cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
International Banking and the Developing Countries

‘Currently there is a world shortage of capital for which the developing nations must compete.’1 In these few pointed words a leading writer on the subject of economic development has summarised the major problem which will face the developing nations for the remainder of the twentieth century. There are two dimensions of this world-wide capital shortage, in so far as the less developed nations are concerned. These hinge on the need to develop domestic financial market institutions and patterns of behaviour necessary to generate and mobilise capital funds, and the need to provide suitable international channels through which capital may be directed toward the developing countries. The former problem reflects the necessity for achieving a proper allocation of internal resources as between capital and consumer goods, whereas the latter is concerned with the requirement that an international transfer of purchasing power and real resources take place.
Basic Issues in Psychological Evaluation

Psychological evaluation is an attempt to arrive at an understanding of the unique potential of an individual through the use of background information, a psychological interview, observation, and psychological testing. The object of gathering this material is to integrate it so that it will provide an explanation of current behavior, a prediction of future behavior, and the development of plans for the optimal functioning of the individual.
Designing Crowdcritique Systems for Formative Feedback

Intelligent tutors based on expert systems often struggle to provide formative feedback on complex, ill-defined problems where answers are unknown. Hybrid crowdsourcing systems that combine the intelligence of multiple novices in face-to-face settings might provide an alternate approach for providing intelligent formative feedback. The purpose of this study was to develop empirically grounded design principles for crowdcritique systems that provide intelligent formative feedback on complex, ill-defined problems. In this design research project, we iteratively developed and tested a crowdcritique system through 3 studies of 43 novice problem solvers in 3 formal and informal learning environments. We collected observations, interviews, and surveys and used a grounded theory approach to develop and test socio-technical design principles for crowdcritique systems. The project found that to provide formative feedback on ill-defined problems, crowdcritique systems should provide a combination of technical features including: quick invite tools; formative framing; a public, near-synchronous social media interface; critique scaffolds; “like” system; community hashtags; analysis tools and “to do” lists; along with social practices including: prep/write-first/write-last script and critique training. Such a system creates a dual-channel conversation that increases the volume of quality critique by grounding comments, scaffolding and recording critique, and reducing production blocking. Such a design provides the benefits of both face-to-face critique and computer-support in both formal and informal learning environments while reducing the orchestration burden on instructors.
Near-field interactions and anomalous diffusion of light in disordered media

We demonstrate that direct measurements of photon path-length distributions break the constraints of conventional ensemble average procedures and reveal how the scatterers proximity leads to the onset of anomalous regimes of optical conductance.
Abstract 1968: Activation of AKT negatively regulates the pro-apoptotic function of death-associated protein kinase 3 (DAPK3) in prostate cancer

Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA Activation of AKT plays a central role by inducing pro-survival signaling pathways, promotes cell growth and inhibits apoptosis in human malignancies including prostate cancer. Higher expression of pAKT is correlated with aggressiveness of the prostate cancer. Published evidences suggest that inhibition of survival kinases may utilize the current therapeutic modalities to sensitize the prostate cancer cells more significantly. Indeed, numbers of small molecules or peptides are being developed to inhibit either AKT or its upstream kinase PI3K to inhibit the growth of human malignances. Death-associated protein kinase 3 (DAPK3), a serine/threonine kinase governs many signaling pathways including induction of apoptosis. This lead the way to focus our research on small molecules which can inhibit AKT activation and induce DAPK mediated apoptosis in CaP cell lines. To begin with, we identified a small molecule which binds to AKT kinase domain with a predicted affinity of ∼11.0 Kcal/mol. The amino acid residues of AKT-1 within 4 A of the best docking site of this small molecule, 6-dimethyl, dihydro pyranone (6ddp), includes ARG-4, SER-7, LEU-156, GLY-157, LYS-158, GLY-159, PHE-161, VAL-164, LYS -179, GLU-191, HIS-194, GLU-234, ASP-274, MET-281, ASP-292, GLY-294,LEU-295, and PHE-438. The hydroxyl group of 6ddp likely forms a hydrogen bond with the nitrogen on the side chain of HIS-194. 6ddp inhibited pAKT (ser473) expression which concomitantly induced DAPK1 expression resulting in the growth inhibition of CaP cell lines. Similar results were obtained when a pharmacological inhibitor of AKT was used which resulted in DAPK induced apoptosis of CaP cells. Subsequently, we examined the DAPK3 activation in prostate cancer samples, which significantly showed a higher expression in normal prostate samples. On the contrary, reduced expression with low level was observed with the progression of disease. Currently, our study focuses on the kinase and phosphatase interaction network by mass spectrometric analysis of protein complexes. Understanding the mechanism of DAPK3 mediated AKT inhibition, may strengthen the therapeutic window for prostate cancer without causing much or any toxicity Citation Format: Trinath P. Das, Arokya MS Papu John, Ram V. Roy, Sandhya R. Rao, Houda Alatassi, Chendil Damodaran, Murali M. Ankhem. Activation of AKT negatively regulates the pro-apoptotic function of death-associated protein kinase 3 (DAPK3) in prostate cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 1968. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-1968
Lesbian Decadence: Representations in Art and Literature of Fin-de-Siècle France, by Nicole G. Albert

Lesbian Decadence: Representations in Art and Literature of Fin-de-Siecle France is Nicole G. Albert’s concentrated study of a complex subject and phenomenon—that of the lesbian and sapphism as soc...
The Sins of the Fathers: Germany, Memory, Method

There is no state that has been and continues to be as haunted by the spectres of a criminal past as is Germany. Jeffrey Olick’s The Sins of the Fathers: Germany, Memory, Method examines, with an i...
A Survey of Practice Behaviors among Middle and High School String Players

We were interested in middle and high school string musicians’ reports of how they spend their practice time and how often they use specific practice strategies. These 211 middle and high school participants reported an average of 5.64 years (SD = 2.61) of string playing experience, with an average of about four years of private instruction. Students in the most advanced of three ensembles reported more private lesson instruction than students in the other two ensembles. There were no differences in how students in the three groups rated the occurrence of the following strategies: self-recording of practice, varying articulations, varying rhythms, left-hand only practice, and right-hand articulation practice. Advanced students reported significantly more: listening to recordings, using a metronome, isolating shifts, repeating of short sections, part marking in general and marking half steps. Students made frequent comments regarding strategies used to improve intonation, such as use of a drone, practice with a tuner, and using open strings as a reference. When asked to provide advice to a peer, the most frequent advice was to practice slowly.
Capture of melon flies and oriental fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) in traps baited with torula yeast-borax or CeraTrap in Hawaii

Summary Food baits are a key component in trapping programs to detect infestations of pest species of tephritid fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae). Traditionally, a torula yeast-borax slurry has been used most frequently, but the recently developed food bait CeraTrap, consisting of hydrolyzed animal protein, has proven more attractive to certain tephritids. This study compared field captures of melon flies, Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett), and oriental fruit flies, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), in traps baited with torula yeast-borax or CeraTrap in an agricultural setting in Hawaii. Data show that melon flies were captured in significantly greater numbers in traps baited with torula yeast-borax than CeraTrap, while no difference in captures was noted for the oriental fruit fly between traps baited with the 2 food types. Sumario Los cebos alimenticios son un componente clave en los programas de captura para detectar infestaciones de especies de moscas de la fruta tefritidas (Diptera: Tephritidae). Tradicionalmente, se ha utilizado con mayor frecuencia una suspension de torula levadura-borax, pero el cebo alimenticio recientemente desarrollado CeraTrap, que consiste en proteina animal hidrolizada, ha demostrado ser mas atractivo para ciertos tefritidos. Este estudio comparo capturas de campo de la mosca de melon, Zeugodacus cucurbitae (Coquillett) y la mosca de la fruta oriental, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel), en trampas cebadas con torula levadura-borax o CeraTrap en un entorno agricola en Hawaii. Los datos muestran que las moscas de melon fueron capturadas en numeros significativamente mayores en trampas cebadas con torula levaduraborax que CeraTrap, mientras que no se observaron diferencias en las capturas para la mosca de la fruta oriental entre las trampas cebadas con los 2 tipos de alimentos. View this article in BioOne
Heat Transfer and Fluid Mechanics for Laser Machining

This chapter introduces some of the basic concepts in heat transfer, fluid mechanics and numerical solution methods. Since laser machining is a thermal process, an understanding of issues in conduction heat transfer, convection heat transfer, radiation heat transfer, and fluid mechanics is necessary in order to develop process models which relate the operating parameters of the laser, positioning system, and gas jet to the resulting erosion front geometry and temperature distribution. Also, in some situations the laser machining problem is difficult to solve analytically; in these cases, a numerical approach must be taken. Some basic concepts in finite difference and finite element methods are also introduced.
Social Policy Is Environmental Policy: Paid Work, Unpaid Care Work, Gender, and Ecology

This chapter discusses ways in which markets affect unpaid caring activities and the ecological environment by looking at two market failures: the Veblen effect of competition for status through emulating higher classes’ consumption levels and intrafamily fallback position inequality associated with the devaluation of unpaid work. Both these market outcomes involve higher than optimal work hours and consumption levels, thus despoiling the environment and reducing time and economic activities in family and community spheres. Social and environmental policy recommendations to address these market failures by reducing inequality are shown to complement and entail one another.
GPIIIa-related PLA1 antigens with different molecular weights: studies in platelets, endothelial cells, and megakaryocytes

The mol wt of the glycoprotein(s) carrying the PLA1 antigen was examined on platelets, megakaryocytes and endothelial cells by immunoblotting with a human polyclonal anti-PLA1 antibody (BE), as well as on four different monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs; DEK-1, DEK-2C, DEK- 10, and DEK-16) raised against GPIIIa, the 100,000-mol wt platelet glycoprotein known to carry the PLA1 antigen. BE reacted with PLA1 positive but not with PLA1 negative platelets. DEK-1 reacted strongly with PLA1 positive platelets but weakly with PLA1 negative platelets. The remaining three MoAbs reacted equally with PLA1 positive as well as negative platelets. BE, DEK-1, DEK-10, and DEK-16 reacted with a 120,000- as well as 100,000-mol wt band on immunoblot of PLA1 positive platelets. The 120,000-mol wt band copurified with affinity purified 100,000-mol wt GPIIIa. Megakaryocytes had a prominent 120,000- as well as 105,000-mol wt band that reacted with BE on immunoblot (the 100,000- mol wt band was not detectable). Umbilical cord endothelial cells from presumed PLA-positive infants had a prominent 100,000-mol wt band that reacted with BE, DEK-16, and DEK-1 (the 120,000-mol wt band was not visualized). The 120,000- and 100,000-mol wt PLA1-positive bands could be digested with proteolytic enzymes to 55,000- to 65,000-mol wt- resistant fragments that retain PLA1 epitopes. Further digestion with endoglycosidase-H lowered the apparent mol wt by approximately 2,000 to 6,000 daltons without affecting PLA1 reactivity. We conclude that the PLA1 antigen is present on a 120,000- as well as 100,000-mol wt glycoprotein of platelets and megakaryocytes, a 105,000-mol wt band of megakaryocytes, and a 100,000-mol wt glycoprotein of endothelial cells. We postulate that the 120,000-mol wt glycoprotein, which shares three or more epitopes with the 100,000-mol wt GPIIIa, may be a post- translational precursor of this species.
HIV-Related Stigma and HIV Disclosure Among Latinos on the US-Mexico Border

Latinos in the USA have lower levels of disclosure and higher levels of HIV-related stigma when compared to non-Hispanic whites. However, the nature of the stigma-disclosure relation has not been fully explored. We hypothesize that the path between HIV-related stigma and disclosure may be through a mediating attitude toward disclosure. As a secondary hypothesis, we predicted differences in the strength of association that cognitive attitudes and affective attitudes share with disclosure. We interviewed 241 HIV-positive individuals on HAART at an outpatient clinic in El Paso, Texas, a large city that borders Mexico. The significant association between HIV-related stigma and HIV disclosure was fully mediated by attitudes toward disclosure. In addition, the differences between correlations (i.e., both affective and cognitive attitudes with disclosure behaviors) were statistically significant for family members and casual sex partners (Steiger’s Z-test, Z = 5.15 and 2.54, ps < .01). Our model of disclosure-related attitudes suggests that as stigma becomes more salient, negative evaluations about disclosing may become more important during the disclosure decision-making process. Also, despite evidence from the literature that disclosure to certain targets (e.g., intimate partners) may occur for emotional reasons related to catharsis or emotional relief, our data suggest that cognitive appraisals (e.g., responsibility to educate) are more strongly related to disclosure rates to family members and casual sex partners.
Teaching Basic Dysrhythmias: What Is the Best Approach?

Nurses' ability to accurately interpret cardiac dysrhythmias has resulted in decreased mortality. Four educational approaches to teaching dysrhythmia interpretation were evaluated. Major findings revealed learning was more effective when the lecture-discussion approach was used over a 5-week to 10-week period of time. Nurses also felt more comfortable with their ability to interpret dysrhythmias. These findings have several implications for continuing education departments regarding how and over what period of time this content should be taught.
Nietzsche’s Science

In this final chapter I look at those aphorisms Nietzsche wrote regarding science and his philosophy of science. I respond to his aphorisms with aphorisms of my own and from Nietzschean scholars such as Babette Babich. I begin the chapter with a lengthy introduction that explains how it would be easy to associate Nietzsche’s work with the current anti-science groups but that it would be a mistake and the risk of this label is worthy it because Nietzsche offers an important alternative vision as to what science is and does.
Discrimination of dicarboxylic acids via assembly-induced emission.

Dicarboxylic acids are important chemicals in human metabolism and various industries. Differentiation between the isomers and members of a homologous series is a challenge, due to their similar properties. We show that a triazine-based fluorinated AIEgen can recognize dicarboxylic acids with selectivity based on the relative position of the two –COOH groups.
Camera-Based Semantic Enhanced Vehicle Segmentation for Planar LIDAR

Vehicle segmentation is an important step in perception for autonomous driving vehicles, providing object-level environmental understanding. Its performance directly affects other functions in the autonomous driving car, including Decision-Making and Trajectory Planning. However, this task is challenging for planar LIDAR due to its limited vertical field of view (FOV) and quality of points. In addition, directly estimating 3D location, dimensions and heading of vehicles from an image is difficult due to the limited depth information of a monocular camera. We propose a method that fuses a vision-based instance segmentation algorithm and LIDAR-based segmentation algorithm to achieve an accurate 2D bird's-eye view object segmentation. This method combines the advantages of both camera and LIDAR sensor: the camera helps to prevent over-segmentation in LIDAR, and LIDAR segmentation removes false positive areas in the interest regions in the vision results. A modified T-linkage RANSAC is applied to further remove outliers. A better segmentation also results in a better orientation estimation. We achieved a promising improvement in average absolute heading error and 2D IOU on both a reduced-resolution KITTI dataset and our Cadillac SRX planar LIDAR dataset.
Molecular mechanism and history of non-sense to sense evolution of antifreeze glycoprotein gene in northern gadids

A fundamental question in evolutionary biology is how genetic novelty arises. De novo gene birth is a recently recognized mechanism, but the evolutionary process and function of putative de novo genes remain largely obscure. With a clear life-saving function, the diverse antifreeze proteins of polar fishes are exemplary adaptive innovations and models for investigating new gene evolution. Here, we report clear evidence and a detailed molecular mechanism for the de novo formation of the northern gadid (codfish) antifreeze glycoprotein (AFGP) gene from a minimal noncoding sequence. We constructed genomic DNA libraries for AFGP-bearing and AFGP-lacking species across the gadid phylogeny and performed fine-scale comparative analyses of the AFGP genomic loci and homologs. We identified the noncoding founder region and a nine-nucleotide (9-nt) element therein that supplied the codons for one Thr-Ala-Ala unit from which the extant repetitive AFGP-coding sequence (cds) arose through tandem duplications. The latent signal peptide (SP)-coding exons were fortuitous noncoding DNA sequence immediately upstream of the 9-nt element, which, when spliced, supplied a typical secretory signal. Through a 1-nt frameshift mutation, these two parts formed a single read-through open reading frame (ORF). It became functionalized when a putative translocation event conferred the essential cis promoter for transcriptional initiation. We experimentally proved that all genic components of the extant gadid AFGP originated from entirely nongenic DNA. The gadid AFGP evolutionary process also represents a rare example of the proto-ORF model of de novo gene birth where a fully formed ORF existed before the regulatory element to activate transcription was acquired.
Comparison of creatinine and cystatin C for estimation of glomerular filtration rate in pediatric patients after Fontan operation.

Background There are several limitations when using creatinine to estimate glomerular filtration rate, especially in children with chronic medical conditions who are at high risk of kidney dysfunction. Cystatin C has been the recent focus of research as a replacement biomarker for creatinine. Our objective was to compare the 2 biomarkers in pediatric single-ventricle heart disease patients who have undergone the Fontan operation. We hypothesized that there would be poor correlation and agreement between the 2 estimates of renal function. Methods This was a single center retrospective chart review of 20 patients who had previously undergone Fontan operation. Demographic and clinical data were collected from medical records. Blood samples were collected as part of routine clinical care and simultaneously measured for serum creatinine and cystatin C. Glomerular filtration rate was calculated using the creatinine-based bedside Schwartz formula and cystatin C-based Zapatelli equation. Spearman correlation and Bland-Altman analysis were used to assess correlation and agreement. Results The median Schwartz-derived estimated glomerular filtration rate was 98.94 mL/min/1.73 m2 while the median Zappitelli-derived estimated glomerular filtration rate was 84.76 mL/min/1.73 m2 . The mean difference was -19.27 suggesting poor agreement. There was weak to moderate correlation between the Schwartz and cystatin C estimated glomerular filtration rate. Conclusion The bedside Schwartz formula may be an overestimate of glomerular filtration rate in pediatric single-ventricle heart disease patients who have undergone the Fontan operation. While larger studies are necessary, cystatin C is a promising biomarker to replace creatinine and better estimate kidney function in this population.
Deep-learning-based reduced-order modeling for subsurface flow simulation

A new deep-learning-based reduced-order modeling (ROM) framework is proposed for application in subsurface flow simulation. The reduced-order model is based on an existing embed-to-control (E2C) framework and includes an auto-encoder, which projects the system to a low-dimensional subspace, and a linear transition model, which approximates the evolution of the system states in low dimension. In addition to the loss function for data mismatch considered in the original E2C framework, we introduce a physics-based loss function that penalizes predictions that are inconsistent with the governing flow equations. The loss function is also modified to emphasize accuracy in key well quantities of interest (e.g., fluid production rates). The E2C ROM is shown to be very analogous to an existing ROM, POD-TPWL, which has been extensively developed for subsurface flow simulation. The new ROM is applied to oil-water flow in a heterogeneous reservoir, with flow driven by nine wells operating under time-varying control specifications. A total of 300 high-fidelity training simulations are performed in the offline stage, and the network training requires 10-12~minutes on a Tesla V100 GPU node. Online (runtime) computations achieve speedups of $\mathcal{O}$(1000) relative to full-order simulations. Extensive test case results, with well controls varied over large ranges, are presented. Accurate ROM predictions are achieved for global saturation and pressure fields at particular times, and for injection and production well responses as a function of time. Error is shown to increase when 100 or 200 (rather than 300) training runs are used to construct the E2C ROM.
Epithelium-capillary interactions in the eye: the retinal pigment epithelium and the choriocapillaris.

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the evidence for epithelium–capillary interactions where the two are apposed, emphasizing structural and functional manifestations such as capillary permeability and cell polarity. The observations derived from human ocular histopathology and experimental animal models are focused in which interactions are evident between (1) the retinal-pigment epithelium (RPE) and its apposed capillary plexus, the choriocapillaris and (2) RPE and retinal capillaries experimentally brought into apposition with RPE, from which they are normally isolated. These observations are relevant to the pathogenesis of chorioretinal diseases like age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. The biology of the RPE-choriocapillaris interactions determines the relative contributions of ECM components, soluble factors, and phenotypically different types of RPE cells to observations made in situ. They are the two causes of reduced vision and blindness that arise at the RPE and lead to complicating secondary changes in the adjacent choriocapillaris and neural retina. The possible mechanisms of RPE–choriocapillaris interactions are also discussed in the chapter.
The association of body mass index with same-day hospital admission, postoperative complications, and 30-day readmission following day-case eligible joint arthroscopy: A national registry analysis

Abstract Study objective We examined the association of body mass index (BMI) with hospital admission, same-day complications, and 30-day hospital readmission following day-case eligible joint arthroscopy. Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting Multi-institutional. Patients Adult patients undergoing arthroscopy of the knee, hip or shoulder in the outpatient setting. Intervention None. Measurements Using the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program dataset from 2012 to 2016, we examined seven BMI ranges: normal BMI (≥20 kg/m2 and Main results There were a total of 99,410 patients included in the final analysis, in which there was a 2.6% rate of hospital admission. When compared to class 3 obesity, only those with BMI ≥50 kg/m2 ( OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.18–2.01, p = 0.005) had increased odds of hospital admission. There were no differences in 30-day hospital readmission or same-day postoperative complications. Conclusion We found that only patients with BMI ≥50 kg/m2 had increased odds for same-day hospital admission even when patient's comorbid conditions are optimized, suggesting that a BMI ≥50 kg/m2 may be used as a sole factor for patient selection in patients undergoing joint arthroscopy. For patients with BMI
Characterization of the Iron Species Released by Ferritin Immobilized on Self-Assembled Monolayer Modified Gold Electrodes

AbstractIron is released following electrochemical reduction of immobilized ferritin. In this work, voltammetry is used to elucidate the identity of the released iron. Ferritin was covalently immob...
Estimating the Genome-wide Mutation Rate with Three-Way Identity by Descent

The two primary methods for estimating the genome-wide mutation rate have been counting de novo mutations in parent-offspring trios and comparing sequence data between closely related species. With parent-offspring trio analysis it is difficult to control for genotype error, and resolution is limited because each trio provides information from only two meioses. Inter-species comparison is difficult to calibrate due to uncertainty in the number of meioses separating species, and it can be biased by selection and by changing mutation rates over time. An alternative class of approaches for estimating mutation rates that avoids these limitations is based on identity by descent (IBD) segments that arise from common ancestry within the past few thousand years. Existing IBD-based methods are limited to highly inbred samples, or lack robustness to genotype error and error in the estimated demographic history. We present an IBD-based method that uses sharing of IBD segments among sets of three individuals to estimate the mutation rate. Our method is applicable to accurately phased genotype data, such as parent-offspring trio data phased using Mendelian rules of inheritance. Unlike standard parent-offspring analysis, our method utilizes distant relationships and is robust to genotype error. We apply our method to data from 1,307 European-ancestry individuals in the Framingham Heart Study sequenced by the NHLBI TOPMed project. We obtain an estimate of 1.29 × 10−8 mutations per base pair per meiosis with a 95% confidence interval of [1.02 × 10−8, 1.56 × 10−8].
Multi-Stage Current-Steering Amplifier Design Based on Extended g m /I D Methodology

A methodology to optimally design multi-stage current-steering CMOS amplifiers is described. The optimal device operating conditions and sizes are directly calculated from design constraints, such as desired voltage gain, and frequency bandwidth. The proposed design algorithm is based on an analytical approach, which extends the conventional g m /I D lookup table methodology. Examples are provided to show effectiveness of the proposed approach.
A simple technique for the management of refractory gastrostomy site complications a technical innovation in gastrostomy tube site revision

Abstract Introduction Longstanding gastrostomy sites are prone to leakage and excoriation secondary to protrusion of gastric mucosa into the tract, dilation of the site over time, and development of refractory granulation tissue. Surgical revision with creation of a new gastric and skin exit site can be difficult. We describe a technique to re-site a gastrostomy tube (GT) utilizing the existing GT site. Materials and methods For one patient with gastrostomy site refractory complications, we re-sited the GT using the existing site. A clamp was placed through the old GT site and was palpated through the abdominal wall. An incision over the tip was made and a silk tie was passed from this new site, exiting through the old site. A One-step™ device was then pulled from the old site out through the new site, and closure of the old gastrostomy was performed. Results The procedure took approximately 40 min to complete. Oral and GT intake was started within 3 hours. There were no intra- or post-operative complications. The patient was discharged home the same day. Conclusion This simple technique allows for revision of a gastrostomy tube without the use of laparoscopy and permits a cosmetically pleasing incision.
Use of Antidiabetic drugs during pregnancy among U.S. women with Livebirth deliveries in the Mini-Sentinel system

As the prevalence of diabetes mellitus increases in the population, the exposure to antidiabetic drugs (ADDs) during pregnancies is expected to grow, as has been seen over the last decade. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of ADD use during pregnancy among women in the Mini-Sentinel Distributed Database (MSDD) who delivered a liveborn infant. We identified qualifying livebirth pregnancies among women aged 10 to 54 years in the MSDD from 2001 to 2013. ADD use was estimated using outpatient pharmacy dispensing claims and days-supplied among three cohorts: all livebirth pregnancies, pregnancies among women with pre-existing diabetes, and pregnancies among women without prior ADD use. Among the 1.9 million pregnancies in the MSDD that resulted in a livebirth from 2001 to 2013, 4.4% were exposed to an ADD. Of the 15,606 pregnancies (0.8%) with pre-existing diabetes, 92.8% were also exposed during the pregnancy period. The most commonly used product in these pregnancies was insulin (75.6% of pregnancies). In contrast, in pregnancies of women without prior ADD use, the most commonly used products were glyburide and insulin, and most of these users were diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Patterns of ADD use during pregnancy described here, along with changes in disease incidence and management, highlight the importance of continuing surveillance of ADD utilization patterns and examining the safety and effectiveness of these products in pregnancy.
Some Analytical Results for Planet 90° Bend Flow

Analysis of inviscid nonturbulent flow around bends preceded and followed by straight conduits on a potential and frozen-vorticity basis indicates the manner in which bend curvature and approach velocity profile affect the flow. Separation is found more likely the sharper the curvature and the more pointed the velocity profile. The approach flow has less effect on cavitation susceptibility and metering characteristics of bends.
New Algorithm Concept

This chapter explains the basics of the new algorithm concept. The principle of the local component-specific load is introduced and a comparison between an algorithm based on a overall vehicle deceleration and the new concept is carried out on the basis of measurement signals.
Comparing the Repair of Veneered Zirconia Crowns with Ceramic or Composite Resin: An in Vitro Study.

Statement of problem: Current techniques for repairing porcelain-chipped restorations have several limitations. With advances in CAD/CAM technology, the combination of resin cements and high-strength ceramic materials might offer new options for repairing the chipping of veneering ceramic. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare the load-to-failure of veneered zirconia crowns repaired by different materials. Material and Methods: Veneered zirconia crowns were made on aluminum dies (n = 10/group). Feldspathic porcelain (Vita VM9, Vident) was applied to the zirconia coping (Vita In-Ceram YZ, Vident) in a cylindrical shape (O 10.5 mm, height 7.5 mm). A bevel cut on the porcelain veneer (45 degree, 3 mm width) was made at one side of each crown to simulate porcelain chipping. The crowns were then divided into four different groups according to the repair materials: 1. Conventional resin composite (A; Tetric EvoCeram, Ivoclar Vivadent); 2. Flowable resin composite (B; G-aenial Universal Flo, GC america); 3. CAD/CAM milled feldspathic ceramic (C; Vita Trilux Forte, Vident); 4. CAD/CAM milled lithium disilicate glass-ceramic (D; IPS e.max CAD, Ivoclar Vivadent). Resin cement (Multilink Automix, Ivoclar Vivadent) was used to cement the CAD/CAM ceramic materials to the beveled crowns. Each crown underwent 5000 cycles of thermocycling. The strength test was performed on an Instron universal testing machine by loading force on the center of repaired part to record load-to-failure. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey HSD post-hoc tests (α = 0.05). Results: Mean loads-to-failure (in Newton +/− SD) of repaired veneered zirconia crowns were: Gr. A: 660.0 ± 200.5; Gr. B: 681.7 ± 175.9; Gr. C: 1236.0 ± 188.8; Gr. D: 1536.3 ± 286.1. Catastrophic failure was the most dominant failure mode in every group. Few specimens exhibited cohesive failure. Only one specimen in group D had adhesive failure. Conclusions: Within the limitation of the study, veneered zirconia crowns repaired with CAD/CAM ceramic materials have significantly higher load-to-failure than veneered crowns repaired with resin composite (p ≤ 0.05). Clinical Implications: Traditionally, porcelain-chipped restorations are often repaired with resin composite and bonding technique. Repairing chipped porcelain with CAD/CAM ceramics fitting the fractured parts can be alternative option with potential advantages. More well-designed studies are necessary to justify this novel repair technique.
Computational Analysis of Electron Transfer Kinetics for CO2 Reduction with Organic Photoredox Catalysts.

We present a fundamental description of the electron transfer (ET) step from substituted oligo(p-phenylene) (OPP) radical anions to CO2, with the larger goal of assessing the viability of underexpl...
Gender, Genre, and Geography in Ménie Dowie’s A Girl in the Karpathians

A Girl in the Karpathians, an 1890s account of a young Scottish woman’s adventurous travel to Galicia, a borderland province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was a huge success upon its publication. This essay examines how the performative femininity of Menie Dowie’s protagonist draws inspiration from the emerging New Woman movement to produce an anti-travelogue, one that seizes the little known Eastern Carpathian region as a suitable site for subverting expectations of genre and gender. Dowie’s text interrogates both imperial and tourist paradigms of travel writing by avoiding linear itineraries, revising conventional ways of seeing, and foregrounding the traveling body.
Stacked Silicon Microcoolers

Traditional machining techniques limit the flow channel and fin wall dimensions of high thermal conductivity metallic cold plates. Even though the thermal conductivity of silicon is lower compared to copper or aluminum, silicon micromachining techniques allow smaller flow channel and fin wall dimensions to enhance the heat transfer. However, the silicon fin height is limited by the standard wafer thickness. In this study, we develop stacked silicon microcoolers to increase the fin heights. An analytical method is used to identify the optimal fin wall and flow channel dimensions. A method of fabricating the stacked silicon microcoolers is then described.Stacked silicon microcoolers of various flow channel and fin wall dimensions are fabricated and integrated into thermal test packages. Experimental results of thermal resistance and pressure, spanning a wide range of chip power and fluid flow rates, are presented. The results demonstrate the high-performance envelope of the stacked silicon microcoolers. Directions for further thermal performance enhancement are also identified.
Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Findings in Competitive Athletes Recovering From COVID-19 Infection.

This study investigates the use of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging in competitive athletes who recovered from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-10) to detect myocardial inflammation that would identify high-risk athletes for return to competitive play.
The Impact of the Tertiary Survey in an Established Trauma Program.

IntroductionThe trauma tertiary survey (TTS) was first described in 1990 and is recognized as an essential practice in trauma care. The TTS remains effective in detecting secondary injuries in the ...
Status of the UC-Berkeley SETI efforts

We summarize radio and optical SETI programs based at the University of California, Berkeley. The SEVENDIP optical pulse search looks for ns time scale pulses at visible wavelengths. It utilizes an automated 30 inch telescope, three ultra fast photo multiplier tubes and a coincidence detector. The target list includes F, G, K and M stars, globular cluster and galaxies. The ongoing SERENDIP V.v sky survey searches for radio signals at the 300 meter Arecibo Observatory. The currently installed configuration supports 128 million channels over a 200 MHz bandwidth with ~1.6 Hz spectral resolution. Frequency stepping allows the spectrometer to cover the full 300MHz band of the Arecibo L-band receivers. The final configuration will allow data from all 14 receivers in the Arecibo L-band Focal Array to be monitored simultaneously with over 1.8 billion channels. SETI@home uses the desktop computers of volunteers to analyze over 160 TB of data at taken at Arecibo. Over 6 million volunteers have run SETI@home during its 10 year history. The SETI@home sky survey is 10 times more sensitive than SERENDIP V.v but it covers only a 2.5 MHz band, centered on 1420 MHz. SETI@home searches a much wider parameter space, including 14 octaves of signal bandwidth and 15 octaves of pulse period with Doppler drift corrections from -100 Hz/s to +100 Hz/s. SETI@home is being expanded to analyze data collected during observations of Kepler objects of interest in May 2011. The Astropulse project is the first SETI search for μs time scale pulses in the radio spectrum. Because short pulses are dispersed by the interstellar medium, and the amount of dispersion is unknown, Astropulse must search through 30,000 possible dispersions. Substantial computing power is required to conduct this search, so the project uses volunteers and their personal computers to carry out the computation (using distributed computing similar to SETI@home). Keywords: radio instrumentation, FPGA spectrometers, SETI, optical SETI, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, volunteer computing, radio transients, optical transients.
What Works? Measuring the Efficacy of Cyber Policy Interventions with Quasi-Experiments

What works? How would we know? As states pass new cybersecurity and privacy legislation, natural experiments present themselves that allow us to start measuring policy efficacy. One measure of this efficacy is the number of reported state data breaches. More and more states have modified their data breach notification legislation to publicly report this data. Yet, datasets like the Data Breach Clearinghouse don't retain state level dummy variables. Without these variables, researchers cannot identify non-equivalent control groups for interrupted time series experiments. To this end, this research presents the data and a methodology to integrate 21 state level datasets of breach reports into a national dataset that retains state level metadata. Supplementing those states which publicly report breach incidents are state level data sources acquired from open records requests. This methodological progress is necessary to begin to address the research question, do state level cybersecurity policy interventions reduce the frequency of data breaches in the target population? The data for this kind of analysis has, until now, been limited to private sector firms like Advisen. Consequently, this paper leverages its data source to produce descriptive statistics on the characteristics of data breach incidents similar to findings in industry reports. Further findings include the rate of breach incident frequency and breaches per-capita over time in reporting states. Evidence demonstrates that breaches have historically been rising by ~20% per year, however, incidents plateaued starting in 2016. Annually, breach incidents per-capita are shown to be quite similar in states with shared reporting requirements. This per-capita normalization enables state level rankings of breach likelihood. However, while industry breach reports have historically limited themselves to descriptively characterizing breach activity, this methodology is also intended to enable traditional policy evaluation. Quasi-experiments of state level regulatory interventions, like the Massachusetts Data Security Law, present a case study for further policy evaluation studies. Monthly time series analysis comparing pre and post treatment with a relevant control group, presents the best means for these evaluation studies. This research consequently provides tangible code, data sources, and lessons learned for future researchers to employ to identify which regulatory interventions work. If we can start to learn from this laboratory of democracy, perhaps new regulatory interventions can be designed to protect customer data and reduce incidents of identity theft.
A Two-Phase Interleaved High-Voltage Gain DC-DC Converter with Coupled Inductor and Built-in Transformer for Photovoltaic Applications

This paper presents a two-phase interleaved high-voltage gain DC-DC converter for photovoltaic (PV) energy harvesting. Utilizing double two-winding coupled inductors (CIs) and a two-winding built-in transformer (BIT) with switched-capacitor (SC) cells, the proposed converter achieves higher voltage gains than the similar converters in the previous studies. In addition, a continuous input current with the reduced ripple and low current stresses on the components are obtained due to the interleaved configuration of the converter. Furthermore, thanks to the reduced voltage stresses of the switches, low-voltage-rated MOSFETs with low RDS(on) are selected, which helps to reduce conduction losses. Moreover, a resistor-capacitor-diode (RCD) snubber is considered to absorb the energy of the leakage inductances of the CIs. Also, the reverse-recovery problem of the diodes is solved by the leakage inductances that provide zero-current switching (ZCS) turn-off for the diodes. The operating modes and steady-state analysis of the proposed converter are presented. In addition, a performance comparison is carried out, and a 200 W converter with a voltage gain of 25 and output voltage of 400 V is simulated in PLECS Blockset to prove the effectiveness and validity of the proposed converter.
Variation in Restrictive Abortion Policies and Adverse Birth Outcomes in the United States from 2005 to 2015

BACKGROUND Since 2011, U.S. states have enacted more than 400 policies restricting abortion access. As structural determinants, abortion policies have the potential to influence maternal and child health access, outcomes, and equity through multiple mechanisms. Limited research has examined their implications for birth outcomes. METHODS We created a state-level abortion restrictiveness index composed of 18 restrictive abortion policies and evaluated the association between this index and individual-level probabilities of preterm birth (PTB) and low birthweight (LBW) within the United States and by Census Region, using data from the 2005-2015 National Center for Health Statistics Period Linked Live Birth-Infant Death Files. We used logistic multivariable regression modeling, adjusting for individual- and state-level factors and state and year fixed effects. RESULTS Among 2,500,000 live births, 269,253 (12.0%) were PTBs and 182,960 (8.1%) were LBW. On average from 2005 to 2015, states had approximately seven restrictive abortion policies enacted, with more policies enacted in the Midwest and South. Nationally, relationships between state restrictiveness indices and adverse birth outcomes were insignificant. Regional analyses revealed that a 1-SD increase in a state's restrictiveness index was associated with a 2% increase in PTB in the Midwest (marginal effect [ME], 0.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.04-0.45; p < .01), a 15% increase in LBW in the Northeast (ME, 1.24; 95% CI, 0.12-2.35; p < .05), and a 2% increase in LBW in the West (ME, 0.12; 95% CI, 0.01-0.25; p < .05). CONCLUSION Variation in restrictive abortion policy environments may have downstream implications for birth outcomes, and increases in abortion restrictions were associated with adverse birth outcomes in three out of four Census Regions.
A Douglas–Rachford Splitting Approach to Compressed Sensing Image Recovery Using Low-Rank Regularization

In this paper, we study the compressed sensing (CS) image recovery problem. The traditional method divides the image into blocks and treats each block as an independent sub-CS recovery task. This often results in losing global structure of an image. In order to improve the CS recovery result, we propose a nonlocal (NL) estimation step after the initial CS recovery for denoising purpose. The NL estimation is based on the well-known NL means filtering that takes an advantage of self-similarity in images. We formulate the NL estimation as the low-rank matrix approximation problem, where the low-rank matrix is formed by the NL similarity patches. An efficient algorithm, nonlocal Douglas–Rachford (NLDR), based on Douglas–Rachford splitting is developed to solve this low-rank optimization problem constrained by the CS measurements. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed NLDR algorithm achieves significant performance improvements over the state-of-the-art in CS image recovery.
Generating quasi-symbolic representation of three-dimensional flow

Understanding flow in the three-dimensional phase space is challenging both to human experts and current computer science technology. To break through the barrier, we are building a program called PSX3 that can autonomously explore the flow in a three-dimensional phase space, by integrating AI and numerical techniques. In this paper, I point out that quasi-symbolic representation called flow mappings is effective as a means of capturing qualitative aspects of three-dimensional flow and present a method of generating flow mappings for a system of ordinary differential equations with three unknown functions. The method is based on a finding that geometric cues for generating a set of flow patterns can be classified into five categories. I demonstrate how knowledge about interaction of geometric cues is utilized for intelligently controlling numerical computation.