cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Cairo dreams shattered

In early October 1996 members of the US Congress voted for an omnibus spending bill to take effect October 1 1996 that provides $75 million less to population activities than the budget approved by the US Senate earlier in 1996. The budget for population matters is now set at $385 million. The US Congress has blocked any spending for population matters until March 1 1997 effecting even more damage. It now has unprecedented controls on how USAID spends its money. The US gives less than 0.2% of its gross domestic product to foreign aid. The 1997 population budget equals the cost of one cheeseburger per US citizen. Yet the US was the largest donor of population funds for many years. The 1993 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) stressed the need to improve reproductive health worldwide. The neediest countries can not afford to improve reproductive health on their own. ICPD identified a need for $5.7 billion annually from the donor community for family planning and reproductive health between 1993 and 2000. The US Congress action has reduced actual funding to perhaps 20% of that target. People worldwide want smaller families. Women suffer from untreated sexually transmitted diseases and the ever-expanding HIV/AIDS epidemic. The newest cuts in population funds will make the Cairo dream a nightmare of increased expectations and declining resources.
Comparison of the effects of morphine, pentazocine, cyclazocine and amphetamine on intracranial self-stimulation in the rat.

Rats were trained to press a lever in order to stimulate their lateral hypothalamus through a chronically implanted electrode. Dose-response curves were determined for the effects of morphine (0.3–10 mg/kg), pentazocine (1.0–30 mg/kg), cyclazocine (0.03–3.0 mg/kg) and d-amphetamine (0.1–3.0 mg/kg) on responding for intracranial stimulation, and then were redetermined in the presence of one or two doses of naloxone. The three analgesics produced only dose-related decreases in responding with the following relative potencies: cyclazocine>morphine>pentazocine. The well-documented rate-increasing effects of d-amphetamine on intracranial self-stimulation were observed at 0.3 and 1.0 mg/kg of the drug; decreases in responding at 3.0 mg/kg were associated with stereotyped behavior. Naloxone, which had no effect of its own on self-stimulation, increased the dose of the analgesics required to depress response rate in a manner consistent with a competitive antagonism. In contrast, response rates were reduced at all doses of d-amphetamine tested in the presence of naloxone. Thus, the interaction between naloxone and d-amphetamine is qualitatively different from the one between naloxone and the analgesics. This finding extends to intracranial self-stimulation the generality of a previous report of interactions between d-amphetamine and naloxone on behavior in the rat.
Sources of Stable Isotope Variation in Archaeological Dog Remains

Assessment of the δ 15N ratios and δ 13C isotope values of archaeological dog and human bone collagen, ethnoarchaeological dog bone collagen, and ethnoarchaeological dog and human hair protein demonstrates that these tissues can be used to show subtle differences in diet between households at the same site. While δ 13C isotope values for dog and human bone and hair protein can be used as evidence of C4 photosynthetic plant foods, it is not necessarily an accurate measure for the presence or absence of maize in the diet. Less than 50% of the ethnoarchaeological dog and human samples from households that consumed an average of 0.01 kg of maize per day, had δ 13C isotope values greater than −19%.
Peer relationships and social competence during early and middle childhood.

▪ Abstract This review demarcates major periods of empirical activity and accomplishment (i.e. “generations”) in research on children's peer relations and social competence during recent decades and identifies the investigative agendas that were dominant or ascendant during these periods. A sampling of studies that were conducted during the most recent generation of peer relations research is organized and reviewed in relation to two types of research objectives: (a) enduring agendas—aims from past research generations that have continued to serve as an impetus for empirical investigation during the 1990s—and (b) innovative agendas—newly emergent objectives that are predicated on novel conceptual issues or ongoing research controversies and deficiencies. This profile of continuity and change in investigators' research agendas provides a platform for delineating and analyzing recent empirical accomplishments in the field of peer relations research.
Improving security for periodic tasks in embedded systems through scheduling

While many scheduling algorithms for periodic tasks ignore security requirements posed by sensitive applications and are, consequently, unable to perform properly in embedded systems with security constraints, in this paper, we present an approach to scheduling periodic tasks in embedded systems subject to security and timing constraints. We design a necessary and sufficient feasibility check for a set of periodic tasks with security requirements. With the feasibility test in place, we propose a scheduling algorithm, or SASES (security-aware scheduling for embedded systems), which accounts for both security and timing requirements. SASES judiciously distributes slack times among a variety of security services for a set of periodic tasks, thereby optimizing security for embedded systems without sacrificing schedulability. To demonstrate the effectiveness of SASES, we apply the proposed SASES to real-world embedded systems such as an automated flight control system. We show, through extensive simulations, that SASES is able to maximize security for embedded systems while guaranteeing timeliness. In particular, SASES significantly improves security over three baseline algorithms by up to 107p.
Autoimmune Manifestations in Patients With Waldenström Macroglobulinemia

Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia represents a lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma with an indolent clinical course. The existing literature associates this hematologic malignancy with various autoimmune disorders. Notwithstanding, these autoimmune conditions have not been comprehensively characterized or systematized to date. As a result, their clinical implications remain largely unknown. The authors offer a comprehensive review of the existing literature on various hematologic and nonhematologic autoimmune disorders documented in the course of Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia. Whereas some of them are thought to be secondary to a dysfunctional immune response associated with an underlying malignant process, others might be primary and might even play a role in its pathogenesis. Moreover, the observations that personal history and family history of certain autoimmune diseases were associated with an increased risk of subsequent Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia strengthen further the hypothesis that shared susceptibility genes and chronic antigenic stimulation might predispose individuals to both conditions.
The influence of the atmospheric constituents upon climate

Climate is largely determined by the prevailing range of temperature. The temperature is maintained first, by the solar radiation which continuously fails upon our atmosphere at the mean rate of 1.93 calories per square centimeter per minute; and secondly, by the exceedingly complicated series of absorptions, scatterings, reflections, endless re-radiations, and convection- and conduction-effects which result from the passage of the solar beam through the atmosphere. Langley, and more recently Dietzius and others, have shown that the Moon, receiving solar radiation per unit area identical with the Earth, experiences within the brief interval of a lunar eclipse a change of temperature ranging from about that of boiling water to far below freezing. On the Earth the average daily range is less than 10° C and seldom exceeds 20° C. The difference is due to this: the Earth has an atmosphere; the Moon has not. Oxygen and nitrogen, which comprise the bulk of the atmosphere, have relatively little effect on temperature. From other constituents, however, comprising less than three per cent of the weight of the atmosphere are highly important as affecting temperatures. These constituents are water (both as water vapor and in the form of clouds), dust, ozone, and carbon-dioxide.
Foundations of validating reusable behavioral models in engineering design problems

We present a conceptual framework for validating reusable behavioral models. The setting for this work is a modern product development environment in which design is performed by teams of specialists that collaborate through model reuse. The various modes of model reuse separate validation-relevant knowledge from the tasks for which it is needed. To enable efficient and effective transfer of this knowledge to the tasks for which it is needed, we propose a framework for validating reusable behavioral models based on formal representations of validation-relevant knowledge. The framework defines the abstract knowledge representation as well as an abstract process for applying this knowledge to validate reusable behavioral models. Although this framework is not a complete solution to the validation problem in design, it forms a foundation for understanding and solving the problem and represents a starting point for future investigation.
Capturing mobile experience in the wild: a tale of two apps

We present a long term and large scale study of the experience of mobile users through two popular but contrasting applications in the wild. To conduct this study, we implemented a measurement framework and library, called Insight, which has been deployed on these two applications that are available through Apple's App Store and Google's Android Market. One of them, Parallel Kingdom (PK), is a popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) which has over a million unique users distributed more than 120 countries. The other application, StudyBlue (SB), is an educational application with over 160,000 unique users. Our study spans most of the life of the PK game (more than 3 years) while our deployment with SB has been running for over a year now. We use Insight to collect diverse information about network behavior, application usage and footprints, platform statistics, user actions, and various factors affecting application revenues.
Postablation Tubal Sterilization Syndrome-a Case Report

Background: Endometrial ablation is a minimally invasive, readily available procedure for the management of persistent heavy uterine bleeding (HUM) with good results. Complications though rare, have included post-ablation tubal sterilization syndrome. Case: A 39-year-old multiparous lady with persistent, unresolved HUM despite conservative therapy and a history of bilateral tubal ligation with filshie clips underwent an uncomplicated hysteroscopy with Novasure endometrial ablation. Subsequently, she had severe recurrent cyclic pelvic pain of over 6months duration, which was relieved after a total laparoscopic hysterectomy with pathology showing thickened and dilated proximal tubes with hematosalpinx. Conclusion: Physicians performing endometrial ablation should have a high index of suspicion for, be able to diagnose and treat post ablation tubal sterilization syndrome.
Anesthesia and LEOPARD Syndrome: A Review of Forty-Nine Anesthetic Exposures

Objectives LEOPARD syndrome is a rare congenital disease that can manifest with cardiac anomalies, multiple lentigines, ocular hypertelorism, growth retardation, and deafness. The purpose of this case series was to review the most prominent comorbidities associated with LEOPARD syndrome, and describe perioperative outcomes in a series of patients undergoing anesthesia. Design Retrospective case series review Setting Tertiary care institution Participants Patients diagnosed with LEOPARD syndrome who underwent surgical procedures requiring anesthesia at this institution. Intervention The medical and anesthesia records of patients with LEOPARD syndrome were reviewed. Demographic information, clinical features of LEOPARD syndrome, comorbidities, intraoperative and postoperative events and complications were recorded. A systematic literature review also was conducted. Measurements and Main Results Nine patients with LEOPARD syndrome underwent 49 procedures under general anesthesia (n = 40) or monitored anesthesia care (n = 9). The majority of operations were related to correction of cardiac anomalies (n = 20). The most common cardiac malformations were ventricular septal hypertrophy and pulmonary (or subpulmonary) stenosis, and major perioperative complications were related to severe arrhythmias and/or cardiac decompensation. Conclusions Dominant pathology associated with perioperative complications in patients with LEOPARD syndrome is related to cardiac disease. A large proportion of patients with this condition have ventricular septal hypertrophy, which tends to progress with age; therefore, these patients undergoing anesthesia should have recent cardiologist evaluation.
A Linear Models Approach to the Analysis of Survival and Extent of Disease in Multidimensional Contingency Tables

Abstract Matrix algorithms are presented which generate estimates of t-year survival rates for patients with chronic disease from a categorical data approach. Weighted least squares has been applied to the resulting estimates to fit linear models which, together with large sample theory, provide a straightforward and unified method for testing hypotheses of interest. The sequential use of cross-product and hierarchical structures in a stepwise manner is described in detail as a useful descriptive approach to formulating efficient models. These results can be applied as a basis for “clustering” combinations of clinical findings into groups indicative of stage of disease.
Stereotypes of Chinese international students held by Americans

Abstract This study examined stereotypes of Chinese international students held by Americans in two parts. To begin, 100 American students from a large Midwestern university listed traits describing a typical Chinese student, generating 31 frequent descriptors. Next, 146 American participants reported the percentage of Chinese students they believed to possess each of the 31 traits and the favorability of those traits. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five primary stereotypes of Chinese students. Some reflect previous literature concerning stereotypes of Asians generally (e.g., smart/hardworking, shy/not social, and bad English/not assimilated), whereas others are more unique (e.g., nice/friendly and oblivious/annoying). Stereotypes ranged from highly favorable (i.e., nice/friendly and smart/hardworking) to highly unfavorable (i.e., oblivious/annoying). Results are discussed with respect to prior literature on stereotypes of Asians and Asian Americans and implications for communication between American and Chinese students.
Miniaturized magnetic nitrogen DC microplasmas

This paper explores the use of miniaturized magnets to enhance the parameters of dc microplasmas. The microplasmas are powered by thin coaxial electrodes and are enhanced by a coaxial magnetron configuration machined from niobium composite magnets. At operating pressures of 1-4 torr, a glow region that is confined to the volume directly over the cathode, forms a traditional magnetron-type annular ring. Three coaxial magnets, ranging in total size from 3.2 to 7.2 mm in outside diameter generate measured magnetic fields up to 3030 G. The magnetic field structure is profiled with a small Hall probe and is modeled by finite-element analysis. The plasma currents for various applied voltages are measured, and the plasma breakdown/termination voltages are determined. In nitrogen ambients at 1.2 torr and 370-V bias, the current changes from 9.3 mA in the absence of a magnetic field to 17.6 mA with the addition of the largest magnet. The sheath region decreases with the addition of the magnetic structures, illustrating an effect on the Debye length and, therefore, the local plasma density. The dimensions of the sheath are found to vary radially within the annular microplasma. The smallest sheath corresponds to the region of highest magnetic field over the south pole for the largest magnetic configuration. This effect is used to generate a microplasma in SF/sub 6/ on a silicon wafer producing a localized etch. The etch rate in the region of the brightest glow is three times greater than the weakest etch rate, allowing spatially localized etch selectivity without masking.
The noetic connection: synaesthesia, psychedelics, and language

Abstract The literatures that touch on synaesthesias-scientific, art-historical, literary, phenomenological, ethnographic, psychodelic-vary widely in their definitions, their interpretations, and their degree of comfort with the first-person, subjective nature of experiential reports. The significances given to synaesthetic experiences are similarly wide-ranging. This paper explores the relationships among synaesthesias, psychedelic experience, and language, highlighting Terence McKenna's synaesthetic language experiences on DMT and magic mushrooms. We describe the complexities of creating and performing with the Synestheater, a system that provides the means to weave together, in multiple mappings, two or more complex visual, aural, and linguistic systems in live performance.
Policy Watch: Developments in Antitrust Economics

This article highlights recent developments in antitrust economics that have influenced the way the federal antitrust enforcement agencies analyze five issues: efficiencies from mergers, entry conditions, practices facilitating coordination, exclusionary practices, and the unilateral competitive effects of mergers.
Preferential adsorption of 137 Cs to micaceous minerals in contaminated freshwater sediment

A MAJOR concern to environmentalists, health physicists and radioecologists is the fate of 137Cs released to the environment from existing light-water power stations (estimated annual discharge of 137Cs as liquid effluent exceeds 2.0 Ci per yr per power station) and future nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities1. Its long half life (30 yr) and its ability to be readily assimilated into body tissues make it potentially one of the most hazardous radionuclides for man. Numerous investigations into the fate of 137Cs in terrestrial environments have revealed that soils exhibit a marked capacity to retain 137Cs; thus soils act as a ‘sink’ for 137Cs released to the environment2,3, and sediments retain 137Cs in a similar fashion in aquatic environments4,5.
Effect of maternity-care practices on breastfeeding.

OBJECTIVE. Our goal was to assess the impact of “Baby-Friendly” hospital practices and other maternity-care practices experienced by mothers on breastfeeding duration. METHODS. This analysis of the Infant Feeding Practices Study II focused on mothers who initiated breastfeeding and intended prenatally to breastfeed for >2 months, with complete data on all variables ( n = 1907). Predictor variables included indicators of 6 “Baby-Friendly” practices (breastfeeding initiation within 1 hour of birth, giving only breast milk, rooming in, breastfeeding on demand, no pacifiers, fostering breastfeeding support groups) along with several other maternity-care practices. The main outcome measure was breastfeeding termination before 6 weeks. RESULTS. Only 8.1% of the mothers experienced all 6 “Baby-Friendly” practices. The practices most consistently associated with breastfeeding beyond 6 weeks were initiation within 1 hour of birth, giving only breast milk, and not using pacifiers. Bringing the infant to the room for feeding at night if not rooming in and not giving pain medications to the mother during delivery were also protective against early breastfeeding termination. Compared with the mothers who experienced all 6 “Baby-Friendly” practices, mothers who experienced none were ∼13 times more likely to stop breastfeeding early. Additional practices decreased the risk for early termination. CONCLUSIONS. Increased “Baby-Friendly” hospital practices, along with several other maternity-care practices, improve the chances of breastfeeding beyond 6 weeks. The need to work with hospitals to implement these practices continues to exist, as illustrated by the small proportion of mothers who reported experiencing all 6 of the “Baby-Friendly” hospital practices measured in this study.
Making Biology Easier to Engineer

In this lecture, Pam Silver describes some of the exciting work her laboratory has carried out in synthetic biology and illustrates how engineers are not only bringing new tools to traditional biology but also a new perspective. Traditional biology has emphasized understanding the causes and mechanisms of biological processes, but bioengineers put that knowledge to practical use. Our progress in understanding life, particularly the detailed molecular biology of cells, coupled with new technologies and computing power, is starting to transform biology from a ‘soft’ science focused on description to a ‘hard’ science focused on quantifying, predicting and controlling its properties. The lecture was given at the 12 May 2009 launch of the Imperial-based Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation—established in partnership with the London School of Economics and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as part of a science and innovation award.
Binary Views of Ternary Codes

Recently Vera Pless, N. J. A. Sloane, and I completed the classification of ternary self-dual codes of length 20 [7]. We produced most of the codes by building on known codes of shorter length (the techniques are outlined and applied to codes of length 16 in a paper of Conway, Pless, and Sloane [1]). However, we used a different method for finding those codes having minimum weight 6. It is based on regarding the words of weight 6 as binary words and then examining the resulting set of binary vectors. The second section of this paper contains a summary of the results used in this approach; a detailed exposition will appear elsewhere [9]. Since the method links binary and ternary codes, the third section presents applications to the two most conspicuous of such linked codes, the ternary extended Golay code of length 12 and the binary extended Golay code of length 24.
Effect of light filters on contrast sensitivity function in normal and retinal degeneration subjects

Contrast sensitivity functions were measured with five light filters and without a filter, in the presence of a glare source, in 12 retinal degeneration subjects and 9 normal subjects. The light filters included yellow-tinted, CPF 527, NoIR 111, 0.6 neutral density and sunglasses with a 95% UV filter. Retinal degeneration subjects showed a mild improvement in contrast sensitivity at the higher spatial frequencies and maintained mean log contrast sensitivity with light filters which reduced photopic light transmission up to 75%. Normal subjects exhibited a systematic decrease of contrast sensitivity at higher spatial frequencies with all light filters and overall mean log contrast sensitivity was significantly correlated (r = 0.86, P < 0.025) with photopic light transmission of the filters. It is concluded that, when in the presence of a glare source, the benefits of certain light filters to retinal degeneration subjects is related to the reduction of overall photopic luminance.
Clinical Pharmacodynamics of Meropenem in Patients with Lower Respiratory Tract Infections

Studies of beta-lactam pharmacodynamics in infected patients are sparse. In this study, classification and regression tree (CART) and logistic regression analyses were used to identify which pharmacodynamic indices and magnitudes were significant predictors of meropenem efficacy for 101 adult patients with lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI). Using demographic data, a validated population pharmacokinetic model was employed to predict pharmacokinetic parameters and free serum concentrations in the studied patients. Pharmacodynamic indices [percentage of the dosing interval that free drug concentrations remain above the MIC (% fT > MIC), f(maximum concentration of drug in serum) (fC(max))/MIC, fC(min)/MIC, and f(area under the concentration-time curve) (fAUC)/MIC] were calculated based on the baseline pathogen with the highest drug MIC for each patient. The median (range) of percent fT > MIC, fC(max)/MIC, fC(min)/MIC, and fAUC/MIC were 100% (0 to 100%), 728.8 (0.8 to 15,777), 19.9 (0.01 to 278), and 3,605.4 (2.7 to 60,865.9), respectively. CART identified the following breakpoints as significant predictors for microbiological response: >54% fT > MIC, a fC(max)/MIC > 383, and a fC(min)/MIC > 5; fC(min)/MIC > 5 was the only significant predictor of clinical response. Due to 100% fT > MIC achieved in the majority of LRTI patients, fC(min)/MIC was the statistically significant parameter associated with meropenem clinical and microbiological response in the adults with LRTI. The findings for LRTI patients can be applied to optimize meropenem dose regimens to achieve clinical success and microbiological eradication in clinical practice.
DEVELOPMENTALLY REGULATED NUCLEAR TRANSPORT OF TRANSCRIPTION FACTORS IN DROSOPHILA EMBRYOS ENABLE THE HEAT SHOCK RESPONSE

Hsp70 is a broadly conserved thermotolerance factor, but inhibits growth at normal temperatures and cannot be induced in early embryos. We report that in Drosophila embryos the temporal and spatial patterns of Hsp70 inducibility were unexpectedly complex, with striking differences between the soma and the germline. In both, regulation occurred at the level of transcription. During the refractory period for Hsp70 induction, HSF (heat-shock transcription factor) exhibited specific DNA-binding activity characteristic of activation in extracts of heated embryos. Remarkably, however, HSF was restricted to the cytoplasm in intact embryos even after heat shock. HSF moved from the cytoplasm to the nucleus in the absence of heat precisely when the capacity to induce Hsp70 was acquired (cycle 12 of the germline, cycle 13 in the soma). During oogenesis, Hsp70 inducibility was lost in nurse cells around stage 10, in a posterior-to-anterior gradient and HSF redistributed from nucleus to cytoplasm in the same spatiotemporal pattern. In a highly inbred derivative of the Samarkind strain, HSF moved into embryonic nuclei earlier than in our standard wild-type strain. Correspondingly, Hsp70 was inducible earlier, confirming that nuclear transport of HSF controls the inducibility of Hsp70 in early embryos. We also report for the first time the nuclear import patterns of two general transcription factors, RNA polymerase subunit Ilc and TATA binding protein (TBP). Both enter nuclei in a highly synchronous manner, independently of each other and of HSF. The import of TBP coincides with the first reported appearance of transcripts in the embryo. We suggest that the potentiation of general and heat shock-specific transcription in Drosophila embryos is controlled by the developmentally programmed relocalization of general and heat shock-specific transcription factors. Restricted nuclear entry of HSF represents a newly described mechanism for regulating the heat-shock response.
African Descent and Glaucoma Evaluation Study (ADAGES): Racial differences in the risk of developing visual field damage vary by level of IOP

Author(s): Zangwill, Linda M; Khachatryan, Naira; Bowd, Christopher; Liebmann, Jeffrey M; Girkin, Christopher A; Weinreb, Robert N; Sample, Pamela A; Hammel, Naama; Sharpsten, Lucie; Medeiros, Felipe A
Anxiety and depression among cancer survivors: the role of engagement with sources of emotional support information.

This study explores cancer survivors' engagement with information about emotional support from doctors, interpersonal sources, and the media and examines to what extent such engagement affects subsequent self-reported anxiety and depression. Patients with colorectal, breast, or prostate cancer (n = 1,128) were surveyed over 3 years following diagnosis. Using lagged logistic regression, we predicted the odds of experiencing anxiety or depression based on earlier engagement with sources of emotional support, adjusting for prior symptoms and confounders. Among those reporting anxiety or depression (n = 476), we also asked whether information engagement affected the severity of those symptoms. Participants obtained information about emotional support from multiple sources, but most often from physicians. Discussions with physicians about emotional support increased the odds of cancer survivors subsequently reporting anxiety or depression by 1.58 times (95% CI: 1.06 to 2.35; p = 0.025), adjusted for prior symp...
The Philosophical Foundation of the Lecture Method of Instruction and the Case Method of Instruction: Implications for Examinations.

Any adequate comparison between the lecture method of instruction and the case method of instruction necessarily requires a comparison of their underlying philosophical foundation and methodology. This is based on the premise that foundational philosophies or world views underlie educational philosophies, and each educational philosophy favors a certain instructional methodology, which in turn implies a certain way or method of instruction. More specifically, this paper discusses how each philosophical foundation implies a certain type of examination.
A revision of the South African endemic water beetle genus Pneuminion Perkins (Coleoptera: Hydraenidae)

The South African endemic water beetle genus Pneuminion Perkins, 1997 is revised. The generic limits, habitat preferences and morphological characters are discussed. A key to the nine known species is given. New species described are P. balfourbrownei, P. endroedyi, P. impressum, P. nanum, P. natalensis, P. punctatum, P. semisulcatum, and P. tubum. High resolution digital images of the holotypes are presented (online version in color), the male genitalia are illustrated, and the geographical distributions are mapped.
Abstract 179: Trends in Pericarditis Admissions, Outcomes and Costs, 1999- 2012: A National Healthcare Utilization Analysis

Background: Healthcare burden associated with pericarditis is currently not known. The last decade has marked multiple advancements in the management of pericarditis and the impact of this emerging evidence on outcomes such as readmissions, mortality and costs associated with pericarditis is lacking. Methods: The Inpatient Medicare data from 1999 to 2012 were used to determine trends in hospitalization, readmission, mortality rates and costs associated with pericarditis. Patients aged ≥ 65 years who had a primary discharge diagnosis of acute pericarditis (ICD-9-CM codes 429.90 or 429.91 or 429.99) from 1999 to 2012 were including in the analysis. We linked the inpatient data with the Medicare denominator file to report hospitalization rates per one hundred thousand person-years. Mortality and readmission rates were ascertained through corresponding vital status and inpatient files. Results: A total of 45, 504 hospitalizations for pericarditis through the study were identified. The hospitalization rate for pericarditis decreased from 15 in 1999 to 9 per 100,000 person-years in 2012. Hospitalization rates for pericarditis decreased across all age, sex and race subgroups through the study period, with consistently higher rates among those aged 75-84 years and whites. No sex differences in hospitalizations were noted. The length of stay decreased from 6 (SD=6.2) days in 1999 to 5.2 (SD=5.3) days in 2012. The 30-day mortality decreased from 7.9% (95% Confidence interval [CI], 7.11% - 8.85%) in 1999 to 4.8% (95% CI, 4.00% - 5.76%) in 2012 and 1-year mortality slightly decreased from 20.1% (95% CI, 18.9 % - 21.4%) in 1999 to 18.1% (95% CI, 16.6-19.7) in 2011 respectively. The 30-day readmission rate increased marginally from 18.5% (95% CI, 17.2% - 19.9%) in 1999 compared with 20.5% (95% CI, 18.8% - 22.2%) in 2012. The CPI-adjusted cost per hospitalization increased slightly, from $11,649 in 1999 to $12,582 in 2012. Conclusion: Hospitalization for pericarditis is relatively uncommon. Although mortality rates associated with pericarditis have improved, mortality and readmission rates continue to remain high. These findings support a need to identify factors associated with high mortality and readmission rates.
Development of Solid-Phase Site-Specific Conjugation and Its Application toward Generation of Dual Labeled Antibody and Fab Drug Conjugates

The focus of the antibody–drug conjugate (ADC) field is shifting toward development of site-specific, next-generation ADCs to address the issue of heterogeneity, metabolic instability, conjugatability, and less than ideal therapeutic index associated with the conventional (heterogeneous) ADCs. It is evident from the recent literature that the site of conjugation, the structure of the linker, and the physicochemical properties of the linker-payload all have a significant impact on the safety and efficacy of the resulting ADCs. Screening multiple linker-payloads on multiple sites of an antibody presents a combinatorial problem that necessitates high-throughput conjugation and purification methodology to identify ADCs with the best combination of site and payload. Toward this end, we developed a protein A/L-based solid-phase, site-specific conjugation and purification method that can be used to generate site-specific ADCs in a 96-well plate format. This solid-phase method has been shown to be versatile becau...
Antioxidant defenses of Francisella tularensis modulate macrophage function and production of proinflammatory cytokines

Francisella tularensis, the causative agent of a fatal human disease known as tularemia, has been used in the bioweapon programs of several countries in the past, and now it is considered a potential bioterror agent. Extreme infectivity and virulence of F. tularensis is due to its ability to evade immune detection and to suppress the host's innate immune responses. However, Francisella-encoded factors and mechanisms responsible for causing immune suppression are not completely understood. Macrophages and neutrophils generate reactive oxygen species (ROS)/reactive nitrogen species as a defense mechanism for the clearance of phagocytosed microorganisms. ROS serve a dual role; at high concentrations they act as microbicidal effector molecules that destroy intracellular pathogens, and at low concentrations they serve as secondary signaling messengers that regulate the expression of various inflammatory mediators. We hypothesized that the antioxidant defenses of F. tularensis maintain redox homeostasis in infected macrophages to prevent activation of redox-sensitive signaling components that ultimately result in suppression of pro-inflammatory cytokine production and macrophage microbicidal activity. We demonstrate that antioxidant enzymes of F. tularensis prevent the activation of redox-sensitive MAPK signaling components, NF-κB signaling, and the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines by inhibiting the accumulation of ROS in infected macrophages. We also report that F. tularensis inhibits ROS-dependent autophagy to promote its intramacrophage survival. Collectively, this study reveals novel pathogenic mechanisms adopted by F. tularensis to modulate macrophage innate immune functions to create an environment permissive for its intracellular survival and growth.
The Reduction of Selenite by Bacillus licheniformis

Bacillus Licheniformi,which can reduce the toxic selenite anion to red elemental selenium(Se0),was isolated from a carbonaceous mudstone with high content of Se.The results showed that this strain can stand in 320 mM SeO2-3 and in more than 1000 mM SeO2-4.However,the high concentration of SeO2-3 can inhibit the growth of the strain in liquid medium(YEG).No matter in aerobic culture or anaerobic culture that the strain was inoculated,it can reduce selenite anion to nanospheric elemental selenium granules,distributed around or within the cells.In the liquid YEG medium contains 5mM of selenite,the transformed efficiency of Se4+ to Se0 by Bacillus licheniformi was 42% approximately.Since no rigorous requirement for Bacillus licheniformi to live,it is suitable to be selected in microbial remediation techniques as the strains that cope with selenium pollutions,and to produce the nano-Se granules with bioavailability.At the same time,the phenomena of selenite anions reduced to elemental Se by the bacterial provides a chance to further understand the microbial mineralization of selenium in the environment.
The versatile cartilage autograft: current trends in clinical transplantation.

The cartilage autograft may be “sculpted” to form an ear, to fill depressions, to correct defects of contour, or to mimic details such as the Montgomery glands in the reconstructed nipple-areolar complex. Perichondrial grafts are the newest frontier in cartilage transplantation, supplying the capacity for neochondrogenesis while providing architectural support in reconstruction of the nose, the auditory canal, or the temporomandibular joint.
How Physicians Can Reduce Suicide—Without Changing Anyone's Mental Health

Suicide is the leading cause of injury death in the United States and its rate has increased in recent years.1 On an average day over 115 Americans take their lives. A typical physician’s patient is more likely to die from suicide than from motor vehicle crashes, falls, unintentional overdose, or homicide.1 Physicians and other health care providers can help protect at-risk patients by speaking with them and their families about gun safety. Based on feedback from informal focus groups and interviews with veterans and gun owners, we suggest wording like, “Lots of families in my practice keep guns at home. Sometimes when a gun owner is struggling in the ways you’ve described and has thoughts of suicide, they’ll temporarily store their guns such that they can’t get to them in a moment of desperation. For example, some people will ask their friends to hold onto their guns, others will store their guns locked up and keep the key in a safe deposit box at the bank until they’ve recovered. Are these strategies you might consider?” The focus is not on questioning a patient on whether they have guns; rather it is on providing useful information in the event they do. All authors report no financial conflicts of interest. This work was partially supported by grants from the Joyce and Bohnett Foundations. The funders had no role in the preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript or the decision to submit it for publication. Language: en
The Materials Data Facility: Data Services to Advance Materials Science Research

With increasingly strict data management requirements from funding agencies and institutions, expanding focus on the challenges of research replicability, and growing data sizes and heterogeneity, new data needs are emerging in the materials community. The materials data facility (MDF) operates two cloud-hosted services, data publication and data discovery, with features to promote open data sharing, self-service data publication and curation, and encourage data reuse, layered with powerful data discovery tools. The data publication service simplifies the process of copying data to a secure storage location, assigning data a citable persistent identifier, and recording custom (e.g., material, technique, or instrument specific) and automatically-extracted metadata in a registry while the data discovery service will provide advanced search capabilities (e.g., faceting, free text range querying, and full text search) against the registered data and metadata. The MDF services empower individual researchers, research projects, and institutions to (I) publish research datasets, regardless of size, from local storage, institutional data stores, or cloud storage, without involvement of third-party publishers; (II) build, share, and enforce extensible domain-specific custom metadata schemas; (III) interact with published data and metadata via representational state transfer (REST) application program interfaces (APIs) to facilitate automation, analysis, and feedback; and (IV) access a data discovery model that allows researchers to search, interrogate, and eventually build on existing published data. We describe MDF’s design, current status, and future plans.
Harmonic-WISP: A passive broadband harmonic RFID platform

In conventional passive radio frequency identification (RFID) systems, downlink (reader to tag) and uplink (tag to reader) overlap on the same carrier frequency, which leads to severe self-jamming and reader collision problems. To resolve these issues, nonlinearity in passive RFID tags can be exploited to generate second or higher order harmonics for uplink data communication. The design of harmonic tag that allows efficient energy harvesting and harmonic generation at the same time is critical. We present Harmonic-WISP, the first harmonic RFID system integrated with the open-source wireless identification and sensing platform (WISP). Harmonic-WISP adopts a new routing strategy to ensure full power utilization in both energy harvesting and harmonic generation modes. The new platform can fundamentally eliminate self-jamming issues and can greatly reduce reader-to-reader interference. By integrating with WISP, the proposed platform can further allow flexible implementation and evaluation of efficient multiplexing and security protocols.
Water Resource Variability and Climate Change

A significant challenge posed by changing climates is how water cycling and surficial and subsurface water availability will be affected at global and regional scales. Such alterations are critical as they often lead to increased vulnerability in ecosystems and human society. Understanding specifically how climate change affects water resource variability in different locations is of critical importance to sustainable development in different parts of the world. The papers included in this special issue focus on three broad perspectives associated with water resource variability and climate change. Six papers employ remote sensing, meteorological station-based observational data, and tree-ring records to empirically determine how water resources have been changing over historical time periods. Eight of the contributions focus on modeling approaches to determine how known processes are likely to manifest themselves as climate shifts over time. Two others focus on human perceptions and adaptation strategies in the midst of unstable or unsettled water availability. The findings and methods presented in this collection of papers provide important contributions to the increased study and awareness of climate change on water resources.
Electric vehicles: Policy and research implications

This paper presents three sets of issue that will influence the proliferation and impact of electric vehicles - a buyer's economic rationality, environmental impacts, and impacts on the electrical distribution grid. This gives rise to a number of interesting research problems as well as policy issues.
VPx video coding for lossy transmission channels using error resilience packets

Many popular video coding standards such as VPx, H.26x achieve video compression by using spatial and temporal dependencies in the source video signal. This makes the encoded bitstream vulnerable to errors during transmission. In this paper, we investigate an error resilient video coding for the VPx bitstreams using error resilience packets. An error resilient packet consists of encoded keyframe contents and the prediction signals for each non-keyframe. Experimental results exhibit that our proposed method is effective under typical packet loss conditions.
Topological materials: Monolayers have the edge

Two studies show evidence that single layers of a transition metal dichalcogenide are two-dimensional topological insulators.
Multi-User 60 GHz WLANs: from Standards to User Selection Policies

Multi-user transmission at 60 GHz promises to scale the throughput of next generation WLANs via simultaneous transmission of multiple independent data streams. This feature is identified as one of the main design elements of IEEE 802.11ay, next generation of Wi-Fi standards that promises 100-Gbps communications. In this talk, I will describe the motivation and rationale behind multi-user 60 GHz transmissions as well as the technical challenges, including beam steering and user selection. Specifically, I will experimentally show how the choice of users and analog beams are tied together using a programmable wideband testbed with phased antenna arrays. Instead of the joint selection of users and analog beams, I will describe the design of a low-complexity decoupled structure in which beam training precedes user selection. Finally, I will discuss user selection policies in multi-user 60 GHz systems that are possible due to millimeter-wave radio propagation characteristics.
Demographics and Interstate Management Implications for Flathead Catfish in the Lower Wabash River, Illinois and Indiana

Flathead Catfish Pylodictis olivaris in the lower Wabash River, Illinois and Indiana, are currently exploited by anglers and commercial fishers under the same fishing regulation; however, the regul...
Modeling and analysis of the frequency dependence of class-E outphasing

Class E outphasing systems have been demonstrated to have high efficiency over a wide range of output power levels. This high efficiency is achieved through load modulation of class E branch PAs over their optimal load line. In this work, we extend the analysis of class E outphasing to describe its performance as frequency varies. The frequency variation in the optimal loading trajectories of conventional class E PAs are compared to that of the power combining network to show the effects of frequency variation on efficiency and output power. For the conventional class E outphasing system modeled here, the operating bandwidth is found to be 17.5% for a dynamic range variation of 1dB.
Peridotites and basalts reveal broad congruence between two independent records of mantle fO2 despite local redox heterogeneity

Abstract The oxygen fugacity (fO2) of the oceanic upper mantle has fundamental implications for the production of magmas and evolution of the Earth's interior and exterior. Mid-ocean ridge basalts and peridotites sample the oceanic upper mantle, and retain a record of oxygen fugacity. While fO2 has been calculated for mid-ocean ridge basalts worldwide (>200 locations), ridge peridotites have been comparatively less well studied (33 samples from 11 locations), and never in the same geographic location as basalts. In order to determine whether peridotites and basalts from mid-ocean ridges record congruent information about the fO2 of the Earth's interior, we analyzed 31 basalts and 41 peridotites from the Oblique Segment of the Southwest Indian Ridge. By measuring basalts and peridotites from the same ridge segment, we can compare samples with maximally similar petrogenetic histories. We project the composition and oxygen fugacity of each lithology back to source conditions, and evaluate the effects of factors such as subsolidus diffusion in peridotites and fractional crystallization in basalts. We find that, on average, basalts and peridotites from the Oblique Segment both reflect a source mantle very near the quartz–fayalite–magnetite (QFM) buffer. However, peridotites record a significantly wider range of values (nearly 3 orders of magnitude in fO2), with a single dredge recording a range in fO2 greater than that previously reported for mid-ocean ridge peridotites worldwide. This suggests that mantle fO2 may be heterogeneous on relatively short length scales, and that this heterogeneity may be obscured within aggregated basalt melts. We further suggest that the global peridotite fO2 dataset may not provide a representative sample of average basalt-source mantle. Our study motivates further investigation of the fO2 recorded by ridge peridotites, as peridotites record information about the fO2 of the Earth's interior that cannot be gleaned from analysis of basalts alone.