cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Carcinoma of the penis

The prognosis of squamous carcinoma of the penis depends upon the stage of disease as determined by local invasion and involvement of inguinal nodes. Three-year survivals of 48 cases were: Stage I, 95%; Stage II, 67%; Stage III, 29%; and Stage IV, 0%. Most primary lesions were treated by partial penectomy, and no patient developed local recurrence. There was a significant discrepancy between initial clinical staging and histologic staging due to the difficulty in determining node metastases. In order to detect and eliminate occult metastases an aggressive approach to the inguinal nodes is proposed, including en bloc ileo-inguinal dissection for persistent clinical adenopathy, and routine superficial inguinal node biopsy of non-palpable nodes when the primary invades the corpora. The “skin bridge” technique of node dissection has some important advantages: the groin crease is not incised, and the blood supply to the flaps is preserved.
Marketing and the New Woman

Marketers today should re-evaluate their strategy in light of new information regarding the career-oriented woman. The potential market which lies in this emerging segment of the American work force is yet to be realized. Some of what is known about the "new woman" is presented in this paper.
Doctoral Students Becoming Researchers: An Innovative Curriculum

Creating a quality literature review is fundamental to doctoral student professionalization, yet research into how the literature review is taught, learned, or experienced is limited. Responding to this under-addressed but critical key to doctoral education, the focus of this mixed methods study is on students’ perceptions of a year-long course, co-taught by a faculty member and embedded librarian, devoted specifically to addressing the literature review. Analysis of students’ course evaluations and written reflections/feedback over an eight year period revealed four primary themes: 1) Entering students’ technological know-how does not guarantee effective information literacy skill and without the requisite skills one-shot library workshops are insufficient for making learning whole; 2) Rather than conceiving of the literature review as a product, constructing a literature review represents a pivotal process in doctoral students’ research and literacy skill development; 3) Creating a literature review, and the process it entails, signals in students the development of their professional researcher identity, involving movement beyond “how to” to address questions of “why” and “for whom”; 4) The literature review course was experienced as a substantively different course than is typical in the doctoral experience, mirroring the course’s foundational assumption that librarians, instructors, and learners share agency in creating the literature review process. The course curriculum is framed by two simultaneous learning streams: information literacy competencies and student research agenda. The course curriculum aligns information literacy competencies and research methodology with the goal of exploring and purposefully integrating creativity and curiosity in the search and research construction process.
Does electronic stewardship work

Faced with national requirements to promote antimicrobial stewardship and reduce drug-resistant infections, community hospitals are challenged to make the best use of existing resources. Eighteen months after building antibiotic decision support into our electronic order platform, high-risk antibiotic use decreased by 83% (P < .001) at our community hospital. Hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile infections declined 24% (P = .07).
Youth politics in Putin’s Russia: producing patriots and entrepreneurs

In a time of contested politics in the West and increased interest in Russia and Russian politics, Julie Hemment’s Youth Politics in Putin’s Russia: Producing Patriots and Entrepreneurs offers impo...
NEUROSCIENCE DU BONHEUR

Cette revue de recherches met en evidence quatre nouvelles composantes du bien-etre et leurs bases neurales sous-jacentes : 1) les emotions positives soutenues; 2) la recuperation a la suite d’experiences negatives (resilience); 3) l’empathie, l’altruisme et le comportement prosocial; 4) le vagabondage de l’esprit, la pleine conscience et l’attention « capturee » par l’emotion. Les circuits neuraux sous-jacents a chacune de ces composantes sont partiellement independants, malgre un certain recouvrement. Les circuits sous-jacents aux quatre composantes du bien-etre se caracterisent tous par la plasticite; ils peuvent etre transformes. Ainsi, le bonheur et le bien-etre peuvent etre consideres comme des habiletes pouvant etre developpees par l’entrainement cognitif.
Transarterial chemoembolization in children to treat unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

Children with unresectable HCC have a dismal prognosis and few approved treatment options. TACE is an effective treatment option for adults with HCC, but experience in children is very limited. Retrospective analysis was performed of 8 patients aged 4-17 years (4 male, mean 12.5 years) who underwent TACE for unresectable HCC. Response to TACE was evaluated by change in AFP, RECIST and tumor volume, PRETEXT, and transplantation eligibility by UCSF and Milan criteria. Post-procedure mean follow-up was 8.2 years. Mean overall change in tumor volume for the 8 patients was 51%. Percent change in AFP ranged from a decrease of 100% to an increase of 89.3%, with a mean change of -49.6%. Two patients did not undergo resection or transplantation and died of progressive disease. Six patients underwent orthotopic liver transplantation with mean first TACE-to-transplant interval of 141 days (range 11-514). Following transplantation, 5 patients were alive at the end of the follow-up period and one died of recurrent disease. Based on our initial experience, TACE for children with unresectable HCC appears to be a safe and effective method for managing hepatic tumor burden and for downstaging and bridging to liver transplantation.
Neutrophil alkaline phosphatase: comparison of enzymes from normal subjects and patients with polycythemia vera and chronic myelogenous leukemia

To determine whether decreased alkaline phosphatase activity in the granules from neutrophils of patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) was due to an absence of enzyme or the production of defective enzyme, we compared the immunologic properties of granule alkaline phosphatase derived from patients with CML with that of normal subjects and patients with polycythemia vera (PRV). Antisera prepared in rabbits against granule alkaline phosphatase purified from the neutrophils of a patient with PRV produced a single precipitin line of antigenic identity when reacted with extracts of normal, PRV, and CML neutrophil granules. A histochemical stain for alkaline phosphatase activity (alpha-naphthyl acid phosphate coupled with Fast Blue RR) specifically stained the precipitin line. A variety of quantitative precipitin techniques failed to produce satisfactory precipitation of alkaline phosphatase activity. Comparative analyses were therefore performed by affinity chromatography using goat antirabbit-gammaglobulin linked to Sepharose 4B to adsorb alkaline phosphatase complexed with rabbit gamma globulin. With this method, 100% of CML, normal, and PRV alkaline phosphatase could be adsorbed. Using limiting concentrations of antibody, a proportionally smaller fraction of enzyme activity was absorbed as the concentration of PRV alkaline phosphatase or normal alkaline phosphatase was increased. Extracts of CML granules containing comparable amounts of protein but 200-fold less alkaline phosphatase activity per milligram did not specifically reduce adsorption. Thus, in CML, we found no evidence that the granulocytes contained a large amount of antigenically normal but enzymatically defective alkaline phosphatase. Examination of electron micrographs revealed no significant differences in the number or distribution of granules in the granulocytes of normal subjects or patients with PRV or CML. This suggests that the low level of neutrophil alkaline phosphatase in CML granulocytes is the result of decreased enzyme content and not a consequence of synthesis of catalytically defective enzyme.
Theory and algorithms for modern problems in machine learning and an analysis of markets

The unprecedented growth of the Internet over the past decade and of data collection, more generally, has given rise to vast quantities of digital information, ranging from web documents and images, genomic databases to a vast array of business customer information. Consequently, it is of growing importance to develop tools and models that enable us to better understand this data and to design data-driven algorithms that leverage this information. This thesis provides several fundamental theoretical and algorithmic results for tackling such problems with applications to speech recognition, image processing, natural language processing, computational biology and web-based algorithms. (1) Probabilistic automata provide an efficient and compact way to model sequence-oriented data such as speech or web documents. Measuring the similarity of such automata provides a way of comparing the objects they model, and is an essential first step in organizing this type of data. We present algorithmic and hardness results for computing various discrepancies (or dissimilarities) between probabilistic automata, including the relative entropy and the Lp distance; we also give an efficient algorithm to determine if two probabilistic automata are equivalent. In addition, we study the complexity of computing the norms of probabilistic automata. (2) Widespread success of search engines and information retrieval systems has led to large scale collection of rating information which is being used to provide personalized rankings. We examine an alternate formulation of the ranking problem for search engines motivated by the requirement that in addition to accurately predicting pairwise ordering, ranking systems must also preserve the magnitude of the preferences or the difference between ratings. We present algorithms with sound theoretical properties, and verify their efficacy through experiments. (3) Organizing and querying large amounts of digitized data such as images and videos is a challenging task because little or no label information is available. This motivates transduction, a setting in which the learning algorithm can leverage unlabeled data during training to improve performance. We present novel error bounds for a family of transductive regression algorithms and validate their usefulness through experiments. (4) Finally, price discovery in a market setting can be viewed as an (ongoing) learning problem. Specifically, the problem is to find and maintain a set of prices that balance supply and demand, a core topic in economics. This appears to involve complex implicit and possibly large-scale information transfers. We show that finding equilibrium prices, even approximately, in discrete markets is NP-hard and complement the hardness result with a matching polynomial time approximation algorithm. We also give a new way of measuring the quality of an approximation to equilibrium prices that is based on a natural aggregation of the dissatisfaction of individual market participants.
Mechanical Stretch-Induced Reorganization of the Cytoskeleton and the Small GTPase Rac-1 in Cardiac Fibroblasts

Mechanical forces play important roles in development and disease of most tissues. In vivo studies have illustrated that increased mechanical load as seen during neonatal development or in the hypertensive adult promote a fibrotic response in the heart. In vitro studies have established that mechanical stretch of isolated cardiac fibroblasts directly stimulates expression of extracellular matrix components and proliferation, both hallmarks of fibrosis. While significant advances have been made in understanding the effects of mechanical forces on cardiac fibroblasts, many questions remain regarding the mechanisms whereby mechanical forces are transduced into changes in cellular phenotype. The linkage between the extracellular matrix, integrin receptors and the cytoskeleton undoubtedly plays a critical role in this process. We have recently shown that mechanical stretch induces rapid changes in cardiac fibroblast morphology and the organization of the actin cytoskeleton. The Rho family of small GTPases has received considerable attention in their role in organizing the actin cytoskeleton. Data is presented herein providing quantitative analysis of alterations in the activation and subcellular organization of the small GTPase Rac-1 following equibiaxial stretch of isolated cardiac fibroblasts.
Wideband anti-reflective silicon surface structures fabricated by femtosecond laser texturing

Abstract In this study, the effects of laser fluence, scanning speed and texturing environment on reflectance of femtosecond laser textured silicon substrate are investigated. Microstructural analysis revealed the cause of variation of average reflectance with laser fluence and scanning speed. The densely packed flat surface structures are less efficient in trapping the light, thus exhibiting higher reflectance, while sparsely packed microstructures trap the incident light and lead to very low reflectance. The study also explores the effect of texturing media, wherein femtosecond laser texturing lead to formation of globular and elongated structures in air and water respectively. In advancement to previously reported results, this study demonstrates a wideband antireflection property of silicon substrate textured at an optimized condition.
Imaging muscle stiffness post-stroke

Introduction/Background Post-stroke spasticity develops a result of CNS injury, but secondary non-neural changes can contribute to upper limb muscle stiffness. The hylauronan hypothesis postulates that an increase in the concentration of hyaluronan, a glycosaminoglycan (GAG) in the extra-cellular matrix (ECM) of muscles, may contribute to muscle stiffness in spastic patients. This study sought to provide imaging evidence of the hyaluronan hypothesis. Material and method Five post-stroke patients (3 males, 2 females, age = 46 ± 15) and five healthy control subjects (3 males, 2 females, age = 27 ± 2) underwent Dixon based water-fat imaging and 3D-T1rho relaxation mapping of upper arm muscles were used to determine intramuscular GAG content. The MRI was study was conducted on a 3 T clinical scanner (Prisma, Siemens Healthcare, Germany). Following the MRI, the patients underwent off-label intramuscular hyaluronidase injections (Hylenex, Halozyme Therapeutics, Inc.) for clinical treatment. Post-injection MRIs were conducted approximately two weeks after the treatment. Two tailed student t-tests were used for comparing the groups. A paired t-test was used for the pre- and post-injection comparison. Results Following the hyaluronidase injections patients reported significant relief from muscle stiffness and showed increased arm movement. The hyaluronan concentration in the biceps and triceps was significantly higher in patients pre-injection, and was reduced post-injection. Note the change in muscle shape from triangular to more circular as in controls post-injection in the patient. Conclusion 3D T1ρ mapping of the muscle can be used to detect intramuscular GAG content (hyaluronan) non-invasively. The muscle micro-environment can contribute to muscle stiffness, and injections of the enzyme hyaluronidase can be used to restore normal muscle microenvironment and reduce muscle stiffness post-stroke.
Impact of Nealley's Sprangletop on Rough Rice Yield

Two field studies were conducted in Louisiana to determine the impact of Nealley's sprangletop on rough rice yield under multiple environments in 2014, 2015, and 2016. The first study evaluated optimal timings of Nealley's sprangletop removal for optimizing rough rice yields. The second study evaluated the impact of Nealley's sprangletop densities on rough rice yield. Nealley's sprangletop was removed with applications of fenoxaprop at 122 g ai ha-1 at 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, and 42 d after emergence (DAE). Nealley's sprangletop removal at 7 and 14 DAE resulted in higher rough rice yields of 7,880 and 6,960 kg ha-1, respectively, when compared with the rice from the season-long Nealley's sprangletop competition with a 6,040 kg ha-1 yield. Delaying herbicide application from 7 DAE to 42 DAE resulted in a yield loss of 1,740 kg ha-1. Over the 35-d delay in application, rough rice yield loss from Nealley's sprangletop interference was equivalent to 50 kg ha-1 d-1. Nealley's sprangletop densities were established at 1, 3, 7, 13, and 26 plants m-2 by transplanting Nealley's sprangletop when rice reached the one- to two-leaf stage. At Nealley's sprangletop densities of 1 to 26 plants m-2, rough rice yields were reduced 10 to 270 kg ha-1, compared with the rice from weed-free plots. Based on regression analysis, Nealley's sprangletop densities of 1, 35, 70, and 450 plants m-2 reduced rough rice yield 0.14%, 5%, 10%, and 50%, respectively.Nomenclature: Fenoxaprop; Nealley's sprangletop, Leptochloa nealleyi Vasey; rice, Oryza sativa L.
A Diel Method of Estimating Gross Primary Production: 2. Application to 7 Years of Near‐Surface Dissolved Oxygen Data in Chesapeake Bay

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2018. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 123(11), (2018): 8430-8443, doi: 10.1029/2018JC014179.
Defining and Understanding Grey Literature

The Internet has dramatically altered how grey literature is defined. The importance, the availability, the access, and the types of grey literature have significantly increased since the days of k...
Five overarching factors central to grammatical learning and treatment in children with developmental language disorder.

BACKGROUND During grammatical treatment of children with developmental language disorder (DLD), it is natural for therapists to focus on the grammatical details of the target language that give the children special difficulty. However, along with the language-specific features of the target (e.g., for English, add -s to verbs in present tense, third-person singular contexts), there are overarching factors that operate to render the children's learning task more, or less, challenging, depending on the particular target. AIMS To identify five such factors that can play a role in the grammatical learning of children with DLD. We use English as our example language and provide supporting evidence from a variety of other languages. MAIN CONTRIBUTION We show that the relative degree of English-speaking children's difficulty with particular grammatical details can be affected by the extent to which these details involve: (1) bare stems; (2) opportunities for grammatical case confusion; (3) prosodic challenges; (4) grammatical and lexical aspect; and (5) deviations from canonical word order. CONCLUSIONS During treatment, therapists will want to consider not only the English-specific features of grammatical targets but also how these more general factors can be taken into account to increase the children's success.
Joint Endpointing and Decoding with End-to-end Models

The tradeoff between word error rate (WER) and latency is very important for streaming automatic speech recognition (ASR) applications. We want the system to endpoint and close the microphone as quickly as possible, without degrading WER. Conventional ASR systems rely on a separately trained endpointing module, which interacts with the acoustic, pronunciation and language model (AM, PM, and LM) components, and can result in a higher WER or a larger latency. In going with the all-neural spirit of end-to-end (E2E) models, which fold the AM, PM and LM into a single neural network, in this work we look at folding the endpointer into this E2E model to assist with the endpointing task. We refer to this jointly optimized model – which performs both recognition and endpointing – as an E2E enpointer. On a large vocabulary Voice Search task, we show that the combination of such an E2E endpoiner with a conventional endpointer results in no quality degradation, while reducing latency by more than a factor of 2 compared to using a separate endpointer with the E2E model.
Mind the Gaps: Adoption and Underutilization of Holmium Laser Enucleation of the Prostate in the United States from 2008 to 2014.

Purpose: There is increasing recognition of the advantages of holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) for benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) treatment in the United States but relatively ...
7 – Ovarian disorders

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on ovarian disorders. Ovarian disorders may be considered under the two major headings of hypofunction and hyperfunction. In clinical practice, they are usually considered under the following headings: (1) amenorrhea, (2) infertility, (3) precocious puberty, (4) hirsutism, and (5) virilism. The endocrinological investigation of amenorrhea is usually undertaken by the simultaneous basal measurement of those variables which would either confirm or exclude the diagnosis of listed causative conditions. The disorders that cause infertility are essentially the same as those that cause amenorrhea and oligomenorrhea in addition to a number of anatomical and pathological abnormalities of the genital tract. Hyperprolactinaemic hypogonadism is other infertility disorder that constitutes a group of infertile patients who have high prolactin values sometimes in association with galactorrhea. Precocious puberty is a type of disorder that involves development of secondary sexual characteristics before the age of eight years. The endocrinological investigation of precocious puberty should include not only estimation of the estrogens and gonadotrophins (FSH and LH) but also thyroid hormones. Hirsuties may be defined as an excessive growth of hair, which may occur on the face, body, or limbs. The excessive hair growth may present without other abnormalities or it may be accompanied by other features of virilization such as clitoral hypertrophy, thinning of the scalp hair with temporal recession and oligomenorrhea or amenorrhea. The endocrinological investigation of hirsutism and virilism should include plasma testosterone and the urine excretion of 17-oxosteroids together with other investigations that would be appropriate for the diagnosis of the causative conditions.
Experiments on superfluidity in /sup 3/He-/sup 4/He mixture films

The results of our experiments on superfluidity in thin films of $^{3}\mathrm{He}$-$^{4}\mathrm{He}$ mixtures are reported. The measurements span the temperature range from 1.3 to 2.1 K. All concentrations of $^{3}\mathrm{He}$ were investigated for films ranging up to 100 \AA{} in thickness. We present detailed curves showing the superfluid content of mixture films as a function of the total amount of film present. For the first time, the dependence of these curves upon $^{3}\mathrm{He}$ concentration is exhibited. Characteristic of the superfluid onset process we observed are distinctive distances which have an interpretation as measuring the "healing length." These are presented as functions of temperature and $^{3}\mathrm{He}$ concentration.
A day in the life of a mosquito insectary team: pushing for solutions to mosquito-borne diseases.

Robyn Raban and Omar Akbari describe a day in the life of the mosquito insectary team at the University of California, San Diego, outlining the procedures, goals, and types of systems they are engineering to control mosquito-transmitted diseases.
“I Just Can’t Be Nothin”: The Role of Resistance in the Development of Identity and Purpose

Identity is a core developmental task for adolescents as they seek to answer the questions “who am I?” and “who will I become?” (Erikson, 1968). In this way, identity is germane to purpose; it is a compass that guides and directs how individuals engage with the world. For individuals whose identities are marginalized by oppressive stereotypes, a healthy identity and positive sense of purpose requires resistance to society’s negative expectations. This chapter draws from in-depth interview data with adolescent Black boys about their racial and gender identities to show three resistance strategies that young people employ to develop a positive sense of identity and purpose in a society defined by inequality and oppression. Acknowledging societal oppression and the role of resistance makes visible the potential of identity and purpose to be transformative—developmental resources that serve to transform and liberate the self and others.
Recalled Experiences of Bullying and Victimization in a Longitudinal, Population-Based Birth Cohort: The Influence of ADHD and Co-Occurring Psychiatric Disorder.

Objective:To describe bullying experiences throughout childhood of people with and without childhood ADHD and co-occurring learning and psychiatric disorders from a population-based birth cohort.Me...
Themes within Crises as Reported from the Field.

John Prine’s lyric, “the years just flow by like a broken down dam,” has been at the top of my list of analogies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not just because Prine died due to complications with ...
An Adaptive Segmentation Technique to Detect Brain Tumors Using 2D Unet

The UNet is one of the most well-known convolutional neural network (CNN) architectures used for biomedical image segmentation. Unfortunately, the 2D variant is typically discouraged for volumetric brain tumor segmentation due to slices being correlated with one another. Thus, 3D-Unets have become prevalent in the annual Multimodal Brain tumor Segmentation Challenge (BRaTS) hosted by the Perelman School of Medicine of University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). However, with unique data preprocessing and generator techniques, 2DUnets may achieve competitive accuracy and performance with 3D-Unets. Furthermore, the addition of residual blocks (R) and squeeze-and-excitation (SE) blocks in the upsampling portion of 2D-Unets could further speed up performance and minimize computational costs without sacrificing f1 or Jaccard’s similarity score. This reveals that 2D-UNets for 3D biomedical image segmentation are still valuable. This paper involves the detailed comparison between 2D-Unets and 2D-SE-RUNets for the purposes of segmenting a whole high-grade glioma (HGG) using the metrics of Jaccard’s similarity, recall, specificity, and precision. Results indicate that the 2D-SE-RUNet model is superior to the traditional 2D UNet due to efficieny, which can benefit those looking to save computational costs and time.
Accuracy of Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy measurements of brain blood flow when using a three-layer analytical model

We investigated the accuracy of estimating cerebral blood flow with diffuse correlation spectroscopy when modeling the head as a 3-layered medium with unknown optical properties and layer thickness.
2000-2019 in the Colorado River Basin and Beyond

In the first two decades of the 21st century the Colorado River Basin suffered a prolonged drought. Remarkably this period turned out to be arguably the most innovative and collaborative in the basin's modern human history. This working paper reviews the major events of the period, highlights some of the important policy and management achievements, and identifies some of the biggest remaining challenges as basin interests begin renegotiating the Interim Shortage Guidelines.
Clinical utility of arterial spin labeling perfusion images in the emergency department for the work-up of stroke-like symptoms

Purpose To assess the utility of ASL in evaluating patients presenting to the ED with stroke-like symptoms. Methods ASL and DWI images from 526 consecutive patients presenting to the ED with acute stroke symptoms were retrospectively reviewed. DWI images were evaluated for volume of restricted diffusion using ABC/2. ASL maps were evaluated for decreased, normal, or increased signal. The volume of decreased ASL signal was calculated using the same ABC/2 technique. The volume of decreased ASL signal was correlated with the volume of DWI signal abnormality to identify cases of mismatch (DWI:ASL ratio > 1.8) and to correlate this mismatch with infarct growth on imaging follow-up. NIHSS, length of hospital stay, mRS, and future admission for acute stroke-like symptoms were recorded. Correlations between ASL abnormalities and clinical parameters were evaluated using a two-tailed t-test. Results Of the 526 patients presenting with acute stroke symptoms, 136 patients had an abnormal ASL scan and 388 patients had a normal ASL scan. Of the 136 patients with abnormal ASL, 84 patients had low ASL signal with 79 of these being related to acute infarcts. Elevated ASL signal was seen in 52 patients, of which 30 of these patients had reperfusion hyperemia related to acute infarctions. ASL had a negative predictive value of 94% for evaluating patients with acute ischemic stroke. A subset of patients with abnormal ASL scans with a discharge diagnosis of acute infarction were found to have an ASL:DWI mismatch (ratio > 1.8) and demonstrated significant lesion growth on follow-up imaging (57%). This included some patients who exhibited low ASL signal before development of diffusion restriction (infarction). Conclusion In patients presenting to the ED with acute stroke symptoms, ASL provides information not available with DWI alone. The NPV of ASL for evaluating patients with acute ischemia was 94%.
A hydrogel ionic circuit-based high-intensity iontophoresis device for intraocular macromolecules and nanoparticles delivery.

Iontophoresis is an electrical current-based, non-invasive drug delivery technology, which is particularly suitable for intraocular drug delivery. Current ocular iontophoresis devices use low current intensities that significantly limit macromolecule and nanoparticle (NP) delivery efficiency. Increasing current intensity leads to ocular tissue damage due to Joule heating and electrochemical (EC) reactions. Here, we describe a hydrogel ionic circuit (HIC)-based iontophoresis device for high-efficiency intraocular macromolecule and NP delivery. Our HIC-based device is capable of minimizing Joule heating, effectively buffering EC reaction-generated pH changes, and absorbing electrode overpotential-induced heating. As a result, our device allows safe application of high current intensities (∼87 mA cm-2 , more than 10 times higher than current ocular iontophoresis devices) to the eye with minimal ocular cell death and tissue damage. Our high-intensity iontophoresis significantly enhances intraocular macromolecule and NP delivery to both anterior and posterior segments by up to 300 times compared to conventional iontophoresis. Therapeutically effective concentrations of bevacizumab and dexamethasone are delivered to target tissue compartments within 10-20 min of iontophoresis application. Our studies highlight the significant safety enhancement enabled by a HIC-based device design and the potential of our device to deliver therapeutic doses of macromolecule and NP ophthalmic drugs within a clinically relevant time frame. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Work-in-Progress: A Study of Transistor Degradation in Cyber-Physical System Control Devices

This work presents a plan for investigating transistor aging and degradation in cyber physical systems under attack. The authors discuss the importance of such concerns, particularly with regard to negative bias temperature instability, and an approach to demonstrate the adverse effects of a cyber-attack resulting in premature aging of transistors within a system's digital controllers.
A Dataset-Dispersion Perspective on Reconstruction Versus Recognition in Single-View 3D Reconstruction Networks.

Neural networks (NN) for single-view 3D reconstruction (SVR) have gained in popularity. Recent work points out that for SVR, most cutting-edge NNs have limited performance on reconstructing unseen objects because they rely primarily on recognition (i.e., classification-based methods) rather than shape reconstruction. To understand this issue in depth, we provide a systematic study on when and why NNs prefer recognition to reconstruction and vice versa. Our finding shows that a leading factor in determining recognition versus reconstruction is how dispersed the training data is. Thus, we introduce the dispersion score, a new data-driven metric, to quantify this leading factor and study its effect on NNs. We hypothesize that NNs are biased toward recognition when training images are more dispersed and training shapes are less dispersed. Our hypothesis is supported and the dispersion score is proved effective through our experiments on synthetic and benchmark datasets. We show that the proposed metric is a principal way to analyze reconstruction quality and provides novel information in addition to the conventional reconstruction score.
Erecting Death Shrines/Memorials: Unified Sympathetic Fatih Responses Gunning for Empathy and Compassion in the Second Amendment Debates

This paper discusses the ordinariness of death shrines/memorials in African American and Latinoa Communities in the City of Milwaukee from May 2013 through October 2013. I focuses on the Second Amendment debates, noting that the history of automatic legal gun access and ownership was prohibited by African Americans and Native Americans until 1960s. Only White citizens had the constitutional right to own guns. Homicides from gun violence is responded to by many African Americans and Latinoas with the erection of death shrines/memorials. The artifacts or symbols contained within these shrines can be examined through the lens of Black spirituality and the Black spirituals including lament for the purpose of political imagination, healing and liberation essential aspects in redressing the ethical issue of gun violent homicides. The ecclesial community has a role to play pastorally and theolically in reflecting on these shrines as tools for social healing and political transformation.
Possible ovulatory deficiency after tubal ligation.

Mean plasma progesterone levels measured in the midluteal phase of the menstrual cycle were lower in 8 women requesting reversal of prior tubal ligation than in 19 normal women (9 vs. 18 ng/ml; P < .05). Based on previous findings that such progesterone assays are good indexes of luteal function and that women with marginally decreased progesterone levels have conceived after treatment with clomiphene it is speculated that persistent infertility after tubal reanastomosis is due to a deficiency of ovarian function especially since pregnancy rates after sterilization reversal are lower than the tubal patency rates. Retrospective and prospective studies of plasma progesterone estrogens and gonadotropins in women who have been or are planning to be sterilized are underway to establish the incidence of ovarian hormonal dysfunction after sterilization by various methods. Establishment of the incidence of hormonal dysfunction after sterilization not only may facilitate management of patients desiring restoration of fertility but also may be relevant to reported observations of an apparent increased frequency of poststerilization menorrhagia which has been hypothesized as due to interruption of the ovarian blood supply two-thirds of which is transmitted via the tubal artery from the uterine cavity.
Modeling of the bioactivated nanopore devices.

This paper presents the modeling of the electrical properties of bioactivated nanopores, customized nanopore devices with a biological macromolecule attached in the pore as the probe. These devices are capable of detecting and analyzing interactions between the attached biomolecule and the molecules in the analyte at a single molecule level. I. INTRODUCTION lthough nanopore-based sensors have long been explored for single nucleic acid molecule sequencing (1), the researchers still cannot claim success. Nonetheless, nanopores offer one of the most promising approaches for structural analysis of single molecules with a diameter of a few nanometers. Nanometer-scale pores provide an electronic way of probing the structure of a single biomolecule. Bioactivated nanopores have many significant potential applications for bio-analysis in a label-free platform at the single molecule level. Any chemical binding or minor structural changes in the biomolecule can be detected by monitoring the ionic current passing through the nanopore. As a result, these devices can be used to detect the interactions between the biomolecule attached in the pore and the molecules in the analyte at the single molecule level.
The Specially Investigated President

This article argues that the new legal status - the "specially investigated President" - conferred upon recent presidents reflects an unprecedented change in the criminal investigation process of the President. Although recent presidents have experienced formal criminal investigations, each have used creative and legitimate ways to escape indictment, trial, or impeachment. By investigating President Bush and President Clinton's ability to successfully avoid prosecution, this article presents an analytical framework to explain the issues surrounding the "specially investigated President," and offers suggestions on how to reform the process.In his analysis, the author illustrates the tension between opposing viewpoints regarding the president's vulnerability to legal prosecution. From one perspective, the president has no special immunity, privilege, or power to stop the prosecution process. From the opposite perspective, the president has the political right to protect his office. Tracing the development of the new politic-legal status of the "specially investigated president", the author uncovers the elements of Congress' new presidential investigation as well as its constitutional implications. Finally, recognizing that the new paradigm for presidential investigations is here to stay, the author advances several principles to guide a reformation of the process and reduce the stress the legal accusation process places on the president, the political-legal process, and the public.
A lie subroutine for computing prehomogeneous spaces associated with complex nilpotent orbits

We develop a LiE subroutine to compute the irreducible components of certain prehomogeneous spaces that are associated with complex nilpotent orbits. An understanding of these spaces is necessary for solving more general problems in the theory of nilpotent orbits and the representation theory of Lie groups. The output is a set of ${\mbox\LaTeX}$ statements that can be compiled in a ${\mbox\LaTeX}$ environment in order to produce tables. Although the algorithm is used to solve the problem in the case of exceptional complex reductive Lie groups [2], it does describe these prehomogeneous spaces for the classical cases also. Complete tables for the exceptional groups can be found at http://www.math.umb.edu/~anoel/publications/tables/.
The interdependence of substrate and protein transformations in rhodanese catalysis. II. Enzyme conformational changes significant for catalysis.

Abstract Circular dichroism, optical rotatory dispersion, and absorption studies allowed direct observation of the functioning enzyme protein and confirmed the major transformations of rhodanese indicated by study of the thermodynamic parameters. In these experiments, the catalytic sequence was treated as separate half reactions by omission of the second substrate. Based on the values of the kinetic constants reported in the preceding paper, substrate to product ratios were altered to interconvert the conformers of the enzyme-sulfur intermediate and the free enzyme. Detailed comparison of the spectra for the two forms yields a picture of the transformation involving some 20 amino acid residues in a change from a disordered coil-type structure to an ordered β-type structure as the enzyme binds thiosulfate ion and discharges sulfite ion. The inability of sulfate ion to produce a conformational change suggests that, in addition to the cationic site, another enzymic group is involved in substrate binding.
Monte Carlo Methods in Statistical Mechanics: Foundations and New Algorithms

These notes are an updated version of lectures given at the Cours de Troisieme Cycle de la Physique en Suisse Romande (Lausanne, Switzerland) in June 1989. We thank the Troisieme Cycle de la Physique en Suisse Romande and Professor Michel Droz for kindly giving permission to reprint these notes.
Infrared Investigation of the Secondary Structure of β-Lactoglobulins

Abstract β-Lactoglobulin has been examined by infrared spectroscopy in the region of absorption of the amide I and amide II bands and compared with myoglobin and αs-casein. The results indicate a prevalence of β conformation in the native structure of this protein.
Synthesis of 18 F-labeled probes on EWOD platform for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) preclinical imaging

We demonstrate the synthesis of 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose ([18F]FDG) on an electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) platform using multifunctional electrodes (for heating, temperature sensing, and EWOD driving). A revised chemistry to incorporate advantages of microfluidic volumes is used to produce multiple doses of PET tracer for preclinical imaging. The success is confirmed by imaging mice with radiotracers produced on chip. This is an important step toward the development of an affordable, universal synthesizer for imaging tracers used in Positron Emission Tomography (PET).
Specificity of creatine kinase for guanidino substrates. Kinetic and proton nuclear magnetic relaxation rate studies.

Abstract The specificity of rabbit muscle creatine kinase for a series of guanidino substrate analogs has been investigated at 0°. The maximum velocities range from ≤0.1 to 90% that of creatine whereas the Michaelis constants are as much as two orders of magnitude larger than that for creatine. The activity is found to be very sensitive to certain structural features of the guanidino substrate molecules, such as the length of the alkyl side chain length and the position of the carboxyl group. The dissociation constants, Kdiss, of the guanidino analogs from the abortive quaternary complex, MnADP-guanidino analog-enzyme, have been determined by using the difference in the proton relaxation rate of water in the presence of each respective quaternary complex and the ternary MnADP-enzyme complex. Kdiss was also determined for some of the analogs as an inhibition constant, Ki, for the reverse reaction. Nitrate is found to affect drastically both the dissociation constant of the analogs from their respective quaternary complexes and the proton relaxation rate of these complexes. For example, the Kdiss of creatine is decreased from 5 mm to 80 µm and the proton relaxation rate of water is decreased by 50% on the addition of 2 mm potassium nitrate. In the absence of nitrate the dissociation constants are generally of the same order as the Michaelis constants, while in the presence of nitrate they are between one and two orders of magnitude smaller. These results provide cogent evidence for the hypothesis that the nitrate anion acts as an analog of the planer phosphoryl group which is transferred, thus leading to a structure which resembles the transition state.
Ab initio studies on (H2O)14− clusters: Existence of surface and interior-bound extra electrons

A recent paper by Turi et al. [Science 309, 914 (2005)] suggests that the anionic water clusters smaller than (H2O)45− (at a low temperature) will only have surface-bound extra electrons and no internally bound electrons. Accordingly, (H2O)14− cluster isomers should only have surface-bound extra electrons. The ab initio results presented here, however, suggest that the (H2O)14− cluster isomers can have two distinct types of isomers with almost the same energy. The one type of isomer (type 1) has all the non-H-bonding H atoms (NHB H) directed outward and surface-bound extra electron while the other type (type 2) has a number of NHB H atoms directed toward cavity and has an interior-bound electron, and thus, contradicts the earlier quantum simulation results of Turi et al.
The areal reduction factor: A multifractal analysis

[1] The areal reduction factor (ARF) ? is a key quantity in the design against hydrologic extremes. For a basin of area a and a duration d, ?(a, d, T) is the ratio between the average rainfall intensity in a and d with return period T and the average rainfall intensity at a point for the same d and T. Empirical ARF charts often display scaling behavior. For example, for large (/d) ratios and given T the ARF tends to behave like (/d)-a for some a. Here we obtain scaling properties of the ARF under the condition that space-time rainfall has multifractal scale invariance. The scaling exponents of the ARF are related in a simple way to the multifractal properties of the parent rainfall process. We consider regular and highly elongated basins, quantify the effect of rainfall advection, and investigate the bias from estimating the ARF using sparse rain gauge networks. We also study the effects of departure of rainfall from exact multifractality. The results explain many features of empirical ARF charts, while suggesting dependencies on advection, basin shape, and return period that are difficult to quantify empirically. The theoretical scaling relations may be used to extrapolate the ARF beyond the empirical range of a, d, and T.
Algal growth stimulation and toxicity in response to exposure to the new insensitive military high-nitrogen energetic triaminoguanidinium-1-methyl-5-nitriminotetrazolate

Triaminoguanidinium-1-methyl-5-nitriminotetrazolate (TAG-MNT) is a nitrogen-rich energetic compound being developed as a potential component of insensitive munition formulations. The purpose of the present study was to assess the toxicity of TAG-MNT to the green alga Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata as well as to determine whether the high N content of TAG-MNT could result in increased algal growth in aquatic systems and potentially contribute to eutrophication using a 96-h algal growth bioassay in N-limited test media. Results were compared with algal exposures to current-use energetics 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and royal demolition explosive (RDX). The TNT exposure resulted in a lowest-observed-adverse-effect concentration (LOAEC) for algal growth of 1.72 mg/L and a 50% inhibition concentration (IC50) and 95% confidence limits of 0.972 mg/L (0.955, 0.973). The RDX algal growth LOAEC was 0.10 mg/L, and the RDX IC50 was 0.635 (0.416, 0.875). Neither TNT nor RDX exposure resulted in stimulation of algal growth. In repeated testing, TAG-MNT exposure resulted in LOAECs of 0.55 and 5.20 mg/L. Stimulation of algal growth was observed at 0.06 mg/L at a mean increase of 163.2% (± 71.7) relative to the control in TAG-MNT test A and at the 0.005 mg/L treatment at a mean increase of 174.3% (± 59.9) in TAG-MNT test B. The authors' results indicate the potential for high-N energetics to significantly stimulate algal growth at low concentrations in N-limited systems. Environ Toxicol Chem 2014;33:616–620. © 2013 SETAC. This article is a US Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.
Safety of intravenous immunoglobulin and plasma exchange in critically ill patients

AbstractObjective:To assess the safety profile of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) and plasma exchange (PLEX) when used to treat critically ill patients.Methods:We performed a retrospective analysis of consecutive patients who received IVIG or PLEX while admitted to our medical intensive care unit (ICU), neuroscience ICU or haematologic/oncologic ICU between 2007 and 2011.Patients who were transferred into an ICU while receiving therapy or who continued therapy after discharge from the ICU were included in the analysis.Results:A total of 118 consecutive patients were included in the study. Fifty-nine patients received IVIG. Twenty of these patients (34%) developed renal failure during the hospitalisation, including 15 (25.4%) in whom renal function worsened during or shortly after IVIG administration and 4 (6.8%) in whom IVIG was considered a possible cause. Transfusion reactions occurred in five patients (8%). Seven patients (12%) did not receive the full intended course of IVIG. Thirty-four patients (5...