cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Sex Differences in the Treatment of Sexual Dysfunction

Sex differences in the treatment of sexual dysfunction are partly due to neurobiological differences, as well as, the central and peripheral physiological effects of hormones and neurotransmitter actions on reproductive systems in men and women. Differences in epidemiology of complaints and diagnostic considerations, variance in medical comorbidities, and interference from related medications also contribute to the need for different strategies for treatments of sexual dysfunction according to gender. Flibanserin and ospemifene are new medication treatment options that may help some women with symptoms of sexual dysfunction. Various therapies are available to address sexual dysfunction and sex differences are relevant to consider, in terms of diagnosis, effectiveness of treatments, and side effect profiles that may help determine indication, safety, and outcomes for specific treatments.
The Age of Human-Robot Collaboration

Robotics is undergoing a major transformation in scope and dimension with accelerating impact on the economy, production, and culture of our global society. The generations of robots now being developed will increasingly touch people and their lives. They will explore, work, and interact with humans in their homes, workplaces, in new production systems, and in challenging field domains. The emerging robots will provide increased support in mining, underwater, hostile environments, as well as in domestic, health, industry, and service applications. Combining the experience and cognitive abilities of the human with the strength, dependability, reach, and endurance of robots will fuel a wide range of new robotic applications. The discussion focuses on design concepts, control architectures, task primitives and strategies that bring human modeling and skill understanding to the development of this new generation of collaborative robots.
HALLUCINOGENIC AMINES AND SCHIZOPHRENIA (WITH A BRIEF ADDENDUM ON N-DIMETHYLTRYPTAMINE)

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the hallucinogenic amines and schizophrenia. It also discusses the effect of hallucinogenic drugs. Radioactive N,N-dimethyltryptamine and some of its basic metabolites penetrate the blood brain barrier in mice and reach high levels in the first 10 min, the neocortex showing larger quantities than others. There is at first a sharp, then a gradual, decline in all areas except the hippocampus that seems to retain this drug in greater quantities than other areas. This distinct difference in distribution at the early and later periods might be related to the behavioral changes observed in the animals. The normal exploratory behavior of the mice is significantly affected by suppressing the hyperactivity in the first 30 min and after this period in causing hyperactivity when compared to the behavior of control animals in the same situation.
Must I Respond if My Health is at Risk

Abstract Background Widespread epidemics, pandemics, and other risk-prone disasters occur with disturbing regularity. When such events occur, how should, and will, clinicians respond? The moral backbone of medical professionals—a duty to put the needs of patients first—may be sorely tested. Discussion It is incumbent on health care professionals to ask what we must do and what we should do if a dangerous health care situation threatens both ourselves and our community. Despite numerous medical ethical codes, nothing—either morally or legally—requires a response to risk-prone situations from civilian clinicians; it remains a personal decision. The most important questions are: What will encourage us to respond to these situations? And will we respond? These questions are necessary, not only for physicians and other direct health care providers, but also for vital health care system support personnel. Those who provide care in the face of perceived risk demonstrate heroic bravery, but the choice to do so has varied throughout history. To improve individual response rates, disaster planners and managers must communicate the risks clearly to all members of the health care system and help mitigate their risks by providing them with as much support and security as possible. Conclusions The decision to remain in or to leave a risky health care situation will ultimately depend on the provider's own risk assessment and value system. If history is any guide, we can rest assured that most clinicians will choose to stay, following the heroic example established through the centuries and continuing today.
SINUSES OF VALSALVA ANEURYSM PRESENTING AS AN ACUTE CORONARY SYNDROME: WHAT ARE THE ODDS

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is usually secondary to intracoronary pathology, however, ACS due to coronary artery external compression is very unusual. A 64 year-old female with history of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and possible systemic lupus erythematosus presented with 1 week of progressive
Developing a user community in the photosciences: a website for spectral data and access to PhotochemCAD

A new website, centered on absorption and fluorescence spectra, has been designed for the broad community of members in the photosciences. Spectral data lie at the heart of the vast field of the photosciences, yet collections of such data are sparse, scattered and often in print rather than digital form. Because many if not most searches for photochemical data begin with individual spectra, the website should constitute a photosciences nexus. The database of <500 spectra can be accessed via text or by viewing molecular structures. The spectral data on the website are identical with those in the database associated with the software program PhotochemCAD, but only the latter contains the rich trove of companion references to the originating scientific literature. PhotochemCAD, which contains modules for diverse calculations germane to the photosciences, can be freely downloaded from the new website. To develop a community of users in the photosciences, a curated and validated set of email addresses of photoscientists has been generated from the primary photochemistry literature since 2004. The literature surveyed (19 journals, <45,000 articles) encompasses the flagship publications of 15 scholarly societies. The present work represents a step toward fulfilling the long-term ambition of assembling all known spectral data worldwide, from print and digital sources, in one carefully curated collection of digital data in a readily accessible site. The advances should broaden awareness and increase availability of spectra for diverse studies in the field of photosciences, which encompasses art, astrobiology, biology, chemistry, ecology, engineering, medicine, physics, textiles, and zoochromy.
Fission Matrix Decomposition Method for Criticality Calculations: Theory and Proof of Concept

AbstractThis paper presents the theoretical foundations and the practical implementation of the Fission Matrix Decomposition (FMD) method. The FMD method is a hybrid technique for the rapid and acc...
Triad-NVM: persistency for integrity-protected and encrypted non-volatile memories

Non-Volatile Memory is here and provides an attractive fabric for main memory. Unlike DRAM, non-volatile main memory (NVMM) retains data after power loss. This allows memory to host data persistently across crashes and reboots, but opens up opportunities for attackers to snoop and/or tamper with data between boot episodes. While memory encryption and integrity verification have been well studied for DRAM systems, new challenges surface for NVMM if we want to simultaneously preserve security guarantees, data recovery across crashes/reboots, good persistence performance, and fast recovery. In this paper, we explore persistency of data with all security metadata (counters, MACs, and Merkle Tree) to achieve secure persistency. We show that to ensure security guarantees, message authentication code (MAC) and Bonsai Merkle Tree (BMT) need to be maintained, in addition to counters, and they provide the majority of persistency overheads. We analyze the requirements for achieving secure persistency for both persistent and non-persistent memory regions. We found that the non-volatility nature of memory may trigger integrity verification failure at reboot, hence we propose a separate mechanism to support non-persistent memory region. Fourth, we propose designs to make recovery fast. Our evaluation shows that the proposed design, Triad-Nvm, can improve the throughput by an average of 2× relative to strict persistence. Moreover, Triad-NVM can achieve orders of magnitude faster recovery time compared to systems without security metadata persistence.
Marginal Zone Lymphoma: State-of-the-Art Treatment

Despite being the second most common indolent non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (iNHL), marginal zone lymphoma (MZL) remains largely understudied, and given its underlying disease heterogeneity, it is challenging to define a single treatment approach for these patients. For localized disease, local therapy is recommended such as triple therapy for H. pylori in gastric extranodal MZL, splenectomy for splenic MZL, and radiotherapy for nodal MZL. For disseminated disease with low tumor burden, a watch and wait or single-agent rituximab can be used. However, for symptomatic disease, a similar approach to follicular lymphoma (FL) can be used with chemoimmunotherapy approaches such as bendamustine and rituximab. High FDG uptake is not common in MZL and is not diagnostic by itself of transformation to high-grade lymphoma but informs the choice of the site to be biopsied. Transformation into a large B cell lymphoma is treated with R-CHOP-like regimens. Patients with relapsing disease after at least one CD20-based therapy have several recently approved chemotherapy-free options including B cell receptor inhibitors such ibrutinib (approved specifically in MZL) and immunomodulatory agents such as lenalidomide and rituximab (FDA approved in MZL and FL). Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitors have shown excellent activity in iNHL, specifically in MZL, with breakthrough designation status for copanlisib and umbralisib, allowing off label use of this class of agents in clinical practice. With the availability of prospective clinical trials using chemo-free approaches, specifically those targeting abnormal signaling pathways activated in MZL tumors and its microenvironment, treating physicians are encouraged to enroll patients on these clinical trials in order to better understand the underlying biology, mechanisms of response, and resistance to current therapies and help design future rationale combination strategies.
Defining Suitability in Mixed Agropastoral Societies: A Case Study from Bactria in Northern Afghanistan

This paper explores the concept of suitability within applications of Ideal Distribution Models (IDMs). Specifically, we investigate the effectiveness of single measures of suitability in contexts ...
Fractalismo mágico: Gabriel García Márquez, Eréndira, el hombrecito de avena y el sueño de los cuartos infinitos

It is possible to assimilate the writing of Gabriel Garcia Marquez to a system in which spatial, temporal, and narrative configurations are fractals, a concept defined by mathematician Benoit Mande...
Angiogenesis is critical for the regenerative effects of exercise.

Summary AbstractEnhancing axon regeneration is a major focus of nerve injury research, and the quality of the surgical nerve repair plays a large role in the aggregate success of nerve regeneration. Additionally, exercise is known to promote successful axon regeneration after surgical nerve repair. In this study, we asked how exercise-induced nerve regeneration is affected when a transected nerve is repaired with or without fibrin glue. Fibrin glue repaired nerves exhibited greater vasculature within the tissue bridge compared to nerves that were intrinsically repaired. Fibrin glue repaired nerves also exhibited more robust axon regeneration after exercise compared to nerves that were not repaired with fibrin glue. When angiogenesis of the tissue bridge was prevented, exercise was unable to enhance regeneration despite the presence of fibrin glue. These findings suggest that the biological properties of fibrin glue enhance angiogenesis within the repair site, and a vascularized bridge is required for enhanced axon elongation with exercise. The combination of fibrin glue repair and exercise resulted in notable differences in vascular growth, axon elongation, neuromuscular junction reinnervation, and functional recovery. Fibrin glue should be considered as an adjuvant for nerve repair to enhance the subsequent efficacy of activity- and physical therapy-based treatment interventions.
Time Varying Learning Algorithms

In this chapter we analyze the time varying analogues of the Ergodic learning algorithms presented in Chapter 2. These algorithms are obtained from algorithm (2.1) by letting the step length parameter θ to vary with time. The time-varying algorithms generate non-stationary Markov processes over the simplex SM. Our aim is to present different methods of asymptotic analysis of these time varying learning algorithms. In the interest of brevity we will only consider the case of M = 2, leaving the obvious extensions as exercises.
Do displaced workers suffer losses of specific human capital

It is extraordinary to me that Topel's very important paper (this volume) can be written in a simple understandable form that is devoid of unnecessary jargon and mathematics. Topel's paper contributes to our knowledge on two levels. On the one hand, he presents substantive new evidence on the costs of worker displacement and shows how estimates of these costs and their relationship to predisplacement job tenure differ depending upon whether one analyzes data from the 1984 and 1986 Displaced Workers Surveys (DWS) or data from the Michigan Panel Survey of Income Dynamics (PSID). On the other hand, he masterfully points out potential biases in the cost of displacement that exist when retrospective data are used (DWS) and when panel data in which only members of the panel who remain in the sample until the last year are used (PSID). Indeed, he goes beyond merely speculating on these sources of biases. By contrasting data on the number of layoffs in 1982 and 1982 reported in the 1984 and 1986 5, he shows that individuals probably tend to understate layoffs that are relatively costless the farther away from the event they move. Similarly, in future work, he will test whether individuals who leave the PSI0 prior to the last survey year tend to have suffered larger losses from layoffs. Topel's use of multiple data sources and his concern for data quality issues have a long tradition in labor economics -a tradition that Walter Oi has advanced throughout his career. Topel's paper stresses the importance of losses of specific human capital in worker displacement. While it is hard for anyone such as I, who considers himself to be a friend of Walter's, who has learned so much from Walter over the years, and who went to graduate school near Chicago
A Novel PTEN/Mutant p53/c-Myc/Bcl-XL Axis Mediates Context-Dependent Oncogenic Effects of PTEN with Implications for Cancer Prognosis and Therapy

Phosphatase and tensin homolog located on chromosome 10 (PTEN) is one of the most frequently mutated tumor suppressors in human cancer including in glioblastoma. Here, we show that PTEN exerts unconventional oncogenic effects in glioblastoma through a novel PTEN/mutant p53/c-Myc/Bcl-XL molecular and functional axis. Using a wide array of molecular, genetic, and functional approaches, we demonstrate that PTEN enhances a transcriptional complex containing gain-of-function mutant p53, CBP, and NFY in human glioblastoma cells and tumor tissues. The mutant p53/CBP/NFY complex transcriptionally activates the oncogenes c-Myc and Bcl-XL, leading to increased cell proliferation, survival, invasion, and clonogenicity. Disruption of the mutant p53/c-Myc/Bcl-XL axis or mutant p53/CBP/NFY complex reverses the transcriptional and oncogenic effects of PTEN and unmasks its tumor-suppressive function. Consistent with these data, we find that PTEN expression is associated with worse patient survival than PTEN loss in tumors harboring mutant p53 and that a small molecule modulator of p53 exerts greater antitumor effects in PTEN-expressing cancer cells. Altogether, our study describes a new signaling pathway that mediates context-dependent oncogenic/tumor-suppressive role of PTEN. The data also indicate that the combined mutational status of PTEN and p53 influences cancer prognosis and anticancer therapies that target PTEN and p53.
Risk Perception is Affected by Experience

Use of safety devices concerns human factors and safety personnel both as a practical matter of reducing injuries and saving lives and as a basis for studying theories of human behavior. Many reasons are given for non-use of these devices. Seatbelt use provides a good model for examining generally what factors affect safety behaviors. Slovic, Fischoff, and Lichtenstein (1978) suggested that failure to use seatbelts resulted from fear extinction, in that the effort required to fasten the belt was not reinforced and ultimately habit strength was reduced. A test of this hypothesis provided evidence for fear as a factor. Professed seatbelt use was an increasing function of distance driven. In addition, other hazards examined generally showed the greater experience with a hazard the lower the perception of risk, supporting an extinction explanation.
Ganz reinforcement ring for reconstruction of acetabular defects in revision total hip arthroplasty.

Background: In revision total hip arthroplasty, bone loss due to loosening and migration of the acetabular component makes fixation of a new implant difficult. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical and radiographic outcomes of the use of the Ganz reinforcement ring with nonstructural allograft in the reconstruction of acetabular defects. Methods: Sixty-one acetabular revisions performed with use of the Ganz reinforcement ring and nonstructural allograft, between 1989 and 1992, in fifty-seven patients with aseptic loosening met our selection criteria. Eleven hips in eleven patients were lost to follow-up, leaving fifty hips available for evaluation five years or more following surgery. According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons classification, twenty-four acetabular defects were Type II, twenty-four were Type III, and two were Type IV. Clinical and radiographic evaluations were carried out at a mean of six and nine years after surgery. Twelve more patients were lost to follow-up before the most recent evaluation. Results: The mean Merle d'Aubigne composite score increased significantly compared with the preoperative score (p < 0.001). There were seven failures: six cases of aseptic loosening and one case of septic arthritis. Graft incorporation and bone remodeling occurred in all hips but three in which the ring fixation had been inadequate at the time of surgery. The Kaplan-Meier survivorship rate, with use of revision or loosening of the component as the criterion of failure, was 81% at ten years. Inadequate fixation of the implant at the time of surgery was the only multivariate predictor of failure (p = 0.003). Conclusions: Patients treated with acetabular revision with a Ganz reinforcement ring had reconstitution of periacetabular bone stock as well as good clinical and radiographic results, provided that the ring had been fixed adequately at the time of surgery. This procedure may not be the preferred approach for reconstructing segmental defects of the medial wall or pelvic discontinuity. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic study, Level IV (case series [no, or historical, control group]). See Instructions to Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
A Poisson equation formulation for pressure calculations in penalty finite element models for viscous incompressible flows

The calculation of pressures when the penalty-function approximation is used in finite-element solutions of laminar incompressible flows is addressed. A Poisson equation for the pressure is formulated that involves third derivatives of the velocity field. The second derivatives appearing in the weak formulation of the Poisson equation are calculated from the C0 velocity approximation using a least-squares method. The present scheme is shown to be efficient, free of spurious oscillations, and accurate. Examples of applications are given and compared with results obtained using mixed formulations.
Assessment of fungicides for the prevention of storage rot of yam tubers

Twelve fungicides were screened against the soft rot pathogens of yam tubers. Benomyl and thiabendazole were the only fungicides which completely prevented infection either by spore suspensions or mycelial discs of the pathogens. Captan, iprodione and mancozeb prevented infection by spore suspensions, but did not give complete protection against infection from the mycelial disc of all the pathogens.
An enhancer responsible for activating transcription at the midblastula transition in Xenopus development

Transcripts from the Xenopus gene GS17 are absent from oocytes and first appear at the midblastula transition (MBT), about 8 hr after fertilization. Injection experiments with deletions of the GS17 gene and GS17-beta-globin hybrid genes show that a relatively short sequence of 74 base pairs is sufficient to activate, in cis, transcription at the MBT. This 74-base sequence is located about 700 bases upstream of the GS17 promoter and has the properties of an enhancer element.
Coronary artery bypass grafting in patients with transplanted livers

Coronary artery bypass grafting was performed on 3 patients for refractory angina pectoris 48, 5, and 40 months after orthotopic liver transplantation. At the time of the cardiac operation, all 3 patients had drug-induced moderate renal dysfunction, and 1 of the 3 exhibited mild chronic rejection of the graft. Maintenance immunosuppressive therapy was continued during the cardiac operation and the perioperative period. Stress-dose steroids and standard prophylactic antibiotics were also employed. All 3 patients tolerated the cardiac surgical procedure without hepatic decompensation, excessive bleeding, infection, impaired wound healing, and other complications related to the transplanted organ or to the immunosuppressive therapy. Early postoperative liver function test results showed mild transient deterioration. One patient experienced a brief psychotic episode and massive upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Both complications were attributed to the steroids used in immunosuppressive therapy. Follow-up ranging from 2 to 24 months after coronary artery bypass grafting revealed that the patients were active and had no cardiac symptoms or manifestations of hepatic decompensation. It appears from this limited experience that cardiac operations can be performed safely in patients who have previously undergone liver transplantation.
A canonical form for neural nets without circles

By “neural net” will be meant “neural net without circles.” Every neural net effects a transformation from inputs (i.e., firing patterns of the input neurons) to outputs (firing patterns of the output neurons). Two neural nets will be calledequivalent if they effect the same transformation from inputs to outputs.
Examining Online Purchase Intentions in B2C E-Commerce: Testing an Integrated Model

Research on online shopping has taken three broad and divergent approaches viz, human-computer interaction, behavioral, and consumerist approaches to examine online consumer behavior. Assimilating these three approaches, this study proposes an integrated model of online shopping behavior, with four major antecedents influencing online purchase intent: Web site quality, customer concerns in online shopping, self-efficacy, and past online shopping experience. These antecedents were modeled as secondorder constructs with subsuming first-order constituent factors. The model was tested using data from a questionnaire survey of 214 online shoppers. Statistical analyses using structural equation modeling was used to validate the model, and identify the relative importance of the key antecedents to online purchase intent. Past online shopping experience was found to have the strongest association with online purchase intent, followed by customer concerns, Web site quality, and computer self efficacy. The findings and their implications are discussed.
The brain matters: effects of descending signals on motor control.

The ability of nerve cords and spinal cords to exhibit fictive rhythmic locomotion in the absence of the brain is well-documented in numerous species. Although the brain is important for modulating...
Solving large scheduling problems by minimizing conflict

The scheduling of tasks (such as jobs through a com puter, different pulses through a radar system, or machining efforts through a production line) is a problem that is encountered quite frequently in practice. Traditionally, analysts have endeavored to develop schedules that minimize make-span (the time that elapses between the start of the first task in a sequence until the finish of the last task in a sequence). However, there are often many other appropriate measures of scheduling effectiveness. In this paper we address the problem of maximizing the number of jobs completed in an environment where each job is in competition with other jobs for certain scarce resources. Further, we shall assume that the number of jobs and possible start times is so large as to eliminate the possibility of the use of any exact technqiue.
Outcome After Surgery and Percutaneous Intervention for Cardiogenic Shock and Left Main Disease

Background The ideal revascularization strategy (bypass surgery versus percutaneous coronary intervention [PCI]) for patients with cardiogenic shock in the setting of left main coronary artery disease is unknown. Methods The Should We Emergently Revascularize Occluded Coronaries for Cardiogenic Shock Trial and Registry included 164 patients with left main disease who underwent revascularization. Although the standard of care at the time and the trial protocol recommended coronary artery bypass graft surgery for patients with left main disease, the revascularization strategy (79 coronary artery bypass graft surgery and 85 PCI) was individualized for each patient by site investigators. Results The median time from myocardial infarction to revascularization was 24.3 hours (interquartile range, 8.7 to 82.5 hours) in the surgical group and 7.4 hours (interquartile range, 3.7 to 19.5 hours) in the PCI group (p Conclusions Coronary artery bypass graft surgery appeared to provide a survival advantage over PCI at 30-day follow-up in patients with left main coronary artery disease. The impact of current PCI strategies on this subgroup is undetermined.
An expert system for probabilistic description of loads on space propulsion system structural components

LDEXPT, an expert system that generates probabilistic characterizations of the loads spectra borne by spacecraft propulsion systems' structural components, is found by recent experience at NASA-Lewis to be useful in the cases of components representative of the Space Shuttle Main Engine's turbopumps and fluid transfer ducting. LDEXPT is composed of a knowledge base management system and a rule base management system. The ANLOAD load-modeling module of LDEXPT encompasses three independent probabilistic analysis techniques.
Variations of the three-dimensional structure of the Escherichia coli ribosome in the range of overlap views. An application of the methods of multicone and local single-cone three-dimensional reconstruction.

Electron microscopic techniques are among the most important tools for obtaining structural information of biological specimens. However, the three-dimensional (3D) structural analysis of asymmetrical specimens that do not form crystalline sheets has traditionally presented serious methodological obstacles to its accomplishment. One of the fundamental questions to be addressed in this type of structural study is in what way, and to what degree, does the 3D structural conformation depend on the orientation of the specimen with respect to the electron microscopic support films. As a step in studying this problem, we have analyzed the variations of the 3D structure of the Escherichia coli 70S monosome by performing four different 3D reconstructions of the 70S monosome from subsets of images in the so-called overlap range of views. These subsets were selected according to a multivariate statistical analysis performed on the total population of overlap-range specimen images. A certain amount of structural variability exists among the 3D reconstructions, although many of the main morphological characteristics, as the relative orientation between the ribosomal subunits, remain unchanged. We have also generalized the random conical reconstruction technique (Radermacher, M., T. Wagenknecht, A. Verschoor, and J. Frank. 1987. J. Microsc. 146: 113–136) to include those cases where the specimen exhibits a rocking behavior with respect to the support. The resulting Multicone Reconstruction Technique has been applied to computer-generated images as well as the E. coli 70S monosome images from part of the overlap range of views.
When Waves Collide: Cycles of Protest and the Swiss and American Women's Movements

This article makes two related arguments. First, a rising cycle of protest may influence existing movements by altering their tactics, providing new allies, and altering others' perceptions of the movements. I illustrate these effects with examples drawn from the Swiss women's movement. The Swiss women's movement is unique because the first wave was still pursuing the enfranchisement of women when the second wave mobilized in the 1960s. Second, I argue that a cycle of protest perspective provides new insights into the events surrounding the decline of the American first-wave move ment. The study compares Swiss and American first-wave struggles to achieve an Equal Rights Amendment and increase women's representation in elected office. While the Swiss first wave was aided in these endeavors by the rise of the second wave, the U.S. women's movement after 1920 faced additional problems arising from its ties to the Progressive move ment. These ties exacerbated splits within the movement and engendered a backla...
The extracellular matrix protein mindin serves as an integrin ligand and is critical for inflammatory cell recruitment.

Leukocyte recruitment to inflammation sites depends on interactions between integrins and extracellular matrix (ECM). In this report we show that mice lacking the ECM protein mindin exhibit severely impaired recruitment of neutrophils and macrophages in 4 different inflammation models. Furthermore, neutrophils directly bind to immobilized mindin, and mindin matrix mediates neutrophil migration in vitro. The adhesion of neutrophils to mindin is blocked by anti–integrin α4, anti–integrin αM, and anti–integrin β2 antibodies. We also show that HEK-293 cells transfected with cDNA encoding these integrins exhibit enhanced binding to immobilized mindin matrix and the increased binding can be blocked by anti-integrin antibodies. Our results suggest that mindin serves as a novel ligand for integrins and mindin-integrin interactions are critical for inflammatory cell recruitment in vivo.
Some combinatorial identities of Sarmanov, Sevast'yanov, and Tarakanov

Abstract Sarmanov, Sevast'yanov, and Tarakanov have proved certain combinatorial identities by a combinatorial argument, namely, by counting the number of weighted chains by two different methods. The identities are applied to the summation of infinite series and to the computation of the quartiles of discrete probability distributions. Egorychev and Yuzhakov have proved these and some further identities by applying the multidimensional generalization of the Lagrange expansion. In the present paper the identities are proved in a direct, elementary way.
Clonal variants of a melanoma cell line sensitive to growth inhibition by dexamethasone.

Abstract We have isolated and characterized two clones of the RPMI 3460 Syrian hamster melanoma cell line which exhibit different responses to the synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone. In the presence of 10 nM dexamethasone, one clone (clone 6) exhibits the growth inhibition, morphological alterations, and reduction in final cell density observed in the parental RPMI 3460 cell line. In contrast, the other clone (clone 5), although exhibiting a reduction in final cell density, fails to exhibit the growth inhibition and morphological alterations. Thus, the effect of dexamethasone on growth and morphology can be expressed separately from the effect of dexamethasone on final cell density in these cells. This observation suggests that the two sets of responses can be controlled separately and that glucocorticoids may exert their influence through different or divergent biological pathways. In vitro receptor assays suggest that the different phenotypes of clone 5 compared with clone 6 cells cannot be explained by an absence of or reduction in cytosolic glucocorticoid receptor, in clone 5 cells. Additional receptor characterization suggests that the different responses to dexamethasone of clone 5 and clone 6 cells do not reflect changes in the ability of receptor to exist in a stably activated form. Differences in the accumulation or depletion of extracellular components in the growth medium also do not seem to be responsible for the altered phenotype of clone 5 vis-a-vis clone 6 cells.
Semigroups of row-monomial matrices

Let G0 be a group with zero and let G0Λ denote the semigroup of all row-monomial A × A matrices with entries in G0 The purpose of this paper is to characterize this class of semigroups. We define what is meant by saying a semigroup S is separated by an ideal T. It is then shown that if S is separated by a completely 0-simple ideal T then there is an isomorphism from S into a semigroup G0Λ, where Λ is an index set for the 0-minimal left ideals of T. The terms right abundant and complete are defined; and it is shown that S is isomorphic to G0Λ if and only if S is complete with respect to an ideal T which is a right abundant completely 0-simple semigroup.
An aversive stimulator for autistic children.

Functional, electrical and structural details of an aversive stimulator for autistic children are presented. Design considerations and compromises needed to obtain satisfactory size, cost, convenience, safety, reliability and effectiveness are discussed. Limited clinical trials are reported.
Improved Clinical Efficacy of External Cardioversion by Fluoroscopic Electrode Positioning and Comparison to Internal Cardioversion in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation

Background Despite using different electrode positions, "conventional" external DC cardioversion in patients with atrial fibrillation is ineffective in 6%-50% of cases. An alternative when DC cardioversion is not successful is low energy internal cardioversion, which is performed at increased risk. We tested the hypothesis that optimization of electrode pad position under fluoroscopy to encompass as much atrial muscle as possible might improve the success rate of external cardioversion and thus minimize the need for internal cardioversion. Methods Fifteen (9 males, 6 females) patients (age: 54 +/- 15 years, weight: 124 +/- 35 kg) with chronic atrial fibrillation (> 8 weeks) who had undergone unsuccessful conventional external cardioversion entered the study. Repeat conventional external cardioversion with electrodes in standard (right anterior and left posterior) positions was followed by "optimized" external cardioversion by positioning electrodes under fluoroscopy (using metallic markers). In case of failure, internal cardioversion was performed. Results All 15 patients had undergone unsuccessful conventional external cardioversion with 360-J shocks. Eight patients (group A) reverted to sinus rhythm with one or two 360-J shocks using fluoroscopy-guided pad placement (53%). Six of the remaining 7 (86%) patients (group B) had successful internal cardioversion with biphasic shocks (12 +/- 3 J). The body weight and body mass index were statistically lower in group A vs group B (106 +/- 27 vs 145 +/- 33 kg, p = 0.03 and 35 +/- 8 vs 45 +/- 8 kg/m2, P = 0.48, respectively). There was no statistically significant in age, height, body surface area, duration of atrial fibrillation, amiodarone therapy, ejection fraction, or underlying heart disease. Conclusion Unsuccessful external DC cardioversion, in some patients, is in part due to suboptimal conventional positioning of electrode pads that can be improved under fluoroscopic guidance by achieving the best possible vector encompassing the right and left atria. The optimized external cardioversion technique may minimize the need for internal cardioversion, which remains an effective approach when external cardioversion fails.
Protease released from sea urchin eggs at fertilization alters the vitelline layer and aids in preventing polyspermy.

Abstract Sea urchin eggs release protease activity extracellularly from 30 to about 60 sec after insemination. This timing corresponds to the breakdown of the cortical granules. The evidence presented shows that the protease prevents polyspermy through its action on the vitelline layer. The protease ‘hardens’ the layer and makes it incapable of binding sperm. Sperm that are bound to the vitelline layer before cortical granule breakdown lose their attachment to the layer as the protease is excreted. By digesting the bonds between supernumerary sperm and the vitelline layer and by ‘hardening’ the layer the protease aids in establishing the block against polyspermy.
The impact of documentation of severe acute kidney injury on mortality

Aims: Modification of the mortality risk associated with acute kidney injury (AKI) necessitates recognition of AKI when it occurs. We sought to determine whether formal documentation of AKI in the medical record, assessed by billing codes for AKI, would be associated with improved clinical outcomes. Methods: Retrospective cohort study conducted at three hospitals within a single university health system. Adults without severe underlying kidney disease who suffered in-hospital AKI as defined by a doubling of baseline creatinine (n = 5,438) were included. Those whose AKI was formally documented according to discharge billing codes were compared to those without such documentation in terms of 30-day mortality. Results: Formal documentation of AKI occurred in 2,325 patients (43%). Higher baseline creatinine, higher peak creatinine, medical admission status, and higher Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score were strongly associated with documentation of AKI. After adjustment for severity of disease, formal AKI documentation was associated with reduced 30-day mortality – OR 0.81 (0.68 – 0.96, p = 0.02). Patients with formal documentation were more likely to receive a nephrology consultation (31% vs. 6%, p < 0.001) and fluid boluses (64% vs. 45%, p < 0.001), and had a more rapid discontinuation of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin-receptor blocker medications (HR 2.04, CI 1.69 – 2.46, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Formal documentation of AKI is associated with improved survival after adjustment for illness severity among patients with creatinine-defined AKI.
Reduced febrile responses to peripheral and central administration of pyrogen in aged squirrel monkeys.

Abstract There is long-standing controversy as to whether fever capacity is reduced in aged man. Although loss of this cardinal sign of disease would be an impediment to diagnosis and treatment, there has been no previous research on altered febrile responses using aged primate models. In the present experiments the febrile reaction to IV Salmonella typhosa endotoxin was reduced in monkeys over 14 years old and in one-third of those 10–14 years of age compared with that of younger animals. In response to injections of endotoxin into the lateral cerebral ventricle (ICV), animals over 10 years old showed small or no fevers. Injections of probenecid (ICV), an inhibitor of central inactivation of leukocytic pyrogen and prostaglandin, augmented fever caused by IV and ICV endotoxin and hyperthermia caused by ICV PGE2 in animals under 10 years of age. However, in older animals probenecid increased fever caused by ICV endotoxin only, although the increased response was still less than one quarter that of younger animals. The results indicate that old squirrel monkeys have decreased febrile responses that may be traced to alterations in central sensitivity to pyrogens.
Rectilinear laminar flow of a visco-elastic fluid

Eine inkompressible viskoelastische Flussigkeit fliesst zwischen zwei parallelen, starren, unendlichen Wanden. Es wird unter der Voraussetzung, dass die eine Wand fest ist und die andere sich mit einer exponentiell abklingenden Geschwindigkeit bewegt, das zur Aufrechterhaltung einer speziellen laminaren Stromung notige Kraftfeld bestimmt.
New inverse method for simultaneous reconstruction of object buried beneath rough ground and the ground surface structure using SAMM forward model

A new inverse scattering method is presented to estimate both the boundaries of the rough interface separating air and ground and the object buried beneath this rough interface. This method is based on a state-of-the-art forward solver. Simultaneous reconstruction of surface and object boundaries is posed as a linear least squares optimization problem for a parametric representation of the shape of the object as well as the boundary of the interface with a cost function defined by the misfit of modeled to measured data. We make use of a newly-developed forward model, the Semi-Analytic Mode-Matching method (SAMM) within the context of the inversion procedure where a moderately low-order superposition of cylindrical modes (in 2-D configuration) satisfying the Helmholtz wave equation are used to represent the scattered fields for the object under the rough surface. The proposed inverse method is a combined analytical-numerical algorithm to decrease the cost function by optimizing the boundary control parameters in an iterative procedure. The shape of the object as well as the interface is defined in low-dimensional parametric forms. The object boundary is modeled by a B-spline curve which is parameterized by a collection of “control points”. Accuracy and reliability of this method is verified by numerical experiments.
RNA Trafficking by Acute Myelogenous Leukemia Exosomes

Extrinsic signaling cues in the microenvironment of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) contribute to disease progression and therapy resistance. Yet, it remains unknown how the bone marrow niche in which AML arises is subverted to support leukemic persistence at the expense of homeostatic function. Exosomes are cell membrane-derived vesicles carrying protein and RNA cargoes that have emerged as mediators of cell-cell communication. In this study, we examined the role of exosomes in developing the AML niche of the bone marrow microenvironment, investigating their biogenesis with a focus on RNA trafficking. We found that both primary AML and AML cell lines released exosome-sized vesicles that entered bystander cells. These exosomes were enriched for several coding and noncoding RNAs relevant to AML pathogenesis. Furthermore, their uptake by bone marrow stromal cells altered their secretion of growth factors. Proof-of-concept studies provided additional evidence for the canonical functions of the transferred RNA. Taken together, our findings revealed that AML exosome trafficking alters the proliferative, angiogenic, and migratory responses of cocultured stromal and hematopoietic progenitor cell lines, helping explain how the microenvironmental niche becomes reprogrammed during invasion of the bone marrow by AML.
13C NMR study of halogen bonding of haloarenes: measurements of solvent effects and theoretical analysis.

Solvent effects on the NMR spectra of symmetrical (X = F (1), X = Cl (2), X = Br (3), X = I (4), X = NO2 (5), X = CN (6)) and unsymmetrical (X = I, Y = MeO (7), Y = PhO (8)) para-disubstituted acetophenone azines X−C6H4−CMeN−NCMe−C6H4−Y and of models X−C6H4−CMeN−Z (X = I, Z = H (9), Z = NH2 (10)), 4-iodoacetophenone (11), and iodobenzene (12) were measured in CDCl3, DMSO, THF, pyridine, and benzene to address one intramolecular and one intermolecular issue. Solvent effects on the 13C NMR spectra are generally small, and this finding firmly establishes that the azine bridge indeed functions as a “conjugation stopper,” an important design concept in our polar materials research. Since intermolecular halogen bonding of haloarenes do occur in polar organic crystalline materials, the NMR solution data pose the question as to whether the absence of solvent shifts indicates the absence of strong halogen bonding in solution. This question was studied by the theoretical analysis of the DMSO complexes of iodoarenes...
“Strict” blood pressure control and progression of renal disease in hypertensive nephrosclerosis

Hypertensive nephrosclerosis is a progressive renal disease and the leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in blacks in the United States. It is generally believed that hypertensive renal injury is responsible for progressive renal failure; however, it is not known whether pharmacologic lowering of blood pressure to any level prevents progression of renal disease. Accordingly, we performed a long-term prospective randomized trial to determine whether "strict" [diastolic blood pressure (DBP) 65 to 80 mm Hg] versus "conventional" (DBP 85 to 95 mm Hg) blood pressure control is associated with a slower rate of decline in glomerular filtration rate. Eighty-seven non-diabetic patients (age 25 to 73; 68 black, 58 male) with long-standing hypertension (DBP > or = 95 mm Hg), chronic renal insufficiency (GFR < or = 70 m/min/1.73 m2) and a normal urine sediment were studied. DBP was pharmacologically lowered to < or = 80 mm Hg (3 of 4 consecutive measurements at 1 to 4 weeks intervals) after which patients were randomized. DBP and GFR (renal clearance of 125I-iothalamate) were measured at baseline, at three months and every six months post-randomization. The rate of decline in GFR (GFR slope, in ml/min/1.73 m2/year), estimated by the method of maximum likelihood in a mixed effects model, was the primary outcome variable. In a secondary analysis, 50% reduction in GFR (or a doubling of serum creatinine) from baseline, ESRD and death were combined.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Epidemiology of autism: Current controversies and research directions

Abstract In many respects, the epidemiology of autism is still in its infancy. Although important questions remain unanswered, epidemiologists are making significant progress in several areas of inquiry that will be addressed in this presentation: How common is autism? Has the prevalence changed over time? What demographic and environmental risk factors have been identified that may provide clues to underlying etiology? What research is being done to search for early biologic markers for autism and related disorders? Epidemiologists like to count “cases” to estimate the frequency with which autism occurs in a population. However, prevalence estimates are heavily influenced by the methodology used for identification of affected individuals, making it difficult to compare prevalence across different time periods or populations. Current estimates of autism prevalence based on different methodologies and factors contributing to observed time trends will be provided for consideration. The tools of epidemiology are also useful for identifying demographic and environmental risk factors that may provide clues to underlying etiology. Preliminary data will be presented from large California studies on characteristics of parents and newborns that are associated with risk of autism. Finally, in collaboration with basic scientists, slow progress is being made in identifying and evaluating early biologic markers for autism. Current studies will be described and preliminary data on newborns presented.