cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Computerized identification of patients at high risk for hospital-acquired infection

Surveillance for hospital-acquired infections is required in U.S. hospitals, and statistical methods have been used to predict the risk of infection. We used the HELP ( H ealth E valuation through L ogical P rocessing) Hospital Information System at LDS Hospital to develop computerized methods to identify and verify hospital-acquired infections. The criteria for hospital-acquired infections are standardized and based on the guidelines of the Study of the Efficacy of Nosocomial Infection Control and the Centers for Disease Control. The computer algorithms are automatically activated when key items of information, such as microbiology results, are reported. Computer surveillance identified more hospital-acquired infections than did traditional methods and has replaced manual surveillance in our 520-bed hospital. Data on verified hospital-acquired infections are electronically transferred to a microcomputer to facilitate outbreak investigation and the generation of reports on infection rates. Recently, we used the HELP system to employ statistical methods to automatically identify high-risk patients. Patient data from more than 6000 patients were used to develop a high-risk equation. Stepwise logistic regression identified 10 risk factors for nosocomial infection. The HELP system now uses this logistic-regression equation to monitor and determine the risk status for all hospitalized patients each day. The computer notifies infection control practitioners each morning of patients who are newly classified as being at high risk. Of 605 hospital-acquired infections during a 6-month period, 472 (78%) occurred in high-risk patients, and 380 (63%) were predicted before the onset of infection. Computerized regression equations to identify patients at risk of having hospital-acquired infections can help focus prevention efforts.
Entrepreneurial Failure as a Threshold Concept: The Effects of Student Experiences

Some curricular elements are threshold concepts that involve “troublesome knowledge,” not because they are difficult for students to comprehend per se, but because they are challenging for students to fully appreciate. In this article, we suggest that entrepreneurial failure is a threshold concept in entrepreneurship courses because students may get so fixated on failure’s economic costs that they neither fully appreciate the social and emotional costs nor recognize the potential benefits of failure to entrepreneurs. In a multiphase empirical study, we explore the effects of entrepreneurial experiences on how students categorize and conceptualize entrepreneurial failure. We find that students with entrepreneurial experiences provide more complex, multicategorical descriptions of failure and are more likely to represent the useful aspects of failure in their descriptions. Our findings highlight the role of experiences in facilitating students’ understanding of the threshold concept of entrepreneurial failu...
Reactive Flow in Large-Deformation Electrodes of Lithium-Ion Batteries

An electrode in a lithium-ion battery may undergo inelastic processes of two types: flow and reaction. Flow changes the shape of the electrode, preserves its composition and volume, and is driven by the deviatoric stress — a process similar to the plastic flow of a metal. By contrast, reaction changes the composition and volume of the electrode, and is driven by a combination of the mean stress and the chemical potential of lithium in the environment. Both flow and reaction are mediated by breaking and forming atomic bonds. Here we formulate a continuum theory of large-deformation electrodes by placing flow and reaction on the same footing. We treat flow and reaction as concurrent nonequilibrium processes, formulate a thermodynamic inequality and a rheological model, and couple the two processes through a chemomechanical flow rule. Within this theory, the driving force for reaction — the mean stress and the chemical potential — can stimulate flow in an electrode too brittle to flow under a mechanical load...
Synergistic interactions between bFGF and a TGF-beta family member may mediate myogenic signals from the neural tube

Development of the myotome within somites depends on unknown signals from the neural tube. The present study tested the ability of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) and dorsalin-1 (dsl-1) to promote myogenesis in stage 10-14 chick paraxial mesoderm utilizing 72 hour explant cultures. Each of these factors alone and the combination of bFGF with dsl-1 had limited to no myogenic-promoting activity, but the combination of bFGF with TGF-beta1 demonstrated a potent dose-dependent effect. In addition, bFGF enhanced the survival/proliferation of somite cells. 98% of stage 10-11 caudal segmental plate explants treated with bFGF plus TGF-beta1, exhibited myosin heavy chain (MHC)-positive cells (avg.=60 per explant), whereas only 15% of similarly treated somites responded with an average of 5 MHC-positive cells. Thus at stage 10-11, there are rostrocaudal differences in myogenic responsiveness with the caudal (more 'immature') paraxial mesoderm being more myogenically responsive to these factors than are somites. It was also discovered that 17% of stage 10-11 caudal segmental plate explants exhibited several MHC-positive cells even when cultured without added growth factors, further demonstrating a different myogenic potential of the caudal paraxial mesoderm. Stage 13-14 paraxial mesoderm also exhibited a myogenic response to bFGF/TGF-beta1 but, unlike stage 10-11 embryos, both somites and segmental plate exhibited a strong response. A two-step mechanism for the bFGF/TGF-beta1 effect is suggested by the finding that only TGF-beta1 was required during the first 12 hours of culture, whereas bFGF plus a TGF-beta-like factor were required for the remainder of the culture. The biological relevance of the findings with bFGF is underscored by the observation that a monoclonal antibody to bFGF inhibited myogenic signaling from the dorsal neural tube. However, a monoclonal antibody that can neutralize the three factors TGF-beta1, TGF-beta2 and TGF-beta3 did not block myogenic signals from the neural tube, raising the possibility that another TGF-beta family member may be involved in vivo.
Neuroanatomical Techniques for Neurobehavioral Research

The coupling of modern neuroanatomical techniques with more behaviorally oriented approaches to problems of behavior and the brain has been extremely rare. This is unfortunate, in light of the arguments which have surrounded the interpretations of the anatomical substrate which underlies effects noted in various lesion and stimulation experiments (for example, the hypothalamus and regulation of feeding behavior). In this chapter we will discuss some of the newer anatomical techniques and attempt to demonstrate their relevance to neurobehavioral research.
Harmonization of International Standards

Publisher Summary Harmonization of international standards is critical if countries and food processors want to benefit from globalization. Harmonization of standards, specifications, and regulations is critical to international trade. Harmonization allows companies to understand the minimum regulatory and customer requirements of international markets. This in turn allows companies to produce goods for those markets. There are a number of public, private, and government-to-government organizations that are involved in harmonization of standards. The primary objective of these efforts is to reduce the barriers to trade, thus increasing a freer movement of food products among countries. These efforts bring financial benefits to the companies that take advantage of new markets and to the countries that reap the benefit of an increase in their gross domestic product.
The Merger of Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation (B): Integration Planning

With their announcement on December 8, 1997, of their proposed merger, the CEOs of Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation must prepare a plan of integration of the two firms. This case presents the press release of the announcement and relates the reaction of investors and journalists. The case also presents a framework for setting the strategy of post-merger integration and summarizes the integration task before the executives. The tasks for the students include:1. Assess the public communication of this deal. The public announcement launches the integration effort and sets a tone that can help or hinder the subsequent combination. 2. Survey the integration planning process. The executives of the two firms were committed to having a detailed integration plan in place before the consummation of the deal--this is consistent with current thinking about the desirability of avoiding a slow integration. Thus, the case is an illustration of the kinds of issues that must be resolved quickly.3. Describe and evaluate the integration strategy of the new firm. The case surveys the process of integration planning between the announcement and consummation dates of the merger and outlines the approaches in the various business units. The student must consider the influence of various strategic issues including the balance of autonomy versus absorption, relatedness, and control versus consultation (these are described in the case.)The (A) case in the series describes the proposed terms of merger and invites students to value the benefits of the deal and assess the strategic motives. The (C) case summarizes the integration effort and the economic results over the five years following the transaction. It is recommended that the instructor distribute the (A) case for advance preparation by students and hold the (B) and (C) cases for discussion after the (A) case.
Contests, Common Agency, and Corruption: Why the Green Candidate Seldom Wins

Public sector corruption has been linked to resource dependency and environmental degradation in the developing world. Herein, we examine the persistence of public sector corruption by modeling an elected public official with the power to set agricultural/resource input-subsidization policy in a developing economy. Through common agency, firms offer bribes to influence policy. A more corrupt official extracts a greater bribe. This implies in a political contest between two candidates with different propensities for corruption, the corrupt incumbent, having the greater prize at stake, always expends greater effort and is the contest favorite. The less corrupt 'green' challenger is always the contest underdog. Our results suggest that i) corruption is politically advantageous; and ii) corruption and political instability are mutually reinforcing, leading to over-harvesting and too much pollution.
Optimization Based Approach to Automate Fatigue Durability Test Load Development

Loads for structural fatigue durability tests are often developed by considering only the load data and ignoring the structure and its failure modes. Typically, in these procedures, the load data is directly used with a fatigue damage calculation method to compute the most damaging loading direction and magnitude. These processes ignore the underlying structure and hence may not arrive at loading modes that are sensitive to the failure modes of the structure. The structure, with its failure modes, wield considerable influence on the test load selection and ought to be considered in the test development. FEA tools can be employed for this purpose. However, due to the iterative nature of the test development process and the repeated FEA analysis it entails, the development task can become tedious. Here, an optimization based approach to automate the test load development process is proposed. This methodology leverages optimization algorithms to arrive at the test load cycles with proper load phasing even when a large number of load channels are involved. This method permits linear or nonlinear FEA procedures with component or system level test setups. This method also allows for maximizing the fatigue damage at the primary ‘key life’ failure location. A range of loading constraints — from constraints based on durability loading histories to constraints due to testing rig limitations — may be applied. In this discussion, a unique approach to setup lab test development problems that are conducive to optimization algorithms is delineated. As a part of this process, a novel approach to set loading constraints by utilizing multidimensional scatter plots of the existing loading histories will also be shown. The effectiveness of well known optimization methods in searching and arriving at the test load cycles will be also highlighted.© 2007 ASME
Wearing Baseball-Type Caps: An Informal Look

To gather some idea of the extent of the practice of wearing baseball-type caps with the peak in back, informal observations were conducted in the downtown area of a large city and on two college campuses. Analysis showed that, in the downtown area as well as at the college located in that area, about 40% of cap wearers had the peak to the rear, but at the other college situated in an outer borough of the city, the percentage was approximately 10%.
Effect of gastric emptying upon propulsive motility of small intestine of rats.

ConclusionThe extremely low correlation found in these experiments suggests that the propulsive motility of small intestine is essentially independent of that of the stomach.
Thyroid Hormone Receptor β1 Signaling is Critically Involved in Regulating Secondary Ossification via Promoting Transcription of the IHH Gene in the Epiphysis

Thyroid hormone (TH) action is mediated through two nuclear TH receptors, THRα and THRβ. Although the role of THRα is well established in bone, less is known about the relevance of THRβ-mediated signaling in bone development. On ther basis of our recent finding that TH signaling is essential for initiation and formation of secondary ossification center, we evaluated the role of THRs in mediating TH effects on epiphysial bone formation. Two-day treatment of TH-deficient Tshr(-/-) mice with TH increased THRβ1 mRNA level 3.4-fold at day 7 but had no effect on THRα1 mRNA level at the proximal tibia epiphysis. Treatment of serum-free cultures of tibias from 3-day-old mice with T3 increased THRβ1 expression 2.1- and 13-fold, respectively, at 24 and 72 h. Ten-day treatment of Tshr(-/-) newborns (days 5-14) with THRβ1 agonist GC1 at 0.2 or 2.0 μg/day increased BV/TV at day 21 by 225 and 263%, respectively, compared with vehicle treatment. Two-day treatment with GC1 (0.2 μg/day) increased expression levels of Indian hedgehog (Ihh) 100-fold, osterix 15-fold, and osteocalcin 59-fold compared with vehicle at day 7 in the proximal tibia epiphysis. Gel mobility shift assay demonstrated that a putative TH response element in the distal promoter of mouse Ihh gene interacted with THRβ1. GC1 treatment (1 nM) increased Ihh distal promoter activity 20-fold after 48 h in chondroctyes. Our data suggest a novel role for THRβ1 in secondary ossification at the epiphysis that involves transcriptional upregulation of Ihh gene.
Promoting Metacognition Within a Game-Based Environment

Metacognition refers to students’ ability to reflect upon what they know and what they do not know. However, many students often struggle to master this regulatory skill. We have designed and implemented two features to promote metacognition within the game-based system iSTART-2. These two features have been tested and shown to have positive impacts on students’ ability to reflect upon their performance. Future work is being planned to further explore the most effective way to implement these features and the ultimate impact they have on learning outcomes. We are seeking advice and feedback on the methodology and metacognitive feature design that will be included in a series of follow-up studies. The implications of this work for both iSTART-2 and the AIED field are discussed.
Surgical management of stage I malignant melanoma.

Surgery for early cutaneous malignant melanoma has evolved over the past several decades towards more conservative management. Controversy regarding biopsy technique, appropriate margins for definitive resection, utility of lymph node dissection, and adjuvant therapies still abounds. This article explores the controversies and discusses current management strategies.
Does an increase in sulcal or ventricular fluid predict where brain tissue is lost

Quantitative volumes of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and brain tissue were measured on magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of 287 individuals from 5 diagnostic groups: Alzheimer's disease (AD), chronic alcoholics (ALC), individuals positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), schizophrenia subjects (SZ), and normal comparison subjects (NC) older than 50 years of age. Within each group, mean volumes were calculated for ventricular CSF, cortical (sulcal) CSF, cortical gray matter, total white matter, basal ganglia gray matter, and thalamic gray matter. Correlations of CSF measures with brain tissue measures were determined, and multiple regression analyses were performed to try and predict volume of gray matter or white matter region from volume of CSF compartment. Results indicated the following: 1. Enlarged cortical fluid volume significantly predicts cortical gray matter deficits for subjects with AD and those who are ALC and SZ but not for subjects with HIV or NC. 2. Enlarged cortical fluid volume also significantly predicts white matter deficits in all five groups. 3. Enlarged ventricular fluid volume significantly predicts basal ganglia deficits in AD, HIV, and NC but not in SZ or ALC. 4. Enlarged ventricular volume has no predictive value for thalamic volume for any of the groups. This study supports the clinical practice of predicting brain tissue volume loss from CSF enlargement but not for all brain regions in all diagnoses.
The New World Order: Financial Guaranty Company Restructuring and Traditional Insurance Insolvency Principles

For over a century, insurance company receivership in the United States has looked much the same. The affairs of insurance companies are concluded or “wound up” in a receivership proceeding by the state insurance regulator under the supervision of a state court. The proceeding is long, cumbersome, and strictly statutory. Most celebrated insurance insolvency cases are either large life insurance company failures that burn brightly and then flame out, or property casualty failures that seemingly smolder forever in the morass of long-tailed asbestos or environmental claims. In the last two years, however, a strange breed of insurance company, the financial guaranty company, has come under attack. Huge exposures to residential mortgage-backed investments swamped their traditional business of guaranteeing the principal and interest payments on municipal bonds. These cases have changed the entire rubric of insurance insolvency. The traditional rules about the relative priorities of creditors, the benchmarking of the rehabilitation proceedings against liquidation valuations, the encroaching federal influence in a state process, and the sanctity of the aleatory contract between a carrier and its insured have all been tested. Before discussing the financial guarantors, it is helpful to first look at the historical framework of insurance insolvency.
Public Debt and Intergeneration Equity

The role of debt finance and its bearing on future generations has been of longstanding concern to fiscal economists. Ricardo and Pigou in particular gave it their careful attention, advancing what may be called the classical doctrine of debt finance in a full-employment economy. The Keynesian model added a new perspective and the nature of debt burden once more became the subject of lively discussion during the 1960s.1 As seen in the modern perspective, debt policy not only poses issues of intergeneration equity but also of demand management and of fiscal discipline. Moreover, debt finance may serve to even out swings in tax rates, thereby reducing dead-weight loss over time. The difficulty lies in simultaneously satisfying these various considerations.
Scalable Similarity Search in Seismology: A New Approach to Large-Scale Earthquake Detection

Extracting earthquake signals from continuous waveform data recorded by networks of seismic sensors is a critical and challenging task in seismology. Earthquakes occur infrequently in long-duration data and may produce weak signals, which are challenging to detect while limiting the number of false discoveries. Earthquake detection based on waveform similarity has demonstrated success in detecting weak signals from small events, but existing techniques either require prior knowledge of the event waveform or have poor scaling properties that limit use to small data sets. In this paper, we describe ongoing research into the use of similarity search for large-scale earthquake detection. We describe Fingerprint and Similarity Thresholding (FAST), a new earthquake detection method that leverages locality-sensitive hashing to enable waveform-similarity-based earthquake detection in long-duration continuous seismic data. We demonstrate the detection capability of FAST and compare different fingerprinting schemes by performing numerical experiments on test data, with an emphasis on false alarm reduction.
The WTO Doha Development Agenda

In November 2001, Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) adopted the Doha Ministerial Declaration, which establishes an ambitious work program for negotiations on further liberalization on a range of issues, including, inter alia, trade in goods, intellectual property rights, and services. The negotiations, which must be completed as a “single undertaking” by the end of January 2005, are intended to create a vast array of new commitments covering multiple sectors. Negotiations on liberalization of services, which were mandated to begin in 2000 by the terms of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), have now been subsumed within the Doha Declaration’s umbrella.
Are Scores Reliable in Predicting the Need for Surgery and Mortality in Necrotizing Enterocolitis

Background Management of children with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) remains challenging. Various scores try to facilitate therapeutic decision-making. We aim to assess the agreement of three scores intending to predict the need for surgery and/or mortality in our patient cohort, and analyze agreement between the different scores. Methods This study is a retrospective analysis of patients with NEC Bell's stage II and III, managed in a single institution (1991-2011). Three existing scores (Metabolic Derangement Acuity score, NEC score, Detroit score) were calculated individually for each patient. The agreement between predicted outcome by scores and real outcome was evaluated with kappa statistic. Results Of 57 children, 46% presented with NEC stage II, 54% with stage III, 46% were treated with surgery, 54% conservatively, and survival was 58%. The kappa indexes for "need for surgery" were 0.41, 0.13, and 0.12 and kappa indexes for "mortality" were 0.27, 0.04, and 0.1 for the Metabolic Derangement Acuity score, the NEC score, and the Detroit score, respectively. Conclusion In our cohort, the agreement between the predicted outcomes by scores and the real need for surgery and/or mortality was poor. There was a lack of clinical usefulness of the tested scores. We must continue to better identify parameters to help guide the management of these patients.
11 – Thermochemical energy storage for concentrating solar thermal (CST) systems

This chapter uses the first and second laws of thermodynamics along with Le Châtelier's principle of chemical equilibria to illustrate how the high energy density of chemical substances may be exploited to store solar thermal energy. Storing solar thermal energy in chemical substances comes with significant technical and operational challenges. These challenges are described in terms of the materials, engineering, and economics that must all be interoptimized to achieve a system-level solution. The chapter culminates in a description of several classes of thermochemical energy storage wherein specific chemical reactions are provided to exemplify the benefits and the challenges associated with putting these chemistries to work.
Effect of Film Oxygen Transmission Rate on Lean Color and Microbiological Characteristics of Vacuum-Packaged Beef Knuckles.

Seventy-two beef knuckles were packaged (n = 12) in each of six different bag types with oxygen transmission rates (OTR) of 1, 10, 12, 13, 30 and 400 cc/m2/24 h at 4°C and 100% relative humidity to study brown discoloration of knuckles during refrigerated storage. Knuckles in bag types of OTR of 1 and 12 cc did not discolor as compared to those in bags with higher OTR (30 and 400 cc) probably due to differences in oxygen tension in the package and in the types of bacteria present. Deterioration of lean color of knuckles in some bag types of low OTR appeared associated with large percentages of Leuconostoc mesenteroides in the microflora.
Exact localization of correlated sources using 2D harmonics retrieval

This paper considers the problem of DOA estimation of correlated sources using sparse arrays, where the number of sources can exceed the number of sensors. Depending on the magnitude of the cross correlation terms, our algorithm either treats them as additive noise (small correlation) or estimates them jointly with the DOAs (large correlation). In the latter case, the problem is cast as an equivalent 2D harmonics retrieval problem and the DOAs are estimated by solving the corresponding dual problem via sum-of-squares relaxation. Simulations show the possibility of identifying more correlated sources than the number of sensors using a nested array.
Coordinated Intelligent Control for Normal and Faulty Power Plant Operation

Abstract Achieving a more autonomous power plant operation is an important part of power plant control. To be autonomous, a control system needs to provide adequate control actions in the presence of significant uncertainties and/or disturbances, such as actuator or component failures, with minimum or no human assistance. However, a reasonable degree of autonomy is difficult to obtain without incorporating intelligence in the control system. This paper presents a coordinated intelligent control scheme with a high degree of autonomy. In this scheme, a Fuzzy-Logic based supervisor monitors the overall plant operation and carries the tasks of coordination, fault diagnosis, fault isolation, and fault accommodation
Variable Gradient Device for Chromatography

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses variable gradient device for chromatography. Since the introduction of gradient elution to chromatography several years ago, there have been many applications of the general technique in the fractionation of mixtures of substances having a wide range of elution requirements. In such cases, the use of a gradient greatly facilitates the operational aspects of chromatography, as it automatically encompasses these requirements. Moreover, in the case of substances that have a tendency to be eluted in broad, tailing bands when a single solvent is used, gradient elution provides a means of sharpening the peaks without introducing the artifacts that can result when stepwise changes in eluting agents are made. Several methods for the production of gradients have appeared in the literature. With the exception of those that can utilize differential pumping rates, all require a change in apparatus for each change in the shape of the gradient.
The Ambystoma tigrinum virus (ATV) RNase III gene can modulate host PKR activation and interferon production

Abstract The iridovirus RNase III gene is one of 26 conserved core genes among the family Iridoviridae. Initial studies suggest this viral protein functions to suppress RNA interference pathways that may attack viral RNA during infection. Therefore, to determine if the Ambystoma tigrinum virus (ATV) RNase III-like gene (ORF 25R) can modulate the host innate immune response fish and human cells ectopically expressing 25R were treated with polyI:C and monitored for interferon synthesis and phosphorylation of eIF2α and PKR. We found a decrease in cellular IFN production and modulation of the PKR pathway. In addition, ATV deleted of the RNase III gene (ATVΔ25R) shows reduced pathogenicity in tiger salamanders. Collectively our data suggest that the ATV 25R protein is a pathogenesis factor that may function to help evade the host's immune response by masking activators of the IFN pathway.
Placing School Victimization in a Global Context

ABSTRACTAlthough often considered to be safe havens, schoolhouses have a darker side: they are places where students are victimized. Research in the United States shows that students are victimized by various forms of misconduct, ranging from property-related crime (e.g., theft, destruction) to violent behavior (e.g., assault, homicide) in schools. Notably, international studies reveal that school victimization is a serious concern across the globe. In this context, the present study provides an overview of the extent and nature of school victimization from international perspective. Special attention is given to bullying, a form of victimization found across the globe. Important school-based prevention efforts developed outside the United States are discussed. Finally, this study raises awareness to another type of serious victimization—terrorist attacks—that are on the rise, particularly among nations located in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa.
Vasomotor symptoms in women over 60: results from the Data Registry on Experiences of Aging, Menopause, and Sexuality (DREAMS).

AbstractObjective:Frequency of vasomotor symptoms (VMS) in older women and the contributing factors are largely undefined. We measured the frequency of moderate-to-severe vasomotor symptoms (msVMS) in women ≥60 years of age and examined their characteristics to determine factors that may associate w
Harmonic and Symmetric Polynomials

We revert to a more algebraic topic. Courses in linear algebra or more general algebra at the undergraduate level provide foundations, but most often do not have the time to point to more sophisticated ways of putting the material together. The present topic illustrates concepts from linear algebra in a context which up to now has been reserved for much more advanced students. There is no difficulty in any given item, but just as the space of positive definite matrices provided a fertile ground to expand material from advanced calculus, the ring of polynomials and two important subsets, the harmonic polynomials and the symmetric polynomials, provide a fertile ground to illustrate concepts from linear algebra, not to speak of the calculus involved with partial derivatives. When dealing with polynomials, however, the analysis side of things is mostly illusory.
The effect of natural variation in substrate architecture on the survival of juvenile bicolor damselfish

Coral reefs offer settling fish larvae a spatial mosaic of microhabitats that differ not only in structural complexity but also in the abundance and diversity of predators. This paper provides evidence that interactions between predators and prey are causally linked to variation in relevant architectural characteristics of natural substrates. Juvenile bicolor damselfish, Stegastes partitus, experienced greater mortality on Montastrea annularis boulder coral than on piles of Porites porites coral rubble. This pattern was consistent on both back and fore reef habitats. Architectural differences, variable encounter rates with predators, and access to different food sources all contributed to higher mortality. Spatial and structural differences among refuges provided by the two substrates were most important in affecting survival. Porites rubble contained almost three times the number of crevices (39.9 vs. 14.3 crevices m–2AM2), had a much smaller mean crevice size (15.9 vs. 48.5 cm2), and had a more complex internal structure than Montastrea coral. Survival of juvenile fish living on Montastrea coral was positively correlated with crevice density (r2 = 0.41) whereas survival of fish living on Porites rubble was negatively correlated with crevice size (r2 = 0.43). These patterns were evident on fore reef habitats only, whereas on back reef habitats no clear patterns emerged. The effect of these natural differences in architecture on mortality rates of juvenile S. partitus was experimentally tested in the field using a combination of natural and artificial substrates. As the number of large shelters was increased I found that the density of potential predators increased but the survival rates of juvenile bicolor damselfish declined. These results highlight the importance of structural architecture among common reef substrates in affecting predator-prey relationships and in determining the survivorship and small-scale distribution patterns of juvenile reef fish.
Newspaper reporting and sociological techniques

Journalism and sociology have had a close relationship for many years, and the newspaper reporter is, in many ways, a type of working sociologist, especially when the journalist uses participant-ob...
Public Perception of Ethical Issues in Dermatology: Evidenced by New York Times Commenters.

BACKGROUNDA 2017 New York Times (NYT) article questioning the appropriateness of skin cancer treatment modality by dermatology providers stimulated discussion among the public pertaining to ethics in the current state of dermatologic practice.OBJECTIVEThe purpose of this study is to characterize iss
Overview of rome: a reason-oriented modeling environment

Abstract The ROME system is an experimental decision support system generator that incorporates facilities originally developed for “expert” artificial intelligence systems. Like other DSS generators, it provides a set of tools for building, running, and documenting mathematical models of business activities. Beyond that, however, the system includes explicit differentiation between hard facts and softer information such as assumptions and expectations, a set of procedures for evaluating and explaining results, and a natural language user interface. In this paper, we discuss the representation of knowledge in ROME and show how it is used to answer questions, explain trends, detect anomalous values, and assess the credibility of model assumptions.
Quantifying phenotypes in single cells using droplet microfluidics

This book chapter describes the use of droplet microfluidics to phenotype single cells. The basic process flow includes the encapsulation of single cells with a specific probe into aqueous micro-droplets suspended in a biocompatible oil. The probe is chosen to measure the phenotype of interest. After incubation, the encapsulated cell turns the probe fluorescent and renders the entire droplet fluorescent. Enumerating drops that are fluorescent quantifies the concentration of cells possessing the phenotype of interest. Examining the distribution of fluorescence further allows one to quantify the heterogeneity among the cell population.
Reannotation of the ribonucleotide reductase in a cyanophage reveals life history strategies within the virioplankton

Ribonucleotide reductases (RNRs) are ancient enzymes that catalyze the reduction of ribonucleotides to deoxyribonucleotides. They are required for virtually all cellular life and are prominent within viral genomes. RNRs share a common ancestor and must generate a protein radical for direct ribonucleotide reduction. The mechanisms by which RNRs produce radicals are diverse and divide RNRs into three major classes and several subclasses. The diversity of radical generation methods means that cellular organisms and viruses typically contain the RNR best-suited to the environmental conditions surrounding DNA replication. However, such diversity has also fostered high rates of RNR misannotation within subject sequence databases. These misannotations have resulted in incorrect translative presumptions of RNR biochemistry and have diminished the utility of this marker gene for ecological studies of viruses. We discovered a misannotation of the RNR gene within the Prochlorococcus phage P-SSP7 genome, which caused a chain of misannotations within commonly observed RNR genes from marine virioplankton communities. These RNRs are found in marine cyanopodo- and cyanosiphoviruses and are currently misannotated as Class II RNRs, which are O2-independent and require cofactor B12. In fact, these cyanoviral RNRs are Class I enzymes that are O2-dependent and may require a di-metal cofactor made of Fe, Mn, or a combination of the two metals. The discovery of an overlooked Class I {beta} subunit in the P-SSP7 genome, together with phylogenetic analysis of the and {beta} subunits confirms that the RNR from P-SSP7 is a Class I RNR. Phylogenetic and conserved residue analyses also suggest that the P-SSP7 RNR may constitute a novel Class I subclass. The reannotation of the RNR clade represented by P-SSP7 means that most lytic cyanophage contain Class I RNRs, while their hosts, B12-producing Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus, contain Class II RNRs. By using a Class I RNR, cyanophage avoid a dependence on host-produced B12, a more effective strategy for a lytic virus. The discovery of a novel RNR {beta} subunit within cyanopodoviruses also implies that some unknown viral genes may be familiar cellular genes that are too divergent for homology-based annotation methods to identify.
Bone response to porous tantalum implants in a gap-healing model.

OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to determine the relative osteogenic behavior of titanium implants with or without a porous tantalum modification when placed with a gap between the implant and existing bone. MATERIALS AND METHODS A gap-healing model in the rabbit tibia was used for placement of titanium implants. Forty-eight rabbits received 96 implants, with 48 of the implants containing a porous tantalum middle section and the remaining 48 implants were composed of solid titanium. After 4, 8, and 12 weeks of healing, biomechanical stability was measured with removal torque testing, implant-adherent cells were isolated for analysis of osteogenic gene expression, and histomorphometric analysis was performed on sections of the implants and surrounding bone. RESULTS Increased osteogenic activity at 4 weeks was demonstrated by upregulation of key osteogenic genes at implants containing porous tantalum which was accompanied by greater bone-implant contact at 4, 8, and 12 weeks and significantly greater removal torque at 8 and 12 weeks. CONCLUSIONS Implants containing porous tantalum demonstrated increased peri-implant bone formation within this gap-healing model as shown by significant differences in biomechanical and histomorphometric outcomes. Such implants may represent an alternative to influence bone healing in surgical sites with an existing gap.
RespondR: A genomic score to predict the responsiveness of triple-negative breast cancer patients to chemotherapy.

1020 Background: A significant number of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients achieve pathological complete response (pCR) and improved relapse free survival from neoadjuvant taxane-anthra...
The effectiveness of podcasts in sport management education

Abstract Online and mobile learning resources are becoming more important in higher education as students expect more flexibility and diversity in the educational tools and resources they can access. One of these online resources is educational podcasts. Podcasts offer educators and students a unique way to convey and learn about new information related to an academic subject. Educational podcasts can be classified under different learning styles, strategies, and pedagogies, such as e-learning or hybrid learning, Constructivism, the scaffolding technique, supplemental tools, and cooperative learning. Past literature demonstrates a demand for educational podcasts from both educators and students. The purpose of this study was to perform an exploratory analysis on the use of podcasts in higher education, and to determine the effectiveness of these podcasts on enhancing student learning in a Sport Management Event and Facilities Management class. The research questions we were looking to answer are: Did the podcasts affect student learning? Did the podcasts influence student motivation? And finally, how useful were the podcasts? The results showed that the participants in this study had an overall positive learning experience from listening to the podcasts, and that students fell in between being unmotivated and moderately motivated to listen to the podcasts. The student population, overall, reported being in favor of using the podcasts. The findings from this study help reinforce previous findings about the usefulness and positive learning outcomes from the use of podcasts but highlight the need for instructors to find ways of improving student motivation to use podcasts.
Oxygen reduction of platinum low-index single-crystal surfaces in alkaline solution: Rotating ring disk{sub Pt(hkl)} studies

The first results of a study of the oxygen reduction reaction on a rotating ring-disk electrode using single-crystal Pt disk electrodes in alkaline solution are presented. The order of activity of Pt(hkl) in 0.1 M KOH increased in the sequence (100) (100)more » > (110). 34 refs., 6 figs.« less
Customizing the Product Development Process

Ultimately, every product development team needs a specific, often custom, product development process that is catered to the needs of the client and skills of the team. Unfortunately, we cannot tell you in this book what specific product development process is needed for your specific project. This is simply because every project is unique and requires its own product development process and its own project plan.
Reverse Engineering of Content Delivery Algorithms for Social Media Systems

Social media systems have become a primary platform to consume and exchange information nowadays. As a black box social algorithms were designed and trained to pick up filter and rank the most relevant and desired content to be delivered to each individual one of us. However these modern social algorithms were typically complicated and its development involved easily more than one hundred software engineers. Therefore we including the social media providers do not really know how these social algorithms work such that we are unsure about the quality of the delivered content or the existence of any bias or disparity? In this paper we explore content delivery algorithms on Facebook fan pages and communities. We empirically defined four hypotheses which originally were from Facebook features social network concepts and what we have observed from our SINCERE data set. We took a heuristic approach to statistically analyze our data set to uncover probabilistically how Facebook push user-created contents among users. Each hypothesis is represented by an explainable logical expression rule. We used each of the top 100 posts with the largest number of comments in ABC News CNN and Fox News fan pages. Our main contribution is to validate each hypothesis against empirical data such that together we provided a partial explanation for the content delivery algorithm used by Facebook.
Farm-to-Fork Computing: Sensor Networks in Agriculture's Coldchain

Growing concern among consumers and stakeholders in food safety, security, traceability, and sustainability is driving innovation of track-and-trace technologies. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can offer visibility and traceability in agriculture's supply chain from farm-to-fork (F2F). This effort enables realistic multi-scale deployment and industry transformation. This application-driven design requires a balance of technical expertise and use-case expert knowledge of operations, infrastructure, trends, limitations, and user experience ‘on the floor’. A WSN architecture, implementation, and real-world experimental results are presented for the 1st major leg of the F2F journey. This preliminary study tracks blueberries from harvest to the distribution site. Broader impacts of this agricultural technology include reducing food loss and waste (FLW), improving response time, availability, forecasting, and more.
Hysteresis effects and roughness suppression efficacy of polyethylenimine additive in Cu electrodeposition in ethaline

Abstract Deep eutectic solvents (DES) are environmentally-friendly electrolytes that are gaining interest for electrodeposition and energy storage applications. In these applications, metal electrodeposits with smooth, non-dendritic morphology are desired and thus effective strategies for suppressing roughness evolution are critically needed. A commonly employed and rather effective strategy for suppressing roughness evolution in metal electrodeposition is the use of electrolyte additives; however, the availability of such additives in DES electrolytes is limited and so is the understanding of the mechanisms through which additives suppress roughness amplification in DES media. In the present contribution, we demonstrate that polyethylenimine (PEI) is an effective electrolyte additive that suppresses roughness evolution during Cu electrodeposition in ethaline DES. PEI, due to its adsorption–deactivation properties, exhibits a unique hysteresis response during voltammetric studies of Cu electrodeposition – this response is analyzed using a mathematical model incorporating the relevant PEI transport, surface adsorption and deactivation processes. The model provides guidelines for selection of optimal conditions (e.g., PEI concentration) for effective suppression of roughness amplification in Cu electrodeposition.
Cyber-Resilience Enhancement of PMU Networks Using Software-Defined Networking

Phasor measurement unit (PMU) networks are increasingly deployed to offer timely and high-precision measurement of today’s highly interconnected electric power systems. To enhance the cyber-resilience of PMU networks against malicious attacks and system errors, we develop an optimization-based network management scheme based on the software-defined networking (SDN) communication infrastructure to recovery PMU network connectivity and restore power system observability. The scheme enables fast network recovery by optimizing the path generation and installation process, and moreover, compressing the SDN rules to be installed on the switches. We develop a prototype system and perform system evaluation in terms of power system observability, recovery speed, and rule compression using the IEEE 30-bus system and IEEE 118-bus system.
Neuromodulation by the immune system: a focus on cytokines

Interactions between the immune system and the nervous system have been described mostly in the context of diseases. More recent studies have begun to reveal how certain immune cell-derived soluble effectors, the cytokines, can influence host behaviour even in the absence of infection. In this Review, we contemplate how the immune system shapes nervous system function and how it controls the manifestation of host behaviour. Interactions between these two highly complex systems are discussed here also in the context of evolution, as both may have evolved to maximize an organism’s ability to respond to environmental threats in order to survive. We describe how the immune system relays information to the nervous system and how cytokine signalling occurs in neurons. We also speculate on how the brain may be hardwired to receive and process information from the immune system. Finally, we propose a unified theory depicting a co-evolution of the immune system and host behaviour in response to the evolutionary pressure of pathogens. In this Review, Kipnis and colleagues explain how signals from the immune system can shape host behavioural responses, even in the absence of infection or disease. In particular, the authors focus on the cytokine pathways that modulate behavioural responses and consider the evolutionary basis of these neuroimmune interactions.