cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Putting the ‘patient’ in patient safety: A qualitative study of consumer experiences.

Background Although patient safety has been studied extensively, little research has directly examined patient and family (consumer) perceptions. Evidence suggests that clinicians define safety differently from consumers, e.g. clinicians focus more on outcomes, whereas consumers may focus more on processes. Consumer perceptions of patient safety are important for several reasons. First, health-care policy leaders have been encouraging patients and families to take a proactive role in ensuring patient safety; therefore, an understanding of how patients define safety is needed. Second, consumer perceptions of safety could influence outcomes such as trust and satisfaction or compliance with treatment protocols. Finally, consumer perspectives could be an additional lens for viewing complex systems and processes for quality improvement efforts. Objectives To qualitatively explore acute care consumer perceptions of patient safety. Design and methods Thirty-nine individuals with a recent overnight hospital visit participated in one of four group interviews. Analysis followed an interpretive analytical approach. Results Three basic themes were identified: Communication, staffing issues and medication administration. Consumers associated care process problems, such as delays or lack of information, with safety rather than as service quality problems. Participants agreed that patients need family caregivers as advocates. Conclusions Consumers seem acutely aware of care processes they believe pose risks to safety. Perceptual measures of patient safety and quality may help to identify areas where there are higher risks of preventable adverse events.
Unfinished Agenda for Law Schools in Nurturing a Commitment to Pro Bono Legal Services By Law Students

The vision of equal access to justice is far from realized in society today. Although Legal Services Corporation ("LSC") funded programs closed nearly one million cases in 2002, many otherwise financially eligible individuals and groups were denied access to any legal services. Professor Spain proposes to close this gap in services by encouraging involvement of law schools in the pro bono process. He then explains the different roles that a law school can play in this vital form of legal services.
COMMODITY MARKET REGULATION AFTER FINANCIAL CRISIS: A COMPARATIVE APPROACH

The United States Federal Government has imposed remarkably similar regulations on commodity markets after financial crises, particularly after the Great Depression and the recent financial crisis beginning in 2007. A comparison of these two great economic recessions will help identify the changes in commodity regulation policy over the past century.
Social Justice Practices on Gender, Race, and Environment Within a School in Granada

In this article we discuss the experience of the Institute Iliberis, a public high school in a small town in Granada, Spain, that has been engaged in innovative ways of teaching. Located in Atarfe, one of the few rural Spanish municipalities with expanding, rather than shrinking demographics, in the last 2 decades the Institute Iliberis has experienced the challenges of educating for democracy with an increasing diverse student body. This article focuses on the innovative and committed response of the entire school to address these challenges. By looking at the programs that the school prioritized in the articulation of this response, our article attempts to highlight an unorthodox Spanish school that has been successful in educating all of their students, respecting their ethnic and religious values while encouraging the students to do the same with their peers.
Migration Kinetics and Final Destination of Type 1 and Type 2 CD8 Effector Cells Predict Protection against Pulmonary Virus Infection

The requirements for CD8 T cells to provide protection against a localized virus infection in models of adoptive immunotherapy are not well defined. Here we investigated the protective value of defined in vitro–generated hemagglutinin (HA) peptide-specific primary CD8 T cell effectors from the clone 4 T cell receptor transgenic mice, secreting type 1 or type 2 cytokines, against pulmonary infection with whole influenza virus. Cytotoxic T lymphocytes producing type 1 and type 2 cytokine (Tc1 and Tc2) populations were equally cytolytic, but Tc1 effectors and not Tc2 effectors reduced the pulmonary virus titer early during infection. Host recovery mediated by Tc1 effectors was found to be independent of interferon γ production. Tc2 effectors entered the lung with delayed kinetics as compared with Tc1 effectors, and after lung entry Tc2 effector cells did not localize near the infected airway epithelium as did Tc1 effectors but were found within clusters of inflammatory cells distant from the epithelium. We also show that the expression of several chemokine receptors was selectively regulated in the Tc1 and Tc2 subsets. Thus, the protective value of a CD8 cell population against pulmonary influenza virus infection is strongly correlated with its ability to exert its effector potential at the site of virus infection.
A Feeling for Books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste, and Middle-Class Desire

Deftly melding ethnography, cultural history, literary criticism, and autobiographical reflection, A Feeling for Books is at once an engaging study of the Book-of-the-Month Club's influential role as a cultural institution and a profoundly personal meditation about the experience of reading. Janice Radway traces the history of the famous mail-order book club from its controversial founding in 1926 through its evolution into an enterprise uniquely successful in blending commerce and culture. Framing her historical narrative with writing of a more personal sort, Radway reflects on the contemporary role of the Book-of-the-Month Club in American cultural history and in her own life. Her detailed account of the standards and practices employed by the club's in-house editors is also an absorbing story of her interactions with those editors. Examining her experiences as a fourteen-year-old reader of the club's selections and, later, as a professor of literature, she offers a series of rigorously analytical yet deeply personal readings of such beloved novels as Marjorie Morningstar and To Kill a Mockingbird . Rich and rewarding, this book will captivate and delight anyone who is interested in the history of books and in the personal and transformative experience of reading. |For anyone who is interested in the history of books and in the personal and transformative experience of reading. Radway offers both an engaging look at the Book-of the-Month Club's role as a cultural institution and a profound meditation on the love of books.
Chapter 9: miscellaneous preserver problems

This chapter consists of three sections of miscellaneous results. Each is self contained with its own abstract, but the references are in one group at the very end of the chapter. The first section considers matrices over semirings. The second concerns a function on a matrix space M which commutes with a linear operator on M. The third considers linear operators preserving certain properties associated with positive semidefinite matrices.
The M33 G Protein-Coupled Receptor Encoded by Murine Cytomegalovirus Is Dispensable for Hematogenous Dissemination but Is Required for Growth within the Salivary Gland

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a pathogen found worldwide and is a serious threat to immunocompromised individuals and developing fetuses. Due to the species specificity of cytomegaloviruses, murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) has been used as a model for in vivo studies of HCMV pathogenesis. The MCMV genome, like the genomes of other beta- and gammaherpesviruses, encodes G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that modulate host signaling pathways presumably to facilitate viral replication and dissemination. Among these viral receptors, the M33 GPCR carried by MCMV is an activator of CREB, NF-κB, and phospholipase C-β signaling pathways and has been implicated in aspects of pathogenesis in vivo, including persistence in the salivary glands of BALB/c mice. In this study, we used immunocompetent nonobese diabetic (NOD) and immunocompromised NOD-scid-gamma (NSG) mice to further investigate the salivary gland defect exhibited by M33 deficiency. Interestingly, we demonstrate that virus with an M33 deletion (ΔM33) can replicate in the salivary gland of immunocompromised animals, albeit with a 400-fold growth defect compared with the growth of wild-type virus. Moreover, we determined that M33 does not have a role in cell-associated hematogenous dissemination but is required for viral amplification once the virus reaches the salivary gland. We conclude that the reduced replicative capacity of the ΔM33 virus is due to a specific defect occurring within the localized environment of the salivary gland. Importantly, since the salivary gland represents a site essential for persistence and horizontal transmission, an understanding of the mechanisms of viral replication within this site could lead to the generation of novel therapeutics useful for the prevention of HCMV spread. Importance: Human cytomegalovirus infects the majority of the American people and can reside silently in infected individuals for the duration of their lives. Under a number of circumstances, the virus can reactivate, leading to a variety of diseases in both adults and developing babies, and therefore, identifying the function of viral proteins is essential to understand how the virus spreads and causes disease. We aim to utilize animal models to study the function of an important class of viral proteins termed G protein-coupled receptors with the ultimate goal of developing inhibitors to these proteins that could one day be used to prevent viral spread.
Absence of species replication for a class of disordered fermion couplings

Abstract We present a disordered coupling scheme for free lattice fermions in two-dimensional spacetime. The theory is chirally invariant for a fermion mass of zero but does not lead to species replication and does not incorporate any long-range couplings. The fermion action breaks reflection positivity, the condition normally used to prove the existence of a self-adjoint hamiltonian for euclidean lattice field theories. Potential species replicas and states breaking reflection positivity decouple from processes which occur on a physical length scale because their wave functions become localized in the disordered lattice in somewhat the same way that electrons can become localized in a disordered solid.
Comparisons between Density Functional Theory and Conventional ab Initio Methods for 1,2-Elimination of HF from 1,1,1-Trifluoroethane: Test Case Study for HF Elimination from Fluoroalkanes†

Density functional theory, DFT, and high-level conventional ab initio calculations, together with RRKM calculations, have been employed to study the nature of the transition state geometry for 1,2 elimination of HF from 1,1,1-trifluoroethane-d0,-d3; these serve as test cases for 1,2-HF elimination from fluorocarbons. Quantities calculated include structural parameters, bond indices, energies, atomic charges, vibrational frequencies, and moments of inertia for the reactant and the transition state geometry. The threshold energies for HF and DF elimination were computed and the vibrational frequencies and moments of inertia data were used with the RRKM theory to calculate the entropies of activation, preexponential factors for thermal activation, and also rate constants and the kinetic isotope effect for both thermally and chemically activated 1,1,1-trifluoroethane-d0,-d3. Of all the methods employed, the hybrid DFT methods incorporating either the three-parameter exchange functional of Becke with the corre...
Study of Micro Vibration Detection Based on the Tunneling Effect

Scanning tunneling microscopy is a precise nano measuring machine, and high precision means the influence factors of scanning tunneling microscopy is important to the measurement result. The micro vibration is an obvious interferential factor to scanning tunneling microscopy, especially the low frequency vibration. In order to avoid the influence of vibration, the vibration detection in the tunneling state and vibration compensation are key aspect and are one passive approach to improve the measurement accuracy.
Innovations in environmental performance: the importance of financial performance and management quality

Empirical analyses exploring the relationship between environmental and financial performances hypothesise that good corporate environmental performance and the associated re-evaluation of production processes and adoption of innovative solutions increase the resource productivity and/or competitive advantage, thereby creating opportunity for improved financial performance. Although recent studies provide evidence supporting this hypothesis, they do not establish that good environmental performance causes good financial performance, nor do they control for underlying firm characteristics, such as management quality, that may enhance both environmental and financial performances, thus overstating the relationship between the two. The primary objective of this study is to explore the relationship between environmental performance, risk and expected cash flows/earnings, and the resulting impact on stock returns so that managers and investors can make more informed decisions. In addition, this study examines potential factors driving corporate environmental performance. The empirical analysis suggests that to the extent that investors consider environmental performance, they perceive environmental improvements and management as costly, unless made to avoid non-compliance penalties. Furthermore, the empirical analysis indicates that corporate financial performance does not influence environmental performance. Instead, the level of corporate sophistication and trust and transparency are the driving factors behind environmental performance improvements.
Stimulation of the active transport of serotonin into human platelets by hydrogen peroxide

Abstract The effect of H 2 O 2 on the active transport of serotonin (5-HT) by human platelets was investigated. Platelets were exposed to either a single dose of H 2 O 2 or to H 2 O 2 generated by the glucose/glucose oxidase or xanthine/xanthine oxidase enzyme systems. H 2 O 2 (12.5 to 100 μM) produced a rapid, concentration-dependent and time-dependent increase in 5-HT transport which was maximal after a 2min incubation and decreased with continued incubation. Catalase (1000 units) completely prevented H 2 O 2 -induced stimulation, and fluoxetine (1 μM) totally blocked 5-HT uptake into stimulated platelets. The glucose/glucose oxidase (3.12 to 100 milliunits) and the xanthine/xanthine oxidase generating systems produced a similar response to that of H 2 O 2 . In the xanthine/xanthine oxidase system, superoxide dismutase (250 units) failed to alter the stimulation, whereas catalase (1000 units) effectively prevented the response. The kinetics of 5-HT transport indicated that H 2 O 2 treatment did not alter the K m of 5-HT transport ( K m control = 1.0 ± 0.2 × 10 −6 M vs K m H 2 O 2 = 1.1 ± 0.1 × 10 −6 M) but markedly increased the maximal rate of 5-HT transport ( V max control = 131.4 ± 4.6 pmol/10 8 platelets/4 min vs V max H 2 O 2 = 206.7 ± 9.1 pmol/10 8 platelets/4 min). These data demonstrated that exposure of human platelets to H 2 O 2 resulted in a stimulation of the active transport of 5-HT and suggested that H 2 O 2 may function to regulate this process.
Is E-Government Ready for Prime Time?

Every nation has some form of e-government process, but there's considerable debate about whether it's even close to its potential. In spite of flashy and multifaceted implementations in developed nations, considerable evidence suggests that even the most technologically advanced countries aren't getting the full return yet for their e-government investments. Poorer nations fare even worse. Large e-government Web sites such as USA.gov connect users to a dizzying collection of federal and government services, including congressional voting records, links to legislators' offices, government job opportunities, government statistics, live personal assistance through Web chats, and so on
Low-Loss Almost Constant False-Alarm Rate Processors

Conventional normalizing constant false-alarm rate (CFAR) circuits use the same configurations when detecting targets in interference regions and in clear regions. The CFAR penalty incurred in the clear region can be reduced by using CFAR processors that recognize the region is clear so that normalization is not necessary. An analysis of the target-detection performance for a particular modified CFAR processor, for an active-radar sensor, and for a passive infrared (IR), or sonar, sensor is given. It is shown that the decreased CFAR penalty in the clear is coupled with an increase of false-alarm rate in the clutter regions.
A model of regional long-term average sulfur atmospheric pollution, surface removal, and net horizontal flux

Abstract The Advanced Statistical Trajectory Regional Air Pollution (ASTRAP) model combines efficient calculation of long-term regional-scale concentrations and fluxes of pollutant sulfur with improved parameterizations of boundary-layer processes. The parameterizations include diurnal and seasonal variations of dry deposition velocities for SO2 and sulfate, rate of transformation from SO2 to sulfate, vertical structure of the planetary boundary layer, and emission rates. The deposition velocity variations simulate some recent experimental results indicating that the deposition velocity of sulfate particles may be of the same order as that for gaseous SO2, not an order of magnitude less as often modeled. The transformation rate variation simulates a proposed photochemical effect. The stability variations simulate the cycle of nocturnal inversion formation, intensification, rise, and dissipation, as frequently observed in field investigations of the planetary boundary layer. The emission rate variation simulates the effects of such factors as daily patterns of electrical demand. An additional improved parameterization is the treatment of wet deposition as a function of the half power of the six-hourly precipitation amount, an empirical result. Budget studies of emissions from the eastern U.S. and Canada indicate that wet removal, dry removal, and horizontal transport out of the area are of similar magnitude during the summer months; during winter dry removal is only about one half as large as the other terms.
A Statistical Estimator of the Spatial Distribution of the Water-Table Altitude

An algorithm was designed to statistically estimate the areal distribution of water-table altitude. The altitude of the water table was bounded below by the minimum water-table surface and above by the land surface. Using lake elevations and stream stages, and interpolating between lakes and streams, the minimum water-table surface was generated. A multiple linear regression among the minimum water-table altitude, the differerence between land-surface and minimum water-table altitudes, and the water-level measurements from surficial aquifier system wells resulted in a consistently high correlation for all groups of physiographic regions in Florida. A simple linear regression between land-surface and water-level measurements resulted in a root-mean-square residual of 4.23 m, with residuals ranging from -8.78 to 41.54 m. A simple linear regression between the minimum water table and the water-level measurements resulted in a root-mean-square residual of 1.45 m, with residuals ranging from -7.39 to 4.10 m. The application of the multiple linear regression presented herein resulted in a root-mean-square residual of 1.05 m, with residuals ranging from -5.24 to 5.63 m. Results from complete and partial F tests rejected the hypothesis of eliminating any of the regressors in the multiple linear regression presented in this study.
Does nature always matter? Following dirt through history

Despite several decades of impressive scholarship in environmental history, the field remains largely marginal to the discipline as a whole. Environmental stories are still more likely to turn up in introductions, sidebars, and footnotes to political, social, and economic histories than they are to be incorporated into those narratives in a transformative way, though we as environmental historians know that potential is there. As we struggle to identify what precisely it is that we want other historians to do with our work, we run up against questions of definition and mission: What is environmental history? What do we do that is unique? What do we want other historians to learn from what we do? Some scholars in our field have suggested that we can answer these questions by framing "environment" as a category of analysis parallel to race, class, and gender, arguing that careful attention to the environment offers as rich a way of uncovering power relationships in societies as attention to these other categories does. While it is true that power can be read in the environment, and is frequently expressed through it, I argue that "environment" as both concept and fact is so fundamentally different from class, race, and gender that the analogy does not work, and distracts us from another, more fruitful strategy for articulating the broader relevance of our scholarship: demonstrating the significance of material nature for histories beyond the environmental realm. If other historians would join us in our attention to the physical, biological, and ecological nature of dirt, water, air, trees, and animals (including humans), they would find themselves led to new questions and new answers about the past.
How Do Journal Quality, Co-Authorship, and Author Order Affect Agricultural Economists' Salaries?

Utilizing an original data set containing annual salaries and peer-reviewed publication histories for 326 faculty members from top-ranked Ph.D.-granting programs, we examine the labor market for academic agricultural economists. The results suggest that higher quality publications have a greater impact on annual earnings, that sole authored articles have a higher return than multi-authored articles, and that no wage premium exists for being the lead author of a non-alphabetic article.
Minimally Invasive Treatment of Thoracic Disc Herniations

Abstract In the past, treatment of thoracic disc herniations has not been seen as a minimally invasive procedure. This article evaluates the progression of minimally invasive techniques for the treatment of thoracic disc herniations. Discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the approaches is noted so that surgeons may consider them while incorporating these techniques in their practice.
News from the CDC: translating epilepsy self-management research to practice.

Epilepsy, which affects about two million persons in the USA, is characterized by recurrent, unprovoked seizures [1]. Many with the condition face significant challenges related to managing treatment, symptoms, disability, lifestyle limitations, depression, and stigma. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Epilepsy Program supports activities related to epidemiologic and prevention research, improving care, combating stigma, promoting patient self-management, increasing public awareness and knowledge, and strengthening partnerships. In 2002, promising research on epilepsy self-management began to emerge from CDC’s Prevention Research Centers, which led to the development of the Managing Epilepsy Well (MEW) Network (http://www.sph.emory.edu/ManagingEpilepsyWell/) [2]. Since 2007, the MEW Network has successfully developed and evaluated several theory-based interventions through telehealth and traditional formats [3]. MEW programs currently available to the public include Epilepsy Awareness Support and Education (WebEase), an on-line self-management program, Using Practice and Learning to Increase Favorable Thoughts (UPLIFT), a telehealth depression treatment program, and Program to Encourage Active Rewarding Lives (PEARLS), a collaborative care home-based depression treatment intervention [3].
Effect of adrenocortical steroids on the hypercalciuria of Wilson's disease (hepatolenticular degeneration)☆

Abstract The effect of adrenocortical steroids on the urinary and fecal excretion of calcium was studied in 2 cases of Wilson's disease: one patient had hypercalciuria; the other did not. Both patients had an increase in urinary excretion and a decrease in fecal excretion of calcium while receiving orally 45 mg. of prednisone a day. The patient without hypercalciuria later exhibited similar changes when given orally 45 mg. of cortisone acetate a day. Although these findings shed no light on the cause of hypercalciuria seen in some cases of Wilson's disease, they do show that the urinary excretion of calcium by patients with Wilson's disease can be altered by the administration of adrenocortical steroids.
Design of M2C carbides for coarsening resistance

Abstract A model has been developed for coarsening kinetics of M2C carbides and subsequently applied to optimize the composition of high Co-Ni steels with respect to the overaging resistance during secondary hardening. The model accounts for both effects of multicomponent diffusion and precipitate shape anisotropy. It is found that W additions to high Co-Ni steels significantly reduces the coarsening rate constant. Calculations for two W-free 14Co-10Ni steels at a typical tempering temperature of 783K reveals a beneficial effect of the Cr substitution with Mo, in a good agreement with available experimental data.
Residue of Cypermethrin and Its Major Acid Metabolites in Milk and Tissues from Dairy Bovines Treated with Cypermethrin

A bovine feeding study was conducted to determine the magnitude of the residues of cypermethrin and its acid metabolites in milk, cream, kidney, liver, pectoral muscle, adductor muscle, peritoneal ...
IMPORTANCE OF PROTEIN QUALITY IN FEEDING THE LOW BIRTH WEIGHT (LBW) INFANT

To provide insight into the cause of metabolic acidosis (MA) observed in LBW infants fed high casein formulas, net acid balances (NAB) were preformed in infants (BW 900-1750g) fed formulas with a whey:casein ratio of either 18:82 (A; n=8) or 60:40 (B; n=8). Both provided 3.4g/kg.d of protein and 120 kcal/kg.d. Simultaneously, plasma and urinary amino acid (AA) concentrations including both bound and free cysteine concentrations (Malloy, et al, Anal. Biochem.112:407, 1981) were determined. Neither growth nor nitrogen retention of the 2 groups differed. No infant in A or B developed MA and NAB did not differ (A=-1.61 mEq/kg.d; B=-1.72 mEq/kg.d). However, urinary organic acid excretion (OA), a component of net acid intake (NAI), was greater in A(1.81±0.3 mEq/kg.d vs 1.45±0.12 mEq/kg.d; p<0.05). Plasma {Tyr} but not other {AA} was higher in A(28.6±18.9 μm/d7 vs 11.5±2.7 μm/d7; p<0.05) suggesting that some of their greater OA was a tyr metabolite. Neither other NAI components nor net acid output components differed. Despite the difference in cys intake, neither plasma nor urinary bound or free {cys} differed. Urinary {tau} of B was higher (5.27±0.5 μm/kg.d vs 4.17±0.7 μm/kg.d; p<0.05) but only 1/5 that of infants fed human milk (Rassin, et al, Pediatr. 71:179, 1983). These data provide new information concerning both the mechanism of MA that may occur in infants fed higher intakes of casein and the importance of cys intake. They do not provide strong support for the superiority of whey proteins when total protein intake is <3.4g/kg.d.
Anhedonia requires MC4R-mediated synaptic adaptations in nucleus accumbens

Chronic stress is a strong diathesis for depression in humans and is used to generate animal models of depression. It commonly leads to several major symptoms of depression, including dysregulated feeding behaviour, anhedonia and behavioural despair. Although hypotheses defining the neural pathophysiology of depression have been proposed, the critical synaptic adaptations in key brain circuits that mediate stress-induced depressive symptoms remain poorly understood. Here we show that chronic stress in mice decreases the strength of excitatory synapses on D1 dopamine receptor-expressing nucleus accumbens medium spiny neurons owing to activation of the melanocortin 4 receptor. Stress-elicited increases in behavioural measurements of anhedonia, but not increases in measurements of behavioural despair, are prevented by blocking these melanocortin 4 receptor-mediated synaptic changes in vivo. These results establish that stress-elicited anhedonia requires a neuropeptide-triggered, cell-type-specific synaptic adaptation in the nucleus accumbens and that distinct circuit adaptations mediate other major symptoms of stress-elicited depression.
Zeeman Effect of Impurity Levels in Silicon

Completely resolved Zeeman spectra for the bismuth donor in silicon including optical transitions from the $1s$ donor ground state to the excited states $2{p}_{0}$, $2{p}_{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$, $3{p}_{0}$, $4{p}_{0}$, $3{p}_{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$, $5{p}_{0}$, $4{p}_{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$, and $5{p}_{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$ are presented. The transitions were observed at liquid helium temperature, using linearly polarized radiation alternately parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic field, and field intensities up to 38.9 kilogauss oriented along each of the three principal crystallographic axes. Both linear splitting of the ${p}_{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$ states and a quadratic dependence on field were observed. The use of impurity Zeeman spectra is demonstrated for evaluating effective mass parameters, determining the nature of energy bands and finding and identifying impurity excited states. The transverse effective mass for the electron in silicon was found to be (0.186\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.006) ${m}_{0}$ in agreement with recent cyclotron resonance results. From Zeeman splitting, electron effective masses up to 0.5 ${m}_{0}$ can be measured to within \ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}\textonehalf{}% at infrared frequencies in a field of 40 kilogauss. The behavior in a magnetic field of the first two donor excited states could be explained by treating the magnetic terms of the Hamiltonian as a perturbation to first order. Interactions among the higher closely-spaced Zeeman levels were observed above 20 kilogauss and were evaluated with a second-order treatment. The Zeeman structure for the aluminum acceptor reflected the complexity of the valence bands and the acceptor ground state and was in qualitative agreement with the theoretical results of Kohn and Schechter. Transitions were observed to eight excited states converging to the series limit. Evidence is given for the degeneracy of each state.
PEGylation of lysine residues improves the proteolytic stability of fibronectin while retaining biological activity

Excessive proteolysis of fibronectin (FN) impairs tissue repair in chronic wounds. Since FN is essential in wound healing, our goal is to improve its proteolytic stability and at the same time preserve its biological activity. We have previously shown that reduced FN conjugated with polyethylene glycol (PEG) at cysteine residues is more proteolytically stable than native FN. Cysteine-PEGylated FN supported cell adhesion and migration to the same extent as native FN. However, unlike native FN, cysteine-PEGylated FN was not assembled into an extracellular matrix (ECM) when immobilized. Here, we present an alternative approach in which FN is preferentially PEGylated at lysine residues using different molecular weight PEGs. We show that lysine PEGylation does not perturb FN secondary structure. PEG molecular weight, from 2 to 10 kDa, positively correlates with FN-PEG proteolytic stability. Cell adhesion, cell spreading, and gelatin binding decrease with increasing molecular weight of PEG. The 2-kDa FN-PEG conjugate shows comparable cell adhesion to native FN and binds gelatin. Moreover, immobilized FN-PEG is assembled into ECM fibrils. In summary, lysine PEGylation of FN can be used to stabilize FN against proteolytic degradation with minimal perturbation to FN structure and retained biological activity.
Ozone distributions over the los angeles basin: Three-dimensional simulations with the smog model

The UCLA Surface Meteorology and Ozone Generation (SMOG) model has been applied to simulate and analyze the distributions of ozone in the Los Angeles basin on 27 and 28 August 1987, during the Southern California Air Quality Study (SCAQS). SMOG is an integrated air pollution modeling system that includes the coupled effects of meteorology, pollutant sources and dispersion, photochemistry and aerosol microphysics, and radiative processes. High surface ozone concentrations are predicted along the slopes of the surrounding mountain barriers and in the eastern basin, as observed. The pattern of surface ozone concentrations is shown to be influenced by the evolution of oxidants within the temperature inversion that typically blankets the Los Angeles basin. In the past, dense layers of ozone have been observed to be embedded within the temperature inversion, but their origin has remained unexplained. The present model simulations reproduce these and other three-dimensional structures in the ozone distribution, as documented by measurements in the basin. The high concentrations of oxidants aloft are explained through a detailed dynamical/chemical mechanism. High mountains surrounding the Los Angeles basin block the dispersion of ozone and other pollutants and generally contain them within the basin. At the same time, vertical circulations associated with the interaction of the sea-breeze and mountain slope winds inject pollutants into the base of the inversion and create high concentrations of ozone, PAN, nitric acid, organic nitrates and a variety of other pollutants, including aerosols. The contrast between ozone concentrations at the surface and in these elevated layers can be enhanced in the evening by NO emissions, which titrate ozone near the surface. The elevated layers act as a reservoir for aged pollutants, which can be mixed downward on subsequent days to enhance surface concentrations. The recirculation of pollutants in the Los Angeles basin is thus reinforced by the presence of these oxidant layers, and may be responsible for the rapid increase in surface ozone concentrations often seen in the morning, particularly in the eastern basin where emissions of primary pollutants are relatively small. The impact on surface ozone concentrations of recirculated photochemically aged air is estimated to be as high as 8 pphmv in the eastern Los Angeles basin. These simulations represent the first quantitative description of the role of pollutants aloft on surface air quality.
Olfactory discrimination ability of CD-1 mice for a large array of enantiomers

With use of a conditioning paradigm, the ability of eight CD-1 mice to distinguish between 15 enantiomeric odor pairs was investigated. The results demonstrate a) that CD-1 mice are capable of discriminating between all odor pairs tested, b) that the enantiomeric odor pairs clearly differed in their degree of discriminability and thus in their perceptual similarity, and c) that pre-training with the rewarded stimuli led to improved initial but not terminal or overall performance. A comparison between the proportion of discriminated enantiomeric odor pairs of the CD-1 mice and those of other species tested in earlier studies on the same discrimination tasks (or on subsets thereof) shows a significant positive correlation between discrimination performance and the number of functional olfactory receptor genes. These findings provide the first evidence of a highly developed ability of CD-1 mice to discriminate between an array of non-pheromonal chiral odorants. Further, they suggest that a species' olfactory discrimination capabilities for these odorants may be correlated with its number of functional olfactory receptor genes. The data presented here may provide useful information for the interpretation of findings from electrophysiological or imaging studies in the mouse and the elucidation of odor structure-activity relationships.
Reading to decide

Many communication situations have shifted to complex situations where people read information and make decisions (they read to decide). With reading to decide, information needs revolve around information seeking and decision making. After finding information, people need to interpret and apply it. Writing documents focused on reading to decide means shifting from creating texts about how to perform tasks to creating texts with an understanding people's information needs and how they interact with information.
Student attitudes toward the use of games to promote learning in the large classroom setting

Abstract Objective To evaluate student attitudes toward the use of games to promote learning when introducing the students to a brand new subject topic prior to a lecture, when reviewing a previously taught subject topic, or when being used as the sole method for teaching a new subject topic. Design "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire ® ", "Jeopardy ® ", and "Survivor ® " games were utilized as a component of three of nine lectures in an advanced psychiatric pharmacy elective course. These games either replaced or supplemented traditional didactic lecture. A survey was administered during the final course session. Survey items ascertained if the games effectively introduced, reviewed, or taught different psychiatric topics. Survey items also assessed student attitudes toward learning style, group selection and availability of prizes. Assessment The majority of the students agreed that games were an effective way to promote learning when introducing and reviewing a topic. However, students indicated that they learn more from a traditional lecture versus a game format. Conclusion Using games as an adjunct to traditional lecture in the large classroom setting may be effective when introducing or reviewing a subject. Additional studies that assess the value of the game methodology when teaching a new subject need to be conducted.
The effect of investor origin on firm performance: Domestic and foreign direct investment in the United States

Abstract This paper evaluates the causal relationship between the source of origin of FDI and the performance of the target firm. The empirical analysis uses new data on a comprehensive sample of public U.S. firms that received FDI between 1979 and 2006. To account for the possibility that performance differences arise due to the selection of superior target firm rather than the change in ownership, I use propensity score matching to create similar comparison groups of target firms prior to acquisitions. The analysis reveals three major findings. First, acquiring firms from industrialized countries lead to labor productivity increases of 13% in the target firm three years after the acquisition compared to targets acquired by domestic firms. Firms that received developing country firm acquisitions, on the other hand, exhibit lower labor productivity gains four years after acquisition, compared to targets acquired by domestic firms. Second, targets receiving FDI by firms from industrial and developing countries also experience increases in profits, compared with firms receiving acquisition by domestic firms from the United States. Third, compared with domestic acquisitions, foreign industrial firm acquisition FDI tends to increase their targets' employment and sales, whereas targets acquired by firms located in developing countries experience a decrease in both revenues and total number of employees. These findings suggest that target firms are subject to significantly different restructuring processes depending on the origin of the acquiring firm.
Energetics of certain silicate solid solutions

Abstract The energetics of homogeneous intracrystalline (order-disorder) equilibria of amphiboles and pyroxenes are discussed in a quantitative manner. The distributions of Mg and Fe 2+ among the lattice sites of cummingtonite and orthopyroxene are derived from the functions of the heterogeneous ion exchange equilibria for co-existing cummingtonite-actinolite and Ca-pyroxene-orthopyroxene. The derived distribution in cummingtonite is in good agreement with that obtained by X-ray diffraction by Ghose . The distribution in other pyroxenes is also considered. The general problem of the distribution of elements is discussed in relation to various types of intracrystalline equilibria, coupling effects between different types of ions and types of polyhedra of co-ordination with the cations.
Seizure threshold in electroconvulsive therapy : I. Initial seizure threshold

We measured initial seizure threshold by means of a structured stimulus dosage titration procedure in a clinical sample of 111 depressed patients undergoing brief-pulse, constantcurrent electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Initial seizure threshold was approximately 60 millicoumbs (mc) (10 Joules) on average, but varied widely (6-fold) across patients. Initial seizure threshold was predicted by four variables: electrode placement (higher with bilateral), gender (higher in men), age (higher with increasing age), and dynamic impedance (inverse relationship). Use of neuroleptic medication was associated with a lower seizure threshold. EEG seizure duration was inversely related to initial seizure threshold, but no other relations with seizure duration were found. These findings may have important clinical implications for stimulus dosing strategies in ECT.
Medicare’s Flagship Test Of Pay-For-Performance Did Not Spur More Rapid Quality Improvement Among Low-Performing Hospitals

Medicare’s flagship hospital pay-for-performance program, the Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration, began in 2003 but changed its incentive design in late 2006. The goals were to encourage greater quality improvement, particularly among lower-performing hospitals. However, we found no evidence that the change achieved these goals. Although the program changes were intended to provide strong incentives for improvement to the lowest-performing hospitals, we found that in practice the new incentive design resulted in the strongest incentives for hospitals that had already achieved quality performance ratings just above the median for the entire group of participating hospitals. Yet during the course of the program, these hospitals improved no more than others. Our findings raise questions about whether pay-for-performance strategies that reward improvement can generate greater improvement among lower performing providers. They also cast some doubt on the extent to which hospitals respond to the s...
Overwhelming Infections in Infants and Children

Infections in children may present with nonspecific findings, requiring early recognition and stabilization. Age, etiology, immunocompetency, and duration of illness should all be considered in the initial assessment. Antibiotics and aggressive support are mandatory to avoid deterioration and severe morbidity or death.
Agricultural water use estimation using geospatial modeling and a geographic information system

Abstract Fresh water resources in the world are limited and, often, disputes occur on how to share them. In many regions, agricultural water use is significant but poorly documented. In order to contribute to solutions for water disputes involving such regions, methodologies need to be developed for regional water use estimation. In this paper we present a case study of Georgia (USA) which is locked in a water dispute with its neighboring states—Alabama and Florida. Agricultural water use in Georgia was essentially unknown because of no reporting requirement. Using a geographic information system and geospatial techniques, the depths of irrigation for cotton, peanut, and maize are estimated for the Flint, Central, and Coastal water zones of Georgia for 2000–2002. The geospatial techniques included the Inverse Distance Weighting, Global Polynomial, Local Polynomial, Radial Basis Function, Ordinary Kriging, and Universal Kriging. The volume of irrigation for these crops was estimated for 2000 and 2001. On the basis of root mean squared error, the Radial Basis Function technique was found to be the most successful one, followed by the Local Polynomial technique. The study of variograms revealed that the depth of irrigation at a site was influenced by its neighboring sites within a radius of about 40 km in the case of cotton, and within about 70 km in the case of peanut. No such influence could be detected for maize. The total volume of irrigation was highest for the Flint zone (564.2 Mm 3 ), followed by the Central zone (291.9 Mm 3 ) and the Coastal zone (94.1 Mm 3 ) for 2000. For 2001, the irrigation volume declined by 40% for the Flint zone, 32% for the Central zone, and 16% for the Coastal zone. The estimates presented in this study can be improved by including more representative sampling sites if possible, by studying the patterns of irrigated lands in Georgia, and by using satellite data for estimating irrigated area for individual crops.
A Model for Determining the Validity of Faculty Ratings of University Administrator Effectiveness

A study was conducted to investigate the validity of an instrument designed to measure university administrator effectiveness and to serve as a model for other validity studies of administrator rating scales. School deans and department chairmen were evaluated by their respective faculty members.It was reasoned that administrators would possess individual differences in effectiveness and that a valid test instrument would indicate such differences. Results showed significant differences among administrators on each factor (p < .01). Significant and high correlations should be expected between the original instrument requiring closed-ended responses and an alternative instrument requiring open-ended responses. All correlations were greater than .82 (p < .001).
The utility of routine frozen section examination for intraoperative diagnosis of thyroid cancer

Background The value of routine frozen section examination for intraoperative diagnosis of thyroid cancer and determination of extent of thyroidectomy is controversial and needs to be evaluated on an institution to institution basis. methods: A prospective evaluation of 76 patients with nodular thyroid disease who had an adequate fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) under-went thyroidectomy with routine thyroid frozen section examination. A direct comparison of FNAB and frozen section examination, along with a cost benefit analysis of frozen section examination, was completed. Results The thyroid pathology was carcinoma in 24, follicular adenoma in 24, multinodular goiter in 24, thyroiditis in 3, and a cyst in 1 patient. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of frozen section examination were 93%, 100%, and 97%, respectively, compared with 88%, 89%, and 91 % for FNAB ( P >0.05). Diagnosis was deferred in 38 patients (50%) in whom frozen section examination showed a follicular neoplasm. One to 6 frozen section examinations were obtained per patient with alteration in intraoperative management in only 2 patients (3%) at a charge of $246 to $606 per patient and a total charge of $26,040. Conclusion In patients with an adequate FNAB, frozen section examination rarely affected intra-operative decision making in thyroid surgery and its routine use was not cost effective.