cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mucosal ML-1 (IL-17F) gene transfer induces pulmonary neutrophil inflammation☆

Abstract Rationale We have previously reported on the discovery and in vitro function of human ML-1 (IL-17F) gene. However, in vivo function of IL-17F remains to be determined. To this end, mouse IL-17F gene was identified and its in vivo function was investigated using a mucosal gene transfer approach. Methods The full-length mouse IL-17F (mIL-17F) cDNA sequence was identified using both 5'- and 3'-RACE. An expression construct (pcDNAmIL17F) of the mIL-17F coding region sequence was generated. The resulting expression construct (pcDNAmIL17F) was propagated and purified. Groups of mice were administered PBS, a control expression vector, or pcDNAmIL17F by the intratracheal route. 72h after instillation, bronchial alveolar lavage fluid (BALF) samples were analyzed for differential cell counts. Gene expression of pulmonary inflammatory cytokines and C-X-C chemokines was performed by RT-PCR. Airwayhyperreactivity (AHR) to methacholine (Mch) was also measured using whole body plethysmography. Results A full-length cDNA with 1178 bp was identified, including a 486-bp coding region sequence. Mucosal transfer of IL-17F gene in Balb/c mice demonstrated a significant increase in the number of BALF neutrophils in mice treated with pcDNAmIL17F. While no significant difference in AHR to Mch was seen in different treatment groups, a significant increase in AHR to Mch in ovalbumin (OVA)-sensitized and challenged mice was noted in mice treated with pcDNAmIL17F when compared to those seen in PBS and mock-treated, OVA-sensitized and challenged mice. Conclusions IL-17F induced significant pulmonary neutrophilia in mice, suggesting a role for this new cytokine in neutrophil-associated pulmonary inflammatory responses.
Female adolescents perceptions of benefits of and barriers to using oral contraceptives.

A study was conducted to describe 12 female adolescents' oral contraceptive perceptions that were considered first independently and then after facilitation by a nurse. A self- administered decisional balance sheet elicited 44 descriptions of oral contraceptive perceptions, and a structured interview elicited 31 additional descriptions. The data were content-analyzed for common elements. The majority of participants perceived oral contraceptive benefits related to pregnancy prevention and others' approval and barriers related to side effects and others' disapproval. Participants considered additional oral contraceptive perceptions upon facilitation by a nurse after the opportunity for independent consideration. Facilitation of female adolescents' consideration of oral contraceptive perceptions may be an appropriate nursing intervention.
Resistance to Myclobutanil in Populations of Venturia inaequalis in Winchester, Virginia

Sterol-inhibiting (SI) fungicides are widely used to manage apple scab, caused by Venturia inaequalis. However, recent observations indicate that populations of V. inaequalis in orchards in Virginia have developed resistance to myclobutanil and other SI fungicides. Little is known about the frequency and distribution of fungicide resistance in apple scab populations in Virginia. Isolates of V. inaequalis were collected from three different apple orchards in Winchester, VA in 2006. Orchards were treated with myclobutanil on 12 April, 19 April, 1 May, 30 May, and 7 July. The sensitivity of 87 single-spored isolates of V. inaequalis to myclobutanil was determined by monitoring their growth on agar dishes amended with 0, 0.1, 0.5, or 1.0 µg/ml myclobutanil. A relative continuum of fungicide resistance was observed: 16 isolates were resistant, 40 isolates were moderately resistant, and 31 isolates were sensitive to myclobutanil. After 28 days, the mean growth of isolates collected from trees treated with myclobutanil was significantly greater than that of isolates collected from non-treated trees at all concentrations of myclobutanil tested in vitro. High levels of fungicide resistance found in populations of V. inaequalis suggest that replacement programs may need to be developed to manage apple scab in Virginia.
A Fuzzy, Nonparametric Segmentation Framework for DTI and MRI Analysis: With Applications to DTI-Tract Extraction

This paper presents a novel fuzzy-segmentation method for diffusion tensor (DT) and magnetic resonance (MR) images. Typical fuzzy-segmentation schemes, e.g., those based on fuzzy C means (FCM), incorporate Gaussian class models that are inherently biased towards ellipsoidal clusters characterized by a mean element and a covariance matrix. Tensors in fiber bundles, however, inherently lie on specific manifolds in Riemannian spaces. Unlike FCM-based schemes, the proposed method represents these manifolds using nonparametric data-driven statistical models. The paper describes a statistically-sound (consistent) technique for nonparametric modeling in Riemannian DT spaces. The proposed method produces an optimal fuzzy segmentation by maximizing a novel information-theoretic energy in a Markov-random-field framework. Results on synthetic and real, DT and MR images, show that the proposed method provides information about the uncertainties in the segmentation decisions, which stem from imaging artifacts including noise, partial voluming, and inhomogeneity. By enhancing the nonparametric model to capture the spatial continuity and structure of the fiber bundle, we exploit the framework to extract the cingulum fiber bundle. Typical tractography methods for tract delineation, incorporating thresholds on fractional anisotropy and fiber curvature to terminate tracking, can face serious problems arising from partial voluming and noise. For these reasons, tractography often fails to extract thin tracts with sharp changes in orientation, such as the cingulum. The results demonstrate that the proposed method extracts this structure significantly more accurately as compared to tractography.
Advances in the management of pediatric pulmonary hypertension.

Pulmonary hypertension is a rare disease in neonates, infants, and children, and is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. An adequate understanding of the controlling pathophysiologic mechanisms is lacking. Moreover, a minority of research is focused specifically on neonatal and pediatric populations. Although therapeutic options have increased over the past several decades, they remain limited. In advanced pulmonary hypertension, progressive pulmonary vascular functional and structural changes ultimately cause increased pulmonary vascular impedance, right-ventricular failure, and death. Management includes the prevention and/or treatment of active pulmonary vasoconstriction, the support of right-ventricle function, treatment of the underlying disease (if possible), and the promotion of regressive remodeling of structural pulmonary vascular changes. Most currently available therapies augment or inhibit factors, or mediators of their downstream signaling cascades, that originate in the pulmonary vascular endothelium. These pathways include nitric-oxide/cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP), prostacyclin, and endothelin-1. The ability to reverse advanced structural changes remains an as yet unattained goal. This paper reviews the epidemiology, pathophysiology, current treatments, and emerging therapies related to neonatal and pediatric pulmonary hypertension.
Enzymatic Reduction of Phytate in Whole Wheat Breads

The presence of phytate in flour may be responsible for reduced bioavailability of iron, magnesium, zinc, and calcium from bread. The effect of various concentrations of commercial phytase or phosphatase added to whole wheat flour-yeast doughs on their phytate and nonphytate phosphorus content has been investigated. By using 2.0% (flour basis) of phytase and 0.11% phosphatase the initial phytate phosphorus concentration of the dough was reduced to 1/8 and 1/12 of its initial values, respectively. Storage of the whole wheat breads for up to 96 hr at room temperature showed further significant reduction of phytate phosphorus. The phytate phosphorus content of yeast leavened whole wheat breads decreased during 2 hours of dough fermentation, baking and the subsequent 48 hours of storage at room temperature from 24 mg/100g dough (dry matter) to 1.7 mg/100g bread (dry matter); the phytate phosphorus continued to decrease and after 96 hours storage it was 0.6 mg/100g bread.
Solar and geomagnetic activity during cycle 21 and implications for cycle 22

Old Cycle 21 ended and new Cycle 22 began in September 1986. As measured by its sunspots, the new cycle of solar activity is rising more rapidly than any previous cycle in the records dating back to 1755 A.D. Progress of the new cycle—expected to last about 11 years—is of interest because terrestrial satellite missions and other technical systems are affected by various forms of solar activity; all forms of activity rise more or less in concert with the sunspots of the new cycle. In consequence, the solar output also varies. For example, the slowly varying background ultraviolet flux varies, affecting the density of the terrestrial thermosphere. In turn, satellite drag and radio propagation effects vary. Flares, energetic solar proton events, and geomagnetic storms occur in cycles that begin and end about the same time as the sunspot cycle but do not track it as well as t h e slowly varying radiation. The exceptionally rapid rise of the new cycle is the basis for prediction of a cycle of record amplitude with smoothed sunspot numbers ∼200 and smoothed 10.7-cm solar radio flux ∼250, which would equal or exceed the largest cycles of the past. Cycle 19, the largest recorded, peaked in 1958 with a smoothed sunspot number of 201. Methods based on observation of antecedent phenomena in Cycle 21 predict that Cycle 22 will have a large maximum sunspot number well above average but not record equaling. At the present time, there is no consensus regarding which group of predictions is likely to be the more valid. Nonetheless, it appears increasingly likely that Cycle 22 will reach a peak sunspot number well above the average of all previous cycles. In another 6–12 months we expect to have a better idea of the maximum yet to come.
Politics and Technology in Eighteenth-Century Russia

The question posed by this paper is why the Russian autocracy failed to pursue successfully Peter the Great's conscious policy of creating a society dominated by technique and competitive with technological levels achieved by Western Europe. The brief answer is that Peter's idea of a cultural revolution that would create new values and institutions hospitable to the introduction of technology clashed with powerful interests within society. The political opposition centered around three groups which were indispensable to the state in fulfilling his vision: the nobility, the clergy, and the scientific establishment. Peter's original intention was to combine theoretical models and technology transfer from the West with educational reforms in Russia to produce new cadres of technical specialists. He attempted to adapt the Leibniz-Wolff cosmology to Russian conditions in order to reconcile ideological conflicts between military service and technical training, science and religion, theory and practice. The embodiment of his ideas in Russian science and religion were Mikhail Lomonosov and Feofan Prokopovich. Under his successors Peter's supporters encountered increased resistance: from the nobility to technical education, from the clergy to the scientific outlook, and from the Academy of Sciences to practical work. All three interest groups were willing to sacrifice real political rights for a recognition by the states of their autonomy to define their social roles. In the end the compromise was effected at the expense of Peter's ideal of the society dominated by technique.
The economic impact of stadiums and teams: the case of minor league baseball.

This article uses an extensive unique data set to investigate the efficiency of government subsides for minor league baseball teams and stadiums by measuring pecuniary gains in a local economy. Spe...
Mechanisms of fibromyalgia pain.

Chronic musculoskeletal pain is highly prevalent in the United States and includes inflammatory and non-inflammatory syndromes, such as low back pain (reported by 59 million Americans in the past 3 months), neck pain (reported by 30.1 million Americans in the past 3 months), clinical osteoarthritis (reported by 27 million Americans in the past 3 months), and fibromyalgia (FM). FM affects between 2% to 4% of the US population or 12 million people. Inflammatory pain conditions commonly reported by patients include rheumatoid arthritis (2.5 million) and gout (3 million), among others. This article will focus primarily on FM, which is a chronic pain condition that predominately affects women.The current diagnostic criteria for FM include chronic widespread pain for at least 3 months and the presence of widespread mechanical tenderness. A patient with suspected FM must report pain in all four body quadrants and have at least 11 of 18 tender points for a positive diagnosis to be made. Tender points are areas of the body where pressure is applied until pain threshold is achieved. In addition to pain and tenderness, FM patients very frequently describe widespread stiffness and fatigue, disrupted or poor sleep, dyscognition, and mild soft tissue swelling. Patients often also report symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Media Framing and Racial Attitudes in the Aftermath of Katrina

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, many African Americans held fairly negative attitudes about effective and speedy government response to the storm. We employ framing theory to examine the role of race in shaping attitudes following Katrina. We hypothesize that a dominant media frame of Black storm victims led African Americans to develop a stronger empathy with storm victims, and thus, more negative views about government response. We test this hypothesis using a unique national poll of adults conducted in September 2005 that over sampled African Americans. Our results support the hypothesis that race strongly shaped attitudes following the storm.
Application ofin vivo NMR spectroscopy to cancer

A critical review is presented of NMR spectroscopic studies of isolated tumor cells, excised tumors, and in vivo tumors. Although the majority of the studies examined deal with 31P NMR spectroscopy, the potential utility of multinuclear NMR investigations is emphasized. A major theme of this review is the evaluation of the potential applications of in vivo NMR spectroscopy to experimental tumor biology and to the clinical diagnosis and management of cancer. Data are presented demonstrating that this method may prove useful in distinguishing between relatively well vascularized aerobic tumors and poorly vascularized hypoxic tumors. This could provide a basis for identifying tumors responsive to X radiation or hyperthermia. Preliminary experiments point to the possibility that in vivo NMR spectroscopy will be capable of detecting tumor response to chemotherapy, X radiation, and hyperthermia and may also detect drug-induced toxicity to tissues vital to the survival of the host.
Prediction of Two-Photon Absorption Properties for Organic Chromophores Using Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory

In this benchmark study, time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) is applied to calculate one- and two-photon absorption spectra (related to linear and third-order optical responses, respectively) in a series of large donor−acceptor substituted conjugated molecules. Calculated excitation energies corresponding to one- and two-photon-absorption maxima are found to be in excellent agreement with experiment. The evaluated two-photon-absorption cross sections agree with experimental data as well. We conclude that the TDDFT approach is a numerically efficient method for quantitative calculations of resonant nonlinear polarizabilities in large organic chromophores.
Measures of Nominal-Ordinal Association

Abstract Measures are formulated for summarizing the strength of association between a nominal variable and an ordered categorical variable. The measures are differences or ratios of probabilities of events concerning two types of pairs of observations. They can be used to describe the degree of difference between two or more groups on an ordinal response variable. The measures summarize and complement the results of fitting models to nominal-ordinal cross-classification tables, especially when a single structural model form cannot be found that adequately describes an entire table or set of tables.
PLANT GENOTYPE AFFECTS LONG-TERM HERBIVORE POPULATION DYNAMICS AND EXTINCTION: CONSERVATION IMPLICATIONS

Few studies have linked long-term herbivore population dynamics with plant genetics. In this study we present evidence that plant genotype and hybridization influence the population dynamics of the poplar bud gall mite, Aceria parapopuli. Using experimental transfers and a five-year data set on mite abundance on two cottonwood species (Populus fremontii and P. angustifolia) and their naturally occurring hybrids, we demonstrated that hybrid trees exhibiting an F1 morphology were, on average, extremely susceptible to A. parapopuli. The susceptibility of these hybrids ranged several orders of magnitude and affected the population dynamics of A. parapopuli across the five years of study. Populations grew exponentially on susceptible hybrids in every year, eventually reaching a mean of ∼140 galls per tree. In contrast, populations fluctuated around low densities (0.01–0.87 galls per tree) on their parental host species. Low gall densities on parental trees resulted in high annual extinction rates (mean = 62%) ...
Generation and analysis of large synthetic social contact networks

We describe "first principles" based methods for developing synthetic urban and national scale social contact networks. Unlike simple random graph techniques, these methods use real world data sources and combine them with behavioral and social theories to synthesize networks. We develop a synthetic population for the United States modeling every individual in the population including household structure, demographics and a 24-hour activity sequence. The process involves collecting and manipulating public and proprietary data sets integrated into a common architecture for data exchange and then using these data sets to generate new relations. A social contact network is derived from the synthetic population based on physical co-location of interacting persons. We use graph measures to compare and contrast the structural characteristics of the social networks that span different urban regions. We then simulate diffusion processes on these networks and analyze similarities and differences in the structure of the networks.
Distributed Algorithms for Multipath Routing in Full-Duplex Wireless Networks

Recently Choi et al. designed the first practical wireless full-duplex system, which challenges the basic assumption in wireless communications that a radio cannot transmit and receive on the same frequency at the same time. Along this line, in this paper we study the cross-layer optimization for routing in full-duplex wireless networks, comprehensively considering various resource competitions and constraints. We first propose a collision-free full-duplex broadcast MAC and prove its necessary and sufficient conditions. We then focus on 1) the problem of how to choose routes to maximize the total profit of multiple users subject to node constraints, and 2) the problem of how to choose routes to minimize the network power consumption subject to the minimum user rate demands and node constraints. We formulate these two problems as convex programming systems. By combining Lagrangian decomposition and subgradient methods, we present distributed iterative algorithms to solve these two problems, which compute the optimized user information flow (i.e. user behavior) on the network layer and the optimized node broadcast rate (i.e. node behavior) on the MAC layer. Our algorithms allow each user and each node to adjust its own behavior individually in each iteration. We prove the convergence, and provide bounds on the amount of constraint violation, and the gap between the optimal solution and our solution in each iteration. Our work comprehensively considers various resource competitions and constraints, and provides a theoretical foundation for the future study on full-duplex wireless networks. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to study cross-layer optimization for full-duplex wireless networks.
Effectiveness of a 40-minute Ophthalmologic Examination Teaching Session on Medical Student Learning.

Author(s): Hoonpongsimanont, Wirachin; Nguyen, Kambria; Deng, Wu; Nasir, Dena; Chakravarthy, Bharath; Lotfipour, Shahram | Abstract: Introduction: Emergency physicians are among the few specialists besides ophthalmologists who commonly perform ophthalmologic examinations using the slit lamp and other instruments. However, most medical schools in the United States do not require an ophthalmology rotation upon completion. Teaching procedural skills to medical students can be challenging due to limited resources and instructor availability. Our study assesses the effectiveness of a 40-minute hands-on teaching session on ophthalmologic examination for medical students using only two instructors and low-cost equipment.Methods: We performed an interventional study using a convenience sample of subjects. Pre- and post-workshop questionnaires on students’ confidence in performing ophthalmologic examination were administered. We used a paired t-test and Wilcoxon rank test to analyze the data.Results: Of the 30 participants in the study, the mean age was 25 and the majority were first-year medical students. The students’ confidence in performing every portion of the ophthalmologic exam increased significantly after the teaching session. We found that the average confidence level before the teaching session were below 2 on a 1-5 Likert scale (1 being the least confident). Confidence levels in using the slit lamp had the highest improvement among the skills taught (2.17 95% CI [1.84-2.49]). Students reported the least improvement in their confidence in assessing extraocular movements (0.73, 95% CI [0.30-1.71]) and examining pupillary function (0.73, 95% CI [0.42-1.04]). We observed the biggest difference in median confidence level in the use of the tonometer (4 with a p-value of l0.05).Conclusion: A 40-minute structured hands-on training session can significantly improve students’ confidence levels in ophthalmologic skills.
Multiorgan Involvement in Nephrogenic Fibrosing Dermopathy: An Autopsy Case and Review of the Literature

Nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy is a recently recognized, scleromyxedema-like fibrosing skin condition that occurs in individuals with acute or chronic renal failure. Although the early descriptions of this disorder describe a purely cutaneous disease process, 2 recent autopsy reports have identified apparent multiorgan fibrosis with involvement of skeletal muscle, myocardium, lungs, kidneys, and testes. We describe a 23-year-old man with nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy and significant fibrosis of the atrial myocardium and dura mater, which was identified at autopsy. Dural fibrosis is a previously undescribed systemic manifestation of nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy. The literature is reviewed.
Discrimination and Disrespect (Introduction)

Hardly anyone disputes that discrimination can be a grave moral wrong. Yet this consensus masks fundamental disagreements about what makes something discrimination, as well as precisely why (and hence when) acts of discrimination are wrong. This book aims to develop systematic answers to those two questions. It offers a philosophical account of what discrimination is, and a moral theory to explain what is characteristically wrong with it.
US Hypertension Management Guidelines: A Review of the Recent Past and Recommendations for the Future

Hypertension affects ≈29% of the US adult population, an estimated 72 million people, with a prevalence of >65% in persons older than 60 years.[1][1]–[2][2] It is an important risk factor for myocardial infarction (MI), heart failure (HF), stroke, and cardiovascular disease (CVD), accounting for
Drosophila Embryos as a Model for Wound-Induced Transcriptional Dynamics: Genetic Strategies to Achieve a Localized Wound Response.

While many studies have established a paradigm for tissue repair at the level of cellular remodeling, it is not clear how an organism restricts a response only to the injured region of a damaged tissue. Skin, the largest organ in the human body, is prone to injury, and repair of epidermal tissue represents a medically relevant system to investigate. Significance: Studies in Drosophila melanogaster provide a robust genetic system to identify molecular components that will positively impact repair and healing. The Drosophila skin consists of a single-cell epidermal layer and relies on well-conserved cellular mechanisms to coordinate gene expression during development. Many studies have established that key developmental genes promote a response to epidermal injury, but the balance between activator and inhibitor signals to coordinate a localized response remains unknown. Recent Advances: Discovery of a genetic pathway that promotes the restriction of transcriptional response to damage only in effected regio...
Women in the Book Trade in Italy, 1475-1620"

TN HIS 1569 Epistola qua ad multas multorum amicorum respondet de suae typographiae statu nominatimque de suo thesauro linguae graecae, the Parisian printer Henri II Estienne decries the participation of women in the book trade: "But beyond all those evils which have now been brought on by the ignorance of printers, male and female (for this only remains to add to the disgrace of the art, that even the little ladies have been practicing it), who will doubt that new evils are daily to be expected?"' As Estienne's comments testify, one of the most unusual features of the Renaissance and Counter Reformation book trade was the existence of several women printers and publishers. While their contemporaries were well aware of the presence of women in the printing profession, bibliographers and historians have largely neglected the history of their labors. Indeed, the tendency to discount the existence of women printers and publishers, in addition to precluding a fuller understanding of their labors, has produced some rather heavy-handed misuse of the evidence for these activities.2
Use of XPS to Quantify Thickness of Coatings on Nanoparticles.

XPS and other surface sensitive methods are being increasingly used to extract quantitative information about organic and inorganic coatings and contamination on nanoparticles. The extraction of coating thickness information requires combining known information about particle diameter from other measurements, such as electron microscopy, combined with a model that includes the physical processes associated with XPS, including electron path lengths, and particle geometry. Advantages of using XPS include the sensitivity to very thin coatings (or surface contamination) and the abillity to extract important information about organic layers. Single particle information from electron microsocpy combined XPS sensitivity to determine an average coating structure and composition make a powerful combination for nanoparticle anlaysis.
Transformation and Growth of Polymorphic Nuclei through Evaporative Deposition of Thin Films

Rapidly dip-coating a silicon substrate in an acetaminophen solution creates a thin film of polymorphic nuclei, and the relative amounts of each polymorph vary with the type of solvent. Polarized light microscopy (PLM) revealed that all films were initially amorphous and gradually crystallized over time scales of minutes to hours. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to identify the polymorphic form during crystallization and weeks after apparent stabilization of growth. Crystallites that initially nucleated from the amorphous films were found to be the metastable orthorhombic form. Over time, the orthorhombic crystallites stopped growing and the remaining amorphous regions transformed to the stable monoclinic form. The choice of solvent determined how fast the orthorhombic crystallites grew and thus controlled the polymorphic character of the film. For example, dip-coating from an ethanol solution produced a largely orthorhombic film, while water yielded a film with mixed character. Ki...
Learning Style and Team Learning

Previous work from the literature of learning style indicates that student preferences for various pedagogical techniques may have a basis rooted in theory. Further, it suggests that similar predilections might exist in connection with the application of team or group learning modes now common in marketing and management courses. Generally consistent with earlier findings, the present results support a learning style explanation of preferences for team learning choices, enhanced assessment of the learning experience, willingness to repeat enroll and recommend courses to others.
Research of regional logistics demand forecasting using state space time series

Regional logistics demand is an important evidence of the regional development policy formulating, infrastructure construction and logistics system programming. It is decided jointly by all the related regional economic indicators. On account of the small sample size when forecasting the regional logistics demand, the feature dimension reduction method of Mutual Information(MI)is proposed to reduce the original data dimensions without destroying the integrity of the relevant synthesis information. And on this basis, the state space time series forecasting model is established, together with the local linear wavelet neural network and LIBSVM support vector regression models as comparisons. The results of example analysis and experiment show that, a 54.8% mean decrease of the relative errors in the forecasting models can be obtained by using the Mutual Information to reduce the data dimensions, and the approach of combining the MI and state space time series model has a higher forecasting accuracy in regional logistics demand forecasting problem.The relative error is about 0.08.
Altered tryptophan hydroxylase 2 expression in enteric serotonergic nerves in Hirschsprung's-associated enterocolitis.

Altered tryptophan hydroxylase 2 expression in enteric serotonergic nerves in Hirschsprung’s-associated enterocolitis
Classical Explanatory Arguments for Survival

In Chapter 3 through Chapter 5 I have surveyed the phenomena of out-of-body and near-death experiences, mediumship, and cases of the reincarnation type (CORTs). Now that I have delineated the relevant data from these phenomena, I begin the exploration of arguments that have been proposed for supposing that these data severally or jointly provide reasons, perhaps good reasons, to suppose that the survival hypothesis is true. Classical empirical arguments for survival are attempts to show that the relevant data constitute evidence favorable toward the hypothesis of survival, and so they make a contribution to the justification of belief in survival. As traditionally formulated, the arguments are explanatory arguments. By explanatory I mean that the arguments at least incorporate reasons for supposing that the survival hypothesis explains the relevant data and does so in a way superior to all available competing explanations. This chapter outlines and explores the formal structure of two kinds of such arguments.
Gain in Insurance Coverage and Residual Uninsurance Under the Affordable Care Act: Texas, 2013–2016

Objectives. To examine the effects of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) Marketplace on Texas residents and determine which population subgroups benefited the most and which the least.Methods. We analyzed insurance coverage rates among nonelderly Texas adults using the Health Reform Monitoring Survey-Texas from September 2013, just before the first open enrollment period in the Marketplace, through March 2016.Results. Texas has experienced a roughly 6–percentage-point increase in insurance coverage (from 74.7% to 80.6%; P = .012) after implementation of the major insurance provisions of the ACA. The 4 subgroups with the largest increases in adjusted insurance coverage between 2013 and 2016 were persons aged 50 to 64 years (12.1 percentage points; P = .002), Hispanics (10.9 percentage points; P = .002), persons reporting fair or poor health status (10.2 percentage points; P = .038), and those with a high school diploma as their highest educational attainment (9.2 percentage points; P = .023).Conclusions. Ma...
A G Protein-Coupled Receptor Dimerization Interface in Human Cone Opsins.

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) detect a wide variety of physical and chemical signals and transmit that information across the cellular plasma membrane. Dimerization is a proposed modulator of GPCR signaling, but the structure and stability of class A GPCR dimerization have been difficult to establish. Here we investigated the dimerization affinity and binding interface of human cone opsins, which initiate and sustain daytime color vision. Using a time-resolved fluorescence approach, we found that human red cone opsin exhibits a strong propensity for dimerization, whereas the green and blue cone opsins do not. Through mutagenesis experiments, we identified a dimerization interface in the fifth transmembrane helix of human red cone opsin involving amino acids I230, A233, and M236. Insights into this dimerization interface of red cone opsin should aid ongoing investigations of the structure and function of GPCR quaternary interactions in cell signaling. Finally, we demonstrated that the same residues n...
The Future of Intravascular Imaging: Are We Primed to Detect Vulnerable Plaques?

Atherosclerotic plaque rupture remains the primary mechanism resulting in myocardial infarction and death. Better detection of the vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque, one which is at “high risk” of rupturing, will allow earlier and more effective intervention to preventing myocardial infarction in susceptible patients. In the following manuscript, we review recent developments in the assessment of vulnerable plaque via invasive imaging. The evidence, limitations, and future prospects of various intravascular imaging modalities (optical coherence tomography (OCT), intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), angioscopy, and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)) are summarized. The vulnerable plaque has unique signature depending on the imaging modality used in the diagnostic process. We show illustrative examples from every modality and we shed light on emergent technologies, aiming at providing the reader with an understanding of the interaction between modalities. We also present the concept of three-dimensional plaque assessment and explore the role of invasive imaging in helping to understand the most recently identified mechanism of stent failure: neoatherosclerosis. As all these invasive imaging modalities have proven to be safe and feasible, recent efforts have focused on software development aiming at increasing the ease of use of these technologies, allowing faster and more accurate online display of images, and one can forecast a future in which one catheter can be used to give state of the art imaging, which will be combined with computational algorithms, allowing image-derived physiological assessment of CAD lesions, as well as virtual projections of the effects (physiological, mortality, morbidity) of a planned intervention on target vessel.
Idaho beginnings: A review of the evidence

Abstract Evidence sought here for a pre-Clovis presence in the Snake River basin of Idaho and northeastern Oregon in the millennium ending at 11,600 yr BP includes radiocarbon and tephrochronological dates, extinct Pleistocene faunal associations, depositional context and living floor and feature integrity, and typologically or technologically legible lithic industries. Results of a review of eleven sites found ambiguous evidence for pre-Clovis hearths in two caves, but no convincing support for the temporal priority of the Western Stemmed over the Clovis tradition. However, intact sites of the Western Stemmed tradition, dating to 10,200–9800 yr BP, survive at 4 + m below surface in deep Quaternary alluvium in canyon floors in west-central Idaho below 610 m elevation. Deeper and earlier deposits may be found in the same settings.
Automated microscopy and image analysis for androgen receptor function.

Systems-level approaches have emerged that rely on analytical, microscopy-based technology for the discovery of novel drug targets and the mechanisms driving AR signaling, transcriptional activity, and ligand independence. Single cell behavior can be quantified by high throughput microscopy methods through analysis of endogenous protein levels and localization, or creation of biosensor cell lines that can simultaneously detect both acute and latent responses to known and unknown androgenic stimuli. The cell imaging, and analytical protocols can be automated to discover agonist/antagonist response windows for nuclear translocation, reporter gene activity, nuclear export, and subnuclear transcription events, facilitating access to a multiplex model system that is inherently unavailable through classic biochemical approaches. In this chapter, we highlight the key steps needed for developing, conducting, and analyzing high throughput screens to identify effectors of AR signaling.
Contribution of genetic variation and developmental stage to methylome dynamics in myeloid differentiation

DNA methylation is important to establish a cell9s developmental identity. It also modulates cellular responses to endogenous developmental stimuli or environmental changes. We designed an in vitro myeloid differentiation model to analyze the genetic and developmental contribution to methylome dynamics using whole-genome bisulfide sequencing and transcriptome sequencing. Using a recursive partitioning approach, we identified 34,502 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) associated with genetic background and/or developmental stimuli. Specifically, 23,792 DMRs (69%) were significantly associated with inter-individual variations, of which 82% were associated with genetic polymorphisms in cis . Notably, inter-individual variations further modified 57 of 212 (26%) developmental DMRs with transcriptomic responses. Our study presents a novel analytical approach to determine the bona fide genetic contribution embedded in outlier patterns of CpG-SNPs in individual methylomes. This approach can be used to study genetic and epigenetic mechanisms underlying differential responses to developmental stimuli, environmental changes, and inter-individual differences in drug responses.
Metaoptics technology in the visible

TiO2 ALD based metaoptics with performance comparable to commercial optics has led to a host of applications of increased functionality and compactness. Advances in metalenses, miniature spectrometers, chiral imaging, axicons, holograms, vortex plates and polarimeters will be presented.
Postpartum depression in adolescent mothers

Background: Postpartum depression has been extensively studied in adults but is less understood in adolescent mothers, despite a prevalence that is double that observed in adult mothers. The purpos...
Hand Function in Osteoarthritis

Almost half of the population has osteoarthritis of the hand (OAH). Fortunately, more than half are asymptomatic. Unfortunately, almost half have symptoms, more commonly in women than in men. The most common symptoms relate to disfigurement of the digits. Less commonly, there is pain and digital deformity limits function, with or without pain. Symptoms may be constant but also may be cyclic and irregular. There is also a spectrum of OAH from hypertrophic (nodal) to destructive (erosive) disease, the latter having more often and more severe symptoms. It is only in the last few decades that validated instruments have been developed to measure the impact of OAH. The Australian/Canadian Osteoarthritis hand index and the functional index for hand osteoarthritis have been validated in several languages. These instruments define the severity of hand osteoarthritis and have been sensitive to change in well-conducted clinical trials. These instruments perform as well as or better than simple nonspecific pain scales and supplement quality-of-life scales. These instruments are invaluable as new therapies are developed that treat the symptoms of OAH or to potentially alter the progression of OAH.
Changing Antibiotic Prescribing in a Primary Care Network: The Role of Readiness to Change and Group Dynamics in Success.

Overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics in outpatient pediatrics remains a significant issue and there is limited evidence on how to effectively implement outpatient stewardship interventions. This study examines the relationship between readiness to change and modifiable factors affecting success of a primary care network antibiotic stewardship intervention. A survey designed to measure readiness to accept a health care innovation was administered to 209 clinicians. Practices were split in half into “high” versus “low” readiness to change. Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with 2 to 3 clinicians from 6 practices in each readiness group. High readiness practices trended toward greater improvements between years (8% to 26% vs 2% to 10% mean improvement). High readiness practice clinicians described more open communication, active group change process, and supportive underlying group cohesion. Low readiness practice clinicians functioned more independently and were influenced more by extern...
To See the Suffering

The author notes the impressive growth in medical humanities programs, scholarly journals, textbooks, and national and international conferences as well as the convening of two recent national forums or boards addressing the potential of the humanities and the arts to improve medical practice. She a
Hot money, cold beer: Navigating the vanilla and rosewood export economies in northeastern Madagascar

Since 2000 northeastern Madagascar's subsistence-based communities have registered record profits thanks to a boom in vanilla and rosewood exports. Yet, rather than saving or investing these returns, much of the local earnings were spent in “hot money” sprees on cold beer, gambling, and other forms of immediate consumption. Far from being illogical or unproductive, hot-money spending and other practices associated with export economies help local communities navigate the volatility of global markets and domesticate foreign demands. Although these tactics come from the margins of global capitalism, they represent an acute cultural expression of some of the most sophisticated dynamics found at its core. [export economies, money, tactics, globalization, consumption, vanilla, rosewood, Madagascar].
Household Healthcare Expenditure (Out-of-Pocket) Distribution Pattern in Kenya

Background: This is a retrospective study that examines the household healthcare expenditure (Out-of-pocket) in an African countries-Kenya. Generally, there is a limited body of knowledge in this area of focus in Africa, therefore, this study serves to impact on the available knowledge and inform health policy and program implementation. Methodology: The study was carried out using raw data from 2004/2005 household survey obtained from the Kenyan Bureau of statistics. In all, 1340 households representing a household per cluster of ten out of a total of 13,340 households selected were analyzed. Descriptive data analysis was done. Further results were achieved by analyzing average household income and average household healthcare expenditure. Comparative analysis was done based on settlements and across the eight districts. Result: The study of Out of Pocket (OOP) Household Healthcare Expenditure Distribution Pattern in Kenya shows that lower income groups were found to be having highest household healthcare (OOP) expenditure while the highest income groups have the lowest out of pocket healthcare expenditure. Generally, the urban settlement with higher income has lower Household Healthcare Expenditure and vice versa. Overall, the rural settlement accounts for 58% of the total out-of-pocket household healthcare expenditure with the urban settlement accounting for the remaining 42%. Further analysis show varying percentage of household expenditure by district with the North/Eastern Province with low average household income at 332.9Kshs having the highest average Household out of pocket healthcare expenditure at 71.7%.
Google+Ripples: a native visualization of information flow

G+ Ripples is a visualization of information flow that shows users how public posts are shared on Google+. Unlike other social network visualizations, Ripples exists as a "native" visualization: it is directly accessible from public posts on Google+. This unique position leads to both new constraints and new possibilities for design. We describe the visualization technique, which is a new mix of node-and-link and circular treemap metaphors. We then describe user reactions as well as some of the patterns of sharing that are made evident by the Ripples visualization.
Homology Modeling: Generating Structural Models to Understand Protein Function and Mechanism

Geneticists and molecular and cell biologists routinely uncover new proteins important in specific biological processes/pathways. However, either the molecular functions or the functional mechanisms of many of these proteins are unclear due to a lack of knowledge of their atomic structures. Yet, determining experimental structures of many proteins presents technical challenges. The current methods for obtaining atomic-resolution structures of biomolecules (X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy) require pure preparations of proteins at concentrations much higher than those at which the proteins exist in a physiological environment. Additionally, NMR has size limitations, with current technology limited to the determination of structures of proteins with masses of up to 15 kDa. Due to these reasons, atomic structures of many medically and biologically important proteins do not exist. However, the structures of these proteins are essential for several purposes, including in silico drug design [1], understanding the effects of disease mutations [2], and designing experiments to probe the functional mechanisms of proteins. Comparative modeling has gained importance as a tool for bridging the gap between sequence and structure space, allowing researchers to build structural models of proteins that are difficult to crystallize or for which structure determination by NMR spectroscopy is not tractable. Comparative modeling, or homology modeling, exploits the fact that two proteins whose sequences are evolutionarily connected display similar structural features [3]. Thus, the known structure of a protein (template) can be used to generate a molecular model of the protein (query) whose experimental structure is notknown.
Adoption Factors and Processes

As individuals and organizations complete the process of adopting new technologies to support learning, a number of factors come into play — including the technology’s design and usability; the fit with local culture and practices; the associated costs; and the expected benefits of adoption. Some factors are about the technology, others about the prospective user, still others about the local context of use. In addition to descriptions of factors and users, researchers have identified stages and repeating patterns that shape the adoption process. This chapter reviews these various factors and processes with an emphasis on school and university settings. We conclude with a reminder that adoption of technology depends on shared negotiation of values and priorities.