cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Influence of clindamycin on fibronectin-staphylococcal interactions

This report examines the effects of subinhibitory concentrations of of clindamycin on fibronectin-staphylococcal interactions. Using in-vitro binding assays, exposure of staphylococci to subinhibitory concentrations of clindamycin results in a dose-dependent decrease in fibronectin's ability to bind to treated organisms. Concomitant with decreased fibronectin binding is a decreased ability for fibronectin to mediate the phagocytosis of treated organisms by human polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Serum-mediated phagocytosis of clindamycin-treated organisms remained effective despite the reduction in fibronectin binding capabilities. These results suggest that the clinical use of clindamycin has the potential to affect bacterial binding of fibronectin, thus modifying the adherence of organisms to host surfaces without adversely effecting their clearance by the reticuloendothelial system.
Concurrent Herb-Prescription Medication Use and Health Care Provider Disclosure Among University Students

Summary Objectives To determine the extent to which college students are intermixing mood-altering herbs with prescription medications and whether they are disclosing this information to their health care providers. Design and setting A nonrandom sample was drawn from the student body of a Northwestern state university ( n =305). Methods In November 2008 participants completed an online survey detailing herb use, disclosure to health care providers and herb/medicinal intermixing. Results There were no demographic differences between herb users and non-users. Most herb usage was self-prescribed (60%) and undisclosed to healthcare providers (only 25% of herb users disclosed to a healthcare provider). 34% of herb users used them to treat a mood disorder. Of herb users, 13% had simultaneously used herbs and prescription medication in the last year. In addition, herb users who intermixed herbs with prescription medications had higher depression and anxiety scores than those who did not intermix. Conclusions College student herb use is primarily self prescribed and undisclosed to healthcare professionals, who may prescribe pharmaceuticals that interact negatively with herbals. Physician awareness and query is invaluable for the prevention of adverse herb and drug interactions.
High Order Modes in a Spherical Fabry-Perot Resonator

The accuracy of the approximate solution to the wave equation in the "large aperture" case was investigated. The measured distribution of energy in the various transverse modes corresponded to the Laguerre-Gaussian solutions; resonant frequencies, however, deviated from those predicted by the approximate theory by as much as 2 percent for high radial mode numbers. Two first order perturbation calculations, including a neglected term in the wave equation and the nonsphericity of constant phase surfaces, yielded resonant frequencies in agreement with experiment.
The Unitary Group Formulation of Quantum Chemistry: Generator States

The unitary group approach was introduced into nuclear physics by Moshinsky [1] and into quantum chemistry by Harter [2] and by Matsen [3] and there now exists for it an extensive literature [4–30].
Shedding Light on Class-Specific Wiring: Development of Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cell Circuitry

Neural circuits associated with retinal ganglion cells have long been used as models for investigating the mechanisms that govern circuit development and function. Similar to neurons in the brain, retinal ganglion cells are subdivided into distinct classes based upon their morphology, physiology, and patterns of connectivity. Newly developed transgenic tools in which individual classes of retinal ganglion cells are labeled with reporter proteins have recently provided a method to study the development of their class-specific circuitry. Here, we examine a single class of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells and discuss their class-specific circuitry, as well as the cellular and molecular mechanisms that govern assembly of this circuitry.
Efficient Cleavage of Ribosome-Associated Poly(A)-Binding Protein by Enterovirus 3C Protease

Poliovirus (PV) causes a rapid and drastic inhibition of host cell cap-dependent protein synthesis during infection while preferentially allowing cap-independent translation of its own genomic RNA via an internal ribosome entry site element. Inhibition of cap-dependent translation is partly mediated by cleavage of an essential translation initiation factor, eIF4GI, during PV infection. In addition to cleavage of eIF4GI, cleavage of eIF4GII and poly(A)-binding protein (PABP) has been recently proposed to contribute to complete host translation shutoff; however, the relative importance of eIF4GII and PABP cleavage has not been determined. At times when cap-dependent translation is first blocked during infection, only 25 to 35% of the total cellular PABP is cleaved; therefore, we hypothesized that the pool of PABP associated with polysomes may be preferentially targeted by viral proteases. We have investigated what cleavage products of PABP are produced in vivo and the substrate determinants for cleavage of PABP by 2A protease (2A(pro)) or 3C protease (3C(pro)). Our results show that PABP in ribosome-enriched fractions is preferentially cleaved in vitro and in vivo compared to PABP in other fractions. Furthermore, we have identified four N-terminal PABP cleavage products produced during PV infection and have shown that viral 3C protease generates three of the four cleavage products. Also, 3C(pro) is more efficient in cleaving PABP in ribosome-enriched fractions than 2A(pro) in vitro. In addition, binding of PABP to poly(A) RNA stimulates 3C(pro)-mediated cleavage and inhibits 2A(pro)-mediated cleavage. These results suggest that 3C(pro) plays a major role in processing PABP during virus infection and that the interaction of PABP with translation initiation factors, ribosomes, or poly(A) RNA may promote its cleavage by viral 2A and 3C proteases.
The effects of objectively-measured, free-living daily ambulatory movement on mortality in a national sample of adults with diabetes

Previous research demonstrates that self-reported physical activity is protective against premature mortality among the general population, as well as those with diabetes. This confirmatory research study examines the relationship between physical activity and all-cause mortality risk among a national sample of diabetics while employing an objective measure of physical activity (ActiGraph 7164). Data from the 2003-2006 NHANES were employed, with follow-up through 2011.Among the 712 diabetics, 134 died during the median follow-up period of 79months. For every 60min increase in daily ambulatory movement, adults with diabetes had a 29% reduced risk of premature all-cause mortality (HRadjusted=0.71; 95% CI: 0.60-0.85). These confirmatory findings underscore the importance of physical activity promotion among adults with diabetes.
Influence of Mineral Montmorillonite on Soil Suction Modeling Parameters of Natural Expansive Clays

Expansive soils exhibit swell/shrink behavior with fluctuating moisture conditions arising from seasonal changes. Pore-water interactions occurring at the micro scale level of the soil specimen during swelling are mainly caused due to adsorptive forces and diffuse double layer charges on the clay particles. This chemical behavior is mainly attributed due to the presence of clay minerals such as Montmorillonite and is hypothesized that there is a strong correlation between soil water–suction relationship and percent clay mineral Montmorillonite. In the present research, an attempt is made to establish this relationship by studying natural compacted expansive clays and studying their respective soil water characteristic curve (SWCC). Four high plasticity expansive clays are selected and studied for mineralogy, expansive behavior and unsaturated properties. Soil water characteristic curves of these soils are determined from pressure cell technique and filter paper method. SWCC data was fitted against Van Genuchten and Fredlund and Xing models and the obtained model parameters are compared with the percent clay mineral in the soil. Test results from this research reemphasized the fact that that clayey soils with higher percentages of Montmorillonite content exhibited higher swelling behavior. Test results also showed that there is inconsistency with pore distribution SWCC modeling parameters with varying mineral content. Addressing the relationship between the percent Montmorillonite in a soil to SWCC modeling parameters is the main outcome.
The Dilemmas of Land Policy in Zimbabwe

It is not too much to say that in one way or another the fate of property rights in the land area will be a key determinant of the shape of Zimbabwe's entire political economy in the years to come. Land was the central issue during the liberation struggle for Zimbabwe and continues to be the most important domestic issue in the post-Independence period. The appropriation of African land by European settlers guaranteed white economic domination and black poverty during the colonial period, and the inequitable distribution of land in Zimbabwe today is the most dramatic symbol of the enduring structures of an unequal society. The evolution of the government's efforts to address the land question is of great importance because of the peasants' expectations that their long-held grievances will be addressed as the new regime redistributes property formerly held by white farmers.
Biomechanical and biochemical characterization of porcine tracheal cartilage.

Objectives/Hypothesis The trachea is essential to respiratory function and is a mechanically and biochemically complex composite tissue. Tissue-engineering approaches to treat tracheal diseases require detailed knowledge of the native mechanical and biochemical properties of the trachea. Although the porcine trachea represents an excellent preclinical model, relevant mechanical and biochemical composition are incompletely characterized. Study Design Experimental. The mechanical and biochemical properties of 12 intact porcine tracheas were determined to characterize their compliance, as well as the aggregate modulus, bidirectional elastic modulus, hydraulic permeability, and biochemical characteristics of individual cartilage rings. Results Data demonstrate the glycosaminoglycan content of tracheal rings was (mean ± standard deviation) 190 ± 49 μg/mg. Hydroxyproline content was 8.2 ± 3.2 μg/mg, and DNA content was 1.3 ± 0.27 μg/mg, a four-fold difference between circumferential elastic modulus (5.6 ± 2.0 megapascal [MPa]) and longitudinal composite elastic modulus (1.1 ± 0.7 MPa, P < 0.0001) was also observed. Aggregate modulus (stiffness) of porcine tracheal rings was 1.30 ± 0.28 MPa, and inflationary compliance was 0.00472 ± 0.00188 cmH2O−1. Conclusion This study presents a comprehensive characterization of the relevant biochemical and mechanical properties of porcine tracheal cartilage, which is considered an excellent candidate for xenogenic tracheal graft and a source for tissue-engineered tracheal reconstruction. The range of parameters characterized in this study agrees with those reported for hyaline cartilage of the airway in other species. These characteristics can be used as quantitative benchmarks for tissue-engineering approaches to treat tracheal disease. Level of Evidence NA. Laryngoscope, 2015
Enculturation Trajectories and Individual Attainment: An Interactional Language Use Model of Cultural Dynamics in Organizations

Author(s): Srivastava, Sameer B; Goldberg, Amir; Manian, V. Govind; Potts, Christopher | Abstract: How do people adapt to organizational culture and what are the consequences for their outcomes in the organization? These fundamental questions about culture have previously been examined using self-report measures, which are subject to reporting bias, rely on coarse cultural categories defined by researchers, and provide only static snapshots of cultural fit. In contrast, we develop an interactional language use model that overcomes these limitations and opens new avenues for theoretical development about the dynamics of organizational culture. To illustrate the power of this approach, we trace the enculturation trajectories of employees in a mid-sized technology firm based on analyses of 10.24 million internal emails. Our languagebased measure of changing cultural fit: (1) predicts individual attainment; (2) reveals distinct patterns of adaptation for employees who exit voluntarily, exit involuntarily, and remain employed; and (3) demonstrates that rapid early cultural adaptation reduces the risk of involuntary, but not voluntary, exit.
EMS and health planning: an opportunity for integrating research and policy.

Health planning and emergency medical services (EMSJ are two recent attempts t o rationalize the health care delivery system. Although these programs have evolved separately, conceptually meeting their respective mandates requires an effective, cooperative partnership. One potential mutually beneficial area is the juncture between research development and research application. Critics have argued that EMS research ha been troubled by uneven quality of data and inadequate integration with the policy decision-making process. In turn, health planning has been criticized for lacking reliable empirical data to support development of goals and programmatic alternatives. The authors suggest how these problematic areas could be strengthened by coordinating EMS research with the health planning process. Exemplary health planning mechanisms that could play an important role in promoting a formalized exchange between planners and EMS researchers are proposed.
Biology and Behavior of Panchlora irrorata, a Cockroach Adventive on Bananas (Blattaria: Blaberidae)

Panchlora irrorata Hebard extrudes its ootheca during formation and then transfers the ootheca into a brood sac where the embryos develop. Eight females produced 1 or 2 oothecae during adulthood. The average number of eggs per ootheca was 31 ± 4.7 (N = 7). Living nymphs hatched from eggs in 1 ootheca produced by a female which had mated 63 days earlier. Nymphs matured in 196 ± 18 days (9 males) and 207 ± 14 days (13 females). Adults survived for 108 ± 16 days (7 males) and 130 ± 16 days (7 females). The male of P. irrorata courts the female by rocking his body sideways in a series of brief oscillations. Just prior to copulation the male rushes behind the female, where he assumes a linear position in which they are opposed tail to tail; from this position the male rapidly backs up to the female to make genital connection. Copulation lasts from 20 to 25 minutes.
Flight Ability of Plecia nearctica in the Laboratory

In laboratory tests, the wingbeat frequencies of Plecia nearctica Hardy correlated directly with ambient temperature and were different for the sexes: males and females flew mean distances of 1467 and 1257 meters (m) at mean velocities of 24.9 and 33.2 m/min, respectively, during 368 min of testing at 31.1 °C and 56% RH. The flight ability of tethered females was impaired when the females were in copula with males whose wings had been removed. The velocity (m/min) at 27.8°C and 60% RH for tethered females in copula with perfect males (51.4) was greater than that of single males (44.9) or single females (44.0). This increased speed was directly related to the body angle, wing stroke angle, and wing pitch of the tandem males with respect to the females.
Progress Toward Consensus on Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines and Reducing Screening Harms.

To the Editor I applaud the members of the medical community who have taken the lead in the fight against breast cancer; however, the idea that there is progress toward a consensus on breast cancer screening guidelines from a recent article1 in JAMA Internal Medicine is misconstrued. New recommendations from the American Cancer Society maintain that women should have every opportunity to begin breast cancer screening at the age of 40 years. Yet, the Grade C recommendation put forth by the US Preventive Screening Task Force (USPSTF) for women age 40 to 49 years jeopardizes the benefit of early detection in women for whom the number of years of life lost is the greatest.2 The USPSTF recommendation to begin mammography screening at age 50 years instead of 40 years denies this benefit to the 20.6 million women in their fifth decade of life.
Piezoelectric effect in potting resins

The piezoelectric voltages measured under the described conditions are relatively low and would not cause a problem in most applications. It is possible, however, that these voltages could affect the performance of microcircuits that operate at very low power levels. Test equipment that would measure current or power outputs as well as voltage would yield more information. Also a test setup capable of producing much higher shock levels would yield data more representative of the environments to which many potted devices are subjected. The following general conclusions can be drawn from the data: • In all test configurations, higher shock levels produced higher voltage outputs. • The distance between conductive paths in the potted test specimens had no significant effect on the voltage generated. • A silicone conformal coating applied to an embedded assembly will reduce the voltage generated at a given shock level. • Filled systems produced lower peak voltages than the same resin/hardener systems without filler.
Boron nitride utilization in radomes

Effective interceptor type homing guided missiles must operate at velocities of more than three thousand feet a second in the atmosphere. Developments and studies have indicated that certain of these may eventually be operational in the velocity regime of six to more than eight thousand feet a second. This operational regime is different from the exo-atmospheric regime with a re-entry type vehicle, which encounters its own set of environmental problems.
224 ANALYSIS OF TOTAL N-GLYCANS IN SERUM GLYCOPROTEINS BY MASS SPECTROMETRY.

Human congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDGs) are the result of defects in assembly or processing of the N-glycan moiety of serum glycoproteins and are usually diagnosed by analysis of N-glycosylation of serum transferrin through isoelectric focusing and immunoblotting. However, analysis of the entire array of serum glycoproteins may prove to be a more efficient method of detection since CDGs affect all tissue-derived glycoproteins; a more complete glycan examination could remedy some of the shortcomings of transferrin isoelectric focusing. We sought to develop a highly sensitive and noninvasive mass spectrometric-based method to analyze the structure and composition of N-glycans from total serum glycoproteins. We also sought to facilitate the analysis of archival heel-stick whole blood samples on newborn screening filter paper. N-Glycans in total serum glycoproteins from multiple normal adult volunteers were released by treatment with N-glycanase and processed by their binding to Carbograph cartridges. The glycans were subsequently profiled by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization and time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). The expected N-glycan structures were found in all donors with a sensitivity of 125 μL of total serum and a high degree of reproducibility. Using similar methodology, we prepared total N-glycans for MALDI-TOF-MS profiling using whole blood spotted on newborn screening filter paper and found reproducible sensitivity with as little as 22.5 μL of blood. The availability of this highly sensitive procedure for analyzing total N-glycan structures using serum or newborn screening filter paper samples and MALDI-TOF-MS may be useful in future studies of infant blood samples for postnatal diagnosis of CDGs. As newborn screening filter paper can be stored indefinitely under the proper conditions, this method could also allow testing of archival samples for CDGs.
Questions: Opening Participation, Displaying Expertise, and Challenging

In keeping with the combined goals of documenting women’s skill at speaking up in the meetings and also contributing to a CA-based understanding of meeting interactions more generally, this chapter reports on interactional functions accomplished or set in motion through the action of questioning. Questions in themselves would not have stood out were it not for the fact that the action of questioning, in these data, regularly leads to further participation; that is, sequences initiated by questioning actions regularly open at least one further opportunity for the initial questioner to speak again. In addition, questioning turns can serve as knowledge displays and they can present challenges to other participants. Thus special attention to questioning is warranted not by a particular interest in question forms per se, but by the fact that, within the larger set of women’s turn initiations, questioning serves to shift the local organization of participation and the local sense of who is in control of knowledge. From another perspective, however, the fact that questioning serves to bring women into participation in these meetings is notable in relation to some early research on women, men, and questions. Certain question forms have been associated with relative lack of power and even insecurity. The current findings suggest another perspective on the function of questions.
The Transcendental Aesthetic and the Unity of the Faculties

As we have seen, Heidegger holds fast to Kant’s doctrine that all knowledge is ‘originally and finally’ intuition. Our human intuition is essentially finite, and thus requires the reception of the being through our sensibility. This finitude also entails the need for a priori knowledge of the Being of beings in order to know those beings given in intuition. The problem of how this a priori knowledge actually relates to those beings received in sensation is the problem of transcendence, and Heidegger has correctly claimed that this is the central problem of the Critique of Pure Reason.1
“Spreading the Good Word”: Toward an Understanding of Brand Evangelism

The objective of this study is to better understand the phenomenon of brand evangelism and the dimensions that are involved in a consumer becoming a brand evangelist. A brand evangelist is a consumer who actively “spreads the good word” of the brand while attempting to influence others’ consumption behavior. This behavior goes beyond word-of-mouth communication as it often unprompted, generally positive, and has the intention of “converting” an individual to consume the brand. Through the development and testing of a model, this study helps to realize the concepts that are involved in a consumer becoming a brand evangelist. To date, little research has examined the dimensions of brand evangelism. It is proposed here that the attributes leading to brand evangelism include brand satisfaction, brand salience, consumer-brand identification, sociability, and opinion leadership. The results of the study garnered some mixed results. It was found that consumer-brand identification, brand salience, and opinion leadership are all concepts that lead to brand evangelism However, neither brand satisfaction nor sociability has a statistically significant relationship directly related with brand evangelism. It must be noted, though, that brand satisfaction does have a mediated relationship with brand evangelism through consumer-brand identification.
Graph500 on OpenSHMEM: Using A Practical Survey of Past Work to Motivate Novel Algorithmic Developments

Graph500 is an open specification of a graph-based benchmark for high-performance computing (HPC). The core computational kernel of Graph500 is a breadth-first search of an undirected graph. Unlike many other HPC benchmarks, Graph500 is therefore characterized by heavily irregular and fine-grain computation, memory accesses, and network communication. Therefore, it can serve as a more realistic stress test of modern HPC hardware, software, and algorithmic techniques than other benchmarking efforts.On the other hand, OpenSHMEM is an open, PGAS, and SPMD specification of a communication model for communicating across large numbers of processing elements. OpenSHMEM explicitly focuses on applications characterized by fine-grain communication, of which Graph500 is one example.Therefore, there is a natural synergy between the communication patterns of Graph500 and the capabilities of OpenSHMEM. In this work we explore that synergy by developing several novel implementations of Graph500 on various OpenSHMEM implementations. We contribute a review of the state-of-the-art in distributed Graph500 implementations, as well as a performance and programmability comparison between the state-of-the-art and our own OpenSHMEM-based implementations. Our results demonstrate improved scaling of Graph500's BFS kernel out to 1,024 nodes of the Edison supercomputer, achieving ~2.5x performance improvement relative to the highest performing reference implementation at that scale.
Characterizing ELL Students' Behavior During MOOC Videos Using Content Type

Making MOOCs accessible to English Language Learners (ELLs) requires that students understand the language of instruction, and that instructional strategies address their unique learning challenges. Through the analysis of clickstream log data gathered from two MOOC courses deployed on Coursera, Introduction to Psychology and Statistical Thermodynamics, we show that ELL students exhibit distinct struggle behaviors in video portions without visual aids e.g., narrations without slides. Our findings challenge widely accepted multimedia design principles such as the split attention effect, provide insights into designing MOOC videos, and emphasize the need for adaptivity to increase MOOC access for ELLs.
Exploring functional outcomes and allied health staffing levels in an inpatient paediatric rehabilitation unit.

Purpose: This study provides data from a paediatric tertiary hospital on the length of stay, functional improvement and allied health workload for children and adolescents on active inpatient rehab...
Abstract WP102: Unique Role of CD163 and Haptoglobin in Transient Ischemic Stroke

Background: Ischemic stroke is a devastating neurological deficit that accounts for 87% of all stroke cases in the US. Post ischemic stroke, oxidative stress leads to a production of reactive oxyge...
Abstract WP136: Grafted Human Neural Stem Cell-Secreted Matrilin-2 Improves Functional Recovery in Ischemic-Stroke Rats

Identifying the secretome of grafted stem cells is an important first step to elucidate how the graft communicates with the host brain, at the molecular level, to enhance post-stroke recovery. Here...
Tuning the gain-bandwidth product of electron Injector photodetectors

Electron injector (EI) technology has already been proven capable of achieving unprecedented sensitivity in the shortwave infrared (SWIR), surpassing the current performance of commercial cameras. As on-chip optical interconnects have drawn increasing attention over the past few years, the need for energy-efficient (<10 fJ/bit) and fast (<10 Gbps) IR receivers has spurred new interest in detectors that can meet such requirements. However, heterojunction phototransistors typically suffer from a large power dependence of the gain-bandwidth product, which constitutes an intrinsic limitation to the realization of high-sensitivity, high-bandwidth photodetectors. We present a comprehensive analysis of the gain and bandwidth of the EI detectors as a function of optical power, for different device architectures. At low light level, as the optical power level increases, the recombination centers in the base are saturated by the higher excess carrier density, and as a result the gain-bandwidth product increases. At higher light level, however, the gain of the phototransistor drastically drops due to Kirk effect. As a result, the gain-bandwidth product peaks at a given power level, which is dependent on the band alignment, doping and defect density in the base. The presented results demonstrate a wide tunability of the EI detectors gain-bandwidth product as a function of the device architecture, and hence constitute a valuable platform for the design of novel detectors that can simultaneously achieve high sensitivity and high bandwidth at the desired optical power level depending on the envisaged application.
Improving the prediction of streptococcal pharyngitis; time to move past exudate alone.

Abstract Background Palatal petechiae are predictive of Group A streptococcal (GAS) pharyngitis. We sought to (a) quantify the value of considering petechiae in addition to exudate, and (b) assess provider incorporation of petechiae's predictive nature for GAS into clinical decision making. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study of patients 3–21 years with sore throat and GAS testing performed in a pediatric emergency department (ED) in 2016. Patients were excluded if immunosuppressed, nonverbal, medically complex, had chronic tonsillitis, or received antibiotics in the preceding week. As a proxy of provider incorporation of petechiae into clinical decision making we assessed how often petechiae were documented, compared with exudate. We performed univariate analysis using χ2 analysis for categorical data and Mann-Whitney U test for continuous data. Results 1574 patients met inclusion criteria. Median age 8 years [IQR 5, 13]; 54% female. 372 patients (24%) were GAS positive. Both palatal petechiae and tonsillar exudates were predictive of GAS [OR 8.5 (95% CI 5.2–13.9), and 1.9 (95% CI 1.4–2.6) respectively]. Examining petechiae or exudate vs. exudate alone increases OR from 1.9 to 2.9 (95% CI 2.2–3.8). Sensitivity improves (23% to 34%) with minimal change to specificity (87% to 85%). Among those with a normal or erythematous throat exam, petechiae were mentioned as a pertinent negative in 28%; absence of tonsillar exudate was mentioned in 78% (p = .02). Conclusions Palatal petechiae are highly associated with GAS, yet rarely addressed in documentation. Incorporating palatal petechiae into common scoring systems could improve prediction and disseminate this knowledge into practice.
Coal-derived nanomaterials for enhanced NAPL flow in porous media

Abstract This study investigates the synthesis and characterization of high value-added carbonaceous nanomaterials from coal and explores their application as flow enhancers in subsurface formations containing non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) such as crude oils. A modified Hummer’s method is used to exfoliate coal and extract graphene oxide nanosheets. Dodecylamine is then grafted to one side of the nanosheets using starch as a template. The reaction products are engineered carbon nanosheets (E-CNS) with an amphiphilic character that endues them with both surfactant-like and nanoparticle-like properties, including high interfacial activity and stability in water. As a result, the engineered nanosheets are able to reduce the NAPL/water interfacial tension by more than 60%, enhancing NAPL emulsification and its mobilization through small pores. They also promote NAPL solubilization by reversing wettability of both aged quartz and calcite from NAPL-wet towards neutral-wet to weakly water-wet conditions. The E-CNS exhibit a unique self-assembly behavior at the NAPL/water interface, flattening the curvature of both concave and convex menisci in glass tubes. Compared to waterflooding, nanofluid flooding can enhance NAPL recovery by 13% and 6% in Edwards limestone and Berea sandstone, respectively, with minimum rock retention, which demonstrates their potential application in aquifer remediation or enhanced oil recovery processes.
Patterns of Psychoactive Medication Use in Community-Dwelling Older Adults in the US in 2016: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study.

Objectives: We aim to quantify any use and long-term use patterns of psychoactive medications and explore differences in use by sociodemographic factors in older adults (60–85 years) using the 2016...
A challenging case report of acute sinus of Valsalva aneurysm rupture in cardiogenic shock and multi-organ failure with an emphasis on rapid recognition and ‘never giving up’ in face of futility

Background Sinus of Valsalva aneurysm (SoVA) is a rare anomaly and can be divided into acquired and congenital forms, the latter being commonly associated with ventricular septal defects (VSDs). Rupture is a catastrophic complication with high mortality without urgent surgical intervention. We would like to highlight the use of echocardiography in an emergency setting for diagnosis and surgical intervention in a critically ill patient. Case summary We report a 27-year-old female with history of conservatively managed VSD known since childhood. She presented with acute decompensated cardiac failure requiring intubation and inotropic support. Bedside echocardiography performed in the emergency department suggested a ruptured SoVA at the right coronary cusp with underlying supracristal VSD. Despite the patient being critically ill with multi-organ failure, surgery was performed as it was the patient's best chance for survival. Intraoperative findings tallied with the early echocardiographic results. She recovered gradually and was eventually discharged despite a stormy post-operative period. Discussion This case report highlights the importance of prompt recognition of SoVA rupture by using bedside echocardiography. Surgical intervention needs to be early despite ongoing sepsis in view of acute mechanical failure. This case was unique as it illustrates a successful management of an acutely ill patient with multi-organ failure through early diagnosis, intensive perioperative stabilization, and surgical intervention.
What Can We Learn from Written Constitutions

This article responds to a set of well-known challenges to empirical research on formal institutions in comparative politics. We focus on the case of written constitutions and discuss the scholarly...
Abstract P459: Inversion of T Waves on Admission is Associated With Mortality in Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Introduction: Cardiac dysfunction directly caused by spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a poorly understood phenomenon, and its impact on outcome is still uncertain. Aim of this study is...
Resident Sensitive Quality Measures for General Pediatrics: Alignment With Existing Care Recommendations.

Abstract Background Resident sensitive quality measures (RSQMs) are a new patient-focused approach to performance assessment. Their alignment with existing performance constructs is underexplored. Objective Develop and prioritize RSQMs for outpatient general pediatrics in the areas of well visits (0–2 months, 1, and 5 years) and compare to the existing framework of the Bright Futures recommendations. Methods Categorical pediatric residents, general academic pediatric fellows, and general pediatric faculty participated in nominal group technique (NGT) and Delphi processes to generate and prioritize RSQMs for 3 different well-child visits of interest. The author team then compared the content of the final RSQMs to the American Academy of Pediatrics Bright Futures recommendations. Results From the list of 143 potential measures from the NGT groups, 15 RSQMs were prioritized for each well-child visit. RSQMs prioritized vaccine administration, documentation of screening, and medication management. Overall, RSQMs mapped well to Bright Futures recommendations. Conclusions The alignment of the RSQMs with Bright Futures frameworks supports their contribution as process measures for informing resident performance. RSQMs created from this study should be used for future investigations into resident performance assessment and to drive personal improvement efforts.
Bifurcated Sentencing: Restructuring Criminal Sentencing to Serve Competing Aims

This Article challenges the unitary criminal sentencing procedure, which permits a sentencing decisionmaker to consider both retributive and consequentialist aims at once, as both incoherent and ineffective. It proposes a restructuring of the standard American criminal sentencing process. Specifically, legislatures should enact statutes that divide the sentencing process in two narrowly-focused stages. The first stage, the criminal sentence, would be a procedure focused on retribution that aligns punishment with the goals of retribution and restorative justice in relation to the adjudicated criminal act. The second stage, the civil sentence, would take place only when further rehabilitation and or incapacitation is potentially necessary, and would focus exclusively on utilitarian goals tailored to individual risks and needs. In order to authorize additional confinement, the civil sentencing authority would be required to provide the same constitutional protections afforded in civil commitment procedures. Consequentialist sentencing purposes geared toward crime prevention should be considered in a distinct civil proceeding. The procedural reform of severing retribution from crime prevention at sentencing is an important initial step toward curtailing excessive punishment, recognizing the dignity of offenders, and reducing future crime.
Fast Beamforming Processor

A beam former implementation is described which combines the computational efficiency of a Fast Fourier Transform algorithm with the speed and economy of analog signal processing hardware. The fast transform algorithm enables a single processor module to provide 32 simultaneous beams when used with a line array of 32 equidistantly-spaced transducers. The signal processing required to implement this function is the equivalent of performing, in real-time, a 32 point Fast Fourier Transform on 32 continuous 100 kilohertz input signals, 100 kilohertz being the isonifier frequency. The fast analog transform technique allows this amount of processing to be performed on a single circuit board, whereas a digital implementation would require a great number of high speed calculations. The operational amplifier circuit configurations which perform the multiplications and summations, and the algorithm characteristics which facilitate analog implementation, are described. The use of multiple Fast Beamforming Processor modules for the real-time generation of two-dimensional ime.es is also discussed.
Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation in Follicular Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Before and After Histologic Transformation

Patients with disseminated follicular non-Hodgkin9s lymphoma (NHL) are only occasionally cured with standard chemotherapy regimens. Although most of these tumors are initially responsive to chemotherapy, in 40% to 70% of patients the lymphoma will eventually transform to an NHL of higher grade malignancy and a poorer prognosis. We treated 18 patients having an original diagnosis of follicular NHL with high-dose therapy and autologous bone marrow transplantation. The lymphomas of 10 of the patients had already undergone histologic transformation and eight still had a follicular histologic pattern. The former group had been followed for a longer time from the diagnosis of NHL and had been more extensively treated with conventional chemotherapy regimens. All eight patients with follicular NHL at the time of transplantation are alive for 246+ to 1,804+ days and seven of the patients are in complete remission. In contrast, of the 10 patients in histologic transformation only 1 is alive and in CR. This reflects the inability of these patients to tolerate the high-dose chemotherapy and myelosuppression as well as resistance of their lymphoma to this therapy. This difference in survival between the two groups was highly significant (P = .002). We conclude that the outcome of patients with follicular NHL transplanted early before histologic transformation is better than for those who are transplanted later in the course of their illness. Because of the relapsing behavior of follicular NHL, a longer follow-up is necessary to prove any impact on the natural history of the disease.
Low cost high frequency signal synthesis: Application to RF channel interference testing

The quality of a communication link is commonly indicated by signal to noise/interference ratio and affected by noise and interference variance. To ensure a power efficient adaptive OFDM system's performance, the system needs to be tested against various channel conditions. Conventional algorithms and experiments assume that the noise and interference density stays constant over the OFDM frequency band but in reality the communication link often populated with both white noise and interference that results an uneven impact on OFDM spectrum. To create such channel condition, an up-conversion is commonly used. However, due to the non-linearity of the mixer, the up-converted interference is always distorted. The proposed method uses a modified higher-than-Nyquist-rate RF signal generation algorithm to minimize the distortion of generated interference within a pre-defined output bandwidth. Both concept validation and experimental measurement have been conducted to prove the effect of proposed method.
High‐Performance Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry in Peptide and Protein Analysis

Since the 1970s, high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS) has gone through many stages of development. The main technical challenge has been the coupling of liquid chromatography (LC) systems with mass spectrometers. Soft ionization techniques that have contributed to HPLC/MS for peptide and protein study include fast atom bombardment (FAB), matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI), and electrospray ionization (ESI). Among these techniques, FAB was developed first and used extensively in the 1980s; it lacked the sensitivity of the other two more recent techniques. MALDI and ESI are comparable in terms of sensitivity and the types of biomolecules that can be analyzed. However, MALDI has the slight advantage of being more tolerant to salts and able to analyze complex mixtures. On the other hand, the ability of ESI to interface mass spectrometry (MS) directly with LC makes it extremely useful for protein and peptide analysis. Another advantage that ESI offers is its ability to produce multiply charged protein ions, which allows the observation of large proteins with mass analyzers of limited mass range. In this article, we discuss the experimental parameters that are important in HPLC/MS and the considerable progress made in ESI source design and capillary HPLC/MS. In the study of natural and synthetic peptides, HPLC/MS has been used to separate, characterize, and sequence the peptides being investigated. In protein analysis, HPLC/MS is most useful in characterizing protein posttranslation modification such as glycosylation and phosphorylation. We discuss specific HPLC/MS methods for detecting glycopeptides and phosphopeptides during chromatographic separation by monitoring marker ions: Hex+ (m/z 163), HexNAc+ (m/z 204), NeuAc+ (m/z 292), and HexHexNAc+ (m/z 366) for glycopeptides, and PO2− (m/z 63) and PO3− (m/z 79) for phosphopeptides. Another important application of HPLC/MS is in proteomic analysis. Here, the most significant development in the first decade of proteomics analysis has been the implementation of MS as the primary analytical technique to identify proteins separated by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-D/PAGE). Additionally, the need to identify gel-separated proteins has promoted various MS-based protein database search strategies. These include peptide mass mapping using proteolytic peptide masses for database search and using peptide fragmentation data obtained from tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) to search protein sequence databases. Finally, we examine the more recent advances in proteomics in integrating multidimensional LC–MS/MS and the analysis of large-scale proteomics datasets.
Statistics at CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recognized as the lead U.S. Federal agency for protecting the health and safety of people. It accomplishes this mission by promoting health and quality of life with programs preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability. In this mission CDC is joined by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), which is charged with evaluating the human health effects of exposure to hazardous substances. The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which is a Federal statistical agency with broad responsibilities to monitor the health of the nation, became a part of CDC in 1987. Both CDC and ATSDR are components of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). An important function of CDC is compilation, analysis, and interpretation of statistical information to guide actions and policies to improve health. Sources of data include vital statistics records, medical records, personal interviews, telephone and mail surveys, physical examinations, and laboratory testing. The integration of statistics and analytic techniques into public health research is also a critical asset to the agency, and has resulted in important applications in various disciplines such as epidemiology, economics, and the behavioral and social sciences. Coordination of statistical activities across CDC and ATSDR is carried out by the CDC/ATSDR Statistical Advisory Group. Keywords: U.S. Federal agency; health and safety; public health; health statistics; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Necessity of the spacer peptide between CA and NC in the Rous sarcoma virus gag protein.

Abstract A mutant of Rous sarcoma virus was constructed in which the nine amino acids that separate the CA and NC sequences in the Gag protein were deleted. The spacer peptide deletion mutant produced particles containing the normal complement of viral RNA and all of the viral proteins, including reverse transcriptase. Though electron microscopy revealed particles of normal morphology, the particles were noninfectious. The normally slow maturation of the CA protein, which involves cleavage of the spacer peptide from the carboxy terminus, was bypassed in this mutant, and the association between CA and the internal components of the core appears to have been disrupted. The results suggest that the spacer peptide has an essential role in directing folding and/or oligomerization of the CA subunits within the capsid structure.
Local Microwave Hyperthermia as a Treatment Alternative for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

It appears that the technology for local microwave application of heat to the prostate for the management of benign prostatic hyperplasia has arrived. There are a number of issues to be resolved in the coming years that will determine the role this modality will play in the overall management of men with benign prostatic hyperplasia. These issues include: transurethral versus transrectal route, hyperthermia (42 degrees C to 44 degrees C) versus thermotherapy (greater than 45 degrees C), and a proper assessment as to whether the technique is really efficacious, given the known placebo response in all studies currently available. The results with the transrectal route appear to improve patients' symptoms objectively and subjectively, without causing irreversible tissue effects. Thus, its action has been likened to alpha blockade. But, it appears that the transrectal approach is relatively inefficient because of a significant loss in microwave power with rectal cooling. A probe placed transurethrally can accurately and easily deliver the intended power to the center of the prostate, where theoretically it has its greatest effect on both the dynamic and static components of outlet obstruction. Currently, the transurethral devices described by Sapozink and Devonec will produce histologic necrosis. The theoretical value of combining urethral heating with cooling is that it will allow treatments of greater power deeper in the prostate adenoma, but the greatest advantage over transurethral heating without cooling may be in the ability to effect a response in a single session. Finally, the placebo response is a well known phenomenon seen in all drug trials conducted for the management of benign prostatic hyperplasia.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)