cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Side effects burden in women with breast cancer.

PURPOSE This article describes the side effects burden of 307 women who were receiving treatment for breast cancer. The study provides a description of the impact of side effects burden on adult role activities (self-help), self-care, psychological adjustment, and quality of life. DESCRIPTION OF STUDY Data to describe the side effects burden characteristics of 307 women receiving treatment for breast cancer were drawn from the Self-Help Intervention Project. Data were collected after medical treatment was underway and treatment-related side effects were evidenced. The impact of side effects burden on adult role activities (self-help), self-care, psychological adjustment, and life quality is described. RESULTS Fatigue was the most common side effect as well as the most problematic. Number of side effects and increase in side effects were moderately correlated (P < 0.0001) in a negative direction with fatigue and depression. Self-care behaviors also were associated negatively with the extension of side effects and with fatigue and depression (P < 0.001). Psychological adjustment was associated with difficulty sleeping, anxiety, and depression. Overall life quality was noted to be negatively related to depression as was present life quality. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS Data support the need for clinical interventions that are individualized to women's side effects experience. Additional research is underway to test the effectiveness of the interventions specified by the overall study.
Chiral C2-Symmetric Ligands with 1,4-Dioxane Backbone Derived from Tartrates: Syntheses and Applications in Asymmetric Hydrogenation

Chiral 1,4-diphenylphosphines 5-7 as well as thioether 8 were synthesized from tartrates employing Ley's "BDA" and "Dispoke" methodologies as the key step. Rhodium(I) complexes with 5-7 are efficient catalysts for the asymmetric hydrogenation of beta-substituted enamides and MOM-protected beta-hydroxyl enamides, which furnished chiral amines or beta-amino alcohols with 94-->99% ee. These results indicated that the 1,4-dioxane backbone in the ligands having the general structure 2 played an important role in stabilizing metal-ligand chelate conformation. Higher enantioselectivities with ligand 2 were achieved compared with the analogous ligands having the general structure 1.
Discovery of a potent and selective series of pyrazole bacterial methionyl-tRNA synthetase inhibitors

Starting with a micromolar lead identified from high-throughput screening, a series of pyrazoles were discovered with significantly improved potency on bacterial methionyl-tRNA synthetase and selectivity over human methionyl-tRNA synthetase.
Models of activity-dependent neural development*

What makes a useful model of neural development? One important contribution of modeling is to demonstrate that proposed biological mechanisms can be sufficient to account for experimental results. The Von der Malsburg model is a classic example. But such demonstrations alone do not provide tools to experimentally distinguish one mechanism from another. To draw such distinctions, the connection between measurable biological quantities and developmental outcomes must be established. Perhaps the most important task for the future of developmental modeling is to deepen the connection between theory and experiment. Experimentally, this requires detailed and difficult measurements or experimental perturbations of the correlations among inputs and the intracortical connectivity existing during development. Simultaneous measurement of the maps of spatial phase and orientation of mature simple cells will provide important information for the understanding of orientation column development. Theoretically, the number of open problems is enormous. How will inclusion of additional plasticity mechanisms, such as sprouting and retraction of synapses or plasticity of intracortical connections, alter the analytical understanding thus far achieved? What precisely determines the width of orientation columns in the model presented here? Can the relationship between ocular dominance and orientation columns be understood from developmental rules in a testable way? The existing framework may be extended to a three-dimensional cortex and to more complex models of intracortical connectivity. It may also be applied to other developmental phenomena including the development of lamination in the LGN (Shatz and Stryker, 1988; Hahm et al., 1991), the formation of visual maps in experimentally altered auditory cortex (Roe et al., 1990, 1992), and the mapping of visual and auditory maps in the optic tectum (Knudsen and Brainard, 1991; Brainard and Knudsen, 1993). For each system the goal is to develop testable predictions as to the patterns of activity and connectivity that could or could not lead to the results observed given a proposed mechanism of plasticity. Incorporation of deeper levels of biophysical realism will extend, deepen, and perhaps fundamentally alter the framework presented here. An important goal for the future will be to understand the computational and functional significance of developmental rules. Activity-dependent, competitive mechanisms of synaptic plasticity appear to play an important role in many processes of late neural development, where an initially rough connectivity pattern refines to a precise, mature pattern. A prominent example is the formation of ocular dominance columns in the visual cortex of many mammals. These processes may be modeled at several levels.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
An unsupervised spatiotemporal graphical modeling approach to anomaly detection in distributed CPS

Modern distributed cyber-physical systems (CPSs) encounter a large variety of physical faults and cyber anomalies and in many cases, they are vulnerable to catastrophic fault propagation scenarios due to strong connectivity among the sub-systems. This paper presents a new data-driven framework for system-wide anomaly detection for addressing such issues. The framework is based on a spatiotemporal feature extraction scheme built on the concept of symbolic dynamics for discovering and representing causal interactions among the sub-systems of a CPS. The extracted spatiotemporal features are then used to learn system-wide patterns via a Restricted Boltzmann Machine (RBM). The results show that: (1) the RBM free energy in the off-nominal conditions is different from that in the nominal conditions and can be used for anomaly detection; (2) the framework can capture multiple nominal modes with one graphical model; (3) the case studies with simulated data and an integrated building system validate the proposed approach.
The effects of advertising and other marketing communications on health-related consumer behaviors

Advertisements and other marketing communications extensively discuss food and nutrition, tobacco, alcohol, and prescription drugs. In addition to mass media advertising and public service announcements (PSAs), messages are placed on product labels and in television shows and social media. Research indicates that these health-related communications can have significant and measurable effects on consumer cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. Some messages enhance health by discouraging unhealthy or risky consumption; others do the opposite. While many messages have their intended effects, other messages are discounted or even counterproductive. The specific effects often depend on message content and/or execution in combination with consumer characteristics. Therefore, it is important to tailor the communications to the target consumers, and to test for intended and unintended effects.
A Life Cycle Approach to the Mechanism Connecting Health Inequality and Earnings Inequality

Understanding the sources of earnings inequality and the consequences of earnings risk is important for policy. This paper incorporates the health aspect to this problem and studies its implications for the US economy, which has not so far been done in the strand of the macroeconomics literature that studies and measures sources of inequality and earnings risk. The premise is that earnings and health are closely intertwined for any individual through an economic mechanism. On the one hand, health care is important from the worker's perspective not only because of the value he assigns to his own health and longevity, but also because of the direct effects that health has over the potential productivity of each individual. On the other hand, health care is a private good, so those with higher earnings can afford more health care if desired, than those with lower earnings. The main result of taking into account the health dimension is that income disparities give rise to health disparities, and at the same time, health outcomes shape potential earnings. I build a macroeconomic framework that incorporates these characteristics of health care into a model where workers face risky labor earnings as well as shocks to health, and calibrate it to match moments from US data. This framework will provide insight about the relevance of health as determinant of lifetime earnings risk and persistence of earnings shocks and allow to analyze the effects that different configurations of the health care sector may have on the idiosyncratic productivity risk that workers face through their lifetimes.
A high-order spectral deferred correction strategy for low Mach number flow with complex chemistry

We present a fourth-order finite-volume algorithm in space and time for low Mach number reacting flow with detailed kinetics and transport. Our temporal integration scheme is based on a Multi-Implicit Spectral Deferred Correction (MISDC) strategy that iteratively couples advection, diffusion, and reactions evolving subject to a constraint. Our new approach overcomes a stability limitation of our previous second-order method encountered when trying to incorporate higher-order polynomial representations of the solution in time to increase accuracy. We have developed a new iterative scheme that naturally fits within our MISDC framework and allows us to conserve mass and energy while simultaneously satisfying the equation of state. We analyse the conditions for which the iterative schemes are guaranteed to converge to the fixed point solution. We present numerical examples illustrating the performance of the new method on premixed hydrogen, methane, and dimethyl ether flames.
Abelian tensor hierarchy in 4D, N = 1 superspace

With the goal of constructing the supersymmetric action for all fields, massless and massive, obtained by Kaluza-Klein compactification from type II theory or M-theory in a closed form, we embed the (Abelian) tensor hierarchy of p-forms in four-dimensional, N =1superspaceandconstructitsChern-Simons-likeinvariants. Whenspecializedtothe case in which the tensors arise from a higher-dimensional theory, the invariants may be interpreted as higher-dimensional Chern-Simons forms reduced to four dimensions. As an application of the formalism, we construct the eleven-dimensional Chern-Simons form in terms of four-dimensional, N = 1 superfields.
Learning about Posterior Probability: Do Diagrams and Elaborative Interrogation Help?.

To learn from a text, students must make meaningful connections among related ideas in that text. This study examined the effectiveness of two methods of improving connections—elaborative interrogation and diagrams—in written lessons about posterior probability. Undergraduate students (N = 198) read a lesson in one of three questioning conditions (read twice, embedded questioning, and elaborative interrogation) and one of three diagram conditions (text only, diagram without redundant text, and diagram with redundant text). Elaborative interrogation negatively affected learning from the lesson, relative to reading the lesson twice. One possible explanation for this finding is that the quality of answers to the elaborative interrogations was poor. When the lesson was read twice, diagrams helped learning from the lesson relative to text only. Implications of these findings for instruction in probabilistic reasoning are discussed.
USING FUV TO IR VARIABILITY TO PROBE THE STAR–DISK CONNECTION IN THE TRANSITIONAL DISK OF GM AUR

We analyze three epochs of ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared (NIR) observations of the Taurus transitional disk GM Aur using the Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Infrared Telescope Facility SpeX spectrograph. Observations were separated by one week and three months in order to study variability over multiple timescales. We calculate accretion rates for each epoch of observations using the STIS spectra and find that those separated by one week had similar accretion rates () while the epoch obtained three months later had a substantially lower accretion rate (). We find that the decline in accretion rate is caused by lower densities of material in the accretion flows, as opposed to a lower surface coverage of the accretion columns. During the low accretion rate epoch, we also observe lower fluxes at both far-ultraviolet (FUV) and IR wavelengths, which trace molecular gas and dust in the disk, respectively. We find that this can be explained by a lower dust and gas mass in the inner disk. We attribute the observed variability to inhomogeneities in the inner disk, near the corotation radius, where gas and dust may co-exist near the footprints of the magnetospheric flows. These FUV–NIR data offer a new perspective on the structure of the inner disk, the stellar magnetosphere, and their interaction.
Turning bubbles on and off during boiling using charged surfactants

Boiling--a process that has powered industries since the steam age--is governed by bubble formation. State-of-the-art boiling surfaces often increase bubble nucleation via roughness and/or wettability modification to increase performance. However, without active in situ control of bubbles, temperature or steam generation cannot be adjusted for a given heat input. Here we report the ability to turn bubbles 'on and off' independent of heat input during boiling both temporally and spatially via molecular manipulation of the boiling surface. As a result, we can rapidly and reversibly alter heat transfer performance up to an order of magnitude. Our experiments show that this active control is achieved by electrostatically adsorbing and desorbing charged surfactants to alter the wettability of the surface, thereby affecting nucleation. This approach can improve performance and flexibility in existing boiling technologies as well as enable emerging or unprecedented energy applications.
Shifts in diversification rates linked to biogeographic movement into new areas: An example of a recent radiation in the Andes.

PREMISE OF THE STUDY Clade-specific bursts in diversification are often associated with the evolution of key innovations. However, in groups with no obvious morphological innovations, observed upticks in diversification rates have also been attributed to the colonization of a new geographic environment. In this study, we explore the systematics, diversification dynamics, and historical biogeography of the plant clade Rhinantheae in the Orobanchaceae, with a special focus on the Andean clade of the genus Bartsia. METHODS We sampled taxa from across Rhinantheae, including a representative sample of Andean Bartsia species. Using standard phylogenetic methods, we reconstructed evolutionary relationships, inferred divergence times among the clades of Rhinantheae, elucidated their biogeographic history, and investigated diversification dynamics. KEY RESULTS We confirmed that the South American Bartsia species form a highly supported monophyletic group. The median crown age of Rhinantheae was determined to be ca. 30 Myr, and Europe played an important role in the biogeographic history of the lineages. South America was first reconstructed in the biogeographic analyses around 9 Myr ago, and with a median age of 2.59 Myr, this clade shows a significant uptick in diversification. CONCLUSIONS Increased net diversification of the South American clade corresponds to biogeographic movement into the New World. This movement happened at a time when the Andes were reaching the necessary elevation to host an alpine environment. Although a specific route could not be identified with certainty, we provide plausible hypotheses to how the group colonized the New World.
Spatial and temporal variation in penetrative strain during compression: Insights from analog models

Penetrative strain constitutes the proportion of the total shortening across an orogen that is not accommodated by the development of macroscale structures such as folds and thrusts. The accommodation of shortening by penetrative strain is widely considered to be an important process during compression, but variation in the distribution of penetrative strain during a deformation sequence is not well understood. This study provides some first-order constraints on magnitude, timing, and distribution of penetrative strain during deformation. Eight simple models, each with a geometrically and mechanically similar starting configuration, within the limits of sandbox models, were shortened to different amounts. Model results indicate first that penetrative strain increases with depth in any given model, and second that the proportion of the total shortening accommodated by penetrative strain varies with time. As the deforming wedge approaches stability, penetrative strain is highest just before initiation of a new thrust fault, after which the penetrative strain component abruptly decreases. Each model also contains a foreland zone of penetrative strain, in which penetrative strain decreases exponentially away from the deformation front. These results are consistent with available field data. Restoration of a seismic-scale cross section indicates that model results can be used to predict the amount of penetrative strain and thus the true total shortening across a deformed region. Estimates of this type may be made for additional cross sections and may provide answers to the problem of “missing shortening” across orogens and the total amount of shortening experienced at collisional plate margins.
Ethical complexities in standard of care randomized trials: A case study of morning versus nighttime dosing of blood pressure drugs.

Background:Pragmatic trials comparing “standard of care” treatments provide comparative effectiveness data to make practice of medicine more evidence-based. With electronic health records, recruiti...
Research and Productivity in Grain Production in Asia: The Colonial Heritage

Colonial agricultural research was directed mainly to. export crops rather than the major foodgrains.2 The lack of research on foodgrains is given as one of the reasons for the food shortages in the period after World War II. "Colonialism stunted indigenous agriculture by directing agricultural research only to export crops" (Lappe and Collins). This paper examines the allocation of research resources and the impact of research on productivity in South and Southeast Asia. The paper also attempts to identify the main determinants of the allocation of agricultural research resources during the colonial period.
Controlling chaos in low- and high-dimensional systems with periodic parametric perturbations

The effect of applying a periodic perturbation to an accessible parameter of various chaotic systems is examined. Numerical results indicate that perturbation frequencies near the natural frequencies of the unstable periodic orbits of the chaotic systems can result in limit cycles for relatively small perturbations. Such perturbations can also control or significantly reduce the dimension of high-dimensional systems. Initial application to the control of fluctuations in a prototypical magnetic fusion plasma device will be reviewed.
Managing Residual Risk After Myocardial Infarction Among Individuals with Low Cholesterol Levels

About one-half of individuals with an acute myocardial infarction have a low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level of less than 100 mg/dL at the time of occurrence, but remain at risk for recurrent events. This residual risk is likely mediated by multiple factors, including burden of atherosclerosis, residual dyslipidemia, nonlipid risk factors, and suboptimal implementation of lifestyle therapy and evidence-based pharmacologic therapy. This article reviews management options for this high-risk population.
Diisobutylaluminum Hydride Reductions Revitalized: A Fast, Robust, and Selective Continuous Flow System for Aldehyde Synthesis

A continuous flow system for the multiparameter (flow rate, temperature, residence time, stoichiometry) optimization of the DIBALH reduction of esters to aldehydes is described. Incorporating an in-line quench (MeOH), these transformations are generally complete in fewer than 60 s. Mixing of the DIBALH and ester solutions was observed to be an exceptionally critical parameter for optimum results. This system thus provides general guidelines based on the structure of the ester for selective reduction of an ester without overreduction.
IGOD: identification of geolocation of cloud datacenters

Abstract The geolocation of data has become a key concern with the evolution of cloud computing. Although data migration is quite common and sometimes essential for the purpose of load balancing or service guarantees, at times, it creates a risk for the user and could even violate the service agreement. A malicious service provider could also relocate the data, which could jeopardize data privacy and security. In this paper, we introduce a novel algorithm called IGOD to geolocate a cloud data center which can also be used for geolocating internet nodes. IGOD efficiently geolocates any target data center with higher accuracy and less cost. It provides audit control and assurance against such cloud storage providers who may move around a customer's data. We analyze and compare IGOD with currently available solutions of geolocating a target. We have used PlanetLab to validate IGOD and establish its cost-effective feature. To do so, we first use our own data collection to geolocate the test data center using emulation and compare IGOD's performance with other schemes. Finally, we use it to geolocate one of the Amazon S3 data centers. Our comparison shows that IGOD provides relatively higher location accuracy and is cost-effective (uses less resources).
Common Information and Unique Disjointness

We provide an information-theoretic framework for establishing strong lower bounds on the nonnegative rank of matrices by means of common information, a notion previously introduced in Wyner (IEEE Trans Inf Theory 21(2):163---179, 1975). The framework is a generalization of the one in Braverman and Moitra (Proceedings of the forty-fifth annual ACM symposium on theory of computing, pp 161---170, 2013) for the shifted uniqe disjointness (UDISJ) matrix to arbitrary nonnegative matrices. Common information is a natural lower bound for the nonnegative rank of a matrix and by combining it with Hellinger distance estimations we compute the (almost) exact common information of UDISJ partial matrix. The bounds are obtained very naturally. We also establish robustness of this estimation under random or adversarial removal of rows and columns of the UDISJ partial matrix. This robustness translates, via a variant of Yannakakis's factorization theorem, to lower bounds on the average case and adversarial approximate extension complexity of removals. We present the first family of polytopes, the hard pair introduced in Braun et al. (Math Oper Res 40(3):756---772, 2015) related to the CLIQUE problem, with high average case and adversarial approximate extension complexity of removals. The framework relies on a strengthened version of the link between information theory and Hellinger distance from Bar-Yossef (J Comput Syst Sci 68(4):702---732, 2004). We also provide an information theoretic variant of the fooling set method that allows us to extend fooling set lower bounds from extension complexity to approximate extension complexity.
Population-based study of the incidence, mortality and prognostic factors of small cell carcinoma of the cervix: Analysis of the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database

5546 Background: Small cell carcinoma (SmC) is a rare histology of the cervix uteri that is generally associated with a poor prognosis. This is a population-based study of SmC using the Surveillanc...
MET amplification occurs with or without T790M mutations in EGFR mutant lung tumors with acquired resistance to gefitinib or erlotinib

PR-10 Somatic mutations in exons encoding the tyrosine kinase domain of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) are found in about 10 and 25% of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) from the United States and east Asia, respectively. Nearly 90% of these mutations occur as either multi-nucleotide in-frame deletions in exon 19 that eliminate four amino acids (LREA), or as single missense mutations that result in substitution of arginine for leucine at position 858 (L858R). Both mutations are associated with increased sensitivity of lung adenocarcinomas to the selective EGFR kinase inhibitors, gefitinib and erlotinib. Unfortunately, patients with drug-sensitive EGFR mutations whose tumors initially respond to gefitinib or erlotinib eventually develop acquired resistance. In about half of cases of acquired resistance to the EGFR inhibitors, a second-site point mutation leading to substitution of methionine for threonine at position 790 (T790M) occurs. To identify additional or alternative genetic alterations that contribute to acquired resistance to EGFR inhibitors and to disease progression, we performed high-resolution genomic analysis (array-based comparative genomic hybridization; aCGH) of tissue samples from 12 patients who initially responded but subsequently progressed while on these drugs. Results were compared to those obtained from genomic analysis of EGFR mutant lung adenocarcinomas resected from 38 patients who were never treated with kinase inhibitors. Among three loci found to be differentially altered in the acquired resistance set, one containedthe MET proto-oncogene. Subsequent quantitative PCR analysis from three independent patient cohorts collectively revealed that MET was amplified in tumors from nine of 43 (21%) patients with acquired resistance vs two of 62 untreated patients (3%) (p = 0.007, Fisher’s Exact Test). Among 10 resistant tumors from the nine patients with MET amplification, four also harbored the EGFRT790M mutation. We also found that an existing EGFR mutant cell line, NCI-H820, harbors both a T790M mutation and MET activation. Growth inhibition studies with these cells demonstrate that they are resistant to erlotinib and an irreversible EGFR inhibitor (CL-387,785) but sensitive to a multi-kinase inhibitor with potent activity against MET (XL880). Furthermore, functional analysis reveals that ERBB3 and other downstream growth signalling is largely dependent on MET, and not EGFR, in these cells. Collectively, these data suggest that MET activation occurs independently of EGFRT790M mutations and that MET may be a clinically relevant therapeutic target for some patients with acquired resistance to gefitinib or erlotinib. This work was funded in part by the Thomas G. Labrecque Foundation.
Climate change decouples drought from early wine grape harvests in France

Climate change has altered the climatic drivers of French wine grape harvests, with potential implications for management and wine quality. High summer temperatures that hasten fruit maturation are increasingly occurring without drought conditions.
On the widths of Stokes lines in Raman scattering from molecules adsorbed at metal surfaces and in molecular conduction junctions

Within a generic model we analyze the Stokes linewidth in surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) from molecules embedded as bridges in molecular junctions. We identify four main contributions to the off-resonant Stokes signal and show that under zero voltage bias (a situation pertaining also to standard SERS experiments) and at low bias junctions only one of these contributions is pronounced. The linewidth of this component is determined by the molecular vibrational relaxation rate, which is dominated by interactions with the essentially bosonic thermal environment when the relevant molecular electronic energy is far from the metal(s) Fermi energy(ies). It increases when the molecular electronic level is close to the metal Fermi level so that an additional vibrational relaxation channel due to electron-hole (eh) exciton in the molecule opens. Other contributions to the Raman signal, of considerably broader linewidths, can become important at larger junction bias.
The Rapid Selector

Introduction THE Rapid Selector is the culmination of many years of development and experimentation, in part directly connected with it, in part in the fields of organization of knowledge, electronics, mechanics, and other fields.
Tandem Rh-catalysis: decarboxylative β-keto acid and alkyne cross-coupling

Herein, we describe a regioselective Rh-catalyzed decarboxylative cross-coupling of β-keto acids and alkynes to access branched γ,δ-unsaturated ketones. Rh-hydride catalysis enables the isomerization of an alkyne to generate a metal-allyl species that can undergo carbon–carbon bond formation. Ketones are generated under mild conditions, without the need for base or activated electrophiles.
Formation of Calcium Phosphate on Phosphorus-Containing Groups Introduced Substrate

A calcium phosphate coating over chitin sample was produced by a process based on phosphorylation, Ca(OH) 2 treatment and SBF immersion. Ca(OH) 2 soaking of the fibers phosphorylated by urea/phosphorus acid (H 3 PO 3 ) method is found to produce highly crystalline clusters lodged in the fibers which were calcium phosphite mono-hydrate (CaHPO 3 H 2 O). CaHPO 3 H 2 O clusters were still present in chitin fibers even after 7 days of soaking, while after 17 days calcium phosphate was observed. While chitin fibers phosphorylated by urea and H 3 PO 4 method and then soaked in saturated Ca(OH) 2 solution at ambient temperature, which lead to the formation of thin coatings formed by partial hydrolysis of PO 4 functionalities which were found to stimulate the growth of a calcium phosphate coating on their surfaces after soaking in 1.5×SBF solution for as little as 1 day. EDX analyses of the thin coating gave Ca/P ratio of 1.29, which is speculated to be OCP. The mechanism of formation of the coating is believed to involve dissolution of the CaHPO 3 H 2 O clusters or the OCP upon introduction of the Ca(OH) 2- treated phosphorylated chitin fibers into the 1.5×SBF solution which elevates the Ca 2+ ion concentration in the vicinity of the fibers so stimulating calcium phosphate formation from the soaking medium.
Biodegradable Polymer Composites for Temporary Replacement of Trabecular Bone: The Effect of Polymer Molecular Weight on Composite Strength and Modulus

Our laboratory has been developing a particulate composite material as a temporary replacement for trabecular bone. The material is degradable in physiologic fluids, and uses starting materials that the body can metabolize and excrete. This study investigates the influence of the molecular weight of one component, a linear polyester, on the mechanical strength of the composite material. The compressive strength and modulus increase from “low” to “medium” molecular weight, but do not increase further from “medium” to “high” molecular weight. Low, medium, and high are relative to the highest molecular weight attainable with the current reaction scheme, which is a number average molecular weight (M n ) of 2,038 and a weight average molecular weight (M w ) of 11,916.
How To Protect Children From Internet Predators: A Phenomenological Study

Teenage Internet users are the fastest growing segment in the Internet user population. These teenagers are at risk of sexual assault from Internet predators. This phenomenological study explored teacher and counselors' perceptions of how to prevent this sexual assault. Twenty-five teacher and counselor participants were interviewed. A modified van Kaam method was used to analyze the data and develop themes. Participants stated that mainly the lack of parental support and social networking website were the circumstances leading to teenage Internet sexual assault, while teen needs and gratification usually played a role in teen encounters with predators on the Internet. There were 5 emergent themes in this phenomenological study and those themes were; lack of parental support, social networking websites and chat rooms, teenage need for relationships, instant gratification among teenagers, improved parental support.
Comparison of 18F-FDG-PET-CT and Bone Scintigraphy for Evaluation of Osseous Metastases in Newly Diagnosed and Recurrent Osteosarcoma

Background Bone scintigraphy (BS) is used to detect osseous metastases in osteosarcoma. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography–computed tomography (18F-FDG-PET-CT) is being increasingly used for staging. We compared the sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of 18F-FDG–PET-CT and BS for detecting osseous metastases in osteosarcoma. Methods We retrospectively reviewed 39 patients with osteosarcoma who had paired PET–CT and BS at diagnosis and/or first recurrence from 2003 to 2012. Imaging studies were reviewed by two pediatric imaging specialists who were blinded to results of the opposing modality and reference standard. Reviewers categorized lesions as benign, malignant, or indeterminate. Reference standard for lesion histology was biopsy or clinical follow-up. Diagnostic performance of PET–CT, BS, and combined modalities were determined. Results There were 40 examinations from 39 patients and 65 distant lesions were evaluated. Median age was 12 years (range 5–19 years). Four patients had 15 osseous metastases at diagnosis (two biopsied and 13 clinically), and two had five osseous metastases at recurrence (one biopsied and five clinically). For distant sites, sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy were 79%, 89% and 86% for PET–CT, 32%, 96%, and 77% for BS, and 95%, 85%, and 88% for PET–CT/BS combined. Sensitivity of PET–CT was superior to BS (P = 0.035); combined imaging modalities were superior to BS (P < 0.001) but not better than PET–CT alone (P = 0.25). Specificity for BS approached significance compared to combined imaging (P = 0.063). Examination-based analysis yielded similar results between individual and combined imaging modalities. Conclusions 18F-FDG–PET–CT demonstrated superior sensitivity over BS for detecting osseous metastases, supporting the use of 18F-FDG–PET–CT for staging of osteosarcoma.
GRB off-axis afterglows and the emission from the accompanying supernovae

Gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows are likely produced in the shock that is driven as the GRB jet interacts with the external medium. Long-duration GRBs are also associated with powerful supernovae (SNe). We consider the optical and radio afterglows of long GRBs for both blasts viewed along the jet axis ("on-axis" afterglows) and misaligned observes ("off-axis" afterglows). Comparing the optical emission from the afterglow with that of the accompanying SN, using SN 1998bw as an archetype, we find that only a few percent of afterglows viewed off-axis are brighter than the SN. For observable optical off-axis afterglows, the viewing angle is at most twice the half-opening angle of the GRB jet. Radio off-axis afterglows should be detected with upcoming radio surveys within a few hundred Mpc. We propose that these surveys will act as "radio triggers", and that dedicated radio facilities should follow-up these sources. Follow-ups can unveil the presence of the radio SN remnant, if present. In addition, they can probe the presence of a mildly relativistic component, either associated with the GRB jet or the SN ejecta, expected in these sources.
Wave attenuation in the shallows of San Francisco Bay

Abstract Waves propagating over broad, gently-sloped shallows decrease in height due to frictional dissipation at the bed. We quantified wave-height evolution across 7 km of mudflat in San Pablo Bay (northern San Francisco Bay), an environment where tidal mixing prevents the formation of fluid mud. Wave height was measured along a cross-shore transect (elevation range − 2 m to + 0.45 m MLLW) in winter 2011 and summer 2012. Wave height decreased more than 50% across the transect. The exponential decay coefficient λ was inversely related to depth squared (λ = 6 × 10− 4 h− 2). The physical roughness length scale kb, estimated from near-bed turbulence measurements, was 3.5 × 10− 3 m in winter and 1.1 × 10− 2 m in summer. Estimated wave friction factor f w determined from wave-height data suggests that bottom friction dominates dissipation at high Rew but not at low Rew. Predictions of near-shore wave height based on offshore wave height and a rough formulation for fw were quite accurate, with errors about half as great as those based on the smooth formulation for fw. Researchers often assume that the wave boundary layer is smooth for settings with fine-grained sediments. At this site, use of a smooth fw results in an underestimate of wave shear stress by a factor of 2 for typical waves and as much as 5 for more energetic waves. It also inadequately captures the effectiveness of the mudflats in protecting the shoreline through wave attenuation.
Lasing Emission from Plasmonic Nanodome Arrays

Plasmonic nano-dome arrays (PNDA) have been previously studied as chemical and biological sensors. The present study reports large-area plasmonic lasing from the PNDA structures with liquid-phase gain materials to provide optical gain. The PDNA structure consists of a 2D array of nanoposts, fabricated inexpensively using a nanoreplica molding process, with silicon dioxide and gold thin-film coatings to produce the dome-shaped surface profile. Covered with a dye-doped solution, the PDNA structures can generate lasing emission when they are optically pumped above the lasing threshold. The lasing emission is enabled by energy coupling from the photoexcited dye molecules to the hybridized plasmon mode supported by the PDNA oscillator. Two PDNA lasers with array periods of 400 and 450 nm are fabricated and characterized. Plasmonic resonant modes of the PDNA lasers are numerically studied to illustrate the underlying lasing mechanism. The emission characteristics, including lasing wavelength, linewidth, threshold, beam divergence, and radiation angle, are presented in the paper. The PNDA laser represents a new path for plasmonic lasing in the near-infrared region with potential applications that include integrated photonic circuits, optical communications, and high-performance biosensors.
A Model of Safe Asset Determination

What makes an asset a “safe asset”? We study a model where two countries each issue sovereign bonds to satisfy investors' safe asset demands. The countries differ in the float of their bonds and their resources/fundamentals available to rollover debts. A sovereign's debt is more likely to be safe if its fundamentals are strong relative to other possible safe assets, but not necessarily strong on an absolute basis. Debt float can enhance or detract from safety: If global demand for safe assets is high, a large float can enhance safety. The large float offers greater liquidity which increases demand for the large debt and thus reduces rollover risk. If demand for safe assets is low, then large debt size is a negative as rollover risk looms large. When global demand is high, countries may make fiscal/debt-structuring decisions to enhance their safe asset status. These actions have a tournament feature, and are self-defeating: countries may over-expand debt size to win the tournament. Coordination can generate benefits. The model sheds light on the effects of “Eurobonds” – i.e. a coordinated Euro-area-wide safe bond design. Eurobonds deliver welfare benefits only when they make up a sufficiently large fraction of countries' debts. Small steps towards Eurobonds may hurt countries and not deliver welfare benefits.
The ethics of excess.

The more I reflect on the health care system, the more I am struck by the divergence between the medical ethics of the individual and the social ethics of the health care system. We spend volumes agonizing and debating informed consent, autonomy, discontinuation of life surf port systems, and the like, but little time debating the ethics of the system. We myopically obsess about individual trees while the whole forest is being clear cut. Take my state, Colorado. Almost every hospital has an ethics committee, but no one asks ethical questions of the entire system. Over 50 percent of our hospital beds are empty; we have twenty-one hospitals doing open heart surgery, and three doing transplants (three times what is needed). We have for (for 3.5 million people) more MRI machines than Canada, and far too many specialists. This, in a state in which 450,000 citizens are uninsured and another 400,000 underinsured. We have a large excess capacity in neonatology, yet 21 percent of our women give birth without adequate prenatal care. Excess capacity sits cheek-by-jowl with great need. California is estimated to have over 400 MRI machines, far beyond any reasonable need, while 5 million of its citizens are uninsured. Half-empty hospitals in Denver hire marketing people to run expensive TV campaigns to get a market share from their neighboring half-empty hospitals, while many children go without vaccinations. Our health science center is constantly practicing supercolider medicine and looking for the next Lorenzo's oil, while in its own backyard large numbers of ordinary people lack basic health care. When asked, the well-meaning people who run these institutions all plead innocent and tell you of the good they are doing for their state. "Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads `not guilty,'" observed a wise friend. We all have a duty to the community as well as to the individual, yet we are trustees of a painfully inadequate system. The excesses in any one part of it are directly related to the inadequacies in another part. An individual institution may have a wonderful and thoughtful ethics committee, but the system itself does a poor job of producing health for the society. In no category (except life expectancy at age eighty) are we as healthy as citizens in Europe, or Great Britain, or Canada, or Japan. The inability to ask the larger questions of health policy and the refusal to adopt a larger ethical vision has taken a serious toll on our nation's health. Paul Starr, in his book The Social Transformation of Medicine, discusses the victory of allopathic health care over public health and the price society paid for relying so heavily on the least effective system of maximizing the health of the public. The excessive focus on the individual to the exclusion of the society caused us to train too many specialists and too few generalists. …
Kienböck's Disease

Kienbock's disease is a progressive disruption of the lunate secondary to avascular necrosis, which may be due to the lunate's precarious blood supply, external compression forces, and fractures of its surfaces. The treatment options for Kienbock's disease are based on the stage of the disease, defined by Stahl, and include immobilization, radial shortening or ulnar lengthening, intracarpal fusion, and prosthetic replacement. The prognosis for functional recovery is better in stage I and II disease, which emphasizes the need for early diagnosis.
The Utilization of Spaceborne Microwave Radiometers for Monitoring Snowpack Properties

Snow accumulation and depletion at specific locations can be monitored from space by observing related variations in microwave brightness temperatures. Using vertically and horizontally polarized brightness temperatures from the Nimbus 6 Electrically Scanning Microwave Radiometer, a discriminant function can be used to separate snow from no snow areas and map snowcovered area on a continental basis. For dry snow conditions on the Canadian high plains significant relationships between snow depth or water equivalent and microwave brightness temperature were developed which could permit remote determination of these snow properties after acquisition of a wider range of data. The presence of melt water in the snowpack causes a marked increase in brightness temperature which can be used to predict snowpack priming and timing of runoff. As the resolutions of satellite microwave sensors improve the application of these results to snow hydrology problems should increase.
Event--Selected Vector Field Discontinuities Yield Piecewise--Differentiable Flows

We study a class of discontinuous vector fields brought to our attention by multilegged animal locomotion. Such vector fields arise not only in biomechanics, but also in robotics, neuroscience, and electrical engineering, to name a few domains of application. Under the conditions that (i) the vector field's discontinuities are locally confined to a finite number of smooth submanifolds and (ii) the vector field is transverse to these surfaces in an appropriate sense, it is known that the vector field yields a well--defined flow that is Lipschitz continuous. We extend these results by showing this flow is piecewise--differentiable, so that it admits a first--order approximation (known as a Bouligand derivative) that is piecewise--linear and continuous at every point. We exploit this first--order approximation to infer existence of piecewise--differentiable impact maps (including Poincare maps for periodic orbits), show that the flow is locally conjugate (via a piecewise--differentiable homeomorphism) to a f...
Cytotoxic Reactions in the Diagnosis of Food Allergy

The diagnosis of food allergy remains one of the infrequently solved problems in medicine; furthermore, its importance is only occasionally recognized, and I emphasize the statement of Dr. William Kaufman in 195514 that no physician can estimate with any degree of accuracy how much ill health and human misery result from ailments caused by undiagnosed food allergy. From the large and varied sampling of patients who consulted him in his practice of internal medicine during the preceding 12 years, he could say with confidence that most practicing physicians see many patients almost daily who present themselves with a wide variety of complaints, which are caused by unrecognized food allergies.
Do women prefer female bosses

Abstract The participation of women in the labor force has grown significantly over the past 50 years, and with this, women are increasingly holding managerial and supervisory positions. Yet little is known about how female supervisors impact employee well-being. Using two distinct datasets of US workers, we provide previously undocumented evidence that women are less satisfied with their jobs when they have a female boss. Male job satisfaction, by contrast, is unaffected. Crucially our study is able to control for individual worker fixed effects and to identify the impact of a change in supervisor gender on worker well-being without other alterations in the worker's job.
Income-Contingent Loans: Some General Theoretical Considerations, with Applications

Income-contingent loan programs run by governments represent an important social innovation, an improvement over previous mechanisms for funding investment such as education and now showing its merits in a host of other arenas. This paper, and the other papers presented in this session, lay out the theory of income-contingent loans and describe experiences with this type of program in education and other areas.