cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
An interictal EEG spectral metric for temporal lobe epilepsy lateralization.

Summary Objective Visually-obvious abnormalities in the resting baseline EEG – slowing, spiking and high-frequency oscillations (HFOs) – are cardinal, though incompletely understood, features of the seizure onset zone in focal epilepsy. We hypothesized that evidence of cortical network dysfunction in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) would persist in the absence of visually-classifiable abnormalities in the baseline EEG recorded within the conventional passband, and that metrics of such dysfunction could serve as a lateralizing diagnostic in TLE. Methods Epochs of resting EEG without significant abnormalities in light sleep over several days were compared between a group of 10 patients with proven TLE and 10 subjects without epilepsy. A novel laterality metric computed from the line length of normalized power spectra from the temporal channels was compared between the two groups. Results Significant group differences in spectral line length laterality metric were found between the TLE and control group. At the individual level, seven of 10 TLE patients had highly significant laterality metrics, all concordant with the known laterality of their disease. Significance Detailed spectral analysis offers novel insight into TLE network behavior, independent of the orthodox abnormalities of EEG slowing, spikes or HFOs. The results may be deployed in a practical diagnostic manner, offer insight into the EEG manifestations of disordered cellular network architecture in TLE, and maybe understood through simple analogy with the theory of linear time-invariant physical systems.
Mike Bloomberg: Money, Power, Politics by Joyce Purnick

Joyce Purnick, Mike Bloomberg: Money, Power, Politics (New York: Public Affairs).Few individuals have influenced New York’s recent history like Michael R. Bloomberg, the city’s 108th mayor. The inf...
Magnesium Therapy in a Hypocalcemic African Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus)

Hypocalcemic-induced seizure activity is a clinical entity that is commonly diagnosed in neurologic African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus). Plasma calcium levels are typically less than 6.0 mg/dL at the time of seizure activity, and although the underlying cause of the hypocalcemia has not yet been determined, many theories have been proposed. An African grey parrot that had been fed a seed diet for 8 years was presented with hypocalcemia and seizures and exhibited precipitously declining plasma calcium levels, despite aggressive calcium and vitamin A, D, and E supplementation for 4 days. Baseline magnesium levels in this parrot were determined to be 1.9 mg/dL; therefore, magnesium sulfate was administered at a dose of 20 mg/kg IM once. Twenty-four hours after supplementation, the plasma magnesium level was 3.3 mg/dL, and no further seizure activity was observed. We believe that a primary dietary magnesium deficiency may have been present in this African grey parrot, similar to a syndrome in leghorn chicks, which is frequently characterized by progressive hypocalcemia that is unable to be corrected by calcium supplementation alone.
The Joint Effort of Timber Certification

There are limits to the speed and extent of changes that can be brought about by timber certification (Ghazoul 2001 [this issue]), but certification is undoubtedly leading to greatly improved goals and expectations of the timber industry in many parts of the world. The increase in the area of certified forests (Cauley et al. 2001 [this issue]; Putz & Romero 2001 [this issue]) is laudable and encouraging. Indeed, certification is possibly the single greatest tool leading to improved forest management worldwide. Given that significant effects of forestry operations on biodiversity are inevitable (Putz et al. 2000), the process must be done in a way that ensures that those effects are as low as possible. But unless certification leads to a major decrease in the immense harvests of wildlife associated with logging, especially in tropical forests, species will continue to wink out across the landscape even in certified areas. Some regional standards and independent certifiers do take concerns about hunting and the wild meat trade into account (Cauley et al. 2001 [this issue]), but this is not universally true, and others do not even recognize the problem. With the current lack of specificity in certification criteria, the crucial issue of hunting will be addressed by certifiers only if two criteria are met: (1) Certifiers must be fully aware of the scale of the problem. This is not always the case. Indeed, the conservation community itself is only just waking up to the magnitude and effect of logging-associated hunting, and it will be some time before that knowledge permeates fully into the wider system. (2) Timber certification bodies must have the interests of conservation and sustainability at heart. Some unquestionably do. The industry is highly lucrative, however, and the corruption associated with it in many countries is notorious. Thus, the potential for cutting corners and doing only the bare minimum required to achieve some form of certification is vast, so that access to valuable markets can be attained without having to improve practices significantly (Gilley 2000).
Genes regulated by estrogen in breast tumor cells in vitro are similarly regulated in vivo in tumor xenografts and human breast tumors

Background Estrogen plays a central role in breast cancer pathogenesis. Although many studies have characterized the estrogen regulation of genes using in vitro cell culture models by global mRNA expression profiling, it is not clear whether these genes are similarly regulated in vivo or how they might be coordinately expressed in primary human tumors.
Forced obliquities and moments of inertia of Ceres and Vesta

We examine models of secular variations in the orbit and spin poles of Ceres and Vesta, the two most massive bodies in the main asteroid belt. If the spin poles are fully damped, then the current values of obliquity, or angular separation between spin and orbit poles, are diagnostic of the moments of inertia and thus indicative of the extent of differentiation of these bodies. Using existing shape models and assuming uniform density, the present obliquity values are predicted to be 12.31° for Ceres and 15.66° for Vesta. Part of this difference is related to differing orbital inclinations; a more centrally condensed internal structure would yield more rapid spin pole precession, and larger obliquity. Time scales for tidal damping are expected to be rather long. However, at least for Vesta, current estimates of the spin pole location are consistent with its obliquity being fully damped. When the degree two gravity coefficients and spin pole orientations are determined by the Dawn spacecraft, it will allow accurate determination of the moments of inertia of these bodies, assuming the obliquities are damped.
Large Parallel Computers

Various classes of machines incorporating parallelism are considered. A general class of large-scale multiprocessors is outlined, and some problems of hardware and software implementation for computers of this class are discussed.
Endothelial nanomedicine for the treatment of pulmonary disease.

Introduction: Even though pulmonary diseases are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the world, exceedingly few life-prolonging therapies have been developed for these maladies. Relief may finally come from nanomedicine and targeted drug delivery.Areas covered: Here, we focus on four conditions for which the pulmonary endothelium plays a pivotal role: acute respiratory distress syndrome, primary graft dysfunction occurring immediately after lung transplantation, pulmonary arterial hypertension and pulmonary embolism. For each of these diseases, we first evaluate the targeted drug delivery approaches that have been tested in animals. Then we suggest a ‘need specification’ for each disease: a list of criteria (e.g., macroscale delivery method, stability, etc.) that nanomedicine agents must meet in order to warrant human clinical trials and investment from industry.Expert opinion: For the diseases profiled here, numerous nanomedicine agents have shown promise in animal models. However, to ...
Linear Analysis of Multiple Outage Interaction

Linear sensitivities are popular methods for approximating the change in power system quantities after a change in the system. This paper examines the formulas that are used to calculate line outage distribution factors (LODFs) for both single and double outages. An examination of these formulas shows cases where they break down. In particular, the formulas fail when system islanding occurs. This happens for both single and multiple line outage sensitivities. Comments are made about the use of linear sensitivities in these cases, and a metric of interaction – a measure of how close the system is brought to islanding by a particular outage is developed. This metric is proposed as a useful method of categorizing line outages. Statistics are presented for the IEEE 300-bus case showing that the distribution of the metric indicates that most double outages are nearly decoupled.
Longitudinal relations between parental media monitoring and adolescent aggression, prosocial behavior, and externalizing problems

The current study examined longitudinal relations between parental media monitoring and adolescent behavior, and explored indirect effects via sympathy and self-regulation. A sample of adolescents and their mothers from Northwestern and Mountain West cities in the USA participated in a study at three time points, approximately one year apart (N = 681; M age of child at Time 3 = 13.33, SD = 1.06; 51% female; 73% European American, 9% African American, 17% Multi-ethnic). Though findings varied by reporter, results suggested that restrictive and active media monitoring were indirectly associated with adolescents' prosocial behavior, aggression, and externalizing behavior, with restrictive monitoring being somewhat maladaptive and active monitoring adaptive. The discussion focuses on the need to examine multiple aspects of media monitoring, and highlights implications of findings for parents.
The SEC Vision

This chapter contains sections titled: The Legacy of Control Techniques The Legacy of Control Software A New Perspective on Software and Control Software Enabled Control Focus Areas The DARPA Software Enabled Control Program ]]>
A review of telemental health in international and post-disaster settings

Telemental health (TMH) is an important component in meeting critical mental health needs of the global population. Mental health is an issue of global importance; an estimated 450 million people worldwide have mental or behavioural disorders, accounting for 12% of the World Health Organization's (WHO) global burden of disease. However, it is reported that 75% of people suffering from mental disorders in the Developing World receive no treatment or care. In this paper, the authors review global mental health needs with a focus on the use of TMH to meet mental health needs in international and post-disaster settings. Telemedicine and TMH have the capacity to bring evidence-based best practices in medicine and mental health to the under-served and difficult to reach areas of the world, including post-disaster settings. The authors will also report on the mental health impact of the Haiti 2010 earthquake and on the limited use of telemedicine in post-disaster Haiti. The paper will underscore the point that published papers on the use of TMH in post-disaster settings are lacking. Finally, the paper will review considerations before working in TMH in international and post-disaster settings.
De-centring Managua: post-earthquake reconstruction and revolution in Nicaragua

The reconstruction of Managua following the 1972 earthquake laid bare the contradictions of modernization theory that justified the US alliance with Latin American dictators in the name of democracy in the Cold War. Based on an idealized model of urban development, US planners developed a plan to ‘decentralize’ both the city of Managua and the power of the US-backed Somoza dictatorship. In the process, they helped augment the power of the dictator and create a city its inhabitants found intolerable. The collective rejection of the city, the dictator and his alliance with the United States, helped propel Nicaragua toward its 1979 revolution and turned the country into a Cold War battleground.
Synthesis of the ABCDEF and FGHI ring system of yessotoxin and adriatoxin

Yessotoxin and adriatoxin are members of the polycyclic ether family of marine natural products. Outlined in this article is our synthetic approach to two subunits of these targets. Central to our strategy is a coupling sequence that employs an olefinic-ester cyclization reaction. As outlined, this sequence was used in two coupling sequences. First, it was used to merge the A, B- and E, F-bicyclic precursors and in the process generate the C- and D-rings. Second, it was used to couple the F- and I-rings while building the eight-membered G-ring and subsequently the H-ring pyran.
Welcome to the iPDA

The only certainty in life is change. And this summer has been particularly turbulent, with the politics of the debt ceiling in the United States and markets gyrating wildly worldwide. In this regard, we hope that the PDA Journal has made a change for the better—we are delighted to announce our
Roles of IL-19 in Pathogenesis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Objective To investigate the expression of IL-19 in the peripheral blood of tuberculosis patients,and to explore the effects of IL-19 in the pathogenesis of TB.Methods Thirty-four pulmonary tuberculosis patients diagnosed firstly and 50 healthy donors were involved in this study.Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the expression of IL-19 mRNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells,and the corresponding expression in blood serum was analyzed by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.Results The expression of IL-19 in TB group was significantly higher than that in healthy control group (P0.01).Conclusions IL-19 is involved in the pathogenesis of pulmonary tuberculosis,whose role may be critical.
Integrin αvβ3 mediates K1735 murine melanoma cell motility in vivo and in vitro

The integrin αvβ3 has been shown to be tightly linked to progression of human melanoma. In this study, using two clones from the K1735 murine melanoma system, we investigated the role of αvβ3 in metastasis. The highly metastatic K1735M2 cells express the αvβ3 integrin, whereas the poorly metastatic K1735C23 cells do not. When transduced with the β3 integrin subunit cDNA, the K1735C23 cells produced lung lesions and, in two animals, cardiac metastases, whereas the parental C23 cells did not. By contrast, transduction of the full-length β3 integrin antisense DNA into the K1735M2 cells suppressed metastatic colonization. To specifically investigate the activation of β3 integrin-mediated pathways, the β3-positive and the β3-negative K1735 cells were plated onto vitronectin, a major matrix molecule of both primary and metastatic melanomas. Tyr 397 of FAK was phosphorylated several times higher in β 3-expressing K1735 melanoma cells than in β3-negative cells. To determine whether phosphorylation of FAK was associated with K1735 melanoma motility, we expressed the FAK-related non-kinase (FRNK) in the highly metastatic K1735M2 cells. Exogenous expression of FRNK suppressed phosphorylation of FAK at Tyr 397 and decreased the invasive ability of these cells. In addition, expression of a constitutively active mutant Src in poorly metastatic K1735C23 cells increased invasion in vitro; whereas expression of a kinase-inactive Src mutant suppressed invasion. Our results suggest that signals initiated by αvβ3 promote metastasis in K1735 melanoma cells through the phosphorylation of FAK and activation of Src.
Genetic Manipulation Via Gene Transfer

Abstract Gene transfer is a potentially powerful approach to stem cell biology and tissue engineering, by engaging and altering the software of cellular behavior. While drug or chemical-based therapeutics can certainly modify cellular behavior, no method matches the potential of gene transfer for precise manipulation of cellular programming. The target tissues for craniofacial gene transfer therapy discussed in this chapter bear great similarity to those tissues where the greatest progress in clinical gene therapy has already been demonstrated (e.g., eye, muscle, skin, and bone), underscoring the potential power of gene transfer in dental and craniofacial therapeutics. Several proof-of-concept ex vivo and in vivo gene transfer strategies have been employed in pre-clinical studies, with numerous other prospective in vivo gene transfer approaches for the management of pathologic processes involving the oral and maxillofacial region at earlier stages of development. However, recognizing the many necessary safety and regulatory issues involved in the development of any gene transfer study, it is not surprising that the few successful stage 3 gene transfer trials to date have largely focused on the treatment of rare single gene Mendelian-inherited diseases. Nevertheless, as illustrated in this chapter, the potential conditions and approaches to gene therapy for conditions involving the head and neck complex are wide-ranging.
Timing of Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy for Acute Ischemic Stroke: An Observational Study From the US Nationwide Inpatient Sample.

Background and Purpose—Stroke guidelines recommend time-limited trials of nasogastric feeding prior to percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube placement. We sought to describe timing of PEG ...
Special Section on Comorbidity: Introduction.

In the mid-20th century, Rene Dubos criticized the biomedical community for what he called “The Doctrine of Singular Etiology”: a powerful and pervasive axiom that reduced the disease process to a single cause for a single magic bullet (1959). As an alternative, Dubos called for a more ecological approach to human disease that recognized multiple, interacting factors that could either increase or reduce the risk and severity of noncontagious as well as contagious diseases. Although Dubos's writings were (and continue to be) well received, his critique had little impact on the epistemology of biomedicine or public health at the time. This was partly because of rapid technological developments that diverted lay and professional attention away from socio–environmental determinants and partly because health professionals were only beginning to recognize the complexities of emerging chronic diseases. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Resistance to attitude change as a function of the centrality and relatedness of bonded values

Experimentally induced initial attitudes were cognitively bonded to value statements varying on the dimensions of personal importance to Ss and relevance to the attitude object. Neither variable affected the extremity of initial attitude. However, following discrepant information, attitude measures showed that bonding important values to initial attitudes conferred greater resistance to attitude change than either bonding to unimportant values or no bonding. This effect was obtained for both levels of value relevance. Value relevance did not affect resistance to attitude change.
Quantitative and Dynamic Imaging of ATM Kinase Activity

Ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) is a serine/threonine kinase critical to the cellular DNA-damage response, including DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). ATM activation results in the initiation of a complex cascade of events facilitating DNA damage repair, cell cycle checkpoint control, and survival. Traditionally, protein kinases have been analyzed in vitro using biochemical methods (kinase assays using purified proteins or immunological assays) requiring a large number of cells and cell lysis. Genetically encoded biosensors based on optical molecular imaging such as fluorescence or bioluminescence have been developed to enable interrogation of kinase activities in live cells with a high signal to background. We have genetically engineered a hybrid protein whose bioluminescent activity is dependent on the ATM-mediated phosphorylation of a substrate. The engineered protein consists of the split luciferase-based protein complementation pair with a CHK2 (a substrate for ATM kinase activity) target sequence and a phospho-serine/threonine-binding domain, FHA2, derived from yeast Rad53. Phosphorylation of the serine residue within the target sequence by ATM would lead to its interaction with the phospho-serine-binding domain, thereby preventing complementation of the split luciferase pair and loss of reporter activity. Bioluminescence imaging of reporter expressing cells in cultured plates or as mouse xenografts provides a quantitative surrogate for ATM kinase activity and therefore the cellular DNA damage response in a noninvasive, dynamic fashion.
Efficiently Enforcing Diversity in Multi-Output Structured Prediction

This paper proposes a novel method for efficiently generating multiple diverse predictions for structured prediction problems. Existing methods like SDPPs or DivMBest work by making a series of predictions where each prediction is made after considering the predictions that came before it. Such approaches are inherently sequential and computationally expensive. In contrast, our method, Diverse Multiple Choice Learning, learns a set of models to make multiple independent, yet diverse, predictions at testtime. We achieve this by including a diversity encouraging term in the loss function used for training the models. This approach encourages diversity in the predictions while preserving computational efficiency at test-time. Experimental results on a number of challenging problems show that our method learns models that not only predict more diverse results than competing methods, but are also able to generalize better and produce results with high test accuracy.
Exploring the Difficulties African-American Middle School Girls Face Enacting Computational Algorithmic Thinking over three Years while Designing Games for Social Change

Computational algorithmic thinking (CAT) is the ability to design, implement, and assess the implementation of algorithms to solve a range of problems. It involves identifying and understanding a problem, articulating an algorithm or set of algorithms in the form of a solution to the problem, implementing that solution in such a way that the solution solves the problem, and evaluating the solution based on some set of criteria. CAT is an important scaffolded on-ramp as students develop more advanced computational thinking capabilities and apply computational thinking to solve problems that are more constrained and require greater expertise. Supporting Computational Algorithmic Thinking (SCAT) is both a longitudinal between-subjects research project and a free enrichment program supporting and guiding African-American middle school girls over three years as they iteratively design a set of complex games for social change. This article explores Scholars' reflections about the difficulties they faced while using CAT capabilities as they engaged in collaborative game design for social change over those three years. We particularly focus on how these difficulties changed over the course of three years as well as new difficulties that emerged from year to year as Scholars become more expert game designers and computational algorithmic thinkers.
The magnetic behavior of thulium garnets in a cubic field

Abstract The magnetic susceptibilities of TmGaG between 4·.2° and 1000°K and of TmIG between 300° and 550°K have been measured on single crystals. The high temperature data are reported here for the first time. The susceptibility χ as well as the magnetization, M , of Tm 3+ in TmIG, are compared with a crude approximate theory based on a cubic crystalline field which appears to explain the experimental χ which is independent of temperature at low T . An energy interval of Δ ≈ 150° or 160°K calculated from the susceptibility measurements with a cubic field separates the lowest nonmagnetic singlet from the first excited state. This is to be compared with a level of 88°K reported by optical absorption data, but which may be due to a vibrational transition in the garnet. The exchange field, H ex for TmIG, acting on the Tm 3+ ions at T = 0 is found to be 18·7°K in excellent agreement with a previous reported value of 19°K obtained by Caspari et al ., from extrapolation of high temperature data. A better consistency with direct measurement of χ is obtained by calculating χ from M with the assumption that H ex is proportional to M of only the tetrahedral ions rather than the resultant total iron magnetization of the garnet.
Systemic Autoimmune Diseases with Neurological Manifestations

In this chapter, we discuss several systemic diseases that have an immune-mediated pathogenesis. Although most of these diseases are infrequent and seldom affect the neurological system, clinicians should always remain cognizant of their existence. Even though a detailed encounter with each of the following diseases is out of the scope of this chapter, we cover the most commonly encountered and the most prominent neurological and clinical manifestations to help guide the clinician into identifying, diagnosing, and treating these illnesses.
Mobile information seeking and political participation: A differential gains approach with offline and online discussion attributes:

This study, derived from a differential gains model, examines how mobile-based political information seeking is associated with offline and online political participation in interaction with three ...
Starting Off on the Wrong Foot: Cognitive Impulsivity and Low Self-Control as Predictors of Early School Maladjustment

This study’s purpose was to determine whether parent-rated cognitive impulsivity (poor concentration, lack of persistence, weak responsibility, impoverished divergent reasoning, and limited eagerne...
The Paris Paradigm

Global public discourse asserts that the Paris Agreement represents an irreversible turning point in the fight against climate change. The public outcry was correspondingly great when the Trump administration announced its intention to abandon the Paris Agreement. The Trump administration since has acted swiftly to repeal key regulations promulgated to implement U.S. Paris commitments, chief among them the Clean Power Plan. Problematically, the U.S. constitutional law literature on the Paris Agreement so far submits that neither the Paris Agreement nor commitments made pursuant to the Paris Agreement are an impediment to this policy reversal by the Trump administration. This directly contradicts the global expectation of what was achieved at Paris. The Article submits that the existing constitutional law literature incorrectly treats the Paris Agreement as a purely procedural executive agreement. The Article relies upon transnational law theory to show that the Paris Agreement and action taken pursuant to it instead constitute a global governance network. The Article then develops a “Paris Paradigm” governing presidential authority to commit the U.S. in such global governance networks. The Article uses the under-theorized category of implied Congressional delegation of foreign affairs authority in Youngstown to shows that the President has the authority to enter into, and unilaterally to make commitments within, such a global governance networks in reliance upon domestic rulemaking authority. The President must however act with constitutional good faith to make and such commitments. The Article concludes that the Paris Paradigm has important repercussions for attempts by later administrations to undo administrative rules that support global governance commitments (such as the Clean Power Plan). Statutory canons of construction presume that acts of Congress comply with U.S. international legal obligations. This presumption requires that administrative agencies may not rely upon statutory authority to repeal a rule when doing so would violate an international legal obligation of the United States. To repeal or replace regulations promulgated as part of a global governance network commitment, a later administration thus has to show that the original regulation fell outside the good faith regulatory authority of the agency promulgating it or that the new proposed rule continues to meet existing global governance commitments. Reconceived as a global governance network, the Paris Agreement therefore represents a paradigmatic impediment to current efforts by the Trump administration to repeal regulations such as the Clean Power Plan.
Production Method Affects Tree Establishment in the Landscape

Abstract Trunk growth rates one year after transplanting 5 cm (2 in) caliper laurel oak (Quercus laurifolia Michx.) from above-ground plastic containers, from in-ground fabric containers or from th...
Referentiality and incompletive reading in Mandarin

As an exception to Krifkaâ€™s (1989) famous generalization that a quantized incremental theme always induces an event-homomorphic completive reading, Singh (1991, 1998) observes that in Hindi only the quantized mass noun phrases as the incremental theme entails a completive reading, but unexpectedly quantized count nouns phrases can have an incompletive reading. She proposes that count nouns can introduce a partial thematic relation, whereas mass nouns introduce a total thematic relation. With new data in Mandarin, instead of the mass/count distinction, I argue that referentiality is the crucial factor because the non-culmination readings are only felicitous with the referential objects for consumption verbs in Mandarin.
Abdominal skeletal muscle activity precedes spontaneous menstrual cramping pain in primary dysmenorrhea

Background Dysmenorrhea is a pervasive pain condition that affects 20–50% of reproductive-aged women. Distension of a visceral organ, such as the uterus, could elicit a visceromotor reflex, resulting in involuntary skeletal muscle activity and referred pain. Although referred abdominal pain mechanisms can contribute to visceral pain, the role of abdominal muscle activity has not yet been investigated within the context of menstrual pain. Objective The goal of this study was to determine whether involuntary abdominal muscle activity precedes spontaneous episodes of menstrual cramping pain in dysmenorrheic women and whether naproxen administration affects abdominal muscle activity. Study Design Abdominal electromyography activity was recorded from women with severe dysmenorrhea (n = 38) and healthy controls (n = 10) during menses. Simultaneously, pain was measured in real time using a squeeze bulb or visual analog rheostat. Ninety minutes after naproxen administration, abdominal electromyography activity and menstrual pain were reassessed. As an additional control, women were also recorded off menses, and data were analyzed in relation to random bulb squeezes. Because it is unknown whether mechanisms of menstrual cramps are different in primary or secondary dysmenorrhea/chronic pelvic pain, the relationship between medical history and abdominal muscle activity was examined. To further examine differences in nociceptive mechanisms, pressure pain thresholds were also measured to evaluate changes in widespread pain sensitivity. Results Abdominal muscle activity related to random-bulb squeezing was rarely observed in healthy controls on menses (0.9 ± 0.6 episodes/hour) and in dysmenorrhea participants off menses (2.3 ± 0.6 episodes/hour). In dysmenorrheic participants during menses, abdominal muscle activity frequently preceded bulb squeezing indicative of menstrual cramping pain (10.8 ± 3.0 episodes/hour; P Conclusion Abdominal muscle activity may contribute to cramping pain in primary dysmenorrhea but is resolvable with naproxen. Dysmenorrheic patients without cramp-associated abdominal muscle activity exhibit widespread pain sensitivity (lower pressure pain thresholds) and are more likely to also have a chronic pain diagnosis, suggesting their cramps are linked to changes in central pain processes. This preliminary study suggests new tools to phenotype menstrual pain and supports the hypothesis that multiple distinct mechanisms may contribute to dysmenorrhea.
Special Section: CAD and graphics: A novel region-growing based iso-surface extraction algorithm

In this paper, we propose a new region-growing based iso-surface extraction algorithm that can generate high-quality curvature-adaptive semi-regular meshes, preserve sharp features and will extract all the disjoint components of the iso-surface. More importantly, in this paper, we propose a novel normal consistency constraint that ensures the intersection of the Delaunay sphere of the new triangle and the iso-surface is a topological disk, an important property that makes the new algorithm very robust when dealing with large scale of volumetric datasets of complex topology and geometry.
DNA Mismatch Repair in Disease and Aging

DNA mismatch repair plays a critical role in ensuring the fidelity of DNA replication. Errors during DNA synthesis, if uncorrected, give rise to mutations in the next round of replication. DNA mismatch repair targets these errors resulting in excision of these misincorporated bases in the newly synthesized DNA strand and resynthesis to restore the correct sequence. Inactivating mutations in mismatch repair genes result in a very high rate of spontaneous mutation and are the leading contributor to the genetic predisposition to colorectal cancer. Loss of mismatch repair is also associated with sporadic colorectal carcinomas. The prevalence of mutation in mismatch repair deficient cells results in the activation of oncogenes and the loss of tumor suppressors. In addition, mismatch repair proteins play important roles in a variety of other fundamental cellular processes with significant implications for human health.
Conclusions: Good Servants but Bad Masters

Researchers who ignore sampling error’s impact while drawing conclusions from sample based research are like pilots who ignore gravity’s impact while flying an aircraft. P values help us determine the influence of sampling error on the conclusion we draw from research programs, by encapsulating the sampling errors contained in the research’s data. However, that is all that they do. P values have risen to an unjustified role of preeminence in medical research. Bradford Hill (speaking of the chi square test) described them as good servants, but bad masters. That is a lesson in health care research that we must still learn. By ceding our best judgment to their rule, must is lost.
The Role of Bone Cells in Establishing the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Niche

Publisher Summary Among mammalian stem cells, the best characterized are hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Stem cells have the unique properties of self-renewal and multipotency, and the ability to use stem cells for therapeutic purposes holds tremendous appeal. Therefore, the regulatory mechanisms governing stem cell function are an area of great scientific and public interest. A single HSC can reconstitute the entire hematopoietic system in vivo, and HSCs have been used with great clinical benefit in bone marrow transplantation. Maintenance of HSC self-renewal and differentiation are dependent upon the presence of a supportive microenvironment, or niche. In adult mammals, the differentiation of hematopoietic cells takes place within the bone marrow cavity, and Schofield first proposed the concept of a bone marrow microenvironment over 30 years ago. The first appearance of hematopoiesis in bones coincides with the onset of mineralization during skeletal development, and in recent decades, it has become apparent that within the bone marrow, the surrounding non-hematopoietic tissues, or microenvironment, play an active role in regulating hematopoiesis. The bone marrow stromal environment comprises a multitude of cellular components, including fibroblasts, endothelial cells, adipocytes, and osteoblasts. In addition, cells of the hematopoietic lineage themselves likely also regulate the microenvironment. This chapter highlights recent data regarding the role of cells of the osteoblast lineage in the bone marrow hematopoietic microenvironment.
An optimal control approach of day-to-day congestion pricing for stochastic transportation networks

Congestion pricing has become an effective instrument for traffic demand management on road networks. This paper proposes an optimal control approach for congestion pricing for day-to-day timescale that incorporates demand uncertainty and elasticity. Travelers make the decision to travel or not based on the experienced system travel time in the previous day and traffic managers take tolling decisions in order to minimize the average system travel time over a long time horizon. We formulate the problem as a Markov decision process (MDP) and analyze the problem to see if it satisfies conditions for conducting a satisfactory solution analysis. Such an analysis of MDPs is often dependent on the type of state space as well as on the boundedness of travel time functions. We do not constrain the travel time functions to be bounded and present an analysis centered around weighted sup-norm contractions that also holds for unbounded travel time functions. We find that the formulated MDP satisfies a set of assumptions to ensure Bellman's optimality condition. Through this result, the existence of the optimal average cost of the MDP is shown. A method based on approximate dynamic programming is proposed to resolve the implementation and computational issues of solving the control problem. Numerical results suggest that the proposed method efficiently solves the problem and produces accurate solutions.
Pilgrimage and tourism to holy cities: ideological and management perspectives: edited by Maria Leppäkari and Kevin Griffin, Oxfordshire, UK, CABI, 2017, x+194 pp., £76.50 (handcover), ISBN: 9781780647388

Holy cities have served as the axis mundi of world religions and civilizations. As important locations related to sacred space, economics, politics, and socio-cultural interactions, many holy citie...
Case Study 3: Confidentiality and Parental Involvement

This case involves Christopher, a 19-year-old male with a history of severe alcohol use disorder, who is seeking increased independence in his care. Adolescence and young adulthood are periods marked by the achievement of several developmental milestones which include emancipation from parents and medical decision-making. Parental involvement is often a protective factor in the treatment of adolescents and young adults with substance use disorders. As such, for providers and family members, respecting patient autonomy and confidentiality may be challenging, especially in the early stages of young person’s recovery.
Assessment of Association Between Spino-Pelvic Parameters and Outcomes Following Gluteus Medius Repair.

PURPOSE To evaluate postoperative coronal/sagittal spinal plane and spinopelvic parameters in patients undergoing gluteus medius repair and to identify associations between outcomes and the aforementioned spinopelvic variables. METHODS Patients who underwent gluteus medius/minimus repair by a single surgeon between January 20, 2012, and November 25, 2015, were retrospectively identified from a prospectively collected database. Radiographic measurements included Cobb angle, lumbar lordosis, sagittal vertical axis (SVA), pelvic tilt, sacral slope, and pelvic incidence. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) were obtained at baseline and a minimum of 22 months after surgery. Bivariate correlation determined effects of spinopelvic measurements on PROs. Scoliosis and nonscoliosis groups were compared using independent samples t-test, and multivariate analysis determined whether the preoperative variables affected outcomes. RESULTS Thirty-eight (80.9%) of 47 consecutive patients were radiographically evaluated with a scoliosis series. All patients demonstrated significant improvements in all PROs and pain (P 0 cm) had significantly worse patient-reported outcomes than their counterparts with negative (≤0 cm) SVA. Also, patients with positive sagittal plane deformity (SVA >5 cm) had significantly worse HOS-SS than patients without positive sagittal plane deformity (SVA <5 cm) (47.0 ± 35.3, 73.2 ± 24.0; P = .04). Independent sample t-testing for the patients with scoliosis (n = 18) versus no scoliosis (n = 20) demonstrates a significantly worse postoperative International Hip Outcome Tool (short version) score in the patients with scoliosis (77.4 ± 15.1, 53.8 ± 37.1; P = .043). CONCLUSIONS Patients with scoliosis presented with lower rates of symptom improvement and ability to return to an active lifestyle in patients with hip disorders. In addition, patients with positive sagittal plane deformity experienced lower hip-related sport-specific outcome scores. Although the direct relationship between the spine and the hip in patients after gluteus medius/minimus repair remains unclear, this study shows an association between these postoperative outcomes and spinopelvic parameters. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Level IV, case series.
Using Eight Agile Practices in an Online Course to Improve Student Learning and Team Project Quality

As online learning continues to increase, instructors need different teaching methods and technologies for teaching online. This study explores how Agile practices are integrated into an online IT course. We focus on incorporating eight Agile practices (team charters, daily stand-ups, Kanban boards, story cards, MoSCoW, timeboxing, showcases, and retrospectives). Students were surveyed at the end of the course and the results indicate Agile enhanced students’ learning and increased the quality of their final project.
Land Development: A Super-Wicked Environmental Problem

Land development belongs with climate change in the category of "super-wicked" environmental problems - that is, problems of extreme complexity that seem almost impossible to solve. Yet, to date, land development has not been granted that status in law and policy literature. Rather, scholars tend to study the symptoms of land development problems in isolation - dirty water, polluted air, and species loss, to name a few examples. Society must begin treating the disease of these environmental problems, and not just the symptoms. This article frames land development as a super-wicked environmental problem and details a typology of factors that make it such a difficult problem to solve. Only after understanding land development "wickedness" and what drives it can we develop more effective solutions to address it.
Physiological and Molecular Responses Suggest Local Adaptation of the Lobe Coral Porites lobata to the Nearshore Environment

ABSTRACT Corals in nearshore marine environments are increasingly exposed to reduced water quality, which is the major local threat to coral reefs in Hawaii. Corals surviving in such conditions may have acclimatized and/or adapted to withstand sedimentation, pollutants, and other environmental stressors. Lobe coral (Porites lobata) populations from Maunalua Bay, Hawaii showed clear genetic differentiation along with distinct cellular protein expressions between the ‘polluted, high-stress’ nearshore site and the ‘low-stress’ offshore site. To understand the driving force of the observed genetic partitioning, reciprocal transplant and common-garden experiments were conducted using the nearshore and offshore colonies of P. lobata from Maunalua Bay to assess phenotypic differences of stress-related physiological and molecular responses between the two coral populations. Physiological responses (tissue layer thickness, tissue lipid content, and short-term growth rates) all showed differences between the populations, revealing more stress resilient traits in the nearshore corals. Proteomic responses highlighted the inherent differences in the cellular metabolic state and activities between the two populations under the same environmental conditions; nearshore corals did not significantly alter their proteome between the sites, while offshore corals responded to the nearshore transplantation with increased abundances of proteins associated with detoxification, antioxidant, and various metabolic processes. The response differences across multiple phenotypes suggest that the observed genetic partitioning was likely due to local adaptation of nearshore corals to the nearshore environmental conditions. Significance Statement Coral reefs are under serious threats from human activities, yet little is known about how corals respond and adapt to changing environments. Previous work from Hawaii shows corals living in ‘nearshore’ polluted areas are genetically differentiated from less-affected, yet nearby ‘offshore’ areas. Using these corals, we conducted a reciprocal transplant experiment to test a possibility of local adaptation. Shotgun proteomics was used to assess molecular responses, in addition to physiological responses. Clear differences in both responses were observed, and the results indicate more stress resilient traits and reduced responses to high-stress conditions in the nearshore corals. Together with the inherent differences in proteomic responses observed, our results suggest the nearshore corals are adapted to their habitat conditions.
A Microwave Tomography System Using Time-Reversal Imaging

A 16-antenna-element microwave tomographic imaging system using a fast switching matrix is presented. This system uses frequency domain sampling and time-reversal image processing to image its environment. The use of time-reversal provides a more efficient computational method than traditional inverse techniques, creating a faster processing time. This introduces a potential for near-real-time image processing. To reduce the need for precise time-domain equipment, the short pulses required for time-reversal simulations are synthesized using frequency domain sampling over a broad bandwidth. A 1-5 GHz system using 16 planar antennas controlled by a switch matrix is presented. Measured results and reconstructed images are presented for both a PEC and dielectric cylinder as well as a wood sample and compared to their optical images.
Transient Control and Soft Start-Up for 1-MHz LLC Converter With Wide Input Voltage Range Using Simplified Optimal Trajectory Control

The 48-V bus converters are widely used in telecommunications and network power architectures. A single-stage regulated $LLC$ bus converter can achieve high efficiency and high power density. This article addresses the control challenges of a regulated $LLC$ converter for 48-V bus converter applications. Simplified optimal trajectory control (SOTC) is used to control a 1-MHz $LLC$ converter with an input voltage range of 40–60 V and a frequency range of 0.8–1.8 MHz. A digital implementation of two-step SOTC is proposed for the high-frequency $LLC$ using a low-speed microcontroller (MCU). The proposed implementation can achieve the optimum transient performance and minimize settling time. SOTC can achieve the optimum transient response for an $LLC$ operating at resonant frequency but has a limited impact at a wide gain range. As a result, a feedforward compensation is proposed, in conjunction with SOTC, to achieve optimum transient response at a wide input voltage range or wide gain range. Moreover, a soft start-up with adaptive switching frequency is proposed to achieve start-up under limited current stress over the whole input voltage range. The experimental results are demonstrated on a 1-MHz $LLC$ 48-V bus converter using a 90-MHz TMS320F28069 Piccolo MCU.