cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Predators Suppress Aphis glycines Matsumura Population Growth in Soybean

The soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura, is an invasive pest of soybean, Þrst discovered in North America in 2000. We studied the ability of the existing predator community in soybean to suppress A. glycines population growthduring JuneÐAugust 2002, in Þeld studies using predator exclusion and sham cages or no-cage controls. Cages were infested with uniform initial densities of A. glycines adults, and subsequent populations of aphids and predators were monitored. After 2 wk, exclusion and sham cages were switched, with aphid and predator density followed for additional 2 wk. The experiment was repeated a second time, allowing observation of predator community response to bothlow and h ighdensity aph id populations over several time periods and stages of soybean development. Cages had minimal effects on temperature, relative humidity, or soybean growth. In contrast, predator communities and aphid populations were strongly affected by cage treatments. In the Þrst trial, the activity of foliar-foraging predators effectively prevented A. glycines population growthmaintaining populations below 10 aph ids per plant (adult nymphs) in sham cages, while populations exceeded 200 aphids per plant in exclusion cages. After cage switch, these high A. glycines populations in the former exclusion cages were rapidly colonized and reduced by nearly an order of magnitude within 2 wk by a combination of generalist and specialist predators. The second trial produced qualitatively similar results, but at much lower aphid densities. The most abundant predators in bothtrials included: Harmonia axyridis Pallas, Orius insidiosus (Say), and Leucopis spp. These studies demonstrate that existing predator communities comprised of a mixture of indigenous and naturalized species can suppress A. glycines population density in soybean. The impact of existing predator communities should be further investigated as a component of A. glycines management in United States soybean production systems.
African American Family Functioning: Relationship between Parenting Dimensions and Family Conflict

This study sought to examine the relationship between parenting dimensions and family conflict among African American families. Family conflict has a significant impact on family functioning and there is a gap in the research that identifies specific traits of parenting that are related to conflict. This study addresses this gap by noting relationships and utilizing a complex theoretical lens to explore findings. The research question addressed: What is the relationship between family conflict (the amount of openly expressed anger within the family) and the six dimensions of parenting (i.e., warmth, rejection, structure, chaos, autonomy support, and coercion) among African American families that access inner city Head Start programs? A relationship between parenting dimensions and family conflict was hypothesized. Survey methods were employed to examine fifty-five African American families. It was determined that a significant relationship existed between family conflict and structure. The relationship found between structure and family conflict can result from the restrictiveness, demandingness, and control found in the definition of structure. This relationship is examined through the lenses of Bowen family systems theory, conflict theory, and human ecology theory. Recommendations and implications for human service practice are explored as well as suggestions for future research efforts.
Differences Between Women-Owned Home-Based & Office-Based Businesses: An Exploratory Study

In this paper, the differences between women-owned home-based and office-based businesses are explored through an empirical study of 150 attendees of small business workshops and conferences. Home-based and office-based business locations are compared based on an analysis of the following variables: prior industry and managerial experience, business plan development, length of time spent planning the business, adequacy of starting capital, income level, self-reported success rating , and financial and personal satisfaction levels. Frequency data were assembled and characteristics identified. Cross-tabulations and Chi Square analysis of expected and actual related factors was performed with significant factors identified. Results of this exploratory study suggest that women entrepreneurs with home­ based businesses have less employees, work fewer hours, are more likely to hold second jobs, are not involved in international business activity, and are most often located in suburban and rural geographical areas. Although there were no significant differences in the business planning activities between home-based and office-based women entrepreneurs, the study results indicate that home-based businesses generate less income, are not perceived to be as successful, and are not as financially satisfying to the entrepreneur as are office-based businesses.
Remembering Robi: Childhood, Freedom and Rabindranath Tagore

This essay explores Tagore’s imagination of the child as a national subject through a consideration of his writings on childhood, authority and the free individual in colonial society, and memoirs of his own childhood. Rabindranath rejected, to a considerable extent, the authority of the father as it existed in contemporary bhadralok society. Simultaneously, he rejected the models of schooling and institutionalization, imported from Europe, that threatened native paternalism in some respects, but were aligned with it in others. He put forward, instead, a theory of child-rearing and education that emphasized a freedom that was restrained by a reformulation of nature and society and by love—including love of authority itself. The new Indian child that he imagined embraced the wildness of pedagogies that were identified with England, submitted to ideals (although not necessarily forms) of discipline that could be identified with India, and emerged as free: Indian but not orthodox, modern but not mimic, liberated and individual but also reassuringly social.
Studies With Dogs Maintained on Diets Low in Fat.

ConclusionsDistinct alterations in the appearance of the skin have been observed in puppies reared on a diet low in fat. This skin change became evident at about 3 months of age with the gradual de...
Spontaneous Remission of Intractable Epilepsy Following Acute Viral Infections

Questionnaires regarding the occurrence of seizure remission following infection were sent to pediatric neurologists in 73 university hospitals, children’s hospitals, and epilepsy centers in Japan, and the data obtained in 21 cases from 11 institutions were analyzed at St Marianna University School of Medicine, Kawasaki, and other centers.
IMISOUND: An unsupervised system for sound query by vocal imitation

Vocal imitation is widely used in human interactions. In this paper, we propose a novel human-computer interaction system called IMISOUND that listens to a vocal imitation and retrieves similar sounds from a sound library. This system allows users to search sounds even if they do not remember their semantic labels or the sounds do not have these labels (e.g., synthesized sound effects). IMISOUND employs a Stacked Auto-Encoder (SAE) to extract features from both the vocal imitation (query) and sounds in the library (candidates). The SAE is pre-trained using training vocal imitations of sounds not in the library to automatically learn more suitable feature representations than human-engineered features such as MFCC's. It then measures the similarity between the query and each sound candidate, using the K-L divergence and Dynamic Time Warping distance between their feature representations, and finally retrieves the closest sounds. IMISOUND is an unsupervised system in the sense that no training is performed for the target sound, nonetheless, experiments show that it achieves comparable performance to a previously proposed supervised system which requires pre-training on sounds to be retrieved. Experiments also show that IMISOUND significantly outperforms an unsupervised MFCC-based baseline system, validating the advantage of the SAE feature representation.
Oxidant stress-induced transendothelial migration of monocytes is linked to phosphorylation of PECAM-1.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are believed to cause vascular injury in the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis, diabetes, and vasoocclusion in sickle cell disease. Studies have shown that ROS causes...
Rectangular Dielectric Waveguides

The rectangular dielectric waveguide is the most commonly used structure in integrated optics, especially in semiconductor diode lasers. Demands for new applications such as high-speed data backplanes in integrated electronics, waveguide filters, optical multiplexors, and optical switches are driving technology toward better materials and processing techniques for planar waveguide structures. The infinite slab and circular waveguides that we have already studied are not practical for use on a substrate: the slab waveguide has no lateral confinement, and the circular fiber is not compatible with the planar processing technology being used to make planar structures. The rectangular waveguide is the natural structure.
The Success of Alcoholics Anonymous: Locus of Control and God's General Revelation:

The success of the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) program for non-Christian members is a source of cognitive dissonance for Christians. Where does the power to change come from for these individuals, si...
Clostridium Difficile Infection and Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy: Is There a Relation?

Context: Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TCM) mimics acute coronary syndrome and is accompanied by reversible left ventricular apical ballooning in the absence of angiographically significant coronary artery stenosis. It is a transient condition that typically precedes physical or emotional triggers. Case Report: We describe the case of a 65-year-old woman who presented to our institution with symptomatic Clostridium difficile infection. 24 hours after admission, the patient complained of severe, retrosternal chest pain. Electrocardiogram showed diffuse elevation of ST-segment in the chest leads; however, coronary angiography demonstrated normal coronary arteries. Therein, an echocardiography was performed, which revealed apical ballooning and hypercontractile base with global left ventricular hypokinesis. These features were consistent with TCM. The patient was managed conservatively. Repeat echocardiogram 2 weeks later showed resolution of heart failure. Conclusion: To our research, this is the first report of TCM caused by C. difficile infection. Clinicians involved in the care of patients with C. difficile infection must be aware of this complication and should consider TCM in those who develop atypical chest pain.
The temporal window of valuation is constricted among adolescent smokers

Healthy decisions are associated with valuation of the future whereas unhealthy decisions are associated with devaluation of the future. Comparisons of future discounting of delayed rewards in adolescent smokers and non-smokers have been equivocal and past discounting of monetary gains has not been reported in adolescents. Here, adolescents completed future and past delay discounting tasks. A mixed-model analysis of covariance using a model with the lowest Bayesian Information Criterion revealed that adolescents discount the past more than the future and smokers discount more than non-smokers. These results suggest that adolescent smokers have a constricted temporal window, which may lead to disadvantageous decisions.
Effective Population Number

Effective population number (or more commonly, effective population size, N e ) is the evolutionary analogue to the census size, N. N e , rather than N , determines the rate of random genetic drift and hence the rates of allele frequency change, loss of genetic variability, and increase in inbreeding. N e = N only in the special case of an ‘ideal’ population, in which variation among individuals in reproductive success is completely random. In most real populations, variation in reproductive success exceeds the random expectation, and this reduces N e compared to N . Unless the sex ratio is exactly 1:1, members of the less numerous sex must on average produce more offspring, and this reduces N e ; however, the effect is not large unless the sex ratio is strongly skewed. Long-term N e depends on the harmonic mean of single-generation values. Because the harmonic mean is dominated by small values, bottlenecks (generations with small N e ) can have a profound effect on genetic diversity. Recent decades have seen a great deal of interest in using genetic methods to estimate N e , to better understand evolutionary processes, and to aid conservation efforts. These studies have provided empirical evidence for wide variation in the N e / N ratio among species with different life histories and ecologies.
Las guerras floridas de Roberto Bolaño: memoria, melancolía y Pierre Menard

Desde el contexto de la desmitificacion de la literatura chilena en el exilio, este ensayo analiza como se refleja esta transicion desde el activismo politico a la decepcion y el escepticismo melancolico en la obra del chileno Roberto Bolano. Tiene tambien en cuenta el papel de la repeticion en la obra de Bolano como una puesta en practica de las teorias que presenta Jorge Luis Borges en su cuento «Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote», de la coleccion Ficciones (1944).
Stabilization of Uncertain Manipulators Using Bounded Controls

Abstract This paper considers the position stabilization problem for uncertain robot manipulators in the presence of constraints on the available actuator torques, and proposes two new controllers as solutions to this problem. The first controller is derived under the assumption that the manipulator state is measurable, while the second strategy is developed for those applications in which only position measurements are available. Each scheme consists of a nonadaptive component for gross position control and an adaptive component for ensure convergence to the desired position. The controllers are computationally Simple, require very little Information regarding the manipulator model or the payload, and ensure that the position error is globally convergent.
Evolution of IR Training

Training of interventional radiologists has changed as the specialty has grown. The first training programs were fellowships limited to a small number of institutions and were non-standardized. Interventional radiology (IR) is now a primary specialty of medicine and has dedicated accredited IR residencies that can be accessed from both medical school and following diagnostic radiology training. These changes position IR well for the future.
Removing the “mystery” in therapy: transparency as a continuous intervention in family psychotherapy

ABSTRACTWhen clients attend therapy, there is often “mystery” regarding the therapist’s model, use of specific interventions, and how change occurs in the therapy room. Unlike therapist’s use of self-disclosure, which is the exposure of the therapist’s personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences, this article introduces a new concept—therapeutic transparency. Therapeutic transparency allows an open dialogue between therapist and client regarding how change occurs and the tenets of the therapist’s model. This article discusses the importance of being transparent in the therapy process and five steps that therapists should engage in to help remove mystery and increase client participation.
Low Frequency EPR of Cu2+ in Proteins

Frequencies lower than X-band give better-resolved CW EPR spectra for copper(II) complexes. Use of S-band (2-4 GHz) revealed a new type of copper center in proteins. In the g|| region of the spectrum there is narrowing of the linewidths for negative values of mI with minimum linewidths near 3 GHz. Examples of S-band spectra are given for particulate methane monooxygenase, Cu-substituted prions, azurin, laccase, mixed valence dinuclear copper sites in nitrous oxide reductase and Cytochrome c oxidase, and from Cu in clusters.
The Multifaceted Zoonotic Risk of H9N2 Avian Influenza

Poultry-adapted H9N2 avian influenza viruses (AIVs) are commonly found in many countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, and although classified as low pathogenic viruses, they are an economically important disease. Besides the importance of the disease in the poultry industry, some H9N2 AIVs are also known to be zoonotic. The disease in humans appears to cause primarily a mild upper respiratory disease, and doesn't cause or only rarely causes the severe pneumonia often seen with other zoonotic AIVs like H5N1 or H7N9. Serologic studies in humans, particularly in occupationally exposed workers, show a large number of people with antibodies to H9N2, suggesting infection is commonly occurring. Of the four defined H9N2 poultry lineages, only two lineages, the G1 and the Y280 lineages, are associated with human infections. Almost all of the viruses from humans have a leucine at position 226 (H3 numbering) of the hemagglutinin associated with a higher affinity of binding with α2,6 sialic acid, the host cell receptor most commonly found on glycoproteins in the human upper respiratory tract. For unknown reasons there has also been a shift in recent years of poultry viruses in the G1 and Y280 lineages to also having leucine instead of glutamine, the amino acid found in most avian viruses, at position 226. The G1 and Y280 poultry lineages because of their known ability to infect humans, the high prevalence of the virus in poultry in endemic countries, the lack of antibody in most humans, and the shift of poultry viruses to more human-like receptor binding makes these viruses a human pandemic threat. Increased efforts for control of the virus, including through effective vaccine use in poultry, is warranted for both poultry and public health goals.
Factors Influencing Safety Efficacy: Examining Past Experience, Mind-Set, and Emotion Management:

Safety efficacy, or the perceived capability of preventing or deterring a personal safety threat, has emerged as a potentially important construct in personal safety outcomes. However, there has been limited research on factors that may facilitate or inhibit safety efficacy. The overall goal of this study was to examine indices of past history, mind-set, and emotion regulation associated with safety efficacy as informed by the self-efficacy literature. This study used a national sample of 821 women who completed a survey on personal safety concerns and responses. There were four main findings from this study: (a) although victimization experiences in this study were high, there were no differences in past or recent victimization experiences by safety efficacy group; (b) responding passively and feeling uncomfortable and nervous in interpersonal conflict situations were significantly associated with lower safety efficacy; (c) those with lower safety efficacy felt less confident in protecting themselves, were less likely to feel they could affect the outcome of external events, were less likely to seek information about their personal safety, and were more likely to feel personal characteristics increased their risk of victimization; and (d) discomfort when thinking about personal safety as well as emotion regulation problems were negatively associated with safety efficacy, yet have received limited research attention with regard to their role in personal safety outcomes. More research is needed to build on the success of various interventions that have shown evidence of increased safety efficacy and decreased revictimization as well as to reach women who may actively avoid prevention programs because they are not comfortable thinking about their safety.
Myasthenia gravis associated with nivolumab therapy in a patient with melanoma

Introduction: Immune checkpoint inhibitors exhibit robust antitumor activity in melanoma treatment but can induce highly toxic immunogenic effects. This case details an uncommonly severe adverse reaction to immune therapy and demonstrates the importance of identifying toxicities early to avoid adverse treatment outcomes. Presentation of Case: We present a patient who received anti-PD1 immunotherapy, nivolumab, as a second-line treatment for stage IV resected melanoma. The patient experienced several immune-related adverse effects and was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis. Despite receiving steroid, immunoglobin, and plasmapheresis treatment, the patient passed away. Conclusion: This case highlights the importance of closely monitoring and quickly addressing symptoms of nivolumab toxicity. Rapid institution of immunosuppressive therapy is not always successful.
Solitary Rectal Ulcer Syndrome

Solitary rectal ulcer is a relatively rare disorder that is generally poorly understood. Because its presentation is often associated with anorectal pain and bleeding, and the disorder may mimic the presentation of rectal cancer or inflammatory bowel disease, it is important to have a solid basis for recognition and treatment of this disorder.
Needs assessment for sexual health support following cancer diagnosis.

e23071Background: Women report distress over relationships, body image and sexual function after cancer; those < 50 have a 3-times greater risk of sexual dysfunction following treatment. Survivors ...
Torture and Terrorism Overview

The first part gives an overview of current realities and issues regarding torture and the involvement of doctors, giving us a sense of the challenges facing the medical profession. This chapter opens with the concept of terrorism. The seemingly endless war on terror has functioned as a rationale for all sorts of abusive practices. Drawing from the insights of Jean Baudrillard, Claudia Card, Nel Noddings, and Hannah Arendt, we look at the connection between terrorism and torture and how the former has been used to justify the latter.
Minding (and Reducing) the Detection Gap: An Algorithm to Diagnose TB With HIV Infection.

* Abbreviation: IGRA — : interferon γ release assay Globally, an estimated 239 000 children younger than 15 years, including 39 000 with HIV infection, die of tuberculosis each year. More than 95% of these deaths occur in children who did not receive tuberculosis treatment.1 Children treated for tuberculosis have low mortality rates.2 Therefore, it is likely that the number of childhood tuberculosis deaths would decline dramatically if the case-detection ratio were improved from its current proportion of ∼1 in 3. Multiple factors contribute to this dismal case-detection rate, including the health care barriers faced by the poor and marginalized populations most affected by tuberculosis, the inability of most children to expectorate sputum for sample collection, and the paucibacillary nature of childhood tuberculosis, which leads to infrequent microbiologic confirmation. The most sensitive microbiologic test (culture) identifies Mycobacterium tuberculosis in just 25% of cases.3 Health officials in countries with high tuberculosis burden have prioritized contagious adult cases as the drivers of the tuberculosis epidemic. Consequently, front-line providers often lack adequate training to evaluate children for tuberculosis.4 Because their clinical training emphasizes tuberculosis … Address correspondence to Andrea T. Cruz, MD, MPH, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, 6621 Fannin St, Suite A2210, Houston, TX 77030. E-mail: acruz{at}bcm.edu
A feasibility study of deep learning for predicting hemodynamics of human thoracic aorta.

Abstract Numerical analysis methods including finite element analysis (FEA), computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and fluid–structure interaction (FSI) analysis have been used to study the biomechanics of human tissues and organs, as well as tissue-medical device interactions, and treatment strategies. However, for patient-specific computational analysis, complex procedures are usually required to set-up the models, and long computing time is needed to perform the simulation, preventing fast feedback to clinicians in time-sensitive clinical applications. In this study, by using machine learning techniques, we developed deep neural networks (DNNs) to directly estimate the steady-state distributions of pressure and flow velocity inside the thoracic aorta. After training on hemodynamic data from CFD simulations, the DNNs take as input a shape of the aorta and directly output the hemodynamic distributions in one second. The trained DNNs are capable of predicting the velocity magnitude field with an average error of 1.9608% and the pressure field with an average error of 1.4269%. This study demonstrates the feasibility and great potential of using DNNs as a fast and accurate surrogate model for hemodynamic analysis of large blood vessels.
12.1 A 3D-Integrated Microring-Based 112Gb/s PAM-4 Silicon-Photonic Transmitter with Integrated Nonlinear Equalization and Thermal Control

The explosive growth of data and data-centric computing places stringent demands on the bandwidth and energy efficiency of data center interconnects, spurring the development of several 400G Ethernet standards [1]. Silicon-photonics-based solutions are of particular interest for low cost 100+Gb/s/λ optical transceivers. Microring modulators (MRMs) can significantly scale the size and power of optical TX (OTX) compared to Mach-Zehnder modulators being used today [2]–[9]. However MRMs suffer from three significant drawbacks that have limited their use in 100+Gb/s optical transceivers: (a) tradeoff between bandwidth and phase efficiency inherent to these resonant modulators, (b) high process and temperature (P/T) sensitivity, and (c) non-linear electro-optic (E-to-O) characteristics. This paper presents a 3D-integrated 112Gb/s PAM-4 OTX with electronic nonlinear pre-distortion (NL-PD) and nonlinear FFE (NL-FFE) to compensate MRM nonlinearity and integrated thermal control (TC) to mitigate P/T sensitivity.
Guidelines for Leading a Safe Medication Error Reporting Culture.

Background: A safe medication error reporting culture is one that promotes, fosters, and rewards the reporting of errors and events across the spectrum of harm (none to significant harm). For this ...
Return to Work and Sport Following Distal Triceps Repair

Objectives:Outcomes following distal triceps repair are important in order to properly counsel patients on expected postoperative function. Of particular interest are metrics regarding return to wo...
Improving Child Behaviors and Parental Stress: A Randomized Trial of Child Adult Relationship Enhancement in Primary Care

Abstract Background Prior single-site evaluations of Child Adult Relationship Enhancement in Primary Care (PriCARE), a 6-session group parent training, demonstrated reductions in child behavioral problems and improvements in positive parenting attitudes. Objective To measure the impact of PriCARE on disruptive child behaviors, parenting stress, and parenting attitudes in a multisite study. Methods Caregivers of children 2- to 6-year-old with behavior concerns recruited from 4 pediatric primary care practices were randomized 2:1 to PriCARE intervention (n = 119) or waitlist control (n = 55). Seventy-nine percent of caregivers identified as Black and 59% had annual household incomes under $22,000. Child behavior, parenting stress, and parenting attitudes were measured at baseline and 2 to 3 months after intervention using the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory, Parenting Stress Index, and Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory-2. Marginal standardization implemented in a linear regression compared mean change scores from baseline to follow-up by treatment arm while accounting for clustering by site. Results Mean change scores from baseline to follow-up demonstrated greater improvements (decreases) in Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory problem scores but not intensity scores in the PriCARE arm compared to control, (problem: −4.4 [−7.5, −1.2] vs −1.8 [−4.1, 0.4], P= .004; intensity: −17.6 [−28.3, −6.9] vs −10.4 [−18.1, −2.6], P= .255). Decreases in parenting stress were greater in the PriCARE arm compared to control (−3.3 [−4.3, −2.3] vs 0 [−2.5, 2.5], P= .025). Parenting attitudes showed no significant changes (all P> .10). Conclusions PriCARE showed promise in improving parental perceptions of the severity of child behaviors and decreasing parenting stress but did not have an observed impact on parenting attitudes.
GIS-Assisted Object Detection and Geospatial Localization

Geographical Information System (GIS) databases contain information about many objects, such as traffic signals, road signs, fire hydrants, etc. in urban areas. This wealth of information can be utilized for assisting various computer vision tasks. In this paper, we propose a method for improving object detection using a set of priors acquired from GIS databases. Given a database of object locations from GIS and a query image with metadata, we compute the expected spatial location of the visible objects in the image. We also perform object detection in the query image (e.g., using DPM) and obtain a set of candidate bounding boxes for the objects. Then, we fuse the GIS priors with the potential detections to find the final object bounding boxes. To cope with various inaccuracies and practical complications, such as noisy metadata, occlusion, inaccuracies in GIS, and poor candidate detections, we formulate our fusion as a higher-order graph matching problem which we robustly solve using RANSAC. We demonstrate that this approach outperforms well established object detectors, such as DPM, with a large margin.
Effects of low-to-moderate ethanol consumption on colonic growth and gene expression in young adult and middle-aged male rats

Excessive alcohol consumption is a risk factor associated with colorectal cancer; however, some epidemiological studies have reported that moderate alcohol consumption may not contribute additional risk or may provide a protective effect reducing colorectal cancer risk. Prior research highlights the importance of proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis as parameters to consider when evaluating colonic cell growth and tumorigenesis. The present study investigated whether chronic low-to-moderate ethanol consumption altered these parameters of colonic cell growth and expression of related genes. Twenty-four nondeprived young adult (109 days old) and 24 nondeprived middle-aged (420 days old) Wistar rats were randomly assigned to an ethanol-exposed or a water control group (n = 12/group). The ethanol group was provided voluntary access to a 20% v/v ethanol solution on alternate days for 13 weeks. Colon tissues were collected for quantitative immunohistochemical analyses of cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis using Ki-67, goblet cell and TUNEL, respectively. Gene expression of cyclin D1 (Ccnd1), Cdk2, Cdk4, p21waf1/cip1 (Cdkn1a), E-cadherin (Cdh1) and p53 were determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction in colonic scraped mucosa. Ethanol treatment resulted in a lower cell proliferation index and proliferative zone, and lower Cdk2 expression in both age groups, as well as trends toward lower Ccnd1 and higher Cdkn1a expression. Cell differentiation was modestly but significantly reduced by ethanol treatment only in older animals. Overall, older rats showed decreases in apoptosis and gene expression of Cdk4, Cdh1, and p53 compared to younger rats, but there was no observed effect of ethanol exposure on these measures. These findings suggest that low-to-moderate ethanol consumption improves at least one notable parameter in colonic tumorigenesis (cell proliferation) and associated gene expression regardless of age, however, selectively decreased cell differentiation among older subjects.
What consumers actually know: The role of objective nutrition knowledge in processing stop sign and traffic light front-of-pack nutrition labels

Abstract Examining the effects of what consumers actually know (i.e., objective knowledge) is an important gap in front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition research. In experiments with over 2,000 primary food shoppers, we examine the moderating impact of objective nutrition knowledge on key FOP nutrition symbols (Stop Sign labels, Traffic-Light labels, and a control) for effects on nutrient perceptions, nutrition use accuracy, disease risk, brand attitudes, and purchase intentions. Results support the effectiveness of the Stop Sign label over the Traffic Light label for key outcome measures, with the Traffic Light label performing better on nutrition use accuracy. Importantly, those with greater objective nutrition knowledge performed better than those with lower knowledge, controlling for subjective knowledge and demographics. These results are robust across three food nutrition profiles (healthy, moderately healthy, unhealthy), and more accentuated for the unhealthy profile. Serial mediation analyses are offered, as well as implications for marketing practice, theory, and public health.
Health disparities in access to health care for HIV infection, substance abuse, and mental health among Latino men who have sex with men in a U.S.–Mexico Border City

A cross-sectional study among 150 community-dwelling Latino men who have sex with men (MSM) in a U.S.–Mexico border city was conducted to describe health disparities in access to care for HIV infec...
How many infants may have died in low-income and middle-income countries in 2020 due to the economic contraction accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic? Mortality projections based on forecasted declines in economic growth.

Objectives While COVID-19 has a relatively small direct impact on infant mortality, the pandemic is expected to indirectly increase mortality of this vulnerable group in low-income and middle-income countries through its effects on the economy and health system performance. Previous studies projected indirect mortality by modelling how hypothesised disruptions in health services will affect health outcomes. We provide alternative projections, relying on modelling the relationship between aggregate income shocks and mortality. Design We construct a sample of 5.2 million births by pooling retrospective birth histories reported by women in Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in 83 low-income and middle-income countries between 1985 and 2018. We employ regression models with country-specific fixed-effects and flexible time trends to estimate the impact of gross domestic product per capita on infant mortality rate. We then use growth projections by the International Monetary Fund to predict the effect of the economic downturn in 2020 on infant mortality. Results We estimate 267 208 (95% CI 112 000 to 422 415) excess infant deaths in 128 countries, corresponding to a 6.8% (95% CI 2.8% to 10.7%) increase in the total number of infant deaths expected in 2020. Conclusions The findings underscore the vulnerability of infants to the negative income shocks such as those imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. While efforts towards prevention and treatment of COVID-19 remain paramount, the global community should also strengthen social safety nets and assure continuity of essential health services.
Biochemistry of Middle and Late Life Dementias

The disease entities to be considered in this review are characterized clinically by a slow but relentless deterioration of intellectual faculties resulting in profound dementia and eventually death during middle and late life. Alzheimer’s disease, Pick’s disease, Huntington’s chorea, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and senile dementia are included in this group of “primary dementias” where the unifying pathologic feature is a degeneration of the cerebral cortex with varying degrees of involvement of related structures. These conditions, which as yet have no established cause (the special status of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is discussed below) and as far as can be determined at present are not related to any known disorder, stand in contrast to the “secondary dementias” that occur in association with syphilitic infection, cerebrovascular disease, brain tumor, myxedema, alcoholism, nutritional deficiencies, encephalitis, trauma, and chronic neurological diseases such as disseminated sclerosis, subacute combined degeneration, Wilson’s disease, and the cerebral lipidoses. These secondary dementias are considered elsewhere in this Handbook.
Traumatic Brain Injury and Mitochondrial Dysfunction

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of death and disability in the United States and causes mitochondrial damage leading to impaired brain function. The purpose of this review is to (1) describe TBI processes and manifestations, (2) examine the mitochondrial alterations after TBI, specifically increased reactive oxygen species production, decreased bioenergetics and apoptosis and (3) current TBI treatments. There are various degrees of severity of TBI, yet all affect mitochondrial function. Currently, health care professionals use various methods to assess TBI severity-from brain imaging to serum biomarkers. The major cause of TBI-associated brain damage is secondary injury, which is mainly from mitochondrial injury dysfunction. Mitochondrial injury leads to oxidative stress and subsequent apoptosis and decreased cellular energy production. These brain cellular alterations impair neurologic functions, which are observed in individuals with TBI. The complex mitochondrial dysfunction after TBI requires treatment that specifically addresses the secondary injury. There are numerous therapies being used, including (1) hypothermia, (2) hyperbaric oxygen, (3) exercise and (4) antioxidants. Researchers are exploring novel approaches to prevent, diagnose and treat TBI focusing on maintaining mitochondrial function.
Redundancy control through traffic deduplication

Statistics show that 79% of the Internet traffic is video and mostly “redundant”. Video-On-Demand in particular follows a 90/10 access pattern, where 90% of the users access the same 10% of all video content. As a result, redundant data are repeatedly transmitted over the Internet. In this paper, we propose a novel traffic deduplication technique to achieve more efficient network communication between video sources (video servers or proxy servers in a CDN) and clients. The proposed SMART (Small packet Merge-Able RouTers) overlay network employs an opportunistic traffic deduplication approach and allows each SMART router to dynamically merge independent streams of the same video content, forming a video streaming tree (VST). The merged streams are tunneled through the overlay together with TCP sessions information before eventually being de-multiplexed and delivered to the clients fully compatible with the TCP protocol. We present theoretical analysis findings on the merging strategy between the video source and clients, the efficiency of the SMART router to save traffic during a merge process, and the overall performance of implementing a SMART overlay topology between a video source and clients. Finally, we prototyped SMART in the PlanetLab environment. We illustrate that performance evaluation results are consistent with our theoretical analysis and significant bandwidth saving is achieved.
Boost radiosurgery as a strategy after failure of initial management of pediatric primitive neuroectodermal tumors.

Object The aim in this study was to determine the outcomes of boost stereotactic radiosurgery, specifically Gamma Knife surgery (GKS), for recurrent primitive neuroectodermal tumors (PNETs) in children in whom initial multimodality management had failed. Methods The authors performed a retrospective analysis of 7 patients who underwent a total of 15 GKS procedures for locally recurrent or metastatic PNETs. Nine procedures were directed at the primary site, whereas 6 were directed at distant brain sites. All patients received multimodality therapy, including resection, fractionated radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. The mean interval from diagnosis to first stereotactic radiosurgery was 25.8 months (range 11–35 months). The mean tumor volume was 3.9 cm3 (range 1.1–13.1 cm3), and an average marginal dose of 14.5 Gy (range 9–20 Gy) was administered. Results Following salvage GKS, 2 patients had early disease progression (median survival of 5 months after GKS). Five patients had late disease progression (complet...
Development of a culture of sustainability in health care organizations

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the concept of sustainability in health care organizations and the key managerial competencies and change management strategies needed to implant a culture of sustainability. Competencies and management development strategies needed to engrain this corporate culture of sustainability are analyzed in this document. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on the experience of the authors as health care executives and educators developing managerial competencies with interdisciplinary and international groups of executives in the last 25 years, using direct observation, interviews, discussions and bibliographic evidence. Findings – With a holistic framework for sustainability, health care managers can implement strategies for multidisciplinary teams to respond to the constant change, fine-tune operations and successfully manage quality of care. Managers can mentor students and provide in-service learning experiences that integrate knowledge, skills, and abilities. ...
Effects of policy on English-medium instruction in Africa

This study examines the effects of policy on English-medium instruction in public schools in Africa. The focus is on illiteracy and elite closure. It argues that policy on English-medium instruction has failed to achieve the key objectives around which it was adopted: spread literacy among and create opportunities for the populace to participate in the socioeconomic and political development of the continent. The paper calls for an inclusive language policy that promotes a dual-medium educational system including an English-medium stream and a vernacular-medium stream to achieve the purported objectives. It warns that for vernacular-medium education to be accepted by the population, however, it must be vested with comparable material returns that are currently associated only with English-medium education.
Robust spring mass model running for a physical bipedal robot

The analysis of the conceptual spring mass model for running reveals swing-leg placement policies that generate very robust locomotion in unobserved terrain with large changes in ground height. However, while this theoretical result suggests a potential for large improvements on the robustness of running machines, it has so far not been demonstrated on a physical robot. Here we address this implementation and verification step for a human-sized bipedal robot platform confined to a boom. We detail challenges and solutions for the implementation of the control approach and show that it leads to very robust running (ground changes ±20% of leg length) over unobserved ground in a high fidelity simulation of the robot platform. We also present initial tests on the actual robot hardware, which indicate the feasibility of the approach. If it can be generalized to 3D running, it could trigger running machines with largely improved robustness.
Hemlock Woolly Adelgid in the Eastern United States: What Have We Learned?

Abstract Adelges tsugae (Hemlock Woolly Adelgid) is a small piercing-sucking insect that feeds on Tsuga spp. (hemlock ) trees. Native to Asia and the Pacific Northwest, the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid is invasive in the eastern United States where it attacks Tsuga canadensis (Eastern Hemlock) and T. caroliniana (Carolina Hemlock). It is currently found in 19 eastern states and has caused extensive mortality to hemlock forests. The ecological and economic impacts of this pest are significant, widespread, and often difficult to quantify. As the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid continues to disperse throughout the range of Eastern and Carolina Hemlocks, management techniques aimed at controlling it are being researched, implemented, and assessed. This introductory paper provides an overview of the biology, life cycle, ecology, and history of this pest in the eastern US as a foundation for this special issue.
Survival to metamorphosis is positively related to genetic variability in a critically endangered amphibian species

Isolated small populations typically have reduced genetic variation and are more susceptible to local extinction. Examining the relationship between genetic variability and survival is important for conservation because it provides insight on evolutionary potential and population viability. We studied genetic associations of survival from egg to metamorphosis in the largest population of critically endangered dusky gopher frogs Lithobates sevosus. This approach allowed us to examine whether heterozygosity-fitness correlations (HFCs) existed in an r-selected species with large effect size, whereas previous research on HFCs has largely focused on k-selected species often with low effect sizes. Our objectives were to determine if genetic-fitness associations exist, if associations are a result of inbreeding and if natural selection against inbreeding has occurred. Specifically, we examined averaged population responses and HFC in relation to (1) mortality within egg clutches and (2) differential survival of offspring through metamorphosis. To do so, we used eight microsatellite DNA markers to compare genotypes across three life-history stages from a single year in the following temporal order: adults, eggs and metamorphs. We discovered a strong genetic association with survival in early life stages. In terms of average population responses, we documented a within-cohort decrease in FIS with life-history stage progression (adults: FIS = 0.067; eggs: FIS = 0.063; metamorphs: FIS = −0.134), high FST between eggs and metamorphs (FST = 0.113), and a locus that had larger than expected FST. We found positive genetic-fitness associations for survival of egg clutches and for survival to metamorphosis. We believe that inbreeding is the primary cause; however, we also found evidence suggesting existence of purging selection against a deleterious mutant linked to a microsatellite locus. Survival of individuals with greater genetic variability should prolong persistence of this isolated population. Our study underscores the importance of species management focused on preservation of genetic diversity.
Parameter Estimation With Small Sample Size A Higher-Order IRT Model Approach

Sample size ranks as one of the most important factors that affect the item calibration task. However, due to practical concerns (e.g., item exposure) items are typically calibrated with much small...
Robust spread-spectrum audio watermarking

We present several mechanisms that enable effective spread-spectrum audio watermarking systems: prevention against detection desynchronization, cepstrum filtering, and chess watermarks. We have incorporated these techniques into a system capable of reliably detecting a watermark in an audio clip that has been modified using a composition of attacks that degrade the original audio characteristics well beyond the limit of acceptable quality. Such attacks include: fluctuating scaling in the time and frequency domain, compression, addition and multiplication of noise, resampling, requantization, normalization, filtering, and random cutting and pasting of signal samples.
Effects of neonatal cerebral ventricular injection of ACTH 4–9 and subsequent adult injections on learning in male and female albino rats

Abstract An investigation of permanent developmental effects of a potent, long acting ACTH/MSH 4–10 analogue (Organon 2766) on adult passive avoidance performance and of subsequent peripheral adult injections of the same substance on visual (black and white) discrimination learning and reversal in a Thompson-Bryant box was conducted. A subproblem analysis of visual and position preferences during reversal was performed. No differences in passive avoidance performance or in original discrimination learning were obtained. Both infant and adult treatments enhanced reversal learning and visual orientation (proportion of responses to the previously positive stimulus). Infant treatment suppressed position orientation in males and enhanced position orientation in females. These effects were interpreted as indicating that ACTH-like peptides enhance attention to the relevant stimulus by a direct effect on the brain.