cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Metaphors of Death: A Thematic Analysis of Personal Meanings

The present study describes some of the meanings death holds for contemporary individuals. Twenty-six well-educated participants were given the Knapp metaphor inventory and asked to discuss the metaphors they chose as most closely reflecting their views of death. The results of a hermeneutic analysis of these discussions yielded three independent themes: death viewed negatively as a barrier to life's meanings, death viewed ambivalently as an essentially negative condition made acceptable by a variety of mitigating factors, and death viewed positively as a reinstatement or transformation of life's meanings. A correlational analysis comparing results produced by Knapp's original participants with those of the present group revealed significant stability in metaphoric choices over a thirty-year period. A further analysis evaluating the influence of religiosity on the meanings of death revealed that participants from church groups viewed death significantly more frequently as a transformation of life's meanin...
Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia: NHLBI Workshop on the Primary Prevention of Chronic Lung Diseases

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is the most common complication of extreme preterm birth. Infants who develop BPD manifest aberrant or arrested pulmonary development and can experience lifelong alterations in cardiopulmonary function. Despite decades of promising research, primary prevention of BPD has proven elusive. This workshop report identifies current barriers to the conduct of primary prevention studies for BPD and causal pathways implicated in BPD pathogenesis. Throughout, we highlight promising areas for research to improve understanding of normal and aberrant lung development, distinguish BPD endotypes, and ascertain biomarkers for more targeted therapeutic approaches to prevention. We conclude with research recommendations and priorities to accelerate discovery and promote lung health in infants born preterm.
The State and Sustainability of Telepsychiatry Programs

Telepsychiatry, or the provision of psychiatric care across a distance using communication technologies, has become widespread and has been used successfully for treating a variety of mental illnesses. Little is known, however, about the sustainability of telepsychiatry programs and their long-term success. The goal of this study was to determine current trends in telepsychiatry by completing an extensive literature review and to follow-up with the authors of telepsychiatry research to examine the current status of their programs and success factors or barriers associated with their experiences. Results indicated that modern telepsychiatry programs often target veteran/military or child populations and that many rely on either federal or internal funding. Interestingly, several researchers indicated that they wished to improve current funding mechanisms, while others wished for improvements in the technology used. Implications of these findings for behavioral health researchers are discussed, along with suggestions for improving future telepsychiatry programs.
Exploring the use of blended learning in tourism education

ABSTRACT The last few years have registered a dramatic increase in Internet use in education and a continued investment by educational institutions to increase the integration of technology components into their course offerings. While many have embraced the introduction of online components on the academic experience, some fear that online courses lack the interaction component so critical to the traditional academic experience. In response, there is a growing belief that rather than advocating online or face-to-face learning methods, one should capitalize on the strengths of both methods and examine the effectiveness of blended methods. Therefore, the purpose was to explore the influence of perceptions of online and face-to-face interaction on student satisfaction and performance on a blended learning tourism marketing assignment. The results revealed that students' satisfaction was influenced by their online interactions with other students, the instructor and specific content but that they had no effe...
Redescription of a Rare Malagasy Blind Snake, Typhlops grandidieri Mocquard, with Placement in a New Genus (Serpentes: Typhlopidae)

Typhlops grandidieri, a Malagasy blind snake known only from two syntypes collected in 1905, is redescribed on the basis of external and internal morphology. A lectotype is designated and a description of the soft anatomy is given for the paralectotype. Certain features indicate a relationship to the Leptotyphlopidae, particularly Rhinoleptus koniagui (single anal shield, absence of tracheal lung, cranially located heart, highly vascularized right lung with type G bronchial foramina). On the basis of total evidence these characters are considered convergent; presence of maxillary teeth and a costal/vertebral ratio of 1.8 confirm membership in the Typhlopidae while other anatomical features suggest a relationship to Rhinotyphlops simoni (reduced head shields, T-0 supralabial imbrication pattern, horizontal cutting edge on rostral, attenuated body, long tail, absence of apical spine). Because of the mosaic of conflicting systematic characters, in conjunction with the unique cephalic papilla-like projections, Xenotyphlops gen. nov. is proposed to accomodate the species T. grandidieri.
Functional–structural models optimize the placement of foliage units for multiple whole-canopy functions

I present examples of plant functional–structural models (FSMs) that are used to evaluate how foliage units affect whole-canopy functions, and I show that multi-criteria optimization is an effective tool for these models. FSMs produce plant structures through the repeated application of a set of rules for the placement of foliage units. The models are blind (rules are the same regardless of dynamic simulation conditions), sighted (rules change with interference from other foliage units) or self-regulatory (rules change depending on the conditions of the simulation, i.e., internal conditions). In the examples presented, the models are used to optimize plant morphology for one or more measures of plant performance; these measures include movement of materials and associated hydraulic functions, foliage display, light interception and net carbon, mechanical support and stability, and reproductive success. It is consistently found that no morphology is optimal for any single measure of plant performance, and the rules for plant development are not stationary in space and time. In multi-criteria optimization, alternative morphologies are compared against multiple measures of plant performance; these are optimized simultaneously using Pareto optimality, which yields the set of mutually co-dominant solutions not dominated by any other solution. Two solutions are considered to be mutually co-dominant if improvement with respect to one criterion is at the expense of another criterion. I conclude that multi-criteria optimization is an essential tool for the use of FSMs to relate processes at the foliage level to whole-canopy function and to explain the structural diversity of old-growth forests.
What Makes Markets Allocationally Efficient

What determines the allocative efficiency of markets? Why are double auctions, even with untrained human traders, allocationally efficient? We provide a simple explanation for these complex phenomena by showing how externally observable rules that define a market cause high allocative efficiency when individuals remain within the confines of these rules. We also show how the oft-ignored shape of extramarginal demand and supply affects efficiency by influencing the inverse relationship between the magnitude of efficiency loss and its probability.
The strontium isotopic evolution of Marcellus Formation produced waters, southwestern Pennsylvania

Abstract The production of natural gas and natural gas liquids from unconventional tight shale formations involves hydraulic fracturing and subsequent removal of fluids co-produced with the gas. The chemistry of the returning fluid reflects the original composition of the injection water, mobilized constituents in the shale formation, and co-mingled formation waters liberated by hydraulic fracturing. Produced water from unconventional gas wells tapping the Middle Devonian Marcellus Formation is characterized by high total dissolved solids (TDS), including very high strontium concentrations. In this study, the strontium isotope composition ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) was measured in produced waters from four horizontally drilled, hydraulically fractured Marcellus shale gas wells in southwestern Pennsylvania, sampled from the first day after commencement of flowback to as much as 27 months later. The 87 Sr/ 86 Sr of the waters tended to change rapidly over the first few days of water return, and then approached (but did not reach) a constant range of values from 0.7113 to 0.7114, which appears to be characteristic of this part of the Marcellus play. In contrast, the concentration of Sr rose more slowly and appeared to hit a steady state value (up to 3000 mg/L) by the end of the first year. Taken together with results from earlier work, these data suggest mixing between injected frac fluid and high-TDS formation water, highly enriched in Sr, and isotopically relatively uniform throughout the Marcellus shale gas play. This brine could exist within porous lenses of organic matter in the shale, in pre-existing fractures within the shale, and/or originate from fluids that migrated from adjacent formations at some point during the post-depositional history of the basin.
Application of I&Q detection system in scouting the curative effect of neck squamous cell carcinoma

ABSTRACT: Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) has been widely used in cancer imaging spectroscopy because cancertissue has more blood volume and less oxygen than normal tissue. The neck squamous cell carcinoma is ideal for our study because it's a surface mass can be easily feel through the skin. We use a simple homodyne phase modulation system, Inphase and Quadrature Phase (I&Q) Detection system, to study the curative effect of therapy in neck cancer patients.Clinical treatment includes mainly chemical and radiation therapy, both of which alter the blood volume and the oxygenation saturation in cancer tissue. The I&Q detection system is capable of the quantification measurement of those biological changes'. In this paper, we will simply introduce the I&Q detection system's principle and constitution, and mainly explain the analysis of patients' data. KEYWORDS: I&Q detection system, NIRS, neck squamous cell carcinoma1. INTRODUCTION Non-invasive NIR spectroscopy and imaging, which can be used to study the physiological state of biological tissues bydetecting their optical properties, has long been investigated. Many techniques have been presented ''
Small convolution kernels for high-fidelity image restoration

An algorithm is developed for computing the mean-square-optimal values for small, image-restoration kernels. The algorithm is based on a comprehensive, end-to-end imaging system model that accounts for the important components of the imaging process: the statistics of the scene, the point-spread function of the image-gathering device, sampling effects, noise, and display reconstruction. Subject to constraints on the spatial support of the kernel, the algorithm generates the kernel values that restore the image with maximum fidelity, that is, the kernel minimizes the expected mean-square restoration error. The algorithm is consistent with the derivation of the spatially unconstrained Wiener filter, but leads to a small, spatially constrained kernel that, unlike the unconstrained filter, can be efficiently implemented by convolution. Simulation experiments demonstrate that for a wide range of imaging systems these small kernels can restore images with fidelity comparable to images restored with the unconstrained Wiener filter. >
Free Surface Flow Due to a Sink.

Abstract : When fluid is withdrawn from a reservoir, the free surface may be drawn down. In order to investigate this phenomenon we consider two-dimensional free surface flows without waves, produced by a submerged sink in a reservoir. Numerical solutions are obtained for various configurations. For a sink the horizontal bottom of a layer of fluid, there are solutions for all values of the Froude number F greater than some particular value. However, when the fluid is sufficiently deep, there is an additional solution for one special value of F 1. We were led to look for these solutions by our experiences with other free surface flows with gravity, such as flows over weirs in channels and flows around lips of teapot spouts. In those cases we found that in fluids of infinite depth there was a flow only for a special value of the appropriate Froude number. This kind of flow also occurred in fluids of finite depth, but in addition there were solutions for all Froude numbers greater than some particular value. The present results show that this is also the case for free surface flows produced by sinks.
Taxonomy for strengthening the identification of core elements for evidence-based behavioral interventions for HIV/AIDS prevention

The concept of core elements was developed to denote characteristics of an intervention, such as activities or delivery methods, presumed to be responsible for the efficacy of evidence-based behavioral interventions (EBIs) for HIV/AIDS prevention. This paper describes the development of a taxonomy of core elements based on a literature review of theoretical approaches and characteristics of EBIs. Sixty-one categories of core elements were identified from the literature and grouped into three distinct domains: implementation, content and pedagogy. The taxonomy was tested by categorizing core elements from 20 HIV prevention EBIs disseminated by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Results indicated that core elements represented all three domains but several were difficult to operationalize due to vague language or the inclusion of numerous activities or constructs. A process is proposed to describe core elements in a method that overcomes some of these challenges. The taxonomy of core elements can be used to identify core elements of EBIs, strengthen the translation of EBIs from research to practice and guide future research seeking to identify essential core elements in prevention interventions.
Cutaneous shock produces correlated shifts in slow potential amplitude and cyclic 3',5'-adenosine monophosphate level in the parietal cortex of the conscious rat.

— Fourteen animals each received 4 cutaneous shocks with an interval of 3–5 min between them. During a fifth trial 3–5 min later, eleven subjects received a fifth shock and then 3–30 s afterwards, as cerebral slow potentials developed in response to the stimulus, samples of parietal cortex were rapidly frozen and extracted by a cryoplate. Three baseline subjects received no shock at the time of the fifth trial and had their parietal tissue samples taken without the presence of slow potentials. A correlation coefficient of r=−0.77 (P < 0.01) was observed between the slow potential amplitude on the surface of the parietal cortex at the time of the sampling and the analyzed level of cyclic AMP in the underlying tissue. Five of the shocked animals whose samples were taken before the slow potentials increased significantly showed a tissue level of 11.1 ± 3.0 pmol cyclic AMP/mg protein. This level was significantly higher (P < 0.01) than that of the baseline animals (3.1 ± 2.0 pmol cyclic AMP/mg protein). The other six shocked animals who had developed large slow potentials manifested a cyclic AMP level that was not different from the baseline group. It is concluded that a reoccurring cutaneous shock results in the immediate increase in the level of cyclic AMP in the parietal cortex and that within 30 s this level decreases in proportion to the amplitude of the slow potential that develops in the same region.
CARCINOGENIC EFFECTS OF MAN-MADE VITREOUS FIBERS

Man-made vitreous fibers (MMVF) have been produced both in the US and Europe for more than 100 years.' These fibers are of considerable interest in terms of their potential human health effects largely because of similarities to asbestos fibers. Concern for health hazards associated with MMVF was accelerated greatly by the appearance of papers, starting in 1972, which proved that fibrous glass, the principle type MMVF, is capable of producing cancer when implanted in the pleura of rats. The papers concluded that it is the geometry of asbestos fibers that produce cancer, rather than their chemical composition (39, 46, 47). Asbestos is a well established cause of lung cancer and pleural and perito­ neal malignant mesothelioma. Some researchers believe that asbestos has its effects on lung tissue because of the lung's inability to phagocytize these fibers (29). When a long, thin asbestos fiber is inhaled, the lung macrophages (the scavenger cells in the lung) engulf a fiber incompletely, and there is an escape of destructive intracellular enzymes to the surrounding tissue from the region where the fiber protrudes from the cells periphery. These enzymes ultimately cause damaged cells and fibrosis, and this scarring probably ren­ ders the entrapped pUlmonary epithelium more susceptible to malignant
Dual effects of proctolin on the rhythmic burst activity of the cardiac ganglion

The neuropeptide proctolin has distinguishable excitatory effects upon premotor cells and motorneurons of Homarus cardiac ganglion. Proctolin's excitation of the small, premotor, posterior cells is rapid in onset (5–10 s) and readily reversible (< 3 min). Prolonged bursts in small cells often produce a “doublet” ganglionic burst mode via interactions with large motorneuron burst-generating driver potentials. In contrast to small cell response, proctolin's direct excitatory effects upon motorneuron are slow in onset (60–90 s to peak) and long-lasting (10–20 min). The latter include: (a) a concentration-dependent (10−9–10−7M) depolarization of the somatic membrane potential; (b) increases in burst frequency and (c) enhancement of the rate of depolarization of the interburst pacemaker potential. Experiments on isolated large cells indicate: (a) the slow depolarization is produced by a decrease in the resting GK and (b) proctolin can produce or enhance motorneuron autorhythmicity. A two-tiered non-hierarchical network model is proposed. The differential pharmacodynamics exhibited by the two cell types accounts for the sequential modes of ganglionic burst activity produced by proctolin.
Automatic fault characterization via abnormality-enhanced classification

Enterprise and high-performance computing systems are growing extremely large and complex, employing many processors and diverse software/hardware stacks. As these machines grow in scale, faults become more frequent and system complexity makes it difficult to detect and to diagnose them. The difficulty is particularly large for faults that degrade system performance or cause erratic behavior but do not cause outright crashes. The cost of these errors is high since they significantly reduce system productivity, both initially and by time required to resolve them. Current system management techniques do not work well since they require manual examination of system behavior and do not identify root causes. When a fault is manifested, system administrators need timely notification about the type of fault, the time period in which it occurred and the processor on which it originated. Statistical modeling approaches can accurately characterize normal and abnormal system behavior. However, the complex effects of system faults are less amenable to these techniques. This paper demonstrates that the complexity of system faults makes traditional classification and clustering algorithms inadequate for characterizing them. We design novel techniques that combine classification algorithms with information on the abnormality of application behavior to improve detection and characterization accuracy significantly. Our experiments demonstrate that our techniques can detect and characterize faults with 85% accuracy, compared to just 12% accuracy for direct applications of traditional techniques.
Separation and characterization of tetrol metabolites of benzo[a]pyrene-DNA adducts using HPLC and solid-matrix room temperature luminescence

Four tetrols of benzo[a]pyrene-DNA adducts were separated using reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography. Chromatographic fractions containing a given tetrol were readily characterized with solid-matrix room temperature luminescence techniques. Solid-matrix fluorescence and phosphorescence spectra at picogram amounts of a tetrol were easily obtained. Tetrol fractions collected based on retention times, but with no response from the ultraviolet detector, were characterized by solid-matrix luminescence spectra at very small quantities.
CD4 Binding Site Antibodies Inhibit Human Immunodeficiency Virus gp120 Envelope Glycoprotein Interaction with CCR5

The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) gp120 exterior glycoprotein is conformationally flexible. Upon binding the host cell receptor, CD4, gp120 assumes a conformation that is able to bind the chemokine receptors CCR5 or CXCR4, which act as coreceptors for the virus. CD4-binding-site (CD4BS) antibodies are neutralizing antibodies elicited during natural infection that are directed against gp120 epitopes that overlap the binding site for CD4. Recent studies (S. H. Xiang et al., J. Virol. 76:9888-9899, 2002) suggest that CD4BS antibodies recognize conformations of gp120 distinct from the CD4-bound conformation. This predicts that the binding of CD4BS antibodies will inhibit chemokine receptor binding. Here, we show that Fab fragments and complete immunoglobulin molecules of CD4BS antibodies inhibit CD4-independent gp120 binding to CCR5 and cell-cell fusion mediated by CD4-independent HIV-1 envelope glycoproteins. These results are consistent with a model in which the binding of CD4BS antibodies limits the ability of gp120 to assume a conformation required for coreceptor binding.
CD98: a type II transmembrane glycoprotein expressed from the beginning of primitive and definitive hematopoiesis may play a critical role in the development of hematopoietic cells

In our search for cell surface markers expressed on hematopoietic stem cells and/or very early progenitor cells we found that the Joro 177 monoclonal antibody (MoAb) bound to most hematopoietic cells in day 8/8.5 yolk sac, day 12 fetal liver, and day 13 fetal thymocytes; it stained hematopoietic stem cells and less immature lymphoid, myeloid, and erythroid-lineage cells, but not most thymocytes and splenic lymphocytes in adult mice. Joro 177 MoAb stimulated tyrosine phosphorylation of an integral of 124-kD protein and induced homotypic aggregation of lymphoid progenitor cells. Importantly, Joro 177 MoAb inhibited cell survival/growth and consequently the generation of lymphoid, myeloid, and erythroid lineage cells in vitro from early Lin- hematopoietic precursors. Joro 177 MoAb induced apoptosis of hematopoietic progenitor cells. Molecular cloning and expression indicated that Joro 177 MoAb recognizes a type II transmembrane protein, which is the mouse homologue of the human CD98 heavy chain gene. We suggest that CD98 is a cell membrane receptor involved in the control of cell survival/death of hematopoietic cells.
Inside the ‘Smoke‐Filled Room’: Neoliberal Devolution and the Politics of Workfare in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas

The 1996 welfare reform act devolved authority over ‘workfare’ to the states andallowed them to further devolve control to local and regional entities, yet little is knownabout how such ‘second-order’ devolution affected implementation and outcomes. Thisarticle applies urban regime theory and the comparative case study method to analyzethe impacts of the ‘paradigmatically neoliberal’ model of second-order devolutionimplemented in Texas. Pursuing a labor market-based approach, Texas devolvedauthority for workfare to regional — i.e. multi-county — Workforce Investment Boards(WIBs) directed, in theory, by private sector employers. The findings indicate, however,that the WIBs functioned as patronage-oriented ‘employment regimes’ dominatedby local elected officials and ‘machine-politics community based organizations’. Theoutcome was a socially and spatially regressive transfer of federal resources from needyfamilies in the most distressed counties to regime actors and organizations in morepolitically-institutionally powerful counties. This left families in the politically weak casestudy counties subject to the state’s diversionary ‘workfirst’ program without accessto crucially necessary childcare and transportation assistance. The study extends ourunderstanding of how neoliberal workfare exacerbates inequality at the sub-state levelthrough a regionally constituted form of political-institutional exclusion.
A preliminary architecture for a basic data-flow processor

A processor is described which can achieve highly parallel execution of programs represented in data-flow form. The language implemented incorporates conditional and iteration mechanisms, and the processor is a step toward a practical data-flow processor for a Fortran-level data-flow language. The processor has a unique architecture which avoids the problems of processor switching and memory/processor interconnecion that usually limit the degree of realizable concurrent processing. The architecture offers an unusual solution to the problem of structuring and managing a two-level memory system.
Ileal diverticulitis: an uncommon diagnosis for right lower quadrant pain

We report an interesting case of ileal diverticulitis which posed a diagnostic challenge. A 75-year-old female presented to the emergency department with severe right lower quadrant pain for 3 days. The clinical history, examination and imaging suggested a diagnosis of acute appendicitis. The patient was taken to the operating room for an open appendectomy. The intra-operative findings demonstrated a large mass at the ileocecal junction involving the appendix as well as multiple nodular masses in the ileum and cecum. The patient underwent a right hemicolectomy with ileocecal anastomosis. The pathology result revealed Ileal diverticulitis. Ileal diverticulitis is a rare form of diverticulitis. It can often mimic other processes such as acute appendicitis. Once ileal diverticulitis is diagnosed, it should be treated with the same principles as for sigmoid diverticulitis. Though rare, ileal diverticulitis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a patient who presents with right lower quadrant pain, and a computed tomography scan that shows an inflammatory process in the right lower quadrant, in the setting of a normal appendix.
Electric charge on dislocation arrays in sodium chloride

Abstract The electric charge on dislocation arrays was studied as a function of temperature by observing the displacement of pure tilt low angle grain boundaries in sodium chloride bicrystals maintained in an electric field. The sign of the charge was determined unambiguously by direct observation of the boundary displacement relative to the polarity of the electric field; the existence of an isoelectric point was confirmed. No measurable boundary displacement is found below a certain (threshold) value of electric field which depends on temperature. For larger fields boundary migration is observed to occur with no delay in time and at a uniform rate which increases monotonically with increasing field. The method used permits the determination of the driving force on the boundary and of the migration velocity as two independent quantities ; from the temperature dependence of the boundary mobility thus determined an activation energy for the process was obtained.
Purinergic receptor-mediated intracellular Ca2+ oscillations in chicken granulosa cells

These studies were designed to investigate the effects of extracellular ATP on intracellular calcium ion concentration ([Ca2+]i) and progesterone secretion in granulosa cells obtained from the two largest preovulatory follicles (F1 and F2) of hens. [Ca2+]i was measured in cells loaded with the Ca(2+)-responsive fluorescent dye fura-2. The resting [Ca2+]i in these cells was 99 +/- 7 nM (n = 22). There was a 5.7 +/- 0.7-fold increase in [Ca2+]i in all (n = 140) of the cells within 5 sec of adding a maximally stimulatory concentration (100 microM) of extracellular ATP. The initial spike was followed by [Ca2+]i oscillations that returned to the resting level between spikes. The frequency and amplitude of the [Ca2+]i oscillations were varied and persisted for 1-40 min. [Ca2+]i oscillations were also triggered by 100 microM UTP, UDP, GTP, GDP, ADP, and the nonhydrolyzable analog ATP gamma S. Adenosine, AMP, GMP, and UMP (all at 100 microM) were ineffective. The lowest ATP concentration to trigger a [Ca2+]i response was 1 microM. The sustained oscillatory phase of the response, but not the initial spike, was inhibited by incubating the cells in Ca(2+)-free medium containing 2 mM EGTA. The nucleotide-triggered [Ca2+]i oscillations were not affected by adding the dihydropyridine Ca2+ channel blockers verapamil (100 microM), methoxy-verapamil (D600; 100 microM), or nifedipine (10 microM), before or during the response. However, the oscillations, but not the initial spike, were prevented by pretreating the cells with a general Ca2+ channel blocker, lanthanum (1 mM) or cobalt (5 mM). Lanthanum and cobalt also promptly stopped the [Ca2+]i oscillations when added during the oscillatory phase. The nucleotide-triggered [Ca2+]i response was also abolished by pretreating the cells with an inhibitor of inositol phospholipid hydrolysis, neomycin (1.5 mM). In 3-h incubations, adenosine (100 microM) or ATP (100 microM) did not affect basal or LH (20 or 100 ng/ml)-stimulated progesterone production. These studies demonstrate that chicken granulosa cells display P2 purinergic receptors on their surfaces. Activation of these receptors triggers [Ca2+]i oscillations that follow the release of Ca2+ from internal stores and depend on Ca2+ influx through dihydropyridine-insensitive Ca2+ channels. The physiological function(s) of P2 purinergic receptors on granulosa cells is not known.
Optimizing Antiepileptic Drug Therapy in the Elderly

OBJECTIVETo review and evaluate the medical literature concerning antiepileptic drug (AED) therapy in elderly patients.DATA SOURCESA MEDLINE search (1982–December 2004) was conducted. Bibliographies of the articles identified were also reviewed, and an Internet search engine was used to identify additional pertinent references.STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTIONClinical studies and reviews were evaluated, and relevant information was included.DATA SYNTHESISThe elderly have the highest incidence of seizures among all age groups. Complex partial seizures are the most common, followed by primary generalized tonic–clonic seizures. An accurate diagnosis may prove difficult because of a low suspicion of epilepsy in the elderly and other diseases that may mimic seizures. Most AEDs are approved for treatment of elderly patients who have partial and tonic–clonic seizures. However, a number of age-related variables should be addressed when selecting an appropriate AED. Age-dependent differences in pharmacokinetics ...
BEHAVIOR DEVIATIONS IN MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN

Psychiatrists are becoming increasingly aware of their responsibilities for dye treatment and management of children with mental retardation. To fulfill these responsibilities, the first requirement is an accurate evaluation of behavior and speech characteristics that depart from the norm for the retarded child's chronological age. Such deviation may represent (1) behavior that is normal for the child's mental age; (2) defensive patterns or reaction to stress resulting from demands that are excessive for the child's mental age; (3) an underlying psychopathology; (4) cerebral dysfunction; or (5) environmental factors, such as experiential cognitive deprivation. For treatment and management, it is essential to distinguish which one or combination of these five situations accounts for the behavior deviation in a given child. Yet our criteria for making such differentiations are still quite inadequate. During the past twenty years one of the authors (SC) has been called upon again and again to review diagnoses in which behavioral aberrations had led to an unfounded judgment of pathology. One persistent problem has been the tendency of clinicians to assume that a child's retardation is secondary to some emotional disturbance (Kanner, 1956). In particular, schizophrenia has been emphasized as a cause of mental retardation. Inattention and unresponsiveness to the en-
Treatment of Blood Clots

This Cardiology Patient Page will focus on medical treatment of blood clots that can cause critical illness by blocking the blood supply to the heart, brain, lungs, or legs. Blood clots that develop in the arteries can cause heart attack, stroke, and severe leg pain and difficulty walking. Blood clots in the veins or venous system can cause deep venous thrombosis (DVT) in the pelvic, leg, and upper extremity veins. When these DVTs break off and travel through the bloodstream to the heart and then to the lung blood vessels, they cause acute pulmonary embolism (PE).1 Treatment of arterial clots may include aspirin and clopidogrel (oral antiplatelet agents), intravenous antiplatelet agents, heparin (a blood thinner and anticoagulant), and clot busters (thrombolytic agents). In addition to medications, special interventional catheters may be used to remove or compress these arterial clots. ### Antiplatelet Agents Chewing an adult-strength aspirin tablet (325 mg) at the onset of heart attack symptoms can improve survival by 20%.2 Consequently, healthcare professional personnel administer aspirin to patients who may be experiencing a heart attack, thereby avoiding further injury to the heart muscle before the arrival of emergency medical services.3 The Clopidogrel in Unstable angina to prevent REcurrent events (CURE) Trial showed that clopidogrel, another oral antiplatelet agent, given in conjunction with aspirin, reduces the risk of death even further in the setting of certain types of heart attacks.4 Intravenous antiplatelet agents may also be used to treat impending or evolving heart attacks in combination with aspirin and clopidogrel. This triple antiplatelet therapy is highly potent and predisposes the patient to bruising. However, major bleeding complications, such as stomach ulcer …
Mitochondria-targeted vitamin E analogs inhibit breast cancer cell energy metabolism and promote cell death

Recent research has revealed that targeting mitochondrial bioenergetic metabolism is a promising chemotherapeutic strategy. Key to successful implementation of this chemotherapeutic strategy is the use of new and improved mitochondria-targeted cationic agents that selectively inhibit energy metabolism in breast cancer cells, while exerting little or no long-term cytotoxic effect in normal cells. In this study, we investigated the cytotoxicity and alterations in bioenergetic metabolism induced by mitochondria-targeted vitamin E analog (Mito-chromanol, Mito-ChM) and its acetylated ester analog (Mito-ChMAc). Assays of cell death, colony formation, mitochondrial bioenergetic function, intracellular ATP levels, intracellular and tissue concentrations of tested compounds, and in vivo tumor growth were performed. Both Mito-ChM and Mito-ChMAc selectively depleted intracellular ATP and caused prolonged inhibition of ATP-linked oxygen consumption rate in breast cancer cells, but not in non-cancerous cells. These effects were significantly augmented by inhibition of glycolysis. Mito-ChM and Mito-ChMAc exhibited anti-proliferative effects and cytotoxicity in several breast cancer cells with different genetic background. Furthermore, Mito-ChM selectively accumulated in tumor tissue and inhibited tumor growth in a xenograft model of human breast cancer. We conclude that mitochondria-targeted small molecular weight chromanols exhibit selective anti-proliferative effects and cytotoxicity in multiple breast cancer cells, and that esterification of the hydroxyl group in mito-chromanols is not a critical requirement for its anti-proliferative and cytotoxic effect.
Force—Deflection Relations for a Model Air Spring

Abstract Force—deflection relations are derived for a model air spring consisting of two long rigid plates connected at their edges by flexible membranes and containing air under pressure. Compressive, tilting, and shear deflections are considered. Compressive forces are evaluated for three representative conditions: an isolated spring; one connected to an auxiliary reservoir of equal volume; and one with the internal pressure maintained constant. Corresponding membrane tensions and elongations are calculated. Tilting and shear load-deformation relations are specialized to the case of small deflections in order to deduce the corresponding stiffnesses. Compression of a relatively thin circular air spring is also treated. Attention is drawn to a number of potential instabilities.
Predictive Subset VAR Modeling Using the Genetic Algorithm and Information Complexity

Can we use lagged values of major stock market indices to provide useful predictions as a standard vector autoregressive model? Underlying this application, of course, is the question of finding a vector autoregressive model which makes accurate and efficient forecasts. In this paper, we use the Genetic Algorithm with information complexity criteria as the fitness function to drive subset selection and parameter estimation. In the testing period when the target index lost more than 15%, the identified subset VAR model gained over 17%. The prediction error bands built around the forecasts are half as wide as those obtained by the saturated model. Using both simulation and application studies, we present evidence that even when the typical regres- sion assumptions seem to be met, the VAR model is misspecified. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classifications: 62HXX,62MXX,91BXX
Effects of stimulation frequencies and patterns on performance of repetitive, nonisometric tasks

The purpose of this paper was to determine the effects of stimulation pattern and frequency on repetitive human knee movements. Quadriceps femoris muscles were stimulated against a load equal to 10% of each subject's maximum voluntary isometric force. The main variable of interest was the number of repetitions in which the leg reached a target angle of 40 degrees of knee extension. Sixteen different trains were tested, including 1) six constant-frequency trains with frequencies ranging from 9 to 100 Hz, 2) five variable-frequency trains with an initial 5-ms triplet and mean frequencies ranging from 11 to 35 Hz, and 3) five doublet-frequency trains, which used doublets (2 pulses with a 5-ms interpulse interval) to replace single pulses, with mean frequencies of 17-57 Hz. Testing was stopped when the subject failed to reach the target angle for three consecutive activations. Results showed that no single pattern was best for all subjects. The 33- and 100-Hz constant-frequency trains, 35-Hz variable-frequency trains, and 27- and 36-Hz doublet frequency trains each met the target the most times for some subjects. The results showed that, under our testing conditions, higher frequency trains were better suited for producing repetitive knee movements than lower frequency trains.
A case study of MapReduce speculation for failure recovery

MapReduce has become indispensable for big data analytics. As a representative implementation of MapReduce, Hadoop/YARN strives to provide outstanding performance in terms of job turnaround time, fault tolerance etc. It is equipped with a speculation mechanism to cope with run-time exceptions and failures. However, we reveal that the existing speculation mechanism has some major drawbacks that hinder its efficiency during failure recovery, which we refer to as the speculation breakdown. In order to address the speculation breakdown, we introduce a failure-aware speculation scheme and a refined scheduling policy. Moreover, we have conducted a comprehensive set of experiments to evaluate the performance of both single component and the whole framework. Our experimental results show that our new framework achieves dramatic performance improvement in handling with task and node failures compared with the original YARN.
Do Different Methods for Modeling Age-Graded Trajectories Yield Consistent and Valid Results?

Data on age-sequenced trajectories of individuals’ attributes are used for a growing number of research purposes. However, there is no consensus about which method to use to identify the number of discrete trajectories in a population or to assign individuals to a specific trajectory group. The authors modeled real and simulated trajectory data using “naive” methods, optimal matching, grade of membership models, and three types of finite-mixture models. They found that these methods produced inferences about the number of trajectories that frequently differ (1) from one another and (2) from the truth as represented by simulation parameters. They also found that they differed in the assignment of individuals to trajectory groups. In light of these findings, the authors argue that researchers should interpret results based on these methods cautiously, neither reifying point estimates about the number of trajectories nor treating individuals’ trajectory group assignments as certain.
Superluminal Motions: The First 100 Sources

First results from a large homogeneous superluminal motion survey are presented. The data do not show compelling evidence for the existence of intrinsically different populations of galaxies, BL Lac objects, or quasars. β app in the range 1–5h −1 occur with roughly equal frequency; higher values, up to β app = 10h −1 are rather more scarce than appeared to be the case from earlier work, which evidently concentrated on sources which are not representative of the general population. The β app distribution suggests that there might be a skewed distribution of Lorentz factors over the sample, with a peak at γb ≈ 2h −1 and a tail up to at least γb ≈ 10h −1. There appears to be a clearly rising upper envelope to the β app distribution when plotted as a function of observed 5 GHz luminosity; a combination of source counts and the apparent velocity statistics in a larger sample could provide much insight into the properties of radio jet sources.
Thermal Inhibition of Phage Production in Mixture of Phage and Growing Susceptible Bacteria.

One of the most interesting aspects of the entire phage problem has been the question of how phage is formed. In earlier studies it appeared that phage was produced only in the presence of an actively growing bacterial substrate. This relationship found experimental verification in quantitative studies on the phage-bacterium reaction and led to the adoption of an equation in which phage production was expressed in terms of bacterial reproduction.1 Further work, however, proved this relationship to be more apparent than real for it was found possible to impose conditions such that cell division was inhibited while phage continued to be developed at a very considerable rate.2,3,4 The fact that phage can be produced at all in the absence of cellular reproduction indicated that the latter is not an essential conditioning factor for phage formation, even though the two phenomena ordinarily proceed concurrently and require careful adjustment of pH, temperature, electrolyte concentration,5,6 etc., to be dissocia...
Two-Step, One-Flask Synthesis of a Meso-Substituted Phlorin

A two-step, one-flask reaction of pyrrole with pentafluorobenzaldehyde and acetone was investigated to determine the potential for a streamlined synthesis of a phlorin and/or 5-isocorrole as an alternative to stepwise, dipyrromethanecarbinol routes. Analytical-scale reactions were performed examining the effect of reactant concentration, reactant ratio, acid catalyst (TFA or BF3·OEt2), concentration of acid catalyst, oxidant quantity, and reaction time on the distribution of phlorin and 5-isocorrole as well as three additional porphyrinoids (porphodimethene, porphyrin, and corrole). Phlorin was observed ubiquitously in yields up to 20–26%, whereas 5-isocorrole was not detected. Promising reaction conditions for the one-flask synthesis of the phlorin were performed on a preparative scale. The best reaction condition afforded the phlorin in an isolated yield of 20–21% (249–268 mg). Preliminary attempts to extend the methodology to the preparation of phlorins derived from other ketones resulted in a low yiel...
Middle ear disease in children. Pathogenesis, diagnosis, and management.

Acute otitis media and the nonsuppurative middle ear effusions, often referred to as serous or secretory otitis, are the middle ear conditions of greatest concern. Newer diagnostic aids such as tympanometry, and tympanocentesis, are discussed, as well as otoscopy and audiometry, and the use of various antimicrobials in therapy is detailed.
Growth factors in the management of adult acute leukemia.

With the discovery and characterization of the hematopoietic growth factors comes new approaches to the treatment of acute leukemia in adults. Growth factors can potentially be used to reduce the morbidity and mortality of induction and postremission chemotherapy, both by accelerating hematopoietic recovery and enhancing our ability to treat the infectious complications of therapy. In addition, the effects of growth factors and soluble growth factor receptors and receptor antagonists on leukemic cell biology may have potential clinical utility. This article explores the way hematopoietic growth factors are currently being used in the treatment of acute leukemia and their potential for future use.
James Matthews: From Cry Rage to the New South African Nation

Legendary South African poet, fiction writer, and activist, James Matthews exemplifies the path from “dissident” writing to contemporary engagement with community issues in Cape Town. Author of num...
Branch decompositions and minor containment

Given a simple graph G, a simple connected graph H, and a branch decomposition of G of width k, we present a practical algorithm to test if H is a minor of G. The notion of branch decompositions and its related connectivity invariant for graphs, branchwidth, were introduced by Robertson and Seymour. The algorithm that we present follows the general framework for such an algorithm sketched by Robertson and Seymour with the addition of pruning techniques for runtime speedup. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Missile Defences and Japanese Security

Shortly after President Reagan announced his intention to pursue research on strategic defence, a number of analysts began suggesting that US allies ought to join the programme, and some time after Reagan’s speech, US Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger issued invitations to selected allies to participate. A natural candidate for co-operation was Japan: as one of the world’s leaders in high technology, it had much to offer to a research programme. From the start, however, Japanese public opinion was split on the issue; even Japanese businessmen were not confident that the benefits of joining the programme would outweigh the political costs. This chapter will analyse the economic and strategic issues involved in any multi- or unilateral Japanese missile defence system.