cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The phylogenetic position of the Pterosauria within the Archosauromorpha re-examined

A previous analysis of the phylogenetic position of the Pterosauria argued that pterosaurs were not closely related to dinosaurs as is generally accepted, but rather were outside the crown group Archosauria. However, that study was dismissed for the use of inappropriate methods. Here, the data set from that analysis was divided into five partitions: one with characters associated with cursorial digitigrade bipedal locomotion and the other four with characters from the skull and mandible, postcranial axial skeleton, forelimb and hindlimb, respectively. The partitions were subjected to homogeneity testing, and the Cursorial partition was found to be incongruent with other partitions and all other characters at the α = 0.01 probability level. Deletion of the Pterosauria removed all significant incongruence, demonstrating that the incongruence results from the coding of pterosaurs for the cursorial characters. The cause of the incongruence was interpreted as homoplasy in hindlimb morphology, and after re-eval...
Incorporating Social Behaviors in Egress Simulation

Emergency evacuation (egress) is considered one of the most important issues in the design of buildings and public facilities. Given the complexity and variability in an evacuation situation, computational simulation tool is often used to help assess the performance of an egress design. Studies have revealed that social behaviors can have significant influence on the evacuating crowd during an emergency. Among the challenges in designing safe egress thus include identifying the social behaviors and incorporating them in the design analysis. Even though many egress simulation tools now exist, realistic human and social behaviors commonly observed in emergency situations are not supported. This paper describes an egress simulation approach that incorporates research results from social science regarding human and social behaviors observed in emergency situations. By integrating the behavioral theories proposed by social scientists, the simulation tool can potentially produce more realistic predications than current tools which heavily rely on simplified and, in most cases, mathematical assumptions.
Analysis on rabies in An County from 2008 to 2012

Objective To analyze the incidence of rabies after the earthquake disaster in An County from 2008 to 2012, to explore its control strategy. Methods Collected epidemiological data of rabies from 2008 to 2012. Results From 2008 to 2012, there were 8cases of rabies in An County, distributed in 6 towns of the county.Throughout the year, there were 3 months found rabies, the peaks in February and August; the main population were the farmers, most of them were aged 30 to 60-year-old; main injury from dogs and cats; patients after injury almost had no standard disposal and immunization.To the dog injuries, An County implemented a strategy that vaccinated cost included in the new rural cooperative reimbursement about 10 Yuan subsidies to staff inoculated a dog.Conclusion Because of increase in the number of dogs, poor management, wrong disposal of the exposed wound, economic constraints, patients don't vaccinate with rabies vaccine and rabies immune globulin, the government of An County make the appropriate decision-making for this situation.
Detection on the T-lymphocyte Subpopulations in HIV-infected Long Term Nonprogressors among Former Blood Donors in Henan Province

Objective To investigate the subpopulation and cytokines of T lymphocytes of HIV-infected long-term nonprogressors( LTNP) among former blood donors in Henan province,and their association with disease progression. Methods LTNP,asymptomatic HIV infected patients,AIDS patients and normal controls( 20persons in each group) were enrolled and flow cytometry was used to detect the expression of membrane molecules of CD4+and CD8+T cells in whole blood samples taken from the patients and the controls. The cytokines in the whole blood samples were determined by ELISA. Results The percentages of CD4+,CD4+CD45RA+,CD4+CD28+,CD4+CD45RO+,CD4+CD95+T cells in LTNP were significantly higher than that of asymptomatic group and AIDS patients( P 0. 05) respectively,while the percentages of CD8+,CD8+CD38+,CD8+CD95+T cells were significantly lower than that of these two groups( P 0. 05). The levels of IL-2,IFN-γ in LTNP were significantly higher than that of asymptomatic group and AIDS patients( P 0. 05) respectively,and although the levels of IL-10,TGF-β were higher than that of AIDS group( P 0. 05),but lower than the asymptomatic group( P 0. 05). Conclusion The percentage of variety of CD4+T and CD8+T lymphocyte subgroups and the levels of variety cytokines in LTNP are significant different with that of asymptomatic HIV-infected patients and AIDS patients,and they are the important factors to slow disease progression.
Developing Chinese Rural Special Education:Basis,Focus,Integration,Fulcrum

"Developing Chinese rural special education" is specifically proposed by Decision by Centre committee of CPC on some important issues regarding promoting country reform development.This article makes a systematic probes into the basis,focus,integration and fulcrum of developing Chinese rural special education, pointing out that the need of the time,short of money,harmony but not sameness and long-term mechanism are respectively the basis,focus,integration,fulcrum of developing Chinese rural special education.
Ant-Inspired Density Estimation via Random Walks: Extended Abstract

Many ant species employ distributed population density estimation in applications ranging from quorum sensing [21], to task allocation [9], to appraisal of enemy colony strength [1]. It has been shown that ants estimate density by tracking encounter rates -- the higher the population density, the more often the ants bump into each other [21,10].We study distributed density estimation from a theoretical perspective. We show that a group of anonymous agents randomly walking on a grid are able to estimate their density d to within a multiplicative factor 1± e with probability 1-δ in just O(log(1/δ)log(1/de)/de2) steps by measuring their encounter rates with other agents. Despite dependencies inherent in the fact that nearby agents may collide repeatedly (and, worse, cannot recognize when this happens), this bound nearly matches what is required to estimate d by independently sampling grid locations.From a biological perspective, our work helps shed light on how ants and other social insects can obtain relatively accurate density estimates via encounter rates. From a technical perspective, our analysis provides new tools for understanding complex dependencies in the collision probabilities of multiple random walks. We bound the strength of these dependencies using local mixing properties of the underlying graph. Our results extend beyond the grid to more general graphs and we discuss applications to social network size estimation, density estimation by robot swarms, and random walked-based sampling of sensor networks.
Learning in Dynamic Environments

In this chapter, the problem of drifting data streams in dynamic environments is formalized, and its framework is defined. Then, the kinds and characteristics of the concept drift are presented. Finally, the real-world applications generating drifting data streams are discussed. The goal is to give a picture of the problem of learning from data streams in dynamic environments, its causes, sources, and characteristics in order to discuss later alternatives to solve this problem.
Por qué hay tanta inseguridad económica en América Latina

La idea de que una inseguridad economica generalizada amenaza el respaldo politico a las reformas en curso orientadas al mercado ha pasado a ser una de las mas escuchadas en los debates actuales sobre los asuntos latinoamericanos. Por lo tanto, ocuparse de tal inseguridad parece ser un componente clave de la agenda inconclusa de las reformas latinoamericanas. El autor sostiene que en America Latina la inseguridad economica es multifacetica y proviene de muchas fuentes que se nutren reciprocamente. Parte de la inseguridad se debe a la declinacion de la proteccion del empleo y la mayor volatilidad de los resultados de los hogares, parte a flujos de capital erraticos y la inestabilidad sistemica generada por el divorcio entre los instrumentos de estabilizacion y la economia real y, por ultimo, parte importante a la debilidad de las instituciones de expresion (voz) y de representacion. Los programas de proteccion social per se solo dan una ayuda parcial. Habra que complementarlos con politicas macroeconomicas, en particular las relativas a los flujos de capital y el tipo de cambio, que contribuyan mas a la estabilidad de la economia real, y con la relajacion del control que ejercen los mercados financieros sobre los instrumentos de la politica macroeconomica. Asimismo, tendran que tener acceso a instituciones representativas --sindicatos, partidos politicos y organos legislativos-- con mayor sensibilidad y legitimidad que las que existen actualmente. Pero tal vez lo que mas necesita America Latina es una vision de como se puede mantener la cohesion social frente a grandes desigualdades y resultados volatiles, agravados ambos por una confianza creciente en las fuerzas del mercado. La region tendra que desarrollar una vision que ayude a aliviar la tension entre las fuerzas del mercado y las ansias de seguridad economica.
Incidence and characteristics of pleural effusions in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia- A 16 year experience

Introduction: Pleural effusions in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) occur infrequently.We present a comprehensive study of pleural effusions in CLL with a focus on etiology, characteristics of pleural fluid, and clinical outcome. Methods: The Mayo Clinic CLL database is a well-organized and established repository of information on all CLL patients seen at our institution from 1995 onwards and was used to identify all CLL patients who underwent a thoracentesis at our facility from Jan 2000 to Jan 2016. Results: 83/2160 CLL patients (3.8%) underwent one or more thoracentesis at our institution in the study period. A total of 44 patients underwent a single thoracentesis with 20 patients undergoing 2 thoracenteses and 19 patients undergoing 3 or more procedures (range 1-12). The median initial thoracentesis volume was 700 ml (IQR 198-1063 ml). Effusions were characterized as straw colored/clear in 34 patients; serosanguinous in 23; bloody in 14; milky in 2 and cloudy in 2 patients. Lights criteria classified these effusions as either transudative (n=22) or exudative (n=40). Pleural fluid lipid analysis was done in 23 patients of whom 8 were found to have a chylothorax. A total of 11 patients (13%) underwent either open thoracotomy or a video assisted thoracoscopy procedure in relation to the pleural effusion. Conclusions: We present our initial analysis of pleural effusions in patients with CLL. We report a 4% incidence of pleural effusions requiring thoracentesis in patients with CLL. Roughly half the patients experienced a recurrent pleural effusion that required a repeat thoracentesis and a substantial fraction required surgical thoracoscopy.
Antioxidant Mechanisms in the Heart: The Potential Involvement of Myoglobin

All aerobic biological systems are exposed to a variety of oxidants and oxygen-derived free-radicals. These reactive chemical species may arise from exogenous sources, e.g., xenobiotics and radiation. Alternatively, they may come from endogenous metabolic events and constituents, e.g., electron transport processes and the peroxidation of the fatty acid components of lipids. Living cells are protected from such substances by one or more important scavenger and compensatory systems. However, when the rates of oxidant formation exceed the capacity of detoxification systems, then pathology in the form of altered cellular function and ultimate cell death results. Oxidants are presumed to be the basis for several pathological and toxicological states. In particular, they seem to characterize ischemic-reperfusion disease in several organs including the heart. In this organ oxidant damage is thought to be the basis for deaths associated with coronary artery disease andmyocardial infarction.
I Forgot: Memory and Medication Adherence in Heart Failure

In an interesting article published in this issue of Circulation: Heart Failure , Dolansky et al1 report an association between memory and medication adherence in a sample of community-dwelling adults with reduced ejection fraction heart failure. They point out that subclinical cognitive impairment is common, and the medication regimen typical of patients with heart failure is complex and prone to error. After only 21 days of monitoring medication adherence, Dolansky et al documented that 47% of their sample of 309 patients failed to meet a basic level of adherence (80% of days compliant with the prescribed regimen). Major strengths of this …
Cyber physical attacks with control objectives and detection constraints

This paper studies attackers with control objectives and explicit detection constraints against cyber-physical systems. The cyber-physical system is equipped with a Kalman filter and an attack detector that uses the innovations process of the Kalman filter. The attacker performs an integrity attack on the actuators and sensors of the system with the aim of moving the system to a target state under the constraint that the probability of him or her being detected is equal to the false alarm probability of the attack detector. We formulate and solve a constrained optimization problem that gives the optimal sequence of attacks and demonstrate our attack strategy in a numerical example.
A non-archimedean analogue of the Calabi-Yau theorem for totally degenerate abelian varieties

We show an example of a non-archimedean version of the existence part of the Calabi-Yau theorem in complex geometry. Precisely, we study totally degenerate abelian varieties and certain probability measures on their associated analytic spaces in the sense of Berkovich.
Behaviour of Market Arrivals and Prices of Pearl Millet in Rajasthan

The present study was devoted to an analysis of behaviour of market arrivals and prices of pearl millet in Rajasthan. In Nagaur market, the arrivals in the peak period were maximum during last 10 years (2000-01 to 2009-10). These were in the range of about 55.91 (2003-04) to 79.92 per cent (2008-09) of the total arrivals. In Jodhpur market, the arrivals of pearl millet followed more or less the same pattern as in Nagaur. In Jaipur market, the arrivals in peak period were maximum. The maximum arrivals were in the peak period followed by mid-period and lean period. The seasonal indices analysis of arrivals and prices revealed that when major portion of the produce was received in the market, the prices were at the lowest. The correlation between arrivals and price in Jodhpur market was positive and statistically significant. This positive and significant correlation coefficient could be attributed to the off-season supplies of pearl millet which fetch higher prices. Trend analysis of arrivals of pearl millet in the selected markets of the State shows that the trend values of arrivals in Jaipur, Jodhpur and Nagaur showed an increasing trend over the years.
A new scheme for the inheritance of intelligence

A variety of theories pertaining to the inheritance of intelligence is examined and critized and a new scheme is presented. This assumes four pairs of genes acting cumulatively and accounts for the possibility of offspring ranging from the idiot to the genius level when the parents are dull normal. The schema is offered as the last word in genic explanations of the relationships between the IQ of parents and their offspring.
Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease Among Senior Medicare Beneficiaries Treated With Androgen Deprivation Therapy for Prostate Cancer

PurposeTo assess the relative risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) among patients with prostate cancer who received androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), after adjustment for other cancer therapies.MethodsData from demographics, survival, diagnoses codes, procedure codes, and other information about beneficiaries age 67 years or older in the Medicare claims database was assessed to determine the unadjusted and adjusted risks of AD and of dementia from ADT. The prespecified survival analysis method was competing risk regression.ResultsOf the 1.2 million fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries who developed prostate cancer in 2001 to 2014, 35% received ADT. Of these, 109,815 (8.9%) and 223,765 (18.8%) developed AD and dementia, respectively, and 26% to 33% died without either outcome. Unadjusted rates of AD and all-cause mortality per 1,000 patient-years were higher among ADT recipients; the unadjusted rates of AD were 17.0 and 15.5 per 1,000 person-years in recipients and nonrecipients, respectively, and the unad...
Bills of Rights with Strings Attached

Some constitutions use savings clauses to shield from judicial review laws that have been in force prior to their adoption, thus, fostering a unique dialogue between the representative bodies and the courts. They state that existing laws shall remain valid even if inconsistent with the constitution. Scholars view this phenomenon as esoteric, appearing in African or Caribbean countries alone. But this phenomenon is widespread, covering both civil law and commonlaw countries. Over the years, countries have used such provisions to shield discriminatory religious and gender practices, the death penalty, and even slavery. This puzzling phenomenon should have spurred discussion, yet there is no literature offering a comprehensive theoretical and comparative framework. When the rationale for adopting a savings clause is that existing law is good, this might lead to an originalist interpretation of the constitution. Past laws may affect the interpretation of the constitution rather than the opposite. In contrast, when savings clauses are adopted to stabilize the system or shield discriminatory practices, courts may try to read them narrowly to minimize their effects. Savings clauses suggest that constitutional development is more evolutionary than typically suggested. But these clauses might postpone rather than resolve the conflict over the most sensitive social issues. At times, no less than a revolution is needed to restart the constitutional system free of the burden of savings clauses.
Marketwatch: Beyond Competition

Managed care organizations often cannot be easily differentiated on the basis of organizational characteristics. Even the provider networks that competing health plans use may be virtually identical in response to employee pressure for broad provider choice. In markets with many undifferentiated networks, current approaches to quality improvement may be more intrusive than helpful. Health plans should delegate quality improvement activities to constituent provider groups and need to explore collaborative approaches to quality improvement. Although many are uncomfortable with using financial incentives to influence professional behavior, the use of capitation to restrain costs is inevitable. Instead of arbitrarily limiting financial incentives, consumers should be protected in market-compatible ways. In particular, expansive disclosure requirements and risk adjustment of both premiums and capitation payments are recommended as approaches that will reward high-quality care.
Recognizing actions during tactile manipulations through force sensing

In this paper we provide a method for identifying and temporally localizing tactile force actions from measured force signals. Our key idea is to use the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) with the Complex Morlet wavelet to transform force signals into feature vectors amenable to machine learning algorithms. Our method uses these feature vectors to train a classifier that recognizes different actions. We demonstrate our approach in a system that records human activities with an instrumented set of tongs. Our system successfully identifies a wide range of actions based on a small set of labeled examples.
Technology and Anaximander’s Cosmical Imagination

How shall we account for the origins of western philosophy, a tradition, following Aristotle, commonly traced back to the Milesian phusiologoi, or “nature-accounters,” like Thales and Anaximander? The field has been ripe with hypotheses. Aristotle offered a strictly economic hypothesis when he claimed that it was the availability of leisure, made possible by the wealth of economic surplus, that proved sufficient to account for the development of speculative thinking.1 Historians of science, like Sarton, advanced what might be called the intermingling of beliefs hypothesis, that the sharing of different ideologies in the interactions with different peoples on the west coast of Asia Minor led to a toleration for differing points of view and consequently an openness in thought for one’s own traditional beliefs.2 The literacy hypothesis, advanced by Goody and Watt, claimed that written records provided a sufficient condition to account for the distinct kind of critical evaluation characteristic of Greek philosophy.3 And others, like Farrington, argued on behalf of technology, that technological mastery is a sufficient condition for the development of the critical inquiry that characterizes the emergence of early Greek philosophy.4
General cognitive impairment as a risk factor for motor vehicle collision involvement: a prospective population-based study.

This study examined whether cognitive impairment and decline as assessed by a brief mental status screening test is associated with future crash risk in a cohort of older drivers. A three-year prospective study was conducted in a population-based sample of 2000 licensed drivers, aged 70 years and older. At the baseline visit, cognitive impairment was defined as <24 on the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE). Decline was defined as those with a one-year change in MMSE scores in the lowest quartile (largest decrease). Motor vehicle collision involvement was obtained from the Alabama Department of Public Safety. Poisson regression was used to calculate crude and adjusted rate ratios (RR). There were 278 crashes during the follow-up period. Rates of crash involvement were higher for those with cognitive impairment (crude RR = 2.33) compared to those without impairment at baseline; adjustment for potential confounders namely age and visual processing speed attenuated this relationship (adjusted RR = 1.26, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.65–2.44). Drivers who experienced a pronounced decline in estimated MMSE scores in one year were 1.64 (95% CI 1.04–2.57) times more likely to have a future at-fault crash, as compared to those whose scores did not decline. Evaluation of MMSE over time may provide important insight in an older driver’s future risk of at-fault crash involvement.
Univariate Ensemble Postprocessing

Abstract Weather forecast ensembles, consisting of multiple integrations of dynamical forecast models, are intended to represent effects of initial-condition sensitivity and model structural errors. They are computed in order to quantify uncertainties about future atmospheric behavior. Unfortunately, interpretation of a raw ensemble forecast as a sample from the predictive distribution of interest is generally not justified because the raw ensembles exhibit both bias errors and (most frequently, under-) dispersion errors. Accordingly, a variety of statistical techniques have been designed for postprocessing raw ensemble forecasts to yield more nearly unbiased and correctly calibrated predictive distributions. This chapter reviews methods that have been proposed for univariate ensemble postprocessing, yielding postprocessed predictive distributions for individual scalar prognostic variables. These encompass regression methods, including nonhomogeneous regressions; “ensemble dressing” methods, including Bayesian model averaging; fully Bayesian methods; and nonparametric methods such as quantile regression, individual-member adjustments, and “statistical learning” methods.
The Case of Rose of Aberlone - Michigan's Great Contribution to Contract Law

This paper explores the curious story behind the “Case of the Barren Cow,” a part of Michigan history that is known to every American lawyer and law student, and almost nobody else. It features Theodore Sherwood, a Plymouth banker who became Michigan’s first banking commissioner, and Hiram Walker, a Detroiter who made a fortune with Canadian Club whiskey and became known as the “Henry Ford of Canada” for his many innovations. Their epic 1886 lawsuit over a cow – “Rose 2d of Aberlone” – broke new legal ground and is still studied today in virtually every American law school. [Includes photographs.]
Multipath Scintillation Statistics Obtained From RF Measurements Near the Earth’s Surface

We report on 1.78 GHz RF near-horizontal multipath propagation measurements, in both California and New Hampshire, taken over various links where there is no direct clear line of sight. This report deals specifically with the time-dependent fluctuations of the RF signal, which were observed in the time history of the received signals at various sites. We characterize and discuss the general statistical features of multipath scintillation and discuss the differences between the orders of magnitude enhanced scintillation index (SI) (defined as the variance of the received RF power divided by the square of the mean of the RF power) observed for multipath and that obtained for clear line-of-sight paths. To the best of our knowledge, for the first time reported in the literature, we have observed and statistically quantified multipath scintillation conditions where the SI is both of the order and greater than unity. The observed probability distributions of multipath scintillation are compared with several candidate distributions, and the Nakagami-m and the gamma–gamma distribution emerge as the preferred distributions for weak-to-moderate and moderate-to-strong scintillation conditions, respectively. The observed level crossing statistics of the multipath signal is compared with theory, where good agreement is obtained for all cases of concern.
From micro to macro-contaminants: The impact of low-energy titanium dioxide photocatalysis followed by filtration on the mitigation of drinking water organics.

Abstract This study evaluated strategies targeting macro- and micro-organic contaminant mitigation using low-energy titanium dioxide photocatalysis. Energy inputs of 1, 2, and 5 kWh m−3 resulted in incomplete oxidation of macro-organic natural organic matter, signified by greater reductions of UV254 and specific ultraviolet UV absorbance (SUVA) in comparison to dissolved organic carbon (DOC). The rate of UV254 removal was 3 orders of magnitude greater than the rate of DOC degradation. Incomplete oxidation improved operation of downstream filtration processes. Photocatalysis at 2 kWh m−3 increased the bed life of downstream granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration by 340% relative to direct filtration pretreatment. Likewise, photocatalysis operated ahead of microfiltration decreased fouling, resulting in longer filter run times. Using 2 kWh m−3 photocatalysis increased filter run time by 36 times in comparison to direct filtration. Furthermore, levels of DOC and UV254 in the membrane permeate improved (with no change in removal across the membrane) using low-energy photocatalysis pretreatments. While high-energy UV inputs provided high levels of removal of the estrogenic micro-organics estrone (E1), 17β-estradiol (E2), estriol (E3), and 17α-ethynlestradiol (EE2), low-energy photocatalysis did not enhance removal of estrogens beyond levels achieved by photolysis alone. In the cases of E1 and E3, the addition of TiO2 as a photocatalyst reduced degradation rates of estrogens compared to UV photolysis. Overall, process electrical energy per order magnitude reductions (EEOs) greatly improved using photocatalysis, versus photolysis, for the macro-organics DOC, UV254, and SUVA; however, energy required for removal of estrogens was similar between photolysis and photocatalysis.
Aberrant RNA Splicing in Cancer and Drug Resistance

More than 95% of the 20,000 to 25,000 transcribed human genes undergo alternative RNA splicing, which increases the diversity of the proteome. Isoforms derived from the same gene can have distinct and, in some cases, opposing functions. Accumulating evidence suggests that aberrant RNA splicing is a common and driving event in cancer development and progression. Moreover, aberrant splicing events conferring drug/therapy resistance in cancer is far more common than previously envisioned. In this review, aberrant splicing events in cancer-associated genes, namely BCL2L1, FAS, HRAS, CD44, Cyclin D1, CASP2, TMPRSS2-ERG, FGFR2, VEGF, AR and KLF6, will be discussed. Also highlighted are the functional consequences of aberrant splice variants (BCR-Abl35INS, BIM-γ, IK6, p61 BRAF V600E, CD19-∆2, AR-V7 and PIK3CD-S) in promoting resistance to cancer targeted therapy or immunotherapy. To overcome drug resistance, we discuss opportunities for developing novel strategies to specifically target the aberrant splice variants or splicing machinery that generates the splice variants. Therapeutic approaches include the development of splice variant-specific siRNAs, splice switching antisense oligonucleotides, and small molecule inhibitors targeting splicing factors, splicing factor kinases or the aberrant oncogenic protein isoforms.
The Energetics of Fermentation in Natural Settings

Fermentation plays a fundamental role in organic carbon degradation on a global scale. However, little is known about how environmental variables influence this process. In a step towards quantifyi...
A Cadaver-Based Course for Humanitarian Surgery Improves Manual Skill in Powerless External Fixation.

Abstract Background General surgery residents interested in humanitarian careers may benefit from supplemental training beyond modern residency. The Colorado Humanitarian Surgical Skills Workshop is a 2-d cadaver-based course for senior surgical residents, teaching low-resource skills across multiple specialties, including orthopedics. We assessed the course's ability to transmit manual competence in a critical humanitarian surgical skill, powerless lower extremity external fixation. Materials and methods We created a novel standardized manual skills test of powerless lower extremity external fixation. Course participants had no prior experience with this technique. At course initiation, paired participants attempted to stabilize a proximal tibia-fibula fracture in a cadaver. Subsequently, participants received didactics from orthopedic surgeons followed by hands-on practice. At course completion, paired participants repeated the exercise. Fixator constructs were scored using standardized criteria. Precourse and postcourse surveys measured participants' level of confidence in performing external fixation. Results Twelve senior surgical residents were included. Average scores of external fixator constructs improved significantly (23% pre versus 75% post, P Conclusions Participants in a short cadaver-based workshop demonstrated significant improvements in manual skill and confidence related to powerless external fixation. However, additional training is likely required to achieve clinical competence.
Fear of childbirth from the perspective of midwives working in hospitals in Norway: A qualitative study.

Aim To illuminate the perceptions of hospital-based midwives who support women suffering from moderate to severe fear of childbirth during an expected vaginal birth. Design A qualitative descriptive and explorative study. Methods Focus group interviews were conducted with 18 midwives representing four different hospitals in Norway. Results Encountering fear of childbirth evoked the desire to protect and help, although the ability to provide optimal support was dependent on several circumstances, several of which were beyond the midwives control. The main theme "Midwives finding their own strength when encountering the vulnerability of women with fear of childbirth" consisted of two themes: "Being present" and "Being alone." The midwives described being present as a prerequisite for continuity of care and affirmation. The emphasis on continuity of care could give rise to a sense of loneliness and guilt during and after demanding situations in the birthing room.
Cerebral Blood Flow Restoration After Decompressive Craniectomy in Cold Induced Brain Edema

In neurosurgical practice different viewpoints have been expressed about the value of decompressive craniectomy as a last resource to control untreatable ICP elevations [2]. In an experimental model of cold induced brain injury we examined the effects of an appropriately tailored cranio-dural opening on whole brain perfusion and on local fluid dynamics. An edematous lesion induced by cold injury produces a critical mass effect and compromises the volume buffering capacity of the intracranial system. This produces an increase in the cerebrovascular resistance (CVR) thereby generating a vicious circle which can enhance edema formation. It is supposed that cranio-dural removal, opening the intracranial system to the atmosphere and reducing ICP, could facilitate the cerebral venous outflow from the skull, thereby decreasing the CVR and disrupting the vicious circle linking primary and secondary pathological events.
The ever-expanding tcp conjugation locus of pCW3 from Clostridium perfringens

Abstract The spore-forming, anaerobic Gram positive pathogen Clostridium perfringens encodes many of its disease-causing toxins on closely related conjugative plasmids. Studies of the tetracycline resistance plasmid pCW3 have identified many of the genes involved in conjugative transfer, which are located in the tcp conjugation locus. Upstream of this locus is an uncharacterised region (the cnaC region) that is highly conserved. This study examined the importance in pCW3 conjugation of several highly conserved proteins encoded in the cnaC region. Conjugative mating studies suggested that the SrtD, TcpN and Dam proteins were required for efficient pCW3 transfer between C. perfringens cells from the same strain background. The requirement of these proteins for conjugation was amplified in matings between C. perfringens cells of different strain backgrounds. Additionally, the putative collagen adhesin protein, CnaC, was only required for the optimal transfer of pCW3 between cells of different strain backgrounds. Based on these studies we postulate that CnaC, SrtD, TcpN and Dam are involved in enhancing the transfer frequency of pCW3. These studies have led to a significant expansion of the tcp conjugation locus, which now encompasses a 19 kb region.
Islamist parties, intraparty organizational dynamics, and moderation as strategic behaviour

This paper highlights the intraparty institutional dynamics at play that influence Islamist party moderation and its manifest behaviour and ideology. We conceive of moderation as a strategically co...
Metformin attenuates steroidogenesis in ovarian follicles of the broiler breeder hen

The follicular hierarchy in broiler breeder chicken ovary is often deranged due to excessive ovarian follicular recruitment, resulting in a condition that resembles polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in women. Metformin is widely prescribed to correct PCOS and has been shown to affect granulosa cell functions in humans and rodent models. The objectives of this study are to determine the effects of metformin on signal transduction pathways, gene expression related to steroidogenesis, and progesterone secretion from granulosa cells isolated from the most recently recruited preovulatory and prehierarchical follicles of broiler breeder chickens. Granulosa cells were treated with 0, 1, 10, or 20 mM of metformin in the presence of FSH. The abundance of pAMPK, pACC, pERK, and pAkt was determined by Western blotting. The expression of genes related to progesterone biosynthesis was quantified by qPCR. Progesterone concentrations in culture media were quantified by ELISA. Metformin treatment did not have an effect on the abundance of pAMPK and pACC in prehierarchical follicles but significantly decreased the abundance of pERK and pAkt in a dose-dependent manner in preovulatory and prehierarchical follicles. The expression of genes related to steroidogenesis such as FSHR, STAR, CYP11A1, HSD3B, and progesterone secretion was significantly decreased in response to metformin treatment in a dose-dependent manner. Our data suggest that metformin treatment attenuates progesterone secretion via AMPK-independent pathways in granulosa cells of prehierarchical and preovulatory follicles of broiler breeder hens. Further studies are required to determine if metformin administration could ameliorate ovarian dysfunction in obese broiler breeder hens.
A Bayesian adaptive reservoir operation framework incorporating streamflow non-stationarity

Abstract Water reservoir operating rules are typically derived based on the assumption of streamflow stationarity, however, this assumption could be undermined by climate change. Adaptive reservoir operation is one of the most effective strategies to support water resources management under non-stationarity, yet until now, adaptive strategies considering non-stationarity across multiple time scales are rarely investigated. We propose an adaptive reservoir operation framework that incorporates streamflow non-stationarity across time scales simultaneously. Specifically, we first decompose the streamflow into four frequency categories to detect non-stationarity features through reservoir operation simulations. Next, we incorporate the non-stationarity information from each frequency category into adaptive reservoir operation by using Bayesian Model Averaging. We apply this framework to reservoir operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile River and evaluate its effectiveness with streamflow simulated from 21 general circulation models (GCMs) for two greenhouse gases emission scenarios. We find that streamflow non-stationarity from all GCMs varies by future period and frequency category. The proposed Bayesian adaptive reservoir operation framework can detect streamflow non-stationarity across all frequency categories and predominantly outperforms conventional adaptive strategies, especially in terms of firm power output. In general, firm output increases under the Bayesian framework as the power generation reliability increases. The proposed framework offers a robust approach to identify adaptive strategies for reservoir operation to address streamflow non-stationarity.
Openly accessible low-cost measurements in PM2.5 exposure modeling: guidance for monitor deployment

BACKGROUND AND AIM: High-resolution, high-quality exposure modeling is critical for assessing the health effects of PM2.5 in epidemiological cohorts. Sparse ground-level PM2.5 measurements, as key ...
Structures of Vanadium-Containing Silicate and Borosilicate Glasses: Vanadium Potential Development and MD Simulations

Abstract Vanadium-containing multi-component oxide glasses have found a variety of applications ranging from energy storage, sensing, to nuclear waste disposal. However, their complex structures, partly caused by the co-existence of multi-oxidation states of vanadium ions, lead to the challenges in experiments to understand the structural features and structural origin of the property change of these glasses. In this work, we aimed to develop compatible vanadium-related parameters for a widely used effective partial charge potential set to enable the simulations of the vanadium-containing multi-component oxide glasses (Deng and Du, J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 102(2019)2482). Various vanadium containing oxide crystal structures and model glass compositions (with vanadium in different oxidation states) have been used as targets to fit and refine the newly developed parameters. Both the experimental crystal structures and mechanical properties were used in the fitting process. Glass structures were characterized by performing cation coordination number, pair distribution function, and bond angle distribution analysis. The obtained parameters have been shown to be able to simulate the vanadium-containing aluminosilicate, phosphate, and borate glasses and describe the local environments of vanadium ions with various oxidation states with reasonable accuracy in comparison with available experimental data. This development thus enables atomistic simulations of vanadium containing oxide glasses to understand the structural role of vanadium ions in these glasses and how the struacture features affect various glass properties hence assist the design of vanadium containing glasses for various technological applications.
Concurrent decompression and resection versus decompression with delayed resection of acutely ruptured brain arteriovenous malformations.

OBJECTIVE Brain arteriovenous malformations (bAVMs) most commonly present with rupture and intraparenchymal hemorrhage. In rare cases, the hemorrhage is large enough to cause clinical herniation or intractable intracranial hypertension. Patients in these cases require emergent surgical decompression as a life-saving measure. The surgeon must decide whether to perform concurrent or delayed resection of the bAVM. Theoretical benefits to concurrent resection include a favorable operative corridor created by the hematoma, avoiding a second surgery, and more rapid recovery and rehabilitation. The objective of this study was to compare the clinical and surgical outcomes of patients who had undergone concurrent emergent decompression and bAVM resection with those of patients who had undergone delayed bAVM resection. METHODS The authors conducted a 15-year retrospective review of consecutive patients who had undergone microsurgical resection of a ruptured bAVM at their institution. Patients presenting in clinical herniation or with intractable intracranial hypertension were included and grouped according to the timing of bAVM resection: concurrent with decompression (hyperacute group) or separate resection surgery after decompression (delayed group). Demographic and clinical characteristics were recorded. Groups were compared in terms of the primary outcomes of hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) lengths of stay (LOSs). Secondary outcomes included complete obliteration (CO), Glasgow Coma Scale score, and modified Rankin Scale score at discharge and at the most recent follow-up. RESULTS A total of 35/269 reviewed patients met study inclusion criteria; 18 underwent concurrent decompression and resection (hyperacute group) and 17 patients underwent emergent decompression only with later resection of the bAVM (delayed group). Hyperacute and delayed groups differed only in the proportion that underwent preresection endovascular embolization (16.7% vs 76.5%, respectively; p 0.99). Medical complications were similar in the two groups (33% hyperacute vs 41% delayed, p > 0.99). Short-term clinical outcomes were better for the delayed group based on mRS score at discharge (4.2 vs 3.2, p < 0.05); however, long-term outcomes were similar between the groups. CONCLUSIONS Ruptured bAVM rarely presents in clinical herniation requiring surgical decompression and hematoma evacuation. Concurrent surgical decompression and resection of a ruptured bAVM can be performed on low-grade lesions without compromising LOS or long-term functional outcome; however, the surgeon may encounter a more challenging surgical environment.
Introduction: Approach and Conceptualization

The Soviet Union, a multinational state consisting of 131 distinct ethnic and linguistic groups, claims that its nationalities problem is “solved,”1 and offers itself as a model for multiethnic societies of the developing world.2 Yet the evidence is overwhelming that the CPSU leadership has for the last decade and a half faced a national and ethnic challenge of grave and growing proportions. The increasingly visible resurgence of self-assertiveness on the part of the USSR’s non-Russian nationalities has its modern roots in the rehabilitation of deported nationalities and the denunciation of Stalin’s repression of minority nationalities following Khrushchev’s Secret Speech at the 20th Party Congress in February, 1956; in the real and symbolic concessions to national sentiment made in bids for support in the non-Russian republics by the contenders for Stalin’s succession; and in the general atmosphere of liberalization that accompanied Khrushchev’s “thaw.” But while these and other less dramatic developments were certainly triggering events, the factors underlying and exacerbating this new ethnic nationalist challenge - the emergence of what Teresa Rakowska-Harmstone has called a “new type of nationalism” to distinguish it from the “traditional” nationalism of now extinct elites3 - are themselves the products of policies of social transformation, which doctrine had held would create the conditions for a new, unified society.
Lectins and legume chemotaxonomy: Characterisation of the N-acetyl-D-galactosamine specific lectin of Bauhinia purpurea

The composition, circular dichroism (CD) and N-terminal amino acid sequence of the lectin from Bauhinia purpurea, a member of the Caesalpinioideae subfamily, are reported. The lectin has one cysteine residue and the CD in the aromatic region is unusually high for plant lectins. The N-terminal sequence shows much stronger homology to that of another Caesalpinioideae lectin Griffonia simplicifolia GSI than to sequences of Papilinoideae lectins. However, its composition and CD differ from those of GSI, which more closely resemble those of Papilinoideae lectins of similar specificity.
On Molecular Rydberg Term Values

If the basis set of atomic orbitals for the >C = 0 group is restricted to the two 2pπAO′s xc and xo, which lie perpendicular to the sp2 hybridization plane defined on the carbon center, and to the non-bonding AO of oxygen, no, which lies in the hybridization plane and is perpendicular to the C = 0 axis, it is not difficult to show that the ionization potential of the π-electron is related to the energy of the π* ← π transition by2 $$ {{\rm{I}}_\pi } = {\rm{ 0}}{\rm{.5h}}{\nu _{\pi \pi }}*{\rm{ - K}}\left( {{\alpha _{\rm{c}}}{\rm{ + }}{\alpha _{\rm{o}}}} \right)/2. $$ (.....1) No simple relation between the ionization potential of the n-electron and the energy of the π* ← n transition is formulable; however, Iπ and h nπ* can be connected via $$ {{\rm{I}}_\pi } = {\rm{ h}}{\nu _{{\rm{n}}\pi }}*{\rm{ - }}\left( {3/2} \right){\rm{K}}{\alpha _{\rm{c}}}, $$ (.....2) where αc and αo are Coulomb integrals for 2pπ electrons on carbon and oxygen, respectively, and K is a scaling factor. Granted the constancy of αc and αo throughout a series of carbonyl-containing molecules, it follows that Eqs. 1 and 2 define very simple linearities which are subject to experimental test.