cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Glial inhibition of nerve regeneration in the mature mammalian CNS.

The lack of axonal regeneration in the adult mammalian CNS is due to both unfavorable environmental glial factors and the intrinsic neuronal state. Inhibitors associated with myelin and the glial scar have been extensively studies and it has been shown that neutralizing at least some of the inhibitors can lead to improved growth. Meanwhile, important advances have also been made towards our understanding of the neuronal intrinsic state, particularly the intracellular levels of cyclic nucleotide, that influence the capacity of mature CNS neurons to initiate and maintain a regrowth response. It is well recognized that successful regeneration may only be achieved by application of a combination of strategies that both block glial inhibitors and enhance the intrinsic neuronal growth capacity.
Timing of Surgery in Valvular Heart Disease: Prophylactic Surgery vs Watchful Waiting in the Asymptomatic Patient

In the absence of randomized controlled trial data, the management of patients with severe valvular heart disease without symptoms, ventricular dysfunction, or other identified triggers for surgery is controversial. In this review, we frame the debate between prophylactic surgery vs close follow-up until triggers occur (watchful waiting) for severe aortic stenosis and degenerative mitral regurgitation (MR), the 2 conditions for which the pros and cons of these approaches are best articulated. Classic high-gradient severe aortic stenosis is generally accurately diagnosed. In asymptomatic patients, stress testing can be used to confirm asymptomatic status and identify high-risk features including reduced exercise tolerance, exercise-induced symptoms, and absolute or relative hypotension. Resting echocardiographic predictors of disease progression and/or adverse events include very high gradients, rapid progression, and extensive calcification. Surgical risk calculators can help estimate perioperative morbidity/mortality with the ultimate choice of a medical vs a prophylactic surgical approach to be made after discussion with the patient. With degenerative MR, severity can be inaccurately estimated. Stress testing might clarify whether the patient is truly asymptomatic and identify features associated with worse prognosis and symptom onset. Selecting patients with high probability of repair can be challenging. Perioperative risk and postoperative risks including those of unanticipated valve replacement and recurrent MR after repair are also considerations. In aggregate, management of patients with valvular disease who are asymptomatic and who have no clear trigger for surgery is complex, requires individualization, and should be carried out by or in collaboration with a heart valve centre of excellence.
Toward Congenial Environments for Knowledge Utilization in Today's University

Among the myriad discussions in which Howard Davis and I engaged, the most animated and provocative—yet agonizingly frustrating—ones were centered around a topic that conunuously plagued him, a problem, the searchfor a solution of which he sought, in vain, until the end of his days. I refer to Howie's passionate desire to come up with a plan whereby the science and practice of knowledge utilization might find a respected and enduring home in the groves of academe. Howie—what an unsuitable nickname, implying diminutiveness, for such a physically and intellectually towering personage—was bedeviled by the painful reality that unless scholars and professionals found a sympathetic home in academia, the field of knowledge utilization would never be quite whole, and hence would probably never flourish, let alone survive. Any field of study built to last and grow and maintain a solid and esteemed footing in the family of learned disciplines and professions needs to have the approval of one's scientific, disciplin...
Impact of the porous microstructure on the overall elastic properties of the osteonal cortical bone.

Abstract Mechanical properties of bones are largely determined by their microstructure. The latter comprises a large number of diverse pores. The present paper analyzes a connection between structure of the porous space of the osteonal cortical bone and bone's overall anisotropic elastic moduli. The analysis is based on recent developments in the theory of porous materials that predict the anisotropic effective moduli of porous solids in terms of pores’ shapes, orientations and densities. Bone's microstructure is modeled using available micrographs. The calculated anisotropic elastic constants for porous cortical bone are, mostly, in agreement with available experimental data. The influence of each of the pore types on the overall moduli is examined. The results of the analysis can also be used to estimate the extent of mineralization (hydroxyapatite content) if the overall porosity and the effective moduli are known and, vice versa, to estimate porosity from the measured moduli and the extent of mineralization.
Counteracting HIV-1 protease drug resistance: structural analysis of mutant proteases complexed with XV638 and SD146, cyclic urea amides with broad specificities.

The long-term therapeutic benefit of HIV antiretroviral therapy is still threatened by drug-resistant variants. Mutations in the S1 subsite of the protease are the primary cause for the loss of sen...
Critical coupling requirements for surface plasmon enhanced magneto-optic isolators

The critical coupling criteria between dielectric waveguides and lossy surface plasmons is applied to isolator designs. This framework shows that non-reciprocal plasmon-semiconductor waveguides are not achievable, and alternatives are proposed.
Why 'The Ends of Harm' is a Dead End

In The Ends of Harm, Victor Tadros claims that the general justifying aim of the criminal law should be general deterrence. He also takes seriously that we cannot use people as a means, and thus he argues that we may only punish people in the name of general deterrence who have a “duty” to suffer. Tadros claims that this duty arises as follows: An offender initially has a duty not to harm the victim. If the offender violates that duty, the offender still has a duty to stop the harm from occurring (so that, for example, an offender would have to jump in front of his own bullet). And if the harm does occur, then the offender has a duty to rectify that harm. This duty to rectify, argues Tadros, requires the defendant not only to compensate the victim but also to protect the victim to the extent that he would have been able to have been harmed to prevent the threat from occurring. Tadros further advances intricate arguments for why the state may therefore punish the offender to protect other potential victims to the extent of the offender’s duty to rectify. This symposium contribution seeks to explore three problems with Tadros’ analysis, ultimately arguing that Tadros’ theory fails on its own terms. First, attempts present a substantial problem for Tadros’ regime because attempts do not give rise to duties to prevent harm because there is no harm to be prevented. Tadros’ attempt to account for attempts, as completed offenses of diversions of security resources, ultimately leads to punishments that bear little resemblance to the crime attempted. Such a wildly counterintuitive result creates problems for a regime premised on general deterrence, which must be understood and respected. Second, Tadros’ regime will often exempt the rich from suffering criminal punishment. Tadros claims that duties to prevent harms from occurring (by jumping in front of bullets) are only enforceable when compensation will be inadequate. However, affluent offenders may be able to fully compensate. Moreover, since the scope of the duty to suffer will be determined by what remains of the duty after the victim is compensated, affluent offenders will be able to compensate more and thereby suffer less. Again, the actual sentences will thereby bear little resemblance to the rationale for criminalization, thus threatening the deterrent message of the law. Moreover, a system that exacerbates distributive inequalities will not achieve public respect. Third, Tadros cannot justify taking the duty that the defendant owes to the victim and forcing the victim to transfer this asset to the state. In his quest to articulate a theory that does not impermissibly use defendants, he ultimately endorses a theory that impermissibly uses their victims. He thus fails to achieve the very goal he sets for himself, which is to achieve general deterrence without impermissibly using anyone.
The influence of inmate visitation on the decision to grant parole: An exploratory study ☆

Abstract Recent studies highlight the positive influence that visitation of inmates can have on in-prison and post-release behavior. Less is known, however, about the effect that visitation has on the decision to release inmates via discretionary parole. Purpose This study fills in this gap. It addresses the question of whether visitation of inmates influences parole decision outcomes (denial or granting of release). The study adds both to the literature on parole decisionmaking and on prison visitation. Methods The study relies on a recent 1000 + random sample of parole decisions from Pennsylvania. The analyses test for effects of various measures of prison visitation, including visitation intensity, visitor pool size, and visitor type, after controlling for other determinants of parole decisions. Results Inmate visitation contributes strongly to explaining variation in parole decisions. Inmates who receive any visit are almost three times more likely to be released compared with their non-visited counterparts. There is also variation in impacts based on the number and type of visitors. Conclusions The findings, while suggestive of decisionmakers attuned to empirical research on reentry, also raise serious questions about the fairness of the parole decisionmaking process, especially when considering that the majority of inmates are never visited.
Optimal Beef and Pork Marketings

A multi-equation model of the beef-and-pork sector of the economy was used to determine quarterly marketings of beef or pork that would have maximized annual gross farm income from beef and pork each year during 1950-1961. Fixing beef marketings at their actual levels, we find that pork producers could have increased their annual gross incomes an average of 45 percent if they had reduced marketings by an average of 35 percent. Fixing pork marketings at their actual levels, we find that beef producers could have increased their gross incomes an average of 25 percent by reducing marketings an average of 30 percent. Several other constrained and unconstrained maximum solutions were computed. Cross-effects were evaluated. Effects on retail prices of reductions in farm marketings and compensating variations in consumer incomes required to offset these retail-price increases were computed.
Influence of Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking and Project Manager's Skills on Project Performance – A Conceptual Paper

Project management is a challenging profession as project managers need to be multi-skilled i.e. in both technical and people oriented skills. Technical skills are normally associate with science or critical thinking skills whereas people oriented skills are associate with arts or creative thinking skills. It is unclear how critical and creative thinking skills can help project managers in their skills to achieve positive project performance which is the objective of this study. In this study, research questions, conceptual framework and hypotheses are derived based on literature reviewed. Research method inclusive sampled survey questionnaire as well as research contributions are also included.
Leukocyte Labeling in Rats during and after Continuous Infusion of Tritiated Thymidine: Implications for Lymphocyte Longevity and DNA Reutilization

Leukocyte labeling was studied in rats during and after continuous intravenous infusion of H3-thymidine. The radioisotope was administered for varying periods up to 271 days. The results permit the following conclusions: 1. The median survival of small lymphocytes is about 1 month. Five to 8 per cent of small lymphocytes have a life span of more than 9 months. 2. Following the administration of H3-thymidine, reutilization of the tracer markedly delays the fall-off of labeled cells in the peripheral blood. Reutilization probably involves H3-thymidine released from labeled DNA during cell death, since suppression occurs with massive infusion of non-labeled thymidine. 3. Unlike granulocytes and large lymphocytes, small lymphocytes label nonuniformly, and appear to be comprised of at least two populations with different intensities of labeling and different turnover rates. The more heavily labeled cells have the faster turnover. 4. The complexity of the labeling process indicated by the present observations must be considered in the interpretation of H3-thymidine data. However, the survival of unlabeled cells during continuous H3-thymidine infusion remains a valid means of measuring the life spans of circulating blood cells.
Revision Meniscal Surgery in Children and Adolescents: Risk Factors and Mechanisms for Failure and Subsequent Management

Background:The mechanisms of failure and risk factors for failed meniscal surgery in children and adolescents have not been well described.Purpose:To investigate the risk factors, mechanisms of failure, and subsequent operative management for revision meniscal surgery in a pediatric population, as well as to identify the local incidence of failed meniscal surgery.Study Design:Case-control study; Level of evidence, 3.Methods:All patients younger than 20 years who had arthroscopic management for meniscal injuries at a single institution between 2008 and 2012 underwent retrospective review. Demographic data and intraoperative findings at the time of the initial surgery were documented. All patients undergoing a second procedure on the same meniscus were further analyzed. Multivariate logistic regression with purposeful selection was performed to identify independent risk factors for revision meniscal surgery.Results:Arthroscopic knee surgery was performed on 293 patients and 324 menisci, including 129 primar...
Mining Social Media Streams to Improve Public Health Allergy Surveillance

Allergies are one of the most common chronic diseases worldwide. One in five Americans suffer from either allergy or asthma symptoms. With the prevalence of social media, people sharing experiences and opinions on personal health symptoms and concerns on social media are increasing. Mining those publicly available health related data potentially provides valuable healthcare insights. In this paper, we propose a real-time allergy surveillance system that first classifies tweets to identify those that mention actual allergy incidents using bag-of-words model and NaiveBayesMultinomial classifier and applies in-depth text and spatiotemporal analysis. Our experimental results show that the proposed system can detect predominant allergy types with high precision and that allergy-related tweet volume is highly correlated to the weather data (daily maximum temperature). We believe that this is the first study that examines a large-scale social media stream for in-depth analysis of allergy activities.
Hedgehog signaling enables nutrition-responsive inhibition of an alternative morph in a polyphenic beetle

The recruitment of modular developmental genetic components into new developmental contexts has been proposed as a central mechanism enabling the origin of novel traits and trait functions without necessitating the origin of novel pathways. Here, we investigate the function of the hedgehog (Hh) signaling pathway, a highly conserved pathway best understood for its role in patterning anterior/posterior (A/P) polarity of diverse traits, in the developmental evolution of beetle horns, an evolutionary novelty, and horn polyphenisms, a highly derived form of environment-responsive trait induction. We show that interactions among pathway members are conserved during development of Onthophagus horned beetles and have retained the ability to regulate A/P polarity in traditional appendages, such as legs. At the same time, the Hh signaling pathway has acquired a novel and highly unusual role in the nutrition-dependent regulation of horn polyphenisms by actively suppressing horn formation in low-nutrition males. Down-regulation of Hh signaling lifts this inhibition and returns a highly derived sigmoid horn body size allometry to its presumed ancestral, linear state. Our results suggest that recruitment of the Hh signaling pathway may have been a key step in the evolution of trait thresholds, such as those involved in horn polyphenisms and the corresponding origin of alternative phenotypes and complex allometries.
Intelligent Diagnosis Method Research and Simulation of Large Aircraft Engine Fault

Research failure accurate recognition of large aircraft engine.Large aircraft engine structure is complex and has many noises.This paper put forward a fault diagnosis methods based on particle swarm rough intensive Jane.Through the fault knowledge acquisition and rules optimization,the fault prediction method was used to complete fault identification.The experiment results show that the algorithm improves the accuracy of identification.
Vesicoureteral Reflux in the Adult. II. Nephropathy, Hypertension and Stones

The level of renal function, presence of hypertension or characteristics of nephrolithiasis were analyzed in relation to the severity of renal scarring and other clinical parameters in 67 patients with primary bilateral vesicoureteral reflux. A significant positive correlation was observed between impairment of renal function and severity of renal scarring. Renal insufficiency occurred only in patients with bilateral scarring. Significant proteinuria was found more often in patients with depressed renal function. Hypertension was observed in 34 per cent of the patients, mostly in those with bilateral scarring or depressed renal function. Radiopaque calculi were noted in 18 per cent of the patients. In all but 1 case these calculi occurred in scarred kidneys.
The luteinizing hormone surge: Timing and characteristics in the plasma and urine after clomiphene citrate treatment

Clomiphene citrate (CC) has been used to influence the timing of ovulation. To evaluate the effects of CC on the timing of the luteinizing hormone (LH) surge, we examined the LH surge in 10 cycling normal women for 3 cycles each, during an untreated cycle (control) and during treatment with 50 mg CC (CC 50) and 150 mg CC (CC 150) daily on days 5 to 9. Length of control cycles (mean±standard error of the mean) was 28.5±1.1 days and was not significantly different from either CC 50 (28.2±0.6 days) or CC 150 cycles (29.0±0.4 days). LH surge occurred on day 16.4±1.2 in control, 16.5±0.5 in CC 50, and 17.1±0.7 in CC 150 cycles. Similarly, luteal phase lengths were not significantly affected by CC treatment. Individually, however, the effect of CC on the timing of the LH surge depended on when the LH surge occurred in corresponding control cycles. If the control cycle LH surge occurred on day 16 or earlier, CC significantly delayed it. If the normal LH surge occurred on day 18 or later, CC advanced it. During CC 50 treatment, the LH surge was advanced by 1 to 7 days in 3 cycles, unchanged in 2, and delayed in 5 cycles by 1 to 9 days. Detection of urinary LH surge was reliable in CC-treated cycles and correlated well with the day of plasma LH surge. Our findings indicate that the advancement or delay in the timing of the LH surge during CC treatment in cycling women may be predicted by the day of their LH surge in spontaneous cycles. This may be clinically useful for the timing of artificial insemination or follicle aspiration in normally ovulatory women stimulated with CC.
The role of physiotherapy in the management of chronic pain

Abstract The role of physiotherapy in managing chronic pain is challenging. A multidisciplinary approach incorporating several specialities within the pain clinic is recommended. Treatment focuses on the bio–psycho–social model: part of the clinician's skill is to assess which part or parts of this bio–psycho–social ‘equation' influence the patient's pain. In addition, three key physiotherapy treatments are described: education, patient empowerment and promoting exercise. Patients are often fearful of exercise due to a past bad experience or they believe it may cause more harm but exercise can relate to activities of daily living, such as getting out of bed. Patients are advised not to push through pain which will tend to cause ‘wind up' and increased pain. Phased activities and goal-setting are described. More specific or individual treatments are briefly mentioned such as desensitization and graded motor imagery.
Targeting Ras for Anticancer Drug Discovery

Publisher Summary Several recent research observations have rekindled interest in targeting Ras for cancer treatment. Genome-wide cancer genome studies have revealed that the genes most commonly mutated in cancers were already identified in more systematic studies. Another observation involves the association of KRAS mutations with resistance to treatment with inhibitors of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). The structural and biochemical distinctions between normal and mutant Ras are well delineated. Approaches for blocking Ras have focused on either inhibition of Ras membrane association or downstream effector signaling. This chapter summarizes the specific targets under evaluation for each of these directions. Cell permeable inhibitors are identified and shown to exhibit target based and anti-tumor activity in cell culture and/or mouse models of cancer. These analyses demonstrate tumor prevention rather than inhibition of an already developed tumor. The study provides an overview of the status of the development of inhibitors of Ras effector signaling. With renewed appreciation and interest in Ras as a therapeutic target for cancer treatment, and with promising leads for indirect approaches for blocking Ras function, there remains strong optimism that anti-Ras therapies will finally reach the clinic.
Statin Adherence Rates in Patients Utilizing a Patient-Centered Medical Home-Based Pharmacy.

Background:Medication nonadherence contributes to approximately US$290 billion per year in avoidable health-care spending. Statins are of particular interest because of their importance to patient ...
Uplink HARQ for Cloud RAN via Separation of Control and Data Planes

The implementation of uplink hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) in a cloud-radio access network (C-RAN) architecture is constrained by the two-way latency on the fronthaul links connecting the remote radio heads (RRHs) with the baseband units (BBUs) that perform decoding. To overcome this limitation, this paper considers an architecture based on the separation of control and data planes, in which retransmission control decisions are made at the edge of the network, that is, by the RRHs or user equipment (UE), while data decoding is carried out remotely at the BBUs. This solution enables low-latency local retransmission decisions to be made at the RRHs or UE, which are not subject to the fronthaul latency constraints, while, at the same time, leveraging the decoding capability of the BBUs. A system with a BBU Hoteling system is considered first in which each RRH has a dedicated BBU in the cloud. For this system, the control-data separation leverages low-latency local feedback from an RRH to drive the HARQ process of a given UE. The throughput and the probability of error of this solution are analyzed for the three standard HARQ modes of Type-I, chase combining, and incremental redundancy over a general fading multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) link. Then, novel user-centric low-latency feedback strategies are proposed and analyzed for the C-RAN architecture, with a single centralized BBU, based on limited “hard” or “soft” local feedback from the RRHs to the UE and on retransmission decisions taken at the UE. The analysis presented in this paper allows the optimization of the considered schemes, as well as the investigation of the impact of system parameters such as HARQ protocol type, blocklength, and number of antennas on the performance of low-latency local HARQ decisions in BBU Hoteling and C-RAN architectures.
How are private school enrolment patterns changing across Indian districts with a growth in private school availability

AbstractThe private school sector in India has grown significantly but the equity implications of this growth are not well understood. Traditionally private schools have been patronised by more educated and better-off families. Evidence also suggests a preference for enrolling male children in private schools. With the growth in the private school sector it is unclear whether these conventional patterns of private enrolment are changing. The (uneven but ongoing) implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act will likely create further opportunities for private school access. If research finds that access to the private sector remains uneven across the society in spite of this growth, then it may offer a note of caution against relying on private provision, and it may also provide an indication of the potentially significant and continued importance of public provision of education. In this paper we use district-level data from 2005–2006 and 2011–2012 to estimate how private enrolment patterns have cha...
Linguistic Issues in Statutory Interpretation

Each time a dispute arises over the proper interpretation of a law, it means that the legal system has somehow failed to provide clear guidance as to how people must behave and what rights they have against others who wrong them. This chapter explores what things go wrong linguistically that lead to interpretive problems. This approach is interesting because the results of the inquiry show that many aspects of our linguistic knowledge cause very few interpretive problems, but that others, especially the problem of borderline situations in the interpretation of statutory words, present constant difficulty. Word meaning, in turn, is generally flexible enough in ordinary life to enable us to incorporate new situations into categories that we have already formed, permitting us to organize our worlds efficiently. When interpretive dilemmas are explored in this manner, we see that statutory interpretation works quite well most of the time, but that certain problems are predictably recurrent ones. While the problems that arise may be conceptual and linguistic in nature, the solutions must be political and legal ones.
Does Title-By-Title Selection Make a Difference? A Usage Analysis on Print Monograph Purchasing

ABSTRACTThis article compares the usage of print monographs acquired through firm orders and approval plans to determine whether title-by-title book selection makes a difference. The circulation data of print monographs acquired in a four-year period were extracted and separated according to their acquisition methods. Usage data were analyzed according to the Library of Congress Classification system and library's three subject area groups (Humanities, Social Sciences, and Sciences). The results indicate that books acquired via firm orders had a higher circulation rate in almost all subject areas. The authors discuss how the findings can be used to inform future collection practices.
Child-Robot Theater: STEAM Education in an Afterschool Program

Children in an elementary school afterschool program utilizing the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) education paradigm created and acted in short plays with a variety of social robots.
An analysis of interprofessional communication and teamwork skill acquisition in simulation

Abstract Background Communication and teamwork skills in interprofessional education are key competencies for ensuring safe patient outcomes. Simulation is a safe environment in which to foster and develop such skills. Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate a program of communication and team skill development in a sequential set of interprofessional simulations for pre-licensure nursing and medical students. Method A prospective, repeated measures design was employed to determine whether team training at the beginning of a longitudinal interprofessional had an effect on subsequent performances in interprofessional communication and teamwork skills. Student teams engaged in an interprofessional simulation once a semester for four semesters. Discussion Targeted team training improved communication and teamwork skills in interprofessional nursing and medicine student teams. Conclusions Team training through simulation is an effective means to develop and sustain communication and teamwork skills in interprofessional student teams.
How Alex Got to Dartmouth and Obstacles that Prevent Other Low-Income Students from Attending Elite Schools

This chapter tells the story of Alex, a Dartmouth College student who grew up in a small, middle- to upper-middle-class New Jersey suburb, and almost didn’t make it to college. This chapter explicates the reasons why few low-income students end up at a place like Dartmouth and explores some of the factors that drive these students to “undermatch” by attending less selective schools like community colleges. The chapter concludes with a discussion of why this is an ethical issue, and how it impacts student’s financial futures.
Surgical Advances in Nephroureterectomy: Laparoscopic and Robotic Approaches

Nephroureterecomy represents the gold standard in surgical treatment of upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma (UUT-UC). UUT-UC represents a highly aggressive disease with poor survival once invasive and high recurrence rates if the distal ureter and bladder cuff remain in place. This necessitates the need for urologists to make every attempt to remove the diseased tissue. While the basic principle of the nephroureterectomy surgery have remained the same, advances in technology have allowed surgeons to develop new ways to deal with the most challenging aspect of performing this surgery, removal of the distal ureter and bladder cuff. Despite the multitude of techniques to remove the distal ureter, surgeon preference and patient specifics provide the best tools for surgical planning. Currently, minimally invasive techniques such as endoscopic resection of the ureteral orifice, laparoscopy, and robotic-assisted surgeries have been developed with the goal of reducing postoperative pain, hospitalizations, and perioperative complications while still providing excellent cancer control. Finally, new treatment modalities, such as preoperative chemotherapy, have shown promise in lower tract disease but current studies lack data from prospective trials to make it the standard of care.
Partial Pancreaticoduodenectomy (Whipple Procedure)

Malignancy of the head of the pancreas, proximal duodenum, or distal bile duct. Chronic pancreatitis with failed nonoperative management. Cystadenoma of the head of the pancreas. Rarely, massive destruction of the pancreatic head– duodenum complex secondary to trauma
Paying your respects: Transgender women and detransitioning after death

This paper asks how do the deaths and the postmortem detransitioning (the verbal, visual, and material rejection of a person's gender identity) of transgender women impact trans activism? After analyzing the case studies of Jennifer Gable and Leelah Alcorn, I outline how the contentious memorialization of transgender women and the disenfranchized grief of survivors influence trans activism. I conclude that activism is characterized by respecting the wishes of the deceased, by preventing the violence which transgender women experience, by advocating for trans elder care, by educating about end-of-life issues, and by lobbying for laws that protect transgender men and women after death.
Optative Movement and Drink in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Beginning with a look at Stevenson’s consideration of Keats, Colman here argues that Stevenson developed a narrative approach to addictive consumption that overlapped with attitudes of earlier writers toward addiction as a condition of indolent engagement with possibility. Stevenson, however, wrote at a later stage of addiction discourse, and after writers such as Charles Dickens had created detective narratives built around addictive pursuit of the possible. Colman argues that Stevenson developed a narrative of indolent, optative movement according to the logic of addiction discourse of his age, according to which addiction was linked both to indolence and to exploratory, repetitive pursuit of some unattained possibility. Colman describes how a resulting, addictively hoped-for, optative, vicarious movement in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde occurs in moments anticipatory of cinema.
Lead release to potable water during the Flint, Michigan water crisis as revealed by routine biosolids monitoring data.

Abstract Routine biosolids monitoring data provides an independent and comprehensive means to estimate water lead release pre-, during and post-Flint Water Crisis (FWC). The mass of potable plumbing-related metals (i.e., lead, cadmium, copper, nickel and zinc) in sewage biosolids strongly correlated with one another during the FWC (p
(55) Inverted Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy leading to Cardiac Arrest, rescued by ECMO (E-CPR) in a Pediatric Patient with Traumatic Subarachnoid Hemorrhage

Stress cardiomyopathy could complicate severe traumatic brain injury and subarachnoid hemorrhage, and potentially lead to myocardial dysfunction, acute heart failure and death. Prompt recognition and timely eCPR can provide effective rescue. A 12 year old male was airlifted from the beach after he was struck in the back of his head with a “bocce ball”. On arrival, he was hypotensive, had copious frothy bloody tracheal secretions. CT Chest and Head showed pulmonary edema, significant intraventricular and subarachnoid hemorrhage extending into the spinal canal, and diffuse cerebral edema. CTA head and …
Immunogenicity of Ontario Rabies Vaccine for Small Indian Mongooses ( Herpestes auropunctatus ).

Oral rabies vaccination is the principal strategy used to control rabies in wildlife. No oral rabies vaccine is licensed for small Indian mongooses (Herpestes auropunctatus). The Ontario Rabies Vaccine Bait (ONRAB) is a human adenovirus type-5 rabies glycoprotein recombinant vaccine licensed for rabies control in striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) in Canada and is under experimental evaluation in the US. We evaluated varying doses of ONRAB vaccine by direct instillation into the oral cavity with three groups of 10 mongooses: Group 1 received 109.5 TCID50, group 2 received 108.8 TCID50, and group 3 received 108.5 TCID50 of vaccine. Six control mongooses were sham-vaccinated with culture media. We collected a serum sample prior to vaccination and on days 14 and 30 postvaccination (PV). We quantified the level of rabies virus neutralizing antibodies (RVNA) from mongoose sera and compared titers among vaccinated groups and time points PV, where values greater than or equal to 0.1 IU/mL were considered positive. On day 14 PV, 87% (26 of 30, 95% confidence interval 70-95%) of vaccinates had seroconverted, whereas all vaccinates demonstrated RVNA by day 30 PV. There was a marginal effect of vaccine dose on group means of log-transformed RVNA titers at day 14 PV (F=2.5, P=0.099), but not day 30 PV. Sham-vaccinated animals were seronegative during all time points.
Nonhuman Animals and the Future of Environmental Education: Empathy and New Possibilities.

ABSTRACTSimilar to other fields, environmental education has begun to embrace the significance of nonhuman animals. This essay examines developments in the natural sciences, particularly in the fie...
USP General Chapter Impact on Nuclear Medicine Technology Practice

U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) general chapter , "Radiopharmaceuticals: Preparation, Compounding, Dispensing, and Repackaging," is a new standard proposed to provide minimum requirements for the preparation, compounding, dispensing, and repackaging of sterile and nonsterile radiopharmaceuticals. This new standard represents endeavors on the part of the USP to respond to appeals by nuclear medicine professionals to move beyond a minimal supplement to USP and provide policies specific to radiopharmaceuticals. USP provides nuclear pharmacies and nuclear medicine departments in hospitals and clinics with the benchmarks to assess current practice activities and integrate needed changes to meet regulatory and accreditation audit reviews. This continuing education article focuses on components of USP specific to the nuclear medicine technologist for a better understanding of obligations when preparing sterile radiopharmaceuticals for clinical use.
Radio frequency heating and reduction of Graphene Oxide and Graphene Oxide - Polyvinyl Alcohol Composites

Abstract Graphene oxide (GO) is one of the most frequently-used graphene-family materials, but it must often be reduced in order to restore electrical conductivity for the target applications. We have demonstrated the use of non-contact fringing field RF applicators to rapidly heat and reduce GO, both in its neat form and inside a polymer matrix such as polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). For this study, GO and GO-PVA films were prepared by the vacuum filtration method. The results demonstrate quick non-contact heating of GO and GO-PVA composite films by application of RF fields. Heating rates as high as 10.9 °C/s and 1.5 °C/s have been observed for GO and GO-PVA, respectively. RF-reduced GO and GO-PVA samples have shown conductivities of 102 S/m and 10−1 S/m, respectively. In addition, C/O ratio has increased from 2.44 to 5.22 when GO is exposed to RF waves which confirm that GO samples are reduced by the RF treatment. Unlike time-consuming or hazardous conventional reduction methods, RF waves resistively heat GO with electric fields in seconds to form reduced GO.
Association between percentage of positive biopsy cores and risk of pelvic lymph node involvement in prostate cancer.

205Background: Commonly used tools for predicting the risk of pelvic lymph node involvement (LNI) in prostate cancer often do not incorporate information on the percentage of positive biopsy cores ...
Six Trends in Global Environmental Constitutionalism

Global environmental constitutionalism explores the constitutional incorporation, implementation, and jurisprudence of rights, duties, procedures, policies and other provisions to promote environmental protection. This contribution addresses six important trends in global environmental constitutionalism. The first the textual incorporation and judicial engagement of climate change. Second is the notion that nature itself has rights, and legal personality to protect itself. Third is the emergence of constitutional dignity rights as means for advancing environmental rights. Fourth is the reflection of sustainability in many constitutions. Fifth is the increasing role of environmental constitutionalism at the sub-national level. Last is the growing constitutional incorporation of rights to information, participation, and access in environmental matters.
Technology Innovations in Continuous Kidney Replacement Therapy: The Clinician's Perspective

Continuous kidney replacement therapy (CKRT) has improved remarkably since its first implementation as continuous arteriovenous hemofiltration in the 1970s. However, when looking at the latest generation of CKRT machines, one could argue that clinical deployment of breakthrough innovations by device manufacturers has slowed in the last decade. Simultaneously, there has been a steady accumulation of clinical knowledge using CKRT as well as a multitude of therapeutic and diagnostic innovations in the dialysis and broader intensive care unit technology fields adaptable to CKRT. These include multiple different anticlotting measures; cloud-computing for optimized treatment prescribing and delivered therapy data collection and analysis; novel blood purification techniques aimed at improving the severe multiorgan dysfunction syndrome; and real-time sensing of blood and/or filter effluent composition. The authors present a view of how CKRT devices and programs could be reimagined incorporating these innovations to achieve specific measurable clinical outcomes with personalized care and improved simplicity, safety, and efficacy of CKRT therapy.
Identification, visualization, statistical analysis and mathematical modeling of high-feedback loops in gene regulatory networks.

Feedback loops in gene regulatory networks play pivotal roles in governing functional dynamics of cells. Systems approaches demonstrated characteristic dynamical features, including multistability and oscillation, of positive and negative feedback loops. Recent experiments and theories have implicated highly interconnected feedback loops (high-feedback loops) in additional nonintuitive functions, such as controlling cell differentiation rate and multistep cell lineage progression. However, it remains challenging to identify and visualize high-feedback loops in complex gene regulatory networks due to the myriad of ways in which the loops can be combined. Furthermore, it is unclear whether the high-feedback loop structures with these potential functions are widespread in biological systems. Finally, it remains challenging to understand diverse dynamical features, such as high-order multistability and oscillation, generated by individual networks containing high-feedback loops. To address these problems, we developed HiLoop, a toolkit that enables discovery, visualization, and analysis of several types of high-feedback loops in large biological networks. HiLoop not only extracts high-feedback structures and visualize them in intuitive ways, but also quantifies the enrichment of overrepresented structures. Through random parameterization of mathematical models derived from target networks, HiLoop presents characteristic features of the underlying systems, including complex multistability and oscillations, in a unifying framework. Using HiLoop, we were able to analyze realistic gene regulatory networks containing dozens to hundreds of genes, and to identify many small high-feedback systems. We found more than a 100 human transcription factors involved in high-feedback loops that were not studied previously. In addition, HiLoop enabled the discovery of an enrichment of high feedback in pathways related to epithelial-mesenchymal transition. HiLoop makes the study of complex networks accessible without significant computational demands. It can serve as a hypothesis generator through identification and modeling of high-feedback subnetworks, or as a quantification method for motif enrichment analysis. As an example of discovery, we found that multistep cell lineage progression may be driven by either specific instances of high-feedback loops with sparse appearances, or generally enriched topologies in gene regulatory networks. We expect HiLoop’s usefulness to increase as experimental data of regulatory networks accumulate. Code is freely available for use or extension at https://github.com/BenNordick/HiLoop .
Predicting energy and stability of known and hypothetical crystals using graph neural network.

Summary The discovery of new inorganic materials in unexplored chemical spaces necessitates calculating total energy quickly and with sufficient accuracy. Machine learning models that provide such a capability for both ground-state (GS) and higher-energy structures would be instrumental in accelerated screening. Here, we demonstrate the importance of a balanced training dataset of GS and higher-energy structures to accurately predict total energies using a generic graph neural network architecture. Using ∼ 16,500 density functional theory calculations from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Materials Database and ∼ 11,000 calculations for hypothetical structures as our training database, we demonstrate that our model satisfactorily ranks the structures in the correct order of total energies for a given composition. Furthermore, we present a thorough error analysis to explain failure modes of the model, including both prediction outliers and occasional inconsistencies in the training data. By examining intermediate layers of the model, we analyze how the model represents learned structures and properties.
The Hypothalamic Ventromedial Nuclei Couple Activity in the Hypothalamo–Pituitary–Adrenal Axis to the Morning Fed or Fasted State

Function in the adrenocortical system is markedly altered by availability of food. Basal activity is lowest and stress responsivity highest in the morning when nocturnal rats eat ∼90% of their daily calories during the dark. After an overnight fast, basal corticotrophin and corticosteroid levels are elevated, and responsivity to stressors is decreased. Central neural sites that control these changes are unidentified. The hypothalamic ventromedial nuclei (VMN) appear to signal satiety; lesions result in increased food intake, obesity, and elevated basal insulin and corticosteroids. Thus, the VMN are good candidates for calorically mediated control of adrenocortical system function in satiated rats. We injected colchicine into the VMN to cause reversible inhibition of activity ([Avrith and Mogenson, 1978][1]) and tested the effects on basal and stimulated function in the adrenocortical system. Colchicine-injected rats that fed ad libitum exhibited increased basal but reduced corticotrophin and corticosterone responses to restraint in the morning compared with controls. By contrast, after an overnight fast, control rats had increased basal adrenocortical hormones and decreased stress responses that did not differ from colchicine-injected rats. Colchicine was visualized within cells in the VMN for up to 5 d using fluorescein/colchicine, and the treatment did not cause increased gliosis; moreover, the functional effects of the injections were reversed within 15 d. We conclude that (1) the VMN serve to couple activity in the adrenocortical system to energy intake and (2) discrete colchicine injections provide a behaviorally and neuroendocrinologically useful period of inhibition without causing permanent functional damage. [1]: #ref-4
Surface tension of amniotic fluid lipid extracts: Prediction of pulmonary maturity

Abstract The surface tension (ST)-lowering properties of an amniotic fluid lipid extract can provide a rapid and reliable means of predicting pulmonary maturity. On hundred and eleven samples from 91 patients were analyzed. A surface tension of less than 56 dynes per centimeter at 120 μl of extract and less than 46 dynes per centimeter at 220 μl of extract denoted pulmonary maturity. Values greater than these indicated immaturity. Among fluid samples studied within 48 hours of delivery for the presence or absence of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) in 71 patients, there were no false positive ST values, while 7 of 22 patients with immature values developed RDS. Surface tension correlates well with the lecithin/sphingomyelin (L/S) ratio but provides clearer definition than the L/S ratio when compared to outcome. Blood and meconium contamination make the surface tension of fluid from babies with pulmonary immaturity appear mature. Identical twins with dissimilar ST values and outcome, as well as serial samples from individual patients, are analyzed and discussed.
Volumetric medical image compression and reconstruction for interactive visualization in surgical planning

Summary form only given. Different compression schemes that take advantage of interpolation methods for 3D volumetric reconstruction of medical imaging data are discussed. A volume composition system that uses different compression schemes combined with interpolation algorithms to facilitate the rapid visualization of volumetric images is developed. The quality and speed were compared to evaluate the best choice for volume rendering data compression by region of interest (ROI), discrete cosine transform (DCT) and ROI combined with DCT techniques.