cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Management Decisions Made by Caregiver Spouses of Persons With Alzheimer’s Disease

OBJECTIVES As the incidence of Alzheimer's disease increases, so does the effect on families and friends who assume caregiving responsibilities. Despite the proliferation of caregiving studies reported in the literature, little is known of the day-to-day management styles and preferences of caregivers. To develop, implement, and test interventions designed to sustain caregivers in their role, more information is needed about the caregiving experience. Results of a descriptive study are presented as a first step in understanding the complex process of choosing, organizing, and implementing everyday caregiving tasks. METHOD Subjects of the study were 26 persons who provide care for a spouse with moderate impairment from Alzheimer's disease. Interview data were analyzed with grounded theory techniques to isolate the purposes behind the management decisions of spousal caregivers. CONCLUSION Implications are presented for occupational therapy intervention to assist caregivers in gaining the knowledge and skills necessary for effective and efficient management of problem behaviors associated with Alzheimer's disease.
Infection-related hospitalizations in older patients with ESRD.

Background Infection is an important cause of hospitalization and death in patients receiving dialysis. Few studies have examined the full range of infections experienced by dialysis patients. The purpose of this study is to examine types, rates, and risk factors for infection in older persons starting dialysis therapy. Study Design Retrospective observational cohort study. Setting & Participants The cohort was assembled from the US Renal Data System and included patients aged 65-100 years who initiated dialysis therapy between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2002. Exclusions included prior kidney transplant, unknown dialysis modality, or death, loss to follow-up, or transplant during the first 90 days of dialysis therapy. Patients were followed up until death, transplant, or study end on December 31, 2004. Predictors Baseline demographics, comorbid conditions, and serum albumin and hemoglobin levels. Outcomes & Measurements Infection-related hospitalizations were ascertained using discharge International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification ( ICD-9-CM ) codes. Hospitalization rates were calculated for each type of infection. The Wei-Lin-Weissfeld model was used to examine risk factors for up to 4 infection-related events. Results 119,858 patients were included, 7,401 of whom were on peritoneal dialysis therapy. During a median follow-up of 1.9 years, infection-related diagnoses were observed in approximately 35% of all hospitalizations. Approximately 50% of patients had at least 1 infection-related hospitalization. Rates (per 100 person-years) of pulmonary, soft-tissue, and genitourinary infections ranged from 8.3-10.3 in patients on peritoneal dialysis therapy and 10.2-15.3 in patients on hemodialysis therapy. Risk factors for infection included older age, female sex, diabetes, heart failure, pulmonary disease, and low serum albumin level. Limitations Use of ICD-9-CM codes, reliance on Medicare claims to capture hospitalizations, use of the Medical Evidence Form to ascertain comorbid conditions, and absence of data for dialysis access. Conclusion Infection-related hospitalization is frequent in older patients on dialysis therapy. A broad range of infections, many unrelated to dialysis access, result in hospitalization in this population.
Global E-Commerce: Impacts of National Environment and Policy, edited by Kenneth L. Kraemer, Jason Dedrick, Nigel P. Melville, and Kevin Zhu. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. xxii + 444 pp. $75.00 cloth. ISBN 0-521-84822-9

A quick search on almost any database will show that over the past 5 years or so there has been a surge of book, not to mention journal article, publications related to e-commerce. These publicatio...
Sterile neutrino dark matter: Weak interactions in the strong coupling epoch

We perform a detailed study of the weak interactions of standard model neutrinos with the primordial plasma and their effect on the resonant production of sterile neutrino dark matter. Motivated by issues in cosmological structure formation on small scales, and reported X-ray signals that could be due to sterile neutrino decay, we consider 7 keV-scale sterile neutrinos. Oscillation-driven production of such sterile neutrinos occurs at temperatures T ≳ 100 MeV, where we study two significant effects of weakly charged species in the primordial plasma: (1) the redistribution of an input lepton asymmetry; (2) the opacity for active neutrinos. We calculate the redistribution analytically above and below the quark-hadron transition, and match with lattice QCD calculations through the transition. We estimate opacities due to tree level processes involving leptons and quarks above the quark-hadron transition, and the most important mesons below the transition. We report final sterile neutrino dark matter phase space densities that are significantly influenced by these effects, and yet relatively robust to remaining uncertainties in the nature of the quark-hadron transition. We also provide transfer functions for cosmological density fluctuations with cutoffs at k ≃ 10 h Mpc^(−1), that are relevant to galactic structure formation.
Selective availability of IL-2 is a major determinant controlling the production of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ T regulatory cells

The development and maintenance of T regulatory (Treg) cells critically depend on IL-2. This requirement for IL-2 might be due to specificity associated with IL-2R signal transduction or because IL-2 was uniquely present in the niche in which Treg cells reside. To address this issue, we examined the capacity of IL-7R-dependent signaling to support Treg cell production and prevent autoimmunity in IL-2Rbeta(-/-) mice. Expression of transgenic wild-type IL-7R or a chimeric receptor that consisted of the extracytoplasmic domain of the IL-7R alpha-chain and the cytoplasmic domain of IL-2R beta-chain in IL-2Rbeta(-/-) mice did not prevent autoimmunity. Importantly, expression of a chimeric receptor that consisted of the extracytoplasmic domain of the IL-2R beta-chain and the cytoplasmic domain of IL-7R alpha-chain in IL-2Rbeta(-/-) mice led to Treg cells production in the thymus and periphery and prevented autoimmunity. Signaling through the IL-2R or chimeric IL-2Rbeta/IL-7Ralpha in vivo or the culture of thymocytes from IL-2Rbeta(-/-) mice with IL-7 led to up-regulation of Foxp3 and CD25 on Treg cells. These findings indicate that IL-7R signal transduction is competent to promote Treg cell production, but this signaling requires triggering through IL-2 by binding to the extracytoplasmic portion of the IL-2R via this chimeric receptor. Thus, a major factor controlling the nonredundant activity of the IL-2R is selective compartmentalization of IL-2-producing cells with Treg cells in vivo.
Neoplastic meningitis from systemic malignancies: Diagnosis, prognosis and treatment

Long-term survival is occasionally observed in patients with neoplastic meningitis (NM) accompanying breast cancer (13% one-year and 6% 2-year survival), melanoma, and lymphoma, but in general the survival of most patients is short and averages only 3 to 4 months. The incidence of NM appears to be increasing, in part due to earlier detection by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and in part due to development of more effective therapies for systemic cancer, which has resulted in a larger subset at risk for late-stage development of this complication. Survival of NM patients is negatively affected by concomitant progression of systemic disease despite multiple prior therapies. However, there are certain prognostic factors that have been identified as "favorable" in retrospective series, including age less than 60 years, long symptom duration, controlled systemic disease, Karnofsky performance status (KPS) > or =70, lack of encephalopathy or cranial nerve deficits, low initial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) protein level, history of breast primary tumor, and lack of evidence of CSF compartmentalization or bulky meningeal disease as determined by CSF flow studies. Standard treatment has traditionally involved radiotherapy (RT) to sites of symptomatic or bulky disease, as detected by neuroimaging, and in selected patients, the administration of intrathecal, intraventricular, or systemic chemotherapy. However, treatment remains palliative and many patients and physicians choose supportive care only. Future hope is provided by studies that have improved our understanding of the disease pathogenesis, have identified prognostic variables associated with outcome, and have provided new therapeutic approaches, such as administration of high-dose systemic chemotherapy and investigations of novel therapeutic agents.
Muralytic Activities of Ruminococcus albus 8

Ruminococcus albus 8 was cultured with isolated alfalfa cell walls as the carbon source. The culture broth was assayed for muralytic enzyme activities. The effect, with respect to the production of such muralytic enzymes, of growing the microorganism on different carbon sources was also investigated. Also, the rates of solubilization and utilization by R. albus of individual alfalfa cell wall sugars during a 96-h growth period were examined.
Two-photon photoacoustic spectroscopy of acetone 3p Rydberg states

Abstract Two-photon photoacoustic spectra of acetone-h6 and −d6 have been recorded using a pulsed laser in the 3p←n Rydberg transition region (332.2–338.7 nm for two-photon excitation). Comparison of the acetone-h6 and −d6 photoacoustic and two-photon resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization spectra shows an intensity reversal between the (3py←n)1A1 and (3px←n)1A2 transition origins. The dramatic increase in the 1A1 state - and to a lesser extent for the 1B2 state - photoacoustic signals requires efficient radiationless/dissociative channels for these states, not present for 1A2. The intensity effects are interpreted through the 1A1 state having substantial π*←π valence character in contrast to almost pure Rydberg character for the 1A2 state.
Structure from Statistics - Unsupervised Activity Analysis using Suffix Trees

Models of activity structure for unconstrained environments are generally not available a priori. Recent representational approaches to this end are limited by their computational complexity, and ability to capture activity structure only up to some fixed temporal scale. In this work, we propose Suffix Trees as an activity representation to efficiently extract structure of activities by analyzing their constituent event-subsequences over multiple temporal scales. We empirically compare Suffix Trees with some of the previous approaches in terms of feature cardinality, discriminative prowess, noise sensitivity and activity-class discovery. Finally, exploiting properties of Suffix Trees, we present a novel perspective on anomalous subsequences of activities, and propose an algorithm to detect them in linear-time. We present comparative results over experimental data, collected from a kitchen environment to demonstrate the competence of our proposed framework.
The Atmosphere of Mars

The main emphasis of this review will be on Martian aeronomy, here defined to be the interaction of solar UV radiation with the atmosphere of Mars. A general outline of contemporary knowledge of the chemical composition and of the thermal structure of the Martian atmosphere, necessary for aeronomical calculations, is given in Sections 2 and 3 respectively. The aeronomy of the upper neutral atmosphere and ionosphere is discussed in Section 4. The problems of the stability of the Martian atmosphere and H2O escape are reviewed in the section on the lower atmosphere (Section 5).
Limit Theorems for Sample Covariances of Stationary Linear Processes with Applications to Sequential Estimation

For a stationary linear process where et are i.i.d. (0, σ 2), rate of convergence and strong consistency of an estimate for the asymptotic variance are established under conditions: and , p ≥ 2. In addition, it is shown that, with and , p ≥ 1, , where {N n :n ∊ N} is sequence of stopping times satisfying some conditions. Applications are made to the problem of the sequential point and fixed width confidence interval estimation of the mean μ.
Encountering Victims of Interpersonal Violence: Implications for Critical Care Nursing

Victims of interpersonal violence are entering the arena of critical care with greater frequency. Nurses in an acute care setting can play a pivotal role in early identification and intervention of high risk populations. This article profiles the epidemiology and risk factors of three vulnerable populations: pregnant women, adolescents, and the elderly.
Utilization of antineoplastic therapy (ANT) in advanced cancer patients admitted to an acute palliative care unit (APCU) at a comprehensive cancer center

9590 Background: Cancer patients admitted to a palliative care unit generally have a poor prognosis. The role of ANT (chemotherapy and targeted agents) in these patients is unclear. We examined the frequency, trends, factors and survival associated with ANT use in hospitalized patients who required an APCU stay. Methods: All patients admitted to APCU between September 1, 2003 and August 31, 2008 were included. Demographics, cancer diagnosis and ANTs utilization from day of hospitalization to discharge, and survival information were retrieved retrospectively. Results: 2604 cancer patients had the following characteristics: median age 59 (range 18–101), male 51%, hematologic malignancy 11%, median hospital stay 11 (Q1-Q3 8–17) days, median APCU stay 7 (Q1-Q3 4–10) days and median survival 22 days. During hospitalization, 393 patients (15%) received ANTs, including chemotherapy (N=297, 11%) and targeted therapy (N=155, 6%). No significant change in frequency of ANTs was detected over the 5 year period. Multi...
Electrotonic conduction in the optic nerves of planorbid snails.

1. The conduction of information from the eyes of two basommatophoran snails has been investigated. 2. In the optic nerves of Helisoma trivolvis and Planorbis corneus a flash of light to the eye produces a procaine-insensitive DC potential that is graded with stimulus intensity and lasts as long as the stimulus. 3. The similar spectral sensitivities, time courses and latencies of the ERG and the slow wave of the optic nerve suggest that the DC response is a decrementally conducted receptor potential. 4. Superimposed on the DC shift are procaine-sensitive oscillations. 5. The oscillations may be either local or propagated regenerative events.
Another Choice for Prevention of COPD Exacerbations

Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) guidelines1 recommend either a long-acting beta-agonist (LABA) plus an inhaled glucocorticoid or a long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) as first-line therapy for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who have a risk of exacerbation. The precise role of a combination of a LABA plus a LAMA in fixed doses in the prevention of COPD exacerbations is unclear. Previous studies have shown a LABA–LAMA regimen to be a preferred approach for symptomatic nonexacerbating COPD, especially among patients in GOLD group B (i.e., those who have low risk and a high symptom burden), but . . .
Persistence of Measles Virus and Demyelinating Disease

Perhaps the demyelinating diseases are not primary at all but long-delayed expressions of slow viral infections, most probably by the measles virus. Characteristic traces of the virus, such as are found in protracted measles encephalitis, can also be identified at postmortem in C N S tissue of multiple sclerosis patients. If the still indirect evidence can be confirmed, measles immunization may take on even more profound significance.
Gastrointestinal Allergy and Food Hypersensitivity

Allergy has been simply defined as altered reactivity, but to many it implies an adverse reaction that occurs due to the interaction of an antigen with antibody or lymphoid cells.l,la Although there is tremendous interest, the clinical significance of gastrointestinal allergy and food hypersensitivity is uncertain, as the science of the field is in its infancy. The allergists have been inundated by patients who claim all sorts of symptoms from food intake and the art of allergy has responded with intermittent success, but the science of proving food hypersensitivity has been limited. The only clinical situations that have been established as disease entities due to food hypersensitivity are cow's milk intolerance and gluten enteropathy. Although eosinophilic gastroenteritis is suspected of being related to food and hypersensitivity, the association has not been proven. There is no question humans must have numerous intolerances and hypersensitivities to foods, but much research has to evolve before the subject is understood in more detail. The following facts appear certain and may be of help in management of suspected gastrointestinal allergy or food hypersensitivity. It is important to make the distinction that gastrointestinal allergy refers to allergic responses that are manifest within the gastrointestinal tract, whereas food hypersensitivity may be a hypersensitivity state caused by the ingestion of food with symptoms occurring in the gastrointestinal tract, or at other target organs.
Perceptual distance between colored stimuli in the lizard Anolis sagrei : comparing visual system models to empirical results

In the study of the evolution of animal colors, the conspicuousness of a pair of colors (e.g., stimulus vs. background) is often modeled by determining the distance between them in perceptual color space. For similar colors, receptor noise models have been demonstrated to be an effective way to estimate discrimination thresholds. However, the best way to quantify conspicuousness of color pairs that are distant in perceptual space is not widely agreed upon. In experiments where an animal is presented with different colors that it can easily discriminate, its response may be strongly influenced by the biological significance of a color, in addition to its conspicuousness, a phenomenon known as color categorization. This has made it difficult to test and confirm the validity of different models of perceptual distance. We tested the relative conspicuousness of different stimulus/background color combinations in the lizard Anolis sagrei using a visual attention reflex, which has been shown in earlier experiments to be less influenced by color categorization than other commonly used behavioral assays. We compared the results to predictions based on two different visual system-based models. The Euclidian distance between pairs of points plotted in a lizard chromaticity diagram effectively predicted the relative responses. A receptor noise model, in which color space distance was estimated in units of “just noticeable difference,” yielded a similarly accurate prediction of the results. We concluded that for studies of color signal evolution, either of these methods may be effectively employed to make behaviorally-relevant predictions of perceptual distance among colors that are widely separated in visual space.
Considering the future of art bibliography: the FAB initiative

The Future of Art Bibliography (FAB) initiative developed out of various conversations among colleagues in the United States and Europe. Events in the art historical community, including limited funding resources for art libraries and projects internationally, and the cessation of the Getty’s support for the production of the Bibliography of the history of art (BHA) provided the catalyst for the Kress Foundation grant to the Getty Research Institute. A series of international meetings of art librarians, art historians, publishers and information specialists ensued. The goal was to review current practices, take stock of changes, and seriously consider developing more sustainable and collaborative ways of supporting the bibliography of art history in the future.
Surgical Management of Follicular Cancer

Follicular thyroid cancers are derived from follicular epithelium within the thyroid gland, accounting for about 10 % of all thyroid cancers, though the incidence seems to be decreasing. Follicular thyroid cancers differ from the more common follicular adenomas because the follicular cells in the cancers invade the vessels, capsule, or both. These tumors are usually unifocal and encapsulated. In contrast to papillary thyroid cancers that often metastasize to regional lymph nodes, follicular thyroid cancers infrequently involve the lymph nodes (<10 % of patients) but more frequently hematogenously metastasize to the lung and bones. Patients with follicular thyroid cancer generally have a worse prognosis than patients with papillary thyroid cancer. However, most of the difference in prognosis is associated with patients’ older age and more advanced tumor stage at presentation.
Invited Article: Concepts and tools for the evaluation of measurement uncertainty

Measurements involve comparisons of measured values with reference values traceable to measurement standards and are made to support decision-making. While the conventional definition of measurement focuses on quantitative properties (including ordinal properties), we adopt a broader view and entertain the possibility of regarding qualitative properties also as legitimate targets for measurement. A measurement result comprises the following: (i) a value that has been assigned to a property based on information derived from an experiment or computation, possibly also including information derived from other sources, and (ii) a characterization of the margin of doubt that remains about the true value of the property after taking that information into account. Measurement uncertainty is this margin of doubt, and it can be characterized by a probability distribution on the set of possible values of the property of interest. Mathematical or statistical models enable the quantification of measurement uncertaint...
Heparanase promotes neuroinflammatory response during subarachnoid hemorrhage in rats

Heparanase, a mammalian endo-β-D-glucoronidase that specifically degrades heparan sulfate, has been implicated in inflammation and ischemic stroke. However, the role of heparanase in neuroinflammatory response in subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) has not yet been investigated. This study was designed to examine the association between heparanase expression and neuroinflammation during subarachnoid hemorrhage. Rats were subjected to SAH by endovascular perforation, and the expression of heparanase was determined by Western blot analysis and immunofluorescence in the ipsilateral brain cortex at 24 h post-SAH. Pial venule leukocyte trafficking was monitored by using intravital microscopy through cranial window. Our results indicated that, compared to their sham-surgical controls, the rats subjected to SAH showed marked elevation of heparanase expression in the ipsilateral brain cortex. The SAH-induced elevation of heparanase was accompanied by increased leukocyte trafficking in pial venules and significant neurological deficiency. Intracerebroventricular application of a selective heparanase inhibitor, OGT2115, which was initiated at 3 h after SAH, significantly suppressed the leukocyte trafficking and improved the neurological function. Our findings indicate that heparanase plays an important role in mediating the neuroinflammatory response after SAH and contributes to SAH-related neurological deficits and early brain injury following SAH.
P 22 Analytical evaluation of soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt-1) and placental growth factor (PlGF) on Brahms Kryptor automated immunoassay for the diagnosis of preeclampsia

Background Preeclampsia is one of the leading hypertensive disorders in pregnant women worldwide and is characterized by maternal vascular dysfunction. Current diagnosis of preeclampsia in the U.S. is based on non-specific tests such as new onset of hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks of gestation. More recently, two emerging biomarkers anti-angiogenic factor soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt-1) and pro-angiogenic factor placental growth factor (PlGF), have been demonstrated to be involved in the pathophysiology of preeclampsia. Studies have shown that the usefulness of sFlt-1/PlGF ratio in confirming or ruling out suspected preeclampsia cases. Thus, wider availability of the automated measurement of sFlt-1 and PlGF has the potential of improving the clinical management of preeclampsia. Methods This study examined K2-EDTA plasma samples from 50 patients on Brahms Kryptor, an automated immunoassay platform. QC materials were used to access intra- and inter-precision of the assay. Lower limit of quantitation and interference studies were determined using pooled patient plasma. Results The sFlt-1 and PlGF assays demonstrated an analytical measuring range of 90–69,000 pg/mL and 11–7000 pg/mL, respectively (r2 > 0.99). Lower limit of quantitation (20% CV) was interpolated to be 35 pg/mL for sFlt-1 and 10 pg/mL for PlGF. Total precision for both assay displayed CVs of y = 0.9939x-37.15 with an overall bias of 90.35 for sFlt-1; and y = 0.8936x + 2.562, with an overall bias of −39.644 for PlGF. The larger differences in overall bias based on individual tests however was greatly improved when a ratio of sFlt-1/PlGF is taken into account for method comparison, yielding an equation of y = 1.05x + 0.02, with an overall bias of 0.84. Conclusion The pre-eclamptic biomarkers, sFlt-1 and PlGF assayed on the Brahms Kryptor platform, demonstrate good analytical performance and are acceptable for clinical studies defining the role of these biomarkers for preeclampsia.
Partial switching of ferroelectrics for synaptic weight storage

Gokmen and Vlasov proposed that the training of deep neural networks would be dramatically accelerated by the realization of resistive processing units that can store analog weights to minimize data movement during training [1]. Here we measure and evaluate the partial switching of the ferroelectric (FE) PbZrTiO 3 (PZT) and, for the first time, Hf 0 8 Zr 0 2 O 2 , (HZO), formed by atomic layer deposition, for use as a nonvolatile analog memory element. The spontaneous polarization P of a FE can be switched by applying a voltage that exceeds the coercive voltage for switching of the FE. This polarization, when fully switched, can have a value of +P or −P (C/cm2), depending on the polarity of the applied voltage. Ferroelectric memory is typically operated in fully switched +P or −P polarizations, however with short (< 10 μs) pulsed voltages, the FE can be partially switched, i.e. only a fraction of the domains are switched during the pulse duration as shown by Tokumitsu in PZT [2] and indicated in Fig. 1.
Advantaged/Disadvantaged School Neighborhoods, Parental Networks, and Parental Involvement at Elementary School:

This article examines the relationship between parental networks and parental school involvement during the elementary school years. Using a large, nationally representative data set of elementary school students—the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort—and contextual data from the 2000 U.S. Census, our multilevel analysis shows that higher levels of parental networks in first grade are associated with higher levels of parental school involvement in third grade after controlling for individual- and school-level characteristics. Parental networks are positively related to school involvement activities in formal organizations that consist of parents, teachers, and school staff, including participating in parent–teacher organizations and volunteering at school. Furthermore, the positive effects of parental networks on parental school involvement is stronger for families whose children attend schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods. This suggests that well-connected parental networks can serv...
The right to taste: Conceptualizing the nourishing potential of school lunch

The National School Lunch Program (NLSP) draws on federal poverty guidelines to distribute free, reduced, and full price meals to students throughout the United States. The NSLP aims to provide nut...
Assessing gait changes in firefighters after firefighting activities and while carrying asymmetric loads.

Abstract One of the most common causes of injuries among firefighters is slips, trips, and falls on the fireground. Acute fatigue from firefighting activities and/or carrying asymmetric loads might impact gait characteristics increasing slip, trip, and fall risk. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of fatigue from simulated firefighting activities and carrying asymmetric loads (fire hose over one shoulder) on firefighters’ gait behavior. Both firefighting activities and asymmetric hoseload carriage led to shorter step lengths, stride lengths, single leg support time, and longer double leg support time, suggesting firefighters adopted cautious gait strategies. Simulated firefighting activities performed in either a live-fire training tower or laboratory-based environmental chamber using a firefighting activity simulator resulted in nearly identical effects on gait kinematics. This result suggests that gait assessment in a laboratory-based environmental chamber can be used as effective simulations in place of specialized burn facilities.
Silicon Photonic Switching: Technology and Architecture

Densely integrated efficient photonic switching technologies show potential for transforming optical networks across diverse markets from long-haul to short-reach distance scales. This work reviews current technologies and architectures, while expounding on a few key enabling innovations.
569 Influence of work and personal-protective factors on commuting safety behaviours: a growth modelling approach

Introduction Research has shown that attitudes and behaviours developed in the work domain can spill over into non-work domains, however little attention has been paid to the impact that work may have on the transition between one’s work and non-work domains (i.e., commuting). We sought to examine the impact of work-related rumination (WRR) as a cognitive distracting mechanism on employee’s commuting safety behaviours (CSBs) and the potential buffering effects of personal-protective factors (commute-as-relaxation) as employee’s commute from work to home. Methods Data were collected via a baseline and 10 day daily diary study (two weeks, Monday – Friday) from employees (n=106) who worked full-time and commuted via private vehicle on a daily basis between March – April 2015. Data were analysed using Mplus version 7.3.1. and results were limited to the baseline and first week of daily diary collection. Result On average, employees experience a decrease in risky CSBs over the work week, with a rise in risky CSB occurring from Thursday to Friday. Travel-speed disruptions and WRR significantly impacted the trajectory of risky CSBs, such that travel-speed disruptions and engaging in WRR resulted in riskier CSBs. Additionally, employees who view the commute as time for relaxation engaged in less risky CSBs than their counterparts. The final model fit the data well [χ 2 (53)=67.81, p=0.08, RMSEA=0.058, CFI=0.94, TLI=0.93, SRMR=0.07]. Discussion Results indicated that employees who engage in WRR engage in riskier CSBs over the course of the working week. However, employees who view their commutes as time for relaxation engage in less risky CSBs over their counterparts. The findings of this study indicate the need for workplace intervention techniques that target the negative spill-over of WRR into employees’ commute time, as well as highlights the need for work-recovery mechanisms.
Analysis of Polarization Decay of Reinforced Concrete in Saltwater

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), polarization resistance, and polarization decay measurements techniques were used to analyze uncoated steel reinforcing rods encased in concrete and exposed to saltwater. A nested equivalent circuit containing a Warburg impedance was utilized to analyze the results. When rust is present on the steel, the Warburg impedance dominated the impedance response.
It would never happen here!: The Dreyfus affair in the central and eastern European Jewish press

When he wrote these words in 1900, Mark Twain conceived of the Dreyfus Affair not so much as an act of antisemitism, but as the moral failure of French culture and society at the expense of an individual who happened to be Jewish. This description of the Affair runs contrary to its once-predominant image in Jewish and European historiography. Until recently, historians presented this episode by distinguishing between proponents and opponents of assimilation within European Jewry. In describing Jewish responses to the Affair, they contrasted the passive assimilationism of French Jewish leaders to the quintessential antiassimilationist response articulated by Theodore Herzl and Max
Topics in self-interacting random walks

The principle focus of this thesis is self-interacting random walks. A self-interacting random walk is a walk on a graph with its past influencing its future. In contrast to the regular random walks, self-interacting random walks are genuinely non-Markovian. Correspondingly, most of the standard tools of the theory of random walks are not directly available for the analysis of these models. Typically, this requires a significant adjustment and novel ad-hoc approaches in order to be applied. In this thesis we study two such processes, namely, excited random walks (ERWs) and directionally reinforced random walks (DRRWs). ERWs have actively attracted many mathematicians in recent years, and several basic questions regarding these random walks on Zd and trees have been answered. Nonetheless, despite all the effort done of late, there are still fundamental questions about ERWs to be answered. Here, we consider a transient ERW on Z and study the asymptotic behavior of the occupation time of a currently most visited site. In particular, our results imply that, in contrast to the random walks in random environment, a transient excited random walk does not spend an asymptotically positive fraction of time at its favorite (most visited up to a date) sites. DRRWs were originally introduced by Mauldin, Monticino, and von Weizsacker. In this thesis, we consider a generalized version of these processes and obtain a stable limit theorem for the position of the random walk in higher dimensions. This extends a result of Horvath and Shao that was previously obtained in dimension one only.
Multiparticle-Based Models for Sintering of Supported Metal Catalysts

Abstract Some models for sintering are reviewed. Early models, using predominantly adatom transfer to describe sintering and assuming that individual particles interact only with a bulk adatom phase, are compared with more recent models. The latter take into account the migration of particles (where appropriate), and consider particle-particle interactions through a non-uniform adatom phase.
Review of interference indices in body fluid specimens submitted for clinical chemistry analyses

Abstract Objectives The aims of this study were to retrospectively investigate interference indices in a wide range of body fluid specimens and compare these indices to those found in serum/plasma. Design and Methods This retrospective study evaluated interference indices for hemolysis, icterus, and lipemia in 2752 body fluid specimens submitted for clinical chemistry testing. Results The distribution of interference indices for body fluid samples was generally similar to that of serum/plasma interference indices. Hemolysis of specimens submitted for lactate dehydrogenase (LD) represented the most common interference for body fluid chemistries. Body fluids collected from postsurgical drain sites had a higher proportion of tests exceeding both icterus and lipemic limits compared to serum/plasma specimens. Conclusions Overall, degrees of hemolysis, icterus, and lipemia observed in body fluid specimens were in large part similar to serum/plasma specimens, with a few notable differences. Body fluids exhibited a higher proportion of samples with severe icterus or lipemia. Severely lipemic body fluid samples were significantly less likely to also be hemolyzed relative to severely lipemic serum/plasma specimens. LD was the test most commonly affected by interference across all body fluid types. False elevations in pleural fluid LD induced by hemolysis can lead to mis-classification of transudative effusions as exudative using Light’s criteria. The possible impact of interferences on clinical chemistry testing in body fluids is an important post-analytical consideration.
A Noninvasive Retrograde Flushing System for Shunted Hydrocephalus: Initial Case Series of 25 Patients.

Hydrocephalus is a common neurosurgical pathology associated with high patient morbidity and systemwide healthcare costs. A significant portion of these costs are related to the failure of ventricular shunting systems. Despite decades of research and technological development, the rate of shunt failure and revision has not significantly improved. The Reflow™ Ventricular System (Anuncia, Inc., Lowell, MA) is a recent technological development with the potential to prolong the shunt lifespan. This system introduces a noninvasive means of flushing a shunt proximally with a controlled, repeatable pulse of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) and of creating a new ventricular opening for occluded shunts. In this multicenter case series, we present the early clinical experiences with this device and discuss its potential.
Go Local: Innovating Local Health Departments' Engagement on Alzheimer’s

The aging Baby Boom generation is a major force behind projected increases in the prevalence of Alzheimer’s, which is expected to grow from 5.8 million (2020) to 13.8 million (2050). Local health departments play a major role connecting people living with dementia (and their caregivers) to services, supports, and education, and to ensure safe, accessible environments where they can flourish. From September 2019-July 2020, two local health departments (from San Diego County and the City of Boston) participated in a yearlong collaborative pilot project with the Alzheimer’s Association to advance cognitive health, dementia, and caregiving issues in their local jurisdictions. The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) provided expert guidance and input throughout the collaboration. As part of the project, the local health departments: scanned their current work on healthy aging, identified existing data sources, and examined how existing healthy equity initiatives can apply to cognitive health, dementia, and caregiving issues. Action plans were developed, with a focus on policy mechanisms to initiate and sustain these projects and workforce development initiatives. Plans corresponded to actions of the Healthy Brain Initiative Road Map, helping elevate recommendations to change systems, policies, and environments. In fall 2020, LHDs will be able to use best practices, case studies, and tools developed from San Diego’s and Boston’s pilots to address Alzheimer’s as a chronic condition. The tools will help them engage health officials, develop action plans, and train the public health
Free Speech and Academic Freedom in the Era of the Alt-Right

This essay is written in two parts: "The Weaponization of Free Speech," describes a series of events on a university campus. The narrative clarifies the nature of current right wing attacks on personnel and programs in women, gender, and sexuality studies, and in race and ethnic studies. "An Annotated Bibliography on Academic Freedom" collects and describes materials that can assist campus communities in building cultures of resistance and resilience in the face of these attacks.
Reflecting on 50 years: The University Without Walls and integrative interdisciplinary learning:

The University Without Walls experiment on the University of Massachusetts, Amherst campus, began in 1971. The central animating concepts of the original experiment include the value of knowledge t...
Adaptability and Resilience in Aging Adults (ARIAA): protocol for a pilot and feasibility study in chronic low back pain.

Chronic low back pain (cLBP) is the leading cause of disability among older adults and one of the top reasons for seeking healthcare, resulting in significant decrements in physical functioning. Because older adults are among the fastest growing cohorts in the USA, both the incidence and burden of cLBP are expected to increase considerably, rendering geriatric pain management a top health priority. Resilience is defined as a process allowing individuals to adapt and recover from adverse and stressful conditions, and it has been highlighted as a crucial factor in positive health-related functioning. While a growing body of literature supports the use of resilience-based interventions in chronic pain, research examining their effectiveness in older adults with cLBP remains limited. The primary aims of the study are to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a psychologically oriented resilience intervention among aging adults with cLBP. In this article, we describe the rationale and design of the Adaptability and Resilience in Aging Adults (ARIAA) study, a single-arm intervention in which 60 participants (ages ≥ 60 years) with cLBP will be recruited to participate in a 7-week group-based program aimed at enhancing psychological resilience. Intervention sessions will target positive psychology concepts (e.g., positive affect, pain acceptance, hopeful thinking, pain self-efficacy) and cognitive behavioral techniques that have established benefits in pain management. Primary study outcomes include intervention feasibility and acceptability as measured by treatment engagement, intervention credibility and satisfaction, ability to meet recruitment and retention metrics, and the feasibility of questionnaire and home activity completion. Outcomes will be assessed at baseline, immediately at posttreatment, and at the 3-month follow-up period. This study will establish the feasibility and acceptability of a novel intervention aimed at enhancing positive, psychological functioning, and resilience in older adults with cLBP. Achievement of these aims will provide a rich platform for future intervention research targeting improvements in pain and disability among geriatric populations and will serve as a foundation for a fully powered trial to examine treatment efficacy of the proposed intervention. Clinicaltrials.gov, identifier NCT04068922 . Registered 28 August 2019.
The Berlin Algebraists: Frobenius and I. Schur

In the introductory remarks to Chapter 7 I pointed out that the work of Lie, Study, Kowalewski, and Cartan discussed in Chapters 7–8 belonged to the prehistory of the representation theory of Lie groups in the sense that these mathematicians did not operate within the conceptual framework that we customarily associate with group representation theory today. That framework, which included a complete reducibility theorem and a theory of characters, was provided by the work of Probenius, not long after Cartan published his doctoral dissertation. Frobenius’s theory was developed for finite groups and was motivated by arithmetical considerations, so that it was in a sense far removed from the interests of the above-mentioned mathematicians.1
Polymorphism in Brucella spp. due to highly repeated DNA

The species of Brucella are very closely related, but Brucella ovis does not express detectable amounts of a protein, designated BCSP31, that is common to the other species. We studied the lack of expression of BCSP31 by Southern analysis. DNAs from the B. ovis culture collection strains and field isolates were probed with a 1.3-kb HindIII fragment encoding BCSP31 of Brucella abortus. The probe hybridized to a 1.6-kb HindIII fragment of all B. ovis strains tested, showing that the gene is present in B. ovis but occurs on a larger restriction fragment. DNA linkage studies and restriction mapping of the cloned polymorphic region of B. ovis showed that the polymorphism was due to a DNA insertion of approximately 0.9 kb at a site downstream of the BCSP31-coding region. When the 1.6-kb polymorphic B. ovis fragment was used to probe a HindIII Southern blot of cellular DNA of strains of B. ovis and of B. abortus, at least 24 fragments of B. ovis and 6 fragments of B. abortus hybridized to the inserted DNA. Specimens of B. ovis collected over a 30-year period on two continents had similar hybridization patterns. The large difference between B. ovis and B. abortus in the number of copies of the repeated DNA is interesting in the context of the closeness of the Brucella species.
Thematic Apperception Test

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is a performance-based personality instrument published by Henry Murray and Christiana Morgan in 1943. For decades, the TAT has ranked among the three most widely used personality assessment instruments in clinical settings, along with the Rorschach inkblot method and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. The test consists of 31 cards with achromatic images, typically involving people, a subset of which the respondent is given and instructed to tell a story. Storytelling tests like the TAT are unique in they rely on a person's implicit intrapersonal and interpersonal narratives. Some formal TAT scores exist but are rarely used in clinical practice. Instead, clinicians typically use a variant of Murray's original interpretive approach that evaluates the need (internal motivation), press (external influences), and outcome of each story. Although the TAT has wide research base, the lack of commonly accepted scoring guidelines and norms has impaired researchers' ability to systematically assess its validity. Keywords: personality; testing in psychology; assessment; implicit measures; narratives; performance-based test; personality assessment; projective test
Antiplatelet Drugs in the Management of Cardiovascular Indications

Platelets play an integral role in primary hemostasis and in coronary atherothrombosis. Drugs such as aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), vitamin E, and COX-2 inhibitors such as celecoxib (Celebrex) affect platelet function. Antiplatelet drugs such as ticlopidine, clopidogrel, prasugrel, ticagrelor, cangrelor, and elinogrel inhibit the adenosine diphosphate receptors on the platelet surface. Other antiplatelet drugs such as abciximab, eptifibatide, and tirofiban, by inhibiting the glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptors, inhibit the final common pathway of platelet aggregation. Vorapaxar and atopaxar inhibit PAR1 thrombin receptor-activating peptide (TRAP)-induced platelet aggregation. Given the several agonists involved in different pathways of platelet aggregation, the combination of two antiplatelet drugs may be quite a rational approach in order to boost antithrombotic efficacy. Caution is needed in selecting the types of antiplatelet drugs as a combination therapy and their respective dosages in order to avoid serious bleeding complications. Several tests for monitoring antiplatelet drugs are available. The search for an ideal antiplatelet drug and also an ideal test for monitoring its effects continue.
Plant Biology at Center Stage

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Plants. Bob B. Buchanan, Wilhelm Gruissem, and Russell L. Jones, Eds. American Society of Plant Physiologists, Rockville, MD, 2000. 1407 pp. $149.95. ISBN 0-943088-37-2. Paper, $99.95. ISBN 0-943088-39-9. This comprehensive and up-to-date text will serve as an essential reference for researchers in plant biology. Contributions from over 50 authors cover cell biology, reproduction, energy flow, metabolic and developmental integration, and the extension of plant biochemistry to agricultural and environmental problems.