cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Vitamin D deficiency is associated with an oxidized plasma cysteine redox potential in critically Ill children.

Critically ill populations incur high levels of oxidative stress and commonly present with vitamin D deficiency. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between vitamin D status and plasma markers of glutathione (GSH) and cysteine (Cys) redox and immunity in critically ill children. This was a cross-sectional study of n = 50 PICU patients. Subjects were categorized according to their plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations: (<20, 20–30, and ≥30 ng/dL). Plasma GSH, glutathione disulfide (GSSG), Cys, and cystine (CySS) were measured with high-performance liquid chromatography, and their associated redox potentials determined (EhGSSG and EhCySS, respectively). Plasma LL-37, an indicator of innate immune function, was assayed with ELISA. Data were analyzed using general linear regression before and after adjustment for age, sex, and race. Results showed that EhCySS was more reduced in subjects with plasma 25(OH)D concentrations ≥30 ng/mL compared to those with 25(OH)D concentrations <20 ng/mL (P = 0.009). Plasma GSH, GSSG, and total GSH decreased with increasing 25(OH)D category (P = 0.06, 0.03, and 0.01, respectively), and plasma glutamine levels were lowest in subjects with plasma 25(OH)D concentrations ≥30 ng/mL (P = 0.004). Plasma LL-37 concentrations did not significantly differ by vitamin D status (P = 0.08). In conclusion, vitamin D sufficiency was associated with more reduced plasma EhCySS, indicative of lower oxidative stress in critically ill children. Plasma GSH, GSSG, and glutamine, however, were lower in the vitamin D sufficient group. The role of vitamin D in maintaining redox status during pediatric critical illness requires further study.
Antibiotic Residues in Milk Following Antimicrobial Therapy During Lactation.

Milk was collected at 24 h intervals through 120 h after treatment from lactating dairy cows treated with antibiotics. Antibiotic residues were determined qualitatively by microbiological assays utilizing Bacillus stearothermophilus. Intrauterine infusion of antibiotics resulted in the lowest percentage of milk samples positive for residues. A high percentage of samples was positive for residues 24 and 48 h after intramuscular injection of antibiotics; however, most samples were negative by 72 h after treatment. Intramammary therapy resulted in a high proportion of samples positive for residues at 24 and 48 h after treatment, and some samples were positive 96 to 120 h after treatment. Samples from treated quarters were often positive when corresponding composite milk samples were negative. Treatment with more than one antibiotic by multiple routes resulted in the highest percentage of samples positive for residues for the longest time. Any variation of antibiotic dosage, duration of treatment, or use of m...
Human Resource Management, Employee Engagement and Employee Performance in Nigerian Public Sector: A Proposed Model

Numerous factors have been considered as the factors influencing employee performance in organization. Some of these factors includes, organizational culture, job satisfaction, employee commitment, emotional intelligence, personality, organizational citizenship behavior among others. While some studies considered human resource management practices (HRM practices). However, some of these studies used individual practice while others used group practices. Despite these studies, however, studies attempted to consider the influence of HRM practices and employee performance have reported mixed findings; therefore, a moderating variable is suggested. This paper proposes employee engagement as potential moderator to stimulate the relationship between HRM practices and employee performance.
Psychometric Analysis and Qualitative Review of an Outpatient Radiology-Specific Patient Satisfaction Survey: A Call for Collaboration in Validating a Survey Instrument.

Abstract Purpose The aim of this study was to perform a psychometric analysis of the constructs and reliability of an outpatient radiology-specific patient satisfaction survey and identify factors that drive patient experience so that radiology practices can improve the quality of their diagnostic imaging services. Methods This retrospective study examined responses to eight patient satisfaction questions from a survey originally developed by a nascent marketing team and then administered at five outpatient imaging centers from January 7, 2013, to November 11, 2015. Patients' responses were reviewed to identify factors that affected patient experience, and a psychometric analysis of the survey instrument itself was performed, including exploratory factor analyses and reliability testing. Patient responses were compared among sites, examination types, and questions. Free-text comments were qualitatively categorized and compared by examination type. Results In total, 6,512 surveys were completed among 137,059 patient encounters. Using exploratory factor analyses of the eight survey questions, three relevant patient experience constructs were derived: (1) front office experience, (2) intake experience, and (3) examination experience. Overall, good scale reliability was observed. Perceived quality of care had the most positive ratings; wait time had the most nonpositive ratings. Of 2,024 free-text comments, 1,859 were positive (most pertaining to staff), and 155 were negative (most pertaining to convenience). MRI patients were most likely to share negative comments, typically regarding the examination experience itself. Conclusions Psychometric analysis of a patient survey derived three core patient experience constructs: front office experience, intake experience, and examination experience. The survey indicates the need to decrease wait times, streamline the registration process, and improve patient comfort during MRI examinations.
A helium-based model for the effects of radiation damage annealing on helium diffusion kinetics in apatite

Abstract Widely used to study surface processes and the development of topography through geologic time, (U–Th)/He thermochronometry in apatite depends on a quantitative description of the kinetics of 4He diffusion across a range of temperatures, timescales, and geologic scenarios. Empirical observations demonstrate that He diffusivity in apatite is not solely a function of temperature, but also depends on damage to the crystal structure from radioactive decay processes. Commonly-used models accounting for the influence of thermal annealing of radiation damage on He diffusivity assume the net effects evolve in proportion to the rate of fission track annealing, although the majority of radiation damage results from α-recoil. While existing models adequately quantify the net effects of damage annealing in many geologic scenarios, experimental work suggests different annealing rates for the two damage types. Here, we introduce an alpha-damage annealing model (ADAM) that is independent of fission track annealing kinetics, and directly quantifies the influence of thermal annealing on He diffusivity in apatite. We present an empirical fit to diffusion kinetics data and incorporate this fit into a model that tracks the competing effects of radiation damage accumulation and annealing on He diffusivity in apatite through geologic time. Using time–temperature paths to illustrate differences between models, we highlight the influence of damage annealing on data interpretation. In certain, but not all, geologic scenarios, the interpretation of low-temperature thermochronometric data can be strongly influenced by which model of radiation damage annealing is assumed. In particular, geologic scenarios involving 1–2 km of sedimentary burial are especially sensitive to the assumed rate of annealing and its influence on He diffusivity. In cases such as basement rocks in Grand Canyon and the Canadian Shield, (U–Th)/He ages predicted from the ADAM can differ by hundreds of Ma from those predicted by other models for a given thermal path involving extended residence between ∼40–80 °C.
Security analysis of computing systems from circuit-architectural perspective

Security and energy are considered as the most important parameters for designing and building an emerging computing system. Today's attacks target different layers of the computing system in both software- and hardware-level. On the other side, introduction of new transistor and memory technologies to the integrated circuits design is beneficial, especially for low energy requirements. However, they might bring new security vulnerabilities as well. Due to these issues, development of novel testing and security checking techniques is obligatory. In this regard, we study two attacks on a computing system within the domain of emerging transistor and memory technologies. A built-in-self-test architecture for testing and security checking an emerging memory is presented. At last, a defense technique is proposed that can identify and detect any abnormal behavior shown from the integrated circuits within the computing system using their current signals.
DETECTING DATA MANIPULATION ATTACKS ON THE SUBSTATION INTERLOCKING FUNCTION USING DIRECT POWER FEEDBACK

Any form of deliberate physical or cyber activity that attempts to undermine the control mechanisms that maintain the key goals of reliability, efficiency and safety of a physical system can be considered to be an attack on the system. Indeed, an attack can be as subtle as a configuration change that prevents the optimal operation of a power system.
Marionette: E. coli containing 12 highly-optimized small molecule sensors

Cellular processes are carried out by many interacting genes and their study and optimization requires multiple levers by which they can be independently controlled. The most common method is via a genetically-encoded sensor that responds to a small molecule (an "inducible system"). However, these sensors are often suboptimal, exhibiting high background expression and low dynamic range. Further, using multiple sensors in one cell is limited by cross-talk and the taxing of cellular resources. Here, we have developed a directed evolution strategy to simultaneously select for less background, high dynamic range, increased sensitivity, and low crosstalk. Libraries of the regulatory protein and output promoter are built based on random and rationally-guided mutations. This is applied to generate a set of 12 high-performance sensors, which exhibit >100-fold induction with low background and cross-reactivity. These are combined to build a single "sensor array" and inserted into the genomes of E. coli MG1655 (wild-type), DH10B (cloning), and BL21 (protein expression). These "Marionette" strains allow for the independent control of gene expression using 2,4-diacetylphophloroglucinol (DAPG), cuminic acid (Cuma), 3-oxohexanoyl-homoserine lactone (OC6), vanillic acid (Van), isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG), anhydrotetracycline (aTc), L-arabinose (Ara), choline chloride (Cho), naringenin (Nar), 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHBA), sodium salicylate (Sal), and 3-hydroxytetradecanoyl-homoserine lactone (OHC14).
Putting trust in security engineering

Proposing a stronger foundation for an engineering discipline to support the design of secure systems.
Experimental Evaluation of Query Processing Techniques over Multiversion XML Documents

approaches have been recently proposed for stor- ing the evolution of an XML document, thereby preserving useful past information about the document and thus the ability to query it. While the importance of maintaining a document's evolution has been recognized, relatively lit- tle research has been done on how to adapt efficient XML querying techniques in a multiversion environment. Such methods would allow the user to efficiently perform struc- tural queries over any past version or interval of versions of the XML document. In this paper, we examine query processing techniques on (linear) multiversion XML docu- ments. Specifically, we propose efficient modifications to ex- isting XML query processing algorithms and compare them to more traditional approaches. Our experimental results demonstrate the advantages of the modified algorithms.
Automatic monitoring of control-flow through inheritance hierarchies

Polymorphism, based on inheritance and dynamic binding in standard object-oriented languages, is one of the most powerful mechanisms available to the OO designer. It allows the system designer to customize the behavior of functions defined in particular base classes by suitably redefining, in derived classes, other functions that they invoke. At the same time, polymorphism, especially when used in conjunction with the super mechanism that most OO languages provide, can result in extremely complex control-flow among the various methods defined in the various classes. In this paper, we develop an approach that can be used by the designer to automatically trace this control-flow. We also present results from a prototype implementation based on our approach.
Solution of transient nonlinear structural dynamics problems using the modified iterative group-implicit algorithm

In this work, the Modified Group Implicit (MIGI) algorithm, a domain-by-domain solution algorithm is extended for the solution of nonlinear structural dynamics problems concurrently. In a transient nonlinear analysis, nonlinear iterations are necessary to satisfy the dynamic equilibrium along with the MIGI iterations. These two iterations may be combined and performed in a single process loop or they may be isolated. Both schemes have been implemented and tested. It is found that the isolation of the iterations produces a more efficient scheme than the one resulting from combination of the two loops. A fully nonlinear transient analysis of a 20- storey model building is carried out, using the separate loop scheme, on an IBM SP multi-computer and a network of SUN workstations. Excellent accuracy in the solution has been obtained with significant speedup of the computations.
Rage Attack and Racial Slurs

This chapter presents a case study of a patient who arrives at the emergency department demanding more medication and then yells racial slurs at the physicians assigned to her care. The case includes a discussion of what precipitated the rage attack and appropriate interventions.
DeepHCF: A Deep Learning Based Hybrid Collaborative Filtering Approach for Recommendation Systems

The data sparsity is a significant challenge for collaborative filtering methods in recommendation systems for making accurate recommendations. Several approaches have been published to address this issue. Most of them usually use only one source of data to train their model, and other approaches still have lower performance especially when the sparsity of data is very high. In this paper, we use a deep learning based model, DeepHCF, to tackle this problem. DeepHCF uses two sources of data, ratings matrix and item reviews, to train two deep models via joint training. The user-item ratings matrix data is trained using a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), while other side information is trained using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). The users and items' latent features learned by each model are utilized by factorization machines for our model prediction. Extensive experimental results on four different realworld datasets show that DeepHCF achieves on average a 7.42% improvement over the second most accurate method, when the dataset has over 99.9% of sparsity.
4-Bromo-1H-indole-2,3-dione

The title compound, C8H4BrNO2, has a single planar mol­ecule in the asymmetric unit with the non-H atoms possessing a mean deviation from planarity of 0.024 A. The mol­ecules dimerize in the solid state through N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. There are inter­molecular Br⋯O close contacts at 3.0430 (14) A. The nine-membered rings of the isatins stack along [001] with parallel slipped π–π inter­actions [inter-centroid distance: 3.7173 (6) A, inter-planar distance: 3.3110 (8) A, slippage: 1.6898 (14) A].
Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Surgery Navigation and Robotic Positioning System Under X-Rays

With regards to visual and operating defects during routine arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament surgery, this paper introduces an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery navigation and robotic positioning system that uses visual tracking sensors. The system employed intraoperative xray images to design feature point-based rapid spatial registration. Image rectification, intraoperative navigation, and robot-assisted positioning were used to complete assisted navigation and positioning of the anterior cruciate ligament tunnel in the femur and tibia. Following that, we carried out a detailed analysis of the errors produced by the navigation and positioning system, including image rectification errors, spatial registration errors, and visual tracking errors, and we carried out error simulations and experiments. We also carried out specimen bone experiments on the femur and tibia. Anteroposterior and lateral X-ray images were acquired each time and the location of the channel always fell on the anatomical end point of the anterior cruciate ligament, with an average time of 30 min. This system avoids surgical defects associated with conventional arthroscopy and solves the clinical problems of complex operation, small surgical field, and inaccurate positioning during anterior cruciate ligament surgery.
A Novel Geometric Approach for Outlier Recognition in High Dimension

Outlier recognition is a fundamental problem in data analysis and has attracted a great deal of attention in the past decades. However, most existing methods still suffer from several issues such as high time and space complexities or unstable performances for different datasets. In this paper, we provide a novel algorithm for outlier recognition in high dimension based on the elegant geometric technique ``core-set". The algorithm needs only linear time and space complexities and achieves a solid theoretical quality guarantee. Another advantage over the existing methods is that our algorithm can be naturally extended to handle multi-class inliers. Our experimental results show that our algorithm outperforms existing algorithms on both random and benchmark datasets.
Periodontal treatment needs in the Medicaid patient population: a retrospective study in a US dental school.

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to use electronic health records (EHRs) from a US dental school clinic to retrospectively investigate associations between periodontal treatment needs and insurance type in a newly insured adult Medicaid population. We hypothesized that newly insured Medicaid patients, covered by the Iowa Dental Wellness Plan (DWP), would display greater need for treatment than patients with other sources of financing. METHODS A retrospective chart review of EHRs of patients at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics (UI COD) from 2014 to 2016 was completed. The outcome of interest whether or not a new patient was indicated for scaling and root planing (SRP) based on clinical examination. Logistic regression models analyzed associations between treatment need and source of financing, adjusting for known periodontal disease risk indicators. RESULTS A total of 1,259 patient charts were evaluated. SRP was indicated for 56 percent of all patients. Patients with DWP coverage had significantly greater unadjusted odds of being indicated for SRP than privately insured individuals (OR = 1.47, P = 0.009). However, this association did not remain significant after adjusting for known risk indicators. CONCLUSIONS Although individuals enrolled in DWP were not significantly more likely to need treatment than individuals with other sources of financing when adjusting for risk indicators, their demonstrated clinical need was higher than privately insured adults. Public benefit programs could anticipate greater burden of periodontal need in low-income populations due to increased prevalence of risk factors in this population.
High-dose bendamustine and melphalan conditioning for autologous stem cell transplantation for patients with multiple myeloma.

High-dose melphalan (MEL200) followed by autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) remains a standard of care for multiple myeloma (MM). Bendamustine induces responses in MM resistant to other alkylators. Our prior Phase I trial adding bendamustine to MEL200 transplant conditioning resulted in no additional toxicity. We now report a single-arm, phase II study that evaluated the efficacy of bendamustine 225 mg/m2 with MEL200 conditioning for ASCT in 18 patients with newly diagnosed MM (NDMM) and 17 with relapsed or refractory MM (RRMM). The primary end point was the complete response (CR/sCR) rate at day+ 100. Sample size was determined according to Simon's two-stage design. At stage 1, sixteen patients entered the study. As there were eight patients with CR/sCR, enrollment increased to 28 patients. Sixteen out of the first 28 evaluable patients achieved CR/sCR, meeting the design criteria. Enrollment was then expanded to a total of 35 patients. 51% achieved a CR/sCR. After a median follow-up of 65 months, 21 patients progressed, including 7 deaths. The median PFS for NDMM and RRMM was 48 and 45 months, respectively. Bendamustine/MEL200 conditioning resulted in excellent overall and depth of response as well as PFS, particularly in the RRMM patients, and is worthy of further investigation (NCT00916058).
82. SAFELY PROMOTING AUTONOMY: UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF INDEPENDENT ROUNDING ON STUDENTS, RESIDENTS, AND FACULTY

Background Due to heightened focus on patient safety, increased healthcare complexity, and 24/7 hospitalist coverage in many teaching institutions, the appropriate balance between resident autonomy and supervision is in question. Independent rounding as a way to promote progressive responsibility has been studied in internal medicine, but limited data exists in pediatrics. Objectives To explore medical student, intern, resident, and faculty perspectives on independent rounding on wards at two institutions (children's hospital and county hospital). Methods Using Self-Determination Theory as a conceptual model, we introduced independent rounds 1-2 times a week at 2 separate training sites in July 2018. In this IRB-approved qualitative study, we conducted semi-structured focus groups with a purposive sample of junior trainees, senior trainees, and faculty between October-December 2018. Focus groups were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed for themes using the constant comparative approach associated with grounded theory. Results Focus groups included 13 junior trainees (3 MS3s, 10 PGY1s), 10 senior trainees (3 PGY2s, 7 PGY3s), and 12 faculty. Five themes emerged (Table 1): (1) independent rounds contributed to all trainees’ development; (2) senior residents described increased motivation to take full ownership of patients and educational needs of the team; (3) faculty were concerned about decreased opportunities for teaching and feedback, however trainees reported unique learning from faculty presence on and absence from rounds; (4) no significant safety events were noted; and (5) all identified communication and patient progression concerns that can be mitigated. Conclusion As a result of independent rounding, trainees described increased motivation to take ownership of their patients, education, and team. They felt both rounding experiences contributed to their development as physicians. Concerns about communication and patient care progression will be important to investigate when designing interventions to promote resident autonomy in the future.
An Investigation of Probationary At-Risk Freshmen’s Future-Oriented Motivation and Future-Oriented Self-Regulated Learning:

This study investigated at-risk freshmen’s future-oriented motivation (motivation for developing and pursuing academic future goals) and future-oriented self-regulated learning (commitment to utili...
Psychometric models for scoring multiple reporter assessments: Applications to integrative data analysis in prevention science and beyond:

Conducting valid and reliable empirical research in the prevention sciences is an inherently difficult and challenging task. Chief among these is the need to obtain numerical scores of underlying t...
A theoretical analysis of the putative ORF10 protein in SARS-CoV-2

Upstream of the 3-untranslated region in the SARS-CoV-2 genome is ORF10 which has been proposed to encode for the ORF10 protein. Although current research is unclear on whether this protein is synthesized, further investigations are still warranted. Herein, this study uses multiple bioinformatic tools to biochemically and functionally characterize the ORF10 protein along with predicting its structure. Results indicate this protein is highly ordered, hydrophobic, thermally stable, and contains at least one transmembrane region. This protein possesses high protein-binding propensity, primarily in the N-terminal half. An assessment of twenty-two mutations reveal slight changes in flexibility, mainly in the C-terminal half. However, mutations do not seem to inflict significant changes on protein stability and other biochemical features. The predicted model suggests the ORF10 protein contains a {beta}--{beta} motif with a {beta}-molecular recognition feature occurring in the first {beta}-strand. Functionally, the ORF10 protein could be a membrane protein that forms a viroporin. The ORF10 consists of two distinct lineages: the SARS-CoV lineage and the SARS-CoV-2 lineage. Evidence of positive selection was found in the SARS-CoV-2 lineage whereas purifying selection was found in the SARS-CoV lineage. The ORF10 in SARS-CoV-2 is highly similar to ORF10 sequences in closely related bat and pangolin coronaviruses. Collectively, these results help continue to assess the biological relevance of ORF10 and its putatively encoded protein, thereby aiding in diagnostic and possibly vaccine development.
Time series motifs discovery under DTW allows more robust discovery of conserved structure

In recent years, time series motif discovery has emerged as perhaps the most important primitive for many analytical tasks, including clustering, classification, rule discovery, segmentation, and summarization. In parallel, it has long been known that Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) is superior to other similarity measures such as Euclidean Distance under most settings. However, due to the computational complexity of both DTW and motif discovery, virtually no research efforts have been directed at combining these two ideas. The current best mechanisms to address their lethargy appear to be mutually incompatible. In this work, we present the first efficient, scalable and exact method to find time series motifs under DTW. Our method automatically performs the best trade-off of time-to-compute versus tightness-of-lower-bounds for a novel hierarchy of lower bounds that we introduce. As we shall show through extensive experiments, our algorithm prunes up to 99.99% of the DTW computations under realistic settings and is up to three to four orders of magnitude faster than the brute force search, and two orders of magnitude faster than the only other competitor algorithm. This allows us to discover DTW motifs in massive datasets for the first time. As we will show, in many domains, DTW-based motifs represent semantically meaningful conserved behavior that would escape our attention using all existing Euclidean distance-based methods.
Political Corruption and Private Investment: The Case of China

The institutionalization of private property rights promotes economic development. Political corruption, it is widely held, retards development. During its reform and opening up period, China did not recognize property rights, became increasingly corrupt, yet broke world growth records. We resolve this paradox by highlighting the way systemic corruption can partly substitute for absent property rights by providing investors with implicit protection against expropriation. We use a principal-agent model to study the mechanism by which systemic corruption's impact on political risk affects individual investment decisions. We empirically assess this mechanism by examining the influence of aggregate corruption on the productivity of investments in China.
Research models and mesenchymal/epithelial plasticity of osteosarcoma.

Most osteosarcomas (OSs) develop from mesenchymal cells at the bone with abnormal growth in young patients. OS has an annual incidence of 3.4 per million people and a 60–70% 5-year surviving rate. About 20% of OS patients have metastasis at diagnosis, and only 27% of patients with metastatic OS survive longer than 5 years. Mutation of tumor suppressors RB1, TP53, REQL4 and INK4a and/or deregulation of PI3K/mTOR, TGFβ, RANKL/NF-κB and IGF pathways have been linked to OS development. However, the agents targeting these pathways have yielded disappointing clinical outcomes. Surgery and chemotherapy remain the main treatments of OS. Recurrent and metastatic OSs are commonly resistant to these therapies. Spontaneous canine models, carcinogen-induced rodent models, transgenic mouse models, human patient-derived xenograft models, and cell lines from animal and human OSs have been developed for studying the initiation, growth and progression of OS and testing candidate drugs of OS. The cell plasticity regulated by epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition transcription factors (EMT-TFs) such as TWIST1, SNAIL, SLUG, ZEB1 and ZEB2 plays an important role in maintenance of the mesenchymal status and promotion of cell invasion and metastasis of OS cells. Multiple microRNAs including miR-30/9/23b/29c/194/200, proteins including SYT-SSX1/2 fusion proteins and OVOL2, and other factors that inhibit AMF/PGI and LRP5 can suppress either the expression or activity of EMT-TFs to increase epithelial features and inhibit OS metastasis. Further understanding of the molecular mechanisms that regulate OS cell plasticity should provide potential targets and therapeutic strategies for improving OS treatment.
SU-E-I-85: Absorbed Dose Estimation for a Commercially Available MicroCT Scanner

Purpose: To quantify the simulated absorbed dose delivered for a typical scan from a commercially available microCT scanner in order to aid in the dose estimation. Methods: The simulations were conducted using the Geant4 Monte Carlo Toolkit (version 10) with the standard electromagnetic classes. The Quantum FX microCT scanner (PerkinElmer, Waltham, MA) was modeled incorporating the energy fluence and angular distributions of generated photons, spatial dimensions of nominal source-to-object and source-to-detector distances. The energy distribution was measured using a spectrometer (X-123CdTe, Amptek Inc., Bedford, USA) with a 300 angular spread from the source for the 90 kVp X-ray beams with no additional filtration. The nominal distances from the source to object consisted of three setups: 154.0 mm, 104.0 mm, and 51.96 mm. Our simulations recorded the dose absorbed in a cylindrical phantom of PMMA with a fixed length of 2 cm and varying radii (10, 20, 30 and 40 mm) using 100 million incident photons. The averaged absorbed dose in the object was then quantified for all setups. An exposure measurement of 417 mR was taken using a Radcal 9095 system utilizing 10×9–180 ion chamber with the given technique of 90 kVp, 63 μA, and 12 s. The exposure ratemore » was also simulated with same setup to calculate the conversion factor of the beam current and the number of incident photons. Results: For a typical cone-beam scan with non-filtered 90kVp, the dose coefficients (the absorbed dose per mAs) were 2.614, 2.549 and 2.467 μGy/mAs under source to object distance of 104 mm for the object diameters of 10 mm, 20 mm and 30 mm, respectively. Conclusion: A look-up table was developed where an investigator can estimate the delivered dose using this particular microCT given the scanning protocol (kVp and mAs) as well as the size of the scanned object.« less
Spontaneous resolution of nausea induced by spinal cord stimulation for failed back surgery syndrome.

Introduction: Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is used for treatment of pain arising from a variety of pathologies. Reported side-effects related to SCS are most commonly technical complications including malfunction, lead migration, or severance. Up to date, only a few cases of gastrointestinal side-effects have been reported. Materials and Methods: A 54-year-old man with a 20-year history of low back pain developed persistent and refractory nausea following spinal cord stimulator implantation. Results: The nausea resolved spontaneously within eight weeks allowing continued use of the spinal cord stimulator. Conclusions: In this case report, we described the uncommon side-effect of nausea because of SCS that resolved over time allowing continued neurostimulation therapy in a patient with arachnoiditis and failed lumbar back surgery syndrome. We encourage other providers to report similar cases to help elucidate the mechanism of these seemingly underreported side-effects to allow continuation of the therapeutic effects of SCS.
Operative treatment of urinary incontinence

S INCE 1928 we have been interested in the problem of urinary incontinence and its methods of treatment, and during that time have treated and followed carefully a series of casts of its various types. A number of surgical methods, most of them standard operations, have been employed and a few modifications, dcviscd for individual cases, have been given a trial. The subject is rnt,her specialized and might seem to be of limited interest, but many cases of urinary incontinence are so hopeless often and so eager for surgical relief that a. consideration of operative methods seems worth while. Urinary leakage is one of the most troublesome ailments with which patients are ever afflicted. The mechanism of urinary control, which under normal circumstances functions so perfectly, is rarely appreciated until due to relaxation, accidents or disease, it becomes functionally incompetent or organically damaged. Since the time of Rounhuise in the latter part of the seventeenth century there have been consistent attempts to improve upon the operative methods which may be employed in dealing with urinary leakage. The history of vesicovaginal fistula primarily due to the work of its pioneer surgeon, Marion Sims, is best known in the surgery of urinary leakage, but the advances made and cures obtained through the efforts of Kelly. Ward, Rawls and others have so improved surgical attack that almost any patient may be promised great improvement or even a clinical cure although several surgical procedures may be necessary. Crossen has presented detailed descriptions of technic in his volume TeAnique of t%ynecological 8uryary. Many isolated cases of all types have been reported which have been benefited or cured by many different methods (Young). Relief of incontinence depends to the greatest extent for its success upon t,he proper choice of methods in the various types of incontinence. It is the purpose of this paper to give a brief consideration to those types and the methods best adapted to their treatment with the report of some typical cases.
VISITATION AND CHILD SUPPORT GUIDELINES

Fabricius and Braver argue that nonresident fathers incur appreciable visitation expenses and that their child support obligations should be reduced accordingly. To assess whether fathers incur “appreciable” expenses requires data from mothers and fathers on expenditures in dollar terms rather than data from college students on items kept in the nonresident father's house. The Fabricius and Braver data also overstate the degree to which all divorced fathers do anything for their children. Representative data indicate that father visitation declines substantially over time. Father's postdivorce, post–child support standard of living remains twice that of mothers and children. The cliff model—making adjustments for visitation only in the rare cases of very high shared physical custody—is sensible policy.
Interference with testing for lysergic acid diethylamide

We found a high rate (4.2%) of positive results for lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) by Emit in 1898 urine samples that were submitted primarily from psychiatric patients for drugs-of-abuse (DOA) testing. Specimens that tested positive for LSD by Emit subsequently tested negative for LSD with two RIAs. Furthermore, LSD was not detected in randomly selected Emit-positive urine samples by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Normal urine samples tested positive for LSD by Emit when they were supplemented with therapeutic medications that were prescribed for patients with positive urine LSD results by Emit. These therapeutic drugs interfered specifically with the Emit assay for LSD, since other Emit DOA tests were not affected by these medications at the tested concentrations.
Civility, Social Capital, and Civil Society: Three Powerful Concepts for Explaining Asia

Civility, Social Capital, and Civil Society: Three Powerful Concepts for Explaining Asia Many knowledgeable people believe that developments in East and Southeast Asia will vindicate the theory that successful economic growth can set the stage for political democracy. Two decades of rapid economic growth there hold out the promise that the arrival of democracy may not be far behind. First Japan and then South Korea and Taiwan broke from their one-party, authoritarian traditions to become plausible democracies. Their achievements have given hope that China and the economically developing Southeast Asian countries will follow the same path. Such, after all, was the implicit expectation in much of modernization theory, including the assumption that foreign economic aid would, by facilitating economic development, prepare the way for transitions to democracy. Current practices from Singapore to Beijing, however, are a cause for concern. Not only have there been no smooth transitions from economic to political change in these countries, but numerous Asian leaders are now insisting that such a sequence is neither inevitable nor desirable. In contrast to the dominant thinking in Asia during the first two-thirds of the twentieth century that these societies had to take on new values in order to make both
Lower-extremity lymphangiomatosis. A case report with a seventeen-year follow-up.

Lymphangiomatosis is a rarely encountered syndrome from the category of diffuse, benign neoplasms1. The lesions are believed to result from abnormal development and proliferation of the lymphatic system1-4. The most common areas of involvement are the mediastinum, lung, heart, pleura, pericardium, and, less commonly, bone, including the vertebrae and ribs1-11. Skeletal involvement usually consists of multiple rounded, cystic lesions that most commonly occur in the femur and pelvis1,6,11-13. The lesions can be classified into three categories: (1) lymphangioma simplex lesions, which are composed of capillary sized, thin-walled lymphatic channels usually affecting the skin1,6,7; (2) cystic lymphangiomas or hygromas, which are fluid-filled lesions ranging from a few millimeters to many centimeters in size and most commonly occur in the axilla or neck1,14-16; and (3) lymphangioma cavernosum, which consists of dilated lymphatic channels often with fibrous adventitial coats and which usually affects visceral organs and bone17. All three types can be present simultaneously in patients with lymphangiomatosis1,4. The family of the patient was informed that data concerning the case would be submitted for publication. A four-year-old boy, the product of a full-term, normal, spontaneous vertex delivery, had pain in the lower extremities with activity. The family history was negative, and the medical history was important only for otitis media at one year of age. The boy was seen by two local physicians, who reported that there were no abnormalities in the lower extremities on physical examination and specifically that no edema or soft-tissue masses were present. Radiographs of the lower extremities were made and were later sent to us. They showed cortical defects in the proximal …
Reagent strip performance as evaluated by a meter.

The stability of 98 Chemstrip bG (CS) was assessed with a specially de signed meter (Accu-Chek) to deter mine the length of time patient-read CS can be saved in order to evaluate the accuracy of self-monitoring. Visual readings of 70 CS from 21 patients were compared with meter readings immediately after capillary blood glu cose (CBG) determination to assess patient accuracy.The rate with which meter-read CS changed was significant by three days (p<0.001). To determine the clinical significance of this change, the abso lute values of initial meter readings were compared to subsequent meter readings for 14 days. Significant changes in CBG values occurred after 5-10 days dependent upon the initial CBG value. If the initial CBG value was less than or equal to 180 mg/dl, CS deteriorated significantly after ten days. When the initial CBG value was greater than 180 mgldl, significant deterioration occurred after five days. Patient accuracy was found to be 97% ± 15.In conclusion, (1) when properly stored, CS can...
Whole cottonseeds or a combination of soybeans and soybean hulls in the diets of lactating dairy cows

Abstract Whole raw soybeans and soybean hulls were evaluated as a dietary replacement for whole cottonseed as determined by rumination and total chewing activity, milk fat percentage, and efficiency of 4% fat-corrected milk (FCM) production. Twenty-six Holstein dairy cows (14 multiparous; 35 ± 12 d of lactation) were assigned randomly to one of two total mixed rations (TMR) for 15 wk. The whole cottonseed TMR and the soybean plus soybean hull TMR contained 40% of a 45:55 mixture of alfalfa and corn silages (dry matter basis) and either 15% cottonseed or 15% soybeans, 8% soybean hulls, and 0.7% sodium bicarbonate. Both TMR provided 60% of dietary neutral detergent fiber from forage. The TMR, fed twice daily, were isonitrogenous (17.5% crude protein) and equal in neutral detergent fiber (30%). The TMR had no effect on dry matter intake (24.8 kg/d). The cottonseed TMR stimulated greater rumination and total chewing activity. Although milk production was greater for cows fed the cottonseed TMR (35.7 vs. 34.1 kg/d), milk fat production was unaffected by TMR (3.72%). The efficiency of 4% FCM production was similar for cows fed the cottonseed and soybean plus soybean hull TMR (1.33), and both TMR resulted in a positive net energy balance (10.9 Mcal/d). A combination of soybeans, soybean hulls, and sodium bicarbonate was an effective alternative to whole cottonseed as measured by the efficiency of FCM production.
Structural influences and mechanisms of toxic effects of alcohols and their derivatives.

The simple connectivity index1χ gives a reasonable account of the variation of potency with molecular structure for each of the cases presented here. The behavior of the alcohols is described better by the simple linear relationship than is the behavior of the xanthates, especially for inhibition of Tubifex worms and fish narcosis. Although a bilinear or nonlinear relationship may give improved description in these cases, lack of data in the region of higher monologs makes such equations difficult to justify on statistical grounds. The fact that the simple (nonvalence) index gives good correlation suggests that the heteroatoms (alcohol or xanthate group) plays a constant role in the biological processes. Variation in potency arises from variation in alkyl group structure.
Comparison of hazard area and casualty predictions of a small-scale chemical attack using various toxic load toxicity models

It has been observed that the toxic load model can better account for toxic effects from chemical exposures than Haber’s law. However, the toxic load model has been experimentally validated only for steady exposures. We compare four proposed extensions of the toxic load model to the case of time-varying exposures. We conclude that the choice of the toxic load model can be important in consequence assessment studies that use realistic time-varying toxic exposures.
A comparison of NF3 and NH3 as the nitrogen sources for AIN crystal growth by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Abstract Deposition of AIN by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) with NF3 and NH3 as the nitrogen source was conducted at low temperatures (below 500°C). The resultant films were examined by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). Rough, polycrystalline films were produced with NF3 as the nitrogen source while smooth, featureless films were obtained with NH3. The X-ray diffraction pattern for films produced with NH3 had a single peak while that for films produced with NF3 had multiple peaks. AES and SIMS results revealed more impurities in films produced with NF3 than those produced with NH3. The films produced with NF3 contained high concentrations of fluorine, oxygen, and carbon. Even though NF3 does not form an adduct with trimethylaluminum at room temperature, its deficiencies make it a poorer nitrogen source than NH3 for low temperature MOCVD.
Co-Motion—Twitter Enters the Public Domain

Political communication is being dramatically altered by the new or social media. The new media has discovered this communication. The politicians have discovered this communication. The paper is an argument about what the public domain becomes as the new media becomes pervasive in society. The evidence used to buttress the argument is taken from 800 collections of streams of Twitter messages. Twitter is particularly useful as evidence because it is by default public. Hence, it is in the public domain. And it is readily available for researchers. The conclusion is that we have moved from broadcast-audience to co-motion, and that is a dramatic transformation of the public domain.
Integrins α4 and αM, collagen1A1, and matrix metalloproteinase 7 are upregulated in acute Kawasaki disease vasculopathy

Kawasaki disease (KD) can result in fatal coronary artery (CA) aneurysms, especially if left untreated. Our recent studies of its vascular pathology revealed subacute/chronic vasculitis that begins early in the illness with the proliferation of smooth muscle cell–derived myofibroblasts in a complex extracellular matrix (ECM). We hypothesized that a dysregulation of specific ECM and adhesion molecules occurs in KD CAs. Gene expression profiling for ECM and adhesion molecules was performed on six acute KD and eight control CAs using a targeted real-time PCR array approach. Integrins α4 and αM (ITGA4, ITGAM), collagen type I, α1 (COL1A1), and matrix metalloproteinase 7 (MMP7) were significantly upregulated in KD CAs as compared with controls. Immunohistochemistry with anti-ITGAM antibodies revealed expression on inflammatory cells within the CA wall in patients with KD but not in controls. Integrins ITGA4 and ITGAM are upregulated in KD vasculopathy, probably promoting inflammatory recruitment that stimulates smooth muscle cell transition to myofibroblasts and their proliferation. MMP7 probably enhances myofibroblast proliferation and luminal lesion expansion, and overexpression of COL1A1 may lead to CA stenosis. Identification of the molecular pathogenesis of KD vasculopathy may lead to the development of circulating biomarkers and to directed therapeutic interventions.
Comparison of Bilayer and Monolayer Properties of Phospholipid Systems Containing Dipalmitoylphosphatidylglycerol and Dipalmitoylphosphatidylinositol

Bilayer and monolayer phase behavior at the air−water interface of dipalmitoylphosphatidylglycerol (DPPG), dipalmitoylphosphatidylinositol (DPPI), and their binary mixtures with dipalmitoylphosphat...