cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Better together: multidisciplinary approach improves adherence to pelvic floor physical therapy

To determine whether consultation with pelvic floor physical therapy (PFPT) at the time of initial urogynecologic evaluation increases adherence to PFPT and to identify factors associated with PFPT attendance and completion. We performed a retrospective chart review of all patients evaluated for new urogynecology consultation at our institution in a 1-year period, abstracting data about demographics, diagnoses, and PFPT referral, attendance, and completion. Descriptive analyses compared patients who were referred to, attended, and completed PFPT, stratified by whether they saw PFPT the same day as their initial urogynecologic consultation. Logistic regression identified factors associated with PFPT attendance, completion, and referral. PFPT referral was made for 35% (335/958), of whom 67% attended and 42% completed PFPT. Patients who saw PFPT the same day as their first urogynecology visit were significantly more likely to attend PFPT than those who did not (91% vs. 61%, p < 0.001), but completion rates did not differ (49% vs. 41%, p = 0.15). PFPT attendance was higher among women who saw a PFPT the same day as their initial urogynecology appointment (p < 0.001) and among those aged ≥ 65 years (p = 0.015). Age ≥ 65 years and white, non-Hispanic race/ethnicity were associated with PFPT completion. Patients with a diagnosis of pelvic organ prolapse or urinary incontinence and those seen in multidisciplinary clinic were more likely to be referred to PFPT. PFPT consultation at the time of initial urogynecologic evaluation improves attendance of initial PFPT appointment, but does not improve completion rates.
Human-in-the-loop Learning for Personalized Diet Monitoring from Unstructured Mobile Data

Lifestyle interventions with the focus on diet are crucial in self-management and prevention of many chronic conditions, such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. Such interventions require a diet monitoring approach to estimate overall dietary composition and energy intake. Although wearable sensors have been used to estimate eating context (e.g., food type and eating time), accurate monitoring of dietary intake has remained a challenging problem. In particular, because monitoring dietary intake is a self-administered task that involves the end-user to record or report their nutrition intake, current diet monitoring technologies are prone to measurement errors related to challenges of human memory, estimation, and bias. New approaches based on mobile devices have been proposed to facilitate the process of dietary intake recording. These technologies require individuals to use mobile devices such as smartphones to record nutrition intake by either entering text or taking images of the food. Such approaches, however, suffer from errors due to low adherence to technology adoption and time sensitivity to the dietary intake context. In this article, we introduce EZNutriPal,1 an interactive diet monitoring system that operates on unstructured mobile data such as speech and free-text to facilitate dietary recording, real-time prompting, and personalized nutrition monitoring. EZNutriPal features a natural language processing unit that learns incrementally to add user-specific nutrition data and rules to the system. To prevent missing data that are required for dietary monitoring (e.g., calorie intake estimation), EZNutriPal devises an interactive operating mode that prompts the end-user to complete missing data in real-time. Additionally, we propose a combinatorial optimization approach to identify the most appropriate pairs of food names and food quantities in complex input sentences. We evaluate the performance of EZNutriPal using real data collected from 23 human subjects who participated in two user studies conducted in 13 days each. The results demonstrate that EZNutriPal achieves an accuracy of 89.7% in calorie intake estimation. We also assess the impacts of the incremental training and interactive prompting technologies on the accuracy of nutrient intake estimation and show that incremental training and interactive prompting improve the performance of diet monitoring by 49.6% and 29.1%, respectively, compared to a system without such computing units.
The effects of sleep deprivation and text messaging on pedestrian safety in university students.

Study objectives This study assesses the impact of sleep deprivation and text messaging on pedestrian injury risk. Methods A total of 36 university students engaged in a virtual reality pedestrian environment in two conditions: sleep deprived (no sleep previous night) and normal sleep (normal sleep routine). Sleep was assessed using actigraphy and pedestrian behavior via four outcomes: time to initiate crossing, time before contact with oncoming vehicle, hits/close calls, and looks left/right. During each condition, participants made half the crossings while text messaging. Participants also completed the Useful Field of View test, the Psychomotor Vigilance Test, and Conners' Continuous Performance Test in both conditions. Results While sleep deprived, students crossed significantly closer to oncoming vehicles compared with after normal sleep. While text messaging, crossed closer to vehicles and took longer to initiate crossings. Safety risks were amplified through combined sleep deprivation plus text messaging, leading to more virtual hits and close calls and shorter time before vehicle contact while crossing. Sleep-deprived students demonstrated impairments in functioning on cognitive tests. Conclusions University students' pedestrian behavior was generally riskier, and their cognitive functioning was impaired, when sleep deprived compared with after normal sleep. This effect was exacerbated when distracted by text messaging.
Carcinoid Tumors of the Middle Ear

Carcinoid tumors of the middle ear are rare, with only three previously reported cases. The authors report the light and electron microscopic and immunohistochemical features of two carcinoid tumors that occurred in a 34-year-old female and a 21-year-old male. Both presented with unilateral hearing loss. By light microscopic examination, both were characterized by trabecula of tall columnar cells with basal nuclei and no mitotic activity. Electron microscopic examination demonstrated large numbers of pleomorphic neurosecretory granules, perinuclear aggregates of intermediate filaments, cell junctions, and surface microvillous processes. Some cells contained intermediate filaments forming tonofilaments and lacked secretory granules. These cells stained for cytokeratin by immunoperoxidase and separated the neuroendocrine cells from the underlying basal lamina. The cells in this tumor stained for the molluscan cardioexcitatory peptide. Cells in both tumors also stained for pancreatic polypeptide. Neither case stained for lysozyme, insulin, glucagon, somatastatin, gastrin, substance P, thyroid-stimulating hormone, adrenocorticotropic hormone, Met-enkephalin, Leu-enkephalin, neuropeptide Y, peptide YY, neurotensin, Bombesin, serotonin, neuron-specific enolose, glial and neural filaments, S-100 protein, cholecystokinin, beta-endorphin, beta-human chorionic gonadotropin, luteinizing hormone/follicle-stimulating hormone, vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, prolactin or calcitonin. Carcinoid tumor of the middle ear can be distinguished from paraganglioma and middle ear adenoma.
Detection of Online Contract Cheating Through Stylometry: A Pilot Study

Contract cheating, instances in which a student enlists someone other than themselves to produce coursework, has been identified as a growing problem within academic integrity literature and in news headlines. The percentage of students who have utilized this type of cheating has been reported to range between 6% and 15.7%. Generational sentiments about cheating and the prevalent accessibility of contract cheating providers online seems to only have exacerbated the issue. The problem is that there is currently no simple means identified and verified to detect contract cheating, as available plagiarism detection software has been shown to be ineffective in these cases. One method that is commonly used for authorship authentication in nonacademic settings, stylometry, has been suggested as a potential means for detection. Stylometry uses various attributes of documents to determine if they were written by the same individual. This pilot study sought to assess the utility of three easy to use and readily available stylometry software systems to detect simulated cases of contract cheating on academic documents. Average accuracy ranged from 33% to 88.9%. While more research is necessary to further investigate the reliability of the best performing software packages, stylometry software appears to show significant promise for the potential detection of contract cheating.
Racial Differences in Risk Factors for Kidney Stone Formation.

Background and objectives Incidence of kidney stone disease is rising. It is not known whether mechanisms of stone formation differ across racial groups. Our objective was to identify differing lithogenic risk factors across racial groups in idiopathic nephrolithiasis. Design, setting, participants, & measurements We conducted a retrospective cohort study evaluating metabolic risk factors in black and age-matched white idiopathic stone formers at our tertiary referral center. We compared serum and urine metabolic risk factors pre- and post-treatment across racial groups using analysis of covariance. Generalized linear modeling was used to build regression models for risk of stone formation in both groups. Results Among 117 black and 172 white stone formers, urine volume was lower in black stone formers (1.4±0.8 versus 2.0±0.8 L/d, P Conclusions Black stone formers have lower 24-hour urine calcium excretion and urine volume. Increases in urine volume with treatment were associated with increased solute, but not free water, excretion in black stone formers. Podcast This article contains a podcast at https://www.asn-online.org/media/podcast/CJASN/2020_06_19_CJN12671019.mp3
A Comparison of Clients in a Differentiated Batterer Intervention Treatment Program: The Importance of Treatment Level Matching by Referral Sources.

Recent research has emphasized the applicability of the Principles of Effective Intervention for batterer intervention treatment programs (BIPs), including using differentiated treatment models for...
Calcination-Free Synthesis of Well-Dispersed and Sub-10 nm Spinel Ferrite Nanoparticles as High-Performance Anode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries: A Case Study of CoFe2O4

Spinel ferrites are promising anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) owing to their high theoretical specific capacities. However, their practical application is impeded by inherent low conductivity and severe volume expansion, which can be surpassed by increasing the surface-to-volume ratio of nanoparticles. Currently, most methods produce spinel ferrite nanoparticles with large size and severe aggregation, degrading their electrochemical performance. In this study, a low-temperature aminolytic route was designed to synthesize sub-10 nm CoFe2 O4 nanoparticles with good dispersion through carefully exploiting the reaction of acetates and oleylamine. The performance of CoFe2 O4 nanoparticles obtained by a traditional co-precipitation method was also investigated for comparison. This work demonstrates that CoFe2 O4 nanoparticles synthesized by the aminolytic route are promising as anode materials for LIBs. Besides, this method can be extended to design other spinel ferrites for energy storage devices with superior performance by simply changing the starting material, such as MnFe2 O4 , MgFe2 O4 , ZnFe2 O4 , and so on.
Liquid metal battery storage in an offshore wind turbine: Concept and economic analysis

Abstract As wind energy increases its global share of the electrical grid, the intermittency of wind becomes more problematic. To address the resulting mismatch between wind generation and grid demand, long-duration (day-long) low-cost energy storage is offered as a potential solution. Lithium-ion (Li-ion) storage is an obvious, well-developed candidate, but it is currently too expensive for such long-duration applications. Liquid metal battery (LMB) storage offers large cost reductions and recent technology developments indicate it may be viable for MW-scale storage. Accordingly, we investigate co-locating and integrating LMB and Li-ion storage within the substructure of an offshore wind turbine. Integration allows the substructure to cost-effectively double as a storage container and allows for costly electrical farm-to-shore connections to be reduced to near the average power size (by reducing peak power). These benefits are compared to the costs for battery integration. Simulations show that line size can be reduced by 20% with 4 h of storage or by 40% with 12 h of storage, with negligible capacity factor losses. However, with 24 h of average power storage using LMB, no line size reduction provided the best overall net value of the turbine-storage system due to the ability to capture all available wind energy and profit from energy arbitrage and full capacity credit. In general, LMB integrated storage results in an increased relative value with current system costs. Projected technology trends indicate that these benefits will significantly improve and that integrated Li-ion storage will also become cost-effective.
Egyptian Fractions with Denominators from Sequences Closed Under Doubling

Resolving a conjecture of Zhi-Wei Sun, we prove that every rational number can be represented as a sum of distinct unit fractions whose denominators are practical numbers. The same method applies to allowed denominators that are closed under multiplication by two and include a multiple of every positive integer, including the odious numbers, evil numbers, Hardy-Ramanujan numbers, Jordan-Polya numbers, and fibbinary numbers.
Echo Services: Foundational Middleware for a Science Cyberinfrastructure

This viewgraph presentation describes ECHO, an interoperability middleware solution. It uses open, XML-based APIs, and supports net-centric architectures and solutions. ECHO has a set of interoperable registries for both data (metadata) and services, and provides user accounts and a common infrastructure for the registries. It is built upon a layered architecture with extensible infrastructure for supporting community unique protocols. It has been operational since November, 2002 and it available as open source.
Corepressor System for Catabolite Repression of the lac Operon in Escherichia coli

Acetylated amino sugars, normally used in the biosynthesis of cell walls and cell membranes, were found to play a role as corepressors for catabolite repression of the lac operon in Escherichia coli. This conclusion was derived from studies conducted on mutants of E. coli that were able to assimilate an exogenous source of N-acetylglucosamine (AcGN) but were unable to dissimilate or grow on this compound. At concentrations less than 10(-4)m, AcGN caused severe catabolite repression of beta-galactosidase synthesis in cultures grown under either nonrepressed or partially repressed conditions. This repression occurred in the absence of any effect of AcGN on either the carbon and energy metabolism or the growth of the organism. In addition, this repression by AcGN occurred in a mutant strain that is constitutive for beta-galactosidase production, demonstrating that the AcGN effect does not involve the uptake of inducer. This model for the corepressor system of catabolite repression is discussed in relation to the existing theories on repression of the lac operon.
Factorization of Finite State Machines under Observational Equivalence

A usual approach to designing a complex concurrent system is to follow the topdown design methodology: the abstract specification of the system is decomposed into a network of communicating modules such that the behavior of the modules in composition is equivalent to the behavior of the system specification.
Preliminary validation of the Satisfaction With Decision scale with depressed primary care patients

Objective To conduct a preliminary validation of the Satisfaction With Decision (SWD) scale with depressed primary care patients. Design Cross-sectional observational pilot study using a postal survey. Setting and participants Depressed primary care patients (n = 97) who recently had made a new decision about antidepressant medication use completed surveys regarding their treatment decisions. Main variables Measures included patient-reported satisfaction with decision, decisional conflict, knowledge about depression and treatment, decision involvement, pain and health status, antidepressant medication efficacy, and satisfaction with health services. Results The SWD scale had good internal consistency reliability (α = 0.85). Evidence for construct validity was confirmed via a hypothesized pattern of relationships between the SWD scale and other measures. Decision satisfaction was associated with several issues of relevance for designing patient-centred decision support interventions: (1) knowledge about depression and treatment; (2) involvement in health-related decisions; and (3) aiding evaluation of trade-offs among pros and cons of treatment. Conclusions The results of this pilot study show that the SWD scale appears to be a psychometrically sound and practical measure for research with this population. Additional research is needed on the theoretical nature of decision satisfaction and developing and testing patient-centred decision support interventions for depression treatment.
Transfer of Myelin-Reactive Th17 Cells Impairs Endogenous Remyelination in the Central Nervous System of Cuprizone-Fed Mice

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease of the CNS characterized by inflammation and neurodegeneration. Animal models that enable the study of remyelination in the context of ongoing inflammation are greatly needed for the development of novel therapies that target the pathological inhibitory cues inherent to the MS plaque microenvironment. We report the development of an innovative animal model combining cuprizone-mediated demyelination with transfer of myelin-reactive CD4+ T cells. Characterization of this model reveals both Th1 and Th17 CD4+ T cells infiltrate the CNS of cuprizone-fed mice, with infiltration of Th17 cells being more efficient. Infiltration correlates with impaired spontaneous remyelination as evidenced by myelin protein expression, immunostaining, and ultrastructural analysis. Electron microscopic analysis further reveals that demyelinated axons are preserved but reduced in caliber. Examination of the immune response contributing to impaired remyelination highlights a role for peripheral monocytes with an M1 phenotype. This study demonstrates the development of a novel animal model that recapitulates elements of the microenvironment of the MS plaque and reveals an important role for T cells and peripheral monocytes in impairing endogenous remyelination in vivo. This model could be useful for testing putative MS therapies designed to enhance remyelination in the setting of active inflammation, and may also facilitate modeling the pathophysiology of denuded axons, which has been a challenge in rodents because they typically remyelinate very quickly.
Adverse Effects of Larkspur (Delphinium spp.) on Cattle

There are numerous species of larkspur (Delphinium spp.) in North America. Larkspurs are a major cause of cattle losses on western ranges in the USA, especially on foothill and mountain rangelands. The toxicity of larkspur species is due to various norditerpenoid alkaloids. In this article, we review the current knowledge regarding larkspur ecology and distribution, analytical technologies to study and quantify the toxins in larkspur, the toxicology of the larkspur plants and their individual toxins, known genetic variations in larkspur susceptibility, and current management recommendations to mitigate losses from larkspur poisoning.
An approach to systematic part design

The rise of solid modeling as a principal medium for mechanical product description can be traced to the requirement of informational completeness of geometric representations. Unfortunately, traditional geometry-based systems do not contain important information needed for many engineering activities and tend to force costly iterations in a product development cycle. We seek to understand spatial properties and combinatorial structure of mechanical parts in terms of simple interacting constructs related to part functionality and manufacturing processes. Existence of such a structure is illustrated for a simple part that is characterized in terms of its kinematics, strength, spatial containment, and manufacturing characteristics. The resulting explicit representation of correspondence between mechanical characteristics and spatial elements allows systematic product development, efficient modification procedures, and rational tolerancing approaches — eliminating many costly errors and iterations in a product development cycle. The study also highlights the lack of and the need for formal models supporting systematic design process.
Concept Decompositions for Large Sparse Text Data Using Clustering

Unlabeled document collections are becoming increasingly common and availables mining such data sets represents a major contemporary challenge. Using words as features, text documents are often represented as high-dimensional and sparse vectors–a few thousand dimensions and a sparsity of 95 to 99% is typical. In this paper, we study a certain spherical k-means algorithm for clustering such document vectors. The algorithm outputs k disjoint clusters each with a concept vector that is the centroid of the cluster normalized to have unit Euclidean norm. As our first contribution, we empirically demonstrate that, owing to the high-dimensionality and sparsity of the text data, the clusters produced by the algorithm have a certain “fractal-like” and “self-similar” behavior. As our second contribution, we introduce concept decompositions to approximate the matrix of document vectorss these decompositions are obtained by taking the least-squares approximation onto the linear subspace spanned by all the concept vectors. We empirically establish that the approximation errors of the concept decompositions are close to the best possible, namely, to truncated singular value decompositions. As our third contribution, we show that the concept vectors are localized in the word space, are sparse, and tend towards orthonormality. In contrast, the singular vectors are global in the word space and are dense. Nonetheless, we observe the surprising fact that the linear subspaces spanned by the concept vectors and the leading singular vectors are quite close in the sense of small principal angles between them. In conclusion, the concept vectors produced by the spherical k-means algorithm constitute a powerful sparse and localized “basis” for text data sets.
Social Development in Infancy: A 25-Year Perspective

Publisher Summary This chapter documents the significant shifts that have taken place in the field of infant social development in the last 25 years. It reviews the changes in the maturity of the study of infancy as a subdiscipline as indicated by shifts in organizational structures and publication patterns. The emphasis is on the changes in the main content themes that characterize the study of infant social development over the past 25. The chapter demonstrates how the views about central themes of development which guide infancy theory and research in this area have changed over the period of time.
Ethanol attenuates peripheral NMDAR-mediated vascular oxidative stress and pressor response.

Abstract There are no studies on the acute effect of ethanol on peripheral N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR)-mediated increases in reactive oxygen species (ROS) and blood pressure (BP). We tested the hypothesis that ethanol antagonism of peripheral NMDAR dampens systemic NMDA-evoked increases in vascular ROS and BP. We investigated the effect of ethanol (1 g/kg) on BP and heart rate (HR) responses elicited by systemic bolus (125–1000 μg/kg, intra-venous [i.v.]) or infused (180 μg/kg/min) NMDA in conscious male Sprague–Dawley rats. We also hypothesized that peripheral NMDAR blockade with DL-2-Amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid (AP-5; 5 mg/kg, i.v.) uncovers an ethanol- (1 or 1.5 g/kg) evoked hypotensive response. Ethanol attenuated the peripheral NMDAR-mediated pressor and bradycardic responses caused by NMDA infusion, and ex vivo studies revealed parallel ethanol attenuation of peripheral NMDAR-mediated increases in vascular ROS. While ethanol (1 or 1.5 g/kg) alone had no effect on BP, the higher dose caused a hypotensive response in the presence of NMDAR blockade (AP-5). Blood ethanol concentrations were not statistically different in the groups that received ethanol alone or along with NMDA or AP-5. These findings are the first to demonstrate ethanol attenuation of peripheral NMDAR-mediated pressor response, and the uncovering of ethanol-evoked hypotension in the presence of peripheral NMDAR blockade.
Modeling uncertainty in networks

Abstract Networks can be used to model many decision problems. However, many of these problems are difficult to solve in this manner due to the uncertainty involved. Therefore, a general model for networks is needed that can handle the uncertainty while still maintaining the basic properties of the network. Such a model is presented and its properties investigated. The particular model studied has many applications such as building evacuation, flexible manufacturing, and transportation.
Topology and the robot arm

A robot arm is in effect a smooth function from the space of positions of the arm to the space of positions of a coordinate frame attached to the end of the arm. For the most common robots built today, this means a map f: Tn→R3×SO3. We describe the singularities of this map. The set of rotational singularities is the set of arm positions where the axes of the links are parallel to a plane. Thus, it is always two-dimensional. Also, we show that f is homotopic to a map which factors through a circle, and represents the generator of π1(SO3). The engineering implication of these statements are discussed.
Estimating the uncertainty of land-cover extrapolations while constructing a raster map from tabular data

This paper presents novel techniques to estimate the uncertainty in extrapolations of spatially-explicit land-change simulation models. We illustrate the concept by mapping a historic landscape based on: 1) tabular data concerning the quantity in each land cover category at a distant point in time at the stratum level, 2) empirical maps from more recent points in time at the grid cell level, and 3) a simulation model that extrapolates land-cover change at the grid cell level. This paper focuses on the method to show uncertainty explicitly in the map of the simulated landscape at the distant point in time. The method requires that validation of the land-cover change model be quantified at the grid-cell level by Kappa for location (Klocation). The validation statistic is used to estimate the certainty in the extrapolation to a point in time where an empirical map does not exist. As an example, we reconstruct the 1951 landscape of the Ipswich River Watershed in Massachusetts, USA. The technique creates a map of 1951 simulated forest with an overall estimated accuracy of 0.91, with an estimated user’s accuracy ranging from 0.95 to 0.84. We anticipate that this method will become popular, because tabular information concerning land cover at coarse stratum-level scales is abundant, while digital maps of the specific location of land cover are needed at a finer spatial resolution. The method is a key to link non-spatial models with spatially-explicit models.
Parental involvement in child abuse prevention training: What do they learn?☆

This study examined the impact of parent education meetings on preschool parents' knowledge of child abuse. One hundred sixteen parents participated in the study. Parents were selected from seven preschool sites across California. Parent education appeared to have little effect upon (1) parents' knowledge of the prevalence of child sexual abuse, (2) indicators of abuse, or (3) parents' appropriate response to disclosures. Results from the parent data show the negligible effect of parent education as it is presently delivered. Few parents attend the meetings, and those who do learn very little.
Analog fault models: Back to the future?

Is it possible to create analog fault models that are theoretically valid, experimentally verifiable, and computationally efficient to support test developments and quality improvements? This presentation challenges the audience to face this question heads-on, given the variety of analog fault models in use in the past twenty years. We will review various efforts, from those relying on mapping manufacturing defects to devices and circuits to others relying on process variations, block-level parametric variations, and circuit-level specification variations. While the impediments to the development of a standard analog fault model are obvious, the procedures to create such a model have never been elucidated, always left as future work to be done later. Well, the future is now. The presentation, with audience participation, seeks to outline possible procedures to solve this problem defined in the past yet still continuing to affect current and future technologies.
Depressor and bradycardic effects induced by spinal subarachnoid injection of D-Ala2-D-Leu5-enkephalin in rats.

Abstract The effects of D-Ala2-D-Leu5-enkephalin (DADLE), a specific delta receptor agonist, on spinal control of cardiovascular function, were investigated by its intrathecal (i.th) injection into the spinal subarachnoid space at the T-9 level. In chloralose-anesthetized rats, DADLE (17.5, 35 and 70 nmol, i.th) caused dose-dependent hypotension and bradycardia. The mean maximal hypotension by 70 nmol of DADLE was −45 ± 7 mmHg, with a bradycardia of −79 ± 15 beats/min. These inhibitory cardiovascular effects were antagonized by the opiate antagonist naloxone (50 nmol, i.th.) given prior to DADLE. Intrathecal injection of DADLE also decreased splanchnic sympathetic nerve discharge (−46 ± 5%). DADLE (70 nmol) given i.v. did not cause significant changes in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR). Neither bilateral vagotomy nor pretreatment with atropine (0.2 mg/kg, i.v.) prevented the BP and HR effects of intrathecal injection on DADLE at a dose of 35 nmol. DADLE at this dose failed to produce significant alteration in the frequency of respiration and blood PaO2, PaCO2 and blood pH. In conscious rats, 140 nmol of DADLE (i.th.) did not produce any consistent changes in MAP and HR. These data suggest that intrathecal injection of DADLE inhibits central sympathetic activity, possibly at a spinal locus.
Will 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3, MC 903, and Their Analogues Herald a New Pharmacologic Era for the Treatment of Psoriasis?

Psoriasis remains the scourge for at least 50 million people worldwide. Although there are a variety of therapies available to patients with this affliction including methoxsalen plus ultraviolet light (PUVA), methotrexate, UVB light, topical and intralesional corticosteroids, retinoids, and cyclosporine, to date there is no truly safe and effective therapy for this often debilitating disease. 1,2 From a historical perspective, many treatments for this affliction have resulted from folklore medicine, or serendipitous empirical observations. The cause for psoriasis is unknown, although the proximate event is a hyperproliferation of the epidermis. 3 As a result, most therapies have been designed to in some way alter the proliferative activity of epidermal cells, but in the manner that is often harmful to them. The recent development of retinoids for the treatment of psoriasis suggested the possibility of developing drugs that have specific physiologic and pharmacologic actions on epidermal cells. However, enthusiasm for retinoids
Thomas-Fermi statistical models of finite quark matter

Abstract I introduce and discuss models of finite quark matter using the formalism of the Thomas–Fermi statistical model. Similar to bag models, a vacuum energy density term is introduced to model long distance confinement, but the model produces bound states from the residual color Coulomb attraction even in the absence of such a term. I discuss three baryonic applications: an equal mass nonrelativistic model with and without volume pressure, the ultra-relativistic limit confined by volume pressure, and a color-flavor locking massless model. These models may be extended to multi-meson and other mixed hadronic states. Hopefully, it can help lead to a better understanding of the phenomenology of high multi-quark states in preparation for more detailed lattice QCD calculations.
Estimating platelet production in patients with HIV-related thrombocytopenia using the immature platelet fraction.

Thrombocytopenia is common in patients with HIV infection. However, given the number of potential etiologies of low-platelet counts in this patient population, it is often difficult to determine the underlying cause. The immature platelet fraction (IPF) measures the number of reticulated platelets in peripheral blood and can be used to help determine if thrombocytopenia is secondary to low-platelet production or increased platelet turnover. We studied the performance characteristics of the IPF% in 50 inpatients with HIV-related thrombocytopenia and compared the results with 34 inpatients with HIV and normal platelet counts. The mean IPF% in the HIV thrombocytopenic group was 10.2% as compared with 6.8% in the HIV normal platelet count group (P = 0.001) and 3.1% in historical non-HIV controls (P < 0.001). In multivariate analyses, the presence of ITP, active infection, log CD4 count, platelet count, and diabetes mellitus were significantly associated with a higher IPF%. These findings suggest that increased platelet turnover plays an important role in the pathogenesis of HIV thrombocytopenia. Platelet turnover is also increased in patients with HIV in general, even when overt thrombocytopenia is absent.
Behavioral and psychological correlates of type a behavior in children and adolescents: An overview

Abstract The present article presents an overview of the behavioral and psychological components which have been found to be associated with Type A behaviors in children and adolescents. Each component is discussed within the context of the assessment device used to measure it. with methodological concerns being addressed whenever appropriate. Using both observational methods and self-report questionnaires. the four major behavioral components of adult Type A behavior; competitive-achievement striving, time urgency, aggressiveness-hostility and impatience have been found in child/adolescent Type A subjects. Type A children have a lower self-esteem, a more external locus of control and higher anxiety level than their non-Type A counterpart. Coping mechanisms for stress and characteristic cognitions may differ in Type A subjects as they progress from childhood through adolescence. Recommendations for future research are presented.
Vertebral chondrosarcoma with extensive pulmonary metastases in a dog.

The clinical, radiological and pathological features of a chondrosarcoma of the second thoracic vertebra with extensive pulmonary metastases in a dog are presented. Resume. On presente les particularites cliniques, radiologiques et pathologiques d'un cas de chondrosarcome de la deuxieme vertebre thoracique, accompagne de metastases pulmonaires intenses. rencontre chez un chien. Zusammenfassung. Die klinischen, radiologischen und pathologischen Merkmale eines Chondrosarkoms des zweiten Brustwirbels mit ausgedehnten Lungenmetastasen bci einern Hund werden beschrieben.
Phase transitions in the problem of the decay of a metastable state.

The decay of a metastable state is studied by means of a functional-integral approach. Depending on the shape of the potential barrier, the crossover from thermal activation to thermally assisted quantum tunneling is either a first- or second-order phase transition on temperature. Below the crossover temperature, first-order transitions between different tunneling regimes are possible. The general features of these transitions, and the possibilities to observe them, are discussed.
Seizure exacerbation associated with inhibition of progesterone metabolism

The reduced progesterone metabolite tetrahydroprogesterone is a potent positive modulator of GABA(A) chloride conductance that exerts powerful neuroinhibitiory and anti-seizure effects in animal models. Cyclic natural progesterone use may lessen seizure frequency in women with catamenial seizure exacerbation. We report a case in which efficacy was eliminated during concomitant treatment with a reductase inhibitor. The observation suggests that a reduced metabolite, rather than progesterone itself, was responsible for improved seizure control.
Computer simulation and optimization of a free-space optical interconnection system

The optical transpose interconnection system (OTIS) provides a good interconnection using only a pair of lenslet arrays. We have designed and optimized various OTIS systems based on refractive, spherical diffractive, and aspheric diffractive lenslets. The optimization goal is to maximize power coupling into the elements of a detector array. The various design approaches are compared and the optimal design is extracted; the parameters of the model are then to be used for the fabrication of the lenslet array. We also address system geometry, symmetry, and illumination issues relevant to the system design.
Development of a highly selective, orally bioavailable and CNS penetrant M1 agonist derived from the MLPCN probe ML071.

Herein we report the discovery and SAR of a novel series of M1 agonists based on the MLPCN probe, ML071. From this, VU0364572 emerged as a potent, orally bioavailable and CNS penetrant M1 agonist with high selectivity, clean ancillary pharmacology and enantiospecific activity.
Probing a complex question: when are SNARE proteins ensnared?

A recent study uses elegant microphysiological and molecular tools to investigate the molecular basis and kinetics of vesicle exocytosis.
A fortran code for automatic spectrum analysis on medium-scale computers

Abstract Title of program : PEAK2 Catalogue number : ABML Program obtainable from : CPC Program Library, Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland (see application form in this issue) Computer : IBM 370/155 and 370/158; Installation : The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, USA Operating system : OS/MVT Programming language used : FORTRAN IV (G) High-speed store required : 14,000 words (56 kbt) at execution time Number of bits in a word : 32 Overlay structure : None Number of magnetic tapes required : None Other peripherals used : Card reader, line printer Number of cards in combined program and test deck : 1290 Card punching code : EBCDIC
Carbon and nitrogen mineralization in subarctic agricultural and forest soils

C and N mineralization potentials were determined, in a 12-week laboratory incubation study, on soil samples obtained from recently cleared land which had been cropped to barley for 4 years (field soils) and from nearby undisturbed taiga (forest soils). Treatments for the cropped soils were conventional and no-tillage with and without crop residues removed. An average of about 3% of the total C was evolved as CO2 from the field soils compared with > 10% and 4% for the upper (Oie) and lower (Oa) forest-floor horizons, respectively. Significantly more C was mineralized from the Ap of the no-till treatment with residue left on the surface than from the other field Ap horizons. Both forest-floor horizons showed rather long lag periods for net mineralization compared with the field soils, but at the end of the incubation, more mineral N was recovered from the forest Oie despite a rather wide C:N ratio, than from the field soils. After 12 weeks about 115, 200 and 20 μg mineral N/g soil were recovered from the field Ap, the forest Oie and the forest Oa horizons, respectively. Very little C or N was mineralized from the B horizon of the forest or the field soils. Nitrification was rapid and virtually complete for the field soils but was negligible for both forest-floor O horizons.
Preparation of Pb-Bi film by alloy evaporation I: Film composition control☆

Abstract Pb-Bi films in h.c.p. phase (e-PbBi) suitable for lead alloy Josephson junction counterelectrodes are typically prepared by evaporating a Pb-Bi alloy from a single r.f.-induction-heated crucible. The composition of such films is generally expected to be different from that of the source. In order to obtain a single-phase e-PbBi film which covers only a small range of bismuth content (about 27–32 wt.% Bi), good control of film composition is required. The relationship between film and source composition can be theoretically estimated, using the Hertz-Knudsen-Langmuir (HKL) equation and assuming comparable sticking coefficients among the alloy constituents. Taking into account the contribution of bismuth monomers and dimers to the total partial pressure of bismuth in Pb-Bi vapor, we predicted that there exists an optimum source temperature T o , or equivalently an optimum evaporation rate r o , for alloy evaporation to obtain Pb-Bi films of the same composition as the source. It was also predicted that T o should be a function of source composition because of the contribution of bismuth dimers present in bismuth vapor. Experiments were carried out to evaluate these predictions. Several alloy sources of known composition were evaporated to depletion, each at a different fixed rate. Films of 1–2 μm thickness were collected onto silicon substrates at a series of predetermined evaporation time intervals. The film composition was determined by controlled-potential coulometry which is accurate to ±0.2 wt.% Bi for film weights of 2 mg or more. Experimental results confirmed the existence of an optimum evaporation rate, corresponding to T o , for a given source composition as predicted from the HKL equation. The optimum evaporation rate was also found to increase as expected with decreasing bismuth content. The optimum evaporation temperatures for 27% Bi and 29% Bi sources were measured to be 1080 ± 10 K and 1022 ± 10 K respectively, which are about 100 K higher than the predicted values. The discrepancy is believed to be mainly due to the use of an open crucible in this work causing the vapor pressure over the melt, at a given temperature, to be lower than the equilibrium value and the T o value to increase. The difference in T o values for two sources of different bismuth contents used in this experiment is in good agreement with the predicted value.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FREE ASSOCIATIONAL AND JUDGMENTAL MEASURES OF WORD RELATEDNESS.

Judgments of degree of associative relatedness were obtained for the members of S-R pairs selected from free associational norms. Each of 13 pairs, designated as taxonomic, represented a different conceptual category. The individual members of each of 13 pairs, designated as associative, were not taxonomically similar. The inter-item free associational strengths of the two types of pairs varied from high to low. A separate group of 20 Ss was assigned to each list to give judgments of the forward and reverse associative strengths of the individual pairs. The correlations between the free associational and judgmental measures of the relatedness of the members of the pairs were highly significant.
Natural History of Senile Disciform Macular Dystrophy

Twenty-nine patients with severe visual loss in one eye from disciform macular dystrophy were prospectively studied for the incidence of visual loss in the fellow eye. Four developed such loss in the second eye during a mean period of follow-up of 32 months from the time of onset of visual loss in the first eye, an annual incidence rate of 5.2%. The degree of drusen and retinal pigment epithelial and subretinal pigment epithelial pathology correlated positively with the incidence of visual loss in the fellow eye.
On the application of blind source separation for damping estimation of bridges under traffic loading

Abstract The accurate and reliable estimation of modal damping from output-only vibration measurements of structural systems is a continuing challenge in the fields of operational modal analysis (OMA) and system identification. In this paper a modified version of the blind source separation (BSS)-based Second-Order Blind Identification (SOBI) method was used to perform modal damping identification on a model bridge structure under varying loading conditions. The bridge model was created with finite elements and consisted of a series of stringer beams supported by a larger girder. The excitation was separated into two categories: ambient noise and traffic loads with noise modeled with random forcing vectors and traffic simulated with moving loads for cars and partially distributed moving masses for trains. The acceleration responses were treated as the mixed output signals for the BSS algorithm. The modified SOBI method used a windowing technique to maximize the amount of information used for blind identification from the responses. The modified SOBI method successfully found the mode shapes for both types of excitation with strong accuracy, but power spectral densities (PSDs) of the recovered modal responses showed signs of distortion for the traffic simulations. The distortion had an adverse affect on the damping ratio estimates for some of the modes but no correlation could be found between the accuracy of the damping estimates and the accuracy of the recovered mode shapes. The responses and their PSDs were compared to real-world collected data and patterns similar to distortion were observed implying that this issue likely affects real-world estimates.
Student and Faculty Perceptions of Innovative Teaching

This study explored student and faculty perceptions of innovative teaching. Forty-eight faculty and 52 students at a southeastern university participated in interviews during which they were asked to free-list characteristics of innovative teaching. At the second stage of the study, separate lists for faculty and students were developed and e-mailed to participants, which produced faculty and student profiles of perceived characteristics of innovative teaching. Interestingly, although cultural consensus analysis indicated within-sample agreement for the faculty and student samples, the descriptors/characteristics of innovative teaching and their rankings differed for the two samples. Implications for education are discussed.
Mental Practice to Facilitate Learning When Physical Practice is Unsafe: A Pilot Study

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a prescribed mental practice (MP) home program on participants’ ability to perform a newly learned floor-to-chair transfer and their ability to direct a caregiver in that transfer. Three community-dwelling older adults volunteered to participate in the intervention, which consisted of a traditional transfer training session followed by a 6-week MP home program involving repeated mental rehearsal of the transfer. Transfer performance was scored at baseline and three times over 12 weeks. Two of the three participants demonstrated improvement in transfer performance throughout the intervention program and retained the improvement through a 6-week nonintervention period. None of the participants demonstrated a consistent ability to direct a caregiver. This study indicates a positive influence of an MP home program on performance and retention of a floor-to-chair transfer over time. It did not support the use of MP to promote the ability to direct ...