cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Gene-Based Analysis of Acoustic Startle Latency.

Latency of the acoustic startle response is the time required from the presentation of startling auditory stimulus until the startle response is elicited, and provides an index of neural processing speed. Latency is prolonged in subjects with schizophrenia compared to controls in some but not all studies, and is 68 - 90% heritable in baseline startle trials. In order to determine the genetic association with latency as a potential inroad into genetically based vulnerability to psychosis, we conducted a gene-based study of latency followed by an independent replication study of significant gene findings with a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) based analysis of schizophrenia and control subjects. 313 subjects from an urban population of low socioeconomic status with mixed psychiatric diagnoses were included in the gene-based study. Startle testing was conducted using a Biopac M150 system according to our published methods. Genotyping was performed with the Omni-Quad 1M or the Omni Express BeadChip. The replication study was conducted on 154 schizophrenia subjects and 123 psychiatric controls. Genetic analyses were conducted with Illumina Human Omni1-Quad and OmniExpress BeadChips. Twenty-nine SNPs were selected from four genes that were significant in the gene-based analysis and also associated with startle and/or schizophrenia in the literature. Linear regressions on latency were conducted, controlling for age, race, and diagnosis as a dichotomous variable. In the gene-based study, 2870 genes demonstrated evidence of association after correction for multiple comparisons (False Discovery Rate < .05). Pathway analysis of these genes revealed enrichment for relevant biological processes including neural transmission (p=0.0029), synaptic transmission (p=0.0032), and neuronal development (p=0.024). The subsequent SNP-based replication analysis revealed a strong association of onset latency with the SNP rs901561 on the neuregulin gene (NRG1) in an additive model (Beta = 0.21, p=0.001), indicating that subjects with the AA and AG genotypes had slower mean latency than subjects with GG genotype. In conclusion, startle latency, a highly heritable measure that is slowed in schizophrenia, may be a useful biological probe for genetic contributions to psychotic disorders. Our analyses in two independent populations point to a significant prediction of startle latency by genetic variation in NRG1.
Breast Cancer Survivorship

Abstract Attention to issues related to breast cancer survivorship is important to optimize oncologic outcomes and quality of life. Patients, cancer care providers, and primary care providers must work collaboratively to address these issues. Late and long-term effects can be related to surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy. Common survivorship issues include fatigue, cognitive changes, cardiac dysfunction, sexuality, psychosocial issues, weight management, pain, fertility, and menopausal symptoms. Genetic and genomic testing will inform, stratify risk, and guide treatment options and management for appropriate personalized follow-up. Survivorship care plans are now mandated by national accrediting organizations, but require care models that have the ability to develop and deliver this tool and the necessary services to meet the needs of each survivor. This chapter aims to describe the scope of survivorship issues with advice on management of specific issues and stresses the importance of the creation of a multidisciplinary shared care practice model.
“UNABLE TO RESIST”: ON THE “POSSIBILITY” OF “IMPOSSIBILITY” AND CHRISTOPHE BOUTON'S TIME AND FREEDOM

This essay reflects critically on Martin Heidegger's remarks about authenticity and death with the aid of Christophe Bouton's Temps et liberte (2002), translated by Christopher Macann as Time and Freedom (2014). It first raises general questions concerning the possible thematic relationship between human endeavoring (action) and the experiences of finitude and freedom. Heidegger's Being and Time is particularly useful for exploring this relationship, but certain problems emerge when using this text for accessing the essay's themes. To wit: there are good reasons for mistrusting readings of Being and Time as a “practical” guide for grounding action. Against the practical reading, the essay wishes to reclaim the ontological-existential significance of Heidegger's text. Although Bouton's treatment of Being and Time excludes its ontological dimensions and is entirely practical, even to the point of disregarding certain theoretical risks inherent in this approach, Bouton's study is indispensable for situating Being and Time in a historical-intellectual context, whereby the experiences of freedom and time are understood within certain metaphysical presuppositions rendering them difficult to establish together on reliable grounds. Following Bouton's lead, the essay shows that the hermeneutic differences between practical and ontological readings of Being and Time can be explored through reflections on what Heidegger might have meant by the term “Moglichkeit” (“possibility”), from which Bouton infers “freedom.” It is alleged that Bouton does not fully consider all of Heidegger's assertions regarding Moglichkeit, most problematically the claim that the human being's most essential “possibility” is its “impossibility,” that is to say, its death.
Tracheal decellularization using a combination of chemical, physical and bioreactor methods.

Introduction:The purpose of this study was to compare different decellularization protocols with the conventional detergent enzymatic method (DEM) using continuous agitation.Methods:The first exper...
At the Crossroads Between Neurodegeneration and Cancer: A Review of Overlapping Biology and Its Implications.

BACKGROUND A growing body of epidemiologic evidence suggests that neurodegenerative diseases occur less frequently in cancer survivors, and vice versa. While unusual, this inverse comorbidity is biologically plausible and could be explained, in part, by the evolutionary tradeoffs made by neurons and cycling cells to optimize the performance of their very different functions. The two cell types utilize the same proteins and pathways in different, and sometimes opposite, ways. However, cancer and neurodegeneration also share many pathophysiological features. OBJECTIVE In this review, we compare three overlapping aspects of neurodegeneration and cancer. METHOD First, we contrast the priorities and tradeoffs of dividing cells and neurons and how these manifest in disease. Second, we consider the hallmarks of biological aging that underlie both neurodegeneration and cancer. Finally, we utilize information from genetic databases to outline specific genes and pathways common to both diseases. CONCLUSION We argue that a detailed understanding of the biologic and genetic relationships between cancer and neurodegeneration can guide future efforts in designing disease-modifying therapeutic interventions. Lastly, strategies that target aging may prevent or delay both conditions.
Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Volume Measurement with Three-Dimensional Ultrasound—A Feasibility Study:

IntroductionEndoluminal stent grafts are replacing conventional abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) surgery in an increasing number of patients in an attempt to minimize morbidity and mortality. Long-term follow-up of endograft-treated AAA demands image-based surveillance to detect endoleak, graft migration, and morphology change in the excluded AAA. AAA diameter is a traditional but simplistic measurement that has inherent flaws and has been shown to be insensitive to changes in AAA sac morphology. Volume measurement, performed by CT data acquisition and computerized postprocessing, has been proposed as the most sensitive index of successful AAA stent graft exclusion. We evaluated two ultrasound (US) volume measuring techniques for AAA volume determination: Virtual Organ Computer-aided AnaLysis (VOCAL) and Multi-Plane Area Summation (MPAS).MethodsUS images of an endograft-treated AAA were obtained with a commercially available three-dimensional (3-D) scanner. A fast rotating motor inside the probe allowed re...
The K-property of N billiard balls II. Computation of neutral linear spaces

The present second part of the article “The K-property ofN billiard balls” finishes the proof of the Kolmogorov mixing property for hard ball systems in tori, provided that the number of balls dos not exceed the dimension of the torus. The missing computation of the linear spaces of non-expanding and non-contracting tangent vectors at phase points with combinatorially rich symbolic collision sequences is presented hereby.
Michael Ruse and His Fifteen Years of Booknotes – For Better or for Worse

In this paper I trace Michael Ruse's Booknotes from the first volumeof Biology and Philosophy in 1986 to the present. I deal withboth the style and the content of these booknotes. Ruse paid specialattention to authors outside of the traditional English axis as wellas to feminist writers. He complained that too much attention wasbeing paid to certain topics (e.g., evolutionary ethics, evolutionaryepistemology, the species problem and reduction) while other, moreimportant topics were all but ignored (e.g., natural selection,population genetics, levels of selection and extraterrestrial life).He also dealt with the Darwin Industry. Creationism, his love-haterelationships with several authors and his undiluted love of CharlesDickens.
Dissolution of Family in Western Nations: Cultural Concerns

Concerns about the dissolution of the family have intensified over the past few decades with the increase in the incidence of divorce, cohabitation, and nonmarital childbearing. This essay examines how economic, political and cultural sources have combined to alter kinship systems in the West since industrialization, and how these changes have been perceived as a weakening of the centrality of the family unit. It explores the ways in which labor market forces have produced a renegotiation of gender roles, resulting in greater levels of equality between men and women. The impact of this change on marriage practices and family structure is discussed, especially the societal effects of marital dissolution on child welfare. Public policy considerations regarding marital dissolution and child custody are examined. Areas for further research on the changing nature of the family in modern society are described.
Potential ISRU of Lunar Regolith for Planetary Habitation Applications

When humans return to the Moon, In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) of lunar regolith will allow a more efficient, less costly, and thus, a more sustainable human presence on the Moon to be achieved. Maintaining a human presence on the Moon will require methods to mitigate lunar dust, provide protection from micro-meteoroid impact, and reduce astronaut exposure to radiation. It would also be desirable to grow plants at the outpost, both for food and other life support purposes. Furthermore, extraction of resources such as Helium-3, metals, and oxygen from lunar regolith would also be of value.
Welfare participation and depression among youth in the United States: A systematic review

Abstract Welfare programs play important roles in the lives of vulnerable populations. However, since their inception, welfare programs have been accompanied by contentious debate about their impact on the wellbeing of participants and, hence, about their collective value as a strategy for alleviating poverty. This study uses welfare participation as a marker of lower socioeconomic status to identify and synthesize the relationship between welfare participation and depression among youth. A systematic review was undertaken based on literature published between 1997 and 2017 through a search of 9 electronic databases, 15 reports met criteria for study inclusion. Four descriptive studies reported mixed findings. Of the 11 comparison studies, 10 studies showed consistent findings that participation in welfare programs was associated with a higher vulnerability for depression. Discussion includes the effects of stigma related to welfare and mental health treatment, and the implications for policy makers, social workers, and future research.
Gut integrity : implications for health and performance

There is a variety of conditions in a farm animal's life when nutrient utilisation is prioritised towards agriculturally unproductive purposes. Two well-known examples that markedly reduce production efficiency are heat stress and ketosis. Decreased feed intake, experienced in both cases, is unable to fully account for decreased productivity. In addition, both ketosis and heat stress are characterised by a negative energy balance, body weight loss, inflammation and hepatic steatosis.
MicroRNA cluster miR199a/214 are differentially expressed in female and male rats following nicotine self-administration

Previous research has established sex differences associated with nicotine intake, however a significant gap in knowledge remains regarding the molecular mechanisms that govern these differences at the transcriptional level. One critical regulator of transcription are microRNAs (miRNAs). miRNAs are a family of non-coding RNAs that regulate an array of important biological functions altered in several disease states, including neuroadaptive changes within the brain associated with drug dependence. We examined the prefrontal cortex (PFC) from male and female Sprague-Dawley rats following self-administration (22 days) of nicotine or yoked saline controls using next generation RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) technology and found an array of miRNAs to be significantly and differentially regulated by nicotine self-administration. Of these, we found the expression of miR-199a and 214, which are expressed on the same cluster of chromosome 1, to be upregulated in the female rats exposed to nicotine; upregulation in this group was further validated by real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Bioinformatics analysis to assess common targets of miR-199/214 identified Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD)- dependent deacetylase that plays a role in apoptosis, neuron survival, and stress resistance. Using western-blot, we confirmed downregulation of SIRT1 and increased cleaved caspase 3 expression in the brains of nicotine-exposed female rats and no change in expression levels in the other groups. Collectively, our findings highlight a miR-199/214 regulatory network that, through SIRT1, may be associated with nicotine seeking in females which may serve as a potential therapeutic target for sex-specific treatment approaches.
High-Throughput Single Cell Proteomics Enabled by Multiplex Isobaric Labeling in a Nanodroplet Sample Preparation Platform

Effective extension of mass spectrometry-based proteomics to single cells remains challenging. Herein we combined microfluidic nanodroplet technology with tandem mass tag (TMT) isobaric labeling to significantly improve analysis throughput and proteome coverage for single mammalian cells. Isobaric labeling facilitated multiplex analysis of single cell-sized protein quantities to a depth of ∼1 600 proteins with a median CV of 10.9% and correlation coefficient of 0.98. To demonstrate in-depth high throughput single cell analysis, the platform was applied to measure protein expression in 72 single cells from three murine cell populations (epithelial, immune, and endothelial cells) in <2 days instrument time with over 2 300 proteins identified. Principal component analysis grouped the single cells into three distinct populations based on protein expression with each population characterized by well-known cell-type specific markers. Our platform enables high throughput and unbiased characterization of single cell heterogeneity at the proteome level.
The Effect of Neuraxial Anesthesia on Postoperative Outcomes in Total Joint Arthroplasty With Rapid Recovery Protocols.

Abstract Background Compared to general anesthesia (GA), neuraxial anesthesia (NA) has been associated with improved outcomes after total joint arthroplasty (TJA). We examined the impact of NA on patient outcomes in an institution with an established rapid recovery protocol. Methods This is a single-institution retrospective analysis of 5914 consecutive primary TJA performed from July 2015 to June 2018. Univariate tests and multivariate regression compared length of stay (LOS), transfusion rates, hematocrit levels, discharge disposition, and emergency room returns between patients receiving GA and NA. Results Patients receiving NA had a significantly shorter LOS (total hip arthroplasty [THA]: GA 1.74 vs NA 1.36 days, P Conclusion NA appears to contribute to decreased LOS, short-term complications, and transfusions while facilitating home discharge following TKA and THA. These trends are consistent when controlling for patient-specific risk factors, suggesting NA may enhance outcomes for patients with increased age, body mass index, and comorbidities. Level Of Evidence Level III Retrospective Cohort Study.
Screening Chest Computed Tomography is Indicated in All Patients with Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

Background This study quantifies the prevalence of thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) in patients with known abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). Methods A retrospective review of patients with a diagnosis of AAA from January 2007 to December 2017 within Beaumont Health was undertaken. Radiology reports of abdominal ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging were reviewed to identify patients with AAA. Of these, patients with a chest CT scan performed within 180 days before or after abdominal imaging were reviewed for diagnosis of TAA. AAA was defined as aortic diameter ≥30 mm, and TAA was defined as aortic diameter ≥40 mm. Results The cohort included 218 patients with a chest CT scan performed within 180 days of initial diagnosis of AAA. The mean age at diagnosis of AAA was 74 years; 82 (37.6%) were women. There were no differences between men and women in the prevalence of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, tobacco use, and family history of aortic aneurysm. Forty concomitant AAAs and TAAs were detected, for an overall prevalence of 18.3%, with no significant difference between men and women (15% vs. 24%, P = 0.07). Women were diagnosed with AAA at an older age than men (76 vs. 73 years, P = 0.01) and had lower body mass index (23 vs. 26, P = 0.01), smaller maximum AAA diameter (36.5 vs. 40 mm, P = 0.03), and larger TAA (47 vs. 41 mm, P = 0.01). TAAs were classified by location: 47.5% (19/40), ascending; 32.5% (13/40), descending; and 20% (8/40), ascending and descending. Six patients had thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms: 2 patients with extent II, 2 with extent III, and 2 with extent V. These patients were included in the overall analysis; excluding them resulted in a rate of concomitant AAA/TAA of 16%. No significant differences were noted in comorbidities or AAA size between the TAA/AAA and AAA only groups. Conclusions TAAs appear to occur concomitantly with AAAs with significant frequency. Women appear to have larger TAA diameter than men, despite smaller sized AAA at diagnosis. These data support creating guidelines for obtaining a screening chest CT scan in all patients diagnosed with an AAA.
Infective endocarditis: trends, surgical outcomes, and controversies

The number of hospitalizations and surgical cases of infective endocarditis (IE) are increasing. The aim of this study was to review these trends, surgical outcomes, and controversies related to IE. A search of MEDLINE of studies published between 1960 and 2018 was conducted. Search terms included "infective endocarditis", "history of", "trend", "epidemiology", "outcome", "medical management", "surgery", "indication", and "re-operative surgery", or any combination thereof. The United States has the highest incidence of IE in the world at 15 per 100,000 people, with increases in incidence due to the aging population as well as increasing rates of intravenous drug use (IVDU). National guidelines support early surgical intervention in specific clinical settings in both left and right-sided IE. However, only 11% of the evidence used in formulating guidelines for surgical therapy in IE are based on level A evidence. Ongoing controversies include whether to perform surgery in the setting of continued or recurrent IVDU in a patient with a prior valve operation, timing of surgery after acute stroke due to IE, and general indications for surgery for tricuspid valve IE. IE has a surging incidence and increasing burden on the healthcare system in the United States. Multiple controversies exist, and formulating level A evidence and multidisciplinary collaboration will be essential components to effectively treating this complex patient population.
Neighborhood Disadvantage and Hospital Quality Ratings in the Medicare Hospital Compare Program.

Background The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services provide nationwide hospital ratings that may influence reimbursement. These ratings do not account for the social risk of communities and may inadvertently penalize hospitals that service disadvantaged neighborhoods. Objective This study examines the relationship between neighborhood social risk factors (SRFs) and hospital ratings in Medicare's Hospital Compare Program. Research design 2017 Medicare Hospital Compare ratings were linked with block group data from the 2015 American Community Survey to assess hospital ratings as a function of neighborhood SRFs. Subjects A total of 3608 Medicare-certified hospitals in 50 US states. Measures Hospital summary scores and 7 quality group scores (100 percentile scale), including effectiveness of care, efficiency of care, hospital readmission, mortality, patient experience, safety of care, and timeliness of care. Results Lower hospital summary scores were associated with caring for neighborhoods with higher social risk, including a reduction in hospital score for every 10% of residents who reported dual-eligibility for Medicare/Medicaid [-3.3%; 95% confidence interval (CI), -4.7 to -2.0], no high-school diploma (-0.8%; 95% CI, -1.5 to -0.1), unemployment (-1.2%; 95% CI, -1.9 to -0.4), black race (-1.2%; 95% CI, -1.7 to -0.8), and high travel times to work (-2.5%; 95% CI, -3.3 to -1.6). Associations between neighborhood SRFs and hospital ratings were largest in the timeliness of care, patient experience, and hospital readmission groups; and smallest in the safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of care groups. Conclusions Hospitals serving communities with higher social risk may have lower ratings because of neighborhood factors. Failing to account for neighborhood social risk in hospital rating systems may reinforce hidden disincentives to care for medically underserved areas in the United States.
Lymph nodes-The neglected battlefield in tuberculosis

Lymph nodes, particularly thoracic lymph nodes, are among the most common sites of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB). However, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection in these organs is understudied. Aside from being sites of initiation of the adaptive immune system, lymph nodes also serve as niches of Mtb growth and persistence. Mtb infection results in granuloma formation that disrupts and-if it becomes large enough-replaces the normal architecture of the lymph node that is vital to its function. In preclinical models, successful TB vaccines appear to prevent spread of Mtb from the lungs to the lymph nodes. Reactivation of latent TB can start in the lymph nodes resulting in dissemination of the bacteria to the lungs and other organs. Involvement of the lymph nodes may improve Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine efficacy. Lastly, drug penetration to the lymph nodes is poor compared to blood, lung tissue, and lung granulomas. Future studies on evaluating the efficacy of vaccines and anti-TB drug treatments should include consideration of the effects on thoracic lymph nodes and not just the lungs.
Correlates and Mediators of Dissociation: Towards a Transtheoretical Perspective:

We evaluated variables important to understanding dissociation (N = 379 undergraduates). We investigated: (a) the correlations among dissociation and impulsivity, alexithymia, mindfulness, negative...
Machine learning in pharmacometrics: Opportunities and challenges.

The explosive growth in medical devices, imaging and diagnostics, computing, and communication and information technologies in drug development and healthcare has created an ever-expanding data landscape that the pharmacometrics (PMX) research community must now traverse. The tools of machine learning (ML) have emerged as a powerful computational approach in other data-rich disciplines but its effective utilization in the pharmaceutical sciences and PMX modelling is in its infancy. ML-based methods can complement PMX modelling by enabling the information in diverse sources of big data, e.g. population-based public databases and disease-specific clinical registries, to be harnessed because they are capable of efficiently identifying salient variables associated with outcomes and delineating their interdependencies. ML algorithms are computationally efficient, have strong predictive capabilities and can enable learning in the big data setting. ML algorithms can be viewed as providing a computational bridge from big data to complement PMX modelling. This review provides an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of ML approaches vis-a-vis population methods, assesses current research into ML applications in the pharmaceutical sciences and provides perspective for potential opportunities and strategies for the successful integration and utilization of ML in PMX.
Supporting Authentic Problem-Solving Through a Cornerstone Design Course in Chemical Engineering

We have developed an assessment of authentic problem-solving in chemical engineering, which we used to measure students’ problem-solving at the beginning and end of a cornerstone design course. We measured how much problem-solving students learned, and how these students compared with data collected from seniors at the beginning of the capstone design course. Our results indicate the importance of cornerstone design courses, and highlight the need to better integrate problem-solving into the undergraduate curriculum.
Can AI distinguish a bone radiograph from photos of flowers or cars? Evaluation of bone age deep learning model on inappropriate data inputs

To evaluate the behavior of a publicly available deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) bone age algorithm when presented with inappropriate data inputs in both radiological and non-radiological domains. We evaluated a publicly available DCNN-based bone age application. The DCNN was trained on 12,612 pediatric hand radiographs and won the 2017 RSNA Pediatric Bone Age Challenge (concordance of 0.991 with radiologist ground-truth). We used the application to analyze 50 left-hand radiographs (appropriate data inputs) and seven classes of inappropriate data inputs in radiological (i.e., chest radiographs) and non-radiological (i.e., image of street numbers) domains. For each image, we noted if (1) the application distinguished between appropriate and inappropriate data inputs and (2) inference time per image. Mean inference times were compared using ANOVA. The 16Bit Bone Age application calculated bone age for all pediatric hand radiographs with mean inference time of 1.1 s. The application did not distinguish between pediatric hand radiographs and inappropriate image types, including radiological and non-radiological domains. The application inappropriately calculated bone age for all inappropriate image types, with mean inference time of 1.1 s for all categories (p = 1). A publicly available DCNN-based bone age application failed to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate data inputs and calculated bone age for inappropriate images. The awareness of inappropriate outputs based on inappropriate DCNN input is important if tasks such as bone age determination are automated, emphasizing the need for appropriate oversight at the data input and verification stage to avoid unrecognized erroneous results.
Modeling of Damage and Lifetime Analysis of Plasma Facing Components During Plasma Instabilities in Tokamaks

AbstractOff normal operating conditions resulting from plasma instabilities such as disruptions, edge-localized modes (ELM), and vertical displacement events (VDE) in tokamaks are to be expected with the potential of high energy deposition on plasma facing components (PFC). This high-energy dump in short duration, will result in extremely high temperatures of the PFC leading to melting and evaporation of the surfaces. Erosion resulting from these processes is life-limiting for the PFC as well as potential plasma contamination and degradation of performance. A comprehensive understanding based on the interplay of all physical processes during plasma instabilities on the divertor plate is necessary in order to improve reliability and characterize the performance of this key component. A novel particle-in-cell (PIC) technique has been developed and integrated into the existing HEIGHTS package in order to verify and have another perspective in assessing these problems.The HEIGHTS multi-dimensional integrated ...
Current sunscreen controversies: a critical review.

Background/purpose: Sunscreens are believed to be a valuable tool in providing photoprotection against the detrimental effects of UV radiation, a known carcinogen. However, a number of controversies have developed regarding their safety and efficacy. This review summarizes the relevant studies surrounding these controversies. Methods: Evidence of the prevention of skin cancer, an oft-cited reason for sunscreen use, was examined as it pertains to squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma and melanoma. We also reviewed studies examining the effects of sunscreen on the synthesis of vitamin D, an essential nutrient whose role in health and disease continues to grow. Lastly, we analyzed studies surrounding the safety and toxicity of oxybenzone, retinyl palmitate and nanoparticles of zinc oxide (ZnO) and titanium dioxide (TiO2). Results: The overwhelming majority of available data is drawn from studies conducted using antiquated sunscreen formulations. Nonetheless, our research revealed that topical use of sunscreen protects against squamous cell carcinoma, does not cause vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency in practice and has not been demonstrated to adversely affect the health of humans. Conclusion: Given the established benefits of UV protection, the use of sunscreens remains an important part of an overall photoprotective strategy. Future sunscreens with improved formulation should ideally offer superior protection. With increased usage of sunscreen by the public, continuous and vigilant monitoring of the overall safety of future products is also needed.
Enterprise Social Media: Challenges and Opportunities for Organizational Communication and Collaboration

Given the large investments in Enterprise Social Media technologies in organizational settings, this paper sets out to explore the challenges and opportunities that ESM technologies provide for organizational communication. Merging existing conceptual work on ESM with findings from thirteen appreciative interviews with professionals from a large multinational organization, our papers offers six areas of opportunities and challenges -- Social Capital Formation, Boundary Work, Attention Allocation, Social Analytics, Adoption and Use Incentives, and Governance and Control -- that could guide researchers and practitioners in understanding and informing the use of social media technologies in their most productive and impactful ways.
Linear, Bilinear, and Quadratic Forms

This chapter is devoted to certain functions (of an n-dimensional vector) that are defined in Section 14.1 and that are known as linear, bilinear, and quadratic forms. Those bilinear forms that have certain properties (known as symmetry and positive definiteness) are of interest (at least in part) because they qualify as inner products for R n (as is discussed in Section 14.10). Quadratic (and bilinear) forms are of considerable relevance in statistics; the “sums of squares (or products)” in an analysis of variance (or covariance) table are quadratic (or bilinear) forms.
Differentiating the Effect of Cumulative Experience and Learning: A Field Study of Help Desk Support

The phenomenon of learning curves has been widely accepted as a fundamental pattern in organizational behavior. However, few studies focused on understanding the learning curves in professional services. This paper attempted to examine the learning experiences of help desks. The quantitative data of twenty-five educational institutions over five-year period evidenced the learning curve presence in information technology (IT) services context, but failed to demonstrate the variation in learning rates across institutions as anticipated. Qualitative data from our subsequent case studies suggested that institutions adopted similar tools and procedures in their help desk operation, facilitating their learning from past experience. However, help desks differ in their learning from indirect experience. This study applied organizational learning theory to IT services, and contributed to literature by differentiating the effects of cumulative experience and learning from indirect experience. In addition, it provided industry practitioners insights into more effective management of help desk services.
Timed Petri Nets: Efficiency of Asynchronous Systems

We shortly discuss how Petri nets have been extended with timing constraints and then choose to associate clocks to tokens and time intervals to arcs from places to transitions. In this model, we present a timed testing approach derived from the testing scenario of De Nicola and Hennessy; timed testing gives rise to an implementation relation that requires an implementation to be at least as satisfactory as the specification regarding functionality and efficiency.
Development and Validation of a Pre-migration Acculturation Measure

An area that has been largely overlooked in the acculturation literature is acculturation that occurs before migration. Therefore, the goal of our study was to develop a measure of pre-migration acculturation that would assess relevant behaviors and anticipations developed in one’s country of origin before migration. Seventy-four university students who migrated to the United States of America at the age of 10 or older completed an online survey. The results revealed that both pre-migration anticipations and pre-migration behaviors demonstrated good Cronbach’s alphas, providing preliminary evidence of reliability. Pre-migration anticipations and pre-migration behaviors were moderately correlated, providing preliminary evidence of construct validity. Both pre-migration anticipations and pre-migration behaviors predicted post-migration acculturation to the United States (via a regression analysis), providing preliminary evidence of predictive validity.
Implementing TreadMarks over GM on Myrinet: challenges, design experience, and performance evaluation

Software based DSM systems like TreadMarks have traditionally not performed well compared to message passing applications because of the high overhead of communication associated with traditional stack based protocols like UDP. Modern interconnects like Myrinet offer reliable message delivery with very low communication overhead through user level protocols. This paper examines the viability of implementing a thin communication substrate between TreadMarks and Myrinet GM, the rationale being that a layer tuned to the needs of the application would offer better performance and scalability as opposed to a generic UDP layer. Trade-offs for various design alternatives for buffer management, connection setup, advance posting of descriptors and asynchronous messages are discussed. We have implemented the best of these strategies in a layer that is bound to TreadMarks at compile time. Results from micro-benchmarks and applications show that not only does the specialized implementation perform better, it also exhibits better parallel speedup and scalability. A reduction in total application execution time of up to a factor of 6.3 for a 16 node system is demonstrated in comparison with the original implementation. The implementation also exhibits superior scaling properties as the application size is increased.
Estimating the Prevalence of Heat-Related Symptoms and Sun Safety–Related Behavior among Latino Farmworkers in Eastern North Carolina

In hot weather, thermal heat generated by the body, combined with environmental heat from the sun, can lead outdoor workers to experience heat-related stress, severe illness, or even death. The aims of this study were to estimate the prevalence of heat-related symptoms and potential risk factors associated with sun safety-related behavior among Latino farmworkers. Data from interviewer-administered questionnaires were collected from a cross-sectional survey among farmworkers (N = 158) from August to September 2013. Data analysis assessed associations between work activities, sun safety behavior, and the prevalence of heat-related illness (HRI) symptoms among workers. Nearly two thirds (72%) of farmworkers experienced at least one HRI symptom and lacked proper cooling methods when working outdoors. Most workers reported wearing long-sleeved shirts (85%), long pants (98%), and baseball caps (93%). The prevalence of having one HRI symptom was 72% and 27% among workers having three or more HRI symptoms. The majority of farmworkers experience symptoms of HRI and are not provided with proper shade protection when working outdoors. Increased emphasis on administrative controls, particularly educating field supervisors and workers on how to avoid and recognize HRI, should be a priority.
Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement and Stroke

The evaluation of any therapy includes an assessment of benefits and risks. For percutaneous coronary interventions, death and myocardial infarction are typically selected as the 2 hard end points for describing adverse events. Stroke may be observed during percutaneous coronary intervention and be a direct result of the procedure. Fortunately, as percutaneous coronary intervention has matured, rates of stroke are <1%.1,2 Accordingly, few efforts have been directed toward lowering this event rate further. For transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), rates of stroke are substantially higher than percutaneous coronary interventions, and in the Placement of Aortic Transcatheter Valves (PARTNER) B trial, the rate at 1 year among TAVR patients was double that of patients assigned to medical therapy alone.3 From a patient standpoint, stroke is among the most feared complications of patients undergoing TAVR, often more so than death.4 Furthermore, when high-risk patients treated by TAVR using the Sapien system were compared with those treated by surgical aortic valve replacement (PARTNER A), the rate of any stroke at 30 days with TAVR clearly exceed …
Some observations of potassium deficiency in chrysanthemum

Abstract Pot chrysanthemums (Chrysanthemum morifolium ‘Bright Golden Anne') were grown at 10 rates of K supply, symptoms of K deficiency were recorded, and the K concentrations in the leaves at harvest were measured. The initial K deficiency symptoms, consisting of glazing and bronzing of the leaf underside, were nearly identical to the injury attributed to the air pollutant, peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN). Leaves with these symptoms contained 0.5 to 0.6% K. During vegetative growth K deficiency symptoms developed first on the most recently mature leaf; during rapid flower development the symptoms appeared first on the uppermost leaf of the stem. In K‐deficient plants, there was a gradient in K concentration from upper leaves (0.2% K) to lower leaves (1.7% K).
Development of a 10-year limnological study of Crater Lake, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon, USA

ABSTRACT This paper summarizes the development of a limnological study of Crater Lake conducted between 1983 and 1992. The program was mandated by Congress in the fall of 1982 after a panel of limnologists found the lake data base (1896–1981) to be inadequate to determine if the phytoplankton community had changed and if the lake was decreasing in clarity as suggested from independent studies between 1978 and 1981. Congress authorized and directed the Secretary of the Interior to promptly instigate studies and investigations as to the status and trends of changes of water quality and to immediately implement such actions as necessary to assure the retention of the lake's natural pristine water quality. Program goals were to develop a detailed data base and an understanding of physical, chemical, and biological characteristics and processes of the lake. Ecological relationships among trophic levels and environmental conditions were stressed to evaluate the hypothesis that the lake had changed in water qual...
Lateral specialization and social-verbal development in preschool children

Forty-two 2 1/2- to 5 1/2-year-old children's social and verbal behaviors were observed during free play in a preschool. A test measuring lateral specialization of verbal function and a standardized psychometric test of verbal ability were also administered. Analysis of variance indicated that the right ear (left hemisphere) is predominant in processing verbal stimuli in children as young as 2 1/2. Multiple regression analyses revealed significant relations between the right ear accuracy score for dichotically presented verbal stimuli and both psychometrically measured verbal ability and a social-verbal factor score derived from play behavior. After the increase related to age was statistically partialled out from both verbal ability and social-verbal scores, verbal expression, length of verbal utterances, time spent in conversation, and peer social interactions increased and parallel play decreased as a function of right ear (left hemisphere) accuracy for verbal stimuli. The relationship between left ear (right hemisphere) accuracy scores for verbal stimuli and social-verbal behavior, however, was not linear. Very high and very low levels of left ear recall predicted an increase in the frequency of parallel play and low social-verbal behavior while moderate levels of left ear accuracy scores predicted the reverse.
Extending the State-Space Model to Accommodate Missing Values in Responses and Covariates

This article proposes an extended state-space model for accommodating multivariate panel data. The novel aspect of this contribution is an adjustment to the classical model for multiple subjects that allows missingness in the covariates in addition to the responses. Missing covariate data are handled by a second state-space model nested inside the first to represent unobserved exogenous information. Relevant Kalman filter equations are derived, and explicit expressions are provided for both the E- and M-steps of an expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm, to obtain maximum (Gaussian) likelihood estimates of all model parameters. In the presence of missing data, the resulting EM algorithm becomes computationally intractable, but a simplification of the M-step leads to a new procedure that is shown to be an expectation/conditional maximization (ECM) algorithm under exogeneity of the covariates. Simulation studies reveal that the approach appears to be relatively robust to moderate percentages of missing dat...
Far-infrared spectra, conformational stability, and barriers to internal rotation of some substituted 3-chloropropenes

The far-infrared spectrum (375 to 30 cm-1) of gaseous 2,3-dichloropropene has been recorded at a resolution of 0.06 cm-1. The fundamental asymmetric torsional mode is observed at 91.9 cm-1 with eight excited states falling to low frequency for the s-cis (chlorine atom eclipsing the double bond) conformer. Utilizing the s-cis torsional frequency, the gauche dihedral angle and the enthalpy difference between conformers, the potential function governing the interconversion of the rotamers has been calculated. The determined potential function coefficients are (in cm-1): V1 equals 1047 +/- 96, V2 equals -619 +/- 68, V3 equals 1216 +/- 50, and V4 equals 26 +/- 22, with an enthalpy difference between the more stable s-cis and gauche conformers of 245 +/- 30 cm-1 (0.70 +/- 0.09 kcal/mol). Similarly, the fundamental asymmetric torsion for the more stable gauche conformer of trans- 1,3-dichloropropene has been observed in the far infrared spectrum of the gas at 84.0 cm-1. The corresponding mode for the s-cis conformer gives rise to a series of well defined C-type Q branches beginning at 129.8 cm-1. From these data the potential function governing internal rotation of the asymmetric top has been determined and the potential coefficients are: V1 equals -558 +/- 7, V2 equals -38 +/- 10, V3 equals 637 +/- 9, V4 equals 174 +/- 7, V6 equals -16 +/- 4 cm-1. From studies of the Raman and infrared spectra of the gas at variable temperatures, the conformational enthalpy difference has been determined to be 342 +/- 36 cm-1 (978 +/- 103 cal/mol). All of these data are compared to the corresponding quantities obtained from ab initio Hartree-Fock gradient calculations employing either the 3-21G* or 6-31G* basis sets.© (1992) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Removal of the intestinal mucosa: photochemical approach in bladder augmentation

Experiments were undertaken to determine whether 5-aminoleuvinic acid in combination with light could be used as an adjunct to intestinal bladder augmentation with the aim of removing intestinal mucosa with subsequent re-epithelialization of the treated segment with urothelium. Histopathologic studies of so-treated intestinal segments used in bladder augmentation demonstrate the feasibility of this approach.© (1994) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
QCSEE fan exhaust bulk absorber treatment evaluation

The purpose of the experimental program reported herein was to evaluate the acoustic suppression capability of bulk absorber material designed for use in the fan exhaust duct walls of the QCSEE UTW (under-the-wing) engine and to compare it with other means of acoustic suppression. The paper includes comparison of the acoustic suppression to the original design for the QCSEE UTW engine fan duct which consisted of phased SDOF (single-degree-of-freedom) wall treatment and a splitter and also with the splitter removed. The method of approach consisted of mounting the UTW engine on the test stand of the Lewis Engine Noise Facility with an appropriate array of far-field microphones in order to measure the acoustic levels of the various configurations. Peak suppression was about as predicted with the bulk absorber configuration; however, the broadband characteristics were not attained. Post-test inspection revealed surface oil contamination on the bulk material which could have caused the loss in bandwidth suppression.
Efficient Er:YAG laser operating at 1645 and 1617 nm

A 1534-nm fiber laser pumped Er:YAG laser action at room temperature has been demonstrated with high efficiency at two emission wavelengths: 1645 and 1617 nm. Multiwatt continuous-wave power was demonstrated at both wavelengths and active electrooptic Q-switch operation with >90% Q-switch efficiency was achieved at 1645 nm. Etalon tuned wavelength selection showed excellent agreement with theoretical analysis.
Relationships between hematopoietic stem cells and lymphocyte progenitors

Remarkable advances have been made in characterizing highly purified hematopoietic stem cells and their lymphoid progeny. The majority of the cytokines and cell interaction molecules that comprise their environment are probably known, as are most cell cycle regulatory proteins, signaling molecules and transcription factors that mediate the lineage fate decisions and control population dynamics. However, it is becoming obvious that traditional differentiation diagrams are not adequate for depicting early changes and give overly rigid impressions about how cells of the immune system arise.