cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
How much alcohol should we infuse in the coronary artery of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients

Background. Although alcohol septal ablation (ASA) is increasingly used in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HC) patients who are refractory to medical therapy, the amount of alcohol that is required has not been well studied. This study sought to determine the amount of alcohol that is necessary to achieve clinical benefits of ASA. Methods. Myocardial perfusion imaging was used to determine the size of the myocardial infarction produced by ASA in 54 HC patients. Left ventricular outflow gradients (LVOTg) were determined invasively before and after ASA and by Doppler echocardiography before and at a median of 3 months after ASA. Results. LVOTg decreased at rest and after provocation in response to ASA and this was maintained on follow-up at 3 months. There was no relationship between the amount of alcohol infused and the infarct mass as determined by myocardial perfusion imaging. While the infarct mass was not correlated with the drop in the LVOTg at rest or with provocation, the quantity of alcohol infused was correlated with the drop in LVOTg at rest (r = 0.27, p = 0.05) and with provocation (r = 0.34, p = 0.02). Furthermore, infusing more than 2ml of absolute alcohol was associated with a drop in the LVOTg by more than 60 mmHg at rest (p = 0.02) and by more than 130 mmHg with provocation (p = 0.05). Conclusions. Although lower amounts of alcohol infusion are desirable to avoid side-effects, it might be prudent to infuse around 2ml of absolute alcohol in order to achieve the desirable degree of LVOTg reduction in ASA.
Sonar sensor virtualization for object detection and localization

Localization and obstacle detection have been unremittingly a challenging issue in the field of robotic from the past decades because of whimsical preciseness as well as cumulated drift of sensorial component and stochastic nature of robot's behavior in real time environment. The concentrated objective of this paper is to adopt the localization and object detection capability for the ground robot with the use of sonar array differently from the conventional sensors arrangement to utilize the magnitude of several sonar sensors and to preserve the port and weight constraint of respective robotic platform. The overall localization and object detection experiment is based on the small scale robotics and local spatial information which has been accomplished in a 2D geometrical grid map. For localizing the odometry data directly fetched from the servo motor has been used and for the object detection we have used sonar array because of its cost effectiveness and low rate of interference and sensitivity to the electromagnetic field effect. As both of the localization and object detection are not completely error free in any robotic platform, we have employed mathematical approach and well defined algorithm to reduce the error and inaccuracy. For localizing the objects in the map, a trigonometric approach known as triangulation has been employed. The use of three sonar sensors in an innovative way to acquire the virtualization of twelve surrounding sonar sensors and the integration of trigonometric and geometric approaches have made it possible to localize mostly all of the objects around the robot and enabled the robot to identify the obstacles throughout the trajectory of its movement. The implementation of our method has been performed on the ground robot built using LEGO Mindstorm EV3 intelligent brick and LEJOS package have been used for programming.
Diagnosing Obesity, Diabetes Mellitus, and Insulin Resistance Syndrome

Obesity is a disease state that has reached epidemic proportions, with increasing prevalence and serious health care consequences; therefore, it is important to diagnose and evaluate it properly. In this first part of the chapter, we present criteria for the diagnosis of overweight and obesity and evaluation of the obese and overweight patient and emphasize the importance of determining the specific type of obesity and the possible presence of other risk factors in obese individuals. We also review obesity-screening recommendations and rationale.
The 4-H Health Rocks! Program in Florida: Outcomes on Youth Tobacco, Alcohol, and Other Substance Abuse Prevention

Youth tobacco, alcohol, and other substance abuse is a serious concern in the State of Florida, as well as across the nation. 4-H Health Rocks! is a positive youth development prevention program that utilizes experiential learning methods and youth-adult partnerships. The program and supporting curriculum were designed to foster personal and social skills to better equip adolescents to overcome pressures to participate in substance use. The purpose of this article is to describe the implementation of Health Rocks! in Florida and program evaluation including its impact on participants’ drug knowledge, drug beliefs and attitudes, and drug resistance skills. Program evaluation indicates that 4-H Health Rocks! resulted in statistically significant improvement in each of these categories for hundreds of youth reached in 2009-2012. The importance of program components in preventing and influencing adolescent substance abuse are discussed.
Lingual Nerve Measurements in Cadaveric Dissections: Clinical Applications

Purpose Lingual nerve (LN) injury is quite prevalent despite its long-known anatomic course. The purpose of this study was to accurately predict the LN pathway by identifying and measuring close anatomic landmarks; these measurements should help lessen the incidence of LN injury. Materials and Methods LN dissection was carried out on 15 halved cadaver skulls (total, 28 specimens). Results On average, the LN position was approximately 7 mm below the alveolar crest at the distal end of the mandibular second molar, 5.5 mm anterior to the lingula, and 14.6 mm distal to the alveolar crest at the mandibular second molar. From the base of the skull, the LN traveled 5 mm anteriorly to the inferior alveolar nerve and inferiorly to the posterior attachment of the mylohyoid muscle (approximately 1.5 cm distal to the mandibular second molar), where it turned anteromedially and traveled 7 mm inferiorly to the alveolar crest at the mandibular second molar. Conclusion Given the multiple procedures by dental practitioners and maxillofacial surgeons, the LN is at high risk for injury. This study validates the proximity of the LN to anatomic structures commonly encountered during head and neck procedures.
David Oliver: Deflecting blame for the NHS crisis.

In February, the BBC’s week long “NHS Health Check” depicted the current troubles on the NHS front line.1 In a television interview the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, responded to stories about patients stranded for months in hospital or for hours on trolleys in overcrowded emergency departments. Hunt asserted that such incidents were “completely unacceptable” with “no excuse,”2 but strangely omitted his own leadership responsibility. In charge for four years with a very hands-on management style, he was also a cabinet minister in governments that drove through Andrew Lansley’s disastrous Health and Social Care Act,3 cut funds …
Non-Boussinesq stability analysis of natural-convection gaseous flow on inclined hot plates

Abstract The buoyancy-driven boundary-layer flow that develops over a semi-infinite inclined hot plate is known to become unstable at a finite distance from the leading edge, characterized by a critical value of the Grashof number Gr based on the local boundary-layer thickness. The nature of the resulting instability depends on the inclination angle ϕ , measured from the vertical direction. For values of ϕ below a critical value ϕ c the instability is characterized by the appearance of spanwise traveling waves, whereas for ϕ > ϕ c the bifurcated flow displays Gortler-like streamwise vortices. The Boussinesq approximation, employed in previous linear stability analyses, ceases to be valid for gaseous flow when the wall-to-ambient temperature ratio Θ w is not close to unity. The corresponding non-Boussinesq analysis is presented here, accounting also for the variation with temperature of the different transport properties. A temporal stability analysis including nonparallel effects of the base flow is used to determine curves of neutral stability, which are then employed to delineate the dependences of the critical Grashof number and of its associated wave length on the inclination angle ϕ and on the temperature ratio Θ w for the two instability modes, giving quantitative information of interest for configurations with Θ w - 1 ∼ 1 . The analysis provides in particular the predicted dependence of the crossover inclination angle ϕ c on Θ w , indicating that for gaseous flow with Θ w - 1 ∼ 1 spanwise traveling waves are predominant over a range of inclination angles 0 ⩽ ϕ ⩽ ϕ c that is significantly wider than that predicted in the Boussinesq approximation.
A correlation between formation enthalpy and ionic conductivity in perovskite-structured Li3xLa0.67−xTiO3 solid lithium ion conductors

Perovskite-structured lithium lanthanum titanate (LLTO) Li3xLa0.67−xTiO3 (compositions x = 0.04 to 0.15) has been prepared by conventional solid state reaction. The phase purity and crystal structural changes were investigated with XRD, FTIR and Raman. The vibrational spectra reveal the interaction between metal cation and oxygen anion with increasing Li doping and structural evolution. LLTO and component oxides were studied by high temperature oxide melt solution calorimetry. The formation enthalpies of LLTO from oxides are exothermic for all compositions, indicating thermodynamic stability. There are two regimes in the trend of formation enthalpy with increasing Li concentration. In the first regime, x ≤0.08, the formation enthalpies vary slowly with composition, but the lowest stability by about 1.5 kJ mol−1 is seen at x = 0.06. An abrupt change in the formation enthalpy trend is observed in the second regime when x ≥0.1, where maximum lithium ion conductivity (at x = 0.10) is reported. The least stable composition, x = 0.06, occurs where maximum charge carrier concentration and lowest activation energy is reported. From the thermodynamic study, it is clear that the energetically least stable composition correlates with lowest activation energy whereas the sharp change in formation enthalpy trend correlates with highest Li-ion conductivity.
CLOCK-Pro: an effective improvement of the CLOCK replacement

With the ever-growing performance gap between memory systems and disks, and rapidly improving CPU performance, virtual memory (VM) management becomes increasingly important for overall system performance. However, one of its critical components, the page replacement policy, is still dominated by CLOCK, a replacement policy developed almost 40 years ago. While pure LRU has an unaffordable cost in VM, CLOCK simulates the LRU replacement algorithm with a low cost acceptable in VM management. Over the last three decades, the inability of LRU as well as CLOCK to handle weak locality accesses has become increasingly serious, and an effective fix becomes increasingly desirable. Inspired by our I/O buffer cache replacement algorithm, LIRS [13], we propose an improved CLOCK replacement policy, called CLOCK-Pro. By additionally keeping track of a limited number of replaced pages, CLOCK-Pro works in a similar fashion as CLOCK with a VM-affordable cost. Furthermore, it brings all the much-needed performance advantages from LIRS into CLOCK. Measurements from an implementation of CLOCK-Pro in Linux Kernel 2.4.21 show that the execution times of some commonly used programs can be reduced by up to 47%.
Use and Incidence of Adverse Effects of Proton Pump Inhibitors in Patients with Cystic Fibrosis.

PURPOSE To evaluate the incidence of adverse effects associated with chronic proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use as well as the dosing, indication, and duration of use of PPIs in the cystic fibrosis (CF) population at a pediatric academic medical center. METHODS Study design was a retrospective chart review evaluating patients with CF who were prescribed a PPI for at least 6 months (PPI group) or patients with CF who had never been prescribed a PPI (control group) from June 1, 2014, to May 31, 2015. RESULTS The study enrolled 126 patients in the PPI group and 49 patients in the control group. Forty-four patients (34.9%) had an indication for both gastroesophageal reflux and enzyme enhancement, with an average PPI daily dose of 1 mg/kg/day. Twenty-one patients (16.7%) in the PPI group had an incidence of hypomagnesemia compared with one patient (2%) in the control group (p=0.097). Overall, 75 patients (59.6%) receiving chronic PPI therapy had at least one pulmonary exacerbation compared with 12 patients (24.5%) in the control group (p<0.001). No significant difference was noted in the incidence of hypocalcemia, low bone mineral density, or positive Clostridium difficile toxin between the two groups. CONCLUSION The PPI group had a higher risk of pulmonary exacerbation compared with the control group. Further studies are needed to assess adverse effects associated with chronic PPI use in patients with CF.
On-demand cleavable linkers for radioimmunotherapy

Radioimmunotherapy (RIT) using radiolabeled antibodies or its fragments holds great promise for cancer therapy. However, its clinical potential is often limited by the undesirable radiation exposure to normal organs such as liver, kidney, and bone marrow. It is important to develop new strategies in RIT that enable protection of vital organs from radiation exposure while maintaining therapeutic radiation dose to the cancer. One way to achieve this is to clear radiometal rapidly from the circulation after accumulation of radioimmunoconjugates (RIC) in the tumor. Our strategy is to place a highly efficient and specific cleavable linker between radiometal chelate and the tumor targeting agent. Such linker must be resistant to cleavage by enzymes present in the plasma and tumor. After radiotargeting agents have accumulated in the tumor, a cleaving agent (protease) can be administered to the patient "on demand" to cleave the specific linker, resulting in the release of radiometal from the circulating RIC, in a form that can be cleared rapidly by the kidneys. TNKase, a serine protease tissue plasminogen activator and thrombolytic agent, which has been approved for clinical use in patient with acute myocardial infarction, was selected as an on-demand cleaving agent in our model. TNKase specific on-demand cleavable (ODC) linkers were identified through screening random internally quenched fluorescent resonance energy transfer (FRET) "one-bead-one-compound" (OBOC) combinatorial peptide libraries. FRET-OBOC peptide libraries containing L-amino acid(s) in the center of the random linear peptide and D-amino acids flanking both sides of the L-amino acid(s) were used for screening. Peptide beads susceptible to TNKase but resistant to plasma and tumor-associated protease cleavage were isolated for sequence analysis. The focus of this chapter is on the methods that have been used to identify and characterize ODC linkers and protease-specific substrates.
Dynamic Changes in Left Ventricular Geometry and Pressure During Coronary Artery Occlusion in Man

Analysis of the early left ventricular geometry and hemodynamic response to the abrupt occlusion of a major coronary artery has not been feasible in man thus far.
Pell and Pell–Lucas Numbers

Like Fibonacci and Lucas numbers, the Pell family is ubiquitous. Pell and Pell–Lucas numbers also provide boundless opportunities to experiment, explore, and conjecture; they are a lot of fun for inquisitive amateurs and professionals alike. In this chapter, we formally introduce the family, and cite their occurrences in earlier chapters, as well as some of their fundamental properties. In Chapter 12, we will find geometric interpretations of both Pell and Pell–Lucas numbers, and in Chapter 16 some combinatorial interpretations.
Infectious Complications of Cancer Therapy

Advances in the management of cancer, particularly the development of new chemotherapeutic agents, have greatly improved the survival and outcome of patients with hematologic malignancies and solid tumors; overall 5-year survival rates in cancer patients have improved from 39% in the 1960s to 60% in the 1990s.1 However, infection, caused by both the underlying malignancy and cancer chemotherapy, particularly myelosuppressive chemotherapy, remains a persistent challenge.
Beyond Cultural Competence: Teaching about Race, Gender, Class, and Sexual Orientation.

Teaching cultural competence to nursing students has been a goal of nursing education for many years. Culturally competent care has been defined as "sensitive to issues related to culture, race, gender, and sexual orientation." However, teaching cultural competence to nursing students has commonly emphasized cultural or ethnic beliefs, values, and practices, rather than issues of race, gender, class, or sexual orientation. The authors use the theory of "relational positionalty" to help students recognize that everyone has a perspective through which they view the world as "normal"; and that normal as defined by the dominant group can create situations of oppression for others.
Energy Flow and Ecosystems

Energy flows in ecosystems relate biodiversity to recycling of essential nutrients. Ecosystems are thermodynamically open, hierarchically organized communities of producers, consumers, and decomposers together with the abiotic factors that influence species interactions. Connections among species in food webs typically result in feedback loops and recycling of nutrients and materials within the conceptually defined ecosystem boundaries.
Energy consequences of Comfort-driven temperature setpoints in office buildings

Abstract The diversity in occupants’ thermal comfort preferences is usually overlooked in the operations of centralized-HVAC buildings and room temperatures are maintained within a narrow temperature range. In this study, we first created total of 400 comfort profiles for four major climate zones and for two seasons (winter and summer), using the RP884 database. We then systematically simulated and quantified the impact of using zone level setpoints (based on the generated comfort profiles) on energy consumption in office buildings. We also evaluated the consequences of using comfort-driven zone level setpoints on occupant satisfaction. The results indicate that using comfort-driven zone level setpoints can lead to an average increase in occupant satisfaction of 25% compared to the fixed building level setpoint of 22.5 °C, and 40% increase in occupant satisfaction compared to the DOE reference cooling setpoint of 24 °C and heating setpoint of 21 °C. Using comfort-driven zone level setpoints can also lead to average energy savings of 2.1% when compared to the fixed building level setpoint of 22.5 °C or average increase in energy consumption of 6.2% when compared to DOE reference setpoints, depending on the building size, construction and climate type. The variation in energy consumption caused by diverse occupant preferences is less than 2% of the annual building energy consumption. Furthermore, we demonstrated that even with the zone level setpoints, it is quite difficult to meet the ASHRAE requirement of 80% occupant satisfaction, which supports the use of personalized comfort systems to improve occupant satisfaction in buildings.
MR-conditional steerable needle robot for intracerebral hemorrhage removal

Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is one of the deadliest forms of stroke in the USA. Conventional surgical techniques such as craniotomy or stereotactic aspiration disrupt a large volume of healthy brain tissue in their attempts to reach the surgical site. Consequently, the surviving patients suffer from debilitating complications. We fabricated a novel MR-conditional steerable needle robot for ICH treatment. The robot system is powered by a custom-designed high power and low-cost pneumatic motor. We tested the robot’s targeting accuracy and MR-conditionality performance, and performed phantom evacuation experiment under MR image guidance. Experiments demonstrate that the robotic hardware is MR-conditional; the robot has the targeting accuracy of 1.26 ± 1.22 mm in bench-top tests. With real-time MRI guidance, the robot successfully reached the desired target and evacuated an 11.3 ml phantom hematoma in 9 min. MRI-guided steerable needle robotic system is a potentially feasible approach for ICH treatment by providing accurate needle guidance and intraoperative surgical outcome evaluation.
Ultrashort echo time magnetic resonance imaging (UTE-MRI) of cortical bone correlates well with histomorphometric assessment of bone microstructure.

Abstract Ultrashort echo time magnetic resonance imaging (UTE-MRI) techniques have been increasingly used to assess cortical bone microstructure. High resolution micro computed tomography (μCT) is routinely employed for validating the MRI-based assessments. However, water protons in cortical bone may reside in micropores smaller than the detectable size ranges by μCT. The goal of this study was to evaluate the upper limit of UTE-MRI and compare its efficacy to μCT at determining bone porosity ex vivo. This study investigated the correlations between UTE-MRI based quantifications and histomorphometric measures of bone porosity that cover all pores larger than 1 μm. Anterior tibial midshaft specimens from eleven donors (51 ± 16 years old, 6 males, 5 females) were scanned on a clinical 3 T-MRI using UTE magnetization transfer (UTE-MT, three power levels and five frequency offsets) and UTE-T2* sequences. Two-pool MT modeling and bi-component exponential T2* fitting were performed on the MRI datasets. Specimens were then scanned by μCT at 9 μm voxel size. Histomorphometry was performed on hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained slides imaged at submicron resolution. Macromolecular fraction from MT modeling, bi-component T2* fractions, and short component T2* showed strong correlations (R > 0.7, p 40 μm) porosities as well as with μCT-based porosity. UTE-MRI could also assess small pores variations with moderate correlations (R > 0.5, p
Foam Flooding in a Heterogeneous Porous Medium

The impact of heterogeneity on the flow behavior of CO2 foam in the presence of crude oil is investigated in a complex, heterogeneous porous medium. A microfluidic device is fabricated featuring low and high permeability regions using a sequential photolithography technique. Two types of CO2 foams are used as the injectant: (i) foam stabilized with surfactants and (ii) foam stabilized with a blend of silica nanoparticles (Si NPs) and surfactants. High-resolution images of the medium during displacement experiments reveal a phase separation between the high versus low permeability regions; foam sweeps the high permeability regions, whereas the surfactant solution, along with few gas bubbles, appears to invade the low permeability region. The gains in recovery from the low-permeability region are attributed to the resistance to flow due to a relatively high apparent viscosity of foam in the high-permeability region and the resulting diversion of flow into the low-permeability region. The enhanced stability of foams stabilized with Si NPs appears to reduce the phase separation between the two regions, which contributes to an additional recovery gain from the low-permeability region.
Testing a Multivariate Distribution for Generalized Skew Ellipticity

We consider the problem of testing whether a sample comes from a family of the multivariate generalized skew-elliptical distributions with an unknown location parameter, an unknown scaling matrix, ...
Surgical and oncological outcome of total laparoscopic radical hysterectomy versus radical abdominal hysterectomy in early cervical cancer in Singapore

Introduction: The Wertheim's radical abdominal hysterectomy (RAH) has been the traditional surgical approach for operable Stage IB cervical cancer in Singapore whereas total laparoscopic radical hysterectomy (TLRH) was introduced only in 2009. In this study, we aimed to compare the long-term surgical outcome between the two routes of surgery in our center. Methods: This is a prospective study performed in a single large tertiary institution in Singapore. Inclusion criteria included surgically fit patients with early cervical cancer and no radiological evidence of regional or distant metastases. Results: From November 2009 to December 2014, 51 TLRHs and 85 RAHs were performed. Median blood loss in the TLRH group was significantly lower than in the RAH group (300 vs. 500 mL; P = 0.002) as was median hospital stay (5 vs. 6 days; P = 0.001). Operative time was significantly higher in the TLRH group (262 vs. 228 min; P 2 cm (61.9% vs. 85.4%; P = 0.06). Conclusion: The results of our study suggest that with appropriate patient selection, TLRH can be a safe and effective procedure for the management of early cervical cancer in Singapore, especially in women with small tumors ≤2 cm but should be used with caution in women with larger tumors.
Targeted COX-2 and EGFR TK inhibition in advanced non-small cell lung cancer

7179 Background: Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) activates Erk/MAPK signaling pathway in an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase (TK)-resistant manner as a result of cyclooxygenase-2 (CO...
Wavelet-based Benjamini-Hochberg procedures for multiple testing under dependence

Multiple comparisons methodology has experienced a resurgence of interest due to the increase in high-dimensional datasets generated from various biological, medical and scientific fields. An outstanding problem in this area is how to perform testing in the presence of dependence between the p-values. We propose a novel approach to this problem based on a spacings-based representation of the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure. The representation leads to a new application of the wavelet transform to effectively decorrelate p-values. Theoretical justification for the procedure is shown. The power gains of the proposed methodology relative to existing procedures is demonstrated using both simulated and real datasets.
Smartphone microscopy and nanocolorimetry

Inkjet-printed PMDS lenses have been fabricated and can turn a smartphone into a pocket microscope achieving 1 µm resolution. Multimodal imaging capabilities such as bright-field, dark-field, fluorescence, and nanocolorimetry have been demonstrated on this platform.
How's your EQ? - Let's find out!

Do you understand the role your emotions play in how you see yourself and others? What role does Emotional Intelligence (EQ) play in successful leadership? How does EQ affect DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion)? How much of an impact does emotional intelligence really have on your professional success and the relationships you build? The short answer: a lot! This interactive discussion will help us identify and assess our abilities in each of the EQ quadrants of self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy and social awareness. We will also discuss methods and strategies to help us embrace EQ at all levels and identify the influence it can have on creating a more Diverse, Equitable and Inclusive community.
GitGrade: A Scalable Platform Improving Grading Experiences

We present GitGrade, a system for accepting and automatically grading programming assignments. GitGrade allows instructors to provide coherent and timely feedback to students. GitGrade is similar to other grading platforms in that it accepts student work and allows modifiable grading rubrics. Furthermore, it is fast, extendable, can run auto grading scripts on programs, is free, and has a modern look and feel. GitGrade is built on top of the school's Gitlab instance which is used in many courses as a VC code repository as is done in industry. By integrating with Gitlab, we are able to distribute assignment starter code and specifications very easily. GitGrade has been in development since Autumn 2018, and to date it has been used to grade more than 5000 student repositories between our full-stack Web Development (CSE154) and Interaction Programming (CSE340) courses with positive feedback from graders and students. Feedback from students and course staff has since been actively incorporated to provide a workflow experience for students and instructors that is streamlined and easy to use in any programming course.
Loss of High-Mobility Group Box 1 (HMGB1) Protein in Rods Accelerates Rod Photoreceptor Degeneration After Retinal Detachment.

Purpose Retinal detachment (RD) disrupts the nutritional support and oxygen delivery to photoreceptors (PRs), ultimately causing cell death. High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) can serve as an extracellular alarmin when released from stressed cells. PRs release HMGB1 after RD. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between HMGB1 and PR survival after RD. Methods Acute RD was created by injection of hyaluronic acid (1%) into the subretinal space in C57BL/6 mice and mice with a rhodopsin-Cre-mediated conditional knockout (cKO) of HMGB1 in rods (HMGB1ΔRod). Immunofluorescence (IF) in retinal sections was used to localize HMGB1, rhodopsin, and Iba-1 proteins. Optical coherence tomography and electroretinography were used to quantify retinal thickness and function, respectively. The morphology of the retina was assessed by hematoxylin and eosin. Results HMGB1 protein was localized to the nuclei of all retinal neurons, including PRs, with cones staining more intensely than rods. HMGB1 protein was also found in the inner and outer segments of cones but not rods. Creation of RD caused a dramatic increase of HMGB1 protein IF in rods. cKO of HMGB1 in rods did not affect retinal structure or function. However, after RD, loss of rods and reduction in the thickness of the outer nuclear layer were significantly increased in the HMGB1ΔRod retinas as compared to the control. Interestingly, depletion of HMGB1 in rods did not affect the activation and mobilization of microglia/macrophages normally seen after RD. Conclusions Increased HMGB1 expression in stressed rods may represent an intrinsic mechanism regulating their survival after RD.
I.R.C. § 461(H): Tax Fairness and the Deduction of Future Liabilities

Section' 461(h), dealing with the treatment of liabilities by accrual-method taxpayers, was enacted in 1984, in response to the failure of the Internal Revenue Code to recognize time-value-of-money concepts in the tax laws. Prior to the enactment of § 461(h), an accrual-method taxpayer could take a current deduction for a future obligation as long as the "all events" test was satisfied. Furthermore, the amount of that deduction was equal to the entire amount of that future obligation. Because allowing a current deduction for the full amount of the future liability was considered too generous, Congress considered two approaches to mitigate the effect of the current full deduction: 1. a time-value-of-money approach that would limit the current deduction to the discounted present value of the future obligation, or 2. a deferral approach that would defer any deduction for a future obligation until economic performance has occurred. Congress decided that the first alternative, the time-value of-money approach, would be too difficult to apply since an interest component would have to be taken into account.6 Congress instead selected the deferral approach, thereby eliminating the need to make present value calculations and, therefore, the need to select an appropriate discount rate. However, by selecting the deferral approach, Congress selected an approach which was inconsistent with other approaches to time-value-of money problems.'
Louisiana Angola Penitentiary: Past Time to Close

This article details the horrendous history and current operation of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola and calls for its closure. Louisiana has proven again and again it lacks the ability and the will to run Angola in a manner consistent with constitutional and human rights and Angola's continued operation, despite its history and pattern of illegality, ultimately says more about the free citizens and elected officials of Louisiana than it does about those held within its walls.
Diagnostic accuracy of patient history in the diagnosis of hip-related pain: a systematic review.

Abstract Objective To investigate the diagnostic accuracy of patient history associated with hip pain. Data Sources A systematic, computerized search of electronic databases (PubMed, MEDLINE, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Web of Science), a search of the gray literature, and review of the primary author's personal library was performed. Hip-specific search terms were combined with diagnostic accuracy and subjective or self-report history-based search terms using the Boolean operator “AND.” Study Selection This systematic review was conducted and reported according to the protocol outlined by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The inclusion criteria were: (1) patients with hip pain; (2) the statistical association of at least 1 patient history item was reported; (3) study designs appropriate for diagnostic accuracy; (4) adults aged ≥18 years; (5) written in English; and (6) used an acceptable reference standard for diagnosed hip pathology. Titles and abstracts of all database-captured citations were independently screened by at least 2 reviewers. Data Extraction Two reviewers independently extracted information and data regarding author, year, study population, study design, criterion standard, and strength of association statistics associated with the subjective findings. Data Synthesis For hip osteoarthritis (OA), a family history of OA (positive likelihood ratio [+LR], 2.13), history of knee OA (+LR, 2.06), report of groin or anterior thigh pain (+LR, 2.51-3.86), self-reported limitation in range of motion of 1 or both hips (+LR, 2.87), constant low back pain or buttock pain (+LR, 6.50), groin pain on the same side (+LR, 3.63), and a screening questionnaire (+LR, 3.87-13.29) were the most significant findings. For intra-articular hip pathology, crepitus (+LR, 3.56) was the most significant finding. Conclusions Patient history plays a key role in differential diagnosis of hip pain and in some cases can be superior to objective tests and measures.
Mssa-Net: Multi-Scale Self-Attention Network For Breast Ultrasound Image Segmentation

Ultrasound imaging is one of the most commonly used diagnostic tools to detect and classify abnormalities of the women breast. Automatic ultrasound image segmentation provides radiologists a second opinion to increase diagnosis accuracy. Deep neural networks have recently been employed to achieve better image segmentation results than conventional approaches. In this paper, we propose a novel deep learning architecture, a Multi-Scale Self-Attention Network (MSSA-Net), which can be trained on small datasets to explore relationships between pixels to achieve better segmentation accuracy. Our MSSA-Net integrates rich local features and global contextual information at different scales and applies self-attention to multi-scale feature maps. We evaluate the proposed MSSA-Net on three public breast ultrasound datasets and compare its performance with six state-of-the-art deep neural network-based approaches in terms of five metrics. MSSA-Net achieves best overall segmentation results and improves the second best approach by 1.21% for Jaccard Index (JI) and 0.94% for Dice’s Coefficient (DSC).
Introducing Translanguaging in an EAP Course at a Joint-Venture University in China:

This article describes an innovative approach to introducing translanguaging in an English for academic purposes (EAP) course at a young Sino–US joint-venture university in China. To promote the us...
A Framework for Investigating Rules of Life Across Disciplines.

Clearly and usefully defining the Rules of Life has long been an attractive yet elusive prospect for biologists. Life persists because requirements for existence and successful transmission of hereditary information are met. These requirements are met through mechanisms adopted by organisms, which produce solutions to environmentally imposed constraints on life. Yet, constraints and their suites of potential solutions are typically context-specific, operating at specific levels of organization, or holons, and having cascading effects across multiple levels, or the holarchy. We explore the idea that the interaction of constraints, mechanisms, and requirements within and across levels of organization may produce rules of life that can be productively defined. Although we stop short of listing specific rules, we provide a conceptual framework within which progress toward identifying rules might be made.
When and why organizational dehumanization leads to deviant work behaviors in hospitality industry

Abstract This study investigates when and why organizational dehumanization leads to deviant work behavior. Accordingly, aims to investigate the impacts of organizational dehumanization on perceived incivility and deviant work behavior. In addition to this, also investigates the psychological capital as moderator between organizational dehumanization and perceived incivility, while perceived incivility as a mediator between organizational dehumanization and deviant work behaviors (employee time theft and knowledge hiding). A time lag approach: with three-time intervals T1, T2 and T3 respectively was used to collect the data from hotel employees. Results indicate that organizational dehumanization leads to perceived incivility and thereof, perceived incivility propels deviant work behaviors amongst employees. Moreover, employee’s psychological capital played a protective role of reducing the detrimental effects of organizational dehumanization on perceived incivility. This research contributes to literature by considering behavioral outcomes of organizational dehumanization. For managers this study provides insights to minimize organizational stressors to buffer employee deviant behaviors. This study also provides new research avenues in hospitality industry.
Improving the Management Practices for Right-of-Way Acquisition Process

AbstractThe objective of this project is to identify current management practices developed by various state departments of transportation (DOTs) for right of way (ROW) acquisition and explore poss...
Tea Culture of Japan

Reviewed Medium: book Authors: Sadako Ohki Year: 2009 Pages: 112 Details: with a contribution by Takeshi Watanabe Publisher: Yale University Art Gallery ISBN: 9780300146929 (soft cover). Prices: $19.95 USD(soft cover).
Inversion-based adaptive learning control for a one-link flexible manipulator

In this paper, an adaptive learning algorithm Is applied to one-link flexible manipulator. After each repetitive trial, Least-Squares method is used to estimate the system parameters. The output tracking error and the identified system model are used through stable inversion to find the feed forward input, together with the desired state trajectories, for the next trial. An adaptive backstepping based tracking controller is used in each trial to ensure the regulation of the desired state trajectories. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed learning control scheme is very effective in tip trajectory tracking for a flexible link robotic manipulator.
Synthesis of Uridine Diphosphate Glucose Pyrophosphorylase during the Development of Dictyostelium discoideum

Abstract Uridine diphosphate glucose pyrophosphorylase (EC 2.7.7.9) from Dictyostelium discoideum has been purified to apparent physical and immunochemical homogeneity. The molecular weight estimates from gel diffusion and equilibrium sedimentation analyses are 390,000 and 384,000, respectively. The enzyme is polymeric apparently composed of a single monomeric species with a molecular weight of 55,000 as shown by dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The specific activity is 48,000 units per mg. The turnover numbers are 16,500 moles of UDP-glucose and 18,700 moles of glucose-1-P per min per mole of enzyme. The following Km values were obtained: glucose-1-P, 2.6 x 10-4 m; UTP, 1.1 x 10-4 m; UDP-glucose, 1.7 x 10-4 m; pyrophosphate, 4.4 x 10-4 m. UTP inhibits pyrophosphorylase activity both as a substrate at excess concentration and as a product, the latter inhibition being competitive with UDP-glucose. Pyrophosphate is a potent product inhibitor, not competitive with either glucose-1-P or UTP. Mixtures of the purified enzyme with crude extracts of cells harvested at different stages of fruiting body construction demonstrated that the assay of enzyme activity employed is an accurate reflection of the concentration of enzyme in the extracts. A high titer antiserum has been obtained which yields a single band in double diffusion assays with either purified enzyme preparations or crude extracts. Quantitative complement fixation and immune precipitation assays revealed no serological differences between the basal enzyme found in the vegetative cells and that which accumulates during fruiting body construction and demonstrated that the 10-fold increase in the specific activity of the enzyme which occurs during specific stages of fruit construction is correlated with a proportionate increase in a single antigenic component. The enzyme was also immune precipitated from crude extracts of cells labeled with [35S]methionine during the period of enzyme accumulation. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the enzyme antibody complex solubilized with dodecyl sulfate showed a single labeled peak at the position of the enzyme monomer. Thus at least part if not all of the enzyme that accumulates during fruiting body construction is composed of newly synthesized monomers.
Purification and characterization of an autophosphorylation-activated protein serine threonine kinase that phosphorylates and inactivates protein phosphatase 2A.

Abstract Protein phosphatase 2A2 is inactivated by phosphorylation following incubation with purified preparations of an autophosphorylation-activated protein kinase (Hong Guo and Zahi Damuni (1992) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 90, 2500-2504). This protein kinase was purified about 250,000-fold from extracts of bovine kidney to apparent homogeneity. The purified preparations exhibited a single polypeptide of apparent M(r) approximately 36,000. Up to 1 mol of phosphoryl groups was incorporated per mol of the purified kinase following incubation with ATP. This autophosphorylation reaction (t1/2 approximately 0.5-1 min) was accompanied by a approximately 10-fold activation of the kinase. Autophosphorylation and activation were reversed by protein phosphatase 2A2 or the catalytic subunit of protein phosphatase 1. Phosphoamino acid analysis indicated that the kinase underwent autophosphorylation on threonines. The rate of autophosphorylation was independent of the concentration of the enzyme and a slope of 0.97 (gamma = 0.998) was obtained by van't Hoff's plot indicating that autoposphorylation was intramolecular. Relative to myelin basic protein, the enzyme exhibited about 8, 62, 130, 33, 5, and < 0.1% activity with histones H1, H2A, H2B, H3, and H4 and with glycogen synthase alpha, respectively. Heparin inhibited the activity of the enzyme half-maximally at about 20 micrograms/ml. The results indicate that this autophosphorylation-activated kinase is a new protein kinase.
Mitochondrial function in ageing: coordination with signalling and transcriptional pathways

Mitochondrial dysfunction entailing decreased energy-transducing capacity and perturbed redox homeostasis is an early and sometimes initiating event in ageing and age-related disorders involving tissues with high metabolic rate such as brain, liver and heart. In the central nervous system (CNS), recent findings from our and other groups suggest that the mitochondrion-centred hypometabolism is a key feature of ageing brains and Alzheimer's disease. This hypometabolic state is manifested by lowered neuronal glucose uptake, metabolic shift in the astrocytes, and alternations in mitochondrial tricarboxylic acid cycle function. Similarly, in liver and adipose tissue, mitochondrial capacity around glucose and fatty acid metabolism and thermogenesis is found to decline with age and is implicated in age-related metabolic disorders such as obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. These mitochondrion-related disorders in peripheral tissues can impact on brain functions through metabolic, hormonal and inflammatory signals. At the cellular level, studies in CNS and non-CNS tissues support the notion that instead of being viewed as autonomous organelles, mitochondria are part of a dynamic network with close interactions with other cellular components through energy- or redox-sensitive cytosolic kinase signalling and transcriptional pathways. Hence, it would be critical to further understand the molecular mechanisms involved in the communication between mitochondria and the rest of the cell. Therapeutic strategies that effectively preserves or improve mitochondrial function by targeting key component of these signalling cascades could represent a novel direction for numerous mitochondrion-implicated, age-related disorders.
Localization of N-terminal sequences in human AMP deaminase isoforms that influence contractile protein binding.

Abstract The reversible association of AMP deaminase (AMPD, EC 3.5.4.6) with elements of the contractile apparatus is an identified mechanism of enzyme regulation in mammalian skeletal muscle. All three members of the human AMPD multigene family contain coding information for polypeptides with divergent N-terminal and conserved C-terminal domains. In this study, serial N-terminal deletion mutants of up to 111 (AMPD1), 214 (AMPD2), and 126 (AMPD3) residues have been constructed without significant alteration of catalytic function or protein solubility. The entire sets of active enzymes are used to extend our understanding of the contractile protein binding of AMPD. Analysis of the most truncated active enzymes demonstrates that all three isoforms can associate with skeletal muscle actomyosin and suggests that a primary binding domain is located within the C-terminal 635–640 residues of each polypeptide. However, discrete stretches of N-terminal sequence alter this behavior. Residues 54–83 in the AMPD1 polypeptide contribute to a high actomyosin binding capacity of both isoform M spliceoforms, although the exon 2− enzyme exhibits significantly greater association compared to its exon 2+ counterpart. Conversely, residues 129–183 in the AMPD2 polypeptide reduce actomyosin binding of isoform L. In addition, residues 1–48 in the AMPD3 polypeptide dramatically suppress contractile protein binding of isoform E, thus allowing this enzyme to participate in other intracellular interactions.
Proposed failure mechanism in a discontinuously reinforced aluminum alloy

Etude, grâce a des techniques de fractographie et de metallographie, du comportement mecanique et de fracture d'aluminium 2124 renforce par 20% de SiC. Tentative de separer les contributions des differents mecanismes impliques et d'identifier le mecanisme de fracture predominant
Respirable dust characteristics of polydisperse aerosols.

(1970). Respirable Dust Characteristics of Polydisperse Aerosols. American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal: Vol. 31, No. 5, pp. 546-547.