cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Recent advances in transcatheter pulmonary valve delivery.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Transcatheter pulmonary valve replacement has only been both approved and widely available for most congenital heart disease centers for a few years; its use and familiarity for interventionalists have greatly expanded our knowledge of its applicability to a multitude of clinical situations. Expanded worldwide use and longer time from implant have both served to better understand procedural limits and uncommon late adverse events. RECENT FINDINGS Although currently approved for implantation in the USA only in dysfunctional and circumferential right ventricle to pulmonary artery conduits, with expanded experience operators have been able to adapt the delivery of this valve in a large number of additional clinical scenarios. Rare technical limitations of the procedure, most importantly coronary compression, are now being better defined. Although not frequent, a significant number of infective endocarditis episodes have been reported, but more recently several studies have deepened our understanding of this late adverse event for the most commonly implanted transcatheter pulmonary valve prosthesis. SUMMARY Expanded and widened use has extended our understanding of who may benefit from transcatheter pulmonary valve implantation (TPVI), the current limits of TPVI, and uncommon but important late issues following TPVI.
Diagnosis and management of sarcoidosis

Sarcoidosis is a systemic disease of unknown etiology characterized by the presence of noncaseating granulomas in any organ, most commonly the lungs and intrathoracic lymph nodes. A diagnosis of sarcoidosis should be suspected in any young or middle-aged adult presenting with unexplained cough, shortness of breath, or constitutional symptoms, especially among blacks or Scandinavians. Diagnosis relies on three criteria: (1) a compatible clinical and radiologic presentation, (2) pathologic evidence of noncaseating granulomas, and (3) exclusion of other diseases with similar findings, such as infections or malignancy. An early and accurate diagnosis of sarcoidosis remains challenging, because initial presentations may vary, many patients are asymptomatic, and there is no single reliable diagnostic test. Prognosis is variable and depends on epidemiologic factors, mode of onset, initial clinical course, and specific organ involvement. The optimal treatment for sarcoidosis remains unclear, but corticosteroid therapy has been the mainstay of therapy for those with significantly symptomatic or progressive pulmonary disease or serious extrapulmonary disease. Refractory or complex cases may require immunosuppressive therapy. Despite aggressive treatment, some patients may develop life-threatening pulmonary, cardiac, or neurologic complications from severe, progressive disease. End-stage disease may ultimately require lung or heart transplantation for eligible patients.
A Single-fluor approach to DNA sequence determination using laser- induced fluorescence and capillary gel electrophoresis

The Tabor and Richardson strategy for enzymatic chain termination sequencing of DNA using relative peak intensity has been adapted to capillary gel electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection (CGE/LIF). This approach to DNA sequencing involves the use of only a single fluor and results in significant reduction in the time required to determine a DNA sequence without the use of highly complicated and expensive instrumentation.
Fallstudien zur Identifikation von Erfolgsfaktoren internationaler Marktbearbeitungsstrategien der Marke Volkswagen

1m Rahmen der Ausgangssituation und des historischen Hintergrunds wird im Vorfeld zu den Fallstudien eine Zusammenfassung iiber die generelle internationale Entwicklung von VW sowie erster Anhahspunkte iiber das allgemeine strategische Vorgehen des Unternehmens im Untersuchungszeitraum vorgestellt.
A phase II trial of the aurora kinase A inhibitor MLN8237 in patients with metastatic castrate resistant and neuroendocrine prostate cancer.

TPS5096 Background: NEPC can rarely arise de novo but more commonly arises as a mechanism of resistance in the setting of advanced prostate cancer. Transformation to NEPC is likely promoted by pote...
Ligament Histology, Composition, Anatomy, Injury, and Healing Mechanisms

This chapter illustrates some of the properties of ligaments related to their histology, composition, anatomy, injury and healing mechanisms. The chapter also includes the biochemical composition of these tissues, as well as a comparison between the ACL and MCL. We describe an in vitro model assessing the intrinsic properties of the ACL and MCL cells, as well as different morphological factors related to their healing.
Flora and Fauna in Willa Cather's O PIONEERS!

Willa Cather's novel O Pioneers! is primarily the story of Alexandra Bergson and Marie Shabata and the lives afforded to them on the Nebraskan prairie. For Alexandra, it is a life purposefully devo...
The Present of Newsworthiness

In early February 2016, less than a week before this Book Symposium, the Utah Supreme Court decided that the photographic results of a woman’s plastic surgery were not necessarily newsworthy. The decision may seem inconsequential at first. The plaintiff had an abdominoplasty and breast augmentation and agreed that photos be taken “for medical, scientific or educational purposes.” Fox News later aired partially redacted photographs of her nude body and post-operative state in a news story about the benefits and risks of plastic surgery. The plaintiff settled with Fox, but filed a privacy-based lawsuit against her plastic surgeon. The Utah Supreme Court heard the case after a trial court dismissal and decided That the plaintiff’s privacy tort claims should continue. As regarding publication of private facts, the tort most relevant to this Symposium Paper, the court decided for the first time that such claims should include a newsworthiness element and defined the element in line with the Restatement (Second) of Torts. News, the court wrote, “is a concept that has essentially been defined by traditional publishers and broadcasters, ‘in accordance with the mores of the community.’” Therefore, in Utah, if a truthful news item is newsworthy, but privacy-invading, the newsworthiness of the information can trump the plaintiff’s privacy interests.
Static Multicriteria Problems: Necessary Conditions and Sufficient Conditions 1

Abstract Static optimization problems where there is a single decision maker with multiple goals or where there are N players, each with his own cost functions, are considered. In both cases, the cost is affected by outside agents – antagonistic players or nature – who choose their variables to maximize the cost. Necessary conditions and sufficient conditions are presented for these problems and the use of the conditions is illustrated by examples.
Sampling Methods and Sample Populations in Quantitative Mass Communication Research Studies: A 15-Year Census of Six Journals

This study evaluated the sampling methods and sample populations used in all U.S.-based survey and experimental mass communication studies published between 2000 and 2014 in six major journals (N =...
Heuristics-based approach for identifying critical N — k contingencies in power systems

Reliable operation of electrical power systems in the presence of multiple critical N — k contingencies is an important challenge for the system operators. Identifying all the possible N — k critical contingencies to design effective mitigation strategies is computationally infeasible due to the combinatorial explosion of the search space. This paper describes two heuristic algorithms based on the iterative pruning of the candidate contingency set to effectively and efficiently identify all the critical N — k contingencies resulting in system failure. These algorithms are applied to the standard IEEE-14 bus system, IEEE-39 bus system, and IEEE-57 bus system to identify multiple critical N — k contingencies. The algorithms are able to capture all the possible critical N — k contingencies (where 1 ≤ k ≤ 9) without missing any dangerous contingency.
Thyroid and Thyroid Disorders

Thyroid secretions have diverse effects on the peripheral and central nervous systems. Both hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism produce prominent cognitive–behavioral changes and neuromuscular diseases. Many symptoms of hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism resolve with restoration of a euthyroid state. Graves' disease is an autoimmune hyperthyroidism that can be accompanied by an infiltrative ophthalmopathy. Hashimoto's encephalopathy is an autoimmune encephalopathy that is typically associated with antithyroid antibodies. Both disorders are generally treated with immunosuppressive therapies.
Surface biodegradation behavior of rare earth- containing magnesium alloys with different microstructure: the impact on apatite coating formation on the surface

Magnesium alloys have significant potential as load-bearing biodegradable implants. However, controlling the biodegradation rate in the physiological environment is a challenge. In this study, we e...
Learning Attack Features from Static and Dynamic Analysis of Malware

Malware detection is a major challenge in today’s software security profession. Works exist for malware detection based on static analysis such as function length frequency, printable string information, byte sequences, API calls, etc. Some works also applied dynamic analysis using features such as function call arguments, returned values, dynamic API call sequences, etc. In this work, we applied a reverse engineering process to extract static and behavioral features from malware based on an assumption that behavior of a malware can be revealed by executing it and observing its effects on the operating environment. We captured all the activities including registry activity, file system activity, network activity, API Calls made, and DLLs accessed for each executable by running them in an isolated environment. Using the extracted features from the reverse engineering process and static analysis features, we prepared two datasets and applied data mining algorithms to generate classification rules. Essential features are identified by applying Weka’s J48 decision tree classifier to 1103 software samples, 582 malware and 521 benign, collected from the Internet. The performance of all classifiers are evaluated by 5-fold cross validation with 80-20 splits of training sets. Experimental results show that Naive Bayes classifier has better performance on the smaller data set with 15 reversed features, while J48 has better performance on the data set created from the API Call data set with 141 features. In addition, we applied a rough set based tool BLEM2 to generate and evaluate the identification of reverse engineered features in contrast to decision trees. Preliminary results indicate that BLEM2 rules may provide interesting insights for essential feature identification.
Lifetime Prevalence of Self-Reported Concussion Among Adolescents Involved in Competitive Sports: A National U.S. Study.

ABSTRACT Purpose Examine lifetime prevalence of diagnosed concussion in US-national samples of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders involved in 16 different competitive sports; examine associations between concussion and individual sports, controlling for demographic characteristics and multiple sports involvement. Methods Analysis of nationally representative Monitoring the Future data from 2 cohorts (2016–2017; n = 25,408). Results Adolescents who participated in baseball, basketball, football, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, track, weightlifting, and ‘other sports’ had greater odds of reporting multiple diagnosed concussions compared with peers not participating in these sports. Adolescents who participated in tennis had lower odds of reporting any diagnosed concussion or multiple concussions. Females who participated in gymnastics, soccer, and swimming showed a stronger association in reporting a diagnosed concussion when compared with males who participated in these same types of sports. Conclusions The study provides needed epidemiological information on prevalence of reported diagnosed concussion among teens participating in popular school and community sports. Certain high contact (e.g., football) and high volume (e.g., basketball) sports need increased efforts to manage adolescent athletes who already have a history of concussion or repeated concussions.
Are electric scooters promoted on social media with safety in mind? A case study on Bird's Instagram.

Abstract Electric scooter (e-scooter) companies are growing in popularity across the United States looking to take advantage of the rideshare economy by providing an independent alternative to cars and bicycles. While e-scooter transportation could reduce emissions, and automobile congestion in local areas, powered two-wheeler drivers are extremely vulnerable to road risks. News reports of e-scooter crashes and fatalities have started to accumulate. Earlier research has demonstrated that the ways in which companies promote and demonstrate use of their product or service through social media influences consumer behavior. In the U.S. in 2018, this study examined the official Instagram account of Bird, the e-scooter market share leader with over 66,000 followers, to determine how much it emphasized safety in its posts. All posts to Bird's official Instagram account were collected from 22 September 2017 to 9 November 2018 (n = 324) and rules for coding content were developed. Among all posts, 69.14% contained a person visible with a Bird e-scooter, 6.17% contained persons wearing protective gear, 6.79% had protective gear somewhere in the post, and 1.54% of posts mentioned protective gear in the comment box. About 69.44% of the posts were reposts, and among reposts, 7.11% had persons wearing protective gear. Posts to Bird's official Instagram rarely showed e-scooters being used with protective gear. Photos of customers' experiences with Bird, via reposts, rarely featured protective gear potentially normalizing these behaviors among customers. Public health practitioners may need to establish interventions to promote use of protective gear while operating escooters.
Radial Artery Access for Treatment of Posterior Circulation Aneurysms Using the Pipeline Embolization Device: Case Series

Background The treatment of selected wide-neck and fusiform posterior circulation aneurysms is challenging for clipping as well as for endovascular route. Objective To describe an endovascular approach for vertebral artery aneurysm treatment using transradial access (TRA) instead of the conventional transfemoral access. Methods We collected cases from two institutions in which TRA was used for posterior circulation Pipeline Embolization Device (Medtronic, Dublin, Ireland) deployment. Results A total of four patients were treated. TRA was useful in the setting of extreme vessel tortuosity. We utilized 5F Terumo Glidesheath (Terumo Medical, Somerset, New Jersey), intermediate catheter, and a 027 microcatheter for Pipeline deployment. TRA was not associated with any access or deployment difficulties. Conclusions Early experience suggests that TRA for Pipeline Embolization Device placement for posterior circulation aneurysm is a safe and efficient alternative to standard transfemoral access. While this approach was initially applied to patients with vascular anatomy that may not allow for safe femoral access or navigation, experience so far argues for considering a radial approach towards some posterior circulation aneurysm treatment.
Irrigated pinto bean crop stress and yield assessment using ground based low altitude remote sensing technology

Abstract The pinto bean is one of widely consumed legume crop that constitutes over 42% of the U.S dry bean production. However, limited studies have been conducted in past to assess its quantitative and qualitative yield potentials. Emerging remote sensing technologies can help in such assessment. Therefore, this study evaluates the role of ground-based multispectral imagery derived vegetation indices (VIs) for irrigated the pinto bean stress and yield assessments. Studied were eight cultivars of the pinto bean grown under conventional and strip tillage treatments and irrigated at 52% and 100% of required evapotranspiration. Imagery data was acquired using a five-band multispectral imager at early, mid and late growth stages. Commonly used 25 broadband VIs were derived to capture crop stress traits and yield potential. Principal component analysis and Spearman’s rank correlation tests were conducted to identify key VIs and their correlation (rs) with abiotic stress at each growth stage. Transformed difference vegetation index, nonlinear vegetation index (NLI), modified NLI and infrared percentage vegetation index (IPVI) were consistent in accounting the stress response and crop yield at all growth stages (rs > 0.60, coefficient of determination (R2): 0.50–0.56, P
The Effectiveness of Texting Compared with Voice Calls in Contacting Adolescent Patients with Sexually Transmitted Infection Test Results from the Pediatric Emergency Department

Background: Notifying adolescent patients of sexually transmitted infection (STI) results is challenging because they often fail to follow up and maintaining confidentiality is vital. Traditionally, voice calls are used to relay results to patients, but studies have shown that adolescents prefer receiving texts rather than calls and voicemails. Purpose: The objective is to compare the effectiveness of text messaging (SMS) with voice calls (VC) for contacting adolescents to inform them of their STI test results. The secondary objective …
Extra-activism: counter-mapping and data justice

Neither big data, nor data justice are particularly new. Data collection, in the form of land surveys and mapping, was key to successive projects of European imperialist and then capitalist extract...
Expanding beyond carnivores to improve livestock protection and conservation

Promoting human-wildlife coexistence is critical to the long-term conservation of many wild animal species that come into conflict with humans. Loss of livestock to carnivore species (e.g., lions, tigers, wolves) is a well-documented occurrence and the focus of mitigation strategies around the world. One area that has received little research is the impact of noncarnivores on livestock. Both African and Asian elephant species are known to cause livestock injuries and deaths. Livestock owners within elephant ranges perceive elephants as a risk to their livestock, which may reduce their tolerance towards elephants and jeopardize conservation efforts in the area. Though feral hogs may not be of conservation concern, these animals contribute significant losses to farmers' livelihoods. We advocate for the inclusion of noncarnivore species in policies that promote livestock protection because it will allow for better communication regarding effective strategies and more application in the field.
Provably optimal parallel transport sweeps on semi-structured grids

Abstract We have found provably optimal algorithms for full-domain discrete-ordinate transport sweeps on a class of grids in 2D and 3D Cartesian geometry that are regular at a coarse level but arbitrary within the coarse blocks. We describe these algorithms and show that they always execute the full eight-octant (or four-quadrant if 2D) sweep in the minimum possible number of stages for a given P x × P y × P z partitioning. Computational results confirm that our optimal scheduling algorithms execute sweeps in the minimum possible stage count. Observed parallel efficiencies agree well with our performance model. Our PDT transport code has achieved approximately 68% parallel efficiency with > 1.5 M parallel threads, relative to 8 threads, on a simple weak-scaling problem with only three energy groups, 10 directions per octant, and 4096 cells/thread. Our ARDRA code has achieved 71% efficiency with > 1.5 M cores, relative to 16 cores, with 36 directions per octant and 48 energy groups. We demonstrate similar efficiencies with PDT on a realistic set of nuclear-reactor test problems, with unstructured meshes that resolve fine geometric details. These results demonstrate that discrete-ordinates transport sweeps can be executed with high efficiency using more than 106 parallel processes.
Forearm vasodilatation to a β2 -adrenergic receptor agonist in premenopausal and postmenopausal women.

NEW FINDINGS What is the central question of this study? What is the role of β2 -adrenergic receptor (β2 AR) vasodilatation in older postmenopausal women as compared to premenopausal women and the role of nitric oxide (NO) in β2 AR-mediated vasodilatation in both groups of women? What is the main finding and its importance? β2 AR responsiveness is blunted in postmenopausal women compared to young premenopausal women. Additionally, NO may contribute to β2 AR-mediated vasodilatation in young premenopausal women. ABSTRACT β2 -Adrenergic receptor (β2 AR)-mediated vasodilatation, which is partially dependent on nitric oxide (NO) formation, is blunted in men at risk for developing hypertension. However, the role of β2 AR vasodilatation in hypertension pathophysiology in ageing postmenopausal women is unclear. Therefore, the goals of this study were to determine if forearm vasodilatation to the selective β2 AR agonist terbutaline is blunted in older postmenopausal women (59 ± 4 years) compared to young premenopausal women (27 ± 3 years) and to assess NO contribution to β2 AR-mediated vasodilatation in both groups of women. Forearm blood flow (FBF) and forearm vascular conductance (FVC) were measured using venous occlusion plethysmography at baseline and during intra-arterial infusions of terbutaline at 0.1-2.0 µg (100 ml tissue)-1 min-1 with and without the NO synthase inhibitor l-NG -monomethylarginine (l-NMMA). Mean arterial pressure was significantly greater in postmenopausal women than in young women at baseline (P = 0.01). Baseline FBF and FVC did not differ between young and postmenopausal women (P > 0.05) and rose significantly within each group during terbutaline infusion (P 0.05 for all). These data suggest that β2 AR responsiveness is blunted in postmenopausal women compared to young premenopausal women, and that NO may contribute to β2 AR-mediated vasodilatation in young premenopausal women.
Phosphodiesterase 9a Inhibition in Mouse Models of Diastolic Dysfunction

Background: Low myocardial cGMP-PKG (cyclic guanosine monophosphate-protein kinase G) activity has been associated with increased cardiomyocyte diastolic stiffness in heart failure with preserved e...
Statutory Complexity Disguises Agency Capture in Citizens Coal Council v. EPA

In Citizens Coal Council v. EPA, an en banc panel for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals considered a challenge to EPA regulations promulgated pursuant to the Clean Water Act (CWA). The EPA promulgated the regulations in an attempt to incentivize coal companies to remine once abandoned mine sites. Petitioners, two nonprofit environmental organizations, claimed that the regulations violated the Clean Water Act and Administrative Procedure Act by allowing coal companies to remine without adhering to any enforceable pollution limitations. The EPA countered that more remining would improve water quality at abandoned sites. The Sixth Circuit rejected Petitioners' claims, finding that the EPA's regulations were reasonably consistent with the CWA's goal of restoring the integrity of the nation's waters. In so holding, the court struggled to understand the meaning of the CWA's complex procedural and technical language, and allowed the EPA to justify the rule based on the CWA's broad statement of purpose. Such superficial judicial review sets a dangerous precedent in environmental law, because it exacerbates the risk of agency capture. A captured agency promulgates regulations that benefit-industry, not the environment. Without the judiciary acting as a meaningful check against agency capture, the public loses a valuable tool inmore » the fight against major-industrial polluters like the domestic coal industry. Citizens Coal Council therefore stands as a cautionary tale, a warning sign that the judiciary may be unable to identify agency capture where the regulations at issue are promulgated pursuant to a complex statute like the Clean Water Act.« less
Perceived Patient Pain and Spousal Caregivers' Negative Affect: The Moderating Role of Spouse Confidence in Patients' Pain Management.

Objectives: This study examined whether older patients’ greater daily pain perceived by their spouses was associated with spouses’ higher daily negative affect. We further investigated whether spou...
“Picturing” Xenophobia: Visual Framing of Masks During COVID-19 and Its Implications for Advocacy in Technical Communication

This article reviews images of people of Asian descent wearing masks in popular press articles discussing mask shortages and argues that visual framing had the potential of fueling racial antagonis...
Exploring differences in communication behaviors between organic and conventional farmers

This exploratory qualitative study sought to gain initial insights into how farmers involved in dif­ferent production practices communicate with consumers. A thematic analysis of in-depth inter­views conducted with eight organic and 12 con­ventional farmers in Ohio indicated that organic farmers are proactive in communicating with the public about their production practices, unlike conventional farmers, who focus on improving productivity. Furthermore, the organic farmers reported using different communication channels such as Facebook, flyers, and YouTube when com­municating with consumers, while conventional farmers reported being busy working on their farms and not having time to communicate with consumers. Organic farmers’ involvement in com­munication activities with the public about their production practices and products was reported to stem from their beliefs and values toward sustain­able farming practices and environmental conser­vation. Furthermore, unlike conventional farmers, most organic farmers sold their produce directly to consumers, and as such, used communication as a marketing tool. The active involvement of organic farmers in communicating with consumers may be attributable in part to increased media coverage about the benefits of organic farming practices. On the other hand, limited involvement of conven­tional farmers in communicating with the public may be partially attributable to limited media cov­erage about the benefits of conventional farming. Therefore, to ensure that consumers make in­formed decisions, there is a need to start develop­ing standalone communication organizations and interventions committed to providing unbiased information about the benefits and disadvantages of the different farming practices.
TU‐CD‐213‐02: Communication, Negotiation, and Persuasion: Approaches for Better Results

As part of the AAPM’s Scope of Practice, medical physicists are expected to collaborate effectively with practioners and allied health care providers. Interpersonal skills such as communication, negotiation and persuasion are vital for successful collaboration to achieve shared goals. This session will provide some theoretical background of these interpersonal skills as well as specific techniques and practical tools to influence others. Applications of these interpersonal skills for administrative and human resource management purposes vital to medical physicists will be shared. Session attendees will gain knowledge and tools to help them effectively collaborate with administrative and physician leaders in areas such as capital and human resource selection, prioritization, and implementation. Participants will hear methods of how to articulate their goals and to understand the goals of administration, helping ensure alignment of purpose. Session speakers will present one of the topics: equipment selection, budget creation, contracts, and program-related policy development. Specifics may include designing a business case in language that administrators understand, calculating the prioritization of budget requests, and influencing policies for safe and effective care. Human resource topics may include staffing justification, recruitment for fit, employment contracts, and benefits. Speakers will provide examples in both radiation therapy and diagnostic imaging departments and will share experiences and outcomes of their approaches for better results. Learning Objectives: After this course attendees will be better able to 1. Understand the shared goal between administrative and physicist leadership. 2. Articulate the “why” of the technical or human resource need. 3. Utilize communication, negotiation and persuasion tools to improve collaboration.
Radio characterization of 802.15.4 and its impact on the design of mobile sensor networks

Future mobile sensing systems are being designed using 802.15.4 low-power short-range radios for a diverse set of devices from embedded mobile motes to sensor-enabled cellphones in support, for example, of people-centric sensing applications. However, there is little known about the use of 802.15.4 in mobile sensor settings nor its impact on the performance of future communication architectures. We present a set of initial results from a simple yet systematic set of benchmark experiments that offer a number of important insights into the radio characteristics of mobile 802.15.4 person-to-person communication. Our results show that the body factor - that is to say, the human body and where sensors are located on the body (e.g., on the chest, foot, in the pocket) - has a significant effect on the performance of the communications system. While this phenomenon has been discussed in the context of other radios (e.g., cellular, WiFi, UWB) its impact on 802.15.4 based mobile sensor networks is not understood. Other findings that also serve to limit the communication performance include the effective contact times between mobile nodes, and, what we term the zero bandwidth crossing, which is a product of mobility and the body factor. This paper presents a set of initial findings and insights on this topic, and importantly, we consider the impact of these findings on the design of future communication architectures for mobile sensing.
Future Direction and Challenges in U.S. Multiemployer Benefit Plans

Presently, many multiemployer (or Taft-Hartley) plans find themselves in some difficulties. Although these plans once represented one of the great triumphs in labor relations in providing pension, welfare, and health benefits to unionized workers, these plans are now being challenged by a series of financial and demographic, legislative, and judicial developments. The health of these plans is extremely important as there are still some 10 million participants nationwide in nearly 1,500 multiemployer plans. Many of these workers are to be found in industries such as trucking, entertainment, construction, and retail (i.e., industries where employees frequently move between jobs in the same industry). Multiemployer plans face a challenging future based on financial, legislative, and judicial challenges. The hope is that by addressing such challenges and considering potential reforms, these historically-important plans will continue to provide needed employee benefits to covered unionized workers.
Winnowing Wheat from Chaff: The Chunking GA

In this work, we investigate the ability of a Chunking GA (ChGA) to reduce the size of variable length chromosomes and control bloat. The ChGA consists of a standard genetic algorithm augmented by a communal building block memory system and associated memory chromosomes and operators. A new mxn MaxSum fitness function used for this work is also described. Results show that a ChGA equipped with memory capacity equal to or greater than the minimal size of an optimal solution naturally eliminates unexpressed genes.
Abstract 16007: Functional Comparison of Human Embryonic Stem Cell- versus Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes in Rat Ischemic Myocardial Infarction Model

Introduction: Both human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (ESC-CMs) and human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs) can serve as an unlimited cell source for cardiac regenerative therapy. However, the functional equivalency of both approaches has not been previously reported. Here we performed head-to-head comparison on the beneficial effects of ESC-CM and iPSC-CMs in restoring cardiac function in a rat myocardial infarction (MI) model. Methods & Results: Human ESCs and iPSCs were differentiated into cardiomyocytes using small molecules. FACS analysis confirmed ~85% and ~83% of cells differentiated from ESCs and iPSCs, respectively, were positive for cardiac troponin T, and immunofluorescence staining demonstrated that ESC-CMs and iPSC-CMs have striated sarcomeric structure (Figure A-B). Both ESC-CMs and iPSC-CMs displayed similar maturity for calcium handling (transient amplitude: ΔF/F0 = 3.8±0.3; time to peak: ~200 ms; 50% transient duration: ~400 ms). qRT-PCR showed ...
The mechanics of undulatory locomotion: the mixed kinematic and dynamic case

This paper studies the mechanics of undulatory locomotion. This type of locomotion is generated by a coupling of internal shape changes to external non-holonomic constraints. Employing methods from geometric mechanics, the authors use the dynamic symmetries and kinematic constraints to develop a specialized form of the dynamic equations which govern undulatory systems. These equations are written in terms of physically meaningful and intuitively appealing variables that show the role of internal shape changes in driving locomotion.
Las ciencias de la comunicación a la luz de las nuevas tecnologías: retos para una disciplina en la incertidumbre

Las tecnologias de la informacion y la comunicacion (TIC) imprimen profundos cambios en los procesos comunicativos contemporaneos (desde los interpersonales a los culturales) Analizar y comprender estas realidades son nuevos retos para las ciencias de la comunicacion, que hoy mas que nunca se presentan como una de las disciplinas cientificas clave para entender la compleja sociedad de la informacion. Ahora bien, en este contexto en el que profundizar sobre este conocimiento se ha convertido en un desafio cientifico esencial, los investigadores de la disciplina continuan inmersos en un interesante proceso de definicion de la identidad del campo comunicologico. Por todo ello, este articulo parte de un sucinto analisis de la sociedad contemporanea que pone en evidencia la importancia de la comunicacion y la importancia, por tanto, de su investigacion.
Mode-locking with phase-sensitive (parametric) amplification

A new method is proposed and considered theoretically for using phase-sensitive amplification as the intensitydiscrimination (saturable absorption) element in a laser cavity to generate stable and robust mode-locking. The phase-sensitive amplifier acts as a phase-filter for selecting the specific intensity dependent phase-rotation of the mode-locked pulse that locks the phase to the amplifier pump phase. The nonlinear phase-rotation is analogous to the nonlinear polarization rotation which is used with passive polarizers for mode-locking. It is demonstrated that the phase-sensitive amplification mechanism can indeed result in stable mode-locking. An average cavity model explicitly calculates the stability of the mode-locked pulses.
Ultrasonic tracking of shear waves using a particle filter

Purpose: This paper discusses an application of particle filtering for estimating shear wave velocity in tissue using ultrasound elastography data. Shear wave velocity estimates are of significant clinical value as they help differentiate stiffer areas from softer areas which is an indicator of potential pathology. Methods: Radio-frequency ultrasound echo signals are used for tracking axial displacements and obtaining the time-to-peak displacement at different lateral locations. These time-to-peak data are usually very noisy and cannot be used directly for computing velocity. In this paper, the denoising problem is tackled using a hidden Markov model with the hidden states being the unknown (noiseless) time-to-peak values. A particle filter is then used for smoothing out the time-to-peak curve to obtain a fit that is optimal in a minimum mean squared error sense. Results: Simulation results from synthetic data and finite element modeling suggest that the particle filter provides lower mean squared reconstruction error with smaller variance as compared to standard filtering methods, while preserving sharp boundary detail. Results from phantom experiments show that the shear wave velocity estimates in the stiff regions of the phantoms were within 20% of those obtained from a commercial ultrasound scanner and agree with estimates obtained using a standard method using least-squares fit. Estimates of area obtained from the particle filtered shear wave velocity maps were within 10% of those obtained from B-mode ultrasound images. Conclusions: The particle filtering approach can be used for producing visually appealing SWV reconstructions by effectively delineating various areas of the phantom with good image quality properties comparable to existing techniques.
Law, History, and Feminism

This is the introduction to the book, Feminist Legal History. This edited collection offers new visions of American legal history that reveal women’s engagement with the law over the past two centuries. It integrates the stories of women into the dominant history of the law in what has been called “engendering legal history,” (Batlan 2005) and then seeks to reconstruct the assumed contours of history.The introduction provides the context necessary to appreciate the diverse essays in the book. It starts with an overview of the existing state of women’s legal history, tracing the core events over the past two hundred years. This history, while sparse, provides the common foundation for the authors, and establishes the launching point for the deeper and more detailed inquiries offered here. Following this history is an exploration of the key themes advanced in the book. In Part I, Contradictions in Legalizing Gender, the essays develop analyses of the law’s contradictory response to women’s petitions. The essays in this section provide evidence of how law operated as a barrier to limit women’s power, and challenge the assumptions that such barriers have been eliminated today. Yet the essays in part I also present a more nuanced historical picture. They show the law’s facilitation of women’s agency and power, often based on the same gendered norms that elsewhere produced limitations. Part II of the book, Women’s Transformation of the Law, shows women’s impact upon the law and illustrates how women changed the law to incorporate their own, gendered, perspectives. By “feminizing” the legal process and altering the substantive law to respond to women’s needs, women were able to shape the law in their own image. The introduction concludes with an overview of feminist legal thought. An appreciation of such theory and methodology is important to understanding the lens through which the authors and advocates over time approached the problems presented. Feminist Legal History is not just a collection of stories about women. Instead, it is a feminist inquiry of the historical record, in which feminist theory illuminates the positions and motivating beliefs of women over time.
Effect of on-line optimization techniques on model predictive control and identification (MPCI)

Model predictive control and identification (MPCI) is an adaptive MPC scheme that employs the persistent excitation condition to generate non-convex constraints on process inputs, in addition to conventional constraints of on-line optimization of MPC. This results in a non-convex problem, which has to be solved at each time instant k. In this work we rigorously show that a locally optimal solution of the above problem can be obtained by the successive semidefinite programming algorithm. We then develop a deterministic branch-and-bound approach, to obtain the global minimum of the MPCI optimization problem. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed MPCI algorithms to small-scale systems.
Do health care workplaces affect treatment environments

Previous research has demonstrated that characteristics of the health care workplace influence staff outcomes such as morale and burnout, but the potential effect of health care workplaces on the treatment environment has been little studied. Building on a model proposed by Schaefer and Moos (1993), we propose that the workplace factors of supervisory work environment (e.g. support from supervisors, managerial control) and programme philosophical orientation (e.g. disease model of addiction, psychosocial learning model of addiction) predict four treatment environment elements: patient autonomy, staff control, staff sensitivity, and patient alienation. Multiple regression analysis of data drawn from a survey (response rate = 86%) of 327 staff members at 15 Veterans Affairs (VA) inpatient substance abuse treatment programmes revealed that greater managerial control over staff predicted greater patient alienation, lower staff sensitivity towards patients, and greater staff control over patients. Stronger disease model programme orientations predicted less patient alienation and greater staff sensitivity, whereas stronger psychosocial model programme orientations predicted less staff control. These results suggest that health care workplaces may influence treatment environments. Implications for further research and practice are discussed.
Genetic variations strongly influence phenotypic outcome in the mouse retina.

Variation in genetic background can significantly influence the phenotypic outcome of both disease and non-disease associated traits. Additionally, differences in temporal and strain specific gene expression can also contribute to phenotypes in the mammalian retina. This is the first report of microarray based cross-strain analysis of gene expression in the retina investigating genetic background effects. Microarray analyses were performed on retinas from the following mouse strains: C57BL6/J, AKR/J, CAST/EiJ, and NOD.NON-H2-nb1 at embryonic day 18.5 (E18.5) and postnatal day 30.5 (P30.5). Over 3000 differentially expressed genes were identified between strains and developmental stages. Differential gene expression was confirmed by qRT-PCR, Western blot, and immunohistochemistry. Three major gene networks were identified that function to regulate retinal or photoreceptor development, visual perception, cellular transport, and signal transduction. Many of the genes in these networks are implicated in retinal diseases such as bradyopsia, night-blindness, and cone-rod dystrophy. Our analysis revealed strain specific variations in cone photoreceptor cell patterning and retinal function. This study highlights the substantial impact of genetic background on both development and function of the retina and the level of gene expression differences tolerated for normal retinal function. These strain specific genetic variations may also be present in other tissues. In addition, this study will provide valuable insight for the development of more accurate models for human retinal diseases.
Risk of infection after midurethral synthetic sling surgery: are postoperative antibiotics necessary?

Objectives To review our postoperative infections using single-dose preoperative antibiotics. Midurethral synthetic sling surgery is commonly performed. Postoperative antibiotics are often prescribed and may have some risk of adverse events (AEs). We are unaware of data suggesting decreased risk of infection with this practice. Methods We reviewed all midurethral synthetic sling surgery charts from 2004 to 2008 performed by 1 surgeon who uses only single-dose preoperative antibiotics (controls), and 2 who also use postoperative antibiotics(cases). A telephone survey was administered, which included questions regarding postoperative infections and AEs related to antibiotic use. Our primary and secondary outcomes were urinary tract infections (UTIs) and AEs related to antibiotic use, respectively. Patients were excluded for bladder injuries, postoperative catheters, and concomitant prolapse surgery. Results We identified 103 cases and 116 controls, and the telephone survey response rate was 81.3%. At baseline, groups had similar characteristics. There was no significant difference in UTIs between cases (6.8%) and controls (9.5%). There were no skin infections. AEs related to antibiotic use were more common among those that received postoperative antibiotics (7.8% vs 0.9%, P = .03). There were 5 (63%) yeast infections, 1 (12.5%) rash, 1 (12.5%) case of nausea, and 1 (12.5%) patient with colitis among cases and 1 yeast infection among controls. Conclusions UTI is common after sling surgery, but other infections are rare. The occurrence of UTI does not appear to be lower when postoperative antibiotics are prescribed. However, AEs associated with antibiotic use are increased. These findings do not support the use of postoperative antibiotics.
Let's Talk About Storage & Recovery Methods for Non-Volatile Memory Database Systems

The advent of non-volatile memory (NVM) will fundamentally change the dichotomy between memory and durable storage in database management systems (DBMSs). These new NVM devices are almost as fast as DRAM, but all writes to it are potentially persistent even after power loss. Existing DBMSs are unable to take full advantage of this technology because their internal architectures are predicated on the assumption that memory is volatile. With NVM, many of the components of legacy DBMSs are unnecessary and will degrade the performance of data intensive applications. To better understand these issues, we implemented three engines in a modular DBMS testbed that are based on different storage management architectures: (1) in-place updates, (2) copy-on-write updates, and (3) log-structured updates. We then present NVM-aware variants of these architectures that leverage the persistence and byte-addressability properties of NVM in their storage and recovery methods. Our experimental evaluation on an NVM hardware emulator shows that these engines achieve up to 5.5X higher throughput than their traditional counterparts while reducing the amount of wear due to write operations by up to 2X. We also demonstrate that our NVM-aware recovery protocols allow these engines to recover almost instantaneously after the DBMS restarts.
Other forms of left-to-right shunt

Abstract Five types of L-R shunt are discussed: (1) LV-RA communication, (2) ruptured aortic sinus aneurysm, (3) coronary artery fistula, (4) anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary trunk, and (5) aorticopulmonary septal detect. Although each of these lesions is characterized pathologically by different sites of communication with the right side of the heart, their point or origin is relatively constant, this being the ascending aorta in the last four and the left ventricle in the first. Because the thoracic roentgenogram and oxygen saturation data obtained at cardiac catheterization reveal evidence of a L-R shunt only in the chamber or vessel in which the shunt terminates, specific anatomic diagnosis usually depends upon the performance of both selective left ventriculography and thoracic aortography. The proper choice of diagnostic studies often may be determined before-hand by correlating the plain films with the clinical findings. Although conventional roentgenographic data usually indicate only a L-R shunt or cardiac myopathy, evidence of a continuous murmur suggests strongly that the site of origin of the L-R shunt lies in the ascending aorta.