cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Hepatitis C Virus Antibody Positivity and Predictors Among Previously Undiagnosed Adult Primary Care Outpatients: Cross-Sectional Analysis of a Multisite Retrospective Cohort Study

Background. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) testing guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1998 recommends HCV antibody (anti-HCV) testing for persons with specified risk factors. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and predictors of anti-HCV positivity among primary care outpatients and estimate the proportion of unidentified anti-HCV-positive (anti-HCV + ) persons using risk-based testing. Methods. We analyzed electronic medical record data from a 4-site retrospective study. Patients were aged ≥18 years, utilized ≥1 outpatient primary care service(s) between 2005 and 2010, and had no documented evidence of prior HCV diagnosis. Among persons tested for anti-HCV, we fit a multilevel logistic regression model to identify patient-level independent predictors of anti-HCV positivity. We estimated the proportion of unidentified anti-HCV + persons by using multiple imputation to assign anti-HCV results to untested patients. Results. We observed 209 076 patients for a median of 5 months (interquartile range, 1–23 months). Among 17 464 (8.4%) patients who were tested for anti-HCV, 6.4% (n = 1115) were positive. We identified history of injection drug use (adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval], 6.3 [5.2–7.6]), 1945–1965 birth cohort (4.4 [3.8–5.1]), and elevated alanine aminotransferase levels (4.8 [4.2–5.6]) as independently associated with antiHCV positivity. We estimated that 81.5% (n = 4890/6005) of anti-HCV + patients were unidentified using riskbased testing. Conclusions. In these outpatient primary care settings, risk-based testing may have missed 4 of 5 newly enrolled patients who are anti-HCV + . Without knowing their status, unidentified anti-HCV + persons cannot receive further clinical evaluation or antiviral treatment, and are unlikely to benefit from secondary prevention recommendations to limit disease progression and mortality.
Contract Soundness for object-oriented languages

Checking pre- and post-conditions of procedures and methods at runtime helps improve software reliability. In the procedural world, pre- and post-conditions have a straightforward interpretation. If a procedure's pre-condition doesn't hold, the caller failed to establish the proper context. If a post-condition doesn't hold, the caller failed to establish the proper context. If a post-condition doesn't hold, the procedure failed to compute the expected result.In the object-oriented world, checking pre- and post-conditions for methods, often called contracts in this context, poses complex problems. Because methods may be overridden, it is not sufficient to check only pre- and post-conditions. In addition, the contract hierarchy must be checked to ensure that the contracts on overridden methods are properly related to the contracts on overriding methods. Otherwise, a class hierarchy may violate the substitution principle, that is, it may no longer be true that an instance of a class is substitutable for objects of the super-class.In this paper, we study the problem of contract enforcement in an object-oriented world from a foundational perspective. More specifically, we study contracts as refinements of types. Pushing the analogy further, we state and prove a contract soundness theorem that captures the essential properties of contract enforcement. We use the theorem to illustrate how most existing tools suffer from a fundamental flaw and how they can be improved.
A Method for the Calculation of the Radiation-Pattern and Mode-Conversion Properties of a Solid-State Heterojunction Laser

A solution of the laser fields, both inside and outside the laser, is given in terms of the mode-conversion coefficients and an integral equation for the radiation pattern. It is shown how very accurate analytic solutions can be obtained by what, at first sight, appear to be extremely crude approximations. The reason is that mode conversion is taken implicitly into account by using a multiplier, whose exact form does not appear to be very critical, as a weighting function to average two different formulas for the function representing the radiation; and with the correct form for it, all the mode-conversion and reflection coefficients can be legitimately ignored. A plane-wave formula for this multiplier is a good first approximation, and a number of existing expressions occurring in the literature are obtained in this way. It is also shown rigorously that the results of an earlier obliquity-factor analysis apply. Further refinements are introduced to allow for higher order discrete modes, and good approximate analytic forms for the mode-reflection and conversion coefficients are obtained. A check with a rather extreme example shows excellent agreement with Ikegami's numerical computation for the dominant-mode reflection at the laser-air interface. The methods of this paper are applicable to general laser structures of cylindrical geometry with either continuous or discontinuous variations in refractive index. Very accurate numerical solutions should be obtainable after only one iteration of the integral equation, starting with the reflection-modified form of Hockham's formula as initiating function.
Evidence for Autotrophy via the Reverse Tricarboxylic Acid Cycle in the Marine Magnetotactic Coccus Strain MC-1

Strain MC-1 is a marine, microaerophilic, magnetite-producing, magnetotactic coccus phylogenetically affiliated with the alpha-Proteobacteria. Strain MC-1 grew chemolithotrophically with sulfide and thiosulfate as electron donors with HCO3-/CO2 as the sole carbon source. Experiments with cells grown microaerobically in liquid with thiosulfate and H14CO3-/14CO2 showed that all cell carbon was derived from H14CO3-/14CO2 and therefore that MC-1 is capable of chemolithoautotrophy. Cell extracts did not exhibit ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase (RubisCO) activity, nor were RubisCO genes found in the draft genome of MC-1. Thus, unlike other chemolithoautotrophic, magnetotactic bacteria, strain MC-1 does not appear to utilize the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle for autotrophy. Cell extracts did not exhibit carbon monoxide dehydrogenase activity, indicating that the acetyl-coenzyme A pathway also does not function in strain MC-1. The 13C content of whole cells of MC-1 relative to the 13C content of the inorganic carbon source (Deltadelta13C) was -11.4 per thousand. Cellular fatty acids showed enrichment of 13C relative to whole cells. Strain MC-1 cell extracts showed activities for several key enzymes of the reverse (reductive) tricarboxylic acid (rTCA) cycle including fumarate reductase, pyruvate:acceptor oxidoreductase and 2-oxoglutarate:acceptor oxidoreductase. Although ATP citrate lyase (another key enzyme of the rTCA cycle) activity was not detected in strain MC-1 using commonly used assays, cell extracts did cleave citrate, and the reaction was dependent upon the presence of ATP and coenzyme A. Thus, we infer the presence of an ATP-dependent citrate-cleaving mechanism. These results are consistent with the operation of the rTCA cycle in MC-1. Strain MC-1 appears to be the first known representative of the alpha-Proteobacteria to use the rTCA cycle for autotrophy.
Identification of SNPs associated with variola virus virulence

Decades after the eradication of smallpox, its etiological agent, variola virus (VARV), remains a threat as a potential bioweapon. Outbreaks of smallpox around the time of the global eradication effort exhibited variable case fatality rates (CFRs), likely attributable in part to complex viral genetic determinants of smallpox virulence. We aimed to identify genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with CFR. We evaluated unadjusted and outbreak geographic location-adjusted models of single SNPs and two- and three-way interactions between SNPs. Using the data mining approach multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR), we identified five VARV SNPs in models significantly associated with CFR. The top performing unadjusted model and adjusted models both revealed the same two-way gene-gene interaction. We discuss the biological plausibility of the influence of the SNPs identified these and other significant models on the strain-specific virulence of VARV. We have identified genetic loci in the VARV genome that are statistically associated with VARV virulence as measured by CFR. While our ability to infer a causal relationship between the specific SNPs identified in our analysis and VARV virulence is limited, our results suggest that smallpox severity is in part associated with VARV strain variation and that VARV virulence may be determined by multiple genetic loci. This study represents the first application of MDR to the identification of pathogen gene-gene interactions for predicting infectious disease outbreak severity.
Vacuum‐assisted closure for radiation‐associated wound complications

Background and Objectives Vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) technology has proven to be effective in the management of soft tissue loss from infections, vascular insufficiency, and traumatic disorders and may have a similar benefit in the musculoskeletal oncology patient. This study reports a single institution's experience with VAC technology in the management of radiation-associated wound complications in patients with soft tissue sarcomas. Materials Twenty-two patients treated with both surgical intervention and radiation therapy developed either superficial or deep wound complications that were managed with the VAC device. This study group was compared to a retrospectively identified comparison group of 19 patients, in which the VAC device was not used. Results Hospital stay (P < 0.025), length of overall treatment (P < 0.025), number of operative debridements (P < 0.05) and success of wound closure without the need for soft tissue transposition (P < 0.01) was found to be significantly less in the study groups as compared to those not treated with the VAC device. Conclusion VAC technology appears to be safe and effective in the treatment of radiation-associated wound complications. J. Surg. Oncol. 2007;96:575–582. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Volumetric analysis of white matter, gray matter, and CSF using fractional volume analysis

Quantitative cerebral tissue volumes may be useful for an objective assessment of pathological changes in brain. Accurate determination of tissue volumes is complicated, however, by the partial volume averaging (PVA) effect. We have, therefore, developed a new pulse sequence that minimizes the PVA through the use of inversion-recovery (IR) and double inversion-recovery (DIR) techniques. This pulse sequence simultaneously acquires four different sets of images to provide the necessary information for volumetric analysis and reduces potential spatial misregistration of images due to patient motion. The image sets acquired from the proposed pulse sequence are 1) gray matter visible, 2) white matter visible, 3) FLAIR, and 4) fast spin-echo proton-density weighted images. An algorithm has been implemented to correct for differential T1-weighting and for tissue quantitation.
Death, taxes and failing chips

In the way they cope with variability, present-day methodologies are onerous, pessimistic and risky, all at the same time! Dealing with variability is an increasingly important aspect of high-performance digital integrated circuit design, and indispensable for first-time-right hardware and cutting-edge performance. This invited paper discusses the methodology, analysis, synthesis and modeling aspects of this problem. These aspects of the problem are compared and contrasted in the ASIC and custom (microprocessor) domains. This paper pays particular attention to statistical timing analysis and enumerates desirable attributes that would render such an analysis capability practical and accurate.
Random effect estimation of time-varying factors in Stock Synthesis

Biological processes such as fishery selectivity, natural mortality, and somatic growth can vary over time, but it is challenging to estimate the magnitude of time-variation of demographic parameters in population dynamics models, particularly when using penalizedlikelihood estimation approaches. Random-effect approaches can estimate the variance, but are computationally infeasible or not implemented for many models and software packages. We show that existing models and software based on penalized-likelihood can be used to calculate the Laplace approximation to the marginal likelihood of parameters representing variability over time, and specifically demonstrate this approach via application to Stock Synthesis. Using North Sea cod and Pacific hake models as case studies, we show that this method has little bias in estimating variances for simulated data. It also provides a similar estimate of variability in hake recruitment (log-SD ¼ 1.43) to that obtained from Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods (log-SD ¼ 1.68), and the method estimates a non-trivial magnitude (log-SD ¼ 0.07) of variation in growth for North Sea cod. We conclude by discussing the generality of the proposed method and by recommending future research regarding its performance relative to MCMC, particularly when estimating multiple variances simultaneously.
Will Multiple Coreceptors Need To Be Targeted by Inhibitors of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Entry

Despite being able to use the Bonzo coreceptor as efficiently as CCR5 in transfected cells, pediatric human immunodeficiency virus type 1 isolate P6 was unable to replicate in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) lacking the CCR5 receptor. Furthermore, its replication in wild-type PBMC was completely inhibited by inhibitors of CCR5-mediated entry. Similarly, maternal isolate M6 could use CCR5, CXCR4, Bonzo, and other coreceptors in transfected cells but was completely sensitive to inhibitors of CCR5- and CXCR4-mediated entry when grown in PBMC. The ability of these viruses to use coreceptors in addition to CCR5 and CXCR4 in vitro was, therefore, irrelevant to their drug sensitivity in primary cells. We argue that CCR5 and CXCR4 should remain the primary targets for antiviral drug development, pending strong evidence to the contrary.
Putting tert‐Butyl Cation in a Bottle

Author(s): Kato, Tsuyoshi; Reed, Christopher A | Abstract: Usually viewed as intermediates that become long-lived at low temperatures in superacidic media, simple alkyl carbocations such as the tert-butyl cation can be isolated as stable salts at room temperature when partnered with inert carborane anions. The X-ray crystal structures of tert-butyl (depicted), tert-pentyl, and methyl-cyclopentyl cations have been determined with CHB 11Me5X6- counterions (X= Br or Cl). C blue; H white; B yellow; X green.
Electron Microscopic Evidence for Linear Insertion of Bacteriophage MU-1 in Lysogenic Bacteria

Temperate bacteriophage Mu-1 was used to generate a lysogenic derivative of the F'lac episome of Escherichia coli. Intact, covalently circular molecules of F'lac and lysogenic F'lac Mu(+) deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) were isolated and examined by electron microscopy. The mean contour lengths of F'lac and F'lac Mu(+) molecules were 37.6 +/- 0.4 mum and 53.2 +/- 0.4 mum, respectively. The mean difference, 15.6 mum, is similar to the mean contour length of 12.9 +/- 0.1 mum obtained for linear DNA molecules released by osmotic shock from mature phage Mu-1 virions. These results provide direct physical evidence that phage Mu-1 integrates by linear insertion of its genome into the DNA of lysogenic host bacteria. Chemical and physical analyses of phage Mu-1 DNA indicate that it is similar to E. coli DNA in respect of gross base composition, buoyant density, and melting temperature.
Backstepping and Sliding Mode Control Hybridized for a Prosthetic Hand

Open loop and force controllers are compared experimentally with three robust parallel force-velocity controllers that are developed for a prosthetic hand. Robust sliding mode, backstepping, and hybrid sliding mode-backstepping (HSMBS) parallel force-velocity controllers are tested by ten able-bodied subjects. Results obtained with a myoelectrically controlled prosthesis indicate that all three robust controllers offer a statistically significant improvement over linear hand prosthesis control schemes. The robust controllers enable the human operators to more easily manipulate a delicate object. Bench top experiments combined with quantitative and qualitative evaluations from ten test subjects reveal the HSMBS controller to be the best choice to improve control of powered prosthetic hands.
Acetylation of P-Aminobenzoic Acid in X-Irradiated Rats

SummaryRats exposed to 1000 r X-radiation retained their capacity to acetylate p-aminobenzoic acid and sulfanilamide for at least 3 days after exposure, an indication that Coenzyme A is not indiscriminately destroyed by whole-body irradiation.
TAMM-TYPE OF STATES AT THE INTERFACE IN La1-xSrxMnO3 (x=0.4, 0.55) SUPERLATTICES

We address some of the results of the recent experiments by Izumi et al. where the properties of heterostructures composed of La1 - xSrxMnO3 (x = 0.4, 0.55) layers have been investigated. Anomalies in conductivity and large magnetoresistance measurements for several heterostructures with thin constituent ferromagnetic (x = 0.4) and antiferromagnetic (x = 0.55) layers are explained in terms of existence of the localized (Tamm-type) of states at the interface.
Modeled cost-effectiveness of the experience corps baltimore based on a pilot randomized trial

The Experience Corps® program was designed to harness the social capital of an aging society to improve outcomes for public elementary schools. The objectives of this article are (1) to model the cost-effectiveness of the Experience Corps Baltimore using data from a pilot randomized trial, including costs, older adults’ health status, and quality of life and cost data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, and (2) to describe the relationship between children experiencing increased expected lifetime earnings through improved educational attainment resulting from exposure to the Experience Corps Baltimore volunteers and the program’s costs and cost-effectiveness. On average, each quality adjusted life year (QALY) gained by older adults in Experience Corps Baltimore costs $205,000. The lower bound of the 95% confidence interval for the cost-effectiveness is $65,000/QALY. The upper bound is undefined as 15% of the simulations indicated no QALY improvements, If 0,3% of students exposed to the Experience Corps Baltimore changed from not graduating to graduating, the increased lifetime earnings would make the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio $49,000/QALY. If an additional 0,1% changed to graduating from high school, the program would be cost-saving. Using conservative modeling assumptions and excluding benefits to teachers, principals, and the surrounding community, the Experience Corps Baltimore appears expensive for the older adults’ health improvements, but requires only small long-term benefits to the target children to make the program cost-effective or cost-saving.
In Reply to Giron et al.

We wish to thank Dr Giron and colleagues for their thoughtful comments on our article.1, 2 As the authors pointed out, data from our institution and others have demonstrated that standard positron emission tomography–computed tomography (PET-CT) imaging systems have limitations in staging hilar lymph nodes in non-small cell lung cancer. The causes are almost certainly multifactorial. It was suggested that a contrast-enhanced CT scan combined with PET could improve imaging of the hilum by providing better differentiation of anatomical structures and localization of fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose abnormalities. Though plausible, as far as we are aware, there are no data comparing the accuracy of contrast-enhanced PET-CT to noncontrast PET-CT in this clinical scenario. Many medical centers in the United States, including our own, continue to primarily use noncontrast-enhanced imaging with PET. Further study into the potential diagnostic benefit of contrast enhanced PET-CT would be valuable.
Solar Updraft Tower Project

In this project, we designed a small scale model of a solar updraft tower. Our design was based upon previous renderings for solar updraft towers in Spain and Arizona. The purpose of our small scale solar updraft tower was twofold: 1) to prove the theory behind the solar updraft tower is plausible and 2) to produce enough energy to charge a battery storage system. The battery storage system would be used as a backup for fault conditions in our Smart Grid system. Our main objectives were to find optimal dimensions and materials to construct our solar updraft tower, all within the constraints of a budget. Our goal was to use what we’ve learned through design and testing to expand the knowledge of solar updraft towers.Copyright © 2015 by ASME
Instrumental Methods for the Analysis of Polymeric Materials

Abstract Advances in our knowledge of the chemical and physical structure of polymeric substances have been due in large measure to new and improved instrumental methods of analysis. From the standpoint of chemical structure all polymers have at least one functional group, often in low concentration, e.g., an end group. Principal progress has been made, first, in identification of these groups, and, more recently, in their quantitative determination and location within the molecule. In some cases conventional chemical methods have been greatly improved to provide the high sensitivity required for these analyses, particularly for groups such as acid, amine, ester and carbonyl. However, most chemical methods depend on reaction in solution. Often the choice of solvent is limiting, since it must be inert toward both the sample and the reagents as well as be capable of dissolving a significant amount of the material to be analyzed. In many cases a suitable solvent is not available. Many of these restrictions d...
Study of Morphological Effects on Terahertz Spectra Using Ammonium Nitrate

The effect of morphology on Terahertz spectra in the region from 0.2 to 1.2 THz was studied using Ammonium Nitrate of different grain sizes. The results agree with Mie scattering theory for small grain sizes.
MicroRNA-144 is unlikely to play a role in bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome.

I read with some concern the article “MicroRNA-144 dysregulates the transforming growth factor-β signaling cascade and contributes to the development of bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome after human lung transplantation” by Xu et al. In this study, the authors propose “a critical role for miR-144 for the pathogenesis of lung fibrosis leading to BOS [bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome] after human lung transplantation” after transfecting this microRNA (miRNA) into lung fibroblasts and demonstrating regulatory behavior. One of the continuing challenges to the field of miRNA studies is the inappropriate assignment of biologic function to miRNAs that are not expressed in a particular cell type. This situation has occurred repeatedly with the miRNAs miR-451a and miR-144. These 2 miRNAs are found in a bicistronic cluster identified in red blood cells. Our work as well as the work of others has shown that among non-neoplastic cells, these miRNAs have exclusive, high expression in red blood cells. Numerous tissue studies have found altered miR-144 in relation to a disease state. Generally, authors have interpreted this alteration as dysregulation of miR-144 in the organ’s native cells without confirming evidence of cellular expression. Red blood cells and the miRNAs they contain are present in all tissues and are invariably the source of the tissue signal. miR144 variability between tissues can be the result of technical artifacts (extent of washing) or biologic effects (hematocrit levels) that are unrelated or secondary to the disease process. The study by Xu et al demonstrated a tissue change in miR-144 levels in bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome and exhibited the same interpretation bias of many studies before it. They further explored miR-144 function by overexpressing it in MRC-5 lung fibroblasts demonstrating
Methodologic Considerations in Assessment of Cognitive Function in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Rigorous and standardized assessment of cognitive function is an important component of any multidisciplinary study of chronic fatigue syndrome. The present paper describes some methodologic issues that need to be addressed to maximize the yield from any neuropsychiatric evaluation of the syndrome.
Balance and Imbalance in Human Social Adjustment

is the possibility that other types of associations will again rival the national state. The membership, or personnel, of an institutional association divides roughly into leaders and followers. The former have relatively more at stake in the perpetuation of the institution. They believe more strongly that the organization is necessary and it is their responsibility to make it so appear to all other members. Morale is high in those institutions which are so successful in indoctrinating their members with the institutional ideology that they accept their mores. At present the national state has surpassed other institutional arrangements in the competition for loyal members. The leaders devise various measures to insure ever more complete identification of personal satisfactions with the institution. Food, clothing, shelter, and equipment, are brought under its control. Routine, ceremony, ritual and practices in participation are called forth. Exercises in citizenship are invoked. A great deal is done for the avowed purpose of improving and building morale. The national state is the most powerful and most important institutional association in modern times. It performs the most functions and satisfies the most needs. The acme of its success is reached in war, as that of business is in profits, of the church in missions, of the family in parenthood. Morale reaches a climax. Then the members begin to look after those needs which they suppose to be satisfied more adequately by other institutions to which they belong. Morale has to do with the health of institutional associations, not with the psychosomatic condition of individuals. Seen in this light studies of morale become significant in understanding and appraising institutions.
One-Dimensional Mass-Spring Chains Supporting Elastic Waves with Non-Conventional Topology

There are two classes of phononic structures that can support elastic waves with non-conventional topology, namely intrinsic and extrinsic systems. The non-conventional topology of elastic wave results from breaking time reversal symmetry (T-symmetry) of wave propagation. In extrinsic systems, energy is injected into the phononic structure to break T-symmetry. In intrinsic systems symmetry is broken through the medium microstructure that may lead to internal resonances. Mass-spring composite structures are introduced as metaphors for more complex phononic crystals with non-conventional topology. The elastic wave equation of motion of an intrinsic phononic structure composed of two coupled one-dimensional (1D) harmonic chains can be factored into a Dirac-like equation, leading to antisymmetric modes that have spinor character and therefore non-conventional topology in wave number space. The topology of the elastic waves can be further modified by subjecting phononic structures to externally-induced spatio-temporal modulation of their elastic properties. Such modulations can be actuated through photo-elastic effects, magneto-elastic effects, piezo-electric effects or external mechanical effects. We also uncover an analogy between a combined intrinsic-extrinsic systems composed of a simple one-dimensional harmonic chain coupled to a rigid substrate subjected to a spatio-temporal modulation of the side spring stiffness and the Dirac equation in the presence of an electromagnetic field. The modulation is shown to be able to tune the spinor part of the elastic wave function and therefore its topology. This analogy between classical mechanics and quantum phenomena offers new modalities for developing more complex functions of phononic crystals and acoustic metamaterials.
Gut microbial communities of social bees

The gut microbiota can have profound effects on hosts, but the study of these relationships in humans is challenging. The specialized gut microbial community of honey bees is similar to the mammalian microbiota, as both are mostly composed of host-adapted, facultatively anaerobic and microaerophilic bacteria. However, the microbial community of the bee gut is far simpler than the mammalian microbiota, being dominated by only nine bacterial species clusters that are specific to bees and that are transmitted through social interactions between individuals. Recent developments, which include the discovery of extensive strain-level variation, evidence of protective and nutritional functions, and reports of eco-physiological or disease-associated perturbations to the microbial community, have drawn attention to the role of the microbiota in bee health and its potential as a model for studying the ecology and evolution of gut symbionts.
214 THE CHANGING FACE OF PHASE I CANCER CLINICAL TRIALS: NEW CHALLENGES IN STUDY REQUIREMENTS.

Purpose The development of new, targeted, less toxic agents is one of the highest priorities for progress in cancer treatment. Many of these new agents have fewer severe side effects but may require more detailed and subtle testing to assess biologic effects. Recent literature has focused on the cost and intensity of late phase II and III clinical trials, but little has been written about the requirements of current early-phase drug development. We are carrying out a study of our recent experience in the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Clinical Translational Research Center (CTRC) and the Phase I Program to document the extent of regulatory and other requirements for current developmental cancer clinical trials. Methods We have developed an access database of virtually all studies, together with a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet matrix for each study that defines the number and extent of the diagnostic and therapeutic requirements for each protocol. RESULTS We initially analyzed demands for pharmacokinetic (PK) sampling in the first 4 weeks of a protocol as a representative marker for study complexity. Since October 2002, over 250 protocols have been conducted in the CTRC and the Phase I Program; 54.6% were phase I clinical trials. We picked a random sample of 67 trials, which is approximately a quarter of the total. Twenty-seven of these were phase I, 12 phase I/II, 24 later phase II, and four phase III trials. Our analysis demonstrates that in phase I trials, there was a median of 23 (range 1-58) PKs per patient. Phase I/II protocols had a median of 18.5 (range 8-53) PKs per patient. In contrast, later phase II studies had a median of 12 (range 1-51) samples per patient. Conclusions PK collection in phase I trials is complex and labor intensive and reflects just the tip of the iceberg, with increasingly complicated correlates and monitoring (electrocardiograms, physical examinations, and other tests). We will present an overview of this issue, as analyzed by our database. Successful and accurate phase I clinical trials will require resources and commitment for research infrastructure considerably greater than later-phase studies.
Evaluation on the promotion of the defluorination and fluoride-reduction technique in 2009

Objective To understand the implementation of reduce fluoride and defluorination technical measures effect of the issues on six sampled model villages,and promote the use of technology to provide a scientific basis.Methods The quality of the defluorination and fluoride-reduction technique was checked in the six model villages.Dental fluorosis was examined for the children aged 8-12.For adult,skeletal fluorosis disease was examined,air fluoride and urinary fluoride were tested,and the knowledge of disease prevention and treatment in the residents and children were also checked in the sampled area.Results The stove-reform rate was 96.76% in the six model villages.Its qualified rate was 97.0%,the correct utilization rate of furnace was 98.0 %.The qualified rate of the kitchen was 97.7%,the proper utilization rate of stove was 96.7%.The children's dental fluorosis detection rate was 67.00%,the rate of defects was 10.40%,and the dental fluorosis index was 1.49.There was no change of fluorosis found in adult The knowledge and awareness of fluoride in residents and students were 86.4%,96.9% respectively.The air fluoride(full flame period) was 0.0059 mg/m3,while in bank-up period,0.0028 mg/m3.306 urine sample were tested,the median of fluoride was 0.69 mg/L.Conclusions In the past three years of implementation,the stove reform rate,qualified rate,proper usage rate in the six model villages were significantly improved,and the defluorination and fluor-reduction techniques had reached the predicted outcome.
Time-aware congestion-free routing reconfiguration

A general model is developed to study how network routing can be reconfigured quickly without incurring transient congestion. Assuming both initial and target configurations are congestion-free, it is known that transient congestion may still occur during the reconfiguration process if links contain a mix of traffic flows following old and new routing rules, resulting from variation of switch reaction time and propagation delay differences among paths. We consider these factors by explicitly incorporating timing uncertainty intervals into the model. The model leads to an optimization problem whose solution represents a fast (in terms of actual physical time) congestion-free routing reconfiguration. Our formulation naturally reduces to existing work of finding minimal number of algorithmic update steps when the timing uncertainty intervals are very large, meaning we have little prior knowledge about them. The optimization problem is shown to be a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP) with a polynomial-size constraint set, and is proved to be NP-hard. We then further introduce an approximation algorithm with performance guarantee to solve the problem efficiently. Several numerical examples are provided to illustrate our results. In particular, it is demonstrated that timing information can possibly accelerate the update process, even if more steps are involved.
Changing Marine Ecosystems and Processes: Trajectories and Recovery

The previous chapters have outlined the plethora of processes that participate in structuring the functioning of marine populations, communities, and ecosystems, have described the interactions at local and larger spatial scales, and throughout, have highlighted the biogeochemical, climatic, and ecological controls that influence the interactions among these various elements, units, and assemblages of components. Not infrequently, we have been concerned with the anthropogenic influences in these complex dynamics.
Abstract 383: Lack of Endogenous Acute Phase Serum Amyloid A Does Not Impact Atherosclerotic Lipid Deposition in ApoE-/- Mice.

Inflammation is involved in all stages of the development of an atherosclerotic plaque. Serum amyloid A (SAA), a marker of inflammation, is a well-known predictor of increased cardiovascular risk. Although elevated levels of plasma SAA have been associated with increased atherosclerosis, the role of SAA in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis remains obscure. To investigate the impact of endogenous SAA in the etiology of atherosclerosis we bred mice lacking both major acute phase SAA isoforms SAA1.1 and SAA2.1 to apoE-/- mice. Both strains were in the C57BL/6 background. For ease of terminology we refer to these mice as SAAKO and apoE-/- mice. Aortic atherosclerotic lesion areas were quantified by en face analysis in male and female mice fed normal chow for 12 months. Although female mice weighed less and had lower plasma lipid levels than male mice, the absence of SAA did not affect plasma lipid concentrations or lipoprotein-cholesterol profiles or the size of aortic atherosclerotic lesions of apoE-/- mice. To accelerate lesion formation, male and female apoE-/- and SAAKO mice were fed a Western diet for 12 weeks. We observed gender-related differences in body weight, weight gain and plasma lipid concentrations. However, absence of SAA in apoE-/- mice fed a diet enriched in saturated fat had no discernable effect on plasma lipid concentrations, lipoprotein-cholesterol profiles or the size of the aortic atherosclerotic lesions. Lesions in the aortic root of male mice, quantitated by oil red O staining, was also not affected by genotype. We conclude that absence of endogenous acute phase SAA does not impact atherosclerotic lesion development in apoE-/- mice fed normal or fat-enriched diets.
A note on sound radiation into a uniformly flowing medium

The influence of a uniform cross flow on the power output from an idealized mechanical source, namely a vibrating strip set in a coplanar rigid wall, is studied within the framework of linear acoustic theory, and the time-average power output is characterized by appropriate expansions (of exact integral representations), for both small and large wave length/strip width ratios, in the subsonic flow regime. Since boundary layers are ignored, the model source envisaged furnishes only a limited accounting of fluid-acoustical coupling effects.
Variable Colonization after Reciprocal Fecal Microbiota Transfer between Mice with Low and High Richness Microbiota

Several associations have been made between characteristics of the resident gut microbiota and human health and disease susceptibility. Animal models provide the means to test these correlations prospectively and evaluate causality. Experimental fecal microbiota transfer, or the intentional transplantation of gut microbes into recipient mice depleted of their autochthonous microbes with antibiotics, is a commonly used method of testing these relationships. The true completeness of microbial transfer through such procedures is poorly documented in the literature, particularly in the context of reciprocal transfer of microbes between recipient and donor mice harboring microbial populations of differing richness and diversity. Moreover, it is unclear whether the use of frozen fecal contents or cecal contents would confer any difference in the outcomes of transfer. Herein, groups of mice colonized with distinct gut microbiota of differing richness and composition were used in a reciprocal fecal microbiota transfer study, with different groups receiving transfer of material prepared from fresh cecal contents, fresh feces, or frozen feces. Targeted 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing was used at intervals throughout the study to characterize the microbiota. Notably, despite comparable depletion of the microbiota in recipient mice prior to transfer, donor-specific taxa reliably colonized recipients only when relatively rich donor material was transferred to mice originally colonized with a simpler microbiota. It is unclear whether these differences were due to differences in the endogenous recipient microbiota or host factors induced in early life by microbial factors. These findings are of practical import for researchers using fecal microbiota transfer to prospectively assess the influence of the gut microbiota in mouse models, and to those studying host-microbial interactions and their influence on gut barrier function.
Agreement Among Traditional and RTI-based Definitions of Reading-Related Learning Disability with Preschool Children.

To investigate approaches for identifying young children who may be at risk for later reading-related learning disabilities, this study compared the use of four contemporary methods of indexing learning disability (LD) with older children (i.e., IQ-achievement discrepancy, low achievement, low growth, and dual discrepancy) to determine risk status with a large sample of 1011 preschoolers. These children were classified as at risk or not using each method across three early-literacy skills (i.e., language, phonological awareness, print knowledge) and at three levels of severity (i.e., 5th, 10th, 25th percentiles). Chance-corrected affected-status agreement (CCASA) indicated poor agreement among methods with rates of agreement generally decreasing with greater levels of severity for both single- and two-measure classification, and agreement rates were lower for two-measure classification than for single-measure classification. These low rates of agreement between conventional methods of identifying children at risk for LD represent a significant impediment for identification and intervention for young children considered at-risk.
Effect of surfactant on bubble collisions on a free surface

An investigation of the coefficient of restitution of bubble collision on a free surface in the presence of surfactants is presented. A reduced rebound velocity in the surfactant solution is observed and quantified using the Langmuir number, the ratio between absorption and desorption rates.
Medical versus surgical management of penetrating Crohn's disease: the current situation and future perspectives.

Introduction: The development of penetrating Crohn’s disease (CD) occurs in up to 50% of patients over the course of their lifetime. While the presentation of these complications, including free pe...
Spatial connectivity in an adult-sedentary reef fish with extended pelagic larval phase.

Understanding the spatial scale of demographic connectivity in marine reef fishes dispersing pelagic larvae is a challenging task because of the technical difficulties associated with tagging and monitoring the movements of progeny at early life stages. Several studies highlighted a strong importance of local retention with levels of dispersal of ecological significance restricted to short distances. To date little information is available in species where pelagic dispersal lasts for long periods of time. In this work, population structure and connectivity were studied in the grey triggerfish, Balistes capriscus. Grey triggerfish larvae and juveniles remain associated with floating Sargassum sp. beds for an estimated period of 4-7 months before settling on benthic habitats where they remain sedentary as adults. Analysis of genetic variation among populations along the continental shelf of the northern Gulf of Mexico and U.S. east coast, encompassing over 3,100 km of coastline, revealed homogeneous allele frequencies and a weak isolation-by-distance pattern. Moment and maximum-likelihood estimates of dispersal parameters both indicated occurrence of large neighbourhoods with estimates of the dispersal distribution parameter σ of 914 and 780 km, respectively. Simulated distributions of dispersal distances using several distribution functions all featured substantial fractions of long-distance dispersal events with the 90% percentiles of travel distance prior to settlement averaging 1,809 km. These results suggest a high dependency of local recruitment on the output of nonlocal spawning stocks located hundreds of kilometres away and a reduced role of local retention in this species.
Inference under Shape Restrictions

We propose a uniformly valid inference method for an unknown function or parameter vector satisfying certain shape restrictions. The method applies very generally, namely to a wide range of finite dimensional and nonparametric problems, such as regressions or instrumental variable estimation, to both kernel or series estimators, and to many different shape restrictions. A major application of our inference method is to construct uniform confidence bands for an unknown function of interest. Our confidence bands are asymptotically equivalent to standard unrestricted confidence bands if the true function strictly satisfies all shape restrictions, but they can be much smaller if some of the shape restrictions are binding or close to binding. We illustrate these sizable width gains as well as the wide applicability of our method in Monte Carlo simulations and in an empirical application.
Four Weeks of Off-Season Training Improves Peak Oxygen Consumption in Female Field Hockey Players

The purpose of the study was to examine the changes in peak oxygen consumption ( V ˙O2peak) and running economy (RE) following four-weeks of high intensity training and concurrent strength and conditioning during the off-season in collegiate female field hockey players. Fourteen female student-athletes (age 19.29 ± 0.91 years) were divided into two training groups, matched from baseline V ˙O2peak: High Intensity Training (HITrun; n = 8) and High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT; n = 6). Participants completed 12 training sessions. HITrun consisted of 30 min of high-intensity running, while HIIT consisted of a series of whole-body high intensity Tabata-style intervals (75⁻85% of age predicted maximum heart rate) for a total of four minutes. In addition to the interval training, the off-season training included six resistance training sessions, three team practices, and concluded with a team scrimmage. V ˙O2peak was measured pre- and post-training to determine the effectiveness of the training program. A two-way mixed (group × time) ANOVA showed a main effect of time with a statistically significant difference in V ˙O2peak from pre- to post-testing, F(1, 12) = 12.657, p = 0.004, partial η² = 0.041. Average (±SD) V ˙O2peak increased from 44.64 ± 3.74 to 47.35 ± 3.16 mL·kg-1·min-1 for HIIT group and increased from 45.39 ± 2.80 to 48.22 ± 2.42 mL·kg-1·min-1 for HITrun group. Given the similar improvement in aerobic power, coaches and training staff may find the time saving element of HIIT-type conditioning programs attractive.
A new method to visualize obesity prevalence in Seattle-King County at the census block level.

Objective The aim of this study is to map obesity prevalence in Seattle King County at the census block level. Methods Data for 1,632 adult men and women came from the Seattle Obesity Study I. Demographic, socioeconomic and anthropometric data were collected via telephone survey. Home addresses were geocoded, and tax parcel residential property values were obtained from the King County tax assessor. Multiple logistic regression tested associations between house prices and obesity rates. House prices aggregated to census blocks and split into deciles were used to generate obesity heat maps. Results Deciles of property values for Seattle Obesity Study participants corresponded to county-wide deciles. Low residential property values were associated with high obesity rates (odds ratio, OR: 0.36; 95% confidence interval, CI [0.25, 0.51] in tertile 3 vs. tertile 1), adjusting for age, gender, race, home ownership, education, and incomes. Heat maps of obesity by census block captured differences by geographic area. Conclusion Residential property values, an objective measure of individual and area socioeconomic status, are a useful tool for visualizing socioeconomic disparities in diet quality and health.
Building a Healthy Body After Cancer: Young Adult Lymphoma Survivors' Perspectives on Exercise After Cancer Treatment

Purpose: Our goals were to evaluate young adult lymphoma survivors' perceptions regarding benefits of exercise after cancer treatment, to identify barriers to exercise, and to understand the types of exercise interventions that may be useful in this patient population. Methods: Young adult lymphoma survivors were invited to participate in a survey and focus group. Questions focused on elucidating barriers to exercise as well as potential opportunities for supporting patients in adequate exercise. Focus groups were audiorecorded and transcribed, and data were coded inductively for themes and applied findings. Results: Eight survivors participated. Findings were categorized into five main themes: barriers to exercise, facilitators of exercise, personal responsibility for being active, interconnectedness of exercise with a healthy lifestyle, and recommendations. Conclusions: Fatigue and frustration with postcancer physical limitations are major barriers to exercise for young adult survivors, whereas support ...