cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effective termination of reentrant supraventricular tachycardia by single dose oral combination therapy with pindolol and verapamil.

We evaluated the efficacy of single oral dose combining 20 mg pindolol and 120 mg verapamil in termination of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) in 12 patients with recurrent symptomatic tachycardia. All had electrically inducible SVT lasting longer than 30 minutes. Patients were administered placebo or crushed pindolol and verapamil on 2 consecutive days after tachycardia was electrically induced and allowed to sustain for 30 minutes. With placebo, SVT lasted 186 ± 18 minutes (mean ± SEM); five patients converted spontaneously within 121 to 180 minutes. With pindolol and verapamil, 9 of 12 patients (responders) converted to sinus rhythm within 8 to 74 minutes. The mean duration of SVT in the nine responders was 28 ± 8 minutes compared with 168 ± 20 minutes on placebo (p < 0.001). Before termination, tachycardia rate on pindolol and verapamil slowed significantly from 182 ± 5 to 164 ± 7/min (p < 0.05) compared with no significant change in the rate of SVT on placebo. The mean systolic blood pressure during tachycardia was 97 ± 5 mm Hg with placebo and 101 ± 7 mm Hg with pindolol and verapamil. Serum levels of pindolol and verapamil obtained in seven patients at time of spontaneous termination of tachycardia were 66 ± 13 and 56 ± 14 ng/ml, respectively. The side effects with pindolol and verapamil included lightheadedness in one patient and symptoms of rapid palpitations in three. A single oral dose of pindolol and verapamil is safe and effective in termination of acute paroxysmal SVT and may be the initial therapy of choice in selected patients.
Laparoscopic Colpo-Suspension

AbstractPurpose: The feasibility of using minimally invasive laparoscopic techniques adhering to the surgical principles of management of anatomical stress incontinence was evaluated in 10 women.Materials and Methods: Postoperative performances and early surgical results were compared with those of contemporaneous groups of women undergoing open colpo-suspension or vaginal needle suspension.Results: Laparoscopic colpo-suspension proved to be technically feasible with less postoperative pain and shorter hospitalization.Conclusions: All 3 groups of patients had similar relief from stress incontinence in the early postoperative followup.
Resolution of an actinomycotic abscess with nonsurgical treatment: case report.

A CASE OF actinomycotic brain abscess is presented. Conservative treat­ ment by prolonged administration of antibiotics after needle biopsy showed complete resolution of the abscess. Previously reported cases suggest that definitive treatment requires excision or open surgical drain­ age of the abscess. The case presented suggests an alternative approach to treating this unusual cause of brain abscess. (Neurosurgery 32:134-136, 1993)
Superresolution of binary images with a nonlinear interpolative neural network

Superresolution is the process by which the bandwidth of a diffraction-limited spectrum is extended beyond the optical passband. Many algorithms exist that are capable of superresolution; however, most are iterative methods, which are ill suited for real-time operation. One approach that has been virtually ignored is the neural-network approach. We consider the feedforward architecture known as a multilayer perceptron and present results on simulated binary images blurred by a diffraction-limited, circular-aperture optical transfer function and sampled at the Nyquist rate. To avoid aliasing, the network performs as a nonlinear spatial interpolator while simultaneously extrapolating in the frequency domain.
Magnetization Switching Variations and Transition-Width Limit in Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording

Although stability in magnetic recording usually refers to long-time (years) thermal fluctuation-induced magnetization decay, for short-time dynamic switching (microsecond to nanosecond), the stability issue is shown as magnetization switching variations. Decreased magnetic stability energy usually results in increased switching variations during magnetization reversal. This has important implications for the heat-assisted magnetic recording writing process. Here, we study magnetization switching variations for an ensemble of independent magnetic grains at elevated temperatures. Our results show that thermal fluctuation-induced magnetization switching variation is a major source of switching field distribution at elevated temperature. This inevitably results in magnetization transition width broadening and recording performance degradation. The effects of thermal fluctuation-induced switching field distribution on the recording transition-width limit are discussed.
Stationarity Results for Generating Set Search for Linearly Constrained Optimization

We present a new generating set search (GSS) approach for minimizing functions subject to linear constraints. GSS is a class of direct search optimization methods that includes generalized pattern search. One of our main contributions in this paper is a new condition to define the set of conforming search directions that admits several computational advantages. For continuously differentiable functions we also derive a bound relating a measure of stationarity, which is equivalent to the norm of the gradient of the objective in the unconstrained case, and a parameter used by GSS algorithms to control the lengths of the steps. With the additional assumption that the derivative is Lipschitz, we obtain a big-$O$ bound. As a consequence of this relationship, we obtain subsequence convergence to a KKT point, even though GSS algorithms lack explicit gradient information. Numerical results indicate that the bound provides a reasonable estimate of stationarity.
Conflict, Accommodation, and Bargaining: The Implications of Using Politically Buffered Institutions for Contentious Decision Making

One type of new public management reform has been the devolution of services to quasi-autonomous single purpose governments. This research examines the implications of using a particular type of single purpose government, known as a public authority, in a politically contentious policy setting. Public authorities are generally observed to be highly effective in accomplishing their desired ends in the face of political controversy. However, in examining cases of New York State public authorities siting and developing landfills and incinerators, this research found that they were far less effective than their general purpose government counterparts. The cases suggest that the public authorities created a paradox of power and professionalism. Many public authorities were created to protect professional decision making from political influence, but as a result, they had few resources to bargain in the political process. However, if a public authority had political resources, they had less need to be professional.
Design considerations for a distributed power system

Aspects of integrating subsystems to form a high-performance distributed power system are addressed. Both intermediate bus and system input filters are designed for a two-stage conversion topology to minimize bus interaction and degradation of loop-gains. The effect of a nonideal source on system performance is determined. It is shown that the impedances at the interface bus provide all of the necessary information to determine the location of the integrated system eigenvalues. The system eigenvalues can be determined graphically using the impedance comparison technique. The technique is particularly useful for large-scale systems where analytical equations ar not available. >
Knowledge of Risk Among Patients at Increased Risk for Stroke

Background and Purpose Patients who recognize their increased risk for stroke are more likely to engage in (and comply with) stroke prevention practices than those who do not. We describe perceived risk of stroke among a nationally diverse sample of patients at increased risk for stroke and determine whether patients’ knowledge of their stroke risk varied according to patients’ demographic and clinical characteristics. Methods Respondents were recruited from the Academic Medical Center Consortium (n=621, five academic medical centers, inpatients of varying age); the Cardiovascular Health Study (n=321, population-based sample of persons aged 65+ years); and United HealthCare (n=319, five health plans, inpatients and outpatients typically younger than 65 years). The primary outcome was awareness of being at risk for stroke. Results Only 41% of respondents were aware of their increased risk for stroke (including less than one half of patients with previous minor stroke). Approximately 74% of patients who rec...
But some are more poor than others: SES differences in a preschool program.

A study of a preschool enrichment program underlines the importance of socioeconomic stratification within a poverty group and of subgroup analysis in evaluation of intervention programs. Although initial gains of the experimental group declined, and later comparison of total group means is disappointing, important inter-relations and subgroup differences are associated with three variables: socioeconomic status, sex, and initial IQ score.
Effects of the delta-opioid agonist SNC80 on the abuse liability of methadone in rhesus monkeys: a behavioral economic analysis.

Rationale Delta-opioid agonists enhance the antinociceptive efficacy of methadone and other mu-opioid agonists. However, relatively little is known about the degree to which delta agonists might enhance the abuse-related effects of mu agonists.
Diurnal Patterns of Rainfall in Northwestern South America. Part I: Observations and Context

One of the rainiest areas on earth, the Panama Bight and Pacific (western) littoral of Colombia, is the focal point for a regional modeling study utilizing the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University‐NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM5) with nested grids. In this first of three parts, the observed climatology of the region is presented. The seasonal march of rainfall has a northwest‐southeast axis, with western Colombia near the center, receiving rain throughout the year. This study focuses on the August‐September season. The diurnal cycle of rainfall over land exhibits an afternoon maximum over most of South and Central America, typically composed of relatively small convective cloud systems. Over some large valleys in the Andes, and over Lake Maracaibo, a nocturnal maximum of rainfall is observed. A strong night/morning maximum of rainfall prevails over the coastal ocean, propagating offshore and westward with time. This offshore convection often takes the form of mesoscale convective systems with sizes comparable to the region’s coastal concavities and other geographical features. The 10-day period of these model studies (28 August‐7 September 1998) is shown to be a period of unusually active weather, but with a time-mean rainfall pattern similar to longer-term climatology. It is concluded that the rain-producing processes during this time period are likely to be typical of those that shape the seasonal climatology.
NAVD Symposium '85

The Third International Symposium on the North American Vertical Datum (NAVD Symposium '85 ), hosted by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS), was held at the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Hotel in Rockville, Md., April 21–26, 1985. The first symposium on this subject was held in the Canal Zone in January 1979, while the second was held in Canada in May 1980. NAVD Symposium '85 was sponsored by the International Association of Geodesy and the U.S. Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In addition, the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources, Canada; Pan American Institute of Geography and History; American Geophysical Union; and American Congress on Surveying and Mapping provided support.
Mining Data from Multiple Software Development Projects

A large system often goes through multiple software project development cycles, in part due to changes in operation and development environments. For example, rapid turnover of the development team between releases can influence software quality, making it important to mine software project data over multiple system releases when building defect predictors. Data collection of software attributes are often conducted independent of the quality improvement goals, leading to the availability of a large number of attributes for analysis. Given the problems associated with variations in development process, data collection, and quality goals from one release to another emphasizes the importance of selecting a best-set of software attributes for software quality prediction. Moreover, it is intuitive to remove attributes that do not add to, or have an adverse effect on, the knowledge of the consequent model. Based on real-world software projects’ data, we present a large case study that compares wrapper-based feature ranking techniques (WRT) and our proposed hybrid feature selection (HFS) technique. The comparison is done using both threefold cross-validation (CV) and three-fold cross-validation with risk impact (CVR). It is shown that HFS is better than WRT, while CV is superior to CVR.
Thin-film multilayer Parylene interposer for high-density 3D packaging with embedded capacitors

A novel all-Parylene based multilayer organic interposer for high-density 3D packaging is presented. The multilayer interposer consists of both a thick 50µm Parylene substrate layer as well as thin layers, down to ∼50 nm, which are formed by successive conformal thin-film deposition. The processing of the layers utilizes standard thin film techniques such as photolithography, dielectric/metal deposition, and dry/wet etching. This allow excellent control over feature dimension both vertically (&#60;0.1 µm) and horizontally (&#60; 10 µm). On a multilayer design platform, high-density (∼ 450 pF/mm2) metal-insulator-metal capacitors are implemented with an ultra-thin (47 nm) deposition of Parylene-N as a capacitor dielectric. Capacitances and breakdown voltages are characterized over fabricated capacitors of various sizes. To demonstrate the Parylene stack-up is designed and implemented. For directly transmitted RF power, the rectifier generates 6.35 Volts of DC voltage. This shows the embedding of both the RF capacitors as well as the high valued storage capacitors is successful and applicable to RF power delivery.
Synthesis of piecewise-linear networks

Systematic methods for synthesising nonlinear networks having a prescribed scalar or multidimensional piecewise-linear function are described. In the scalar case, precision active-circuit building blocks using operational amplifiers, transistors, diodes, and resistors are given for realising piecewise-linear drivingpoint and transfer characteristic plots. In the multidimensional case, methods are given for realising a multiterminal nonlinear network having a multidimensional piecewise-linear transfer function. Finally, these methods are generalised for synthesising nonlinear n-ports having a prescribed multidimensional piecewiselinear driving-point function. Although most of the basic building blocks are grounded active networks, convertor networks are developed for transforming such grounded networks into floating networks having the same properties. By slight modifications of these convertor networks, other useful conversion properties are also presented
Suboptimal control of linear tracking systems with time delays

The optimal control solution of a dynamical system with time delays is generally very difficult to obtain. In this paper, a uniformly convergent iterative algorithm is developed to obtain a partially closed-loop suboptimal control function for the time-varying linear tracking system with multiple time delays in both state variables and control variables such that a proposed quadratic cost functional was minimized. The essential feature of this method was to treat the time-delayed functions evaluated from the (K–1)th iteration step as perturbations to the kth optimizing iteration of the non–delayed system. The convergency rate of suboptimal solution was very fast.
Accessing sexual health information online: use, motivations and consequences for youth with different sexual orientations

We examine reasons why youth of different sexual orientations look for sexual health information online, and what, if anything, they do with it. The Teen Health and Technology study involved online surveys of 5542 Internet users, ages 13 through 18 in the United States. Searching for sexual health information online was reported frequently and varied significantly by sexual orientation: from 19% of heterosexual youth to 78% of gay/lesbian/queer youth. The most common reasons youth look for sexual health information is for privacy and curiosity. Sexual minority youth are more likely than heterosexual youth to report that they looked for information online because they did not have anyone to ask. Once youth have the information, no differences by sexual orientation were noted as to what they did with it. Instead, seeking out the information for privacy-related reasons and having no one to ask were related to taking some action on the information received. Findings indicate that online information is most valuable to those youth who lack alternatives. Care needs to be taken to help ensure that the sexual health information online is accurate and includes topics specific to sexual minority youth.
Point-of-care ultrasonography in assessing fluid responsiveness in sepsis patients: sonographer characteristics, noninferential statistics, and study design.

F a i t Editor’s Note: You are reading the 29th installment of Annals of Emergency Medicine Journal Club. This Journal Club refers to the article by Haydar et al that was published in the September 2012 Annals of Emergency Medicine issue. Information about Journal Club can be found at http://www.annemergmed.com/content/journalclub. Readers should recognize that these are suggested answers. We hope they are accurate; we know that they are not comprehensive. There are many other points that could be made about these questions or about the article in general. Questions are rated “novice,” ( ) “intermediate,” ( ) and “advanced” ( ) so that individuals planning a journal club can assign the right question to the right student. The “novice” rating does not imply that a novice should be able to spontaneously answer the question. “Novice” means we expect that someone with little background should be able to do a bit of reading, formulate an answer, and teach the material to others. Intermediate and advanced questions also will likely require some reading and research, and that reading will be sufficiently difficult that some background in clinical epidemiology will be helpful in understanding the reading and concepts. We are interested in receiving feedback about this feature. Please e-mail journalclub@acep.org with your comments.
The Problem-Solving Cycle: A Model to Support the Development of Teachers' Professional Knowledge

This article focuses on the Problem-Solving Cycle (PSC), a model of professional development designed to assist teachers in supporting their students' mathematical reasoning. Each PSC is a series o...
Investigations into a command and response language interface

Access to the variety of resources offered by computer networks is often complicated by the diversity of interfaces and protocols encountered. To overcome this diversity, a command-and-response language interface to a network of heterogeneous systems is proposed. A brief account of previous work in command languages and system interfaces motivates the study of a prototype of the proposed interface. The design, implementation, and lessons learned through the successful realization of the prototype are presented. >
Making Sense and Drawing Lines: Young adults and the mixing of news and entertainment

This study takes a closer look at the blurring of news and entertainment by examining how a sample of media users talk about various sources of current events information. Data from 21 in-depth interviews with young adults indicate that young adults do not hold a single notion of news and its relationship to entertainment. Rather, they draw from a variety of cultural resources at their disposal to either oppose or welcome the mixing of news and entertainment. A typology is developed to describe four distinct outlooks interviewees hold toward the value of news and whether it should be distinguished from entertainment.
Multivariate splines and the Bernstein-Bézier form of a polynomial

This expository paper exhibits the power and versatility of the Bernstein-Bezier form of a polynomial, and the role that it has played in the analysis of multivariate spline spaces. Several particular applications are discussed in some detail. The purpose of the paper is to provide the reader with a working facility with the Bernstein-Bezier form. This is a survey of the Bernstein-Bezier form of a multivariate polynomial.
Ping-Pong and the Traveling Salesman Problem

Racquetball, tennis, and table tennis players know well the tedious task of retrieving the ball. We consider in this article the question whether one can reduce the amount of effort spent retrieving the ball by playing with more balls than one, and if so, by how much. We model the problem as a question about the traveling salesman problem in 2-dimensional Euclidean space with a stochastic aspect. We show that two balls are better than one in the sense that on average, one travels a smaller distance to retrieve the two balls. Continuing this line of thought, we conjecture that having n + 1 balls is better than n balls. In the direction of this conjecture, to be referred to as the “ping-pong conjecture,” we show that n′ balls are better than n balls, for n∣n′, that the ping-pong conjecture holds when the balls are not likely to land far from one another, and that it holds in the 1-dimensional case with the balls landing on one side of the origin almost surely.
Short Time-Interval Rainfall Disaggregation for Continuous Hydrologic Simulation

Traditionally design storms have been used to design and analyze urban drainage systems and hydraulic structures. Design storms can be developed with the desi…
Microwave Heating of Liquid Foods

Time-temperature profiles in model Newtonian and non-Newtonian liquid foods in cylindrical containers were studied. Dimensional analysis was used to develop prediction models based on the variables that govern microwave heating of liquid foods. A flow visualization technique was used to investigate the flow patterns in the heated liquid samples.
Autism, Mitochondria and Polybrominated Diphenyl Ether Exposure

Author(s): Wong, Sarah; Giulivi, Cecilia | Abstract: BackgroundAutism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a growing concern with more than 1 in every 68 children affected in the United States by age 8. Limited scientific advances have been made regarding the etiology of autism, with general agreement that both genetic and environmental factors contribute to this disorder.ObjectiveTo explore the link between exposure to PBDE, mitochondrial dysfunction and autism risk.ResultsPerinatal exposures to PBDEs may contribute to the etiology or morbidity of ASD including mitochondrial dysfunction based on (i) their increased environmental abundance and human exposures, (ii) their activity towards implicated in neuronal development and synaptic plasticity including mitochondria, and (iii) their bioaccumulation in mitochondria.ConclusionIn this review, we propose that PBDE, and possibly other environmental exposures, during child development can induce or compound mitochondrial dysfunction, which in conjunction with a dysregulated antioxidant response, increase a child's susceptibility of autism.
Changes in orthodontists' retirement planning and practice operations due to the recent recession.

The survey comprised 37 questions regarding demographics, the effects of the recent recession, retirement and transition planning, and advice for young orthodontists. The study was approved by the institutional review board of A.T. Still Univer -sity, administered by the AAO Graduate Research program, and sponsored by the AAO’s Partnership in Research program.The questionnaire was e-mailed in October 2013 to 2,300 randomly selected AAO members in the United States, using SurveyMonkey.com. Over the next three months, three reminder e-mails were sent to those who had not yet responded. No compensation or other incentives were offered for completing the survey, which was completely anonymous. A total of 224 orthodontists replied, for a response rate of 9.7%.
What is Raining? English Weather "it" Revisited

Weather expressions like “it is raining” encode events in which it is difficult to identify distinct thematic participants. While the “it” of English weather expressions is often analyzed as an expletive subject that is not semantically selected by the verb, other authors argue that “it” is referential or semi-referential (Bolinger 1973, Chomsky 1981). Here, I provide new evidence that weather “it” is semantically contentful, differing from true expletives. Further, I argue that weather verbs like “rain” and “snow” form a class with verbs of substance emission like “gush” and “drip” (Levin 1993) based on their analogous semantic and syntactic behavior.
Approaches of Acomys cahirinus to conspecifics of varying consanguinity

To obtain spiny mice (Acomys cahirinus) for study, one male sired litters with two females in the same enclosure. During postpartum estrus, a second litter was obtained, permitting a comparison of the offspring of the same sire and different females with the offspring of the same sire and female. Eighteen spiny mice were presented with familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics of various kinship. Latency of approach and time spent with the presented animal were recorded. Generally, most of the differences in the responses were not significant. However, there was a tendency for responses to be quicker to unfamiliar/ unrelated conspecifics
Hypothetical Plant-Mammal Small RNA Communication: Packaging and Stoichiometry

The dietary RNA hypothesis suggests that intact foreign RNAs from food can enter the ingesting organism and potentially function, for example, to silence endogenous transcripts. Studies of mammalian uptake have focused mostly on short RNA molecules known as microRNAs (miRNAs), or “xenomiRs ” to denote their foreign origin. Enthusiasm about absorption and function of plant xenomiRs has been diminished by negative findings and evidence of contamination and experimental design flaws that account for apparently positive results. Nevertheless, some funding groups, regulatory agencies, and scientists remain interested and invested in the topic. Despite the relative lack of accepted evidence for the hypothesis, this interest is likely to continue into the foreseeable future. It may thus be helpful to identify questions that must be answered if, in the future, mammalian dietary RNA uptake and function are to be proven. Here, I examine packaging and stoichiometry considerations for potential plant-mammal RNA communication.
Dielectric Performance of High Permitivity Nanocomposites: Impact of Polystyrene Grafting on BaTiO3 and TiO2

AbstractPolymer nanocomposites are a promising concept to improve energy storage density of capacitors, but realizing their hypothetical gains has proved challenging. The introduction of high permittivity fillers often leads to reduction in breakdown strength due to field exclusion, which intensifies the applied electric field within the polymer matrix near nanoparticle interfaces. This has prompted research in developing new nanoparticle functionalization chemistries and processing concepts to maximize particle separation. Herein, we compare the dielectric performance of blended nanocomposites to matrix free assemblies of hairy (polymer grafted) nanoparticles (HNPs) that exhibit comparable overall morphology. The dielectric breakdown strength of polystyrene grafted BaTiO3 (PS@BaTiO3) systems was over 40% greater than a blended nanocomposite with similar loading (~25% v/v BaTiO3). Hairy nanoparticles with TiO2 cores followed similar trends in breakdown strength as a function of inorganic loading up to 40%...
Do green packages lead to misperceptions? The influence of package colors on consumers’ perceptions of brands with environmental claims

Consumers need accurate information about brands’ environmental impacts to guide their purchase decisions. Researchers have studied consumers’ perceptions of green products and marketers’ environmental claims. Policy makers provide guidelines to minimize deceptiveness of environmental claims. Yet, little attention has been paid to what contextual cues can influence consumers’ judgments of environmental claims and green products. Drawing on conceptual fluency theory, the current research proposes that a color that matches the content of a message makes the information easier to process, thereby increasing the appeal of the message. The authors demonstrate that using the color green on a product’s package can enhance consumers’ perceptions of the brand’s environmental impact. Ironically, this positive effect of green can also lead to consumers’ misperceptions of the brand’s environmental impact if green is used for brands that are not environmentally superior. Implications and suggestions for policy makers, marketers, and consumers are provided.
Characterization of single airborne particle extinction using the tunable optical trap-cavity ringdown spectroscopy (OT-CRDS) in the UV

We integrated a rigid optical trap into a tunable pulsed cavity ringdown spectroscopy (OT-CRDS) system to characterize the extinction of single airborne particles in the UV spectral region (306-315 nm). Single solid particles from a multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT), Bermuda grass smut spore, carbon microsphere, and blackened polyethylene microsphere were trapped in air based on the photophoretic force. The improved OT-CRDS system was highly sensitive and able to resolve extinctions of single particles from different materials and sizes at a given wavelength. Further, we successfully manipulated the number of particles, e.g., 1, 2 or more particles, in the trap and measured their distinguishable extinctions using the OT-CRDS. We also show that the particle size and extinction have a good linear correlation from the measurements of 24 single MWCNT particles. Material- and wavelength-dependent extinctions of the four types of airborne particles were also characterized. Results reveal that single airborne particles regardless of their differences in material and size, due to their heterogeneous morphology, have individual-particle dependent extinctions and that dependence can be resolved and characterized using the OT-CRDS technique.
The Comparative Endurance and Legacy of Morocco’s Royal Nation

For many decades, social scientists in the West and the Arab world have assumed the irrelevance of the Moroccan monarchy, a patrilineal governing dynasty that traces its rule back to the seventeenth century and its roots to Prophet Mohammed’s bloodline. Yet, despite a lack of oil money and economic prosperity associated with today’s petro-monarchies in the Arab Gulf, the Moroccan monarchy has headed one of the Arab world’s more stable political systems. How has this happened? I offer two primary answers: (1) the association of Morocco’s nationalist anti-colonial movement with the monarchy and (2) the monarchy’s long-term self-promotion as an Islamic regime, which has provided it with a degree of prophylaxis against both Islamist violence and liberal opposition. French colonial politics had a backfire effect of contributing to the above factors. The three generations of Moroccan kings who have ruled since independence in 1956 have all stuck to the nationalist Islamist script, while allowing modest degrees of sociopolitical pluralism. This has shielded these kings from requiring the extensive authoritarian coercion deployed by many of their non-monarchical Arab peers. Simultaneously, the monarchy’s self-association with nationalism and Islam has allowed it to repress popular political opposition, when co-option seemed unlikely.
Functional Analysis of Microrna Pathway Genes in the Somatic Gonad and Germ Cells During Ovulation in C. Elegans

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression that play critical roles in animal development and physiology, though functions for most miRNAs remain unknown. Worms with reduced miRNA biogenesis due to loss of Drosha or Pasha/DGCR8 activity are sterile and fail to ovulate, indicating that miRNAs are required for the process of oocyte maturation and ovulation. Starting with this penetrant sterile phenotype and using new strains created to perform tissue specific RNAi, we characterized the roles of the C. elegans Pasha, pash-1, and two miRNA-specific Argonautes, alg-1 and alg-2, in somatic gonad cells and in germ cells in the regulation of ovulation. Conditional loss of pash-1 activity resulted in a reduced rate of ovulation and in basal and ovulatory sheath contractions. Similarly, knockdown of miRNA-specific Argonautes in the cells of the somatic gonad by tissue-specific RNAi results in a reduction of the ovulation rate and in basal and ovulatory sheath contractions. Reduced miRNA pathway gene activity resulted in a range of defects, including oocytes that were pinched upon entry of the oocyte into the distal end of the spermatheca in about 42% of the ovulation events observed following alg-1 RNAi. This phenotype was not observed on worms exposed to control RNAi. In contrast, knockdown of alg-1 and alg-2 in germ cells results in few defects in oocyte maturation and ovulation. These data identify specific steps in the process of ovulation that require miRNA pathway gene activity in the somatic gonad cells.
A Population Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Analysis of Abemaciclib in a Phase I Clinical Trial in Cancer Patients.

Background and Objectives Abemaciclib, a dual inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6, has demonstrated clinical activity in a number of different cancer types. The objectives of this study were to characterize the pharmacokinetics of abemaciclib in cancer patients using population pharmacokinetic (popPK) modeling, and to evaluate target engagement at clinically relevant dose levels.
Facile single-stranded DNA sequencing of human plasma DNA via thermostable group II intron reverse transcriptase template switching

High-throughput single-stranded DNA sequencing (ssDNA-seq) of cell-free DNA from plasma and other bodily fluids is a powerful method for non-invasive prenatal testing, and diagnosis of cancers and other diseases. Here, we developed a facile ssDNA-seq method, which exploits a novel template-switching activity of thermostable group II intron reverse transcriptases (TGIRTs) for DNA-seq library construction. This activity enables TGIRT enzymes to initiate DNA synthesis directly at the 3′ end of a DNA strand while simultaneously attaching a DNA-seq adapter without end repair, tailing, or ligation. Initial experiments using this method to sequence E. coli genomic DNA showed that the TGIRT enzyme has surprisingly robust DNA polymerase activity. Further experiments showed that TGIRT-seq of plasma DNA from a healthy individual enables analysis of nucleosome positioning, transcription factor-binding sites, DNA methylation sites, and tissues-of-origin comparably to established methods, but with a simpler workflow that captures precise DNA ends.
Infection Incidence Associated with External Ventriculostomy Placement: A Comparison of Outcomes in the Emergency Department, Intensive Care Unit, and Operating Room.

Background External ventricular drain (EVD) placement is a common neurosurgical procedure used to control acute hydrocephalus and other neurosurgical complications. The infection and complication rates reported in the literature are highly variable, and iatrogenic factors determine the outcome of drain placement. We examined the impact of the setting of EVD placement (emergency department [ED] vs. intensive care unit [ICU] vs. operating room [OR]) and the experience of the operating surgeon on the infection rate, complication rate, EVD replacement, eventual placement of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt, and the need for further surgical intervention. Methods This was a retrospective, single-center study conducted at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey. Results A total of 190 EVDs were placed in 163 patients. The infection rate was 6.13%, and the complication rate was 12.3%. Six out of the 10 patients with infection had the EVD placed in the ICU, but this was not significant (P = 0.1172). Patients with a Glasgow Outcome Scale score of 1 or 2 (dead or vegetative) after the procedure were significantly more likely to have an EVD placed in the ED or ICU (P = 0.0173). Although junior residents placed a greater number of drains than senior residents, the infection and complication rates were not significantly different between the 2 groups (P = 0.1142 and 0.8502, respectively). EVD infection also was not significantly correlated with patient sex, age, initial diagnosis, drain replacement, or duration of drain placement. The most common organisms cultured were coagulase-negative Staphylococcus spp. and Staphylococcus aureus. Conclusions This study did not identify any significantly greater risk of infection or complications with EVDs placed in the OR or at the bedside, or with EVDs placed by less-experienced surgeons.
Stability of high-bandwidth power electronic systems with transmission lines

In most distributed power electronic systems, the transmission line effects associated with cabling are neglected due to the expectation that cables are sufficiently short to be modeled as a lumped parameter model. However, as converter switching speeds and control bandwidth increase, especially in large distributed power electronic based systems, the transmission line effects may become an important consideration when establishing margins of stability. In this work, immittance based stability analysis is applied to power electronic systems with long cables between source and load converter. In particular, the Energy Systems Analysis Consortium (ESAC) method is utilized to compute limits on cable length so as to maintain prescribed stability margins. Simulation results are presented in support of the approach.
Distributed efficient multimodal data clustering

Clustering of multimodal data according to their information content is considered in this paper. Statistical correlations present in data that contain similar information are exploited to perform the clustering task. Specifically, multiset canonical correlation analysis is equipped with norm-one regularization mechanisms to identify clusters within different types of data that share the same information content. A pertinent minimization formulation is put forth, while block coordinate descent is employed to derive a batch clustering algorithm which achieves better clustering performance than existing alternatives. Distributed implementations are also considered to cluster spatially clustered data utilizing the alternating direction method of multipliers. Relying on subgradient descent, an online clustering approach is derived which substantially lowers computational complexity compared to the batch approaches. Numerical tests demonstrate that the proposed schemes outperform existing alternatives.
A Sibling-Mediated Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Using the Natural Language Paradigm (NLP)

We taught three typically developing siblings to occasion speech by implementing the Natural Language Paradigm (NLP) with their brothers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A non-concurrent multiple baseline design across children with ASD and sibling dyads was used. Ancillary behaviors of happiness, play, and joint attention for the children with ASD were recorded. Generalization of speech for the children with ASD across setting and peers was also measured. During baseline, the children with ASD displayed few target speech behaviors and the siblings inconsistently occasioned speech from their brothers. After sibling training, however, they successfully delivered NLP, and in turn, for two of the brothers with ASD, speech reached criterion. Implications of this research suggest the inclusion of siblings in interventions.
Chapter 14--looking forward to breathing

I provide a personal view of the developments since ~1986 that underlie the contemporary view(s) about how the rhythm of breathing is generated and how the pattern of breathing is modulated. Two sites in the mammalian brainstem are likely to participate in respiratory rhythm generation: the preBotzinger Complex (preBotC), first described and intensely investigated since 1990, plays a well-documented essential role in normal breathing in mammals of all ages and may be principally involved in controlling inspiratory motor activity, and the retrotrapezoid/parafacial respiratory group (RTN/pFRG) that appears to play at least a modulatory role in neonatal and juvenile rodents and may be a conditional oscillator that controls active expiration.
Canine distemper virus-associated encephalitis: Modification by passive antibody administration

Gnotobiotic puppies were intraperitoneally infected with R252-canine distemper virus (CDV), and treated with normal serum (NS) or CDV-specific antibody. Resultant central nervous system (CNS) lesions were evaluated by light and immunofluorescence microscopy. Lesions in NS-treated dogs, if present, consisted of small foci of neuronal degeneration and accompanying microgliosis, restricted to grey matter of the frontal lobe. Dogs receiving anti-CDV antibody, in contrast, had extensive lesions in the brain. Laminar cortical necrosis, gliosis and astrocytic activation of the grey matter of the frontal lobe was the most consistent lesion observed. In addition, foci of cerebellar granule cell layer degeneration and necrosis was seen along with segmental poliomalacia of the spinal cord. In several dogs, eosinophilic intracytoplasmic and intranuclear viral inclusion bodies were observed in neurons. The lesions observed in these dogs are compared to previously reported lesions of CDV infection in dogs.
PREDICTING BEHAVIOR OF PHYLLOSPHERE BACTERIA IN THE GROWTH CHAMBER FROM FIELD STUDIES

Greenhouse and growth chamber have served the plant sciences well. Use of a controlled environment facilitates experimental manipulation, diminishes environmental variability and provides the means to separate variables and test hypotheses. Such fundamental studies as those that led to the discovery and/or elucidation of mechanisms of phenomena such as photoperiodism, phototropism, photosynthesis, phytohormones and many others were greatly facilitated by use of controlled environmental facilities. The eminent success of such an approach for many aspects of plant-microbe interactions is well documented. For example, screening for resistance to a number of diseases has been successfully conducted in controlled environments for decades.
Integrated combs drive extreme data rates

A chip-based optical frequency comb source has now been successfully used to send 661 Tbit s–1 over 9.6 km of multicore fibre, bringing considerable savings in the energy consumption and size of data transmission equipment.
Data-Driven Elasticity Imaging Using Cartesian Neural Network Constitutive Models and the Autoprogressive Method

Quasi-static elasticity imaging techniques rely on model-based mathematical inverse methods to estimate mechanical parameters from force–displacement measurements. These techniques introduce simplifying assumptions that preclude exploration of unknown mechanical properties with potential diagnostic value. We previously reported a data-driven approach to elasticity imaging using artificial neural networks (NNs) that circumvents limitations associated with model-based inverse methods. NN constitutive models can learn stress–strain behavior from force–displacement measurements using the autoprogressive (AutoP) method without prior assumptions of the underlying constitutive model. However, information about internal structure was required. We invented Cartesian NN constitutive models (CaNNCMs) that learn the spatial variations of material properties. We are presenting the first implementation of CaNNCMs trained with AutoP to develop data-driven models of 2-D linear-elastic materials. Both simulated and experimental force–displacement data were used as input to AutoP to show that CaNNCMs are able to model both continuous and discrete material property distributions with no prior information of internal object structure. Furthermore, we demonstrate that CaNNCMs are robust to measurement noise and can reconstruct reasonably accurate Young’s modulus images from a sparse sampling of measurement data. CaNNCMs are an important step toward clinical use of data-driven elasticity imaging using AutoP.
Voriconazole-associated periostitis presenting as hypertrophic osteoarthropathy following lung transplantation report of two cases and review of the literature.

Abstract Background Hypertrophic osteoarthropathy (HOA) is a syndrome characterized by abnormal proliferation of skin and osseous tissue frequently associated with underlying pulmonary disorders. Cardinal features include digital clubbing, periostitis and significant joint and bone pain. A number of recent reports have emerged of HOA and periostitis occurring in association with the antifungal agent voriconazole. Methods We present two additional cases of voriconazole-induced HOA and periostitis in lung transplant recipients with a review the medical literature. Results In both cases, symptoms were painful and severe enough to require opioid medication. Rapid improvement occurred within days of voriconazole cessation. A review of existing literature revealed an additional 17 cases of voriconazole-induced HOA and periostitis in lung transplant patients. Conclusion We highlight the importance of recognizing the association of voriconazole with painful HOA and periostitis in lung transplant patients receiving antifungal therapy. Management of this painful condition involves cessation of voriconazole therapy, which may necessitate alternative anti-fungal drug therapies as well as adjustment of immunosuppressive drug dosage since voriconazole is a strong drug-inducer.
Interactions of Deep Structures during Seizures in Man

The question raised at this symposium relates to the mechanisms by which electrical seizure discharge spreads within the brain and to the question whether any of this spread merits the name of “synchronization” in the absolute meaning of the word. Exact synchrony would demand either that the underlying neuronal mechanism be by volume conduction or that a single deeply situated trigger zone could activate many regions of the cortex, even in the two hemispheres, through fibre tracts and synaptic relays having precisely the same rate of conduction.