cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Body Mass, Smoking, and Overall and Cause-Specific Mortality Among Older U.S. Adults

The authors examine the relationships between body mass, smoking, and overall and cause-specific mortality among U.S. adults aged 60 and older, using data from the National Health Interview Survey linked to the Multiple Cause of Death file and Cox proportional hazard models. The authors find that, compared to those who are normal weight, obese individuals have higher risks of overall, circulatory disease, and diabetes mortality. Furthermore, smoking status suppresses the relationships between obesity and overall, circulatory disease, and cancer mortality, and interacts with lowbody weight to increase mortality risks. Finally, underweight individuals initially face increased risks of death over the follow-up period, although over time their mortality risks diminish to those of normal-weight individuals, likely due to the presence of unobserved illness. Researchers and health practitioners must account for smoking status, body mass, and specific causes of death to understand and improve the health of our in...
Optimizing patient derived mesenchymal stem cells as virus carriers for a Phase I clinical trial in ovarian cancer

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) can serve as carriers to deliver oncolytic measles virus (MV) to ovarian tumors. In preparation for a clinical trial to use MSC as MV carriers, we obtained cells from ovarian cancer patients and evaluated feasibility and safety of this approach. MSC from adipose tissues of healthy donors (hMSC) and nine ovarian cancer patients (ovMSC) were characterized for susceptibility to virus infection and tumor homing abilities. Adipose tissue (range 0.16-3.96 grams) from newly diagnosed and recurrent ovarian cancer patients yielded about 7.41×106 cells at passage 1 (range 4–9 days). Phenotype and doubling times of MSC were similar between ovarian patients and healthy controls. The time to harvest of 3.0×108 cells (clinical dose) could be achieved by day 14 (range, 9–17 days). Two of nine samples tested had an abnormal karyotype represented by trisomy 20. Despite receiving up to 1.6×109 MSC/kg, no tumors were seen in SCID beige mice and MSC did not promote the growth of SKOV3 human ovarian cancer cells in mice. The ovMSC migrated towards primary ovarian cancer samples in chemotaxis assays and to ovarian tumors in athymic mice. Using non-invasive SPECT-CT imaging, we saw rapid co-localization, within 5–8 minutes of intraperitoneal administration of MV infected MSC to the ovarian tumors. Importantly, MSC can be pre-infected with MV, stored in liquid nitrogen and thawed on the day of infusion into mice without loss of activity. MV infected MSC, but not virus alone, significantly prolonged the survival of measles immune ovarian cancer bearing animals. These studies confirmed the feasibility of using patient derived MSC as carriers for oncolytic MV therapy. We propose an approach where MSC from ovarian cancer patients will be expanded, frozen and validated to ensure compliance with the release criteria. On the treatment day, the cells will be thawed, washed, mixed with virus, briefly centrifuged and incubated for 2 hours with virus prior to infusion of the virus/MSC cocktail into patients.
Towards a stability theory of general hybrid dynamical systems

In recent work we proposed a general model for hybrid dynamical systems whose states are defined on arbitrary metric space and evolve along some notion of generalized abstract time. For such systems we introduced the usual concepts of Lyapunov and Lagrange stability. We showed that it is always possible to transform this class of hybrid dynamical systems into another class of dynamical systems with equivalent qualitative properties, but defined on real time R^+=[0,~). The motions of this class of systems are in general discontinuous. This class of systems may be finite or infinite dimensional. For the above discontinuous dynamical systems (and hence, for the above hybrid dynamical systems), we established the Principal Lyapunov Stability Theorems as well as Lagrange Stability Theorems. For some of these, we also established converse theorems. We demonstrated the applicability of these results by means of specific classes of hybrid dynamical systems. In the present paper we continue the work described above. In doing so, we first develop a general comparison theory for the class of hybrid dynamical systems (resp., discontinuous dynamical systems) considered herein, making use of stability preserving mappings. We then show how these results can be applied to establish some of the Principal Lyaponov Stability Theorems. For the latter, we also state and prove a converse theorem not considered previously. Finally, to demonstrate the applicability of our results, we consider specific examples throughout the paper.
Do Non-Governmental Organizations Impact Health?: A Cross-National Analysis of Infant Mortality

According to world polity theory, international health and women’s non-governmental organizations should improve health in poor nations by providing health, reproductive, and educational services. However, there are suggestions that their effectiveness may be limited by a variety of factors. These factors include their projects being small-scale, ad hoc, or reformist. Further, non-governmental organizations may implement projects that satisfy donor interests rather than a local population’s needs. In order to evaluate these claims, we construct cross-national models of infant morality from 1990 to 2005 for a sample of 74 poor nations. Initially, we find no support for world polity theory claims that health and women’s non-governmental organizations decrease infant mortality. However, we re-specify the models to test a ‘political opportunity structure’ hypothesis that democracy enhances the ability of non-governmental organizations to improve health. We do so by including interaction terms between these tw...
Rad17, the clamp loader that loads more than clamps

Rad17 is best known as a checkpoint clamp loader in the activation of ATR kinase signaling. A new study in The EMBO Journal suggests that it also plays a role in initial recruitment of the MRN complex to sites of DNA double-strand breaks, thereby promoting early ATM checkpoint responses and homologous recombination repair.
Special Education Personnel Preparation in the 21st Century Issues and Strategies

This paper focuses on preparation of teachers and related services personnel for children and youth with disabilities in the 21st century. Included are discussions of issues and factors related to the need for changes in special education personnel preparation; strategies for responding to current needs, including methods of using best practices and innovative training methods; and an Outcomes-Based Teacher Education model, including proposed knowledge and skill training outcomes. Thus, this article touches the highlights of what needs to be done to enable special education personnel preparation to meet the challenges of the future.
Information Sharing Transparency, Nursing Ethics, and Practice Implications With Electronic Medical Records

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has spurred national and international debate over possible ethical implications for a mandated electronic database for medical records. What role(s) will the discipline of nursing assume and what policy statements will the discipline of nursing articulate with regard to the need for enhancing privacy and confidentiality with access to medical and nursing documentation found in the electronic database? In this column the author provides an ethical discussion on information sharing and human freedom, and the need for transparency as specified in the humanbecoming leadership model.
Chess-based Composition and Improvisation for Non-musicians

“Music for 32 Chess Pieces” is a software system that supports composing, performing and improvising music by playing a chess game. A game server stores a representation of the state of a game, validates proposed moves by players, updates game state, and extracts a graph of piece-to-piece relationships. It also loads a plugin code module that acts as a composition. A plugin maps pieces and relationships on the board, such as support or attack relationships, to a timed sequence of notes and accents. The server transmits notes in a sequence to an audio renderer process via network datagrams. Two players can perform a composition by playing chess, and a player can improvise by adjusting a plugin’s music mapping parameters via a graphical user interface. A composer can create a new composition by writing a new plugin that uses a distinct algorithm for mapping game rules and states to music. A composer can also write a new note-to-sound mapping program in the audio renderer language. This software is available at http://faculty.kutztown.edu/parson/music/ParsonMusic.html.
Assessing onychial disorders in the older patient

Disorders and diseases of the toenails (onychial) in the older patient are often the focus of the primary foot complaints. They may be a result of the aging process, the end result of repetitive microtrauma or historical major trauma, a complication or related clinical change associated with a multiple system disease or condition, or a localized foot problem. This article details the symptoms of and problems associated with onychial disorders in the elderly.
Combined Feedforward/Feedback Control of Atomic Force Microscopes

The atomic force microscope (AFM) is a powerful imaging and nanofabrication tool that allows the user to observe and manipulate samples at the atomic level. However, one limitation of current AFMs is the long time required to obtain a quality image of a sample. Several researchers have investigated this problem in recent years, and we give an overview of the approaches explored, including Hinfin, lscr1, and model-inverse based methods. We compare and discuss advantages and disadvantages of the various approaches, and we end with a summary of open questions to be addressed in improving the control of AFMs.
Rheology and the Microcirculation

The term "rheology" was coined by E. C. Bingham in 1929 to describe the discipline dealing with the study of deformation and flow of solids and fluids. Rheologists have been particularly interested in complex systems in which an application of the mechanics of ideal fluids or of nondissipative elastic systems is inadequate to describe the relationships between applied forces and subsequent deformations. Since rheology is a branch of deformational mechanics, the consideration of responses which are not direct mechanical consequences of the forces applied-responses due to active changes, such as muscle contraction-are not strictly part of rheological studies. Naturally, .such phenomena cannot be neglected in a study of any living system. I feel it is profitable, however, to explore just how far we can go with purely mechanical methods in trying to understand better the flow of blood in the microcirculation. For rheological studies, it is convenient to define the microcirculation on the basis of physical dimensions rather than physiological structure or function, although ultimately we must take into account the presence or absence of vascular smooth muscle and the presence or absence of fluid and macromolecular exchange across the vessel boundary. A convenient dividing line between the macroand microcirculation can be taken when the vessel lumen has a smaller than 10or 12-erythrocyte diameter. For a human, this means vessels smaller than about 100 /J., which will include arparallel flat plates, a distance, d, apart (fig. 1). If the upper plate moves with a velocity, V, and if the fluid moves so that its velocity is zero at the fixed plate and increases linearly to V at the moving plate, we say that the fluid is being sheared at the shear rate T where T = V Id. In the metric system, V will be measured in centimeters per second and d in centimeters; hence T has the dimensions of centimeters per second per centimeter. It is conventional (although sometimes confusing) to "cancel" the centimeters and to express shear rate in "inverse seconds" (sec-I). The force per unit area on the upper plate which is required to keep it moving is called the "shear stress," T. Figure 2 shows three different possible ways in which shear stress and shear rate might behave. Curve A represents the behavior of what is called a Newtonian fluid. The shear stress is linearly proportional to the shear rate, and the line passes through the origin. In this case we can write
Premenopause: the endocrinology of reproductive decline.

Address for correspondence: Menelaos L. Batrinos, 8 Evripidou Str., 14563 PoliteiaKifissia, Greece, Tel.: +30 210 6204041, e-mail: bithrini@ath.forthnet.gr Received 03-10-2012, Accepted 11-02-2013 The ovaries follow a different course of aging from the other endocrine glands and organs. Instead of an inevitable progressive deterioration with advancing age, like all other structures and functions of the organism, including the male gonad, the testis, in the late thirties the ovaries undergo an abrupt diminution of their functional units, the follicles, that leads to their extinction 10 to 14 years later marking the end of ovarian reproductive and endocrine function. It has been estimated by mathematical models that the ovaries would be functioning until the age of 71 years if this rapid exhaustion of the follicles did not occur. The phenomenon of this major biological change, dividing the life of women into a preand postmenopausal period, is universal among all human females.
The effect of 30 Hz vs. 50 Hz passive vibration and duration of vibration on skin blood flow in the arm

BACKGROUND: Recently, researchers have demonstrated that Whole Body Vibration (WBV) results in significant increases in skin blood flow (SBF). No study has determined if a specific frequency or a specific duration is better at optimizing SBF. MATERIAL/METHODS: Two studies were conducted to determine, 1) if there is a difference in SBF due to passive vibration of the forearm at 30 Hz vs. 50 Hz, 2) if one frequency is superior, and 3) if there is an optimal duration. In the first study, 18 subjects (mean age 20.3+/-2.9 years) were randomly placed into a 30 Hz or 50 Hz vibration group, and in the second, seven subjects (mean age 23.3+/-3.8 years) participated in both 30 and 50 Hz vibration. Each subject's arm was passively vibrated for 10 minutes. SBF was examined during vibration and for 15 minutes of recovery. RESULTS: Both frequencies produced significant increases in SBF (p<0.05) within the first four minutes of vibration. Peak SBFs were obtained by the fifth minute. SBF remained high for minutes 4 through 10 of vibration in the second study. In the first study, SBF remained high for minutes 4 through 9. During recovery, 30 Hz vibration produced SBFs below baseline values while 50 Hz SBFs remained above baseline. Statistically one frequency was not superior to the other. CONCLUSIONS: Five minutes of 30 Hz or 50 Hz vibration produced significant increases in SBF. Clinically, 50 Hz has additional benefits because SBF increased more rapidly and did not result in vasoconstriction during the recovery period. Future studies should be done to determine if these increases in SBF could be of benefit to populations with low circulation such as those with diabetes.
Disturbed Flow-Induced Endothelial Proatherogenic Signaling Via Regulating Post-Translational Modifications and Epigenetic Events.

Abstract Significance: Hemodynamic shear stress, the frictional force exerted onto the vascular endothelial cell (EC) surface, influences vascular EC functions. Atherosclerotic plaque formation in the endothelium is known to be site specific: disturbed blood flow (d-flow) formed at the lesser curvature of the aortic arch and branch points promotes plaque formation, and steady laminar flow (s-flow) at the greater curvature is atheroprotective. Recent Advances: Post-translational modifications (PTMs), including phosphorylation and SUMOylation, and epigenetic events, including DNA methylation and histone modifications, provide a new perspective on the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, elucidating how gene expression is altered by d-flow. Activation of PKCζ and p90RSK, SUMOylation of ERK5 and p53, and DNA hypermethylation are uniquely induced by d-flow, but not by s-flow. Critical Issues: Extensive cross talk has been observed among the phosphorylation, SUMOylation, acetylation, and methylation PTMs, as well a...
Abstract 4998: NFAT signaling modulates tumor microenvironment.

Nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) transcription factors regulate several cancer-related processes, such as migration and invasion. We have shown that NFAT is both necessary and sufficient to drive invasive migration of breast carcinoma cells. NFAT target genes that contribute to this phenotype encode cyclo-oxygenase-2, the enzyme required for the production of prostaglandin E2, and autotaxin, which catalyzes the synthesis of lysophosphatidic acid. NFAT also promotes tumor progression downstream of vascular endothelial growth factors and contributes to angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis, though the underlying molecular mechanisms that control these phenotypes have remained unknown. In our present studies, we have identified novel NFAT target genes whose products are likely to modify tumor microenvironment through paracrine signaling to immune cells. We have generated stable pools of breast cancer cells with inducible lentiviral silencing or overexpression of NFAT and performed quantitative real-time RT-PCR to identify NFAT-responsive genes that code for soluble factors. This approach yielded several novel candidates, including those encoding cytokines and chemokines. The contribution of these NFAT-regulated gene products to tumor-stromal interactions is currently under investigation. Our studies propose a central role for NFAT in modulating tumor microenvironment. Citation Format: Aura Kaunisto, Alex Toker. NFAT signaling modulates tumor microenvironment. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4998. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-4998
The multilayered structure of ultrathin amorphous carbon films synthesized by filtered cathodic vacuum arc deposition

The structure of ultrathin amorphous carbon (a-C) films synthesized by filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) deposition was investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, electron energy loss spectroscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Results of the plasmon excitation energy shift and through-thickness elemental concentration show a multilayered a-C film structure comprising an interface layer consisting of C, Si, and, possibly, SiC, a buffer layer with continuously increasing sp3 fraction, a relatively thicker layer (bulk film) of constant sp3 content, and an ultrathin surface layer rich in sp2 hybridization. A detailed study of the C K-edge spectrum indicates that the buffer layer between the interface layer and the bulk film is due to the partial backscattering of C+ ions interacting with the heavy atoms of the silicon substrate. The results of this study provide insight into the minimum thickness of a-C films deposited by FCVA under optimum substrate bias conditions.
Muscular hamartoma of the breast

A rare case of muscular hamartoma of the breast was presented. An electron microscopic study confirmed that the proliferating spindle cells were of smooth muscle cell origin.
Moving Virtual Retail into Reality: Examining Metaverse and Augmented Reality in the Online Shopping Experience

Online retailing has proven to be advantageous to retailers in terms of revenue building. Consumers are spending time and money on retailer e-commerce sites, and now, m-commerce sites. In fact, Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, is exceeding revenue goals previously sought on Black Friday (Internet Retailer 2011). However, the online shopping experience has not kept pace with the offline experience. Brick and mortar allows for more experiential shopping that creates engagement, brand experience, as well as excitement. Catalog and television shopping affords the comfort of shopping at home. Now, many shoppers are turning to their tablet computers for online shopping. However, the shopping experience on tablets must compete with other online activities, including games and other interesting applications. Retailers should respond to needs of the consumer by developing a more robust online shopping experience. This can also enhance the experiences of shoppers in both electronic commerce and mobile commerce.
Multiple Random Variables

This chapter deals with multiple random variables including the joint cumulative distribution function of bivariate random variables, conditional distributions, covariance, correlation coefficient, functions of multivariate random variables, and multinomial distributions.
Irradiation effects in Generation IV nuclear reactor materials

Generation IV reactor structural materials will be exposed to high doses and temperatures during reactor operation that may lead to irradiation-induced degradation. This degradation will differ from that seen in light water reactors and therefore understanding mechanisms controlling material performance during irradiation is critical for evaluating the viability of Generation IV nuclear reactor concepts. This chapter discusses irradiation effects and microstructural changes that affect mechanical properties and dimensional stability of Generation IV reactor materials.
Design of intelligent dispatch systems network analysis software

Smart grid is the ideal solution for future power system. As the nerve center of smart grid, the intelligent dispatch systems represent the intelligence characteristics. The network analysis section is foundation to achieve intelligent dispatch. In traditional dispatch systems, the network analysis software (NAS) are divided by module functions and shows information respectively, which result that the conclusions are relatively separate. The operator did not get computed information from integrated entity. The useful information cannot share to other advanced applications, which weaken the foundation action of NAS. This paper present the NAS design of the functions and construction based on intelligent dispatch systems. The software layout regard the service as guiding and function as components to meet the requirements of network analysis, which reach the purpose of full-featured, flexible and convenient. At same time, it takes advantages of the intelligent scheduling system with a unified platform, and enhances information exchange and data sharing with other advanced applications. The other requirements and development of NAS in intelligent dispatch systems are also discussed in the paper.
Stability of Viral Pathogens in the Laboratory Environment

Knowledge of the stability of pathogens in the environment is part of a comprehensive biological risk assessment. The inherent nature of laboratory equipment and laboratory procedures to create aer...
Formal Analysis: Art and Anthropology

In the middle of the twentieth century, art historical studies in the United States were dominated by formal analysis. Whatever the subject matter—saints, Bodhisattvas or rollicking peasants—or the aims—compositional analysis or connoisseurship—the visual strategies were similar. In its beginnings in the nineteenth century formalism was characterized as a detached method of viewing, classifying and analyzing art objects. It was to be the bedrock of art historical thought. Models for it were found in the natural sciences, and a reciprocal exchange began between scientific and art historical disciplines. This chapter examines relationships between classification modes in art history and two of the sciences with which art history had reciprocal exchanges: the classificatory science of comparative anatomy and physical anthropology. Particular attention is given to the activities of a celebrated professor of art history in Berlin who collaborated with anthropologists and linguists to photograph prisoners during the Great War. The chapter draws the conclusion from these case studies that formal analysis was not the bedrock of art history but rather a superstructure, with only the authority of its judgments making it appear foundational. Formalism, however, is already in disrepute. Hence the chapter does not conclude by condemning formalism’s entailment in dangerous racial thinking but rather by suggesting that an understanding of this history may potentially allow close visual analysis, freed from formalist theory, to function productively.
Material wealth in 3D: Mapping multiple paths to prosperity in low- and middle- income countries.

Material wealth is a key factor shaping human development and well-being. Every year, hundreds of studies in social science and policy fields assess material wealth in low- and middle-income countries assuming that there is a single dimension by which households can move from poverty to prosperity. However, a one-dimensional model may miss important kinds of prosperity, particularly in countries where traditional subsistence-based livelihoods coexist with modern cash economies. Using multiple correspondence analysis to analyze representative household data from six countries—Nepal, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Guatemala—across three world regions, we identify a number of independent dimension of wealth, each with a clear link to locally relevant pathways to success in cash and agricultural economies. In all cases, the first dimension identified by this approach replicates standard one-dimensional estimates and captures success in cash economies. The novel dimensions we identify reflect success in different agricultural sectors and are independently associated with key benchmarks of food security and human growth, such as adult body mass index and child height. The multidimensional models of wealth we describe here provide new opportunities for examining the causes and consequences of wealth inequality that go beyond success in cash economies, for tracing the emergence of hybrid pathways to prosperity, and for assessing how these different pathways to economic success carry different health risks and social opportunities.
Defining Energy-Based Economic Development

EBED is a direct extension of the energy planning and economic development disciplines. This chapter provides important foundational information to support the EBED framework and applications described in the remainder of the book. It defines EBED, describes the economic development and energy policy and planning disciplines, summarizes how these disciplines have converged, and discusses the goals inherent within EBED initiatives. This chapter also differentiates EBED from other disciplines. Distinguishing characteristics include EBED’s focus on advanced, efficient, or low-emissions energy; its pursuit of joint energy and economic development goals; ability to build on the varying scale and distributed nature of some types of low-emissions energy; its alignment of development and energy goals into one unified approach; and the active role of governance, leadership, and stakeholder engagement.
A Note, Mostly Methodological, Stimulated by Ritzema and Ritzema-Young Attributional Studies

Recent contributions to JPT by Ritzema (1979) and Ritzema and Young (1983) convincingly suggest that attribution theory may provide a useful framework for conceptualizing and exploring some important facets of religious belief, and may foreshadow an increasing interest among theologically oriented psychologists. The present reaction urges a discerning stance with respect to how much and how little the attributional approach has to offer researchers interested in the integration of psychology and theology. The Ritzema and Ritzema-Young studies utilized hypothetical situations as stimulus material. The pros and cons — mostly cons — of this widely used and well accepted approach to attribution research are discussed. The Ritzema and Ritzema-Young articles are considered very helpful because, in addition to demonstrating the potential value of attribution psychology for understanding religious belief and conduct, the findings were sufficiently clear and provocative to encourage further exploration by more rig...
Management of Multiorgan Failure in Sepsis

A complex interaction between host and pathogen determines whether patients with infection will develop sepsis, which is defined by the development of multiorgan failure. Patients’ clinical organ failure phenotype and molecular endotype predict outcome differences. While interventions targeting molecular pathways thought to lead from infection to multiorgan failure have so far proven unsuccessful, strategies focusing on support of specific organs may aid recovery from sepsis-associated multiorgan failure.
C-34: Kinetic modeling of CPA toxicity and implications for design of cryopreservation procedures

The protection conferred by penetrating cryoprotectants (CPAs) such as glycerol and dimethyl sulfoxide has made it possible to successfully cryopreserve a variety of cell types. However, it is well known that CPAs are not universally beneficial and exposure to CPAs can cause significant damage as a result of both cytotoxicity and osmotically-induced cell volume changes. Consequently, the design of cryopreservation procedures involves a balance between achieving sufficient protection and avoiding the damaging effects of CPAs. This is particularly true for vitrification methods, which involve the use of high CPA concentrations to completely prevent formation of ice. Recently, it has become increasingly clear that optimally balancing the beneficial and damaging effects of CPAs will require an improved understanding of the kinetics of CPA-induced cytotoxicity. For example, selection of the optimal temperature for CPA loading is not trivial and depends on the relative rates of CPA-induced damage and CPA transport, both of which are temperature dependent. In addition, the optimal method for equilibrating cells with CPA depends on how the kinetics of CPA-induced damage varies with concentration. This presentation will review work by us and others on the kinetics of CPA toxicity, including the effects of factors such as temperature, concentration and CPA type. The implications of these results for design of cryopreservation procedures will also be discussed.
Games in Monkeys: Neurophysiology and Motor Decision-Making

Optimality plays a central role in many scientific disciplines, including economics and psychology. In economics, for example, the analysis of choice behavior relies on the concept of utility, and it is often assumed that decisions are made so as to maximize the expected utility. This concept of utility or its complementary entity, cost function, provides a unifying framework to study the behaviors of perceptual and motor systems as well as other more complex cognitive functions of the brain. In addition, game theory analyzes socially interactive decision making based on the principle of utility maximization. The frontoparietal cortical network and the basal ganglia of the primate brain provide important neural substrates for these diverse aspects of adaptive decision-making processes.
Toward Dynamic Precision Scaling

This article makes the case for dynamic precision scaling to improve power efficiency by tailoring arithmetic precision adaptively to temporal changes in algorithmic noise tolerance throughout the execution.
Characteristics and Prognosis of Primary Head and Neck Angiosarcomas: A Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) Analysis of 1250 Cases

Head and neck angiosarcomas (HN-AS) are rare malignancies with a poor prognosis relative to other soft tissue sarcomas. To date, the HN-AS literature has been limited to short reports and single-institution experiences. This study evaluated patients registered with the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program who had been diagnosed with a primary HN-AS. Predictors were drawn from demographic and baseline tumor characteristics. Outcomes were survival months and cause of death. Kaplan–Meier analyses were used to estimate overall (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) rates. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used for multivariate analyses. A total of 1250 patients (mean age 73.3 years) were identified, and nearly all lesions (93.5%) were cutaneous. Two- and 5-year OS rates were 47.3% (95% CI 44.3–50.3) and 26.5% (95% CI 23.7–29.3), while 2- and 5-year DSS rates were 66.6% (95% CI 63.6–69.6) and 48.3% (95% CI 44.5–52.1). In the univariate analyses, age, race, tumor grade, tumor size, AJCC stage, SEER historic stage, and surgery were significant predictors of both OS and DSS. Multivariate regression revealed that independent predictors of poor OS and DSS were older age [OS: HR 1.04 (95% CI 1.02–1.05), p < 0.01; DSS: HR 1.03 (95% CI 1.01–1.05), p < 0.01], increased tumor size [OS: HR 1.01 (95% CI 1.01–1.01), p < 0.01; DSS: HR 1.01 (95% CI 1.01–1.02), p < 0.01], and distant disease [OS: HR 2.97 (95% CI 1.65–5.34), p < 0.01; DSS: HR 4.99 (95% CI 2.50–9.98), p < 0.01]. Age, tumor size, and disease extent were determinants of HN-AS survival. When all other factors were controlled, lower histologic grade and surgery did not improve the risk of death.
Bioactive Signaling in Next-Generation Pharmacotherapies for Heart Failure: A Review.

Importance The standard pharmacotherapy for heart failure (HF), particularly HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), is primarily through the use of receptor antagonists, notably inhibition of the renin-angiotensin system by either angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition or angiotensin II receptor blockade (ARB). However, the completed Prospective Comparison of ARNI With an ACE-Inhibitor to Determine Impact on Global Mortality and Morbidity in Heart Failure (PARADIGM-HF) trial identified that the use of a single molecule (sacubitril/valsartan), which is an ARB and the neutral endopeptidase inhibitor (NEPi) neprilysin, yielded improved clinical outcomes in HFrEF compared with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition alone. Observations This review examined specific bioactive signaling pathways that would be potentiated by NEPi and how these would affect key cardiovascular processes relevant to HFrEF. It also addressed potential additive/synergistic effects of ARB. A number of biological signaling pathways that may be potentiated by sacubitril/valsartan were identified, including some novel candidate molecules, which will act in a synergistic manner to favorably alter the natural history of HFrEF. Conclusions and Relevance This review identified that activation rather than inhibition of specific receptor pathways provided favorable cardiovascular effects that cannot be achieved by renin-angiotensin system inhibition alone. Thus, an entirely new avenue of translational and clinical research lies ahead in which HF pharmacotherapies will move beyond receptor antagonist strategies.
Plants on (Brassino)steroids: Degradation of the Transcription Factor BZR1 by the E3 Ubiquitin Ligase PUB40.

Brassinosteroids (BR) are the only plant hormones with an animal counterpart: steroid hormones. Analysis of BR signaling demonstrated that steroid receptors could reside at the plasma membrane and modulate growth and gene expression, an observation that is now becoming appreciated in non-plant
Stability in the Stefan Problem with Surface Tension (I)

We develop a high-order energy method to prove asymptotic stability of flat steady surfaces for the Stefan problem with surface tension – also known as the Stefan problem with Gibbs–Thomson correction.
Concurrent validity of the single assessment numerical evaluation and patient-reported functional measures in patients with musculoskeletal disorders: An observational study.

Abstract Introduction As patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) continue to evolve as vital measures of patient status, it may be useful to identify efficiently, Single Assessment Numeric Evaluation (SANE) scores that are valid and related to the patient's specific functional needs. Objective To evaluate the concurrent validity between SANE scores and commonly used body region-specific functional PROMs, functional percentage change scores, and total visits in patients with musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders. Methods 479 patients completed the SANE and one of the following PROMs at physical therapy discharge: Modified Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire [MDQ], Neck Disability Index [NDI], Penn Shoulder Score [PSS], International Knee Documentation Committee [IKDC], Lower Extremity Functional Scale [LEFS]. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to assess the relationship between SANE and the aforementioned outcomes and total visits. Results The SANE was moderately negatively correlated with the MDQ and NDI at discharge. There were high positive correlations between SANE and PSS and IKDC and moderate positive correlation between SANE and LEFS. The SANE and MDQ and IKDQ demonstrated low positive correlation for functional percentage change scores, and the SANE and NDI demonstrated moderate positive correlation for functional percentage change scores. For total visits outcome, there was a negligible negative correlation between SANE and MDQ and NDI at discharge. Conclusion The SANE exhibits acceptable concurrent validity across all investigated PROMs at physical therapy discharge. However, inconsistent relationships across body regions for functional percentage change and total visits suggest differences in these values as compared to raw discharge scores.
Reconceiving Immigration Politics: Walter Benjamin, Violence, and Labor

This article theorizes the circulation of violence in the realms of immigration and labor. Through Walter Benjamin, I conceptualize the relationship between racial violence and law, and note that although violence can support the authority of law, excessive violence makes law vulnerable to decay. This tension between authority and excess is eased by humanitarianism. I find clues for disrupting this circulation in Benjamin’s twin notions of the real state of exception and the general strike, introduced two decades apart and invested in theorizing how labor and other marginalized groups threaten the stability of law supported by violence. This reconstruction proceeds alongside an examination of the contemporary US regime of immigration enforcement, which combines the excessive violence of detention and deportation with marginal humanitarian adjustments, which ultimately legitimate violence. On the disruptive side, a Benjaminian reading of labor activism by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers offers three dimensions of emancipatory politics: (a) practices of refusal (to engage on the terms of the immigration debate), (b) the establishment of historical constellations (of racial regulation of labor constitutive of law), and (c) divine violence (through exposure of lawful violence in the food production chain).
Prednisolone Does Not Regulate Factor VIII Expression in Mice Receiving AAV5-hFVIII-SQ: Valoctocogene Roxaparvovec.

AAV5-hFVIII-SQ (valoctocogene roxaparvovec) is an adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated gene therapy vector containing a B-domain-deleted human factor VIII (hFVIII-SQ) transgene. In a phase 1/2 clinical study of AAV5-hFVIII-SQ for severe hemophilia A (FVIII
High-fidelity Virtualization for Cyber Operations

Most modern hypervisors rely on virtualized hardware to meet minimum requirements of computing, leading to low-fidelity virtual systems as compared to their non-virtualized counterparts. Higher-fidelity virtualization can be achieved by more effectively emulating the physical characteristics of machines in virtual environments to support offensive cyber operations, which require virtualization of an adversary's network for developing and rehearsing cyber-attacks. This paper characterizes fidelity variance between virtual machines and their physical counterparts, based on their unique characteristics and potential for application in a high-fidelity virtualization model. It presents an in-depth analysis of five variance categories to assess the challenges and practicality of their implementation in a high-fidelity virtualization environment.
Contextualizing Escape in the Neo-slave Narratives of Octavia Butler’s Kindred and Sherley Anne Williams’s Dessa Rose

Analyzing how interracial relationships, violence, and notions of refuge are depicted in the neo-slave narratives of Butler’s Kindred and Williams’s Dessa Rose, Francis makes a case for why neo-slave narratives can explore and exploit the slave’s escape in ways that fugitive slave narratives could not. Exploring how the languages of feeling and judgment are used by the characters in Butler’s and Williams’s novels to complicate the meaning of escape for enslaved black women, Francis demonstrates that the neo-slave narratives by Butler and Williams are less concerned with examining the journey to freedom than with offering us fictional analyses of enslaved black women’s feelings and reactions to freedom.
Feasibility Study of Active Thermal Energy Storage for On-Chip Transient Mitigation

Phase-change materials (PCMs) have been widely investigated for their potential application in transiently driven electronic systems. The passive, nonlinear thermal capacitance offered by solid-liquid or solid-solid phase change promises to provide thermal load leveling under dissipation transients. This in turn allows a steady-state thermal management system (TMS) sized to that of the average component power dissipation to be operated at full utilization. The result is a lower size, weight, power, and cost (SWAP-C) of the aggregate PCM/TMS transient thermal solution.One of the challenges in using PCMs becomes limitations in coupling energy into or out of the thermal energy storage (TES) in a timely fashion. Just as liquid-vapor systems must contend with critical heat flux limiting the manageable system power, so too must a static phase change system present sufficient storage power density for the application at hand. For low conductivity PCMs (paraffin waxes, sugar alcohols, salt hydrates) this is often accomplished using conductivity enhancements such as particulate additives, conductive fins, or expanded metal foams. An alternative is to use low melting point metals (LMPM) and alloys, which have higher intrinsic conductivity (and thus storage power density) and comparable volumetric energy storage density. However, even conductivity enhanced LMPM composites will reach a limit to storage power density, leaving very high flux applications un-addressable using a low form-factor, passive solution.This work investigates a new TES paradigm that seeks to extend the storage power density of LMPM composites by active thermal transport. The impact of geometry, materials, and operating condition on performance are assessed. Of particular interest are tradeoffs that result in higher storage power density at a cost of lowered coefficient of performance, which manifests as a lower effective energy storage density. These active systems are compared to baseline passive systems using an effective figure-of-merit as determined from transient finite element simulation.
CNN-BASED PLACE RECOGNITION TECHNIQUE FOR LIDAR SLAM

Abstract. Place recognition or loop closure is a technique to recognize landmarks and/or scenes visited by a mobile sensing platform previously in an area. The technique is a key function for robustly practicing Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) in any environment, including the global positioning system (GPS) denied environment by enabling to perform the global optimization to compensate the drift of dead-reckoning navigation systems. Place recognition in 3D point clouds is a challenging task which is traditionally handled with the aid of other sensors, such as camera and GPS. Unfortunately, visual place recognition techniques may be impacted by changes in illumination and texture, and GPS may perform poorly in urban areas. To mitigate this problem, state-of-art Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs)-based 3D descriptors may be directly applied to 3D point clouds. In this work, we investigated the performance of different classification strategies utilizing a cutting-edge CNN-based 3D global descriptor (PointNetVLAD) for place recognition task on the Oxford RobotCar dataset.
Feasibility and acceptability of home-based strength training in endometrial cancer survivors

Physical activity is important for healthy cancer survivorship, yet many endometrial cancer survivors do not participate in recommended muscle-strengthening activity. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of home-based muscle strengthening activity in endometrial cancer survivors. Forty post-treatment endometrial cancer survivors were enrolled in a randomized trial, of twice-weekly home-based strength exercise versus wait-list control. The intervention included educational materials, exercise equipment (dumbbells, resistance bands), and support/feedback via video coaching sessions. Participants completed the exercises twice per week for 10 weeks, with a 5-week follow-up period. Feasibility was measured by program adherence, as well as safety of and satisfaction with the study. On average, participants were 60.9 years old (SD = 8.7), had a BMI of 39.9 kg/m2 (SD = 15.2), and were 2.9 years (SD = 1.2) since diagnosis. The majority (83%) had stage I disease at diagnosis. Seventy-five percent adhered to the exercise prescription of twice/week, with 85% of participants missing fewer than 3 of the workouts. Forty percent of participants continued workouts during the 5-week follow-up. Participants were highly satisfied with intervention. No injuries or adverse everts occurred. This home-based program was feasible in endometrial cancer survivors. While adherence was measured, future research should focus on long-term maintenance of exercise and should explore progressions and modifications of exercises at a distance for various abilities. Muscle strengthening activities are recommended for all cancer survivors. This study shows that a home-based muscle strengthening exercise is feasible in endometrial cancer survivors.
Tele-buprenorphine for emergency department overdose visit follow up and treatment initiation.

Abstract Introduction An ED visit for opioid overdose may be a person's only contact with the medical and behavioral health care systems and is an important opportunity to reduce risk of subsequent overdose and death. While ED initiatives to engage people with opioid use disorder (OUD) are being increasingly implemented, there are significant gaps in the receipt of services at the time of the ED encounter. Methods This is a retrospective cohort study of an outreach pilot project providing real-time telehealth delivered buprenorphine initiation and referral to community harm reduction and addiction treatment services via a follow up telephone call to patients after an ED visit for an opioid overdose. Results From January 2020 to April 2021 there were 606 patients with an ED visit for an opioid overdose eligible for a callback. Of the 606 eligible patients, 254/645 (42%) patients could be contacted and accepted service and/or treatment referrals. Fifteen patients were connected same-day to a buprenorphine prescriber for a telehealth encounter and, of connected patients, nine received a buprenorphine prescription. Conclusion A post-ED follow up telephone call protocol is an opportunity to improve treatment engagement and access to buprenorphine for patients at high risk for opioid overdose and death.