cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Cost-effectiveness considerations in the treatment of essential thrombocythemia

Factors that influence the choice of anagrelide, hydroxyurea, or interferon-alfa (IFN-alpha) for treatment of essential thrombocythemia include efficacy, toxicity, and cost. Anagrelide has the US Food and Drug Administration's approval to be used for treating patients with thrombocythemia secondary to chronic myeloproliferative disorders. In contrast, the use of IFN-alpha and hydroxyurea are considered "off-label." We performed an incremental cost-effectiveness analysis to compare anagrelide, hydroxyurea, and IFN-alpha for treating essential thrombocythemia, in terms of estimated impact on life expectancy. The case used for this analysis was of a 40-year-old man with essential thrombocythemia. Clinical assumptions were based on information obtained from nonrandomized clinical trials, and the economic assumptions were derived from information abstracted from observational studies. Lifelong treatment use of anagrelide versus hydroxyurea would cost approximately $72,000 per additional year of life gained, while the use of IFN-alpha was found to be both more costly and less effective than anagrelide. The results were very sensitive to the risk of leukemia caused by hydroxyurea, with an incremental cost-effectiveness of anagrelide compared with hydroxyurea of $156,969 per additional year of life gained if the lifetime leukemia risk drops from a baseline of .08 to.05. Given that many commonly used medical interventions cost in the range of $50,000 to $100,000 per year of life gained, and the generally poor outcome associated with treatment-related leukemia that can result from hydroxyurea, anagrelide could be considered a therapeutic alternative that is clinically effective at an acceptable cost.
Adjunct therapies to surgical management of keloids.

BACKGROUNDThe literature describing surgical treatments, with or without supplementary nonsurgical treatments for keloids, offers a confusing picture of widely variable “success” rates, recurrence rates, patient populations, and follow-up periods.OBJECTIVEA review of the surgical treatment of keloid
International Environmental NGOs and Conservation Science and Policy: A Case from Brazil

As anthropogenic stressors on marine environments increase, the translation of marine science into beneficial policy outcomes becomes ever more crucial. International environmental nongovernmental organizations, with linkages to both the scientific community and the worlds of policy at multiple scales, are ideally situated to cross this science–policy boundary. This article uses the experiences of Conservation International's Marine Management Area Science program (MMAS) in Brazil as a case study of the development and application of science to policy. Qualitative data about MMAS in Brazil was gathered as part of a multi-sited ethnographic research project, with methods including document analysis, direct observation and semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate that Conservation International in Brazil informed and drove policy by (1) designing scientific studies to be both locally and globally salient, (2) ensuring participation of key stakeholders during the entire research cycle, (3) communicating...
A Multistate District-Level Cluster Randomized Trial of the Impact of Data-Driven Reform on Reading and Mathematics Achievement:

Analyzing mathematics and reading achievement outcomes from a district-level random assignment study fielded in over 500 schools within 59 school districts and seven states, the authors estimate the 1-year impacts of a data-driven reform initiative implemented by the Johns Hopkins Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education (CDDRE). CDDRE consultants work with districts to implement quarterly student benchmark assessments and provide district and school leaders with extensive training on interpreting and using the data to guide reform. Relative to a control condition, in which districts operated as usual without CDDRE services, the data-driven reform initiative caused statistically significant districtwide improvements in student mathematics achievement. The CDDRE intervention also had a positive effect on reading achievement, but the estimates fell short of conventional levels of statistical significance.
Philosophical and Experimental Perspectives on Quantum Physics

The Society for the Advancement of the Scientific World Conception has done me a great honor by inviting me to be the Sixth Vienna Circle Lecturer. The invitation has also stirred some deep emotions. A central figure of the Vienna Circle, Rudolf Carnap, was my revered teacher of philosophy at the University of Chicago in 1948–9 and later an informal adviser when I wrote a doctoral thesis at Yale University on inductive logic, and he was a friend during those years and thereafter. I was not a disciple, but Carnap did not demand discipleship as a condition for admission to his seminars or to his friendship. He seemed to be baffled by the fact that despite my interest in mathematical logic and theoretical physics I proclaimed myself a metaphysicician and had even published an article in the first issue of The Review of Metaphysics. Carnap (1937, pp. 51–52) formulated a “principle of tolerance” as a philosophical maxim concerning rules of language (“in logic, there are no morals”), but he practiced a human and highly moral version of the principle of tolerance in his profoundly liberal social commitments and in his relations with his students. If he were here tonight, I would wish for his tolerance of the lapses of rigor and the flights of speculation to which he would be exposed.
Osteoporosis and other adverse body composition changes during androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer.

Osteoporosis and other body composition changes are important complications of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for prostate cancer. Bilateral orchiectomy and gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist treatment decrease bone mineral density and increase fracture risk. Other factors including diet and lifestyle may contribute to bone loss in men with prostate cancer. Estrogens play an important role in male bone metabolism. Androgen deprivation therapy with estrogens probably causes less bone loss than bilateral orchiectomy or gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist treatment. Bicalutamide monotherapy increases serum estrogen levels and may also spare bone. Lifestyle modification including smoking cessation, moderation of alcohol use, and regular weight bearing exercise are recommended to decrease treatment-related bone loss. Supplemental calcium and vitamin D are also recommended. Pamidronate (Aredia®), an intravenous bisphosphonate, prevents bone loss during ADT. Other bisphosphonates are probably ef fective but have not been studied in hypogonadal men. Androgen deprivation therapy increases fat mass and decreases muscle mass. These body composition changes may contribute to treatment-related decreases in physical capacity and quality of life.
Food serving size knowledge in African American women and the relationship with body mass index.

Abstract Objective To examine serving size knowledge in African Americans and how it is related to body mass index (BMI). Design Serving size knowledge of food commonly consumed by African Americans was assessed by asking the subjects to select the amount of food considered to be a single serving size by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. Seventeen food items were tested, and the amounts selected were weighed. Body mass index was estimated from measured height and weight. Setting Churches. Particpants Ninety-five African American women. Main Outcome Measures Amount of food selected and BMI. Analyses The amount of food selected was compared with the respective standard serving using the 1-sample Wilcoxon signed rank test. The association between BMI and the amount selected was assessed by logistic regression. Results The subjects significantly overestimated ( P = .001 to .02) serving sizes for cornflakes, apple, watermelon, butter, whole milk, chips, and regular soda. Body mass index was significantly associated with overestimation of cornflakes, butter, cookies, and macaroni and cheese ( P = .01 to .03), and the odds ratio for overestimating these food items was 1.46-1.65 times greater per 5-unit increase in BMI. Conclusions and Implications African American women overestimated the serving sizes for 7 of the food items tested, and 4 of the estimates were correlated with BMI. Education regarding serving size is recommended for certain food items.
Protecting wavelet lifting transforms

Wavelet transforms are the central to many applications in image processing and data compression. They have banks of multirate filters that are difficult to protect from computer-induced numerical errors. An efficient algorithm-based fault tolerance approach is proposed for detecting arithmetic errors in the output data. Concurrent weighted parity values are designed to detect the effects of a single numerical error within the transform structure. The parity calculations use weighted sums of data, where the input parity weighting is related to the weighting used on the output data. Each parity computation is properly viewed as an inner product between weighting values and the data motivating the use of dual space functionals related to the error gain matrices that describe error propagations to the output. The parity weighting values are defined by a combination of dual space functionals. An iterative procedure for evaluating the design of the parity weights has been incorporated in Matlab code.
AN XXXY SEX CHROMOSOME COMPLEX IN KLINEFELTER SUBJECTS WITH DUPLICATED SEX CHROMATIN

Chromosome studies were carried out on 2 mentally defective male patients with Klinefelter’s syndrome, whose interphase nuclei contained, in many instances, 2 masses of sex chromatin. In both patients the chromosome number was 48, or 2 in excess of the normal diploid number for man, in cells derived from blood, bone marrow and skin. Analysis of metaphase plates showed a chromosome complement of 22 pairs of normal autosomes and an XXXY sex chromosome complex. In one of the patients, cells derived from 1 of 4 skin biopsy specimens exhibited further chromosome anomalies that presumably arose during cultivation of the cells in vitro. Sex chromosome complexes XXY, XXXY and XXYY have now been demonstrated in chromatin-positive males with seminiferous tubule dysgenesis. The basic requirement in the cytogenetics of the syndrome appears to be the presence of at least two X chromosomes in combination with at least one Y chromosome.
Coronary Vein Angioplasty with Noncompliant Balloon for Resistant Coronary Vein Stenosis During Left Ventricular Lead Implantation

This report describes a patient who underwent cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in the setting of a severe stenosis in the lateral coronary vein that prevented passage of a left ventricular lead. The stenosis was unresponsive to standard compliant balloon dilatation but was successfully treated with a noncompliant balloon. Venoplasty with noncompliant balloon should be considered for resistant coronary vein stenosis encountered during CRT device implantation.
The question of Sudan: a hydro-economic optimization model for the Sudanese Blue Nile

Abstract. The effects of development and the uncertainty of a changing climate in eastern Africa pose myriad challenges for water managers along the Blue Nile. Sudan's large irrigation potential, hydroelectric dams, and prime location within the basin mean that Sudan's water management decisions will have great social, economic and political implications for the region. At the same time, Sudan's water use options are constrained by tradeoffs between upstream irrigation developments and downstream hydropower facilities as well as by the country's commitments under existing or future transboundary water sharing agreements. Here, we present a model that can be applied to evaluate optimal allocation of surface water resources to irrigation and hydropower in the Sudanese portion of the Blue Nile. Hydrologic inputs are combined with agronomic and economic inputs to formulate an optimization model within the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS). A sensitivity analysis is performed by testing model response to a range of economic conditions and to changes in the volume and timing of hydrologic flows. Results indicate that changing hydroclimate inputs have the capacity to greatly influence the productivity of Sudan's water resource infrastructure. Results also show that the economically optimal volume of water consumption, and thus the importance of existing treaty constraints, is sensitive to the perceived value of agriculture relative to electricity as well as to changing hydrological conditions.
The effect of learning on membership and welfare in an International Environmental Agreement

Better information about the cost-benefit of abatement has an ambiguous effect on both the equilibrium membership and on aggregate welfare of an international environmental agreement. Previous papers claim that (complete) learning increases membership and decreases aggregate welfare. That claim is based on analysis of approximations to the relations between a damage parameter and membership and welfare. Those approximations have characteristics not shared by the functions they are intended to approximate, so conclusions based on the approximations are wrong. The correct result is that complete learning increases membership and welfare when the damage parameter is “very likely to be high” , and the reverse holds when the damage parameter is “very likely to be low”.
Methodologic flaws, wrong answers, and right questions: pediatric office emergencies.

To the Editor. In their study of the frequency of medical emergencies in pediatric offices in a small, rural state, Heath et al1reached a questionable conclusion that may potentially harm pediatricians and their patients. Their statement that “serious medical emergencies are rare events in the primary care pediatric office” goes beyond their data and appears to reflect several methodologic and analytic flaws: 1. In the retrospective portion of the study, the authors did not identify what was defined as an emergency in the survey of participants. Was an emergency self-identified by the clinician, one of several predefined diagnostic categories (such as status asthmaticus or shock), or based on other criteria? Clearly, how an emergency is defined can lead to substantially different findings and conclusions, but we are never told what definition the authors chose. 2. In the retrospective study phase, there is a distinct possibility of recall bias in asking pediatricians to remember office emergencies that occurred up to 1 year ago. Recall (or anamnestic) bias is a well-known phenomenon in which inaccuracies frequently occur in the recall of distant events.2 3. Regarding the prospective study component, assessing the frequency of office emergencies based on “the need to use the emergency kit” is fundamentally flawed. As the authors themselves report (Table 2), most office practices already had many of the equipment and medication items in the kit, so they probably used their own items, rather than opening the kit. Basing emergency frequency on kit use would thus result in an falsely low estimate. 4. In the “Methods” section, another fatal …
Single-transverse-spin asymmetries: From deep inelastic scattering to hadronic collisions

We study single-spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering with transversely polarized target. Based on the QCD factorization approach, we consider Sivers and Collins contributions to the asymmetries. We fit simple parametrizations for the Sivers and Collins functions to the recent HERMES data, and compare to results from COMPASS. Using the fitted parametrizations for the Sivers functions, we predict the single-transverse-spin asymmetries for various processes in $pp$ collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, including the Drell-Yan process and angular correlations in dijet and jet-plus-photon production. These asymmetries are found to be sizable at forward rapidities.
Theoretical studies of CO/Ni(100): Geometry, vibrational frequencies and ionization potentials for the on-top site

Abstract The chemisorption of CO on the (100) surface of Ni has been studied using an Ni14 cluster and generalized valence bond (GVB) methods. CO is found to bond perpendicular to the Ni surface with optimized NiC and CO bond distances of 1.94 and 1.15 A, respectively. The calculated NiCO bond strength is 29.7 kcal (experimental values 30–32 kcal). Vibrational frequencies are calculated to be 401 cm−1 for NiC stretch, 327 cm−1 for NiCO bend, and 2129 cm−1 for CO stretch. This decrease of the CO frequency by 71 cm−1 from the free molecule value is consistent with experiment based on self-consistent calculations of the positive ion states. We propose a new explanation for the loss of one PES peak upon chemisorption.
Internal pair production associated with the emission of high-energy gamma rays

The theory of inner pair production associated with the radiative capture of ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ mesons and with the decay of the ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$ meson is discussed. Appropriate distribution functions are derived and compared with recently obtained experimental results. The weak dependence of the theoretical predictions upon the details of meson theory is emphasized. The possible utility of the double conversion process, in which the ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$ meson decays into two electron-positron pairs, for the determination of the ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$ parity is also discussed.
Roosevelt's 1933 Monetary Experiment

THE period between the inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt and the devaluation of the dollar in January 1934 is in many ways one of the most complex and baffling in twentieth-century United States monetary history. A struggle for monetary control erupted involving the President, the Congress, and the Federal Reserve System. Roosevelt was successful in curbing the threat of direct congressional intervention only after he had agreed to accept broad, new, discretionary monetary powers. The Thomas Amendment to the Farm Relief Act conferred upon the President the power to devalue the dollar, to issue paper money, and to exercise significant influence on the conduct of open market operations. Intervention or the threat of presidential intervention in monetary decision-making understandably made the behavior of Federal Reserve officials less intractable than it was inclined to be. The result of this conflict was that the President assumed direct responsibility for the conduct of monetary policy-precisely what the founders of the system had fought so hard to avoid.' Roosevelt declared in unequivocal terms that the target of monetary policy was to raise prices. To attain that objective, he adopted a policy of exchange rate depreciation, at first by unhitching the dollar from its gold peg, later by a more active policy of purchasing gold in both domestic and foreign markets. What has continued to baffle monetary historians is Roosevelt's temporary conversion to the view of George F. Warren that the price level would rise simply by increasing the purchase price of gold. The gold purchase program had been rejected as fallacious by most of his monetary advisers, by officials in the budget bureau, the treasury, the agriculture department, and the Federal Reserve, as well as by the vast majority of monetary economists.
Similarity in Background Characteristics and Differential Fertility

Although the attitude-behavior relationship remains remarkably constant in spite of the differences in the ecology and other factors of the areas, it is possible that in other situations where the impediments to the realization of an attitude in action would be greater than here, the correlation would be minimized in direct proportion to the magnitude of the felt impediments. However, the present study indicates that as far as mobility within urban areas is concerned, the magnitude of the impediments is not large enough to prevent a substantial positive correlation between attitudes and behavior.
Influence of Host Foliage on Development, Survival, and Fecundity of the Gypsy Moth

Gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (L.), larvae reared on leaves of various tree species differed in survival, development rate, and fecundity. White oak and red oak generally produced greatest survival, most rapid development, heaviest pupae, and highest fecundity. White ash caused 100% mortality. Beech, red maple, sugar maple, and Eastern hemlock were intermediate in their effects. Rearing larvae on leaves obtained from trees 1 or 2 mo after the normal hatch date increased mortality to 95–100% on all diets except white oak; on white oak, fecundity of survivors dropped to ca. half its value on young leaves. Leaves of all 7 tree species declined in water and nitrogen content and increased in toughness between early May and late June, which may explain partly the decreased survival of larvae fed on more mature leaves. In preference tests, newly emerged 1st-instar larvae chose white oak over red oak, but chose the latter over most other species. The adverse effects of feeding on non-oak host leaves may mean that as the proportion of oaks declines in an area, the gypsy moth population will also decline. This could explain the observation that the most severe gypsy moth outbreaks occur in areas where the insect is newly introduced and favorable host species are abundant.
George Gunton: Pioneer Spokesman for a Labor-Big Business Entente

The story of George Gunton is that of an astonishingly accurate economic prophet whose viewpoints have found wide acceptance a half-century after they were enunciated. Gunton is shown in this article not as a paid defender of big business but as an apostle of compromise, standing in the No Man's Land of a vast battleground. With equal fervor Gunton declared, “It is our industries that make us great,” but that laborers' wages were “as elastic as human wants … capable of as much expansion as the social character of man.” His numerous commentaries are a lucid clue to the relative importance of contemporary issues, and those commentaries are enhanced by Gunton's instinctive sense of history. Out of the confusion of contradictory evidence recorded at the Chicago Conference on Trusts, before the Industrial Commission, and elsewhere on the business and political stage Gunton framed his thesis of the essential interdependence of big business and organized labor. His convictions were, in total, unique, and his judgment and reconciliation of conflicting viewpoints have meaning and utility today.
Red Shift: Cildo Meireles and the Definition of the Political-Conceptual

This article examines Cildo Meireles's refusal to describe Red Shift, his 1984 installation, as conceptual, political art. I use his rejection of these terms to reconsider conventional categories of the political in Latin American conceptualism as these have been historicized in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I argue that the artist builds his notions of conceptual and political art based on socio-artistic theories propagated in the short-lived but highly influential publication, Malasartes. This groundbreaking magazine, founded by Meireles and eight others in 1975, published texts crucial to Brazilian art history and translated international articles. These shaped the theoretical ideas that would inform the Brazilian art scene in the 1970s. Revisiting theses debates permits a deeper understanding of Meireles's view of art and politics. Revealing, in particular, the manner in which this generation of artists criticized the incipient art market in Brazil, then seen as synonymous with the larger art system...
Perspectives concerning the utilization of service learning projects for a computer science course

The utilization of a real life project for a Computer Science Database Management Course can provide students with additional learning experiences beyond the concepts contained in text books or instructors' lectures. In addition to the practical application of database design and development principles students can become especially involved and motivated since they will witness the outcome their work within a non-profit organization. At the same time that they will be absorbing the course material, they will be rendering their services to a non-profit organization which will also benefit from the development and installation of a "production" level database. Many advantages, disadvantages, cautions and insights, which were originally presented in a CCSC paper regarding service learning projects in December of 2008, are supplemented and expanded by the author's own experience in the utilization of a similar service learning project within a Database Management Systems course. Finally, instructors are encouraged, keeping in mind several important cautions, to investigate the utilization of a service learning project as part of their Computer Science course.
Assessing idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) with bronchoscopic OCT (Conference Presentation)

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive, fatal form of fibrotic lung disease, with a 3 year survival rate of 50%. Diagnostic certainty of IPF is essential to determine the most effective therapy for patients, but often requires surgery to resect lung tissue and look for microscopic honeycombing not seen on chest computed tomography (CT). Unfortunately, surgical lung resection has high risks of associated morbidity and mortality in this patient population. We aim to determine whether bronchoscopic optical coherence tomography (OCT) can serve as a novel, low-risk paradigm for in vivo IPF diagnosis without surgery or tissue removal. OCT provides rapid 3D visualization of large tissue volumes with microscopic resolutions well beyond the capabilities of CT. We have designed bronchoscopic OCT catheters to effectively and safely access the peripheral lung, and conducted in vivo peripheral lung imaging in patients, including those with pulmonary fibrosis. We utilized these OCT catheters to perform bronchoscopic imaging in lung tissue from patients with pulmonary fibrosis to determine if bronchoscopic OCT could successfully visualize features of IPF through the peripheral airways. OCT was able to visualize characteristic features of IPF through the airway, including microscopic honeycombing (< 1 mm diameter) not visible by CT, dense peripheral fibrosis, and spatial disease heterogeneity. These findings support the potential of bronchoscopic OCT as a minimally-invasive method for in vivo IPF diagnosis. However, future clinical studies are needed to validate these findings.
Surveillance on Foodborne Pathogenic Bacteria in Foods in Jiangsu Province Between 2006 and 2009

Objective To investigate and identify the contamination of main foodborne pathogenic bacteria and the kind of high-risk foods and to provide scientific basis for prevention and control of foodborne diseases in Jiangsu Province.Method Based on the standard operation procedures in the handbook of National Surveillance on Foodborne Pathogenic Bacteria,3 865 food samples from 13 cities in Jiangsu Province from 2006 to 2009 were collected and analyzed for the occurrence of Salmonella,Listeria monocytogenes,Vibrio parahaemolyticus,Staphylococcus aureus,Campylobacter jejuni and Escherichia coli O157:H7 in foods.Results Of the 3 865 food samples tested,490 (12.68%) pathogenic strains were isolated.The positive rate of foodborne bacterial pathogens in raw meat,raw milk,aquatic products,quick-frozen flour and rice products,cooked meat,cakes and vegetable salad were 27.93% (242 /814),18.87% (10 /53),17.49% (89 /509),16.18% (56 /346),9.24% (56 /606),4.79% (7 /146) and 0.98% (5 /509),respectively.The positive rate of foodborne bacteria from 2006 to 2009 was 16.92%,14.05%,15.32%,7.06%,respectively.Among the 13 cities,the positive rate in Taizhou,Nanjing,Yangzhou and Xuzhou were higher in comparison with other cities.Conclusion Raw meat,raw milk and aquatic food products are the main kinds of food contaminated by foodborne pathogens in Jiangsu Province.As the ready-to-eat food,such as cooked meat,aquatic products eaten in raw and cakes are at higher risks for causing foodborne diseases.
Inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate directly opens diptheria toxin channels

Inositol 1,4,5-triphosphate (IP3) is a soluble messenger, which acts by cooperatively releasing Ca2+ into the cytosol from non-mitochondrial stores, probably by activating Ca2+-permeable channels. We demonstrate that submicromolar concentrations of IP3 can directly open the Ca2+-permeable diphtheria toxin channel, and that this occurs by IP3 binding to a specific site on the toxin protein. This provides a model for IP3-induced Ca2+ release and suggests that IP3-induced channel opening may play a role in diphtheria intoxication and in protein translocation across membranes.
Systemic Treatment of Advanced Prostatic Cancer: Development of a New System for Defining Response

AbstractThe low incidence of measurable or evaluable metastases in patients with prostatic cancer makes evaluation of response difficult. This is particularly true in patients with bone metastases only. With a digital model it is possible to measure quantitatively from the radioisotope bone scan the total area of skeletal involvement by metastatic tumor. Definitions of response in bone have been derived from this model. These response criteria have been compared to response in acid phosphatase determinations and clinical status in a study of 44 patients with advanced prostatic cancer treated with estramustine phosphate. Based on serial quantitative bone scans, serial measurements of acid phosphatase levels and repeat clinical evaluations a system is proposed for defining response to systemic therapy that is applicable to the majority of patients with metastatic prostatic cancer.
Active and Basal Cerebrometabolic Rate for Oxygen (CMRO2) After Complete Global Brain Ischemia in Rats

The ultimate goal of this study is to devise a method for prognostic assessment of the viability of the brain in prolonged coma or in the vegetative state. The method we are attempting to develop is based upon the following hypotheses and observations: (1) The capacity of the brain to support spontaneous electrical activity (i.e., synaptic transmission) is the essence of viability; (2) severe neurologic dysfunction occurs not only as a result of irreversible neuronal necrosis but also, a potentially reversible failure of synaptic transmission in viable neurons (i.e., quiescent neurons); (3) active CMRO2 (ACMRO2) is O2 consumed to generate energy to support spontaneous brain electrical activity (i.e., restoration of neuronal ionic gradients after depolariztion) while basal CMRO2 (BCMRO2) provides the energy needed to maintain ionic gradients and energy-requiring anabolic reactions to maintain the viability of the neuron in the resting state;1,2 and (4) barbiturates, namely, thiopental, blocks spontaneous brain electrical activity and therefore, ACMRO2, while BCMRO2 is unaffected.3 Thus, the compartmentation of total CMRO2 into ACMRO2 and BCMRO2 after cerebral insults will allow estimates on the viability of the brain (ACMRO2) and neuronal necrosis (BCMRO2).
Does expertise matter in replication? An examination of the reproducibility project: Psychology ☆

Abstract A recent article reported difficulty in replicating psychological findings and that training and other moderators were relatively unimportant in predicting replication effect sizes. Using an objective measure of research expertise (number of publications), we found that expertise predicted larger replication effect sizes. The effect sizes selected and obtained by high-expertise replication teams was nearly twice as large as that obtained by low-expertise teams, particularly in replications of social psychology effects. Surprisingly, this effect seemed to be explained by experts choosing studies to replicate that had larger original effect sizes. There was little evidence that expertise predicted avoiding red flags (i.e. the troubling trio) or studies that varied in execution difficulty. However, experts did choose studies that were less context sensitive. Our results suggest that experts achieve greater replication success, in part, because they choose more robust and generalizable studies to replicate.
Small apex-to-base heterogeneity in radius-to-thickness ratio by three- dimensional magnetic resonance imaging

Reported large base-to-apex differences in endocardial area ejection fraction may suggest large variability in myocardial function and load. To test ventricular load heterogeneities, we measured the ratio of radius of curvature to wall thickness (R/T), as a stress index reflecting myocardial load. End-diastolic (ED) and end-systolic (ES) magnetic resonance cross-sectional images were obtained in 15 open-chest dogs at 5 levels from base to apex, from which 4 three-dimensional thick disks were generated from adjacent image planes. The average R/T for each disk was calculated by planar and three-dimensional methods, using both midwall and endocardial radii of curvature. R/T was normalized to the apical value to quantify the relative changes in myocardial load. Normalized R/T using the midwall three-dimensional approach was 1.08, 1.11, 1.06, and 1.0 for ED (P = NS) and 1.25, 1.013, 1.08, and 1.0 for ES (P < 0.02), base to apex, respectively, while the other methods yielded higher values. Therefore, R/T calculated by the three-dimensional midwall approach shows only small apex-to base variations at ED (< 11%) and ES (< 25%), which is substantially less than the variability in area ejection fraction (102%). This suggests only small base-to-apex load heterogeneities, in spite of large changes in the area ejection fraction, an index reflecting specific ventricular geometry rather than local myocardial function.
No Child Left Alone: Moral Judgments about Parents Affect Estimates of Risk to Children

In recent decades, Americans have adopted a parenting norm in which every child is expected to be under constant direct adult supervision. Parents who violate this norm by allowing their children to be alone, even for short periods of time, often face harsh criticism and even legal action. This is true despite the fact that children are much more likely to be hurt, for example, in car accidents. Why then do bystanders call 911 when they see children playing in parks, but not when they see children riding in cars? Here, we present results from six studies indicating that moral judgments play a role: The less morally acceptable a parent’s reason for leaving a child alone, the more danger people think the child is in. This suggests that people’s estimates of danger to unsupervised children are affected by an intuition that parents who leave their children alone have done something morally wrong.
Using Multiplex Networks to Model Cybersecurity Attack Profiles

Recent research in cybersecurity models the nature of attacks as graphs consisting of nodes that represent attacks and their properties, forming attack profiles. We examine the relationships between attack profiles based on established properties of the attacks to reduce the amount of information present in the graph and make them more applicable to cloud and big data environments. This is done by using multiplex networks, which are constructed based on the individual properties of cyber-attacks and reasoning rules enhanced with semantics and context to generate a multiplex semantic link network (mSLN). This paper presents an approach to generate mSLNs and it is evaluated with specific datasets.
Justice, Claims and Prioritarianism: Room for Desert?

Does individual desert matter for distributive justice? Is it relevant, for purposes of justice, that the pattern of distribution of justice’s “currency” (be it well-being, resources, preference-satisfaction, capabilities, or something else) is aligned in one or another way with the pattern of individual desert?This paper examines the nexus between desert and distributive justice through the lens of individual claims. The concept of claims (specifically “claims across outcomes”) is a fruitful way to flesh out the content of distributive justice so as to be grounded in the separateness of persons. A claim is a relation between a person and a pair of outcomes. If someone is better off in one outcome than a second, she has a claim in favor of the first. If she is equally well off in the two outcomes, she has a null claim between the two. In turn, whether one outcome is more just than a second depends upon the pattern of claims between them.In prior work, I have elaborated the concept of claims across outcomes, and have used it to provide a unified defense of the Pareto and Pigou-Dalton axioms. Adding some further, plausible, axioms, we arrive at prioritarianism. Here, I consider the possibility of desert-modulated claims — whereby the strength of an individual’s claim between two outcomes is determined not only by her well-being levels in the two outcomes, and her well-being difference between them, but also by her desert. This generalization of the notion of claims suggests a new axiom of justice: Priority for the More Deserving, requiring that, as between two individuals at the same well-being level, a given increment in well-being be allocated to the more deserving one.If individual desert is intrapersonally fixed, this new axiom, together with a desert-modulated version of the Pigou-Dalton principle, and the Pareto axioms, yields a desert-modulated prioritarian account of distributive justice. Trouble arises, however, if an individual’s desert level can be different in different outcomes. In this case of intrapersonally variable desert, Priority for the More Deserving can conflict with the Pareto axioms (both Pareto indifference and strong Pareto).This conflict, I believe, is sufficient reason to abandon the proposal to make claim strength a function of individual desert on top of well-being levels and differences. If distributive justice is truly sensitive to each individual’s separate perspective — if the justice ranking of outcomes is built up from the totality of individual rankings — we should embrace the Pareto axioms as axioms of justice and reject Priority for the More Deserving. In short: desert-modulated prioritarianism is a nonstarter. Rawls was right to sever distributive justice from desert.
EEG-based golf putt outcome prediction using support vector machine

In this paper, a method is proposed to predict the putt outcomes of golfers based on their electroencephalogram (EEG) signals recorded before the impact between the putter and the ball. This method can be used into a brain-computer interface system that encourages golfers for putting when their EEG patterns show that they are ready. In the proposed method, multi-channel EEG trials of a golfer are collected from the electrodes placed at different scalp locations in one particular second when she/he concentrates on putting preparation. The EEG trials are used to predict two possible outcomes: successful or failed putts. This binary classification is performed by the support vector machine (SVM). Based on the collected time-domain EEG signals, the spectral coherences from 22-pair electrodes are calculated and then used as the feature and input for the SVM algorithm. Our experimental results show that the proposed method using EEG coherence significantly outperforms the SVM with other popular features such as power spectral density (PSD), average PSD, power, and average spectral coherence.
Autonomous structural monitoring using fiber Bragg grating

An autonomous structural monitoring system (ASMS) is a functional unit capable of sensing and assessing the health of a structure and reporting the status to a maintenance center for appropriate action. In this paper, such a system is presented. The main components of an ASMA are: power meter, broadband optical source, twin-core fiber, spring, fiber Bragg grating (FBG), and a wired or wireless transmitter. It has been shown that FBG has applications in strain and temperature measurements. A newly developed sensing head has been built and tested which consists of a spring and FBG and is used to sense displacement or cracks in various structures such as buildings, bridges, pipelines, ships…, etc. Here, the new sensing head is adapted to integrate the functions of the sensing head FBG and spring with an optical coupler and twin-core fiber into a displacement sensor unit. The proposed ASMS can be tuned for different structures and specifications.
Hydrazone Switch-Based Negative Feedback Loop.

A negative feedback loop that relies on the coordination-coupled deprotonation (CCD) of a hydrazone switch has been developed. Above a particular threshold of zinc(II), CCD releases enough protons to the environment to trigger a cascade of reactions that yield an imine. This imine sequesters the excess of zinc(II) from the hydrazone switch, hence lowering the effective amount of protons, and switching the cascade reactions “OFF”, thus establishing the negative feedback loop.
Endothelial cells produce bone morphogenetic protein 6 required for iron homeostasis in mice

Bone morphogenetic protein 6 (BMP6) signaling in hepatocytes is a central transcriptional regulator of the iron hormone hepcidin that controls systemic iron balance. How iron levels are sensed to regulate hepcidin production is not known, but local induction of liver BMP6 expression by iron is proposed to have a critical role. To identify the cellular source of BMP6 responsible for hepcidin and iron homeostasis regulation, we generated mice with tissue-specific ablation of Bmp6 in different liver cell populations and evaluated their iron phenotype. Efficiency and specificity of Cre-mediated recombination was assessed by using Cre-reporter mice, polymerase chain reaction of genomic DNA, and quantitation of Bmp6 messenger RNA expression from isolated liver cell populations. Localization of the BMP co-receptor hemojuvelin was visualized by immunofluorescence microscopy. Analysis of the Bmp6 conditional knockout mice revealed that liver endothelial cells (ECs) expressed Bmp6, whereas resident liver macrophages (Kupffer cells) and hepatocytes did not. Loss of Bmp6 in ECs recapitulated the hemochromatosis phenotype of global Bmp6 knockout mice, whereas hepatocyte and macrophage Bmp6 conditional knockout mice exhibited no iron phenotype. Hemojuvelin was localized on the hepatocyte sinusoidal membrane immediately adjacent to Bmp6-producing sinusoidal ECs. Together, these data demonstrate that ECs are the predominant source of BMP6 in the liver and support a model in which EC BMP6 has paracrine actions on hepatocyte hemojuvelin to regulate hepcidin transcription and maintain systemic iron homeostasis.
Researching the Cultural Politics of Dirt in Urban Africa

This chapter reflects on the intellectual, ethical, and methodological challenges of a project on “The Cultural Politics of Dirt in Africa, 1880–present,” involving teams of researchers in Nairobi and Lagos. In addition to the challenges of translating interviews into English and ensuring continuity of fieldwork methods between Lagos and Nairobi, the possibilities and risks of a century-long cultural history are discussed, as well as the potentialities of cross-continental, comparative approaches in cultural history projects of this type.
Neurological Complications of Childhood Cancer

Though the treatment of pediatric cancers has come a long way, acute and chronic effects of cancer are still affecting the life of many children. These effects may be caused not only by the malignancy itself but also by the interventions used for the purpose of treatment. This article focuses primarily on the indirect effects of pediatric cancers and their treatment on the central and peripheral nervous system. Chemotherapy, radiation, and stem cell transplantation cause an immune-compromised state and place the patient at risk of infection, the leading cause of mortality in pediatric cancer. The underlying cancer and the treatments also cause neurovascular changes that may lead to neurological sequelae immediately or many years in the future. Chemotherapy and radiation have both immediate and long-term neurotoxic effects on the central and peripheral nervous system. Cancers may also trigger an immune response that damages nervous system components, leading to altered mental status, seizures, abnormal movements, and even psychosis. Knowledge of these effects can help the practitioner be more vigilant for the signs and symptoms of potential neurological complications during the management of pediatric cancers.
Loop Equations and bootstrap methods in the lattice

Abstract Pure gauge theories can be formulated in terms of Wilson Loops by means of the loop equation. In the large-N limit this equation closes in the expectation value of single loops. In particular, using the lattice as a regulator, it becomes a well defined equation for a discrete set of loops. In this paper we study different numerical approaches to solving this equation. Previous ideas gave good results in the strong coupling region. Here we propose an alternative method based on the observation that certain matrices ρ ˆ of Wilson loop expectation values are positive definite. They also have unit trace ( ρ ˆ ⪰ 0 , Tr ρ ˆ = 1 ), in fact they can be defined as reduced density matrices in the space of open loops after tracing over color indices and can be used to define an entropy associated with the loss of information due to such trace S W L = − Tr [ ρ ˆ ln ⁡ ρ ˆ ] . The condition that such matrices are positive definite allows us to study the weak coupling region which is relevant for the continuum limit. In the exactly solvable case of two dimensions this approach gives very good results by considering just a few loops. In four dimensions it gives good results in the weak coupling region and therefore is complementary to the strong coupling expansion. We compare the results with standard Monte Carlo simulations.
Over, under, or through: design strategies to supplement the LMS and enhance interaction in online writing courses

Online writing instruction is a process of design that includes both spatial and temporal dimensions. Ideally, this process brings together design and pedagogy to move students through their online writing work successfully. Institutionally mandated LMS platforms often constrain this process. This article establishes three design principles and concepts for designing learning environments that take into account both space and time as designed elements of online classes. Applying the principles of backward design, modular content, and student choice to course design can help instructors design more thoughtful, participatory classes centered on student learning and instructor presence.
Deep Learning MR Imaging-based Attenuation Correction for PET/MR Imaging.

In this study, we demonstrated the feasibility of a deep learning–based approach for MR imaging–based attenuation correction (MRAC) that performs better than current clinical approaches, with deep MRAC producing a PET reconstruction error that is lower than 1% in most brain regions.
The Macroeconomist as Scientist and Engineer

The article written by a prominent American expert analyzes the development of macroeconomic ideas. The author considers the history of macroeconomics as an interaction between applied ("engineer") and theoretical traditions. Although modern theoretical approaches, as he argues, didnt have a serious impact on economic policy, their emergence helped creating rigorous analytical tools used to develop a new generation of models ("New Neoclassical Synthesis"). The latter are to form the basis of new macroeconometric approaches and new macroeconomic engineering.