cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Fluorescent approaches to diagnosis of Lesch-Nyhan syndrome and quantitative analysis of carrier status.

Abstract Lesch-Nyhan syndrome is an X-linked recessive disorder caused by molecular defects within the HPRT gene. Deletional forms of this syndrome, most of which are inherited, account for 15% of the cases. In addition, a large percentage of cases are due to de novo point mutations. We have used complementary fluorescence-based PCR assays to analyse disease-causing mutations in three unrelated families: (1) inheritance of dye-labelled PCR products of linked polymorphic loci mapping within and flanking the HPRT gene; (2) dye-labelled exon dosage analysis and (3) automated fluorescence-based DNA sequence analysis. Our results using fluorescent, dye-tagged PCR products show that inheritance of two polymorphic small tandem repeat, HPRTB (AGAT)n′ mapping within intron 3 of the HPRT gene, and the CA-repeat at DXS294 can be used to establish linkage to the disease. In addition, we modified a previously described PCR protocol to use fluorescent dye-labelled oligoprimers and an ABI Gene Scanner™ in order to rapidly quantitate deletional forms of Lesch-Nyhan syndrome. Quantitative PCR analysis of individual exons followed by dosage analysis confirmed a deletion encompassing exon 9. A similar approach was used to confirm a previously described HPRT gene duplication involving exons 2 and 3. In this analysis, we co-amplified the HPRTB [AGAT]n and HUMARA [AGC]n repeats and confirmed increased exon dosage in carriers for the duplication. DNA sequence analysis remains the method of choice for delineating new disease-causing mutations, most of which are non-deletional forms of Lesch-Nyhan syndrome. We have also used a cycle-sequencing strategy employing dye-labelled dideoxy terminators and a laser-activated, fluorescence-emission DNA sequencer in order to define carrier status in 10 family members at risk for Lesch-Nyhan syndrome due to a splice donor mutation in intron 7. Our DNA sequence analyses corroborate small tandem repeat (STR) inheritance patterns in this family. Multiple fluorescence-based strategies should facilities rapid diagnosis of the various Lesch-Nyhan disease-causing mutations.
Sexual Assault History and Suicidal Behavior in a National Sample of Women.

This study examined demographic and psychosocial correlates of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in women with histories of sexual assault in childhood and/or adulthood identified from a national sample of women. Multivariate analyses showed that women with histories of sexual assault in both childhood and adulthood reported significantly greater odds of lifetime suicide attempts, controlling for demographic factors and other psychosocial characteristics. As predicted, younger age (marginal), stressful life events (marginal), depression, PTSD, and alcohol dependence symptoms were also significantly associated with suicidal ideation. Furthermore, number of lifetime traumatic events and depression were each associated with lifetime odds of suicide attempts. Implications for studying the role of sexual trauma and other psychosocial factors in relation to women's suicidal behavior are discussed.
Static Characteristics of the Ferroelectric Transistor Inverter

The inverter is one of the most fundamental building blocks of digital logic, and it can be used as the foundation for understanding more complex logic gates and circuits. This paper presents the characteristics of an inverter circuit using a ferroelectric field-effect transistor. The voltage transfer characteristics are analyzed with respect to varying parameters such as supply voltage, input voltage, and load resistance. The effects of the ferroelectric layer between the gate and semiconductor are examined, and comparisons are made between the inverters using ferroelectric transistors and those using traditional MOSFETs.
Positive Support Strategies for Students with Behavioral Disorders in General Education Settings

Although it has been argued that students with behavioral disorders benefit most from placement in general education classrooms, careful and systematic support is required to insure that their placement is successful. In this article, we review supports and interventions provided at multiple levels that together are known as “positive behavior support” (PBS). The levels include school-wide PBS, which involves the full student body; classroom-based PBS, focusing on the individual class as the unit of analysis; and individualized PBS, addressing the individualized needs of specific students. When relatively intense and chronic behavior problems exist, individualized PBS involves the use of functional behavioral assessments and proactive, educative interventions. In this article, we describe each of these levels with reference to the empirical literature and with an emphasis on practical applications. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 42: 779–794, 2005.
Coarsening of Ni3Ge in binary Ni–Ge alloys: microstructures and volume fraction dependence of kinetics

Coarsening of Ni3Ge precipitates in binary Ni–Ge alloys containing 12.15, 13.01 and 14.03 at.% Ge, aged at 724 °C (equilibrium volume fractions, fe, equaling 0.022, 0.105 and 0.202, respectively) was investigated using transmission electron microscopy and magnetic analysis. The rate constants for the kinetics of particle growth and depletion of supersaturation depend anomalously on fe, i.e. they both decrease slightly as fe increases. Average values of the chemical diffusion coefficient and the Ni 3Ge/matrix interfacial free energy, derived from analysis of the data, are in reasonable agreement with previously reported values. Alignment of the Ni3Ge precipitates parallel to cube directions is strong, but coalescence into plate shapes is never observed. Precipitates of the solid solution γ phase nucleated in large, coherent, concave-cuboidal Ni3Ge precipitates. This behavior is expected, considering the phase boundary between the two-phase and Ni3Ge regions in a recently published phase diagram.  2003 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Vitamin D status and surgical outcomes: a systematic review

The importance of vitamin D for musculoskeletal health has long been recognized, and awareness of significant extra-skeletal effects in health and disease is rapidly emerging. Although it has been possible for many decades to quantify serum markers of vitamin D deficiency, and to correct deficiency at low cost and with high safety, the influence of vitamin D status on post-surgical outcomes has only recently been identified as a research topic of interest. To the present, these data have not been the subject matter of formal review. Accordingly, we conducted a systematic review to assess the association between perioperative vitamin D status and outcomes after surgery. The databases of PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, AMED, CINAHL (EBSCOHost), The Cochrane Databases of Systematic Review, and PROSPERO were searched through December, 2014 for studies relating to vitamin D and surgery. The initial search yielded 90 manuscripts. After applying exclusion criteria, 31 studies were eligible for inclusion. Fifteen studies employed prospective observational designs, 3 used prospective randomized protocols, and 13 report retrospective database interrogations. The main finding of the present review is that 26 of 31 studies (84%) report at least one statistically significant worse outcome in patients with low vitamin D status. Five of 31 studies (16%) found no association. In conclusion, this review supports the hypothesis that hypovitaminosis D is associated with adverse outcomes after diverse surgical procedures. Future studies should focus on additional surgeries and outcomes, and on the role of vitamin D supplementation in the improvement of patient safety in participants with low vitamin D status at the time of surgery.
Robust Model-Based Fault Detection Using Adaptive Robust Observers

A goal in many applications is to combine a priori knowledge of the physical system with experimental data to detect faults in a system at an early enough stage as to conduct preventive maintenance. The mathematical model of the physical system is the information available before hand. One of the key issues in the design of model-based fault detection schemes is the effect of the model uncertainties such as severe parametric uncertainty and unmodeled dynamics on their performance. This paper presents the application of a nonlinear model-based adaptive robust observer design to help in the detection of faults in sensors for a class of nonlinear systems. The observer is designed by explicitly considering the nonlinear dynamics of the system under consideration. Robust filter structures are used to attenuate the effect of the model uncertainty which combined with controlled parameter adaptation helps in reducing the extent of model uncertainty and in increasing the sensitivity of the fault detection scheme to help in the detection of incipient failure. This continuous monitoring of the state estimates enables us to detect any offnominal system behavior and detect faults even in the presence of model uncertainties.
Networks preserving evolutionary equilibria and the power of randomization

We study a natural extension of classical evolutionary game theory to a setting in which pairwise interactions are restricted to the edges of an undirected graph or network. We generalize the definition of an evolutionary stable strategy (ESS), and show a pair of complementary results that exhibit the power of randomization in our setting: subject to degree or edge density conditions, the classical ESS of any game are preserved when the graph is chosen randomly and the mutation set is chosen adversarially, or when the graph is chosen adversarially and the mutation set is chosen randomly. We examine natural strengthenings of our generalized ESS definition, and show that similarly strong resultsnare not possible for them.
Considerations for Collecting Freelists in the Field: Examples from Ethobotany

In freelists, informants create an inventory of all the items they know within a given category. Freelists reveal cultural salience and variation in individuals’ topical knowledge. The ease and acc...
The anesthetic efficacy of diphenhydramine and the combination diphenhydramine/lidocaine for the inferior alveolar nerve block

The purpose of this prospective, randomized study was to compare the degree of pulpal anesthesia obtained in vital, asymptomatic teeth using 1.8 mL of 1% diphenhydramine with 1:100,000 epinephrine, 1.8 mL of 2% lidocaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine, and 3.6 mL of 2% lidocaine with 1:100,000 epinephrine combined with 1% diphenhydramine with 1:100,000 epinephrine in inferior alveolar nerve blocks. We also studied injection and postinjection pain. An electric pulp tester was used to test for anesthesia, in 4-minute cycles for 60 minutes, of the second molars through the central incisor. Anesthesia was considered successful when two consecutive 80 readings were obtained within 15 minutes and the 80 reading was continuously sustained through the 60th minute. Using the lidocaine solution, successful pulpal anesthesia ranged from 12% to 84%. For the combined lidocaine/diphenhydramine solution, successful pulpal anesthesia ranged from 4% to 60%. The diphenhydramine solution was irritating on injection and postinjection and resulted in a very low level of anesthetic success. We concluded that a 1% diphenhydramine solution should be used cautiously for the inferior alveolar nerve block. The combination lidocaine/diphenhydramine solution was irritating postinjection and was not as effective as a lidocaine solution for pulpal anesthesia.
Contention-aware admission control for ad hoc networks

An admission control algorithm must coordinate between flows to provide guarantees about how the medium is shared. In wired networks, nodes can monitor the medium to see how much bandwidth is being used. However, in ad hoc networks, communication from one node may consume the bandwidth of neighboring nodes. Therefore, the bandwidth consumption of flows and the available resources to a node are not local concepts, but related to the neighboring nodes in carrier-sensing range. Current solutions do not address how to perform admission control in such an environment so that the admitted flows in the network do not exceed network capacity. In this paper, we present a scalable and efficient admission control framework - contention-aware admission control protocol (CACP) - to support QoS in ad hoc networks. We present several options for the design of CACP and compare the performance of these options using both mathematical analysis and simulation results. We also demonstrate the effectiveness of CACP compared to existing approaches through extensive simulations.
Bathymetry, Magnetic Anomalies, and Plate Tectonic History of the Mouth of the Gulf of California

Bathymetric and magnetic anomaly profiles show that the East Pacific Rise crest and both the Tamayo and Rivera Fracture Zones presently define the boundary of the Pacific and North American plates at the mouth of the Gulf of California. New oceanic crust is forming at the rise crest and transform fault slip is occurring along the fracture zones at the rate of 6.0 cm/yr. The Middle America Trench north of the Rivera Fracture Zone became nearly dormant as a plate boundary 8 to 10 m.y. ago when the rise crest changed from the Pacific-Farallon to the Pacific-Rivera plate boundary. Two m.y. ago, this section of the trench ceased crustal subduction as the Rivera plate became attached to the North American plate and the rise crest became the Pacific-North American plate boundary. Baja California was dislocated from the North American plate 4 m.y. ago and began rafting away to the northwest at a velocity that has not been significantly altered since the initial breakaway. For the past 2 m.y., a coherent pattern of spreading has been recorded north of the Tamayo Fracture Zone.
A Theoretical and Experimental Study of Precursor Solitary Waves Generated by Moving Disturbances

This is a joint theoretical, numerical and experimental study of the recently identified resonance phenomenon whereby a forcing disturbance moving steadily with a transcritical velocity in shallow water can generate, periodically, a succession of solitary waves, advancing upstream of the disturbance. A series of numerical and laboratory experiments was carried out with a cambered topography serving as the forcing disturbance moving over the floor of a water layer with velocity U, or Fronde number \( F = U/\sqrt {{g{{h}_{0}}}} \),where g is the acceleration of gravity and h o the original uniform water depth. Within the transcritical range of about 0.4 < F < 1.2 tested, and over a range of disturbance amplitudes, a series of upstream advancing solitary waves were generated, one after another, while a train of weakly nonlinear and weakly dispersive waves developed downstream of the disturbances immediately behind a nearly constant but elongating depressed water surface. For a review of the history and literature on this subject, we refer to the recent work by Wu (1987).
Role of dendritic cell–pathogen interactions in the immune response to pulmonary cryptococcal infection

This review discusses the unique contributions of dendritic cells (DCs) to T-cell priming and the generation of effective host defenses against Cryptococcus neoformans (C.neo) infection. We highlight DC subsets involved in the early and later stages of anticryptococcal immune responses, interactions between C.neo pathogen-associated molecular patterns and pattern recognition receptors expressed by DC, and the influence of DC on adaptive immunity. We emphasize recent studies in mouse models of cryptococcosis that illustrate the importance of DC-derived cytokines and costimulatory molecules and the potential role of DC epigenetic modifications that support maintenance of these signals throughout the immune response to C.neo. Lastly, we stipulate where these advances can be developed into new, immune-based therapeutics for treatment of this global pathogen.
Dietary fiber and satiety: the effects of oats on satiety

This review examines the effect of β-glucan, the viscous soluble fiber in oats, on satiety. A literature search for studies that examined delivery of the fiber in whole foods or as an extract was conducted. Viscosity interferes with the peristaltic mixing process in the small intestine to impede digestion and absorption of nutrients, which precipitates satiety signals. From measurements of the physicochemical and rheological properties of β-glucan, it appears that viscosity plays a key role in modulating satiety. However, the lack of standardized methods to measure viscosity and the inherent nature of appetite make it difficult to pinpoint the reasons for inconsistent results of the effects of oats on satiety. Nevertheless, the majority of the evidence suggests that oat β-glucan has a positive effect on perceptions of satiety.
Cultural Psychiatry Training

This chapter focuses on the cultural psychiatry training. In addition to general resident training programs, some institutions have provided special programs in cultural psychiatry at advanced levels. However, there is no concurrence among experts in the field on how to offer cultural psychiatric training to all psychiatric residents. In the United States, effective January 2001, the revised accreditation standards set up by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Program Requirements for Residency Training in Psychiatry include several key innovations in cultural psychiatry training. Beyond basic cultural psychiatric training for all psychiatrists-in-training, there is a need to form an advanced training program for those who are interested in cultural psychiatry as a professional specialty or for their career development. The cultural dimensions of psychiatry will certainly be highlighted when a trainee directly and practically experiences the impact of culture on psychiatric practice. While it is better to spend a longer period of time gaining a deep understanding of one of two cultural settings, it is also useful to have encounters with multiple, diverse cultural systems. It can certainly help trainees to learn the differences even within one's own country or neighborhood, as there are many culturally diverse people, who may be immigrants or refugees from other cultures, indigenous people, or socioculturally deprived people who live in different socioeconomic-cultural settings. Working with such diversified subcultural groups could have a learning effect similar to actually living in another society. This kind of experience may be supplemented by short-term travel or visits to other countries to experience the cultures in their home settings.
Molecular Strain Typing and Characterisation of Toxigenic Clostridium difficile

Abstract At the turn of the century, a shift in incidence of Clostridium difficile infection occurred with the emergence of a novel, more virulent strain of C. difficile . It became apparent that strain typing was critical to our understanding of the epidemiology and transmission of the disease. Over the past 25 years, C. difficile strain typing methods have developed from phenotypic to genotypic techniques, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Unfortunately, with the advent of polymerase chain reaction for C. difficile diagnosis, many clinical laboratories no longer perform anaerobic culture of the organism, and therefore routine strain typing for surveillance or detection of hospital outbreaks is rarely performed. Even among reference laboratories that do perform strain typing of C. difficile , standardisation of methods and inter-laboratory exchange of data continues to be problematic. Herein, an overview of molecular strain typing methods for C. difficile is provided, along with specific applications and limitations of each technique. In addition, current efforts to standardise laboratory protocols and a review of recent studies are discussed.
How Family Structures and Processes Interrelate: The Case of Adolescent Mental Health and Academic Success in Military Families

The transitional nature of military life positions the family to serve as the primary and most stable influence for adolescents in military families. These military-related transitions and stressors may also put youth at risk for depression and academic challenges. This study examines the relative impact of family structure (family composition at a given time point) and family processes (interpersonal interactions developed over time) on important adolescent outcomes (depressive symptoms and academic performance) for a sample of military youth (N = 995). While family structure, particularly being part of a stepfamily or single-parent family, was related to greater depressive symptoms and poorer academic performance, family processes (family support and parent–adolescent connection) and personal resources (initiative) also accounted for depressive symptomology and academic performance. Importantly, when modeling family processes, no differences were found across family structures. Military youth thrive in ...
Convection-enhanced and local delivery of targeted cytotoxins in the treatment of malignant gliomas

Despite advances in our knowledge about the genesis, molecular biology, and natural history of malignant gliomas and the use of a multi-disciplinary approach to their treatment, patients harboring this diagnosis continue to face a grim prognosis. At the time of diagnosis, patients typically undergo surgery for the establishment of a histologic diagnosis, the reduction of tumor burden, and the relief of mass effect, with the maintenance of the patient's neurological function in mind. This is followed by the administration of adjuvant therapeutics, including radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Many investigational agents with laboratory evidence of efficacy against malignant gliomas have not met their promise in the clinical setting, largely due to the barriers that they must overcome to reach the tumor at a therapeutically meaningful concentration for a durable period of time. The relevant aspects of the blood-brain barrier, blood-tumor barrier, and blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier, as they pertain to the delivery of agents to the tumor, will be discussed along with the strategies devised to circumvent them. This discussion will be followed by a description of agents currently in preclinical and clinical development, many of which are the result of intense ongoing research into the molecular biology of gliomas.
Surgical Strategy for Lung Transplantation in Adults With Small Chests: Lobar Transplant Versus a Pediatric Donor.

BACKGROUND Adult lung transplant recipients with small chests have traditionally received lungs from pediatric donors, placing an additional strain on the already restricted pediatric donor pool. Performing lobar lung transplantation (LLT) can circumvent issues with donor-recipient size mismatch; however, LLT imparts additional risks. Here, we review our experience using LLT and standard lung transplantation using a pediatric donor (PDLT) for adults with small chests. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed consecutive patients with end-stage lung disease and a height of 65 inches or less who underwent LLT (n = 15) or PDLT (n = 15) between 2006 and 2012 at our institution, a high-volume lung transplant center. RESULTS Lobar lung transplantation recipients were older (54 ± 10 vs 48 ± 8 years) and had higher pulmonary pressure (57 ± 11 vs 52 ± 27 mmHg) and higher lung allocation scores (70 ± 9 vs 51 ± 8) than PDLT recipients (all P < 0.05). Mean waiting time was 62 days for PDLT and 9 days for LLT. Postoperatively, the incidence of severe primary graft dysfunction and the incidence of acute renal insufficiency were higher, and the mean intensive care unit stay was longer in the LLT group, but the incidence of bronchial anastomotic complications was higher in the PDLT group because of significant size discrepancy in the main bronchus (P < 0.05). Interestingly, long-term functional outcomes and survival rates were similar between the groups. CONCLUSIONS Both LLT and PDLT are viable surgical options for adult patients with small chests. Because of the potential impact on posttransplant outcomes, the technical complexity of transplantation, decisions regarding the best surgical approach should be made by experienced surgeons.
Tri­carbonyl­[1,1′,1′′-ethyl­idyne­tris­(pyrazole-κN2)]­rhenium(I) bromide and tri­carbonyl­[methyl­idyne­tris­(pyrazole-κN2)]­rhenium(I) iodide ethanol hemisolvate

The two title compounds, [Re(C10H10N6)(CO)3]Br and [Re(C11H12N6)(CO)3]I·0.5C2H6O, have slightly distorted octahedral geometries about the rhenium centers. The distortions result from the constraints of the η3-coordinated tris­(pyrazol-1-yl)­methane ligands in each case which reduce the N—Re—N bond angles well below the preferred value of 90° for facially disposed ligands at a six-coordinate metal center.
Accessibility of Government-Sponsored Research in International Studies

The principal reason to be concerned about the accessibility of information about government-sponsored research in international studies is that new research by individuals and groups cannot be adequately planned without information about the relevant research that is already completed and in progress. Each Ph.D. candidate in selecting a dissertation topic must know not only what has been published on his proposed subject but also what research is currently in progress, and the problem is not essentially different for advanced scholars and large-scale research projects.' Our particular concern here is with the accessibility of government-sponsored research, but this must be seen in the larger context of other research in this field. The government sector includes not only government-sponsored extramural research, but also intramural government research. The private sector includes Ph.D. dissertations, research by individuals, and group research by a wide range of university and other private research organizations. A few remarks should be made at this point about the question of accessibility in the spheres other than government-sponsored research, even though they have not been especially examined for the purposes of this paper. Intramural government research is conducted principally by the government agencies specializing in international
Unsettling environments: new pastorals in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and Sarah Hall’s The Carhullan Army

ABSTRACTThis paper addresses the persistence of pastoral in contemporary British writing in conjunction with classical and contemporary pastoral writing and theory. The paper argues that the pastoral continues to be used to represent and reflect upon the British landscape and the relationships between people and place that it comprises in the twenty-first century. However, brought into new contexts by contemporary environmental concerns, it is being put to new uses, and adapted into new forms in these instances.Critics of pastoral have been sceptical of its continuing relevance since at least the 1970s, including Raymond Williams’s critique of the social, political and ecological glosses of the ‘enamelled’ depictions of people and places in pastoral in The Country and the City and the argument against its distinction from the realities of contemporary life made by John Barrell and John Bull in The Penguin Book of Pastoral Verse. Whilst Leo Marx suggested in his 1992 essay ‘Does pastoralism have a future?’...
Contrasting diets reveal metabolic plasticity in the tree-killing beetle, Anoplophora glabripennis (Cerambycidae: Lamiinae).

Wood-feeding insects encounter challenging diets containing low protein quantities, recalcitrant carbohydrate sources and plant defensive compounds. The Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) is a wood-feeding insect that attacks and kills a diversity of hardwood tree species. We compared gene expression of midguts collected from larvae feeding in a preferred tree, sugar maple, to those consuming a nutrient-rich artificial diet, to identify genes putatively involved in host plant utilization. Anoplophora glabripennis larvae exhibited differential expression of ~3600 genes in response to different diets. Genes with predicted capacity for plant and microbial carbohydrate usage, detoxification, nutrient recycling and immune-related genes relevant for facilitating interactions with microbial symbionts were upregulated in wood-feeding larvae compared to larvae feeding in artificial diet. Upregulation of genes involved in protein degradation and synthesis was also observed, suggesting that proteins incur more rapid turnover in insects consuming wood. Additionally, wood-feeding individuals exhibited elevated expression of several mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase genes, suggesting increased aerobic respiration compared to diet-fed larvae. These results indicate that A. glabripennis modulates digestive and basal gene expression when larvae are feeding in a nutrient-poor, yet suitable host plant compared to a tractable and nutrient-rich diet that is free of plant defensive compounds.
A survey of dark matter and related topics in cosmology

This article presents an extensive review of the status of the search of the dark matter. The first eight sections are devoted to topics in dark matter and its experimental searches, and the rest to selected topics in astrophysics and cosmology, which are intended to supply some of the needed background for students in particle physics. Sections 9 and 13 are introductory cosmology. The three astrophysical topics, Big Bang nucleosynthesis Section 10, Boltzmann transport equation and freeze out of massive particles Section 11, and CMB anisotropy Section 12 can all be studied in analytical approaches when reasonable approximations are made. Their original analytically forms, to which this article follows very closely, were given by particle physicists. Dark matter is an evolving subject requiring timely update to stay current. Hence a review of such a subject matter would undoubtedly have something wanting when it appears in print. It is hoped that this review can form a humble basis for those graduate students who would like to pursue the subject of dark matter. The reader can use the extensive table of contents to see in some details the materials covered in the article.
Metastability of CMOS latch/flip-flop

The authors present several design issues for CMOS latch/flip-flops designed for metastable-hardness, regarding optimal device size, aspect ratio, and configurations. They use AC small-signal analysis in the frequency domain rather than the time domain. This design approach is verified experimentally. The power-supply disturbance and temperature variation effects on the metastability are measured and the measurement data confirm that a reduced power supply voltage and a higher temperature cause a lower metastable resolving capability
Haptics- Augmented Simple-Machine Educational Tools

This paper describes a unique project using commercial haptic interfaces to augment the teaching of simple machines in elementary school. Haptic interfaces provide a sense of touch and force to the human user from a virtual model on the computer. Since force is central to the teaching of simple machine, we believe that the use of haptics in virtual simple-machine simulations has the potential for deeper, more engaging learning. A software has been developed and is freely available on the Internet. HTML tutorials have been developed to support these haptics-augmented software activities in the teaching and learning of simple machines in elementary school. The pilot study results are reported, which yielded positive feedback and suggestions for project improvement from elementary school students and teachers.
Differential Diagnosis: Hypermagnesemia

Severe hypermagnesemia is rare in individuals with normal renal function and in dialysis patients. Although severe hypermagnesemia may be fatal, two case reports here illustrate severe hypermagnesemia causing quadriparesis, induced by abuse of a laxative and antacids containing magnesium.
Initial review of Electronic Residency Application Service charts by orthopaedic residency faculty members. Does applicant gender matter

Background: Orthopaedic surgery is a male-dominated field. As of 1998, women accounted for 42% of medical school graduates, yet only 6.9% of the total number of orthopaedic residents were female. The purpose of our study was to determine whether the Electronic Residency Application Service charts of female candidates for orthopaedic residencies are ranked lower by faculty reviewers than are those of male candidates with similar qualifications. Methods: After we obtained permission from the applicants, the Electronic Residency Application Service applications submitted by ninety male and ten female candidates for admission to a university orthopaedic residency program for the 1998 National Residency Matching Program were randomly divided into ten groups, consisting of the charts of nine male candidates and one female candidate. Each chart from a female candidate was altered into a "male" version, in which all names and personal pronouns were changed but which was otherwise identical to the original female version. Therefore, each group of ten charts existed as a paired set: one containing the true female chart and one, the altered "male" chart. The paired sets acted as their own control. One hundred and twenty-one faculty reviewers from fourteen orthopaedic residency programs around the United States each reviewed either the "male" or the female version of one set, without knowledge of the goals of the study, and ranked the ten charts in the order in which they would like to have the candidates as residents in their own programs. Each version of the sets was reviewed by at least five separate reviewers. Reviewers at a given institution were randomized to review different sets, so that there was no overlap among them. The rankings of the female-"male" pairs were compared with use of a standard paired t test. Results: No significant difference was detected in the rankings of the female and "male" charts (p = 0.5). The mean difference in rankings was -0.33, with a 95% confidence interval ranging from -1.41 (favoring females) to 0.74 (favoring "males"). Conclusions: The low percentage of female residents is not due to bias against female applicants in the initial chart-review phase of the orthopaedic residency selection process. It is possible that bias is introduced in other stages of the selection process, such as the interview.
22.7 An inductively-coupled wireless power-transfer system that is immune to distance and load variations

Biomedical implants are often powered by an external source via an inductively-coupled wireless power link. During actual use the distance between the external and implant coils may change, their axes may misalign, and the load current may change significantly in implants that alternate between monitoring and stimulation. Ideally the wireless power link should deliver a stable voltage to the implant across reasonable ranges of these variations, thereby eliminating a lossy voltage limiter and alignment magnets. We present the analysis and design of a new link architecture to meet all these objectives. It stands apart from similar work in that this link self-regulates against all variations, with no need for a reverse channel.
Clonal evolution in paired endometrial intraepithelial neoplasia/atypical hyperplasia and endometrioid adenocarcinoma

Endometrial intraepithelial neoplasia (EIN) and atypical endometrial hyperplasia (AH) are histomorphologically defined precursors to endometrioid adenocarcinoma, which are unified as EIN/AH by the World Health Organization. EIN/AH harbors a constellation of molecular alterations similar to those found in endometrioid adenocarcinoma. However, the process of clonal evolution from EIN/AH to carcinoma is poorly characterized. To investigate, we performed next-generation sequencing, copy number alteration (CNA) analysis, and immunohistochemistry for mismatch repair protein expression on EIN/AH and endometrioid adenocarcinoma samples from 6 hysterectomy cases with spatially distinct EIN/AH and carcinoma. In evaluating all samples, EIN/AH and carcinoma did not differ in mutational burden, CNA burden, or specific genes mutated (all P>.1). All paired EIN/AH and carcinoma samples shared at least one identical somatic mutation, frequently in PI(3)K pathway members. Large CNAs (>10 genes in length) were identified in 83% of cases; paired EIN/AH and carcinoma samples shared at least one identical CNA in these cases. Mismatch repair protein expression matched in all paired EIN/AH and carcinoma samples. All paired EIN/AH and carcinoma samples had identical The Cancer Genome Atlas subtype, with 3 classified as "copy number low endometrioid" and 3 classified as "microsatellite instability hypermutated." Although paired EIN/AH and carcinoma samples were clonal, private mutations (ie, present in only one sample) were identified in EIN/AH and carcinoma in all cases, frequently in established cancer-driving genes. These findings indicate that EIN/AH gives rise to endometrioid adenocarcinoma by a complex process of subclone evolution, not a linear accumulation of molecular events.
Long Live the Nation: Political Cartoonist and Nationalism In Victorian England

Few things are as innocent as a weekly episode of Charles Shultz's Peanuts in the Sunday newspaper. Most often, the sole purpose of the artist is to cause the reader to smile, to momentarily allow melancholia to be replaced by laughter, to entertain. Shultz's work is part of a group of cartoons that be described as comic art. Another group, the social cartoon, is designed to amuse the reader, but also to provide commentary on some annoying or worrisome aspect of life. A third type of cartoon, however, is rarely innocent and usually deals with loftier issues than life's inconveniences. The political cartoon is a partisan, and often nationalistic, comment made by the artist. Through his or her work, the cartoonist seeks to "influence the viewer to a particular viewpoint and predispose him or her to a particular action." Political cartoons are frequently known for "artistic excellence" and humor, but these characteristics are always secondary to the ideas that the drawings express. Truly excellent political cartoons are symbolic, but simple. They may not be purely representational, but any misrepresentation or exaggeration must be believable. Finally, and most importantly, political cartoons must be rooted in truth and be about a subject which has "lasting importance." 1 Cartoons are, in fact, an important resource for scholars interested in the political climate of a nation. The artist's drawings not only reflect prominent issues of a nation, but help shape feelings of nationalism among its citizens.
Aleksandr Sokurov: Russian Ark (KinoSputnik 3)

As a foreign language art-house film, Aleksandr Sokurov’s Russian Ark was commercially and critically successful in North America, largely due to the technological feat known as the ‘take in one br...
Evaluation and Management of Orbital Cellulitis Secondary to Endophthalmitis

Endophthalmitis is an intraocular infection that can lead to significant decrease in vision. Severe infections with virulent organisms or untreated infections can result in panophthalmitis, an infection that extends outside the globe and results in intraorbital inflammation and orbital cellulitis. Complete loss of vision can occur in these cases as the eye becomes filled with purulence. Inadequate treatment can lead to intracranial extension of the infections, meningitis, cavernous sinus thrombosis, and even death. In these severe cases, medical treatment alone is often inadequate, and surgical intervention with either evisceration or enucleation is necessary.
A Cross-language Approach to Rapid Creation of New Morpho-syntactically Annotated Resources

We take a novel approach to rapid, low-cost development of morpho-syntactically annotated resources without using parallel corpora or bilingual lexicons. The overall research question is how to exploit language resources and properties to facilitate and automate the creation of morphologically annotated corpora for new languages. This portability issue is especially relevant to minority languages, for which such resources are likely to remain unavailable in the foreseeable future. We compare the performance of our system on languages that belong to different language families (Romance vs. Slavic), as well as different language pairs within the same language family (Portuguese via Spanish vs. Catalan via Spanish). We show that across language families, the most difficult category is the category of nominals (the noun homonymy is challenging for morphological analysis and the order variation of adjectives within a sentence makes it challenging to create a realiable model), whereas different language families present different challenges with respect to their morpho-syntactic descriptions: for the Slavic languages, case is the most challenging category; for the Romance languages, gender is more challenging than case. In addition, we present an alternative evaluation metric for our system, where we measure how much human labor will be needed to convert the result of our tagging to a high precision annotated resource.
Does pathology of small venules contribute to cerebral microinfarcts and dementia

Microinfarcts are small, but strikingly common, ischemic brain lesions in the aging human brain. There is mounting evidence that microinfarcts contribute to vascular cognitive impairment and dementia, but the origins of microinfarcts are unclear. Understanding the vascular pathologies that cause microinfarcts may yield strategies to prevent their occurrence and reduce their deleterious effects on brain function. Current thinking suggests that cortical microinfarcts arise from the occlusion of penetrating arterioles, which are responsible for delivering oxygenated blood to small volumes of tissue. Unexpectedly, pre-clinical studies have shown that the occlusion of penetrating venules, which drain deoxygenated blood from cortex, lead to microinfarcts that appear identical to those resulting from arteriole occlusion. Here we discuss the idea that cerebral venule pathology could be an overlooked source for brain microinfarcts in humans. This article is part of the Special Issue "Vascular Dementia". Cover Image for this Issue: doi: 10.1111/jnc.14167.
Molecular Pathology of Pediatric Oculoplastic Disorders

The landscape of diagnostic pathology has changed tremendously over the last few decades. New technology and improvement on classic techniques have allowed pathologists to probe deeper into the molecular mechanisms that underlie diseases. These additional resources have contributed significantly to the morphological examination of specimens, which still remains the foundation of pathology. As treatment becomes more personalized, as evident by the following chapter, diagnostic pathology is propelled to the forefront of patient care and therefore becomes even more relevant to the physician. This chapter reviews commonly utilized techniques in pathology and examples of their applications. Fundamental knowledge of these methods will assist the physician in acquiring the information they seek when submitting a specimen. However, despite all of these technological advancements, the dialogue between surgeon and pathologist remains central to patient care and irreplaceable. Diagnosis is immensely enhanced when the pathologist is provided pertinent medical history and physical findings and is informed of the specific queries the physician hopes to resolve.
A study of particle filtering approaches for the kidnapped robot problem

Particle filtering is a popular approach to solving estimation problems that include non-linear, multi-modal, or other irregular structures in the estimation problem. Practically, however, some combinations of problems and implementations of the particle filter require a computationally unreasonable number of particles to achieve accurate estimation results. This is especially true as the number of dimensions in the state space increases. In this paper, we investigate one particular situation where a large number of particles may be required, the kidnapped robot problem. We implement several variants of the particle filter, evaluating which ones can best localize the robot after a “kidnapping” event without requiring too many particles to be practical. We find that significant improvements in performance are available using “particle flow” particle filter implementations.
The Negative Binomial Distribution

We begin with a new problem: a blood bank continues to purchase blood from individuals until it collects 6 pints of type B negative needed for an upcoming operation. How many pints should they be prepared to buy?
Password protected visual cryptography via cellular automaton rule 30

Visual cryptography depends on two shares. The initial configuration, extra security bits and the number of the rule for the CA along with the number of computed steps serve as a password for a visually encrypted image. The second share could contain a predefined pattern; the developed algorithm uses a snapshot of a CA after a certain number of steps to generate the predefined share. Only one of these shares has to be random. The developed encryption system is a hybrid between visual and classical cryptographic approaches. It requires less storage space compared to a standalone visual encryption system and relies on Rule 30’s tested statistically significant randomness.
The Experience of Pain and its Clinical Implications

Diagnosis is an ontological event. That is, to arrive at a diagnosis is not simply to solve a puzzle; it is to ratify a vision of reality. When the words “peptic ulcer disease”, for example, are pronounced, the ambiguous complaints of the patient — gnawing pain, hunger, and the like — are reorganized into a medically defined world. Events take on a new spatial contour: they now center around and radiate from the duodenum. Causality is given a mechanistic reading. It is physiological mechanisms — the secretion of acid, the erosion of tissues — that order this world. As diagnosis goes hand-in-hand with prognosis, a projected future is brought into being. Moreover, a certain course of action is prescribed, as diagnosis helps determine the proper mode of treatment. The symptoms of the patient are thus captured within a structured world-view, with spatial, temporal, causal, and prescriptive dimensions.
Small Bowel Obstruction

Identifying patients with small bowel obstruction who need operative intervention and those who will fail nonoperative management is a challenge. Without indications for urgent intervention, a computed tomography scan with/without intravenous contrast should be obtained to identify location, grade, and etiology of the obstruction. Most small bowel obstructions resolve with nonoperative management. Open and laparoscopic operative management are acceptable approaches. Malnutrition needs to be identified early and managed, especially if the patient is to undergo operative management. Confounding conditions include age greater than 65, post Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, inflammatory bowel disease, malignancy, virgin abdomen, pregnancy, hernia, and early postoperative state.