cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Cost and validity of early postoperative contrast swallow after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding.

Abstract Background To assess the validity and cost of early routine upper gastrointestinal (UGI) studies after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) at a university hospital in the United States. Today, although there is widespread use of LAGB, and it is considered a safe procedure, it also can result in some specific early complications. In most centers, an UGI series after bariatric surgery is performed to rule out these potentially dangerous complications. Methods From March 2006 to July 2010, 183 LAGB procedures were performed by a single surgeon. All data were collected prospectively in a computerized database and reviewed retrospectively. The patients underwent water-soluble UGI studies during the early postoperative phase (2–24 h) to exclude gastrointestinal perforation, obstruction, and gastric band malposition. Results No intraoperative complications occurred. One conversion to an open procedure was required because of massive adhesions. A total of 21 postoperative complications (11.5%) occurred. None of the 183 patients who underwent an early UGI series experienced leakage, gastric band malposition, or slippage. The only radiologic abnormality was a stomal obstruction (.5%) requiring reoperation. The total cost for the 183 UGI studies was $54,900. The mean hospital stay was .5 day (range .1–5.6). Approximately 90% of patients were discharged within the first 24 hours. Conclusion The fear of acute perforation or obstruction has been the rationale for obtaining UGI studies after LAGB. We found this to be expensive and of limited value in an experienced center and have created a decisional algorithm to determine when its use is appropriate for symptomatic patients.
Robust Spatial-Domain Based Super-Resolution Mosaicing of CubeSat Video Frames: Algorithm and Evaluation

In this paper, a spatial domain based super-resolution mosaicing system and its evaluation results are presented. This algorithm incorporates two main algorithms, an image mosaicing algorithm and a super-resolution-reconstruction algorithm. Huber-based prior information is used to address the ill-posed nature of the super resolution problem. To test the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, four performance metrics are used: mean square error, peak signal-to-noise ratio, singular value decomposition based measure, and cumulative probability of blur detection. Testing is performed using datasets generated from both a high altitude balloon and an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Results show that the proposed algorithm is highly efficient in real-time applications, such as remote sensing on a small satellite (i.e., CubeSat.) Furthermore, the performance metrics are proven to be accurate in quantitative evaluation.
A Pilot Study to Evaluate Different Palate Materials for Maxillary Complete Dentures with Xerostomic Patients

Purpose The hypothesis tested in this pilot study was that materials used for the palatal region of a maxillary denture affect the comfort of the maxillary denture in xerostomic patients. Materials and Methods Xerostomic complete denture wearers were selected to test three different maxillary dentures that were made with different palatal materials. Each denture was worn for a period of 2 weeks. The Kapur Index was used to measure retention. The Oral Health Index Profile (OHIP) was used to determine the patient's perception of each denture after the 2-week period. At the end of the study, the patients were asked to select which of the three dentures they would like as their primary denture. Results All participants chose the metal-palate dentures, and 4 of 5 selected the titanium-palate denture as their primary denture. Statistical analysis of the OHIP demonstrated that the metalpalate dentures were perceived as being more comfortable than the acrylic-resin dentures. Conclusion This pilot study suggests that for xerostomic patients who have worn complete dentures, their selection of a metal-palate denture as their primary prosthesis strongly suggests that these dentures have properties that make them more comfortable to the patient than acrylic dentures. Subjective patient measurements supported this conclusion that the metal-palate dentures were preferable, while the evaluation method available to the clinician failed to discriminate among the prostheses.
Analysis of Mask-Based Nanowire Decoders

Stochastically assembled nanoscale architectures have the potential to achieve device densities 100 times greater than today's CMOS. A key challenge facing nanotechnologies is controlling parallel sets of nanowires (NWs), such as those in crossbars, using a moderate number of mesoscale wires. Three similar methods have been proposed to control NWs using a set of perpendicular mesoscale wires. The first is based on NW differentiation during manufacture, the second makes random connections between NWs and mesoscale wires, and the third, a mask-based approach, interposes high-K dielectric regions between NWs and mesoscale wires. Each of these addressing schemes involves a stochastic step in their implementation. In this paper, we analyze the mask-based approach and show that, when compared to the other two schemes, a large number of mesoscale control wires are necessary for its realization.
Passive Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging Using Low-Rank Matrix Recovery Methods

We present a novel image formation method for passive synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging. The method is an alternative to widely used time difference of arrival (TDOA) or correlation-based backprojection method. These methods work under the assumption that the scene is composed of a single or a few widely separated point targets. The new method overcomes this limitation and can reconstruct heterogeneous scenes with extended targets. We assume that the scene of interest is illuminated by a stationary transmitter of opportunity with known illumination direction, but unknown location. We consider two airborne receivers and correlate the fast-time bistatic measurements at each slow-time. This correlation process maps the tensor product of the scene reflectivity with itself to the correlated measurements. Since this tensor product is a rank-one positive semi-definite operator, the image formation lends itself to low-rank matrix recovery techniques. Taking into account additive noise in bistatic measurements, we formulate the estimation of the rank-one operator as a convex optimization with rank constrain. We present a gradient-descent based iterative reconstruction algorithm and analyze its computational complexity. Extensive numerical simulations show that the new method is superior to correlation-based backprojection in reconstructing extended and distributed targets with better geometric fidelity, sharper edges, and better noise suppression.
The Elephant in the Room: Toward a Definition of Grey Legal Literature

This article explores the history, definitions, and characteristics of the category of information resources known as grey literature. By applying this schema to the law, this article will propose a new definition of grey legal literature and apply it to the current lexicon of legal information resources.
Fighting in the Dark: Ideology and State Formation in Post‐Colonial Burma

Extant major approaches to states and revolutions privilege the role of state practices and the character of war-making in shaping modern state-making in the Third World. Bringing the role of ideology into this analytical landscape of state-making, this paper advances an alternative claim that ideological practices shape modern state structures and practices as well as the dynamics of political contention between the state and the revolutions. First, I argue that that intra-movement ideological dynamics within the nationalist movement can have a profound impact on the structure and practices of the state. Using the writings of the party leaders, memoirs and official publications of the Burmese communist party, I maintain that subtle and specific ideological differences amongst the Burmese leftist movements generated organizational splits and internecine conflicts in the nationalist struggle, which exerted profound influences on the structures and practices of the Burmese state Secondly, relative ideological positions of the state and the revolutionary movements play an important role in shaping the dynamics of contention between the state and revolution. For example, an intimate web of ideological affinity between the nascent Burmese state and the Burmese leftist movements shaped the context and content of political contention between the state and these movements in the post-colonial Burma. To address these issues empirically, the first part of the paper examines the formation and cementation of organizational linkages amongst Burmese leftist nationalists during the anti-colonial struggle. The second part of the paper addresses specific and subtle ways in which ideological character and practices of the Burmese state and the Burmese Communist party shaped state practices and state structures in modern Burma as well as the dynamics of political contention between the state and the revolutionary movements.
Private Payers Disagree With Medicare Over Medical Device Coverage About Half The Time

There are multiple payers in the US health care system, each making its own coverage determinations for medical technologies. For each of the forty-seven medical devices considered in national coverage determinations (NCDs) of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued between February 1999 and August 2013, we compared CMS’s coverage policy with the policies issued by the largest sixteen private payers that made their decisions publicly available. Overall, we found that NCDs were equivalent to the corresponding private payer policies roughly half of the time, more restrictive approximately a quarter of the time, and less restrictive about a quarter of the time. Our findings indicate that patients may have variable access to medical technology across Medicare and private plans. They also suggest that private plans do not necessarily follow CMS’s lead in making coverage decisions.
Shoulder surgery in the beach chair position is associated with diminished cerebral autoregulation but no differences in postoperative cognition or brain injury biomarker levels compared with supine positioning: the anesthesia patient safety foundation beach chair study.

Background Although controversial, failing to consider the gravitational effects of head elevation on cerebral perfusion is speculated to increase susceptibility to rare, but devastating, neurologic complications after shoulder surgery in the beach chair position (BCP). We hypothesized that patients in the BCP have diminished cerebral blood flow autoregulation than those who undergo surgery in the lateral decubitus position (LDP). A secondary aim was to examine whether there is a relationship between patient positioning during surgery and postoperative cognition or serum brain injury biomarker levels.
Application for Disease Control Theory to Carry out the Work of Community Nutrition Model

Objective To study the mode of applying the disease control theory to the community nutritional work.Methods Firstly,select two communities of Jining city randomly.Secondly,carry community intervention on the basis of community diagnosis and baseline surveys.Finally,evaluate the effect of intervention according to choosing 600 people from the control group and comparison group respectively before and after the intervention.Results A network and an intervention team composed of Disease control workers,psychologist and volunteers is established in community.Conclusion It is effective,feasible and worthy of promotion to apply the disease control theory to the community nutritional work.
Necessity and strategy on developing fodder type Pigeonpea in Guangxi

Fodder type pigeonpea is a new woody leguminous plant and are of large biomass,high yield of seeds,good quality,strong adaptability and easily popularizing etc,it is fit to use for fodder,ecological protection,environment beautifying and greening etc.The paper summarized development necessity of fodder type pigeonpea in Guangxi,four strategy including extending advertise,quickening breeding and extension of new varieties and paying attention to general development etc,were put forward.
Prospective assessment of early fetal loss using an immunoenzymometric screening assay for detection of urinary human chorionic gonadotropin

Objective To develop an economical, nonradiometric immunoenzymometric assay (IEMA) for the detection of urinary human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in studies of early fetal loss. To be effective, the IEMA must have a sensitivity equal to the standard immunoradiometric assay (IRMA) and sufficient specificity to eliminate the need for screening most nonconceptive cycles with the expensive and labor-intensive IRMA. Design Two different assays were used to measure hCG in daily early morning urine samples from potential conceptive cycles. Setting Women undergoing donor artificial insemination (AI) were evaluated in a prospective study. Patients, Participants Ninety-two women volunteers were selected on the basis of apparent normal reproductive health. Interventions Artificial insemination with nonfrozen donor semen was performed by cervical cup twice each menstrual cycle at 48-hour intervals, and daily urine samples were self-collected throughout the menstrual cycle. Main Outcome Measures An IEMA was developed to detect urinary hCG using the same antibodies as in the standard IRMA; a study was designed to determine whether this nonradiometric assay could successfully detect the early fetal loss that was detected by the IRMA. Results Of 224 menstrual cycles analyzed by both assays, a total of six early fetal losses were detected by the IRMA. When the tentative screening rule was set to allow all six of these losses and 95% of future losses to be detected by the IEMA, an additional 34 false-positive results were detected by the IEMA. The specificity of the IEMA with this rule was calculated to be 84%. Conclusion An IEMA based on the same antibodies used for the standard IRMA can serve as an efficient screening assay for the detection of early fetal loss. When the IEMA is used in this manner, nearly 80% of screened menstrual cycles can be eliminated without further testing by the IRMA.
Sulfamethazine and sulfathiazole determination at residue levels in swine feeds by reverse-phase liquid chromatography with post-column derivatization.

Description d'un protocole de dosage de ces medicaments a activite antimicrobienne utilises dans les aliments pour animaux. La limite de detection est de l'ordre de 0,1 ppm
Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay (EMSA) and Supershift Assay of Cytochrome P450 2B6 in Response to Estrogen

Electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) is an invaluable tool to study interaction of proteins with DNA. Estrogens are major female hormones and modulate biological function through estrogen receptor (ER). ER regulates its target gene expression via the classical mechanism in which ER directly binds to its target gene promoter or the nonclassical mechanism involving tethering of ER to other transcription factors (such as AP-1 proteins). Here, we describe the EMSA to examine the nonclassical mechanism of ER action in regulation of a gene CYP2B6 by using competition and supershift assays.
Why metal–oxos react with dihydroanthracene and cyclohexadiene at comparable rates, despite having different C–H bond strengths. A computational study

1,4-Cyclohexadiene (CHD) and 9,10-dihydroanthracene (DHA) are two substrates used to probe the steric requirements of metal–oxo oxidants in H-atom-transfer (HAT) reactions, based on the assumption that they have comparable C–H bond dissociation enthalpies (BDEs). We use computations to demonstrate that the BDE of DHA is ∼3.5 kcal mol−1 larger than that of CHD and that their often comparable reactivity is based on a competing interplay of bond strengths and favorable van der Waals interactions.
Urologist-Level Correlation in the Use of Observation for Low- and High-Risk Prostate Cancer

Importance The reporting of individual urologist rates of observation for localized prostate cancer may be a valuable performance measure with important downstream implications for patient and payer stakeholder groups. However, few studies have examined the urologist-level variation in the use of observation across all risk strata of prostate cancer. Objectives To measure variation in the use of observation at the urologist level by disease risk strata and to evaluate the association between the urologist-level rates of observation for men with low-risk and high-risk prostate cancer. Design, Setting, and Participants With the use of linked Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)–Medicare data, a population-based study of men diagnosed with prostate cancer from January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2009, was performed in SEER catchment areas of the United States. A total of 57 639 men with prostate cancer with 1884 diagnosing urologists were identified. Data were analyzed from October 1 to December 31, 2015. Main Outcomes and Measures The main outcome was observation, which is defined as the absence of definitive treatment within 1 year of diagnosis. In each risk stratum, a multivariable mixed-effects model was fit to characterize associations between observation and selected patient characteristics. From these models, the estimated probability of observation was calculated for each urologist within each risk stratum, and the association between the physician-level estimated rates of observation for low-risk and high-risk disease was assessed. Results Among the 57 639 men included in the study, the estimated probability of observation for low-risk disease varied impressively (mean, 27.8%; range, 5.1%-71.2%) at the individual urologist level. Considerably less urologist-level variation was seen in the use of observation for intermediate-risk disease (11.1%; range, 4.8%-31.5%) and high-risk disease (5.8%; range, 3.2%-16.5%). Furthermore, the estimated rates of observation for low- and high-risk disease were correlated at the urologist level (Spearman ρ = 0.17; P P Conclusions and Relevance Considerable urologist-level variation is seen in the use of observation for men with low-risk prostate cancer. More important, the use of observation for low-risk and high-risk patients with prostate cancer is correlated at the urologist level. This study reveals the strikingly variable use of observation among US urologists and establishes a framework for the use of urologist-level treatment signatures as a quality measure in the emerging value-based health care environment.
Late Neoliberalism and Its Discontents: The Case of Portugal

Although an existing body of research has shown that citizens’ protest and the formation of social movements are unlikely to emerge in conditions of economic recession, there is also much variation in this regard. Portugal during the Great Recession represents quite an interesting case, since not only was the volume of protest comparatively high in the context of southern Europe, but Portugal was a country where protest movements tended to form cohesive organizations and stable and wide coalitions, have a national scope, and establish alliances with unions and left-wing political parties. Moreover, Portugal was also a case where the political and institutional context was favourable to protest, in terms of providing recognition, allies and support.
Strategic Port Human Resource Talent Acquisition and Training: Challenges and Opportunities

Strategic human resource management provides a robust approach to building a foundation for strategic advantage by creating an effective organizational port structure and design, proposition, systems thinking, culture, workforce value, and an appropriate communication strategy. Effective human resource asset management brings the skill, talent, and productivity to the port organizations. The looming challenges and opportunities facing the next generation of public port and private marine terminal management professionals are unprecedented. The main contribution of this study is investigating a talent acquisition challenges and required professional training to provide a guidance for aligning strategic human resource asset management with the strategic and long-term goals of the port operation and management. While the need for professional training through a higher education degree program focused on the needs of the industry has never been so acute, the port managers can best leverage their human capital by focusing on the potential opportunity and solutions.
TOWARD A FUGITIVE ANTHROPOLOGY: Gender, Race, and Violence in the Field

In this essay, we point to the ways in which activist research methodologies have been complicit with the dominant logics of traditional research methods, including notions of fieldwork as a masculinist rite of passage. Paradoxically, while activist research narrates the experiences of violence enacted on racialized, gendered (queer and gender-nonconforming) bodies, the complexities of doing anthropology with those same bodies have tended to be erased in the politics of the research. Thus, our analysis is twofold: we reaffirm activist anthropology’s critiques against the putatively objective character of the discipline, which effaces questions of race, gender, and class in the research process and asserts a neutral stance that replicates colonial and extractivist forms of knowledge production. At the same time, we critically examine how activist research replicates that which it critiques by not addressing the racialized, gendered researcher’s embodied experience and by presuming that rapport or intimacy with those with whom we are aligned necessarily results in more horizontal power relations. Drawing on fieldwork in El Salvador, Cuba, Palestine, Mexico, and Guyana, we examine how our gendered racial positionalities inflect the research process and consider how we can push activist methods to be accountable to the embodied aspects of conducting research in conflict zones, colonial contexts, and/or conditions of gendered and racialized terror. Ultimately, we call for a fugitive anthropology, a methodological praxis that centers an embodied feminist ethos, advancing the path toward decolonizing anthropology.
The Phenomenology of Autobiography: Making It Real: by Arnaud Schmitt, New York and London, Routledge, 2017, 186 pp., ISBN-13: 978-1138710290

Autobiography has suffered its share of bumps and bruises over the years. Notably, there was postmodernism, which in theory, if not practice, killed the author. More recently, there were a scandalo...
Host-plant induced changes in microbial community structure and midgut gene expression in an invasive polyphage (Anoplophora glabripennis)

Polyphagous insect herbivores possess diverse mechanisms to overcome challenges of feeding in multiple plant species including, but not limited to, transcriptional plasticity and associations with obligate or facultative symbionts. The Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) is a polyphagous wood-feeder capable of developing on over 100 tree species and, like other polyphages, its genome contains amplifications of digestive and detoxification genes. This insect also possesses a diverse gut microbial community, which has the metabolic potential to augment digestive physiology. While the genomic repertoires of A. glabripennis and its microbial community have been studied previously, comparatively less is known about how the gut transcriptome and community change in response to feeding in different hosts. In this study, we show that feeding in two suitable hosts (Acer spp. and Populus nigra) altered the expression levels of multicopy genes linked to digestion and detoxification. However, feeding in a host with documented resistance (Populus tomentosa) induced changes in the transcriptome and community beyond what was observed in insects reared in P. nigra, including the downregulation of numerous β-glucosidases, odorant binding proteins, and juvenile hormone binding proteins, the upregulation of several cuticular genes, and the loss of one major bacterial family from the gut community.
A rare cause of intra-abdominal haemorrhage : Spontaneous rupture of the splenic vein

Spontaneous rupture of the splenic vein is rare, and is associated with high mortality. Few cases have been documented, associated with pregnancy, with hepatic cirrhosis and diseases predisposing to portal hypertension. We report a rare case with no evident symptoms or signs of liver deficiency, which was manifested with sudden massive intraperitoneal haemorrhage. An urgent laparotomy was performed and a tear of the splenic vein which was massively bleeding was found. The patient underwent urgent splenectomy and a biopsy of the liver was taken. The patient had an uneventful postoperative course. The histological examination documented the presence of micro-nodular liver cirrhosis. Rupture of the splenic vein is a rare condition, which should be considered in the differential diagnosis of intra-abdominal haemorrhage in a cirrhotic patient and in pregnant women. Control of haemorrhage and ligation of the splenic vein with urgent splenectomy is the appropriate treatment.
Rings — The Importance of Being Perceived

In areas such as retrieval, QSAR, synthesis design, reaction indexing, and structure display, ring analysis is required as a descriptive utility and to complement other structural analyses. Finding those rings necessary and sufficient for unambiguous representation, in an efficient manner and for the worst cases is not trivial. Issues include the 2-D representation of 3-D structures, the definition and perception of a ring set, and whether vertex and cut-vertex graphs simplify the analysis. Generic and partial/sub structures cause particular problems. Substructure queries can be the worst defined, introducing problems for structural conventions and ring/chain differentiation. After ring perception, it is necessary to select and represent the information relevant to a particular application. This can be used as a condensation, to enable more efficient matching, and as an expression, to give more detail to reduced graphs.
An Environment and Studies for Exploring Auditory Representations of Multidimensional Data

The field of auditory data representation has produced several intriguing proof-of-concept systems, but up until now there has been little formal research to measure the effectiveness of auditory data displays or to increase our understanding of how they work and how to improve them. Formal assessment is necessary throughout the process of developing new auditory display technologies in order to learn how to restrict the universe of possible sound attributes to those that are most effective for data representation. The capability to run quick psychometric tests to obtain quantitative figures of merit for alternative auditory representations is a requirement for auditory-display researchers engaged in the development of new technologies. For the first time, this capability is realized with a special-purpose workstation designed to generate and administer psychometric tests automatically using test patterns generated from statistically well-specified synthetic data. We describe the characteristics of one such workstation we have developed. We also describe a testing methodology we propose for the development of new auditory data displays of a type that we have been working with for the last few years. Finally, we describe a specific set of studies we are now beginning to conduct.
Lipschitz and BMO norms

In this chapter we provide some norm comparison theorems related to the BMO norms and the Lipschitz norms. We prove that the integrability exponents described in the Lipschitz norm comparison theorem (Theorem 9.2.1) are the best possible. We also develop some norm comparison theorems for the operators.
Evaluation of Arsenic, Cadmium, Lead and Mercury Contamination in Over-the-Counter Available Dry Dog Foods With Different Animal Ingredients (Red Meat, Poultry, and Fish)

Objectives: To examine the relative levels of heavy metals and arsenic content in commercial dog foods (arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury) of 51 over-the-counter maintenance or all-life-stage dry dog foods. All products were chosen and segregated based on meat sources (fish, poultry, red-meat-17 products from each category) as animal protein sources being the primary contaminated ingredient due to bioaccumulation. Methods: Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was performed on products that were classified as fish, red meat (beef, pork, venison, bison) or poultry (chicken, turkey, duck) based. A non-Gaussian data distribution for each heavy metal within category distribution led to non-parametric statistical testing and median (range) descriptive statistics. Comparison to average human consumption based on mg/megacalorie (Mcal)was also examined. Results: Based on caloric consumption, total arsenic and heavy metal consumption is higher in dogs than in humans; however chronic toxic exposure levels are highly unlikely. Fish-based diets had significantly higher arsenic, cadmium and mercury content than the poultry or red meat-based diets (p < 0.01). Red meat-based diets (beef, venison and bison) had higher lead concentrations than poultry and fish-based diets (p < 0.03). Clinical Significance: Based on the findings, commercial dog foods appear to be safe for chronic consumption and concentrations of the heavy metals were dependent on primary protein sources. Overall, poultry-based diets had relatively lower heavy metal and arsenic content than red meat and fish-based diets. Despite the safety of most pet foods occasional outliers for lead render some concern for chronic exposure based on other species toxicity data and a lack of data in dogs.
18 F-AV-1451 uptake differs between dementia with lewy bodies and posterior cortical atrophy.

BACKGROUND Posterior cortical atrophy and dementia with Lewy bodies are 2 distinct clinical syndromes, yet they can overlap in symptoms and occipital hypometabolism. Patients with dementia with Lewy bodies often have overlapping Alzheimer's disease pathology. Similarly, Lewy bodies can be found in patients with posterior cortical atrophy. We investigated differences in the distribution and magnitude of F18-AV-1451 uptake in patients with these 2 syndromes. METHODS Consecutive patients with probable dementia with Lewy bodies (n = 33), posterior cortical atrophy (n = 18), and cognitively unimpaired controls (n = 100) underwent 18 F-AV-1451 positron emission tomography. Regional differences in AV-1451 uptake were assessed using voxel-wise and an atlas-based approach. The greatest differences in AV-1451 uptake between patient groups were identified using area under receiver operating curve statistics, and a composite region was derived. RESULTS AV-1451 uptake in both patient groups was predominantly localized to the lateral occipital regions, but the magnitude of uptake was markedly greater in posterior cortical atrophy compared with dementia with Lewy bodies. The posterior cortical atrophy group showed the greatest AV-1451 uptake throughout all the gray matter compared with that in other groups. The occipital composite region, consisting of superior, middle, and inferior occipital cortices, distinguished posterior cortical atrophy from dementia with Lewy bodies (area under the curve >0.97; P < 0.001, Bonferroni-corrected) with excellent sensitivity (88%) and specificity (100%). CONCLUSIONS Posterior cortical atrophy and dementia with Lewy bodies can share clinical features, and although the pattern of AV-1451 uptake in occipital cortices overlaps between these 2 syndromes, its magnitude is significantly higher in posterior cortical atrophy. © 2019 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.
Advanced green composites: New directions

Abstract Green composites developed from plant based resources are meant to be naturally biodegradable. While advanced green composites with high strength and stiffness developed recently could find their way in structural applications in the future, significant scope exists to improve their properties further. This paper briefly discusses the development of advanced green composites with high strength, stiffness and toughness made using recently developed liquid crystalline cellulose (LCC) fibers. These green composites can have exceptionally high strength of over 1 GPa and Young’s modulus of over 40 GPa making them truly advanced green composites. This paper also discusses other special characteristics such as fire resistance and autonomous self-healing in green composites that can improve their durability and safety and further enhance their applicability.
The Effects of Neurofeedback on Depression, Anxiety, and Academic Self-Efficacy

This preliminary study examined the effects of 16 sessions of neurofeedback (NF) training protocol on levels of depression, anxiety, and academic self-efficacy in college students with attention de...
The Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism

The Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism presents a comprehensive introduction to the foundations of bilingualism, covering language processing, language acquisition, cognition and the bilingual brain.
Abstract 2105: Single cell RNA sequencing reveals multiple adaptive resistance mechanisms to regorafenib in colon cancer

Relapses in cancer therapy occur due to the presence of sub-populations that exhibit intrinsic or acquired resistance to treatment. Acquired resistance can arise via non-mutational adaptive mechanisms in response to a perturbation. Identification of these heterogenous mechanisms mediated via stochastic changes in cellular signaling is challenging using traditional bulk methods that average signals at a cellular population level. We harnessed the power of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to identify the adaptive resistance mechanisms to regorafenib, a clinically approved multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in a colon cancer model. HCT116 cells were treated with an IC50 dose of regorafenib or vehicle control for 1 hour, 3 days, 7 days or 12 days and subjected to scRNA-seq using the 10X Genomics platform. Cells were sequenced at an average depth of 50000 reads/cell using Illumina sequencing. We controlled for batch effects by incorporating independent biological replicates and multiplexing using cell “hashing” with barcoded antibodies (BD Biosciences). Graph-based clustering, differential expression analysis and cell cycle phase assignment was performed using the Seurat algorithm. Proliferation was assessed using PI staining for cell cycle status, CellTiter Blue viability assay and clonogenic assays. We analyzed a total of 19,879 single cells following a time-course of regorafenib or vehicle treatment. Regorafenib treatment at one hour resulted in no significant transcriptional changes. At all further time points, we could confirm the down-regulation of MAPK signaling, reflecting the mechanism of action of regorafenib. At 72 hours, we detected sub-populations with varying activation levels of ER stress response and increased lipid metabolism, together with upregulation of transcription factors SOX4 and ID3. These features continued to be detected till 7 and 12 days after treatment. By 12 days, we observed upregulation of keratins 7, 8, 10, 18, 19 together with markers of G2M/S phase progression. Survival of clonal cell populations at 12 days was confirmed by crystal violet staining. Small molecule-based inhibition of ER stress (azoramide) and lipid synthesis (fatostain) was synergistic with regorafenib at day 3 and successfully inhibited the emergence of these resistant clones by day 12. Our results reveal multiple signaling events that lead to a resistance phenotype characterized by increased proliferation and keratin upregulation that can be counteracted by combination therapies. For future studies we will continue to dissect the molecular networks underlying these events by gene silencing and protein over-expression studies. Citation Format: Anuja Sathe, Billy T. Lau, Sue Grimes, Stephanie Greer, Hanlee Ji. Single cell RNA sequencing reveals multiple adaptive resistance mechanisms to regorafenib in colon cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 2105.
3D-printed 4-zone Ka-band Fresnel lens: design, fabrication, and measurement

A planar and thin-grooved Fresnel lens is a great candidate for gain enhancement in millimetre wave communication, imaging systems, and wireless power transfer applications. The authors report the design, fabrication, and measurement of a 3D-printed Fresnel lens, using a single material. A low-profile (1.2 λ thick) 4-zone Fresnel lens with 16 annular rings is designed with a focal length of 40 mm (≃4 λ ) operating at 30 GHz. Authors' design consists of four-step heights with outer radius of 69 mm (6.9 λ ). Permittivity and loss tangent of polylactic acid are measured to be 2.79 and 0.0048 at 30 GHz, respectively. Focusing ability of the lens is studied using full-wave simulation. The lens is fabricated using a table-top commercial fused deposition modelling printer. The surface roughness, step heights, and radii of each zone are measured and verified using a 3D optical profilometer. Impact of the 3D-printed limitation on performance of the device is discussed. The gain of the fabricated prototype is measured, in conjunction with a horn antenna, in an anechoic chamber. Pattern measurement results illustrate 6.6 dB gain enhancement at broadside at 30 GHz. Gain enhancing behaviour is studied at three different focal lengths and frequencies of 29-31 GHz.
Human protein-RNA interaction network is highly stable across mammals.

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are crucial in modulating RNA metabolism in eukaryotes thereby controlling an extensive network of RBP-RNA interactions. Although previous studies on the conservation of RBP targets have been carried out in lower eukaryotes such as yeast, relatively little is known about the extent of conservation of the binding sites of RBPs across mammalian species. In this study, we employ CLIP-seq datasets for 60 human RBPs and demonstrate that most binding sites for a third of these RBPs are conserved in at least 50% of the studied vertebrate species. Across the studied RBPs, binding sites were found to exhibit a median conservation of 58%, ~ 20% higher than random genomic locations, suggesting a significantly higher preservation of RBP-RNA interaction networks across vertebrates. RBP binding sites were highly conserved across primates with weak conservation profiles in birds and fishes. We also note that phylogenetic relationship between members of an RBP family does not explain the extent of conservation of their binding sites across species. Multivariate analysis to uncover features contributing to differences in the extents of conservation of binding sites across RBPs revealed RBP expression level and number of post-transcriptional targets to be the most prominent factors. Examination of the location of binding sites at the gene level confirmed that binding sites occurring on the 3′ region of a gene are highly conserved across species with 90% of the RBPs exhibiting a significantly higher conservation of binding sites in 3′ regions of a gene than those occurring in the 5′. Gene set enrichment analysis on the extent of conservation of binding sites to identify significantly associated human phenotypes revealed an enrichment for multiple developmental abnormalities. Our results suggest that binding sites of human RBPs are highly conserved across primates with weak conservation profiles in lower vertebrates and evolutionary relationship between members of an RBP family does not explain the extent of conservation of their binding sites. Expression level and number of targets of an RBP are important factors contributing to the differences in the extent of conservation of binding sites. RBP binding sites on 3′ ends of a gene are the most conserved across species. Phenotypic analysis on the extent of conservation of binding sites revealed the importance of lineage-specific developmental events in post-transcriptional regulatory network evolution.
David Morgan (1945–2019), Professor of Medieval Iran and Middle Eastern History

Professor David Orrin Morgan, prominent scholar of Middle Eastern History, passed away on 23 October 2019. He is survived by his wife Johanna, daughters Judith, Rosalind, and Eleanor, and grandson ...
A maximum extreme-value distribution model for switching conductance of oxide-RRAM in memory applications

In this work, we report an extensive experimental investigation of the important statistical properties of resistive random access memory (RRAM) switching conductance. We demonstrate the Gumbel statistics, a maximum extreme-value distribution for switching-filament conductance, as opposed to the minimum extreme-value distribution such as Weibull model. We apply a Poisson random statistical distribution for the spatial generation of percolation filaments to link the RRAM conductance measurements with device areas. As a result, we can derive two important relations: area scaling properties of percentiles and scale-factors. We show the validity of this maximum extreme-value distribution model by rigorously examining the vertical percentile-scaling characteristics of experimental data. The independently extracted shape-factor from the area-dependence of scale-factors captures the merged conductance distributions in good agreement with the experimental conductance data. It is revealed that larger variability associated with RRAM conductance measurements is directly linked to the maximum-valued statistical characteristics of this model. We also demonstrate that RRAM conductance, rather than resistance, is a fundamental statistical variable.
Application of Point-of-Care Ultrasound for Family Medicine Physicians for Abdominopelvic and Soft Tissue Assessment

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) improves both the sensitivity and specificity with which clinicians can make a variety of diagnoses at the bedside from abdominal aortic aneurysm to kidney stones. In outpatient clinics, urgent care centers, and emergency departments, where ultrasound imaging may be delayed by hours or even days, the use of POCUS can be very helpful. We believe that POCUS facilitates both the triage of patients and provides diagnostic information quickly. We hope to advance the use of POCUS in the primary care setting and have reviewed six sonographic topics where we believe ultrasound can be of immense assistance to the physician in the outpatient setting.
Community-engaged and community-based participatory research to promote American Heart Association Life's Simple 7 among African American adults: A systematic review.

Background Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the United States and African Americans (AA) have a disproportionately greater burden of CVD as compared to Whites. The American Heart Association (AHA) Life’s Simple 7 (LS7) framework outlines goals for attaining ideal cardiovascular health. Yet, there is a lack of evidence summarizing best practices to maximize LS7 attainment. The objective of the present study was to systematically review the extant peer-reviewed literature on community-engaged and community-based participatory research (CBPR) aimed at improving one or more LS7 metrics among AA. Methods PubMed, CINAHL, and Embase databases were searched. We included articles that reported quantitative results for one or more of the following LS7 metrics: physical activity, diet, cholesterol, blood pressure, body mass index, smoking, and glycemia. We included analyses with a greater than 50% AA study population focused on adults (≥18 years of age). Results Of the 1008 unique studies identified, 54 met inclusion criteria; 27 of which were randomized controlled trials. 50% of studies assessed more than one LS7 metric but only two studies evaluated all seven of the LS7 metrics. No studies had a high proportion of AA males. 40 studies improved at least one LS7 metric at the study end-point. Formative research was used in many studies to guide intervention design. Studies were of varying quality, but overall rated “fair” using a modified approach to the National Institute of Health quality assessment tool. Conclusion There is insufficient data to recommend a specific community-engaged or CBPR intervention to improve attainment of LS7 metrics among AA. Future studies using rigorous methodology with increased gender diversity and utilizing the AHA LS7 framework are required to establish a validated program to improve LS7 in AAs.
COVID-19 in patients with sickle cell disease: A single center experience from Ohio, United States.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is expanding at an enormous pace and has already affected over 15 million population This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
A Training-Based Mutual Information Lower Bound for Large-Scale Systems.

We provide a mutual information lower bound that can be used to analyze the effect of training in models with unknown parameters. For large-scale systems, we show that this bound can be calculated using the difference between two derivatives of a conditional entropy function. The bound does not require explicit estimation of the unknown parameters. We provide a step-by-step process for computing the bound, and provide an example application. A comparison with known classical mutual information bounds is provided.
Latin American Migrations to the U. S. Heartland: Changing Social Landscapes in Middle America

Review of: "Latin American Migrations to the U.S. Heartland: Changing Social Landscapes in Middle America," by Felipe Hinojosa.
Comment on “Modifying the variational principle in the action-integral-functional derivation of time-dependent density-functional theory”

In a paper recently published in Phys. Rev. A [arXiv:1010.4223], Schirmer has criticized an earlier work of mine [arXiv:0803.2727], as well as the foundations of time-dependent density functional theory. In Ref.[2], I showed that the so-called "causality paradox" - i.e., the failure of the exchange-correlation potential derived from the Runge-Gross time-dependent variational principle to satisfy causality requirements - can be solved by a careful reformulation of that variational principle. Fortunately, the criticism presented in Ref.[1] is based on elementary misunderstandings of the nature of functionals, gauge transformations, and the time-dependent variational principle. In this Comment I wish to point out and clear these misunderstandings.
An Easy & Fun Way to Teach about How Science “Works”: Popularizing Haack's Crossword-Puzzle Analogy

Science is a complex process, and we must not teach our students overly simplified versions of “the” scientific method. We propose that students can uncover the complex realities of scientific thinking by exploring the similarities and differences between solving the familiar crossword puzzles and scientific “puzzles.” Similarly to solving a crossword puzzle, solving puzzles in science is a complex and creative process in which hypotheses and theories evolve through the accumulation of many pieces of independent, yet interlocking, lines of evidence. We discuss the important lessons from Haack’s crossword-puzzle analogy and how it applies to teaching science.