cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Bactericidal Activity of Organic Acids against Salmonella typhimurium Attached to Broiler Chicken Skint

The bactericidal activity of 0.5, 1,2,4, and 6% acetic, citric, lactic, malic, mandelic, propionic, or tartaric acid was determined against Salmonella typhimurium that were loosely or firmly attached to broiler chicken skin by using the skin-attachment model. Acid treatments were applied during a simulated chill (0°C/60 min), postprocess dip (23°C for 15 s), or scald (50°C for 2 min). For comparison, activity of the acid treatments when applied under these conditions were also determined against S. typhimurium in aqueous suspension. In general, bactericidal activity (mean reduction log CFU per skin) of all acids increased linearly with increasing concentration in all applications. The bactericidal activity of organic acids depended on concentration and method of application. When compared to freely suspended cells, it is clear that salmonellae both firmly and loosely attached to poultry skin have increased resistance to or are protected from organic acids. In general, concentrations of ≥4% of the acids were required to kill ≥2 log number of cells of S. typhimurium that were attached to broiler skin.
Synthesis and antimicrobial studies of azomethine and N-arylamine derivatives of 4-(4-formyl-3-phenyl-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)benzoic acid as potent anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus agents

Antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics is a global concern. Without urgent and coordinated action, the world is moving towards a post-antibiotic era, in which normal infections or minor injuries may become fatal. In an effort to find new agents to combat this resistance, we report the synthesis and antimicrobial activities of 1,3-diphenyl pyrazole derivatives. Several compounds have shown growth inhibition up to 24 mm in size against Staphylococcus aureus inhibition studies. We tested the active compounds against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in minimum inhibitory concentration tests and found activity as low as 16 μg/mL.
Efficient and scalable socware detection in online social networks

Online social networks (OSNs) have become the new vector for cybercrime, and hackers are finding new ways to propagate spam and malware on these platforms, which we refer to as socware. As we show here, socware cannot be identified with existing security mechanisms (e.g., URL blacklists), because it exploits different weaknesses and often has different intentions. In this paper, we present MyPageKeeper, a Facebook application that we have developed to protect Facebook users from socware. Here, we present results from the perspective of over 12K users who have installed MyPageKeeper and their roughly 2.4 million friends. Our work makes three main contributions. First, to enable protection of users at scale, we design an efficient socware detection method which takes advantage of the social context of posts. We find that our classifier is both accurate (97% of posts flagged by it are indeed socware and it incorrectly flags only 0.005% of benign posts) and efficient (it requires 46 ms on average to classify a post). Second, we show that socware significantly differs from traditional email spam or web-based malware. For example, website blacklists identify only 3% of the posts flagged by MyPageKeeper, while 26% of flagged posts point to malicious apps and pages hosted on Facebook (which no current antivirus or blacklist is designed to detect). Third, we quantify the prevalence of socware by analyzing roughly 40 million posts over four months; 49% of our users were exposed to at least one socware post in this period. Finally, we identify a new type of parasitic behavior, which we refer to as "Like-as-a-Service", whose goal is to artificially boost the number of "Likes" of a Facebook page.
Into the Story 2: More Stories! More Drama!, by Carole Miller and Juliana Saxton

In Into the Story 2: More Stories! More Drama! Carole Miller and Juliana Saxton bring to the field a collection of ten new story drama sessions primarily for students at the elementary and middle-s...
Reclaiming the Multicultural Roots of U.S. Curriculum

Guide to New ResourcesSection Editors: Ming Fang He, Isabel Nunez, Maria Jose Botelho, Cheryl E. Matias, Helen Maniates, and JoAnn PhillionW. Au, A. L. Brown, & D. Calderon (2016). Reclaiming the M...
Asymptotic perfect secrecy in distributed estimation for large sensor networks

This paper considers asymptotic perfect secrecy and asymptotic perfect estimation in distributed estimation for large sensor networks under threat of an eavesdropper, which has access to all sensor outputs. To measure secrecy, we compare the estimation performance at the fusion center and at eavesdropper in terms of their respective Fisher Information. We analyze the Fisher Information ratio between the fusion center and eavesdropper and derive the maximum achievable ratio when the channels between sensors and eavesdropper are noisy binary symmetric channels. Furthermore, when the fusion center has noiseless channels, we show that the Fisher Information ratio can be made arbitrarily large by careful design of the sensor quantization rules. As a result, asymptotic perfect secrecy can be achieved by making the Fisher Information at Eve arbitrarily small while keeping the Fisher Information at the fusion center arbitrarily large. The secrecy design method in this paper might greatly enhance the secrecy in distributed estimation for large sensor networks.
Density-dependent woody detritus accumulation in an even-aged, single-species forest

Deadwood in forests influences fire intensity, stores carbon and nutrients, and provides wildlife habitat. We used a 54-year-old density management experiment in Larix occidentalis Nutt. forests to...
The cytochemistry of acute leukemia: observations on glycogen and neutral fat in bone marrow aspirates.

A cytochemical study of 54 cases of acute leukemia utilizing the periodic acid-Schiff reaction for glycogen and Oil Red O for neutral fat was performed on air dried bone marrow smears. The majority of leukemic lymphoblasts revealed significant amounts of glycogen and neutral fat. "Blast" cells in granulocytic leukemia were devoid of glycogen and of neutral fat. The recommendation is made that both of these histochemical stains be employed to attempt to resolve the problem of specific cellular identification in acute leukemia.
I'm not your mother.

I love being a mom and all of the joy and chaos that comes with balancing the tenure track with soccer games and Girl Scouts. However, I am a mom to two amazing girls—not an endless number of graduate and undergraduate students. I love being there for students, coaching them through their first
Geomatica-Based Approach for Automatic Extraction of Lineaments from ASTER-GDEM Data, in Part of Al-Rawdah, Shabwah, Southeast Yemen

Lineaments are considered one of the most important topographic features used in exploring resources such as minerals, groundwater, oil, and gas; besides, they are indicators of structural and tectonic basin. Geomatica- and GIS-based techniques have been used for extracting lineaments in part of Al-Rawdah, Shabwah, southeast Yemen. High-resolution 30-m ASTER GDEM shaded images with different sun angles are used in delineating lineaments in different distinct relief and topography. Various softwares are as follows: Arc GIS has been used for extracting various hill-shaded image and Geomatica (2013) has been used to enhance hill-shaded image and to extract lineaments using various default parameters, whereas RockWork14 has been used to indicate trend of the lineaments. Moreover, Arc GIS 10.2.2 has used for overlying, mapping, visualizing, and calculating different parameters. Eight hill-shaded images have been extracted with different sun angles. Shaded images of sun angles 0°, 45°, 90°, 135° were combined as one image for better enhancements. The next four shaded images, i.e., hill-shaded images of sun angles 180°, 225°, 270°, and 315°, were combined as one hill-shaded image. The two hill-shaded images combined were used for automatic extraction of lineaments and give N-NE and S-SE and N-NW and S-SE directions, respectively; however, they vary in their density. In addition, fault map identified NW-SE direction and was compared with last two combined hill-shaded images; when superimposed with them, it indicates that most of the lineaments are perpendicular to fault line and some match with it properly where the majority of the lineaments occur along hard rocks. The final superimposed image of all lineaments map has been classified into three types of lineaments: micro-, minor, and medium which have total number of 1040, 324 and 8 respectively with the length of 1368, 1050, and 157.5 km, respectively. Rose diagram indicated that the dominant trend of lineaments is NW-SE. The present study demonstrates the utilization of software for automated extraction of lineaments and their relationship with major structural features.
Machine learning for IC design and technology co-optimization in extreme scaling

Machine learning is a powerful computer science technique that can derive knowledge from big data and make predictions/decisions. Since nanometer integrated circuits (IC) and manufacturing have extremely high complexity and gigantic data, there is great opportunity to apply and adapt various machine learning/deep learning techniques in IC design and technology co-optimization (DTCO), including physical verification and physical design. This talk will first give an overview on machine learning/deep learning, and then discuss several case studies in various DTCO applications, including lithography modeling and hotspot detection, optical proximity correction (OPC) and sub-resolution assist feature (SRAF) insertion, and physical design. It will further discuss some challenges and research directions.
Managing Deep Debt Crises in the Euro Area: Towards a Feasible Regime

In spite of the inclusion of collective action clauses (â€˜euroâ€ CACsâ€™) in euro area sovereign bond contracts since 2013, the euro area still does not have a credible debt restructuring framework because: (1) stability risks of debt restructurings remain high; (2) euroâ€ CACs make it easy for creditors to hold out for full repayment; (3) IMF lending policies have not prevented the bailâ€ out of countries with unsustainable debts. In reaction, some proposals have called for hard criteria requiring debt restructuring as a condition for access to official crisis lending. This paper argues that this is the wrong approach, because hard criteria are errorâ€ prone, may trigger crises in highâ€ debt countries, and lack credibility when the economic costs of debt restructurings are high. Instead, the key to a credible debt restructuring framework is to reduce these costs, by cutting the links between sovereigns and banks and putting safety nets in place that limit contagion.
Late Peritoneal Response to Infection and Injury: Adhesion Formation

Adhesions form as a consequence of prolonged fibrin deposition, resulting from trauma or serous exudate during an inflammatory response. If the fibrin persists once re-mesothelialization is initiated, the bands can become organized and remodeled into permanent structures containing connective tissue fibers (elastin and collagen) and blood vessels. Prolongation of the fibrous bands between organs may result from a decrease in fibrinolytic activity that occurs from the inflammatory process or prolonged or excessive fibrin deposition, which may result from a multitude of factors, including infection. Adhesions have been hypothesized to protect the host for the acute effects of microbial infection, but prevention of adhesion formation in animal models did not necessarily increase the risk of the host to consequences from infection. The effects of anti-adhesion adjuvants have been assessed in a rat model. At high volumes, Hyskon, a solution of 32% dextran 70, was shown to increase mortality after introduction of a bacterial innoculum, whereas Intergel Adhesion Prevention Solution, ionically crosslinked hyaluronic acid (0.5%), and Adept, a 4% solution of icodextrin, does not. On the other hand, tolmetin, a drug that reduces prostaglandin synthesis and adhesion formation, increased leukocyte function involved in bacterial clearance. The effect of Hyskon may be through several mechanisms including its oncotic activity, its ability to act as a substrate for bacterial growth and immunosuppresion.
Preliminary investigation of brown adipose tissue assessed by PET/CT and cancer activity

To determine the role of brown adipose tissue (BAT) in cancer activity. The study group comprised 142 patients (121 female, 21 male; mean age, 49 ± 16 years) who underwent F18-FDG PET/CT (PET/CT) for staging or surveillance of cancer and who were BAT-positive on PET/CT. BAT volume by PET/CT, abdominal (visceral and subcutaneous) fat and paraspinous muscle cross-sectional areas (CSA) were assessed. Groups with and without active cancer on PET/CT were compared using a two-sided paired t test. Linear regression analyses between BAT and body composition parameters were performed. There were 62 patients (54 female, eight male) who had active cancer on PET/CT and 80 patients (67 female, 13 male) without active cancer. Groups were similar in age and BMI (p ≥ 0.4), abdominal fat and muscle CSA, fasting glucose, and outside temperature at time of scan (p ≥ 0.2). Patients who had active cancer on PET/CT had higher BAT volume compared to patients without active cancer (p = 0.009). In patients without active cancer, BAT was positively associated with BMI and abdominal fat depots (r = 0.46 to r = 0.59, p < 0.0001) while there were no such associations in patients with active cancer (p ≥ 0.1). No associations between BAT and age or muscle CSA were found (p ≥ 0.1). BAT activity is greater in patients with active cancer compared to age-, sex-, and BMI-matched BAT-positive patients without active cancer, suggesting a possible role of BAT in cancer activity.
Abstract TP159: Beta Blockers Do Not Increase the Risk of Post-Stroke Depression in a Predominantly Afro-Caribbean Population

Background: Depression is one of the most common neuropsychiatric disorders among ischemic stroke survivors, affecting up to 50%. Beta-blockers (BB) are commonly prescribed for stroke patients and ...
Introduction of an integrated curriculum: Early outcomes and experiences within a large private university

Abstract Background and purpose Curricular integration has long been advocated in healthcare education as a strategy to enhance academic experiences, facilitate higher-order learning, and bridge various disciplines. The study's purpose was (1) to assess the early impact of a new integrated pharmacy curriculum on course evaluations and learning of the clinical sciences when compared to the traditional curriculum and (2) to describe logistical enhancers and challenges that should be considered before and during the rollout of similar curricula. Educational activity and setting An integrated curriculum was designed to combine the clinical (therapeutics) and basic sciences (pharmacology, medicinal chemistry) using an organ-system approach within a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program. Beginning in the second professional year, the nine-course sequence was delivered in a modified block format. Study outcomes compared data (course evaluations and exam performance) from the traditional and integrated curriculums. Findings When comparing student course evaluations, there were no significant differences. Student commentary conveyed concerns on the ability to retain and apply material within a modular block course series. There was positive feedback regarding the integrated workshop cases in the new curriculum. The mean percentage difference in student performance for respective clinical science topics ranged from +0.8 to −3.9%. Summary Results provide insight on a transitional period between traditional and integrated curricular approaches in a United States accredited PharmD program. Future efforts will include evaluating its impact on college-specific outcomes, curricular satisfaction, and student performance on various assessment activities.
Characterization of the Furfural and 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) Metabolic Pathway in the Novel Isolate Pseudomonas putida ALS1267

The genes involved in the aerobic bacterial metabolism of furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) have been characterized in two species, Pseudomonas putida Fu1 and Cupriavidus basilensis HMF14. A third furan-metabolizing strain, Pseudomonas putida ALS1267, was recently identified that grows robustly on both furfural and HMF as sole carbon sources, with a growth rate of 0.250 h-1 on furfural and 0.311 h-1 on HMF, and we have characterized the genes involved in furfural and HMF metabolism in this bacterium. Unlike C. basilensis HMF14, which contains separate furfural and HMF operons, P. putida ALS1267 contains one contiguous 18.1-kb operon, which harbors all of the furfural- and HMF-metabolizing genes except for one, the hmfH gene that encodes HMF/furfural oxidoreductase and has both HMF acid oxidase and furfural/HMF dehydrogenase activity. The 18.1-kb operon was cloned into P. putida KT2440, which cannot metabolize furans, enabling growth on furfural as the sole carbon source with a growth rate of 0.340 h-1. The clone did not allow P. putida KT2440 to metabolize HMF, most likely due to the lack of the hmfH gene. No hmfH homolog was identified in P. putida ALS1267, suggesting that another gene in the ALS1267 genome provides this function.
Eosinophilic Esophagitis in Esophageal Atresia

Recent studies have reported a higher prevalence of eosinophilic esophagitis in children with esophageal atresia. Under recognition of eosinophilic esophagitis in these patients may lead to excessive use of antireflux therapy and an escalation of interventions, including fundoplication, as symptoms may be attributed to gastroesophageal reflux disease. In addition, long-term untreated eosinophilic esophagitis may lead to recurrent strictures due to transmural esophageal inflammation, necessitating repeated dilatations. Eosinophilic esophagitis should be considered when children with esophageal atresia show persistent symptoms on standard antireflux treatment, increasing dysphagia, and recurrent strictures. Treatment has been found to not only significantly reduce intraepithelial eosinophil count, but also to improve symptoms, and to lower the occurrence of strictures and the need for dilatations. Future prospective studies are warranted in this area.
Avoiding Prison Bars, But Gaining a Bar to Inheritance: A Statutory Solution for the Insane Slayer Through a Comparative Approach

If a solution cannot be found within states, it’s time to look outside our own borders. This Article does just that. With murder amongst family members slowly becoming a frequent phenomenon, comes the burden of determining inheritance. This burden grows exponentially, however, when the slayer is later found not guilty by reason of insanity as a result of a mental illness at the time of the killing. States have grappled with their treatment of the insane slayer in different ways, either by letting them inherit due to their lack of intent, or by refusing to let them inherit under public policy justifications. By arguing that the insane slayer should be able to inherit due to their lack of intent at the time of the killing and the uncontrollable genetic inheritance of their mental illness, this Article is the first to present a solution for the insane slayer through a comparative approach. Specifically, by adopting statutory language from the Forfeiture Act of 1995 No. 65 in New South Wales, Australia. This piece of legislation weighs the conduct of the offender, the conduct of the deceased, the effect of the rule on the defendant and other persons, and any other matters the court finds material. As a result, this Act exudes the discretion, subjectivity, and fairness that the traditional American slayer statute lacks. By consolidating language from the Forfeiture Act of 1995 and traditional American slayer statutes, the statutory solution proposed in this Article has the potential to protect the insane slayer in ways other laws have failed to do.
The unique pain of being human

We seem to experience pain differently to other animals. Why, wonders neuroscientist Barbara Finlay
Chapter 18 – Discourse Comprehension

Publisher Summary Most notably, comprehension necessitates the application of prior knowledge in combination with the encoding of information currently in discourse focus. Comprehension requires building connections between those events and existing representations in memory. For example, the situations described in the first two riddles take place in chronological order and are temporally contiguous. The elephant was put in the refrigerator first; unless the elephant is removed, the giraffe cannot be stored in the fridge. To answer the riddle, the reader must connect these two situations. Comprehenders routinely assume that consecutively described events take place in the order in which they are described, and that no unmentioned event will have occurred between them. Thus, the two events should be connected with each other and, given expectations about chronological order; those events should be assigned a predictable temporal association. In fact, a growing body of evidence suggests that comprehenders routinely and/or strategically keep track of protagonists, objects, locations, and events to build useful associations.
Epilepsy by the numbers - From the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Six in 10 adults with active epilepsy saw a neurologist or epilepsy specialist in the past year, United States, 2017.

Abstract This study used the most recent national data on epilepsy from the 2017 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to examine the distribution of types of provider visits in the last 12 months among 2.9 million adult respondents aged ≥ 18 years with active epilepsy (self-reported doctor-diagnosed epilepsy taking antiseizure medications and/or having ≥ 1 seizure in the past year) and compared these estimates with 2010 NHIS data. We calculated age-standardized percentages of visits to a general doctor and an epilepsy specialist during the past 12 months, accounting for the complex survey design. Among US adults with active epilepsy in 2017, 27.1% saw a general doctor only, 9.0% saw a neurologist/epilepsy specialist only, 53.0% visited both a general doctor and a neurologist/epilepsy specialist, and 11.4% did not see either a general doctor or a neurologist/specialist. Overall, 62.0% [95% confidence interval (CI) = 55.2%–67.5%] of adults with active epilepsy visited a neurologist or epilepsy specialist in the past year. A visit in the past 12 months with both provider types was not significantly different in 2017 compared with 2010 (53.0% vs 46.2%) while seeing a general doctor only had declined (41.8% vs 27.1%, p
Outscoping the Directive Force of Imperatives

Tiwa, a Tibeto-Burman language of India, has an obligatory wide scope disjunction particle that must outscope the directive force of imperatives. I argue that the behavior of wide scope disjunction...
Exosomal Secretion of Adipose Tissue during Various Physiological States

Exosomes are secreted extracellular vesicles containing a wide array of biologically active components. Recent studies have demonstrated that exosomes serve as an important vehicle for extracellular communication and exert systemic effects on the physiology of organisms. Adipose tissues (ATs) play a key role in balancing systemic energy homeostasis as a central hub for fatty acid metabolism. At the same time, proper endocrine function of ATs has also been shown to be crucial for regulating physiological and metabolic health. The endocrine function of ATs is partially mediated by AT-derived exosomes that regulate metabolic homeostasis, such as insulin signaling, lipolysis, and inflammation. During the pathogenesis of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and cancer, exosomes shed by the resident cells in ATs may also have a role in regulating the progression of these diseases along with associated pathologies. In this review, we summarize the contents of AT-derived exosomes and their effects on various cell populations along with possible underlying molecular mechanisms. We further discuss the potential applications of exosomes as a drug delivery tool and therapeutic target.
Utility of the 5-Item Modified Frailty Index for Predicting Adverse Outcomes Following Elective Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion.

Background Frailty is an increasingly studied tool for preoperative risk stratification, but its prognostic value for anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) patients is unclear. We sought to evaluate the association of the 5-item modified Frailty Index (5i-mFI) with 30-day adverse outcomes following ACDF and its predictive performance compared with other common metrics. Methods The National Surgical Quality Improvement Program was queried from 2016–2018 for patients undergoing elective ACDF for degenerative diseases. Outcomes of interest included 30-day complications, extended length of stay (LOS), non−home discharge, and unplanned readmissions. Unadjusted/adjusted odds ratios were calculated. The discriminatory performance of the 5i-mFI compared with age, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification, and body mass index was computed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results A total of 23,754 patients were identified. On adjusted analysis, an index of 1 was significantly associated with extended LOS, non−home discharge, and unplanned readmissions (P 0.05). An index ≥2 was significantly associated with each outcome (all P Conclusions The 5i-mFI was found to be significantly associated with 30-day adverse outcomes following ACDF but had similar or lesser predictive performance compared with more universally available and easily implemented metrics, such as ASA classification and age.
Multi-port Reflectometry Applied to a Varactor-Tuned Sampled-Line

This work applies multi-port reflectometry to a tunable sampled-line, demonstrating the ability to measure impedance when the parameters of the network are varied through varactor tuning. A theoretical model of the varactor-tuned sampled-line is presented and used to fit measured data in the plane of calibration constants used for impedance sensing. A 2-GHz demonstrator sampled-line is fabricated and characterized. Complex reflection coefficient measurements of the varying load are within 0.05 in magnitude and 5.7 degrees in phase over a 2.14:1 varactor tuning range.
Integration of Superconducting Nanostripe Single-Photon Detectors with Dielectric Waveguides for Silicon Quantum Photonic Integrated Circuits

We report on design, fabrication, and characterization of superconducting nanostripe single-photon detectors integrated with dielectric optical waveguides, whereby part of the upper cladding is removed to enhance absorption of photons by the superconducting nanostripes.
A Fresh Start for US Trade Policy: Unilateral Trade Liberalization through a Tariff Reform Commission

The US tariff code stands as a barrier to reviving the US economy as it begins to recover from the coronavirus shutdown. Mounting evidence shows that statutory tariffs and the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration since 2018 are compounding the economic damage caused by the COVID-19 virus and are complicating the efforts of consumers and healthcare providers to access medical supplies. Executive action can mitigate some of the harm, but the US Constitution and the scope of the problem require congressional action. Such action should be taken unilaterally by the US government in its own national interest regardless of what actions other nations pursue. This paper recommends the establishment of a Tariff Reform Commission to enable Congress to overcome special-interest opposition to trade liberalization. The commission would be patterned after the successful Base Realignment and Closure process and Miscellaneous Tariff Bill process. It would follow the proven path taken by other nations that have unilaterally liberalized their trade policies.
Care received by rural and urban patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer: Results from a population-based prospective cohort.

203Background: Rural residence is a source of disparity in cancer access and outcomes. It is not known to what extent rurality affects access to care in patients with prostate cancer. Methods: The ...
Incidence of a negative hidden curriculum, cynicism, and burnout within pharmacy resident education: A nationwide survey

Abstract Introduction The term “hidden curriculum” (HC) is a set of ethical, moral, and value-based teachings communicated in a non-explicit manner. Recent literature has described increasing awareness of the prevalence of the HC and potential negative impact on medical learners; however, this information is lacking in pharmacy resident education. Consequently, we conducted a survey study of United States pharmacy residents to learn their perceptions concerning the HC in pharmacy residency training. Methods A nationwide survey of pharmacy residents was conducted in June 2019. The survey assessed the following: presence of negative HC (score 0 to 80), cynicism (score 0 to 25), burnout via Maslach Burnout Inventory depersonalization (MBI-D) (range 0 to 30), and emotional exhaustion via Maslach Burnout Inventory emotional exhaustion (MBI-EE) (range 0 to 54). Higher scores represent increased occurrences of each domain. Results The mean HC score was 20 (SD 14.7), mean cynicism score was 9 (SD 5.5), MBI-D was 5.5 (SD 4.5), and MBI-EE was 24.2 (SD 12.4). Of those completing an MBI score, 40.4% (82/203) reported burnout in one area, while 15.8% (32/203) reported burnout in both areas. Residents reporting burnout had higher mean HC and cynicism scores. Conclusions Awareness to develop and grow cultures that minimize the presence of a negative HC is essential to improve postgraduate pharmacy training.
Leveraging Spatial Information in Smart Grids using STGCN for Short-Term Load Forecasting

The problem of predicting the behaviour of energy consumers (loads) in the next few intervals — Short-Term Load Forecasting (STLF) is critical to the success of several grid operations. Prediction at lower aggregation levels is difficult due to the high volatility of the data. Smart grid operations, and in turn any data generated as a result of them, exhibit high spatial correlations imposed due to the topology of the power distribution network as well as other latent factors such as similarity in neighborhood, socio-economic status, etc. While temporal information is usually leveraged in neural network structures like Recurrent or Convolutional Layers, the use of spatial information in load forecasting has not been explored. In this paper, we develop a Spatial-Temporal Graph Convolutional Network (STGCN) model for the problem of Short-Term Load Forecasting in Smart Grids. STGCNs specialize in capturing both spatial and temporal correlations in the data to obtain more accurate predictions. We also show that our model, by capturing both spatial and temporal correlations, is more robust to missing data than state-of-the-art prediction models. We perform detailed evaluation on a dataset based in Iowa, US with real power at a low aggregation level (5 ∼ 10 customers per datapoint) and show that our model predicts 3 hours ahead real load consumption with a Mean Absolute Error of 7.54% less than the best performing baseline model, and as much as 38.72% less in Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) if the data has missing entries.
Fracture Toughness Testing of Advanced Silicon Carbide Ceramics Using Digital Image Correlation

The quasi-static fracture toughness (K Ic ) of pressureless-sintered and reaction-bonded ceramics was investigated through a four-point bend, chevron-notch testing method. The sample geometry is in accordance with Configuration A of the ASTM C1421 testing standard. Tests were conducted using an electro-mechanical universal testing machine. The digital image correlation (DIC) technique was used to verify stable crack nucleation and growth through recording of the crack mouth opening displacement (CMOD). The reaction-bonded composite displayed a higher K Ic value than the pressureless-sintered ceramic, possibly due to the presence of the silicon phase, which exhibits a quasi-ductile fracture behavior.
“ Revisiting Steinbeck’s Littoral Phenomenology: Husserlian Elements in The Log from The ‘Sea of Cortez’”

In 2010, Analecta Husserliana published a paper I had presented for the International Society of Phenomenology, Fine Arts, and Aesthetics entitled “John Steinbeck’s Log from the ‘Sea of Cortez’: One of Husserl’s Infinite Tasks?” In this paper, I will continue an argument begun there, that in The Log from the “Sea of Cortez,” Steinbeck often speaks in a distinctively phenomenological voice. To substantiate my claim, I will focus on passages from the text that deal with cognitive sedimentation and parts and wholes, aligning them with passages in the Husserlian corpus to draw out their phenomenological character. The project will be useful in two ways: it will educe additional phenomenological moments in Steinbeck’s Log, and it will provide new and helpful examples from Steinbeck’s work to illustrate themes from Husserl’s own work. In the end, I hope the comparisons show that Steinbeck’s Log can reasonably be regarded as a littoral phenomenology.
Presentation of the Roebling Medal of the Mineralogical Society of America for 2001 to Peter John Wyllie

I greatly appreciate this opportunity to publicly acknowledge the indebtedness of our Society and of our profession to the good works of Peter Wyllie. He is an honorable person and deserves honoring. Speaking for myself, I can never adequately express my gratitude to him for anything worthwhile through my own efforts. The career of Peter John Wyllie has been so impact full, so far-reaching, and so diverse that any attempt to encapsulate it in these woefully few paragraphs would be futile. Let me, therefore, highlight those areas that may not appear in other biographical material. Peter was born in London, England in 1930. He received a B.Sc. in Physics and in Geology in 1952, First Class Honors in Geology three years later, and a Ph.D. three years after that—all from the University of St. Andrews in his ancestral Scotland. Peter developed his talents as an experimentalist while a graduate student at St. Andrews, working as a Research Assistant with Frank Tuttle at Penn State, following which Penn State kept him there as an Assistant Professor. He returned to England for awhile as a Research Fellow and Lecturer at Leeds University before going back to Penn State as an Associate Professors in 1961—the year that I arrived there as a new graduate student. At that time, the Earth-science group at Penn State comprised …
5 Continuity and Transformation in Central Mexico: “The Legend of Tepozteco” and the People of Tepoztlán

This chapter takes an ethnohistorical approach to the study of cultural continuity in the town of Tepoztlan, Morelos. During the course of history, the people of Tepoztlan have maintained social cohesion by reenacting a historical legend, the “Legend of Tepozteco,” which brings together pre-Hispanic and colonial mythologies with contemporary performance art at the base of an ancient temple. This social cohesion produced through performance and place has allowed the community to resist economic projects that have threatened the ecological, cultural, and social identity of their town, such as a movement against the construction of a golf course in 1995.
Left atrial volume is associated with inflammation and atherosclerosis in patients with kidney disease.

BACKGROUND Left atrial volume (LAV) is an independent echocardiographic predictor of cardiovascular events in the general population. We evaluated predictors of LAV in patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD). HYPOTHESIS Increasing LAV identifies increased cardiovascular risk in patients with CKD. METHODS Transthoracic echocardiography was performed in CKD patients undergoing cardiovascular evaluation prior to listing for renal transplantation. LAV was measured using the biplane area-length formula and indexed for body surface area. Carotid intima-media thickness was assessed by B-mode ultrasound. Lipoproteins were measured by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Values are presented as mean (standard deviation). Relationships with LAV were evaluated using univariate and multivariable regression analyses. RESULTS There were 99 participants (80% white, 68% male). Their mean age was 55.7 (9.3) years. Significant correlates of LAV were systolic blood pressure (r = 0.24), C-reactive protein (r = 0.29), carotid intima-media thickness (r = 0.29), peak transmitral E-wave (r = 0.38), and severity of mitral regurgitation (r = 0.23, P 75% stenosis on coronary angiography (38.4 mL/m2 vs 31.8 mL/m2, P = 0.03). In regression models, high sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP), the transmitral E-wave velocity, and a history of stroke independently predicted LAV (P < or = 0.05). CONCLUSION In individuals with advanced CKD, LAV is associated with inflammation, increased early transmitral filling velocities, and atherosclerosis. These findings may indicate increased cardiovascular risk with increasing LAV in patients with CKD.
Preliminary efficacy of prize-based contingency management to increase activity levels in healthy adults

An estimated 30% of Americans meet the criteria for obesity. Effective, low-cost interventions to increase physical activity are needed to prevent and treat obesity. In this study, 11 healthy adults wore Fitbit accelerometers for 3 weeks. During the initial baseline, subjects earned prize draws for wearing the Fitbit. During intervention, percentile schedules were used to calculate individual prize-draw criteria. The final week was a return to baseline. Four subjects increased step counts as a result of the intervention. A bout analysis of interresponse times revealed that subjects increased overall step counts by increasing daily minutes active and within-bout response rates and decreasing pauses between bouts of activity. Strategies to improve effectiveness are suggested, such as modification of reinforcement probability and amount and identification of the function of periods of inactivity.
Move-to-front and inversion coding

Motivated by the move-to-front (MTF) coder's (recency ranking) utilization of small size permutations which are restricted to the data source's alphabet size, we investigate compression of data files by using the canonical sorting permutations from the set of {0,...,n}, where n is the size of a data source, followed by inversion coding. We show that the inversion coding (ranking) technique introduced yields better compression gain than the recency ranking (MTF coder) for almost all the test data files. Furthermore, we investigate replacement of MTF coder in the block sorting schemes and show that when inversion coding is used after the BWT transformation, it yields better compression gains on average than the well-known block sorting techniques such as Bzip, Bks98 and Szip-b.
Effects of erythorbic acid on vitamin C metabolism in young women

Erythorbic acid, an epimer of L-ascorbic acid, is used in the United States as a food additive. Studies were conducted to determine whether the ingestion of erythorbic acid in the diet had any beneficial or adverse effects on the human requirement for vitamin C. Young women were fed diets that contained controlled amounts of erythorbic acid and ascorbic acid. In pharmacokinetic evaluations, erythorbic acid and ascorbic acid were rapidly absorbed with little interaction. Erythorbic acid cleared from the body more rapidly than ascorbic acid. Some subjects received diets deficient in vitamin C for periods < or = 30 d. Increasing intakes of erythorbic acid or prolonged intakes of < or = 1 g erythorbic acid/d did not indicate any interactions with ascorbic acid. Consumption of erythorbic acid resulted in the presence of erythorbic acid in mononuclear leukocytes. Ascorbic acid concentrations in these cells were not affected by the presence of erythorbic acid. Erythorbic acid disappeared quickly from these cells with cessation of erythorbic acid supplements. Prolonged ingestion of erythrobic acid by young women neither antagonized nor spared their vitamin C status.
Endothelin-1 induces tyrosine phosphorylation in human blood monocytes

Mediators including the neuropeptide endothelin-1 (ET-1), which are released in response to injury, modulate the expression of cell adhesion molecules on leukocytes and endothelial cells. The mechanisms underlying this process are not clear. In this study we investigated the effect of endothelin-1 on the expression of tyrosine phosphorylated proteins in human blood monocytes. Endothelin-1 caused an increase in tyrosine phosphorylated proteins in monocytes in a time-dependent and dose-dependent manner, the Mr 60, 80 and 110 kDa proteins being the most prominent. This effect was blocked by pre-incubating the monocytes with the selective tyrosine kinase inhibitors genistein or herbimycin A. Endothelin-1-induced upregulation of tyrosine phosphorylated proteins appears to be mediated by the ETAreceptor. Unlike our previously reported studies in endothelial cells, immunoprecipitation with anti-src or anti-JAK antibodies followed by immunoblotting with PY20 in human blood monocytes revealed that these proteins of Mr 60, 80 and 110 kDa were not related to src or JAK kinases. These findings suggest that ET-1 exerts its effect on monocytes by a pathway involving tyrosine kinases other than src or JAK kinases.
Image-algebraic design of multispectral target recognition algorithms

In this paper, we discuss methods for multispectral ATR (Automated Target Recognition) of small targets that are sensed under suboptimal conditions, such as haze, smoke, and low light levels. In particular, we discuss our ongoing development of algorithms and software that effect intelligent object recognition by selecting ATR filter parameters according to ambient conditions. Our algorithms are expressed in terms of IA (image algebra), a concise, rigorous notation that unifies linear and nonlinear mathematics in the image processing domain. IA has been implemented on a variety of parallel computers, with preprocessors available for the Ada and FORTRAN languages. An image algebra C++ class library has recently been made available. Thus, our algorithms are both feasible implementationally and portable to numerous machines. Analyses emphasize the aspects of image algebra that aid the design of multispectral vision algorithms, such as parameterized templates that facilitate the flexible specification of ATR filters.
Multiple primary melanomas of the small intestine

Multiple primary melanotic tumors (64 carcinomas (?)) of the small intestine were found in a man 35 years of age with the development of symptoms 9 months before death. Metastases occurred in the intestine, mesenteric lymph nodes and the heart. There being no other clinically or pathologically demonstrable primary source, it is assumed that the tumor started here from a possible mesoblastic type chromatophore.
Achievability of Multi-Frame Blind Deconvolution Cramér-Rao Lower Bounds

The achievability of MFBD CRBs for both object and blurring functions using Fourier-domain metrics depend upon signal-to-noise ratios and the quality of the prior knowledge included in the reconstruction process
Diabetic Macular Edema: Therapeutic Options

Treatment for diabetic macular edema (DME) is continuously evolving with the advent of pharmacologic therapies. Focal laser photocoagulation remains the historical standard of care; however, a new wave of studies is rapidly emerging that shows the benefit of intravitreal antivascular endothelial growth factor medications and corticosteroids. The goal of this review is to compare the various treatment options for DME, and include data from the most recent clinical trials of therapies for this complex condition.
MOLT AND PLUMAGE TERMINOLOGY OF HOWELL ET AL. (2003) STILL MAY NOT REFLECT HOMOLOGIES

Abstract Forty-five years ago Humphrey and Parkes (1959) introduced their system of nomenclature for molts and plumages (the H-P system). They claimed that their biologically neutral terminology, independent of the bird's life cycle events, could accurately reflect homologies of molts and plumages across a wide range of avian taxa. Soon, however, several investigators reported trouble adapting the terminology to unusual sequences of molts and plumages, and others expressed doubts that it could accurately reflect true phylogenetic homologies. Howell et al. (2003) reviewed these problems and proposed a modification of the original H-P system that identifies the juvenal plumage as the first basic plumage, and any postjuvenal plumages that are not repeated in later plumage cycles as formative plumages. By doing this, they solved the problem of adapting the original H-P system to plumages of the first year of life in many species. However, they have not overcome the arguments of Stresemann (1963) and Amadon (1...
LHC Heavy-Ion Program: a CMS Perspective

The LHC will collide protons at √{s} = 14 TeV and lead ions at √{sNN} = 5.5 TeV. These energies are much higher than with the Fermilab Tevatron or RHIC. Huge experiments are being assembled at four interaction points along the 27 km LHC ring. Although it is a large step into the unknown, there have been extensive calculations predicting data rates for a wide variety of processes to be observed by these experiments. Here we consider primarily the results of lead collisions as will be observed by the CMS experiment.
A pocket calculator program for pharmacokinetic dosing of drugs exhibiting single compartment first-order elimination and zero-order or first-order absorption

A pocket computer program has been designed to assist clinicians in the appropriate administration of most drugs exhibiting single compartment first-order elimination and either zero-order (intravenous infusions) or first-order (intramuscular and oral) absorption. The program utilizes well-established pharmacokinetic parameters to calculate an optimal drug dose and dosing interval based upon a patient's demographic characteristics and the drug half-life, volume of distribution, and absorption rate constant or infusion time. It also allows the user to estimate peak and trough drug serum concentrations. When measured serum concentrations are available during steady state, it is possible to determine individual patient drug half-life and volume of distribution for more accurate adjustments in dose and/or dosing interval. Usage of this program should enable clinicians to better select effective but safe drug dosing regimens based on individual patient needs and characteristics.