cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Noncarious cervical lesions: the decision to ignore or restore.

A variety of unusual noncarious cervical lesions (NCL) are depicted that appear to negate W.D. Miller's toothbrush/dentifrice abrasion theory and demonstrate that other factors may be involved in their etiology. Confusion exists in the designation of NCL ever since G.V. Black stated in 1908 that toothbrush/dentifrice abrasion is an erosive effect. Since abrasion and erosion are two distinct activities, it is suggested that dentistry adopt the same terminology as chemical engineering in order to foster improved communication between the sciences. The term "abfraction" has been used to supplant erosion because it seems more appropriate when describing the loss of tooth substance attributable to effects of occlusal loading forces as well as the physiochemical breaking that occurs during stress corrosion. Numerous reasons, based on accepted engineering principles, indicate that NCL should be restored. It is incumbent on dentists to become cognizant of these reasons, since this would help them inform patients of the benefits to be gained by restoring such deficient areas.
Single molecule measurements of mechanical interactions within ternary SNARE complexes and dynamics of their disassembly: SNAP25 vs. SNAP23.

Regulated exocytosis is a crucial event for intercellular communication between neurons and astrocytes within the CNS. The soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive fusion protein attachment protein receptor (SNARE) complex, composed of synaptobrevin 2, syntaxin and synaptosome-associated protein of 25 kDa or 23 kDa (SNAP25 or SNAP23), is essential in this process. It was reported that SNAP25 and SNAP23 have distinct roles in exocytotic release, where SNAP25, but not SNAP23, supports an exocytotic burst. It is not clear, however, whether this is due to the intrinsic properties of the ternary SNARE complex, containing either SNAP25 or SNAP23, or perhaps due to the differential association of these proteins with ancillary proteins to the complex. Here, using force spectroscopy, we show from single molecule investigations of the SNARE complex, that SNAP23A created a local interaction at the ionic layer by cuffing syntaxin 1A and synaptobrevin 2, similar to the action of SNAP25B; thus either of the ternary complexes would allow positioning of vesicles at a maximal distance of ∼13 nm from the plasma membrane. However, the stability of the ternary SNARE complex containing SNAP23A is less than half of that for the complex containing SNAP25B. Thus, differences in the stability of the two different ternary complexes could underlie some of the SNAP25/23 differential ability to control the exocytotic burst.
In people with atrial fibrillation unsuitable for warfarin, apixaban reduces the risk of stroke compared with aspirin, with no difference in major bleeding.

Commentary on: SJ Connolly, J Eikelboom, C Joyner, et al.. Apixaban in patients with atrial fibrillation.N Engl J Med2011;364:806–17.
Experimental observation of a nearly logarithmic decay of the orientational correlation function in supercooled liquids on the picosecond-to-nanosecond time scales

Dynamics of five supercooled molecular liquids have been studied using optical heterodyne detected optical Kerr effect experiments. ``Intermediate'' time scale power law decays ($\ensuremath{\sim}2\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{p}\mathrm{s}$ to 1--10 ns) with temperature independent exponents close to $\ensuremath{-}1$ have been observed in all five samples from high temperature to $\ensuremath{\sim}{T}_{c}$, the mode-coupling theory (MCT) critical temperature. The amplitude of the intermediate power law increases with temperature as $[(T\ensuremath{-}{T}_{c})/{T}_{c}{]}^{1/2}$. The results cannot be explained by standard MCT, and one possible explanation within MCT would require the higher order singularity scenario, thought to be highly improbable, to be virtually universal.
Hysteretic threshold logic and quasi-delay insensitive asynchronous design

We introduce the class of hysteretic linear-threshold (HLT) logic functions as a novel extension of linear threshold logic, and prove their general applicability for constructing state-holding Boolean functions. We then demonstrate a fusion of HLT logic with the quasi-delay insensitive style of asynchronous circuit design, complete with logical design examples. Future research directions are also identified.
Fast Energetic “Happy-Go-Lucky” and Slow “Cautious” Response Styles

The left brain is specialized for the rapid processing of information in a logical serial fashion. This is exemplified in the processing advantage of the left brain for speech sounds, where a rapid series of phonemic sounds is analyzed and comprehended as well as organized for expression or repetition through a series of sequential motor movements. Moreover, the rapid temporal transitions required for speech favor the development of stronger left hemispheric responses over time due to the left hemisphere’s processing bias for rapid sequential analysis. Although we ascribe great intellectual advantage to the left brain, this may be a misinterpretation or misattribution as our measures of intelligence are often designed for success in school using verbal or linguistic measures and rapid sequential processing styles. Instead, the right brain is slow-paced and cautious allowing us to proceed when the determination has been made that the behaviors to engage in are safe and also appropriate for the setting and the rules of engagement. This analysis involves the social proprieties, social and political rules and implications, and just plain pragmatics of the behavior, should it be implemented or initiated in this contextual setting or in another. The right cerebral hemisphere provides for evaluation, more globally than sequentially, at a higher level of analysis beyond that which may be assessed by any extant intelligence test using pencil-and-paper measures.
Shape isomer excitation by mu-minus atomic capture?

Abstract The possibility of excitation of the 238 U shape-isomer by the atomic cascade of a negative muon has been investigated by a search for back-decay γ-rays. No candidates for such γ-rays have been found with yields greater than 1% per stopping muon, indicating that the probability of the isomer excitation by muons is less than 3%. The lifetime of a μ − bound to 238 U has been determined from capture γ-rays to be 79.1 ± 0.5 ns, which also set the upper limit of this probability to 7–15%.
Shared Social Fields: Evolutionary Convergence in Prehistory and Contemporary Practice

ABSTRACT In this article, I distinguish between evolutionary and historical perspectives on the past, adopting the concept of “social fields” to argue for a macrohistorical interpretation of the archaeological record. The unit of analysis is not an archaeological culture or civilization but social groups inextricably involved with other groups in weblike interconnections in which technologies are diffused and modified by other groups caught up in these same processes. Such interconnections can best be traced archaeologically by examining the spread of technologies and subsistence practices. Other macrohistorical perspectives on the past, such as world systems analysis, often demand too much of the archaeological record and are used anachronistically. Prehistory documents the ever-increasing participation of groups in social fields that ultimately converge. I conclude by emphasizing the need for a perspective on the past that emphasizes its shared nature in which all peoples have contributed and benefited from interactions with their neighbors.
Active surface reconstruction by integrating focus, vergence, stereo, and camera calibration

A method is described for estimating surfaces from stereo images. A single pair of stereo images can yield surface reconstruction for only a small volume of space. Since the scene may be large, images are obtained dynamically using different camera configurations through the control of focus and camera vergence. For smooth objects, this results in the reconstruction of surface patches that are contiguous and overlapping. These sequentially acquired surface maps are merged into a central. composite representation. During camera reconfiguration, unpredictable calibration errors may arise. Therefore, this method permits small changes in calibration parameter values to achieve agreement between adjacent reconstructed patches in the areas of overlap. To integrate the different sources of depth information, and to balance the effects they have on the resulting surface estimate, the surface reconstruction problem is formulated as one of optimization. >
The relationship of Asperger's syndrome to autism: a preliminary EEG coherence study

It has long been debated whether Asperger’s Syndrome (ASP) should be considered part of the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) or whether it constitutes a unique entity. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition (DSM-IV) differentiated ASP from high functioning autism. However, the new DSM-5 umbrellas ASP within ASD, thus eliminating the ASP diagnosis. To date, no clear biomarkers have reliably distinguished ASP and ASD populations. This study uses EEG coherence, a measure of brain connectivity, to explore possible neurophysiological differences between ASP and ASD. Voluminous coherence data derived from all possible electrode pairs and frequencies were previously reduced by principal components analysis (PCA) to produce a smaller number of unbiased, data-driven coherence factors. In a previous study, these factors significantly and reliably differentiated neurotypical controls from ASD subjects by discriminant function analysis (DFA). These previous DFA rules are now applied to an ASP population to determine if ASP subjects classify as control or ASD subjects. Additionally, a new set of coherence based DFA rules are used to determine whether ASP and ASD subjects can be differentiated from each other. Using prior EEG coherence based DFA rules that successfully classified subjects as either controls or ASD, 96.2% of ASP subjects are classified as ASD. However, when ASP subjects are directly compared to ASD subjects using new DFA rules, 92.3% ASP subjects are identified as separate from the ASD population. By contrast, five randomly selected subsamples of ASD subjects fail to reach significance when compared to the remaining ASD populations. When represented by the discriminant variable, both the ASD and ASD populations are normally distributed. Within a control-ASD dichotomy, an ASP population falls closer to ASD than controls. However, when compared directly with ASD, an ASP population is distinctly separate. The ASP population appears to constitute a neurophysiologically identifiable, normally distributed entity within the higher functioning tail of the ASD population distribution. These results must be replicated with a larger sample given their potentially immense clinical, emotional and financial implications for affected individuals, their families and their caregivers.
Copper-Platinum Deposition by Pulse Plating

In order to improve the mechanical properties of copper, pulse plating techniques were investigated for deposition of Cu-Pt alloys employing a pyrophosphate bath containing chloroplatinic acid as a source of platinum. Cyclic voltammetry experiments showed that the copper reduction is a two-step process and that platinum reduction occurs at potentials close to that observed for copper deposition. Forward peak current densities ranging from 2.5 to 7.5 A dm -2 were employed for the bulk electrodeposition experiments. Bright, shiny, and crack-free deposits were obtained at low current densities. The amount of platinum observed in the deposits was found to increase with the current impressed for both forward pulse and pulse reverse techniques. The Knoop hardness was found to increase with the platinum content of the deposits. The corrosion rate of the deposits measured in a solution of NaCl was found to decrease with platinum content. The data show that deposits containing up to 5.6 and 6.5 wt % of platinum can be obtained by forward pulse (only) and pulse reverse plating, respectively. As compared to a copper sample, the Cu-Pt deposits obtained by forward pulse and reverse pulse techniques exhibited a 31 and 55.4% increase in Knoop hardness, respectively. As compared to copper, up to a 45.4% increase in corrosion resistance was observed for deposits produced by the application of a forward pulse. The deposits obtained by pulse reverse exhibited a 35.6% improvement in corrosion resistance over those obtained by the forward pulse technique under identical forward peak current density.
Progressive Decrements in the Activity of Aplysia Neurones Following Repeated Intracellular Stimulation: Implications for Habituation

1. Repeated intracellular stimulation of nuerones from the isolated abdominal ganglion of Aplysia californica produced progressive response decrements with parametric features common to trans-synaptic models of habituation. 2. The probability that a constant intracellular pulse of depolarizing current would produce an action potential decreased with repeated stimulation, the response decrements developed with interstimulus intervals ranging from 2 to 10 sec. 3. In all cases, the response decrements were reversible with prolonged rest. 4. In some cases complete recovery did not occur for up to 20 min, which indicated that the spontaneous recovery process was long-term in nature. 5. As is typical of parametric studies of habituation, short, rather than long interstimulus intervals, and a weak, rather than a strong stimulus, produced greater response decrements. 6. These results demonstrate that an individual neurone shows response decrements as a function of repeated stimulation, which suggests that there are at least two processes responsible for the response decrements seen during trans-synaptic stimulation: ( a ) synaptic depression and ( b ) a depressive process originating in the post-synaptic neurone.
The allocation of spatial attention in the visual field in young adults, normal elderly and demented patients: The scanning focus model.

Spatial localization is a unique aspect of selective attention which precedes and facilitates other aspects of sensory processing. Despite its importance, the mechanism for the allocation of attention in space is unclear. Theories of spatial attention include spotlight models with variable enlargement of the attentional field, divided attention models with stationary discontinuity, the dynamic focusing model with continuous adjustment, or a scanning model with multiple attentional shifts. Each of these models explains some but not all of the characteristics of spatial attention reported in the literature. These characteristics suggest a new model, the scanning focus model, which is characterized by multiple attentional shifts with variable focal sizes ranging from a large low-resolution attentional field to a small high-resolution one. This project investigated the allocation of spatial attention in a blank field and the scanning focus model using a paradigm independent of peripheral acuity. Six tachistoscopic experiments presented single letters at different locations and under different conditions of attentional allocation. In Experiment I, reaction times were proportionally slower for stimuli occurring in a combination of three regions located at differe nt distances from the fixation point, as compared to stimuli occurring in each region alone. In Experiment II, reaction times were not disproportionately slowed to probe stimuli in an unanticipated region. In Experiments III and IV, reaction times increased with increases in the number of possible stimulus locations within single regions but not within regions in conditions containing more than one region. The pattern of findings for Experiments I-IV were less compatible with the other models of spatial attention than with the scanning focus model proposed here. Furthermore, two final experiments explored the changes in spatial attention in normal elderly and in demented subjects and found changes consistent with the proposed model. In conclusion, the literature on spatial attention and the results of this project suggest that the allocation of spatial attention in a blank field occurs by probability scanning of potential stimulus locations with attentional fields of different focal sizes and resolving powers, the scanning focus model.
Preparing Teachers to Integrate Technology Into K–12 Instruction: Comparing a Stand-Alone Technology Course With a Technology-Infused Approach

AbstractWe compared the effectiveness of learning technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) domain knowledge in a new technology-infused approach for teaching technology to teacher candidates with a more traditional, stand-alone course. In the new approach, learning to use technology is infused into program methods courses. Candidates all improved their TPACK domain scores. Interestingly, there were interactions of cohort × time of testing on the TPACK measures. Candidates' scores from the stand-alone course increased more rapidly for TK and TPK, whereas candidates' pre- to posttest scores from the technology-infused courses increased faster for CK and PK. Qualitative data also supported the quantitative results. In the discussion, we account for the differences, connect the results to the literature, and pose questions for consideration in future research.
Personalizing Knowledge Tracing: Should We Individualize Slip, Guess, Prior or Learn Rate?

The intelligent tutoring system field is concerned with ways of personalizing to the student. Wang and Heffernan introduced the Student Skill model and showed that it was reliably better than the Knowledge Tracing KT model in predictive accuracies. One limitation of their work is that they only investigated one particular way of personalizing, which individualizes all four KT parameters simultaneously. But it may be better if we just use some of the parameters to personalize the model. More generally, we want to address the research question: What are the most important features to personalize? In this work, we systematically explored all 16 possible ways of incorporating student features into the model. We found that prior and slip are the two most important features to individualize, and the best model is the one with all four parameters individualized. Additionally, the one parameter that can be dropped without any hurt to performance is guess.
Chinua Achebe's Blue Notes: Toward a Critical Recording of Things Fall Apart's Blues and Jazz Sensibility

Chinua Achebe’s classic Things Fall Apart has been widely translated, deservedly canonized, studied at schools worldwide, and examined from various disciplinary, theoretical, critical, and pedagogical angles. It is somewhat puzzling, however, that in the book’s now almost sixty-year life, and despite what seems evidentially glaring, there is not a single published record that I know of that attempts to investigate the story’s consolidative integrations of lyricized music and expressive performance or, more specifically in this case, reads the novel as a work that resonates a strong blues and jazz sensibility, a narrative that is also—for everything that has been said about it—amplifiable under the experiential, musical, and philosophic registers of blues and jazz. I argue that exploration of the novel through that overlooked blues and jazz lens yields substantial new knowledge about the novel and its deep crosscurrents and conversations with other African diaspora cultural and literary production.
Earth Sciences' Future for the Next Decade

The strategic justification for supporting scientific activities has largely depending on the understanding that research provided both national security in a time of global hostility involving the improvement of the economy, greater social equity, better health, better race relations, and enhancement of environmental quality, and widespread health benefits. In terms of curriculum in the Earth Sciences, the important point here is that study courses must evolve to accommodate the changing, enlarging body of knowledge as well as the ultimate career needs of the future degree holders. Growing subdisciplines needed in America include hydrology, hydrogeology, neotectonics, continental margin oceanography, engineering geology, geologic hazards, environmental science, aqueous geochemistry, and material sciences. Metamorphic petrologists are especially well-equipped with the fundamental knowledge from physics and chemistry as well as geology to treat the problems society wishes to address and solve. The situation provides us with a natural advantage, but to realize it, we must move our emphasis away from the traditional topics of metamorphic petrology.
Vibrational analysis of beryl (Be3Al2Si6O18) and its constituent ring (Si6O18)

The normal modes of vibration and their frequencies are calculated for beryl, a mineral whose crystal structures (space group D6h2) consists of six-membered silicate rings (Si6O18) linked by Be2+ and Al3+ ions. A valence force potential is used, consisting of central interactions between nearest neighbors and bond-bending interactions centered at the Si4+, Be2+, and Al3+ ions. The force constants are determined by fitting the calculated frequencies to the results of a complete study of the Raman spectra of a large single crystal. The calculated frequencies are in reasonable agreement with experiment, permitting unambiguous assignment of normal modes to the observed spectral lines. In several cases, the resulting interpretation of spectral features differs significantly from those published previously. Considerable mixing of Al and Be motions with those of the ring is found for the Raman-active modes near 750 cm−1 and above 850 cm−1, respectively. The normal modes and frequencies of the hypothetical isolated ring with C6h symmetry are determined by neglecting all interactions between the rings and the surrounding Be and Al atoms. This identification of normal modes characteristic of six-membered silicate rings and the effect of the environment of these modes may prove useful in the interpretation of infrared and Raman spectra of amorphous silicates.
Comparing cancer cell lines and tumor samples by genomic profiles

Cancer cell lines are often used in laboratory experiments as models of tumors, although they can have substantially different genetic and epigenetic profiles compared to tumors. We have developed a general computational method, TumorComparer, to systematically quantify similarities and differences between tumor material when detailed genetic and molecular profiles are available. The comparisons can be flexibly tailored to a particular biological question by placing a higher weight on functional alterations of interest (weighted similarity). In a first pan-cancer application, we have compared 260 cell lines from the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopaedia (CCLE) and 1914 tumors of six different cancer types from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), using weights to emphasize genomic alterations that frequently recur in tumors. We report the potential suitability of particular cell lines as tumor models and identify apparently unsuitable outlier cell lines, some of which are in wide use, for each of the six cancer types. In future, this weighted similarity method may be generalized for use in a clinical setting to compare patient profiles consisting of genomic patterns combined with clinical attributes, such as diagnosis, treatment and response to therapy.
Preparing high school students for college while training engineering students in “soft skills”

Introductory computer programming courses can be dry, with bored students often working on short, straightforward examples designed as programming drills, the results of which only their professors will ever see and which the students might not appreciate in a broader context. In college engineering programs, students spend much of their time developing their Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics skills, but when they graduate and start their work in the engineering industry they can be ill-equipped to communicate their ideas with other engineers, managers, and clients. The need to develop engineering students' communication skills has come up many times in discussion with industry representatives and at engineering education conferences. High school students, meanwhile, are usually focused on getting through high school and may have no idea what is expected of them when they enter college, which is a problem that the professors at Queensborough Community College have to face with each new group of students. In this work-in-progress paper I will describe why and how I have used the high-impact practice of service learning to help students reduce these deficits. I will describe the strategy I use of having the students in my introductory programming course solve word problems that require more thought in order to be solved. My students then present them as group projects to high school students in the final class session of the semester. The two groups of students then discuss the presentations and the college experience in general. This provides an engaging and memorable experience for all. This paper will describe successes and issues I have had since I started to use this method in the course.
Pre-initialized composition for large-vocabulary speech recognition.

This paper describes a modified composition algorithm that is used for combining two finite-state transducers, representing the context-dependent lexicon and the language model respectively, in large vocabulary speech recogntion. This algorithm is a hybrid between the static and dynamic expansion of the resultant transducer, which maps from context-dependent phones to words and is searched during decoding. The approach is to pre-compute part of the recognition transducer and leave the balance to be expanded during decoding. This method allows for a fine-grained trade-off between space and time in recognition. For example, the time overhead of purely dynamic expansion can be reduced by over six-fold with only a 20% increase in memory in a collection of large-vocabulary recognition tasks available on the Google Android platform.
Data Modeling in UML

The history of information systems modeling has been characterized by a plethora of techniques and notations, with occasional religious wars between proponents of different approaches. The modeling industry would benefit if practitioners agreed to use just a few standard modeling approaches, individually suited for their modeling scope, and collectively covering the tasks needed to model a wide variety of practical applications. This would improve communication between modelers and reduce training costs, especially in an industry with a high turnaround of employees. Recently, the rapid rise of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is accompanied by the claims that UML by itself is an adequate approach for modeling any software application. The UML notation includes a vast number of symbols, from which various diagrams may be constructed to model different perspectives of an application. This chapter discusses the main data modeling constructs in the UML and how they relate to object-role modeling (ORM). UML models are best developed by mapping them from ORM models and noting any additional ORM constraints as comments. The UML is a very important language that could well become popular for database design in the future.
Problems and Potentials in Paper Recycling

The U.S. consumed more than 60 million tons of paper and paperboard in 1973, about 20 percent of which was recycled. Steel is the only product that is consumed in larger quantities than paper. The principal disincentives for paper recycling are: (1) the ready availability of virgin wood fibers, (2) lack of research on recycling of paper, (3) economics favor the use of virgin fibers, and (4) contaminants in wastepaper present major problems in recycling. In spite of the large amount of wastepaper that is available, a wastepaper shortage occurred in 1973 and has continued into 1974 because of problems in collection, fluctuation of the wastepaper market, and lack of manufacturing capacity. It is anticipated that about 32 million tons of paper and paperboard are available for recycling. About 130 pulp mills with a capacity of 600 tons per day would be needed to recycle this amount of wastepaper, which would produce about 24 million tons of recycled paper. The capital for building these mills is not available, and if a large number of secondary fiber mills were built immediately, it would create chaos in the virgin fiber industry. It is suggested that market pulp mills, located in or near large municipalities, be erected as needed to provide the need for more market pulp. This secondary pulp would be available to many mills that now are not equipped to process wastepaper.
Marketing’s forthcoming Age of imagination

Imagination is essential to marketing scholarship and practice. However, it is neither well understood nor sufficiently used. This paper encourages giving more attention to imagination by highlighting issues meriting further understanding. Readers are encouraged to ask questions such as: Why is imagination important? What job does it perform? Are people inherently imaginative? What forces enhance and dampen imagination? What do you have when you have an imaginative thought? Some initial observations regarding these and related issues are provided to stimulate the reader’s thinking.
Shear-mediated platelet activation in the free flow: Perspectives on the emerging spectrum of cell mechanobiological mechanisms mediating cardiovascular implant thrombosis.

Abstract Shear-mediated platelet activation (SMPA) is central in thrombosis of implantable cardiovascular therapeutic devices. Despite the morbidity and mortality associated with thrombosis of these devices, our understanding of mechanisms operative in SMPA, particularly in free flowing blood, remains limited. Herein we present and discuss a range of emerging mechanisms for consideration for “free flow” activation under supraphysiologic shear. Further definition and manipulation of these mechanisms will afford opportunities for novel pharmacologic and mechanical strategies to limit SMPA and enhance overall implant device safety.
Determining Application Runtimes Using Queueing Network Modeling

Determination of application times-to-solution for large-scale clustered computers continues to be a difficult problem in high-end computing, which will only become more challenging as multi-core consumer machines become more prevalent in the market. Both researchers and consumers of these multi-core systems desire reasonable estimates of how long their programs will take to run (time-to-solution, or TTS), and how many resources will be consumed in the execution. Currently there are few methods of determining these values, and those that do exist are either overly simplistic in their assumptions or require great amounts of effort to parameterize and understand. One previously untried method is queuing network modeling (QNM), which is easy to parameterize and solve, and produces results that typically fall within 10 to 30% of the actual TTS for our test cases. Using characteristics of the computer network (bandwidth, latency) and communication patterns (number of messages, message length, time spent in communication), the QNM model of the NAS-PB CG application was applied to MCR and ALC, supercomputers at LLNL, and the Keck Cluster at USF, with average errors of 2.41%, 3.61%, and -10.73%, respectively, compared to the actual TTS observed. While additional work is necessary to improve the predictive capabilities of QNM, current results show that QNM has a great deal of promise for determining application TTS for multi-processor computer systems.
Dandy-Walker Malformation With Concomitant Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum as Investigated by Neonatal Sonography:

Dandy-Walker malformation and agenesis of the corpus callosum, although uncommon among all births, are commonly seen in association with one another due to the malformations’ effects on the central...
Bleeding Associated with Hormonal Contraceptives: Understanding and Managing a Common Problem

Changes in menstrual bleeding are common with hormonal contraceptives, and unfavorable bleeding profiles are leading reasons for method dissatisfaction and discontinuation. Studies suggest that acceptance of menstrual disturbance is highly dependent on appropriate counseling. This review presents an overview of the pathophysiology of uterine bleeding related to hormonal contraceptive use, the expected bleeding profiles of the various hormonal contraceptives, and evidence supporting various management strategies for treatment of unscheduled bleeding. Published trials on treatments for bleeding with hormonal contraceptives are heterogeneous in methodology and outcome measures. Overall, data show mixed results and disappointingly small treatment effects for medications studied to manage unscheduled bleeding. Short courses of NSAIDs and oral estrogen may have modest benefits. Tranexamic acid and mifepristone require larger trials and additional study. Treatment of bleeding associated with hormonal contraception hinges on understanding the bleeding profiles of the hormonal contraceptives, employing anticipatory counseling, and understanding the spectrum and limitations of treatment options for menstrual disturbance.
The Role of Glucocorticoids in Ischemic Cell Death

When the circulation to the brain is briefly interrupted and then restored, only certain neurons are damaged. This selective neuronal vulnerability after transient ischemia is found in many brain regions, but is perhaps most dramatic in the hippocampus. There, both CA1 and CA4 neurons are damaged, but CA1 neurons die only after a definite delay. This delay has been the focus of intense research in the past decade with the hope that a better understanding of this type of damage will lead to effective therapies which can be administered to patients after periods of transient ischemia.
Nonequilibrium thermodynamic modeling of carbon partitioning in quench and partition (Q&P) steel

Abstract The influence of partitioning temperature on carbon partitioning during the quench and partition (Q&P) cycle and the associated non-equilibrium phase transformation thermodynamics have been investigated. Lower partitioning temperatures are reported to result in higher carbon partitioning with varying austenite phase fraction. Thermodynamic simulations considering para-equilibrium conditions with an added temperature-dependent effective stored energy contribution have been shown to reasonably predict the retained austenite carbon content. The developed models have been validated with new alloy compositions, QP cycles and data from existing literature.
Expanding the Scope of Research Ethics Consultation Services in Safeguarding Research Integrity: Moving Beyond the Ethics of Human Subjects Research

The article by Porter and colleagues (2018) illustrates the value of research ethics consultants (RECs) to researchers, administrators, and academic institutions, but focuses primarily on their rol...
Face-It-Up: a scientific app for face processing using mobile devices and machine learning APIs

Image Processing and Computer Vision solutions have become commodities for software developers, thanks to the growing availability of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that encapsulate rich functionality, powered by advanced algorithms. Tech giants like Apple, Google, IBM, and Microsoft have made APIs and micro-services available in the cloud for the agile integration of machine learning and intelligent features onto everyday applications. As privacy and cyber welfare become prime concerns, special efforts have been devoted in the field of face processing and recognition. In this context, this paper provides a friendly, intuitive and fun to use mobile app that leverages the state-of-the-art APIs for face, age, gender and emotion recognition. The Face- It-Up app was implemented for the iOS platform and uses the Microsoft Cognitive Services APIs as a tool for human vision and face processing research. Experimental work on image compression, upside-down orientation, the Thatcher effect, negative inversion, high frequency, facial artifacts, caricatures and image degradation were performed to test the application. For this purpose, we used the Radboud and 10k US Adult Faces Databases. The app benefits from accessing high-resolution imagery and touch input from the smart-devices, allowing for a wide range of new experiments from the user perspective. Furthermore, our approach serves as a potential framework for new initiatives in image-based biometrics, the Internet of Things, and citizen science.
Intersegmental fusion in vertebrate rod photoreceptors. Rod cell structure revisited.

Purpose. To determine the cause of intersegmental fusion-a fusion between the plasma membranes of the inner and outer segments-in vertebrate rod cells. Methods. Rod cells from adult salamander, frog, and rat retinas were examined with electron microscopy. The fine structure of fusion and the frequency of occurrence were assessed in three types of preparations (intact eyeballs, eyecup preparations, and neural retinas detached from the retinal pigmented epithelium). The effects of temperature, depolarization, and calcium were examined in isolated neural retinas by maintaining retinas in culture under defined conditions. Retinas from anesthetized animals also were examined. Results. Intersegmental fusion in rod cells was consistently observed in all species after retinal detachment and maintenance in a standard Ringer's solution for 20 to 30 minutes. The amount of fusion seen in isolated amphibian retinas was sensitive to a number of factors : Elevated temperature increased the number of fused rod cells, whereas high KCI, low CaCl 2 , and Tricaine, which has calcium-related effects, reduced or prevented fusion. In attached retinas, fusion was seen infrequently ; the incidence of fused cells in amphibian eyecup preparations, however, could be increased by incubation in the cold. The extensive continuity between the inner and outer segments created by their fusion did not disrupt intracellular structure. Moreover, the fusion seemed to be reversible with time. Conclusions. Intersegmental fusion is a feature of vertebrate rod cells. Although seen predominantly after retinal detachment, it is influenced by factors that affect other well-known exoplasmic membrane fusions. Thus, it may be one of the many regulated membrane fusion-fission events within the rod photoreceptor. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 1995 ;36 :1918-1933.
Current Issues in Child Behavior Therapy

There are many issues facing behavior analysts/ therapists that will undoubtedly influence the way the science of behavior change is practiced with children, adolescents, and their families and teachers. Some of these issues arise from advancements in the science itself (e.g., functional assessment/ analysis, methods to improve treatment integrity), whereas others arise from changes driven largely by economically motivated contingencies (e.g., prescription privileges, managed care). Other issues arise from the broader field of psychology and have direct relevance to the professional identity of many behavior analysts/therapists (e.g., professional title [“behavior analyst” versus “school psychologist,” “clinical psychologist,” “counseling psychologist,” or “organizational psychologist”]). We will, in this chapter, address each of these issues and offer what we hope is a representative view shared by most behaviorists who read this book. Clearly, we cannot, and do not wish to, speak for all behaviorists. There is considerable disagreement and sometimes professional complacency regarding these issues and, like divorce, there are two sides to every issue. We will try to be fair in our discussion yet maintain integrity with the science to which this book is devoted.
The Association of Serum Carotenoids, Tocopherols, and Ascorbic Acid With Rapid Kidney Function Decline: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study.

Objective Nutritional intervention targeting dietary intake modification is a major component of treatment for chronic kidney disease; however, little is known about the relationship between dietary intake and kidney function decline in individuals with preserved kidney function. Design and methods In this prospective cohort study we examined the association of biomarkers of dietary intake with kidney function decline over a 5-year interval in 2,152 men and women with cystatin-C–based estimated glomerular filtration rate > 60 mL/minute/1.73 m2 from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study. The biomarkers of interest included carotenoids, tocopherols, and ascorbic acid. Multivariable logistic regression was used to explore the relationship between serum concentrations of the sum of 4 carotenoids (α-carotene, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, and lutein/zeaxanthin), lycopene, α-tocopherol, γ-tocopherol, and ascorbic acid and rapid kidney function decline, defined as .15% decline in cystatin-C–based estimated glomerular filtration rate over 5 years. Results During the 5-year follow-up, 290 participants (13.5%) experienced rapid kidney function decline. Relative to individuals in the lowest quartile of serum carotenoids, those in the highest quartile had significantly lower odds of rapid kidney function decline in the fully adjusted model (odds ratio, 0.51; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.32-0.80; P trend, .02). No association of levels of serum tocopherols, ascorbic acid, or lycopene with kidney function decline was found. There was no evidence that results differed for individuals with hypertension or diabetes. Conclusions These results demonstrate that higher serum carotenoid levels, reflective of a fruit- and vegetable-rich dietary pattern, inversely associate with rapid kidney function decline in early middle adulthood and provide insight into how diet might play a role in chronic kidney disease prevention.
Regional, Artery-Specific Thresholds of Quantitative Myocardial Perfusion by PET Associated with Reduced Myocardial Infarction and Death After Revascularization in Stable Coronary Artery Disease

Because randomized coronary revascularization trials in stable coronary artery disease (CAD) have shown no reduced myocardial infarction (MI) or mortality, the threshold of quantitative myocardial perfusion severity was analyzed for association with reduced death, MI, or stroke after revascularization within 90 d after PET. Methods: In a prospective long-term cohort of stable CAD, regional, artery-specific, quantitative myocardial perfusion by PET, coronary revascularization within 90 d after PET, and all-cause death, MI, and stroke (DMS) at 9-y follow-up (mean ± SD, 3.0 ± 2.3 y) were analyzed by multivariate Cox regression models and propensity analysis. Results: For 3,774 sequential rest-stress PET scans, regional, artery-specific, severely reduced coronary flow capacity (CFC) (coronary flow reserve ≤ 1.27 and stress perfusion ≤ 0.83 cc/min/g) associated with 60% increased hazard ratio for major adverse cardiovascular events and 30% increased hazard of DMS that was significantly reduced by 54% associated with revascularization within 90 d after PET (P = 0.0369), compared with moderate or mild CFC, coronary flow reserve, other PET metrics or medical treatment alone. Depending on severity threshold for statistical certainty, up to 19% of this clinical cohort had CFC severity associated with reduced DMS after revascularization. Conclusion: CFC by PET provides objective, regional, artery-specific, size-severity physiologic quantification of CAD severity associated with high risk of DMS that is significantly reduced after revascularization within 90 d after PET, an association not seen for moderate to mild perfusion abnormalities or medical treatment alone.
The Opioid Litigation Unicorn

This article examines the background and implications of the opioid multidistrict centralized in Cleveland. It argues that expectations for this litigation, particularly those base on parallels to the tobacco settlement of 1998, need tempering. The arguments advanced here are first, that concentrating on the MDL litigation may endorse the flawed gateway or vector analysis of the opioid overdose epidemic. Second, any compensation derived from successful prosecution of the litigation (or, more likely, its settlement), while not insignificant, is more likely to enrich the plaintiffs (politically) and their attorneys (financially) than make a major impact on the social and healthcare costs already incurred or begin to cure the adverse social determinants of health that underpin the epidemic. Third, even when measured against the flawed tobacco settlement of 1998, any settlement is unlikely to have a positive long-term impact or any major public health role after the checks have been written and cashed. Overall, the pessimistic position is taken that this “litigation unicorn” will deflect attention from the true causes of the opioid overdose epidemic (thereby averting appropriate remediation) while creating an improbable expectation that the settlement will fund either necessary treatment programs for those suffering from opioid use disorder (OUD) or their children suffering from neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).
Landscape analysis of adjacent gene rearrangements reveals BCL2L14–ETV6 gene fusions in more aggressive triple-negative breast cancer

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for 10 to 20% of breast cancer, with chemotherapy as its mainstay of treatment due to lack of well-defined targets, and recent genomic sequencing studies have revealed a paucity of TNBC-specific mutations. Recurrent gene fusions comprise a class of viable genetic targets in solid tumors; however, their role in breast cancer remains underappreciated due to the complexity of genomic rearrangements in this cancer. Our interrogation of the whole-genome sequencing data for 215 breast tumors catalogued 99 recurrent gene fusions, 57% of which are cryptic adjacent gene rearrangements (AGRs). The most frequent AGRs, BCL2L14-ETV6, TTC6-MIPOL1, ESR1-CCDC170, and AKAP8-BRD4, were preferentially found in the more aggressive forms of breast cancers that lack well-defined genetic targets. Among these, BCL2L14-ETV6 was exclusively detected in TNBC, and interrogation of four independent patient cohorts detected BCL2L14-ETV6 in 4.4 to 12.2% of TNBC tumors. Interestingly, these fusion-positive tumors exhibit more aggressive histopathological features, such as gross necrosis and high tumor grade. Amid TNBC subtypes, BCL2L14-ETV6 is most frequently detected in the mesenchymal entity, accounting for ∼19% of these tumors. Ectopic expression of BCL2L14-ETV6 fusions induce distinct expression changes from wild-type ETV6 and enhance cell motility and invasiveness of TNBC and benign breast epithelial cells. Furthermore, BCL2L14-ETV6 fusions prime partial epithelial-mesenchymal transition and endow resistance to paclitaxel treatment. Together, these data reveal AGRs as a class of underexplored genetic aberrations that could be pathological in breast cancer, and identify BCL2L14-ETV6 as a recurrent gene fusion in more aggressive form of TNBC tumors.
Keeping Students Occupied with the Course Contents After Leaving the Classroom

Keeping students engaged with the course contents between classes is challenging. Although out-of-class activities are used to address this challenge, they have limited impacts on improving student's engagement outside the classroom because of the lack of real-time feedback and progress updates. For this reason, these types of activities are less appealing to the current generation of students who feel the pull of instant gratification more intensely. This paper presents a mobile learning system, named Dysgu, which enables students to work on their out-of-class activities, compare their progress with the rest of the class, and improve their self-efficacy. The goal of Dysgu is to better engage students with out-of-class activities and reduce procrastination in those activities. By using Dysgu, faculty can facilitate and monitor learning even after the students leave the classroom and intervene early when students fall behind their peers.