cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Accuracy of patient perception of their prevailing rhythm: a comparative analysis of monitor data and questionnaire responses in patients with atrial fibrillation.

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF) guidelines recommend that symptom relief be a primary goal in management. However, patient perception of their prevailing rhythm is often inaccurate, complicating symptom-targeted treatment. Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of patient perception of their prevailing rhythm and identify factors that predict inaccuracies. Methods Demographic and health status data were captured by questionnaires for 458 outpatients with documented AF. AF burden (%) was captured by 1-week continuous heart monitors. Patients estimated the length and frequency of their AF episodes by completing the AF Symptom Severity questionnaire. Patient reports were compared to AF burden, and outliers were identified and broken into 2 groups: patients with AF burden 90% who estimated little to no AF (underestimators). Multinomial logistic regression was used to identify predictors of inaccuracies (over- or underestimators). Results By continuous monitor, 15% of patients were found to be over- or underestimators. Persistent AF, female sex, older age, anxiety, and depression were predictive of inaccurate patient perception. Persistent AF, female sex, and older age were predictive of underestimating, while mood disorders (anxiety and depression) were predictive of overestimating. The prevalence of underestimators was nearly twice that of overestimators. Conclusion Sex, age, and mood disorders are among factors that lead to inaccurate patient perception of their prevailing rhythm in patients with AF. Such modulating factors should be considered when evaluating treatment strategies. Consideration should be given to more liberal use of heart monitors in these patient populations to better target therapy.
Nerve Trophic Function: In vitro Assay of Effects of Nerve Tissue on Muscle Cholinesterase Activity

The effects of tissue explants and nerve homogenates on cholinesterase activity of muscle of the newt Triturus in organ culture were measured. Sensory ganglia, ganglia separated from muscle by a Millipore filter, spinal cord, liver, and nerve homogenates produced greater activity of muscle cholinesterase than occurred in untreated muscle cultured for the same period of time. Boiled ganglia, kidney, oviduct, and spleen were ineffective. This procedure serves as a convenient bioassay for a neurotrophic process and indicates that the trophic effect is mediated by a diffusible chemical substance produced by nerves.
Credibility and persuasion: A sociopsychological approach to changing the attitudes toward energy conservation of preservice elementary school science teachers

Tested was the effect of two persuasive messages presented by a credible communicator on the attitudes toward energy conservation of 180 preservice elementary teachers. The study asked the following questions: (1) Can attitudes toward energy conservation be positively changed with a brief, belief-laden communication? (2) Do positive attitude gains between pre- and post-tests, if any, dissipate within three weeks following the treatment? (3) Do the integrated and the nonintegrated communications affect energy attitudes of three subgroups (abstract, concrete differentiator and concrete thinkers) of the sample differently? The important finding was that both experimental treatments, integrated and nonintegrated, were equally effective and significantly more effective in attitude change than the control. Secondly, the finding that neither experimental treatment dissipated in effect, at least for three weeks, suggests some duration of brief treatment periods. And finally, the attitude changes are as likely to occur when concrete differentiators are presented with a nonintegrated as an integrated treatment, but abstract thinkers exposed to the integrated treatment and concrete thinkers exposed to the nonintegrated treatment sustain a changed attitude to a greater degree than other combinations of treatment and cognitive processing styles.
Low-level detection of a Bacillus anthracis simulant using Love-wave biosensors on 36°YX LiTaO3

We present an acoustic Love-wave biosensor for detection of the Bacillus anthracis simulant, Bacillus thuringiensis at or below inhalational infectious levels. The present work is an experimental study of 36 degrees YX cut LiTaO3 based Love-wave devices for detection of pathogenic spores in aqueous conditions. Given that the detection limit (D1) of Love-wave-based sensors is a strong function of the overlying waveguide, two waveguide materials have been investigated, which are polyimide and polystyrene. To determine the mass sensitivity of Love-wave sensor, bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein was injected into the Love-wave test cell while recording the magnitude and phase shift across each sensor. Polyimide had the lowest mass detection limit with an estimated value of 1.0-2.0 ng/cm2, as compared to polystyrene where D1 = 2.0 ng/cm2. Suitable chemistries were used to orient antibodies on the Love-wave sensor using protein G. The thickness of each biofilm was measured using ellipsometry from which the surface concentrations were calculated. The monoclonal antibody BD8 with a high degree of selectivity for anthrax spores was used to capture the non-pathogenic simulant B. thuringiensis B8 spores. Bacillus subtilis spores were used as a negative control to determine whether significant non-specific binding would occur. Spore aliquots were prepared using an optical counting method, which permitted removal of background particles for consistent sample preparation. This work demonstrates that Love-wave biosensors are promising for low-level detection for whole-cell biological pathogens.
N-Fold inspection: a requirements analysis technique

N-fold inspection uses traditional inspections of the user requirements document (URD) but replicates the inspection activities using N independent teams. A pilot study was conducted to explore the usefulness of N-fold inspection during requirements analysis. A comparison of N-fold inspection with other development techniques reveals that N-fold inspection is a cost-effective method for finding faults in the URD and may be a valid technique in the development of mission-critical software systems.
STUDIES OF NOVEL MAGNETIC SYSTEMS BY ELECTRON CAPTURE SPECTROSCOPY (ECS)

The electron spin polarization (ESP) at surfaces of bulk and artificially structured, thin film magnetic materials is studied using electron capture spectroscopy (ECS) and ion-induced emission of spin-polarized electron. For V and Tb surfaces, it is found that the temperature dependence of the surface magetic order is quite different from that of the bulk. For ultra-thin magnetic superlattices, V(100)/Ag(100) and Tb (0001)/W(110), we find novel magnetic surface anisotropies and critical behavior. At surfaces of 5 monolayers V(100) on Ag(100), the critical behavior of the surface-ESP is found to be identical to that of the two-dimensional Ising ferromagnet. At surfaces of PtMnSb and Fe80B20, we findnonzero ESP due to long-ranged or short-ranged ferromagnetic order. Thesign of the ESP at surfaces of the Heusler alloy PtMnSb is in agreement with recent band structure calculations. At surfaces of the spin glass Fe80B20, we find, in agreement with ECS data, that the ESP ofion-induced emitted spin-polarized electrons is extremely sensitive to the cleanness of thetopmost surface layer.
Different methods of assessing nicotine-induced antinociception may engage different neural mechanisms

Two methods were used to assess nicotine-in-duced antinociception: tail withdrawal from a hot water bath and hind paw withdrawal from a hotplate. Nicotine doses which produced 75–80% maximum response were 0.75 mg/kg (free base) for tail withdrawal and 0.35 mg/kg for paw withdrawal. The peripheral blocker chlorisondamine (0.1 mg/kg, SC) and the central antagonist, mecamylamine (1 mg/kg, SC) were each effective in blocking nicotine-induced increases in tail withdrawal latencies, suggesting that this effect of nicotine depends on either the action of nicotine at peripheral receptors or the functional integrity of those receptors. In contrast, nicotine-induced increases in paw withdrawal latencies were blocked by mecamylamine but not by chlorisondamine, even at other agonist/antagonist dose combinations. The results indicate that these two effects of nicotine involve at least partially separate pathways and may reflect a different mix of the antinociceptive and motor depressing effects of nicotine.
The Choroidal Eye Oximeter: An Instrument for Measuring Oxygen Saturation of Choroidal Blood In Vivo

The Choroidal Eye Oximeter is an electro-optical instrument that non-invasively measures the oxygen saturation of choroidal blood in the back of the human eye by a spectrophotometric method. Since choroidal blood is characteristic of blood which is supplied to the brain, the Choroidal Eye Oximeter is essentially using the eye as a ``window'' to look into the brain. The instrument can thus be used to monitor the amount of oxygen which is supplied to the brain under varying external conditions. The instrument consists of two basic systems: the Optical System and the Electronic System. The Optical System produces a suitable bi-chromatic beam of light, reflects this beam from the fundus of the subject's eye, and onto a low-noise photodetector. The Electronic System amplifies the weak composite signal from the photodetector, separates the two spectral components, computes the average oxygen saturation from the area of the fundus that was sampled, and displays the value of the computed oxygen saturation on a panel meter. The instrument may be used with a chart recorder to continuously record the kinetic changes of either the oxygen saturation or the fundus reflectivity at each of the two measuring wavelengths.
All-Optical Production of a Degenerate Fermi Gas

We achieve degeneracy in a mixture of the two lowest hyperfine states of ${}^{6}\mathrm{Li}$ by direct evaporation in a ${\mathrm{CO}}_{2}$ laser trap, yielding the first all optically produced degenerate Fermi gas. More than ${10}^{5}$ atoms are confined at temperatures below $4\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$ at full trap depth, where the Fermi temperature for each state is $8\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$. This degenerate two-component mixture is ideal for exploring mechanisms of superconductivity ranging from Cooper pairing to Bose-Einstein condensation of strongly bound pairs.
Active Learning Not Associated with Student Learning in a Random Sample of College Biology Courses

Previous research has suggested that adding active learning to traditional college science lectures substantially improves student learning. However, this research predominantly studied courses taught by science education researchers, who are likely to have exceptional teaching expertise. The present study investigated introductory biology courses randomly selected from a list of prominent colleges and universities to include instructors representing a broader population. We examined the relationship between active learning and student learning in the subject area of natural selection. We found no association between student learning gains and the use of active-learning instruction. Although active learning has the potential to substantially improve student learning, this research suggests that active learning, as used by typical college biology instructors, is not associated with greater learning gains. We contend that most instructors lack the rich and nuanced understanding of teaching and learning that science education researchers have developed. Therefore, active learning as designed and implemented by typical college biology instructors may superficially resemble active learning used by education researchers, but lacks the constructivist elements necessary for improving learning.
A basic region neighboring the lysine-rich C-terminus of protein SRP19 is required for binding to signal recognition particle RNA.

To identify some of the determinants in the 19-kilodalton protein of signal recognition particle (SRP19) for binding to signal recognition particle RNA, two mutant derivatives of the SRP19 were con...
Shear flow rheological properties, fiber damage, and mastication characteristics of aramid-, glass-, and cellulose-fiber-reinforced polystyrene melts

An experimental study of the viscosity and principal normal stress difference of a polystyrene melt filled with aramid (Kevlar), glass, and cellulose fibers is reported. The influence of loading level and mastication on the rheological properties is discussed. The effects of mixing and mastication on fiber damage are considered. Glass fibers break down rapidly to very small aspect ratios, while aramid shows a “kinked” structure, with kinks occurring every 100 μm. A mechanism is proposed for fiber breakage based on buckling during rotation in shear flow. It is found that addition of fibers increases the viscosity in the same manner as a reduction in temperature, and data may be superposed by reduced plotting. This indicates that the viscosity increase is due solely to enhanced viscous dissipation in the matrix and not to interparticle forces as is the case with smaller particles. The principal normal stress difference increases at fixed shear stress with fiber loading. The extent of increase depends upon fiber loading, aspect ratio, and modulus.
The 18 June 2002 Caborn, Indiana, Earthquake: Reactivation of Ancient Rift in the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone?

The 18 June 2002 Caborn, Indiana, earthquake ( M W 4.6) occurred on a steeply dipping fault at a depth of about 18 km. Regional and teleseismic waveform data were used to obtain an accurate hypocenter with uncertainties better than about ±2 km in both vertical and horizontal directions. The source mechanism determined from regional waveform analysis is predominantly strike slip along near-vertical nodal planes (dips 82° and 84°) striking 28° and 297°. The nearly horizontal P axis trends 252° and plunges 10°. The close proximity of the epicenter to the trace of the compound Caborn fault, and good agreement between the strike and dip of that fault and the source mechanism of the 2002 event, suggests that the earthquake may have occurred on that fault. Most of the Wabash Valley faults as mapped from the shallow subsurface data extend into the Precambrian basement, to at least 7 km depth, without significantly changing their orientation. The June 2002 event at 18 km depth and the south-central Illinois earthquake on 9 November 1968 ( m w 5.3), which occurred at 25 km depth, suggest that the seismogenic depth in the Wabash Valley seismic zone extends down to at least 18 km depth. This earthquake is unique because it is the largest instrumented event to date that is clearly located within the area spanned by the Wabash Valley fault system. Its focal mechanism—vertical strike-slip faulting at depth—may suggest that buried faults associated with a possible Precambrian rift system are being reactivated by the contemporary east–east-northeast–trending regional horizontal compressive stress.
How to evacuate: model for understanding the routing strategies during hurricane evacuation

This paper explains a modeling approach that offers better understanding of the routing strategies taken by evacuees to reach a safe destination during hurricane evacuation. Route choice during evacuation is a complex process because evacuees may prefer to take the usual or familiar route on the way to the destination, or they might follow the routes recommended by the emergency officials. Depending on the condition of the traffic stream, sometimes they might switch to a different route to obtain better travel time from the one initially attempted, i.e., the routing behavior is random. By using data from Hurricane Ivan, a mixed (random parameters) logit model is estimated which captures the decision making process on what type of route to select while accounting for the existence of unobserved heterogeneity across households. Estimation findings indicate that the choices of evacuation routing strategy involve a complex interaction of variables related to household location, evacuation characteristics, and socioeconomic characteristics. The findings of this study are useful to determine the manner in which different factions of people select a type of route for a given sociodemographic profile during an evacuation. Language: en
Simultaneous diophantine approximation in non-degenerate p -adic manifolds

An S-arithmetic Khintchine-type theorem for products of non-degenerate analytic p-adic manifolds is proved for the convergence case. In the p-adic case the divergence part is also obtained.
Hypothyroidism: An Early Sign of Vitamin A Deficiency in Chickens

The effect of a marginal vitamin A deficiency on thyroid function was investigated in chicks gaining weight. This study examined the hypothesis that hypothyroidism is one of the earliest manifestations of hypovitaminosis A in chicks. Day-old Leghorn cockerels were fed vitamin A-adequate and deficient diets. Blood vitamin A levels were reduced in the deficient chicks by 3 weeks of age. Body weight gains were less in the 5-, 6-, 7- and 8-week-old A-deficient chicks than in controls. Compared to controls, vitamin A-deficient chicks were characterized by thyroid follicle hypertrophy by 4 weeks, heavier thyroids as a percent of body weight at 5 weeks, less serum thyroxine (T4) at 7 weeks and lower serum triiodothyronine (T3) and T4 at 8 weeks. These results indicate that one of the earliest signs of vitamin A deficiency in chicks is hypothyroidism.
Fathers' Qualitative and Quantitative Involvement: An Investigation of Attachment, Play, and Social Interactions:

This study investigated father-child relationships by recording fathers' level of involvement and by examining the quality of this relationship through attachment behaviors, play interactions, and ...
Antibody Response in Mice Inoculated with DNA Expressing Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Capsid Proteins

Candidate foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) DNA vaccines designed to produce viral capsids lacking infectious viral nucleic acid were evaluated. Plasmid DNAs containing a portion of the FMDV genome coding for the capsid precursor protein (P1-2A) and wild-type or mutant viral proteinase 3C (plasmids P12X3C or P12X3C-mut, respectively) were constructed. Cell-free translation reactions programmed with pP12X3C (wild-type 3C) and pP12X3C-mut produced a capsid precursor, but only the reactions programmed with the plasmid encoding the functional proteinase resulted in P1-2A processing and capsid formation. Baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells also produced viral capsid proteins when transfected with these plasmids. Plasmid P12X3C was administered to mice by intramuscular, intradermal, and epithelial (gene gun) inoculations. Anti-FMD virus (FMDV) antibodies were detected by radioimmunoprecipitation (RIP) and plaque reduction neutralization assays only in sera of mice inoculated by using a gene gun. When pP12X3C and pP12X3C-mut were inoculated into mice by using a gene gun, both plasmids elicited an antibody response detectable by RIP but only pP12X3C elicited a neutralizing antibody response. These results suggest that capsid formation in situ is required for effective immunization. Expression and stimulation of an immune response was enhanced by addition of an intron sequence upstream of the coding region, while addition of the FMDV internal ribosome entry site or leader proteinase (L) coding region either had no effect or reduced the immune response.
Differences in symptoms between patients with benign and malignant ovarian neoplasms

Abstract Objective The purpose of this study was to determine the symptoms that are experienced by patients who receive a diagnosis of early ovarian cancer and to compare those symptoms with the symptoms that are experienced by patients with late ovarian cancer, borderline ovarian cancer, and benign ovarian neoplasms. Study design This study used a retrospective case-control design. Cases of invasive and borderline ovarian cancer (n = 147 patients) were compared with 76 patients with benign ovarian neoplasms. Results Patients with early ovarian cancer were significantly more likely to have symptoms of mass effect (urinary frequency, constipation, palpable mass, pelvic pressure) compared with patients with benign ovarian neoplasms (67% vs 15%; P Conclusion Mass effect symptoms were the only symptoms that differentiated patients with early-stage ovarian cancer from all other groups of patients. However, one third of the patients with early ovarian cancer did not report any of these symptoms.
Clonal analyses in the anterior pre-placodal region: implications for the early lineage bias of placodal progenitors

Cranial ectodermal placodes, a vertebrate innovation, contribute to the adenohypophysis and peripheral nervous system of the head, including the paired sense organs (eyes, nose, ears) and sensory ganglia of the Vth, VIIth, IXth and Xth cranial nerves. Fate-maps of groups of cells in amphibians, teleosts and amniotes have demonstrated that all placodes have a common origin in a horseshoe shaped territory, known as the preplacodal region (PPR), which surrounds the presumptive neural plate of the late gastrula/early neurula stage embryo. Given the extensive regional overlap of progenitors for different placodes in the chick embryo, it has been a matter of debate as to whether individual cells in the PPR are truly multipotent progenitors, with regard to placodal identity, or rather are lineage-biased or restricted to a specific placodal type prior to overt differentiation. Utilizing clonal analyses in vivo, we demonstrate here that the anterior PPR comprises some precursors that contribute either to the olfactory or lens placode well before they are spatially segregated or committed to either of these placodal fates. This suggests that lineage bias towards a specific placodal fate may coincide with induction of the PPR.
Optimal universal logic modules for the synthesis of arbitrary logic functions

It is well known that any n-variable logic function can be realized by a 2/sup n-1/-input multiplexer (universal logic module). A computationally simple condition to determine whether a given n-variable logic function is realizable by a multiplexer having 2/sup n-2/ or fewer inputs is formulated, and an algorithm for finding the set of control variables for an optimal multiplexer realization is presented. >
Identifying disease sensitive and quantitative trait-relevant biomarkers from multidimensional heterogeneous imaging genetics data via sparse multimodal multitask learning

Motivation: Recent advances in brain imaging and high-throughput genotyping techniques enable new approaches to study the influence of genetic and anatomical variations on brain functions and disorders. Traditional association studies typically perform independent and pairwise analysis among neuroimaging measures, cognitive scores and disease status, and ignore the important underlying interacting relationships between these units. Results: To overcome this limitation, in this article, we propose a new sparse multimodal multitask learning method to reveal complex relationships from gene to brain to symptom. Our main contributions are three-fold: (i) introducing combined structured sparsity regularizations into multimodal multitask learning to integrate multidimensional heterogeneous imaging genetics data and identify multimodal biomarkers; (ii) utilizing a joint classification and regression learning model to identify disease-sensitive and cognition-relevant biomarkers; (iii) deriving a new efficient optimization algorithm to solve our non-smooth objective function and providing rigorous theoretical analysis on the global optimum convergency. Using the imaging genetics data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative database, the effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by clearly improved performance on predicting both cognitive scores and disease status. The identified multimodal biomarkers could predict not only disease status but also cognitive function to help elucidate the biological pathway from gene to brain structure and function, and to cognition and disease. Availability: Software is publicly available at: http://ranger.uta.edu/%7eheng/multimodal/ Contact:heng@uta.edu; shenli@iupui.edu
Julian Huxley, Uca pugnax and the allometric method

Summary The allometric method, which often is attributed to Julian Huxley, entails fitting a straight line to logarithmic transformations of the original bivariate data and then back-transforming the resulting equation to form a power function in the arithmetic scale. Development of the technique was strongly influenced by Huxley’s own research on growth by the enlarged ‘crusher’ claw in male fiddler crabs (Uca pugnax). Huxley reported a discontinuity in the log–log plot of chela mass vs body mass, which he interpreted as an abrupt change in relative growth of the chela at about the time crabs attain sexual maturity. My analysis of Huxley’s arithmetic data indicates, however, that the discontinuity was an artifact caused by logarithmic transformation and that dynamics of growth by the crusher claw do not change at any point during development. Arithmetic data are well described by a power function fitted by nonlinear regression but not by one estimated by back-transforming a line fitted to logarithms. This finding and others like it call into question the continued reliance on the allometric method in contemporary research.
Combined Effects of Interruption and Interaural Alternation on Speech Intelligibility

An experiment was conducted to study the effects of (1) interaural alternation, (2) interruption, and (3) the combination of interaural alternation and interruption upon the intelligibility of monosyllabic words. The interaural alternation of speech signals imposed little adverse effect on their intelligibility. When the same words were subjected to interruption alone, the effect varied with (1) duty-cycle, (2) with the distinctive sampling of speech peculiar to certain rates of interruption, and (3) with the effort and training of the listeners. Alternation of interrupted speech resulted in decrements in intelligibility compatible with the effect seen on uninterrupted signals. As duty-cycle decreased, intelligibility scores decreased because a smaller percentage of the signal was available to the listeners. At the rate of interruption of 2 i.p.s., scores were low. As rate of interruption increased from 2 through 8 i.p.s., intelligibility scores improved. However, those rates of interruption above 8 i.p.s...
Recent developments in identifying and quantifying emotions during food consumption.

Emotions and the consumption of food and beverages are inextricably intertwined. As the fields of sensory and consumer science seek to better conceptualize the consumer experience, interest in emotion measurement is growing. Emotions can provide key information to differentiate between products and predict consumer choice as well as give more detail about product perception. There are several emotion measurement instruments, including physiological methods and facial recognition, self-reported verbal emotion measurement and self-reported visual emotion measurement. This review discusses the purpose of measuring emotions, what is the definition of an emotion, what different instruments are available, and touches upon some promising research to deepen the connection between food and emotions. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.
HIV infection and AIDS during adolescence

It is clear from the evidence that a growing number of adolescents are acquiring HIV infection and developing AIDS. The impact this epidemic will have on all teenagers is overwhelming. Given the high prevalence of risk-related sexual behaviors, many adolescents are likely to become HIV infected, thus requiring extensive medical and psychosocial services. Other adolescents will lose a parent, relative, or friend to AIDS, and these adolescents will similarly require special services and psychological counseling. Thus, there is an immediate need for the development of methods for (1) providing all adolescents with age-appropriate and culturally relevant interventions for prevention and risk reduction, (2) identifying high-risk adolescents and triaging them to different levels of care and risk reduction counseling, and (3) providing ongoing medical and psychosocial treatments. Accessing adolescents at risk for HIV infection will require networking between the health care system and youth-serving and community-based agencies, particularly agencies servicing high-risk adolescents. We must begin addressing these needs now, in order to prevent further infection and to provide appropriate care for those adolescents who are or will become infected with HIV.
The Effects of God Language on Perceived Attributes of God

Sixty-three participants listened to an audio-tape asking them to imagine themselves in God's presence. Half the participants listened to a script in which God was presented as female and half list...
Postanesthesia care unit nursing sign design and application

Objective: To understand the care of the sign design and production process,and its role in postanesthesia care unit. Methods: According to the characteristics and needs of postanesthesia care unit,make corresponding nursing identity card. Results: The results showed that nursing identity card could ensure patient's safe,improve nursing quality,the patient's satisfaction was more than 98%. Conclusion: Self design nursing identiy card has more advantage such as making simple,economical and practical,it could ensure nursing safe,worthy of promotion in clinical.
IEC 60870-5-104 Protocol in Hydropower Plant Concentrated Control Center

In order to implement the goal of unmanned hydropower plant under the concentrated control center(CCC),the real-time and reliable communication mode is extremely important.The concept and functions of hydropower plants CCC are summarized in this paper,and the typical character and communication application of IEC 60870-5-104 protocol are introduced also.Based on the local application of NARI hydropower plants computer monitoring and control system,communication mode and scheme specified in IEC 60870-5-104 is discussed.Some problems and difficulties in practical application are analyzed and their solutions finally are given.Presently,this communication method has been widely used and achieved good results.
Intimate partner violence in the African American community: risk, theory, and interventions

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is devastating to individuals, families, and communities. IPV is considered the most prevalent type of violence in families (Owen et al. in Journal of Family Violence, 24(7), 433–445. doi: 10.1007/s10896-009-9239-2 , 2009; Williams et al. in Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 16(3), 296–310. doi: 10.1080/10926770801925726 , 2008a). Unfortunately, IPV occurs far too frequently within African American families. Research suggests that African Americans are more likely to report experiencing IPV than any other racial groups (Bent-Goodley in Health & Social Work, 29(4), 307–316, 2004; Hampton and Gelles in Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 25, 105–119, 1994; Rennison and Welchans 2000). Despite this, there is a paucity of research that highlights the specific factors that may contribute to the high rates of IPV within the African American community. This article will explore the risk factors associated with IPV in this, while highlighting the way in which psychoanalytic theory can be used to understand these rates. Treatment approaches that use a multicultural framework will also be discussed.
Gastrinoma: New Medical and Surgical Approaches

The ideal treatment of gastrinoma is surgical excision for cure. Recent developments have improved our ability to find the tumor, remove it, and cure the patient. These developments are reflected in a recent doubling of the surgical cure rate and in the prospects for further improvement.
The Future of Cardiovascular Therapeutics

The past several decades have seen spectacular successes in the development of new classes of highly effective drug therapies for common forms of cardiovascular disease. Arguably, the widespread use of these therapies, along with smoking cessation and nonpharmacological interventions, account for the decreasing incidence of death from cardiovascular disease. Nevertheless, cardiovascular disorders remain the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in the Western world and are an emerging threat across the globe. Despite this ongoing public health problem, drug development pipelines for cardiovascular disease have become stagnant for a variety of reasons discussed below. This stagnation is occurring in the face of a molecular and genetic revolution in which the fundamental basis of disease in individual subjects is increasingly well defined. This review will summarize the current landscape in cardiovascular drug development, and highlight therapeutic opportunities that are only now beginning to be explored. Novel approaches, from human genetics to systems biology, to identify new drug targets are described, along with the way in which this new information can be deployed, as is now becoming standard of care in oncology, to tailor therapy for individual groups of subjects and to point to new avenues for drug development. The opportunities for such a precision approach to cardiovascular care are enormous, as are the challenges. Randomized clinical trials have defined the efficacy of new therapies across large populations with similar clinical manifestations. This success has, in turn, propelled a trend to aggregate patients with similar disease manifestations in the interests of broad drug development. This aggregating tendency for trial entry has, in turn, inevitably led to the entrenchment of overly inclusive disease classification and, in general, has slowed the objective stratification most physicians and pharmaceutical companies recognize is necessary for more effective precision therapies. The laudable focus on survival as an …
Comparison of knowledge, perception and attitudes of concussion in previously concussed versus non-concussed youth soccer players

Objectives: To examine if history of concussion is correlated with a difference in knowledge, attitude, and perception of concussive injuries in youth soccer players.Methods: A convenience sample o...
Effect of hydrostatic pressure and applied voltage duration on the breakdown strength of insulating oil

From the results of this work, it seems that the actual mechanism of breakdown of an insulating oil is critically dependent upon the duration of the applied voltage pulse, and the magnitude of the hydrostatic pressure.
Position of the lips and facial profile : preferences of orthodontists versus lay people

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to assess and compare the esthetic lip preferences of orthodontists and the lay public in straight, retrognathic and prognathic Caucasian profiles. Methods: The profile images of two Caucasian subjects, male and female, having normal cephalometric values were digitally altered. The chin was moved to create straight, retrognathic and prognathic profiles for both subjects. The position of the upper and lower lips were then horizontally protracted and retracted in two millimeter increments in each profile to a maximum distance of six millimeters. The profile images were assembled into a booklet and distributed to 50 orthodontists and 100 lay people who evaluated the attractiveness of the profiles by marking a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Thirteen orthodontists and 18 lay people repeated the survey a month later to assess reliability. Factorial ANOVAs with repeated measures and Bonferroni multiple comparison tests were conducted to determine differences in attractiveness preferences. All tests were set at a significance level of .05 (]7=.05). Results and Conclusions: Lay people and orthodontists did not differ significantly in their preferred lip positions for both the male (]7=.058) and female profiles (]7=.134). The straight profiles for both sexes had the highest overall ratings. Lip retrusion was preferred for the retrognathic profiles, while greater lip protrusion for the prognathic profiles. Minimal lip retrusion was deemed more acceptable in the male profiles. Both rater groups were tolerant of changes in lip position between two and four millimeters from their original positions, depending upon on the facial profile. Lay people and orthodontists were reliable in their assessments of facial profile attractiveness.
The Conversion of Scandinavia: Vikings, Merchants, and Missionaries in the Remaking of Northern Europe. By Anders Winroth. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012. Pp. vii, 238. $28.00.)

In this new work, the author challenges the traditional interpretation of the Christianization and Europeanization of Scandinavia by converted Viking raiders and proselytizing Christian missionarie...
A Non-Natural Wurtzite Polymorph of HgSe: A Potential 3D Topological Insulator

This article demonstrates the power of topotactic synthesis coupled with density functional theory (DFT) for accessing and exploring new phases of matter. Naturally occurring HgSe is a semimetal with a zero gap. Unlike this natural zincblende form of HgSe, our DFT investigations predict that wurtzite HgSe has both an inverted band structure and a band gap, making it a 3D topological insulator (TI). Calculated band structures of HgxCd1–xSe alloys containing strongly relativistic Hg and weakly relativistic Cd show that band gap opening is a consequence of symmetry breaking resulting from a combination of crystal anisotropy and the scalar relativistic effect of Hg electrons. The relativistic contribution of Hg is significant enough in alloys with x ≥ 0.33 for achieving 3D TI behavior at room temperature. We experimentally realize the non-natural wurtzite form by topotactic ion exchange of wurtzite CdSe nanocrystals (NCs), which yields alloy NCs in the range x = 0–0.54 whose measured band gaps follow the pred...
Environmental Justice in Chile: The Price of Success

On August 5, 2010, a collapsed tunnel at the San Jose copper mine in northern Chile trapped one of the mine’s fortified shelters when tunnels above them collapsed. They not only managed to survive the accident, but had on hand two days’ worth of food. These meager supplies—strictly rationed—enabled them to survive until small supply boreholes reached them on August 22 nd . It took sixty-nine days to rescue the miners by drilling a larger borehole and using a rescue capsule to pull them out, one miner at a time. The saga of Los 33 (“The thirty-three ones,” as they became popularly known) riveted the Chilean public and the international community for weeks, and the climatic final extraction of the miners (accomplished in less than twenty-four hours) was watched live by millions across the world. thirty-three miners some 700 meters underground. Luckily for them, they were gathering for lunch in The story was punctuated by developments like the mining company (Empresa Minera San Esteban) declaring bankruptcy and the Chilean government taking over the rescue efforts, the heart-tugging messages between the trapped miners and their relatives who were literally camping on the surface, the swarm of international media outlets descending on the site to cover the event, the surge in the polls for newly-installed Chilean President Sebastian Pinera (who turned the rescue of Los 33 into a personal matter and a top priority for his administration), and even the birth of a baby girl named Esperanza (Spanish for Hope) to one of the miners while he was trapped underground. In the end, all thirty-three miners and six rescuers came out alive and well, and were received as heroes, with job offers and TV interviews aplenty. There is even a Hollywood movie being planned.
Ténodèse du flexor digitorum superficialis pour les déformations en hyperextension de l’articulation IPP dans l’arrachement chronique de la plaque palmaire

Purpose Injuries of finger proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint are among the most common trauma of the upper limb. As a result of a severe PIP sprain, the avulsion of the volar plate from the phalanx can lead to instability of the joint. This lesion causes a finger hyperextension disabling deformity, which leads to pain and functional restriction. A late diagnosis is not infrequent and the volar plate is usually retracted or thinned, thus a functional repair has to be researched. With this goal Littler, conceived a flexor digitorum superficialis tenodesis (FDS) in 1959. The purpose of this report is to describe a modified Littler FDS tenodesis technique for the correction of chronic, traumatic joint hyperextension of PIP joint and to present the follow-up. Nine patients presenting a chronic, post-traumatic PIP joint hyperextension were evaluated by one of the consultant in hand surgery. They were treated with a modified Littler FDS tenodesis using a mini bone-anchor placed on the volar aspect of the P1, to insert and stretch directly the tendon slip. Patients were reviewed and evaluated at a follow up of 12 months. Results were classified as excellent in 2 cases, good in 6 cases, fair in one case. To make the tenodesis, the flexor sheath was incised between the A1 and A2 pulleys. The ulnar slip of the FDS was cut as proximally as possible. A mini bone anchor was then placed at the centre of the P1 in a slight sidelong proximal-to-distal direction. The FDS slip was sutured to the anchor, carefully tensioning it so that the PIP joint was approximately 5°-10° short of full physiological extension. The wound was covered with a slight dressing and a temporary small orthoses was applied dorsally, leaving the flexion motion free. Patients were invited to start an immediate gradual active motion. We believe that the results of this PIP tenodesis are strongly related with the fixation technique of the tendon slip. The goal is to avoid a wide opening of the flexor sheath, a long postoperative immobilization, rehabilitation and splinting. The results of FDS tenodesis using a mini-invasive technique and starting an immediate postoperative assisted mobilization, seem to be good and reliable over time.
Sampling by Variables to Control the Fraction Defective: Part I

Development of the theory and practice of acceptance sampling by variables to control the fraction defective is described in detail. The review starts with the initiating British papers on the subj...
Having an Animated Coffee with a Group of Chatbots from the 19th Century

Beyond current dyadic chatbots and voice-based personal assistants, this demo showcases a novel experience where users interact with multiple, text-based conversational systems as if seating around a table with them. Two key technologies allow the seamless interaction between users and chatbots: (1) A state-of-art artificial conversational governance system which allows a natural flow of conversation without the use of vocatives to trigger the chatbot responses; (2) a conversation visualization mechanism where the utterances from participants are aesthetically projected on a tabletop. Those technologies were developed originally for "Cafe com os Santiagos" an artwork where visitors conversed with three chatbots portraying characters from a book in a scenographic space recreating a 19th-century coffee table. The demo allows users to seat to actually have coffee and chat with multi-chatbots characters.
Moral evil: The comparative response

Theists can respond to the problem of evil in four general ways. First, they can offer a theodicy, i.e., an attempt to provide God's reasons (actual or possible) for permitting evil.1 Second, theists may seek to show that arguments purporting to demonstrate a problem of evil for theism are flawed, e.g., such arguments may involve a questionable inference from "As far as we know, there is no reason that would justify God in permitting horrors" to "There is no such reason." This response to the problem of evil has sometimes been called "Skeptical Theism."2 Third, theists may simply admit that the problem of evil is a special difficulty for theism (i.e., a greater difficulty for theism than for its metaphysical rivals some of which may have no problem of evil); nevertheless, natural theology and/or religious experience provide adequate reasons or warrant for theism. We might call this response to the problem of evil, "The Overrider Response" as it involves the claim that some reason or warranting factor overrides the evidence evil provides against theism.3 Fourth, theists may argue that, although theism does not explain the presence of all evils well, it provides an explanation that is as good as (or better than) the explanation provided by some (or all) of theism's metaphysical rivals. Let us call this fourth approach "The Comparative Response" since it involves comparing theistic explanations of evil with explanations provided by theism's metaphysical rivals. The Comparative Response has received little attention in recent discussions of the problem of evil, and I propose to develop it in this paper. Specifically, I shall argue that although theism may not explain all evils well, on the whole theism explains the presence of moral evil as well as (or better than) naturalism does. (I suspect that theism can explain the totality of evil as well as, or better than, naturalism does, but a discussion of natural evil is beyond the scope of this paper.) It will prevent some misunderstandings if, at the outset, I make three observations about the nature and significance of the Comparative Response. First, what would be accomplished if one were to show that although theism does not explain all evils well, overall it explains evil as well as (or better than) its metaphysical rivals? Minimally, showing this would undermine
Comparison of diet digestibility, rumen fermentation, rumen rate of passage, and feed efficiency in dairy heifers fed ad-libitum versus precision diets with low and high quality forages

This study compared ad-libitum versus precision-fed diets with 2 forages and different levels of neutral detergent fibre (NDF) to evaluate rumen fermentation, diet digestibility, feed efficiency, a...
Distributed ESD Protection Network for Millimetre-Wave RF Applications

ESD protection is critical to RF (Radio Frequency) circuits. However, linearity and parasitic capacitance that ESD protection devices present adversely affect the performance of such circuits. To address challenges in millimeter-wave RF I/O ESD protection, a robust ESD solution with adjustable working frequency is proposed. The design methodology is demonstrated through an example design. S-parameters characterization and ESD test using TLP electrical stress are presented to verify the proposed design.
Real Solutions for Fake News? Measuring the Effectiveness of General Warnings and Fact-Check Tags in Reducing Belief in False Stories on Social Media

Social media has increasingly enabled “fake news” to circulate widely, most notably during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. These intentionally false or misleading stories threaten the democratic goal of a well-informed electorate. This study evaluates the effectiveness of strategies that could be used by Facebook and other social media to counter false stories. Results from a pre-registered experiment indicate that false headlines are perceived as less accurate when people receive a general warning about misleading information on social media or when specific headlines are accompanied by a “Disputed” or “Rated false” tag. Though the magnitudes of these effects are relatively modest, they generally do not vary by whether headlines were congenial to respondents’ political views. In addition, we find that adding a “Rated false” tag to an article headline lowers its perceived accuracy more than adding a “Disputed” tag (Facebook’s original approach) relative to a control condition. Finally, though exposure to the “Disputed” or “Rated false” tags did not affect the perceived accuracy of unlabeled false or true headlines, exposure to a general warning decreased belief in the accuracy of true headlines, suggesting the need for further research into how to most effectively counter false news without distorting belief in true information.