cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Sonographic and scintigraphic evaluation of acute renal allograft rejection in cats

The sonographic features of acute renal allograft rejection in humans and dogs are manifested by increase in renal cross-sectional area and reduction in renal cortical blood flow. These changes have not been investigated in cats. The objectives of this study were to evaluate sonographic and scintigraphic changes during acute renal allograft rejection in cats. Eight SPF, intact, adult, male cats received heterotopic renal allotransplantations. Immunosuppressive doses of cyclosporine and prednisolone were administered for 14 days and then discontinued to allow acute allograft rejection to occur. Serial measurements of renal cross-sectional area, resistive index (RI), echogenicity, and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) were performed to evaluate changes during acute rejection. Upon sonographic confirmation of absent diastolic blood flow or a 20% increase in cross-sectional area of the allograft, a nephrectomy and histopathologic evaluation were performed. Acute allograft rejection was confirmed histologically in all cats. Significant increases in renal cross-sectional area (P < 0.001) occurred postoperatively and during rejection. There were no significant changes in RI (P = 0.43) at any time. A subjective increase in medullary echogenicity and a decrease in corticomedullary demarcation were observed in the rejection period. While GFR decreased significantly in the immediate postoperative period (P < 0.001), no further change occurred during rejection (P = 0.42). Changes in RI and GFR do not appear to be sensitive indicators of acute renal allograft rejection in cats. Serial measurements of renal cross-sectional area appear to be a sensitive method for the early diagnosis of allograft rejection in feline renal transplant recipients.
Evaluation of spike-detection algorithms fora brain-machine interface application

Real time spike detection is an important requirement for developing brain machine interfaces (BMIs). We examined three classes of spike-detection algorithms to determine which is best suited for a wireless BMI with a limited transmission bandwidth and computational capabilities. The algorithms were analyzed by tabulating true and false detections when applied to a set of realistic artificial neural signals with known spike times and varying signal to noise ratios. A design-specific cost function was developed to score the relative merits of each detector; correct detections increased the score, while false detections and computational burden reduced it. Test signals both with and without overlapping action potentials were considered. We also investigated the utility of rejecting spikes that violate a minimum refractory period by occurring within a fixed time window after the preceding threshold crossing. Our results indicate that the cost-function scores for the absolute value operator were comparable to those for more elaborate nonlinear energy operator based detectors. The absolute value operator scores were enhanced when the refractory period check was used. Matched-filter-based detectors scored poorly due to their relatively large computational requirements that would be difficult to implement in a real-time system.
Mitral annular calcification: clinical, pathophysiology, and echocardiographic review.

Calcification of the mitral anulus is a degenerative change, mainly in older patients. Several potential complications are associated with mitral annular calcification (MAC): acquired mitral stenosis, mitral regurgitation, embolic phenomenon, arrhythmias, conduction defects, and endocarditis. With the advent of echocardiography permitting ready identification of MAC, this entity and many of its concomitant complications are now being recognized earlier in its natural history.
Low-power CMOS wireless MEMS motion sensor for physiological activity monitoring

In this paper, a short distance wireless sensor node "AccuMicroMotion" for physiological activity monitoring is proposed for detecting motions in six degrees of freedom. System architecture, relevant microstructures, and electronic circuits to implement the sensor node are presented. A three-axis microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometer and a z-axis gyroscope are designed and fabricated using a new deep-reactive ion-etch CMOS-MEMS process. The interface circuits, an analog-to-digital converter, and a wireless transmitter are designed using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS process, wherein the interface circuits adopt chopper stabilization technique and can resolve a signal (dc to 1 kHz) as low as 200 nV from the microsensors; digitized outputs from the microsensors are transmitted by a 900-MHz amplitude-shift-keying radio-frequency transmitter that delivers a 2.2-mW power to a 50-/spl Omega/ antenna. The system draws an average current of 4.8 mA from a 3-V supply when six sensors are in operation simultaneously and provides an overall 60-dB dynamic range.
Innovations in Finite-Temperature Density Functionals

Reliable, tractable computational characterization of warm dense matter is a challenging task because of the wide range of important aggregation states and effective interactions involved. Contemporary best practice is to do ab initio molecular dynamics on the ion constituents with the forces from the electronic population provided by density functional calculations. Issues with that approach include the lack of reliable approximate density functionals and the computational bottleneck intrinsic to Kohn-Sham calculations. Our research is aimed at both problems, via the so-called orbital-free approach to density functional theory. After a sketch of the relevant properties of warm dense matter to motivate our research, we give a survey of our results for constraint-based non-interacting free energy functionals and exchange-correlation free-energy functionals. That survey includes comparisons with novel finite-temperature Hartree-Fock calculations and also presents progress on both pertinent exact results and matters of computational technique.
Advanced Neuroimaging Approaches of Magnetic Resonance for Brain Function Research

This talk provides a brief overview about advanced MR techniques and their great promise for studying brain function, physiology and neurochemistry.
Differences in Expression and Function in the Atrium versus Ventricle of the Sodium-Calcium Exchanger in the Embryonic Chicken Heart

Heart function is well known to be dependent on intrinsic electrical activity. This electrical activity is primarily mediated by a combination of interactions among various ionic channels and transporters. In this study, we demonstrate that the Na
Aim2 Deficiency in Mice Suppresses the Expression of the Inhibitory Fcγ Receptor (FcγRIIB) through the Induction of the IFN-Inducible p202, a Lupus Susceptibility Protein

Murine Aim2 and Ifi202 genes (encoding for the Aim2 and p202 proteins) are members of the IFN-inducible Ifi200 gene family. The Aim2 deficiency in mice activates IFN signaling and stimulates the expression of the lupus susceptibility gene, the Ifi202, located within the NZB autoimmunity 2 (Nba2) interval. Given that the deficiency in the expression of the Fcgr2b gene (encoding for the inhibitory FcγRIIB receptor) is associated with increased lupus susceptibility in mice, we investigated whether the Aim2 protein could regulate the expression of Fcgr2b gene. In this article, we report that Aim2 deficiency in mice suppresses the expression of the FcγRIIB receptor. Interestingly, the Fcgr2b-deficient cells expressed increased levels of the IFN-β, activated IFN signaling, and expressed reduced levels of the Aim2 protein. Treatment of splenic cells with IFN-α or -γ reduced levels of the FcγRIIB mRNA and protein and also decreased the activity of the FcγRIIB p(−729/+585) Luc reporter. Moreover, levels of the FcγRIIB receptor were significantly higher in the Stat1-deficient splenic cells than in the wild-type cells. Accordingly, increased expression of IFN-β in lupus-prone B6.Nba2-ABC mice, as compared with non–lupus-prone C57BL/6 (B6) or B6.Nba2-C mice, was associated with reduced expression of the FcγRIIB receptor. Notably, overexpression of the p202 protein in cells decreased the expression of the Aim2 gene, activated the IFN response, and suppressed the expression of the Fcgr2b gene. These observations demonstrate that the expression of Aim2 protein is required to maintain the expression of the Fcgr2b gene and also predict epistatic interactions between the Ifi200 genes and the Fcgr2b gene within the Nba2 interval.
The Preferred Basis Problem and the Quantum Mechanics of Everything

Jereon Vink ([1993]) argued that there are two options for what he called a realistic solution to the quantum measurement problem: (1) select a preferred set of observables for which definite values are assumed to exist, or (2) attempt to assign definite values to all observables simultaneously (1810‐1). While conventional wisdom has it that the second option is ruled out by the Kochen-Specker theorem, Vink nevertheless advocated it. Making every physical quantity determinate in quantum mechanics carries with it significant conceptual costs, but it also provides a way of addressing the preferred basis problem that arises if one chooses to pursue the first option. The potential costs and benefits of a formulation of quantum mechanics where every physical quantity is determinate are herein examined. 1 The preferred-basis problem 2 How to solve the preferred-basis problem 3 Relativistic constraints 4 Conclusion
Lessons in Copyright Activism: K-12 Education and the DMCA 1201 Exemption Rulemaking Process

Digital learning is being transformed by changes in copyright law. This article discusses the author's personal journey as a copyright education activist through two rounds of rulemaking proceedings before the Copyright Office concerning the anti-circumvention provisions of one part of the copyright law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act DMCA, which is the law that exempts YouTube and other ISPs from liability from copyright claims and criminalizes the circumvention of digital rights management DRM software that protects DVDs from being copied. Every three years, petitioners can claim their rights have been compromised by the current law; the Copyright Office pores over the petitions, weighs the pros and cons, and then offers recommendations to the Librarian of Congress, who ultimately grants or denies the exemptions. The author was successful in expanding the rights of K-12 teachers to legally "rip" DVDs by using the Section 1201 rulemaking process, which is one of the only significant ways that educators can expand their rights to use copyrighted material for teaching and learning purposes. By asserting the rights of K-12 educators to circumvent encryption to make fair use of copy-protected DVDs and online digital media for teaching and learning, the law begins to move beyond the needs of large-scale content owners to include the rights of educators and students.
Pollution Regulation: An Operations Perspective

Opponents of pollution regulation claim that regulations choke businesses, hurt welfare and destroy economic growth. Do pollution regulations in fact hurt producers and the economy? We model two popular regulations – Cap-and-Trade and Taxes – under imperfect competition. We prove that market structure is an important, if over-looked, driver of the economic consequences of pollution regulation. Under imperfect competition, well-chosen regulation can (i) simultaneously improve firms’ profits, consumer surplus and welfare, and (ii) induce firms to perfectly internalize their pollution externalities. The risk of regulatory over-reach due to over-estimates of the pollution damage is allayed, at least in competitive contexts, since the welfare-maximizing tax rate is, in these cases, greater than the marginal pollution damage caused by polluters. Our results suggest that the paramount factor in framing pollution regulations should be their impact on consumers rather than on producers.
Prosthetic valve selection in patients with left-sided endocarditis: bioprosthetic or mechanical valves?

Purpose of review Studies comparing outcomes in left-sided endocarditis based on the prosthesis selected for implantation are limited and no randomized studies have been performed. The purpose of this review is to summarize the best available studies to determine what prosthesis is most appropriate when valve replacement is necessary for left-sided endocarditis. Recent findings Recommendations for valve selection in left-sided endocarditis depend on patient age and whether the infection occurs in a native or prosthetic valve. In young patients with native valve endocarditis (NVE), the algorithm for valve selection should mimic the algorithm for noninfectious indications. For older patients with NVE, bioprosthetic valves are appropriate and offer favorable freedom from reoperation and survival compared with mechanical valves. For all patients with prosthetic valve endocarditis, bioprosthetic valves are reasonable given diminished long-term survival compared with those with native valve infections. Homografts can be considered when extensive aortic annular destruction is present in experienced centers, but the Ross procedure is of limited value in endocarditis. Summary Valve procedure and valve prosthesis selection when replacement is indicated can profoundly impact both short-term and long-term patient outcomes in left-sided endocarditis. Review of recent studies demonstrates specific subgroups in which bioprosthetic versus mechanical valves are preferable.
Dark and photo-conductivity in ordered array of nanocrystals.

A theory of photo- and dark-band conductivities in semiconductor supercrystals consisting of nanocrystals is developed by assuming scattering by structural defects in the supercrystals. A new proposed mechanism of photoexcitation, which is triggered by an efficient Auger ionization of charged nanocrystals, provides explanation for the measured photocurrent being 2–3 orders of magnitude larger than the dark current. For dark conductivity, the metal–insulator transitions and temperature dependence of mobility in the metal phase are considered.
Intermittent exotropia: continued controversies and current management

Purpose of reviewContinued controversy exists regarding intermittent exotropia and its management. Although it has been studied extensively, the indication for and timing of intervention and what therapy is most efficacious remains unclear. This article reviews the most recent research and the contr
Perspective of the management of China's national drug standards from the analysis of an administrative penalty case

Based on the analysis of an administrative penalty case,perspective of the management of our national drug standards in the current was discussed.We also discussed the deficiencies,and how to strengthen the supervision of the management of national drug standards.
The Problem of Popularization in Benjamin, Schrödinger, and Heidegger circa 1935

The essay seeks to show how Benjamin and Heidegger addressed the problem of popularization in the mid-1930s. Locating the source of their respective responses to the problem in Kant's distinction between “scholastic” and “popular” language, the essay analyzes congruent passages in the writings of Benjamin and Heidegger where the problem transcends any simple solution, according to which popularization occurs whenever experts find illustrations capable of communicating their concepts to non-experts with a corresponding loss of precision. After showing how Benjamin's reception of Arthur Eddington reaches into his theory of the aura, the essay suggests certain affinities between his formulation of this theory in 1935 and a contemporaneous paper of Erwin Schrodinger. It concludes with an analysis of certain passages in Heidegger's 1935 lecture, Einfuhrung in die Metaphysik, especially a passage where he, like Schrodinger, he captures an image of a “space” that recedes from illustration through the term “Versc...
Employment Contracts, Finance and the Distribution of Wealth

Given technology, preferences and information, which manner of organizing production will survive in a competitive environment? Is hierarchy with monitors and employees a necessary outcome of efficient contracting, or are there conditions under which other organizational forms (such as partnerships) might be viable? In answering these questions, one must take into account the free entry of agents into the different occupations — for example, entrepreneur, manager, employee, partner — that each type of organization entails; the factors which determine occupational choice also affect the competitive selection of organizational form.
Effect of Adding Liraglutide vs Placebo to a High-Dose lnsulin Regimen in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance An increasing number of patients with type 2 diabetes are treated with high doses of insulin. Such treatment is associated with weight gain, hypoglycemia, and high treatment burden. Objective To assess the effectiveness and safety of adding a glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist to the treatment regimen of patients with type 2 diabetes requiring therapy with high-dose insulin. Design, Setting, and Participants This clinical trial was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized (1:1) study with 6 months of follow-up, conducted from August 13, 2012, to February 9, 2015, at ambulatory clinics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Hospital. Participants were 71 patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes (glycated hemoglobin level, 7.5%-11.0%) using more than 1.5 U/kg/d of insulin. Interventions Subcutaneous injection of liraglutide (1.8 mg/d) or matching placebo for 6 months. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcome was the change in glycated hemoglobin level. Secondary outcomes were changes in weight, hypoglycemia rate, insulin dosage, and quality-of-life measures. Results Among 71 patients, 45 (63%) were female. The mean (SD) age of patients was 54.2 (7.4) years, with a mean (SD) type 2 diabetes duration of 17.9 (8.4) years and a mean (SD) total daily dose of insulin of 247.0 (95.1) U. Ninety-three percent (66 of 71) of participants completed all scheduled visits. The glycated hemoglobin level improved from a mean (SD) of 9.0% (1.2%) to 7.9% (1.1%) in the liraglutide group ( P P = .002). Weight decreased from a mean (SD) of 114.6 (21.4) kg to 113.6 (20.8) kg in the liraglutide group vs a mean (SD) increase from 116.1 (26.6) kg to 117.2 (27.2) kg in the placebo group, with a treatment difference of −2.3 kg (95% CI, −4.3 to −0.4 kg) ( P = .02). The total daily dose of insulin decreased 11.5% (95% CI, −21.8% to −1.1%) in the liraglutide group ( P = .20). The hypoglycemia rate was higher in the first month after initiation of liraglutide compared with placebo (2.30 vs 0.91 events per person-month, P = .01), while the overall hypoglycemia rate over the entire follow-up was similar between groups ( P = .11). Glycemia control perception, satisfaction with insulin treatment, and willingness to continue insulin use improved more in the liraglutide group. Conclusions and Relevance Liraglutide added to high-dose insulin therapy improved glycemic control, decreased body weight, and enhanced treatment satisfaction in this difficult-to-treat patient population with high-dose insulin requirements. Further studies are warranted to confirm these findings and evaluate the long-term risk and benefit of this treatment option. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier:NCT01505673
Truth, error, and the struggle for social power

This chapter addresses how law or sharī c a intersected with other social and cultural practices. Medieval Islamic societies are often thought to be unique in the extent to which elites took their social authority from sacred law, just as Islam is thought to be uniquely legalistic. On the surface, there is much to recommend this view. There is no doubt that the a c yān learned the sciences of the sharī c a partly to qualify themselves as exponents of sacred law. Moreover, the all-encompassing nature of the sharī c a, which included matters of cult, ethics, and family relations in addition to criminal, commercial, and administrative law, meant that legal forms of authority and argumentation were applied to many areas of social life. Finally, the representative social type of the civilian elite is often thought to be the qāḍī or muftī, whose position and authority were derived largely from knowledge of the law. Secretaries too were advised to become learned in the law so they would not be dependent as the muqallad or follower of a legal scholar. There would thus seem to be little reason to reject the widespread characterization of Islamic societies as “nomocracies.” However, there are at least two reasons to qualify this perception. First, the extent to which the a c yān's cultivation of law distinguished Islamic societies from others is at least debatable. As Weber pointed out, in a number of agrarian societies in which elites competed for prebends they cast themselves as carriers and interpreters of sacred law.
Characteristics of patients with advanced lung cancer referred to a rapid-access supportive care clinic

Objective There is a limited number of pragmatic studies to evaluate the criteria for referral to outpatient palliative care. The aim of our study was to compare the characteristics, symptoms, and survival of patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) referred (RF) versus not referred (NRF) to a novel embedded same-day rapid-access supportive care clinic (RASCC) and to compare the subgroups among referred patients. Method We reviewed the medical records of all patients who received treatment at the thoracic oncology clinic for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer between August 1, 2012, and June 30, 2013, who were referred to the RASCC and those who were not referred. An oncology-estimated prognosis of ≤6 months and/or severe symptom distress was employed as criteria for referral to the RASCC. Results Of 410 eligible patients, 155 (37.8%) were referred to the RASCC. RF patients had significantly higher patient-reported scores for pain, fatigue, lack of appetite, and symptom distress, as well as worse performance status and shorter survival than NRF patients. Among the RF patients, those who were referred early (≤3 months) had significantly worse symptom distress and shorter overall survival than patients who were referred later on. The patients treated by thoracic oncologists who referred a smaller proportion of their patients to the RASCC had significantly worse anxiety, well-being, spiritual pain, and symptom distress than patients treated by those who referred a larger proportion of their patients to the RASCC. Significance of results We found that patients who were referred to the RASCC had higher reported symptom distress and worse survival ratings. Further studies are needed to evaluate the optimal criteria for timely integration of palliative care and oncology care.
Lessons from collecting a million biometric samples

Over the past decade, independent evaluations have become commonplace in many areas of experimental computer science, including face and gesture recognition. A key attribute of many successful independent evaluations is a curated data set. Desired aspects associated with these data sets include appropriateness to the experimental design, a corpus size large enough to allow statistically rigorous characterization of results, and the availability of comprehensive metadata that allow inferences to be made on various data set attributes. In this paper, we review a ten-year biometric sampling effort that enabled the creation of several key biometrics challenge problems. We summarize the design and execution of data collections, identify key challenges, and convey some lessons learned. We describe a ten-year effort that collected 1 million biometric samples.We give an overview of the challenges and evaluations that the effort supported.We highlight the scientific and technological advances that the effort supported.
Illumination alters the structure of gels formed from the model optoelectronic material P3HT

Abstract Studying the gelation process of conjugated optoelectronic polymers has often been employed as a means of better understanding the final morphology and assembly in active layers of organic electronic devices due to the correlation between the experimentally observed sol-gel transition and many common solution based fabrication techniques. The nature of the percolated network structures formed through the molecular assembly that occurs during this gelation directly affects device performance in conjugated polymer based active layers. Thus, precise knowledge of the evolution of structures during gelation provides crucial information that is needed to rationally improve device performance by directing the assembly during processing. Additionally, observing the effects of environmental factors such as ambient light exposure upon the gelation process will direct efforts towards improving universally overlooked facets of the typical fabrication procedure. Thus, we have conducted a series of ultra small angle and small angle neutron scattering experiments to probe the temperature-driven gelation process of the conjugated photoactive polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) in both the presence and absence of white light. Analysis of the resultant scattering data shows that the gelation process consists of the creation and steady growth of cylindrical aggregates formed by the agglomeration of free chain P3HT. Furthermore, clear differences in the gel structure and assembly between illuminated and non-illuminated gels are observed across multiple length scales, pointing towards an optically-induced variation in the gelation process. Our results indicate that simple white light exposure sharply retards the growth of conjugated polymer microstructures, which clearly suggests that ignoring illumination conditions throughout organic electronic fabrication processes risks producing inconsistent and non-reproducible active layer architectures and ultimately endangers dependable device performance.
Influences of Solvent Water on the Transition State Affinity of Enzymes, Protein Folding, and the Composition of the Genetic Code

This symposium is a special delight for one of those who benefited from Dr. Lipmann’s kindness in accepting graduate students after his move to New York in 1957. By then he had numerous scientific progeny, and my relationship to him is complicated by the fact that I can also count myself among his scientific grandchildren through apprenticeships with Hans Bomann and Bill Jencks. A good deal of what I am going to say, about enzyme interactions with high energy intermediates in substrate transformation, had its genesis in conversations about group potential (Lipmann 1941) and in some ideas expressed a generation later by Jencks (1966) in a volume commemorating the 1941 review.
Role of the Dynorphin/Kappa Opioid Receptor System in the Motivational Effects of Ethanol

Evidence has demonstrated that dynorphin (DYN) and the kappa opioid receptor (KOR) system contribute to various psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, depression, and addiction. More recently, this endogenous opioid system has received increased attention as a potential therapeutic target for treating alcohol use disorders. In this review, we provide an overview and synthesis of preclinical studies examining the influence of alcohol (ethanol) exposure on DYN/KOR expression and function, as well as studies examining the effects of DYN/KOR manipulation on ethanol's rewarding and aversive properties. We then describe work that has characterized effects of KOR activation and blockade on ethanol self-administration and ethanol dependence/withdrawal-related behaviors. Finally, we address how the DYN/KOR system may contribute to stress-ethanol interactions. Despite an apparent role for the DYN/KOR system in motivational effects of ethanol, support comes from relatively few studies. Nevertheless, review of this literature reveals several common themes: (1) rodent strains genetically predisposed to consume more ethanol generally appear to have reduced DYN/KOR tone in brain reward circuitry; (2) acute and chronic ethanol exposure typically upregulate the DYN/KOR system; (3) KOR antagonists reduce behavioral indices of negative affect associated with stress and chronic ethanol exposure/withdrawal; and (4) KOR antagonists are effective in reducing ethanol consumption, but are often more efficacious under conditions that engender high levels of consumption, such as dependence or stress exposure. These results support the contention that the DYN/KOR system plays a significant role in contributing to dependence- and stress-induced elevation in ethanol consumption. Overall, more comprehensive analyses (on both behavioral and mechanistic levels) are needed to provide additional insight into how the DYN/KOR system is engaged and adapts to influence the motivation effects of ethanol. This information will be critical for the development of new pharmacological agents targeting KORs as promising novel therapeutics for alcohol use disorders and comorbid affective disorders. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Clickstream User Behavior Models

The next generation of Internet services is driven by users and user-generated content. The complex nature of user behavior makes it highly challenging to manage and secure online services. On one hand, service providers cannot effectively prevent attackers from creating large numbers of fake identities to disseminate unwanted content (e.g., spam). On the other hand, abusive behavior from real users also poses significant threats (e.g., cyberbullying).In this article, we propose clickstream models to characterize user behavior in large online services. By analyzing clickstream traces (i.e., sequences of click events from users), we seek to achieve two goals: (1) detection: to capture distinct user groups for the detection of malicious accounts, and (2) understanding: to extract semantic information from user groups to understand the captured behavior. To achieve these goals, we build two related systems. The first one is a semisupervised system to detect malicious user accounts (Sybils). The core idea is to build a clickstream similarity graph where each node is a user and an edge captures the similarity of two users’ clickstreams. Based on this graph, we propose a coloring scheme to identify groups of malicious accounts without relying on a large labeled dataset. We validate the system using ground-truth clickstream traces of 16,000 real and Sybil users from Renren, a large Chinese social network. The second system is an unsupervised system that aims to capture and understand the fine-grained user behavior. Instead of binary classification (malicious or benign), this model identifies the natural groups of user behavior and automatically extracts features to interpret their semantic meanings. Applying this system to Renren and another online social network, Whisper (100K users), we help service providers identify unexpected user behaviors and even predict users’ future actions. Both systems received positive feedback from our industrial collaborators including Renren, LinkedIn, and Whisper after testing on their internal clickstream data.
Role of Leptin in Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Leptin is a peptide hormone produced mainly in white adipose tissue. It is known to regulate energy homeostasis, inflammation, metabolism, and sympathetic nerve activity. Increasing evidence suggests it has a role in ventilatory function and upper airway obstruction. Leptin levels correlate positively with measurements of adiposity and can potentially provide important insights into the pathophysiology of diseases associated with obesity. Obesity is a strong risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea, a disease characterized by periodic upper airway occlusion during sleep. The neuromuscular activity that maintains upper airway patency during sleep and the anatomy of upper airway are key factors involved in its pathogenesis. Experimental studies using animal models of a low leptin state such as leptin deficiency have shown that leptin regulates sleep architecture, upper airway patency, ventilatory function, and hypercapnic ventilatory response. However, findings from human studies do not consistently support ...
Selection systems for tomato improvement.

As plant breeding evolved from simple selection in unimproved populations to systematic mating and selection procedures, the predominant methods of handling successive generations of most crops were simple pedigree and bulk systems. In the pedigree system, seeds for each single plant selection are maintained as separate lines: in the bulk system, seeds of single plant selections are not maintained separately but are bulked into one population for each original mating. The pedigree system generally was preferred because it allowed close monitoring of parentage and offered opportunities for maximum selection pressure in each segregating generation. The bulk system was most appropriate for species grown in closely spaced competitive conditions, and it enabled breeders to handle large numbers of plants and lines.
China's New Electronic Signature Law and Certification Authority Regulations: A Catalyst for Dramatic Future Growth of E-Commerce

Estimates put China’s population at approximately 1.3 billion people. Yet only 1.03 million of them—less than eight percent of the population—have access to the internet. This will soon change. The dizzying annual growth rate of the economy has begun to create a new middle class in China. Recent reports indicate an 8.6 percent rise in real disposable income among urban households. That middle class is expected to grow to 170 million households by 2010. By the end of this decade, the number of people wired to the internet in China will exceed that of the United States, and China will become the world’s largest online market.
Schizophrenic individuals with bipolar first-degree relatives: Analysis of two pedigrees

During the course of a family-interview study of probands with psychotic disorders, the authors encountered two pedigrees in which schizophrenic individuals had first-degree relatives with bipolar disorder. The authors describe the members of both families in detail and discuss several hypotheses that might account for the co-occurrence of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in the same family.
The Origin of Coals

Palaeobotanic evidence shows that coals are derived chiefly from the woody components of vascular plants, as their debris accumulates in a peat swamp or marsh. Coal formation has been a rare event in geological time, the principal eras in Europe and North America having been about 300 m. and 50–100m. years B.P. Major changes in plant anatomy took place between these two periods.
Intersectoral Approaches to Health Promotion in Cities

The health problems facing the world today increasingly require complex solutions in which public health interventions must work across sectors and levels of organization. Cities – where two-thirds of the global population is expected to live by 2030 – especially face challenging health conditions like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, avian flu, infant mortality, and depression and social conditions like concentrated poverty, rising inequality, and declining public infrastructures. These problems demand that effective health promotion measures must integrate efforts within the health care, education, environmental protection, housing, nutrition and economic development sectors. In this chapter, I will examine intersectoral approaches to health promotion, describe the rationale and characteristics of this strategy, and then examine the strategies used to evaluate intersectoral work and the methodological and organizational challenges to evaluation that this approach poses. I define intersectoral health promotion interventions as organized activities that seek to improve well-being by influencing multiple determinants of complex health problems that operate across sectors and levels of organization (WHO, 1986a, 1997). Sectors are functional areas such as education, employment and health care; levels describe hierarchical arenas of social interaction such as individuals, families, communities and jurisdictions. Intersectoral interventions seek to make changes in different systems in order to achieve defined public health goals. These goals can address one or multiple health problems. In some cases the health outcomes of intersectoral interventions are unintended or secondary benefits of initiatives designed to achieve economic, educational or other goals. Planners and implementers of intersectoral interventions need to appreciate the unique challenges their approach poses to evaluation while evaluators need to grasp the contextual influences on implementation if they are to design valid, implementable and policy-relevant evaluation studies. Since successful evaluation requires practitioners and evaluators to find a common language so they can collaborate, this chapter is addressed to both.
Inexact Active Constraints

When an approximate value is computed from each computation, one may have difficulty to decide whether a constraint is active or not. One strategy, called e-active set strategy, is used to overcome this obstacle by treating near-active constraints just like active constraints. We study this topic in this chapter.
The association of xerostomia and inadequate intake in older adults.

Recent studies indicate that nearly one in five older adults has xerostomia (dry mouth). Salivary gland dysfunction and/or inadequate saliva increases the difficulty of these older adults in obtaining proper nutrition. Problems in lubricating, masticating, tolerating, tasting, and swallowing food contribute notably to the complex physiological and psychological manifestations of aging. To our knowledge, the literature has not demonstrated an association between xerostomia and malnutrition in the elderly. We randomly selected 67 older adults from institutionalized and free-living geriatric populations. Nutritional intake analysis was performed on both groups of study subjects, who were found to have xerostomia by use of sialometry, and on control subjects matched for age, sex, and physical status. Intake of total energy, protein, dietary fiber, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C, thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B-6, calcium, iron, and zinc was compared with the 1989 Recommended Dietary Allowances. Subjects' intakes were also compared with that of a control group. Medical systemic information and number and types of medications were compared among the groups. Statistical analysis of the data indicated significant (p less than .001) inadequacies in the nutritional intake patterns of institutionalized and free-living older adults with xerostomia. Subjects with xerostomia (more than 75% of the free-living and institutionalized seniors) had significant deficiencies of fiber, potassium, vitamin B-6, iron, calcium, and zinc. Taste and food perception were significantly reduced in the elders with xerostomia. Our study indicates the potential contribution of xerostomia to the high prevalence of geriatric malnutrition in the United States.
Improved stability and high thermoelectric performance through cation site doping in n-type La-doped Mg3Sb1.5Bi0.5

n-Type conduction in a Mg3Sb1.5Bi0.5 system is achieved with La-doping at cation sites with a peak zT > 1. La-doped samples exhibit much higher doping efficiency and dopability compared to other chalcogen-doped samples. This allows greater tunability of the electronic properties. La-doping also significantly improves the thermal stability of n-type Mg3Sb1.5Bi0.5 measured via a long-term Hall carrier concentration measurement.
Effects of intake of linseed oil or tallow on nutrient digestion and nitrogen balance of beef steers consuming diets based on dry-rolled corn

ABSTRACT Lipids can have detrimental effects on the ruminal microbiota and, subsequently, diet digestibility. We evaluated effects of amount and source of dietary lipid on nutrient digestibility, ruminal fermentation, and N balance in cattle consuming diets based on dry-rolled corn. Five steers (BW = 392 ± 15 kg) fitted with ruminal, duodenal, and ileal cannulas were used in a 5 × 5 Latin square with 12-d periods. Diets contained no added lipid or 4 or 8% added lipid from either a tallow or linseed oil. Linseed oil tended (P = 0.08) to decrease DMI compared with tallow. Greater amounts of lipid tended to decrease ruminal digestion of DM (P = 0.07), OM (P = 0.14), and NDF (P = 0.05). Microbial efficiency (g of microbial N/kg of OM fermented) tended to increase (P = 0.10) with added lipid, but microbial N flow to the duodenum was not affected (P ≥ 0.19) by amount or source of lipid. Ruminal pH (P ≥ 0.83), ammonia (P ≥ 0.33), and total organic acid content (P ≥ 0.54) were not affected by diet lipid. Added dietary lipid tended (P = 0.10) to decrease ruminal acetate concentrations. Addition of a more unsaturated lipid (linseed oil) decreased (P = 0.05) total-tract NDF digestibility compared with a more saturated lipid (tallow), and addition of lipid tended to decrease digestion of DM (P = 0.13) and NDF (P = 0.08) compared with control. Linseed oil decreased (P
Step-by-Step Guide to Determining Experimental Uncertainty in Thin-Film Resistance

This article presents a detailed uncertainty analysis on the calibration of thin-film resistors, using the perspective advocated by the ISO Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM). Particular attention is paid to the uncertainty of fitting parameters obtained by the linear regression of underlying (co-varying) measurements. In recognition of the varying resources and required precision of different research teams, two measurement approaches are used: (1) handheld digital multimeters and thermocouple readouts versus (2) computer-based data acquisition with a multi-channel resistance temperature detector (RTD) card. The uncertainty budgets of each approach are compared.
Electrical Safety of a Thin Superconducting Solenoid in an Iron Yoke

Fabrication of a thin superconducting solenoid1,2 for the Upgrade Tracking System3 for the DO Detector4 at the Fermilab Proton-Antiproton Collider has begun. The 2.0 T magnet is 2.75 m long, 1.2 m in diameter and stores 5.6 MJ magnetic energy at full excitation. The magnet is novel in that no thin superconducting solenoid magnet for a particle detector has yet been fabricated which operates at this field level.
ETHICS AND PESTILENCE Discerning the Greater Common Good and Mutual Reciprocity

This article explores the question of ethics in times of pestilence as during Covid-19, via the ideas of Simon Blackburn, Jean Paul Sartre, and Henry Louis Gates Jr; it employs the representational notions of Gayatri Spivak and Stuart Hall as ways of seeing, so as to map and evaluate Biblical-Hebrew Exodus stories in relation to the current Covid-19 pandemic. This exploration also attempts to respond principally to the questions: what then is the place of the greater common good as ethic in the current experience? And what kind of ethics could be delivered in such a context? The article simultaneously argues that there is a close similarity between the Egyptian plague experience and the current pestilence, and that social action based on the ethics of common good and bio-centric mutual reciprocity are adequate responses for restoring current society to its ethical orientation and practice. In its conclusion, the article points to ideas that make transparent the article’s significance.
Alternative Schools of the 1970s: Did They Survive?

In an article written for The Clearing House in 1974 titled, “Alternative schools: Can they survive?”, Gerald Brunetti described features of schools that served as an alternative to mainstream publ...
Subcutaneous Emphysema in Patients With COVID-19 Infection: A Report of Three Cases

Subcutaneous emphysema is a rare complication of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pneumonia that should prompt immediate attention to find its cause. Herein, we describe three patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia who were admitted to the ICU and developed subcutaneous emphysema and one with a concomitant pneumothorax. Three patients with diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia admitted to the ICU developed subcutaneous emphysema during the hospital admission. One of them who had concomitant pneumothorax required thoracostomy tube for treatment and the other two were monitored clinically without additional interventions. Two patients died during the first two to three weeks of their hospital course. One patient survived and was discharged after 63 days in the hospital. Subcutaneous emphysema is considered a non-life-threatening condition and is usually self-limited requiring supportive treatment in mild cases. For such cases, observation is appropriate. Patients with newly discovered SE life-threatening pathology, such as pneumothorax, esophageal rupture, and necrotizing infections, should be investigated depending on the clinical setting. This is one of the first paper that shows the development of subcutaneous emphysema in patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. This may represent a rare complication of the infection as well as may be attributable to other factors such as increased cough and mechanical ventilation. There is a need for studies on the clinical characteristics of a disease with still many unknown features and a wide clinical spectrum that is still being defined.
Chylothorax as a complication of Waldenström macroglobulinaemia with a patient’s perspective

Chylothorax has rarely been reported as a pleuropulmonary complication of Waldenstrom macroglobulinaemia (WM). In general, when a unilateral effusion is discovered particularly in patients with a history of cancer or active malignancy, a broad differential including chylothorax needs to be considered. We present the case of a 50-year-old woman found to have chylothorax secondary to progression of WM as confirmed by cytology and presence of MYD88 L265P mutation in the pleural fluid specimen and subsequent resolution with chemotherapy. This review centres particularly on non-traumatic causes of chylothorax with a focus on WM and includes a unique patient perspective.
The effects of distant professional development model on second grade teachers’ instruction and students’ quality of procedural papers

The purpose of the study was to examine the feasibility and effectiveness of a distant-professional development model that supported the implementation of genre-based strategy instruction for procedural writing on second grade teachers’ fidelity of implementation and students’ writing quality. Participants were 84 s graders and four teachers who were randomly assigned to condition. Teachers completed an online workshop module prior to instruction, a survey on their instruction and confidence to teach writing, received coaching feedback during implementation, and were interviewed at pretest and posttest. Students wrote in response to two procedural topics at pretest and posttest, at maintenance, completed transfer tasks in science and in persuasion, were interviewed at posttest, completed a confidence scale, and standardized measures. Results showed that treatment teachers positively evaluated the PD and its components, taught with high fidelity, and positively commented on the instructional approach. Treatment students wrote papers of better quality at posttest and maintenance tasks, while there were no statistically significant differences at the transfer tasks, on students’ confidence, and on standardized measures. Implications for professional development, practice, and research are further discussed.