cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Calcium-mediated breakdown of glial filaments and neurofilaments in rat optic nerve and spinal cord.

Disruptive effects of calcium upon neurofilaments and glial filaments were studied in white matter of rat optic nerve and spinal cord and in rat peripheral nerve. Filament ultrastructure and tissue protein composition were compared following a calcium influx into excised tissues. A calcium influx was induced by freeze-thawing tissues in media containing calcium (5 mM) while control tissues were freeze-thawed in the presence of EGTA (5 mM). Experimental and control tissues were either fixed by immersion in glutaraldehyde and processed for electron microscopic examination or homogenized in a solubilizing buffer and analyzed for protein content by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Morphological studies showed that calcium influxes led to the loss of neurofilaments and glial filaments and to their replacement by an amorphous granular material. These morphological changes were accompanied by the loss of neurofilament triplet proteins and glial fibrillary acidic (GFA) protein from whole-tissue homogenates. In addition, a calcium-sensitive 58,000-mol-wt protein was identified in rat optic and peripheral nerve. The findings indicate the widespread occurrence of neurofilament proteolysis following calcium influxes into CNS and PNS tissues. The parallel breakdown of glial filaments and loss of GFA protein subunits suggest the presence of additional calcium-activated proteases(s) in astroglial cells.
Patterns of substance abuse in pathological gamblers undergoing treatment

Abstract Increasing public exposure to gambling as a recreational option is leading to increased pathological gambling. The prevalence and correlates of substance abuse in a population of severe pathological gamblers is investigated. The results indicate a high rate of alcohol abuse and drug abuse in this population and in their biological families. The implications of these findings for clinicians working with pathological gamblers and substance abusers are discussed.
Consideration of Corticosteroid Action in Ophthalmology

Summary Corticosteroids are relatively benign when given in large doses for a few days only but may be associated with severe side effects when administered continuously. Our knowledge of the action of corticosteroids has increased in the past 25 years, e.g., cellular receptors for corticosteroids, effect on blood elements, on intraocular pressure, pseudocholinesterase and drug interactions. The anti-inflammatory effect of corticosteroids may include membrane stabilization but other actions may be equally important. Some corticosteroids are less likely to induce ocular hypertension and should be given preference when the anti-inflammatory actions are satisfactory. Combinations of antibiotics and corticosteroids do have a place in ocular therapy. Patients with open angle glaucoma may have an increased sensitivity to topical and systemic steroids. Tests may be performed to determine the proper fashion to withdraw corticosteroid therapy. Allergies and uveitis may be induced by corticosteroids. Pseudocholinesterase values may be depressed by large oral doses of corticosteroids. There are a number of drugs with which the corticosteroids may interact.
Limitations of nonlinear stabilization over erasure channels

In this paper, we study the problem of control of nonlinear systems over an erasure channel. The stability and performance metric are adopted from the ergodic theory of random dynamical systems to study the almost sure and second moment stabilization problem. The main result of this paper proves that, while there are no limitations for the almost sure stabilization, fundamental limitations arise for the second moment stabilization. In particular, we provide a necessary condition for the second moment stabilization of multi-state single input nonlinear systems expressed in terms of the probability of erasure and positive Lyapunov exponents of the open loop unstable system. The dependence of the limitation result on the Lyapunov exponents highlights, for the first time, the important role played by the global non-equilibrium dynamics of the nonlinear systems in obtaining the performance limitation. This result generalizes the existing results for the stabilization of linear time invariant systems over erasure channels and differs from the existing Bode-like fundamental limitation results for nonlinear systems, which are expressed in terms of the eigenvalues of the linearization.
Counseling about and use of emergency contraception in the United States.

CONTEXT: Few nationally representative studies have examined the prevalence and predictors of emergency contraception use or of receipt of counseling about the method. The impact of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2006 approval of behind-the-counter sales of the method to women aged 18 and older remains to be seen; therefore, understanding patterns of use and counseling before the 2006 policy change is necessary to assess its impact. METHODS: Data collected from 7,643 women aged 15–44 participating in the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth were analyzed using multivariable logistic regression to assess predictors of receipt of counseling and use of emergency contraception. RESULTS: Overall, 3% of women reported that a clinician had discussed emergency contraception with them in the past year, and 4% of those who had ever had sex with a man reported having used the method. Only 4% of those who had seen a gynecologist in the past year reported having received counseling. Women’s likelihood of having received counseling was reduced if they were 30 or older (odds ratio, 0.2), and was elevated if they were Hispanic (4.1), black (2.6) or ever-married (2.4). Receipt of counseling in the last 12 months was the strongest predictor of ever-use (11.7). CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians can play a pivotal role in ensuring that women have accurate information about how to access and use emergency contraception. However, efforts are needed to explore other ways to deliver this counseling.
Spinodal decomposition during continuous cooling

Abstract Spinodal decomposition of a binary solid solution during continuous cooling should lead to a structure that is similar to that resulting from isothermal decomposition, consisting of a superimposition of sinusoidally varying composition modulations clustered about a wavelength λmax that has received maximum amplification. For quench rates which are fast enough to preclude complete decomposition, the profile of the composition-amplitude spectrum is independent of quench rate and the logarithm of the amplitude is inversely proportional to the quench rate. With slower quench rates in which complete decomposition occurs, λmax increases as the — ( 1 6 ) power of the quench rate. The limiting cooling rate required to suppress decomposition, as well as the composition dependence of λmax, are also obtained. These results have been summarized as isothermal-transformation and continuous-cooling-transformation diagrams for spinodal decomposition.
Short communication: Evidence for methylglyoxal-mediated browning of Parmesan cheese during low temperature storage

Brown pigmentation can occasionally form in Parmesan cheese during the ripening process, creating an unappealing appearance and associated off-flavors. The browning reactions proceed at refrigerated temperatures and in the relative absence of reducing sugar, contrary to typical Maillard browning. Residual sugars, lipid oxidation products, byproducts of fermentation, and (or) enzymes may react with primary amines in cheese to form brown pigmentation and concomitantly generate volatile compounds unique to each of these reactions. Determining the volatile profiles provides a means of understanding the potential substrates involved and causative reaction pathways. This work is divided into 2 segments. The first portion characterized the pigmentation and the browning index of Parmesan cheeses with and without extensive browning. The second phase examined the volatile character of the cheeses using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Various pyrazines, such as 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine and 3,5-diethyl-2-methylpyrazine, were found in the brown cheeses but were not present in the white samples. The formation of pyrazines is proposed to result from the spontaneous condensation of aminoacetone. Aminoacetone can be formed by the Strecker degradation of amino acids with methylglyoxal, the latter a byproduct of sugar fermentation. Evidence is provided to support a browning pathway mediated by the production of methylglyoxal in Parmesan cheese.
Forensic Neuropsychology and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Over the last 20 years, the Courts and the legal community have increasingly relied on neuropsychologists to provide opinions, guidance, and expertise in the area of brain–behavior relationships. The purpose of this article is to review issues neuropsychologists commonly face when asked to evaluate cases with suspected mild traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in the civil or criminal legal context. In particular, we will discuss: (a) the neuropsychologist’s role in TBI forensic cases, (b) the attorney’s role in forensic TBI cases, (c) a neuropsychological framework to approach forensic mild TBI cases, (d) establishing working relationships with attorneys, (e) the Daubert and Frye standards, (f) symptom validity, (g) ethical issues, and (h) recommendations to improve the ecological validity of our tests and encourage test developers to provide alternate forms of tests.
Discriminability of brightness change for infants

Abstract Four-month-old human infants who were habituated to a 490-nm stimulus of 3.5 cd · m−2 luminance did not show recovery when the stimulus was increased or decreased in luminance by a factor of 2 but not changed in hue. A fourfold luminance increase produced a recovery in looking time. When compared with earlier results on simultaneous discrimination of brightness change, the results imply that infants differ from adults more in ability to code or retrieve than in ability to detect intensive differences. The implication is further supported by the differentiating response of infants to changes in hue.
Coastal disasters from the perspective of ecological economics

Natural hazards are recurrent events that frequently result in high death tolls and large economic losses. Because of their large impact, they have concerned the international community for a long time. In spite of the efforts, the impact of natural hazards has increased. Oftentimes, the role of natural ecosystems and the ecosystem services they provide to human societies are not considered in risk reduction programs. How relevant are ecosystems? What are the consequences of the depletion of natural ecosystems and the loss of ecosystem services provided by them? Would the alternative vision of ecological economics, in which development and economy are seen as the Whole – the ecosystem – (Daly, H.E. and Farley, J., 2004. Ecological Economics: principles and applications. Island Press, Washington, DC., 454 pp.), be helpful in reducing disaster risk? In this paper we are set to test whether a holistic approach from the perspective of ecological economics is helpful to clarify and reduce the impact of natural hazards. We focused on hurricanes because they are the most frequently reported events of all natural disasters (Hewitt, K., 1997. Regions of Risk. Longman, Edinburgh Gate, 389 pp.). We analyze the relationship between the components of Human, Built, Social and Natural capitals with the damage caused by hurricanes in terms of mortality rate. We then generate a conceptual model to help envision the complexity of the system. A stepwise (back and forth steps) linear regression analysis revealed that mortality rate was significantly and positively affected by hurricane frequency (P < 0.01) while area covered by semi-altered ecosystems (a mosaic of natural and human-altered ecosystems) (P < 0.01) and GDP (P < 0.05) negatively affected mortality rate (R2 = 0.81). The proportion of natural/altered ecosystems yielding the best protection results needs to be determined yet. Natural capital alone does not decrease number of deaths. Rather, its complex interactions with the other capitals and the many feedback loops that are involved need to be considered to achieve effective disaster risk reduction. No single capital is enough to reduce the impact and intensity of natural hazard. A balance between Human, Built, Social and Natural capitals and an increasing awareness of the consequences of different development decisions, will help human societies to live with rather than cope with coastal hazards.
Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) exposure in children: possible associations with cardiovascular and psychological functions.

Background Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) have been used widely in consumer products and are currently found at detectable levels in the blood of humans and animals across the globe. In stark contrast to this widespread exposure to PBDEs, there is relatively little research on potential adverse health effects of exposure of children to these chemicals.
The regularized phase space path integral measure for Maxwell fields coupled to background gravity

Abstract In order to construct the phase space path integral for the Einstein-Maxwell system with the gravitational field kept external, one can use covariant quantization and gauge fix the U(1) symmetry before or after passing to the action in Hamiltonian form. In this paper we show that both approaches lead to the same phase space path integral up to redefinition of the external gravitational momentum. We then construct the Pauli-Villars action, which regularizes one-loop diagrams, and construct an Einstein invariant mass term. As a consequence Einstein anomalies are absent. We cast the gauge fixing and the ghost action in the usual pq − λα H α form by using a noncoordinate basis.
Accurate staging for gallbladder cancer: implications for surgical therapy and pathological assessment.

Background:This study evaluates the significance of tumor involvement of the liver in early T-stage tumors and lymph node (LN) metastases on outcome after R0 resection of gallbladder cancer (GBCA).Methods:A prospectively maintained database, supplemented with review of the medical record, was used t
Raman spectral studies of bleomycin A2 and related structural fragments: A probe for bleomycin–DNA interactions

Raman spectra have been obtained for bleomycin A2 and selected fragments. Virtually all of the features in the bleomycin Raman spectrum can be attributed to the preresonance enhanced vibrational transitions of the 2,4′-bithiazole moiety as determined by comparison to the Raman spectra of bithiazole fragments. The Raman spectrum of bleomycin is dominated by a very intense band at 1542 cm−1 that can be approximately assigned as a bithiazole ring stretching mode. This feature may serve as a probe of bithiazole environment in bleomysin -DNA interactions.
Actuator Constrained Optimal Formation Keeping Near the Libration Points

Spacecraft formations that evolve near the libration points of the Sun—Earth/Moon system are one option commonly considered for space-based interferometry applications. Although precision tracking is often envisioned as a requirement, earlier studies have already revealed that the dynamically sensitive nature of this region of space presents a number of unique challenges in this respect. For instance, physical hardware limitations, specifically related to the on-board actuators, can limit the attainable tracking accuracy. The goal of this investigation is to devise a numerical process that allows the designer to identify the maximum tracking accuracy achievable in the presence of actuator (e.g., thruster) constraints. This is accomplished through the application of direct optimization methods. A problem formulation is presented that effectively treats, within a nonlinear programming framework, problems with state and control discontinuities and problems involving temporally continuous but spatially discrete control variables. The results of this investigation lay the algorithmic foundation for future explorations involving multiple independent actuators each with its own set of constraints and switching dependencies.
Using the online webwork for student's homework practice in education

The goal of this project is to increase the success of students in learning mathematics and improve retention in STEM discipline via implementation of online WebWork in STEM education. This project will have broader impact on the teaching and learning mathematics by providing more effective and efficient homework practice. Students will benefit from the instant feedback since every homework problem is graded online. Instructors will also benefit greatly being relieved from the burden of manually checking homework and simultaneously being able to determine how well the students are learning the subject. The WebWork system has been adopted by over 100 colleges and universities in U.S. for Mathematics and Science homework delivery.
Differential Regulation of Cyclooxygenases 1 and 2 by Interleukin-1β, Tumor Necrosis Factor-α, and Transforming Growth Factor-β1 in Human Lung Fibroblasts

In the present studies we found that incubation of human lung fibroblasts with transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-beta 1) potentiated the interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) and/or tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha)-stimulated production of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). Analysis of fibroblast proteins showed the induction of cyclooxygenase-1 (Cox-1) by TGF-beta 1 and the induction of Cox-2 by IL-1 beta and TNF-alpha. The levels of transcripts for Cox-1 were minimally modified by IL-1 beta or TNF-alpha, however, they were increased by 12-fold by TGF-beta 1. Transcripts for Cox-2 were induced by IL-1 beta or TNF-alpha and their induction was potentiated by TGF-beta 1. TGF-beta 1 alone did not induce Cox-2 transcripts. In vitro transcription assays showed that IL-1 beta and TNF-alpha increased the transcription of the Cox-2 gene, whereas TGF-beta 1 had no effect. Addition of TGF-beta did not increase further the transcription of Cox-2 in IL-1 beta-treated cells, but increased the stability of the corresponding transcripts. The transcription rate of the Cox-1 gene was not increased by any of the cytokines studied. In summary, we demonstrate that the potentiation of PGE2 production by TGF-beta 1 in IL-1 beta and TNF-alpha-treated fibroblasts is the result of transcriptional stimulation of the Cox-2 gene by IL-1 beta and TNF-alpha and the stabilization of the resulting transcripts by TGF-beta 1.
Multi-dimensional advances in travel modeling

This issue includes five papers that highlight new developments in the formulation and application of travel demand models. As transportation and land use planners, policy and decision makers, and the traveling public confront increasingly complex travel environments, the need for robust behavioral models capable of simulating people’s activity and travel patterns in the time–space continuum has never been greater. Concerns about global climate change, economic development, energy sustainability, the environment, livability of communities, and social equity call for the development and application of new microsimulation model systems that are responsive to a host of policy variables, built environment and network attributes, and socio-economic and demographic characteristics. Over the past decade, the field of travel modeling has stepped up to the challenge with developments in model formulation and specification, application, and implementation happening on multiple fronts. The selection of five papers included in this special issue illustrates the progress that is being made in deploying the types of tools and systems needed to address the transportation, land use, and environmental planning challenges of the 21st century. The five papers in this issue capture the types of advances that are being made in travel modeling along multiple dimensions. These advances help analysts model and understand the impacts of alternative policies on various segments of society. For example, one could consider the potential effects of a pricing policy. In traditional travel modeling practice, it is extremely difficult—if not impossible—to obtain measures of benefits (or disbenefits) accrued by different socio-economic strata of society. It is possible that lower income segments of society may be more adversely impacted by a pricing policy than higher income groups. Environmental justice or social equity analysis is increasingly being demanded of transport policy analysts and models that microsimulate activity travel patterns at the level of the individual traveler are able to provide the rich level of detail needed for this purpose. Such an application is illustrated in the paper by Kickhofer, Grether, and
Nucleolar RNA synthesis in synchronous cultures of Strain L-929

Abstract Synchronous cultures of Strain L-929 cells obtained by selective harvesting demonstrate continuous RNA synthesis throughout interphase. There are distinctive peaks of nucleolar and non-nucleolar synthesis of RNA in late S and G2. The selective inhibition of nucleolar synthesis of RNA by a low concentration of actinomycin D results in the delay of mitosis 1.5 to 2.5 cell cycles later. The evidence indicates that the ribosomal material necessary for cell division is not produced in the interphase immediately preceding division but is produced in the interphase of an earlier cycle.
Dosage compensation of the Drosophila pseudoobscura Hsp82 gene and the Drosophila melanogaster Adh gene at ectopic sites in D. melanogaster.

Abstract Measurements were made of the amounts of larval RNA transcribed from the autosomal Adh gene of Drosophila melanogaster and the X chromosomal Hsp82 gene of Drosophila pseudoobscura carried on the same P-element transposon inserted at various sites in the D. melanogaster genome. Both genes were fully compensated at sites in euchromatic regions of the X chromosome but neither was compensated at a site in the centric beta-heterochromatin of the X chromosome. No compensation of the D. pseudoobscura Hsp82 gene was found at any of 10 autosomal insertion sites tested. The compensation behavior of the transposed genes was, therefore, not determined by closely linked sequences but instead was determined in each case by their new chromosomal environment.
A Surprise at Rosey's Beauty Salon: Towards Ethos, Values, and Codes of Ethics

I was merely on my lunch break during my day-to-day library duties at Brett College, attempting to get a quick hair cut before a couple of hours of reference commitment in the afternoon, when I had...
A modeling and experimental study of the influence of twist on the mechanical properties of high‐performance fiber yarns

Little data exist on how twist changes the properties of high-performance continuous fiber yarns. For this reason, a study was conducted to determine the influence of twist on the strength and stiffness of a variety of high-performance continuous polymeric fiber yarns. The materials investigated include Kevlar 29®, Kevlar 49®, Kevlar 149®, Vectran HS®, Spectra 900®, and Technora®. Mechanical property tests demonstrated that the initial modulus of a yarn monotonically decreases with increasing twist. A model based on composite theory was developed to elucidate the decrease in the modulus as a function of both the degree of twist and the elastic constants of the fibers. The modulus values predicted by the model have good agreement with those measured by experiment. The radial shear modulus of the fiber, which is difficult to measure, can be derived from the regression parameter of experimental data by the use of the model. Such information should be useful for some specialized applications of fibers, for example, fiber-reinforced composites. The experimental results show that the strength of these yarns can be improved by a slight twist. A high degree of twist damages the fibers and reduces the tensile strength of the yarn. The elongation to break of the yarns monotonically increases with the degree of twist. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 77: 1938–1949, 2000
Isolated ASL sign recognition system for deaf persons

The design and evaluation of a two-stage neural network which can recognize isolated ASL signs is given. The input to this network is the hand shape and position data obtained from a DataGlove mounted with a Polhemus sensor. The first level consists of four backpropagation neural networks which can recognize the sign language phonology, namely, the 36 hand shapes, 10 locations, 11 orientations, and 11 hand movements. The recognized phonemes from the beginning, middle, and end of the sign are fed to the second stage which recognizes the actual signs. Both backpropagation and Kohonen's self-organizing neural work was used to compare the performance and the expandability of the learned vocabulary. In the current work, six signers with differing hand sizes signed 14 signs which included hand shape, position, and motion fragile and triple robust signs. When a backpropagation network was used for the second stage, the results show that the network was able to recognize these signs with an overall accuracy of 86%. Further, the recognition results were linearly dependent on the size of the finger in relation to the metacarpophalangeal joint and the total length of the hand. When the second stage was a Kohonen's self-organizing network, the network could not only recognize the signs with 84% accuracy, but also expand its learned vocabulary through relabeling. >
Two-stage continuous speech recognition using feature-based models: a preliminary study

In recent research, we have demonstrated that linguistic features can be used to improve speech recognition for an isolated vocabulary recognition task. This paper addresses two important new research problems in our attempts to build a two-stage speech recognition system using linguistic features. First, through a controlled study we show that our knowledge-driven feature sets perform competitively when compared with similar classes discovered by data-driven approaches. Secondly, we show that the cohort idea can be effectively generalized to continuous speech. Improved recognition results are achieved using this two-stage framework on multiple speech recognition experiments, on conversational telephone quality speech.
Lessons for the future from a decade of informedia video analysis research

The overarching goal of the Informedia Digital Video Library project has been to achieve machine understanding of video media, including all aspects of search, retrieval, visualization and summarization in both contemporaneous and archival content collections. The base technology developed by the Informedia project combines speech, image and natural language understanding to automatically transcribe, segment and index broadcast video for intelligent search and image retrieval. While speech processing has been the most influential component in the success of the Informedia project, other modalities can be critical in various situations. Evaluations done in the context of the TRECVID benchmarks show that while some progress has been made, there is still a lot of work ahead. The fundamental “semantic gap” still exists, but there are a number of promising approaches to bridging it.
Am I doing the right thing? Provider perspectives on improving palliative care in the emergency department.

Study objective Although the focus of emergency care is on the diagnosis and treatment of acute illnesses and injuries or the stabilization of patients for ongoing treatment, some patients may benefit from a palliative approach. Little is known about delivering palliative care in the emergency department (ED). We explore the attitudes, experiences, and beliefs of emergency providers about palliative care in the ED, using structured qualitative methods. Methods We studied 3 focus groups with 26 providers, including 14 physicians (10 residents, 4 attending physicians), 6 nurses, 2 social workers, and 4 technicians, working in 2 academic EDs in Boston. We used a grounded theory approach to code responses, resolving discrepancies by consensus. Results Six distinct themes emerged: (1) participants equated palliative care with end-of-life care; (2) participants disagreed about the feasibility and desirability of providing palliative care in the ED; (3) patients for whom a palliative approach has been established often visit the ED because family members are distressed by end-of-life symptoms; (4) lack of communication between outpatient and ED providers leads to undesirable outcomes (eg, resuscitation of patients with a do-not-resuscitate order); (5) conflict around withholding life-prolonging treatment is common (eg, between patient's family and written advance directives); and (6) training in pain management is inadequate. Conclusion Providers ranked improved communication and documentation from outpatient providers as their highest priority for improvement. Attitudinal and structural barriers may need to be overcome to improve palliative care in the ED. Despite targeted recruitment, attending physician participation was low.
Sequential random coding error exponents for multiple access channels

Discrete-time memoryless multiple access channels (MACs) are a useful abstraction of the uplink for many centralized wireless systems. They capture the issues involved with many different users wanting to simultaneously send information to a single site. Traditional MAC analysis proceeds in the context of block codes with the messages being known in advance by the encoders. Instead, we look at a sequential setting. Each user's message evolves in real-time as bits stream in to the encoders. In this context, we look at the probability of error not at the block level, but at the bit-level. Furthermore, in place of block-length, we look at the delay between when the bit arrives at the encoder and when it is decoded by the central decoder. The sequential random coding error exponent is studied and shown to be positive in the whole achievable rate region for multiple access channels. Furthermore, we show that this exponent can be achieved in a delay-universal or "anytime" fashion in that the encoder does not have to specify the target delay. The choice of decoding delay is left up to the decoder which is free to vary this on an application specific basis - the longer it is willing to wait, the lower the probability of bit error will be.
Cytotoxic effects of natural killer cells have no significant role in controlling infection with the intracellular protozoon Eimeria vermiformis.

The course of infection with Eimeria vermiformis in C57BL/6J; NK cell-defective C57BL/6J bg/bg; BALB/c; T-cell-defective BALB/c nu/nu; and T-cell-, B-cell-, and NK cell-defective BALB/c x C57BL/6 scid/scid bg/bg mice was monitored. For young C57BL/6J mice, the bg/bg mutants consistently produced fewer oocysts than the controls; there were no differences between older mice of these strains. Wild-type BALB/c mice were more resistant to infection than the nu/nu and scid/scid bg/bg mutants, but there was no difference between the mutants. Treatment of BALB/c mice with poly(I.C) had no effect on the course of infection. These findings confirm the ineffectiveness of NK cells in this system.
GAS EXCHANGE AND ENZYME ACTIVITY DURING LEAF EXPANSION IN PHASEOLUS VULGARIS L.

SUMMARY Net photosynthesis, transpiration, boundary layer plus stomatal resistance to CO2 diffusion, and CO2 compensation point were monitored in the central leaflet of expanding first trifoliate leaves of Phaseolus vulgaris L. Simultaneously, the activities of three enzymes related to net photosynthesis, photorespiration and dark respiration were measured. Net photosynthesis rate and ribulose 1,5-diphosphate carboxylase activity increased with leaflet expansion, reaching peaks just prior to full expansion. Concurrently, boundary layer plus stomatal resistance, CO2 compensation point and malate dehydrogenase activity decreased, reaching lowest values at full leaflet expansion. Shortly after peak photosynthetic activity was reached all trends reversed, as the physiological activity of the first trifoliate leaf of this determinate type bean plant changed to that characterized by a senescing leaf.
Nocturnal eating: Association with binge eating, obesity, and psychological distress

Objective—To examine clinical correlates of nocturnal eating, a core behavioral symptom of night eating syndrome. Method—Data from 285 women who had participated in a two-stage screening for binge eating were utilized. Women (n = 41) who reported one or more nocturnal eating episodes in the past 28 days on the Eating Disorder Examination and women who did not report nocturnal eating (n =244) were compared on eating disorder symptomatology, Body Mass Index (BMI), and on measures of psychosocial adjustment. Results—Nocturnal eaters were significantly more likely to report binge eating and differed significantly from non-nocturnal eaters (with responses indicating greater disturbance) on weight and shape concern, eating concern, self-esteem, depression, and functional impairment, but not on BMI or dietary restraint. Group differences remained significant in analyses adjusting for binge eating. Conclusions—This study confirms the association between nocturnal eating and binge eating previously found in treatment seeking samples yet also suggests that the elevated eating disorder symptoms and decreased psychosocial adjustment observed in nocturnal eaters is not simply a function of binge eating.
Analyzing the London ambulance service's computer aided despatch (LASCAD) failure as a case of administrative evil

The 1992 failure of the London Ambulance Service's Computer Aided Despatch (LASCAD) system is well-known. This research suggests that it was not only a failure in a technical or methodological sense but that it was a case of administrative evil. Administrative evil is harm that well-meaning individuals unintentionally commit and remains hidden. Technical rationality and professional expertise create the system for this form of evil to occur. This paper discusses the notion of evil as it applies to organizational phenomena, describes the background and components of administrative evil, and examines the LASCAD case through the lens of administrative evil and the process of moral disengagement.
“This Isn’t About Casey Anthony Anymore” Political Rhetoric and Caylee’s Law

The 2011 trial of Casey Anthony for the murder of her child, Caylee, dominated media, public, and political attention in the United States. Anthony’s acquittal prompted many lawmakers to rally around “Caylee’s Law,” legislation that criminalizes the failure to report a missing child. This article considers the political rhetoric of Caylee’s Law by qualitatively evaluating statements made by state policymakers across the United States for the 12 months following Anthony’s acquittal. Policymakers’ rhetoric on Caylee’s Law exemplified the tendency to mobilize political action around “triggering events” through claims-making, to justify new penal legislation on the basis of worst case scenarios and public fears, and to demonize the accused in ways that reaffirm social solidarity in the face of heinous crimes. Policymakers used a variety of interconnected techniques to make claims about child protection, to justify the need for Caylee’s Law, and to label and degrade Casey Anthony.
Suppression of parasitic currents on feed lines of colinear dual antenna systems

Investigations are reported of an antenna system consisting of a pair of colinear dipoles with a feed line "isolator section" which provides independent operation of the dipoles over an octave frequency range. The isolator section acts as a band elimination filter for the parasitic currents induced on the outer surface of the transmission line of the upper dipole. Suppression of these currents eliminates distortion of the antenna radiation patterns and significantly reduces coupling between the dipoles. Over the 200-400-MHz range, an interdipole isolation greater than 35 dB has been achieved between the colinear dipoles separated by 1.5 m.
Accelerator: using data parallelism to program GPUs for general-purpose uses

GPUs are difficult to program for general-purpose uses. Programmers can either learn graphics APIs and convert their applications to use graphics pipeline operations or they can use stream programming abstractions of GPUs. We describe Accelerator, a system that uses data parallelism to program GPUs for general-purpose uses instead. Programmers use a conventional imperative programming language and a library that provides only high-level data-parallel operations. No aspects of GPUs are exposed to programmers. The library implementation compiles the data-parallel operations on the fly to optimized GPU pixel shader code and API calls.We describe the compilation techniques used to do this. We evaluate the effectiveness of using data parallelism to program GPUs by providing results for a set of compute-intensive benchmarks. We compare the performance of Accelerator versions of the benchmarks against hand-written pixel shaders. The speeds of the Accelerator versions are typically within 50% of the speeds of hand-written pixel shader code. Some benchmarks significantly outperform C versions on a CPU: they are up to 18 times faster than C code running on a CPU.
Tremor asperities in the transition zone control evolution of slow earthquakes

[1] Slow earthquakes, characterized by slow slip and associated seismic radiation called non-volcanic tremor, have been observed in major subduction zones worldwide. They constitute an important mode of stress release for the fault's transition zone, which lies directly downdip of the locked segment, the nucleation zone of large damaging earthquakes. However, the depth of tremor in Cascadia, and the factors governing tremor generation and rupture propagation during slow quakes remain enigmatic. Here, we develop a novel multibeam-backprojection (MBBP) method to detect and locate tremor using multiple mini seismic arrays. We apply this technique to image tremor activity during an entire ETS-cycle including a large episodic tremor and slip (ETS) event in Cascadia with unprecedented resolution. Our results suggest that the majority of the tremor is occurring near the plate interface. We observe strongly heterogeneous tremor distribution with patches in the transition zone that experience repeated tremor episodes and produce most of the tremor. The patches, tens of kilometers in dimension, behave like asperities on the fault plane. During the large ETS event, rupture propagation velocity varies at least by a factor of five, and seems to be modulated by these tremor asperities. These observations support a model in which the transition zone is heterogeneous and consists of patches of asperities with surrounding regions slipping aseismically. The asperities fail quasi-periodically releasing stress and appear to regulate rupture propagation and tremor generation during slow earthquakes. This study presents new observations revealing the tectonic characteristics of the transition zone controlling the generation and evolution of slow earthquakes.
New videos for AIDS education.

Two new videotape programs, each quite different from the other, are discussed by reviewers who are closely involved in working with victims of AIDS. Dr. Joyce Kobayashi is director of the consultation-liaison service at Denver General Hospital. The fact that she also is a producer of excellent videos herself, combined with her knowledge of and interest in music, makes her review of the first tape, ‘Til Death Do Us Part, especially relevant. She identifies its particular educational advantages as well as highlighting the supplemental teaching approaches required for its maximum impact. Dr. John Patten, assistant cmical professor of psychiatry at New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical College, is codirector of the AIDS project at the Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy. He has provided an overview of a two-part videotape called Homosexuality, which focuses on theoretical and clinical aspects of homosexuality. This broad approach provides an additional context in which to explore the issues of AIDS treatment, especially from the viewpoint of the caregivers.
A Policy of System Safety: Shifting the Medical and Legal Paradigms to Effectively Address Error in Medicine

The vast majority of patient injuries are caused by human error by professional, caring persons acting in good faith. However, these humans are bound and constrained by systems in which they must act. Systems are the appropriate focus to address human factors and errors, rather than the traditional legal and medical paradigm of individually-oriented shame and blame, which is antithetical to system function and improvement. This paper reviews the basic of error, points to how the legal and medical systems represent prototypical shame and blame philosophies, and calls for a new systems-oriented ethical paradigm that expands individual accountability, substantively involves the patient, and focuses upon systems improvement, rather than ineffectual individual punishment, as its goal.
Control of relative humidity during shipment of parasitic insects

Control of relative humidity was required for maximum survival during shipment of nine species of adult parasitic insects. Combinations of humiditrons (containers of saturated salt solutions covered with semipermeable surgical dressing), moist sponges, and freezepacks provided adequate relative humidity for 4 d, the normal time required for domestic shipment, but only the humiditrons were suitable for a longer time period of 11 d.
Safety and Tolerability of Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists Utilizing Data from the Exenatide Clinical Trial Development Program

Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) have demonstrated benefits for patients with type 2 diabetes including A1C reduction and weight loss with minimal risk of hypoglycemia. This article provides an evidence-based update of safety and tolerability considerations for the clinical use of GLP-1RAs as a class, with a specific detailed review of data from the exenatide clinical trial development program, which has the longest history and availability of safety and tolerability data as the first-approved GLP-1RA. Specific areas covered include comparative risk of hypoglycemia, as well as pancreatic, thyroid, and cardiovascular safety data; clinical guidance regarding current safety and tolerability data is also reviewed.
DO PROGNOSTIC MARKER STUDIES ON CORE NEEDLE BIOPSY SPECIMENS OF BREAST CARCINOMA ACCURATELY REFLECT THE MARKER STATUS OF THE TUMOR

Core needle biopsies (CNB) are often used for the diagnosis of breast lesions. In some breast cancer patients, e.g., those treated with preoperative chemotherapy, the CNB specimen might be the only pretreatment tissue sample available for studies of prognostic and predictive markers. Our purpose was to evaluate whether marker studies performed on CNB specimens accurately reflect the marker status of the tumor. Immunostaining for five commonly used prognostic and predictive markers was performed on both CNB and subsequent excision specimens from 56 consecutive patients who had a CNB with carcinoma followed by excision of the tumor. None of the patients received radiotherapy or chemotherapy between the CNB and the excision. Paraffin sections of the CNB and excision specimens were immunostained for bcl-2, estrogen receptor (ER), c-erbB-2, and p53. These markers were scored as positive or negative. Microvessel density (MVD) was scored as a continuous variable on sections immunostained for Factor VIII-related antigen by calculating the average number of microvessels in three 224x fields of highest tumor vascularity ("hot spots"). Immunostaining results for bcl-2, ER, c-erbB-2, and p53 on the CNB and the corresponding excision specimens were 100% concordant. Although there was significant correlation between MVD on the CNB specimens and the corresponding excisions (r = 0.507, P = 0.0002), the mean MVD on the CNB and corresponding excision specimens differed by more than 10% in 85.7% of cases, with differences ranging from 4.3 to 233.3%. MVD was higher in the CNB than in the excision specimens in 30 (61.2%) of 49 cases. In conclusion, in all of the cases studied, accurate results for the dichotomously scored markers bcl-2, ER, c-erbB-2, and p53 were obtained on CNB specimens. In contrast, in most cases, MVD, which was scored as a continuous variable, could not be reliably assessed on the CNB specimen.
Recovery of Salmonellae from Chilled Broiler Carcasses as Affected by Rinse Media and Enumeration Method.

Distilled water (DW) and 0.85% NaCl (PS) were evaluated as carcass rinse media for recovery of total aerobic bacteria (APC), total coliforms (TC), Escherichia coli , and salmonellae from broiler carcasses. Salmonellae were enumerated by two methods, most-probable-number (MPN) and centrifugation-plating onto dulcitol novobiocin agar (DBN). Commercially processed chilled broiler carcasses (10/trial, 3 trials) were aseptically cut in half, and each half was rinsed (1 min) with either 250 ml DW or PS. Carcass rinses were recovered and analyzed for populations of APC, TC, E. coli , and salmonellae. Recovery of APC, TC, and E. coli were not affected (P>.05) by rinse media; however, significant trial effects were present. Recovery of salmonellae was influenced by rinse media as well as by enumeration method. Using the MPN procedure, salmonellae were detected on 20 and 27% of carcass halves using PS and DW, respectively, whereas with DBN, salmonellae were recovered from 33% of PS-rinsed carcass halves and none of those rinsed with DW. Incidence of salmonellae on individual carcass halves did not correlate between either the two enumeration methods or rinse media. With both enumeration methods, the extent of salmonellae contamination was <1 CFU/ml of rinse media. Rinsing carcasses with PS offered no advantages for recovery of APC, TC, and E. coli ; however, salmonellae recovery on DBN was enhanced by PS as compared to DW rinse.
Modeling the short-run costs of changes in water availability in a desert city: a modified input-output approach

AbstractThis paper investigates the impact of change in sectoral water supply on employment, value-added output, and indirect business tax, in Maricopa County, Arizona using input–output model. We developed extended modified input–output approach that incorporates each source of water as a separate sector, and that allows for substitution between water sources, and estimated the economic impact of a change in surface water supplies under two scenarios. Scenario I assumes that total water supply/use decreases by 1%, but the reduction comes only from surface water use, holding groundwater use constant. Scenario II assumes that surface water supply/use in all industries decreases by 1%, and the reduction in surface water use is replaced by the exact amount of more expensive groundwater. We found that the magnitude of economic impact depends on consumer’s responsiveness to water price change. When price elasticity of water demand is relatively low (≤0.2), the economic impact of a 1% reduction in surface water...