cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Residential Assistance and Recovery Following the Northridge Earthquake

This paper examines the implementation of post-disaster US federal assistance programmes for residential reconstruction and investigates the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics of places and access to residential assistance following the Northridge earthquake that hit Los Angeles in 1994. The paper also examines the effects of the distribution of assistance on long-term recovery outcomes. Findings suggest that areas with high levels of socially marginalised populations were at a disadvantage in accessing federal residential assistance. Findings also show that the long-term effects of the earthquake differed depending on levels of assistance relative to damage. Areas that received less assistance experienced losses in population and housing units. These findings indicate that post-disaster recovery programmes in the US do not adequately address the wide range of housing needs that emerge in the case of a major disaster in a large metropolitan area. Implications for post-disaster planning...
An investigation of China's import demand for wood pulp and wastepaper.

Wood pulp and wastepaper are all essential inputs in making paper and allied products. China has been the leading participant in the global fiber trade in recent years. In this study, China's import of wastepaper and wood pulp by supplying source was assessed through a two-stage differential production model. The analyses revealed that wastepaper imports were inelastic in both expenditure and price, the magnitude of price elasticity estimates became larger after considering the variation of total expenditure, and the substitution between wastepaper and wood pulp imports was limited. Rising imports of wastepaper had small effects in reducing the rapidly growing imports of wood pulp by China. Thus, the concern over environmentally detrimental effects of importing virgin wood pulp from countries with poor forest management practices will likely continue.
Racism and Mental Health

The present article discusses the impact of racism on mental health and begins with a general discussion of the debilitating psychological effects that historical and present day American racism has had on nondominant ethnic group members. The discussion is then narrowed down to how racism within the mental health profession has often led to the revictimization of people of color within the therapeutic environment. The article ends with a discussion of strategies for reducing racism in mental health practice.
The Right to Exist and the Right to Resist

Although self-determination is rightly regarded as one of the highest collective rights protected by the UN Charter, there is precious little positive law outlining the scope and content of this right because courts rarely pass judgment on claims regarding self-determination. This Essay makes three elementary points regarding the core right of self-determination. First, although the right of self-determination has been inhibited by uncertainty surrounding its connection to the abstract concept of peoples or nations, these entities can be defined either through self-perceptions or other-perceptions, and either is sufficient to ground the right of self-determination. Second, the right of self-determination belongs to a cluster of legal rights, including the right to be free from aggression and genocide, which emerge from two natural rights: the right to exist and the right to resist autonomy-threatening attacks. Although one might think that a right of resistance is necessarily an outgrowth of the more primary right to exist (since resistance might be an instrumental method of securing existence), the following Essay denies this common-sense intuition. This brings us to the third claim: the right of resistance is an independent, neo-Kantian right regarding the autonomy of collective groups, such as nations or peoples, that is not reducible to the right to exist. The primary argument for its theoretical independence stems from a discussion of cases of futile self-defense, where it is certain that resistance will not achieve the continued existence of the defender. But even in such cases where annihilation is inevitable and existence cannot be protected, the right of resistance persists.
Hearing Loss in Patients Who Received Cranial Radiation Therapy for Childhood Cancer

PurposePatients treated with cranial radiation therapy (RT) are at risk for sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Although SNHL is often characterized as a delayed consequence of anticancer therapy, longitudinal reports of SNHL in childhood cancer survivors treated with contemporary RT are limited. We report the incidence, onset, severity, and long-term trajectory of SNHL among children receiving RT. Potential risk factors for SNHL were also identified.Patients and MethodsSerial audiologic testing was conducted on 235 pediatric patients who were treated with conformal or intensity-modulated RT as part of an institutional phase II trial for localized primary brain tumors, including craniopharyngioma, ependymoma, and juvenile pilocytic astrocytoma. All but one patient had measurable cochlear radiation dose (CRD) greater than 0 Gy. The median follow-up from RT initiation to latest audiogram was 9 years with a median of 11 post-RT audiograms per patient. Audiograms were classified by the Chang Ototoxicity Gradin...
Interracial Encounters: Reciprocal Representations in African American and Asian American Literatures, 1896-1937. By Julia H. Rhee

New York, New York: New York University Press, 2011. 228 pp. hardcover, $75.00; softcover, $23.00.
Pollen Development in Orchids. 5. A Generative Cell Domain Involved in Spatial Control of the Hemispherical Cell Plate

The unequal first pollen mitosis in moth orchids ( Phalaenopsis ) is followed by an unusual form of cytokinesis that isolates a small lens-shaped generative cell from a large vegetative cell. No preprophase band of microtubules predicts the division plane and the new cell plate grows completely around the generative cell rather than fusing with the parental wall. Development of the phragmoplast cytoskeleton consisting of fusiform bundles of microtubules and F-actin occurs in three major stages: (1) the initial asymmetrical phragmoplast conforming to the shape of the interzonal region, which tapers from the broad mass of chromosomes at the generative pole to the rounded mass at the vegetative pole; (2) the symmetrical plate-like phragmoplast; and (3) the hemispherical phragmoplast, which curves around the generative nucleus. Microtubules of the generative half of the hemispherical phragmoplast are nuclearbased, while those on the vegetative side terminate in endoplasmic reticulum. The path of the phragmoplast appears to outline a cytoplasmic domain denned by a radial system of microtubules emanating from the generative nucleus.
Obtaining stress maps from photoelastic data using a digital computer

A general procedure for the analysis of photoelastic isochromatic and isoclinic photographs by digital computer to produce plots of coordinate normal and shear stresses is presented. The solution for normal stresses, involving a finite-difference iterative harmonization of the Laplace equation, is discussed, including treatment of the boundaries and selection of an appropriate network grid. The results of a classical problem, solved by this technique, are included.
Determination of Anionic Surfactant in Vegetable Oil and Illegal Cooking Oil by High Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Fluorescence Detector

An HPLC method coupled with fluorescence detection was developed for the determination of anionic surfactant in vegetable oil and illegal cooking oil.Oil samples were dispersed with n-hexane and extracted with water,and after centrifugation,the aqueous phase was filtrated through a 0.45 um membrane before injection into the HPLC system.The chromatographic separation was achieved on a Waters Atlantis T3 column using methanol as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 2.0 mL/min.The column temperature was 25℃and the fluorescence detection wavelengths were 223/280 nm(λ_(ex/em)).Under the optimum conditions,an excellent linear relationship between peak area(Y) and anionic surfactant(SDS) concentration (X) in the range of 1-100μg/mL was observed for the established calibration curve:Y = 222626X-329085(r = 0.9996,n = 6).The limit of detection of the HPLC method was 1 mg/kg,and the average recovery rates of SDS in a blank sample were 87.56%-93.29%with RSD of 1.51%—2.63%.This method was simple,accurate and applicable for the determination of anionic surfactant in vegetable oil.No anionic surfactant was detected by this method in selected common vegetable oils.The author suggests that maximum residual limit should be formulated for anionic surfactant in vegetable oil in order to provide references for detecting potential adulteration of illegal cooking oil in vegetable oil.
Challenges in Laboratory Detection of Unusual Substance Abuse: Issues with Magic Mushroom, Peyote Cactus, Khat, and Solvent Abuse

Drug abuse is a worldwide problem. Although commonly abused drugs can be identified during routine urine drug testing, less commonly abused drugs may escape detection. These less commonly abused drugs not only include some designer drugs such as synthetic cannabinoid but also include abuse of psychedelic magic mushroom (active ingredients: psilocybin and psilocin), peyote cactus (active ingredient: mescaline), and khat plants (active ingredient: cathinone). Moreover, solvent and glue abuse is gaining popularity among teenagers and young adults which may even cause fatality. Amphetamine/methamphetamine immunoassay has a low cross-reactivity with psilocin. Cathinone, if present in the urine, can be detected by amphetamine/methamphetamine immunoassay due to cross-reactivity of cathinone with assay antibody. Currently there is one commercially available immunoassay which is capable of detecting synthetic cathinone known as bath salts as well as mescaline. However, gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry as well as liquid chromatography combined with tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS)-based method is available for confirmation of the active ingredients present in magic mushroom, peyote cactus, and khat plant. Such chromatography-based methods also offer more sensitivity and specificity compared to an immunoassay.
Seeking the “holy grail” of biomarkers to improve stroke risk prediction of clinical scores

Biomarkers are defined as “objective indications of medical state observed from outside the patient—which can be measured accurately and reproducibly.”1 Biomarkers have 3 major potential roles in clinical practice: (1) to help the patient understand their risk of disease, which could lead to direct improvement of quality of life; (2) to direct the patient to make lifestyle changes that could improve health, such as restricting or improving dietary choices, becoming more active, and adhering to a plan laid out in collaboration with their physician; and (3) to direct a medical professional to make a (better) clinical decision based on known risk factors or disease(s) associated with a specific biomarker(s).2 Given the complex pathophysiology of ischemic stroke, biomarkers that can stratify risk and identify those individuals most likely to have a cerebrovascular event are considered the “holy grail” of prognostic tools.
Meta-level Priors for Learning Manipulation Skills with Sparse Features

Manipulation skills need to adapt to the geometric features of the objects that they are manipulating, e.g. the position or length of an action-relevant part of an object. However, only a sparse set of the objects’ features will be relevant for generalizing the manipulation skill between different scenarios and objects. Rather than relying on a human to select the relevant features, our work focuses on incorporating feature selection into the skill learning process. An informative prior over the features’ relevance can guide the robot’s feature selection process. This prior is computed using a meta-level prior, which is learned from previous skills. The meta-level prior is transferred to new skills using meta features. Our robot experiments show that using a meta-level prior results in better generalization performance and more efficient skill learning.
Thermodynamic efficiency limits of classical and bifacial multi-junction tandem solar cells: An analytical approach

Bifacial tandem cells promise to reduce three fundamental losses (i.e., above-bandgap, below bandgap, and the uncollected light between panels) inherent in classical single junction photovoltaic (PV) systems. The successive filtering of light through the bandgap cascade and the requirement of current continuity make optimization of tandem cells difficult and accessible only to numerical solution through computer modeling. The challenge is even more complicated for bifacial design. In this paper, we use an elegantly simple analytical approach to show that the essential physics of optimization is intuitively obvious, and deeply insightful results can be obtained with a few lines of algebra. This powerful approach reproduces, as special cases, all of the known results of conventional and bifacial tandem cells and highlights the asymptotic efficiency gain of these technologies.
Recent development of via models: Hybrid circuit and field analysis

Via-plate interaction can be modeled as lumped circuits for vias and a two-dimensional field problem for the plate domain. The accuracy of the improved intrinsic via model and the conventional physics-based via model is investigated by comparing them with either analytical formula or numerical simulations for a via in a circular plate pair with various edge boundary conditions. It is found that the intrinsic via model matches very well with both the analytical formula and numerical solutions in all the examples studied. However, the physics-based via model is only an acceptable approximation at low frequencies and its accuracy is not dependent on the plate size but on the via itself. It is observed that the physics-based via model is more accurate for a plate par with smaller plate separations.
Trial and error.

We are all prediction-making machines. Granted, our predictions are often wrong—as the old saying goes, “It's tough to make predictions—especially about the future.” But even wrong predictions serve a purpose: They help us learn. Each time we make a choice, we predict the outcome of that choice. When the outcome matches our prediction, there is no need to learn. When the outcome is unexpected, however, we update our predictions, hoping to do better next time.
Towards energy efficient data management in HPC: the open ethernet drive approach

An Open Ethernet Drive (OED) is a new technology that encloses into a hard drive (HDD or SSD) a low-power processor, a fixed-size memory and an Ethernet card. In this study, we thoroughly evaluate the performance of such device and the energy requirements to operate it. The results show that first it is a viable solution to offload data-intensive computations on the OED while maintaining a reasonable performance, and second, the energy consumption savings from utilizing such technology are significant as it only consumes 10% of the power needed by a normal server node. We propose that by using OED devices as storage servers in HPC, we can run a reliable, scalable, cost and energy efficient storage solution.
Realizing structural color generation with aluminum plasmonic V-groove metasurfaces

Structural color printing based on all-aluminum plasmonic V-groove metasurfaces is demonstrated under both bright field and dark field illumination conditions. A broad visible color range is realized with the plasmonic V-groove arrays etched on an aluminum surface by simply varying the groove depth while keeping the groove period as a constant. Polarization dependent structural color printing is further achieved with interlaced V-groove arrays along both the horizontal and vertical directions. These results pave the way towards the use of an all-aluminum structural color printing platform for many practical applications such as security marking and information storage.
Geologic swath map of the lavic lake fault from airborne thermal hyperspectral imagery

The 1999 Hector Mine earthquake on the Lavic Lake fault produced a maximum right-lateral displacement of ∼5 m, but the long-term cumulative offset remains unresolved. To identify bedrock that has been offset by the fault, we produced a swath map from airborne hyperspectral imagery. High spatial and spectral resolution, along with a lack of significant vegetation cover helped us differentiate lithologic units and create a geologic map with supervised and unsupervised classifications. Supervised classifications over a small test site had an overall accuracy of 71 ± 1%, and some of the boundaries between units in our unsupervised classification correlate well with lithologic boundaries from a previously published geologic map that covers the same area. Our geologic fault swath map will help to resolve the total tectonic offset of bedrock along the Lavic Lake fault.
Ascites Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin Identifies Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis and Predicts Mortality in Hospitalized Patients with Cirrhosis

Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) is a marker of both tissue injury and infection. Urine NGAL levels strongly predict acute kidney injury and mortality in patients with cirrhosis, but ascites NGAL is not well characterized. We hypothesized that ascites NGAL level is a marker of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) and mortality risk in patients with cirrhosis. Hospitalized patients with cirrhosis and ascites undergoing diagnostic paracentesis were prospectively enrolled and followed until death or discharge. Patients with secondary peritonitis, prior transplantation, or active colitis were excluded. NGAL was measured in the ascites and serum. Ascites NGAL level was evaluated as a marker of SBP (defined as ascites absolute neutrophil count > 250 cells/mm3) and predictor of in-patient mortality. A total of 146 patients were enrolled, and of these, 29 patients (20%) had SBP. Baseline characteristics were similar between subjects with and without SBP. Median (IQR) ascites NGAL was significantly higher in patients with SBP compared to those without SBP (221.3 [145.9–392.9] vs. 139.2 [73.9–237.2], p < 0.01). Sixteen (11%) patients died in the hospital. In the final multivariable model, ascites NGAL (OR 1.02 per 10 units, p < 0.01) remained predictive of in-hospital mortality, controlling for SBP (OR 9.76, p < 0.01) and MELD (OR 1.11, p = 0.01). In ROC analysis, ascites NGAL had an AUC of 0.79 for inhospital mortality, and the final model including ascites NGAL, MELD, and SBP had an AUC of 0.94. Ascites NGAL level may be a biomarker of peritonitis in hospitalized patient with cirrhosis and an independent predictor of short-term in-hospital mortality, even controlling for SBP and MELD.
Tegmen Tympani Cerebrospinal Fluid Leakage Repair: Transmastoid Approach Utilizing Stryker Bone Cement

Tegmen tympani defects resulting in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage into the middle ear can lead to hearing impairment, seizures, and meningitis. While these defects can be acquired in a variety of ways, they all require prompt surgical intervention. The majority are fixed utilizing a craniotomy through the middle cranial fossa (MCF). We present a case of a tegmen tympani defect successfully repaired by a transmastoid approach utilizing Stryker bone cement in combination with DuraMatrix, and advocate this surgical approach as an effective method for treating similar cases. J Med Cases. 2018;9(3):96-97 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jmc3009w
Episodic Memory: Manipulation and Replay of Episodic Memories by Rats.

Summary Rats exposed to variable-length, unique-odor lists were tested in distinctive contexts for odors second or forth from list-end. Accurate ability to recall odors backwards from the end of lists points to their ability to manipulate and replay odor-list episodic memories.
Cultural Production of Protest Frames and Tactics: Cybermediaries and the SOPA Movement

On the surface, the recent mobilization of opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) over the internet appears to be yet another cyberactivism success. Yet, the antiSOPA movement should have been doomed to failure for two reasons. First, the issue was too abstract to mobilize local kinship and friendship groups. Second, because mass media interests were served by the bill, mass media was unmotivated to diffuse the antiSOPA message. Our analysis of this movement suggests it succeeded because of cybermediaries, internet companies that used their sites to diffuse the anti-SOPA message. They accomplished this through cultural productions of protest frames and tactics – technology-based verbal, graphical, and experiential representations of the SOPA protest frame and technology-based toolkits for use at the cybermediaries’ sites as well as for use at visitors’ sites. Our key contribution lies in identifying the nature and relative impact of these frames and tactics in cyberactivism.
Ronald Coase and the Fabian Society: Competitive Discussion in Liberal Ideology

Ronald Coase wrote the 1949 memo that guided the discussion of the Fabian Research Group on broadcasting. In the evidence presented to the Beveridge Committee on broadcasting, the Fabians endorsed his recommendations by and large. These two facts have previously escaped notice and, as a result, our understanding of post-war economic thought has been misinformed. The stereotype of post-war economic thought divides the profession into two groups, “neo-liberals” and “progressives”. In this stereotyping “neo-liberals” are said to advance a policy agenda in which markets, rather than governments, provide services; “Progressives”, by contrast, are said to favor a greater role for governments in the provision of services. In this admittedly broad characterization, there is little room for “neo-liberals” to collaborate with “progressives.” Roanld Coase is said to typify the “neo-liberal”, while the Fabians do the same for “progressives.” As such, we would expect that they would have nothing in common in the dimension of policy recommendations. The evidence presented below, however, demonstrates that Coase and the Fabians collaborated to propose a third alternative, one that avoided the government-market dichotomy that has been so important in stereotyping post-war thought. Instead of proposing a market or a government solution, Coase and the Fabians recommended that broadcasting in Britain be fragmented to break up the BBC monopoly whose origins Coase had so carefully studied.
Failure of Traditional Models

The fractal concept was formally introduced into the physical sciences by Beniot Mandelbrot over 20 years ago and has since then captured the imagination of a generation of scientists. Mandelbrot had, of course, been working on the development of the idea for over a decade before he was finally willing to expose his brainchild to the scrutiny of the scientific community at large. His first monograph on fractals [16] brings together the experimental and physical arguments that undermine the traditional picture of the physical world. Since the time of Lagrange (1759) it has been accepted that celestial mechanics and physical phenomena are, by and large, described by smooth, continuous, and unique functions. This belief is part of the conceptual infrastructure of the physical sciences. The evolution of physical processes is modeled by systems of dynamical equations and the solutions to such equations are continuous and dif-ferentiable at all but a finite number of points. Therefore the phenomena being described by these equations were thought to have these properties of continuity and differentiability as well. Thus, the solutions to the equations of motion such as the Euler-Lagrange equations, or Hamilton’s equations, are analytic functions and such functions were thought to represent physical phenomena in general.
Participation of C3 and its ligands in complement activation

The complement system comprises a group of proteins in the blood which upon activation generate fragments and protein-protein complexes expressing biological activities. The biochemistry, function, and genetics of the system have been recently reviewed (CAMPBELL et al. 1988; MULLER-EBERHARD 1988). Complement activation proceeds in a sequential cascase-like fashion that is similar to the activation of other humoral effector systems in the blood, such as the coagulation, the fibrinolytic, and the kinin-generating system. Complement-derived biologically active products mediate a variety of important functions including increased vascular permeability, chemotaxis of phagocytic cells, activation of inflammatory cells, opsonization of foreign particles and cells, and direct killing of foreign cells (reviewed in MULLEREBERHARD and MIESCHER 1985). Thus, complement plays a major role in host defense against pathogens. Accumulating evidence suggests complement activation products also function as growth and/or differentiation factors for B cells and possibly have additional effects on other cells and tissues.
Reovirus Cytopathology: Effects on Cellular Macromolecular Synthesis and the Cytoskeleton

Despite extensive knowledge of the molecular biology of viral replication relatively little is known about how viruses alter the host cell during infection and produce cellular injury. Studies of the events following viral infection of animal cells have focused more on the synthesis of new virion components, than on viral effects on the host cell. Because viruses are obligate intracellular parasites, an understanding of viral infections requires not only a knowledge of the details of the viral replicative cycle, but also an understanding of how viruses modify and damage their host cells. An understanding of the mechanisms by which viruses modify and damage host cells is key to understanding viral diseases at the molecular level and provides a basis for the rational therapy of viral infections.
Parental vaccine safety concerns: results from the National Immunization Survey, 2001-2002.

Background According to the 2002 National Immunization Survey (NIS), vaccination coverage with recommended vaccines among U.S. children aged 19 to 35 months remained near all-time highs. Sustaining this high coverage requires significant effort, including consideration of parental vaccine safety concerns that have led to decreasing coverage in other countries. Methods The Parental Knowledge and Experiences module was administered to a random subset of NIS respondents from July 2001 to December 2002. The module included questions regarding attitudes toward vaccine safety and side effects, simultaneous vaccine administration, and acceptance of new vaccines. Multivariate logistic regression analyses examined associations between attitudes and up-to-date (UTD) vaccination coverage (four or more doses of diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and pertussis vaccine, three or more doses of poliovirus vaccine, one or more doses of any measles-containing vaccine, three or more doses of Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine, and three or more doses of hepatitis B vaccine), while controlling for demographics. Results Ninety-three percent of parents rated vaccines as safe, 6% as neither safe nor unsafe, and 1% as unsafe. After adjusting for demographics, parental safety belief was significantly associated with the child’s vaccination status. For children whose parents believed vaccines are safe, the odds of being UTD were 2.9 times the odds of being UTD for children of parents who believed vaccines are unsafe (75% vs 53%, respectively). Children whose parents were neutral about the safety of vaccines had vaccination coverage similar to children whose parents believed vaccines are unsafe. Conclusions A significant association with vaccine coverage was found for a small group of parents with high vaccine safety concerns. Strategies focused on safety concerns may yield better protection for these children.
Adaptive Time-Frequency Approximations with Matching Pursuits

Abstract Computing the optimal expansion of a signal in a redundant dictionary of waveforms is an NP-complete problem. We introduce a greedy algorithm called a matching pursuit which computes a sub-optimal expansion. The dictionary waveforms which best match a signal's structures are chosen iteratively. An orthogonalized version of the matching pursuit is also developed. Matching pursuits are general procedures for computing adaptive signal representations. With a dictionary of Gabor functions, a matching pursuit defines an adaptive time-frequency transform. We derive a signal energy distribution in the time-frequency plane which does not contain interference terms, unlike the Wigner and Cohen class distributions. A matching pursuit is a chaotic map whose asymptotic properties are studied. We describe an algorithm which isolates the coherent structures of a signal and show an application to pattern extraction from noisy signals.
Bioethics as a Liberal Roman Catholic Heresy: Critical Reflections on the Founding of Bioethics

Bioethics emerged to fill the moral vacuum in health care policy created by (1) a deflation of medicine as a guild with the consequent marginalization of professional medical ethics and of physician medical ethics experts, (2) the secularization of American society with the subsequent cultural discounting of medical moral theology and medical moral theologians, along with (3) the emergence of a general hermeneutic of suspicion directed towards traditional cultural authorities. The cardinal contributions made to the emergence of bioethics by Roman Catholic moral theological and moral philosophical assumptions, as well as by the cultural consequences of the Second Vatican Council, have been underappreciated. The moral theological and moral philosophical assumptions of Roman Catholicism made it plausible for the Roman Catholic founders of bioethics to hold that humans share a common morality, and that moral philosophers are capable of disclosing its character on analogy with the contemporary Roman Catholic understanding of natural law. Also, in the wake of the theological and spiritual disorientation precipitated by the Council, many Roman Catholic clerics emerged as dissidents who regarded bioethics as having the capacity to reorient moral reflection and redirect society. More broadly, many of the founders of bioethics who had substantive intellectual roots in theology and the ministry concurred with this Roman Catholic view that there was one common human morality and that there would be one common bioethics. Bioethics emerged as an intellectual offspring spawned from a very particular tradition of moral-theological assumptions, as well as commitments to late-Enlightenment aspirations for moral philosophy that engendered bioethics, encouraged in great measure by the displaced post-religious passions of the formerly religious.
Genomics, microbiomics, proteomics, and metabolomics in bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Abstract Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD) is a disorder with a multifactorial etiology and highly variable clinical phenotype. Several traditional biomarkers have been identified, but due to the complex disease phenotype, these biomarkers have low predictive accuracy for BPD. In recent years, newer technologies have facilitated the in-depth and unbiased analysis of ‘big data’ in delineating the diagnosis, pathogenesis, and mechanisms of diseases. Novel systems-biology based ‘omic’ approaches, including but not limited to genomics, microbiomics, proteomics, and metabolomics may help define the multiple cellular and humoral interactions that regulate normal as well as abnormal lung development and response to injury that are the hallmarks of BPD.
Adjuvant vs. salvage radiation therapy in men with high-risk features after radical prostatectomy: Survey of North American genitourinary expert radiation oncologists.

Introduction: The management of patients with high-risk features after radical prostatectomy (RP) is controversial. Level 1 evidence demonstrates that adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) improves survival compared to no treatment; however, it may overtreat up to 30% of patients, as randomized clinical trials (RCTs) using salvage RT on observation arms failed to reveal a survival advantage of adjuvant RT. We, therefore, sought to determine the current view of adjuvant vs. salvage RT among North American genitourinary (GU) radiation oncology experts. Methods: A survey was distributed to 88 practicing North American GU physicians serving on decision-making committees of cooperative group research organizations. Questions pertained to opinions regarding adjuvant vs. salvage RT for this patient population. Treatment recommendations were correlated with practice patterns using Fisher’s exact test. Results: Forty-two of 88 radiation oncologists completed the survey; 23 (54.8%) recommended adjuvant RT and 19 (45.2%) recommended salvage RT. Recommendation of active surveillance for Gleason 3+4 disease was a significant predictor of salvage RT recommendation (p=0.034), and monthly patient volume approached significance for recommendation of adjuvant over salvage RT; those seeing <15 patients/month trended towards recommending adjuvant over salvage RT (p=0.062). No other demographic factors approached significance. Conclusions: There is dramatic polarization among North American GU experts regarding optimal management of patients with highrisk features after RP. Ongoing RCTs will determine whether adjuvant RT improves survival over salvage RT. Until then, the almost 50/50 division seen from this analysis should encourage practicing clinicians to discuss the ambiguity with their patients.
Access to Care for Homeless Veterans During Disasters

Introduction: Since 1970, natural disasters have led to both temporary and permanent closures of multiple medical centers and outpatient clinics at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) nation...
Clinical findings and outcomes of MRI staging of breast cancer in a diverse population

The performance of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the effect of patient factors, and resulting surgical management in underserved and ethnically diverse breast cancer (BC) patient populations have been understudied. We retrospectively analyzed the data of 1116 consecutive patients who were newly diagnosed with in situ or invasive BC with preoperative staging MRI. Non-index lesions (NILs) were defined as abnormal MRI findings with BI-RADS score of 4 or 5 in breast or axillary nodes not previously detected by conventional imaging. Occult cancers (OCs) were NILs found to be malignant by biopsy or surgery. Logistic regression was used to examine associations between probabilities of NILs or OCs and patient characteristics. Staging MRI detected NILs and OCs in 24% and 7.5% of patients, respectively. Of 1116 patients, 271 (24%) had 327 NILs, and 84 (7.5%) had 87 OCs. Follow-up information was available for 306 NILs. Ipsilateral breast NILs (n = 124) were seen in 115 patients (10.3%), with OCs (n = 51) seen in 48 patients (4.4%). Contralateral breast NILs (n = 134) were seen in 118 (10.6%) patients, with OCs (n = 20) seen in 20 patients (1.8%). Laterality (p < 0.001) and disease stage (p = 0.018) were associated with probability of OC. Patients without BRCA mutations had a significantly higher probability of having NILs (p = 0.003) but not OCs. Our study provides useful estimates of the rates of NILs and OCs anticipated in a younger, uninsured, ethnically diverse population. Prospective trials and larger pooled retrospective analyses are needed to define the long-term impacts of MRI staging after a BC diagnosis.
Evaluating Mental Health Encounters in mTBI: Identifying Patient Subgroups and Recommending Personalized Treatments.

Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries (mTBIs) are “poorly understood” [6] and often associated with psychiatric conditions [21]. While machine learning techniques have explored these comorbidities, the utilization of psychiatric Electronic Health Records (EHRs) poses unique challenges, but provides great promise in the understanding of the brain and the effect of an mTBI [3, 14]. Therefore, in an effort to assist clinical practice in the field of mTBI, we present our work on utilizing EHR in which we apply machine learning models to identify and compare patient subgroups and explore algorithms to recommend patient catered treatment plans. Through this work, we aim to highlight effective techniques for handling the complexities of EHR and psychiatric-specific data.
Technical tips for reoperative pouch surgery

Abstract The ileoanal pouch is the cornerstone of intestinal reconstruction after proctocolectomy in patients with ulcerative colitis, familial adenomatous polyposis, and selected other diseases of the colorectum. With successful surgery, patients avoid a conventional lifelong ileostomy and maintain a satisfying quality of life with acceptable bowel function. Complications during surgery or convalescence, however, can result in ileoanal pouch failure and lead to an unacceptably poor quality of life. Although pouch excision has been (and is still) an option for patients with pouch failure, modern advances have allowed for corrective surgical measures to be applied in circumstances of pouch failure in order to restore good function of the pouch and as an alternative to pouch excision with permanent ileostomy. Selecting patients suitable for the ileoanal pouch revision and properly performing the technical aspects of the surgery are two challenging feats that have a direct impact on outcomes and quality of life in this population. This section will focus on strategies to evaluate and select the correct patient for the ileoanal pouch revision, and how to surgically optimize a patient that has been selected as an appropriate candidate. Additionally, proper surgical technique of ileal pouch revision/reconstruction will be discussed.
A longitudinal study of work-related psychosocial factors and injuries: Implications for the aging United States workforce.

Introduction This study aimed to identify psychosocial work factors that may individually or, in combination, influence injury outcomes among aging United States (U.S.) workers. Methods Data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (HRS) of 3305 working adults, aged 50 years and above, were used to identify associations between work-related psychosocial factors and injury incidence from 2006 to 2014, using adjusted incidence rate ratios. Results Employees perceiving their work as high in psychological and physical demands/efforts, low in support, and rewards, compared to those in workplaces with low demands, high support, and high rewards, had a risk of injury two times greater. Males, compared with females, had a greater risk for injuries when interactions among several psychosocial work-related factors were modeled. Conclusions The fact that important gender-based differences emerged when interactions among the psychosocial factors and injury were modeled, suggests opportunities for further research and potential interventions to enhance the working environment.
Visualization and analysis of high-throughput in vitro dose–response datasets with Thunor

Abstract Quantifying the effects of drugs and other environmental factors on cell proliferation in vitro continues to be one of the most prevalent assays in biomedical research. Assessment of the dose-dependent nature of drug effects is typically performed with a variety of commercial software applications or using freely available, but more technically demanding, statistical programming environments such as Python or R. However, with the advent of large, publicly-available drug response databases and continued advancements in high-throughput experimentation, there is a growing need for user-friendly software platforms that can efficiently and reliably facilitate analysis within and across large datasets. Here we introduce Thunor, an open-source software platform for the management, analysis, and visualization of large-scale dose-dependent cell proliferation datasets. Thunor provides a simple, user-friendly interface to upload cell count data and a graphical plate map tool to annotate plate wells with cell lines and drugs. Best-fit dose–response curves are generated based on either cell viability or proliferation rate drug effect metrics. Derived dose–response parameters, such as IC50, Emax, and activity area, are automatically calculated by the software back-end. An arrayed plot interface supports multiple plot types, including time course, dose–response curve, box/bar/scatter plots of derived parameters, and quality control analyses, among others. We demonstrate the features of Thunor on large-scale, publicly-available viability data and an in-house, high-throughput proliferation rate dataset. Software, documentation, and an online demo are all available at thunor.net.
El Cratilo cervantino, rey septentrional y criado real de Vandalucía

La critica reciente ubica el ficticio reino cervantino de Bituania sobre la costa nortena de Noruega. Las leyendas de la region, recogidas por historiadores como Olaus Magnus, contienen elementos que figuran en el Persiles —reyes que doman caballos potentes y rescatan tripulaciones marinas atrapadas en el hielo artico, piratas que invernan en sus barcos— pero el nombre de Cratilo nunca se ha utilizado entre la realeza noruega. ?Donde, entonces, lo encontro Cervantes en el contexto de Escandinavia y por que se lo confirio al ejemplar guardian de Sulpicia, la princesa de su narrativa? Se destaca el nombre en La verdadera historia del rey Rodrigo del morisco Miguel de Luna, obra que sin duda conocia Cervantes y que se escribio para refutar el neo-goticismo de los reinantes Habsburgos. El personaje creado por Luna es visigodo y guardian de otra princesa, Egilona. Ambas jovenes son amenazadas por la agresion de hombres plebeyos, pero en sendos casos son salvadas por un heroico joven noble; Persiles salva a Sulpicia, un general moro a Egilona. Las princesas se enamoran de su salvador, pero al fin su amor es frustrado por fuerzas politicas/narrativas mas poderosas. En fin, el noruego Cratilo aboga por la defensa cervantina de la excelencia de la moral escandinava, en contra de la corrupcion moral que Luna atribuye a los visigodos y el Vaticano a los protestantes septentrionales.
Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation Therapy Is Associated with Adverse Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Pancreaticoduodenectomy for Pancreatic Cancer

The use of neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma is emerging as an acceptable therapy option. The effects of neoadjuvant therapy on 30 days' outcomes in patients with pancreatic cancer are not well defined in the literature. NSQIP (2009-2012) was used. Only patients with a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and those who underwent a Whipple were included in the analysis. Patient who underwent neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy were compared with those who did not receive therapy. Main outcome measures were as follows: complications, ≥2 units of blood transfusions, length of stay, readmission rates, return to the operating room, and 30-day mortality. A total of 1445 patients (395: neoadjuvant chemoradiation and 1050: no neoadjuvant therapy) were identified. The mean age was 67 ± 12 years, and 51 per cent of the patients were male. Neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy was associated with increase in readmission rates (18% vs 12.2%, P 0.02), unanticipated return to the operating room (2.3% vs 1.1%, P 0.03) with no difference in mortality rates. Neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy is associated with increase in inhospital complications. These differences in outcomes may be explained by the more advance stage of pancreatic cancer in these subsets of patients. Resource utilization and preoperative rehabilitation are of utmost significance to overcome this rise in complications associated with neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy.
Mesocosm experiments to better understand hydrocarbon half-lives for oil and oil dispersant mixtures.

Concerns on the timing and processes associated with petroleum degradation were raised after the use of Corexit during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. There is a lack of understanding of the removal of oil associated with flocculate materials to the sediment. Mesocosm studies employing coastal and open-ocean seawater from the Gulf of Mexico were undertaken to examine changes in oil concentration and composition with time. The water accommodated fractions (WAF) and chemically enhanced WAF (CEWAF) produced using Macondo surrogate oil and Corexit were followed over 3–4 days in controlled environmental conditions. Environmental half-lives of estimated oil equivalents (EOE), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), n-alkanes (C10-C35), isoprenoids pristane and phytane, and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) were determined. EOE and PAH concentrations decreased exponentially following first-order decay rate kinetics. WAF, CEWAF and DCEWAF (a 10X CEWAF dilution) treatments half-lives ranged from 0.9 to 3.2 days for EOE and 0.5 to 3.3 days for PAH, agreeing with estimates from previous mesocosm and field studies. The aliphatic half-lives for CEWAF and DECWAF treatments ranged from 0.8 to 2.0 days, but no half-life for WAF could be calculated as concentrations were below the detection limits. Biodegradation occurred in all treatments based on the temporal decrease of the nC17/pristane and nC18/phytane ratios. The heterogeneity observed in all treatments was likely due to the hydrophobicity of oil and weathering processes occurring at different rates and times. The presence of dispersant did not dramatically change the half-lives of oil. Comparing degradation of oil alone as well as with dispersant present is critical to determine the fate and transport of these materials in the ocean.
Comparative assessment of the degradation of 2-methylisoborneol and geosmin in freshwater using advanced oxidation processes.

Traditional methodologies of conventional drinking water treatment are unable to remove some chemical compounds, such as those that cause odor and taste in drinking water. The present work aims to ...
Management of Intracranial Hemorrhage and Skull Fracture After Blunt Intrauterine Trauma.

Background Fetal trauma during pregnancy can have a significant impact on the developing brain. Fetal trauma can lead to several intracranial pathologies including hypoxic-ischemic injury, skull fractures, and intracranial hemorrhages. Blunt trauma to a fetus resulting in the need for neurosurgical intervention is a rare occurrence and seldom described in the literature. Case Description Here we present the case of a 28-year-old, 36-week pregnant woman who was brought to the hospital by ambulance following a high-speed motor vehicle collision as the restrained driver. On computed tomography of the abdomen, the fetus was found to have a left-sided skull fracture with intracranial hemorrhage. The fetus was emergently delivered by way of caesarean section for lack of fetal movement and indeterminate heart tracings. Postnatally, the neonate had a Glasgow Coma Scale of 7. A postnatal head computed tomography better defined the skull fractures and multiple areas of intracranial hemorrhage. The baby was taken to the operating room for evacuation of the hematomas. At 16 months of age, the baby was well with only mild developmental delay, although a ventriculoperitoneal shunt was needed in a delayed fashion at 3 months of age. Conclusions We present a rare situation where emergent caesarean section delivery followed by neonatal craniotomy was necessary. Our case illustrates that good outcomes can be achieved with rapid identification of fetal intracranial injury and intervention.