cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
An arteriosclerotic aneurysm of the abdominal aorta secondarily infected with group C, beta-hemolytic streptococci. Report of a case.

A 59-year-old man was admitted to the Nashville Veterans Administration Hospital for evaluation of fever, weight loss, and nausea and vomiting of one month’s duration. Subsequently he was found to have an aneurysm of the abdominal aorta 8 cm. in diameter, secondarily infected with group C beta-hemolytic streptococci. The aneurysm was not resected, and in spite of theoretically adequate antibiotic therapy, the aneurysm ruptured and exsanguination occurred. No case similar to ours was found in a review of the literature concerning mycotic aneurysms of the abdominal aorta. Aneurysms of the abdominal aorta which became infected with bacteria are difficult therapeutic problems. Surgical resection of such lesions carries, at most institutions, a mortality rate greater than 95%. There are only six reported long-term survivors of this procedure.
An eigenvalue characterization of the correlation coefficient

When a high-frequency wave propagates in inhomogeneous media, even with a point source, caustics may be formed. But in anisotropic media, caustics cannot be formed with a point source. The conditions under which caustics in an anisotropic media can be formed and the possible structures of the caustics in an anisotropic media have not been properly discussed until now. This paper tries to give a theoretical explanation by the catastrophe theory, and a good experimental result of two-dimensional acoustical diffraction forms is shown
Biomineralized matrices dominate soluble cues to direct osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells through adenosine signaling.

Stem cell differentiation is determined by a repertoire of signals from its microenvironment, which includes the extracellular matrix (ECM) and soluble cues. The ability of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), a common precursor for the skeletal system, to differentiate into osteoblasts and adipocytes in response to their local cues plays an important role in skeletal tissue regeneration and homeostasis. In this study, we investigated whether a bone-specific calcium phosphate (CaP) mineral environment could induce osteogenic differentiation of human MSCs, while inhibiting their adipogenic differentiation, in the presence of adipogenic-inducing medium. We also examined the mechanism through which the mineralized matrix suppresses adipogenesis of hMSCs to promote their osteogenic differentiation. Our results show that hMSCs cultured on mineralized matrices underwent osteogenic differentiation despite being cultured in the presence of adipogenic medium, which indicates the dominance of matrix-based cues of the min...
Lead Intoxication in Children: Diagnosis and Treatment

Lead intoxication in children remains a source of continuing concern in both inner-city and suburban areas. Symptoms may be transient and often are erroneously associated with other childhood disorders. Since an elevated lead burden is not always obvious in routine laboratory determinations, a high degree of suspicion and use of the lead mobilization test described here are necessary for diagnosis. Prompt chelation therapy can prevent far-reaching behavioral and medical sequelae.
Relative impact of surgeon and hospital volume on operative mortality and complications following pancreatic resection in Medicare patients

Abstract Background Surgeon and hospital volume are both known to affect outcomes for patients undergoing pancreatic resection. The objective was to evaluate the relative effects of surgeon and hospital volume on 30-d mortality and 30-d complications after pancreatic resection among older patients. Materials and methods The study used Texas Medicare data (2000-2012), identifying high-volume surgeons as those performing ≥4 pancreatic resections/year, and high-volume hospitals as those performing ≥11 pancreatic resections/year, on Medicare patients. Three-level hierarchical logistic regression models were used to evaluate the relative effects of surgeon and hospital volumes on mortality and complications, after adjusting for case mix differences. Results There were 2453 pancreatic resections performed by 490 surgeons operating in 138 hospitals. Of the total, 4.5% of surgeons and 6.5% of hospitals were high volume. The overall 30-d mortality was 9.0%, and the 30-d complication rate was 40.6%. Overall, 8.9% of the variance in 30-d mortality was attributed to surgeon factors and 9.8% to hospital factors. For 30-d complications, 4.7% of the variance was attributed to surgeon factors and 1.2% to hospital factors. After adjusting for patient, surgeon, and hospital characteristics, high surgeon volume (odds ratio [OR] = 0.54, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.33-0.87) and high hospital volume (OR = 0.52; 95% CI, 0.30-0.92) were associated with lower risk of mortality; high surgeon volume (OR = 0.71, 95% CI, 0.55-0.93) was also associated lower risk of 30-d complications. Conclusions Both hospital and surgeon factors contributed significantly to the observed variance in mortality, but only surgeon factors impacted complications.
Optical rotatory dispersion and absolute configuration. I. Alpha-amino acids.

Abstract Optical rotatory dispersion measurements of six enantiomeric pairs of α-amino acids, both in neutral and in acidic solution, have shown that the direction and slope of the ORD curve between 200 and 225 mμ will indicate the absolute configuration of the α-asymmetric center.
System of Maintenance Assistant Decision-making and Information Management for Torpedo

To solve the problems such as low efficiency in the torpedo maintenance and information management,this paper presents the concept and scheme of database integrated system,which is based on Web and serves the grass-roots units of army,confirms the configuration of the system,and describes the functions of the key modules.The system can realize digital and visual support and improve the maintenance capability for torpedoes in order to satisfy the requirement of "timing,accuracy and right quantity".
A Polynomial Analogue of the 3n + 1 Problem

viewed as mapping the integers to itself. The famous 3n + I conjecture postulates that after a finite number of iterations one always arrives at the value 1. This has been shown to be true for all n < 240. Whether it converges to 1 for every positive integer n is an open problem, see Lagarias [3]. The intricate relationship between the ring Z of integers and the polynomial ring Fq[x] of polynomials in a single variable x over the finite field Fq has been studied extensively. This discussion has included many topics such as comparisons between prime integers and irreducible polynomials, Goldbach type problems in both the in teger and polynomial settings (Effinger and Hayes [1]), and the study of twin primes and twin irreducibles and their densities, see [2]. In [2], the authors allude to the fact that in many (but not all) cases an analogous problem in the polynomial setting may be easier to resolve than the original problem. The result presented here indeed provides an example of that phenomenon. We start with the binary field F2 since this is the case most analogous to the integer version, see [2]. In the integer case, the first two primes are of course 2 and 3. In the F2[x] setting, the first two irreducible polynomials are x and x + 1. The analogue to the 3n + 1 problem for polynomials is the map Ci(f(x)) (x + l)f(x) + l if /(0)^0 fix) JK } if/(0) = 0 x
Sleep and Polysomnographic Disorders in Epilepsy

Polysomnographic findings in 90 children with headaches and complaints of sleep problems were correlated with type of headache (migraine in 60, chronic migraine in 11, tension headache (6), and nonspecific headache (13)), headache severity, body mass index, and medical treatment, in a study at St Christopher’s Hospital for Children, Philadelphia, PA.
Management of Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Unruptured Aneurysms

Intradural unruptured saccular aneurysms are being diagnosed with increasing frequency. Left untreated, these lesions usually progress, and the cumulative risk from bleeding usually outweighs the risk of treatment. Exceptions include patients with limited life expectancy and patients over the age of 70 with small asymptomatic or giant posterior circulation lesions associated with few symptoms. Therapeutic intervention offers little over the natural history for these patients, and therapy should be considered only if symptoms progress or growth is documented. Treatment options should be coordinated by an experienced cerebrovascular surgeon with access to interventional adjuncts, EC-IC bypass, and circulatory arrest. GDC coiling should be reserved for non-surgical cases, as the durability of this treatment is still being evaluated.
A postoperative risk scoring system

Commentary On Munch JL, Zusman NL, Lieberman EG, Stucke RS, Bell C, Philipp TC, et al. A scoring system to predict postoperative medical complications in high-risk patients undergoing elective thoracic and lumbar arthrodesis. Spine J 2016:16:694–9 ( in this issue ).
Outsourcing Under Price and Quality Competition: Multiple Firms

In this chapter, we extend the results of Chap. 7 and develop a supply chain network game theory model with product differentiation, possible outsourcing of production and distribution, and quality and price competition among the contractors. The original firms compete with one another in terms of in-house quality levels and product flows, whereas the contractors, aiming at maximizing their own profits, engage in competition for the outsourced production and distribution in terms of prices that they charge and their quality levels. The solution of the model provides each original firm with its optimal in-house quality level as well as its optimal in-house and outsourced production and shipment quantities that minimize the total cost and the weighted cost of disrepute, associated with lower quality levels and the impact on a firm’s reputation. The governing equilibrium conditions of the model are formulated as a variational inequality problem. An algorithm is proposed and numerical supply chain network examples are provided to illustrate how such a supply chain network game theory model can be applied in practice. The model is relevant to products ranging from pharmaceuticals to fast fashion to high technology products.
Project Management and Hourly Pay: An Excel Exercise in Understanding Worker Costs and the Learning Curve

Instructors in HR and management courses have few tools to assist them in communicating administrative concepts affecting pay. The learning curve is one such concept. This article explains and offers an Excel-based tool for understanding and communicating the five common factors affecting the employee learning curve and its impact on labor costs.
Etiology and diagnosis of stroke in the young adult.

Stroke is commonly thought of as a disease of the elderly, but it should be understood that stroke also occurs in young adults. Furthermore, it is important to appreciate the differences in epidemi...
Optimized NCC-information theoretic metric for noisy wavelength band specific similarity measures

Image registration, in general, offers an increased field of view from an airborne sensor which provides an advantage in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) applications for border security scenarios. Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC) is one of the most precise area based template matching technique employed for image registration. In an operational sensor the image acquired will generally contain both system and external noise present in the field of view of the sensor. This, in turn, implies that the NCC may not provide the optimum match for registration. In this paper we present a technique that identifies an optimized correlation coefficient value or a set of coefficient values in the multi-spectral and hyper-spectral cases. In this paper NCC is used in conjunction with information theoretic measures to determine an optimized match, when band varying noise is also present. In particular, the proposed approach is based on a hybrid and combined NCC and information theoretic measures, and does not necessarily use a threshold value to identify potential matches based on the similarity measures. This work also analyzes the effects of varying the template size and the template scene dynamics on template matching accuracy. Finally, the technique is applied to hyper-spectral images, and the band sensitive response for the NCC performance is also determined.
Remote sensing with femtosecond laser pulses

F laser pulses find widespread use in standoff spectroscopy. Various scenarios have been considered, for example remote generation of a backward-propagating laser beam, or filament induced breakdown spectroscopy (FIBS). Femtosecond laser filamentation starts when Kerr-induced self-focusing overcomes beam diffraction. When a threshold power is reached, the transverse intensity profile of the laser beam decreases until nonlinear defocusing mechanisms come into play, for example production of plasma or multi-photon excitation of conduction-band electrons. The balance between self-focusing and defocusing processes results in formation of a filament that can propagate over distances orders of magnitude longer than the Rayleigh range corresponding to their transverse dimensions. In our experiment, we have used filaments for sub-diffractionlimited imaging of remote objects. Controlled production and manipulation of laser filaments will enable further applications to remote detection and sensing. In my talk, I will review the latest ideas and the most recent experimental results from our work towards this goal. Alexei V. Sokolov, J Phys Chem Biophys 2013, 3:5 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2161-0398.S1.002
Complete spinal cord injury (SCI) transforms how brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) affects nociceptive sensitization

Noxious stimulation can induce a lasting increase in neural excitability within the spinal cord (central sensitization) that can promote pain and disrupt adaptive function (maladaptive plasticity). Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is known to regulate the development of plasticity and has been shown to impact the development of spinally-mediated central sensitization. The latter effect has been linked to an alteration in GABA-dependent inhibition. Prior studies have shown that, in spinally transected rats, exposure to regular (fixed spaced) stimulation can counter the development of maladaptive plasticity and have linked this effect to an up-regulation of BDNF. Here it is shown that application of the irritant capsaicin to one hind paw induces enhanced mechanical reactivity (EMR) after spinal cord injury (SCI) and that the induction of this effect is blocked by pretreatment with fixed spaced shock. This protective effect was eliminated if rats were pretreated with the BDNF sequestering antibody TrkB-IgG. Intrathecal (i.t.) application of BDNF prevented, but did not reverse, capsaicin-induced EMR. BDNF also attenuated cellular indices (ERK and pERK expression) of central sensitization after SCI. In uninjured rats, i.t. BDNF enhanced, rather than attenuated, capsaicin-induced EMR and ERK/pERK expression. These opposing effects were related to a transformation in GABA function. In uninjured rats, BDNF reduced membrane-bound KCC2 and the inhibitory effect of the GABAA agonist muscimol. After SCI, BDNF increased KCC2 expression, which would help restore GABAergic inhibition. The results suggest that SCI transforms how BDNF affects GABA function and imply that the clinical usefulness of BDNF will depend upon the extent of fiber sparing.
Blunt abdominal trauma with uterine rupture and fetal demise

Traumatic uterine rupture is rare, occurring in 0.6% of blunt trauma cases, and usually results from very violent accidents in which patients usually also sustain other major injuries. Following se...
Noncoupled Fluorescent Assay for Direct Real-Time Monitoring of Nicotinamide N-Methyltransferase Activity

Nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (NNMT) is an important biotransforming enzyme that catalyzes the transfer of a labile methyl group from the ubiquitous cofactor S-5′-adenosyl-l-methionine (SAM) to endogenous and exogenous small molecules to form methylated end products. NNMT has been implicated in a number of chronic disease conditions, including metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease, cancer, osteoarthritis, kidney disease, and Parkinson’s disease. We have developed a novel noncoupled fluorescence-based methyltransferase assay that allows direct ultrasensitive real-time detection of the NNMT reaction product 1-methylquinolinium. This is the first assay reported to date to utilize fluorescence spectroscopy to directly monitor NNMT product formation and activity in real time. This assay provided accurate kinetic data that allowed detailed comparative analysis of the NNMT reaction mechanism and kinetic parameters. A reaction model based on a random bireactant mechanism produced global curve fits that w...
Functionalization of pentacene-5,7,12,14-tetraone with geminal enediyne and 1,3-dithiole groups

Pentacene-5,7,12,14-tetraone was subjected to selective olefination and cross-coupling reactions to yield a new class of pentacene-based π-conjugated systems functionalized with geminal enediyne and 1,3-dithiole groups. The electron donating and accepting effects of enediyne and dithiole groups render these compounds intriguing structural, electronic properties, and redox activities which were systematically investigated by UV-Vis absorption and cyclic voltammetric analyses in conjunction with density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The bis(enediyne)-substituted pentacenedione showed potential application in the preparation of carbon-rich polymeric materials.
Role of aggressive surgical debulking in older adults with gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors.

377Background: Carcinoid and neuroendocrine tumors are often diagnosed in older adults. However, limited evidence currently exist regarding the role of aggressive surgical debulking of primary gastrointestinal-neuroendocrine tumors (low to medium grade-pancreas, small bowel, colorectal) (GI-NETs) in older adultsage > 70 years. Methods: Patients age 70 years or older with a diagnosis of GI-NETs were identified using the California Cancer Registry between the years 2000 to2012. Linkage to patient discharge records provided information including resection of primary site (RPS), resection of liver metastases (LR), and liver directed therapy (LDT). Treatment group effects on overall survival (OS) were compared by Cox proportional hazard models. Results: A total of 2,039 patients were identified. Among the 1,661 patients without metastases, 74% (n = 1,234) received RPS and demonstrated improved survival (HR 0.50, p < 0.001) compared to those without RPS. Of the 378 number of patients with liver metastases, LDT ...
Short-Run Constraints and Price Wars

Price wars have been explained as occurring because of breakdown of cartels, or as necessary deterrent measures to sustain collusion, or due to imperfect information about demand conditions and/or moves of other firms; and combinations of the above. The above literature, however, fails to explain the repeated episodes of price wars in an industry with instantaneous transmission of information, for example, the U.S. domestic airlines industry. This paper studies different market models with linear and twice differentiable market demand and identical linear costs without capacity constraints, and with almost perfect homogeneity of competitors' products, to demonstrate that, in the presence of short-run constraints (such as insolvency) of firms and of intertemporal substitution of demand (such as with vacation travel or durables), a price war occurs if one or more firm(s) have sufficiently low net asset level(s) --- such price wars occur in equilibrium and as part of cooperation. Explicit expressions for prices under survival and predatory price wars are provided along with characterizations of conditions for each variant of price wars.
Understanding Engineers' Responsibilities: A Prerequisite to Designing Engineering Education : Commentary on "Educating Engineers for the Public Good Through International Internships: Evidence from a Case Study at Universitat Politècnica de València".

The development of the curriculum for engineering education (course requirements as well as extra-curricular activities like study abroad and internships) should be based on a comprehensive understanding of engineers’ responsibilities. The responsibilities that are constitutive of being an engineer include striving to fulfill the standards of excellence set by technical codes; to improve the idealized models that engineers use to predict, for example, the behavior of alternative designs; and to achieve the internal goods such as safety and sustainability as they are reflected in the design codes. Globalization has implications for these responsibilities and, in turn, for engineering education, by, for example, modifying the collection of possible solutions recognized for existing problems. In addition, international internships can play an important role in fostering the requisite moral imagination of engineering students.
The Effect of Habitual Exercise on Daytime Sleepiness and Mood of US Navy Sailors

As part of a broader study, this work investigates if habitual exercise protects against mood deterioration and daytime sleepiness in Sailors during underway operations. Previous work has shown tha...
Ocean sensing with decameter and microwave radar: Correspondence and contrast over 40 years

The author first met Werner Alpers in the late 1970s at the time of the first comprehensive-microwave-remote-sensing satellite, SeaSat. We were both interested in ocean remote sensing and have been friends ever since. Over the past 40 years remote sensing using both decameter (HF) and microwave radar has thrived even though the wavelengths are separated by about a factor of a thousand — 10 MHz vs. 10 GHz. This report shows correspondences and contrasts between developments at these two wavelength regimes with an emphasis on the role of Werner Alpers and his colleagues in this research area. Understanding of the dominance of Bragg scatter for ocean radar echoes has led to effective remote sensing of ocean waves, surface currents, slicks and winds by both microwave and HF sensors. We focus on brief examples from both HF and microwave, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), in particular ocean waves, ship tracking and surface films.
Directional random lasing mediated by transverse Anderson localization

Anderson localized modes of a dye-filled disordered optical fiber are exploited for directional random lasing. Strong transverse localization reduces the spatial overlap of the lasing modes and results in a spectrally stable random laser emission.
Comparing effectiveness of STEM outreach venues utilizing engineering challenges

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) outreach still continues to be a viable method to grow young minds interest in these key disciplines. STEM outreach can be found in a verity of forms and duration. One method to engage young minds in STEM is through challenging them to solve problems. An effective method for this is through the use of presenting students with engineering problems to solve. These can be short exercises or long term projects that are tackled over months. This paper utilizes an established engineering challenge based STEM outreach workshop to understand the utilization of different venues for conducting outreach. These challenges present students with a defined problem that needs to be completed within a forty-five to sixty minute window. Typically the students are given a clear set of requirements and supplies that can be utilized to develop a solution to the task. These engineering challenges are presented in detail. Discussion of the different venues utilized is also provided. These include in classroom, summer camp and library venues. Each of these venues allow for reaching different demographics of students. Survey findings are presented to illustrate similarities and differences between venue types. These surveys measured STEM interest levels of students before and after participating in the workshop event. Overall these finding hope to aid other STEM outreach providers in developing outreach programs that can be effective throughout numerus location and venue types.
Room temperature laser performance of Nd:Y2O3 at 914nm

We will report the first ever lasing of Nd:Yttria at 914nm with room temperature operation. The importance of Nd: Yttria to the atmospherics science community will be described along with the performance of the Nd:Yttria laser at 914nm and 1073nm.
RESILIENT RESPONSE OF TWO FROZEN AND THAWED SOILS

Values of resilient modulus and Poisson's ratio were determined for silt and clay subgrade materials subjected to seasonal freezing and thawing. A new technique employing noncontacting variable impedance transducers was employed to obtain radial strain data for calculation of Poisson's ratio. The data were analyzed using multiple linear regression and analysis of variance techniques to obtain empirical relationships between the resilient moduli and Poisson's ratio parameters and stress and material property variables. Resilient modulus data ranged from over 6,000,000 psi for the frozen condition to less than 600 psi for the thawed condition. Poisson's ratio ranged from 0.07 to 0.61, the majority of the values falling between 0.30 and 0.50.
Tropical Cyclones and Hurricanes: Tropical Cyclogenesis

Tropical cyclogenesis is the least understood phase of the tropical cyclone life cycle. This article provides an overview of the necessary large-scale conditions for tropical cyclone formation, the climatology and seasonality of tropical cyclone formation over different oceanic basins, as well as the theories and predictability of tropical cyclone formation.
Neuropsychology of Healthy Aging

Cognitive abilities are one aspect of general well-being and health that are compromised in older individuals with HIV. However, it is also well-established that cognitive abilities decline among healthy older adults without HIV or other frank neurological conditions. Therefore, an emerging scientific challenge is the systematic exploration of the synergistic impact of both HIV and age on the cognitive abilities of older adults.
Interrupted sleep: College students sleeping with technology.

Objective: To examine the influence of cell phones and sleep quality among college students and the prevalence of sleep texting. Participants: Participants were 372 college students at two mid-size...
Characterization of iPSCs derived from low grade gliomas revealed early regional chromosomal amplifications during gliomagenesis

IDH1 mutation has been identified as an early genetic event driving low grade gliomas (LGGs) and it has been proven to exerts a powerful epigenetic effect. Cells containing IDH1 mutation are refractory to epigenetical reprogramming to iPSC induced by expression of Yamanaka transcription factors, a feature that we employed to study early genetic amplifications or deletions in gliomagenesis. We made iPSC clones from freshly surgically resected IDH1 mutant LGGs by forced expression of Yamanaka transcription factors. We sequenced the IDH locus and analyzed the genetic composition of multiple iPSC clones by array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH). We hypothesize that the primary cell pool isolated from LGG tumor contains a heterogeneous population consisting tumor cells at various stages of tumor progression including cells with early genetic lesions if any prior to acquisition of IDH1 mutation. Because cells containing IDH1 mutation are refractory to reprogramming, we predict that iPSC clones should originate only from LGG cells without IDH1 mutation, i.e. cells prior to acquisition of IDH1 mutation. As expected, we found that none of the iPSC clones contains IDH1 mutation. Further analysis by aCGH of the iPSC clones reveals that they contain regional chromosomal amplifications which are also present in the primary LGG cells. These results indicate that there exists a subpopulation of cells harboring gene amplification but without IDH1 mutation in the LGG primary cell pool. Further analysis of TCGA LGG database demonstrates that these regional chromosomal amplifications are also present in some cases of low grade gliomas indicating they are reoccurring lesions in glioma albeit at a low frequency. Taken together, these data suggest that regional chromosomal alterations may exist prior to the acquisition of IDH mutations in at least some cases of LGGs.
Renal Na+ excretion consequent to pharmacogenetic activation of Gq-DREADD in principal cells

Stimulation of metabotropic Gq-coupled purinergic P2Y2 receptors decreases activity of the epithelial Na+ channel (ENaC) in renal principal cells of the distal nephron. The physiological consequenc...
Bolus Airway Invasion Observed During Videofluoroscopy in Healthy, Non-dysphagic Community-Dwelling Adults

Objectives:Typical aging may result in subclinical swallowing alterations (presbyphagia), which can place an individual at risk for dysphagia-related conditions, such as aspiration pneumonia, secon...
Efficient Weighted Centroid Technique for Crowdsourcing GNSS RFI Localization Using Differential RSS

Radio frequency interference (RFI) localization is important for ensuring the accuracy and integrity of global navigation satellite system receivers in numerous applications. In this letter, an efficient RFI localization technique is presented based on differential received signal strength (DRSS) measurements from crowdsourcing devices. A DRSS weighting scheme allocates weights to the position solutions of the receivers that detect the RFI. The weighted centroid of the receiver positions generates the RFI location. The method presented in this letter can also provide an initial estimation for the conventional iterative localization approach to improve localization accuracy and convergence speed. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method being used independently or integrated with the iterative method.
Outpatient Prescription Opioid Use in Pediatric Medicaid Enrollees With Special Health Care Needs

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although potentially dangerous, little is known about outpatient opioid exposure (OE) in children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN). We assessed the prevalence and types of OE and the diagnoses and health care encounters proximal to OE in CYSHCN. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study of 2 597 987 CYSHCN aged 0-to-18 years from 11 states, continuously enrolled in Medicaid in 2016, with ≥1 chronic condition. OE included any filled prescription (single or multiple) for opioids. Health care encounters were assessed within 7 days before and 7 and 30 days after OE. RESULTS: Among CYSHCN, 7.4% had OE. CYSHCN with OE versus without OE were older (ages 10–18 years: 69.4% vs 47.7%), had more chronic conditions (≥3 conditions: 49.1% vs 30.6%), and had more polypharmacy (≥5 other medication classes: 54.7% vs 31.2%), P CONCLUSIONS: OE in CYSHCN is common, especially with multiple chronic conditions and polypharmacy. In subsequent studies, researchers should examine the appropriateness of opioid prescribing, particularly in emergency departments, as well as assess for drug interactions with chronic medications and reasons for insufficient follow-up.
Egypt and Turkey: Identity as a Source of Instability

Cook offers a critical reading of the recent political developments in Egypt and Turkey and indicates that they manifest a complex set of problems that has undermined social cohesion. After examining the common and divergent social, economic and political dynamics in these countries that are driving instability and the export of this problem to the region, Cook explores the issue of identity as a critical factor in Egyptian and Turkish instability. This is an issue that is understudied in previous analyses of stabilisation and suggests that the problem of instability in both countries will be enduring.
Bringing Course Material to Life through Experiential Learning: Impacts on Students’ Learning and Perceptions in a Corrections Course

Experiential learning can be an effective practice to improve student engagement, comprehension, and application of course material in criminal justice classrooms. The current study analyzes 33 und...
Cerebellar Morphometry and Cognition in the Context of Chronic Alcohol Consumption and Cigarette Smoking

Author(s): Cardenas, Valerie A; Hough, Christina M; Durazzo, Timothy C; Meyerhoff, Dieter J | Abstract: BackgroundCerebellar atrophy (especially involving the superior-anterior cerebellar vermis) is among the most salient and clinically significant effects of chronic hazardous alcohol consumption on brain structure. Smaller cerebellar volumes are also associated with chronic cigarette smoking. The present study investigated effects of both chronic alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking on cerebellar structure and its relation to performance on select cognitive/behavioral tasks.MethodsUsing T1-weighted Magnetic Resonance Images (MRIs), the Cerebellar Analysis Tool Kit segmented the cerebellum into bilateral hemispheres and 3 vermis parcels from 4 participant groups: smoking (s) and nonsmoking (ns) abstinent alcohol-dependent treatment seekers (ALC) and controls (CON) (i.e., sALC, nsALC, sCON, and nsCON). Cognitive and behavioral data were also obtained.ResultsWe found detrimental effects of chronic drinking on all cerebellar structural measures in ALC participants, with largest reductions seen in vermis areas. Furthermore, both smoking groups had smaller volumes of cerebellar hemispheres but not vermis areas compared to their nonsmoking counterparts. In exploratory analyses, smaller cerebellar volumes were related to lower measures of intelligence. In sCON, but not sALC, greater smoking severity was related to smaller cerebellar volume and smaller superior-anterior vermis area. In sALC, greater abstinence duration was associated with larger cerebellar and superior-anterior vermis areas, suggesting some recovery with abstinence.ConclusionsOur results show that both smoking and alcohol status are associated with smaller cerebellar structural measurements, with vermal areas more vulnerable to chronic alcohol consumption and less affected by chronic smoking. These morphometric cerebellar deficits were also associated with lower intelligence and related to duration of abstinence in sALC only.
Amphibian Skin Microbiota Response to Variable Housing Conditions and Experimental Treatment across Space and Time

Host-associated microbial ecology research is becoming a popular tool in conservation. For amphibians, there is recognition that environmental factors and anthropogenic activities can alter the composition and function of skin microbiotas. Despite growing studies on this topic, the environmental conditions and experimental methods that amphibians are exposed to vary among studies, potentially influencing our ability to develop generalizations. Using Northern Leopard Frogs (Lithobates pipiens), we investigated how the movement of individuals between housing conditions affected the amphibian skin microbial communities. In addition, we evaluated whether variation in experimental venue (e.g., culture pools, mesocosms, or laboratory) and time influenced the effect of a common antibacterial (sulfadimethoxine; SDM) on the skin microbiota. We found that the microbial community diversity decreased when tadpoles were transferred from culture pools to mesocosms and subsequently increased between mesocosms and the laboratory. When comparing the effect of SDM exposure on the skin microbiota of tadpoles across experimental venues (mesocosm and lab), there was no effect of SDM on alpha diversity. However, we noted opposing patterns between the control and SDM-treated individuals within the mesocosm and laboratory groups. In the laboratory, there were differences in the abundances of operational taxonomic units (OTU) while in the mesocosm there were differences in OTU turnover. Finally, we found that SDM treatment on amphibian microbial communities was consistent across time in the laboratory. Because researchers are integrating microbial assessments into our understanding of conservation biology, our results underscore the importance of standard housing conditions and taking into consideration that experimental design may yield variable results.
Online Self-Assessment Resources for Law Professors and Students

This chart identifies free and fee-based resources for law professors and other instructors teaching law-related courses. The chart only includes online resources with pre-built exercises and quizzes that provide students with instant feedback and full explanations for every question. By assigning self-grading exercises, professors can assess student performance without increasing their workload.
Forward osmosis and pressure retarded osmosis process modeling for integration with seawater reverse osmosis desalination

Abstract Osmotically driven membrane processes such as forward osmosis and pressure retarded osmosis may hold key advantages when integrated with seawater reverse osmosis to form hybrid FO-RO and RO-PRO systems. In this work, module-scale modeling of these two processes was improved by accurately representing the features of a spiral-wound membrane. The model captures important characteristics such as the cross-flow stream orientation, membrane baffling, and channel dimensions unique to spiral-wound membranes. The new module-scale model was then scaled to the system-level to compare various system designs for FO-RO and RO-PRO systems, most notably, a multi-stage recharge design was defined. Results indicate that the multi-stage recharge design leads to an increase in wastewater utilization, as high as 90%, when compared to the single-stage designs. Additionally, the multi-stage recharge configuration can increase the specific energy recovery of pressure retarded osmosis by over 75%. The multi-stage recharge design is found to be not only advantageous but may be also necessary to the integration of osmotically driven membrane processes with seawater reverse osmosis.
Triptolide-induced apoptosis in non-small cell lung cancer via a novel miR204-5p/Caveolin-1/Akt-mediated pathway

Lung cancer is one of the most prevalent malignancies world-wide with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) comprising nearly 80% of all cases. Unfortunately, many lung cancer patients are diagnosed at advanced stages of the disease with an associated poor prognosis. Recently, the Chinese herb root extract Triptolide/Minnelide (TL) has shown significant promise as a therapeutic agent for NSCLC treatment both in vitro and in vivo. The aim of this study was to investigate the underlying mechanism(s) of action regarding TL-induced cytotoxicity in NSCLC. We demonstrate that triptolide treatment of A549 and H460 NSCLC cells decreases Caveolin-1 (CAV-1) mRNA/protein expression, resulting in activation of the Akt/Bcl-2-mediated mitochondrial apoptosis pathway. CAV-1 down-regulation was triggered by Micro-RNA 204-5p (miR204-5p) up-regulation and could be significantly blocked by pre-treatment with both Sirt-1/Sirt-3 specific siRNA and SIRT-1/SIRT-3 enzyme inhibitors, EX-527 and nicotinamide. Overall, our results provide evidence for a novel mechanism by which TL exerts its cytotoxic effects on NSCLC via CAV-1 down-regulation. Furthermore, these findings demonstrate a pivotal role for TL induction of the Akt/Bax pathway in apoptosis of human lung cancer.
Heterogenous response to R-pyocin killing in populations of Pseudomonas aeruginosa sourced from cystic fibrosis lungs

Bacteriocins are proteinaceous antimicrobials produced by bacteria which are active against other strains of the same species. R-type pyocins are phage tail-like bacteriocins produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Due to their anti-pseudomonal activity, R-pyocins have potential as therapeutics in infection. P. aeruginosa is a Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen and is particularly problematic for individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF). P. aeruginosa from CF lung infections develop increasing resistance to antibiotics, making new treatment approaches essential. P. aeruginosa populations become phenotypically and genotypically diverse during infection, however little is known of the efficacy of R-pyocins against heterogeneous populations. R-pyocins vary by subtype (R1-R5), distinguished by binding to different residues on the lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Each type varies in killing spectrum, and each strain produces only one R-type. To evaluate the prevalence of different R-types, we screened P. aeruginosa strains from the International Pseudomonas Consortium Database (IPCD) and from our biobank of CF strains. We found that (i) R1-types were the most prevalent R-type among strains from respiratory sources and (ii) isolates collected from the same patient have the same R-type. We then assessed the impact of diversity on R-pyocin susceptibility and found a heterogenous response to R-pyocins within populations, likely due to differences in the LPS core. Our work reveals that heterogeneous populations of microbes exhibit variable susceptibility to R-pyocins and highlights that there is likely heterogeneity in response to other types of LPS-binding antimicrobials, including phage.
Repetitive Head Impact Exposure and Cerebrovascular Function in Adolescent Athletes

The purpose of this study was to determine how subconcussive head impact exposure in high school collision sport student-athletes influenced cerebrovascular function. Transcranial Doppler was used ...
China : global crisis avoided, robust economic growth sustained

This paper explores how the ongoing crisis, the policy responses to it, and the post-crisis global economy will impact China's medium-term prospects for growth, poverty reduction, and development. The paper reviews China's pre-crisis growth experience, including its relationship to global economic developments. It discusses the pace, composition, sources, and financing of growth during 1995-2007, and the impact of key external and domestic influences. The paper also analyzes the immediate impact of the global crisis on China's economic performance in 2009 and its likely impact in the short run. It then discusses the government's policy response, with a particular focus on the fiscal and monetary stimulus measures. Finally, the paper explores China's medium-term growth prospects in light of the crisis and the key policies for moving to a robust and sustainable growth path post-crisis.
Approaches to the comprehensive interpretation of genome-scale sequencing

Abstract Genome-scale sequencing (GS) provides unparalleled opportunities to screen thousands of genes simultaneously and reveal a wide range of health-related information including cause of genetic disease in affected individuals, risk of disease in apparently unaffected individuals, carrier status for recessive disease, and pharmacogenetic variants that implicate drug sensitivity or response. Comprehensive interpretation of GS relies on selecting the right approaches for variant detection, filtration, and return of results depending on the purpose of testing. This chapter will review contexts in which GS is applied, important concepts in the analysis of genomic data, criteria used in selecting returnable results, and the types of results that may be returned.
9-Cyanopyronin probe palette for super-multiplexed vibrational imaging.

Multiplexed optical imaging provides holistic visualization on a vast number of molecular targets, which has become increasingly essential for understanding complex biological processes and interactions. Vibrational microscopy has great potential owing to the sharp linewidth of vibrational spectra. In 2017, we demonstrated the coupling between electronic pre-resonant stimulated Raman scattering (epr-SRS) microscopy with a proposed library of 9-cyanopyronin-based dyes, named Manhattan Raman Scattering (MARS). Herein, we develop robust synthetic methodology to build MARS probes with different core atoms, expansion ring numbers, and stable isotope substitutions. We discover a predictive model to correlate their vibrational frequencies with structures, which guides rational design of MARS dyes with desirable Raman shifts. An expanded library of MARS probes with diverse functionalities is constructed. When coupled with epr-SRS microscopy, these MARS probes allow us to demonstrate not only many versatile labeling modalities but also increased multiplexing capacity. Hence, this work opens up next-generation vibrational imaging with greater utilities. The authors develop a method to build Manhattan Raman Scattering (MARS) probes based on different core atoms, conjugation ring numbers, and stable isotope substitutions. A quantitative model predicts vibrational frequencies of MARS dyes from structures, which are used in supermultiplexed vibrational imaging.
DNA Preparation, Polymerase Chain Reaction, and Molecular Cloning

The goal of this experiment is to fuse virD2 (a virulence gene from Agrobacterium tumefaciens ) to glutathione- S -transferase gene ( gst ) to express and purify the fusion protein. To accomplish this, it is necessary to create restriction sites on either side of virD2. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is used to make copies of virD2 flanked by the required restriction sites. These restriction sites allow one the insertion of virD2 into the expression vector pGEX2. To start this and the subsequent experiments, several different plasmids are required, which are to be purified. The experiment includes steps like preparing plasmid by cesium chloride density gradient centrifugation, using PCR to synthesize virD2 flanked with restriction sites, later performing restriction digests of plasmid pGEX2 and PCR products, and then purifying DNA fragments from agarose. After purification, the PCR product is ligated to pGEX2 and E. coli is transformed with ligated plasmid. The final steps involve making small-scale preparation of plasmid DNA from broth cultures and performing restriction digests of DNAs.
Bone zinc is poorly released in young, growing rats fed marginally zinc-restricted diet

The effect of marginal zinc restriction on bone zinc release was studied. Male weanling rats were fed zinc-adequate diet (12 mg zinc/kg diet) for 1 wk, intubated with 65Zn, refed the zinc-adequate diet for an additional week, and divided into one baseline group and five marginally zinc-restricted groups (6 mg/kg) and five corresponding zinc-adequate pair-fed groups. Significantly lower (P < 0.05) 65Zn radioactivity (10-20%) in the first week was observed in femurs of rats fed the marginally zinc-restricted diet without further change in the following weeks. Pair-fed rats showed higher 65Zn radioactivity in femurs in the second week, and the level was maintained. Similar results were found in tibia 65Zn radioactivity. Muscle zinc concentration was higher in the first week (P < 0.05) but subsequently returned to baseline levels in the second week through the fifth week. The results support the existence of two zinc pools in the skeleton, one a small, rapidly turning-over pool (10-20% in size), and the other a slowly turning-over pool. When rats suffer marginal zinc restriction, zinc from the readily turning-over bone pool is utilized for soft tissue needs, followed by decreased growth rate to maintain zinc homeostasis.