cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Investigation of Certain Synthetic Glucosides for Antigenic Properties

Considerable theoretical and practical importance is attached to the question of whether or not any substance entirely free from protein can act as a complete immunologic antigen. Most of the successful work reported in this field has been carried out with antigens obtained from originally protein-containing material. The principal objection to the acceptance of this work is that it is unlikely that all of the protein has been removed. This objection and its correlative ramifications make difficult an approach to the problem by extractive methods. But the objection may be avoided if the antigen is synthesized from nonprotein compounds. The prime incentive for the present study was the report by Ford 1 some years ago of an antigenic nonprotein nitrogenous glucoside isolated from the mushroom Amanita phalloides. There seems to be little published on immunologic work with synthetic glucosides. Avery and Goebel2 and Tillett, Avery and Goebel3 found the ^-glucoside and /3-galactoside of /)-amino-phenol to be nonantigenic. Ehrlich 4 stated, "And despite the most painstaking efforts neither other investigators nor I have ever succeeded in producing any appreciable production of antibody with alkaloids, glucosides, or drugs of well known chemical constitution." Likewise, the present investigation failed to demonstrate complete antigenic properties for any of the synthetic glucosides employed, i. e., in no instance was there evidence of anaphylaxis or of the production of specific agglutinins or precipitins. However, the present study is interesting for several reasons :
Female intimate partner homicide: a population-based study.

Objectives To identify the patterns of female intimate partner homicide, to describe the nature of the partner relationships between victims and perpetrators, and to determine the extent of intimate partner violence (IPV) preceding the homicide. Methods We reviewed North Carolina medical examiner records and conducted telephone interviews with law enforcement officers about partner homicides of women age 15 and older occurring in North Carolina from 1991 to 1993. Results Most women were killed in homes (80%) and with guns (66%). One hundred thirty-five women (of 293 cases) were killed by marital partners, 47 of them former partners. Nonmarital partners killed 158 women, 46 of them former partners. Intimate partner violence was noted in two-thirds of the cases, 70% of those involving marital partners and 64% involving nonmarital partners. Homicides by former nonmarital partners were the most likely to have been preceded by IPV (78%). One hundred six victims with histories of IPV had had contact with law enforcement or judicial systems in the year before death. Conclusions Legal and health care professionals should be aware that women are vulnerable to both IPV and homicide from both nonmarital and former partners as well as from current husbands.
Child Anxiety Prevention Study: Impact on Functional Outcomes

This study examined the impact of a selective anxiety prevention program for offspring of clinically anxious parents on three domains of child functioning: (1) social, (2) familial, and (3) emotional/behavioral. Dyads were randomized into either the Coping and Promoting Strength program (CAPS; n = 70) or Information Monitoring (IM; n = 66) comparison group. Multi-informant assessments were conducted at baseline, post intervention, and 6 and 12 months follow-ups. Random effects mixed models under the linear growth modeling (LGM) framework was used to assess the impact of CAPS on growth trajectories. Over time, children in the CAPS group had significantly lower anxiety, anxious/depressed symptoms, and lower total behavior problems (parent report), compared to children in IM group. The intervention did not impact other domains assessed (e.g., social functioning), which may be due to “floor effects” on these measures. Longitudinal follow-up data is needed to provide valuable information about this high risk population.
Pharmacotherapeutic Principles of Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders

The pharmacotherapeutic management of neurological and psychiatric disorders relies primarily on the modulation of central nervous system (CNS) neurotransmission with drugs that intervene at chemical synapses. The receptors, transporters, and enzymes for the dopaminergic, serotonergic, and noradrenergic systems are the most common neuropsychiatric drug targets, because these neurotransmitter systems play a central role in the regulation of a range of cognitive and motor behaviors. The key to understanding or anticipating the clinical profile (dose-effect) of a particular drug is to have an appreciation for both its pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties.
Role and therapeutic targeting of miR-21 in bladder cancer.

e15542 Background: MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs implicated in the pathogenesis of multiple types of cancer, including bladder cancer. MicroRNA-21 (miR-21) has been identified to have oncogen...
SPIDAL Java: high performance data analytics with Java and MPI on large multicore HPC clusters

Within the last few years, there have been significant contributions to Java-based big data frameworks and libraries such as Apache Hadoop, Spark, and Storm. While these systems are rich in interoperability and features, developing high performance big data analytic applications is challenging. Also, the study of performance characteristics and high performance optimizations is lacking in the literature for these applications. By contrast, these features are well documented in the High Performance Computing (HPC) domain and some of the techniques have potential performance benefits in the big data domain as well. This paper presents the implementation of a high performance big data analytics library - SPIDAL Java - with a comprehensive discussion on five performance challenges, solutions, and speedup results. SPIDAL Java captures a class of global machine learning applications with significant computation and communication that can serve as a yardstick in studying performance bottlenecks with Java big data analytics. The five challenges present here are the cost of intra-node messaging, inefficient cache utilization, performance costs with threads, overhead of garbage collection, and the costs of heap allocated objects. SPIDAL Java presents its solutions to these and demonstrates significant performance gains and scalability when running on up to 3072 cores in one of the latest Intel Haswell-based multicore clusters.
Caspase-3 Has Apoptotic and Non-Apoptotic Functions in Regulating the Fate of Hematopoietic Stem Cells.

Abstract The processes of cell cycle control, differentiation and apoptosis are closely intertwined in controlling cell fate during development and in adult homeostasis. Much emphasis has been placed on differentiation and proliferation in hematopoiesis, but little is known about control of the stem cell pool by mediators of apoptosis. We are particularly interested in the cysteine-aspartic acid protease, Caspase-3, an ‘executioner' caspase also implicated in the regulation of the cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor, p21Cip1. p21 is known to regulate hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) cycling and we demonstrated high levels of Caspase-3 mRNA and protein in immunophenotypically defined mouse HSC. Using mice engineered to be deficient in Caspase-3, we observed no difference from wild-type in blood counts. However, knock-out animals had reduced bone marrow cellularity and an increase in the stem cell enriched lin-kit+Sca-1+ CD34 low (LKS-CD34lo) cell fraction. The apoptotic rates of LKS cells under homeostatic conditions were minimally different from controls. However, under conditions of stress (gamma irradiation, heat shock or cytokine withdrawal), Caspase-3 deficient LKS cells demonstrated reduced sensitivity to apoptotic cell death as measured by TUNEL or Annexin-V assay. Primitive hematopoietic cells from these animals in vivo also had reduced BrdU incorporation reflecting decreased proliferation and, upon transplantation, demonstrated marked differentiation abnormalities. Caspase-3−/− marrow cells had significantly reduced ability to differentiate into lymphoid and myeloid lineages 12 weeks after transplantation. Similarly, WT bone marrow cells treated prior to transplantation with a selective Caspase-3 inhibitor, z-DEVD.fmk, displayed a significant disadvantage in peripheral blood reconstitution, compared with a mock control. These data indicate that Caspase-3 is involved in the regulation of apoptosis, differentiation and proliferation of HSC. The molecular bases for these effects remain to be determined, but the multi-faceted nature of the changes seen suggest that Caspase-3 is central to multiple regulatory pathways in the stem cell compartment.
Experimental measurements of surface damage and residual stresses in micro-engineered plasma facing materials

Abstract The thermomechanical damage and residual stresses in plasma-facing materials operating at high heat flux are experimentally investigated. Materials with micro-surfaces are found to be more resilient, when exposed to cyclic high heat flux generated by an arc-jet plasma. An experimental facility, dedicated to High Energy Flux Testing (HEFTY), is developed for testing cyclic heat flux in excess of 10 MW/m2. We show that plastic deformation and subsequent fracture of the surface can be controlled by sample cooling. We demonstrate that W surfaces with micro-pillar type surface architecture have significantly reduced residual thermal stresses after plasma exposure, as compared to those with flat surfaces. X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra of the W-(110) peak reveal that broadening of the Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) for micro-engineered samples is substantially smaller than corresponding flat surfaces. Spectral shifts of XRD signals indicate that residual stresses due to plasma exposure of micro-engineered surfaces build up in the first few cycles of exposure. Subsequent cyclic plasma heat loading is shown to anneal out most of the built-up residual stresses in micro-engineered surfaces. These findings are consistent with relaxation of residual thermal stresses in surfaces with micro-engineered features. The initial residual stress state of highly polished flat W samples is compressive ( ≈ -1.3 GPa). After exposure to 50 plasma cycles, the surface stress relaxes to −1.0 GPa. Micro-engineered samples exposed to the same thermal cycling show that the initial residual stress state is compressive at (- 250 MPa), and remains largely unchanged after plasma exposure.
ADAPTATION OF MULTIFACTOR LEADERSHIP QUESTIONNAIRE (MLQ FORM-5X) IN NIGERIA

Nigeria in particular and Africa in general is suffering from leadership meltdown and the consequences are under development in its entirety with the resultant poverty and soaring rates of unemployment and underemployment of her youths. In an effort to re-standardize and adapt the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (Form-5X) for Nigerian use, the study embarked on the construct revalidation of MLQ (Form 5X) scale, the principal instrument developed by Bass and Avolio (1997) to measure transformational leadership style capable of bringing the needed change and transformation in Nigeria. Review of literature revealed inconsistent research findings due mainly to psychometric properties of the MLQ. Data collected from a sample of three hundred and fifty commercial bank workers and employees of a production company (185 males and 165 females) in Enugu South-East of Nigeria with their age range of 23 to 51 years and the mean age of 34.52 years (S.D=9.32) were employed to investigate the underlying factor structure of the MLQ (Form 5X). Construct validity of the instrument was tested by means of confirmatory factor analyses testing the goodness of fit indices (chi-square, X 2 /df, GFI, AGFI and RMSEA), calculation of Cronbach alpha, and correlation of within and across construct. The results showed acceptable GFI, AGFI, and RMSEA index indicating that the data was a good fit to the hypothesized model. The coefficient alpha of reliability were generally significant and above the minimum target of 0.70 (Nunnally, 1978), and the correlation of the construct showed that the instrument was robust, reliable and valid for assessing the leadership style in Nigeria. The results as well as the implications were discussed and conclusion and suggestion for further studies were drawn.
The Effects of Varying Injection Rates in Osage County, Oklahoma, on the 2016 Mw 5.8 Pawnee Earthquake

ABSTRACT The 2016 M w 5.8 Pawnee earthquake occurred in a region with active wastewater injection into a basal formation group. Prior to the earthquake, fluid injection rates at most wells were relatively steady, but newly collected data show significant increases in injection rate in the years leading up to earthquake. For the same time period, the total volumes of injected wastewater were roughly equivalent between variable‐rate and constant‐rate wells. To understand the possible influence of these changes in injection, we simulate the variable‐rate injection history and its constant‐rate equivalent in a layered poroelastic half‐space to explore the interplay between pore‐pressure effects and poroelastic effects on the fault leading up to the mainshock. In both cases, poroelastic stresses contribute a significant proportion of Coulomb failure stresses on the fault compared to pore‐pressure increases alone, but the resulting changes in seismicity rate, calculated using a rate‐and‐state frictional model, are many times larger when poroelastic effects are included, owing to enhanced stressing rates. In particular, the variable‐rate simulation predicts more than an order of magnitude increase in seismicity rate above background rates compared to the constant‐rate simulation with equivalent volume. The observed cumulative density of earthquakes prior to the mainshock within 10 km of the injection source exhibits remarkable agreement with seismicity predicted by the variable‐rate injection case.
Preliminary study on qualitative and quantitative detection of norfloxacin based on terahertz spectroscopy

Norfloxacin is a kind of quinolone bactericide which is widely used in food industry, livestock feed and medicine area. At present, how to develop a rapid, convenient and accurate technique for qualitative and quantitative detection of norfloxacin is still a challenge. In this study, Terahertz Time-domain Spectroscopy technology (THz-TDS) was used to explore qualitative and quantitative analysis of norfloxacin. Forty-five norfloxacin samples with different levels were prepared. The pure norfloxacin powder was mixed with polyethylene (PE) powder together and made into tablets by tablet-making machine. The minimum detection concentration was 10% and the maximum detection concentration evaluated in the paper was 90%. Then, terahertz (THz) spectra of each sample were measured on K15 THz-TDS equipment. The multiple linear regressions and the partial least squares regression algorithms were used to establish a model to make quantitative analysis. From the results, two typical fingerprint peaks of norfloxacin in terahertz band were observed at 0.944 THz and 1.206 THz, and the correlation coefficient and the root mean square error of the established model reached 0.9908 and 0.0481, respectively, which showed that the model performed well for the prediction. This preliminary study indicates that THz spectroscopy has great potential for future screening applications to detect the presence of norfloxacin residues in food, livestock feed and medicine industries. Keywords: Terahertz spectroscopy, norfloxacin, qualitative and quantitative detection, model, correlation coefficient DOI: 10.25165/j.ijabe.20171005.2962 Citation: Long Y, Li B. Preliminary study on qualitative and quantitative detection of norfloxacin based on terahertz spectroscopy. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2017; 10(5): 262–268.
A Hierarchical Manifold Microchannel Heat Sink Array for High-Heat-Flux Two-Phase Cooling of Electronics

Abstract High-heat-flux removal is necessary for next-generation microelectronic systems to operate more reliably and efficiently. Extremely high heat removal rates are achieved in this work using a hierarchical manifold microchannel heat sink array. The microchannels are imbedded directly into the heated substrate to reduce the parasitic thermal resistances due to contact and conduction resistances. Discretizing the chip footprint area into multiple smaller heat sink elements with high-aspect-ratio microchannels ensures shortened effective fluid flow lengths. Phase change of high fluid mass fluxes can thus be accommodated in micron-scale channels while keeping pressure drops low compared to traditional, microchannel heat sinks. A thermal test vehicle, with all flow distribution components heterogeneously integrated, is fabricated to demonstrate this enhanced thermal and hydraulic performance. The 5 mm × 5 mm silicon chip area, with resistive heaters and local temperature sensors fabricated directly on the opposite face, is cooled by a 3 × 3 array of microchannel heat sinks that are fed with coolant using a hierarchical manifold distributor. Using the engineered dielectric liquid HFE-7100 as the working fluid, experimental results are presented for channel mass fluxes of 1300, 2100, and 2900 kg/m2 s and channel cross sections with nominal widths of 15 μm and nominal depths of 35 μm, 150 μm, and 300 μm. Maximum heat flux dissipation is shown to increase with mass flux and channel depth and the heat sink with 15 μm × 300 μm channels is shown to dissipate base heat fluxes up to 910 W/cm2 at pressure drops of less than 162 kPa and chip temperature rise under 47 °C relative to the fluid inlet temperature.
Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension: Rationale, Design, and Methods

Epidemiologic studies across societies have shown consistent differences in blood pressure that appear to be related to diet. Vegetarian diets are consistently associated with reduced blood pressure in observational and interventional studies, but clinical trials of individual nutrient supplements have had an inconsistent pattern of results. Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) was a multicenter, randomized feeding study, designed to compare the impact on blood pressure of 3 dietary patterns. DASH was designed as a test of eating patterns rather than of individual nutrients in an effort to identify practical, palatable dietary approaches that might have a meaningful impact on reducing morbidity and mortality related to blood pressure in the general population. The objectives of this article are to present the scientific rationale for this trial, review the methods used, and discuss important design considerations and implications.
Publishing Trends in Otology and Neurotology.

OBJECTIVES 1) Describe publishing trends for otologic/neurotologic disorders over a 35-year span. 2) Compare trends in publishing with disease prevalence. 3) Evaluate changes in topic and journal specific ranking scores over time. METHODS PubMed searches were performed on 35 otologic/neurotologic disorders using medical subject headings (MeSH) terms from 1980 to 2015. Searches were limited in scope to the English language. A Mann-Kendall trend analysis evaluated changes in publication frequency as a discrete variable while correcting for total number of articles published per year. Scopus was used to identify SCImago Country and Journal Rank (SJR) indicator scores and weighted-averages used to calculate changes over time. RESULTS The total number of publications on the 35 topics increased from 853 in 1980 to a peak of 3,068 in 2013. Otitis media (τ = -0.799, p < 0.001) and Meniere's disease (τ = -0.724, p < 0.001) showed strong decreasing publication trends. Temporal bone encephaloceles (τ = 0.743, p < 0.001) and cochlear implants (τ = 0.740, p < 0.001) showed strong increasing publication trends. Rapid rise in publications on superior canal dehiscence and vestibular migraine illustrate novel diagnoses. The weighted-average SJR score increased from 0.816 in 2000 to 1.160 in 2015 (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION This study displays trends in the literature over the past 35 years that are often inconsistent with common disorders seen by otologists/neurotologists. Certain diagnoses that are currently being researched less commonly continue to impact patients with the same regularity. Quality of otologic/neurotologic literature has become more reputable with regards to SJR scores.
Environments for Entrepreneurship Development: Key Dimensions and Research Implications:

An integrated framework is not available for studying the environmental conditions conducive for entrepreneurship despite their importance for the emergence and growth of enterprises in a country. ...
Diagnostic utility of eight-channel EEG for detecting generalized or hemispheric seizures and rhythmic periodic patterns.

Abstract Objectives To compare the diagnostic utility of electroencephalography (EEG) using reduced, 8-channel montage (rm-EEG) to full, 18-channel montage (fm-EEG) for detection of generalized or hemispheric seizures and rhythmic periodic patterns (RPPs) by neurologists with extensive EEG training, neurology residents with minimal EEG exposure, and medical students without EEG experience. Methods We presented EEG samples in both fm-EEG (bipolar montage) and rm-EEG (lateral leads of bipolar montage) to 20 neurologists, 20 residents, and 42 medical students. Unanimous agreement of three senior epileptologists defined samples as seizures (n = 7), RPPs (n = 10), and normal or slowing (n = 20). Differences in median accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity were assessed using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. Results Full and reduced EEG demonstrated similar accuracy when read by neurologists (fm-EEG: 95%, rm-EEG: 95%, p = 0.29), residents (fm-EEG: 80%, rm-EEG: 80%, p = 0.05), and students (fm-EEG: 60%, rm-EEG: 51%, p = 0.68). Moreover, neurologists' sensitivity for detecting seizure activity was comparable between fm-EEG (100%) and rm-EEG (98%) ( p = 0.17). Furthermore, the specificity of rm-EEG for seizures and RPP (neurologists: 100%, residents: 90%, students: 86%) was significantly greater than that of fm-EEG (neurologists: 93%, p = 0.03; residents: 80%, p = 0.01; students: 69%, p Conclusions The reduction of the number of EEG channels from 18 to 8 does not compromise neurologists' sensitivity for detecting seizures that are often a core reason for performing urgent EEG. It may also increase their specificity for detecting rhythmic and periodic patterns, and thereby providing important diagnostic information to guide patient's management. Significance Our study is the first to document the utility of a reduced channel EEG above the hairline compared to full montage EEG in aiding medical staff with varying degrees of EEG training to detect generalized or hemispheric seizures.
Accurate and efficient band-offset calculations from density functional theory

Abstract We perform a systematic study of the factors that determine the accuracy of heterostructure band alignments in density functional calculations. Band alignments are calculated for a number of representative test structures using either the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) or the more accurate hybrid functional of Heyd, Scuseria, and Ernzerhof (HSE). The alignment of the bulk band structures is achieved through a potential-alignment term from an explicit superlattice calculation, with full inclusion of atomic relaxations. The potential alignments calculated within the GGA are in agreement with those calculated using HSE to within 50 meV, despite the GGA calculations being 10–100 times less computationally expensive. The GGA potential alignments are remarkably accurate, even for heterostructures between materials with a large lattice mismatch, and even when the GGA lattice parameters are markedly different from HSE. We also find that the errors in the potential alignment are small even when the optimum HSE mixing parameter ( α ) (to bring the band gap in agreement with experiment) is markedly different for the two materials at the interface; the error associated with using a fixed α for a superlattice calculation is small. To obtain band offsets, the potential-alignment values are combined with bulk band structure calculations. GGA exhibits large errors in the positioning of the eigenvalues at the band extrema with respect to the average electrostatic potential, and the resulting all-GGA band alignments are unreliable. HSE produces much more accurate band structures than GGA. Given the accuracy of potential alignments calculated within the GGA, they can be combined with HSE calculations of the bulk electronic band structure to achieve accurate band alignments with a high computational efficiency.
Hypoxic Ventilatory Response and Exercise Ventilation at Sea Level and High Altitude

the ventilatory response to hypoxia (HVR) is an inborn characteristic that varies between individuals (43). Like so many physiological responses, its purpose is to maximize the chance of survival in a perilous environment. An adequate level of ventilation is necessary to maintain sufficient partial pressure of oxygen in alveolar gas and arterial blood (PAo2 and Pao2, respectively). For healthy individuals at sea level, maintaining ventilation is easy and is mediated largely by the partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PCO2), with hypoxia acting as a safeguard mechanism. In states of disease where gas exchange and oxygenation are impaired, however, HVR becomes increasingly important. Also at high altitude, where ambient PO2 is precariously low, it plays an integral part in survival. This chapter discusses the relationship of HVR and exercise performance both at sea level and high altitude, in sojourners as well as in natives to high altitude. In addition, recent data pertinent to hypoxic drives and exercise performance collected on the 1981 American Medical Research Expedition to Everest are presented.
Energy Functions for Classical Models

The bulk of literature in stability analysis of power systems using the direct method employs the so-called classical model for the generator. The advantage of this model is that the mechanical rotor angle deviation with respect to the synchronous reference is directly related to the electrical equivalent circuit known as the voltage behind the transient reactance model. To be precise, the phase angle of this voltage is the rotor angle deviation with respect to the synchronous frame of reference. For decades, power engineers have found this model to be adequate to predict the stability/instabilitv of the system over a time interval of 0–1 sec, also known as the “first-swing” stability. Analytically this model, in a multi-machine framework, is easier to handle. In this chapter we first develop energy functions using this model for multi-machine systems using the internal node representation. This is possible only if we treat the loads as constant impedances. Next, using the classical model and preserving the structure of the network we develop the system energy function in which it is possible to include non-linear loads.
Improved capacity bounds for wireless networks: Research Articles

We obtain improved upper and lower bounds on the best case and random case transport capacities of wireless networks under the Protocol Model of communication in Reference [1]. These results bracket the best case transport capacity to within a factor of $\sqrt8$ for wireless networks on a disk. This is done by identifying larger exclusion regions for receivers. The general result on exclusion regions can also be applied to arbitrary wireless footprints, including those arising from directional antennas, thus obtaining superior bounds for such technologies too. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Disorders of Eye-Head Coordination

Clinically, the neuro-ophthalmologist usually assesses ocular motility by first instructing the patient to keep his head still and then examining eye movements. Of course, this technique is both useful and necessary but we usually forget that many eye movements, and especially those of large amplitudes, are naturally associated with head movements. Consequently, the neurological control signals to the neck and eye muscles frequently coincide and probably have many features — both functional and anatomical — in common.
Time-cost tradeoff analysis with minimized project financing cost

Abstract Time-cost tradeoff analysis allows a contractor to build a project using an optimal schedule that leads to minimum cost. The financing cost can be minimized if the financing decision considers different financing alternatives such as short-term and long-term loans and lines of credit. Financing optimization should be integrated into time-cost tradeoff analysis to minimize total cost and maximize profit. This study proposes an integrated model that performs time-cost tradeoff analysis and financing optimization. A hybrid GALP algorithm is introduced to solve the optimization by combining genetic algorithms (GA) and linear programming (LP). The proposed model is tested using small and large networks: (1) to prove that optimal results are obtained in terms of the financing cost and profit if the proposed integrated model is used, (2) to validate the performance and structure of each model, and (3) to confirm the practicality of the proposed models in large networks.
Genetic counseling referral for ovarian cancer patients: a call to action

The hereditary contribution to ovarian cancer has been increasingly recognized over the past decade, with a 2014 Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) recommendation for all women with epithelial ovarian cancer to be considered for genetic testing. The objective of the study was to determine if disparities exist in genetic referrals and characterize referral patterns over time. A retrospective cohort study included all women diagnosed with invasive epithelial ovarian cancer at the University of Virginia from 2004 to 2015. Clinicopathologic data were abstracted from the electronic medical record and analyzed for association with genetic referral and testing. We identified 696 cases, with a median age of 62 years and a median follow up of 25.2 months (range 1–115). Thirty-four percent were referred for genetic counseling with an 80% genetic testing rate in those women. Referrals increased from a rate of 8% in 2004 to 68% in 2015. On multivariable analysis, papillary serous histology (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.0–2.6), stage III disease (OR 3.4, 95% CI 1.6–7.5), ovarian cancer family history (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.5–4.6), breast cancer family history (OR 1.7, 95% CI 1.1–2.5), and diagnosis after 2014 (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.3–4.1) remained significantly associated with genetics referral. Older age and living > 100 miles away were associated with decreased referral (OR 0.97, 95% CI 0.95–0.99 per year and OR 0.49, 95% CI 0.28–0.86). As only 68% of women with epithelial ovarian cancer were referred in 2015 innovative strategies such as Medicare coverage for counseling are still needed to universalize testing.
Coccidioidomycosis in solid organ transplant recipients.

Purpose of review The purpose of the review is an update of diagnosis and treatment of coccidioidomycosis infection in solid organ transplant (SOT) patients. Endemic fungal infections continue to be a cause of serious morbidity and mortality in transplant recipients. Recent findings In transplant patients there are recommendations regarding screening in areas that are endemic for coccidioidomycosis. This screening involves serologic testing and chest imaging. In endemic areas pretransplant seropositivity varies from 1.4 to 5.6%. In immunocompromised patients with elevated complement fixation titers, evaluation of cerebrospinal fluid is recommended even in the absence of symptoms. Although coccidioidomycosis can be a self-limited disease in immunocompotent patients, all SOT patients should be treated regardless of severity. This may include intravenous amphotericin B in severe cases and fluconazole therapy in milder episodes. In those SOT recipients with evidence of prior coccidioidomycosis, lifelong secondary prophylaxis with fluconazole given risk of recurrent disease. Summary Coccidioidomycosis continues to be a cause of serious morbidity and mortality in transplant recipients but with proper screening and treatment can be successfully managed.
Public transit cost efficiency studies: The impact of non-contracting regulations

Abstract This paper studies the effects of non-contracting regulations on the efficiency of U.S. public transit systems. First, it estimates a system of cost and input demand equations and second, a frontier equation with technical inefficiency a function of regulation and heterogeneity variables. It finds that bus useful-life regulation makes transit systems overuse capital relative to labor, contracting out entire service is 7.2% cheaper than direct operation, and a mixed operation that combines direct operations with contracting-out has no statistically significant effect on cost. Also, according to the study’s results, the U.S. labor protection regulation (Section 13c) and contracting out entire service make transit systems overuse capital and non-labor inputs relative to labor respectively. Overall the study finds that the regulations increase technical change by a small amount and make transit systems perceive their costs as low, which in turn makes them produce more output. Other findings are, the average transit system is 73% technically efficient, 68% allocative efficient and 50% cost efficient. Finally, incentive regulation increases technical inefficiency, bus useful-life regulation reduces technical inefficiency, and transit systems that contract-out their entire services have high levels of technical inefficiency.
Consilience, Global Socioeconomic Political Enlightenment, and Socioenvironmental Restoration

Here I provide my view on how global problems might be solved. This chapter suggests that there needs to be a new model of operation for global society and economics. The dangers and potential usefulness of thresholds and social media in the process of solving problems are guessed at. Consilience, enlightenment, and hope will be necessary to solve the worst problems in the world.
Challenging Behaviors and Dual Diagnosis

Challenging behavior is commonly observed in the ID population, and it is associated with a number of poor outcomes. Considerably less is known about challenging behavior in the dual diagnosis population; however, much can be deduced from research on the interrelationships between challenging behavior, ID, and psychopathology. This chapter presents an overview of challenging behavior in dual diagnosis, including a review of common challenging behaviors, putative risk factors, and theories on the cause(s) of such behavior. Although much of what is presented is based upon a considerably larger research base related to challenging behavior in the ID population, attempts to integrate research on various aspects of psychopathology in the ID population are made.
Using machine learning to model and predict water clarity in the Great Lakes

Abstract Over the last several decades, multiple environmental issues have led to dramatic changes in the water clarity of the Great Lakes. While many of the key factors are well-known and have direct anthropogenic origins, climatic variability and change can also impact water clarity at various temporal scales, but their influence is less often studied. Building upon a recent examination of the univariate relationships between synoptic-scale weather patterns and water clarity, this research utilizes nonlinear autoregressive models with exogenous input (NARX models) to explore the multivariate climate-to-water clarity relationship. Models trained on the observation period (1997–2016) are extrapolated back to 1979 to reconstruct a daily-scale historical water clarity dataset, and used in a reforecast mode to estimate real-time forecast skill. Of the 20 regions examined, models perform best in Lakes Michigan and Huron, especially in spring and summer. The NARX models perform better than a simple persistence model and a seasonal-trend model in nearly all regions, indicating that climate variability is a contributing factor to fluctuations in water clarity. Further, six of the 20 regions also show promise of useful forecasts to at least 1 week of lead-time, with three of those regions showing skill out to two months of lead time.
Coupling high-throughput experiments and regression algorithms to optimize PGM-free ORR electrocatalyst synthesis

Over the past decades, significant improvement has been achieved in the performance of platinum group metal-free (PGM-free) materials as an alternative to Pt-based electrocatalysts for oxygen reduc...
Food dyes as P-glycoprotein modulators

The drug transporter P-glycoprotein (P-gp) is often investigated in drug-interaction studies because the activity is modulated by a wide variety of xenobiotics including drugs, herbal products, and food components. In this study, we tested six common arylsulfonate food dyes-allura red, carmoisine, ponceau 4R, quinolone yellow, sunset yellow, and tartrazine-as activators and inhibitors of P-gp activity in vitro. The dyes were studied as P-gp activators by measuring ATPase activity in P-gp-expressing membranes. Compared to verapamil, a known activator of P-gp, the six food dyes showed no stimulatory activity. The potential for these six food dyes to act as P-gp inhibitors was tested in an intracellular efflux assay with P-gp-expressing cells. Compared to GF120918, a known P-gp inhibitor, there was no inhibitory activity for these six food dyes. The six food dyes tested do not interact with P-gp in vitro and, therefore, are unlikely cause clinical drug-food dye interactions. Further investigation is necessary to determine whether these food dyes could interact with other drug transporters.
Rapid Response in a Patient with Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma Treated with BRAF/MEK Inhibitors

Patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma have a poor prognosis. The mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway has been implicated in the pathogenesis of multiple myeloma. Several mutations in this pathway can lead to its constitutive activation leading to oncogenesis. One such mutation is BRAFV600E which is a therapeutic target in the treatment of melanoma, lung cancer, colon cancer, thyroid cancer, and hairy cell leukemia. BRAFV600E-directed therapy currently does not have approval in multiple myeloma. It has been proposed that this mutation leads to proteasome inhibitor resistance. About 4-10% of multiple myeloma cases harbor the BRAFV600E mutation. Herein, we report a case of a patient with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma who had a progression-free survival (PFS) of 8.5 months on BRAF-targeted therapy.
Association Between Sex and Treatment Outcomes of Atrial Fibrillation Ablation Versus Drug Therapy: Results From the CABANA Trial.

Background: Among patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), women are less likely to receive catheter ablation and may have more complications and less durable results. Most information about sex-spe...
Fossilization in Adult Second Language Acquisition

Most non-native speakers would agree that it is sometimes frustrating to communicate in another language. Many have embarrassing stories about how they have been misunderstood or have not been able to convey their intended messages at all. In the field of second language acquisition (SLA), there is little doubt that native-like mastery of a second language (L2) by adult non-native speakers is hard to attain (Bley-Vroman, 1989; Schachter, 1988). Failure in some aspects of the language is to be expected, and this is the reason why the nature of this failure has to be investigated thoroughly. Fossilization in Adult Second Language Acquisition takes a long step towards shedding light onto the nature of failure. This book offers a systematic analysis of fossilization, a phenomenon which occurs despite continuous exposure to the target language input, sufficient motivation to improve, and ample opportunity to practice.
Non-structural measures of competition: Toward a synthesis of alternatives

Abstract Procedures for detecting or measuring market power have been suggested in recent years by Iwata, Rosse and Panzar, and Bresnahan. This paper integrates elements from all three approaches to provide a single, more unified alternative to the structure-conduct-performance paradigm.
Fixed Structure Computation of the Structured Singular Value

This paper addresses the robest stability and performance analysis problem using a fixed structure approach of the structured singular value. Specifically, using recent results on H 2 / H ? , a Riccati equation approach is formulated for complex-? with constant D-scales along with an H 2 performance bound. An optimization procedure is proposed in computing optimal D-scales with respect to the H 2 performance bound. Finally, it is shown that this new approach compares favorably to the standard structured singular value involving frequency-dependent D-scales.
Analysis of Human Trafficking Cases in Rhode Island, 2009-2013

1. Faith Skodmin[1][1] 2. Rachel Dunham[2][2] 3. Donna M. Hughes[2][2][⇑][3] 1. 1Rhode Island College, Providence, USA 2. 2University of Rhode Island, Kingston, USA 1. Donna M. Hughes, Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies, Sociology and Anthropology, Eleanor M. and Oscar M. Carlson Endowed Chair, University of Rhode Island, 512 Chafee Social Science Center, Kingston, RI 02881, USA. Email: donnamhughes{at}uri.edu This article is an analysis of law enforcement identified cases of human trafficking in Rhode Island from 2009 to 2013. Information was collected from police and court records, prosecutors’ press releases, and reports in the media. During this period, there was one case of forced labor of a domestic worker and six cases of domestic sex trafficking. Many of the characteristics of the Rhode Island cases were consistent with other human trafficking cases in the United States. Discussions of key findings include (a) outcomes of a criminal case using a new human trafficking statute on fraud in foreign contracting and a civil suit, (b) how online prostitution ads are used to market victims to sex buyers using ethnicity of the victims and age and social standing of the sex buyers, and (c) how mothers of victims are involved in locating their daughters and making reports to the police that initiated investigations. [1]: #aff-1 [2]: #aff-2 [3]: #corresp-1
Playing with fire? The impact of the hidden curriculum in school genetics on essentialist conceptions of race

Race has been a longstanding topic in the biology textbook curriculum. Yet, there appears to be no research investigating whether the treatment of race in modern biology textbooks impacts how students conceptualize race. In the present study, a double-blind field experiment employing mixed-methods is used to investigate the impact of textbook-based genetics learning on essentialist conceptions of race amongst adolescents. The study was carried out in an eighth grade classroom in a California Bay Area School. Students recruited for the study (N = 43) read either a racialized or a non-racialized textbook passage on human genetic diseases and completed a reading comprehension assessment. After a short distracting task they responded to items in two different race conception instruments. Controlling for race, gender, age, prior race-conceptions, and reading comprehension, statistically significant effects were observed on both race conception instruments by treatment. Students in the racialized condition exhibited stronger essentialist conceptions of race than students in the non-racialized condition. Additionally, an exploratory analysis indicated that an understanding of Mendelian heredity moderated the observed treatment effects. The findings of the present study tentatively suggest that textbook-based instruction in school biology can inadvertently reinforce essentialist conceptions of race that underlie racial bias. Implications for teaching and research are discussed. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 51: 462–496, 2014
Entropy consistent formulation and numerical simulation of the BGK-Burnett equations Using a kinetic wave/particle flux splitting algorithm

In this paper a new set of equations, designated as the BGK-Burnett equations, are derived for computing hypersonic flow in the continuum transition regime. The Boltzmann equation, with Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) approximation for the collision integral, describes the spatial and temporal variations of the second-order distribution function which forms the basis of this formulation. The second order distribution function is derived by considering the first three terms in the Chapman-Enskog expansion and using the Navier-Stokes equations to express the material derivatives, present in the second-order terms, in terms of the spatial derivatives. The BGK-Burnett equations are derived by taking moments of the BGK-Boltzmann equation with the collision invariant vector. These equations are entropy consistent and do not violate the second law of thermodynamics at all Knudsen numbers. A Kinetic Wave/Particle Split scheme for the BGK-Burnett equations is derived by taking moments of the upwind discretized Boltzmann equation. This algorithm is applied to the shock tube and hypersonic shock structure problems.
A 7-MHz process, temperature and supply compensated clock oscillator in 0.25 /spl mu/m CMOS

This paper reports on the design and implementation of a process, temperature and supply compensated 7-MHz clock oscillator in a 0.25 /spl mu/m, double poly, 5-metal CMOS process. The clock generator is based on a 3-stage differential ring oscillator. The compensation technique incorporates a unique combination of a process corner sensing scheme and a temperature compensating network to appropriately change the control voltage of the differential ring oscillator. Measurements made across a temperature range of -40/spl deg/C to 125/spl deg/C and 64 samples collected over 3 runs indicate an average variation of /spl plusmn/0.82% (/spl plusmn/46 ppm//spl deg/C) in the clock frequency with temperature, /spl plusmn/2.1% with process across chips at room temperature, and a worst-case combined variation of /spl plusmn/2.6% (with process, temperature and supply). The variation of frequency with power supply was /spl plusmn/0.31% for a supply voltage range of 2.4-2.75 V. The measurement results are in good agreement with the simulation results. The oscillator is intended to serve as a start-up clock for microcontroller applications.
A coupled states quantum reactive scattering study of H + D2 → HD + D ATErel(υ = j = 0) = 0.55 eV

Abstract In this paper we present the results of accurate quantum coupled states calculations for the H + D 2 → HD + D reaction at 0.55 eV translational energy (relative to υ = 0, j = 0) using the accurate LSTH potential surface.