cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Biomimetically tunable hydrophobic/hydrophilic surfaces:multiple tier roughness

The phenomenon of surface wettability has been a contested issue in phase change heat transfer applications. Its research area has previously broadened in scope from microscale into nanoscale structured surfaces with the aid of high-end techniques such as nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) and microelectromechanical system (MEMS). However, those techniques are both expensive and time-consuming in creating practical nanoscale-structures. In this study, we propose a streamlined technique to create tunable ultrahydrophobic/philic self-assembled copper oxide nanostructures with multiple tier roughness. Using a bottom-up process, a fast fabrication time can be achieved (relative to NEMS and MEMS) through our simple, cost-effective bulk fabrication technique. As demonstrated through the present experiments, we can control the surface wettability by introducing morphological adaptivity.
THE FLUXES AND AIR CHEMISTRY OF ISOPRENE ABOVE A DECIDUOUS HARDWOOD FOREST

Isoprene is a non-methane hydrocarbon that is emitted by certain plant species. This compound affects the chemistry of the troposphere because it is oxidized by the hydroxyl radical and its oxidation products are precursors for the photochemical production of ozone. In 1992, we conducted a study on the controls of isoprene emission from a temperate deciduous forest. We draw upon data from this field experiment, and the literature, to describe the biological, chemical and physical processes that control the synthesis, emission and atmospheric lifetime of isoprene. Isoprene biosynthesis is associated with photosynthesis. Once produced, isoprene molecules diffuse through the stomata and laminar boundary layer of leaves to reach the atmosphere. Then isoprene molecules are transported by turbulence through the plant canopy and into the atmosphere's boundary layer. The ultimate fate of isoprene is controlled primarily by chemical oxidation and deposition to the surface. Emission rates of isoprene from leaves can be predicted by an algorithm that is a function of light energy and leaf temperature. Scaling of isoprene fluxes from the leaf to canopy scale is accomplished by linking the leaf algorithm to a canopy micrometeorological model. Field tests of the scaling model indicate that it can successfully estimate canopy-scale isoprene flux densities, as long as the biomass of isoprene emitting plants is used as a driving variable.
Object-oriented graphical tool for automated laser soldering

Object-oriented interfaces (OOIs) have become an important component of automation activity. Object-oriented software techniques have provided some hope to cope with the complexity of modern software development tasks. Object orientation is expressed by many researchers as an important direction in designing and implementing software in the 1990s and beyond. In today's electronics industry, there are several different types of interfaces used for different pieces of manufacturing equipment. It is now possible to create a general, OOI for most manufacturing equipment that is easy to use, easy to learn how to use, and easy to modify. Such an interface can benefit the user in terms of savings in time and money. The laser soldering interface, designed and implemented in the Center for Integrated Electronics and Electronics Manufacturing (CIEEM) at Rensselaer, is one of the 'flexible' user interfaces described above. This paper describes the object-oriented graphical tool (OOGT) development and its final structure.© (1995) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Further precision gamma ray measurements with a scintillation spectrometer

Abstract As a continuation of previous work, several gamma ray energies were measured with a precision scintillation spectrometer. Gamma rays from Zn69, Mg27, Rb86, Zn65, Na22 and A41 were measured to an accuracy of the order of 1 keV.
Lemon-juice therapy: the control of life-threatening rumination in a six-month-old infant

Chronic, life-threatening rumination was eliminated in a six-month-old infant by squirting a small amount of lemon juice into her mouth whenever rumination or its precursors were detected. A brief suspension of this therapy demonstrated its crucial role. Lemon-juice therapy offers a practical and acceptable alternative to other therapies for rumination, namely electric shock and massive noncontingent attention. However, since this study is limited to a single case, claims as to the effectiveness of this therapy across children are premature.
Olanzapine safety and efficacy in patients with borderline personality disorder and comorbid dysthymia

Abstract Background: Numerous medications have been tested in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and/or schizotypal personality disorder (SPD). Although many of the medications tested have been demonstrated to be useful, no clear main treatment for BPD has emerged. Despite the efficacy of some of the medicines, acceptability and side effects have proven to be barriers to the use of medication. Therefore, an open-label olanzapine trial utilizing objective ratings was performed. Methods: Patients suffering from BPD and dysthymia were included in an 8-week, open-label study of olanzapine monotherapy. The first 4 weeks of the trial allowed for flexible dosing; during the last 4 weeks, olanzapine dose was held constant. Patients were rated on Hopkins Symptoms Checklist 90 (SCL-90), Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Global Assessment of Function (GAF), Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS 11), and Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory (BDHI). Results: Eleven patients completed at least 2 weeks; nine of the patients finished the entire trial. There was a robust and statistically significant reduction in the five global ratings. Within the global ratings, symptoms of psychoticism, depression, interpersonal sensitivity, and anger were among the symptoms to be reduced. No movement disorder symptoms were noted for any of the patients. Conclusions: In this open-label pilot study, patients treated with olanzapine showed statistically significant reduction in self-rated and clinician-rated scales. Symptoms associated with BPD and dysthymia were among those to be substantially reduced. Further studies to explore olanzapine’s efficacy versus placebo, as well as comparison to other potential treatments for BPD, are important next steps.
Forecasting Service Profitability

This paper describes ways to connect ledger cost behavior of a service delivery project with cost estimations derived at the time of contractual agreement. The purpose of this connection is to improve the management of the service life cycle, providing long range forecasting of the profitability of various service offerings. We emphasize cost, but our methods apply also to revenue, and consequently to profit. In a perfect financial world the connection between the cost estimate and the actual costs would be maintained in a tight feedback loop. The complex real world of multi-year and multi-country service delivery projects requires accommodation of (1) historical changes in accounting practices and (2) missing data. We describe the content of a cost case, the content of the ledger, and methods for forecasting profitability of parts of delivery projects using both the cost case and historical ledger experience of other similar projects. This paper reports a work in progress. We limit discussion of accuracy measurements to one benchmark, and we discuss potential improvements we have not yet implemented.
Dynamic Hand Pose Recognition Using Depth Data

Hand pose recognition has been a problem of great interest to the Computer Vision and Human Computer Interaction community for many years and the current solutions either require additional accessories at the user end or enormous computation time. These limitations arise mainly due to the high dexterity of human hand and occlusions created in the limited view of the camera. This work utilizes the depth information and a novel algorithm to recognize scale and rotation invariant hand poses dynamically. We have designed a volumetric shape descriptor enfolding the hand to generate a 3D cylindrical histogram and achieved robust pose recognition in real time.
The state of the art of neuronavigation with frameless stereotaxy in intracranial neurosurgery

Various localizing mechanisms for intraoperative navigation with frameless stereotaxy have been developed, including proprioceptive arms, freehand probes with infrared optical tracking systems, and integrated microscope/stereotactic systems that map the microscope's focal point. During a 5-year period, 1,212 procedures were performed on 1,155 patients using five navigational devices, and the accuracy and clinical performance of the systems were compared. Operative pathology included 193 gliomas, 128 convexity meningiomas, 117 skull-base tumors, 113 epilepsy operations, 106 cavernous malformations, 65 arteriovenous malformations, 6 aneurysms, 25 acoustic neuromas, 25 ventriculoperitoneal shunt procedures, 45 metastases, 338 other or unspecified primary brain tumors, and 51 miscellaneous lesions. The proprioceptive arm was used in 1,112 procedures (mean error, 1.86 mm); the freehand probe (1-dimensional cameras) was used in 29 procedures (mean error, 1.72 mm); the freehand probe (2-dimensional cameras) was used in 40 procedures (mean error, 2.64 mm); the MKM microscope system (Carl Zeiss, Thornwood, NY) was used in 16 procedures (mean error, 3.08 mm); and the SMN microscope system (Carl Zeiss) was used in 15 procedures (mean error, 2.30 mm). According to a survey of performance characteristics and surgeons' preferences, the proprioceptive arm system had the best apparatus, computer software, tracking mechanism, and display. It was accurate, reliable, and the easiest of the five systems to use. Freehand systems are hampered by tracking interference, and integrated microscope systems are still in the early stages of development.
The toxicity of acetylenic alcohols to the fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas: narcosis and proelectrophile activation

1. The 96-h LC50 values for 16 acetylenic alcohols in the fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) were determined using continuous-flow diluters. The measured LC50 values for seven tertiary propargylic alcohols agreed closely with the QSAR predictions based upon data for other organic non-electrolytes acting by a narcosis mechanism.2. Four primary and four secondary propargylic alcohols were 7 to 4600 times more toxic than the respective narcotic toxicity estimated by QSAR. Metabolic activation to electrophilic α,β-unsaturated propargylic aldehydes or ketones is proposed to account for the increased toxicity.3. 3-Butyn-1-o1 and 4-pentyn-2-ol, primary and secondary homopropargylic alcohols, were 320 and 160, respectively, times more toxic than predicted. In this case an activation step involving biotransformation to an allenic electrophile intermediate was proposed.
Control of the Alloying Element Distribution in Al-Alloys by High Magnetic Fields

The distribution and solidified structure of alloying elements are important for the quality and the properties of alloys. In the present study, the solidification behavior of aluminum-rich alloys is studied under various high magnetic field conditions, and the influences of uniform and gradient magnetic fields with different intensity and direction on the distribution and the morphology of solute elements of Al-Cu and Al-Mg alloys are investigated. It is found that because of the differences of the electromagnetic force (Lorentz and magnetization forces) acting on Cu element and Mg element with different physical properties in the matrix, the regularities of distribution for Cu element and Mg element are opposite just in the intracrystalline and intergranular under high uniform magnetic field condition, and not only the content but the distributions of Cu and Mg elements are obviously different under high gradient magnetic field conditions as well. It can be concluded that high magnetic field has different effect on the solute distribution in alloys with different physical properties such as density, susceptibility, conductivity, etc. And the experimental results indicate that it is possible to control the terminal solubility and morphology of the solute elements in alloys by high magnetic fields.
Energy-aware dual-mode voltage scaling for weakly hard real-time systems

In this paper we study the problem of minimizing energy while ensuring the designated QoS requirements for weakly hard realtime systems on a dual-mode variable voltage processor. The QoS is quantified with the (m, k)-constraints. We proposed a dynamic scheduling strategy, based on pattern variation and the enhanced dual priority scheduling, to guarantee the (m, k)-constraints while optimizing the energy consumption. The simulation results demonstrate that our proposed techniques can achieve significant energy saving performance while ensuring the (m, k)-guarantee.
John G. Trump: 1960 Lamme medalist: History of the medal

IN AWARDING the Lamme Medal today, we honor not only the recipient, but also the memory of one of the pioneers of the electrical engineering profession — Benjamin Garver Lamme.
The relationship of airborne trimellitic anhydride concentrations to trimellitic anhydride-induced symptoms and immune responses

Abstract Eighteen workers exposed to trimellitic anhydride (TMA) powder were evaluated in 1979. Twelve of these workers were available for longitudinal study until 1982. Annual clinical evaluations and serum radioimmunoassays for total antibody binding and specific IgE binding to 125 I-TM-HSA were performed. In 1979, five workers had antibody against TM-HSA. Of these, three workers were diagnosed with the late respiratory systemic syndrome (LRSS) and one worker with TMA-induced allergic rhinitis. The LRSS workers had significantly elevated total antibody binding of 125 I-TM-HSA and the worker with rhinitis had significantly elevated specific IgE binding of 125 I-TM-HSA per milliliter of serum. Although TMA handling was intermittent throughout the year, average airborne dust concentrations from 1974 to 1978 at job stations of the two heaviest TMA-exposed occupations, operator and assistant operator, were 2.1 and 0.82 mg/m 3 , respectively. After local exhaust ventilation had been improved, average airborne dust concentrations of TMA at the two latter job stations fell to levels of 0.03 and 0.01 mg/m 3 , respectively, in 1982. The decrease in TMA exposure coincided with a gradual fall in total antibody binding of 125 I-TM-HSA per milliliter in 1982 and symptomatic improvement in the three individuals with the LRSS. The continuous low-level exposure of the worker with TMA rhinitis was sufficient to elicit a rise in specific IgE against TM-HSA from 1.1 ng of 125 I-TM-HSA bound per milliliter in 1979 to 2.12 in 1982. The results demonstrate that after establishment of IgG anti-TM protein antibodies associated with occupational immunologic lung disease, environmental control resulted in a decline in the IgG antibodies and absence of one form of occupational immunologic lung disease.
Pressure Phase-plane Based Determination of the Onset of Left Ventricular Relaxation

Contraction–relaxation coupling is often characterized in terms of its effects on contraction or relaxation parameters, such as the time-constant of isovolumic relaxation (τ). While thermodynamics-based LV function characterization methods exist, landmark relaxation-onset determination studies used surgical methods. One classic, open-chest preparation study found that relaxation-onset occurs during early ejection, i.e. 34% of systolic time, T SYS, defined as the time from end-diastolic pressure to peak negative dP/dt. Because ventricular pumping is a steady state system, the laws of thermodynamics and nonlinear dynamics require that energy generation (during contraction) and energy utilization (during relaxation) must be balanced in a time-averaged (steady-state) sense. We calculated both energy generation and energy utilization, via novel pressure phase-plane (PPP) based parameters, including isovolumic stiffness analogs, in 29 subjects, 20 cardiac cycles per subject (580 beats). Results in control subjects show that relaxation-onset occurs near or prior to 34% of T SYS. In hearts with sever dysfunction including prolonged τ, relaxation-onset commences after 50% of T SYS (p < 0.05). We conclude that PPP-based analysis can characterize relaxation-onset in vivo in thermodynamic and nonlinear dynamics terms without requiring an open-chest preparation, and may facilitate characterization of cellular mechanisms of relaxation-onset at the organ system level.
Measuring protection in the early twentieth century

Trade policy constitutes one of the most important chapters in any economic history account of the early years of this century. To assess its impact on the economic development of individual countries we need comparative measures of protection at the sectoral level. This paper offers what appears to be the first attempt to construct such measures for 1913 based on the Heckscher-Ohlin trade model. It uses a newly constructed data set on net trade flows and factor endowments covering fourteen ‘old world’ and four ‘new world’ economies. In contrast to previous studies, the measures suggested here are, first, objective in the sense of not attempting to classify a priori the trade regime of some country based only on its tariff legislation. Second, they reflect all types of trade interventions. Third, they are constructed as continuous measures. Finally, and most importantly, they are comparable across countries and sectors.
Intestinal perforation in gynecologic oncology: Do all patients benefit from surgical management?

Objective To identify those patients with gynecologic cancers and intestinal perforation in whom conservative management may be appropriate.
WORD ASSOCIATION: REHEARSAL EFFECTS

Responses of young children in free word associations appear to reflect a highly personalized associative organization (Enrwisle, 1966). These associates rapidly become less personal, i.e., their commonality increases in the early school years as the written language is introduced (Dufilho, et al., 1969). Later, responses of youths and adults again become more idiosyncratic (Moran & Swartz, 1970; Mefferd, et al., 1979). The question asked here is whether rehearsal of associations by adults to targeted words embedded among other words would cause a return to the high commonality responses of early school years. The experiment proper has been described (Moran, at al., 1964). Briefly, the subjects were the 100 adult male "normal" controls of that study. The words were 300 homonyms and 100 words of a popular list (Kent & Rosanoff, 1910). These 400 words were distributed to 20 forms, each of which contained 15 of the homonyms and 5 of the Kent-Rosanoff words. Each of the latter blocks of five words was repeated in the succeeding form to yield 25 words per form. On each of four successive days five forms were used with reproduction, i.e., "when you hear these same words this time, say what you said the first time," after each form. The forms were staggered so that the 100 Kent-Rosanoff words were repeated in a one-day test-retest. The responses were scored according to Mefferd (1979). Significant changes did nor occur with these unambiguous words with semantic or syntactic variables. There were significant ( p .05) increases in cornmonalicy, e.g., 20 and 8% in the frequency of the first and second most popular population responses and 40% in the total commonality, and in the number of non-affective, neutral responses ( u p 20.7% from the 44.9% initial proportion of the to:al responses). There were concomitant significant decreases in response times upon the retest; after rehearsals the initial mean response rate of 2.52 sec. was reduced by 19.0%. Furchermore, there was a sharp decrease of 36.5% in the initial mean of 24.3 failures to reproduce the
Improving instructional design with better analysis of assessment data

As more instructors articulate learning objectives for their students within one course, or academic staff collaborate to articulate learning outcomes for programs, a robust means to assess student performance within these becomes increasingly important. The Examinations Institute of the American Chemical Society (ACS), Division of Chemical Education, has recently published content maps that utilise a structure of subdiscipline-independent fundamental concepts narrowing down to content details that are specific to subdisciplines. This structure has then been utilised to align items and can be used to assess student performance throughout a program. Learning objectives that are designed for a course can then be aligned to the framework and used to gauge student learning within a course or across a program. One key to making well-informed instructional decisions is to obtain as much valid information from such assessment work as possible. This paper describes the combination of using a rubric for assigning complexity with student performance to gauge achieving learning objectives that are aligned to fundamental concepts in the content maps in general chemistry and organic chemistry. It can be argued that information in these forms can provide useful guidance for designing improved instruction.
A role for embolic protection in the management of acute limb ischemia

Distal embolization is a complication during lower-extremity revascularization procedures that may occur when intervening on acute or subacute lesions. Several studies have demonstrated the safety and feasibility of using embolic protection devices (EPD) and some interventionalists have adapted this technology for use in infrainguinal revascularization procedures. At present, there are no randomized trials to indicate the benefit, safety, and cost-effectiveness of EPD for this application and its use in the United States is considered off-label. However, based on our experience and a review of the published literature, we consider the use of EPD in acute lower-extremity ischemia a reasonable strategy.
Intervention to reduce PCBs: learnings from a controlled study of Anniston residents

Nonabsorbable dietary lipid reduces the absorption of dietary PCBs and increases the excretion of previously absorbed stored PCBs. Absorption of all PCB congeners will presumably be interrupted by nonabsorbable lipid; however excretion will be enhanced only for PCBs that have not been metabolized and also for their lipophilic metabolites. Our study with the nonabsorbable lipid, olestra, in a controlled trial in Anniston residents with elevated PCB levels demonstrated that it is possible to enhance removal of PCBs from the body in the clinically meaningful time frame of 1 year. The rate of disappearance of PCBs in participants who ate 15 g/day of olestra was significantly faster than the rate determined during the 5 years prior to intervention. The rate of disappearance was not changed from the pretrial rate in participants who ingested vegetable oil. Consideration of the role of body weight and fat is an important factor in the design of intervention trials of this kind, and the results of this trial suggest that the level of body fat in individuals will influence the rate of removal from the body. Previously reported data from animals and from a case report indicate that weight loss combined with nonabsorbable dietary lipid will maximize removal of PCBs and presumably other stored organochlorine compounds. The design of future intervention trials should include a focus on body fat levels and changes. Future trials should also include the testing of dietary compounds other than olestra that have affinity for PCBs, such as plant-derived polyphenols.
The Link between Autoimmunity and Lymphoma: Does NOTCH Signaling Play a Contributing Role?

An association between certain autoimmune conditions and increased risk of developing lymphoma is well documented. Recent evidence points to NOTCH signaling as a strong driver of autoimmunity. Furthermore, a role for NOTCH in various lymphomas, including classical Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and T cell lymphoma has also been described. In this mini-review, we will outline what is known about involvement of NOTCH signaling in those autoimmune conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis and primary Sjorgren’s syndrome, which show an increased risk for subsequent diagnosis of lymphoma. Furthermore, we will detail what is known about the lymphomas associated with these autoimmune conditions and how aberrant or sustained NOTCH signaling in the immune cells that mediate these diseases may contribute to lymphoma.
NEXUS: a linguistic technique for procoordination

A method for automatically precoordinating index terms was devised to form combinations of terms which are stored as subject headings. A computer program accepts lists of auto-indexed terms and by applying linguistic and sequence rules combines appropriate terms, thereby effecting improved searchability of an information storage and retrieval system.A serious failing exists in many indexing systems in that index terms authorized for use are too general for use by technically-knowledgeable searchers. A search conducted using these terms frequently produces too many documents not specifically related to the users' requirements. An indexing method using the language in which the document was written corrects this failing, but eliminates the generality of the previous approach. A compromise between indexing generality and specificity is offered by NEXUS precoordination which combines specific terms into subject-headings, eliminating improper coordination of terms when matching search requirements with document term sets.NEXUS examines the suffix morpheme of each input term and determines whether or not the term should be a member of an index term combination or precoordination. If insufficient evidence is present to make such a determination, a sequence rule goes into effect which combines terms based on their syntax.A variety of corpora was used to test and develop the NEXUS precoordinator. Data bases consisting of legal information, computer program descriptions and NASA linear tape system documentation were used. More variety was present in the NASA documents which made the results of the application of NEXUS to this collection more significant than the others. Also, a fuller battery of rules was developed by this time, increasing the power of the program.
Classroom Needs of Community College Students with Asperger's Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorders

Community college students with Asperger's Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorders can experience significant challenges from the social aspect of classroom learning and college life in comparison to their peers. This article explains unique challenges of postsecondary learners with Asperger's Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorders. It also presents several classroom practices than can be beneficial to college students with these disorders. Practices discussed include those related to helping students get started and make the transition into a new course, organizing learning space, following class routines, and directly addressing individual social concerns.
Mammography facilities are accessible, so why is utilization so low?

Objective This study examines new socio-ecological variables reflecting community context as predictors of mammography use.
Is Community-Based Participatory Research Possible?

The researcher seeking guidance in conducting research that is truly community-participatory may find too much guidance rather than too little and must recognize that his or her project will be evaluated not only on the quality of the science, but on the extent to which it adheres to the principles of CBPR.
Shifts in abundance and growth of slimy sculpin in response to changes in the predator population in an arctic Alaskan lake

Lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in Toolik Lake are tightly coupled to the benthos, since they have no pelagic forage fishes. Slimy sculpins (Cottus cognatus) are a prey of lake trout and the soft sediment chironomids are an important prey for the sculpin. Our previous work showed that the median size of lake trout in Toolik Lake had decreased significantly between 1977 and 1986, and smaller lake trout are likely to be less effective as sculpin predators. Using our historic data on the slimy sculpin population from 1978, we took advantage of the recent change in the predator community to examine for subsequent changes in the sculpin community. Between 1978 and 1987, the percentage of slimy sculpin caught in the soft sediments has increased (25% to 39.5%). In 1987 there was a significant difference in the mean weight of sculpin caught on different substrates. The mean individual weight of sculpins increased from the nearshore rock area to the rock/soft-sediment interface to the soft sediments. There was no difference in mean individual weight with habitat in 1978. The mean total length at age for slimy sculpins during this time has also increased significantly. We suggest that the risk of predation while foraging in the soft sediments has declined. The increased use of the soft sediment area appears to have contributed to their increased growth, likely due to greater food abundance.
Mating Type Change in Pythium splendens Induced by Selfing

When (+) and (-) isolates of Pythium splendens were paired on the opposite sides of a polycarbonate membrane, oospores were produced by (+) but not (-) isolate. In addition to the original mating type, the opposite mating type appeared in the progeny derived from selfed oospores of most (+) isolates tested. Occasionally self-fertile (±) and neuter (0) types were also detected. The self fertility nature of (±) was unstable and transitory, segregating into (+) and (-) types during asexual reproduction. It was postulated that selfing may have changed the mating type by altering the function of a repressor which regulated the expression of mating types with different molecular configuration.
Chance performance in the absence of norms for neuropsychological tests--a clinical note.

Some widely used neuropsychological tests have few normative data for interpretation. Chance bases for performance are a neglected baseline. Below-chance performance also may be diagnostic, e.g., malingering.
La dépression et le temps qui passe : comment la dépression et le vieillissement du cerveau partagent des mécanismes moléculaires communs ?

L’augmentation du risque de troubles neurodegeneratifs et neuropsychiatriques associes a l’allongement de la duree de vie evoque depuis longtemps l’existence de liens mecanistiques entre l’âge chronologique et les troubles neuro-psychiatriques, dont la depression. Des mises en evidence recentes de modifications d’expression des genes en fonction de l’âge suggerent maintenant que le vieillissement cerebral humain met en jeu un ensemble specifique de voies biologiques sur une trajectoire continue tout au long de la vie. Or, les genes associes au vieillissement normal du cerveau sont aussi impliques de facon frequente et identique dans la depression ainsi que dans d’autres troubles neuro-psychiatriques. Ces observations suggerent un modele d’interaction moleculaire entre l’âge et la maladie, dans lequel le vieillissement cerebral favorise des modifications biologiques associees aux maladies et dans lequel des facteurs environnementaux supplementaires et la variabilite genetique contribuent a definir le risque pathologique ou celui des trajectoires de resilience. Nous passerons en revue ici les traits caracteristiques du vieillissement cerebral en termes de modification de la fonction des genes au cours du temps. Puis nous nous interesserons aux arguments en faveur de l’acceleration du vieillissement moleculaire dans la depression. Cette proposition de modele d’interaction biologique âge/maladie aborde le decalage actuel dans la recherche entre le vieillissement cerebral normal et ses connexions aux maladies de la vieillesse. Les implications de ce modele sont importantes, en termes de cadre de recherche pour l’identification des facteurs de resilience, d’opportunites pour une prevention ou un traitement precoce et de creation d’une definition dimensionnelle des maladies allant au-dela du systeme categoriel actuel.
Transcriptional Regulation of Mouse δ-Opioid Receptor Gene ROLE OF IKAROS IN THE STIMULATED TRANSCRIPTION OF MOUSE δ-OPIOID RECEPTOR GENE IN ACTIVATED T CELLS

Abstract δ-Opioid receptors (DOR) present on T cells have been shown to mediate the immunomodulatory effects of endogenous and synthetic DOR agonists on T cells. Considerable evidence indicates that there is stimulated transcription of DOR gene in activated T cells, which is correlated with augmented expression of DOR and enhanced capacity of DOR agonists to affect the T-cell's functions. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the stimulated transcription of the DOR gene in activated T cells is still unclear. In the present study, we analyzed a 1.3-kb DNA fragment immediately upstream of the translation start site (−1300 to +1 bp, with the translation start site designated as +1) of the mouse DOR gene in EL-4 cells, a mouse lymphoma T cell line that exhibits enhanced expression of DOR transcripts when activated by phytohemagglutinin. Through both in vivo and in vitro experiments, we have demonstrated that increased binding activity of Ikaros at the Ikaros-binding site (−378 to −374) in the DOR promoter is required for the stimulated transcription of DOR gene in phytohemagglutinin-activated T cells.
Treatment Options for Patients with Fludarabine-Refractory Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Abstract Treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) has evolved over the past decade. A purine nucleoside analogue, alone or combined with other drugs, including monoclonal antibodies, is becoming the preferred first-line regimen for patients with CLL. Becoming refractory to a purine nucleoside analogue poses an important challenge, which has led to innovative approaches combining different chemotherapeutic drugs, monoclonal antibodies, and new experimental agents. Despite these advances, allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation remains the only option with curative potential. Hence, many investigators have worked on modifying the conditioning regimens, introducing reduced-intensity conditioning, in an attempt to decrease treatment-related mortality as well as the risk of graft-versus-host disease. Hand-in-hand with this therapeutic advancement, progress has been made in risk stratifying patients with CLL based on biologic markers. This has resulted in better analysis of the effectiveness of different therapeutic interventions administered to patients with CLL in the newly diagnosed and refractory settings. Individualized therapy based on molecular identity, other disease characteristics and response to previous therapy might improve outcomes for patients who develop fludarabine-refractory CLL.
Does Obesity Affect Fracture Healing in Children

Background Obesity is a risk factor for various orthopaedic diseases, including fractures. Obesity’s influence on circulating hormones and cytokines and bone mineralization ultimately influences the body’s osteogenic response and bone mineralization, potentially increasing the risk of fracture and impacting fracture healing.
A controlled trial of amlodipine for cocaine dependence: A negative report

Preclinical models of cocaine dependence have shown favorable reductions in cocaine use using dihydropyridine calcium channel antagonists. This is one of the first reports testing the efficacy of the long-acting calcium channel antagonist, amlodipine, for the treatment of cocaine dependence. This was a 12-week, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel patient group trial of amlodipine vs. placebo for the treatment of cocaine dependence. One hundred and sixteen subjects participated in a 12-week medication trial in which 60 subjects received medication and 56 received placebo. Subjects in both groups received up to 12 standard manual-driven cognitive behavioral therapy sessions. Overall, drop-out rate for both groups was high, with only about 20% of subjects completing all 12 weeks of treatment. Both groups showed comparable levels of medication compliance and therapy attendance. In the end, amlodipine was no more effective than placebo in reducing craving or measured levels of cocaine use.
Q: Are antibiotics indicated for the treatment of aspiration pneumonia?

Yes, for primary bacterial aspiration pneumonia and secondary bacterial infection of aspiration (chemical) pneumonitis, but not for uncomplicated chemical pneumonitis.
Collisional processes in stellar systems

The theory of collisional relaxation in stellar systems is discussed in terms of an expansion in powers of 1/N, the inverse of the total number of stars. The results are expressed in terms of the concept of gravitational polarization.
Comparison of the effects of auranofin, gold sodium thiomalate, and penicillamine on resorption of cultured fetal rat long bones†

We compared three antirheumatic agents: auranofin (Aur), gold sodium thiomalate (GST), and penicillamine (Pen) for their effect on resorption in control unstimulated cultures of fetal rat long bones and in cultures stimulated by parathyroid hormone (PTH), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), and murine interleukin-1 (mIL-1). Aur (3 X 10(-6) M) and GST (10(-4) M) inhibited PTH-stimulated bone resorption by 39 and 42%, respectively. The same concentrations of Aur and GST inhibited PGE2-stimulated bones by 72 and 44, respectively, and mIL-1-stimulated bones by 74 and 50%, respectively. Pen (10(-4) M) was not effective against any of the stimulators. Dose-response curves showed that Aur was at least 10 times more potent than GST. Inhibition by Aur was sustained after removal of the drug, while there was full recovery from GST. Aur inhibited 3H-thymidine and 3H-proline incorporation into bones, while GST had no effect. Aur and GST decreased beta-glucuronidase activity to undetectable levels at five days of culture. Part of the therapeutic effectiveness of Aur and GST may reside in their ability to inhibit periarticular destruction by inhibiting PGE2- and IL-1-mediated osteoclastic bone resorption.
NOTE ON DREISONSTOK'S METHOD IN CELESTIAL NAVIGATION

The H.O. 214 and 218 methods in celestial navigation are being used increasingly because of the brevity of the procedure. However, for those who are willing to do a small amount of computing, the Dreisonstok (H.O. 208) and Ageton (H.O. 211) methods have been available in single inexpensive, pocketsized volumes. The former of these has been considerably less popular, judging by the amount of space devoted to it in most of the texts which have appeared during the war. This was probably due to the feeling, as stated to the writer by one experienced navigator, that “in the Dreisonstok method the computation is shorter, but the rules or precepts are harder to remember and harder to apply.” However, the announcement by S. Herrick [I] that the Ageton method is subject to errors, in some cases as large as 30’ (when used without interpolation as recommended), has led to rather widespread abandonment of that method. It is the purpose of the present article to suggest a change in the Dreisonstok rules which will remove the objection as stated above.
Choice or Chance: Questioning Dimensions within the Idea of Community.

In using a community model of communication based on consensus, we adopt a double-edged notion that encompasses both harmony and coercion within the community. But the possibility that any one of us might engage in coercion and/or terror when we intend to create harmony is something we would rather not acknowledge. So we use the metaphor community only in its benign aspect, in its possibility of harmony, to describe communication. This article explores how ideas of harmony and coercion play out in the metaphor of community and suggests four dimensions as continua along which communities could be described: choice/chance, time/space, abstract/ concrete, affinity/proximity. If we break up the clearly bounded, either/or approach to modeling community, we can better accommodate the ambiguity we intuitively understand as an important part of communication.
Using a caregiver, partner, or parent as a “listening device”

There are analogous situations to that described in “Patientgate.”1 Consider a caregiver who accompanies an elderly patient to an appointment with the doctor. The caregiver can help the patient remember what the doctor said, describe what he …
Performance prediction for individual recognition by gait

Existing gait recognition approaches do not give their theoretical or experimental performance predictions. Therefore, the discriminating power of gait as a feature for human recognition cannot be evaluated. In this paper, we first propose a kinematic-based approach to recognize human by gait. The proposed approach estimates 3D human walking parameters by performing a least squares fit of the 3D kinematic model to the 2D silhouette extracted from a monocular image sequence. Next, a Bayesian-based statistical analysis is performed to evaluate the discriminating power of extracted stationary gait features. Through probabilistic simulation, we not only predict the probability of correct recognition (PCR) with regard to different within-class feature variance, but also obtain the upper bound on PCR with regard to different human silhouette resolution. In addition, the maximum number of people in a database is obtained given the allowable error rate. This is extremely important for gait recognition in large databases.
Kernel metric learning for phonetic classification

While a sound spoken is described by a handful of frame-level spectral vectors, not all frames have equal contribution for either human perception or machine classification. In this paper, we introduce a novel framework to automatically emphasize important speech frames relevant to phonetic information. We jointly learn the importance of speech frames by a distance metric across the phone classes, attempting to satisfy a large margin constraint: the distance from a segment to its correct label class should be less than the distance to any other phone class by the largest possible margin. Furthermore, an universal background model structure is proposed to give the correspondence between statistical models of phone types and tokens, allowing us to use statistical models of each phone token in a large margin speech recognition framework. Experiments on TIMIT database demonstrated the effectiveness of our framework.
Circulating levels of steroids and chorionic gonadotropin during pregnancy in the rhesus monkey, with special attention to the rescue of the corpus luteum in early pregnancy.

Circulating levels of progesterone and estrogen in the pregnant rhesus monkey are indistinguishable from those of the nonpregnant animal until 12 days after the LH peak, when the first significant rise in chorionic gonadotropin (RhCG) levels is noted concomitant with an abrupt elevation in progesterone levels (the corpus Iuteum rescue). Serum RhCG concentration rises rapidly (doubling time = 2 days) to a peak at about day 23 of pregnancy, then falls to undetectable levels at day 35, and remains undetectable throughout the rest of gestation. Serum estrone and estradiol levels rise and fall with RhCG titers in early pregnancy, reaching a nadir on day 35 of gestation before placental estrogen secretion (largely estradiol) supervenes. Circulating estrogens reach a high and variable plateau at about day 80 of pregnancy and rise to maxima on the day prior to parturition. Serum progesterone levels in early pregnancy, while rising abruptly at the outset of RhCG secretion, fall in the face of waxing RhCG titers and increase again only as RhCG levels fall. Ovariectomy on day 23 of pregnancy causes a sharp fall in circulating levels of estrogens and no compromise of the continuation of pregnancy. These data suggest that the order of hormone production by the placenta is RhCG. first discernable at about 10-I I days after ovulation, followed by progesterone, whose secretion by the placenta is initiated prior to day 23 of pregnancy since ovariectomy at this time causes no fall in circulating progesterone levels, and lastly, estradiol and estrone. which rise rapidly in peripheral serum after day 35 of pregnancy. These data support the hypothesis that the shortlived stimulation of progesterone secretion by the corpus luteum in early pregnancy is caused by the initiation of placental RhCG secretion and that the failure of Iuteal progesterone secretion to be maintained in the face of rising RhCG titers may be an expression of the luteolytic effect of the increased luteal estrogen production also stimulated by this gonadotropin.
Neural Coding Mechanisms in Tactile Pattern Recognition: The Relative Contributions of Slowly and Rapidly Adapting Mechanoreceptors to Perceived Roughness

Tactile pattern recognition depends on form and texture perception. A principal dimension of texture perception is roughness, the neural coding of which was the focus of this study. Previous studies have shown that perceived roughness is not based on neural activity in the Pacinian or cutaneous slowly adapting type II (SAII) neural responses or on mean impulse rate or temporal patterning in the cutaneous slowly adapting type I (SAI) or rapidly adapting (RA) discharge evoked by a textured surface. However, those studies found very high correlations between roughness scaling by humans and measures of spatial variation in SAI and RA firing rates. The present study used textured surfaces composed of dots of varying height (280–620 μm) and diameter (0.25–2.5 mm) in psychophysical and neurophysiological experiments. RA responses were affected least by the range of dot diameters and heights that produced the widest variation in perceived roughness, and these responses could not account for the psychophysical data. In contrast, spatial variation in SAI impulse rate was correlated closely with perceived roughness over the whole stimulus range, and a single measure of SAI spatial variation accounts for the psychophysical data in this (0.974 correlation) and two previous studies. Analyses based on the possibility that perceived roughness depends on both afferent types suggest that if the RA response plays a role in roughness perception, it is one of mild inhibition. These data reinforce the hypothesis that SAI afferents are mainly responsible for information about form and texture whereas RA afferents are mainly responsible for information about flutter, slip, and motion across the skin surface.
Symbiotic ineffectiveness of trpCD deletion mutants of Bradyrhizobium japonicum

Abstract Genes responsible for tryptophan biosynthesis are thought to be essential for symbiotic competence of Bradyrhizobium japonicum . The B. japonicum trpCD region, cloned as a 2.8-kb Hin dIII- Bam HI fragment, had an internal 1.2-kb Sma I fragment that was deleted and replaced in vitro with interposon omega carrying a gene specifying streptomycin and spectinomycin resistance. Site-directed marker exchange mutagenesis of the B. japonicum genome was performed in vivo and the construction of deletion mutants was confirmed by Southern blot analysis of the DNA of the exconjugants. Since the trpCD deletion mutants grew on indole they evidently were unaffected in expression of trpAB and we interpret these data as indicating that the organization of the genes for tryptophan biosynthesis in B. japonicum differs from that of enterics. The new Trp − deletion mutants lacked activities for the trpC - and trpD -encoded enzymes, indole glycerol phosphate synthase (EC 4.1.1.48) and phosphoribosyl anthranilate transferase (EC 2.4.2.18), respectively, but had a higher specific activity for the trpEG -encoded enzyme, anthranilate synthase (EC 4.1.3.27). The new trpCD deletion mutants failed to effectively nodulate soybean. Thus, we conclusively demonstrate the essential role of trpCD in symbiosis.