cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Latent Patterned Surface Metallization of Silver Ion-Doped Polyimide Films

A straightforward ambient temperature route to the fabrication of surface silver-metallized polyimide films is described. Silver(I) trifluoromethane sulfonate and a polyimide, derived from 2,2-bis(3,4-dicarboxyphenyl)hexafluoropropane dianhydride (6FDA) and an equimolar amount of 4,4'-oxydianiline (ODA) and 3,5-diaminobenzoic acid (DABA), were dissolved together in dimethylacetamide. Silver(I)-doped films were prepared at thicknesses of 25-50 microns and depleted of solvent by evaporation. The silver(I)-containing films were then treated with aqueous reducing agents, which brought forth silvered films exhibiting conductivity on the order of bulk polycrystalline silver and good specular reflectivity.
Systematic prototyping of superscalar computer architectures

It is argued that the correct solution to the computer architecture design process is a prototyping approach. In this approach, the initial design is selected using the workload itself. This design is an architectural prototype, specifying the high-level design decisions that are difficult to acquire via detailed simulation. These design decisions include determining the mix of function units in the execution stage of the processor and the dimensions of the caches in the memory subsystem. Architectural prototypes are selected by trading off accuracy in hardware simulation for an increase in usable workload size. >
Availability, Accessibility, and Preferences for Fruit, 100% Fruit Juice, and Vegetables Influence Children's Dietary Behavior

The relationships among home fruit (F), 100% fruitjuice (J), and vegetable (V) availability and accessibility separately, as reported by 225 fourth- through sixth-grade children and their parents (n = 88), separately, and FJV preferences to child-reported FJV consumption were assessed. For girls, child-reported FJV availability and accessibility accounted for 35% of the variability in FJV consumption. Child-reported availability and parent-reported accessibility were significantly correlated with child FJV consumption in a combined model. For children with high FJV preferences, FJV availability was the only significant predictor, whereas both availability and accessibility were significantly related to consumption for children with low FJV preferences. Interventions targeting child dietary behaviors may need to tailor to the home environment, separately by gender. Extra efforts are necessary by parents to enhance accessibility among children who do not like FJV.
Vaginal Self-Swab Specimen Collection in a Home-Based Survey of Older Women: Methods and Applications

Results. One thousand twenty-eight respondents (67.5% weighted) agreed to provide a vaginal specimen; 99.1% were successful. The specimen adequacy rates were BV and VC, 94.1%; HR-HPV, 99.7%; and cytology, 85.5%. The most common recorded reason for nonparticipation was a physical or health problem (38% of nonresponders). Responders were signifi cantly more likely than nonresponders to be younger and more educated, and were more likely to report a recent pelvic examination, menopausal hormone use, and recent sexual activity.
Locality-aware task management for unstructured parallelism: a quantitative limit study

As we increase the number of cores on a processor die, the on-chip cache hierarchies that support these cores are getting larger, deeper, and more complex. As a result, non-uniform memory access effects are now prevalent even on a single chip. To reduce execution time and energy consumption, data access locality should be exploited. This is especially important for task-based programming systems, where a scheduler decides when and where on the chip the code segments, i.e., tasks, should execute. Capturing locality for structured task parallelism has been done effectively, but the more difficult case, unstructured parallelism, remains largely unsolved - little quantitative analysis exists to demonstrate the potential of locality-aware scheduling, and to guide future scheduler implementations in the most fruitful direction.This paper quantifies the potential of locality-aware scheduling for unstructured parallelism on three different many-core processors. Our simulation results of 32-core systems show that locality-aware scheduling can bring up to 2.39x speedup over a randomized schedule, and 2.05x speedup over a state-of-the-art baseline scheduling scheme. At the same time, a locality-aware schedule reduces average energy consumption by 55% and 47%, relative to the random and the baseline schedule, respectively. In addition, our 1024-core simulation results project that these benefits will only increase: Compared to 32-core executions, we see up to 1.83x additional locality benefits. To capture such potentials in a practical setting, we also perform a detailed scheduler design space exploration to quantify the impact of different scheduling decisions. We also highlight the importance of locality-aware stealing, and demonstrate that a stealing scheme can exploit significant locality while performing load balancing. Over randomized stealing, our proposed scheme shows up to 2.0x speedup for stolen tasks.
Effect of Shielded Distribution Cables on Lightning-Induced Overvoltages in a Distribution System

Lightning strikes have current risetimes ranging from 0.1 to several /spl mu/s and can produce transient overvoltages substantially greater than the BIL of many distribution systems in spite of lightning arresters, the value of which is often compromised by excessive lead lengths. We compute the lightning induced overvoltages over distribution transformers connected through cables to an overhead distribution system as a function of ZnO arrester lead length, lightning current rising time, the type of cable, and the length of cable employed. We also compute the voltage across the top 10% of turns of distribution transformers resulting from the high dV/dt of the voltage incident on the transformers. Two types of cable, TR-XLPE and EPR, were considered. The attenuations of the cables were measured as a function of frequency and these propagation characteristics were modeled in the ATP-EMTP program. The computed data indicate that the arrester lead length, lightning rising time, the type of cable, and the length of cable employed have substantial impact on the overvoltage on transformer and the voltage across the top few turns of the transformer winding. The greater high frequency losses of EPR cable can reduce substantially the lightning-induced overvoltages to which distribution transformers are exposed.
Community, context, and distance education

This paper makes recommendations about teaching online professional courses to students lacking relevant professional experience. The course was on ethics and professional writing. Students substituted personal ethics for professional ethics and relied on the skills they had in textual explication and narrative development to defend personal judgments. Instead of putting greater emphasis on theory and formal analysis, the author recommends simulating the experience of professional writing by relying on case study methods, peer critiques, and Internet resources, such as discussion boards where professional writers gossip, complain, and argue about their professional experience.
Long-Term Changes in Sediment and Nutrient Delivery from Conowingo Dam to Chesapeake Bay: Effects of Reservoir Sedimentation

Reduction of suspended sediment (SS), total phosphorus (TP), and total nitrogen is an important focus for Chesapeake Bay watershed management. The Susquehanna River, the bay's largest tributary, has drawn attention because SS loads from behind Conowingo Dam (near the river's mouth) have been rising dramatically. To better understand these changes, we evaluated histories of concentration and loading (1986-2013) using data from sites above and below Conowingo Reservoir. First, observed concentration-discharge relationships show that SS and TP concentrations at the reservoir inlet have declined under most discharges in recent decades, but without corresponding declines at the outlet, implying recently diminished reservoir trapping. Second, best estimates of mass balance suggest decreasing net deposition of SS and TP in recent decades over a wide range of discharges, with cumulative mass generally dominated by the 75∼99.5th percentile of daily Conowingo discharges. Finally, stationary models that better accommodate effects of riverflow variability also support the conclusion of diminished trapping of SS and TP under a range of discharges that includes those well below the literature-reported scour threshold. Overall, these findings suggest that decreased net deposition of SS and TP has occurred at subscour levels of discharge, which has significant implications for the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.
Optical Mapping and Calcium Imaging

This chapter will cover basic theory, principles, and applications of optical mapping of transmembrane potentials, as well as of intracellular calcium imaging. Calcium plays a central role in both electrical and mechanical function of excitable tissue, and serves as an important player in many biochemical and biophysical cellular regulatory functions. Emphasis will be placed on practical applications, advantages, and limitations of both techniques.
Moving Beyond Concerns of Autonomy

In “A Threat to Autonomy? The Intrusion of Predictive Brain Implants,” Frederic Gilbert (2015) suggests several hypothetical ethical concerns regarding the use of predictive brain implants (PBI) as...
Clinical Presentation and Natural History of Mesothelioma: Pleural and Pericardial

This chapter reviews the clinical features of two types of malignant mesothelioma—pleural and pericardial. Although such distinction refers to the cavity of origin of this neoplasm, it is well known that each of these can spread to the other cavity when tumor progression occurs. In a total of 1496 cases of mesotheliomas reviewed pathologically, Suzuki (1) found the primary site to be pleural in 73.1%, peritoneal in 23.7%, and pericardial in 0.3%. The remainder (2.9%) had multicavitary involvement.
The relationship of 123I breast uptake on thyroid scan to thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin in hyperthyroid patients: A pilot study

1296 Objectives Radioiodine (RAI) uptake in breast tissue has been observed on RAI whole body scan in patients (pts) with differentiated thyroid cancer. Although this breast uptake has been reported in pts who has been lactating, breast uptake in pts with hyperthyroidism has not been reported or studied to our knowledge. The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the relationship of thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin levels with breast uptake on 123I scans in pts with hyperthyroidism. Methods A prospective study was conducted on female pts who were (1) diagnosed with hyperthyroidism based upon signs, symptoms and had abnormal thyroid function tests compatible with hyperthyroidism and (2) referred for an 123I scan of the thyroid. After informed consent, anterior and lateral images of the breasts were obtained shortly after imaging of the thyroid bed. Thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin level was drawn at the time of imaging. Scans were evaluated by two reviewers (dvn/gk) for 123I uptake in the breast. Intensity was graded as 0 = background activity (bkg), 1+ = mildly >bkg, 2+ = moderately >bkg, and 3+ = >bkg. The relationship of 123I uptake in the breast was compared with the thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin levels. This was an IRB-approved study. Results Thirteen pts met the criteria above, but none of the pts had 123I breast uptake. Elevated thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin was observed in 6/13 (46%) of pts with a range of 2.42-4.6 (nl index Conclusions Based on this pilot study, increase 123I uptake in the breasts was not observed with either hyperthyroidism or elevated thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin levels
The Examination of Fixation Locus in Scanning a Visual Display

A technique is described for assessing whether an individual is fixating centrally and if not to provide an estimate of fixation eccentricity. Language: en
A game theoretic approach for load-shifting in the smart grid

In this paper, load-shifting within the context of smart grid demand response is investigated for an electricity market composed of a single energy provider and multiple consumers. The problem is formulated as a Stackelberg game in which the provider, acting as leader, moves first and offers price discounts across a finite time horizon to motivate consumers to shift their energy consumptions from peak periods. The consumers, acting as followers, respond by deciding if and how they shift their consumption from their nominal demand. In this model, the aim of the energy provider is to maximize its profits, while the consumers aim to minimize their total costs related to both the energy consumption and inconvenience of deviating from the nominal demand. Within this setting, a procedure is proposed to obtain equilibrium outcomes and managerial insights are derived by investigating the impact of various factors, including consumer types and market diversity, on the interactions between the energy provider and its customers. Our results show that price discounts may provide significant leverage for achieving lower peak-to-average ratios while improving the service provider's profits. Our results demonstrate that when load-shifting is sacrificial for the consumers, equilibrium discounts and server provider profits not only depend on the size of the demand (market depth) but also the composition and the number of consumers (market breadth).
Overwintering Survival of Prereproductive and Postreproductive Boll Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in Central Texas

Field studies were conducted in central Texas in 1988 and 1989 to determine the effect of oviposition on overwintering survival of the boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis grandis Boheman. Weevils were reared from infested cotton bolls in field cages. At eclosion, adults were paired with mates and provided artificial diet for 36 d before they were installed in overwintering cages without food. The earliest oviposition occurred between 6 and 10 d after eclosion; increasing numbers of females began to oviposit thereafter. Females that laid any eggs at all during the 36-d feeding period died within 7 wk in the absence of food. Females that never laid eggs during the feeding period had high survival until the following spring. Overwintering survival of males was unrelated to their mate's fecundity. Our results suggest that even limited reproductive output by females imposes a substantial cost to subsequent overwintering survival in this central Texas population.
Hematology Testing at the Bedside

Bedside testing is appropriate for analyses in which rapid answers lead to immediate therapeutic decisions. Bedside testing instruments are designed for use by individuals without technical laboratory training. Hematology systems perform tests such as activated clotting time, spun hematocrit, hemoglobin, prothrombin time, and activated partial thromboplastin time. This article reviews the quality management procedures required by several accrediting and regulatory bodies, including the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. In the future, more of these systems may be placed in hospitals and other patient care settings, and the laboratory's role in managing testing quality will increase. This is the final article in a two-part continuing education series on bedside testing. The first article focused on data management of bedside glucose testing.
Managing severe erythroblastosis.

By giving passive antibodies, the physician can possibly prevent or decrease sensitization in Rh-negative mothers. However, once sensitization has occurred he must decide whether to do single or repeated amniocentesis, whether he should transfuse the fetus while in the uterus, when he should time the delivery, and how he should prepare for exchange transfusion.
The Heterodoxy of a Simple Faith

In a postscript to his first reply to Bishop of Worcester Edward Stillingfleet in 1697, Locke stated unequivocally that ‘The holy scripture is to me, and always will be, the constant guide of my assent; and I shall always hearken to it, as containing infallible truth, relating to things of the highest concernment.’ Read today, these words appear strangely disconsonant with the historical image of Locke as a proponent of minimalist, antitrinitarian, and rational Christianity, of a faith without enigma and lacking the transcendent appeal of the numinous. Indeed, in the very same postscript to Stillingfleet, Locke proceeded to confess that while there were many mysteries in the Bible, he had no reservations about accepting these as true accounts ‘because God has said it: and I shall presently condemn and quit any opinion of mine, as soon as I am shown that it is contrary to any revelation in the holy scripture’. In a subsequent reply to Stillingfleet’s attack on the epistemology of the Essay, Locke insisted that he had always ‘read the revelation of the holy scripture with a full assurance that all it delivers is true’.1
Life Among Ruins, Bermuda and Britain’s Colonial Heritage

Situated some 600 mi (965 km) east of North Carolina, the island of Bermuda is Britain’s oldest surviving colony. While much of the British Empire has been dismantled, Bermuda remains within the Imperial fold, and is today designated a “British overseas territory.” Within this framework, Bermuda’s heritage tourism landscape perpetuates an institutionally imposed colonialist narrative that neglects to explore the contributions of the island’s under-represented communities. This article explores these issues with respect to the island’s tourism plan. It concludes by highlighting new archaeological research centered on the material lives of enslaved Bermudians.
The Moral Sense, Its Relevance to Freewill, and Its Importance

Consider a man who, however he got it, now as a thoroughly bad character. We are tempted to say, and it is true in a sense, that his character colors his vision of good and evil, so that he does not clearly see the good as good or the evil as evil. We must now for a moment speak as determinists. In order for a man genuinely to reform (as contrasted with reform based entirely upon fear) he must of course see the good as good, and must, however feebly, long to be good. Of course this desire would act as a motive, and everyone admits that all of our action involves motives.
L-asparaginase in the treatment of neoplastic diseases of the dog, cat and cow.

Asparagine-dependent neoplasms responsive to asparaginase therapy occur in the mouse [2, 3, 5, 9, 10], rat [9], dog [13, 14], and in man [6, 7, 11, 12] and are predominantly of lymphatic or hematopoeitic origin. Rarely, other tumor types, including a rat fibrosarcoma [8], a mouse mammary carcinoma [15], and two cases of human malignant melanoma [6, 12] may be suppressed by treatment with asparaginase.
(Book Review) Stop Telling and Start Showing Show, Don't Tell: Legal Writing for the Real World by Adam Lamparello & Megan E. Boyd

Legal writing does not lend itself to the “show, don’t tell” concept in its traditional sense. The idea of bringing characters to life, evoking emotions, and painting pictures with words simply does not spring immediately to mind when contemplating motions and memoranda. As Steven Stark’s Why Lawyers Can’t Write article in the Harvard Law Review proclaimed over three decades ago, “you don’t need a literary critic to know how badly most legal prose is written. You need only turn to any page of most legal briefs, judicial opinions, or law review articles to find convoluted sentences, tortuous phrasing, and boring passages filled with passive verbs.” Time has not healed. In a recent ABA Journal column of the same title, Bryan Garner observed, “While lawyers are the most highly paid rhetoricians in the world, we’re among the most inept wielders of words.”Assigning fault is part and parcel of lawyering and there is no shortage of blame to go around for the supposedly sad state of legal writing. In addition to proposing that the legal profession has succumbed to a pervasive Dunning–Kruger problem, Garner calls out the usual suspects: declining standards in secondary and higher education, senior associates ill-equipped to hone the skills of their young colleagues, and law schools that “inundate students with poorly written, legalese-riddled opinions that read like over-the-top Marx Brothers parodies of stiffness and hyper-formality.”Show, Don’t Tell: Legal Writing for the Real World seems almost a direct response to such criticism. The book is designed to “not only benefit law students, but [to] assist law schools that are transitioning to an experiential-based learning model, and law firms that seek a concise, economic, and comprehensive guide to teach young lawyers litigation drafting.”
Transitional care intervention: A readmission solution.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that one in five patients discharged from hospitals are readmitted within 30 days across the United States.1 In 2004, Medicare dedicated an estimated $17 billion in hospital payments toward readmissions.2As a result, in October 2013, the A
Exclusionary intimacies: Racialized language in Veneto, Northern Italy

Abstract While Italy has been a country of emigrants, since the 1970s, it has become a receiver of migrants. These recent, reverse direction migratory flows have triggered strong reactions, such as nativist discourses about national culture and identity and the aggressive anti-immigration politics of the Lega Nord (‘Northern League’). This article examines how racialized language in the Northern Italian region of Veneto is at times performed in ways that totally or partially exclude certain migrant groups, while at the same time creating intimate spaces of inclusion for Italians. By codeswitching from Standard Italian to Venetan, speech participants address audiences who are presumed to “share” this code, but when the topics of their conversations are migrants, such shifts can also enact exclusionary stances vis-a-vis the latter. This article demonstrates that familiar analytic dichotomies such as exclusion/inclusion and insider/outsider are inadequate, and it proposes more processual and gradient approaches to participation.
Introduction: Rising Challenges and Opportunities of Uncertain Times for Asian American Families

This chapter is an introduction to the edited volume that explores the dynamic processes at work within Asian American families. The chapters within survey understudied interstices of socioeconomic status, family processes, culture, and racial-ethnic socialization. Using various research approaches, the authors herein add to the growing and much-needed area of research on Asian American families, collectively advance knowledge in Asian American family processes with both depth and breadth and provide guidelines for conducting culturally appropriate and clinically effective interventions with Asian American families. Although the chapters in the book were mostly prepared before the political and cultural turmoil of 2016 and 2017, they can provide timely guidance for Asian American parents as their children navigate contemporary political and cultural challenges to their identity.
Predicting the relationship between leadership styles and entrepreneurial orientation and innovative behaviour in Indian immigrant firms

This research is salient because of its unique inquiry into one of America's fastest growing entrepreneurial populations: Indian immigrants. Examining leadership styles and their relationship with employees' response behaviours in a cross-cultural context is important to researchers and academics alike. Through a quantitative analysis and cross-sectional research design, we found that leadership styles-transformational and transactional-indeed, predicted employees' innovative behaviour (IB) and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) at the firm level. This paper has three significant findings: 1) transformational style is positively and significantly related to employee IB and EO; 2) transactional style is positively and significantly related to EO; 3) laissez-faire style is shown to be negatively and not significantly related to IB and EO. These findings have theoretical and practical implications to better understand the nature of Indian immigrant leaders' behaviours and the inter-film cultural factors that could either facilitate or impede employees' IB and EO.
An open label study of a novel immunosuppression intervention for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Neuroinflammation is increasingly tied to disease progression in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Participants in the first-in-human trial of intra-spinal allogeneic stem cell therapy for ALS received immunosuppression, and one participant saw dramatic improvement across multiple outcome measures. The primary objective of this study (NCT01884571) was to assess the rate of clinical response to the same immunosuppressive regimen using basiliximab, tacrolimus, mycophenolate, and prednisone in people with ALS. A clinical response was defined as an improvement on the revised ALS Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS-R) by six points over a 6-month period. Thirty-one participants were enrolled in this 15-month open label study and received an identical immunosuppression regimen. Clinical outcome measures and biospecimens were collected before, during, and after the treatment regimen. No patients met the pre-defined responder criteria. No difference in mean ALSFRS-R slope was seen in the treatment period compared to the pretreatment period (p = 0.200). The regimen was generally safe in an ALS population, although only 18 out of 31 patients completed the full 6 months of immunosuppression. Analyses of immune markers showed no change in peripheral regulatory T-cell populations during treatment compared to pretreatment (p = 0.200). Analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cytokine levels showed an increase in IL-2 levels with immunosuppression (p = 0.004) followed by decrease during post-treatment follow-up (p = 0.031). Further studies are needed to understand how manipulation of the immune system may affect disease progression in ALS.
Improving antihypertensive therapy in patients with diabetic nephropathy.

Nearly all patients with diabetic nephropathy have comorbid hypertension, which greatly elevates the risk for cardiovascular events. As patients are surviving longer, their risk of progressing to end-stage renal disease is increasing, particularly in patients with type 2 diabetes. Prevention of cardiovascular and renal events in this population requires diligent efforts to control blood pressure, serum glucose, and serum lipids. Improving antihypertensive therapy in patients with diabetic nephropathy relies on the following unified strategies: reducing blood pressure to <130/80 mm Hg, prescribing an agent that blocks the renin-angiotensin system, and designing an antihypertensive regimen that both reduces albumin-uria and provides cardiovascular protection. A majority of patients will require three or more antihypertensive agents to achieve these objectives. Appropriate antihypertensive therapy in patients with diabetic nephropathy delays progression of renal disease and leads to substantial cost savings.
Understanding precision in host based intrusion detection: formal analysis and practical models

Many host-based anomaly detection systems monitor process execution at the granularity of system calls. Other recently proposed schemes instead verify the destinations of control-flow transfers to prevent the execution of attack code. This paper formally analyzes and compares real systems based on these two anomaly detection philosophies in terms of their attack detection capabilities, and proves and disproves several intuitions.We prove that for any system-call sequence model, under the same (static or dynamic) program analysis technique, there always exists a more precise control-flow sequence based model. While hybrid approaches combining system calls and control flows intuitively seem advantageous, especially when binary analysis constructs incomplete models, we prove that they have no fundamental advantage over simpler control-flow models. Finally, we utilize the ideas in our framework to make external monitoring feasible at the precise control-flow level. Our experiments show that external control-flow monitoring imposes performance overhead comparable to previous system call based approaches while detecting synthetic and real world attacks as effectively as an inlined monitor.
Peripheral Artery Disease and Claudication

Peripheral arterial diseases are either obstructive or occlusive due to plaque causing narrowing of the arterial lumen, or vasospastic caused by local vasoconstriction. Both conditions cause ischemia by reducing blood flow to peripheral tissues. When the ischemia causes pain, particularly after exercise, it is called intermittent claudication …
Chemotherapy of Teratomas

During the past decade an estimated 30,000–35,000 young men in the USA, primarily in the 19–34 yr age group, have developed a malignantgerm cell tumor of the testis (Cancer Statistics, 1977). Although these tumors are rare, they represented until recently one of the most common causes of cancer death in the respective age group (Cancer Patient Survival, 1976).
A Field Sensor: computing the composition and intent of PubMed queries.

PubMed® is a search engine providing access to a collection of over 27 million biomedical bibliographic records as of 2017. PubMed processes millions of queries a day, and understanding these queries is one of the main building blocks for successful information retrieval. In this work, we present Field Sensor, a domain-specific tool for understanding the composition and predicting the user intent of PubMed queries. Given a query, the Field Sensor infers a field for each token or sequence of tokens in a query in multi-step process that includes syntactic chunking, rule-based tagging and probabilistic field prediction. In this work, the fields of interest are those associated with (meta-)data elements of each PubMed record such as article title, abstract, author name(s), journal title, volume, issue, page and date. We evaluate the accuracy of our algorithm on a human-annotated corpus of 10 000 PubMed queries, as well as a new machine-annotated set of 103 000 PubMed queries. The Field Sensor achieves an accuracy of 93 and 91% on the two corresponding corpora and finds that nearly half of all searches are navigational (e.g. author searches, article title searches etc.) and half are informational (e.g. topical searches). The Field Sensor has been integrated into PubMed since June 2017 to detect informational queries for which results sorted by relevance can be suggested as an alternative to those sorted by the default date sort. In addition, the composition of PubMed queries as computed by the Field Sensor proves to be essential for understanding how users query PubMed.
Smoking cessation after a cancer diagnosis and survival in cancer patients.

1561Background: Extensive literature confirms that continued smoking by cancer patients and survivors increases overall mortality, but the benefits of smoking cessation specifically after a cancer ...
Modulating stability of functionalized fullerene cations [R-C60 ]+ with the nature of R-group.

In this study, the first comprehensive theoretical investigation of the stability of functionalized fullerene-based cations [R-C60 ]+ and its relationship with the nature of the attached R-group was performed. C60 -Fullerene core was functionalized with an alkyl group of different length (R = (CH2 )n CH3 , where n = 0-9). This set was further complemented by bulky isopropyl and tert-butyl and conjugated phenyl groups. A detailed study of the relative stability of target cationic species was accompanied by in-depth investigation of their electronic structure and aromaticity using a large set of descriptors of different nature. The stability of target species was considered with respect to two alternative and competing mechanisms of bond breaking, namely, heterolytic ([R-C60 ]+ → R+ + C60 ) and homolytic ([R-C60 ]+ → R• + C60+• ) ones. The transformation of strained sp2 -carbon atom in unperturbed C60 -fullerene to nonconstrained tetrahedral sp3 -type in functionalized derivatives was found to be the driving force for the formation of its functionalized cations. In spite of the fact that all systems under consideration were found to be corresponding to local minima on corresponding potential energy surfaces, the functionalization of C60 -core with the smallest and simplest methyl group resulted in most stable compound, as evaluated by bonding energy between R+ and fullerene fragment (in the light of both mechanisms). Subsequent elongation of the alkyl chain or introducing bulky groups led to notable decrease of the bonding energy and, as consequence, of the stability within the framework of heterolytic bond cleavage, whereas homolytic pathway assumes opposite-slight increase of stability along with lengthening of the R-group. The orbital interaction (ΔEorb ) was identified as the main driving force for these trends. In general, the homolytic path was found to be dominating for small-length R-groups such as those with n = 0 and 1. At n = 2, heterolytic and homolytic pathways are equally probable (the difference in corresponding bonding energies is about 1 kcal/mol). However, when the alkyl chain becomes longer (n = 3-9), the cationic bond cleavage appears as the most energetically favorable. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Pretrial Detention and Bail

Our current pretrial system imposes high costs on both the people who are detained pretrial and the taxpayers who foot the bill. These costs have prompted a surge of bail reform around the country. Reformers seek to reduce pretrial detention rates, as well as racial and socioeconomic disparities in the pretrial system, while simultaneously improving appearance rates and reducing pretrial crime. The current state of pretrial practice suggests that there is ample room for improvement. Bail hearings are often cursory, taking little time to evaluate a defendant’s risks, needs, or ability to pay. Money-bail practices lead to high rates of detention even among misdemeanor defendants and those who pose no serious risk of crime or flight. Infrequent evaluation means that the judges and magistrates who set bail have little information about how their bail-setting practices affect detention, appearance, and crime rates. Practical and low-cost interventions, such as court reminder systems, are underutilized. To promote lasting reform, this chapter identifies pretrial strategies that are both within the state’s authority and supported by empirical research. These interventions should be designed with input from stakeholders, and carefully evaluated to ensure that the desired improvements are achieved.
Design Principles for Microarray Investigations

In the past decade, high-throughput measurement of gene expression has evolved from a tantalizing possibility to an everyday exercise, thanks to microarray technology. The initial excitement for microarrays was quickly followed, for many scientists, with apprehension about appropriately analyzing large amounts of data of sometimes questionable quality. Most scientists have now developed an appreciation for the limitations and challenges presented by the technology.
Selection and characterization of FcεRI phospho-ITAM specific antibodies.

Post-translational modifications, such as the phosphorylation of tyrosines, are often the initiation step for intracellular signaling cascades. Pan-reactive antibodies against modified amino acids (e.g., anti-phosphotyrosine), which are often used to assay these changes, require isolation of the specific protein prior to analysis and do not identify the specific residue that has been modified (in the case that multiple amino acids have been modified). Phosphorylation state-specific antibodies (PSSAs) developed to recognize post-translational modifications within a specific amino acid sequence can be used to study the timeline of modifications during a signal cascade. We used the FceRI receptor as a model system to develop and characterize high-affinity PSSAs using phage and yeast display technologies. We selected three β-subunit antibodies that recognized: 1) phosphorylation of tyrosines Y218 or Y224; 2) phosphorylation of the Y228 tyrosine; and 3) phosphorylation of all three tyrosines. We used these antibodies to study the receptor activation timeline of FceR1 in rat basophilic leukemia cells (RBL-2H3) upon stimulation with DNP24-BSA. We also selected an antibody recognizing the N-terminal phosphorylation site of the γ-subunit (Y65) of the receptor and applied this antibody to evaluate receptor activation. Recognition patterns of these antibodies show different timelines for phosphorylation of tyrosines in both β and γ subunits. Our methodology provides a strategy to select antibodies specific to post-translational modifications and provides new reagents to study mast cell activation by the high-affinity IgE receptor, FceRI.
Inconsistent Harmonic Peaks in Patients with Continuous Left Ventricular Assist Devices at Baseline

Introduction Despite improvements in continuous left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), 8-11% of patients annually experience thrombosis. Quantitative acoustic analysis of LVADs has recently been investigated as a novel method of early thrombosis detection. Previous studies have shown the existence of peaks in sound amplitude at expected harmonics based on VAD speed, and changes in amplitude with thrombosis. However prior to utilizing this method to detect thrombosis in patients, it is important to establish a baseline of acoustics in VAD patients with no known thrombosis. Hypothesis In patients with HeartMateII (HMII) and HeartMateIII (HMIII) LVADs, with no clinical indication of thrombosis, there will be consistent characteristic peaks at the first 4 harmonics. Methods 19 HMII patients and 3 HMIII patients were recorded at the heart apex for 6-8 seconds using 3M™ Littmann® Electronic Stethoscope Model 3200. Patients were recorded at least once over 2 years, with 4 HMII and 2 HMIII patients recorded 2-3 times. Software used includes 3M™ Littmann® StethAssist™ to upload sound files, Audacity 2.1.2 to generate acoustic spectrum data via Fourier transform, and Microsoft Excel to visualize sound amplitude peaks in the frequency spectrum. Expected harmonic frequencies (Hλ) based on LVAD speed were calculated with the equation: Hλ = (n*RPM)/60. Patient demographics, VAD parameters, and laboratory studies were collected from the electronic medical record. Acoustics and patient data were analyzed, focusing on the presence or absence of the first four harmonics. Results In all HMII recordings, peaks were present at the 1st and 3rd harmonics. In 8 out of 19 HMII patients, all peaks 1-4 were present (Group 1). In 11 out of 19 HMII patients, either the 2nd +/- 4th peaks were missing (Group 2). Between the two groups there was no significant difference in vital signs, VAD parameters or labs. In Group 2, 3 out of 4 patients are missing the same harmonic peaks on subsequent recordings. Only one patient in Group 2 was inconsistent in peaks missing on subsequent recordings. In all HMIII recordings peaks at the 1st, 2nd, and 4rd harmonics were present. Four out of five recordings showed an extra peak between the 2nd and 3rd harmonics. The 3rd harmonic was present in only one recording and had a smaller sound amplitude than other peaks. Conclusions Although other studies have shown data with consistent peaks at all expected 1-4th harmonics, our study did not find this to be true. In HMII devices, it appears 1st and 3rd harmonics are most consistent across patients, while the 1st, 2nd, and 4th harmonics are most consistent in HMIII devices. Individual patients remain relatively consistent in harmonics missing, and therefore baseline acoustic spectrums may be patient specific similar to other VAD parameters. Consequentially, it may be necessary to determine a patient's own baseline acoustics and use the deviation as an indicator of possible pathology or significant physiologic change.
Is 'best interests' the right standard in cases like that of Charlie Gard?

Savulescu and colleagues have provided interesting insights into how the UK public view the ‘best interests’ of children like Charlie Gard. But is best interests the right standard for evaluating these types of cases? In the USA, both clinical decisions and legal judgments tend to follow the ‘harm principle’, which holds that parental choices for their children should prevail unless their decisions subject the child to avoidable harm. The case of Charlie Gard, and others like it, show how the USA and the UK have strikingly different approaches for making decisions about the treatment of severely disabled children.
Predicting surgical outcomes for patients with complicated refractory seizures.

1481 Objectives: To predict and optimize surgical outcomes of patients with refractory seizures using a combination of PET-CT imaging, scalp EEG (SEEG) and intracranial EEG (IEEG) lead tracing. Methods: Patients, who underwent PET-CT brain imaging and scalp and intracranial EEG localization of seizure focus followed by surgical resection between Jan, 2014 and October, 2016 were included. All PET-CT scans were interpreted by an experienced reader with no knowledge of the clinical or SEEG and IEEG results. An area of hypometabolism on PET-CT scan was identified as the possible site of seizure focus. The identified possible site of seizure focus with PET-CT was correlated with the suggested site using SEEG and subsequently IEEG. Correlation of agreements between PET-CT findings with SEEG and IEEG as well as correlation with the surgical outcome as seizure free, improved seizures or no change in seizure activity was performed. Results: After IRB approval, 36 patients were included, 20 females and 16 males with a mean age of 23.7 years old. All patients had pre-surgical PET-CT scan and SEEG and 28 patients had IEEG. Concordant site of seizure focus was detected in 7 patients (19%) between PET-CT and SEEG and in 9 patients (32%) between PET-CT and IEEG. Discordant sites were demonstrated in 29 patients (81%) between PET and SEEG and in 19 patients between PET and IEEG. The surgeon usually used the SEEG localization for IEEG mapping and decision on site of resection. Thirty three patients had surgical resection of seizure focus, and 3 patients had vagal nerve stimulation (VNS). The surgical outcomes of the patients in the PET/SEEG concordant and discordant groups are summarized in the table below: Conclusions: Surgical outcome is favorable in all patients with concordant PET and SEEG results. Patients with discordant results have uncertain surgical outcomes with almost equal chance of favorable versus unfavorable surgical outcomes when guided by SEEG alone.
Heuristic/meta-heuristic methods for restricted bin packing problem

This paper addresses a special bin packing problem in which each item can only be assigned to a subset of the bins. We name this problem as the restricted bin packing problem (RBPP). This paper is designed to explore the relationships of RBPP with classic NP-complete problems, and to resolve the restrictions of assignment through heuristic and meta-heuristic algorithms. A new heuristic algorithm named ‘Max-fit Based on Zigzag Sorting with Retained Feasibility’ is proposed. In this heuristic algorithm, a feasibility retaining rule is constructed to assure the assignment of every item; a zigzag sorting method is designed to improve the performance of the algorithm. Our heuristic algorithm is able to generate better results in comparison with existing heuristics. Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP) and Simulated Annealing (SA) are exploited to obtain better solutions for RBPP. A new construction method based on cliques and zigzag sorting are built for GRASP and SA. The proposed methods are shown to have higher efficiency than traditional ones through numeric examples.
Achilles Tendon Morphology Is Related to Triceps Surae Muscle Size and Peak Plantarflexion Torques During Walking in Young but Not Older Adults.

The interaction of the triceps surae muscles and the Achilles tendon is critical in producing the ankle plantarflexion torque required for human walking. Deficits in plantarflexor output are a hallmark of reduced mobility in older adults and are likely associated with changes in the triceps surae muscles that occur with age. Structural differences between young and older adults have been observed in the Achilles tendon and in the triceps surae muscles. However, less is known about how age-related differences in muscle and tendon morphology correspond with each other and, furthermore, how those morphology differences correlate with age-related deficits in function. The goal of this work was to investigate whether there is a correlation between age-related differences in triceps surae muscle size and Achilles tendon cross-sectional area (CSA) and whether either is predictive of ankle plantarflexion torque during walking. We used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure triceps surae muscle volumes and tendon CSAs in young (n = 14, age: 26 ± 4 years) and older (n = 7, age: 66 ± 5 years) adults, and we determined peak plantarflexion torques during treadmill walking. We found that individual muscle volumes as a percentage of the total triceps surae volume did not differ between young and older adults, though muscle volumes per body size (normalized by the product of height and mass) were smaller in older adults. Achilles tendon CSA was correlated with body size and muscle volumes in young adults but not in older adults. The ratio of tendon CSA to total triceps surae muscle volume was significantly greater in older adults. Peak ankle plantarflexion torque during walking correlated with body size and triceps surae volume in young and older adults but was correlated with tendon CSA only in the young adults. Structure-function relationships that seem to exist between the Achilles tendon and the triceps surae muscles in young adults are no longer evident in all older adults. Understanding mechanisms that determine altered Achilles tendon CSA in older adults may provide insight into age-related changes in function.
Hispanic Male Recruitment into Obesity-Related Research: Evaluating Content Messaging Strategies, Experimental Findings, and Practical Implications:

Hispanic men have the highest prevalence of overweight and obesity among men in the U.S. Current research is lacking to inform best practices to engage Hispanic men in obesity-related research. The...
Us Foreign Direct Investments and Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Panel Data

This paper uses panel data for the period ranging from 1996 to 2013 to investigate the contribution of US foreign direct investment to economic growth in fourteen Sub-Saharan African Countries. We apply the fixed and random effects model as well as the Generalized Method of Moments model to estimate two different equations. In the first equation, capital stock is estimated to include US foreign direct investments for selected years while the second equation excludes US direct investment from the capital stock variable. The results of the estimations revealed that domestic capital significantly affect economic growth in these countries but found no discernible evidence that US FDI have any direct impact on economic growth in the host countries. The results also found significant effect of political stability and openness on the growth of Sub Saharan African countries. The implication of these findings is that the region can promote economic growth by mobilizing domestic resources, ensuring that there is political stability and opening their economies to external competition.