cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Association Between Opioid Dose Variability and Opioid Overdose Among Adults Prescribed Long-term Opioid Therapy.

Importance Attempts to discontinue opioid therapy to reduce the risk of overdose and adhere to prescribing guidelines may lead patients to be exposed to variability in opioid dosing. Such dose variability may increase the risk of opioid overdose even if therapy discontinuation is associated with a reduction in risk. Objective To examine the association between opioid dose variability and opioid overdose. Design, Setting, and Participants A nested case-control study was conducted in a large Colorado integrated health plan and delivery system from January 1, 2006, through June 30, 2018. Cohort members were individuals prescribed long-term opioid therapy. Exposures Dose variability was defined as the SD of the milligrams of morphine equivalents across each patient’s follow-up and categorized based on the quintile distribution of the SD in the cohort (0-5.3, 5.4-9.1, 9.2-14.6, 14.7-27.2, and >27.2 mg of morphine equivalents). Main Outcomes and Measures Opioid overdose cases were identified usingInternational Classification of Diseases, Ninth RevisionandInternational Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision codes. Each case patient with overdose was matched to up to 20 control patients using risk set sampling. Conditional logistic regression models were used to generate matched odds ratios and 95% CIs, adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, drug or alcohol use disorder, tobacco use, benzodiazepine dispensings, medical comorbidities, mental health disorder, opioid dose, and opioid formulation. Results In a cohort of 14 898 patients (mean [SD] age, 56.3 [16.0] years; 8988 [60.3%] female) prescribed long-term opioid therapy, 228 case patients with incident opioid overdose were matched to 3547 control patients. The mean (SD) duration of opioid therapy was 36.7 (33.7) months in case patients and 33.0 (30.9) months in control patients. High-dose variability (SD >27.2 mg of morphine equivalents) was associated with a significantly increased risk of overdose compared with low-dose variability (matched odds ratio, 3.32; 95% CI, 1.63-6.77) independent of opioid dose. Conclusions and Relevance Variability in opioid dose may be a risk factor for opioid overdose, suggesting that practitioners should seek to minimize dose variability when managing long-term opioid therapy.
Lightning Talk–Towards Robust Detection of Cyberbullying in Social Media

The potentially detrimental effects of cyberbullying have led to the development of numerous automated, data–driven approaches, with emphasis on classification accuracy. Cyberbullying, as a form of abusive online behavior, although not well–defined, is a repetitive process, i.e., a sequence of aggressive messages sent from a bully to a victim over a period of time with the intent to harm the victim. Existing work has focused on harassment (i.e., using profanity to classify toxic comments independently) as an indicator of cyberbullying, disregarding the repetitive nature of this harassing process. However, raising a cyberbullying alert immediately after an aggressive comment is detected can lead to a high number of false positives. At the same time, two key practical challenges remain unaddressed: (i) timeliness: the state–of–the–art relies on a fixed set of features learned during training for offline detection (i.e., after all correspondence has become available), hindering the ability to respond in a timely manner (i.e., as soon as possible) to cyberbullying events. (ii) scalabilty: the scalability of existing methods to the staggering rates at which content is generated (e.g., 95 million photos and videos are shared on Instagram per day1) has largely remained unaddressed. In my lightning talk, I will introduce CONcISE, a novel approach for timely and accurate Cyberbullying detectiON on Instagram media SEssions, that has been accepted for presentation at the main conference [1]. Specifically, I will present a novel two–stage online approach (illustrated in Figure 1) designed to reduce the time to raise a cyberbullying alert by (i) sequentially examining comments as they become available over time, and (ii) minimizing the number of feature evaluations necessary for a decision to be made for each comment. By formalizing the problem as a sequential hypothesis testing problem, a novel algorithm has been developed that satisfies four key properties: accuracy, repetitiveness, timeliness, and efficiency. Extensive experiments on a real–world Instagram dataset with ∼ 4M users and ∼ 10M comments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach with respect to accuracy, timeliness, efficiency, and robustness, and show that it consistently outperforms the stat–of–the–art, often by a considerable margin.
Trauma in the Pregnant Patient

Important anatomic and physiologic changes and interrelationships between the mother and fetus that affect and are affected by trauma are discussed. Also considered are new diagnostic modalities. Pregnant patients with significant trauma should be closely observed and records carefully documented. Management should be directed primarily toward guaranteeing the health of the mother, which better insures the health of the fetus.
Identifiability and Cognitive Diagnosis Models

Cognitive Diagnosis Models (CDMs) are popular statistical tools in cognitive diagnosis assessment. CDMs can be viewed as restricted latent class models with constraints introduced by the Q-matrix and assumptions of how skill variables that are assigned to items via the Q-Matrix interact in the item function. As many other latent variable models do, the CDMs often suffer from nonidentifiability. This chapter focuses on the identifiability issue of the CDMs and present conditions to ensure identifiability, which can be directly applied to most of the CDMs.
Neurology and baseball: Who wants to win?

Teams fail when they cannot achieve a common goal. They also fail when they do not have one. In baseball, different goals between players and staff are unusual. Everyone wants to win. In neurology, where teams may be loosely defined and comprise people from many disciplines, goals differ. A win for you may not be a win for me.
Black Race as a Social Determinant of Health and Outcomes After Lumbar Spinal Fusion Surgery: A Multistate Analysis, 2007 to 2014.

Study design A retrospective analysis of patient hospitalization and discharge records. Objective To examine the association between race and inpatient postoperative complications following lumbar spinal fusion surgery. Summary of background data Racial disparities in healthcare have been demonstrated across a range of surgical procedures. Previous research has identified race as a social determinant of health that impacts outcomes after lumbar spinal fusion surgery. However, these studies are limited in that they are outdated, contain data from a single institution, analyze small limited samples, and report limited outcomes. Our study aims to expand and update the literature examining the association between race and inpatient postoperative complications following lumbar spine surgery. Methods We analyzed 267,976 patient discharge records for inpatient lumbar spine surgery using data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project's State Inpatient Databases for California, Florida, New York, Maryland, and Kentucky from 2007 through 2014. We used unadjusted bivariate analysis, adjusted multivariable, and stratified analysis to compare patient demographics, present-on-admission comorbidities, hospital characteristics, and complications by categories of race/ethnicity. Results Black patients were 8% and 14% more likely than white patients to experience spine surgery specific complications (adjusted odds ratios [aOR]: 1.08, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03-1.13) and general postoperative complications (aOR: 1.14, 95% CI: 1.07-1.20), respectively. Black patients, compared with white patients, also had increased adjusted odds of 30-day readmissions (aOR: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.07-1.20), 90-day readmissions (aOR: 1.07, 95% CI: 1.02-1.13), longer length of stay (LOS) (adjusted Incidence Rate Ratio: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.14-1.16), and higher total charges (adjusted Incidence Rate Ratio: 1.08, 95% CI: 1.07-1.09). Conclusion Our findings demonstrate that black patients, as compared with white patients, are more likely to have postoperative complications, longer postoperative lengths of stay, higher total hospital charges, and increased odds of 30- and 90-day readmissions following lumbar spinal fusion surgery. Level of evidence 4.
Control-oriented Modeling of Soft Robotic Swimmer with Koopman Operators

Interest in soft robotics has increased in recent years due to their potential in a myriad of applications. A wide variety of soft robots has emerged, including bio-inspired robotic swimmers such as jellyfish, rays, and robotic fish. However, the highly nonlinear fluid-structure interactions pose considerable challenges in the analysis, modeling, and feedback control of these soft robotic swimmers. In particular, developing models that are of high fidelity but are also amenable to control for such robots remains an open problem. In this work, we propose a data-driven approach that exploits Koopman operators to obtain a linear representation of the soft swimmer dynamics. Specifically, two methodologies are explored for obtaining the basis functions of the the operator, one based on data-based derivatives estimated using high-gain observers, and the other based on the dynamics structure of a tail-actuated rigid-body robotic fish. The resulting approximate finite-dimensional operators are trained and evaluated using data from high-fidelity CFD simulations that incorporate fluid-structure interactions. Validation results demonstrate that, while both methods are promising in producing control-oriented models, the approach based on derivative estimates shows higher accuracy in state prediction.
Honey bee aggression: evaluating causal links to disease-resistance traits and infection

Aggression is a context-dependent behavior that often represents an adaptive trade-off with other energetically demanding phenotypes. Diseases can impose strong selection pressures on an organism, impacting the expression of aggression if the behavior is physiologically or genetically linked to disease resistance traits. However, aggression is also often a “sickness behavior” modulated directly by infection to conserve energy. Here we examine the cause-effect relationships between aggression and infection in the honey bee (Apis mellifera), a species with a heavy disease burden in which aggression has been correlated with diverse positive health outcomes. We induced infection in individual worker bees that differ in baseline aggression levels as a function of their colony-of-origin. We evaluated whether baseline aggression alters the response to infection, including the expression of disease-resistance behaviors and immune genes (defensin-1, hymenoptaecin, and vitellogenin). We found limited impact of baseline aggression on immune gene expression and the behavioral response to infection, but showed that infection can cause a change in aggression, at least in some cases. Though we cannot rule out the idea that high aggression is protective against infection, we find greater support for the idea that low aggression may be an energy-conserving “sickness behavior.” Future work concerning the evolutionary ecology of aggression and disease resistance in honey bees should consider the bidirectional relationship between these phenotypes, as well as the range of possible genetic and physiological mechanisms that connect them. Genetic and physiological relationships between disease resistance traits and other behavioral phenotypes like aggression may impact how both traits are expressed in a particular ecological context, and ultimately, how these traits evolve. These relationships are particularly complex in social species, where social interactions both modulate aggressive behaviors and are involved in the response to infection. In honey bees, where pathogen loads and other stressors are prevalent, high aggression predicts health resilience. Here we show that high aggression co-occurs with some behavioral traits that improve the outcome of infection like grooming behaviors. Infection also causes a change in immune function and to an extent aggression, suggesting low aggression that is to some degree an energy conservation measure in sick honey bees.
High Impact Practices Through Experiential Student Philanthropy: A Case Study of the Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project and Academic Success at Northern Kentucky University:

High impact educational practices are active learning strategies that benefit learning outcomes, increase student engagement, and support student retention. This study examines the retention and pe...
Crafting the next generation of angels: a promising model in experiential learning

In an academic environment there are various pedagogies for learning about angel investing, all with various levels of engagement, cases, academic research, and lectures. This paper provides one mo...
Predicting post-discharge cancer surgery complications via telemonitoring of patient-reported outcomes and patient-generated health data.

Background and objectives Post-discharge oncologic surgical complications are costly for patients, families, and healthcare systems. The capacity to predict complications and early intervention can improve postoperative outcomes. In this proof-of-concept study, we used a machine learning approach to explore the potential added value of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and patient-generated health data (PGHD) in predicting post-discharge complications for gastrointestinal (GI) and lung cancer surgery patients. Methods We formulated post-discharge complication prediction as a binary classification task. Features were extracted from clinical variables, PROs (MD Anderson Symptom Inventory [MDASI]), and PGHD (VivoFit) from a cohort of 52 patients with 134 temporal observation points pre- and post-discharge that were collected from two pilot studies. We trained and evaluated supervised learning classifiers via nested cross-validation. Results A logistic regression model with L2 regularization trained with clinical data, PROs and PGHD from wearable pedometers achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic of 0.74. Conclusions PROs and PGHDs captured through remote patient telemonitoring approaches have the potential to improve prediction performance for postoperative complications.
EEG segments synchronized to be temporally farthest from the R-waves in ECG are more informative during listening to music

Abstract Listening to music affects synchronization between electroencephalograms (EEGs) and cardiac rhythmic activity. This interaction between cardiac and electrical responses led us to investigate whether EEG segments extracted during different portions of the cardiac cycle can better reveal the effects produced while listening to music. We used three portions of cardiac-synchronized EEGs: Pre-R-peak, post-R-peak, and mid-R-peak. In addition, tempo, cognition of music, and different frequency bands of EEGs were considered to find whether these effects were more localized within certain regions of the cardiac cycle. Responses were investigated using eigen decomposition of autocovariance of EEG segments. Results showed an increase in complexity of brain response by increase in the tempo of music, specifically in the parietal lobe, and triggering the smallest changes by slow tempo song (compared to other played songs), possibly explaining the calming effects of slow music. A stronger effect of cognition of music was observed in frequencies >38 Hz, particularly in the temporal lobe, and a stronger response to slower tempo music was observed in frequencies
Obesity and perioperative outcomes in older surgical patients undergoing elective spine and major arthroplasty surgery

Abstract Study objective To determine whether obesity status is associated with perioperative complications, discharge outcomes and hospital length of stay in older surgical patients. Design Secondary analysis of five independent study cohorts (N = 1262). Setting An academic medical center between 2001 and 2017 in the United States. Patients Patients aged 65 years or older who were scheduled to undergo elective spine, knee, or hip surgery with an expected hospital stay of at least 2 days. Measurements Body mass index (BMI) was stratified as nonobese (BMI ≤ 30 kg/m2), obesity class 1 (30 kg/m2 ≤ BMI Main results Obesity status was not associated with intraoperative adverse events. However, obesity class 2–3 significantly increased the risk for postoperative complications (IRR 1.43, 95% CI 1.03–1.95, P = 0.03), hospital LOS (IRR 1.13, 95% CI 1.02–1.25, P = 0.02) and non-home discharge destination (OR 1.95, 95% CI 1.35–2.81, P Conclusions Obesity class 2–3 status has prognostic value in predicting an increased incidence of postoperative complications, increased hospital LOS, and non-home discharge location. These results have important clinical implications for preoperative informed consent and provide areas to target for care improvement for the older obese individual.
Evaluation of methods to improve the indoor air quality of waiting room in a railway station in Shanghai areas by using natural ventilation in winter.

[Objective] To use natural ventilation reasonably and fully to improve the indoor air quality in the waiting room of a railway station in Shanghai and to safeguard the health and safety of passengers by using the existing ventilation facilities and keeping energy saving.[Methods] The air quality of the waiting room was monitored,ventilation frequencies estimated according to wind speed of outdoor air,wind frequency,temperature difference and so on.[Results] The volume of the waiting room was 7 009 m3 with 832 seats.Ventilation frequency was 2.3 times/h when all the windows were closed in winter.According to calculating,by using natural ventilation the ventilation frequency increased 1.8 times/h if one window(1.2 m2)opened.[Conclusion] It would be able to meet the health requirements of ventilation frequencies ≥6 times/h if 4 windows opened in the waiting room of this railway station in winter,indoor air quality in the waiting room could be greatly improved.
PCR-Based Assays for the Detection and Quantitation of DNA Damage and Repair

Exposure to genotoxic agents from both environmental and endogenous sources which result in damage to cellular DNA poses a significant health risk to the individual if such damage is left unrepaired. Several human diseases, including Cockayne’s syndrome and xeroderma pigmentosum, have been associated with defects in the repair of DNA damage (Friedberg et al., 1995). An overall decrease in DNA repair capacity is observed in the latter, whereas the former is associated with a defect in a transcription-coupling factor which facilitates rapid repair in the transcribed strand of an active gene. One general method for the analysis of gene- and strand-specific repair is based on Southern analysis of DNA strand breaks induced by a damage-specific endonuclease (Smith and Mellon, 1990; Bohr and Okumoto, 1988). This endonuclease-sensitive site (ESS) technique employs the use of T4 endonuclease V which cleaves DNA at pyrimidine dimers (Ganesan et al., 1980), eliminating its ability to hybridize to a radioactive probe on alkaline Southern analysis. Although this methodology has been pivotal in the elucidation of gene-specific repair in single-copy genes (Bohr et al., 1987; Mellon et al., 1987; Mellon and Hanawalt, 1989), there are certain limitations. It requires some information regarding restriction sequence information flanking the gene or genomic segment of interest, a lesion-specific endonuclease to incise near the damaged base, and perhaps most significant is the requirement for large quantities of DNA (5–10 μg) generally used in Southern assays.
A Comparative Approach to Coordination: How Apes, Monkeys and Humans Respond to an Assurance Game with Equivalent Procedures

Our research directly compares coordinated decision making across the entire primate lineage, including a new-world monkey, an old-world monkey, an ape, and humans, to help understand how decision making is different between these species. We find that the ability to coordinate on a mutually beneficial decision does vary across species, that there is variability within each taxonomic group, and that this variation overlaps between groups. Each species represents a continuum, with pairs of each species ranging from random outcomes to those which coordinate on the payoff dominant outcome. What differs is the frequency of payoff dominant outcomes within each species.
Treatment of primary monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis with desmopressin: predictive factors

Objective To investigate predictive factors for the outcome of treatment of primary monosymptomatic nocturnal enuresis (PMNE) with desmopressin. Patients and methods Data from a large open multicentre study were analysed. The study comprised 399 children with PMNE who were recruited for long-term desmopressin treatment. Before treatment a history was taken and the children observed for 4 weeks. After a 6-week dose-titration period with desmopressin, the children were classified into four groups depending on the response rate. Results The children who improved during desmopressin treatment were older, had fewer wet nights during the observation period and had only one wet episode during the night, mostly after midnight. Many of them did not require the maximum dose of desmopressin to become dry. No hereditary factor for the response to desmopressin was found. Conclusion Those most likely to be permanently dry with desmopressin treatment are older children who respond to 20 µg desmopressin and who do not wet frequently.
Understanding DevOps & bridging the gap from continuous integration to continuous delivery

As part of Agile transformation in past few years we have seen IT organizations adopting continuous integration principles in their software delivery lifecycle, which has improved the efficiency of development teams. With the time it has been realized that this optimization as part of continuous integration - alone - is just not helping to make the entire delivery lifecycle efficient or is not driving the organization efficiency. Unless all the pieces of a software delivery lifecycle work like a well oiled machine – efficiency of organization to optimize the delivery lifecycle can not be met. This is the problem which DevOps tries to address. This paper tries to cover all aspects of Devops applicable to various phases of SDLC and specifically talks about business need, ways to move from continuous integration to continuous delivery and its benefits. Continuous delivery transformation in this paper is explained with a real life case study that how infrastructure can be maintained just in form of code (IAAC). Finally this paper touches upon various considerations one must evaluate before adopting DevOps and what kind of benefits one can expect.
The impact of an operative note proforma at a paediatric surgical centre

Rationale, aims and objectives With expectations for standardization and evidence-based practice, the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) published the ‘Good Surgical Practice’ in 2008. The document sets standards for operative records anticipating improved documentation, audits, medico-legal review and quality and safety of handover. We evaluated (1) documentation against RCS standards; (2) whether RCS standards are applicable to and adequate for paediatric surgery; and (3) the impact of a standardized operative proforma. Methods All general surgery and urology admissions during July 2011 and August 2012 were retrospectively reviewed using 23 set criteria. An operative note proforma was introduced in February 2012. Results were compared and statistically analysed using two-tailed Fisher's exact test, with Bonferroni correction where appropriate (SPSS 20.0, IBM SPSS Statistics, Armonk, NY, USA). Results There were 345 children admitted; 63.2% underwent an operation (119 in 2011 versus 99 in 2012); 55% of operations were day cases. The initial audit noted poor documentation in 7 of 23 criteria. Following introduction of the operative note proforma, documentation improved significantly: patient identifiers by 12.3%, procedure time 43.3%, assistant's name 31.9%, procedure type 21.4%, closure 6.2%, anaesthetist's name 15.9%, anaesthetic type 56.8% and surgeons grade 65.8% (P < 0.05). Subgroup analysis in the latter cohort shows most of these effects to be related to the use of the proforma rather than education alone (P < 0.05). Quality of documentation was better by consultants versus trainees in 2 of 23 criteria (P < 0.05). Conclusion We have demonstrated a simple and cost-effective way of improving the quality of operative documentation, in line with guidelines set out by the RCS, in a climate of increasing economic austerity.
Negative Regulation of Wee1 Expression and Cdc2 Phosphorylation during p53-mediated Growth Arrest and Apoptosis

The G2 cell cycle checkpoint protects cells from potentially lethal mitotic entry after DNA damage. This checkpoint involves inhibitory phosphorylation of Cdc2 at the tyrosine-15 (Y15) position, mediated in part by the Wee1 protein kinase. Recent evidence suggests that p53 may accelerate mitotic entry after DNA damage and that the override of the G2 checkpoint may play a role in the induction of apoptosis by p53. To determine the biochemical mechanism by which p53 inactivates the G2 checkpoint, the effects of p53 activation on Wee1 expression, Cdc2-Y15 phosphorylation, and cyclin B1-associated Cdc2 kinase activity were examined. Under conditions of either growth arrest or apoptosis, p53 activation resulted in the down-regulation of Wee1 expression and dephosphorylation of Cdc2. A parallel increase in cyclin B1/Cdc2 kinase activity was observed during p53-mediated apoptosis. Negative regulation of the Wee1 expression and Cdc2 phosphorylation by p53 was also evident in thymus tissue from p53+/+ mice but not from p53-/- mice. Inactivation of the G2 checkpoint may contribute to the tumor suppressor activity of p53.
Processing and physical properties of native grass‐reinforced biocomposites

Big blue stem grass fiber-reinforced high density polyethylene powder biocomposites were fabricated using two separate processing schemes: (1) by compounding biofiber with the thermoplastic powder in an extruder and subsequently injection molding the extrusion pellets and (2) by combining biofiber and the powder thermoplastic powder using a modified sheet molding compounding (SMC) line and subsequently compression molding the sheet material. The physical properties including storage modulus, heat deflection temperature (HDT), notched Izod impact strength, and morphology were evaluated with dynamic mechanical analysis, Izod impact strength measurement, and microscopy observation. It was found that compression-molded specimens achieved similar modulus values to injection molded specimens for grass-reinforced high density polyethylene (HDPE) composites. The stiffness of the compression-molded specimens is related to the consolidation state of the samples, which depends on compression molding conditions such as temperature, pressure, and mold type. Compression-molded specimens exhibited a higher HDT and notched Izod impact strength compared to injection-molded samples. Grass fiber-reinforced cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) biocomposites made with SMC processing had similar physical properties with grass fiber-reinforced HDPE composites, which indicates that natural fiber-reinforced CAB biocomposites have the potential to replace polyolefin-based composites for automotive applications. POLYM. ENG. SCI. 47:969–976, 2007. © 2007 Society of Plastics Engineers.
The Acute Response to Calcitonin in Paget's Disease: Its Relationship to the Serum Alkaline Phosphatase Level and the Effect of Phosphate Treatment

The 4- to 8-hour response to 100 MRC Units of salmon calcitonin was measured in 10 patients with Paget's disease. The fall in blood calcium was directly related to the initial serum alkaline phosphatase level, and not to the initial serum calcium or phosphate levels. The fall in blood phosphate was not related to the serum alkaline phosphatase level but was directly related to the fall in serum calcium. Administration of phosphate supplements for 6 days decreased the blood calcium acutely in 4 patients. When calcitonin was given during phosphate treatment the effect was additive and the hypocalcemic response increased in 6 of 8 patients. These results indicate that in Paget's disease, the hypocalcemic response to calcitonin depends on the prevailing rate of bone turnover. The data suggest that phosphate supplements might be beneficial in some patients during calcitonin treatment.
Vector modes of lasers with radially birefringent elements

A general theory of steady-state diffractive vector modes for lasers with polarizing optical elements is reviewed. The problems inherent in including radially birefringent media such as solid-state rods are emphasized. A trade-off between ease of implementation, ease of interpretation, and cost of computation arises from the choices of representations of the field. In the scalar theory for axisymmetric resonators, the polar representation with expansion of the field in azimuthal Fourier series yields separation into an integral equation for each azimuthal index. A theoretical investigation of this approach for the vector case is presented. For a simple resonator composed of two mirrors and a bifocal lens, separation into coupled pairs of integral equations is obtained. Numerical solutions that use fast Hankel transforms from scalar theory are straightforward. Complications arise when other optical elements are introduced into the resonator. Methods for handling the general case are discussed.
Measuring duplicate metadata records in library databases

Purpose – Changes in information retrieval architecture are causing an increase in the duplication of metadata records in bibliographic databases. This paper aims to examine the problem by explaining how it is caused and the problems it creates for database users.Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes the current state of duplication in bibliographic databases and presents a new way of measuring the duplication. The paper contrasts the nature of monograph, serial, and journal article metadata to show how duplication is different for each.Findings – The new measure of duplication the paper presents could help define the concept of duplication and could aid efforts at eliminating duplicate records in online bibliographic databases.Practical implications – As metadata becomes a commodity and is sold in aggregate packages it will cause increased duplication in bibliographic databases.Originality/value – The paper is the first to describe the etiology of duplicate metadata records in web‐scale, bibl...
PCBs, PCDD/Fs, and Organochlorine Pesticides in Farmed Atlantic Salmon from Maine, Eastern Canada, and Norway, and Wild Salmon from Alaska

Farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) from Maine and eastern Canada, wild Alaskan Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), and organically farmed Norwegian salmon samples were analyzed for the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxin-like PCBs, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), dibenzo-p-furans (PCDFs), and chlorinated pesticides. PCDD and PCDF congeners were not detected in >80% of the samples analyzed. Total PCB concentrations (7.2−29.5 ng/g, wet weight, ww) in the farmed salmon were significantly higher than those in the wild Alaskan Chinook samples (3.9−8.1 ng/g, ww). Concentrations of PCBs, WHO PCB TEQs, and chlorinated pesticides varied significantly by region. PCB and WHO PCB TEQ concentrations in farmed salmon from eastern Canada were lower than those reported in samples collected two years earlier, possibly reflecting recent industry efforts to lower contaminant concentrations in feed. Organically farmed Norwegian salmon had the highest concentrations of PCBs (mean: 27 ng/g...
female genital mutilation, fertility control, women's roles, and the patrilineage in modern Sudan: a functional analysis1

Infibulation or Pharonic circumcision is a sociocultural feature of nomadic pastoralists riverine agriculturalists urban dwellers and educated elites throughout Northeast Africa. The operation practiced on young Arab Muslim girls deliberately mutilates the genitalia and almost completely closes off the vaginal opening. The practice of the custom in Sudan was analyzed by survey and found to be functionally interrelated with marriage practices norms of female modesty womens roles family honor and the patrilineage. The ostensible reason for the operation is to secure the virginity of the girl until she is married. Despite all recent laws against it the practice continues with women the main perpetuators. Laws have been ineffective in preventing practice of the custom because it fulfills certain social needs for the community. The procedure and ceremony surrounding Pharonic circumcision are described. It is not considered a rite of passage since it occurs at too young an age. The custom of infibulation occurs in different societies in the region but they are all patrilineal patrilocal and patriarchal. The practice functions latently to support and maintain the economies and the status/role systems of women on the village level. Incidentally infibulation has served as a control mechanism to reduce fertility in a country where population growth is already quite high and resources are scarce. If infibulation is curtailed other population control measures will have to be adopted.
A new model of ethanol self-administration in newborn rats: gender effects on ethanol ingestion through a surrogate nipple.

Background: Ethanol intake in the context of suckling may have distinct and potentially long-lasting consequences for further responsiveness to and acceptance of ethanol, compared to other, more indirect and less natural ways of ethanol exposure early in ontogeny. Method: Our findings presented in this paper show that a surrogate nipple technique can be used for the study of early ethanol intake in cesarean-derived rat pups tested before any suckling experience. Results: Neonatal rats attached to and voluntary ingested ethanol through the surrogate nipple as early as 4 hr after birth. Moderate concentrations of ethanol (2% and 5%, v/v) promoted substantial initial suckling behavior, including sustained attachment to the nipple. Higher concentrations (10% and 15%) were not effective in sustaining suckling. Females responded less positively to 10% ethanol than did males. High concentrations of ethanol were less effective in eliciting suckling behavior, probably due to the aversiveness of ethanol odor. However, when ethanol was presented in solution with milk, newborn pups attached to the nipple and ingested even 15% ethanol. Contamination of milk with 15% ethanol was more aversive for females than for males. Newborn rat pups demonstrated similar patterns of nipple attachment and ingestive behavior for 5% ethanol and milk. Initial experience with milk in the context of suckling did not prevent further voluntary ethanol ingestion from the same nipple; furthermore, initial exposure to 5% ethanol did not impair subsequent responsiveness to milk. Conclusions: Gender differences in responsiveness or sensitivity to ethanol can be detected in rat pups as early as a few hours after birth. The results suggest a leftward shift in the dose-response curve for females compared with males, indicating that female neonates are more sensitive or more responsive than males to ethanol. The similarity of suckling behaviors produced by moderate concentrations of ethanol and milk suggests a certain unity in their reinforcing mechanisms in the context of the first suckling episode.
The secretory pathway calcium ATPase PMR-1/SPCA1 has essential roles in cell migration during Caenorhabditis elegans embryonic development

Maintaining levels of calcium in the cytosol is important for many cellular events, including cell migration, where localized regions of high calcium are required to regulate cytoskeletal dynamics, contractility, and adhesion. Studies show inositol-trisphosphate receptors (IP3R) and ryanodine receptors (RyR), which release calcium into the cytosol, are important regulators of cell migration. Similarly, proteins that return calcium to secretory stores are likely to be important for cell migration. The secretory protein calcium ATPase (SPCA) is a Golgi-localized protein that transports calcium from the cytosol into secretory stores. SPCA has established roles in protein processing, metal homeostasis, and inositol-trisphosphate signaling. Defects in the human SPCA1/ATP2C1 gene cause Hailey-Hailey disease (MIM# 169600), a genodermatosis characterized by cutaneous blisters and fissures as well as keratinocyte cell adhesion defects. We have determined that PMR-1, the Caenorhabditis elegans ortholog of SPCA1, plays an essential role in embryogenesis. Pmr-1 strains isolated from genetic screens show terminal phenotypes, such as ventral and anterior enclosure failures, body morphogenesis defects, and an unattached pharynx, which are caused by earlier defects during gastrulation. In Pmr-1 embryos, migration rates are significantly reduced for cells moving along the embryo surface, such as ventral neuroblasts, C-derived, and anterior-most blastomeres. Gene interaction experiments show changing the activity of itr-1/IP3R and unc-68/RyR modulates levels of embryonic lethality in Pmr-1 strains, indicating pmr-1 acts with these calcium channels to regulate cell migration. This analysis reveals novel genes involved in C. elegans cell migration, as well as a new role in cell migration for the highly conserved SPCA gene family.
Metastable equilibrium of ferrite in type 308 stainless steel

The stability of type 308 stainless steel weld filler metal following elevated temperature aging has been the subject of an extensive research effort at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). These studies on both homogenized and welded materials have shown that the ferrite phase transforms to austenite and sigma phase and no residual ferrite is expected in equilibrium in the temperature range of 550 to 850/sup 0/C. However, the transformation to sigma is very sluggish, with some residual ferrite often present after aging times of 1000 h or more. As an offshoot of the aging studies, the composition of ferrite has been evaluated as a function of aging time and temperature and these results and their interpretation are the focus of this paper.
Cognitive Engine Architecture for Railway Communications

This paper discusses a railway specific cognitive radio that builds upon software defined radio (SDR) platforms to adapt the radio based situational awareness. Cognitive Radio incorporates artificial intelligence based algorithms with reconfigurable software-defined radios that enable automatic adjustments of the radio to improve performance and overcome obstacles the radio may confront in the field (i.e. environmental/man-made interference, occupying the same channel as a user with higher priority, etc.). This paper describes the Railway Cognitive Radio (Rail-CR) architecture and illustrates preliminary results in simulation. The proposed cognitive engine architecture consists of a case-based reasoned (CBR) and a Genetic Algorithm (GA) optimization routine. This paper discusses the overall cognitive architecture, the relationship between the CBR and the GA based on weighted objective functions, and metrics for assessing performance. Methods for case representation, quantifying similarity between cases histories, and techniques for managing case growth rate are presented as well as a proposed test bed SDR platform.Copyright © 2010 by ASME
Area postrema projects to FoxP2 neurons of the pre-locus coeruleus and parabrachial nuclei: brainstem sites implicated in sodium appetite regulation

The area postrema (AP) is a circumventricular organ located in the dorsal midline of the medulla. It functions as a chemosensor for blood-borne peptides and solutes, and converts this information into neural signals that are transmitted to the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) and parabrachial nucleus (PB). One of its NTS targets in the rat is the aldosterone-sensitive neurons which contain the enzyme 11 β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2 (HSD2). The HSD2 neurons are part of a central network involved in sodium appetite regulation, and they innervate numerous brain sites including the pre-locus coeruleus (pre-LC) and PB external lateral-inner (PBel-inner) cell groups of the dorsolateral pons. Both pontine cell groups express the transcription factor FoxP2 and become c-Fos activated following sodium depletion. Because the AP is a component in this network, we wanted to determine whether it also projects to the same sites as the HSD2 neurons. By using a combination of anterograde axonal and retrograde cell body tract-tracing techniques in individual rats, we show that the AP projects to FoxP2 immunoreactive neurons in the pre-LC and PBel-inner. Thus, the AP sends a direct projection to both the first-order medullary (HSD2 neurons of the NTS) and the second-order dorsolateral pontine neurons (pre-LC and PB-el inner neurons). All three sites transmit information related to systemic sodium depletion to forebrain sites and are part of the central neural circuitry that regulates the complex behavior of sodium appetite.
Effective animation of sign language with prosodic elements for annotation of digital educational content

Computer animation of American Sign Language (ASL) has the potential to remove many educational barriers for deaf students, because it provides a low-cost, effective means for adding sign language translation to any type of digital content.
Joint Control of Electric Governors for Hydraulic Turbines

A digest is given of the progressive versions of joint control systems developed and supplied by the Woodward Governor Company leading up to the latest version. In the analysis of these systems, the weaknesses and limitations of the preceding systems and the improvements in the succeeding systems are revealed.
Structural chemistry and therapeutic intervention of protein-protein interactions in immune response, human immunodeficiency virus entry, and apoptosis

Protein-protein interactions involved in diverse biological functions are largely unexplored therapeutic targets, and present a major challenge and opportunity for drug design research. Encouraging new approaches to this problem recently have emerged from studies of small molecule regulators of protein-protein complexes. This review outlines the basic concepts for two of these approaches, based on structural and chemical strategies, by illustrating their application in the design of small molecule inhibitors for three biological systems: (1) cell surface molecules CD4 and CD8 involved in immune response, (2) chemokine receptor-ligand interactions implicated in human immunodeficiency virus entry, and (3) B-cell leukemia/lymphoma-2 family proteins essential for regulation of programmed cell death or apoptosis. The design and discovery of these novel reagents provide valuable tools to probe fundamental questions about a particular protein-protein complex, and may lead to a new generation of potential therapeutic agents. Furthermore, these studies suggest a framework for chemical intervention of other protein-protein interactions involved in many pathological processes.
The development of hypersensitiveness in man

Abstract 1.1. Repeated intracutaneous injections of guinea pig serum into man will sensitize him so that a subsequent injection will produce at first a delayed reaction of the tuberculin type and later an immediate reaction of the wheal and erythema type. 2.2. Artificial sensitiveness results more rapidly and more regularly from doses of the 1:10 dilution than from doses of the 1:100 or 1:1,000 dilutions. 3.3. Artificial sensitiveness is produced in nonatopic, normal persons to about the same extent and with about the same ease as in atopic patients. 4.4. Antibodies capable of transferring the sensitiveness locally to the skin of a normal recipient may be demonstrated when the degree of sensitiveness, as measured by skin test, is large but not otherwise. 5.5. "Flare" reactions are sometimes observed. 6.6. The relation between this artificial sensitiveness and natural sensitiveness is discussed.
Water intake, spontaneous learning for food, activity, and manipulation for talapoin and squirrel monkeys

Talapoin and squirrel monkeys were compared on measures of water consumption, general activity, manipulation of objects, and acquisition of a spontaneous learning task. The talapoin consumed a large amount of water per kilogram of body weight compared to the squirrel monkey. The talapoin also was very active and manipulated objects whereas the squirrel monkey was inactive and did not manipulate objects. Furthermore, the talapoin demonstrated a marked superiority on a spontaneous learning task. It is suggested that the talapoin is an excellent alternative to Saimiri in most behavioral tasks requiring a high level of responsiveness.
Promotional Timing for Substitutes and Complements at Major US Supermarkets

The purpose of this study is to investigate empirically the major determinants of the supermarket manager’s decision rule for placing products on promotions. Specifically, I examine the roles of substitutes and close complements as well as the potential interaction between national brands and private labels in determining promotional timing. The results expand upon the literature by demonstrating that complementary considerations, both within stores and among competitors, are highly significant determinants of promotional timing. Additionally, the results indicate that private labels are promoted heavily and that retailers incorporate the promotional timing of private labels when setting national brand promotions. This study provides further evidence that retail sales pricing typically does not conform to theoretical models of pricing.
On a new class of kinematic models: symmetrical and asymmetrical circular and elliptical cracks

Abstract We propose a general asymmetrical elliptical crack model, and we investigate the far-field body wave radiation. Particular models such as symmetric circular/elliptical crack model or “unidirectional” asymmetric circular/elliptical crack models may be derived as particular cases of the results derived in the present investigation. The model is a “quasi-dynamic” one, as the slip is specified by employing Eshelby’s static solution at every instant in time, which, in turn, is consistent within a multiplicative factor with the solution derived by Burridge and Willis for self-similar elliptical cracks. We derive compact closed form expressions for the far-field pulse radiated by the source model. As expected, the radiation of the model exhibits azimuthal variation which depends on the asymmetry and ellipticity of the crack model. We investigate the “stopping phases” of the model that are emitted when the rupture front stumbles on the circular/elliptical barrier at the edge of the fault and we examine their radiation pattern. We study the seismic energy and seismic efficiency of the model, and compare them with those of the symmetrical circular crack model. We find that the seismic efficiency of the asymmetrical fault models is smaller by a factor of ∼2–4 (depending on the asymmetry and ellipticity of the crack), as compared to the seismic efficiency of the symmetrical circular crack model. This is explained by the fact that the average rupture velocity of the asymmetrical models is smaller as compared to that of the symmetrical model. Finally, we employ various “objective” definitions of the corner frequency and we investigate how their predictions compare with graphically picked corner frequencies.