cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effect of Prenatal Smoke Exposure on Birth Weight: The Moderating Role of Maternal Depressive Symptoms.

INTRODUCTION Both prenatal smoke exposure and depression have been linked to lower birth weight, a risk factor for morbidity and mortality. Few studies have looked at the interaction between these risk factors and none have used a biomarker to objectively measure prenatal smoke exposure. The current study sought to examine independent and interactive effects of cotinine and depression on birth weight. The effect of race was also explored. METHOD Data were drawn from a prospective study of pregnant women (N = 568) in the southeastern United States. Maternal demographic, health information, depressive symptoms, and birth data were collected via self-report and medical record abstraction. Prenatal blood samples were assayed for cotinine. RESULTS Controlling for covariates, multiple regression analyses indicated that both cotinine and depressive symptoms independently predicted lower birth weight and a significant interaction was also observed. Upon probing the interaction, a negative association between cotinine levels and birth weight was found in the context of higher depression but not lower depression scores. Similarly, logistic regression analyses revealed a significant interaction between cotinine and depression, such that cotinine predicted having a baby less than 2500 g among women who fell above the indicated cutoff score. African American women had the highest levels of cotinine and lowest weight babies; however, race was not a significant moderator. CONCLUSIONS Results suggest prenatal smoke exposure has a greater negative effect on birth weight for women endorsing co-occurring depressive symptoms. Findings can inform targeted interventions and assist medical providers with identifying women at increased risk for poor perinatal outcomes. IMPLICATIONS Despite the common occurrence of smoking during pregnancy and prenatal depression, the interaction between these risk factors on birth weight has rarely been examined. Further, the extant results have been mixed, likely due in part to difficulties in measurement. The current study was the first to use prenatal cotinine to assess bias-free, continuous levels of prenatal smoke exposure. Results indicate that prenatal cotinine was a significant predictor of birth weight only in the context of maternal depressive symptoms. These findings have important implications for mitigating negative perinatal outcomes for pregnant women and their children.
Disruption in PR Education: Online Master’s Degree Programs in Public Relations and Strategic Communication:

This study describes the characteristics of fully online public relations and strategic communication master’s programs offered by regionally accredited nonprofit and public universities in the Uni...
Preventing battery attacks on electrical vehicles based on data-driven behavior modeling

With the rapid development of wireless communication technologies for electrical vehicles (EVs), as a critical part of a pure EV, batteries could be attacked (e.g., draining energy) to reduce driving range and increase driving range anxiety. However, no methods have been proposed to ensure security of EV batteries. In this paper, we propose the first battery attacks, which can turn on air condition and stop battery charging process by sending requests through a smartphone without being noticed by users. We then propose a Battery authentication method (Bauth) to detect the battery attacks. We firstly build a data-driven behavior model to describe a user's habits in turning on air condition and stopping battery charging. In the behavior model, to distinguish users that share a vehicle for high modeling accuracy, we apply the random forest technology to identify each user based on battery state. Based on the established behavior model, we then build a reinforcement learning model that judges whether an AC-turn-on or batter-charge-stop request from a smartphone is from the real user based on current vehicle states. We conducted real-life daily driving experiments with different participants to evaluate the battery attack detection accuracy of Bauth. The experimental results show that Bauth can prevent EV batteries from being attacked effectively in comparison with another method and its attack detection accuracy reaches as high as 93.44%.
Evaluation of the underlying causes of papilledema in children.

ABSTRACT Objective The purpose of this retrospective study was to identify the types and relative frequencies of intracranial disorders in pediatric patients who present with papilledema. Design Retrospective case series. Participants and Methods This study was conducted in 2 pediatric ophthalmology clinics, both providing community-based care in a large inner-city urban center in the U.S. Pediatric patients aged between 0 and 16 years diagnosed with papilledema and who had an underlying etiology identified were included in the study. Patient demographic data, ophthalmologic examination findings, and diagnostic work-up results were identified from clinical records. Results The mean age of 38 study patients (19 female, 19 male) was 8.6 ± 4.8 years. Of the 38 patients, 16 (42.1%) had idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) as the underlying cause of the papilledema, 7 (18.4%) had a craniosynostosis disorder, 6 (15.8%) had intracranial tumours, 2 (5.3%) had primary hydrocephalus, and 1 (2.6%) patient each had transverse sinus thrombosis related to sinusitis, hypertensive crisis, subdural hematoma, intracranial abscess, Lyme disease, presumed neurosarcoidosis, and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. Of the 6 intracranial tumours, 2 (33.3%) presented in the sellar/parasellar region, 2 (33.3%) in the posterior fossa, and 2 (33.3%) were in cortical locations. Conclusion Clinicians should have a high index of suspicion for IIH and brain tumours in children presenting with papilledema. Patients with craniosynostosis should have routine eye examinations to monitor for asymptomatic papilledema. Understanding the relative incidence of etiologies for papilledema highlights the urgency of appropriate work-up and the need to consider low-frequency etiologies.
A pilot study of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) dynamics in men undergoing treatment for advanced prostate cancer

Background Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is a rational target for noninvasive detection of recurrent prostate cancer (PCa) and for therapy of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) with PSMA-targeted agents. Here we conducted serial measurements of PSMA expression on circulating tumor cells (CTCs) to evaluate patterns of longitudinal PSMA dynamics over the course of multiple sequential therapies. Methods A retrospective investigation of men with mCRPC undergoing evaluation at medical oncology clinics at our institution assessed the dynamics of PSMA expression in the context of different systemic treatments administered sequentially. Eligibility included patients who began systemic therapies with androgen receptor (AR)-directed agents or taxane agents for whom peripheral blood samples were tested for CTC mRNA of AR splice variant-7 (AR-V7), prostate-specific antigen (PSA), and PSMA (with >2 CTC + results) in a CLIA-accredited laboratory. Results From August 2015 to November 2017, we identified 96 eligible men. Fifteen had greater than or equal to 2 sequential therapies and evaluable CTC samples, greater than or equal to 1 expressing PSMA (PSMA+). Among the 15 patients included in this analysis, a total of 54 PSMA status evaluations were performed in the context of 48 therapies during a median follow-up of 18 months. At baseline, PSMA signal was detected ("positive") in 11 of 15 (73.3%) patients, while for 4 of 15 (26.7%) patients PSMA signal was undetectable ("negative"). In all but two patients, the baseline collection corresponded with a change in treatment. On the second assessment, PSMA increases were detected in all 4/4 (100%) PSMA-negative patients and 8 of 11 (72.7%) PSMA-positive patients. PSMA significantly decreased in a patient treated with 177 Lu-PSMA-617. Serum PSA declines were seen in 7 of 8 (88%) of the treatment periods where PSMA decreased. Conclusions PSMA expression in CTCs is a dynamic marker. PSMA transcript declines appear to be associated with concurrent decreases in serum PSA. Sequential CTC sampling could provide a noninvasive response assessment to systemic treatment for mCRPC.
Sensitivity analysis of four crop water stress indices to ambient environmental conditions and stomatal conductance

Abstract Crop water stress indices (CWSIs) quantify plant water status based on measurement of plant temperature. The goal of CWSI formulation is to normalize measured leaf temperatures based on reference temperatures to remove sensitivity to ambient environmental conditions (e.g., air temperature, humidity, radiation), while retaining sensitivity to plant water status as reflected by stomatal conductance. This study sought to better understand the sensitivity of these temperatures to ambient environmental conditions, and ultimately how they influence various CWSIs. The surface energy balance was modeled to simulate the impacts of input parameter variation on leaf temperature and reference surface temperatures used to calculate four different CWSIs. The performance of the CWSIs were assessed based on their ability to maximize sensitivity to stomatal conductance while minimizing the relative sensitivity to ambient environmental conditions. The sensitivity analyses indicated that all four CWSIs performed poorly in shaded conditions, as they had relatively low sensitivity to stomatal conductance and were sensitive to all environmental parameters. Two CWSIs had high sensitivity to stomatal conductance, and low sensitivity to all environmental parameters except wind speed. None of CWSIs could remove sensitivity to all environmental parameters while retaining sensitivity to stomatal conductance.
Revelation as Sharing in God’s Self-Understanding as Absolute Love

A proper understanding of revelation has to explain the possibility of sharing in God’s self-understanding without prejudice to the apophatic dimension of human participation in God’s redeeming love. In Part I, the teachings of Vatican I’s Dei Filius and Vatican II’s Dei Verbum on revelation understood as sharing God’s self-understanding as Absolute Love precedes the proposal that the nature/supernature distinction highlights the gift-character of revelation. Part II applies the analogy of light to contrast the light of faith and of prophecy with Jesus’s ineffable light of vision to explain how Jesus as paradigmatic prophet communicates God’s self-understanding as Absolute Love in human terms as an ‘outer word’, while his life, death, and resurrection make the ‘inner word’ of the Holy Spirit available to all humankind. Part III explains the shift from faculty psychology to intentionality analysis to reformulate the cognitive aspect of revelation in order to illumine the primacy of interpersonal love in human living, and the distinction between faith and belief. Part IV, with the example of St Augustine’s conversion and the insights of Raymund Schwager and Rene Girard, uses Lonergan’s soteriology to explain the redemptive aspect of revelation, and once again emphasizes that in receiving and understanding revelation, we still do not fully understand and know the mysterious nature of God.
Personalised medicine for non-classic cystic fibrosis resulting from rare CFTR mutations

Footnotes This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the European Respiratory Journal . It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the …
Immigration Enforcement, Deterrence, and Crime

Does interior enforcement selectively deter Mexican migration? Our study shows that more aggressive enforcement increases the likelihood of having immigrants with US work experience and with jobs secured in the United States before their migration. We also look at whether having employment may be associated with lower crime incidence and shorter detention periods among immigrants. We find that employment decreases the likelihood of observing immigrants committing serious crimes and on the length of immigrant detention. By attracting quality workers, enforcement might decrease crime incidence, along with the length and costs of detention of removable immigrants in the United States.
Supporting information use and task accomplishment: What system features do users like and expect?:

Information systems have been improving in helping users find information. However, they have been less attended to regarding helping searchers in using located information. This research attempts ...
Coronavirus Historical Perspective, Disease Mechanisms, and Clinical Outcomes: JACC Focus Seminar.

The emergence of a new coronavirus disease (coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19]) has raised global concerns regarding the health and safety of a vulnerable population. Infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) incites a profound inflammatory response leading to tissue injury and organ failure. COVID-19 is characterized by the bidirectional relationship between inflammation and thrombosis. The clinical syndrome is propelled by inflammation producing acute lung injury, large-vessel thrombosis, and in situ microthrombi that may contribute to organ failure. Myocardial injury is common, but true myocarditis is rare. Elderly patients, those with established cardiovascular disease, and mechanically ventilated patients face the highest mortality risk. Therapies for COVID-19 are evolving. The antiviral drug remdesivir, dexamethasone, transfusion of convalescent plasma, and use of antithrombotic therapy are promising. Most require additional prospective studies. Although most patients recover, those who survive severe illness may experience persistent physical and psychological disabilities.
Analysis of early-time production data from multi-fractured shale gas wells by considering multiple transport mechanisms through nanopores

Abstract Analysis of early-time production and flowback data from multi-fractured shale gas wells is of critical importance in the characterization of hydraulic fractures (HF). However, the accurate estimation of HF properties in the current models is challenged by the complexity in multiple transport mechanisms and two-phase flow of shale gas reservoir. This study presents a new semi-analytical method to estimate HF attributes for shale gas wells exhibiting two-phase flow based on straight line analysis. The proposed method considers two-phase infinite acting linear flow (IALF) and boundary dominated flow (BDF) for both HF and matrix domains. In addition, matrix flow considers desorption, diffusion, slip flow, continuum flow, stress dependence rock, and adsorbed water film in the nanopores. A modified material balance equation is proposed to calculate average pressure in the fracture and distance of investigation (DOI) in the matrix by considering gas desorption and diffusion in the matrix domain. The accuracy of the proposed method is tested against numerical results obtained from commercial software (IMEX-CMG). The validation results confirm that the developed method can closely estimate initial fracture volume, permeability, and permeability modulus from early-time production data exhibiting two-phase IALF and BDF regimes. Furthermore, the results indicate that the consideration of desorption, diffusion, and slip flow plays an important role in the modeling of gas transport in shale matrix. The impact of these transport mechanisms on production modeling as well as characterization of HF properties becomes significant when the matrix experiences substantial pressure drops. For the purpose of field application, the proposed method is used to analyze flowback data from a multi-fractured horizontal well. The field results reveal that the calculated fracture properties are consistent between the proposed method and the long-term production data analysis method.
Computational Thinking Growth During a First-Year Engineering Course

This full research-track paper demonstrates growth in computational thinking in a cohort of engineering students completing their first course in engineering at a large Southwestern university in the United States. Computational thinking has been acknowledged as a key aspect of engineering education and an intrinsic part of multiple ABET outcomes. However, computing is an area where some students have more privileges (e.g. access and exposure to meaningful use of computers) than others. Integrating computing into engineering, especially early in the curriculum, may exacerbate existing experiential disadvantages students from excluded social identities experience. Most introductory engineering programs have a component of programming and/or computational thinking. A comprehensive literature review showed that no existing computational thinking framework fully met the needs of students and professors in engineering and computer science. As a result, this team created the Engineering Computational Thinking Diagnostic (ECTD). This diagnostic was assessed and improved during the 2019-2020 academic year. Data was collected from a cohort in a first-year engineering course that included topics in mathematics, engineering problem solving, and computation. Pre- and post-test data analysis with 62 participants documents statistically significant student growth in computational thinking in this course. Significant differences were not found by gender or a limited racially-based analysis. This diagnostic is of interest and relevance to all institutions providing engineering and computing programs. The short-term impact of this research includes an innovative approach to gauge student abilities in computational thinking early in a course in order to add appropriate intervention activities into lesson plans. The long-term impact is the creation of a measurement of student learning of computational thinking in engineering for courses and programs that wish to develop this important skill in their students.
Responses of Terrestrial Plants to Metallic Nanomaterial Exposure: Mechanistic Insights, Emerging Technologies, and New Research Avenues

Metallic nanoparticles (NPs) are being extensively used in electronics, cosmetics, sporting goods, and medicine. Only recently, use of metallic nanomaterials extended to agricultural production, which could lead to their buildup in arable lands and affect soil productivity. Several investigations, with different NPs and under different exposure conditions, have been conducted to understand the effects of metallic NPs on terrestrial plants. These studies have propelled the application of NPs as agrochemicals that are able to supply nutrients, combat pests and weeds, and alleviate abiotic stress. The applications of novel, high-throughput technologies and advanced spectroscopic techniques have been of great help to understand the complex metabolic responses of plants to NP exposure. However, there is still limited information about the interactions of metallic NPs with plant molecules and soil components and their repercussions on agricultural productivity. This work discusses the benefits and disadvantages that metallic NPs might represent for crops. Additionally, the effects of the metallic NPs on plant physiology are analyzed by scrutinizing recent spectroscopic and gene expression/transcriptomic studies.
Integrating institutional approaches and decision science to address climate change: a multi-level collective action research agenda

Climate change is a problem that requires a multi-scale response from the individual to the global. Each level and type of entity has some capacity to influence climate change action and policy, but as a multi-level collective action problem, it is not surprising that there is underprovision of climate change action; this challenge highlights the need to better understand decision-making processes. We propose an integrated research frontier that examines inter-level feedback processes, the role of individuals and organizations in promoting trust within and across levels, the importance of establishing and communicating norms, and inclusion of worldviews to situate decision makers within narratives of climate change. The failure to mitigate and adapt to climate change is a social science problem, perhaps the biggest social problem our society faces. To solve it requires that we advance a new frontier on decision making across a complex set of multi-level collective action relationships.
Rethinking Autonomous Surgery: Focusing on Enhancement over Autonomy.

Abstract Context As robot-assisted surgery is increasingly used in surgical care, the engineering research effort towards surgical automation has also increased significantly. Automation promises to enhance surgical outcomes, offload mundane or repetitive tasks, and improve workflow. However, we must ask an important question: should autonomous surgery be our long-term goal? Objective To provide an overview of the engineering requirements for automating control systems, summarize technical challenges in automated robotic surgery, and review sensing and modeling techniques to capture real-time human behaviors for integration into the robotic control loop for enhanced shared or collaborative control. Evidence acquisition We performed a nonsystematic search of the English language literature up to March 25, 2021. We included original studies related to automation in robot-assisted laparoscopic surgery and human-centered sensing and modeling. Evidence synthesis We identified four comprehensive review papers that present techniques for automating portions of surgical tasks. Sixteen studies relate to human-centered sensing technologies and 23 to computer vision and/or advanced artificial intelligence or machine learning methods for skill assessment. Twenty-two studies evaluate or review the role of haptic or adaptive guidance during some learning task, with only a few applied to robotic surgery. Finally, only three studies discuss the role of some form of training in patient outcomes and none evaluated the effects of full or semi-autonomy on patient outcomes. Conclusions Rather than focusing on autonomy, which eliminates the surgeon from the loop, research centered on more fully understanding the surgeon’s behaviors, goals, and limitations could facilitate a superior class of collaborative surgical robots that could be more effective and intelligent than automation alone. Patient summary We reviewed the literature for studies on automation in surgical robotics and on modeling of human behavior in human-machine interaction. The main application is to enhance the ability of surgical robotic systems to collaborate more effectively and intelligently with human surgeon operators.
X-ray tomography reconstruction with machine learning: a study focusing on accuracy and fidelity

For a long time in computed tomography (CT), noise and missing wedge have been two significant issues prohibiting researchers from obtaining reliable insights into material's intrinsic structures. Though much work has been done to denoise sinograms or recover the missing information, from traditional algorithms to emerging machine learning (ML) methods, most of them focus on perceptual performance, i.e., better visual consistency of data. This metric is adequate for computer vision applications, yet is insufficient for the scientific community where data fidelity is more critical, e.g., in the medical fields. In this work, we are trying to combine ML methods and the inherent properties of sinograms, aiming to achieve both state-of-the-art perceptual performance and high fidelity of the filled data. Distinguished from existing ML architectures, we propose a two-fold model implemented through neural networks: one using generative adversarial networks (GAN) and autoencoder to denoise/inpaint the missing-wedge sinogram, and the other one using convolutional neural networks (CNN) model to enforce the denoised/inpainted sinogram to obey their inherent properties. These two steps may need iterate to achieve consistent results. The results on both simulated and experimental data have demonstrated that our methods have achieved state-of-the-art perceptual performance and high fidelity. Our work further indicates that it is possible to incorporate physics into scientific ML models to make ML models more robust and accurate, significantly benefiting the scientific research aided by ML methods. This work is supported by the LDRD program at the FXI facility at NSLS-II, Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL).
Phonetic imitation of multidimensional acoustic variation of the nasal split short-a system

Abstract The current study investigates phonetic imitation of multiple acoustic features of pre-nasal /ae/ in California English. There is a great deal of cross-speaker heterogeneity: Many speakers show a raised /aeN/ variant, in tandem with a backing and lowering of /aeC/ (i.e., “split” short-a nasal system). This innovative split can also be realized with enhanced coarticulatory acoustic features on the pre-nasal allophone, namely extensive vowel nasality and increased diphthongization over the vowel duration. The present study compares phonetic imitation of three model talkers who produce distinct pre-nasal /ae/ variants: 1) a non-split talker who also does not produce enhanced nasal coarticulation and diphthongization, 2) a talker who produced the split, with a raised pre-nasal /ae/, but does not produce enhanced nasal coarticulation and diphthongization, and 3) a talker who produces both a pre-nasal /ae/ that is both raised and hyper-nasalized and heavily diphthongized. Participants who shadowed these model talkers could also be categorized as being advanced or conservative in their baseline productions. Results show that imitators who were more advanced in the sound change were more likely to imitate both vowel positioning and nasalization patterns of the conservative model talkers. Only diphthongization patterns of the most advanced model talker were imitated by the advanced participants. The results are discussed in terms of the multidimensionality of phonological contrast, theoretical proposals about phonetic imitation, and models of sound change and propagation.
Binding kinetics of lock and key colloids

Using confocal microscopy and first passage time analysis, we measure and predict the rates of formation and breakage of polymer-depletion-induced bonds between lock-and-key colloidal particles and find that an indirect route to bond formation is accessed at a rate comparable to that of the direct formation of these bonds. In the indirect route, the pocket of the lock particle is accessed by nonspecific bonding of the key particle with the lock surface, followed by surface diffusion leading to specific binding in the pocket of the lock. The surprisingly high rate of indirect binding is facilitated by its high entropy relative to that of the pocket. Rate constants for forward and reverse transitions among free, nonspecific, and specific bonds are reported, compared to theoretical values, and used to determine the free energy difference between the nonspecific and specific binding states.
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

CEA is a tool that has seen increasing use in recent decades as decision makers at all levels of health care provision seek to value alternative interventions (or programs, tests, or treatments). Although CEAs can be complex, and are often described using somewhat arcane terminology, the concept at the core of any CEA is fairly simple: to combine the net cost of a given intervention and its outcomes with its effectiveness, then use the resulting cost-effectiveness ratio to compare that intervention to alternative interventions that are aimed at accomplishing the same goal (be it changes in behavior, increases in good health outcomes, or decreases in bad ones). Cost-effectiveness ratios can be calculated differently depending on whether the given intervention must be chosen instead of the alternatives, or whether it can be combined with some of the alternatives. An example of the former approach is choosing an optimal interval for repeat testing of women diagnosed with Chlamydia trachomatis infection. An example of the latter approach is deciding whether to combine repeat testing for C. trachomatis with a behavioral intervention designed to reduce risk behavior subsequent to receipt of a positive test, in which case the behavioral intervention could be combined with any of the potential repeat testing intervals, or could even be done instead of repeat testing). Because CEA provides explicit quantitative ratios showing the tradeoffs made when
Fairytale in the Ancient World

Reviewed Medium: book Authors: Graham Anderson Year: 2000 Pages: xi + 240 Publisher: Routledge Prices: $27.99
A Method for Determining Reservoir Parameters From Early Drawdown Data

The Least Squares Differential Algorithm (LSDA) for automatically determining reservoir description parameters in an optimal manner is described. In contrast to current reservoir history matching schemes, LSDA provides for: (1) pseudo-linearization of the relationships between performance data and reservoir description parameters; (2) description of the system transfer function as a second order polynomial trend; and (3) least squares reduction as the criterion for optimizing the description parameters. These provisions eliminate the problems associated with applying linear approximations to nonlinear systems and analyzing error-corrupted data. LSDA is tested using a mathematical model of a single well, radial, gas reservoir which provides for the inclusion of non- Darch and Klinkenberg effects as well as the properties of real gases. The results of LSDA are compared with those obtained by the Least Squares Linear Programming LSSP) method.
Interactions of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 and the immune system.

Abstract A series of recent discoveries indicate that the hormonal form of vitamin D 3 , namely, 1,25(OH) 2 D 3 plays a role in the regulation of the immune system. Cells of the monocyte/macrophage lineage possess receptors for 1,25(OH) 2 D 3 regardless of their activation stage; cells of the lymphoid lineage also express these receptors but only at certain stages of their differentiaion pathway and upon activation. Further, 1,25(OH) 2 D 3 promotes the differentation of monocyte precursors towards monocyte/macrophages and enhances monocyte function in antigen presentation. In addition 1,25(OH) 2 D 3 is a potent inhibitor of interleukin-2 (IL-2) and suppresses effector functions of both T and B lymphocytes via IL-2-dependent as well as via IL-2-independent mechanisms. The theoretical and clinical implications of these discoveries are discussed.
Entanglement of Distinguishable Quantum Memories

Time-resolved photon detection can be used to generate entanglement between distinguishable photons. This technique can be extended to entangle quantum memories that emit photons with different frequencies and identical temporal profiles without the loss of entanglement rate or fidelity. We experimentally realize this process using remotely trapped ${}^{171}{\mathrm{Yb}}^{+}$ ions where heralded entanglement is generated by interfering distinguishable photons. This technique may be necessary for future modular quantum systems and networks that are composed of heterogeneous qubits.
Latah in South-East Asia: The History and Ethnography of a Culture-Bound Syndrome

Introduction Part I. The Problem of Latah: 1. The study of latah 2. Latah, history and gender 3. 'Latah' elsewhere Part II. Latah, Society and Culture: 4. Latah in Kelantan: an overview 5. Latah and Malay culture 6. Symbolic meanings and social uses Part III. Borneo Comparisons and Perspective: 7. Latah in Borneo 8. Latah and the Iban Part IV. Conclusions: 9. Explaining latah: paradigm and paradox, syndrome and ritual, nature and culture.
Design, recruitment, and retention of African-American smokers in a pharmacokinetic study

African-Americans remain underrepresented in clinical research despite experiencing a higher burden of disease compared to all other ethnic groups in the United States. The purpose of this article is to describe the study design and discuss strategies used to recruit and retain African-American smokers in a pharmacokinetic study. The parent study was designed to evaluate the differences in the steady-state concentrations of bupropion and its three principal metabolites between African-American menthol and non-menthol cigarette smokers. Study participation consisted of four visits at a General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) over six weeks. After meeting telephone eligibility requirements, phone-eligible participants underwent additional screening during the first two GCRC visits. The last two visits (pharmacokinetic study phase) required repeated blood draws using an intravenous catheter over the course of 12 hours. Five hundred and fifteen African-American smokers completed telephone screening; 187 were phone-eligible and 92 were scheduled for the first GCRC visit. Of the 81 who attended the first visit, 48 individuals were enrolled in the pharmacokinetic study, and a total of 40 individuals completed the study (83% retention rate). Although recruitment of African-American smokers into a non-treatment, pharmacokinetic study poses challenges, retention is feasible. The results provide valuable information for investigators embarking on non-treatment laboratory-based studies among minority populations.
Noncancer deaths in white adult cancer patients

BACKGROUND The cancer-specific death rate is a commonly used indicator in the assessment of progress against cancer. However, since the cause of death is often not substantiated and complete medical information is lacking, the validity of cancer-specific mortality rates is being questioned. PURPOSE We investigated the validity of the cancer-specific death rate by examining noncancer deaths of cancer patients in a large patient population. METHODS Data were obtained from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program on cancer patients diagnosed between 1973 and 1987, with follow-up complete through December 1987. The SEER database consists of 1.2 million records from nine population-based registries covering nine geographic regions of the United States. Rates of noncancer deaths in the U.S. population were obtained from the National Center for Health Statistics. Cancer mortality rates were subtracted from overall mortality rates to obtain noncancer death rates by sex and the 5-year age group for each calendar year. Excluded from the study were patients of races other than White and those diagnosed at age 85 years or more due to absence of noncancer death rate comparisons. Also excluded were cancer cases discovered at autopsy and in persons less than 20 years of age. The statistical analysis employed a log-linear model. RESULTS The ratio of patient-to-general-population noncancer death rates, as calculated by dividing the number of patient noncancer deaths per year by the number found in the matched U.S. population data and referred to as the noncancer relative hazard, is considered significant with values greater than 1 for those with all cancers combined and for the common solid tumors examined. Of the 12 leading causes of death other than cancer in the patient population, the most common causes were circulatory and respiratory failures. The noncancer relative risk of death decreased rapidly after diagnosis and also decreased with the patient's age at diagnosis. It increased slightly with the calendar year of diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS Because more noncancer deaths occurred shortly after diagnosis, it appears that this excess was caused by treatment of the cancer. Generally, cancer-specific death rates underestimate the mortality associated with a diagnosis of cancer. Therefore, because the degree of underestimation changes with time, an examination solely of cancer-caused mortality in assessing progress against the disease is incomplete.
Ethnic and Gender Differences in the Functional Disparities after Primary Total Knee Arthroplasty

The benefits of TKA have been well documented. Whether these benefits apply equally across gender and ethnic groups is unclear. Given the underuse of TKA among certain demographic groups, it is important to understand whether gender or ethnicity influence pain and function after TKA. We determined (1) the influence of race, gender, and body mass index (BMI) on primary TKA functional scores and ROM before gender-specific implants; and (2) whether comorbidities influenced ROM and functional scores. We reviewed all 202 patients who underwent primary TKAs in 2004. We contacted 185 of the 202 patients, including 90 African-Americans, 87 Caucasians, four Asians, and four Hispanics (55 men, 130 women). Their average age was 66 years, and average BMI was 34.4 (range, 20–55). Knee Society scores (KSS) and ROM, patient demographics, and the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) were recorded. Minimum followup was 24 months (average, 29.1 months; range, 24–60.3 months). African-Americans had longer delays to presentation, higher BMI, and worse 2-year KSS. Women (all races) had higher BMI and worse preoperative flexion/arc ROM. African-American women had worse final ROM and had similar final gains in ROM (postoperative minus preoperative ROM) after controlling for confounders. Gender and race affected functional KSS and ROM variables. The worse results experienced by African-American women may be attributable to a longer delay to presentation. However, the scores and motion were high for all subgroups, and underuse of TKA in women and African-Americans cannot be justified based on a perception of lesser functional gains. Level III, prognostic study. See Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Estrogen action in the uterus: The requisite for sustained estrogen binding in the nucleus☆

Abstract Two theories of estrogen action are discussed: (1) the "domino" theory in which early responses to estrogen in turn set off later events and (2) the "sustained output" theory in which the later events are dependent on both the continuing presence of estrogen in the nucleus as well as the early events. Data presented show that both estriol and estradiol-17β have the same effect on early responses (2–4 hr) of the rat uterus. However, at 18–24 hr, estriol has little or no effect in contrast to the 300% increases over control caused by estradiol-17β. More important, when estriol is followed by estradiol, the later responses are induced with a time course indicating that both the early and the late administrations of estrogen are essential. Studies of the binding of these two steroids to uterine nuclei indicate that estriol is lost from the uterine nucleus by 8–12 hr. In contrast, a significant amount of bound steroid is present in the nucleus at up to 16 hr after estradiol-17β injection. The continuing presence of estrogen and the sustained output of some critical factors seem to be essential for the full physiological effects of estrogenic hormones.
Synchrotron magnet power circuit with a distributed capacitor bank

Abstract This paper deals with a synchrotron magnet ring circuit suitable for exciting the bending magnets with exactly equal DC biased sinusoidal currents. A distributed series resonance excitation is made practicable by the introduction of network constraints on the capacitor potentials. The central network component is a transformer choke. The practicable arrangements of the choke topology may take various forms determined essentially by economic considerations. Model tests and analysis are given.
The role of B lymphocyte stimulator in B cell biology: implications for the treatment of lupus

B lymphocyte stimulator (BLyS; also known as B cell activating factor (BAFF)) plays a key role in peripheral B cell tolerance. Mounting evidence indicates that B cell tolerance can be either broken or modulated by deliberately manipulating BLyS levels, and belimumab, a BLyS-neutralizing antibody, was recently approved for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Thus, intense investigation has focused on understanding how therapeutics targeting BLyS may work, and accumulating evidence suggests multiple points of action. BLyS signaling, in conjunction with B cell receptor (BCR) signaling, determines the size and quality of the mature primary B cell compartment. Moreover, BLyS family members play roles in antigen-experienced B cell selection and differentiation. Together, these findings have implications for the continued development of novel therapeutics that target BLyS.
Comparison of the breaking strength of polyglactin mesh in urine, serum, and cell culture media.

Polyglactin 910 is a synthetic absorbable copolymer that is inert, nonantigenic, and nonpyrogenic.16 Mesh constructed from this material has potential for use in the construction of urinary tract bioprosthetics as a delivery vehicle for cultured cells into in vivo systems3,4,13,17,18,23 and in other forms of urinary tract reconstruction.4,10,20
Optimal jamming with codewords

In this paper for a noise forwarding (NF) scheme, the joint design of the optimal covariance matrices of a source's and a helper's signals that maximize the secrecy rate is studied. Under general power constraints, it is shown that the non-convex design problem can be converted into a quasi-convex optimization problem composed of convex subproblems. The properties of the optimal covariance matrices are examined. Under the individual power constraint, beamforming is shown to be optimal, and the design problem is reduced to a problem with two real variables. The performances of the NF scheme and the artificial noise (AN) scheme are compared. The design of a hybrid scheme consisting of the NF and AN techniques is also addressed.
Voluntary intake and nutrient digestibility of crop-residue based rations by goats and sheep

Abstract Twenty-four growing small ruminants (12 goats and 12 sheep age 10 months, average live weights of 12.96 ± 0.28, 14.05 ± 0.18 kg, respectively) were used to compare the utilization of crop residue based rations in a 2 × 3 factorial, randomized complete design experiment. Three crop residues: groundnut shell (GS); maize cob (MC); and cassava peel (CP) were used in the isonitrogenous rations. Between-treatment and within-treatment differences (P
Heuristic procedure for resolving a production planning model of an FMS

A production planning model for an FMS that integrates quality related decisions is presented. A heuristic procedure for resolving the model is presented and performance of the procedure is reported. Initial investigation indicates that the procedure is capable of identifying good solutions expediently. The performance of the procedure is discussed.
Brief paper: Discrete-time dynamic average consensus

We propose a class of discrete-time dynamic average consensus algorithms that allow a group of agents to track the average of their reference inputs. The convergence results rely on the input-to-output stability properties of static average consensus algorithms and require that the union of communication graphs over a bounded period of time be strongly connected. The only requirement on the set of reference inputs is that the maximum relative deviation between the nth-order differences of any two reference inputs be bounded for some integer n>=1.
ON THE RELATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS OF WIND VS. ANIMALS TO SEED DISPERSAL OF FOUR SIERRA NEVADA PINES

Selective pressures that influence the form of seed dispersal syndromes are poorly understood. Morphology of plant propagules is often used to infer the means of dispersal, but morphology can be misleading. Several species of pines, for example, have winged seeds adapted for wind dispersal but owe much of their establishment to scatter-hoarding animals. Here the relative importance of wind vs. animal dispersal is assessed for four species of pines of the eastern Sierra Nevada that have winged seeds but differed in seed size: lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta murrayana, 8 mg); ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa ponderosa, 56 mg); Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi, 160 mg); and sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana, 231 mg). Pre-dispersal seed mortality eliminated much of the ponderosa pine seed crop (66%), but had much less effect on Jeffrey pine (32% of seeds destroyed), lodgepole pine (29%), and sugar pine (7%). When cones opened most filled seeds were dispersed by wind. Animals removed >99% of wind-dispersed Jeffrey and sugar pine seeds from the ground within 60 days, but animals gathered only 93% of lodgepole pine seeds and 38% of ponderosa pine seeds during the same period. Animals gathered and scatter hoarded radioactively labeled ponderosa, Jeffrey, and sugar pine seeds, making a total of 2103 caches over three years of study. Only three lodgepole pine caches were found. Caches typically contained 1–4 seeds buried 5–20 mm deep, depths suitable for seedling emergence. Although Jeffrey and sugar pine seeds are initially wind dispersed, nearly all seedlings arise from animal caches. Lodgepole pine is almost exclusively wind dispersed, with animals acting as seed predators. Animals treated ponderosa pine in an intermediate fashion. Two-phased dispersal of large, winged pine seeds appears adaptive; initial wind dispersal helps to minimize pre-dispersal seed mortality whereas scatter hoarding by animals places seeds in sites with a higher probability of seedling establishment.
Update on Children's Health Care

Efforts to improve the health care system for children and pregnant women in the United States depend, in part, on understanding current health expenditures for these groups and the relationship of public and private insurance, or absence of insurance, to their use of health services. Since the May 1991 issue of the American Journal of Diseases of Children , important new data and analysis on both of these dimensions have become available. Lewit and Monheit 1 have recently estimated the annual expenditures on medical care services for children from conception through 18 years of age. In this study, the distribution of $50 billion of expenditures for children by type of service and source of payment and the rate of growth of these expenditures is compared with the $314 billion expended on those adults 19 years of age and older. The authors conclude that because of the lower relative share of expenditures
If low‐income blacks are given a chance to live in white neighborhoods, will they stay? Examining mobility patterns in a quasi‐experimental program with administrative data

Abstract After describing the distinctive features of various policy models of residential mobility, we examine the long‐term outcomes of the Gautreaux program. Administrative records provide baseline characteristics for all participants, and we located recent addresses for over 99 percent of a random sample of 1,506 participants an average of 14 years after original placement. Although 84 percent of the families made subsequent moves, the racial composition of the current address is strongly related to program placement, even among movers, and after family attributes and premove neighborhood characteristics are controlled. Combined with our prior findings, these results suggest that residential mobility has an enduring, long‐term impact on the residential locations of these families. Contrary to models that assume that families’ enduring preferences will quickly erase these moves, these results suggest the need for further research to consider whether mobility alters preferences or structural barriers.