Data‐enabled cognitive modeling: Validating student engineers’ fuzzy design‐based decision‐making in a virtual design problem

The ability of future engineering professionals to solve complex real‐world problems depends on their design education and training. Because engineers engage with open‐ended problems in which there are unknown parameters and multiple competing objectives, they engage in fuzzy decision‐making, a method of making decisions that takes into account inherent imprecisions and uncertainties in the real world. In the design‐based decision‐making field, few studies have applied fuzzy decision‐making models to actual decision‐making process data. Thus, in this study, we use datasets on student decision‐making processes to validate approximate fuzzy models of student decision‐making, which we call data‐enabled cognitive modeling. The results of this study (1) show that simulated design problems provide rich datasets that enable analysis of student design decision‐making and (2) validate models of student design cognition that can inform future design curricula and help educators understand how students think about design problems

The Epidemiology of College Alcohol and Gambling Policies

Background: This article reports the first national assessment of patterns of drinking and gambling-related rulemaking on college campuses (e.g., punitive versus recovery oriented). Analyses relating school policies to known school rates of drinking or gambling identified potentially influential policies. These results can inform and encourage the development of guidelines, or "best practices," upon which schools can base future policy. Methods: The college policy information was collected from handbooks, Web sites and supplemental materials of 119 scientifically selected colleges included in the fourth (2001) Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS). A coding instrument of 40 items measured the scope and focus of school alcohol and gambling policies. This instrument included items to measure the presence of specific policies and establish whether the policies were punitive or rehabilitative. A total of 11 coders followed a process of information extraction, coding and arbitration used successfully in other published studies to codify policy information. Results: Although all schools had a student alcohol use policy, only 26 schools (22%) had a gambling policy. Punitive and restrictive alcohol policies were most prevalent; recovery-oriented policies were present at fewer than 30% of schools. Certain alcohol and gambling policies had significant relationships with student binge drinking rates. Conclusions: The relative lack of college recovery-oriented policies suggests that schools might be overlooking the value of rehabilitative measures in reducing addictive behaviors among students. Since there are few college gambling-related policies, schools might be missing an opportunity to inform students about the dangers of excessive gambling

Ariel - Volume 10 Number 1

Executive Editors Madalyn Schaefgen David Reich Business Manager David Reich News Editors Medical College Edward Zurad CAHS John Guardiani World Mark Zwanger Features Editors Meg Trexler Jim O\u27Brien Editorials Editor Jeffrey Banyas Photography and Sports Editor Stuart Singer Commons Editor Brenda Peterso

Robotic Radical Prostatectomy at a Teaching Community Hospital: Outcomes and Safety

Robotic prostatectomy was found to be a safe and successful option for prostate cancer treatment in a community teaching hospital

3q26 Amplification is Rarely Present in Women Whose LSIL Cytology does not Represent CIN 2+ Disease

Comparative Medicine - OneHealth and Comparative Medicine Poster SessionObjective: 10-17% of women with LSIL cytology truly have CIN 2+ disease at colposcopically directed biopsy and 20% of the CIN 2+ lesions derive from women with LSIL cytology. No molecular marker has yet been able to triage LSIL cytology effectively. If possible, the triage would spare women the referral to colposcopy. Irreversible chromosomal damage occurs during oncogenesis. Increasing cervical dysplastic severity occurs with increasing amplification of the 3q26 chromosomal region. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the test characteristics of 3q26 amplification in women whose routine cytology is reported as LSIL with emphasis on the negative predictive value for reassurance. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study using the available SurePath™ liquid cytology LSIL archival samples from women 17-59 years old which were linked to colposcopically directed biopsy samples taken on average 36 days after cytology sampling (3-90 day range). Nuclei from the LSIL samples were hybridized with a single-copy probe for the chromosome 3q26 region and a control probe for the centromeric alpha repeat sequence of chromosome 7, using standard FISH methods. Amplification was defined as five or more signals present in at least 2 cells. Results: Of the 68 paired cytology/biopsy samples, 3q26 amplification occurred in 40% of the women with CIN 2+ disease (sensitivity 95% CI: 12, 74). There was no amplification in 91% of women with less than CIN 2 disease (specificity 95% CI: 81, 97); and the negative predictive value was 90% (79, 96). Conclusions: The lack of 3q26 amplification in women with screening cytology LSIL results offers reassurance that CIN 2+ disease has not developed. Future prospective studies are ongoing

Perfluorochemical Liquid-Adenovirus Suspensions Enhance Gene Delivery to the Distal Lung

We compared lung delivery methods of recombinant adenovirus (rAd): (1) rAd suspended in saline, (2) rAd suspended in saline followed by a pulse-chase of a perfluorochemical (PFC) liquid mixture, and (3) a PFC-rAd suspension. Cell uptake, distribution, and temporal expression of rAd were examined using A549 cells, a murine model using luciferase bioluminescence, and histological analyses. Relative to saline, a 4X increase in transduction efficiency was observed in A549 cells exposed to PFC-rAd for 2–4 h. rAd transgene expression was improved in alveolar epithelial cells, and the level and distribution of luciferase expression when delivered in PFC-rAd suspensions consistently peaked at 24 h. These results demonstrate that PFC-rAd suspensions improve distribution and enhance rAd-mediated gene expression which has important implications in improving lung function by gene therapy

Longitudinal diffusion changes in prodromal and early HD: Evidence of white-matter tract deterioration

INTRODUCTION: Huntington's disease (HD) is a genetic neurodegenerative disorder that primarily affects striatal neurons. Striatal volume loss is present years before clinical diagnosis; however, white matter degradation may also occur prior to diagnosis. Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) can measure microstructural changes associated with degeneration that precede macrostructural changes. DWI derived measures enhance understanding of degeneration in prodromal HD (pre-HD). METHODS: As part of the PREDICT-HD study, N = 191 pre-HD individuals and 70 healthy controls underwent two or more (baseline and 1-5 year follow-up) DWI, with n = 649 total sessions. Images were processed using cutting-edge DWI analysis methods for large multicenter studies. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics were computed in selected tracts connecting the primary motor, primary somato-sensory, and premotor areas of the cortex with the subcortical caudate and putamen. Pre-HD participants were divided into three CAG-Age Product (CAP) score groups reflecting clinical diagnosis probability (low, medium, or high probabilities). Baseline and longitudinal group differences were examined using linear mixed models. RESULTS: Cross-sectional and longitudinal differences in DTI measures were present in all three CAP groups compared with controls. The high CAP group was most affected. CONCLUSIONS: This is the largest longitudinal DWI study of pre-HD to date. Findings showed DTI differences, consistent with white matter degeneration, were present up to a decade before predicted HD diagnosis. Our findings indicate a unique role for disrupted connectivity between the premotor area and the putamen, which may be closely tied to the onset of motor symptoms in HD. Hum Brain Mapp 38:1460-1477, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

A Unified Framework for the Infection Dynamics of Zoonotic Spillover and Spread.

A considerable amount of disease is transmitted from animals to humans and many of these zoonoses are neglected tropical diseases. As outbreaks of SARS, avian influenza and Ebola have demonstrated, however, zoonotic diseases are serious threats to global public health and are not just problems confined to remote regions. There are two fundamental, and poorly studied, stages of zoonotic disease emergence: 'spillover', i.e. transmission of pathogens from animals to humans, and 'stuttering transmission', i.e. when limited human-to-human infections occur, leading to self-limiting chains of transmission. We developed a transparent, theoretical framework, based on a generalization of Poisson processes with memory of past human infections, that unifies these stages. Once we have quantified pathogen dynamics in the reservoir, with some knowledge of the mechanism of contact, the approach provides a tool to estimate the likelihood of spillover events. Comparisons with independent agent-based models demonstrates the ability of the framework to correctly estimate the relative contributions of human-to-human vs animal transmission. As an illustrative example, we applied our model to Lassa fever, a rodent-borne, viral haemorrhagic disease common in West Africa, for which data on human outbreaks were available. The approach developed here is general and applicable to a range of zoonoses. This kind of methodology is of crucial importance for the scientific, medical and public health communities working at the interface between animal and human diseases to assess the risk associated with the disease and to plan intervention and appropriate control measures. The Lassa case study revealed important knowledge gaps, and opportunities, arising from limited knowledge of the temporal patterns in reporting, abundance of and infection prevalence in, the host reservoir.Natural Environment Research Council (project no.: NEJ001570-1), Department for International Development, Economic and Social Research Council, National Institute for Health Research, Science and Technology Directorate, Department of Homeland Security, Fogarty International Center USA, European Union FP7 (project ANTIGONE (contract number 278976)), Royal Society (Wolfson Research Merit Award), Alborada Trust, US National Institute of Health (P20GM103501, BAANIAID-DAIT-NIHQI2008031, HHSN272201000022C, HHSN272200900049C, 1U19AI109762, 1R01AI104621, 2R44AI088843), USAID/NIH PEER Health grant.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the Public Library of Science via http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.000495