cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Assessing the Role of Adaptation in Evaluating Vulnerability to Climate Change

Three types of adaptation can influence significantly a system's prospective longevity in the face of climate change. The ability to cope with variation in its current environment can help a system adapt to changes over the longer term. The ability to take advantage of beneficial changes that might coincide with potentially harmful ones can play an even larger role; and focusing attention on maximizing a system's sustainable lifetime can highlight the potential for extending that time horizon and increasing the likelihood that an alternative structure might be created. A specific economic approach to adaptation demonstrates that research can serve two functions in this regard. Research can play an important role in diminishing future harm suggested by standard impact analyses by focusing attention on systems where adaptation can buy the most time. It can help societies learn how to become more robust under current conditions; and it can lead them to explore mechanisms by which they can exploit potentially beneficial change. Research can also play a critical role in assessing the need for mitigating long-term change by focusing attention on systems where potential adaptation in both the short and long runs is so limited that it is almost impossible to buy any time at all. In these areas, switching to an alternative system or investing in the protection of existing ones are the last lines of defense. Real "windows" of tolerable climate change can be defined only by working in areas where these sorts of adaptive alternatives cannot be uncovered.
Mg(++)-induced endothelial cell migration: substratum selectivity and receptor-involvement.

The activation of endothelial cells during angiogenesis requires cell spreading and migration. These processes are influenced by extracellular signals such as chemoattractants from the local microenvironment. We have shown previously that transmembrane Ca++ influx is necessary for motility and cell spreading, thus we hypothesized that the extracellular divalent cations Mg++ and Ca++ may regulate human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) spreading and act as chemoattractants. Studies demonstrated that extracellular Mg++ induced a statistically better spread phenotype when cells were plated on multiple extracellular matrix substrata; Ca++ promoted cell spreading only on vitronectin. Mg++ but not Ca++ acted as a potent chemoattractant when HUVEC migrated on gelatin- and type IV collagen- but not on vitronectin-coated filters. A checkerboard analysis of migration showed that Mg++ induces both chemokinetic and chemotactic migration peaking at 0.1 and 10 mM, respectively. An equivalent effect of oligomycin was seen on motility to Mg++ or to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in extracellular Mg++-free conditions, ruling out an exclusive role for Mg++ as a migration energy producer. The Mg++-stimulated chemotaxis was inhibited >60% by pertussis toxin, d-erythrosphingosine, and tyrphostin B48, but unaffected by cholera toxin exposure. These data suggest that Mg++-induced chemotaxis may be promoted through a Gi protein-coupled receptor pathway with a requirement for protein kinase C activity and protein tyrosine phosphorylation. Thus, Mg++ may be a newly recognized receptor-mediated chemoattractant for endothelial cells.
Inversion for the velocity field in the solar interior

The Sun is oscillating in a large number of normal modes. Most of the modes observed are acoustic waves, but surface gravity modes are also observed. These modes are described by 3 'quantum' numbers: the radial order n, the degree l and the azimuthal order m, with Iml < I. The angular dependence of the mode eigenfunctions is determined by l and m, while the radial dependence is determined by n and l. If the Sun were spherically symmetric the mode frequencies ~ntra = 27rPnlm would not depend on m. Asphericities such as rotation lift this degeneracy. Modes have been observed with 1 from 0 to several thousand, n from 0 to about 40 and frequencies between ~ l m H z and ~ l O m H z with a peak at ~, ~ 3 m H z . The modes have been observed with several different instruments. Most instruments are only able to observe a limited range of I and have observed for a limited time. In the future we expect high quality observations over a large range of I for long periods from instruments such as GONG (a ground based network) and SOI/MDI on the SOHO spacecraft launched in 1995. Here I shall describe how inverse methods have been used to infer the rotation rate in the solar interior from mode frequencies.
PW 1752 Predictors of supervisee injury history among ugandan sixth-grade students

Background Adult supervision is a protective factor against unintentional childhood injuries. Older siblings routinely provide supervision to younger siblings when parents are unavailable. The quality of sibling supervision has been demonstrated to be inferior to adult supervision, potentially increasing supervisee injury risk. Objective This study assessed sixth-grade Ugandan students’ experiences providing sibling supervision in order to determine the prevalence, nature, and predictors of supervisee injuries. Methods 206 sixth-grade students in rural Uganda completed self-report questionnaires of sibling supervision activities and past year supervisee injury history. Students reported injury type and whether medical care was obtained. Binary logistic regression was used to determine predictors of students who endorsed a history of medically-attended supervisee injuries in the past year. Findings 97 percent of sixth-graders reported supervising younger children in a hazardous situation at least once in the past week. 47 percent endorsed at least one medically-attended supervisee injury in the past year. The most common injuries were cuts, falls, and burns. Model predictors included supervisor demographics, supervisor injury history, and frequency of providing supervision. This overall model did not significantly predict medically-attended supervisee injuries, but the Wald test indicated supervisor injuries significantly predicted supervisee injuries. A reduced model was significant. Students with a past year history of medically-attended injuries were 2.25 times more likely to report a medically-attended supervisee injury. Conclusion Ugandan sixth-grade students routinely engage in sibling supervision, and thus are positioned to prevent supervisee injury. They frequently fail, however. Improving the quality of sibling supervision has potential to reduce supervisee injuries. Policy implications Public health surveillance systems could identify families recurrently seeking care for unintentional childhood injuries in order to provide targeted interventions, including training in child supervision for parents and older siblings.
Access to healthy food retailers among formerly incarcerated individuals.

Objective To assess access to healthy food retailers among formerly incarcerated individuals. Design Using linked data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and the Modified Retail Food Environment Index, the present study applies multivariate logistic regression to assess the association between incarceration and (i) living in a food desert and (ii) having low access to healthy food retailers. To account for unobserved heterogeneity, additional analyses are performed comparing formerly incarcerated individuals with persons arrested or convicted for a crime but not previously incarcerated. Setting Sample of respondents living in urban census tracts in the USA. Subjects Adults (n 10390) aged 24-34 years. Results In adjusted logistic regression models, prior incarceration was not significantly associated with living in a food desert (OR=1·097; 95% CI 0·896, 1·343). Prior incarceration significantly increased the likelihood of living in a census tract with low access to healthy food retailers (OR=1·265; 95% CI 1·069, 1·498). This significant association remained when comparing formerly incarcerated individuals with those who had been arrested or convicted of a crime, but not previously incarcerated (OR=1·246; 95% CI 1·032, 1·503). Conclusions Formerly incarcerated individuals are more likely to live in areas with low access to healthy food retailers compared with their non-incarcerated counterparts. Because lower access healthy food retailers may be associated with worse health and dietary behaviour, disparities in local food retail environments may exacerbate health inequalities among formerly incarcerated individuals.
Power, Performance, and Area Benefit of Monolithic 3D ICs for On-Chip Deep Neural Networks Targeting Speech Recognition

In recent years, deep learning has become widespread for various real-world recognition tasks. In addition to recognition accuracy, energy efficiency and speed (i.e., performance) are other grand challenges to enable local intelligence in edge devices. In this article, we investigate the adoption of monolithic three-dimensional (3D) IC (M3D) technology for deep learning hardware design, using speech recognition as a test vehicle. M3D has recently proven to be one of the leading contenders to address the power, performance, and area (PPA) scaling challenges in advanced technology nodes. Our study encompasses the influence of key parameters in DNN hardware implementations towards their performance and energy efficiency, including DNN architectural choices, underlying workloads, and tier partitioning choices in M3D designs. Our post-layout M3D designs, together with hardware-efficient sparse algorithms, produce power savings and performance improvement beyond what can be achieved using conventional 2D ICs. Experimental results show that M3D offers 22.3% iso-performance power saving and 6.2% performance improvement, convincingly demonstrating its entitlement as a solution for DNN ASICs. We further present architectural and physical design guidelines for M3D DNNs to maximize the benefits.
Intervention fidelity monitoring of Urban Zen Integrative Therapy (UZIT) for persons with pulmonary hypertension.

Abstract Background Systematic and consistent dose delivery is critical in intervention research. Few studies testing complementary health approach (CHA) interventions describe intervention fidelity monitoring (IFM) and measurement. Objective To describe methodological processes in establishing and measuring consistent dose, delivery, and duration of a multi-component CHA intervention. Methods Adults with pulmonary hypertension received six weekly, 1-hour Urban Zen Integrative Therapy (UZIT) sessions. A total of 78 sessions were delivered and 33% of these sessions were audited. Intervention dose (time allocated to each component), intervention consistency (protocol adherence audits), and intervention delivery (performance and sequence of components) were captured using remote video observation and review of the recorded video. IFM audits were performed at the beginning (n = 16), middle (n = 5), and end (n = 5) of the study. Results UZIT interventionists adhered to the intervention protocol (99.3%) throughout the study period. Interventionists delivered UZIT components within the prescribed timeframe: 1) Beginning: gentle body movement (18.9 ± 5.8 min.), restorative pose with guided body awareness meditation (21.3 ± 2.7 min.), and Reiki (22.8 ± 3.1 min.); 2) Middle: gentle body movement (15.9 ± 1.5 min.), pose/body awareness meditation (30.1 ± 6.5 min.), and Reiki (30.1 ± 7.0 min.); 3) End: gentle body movement (18.1 ± 3.6 min.), pose/body awareness meditation (35.3 ± 6.4 min.), and Reiki (34.5 ± 7.0 min.). Essential oil inhalation was delivered during UZIT sessions 100% of the time. Interventionists adhered to treatment delivery behaviors throughout the study period: beginning (98.86%), middle (100%), and end (100%). Discussion In this pilot study, we demonstrated that the dose, consistency, and delivery of multi-component CHA therapy can be standardized and monitored to ensure intervention fidelity.
Immunization attitudes, opinions, and knowledge of healthcare professional students at two Midwestern universities in the United States

In addition to administering vaccinations, healthcare professionals (HCPs) also play a crucial role in providing education and advocacy to the public regarding immunizations. Yet, many current and future HCPs are unprepared or reluctant to address the vaccine conversation with hesitant patients. Doctors, pharmacists, and nurses are all recognized as the most trusted sources of vaccine information. By comparing future HCPs in these three distinct programs, we can better understand where potential gaps may lie in their training and education. With insight from students, potential changes to curriculum can improve future HCPs ability to address vaccine hesitancy in their respective careers. The objective of this study was to assess and compare the knowledge, attitudes, and opinions of HCP students on the topic of immunization. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 2017 to assess students in nursing, medical, and pharmacy programs at two universities in the state of North Dakota in the United States. The survey assessed six key themes: 1) demographic information; 2) basic vaccine knowledge; 3) vaccine hesitancy; 4) likelihood to recommend vaccines; 5) confidence in addressing vaccine-related topics with patients; 6) an appraisal of the education they have received on vaccinations. The survey was completed by 223 participants (overall response rate = 23.7%). Results indicated that vaccine-related knowledge varied greatly by program; high knowledge scores were achieved by 74.3% of medical students, 62.7% of pharmacy students, 57.1% of doctor of nursing practice (DNP) students, and 24.7% of bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) students. Over a third (34.2%) of BSN students believed that the current recommended immunization schedule places undue burden on a child’s immune system, versus only 4.3% of medical students. Additionally, 54.2% of participants believed that spreading out recommended vaccines over several visits was an appropriate means of reducing parental stress about vaccinating. Participant responses suggest that negative attitudes, lack of knowledge, and general discomfort exist across all programs, but especially among nursing students, regarding vaccination. Our findings indicate potential areas where targeted interventions could be implemented to better equip future HCPs in their ability to discuss and educate the public regarding vaccination. #PH17173
Covalent Organic Frameworks for the Capture, Fixation, or Reduction of CO2

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are porous crystalline organic polymers which have been the subject of immense research interest in the past ten years. COF materials are designed by the organization of two distinct organic molecules bonded in a repeating fashion to form a porous crystal that has made them ideal of gas adsorption and storage. Chemists have strategically designed COFs for the purpose of heterogeneous catalysis of gaseous reactants. Presented in this critical review are efforts towards developing COFs for the sequestration of CO2 from the atmosphere. Researchers have determined the CO2 adsorption capabilities of several COFs is competitive with the highest surface area materials. Engineering the pore environment of COFs with chemical moieties that interact with CO2 have increased the CO2 adsorption performance. The installation of CO2 binding moieties in the COF has made possible the selective adsorption of CO2 over other gases such as N2. The high degree of control of internal pore composition in COFs is coupled with High CO2 adsorption to develop heterogeneous catalysts for the conversion of CO2 to value added products. Two notable examples of this catalysis are the conversion of fixation of CO2 to epoxides for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates and the reduction of CO2 to CO for combustion. Recent examples of COFs for the capture of CO2 will be discussed followed by COF catalysts which use CO2 as a feedstock for the production of value-added products.
Slow failure: Understanding America’s quagmire in Afghanistan

The United States government has no organised way of thinking about war termination other than seeking decisive military victory. This implicit assumption is inducing three major errors. First, the...
Therapeutic Approaches for Volumetric Muscle Loss Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Our goal was to understand the impact of regenerative therapies on the functional capacity of skeletal muscle following volumetric muscle loss (VML) injury. An extensive database search (e.g., PubM...
Functional Assessment of Challenging Behavior

The purpose of this review is to evaluate recent research on functional assessment procedures to identify recent advances and best practices. Indirect assessments are the most limited form of functional assessment, but their value increases when conducted by behavior analysts rather than caregivers. Direct assessments produce more valid outcomes than indirect assessments, but do not demonstrate a functional relationship between the environmental contingencies and the behavior. Functional analysis procedures are the most rigorous and valid approaches. Recent research has evaluated functional analysis variations, such as the interview-informed synthesized contingency analysis, that are more efficient and flexible for use in a variety of settings. The implementation of a functional assessment continues to be best practice for developing effective functional interventions for challenging behavior. Indirect assessments have value for informing direct assessments and functional analyses. Using indirect assessment findings to develop functional analysis procedures can increase their efficiency while maintaining the validity of the functional assessment process.
Cancer genome landscape: a radiologist’s guide to cancer genome medicine with imaging correlates

The introduction of high throughput sequence analysis in the past decade and the decrease in sequencing costs has made available an enormous amount of genomic data. These data have shaped the landscape of cancer genome, which encompasses mutations determining tumorigenesis, the signaling pathways involved in cancer growth, the tumor heterogeneity, and its role in development of metastases. Tumors develop acquiring a series of driver mutations over time. Of the many mutated genes present in cancer, only few specific mutations are responsible for invasiveness and metastatic potential, which, in many cases, have characteristic imaging appearance. Ten signaling pathways, each with targetable components, have been identified as responsible for cancer growth. Blockage of any of these pathways form the basis for molecular targeted therapies, which are associated with specific pattern of response and toxicities. Tumor heterogeneity, responsible for the different mutation pattern of metastases and primary tumor, has been classified in intratumoral, intermetastatic, intrametastatic, and interpatient heterogeneity, each with specific imaging correlates. The purpose of this article is to introduce the key components of the landscapes of cancer genome and their imaging counterparts, describing the types of mutations associated with tumorigenesis, the pathways of cancer growth, the genetic heterogeneity involved in metastatic disease, as well as the current challenges and opportunities for cancer genomics research.
Ready, aim, take action.

"... And What About You?" is a regular column in Advanced Practice Nursing Quarterly featuring multiple facets of personal and career development. This column will provide tools and strategies to support the continual learning that is vital for self management of one's personal growth and career development.
An innovative approach to integrate unequal protection-based steganography and progressive transmission of physiological data

Evolving digital technologies in remote health monitoring require an energy-efficient method for secure and reliable transmission of patient’s/user’s confidential information from the sensor nodes to the cloud/medical server. Thus, a united scheme of the physiological signal steganography and its communication by benefitting from the unequal significance between different parts of the physiological data are emphasized. We believe higher steganography coding strength and more robust source-channel coding would protect extremely vital parts of the physiological data. Therefore, data integrity and transmission efficiency of packet information achieved in a resilient way. We formulate our idea of joint steganography-source-channel coding ( $$JS^{2}C^{2}$$ ) as an optimization problem to simultaneously securing and minimizing the transmission energy consumption. A low-complexity deep learning-based ECG classification algorithm along with its secure and energy-efficient neural $$JS^{2}C^{2}$$ transmission for real-time monitoring has been realized. The optimal parameters for our united framework have been calculated by $$JS^{2}C^{2}$$ optimization method. Our steganography algorithm unequal steganography embedding (USE) achieves very low wavelet-based weighted percent root-mean-squared difference lower than $$0.5\%$$ . Furthermore, the high correlation between cover and stego and low end-to-end mean-square error (MSE) indicates resilient imperceptibility and maintains the diagnosability of the physiological signal. Moreover, low MSE between embedded and extracted data validates that embedded confidential data has been extracted with negligible distortion. In addition, for the given distortion, the USE-based framework’s energy consumption is much smaller (by 55% in typical application scenario) as compared with the equal steganography embedding-based approach’s energy consumption.
Accuracy of Product Ingredient Labeling: Comparing Drugstore Products With Online Databases and Online Retailers.

BACKGROUND Patients with allergic contact dermatitis rely on ingredient lists published in databases and by online retailers to find safe skincare products. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to determine the accuracy of product ingredient labeling by comparing drugstore product labels to ingredient lists published online. METHODS Amazon was queried for best-selling items in several categories of skincare, generating a list of 93 products. These products were then found at a local Target and Walgreens and online on Contact Allergen Management Program, SkinSAFE, and Consumer Product Information Database. Drugstore product labels were compared with online ingredient lists and analyzed for discrepancies. RESULTS There were 31 occurrences in which an allergen listed in the 2017 American Contact Dermatitis Society Core Allergen Series was omitted (present on the in-store label but missing from an online list.) Seven omissions occurred on Contact Allergen Management Program, 11 occurred on SkinSAFE, 5 occurred on Consumer Product Information Database, and 8 occurred on Amazon. CONCLUSIONS Definitive treatment of allergic contact dermatitis is avoidance of allergens found on patch testing. These data suggest that patients may be at risk of inadvertent exposure to allergens from products, which are supposedly deemed safe according to online ingredient lists.
Sodium-Glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitors in Heart Failure: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials.

Abstract Background We aimed to conduct this study with the goal of further clarifying the role of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) in patients with preexisting heart failure with reduced ejection fraction with or without diabetes and to leverage increased sample size and power to evaluate clinically important secondary safety and efficacy outcomes. Methods This meta-analysis was completed according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The primary outcome was a composite of cardiovascular death or heart failure hospitalization. Secondary outcomes included the individual components of the primary outcome; major adverse cardiovascular events (defined as a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, stroke), any death, myocardial infarction, or stroke, along with adverse events such as volume depletion, acute kidney injury, adverse events leading to drug discontinuation, amputation, and severe hypoglycemia. Other outcomes included the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ) total symptom score and changes in N-terminal pro-hormone BNP (NT-proBNP). Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for dichotomous variables and weighted difference (MD) and 95% CI for continuous variables. Results Compared with placebo, SGLT2i use was associated with a significant reduction of cardiovascular death or heart failure hospitalization (HR = 0.74; 95% CI = 0.66-0.82; P Conclusions SGLT2i was associated with a decreased risk of clinically relevant cardiovascular death, heart failure hospitalization, and heart failure symptoms with similar rates of adverse events.
Knee Bone Age using MRI: Validation of a Novel Method to Reduce Hand Bone Age Radiographs:

Objectives:Determining bone age in skeletally immature patients is critical for proper management and surgical planning. Pennock et al. recently created and validated a bone age atlas using the oss...
An Efficient Algorithm for Routing and Recharging of Electric Vehicles.

In this paper, we address the routing and recharging problem for electric vehicles, where charging nodes have heterogeneous prices and waiting times, and the objective is to minimize the total recharging cost. We prove that the problem is NP-hard and propose two algorithms to solve it. The first, is an algorithm which obtains the optimal solution in pseudo-polynomial time. The second, is a polynomial time algorithm that obtains a solution with the total cost of recharging not greater than the optimal cost for a more constrained instance of the problem with the maximum waiting time of \((1-\epsilon ) \cdot W\), where W is the maximum allowable waiting time.
Jean Rhys’s ‘Temps Perdi’: Space, Disability, and the Second World War

Correspondences between key settings in Jean Rhys’s “Temps Perdi,” as suggested by analytics proffered by postmodern theories of space, suggest the Benjaminian notion of history as a perpetual state of emergency. Introduced in the three discrete sections of the story, these key settings are a house on the east coast of England during WWII, Vienna in the aftermath of WWI, and an unnamed Caribbean island (which the narrator visits between the wars). Further, the story’s key disabled characters, the narrator and a young Carib woman, point to Walter Benjamin’s notion of a revolutionary, “messianic” break with time, as suggested by analytics proffered by disability studies.
Response of Chemical Reactions to Pressure, and Sample Problems

The material presented in this lecture is adapted from Chapter 16 in T&M. First, we will discuss how a chemical reaction responds to pressure. Second, we will solve Sample Problem 34–1 to calculate the effect of pressure on the equilibrium gas mixture composition. Finally, we will solve Sample Problem 34–2 to calculate the equilibrium conversion for a gas mixture undergoing a dissociation reaction.
WomenAS Rights and Development

Why has the expansion of women's economic and political rights coincided with economic development? This paper investigates this question, focusing on a key economic right for women: property rights. The basic hypothesis is that the process of development (i.e., capital accumulation and declining fertility) exacerbated the tension in men's conflicting interests as husbands versus fathers, ultimately resolving them in favor of the latter. As husbands, men stood to gain from their privileged position in a patriarchal world whereas, as fathers, they were hurt by a system that afforded few rights to their daughters. The model predicts that declining fertility would hasten reform of women's property rights whereas legal systems that were initially more favorable to women would delay them. The theoretical relationship between capital and the relative attractiveness of reform is non-monotonic but growth inevitably leads to reform. I explore the empirical validity of the theoretical predictions by using cross-state variation in the US in the timing of married women obtaining property and earning rights between 1850 and 1920.
Topology-aware optimizations for multi-GPU ptychographic image reconstruction

Ptychography is an advanced high-resolution X-ray imaging technique that can generate extremely large datasets. Ptychographic reconstruction transforms reciprocal space experimental data to high-resolution 2D real-space images. GPUs have been used extensively to meet the computational requirements of the reconstruction. Generic multi-GPU reconstruction solutions use common communication topologies, such as P2P graph and ring, that are provided by MPI and NCCL libraries, to establish inter-GPU communications. However, these common topologies assume homogeneous physical links between GPUs, resulting in sub-optimal performance on heterogeneous configurations that are composed of both high- (e.g., NVLink) and low-speed (e.g., PCIe) interconnects. This mismatch between application-level communication topology and physical interconnection can cause data transfer congestion, inefficient memory access, and under-utilization of network resources. Here we present topology-aware designs and optimizations to address the aforementioned mismatch and boost end-to-end application performance. We introduce topology-aware data splitting, propose a novel communication topology, and incorporate asynchronous data movement and computation. We evaluate our design and optimizations using real and artificial datasets and compare its performance with that of the direct P2P and NCCL-based approaches. The results show that our optimizations always outperform the counterparts and achieve up to 5.13× and 1.63× communication and end-to-end application speedups, respectively.
Optimal Radiation Dose for Stage III Lung Cancer-Should "Definitive" Radiation Doses Be Used in the Preoperative Setting?

Abstract Introduction There are currently two recommended radiation strategies for clinical stage III NSCLC: a lower "preoperative" (45–54 Gy) and a higher "definitive/nonsurgical" (60–70 Gy) dose. We sought to determine if definitive radiation doses should be used in the preoperative setting given that many clinical stage III patients planned for surgery are ultimately managed with chemoradiation alone. Methods Using the National Cancer Database data from 2006 to 2016, we performed a comparative effectiveness analysis of stage III N2 patients who received chemoradiotherapy. Patients were stratified into subgroups across 2 parameters: (1) radiation dose: lower (45–54 Gy) and higher (60–70 Gy); and (2) the use of surgery (i.e., surgical and nonsurgical treatment approaches). Long-term survival and perioperative outcomes were evaluated using multivariable Cox proportional hazards and logistic regression models. Results A cohort of 961 patients received radiation before surgery including 321 who received a higher dose and 640 who received a lower dose. A higher preoperative dose revealed similar long-term mortality risk (hazard ratio = 0.99, 95% confidence interval: 0.82–1.21, p = 0.951) compared with a lower dose. There was no significant association between radiation dose and 90-day mortality (p = 0.982), 30-day readmission (p = 0.931), or prolonged length of stay (p = 0.052) in the surgical cohort. A total of 17,904 clinical-stage IIIA-N2 patients were treated nonsurgically, including 15,945 receiving higher and 1959 treated with a lower dose. A higher dose was associated with a reduction in long-term mortality risk (hazard ratio = 0.64, 95% confidence interval: 0.60–0.67, p Conclusions For clinical stage III NSCLC, the administration of 60 to 70 Gy of radiation seems to be more effective than the lower dose for nonsurgical patients without compromising surgical safety for those that undergo resection. This evidence supports the implementation of 60 to 70 Gy as a single-dose strategy for both preoperative and definitive chemoradiotherapy.
Can the hypothesis 'photon interferes only with itself' be reconciled with superposition of light from multiple beams or sources?

Any superposition effect as measured (SEM) by us is the summation of simultaneous stimulations experienced by a detector due to the presence of multiple copies of a detectee each carrying different values of the same parameter. We discus the cases with light beams carrying same frequency for both diffraction and multiple beam Fabry-Perot interferometer and also a case where the two superposed light beams carry different frequencies. Our key argument is that if light really consists of indivisible elementary particle, photon, then it cannot by itself create superposition effect since the state vector of an elementary particle cannot carry more than one values of any parameter at the same time. Fortunately, semiclassical model explains all light induced interactions using quantized atoms and classical EM wave packet. Classical physics, with its deeper commitment to Reality Ontology, was better prepared to nurture the emergence of Quantum Mechanics and still can provide guidance to explore nature deeper if we pay careful attention to successful classical formulations like Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral.
Tiling 3-Uniform Hypergraphs With K43−2e

Let denote the hypergraph consisting of two triples on four points. For an integer n, let denote the smallest integer d so that every 3-uniform hypergraph G of order n with minimum pair-degree contains vertex-disjoint copies of . Kuhn and Osthus (J Combin Theory, Ser B 96(6) (2006), 767–821) proved that holds for large integers n. Here, we prove the exact counterpart, that for all sufficiently large integers n divisible by 4, A main ingredient in our proof is the recent “absorption technique” of Rodl, Rucinski, and Szemeredi (J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 116(3) (2009), 613–636).
Upregulation of cannabinoid type 1 receptors in dopamine D2 receptor knockout mice is reversed by chronic forced ethanol consumption

The anatomical proximity of the cannabinoid type 1 (CNR1/CB1R) and the dopamine D2 receptors (DRD2), their ability to form CB1R-DRD2 heteromers, their opposing roles in locomotion, and their involvement in ethanol's reinforcing and addictive properties prompted us to study the levels and distribution of CB1R after chronic ethanol intake, in the presence and absence of DRD2. We monitored the drinking patterns and locomotor activity of Drd2+/+ and Drd2-/- mice consuming either water or a 20% (v/v) ethanol solution (forced ethanol intake) for 6 months and used the selective CB1 receptor antagonist [{sup 3}H]SR141716A to quantify CB1R levels in different brain regions with in vitro receptor autoradiography. We found that the lack of DRD2 leads to a marked upregulation (approximately 2-fold increase) of CB1R in the cerebral cortex, the caudate-putamen, and the nucleus accumbens, which was reversed by chronic ethanol intake. The results suggest that DRD2-mediated dopaminergic neurotransmission and chronic ethanol intake exert an inhibitory effect on cannabinoid receptor expression in cortical and striatal regions implicated in the reinforcing and addictive properties of ethanol.
The Cost-Effectiveness of a Behavior Intervention with Caregivers of Patients with Alzheimer's Disease

The increasing prevalence of dementia and the associated increase in dementia-related healthcare costs have prompted a call for cost-effective interventions that increase caregivers' ability to provide home care for persons with dementia.1 This article presents the first cost-effectiveness analysis of a randomized, clinical trial of a home-based intervention for caregivers of people with dementia. In 2000, 4.5 million people in the United States had Alzheimer's disease (AD).2 Researchers3–7 have forecasted an increase in this number to 13.2 million by 2050 and an associated rise in care costs.8–10 Ten years ago, the U.S. cost of dementia care was nearly $100 billion, including medical and long-term care, home care, and lost caregiver productivity.1 More-recent estimates are $18,408 per patient per year for mild AD, $30,096 for moderate AD, and $36,132 for severe AD.11 Based on these estimates, national costs will be more than $350 billion per year by 2050, excluding inflation. Currently, informal caregivers provide most of the care for those with dementia. Informal costs of care provided by the family and other caregivers are often higher than formal costs. For community-dwelling patients with dementia, in 1994, formal care costs were $15,886 and informal costs $20,812 per year,8 highlighting the amount of time that caregivers spend providing care. In 1997 dollars, the total annual caregiving cost per care recipient for black, Hispanic, and white caregivers12 amounted to $23,436 for informal services and $8,064 for formal services. Additionally, dementia costs U.S. businesses $61 billion per year, including $36.5 billion in absenteeism and lost productivity.13 Interventions that enable caregivers of people with dementia to enhance their coping skills and management of care-recipient behaviors may decrease caregiver burden, improve caregiving skills and quality of life for care recipient and caregiver,14–17 and reduce the cost of care. This study evaluated the cost-effectiveness of Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregivers Health (REACH II), a national, multicomponent, randomized, clinical trial, from June 2002 to December 2004, of an intervention for family caregivers of patients with AD or related disorders that was funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Nursing Research. The data reported in this paper are from the Memphis site only, which had a health economist to assist in the capture of intervention costs.
Coulomb correlated band structure and Fermi surfaces of high Tc superconductors

Abstract Predictions of local density functional (LDF) calculations of the electronic structure and transport properties of high T c superconductors are reviewed. As evidenced by the excellent agreement with both photoemission and positron annihilation experiments, the Fermi liquid nature of the ‘normal’ state of the high T c superconductors becomes clear for these oxides. The remaining anomalous features in the observed photoemission experiments are related to the effect of Coulomb correlations on the electronic structure, which is determined by empolying the many-body corrections to the known band structure. The results of the tight-binding fit to the Fermi surfaces (FS) in high T c Cu-oxides indicate that the commonly used model Hamiltonian with only a nearest-neighbor hopping is not sufficient for the description of the Cu-O dp σ anti-bonding band crossing E F . Anisotropies of the FS are discussed in connection with the normal state transport properties, which are in qualitative agreement with experiment.
Finding wage and salary information

Many different kinds of patrons are interested in wage and salary information: business people contemplating job changes, collective bargaining officials, personnel and recruitment officers, students choosing careers or preparing for job interviews, marketing professionals researching industries. However, in many cases wage and salary information is elusive. Some reports with current publication dates cite data that are several years old. Other information reflects national averages when a patron needs regional or state norms. Some sources report beginning salaries, but not typical wages for experienced employees. At times, salary information for managers and executives is easy to find, but not that for blue collar workers in the same industry. Tracking down useful figures can be a frustrating experience for both librarian and patron.
Dispersion modeling of traffic-related air pollutant exposures and health effects among children with Asthma in Detroit, Michigan

Vehicular traffic is a major source of ambient air pollution in urban areas. Traffic-related air pollutants, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in diameter, and diesel exhaust emissions, have been associated with adverse human health effects, especially in areas near major roads. In addition to emissions from vehicles, ambient concentrations of air pollutants include contributions from stationary sources and background (or regional) sources. Although dispersion models have been widely used to evaluate air quality strategies and policies and can represent the spatial and temporal variation in environments near roads, the use of these models in health studies to estimate air pollutant exposures has been relatively limited. This paper summarizes the modeling system used to estimate exposures in the Near-Roadway Exposure and Urban Air Pollutant Study, an epidemiological study that examined 139 children with asthma or symptoms consistent with asthma, most of whom li...
Meta-analysis of upper probe measurements in normal subjects and patients with laryngopharyngeal reflux

We report a meta-analysis of a series of studies in which 24-hour ambulatory pH monitoring was performed in 1) normal subjects, 2) the normal control subjects in studies of laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR), and 3) the patients with LPR in these controlled studies. The statistical analysis utilized the fixed-effects model by Mantel-Haenszel and the random-effects mixed model. There were 16 studies from the past 12 years that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. They involved 793 subjects (264 normal and 529 with LPR). The numbers of positive pharyngeal reflux events for normal subjects and for patients with LPR differed with a p value of <.0001. There was also a significant difference in the mean percentage of acid exposure times between normal subjects and patients with LPR (p = .003). We conclude that the upper probe gives accurate and consistent information in normal subjects and patients with LPR. The numbers of reflux events and acid exposure times are most important in distinguishing normal subjects from ...
Quantification of fibrinogen adsorption onto 316L stainless steel

Adsorption of the plasma protein fibrinogen (Fb) onto 316L stainless steel (316L SS) was observed and quantified using both in situ and ex situ atomic force microscopy techniques. Industry standard mechanical and electrochemical polishing techniques were used to prepare bulk alloy 316L SS samples, rendering the surfaces flat enough to directly observe and measure Fb adsorption. The data were analyzed kinetically using a Langmuir model. Largely irreversible adsorption was found on the 316L SS surface with an adsorption rate constant (k(o)) of 1.9 x 10(-4) mL microg(-1) s(-1) using the ex situ method and 1.7 x 10(-4) mL microg(-1) s(-1) using the in situ method. Additionally, protein conformation and assembly orientation on these surfaces were documented, where the adsorption pattern appeared random. Complete area coverage was never obtained. That is, after adsorption for over 5 time constants (5tau), voids in the structure were always observed.
Fixation techniques for secretory component in human lacrimal gland and conjunctiva.

We compared biopsy specimens of human lacrimal gland and conjunctiva preserved by alcohol-acetic acid with the same tissues preserved by freezing to find secretory component. Secretory component was found in lacrimal gland preserved both by alcohol-acetic acid and by freezing. The structure of the tissue was better preserved with the alcohol-acetic acid fixation. Three of eight conjunctival specimens preserved by alcohol-acetic acid showed weak staining for secretory component in a few superficial epithelial cells. We found no nonspecific staining of the conjunctiva with the control antiserum, rhodamine-labeled goat antibovine serum. Two specimens preserved by freezing were unreadable; four of the remaining six stained nonspecifically with both control antiserum and antisecretory component antiserum. One of the remaining two specimens stained with neither the control nor the experimental antiserum; the second may have had more staining with the experimental antiserum than with the control. We found no evidence for including the conjunctiva in the secretory IgA immune system.
ARTIFICIAL URINARY SPHINCTER FOR POST-PROSTATECTOMY INCONTINENCE: IMPACT OF PRIOR COLLAGEN INJECTION ON COST AND CLINICAL OUTCOME

Purpose:: We retrospectively reviewed our experience with the artificial urinary sphincter in men with post-prostatectomy incontinence to determine the impact of prior collagen injection therapy on surgical outcome and overall cost of treatment.Materials and Methods:: The records and preoperative urodynamic studies of 30 men with post-prostatectomy incontinence who underwent artificial urinary sphincter placement were reviewed. Of these patients 23 (76.6%) had undergone prior collagen injection (collagen group) and 7 had not (noncollagen group). Preoperative and postoperative severity of incontinence was assessed with the American Urological Association quality of life index (scale 0 to 6) and number of pads used daily. Using a Valsalva leak point pressure of less than 60 cm. water as a predictor of failure with collagen injection, we calculated the potential savings had these patients foregone collagen injection and chosen artificial urinary sphincter primarily.Results:: Of the 30 patients 24 (80%) were ...
Direct overwritable magneto-optical exchange-coupled multilayered disk by laser power modulation recording

In 1987, we presented a direct overwritable Magneto-Optical exchange coupled Multilayered (DOW) disk by laser power modulation recording. Since then two major improvements of DOW were announced, namely 3- layered and 4-layered DOW disks, based on the 2-layered DOW disk, From the view point of merits and demerits, we compare the DOW disk with other direct overwritable optical disks, magnetic field modulation recording type of MO disk and phase change type of optical disk. As a latest topic, the recording power margin of the DOW scheme is explained. Adding metal coat to the DOW MO thin films is effective to expand the recording power margin. We have achieved (+/- 10%)2 allowance for direct overwriting power margin of PH and PL. Perspectives of the DOW disk for the next generation MO disk memory system are mentioned.© (1991) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
The SU(2) × SU(2) chiral spin model in terms of SO(3) and Z2 variables. Vortices and disorder

Abstract We rewrite the two-dimensional SU(2) × SU(2) chiral spin model in terms of SO(3) and Z 2 degrees of freedom. The transformation, which is motivated by a similar representation of the corresponding lattice gauge theory in higher dimensions, exhibits the presence of dynamical SO(3) vortices and associated strings. We present arguments that (pairs of) SO(3) vortices with long strings play a crucial role in disordering the spin system at arbitrarily low temperatures.
Developing Methods for Grading the Accessibility of a Communality’s Infrastructure

AbstractFor people with disabilities, accessibility is a critical aspect of infrastructure that influences their health, quality of life, and ability to participate in community life. Currently, no standard methods exist for assessing a community’s accessibility or for accumulating such data across communities. ASCE’s report card on the status of America’s infrastructure offers a framework for collecting and aggregating data on accessibility, and for using it to advocate for community improvement. In the present study, an assessment for estimating a community’s accessibility was developed and pilot tested. The feasibility of the assessment method was tested by observing 297 randomly selected businesses in a city. Aggregated across nine access categories, the city scored 3.32 on a four-point scale, the equivalent of a grade of “B” on ASCE’s scale. However, 28 (10%) businesses met “access failure” criteria—having at least one barrier that precluded access to a person using a wheelchair. On average, infrastr...