cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Estimation of Safety Effectiveness of Composite Shoulders on Rural Two-Lane Highways:

A paved shoulder is regarded as an effective safety improvement to reduce crashes. It is believed that there is a diminishing safety benefit for each additional increment of paved shoulder over a certain width. Thus, there might be greater systemwide safety benefits from paving longer roadway segments with a composite shoulder than from paving shorter roadway segments with a full-width paved shoulder. The objective of this study was to determine the safety benefits of composite shoulders, such as a small paved shoulder combined with turf on the outside. This approach was part of the Kansas Department of Transportation's effort to find practical improvements to maximize the benefits of shoulders relative to the input costs. Of the 8,300 mi (13,358 km) of rural two-lane highways in Kansas, approximately 25% are equipped with composite shoulders consisting of 3 ft (0.9 m) of pavement, with the remainder being turf. The safety effectiveness of these shoulders was studied with a combined empirical Bayes method...
Cross-Validation of the Africentrism Scale:

This study cross-validated the Africentrism Scale and investigated the relationship between Africentrism and demographic variables in a diverse sample of individuals of African descent. Participants were 206 individuals who identified as African, African American, or Caribbean/West Indian. Demographic variables included age, gender, ethnic background, educational level, place of rearing, and level of identification with African ancestry. The results suggested that age and education were related to Africentrism with younger and less educated individuals endorsing less Africentrism. No other demographic variables emerged as significant predictors. Caribbeans had a slightly lower score than others after controlling for age. Overall, the Africentrism Scale demonstrated solid internal consistency (coefficient alpha) and convergent validity (inverse association to a measure of cultural misorientation). In addition, the obtained factor structure was similar to that obtained in the original sample.
Childhood vaccine risk/benefit communication in private practice office settings: a national survey.

Communication about childhood vaccine risks and benefits has been legally required in pediatric health care for over a decade. However, little is known about the actual practice of vaccine risk/benefit communication. Objectives. This study was conducted to identify current practices of childhood vaccine risk/benefit communication in private physician office settings nationally. Specifically, we wanted to determine what written materials were given, by whom, and when; what information providers thought parents wanted/needed to know, the content of nurse and doctor discussion with parents, and the time spent on discussion. We also wanted to quantify barriers to vaccine risk/benefit discussion and to prioritize materials and dissemination methods preferred as solutions to these barriers. Methods. We conducted 32 focus groups in 6 cities, and then administered a 27-question cross-sectional mailed survey from March to September 1998, to a random national sample of physicians and their office nurses who immunize children in private practices. Eligible survey respondents were active fellows of the American Academy of Pediatrics or American Academy of Family Physicians in private practice who immunized children and a nurse from each physician9s office. After 3 mailings, the response rate was 71%. Results. Sixty-nine percent of pediatricians and 72% of family physicians self-reported their offices gave parents the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Vaccine Information Statement, while 62% and 58%, respectively, gave it with every dose. In ∼70% of immunization visits, physicians and nurses reported initiating discussion of the following: common side effects, when to call the clinic and the immunization schedule. However, physicians reported rarely initiating discussion regarding contraindications ( Stratified analysis indicated nurses played a vital role in immunization delivery and risk/benefit communication. To improve vaccine risk/benefit communication, 80% of all providers recommended a preimmunization booklet for parents and approximately one half recommended a screening sheet for contraindications and poster for immunization reference. The learning method most highly endorsed by all providers was practical materials (80%). Other desirable learning methods varied significantly by provider type. Conclusions. There was a mismatch between the legal mandate for Vaccine Information Statement distribution and the actual practice in private office settings. The majority of providers reported discussing some aspect of vaccine communication but 40% indicated that they did not mention risks. Legal and professional guidelines for appropriate content and delivery of vaccine communication need to be clarified and to be made easily accessible for busy private practitioners. Efforts to improve risk/benefit communication in private practice should take into consideration the limited time available in an office well-infant visit and should be aimed at both the nurse and physician.
Designed protein G core variants fold to native‐like structures: Sequence selection by ORBIT tolerates variation in backbone specification

The solution structures of two computationally designed core variants of the β1 domain of streptococcal protein G (Gβ1) were solved by ^1H NMR methods to assess the robustness of amino acid sequence selection by the ORBIT protein design package under changes in protein backbone specification. One variant has mutations at three of 10 core positions and corresponds to minimal perturbations of the native Gβ1 backbone. The other, with mutations at six of 10 positions, was calculated for a backbone in which the separation between Gβ1's α-helix and β-sheet was increased by 15% relative to native Gβ1. Exchange broadening of some resonances and the complete absence of others in spectra of the sixfold mutant bespeak conformational heterogeneity in this protein. The NMR data were sufficiently abundant, however, to generate structures of similar, moderately high quality for both variants. Both proteins adopt backbone structures similar to their target folds. Moreover, the sequence selection algorithm successfully predicted all core χ(1) angles in both variants, five of six χ_2 angles in the threefold mutant and four of seven χ_2 angles in the sixfold mutant. We conclude that ORBIT calculates sequences that fold specifically to a geometry close to the template, even when the template is moderately perturbed relative to a naturally occurring structure. There are apparently limits to the size of acceptable perturbations: In this study, the larger perturbation led to undesired dynamic behavior.
The manticore project

The Manticore project is a research effort to design and implement a parallel functional programming language that targets commodity multicore and shared-memory multiprocessors. Our language is a dialect of Standard ML, called Parallel ML (PML), that starts with a strict, mutation-free functional core and extends with both implicitly-threaded constructs for fine-grain parallelism and CML-style explicit concurrency for coarse-grain parallelism. We have a prototype implementation that demonstrates both reasonable sequential performance and good scalability on both 32-core Intel machines and 48-core AMD machines. Our past research contributions include: a parallel implementation of CML; a novel infrastructure for nested schedulers; a collection of expressive implicitly-threaded parallel constructs with mostly sequential semantics; a Lazy Tree Splitting (LTS) strategy for performance-robust work-stealing of parallel computations over irregular tree-like data structures.In this talk, I will motivate and describe the high-points in both the design of the Parallel ML language and the implementation of the Manticore compiler and runtime system. After briefly discussing some notable results among our past research contributions, I will highlight our most recent research efforts. In one line of work, we have demonstrated the importance of treating even commodity desktops and servers as non-uniform memory access (NUMA) machines. This is particularly important for the scalability of parallel garbage collection, where unbalanced work with lower memory traffic is often better than balanced work with high memory traffic. In another line of work, we have explored data-only flattening, a compilation strategy for nested data parallelism the eschews the traditional vectorization approach which transforms both control and data and was designed for wide-vector SIMD architectures. Instead, data-only flattening transforms nested data structures, but leaves control structures intact, a strategy that is better suited to multicore architectures. Finally, we are exploring language features that provide controlled forms of (deterministic and nondeterministic) mutable state within parallel computations. We begin with the observation that there are parallel stateful algorithms that exhibit significantly better performance than the corresponding parallel algorithm without mutable state. To support such algorithms, we extend Manticore two with memoziation of pure functions using a high-performance implementation of a dynamically sized, parallel hash table to provide scalable performance. We are also exploring various execution models for general mutable state, with the crucial design criteria that all executions should preserve the ability to reason locally about the behavior of code.
Protecting Privacy in Key-Value Search Systems

This paper investigates the general problem of efficiently performing key-value search at untrusted servers without loss of user privacy. Given key-value pairs from multiple owners that are stored across untrusted servers, how can a client efficiently search these pairs such that no server, on its own, can reconstruct the key-value pairs? We propose a system, called Peekaboo, that is applicable and practical to any type of key-value search while protecting both data owner privacy and client privacy. The main idea is to separate the key-value pairs across different servers. Supported by access control and user authentication, Peekaboo allows search to be performed by only authorized clients without reducing the level of user privacy.
THE FOKKER-PLANCK OPERATOR AS AN ASYMPTOTIC LIMIT

It is shown that the Fokker-Planck operator describing a highly peaked scattering process in the linear transport equation is a formal asymptotic limit of the exact integral operator. It is also shown that such peaking is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for the Fokker-Planck operator to be a legitimate description of such scattering. In particular, the widely used Henyey-Greenstein scattering kernel does not possess a Fokker-Planck limit.
Improving Tests of Abnormal Returns by Bootstrapping the Multivariate Regression Model with Event Paraments

Dummy variable-based tests for event studies using multivariate regression are common in finance, especially for banking-related studies. These tests are not robust to nonnormality of the residual, even for arbitrarily large sample sizes. Such methods typically overstate the significance of the event, although on some occasions the normality-assuming tests lead to an understatement of significance. Alternative bootstrap methods to rectify this deficiency are described, investigated, and compared. Not all procedures are robust in the face of cross-sectional correlation; we find that it is necessary to bootstrap the residual vectors of a cross-sectional time-series regression model to adequately control type I error rates. Such properly conducted bootstrapping methods greatly improve upon traditional normality-assuming methods and also allow development of new and powerful event study tests for which there is no parametric counterpart; thus their use is generally recommended for dummy variable-based tests of events in financial studies.
Three dimensional imaging utilizing structured light

This paper describes a method of remote sensing the 3-dimensional structure of the proximity utilizing a laser, a holographic grating, and a single regular CCD camera. Basically, the laser beam is split by a holographic grating to form a regular spaced grid of laser beams that are projected into the field of view of a CCD camera. The laser source and the CCD camera are physically separated forming the base of a triangle. The exit angle of the laser beam and the angle measured by the camera where the beam intersects a surface is a function of the distance. These two angles and the distance between the source and the camera allow calculation of the range to the projected spot using triangulation. This paper describes an experimental proof of concept and an empirical calibration of the system. Encouraging results are achieved and presented. Also, an application in which this system potentially would be used for a Mars landing is discussed.
FORGIVENESS AND ITS LIMITS: A Psychological and Psychoanalytic Perspective

All relationships are subject to hurts, some unintentional, some intentional. If unaddressed, these hurts fester and destroy relationships. The primary mode of resolution for such difficulties is forgiveness, sometimes freely proffered, sometimes in response to being asked for an apology. Each of us makes a judgment, whether conscious or preconscious, about whether or not to offer an apology—one major mode of asking for forgiveness—or whether to insist on an apology in response to an insult or a slight. Sometimes the issue is how to forgive oneself for one’s own transgressions. While the concept of forgiveness has been part and parcel of nearly all religious doctrines, it has only recently begun to be discussed in our field. 1
Surgical ablation of lone atrial fibrillation on the beating heart: the chaos continues

This editorial refers to ‘Feasibility and outcome of epicardial pulmonary vein isolation for lone atrial fibrillation using minimal invasive surgery and high intensity focused ultrasound’ by T.J. Klinkenberg et al., Europace 2009, 1624‐1631. This small case series from Dr Klinkenberg and colleagues 1 epitomizes the present challenges for the development of an effective minimally invasive surgical approach to lone atrial fibrillation. Over the last decade, a plethora of new ablation technology and new surgical approaches have been introduced. Despite thousands of clinical cases, we remain far from a standardized surgical approach. This has led to a wide variability in success rates obtained by different groups around the world and a great deal of confusion among both cardiologists and surgeons regarding the appropriate surgical treatment for a given patient.
Norepinephrine: Its presence in the central nervous system of the bivalve mollusc, Mytilus edulis

The present study demonstrates the existence of norepinephrine in the ganglia of the mussel Mytilus edulis. The identification of this catecholamine is based on the specificity of the radioenzymatic and spectroflurometric methods of analysis and by the specific actions of FLA-63. Key words: norepinephrine, radioenzymatic, FLA-63-DOPS, invertebrate nervous tissue.
Usefulness of the Troponin-Ejection Fraction Product to Differentiate Stress Cardiomyopathy from ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction

The presentation of stress cardiomyopathy (SC) with nonobstructive coronary artery disease mimics that of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) due to coronary occlusion. No single parameter has been successful in differentiating the 2 entities. We thus sought to develop a noninvasive clinical tool to discriminate between these 2 conditions. We retrospectively reviewed 59 consecutive cases of SC at our institution from July 2005 through June 2011 and compared those with 60 consecutives cases of angiographically confirmed STEMI treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention in the same period. All patients underwent acute echocardiography, and the peak troponin I level was determined. The troponin-ejection fraction product (TEFP) was derived by multiplying the peak troponin I level and the echocardiographically derived left ventricular ejection fraction. Comparing the SC and STEMI groups, the mean left ventricular ejection fraction at the time of presentation was 30 ± 9% versus 44 ± 11%, respectively (p
Synthesis and characterization of thermally rearranged (TR) polybenzoxazoles: Influence of isomeric structure on gas transport properties

Abstract Isomeric polyhydroxyimides based on 3,3′-diamino-4,4′-dihydroxybiphenyl (m-HAB) or 3,3′-dihydroxy-4,4′-diaminobiphenyl (p-HAB) with 2,2-bis(3,4-dicarboxyphenyl)hexafluoropropane dianhydride (6FDA) were prepared via an ester-acid monomer. The polyhydroxyimides were then acetylated using acetic anhydride to change the ortho-functional groups on the polymer chains. These ortho-functional polyimides were used as precursors for thermal rearrangement (TR) to polybenzoxazoles for gas separation membranes. The permeability coefficients of TR polymers significantly improved as the ortho-functional polyimides converted to polybenzoxazoles. The influence of meta and para isomeric monomers on the gas transport properties of the resulting TR polybenzoxazoles were studied. In addition, gas permeation properties show a dependency on the size of the ortho-functionality of the polyimide precursors.
Examining Whether Space Matters in the Distribution and Trans-Border Flows of Polio Virus Outbreaks in Northern Nigeria

By design, field surveys of polio endemic areas of northern Nigeria reflect areas considered at high risk and low risk of polio viruses outbreaks. Judging by household surveys of 144 mothers at the 16 clusters of 8 Local Government Areas of Bauchi and Kano states, there is evidence to show that whereas spatial distribution of households according to risk zones may not directly impact whether mothers of young children accept or reject polio vaccinations, geography as defined by risk zone plays unique roles for managing polio vaccination efforts. The paper examines how this is so.
Cost Analysis of Intraoperative Subareolar Frozen Section During Nipple-Sparing Mastectomy.

Permanent paraffin subareolar biopsy during nipple-sparing mastectomy (NSM) tests for occult cancer at the nipple-areolar complex. Intraoperative subareolar frozen section can provide earlier detection intraoperatively. Cost analysis for intraoperative subareolar frozen section has never been performed. NSM cases from 2006–2013 were reviewed. Patient records including financial charges were analyzed. Of 480 subareolar biopsies for NSM from 2006–2013, 21 were abnormal (4.4 %). A total of 307 of the subareolar biopsies included intraoperative frozen section. Of the 307, 12 (3.9 %) were abnormal with 7 of 12 detected on intraoperative frozen section. The median baseline charge for an intraoperative subareolar frozen section was $309 for an estimated total cost of $94,863 in 307 breasts. The median baseline charge for interval operative resection of a nipple-areolar complex following an abnormal subareolar pathology result was $11,021. Intraoperative subareolar biopsy avoided an estimated six return trips to the operating room for savings of $66,126. At our institution, routine use of intraoperative frozen section resulted in an additional $28,737 in healthcare charges or $95 per breast. We present the first cost analysis to evaluate intraoperative subareolar frozen section in NSM. This practice obviated an estimated six return trips to the operating room. With our institutional frequency of abnormal subareolar pathology, intraoperative frozen sections resulted in a marginal increased charge per mastectomy.
Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease and Death, Dementia, and Coronary Heart Disease in Patients 80+ Years.

Background The successful prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke has resulted in a substantial increase in longevity, with subsequent growth in the population of older people at risk for dementia. Objectives The authors evaluated the relationship of coronary and other peripheral atherosclerosis to risk of death, dementia, and CHD in the very elderly. Because the extent of vascular disease differs substantially between men and women, sex- and race-specific analyses were included, with a specific focus on women with low coronary artery calcium (CAC) Agatston scores. Methods We evaluated the relationship between measures of subclinical cardiovascular disease (CAC, carotid intimal medial thickness, stenosis, and ankle brachial index) and risk of dementia, CHD, and total mortality in 532 participants of the Cardiovascular Health Study-Cognition Study from 1998/1999 (mean age, 80 years) to 2012/2013 (mean age, 93 years). Results Thirty-six percent of participants had CAC scores >400. Women and African-Americans had lower CAC scores. Few men had low CAC scores. CAC score and number of coronary calcifications were directly related to age-adjusted total mortality and CHD. The age-specific incidence of dementia was higher than for CHD. Only about 25% of deaths were caused by CHD and 16% by dementia. Approximately 64% of those who died had a prior diagnosis of dementia. White women with low CAC scores had a significantly decreased incidence of dementia. Conclusions In subjects 80+ years of age, there is a greater incidence of dementia than of CHD. CAC, as a marker of atherosclerosis, is a determinant of mortality, and risk of CHD and myocardial infarction. White women with low CAC scores had a significantly decreased risk of dementia. A very important unanswered question, especially in the very elderly, is whether prevention of atherosclerosis and its complications is associated with less Alzheimer disease pathology and dementia. (Cardiovascular Health Study [CHS]; NCT00005133).
The Three Rs Of Applied Research With Particular Attention To Sales Management

Applied research needs not only rigor and relevance, but also responsiveness to the needs of practitioners. Suggestions for applied research topics in sales management are offered.
Consultation in the Coagulation Laboratory: A Conceptual Analysis

Physicians can play an important role as consultants in the utilization of laboratory data by providing interpretation, recommending action, and presenting rationale. These activities have been quantitated in 382 consecutive consultations provided by pathologists in the coagulation laboratory, and their statistical interrelationships have been analyzed. Quantitative characterization of the consultation is important, since the pathologist’s professional role in patient care may no longer remain informal and undocumented. However, analogous evaluations can be applied to expose, evaluate, and improve the properties of clinical consultation in general.
Palatalization in West Chadic

Morphological palatalization is a phenomenon whereby palatal articulation (fronting of vowels, adding palatalization as a secondary articulation to consonants, changing alveolars to alveopalatals) is a property associated with an entire morpheme, not with individual segments. Within the Chadic language family, morphological palatalization is best documented in the Biu-Mandara branch, but it has been inherited as a feature in the West branch as well. This paper explores palatalization phenomena in the West Branch that conceivably trace their origin to morphological palatalization. In Miya, morphological palatalization operates much as it does in Biu-Mandara languages, affecting entire morphemes and associating with specific morphological processes. Duwai exhibits remnants of morphological palatalization in certain verb alternations. Bole shows alveolar/alveopalatal variations in specific lexical items that have no local phonological explanation. In Hausa, the origin of palatal consonants has long been a source of controversy. The paper argues that local phonological processes of palatalization cannot account for a large number of the palatals in modern Hausa, a claim that has implications for the analysis of the system of high vowels.
Experimental study on epidermis stimulation and subacute toxicity of stable chlorine dioxide disinfectant

Objective To study the toxicological safety of stable chlorine dioxide(SCD)for repeated use. Methods Both 14-day epidermis-stimulating test and 30-day feeding test were used to observe SCD subacute toxicity. Results The stable chlorine dioxide(SCD)had no the epidermis of tested rabbits in 14 days. After 30-day feeding,the experimental animals of different dosage groups developed well and their body weight increased normally. There was no significant difference compared with control group. The blood routine and blood biochemical parameters of the animals in different dosage groups showed no significant difference compared with the control group. No obvious pathological changes of various organs were seen in test animals. Conclusion The results indicate that the stable chlorine dioxide could have no effect on stimulation to the epidermis in rabbits and subacute toxicity in rats.
Clinical observation of women with polycystic ovary syndrome treated by combined Marvelon and Metformin

Objective To observe the clinical effects of combined Marvelon and Metformin in the treatment of women with polycystic ovary syndrome(PCOS).Method Forty-nine women with PCOS were randomly divided into two groups as Marvelon plus Metformin(n=25,12 weeks,the study group) and alone Marvelon(n=24,12 weeks,the control group) during 2003~2007.Clinical features,sexual hormone level,fasting blood glucose and fasting insulin were evaluated at baseline and after 12 weeks of treatment.Results The serum leutinizing hormone(LH),testosterone level(T) decreased significantly(P0.01),and LH/SH ratio decreased significantly in both groups,and menstrual cycle and acne both improved,there was no significant change in the fasting blood glucose after treatment.There was no significant change in body mass index(BMI) and fasting insulin in the control group.The BMI and fasting insulin level decreased significantly in the study group(P0.05).Ovulation rate,the pregnancy rate markedly increased,and the abortion rate decreased.Conclusion The combination of Metformin and Marvelon for PCOS can not only lead to decreased T level,and also improve the insulin resistance.The clinical effects of combined Marvelon and Metformin is better than alone Marvelon.
A Pair of OWL 2 RL Reasoners.

OWL 2 RL is an expressive OWL profile designed to be amenable to implementation using conventional rule-based technologies. The profile specification provides a direct pathway to develop OWL reasoners using offthe-shelf rule engines. In this paper, we describe our experiences developing two OWL 2 RL reasoners using the popular Jess and Drools rule systems. A useful feature of these implementations is that they support the SWRL rule language and the SQWRL query language. We describe an initial validation of the system carried out using a large set of biomedical ontologies from the BioPortal ontology repository. Free, open source implementations of these reasoners have been released for the Protege ontology development environment. The implementations demonstrate that powerful OWL 2 RLbased reasoners can be developed relatively quickly, though significant performance enhancements remain to be carried out in the current implementations.
Molecular studies on trypanothione reductase: an antiparasitic target enzyme.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses molecular studies on trypanothione reductase. Investigations into the biochemistry of these parasites have quite surprisingly shown that they are devoid of the almost ubiquitous enzyme glutathione reductase. Instead they contain an enzyme that carries out an analogous role to that of glutathione reductase, the NADPH-dependent reduction of trypanothione, a novel glutathione analog unique to the trypanosomatid parasites. By a combination of site-directed mutagenesis and the synthesis of substrate analogs, intimate details of the catalytic function of trypanothione reductase can be determined. Additional evidence for the role of the two residues E18 and W21R in trypanothione reductase has also recently been determined by an inverse site-directed mutagenesis approach with human glutathione reductase and its conversion to a trypanothione reductase by modification of the residues A34 and R37 into glutamic and tryptophan residues, respectively. Undoubtedly, a crystal structure of this mutant human GR with bound trypanothione or an X-ray structure of one of the available trypanothione reductases will broaden the understanding and the potential for inhibition of this antiparasitic target enzyme.
Product Trial and Product Usage: Bases for a Strategic Segmentation Framework

Frequency of product use and date of first trial were examined as possible bases for a strategic segmentation framework. The framework was found to be quite useful for identifying early heavy users of four grocery products. Correlates of heavy usage/early trial were also determined.
Analytic Number Theory on GL(r,R)

There has been much progress in recent years on some classical questions in analytic number theory. This has been due in large part to the fusion of harmonic analysis on GL(2,R) with the techniques of analytic number theory, a method inspired by A. Selberg [17]. A lot of impetus has been gained by the trace formula of Kuznetsov [11], [12], which relates Kloosterman sums with eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on GL(2,R) modulo a discrete subgroup. We cite some of the most striking applications.
Common Endocrinopathies in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Appendix materials for this chapter are available online at http://www.expertconsult.com.
INTRACELLULAR POTASSIUM AND CHLORIDE ACTIVITIES IN FROG HEART MUSCLE

We have been using K+ and Cl- liquid ion exchanger microelec-trodes to measure intracellular activities of K+ and Cl- in frog heart. In these studies we have used three kinds of heart muscle: ventricle, atrium and sinus venosus. The preparations are small pieces of tissue cut from the heart and pinned down in a chamber where they are superfused with frog Ringers solution. The ventricular and atrial preparations are quiescent unless stimulated; in these experiments they are driven at a frequency of 0.5 stimuli/sec. The sinus venosus preparations are spontaneously active.
Higher Diet Quality in Adolescence and Dietary Improvements Are Related to Less Weight Gain During the Transition From Adolescence to Adulthood

Objectives To examine the previously validated A Priori Diet Quality Score (APDQS), and weight change among adolescents transitioning into young adulthood. Study design Young people were recruited in middle/high schools and followed for 10 years. Participants reported diet and weight in 1999 (mean age, 15 years), 2004 (20 years), and 2009 (25 years). The analytic sample (n = 2656) had dietary intake assessments in 1999 and at least one other assessment. The APDQS (without alcoholic items) was based on 13 beneficial food groups, 12 adverse food groups, and 9 neutral food groups to capture aspects of Mediterranean/prudent diets, focusing on foods that are varied, based on nutritionally rich plants, and less processed. Results From mean age 15 to 25 years, mean (SD) weight increased from 61.0 (14.7) kg to 76.1 (18.8) kg, and APDQS increased from 43.1 (11.1) points to 45.6 (10.7) points. Within-person tracking correlation of the APDQS was 0.35 at mean age 15-20 years, increasing to 0.49 at 20-25 years. Independent of lifestyle factors and energy intake, a 15-point (IQR) higher APDQS in 1999 was associated with 1.5 kg (95% CI, 0.7-2.3 kg) less weight gain over 10 years, The increase in APDQS over time was similarly associated with less concurrent weight gain. Findings were stronger for models of excess weight gain. Conclusion Higher diet quality, based on an assessment of dietary patterns in and after adolescence, was associated with reduced weight gain during the next 10 years. Establishment of high-quality dietary patterns in adolescence may help mitigate excess weight gain by young adulthood.
Morphology control in fullerene-based buffer layer by organic vapor phase deposition

The morphology of small molecular weight organic thin film mixtures used in organic photovoltaics (OPV) is precisely controlled through growth conditions used in organic vapor phase deposition (OVPD). We found that the crystallinity of C 60 in 3, 5, 3, 5-tetra(m-pyrid-3-yl)phenyl[1,1]biphenyl (BP4mPy):C 60 buffer layers undergoes changes as a function of chamber growth pressure. The chamber growth pressure is optimized at 0.28 torr, resulting in the largest C 60 crystalline domains. The power conversion efficiency of organic vapor phase deposited tetraphenyldibenzoperiflanthene (DBP):C 70 planar mixed heterojunction OPVs using the optimized BP4mPy:C 60 buffer layer is (8.0±0.2)% compared to (6.6±0.2)% using0 amorphous buffers grown by vacuum thermal evaporation.
Determining needs for nonmedical support during cancer care.

82Background: The need for supportive care services during cancer treatment appears obvious but ranges from 7 to 100% are reported. (McMurray 2001) (Soothill K, 2001). The Commission on Cancer (CoC) requires programs to assess these needs. We report on the rates of identified needs and our survey methodology. Methods: VICC members developed a 41 element survey to assess financial, emotional, and educational needs. Surveys were made available to patients with instructions, but no facilitators (Method 1). Then the same surveys were personally given to patients by two trained research coordinators who randomly selected, instructed and helped patients to complete the survey (Method 2). We report the responses using the two study methodologies. The difference between the two studies was examined using the two-sided chi-square test. Results: Results are presented in Table below. Conclusions: The rate of self-reported need for supportive and educational services in our study was small, but a meaningful minority ...
Impact of Autoantibodies against Glycolytic Enzymes on Pathogenicity of Autoimmune Retinopathy and Other Autoimmune Disorders

Autoantibodies (AAbs) against 4 glycolytic enzymes: aldolase, α-enolase, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, and pyruvate kinase are prevalent in sera of patients with blinding retinal diseases, such as paraneoplastic (cancer-associated retinopathy, CAR) and non-paraneoplastic autoimmune retinopathies as well as in many other autoimmune diseases. CAR is a degenerative disease of the retina characterized by sudden vision loss in patients with cancer and serum anti-retinal autoantibodies. In this review we discuss the widespread serum presence of anti-glycolytic enzyme AAbs and their significance in autoimmune diseases. There are multiple mechanisms responsible for antibody generation, including the innate anti-microbial response, anti-tumor response, or autoimmune response against released self-antigens from damaged, inflamed tissue. Autoantibodies against enolase, GADPH, and aldolase exist in a single patient in elevated titers, suggesting their participation in pathogenicity. The lack of restriction of AAbs to one disease may be related to an increased expression of glycolytic enzymes in various metabolically active tissues that triggers an autoimmune response and generation AAbs with the same specificity in several chronic and autoimmune conditions. In CAR, the importance of serum anti-glycolytic enzyme AAbs had been previously dismissed, but then the retina may be without pathological consequence until a failure of the blood-retinal barrier function, which would allow pathogenic AAbs access to their retinal targets, ultimately leading to damaging effects.
How mathematicians assign points to student proofs

Abstract In this paper, we present an exploratory study on the important but under-researched area in undergraduate mathematics education: How do mathematics professors assign points to the proofs that their students submit? We interviewed nine mathematicians while they assigned points to three student-generated proofs from a transition-to-proof course. We observed that (i) One proof that contained a generic sub-proof was evaluated as correct by all nine participants and was given full credit by six participants, (ii) there were ten instances in which a mathematician did not assign full credit to a proof that she evaluated as correct, (iii) there was substantial variation in the points assigned to one proof, and (iv) mathematicians assigned points based not primarily on the correctness of the written artifact that they were given, but rather based on their models of students’ understanding. We discuss the importance of these observations and how they can inform future research.
The Duality of Oral Sex for Men Who Have Sex with Men: An Examination Into the Increase of Sexually Transmitted Infections Amid the Age of HIV Prevention.

Abstract Several studies suggest that the increase in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among men who have sex with men (MSM) could be due, in part, to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) risk reduction strategies, which include engaging in oral sex over anal sex. The aims of this study were to evaluate oral sex behaviors and STI diagnoses and to investigate the potential dual role of oral sex as being protective for HIV, yet perpetuating STI transmission among MSM. We analyzed records from 871 MSM presenting to the Rhode Island STI Clinic between 2012 and 2015. We compared outcomes in men engaging in two HIV protective oral sex behaviors: (1) HIV/STI outcomes by men engaging only in oral sex versus those that did not, and (2) HIV/STI outcomes by men engaging in condomless oral sex with 100% condom use for all other sex acts versus those that did not. Men engaging in HIV protective oral sex behaviors were more likely to be HIV negative compared to men not engaging in them (99% vs. 93%, p < 0.01). In c...
Alternative Donor Graft Sources for Adults with Hematologic Malignancies: A Donor for All Patients in 2017!

Hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) is potentially curative for a wide variety of malignant diseases, including acute and leukemias, lymphoma, and myelodysplasia. Choice of a stem cell donor is dependent on donor availability, donor compatibility and health, recipient disease type, and recipient condition. Current sources of stem cell donation for HSCT are matched sibling donors (MSDs), matched unrelated donors (MUDs), 1-antigen mismatched unrelated donors (MMUDs), haploidentical donors (haplo), and umbilical cord blood (UCB) units. Historically, preferred donors for HSCT have been human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched sibling donors; however, only about 30% of U.S. patients will have a MSD available. The majority of patients referred for HSCT will require an alternative donor graft: MUD, MMUD, UCB, or haplo. The likelihood of finding a MUD varies depending on the ethnicity of the recipient. White Caucasians of European descent have the greatest chance of finding a MUD. Chances of finding a MUD are significantly less for African-American or Hispanic recipients due to HLA polymorphisms. Therefore, MMUD, UCB, and haplo donor graft sources expand the donor pool for recipients who do not have a MSD or MUD available. Given the variety of different donor stem cell sources available today, nearly every patient who needs an allogeneic HSCT has a potential donor in 2017. All transplant-eligible patients with hematologic malignancies should be evaluated by a transplant center to determine if HSCT is a viable treatment option for their underlying disease process. Implications for practice The goal of this review is to increase the awareness of oncology practitioners to the availability of alternative donor stem cell transplants for patients with hematologic malignancies. Despite new agents, stem cell transplant remains the only curative therapy for many patients with acute and chronic leukemia, myelodysplasia, and lymphoma. Given the variety of different donor stem cell sources available today, nearly every patient who needs an allogeneic stem cell transplant will have a donor.
Denial of Service Attack on Tie-Line Bias Control in a Power System With PV Plant

The use of synchrophasor networks consisting of phasor measurement units (PMUs) makes it possible to monitor, analyzes, and control the electric power grid in real-time. PMU measurements of frequencies, currents, voltages, and phase angles are transmitted to system control centers through synchrophasor networks. Delayed or missing measurements from PMUs in closed-loop applications could lead to power system instability. Although the use of virtual private network (VPN) tunnels eliminates many security vulnerabilities, VPNs are still vulnerable to denial of service (DoS) attack that exploits a side-channel vulnerability. In this paper, the authors detail their analysis of DoS attack on a two-area four machine power system with a utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) plant. Automatic generation control (AGC) is used to implement a tie-line bias control in one of the areas. The impact of PMU packet dropping on AGC operation and countermeasures are presented in this paper. Cellular computational network (CCN) prediction of PMU data is used to implement a virtual synchrophasor network (VSN). The data from VSN is used by the AGC when the PMU packets are disrupted by DoS attacks. Real-time experimental results show the CCN based VSN effectively inferred the missing data and mitigated the negative impacts of DoS attacks.
Model for describing plasmonic nanolasers using Maxwell-Liouville equations with finite-difference time-domain calculations

We present a theoretical study of lasing action when plasmonic metallic structures that show lattice plasmon resonances are embedded in a gain medium. Our model combines classical electrodynamics for arrays of gold nanoparticles with a four-level quantum Liouville model of the laser dye photophysics. A numerical solution was implemented using finite-difference time-domain calculations coupled with a finite-difference solution to the Liouville equation. A particular focus of this work is the influence of dephasing in the quantum dynamics on the emission intensity at the threshold for lasing. We find that dephasing in the quantum system leads to reduced lasing emission, but with little effect on the long-term population inversion. Both electronic and vibrational dephasing is considered, but only electronic dephasing is significant, with the fully dephased result appearing for dephasing times comparable to plasmon dephasing ($\ensuremath{\sim}10$ fs) while fully coherent results involve $g100$ ps dephasing times as determined by the rate of stimulated emission. There are factor-of-2 differences between the Maxwell-Liouville results (greater emission intensities and narrower widths) compared to the corresponding results of rate-equation models of the dye states, which indicates the importance of using the Maxwell-Liouville approach in modeling these systems. We also examine rate-equation models with and without constraints arising from the Pauli exclusion principle, and we find relatively small effects.
Perceptual mechanisms underlying amodal surface integration of 3-D stereoscopic stimuli.

Abstract The visual system can represent a partially occluded 3-D surface from images of separated surface segments. The underlying amodal surface integration process accomplishes this by amodally extending each surface segment behind the occluder (amodal surface extension) and integrating the extended surfaces to form a whole surface representation. We conducted five experiments to investigate how depth cues, such as binocular disparity, half-occlusion, and monocular depth cues (T-junctions and L-junctions), contribute to amodal surface extension, and how the geometrical relationship and image similarity among the surface segments affect surface integration. This was achieved by having observers adjust the stereoscopic depth and slant of a comparison stimulus to match those of the tested 3-D stimulus. We found that both binocular disparity and half-occlusion cues are used to determine border-ownership assignment of surface segments and for amodal surface extension. We also found that separated surface segments need to have the same luminance contrast-polarity for them to be integrated as a whole surface. Finally, we found that having the same motion direction, minimum misalignment between boundary contours, and proximity among separated segments facilitate their integration. Overall, our findings reveal a set of “perceptual factors” for amodal surface integration, which arguably reflects our visual system’s built-in knowledge of the regularities in natural scenes.
A PATIENT DECISION AID FOR FAMILIAL HYPERCHOLESTEROLEMIA BASED ON PATIENT AND PROVIDER FEEDBACK

Patient Decision Aids (PDAs) can facilitate shared decision making between patients and healthcare providers. We aimed to develop a PDA for Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) based on feedback from patients, physicians and genetic counselors (GCs). We first drafted a paper-version PDA based on the
Racial Resentment and the Restoration of Voting Rights for Felons

The conference chairs call for papers examining “The Politics of Rights,” including how “rights are defined, contested, contracted or expanded, enshrined into law, and rolled back.” In keeping with this theme we propose to present a paper that investigates how racial resentments influence public attitudes towards the restoration of rights to felons. We analyzed the extent to which racial resentment, and beliefs about sociotropic consequences of actions to restore voting rights, shape opinions and beliefs about the restoration of the franchise to felons. We posit that racial stereotypes are instinctively tied to perceptions of who is more likely to be a felon in the United States, and thus individuals use their racial beliefs to make decisions about the deservingness of voting rights for all felons. We proposed to many in the public employ the egalitarian belief that no one should receive special considerations (e.g., voting rights) if they have been convicted. In this way the denial of voting rights to felons appears justified on a moral basis despite being founded on racial schema. Thus, racial resentments toward African Americans should predict support for the restoration of voting rights for felons, as well as beliefs about whether such restoration is good or bad for society. Our data come from the 2010 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (N=1,000), which includes a newly developed “explicit racial resentment” scale. The results show that racial resentment is a significant predictor of opposition to Congressional action to restore voting rights, even among those who agree that restoring the franchise would better society.
Radiotelemetry in Mouse Pregnacy

Chapter Summary Radiotelemetry is an extremely powerful technology for measuring hemodynamic alterations both throughout gestation and serially in experimental animals. The distinct advantage that radiotelemetry holds over other methods is its minimally invasive nature during the recording period; when combined with a completely internalized pressure-sensing catheter, one can obtain accurate, precise data that are highly reproducible.