cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Pragmatism, Science, and Metaphysics

In 1934 Charles W. Morris, then a young philosopher at the University of Chicago, visited Rudolf Carnap in Prague, where the latter was teaching on the science faculty of Charles University. Morris, a philosopher familiar with Peirce's work and himself following the traditions of pragmatism, was impressed with the positivist program. Two years later he played an impor tant role in Carnap's move to a professorship at the University of Chicago.1 In the following year, 1937, Hermann in Paris published a slim but eloquent book by Morris, Pragmatism, Logical Positivism, and Scientific Empiricism. Its thesis was that American pragmatism and European positivism were en tirely complementary philosophical movements, and that the collaboration of the adherents of the two could lead to a new form of scientific empiricism more fruitful than either. Carnap did give this suggestion of Morris cautious lip service in "Testability and Meaning,"2 his first important paper in the United States. But active intellectual collaboration between members of these two philosophical movements did not, in fact, occur. Indeed, as philosophy developed after the disruptions of World War II, relationships between members of the two groups might best be characterized as marked by mutual misunderstandings and distaste. Morris abandoned his hopes for their fusion and turned his attention to other matters, Carnap continued to develop his own views, and only the International Encyclopedia of the Unified Sciences, which they founded together, remains to testify to such a vision. Without commenting further on what might have been, and the social and political reasons why it may have failed to come about, let us look at those aspects of theory and outlook shared by the two movements, as well as those on which they differed, and see what the substantive problems were. For reasons of simplicity and breadth of scope, attention will be focused on the theories of Peirce and Carnap, with special attention to the details of Peirce's views where these are not as widely known. It is hard to look at the work of Peirce (1839-1914) and Carnap (1891? 1970) without being impressed, as Morris was, by the similarity of spirit they seemed to share?in spite of the fifty years that separated their lives.
Toward Culturally Centered Integrative Care for Addressing Mental Health Disparities among Ethnic Minorities

Despite decades of research, recognition and treatment of mental illness and its comorbidities still remain a significant public health problem in the United States. Ethnic minorities are identified as a population that is vulnerable to mental health disparities and face unique challenges pertaining to mental health care. Psychiatric illness is associated with great physical, emotional, functional, and societal burden. The primary health care setting may be a promising venue for screening, assessment, and treatment of mental illnesses for ethnic minority populations. We propose a comprehensive, innovative, culturally centered integrated care model to address the complexities within the health care system, from the individual level, which includes provider and patient factors, to the system level, which includes practice culture and system functionality issues. Our multidisciplinary investigative team acknowledges the importance of providing culturally tailored integrative health care to holistically concentrate on physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral problems among ethnic minorities in a primary care setting. It is our intention that the proposed model will be useful for health practitioners, contribute to the reduction of mental health disparities, and promote better mental health and well-being for ethnic minority individuals, families, and communities.
Structural phase transition in substituted La2CuO4 and Pr2CuO4−y

The structural phase transition from orthorhombic (T) phase to tetragonal (T′) phase in substituted La2−x R x CuO4 (R = Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu and Gd) and T′ to T-phase in Pr2−x M x CuO4−y (M = Sr, Ca) has been studied by X-ray diffraction technique. The T-phase of La2CuO4 is transferred to T′ phase abruptly atx=0.8, 0.4, 0.4, 0.3 and 0.4 respectively for substitution of Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu and Gd for La in La2CuO4 without evidence of the T* phase. The T′ structure of Pr2CuO4 (x = 0.0) gets transformed to the T* structure at 30% Ca doping (x=0.6) and then to the T structure at 50% Ca doping (x=1.0), while for Sr-contentx=0.0, 0.4 and 1.0 it shows T′, T* and T structure respectively.
Predictive Value of Standardized Intratumoral Metabolic Heterogeneity in Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer Treated With Chemoradiation

Objective The aim of this study was to propose and evaluate a novel image metric for quantifying spatial heterogeneity of tumor 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake within the context of predicting response to chemoradiation in locally advanced cervical cancer. Methods Ninety patients with locally advanced cervical cancer treated with concomitant chemoradiation were included in this study. Each patient underwent two whole-body 18F-FDG positron emission tomography/computed tomography scans with one before the initiation of treatment for staging and the other at 12 weeks after treatment completion for response assessment. Patients were categorized in terms of response to chemoradiation into two major groups: complete metabolic responders and noncomplete metabolic responders. The capacity of the proposed intratumoral heterogeneity metric to differentiate patients with respect to response to therapy was evaluated and compared with the use of standardized uptake value indices and various texture parameters that had been previously introduced for predicting tumor response to chemoradiation. Results At baseline, the proposed intratumoral heterogeneity metric along with four texture features, including entropy and energy derived from gray-level co-occurrence matrices and gray-level nonuniformity and zone size nonuniformity from gray-level zone size matrices, was capable of differentiating responders’ groups with P values of 0.0026, 0.0252, 0.0240, 0.0234, and 0.0188, respectively. Furthermore, when compared with the texture features exhibiting significant difference between the responders’ groups, the proposed metric demonstrated larger area under receiver operating characteristic curve. Conclusions The proposed metric with quantifying spatial heterogeneity of intratumoral FDG accumulation in a normalized manner may be associated with predictive value of poor response to concurrent chemoradiation in locally advanced cervical cancer.
Analysis on Reasons of Hot Corrosion Invalidation of Platen Super-heater

The reasons of tube-burst accidents of platen super-heater of thermal power plant were discussed, the composition and morphologies of corrosion products were analyzed by SEM, EDS, XRD and metallurgical microscope. The testing results show that the reasons of the superheating tube-burst are that hot corrosion of the composite-sulfate corrodes to tube causeing the tube attenuating and the existent of outer impurity in tube.
Agricultural Supply Management and Market Power: Evidence from the U.S. Dairy and Potato Industries

Agricultural over-supply, increasing output price volatility, and producers’ returns below production costs were the economic forces that influenced the decision of the organizations of agricultural producers in the U.S. dairy and potato industries to implement agricultural supply management programs. Using a theoretical framework, this research evaluates potential seller market power of agricultural cooperatives implementing agricultural supply management practices at the farm-gate level. A theoretical analysis is conducted by comparing agricultural cooperatives with classic cartels. Available empirical evidence on the effects of agricultural supply management programs in the U.S. dairy and potato industries is discussed. [EconLit citations: L1, L2, Q13].
Biochemical Changes Induced by Maharishi Amrit Kalash (MAK-4) and MA-208 in Diet-Induced Hypercholesterolemic Rabbits

Free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) are involved in the pathogenesis of various disorders, including atherosclerosis, which could possibly be prevented by the use of antioxidant substances.1 MAK-4 and MA-208 are antioxidant herbal mixtures. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the in vivo antioxidant properties of MAK-4 and MA-208 in diet-induced hypercholesterolemic rabbits.
Vitamin D supplementation affects the IGF system in men after acute exercise.

Abstract Objective Contradictory data between the Insulin-Like Growth Factor System (IGF) system and exercise may be due to alteration in IGF binding proteins. Vitamin D (D) deficiency has been related to muscle weakness and Insulin Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 3 (IGFBP3). A Vit. D and acute exercise merge is proposed to modify the IGF system. Design D insufficient and deficient men (39.0±8.6yo with serum D (25OH D) 20.0±7.7ng/mL) did 1h of stretching (ST), aerobic (AB), and resistance (RT) exercises, before and after 28d of 4000IU/d Vit. D3 (D, n =6) or Placebo (P, n =7). ST, a time/attention control visit, interchanged unreceptive movements. AB was moderate intensity treadmill walking. RT rotated moderate strength 50% 1-RM repetitions (15, 10) of squat, bench press, leg press, and lat pull down. Serum Total IGF1 (TIGF1), Insulin Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 1 (IGFBP1), and IGFBP3 were measured before (T1, fasting), immediately after (T2), and 2h post (T3) exercise. Results After ST, IGFBP3 was greater in the D group at T2 (2948, 2130ng/mL; p p p p p p p p p Conclusion D supplementation amplified IGFBP3 after low or moderate activity which may increase the delivery of IGF1 to tissues. Resistance exercise with D not only increased IGFBP3 and IGFBP1 levels but also conserved TIGF1 levels, possibly shifting the IGF system for enriched muscle well-being.
Optimal maximum likelihood estimates fusion in distributed network of sensors

A distributed network of sensors leverages its performance by aggregating information gathered by individual sensors through the process of sensor data fusion. Estimating parameters using a centralized scheme entails transporting data from multiple sensors to a centralized fusion center, leading to high network bandwidth consumption. Additionally, fusing raw sensor data from sensors with different sensing modalities may not be feasible. We propose an alternative approach in which each sensor first individually estimates the unknown parameters based solely on its own sensor data. Since sensors may not have a-priori knowledge of the probability distribution of the unknown parameters, each sensor independently computes its individual maximum likelihood estimates. Individual estimates along with their sufficient statistics are then communicated to the fusion center, which treats these estimates as observations to compute the optimum aggregated maximum likelihood estimates by maximizing the new likelihood function of these observations. The proposed technique offers two significant advantages: (i) Since each sensor computes its individual estimates based solely on its own sensed data, it is easily applicable to sensor networks having multi-modal sensors, and (ii) As compared to raw sensor data, communicating estimates and their sufficient statistics to the fusion center requires substantially less network bandwidth. Performance of the aggregated estimates is evaluated through simulations and by computing the Cramer-Rao lower bound.
Lodamin (PEG-PLA-TNP-470), a novel formulation for oral administration of TNP-470 as a potent antiangiogenic and anti-cancer drug.

1118 Targeting angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels, is becoming an important strategy for cancer therapy. TNP-470, an analog of fumagillin, is among the most potent inhibitors of angiogenesis. This drug has broader antiangiogenic activity than most known drugs, as demonstrated in numerous animal tumor models. In clinical trials, TNP-470 showed significant inhibition of tumors, including durable complete regression (Kudelka AP et al. N Engl J Med 338, 991-2, 1998). The clinical efficacy of TNP-470 was limited by neurotoxicity that was solved by the development of Caplostatin, an HPMA polymer conjugate of TNP-470 (formulation for injection) (Satchi-Fainaro et al., Nature Medicine 10, 255-261, 2004, Satchi-Fainaro et al., Cancer Cell 7, 251-61, 2005). However, a major clinical limitation still remains: The TNP-470 has a poor oral availability and short plasma half-life (minutes), necessitating frequent continuous parenteral administration as an infusion of 1-4 hr a few times a week. We have now addressed these issues, and report here for the first time a formulation for oral administration of TNP-470, named Lodamin. TNP-470 is conjugated to a copolymer: poly(ethylene-glycol)-poly(lactic)acid (PEG-PLA). The conjugation is then self-assembled into polymeric-micelles, where TNP-470 is located in the core, and protected from the acidic environment of the stomach, thus enabling oral availability. Lodamin has a spherical morphology as shown by transmission electron microscopy (10-100 nm). The release kinetics of TNP-470 from Lodamin was determined in-vitro at pH 1.2 and 7.4 and revealed a slow release for up to 28 days. In-vitro, Lodamin was rapidly taken up by endothelial cells as demonstrated by confocal microscopy and flow cytometry, and significantly inhibited cell proliferation. Lodamin was effectively absorbed in the intestineand remained active. A corneal micropocket assay, in which the angiogenic response was measured 6 days after implantation of VEGF pellets, showed that oral Lodamin inhibited VEGF-induced vessel growth by 40%. In tumor-bearing mice, Lodamin effectively inhibited tumor growth of both subcutaneous Lewis Lung Carcinoma (~87%) and B16/F10 melanoma (~77%), while oral free TNP-470 did not affect tumor growth. Histological sections of the tumors showed that oral Lodamin decreased angiogenesis and proliferation of tumor cells. Biodistribution experiments showed Lodamin to be concentrated in tumors without penetration into the brain. Furthermore, unlike free TNP-470, oral Lodamin did not cause TNP-470-related neurological impairment, as tested by the ability of mice to walk on a narrow-beam without losing their balance. Therefore, we report Lodamin as a first in its class compound of oral antiangiogenic, non-toxic, anti-cancer drugs that can be chronically administered for cancer therapy or for prevention of tumor recurrence.
Dual Modality Code Explanations for Novices: Unexpected Results

The research in both cognitive load theory and multimedia principles for learning indicates presenting information using both diagrams and accompanying audio explanations yields better learning performance than using diagrams with text explanations. While this is a common practice in introductory programming courses, often called "live coding," it has yet to be empirically tested. This paper reports on an experiment to determine if auditory explanations of code result in improved learning performance over written explanations. Students were shown videos explaining short code segments one of three ways: text only explanations, auditory only explanations, or both text and auditory explanations, thus replicating experiments from other domains. The results from this study do not support the findings from other disciplines and we offer explanations for why this may be the case.
Recent results on soil moisture remote sensing using P-band signals of opportunity

Root zone soil moisture (RZSM) is an essential variable in meteorology, hydrology, and agriculture. Current methods in passive and active microwave remote sensing at L-band (e.g. SMOS or SMAP) are limited to a sensing depth of less than 10 cm. Observing RZSM (water in the top meter of soil) will require lower frequencies (P-band), presenting significant difficulties for a spaceborne instrument, due to the required antenna size, the presence of radio-frequency interference (RFI), and competition for spectrum allocations (in the case of active radar). Bistatic radar using Signal of Opportunity (SoOp) (e.g. digital satellite transmitters) offers the possibility of remote sensing using powerful signals already occupying bands allocated for communications. This paper will present early results from the first airborne campaign to study P-band reflectometry for soil moisture, conducted in Oklahoma between October 17–26, 2016. A geosynchronous communication satellite, transmitting a 25 KHz data signal on a 260.375 MHz carrier was uses at the signal source. Preliminary assessment of the data showed high reflectivity over a lake and consistent results between subsequent overflights of the watershed. Recently, a tower experiment has started using a 20 MHz wide signal centered at 370 MHz. Linearly polarized measurements were made over bare soil between 25-May-2017 and 8-June-2017 observing a strong reflected signal. Corn is being planted on the field and measurements will be made throughout the growing season.
Regional Anesthesia for Arteriovenous Fistula Surgery May Reduce Hospital Length of Stay and Reoperation Rates

Background and Objectives:Regional anesthesia has been proposed as the preferred mode of anesthesia for arteriovenous fistula surgery due to its associated vasodilatory effects and fistula patency ...
Radiation Wounds and Their Management: Reconstructive Options

The following chapter focuses on the wounds and unstable scars caused by radiation injury and their reconstructive management. The radiation wounds are challenging to treat and oftentimes would require radical debridement of the involved soft tissues and the bone, if necessary. Mainstay of reconstruction relies on bringing healthy, well-vascularized soft tissue from areas outside the zone of radiation injury. In addition, previously irradiated tissues are at risk for wound healing complications. Prophylactic flaps could be performed to reduce the risk, should a need to operate on irradiated tissues without any evidence of wound arise. Reconstructive options include regional flaps or free tissue transfers which are demonstrated with typical case examples in this chapter.
Visualization of the Dynamics of the Female Pelvic Floor Reflex and Steady State Function

Female urinary incontinence has been recently termed a “silent epidemic”, requiring systematic attention and a multidisciplinary approach towards economically ameliorating its impact. In this paper we examine the role of the pelvic floor (PF) in maintaining urinary continence by evaluating the dynamics produced during its voluntary and reflex activation. Analytical methods for the acquisition and subsequent ultrasound analysis of movement of PF structures during maneuvers that are associated with exercises are presented to enable the development of criteria and unique new parameters that define the kinematics of PF function. Principal among these parameters, are displacement, velocity, acceleration and the trajectory of pelvic floor landmarks facilitating functional and anatomical visualization. Different methods of movement detection, including motion tracking algorithms and segmentation algorithms were developed to acquire new dynamic parameters of Pelvic structures during different maneuvers. 2D animation was applied to enhance the ultrasound imaging and highlight the timing of the movement and deformation to fast and stressful maneuvers, which are important for understanding the neuromuscular control mechanisms in urinary continence. Parameters were derived using image processing of non-invasive trans-perineal scanning and probe measurements from asymptomatic volunteers as well as patients presenting with relevant pathology. In each case the results are visualized using a graphic interface deigned to illustrate the significant factors separating the continent from the incontinent subjects.
QUANTITATIVE EVALUATION OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF GEOLOGIC KNOWLEDGE IN EXPLORATION FOR PETROLEUM

ABSTRACT A generalized random drilling model has been developed in which the total search area, total productive area, average field size, and minimal field size are the input parameters. The model accounts for both the exhaustion of the productive area by successful wells and the decrease in total search area due to the dry holes. Discovery histories are expressed either as the discovered productive areas or discovery rates as functions of exploratory effort. The model yields theoretical exploration functions imitating the random components of exploration histories. The difference between the theoretical and historical exploration functions, then, represents the explicit quantitative evaluation of the contribution of geological knowledge at any given moment of exploration. As has been shown by previous studies, larger fields tend to be discovered early in the exploration history of a given area. In conjunction with the analysis of observed field size distributions, this size-order of discoveries is interpreted as the result of geological knowledge. The suggested generalized random drilling model can be used in studying exploration histories in relatively well-explored petroleum provinces, and in projecting exploration histories in the frontier provinces to be explored.
Adaptive Fixed-Time Control for MIMO Nonlinear Systems With Asymmetric Output Constraints Using Universal Barrier Functions

In this note, we propose a novel adaptive fixed-time control scheme for output tracking problems of a class of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) nonlinear systems with asymmetric output constraint requirements, using a new universal barrier function . It is universal in the sense that the proposed scheme is a general one that also works for systems with symmetric constraints or without constraint requirements, without changing the control structure. Novel adaptive estimations and analysis are introduced to address system uncertainties in the fixed-time convergence settings. We show that under the proposed novel control scheme, each element in the system output tracking error vector of the MIMO nonlinear system can converge into small sets near zero with fixed-time convergence rate, while the asymmetric output constraint requirements on each element of the output tracking error are satisfied at all time. The proposed scheme can effectively deal with unmatched system uncertainties and uncertain gain functions. In the end, a simulation example on a two-degree-of-freedom robot manipulator is presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed scheme.
Intraoperative Parathyroid Autofluorescence Detection in Patients with Primary Hyperparathyroidism

Intrinsic near-infrared (NIR) autofluorescence of the parathyroid gland may improve intraoperative gland identification without the need for contrast agent injection. Compared with patients undergoing surgery for thyroid disease, identification of pathologic parathyroid tissue in patients with hyperparathyroidism is essential. This study analyzed the utility of a novel real-time autofluorescence imaging system in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism enrolled in a prospective feasibility clinical trial. Data on patients undergoing surgery for primary hyperparathyroidism by two experienced endocrine surgeons were prospectively collected. Intraoperative imaging was performed with a handheld NIR device, and images were captured for analysis. The collected data included the surgeon’s confidence in parathyroid identification, both with ambient light and use of NIR imaging, as well as how the imaging affected the surgical procedure. Images were quantified by Image J software, with autofluorescence reported as mean values ± SD. From 2017 to 2018, 59 consecutive patients with a diagnosis of primary hyperparathyroidism underwent resection of 69 parathyroid glands. Use of NIR imaging increased the intraoperative confidence of parathyroid identification (on a scale of 0–5) from an average of 4.1 to an average of 4.4 (+0.3, p = 0.003), all of which were confirmed pathologically. The addition of autofluorescence helped to identify the parathyroid gland in 12 patients (20%), and to rule out other soft tissue as not parathyroid in an additional 9 patients (15%). The mean autofluorescence for the parathyroid in situ (75.9 ± 21.3) was significantly greater than that for the thyroid (61.1 ± 17.4) or soft tissue (53.3 ± 19.2) (p < 0.001 for both). The mean absolute difference in parathyroid versus background thyroid autofluorescence was +15.2 (range, 2.4–53.1). This is the first prospective trial to examine the utility of parathyroid autofluorescence for identifying glands exclusively in patients with parathyroid disease. Intraoperative identification and localization of parathyroid glands by real-time, NIR imaging using their intrinsic autofluorescence is feasible and may provide a useful adjunct during parathyroid surgery.
A Targeted Agent for Sickle Cell Disease - Changing the Protein but Not the Gene.

Affecting an estimated 100,000 Americans and millions worldwide, sickle cell disease is among the most common inherited blood disorders in humans and is associated with profound complications and p...
Engaging Landowners in the Conservation Conversation through Landowner-Listening Workshops

Participatory approaches to natural resource research have become increasingly popular, ensuring local knowledge is incorporated into conservation decisions while also benefitting community members...
Computational Study on Rotor Interactional Effects for a Quadcopter in Edgewise Flight

This study examines the performance of a quadcopter in edgewise flight conditions using a Navier–Stokes solver with a detached-eddy simulation model. The rotating volume around each rotor interface...
Validation of a Novel Cutaneous Neoplasm Diagnostic Self-Efficacy Instrument (CNDSEI) for Evaluating User-Perceived Confidence With Dermoscopy.

Background: Accurate medical image interpretation is an essential proficiency for multiple medical specialties, including dermatologists and primary care providers. A dermatoscope, a ×10-×20 magnifying lens paired with a light source, enables enhanced visualization of skin cancer structures beyond standard visual inspection. Skilled interpretation of dermoscopic images improves diagnostic accuracy for skin cancer. Objectives: Design and validation of Cutaneous Neoplasm Diagnostic Self-Efficacy Instrument (CNDSEI)—a new tool to assess dermatology residents’ confidence in dermoscopic diagnosis of skin tumors. Methods: In the 2018-2019 academic year, the authors administered the CNDSEI and the Long Dermoscopy Assessment (LDA), to measure dermoscopic image interpretation accuracy, to residents in 9 dermatology residency programs prior to dermoscopy educational intervention exposure. The authors conducted CNDSEI item analysis with inspection of response distribution histograms, assessed internal reliability using Cronbach’s coefficient alpha (α) and construct validity by comparing baseline CNDSEI and LDA results for corresponding lesions with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: At baseline, residents respectively demonstrated significantly higher and lower CNDSEI scores for correctly and incorrectly diagnosed lesions on the LDA (P = 0.001). The internal consistency reliability of CNDSEI responses for the majority (13/15) of the lesion types was excellent (α ≥ 0.9) or good (0.8≥ α <0.9). Conclusions: The CNDSEI pilot established that the tool reliably measures user dermoscopic image interpretation confidence and that self-efficacy correlates with diagnostic accuracy. Precise alignment of medical image diagnostic performance and the self-efficacy instrument content offers opportunity for construct validation of novel medical image interpretation self-efficacy instruments.
Temporal slow-growth formulation for direct numerical simulation of compressible wall-bounded flows

An easily extensible, computationally efficient, slow-growth formulation for direct numerical simulation of compressible boundary layers with complex physics is developed. The approach is specifically tailored to produce data for use in Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes model evaluation and is demonstrated on both low-Mach and transonic flows.
The Doctor’s Discourse: Challenges of Learning to Communicate “Like a Physician”

I. INTRODUCTION Healthcare providers must concurrently espouse objective, systematic clinical reasoning and “soft” interpersonal skills to understand and treat their patients. Competently and compassionately communicating with patients to elucidate and contextualize the etiology of their symptoms is a perennially elusive craft, but it is one that is fundamentally essential for effective medical practice. II. BACKGROUND Different medical schools have adopted different approaches to help students develop the communicational proficiencies required to connect with patients, elicit their health narratives, and then parse through this information to ultimately arrive at a diagnosis – such methods have included encounters with simulated patients (“SP”s), small group practice sessions with classmates, and perhaps even structured conversations with real patients. However, there is, across all of these learning opportunities, a staunch emphasis on adhering to a rigidly defined conversational structure. III. ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS Mandating methodical dialogue can certainly be useful for helping medical students (especially those in their pre-clinical years) learn to formulate differential diagnoses, but actively discouraging any deviation from the proscribed sequence –I.e. in the vein of teaching students the “formal”, “professional” discourse– neglects the fluidity that is inherent in real conversations with real patients. Relying upon algorithmic conversational “scripts”, budding physicians may be dissuaded from fully ascertaining the minutiae of each patient’s respective circumstances. This may in turn contribute to unnatural, even robotic conversations that leave patients feeling like their doctor heard but did not actually listen to them. IV. CONCLUSIONS Students ought to be empowered with a framework that is sufficiently delineated to allow them to reach the proper clinical conclusion but that is also sufficiently flexible to encourage them to modify their conversational strategies to best suit each particular patient. Ultimately, there are very clear benefits to offering guidelines to inform students’ communications with their patients (E.g., Figure 1), but medical educators ought to also acknowledge that these techniques do not represent immutable rules to which physicians are beholden in any and all cases. To that end, clinical skills curricula should specifically offer students opportunities to develop broad interpersonal skills and dynamic communicational strategies, so that they will be well-prepared to converse with real patients when the time finally comes.
Fénelon and the political summum malum of self-love:

In The Political Philosophy of Fenelon, Ryan Hanley argues that Fenelon was a realist who aimed to elevate and educate self-love—rather than resist it—in order to avoid tyranny. This roundtable art...
Effects of lithium administration on vertebral bone disease in mucopolysaccharidosis I dogs.

Abstract Mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS) I is a lysosomal storage disease characterized by deficient activity of the enzyme alpha-L-iduronidase, leading to abnormal accumulation of heparan and dermatan sulfate glycosaminoglycans in cells and tissues. Patients commonly exhibit progressive skeletal abnormalities, in part due to failures of endochondral ossification during postnatal growth. Previously, using the naturally-occurring canine model, we showed that bone and cartilage cells in MPS I exhibit elevated lysosomal storage from an early age and that animals subsequently exhibit significantly diminished vertebral trabecular bone formation. Wnts are critical regulators of endochondral ossification that depend on glycosaminoglycans for signaling. The objective of this study was to examine whether lithium, a glycogen synthase kinase-3 inhibitor and stimulator of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling, administered during postnatal growth could attenuate progression of vertebral trabecular bone disease in MPS I. MPS I dogs were treated orally with therapeutic levels of lithium carbonate from 14 days to 6 months-of-age. Untreated heterozygous and MPS I dogs served as controls. Serum was collected at 3 and 6 months for assessment of bone turnover markers. At the study end point, thoracic vertebrae were excised and assessed using microcomputed tomography and histology. Lithium-treated animals exhibited significantly improved trabecular spacing, number and connectivity density, and serum bone-specific alkaline phosphatase levels compared to untreated animals. Growth plates from lithium-treated animals exhibited increased numbers of hypertrophic chondrocytes relative to both untreated MPS I and heterozygous animals. These findings suggest that bone and cartilage cells in MPS I are still capable of responding to exogenous osteogenic signals even in the presence of significant lysosomal storage, and that targeted osteogenic therapies may represent a promising approach for attenuating bone disease progression in MPS I.
Critical Periods of Neuronal Maturation

Publisher Summary Studies indicate that the differences in the retrograde reaction reveal differential periods of lability, or “critical” periods, in the maturation of neurons. These periods can be related temporally to maturation phases of the nucleolar apparatus and of Nissl substance. The aim in this chapter originally was to determine whether the developmental sequence of these components could be experimentally altered, such that their relationships might be better exposed for analysis. There are definite critical periods during neuronal development which are concerned with the establishment of neuronal type. Certain of these periods are indicated by intracellular changes involving the nucleolar apparatus, Nissl substance, and mitochondria in neurons. The evidence in the chapter indicates, however, that the final stages of maturation are not readily detected as a sequence of normal cytological changes, but are reflected instead in the differential way the cell reacts to injury.
Workplace Violence: Prevalence, Prevention, and First-Line Interventions

Workplace violence is increasing, but through education, prevention, and man aging escalating crises, critical care nurses can help to minimize the negative consequences of violence. Critical care nurses are particularly prone to acts of aggression and acts of violence due to the stressful environment for them, their families, and their patients. Developing violence prevention skills and interpersonal communication skills, not always highly valued in a critical care environment, are important steps in deterring workplace violence. Although not all incidents of workplace violence can be prevented, recognizing the individual at risk for violence and intervening on the behalf of all involved is a responsibility of every employee including the critical care nurse. Language: en
Chapter 9 – Physician Agency*

This chapter reviews the theory and empirical literature on physician market power, behavior, and motives, referred to collectively as the issue of “physician agency.” The chapter is organized around an increasingly complex view of the demand conditions facing a physician, beginning with the most simple conception associated with demand and supply, and building through monopolistic competition models with complete information, and finally models with asymmetric information. Institutional features such as insurance, price regulation, managed care networks and noncontractible elements of quality of care are incorporated in turn. The review reveals three mechanisms physicians may use to influence quantity of care provided to patients: quantity setting of a nonretradable service, influencing demand by setting the level of a noncontractible input (“quality”), and, in an asymmetric-information context, taking an action to influence patient preferences. The third mechanism is known as “physician-induced demand.” The empirical literature on this topic is reviewed. Theories based on alternatives to profit-maximization as objectives of physicians are also reviewed, including ethics and concern for patients, and the “target-income” hypothesis. The target-income hypothesis can be rejected, although there is empirical support for non-profit maximizing behavior.
Utilizing Behavioral Abstractions to Facilitate Maintenance During Class Evolution

Software maintenance can be a difficult and time consuming process. To facilitate this process, application development must produce software that is designed to continually evolve. While object oriented methodologies address some of the maintenance issues that have troubled traditional functional techniques, object oriented development must overcome the problems involved in maintaining existing object behavior when the underlying class structure evolves. Utilizing adaptable abstraction models for defining class structure and behavior can facilitate software maintenance during class evolution. This paper describes adaptive software development using the Demeter Model for defining object structure and behavior. The maintenance impact of class evolution on existing behavioral implementations is detailed.
The autophagic inhibitor 3-methyladenine potently stimulates PKA-dependent lipolysis in adipocytes

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The class III PI3K inhibitor, 3-methyladenine (3-MA), is commonly used to selectively block autophagy. Recent findings suggest a strong relationship between autophagy and lipid turnover. Here, we explore the effect of 3-MA on adipocyte lipolysis. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH Assays were performed in 3T3-L1 cells. Cells were treated with 3-MA and wortmannin, a pan PI3K and autophagy inhibitor. Pharmacological and genetic manipulation of endogenous autophagic and lipolytic pathways was used to ascertain the contribution of 3-MA to the observed effects on lipolysis. KEY RESULTS 3T3-L1 cells that were exposed to 3-MA showed a consistent increase in lipolysis, approximately 50% over basal levels. The effect of 3-MA was not secondary to autophagic inhibition as treatment of 3T3-L1 cells with wortmannin yielded no such changes. Dosing and time course experiments showed that 3-MA's ability to activate lipolysis was more sensitive than its inhibitory effect on autophagy. Knockdown of adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) negated the stimulatory effect of 3-MA by >90%, indicating that 3-MA enhanced ATGL-dependent hydrolysis of triacylglycerols. Additionally, the lipolytic effect of 3-MA was dependent on the activation of PKA and 3-MA induced a rapid and potent elevation of intracellular cAMP levels in adipocytes. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Cumulatively, we show that 3-MA potently modulated a cellular mechanism and its underlying signalling pathways not associated with autophagy. Furthermore, we describe a novel stimulatory effect on a major signalling pathway. Our findings provide valuable information to studies employing 3-MA as a specific inhibitor for PI3K and autophagy.
Design of trellis codes for source coding with side information at the decoder

The problem of source coding with side information at the decoder arises in many practical scenarios. Although this problem has been well characterized in information theory, particularly by the work of Wyner and Ziv (1976), there is still lack of successful algorithms for it. In this paper, we use trellis codes to approach the theoretical limit. An embedded trellis code structure is proposed, and its properties are examined. Using this structure, we can achieve the granular gain at the encoder as well as the coding gain at the decoder. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the algorithms reported in the literature. It is also indicated that the performance of the proposed algorithm can approach the information-theoretic limit at high rate as the trellis complexity increases.
Aldo Leopold's Counter-Friction

THE CENTENARY of Aldo Leopold's birth has given "the most signifi cant conservationist of the last seventy years" (Stephen Fox, on the dust jacket of Curt Meine's Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work) more than usual notice and added substantially to the scholarship concerning his life and thought. Meine's book is the first biography, which is to say a fuller ac count of the life and, accordingly, a somewhat less-focused, issue-oriented study than Susan Flader's Thinking Like a Mountain: Aldo Leopold and the Evolution of an Ecological Attitude toward Deer, Wolves and Forests (1974), the first major study and the first to make use of the extensive Leopold Ar chive, and still the most incisive and best written. Meine's book, some 650 closely packed and heavily documented pages, is more than twice the size of all the commemorative publications, chiefly the Companion to A Sand County Almanac edited by J. Baird Callicott and Aldo Leopold: The Man and His Legacy edited by Thomas Tanner. The first collection brings together some of the best early essays on Leopold as well as newer work; the second gathers some of the proceedings of a week-long celebration at Iowa State University (which recently announced a recommendation to phase out "environmental studies because of waning interest"). Inevitably, given the handful of Leopold scholars, the collections overlap. Worthy of mention also is the handsome "Special Commemorative Edition" of A Sand County Almanac (Oxford University Press), special, I think, because Robert Finch
Recommendations for Developmental Monitoring: The Role of Surveillance

In Reply.— Dr Cunningham raises several important issues regarding developmental surveillance in general and, more specifically, the early identification of children with mild mental retardation. Dr Cunningham equates surveillance with "eyeball" estimates of development. Although I agree (and acknowledge in my review) that subjective impressions of children9s developmental status are often inaccurate, the process of developmental surveillance is actually far more sophisticated. It includes eliciting and attending to parental concerns, making accurate and informative longitudinal observations of children, and obtaining a relevant development history.
Minimax rates for memory-bounded sparse linear regression

We establish a minimax lower bound of kd on the sample size needed to estimate parameters in a k-sparse linear regression of dimension d under memory restrictions to B bits, where is the ‘2 parameter error. When the covariance of the regressors is the identity matrix, we also provide an algorithm that uses ~ O(B +k) bits and requires ~ O( kd B 2 ) observations to achieve error . Our lower bound holds in a more general communication-bounded setting, where instead of a memory bound, at mostB bits of information are allowed to be (adaptively) communicated about each sample.
Supporting secure programming in web applications through interactive static analysis.

Many security incidents are caused by software developers’ failure to adhere to secure programming practices. Static analysis tools have been used to detect software vulnerabilities. However, their wide usage by developers is limited by the special training required to write rules customized to application-specific logic. Our approach is interactive static analysis, to integrate static analysis into Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and provide in-situ secure programming support to help developers prevent vulnerabilities during code construction. No additional training is required nor are there any assumptions on ways programs are built. Our work is motivated in part by the observation that many vulnerabilities are introduced due to failure to practice secure programming by knowledgeable developers. We implemented a prototype interactive static analysis tool as a plug-in for Java in Eclipse. Our technical evaluation of our prototype detected multiple zero-day vulnerabilities in a large open source project. Our evaluations also suggest that false positives may be limited to a very small class of use cases.
Simulated annealing with noisy or imprecise energy measurements

The annealing algorithm (Ref. 1) is modified to allow for noisy or imprecise measurements of the energy cost function. This is important when the energy cannot be measured exactly or when it is computationally expensive to do so. Under suitable conditions on the noise/imprecision, it is shown that the modified algorithm exhibits the same convergence in probability to the globally minimum energy states as the annealing algorithm (Ref. 2). Since the annealing algorithm will typically enter and exit the minimum energy states infinitely often with probability one, the minimum energy state visited by the annealing algorithm is usually tracked. The effect of using noisy or imprecise energy measurements on tracking the minimum energy state visited by the modified algorithms is examined.
Complete monotonicity of the entropy in the central limit theorem for gamma and inverse Gaussian distributions

Abstract Let H g ( α ) be the differential entropy of the gamma distribution Gam ( α , α ) . It is shown that ( 1 / 2 ) log ( 2 π e ) − H g ( α ) is a completely monotone function of α . This refines the monotonicity of the entropy in the central limit theorem for gamma random variables. A similar result holds for the inverse Gaussian family. How generally this complete monotonicity holds is left as an open problem.
Peripheral blood cell activities of monoamine oxidase B and superoxide dismutase in Parkinson's disease

Monoamine oxidase type B (MAO-B) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) are two enzyme stystems that are potentially relevant to an oxidative stress model of Parkinson's disease (PD) causation. Activities of MAO-B in platelets (nmol/108 cells/hr) and total SOD in lymphocytes (U/mg protein) were assayed among 28 cases of idiopathic PD and 22 controls. As anticipated, MAO-B was lowest in PD cases on selegiline (L-deprenyl) therapy (mean 1.10). There was a slight deficit of MAO-B among male cases not taking selegiline compared to controls (3.78 vs. 4.15), but the opposite trend was observed for females (6.18 vs. 4.16). SOD was slightly higher in cases (7.40), than controls (6.81). Excess SOD among PD cases was seen irrespective of gender, age, or selegiline treatment, although none of the differences was statistically significant Future research on SOD should take advantage of the availability of assays specific for the cytosolic and mitochondrial forms of the enzyme.
Transition metal ion complexes of thiosemicarbazones derived from 2-acetylpyridine. Part 9. The chemical and antifungal properties of the iron(III) and cobalt(II, III) complexes of 2-acetylpyridine4N-diethyl-and4N-diopropylthiosemicarbazones

4N-diethyl- and4N-dipropylthiosemicarbazones of 2-acetylpyridine coordinate to FeIII, CoIII and CoII centres as tridentate NNS ligands. Spectral and physical data indicates that the size of the4N-substituents can influence the stereochemistry and stoichiometry of the complexes, which show minimal ability to inhibit fungal growth and are considerably less active than the related copper(II) and nickel(II) complexes.
Chiral Brønsted base-promoted nitroalkane alkylation: enantioselective synthesis of sec-alkyl-3-substituted indoles.

A Bronsted base-catalyzed reaction of nitroalkanes with alkyl electrophiles provides indole heterocycles substituted at C3 bearing a sec-alkyl group with good enantioselectivity (up to 90% ee). Denitration by hydrogenolysis provides a product with equally high ee. An indolenine intermediate is implicated in the addition step, and surprisingly, water cosolvent was found to have a beneficial effect in this step, leading to a one-pot protocol for elimination/enantioselective addition using PBAM, a bis(amidine) chiral nonracemic base.