cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effects of Age, Sex, and Ascorbic Acid Ingestion on Chicken Plasma Corticosterone Levels

Abstract Day-old Single Comb White Leghorn chicks of both sexes were randomly allotted to one of the following rations: control, control + 150 ppm ascorbic acid, control + 300 ppm ascorbic acid or control + 3000 ppm ascorbic acid. Plasma corticosterone levels were measured by radioimmunoassay at several ages from four weeks to maturity. The amount of ascorbic acid in the diet did not significantly alter corticosteroid response to ACTH stimulation in immature birds. Immature birds responded to ACTH injections with higher corticosterone levels than mature birds of either sex (P Mature females fed 3000 ppm ascorbic acid had a smaller total body pool of corticosterone (P In male birds which received additional ascorbic acid in the diet, body weights were significantly heavier (P
Role of Ultrafine Microstructures in Dynamic Fracture in Nanophase Silicon Nitride

Using ${10}^{6}$-atom molecular-dynamics simulations, we investigate dynamic fracture in nanophase ${\mathrm{Si}}_{3}{\mathrm{N}}_{4}$. The simulations reveal that intercluster regions are amorphous, and they deflect cracks and give rise to local crack branching. As a result, the nanophase system is able to sustain an order-of-magnitude larger external strain than crystalline ${\mathrm{Si}}_{3}{\mathrm{N}}_{4}$. We also determine the morphology of fracture surfaces: For in-plane fracture surface profiles the roughness exponent $\ensuremath{\zeta}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}0.57$ and for out-of-plane profiles the exponents ${\ensuremath{\zeta}}_{\ensuremath{\perp}}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}0.84$ and ${\ensuremath{\zeta}}_{\ensuremath{\Vert}}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}0.75$ are in excellent agreement with experiments.
Soil nitrogen variability in relation to seasonal nitrogen cycling and accumulation of nitrogenous components in starch processing potatoes

Abstract Seasonal dynamics of total soil nitrogen, ammonium and nitrate ions contents were evaluated for a processing potato field experiment conducted on three sites with different altitudes. Fertilization levels of 100 and 200 kg N ha−1 applied before potato crop planting were compared. Content of soil ammonium and nitrate ions ranged from 1.5 to 149 mg kg−1 and from 3.0 to 108 mg kg−1 on soil dry matter basis, respectively and showed strong seasonal dynamics with a rapid increase of the content during June and subsequent fall down to initial values. The nitrogen fertilization level had minimal effect on seasonal dynamic of total soil nitrogen, ammonium and nitrate ions contents. The higher fertilization level significantly increased crude protein content in potato tubers and yield of crude protein per area unit. The factors of starch content in potato tubers and yield per area unit were affected negatively by the higher dose of nitrogen fertilization. It could be concluded that the dose of 100 kg N ha−...
Knowledge of God in Bernard Lonergan and Hans Küng

Can the existence of God be rationally demonstrated? This question has occupied philosophers and theologians for centuries and in a particular way since Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. This essay will examine the question of the knowledge of God as it is met by two contemporary Catholic theologians, Bernard Lonergan and Hans Kung. These two scholars are not chosen arbitrarily for comparison. Not only is each of them on the forefront of current theological development, but I shall argue that on the question of God the ambitious, but ultimately unsuccessful, efforts of the former are significantly complemented by the latter.
Detecting Serum Antibodies to a Purified Recombinant Proline-Rich Antigen of Coccidioides immitis in Patients with Coccidioidomycosis

In previous work, antibodies in serum samples from patients with coccidioidomycosis were found to react with a proline-rich antigen (PRA) isolated from spherules of Coccidioides immitis, and the gene encoding this antigen was cloned. We expressed and purified recombinant PRA (rPRA) by removing the majority of amino acids contributed by the vector from the fusion protein. Purified rPRA reacted with serum IgG antibodies in 37 of 42 patients with culture-proven progressive pulmonary or extrapulmonary coccidioidal disease; specific antibodies in dilutions ranging from 1:40 to 1:102,400 were demonstrated (sensitivity, 88%). In contrast, for > 95% of patients without coccidioidomycosis reactivity of < 1:40 was demonstrated (specificity, 97%). Of 18 patients with primary self-limited coccidioidomycosis, none had detectable antibodies in serum samples collected up to 141 days after illness began. The association of antibodies to rPRA with progressive infection may have prognostic value.
Devolution, Discretion, and the Effect of Local Political Values on TANF Sanctioning

One of welfare reform’s most significant consequences is the devolution of policy‐making authority from the federal government and states to local governments and frontline workers. What is perhaps less often appreciated is that devolution of authority to state governments has been accompanied by a significant decentralization of policy‐making authority within states. As a result, prior research has not given sufficient attention to local political context as a factor shaping program implementation. This article examines the effect of local political values on the use of sanctions to penalize welfare recipients. Analyzing administrative data from the Florida Department of Children and Families for over 60,000 welfare clients, we find that there is a statistically significant amount of local variation in sanctioning rates across the state of Florida, even after controlling welfare clients’ characteristics. Local sanctioning patterns are systematically related to selected characteristics of local communitie...
Treatment of severe decompensated heart failure with high-dose intravenous nitroglycerin: a feasibility and outcome analysis.

Study objective We perform a feasibility and outcome assessment of the treatment of severe decompensated heart failure with high-dose nitroglycerin. Methods This study was designed as a nonrandomized, open-label, single-arm study of high-dose nitroglycerin. Patients with hypertension (systolic blood pressure ≥160 mm Hg or mean arterial pressure ≥120 mm Hg) who were refractory to initial therapy were eligible for inclusion. Enrolled patients began receiving a titratable nitroglycerin infusion and were given a bolus of high-dose nitroglycerin (2 mg). Repeated administration of high-dose nitroglycerin was allowed every 3 minutes, up to a total of 10 doses. Predefined effectiveness and safety outcomes were tracked throughout hospital admission. To provide a frame of reference for these outcomes, data were retrospectively compiled for similar patients with severe decompensated heart failure who did not receive high-dose nitroglycerin. Results Twenty-nine patients received high-dose nitroglycerin. Endotracheal intubation was required in 13.8% of patients, bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP) ventilation in 6.9%, and ICU admission in 37.9%. Symptomatic hypotension developed in 1 patient (3.4%), and biomarker evidence of myocardial infarction was found in 17.2% of patients. The mean dose of high-dose nitroglycerin was 6.5 mg (±3.4). For patients who were treated without high-dose nitroglycerin (n=45), endotracheal intubation occurred in 26.7%, BiPAP in 20.0%, and ICU admission in 80.0%. None of these patients developed symptomatic hypotension, and biomarker evidence of myocardial infarction was observed in 28.9% of patients. Conclusion In this nonrandomized, open-label trial, high-dose nitroglycerin was associated with endotracheal intubation, BiPAP, and ICU admission less frequently than expected to occur without high-dose nitroglycerin, and adverse events were uncommon. Treatment of hypertensive, severely decompensated heart failure patients with high-dose nitroglycerin seems promising, but a randomized, blinded study is needed to more completely define its clinical utility. According to this trial, such a study seems feasible.
Starting from Scratch in Semantic Role Labeling: Early Indirect Supervision

A fundamental step in sentence comprehension involves assigning semantic roles to sentence constituents. To accomplish this, the listener must parse the sentence, find constituents that are candidate arguments, and assign semantic roles to those constituents. Where do children learning their first languages begin in solving this problem? To experiment with different representations that children may use to begin understanding language, we have built a computational model for this early point in language acquisition. This system, Latent BabySRL, learns from transcriptions of natural child-directed speech and makes use of psycholinguistically plausible background knowledge and realistically noisy semantic feedback to improve both an intermediate syntactic representation and its final semantic role classification. Using this system we show that it is possible for a simple learner in a plausible (noisy) setup to begin comprehending the meanings of simple sentences, when initialized with a small amount of concrete noun knowledge and some simple syntax-semantics mapping biases, before acquiring any specific verb knowledge.
THE RXR HOMOLOG ULTRASPIRACLE IS AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT OF THE DROSOPHILA ECDYSONE RECEPTOR

Pulses of the steroid hormone ecdysone function as key temporal signals during insect development, coordinating the major postembryonic developmental transitions, including molting and metamorphosis. In vitro studies have demonstrated that the EcR ecdysone receptor requires an RXR heterodimer partner for its activity, encoded by the ultraspiracle (usp) locus. We show here that usp exerts no apparent function in mid-third instar larvae, when a regulatory hierarchy prepares the animal for the onset of metamorphosis. Rather, usp is required in late third instar larvae for appropriate developmental and transcriptional responses to the ecdysone pulse that triggers puparium formation. The imaginal discs in usp mutants begin to evert but do not elongate or differentiate, the larval midgut and salivary glands fail to undergo programmed cell death and the adult midgut fails to form. Consistent with these developmental phenotypes, usp mutants show pleiotropic defects in ecdysone-regulated gene expression at the larval-prepupal transition. usp mutants also recapitulate aspects of a larval molt at puparium formation, forming a supernumerary cuticle. These observations indicate that usp is required for ecdysone receptor activity in vivo, demonstrate that the EcR/USP heterodimer functions in a stage-specific manner during the onset of metamorphosis and implicate a role for usp in the decision to molt or pupariate in response to ecdysone pulses during larval development.
Efficient implementation of a complex ±1 multiplier

A complex ±1 multiplier is an integral element in modern CDMA communication systems, specifically as a pseudonoise code scrambler/descrambler. Therefore, an efficient implementation is essential to reduce the critical path delay, power, and area of wireless receivers. A new architecture is proposed to achieve this complex multiplier function. Tradeoffs and design solutions as well as the interface with subsequent arithmetic circuits are discussed. Simulations exhibit a significant speed improvement as compared to alternative architectures. These results are also applicable to other arithmetic circuits.
Dendritic cells in genetic immunization.

Both humoral and cellular immune re- sponses are inducible by inoculation of naked plasmid DNA encoding a polypeptide antigen. This new vaccination protocol, known as genetic immu- nization, has been used to initiate protective immu- nity against a variety of infectious pathogens and tumors in experimental animals. Dendritic cells (DC) are thought to play at least three distinct roles in genetic immunization: (1) MHC class II-re- stricted presentation of antigens secreted by neigh- boring, transfected cells, (2) MHC class I-restricted ''cross'' presentation of antigens released by neigh- boring, transfected cells, and (3) direct presenta- tion of antigens by transfected DC themselves. Several new technologies have been developed recently in an attempt to improve the overall efficacy of genetic vaccination, as well as to regu- late the type and class of resulting immune re- sponses. These technologies include modification of plasmid DNA, co-delivery of genes encoding immunoregulatory molecules, and DC targeting. We will overview some of these new technologies in genetic immunization. J. Leukoc. Biol. 66: 350- 356; 1999.
The Ideology and Praxis of Shi'ism in the Iranian Revolution

The Iranian revolution of 1979 presents a case in which religion has stimulated profound social change, rather than serving only as a basis for social integration. Although scholars have recently been reminded of the revolutionary potential of religious commitments, the view that religion tends to inhibit large-scale social change continues to enjoy currency. It may be that, in the light of events in Iran in the last five years, observers of Islamic societies will now be tempted to overstress the revolutionary tendencies of that great world religion. Yet it is difficult to exaggerate the force and depth of feeling which Shi'i belief and practice has generated in Iran for the purpose of the structural transformation of society.
HEALTH GeoJunction: Place-time-concept browsing of health publications

The volume of health science publications is escalating rapidly. Thus, keeping up with developments is becoming harder as is the task of finding important cross-domain connections. When geographic location is a relevant component of research reported in publications, these tasks are more difficult because standard search and indexing facilities have limited or no ability to identify geographic foci in documents. This paper introduces HEALTH GeoJunction, a web application that supports researchers in the task of quickly finding scientific publications that are relevant geographically and temporally as well as thematically. HEALTH GeoJunction is a geovisual analytics-enabled web application providing: (a) web services using computational reasoning methods to extract place-time-concept information from bibliographic data for documents and (b) visually-enabled place-time-concept query, filtering, and contextualizing tools that apply to both the documents and their extracted content. This paper focuses specifically on strategies for visually-enabled, iterative, facet-like, place-time-concept filtering that allows analysts to quickly drill down to scientific findings of interest in PubMed abstracts and to explore relations among abstracts and extracted concepts in place and time. The approach enables analysts to: find publications without knowing all relevant query parameters, recognize unanticipated geographic relations within and among documents in multiple health domains, identify the thematic emphasis of research targeting particular places, notice changes in concepts over time, and notice changes in places where concepts are emphasized. PubMed is a database of over 19 million biomedical abstracts and citations maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information; achieving quick filtering is an important contribution due to the database size. Including geography in filters is important due to rapidly escalating attention to geographic factors in public health. The implementation of mechanisms for iterative place-time-concept filtering makes it possible to narrow searches efficiently and quickly from thousands of documents to a small subset that meet place-time-concept constraints. Support for a more-like-this query creates the potential to identify unexpected connections across diverse areas of research. Multi-view visualization methods support understanding of the place, time, and concept components of document collections and enable comparison of filtered query results to the full set of publications.
A robotic wheelchair trainer: design overview and a feasibility study

Background: Experiencing independent mobility is important for children with a severe movement disability, but learning to drive a powered wheelchair can be labor intensive, requiring hand-over-hand assistance from a skilled therapist. Methods: To improve accessibility to training, we developed a robotic wheelchair trainer that steers itself along a course marked by a line on the floor using computer vision, haptically guiding the driver’s hand in appropriate steering motions using a force feedback joystick, as the driver tries to catch a mobile robot in a game of “robot tag”. This paper provides a detailed design description of the computer vision and control system. In addition, we present data from a pilot study in which we used the chair to teach children without motor impairment aged 4-9 (n = 22) to drive the wheelchair in a single training session, in order to verify that the wheelchair could enable learning by the non-impaired motor system, and to establish normative values of learning rates. Results and Discussion: Training with haptic guidance from the robotic wheelchair trainer improved the steering ability of children without motor impairment significantly more than training without guidance. We also report the results of a case study with one 8-year-old child with a severe motor impairment due to cerebral palsy, who replicated the single-session training protocol that the non-disabled children participated in. This child also improved steering ability after training with guidance from the joystick by an amount even greater than the children without motor impairment. Conclusions: The system not only provided a safe, fun context for automating driver’s training, but also enhanced motor learning by the non-impaired motor system, presumably by demonstrating through intuitive movement and force of the joystick itself exemplary control to follow the course. The case study indicates that a child with a motor system impaired by CP can also gain a short-term benefit from driver’s training with haptic guidance.
Molecular Epidemiology of Group B Streptococcal Infections: Use of Restriction Endonuclease Analysis of Chromosomal DNA and DNA Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms of Ribosomal RNA Genes (Ribotyping)

Epidemiologic investigation of group B streptococcal (GBS) infections has been limited by the lack of a discriminatory typing system. Therefore, the use of restriction endonuclease analysis of chromosomal DNA (REAC) and DNA restriction fragment length polymorphisms of rRNA genes (ribotyping) to subtype molecularly GBS isolates associated with human invasive disease was investigated. Chromosomal DNA of selected GBS isolates was initially digested with 24 different restriction enzymes. HhaI gave the best discrimination of hybridization banding patterns (ribotypes) and was used with all study isolates. Ribotyping and REAC differentiated among isolates of the same and different serotypes. Nine ribotype patterns were noted among the 76 isolates studied, including 4 among serotype Ia/c and 4 additional ribotypes among serotype III isolates. Epidemiologically related isolates (e.g., mother-infant or twin-twin pairs) had identical REAC and ribotype patterns. Epidemiologically unrelated isolates with the same ribotype usually had different REAC patterns, suggesting that REAC may be a more sensitive technique for strain differentiation. REAC and ribotyping were reproducible and proved to be successful molecular epidemiologic methods for subtyping GBS.
A Diagnosis of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Prompted by Cutaneous Lymphocytic Infiltrates Present in Mohs Micrographic Surgery Frozen Sections

Background. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common form of leukemia in the United States. Patients with CLL are at an increased risk for the development of second malignant neoplasms, the most common of which is cuta-neous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Cutaneous infiltrates of CLL have been reported in association with primary cutaneous neoplasms, including SCC, basal cell carcinoma, and actinic keratosis. The finding of a dense lymphocytic infiltrate surrounding a cutaneous neoplasm should prompt consideration of possible underlying CLL. Objective. To review the relationship of CLL to cutaneous SCC and to raise awareness of the possible coexistence of these two neoplasms. Methods. The case report describes a patient with a SCC of the left cheek treated with Mohs micrographic surgery. A dense lymphocytic infiltrate was noted on the frozen sections, and a complete blood count was obtained. Results. A lymphocytosis was detected, leading to the diagnosis of CLL, stage 0. Conclusion. Patients with CLL are at an increased risk for the development of cutaneous neoplasms. An infiltrate of leukemic cells in documented CLL patients can be associated with cutaneous neoplasms such as SCC. We present a patient with no known hematologic malignancy who demonstrated a dense lymphocytic infiltrate on Mohs sections. The diagnosis of CLL was considered based on the appearance of this infiltrate. Subsequently, a new case of CLL was confirmed with appropriate testing. The finding of a dense subcutaneous infiltrate of lymphocytes on Mohs frozen sections should raise the possibility of CLL and lead to appropriate screening tests.
Dexamethasone for adult bacterial meningitis.

Introduction: Mortality and morbidity from adult community-acquired bacterial meningitis remain quite high despite the use of appropriate antibiotics [1]. Experimental studies in animals have demonstrated that bacterial lysis–induced inflammation contributes to the poor outcome and that adjunctive treatment with dexamethasone reduces inflammation and sequelae [2]. In children, adjunctive dexamethasone therapy given before or with antibiotics has a beneficial effect on severe hearing loss caused by Haemophilus influenzae type 6 meningitis and may have a protective effect in those with pneumococcal meningitis [3]. In addition, adjunctive dexamethasone therapy has been shown to be beneficial for the outcome of adults with tuberculous (TB) meningitis [4]. Prior to the present study that is reviewed here, the paucity of data precluded a recommendation for the routine use of adjunctive dexamethasone therapy in adult bacterial meningitis.
A general system for evaluating the efficiency of chromophore-assisted light inactivation (CALI) of proteins reveals Ru(II) tris-bipyridyl as an unusually efficient warhead

Chromophore-assisted light inactivation (CALI) of proteins is a potentially powerful tool in biological research for the triggered disruption of protein function. It involves the creation of chimeric molecules that can bind specifically to the protein target and can also sensitize the photo-generation of singlet oxygen, which inactivates the target protein. There remains a need for more efficient chromophores for singlet oxygen generation. Here we report a general and convenient system with which to evaluate the efficiency of chromophores in CALI both in crude extracts and in living cells. We employ this system to show that a readily available derivative of ruthenium(II) tris-bipyridyl dication is an unusually efficient “warhead” for CALI, exhibiting a performance markedly superior to the commonly used organic fluorophore, fluorescein.
An interleukin-2 signal relieves BSAP (Pax5)-mediated repression of the immunoglobulin J chain gene.

Abstract Cytokine regulation of B cell development was analyzed using interleukin-2 (IL-2)-induced transcription of the J chain gene as a model system. A nuclear target of the IL-2 signal was identified as the Pax5 transcription factor, BSAP, which recognizes a negative regulatory motif in the J chain promoter. Functional assays showed that BSAP mediates the silencing of the J chain gene during the early stages of B cell development, but repression is relieved during the antigen-driven stages in a concentration-dependent manner by an IL-2-induced down-regulation of BSAP RNA expression. At the low levels present in J chain–expressing plasma cells, BSAP repression could be overridden by positive-acting factors binding to downstream J chain promoter elements. Overexpression of BSAP in these cells reversed the positive regulation and inhibited J chain gene transcription. Thus, IL-2 regulation of BSAP concentration may provide a mechanism for controlling both repressor and activator functions of BSAP during a B cell immune response.
Construct and Predictive Validity of Criminal Thinking Scales

Tools to assess the concept of criminal thinking have not often been tested in community corrections populations. This article examines the psychometric properties of the Texas Christian University Criminal Thinking Scales (CTS) in a sample of drug-using probationers (n = 250) participating in a randomized trial. A confirmatory factor analysis found that three of the subscales may not be measuring distinct concepts and that most of the subscales do not distinguish between male and female offenders despite large differences in offending histories in these populations. Concurrent and predictive validity results demonstrated a limited ability of the CTS to correlate with known predictors of recidivism or with follow-up data on criminal activity. The CTS scores did correlate with predictors of treatment processes, including treatment readiness and self-efficacy, indicating that those with higher levels of criminal thinking may be more difficult to engage in treatment and services. Measurement tools of crimina...
Precise distributed localization algorithms for wireless networks

We propose reliable and precise distributed localization algorithms for wireless networks, iterative multidimensional scaling (IT-MDS) and simulated annealing multidimensional scaling (SA-MDS). We use only radio communication constraints to infer a node's distances, and uniquely combine a multidimensional scaling algorithm (MDS) with a lateration algorithm. We analytically establish the upperbound on the estimation error. The proposed techniques can estimate all nodes' positions, even with limited and imprecise network knowledge. Analysis and test runs show that the proposed methods are independent of the topology randomness and the range measurement errors. We attempt to bound the localization imprecision. Simulation results yield an average estimation error of about 25% of radio transmission range. The highest estimation error observed is 40% radio range for most networks.
Water from fruit or the river? Examining hydration strategies and gastrointestinal illness among Tsimane’ adults in the Bolivian Amazon

Objective Water is an essential nutrient overlooked in many cross-cultural studies of human nutrition. The present article describes dietary water intake patterns among forager-horticulturalist adults in lowland Bolivia, compares daily intake with international references and examines if variation in how people acquire water relates to gastrointestinal illness. Design Cross-sectional observational study used survey, anthropometric and qualitative methods with Tsimane' adults selected by age and sex stratification sampling in one community. Setting Research occurred in one Tsimane' village in the Beni department, Bolivia with limited access to clean water. The 24 h diet and health recalls were conducted in July-August 2012 and qualitative interviews/ethnographic observation in September-October 2013. Subjects Forty-five Tsimane' household heads (49% men) took part in the first data collection and twenty-two Tsimane' (55% men) were included in the follow-up interviews. Results Men and women reported consuming 4·9 litres and 4·4 litres of water daily from all dietary sources, respectively. On average, water from foods represented 50 % of total water intake. Thirteen per cent of participants reported symptoms of gastrointestinal illness. In a logistic regression model adjusted for age, BMI, sex and raw water consumed, each percentage increase in water obtained from foods was associated with a reduced risk of gastrointestinal illness (OR=0·92; 95% CI 0·85, 0·99). Conclusions Both total water intake and percentage of water from foods were higher than averages in industrialized countries. These findings suggest that people without access to clean water may rely on water-rich foods as a dietary adaptation to reduce pathogen exposures.
640Gbit/s reconfigurable OTDM add-drop multiplexer

A 640Gbit/s reconfigurable OTDM add/drop multiplexer is demonstrated, using a single periodically-poled Lithium-Niobate waveguide in a counter-propagating configuration. Error free operations confirm the effectiveness of a single device for simultaneous add/drop operations.
Nature of water at the rutile/organic liquid interface

The nature of trace water on rutile surface has been investigated by means of adsorption, electrophoresis and infrared analysis as a prelude to the study of the affects of trace water on dispersibility. The isosteric heats of adsorption of water on rutile revealed the presence of two types of water on the rutile surface. The isosteric heat was found to increase from 11 to 27 kcal/mole at a fractional water coverage of 0.1. Further-more, this increase was observed only at temperatures above 120°C. Further support for this theory was evidenced by the electrophoretic mobility of rutile in heptanol which first increased and then decreased with increasing water coverage. Infrared analysis of water adsorbed on rutile revealed the presence of isolated OH groups on the surface. Based on the relative intensities of the infrared CH2 and OH bending bands, the adsorption of heptanol, n-hexylamine and n-heptanoic acid was at a maximum at a water coverage of 0.08. Average aggregate size produced by ultrasonic dispersion in a closed system as revealed by ultramicroscope examination, was also at a minimum at a coverage of 0.08. An important factor affecting dispersibility was concluded to be the Rehbinder effect as well as the double layer repulsion. Als eine Vorstudie zur Untersuchung der Wirkung von Wasserspuren auf die Dispergierbarkeit wurde die Art der Wasserspuren auf Rutiloberflachen mit Hilfe von Adsorption, Elektrophorese und Infrarotspektroskopie untersucht. Die isosteren Adsorptionswarmen von Wasser auf Rutil zeigten, das Wasser auf der Rutiloberflache in zwei Zustanden vorhanden ist: Es wurde gefunden, das die isostere Adsorptionswarme bei einem Bedeckungsgrad von 0,1 von 11 auf 27 kcal/mol zunimmt; diese Zunahme wurde nur bei Temperaturen uber 120 °C beobachtet. Diese Annahme wird weiter von der elektrophoretischen Beweglichkeit von Rutil in Heptanol gestutzt, die mit zunehmender Wasserbedeckung erst zu- und dann abnahm. Die Infrarotanalyse des an Rutil adsorbierten Wassers zeigte die Gegenwart isolierter OH-Gruppen auf der Oberflache. Auf der Basis der relativen Intensitaten der CH2- und der OH-Biegebanden ergab sich, das die Adsorption von Heptanol, n-Hexylamin und n-Heptylsaure bei einer Wasserbedeckung von 0,08 am grosten war. Die durch Dispergieren mit Ultraschall in einem geschlossenen System erzeugte durchschnittliche Aggregatgrose, wie sie sich im Ultramikroskop zeigte, ergab ebenfalls bei einer Bedeckung von 0,08 ein Minimum. Als wichtige Faktoren, die die Dispergierbarkeit beeinflussen, ergaben sich der Rehbinder-Effekt und die Doppelschichtabstosung.
Costal Cartilage Grafts in Rhinoplasty

Cartilage grafts are regularly used in rhinoplasty. Septal and auricular donor sites are commonly used. Many situations compel the surgeon to use other alternative donor sites, including revision rhinoplasty and trauma. Many patients have a small amount of native septal cartilage and are unable to provide adequate septal cartilage to be used for frequently performed rhinoplasty maneuvers. The rib cage provides an enormous reserve of costal cartilage that can be carved into a variety of necessary grafts. A description of the technique of harvesting costal cartilage, a review of complications and management, and illustrative cases examples are included.
Persistent Fontanelles in Rodent Skulls

Abstract Persistent fenestrae occur between frontal or parietal bones in skulls of various rodents, especially species of Andinomys and Ctenomys. The frequency of occurrence and the shape and position of the fenestrae may vary with age or among individuals, populations, and species. Different families and species from both high and low elevations exhibit fenestrae. They have arisen in several different evolutionary lineages. Genetic factors contribute, but no clear functional significance of the fenestrae has been established.
Collaboration between the health and social services in England

The English have organized their health and social services into two discrete organizations, which are funded and administered at different levels of government. This article examines obstacles to effective collaboration between the two services and between social workers and physicians.
Reduction of Freezing Artifact in Frozen Sections Using Dimethyl Sulfoxide

During the production of frozen sections, ice crystals form and disrupt tissue and cellular architecture. This was also a problem in tissue culture until agents that prevented the formation of large crystals were used. These chemicals include dimethyl sulfoxide, which reduces damage of tissue culture cells by ice crystallization. Frozen sections prepared when tissue samples were placed in 10% dimethyl sulfoxide in normal saline for transport had significantly less disruption of tissue and cellular integrity than frozen sections prepared from tissues transported in normal saline.
Regulation of twitch tension in sheep cardiac Purkinje fibers during calcium overload.

Abstract The dependence of twitch tension on the interval (delta t) between depolarizations was examined in voltage-clamped sheep cardiac Purkinje fibers under conditions of calcium overload. During the development of calcium overload (produced by sodium-pump inhibition), twitch amplitude changes from a monotonic function of delta t to an oscillatory one. We investigated the cellular processes underlying this oscillatory relationship. Measurable calcium current was blocked by D 600 (25 microM), but neither the twitch nor the oscillatory dependence of twitch tension on delta t was abolished. Caffeine (2 mM), applied to modify sarcoplasmic reticulum function, decreased the oscillatory period of the twitch/interval relationship as it increased the frequency of spontaneous fluctuations of resting tension. Our results suggest that the oscillatory relationship between twitch amplitude and delta t is not caused by changes in the calcium current per se but rather by fluctuations in the amount of releasable calcium in the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Additionally, we conclude that the calcium current may not be a necessary prerequisite for depolarization to trigger calcium release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum under conditions of calcium overload.
Epistemicity in voseo and tuteo negative commands in Argentinian Spanish

Abstract The present study explores epistemic meaning in the alternation between two negative commands in Argentinian Spanish (AS). A perception experiment was done with 112 native speaker participants. All participants were presented with 28 brief contexts followed by an utterance that included either a voseo negative command, a tuteo negative command, a polar question or a declarative. Participants were tasked with using a 5-point Likert scale to make judgments about how certain the speaker was that the addressee would have performed the action in the utterance. Both pragmatic and social factors were considered in the analysis of the data. Results indicate that native speakers of AS identify the voseo form as conveying significantly more epistemic certainty than the tuteo form ( p Johnson and Grinstead, 2011 , Johnson, in press ). The study supports prior research demonstrating that commands express propositional content. It also reveals strong evidence that epistemic bias toward one state of affairs governs the morphological variation between two negative command forms in AS.
Prediction of conversion from mild cognitive impairment to dementia with neuronally derived blood exosome protein profile

Introduction Levels of Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related proteins in plasma neuronal derived exosomes (NDEs) were quantified to identify biomarkers for prediction and staging of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD.
Efficacy Evaluation of Therapy of Promoting Blood Circulation to Remove Blood Stasis on Idiopathic Pulmonary Hemosiderosis in Later Period

Objective: To evaluate the therapeutic effect of promoting blood circulation to remove blood stasis on idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis in the period of recurrence.Method: Fifteen cases with idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis were in accordance with the diagnostic and therapeutic standard of traditional Chinese medicine,and the self-calibrated method was applied to observe the effect of this therapy.The total therapy lasts four weeks including the previous hormone treatment followed by that of traditional Chinese medicine,and the results of the efficacy were regarded as significant improvement,improvement and no effect.Result: The four-week treatment showed that five cases were improved significantly,eight improved,two with no effect,and the overall efficiency was 86.7%.Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that the therapeutic effect of promoting blood circulation to remove blood stasis on idiopathic pulmonary hemosiderosis in the period of recurrence was confirmed and needed the further investigation.
Empirical Study of Router IPv6 Interface Address Distributions

The IPv6 Internet is an important component of the Internet's continued growth and evolution. By several metrics, IPv6 has grown exponentially and now carries nontrivial amounts of production traffic. Less well-understood, however, is IPv6's topology and the way in which providers are using their IPv6 address allocations. Rather than relying on passive measurements or heuristics, which can bias inferences, here the authors use uniform active probing. They execute Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)-Paris traceroute probes to an address in each /48 in all /32's advertised in the global IPv6 routing table (approximately 400 million traces from 26 globally distributed vantage points). At this granularity, they characterize the distribution of IPv6 interface addresses in the wild, and find significant differences among providers and regions. By providing insight into the structure of the current IPv6 Internet router interface addressing method, their hope is to better inform efforts to design future intelligent, active IPv6 topology-mapping algorithms and systems.
Predisposed to Doze

This case discusses a drug–gene interaction. Promethazine is a cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2D6 substrate. Patients who are CYP2D6 poor metabolizers exhibit greater sedation for a given promethazine dose.
Radial-shortening and ulnar-lengthening operations for kienböck’s disease

The most common procedures to treat Kienbock’s disease involve osteotomies of the radius or ulna and are frequently referred to as joint-leveling procedures. The theory for these osteotomies, first proposed by Hulten in 1928, comes from the belief that abnormal association between the lunate and radius leads to altered mechanics at the radiocarpal joint which predispose those individuals to developing Kienbock’s disease. Various osteotomies of the radius and ulna can be categorized into three main groups: radial shortening, radial wedge, and ulnar lengthening. New long-term outcome data for radial shortening and wedge osteotomies have been promising despite radiographic progression of disease and have thus widened indications for such procedures. While biomechanical data has lent support to each group, ulnar-lengthening procedures have largely fallen out of favor secondary to increased complication rates relative to other options. Despite these complications, ulnar-lengthening osteotomy along with radial-sided osteotomies offer the added benefit of staying extra-articular should further intra-articular salvage procedures be required in the future.
Membranes Matter: Predicting Drug Toxicity

It remains a challenge to predict whether a new drug candidate will have undesirable side effects. Many biologically active molecules, including drugs and drug-leads, are amphiphiles that partition into lipid bilayers, which will tend to alter bilayer physical properties, thereby modulating membrane protein function. Such bilayer-modifying molecules may be promiscuous modifiers of membrane protein function, raising the possibility that they have off-target effects. Consequently, it may be possible to predict whether a compound will have off-target effects based on quantitative studies on the compound's bilayer-modifying potential. To address this question, we developed an assay to quantify the bilayer-modifying potential of large numbers of compounds using a gramicidin-based fluorescence assay (GBFA), which reports how a compound alters the gramicidin monomer ↔ dimer equilibrium. Using this assay, we have shown that many drug and drug-leads alter lipid bilayer properties at the concentrations where these compounds become indiscriminate modifiers of membrane protein function. Such indiscriminate modifiers of membrane protein function are likely to have off target effects; we pursued this question in a study on libraries of compounds that had been tested for toxicity in “high-content” screening assays that quantified cellular ATP levels, nuclear morphology, nuclear membrane integrity, and apoptosis in immortalized liver, lung, and neuronal cell lines. We tested 524 total compounds comprising four libraries (one non-toxic library and three mixed libraries of non-toxic and toxic compounds; the libraries were “blinded” until the results of the GBFA were known) and found that the GBFA predicts cellular toxicity, with minimal assignment of false positives. These results suggest that in vitro measurement could be used as a warning sign for off-target biological effects in drug discovery efforts and, further, provides a mechanism by which amphiphiles exert their toxicity, namely by altering lipid bilayer physical properties.
Effects of Process Parameters on Direct Deposition Hydrogel Molding for the Fabrication Microfluidic Devices

Advantages of microfluidic devices include miniaturization, easy of integration, small reagent consumption etc., and have led to the wide applications in biomedical field. Fabrication of microfluidic devices is commonly done through microfabrication methods; microfabication-free/using rapid prototyping methods have also been developed in recent years to enable applications of microfluidic devices to a broader range. Our recent study has demonstrated the feasibility of fabricating electrospun fiber embedded microfluidic devices by integrating hydrogel molding and electrospinning (ES) through a multi-layer construction process. This paper focuses on examining how process parameters affect microchannel formation in microfluidic devices fabricated using direct-deposition hydrogel molding (dHGM). PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) was chosen as the base-material of the device, and Agarose hydrogel was used to generate the mold channels. A direct writing system was used to deposit the hydrogel mold. We examined three parameters affecting the dHGM based microchannel formation: hydrogel composition, curing conditions, and deposition method. Effects of these parameters were characterized in terms of ease-of-handling, consistent channel formation, and control of channel diameter.Copyright © 2016 by ASME
A question of trust

I used to host family dinners at which the guests included my uncle Eugene, who was a Marxist, and my great-aunt Debbie, an ardent anti-Communist. Debbie and Eugene were interesting people for different reasons. However, they knew that their beliefs were incompatible, and so they avoided each other in public.
Rescue Decompressive Craniectomy in Children with Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.

Decompressive craniectomy (DC) is considered a rescue therapy in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) with increased intracranial pressure (ICP). In this retrospective study, we examined the impact of craniectomy on ICP in children with severe TBI and their neurological outcome. A total of 14 patients were enrolled. Peak ICP was significantly lower (31 ± 2.9 to 19 ± 4.6, p
Object discovery and identification

Humans are typically able to infer how many objects their environment contains and to recognize when the same object is encountered twice. We present a simple statistical model that helps to explain these abilities and evaluate it in three behavioral experiments. Our first experiment suggests that humans rely on prior knowledge when deciding whether an object token has been previously encountered. Our second and third experiments suggest that humans can infer how many objects they have seen and can learn about categories and their properties even when they are uncertain about which tokens are instances of the same object.
An overview of FDA-approved vaccines & their innovators.

Introduction: A survey of FDA-approved biologicals focused upon the development of immunotherapies over time to gain insight on the challenges and trends of vaccine development today.Areas covered:...
Impaired Midline Theta Power and Connectivity During Proactive Cognitive Control in Schizophrenia.

Abstract Background Disrupted proactive cognitive control, a form of early selection and active goal maintenance, is hypothesized to underlie the broad cognitive deficits observed in patients with schizophrenia (SPs). Current research suggests that the disrupted activation within and connectivity between regions of the cognitive control network contribute to disrupted proactive cognitive control; however, no study has examined these mechanisms using an AX Continuous Performance Test task in schizophrenia. Methods Twenty-six SPs (17 male subjects; mean age 34.46 ± 8.77 years) and 28 healthy control participants (HCs; 16 male subjects; mean age 31.43 ± 7.23 years) underwent an electroencephalogram while performing the AX Continuous Performance Test. To examine the extent of activation and level of connectivity within the cognitive control network, power, intertrial phase clustering, and intersite phase clustering metrics were calculated and analyzed. Results SPs exhibited expected general decrements in behavioral performance relative to HCs and a more selective deficit in conditions requiring proactive cognitive control. Additionally, SPs exhibited deficits in midline theta power and connectivity during proactive cognitive control trials. Specifically, HCs exhibited significantly greater theta power for B cues relative to A cues, whereas SPs exhibited no significant differences between A- and B-cue theta power. Additionally, differential theta connectivity patterns were observed in SPs and HCs. Behavioral measures of proactive cognitive control predicted functional outcomes in SPs. Conclusions This study suggests that low-frequency midline theta activity is selectively disrupted during proactive cognitive control in SPs. The disrupted midline theta activity may reflect a failure of SPs to proactively recruit cognitive control processes.