cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A demographic dividend of the FP2020 Initiative and the SDG reproductive health target: Case studies of India and Nigeria

Background: The demographic dividend, defined as the economic growth potential resulting from favorable shifts in population age structure following rapid fertility decline, has been widely employed to advocate improving access to family planning. The current framework focuses on the long-term potential, while the short-term benefits may also help persuade policy makers to invest in family planning. Methods: We estimate the short- and medium-term economic benefits from two major family planning goals: the Family Planning 2020 (FP2020)'s goal of adding 120 million modern contraceptive users by 2020; Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 3.7 of ensuring universal access to family planning by 2030. We apply the cohort component method to World Population Prospects and National Transfer Accounts data. India and Nigeria, respectively the most populous Asian and African country under the FP2020 initiative, are used as case studies. Results: Meeting the FP2020 target implies that on average, the number of children that need to be supported by every 100 working-age people would decrease by 8 persons in India and 11 persons in Nigeria in 2020; the associated reduction remains at 8 persons in India, but increases to 14 persons in Nigeria by 2030 under the SDG 3.7. In India meeting the FP2020 target would yield a saving of US$18.2 billion (PPP) in consumption expenditures for children and youth in the year 2020 alone, and that increased to US$89.7 billion by 2030. In Nigeria the consumption saved would be US$2.5 billion in 2020 and $12.9 billion by 2030. Conclusions: The tremendous economic benefits from meeting the FP2020 and SDG family planning targets demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of investment in promoting access to contraceptive methods. The gap already apparent between the observed and targeted trajectories indicates tremendous missing opportunities. Accelerated progress is needed to achieve the FP2020 and SDG goals and so reap the demographic dividend.
Snapchat as a new tool for sexual access: Are there sex differences?

Abstract Snapchat is a popular social media app that provides users the opportunity to send and receive photos and videos; however, these photos and videos only last ten seconds with a close group of friends. However, there is little research regarding user's sexual behavior with the app. This current project (N = 450, 126 men and 324 women), investigated the sex difference between men and women and their use of the app for sending naked snapchats, gaining sexual access, and gaining a sexual hookup. It was hypothesized that men were more likely to use the app to gain a mate, and ask for naked snapchats. Women were predicted to be more likely than men to use the app to send naked snapchats to a partner, and to use this behavior continually to keep their partner interested. It was also hypothesized that unrestricted individuals would use the app more. These hypotheses were partially supported. Women did not use the app to continuously send naked snapchats. However, men were more likely than women to use the app for a hookup and unrestricted individuals were associated with using Snapchat to gain sexual access, hookups, and to continue sending naked snapchats.
Asymmetric and partial injection locking of a three-terminal spin-torque oscillator

We measure the injection locking of a three-terminal spin-torque oscillator (STO) excited by spin-orbit torque. The device consists of a magnetic tunnel junction on top of a Pt wire. A DC and an AC current are applied through the Pt wire to induce the oscillations and injection lock the STO, respectively. The injection locking is studied at fMW ≈ f0 or at fMW ≈ 2f0, where fMW is the microwave frequency and f0 is the free running frequency of the STO. The frequency response is qualitatively different from the injection locking in STOs generally reported experimentally and theoretically. Whereas typical phase-locking behavior is observed at fMW ≈ 2f0, the injection locking at fMW ≈ f0 is only partial and exhibits a strongly asymmetric frequency response. Defining the frequency deviation range as the frequency range where the STO differs from its free running frequency, we show that the asymmetric interaction is characterized by a pulling effect present on only one side of the frequency deviation range, the presence of a sideband inside the frequency deviation range, and an interaction of the STO with the microwave current that is wider than the frequency deviation range.
Genetics and Genomics of Acute Neurologic Disorders

Neurologic diseases and injuries are complex and multifactorial, making risk prediction, targeted treatment modalities, and outcome prognostication difficult and elusive. Genetics and genomics have affected clinical practice in many aspects in medicine, particularly cancer treatment. Advancements in knowledge of genetic and genomic variability in neurologic disease and injury are growing rapidly. Although these data are not yet ready for use in clinical practice, research continues to progress and elucidate information that eventually will provide answers to complex neurologic questions and serve as a platform to provide individualized care plans aimed at improving outcomes. This article provides a focused review of relevant literature on genetics, genomics, and common complex neurologic disease and injury likely to be seen in the acute care setting.
Is isolated aortic valve replacement sufficient to treat concomitant moderate functional mitral regurgitation? A propensity-matched analysis.

A significant proportion of patients presenting for isolated aortic valve replacement (AVR) demonstrate some degree of functional mitral regurgitation (fMR). Guidelines addressing concomitant mitral valve intervention in those patients with moderate fMR lack strong evidence-based support. Our aim is to determine the effect of untreated moderate fMR at the time of AVR on long-term survival. All patients undergoing isolated AVR from 2000 to 2013 at our institution were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were stratified according to severity of preoperative fMR; 0–1+ MR (Group NoMR, n = 1826) and 2–3+ MR (Group MR, n = 330). All patients in Group MR were propensity-matched with patients in Group NoMR to control for differences in baseline characteristics. The primary outcome of interest was overall survival. Propensity analysis matched 330 patients from each group. Mean age was 77.9 ± 10.0 years and 50.6% were male. There were no differences in baseline demographics, echocardiographic parameters, or co-morbidities between groups. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed significantly worse medium and long-term survival in Group MR compared to Group NoMR (log-rank p = 0.02). Follow-up echocardiography showed slightly more severe MR in Group MR (1.1 ± 0.7 MR vs. 0.8 ± 0.7 NoMR, p = 0.03) at 1 year. Patients undergoing isolated AVR with concomitant 2–3+ fMR experience poorer long-term survival than those patients with no or mild fMR. This suggests that mitral valve intervention may be necessary in patients undergoing AVR with clinically significant fMR.
Static and dynamic critical phenomena in Fe1-xZnxF2.

The critical behavior of the diluted Ising antiferromagnet $\mathrm{F}{\mathrm{e}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Zn}}_{x}{\mathrm{F}}_{2}$ has been studied by M\"ossbauer spectroscopy. The value of the magnetization critical exponent is observed to cross over abruptly from the pure Ising $\ensuremath{\beta}=0.33$ to the predicted random-exchange Ising $\ensuremath{\beta}=0.36$. This crossover occurs in the reduced temperature range $t={10}^{\ensuremath{-}1} \mathrm{to} {10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ at dilutions $xl0.07$. The critical dynamics was measured above and below ${T}_{N}$ and crossover from a pure Ising to a random-exchange Ising behavior as a function of $x$ was observed with increasing dilution.
Transmission of Stationary Signals Through Linear Systems

Signals produced in nature are almost never experienced in their original form. Usually, we have access to them after they pass through various sensing and/or transmission devices such as a voltmeter for electric signals, an ear for acoustic signals, an eye for visual signals, a fiber-optic cable for wide-band Internet signals, and so forth. All of them impose restrictions on the signal being transmitted by attenuating different frequency components of the signal to a different degree. This process is generally called filtering and the devices that change the signal’s spectrum are traditionally called filters.
Does Qualified Immunity Matter

In litigation brought pursuant to Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Fed. Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), most commentators agree that qualified immunity plays a substantial role in limiting plaintiffs’ ability to recover compensation. Many find this tradeoff acceptable, in part because of concerns of fairness to government official defendants and in part because courts may still play a central role in announcing the law without worrying over the retroactive effect their decision will have on the personal funds of the defendant official. This paper considers the different role that qualified immunity may play in Bivens and other civil rights litigation. Empirical support for the proposition that qualified immunity plays a significant role in filed cases is limited and more recent data call it into question. Working from the assumption that qualified immunity plays less of a role in filed cases than has been assumed, this paper considers other ways in which the defense of qualified immunity may affect the course of constitutional litigation. In particular, this paper focuses on the role that qualified immunity may play in case screening and reports on the results of a qualitative survey of civil rights practitioners. The results suggest that lawyers often take qualified immunity into account at the case-screening stage and indeed may in some cases avoid litigation in which qualified immunity is even a potential issue. This observation has ramifications for the theory that qualified immunity enhances the law-announcing function of federal courts.
SPINT2 is hypermethylated in both IDH1 mutated and wild-type glioblastomas, and exerts tumor suppression via reduction of c-Met activation.

Both IDH1-mutated and wild-type gliomas abundantly display aberrant CpG island hypermethylation. However, the potential role of hypermethylation in promoting gliomas, especially the most aggressive form, glioblastoma (GBM), remains poorly understood. We analyzed RRBS-generated methylation profiles for 11 IDH1WT gliomas (including 7 GBMs), 24 IDH1MUT gliomas (including 6 GBMs), and 5 normal brain samples and employed TCGA GBM methylation profiles as a validation set. Upon classification of differentially methylated CpG islands by IDH1 status, we used integrated analysis of methylation and gene expression to identify SPINT2 as a top cancer related gene. To explore functional consequences of SPINT2 methylation in GBM, we validated SPINT2 methylation status using targeted bisulfite sequencing in a large cohort of GBM samples. We assessed DNA methylation-mediated SPINT2 gene regulation using 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine treatment, DNMT1 knockdown and luciferase reporter assays. We conducted functional analyses of SPINT2 in GBM cell lines in vitro and in vivo. We identified SPINT2 as a candidate tumor-suppressor gene within a group of CpG islands (designated GT-CMG) that are hypermethylated in both IDH1MUT and IDH1WT gliomas but not in normal brain. We established that SPINT2 downregulation results from promoter hypermethylation, and that restoration of SPINT2 expression reduces c-Met activation and tumorigenic properties of GBM cells. We defined a previously under-recognized group of coordinately methylated CpG islands common to both IDH1WT and IDH1MUT gliomas (GT-CMG). Within GT-CMG, we identified SPINT2 as a top cancer-related candidate and demonstrated that SPINT2 suppressed GBM via down-regulation of c-Met activation.
INJECTION INDUCED MYOCARDIAL STUNNING: ACUTE DETERIORATION OF LEFT VENTRICULAR EJECTION FRACTION FOLLOWING TRANSENDOCARDIAL INJECTIONS

Transendocardial injections of cell-based products are being studied as a therapeutic delivery modality for patients with chronic heart failure (HF) and are generally considered to be safe. Our aim is to determine the acute effects of intramyocardial injections on left ventricular (LV) function as
Stochastic Cascading Failure Model With Uncertain Generation Using Unscented Transform

This paper proposes a novel stochastic cascading failure (CF) model with full ac power flow using the unscented transform (UT) for power girds vulnerability analysis. The quasi-steady state (QSS) model is built upon previous dc power flow model by incorporating several enhancements. Our analysis shows that dc power flow does not provide an accurate estimation of the flow process under highly variable generation thus may underestimate the severity of the cascades. The incorporation of full ac power flow constraints allows us to access voltage profiles dynamics during CF in order to simulate voltage-related failures in the grid. The under-voltage load shedding relays are modeled along with a stochastic time-inverse overload relay to accurately simulate the protective system response. In addition, more realistic assumptions are considered in the modeling of wind power penetration using geographical information of grid topology and wind potential map for a given geographical area. The accuracy of the estimated flow process based on UT method is examined under different operating conditions in a 500-bus synthetic network. The proposed model is benchmarked against the historical blackout data and widely used models in the literature showing similar statistical patterns of blackout size.
Open data visualizations and analytics as tools for policy-making

Abstract Government agencies collect large amounts of structured and unstructured data. Although these data can be used to improve services as well as policy processes, it is not always clear how to analyze the data and how to glean insights for policy making, especially when the data includes large volumes of unstructured text data. This article reports opinions found in “We the People” petition data using topic modeling and visual analytics. It provides an assessment of the usability of the visual analytics results for policy making based on interviews with data professionals and policy makers. We found that visual analytics have potentially positive impacts on policy making practices. Experts also articulated potential barriers regarding the adoption of visual analytics tools, and made suggestions. Potential barriers included insufficient resources in government agencies and difficulty integrating analytics with current work practices. The main suggestions involved providing training and interpretation guidelines along with the visual analytics tools. Major contributions of this study include: (1) suggesting viable visualization tools for analyzing textual data for policy making, and (2) suggesting how to lower barriers to adoption by increasing usability.
Silica Fume Effects on the Pull-Out Behavior of Randomly Oriented Steel Fibers from Concrete

Silica fume is known to improve the pore system of cementitious pastes and their adhesion capacity to fibers and other mix inclusions. This study has been mainly concerned with the effect of silica fume on the pull-out strength of randomly oriented steel fibers from concrete. Silica fume effects on the fresh mix workability and the overall flexural and compressive behavior of steel fiber reinforced and plain concretes were also assessed. The only variable in different fibrous and plain mixes was the fraction of portland cement substituted with silica fume. This fraction ranged from 0% to 20%. The workability of plain and fibrous mixes were obtained by slump and inverted slump cone tests, respectively. In both the flexure and compression tests on fiber concrete, the complete load-deformation relationship was obtained. The pull-out strength of randomly oriented fibers was assessed through analysis of the flexural test data. All aspects of the fresh and hardened steel fiber reinforced concrete performance considered in this study, especially the pull-out strength of randomly oriented fibers from concrete, were observed to improve with the increase in silica fume-cementitious ratio up to a certain limit, after which the trends in silica fume effects were reversed.
Some Maximal Commutative Subrings of M n (D)

We answer a question of Weibel and show that maximal commutative subgrings of Artinian semisimple rings are direct products of local rings.
Flame-acoustics interaction for symmetric and non-symmetric flames propagating in a narrow duct from an open to a closed end

Abstract We present a numerical study of the interaction of the flame and acoustic waves when a laminar flame propagates in a narrow channel from an open to a closed end. It is shown that the coupling of the flame dynamics and the acoustics can lead to thermo-acoustic instabilities, that can result in large oscillations in the flame speed and pressure inside the duct. Additionally, it is shown that both symmetric and non-symmetric flames can propagate in these channels and that, because their response to acoustic oscillations is different, their interaction with the acoustic modes of the channel is also different. Therefore, the possibility of symmetry breaking needs to be taken into account in order to correctly predict the onset of acoustic flame instabilities in narrow channels.
Social Capital in Constitutional Law: The Case of Religious Norm Enforcement Through Prayer at Public Occasions

Distinguishing private action from government action is the first question of constitutional law. The distinction blurs most when the government and private actors jointly cause harm. Not surprisingly, then, the Supreme Court's cases in this gray area have been inconsistent. For example, state court enforcement of a private racially restrictive covenant is government action, but agency placement of a child in a home where the child is abused is private action. The ad hoc nature of these decisions reflects a reluctance to fully embrace joint government-private causation of constitutional harm: Without a limiting principle, doing so would threaten to convert all private action into government action. The concept of 'social capital' provides a needed limiting principle. Social capital is the value that lies in one's network of relationships. Specifically, social capital creates value through enforceable trust: That is, members of a community trust that other members will follow certain norms of behavior, and that trust is enforced by a threat of informal punishment (e.g., ostracism) for violating the community's norms. Constitutional law ought to recognize that government action can interact with private norms (created by enforceable trust) and, in doing so, burden constitutional values. This Article argues that the government violates the Constitution when a private group improperly uses government power or property to enforce the group's social capital. Through enforceable trust, social capital leads to predictable behavior - adherence to group norms. When government regulates in an area with strong social capital, that government action might also have predictable effects. The Supreme Court already holds the government responsible for the predictable effects of mandatory disclosure laws on unpopular groups, that is, groups whose beliefs or behavior violate prevailing norms. When the government requires an unpopular group to disclose its members, and disclosure will likely lead to threats and harassment against the members, the disclosure law violates the First Amendment. This Article extends the lessons of social capital to the case of private prayer at public occasions. Consider a private prayer recited at a public high school football game. If all in attendance are at liberty to object to or abstain from the prayer, the prayer would not violate current Establishment Clause doctrine. Yet, objecting to the prayer may violate local norms of religious belief or practice, opening a person to harassment and retaliation, just as the disclosure law did to members of unpopular groups. The religious objector falls into a gap in Establishment Clause protection, and this Article proposes a legal test to close the gap.
Patient Electronic Health Record Portal Use and Patient-Centered Outcomes in CKD

Rationale & Objective Electronic health record portals are increasingly emphasized in chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, associations of portal use with clinical and patient-centered outcomes remain unknown. Study Design Cross-sectional survey (April 2015 to March 2018). Setting & Participants Nondialysis patients with CKD from nephrology clinics within 1 academic medical center. Exposures Patient demographics (age, sex, race, ethnicity, education, and income), kidney function. Outcomes Association between portal use as an outcome and exposures. Additionally, associations of portal use and patient demographics with 4 patient–centered outcomes (CKD-specific knowledge, stress, and 2 self-ratings of health). Analytic Approach Logistic regression to examine associations between patient portal use, demographics, and kidney function. Linear regression to examine associations between portal use and patient-centered outcomes. Results Of 245 participants, mean age was 60±17 (SD) years, 182 (77%) were White, 121 (49%) were women, 230 (96%) had a high school education or higher, and 96 (45%) had Limitations Cross-sectional study design, cannot determine causality. Conclusions Interventions are needed to ensure that all patients have access to portals to mitigate disparities in care.
Flooding and child health: Evidence from Pakistan

Abstract We examine the impact of flooding in Pakistan on child health using satellite data and two household datasets. Flooding may influence child health, as measured by weight-for-height z-score, through two key channels. First, excessive flood waters can catalyze the spread of diarrheal disease, negatively impacting child health. Second, excessive flood waters — even when damaging in some areas — provide water to rice paddies and other agriculture, increasing food availability in the post-flood period. This may positively influence child health. In Pakistan, we find evidence of both channels: floods increase incidence of morbidity (diarrhea and fever) as well as meal frequency in the post flood season. We also find that floods increase dietary diversity, but only in districts with high rice harvesting intensity where flooding may predict favorable growing conditions. Because these mechanisms (disease incidence and dietary adequacy) act against one another, we find weak overall impact of floods on child health.
Fully Recyclable Polycarbonates from Simple, Bio-Derived Building Blocks

Plastic buildup and accumulation in the environment are an increasingly large problem facing civilization. Petroleum-based plastics can exist for hundreds to thousands of years in the environment, ...
Severe to Fatal Injuries to Lap-Shoulder Belted Car Occupants

Lap-shoulder belt effectiveness has been indicated by many authors, however there is minimal information on the more severe injuries to lap-shoulder belted car occupants. This paper presents details of 15 lap-shoulder belted occupants in frontal collisions and 24 lap-shoulder belted occupants in side impact collisions. Case descriptions of these crashes are presented, each including vehicle, environmental and injury details. /GMRL/
Assays for B lymphocyte function

This unit describes the antigenic stimulation of in vitro antibody production by B cells and the subsequent measurement of secreted antibodies. The first basic protocol is a generalized system for inducing in vitro antibody production and can accommodate various types of antigens under study. Secreted antibodies can then be measured with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or other soluble-antibody detection systems. Alternatively, the number of antibody-producing cells can be quantified by plaque-forming cell (PFC) assays presented in this unit: the Cunningham-Szenberg and the Jerne-Nordin techniques. Both methods employ specially prepared slide chambers, described here, in which the antibody-producing B cells are mixed with complement and indicator sheep red blood cells (SRBC), or with trinitrophenol-modified SRBC (TNP-SRBC), with subsequent lysis and counting of plaques. Because IgM antibodies fix complement efficiently, whereas IgG and IgA antibodies do not, unmodified PFC assays measure only IgM antibodies. The assay can be modified, however, to measure all classes of antibodies or to enumerate total immunoglobulin-secreting B cells, as described in alternate protocols. Yet another method of measuring the number of antibody-producing B cells (in a class-specific fashion) is to use the ELISPOT technique described in UNIT 7.14. The resting B cells used in these procedures are prepared as described in the final support protocols for Percoll gradient centrifugation.
Oligosaccharide structures of isolated human colonic mucin species

Purified human colonic mucin contains six distinct components which may be separated by DEAE-cellulose chromatography. Past studies defined the structure of oligosaccharide side chains from the most abundant species III, IV, and V which elute at intermediate salt concentrations. In these studies the structures of oligosaccharide side chains liberated from the remaining early and late eluting species I, II, and VI were determined after isolation by sequential conventional and high performance liquid chromatography through combination of gas chromatography, methylation analysis, and sequential glycosidase digestion. Mucin species I, II, and VI contained a less varied array of discrete oligosaccharide structures than that observed in the major mucin components. Mucin species I and II contained five and 10 structures, respectively, which account for 68 and 71% of total oligosaccharide content in these fractions. The predominant oligosaccharides of mucin species I included three neutral structures: a disaccharide GlcNAc beta (1-3)GalNAc-ol, a trisaccharide Gal beta (1-4)GlcNAc beta (1-3)GalNAc-ol, and a tetrasaccharide GlcNAc beta (1-4)Gal beta (1-4)GlcNAc beta (1-3)GalNAc-ol as well as two acidic components representing the sialylated forms of two of these oligosaccharides. Mucin species II contained these same oligosaccharides as well as four additional acidic structures, notably a disaccharide Neu alpha (2-6)GalNAc-ol and a hexasaccharide Gal beta (1-4)GlcNAc beta (1-3)Gal beta (1-4)GlcNAc beta (1-3) (NeuAc alpha (2-6))-GalNAc-ol, not identified in any other mucin species. The late eluting mucin species VI contained at least five discrete neutral oligosaccharides and six major acidic structures. While the majority of these structures had been previously isolated from the earlier eluting mucin species IV and V, species VI also contained di- and trisialylated oligosaccharides not identified in other mucin species. In conjunction with earlier studies of the major mucin species III, IV, and V, these data define the range of oligosaccharide structures present in human colonic mucin. These studies demonstrate that human colonic mucin possesses species with characteristic and distinguishable combinations of oligosaccharides which reflect variations of common core structures.
2:1 bundle branch block. Classification with special reference to the critical heart rate.

Abstract A case of 2:1 bundle branch block is described. All 138 consecutive ventricular complexes recorded in the routine twelve lead electrocardiogram were of this pattern. Only twelve other acceptable cases of 2:1 bundle branch block were found in a review of the literature. A synopsis of these is given. The mechanism of production of 2:1 bundle branch block is discussed, especially in regard to critical rate phenomena, theories of the site of delay in bundle branch block and especially in regard to the great rarity of 2:1 bundle branch block. The cases of 2:1 bundle branch block are classified into three groups on the basis of specified changes in cardiac rate.
Physical and biological modeling in the Gulf Stream region Part II. Physical and biological processes

Mesoscale physical and biological processes are examined at the Gulf Stream front by means of a 4-D simulation including physical and biological data assimilation. The data assimilated are from Leg 1 of the Fall BIOSYNOP cruise, 21 Sept.}8 Oct. 1988, and GULFCAST data for the same period. Focus is on the vertical velocities at the front, the vertical and horizontal transports of nutrients and plankton, and the impact of these transports on phytoplankton biomass, production and organic particle export. It was found that while jet meandering enhances new production at the front, primary production and phytoplankton concentration at the front are not signi"cantly enhanced over those of Slope water. Winds during this period also have little impact on productivity at the front, due to their high temporal variability. Ring}stream interactions, however, signi"cantly increase the net vertical and meridional transports of nutrients and plankton and can lead to phytoplankton patchiness at the front. This emphasizes the importance of submesoscale events between interacting mesoscale physical features in the transport of nutrients and plankton, and in explaining the observations. The enhanced phytoplankton concentrations observed during BIOSYNOP are found to be primarily due to advection (convergence) rather than in situ biological growth. 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Efficiency Gains for Rheumatology Consultation Using a Novel Electronic Referral System in a Safety‐Net Health Setting

Despite an aging population and increasing burden of musculoskeletal disease, the United States faces a shortage of rheumatologists (1). To increase access and efficiency, new models of care may be needed, including greater pre-visit collaborations between referring and specialty care physicians. Pre-consultation exchange is a novel model proposed by the American College of Physicians (ACP) to facilitate effective, patient-centered communication between primary and specialty care providers (2, 3, 4). Pre-consultation exchange is a process that facilitates communication among providers during the primary care to specialty care referral process. The goal of pre-consultation exchange is to maximize the efficiency of specialty visits both by answering clinical questions that may not require a formal patient visit and streamlining the pre-specialty visit workup (2,5). While studies regarding pre-consultation exchange and health information technology (HIT) exist for other medical subspecialties such as hepatology (3), to our knowledge, there are no studies examining HIT solutions for pre-consultation exchange in rheumatology. It therefore remains unknown whether this tool would be acceptable or useful in ambulatory rheumatology care. Two studies from the early 2000s have examined the use of pre-appointment management in rheumatology. In the first study, which involved review of paper-based referrals, only 59% of 279 referred patients actually required a rheumatology consultation (6). In the second, a multi-faceted strategy that aimed to eliminate appointment backlogs using interventions such as redesigning appointment scheduling processes and creating pre-appointment templates for osteoarthritis referrals reduced wait times for the third available rheumatology appointment from about 60 days to less than 2 days (7). However, these studies did not incorporate the use of HIT-enabled electronic iterative communication between the specialist and referring provider. The safety net health system at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) was an early adopter of HIT to facilitate specialty care referrals in order to maximize the scarce resource of specialty providers (5, 8). In this study, we aimed to describe the nature and quality of iterative pre-consultation exchanges with rheumatology between 2008 and 2012, and to determine the impact and appropriateness of pre-consultation exchange in rheumatology ambulatory care.
Copper Deposition in the Presence of Polyethylene Glycol I. Quartz Crystal Microbalance Study

The addition of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and Cl - to an acid copper electrolyte inhibits the deposition reaction for cathodic overpotentials of up to about 150 mV. Adding Cl - only promotes the deposition reaction, while adding PEG alone has a relatively small effect on electrode kinetics. Frequency shifts of an electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance suggest the adsorption of a monolayer of PEG molecules that are collapsed into spheres provided chloride ions are present, with little adsorption occurring when Cl - is absent. This behavior is the same for gold and copper surfaces. Transient current measurements suggest that chloride ions affect the PEG adsorption equilibrium rather than adsorption kinetics alone.
Self-assembled zinc pheoporphyrin dimers. Models for the supramolecular antenna complexes of green photosynthetic bacteria?

Abstract The molecular structure of the zinc porphyrin analog of methyl-8,12-diethylbacteriopheophorbide d has been determined by X-ray diffraction. The crystallographic study was undertaken to provide structural foundations for the several models proposed for the supramolecular organization of bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) c, d and e antenna chromophores in vivo and in vitro. Surprisingly, the Zn porphyrins form hydrogen-bonded dimers with extended π-π interactions without the expected ligation of the Zn by the 3-(1-hydroxyethyl) group that distinguishes the BChl c, d and e from all other photosynthetic (bacterio) chlorophylls. The crystallographic results provide the first structural benchmarks for this class of metalloporphyrin derivatives and set structural boundaries for other modes of aggregation considered for the chromophores in vitro and in vivo.
Pooled data analysis of laparoscopic vs. open ventral hernia repair: 14 years of patient data accrual

The purpose of this study was to analyze the published perioperative results and outcomes of laparoscopic (LVHR) and open (OVHR) ventral hernia repair focusing on complications and hernia recurrences. Data were compiled from all English-language reports of LVHR published from 1996 through January 2006. Series with fewer than 20 cases of LVHR, insufficient details of complications, or those part of a larger series were excluded. Data were derived from 31 reports of LVHR alone (unpaired studies) and 14 that directly compared LVHR to OVHR (paired sudies). Chi-squared analysis, Fisher’s exact test, and two-tailed t-test analysis were used. Forty-five published series were included, representing 5340 patients (4582 LVHR, 758 OVHR). In the pooled analysis (combined paired and unpaired studies), LVHR was associated with significantly fewer wound complications (3.8% vs. 16.8%, p < 0.0001), total complications (22.7% vs. 41.7%, p < 0.0001), hernia recurrences (4.3% vs. 12.1%, p < 0.0001), and a shorter length of stay (2.4 vs. 4.3 days, p = 0.0004). These outcomes maintained statistical significance when only the paired studies were analyzed. In the pooled analysis, LVHR was associated with fewer gastrointestinal (2.6% vs. 5.9%, p < 0.0001), pulmonary (0.6% vs. 1.7%, p = 0.0013), and miscellaneous (0.7% vs. 1.9%, p = 0.0011) complications, but a higher incidence of prolonged procedure site pain (1.96% vs. 0.92%, p = 0.0469); none of these outcomes was significant in the paired study analysis. No differences in cardiac, neurologic, septic, genitourinary, or thromboembolic complications were found. The mortality rate was 0.13% with LVHR and 0.26% with OVHR (p = NS). Trends toward larger hernia defects and larger mesh sizes were observed for LVHR. The published literature indicates fewer wound-related and overall complications and a lower rate of hernia recurrence for LVHR compared to OVHR. Further controlled trials are necessary to substantiate these findings and to assess the health care economic impact of this approach.
Adaptive flow orientation-based feature extraction in fingerprint images

Abstract A reliable method for extracting structural features from fingerprint images is presented. Viewing fingerprint images as a textured image, an orientation flow field is computed. The rest of the stages in the algorithm use the flow field to design adaptive filters for the input image. To accurately locate ridges, a waveform projection-based ridge segmentation algorithm is used. The ridge skeleton image is obtained and smoothed using morphological operators to detect the features. A large number of spurious features from the detected set of minutiae is deleted by a postprocessing stage. The performance of the proposed algorithm has been evaluated by computing a “goodness index” (GI) which compares the results of automatic extraction with manually extracted ground truth. The significance of the observed GI values is determined by comparing the index for a set of fingerprints against the GI values obtained under a baseline distribution. The detected features are observed to be reliable and accurate.
Learning About Students’ Culture and Language Through Family Stories Elicited by Dichos

Teachers’ knowing about students and their families is critical to ensuring relevant classroom instruction. The Family Storytelling through Dichos approach is explored as a culturally and linguistically appropriate mechanism for learning about students’ backgrounds. This article posits that this approach may be a viable one, since it is rooted in the Hispanic culture and language and integrates three critical elements (a) familism, a core Hispanic cultural value; (b) storytelling, a vehicle for exploring families’ identities; and (c) dichos or popular sayings in the Spanish language, authentic cultural constructs present in Hispanics’ everyday oral discourse.
The Use of Title and Cited Titles as Document Representation for Automatic Classification.

Abstract In this investigation the use of title and cited title words as document representation is explored. It ofters a method intermediate between the use of title and abstract of a document and that of citation identities, retaining some advantages of both. Compared with title and abstract, it leads to more compact and uniform document representation with a high concentration of indicative words, gives more consistent coupling strengths to profiles with results agreeing well with that employing citations, and offers a more consistent ability for inter-group differentiation when the groups are close to each other. Compared with the use of citations, it gives results with less specificity and operationally requires an extra step to input and analyse the full citation titles. However, the group profiles derived from title and cited titles are words and can be used to classify documents that have descriptive abstracts but no or few citations.
Architecture-dependent properties of analysis multirate filter banks

Analysis multirate filter banks (MRBs) are implemented with parallel, hierarchic, serial, and other architectures. The architectures vary widely in their properties. The authors generalize these architectures by defining a space of hybrid MRB architectures in which each member has different degrees of parallel, hierarchic, and serial processing. The authors calculate tradeoffs in processing time and hardware as a function of the architecture. On SISD (single instruction stream, single data stream) machines with direct form filters, they show that processing time decreases as the architecture becomes more hierarchic. Making the MRB more parallel only slightly lessens the time. With time-varying filters, making the MRB either more hierarchic or more parallel reduces the time. On hardwired machines, there is a parabolic tradeoff between processing time and hardware. >
Marine arctic fog: An accumulator of currently used pesticide

Coincident samples of arctic marine fog and air were found to contain the following pesticides, chlorpyril chlorothalonil, metolachlor, terbufos and trifluralin. The levels of the different pesticides in the fog ranged from 0.08 to 12 ng/L and for the air from < 0.1 to 5.0 pg/m3. Field derived air-water partition coefficients (Henry's law contstants-HLCs) were calculated from the paired air and water concentrations for chlorpyrifos and trifluralin. Comparisons of the field measured HLC values with laboratory determined HLCs (based on distilled water and on the fogwater itself) indicated that the pesticides were enriched in the field collected fogwater. The enrichments apwear to be predominantly caused by surface interaction processes. Concentrations of the pesticides in the fog were much higher than adjoining compartments of snow, ice, air, water or microlayer. Exchanges at these interfaces may be a common occurrence in the Arctic especially since fogs are common over much of the area.
Impact of different approaches to modelling rigid pavement base layers on slab curling stresses

The magnitude of stresses induced in jointed concrete slabs due to thermal loads is influenced by the stiffness of the underlying foundation layers (base, sub-base and subgrade). The layer that most significantly affects the Portland cement concrete (PCC) slab responses is the base. Field observations have demonstrated the increase in reflecting cracking of PCC slabs placed over relatively stiff base layers. To predict thermo-mechanical responses of jointed PCC slabs accurately, appropriate idealisation of foundation layers in finite element (FE) analysis is required. Several modelling methods have been proposed to idealise the effect of the base layer. These methods differ in the structural contribution assigned to the base layer in the pavement concrete system. Four approaches for modelling the base layer in FE analysis of jointed concrete pavements are presented in this paper. The first and second approaches involve modelling the base as a plate separate from the other foundation layer(s). In the third...
Zinc Phosphide Residue Determination in Alfalfa (Medicago sativa)

An analytical method for the determination of zinc phosphide (Zn3P2) residues in alfalfa ranging from 10 μg g-1 to 100 mg g-1 is described. Using a suspension of Zn3P2 in propylene glycol, Zn3P2 standards were prepared and midharvest alfalfa and dried hay control samples fortified to assess method recovery. Addition of 1% phosphoric acid to Zn3P2-containing samples produced phosphine (PH3) gas for headspace gas chromatography/flame photometric detection analysis. Response linearity was assessed for (8.9 × 10-5)−0.027 μg of Zn3P2 mL-1 headspace (r2 = 0.9914) and 0.027−2.02 μg of Zn3P2 mL-1 headspace (r2 = 0.9998) concentration ranges. Analyte recovery exceeded 81% for Zn3P2 fortification levels ranging from 0.010 to 100 μg g-1, and the method limit of detection was 2.1 × 10-3 μg g-1 in midharvest alfalfa and 3.9 × 10-3 μg g-1 in dried hay. Keywords: Zinc phosphide; phosphine; residues; Medicago sativa; alfalfa; gas chromatography/flame photometric detection
Identification of ryanodine receptor isoforms in prostate DU-145, LNCaP, and PWR-1E cells

Abstract The ryanodine receptor (RyR) is a large, intracellular calcium (Ca 2+ ) channel that is associated with several accessory proteins and is an important component of a cell’s ability to respond to changes in the environment. Three isoforms of the RyR exist and are well documented for skeletal and cardiac muscle and the brain, but the isoforms in non-excitable cells are poorly understood. The aggressiveness of breast cancers in women has been positively correlated with the expression of the RyR in breast tumor tissue, but it is unknown if this is limited to specific isoforms. Identification and characterization of RyRs in cancer models is important in understanding the role of the RyR channel complex in cancer and as a potential therapeutic target. The objective of this report was to identify the RyR isoforms expressed in widely used prostate cancer cell lines, DU-145 and LNCaP, and the non-tumorigenic prostate cell line, PWR-1E. Oligonucleotide primers specific for each isoform were used in semi-quantitative and real-time PCR to determine the identification and expression levels of the RyR isoforms. RyR1 was expressed in the highest amount in DU-145 tumor cells, expression was 0.48-fold in the non-tumor cell line PWR-1E compared to DU-145 cells, and no expression was observed in LNCaP tumor cells. DU-145 cells had the lowest expression of RyR2. The expression was 26- and 15-fold higher in LNCaP and PWR-1E cells, respectively. RyR3 expression was not observed in any of the cell lines. All cell types released Ca 2+ in response to caffeine showing they had functional RyRs. Total cellular RyR-associated Ca 2+ release is determined by both the number of activated RyRs and its accessory proteins which modulate the receptor. Our results suggest that the correlation between the expression of the RyR and tumor aggression is not related to specific RyR isoforms, but may be related to the activity and number of receptors.
Mitosis-specific monoclonal antibody MPM-2 inhibits Xenopus oocyte maturation and depletes maturation-promoting activity

Abstract MPM-2, a monoclonal antibody specific for cells in mitosis, recognizes a family of proteins that share a common phosphorylated epitope. In this study we have shown that during the maturation of Xenopus laevis oocytes induced by progesterone, phosphorylation of MPM-2 antigens coincided with the appearance of MPF activity. When MPM-2 (0.7-1.4 micrograms per oocyte) was injected into oocytes prior to progesterone stimulation, MPF activity failed to appear and induction of maturation was inhibited as judged by both germinal-vesicle breakdown and white-spot formation. Further, MPM-2 was able to neutralize as well as immunodeplete MPF activity from mitotic HeLa cell and mature oocyte extracts. These results suggest that MPM-2 recognizes either MPF itself or a protein(s) that regulates MPF activity and that the kinase that phosphorylates MPM-2 antigens may be a key component in the regulation of M-phase induction.
On the Sliding Friction Characteristics of Unidirectional Continuous FRP Composites

By applying a closed-form analytical solution of Hwu and Fan (1998) for an anisotropic half-plane, the contact characteristics of unidirectional continuous fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) composites are investigated. The particular condition of a rigid parabolic cylinder in frictional sliding contact with the composite is evaluated. The influences of FRP composite matrix material, friction coefficient, fiber material, fiber orientation, and fiber volume fraction on the surface contact pressure are determined and evaluated by comparison to published experimental data and results from the finite element method. From the analytical results, several important trends for the contact characteristics of fiber-reinforced plastics are ascertained and discussed with respect to the wear and design- ability of FRP materials.