cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Characterization of an O 2 sensor using microelectrodes

This paper describes the response characteristics of a Clark type oxygen sensor using microelectrodes under a variety of operating conditions. The silicon based microelectrodes were fabricated using a CMOS process with Pt surface using a lift-off process. The Clark type sensor was configured using a three-electrode system. A set of four operating conditions with varying activation voltages, the use of oxygen-permeable membrane, and the use of different types of electrolyte layer, were experimented to determine suitable configuration for future integrated oxygen sensor designs. The results show that using Nafion as a solid state electrolyte and oxygen-permeable membrane provides the best linearity and sensitivity. The device was shown to have a good linear response with respect to dissolved oxygen concentration over a range of 0% to 100% with a correlation coefficient of 0.88 to 0.98. The oxygen sensor achieved a response time of 2–4 seconds, and consistent results over a long continuous operating time of at least 80 hours.
Global deployment of solar photovoltaics: Its opportunities and challenges

With the focus on environmental sustainability and energy security, policy makers and electric utility planners are looking at renewable energy both as supplements and alternatives. But such generation sources have their own challenges — primarily high variability, especially for solar and wind. This paper highlights the challenges and opportunities in grid integration of large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) plants. Total global grid-connected PV installation exceeded 177 GW in 2014 with Germany, China, the U.S., Italy and Japan leading the way. While MW-scale solar power plants have gained significant attention as a very clean form of electricity replacing greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuel power plants, an array of challenges regarding network operation arises from the inherent variability in output. This challenge is exacerbated when there is a high penetration of PV both in the distribution circuit and the high voltage transmission network. Potential concerns for the traditional distribution network include reverse power flow, overvoltage and voltage fluctuations, effects on voltage control devices, etc. At the transmission level the fluctuation in PV output can cause voltage stability problems. This paper addresses the growth of the PV market in different regions and briefly discusses the required interplay among external factors (like inverter functionalities, storage, demand response and revised grid standards) to provide an efficient operational strategy in the context of high PV penetrations.
Comparing the Impact of Adolescents and Young Adults with Sickle Cell Disease on Children's Hospitals In the United States

Abstract Abstract 1507 Background: In recent decades, child mortality in sickle cell disease (SCD) has drastically decreased. Consequently, there is a growing population of young adults with SCD. The period of transition from pediatric to adult care is a vulnerable time for patients with chronic disease, and patients with conditions such as cystic fibrosis and congenital heart disease may continue care in pediatric settings well into young adulthood. To explore the impact of transitioning SCD patients at 18 years versus 21 years on children's hospitals, we compared reasons for hospitalization and resulting charges in adolescents (13-17 years) and young adults (18-21 years) admitted from 2000-09. Methods: Data were obtained from 25 children's hospitals within the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS), a large administrative database of freestanding children's hospitals. SCD patients were identified by ICD-9-CM primary or secondary diagnostic codes of 282.41-42 or 282.60-69. Demographics, length of stay, discharge status, principal payer, diagnoses, procedures, and charges were compared between age groups. Length of stay and charges were not normally distributed and therefore were analyzed using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. Categorical data were compared using chi square statistics. Results: We identified 25,371 admissions of adolescents (n=18,299) and young adults (n=7,072) with SCD from 2000-09, with young adults accounting for 28% of admissions. These admissions represent 4,247 unique patients (52% female) with a range of 1 to 119 admissions per patient (median=3). We identified substantial variety in age of transition to adult care among participating hospitals. Using the 90th percentile (p90) of patient age as a surrogate for transition, we identified the following ages of transition: 18 years (n=2 hospitals), 19 years (n=5), 20 years (n=11), 21 years (n=6), and 22 years (n=1). Reasons for hospitalization were similar between the two age groups, with no clinically significant differences in the frequency of common discharge diagnoses or procedures (Table). Young adults were not more likely to be transferred to other facilities for additional care. Complications of adult SCD such as nephropathy and pulmonary hypertension were rare, occurring in Discussion: Current practice patterns of U.S. children's hospitals vary with regard to age of transition to adult care for patients with SCD. Although our study was limited to those patients cared for in children's hospitals, adolescents (13-17 years) and young adults (18-21 years) with SCD appear to be quite similar with regards to reasons for hospitalization, and mortality was extremely low in both cohorts. Further studies are needed to investigate whether extending the age of transition to 21 years as a national standard may decrease morbidity, improve health-related quality of life, and increase readiness for transition in young patients with SCD. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Homeless Young Adults: The Importance of Victimization Experiences in Childhood and Once Homeless:

Homelessness itself is traumatic, and more than half of homeless young adults have also experienced abuse as children and/or victimization while homeless. These experiences increase the likelihood ...
Adult uncertainty in illness: a critical review of research

Nursing interest in the uncertainty associated with life-threatening illnesses and their treatment technology is growing. Nurse investigators have begun to study variables that precede and influence this uncertainty, as well as how persons appraise, cope with, and adapt to uncertainty. This paper reviews and examines data from both quantitative and qualitative nursing studies of adult illness-related uncertainty published after 1980. Findings demonstrate that uncertainty is a pervasive stressful accompaniment of illness and its treatment that influences persons' coping and adaptive responses. Implications for nursing practice and future research are explored.
No Added Benefit with Higher Doses of Ketorolac for Treatment of Acute Pain in the Emergency Department.

A 10-mg dose of ketorolac is as effective as higher doses for the short-term treatment of acute pain for patients in the emergency department.
HPV status is associated with fatigue and inflammation in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the Head and Neck from pre to up to 3 Months Post IMRT

This longitudinal study examined associations among HPV, inflammation and fatigue in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients receiving intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). Consented patients were followed pre-, one-month and three-month post-IMRT. Fatigue was assessed by the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory-20. Plasma interleukin-1receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) and soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor2 (sTNFR2) were determined using Magnetic Luminex Screening Assay; acute phase proteins (CRP) were determined using a standard turbidimetric assay. Mixed effect modeling and path analysis were used to examine the associations. Ninety-four patients with newly diagnosed, locally advanced non- metastatic HNC were enrolled from 2012 to 2015; majority received concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT). Fifty-three percent of them were HPV+. HPV+ patients were more likely to be male, have no history of tobacco use, have higher BMI, be diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer, and receive CRT. HPV+ patients had significant lower fatigue, and lower inflammation as represented by CRP (p
Experimental Design in Group Outcome Research

One of the primary goals of experimental research in behavior therapy is to discover, describe, and apply systematic cause—effect relationships involving therapeutic interventions, on the one hand, and clinical behavior change, on the other (cf. Underwood, 1957). Achieving this goal has both pragmatic and theoretical importance. The pragmatic interest resides primarily in devising more efficient and helpful behavior—change strategies. The theoretical interest derives from an accumulated ability to induce general behavioral laws from individual research findings. Despite differing interests, the fundamental design goal is the same for both endeavors: unambiguous demonstration of a cause-and-effect relationship.
SLC30A family expression in the pancreatic islets of humans and mice: cellular localization in the β-cells

Zinc is a vital co-factor for insulin metabolism in the pancreatic β-cell, involved in synthesis, maturation, and crystallization. Two families of zinc transporters, namely SLC30A (ZNT) and SLC39A (ZIP) are involved in maintaining cellular zinc homeostasis in mammalian cells. Single nuclear polymorphisms or mutations in zinc transporters have been associated with insulin resistance and risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in both humans and mice. Thus, mice can be useful for studying the underlying mechanisms of zinc-associated risk of T2D development. To determine potential differences in zinc transporter expression and cellular localization in the pancreatic β-cells between humans and mice, we examined all members (ZNT1-10) of the ZNT family in pancreatic islets and in β-cell lines derived from both species using immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence microscopic analysis. We found that there were no substantial differences in the expression of nine ZNT proteins in the human and mouse islets and β-cells with exception of ZNT3, which was only detected in human β-cells, but not in mouse β-cells. Moreover, we found that ZNT2 was localized on the cell surface of both human and mouse β-cells, suggesting a role of ZNT2 in direct export of zinc out of the β-cell. Together, our study suggests functional conservations of the ZNT proteins between humans and mice. We believe that our results are of interest for future studies in the association of zinc metabolism with risk of T2D in humans using mouse models.
Learning in Memristor Crossbar-Based Spiking Neural Networks Through Modulation of Weight-Dependent Spike-Timing-Dependent Plasticity

In this paper, we propose a methodology to design learning systems based on a memristor crossbar structure. Learning is carried out with the help of a hardware-friendly spike-timing-dependent plasticity learning rule. Several simplifications and adaptations are made in order to apply the learning algorithm to memristor-based neural networks. The difficulties in conducting division and representing signed weights are circumvented using the proposed techniques. In addition, different conductance-changing behaviors are considered to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and architecture when applied to practical memristor devices. Furthermore, various nonidealities existing in the neural network, including variations in CMOS neurons and memristor synapses and noises associated with updating the synaptic weights, are considered. We demonstrate that the proposed learning algorithm and hardware architecture are robust against most variations and noises. This robustness of learning is promising, as variations and stochastic behaviors of memristor devices are usually substantial. Memristor-based neural networks with the proposed learning algorithm are benchmarked with the MNIST handwritten digits recognition task. A recognition accuracy as high as 97.10% is demonstrated.
Case report of acquired hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis associated with progression of monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance (MGUS)

Background : Acquired hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is an aggressive hyperinflammatory syndrome. Without prompt diagnosis and proper treatment, it can be life-threatening. HLH is commonly present in the setting of other autoimmune disorders, infection, organ transplantation, and malignancy. However, to our knowledge, HLH associated with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) has not been reported. Case presentation: A 67-year-old woman with an extensive history of MGUS and renal transplant presented with progressive fatigue, weight loss, intermittent fevers, splenomegaly, and pancytopenia. Serum protein electrophoresis with immunofixation identified a new monoclonal protein IgG lambda and a rapidly increasing pre-existing free kappa light chain. A bone marrow biopsy revealed focal clusters of kappa restricted plasma cells which comprised less than 10\% of marrow cellularity. Skeletal survey was negative for osteolytic lesions. She was also free of any end-organ damage. Histological examination showed a prominent increase in histiocytes and macrophages, many of which show erythrophagocytosis and lymphophagocytosis. Together with her clinical presentation along with a hyperferritinemia, a diagnosis of HLH was confirmed utilizing the criteria of the Histiocyte Society. The patient underwent a splenectomy. Prompt treatment with etoposide and high dose dexamethasone eventually stabilized the patient and resulted in a full recovery, which coincided with the disappearance of the serum monoclonal IgG lambda. Conclusions: This report reveals a novel association of HLH with the progression of MGUS. Familiarity with this syndrome and its association with other conditions is indicated to ensure prompt diagnosis and appropriate patient treatment.
Addressing [HEALTH TOPIC] among [POPULATION]: A fill-in-the-blank activity to promote understanding of formative health communication campaign decisions

Courses: Introduction to Communication Behavior, Health Communication, Public Communication Campaigns, Persuasion, Public RelationsObjectives: Students gain practice determining various components of a health communication campaign (e.g. selecting appropriate target population(s), media channels), while noting the need for synergy across key strategic and creative decisions involved in formulating a mass-media campaign.
The insulin-like growth factor 2 gene in mammals: Organizational complexity within a conserved locus.

The secreted protein, insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2), plays a central role in fetal and prenatal growth and development, and is regulated at the genetic level by parental imprinting, being expressed predominantly from the paternally derived chromosome in mice and humans. Here, IGF2/Igf2 and its locus has been examined in 19 mammals from 13 orders spanning ~166 million years of evolutionary development. By using human or mouse DNA segments as queries in genome analyses, and by assessing gene expression using RNA-sequencing libraries, more complexity was identified within IGF2/Igf2 than was annotated previously. Multiple potential 5’ non-coding exons were mapped in most mammals and are presumably linked to distinct IGF2/Igf2 promoters, as shown for several species by interrogating RNA-sequencing libraries. DNA similarity was highest in IGF2/Igf2 coding exons; yet, even though the mature IGF2 protein was conserved, versions of 67 or 70 residues are produced secondary to species-specific maintenance of alternative RNA splicing at a variable intron-exon junction. Adjacent H19 was more divergent than IGF2/Igf2, as expected in a gene for a noncoding RNA, and was identified in only 10/19 species. These results show that common features, including those defining IGF2/Igf2 coding and several non-coding exons, were likely present at the onset of the mammalian radiation, but that others, such as a putative imprinting control region 5’ to H19 and potential enhancer elements 3’ to H19, diversified with speciation. This study also demonstrates that careful analysis of genomic and gene expression repositories can provide new insights into gene structure and regulation.
Does Obstructive Sleep Apnea Increase Cognitive Deficits in Pediatric Sickle Cell Disease

Objectives: Although pediatric obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is estimated to affect 2–3% of the general population, its prevalence in sickle cell disease (SCD) is much higher, with research suggesting a prevalence rate of upwards of 40%. Despite the similar underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of neurocognitive effects in pediatric OSA and SCD, there is a scarcity of information on how these two conditions interact. The aim of this study was to better understand the contribution of sleep apnea to neurocognitive deficits in children diagnosed with SCD. Method: This study assessed cognitive function in 26 children with comorbid SCD and OSA, 39 matched comparisons with SCD only, and 59 matched comparisons in children without a chronic health condition. Results: There were significant differences on measures of processing speed and reading decoding, with children without a chronic health condition scoring better than both chronic health condition groups. Additionally, the no chronic health condition group performed better on a test of quantitative knowledge and reasoning and a test of visual–spatial construction than the SCD-only group. Contrary to our hypotheses, there were no between-group differences suggesting an additive impact of OSA on cognition. Exploratory analyses revealed associations within the group that had OSA showing that more severe OSA correlated with lower performance on measures of processing speed and quantitative knowledge/reasoning. Conclusions: Children with comorbid OSA and SCD do not present with greater deficits in cognitive functioning than children with SCD alone. However, severe OSA may confer additional risk for neurocognitive impairments.
“It Ain’t Necessarily So”

The theory of thermoelectricity is to be found in a looking-glass land where all our best-loved folk theorems are cruelly violated. Everyone knows that pseudopotentials are better than Hartree potentials in calculating scattering amplitudes, that higher-order electron-phonon interaction terms are negligibly small, and that the electronic relaxation time for phonon scattering may be approximated by a function that is symmetric about the Fermi energy. And yet ....
Validation of an efficient finite element analysis approach for simulation of low velocity impact and compression strength after impact response

Abstract An efficient computational approach to simulate the damage during an impact event and subsequently predict the remaining compression strength is presented in this paper. The two-step explicit finite element modeling scheme to simulate the damage as interlaminar delaminations during an impact event and the ensuing failure during a compression test is developed to eliminate the typical issues associated with manual transfer of damage details between an impact simulation and a quasi-static compression failure simulation. The residual strength after impact simulation is predicted based on the damage state predicted by the impact model. Experiments were performed to validate the numerical study for 24 and 32 ply quasi-isotropic laminates, generally used in aircraft structure, with two different boundary conditions to ensure that the model is capable enough to predict the behavior of an impact even under different boundary conditions. A strong correlation is found between the delamination damage observed experimentally and the model predictions. Furthermore, the finite element approach presented in this paper was able to accurately simulate the compression strength after impact.
Survey of Experiences of Transgender and Gender Nonbinary Patients During Imaging Encounters and Opportunities for Improvement

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to assess the inclusivity of imaging centers for transgender and gender nonbinary (TGNB) patients and those patients' level of comfort during imaging center visits. MATERIALS AND METHODS. A survey of TGNB persons was developed to explore their experiences during imaging encounters. The survey was distributed via purposive snowball sampling with link sharing on social media and listservs as well as at TGNB community events and conferences during the period from January to December 2018. RESULTS. Of the 555 respondents who initiated the survey, 363 (65.4%) completed it and satisfied inclusion criteria. Of the 363, 257 (70.8%) reported having had at least one negative imaging encounter. Nearly one-third (32.4%, 116/358) had to instruct imaging facility staff about TGNB persons to receive appropriate care. Ultrasound examinations and image-guided procedures contributed to the highest rates of unexpected emotional discomfort (49.1% [109/222] and 38.1% [16/42], respectively). Noninvasive modalities also contributed to unexpected emotional discomfort, with the highest percentage of patients (23.5%) reporting emotional discomfort during MRI. Many imaging environments were considered unwelcoming toward TGNB patients, with 45.2% (164/363) of respondents noting no visible reading materials or other postings that could be considered to be affirming to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer patients and 39.1% (142/363) noting a lack of all-gender or gender-neutral restrooms. CONCLUSION. To our knowledge, our data provide the largest documentation and first quantification of the experiences of TGNB patients during imaging encounters. The data show several aspects of imaging encounters that may contribute toward negative experiences for TGNB patients, which may be improved through education of imaging personnel in TGNB cultural competency, redesign of facilities with sensitivity toward TGNB persons, and incorporation of TGNB patient feedback in the adoption of departmental policies.
Viral reservoirs in elite controllers of HIV-1 infection: Implications for HIV cure strategies

Elite controllers are HIV-1 positive subjects who control viral replication without antiretroviral therapy. Many of these subjects have replication-competent virus and thus represent a model of a functional cure. Peripheral CD4+ T cells in these subjects have small reservoirs with a low frequency of intact proviruses. Furthermore, recent studies suggest that many of these intact proviruses are disproportionally integrated at sites that have limited transcriptional activity raising the possibility that replication-competent viruses do not replicate because they are in a "blocked and locked" state. However, this feature is probably a consequence rather than a cause of elite control. Additionally, evolution of plasma virus has been detected in many elites suggesting that there continues to be ongoing viral replication in other compartments. While exceptional elite controllers with very limited viral reservoirs have recently been described, more work is needed to determine whether these patients have achieved a sterilizing cure.
Links of personality traits to media multitasking: Conscientiousness predicts mobile phone use in the college classroom

The present study investigated the relation among mobile phone use in the college classroom and Big Five personality traits, which had not been addressed in previous research. Undergraduate students (83 males and 92 females) whose average age was 20 (SD = 5.1) completed questionnaires on demographic characteristics, mobile phone use, impulse control, and Big Five personality traits. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine whether each personality trait made a unique contribution in predicting mobile phone use in the classroom after taking into consideration the contribution of impulse control in this prediction. The results show that impulse control and conscientiousness are significant, independent predictors of in-class mobile phone use over and above each other after controlling for demographic characteristics and general mobile phone use. These results suggest that some aspects of conscientiousness unexplained by impulse control may also be related to media multitasking in the college classroom, and the present study sheds light on the importance of continued research on the relation between conscientiousness and in-class media multitasking.
Adjoint-based interfacial control of viscous drops

We develop a continuous adjoint formulation for controlling the deformation of clean, neutrally buoyant droplets in Stokes flow. The focus is on surface tension-driven flows where the interface is deformed by the local fluid velocity. We apply results from shape optimization to rigorously derive the optimality conditions for a range of interfacial problems. In the cases of interest, we make use of boundary integral methods as a natural choice for the numerical discretization of the flow variables. In the static case, our methodology is tested on a tracking-type cost functional and corresponds to classic shape optimization problems. We show agreement with black-box finite difference-based gradients and accurate minimization of the cost functionals. Finally, we demonstrate the methodology on the control of unsteady droplet deformation through external forcing.
Measuring Student Confidence from Tech Camp Participation

With recent efforts promoting computer science through industry, academic, and governmental partnerships, access to computing in high school curriculum has increased. However, a majority of high schools still do not offer computer science. While in-school programs can provide more equitable access to computing, these types of programs are not available to every student. To supplement national efforts, our university created a community outreach organization to provide opportunities to the local community. The organization creates opportunities for middle and high school students to learn different topics in computing with the main goal of increasing confidence. The primary program we offer is a two-hour tech camp, which explores a particular topic in computing. In this poster, we look to discover how tech camps affect confidence in computing. We identify which age groups are most positively affected by tech camps as well as what topics are most effective. We also discuss our methods for gathering data, our analysis of data, and how our findings will be used in future programming.
Distinct functional and structural connections predict crystallised and fluid cognition in healthy adults

White matter pathways between neurons facilitate neuronal coactivation patterns in the brain. Insight into how these structural and functional connections underlie complex cognitive functions provides an important foundation with which to delineate disease-related changes in cognitive functioning. Here, we integrate neuroimaging, connectomics, and machine learning approaches to explore how functional and structural brain connectivity relate to cognition. Specifically, we evaluate the extent to which functional and structural connectivity predict individual crystallised and fluid cognitive abilities in 415 unrelated healthy young adults (202 females) from the Human Connectome Project. We report three main findings. First, we demonstrate functional connectivity is more predictive of cognitive scores than structural connectivity, and, furthermore, integrating the two modalities does not increase explained variance. Second, we show the quality of cognitive prediction from connectome measures is influenced by the choice of grey matter parcellation, and, possibly, how that parcellation is derived. Third, we find that distinct functional and structural connections predict crystallised and fluid abilities. Taken together, our results suggest that functional and structural connectivity have unique relationships with crystallised and fluid cognition and, furthermore, studying both modalities provides a more comprehensive insight into the neural correlates of cognition.
Why Forrester Wished to Replace Both Differential Equations and Economics

While many eminent economists have expressed disdain about the abstract nature of contemporary economic theory and how it is removed from reality, few offer a cogent solution to this problem. Jay Forrester, a control engineer turned economist proposed replacing the abstract economic model with a manager-based construct. He also aspired to replace differential equations with an intuitive integration process that can be implemented on a digital computer. This paper attempts to understand how economic theory separated from reality and how modeling using Forrester’s intuitive calculus can make it verifiable and operational.
Combination therapies plus transarterial chemoembolization in hepatocellular carcinoma: a snapshot of clinical trial progress.

Introduction : Unfortunately, some hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients do not qualify for curative-intent treatments such as surgical resection or transplantation. Hence, locoregional treatments such as transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) remain instrumental in the treatment of HCC. Systemic therapy has improved over the past decade with the introduction of combination atezolizumab and bevacizumab as the new standard of care for advanced disease. These new therapies are currently under investigation in combination with TACE. Area covered : Combination therapies with TACE including systemic therapies, locoregional therapies and immunotherapies are reviewed. Expert opinion : There has been limited progress in the management of advanced and intermediate HCC. Recent advances in the management of advanced disease with systemic therapy could be beneficial in combination with TACE for the treatment of intermediate stage disease. Immune based therapies are potentially beneficial in combination with TACE because TACE may produce increased antigen release and immune recognition.
Duty Sui Generis and the Individual in Kant's Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason

In this paper I examine Kant’s argument that human beings are morally obligated to join or establish a religious “ethical community” as a therapy for “radical evil.” Kant regards this as a duty sui generis, because the human propensity to evil cannot be eradicated. This requirement seems to conflict with the fundamental axiom of Kant’s moral philosophy that “ought” implies “can” — i.e. that we are only morally responsible for what is within our power. Although, on Kant’s account, evil has no cause outside the individual’s free decision to deviate from the moral law, Kant’s religious writings would require us to regard it precisely as though it had a phenomenal cause. I seek to show how this duty sui generis in Kant’s Religion essay can be made compatible with Kant’s ethical writings, arguing that this constitutes an intriguing, pragmatic moment in Kant’s practical philosophy.
Relationship between abuse and neglect in childhood and diabetes in adulthood: differential effects by sex, national longitudinal study of adolescent health

INTRODUCTION: Few studies have investigated links between child abuse and neglect and diabetes mellitus in nationally representative samples, and none have explored the role of obesity in the relationship. We sought to determine whether child abuse and neglect were associated with diabetes and if so, whether obesity mediated this relationship in a population-representative sample of young adults. METHODS: We used data from 14,493 participants aged 24 to 34 years from Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to study associations between self-reported child abuse (sexual, physical, or emotional abuse) and neglect as children and diabetes or prediabetes in young adulthood. We conducted sex-stratified logistic regression analyses to evaluate associations in models before and after the addition of body mass index (BMI) as a covariate. RESULTS: Although the prevalence of diabetes was similar for men and women (7.0% vs 6.7%), men were more likely than women to have prediabetes (36.3% vs 24.6%; omnibus P CONCLUSIONS: Recurrent sexual abuse is robustly associated with diabetes in young adult men, independently of other forms of child abuse or neglect and BMI. Future research should explore other potential mechanisms for this association to identify avenues for prevention of diabetes among men who have experienced sexual abuse. Language: en
Causes and Consequences of Fragility in Africa: The Experience of the Greater Lakes Region

This article identifies the consequences of fragility in African states but with more focus on countries in the Greater Lakes region. Such countries constitute a development challenge given their enormous needs and difficulties associated with implementation of recovery and development programmes. Although there is no universally agreed definition of fragility, this study pays much attention to both national conflicts and those with a regional bearing. Given the scale and frequency of these conflicts, Africa has witnessed the destruction of institutions, infrastructures and systems which have impacted negatively on the growth of economies. The article reviews the causes and analyses the consequences of fragility and the conclusions are that the causes range from historical perspectives, social to economic. Similarly, the consequences not only include the destruction of human capital, institutions and infrastructures, but also the erosion of good governance and accountability. This article also emphasises the principles for engagement in the stabilisation, recovery and development programmes, but most important is the reorganisation of capacity constraints and political will as well as aligning interventions with local priorities and systems. The article concludes that provision of recovery and development programmes should be integrated within the local programmes for ownership and sustainability in such engagements and financing mechanisms should be aligned within the existing framework for efficiency and effectiveness.
Variational Boundary-Value Problems, Monotone Operators, and Variational Inequalities

If K(u) is a differentiate functional on a Banach space u, and if P: U → U’ is its gradient, we have shown that the abstract problem of finding u ∈ U such that $$\left\langle {p\left( u \right),n} \right\rangle _u = 0 \forall \eta \in u $$ (6.1) is equivalent to finding critical points of K(u).
Expression of alternatively spliced epidermal growth factor-like domains in aggrecans of different species. Evidence for a novel module

The carboxyl-terminal globular domain of human aggrecan has been shown previously to contain an alternatively spliced epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like module. We have used reverse transcription/polymerase chain reactions on cartilage-derived RNAs to investigate the heterogeneity in the EGF-like domain content of aggrecans from five species (mouse, rat, dog, bovine, and human). A novel alternatively spliced EGF-like module was detected in human aggrecan, establishing the presence of two of these domains. Highly homologous domains are present in aggrecans of other species, and the expression of these modules is identical (4-8%). They share significant homology with EGF-like domains of differentiation proteins and coagulation factors and have a putative calcium binding site. In contrast to this novel domain (EGF2), the previously described EGF-like module (EGF1) is expressed at a high level exclusively in human aggrecan. The expression of the two EGF-like domains in human aggrecan appears to be independent. Although the function of these domains is not understood, the uniform expression of the EGF2 domain may indicate a general role of this aggrecan module, while the expression of the EGF1 domain may reflect species specificity.
Dynamic stability of heavy articulated vehicles

This paper presents a review of available literature describing methods of modelling heavy truck behaviour. The review focuses on analytical work and related experiments that pertain to undesirable responses of commercial vehicles such as loss of control during braking, directional and roll instabilities, and amplified directional motions occurring with many–axled articulated trailers. A key to successful simulation of heavy truck behaviour is a mathematical model that includes the sensitive elements of the vehicle with sufficient flexibility to enable operational situations to be tested. Among the vehicle elements one can account for, pneumatic tyres appear to have a significant influence on the dynamic performance of heavy trucks. Recent advances in the modelling process include incorporating non–holonomic constraints in the formulation to supplement the knowledge of the dynamical properties of heavy vehicles in emergency manoeuvres.
High red blood cell folate is associated with an increased risk of death among adults with diabetes, a 15-year follow-up of a national cohort.

Abstract Background and aim To describe the mortality and fatality of diabetes and assess their relationship with the level of red blood cell (RBC) folate. Methods and result We analyzed the data of 526 adults with diabetes who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1991–1994) as the baseline examination, and were followed up through December 31, 2006. Estimates of the hazard ratios (HRs) of selected death causes for individuals with different levels of RBC folate were obtained from Cox proportional hazards regression. A total of 295 deaths were recorded by the end of a 15-year follow-up with a mortality rate of 58.48 per 1000 person year (py). Diabetes was listed as a contributing cause for 136 deaths, accounting for 46.1% of the total deaths with a fatality rate 26.96 per 1000 py. Mortality rate for all-cause in the group with upper quartile of RBC folate was almost twice as high as that among the group with lower quartile, 82.75 vs. 44.10 per 1000 py. After adjusting for covariates, including serum concentration of vitamin B12, cotinine, homocysteine and the history of cardio-cerebral vascular diseases assessed at the baseline, the HRs for dying from any causes were 1.00 (reference), 1.82 (95% CI = 1.25–2.66) and 2.10 (1.37–3.20) among diabetic adults with lower, intermediate, and upper quartiles of RBC folate. Conclusion Diabetes was listed as a contributing cause for less than half of the deaths among adults with diabetes after 15+ years of follow-up; high RBC folate concentration was associated with an elevated risk of death among adults with diabetes.
VEGI, a novel cytokine of the tumor necrosis factor family, is an angiogenesis inhibitor that suppresses the growth of colon carcinomas in vivo

A novel member of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) family has been identified from the human umbilical vein endothelial cell cDNA library, named vascular endothelial growth inhibitor (VEGI). The VEGI gene was mapped to human chromosome 9q32. The cDNA for VEGI encodes a protein of 174 amino acid residues with the characteristics of a type II transmembrane protein. Its amino acid sequence is 20–30% identical to other members of the TNF family. Unlike other members of the TNF family, VEGI is expressed predominantly in endothelial cells. Local production of a secreted form of VEGI via gene transfer caused complete suppression of the growth of MC-38 murine colon cancers in syngeneic C57BL/6 mice. Histological examination showed marked reduction of vascularization in MC-38 tumors that expressed soluble but not membrane-bound VEGI or were transfected with control vector. The conditioned media from soluble VEGI-expressing cells showed marked inhibitory effect on in vitro proliferation of adult bovine aortic endoth...
The role of inspiration in organizational life

Twenty first century workers require more than financial rewards to achieve workplace satisfaction. Many seek a sense of spiritual fulfillment and purpose from their employment. Some employers and employees believe that assistance from a higher power can help them navigate everyday challenges in the workplace, contribute more effectively in the workplace, and achieve greater satisfaction in their careers. Studies, including the O’Grady and Richards (2011, in press) studies on inspiration in professional life, indicate that some professionals experience inspiration through (a) a sense of calling, (b) divine guidance, (c) help in solving problems, (d) a heightening of abilities, and (e) a fulfilling way of being. Implications for creating spiritually friendly organizations are described in the article.
Neurophysin-containing pathway from the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus to a sexually dimorphic motor nucleus in lumbar spinal cord.

A model that has been widely used in the study of steroid sensitive neurons, the spinal nucleus of the bulbocavernosus (SNB) is a sexually dimorphic motor nucleus in the lower lumbar spinal cord that innervates the striated bulbocavernosus (BC) muscle. The BC is responsible for penile reflexes in the male rat, which are important in ensuring pregnancy in females. The characterization of afferents to the SNB aids in the understanding of the neural circuitry involved in reproductive behavior. We have recently identified the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) as a possible source of afferents to the SNB. Because the PVN is the major source of oxytocin/vasopressin within the central nervous system (CNS), the purpose of the present study was to examine and characterize a neurophysin (NP)-containing pathway from the PVN to the SNB. The results demonstrate that neurons of the lateral parvicellular subnucleus of PVN, which project to levels of spinal cord containing SNB motoneurons, contain NP, the coproduct of oxytocin and vasopressin. NP-containing fibers and putative terminals were found in the region of the SNB and appear to contact the soma and proximal dendrites of SNB motoneurons which were retrogradely identified as BC-innervating. Electrolytic lesions, which destroy the lateral parvicellular subnucleus of PVN, abolish NP-containing fibers in the region of the SNB, suggesting that the PVN is the source of these NP fibers. The results of this study indicate a NP-containing projection from the hypothalamus directly to SNB motoneurons. It is suggested that this pathway may play a role in the integration of penile reflexes with other aspects of male copulatory behavior that are under hypothalamic control. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Dynamic tiling for effective use of shared caches on multithreaded processors

Simultaneous multithreaded (SMT) processors use data caches which are dynamically shared between threads. Depending on the processor workload, sharing the data cache may harm performance due to excessive cache conflicts. A way to overcome this problem is to physically partition the cache between threads. Unfortunately, partitioning the cache requires additional hardware and may lead to lower utilisation of the cache in certain workloads. It is therefore important to consider software mechanisms to implicitly partition the cache between threads by controlling the locations in the cache in which each thread can load data. This paper proposes standard program transformations for partitioning the shared data caches of SMT processors, if and only if there are conflicts between threads in the shared cache at runtime. We propose transformations based on dynamic tiling. The key idea is to use two tile sizes in the program, one for single-threaded execution mode and one suitable for multithreaded execution mode and switch between tile sizes at runtime. Our transformations combine dynamic tiling with either copying or storing arrays in block layout. The paper presents an implementation of these transformations along with runtime mechanisms for detecting cache contention between threads and react to it on-the-fly. Our experimental results show that for regular, perfect loop nests, these transformations provide substantial performance improvements.
The Three-Port Microcannular System for Closed Vitrectomy

Microcannulas used during vitreous surgery protect the entry site, avoid vitreous base damage, and allow easy exchange of 20- and 19-gauge (0.9- and 1-mm) instruments. The use of three cannulas of equal size permits interchangeability of all instruments. A locking mechanism allows attachment and exchange of various infusion lines (balanced salt solution, gas, and oil). Temporary plugging of the cannula is possible. Selection of 1 mm as a standard diameter for all cannulas make multiple-function instruments feasible.
Social capital in Asia: Investigating returns to brokerage in collectivistic national cultures.

Abstract Evidence on the returns to brokerage networks predominately comes from studies of firms located in the United States. Analyses conducted in other countries have noted differences in how social capital may be valued questioning whether brokerage networks yield economic advantage in less individualistic contexts such as Asia. Using network data on employees involved in a product launch in the Asian region of a large American software firm, evidence of returns to brokerage is found among the top executives located and working in the collectivistic national country offices. This finding provides new insights on how returns to brokerage in a non-US culture may arise by considering the differing influences of firm and national culture as well as an employee’s formal position at a firm.
Self-Hypnosis as Anesthesia for Liposuction Surgery

This article demonstrates how the surgeon performs a major surgical procedure on himself using self-hypnosis as the means of anesthesia and pain control. The hypnotic techniques used by the author for self hypnosis are reviewed. These include glove anesthesia and transference; the switch technique; dissociation; positive imagery; as well as the specific post-hypnotic suggestions used by the surgeon during the operative procedure.
Channeling power across ecological systems: social regularities in community organizing.

Relational and social network perspectives provide opportunities for more holistic conceptualizations of phenomena of interest in community psychology, including power and empowerment. In this article, we apply these tools to build on multilevel frameworks of empowerment by proposing that networks of relationships between individuals constitute the connective spaces between ecological systems. Drawing on an example of a model for grassroots community organizing practiced by WISDOM—a statewide federation supporting local community organizing initiatives in Wisconsin—we identify social regularities (i.e., relational and temporal patterns) that promote empowerment and the development and exercise of social power through building and altering relational ties. Through an emphasis on listening-focused one-to-one meetings, reflection, and social analysis, WISDOM organizing initiatives construct and reinforce social regularities that develop social power in the organizing initiatives and advance psychological empowerment among participant leaders in organizing. These patterns are established by organizationally driven brokerage and mobilization of interpersonal ties, some of which span ecological systems. Hence, elements of these power-focused social regularities can be conceptualized as cross-system channels through which micro-level empowerment processes feed into macro-level exercise of social recommendations for theory and designpower, and vice versa. We describe examples of these channels in action, and offer of future action research.
On the infant's meaning for the parent: A study of four mother-daughter pairs

Four mother-daughter pairs were systematically followed from the third trimester of pregnancy through the first eight months postpartum by semistructured interviews and by naturalistic observations in the hospital, home and office. These individual case reports illustrate how the psychological meaning of the pregnancy and fetus/infant appeared to have shaped the neonatal perceptions, earlymother-infant relationships, and seemed to correlate with specific mothering behaviors. Theprenatal psychological factors, and the resultant meaning and perception of the infant, are also discussed as potentialrisk indicators and/or foci of therapeutic interventions.