cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Progestin and breast cancer risk: a systematic review

This systematic review summarizes research on the use of progestin and breast cancer risk. Although mainly used for contraception, progestin can help treat menstrual disorders, and benign breast, uterine, and ovarian diseases. Breast cancer is the leading site of new, non-skin, cancers in females in the United States, and possible factors that may modulate breast cancer risk need to be identified. ProQuest (Ann Arbor, MI) and PubMed-Medline (US National Library of Medicine, Bethesda MD, USA) databases were used to search for epidemiologic studies from 2000 to 2015 that examined the association between progestin and breast cancer. Search terms included epidemiologic studies + progesterone or progestin or progestogen or contraceptive or contraceptive agents + breast cancer or breast neoplasms. A total of six studies were included in the review. Five of the six studies reported no association between progestin-only formulations (including norethindrone oral contraceptives, depot medroxyprogesterone acetate, injectable, levonorgestrel system users, implantable and intrauterine devices) and breast cancer risk. Duration of use was examined in a few studies with heterogeneous results. Unlike studies of other oral contraceptives, studies indicate that progestin-only formulations do not increase the risk of breast cancer, although the literature is hampered by small sample sizes. Future research is needed to corroborate these findings, as further understanding of synthetic progesterone may initiate new prescription practices or guidelines for women's health.
A Swappable Battery Pack for Short-Range Electric Vehicles

As the flaws of fossil fuels become more ever-apparent, alternatives are being developed to fill the gap. There has been a large initiative to produce electric vehicles (EVs) to replace internal combustion engines (ICE) that currently populate the roads. However, EVs are less capable of traveling greater distances and providing as much power as ICE vehicles; but when used at slow speeds and for short commutes, EVs are operationally cheaper and a more effective means of transportation. By utilizing a Global Electric Motorcar (GEM) that is currently in disrepair on a university campus, an analysis of benefits and costs of replacing the conventional lead acid batteries with lithium batteries can be done. To improve the utility of the vehicle, the batteries were placed in a removable battery pack to promote ease of battery exchange. In addition, a battery drawer was added to the vehicle providing the ability to rapidly exchange battery packs to facilitate a longer working day. The renovation will increase battery and usage efficiency, ameliorating the effectiveness of the vehicle in transporting personnel and recycling while improving the campus environmental impact and outlook. This effort, as part of an undergraduate capstone design class, describes the theory that went into designing the pack capacity, the design of the battery drawer and pack, along with the construction of the system. Preliminary results of driving the upgraded GEM vehicle are also presented.Copyright © 2014 by ASME
Health Disparities in Drug- and Alcohol-Use Disorders: A 12-Year Longitudinal Study of Youths After Detention

Objectives. To examine sex and racial/ethnic differences in the prevalence of 9 substance-use disorders (SUDs)—alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, hallucinogen or PCP, opiate, amphetamine, inhalant, sedative, and unspecified drug— in youths during the 12 years after detention.Methods. We used data from the Northwestern Juvenile Project, a prospective longitudinal study of 1829 youths randomly sampled from detention in Chicago, Illinois, starting in 1995 and reinterviewed up to 9 times in the community or correctional facilities through 2011. Independent interviewers assessed SUDs with Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children 2.3 (baseline) and Diagnostic Interview Schedule version IV (follow-ups).Results. By median age 28 years, 91.3% of males and 78.5% of females had ever had an SUD. At most follow-ups, males had greater odds of alcohol- and marijuana-use disorders. Drug-use disorders were most prevalent among non-Hispanic Whites, followed by Hispanics, then African Americans (e.g., compared with African Amer...
Promoter Element for Transcription of Unrearranged T-Cell Receptor β-Chain Gene in Pro-T Cells

The hallmark of T- and B-lymphocyte development is the rearrangement of variable (V), diversity (D), and joining (J) segments of T-cell receptor (TCR) and immunoglobulin (Ig) genes to generate a diverse repertoire of antigen receptor specificities in the immune system. The process of V(D)J recombination is shared in the rearrangement of all seven antigen receptor genes and is controlled by changes in chromatin structure, which regulate accessibility to the recombinase apparatus in a lineage- and stage-specific manner. These chromatin changes are linked to transcription of the locus in its unrearranged (germline) configuration. To understand how germline transcription of the TCRbeta-chain gene is regulated, we determined the structure of germline transcripts initiating near the Dbeta1 segment and identified a promoter within this region. The Dbeta1 promoter is active in the presence of the TCRbeta enhancer (Ebeta), and in this context, exhibits preferential activity in pro-T versus mature T-cell lines, as well as T- versus B-lineage specificity. These studies provide insight into the developmental regulation of TCRbeta germline transcription, one of the earliest steps in T-cell differentiation.
Landau and Bloch theorems for harmonic mappings

Chen, Gauthier and Hengartner obtained some versions of Landau's theorem for bounded harmonic mappings and Bloch's theorem for harmonic mappings which are quasiregular and for those which are open. Later, Dorff and Nowak improved their estimates concerning Landau's theorem. In this study, we improve these last results by obtaining sharp coefficient estimates for properly normalized harmonic mappings. Furthermore, our estimates allow us to improve Bloch constant for open harmonic mappings.
(Dis)owning Bikram: Decolonizing vernacular and dewesternizing restructuring in the yoga wars

ABSTRACTUndertaking analysis in the area of critical yoga studies, this article identifies two strategies of anticolonial resistance to Bikram Choudhury's copyrighting of a sequence of twenty-six yoga poses. First, it examines decolonial vernacular, which contests Western commodification of yoga through the use and misuse of terms and phrases, such as “yoga piracy” and “cultural patents,” derived from intellectual property rights, international human rights, and cultural property regimes. Second, it considers dewesternizing restructuring emerging from the creation of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, a database of information on yogic practice and medicine, which uses non-Western classification systems to interrupt the legal and economic structures through which patents and copyrights are enunciated. Together, these anticolonial strategies force intellectual property rights regimes to integrate Otherness, making space for the recognition of Indian agency in knowledge production.
Fine-needle aspiration of mammary lobular carcinoma in situ and atypical lobular hyperplasia.

Cytologic features of fine-needle aspirations (FNAs) of the breast from three patients with either lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) or atypical lobular hyperplasia (ALH) are described and compared with those in six patients with infiltrating lobular carcinoma (ILC). FNAs of LCIS and ALH were characterized by loosely cohesive cell groups composed of uniform cells with frequent eccentric nuclei, minimal nuclear atypia, and occasional intracytoplasmic lumina. FNAs from ILC had some overlapping features with ALH and LCIS but were generally more cellular and had a higher proportion of noncohesive single cells with more nuclear atypia and pleomorphism. Intracj toplasmic lumina were consistently found in invasive and noninvasive lobular lesions and may represent the most useful cytologic clue for their recognition. FNAs with the above features are atypical and suggestive of ALH or LCIS. Excisional biopsy should be performed in such cases to confirm the presence of ALH or LCIS and to evaluate for ILC.
Play and display: al-Ṣafadī’s Invention of Absurdity

Khalīl b. Aybak al-Ṣafadī’s (d. 1363) parody of poetic commentary, called Ikhtirāʿ al-Khurāʿ, pokes fun at scholastic pedantry. Weaving together true and erroneous information throughout the parody, al-Ṣafadī makes the reader aware of how the manipulation of facts can seemingly change wrong into right. His twisting of traditional Arabic commentary also draws the reader into the text, forcing him to engage with it as he is tempted to unravel the true from the false. At the same time, al-Ṣafadī uses the parody to critique traditional Arabic commentary style. Preferring the more digressive, broad-in-scope manner of commenting, as seen in his serious commentaries, al-Ṣafadī uses this parody in the same way, to challenge both writer and reader to see more of the Arabic literary and cultural heritage within any source-text.
DRIFT CURRENTS OF CLEAN AND SLICK SEA SURFACES

Drift currents near sea surface govern movement and dispersion of man-made discharges near the sea surface, and influence design, deployment, and stability of offshore structures. The wind-induced drift currents and the wave-induced mass transports at the sea surface are separately estimated. The total surface drift current, the sum of wind- and wave-induced components, agree well with oceanic data (Hughes, 1956). The mass transport of waves over slick surface is greater than that over clean surface due to dynamic interactions between the surface film and waves. On the other hand, the wind-stress coefficient of slick surface is smaller than that of clean surface, resulting in a smaller wind-induced drift current over the slick surface. Available laboratory results (Alofs and Reisbig, 1972) on slick movements are reanalyzed to provide basis for estimating movements of slicks of various sizes over waves of different lengths under different wind velocities.
Anchoring of LPXTG-Like Proteins to the Gram-Positive Cell Wall Envelope.

In Gram-positive bacteria, protein precursors with a signal peptide and a cell wall sorting signal (CWSS)—which begins with an LPXTG motif, followed by a hydrophobic domain and a tail of positively charged residues—are targeted to the cell envelope by a transpeptidase enzyme call sortase. Evolution and selective pressure gave rise to six classes of sortase, i.e., SrtA-F. Only class C sortases are capable of polymerizing substrates harboring the pilin motif and CWSS into protein polymers known as pili or fimbriae, whereas the others perform cell wall anchoring functions. Regardless of the products generated from these sortases, the basic principle of sortase-catalyzed transpeptidation is the same. It begins with the cleavage of the LPXTG motif, followed by the cross-linking of this cleaved product at the threonine residue to a nucleophile, i.e., an active amino group of the peptidoglycan stem peptide or the lysine residue of the pilin motif. This chapter will summarize the efforts to identify and characterize sortases and their associated pathways with emphasis on the cell wall anchoring function.
Passive Localization Technology of One-Dimension DF on Spin Satellite

A new passive localization technology of DF on satellite is given,which only requires one-dimension DF equipment.It's based on DOA information of the target in the different time.After the discussion of the locating principle,the computer simulation justifies the feasibility of the new DF technology.
The study of serum high sensitive C-reactive protein and its relationship with cardiovascular risk factors in normoinsulinemic polycystic ovary patients

Objective:To investigate serum high sensitive C-reactive protein(HS-CRP) levels in normoinsulinemic polycystic ovary syndrome(PCOS) patients without metabolic syndrome and whether there was any relationship between HS-CRP and other cardiovascular risk factors.Methods:53 normoinsulinemic PCOS patients without metabolic syndrome and 47 normoandrogenic ovulatory women were recruited.All the participants underwent standard clinical examinations and ultrasonograpic.Serum endocrine hormone,lipid,glucose,insulin and HS-CRP levels were measured.Results:PCOS patients had increased HS-CRP compared to the control group(P0.0001).HS-CRP was positively correlated with body mass index(BMI)(r=0.45,P0.0001),waist-to-hip ratio(WHR)(r=0.68,P0.0001),LDL(r=0.63,P0.0001),TC(r=0.55,P0.0001)and TG(r=0.34,P0.0001),and negatively correlated with HDL(r=-0.45,P0.0001).There was also a strong association between HS-CRP and PCOS status(r=0.71,P0.0001)in the study.Multivariate regression analysis demonstrated that BMI,WHR,LDL,HDL and PCOS status were also the independent variables that influenced HS-CRP in the overall group.Conclusion:Elevated HS-CRP was associated with cardiovascular risk factors in normoinsulinemic PCOS without metabolic syndrome.
Understanding Cognitive Age: The Boomers’ Perspective

The baby boomer generational cohort consists of consumers born between 1946 and 1964. They are sophisticated consumers with money to spend and they are not averse to spending it on products and services. Baby boomers have been nicknamed the “forgotten generation,” as marketers have more aggressively targeted other generational cohorts. Considering that baby boomers are the biggest spenders in comparison to any of the other groups, surprisingly little work is done to understand their behavior. This study addresses this large, heterogeneous group and how cognitive age is a key discriminating variable that can be used in segmentation efforts. Results from the study indicate that baby boomers with a higher cognitive age will have less fashion interest, will report lower levels of innovativeness, and will be less socially involved. Also, higher cognitive age did not have an impact on brand/product loyalty or risk aversion. Implications for managers and academicians are suggested.
ORGANIC MATTER AND NITROGEN DISTRIBUTION IN SOME MOUNTAIN HEATH COMMUNITIES OF THE SOURCE LAKE BASIN, WASHINGTON*

The soils and vegetation of subalpine mountain heath communities on colluvial, residual, and organic soils in the Source Lake basin of the west-central Cascade Range, Washington, were described and sampled for organic matter and nitrogen content in foliage, living stems, attached dead stems, roots, litter, and soil. Soil profile descriptions and vegetative cover data are presented. Total organic matter averaged 27.4, 39.3, and 100.2 kg m-2 and total nitrogen averaged 0.55. 1.09. and 1.71 kg m--2 in communities on the colluvial, residual, and organic soils, respectively. Live and attached dead vegetation contained 1.17, 0.74, and 2.38 kg m-2 organic matter and 8.9, 5.0, and 13.7 g m-2 nitrogen in the same communities on colluvial, residual, and organic soils, respectively. In all cases, the mass of live and attached dead vegetation constituted less than 5% of the total organic mass.
Chronic granulomatous disease. Molecular genetics

Chronic granulomatous disease is an inherited disorder of microbial killing characterized by the failure of phagocytic cells to produce superoxide due to a lesion in a membrane-associated NADPH-oxidase. The components of the oxidase have been incompletely characterized and, therefore, a genetic approach has been used to identify the gene affected in the common X-linked form of CGD without reference to a specific protein product. The X-CGD gene was first mapped to Xp21.1. A phagocyte-specific RNA transcript derived from Xp21 was identified and shown to be deficient (or disrupted) in patients with X-CGD. Antisera directed toward the predicted protein product of the X-CGD gene have established its identity as a 90-kD membrane glycoprotein and a component of the phagocyte cytochrome b, recently purified as a heterodimer of a 90-kD species and a 22-kD polypeptide. The more recent genetic and biochemical findings now provide an explanation for the consistent absence of the phagocyte cytochrome b spectrum in X-CGD (now termed "X- -CGD"). Both subunits of the cytochrome b heterodimer are absent in X- -CGD, despite a genetic deficiency of only the larger polypeptide, which indicates that a complete understanding of cytochrome biosynthesis and function will require further characterization of the small subunit. We should anticipate that identification of other functionally associated proteins will aid in analysis of the phagocyte oxidase. Molecular reagents prepared from the cloned X-CGD cDNA or gene may prove to be clinically useful in prenatal diagnosis and may provide a basis for somatic gene therapy in the future.
A rare case of the upper extremity diffuse large B-cell lymphoma mimicking soft tissue sarcoma in an elderly patient

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, with about 30% of new cases presenting with extranodal disease. Lesions originating from soft tissues of the upper extremities are extremely rare and may mimic other malignancies like sarcoma. We present a case of an elderly patient with right upper extremity (RUE) mass which was proven to be DLBCL instead of sarcoma. We emphasize the increasing need for investigating new therapeutic options for patients of extreme age and/or with underlying heart disease.
A Fuzzy Logic Utility Framework (FLUF) to Support Information Assurance

The highly complex and dynamic nature of information and communications networks necessitates that cyber defenders make decisions under uncertainty within a time-constrained environment using incomplete information. There is an abundance of network security tools on the market; these products collect massive amounts of data, perform event correlations, and alert cyber defenders to potential problems. The real challenge is in making sense of the data, turning it into useful information, and acting upon it in time for it to be effective. This is known as actionable knowledge. This paper discusses the use of fuzzy logic for accelerating the transformation of network monitoring tool alerts to actionable knowledge, suggests process improvement that combines information assurance and cyber defender expertise for holistic computer network defense, and describes an experimental design for collecting empirical data to support the continued research in this area.
Nanostructure-enhanced Chemical Reactivity and Detonation in Energetic Materials: End of Year Summary.

End of year summary including report on project milestones, project productivity, and next steps.
Pd–In intermetallic alloy nanoparticles: highly selective ethane dehydrogenation catalysts

Silica supported Pd and Pd–In catalysts with different In:Pd atomic ratios and similar particle size (∼2 nm) were tested for ethane dehydrogenation at 600 °C. For a monometallic Pd catalyst, at 15% conversion, the dehydrogenation selectivity and initial turnover rate (TOR, per surface Pd site) were 53% and 0.03 s−1, respectively. Addition of In to Pd increased the dehydrogenation selectivity to near 100% and the initial TOR to 0.26 s−1. Carbon monoxide IR, in situ synchrotron XAS and XRD analysis showed that for Pd–In catalysts with increasing In loading, different bimetallic structures were formed: at low In loading a fraction of the nanoparticle surface was transformed into PdIn intermetallic compound (IMC, also known as intermetallic alloy) with a cubic CsCl structure; at higher In loading, a Pd-core/PdIn-shell structure was formed and at high In loading the nanoparticles were pure PdIn IMC. While a Pd metal surface binds CO predominantly in a bridge fashion, the PdIn IMC predominantly binds CO linearly. Formation of the PdIn IMC structure on the catalyst surface geometrically isolates the Pd catalytic sites by non-catalytic, metallic In neighbors, which is suggested to be responsible for the high olefin selectivity. Concomitant electronic effect due to Pd–In bond formation likely leads to the increase in TOR. Though multiple IMC structures with different atomic ratios are possible for the Pd–In binary system, only a cubic PdIn IMC with CsCl structure was observed, implying a kinetically controlled solid state IMC formation mechanism.
Nutrient Runoff Losses from Liquid Dairy Manure Applied with Low-Disturbance Methods

Manure applied to cropland is a source of phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) in surface runoff and can contribute to impairment of surface waters. Tillage immediately after application incorporates manure into the soil, which may reduce nutrient loss in runoff as well as N loss via NH₃ volatilization. However, tillage also incorporates crop residue, which reduces surface cover and may increase erosion potential. We applied liquid dairy manure in a silage corn (Zea mays L.)–cereal rye (Secale cereal L.) cover crop system in late October using methods designed to incorporate manure with minimal soil and residue disturbance. These include strip-till injection and tine aerator–band manure application, which were compared with standard broadcast application, either incorporated with a disk or left on the surface. Runoff was generated with a portable rainfall simulator (42 mm h⁻¹ for 30 min) three separate times: (i) 2 to 5 d after the October manure application, (ii) in early spring, and (iii) after tillage and planting. In the postmanure application runoff, the highest losses of total P and dissolved reactive P were from surface-applied manure. Dissolved P loss was reduced 98% by strip-till injection; this result was not statistically different from the no-manure control. Reductions from the aerator band method and disk incorporation were 53 and 80%, respectively. Total P losses followed a similar pattern, with 87% reduction from injected manure. Runoff losses of N had generally similar patterns to those of P. Losses of P and N were, in most cases, lower in the spring rain simulations with fewer significant treatment effects. Overall, results show that low-disturbance manure application methods can significantly reduce nutrient runoff losses compared with surface application while maintaining residue cover better than incorporation by tillage.
Describing Crises with a Critical Exponent of the Reggeon Field Theory

We present evidence that markets in crisis can be described by a critical exponent of the nonlinear-diffusion Reggeon Field Theory, calculated 40 years ago, with no free parameters, translated to finance. We propose this as a benchmark for average crisis behavior, to which individual crises can be rich or cheap. In another paper we present a quantitative model for the probability of equity crises in advance. An earlier paper contained a summary.
What Can Cognitive Neuroscience Tell Us About the Mechanism of Ego Depletion

Over the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in using the tools and methods of cognitive neuroscience to better understand self-regulation failure. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the emerging literature on the cognitive neuroscience of ego depletion with an emphasis on putative mechanisms. We begin with a brief overview of cognitive neuroscience methods and how they may be used to study self-regulation and ego depletion. We then examine current theories and models of how psychological processes relevant to self-regulation (eg, control and reward) may be mapped onto brain systems. Finally, we review the extant literature on the brain basis of ego depletion and discuss how findings from this growing body of research may illuminate the mechanisms of ego depletion.
Home as a Site of Theory: A Fragment

Abstract This paper explores the possibilities of doing and theorizing research in our home places rather than avoiding those sites. It considers how we may feel right at home in a place we9ve never been and, further, how we may inhabit many homes. Home becomes a site of theory, a site of identification, a site of rupture.
Effects of varying slice overlap on SUV measurements in 3D PET imaging

2315 Objectives PET data acquired in 3D has recently become the standard form of PET image acquisition. However, 3D PET data acquisition is characterized by low sensitivity at the outer edges of the axial FOV which necessitates several slice overlaps in a multi-FOV PET data acquisition. The aim of this abstract is to investigate the effects of different number of slice overlaps (SO) on SUV measurements in whole body 3D PET imaging. Methods A uniform 68-Ge phantom filled with 10 kBq/cc was scanned in 3D mode on a GE DVCT (LYSO crystal) PET/CT scanner using 2 bed positions (1 min/bed) with varying SO (1-19 slices). This paradigm resulted in PET studies with varying number of slices (93 - 75 slices). All data was reconstructed using full 3D IR (2iterations, 21 subsets) with AC using CT. For each image set, a 9cm ROI was drawn on the central slice in the overlap region and the mean, max and standard deviation (which was used to represent image noise) of the SUV were calculated and plotted versus the amount of SO. In addition, the same phantom was scanned 30 times using a single FOV and the data was analyzed as above in the central slice of the phantom to evaluate the variability in the SUV measurements without SO effects. Error in SUVmean, max and noise was then calculated with respect to the average value from the different realizations of the single FOV image sets. Results Increasing SO decreased the SUVmax and noise, but did not affect the accuracy of the SUVmean for SO≥3. The error in SUVmax and noise decreased from 94% to 2% and 358% to 5 for a corresponding SO of 1 to 19 when compared to the results of a single FOV. Conclusions Increasing SO improves SUV measurement in the overlap region but also increases the scan time needed to cover the whole body. A SO of 7 is the best tradeoff between overall scan duration and accuracy of SUV measurements. Further validation of these results for phantoms of different sizes and activity concentrations is needed to find optimal SO for patients with different BMI and injected dose
Rainfall-runoff of anthropogenic waste indicators from agricultural fields applied with municipal biosolids.

Abstract The presence of anthropogenic contaminants such as antimicrobials, flame-retardants, and plasticizers in runoff from agricultural fields applied with municipal biosolids may pose a potential threat to the environment. This study assesses the potential for rainfall-induced runoff of 69 anthropogenic waste indicators (AWIs), widely found in household and industrial products, from biosolids amended field plots. The agricultural field containing the test plots was treated with biosolids for the first time immediately prior to this study. AWIs present in soil and biosolids were isolated by continuous liquid-liquid extraction and analyzed by full-scan gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Results for 18 AWIs were not evaluated due to their presence in field blank QC samples, and another 34 did not have sufficient detection frequency in samples to analyze trends in data. A total of 17 AWIs, including 4-nonylphenol, triclosan, and tris(2-butoxyethyl)phosphate, were present in runoff with acceptable data quality and frequency for subsequent interpretation. Runoff samples were collected 5 days prior to and 1, 9, and 35 days after biosolids application. Of the 17 AWIs considered, 14 were not detected in pre-application samples, or their concentrations were much smaller than in the sample collected one day after application. A range of trends was observed for individual AWI concentrations (typically from 0.1 to 10 μg/L) over the course of the study, depending on the combination of partitioning and degradation mechanisms affecting each compound most strongly. Overall, these results indicate that rainfall can mobilize anthropogenic contaminants from biosolids-amended agricultural fields, directly to surface waters and redistribute them to terrestrial sites away from the point of application via runoff. For 14 of 17 compounds examined, the potential for runoff remobilization during rainstorms persists even after three 100-year rainstorm-equivalent simulations and the passage of a month.
Supporting School Counseling in Belize: Establishing a Middle School Career Development Program

Within the education field, international partnerships to address career development have been successful around the world (Brown, Bim Rose, & Hughes, 2005; Nazali, 2007; Prideaux, Patton, & Creed, 2002; Repetto, 2001). Career development programming impacts the educational development for children and adolescents (Gottfredson, 1981; Gottfredson & Lapan, 1997; NCDA, 2011). School Counselors are often an untapped resource in the schools to design, implement and evaluate school-wide programs centered on career development. This article explores the benefits of career development and the creation of a career development school-wide program for the 6th grade level in Belize. This is accomplished through an international partnership between the Ministry of Education in Belize and a University in the Northeastern United States. This article explains the school counselors role as well as best practices for international partnerships when creating a full-year, school-wide career program at the middle school level in Belize.
Robustness Sensitivities in Large Networks

This article focuses on developing a framework to assess robustness in large interconnected networks that arise frequently in many socioeconomic networks such as transportation, economics, and opinion dynamics. We first introduce the idea of “asymptotic” resilience, i.e., a measure of robustness to disturbances, as the network size increases, keeping the underlying structure invariant. We argue that such a notion of robustness is different from existing ideas in robust control theory that do not account for network topology and dimension. Under this new framework, we formulate a hierarchy of resilience for different network topologies. We present examples of commonly encountered network topologies and comment on their resilience. We then provide a formal characterization of how edge link perturbation affects resilience in large networks. Further, we show how each node of the network contributes to its resilience and identify critical nodes that become “fragile” as the network dimension grows. A major contribution of our work is that the analysis is no longer limited to undirected networks, as in previous literature.
Migration, Squatting and Radical Autonomy

Pierpaolo Mudu and Sutapa Chattopadhyay, eds. New York, NY: Routledge, 2017. xxii and 294 pp., ack., foreword, figs., tables, index, refs $145.00 cloth (ISBN 9781138942127), $54.95 electronic (ISBN...
Health Behaviors among Low-income Hispanic and Non-Hispanic White Women.

OBJECTIVES We determined relationships between food behaviors and health-risk factors by acculturation among limited-income Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women. METHODS Women aged 18-49 years were recruited from income-based programs in metro-Phoenix, Arizona. Self-administered surveys in English or Spanish included demographics, a 10-item food behavior checklist, health-risk factors, food security, and acculturation. Differences by 4 acculturation/ethnicity categories were assessed with chi-square and analysis of variance (ANOVA). We created a food behavior scale. RESULTS Eighty-two percent self-identified as Hispanic (N = 358), with 45% Hispanic-dominant, 25% bicultural, 12% English-dominant, and 18% non-Hispanic white for acculturation status. Food behavior checklist results showed that English-dominant Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women were more likely to feed their children soon after waking, refrigerate meat/dairy promptly, not add salt to food, smoke cigarettes and be food insecure (p < .001). Education, not acculturation, was a significant predictor of the food behavior scale. BMI did not differ by acculturation, but 33% of Hispanic-dominant Latinas did not know their height and/or weight. These less acculturated Latinas had significantly greater food security, but lacked health insurance and years of education. CONCLUSIONS Program outreach tailored by acculturation that considers educational level is needed to emphasize existing positive behaviors and address knowledge gaps among low socioeconomic women to improve health and reduce disparities.
Phenomenology and naturalism in autopoietic and radical enactivism: exploring sense-making and continuity from the top down

Radical and autopoietic enactivists disagree concerning how to understand the concept of sense-making in enactivist discourse and the extent of its distribution within the organic domain. I situate this debate within a broader conflict of commitments to naturalism on the part of radical enactivists, and to phenomenology on the part of autopoietic enactivists. I argue that autopoietic enactivists are in part responsible for the obscurity of the notion of sense-making by attributing it univocally to sentient and non-sentient beings and following Hans Jonas in maintaining a phenomenological dimension to life-mind continuity among all living beings, sentient or non-sentient. I propose following Merleau-Ponty instead, who offers a properly phenomenological notion of sense-making for which sentience is a necessary condition. Against radicalist efforts to replace sense-making with a deflationary, naturalist conception of intentionality, I discuss the role of the phenomenological notion of sense-making for understanding animal behavior and experience.
Total Quality Management (TQM): Driving Competitive Advantage on a Global Platform

The rapidly shifting global market, has warranted organizations to determine new opportunities or re-engineer processes as means to obtain an edge over competitors. Literature suggests the demand for increased quality is a crucial aspect for organizations to survive in quickly expanding global market, as quality is vital in securing economic success. Over the past decade, the framework of total quality management (TQM) has been mantra of operational officers. Literature has assessed TQM at many different angles and has provided many speculation and approaches to achieve increased efficiency. The following work reflects on the aspects of applying TQM and provides conceptual model for TQM integration.
Dendritic Control of Hebbian Computations

In his influential 1949 work, The Organization of Behavior, the Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb expressed the following postulate for synaptic modification: When an axon of cell A is near enough to excite cell B, or repeatedly or consistently takes part in firing it, some growth process or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that A’s efficiency, as one of the cells firing B, is increased. The original idea underlying this proposal was that use-dependent synaptic modifications could form the substrate for cognitive learning and memory. More recently, it has been suggested that a similar process may also contribute to the self-organization of perceptual systems during development. Hebbian synaptic plasticity is interesting for at least two reasons. First, the idea has inspired many provocative theories and computational models of learning and self-organization (Linsker, 1990). Second, a process similar to what Hebb predicted has been shown to exist in the mammalian central nervous system (Kelso et al, 1986).
Taxation of Foreign Scholars in the United States: A Barrier Hindering International Accounting Education

Publisher Summary This chapter elaborates the taxation of foreign scholars in the United States. The current complicated tax treatment of the United States toward visiting international scholars could act as a disincentive for remaining in the United States or could foster noncompliance with U.S. Tax law, which could cause financial hardship, especially should a 1RS audit lead to assessment of additional tax, interest, and penalties. By the guidelines established in the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 tax code changes, all foreign teachers, 100% of all master's degree candidates, and an estimated 90% of international doctoral candidates in the United States are subject to the form 1040NR filing requirements. With the goal of offering international scholars fair and uniform income tax treatment, Congressional relief is needed. One alternative would be the addition of a code subsection permitting foreign teachers and students to make a binding election on their first income tax return to file either as nonresident aliens or U. S. Residents for the duration of their visa classification.
CHAPTER 34 – Behavioral Risk Factors for Obesity: Diet and Physical Activity

Obesity is a significant problem that affects children, adolescents, and adults across gender, race, and socioeconomic strata. Dramatic increases in the prevalence of obesity in recent years have focused attention on this important public health problem. The etiology of obesity is complex and encompasses a wide variety of social, behavioral, cultural, environmental, physiological, and genetic factors. To achieve these ambitious goals, considerable effort must be focused on helping individuals at the population level modify their diets and increase their physical activity levels, key behaviors involved in the regulation of body weight. Educational and environmental interventions that support diet and exercise patterns associated with healthy body weight must be developed and evaluated. Prevention of obesity should begin early in life and involve the development and maintenance of healthy eating and physical activity patterns. These patterns need to be reinforced at home, in schools, and throughout the community. Public health agencies, communities, government, health organizations, the media, and the food and health industry must form alliances to combat obesity.
Chemotherapy for Metastatic Clear-Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) have a poor prognosis. Although the natural history of metastatic RCC can be highly variable, most of patients die within 1 year of diagnosis and the 5-year survival is less than 5%.1 The treatment of metastatic RCC has remained a challenge for oncologists. Although immunotherapy with interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon (IFN) can achieve low, but reproducible, response rates of 10% to 20% in advanced RCC,2 and antiangiogenic agents such as sunitinib and sorafenib improve progression free survival, and mTOR inhibitors such as temsirolimus improve survival in selected patients. RCC has been considered highly resistant to chemotherapy and hormonal therapy.3 This chapter reviews chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, and combined therapies in metastatic RCC.
Associations Between the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Medicaid Primary Care Payment Increase and Physician Participation in Medicaid.

Importance The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) increased 2013 to 2014 Medicaid payment rates for qualifying primary care physicians (PCPs) and services to higher Medicare payment levels, with the goal of improving primary care access for Medicaid enrollees. Objectives To evaluate the payment increase policy and to assess whether it was associated with changes in Medicaid participation rates or Medicaid service volume among PCPs. Design, Setting, and Participants This study used 2012 to 2015 IMS Health aggregated medical claims and encounter data from PCPs eligible for the payment increase practicing in all states except Alaska and Hawaii and included 20 723 PCPs with observations in each month from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2015. Data are for professional services performed in ambulatory settings, including office, hospital outpatient department, and emergency department. Regression models were used to test whether outcomes differed in months subject to higher payment rates relative to months before the increase and after the expiration of the increase in some states. The models controlled for time-invariant physician characteristics and time-varying characteristics, such as Medicaid enrollment. Interaction terms were included to estimate differential associations in subgroups of states (eg, by Medicaid managed care penetration) and physicians (eg, by specialty). Main Outcomes and Measures Physician-month records subject to higher Medicaid payment rates were flagged using state-specific implementation and end dates for the payment increase. Five outcomes were measured for each physician-month observation, including (1) an indicator for seeing any patients enrolled in Medicaid, (2) an indicator for seeing more than 5 patients enrolled in Medicaid, (3) the Medicaid share of total patients, (4) a count of new patient evaluation and management visits furnished to patients enrolled in Medicaid, and (5) a count of existing patient evaluation and management visits furnished to patients enrolled in Medicaid. Results Among 20 723 PCPs, the payment increase had no association with PCP participation in Medicaid or Medicaid service volume. The estimated average marginal effects for all 5 outcomes were not statistically distinguishable from 0. This null result was robust to sensitivity analyses, including different time trend specifications and analyses focusing on the payment increase implementation and expiration time frames. Descriptively, the Medicaid share of patients increased by about 25% from 2012 to 2015, although the share did not increase differentially in states and months subject to higher payment rates. Conclusions and Relevance The limited duration and design of the payment increase may have dampened its effectiveness. Future efforts to improve access through payment changes or other means can benefit from better understanding of the outcomes of this policy.
Nonspecific interstitial pneumonia: A rare adverse reaction of atorvastatin

Introduction: Statins have been shown to effectively prevent both cardiovascular morbidity and mortality by inhibiting the hydroxymethylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase enzyme. Pulmonary complications are very rare, and can include pneumonitis, pleural effusion, and nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP). There have been very few previously documented cases of statin-induced fibrotic NSIP. Case report: We present a female with a history of hyperlipidemia on atorvastatin who presented with shortness of breath. Computed tomography scan of the chest revealed interstitial infiltrates with bilateral ground-glass opacities. She underwent a surgical lung biopsy which showed uniform fibrous alveolar septal thickening, scattered collections of alveolar macrophages and inflammation, along with areas of fibrosis. The findings were most suggestive of fibrotic NSIP. Atorvastatin was stopped and she was started on mycophenolic acid with improvement of her symptoms. Discussion: Although rare, the clinician should be aware of possible pulmonary complications of statin therapy. The exact mechanism of injury is unclear, however immunological or toxicological mechanisms are implicated. One case series of statin induced interstitial lung disease showed some improvement of dyspnea with systemic glucocorticoids and termination of statin therapy. Statins, specifically pravastatin, lovastatin, and simvastatin have been associated with drug induced pneumonitis and interstitial lung disease.
Meshless local Petrov-Galerkin solution of the neutron transport equation with streamline-upwind Petrov-Galerkin stabilization

Abstract The meshless local Petrov–Galerkin (MLPG) method is applied to the steady-state and k-eigenvalue neutron transport equations, which are discretized in energy using the multigroup approximation and in angle using the discrete ordinates approximation. To prevent oscillations in the neutron flux, the MLPG transport equation is stabilized by the streamline upwind Petrov–Galerkin (SUPG) method. Global neutron conservation is enforced by using moving least squares basis and weight functions and appropriate SUPG parameters. The cross sections in the transport equation are approximated in accordance with global particle balance and without constraint on their spatial dependence or the location of the basis and weight functions. The equations for the strong-form meshless collocation approach are derived for comparison to the MLPG equations. The method of manufactured solutions is used to verify the resulting MLPG method in one, two and three dimensions. Results for realistic problems, including two-dimensional pincells, a reflected ellipsoid and a three-dimensional problem with voids, are verified by comparison to Monte Carlo simulations.
Making Baton Rouge Better: A Detailed Narrative of Synergy, Partnership, and Evolution of a Community-Based Research Project

Research on housing goes beyond simply examining the physical structures. It represents access to public and private markets, markets that sort themselves based on race, income, health status, and ...
A Tunable Non-Foster T-Network Loaded Transmission Line Using Distributed Amplifier-Based Reconfigurable Negative Group Delay Circuit

A novel tunable non-Foster T-network loaded with transmission lines (TLs) using a two-stage distributed amplifier (DA)-based negative group delay (NGD) circuit is proposed. The tunability comes from the NGD response synthesized by adjusting the ratio of the transconductance of the transistors, and the varactors at both the input and output port. Due to the distributed topology, the proposed T-network not only works within a relatively broad band (several hundreds of Mega-Hertz), but also has good input and output matching characteristics. A prototype of the proposed non-Forster T-network is built and tested. By properly amending the in-band magnitude and phase characteristics, the NGD circuit can realize the targeted non-Foster T-network with unconditional stability. The experimental results show that the tunable equivalent T-network has a 0 pF to − 1.5 pF shunt capacitance and a 0 nH to −1.875 nH inductance.
Deconstructing cold hardiness: variation in supercooling ability and chilling requirements in the wild grapevine Vitis riparia

Background and Aims Grapevine production in cool climates is limited by aspects of winter survival and frost risk. Cold hardiness‐related traits are key to future viticultural sustainability as climate variations, including acute cold events and frost, are predicted to increase even in traditional cultivation regions. This study examines the variation in dormant bud cold hardiness (supercooling) and dormancy (chilling requirement) in 43 different genotypes of the wild grapevine species Vitis riparia, the dominant wild species used to incorporate cold hardiness traits into new hybrid grapevine cultivars. Methods and Results Cold hardiness was evaluated bi‐weekly in 2 years using measures of low temperature exotherms. Whole winter responses were modelled to determine significant factors affecting cold hardiness and determine genotypic differences. Results demonstrate significant differences in supercooling ability and deacclimation rate (loss of cold hardiness) between genotypes. Conclusions This study determined that genotypic differences contribute to initial differences in cold hardiness. However, data modelling suggests that midwinter cold hardiness changes are driven by environment as all Vitis riparia tested in this study respond to temperature in the same manner during the endodormant period of winter. In contrast, responses to warming temperature during ecodormancy are significantly different by genotype. Significance of the Study This study has demonstrated that these two traits interact to determine differences in early versus late winter cold hardiness and help identify breeding germplasm with delayed loss of cold hardiness.
Is There Still a Place for Convex Hemiepiphysiodesis in Congenital Scoliosis in Young Children? A Long-Term Follow-up.

Study Design:Retrospective cohort.Objectives:To evaluate the long-term effect of convex growth arrest (CGA) on coronal deformity correction in congenital scoliosis.Methods:Twenty-two patients with ...