cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Treatment of Hepatitis C: A Systematic Review

Importance Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects more than 185 million individuals worldwide. Twenty percent of patients chronically infected with HCV progress to cirrhosis. New, simpler therapeutics using direct-acting antivirals that target various stages of the HCV life cycle are in development to eradicate HCV without concomitant interferon. Objectives To summarize published evidence on safety, efficacy (measured by a sustained virologic response [SVR], which is the treatment goal of undetectable plasma HCV RNA 12 or 24 weeks after therapy completion), and tolerability of current US Food and Drug Administration–approved interferon-based regimens and oral interferon-free regimens used for treating HCV infection and coinfection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and HCV; to provide treatment recommendations for specialists and generalists based on published evidence. Evidence Review A literature search of Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, Agricola, Cochrane Library, Cinahl Plus, ClinicalTrials.gov, Conference Papers Index, Gideon, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, and Oaister was conducted from January 1, 2009, to May 30, 2014. Publications describing phase 2, 3, and 4 studies evaluating the treatment of HCV were included. Forty-one studies involving 19 063 adult patients were included. Strength of clinical data and subsequent HCV treatment recommendations were graded according to the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine. Findings Patients infected with HCV genotype 1 represent 60% to 75% of HCV infections in the United States. Hepatitis C virus genotype 1 is more difficult to cure than genotype 2 or genotype 3. Patients with HCV genotype 1 should receive treatment with sofosbuvir + pegylated interferon + ribavirin because of the shorter duration of therapy and high rates of SVR (89%-90%). Simeprevir + pegylated interferon + ribavirin is an alternative for patients with HCV genotype 1 (SVR, 79%-86%). Patients with HCV genotypes 2 and 3, representing 20% to 29% of US HCV infections, should receive therapy with sofosbuvir + ribavirin alone (SVR for genotype 2, 12 weeks’ duration: 82%-93%; SVR for genotype 3, 24 weeks’ duration, 80%-95%). Patients with HIV-HCV coinfection and patients with compensated cirrhosis (ie, cirrhosis but preserved synthetic liver function) should receive the same treatment as HCV-monoinfected patients. Conclusions and Relevance New, short-duration, simpler therapies result in high SVR rates for HCV-infected patients. In conjunction with increased screening for HCV as suggested by recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, availability of new therapies may lead to the treatment of many more people with chronic HCV infection.
Inversion of a radiative transfer model for estimating forest lai from multisource and multi-angular optical remote sensing data based on ANN

A new forest leaf area index (LAI) inversion method from multisource and multi-angle data combined with radiative transfer model and the strategy of k-means clustering and artificial neural network (ANN) was discussed. The four different temporal satellite images of Landsat-5 TM (L5TM) and Beijing-1 microsatellite multispectral sensors (BJ1) were selected to construct multisource and multi-angle data. Considering the vertical distribution of forest LAI for trees and understory vegetation, the hybrid model of the invertible forest reflectance model (INFORM) was used to support the retrieval forest LAI to eliminate the dependence of understory vegetation. Through the validation of inverted results with MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) LAI product and field measurements, it can be concluded that the accuracy of inversion forest LAI can be improved through adding up observation angle data, if the quality of data were ensured. The inversion accuracy for multi-angle data was improved 20% than the average accuracy of single-angle data inversion of LAI.
Dietary protein as a risk factor in gentamicin nephrotoxicity

The effects of dietary protein on renal function and structure, both prior to and after initiation of daily gentamicin treatment, were investigated. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were pair-fed on low-protein (LP, 5%), normal-protein (NP, 20%), or high-protein (HP, 60%) diets for 10 days prior to gentamicin treatment. Gentamicin was administered as daily subcutaneous injections (150 mg/kg) for 6 days. Immediately after beginning daily gentamicin injections some of the rats on NP diets were switched to LP or HP diets, and some of the rats on HP diets were switched to LP diets. Renal function was monitored by evaluating serum creatinine levels and 24-h urine volumes; renal histology was evaluated by light and electron microscopy; and gentamicin uptake was determined using radioimmunoassay. Our findings indicate that conditioning to higher dietary protein prior to gentamicin administration results in less uptake of gentamicin by the kidneys. If rats on HP diets are placed on LP coincident with gentamicin administr...
DETECTION OF VIABLE BACTERIA CELLS BY BIOLUMINESCENCE: A BIOENERGETIC APPROACH'

The cellular ATP content of fourteen freshly harvested bacteria including Bacillus, Campylobacter, Citrobacter, Escherichia, Lactobacillus, Listeria, Pediococcus, Pseudomonas, Salmonella, Streptococcus and Yersinia, was determined using a luciferin-Iuciferase bioluminescence approach. Incubation of bacteria with carbonyl cyanide meta-chlorophenyl hydrazone (CCCP), a membrane protonophore, prior to cell breakage substantially lowered the bioluminescence signals indicating a decrease of cellular ATP content. The addition of CCCP afrer cell breakage had no detectable effect on the ATP levels. This differential effect of CCCP was not observed using heat-killed bacteria, i.e., the ATP content was not affected by CCCP incubation. The CCCP egects on cellular ATP level were detectable in bacterial suspensions with concentrations ranging from 106 to Id CFU/mL. Upon cold storage, the ATP content, but not the population of viable bacteria, decreased. The ATP content could be paaially restored by the addition of glucose. The ATP content restored by the addition of glucose was also sensitive to CCCP treatment. These results demonstrated that viable bacterial cells can be differentiated from dead cells by their responses to membrane protonophores.
Novel Score Predicting Gastrostomy Tube Placement in Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Background and Purpose—Dysphagia after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) contributes significantly to morbidity, often necessitating placement of a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube. This study describes a novel risk prediction score for PEG placement after ICH. Methods—We retrospectively analyzed data from 234 patients with ICH presenting during a 4-year period. One hundred eighty-nine patients met inclusion criteria. The sample was randomly divided into a development and a validation cohort. Logistic regression was used to develop a risk score by weighting predictors of PEG placement based on strength of association. Results—Age (odds ratio [OR], 1.64 per 10-year increase in age; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02–2.65), black race (OR, 3.26; 95% CI, 0.96–11.05), Glasgow Coma Scale (OR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.62–1.03), and ICH volume (OR, 1.38 per 10-mL increase in ICH volume) were independent predictors of PEG placement. The final model for score development achieved an area under the curve of 0.791...
Hpr6.6 protein mediates cell death from oxidative damage in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) cause cell death and are associated with a variety of maladies, from trauma and infection to organ degeneration and cancer. Cells mount a complex response to oxidative damage that includes signaling from transmembrane receptors and intracellular kinases. We have analyzed the response to oxidative damage in human breast cancer cells expressing the Hpr6.6 (human membrane progesterone receptor) protein. Although Hpr6.6 is related to a putative progesterone-binding protein, Hpr6.6 is widely expressed in epithelial tissues and shares close homology with a budding yeast damage response protein called Dap1p (damage response protein related to membrane progesterone receptor). We report here that the Hpr6.6 protein regulates the response to oxidative damage in breast cancer cells. Expression of Hpr6.6 in MCF-7 cells sensitized the cells to death following long-term/low dose or short-term/high dose treatment with hydrogen peroxide. Cell death did not occur through a typical apoptotic mechanism and corresponded with hyperphosphorylation of the Akt and IκB proteins. However, inhibition of Akt activation and IκB degradation had no effect on Hpr6.6-mediated cell death, suggesting that Hpr6.6 regulates cell death through a novel oxidative damage response pathway. Our work indicates a key regulatory function for Hpr6.6 in epithelial tissues exposed to oxidative damage. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Optimization of electroless Ni–Zn–P deposition process: experimental study and mathematical modeling

A mathematical model based on mixed potential theory was developed which was used to optimize a non-anomalous Ni–Zn–P electroless deposition process developed by us at USC. The model was developed by assuming an adsorption step in addition to the electrochemical steps. The concentrations of the Zn and Ni complex were estimated by solving the material balances in addition to the electroneutrality condition and the equilibrium relations. The composition of the coating was estimated from the partial current densities of all charge transfer reactions, which occur at the electrode–electrolyte interface. The model results showed that the adsorption plays a significant role in the alloy deposition process. From the model results, it was seen that the addition of Zn ions to the bath inhibits the deposition rate by changing the surface coverage of the adsorbed electroactive species on the electrode surface. The model indicated that an increase of pH of the bath increases the alloy deposition rate. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Type- B aurora in the Antarctic

Abstract Spectrograms obtained in the Antarctic during 1957 of aurorae with red lower borders are described. The outstanding feature of this type of aurora is an enhancement of the first positive system of N2. A reaction of mutual neutralization of the N2+ molecule by the O2− negative ion is proposed to account for the observed enhancement. Assuming optimum values for rate coefficients and an altitude of 70 km, mutual neutralization will proceed with a time constant of the order of 1 sec, consistent with the observed short life time of type-B aurora. The observed enhancements of the first negative system of O2+ and of sodium “D” are also postulated as resulting from the penetration of an energetic beam of electrons to the 70–90 km level of the D-region. A monoenergetic beam of electrons and protons of 240 keV is compatible with the elevations of homogeneous arcs and type-B aurora. Other possible excitation mechanisms for type B are discussed.
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Pediatrics

A 16-year-old Hispanic girl with an elevated body mass index in an otherwise normal state of health presented for her well-child examination. She had signs of metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance including increased waist circumference and acanthosis nigricans. Laboratory results revealed elevated transaminases with otherwise normal hepatic function. Based on the physical examination and laboratory results, she was diagnosed with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). After further evaluation, she eventually underwent a liver biopsy. The biopsy revealed nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with stage 2 fibrosis. This article reviews the definition of NAFLD and NASH, an increasingly prevalent cause of pediatric chronic liver disease associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome. The article also outlines the epidemiology, risk factors, and natural history of NAFLD, which may help identify and prevent high-risk pediatric patients from progressing to irreversible liver disease. Understanding the diagnostic and treatment options offers the best chance at preventing and reversing the early stages of this disease.
Absorption saturation in commercial and quantum-confine CdSexS 1− x-doped glasses

The optical nonlinearity of commercial and experimental CdSexS1−x glasses has been studied using a single-beam absorption saturation technique employing 1−5-psec pulses. Glasses showing strong three-dimensional quantum-confinement effects were found to be more difficult to saturate than glasses with larger crystallites that exhibit bulk crystallike optical properties. The effect of anion stoichiometry on the nonlinearity was also studied in non-quantum-confined glasses. Within the range 0.48 < x ≤ 1.0, little difference in nonlinearity was observed.
The Short-Term “Bridge Model” Study Abroad Program: Peacebuilding in Latin America

The conventional wisdom about political science international education assumes that students choose between short “island” study abroad programs that are accessible but have only superficial impact, and longer immersion programs, achieving a greater effect. This article argues that well-designed study abroad programs can combine the best of both models to achieve significant impact even in a short program. It proposes a “bridge model” for reconceptualizing study abroad not as a discrete event with more or less impact on student learning, but as a key intervention that furthers a student's overall development within an internationalized curriculum. The article examines the case of a peacebuilding study abroad program in Ecuador. It measures alumni perceptions of impact, objective outcomes, and alumni network development. The key finding is that solid program design and structured cross-cultural interaction produces the type of long-term effect and networks traditionally associated with immersion programs.
Investigation of the spalling resistance of high-temperature materials

A new device was developed for testing the thermal-shock resistance (spalling resistance) of refractory materials.
Airborne hexamethylene diisocyanate and particulate matter exposures during fire/rescue vehicle ladder finishing operations.

In 2004, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) received a health hazard evaluation (HHE) request from the management of a steel ladder fabrication plant to evaluate empl...
Reduced global functional connectivity of the medial prefrontal cortex in major depressive disorder.

BACKGROUND Major depressive disorder is a disabling neuropsychiatric condition that is associated with disrupted functional connectivity across brain networks. The precise nature of altered connectivity, however, remains incompletely understood. The current study was designed to examine the coherence of large-scale connectivity in depression using a recently developed technique termed global brain connectivity. METHODS A total of 82 subjects, including medication-free patients with major depression (n = 57) and healthy volunteers (n = 25) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging with resting data acquisition for functional connectivity analysis. Global brain connectivity was computed as the mean of each voxel's time series correlation with every other voxel and compared between study groups. Relationships between global connectivity and depressive symptom severity measured using the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale were examined by means of linear correlation. RESULTS Relative to the healthy group, patients with depression evidenced reduced global connectivity bilaterally within multiple regions of medial and lateral prefrontal cortex. The largest between-group difference was observed within the right subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, extending into ventromedial prefrontal cortex bilaterally (Hedges' g = -1.48, P < 0.000001). Within the depressed group, patients with the lowest connectivity evidenced the highest symptom severity within ventromedial prefrontal cortex (r = -0.47, P = 0.0005). CONCLUSIONS Patients with major depressive evidenced abnormal large-scale functional coherence in the brain that was centered within the subgenual cingulate cortex, and medial prefrontal cortex more broadly. These data extend prior studies of connectivity in depression and demonstrate that functional disconnection of the medial prefrontal cortex is a key pathological feature of the disorder. Hum Brain Mapp 37:3214-3223, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Susceptibility to Esophageal Cancer Associated with Genetic and Environmental Factors

[Objective]To evaluate the role of genetic and environmental factors on the occurrence of esophageal cancer, to analyze the gene-environment interaction,and to construct a model of susceptibility to esophageal cancer. [Methods] 97 patients having newly diagnosed,untreated esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC)and 97 healthy controls matched with cases on age,sex,nation and residence were recruited in the case-control study. Genetic polymorphisms of metabolic enzyme genes and DNA repair genes were determined with PCR-RFLP and multiplex PCR technique. Expression levels of 11 genes were measured by quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR. A logistic regression analysis was performed for evaluating susceptibility to esophageal cancer. [Results] 10 independent variables were taken in the optimization logistic regression model for evaluating susceptibility to esophageal cancer. In the model there were 2 environmental variables(including intake of eggs with OR=0.728, and history of drinking non-tap water with OR=3.469),2 genetic polymorphism variables(including GSTM1 null genotype with OR=2.323,and GSTT1 null genotype with OR=2.443),5 aberrant gene expression variables(including increased expression of CYP2E1 with OR=0.647,reduced expression of GSTP1 with OR=1.290,reduced expression of MTHFR with OR=1.378, reduced expression of hMSH2 with OR=1.276,and reduced expression of MGMT with OR=1.505)and 1 interaction item(i.e. the interaction between environmental pollution around the residential areas and reduced expression of MGMT with OR=1.170). [Conclusion] Esophageal cancer is associated with genetic and environmental factors. The model of susceptibility to esophageal cancer will help to construct the screening project for high-risk population of esophageal cancer.
Análisis estructural RMN 1D y 2D del 1 - fenil - 3 - metil - 2 - pirazolín - 5 - ona - 4 - etoxicarbonil: Cálculo de constante de fuerza y longitud de enlace del par u-o en el complejo de uranilo

Se ha realizado el analisis estructural del 1–fenil–3–metil–2–pirazolin–5–ona–4–etoxicarbonil (PirC2) mediante dos tecnicas de RMN bidimensional, la HSQC y la HMBC, las que ayudaron a dilucidar la interaccion entre los atomos de carbono e hidrogeno presentes en la molecula organica. Se hizo interaccionar este compuesto con una sal de uranilo con el fin de probar la posible formacion del respectivo compuesto complejo. Utilizando el espectro vibracional se logro determinar la constante de fuerza y la longitud del enlace de los atomos de uranio y oxigeno en el UO2 2+ presente en el complejo, utilizando el modelo de Badger modificado por Jones.
Towards developing a compact model for magnetization switching in straintronics magnetic random access memory devices

Strain-mediated magnetization switching in a magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) by exploiting a combination of piezoelectricity and magnetostriction has been proposed as an energy efficient alternative to spin transfer torque (STT) and field induced magnetization switching methods in MTJ-based magnetic random access memories (MRAM). Theoretical studies have shown the inherent advantages of strain-assisted switching, and the dynamic response of the magnetization has been modeled using the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation. However, an attempt to use LLG for simulating dynamics of individual elements in large-scale simulations of multi-megabyte straintronics MRAM leads to extremely time-consuming calculations. Hence, a compact analytical solution, predicting the flipping delay of the magnetization vector in the nanomagnet under stress, combined with a liberal approximation of the LLG dynamics in the straintronics MTJ, can lead to a simplified model of the device suited for fast large-scale simulations o...
A scalable hybrid network monitoring architecture for measuring, characterizing, and tracking internet threat dynamics

Networks are increasingly subjected to threats that affect the reliability of critical infrastructure, including Distributed Denial of Service attacks, scanning worms, and botnets. These threats pose significant challenges to measurement infrastructure due to their global scope, extreme scale, and dynamic behavior. As a result, current techniques do not provide sufficiently early or comprehensive intelligence about these attacks. In order to address the problem of providing timely, detailed forensic information on new Internet threats we propose a hybrid system that combines the benefits of network-based and host-based sensors without the corresponding drawbacks. We present insights into the various techniques employed in such a system. We examine the utility of using traffic to unused address space as a means for scalable monitoring for the emergence of new threats and show that while scalable, care must be taken as different sensors see different views of the same global event. We show how the key to achieving scalability is the use of intelligent filtering, allowing the distributed network sensors to selectively send threats to be evaluated to the host sensors based on either the emergence of new threat payloads of the increase in the number of attackers. We highlight the two major issues in monitoring threats with host sensors; how to configure them, and how to analyze the data. We dismiss the idea that monolithic configurations are sufficient configurations and show how anomaly detection can provide an effective means of automating forensics. Finally we show the impact of combining these two types of sensors is profound, providing an unprecedented level of visibility into Internet threats. We demonstrate this utility by providing examples of both individual threat analysis, and insights into threats such as their escalated threat, increasingly global scope, and persistent population.
The Relationship between Prostitution Laws and Sex Trafficking: Theory and Evidence on Scale, Substitution, and Replacement Effects

Sex trafficking is a pervasive problem in many parts of the world. This study investigates the relationship between different types of prostitution laws and the prevalence of sex and human trafficking across European countries using data that covers 2008-2010. The Article attempts to make three contributions to the literature.First, it builds on existing theories of the link between the demand for purchased sex and the supply of sex trafficking to create a simple ordinal measure of prostitution laws that better reflects the actual cross-country variation in prostitution laws compared with a binary variable that merely indicates whether prostitution is legal or illegal. The measure is called the Prostitution Law Index and is based on a very rudimentary framework that analyzes forms of scale, substitution, and replacement effects in the market for prostitution. Scale refers to increases in the prevalence of trafficking that are caused by growth in the overall size of the market for prostitution. Substitution refers to when current consumers begin to purchase sex with individuals who voluntarily sell sex rather than with trafficking victims. Replacement refers to when new voluntary sellers of sex enter the market and crowd out trafficking victims. The index ranks prostitution laws across countries on a four-point scale (from 1 to 4) based on expected effectiveness (from least to most effective) in terms of reducing the prevalence of sex trafficking.Second, the study uses a new dataset provided by the European Union to study the relationship between Prostitution Law Index scores and prevalence of sex trafficking. Cross-country analyses suggest that there generally appears to be a negative relationship between a country’s Prostitution Law Index score and the prevalence of trafficking. Greater legislative efforts to reduce scale and to increase substitution and replacement — as captured by a higher score in the index — appear to, on average, be associated with lower levels of sex trafficking.Third, the Article presents a basic Difference-in-Differences analysis — with very limited data and thus with many caveats — that seeks to study the causal impact of Norway’s implementation in 2009 of a set of prostitution laws that made it legal to sell sex, but illegal to buy sex (the category of laws that receives the highest index score). Tentative results suggest that this legal reform may potentially have caused some reduction in the prevalence of trafficking.
Disability, Depression, Diagnosis, and Harm: Reflections on Two Personal Scenarios.

In this article I draw on two scenarios from my personal life—the diagnosis of my newborn grandnephew with CHARGE syndrome and the diagnosis of my father with depression—to reflect on whether and when diagnosis may be harmful to patients (and their families). Despite the great differences between the two scenarios, I argue that in both cases the tendency of diagnosis to generalize, categorize, and stigmatize can lead to insidious and counterproductive effects. The perspective of disability studies can help physicians to anticipate, minimize or avoid these negative ramifications. I also reflect on the matter of who "owns" a particular diagnosis, whose purposes it serves, and how.
Recurrent Vasospastic Myocardial Infarctions and Hand Necrosis.

A 30-year-old male smoker presented to the emergency department with anterior ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. Primary percutaneous coronary intervention performed via the right radial artery showed an ostial thrombotic subocclusion of the left anterior descending artery ([Figure 1A][1
Does Rural Differ? Comparing Parent and Student Reasons for Choosing Cyber Schooling

Cyber-schooling offers potentially greater benefits for rural than urban students, by providing a broader range of courses, ending long commutes, and offering more developed special education services than typically found in rural public schools. We survey students (n=269, 53.7% response rate) and parents (232, 48.7%) at a cyber-charter school dubbed SunTech, to test whether rural subjects choose cyber schooling for distinct reasons. Factor analyses and OLS regressions indicate that rural parents are more apt to choose SunTech for structural reasons such as its broader range of classes and to avoid long commutes to school. In contrast, students were more likely to rank curricular reasons as driving their decision to choose SunTech. Rural status did not affect how either students or parents graded the school (A-F).
Framework for an Automated Quality Control System in Working Drawing Production

CAD use for the planning, design, construction and operation of buildings continues to expand at a rapid pace throughout the industry. While CAD applications include a variety of uses related to design or construction, the primary end product in most cases continues to be a set of 2-D production working drawings.
Antitumor Synergism and Enhanced Survival with a Tumor Vasculature-Targeted Enzyme Prodrug System, Rapamycin, and Cyclophosphamide

Mutant cystathionine gamma-lyase was targeted to phosphatidylserine exposed on tumor vasculature through fusion with Annexin A1 or Annexin A5. Cystathionine gamma-lyase E58N, R118L, and E338N mutations impart nonnative methionine gamma-lyase activity, resulting in tumor-localized generation of highly toxic methylselenol upon systemic administration of nontoxic selenomethionine. The described therapeutic system circumvents systemic toxicity issues using a novel drug delivery/generation approach and avoids the administration of nonnative proteins and/or DNA required with other enzyme prodrug systems. The enzyme fusion exhibits strong and stable in vitro binding with dissociation constants in the nanomolar range for both human and mouse breast cancer cells and in a cell model of tumor vascular endothelium. Daily administration of the therapy suppressed growth of highly aggressive triple-negative murine 4T1 mammary tumors in immunocompetent BALB/cJ mice and MDA-MB-231 tumors in SCID mice. Treatment did not result in the occurrence of negative side effects or the elicitation of neutralizing antibodies. On the basis of the vasculature-targeted nature of the therapy, combinations with rapamycin and cyclophosphamide were evaluated. Rapamycin, an mTOR inhibitor, reduces the prosurvival signaling of cells in a hypoxic environment potentially exacerbated by a vasculature-targeted therapy. IHC revealed, unsurprisingly, a significant hypoxic response (increase in hypoxia-inducible factor 1 α subunit, HIF1A) in the enzyme prodrug-treated tumors and a dramatic reduction of HIF1A upon rapamycin treatment. Cyclophosphamide, an immunomodulator at low doses, was combined with the enzyme prodrug therapy and rapamycin; this combination synergistically reduced tumor volumes, inhibited metastatic progression, and enhanced survival. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(9); 1855-65. ©2017 AACR.
Defining a Safe Operating Space for inland recreational fisheries

The Safe Operating Space (SOS) of a recreational fishery is the multidimensional region defined by levels of harvest, angler effort, habitat, predation and other factors in which the fishery is sustainable into the future. SOS boundaries exhibit trade-offs such that decreases in harvest can compensate to some degree for losses of habitat, increases in predation and increasing value of fishing time to anglers. Conversely, high levels of harvest can be sustained if habitat is intact, predation is low, and value of fishing effort is moderate. The SOS approach recognizes limits in several dimensions: at overly high levels of harvest, habitat loss, predation, or value of fishing effort, the stock falls to a low equilibrium biomass. Recreational fisheries managers can influence harvest and perhaps predation, but they must cope with trends that are beyond their control such as changes in climate, loss of aquatic habitat or social factors that affect the value of fishing effort for anglers. The SOS illustrates opportunities to manage harvest or predation to maintain quality fisheries in the presence of trends in climate, social preferences or other factors that are not manageable.
Minimum requirements for predictive pore-network modeling of solute transport in micromodels

Abstract Pore-scale models are now an integral part of analyzing fluid dynamics in porous materials (e.g., rocks, soils, fuel cells). Pore network models (PNM) are particularly attractive due to their computational efficiency. However, quantitative predictions with PNM have not always been successful. We focus on single-phase transport of a passive tracer under advection-dominated regimes and compare PNM with high-fidelity direct numerical simulations (DNS) for a range of micromodel heterogeneities. We identify the minimum requirements for predictive PNM of transport. They are: (a) flow-based network extraction, i.e., discretizing the pore space based on the underlying velocity field, (b) a Lagrangian (particle tracking) simulation framework, and (c) accurate transfer of particles from one pore throat to the next. We develop novel network extraction and particle tracking PNM methods that meet these requirements. Moreover, we show that certain established PNM practices in the literature can result in first-order errors in modeling advection-dominated transport. They include: all Eulerian PNMs, networks extracted based on geometric metrics only, and flux-based nodal transfer probabilities. Preliminary results for a 3D sphere pack are also presented. The simulation inputs for this work are made public to serve as a benchmark for the research community.
Nonconvex piecewise linear functions: Advanced formulations and simple modeling tools

We present novel mixed-integer programming (MIP) formulations for optimization over nonconvex piecewise linear functions. We exploit recent advances in the systematic construction of MIP formulations to derive new formulations for univariate functions using a geometric approach, and for bivariate functions using a combinatorial approach. All formulations are strong, small (so-called logarithmic formulations), and have other desirable computational properties. We present extensive experiments in which they exhibit substantial computational performance improvements over existing approaches. To accompany these advanced formulations, we present PiecewiseLinearOpt, an extension of the JuMP modeling language in Julia that implements our models (alongside other formulations from the literature) through a high-level interface, hiding the complexity of the formulations from the end-user.
Bioavailability of tryptophan in soybean meal for 10-kg pigs using slope-ratio assay.

A basal diet formulated to contain 1.1 (analyzed to contain 1.03) g of tryptophan/kg diet as fed, but adequate in all other amino acids, was supplemented with.2,.4, or.6 g tryptophan/kg from L-tryptophan or.2 or.4 g tryptophan/kg from soybean meal. Each of the six diets was fed for 28 d to six barrows and six gilts (crossbred ; Hampshire x Duroc sires by Yorkshire x Landrace dams) in individual pens and with an average initial weight of 9.8 kg. Dietary supplemental tryptophan from either L-tryptophan or soybean meal increased ( P 100% when daily supplemental tryptophan intake was used as the independent variable. Estimates of TRP bioavailability based on nonpartitioned ADG were 90, 99, and 110% when supplemental TRP level, daily total TRP intake, and daily supplemental TRP intake were used as the independent variables, respectively.
Smartwatch-based gait biometrics

Although a reliable implementation of a smartwatch-based gait biometric system would usher in a new era of transparent authentication, the creation of such a system would not be without its own ethical problems. A primary problem of passwords is that users tend to reuse a small set of passwords (or, more realistically a single password; a primary responsibility (at least in the eyes of the commercial cybersecurity world) of biometrics is to replace these systems for that very reason (among others). The problem with an effective gait biometric system-much like many other forms of biometrics-is that once a user's training data is provided to the system that system can effectively impersonate that user; in essence, “reuse” is unavoidable. Thus, it becomes the responsibility of those designing gait biometric systems to create systems that are resistant to replay-style attacks. Similarly, work has to be done to ensure that the sensitive data collected from the smartwatch's sensors is not left in memory (where it could be recovered forensically or by a malicious application); much as traditional systems work to secure passwords. Gait biometrics might be the future of transparent authentication, but that does not allow conventional cybersecurity wisdom to be forgotten.
Characterizing Polytobacco Use Trajectories and Their Associations With Substance Use and Mental Health Across Mid-Adolescence.

Author(s): Cho, Junhan; Goldenson, Nicholas I; Stone, Matthew D; McConnell, Rob; Barrington-Trimis, Jessica L; Chou, Chih-Ping; Sussman, Steven Y; Riggs, Nathaniel R; Leventhal, Adam M | Abstract: Background:Polytobacco product use is suspected to be common, dynamic across time, and increase risk for adverse behavioral outcomes. We statistically modeled characteristic types of polytobacco use trajectories during mid-adolescence and tested their prospective association with substance use and mental health problems. Methods:Adolescents (N = 3393) in Los Angeles, CA, were surveyed semiannually from 9th to 11th grade. Past 6-month combustible cigarette, e-cigarette, or hookah use (yes/no) over four assessments were analyzed using parallel growth mixture modeling to identify a parsimonious set of polytobacco use trajectories. A tobacco product use trajectory group was used to predict substance use and mental health at the fifth assessment. Results:Three profiles were identified: (1) tobacco nonusers (N = 2291, 67.5%) with the lowest use prevalence (l3%) of all products across all timepoints; (2) polyproduct users (N = 920, 27.1%) with moderate use prevalence of each product (8-35%) that escalated for combustible cigarettes but decreased for e-cigarettes and hookah across time; and (3) chronic polyproduct users (N = 182, 5.4%) with high prevalence of each product use (38-86%) that escalated for combustible cigarettes and e-cigarettes. Nonusers, polyproduct users, and chronic polyproduct users reported successively higher alcohol, marijuana, and illicit drug use and ADHD at the final follow-up, respectively. Both tobacco using groups (vs. nonusers) reported greater odds of depression and anxiety at the final follow-up but did not differ from each other. Conclusions:Adolescent polytobacco use may involve a common moderate risk trajectory and a less common high-risk chronic trajectory. Both trajectories predict substance use and mental health symptomology. Implications:Variation in use and co-use of combustible cigarette, e-cigarette, and hookah use in mid-adolescence can be parsimoniously characterized by a small set common trajectory profiles in which polyproduct use are predominant patterns of tobacco product use, which predict adverse behavioral outcomes. Prevention and policy addressing polytobacco use (relative to single product use) may be optimal tobacco control strategies for youth, which may in turn prevent other forms of substance use and mental health problems.
Marine Debris Trends: 30 Years of Change on Ventura County and Channel Island Beaches

The persistence of plastics in marine ecosystems and the physical hazards marine debris pose to wildlife have become issues of global concern. The Santa Barbara Channel is home to a number of important marine and coastal ecosystems, including the 5 islands of Channel Islands National Park, and has a variety of factors that influence marine debris accumulation. We examined the spatial variation of marine debris density and composition across the Santa Barbara Channel by quantifying marine debris on beaches of Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Islands and the Ventura County mainland. Debris from surveyed beaches was cataloged, weighed, and measured to compare differences in island and mainland marine debris abundance, density, and composition. Derelict fishing gear accounted for a higher proportion of marine debris on island beaches compared to mainland beaches, and marine debris items on island beaches were significantly heavier compared to debris items on mainland beaches. The majority of debris on mainland beaches comprised smaller plastic fragments and single-use plastic items, and debris accumulation rates varied by season and location. Microplastics (plastic fibers and particles 25 mm) that were collected during marine debris cleanups. We compared our data from 2015 and 2016 with historical surveys performed from 1989 to 1994 to examine the temporal variation of marine debris on Santa Rosa Island. We found that there has been a significant increase in the amount of derelict fishing gear found on Santa Rosa Island over the past 27 years, which mirrors expansion of the California spiny lobster (Panulirus interruptus) fishery. This study highlights the importance of marine debris monitoring, as local changes in policy, fisheries, and consumer culture are reflected in accumulations of marine debris found on the California mainland and the uninhabited Channel Islands. Monitoring marine debris can provide insight into anthropogenic impacts and is a useful mechanism in monitoring the health of coastal and marine ecosystems.
Self-powered Gate Driver Design for a Gallium Nitride Based Phase Shifted Full Bridge DC-DC Converter for Space Applications

Radiation hardened Gallium Nitride (GaN) Field Effect Transistors (FETs) for space DC-DC converter applications have been released to the market recently. However; space qualified digital isolators with small propagation delays, fast rise and fall times, and high common mode transient immunity necessary for isolated GaN gate drivers are not currently available. In this work, a self-powered isolated GaN gate drive circuit for a Phase Shifted Full Bridge DC-DC converter for space applications is designed and tested. Signal isolation and energy transfer to bias GaN gate driver chips are achieved using pulse transformers. Operation is successfully verified in a converter using 200 V radiation hardened GaN FETs and delivering 400 W from a 100 V DC bus. Experimental results show the effects that the voltage rate of change of the switch nodes have on dead time accuracy for the top switches in the proposed implementation, and a description of how better dead time accuracy was obtained is included.
FINANCIAL ABUSE OF THE ELDERLY: THE ROLE OF PSYCHIATRISTS: Session 415

Abstract Elder financial abuse is a common and underreported problem, causing more than $36 billion in losses annually and resulting in serious social and psychological consequences for its victims. Common sequelae of elder financial abuse include financial destitution, feelings of shame, guilt, anger, self-doubt, anxiety, insomnia, and depression. Psychiatric illnesses in late life can lead to diminished capacity to make financial decisions and render individuals vulnerable to undue influence, frauds, and scams. Elder financial abuse is best managed in multidisciplinary teams, with adult protective services workers, social workers, attorneys, law enforcement, psychiatrists and other physicians, family, and the patient all playing a role. Psychiatrists are important in the detection of elderly individuals who may be victimized by financial abuse and in helping them navigate the psychological sequelae of these circumstances. Psychiatrists can also be asked by attorneys for expert consultation in litigation regarding financial abuse in which the mental state of the elder is under question. Questions about capacity to make certain financial decisions, such as creating or changing a will or trust, assigning a financial durable power of attorney, or making investment or business decisions, as well as about vulnerability to undue influence, are among the most frequent types of questions asked of psychiatrists by the legal system. This session will speak about common types of elder financial abuse and about legal criteria for different decisional and functional financial capacities that psychiatrists can be asked to assess.
Comparing the speed and accuracy of approaches to betweenness centrality approximation

Many algorithms require doing a large number of betweenness centrality calculations quickly, and accommodating this need is an active open research area. There are many different ideas and approaches to speeding up these calculations, and it is difficult to know which approach will work best in practical situations. The current study attempts to judge performance of betweenness centrality approximation algorithms by running them under conditions that practitioners are likely to experience. For several approaches to approximation, we run two tests, clustering and immunization, on identical hardware, along with a process to determine appropriate parameters. This allows an across-the-board comparison of techniques based on the dimensions of speed and accuracy of results. Overall, the speed of betweenness centrality can be reduced several orders of magnitude by using approximation algorithms. We find that the speeds of individual algorithms can vary widely based on input parameters. The fastest algorithms utilize parallelism, either in the form of multi-core processing or GPUs. Interestingly, getting fast results does not require an expensive GPU. The methodology presented here can guide the selection of a betweenness centrality approximation algorithm depending on a practitioner’s needs and can also be used to compare new methods to existing ones.
Radiographic and Postoperative Outcomes of Plate Versus Screw Constructs in Open Reduction and Internal Fixation of Calcaneus Fractures via the Sinus Tarsi.

Background:Intra-articular fractures of the calcaneus are a common injury to the hindfoot following high-energy trauma to the lower extremity. Treatment of these fractures has evolved. Due to the c...
Sparse Matrix Selection for CSR-Based SpMV Using Deep Learning

CSR (Compressed Sparse Row) is the most popular and widely used sparse matrix representation format for Sparse Matrix-Vector Multiplication (SpMV), which is a key operation in many scientific and engineering applications. However, considering different matrix features and the given GPUs, CSR-based SpMV on some sparse matrices does not always have better performance than that of SpMV based on other sparse matrix formats. In this paper, we explore deep learning techniques and present a methodology to select the proper sparse matrices for CSR-based SpMV on NVIDIA GPUs. To address the challenge of this matrix selection problem, we convert it to a matrix classification problem, then address this classification problem by using the Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). The effectiveness of our proposed methodology has been demonstrated by our experimental evaluations performed on NVIDIA GPUs.
9 – Sensory Capacities

Publisher Summary This chapter presents the analyses of the alcoholic Korsakoff patients' problems in terms of information-processing deficits regarding their sensory capacities. Motivated by the neuropathological and neuroanatomical considerations, Jones and her collaborators have assessed, in a series of three studies, the alcoholic Korsakoff patients' visual, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory senses. The most striking result of this initial study was the discovery of the alcoholic Korsakoff patients' severe impairment in olfactory discrimination. On the preliminary test dealing with common kitchen odorants, these patients were severely impaired in both the detection and identification of the substances. On the principal test with 0- and 30-sec delays, the alcoholic Korsakoff patients did not perform significantly better than chance. They averaged almost nine total errors in both delay conditions, and their scores are considerably inferior to those of the alcoholics and the nonalcoholic control group. Their second experiment included three groups of subjects: 10 alcoholic Korsakoff patients, 10 alcoholic control patients, and 10 non-alcoholic control individuals. Each subject was tested on scaling tasks involving assessment of stimulus intensity in vision, audition, and olfactory. In a third study, Jones, Butters, Moskowitz, and Montgomery attacked two issues that were unresolved by the first two studies. First, they asked whether alcoholic Wernicke–Korsakoff patients suffer an impairment of the other chemical sense, that of taste. Second, Jones had used only a single group of organic patients in her first two studies so some doubt remained concerning whether her reported olfactory deficits were specific to the alcoholic Korsakoff patients or represented a deficit manifested by all brain-damaged populations.
Current Status of Rib Plating: Hardware Failure When and How?

Surgical stabilization of rib fractures (SSRF) has been shown to decrease morbidity and mortality in patients with multiple rib fractures. This has led to a concomitant increase in the procedure, but the complications are just now being described in the literature. The purpose of this review is to focus on the current understanding of hardware failure after rib fixation. A recent study from the Chest Wall Injury Society (CWIS) found that hardware failure is relatively rare and often asymptomatic thus not requiring routine postoperative imaging or reoperation. When hardware failures occur, they tend to occur on the lateral and posterolateral columns. Patients who undergo fixation for chronic fractures may be at higher risk for complications. Hardware failure is a rare complication of SSRF and rarely requires reoperation. Postoperative imaging should be based on symptoms.