cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Unified human and robot command for disaster recovery situations

The system described herein was designed to allow sending commands to and obtaining location data from humans in a manner similar to robots, thus simplifying the command of combined human/robot teams. We designed and implemented a system that allows humans to be interfaced with a robot framework (ROS, or Robot Operating System), providing sensor information and waypoint based navigation for a team of people. An experiment is also described in which participants were asked to drive a team of units, first described as all robots, then described as both robots and humans. We discovered that participants have a similar level of success when using such a system to control units described as robots as when they use it to control units described as both humans and robots.
Developing Transfer Pride: An Exploration of Critical Race Pedagogy and the Summer Transfer Enrichment Program

Objective: This study examined the critical race pedagogy of the Summer Transfer Enrichment Program (STEP) over a 5-year span and how the curriculum and supplemental academic programming aided in the development of a positive transfer identity for its participants. Method: A mixed method convergent parallel design approach was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data in the forms of surveys and focus groups. Fifty-six students, the majority Latinx, responded to the survey along with 22 students in focus groups. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and a reiterative thematic coding process. Results: Students shared how their summer courses and additional workshops and speakers reflected critical race pedagogy, how they experienced racial isolation and discrimination once they transferred to a 4-year campus, and ultimately how they built a strong sense of transfer pride. Conclusion: Based on the study’s findings, we encourage universities and colleges to build a more supportive transfe...
Oxygen adsorption at heterophase boundaries of the oxygenated Cu(110)

Abstract Many metal-oxygen systems involve progressive stages of oxygen chemisorption induced surface phase transition and restructuring that result in the formation of heterophase boundaries within the oxygen chemisorbed layer. Using the density functional theory calculations, we investigated the effect of such heterophase boundaries formed by the (2 × 1)-O → c(6 × 2)-O phase transition on Cu(110) on the onset of bulk oxidation. Upon the increased oxygen coverage, we show that some (2 × 1)/(6 × 2) boundaries allow for further propagation of the (2 × 1)/(6 × 2) phase boundary while the other boundaries promote subsurface oxygen adsorption that results in the formation of Cu2O-like tetrahedrons. By comparing the surface height of the Cu atoms within the heterophase boundary area, we show that the boundaries with a larger surface elevation of the Cu atoms are prone to form Cu2O-like tetrahedrons by subsurface oxygen occupancy. These results indicate that the presence of the two-phase boundaries formed by the surface phase transition in the oxygen chemisorbed layer facilitates the inward diffusion of oxygen atoms and thus initiates the onset of bulk oxidation.
Monstrosity, Performance, and Race in Contemporary Culture

It was not until my early twenties that I was brought to understand the “invisible” powers I own as a White cisgendered straight woman. Powers that were taught to me by the dominant culture. Powers...
The case of flow and learning revisited

Many business schools are criticized for being ineffective in helping students learn proper management skills and knowledge. Flow theory has been cited as being helpful in many learning environment...
Fronteras, integración, cooperación y desarrollo regional

Tanto el analisis de la problematica de las zonas de frontera, como la propuesta de estrategias y politicas de desarrollo fronterizo en particular en el ambito latinoamericano y colombiano, requieren enmarcarse en concepciones que superen los esquemas que privilegian los problemas limitrofes y administrativos como los fundamentales de las zonas colindantes binacionales. En este escrito se expone una reflexion sobre la relacion existente entre el desarrollo regional, la integracion y la cooperacion, tomados como referentes analiticos para determinar las estrategias y las politicas que posibiliten convertir de manera efectiva los espacios fronterizos y la poblacion que en ellos habita en objetos y, a la vez, sujetos de desarrollo economico-social articulado al desarrollo nacional.
Validation of fitness tracker for sleep measures in women with asthma.

Objective: Nighttime wakening with asthma symptoms is a key to assessment and therapy decisions, with no gold standard objective measure. The study aims were to (1) determine the feasibility, (2) e...
Thermally Promoted Hydrolysis of Polyacrylamide

Most low molecular weight (MW) amides will not hydrolyze in water alone. Hydrolysis can, however, be effected via acid or base catalysis, but elevated temperatures for an extended period of time may be required.(1) It has been shown that the nature of organic reactions involving macromolecules may differ significantly from those of their low MW analogs. This may be reflected in the kinetics and mechanism of the reaction as well as in the products obtained.(2,3) Such effects have been ascribed to steric or electrostatic interactions between different structural units of the polymer or between functional groups of the polymer and a given reagent.
Intrapartum Risk Factors

Maternal weight, estimated fetal weight, fundal height, abnormal labor patterns, and need for operative delivery identify a group of women at great risk for shoulder dystocia.
Present Orientedness and Crime

Since the seventeenth century, political philosophers have maintained that an irrational bias toward present as opposed to future satisfactions is natural to both men and animals and is a principal cause of crime and, more generally, of threats to the peace and order of society.1 It is to protect men against this irrationality that civil government exists. Hume makes the fullest statement of the case. All men, he says, have a “natural infirmity”—indeed a “violent propension”—that causes them to be unduly affected by stimuli near to them in time or space; this is the “source of all dissoluteness and disorder, repentence and misery,” and because it prompts men to prefer any trivial present advantage to the maintenance of order, it is “very dangerous to society.” Government is the means by which men cope with this defect of their nature.
Dynamics and burning limits of near-limit hot, warm, and cool diffusion flames of dimethyl ether at elevated pressures

Abstract The near-limit diffusion flame regimes and extinction limits of dimethyl ether at elevated pressures and temperatures are examined numerically in the counterflow geometry with and without radiation at different oxygen concentrations. It is found that there are three different flame regimes—hot flame, warm flame, and cool flame—which exist, respectively, at high, intermediate, and low temperatures. Furthermore, they are governed by three distinct chain-branching reaction pathways. The results demonstrate that the warm flame has a double reaction zone structure and plays a critical role in the transition between cool and hot flames. It is also shown that the cool flame can be formed in several different ways: by either radiative extinction or stretch extinction of a hot flame or by stretch extinction of a warm flame. A warm flame can also be formed by radiative extinction of a hot flame or ignition of a cool flame. A general €-shaped flammability diagram showing the burning limits of all three flame regimes at different oxygen mole fractions is obtained. The results show that thermal radiation, reactant concentration, temperature, and pressure all have significant impacts on the flammable regions of the three flame regimes. Increases in oxidizer temperature, oxygen concentration, and pressure shift the cool flame regime to higher stretch rates and cause the warm flame to have two extinction limits. At elevated temperatures, it is found that there is a direct transition between the hot flame and warm flame at low stretch rates. The results also show that, unlike the hot flame, the cool flame structure cannot be scaled by using pressure-weighted stretch rates due to the its significant reactant leakage and strong dependence of reactivity on pressure. The present results advance the understanding of near-limit flame dynamics and provide guidance for experimental observation of different flame regimes.
Spiking Neural Networks Enable Two-Dimensional Neurons and Unsupervised Multi-Timescale Learning

The capabilities of artificial neural networks (ANNs) are limited by the operations possible at their individual neurons and synapses. For instance, each neuron’s activation only represents a single scalar variable. In addition, because neuronal activations may be dominated by a single timescale in the synaptic input, unsupervised learning from data with multiple timescales has not been generally possible. Here we address these by exploiting the continuous-time and asynchronous operation of spiking neural networks (SNNs), i.e. a biologically-inspired type of ANNs. First, we demonstrate how input neurons can be two-dimensional (2D), i.e. each represent two variables. Second, we show unsupervised learning from multiple timescales simultaneously. 2D neurons operate by allocating each variable to a different timescale in their activation, i.e. one variable corresponds to the timing of individual spikes, and another to the spike rate. We show how these can be modulated separately but simultaneously, and we apply this mixed coding technique to encoding images with two modalities, namely, colour and brightness. Unsupervised multi-timescale learning is achieved by synapses with spike-timing-dependent plasticity, combined with varying degrees of short-term plasticity. We demonstrate the successful application of this learning scheme on the unsupervised classification of bimodal pictures encoded by our 2D neurons. Taken together, our results show that SNNs are capable of increasing both the information content of each neuron and the exploitable data in the input. We suggest that through these unique features, SNNs may increase the performance and broaden the applicability of ANNs.
Calditol-linked membrane lipids are required for acid tolerance in Sulfolobus acidocaldarius

Archaea have many unique physiological features of which the lipid composition of their cellular membranes is the most striking. Archaeal ether-linked isoprenoidal membranes can occur as bilayers or monolayers, possess diverse polar head groups, and a multiplicity of ring structures in the isoprenoidal cores. These lipid structures are proposed to provide protection from the extreme temperature, pH, salinity, and nutrient-starved conditions that many archaea inhabit. However, many questions remain regarding the synthesis and physiological role of some of the more complex archaeal lipids. In this study, we identify a radical S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) protein in Sulfolobus acidocaldarius required for the synthesis of a unique cyclopentyl head group, known as calditol. Calditol-linked glycerol dibiphytanyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) are membrane spanning lipids in which calditol is ether bonded to the glycerol backbone and whose production is restricted to a subset of thermoacidophilic archaea of the Sulfolobales order within the Crenarchaeota phylum. Several studies have focused on the enzymatic mechanism for the synthesis of the calditol moiety, but to date no protein that catalyzes this reaction has been discovered. Phylogenetic analyses of this putative calditol synthase (Cds) reveal the genetic potential for calditol–GDGT synthesis in phyla other than the Crenarchaeota, including the Korarchaeota and Marsarchaeota. In addition, we identify Cds homologs in metagenomes predominantly from acidic ecosystems. Finally, we demonstrate that deletion of calditol synthesis renders S. acidocaldarius sensitive to extremely low pH, indicating that calditol plays a critical role in protecting archaeal cells from acidic stress.
Age-related phenotype and biomarker changes in SSADH deficiency.

Objective Succinic Semialdehyde Dehydrogenase (SSADH) deficiency is a disorder of elevated gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) and gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) and a complex neuropsychiatric profile. Adult reports suggest worsening epilepsy and high SUDEP risk. Methods Subjects with confirmed SSADH deficiency were recruited into a longitudinal study. Plasma thyroid hormone and total GABA/GHB were quantified by standard clinical chemistry methodologies and mass spectrometry, respectively. Results A total of 133 subjects with SSADH deficiency are enrolled in the registry; 49 participated in the longitudinal study. The age range of the population is 8 weeks to 63 years (median 7.75 year; 44% male). There is a significant difference in proportions among the age groups in subjects affected with hypotonia, compulsive behavior, sleep disturbances, and seizures. Epilepsy is present in 50% of the total population, and more prevalent in subjects 12 years and older (P = 0.001). The median age of onset for absence seizures was 2 years, and 12 years for generalized tonic-clonic seizures (P < 0.01). The SUDEP rate in adults was 12% (4/33). There was a significant age-dependent negative correlation between GABA and T3 levels. Interpretation There is an age-dependent association with worsening of epilepsy, behavioral disturbances including obsessive-compulsive behavior, and sleep disturbances with age in SSADH deficiency. There is a high risk of SUDEP. We have observed more absence seizures in younger patients, compared to tonic-clonic in the older cohort, which correlates with age-related changes in GABA and GHB concentration and thyroid function, as well as the natural history of seizures in the murine model.
Core and More: Examining Foundational and Specialized Content in Library and Information Science

A master’s degree from an ALA-accredited institution can prepare graduates for a wide range of job functions and career paths, but the variety of jobs raises some questions about how LIS programs a...
Maximizing Regenerative Braking Energy Recovery of Electric Vehicles Through Dynamic Low-Speed Cutoff Point Detection

This paper introduces a novel approach for dynamically detecting the lowest speed threshold at which regenerative braking is effective in electric vehicles (EVs). The control approach is based on real-time sensing of the motor controller dc link current and disabling regenerative braking when current changes direction while the motor is operating as a generator. Various factors influencing the regenerative braking capability of EVs at low speed are discussed, and the simulation studies are carried out to illustrate the effect of each factor on the displacement of the low-speed threshold. Based on the results obtained from the simulation studies, a dynamic low-speed cutoff point (LSCP) detection method is proposed. This method requires no hardware modification to the vehicle braking architecture and can be implemented solely by modifying the brake controller. The proposed method is tested on an experimental EV test platform for a predetermined drive cycle. It is shown that in comparison to considering a constant low-speed threshold during braking, the amount of energy recaptured through the regenerative braking process can be improved by taking advantage of the proposed method.
Farm to School Activities and Student Outcomes: A Systematic Review.

Farm to school programs (F2SPs) operate in 42% of school districts and are supported in part through federal and state policies as well as philanthropic funding. Although research evaluating the effects of farm to school-related activities on student outcomes is growing, a systematic review of the results and thus a synthesis of implications for future programming have not occurred. The primary objective of this systematic literature review is to summarize and evaluate studies on student outcomes associated with farm to school-related activities up to 1 September, 2017. Four databases spanning 4 research disciplines were used to identify full-text, English-language studies. Twenty-one studies were reviewed: 7 explicitly investigated F2SPs, and 14 evaluated the impact of school-based interventions that were relevant to activities reported in the 2013 and/or 2015 Farm to School Census. All of the F2SP studies (n = 7) and 85.7% of farm to school-related activity studies (n = 12) were multicomponent, and there was a wide variety of implemented intervention components across the reviewed studies. Results from F2SP and farm to school-related activity studies consistently show positive impacts on food and nutrition-related knowledge; most studies also suggest a positive relation between farm to school-related activities and healthy food selection during school meals, nutrition self-efficacy, and willingness to try fruits and vegetables. The impact of farm to school activities on fruit and vegetable consumption and preferences is unclear. The most common F2SP study limitations were study designs that preclude causal inference, outcome measurement with no reported or limited psychometric testing, lack of long-term outcome evaluation, and challenges related to quantifying intervention implementation. These findings underscore the need for more conclusive evidence on the relation between farm to school-related activities and changes in fruit and vegetable consumption.
Outcomes of Direct-Acting Antiviral Treatment of Psychiatric Patients with Comorbid Hepatitis C Virus Infection.

Background The highest burden of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is seen in patients with psychiatric disorders who have been excluded from traditional treatments with Interferon due to treatment-emergent neuropsychiatric adverse effects. The goal of this study is to determine the tolerability, treatment retention, and efficacy of direct-acting antivirals with psychiatric disorders and comorbid substance use disorders in real-life settings. Methods This is a retrospective cohort observational study of HCV patients treated with direct-acting antivirals between January 2016 and December 2018. Patients were stratified and sub-stratified based on their psychiatric diagnosis and substance use. The primary assessment was the sustained virologic response at 12 weeks post-treatment (SVR12). Results Among the 291 patients analyzed, patients with psychiatric diagnosis and non-psychiatric patients made up 51.2% (n = 149) and 48.8% (n = 142) respectively. Majority of the patients included in the study were African-Americans (68.7%, n = 200). Overall, 95.3% (142/149) and 94.4% (134/142) of psychiatric and non-psychiatric patients, respectively, achieved SVR12 and treatment response was similar between the groups (p = 0.72). Among psychiatric patients, only the prior treatment status was identified as a predictor of treatment response (OR 0.153, 95% CI 0.03-0.79; p = 0.05). No statistical difference was observed among the patients with SVR12 based on their primary psychiatric diagnoses or by comorbid substance abuse. Conclusion The results of our study show that direct-acting antiviral treatments are well tolerated in psychiatric patients, and an overwhelming majority of patients achieved SVR12. Our study highlights the need to integrate HCV screening with treatment linkage in psychiatry and primary care practice.
Is One Study as Good as Three? College Graduates Seem to Think So, Even if They Took Statistics Classes:

When people interpret the outcome of a research study, do they consider other relevant information such as prior research? In the current study, 251 college graduates read a single brief fictitious...
Abstract 2351: Diabetes and risk of early-onset colorectal cancer

Introduction: Early-onset colorectal cancer (CRC), as defined by CRC diagnosed before age 50, has been increasing in the past 2 decades, with unidentified reasons. Type 2 diabetes increases risk of CRC with average age of onset, however, epidemiological data linking type 2 diabetes and risk of early-onset CRC is thus far limited. Methods: To examine the association between type 2 diabetes and risk of early-onset CRC, we conducted a nested case-control study of early-onset CRC among participants aged 18-50 years with at least 2 years and 3 months of continuous enrollment in the IBM® MarketScan® Research Databases (2006-2015), the largest database that covers healthcare claims from over 150 million privately insured adults in the US. Incident CRC cases were identified using ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes on pathologists9 claims. For cases, the index dates were set at the first pathologist date. Controls without CRC were identified using 1:8 frequency matching on age, sex, and geographical region, duration of insurance enrollment, and Rx coverage. Type 2 diabetes within 2 years of the index dates were identified through the ICD-9-CM and confirmed by Klabunde algorithm. Multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: A total of 5986 early-onset CRC cases were identified. Type 2 diabetes was significantly associated with an increased risk of early-onset CRC (prevalence in cases/controls: 7.2% vs 4.3%; OR: 1.40, 95% CI 1.24-1.56), after adjusting for the matching factors, health care utilization, Charlson Comorbidity Index, obesity, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), colonoscopy and fecal occult blood test (FOBT), and family history of gastrointestinal neoplasm. Notably, the association between type 2 diabetes and early onset-CRC was similar for colon (OR: 1.44, 95% CI 1.25-1.64) and rectal cancer (OR: 1.30, 95% CI 1.18-1.56) (Pheterogeneity = 0.41). These associations remain similar while we restricted the analyses to individuals without IBD, endoscopy/FOBT, or early symptoms, respectively. In addition, the findings were also similar for women and men, as well as CRC diagnosed before and after age 45. Conclusions: Type 2 diabetes was associated with increased risk of early-onset CRC with similar strength of associations for colon and rectal cancer. Citation Format: Zitong Li, Xiaobin Zheng, Katelin B. Nickel, Hanyu Chen, Andrew Tipping, Long H. Nguyen, Andrew T. Chan, Ryan C. Fields, Nicholas O. Davidson, Edward Giovannucci, Margaret A. Olsen, Peter T. Campbell, Graham A. Colditz, Yin Cao. Diabetes and risk of early-onset colorectal cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 2351.
How Should We Respond to Racist Legacies in Health Professions Education Originating in the Flexner Report

The Flexner Report damaged and marginalized historically Black medical schools, which today produce more than their fair share of Black medical graduates. As physicians, graduates of Black medical schools have confronted head-on the inequities of American responses to COVID-19 that the pandemic has laid bare to the world. Black physicians' leadership roles in American health care and in American communities have informed the reimagination of health care and medical education as just and inclusive.
Linking in infinite dimensional spaces using the Leray-Schauder index

Abstract Many problems arising in science and engineering call for the solving of the Euler-Lagrange equations of functionals. Thus, solving the Euler-Lagrange equations is tantamount to finding critical points of the corresponding functional. An idea that has been very successful is to find appropriate sets that separate the functional. This method is called linking. Two sets A , B are said to separate a functional G if the supremum of G on A is less than or equal to the infimum of G on B. Two sets of the space are said to link if they produce a critical sequence whenever they separate a functional. If the critical sequence has a convergent sub-sequence, then that produces a critical point. Finding sets that separate a functional is quite easy, but determining whether or not the sets link is quite another story. It appears that the only way we can check to see if two sets link, is to require that one of them be contained in a finite-dimensional subspace. The reason is that in order to verify the definition, we need to invoke the Brouwer fixed point theorem. Our aim is to find a counterpart of linking that holds true when both sets are infinite dimensional. We adjust our definitions to accommodate infinite dimensions. These definitions reduced to the usual definitions when one set is finite dimensional. In order to prove the corresponding theorems, we make adjustments to the topology of the space and introduce infinite dimensional splitting. This allows us to use a form of compactness on infinite dimensional subspaces which does not exist under the usual topology. We lose the Brouwer index, but we are able to replace it with the Leray-Schauder index. We carry out the details in Sections 5 and 6 . In Section 7 we solve a system of equations which require infinite dimensional splitting.
Improving outcomes of liver retransplantation: an analysis of trends and the impact of Hepatitis C infection.

Retransplantation (RT) in Hepatitis C (HCV) patients remains controversial. Aims: To study trends in RT and evaluate the impact of HCV status in the context of a comprehensive recipient and donor risk assessment. The UNOS database between 1994 and October 2005 was utilized to analyze 46 982 LT and RT. Graft and patient survival along with patient and donor characteristics were compared for 2283 RT performed in HCV and non-HCV patients during 1994–1997, 1998–2001 and 2002–October 2005. Overall HCV prevalence at RT increased from 36% in the initial period to 40.6% after 2002. In our study group, 1-year patient and graft survival post-RT improved over the same time intervals from 65.0% to 70.7% and 54.87% to 65.8%, respectively. HCV was only associated with decreased patient and graft survival with a retransplant (LT-RT) interval (RI) >90 days. Independent predictors of mortality for RT with RI >90 days were patient age, MELD score >25, RI <1 year, warm ischemia time ≥75 min and donor age ≥60 (significant for HCV patients only). Outcomes of RT are improving, but can be optimized by weighing recipient factors, anticipation of operative factors and donor selection.
Control of Particulate Lead Emissions from Automobiles

Exhaust particulate lead trapping systems using alumina pellets and cyclone collectors with no moving parts were tested on vehicles for up to 60,000 mi. The devices retained their effectiveness and should last the lifetime of a passenger vehicle without maintenance. The traps reduced the total amount of lead emitted from production vehicles operated on leaded gasoline by 82-91 percent and also reduced by 64-84 percent the amount of lead in the air after driving both production and trap-equipped vehicles through a vehicular tunnel. Combining the trapping system with a gaseous emission control system consisting of an exhaust manifold thermal reactor and exhaust gas recirculation resulted in a total lead emission reduction of 85 percent and a 71 percent lead level reduction in the tunnel.
XcisClique: analysis of regulatory bicliques.

Modeling of cis-elements or regulatory motifs in promoter (upstream) regions of genes is a challenging computational problem. In this work, set of regulatory motifs simultaneously present in the promoters of a set of genes is modeled as a biclique in a suitably defined bipartite graph. A biologically meaningful co-occurrence of multiple cis-elements in a gene promoter is assessed by the combined analysis of genomic and gene expression data. Greater statistical significance is associated with a set of genes that shares a common set of regulatory motifs, while simultaneously exhibiting highly correlated gene expression under given experimental conditions. XcisClique, the system developed in this work, is a comprehensive infrastructure that associates annotated genome and gene expression data, models known cis-elements as regular expressions, identifies maximal bicliques in a bipartite gene-motif graph; and ranks bicliques based on their computed statistical significance. Significance is a function of the probability of occurrence of those motifs in a biclique (a hypergeometric distribution), and on the new sum of absolute values statistic (SAV) that uses Spearman correlations of gene expression vectors. SAV is a statistic well-suited for this purpose as described in the discussion. XcisClique identifies new motif and gene combinations that might indicate as yet unidentified involvement of sets of genes in biological functions and processes. It currently supports Arabidopsis thaliana and can be adapted to other organisms, assuming the existence of annotated genomic sequences, suitable gene expression data, and identified regulatory motifs. A subset of Xcis Clique functionalities, including the motif visualization component MotifSee, source code, and supplementary material are available at https://bioinformatics.cs.vt.edu/xcisclique/ .
Alpha fetoprotein. Effect of heterologous antiserum on hepatoma cells in vitro.

Hepatoma cells derived from The Jackson Laboratory mouse hepatoma BW7756 synthesized alpha fetoprotein (AFP) in vitro. The AFP was immunologically identical to that circulating in the sera of hepatoma-bearing mice. An in vitro cytotoxic effect of rabbit antiserum to AFP was studied in hepatoma cells obtained both from fresh cell suspensions and short-term cell culture. The use of intact and/or inactivated anti-AFP serum inhibited the growth of the AFP-producing cells. The cytotoxic effects of the antiserum depended on exposure time and serum concentration. The cytotoxicity was complement independent, as demonstrated by studies with heat-deactivated serum devoid of extrinsic complement. The control target cells included fresh cell suspensions of normal mouse liver and mouse muscle fibroblasts grown in short-term culture. Specificity of the antisera for the target cells was demonstrated by absorption with purified mouse AFP. The results could be explained by the presence of AFP on the hepatoma cell surface.
Force and vivacity in the Treatise and the Enquiry

Etude de la nature de la force et de la vivacite de la conscience chez Hume, qui permet de distinguer les impressions, les idees, la croyance et les fictions de l'imagination. Face a l'analogie entre la force et la vivacite des impressions et des croyances, l'A. conclut en montrant que la «Recherche sur l'entendement humain» doit abandonner le modele hydraulique du flux de la cognition, ainsi que la psychologie grossiere qui en resulte.
Analgesia epidural torácica para el tratamiento de la angina inestable

SUMMARY Ischemic cardiomyopathy in patients with unstable angina refractory to medical therapy is a difficult medical condition. Unfavorable anatomy or excessive surgical risk can advise against the performance of angioplasty or coronary bypass surgery. This study has reviewed the use of thoracal epidural analgesia/anesthesia for the management and stabilization of this type of patients, with a brief description of the physiopathology of cardiac ischemia, experimental studies in animals and human beings, use of cardiac surgery and side effects. © 2005 Sociedad Espanola del Dolor. Published by Aran Ediciones S.L.
Sex steroid receptor analysis in human melanoma.

Melanomas from 20 patients were evaluated for estrogen and progesterone receptors. No restriction as to patient's age, sex, race, or menstrual status was made. Fifteen of the tumors were melanin producing. Of the 20 tumors examined, seven contained more than 3 fm/mg protein of specifically inhibitable estrogen binding. None of the tumors reported here demonstrated either a 4S or 8S binding protein as shown by sucrose density gradient analysis. All tumors in which estradiol binding was observed were melanin producing, whereas none of the amelanotic melanomas (five tumors) bound this steroid. Purified tyrosinase appeared to mimic the estrogen binding detected in melanoma cytosols, as demonstrated with the dextran-coated charcoal technique. Although the binding of estradiol to tyrosinase was inhibited by DOPA, the binding of estradiol to estrogen receptor preparations was not. These studies represent an extension of previous studies of sex steroid binding in melanomas and suggest that gradient analysis and DOPA inhibition studies should be included in the evaluation of the estrogen binding phenomenon in human melanoma.
Characterization of intrapulmonary, rapidly adapting receptors of guinea pigs☆

The activity of 33 afferent vagal fibers arising from rapidly adapting pulmonary stretch receptors in the lungs of 21 guinea pigs was studied. These receptors were identified by their response to constant pressure hyperinflation and to negative pressure deflation of the lungs. The response was irregular bursts of action potentials with an adaptation index greater than 70% in 2s. Little or no activity was noted in these receptors during eupneic breathing. The conduction velocity of the afferent fibers from these receptors ranged from 3.1 to 57.1 m/s (mean = 20.2 +/- 5.1 SD). Receptors were stimulated by intravenous injection of histamine and also by vapors of ether, alcohol, acetone, ammonia, and cigarette smoke. Stimulation by the inhalation of the vapors usually occurred in the absence of any change in tracheal pressure or even when the tracheal pressure became slightly lower than before vapor challenge, thus suggesting a direct action. If an increase in tracheal pressure occurred, the discharge of the receptor began well in advance. However, stimulation of the receptor by histamine was always accompanied by significant increases in tracheal pressure. Isoproterenol prevented the increase in tracheal pressures produced by histamine challenge. In addition, isoproterenol blocked the response of rapidly adapting receptors to histamine as well. Isoproterenol had no effect on receptor response to the various vapors used in this study. Therefore, stimulation of rapidly adapting receptors by histamine seems to be dependent on an increase in tracheal pressure, while a direct action in indicated by several 'irritant' gases. The characteristics of the rapidly adapting receptors in guinea pig lungs are more closely related to the irritant receptor of the rabbit and the cat than to the rapidly adapting receptors in lungs of dogs.
Spontaneous Resolution of Primary Erythrocytosis in Two Girls

We report two girls with primary erythrocytosis in whom extensive diagnostic studies revealed no underlying cause. Normal growth of colonies derived from erythroid burst forming units (BFU-E) was observed, and serum erythropoietin concentrations were within or below the normal range. The absence of a rise in serum erythropoietin levels after isovolemic phlebotomy implicated the erythroid marrow as the site of the pathophysiologic abnormality in both patients. Spontaneous resolution of erythrocytosis occurred during the second decade of life. Our experience suggests that primary erythrocytosis may be self-limited in some children. In these cases, the proliferative abnormality may be sufficiently subtle as to not be detected by standard in vitro culture systems, which support the growth of colonies derived from erythroid progenitors.
Treatment of Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer in the Real World: Population-Based Practices and Effectiveness

Purpose: To evaluate the use and effectiveness of cancer-directed therapy in elderly patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC). Methods: We used the linked Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Medicare database to perform a retrospective cohort study in 1,696 patients diagnosed with LAPC between 1991 and 1996. We calculated cancer-directed treatment use rates, then used logistic regression to identify patient and health system factors that were associated with receipt of treatment. Effectiveness of treatment was estimated using Cox proportional hazards models and propensity score methods. Results: In our cohort, 44% of patients received some form of cancer-directed therapy (24% radiation with concurrent chemotherapy, 13% radiation alone, and 7% chemotherapy alone). Older age, lower socioeconomic status, presence of comorbid illness, no care in a teaching hospital, and residence in the western United States were associated with a lower likelihood of receiving treatment (P ≤ .05). Among...
Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Gastric Bypass Performed in a Cadaver

Natural orifice transluminal surgery (NOTES) offers a new option for abdominal surgery. However, despite the initial interest and enthusiasm for its potential advantages, NOTES has some major drawbacks which include the purposeful injury to an organ that may not be otherwise injured or diseased. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass may be a procedure that is suited for NOTES because the stomach wall is breached during the normal course of the operation. We have experimented with a technique for a NOTES gastric bypass in the human. A transvaginal, transgastric gastric bypass (TVTG-GBP) was performed in a human cadaver.
Development of Neutron Detector Arrays for Neutron-Induced Reaction Measurements

The outgoing neutron energy spectra from neutron-induced fission of various actinides are important for basic understanding of the fission process near the scission point as well as playing a large role in neutron transport codes, which are heavily relied upon in the design of advanced nuclear reactors and simulations of critical assemblies. The reliability of the results of neutron transport models is a strong function of the quality of the nuclear data used as input. Currently, the world's experimental database of fission neutron spectra is severely incomplete (especially for higher incident neutron energies) with large uncertainties in key portions of the outgoing energy spectra. Many transport codes use evaluated data libraries, which are based on the approach of the Los Alamos model. Other theoretical models have been developed, but the available data cannot distinguish the results of different models (as is the case for 239Pu). Better measurements are needed for all incident and outgoing neutron energies, but most urgently in the low-energy (below 1 MeV) and high-energy (above 6 MeV) portions of the outgoing spectra where theoretical model results differ greatly. We present the design considerations (and some characterization results) of the two Chi-Nu neutron detector arrays: one array of 6Li-glass detectors and one array of liquid-scintillator detectors. These detector arrays are being constructed to meet the challenge of measuring the prompt fission neutron spectra (for a few common actinides) to a higher accuracy and precision than achieved previously and over a larger incident energy range than has been covered by previous experimenters. We see a significant reduction in neutron-scattering backgrounds with our new array designs.
Sensitization of a Transition-Sensitive Linear Eddy-Viscosity Model to Rotation and Curvature Effects

A new scalar eddy-viscosity turbulence model is proposed, designed to exhibit physically correct responses to flow transition, streamline curvature, and system rotation effects. The eddy-viscosity model (EVM) developed herein is based on the k‐x framework and employs four transport equations. The transport equation for a structural variable (v 2 ) from a curvature-sensitive Shear Stress Transport (SST) k‐x‐v 2 model, analogous to the transverse turbulent velocity scale, is added to the three-equation transition-sensitive k‐kL‐x model. The physical effects of rotation and curvature (RC) enter the model through the added transport equation. The new model is implemented into a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver and is tested on a number of flow problems involving flow transition and streamline curvature effects. The results obtained from the test cases presented here are compared with available experimental data and several other Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) based turbulence models. For the cases tested, the new model successfully resolves both flow transition and streamline curvature effects with reasonable engineering accuracy, for only a small increase in computational cost. The results suggest that the model has potential as a practical tool for the prediction of flow transition and curvature effects over blunt bodies. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4028627]
Regulation of tyrosine hydroxylase and tetrahydrobiopterin biosynthetic enzymes in PC12 cells by NGF, EGF and IFN-γ

The regulation of catecholamine and tetrahydrobiopterin synthesis was investigated in cultured rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cells following treatments with nerve growth factor (NGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF) and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma). NGF and EGF, but not IFN-gamma, caused an increase after 24 h in the levels of BH4 and catecholamines, and the activities of tyrosine hydroxylase and GTP cyclohydrolase, the rate-limiting enzymes in catecholamine and BH4 synthesis, respectively. Actinomycin D, a transcriptional inhibitor, blocked treatment-induced elevations in tyrosine hydroxylase and GTP cyclohydrolase activities. NGF, EGF or IFN-gamma did not affect the activity of sepiapterin reductase, the final enzyme in BH4 biosynthesis. Rp-cAMP, an inhibitor of cAMP-mediated responses, blocked the induction of tyrosine hydroxylase by NGF or EGF; inhibition of protein kinase C partially blocked the EGF effect, but not the NGF effect, NGF also induced GTP cyclohydrolase in a cAMP-dependent manner, while the EGF effect was not blocked by Rp-cAMP or protein kinase C inhibitors. Sphingosine induced GTP cyclohydrolase in a protein kinase C-independent manner without affecting tyrosine hydroxylase activity. Our results suggest that both tyrosine hydroxylase and GTP cyclohydrolase are induced in a coordinate and transcription-dependent manner by NGF and EGF, while conditions exist where the induction of tyrosine hydroxylase and GTP cyclohydrolase is not coordinately regulated.
Adeno-associated virus serotype 8 gene transfer rescues a neonatal lethal murine model of propionic acidemia.

Abstract Propionic acidemia (PA) is an autosomal recessive disorder of metabolism caused by a deficiency of propionyl-coenzyme A carboxylase (PCC). Despite optimal dietary and cofactor therapy, PA patients still suffer from lethal metabolic instability and experience multisystemic complications. A murine model of PA (Pcca–/–) of animals that uniformly die within the first 48 hr of life was used to determine the efficacy of adeno-associated viral (AAV) gene transfer as a potential therapy for PA. An AAV serotype 8 (AAV8) vector was engineered to express the human PCCA cDNA and delivered to newborn mice via an intrahepatic injection. Greater than 64% of the Pcca–/– mice were rescued after AAV8-mediated gene transfer and survived until day of life 16 or beyond. Western analysis of liver extracts showed that PCC was completely absent from Pcca–/– mice but was restored to greater than wild-type levels after AAV gene therapy. The treated Pcca–/– mice also exhibited markedly reduced plasma levels of 2-methylcitr...
Hollow Borosilicate Microspheres from Aqueous Solution

Metastable aqueous borosilicate solutions may be processed to hollow microspheres by a combination of liquid feed atomization and thermal exposure. Techniques for feed preparation and the relationships between feed composition, stability and processibility are discussed. Optimization of feed atomization, hollow sphere formation and finishing operations are discussed relative to density, size, strength, and chemical durability properties of finished products. The connection between finished properties and product utility is presented for several applications including lightweight fillers for thermoset resins and vinyl plastisols, and physical sensitizers for emulsion explosives.
Poster: 3D sketching and flexible input for surface design: A case study

Designing three-dimensional (3D) surfaces is difficult in both the physical world and in 3D modeling software, requiring background knowledge and skill. The goal of this work is to make 3D surface design easier and more accessible through natural and tangible 3D interaction, taking advantage of users' proprioceptive senses to help them understand 3D position, orientation, size, and shape. We hypothesize that flexible input based on fabric may be suitable for 3D surface design, because it can be molded and folded into a desired shape, and because it can be used as a dynamic flexible brush for 3D sketching. We developed Fabric3D, an interactive surface design system based on 3D sketching with flexible input, to explore this hypothesis. Through a longitudinal five-part study in which three domain experts used Fabric3D, we gained insight into the use of flexible input and 3D sketching for surface design.
Understanding the ‘Lexia’ in dyslexia: A multidisciplinary team approach to learning disabilities

The historical roots of the IQ-achievement discrepancy definition of learning disability are discussed as a reference point for explaining why this definition came into being and why it is inadequate for dealing with the variety of learning and developmental disabilities that present in school settings. A proposal is offered and justified for defining learning disabilities on the basis of profiles for multiple developmental domains that affect learning. In this proposal, developmental dyslexia is differentiated from other learning disabilities. Developmental dyslexia is defined as uneven development (dissociation) between word reading and higher-level processes in the functional reading system. Dyslexics may struggle with word reading because of deficits in phonological processes, orthographic-phonological connections, and/or fluency (rate, automaticity, or executive coordination). The need for both national and international classification schemes for defining specific learning and developmental disabilities for the purposes of educational services and research is emphasized.
Process Modeling of Ti-6Al-4V Linear Friction Welding (LFW)

A fully coupled thermomechanical finite-element analysis of the linear friction welding (LFW) process is combined with the basic physical metallurgy of Ti-6Al-4V to predict microstructure and mechanical properties within the LFW joints (as a function of the LFW process parameters). A close examination of the experimental results reported in the open literature revealed that the weld region consists of a thermomechanically affected zone (TMAZ) and a heat-affected zone (HAZ) and that the material mechanical properties are somewhat more inferior in the HAZ. Taking this observation into account, a model for microstructure-evolution during LFW was developed and parameterized for the Ti-6Al-4V material residing in the HAZ. Specifically, this model addresses the problem of temporal evolution of the prior β-phase grain size (the dominant microstructural parameter in the HAZ) during the LFW process. This model is next combined with the well-established property versus microstructure correlations in Ti-6Al-4V to predict the overall structural performance of the LFW joint. The results obtained are found to be in reasonably good agreement with their experimental counterparts suggesting that the present computational approach may be used to guide the selection of the LFW process parameters to optimize the structural performance of the LFW joints.