cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Risk-adjusted monitoring of survival times

We consider the monitoring of surgical outcomes, where each patient has a different risk of post-operative mortality due to risk factors that exist prior to the surgery. We propose a risk-adjusted (RA) survival time CUSUM chart (RAST CUSUM) for monitoring a continuous, time-to-event variable that may be right-censored. Risk adjustment is accomplished using accelerated failure time regression models. We compare the average run length performance of the RAST CUSUM chart with the RA Bernoulli CUSUM chart using data from cardiac surgeries to motivate the details of the comparison. The comparisons show that the RAST CUSUM chart is more efficient at detecting a sudden increase in the odds of mortality than the RA Bernoulli CUSUM chart, especially when the fraction of censored observations is relatively low or when a small increase in the odds of mortality occurs. We also discuss the impact of the amount of training data used to estimate chart parameters as well as the implementation of the RAST CUSUM chart during prospective monitoring.
A new species of the intertidal staphylinid genus Bryothinusa Casey from Malaysia, with an overview of geographic distribution and an annotated catalog of Bryothinusa (Staphylinidae: Aleocharinae: Myllaenini).

Abstract Bryothinusa hauseri new species (Type Locality; Malaysia, Malay Peninsula, 40 mi N of Kuala Dungan) from Malaysia is described and illustrations of habitus and structural features are provided to distinguish it from other species of Bryothinusa. The systematic placement of B. hauseri within Bryothinusa and the systematic limits of Bryothinusa are discussed. The world distribution of the genus is outlined and a map showing the distribution of known species is provided. An annotated catalog of the known species of Bryothinusa is provided.
Spontaneous emission enhancement using hyperbolic metamaterials

Control of spontaneous emission is one of the fundamental concepts in the field of quantum optics with applications such as lasers, light emitting diodes, single photon sources among others. The control of emission of quantum dots (QDs) has been reported using photonic crystals and microcavities through the Purcell effect [1–4]. Increasing the photonic density of states (PDOS) is the key to enhancing the spontaneous emission from emitters which have a low quantum yield [5]. There have been several reports on the enhancement of spontaneous emission from QDs embedded in microcavities[3,4,6–8]. In all of these demonstrations, the emitter and the emission was confined within the microcavity which enabled the greater interaction between the emitter and the cavity mode. In contrast, the system that we present here does not rely on localization of electromagnetic field for increase in PDOS and thereby the enhancement in spontaneous emission. Instead, the metamaterial structure exploits the hyperbolic dispersion in the PDOS to create more states for the emitter to emit through [9]. Schematic drawing of the one-dimensional structure used for the present demonstration along with the anticipated dispersion and calculated effective dielectric constants determined using effective medium theory [10] are shown in Fig 1. The opposite signs of the dielectric permittivity tensor in perpendicular directions gives rise to hyperbolic dispersion. For a fixed frequency the wavevector for the anisotropic medium can take on arbitrary large values. In addition, the hyperbolic dispersion is achieved in a wide spectral range and is tolerant to deviations in the thickness of each of the constituent layers.
Long-term recovery of vegetation on two experimental crude oil spills in interior Alaska black spruce taiga

Vegetation was sampled on two black spruce taiga sites in interior Alaska, 15 and 20 years after crude oil was experimentally applied as low-volume sprays or high-volume point spills. Low volume spray spills that uniformly covered the ground caused initial damage to vegetation, but after 20 years recovery of the understory vegetation was almost complete, with dramatic recovery and expansion of fruticose lichens. High-volume point spills created small areas of surface oil saturation with dead vegetation and little sign of recovery but spread out mostly belowground with little or no apparent effect on the shallowly rooted vegetation above even after 15–20 years. Because winter point spills created a much greater area of surface oil, their effects were more damaging. After 15 years on the saturated surface oiled areas, only Eriophorum vaginatum tussocks survive and grow. At both sites with surface oil, black spruce mortality was high, with no evidence of long-term recovery and with continuing chronic effects...
The historical roots of contemporary empathy research.

Considerable differences exist in theories and methods in contemporary empathy research in psychology. An analysis is made of the ideas of early theorists in an attempt to identify the roots of these differences. Aesthetic philosopher-psychologists such as Theodor Lipps are compared to sociologists such as G. H. Mead, social psychologists, including Leonard Cottrell and Gordon Allport, the developmentalist Jean Piaget, and therapists such as Sigmund Freud and Carl Rogers. This analysis documents the bases for empathy being viewed as projection, identification, emotional contagion, or role taking. It also suggests that current researchers should plan studies that tap more of the total psychological empathic experience.
A uGNI-based Asynchronous Message-driven Runtime System for Cray Supercomputers with Gemini Interconnect

Gemini, the network for the new Cray XE/XK systems, features low latency, high bandwidth and strong scalability. Its hardware support for remote direct memory access enables efficient implementation of the global address space programming languages. Although the user Generic Network Interface (uGNI) provides a low-level interface for Gemini with support to the message-passing programming model (MPI), it remains challenging to port alternative programming models with scalable performance. CHARM++ is an object-oriented message-driven programming model. Its applications have been shown to scale up to the full Jaguar Cray XT machine. In this paper, we present an implementation of this programming model on uGNIfor the Cray XE/XK systems. Several techniques are presented to exploit the uGNI capabilites by reducing memory copy and registration overhead, taking advantage of the persistent communication, and improving intra-node communication. Our micro-benchmark results demonstrate that the uGNI-based runtime system outperforms the MPI-based implementation by up to $50\%$ in terms of message latency. For communication intensive applications such as N-Queens, this implementation scales up to 15,360 cores of a Cray XE6 machine and is 70%faster than the MPI-based implementation. In molecular dynamics application NAMD, the performance is also considerably improved by as much as 18%.
Textured image recognition using hidden Markov model

It is shown that when textures are modeled as Markov chains, the per symbol entropy of a 1-D texture profile can be used as a classification criterion. both noiseless and noisy test textures are studied, and five methods of classification are developed, based on whether and how the knowledge of noise distribution is given. For six random microtextures, an 80-90% correct classification rate is achieved for moderate to low noise power levels. This suggests that much 2-D textural information is preserved in a 1-D profile when a Markov chain is used to model textures. >
Measles virotherapy in a mouse model of adult T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma.

Adult T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma (ATL) is a highly aggressive CD4+ T-cell malignancy caused by human T-cell leukaemia virus type 1. Measles virus (MV) oncolytic therapy has been reported to be efficient in reducing tumour burden in subcutaneous xenograft models of lymphoproliferative disorders such as myeloma, B-cell lymphoma and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, but its potential to reduce tumour burden in disseminated lymphoproliferative disorders such as ATL remains to be determined. In this study, MV oncolytic therapy was evaluated in the MET-1/NOD/SCID xenograft mouse model of ATL. Treatment with the vaccine-related strain MV-NSE led to a significant reduction in tumour burden. In mice with a high tumour burden, therapy with MV-NSE significantly increased survival beyond any other single treatment tested previously using this model. Interestingly, signs of morbidity (cachexia) in mice treated with MV were not directly associated with tumour burden, but were correlated with the secretion of interleukin-6 by MET-1 cells and host cells. The results suggest that MV therapy could be a promising therapy for generalized lymphoproliferative disease.
A Novel Method to Estimate Subpixel Temperature by Fusing Solar-Reflective and Thermal-Infrared Remote-Sensing Data With an Artificial Neural Network

Among the multisource data fusing methods, the potential advantages of remote sensing of solar-reflective visible and near-Infrared [(VNIR); 400-900 nm] data and thermal-infrared (TIR) data have not been fully mined. Usually, a linear unmixed method is used for the purpose, which results in low estimation accuracy of subpixel land-surface temperature (LST). In this paper, we propose a novel method to estimate subpixel LST. This approach uses the characteristics of high spatial-resolution advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer (ASTER) VNIR data and the low spatial-resolution TIR data simulated from ASTER temperature product to generate the high spatial-resolution temperature data at a subpixel scale. First, the land-surface parameters (e.g., leaf area index, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), soil water content index, and reflectance) were extracted from VNIR data and field measurements. Then, the extracted high resolution of land-surface parameters and the LST were simulated into coarse resolutions. Second, the genetic algorithm and self-organizing feature map artificial neural network (ANN) was utilized to create relationships between land-surface parameters and the corresponding LSTs separately for different land-cover types at coarse spatial-resolution scales. Finally, the ANN-trained relationships were applied in the estimation of subpixel temperatures (at high spatial resolution) from high spatial-resolution land-surface parameters. The two sets of data with different spatial resolutions were simulated using an aggregate resampling algorithm. Experimental results indicate that the accuracy with our method to estimate land-surface subpixel temperature is significantly higher than that with a traditional method that uses the NDVI as an input parameter, and the average error of subpixel temperature is decreased by 2-3 K with our method. This method is a simple and convenient approach to estimate subpixel LST from high spatial-temporal resolution data quickly and effectively.
CHEMICAL DURABILITY OF PORCELAIN ENAMELS

The resistance of representative porcelain enamel surfaces to the chemical attack of different concentrations of various solutions was investigated in considerable detail. Cylindrical cup-shaped samples were coated with (1) a ground coat, (2) a white fluoride cover enamel, (3) a white antimony cover enamel, (4) a white zirconium cover enamel, (5) an acid-resistant white cover enamel, (6) a sign blue cover enamel, (7) a blue zirconium enamel, and (8) a chemical acidproof blue cover enamel. The loss in weight of these enamel surfaces, after exposure to chemical attack, was determined at definite time intervals. The solutions studied consisted of different concentrations of the inorganic acids, alkalis, several organic acids, as well as selected salt solutions at both room and boiling temperatures. Numerous curves are presented showing the comparative chemical durability of the various porcelain enamel surfaces in which the cumulative loss in weight is plotted against time. Several photomicrographs show the nature and type of chemical attack on the different surfaces. The porcelain enamel surfaces showed considerable variation in their resistance to the chemical attack of the various solutions. All of the porcelain enamels were, in general, resistant to attack at room temperature by the alkali and salt solutions. The acid-resistant and acidproof enamels were resistant to the action of both inorganic and organic acids at room and at boiling temperatures; a wide variance, however, was shown in the comparative acid resistance of the non-acid-resisting enamel to the attack of either organic acids or inorganic acids at room temperature. AU porcelain enamels showed equally low resistance to boiling alkali solutions, but some of the enamel surfaces were attacked markedly by the boiling salt solutions.
The Myth of Equality in the Employment Relation

Although it is widely understood that employers and employees are not equally situated, we fail adequately to account for this inequality in the law governing their relationship. We can best understand this inequality in terms of status, which encompasses one's level of income, leisure and discretion. For a variety of misguided reasons, contract law has been historically highly resistant to the introduction of status-based principles. Courts have preferred to characterize the unfavorable circumstances that many employees face as the product of unequal bargaining power. But bargaining power disparity does not capture the moral problem raised by inequality in the employment relation, and thus, it has failed to inspire any meaningful attempt to address that inequality. By contrast, a status-based approach would motivate several common sense doctrinal changes. The persistent myth of equality is still more paradoxical in the context of labor law. Due to political constraints and several sources of uncertainty about its future, the National Labor Relations Act was limited to a bare bones framework for collective bargaining. Later amendments and judicial interpretations entrenched a strictly procedural interpretation of the Act oriented toward the goal of minimizing commercial disruption rather than disrupting status inequality. The present regime sustains a false image of unions as equal in strength to employers, in need of only an illusive "level playing field." As a result, it does not effectively mitigate the negative dimensions of social status stemming from employment. A few modest changes would help re-orient or at least broaden the Act so that unions can play a meaningful role in mitigating status inequality.
Trajectory generation with curvature constraint based on energy minimization

The trajectory generation problem for mobile robots consists in providing a set of trajectories that are 'smooth' and meet certain boundary conditions. The authors present a method to generate curvature continuous trajectories for which the curvature profile is a polynomial function of arc length. An algorithm based on the deformation of a curve by energy minimization allows one to solve general geometric constraints which was not possible by previous methods. Furthermore, it is able to take into account the limitation of radius of curvature of the robot by controlling the extrema of curvature along the path. >
The Temperature Dependence of the Self-Broadened Half-Width of the P-20 Line in the 001-100 Band of CO(2).

Temperature dependence of laser emission line self broadened half widths in spectral band of carbon dioxide at constant pressure
Optical Studies of Drug-Protein Complexes IV. The Interaction of Warfarin and Dicoumarol with Human Serum Albumin

Human serum albumin (HSA) has three strong affinity sites for dicoumarol (K = 7.7 x 105 M-1) as well as an indeterminate number of much weaker sites. The binding of dicoumarol to HSA generates a large negative ellipticity band at 305 mµ in the normal circular dichroic spectrum of the protein. This extrinsic Cotton effect results from the perturbation of π → π* transitions in the drug molecule by an asymmetrical center at or near the binding site for HSA. These results suggest that dicoumarol takes up a preferred orientation with respect to its HSA-binding site. The dicoumarol-HSA complex must also be rigid enough to preserve such a spatial relationship. In contrast, the binding of warfarin, acenocoumarin, ethyl biscoumacetate, and 4-hydroxycoumarin to HSA does not generate any extrinsic Cotton effects. The unique binding of dicoumarol to HSA would appear to involve the hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions of both coumarin rings. The binding of either dicoumarol or warfarin to HSA quenches the native tryptophan fluorescence of the protein. The binding of warfarin to HSA is also accompanied by a 7-fold increase in the fluorescent yield of the drug and a shift of its fluorescence emission maximum from 400 mµ to 390 mµ. This suggests that warfarin is bound to a hydrophobic area of the HSA molecule. Light absorbed by the HSA tryptophan groups and nonradiatively transferred to bound warfarin is re-emitted by the drug as fluorescence. This made it possible to estimate that the mean effective transfer distance between the single HSA tryptophan group and the bound warfarin molecule was 34.5 A. Similar experiments gave a value of 23.7 A for the mean effective transfer distance between dansylglycine and the same tryptophan group. While these distances can be considered only approximate, it is obvious that if the HSA molecule has a diameter of 56 A (calculated assuming au anhydrous sphere of mol wt 69,000), dansylglycine and warfarin must be bound to different sites. This was confirmed by showing that warfarin does not displace dansylglycine from its binding site on HSA.
Three new species of the genus Pseudotelphusa Janse, 1958 (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) from North America.

The eight species of Pseudotelphusa (Gelechiidae: Litini) are known to occur in North America. Three new species of the genus from North America are described and illustrated.
Skin Barrier Repair in Eczema: A Review of Current Understanding of Pathophysiology and Treatment

Atopic dermatitis is an exceedingly common condition that is often difficult to treat. In this review, the pathophysiology and recent developments are discussed to understand how to better treat atopic dermatitis through the improved understanding of the breakdown of the skin barrier in atopic patients. The available treatments that address these barrier defects are discussed in the light of recent publications.
Verification of filtered two-fluid models for gas-particle flows in risers

The effect of solid boundaries on the closure relationships for filtered two-fluid models for riser flows was probed by filtering the results obtained through highly resolved kinetic theory-based two-fluid model simulations. The closures for the filtered drag coefficient and particle phase stress depended not only on particle volume fraction and the filter length but also on the distance from the wall. The wall corrections to the filtered closures are nearly independent of the filter length and particle volume fraction. Simulations of filtered model equations yielded grid length independent solutions when the grid length is � half the filter length or smaller. Coarse statistical results obtained by solving the filtered models with different filter lengths were the same and corresponded to those from highly resolved simulations of the kinetic theory model, which was used to construct the filtered models, thus verifying the fidelity of the filtered modeling approach. V V C 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 57: 2691–2707, 2011
Surface Relaxation Below the Roughening Temperature: Some Recent Progress and Open Questions

We discuss two recent projects concerning the evolution of a crystal surface below the roughening temperature. One addresses the evolution of a monotone one-dimensional step train (joint work with Hala Al Hajj Shehadeh and Jonathan Weare). The other addresses the finite-time flattening predicted by a fourth-order PDE model (joint work with Yoshikazu Giga). For each project we begin with a discussion of the mathematical model; then we summarize the recent results, the main ideas behind them, and some related open problems.
Ethylene and abscission

A substantial body of literature supports the involvement of ethylene in abscission of leaves, flowers and flower parts, and fruit. Exogenous ethylene accelerates abscission in many, but not all, abscising plant systems. In some cases, endogenous ethylene production increases before abscission, while in others a change in ethylene sensitivity can be demonstrated. Ethylene interacts with auxin in regulating abscission, particularly in leaves and fruit. Ethylene has been shown to regulate expression of genes involved in cell separation, including cellulases and pectinases. Such regulation has been demonstrated at the level of mRNA abundance, but post-transcriptional regulation may also be important.
Utility of a grief services program for medical examiners' offices.

Medical examiner/coroner's (ME/C) offices investigate sudden, violent, and unexpected deaths, leaving those close to the deceased suffering traumatic loss with little in terms of support and counseling. We investigated a grief services program (GSP) at the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI) to better understand the needs of bereaved individuals, identify the services provided, and propose our findings as a model for others. A total of 1085 contacts occurred over 1 year, with the majority occurring at OMI (60.5%), followed by telephone (23.1%). Support was primarily provided to those suffering a loss due to homicide (28.8%) and suicide (26.1%). The roles grief counselors play in the setting of a GSP and ME/C office are multiple. Given the frequent utilization of OMI's GSP and diverse reasons for visits, it is apparent there is a need for GSPs at ME/C offices, particularly given the traumatic nature of deaths investigated by ME/Cs.
Glycemic control in the diabetic pregnancy: is tighter always better?

Glucose is the principal nutrient that the mother supplies to the fetus through the placenta by way of concentration-dependent mechanisms. In the presence of maternal hypoglycemia, with limited glucose supply, fetal hypoglycemia and hypoinsulinism ensue. This may be viewed as an adaptive mechanism to increase the chances of fetal survival in the face of limited maternal supply, albeit of a growth-restricted fetus. Fetal nutrient deprivation and the resulting hypoinsulinism may have both short- and long-term consequences. Intrauterine growth failure is associated with higher rates of gestational age-specific neonatal mortality and with long-term cognitive deficits. Furthermore, epidemiologic data suggest that diabetes, coronary artery disease, and hypertension are more common among adults who were small for gestational age at birth. Thus, pancreatic failure in adulthood may be either a response to excessive exposure to glucose as a result of maternal hyperglycemia, or as a result of hypoglycemia where nutr...
ARE IMPROVEMENT OUTCOMES SUSTAINABLE WITHIN A DYNAMIC CLINICAL ENVIRONMENT

Background Systematic literature reviews show a paucity of publications describing the sustainability of quality improvement (QI) outcomes beyond one year. Hence, sustainability is not well understood, particularly in relation to ongoing improvement work and process changes in clinical care environment. Objectives To evaluate the sustainability of an improved outcome resulting from a QI intervention to provide timely intravenous opioid delivery to patients with long bone fractures in a pediatric emergency department (PED) despite a dynamic QI environment. The initial QI intervention was implemented October 2007. Methods The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with long-bone fractures receiving intravenous opioids within 45 minutes of arrival to an urban tertiary PED setting. Retrospective visit level data from 1/2007 through 6/2014 were obtained from the electronic health record. table 1 summarizes PED process changes implemented after the initial QI intervention. The effects of process changes on the primary outcome were determined using a monthly control chart (p-chart) and an interrupted autoregressive time series model. Results Overall, improvement in the proportion of patients receiving timely intravenous opioids has been sustained for seven years since the initial implementation (figure 1). The p-chart, which is further supported by the results from the interrupted time series analysis (table 2), shows special cause variation attributable to two additional process changes related to physician responsibilities and staffing. Conclusions Our initial improvement gains were robust despite multiple process changes in the care environment. Changes in physician staffing and physician responsibilities in a PED may be especially important to consider for future improvement initiatives.
The double life of antibiotics.

Antibiotic resistance is a persistent health care problem worldwide. Evidence for the negative consequences of subtherapeutic feeding in livestock production has been mounting while the antibiotic pipeline is drying up. In recent years, there has been a paradigm shift in our perception of antibiotics. Apart from its roles in self-defense, antibiotics also serve as inter-microbial signaling molecules, regulators of gene expression, microbial food sources, and as mediators of host immune response. “The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops. Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily under-dose himself and by exposing his microbes to nonlethal quantities of the drug make them resistant.”
Human physiological responses to cold exposure: Acute responses and acclimatization to prolonged exposure

Cold exposure in humans causes specific acute and chronic physiological responses. This paper will review both the acute and long-term physiological responses and external factors that impact these physiological responses. Acute physiological responses to cold exposure include cutaneous vasoconstriction and shivering thermogenesis which, respectively, decrease heat loss and increase metabolic heat production. Vasoconstriction is elicited through reflex and local cooling. In combination, vasoconstriction and shivering operate to maintain thermal balance when the body is losing heat. Factors (anthropometry, sex, race, fitness, thermoregulatory fatigue) that influence the acute physiological responses to cold exposure are also reviewed. The physiological responses to chronic cold exposure, also known as cold acclimation/acclimatization, are also presented. Three primary patterns of cold acclimatization have been observed, a) habituation, b) metabolic adjustment, and c) insulative adjustment. Habituation is characterized by physiological adjustments in which the response is attenuated compared to an unacclimatized state. Metabolic acclimatization is characterized by an increased thermogenesis, whereas insulative acclimatization is characterized by enhancing the mechanisms that conserve body heat. The pattern of acclimatization is dependent on changes in skin and core temperature and the exposure duration.
Colocalized Delivery of Adjuvant and Antigen Using Nanolipoprotein Particles Enhances the Immune Response to Recombinant Antigens

Subunit antigen-based vaccines can provide a number of important benefits over traditional vaccine candidates, such as overall safety. However, because of the inherently low immunogenicity of these antigens, methods for colocalized delivery of antigen and immunostimulatory molecules (i.e., adjuvants) are needed. Here we report a robust nanolipoprotein particle (NLP)-based vaccine delivery platform that facilitates the codelivery of both subunit antigens and adjuvants. Ni-chelating NLPs (NiNLPs) were assembled to incorporate the amphipathic adjuvants monophosphoryl lipid A and cholesterol-modified CpG oligodeoxynucleotides, which can bind His-tagged protein antigens. Colocalization of antigen and adjuvant delivery using the NiNLP platform resulted in elevated antibody production against His-tagged influenza hemagglutinin 5 and Yersinia pestis LcrV antigens. Antibody titers in mice immunized with the adjuvanted NLPs were 5–10 times higher than those observed with coadministration formulations and nonadjuvan...
User-Oriented Privacy Policies: An Optimal Tool for Mitigating the Risks of Collecting User Data from Californians

Recent high-profile, corporate data breaches demonstrate the significant costs a company incurs when its data about users is compromised. In turn, this increases the risk associated with collecting and utilizing user data for targeted advertising, the current tentpole of the online economy. As a result, more companies may seek to reallocate their budgets, and invest in mitigating the risks of collecting user data.This paper analyzes risk mitigation strategies in the informational privacy landscape in three parts:1) why privacy policies are a useful tool for mitigating the risks of data collection in the current environment; 2) why companies are better served by taking a best practices approach, rather than a minimalist approach, to comply with data collection standards and what that approach might look like; and 3) why user-oriented privacy policies are likely to mitigate risk more effectively than machine-based preferences at this time. Data collection companies who collect data from users in California are the primary subject of this paper because California has been one of the most active jurisdictions in the United States in enacting privacy-related legislation.The takeaway from this paper is that the benefits that flow from these companies' proactive adoption of user-oriented privacy policies outweigh the advantages of adhering to minimum standards.
RF System Requirements for a Medium-Energy Electron-Ion Collider (MEIC) at JLab

JLab is studying options for a medium energy electron-ion collider that could fit on the JLab site and use CEBAF as a full-energy electron injector. A new ion source, linac and booster would be required, together with collider storage rings for the ions and electrons. In order to achieve the maximum luminosity these will be high current storage rings with many bunches. We present the high level RF system requirements for the storage rings, ion booster ring and high-energy ion beam cooling system, and describe the technology options under consideration to meet them. We also present options for staging that might reduce the initial capital cost while providing a smooth upgrade path to a higher final energy. The technologies under consideration may also be useful for other proposed storage ring colliders or ultimate light sources.
Improving Interdisciplinary Provider Communication Through a Unified Paging System.

Objectives Interdisciplinary communication at a Veterans Affairs (VA) academic teaching hospital is largely dependent on alphanumeric paging, which has limitations as a result of one-way communication and lack of reliable physician identification. Adverse patient outcomes related to difficulty contacting the correct consulting provider in a timely manner have been reported. Methods House officers were surveyed on the level of satisfaction with the current VA communication system and the rate of perceived adverse patient outcomes caused by potential delays within this system. Respondents were then asked to identify the ideal paging system. These results were used to develop and deploy a new Web site. A postimplementation survey was repeated 1 year later. This study was conducted as a quality improvement project. Results House officer satisfaction with the preintervention system was 3%. The majority used more than four modalities to identify consultants, with 59% stating that word of mouth was a typical source. The preferred mode of paging was the university hospital paging system, a Web-based program that is used at the partnering academic institution. Following integration of VA consulting services within the university hospital paging system, the level of satisfaction improved to 87%. Significant decreases were seen in perceived adverse patient outcomes (from 16% to 2%), delays in patient care (from 90% to 16%), and extended hospitalizations (from 46% to 4%). Conclusions Our study demonstrates significant improvement in physician satisfaction with a newly implemented paging system that was associated with a decreased perceived number of adverse patient events and delays in care.
Comparison of similarity measures to differentiate players' actions and decision-making profiles in serious games analytics

Abstract Three Gameplay Action-Decision (GAD) profiles: Explorer, Fulfiller, and Quitter, have been identified based on individual's decision-making actions and navigational behaviors in situ serious games. The ability to profile trainees using serious games can yield new analytics and insights towards training and learning performance improvement, including the identification of weaknesses or potential training needs in the players towards adaptive training, and the creation of new diagnostics for prescriptive training, retraining, and remediation. Similarity measures of players' in-game course of actions (COAs) have been shown to be a viable approach in differentiating novices from experts in serious games. In this study, we examined and compared several popular similarity measures to see if any measure, or combination of measures, would be viable in differentiating players based on their GAD profiles in serious games. Our findings revealed that similarity measures, while significant in their predicting abilities individually, could gain more strength from one another in combination. More research is needed to create or develop new metrics and methods for players’ action and behavioral profiling in Serious Games Analytics.
Brain MRI Findings in Congenital Muscular Dystrophy

Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in 13 patients with congenital muscular dystrophy (MDCIC) and Fukutin-related protein (FKRP) gene mutations were retrospectively reviewed in a study at Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK, and European centers.
An approach to security and privacy of RFID system for supply chain

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is expected to become pervasive and ubiquitous, as it can be embedded into everyday items as smart labels. A typical scenario of exploiting RFID is supply chain. The RFID based supply chain management yields convenience, efficiency and productivity gains. However, RFID systems create new risks to security and privacy. We briefly present the current solutions to RFID security and privacy. A new approach is then proposed, which exploits randomized read access control and thus prevents hostile tracking and man-in-the-middle attack. In addition, compared with current schemes that achieve the similar security level, the proposed approach dramatically decreases the computation load. Another benefit is that it is suitable for RFID systems with a large number of tags
Murine Leukemia Virus (MLV)-based Coronavirus Spike-pseudotyped Particle Production and Infection

Viral pseudotyped particles (pp) are enveloped virus particles, typically derived from retroviruses or rhabdoviruses, that harbor heterologous envelope glycoproteins on their surface and a genome lacking essential genes. These synthetic viral particles are safer surrogates of native viruses and acquire the tropism and host entry pathway characteristics governed by the heterologous envelope glycoprotein used. They have proven to be very useful tools used in research with many applications, such as enabling the study of entry pathways of enveloped viruses and to generate effective gene-delivery vectors. The basis for their generation lies in the capacity of some viruses, such as murine leukemia virus (MLV), to incorporate envelope glycoproteins of other viruses into a pseudotyped virus particle. These can be engineered to contain reporter genes such as luciferase, enabling quantification of virus entry events upon pseudotyped particle infection with susceptible cells. Here, we detail a protocol enabling generation of MLV-based pseudotyped particles, using the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) spike (S) as an example of a heterologous envelope glycoprotein to be incorporated. We also describe how these particles are used to infect susceptible cells and to perform a quantitative infectivity readout by a luciferase assay.
African Managers’ Stories and Cultural Awareness: An Exploratory Classroom Exercise

Cross-cultural awareness is an essential skill for managers of multinational corporations. In an increasingly globalized world, global awareness is a key proficiency that is essential to include in the curriculum of business schools (Ang, Van Dyne, & Koh, 2006). Recognizing the valuable contribution from the African continent to management learning (George et al., 2006; Nkomo, 2011), this article explores the use of curriculum content from East Africa in an American business school, and the development of cultural intelligence (Eisenberg et al., 2013) among upper-year management students. It is a unique exercise that adopts a holistic approach to the study of cross-cultural awareness (Szkudlarek et al., 2013) and engages students in active project-based learning. The exercise appears to have stimulated cross-cultural awareness and served to initiate the development of a global mind-set. It is a replicable teaching model that illustrates the potential of African learning materials in a US-taught management...
Syndrome d’entérocolite induit par les protéines alimentaires (SEIPA) et manifestations digestives de l’allergie alimentaire

Revue Francaise d'Allergologie - In Press.Proof corrected by the author Available online since mercredi 22 mars 2017
Treatment of suspected pulmonary embolism in a morbidly obese patient

Purpose A case highlighting challenges with enoxaparin dosage and monitoring in obese patients is presented. Summary A morbidly obese 22-year-old Caucasian female (height, 168 cm; weight, 322 kg; body mass index [BMI], 114 kg/m 2 ) who presented to the emergency department with acute-onset dyspnea and hypoxia was empirically initiated on enoxaparin for suspected pulmonary embolism at the institution’s standard maximum dosage (160 mg subcutaneously every 12 hours). On hospital day 2, a peak anti–factor Xa (anti-Xa) level of 0.4 IU/mL was documented about 4 hours after the fourth enoxaparin dose. On hospital day 3, the enoxaparin dose was increased to 200 mg, a dose equivalent to 0.62 mg per kilogram of actual body weight (ABW), much lower than the guideline-recommended dose for venous thromboembolism prophylaxis (1 mg/kg). Four hours after her third 200-mg dose of enoxaparin, the patient had an anti-Xa value of 0.64 IU/mL (goal range, 0.5–1.1 IU/mL), with no evidence of bleeding or other adverse drug events. Follow-up anti-Xa testing on hospital day 4 yielded a value of 0.78 IU/mL. The case highlights the need for research to better delineate strategies for enoxaparin dosage and monitoring in the context of extreme obesity. Conclusion A female patient with a BMI of 114 kg/m 2 was safely and effectively treated using an initial twice-daily dose of enoxaparin less than the recommended 1-mg/kg dose based on ABW. Dosage adjustments were made according to anti-Xa levels, and no adverse drug reactions were noted.
Scaling the Computer to the Problem: Application Programming with Unlimited Memory

Instead of scaling an application and data around the computer, programmers can use a software-defined server—an inverse hypervisor—in which multiple physical machines run a single virtual machine. Memory can be expanded as needed without modifying the application or limiting its data.
Can FSH influence longevity

It was recently reported that the extragonadal actions of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) include regulation of brown and white adipose tissue function and thermogenesis. Based on these findings and on our evidence for reduced FSH levels and enhanced thermogenesis in long-lived growth hormone (GH)-deficient mice and GH-resistant mice, we suggest that FSH may have a role in the control of aging and longevity. We speculate that alterations in FSH secretion may represent one of the mechanisms of trade-offs between reproduction and aging.
An Exploration of the Effects of Sensory Stimuli on the Completion of Security Tasks

Ambient sensory distractions play a role in security-critical tasks that require human involvement. Adversarial control over human sensory input could broaden the attack surface. To shed light on this issue, a team conducted large-scale experiments that exposed subjects to unexpected audio and visual stimuli while they performed a security-critical task.
ABCD Matrix Analysis for Fourier-Optics Imaging

Fourier optics analysis of a general ABCD paraxial optical imaging system is given, including the effects of an aperture stop inside the system.
More General Conditions for Stability

Here we shall prove that the least n for which \( \frac{{{\partial^n}V}}{{\partial x\begin{array}{*{20}{c}} n \\ 1 \\ \end{array} }}\left( {0,0} \right) \ne 0 \) is odd, and that if this coefficient is negative, the periodic orbits obtained in Theorem 3.1 by use of the implicit function theorem are attracting and occur for µ < 0 (we assume we have enough differentiability so that V is Cn).
Testosterone and Male Infertility

Testosterone is one of the most important hormones of male fertility. Its production is a highly regulated process involving the hypothalamic-pituitary-­gonadal axis. Hypogonadism can lead to impaired spermatogenesis and is found in up to 30 % of male infertility patients. It can be due to deficiencies of gonadotropins and steroidogenic enzymes, congenital abnormalities, chronic illness, history of exogenous testosterone administration, insult, or neoplasm of the brain. Effective treatment of hypogonadism in male infertility involves accurate diagnosis and careful hormone replacement based on our understanding of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal physiology. Advancement in genetic research has identified multiple genetic defects resulting in hypogonadism. Greater understanding of the endocrinologic mechanism of spermatogenesis will further help infertile patients.
Improving Object Disambiguation from Natural Language using Empirical Models

Robots, virtual assistants, and other intelligent agents need to effectively interpret verbal references to environmental objects in order to successfully interact and collaborate with humans in complex tasks. However, object disambiguation can be a challenging task due to ambiguities in natural language. To reduce uncertainty when describing an object, humans often use a combination of unique object features and locative prepositions --prepositional phrases that describe where an object is located relative to other features (i.e., reference objects) in a scene. We present a new system for object disambiguation in cluttered environments based on probabilistic models of unique object features and spatial relationships. Our work extends prior models of spatial relationship semantics by collecting and encoding empirical data from a series of crowdsourced studies to better understand how and when people use locative prepositions, how reference objects are chosen, and how to model prepositional geometry in 3D space (e.g., capturing distinctions between "next to" and "beside"). Our approach also introduces new techniques for responding to compound locative phrases of arbitrary complexity and proposes a new metric for disambiguation confidence. An experimental validation revealed our method can improve object disambiguation accuracy and performance over past approaches.
The Role of Learner Self-Efficacy in Online Test Anxiety and Help-Seeking among College Students

Despite the established importance of learner self-efficacy in academic achievement in traditional face-to-face classes, it is less clear what role learner self-efficacy plays in online settings. While previous research has consistently shown the importance of self-efficacy in self-regulated learning, it is unclear whether the relationships between self-efficacy and test anxiety and help-seeking translate to online learning. Considering the pivotal role of self-efficacy in academic success and the importance to address online self-regulated learning including managing test anxiety and help-seeking, this chapter intends to synthesize two study results with current literature to substantiate the influence of self-efficacy on test anxiety and help-seeking for online self-regulated learning. In this chapter, we first reviewed literature of self-efficacy in online learning. Second, we discussed two empirical studies we had recently conducted to investigate the role of learner self-efficacy in test anxiety and help-seeking in online learning environment beyond potential demographic differences. Study 1 involved 150 online students and Study 2 included 209 online students, both of which consistently substantiated the pivotal role of learner self-efficacy in online learning through hierarchical regression analyses. The importance of learner self-efficacy in decreasing test anxiety and facilitating help-seeking as found in our two studies led to an integrative view of self-efficacy to improve online learners’ self-regulated learning. Finally, we discussed the practical implications for online instruction and course design, as well as the future directions examining online learner self-efficacy.
Abstract WP33: DEFUSE 3 Trial Outcomes not Affected by the Enrollment Rates of the Participating Centers

Introduction: Heterogeneity of outcomes between enrolling sites can affect the results of multicenter trials. We investigated if key DEFUSE 3 trial outcomes differed between low and high enrolling ...
Evolving Regional Analytics in a Rural World

Regions are important and invariably constitute largely rural areas. This being the case, it is interesting to find that the condition of being rural fluctuates significantly, especially in the Uni...
Utilizing the fecal microbiota to understand foal gut transitions from birth to weaning

A healthy gastrointestinal (GI) tract with a properly established microbiota is necessary for a foal to develop into a healthy weanling. A foal's health can be critically impacted by aberrations in the microbiome such as with diarrhea which can cause great morbidity and mortality in foals. In this study, we hypothesized that gut establishment in the foal transitioning from a diet of milk to a diet of grain, forage, and pasture would be detectable through analyses of the fecal microbiotas. Fecal samples from 37 sets of foals and mares were collected at multiple time points ranging from birth to weaning. Bacterial DNA was isolated from the samples, and the V4 domain of bacterial 16S rRNA genes were amplified via polymerase chain reaction. Next generation sequencing was then performed on the resulting amplicons, and analyses were performed to characterize the microbiome as well as the relative abundance of microbiota present. We found that bacterial population compositions followed a pattern throughout the early life of the foal in an age-dependent manner. As foals transitioned from milk consumption to a forage and grain diet, there were recognizable changes in fecal microbial compositions from initial populations predominant in the ability to metabolize milk to populations capable of utilizing fibrous plant material. We were also able to recognize differences in microbial populations amongst diarrheic foals as well as microbial population differences associated with differences in management styles between facilities. Future efforts will gauge the effects of lesser abundant bacterial populations that could also be essential to GI health, as well as to determine how associations between microbial population profiles and animal management practices can be used to inform strategies for improving upon the health and growth of horses overall.
Book Review of Digital Rights Management: The Librarian's Guide (Catherine A. Lemmer & Carla P. Wale eds., 2016)

This is a book review of "Digital Rights Management: The Librarian's Guide," edited by Catherine A. Lemmer and Carla P. Wale, published in 2016 by Rowman & Littlefield. This book review appears in the section "Keeping Up with New Legal Titles" in Law Library Journal.