) were synthesized and then employed as the sensing element to fabricate a novel dual glucose and pH sensor in this study. The as-prepared IrO2 NFs were systematically characterized using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy, while the electrochemical and electrocatalytic performance of the IrO2 NFs based dual sensor toward pH and glucose sensing were evaluated using open circuit potential, cyclic voltammetry and amperometric techniques, respectively. The IrO2 NFs not only possess good and reversible pH sensitivity as expected, but also demonstrate the electrocatalytic activity toward glucose which was presumably attributed to the crystallinity enabled by high-temperature annealing effect during the preparation of IrO2 NFs. This unique dual functionality enables us to develop a sensor which can be applied for both non-enzymatic glucose and solid-state pH sensing. The experiment results show that the IrO2 NFs based dual sensor exhibits a Nernst constant close to a theoretical value with excellent reversibility in pH titration, while it also possesses a sensitivity of 22.22 μA mM-1 cm−2, a limit of detection of 2.9 μM (S/N = 3), and good selectivity against various interferents in non-enzymatic glucose detection. Its good accuracy for detecting glucose in human serum sample was also demonstrated by comparing to commercial glucose meter. All these features indicate that the high-temperature annealed IrO2 NF is a promising multifunctional sensing material in the development of an integrated solid-state pH sensor and non-enzymatic glucose sensor.
EpxEpilepsy: A SMS-Based Intervention for Patients with Epilepsy (P4.289)

Objective: By utilizing a telecommunication tool, EpxEpilepsy, our goal was to improve management of seizures in epileptic patients. Daily short message service (SMS) and/or phone calls allowed us to observe if this interactive platform could better track an epileptic patient’s seizures, manage medication, and assist in bettering communication between patients and their providers. Background: Current self-recorded seizure frequency logs can be imprecise further compromising their quality of care. Offering prompt interventions are crucial in observing a median reduction in seizure frequency. Design/Methods: EpxEpilepsy is an automated service that prompts patients to track their seizure frequency which is summarized and reported to the provider on a weekly basis. Since providers can set the baseline number of seizures for each patient, EpxEpilepsy will identify patients who have a seizure frequency outside the threshold parameters. Through the Washington University Specialty Care Clinic, 10 patients were enrolled, receiving one text message for 24 weeks. The goal was to observe how the intervention could help patients track and reduce seizures and assist physicians in better monitoring and communicating with patients. Results: We were able to capture 31 triggers where patients experienced an above-baseline amount of seizures, and facilitated 13 phone calls totaling approximately 67 minutes between physicians and patients. On average, patients were 2 times as likely to respond to the intervention when they have seizure activity greater than their threshold during the first 7 weeks of enrollment. Conclusions: Patients are mostly utilizing this system and responding to the intervention when they experience an above normal amount of seizures. The relatively high response rate triggering alerts shows that there is potential for this intervention to help patients in tracking and communicating their seizures to their physicians. Moving forward, a randomized control trial with a larger sample size can offer greater insight into the usability of this intervention. Study Supported by: This study was supported by Epharmix, Inc. Disclosure: Dr. Duggirala has nothing to disclose. Dr. Ma has nothing to disclose. Dr. Peters has nothing to disclose. Dr. Zhang has nothing to disclose. Dr. Ross has nothing to disclose.
Investigation of 14C release in an engineered low-level waste disposal facility

Atmospheric releases of I4C from a generic engineered low-level waste (LLW) disposal facility and its radiological impacts are investigated. A computer model that describes microbial gas generation...
Diagnosis of infective endocarditis.

SUMMARY The diagnosis of IE is often difficult to establish with certainty. Current diagnostic criteria have several weaknesses, the most important being failure to utilize the results of echocardiography. This seems inconsistent with modern practice. In reality, the results of modern echocardiography, including appropriate use of transesophageal echocardiography, are critically important for diagnosis of infective endocarditis. New criteria are in the process of development which should prove more sensitive and more specific for disease classification, epidemiologic studies, and clinical trials.
Lapatinib plus capecitabine in breast cancer.

n engl j med 356;14 www.nejm.org april 5, 2007 1471 cies. Nonstandardized empirical antibiotic therapy has confounded the interpretation of findings in some previous trials of the diagnosis of ventilator-associated pneumonia. Therefore, the initial antibiotic therapy in our trial, consisting of meropenem with or without ciprofloxacin, served to standardize empirical treatment until culture results became available. Patients with known pathogens not susceptible to these drugs were excluded; thus, differences observed in outcomes could be better attributed to the diagnostic strategy. It is important not to interpret the use of these antibiotics as clinical recommendations for the treatment of ventilator-associated pneumonia. The treatment guidelines of the American Thoracic Society were published after our trial had been completed.1 Daren Heyland, M.D. Queen’s University Kingston, ON K7L 2V7, Canada dkh2@post.queensu.ca
Lidar (light detection and ranging)

Abstract: Lidar is an acronym for light detection and ranging, similar to that for radar (radio detection and ranging), and uses a narrow laser beam as a probe of the surrounding environment, including 3D mapping of distant hard targets and spectroscopic sensing of gases and constituents from afar. This chapter covers an overview of lidar principals, laser beam transmission through the atmosphere, the lidar equation, different types of lidar systems, and brief examples of lidar measurements including detection of atmospheric gases, 3D mapping of terrain, remote wind measurements, and emission-based laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy of distant surfaces.
Peonage, Power Relations, and the Built Environment at Hacienda Tabi, Yucatan, Mexico

The social and material conditions of postcolonial haciendas in Yucatan, Mexico, were greatly influenced by power relations intrinsic to the institution of debt peonage. Although landowning elites exercised enormous control over debt peons, hacienda social relations involved continuous negotiation between master and servant. Recent investigations at Hacienda Tabi, a sugar hacienda in southern Yucatan, explore the interplay between power relations and the creation and maintenance of the built environment. The evidence from Tabi suggests that during the Porfiriato (1876–1911) hacendados manipulated the settlement landscape to emphasize an order of social inequality. The spatial and structural elements of the hacienda's settlement reflected and supported the owners' attempts to control resident peons. However, those attempts were challenged by the resident Maya community, who defined the hacienda landscape imposed on them in alternative ways.
Carrying goals to newcastle: a tribute to brian randell

Brian Randell has had an enormous impact on advances directed toward system dependability over the past 40 years. This Festschrift contribution summarizes a few of his contributions as well as recent work that has been at least partially inspired by Brian's influence.
The Hausdorff Measure of Sets Which Link in Euclidean Space

This chapter discusses an elementary lower bound for the Hausdorff p -dimensional measure of a compact set A ⊂ R n , which links a compact (n – p – 1)-dimensional set B ⊂ R n ∼A. For each n ≥ 2, there exists a positive constant c, such that ℋ p (A) ≥ c dist (A, B) p , whenever p is an integer in [1, n –1] and B is a topological (n – p – l)-sphere, which is not contractible in R n ∼ A. Inequality is a consequence of a result, which states that each compact set A ⊂ R n with ℋ p (A) = r p , r ∈(0, ∞), can be covered by a compact set C ⊂ R n , such that R n ∼ C is (n – p – l)-connected and such that each point of C Lies with distance br of A, where b is a positive constant which depends only on n . The chapter also presents an application of inequality to n -dimensional quasiconformal mappings.
Association Between Diet, Health, and the Presence of Bioactive Compounds in Foods

Abstract The study of associations between diet, health, and the presence of bioactive compounds in foods has received a substantial amount of attention. They are mostly concentrated in cereals, pulses, fruits, vegetables, peptides, omega-3, and fiber. Epidemiological studies indicate that dietary intake of fruits and cereals prevents chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes. Both animal and plant proteins are rich sources of bioactive peptides having specific physiological and biochemical functions. Marine oils, as a rich source of long-chain omega-3, have attracted considerable attention in recent years. Omega-3 have been known to lower plasma triacylglycerol along with a variety of other drugs such as fibrates, statins, niacin, and metformin. It has been proclaimed that daily dietary fiber intake helps in the prevention of many nutritional disorders like gut-related problems. In this chapter the effects and targets of bioactive compounds are assessed, allied as perspectives to promote health.
Carbon stocks and stock change on federal forest lands of the United States

Forest land in the United States offsets more than 11% of total domestic greenhouse gas emissions each year through growth of live woody biomass and accumulation of carbon in trees, dead organic matter, and harvested wood products. Forest lands owned and managed by various agencies of the U.S. government cover 77 million hectares, which is 29% of U.S. forest land and an estimated 33%, or 17.2 Pg C, of forest carbon stocks. Here, we summarize forest inventory-based estimates of forest carbon stocks and indications of carbon stock change on forest lands managed by agencies within the U.S. federal government. Within the conterminous USA, the proportion of forest land that is federally owned is higher in the West representing two-thirds of forest carbon stocks; in the East, federal lands represent 9% of forest carbon. The majority of federal forests and forest carbon are managed by the U.S. Forest Service (13.8 Pg C), but 20% of federal forest carbon stocks, or 3.5 Pg C, are managed by other federal agencies (e.g., National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management). We also briefly review some broad characteristics of the forest inventory that affect forest carbon reported for the USA as included in greenhouse gas inventories such as for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change reporting.
Employing braid theory to disentangle overlapping oceanic events in the shallow water acoustic channel

The shallow water acoustic channel is well-known to exhibit rapid temporal fluctuations due to multipath effects, fluid motion as well as focusing events in the ocean. These events often overlap temporally thus contributing in unpredictable ways to the channel delay spread. We will present recent results from employing geometric signal processing techniques to shallow water channel estimation and will introduce new ways to identify and disambiguate overlapping oceanic phenomena within the channel delay spread. Specifically, we will explore how geometric braid theory and related operations can be employed to disentangle overlapping channel braids, and explore the efficacy of such signal processing techniques across diverse channel representations. Finally, we will discuss the importance of capturing oceanic phenomena at the appropriate resolution of time, frequency, and sparsity and the trade-offs in accuracy involved based on the chosen channel representation(s).
Warmer waters masculinize wild populations of a fish with temperature-dependent sex determination

Southern flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma) exhibit environmental sex determination (ESD), where environmental factors can influence phenotypic sex during early juvenile development but only in the presumed XX female genotype. Warm and cold temperatures masculinize fish with mid-range conditions producing at most 50% females. Due to sexually dimorphic growth, southern flounder fisheries are dependent upon larger females. Wild populations could be at risk of masculinization from ESD due to globally increasing water temperatures. We evaluated the effects of habitat and temperature on wild populations of juvenile southern flounder in North Carolina, USA. While northern habitats averaged temperatures near 23 °C and produced the greatest proportion of females, more southerly habitats exhibited warmer temperatures (>27 °C) and consistently produced male-biased sex ratios (up to 94% male). Rearing flounder in the laboratory under temperature regimes mimicking those of natural habitats recapitulated sex ratio differences observed across the wild populations, providing strong evidence that temperature is a key factor influencing sex ratios in nursery habitats. These studies provide evidence of habitat conditions interacting with ESD to affect a key demographic parameter in an economically important fishery. The temperature ranges that yield male-biased sex ratios are within the scope of predicted increases in ocean temperature under climate change.
Dive Deeper Than the Water

BACKGROUND Burkholderia cepacia (B. cepacia) complex is an opportunistic pathogen found in soil or water. The bacteria are often resistant to antibiotics. A cluster of B. cepacia was identified over a five month period. The bacteria resulted in various culture types including sputum, urine, pelvic and foot cultures. An investigation was performed to identify a source. METHODS Cases were defined as patients with a positive culture. B. cepacia is not an organism routinely observed in the facility. Sixty percent of patients were identified during readmission to the facility. The investigation consisted of review of medical records, ongoing meetings with perioperative services, the wound care team and the microbiology department. The state epidemiology division was notified to assist in the investigation. There were no specific findings as to the source except the water system. Isolates were being forwarded to the state laboratory. RESULTS During the investigation period, B. cepacia resulted in only ten specimens. State findings revealed gaps in hand hygiene, wound care and the water management program. Common factors included surgery and wound care. Infection prevention performed environmental cultures. A skin cleansing foam was contaminated with B. cepacia. Patient isolates forwarded to the state laboratory were DNA identical to product isolates. The FDA was notified. Findings resulted in a multistate investigation and outbreak. The manufacturer issued a multistate recall of product. CONCLUSIONS The outbreak of B. cepacia isolates was caused by a contaminated skin care foaming agent. The product was manufactured at one facility which allowed for quick identification and remediation by the manufacturer. As soon as the product was isolated for B. cepacia and removed from the facility, no other cases were identified. Prompt reporting to the state division of epidemiology allowed an openness to continue to investigate and determine a cause.
Hemorrhagic Cystitis With Low-Dose Cyclophosphamide Therapy for Breast Cancer: A Rare Occurrence

Cyclophosphamide (CP) is known to cause hemorrhagic cystitis (HC), and this adverse effect is more commonly seen in patients receiving high individual doses used in the treatment of sarcomas and conditioning regimens during hematopoietic cell transplant. There are a few reported cases of HC in doses used for breast cancer. We report the case of a 63-year-old lady with stage IIA breast cancer who was started on adjuvant CP and docetaxel therapy at a dose of 600 mg/m 2 and 75 mg/m 2 respectively. She developed gross hematuria in less than 24 h after her first cycle and was found to have evidence suggestive of HC on cystoscopy done subsequently. She went on to complete three more cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy with CP and docetaxel with concurrent mesna and hydration. She did not develop any further episodes of hematuria. We review the literature pertaining to our case, and also compare the characteristics of the patient in our case with previously described cases of breast cancer who developed HC with low-dose CP. J Med Cases. 2019;10(6):179-182 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jmc3321
Emerging roles for the intestinal microbiome in epilepsy

The gut microbiome is emerging as a key regulator of brain function and behavior and is associated with symptoms of several neurological disorders. There is emerging evidence that alterations in the gut microbiota are seen in epilepsy and in response to seizure interventions. In this review, we highlight recent studies reporting that individuals with refractory epilepsy exhibit altered composition of the gut microbiota. We further discuss antibiotic treatment and infection as microbiome-related factors that influence seizure susceptibility in humans and animal models. In addition, we evaluate how the microbiome may mediate effects of the ketogenic diet, probiotic treatment, and anti-epileptic drugs on reducing both seizure frequency and severity. Finally, we assess the open questions in interrogating roles for the microbiome in epilepsy and address the prospect that continued research may uncover fundamental insights for understanding risk factors for epilepsy, as well as novel approaches for treating refractory epilepsy.