cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Specialized basophilic cells in the ventral lobe of the pituitary of the smooth dogfish, Mustelus canis

The ventral lobe of the adenohypophysis of the smooth dogfish, Mustelus canis, a viviparous elasmobranch, has been found to possess distinctive cells identified as basophils on the basis of staining properties. At maximum size, such a cell consists of a distended vesicle containing PAS-positive, AF-negative material surrounded by a thin envelope of cytoplasm and an eccentric nucleus. In earlier stages of these cells, vesicles are small or absent and granules in the more abundant cytoplasms are AF or Alcian-positive. Basophil numbers are high in pre-ovulation and mid-ovulation females, decrease markedly after the end of ovulation until embryos are about 1 cm long then increase greatly during August and September while embryos grow to 8 cm in length. Early high counts, if these basophils are gonadotropes, may be correlated with stimulation of the ovary and ovulation; reduced numbers suggest inhibition, possibly by ovarian hormones for a period, while subsequent increase may indicate indirect involvement in uterine conditions in this viviparous species. Conclusion are, admittedly, tentative as specimens were available during only a fraction of the ten month gestation period.
In Defence of Ambiguity: Is There A Hidden Demon In Mark 1.29–31?

‘Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.’1 Does the author of the Gospel of Mark believe that the fever in Mark 1.30 is demonic? Or does he trace it to the power of God? It is also possible that he looks at the fever as a result of medical causes. It could be the case he author has no clear perception of the cause of the fever. In the Greco-Roman culture of Mark's audience, the fever could be seen as the result of medical, astrological, divine, or demonic causes. This set of facts will be established below. The text in Mark can then be read in four different ways depending on the understanding of fever that the scholar chooses to adopt. Given the cultural possibilities for understanding fever, Mark's text takes on a certain ambiguity. The ambiguity should be carefully upheld in light of recent attempts to precisely identify the Markan etiology of the fever.
Transient Decreases in Human T Cell Proliferative Responses Following Vaccinia Immunization

To further study the immunosuppression associated with virus infections, we analyzed the proliferative responses of serial PBMC samples obtained following vaccinia virus immunization. In four of five volunteers, responses to PHA, anti-CD3, vaccinia virus, and recall antigens were markedly decreased at at least one time point between days 5 and 29 after vaccination. Responses to PHA were restored by the addition of IL-2 or irradiated autologous healthy PBMC in the two volunteers tested, suggesting that the proliferation defect is attributable to accessory cell dysfunction. In one donor, immobilized anti-CD3 failed to induce proliferation, but addition of immobilized anti-CD28 partially restored proliferation. These results indicate that vaccinia virus infection can transiently suppress proliferative responses of PBMC, in part by causing accessory cell dysfunction. Our findings extend the list of viral infections associated with systemic immunologic effects and demonstrate that suppression of proliferation can occur with localized virus infections.
Behavioral State Organization in Human Term Fetuses: Evidence of Relatively Tight Control of State Cycling

Repeated alterations in episodes of quiet sleep (QS) and active sleep (AS) is a basic feature of behavioral state organization in human fetuses. Activation of the reticular formation (RF) is important in the transition from QS to AS, and intrinsic changes in central nervous system (CNS) activity govern RF activation. Vibroacoustic stimulation (VAS) can alter RF activation and thus delay the occurrence of QS. We hypothesize that if intrinsic RF activation in human fetuses is greatest just after entering AS and is decreasing as an AS-to-QS transition is approached, then fetuses ought to be in an active period longer if stimulated just after entering AS than if stimulated closer to an AS-to-QS transition. The purpose of this study was to test this hypothesis. We examined 87 normal human fetuses between 37 and 41 weeks of gestation. Behavioral states were assigned based on fetal heart rate pattern and the presence or absence of fetal eye and gross body movements. All fetuses were observed to enter AS before b...
LAN/WAN integration: internetworking+application interoperability

Users interconnect their LANs and WANs to support their applications. This distributed environment requires more than communications standards. This paper addresses the services required to support distributed processing and the various activities to develop the "standards" to provide these services. It discusses the ISO's approach to open distributed processing (ODP), and describes the ODP reference model and the seven aspects of a distributed system. The Open Software Foundation's distributed computing environment, middleware, the evolution in the marketplace of the PC LAN/WAN environment and the enterprise network goal architecture are also described. >
Use of upscaled elevation and surface roughness data in two-dimensional surface water models

In this paper, we present an approach that uses a combination of cell-block- and cell-face-averaging of high-resolution cell elevation and roughness data to upscale hydraulic parameters and accurately simulate surface water flow in relatively low-resolution numerical models. The method developed allows channelized features that preferentially connect large-scale grid cells at cell interfaces to be represented in models where these features are significantly smaller than the selected grid size. The developed upscaling approach has been implemented in a two-dimensional finite difference model that solves a diffusive wave approximation of the depth-integrated shallow surface water equations using preconditioned Newton–Krylov methods. Computational results are presented to show the effectiveness of the mixed cell-block and cell-face averaging upscaling approach in maintaining model accuracy, reducing model run-times, and how decreased grid resolution affects errors. Application examples demonstrate that sub-grid roughness coefficient variations have a larger effect on simulated error than sub-grid elevation variations.
Making resettlement work : The case of India's Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary

Abstract The relocation and resettlement of people from nature reserves is a controversial issue in the conservation community. The perceived poor success rate of resettlement efforts, combined with availability of few well-documented studies, warrants a detailed examination of this issue. I have analyzed a relocation and resettlement project in India’s Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary. I examine the relocation experience of 419 households who moved to two villages located outside the reserve. I interviewed 61% of relocated households in 2002 and 55% relocated households in 2006. In 2002, 71% of households were satisfied with the relocation effort and their quality of life. In 2006, 52% of households were satisfied with their quality of life. Four years after relocation, all households have access to electricity, water, schools, health care, transportation, and communication facilities. Many households have increased their income and assets. Yet, there were differences between the two different-resettlement villages, with one of them faring better in terms of economics, hardships, and uncertainty. This paper draws out insights important for improving conservation practices related to resettlement efforts. It documents short to mid-term successes and challenges that affect the communities involved. I submit that in specific contexts, relocation may be a viable conservation tool. Successful conservation resettlement requires substantial financial support to meet people’s socio-economic needs, active consultation of the people involved, and partnerships of committed non-governmental and governmental organizations.
A modeling study on steady-state and transverse dynamic motion of a towed array system

A numerical technique for mathematically modeling the steady-state and transverse dynamic motion of an underwater towed sonar array is presented. The transverse vibration response of the array is modeled using the finite difference method; the array itself is assumed to be nonneutrally buoyant and possesses a complex modulus and hence inherent damping. The results obtained from this model should provide useful information for further studying the beamforming and passive-ranging performance degradation and predicting the self-noise level of the towed array system.
Synthetic Studies toward Sarain A. Formation of the Western Macrocyclic Ring

Starting with the tricyclic core 2b, annulation to form the 13-membered western ring of sarain A has been achieved to afford the macrocycle 30a by initial construction of the sterically congested quaternary center at C-3, followed by elaboration of the C-3 side-chain and ring-closing olefin metathesis. Also included is a parallel conversion of tricycle 2c to macrocycle 30b containing a functionalized side-chain at N-1 suitable for attachment of the eastern macrocyclic ring.
Algal biomass accrual in relation to nutrient availability and limitation along a longitudinal gradient of a karst riverine system

Nutrient availability influences growth, productivity, and community structure of primary producers. Nutrient limitation, however, results from a deficiency mainly in nitrogen (N) or phosphorus (P) levels relative to cellular growth needs. Limitation is a function of biotic and abiotic factors, the latter including land-use activities (e.g., agriculture, septic systems) and underlying bedrock features. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to assess the relationship between algal biomass and ambient nutrient levels along the longitudinal course of a river through a transition from weak to well-developed underlying karst bedrock and (2) experimentally assess if periphyton was N- or P-limited between weak and well-developed karst reaches. Sestonic and Cladophora biomass (=chlorophyll-a) levels increased sharply along the longitudinal gradient. Cladophora biomass, in particular, was strongly correlated with nitrate levels. In contrast, periphyton biomass (=chlorophyll-a) levels were sporadic and did not display a longitudinal pattern. With the exception of ammonia, individual nutrient levels generally increased longitudinally and were higher in the downstream karst reaches. Total N/total P ratios also increased longitudinally and were >25 throughout the study region, suggesting P limitation. The results of the nutrient limitation studies, however, coupled with high concentrations of both N and P throughout the study reach in excess of eutrophication thresholds, suggest that total nutrients are not limiting within the study region. Overall, Kentucky's upper Green River appears to be a nutrient-enriched, eutrophic system and particularly in the downstream, well-developed karst reaches.
Cultural Adaptation of Interventions in Real Practice Settings

This article provides an overview of some common challenges and opportunities related to cultural adaptation of behavioral interventions. Cultural adaptation is presented as a necessary action to ponder when considering the adoption of an evidence-based intervention with ethnic and other minority groups. It proposes a roadmap to choose existing interventions and a specific approach to evaluate prevention and treatment interventions for cultural relevancy. An approach to conducting cultural adaptations is proposed, followed by an outline of a cultural adaptation protocol. A case study is presented, and lessons learned are shared as well as recommendations for culturally grounded social work practice.
Use of intraoperative computed tomography during repair of orbitozygomatic fractures.

Objective To assess the practicality and potential benefits of intraoperative computed tomography using a mobile scanner in the operating room during repair of orbitozygomatic fractures. Setting Le...
A Cut Principle for Information Flow

We view a distributed system as a graph of active locations with unidirectional channels between them, through which they pass messages. In this context, the graph structure of a system constrains the propagation of information through it. Suppose a set of channels is a cut set between an information source and a potential sink. We prove that, if there is no disclosure from the source to the cut set, then there can be no disclosure to the sink. We introduce a new formalization of partial disclosure, called blur operators, and show that the same cut property is preserved for disclosure to within a blur operator. A related compositional principle ensures limited disclosure for a class of systems that differ only beyond the cut.
Making My Way through Traffic: Chaos as Transformation

Systems theory, nonlinear dynamics, and chaos theory inform the author's personal development as prelude to an emergent understanding at the intersection of these ideas as applied to group dynamics.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Hypersusceptibility to Amprenavir In Vitro Can Be Associated with Virus Load Response to Treatment In Vivo

The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 protease mutation N88S, which is occasionally selected by treatment with nelfinavir or indinavir, confers hypersusceptibility to amprenavir in vitro. The clinical relevance of this observation is unclear. We report a case of N88S developing after virologic failure of both indinavir- and nelfinavir-containing regimens that was managed successfully with a regimen that contained amprenavir.
Entrainment and detrainment from a model boundary layer

A two-dimensional inviscid flow with piecewise-uniform regions of vorticity is studied as a model of the high-Reynolds-number mixing between a boundary layer and an outer layer. It is found that an initial disturbance to the boundary-layer thickness breaks down into a wave field plus, if the initial disturbance is steep enough, a volume of entrained fluid. The entrained fluid is drawn from the outer layer and then folded into a crevice. The crevice stretches, and eventually pinches off, becoming completely enveloped within the boundary layer. Though the entrained fluid is slender in shape, its volume is significant. Very steep disturbances result in detrainment, in which a small parcel of fluid detaches from the boundary layer and curls into the outer layer. The v-velocity field agrees with many features of Kovasznay et al.'s (1970) measurements in the turbulent boundary layer. This correspondence with fully turbulent flow, plus the characteristics of folding and stretching large volumes of fluid, make the process presented here a candidate for a mechanism by which high-Reynolds-number boundary layers mix with outer-layer fluid.
Compaction with general synchronous timing

In current microcode generation systems, one simplification that is frequently made is to assume an absence of timing restrictions. It is critical that timing is considered when the target architecture involves branch delays, volatile registers, or microoperations requiring multiple microinstructions to complete. A general form for representing synchronous timing in clocked microarchitectures and methods of compacting data-dependency graphs with general timing are described. >
An Evaluation of Postoperative Complications and Cost After Short-Stay Thyroid Operations.

Background Concern for postoperative complications causing airway compromise has limited widespread acceptance of ambulatory thyroid surgery. We evaluated differences in outcomes and hospital costs in those monitored for a short stay of 6 h (SS), inpatient observation of 6–23 h (IO), or inpatient admission of >23 h (IA).
The “New Look” in Addiction Assessment: Implications for Medical Education

Recognizing that addictive behaviors and their adverse consequences are one of the most costly health care problems in this country, medical education programs have been developed to improve providers’ knowledge about addictions and assessment skills. Despite such educational efforts, most addictions continue to be overlooked and addiction screenings are the exception rather than the rule. This paper addresses the limitations of current training by presenting a “new look” in addiction assessment that argues for 1) the benefits of screening for both substance and behavioral addictions and 2) extending the goal of screenings to include harm reduction and prevention. Broadening the scope of educational initiatives will only improve recognition of addictions if practitioners embrace assessment as a legitimate part of their role. To this end, barriers to conducting addiction assessments in health care settings are explored and some solutions proposed.
Using Focus Groups to Examine Prospective Memory Strategies in the Medication Management of Older Adults

Older adults often strive to maintain an independent lifestyle. However, in order to live independently in the community, it is necessary that older adults are able to take responsibility for their own health-related tasks including medication management and health-related appointments. Successfully managing these health-related tasks requires the use of prospective memory (PM), yet the research documenting the specific PM tasks people encounter when managing health-related tasks is scant. The current paper describes a focus group study aimed at identifying PM tasks that older adults must remember and those they forget, as well as an examination into the current strategies used to assist with managing medications and health-related appointments.
The Design and Construction of a Blended Wing Body UAV

Our team consists of eight students, all majoring in Aerospace Engineering. We developed and constructed a 5 meter wingspan, fully composite blended wing body aircraft. Our UAV is equipped with a full navigation and autopilot system to allow for autonomous flight. Our goal was to revolutionize aircraft by designing and building a highly efficient and useable airplane: with zero emissions, high reliability, and the ability to travel great distances for its size. The propulsion for the aircraft is provided by two ducted fan electric motors that are partially embedded into the airframe and which will be powered by batteries of a very high energy density. The reason we are constructing a blended wing body aircraft is to prove its superior aerodynamic and structural efficiency, interior space advantages and high lift capabilities. We then want to take our aircraft and use these advantages in real world application, to show that a blended wing body is the future of aircraft. Our UAV was designed with the extensive use of 3D modeling and CFD analysis. The airfoils over the entire span of the aircraft are custom designed and tested to create very high Lift to drag ratios and allow for stable flight. As well as a proof of concept for blended wing body aircraft, the team looks to further the idea by developing a craft that is versatile, fully functional and capable, extremely efficient, and applicable and practical for everyday use. We want to incorporate these features in a practical design that can be used for many real-world applications for civilian, commercial and military use.
PATENTS AS QUALITY SIGNALS FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL VENTURES.

To what extent do venture capital (VC) investors use information from patents to assess the quality of new ventures? Using a sample of 370 U.S. semiconductor start-ups, we examine when patents impr...
Evaluation of undergraduate education by students and residents

Total 117 persons including undergraduate students,graduate students and residents major in pediatrics were surveyed for their views to current medical education system.The results showed that large proportion of people have not been satisfied with current medical education in terms of cultural branch of education,clinical skill training,medical English teaching and innovative cultivation.Continuous improvements should be made in all these aspects to ensure long term education outcome.
Native American Whalemen and the World: Indigenous Encounters and the Contingency of Race. By Nancy Shoemaker.

Native American Whalemen and the World: Indigenous Encounters and the Contingency of Race. By Nancy Shoemaker. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015. xii + 303 pp. Illustrations, maps, tables, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. $34.95.) It is surprising to learn that during the nineteenth century—an era obsessed with racial classification—the U.S. Customs Service did not classify seamen on the basis of race. Native American seamen, not considered citizens at home, received all the protections of citizenship abroad. Further, in an industry that privileged rank and merit over race (also surprising in the 1800s), Native American whalemen, despite being stereotyped as having racial characteristics that suited them to harpooning (“hunting instinct, naturally keen eyesight, and an innate aptitude for killing”), often advanced into officer positions (p. 38). In Native American Whalemen and the World , Nancy Shoemaker brilliantly shows us how “the lived experience of race is full of exceptions, contradictions, and … darnold{at}columbiabasin.edu
Between Resistance and Embrace: American Realtors, the Justice Department, and the Uncertain Triumph of the Fair Housing Act, 1968-1978

Despite the historical consensus that the Fair Housing Act was ineffective and toothless, the first decade after the Act’s passage saw sharply reduced rates of discrimination. After demonstrating that such a significant drop could not have been the result of overall changing racial attitudes, this Article attempts to show that it resulted from the enforcement of the Act itself – especially the vigorous efforts of the Department of Justice. Not only did DOJ successfully sue hundreds of landlords and developers across the country (including the heretofore unknown New Yorker Donald J. Trump), but it focused its efforts on America’s real estate agents – a linchpin of the system of housing discrimination. These actions succeeded: this Article presents evidence from the realtors themselves and from fair housing advocates – who did not figure to be overly optimistic – that substantial changes in behavior resulted from aggressive litigation by federal civil rights law enforcement. The efforts were not a universal success, for by the end of the 1970’s discrimination rates remained far too high. And they did not alter patterns of segregation. But they represented a significant policy success. The Article concludes how the story of successful civil rights enforcement generates important theoretical implications in the psychology of law, theories of social norms, and the celebrated “Convergence Thesis” of American civil rights law.
Nitrates/Nitrites Alter Human Lymphocyte Proliferation and Cytokine Production

Nitrate from drinking water is converted in the body to nitrite by bacteria in the gut. This project examined effects of nitrate/nitrite on immune functions, i.e., human lymphocyte proliferation and cytokine production. Nitrate had no effect on lymphocyte growth, but nitrite decreased proliferation. Neither inhibited fibroblast growth. In 1/3 to 2/3 of the subjects tested, sodium nitrate or nitrite decreased production of Th1 cytokines (interleukin-2, interferon-γ, and tumor necrosis factor-β). Nitrate and nitrite either increased or had no effect on the production of the Th2 cytokine interleukin-10. A Th1 immune response is associated with resistance to a variety of infectious diseases; a Th2 response is associated with disease susceptibility. Because nitrate/nitrite shifted the balance from a Th1 to a Th2 response in some individuals, exposure to these compounds may decrease these persons' responsiveness to infectious diseases. The levels of nitrate used in this study are relevant to human health because they are present in the liquid portion (nonbreastfed) of some 2-month-old infants' diets in rural Romania.
What We Do (and Don't) Know About the Health Effects of Cannabis and Whether Marijuana Is Medicine.

This commentary highlights the major findings of the recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report on the health effects of cannabis and cannabinoids.
Is There Evidence for a Magnetic Map in Homing Pigeons

The sensory basis of the pigeon’s “map” remains the central mystery in pigeon homing. Several lines of evidence are discussed which suggest that the pigeon’s “map” may be at least partly based on the earth’s magnetic field.
Michael Mann and Societal Aggregation: From Tribe, to Fief, to City-State, to Nation, to Empire

Written over decades, subsuming much of his career as a sociologist, Michael Mann’s four-volume Origins of Social Power pursues one grand theme: Societal aggregation from tribe, to fief, to city-state, to nation, to empire. Mann uses the term, “patterned mess,” in recognition of cultural, historical, and temporal particularities which overlay sociological laws as they have operated through time. Modern theories of gene–culture coevolution work precisely in this way, in that they operate on a fundamental level, even as surface features vary. So when Mann studies internal divisions and external competition as they ebb and flow creating regression and progression along this continuum of aggregation, it is now possible to partially explain this as a function of variation across aggregate life history continua.
A comprehensive assessment of patient reported symptom burden, medical comorbidities, and functional well being in patients initiating direct acting antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis C: Results from a large US multi-center observational study.

Author(s): Evon, Donna M; Stewart, Paul W; Amador, Jipcy; Serper, Marina; Lok, Anna S; Sterling, Richard K; Sarkar, Souvik; Golin, Carol E; Reeve, Bryce B; Nelson, David R; Reau, Nancy; Lim, Joseph K; Reddy, K Rajender; Di Bisceglie, Adrian M; Fried, Michael W | Abstract: BackgroundSymptom burden, medical comorbidities, and functional well-being of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) initiating direct acting antiviral (DAA) therapy in real-world clinical settings are not known. We characterized these patient-reported outcomes (PROs) among HCV-infected patients and explored associations with sociodemographic, liver disease, and psychiatric/substance abuse variables.Methods and findingsPROP UP is a large US multicenter observational study that enrolled 1,600 patients with chronic HCV in 2016-2017. Data collected prior to initiating DAA therapy assessed the following PROs: number of medical comorbidities; neuropsychiatric, somatic, gastrointestinal symptoms (PROMIS surveys); overall symptom burden (Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale); and functional well-being (HCV-PRO). Candidate predictors included liver disease markers and patient-reported sociodemographic, psychiatric, and alcohol/drug use features. Predictive models were explored using a random selection of 700 participants; models were then validated with data from the remaining 900 participants. The cohort was 55% male, 39% non-white, 48% had cirrhosis (12% with advanced cirrhosis); 52% were disabled or unemployed; 63% were on public health insurance or uninsured; and over 40% had markers of psychiatric illness. The median number of medical comorbidities was 4 (range: 0-15), with sleep disorders, chronic pain, diabetes, joint pain and muscle aches being present in 20-50%. Fatigue, sleep disturbance, pain and neuropsychiatric symptoms were present in over 60% and gastrointestinal symptoms in 40-50%. In multivariable validation models, the strongest and most frequent predictors of worse PROs were disability, unemployment, and use of psychiatric medications, while liver markers generally were not.ConclusionsThis large multi-center cohort study provides a comprehensive and contemporary assessment of the symptom burden and comorbid medical conditions in patients with HCV treated in real world settings. Pain, fatigue, and sleep disturbance were common and often severe. Sociodemographic and psychiatric markers were the most robust predictors of PROs. Future research that includes a rapidly changing population of HCV-infected individuals needs to evaluate how DAA therapy affects PROs and elucidate which symptoms resolve with viral eradication.Trial registration(Clinicaltrial.gov: NCT02601820).
“The Lanang Is the Bus Driver”: Intersections of Ethnography and Music Analysis in a Study of Balinese Arja Drumming

This chapter presents an ethnographically informed analysis of the improvised Balinese drumming practice kendang arja, blending a personal and sometimes informal ethnographic writing style with close musical analysis. In this paired drumming tradition, two musicians, without formal music theory to guide them, somehow create the tightly interlocking rhythms so characteristic of Balinese music through continuous and simultaneous improvisation. No surprise these are among Bali’s most respected musicians. By examining the improvisations of various master drummers via the lens of their informal oral music theory, this chapter seeks to make explicit several relatively implicit guidelines and techniques for kendang arja improvising. It thus offers insight into the ways these musicians create mutually compatible patterns in the course of performance, while simultaneously demonstrating the value of ethnographic fieldwork to the analysis of improvised musics.
Feasibility of Image Registration for Ultrasound-Guided Prostate Radiotherapy Based on Similarity Measurement by a Convolutional Neural Network.

Purpose:Registration of 3-dimensional ultrasound images poses a challenge for ultrasound-guided radiation therapy of the prostate since ultrasound image content changes significantly with anatomic ...
Coaching through the hard parts: Addressing tensions in teaching with one preservice teacher learning to teach literacy in a fifth-grade classroom

Abstract How can coaching disrupt the “practice makes practice” (Britzman, 2003) cycle, in which practices are repeated through apprenticeship without critical examination? Through an inductive analysis of six coaching conferences, we examine how collaborative coaching among a preservice teacher, a cooperating teacher, and a field supervisor contributed to one preservice teacher's construction of knowledge for teaching. Our focus is on tensions across four domains —teacher identity, curriculum, instruction and community—that emerged in the coaching conversations. We report how coaching expanded these tensions, highlighted the hybridity in those tensions, and positioned the preservice teacher as agentic.
Fatigue Damage Evolution and Degradation of Mechanical Properties in Silicon-Carbide (SiC) Fiber-Reinforced Titanium Matrix Composites

Fatigue damage accumulation and failure modes of several unidirectional and angle-ply SCS-6 fiber-reinforced titanium matrix composites are reviewed. The fatigue damage characteristics of the notched and unnotched composites were classified using several schematic diagrams based upon the constituent's properties and loading conditions. Quantitative relationships between the microstructural damage and stiffness reduction were also established. A shear-lag model incorporating a damage function (which involved the cracking density and length, fiber/matrix frictional stress, and debonding length) was also used to predict residual stiffness of the composites.
Long-Term Follow-Up of Laparoendoscopic Single-Site Partial Nephrectomy for Nonfunctioning Moieties of Renal Duplication and Fusion Anomalies in Infants and Children

Objectives: To report on long-term follow-up and outcomes of infants and small children who have undergone laparoendoscopic single-site (LESS) partial nephrectomy to manage upper urinary tract dupl...
An historical review of the professional and distinctive formation for Catholic school educators in the United States

This article examines the historical context of the growth and development of Catholic education in the United States, and the commitment of Catholic colleges and universities – viewed primarily th...
When Students Refuse to Recite the Pledge of Allegiance: Preservice Teachers’ Responses

The Pledge of Allegiance is a culturally essential—and often legally mandated—daily exercise in many schools. With societal focus on patriotic exercises and many individuals’ subsequent refusal to ...
Dedicated Workforce Required to Support Large-Scale Practice Improvement.

Background: Facilitation is an effective approach for helping practices implement sustainable evidence-based practice improvements. Few studies examine the facilitation infrastructure and support needed for large-scale dissemination and implementation initiatives. Methods: The Agency for Health care Research and Quality funded 7 Cooperatives, each of which worked with over 200 primary care practices to rapidly disseminate and implement improvements in cardiovascular preventive care. The intervention target was to improve primary care practice capacity for quality initiative and the ABCS of cardiovascular disease prevention: aspirin in high-risk individuals, blood pressure control, cholesterol management, and smoking cessation. We identified the organizational elements and infrastructures Cooperatives used to support facilitators by reviewing facilitator logs, online diary data, semistructured interviews with facilitators, and fieldnotes from facilitator observations. We analyzed these data using a coding and sorting process. Results: Each Cooperative partnered with 2 to 16 organizations, piecing together 16 to 35 facilitators, often from other quality improvement projects. Quality assurance strategies included establishing initial and ongoing training, processes to support facilitators, and monitoring to assure consistency and quality. Cooperatives developed facilitator toolkits, implemented initiative-specific training, and developed processes for peer-to-peer learning and support. Conclusions: Supporting a large-scale facilitation workforce requires creating an infrastructure, including initial training, and ongoing support and monitoring, often borrowing from other ongoing initiatives. Facilitation that recognizes the need to support the vital integrating functions of primary care might be more efficient and effective than this fragmented approach to quality improvement.
Duty Hour Regulations of Physicians in Training and Circadian Considerations

Residency and fellowship training of physicians are marked by long hours, night call, and shift work. While this prepares trainees for independent practice, it also produces sleep deprivation and circadian disruptions that may imperil personal wellbeing, professional development, and patient safety. Accordingly, duty schedules have been increasingly controlled, yet not without controversy due to varying effects on trainee wellness, education, and patient care. Regulation of house staff work conditions has primarily focused on limiting work hours and less on mitigating occupational circadian disturbances. This chapter reviews the interaction of trainee work schedules on sleep and circadian physiology, the personal and professional effects of sleep/circadian disruptions on trainees, the evolution of the duty hour regulations in the United States, and the mixed impacts of those policies on healthcare providers and their patients.
Inflammation genes and pain severity in lung cancer patients

9618 Background: While studies suggest that variants in infammation genes explain individual variation in pain severity, these studies only assessed one or a few candidate genes. Given that pain is...
Epididymitis and Other Inflammatory Conditions of the Male Excurrent Ductal System

Physiologically, the endocrinologic interplay between testes and pituitary gland results in the production of spermatozoa. Prior to serving their role in fertilizing oozytes, spermatozoa must exit the testis and pass through a complex excurrent ductal system, which includes the efferent ductules, epididymis and the vas deferens leading to the ejaculatory duct. Pathological conditions in any part of the excurrent ductal system obviously may have significant impact on spermatozoa transport, resulting in subfertility or infertility. In addition to spermatozoa, semen is composed of secretions from a series of glandular organs, including the prostate, seminal vesicles, the bulbourethral (Cowper’s) and periurethral (Littre’s) glands. Collectively these organs are known as the male accessory glands.
Characterization of a Screw-Based Bending Actuator for Continuum Robots

Long, thin continuum robots may be useful in a wide variety of inspection and maintenance tasks and medical applications as robotic endoscopes and minimally invasive surgical devices. To facilitate improved aspect ratios, high total accumulated bending angles, and high stiffness and mechanical stability of the active section, we propose the use of a flexible screw-driven mechanism to facilitate the combination of proximally mounted actuators and distal bending sections. In comparison to tendon-based designs and push-pull rods, the design avoids the capstan-like buildup of friction. In this work, we model and experimentally characterize a single degree-of-freedom, screw-based, multi-backbone bending actuator for continuum robots. In comparison to a tendon-based actuator, the prototype is stiffer in the active bending direction by a factor of 2.75. The maximum bending angle at failure is also measured by hand actuation and the factors that contribute to performance limits and model inaccuracy are discussed.
Frontoparietal and default mode network connectivity varies with age and intelligence.

Abstract Background Anticorrelated resting state connectivity between task-positive and task-negative networks in adults supports flexible shifting between externally focused attention and internal thought. Findings suggest that children show positive correlations between task-positive (frontoparietal; FP) and task-negative (default mode; DMN) networks. FP-DMN connectivity also associates with intellectual functioning across the lifespan. We investigated whether FP-DMN connectivity in healthy children varied with age and intelligence quotient (IQ). Methods We utilized network-based statistics (NBS) to examine resting state functional connectivity between FP and DMN seeds in N = 133 7−25-year-olds (Mage = 15.80). Linear regression evaluated FP-DMN associations with IQ. Results We detected NBS subnetworks containing both within- and between-network connections that were inversely associated with age. Four FP-DMN connections showed more negative connectivity between FP (inferior frontal gyrus and precentral gyrus) and DMN regions (frontal medial cortex, precuneus, and frontal pole) among older participants. Frontal pole-precentral gyrus connectivity inversely associated with IQ. Conclusions FP-DMN connectivity was more anticorrelated at older ages, potentially indicating dynamic network segregation of these circuits from childhood to early adulthood. Youth with more mature (i.e., anticorrelated) FP-DMN connectivity demonstrated higher IQ. Our findings add to the growing body of literature examining neural network development and its association with IQ.
2D boron nitride nanosheets for polymer composite materials

Hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) are promising two-dimensional materials to boost the mechanical, thermal, electrical, and optical properties of polymer nanocomposites. Yet, BNNS-polymer composites face many challenges to meet the desired properties owing to agglomeration of BNNSs, incompatibility, and weak interactions of BNNSs with the host polymers. This work systematically reviews the fundamental parameters that control the molecular interactions of BNNSs with polymer matrices. The surface modification of BNNSs, as well as size, dispersion, and alignment of these nanosheets have a profound effect on polymer chain dynamics, mass barrier properties, and stress-transfer efficiency of the nanocomposites.
Notaferrum n. gen. (Coleoptera: Ptinidae): the first known spider beetle associated with weaver ants

A new genus name Notaferrum n. gen. is proposed for Ptinus natalensisPic, 1906. The taxon is diagnosed and described and the only known species redescribed. This taxon, well outside the concept of the genus Ptinus Linnaeus, 1766, is most distinctly characterized by a pair of longitudinal and vertically oriented blade-like ridges located medially on the pronotum, a previously unknown feature in the spider beetles and the more inclusive Bostrichoidea Latreille, 1802. This species is a probable symphile of the African species of weaver ant (Oecophylla longinoda Latreille, 1802), based on both a collection record from inside an ant nest as well as the presence of distinct trichomes on the pronotum. This taxon represents the first record of a spider beetle associated with weaver ants.
Head and Neck Oropharyngeal GTV Autosegmentation: Combining nnU-Net With Shape Representation Loss Driven by a Variational Autoencoder Model.

Purpose/Objective(s) Autosegmentation models for tumors are becoming increasingly important across several domains. GTV autosegmentations can facilitate faster radiation treatment planning, standardize delineation for radiomics, and provide contour consistency across centers. Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) of the head and neck serve as a challenging tumor to segment given the underlying anatomy and imaging characteristics. We build upon nnU-Net, a new medical image segmentation framework that uses a set of heuristics based on the training data type (modality, size etc.) and available resources (GPU RAM etc.) to optimally select pre-processing steps, model parameters and model ensembling techniques. Previous work has shown that latent-space based shape representation (obtained from stacked auto-encoder) of organs at risk within the head and neck, when used in loss function, improves OAR segmentation accuracy. Here, we apply nnU-Net for autosegmentation of oropharyngeal SCCs GTVs. And we adapted nnU-Net to utilize a shape representation loss function to further constrain the GTV segmentations. Materials/Methods The 2020 HEad and NeCK TumOR (HECKTOR) Challenge at the MICCAI 2020 conference provided a dataset of 201 patients with oropharyngeal caner with pre-radiation treatment CT and PET images from 4 different medical centers. We applied autosegmentation to this HECKTOR dataset, and we tested on an independent dataset consisting of 53 patients from a fifth and separate institution. We trained a model with the original nnU-Net framework on the HECKTOR CT and PET training data. To generate a shape representation model, we built a variational autoencoder with input as the cropped and centered ground truth GTV binary masks. We performed hyperparameter optimization and found an optimal latent space size of 50, a network depth of 5 convolutional layers, and a KL loss weight of 0.001. To constrain the output of nnU-Net, we computed the L1-loss in the latent space between the ground truth and the autosegmentation, generating a shape representation model (SRM) loss function. Results The latent space of the variational autoencoder encodes effectively shape information of GTVs, including size and T-staging of the tumor. The original nnU-Net model achieved a 74.7% Dice score on the test set, which placed 3rd in the post-submission HECKTOR challenge. Our SRM model constrained the segmentation and achieved a Dice of 75.9%, which placed first in the post-submission HECKTOR challenge as of February 2021. Conclusion These results show that nnU-Net can be used to generate a well-performing autosegmentation model for head and neck GTV segmentation using multimodal input. We also demonstrate that the PyTorch framework can be readily altered and optimized for particular tasks. Our shape representation loss was able to improve performance and achieve the top segmentation result in the HECKTOR challenge. Further optimizations into this framework are actively being explored.
Genetic deletion of platelet PAR4 results in reduced thrombosis and impaired hemostatic plug stability.

BACKGROUND Protease-activated receptor 4 (PAR4) is expressed by a wide variety of cells, including megakaryocytes/platelets, immune cells, cardiomyocytes, and lung epithelial cells. It is the only functional thrombin receptor on murine platelets. A global deficiency of PAR4 is associated with impaired hemostasis and reduced thrombosis. OBJECTIVE We aimed to generate a mouse line with a megakaryocyte/platelet-specific deletion of PAR4 (PAR4fl/fl ;PF4Cre+ ) and use the mouse line to investigate the role of platelet PAR4 in hemostasis and thrombosis in mice. METHODS Platelets from PAR4fl/fl ;PF4Cre+ were characterized in vitro. Arterial and venous thrombosis was analyzed. Hemostatic plug formation was analyzed using a saphenous vein laser injury model in mice with global or megakaryocyte/platelet-specific deletion of PAR4 or wild-type mice treated with thrombin or glycoprotein VI (GPVI) inhibitors. RESULTS PAR4fl/fl ;PF4Cre+ platelets were unresponsive to thrombin or specific PAR4 stimulation but not to other agonists. PAR4-/- and PAR4fl/fl ;PF4Cre+ mice both exhibited a similar reduction in arterial thrombosis compared to their respective controls. More importantly, we show for the first time that platelet PAR4 is critical for venous thrombosis in mice. In addition, PAR4-/- mice and PAR4fl/fl ;PF4Cre+ mice exhibited a similar impairment in hemostatic plug stability in a saphenous vein laser injury model. Inhibition of thrombin in wild-type mice gave a similar phenotype. Combined PAR4 deficiency on platelets with GPVI inhibition did not impair hemostatic plug formation but further reduced plug stability. CONCLUSION We generated a novel PAR4fl/fl ;PF4Cre+ mouse line. We used this mouse line to show that PAR4 signaling in platelets is critical for arterial and venous thrombosis and hemostatic plug stability.
A Gathering of Native American Healers: Exploring the Interface of Indigenous Tradition and Professional Practice

This article reports insights from a 4-day Gathering of Native American Healers at the University of Michigan in October of 2010. This event convened 18 traditional healers, clinically trained service providers, and cross-cultural mental health researchers for a structured group dialogue to advance professional knowledge about the integration of Indigenous healing practices and conventional mental health treatments in community-based mental health services for Native Americans. Our thematic analysis of transcripts from five Roundtable sessions afforded several key insights and understandings pertaining to the integration of Indigenous healing and conventional mental health services. First, with reference to traditional healing, the importance of a rampant relationality, various personal qualities, Indigenous spirituality, and maintenance of traditional life and culture were accentuated by Roundtable participants. Second, for traditional healers to practice effectively, Roundtable participants posited that these individuals must maintain personal wellness, cultivate profound knowledge of healing practices, recognize the intrinsic healing potential within all human beings, and work for the community rather than themselves. In speaking to the possibilities and challenges of collaboration between Indigenous and conventional biomedical therapeutic approaches, Roundtable participants recommended the implementation of cultural programming, the observance of mutuality and respect, the importance of clear and honest communication, and the need for awareness of cultural differences as unique challenges that must be collaboratively overcome.