cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effects of Venlafaxine on Blood Pressure: A Meta-Analysis of Original Data From 3744 Depressed Patients

Background Venlafaxine hydrochloride, a structurally novel antidepressant, is also the first nontricyclic serotonin/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. Although venlafaxine has an overall side effect and safety profile that is comparable to other newer antidepressants, it can cause both transient and sustained elevations of supine diastolic blood pressure (SDBP), probably the result of noradrenergic potentiation. Method Presented here is a meta-analysis of original data on blood pressure, using both random effects and a multivariate survival analyses. The sample consisted of 3744 patients with major depression who were studied in controlled clinical trials comparing venlafaxine with imipramine and/or placebo. Patients were treated for 6 weeks of acute phase therapy; some responders received up to 1 year of continuation phase therapy. Results Venlafaxine and imipramine were associated with small, but statistically significant, increases in SDBP during acute phase therapy. When compared with imipramine and placebo, venlafaxine was also associated with a greater proportion of persistent elevations of SDBP during continuation therapy. The effect of venlafaxine was highly dose dependent, and the incidence of elevated SDBP was statistically and clinically significant only at dosages above 300 mg/day. Venlafaxine did not adversely affect the control of blood pressure for patients with preexisting high blood pressure or elevated baseline values. Conclusion Venlafaxine has a dose-dependent effect on SDBP that is clinically significant at high dosages. Concern about blood pressure effects should not deter first-line use of this effective antidepressant, although more extensive studies of patients with cardiovascular diseases are still necessary.
Computational models of temporal processing in the auditory thalamus

Previous work has shown that neurons in the medial geniculate body (MGB) of the echolocating bat, Myotis lucifugus, display response properties that are distinguishable from those of their afferents in the inferior colliculus (IC). Specifically, MGB neurons display phasic temporal discharge patterns, poor entrainment to trains of constant-amplitude sound pulses, and facilitated responses to amplitude-modulated trains of sound pulses (Llano and Feng 1999). In this study we used a modeling approach to examine the relative contributions of different known sources of inhibition on the temporal response properties of auditory thalamocortical neurons. We found that GABA(A)-mediated post-excitatory inhibition resulting from coactivation of thalamocortical neurons and local inhibitory interneurons (in a triadic arrangement) is sufficient to reproduce many of the temporal response properties of MGB neurons. Addition of long-duration GABA(B)-mediated inhibition gave the thalamocortical neuron temporal response characteristics that more closely resemble those seen in the experimental data. Neither recurrent inhibition from the thalamic reticular nucleus nor postsynaptic nonlinear mechanisms were necessary to reproduce the temporal transformations between the IC and MGB. This work suggests that feed-forward inhibitory circuitry, coupled with slow GABA(B)-mediated inhibition, can emulate temporal information processing at the MGB. The transformation taking place in the MGB can be used to extract salient features from complex, time-varying stimuli, such as echoes returning from moving prey.
Psychosocial adjustment to pelvic exenteration.

Abstract A structured interview was used in 16 patients who underwent pelvic exenteration for gynecologic cancer to determine the factors that influenced patients' acceptance of the procedure and their physical, mental, and social recovery. Patients were interviewed pre- and postoperatively, with the longest follow-up being 44 months. Not only does the surgery offer a significantly improved prognosis, but the quality of this life is very satisfactory, with only sexual function compromised.
Silas Weir Mitchell's essential tremor

Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-1914) is recognized as an important American neurologist. Biographers refer in brief to a tremor. The objective of this review was to characterize Mitchell's tremor using handwriting samples, to examine handwriting samples of family members to determine whether this tremor was familial, and study Mitchell's allusions to tremor in personal, scientific, and fictional writings. Primary sources were the Papers of S. Weir Mitchell, College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and Mitchell's scientific and fictional writings. Mitchell's early handwriting was tremor-free yet, by 1873, the writing was tremulous. Handwriting in the 1880s and 1890s shows clear oscillations of moderate-amplitude. By the first decade of the 20th century, his handwriting was virtually illegible. Letters written by two siblings, his mother, and maternal grandfather also reveal tremor. Tremor was not prominent in Mitchell's personal or scientific writings and Mitchell referred to tremor in only 4 of 27 fictional writings. In conclusion, Mitchell had a familial action tremor that began when he was in his early 40's and worsened considerably with age. The likely diagnosis was essential tremor. Curiously, Mitchell rarely alluded to tremor in personal writings and tremor was not prominently featured in his scientific or fictional works.
Thoria‐Urania Bodies and irradiation Studies

Thoria-urania fuels were irradiated bare and clad in metal jackets of stainless steel, Zircaloy-II, and aluminum-1 weight % nickel alloy. These specimens were irradiated in NaK (a sodium-potassium eutectic alloy) and in water. Irradiation severity was based on the total metal-atom burnup and on the surface heat flux, and the pellets were evaluated on the basis of dimensional stability, corrosion resistance, and visual analysis, The tests indicated that thoria-urania solid-solution bodies apparently are suitable for use as fuels in boiling-water reactors.
Control-oriented modeling of Laser Metal Deposition as a repetitive process

Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) is an additive manufacturing process whose dynamics are driven by complex heat transfer and fluid flow phenomena. The LMD process, along with every additive manufacturing process, is fundamentally a two-dimensional process possessing both temporal (or spatial) domain dynamics and propagation of information from layer to layer. However, modeling the two-dimensionality of the process for use in control has received little attention. Here, a model aimed at capturing the important nonlinear two-dimensional physical processes of the melt pool shape, while maintaining simplicity, is presented. The model is expressed in a form that lends itself to the design of repetitive process control schemes. An analytical tool is used to describe layer-to-layer stability properties of the process using the model, and insights into the fundamental stability limitations of the process are given.
Technical Writing by Distance: Refocusing the Pedagogy of Technical Communication.

Advancing technology, demands for cost control, and world‐wide expansion in distance education programs challenge technical communication teachers to find ways of delivering quality technical writing courses by distance. One distance platform, described here, is working successfully at Texas A&M University. Examining, applying, and testing existing distance theory in developing distance versions of technical writing courses is an emerging research field in technical communication.
An examination of isomeric phenylpropanolamines in (-)ephedrine-trained rats.

Abstract A total of eight isomeric phenylpropanolamines are possible when the terminal amine is either an N -monomethylamine or a primary amine: (−)ephedrine, (+)ephedrine, (+)pseudoephedrine, (−)pseudoephedrine, (−)norephedrine, (+)norephedrine, (+)cathine, and (−)cathine. Few previous studies have examined the individual optical isomers of these phenylpropanolamines and, with the exception of one report on locomotor effects, no comparative behavioral data have been published on this series of agents. Using rats trained to discriminate 4 mg/kg of (−)ephedrine (i.p.) from saline vehicle using standard operant conditioning with a VI 15-s schedule of reinforcement, all eight agents were examined in tests of stimulus generalization. The (−)ephedrine stimulus (ED 50 =0.90 mg/kg) generalized to (+)ephedrine (ED 50 =2.64 mg/kg), (+)pseudoephedrine (ED 50 =6.58 mg/kg), (−)norephedrine (ED 50 =1.86 mg/kg), (+)norephedrine (ED 50 =5.75 mg/kg), and (+)cathine (ED 50 =4.87 mg/kg). The (−)ephedrine stimulus failed to generalize to either (−)pseudoephedrine or (−)cathine; the latter agents produced a maximum of 29 and 31% (−)ephedrine-appropriate responding, respectively. Thus, (a) six of the eight phenylpropanolamines produced ephedrine-like stimulus effects, (b) (−)ephedrine was the most potent of the examined agents, and (c) where stimulus generalization occurred, ED 50 values spanned less than a tenfold range.
Esterase‐based resistance in the tobacco‐adapted form of the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulzer) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) in the eastern United States

Organophosphates and carbamates represent alternative insecticides in managing the tobacco-adapted form of the green peach aphid (TGPA), Myzus persicae (Sulzer), a major pest of tobacco in the United States and around the world. General esterases that detoxify these insecticides were assessed in green, red, and orange morphs of field-collected M. persicae. A total of 136 aphid colonies were collected from 2004 though 2007 and screened for total esterase activity. The green morphs had lower esterase levels, with a mean of 77+/-6.6 nmol/min/mg protein, as compared to red (84+/-2.9 nmol/min/mg protein) and orange morphs (172+/-16.5 nmol/min/mg protein). Overall esterase activities, and those for the red and green morphs, were positively correlated with LC(50) values for acephate (organophosphate) and methomyl (carbamate) assessed in leaf-dip bioassays. Esterase genes responsible for higher esterase activities were diagnosed by gene amplification studies. Twenty-three of 24 colonies tested had either the E4 or FE4 gene amplified, both known to confer esterase-based resistance. Fifteen out of the 24 colonies tested had amplified E4 gene and four colonies had FE4 gene amplification. All orange morphs and one green morph had both E4 and FE4 genes amplified. This unique phenotype, where two esterase genes were amplified had an 865-bp band characteristic of the FE4 gene and an additional 381-bp band characteristic of a deleted upstream region of the E4 gene. Changes that occurred in esterase-based resistance in the TGPA over the past two decades and their implications on insecticide resistance management are discussed.
An analytical analysis of a concatenated Reed-Solomon (RS)/Viterbi coding system both with and without RS interleaving

A new Markov chain (MC) technique which analytically calculates the word, symbol and bit error rates (BERs) of a concatenated Reed-Solomon (RS)/Viterbi coding system in an additive white Gaussian noise environment is presented. This technique can analyze a system with no RS interleaving, ideal RS interleaving, and finite RS interleaving. It is faster than the standard simulation method of analysis for low noise environments since its run time is independent of the BER, while the run time of a simulation is inversely proportional to the BER. This analysis models the output of the Viterbi decoder with a geometric distribution. The MC analysis uses this output to find the probability of a given number of symbol errors in a RS codeword, which is then used to calculate the error rates. Results for the commonly used combination of an inner 1/2 rate convolutional code of constraint length seven and an outer RS (255,223) code are presented. >
Axillary Metastasis of Malignant Melanoma Mimicking a Breast Carcinoma

We describe here the case of a female patient with an otherwise classic invasive melanoma of the upper extremity, demonstrating the typical immunohistochemical profile, who presented three years later with massive ipsilateral axillary node metastases. The metastatic tumor had morphologic features similar to the primary melanoma, however at immunohistochemical level the tumor cells not only gained expression of pan-cytokeratin (AE1/AE3) but also lost expression of all standard melanoma markers (S100, Melan-A, HMB-45, MIT-1, and tyrosinase) thus mimicking a poorly differentiated mammary carcinoma. Additional stains reveal expression of Vimentin, NSE, c-kit, CD10 and negativity for CK7, CK20, BR2, ER/PR, mucin, and LCA. To rule out a breast carcinoma, real-time RT-PCR was performed on a lymph node using six breast cancer-associated genes (>99% sensitivity), which was also negative. Clinical work-up of the patient failed to reveal abnormal masses in the breast or elsewhere. The clinical history, histological appearance, immunohistochemical profile (including negative CK7 and positive NSE, c-kit and CD10) as well as a negative RT-PCR renders almost null the possibility of a breast carcinoma and supports a diagnostic of melanoma in this case. Cases like ours may be easily misclassified unless a concerted approach is used to reach the correct diagnosis.
The role of the THY1 gene in human ovarian cancer suppression based on transfection studies

In our recent studies, the expression of the THY1 gene encoding a 25-28 kDa glycoprotein located at 11q23-q24, was found to be associated with complete tumor suppression of the ovarian cancer cell line SKOV-3 after the transfer of chromosome 11. These studies raised the possibility that THY1 maybe a candidate tumor suppressor gene for ovarian cancer. To investigate this, the complete cDNA sequence for THY1 was cloned and transfected into SKOV-3 ovarian cancer cells. The expression of THY1 in the transfectants was confirmed by Northern blot analysis, immunocytochemistry, and flow cytometry. Both SKOV-3-THY1 and SKOV-3-null cells were inoculated subcutaneously into severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice to determine in vivo tumorigenicity. THY1 transfectants formed tumors, but overall tumor growth rate and tumor size was significantly reduced compared with their null counterparts. To further correlate THY1 expression with tumorigenicity, the THY1 antisense was transfected into the nontumorigenic clone, 11(C)9-8, which resulted in restoration of tumorigenicity. These data indicate that THY1 expression alone cannot suppress tumorigenicity; however, abrogation of THY1 expression from nontumorigenic cells can restore tumorigenesis. Taken together, the data suggest that THY1 is necessary but not sufficient to suppress ovarian tumorigenicity. Therefore, THY1 can be designated as a putative tumor suppressor gene for human ovarian cancer.
Electoral Reforms, Membership Stability and the Existence of Committee Property Rights in American State Legislatures

One of the most creative theories advanced about legislative organization in recent years is Katz and Sala's linkage of the development of committee property rights in the US House of Representatives to the introduction of the Australian ballot. Katz and Sala argue that the Australian ballot – a government-printed ballot cast in secret that replaced a party-produced ballot that was cast in public – gave members of the House an incentive to pursue personal constituency votes. This, in turn, led to the rise of committee property rights as members sought to keep their committee assignments from term to term because of the potential electoral benefits they derived from them. In this Note we use the state legislative committee membership dataset collected by Hamm and Hedlund and their colleagues to test whether committee property rights appeared in American state legislatures at roughly the same time as Katz and Sala find they emerged in the US House. State legislatures were, of course, exposed to the same electoral innovation at the same time. But, while in some ways state legislatures were much like Congress as organizations, in other ways they were very different. Our cross-sectional data and the variance in important institutional variables they provide allow us to test a critical proposition about the importance of membership stability rates in mediating the rise of committee property rights. We also go beyond Katz and Sala's analysis by testing to see if differences in Australian ballot design (office column and party bloc) across the states influenced the behaviour of legislators in the way their theory suggests.
Distribution of 14C-lomustine (14C-CCNU)-derived radioactivity following intravenous administration of three potential clinical formulations to rabbits.

O I4C-Lomustine (CCNU) was administered intravenously to rabbits in three potential clinically useful vehicles of propylene glycol-ethanol (4:1), fat emulsion, and vegetable oil emulsion; the organ distribution of the radioactivity was followed for 24 hr. Bile and fat were the only tissues showing a consistent vehicle- dependent change in the distribution of radioactivity, and in these two instances the fat emulsion and the vegetable oil emulsion both produced the same distribution pattern. Liver, kidney, and lung tissue consistently contained the highest amounts of radioactivity. By 12 hr after dosing, essentially all radioactivity had been eliminated by the animals. Binding of radioactive drug to plasma proteins was found to be twice as great in vitro (93%) as in vivo (51%).
Treating Complicated Grief

Importance The death of a loved one is one of life’s greatest, universal stressors to which most bereaved individuals successfully adapt without clinical intervention. For a minority of bereaved individuals, grief is complicated by superimposed problems and healing does not occur. The resulting syndrome of complicated grief causes substantial distress and functional impairment even years after a loss, yet knowing when and how to intervene can be a challenge. Objective To discuss the differential diagnosis, risk factors for and management of complicated grief based on available evidence and clinical observations. Evidence Review MEDLINE was searched from January 1990 to October 2012. Additional citations were procured from references of select research and review articles. Available treatment studies targeting complicated grief were included. Results A strong research literature led to inclusion of complicated grief in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fifth Edition) (termed persistent complex bereavement disorder as a subtype of other specified trauma and stressor-related disorders), although it is a condition for which more research is formally recommended, and there is still ongoing discussion about the optimal name and diagnostic criteria for the disorder. Reliable screening instruments are available, and the estimated prevalence rate is 7% of bereaved people. Randomized controlled data support the efficacy of a targeted psychotherapy including elements that foster resolution of complicating problems and facilitate the natural healing process. Preliminary studies suggest antidepressant medications may be helpful. Conclusion and Relevance Individuals with complicated grief have greater risk of adverse health outcomes, should be diagnosed and assessed for suicide risk and comorbid conditions such as depression and posttraumatic stress disorder, and should be considered for treatment.
C++ exception handling

The author describes how Hewlett-Packard implemented C++ exception handling in its IA-64 processor architecture. Researchers at the IA-64 Foundation Laboratory studied the performance impact of various solutions before finding a solution that leaves room for future optimizations.
Secular Trends in Incidence of Atrial Fibrillation in Olmsted County, Minnesota, 1980 to 2000, and Implications on the Projections for Future Prevalence

Background— Limited data exist on trends in incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF). We assessed the community-based trends in AF incidence for 1980 to 2000 and provided prevalence projections to 2050. Methods and Results— The adult residents of Olmsted County, Minnesota, who had ECG-confirmed first AF in the period 1980 to 2000 (n=4618) were identified. Trends in age-adjusted incidence were determined and used to construct model-based prevalence estimates. The age- and sex-adjusted incidence of AF per 1000 person-years was 3.04 (95% CI, 2.78 to 3.31) in 1980 and 3.68 (95% CI, 3.42 to 3.95) in 2000. According to Poisson regression with adjustment for age and sex, incidence of AF increased significantly (P=0.014), with a relative increase of 12.6% (95% CI, 2.1 to 23.1) over 21 years. The increase in age-adjusted AF incidence did not differ between men and women (P=0.84). According to the US population projections by the US Census Bureau, the number of persons with AF is projected to be 12.1 million by 2050, ...
Stereo Spectral Imaging System for Plant Health Characterization

Three-dimensional (3D) measurements of whole plants may provide detailed structure information about plant health and also complement existing X-ray systems for the below-ground part. In addition to this structure characterization of plants, spectral information may also biochemically characterize plants' health. A stereo vision technique is a cost-effective and rapid imaging technique for measuring and reconstructing 3D structures. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) requiring measurements of two spectral wavelengths at NIR and red spectral regions has been widely used in remote sensing as an index to estimate various vegetation properties including chlorophyll concentration in leaves, leaf area index, biomass, and plant productivity. We integrated both stereo vision and NDVI techniques and developed a stereo spectral imaging (SSI) system for chlorophyll and biomass quantification of plants in 3D space. We used a stereo vision camera system and custom designed a dual-wavelength filter system at 690 nm and 750 nm to develop the SSI system. Calibration techniques for NDVI computation using two spectral band images were developed by referencing a diffuse reflectance panel. We also developed a texture mapping technique for rendering NDVI values in 3D space. In this paper, the performance of the SSI system was evaluated with an artificial plant showing spectral properties similar to green leaves of real plants.
A suggested energy-savings evaluation method for AC adjustable-speed drive applications

A procedure is offered for the evaluation of the energy savings obtained by the use of AC adjustable-speed drives on pumps, fans, and other types of driven equipment such as compressors or extruders and mixers. A method for the economic evaluation of the energy savings is also offered. The method that best insures that all the required factors will be considered is to calculate separately the energy usage by the adjustable-speed drive system and the base comparison system, and then evaluate the energy savings as the difference between the two usage figures. These procedures and the necessary databases have been incorporated into a user-friendly computer program that can be operated on any IBM PC or compatible computer. >
Gender-Specific Association of M235T Polymorphism in Angiotensinogen Gene and Diabetic Nephropathy in NIDDM

Abstract —This study examined the association between the development of nephropathy in non–insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) patients and M235T polymorphism in the angiotensinogen gene. White NIDDM patients with diabetic nephropathy (case subjects, n=117) and patients without any evidence of nephropathy and ≥10 years of NIDDM (control subjects, n=125) were selected from among patients of the Joslin Diabetes Center and examined. In addition to a standardized examination, blood was drawn for DNA and determination of M235T genotypes at the angiotensinogen locus. For the angiotensinogen gene, the frequency of the genotype 235T/235T, known to be associated with essential hypertension, was higher among case subjects with nephropathy than in control subjects without this complication. This difference, expressed as the odds ratio for nephropathy among 235T/235T homozygotes in comparison with all other genotypes, was 2.2 (95% confidence interval, 1.1 to 4.4). The difference, however, was confined to men (odds ratio, 4.8; 95% confidence interval, 1.5 to 14.9), with the distribution of genotypes in case and control subjects being equal among women (odds ratio, 1.1). DNA polymorphism M235T in the angiotensinogen gene, which is associated with higher expression of this gene, contributes to the risk of diabetic nephropathy in NIDDM men but not in women.
Early Shell Formation During Molluscan Embryogenesis, with New Studies on the Surf Clam, Spisula solidissima

Shell formation in molluscs begins early in embryogenesis during some stage of archenteron formation. Ultrastructural information on early formation of external shells is available from only a few bivalves and gastropods. Secretion of the very first shell material by shell field epithelial cells is preceded by an invagination of the dorsal ectoderm in the region of the shell field. A century ago, this invagination was termed the “shell gland.” As a secretory function for this invagination has not yet been demonstrated and as the term “shell gland” has taken on various meanings in the literature, the invagination will be referred to as the shell field invagination. The opening into the shell field invagination seems to be circular in gastropods and elongate in bivalves. Accordingly initial organic shell material seems to form a ring in gastropods and a saddle in bivalves. As in adult molluscs, shells of pre-metamorphic molluscs are composed of both organic and inorganiccomponents. Ultrastructural data from bivalves and gastropods indicate that the initial organic shell material is secreted just outside the shell field invagination (across the pore). Initial inorganic shell materials have not been localized nor their pathway traced into or through any pre-metamorphic molluscs. New SEM and TEM data show that the invagination in the bivalve Spisula solidissima is composed of a wide outer region and very narrow inner region with the first shell material forming at the junction between the two. This is unlike ultrastructural data available for other species. Many sections give the false impressions that: 1) the shell field invagination is closed to the outside and, 2) that the first organic shell material lines the innermost region of the invagination. It is not clear whether the cells of the outer invagination in this species are shell field cells. It is suggested that they are not.
Muscle Response to Different Socket Wrench Configurations

Evaluation of manual hand tools play an important role in producing better designs that are targeted to fit the user, maximize comfort, and minimize the risk of injury. The goal of this study was to evaluate and quantify the muscle response due to a horizontal wrenching task while using four socket wrench configurations: two handle types and two handle lengths. Eleven participants in this study were instructed to loosen a bolt three times using each of the tool combinations in a random order. Activity from twelve muscles was recorded using wireless surface EMG sensors. Both the handle length and the grip type were observed to have a significant effect on the overall muscle activity. Between 5-32% reduction in muscle activity was seen in all muscles due to the longer handle, and the padded handle further reduced muscle effort by up to 13%. These findings indicate the importance of tool configuration selection in order to reduce the required force application, improve posture and reduce muscle effort required for the wrenching task.
Effects of Exposure to Polychlorinated Biphenyls and Organochlorine Pesticides on Thyroid Function during Pregnancy

In this study, the authors' objective was to determine whether serum concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), hexachlorobenzene, p,p′-dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DDT), o,p′-DDT, and p,p′-dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethylene (DDE) are associated with thyroid function during pregnancy. These compounds, as well as thyroid-stimulating hormone, total thyroxine, and free thyroxine, were measured in serum samples collected between October 1999 and October 2000 from 334 pregnant women living in the Salinas Valley, California. Data were analyzed by multivariate linear regression. After adjustment for covariates, seven of the 19 PCB congeners detected in more than 75% of participants and the sum of those congeners were negatively associated with free thyroxine concentrations. PCBs 44, 52, and 183 remained significant after the exclusion of two outliers. Hexachlorobenzene concentrations were negatively associated with both free thyroxine and total thyroxine. PCB and hexachlorobenzene concentrations were strongly correlated, which hampered the authors' ability to identify their independent associations with thyroid function. None of the exposures under study were associated with thyroid-stimulating hormone. Results suggest that exposure to PCBs and/or hexachlorobenzene at background levels may affect thyroid function during pregnancy. These findings are of particular significance, since thyroid hormones of maternal origin may play an essential role in fetal neurodevelopment.
Metabolic Consequences in very Low Birth Weight Infants Transfused with Older As-1-Preserved Erythrocytes

Our study evaluated the biochemical and physiologic changes in extremely premature infants receiving AS-1-preserved packed red blood cells (PRBC) stored 5 to 21 days, including increase in hemoglobin, maintenance of euglycemia, and normal serum potassium levels, acid-base balance, and urine output. Twelve infants (birth weight 775 ± 127g) with gestational age of 25 ± 1 weeks received small volume replacement transfusions with 17 mL/kg PRBC preserved in an AS-1 dedicated unit. Infants were monitored throughout the transfusions and blood samples were obtained pre- and postransfusion for comparison by Student's t-test. The infants remained clinically stable throughout the transfusions and had an increase in hemoglobin of 2.5 g/dL. There was no change in urine output. Serum ammonia lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and glucose levels were altered as predicted. There were also small, but clinically insignificant, changes in serum potassium, bicarbonate, total bilirubin, and creatinine. Euglycemia was maintained in ...
Persistent psychological well-being predicts improved self-rated health over 9–10 years: Longitudinal evidence from MIDUS

Psychological well-being has been linked with better health, but mostly with cross-sectional evidence. Using MIDUS, a national sample of U.S. adults (N = 4,963), longitudinal profiles of well-being were used to predict in cross-time change over a 9-10 years in self-reported health. Well-being was largely stable, although adults differed in whether they had persistently high versus persistently low or moderate levels of well-being. After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, those with persistently high well-being reported better health (subjective health, chronic conditions, symptoms, functional impairment) across time compared to those with persistently low well-being. Further, persistently high well-being was protective of improved health especially among the educationally disadvantaged. The findings underscore the importance of intervention and educational programs designed to promote well-being for greater segments of society.
Using Derivation Trees for Treebank Error Detection

This work introduces a new approach to checking treebank consistency. Derivation trees based on a variant of Tree Adjoining Grammar are used to compare the annotation of word sequences based on their structural similarity. This overcomes the problems of earlier approaches based on using strings of words rather than tree structure to identify the appropriate contexts for comparison. We report on the result of applying this approach to the Penn Arabic Treebank and how this approach leads to high precision of error detection.
Evaluating Published CER Evidence

It is challenging to translate the huge valuable information into practice in order to solve humanity problems of the world. From evidence to recommendation is a critical step to reach this goal. This chapter uses plenty of examples to introduce how to identify and assess evidence, how to evaluate recommendation’s direction and strength, and how to develop a good recommendation in practice.
Punishment Drift: The Spread of Penal Harm and What We Should Do About It

It is well documented that the effects of legal punishment tend to drift to the family members, friends, and larger communities of convicted offenders. Instead of conceiving of punishment drift as incidental to legal punishment, or as merely foreseen but not intended by state authorities and thus permissible, I argue that efforts ought to be undertaken to limit or ameliorate it. Failure to confine punishment drift comes perilously close to punishment of the innocent and is at odds with other legal doctrines and broader penal practices that hold offenders, and offenders alone, responsible for their crimes. Numerous arguments urging tolerance of punishment drift, or more assertively defending it, are examined and found wanting.
Enhanced ethylene separation and plasticization resistance in polymer membranes incorporating metal–organic framework nanocrystals

The implementation of membrane-based separations in the petrochemical industry has the potential to reduce energy consumption significantly relative to conventional separation processes. Achieving this goal, however, requires the development of new membrane materials with greater selectivity, permeability and stability than available at present. Here, we report composite materials consisting of nanocrystals of metal-organic frameworks dispersed within a high-performance polyimide, which can exhibit enhanced selectivity for ethylene over ethane, greater ethylene permeability and improved membrane stability. Our results suggest that framework-polymer interactions reduce chain mobility of the polymer while simultaneously boosting membrane separation performance. The increased stability, or plasticization resistance, is expected to improve membrane utility under real process conditions for petrochemical separations and natural gas purification. Furthermore, this approach can be broadly applied to numerous polymers that encounter aggressive environments, potentially making gas separations possible that were previously inaccessible to membranes.
Perceiving Movement Across Film Edits: A Psychocinematic Analysis

Film editors have developed techniques that create seamless, virtually invisible, shot transitions. One technique is the match-action edit in which a cut occurs in the middle of an action. We assessed the way smooth movement is perceived across such edits. Participants viewed an action (e.g., woman drinking a mug) that included an edit that either ran in real time (straight cut), jumped ahead in time, or overlapped the action. When asked to select the clip with the smoothest movement, participants chose clips that contained a brief overlap in action (125 ms). When a pattern mask was inserted between shots, the overlap bias persisted and even occurred when the same camera angle was used across the edit. These findings suggest that film edits disrupt cognitive processing such that viewers act as if they are momentarily “blind” and must be shown a repetition of the action to perceive smooth movements.
Infections in the Non-Transplanted Immunocompromised Host

Abstract Background: Discoveries regarding the basic mechanisms underlying malignant disease, rheumatologic disorders, and autoimmune diseases have led to the development of many new therapeutic modalities that target components of the immune system. Most of these are antibodies or fusion proteins that interfere with components of the immune response that are playing both pathological and protective roles, resulting in variable degrees of immune suppression and a higher risk of infectious complications. Methods: Review of the English-language literature. Results: As these modalities are often used in combination with more traditional methods of immune suppression (e.g., corticosteroids), an increasing spectrum of infection is being encountered by clinicians. Febrile neutropenia requires rapid assessment and initiation of empiric broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy. Persistence despite this therapy should prompt further investigation for drug-resistant bacteria and invasive fungal disease. Important patho...
Nipple-areola reconstruction: a review of techniques.

A review of the objectives of nipple-areola reconstruction and the various techniques employed is offered. Emphasis is placed on those techniques that most closely satisfy the objectives. Further, the criteria for an aesthetically acceptable nipple-areola complex are discussed, with symmetry being established as the single most important.
Population Genomics of Reduced Vancomycin Susceptibility in Staphylococcus aureus.

ABSTRACT The increased prevalence of vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus (VISA) is an emerging health care threat. Genome-based comparative methods hold great promise to uncover the genetic basis of the VISA phenotype, which remains obscure. S. aureus isolates were collected from a single individual that presented with recurrent staphylococcal bacteremia at three time points, and the isolates showed successively reduced levels of vancomycin susceptibility. A population genomic approach was taken to compare patient S. aureus isolates with decreasing vancomycin susceptibility across the three time points. To do this, patient isolates were sequenced to high coverage (~500×), and sequence reads were used to model site-specific allelic variation within and between isolate populations. Population genetic methods were then applied to evaluate the overall levels of variation across the three time points and to identify individual variants that show anomalous levels of allelic change between populations. A successive reduction in the overall levels of population genomic variation was observed across the three time points, consistent with a population bottleneck resulting from antibiotic treatment. Despite this overall reduction in variation, a number of individual mutations were swept to high frequency in the VISA population. These mutations were implicated as potentially involved in the VISA phenotype and interrogated with respect to their functional roles. This approach allowed us to identify a number of mutations previously implicated in VISA along with allelic changes within a novel class of genes, encoding LPXTG motif-containing cell-wall-anchoring proteins, which shed light on a novel mechanistic aspect of vancomycin resistance. IMPORTANCE The emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance among bacterial pathogens are two of the gravest threats to public health facing the world today. We report the development and application of a novel population genomic technique aimed at uncovering the evolutionary dynamics and genetic determinants of antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus. This method was applied to S. aureus cultures isolated from a single patient who showed decreased susceptibility to the vancomycin antibiotic over time. Our approach relies on the increased resolution afforded by next-generation genome-sequencing technology, and it allowed us to discover a number of S. aureus mutations, in both known and novel gene targets, which appear to have evolved under adaptive pressure to evade vancomycin mechanisms of action. The approach we lay out in this work can be applied to resistance to any number of antibiotics across numerous species of bacterial pathogens.
The effects of giving on givers

The authors were supported by two grants at the time of writing this article. Stephanie Brown was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (#0820609, Physiological Effects of Helping Others) and Sara Konrath was supported by a grant from Wake Forest University via the John Templeton Foundation (Dispositional Empathy as a Character Trait).
Cybersecurity-Related Barriers to International Trade and Investment

Cybersecurity-related issues are becoming an increasingly pervasive and powerful force in shaping international trade and investments. The IB literature lacks concepts and theory to explain this phenomenon. This paper analyzes causes and mechanisms associated with cybersecurity-related barriers, profile of companies are likely to be affected and characteristics of and relationships between the home and the host country that are likely to lead to such barriers.
Evaluation of terrain and canopy height products in central African tropical forests

Since the introduction of space-based altimetry data into the science community, global products associated with elevation and vegetation metrics have been heavily utilized for a variety of ecological applications. Satellite remote sensing enables the collection of global or near-global, standardized data sets, which can be used in their original form or used as inputs along with other data sets in generating new products. Recent effort has focused on using available data to generate maps of tree heights at a global scale in the service of a better understanding of above ground biomass distribution and its effects on global carbon storage. However, global data sets, while validated at a global scale, often display local and regional variations in accuracy which must be quantified before applying those data sets to smaller scale studies. This work addresses the need for a better understanding of the quality of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission SRTM 90 m digital elevation model and a global 1 km canopy height model in the dense tropical forests of Gabon by using a small-footprint airborne lidar survey and large-footprint, space-based waveform lidar data from teh National Air and Space Administration’s Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite ICESat for validation. As expected, the study found SRTM elevations to be heavily biased by vegetation in this biome, with elevations consistently located within the canopy volume. In addition, the global canopy height model consistently underestimates maximum canopy height at both local and regional scales.
Perceptions of 4-H Professionals on Proposed Solutions Towards Diversity Inclusive 4-H Youth Programs

This paper highlights findings from a web-based questionnaire used to explore and analyze [State] 4-H youth professional’s perceptions on proposed solutions to increasing diversity inclusion — particularly among youth of color and youth with disabilities — in 4-H youth programs. Descriptive statistics were used to report demographic and personal characteristics along with percentage agreements on proposed solutions. Respondents agreed that: “County 4-H youth professionals should become familiar with the youth with disabilities represented in their counties in order to promote an atmosphere of acceptance and cooperation;” “4-H youth instructional materials should reflect the diverse society that 4-H youth programs have;” and “for youth to become interested in joining 4-H, parents, 4-H youth professionals, and policymakers must develop strategies to address the different learning styles of all youth.” Finally, recommendations were identified for professionals who want to increase diversity inclusion in their respective 4-H youth programs.
And the story evolves: The development of personal narratives and narrative identity

Abstract This chapter reviews research on the development of narrative identity in childhood, adolescence, and across adulthood. Rooted in McAdams’ (2013) three-level framework, narrative identity is defined as a level of personality that is more idiographic, dynamic, and contextual than traits and characteristic adaptations. Beginning in early childhood, children begin to learn how to tell stories in past-event conversations with their parents. The manner in which parents talk with their children predicts those children’s own narrative representations of themselves into adolescence. Across adolescence a depth in autobiographical reasoning grows, which allows individuals to begin to construct a life story or narrative identity. Across adulthood change and stability in stories is discussed, concluding with speculations on links between developmental and personality approaches to narrative, as well as a consideration of personality integration in adulthood.
Evolving Role of Drains, Tubes and Stents in Pancreatic Surgery

As recently as 30 years ago, major pancreatic resections were associated with morbidity and mortality rates that were considered prohibitive by many. Over the last several decades, through better training, technical advances, and the development of intensive perioperative care and interventional endoscopy and radiology, these procedures have become significantly safer. Pancreaticoduodenectomy is now associated with postoperative mortality as low as 1% in many high-volume centers.
Factors Affecting Emission of Infantile Vocalizations and Vocal Expression of Emotional States

Abstract When a preening pup is placed in isolation for a brief period of time, it displays an increase in activity that includes the emission of vocalizations in the ultrasonic range (around 40 kHz). The vocal response to isolation is used to investigate early life communicatory, social, and affective behaviors. The present chapter covers three aspects of isolation-induced ultrasonic vocalizations: (1) Early life experiences that influence vocalization during isolation, including maternal behavior, postnatal enrichment or deprivation, and prenatal challenges. Life-span effects are described when reported. (2) Social stimuli during isolation that alter vocalizations. This section will describe contact quieting, suppression of vocalization in the presence of adult males, and maternal and paternal potentiation of ultrasonic calls. (3) The effects of selective breeding for high and low rates of isolation-induced vocalization, including changes in the communicative potential of ultrasonic calls and life-span effects on behavior.
Leading with the Spiritual Rule: Collectively Navigating Toward a Morally Sound Future

This chapter offers a moral principle that incorporates the spiritual dimension in every area of decision-making. As workplaces become more diverse in every way, so too do moral standards. Whether based on religious, cultural, theoretical, or practical foundations, perspectives on what is supposed to be the “morally right” thing are divergent. Yet, despite the rich blend of perspectives, there could still be a unified moral code to serve as a collective compass toward a spiritually sound future. The foundation of this moral compass is based on the “Spiritual Rule,” which entails that we should treat others as well as possible considering our best abilities and values, others’ preferences, and the well-being of all life. The chapter will present a brief overview of some of the most common moral principles as they have been developed and adopted over time. The chapter will subsequently use the ancient “Golden Rule” as a catalyst toward the more recently formulated, strongly marketing-based Platinum Rule. Strengths and weaknesses of both theories will be discussed as a foundation for the “Spiritual Rule,” which considers the challenges of increased globalism and ensuing interconnectedness.
Adult Learning and Instruction: Transformative Learning Perspectives

Transformative learning is a process by which uncritically assimilated frames of reference are questioned and revised to make them more open, permeable, and better justified. In this article, transformative learning is set within the larger context of adult education and, briefly, within the history of the field. Critical self-reflection and discourse are central to Mezirow's rational approach to transformative learning. Critiques of Mezirow's work have led to the expansion of the theory to include alternative perspectives: connected knowing, social change, group and organizational transformation, extrarational transformation, and an ecological view. The article concludes with a discussion of teaching for transformation: empowering students, fostering critical self-reflection and self-knowledge, and supporting learners.