cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Incisional Negative Pressure Wound Therapy Devices Improve Short-Term Wound Complications, but Not Long-Term Infection Rate Following Hip and Knee Arthroplasty.

Abstract Background The potential value of incisional negative pressure wound therapy (iNPWT) on lower extremity total joint arthroplasty (TJA) wound healing has been supported in a few retrospective studies. We performed this prospective, randomized, controlled trial to assess the impact of iNPWT on wound appearance, early complications, and late infection rates following hip and knee TJA compared with a standard surgical dressing. Methods Three-hundred ninety-eight patients undergoing primary or revision lower extremity TJA were randomized into iNPWT or conventional wound dressing groups. Wound healing and early complication rates were assessed at 7, 14, and 35 days after the index surgery. Late infection rates were determined at a mean 2-year follow-up. Results Patients treated with an iNPWT device were more likely to report wound drainage at day 7 (P = .01), but less drainage longer than 14 days (P = .04). Wound drainage was significantly higher for total hip arthroplasty patients at day 7 (P = .04), but differences were not sustained through the other time intervals. Total knee arthroplasty patients with a body mass index > 35 kg/m2 treated with an iNPWT device experienced fewer complications (1.3% vs 21.6%, P Conclusion Our study findings support improved soft tissue healing response with the use of iNPWT devices. While postoperative wound drainage may limit their value following total hip arthroplasty, incisional NPWT devices may have a targeted benefit for elective total knee arthroplasty patients with a body mass index > 35 kg/m2. Specific study in this higher-risk patient group may be helpful to define the value of iNPWT.
Red wine and green tea flavonoids are cis -allosteric activators and competitive inhibitors of glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1)-mediated sugar uptake.

The antioxidant- and flavonoid-rich contents of red wine and green tea are reported to offer protection against cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Some studies, however, show that flavonoids inhibit GLUT1-mediated, facilitative glucose transport, raising the possibility that their interaction with GLUT1 and subsequent downstream effects on carbohydrate metabolism may also impact health. The present study explores the structure–function relationships of flavonoid–GLUT1 interactions. We find that low concentrations of flavonoids act as cis-allosteric activators of sugar uptake, whereas higher concentrations competitively inhibit sugar uptake and noncompetitively inhibit sugar exit. Studies with heterologously expressed human GLUT1, -3, or -4 reveal that quercetin–GLUT1 and –GLUT4 interactions are stronger than quercetin–GLUT3 interactions, that epicatechin gallate (ECG) is more selective for GLUT1, and that epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) is less GLUT isoform–selective. Docking studies suggest that only one flavonoid can bind to GLUT1 at any instant, but sugar transport and ligand-binding studies indicate that human erythrocyte GLUT1 can bind at least two flavonoid molecules simultaneously. Quercetin and EGCG are each characterized by positive, cooperative binding, whereas ECG shows negative cooperative binding. These findings support recent studies suggesting that GLUT1 forms an oligomeric complex of interacting, allosteric, alternating access transporters. We discuss how modulation of facilitative glucose transporters could contribute to the protective actions of the flavonoids against diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.
Proceedings of the 30th ACM international conference on Design of communication

Welcome to the 2012 ACM Conference on the Design of Communication! Our conference this year provides a premiere opportunity to hear researchers and practitioners share the latest investigations and experiences in the design of communication. Over the three days of the conference, you will interact with an exciting, international group of academic and industry researchers as well as practitioners. The conference program embraces a variety of perspectives, reflecting how the design of communication intersects with the related areas of user experience design, information architecture, interaction design, and documentation. From the many submissions made to the conference this year, we have put together a strong program, with exceptionally high quality work. The varied methods used in the studies discussed this year are intriguing, ranging from large-scale surveys to ethnographies, from deployment studies to discourse analyses. The diversity of perspectives is also mirrored by geographic diversity among contributors. Following the international meetings of the conference in the last two years, SIGDOC 2012 has continued to attract the attention and participation of researchers from outside North America. Our program includes many different opportunities to engage with fellow design of communication thinkers, including workshops, papers, panels, experience reports, and posters. The program also offers an opportunity to reflect on the past in a special session dedicated to the work of SIGDOC, which celebrates its 30th anniversary at this year's conference.
Diffraction Studies of the Structure of Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Fe-W Alloys

Amorphous and nanocrystalline materials exhibit broad or diffuse peaks in their x-ray, neutron, or electron diffraction patterns. A detailed analysis of these patterns permits us to evaluate the atomic short-range order in amorphous materials, and the size of the coherently diffracting domains (particle size), the elastic strains within these domains, and the dynamic and static atomic displacements in nanocrystalline materials.
Gamifying the Code Genie Programming Tool

The Code Genie programming environment was built by the researcher and the author of this paper as part of a Ph.D. study to encourage high school student for coding in JavaScript language. This environment was tested and used in three coding workshops. The participated students had several suggestions in their feedback comments. One of the common suggestions was adding a tutorial section to the environment. Gamification elements and the suggested tutorial section were added to the Code Genie web Integrated Development Environment (IDE). This update is introduced and discussed in this paper.
Minimally-Augmented Grammatical Error Correction.

There has been an increased interest in low-resource approaches to automatic grammatical error correction. We introduce Minimally-Augmented Grammatical Error Correction (MAGEC) that does not require any error-labelled data. Our unsupervised approach is based on a simple but effective synthetic error generation method based on confusion sets from inverted spell-checkers. In low-resource settings, we outperform the current state-of-the-art results for German and Russian GEC tasks by a large margin without using any real error-annotated training data. When combined with labelled data, our method can serve as an efficient pre-training technique
Tribimaximal mixing, leptogenesis, and θ13

Abstract We show that seesaw models based on flavor symmetries (such as A 4 and Z 7 ⋊ Z 3 ) which produce exact tribimaximal neutrino mixing also imply a vanishing leptogenesis asymmetry. We show that higher order symmetry breaking corrections in these models can give a non-zero leptogenesis asymmetry and generically also give deviations from tribimaximal mixing and a non-zero θ 13 ≳ 10 −2 .
Designs for Embodiment and Soul: Offerings for Adult Learners in the Twenty-First-Century College Classroom

In this chapter I explore how I incorporate concepts of play and improvisation into my design and teaching of undergraduate and graduate courses for adult learners. While the primary discussion will be how these concepts are the subject matter, these concepts also form the pillars of my teaching processes. My course design includes how I design syllabi and assignments; how I teach my courses includes shaping the event of a class meeting to facilitate activities for movement, sharing of stories, and using voice and breath—experiential engagement that allows for personal and interpersonal spontaneity and authentic and soulful expression from participants that enhances collaboration and community building. As these experiences are not typically associated with college-level learning, and playful activities are not typically associated with conventional college teaching, I explore the considerations, constraints and value of embodied, experiential teaching and learning methods in college settings that can stir the ‘soul’ of learners. I further unpack these methods and the results I have observed in the context of current societal demands (such as expectations of work or family) on adults enrolled in college degree programs, discussing why experiential and embodied learning is vital for the whole being of today’s adult college student.
Active and nonlinear metasurfaces: Science and applications

The concept of an optical metasurface, an engineered array of plasmonic or dielectric antennas/resonators, is best known for its applications to making ultra-thin lenses and other far-field optical devices. When combined with active materials, such as liquid crystals, thermo-refractive, and electrically tunable 2D materials, a new class of time-varying metasurfaces is emerging, and being explored for practical applications such as rapidly dynamic-focus lenses and ultra-fast polarimeters, and ellipsometers. Nonlinear semiconductors are explored as an exciting material platform for low-loss metasurfaces capable of generating harmonics of light with high conversion efficiency. Finally, the emerging concepts for combining rapid tunability and high effective nonlinearity of metasurfaces will be discussed, with the goal of simultaneous enhancement of the bandwidth and photon conversion efficiency in structured materials.
Predicting UHPC Structural Response at Ultimate Limit State through Numerical Simulation Technique

Ultra-high performance concrete(UHPC) is being considered as an alternative ductile material to be used in the expected plastic hinge regions of structural components in buildings and bridges. Although several experimental studies of reinforced UHPC structural elements have been conducted for proof-of-concept seismic application, quantification of the plastic hinge length and associated rotation at ultimate limit states remains the most significant aspect for the ductile design of UHPC components in new structures. To that end, this study utilizes two-dimensional finite element models incorporating recently developed bond-slip constitutive model, which aids in simulating multiple damage states, such as yielding of reinforcement and reinforcement fracture. Several finite element models with variations in geometrical properties and loading scheme were simulated to compute the equivalent plastic hinge length values for reinforced UHPC flexural members. The existing empirical equations available for reinforced concrete and reinforced high-performance fiber-reinforced cementitious composite (HPFRCC) were found to over-predict the equivalent plastic hinge length in reinforced UHPC members. In addition, a mechanics-based approach was used to estimate the ultimate rotation capacity utilizing the plastic hinge length values obtained from numerical simulation techniques. This study can be used as starting point to develop a more robust empirical expression of plastic hinge length for reinforced UHPC flexural members and formulate a simplified approach to compute non-linear modeling parameters for displacement-based seismic design of UHPC structural components.
Negotiating a sociophysical space for elders with dementia in Shanghai

Dementia, which used to be a private issue due to the stigma and cultural expectations of family-based support in China, has been transformed into a social concern due to its increasing number in recent years. As a response, advocates have introduced the dementia-friendly initiative to deal with related challenges. Yet, as a project mainly proposed by developed countries, we know little about its localisation in developing countries. Based on 20-month ethnographic research in Shanghai, this article explores the localisation process of this global project. While many stakeholders who advocate on behalf of people with dementia and their family caregivers have made remarkable progress in terms of embracing the global concepts and practices, one project - community-based dementia care units - generates a lot of resistance from nearby residents due to the feng shui damage, a specific scheme in traditional Chinese culture. These findings reveal an important source of obstacle - the cultural context that shapes the public understanding of dementia and the ways of arranging dementia care - that may prevent the dementia-friendly initiative from further localisation in China. Through this ethnographic analysis, I call attention to the significance of cultural contexts in the design and implementation of dementia-friendly projects globally.
Inhaled Budesonide Reduces the Risk of Emergency Department Evaluation or Hospitalization in Early COVID-19

Inhaled budesonide, 800 mcg twice daily, significantly reduces the likelihood that patients with early COVID-19 will require emergency department evaluation or hospitalization (number needed to treat = 7 to 8). This is a widely available, relatively inexpensive drug with the potential for great benefit.
[50] Relative proximity of domains in plasma membrane and smooth endoplasmic reticulum from rat liver

Relative proximity of domains in plasma membrane and in smooth endoplasmic reticulum from rat liver
Completeness of certain function spaces

We give an example of a complete locally convex m-topology on the algebra of infinite differentiable functions on $[0,1]$ which is strictly coarser than the natural Frechet-topology but finer than the topology of pointwise convergence. A similar construction works on the algebra of continuous functions on $[0,1].$ Using this examples we can separate different notions of diffotopy and homotopy.
A Moored System to Obtain High-Resolution Time Series of Velocity and Density in High Current Environments

Abstract : We seek a more complete and fundamental understanding of the hierarchy of processes that transfer energy and momentum from large scales, feed the internal wave field, and ultimately dissipate through turbulence. This cascade impacts the acoustic, optical, and biogeochemical properties of the water column, and feeds back to alter the larger scale circulation. Studies within the Ocean Mixing Group at OSU emphasize observations, innovative sensor / instrumentation development and integration, and process-oriented internal wave and turbulence modeling for interpretation. Luzon Strait represents a major source of internal tides and NLIWs in the SCS. However, because of the extreme currents and internal wave activity in the Strait, there has been little success in deploying a full-water column mooring in this region. The goal of this project is to obtain a 2-month time series of full water column velocity, density and turbulence in the heart of the Strait where internal tide generation is the most intense.
Public Goods Theory and Public Policy

Public goods theory has been a cornerstone of the economic theory of the public sector since the 1950s. Inspired by a pair of path-breaking articles by Paul Samuelson, published in 1954 and 1955, the economics profession has accepted a rigorous definition of the term “public good” and has used the concept of a public good to outline a role for government production in the economy. Public goods theory purports to show why goods with the rigorously defined characteristics of publicness cannot be produced efficiently by the private sector of the economy, creating a market failure which implies a role for government in the production of those goods for which the market fails.
Lifelike pedagogical agents and affective computing: an exploratory synthesis

Lifelike pedagogical agents have been the subject of increasing attention in the agents and knowledge-based learning environment communities [2, 17, 19—21]. In parallel developments, recent years have witnessed great strides in work on cognitive models of emotion and affective reasoning [4,18, 22]. As a result, the time is now ripe for exploring how affective reasoning can be incorporated into pedagogical agents to improve students’ learning experiences.
Implications for Developing and Researching Elementary School Mathematics Coaches.

In recent years, national organizations, mathematics educators, and policy makers have called for the development of elementary school mathematics coaches to improve mathematics teaching and learning in elementary schools. The literacy field has found success and promise in the work of instructional coaches, and the mathematics education community can benefit from what professionals in literacy have learned and practiced. This article presents a synthesis of empirical research about instructional coaches, in both literacy and mathematics, as well as the neo-Vygotskian construct of assisted performance. Following the synthesis, implications are presented regarding how to develop the essential skills and knowledge needed for elementary school mathematics coaches as well as how to examine the impact of their efforts in schools.
Ether in the blood of the newborn infant

0 BSTETRIC anesthesia may disturb the onset of respiration at birth by producing either (a) anoxia, or (b) anesthesia, or (c) both of these states. Thus, on the one hand (a), the oxygen supply of the mother’s blood may be affected so as to diminish the amount of oxygen available to the fetus during the last critical moments when it is still dependent upon the placental circulation. Under such circumstances the infant may be born with the nervous control of respiration temporarily or permanently damaged by anoxia. Evidence has been put forward by various authors1-3 to show that the onset of neonatal respiration may be disturbed in this way by the use of too much nitrous oxide gas, and perhaps during the administration of other anesthetic agents. On the other hand, (b) as might be expected, some anesthetic substances may themselves pass through the placenta and accumulate in the fetal blood in concentrations sufficient to render respiration shallow or delayed at birth from actual narcosis, despite adequate fetal blood oxygen levels. There are probably situations, (c) in which both the former and the latter disturbances affect the baby, but we have felt that delayed respiration or apnea, due entirely to the directly narcotizing effect of the anesthetic, was primarily the mechanism involved when babies were slow to breathe after delivery under ether. Although Eastman’ found that in eight infants so delivered, the blood -oxygenation was slightly below that expected in deliveries without anesthesia, a similar comparison in a somewhat larger series4 showed the oxygen levels of babies delivered during ether anesthesia to be somewhat higher than the levels in the unanesthetized controls. Moreover the infants of this series who displayed some degree of apnea were not worse off for oxygen than were the others who breathed promptly. In earlier papers the average amounts of nitrous oxide and of cyclopropane4 in the maternal and the fetal blood at birth have been stated, but no figures have been found in the literature to indicate how much ether may enter the blood durin, 0 the average delivery and how this is distributed between the maternal and fetal circulations. Because of this gap in our knowledge, and because we have reason to believe that any neonatal respiratory difficulty nssign.&l& to tlhe anesthetic in deliveries under ether is usually a narcotic and not an anoxic phenomenon, it
Isolation and Identification of Male and Female DNA on a Postcoital Condom

Abstract Background.—Identification of male perpetrators of sexual assault may be made from cells and fluids recovered from postcoital condoms. To date, the focus has been on identifying the person who had worn the condom. Objective.—To describe a method for scientifically identifying both the male and female participants in a sex act by employing polymerase chain reaction–based technology on swabs taken from the internal and external surfaces of a condom. Fluorescence in situ hybridization may be used to screen for the presence of female cells on a condom. Methods.—Swabs were taken from the internal and external surfaces of a condom 8 hours postcoitus. DNA was isolated from each swab through standard organic extraction. Extracted DNA was amplified for 8 different genetic loci using the Promega PowerPlex kit and the sex identification amelogenin marker. Amplified samples were electrophoresed on precast sequencing gels and analyzed fluorescently using a Hitachi FMBIO 2 fluorescent scanner and software. Eac...
On the algebraization of nonlinear control

An algebraic theory on the stabilization of discrete- and continuous-time nonlinear systems by static state feedback is presented. In both cases, it is shown that the existence of stabilizing feedback controllers can be completely characterized through certain algebraic properties of the functions determining the state representation of the system. The theory includes necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of stabilizing feedback functions, as well as methods for their computation. An inherent resemblance between the discrete-time and the continuous-time cases is elucidated. >
Ejecta mobility of layered ejecta craters on Mars: Assessing the influence of snow and ice deposits

Abstract The unusual lobate ejecta deposits of martian impact craters have led to several proposed fluidization mechanisms to explain their morphology. Of the fluidized ejecta craters, double-layered ejecta (DLE) craters, believed to form in a decameters-thick surface ice layer, appear to have anomalously large and highly variable ejecta mobility (EM) ratios. We propose that low-aspect-ratio layered ejecta (LARLE) craters also form in a decameters-thick surface ice layer, in a manner similar to the formation of DLE craters, and pedestal (Pd) craters. We assess the hypothesis that the anomalously large EM values of DLE and LARLE craters are the result of ejecta flight, emplacement, and sliding of the ejecta on a lubricating ice layer, and that the highly variable EM values are related to variations in surface ice layer thickness. We find that the presence of a variable thickness icy substrate at the time of impact combined with varying coefficients of sliding friction and/or particle size, are consistent with the high values and wide range of EM values observed for these craters: thicker icy substrates lead to greater amounts of atmospheric drag and deceleration of the icy material due to the small fragmentation diameter of ice generated by its low tensile strength. Additionally, the vaporization of ejected icy material and entrainment of the vaporized material in a late-stage vapor plume further reduces the average ejecta velocities. By preferentially decelerating the smaller icy particles and eliminating the vaporized ice material from the ejecta curtain, the highest velocity ejecta is eliminated, and runout distance is decreased. We find that a similar model involving variations in the target structure of a volatile-rich substrate may also explain the formation of single-layered ejecta (SLE) and multiple-layered ejecta (MLE) craters. The lack of ramparts around the outer ejecta facies of craters that form in surface ice (DLE, LARLE) may indicate that ejecta emplaced on surface ice avoids significant deceleration due to the low basal μ values, and that ramparts around SLE and MLE craters may be indicative of ejecta deceleration processes.
Differential Requirement for Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen in 5′ and 3′ Nick-directed Excision in Human Mismatch Repair

Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is involved in mammalian mismatch repair at a step prior to or at mismatch excision, but the molecular mechanism of this process is not fully understood. To examine the role of PCNA in mismatch-provoked and nick-directed excision, orientation-specific mismatch removal of heteroduplexes with a pre-existing nick was monitored in human nuclear extracts supplemented with the PCNA inhibitor protein p21. We show here that, whereas 3' nick-directed mismatch excision was completely inhibited by low concentrations of p21 or a p21 C-terminal fusion protein, 5' nick-directed excision was only partially blocked under the same conditions. No further reduction of the 5' excision was detected when a much higher concentration of p21 C-terminal protein was used. These results suggest the following. (i) There is a differential requirement for PCNA in 3' and 5' nick-directed excision; and (ii) 5' nick-directed excision is conducted by a manner either dependent on or independent of PCNA. Our in vitro reconstitution experiments indeed identified a 5' nick-directed excision pathway that is dependent on PCNA, hMutSalpha, and a partially purified fraction from a HeLa nuclear extract.
The Distribution of Guilford's Average Rank-Order Correlation Coefficient:

Guilford's average interrater correlation coefficient is shown to be related to the Friedman Rank Sum statistic. Under the null hypothesis of zero correlation the resultant distribution is known and the hypothesis can be tested. Large sample and tied score cases are also considered. An example from Guilford (1954) is presented.
Ab initio determination of the structure of a grain boundary by simulated quenching.

Results of the first completely ab initio investigation of the microscopic structure of a grain boundary in a semiconductor are presented. By use of the molecular-dynamics--simulated annealing method for performing total-energy calculations within the local-density--functional and pseudopotential approximation, the \ensuremath{\Sigma}=5 (001) twist boundary in germanium is studied. A number of rotation-and-translation states are investigated leading to a prediction for the structure of this geometry. Evidence for the possible presence of novel defects and glasslike tunneling mode states at grain boundaries is presented.
A derivation of response time distributions for a multi-class feedback queueing systems

Abstract A single server queue with feedback and multiple customer types is analyzed. Arrival processes are independent Poisson processes. After receiving a quantum of service, a customer may depart or rejoin the end of the queue for more service. The number of quanta of service required by a customer of a specific type is a random variable having a general distribution with finite support. Each quantum of service is exponentially distributed. We derived the moment generating function of customer response time conditioned on the number of quanta of service required. An efficient algorithm for calculating the second-order statistics of the conditional response time is given. Numerical results are shown illustrating the variance of the conditional response time for different service requirement distributions and customer types. The performance of the FCFS and round-robin scheduling disciplines are compared.
High-throughput screening of silver nanoparticle stability and bacterial inactivation in aquatic media: influence of specific ions.

Although silver nanoparticles are being exploited widely in antimicrobial applications, the mechanisms underlying silver nanoparticle antimicrobial properties in environmentally relevant media are not fully understood. The latter point is critical for understanding potential environmental impacts of silver nanoparticles. The aim of this study was to elucidate the influence of inorganic aquatic chemistry on silver nanoparticle stability (aggregation, dissolution, reprecipitation) and bacterial viability. A synthetic “fresh water” matrix was prepared comprising various combinations of cations and anions while maintaining a fixed ionic strength. Aggregation and dissolution of silver nanoparticles was influenced by electrolyte composition; experimentally determined ionic silver concentrations were about half that predicted from a thermodynamic model and about 1000 times lower than the maximum dispersed silver nanoparticle concentration. Antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles was much lower than Ag+ io...
Changes of the electrocardiogram appearing during antimony treatment

Abstract In twelve bilharzia patients the development of the electrocardiogram was followed up during a course of tartar emetic treatment. In seven cases considerable alterations were found, changes of the S–T interval as well as of the T deflection. The tracings which had in all the cases been absolutely normal assumed a markedly pathological character in three cases. In the other four cases the picture suggested the suspicion of a disturbed heart action. In three persons the electrocardiogram remained unchanged, in two further cases the changes were insignificant. The extent of the electrocardiographic changes was parallel to the degree of chronic bradycardia due to the effect of antimony. In contradiction to the view held hitherto the persistent antimony bradycardia differs in its electrocardiographic characteristics from the slowing of the pulse rate due to vagal stimulus. In two patients in whom the electrocardiogram was considerably changed no bradycardia occurred. The electrocardiographic abnormalities as well as the bradycardia are, therefore, considered as resulting from intoxication of the heart muscle through therapeutic antimony administration, though the process in most cases is not clinically evident. In exceptional cases the condition may result in sudden death, through auricular fibrillation.
Electropharmacologic testing in sustained ventricular tachycardia associated with coronary heart disease: value of the response to intravenous procainamide in predicting the response to oral procainamide and oral quinidine treatment

Abstract Twenty patients with inducible, sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) were prospectively evaluated to determine whether the response to intravenous procainamide administration, as assessed by programmed ventricular stimulation, predicted the response to oral procainamide and oral quinidine treatment. Six patients (30%) responded to intravenous procainamide (fewer than 10 beats of inducible VT). Ten of 20 patients (50%) responded to oral quinidine and 5 (25%) responded to oral procainamide. Mean drug serum levels were 11.3 ± 2.1 μg/ml for intravenous procainamide, 5.4 ± 0.8 μg/ml for oral quinidine and 11.7 ± 3.4 μg/ml for oral procainamide. There was no significant difference in serum levels between those who responded and those who did not. Fifteen patients (75%) had a concordant drug response for intravenous and oral procainamide. Ten patients (50%) had a concordant response for intravenous procainamide and oral quinidine. Fifteen patients (75%) had a concordant drug response for oral procainamide and oral quinidine. Thus, in patients with sustained VT, the response to intravenous procainamide does not reliably predict the response to oral quinidine or oral procainamide, and serial day drug testing with these agents is necessary. Furthermore, high-dose quinidine therapy may be more effective in controlling VT in these patients than procainamide.
Association Between Mobility Mode and C-Reactive Protein Levels in Men With Chronic Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract Morse LR, Stolzmann K, Nguyen HP, Jain NB, Zayac C, Gagnon D, Tun CG, Garshick E. Association between mobility mode and C-reactive protein levels in men with chronic spinal cord injury. Objective To assess clinical determinants of systemic inflammation in persons with chronic spinal cord injury (SCI). Design Cross-sectional survey. Setting Veterans Affairs medical center. Participants As part of an epidemiologic study assessing SCI-related health conditions, 63 men with chronic SCI provided a blood sample and information regarding locomotive mode and personal habits. Interventions Not applicable. Main Outcome Measure Plasma high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP). Results The mean ± standard deviation age was 56±14y, and participants were assessed 21±13y after injury. Adjusting for heart disease, hypertension, and body mass index (BMI), the mean CRP in 12 motorized wheelchair users (5.11mg/L) was not significantly greater than 23 participants who used a manual wheelchair (2.19mg/L) ( P= .085) but was significantly greater than the 17 who walked with an assistive device (1.41mg/L) ( P= .005) and the 12 who walked independently (1.63mg/L) ( P= .027). CRP was significantly greater in participants with obesity but was not related to age, smoking, or SCI level and severity. CRP was elevated in participants reporting a urinary tract infection (UTI) or pressure ulcer within a year, but adjustment for this did not account for the elevated CRP in motorized wheelchair users. Conclusions These results suggest that CRP in chronic SCI is independently related to locomotive mode, BMI, and a history of pressure ulcers and UTI. It is suggested that future studies in SCI investigate whether modifying these factors influence systemic inflammation and cardiovascular health.
Control of tandem hot metal strip rolling processes using an improvement to the state dependent Riccati equation technique

The state-dependent Riccati equation (SDRE) technique is rapidly becoming recognized as a very useful method for control of nonlinear industrial processes such as the tandem rolling of hot metal strip. In this paper we show that, for these types of processes, improvements in the implementation of the SDRE technique such as the elimination of the need for lookup tables and of the need for on-line solution of the state dependent Riccati equation can be accomplished without any degradation in the performance of the resulting controller. These improvements are significant advancements in the application of this very useful method that are of practical significance as they greatly simplify the design and implementation of the controller for the tandem hot metal strip rolling process. Moreover, such advancements have the potential of making the SDRE technique even more attractive in the control of many similar complex fast nonlinear industrial processes.
Exploring the Variation in Drug Selling Among Adolescents in the United States

Abstract Purpose Numerous studies have found that young people who sell drugs are more likely to be involved in risky behaviors than those who do not sell drugs. There has been relatively little research, however, that has explored heterogeneity among young people who sell drugs. Methods Using a pooled sample of 12 to 17 year olds from the National Study on Drug Use and Health who report past-year drug selling (N = 3,080) this study employs latent profile analysis and multinomial logistic regression to specify latent groups and assess the correlates of group membership. Results Findings indicate substantial differences among young drug dealers. In particular, the analysis found three groups of drug dealers: dabblers, delinquents, and externalizers. These groups significantly differed on demographic, substance use, behavioral, and psychosocial characteristics. Conclusions Results indicate that the vast majority of dealers use alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana. Findings also lend support to the idea that person-context intersections are critical for understanding drug selling. Specifically, psychological, family, peer, and economic context are associated with differences among our groups of young drug dealers and interventions need to focus on these factors in seeking to disrupt drug dealing behavior among young people.
Disease-targeted sequencing: a cornerstone in the clinic

With the declining cost of sequencing and the ongoing discovery of disease genes, it is now possible to examine hundreds of genes in a single disease-targeted test. Although exome- and genome-sequencing approaches are beginning to compete, disease-targeted testing retains certain advantages and still holds a firm place in the diagnostic evaluation. Here I examine the current state of clinical disease-targeted sequencing and evaluate the benefits and challenges of incorporating sequencing tests into patient care.
Pion-nucleon resonances and the angular distribution in pion electroproduction

Using the helicity formalism, we find the contributions from final states of definite spin and parity, together with the interference terms between different final-state contributions, to the angular distributions of pions electro-produced from protons. For a single resonant final state the azimuthal terms turn out to be particularly simple, and may well serve as a test for the spin of the resonance. We show that the angular distribution may be used to detect the possible presence of ap1/2 resonant state in the energy region of the second resonance.
Comparative assessment of the demand-side management plans of four New York utilities

Abstract This study provides a comparative assessment of the initial long-term demand-side management (DSM) plans of four New York utilities. Several quantitative and qualitative indicators are developed to assess the impact of DSM programs. For example, by the year 2000, the four New York utilities project that DSM programs could produce savings representing between 15 and 60% of their projected peak-load growth for that period. However, there is no consensus among the utilities about the appropriate methods for evaluating programs or deciding on implementation. We suggest criteria against which utility DSM plans should be assessed and apply this approach to the four utilities. We also identify the most important data and analysis needs for improving future DSM plans: improved stock characterization, explicit treatment of independent power production in the resource mix, a comprehensive assessment of the achievable potential for DSM options for all end uses and sectors, research on customer response and other information relevant to DSM options (load shape impacts, incentives required to achieve certain penetration rates), and consistent avoided cost projections.
Influence of inhomogeneous broadening on resonance raman characteristic of metalloporphyrins and metallophthalocyanines

Abstract A recently proposed model that describes Q-state region depolarization dispersion curves of resonance Raman fundamentals of porphyrins (phthalocyanines) subject to asymmetric perturbations is extended to include the effects of inhomogeneous broadening of the intermediate states. The resulting depolarization dispersion curves and excitation profiles for perturbations of different symmetry are calculated and discussed. It is shown that experimental data for Pt-phthalocyanine in n-octane-α-chloronaphthalene mixed solvents indicate larger inhomogeneous broadening than data for the same molecule in neat α-chloronaphthalene. It is also demonstrated that inhomogeneous broadening can have a drastic effect or excitation profiles in the region of a weakly allowed electron state. This is due to the great sensitivity of interference between resonance and preresonance scattering to the type of line broadening mechanism operative in the system.
Imatinib front-line therapy is safe and effective in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia with pre-existing liver and/or renal dysfunction.

BACKGROUND: Imatinib 400 mg daily is the standard treatment for patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). The safety and efficacy of imatinib in CML patients with pre-existing liver and/or renal dysfunction has not been analyzed. METHODS: The authors analyzed the outcome of 259 patients with early chronic phase CML treated with imatinib (starting dose 400 mg in 50, 800 mg in 209). Pre-existing liver and/or renal dysfunction was seen in 38 (15%) and 11 (4%) patients, respectively. RESULTS: Dose reductions were required in 91 (43%) of 210 patients with normal organ function, compared with 8 (73%) of 11 (P = .065) with renal dysfunction, and 19 (50%) of 38 (P = .271) with liver dysfunction. Grade 3-4 hematologic toxicities including anemia (29%, 10%, and 7% of patients with renal dysfunction, liver dysfunction, and normal organ function, respectively), neutropenia (57%, 30%, and 30%), and thrombocytopenia (43%, 30%, and 26%) were more frequent in patients with pre-existing renal dysfunction treated with high-dose imatinib. Grade 3-4 nonhematologic toxicities were observed at similar frequencies. Complete cytogenetic response rates, event-free survival, and overall survival were similar in all groups. CONCLUSIONS: Although patients with pre-existing liver and/or renal dysfunction might have a higher rate of hematologic toxicity and require more frequent dose reductions, most patients can be adequately managed, resulting in response rates and survival similar to those without pre-existing organ dysfunction. Cancer 2010. © 2010 American Cancer Society.
The Can Serum: Demonstrating Further Polymorphism of M and N Blood Group Antigens

An antibody defining an antigen that is very similar in structure to M is described. The reactions of this antibody are considered in the light of what is now known of the biochemical structure of the M and N blood group antigens.
H3K27me and PRC2 transmit a memory of repression across generations and during development

For proper development, cells must retain patterns of gene expression and repression through cell division. Repression via methylation of histone H3 on Lys27 (H3K27me) by Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) is conserved, but its transmission is not well understood. Our studies suggest that PRC2 represses the X chromosomes in Caenorhabditis elegans germ cells, and this repression is transmitted to embryos by both sperm and oocytes. By generating embryos containing some chromosomes with and some without H3K27me, we show that, without PRC2, H3K27me is transmitted to daughter chromatids through several rounds of cell division. In embryos with PRC2, a mosaic H3K27me pattern persists through embryogenesis. These results demonstrate that H3K27me and PRC2 each contribute to epigenetically transmitting the memory of repression across generations and during development.
Piecewise suboptimal control laws for differential games

Abstract This paper is concerned with optimal parameter selection in differential games. Necessary and sufficient conditions are derived for the existence of a saddle point for a general two-person zero-sum differential game when one or both the players use suboptimal control laws of specified form. The specified forms for the controls consist of weighted sums of the state variables, the weighting factors being products of known time-varying functions and of piecewise-constant functions to be determined in an optimal manner. The controls which are formed in this way are referred to as piecewise control laws. The time intervals associated with the piecewise control laws can be different for each player. The general results are applied to linear-quadratic games, and for this class of differential games, an additional development is given to obtain piecewise control law parameters that are independent of initial conditions, so that a saddle point with respect to the expected value of the performance index is obtained. Consideration has also been given to the problem of optimizing the gain change points. The results are applied to scalar and vector dynamic systems, and numerical solutions are presented.
Particulate barium fluxes in the Ross Sea

We present particulate barium data collected using sequencing sediment traps in the Ross Sea region of the Southern Ocean. Data were collected in 1991–92, 1994–95, and 1996–98 from two separate field programs. Samples were collected at ∼200 m depth and ∼75 m above the seafloor (450–765 m depth). Ba fluxes in the shallow traps at all sites are uniformly low and the barium to organic carbon (Ba:Corg) ratios in these traps typically agree within a factor of two both spatially and temporally. Deeper trap fluxes are as much as an order of magnitude larger than shallow trap fluxes. In addition, the Ba:Corg ratio in the deeper traps varies by more than an order of magnitude, with the ratio decreasing with increasing rates of organic carbon flux. Increases in the deeper trap fluxes may result from horizontal transport of material from other regions of the Ross Sea, resuspension of previously deposited sediment, and increases in biogenic Ba formation with depth. Data presented here and within the contemporary literature lead us to speculate that much of the biogenic Ba may be formed in the water column at depths greater than 200 m. Also the factor of 10 range in the Ba:Corg ratio in combination with the depth dependence of biogenic barium formation leads us to conclude that biogenic barium formation may depend on the rate at which particles sink. Independent of the causal mechanism, the variations in this ratio imply that using an algorithm that relates barium export to carbon export may be imprudent in regions of highly variable carbon flux.
Extending the Competition Model

This paper presents an extended formulation of the Competition Model. The extended model, called the Unified Competition Model, is designed to account for a larger range of phenomena in first and second language acquisition, including bilingualism. As in the classic version of the Competition Model, competition is at the core of a set of non-modular interacting forces. However, the various inputs to competition are now described in terms of six additional subcomponents: arenas, mappings, chunking, storage, codes, and support. Learning is viewed as a resonant process that relies on storage, chunking, and support to acquire new mappings.
Fluorescence probes for studying the mechanisms of transcription activation

Regulation of transcription involves a complex interplay between protein-ligand, protein-DNA, and protein-protein interactions. Fluorescence probes seem to be very well suited to study such complex systems since the selectivity and sensitivity of fluorescence makes possible to select only a part of the system for observation leaving the rest of it transparent to the technique. We have used fluorescence spectroscopy to study the activation of E.coli RNA polymerase by cAMP receptor protein (CRP). The cAMP interactions with CRP, domain flexibility in CRP molecule, the structure of CRP-DNA complex, and interaction of CRP with RNA-polymerase have been studied. Here we report the preparation and properties of 5-OH-Trp derivative of the sigma subunit of E.coli RNA polymerase. This subunit is responsible for specific promoter recognition. The obtained results show that the biological activities of the derivative are identical as observed for the native protein. Comparison of fluorescence properties of the 5-OH-Trp sigma derivative free and bound to the core RNA polymerase suggests a conformational change in the sigma protein induced by this interaction. These data show that replacement of Trp residues with 5-OH-Trp can be a very useful approach to prepare specific fluorescence derivatives of multimeric proteins.© (1994) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Antisense blockade of inducible nitric oxide synthase in glial cells derived from adult SJL mice.

Increasing evidence suggests a correlation between cytokine-induced nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and demyelination in Multiple sclerosis (MS). Inhibition of iNOS may therefore be a novel therapeutic approach in MS. To test an antisense oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) knockdown strategy for inhibiting iNOS, we used lipopolysaccharide (LPS) together with γ-interferon (IFN-γ) to induce iNOS in adult mouse mixed glial cell cultures. We administered an iNOS-derived antisense phosphorothiorate oligodeoxynucleotide (S-ODN) to block the induction. The antisense ODN treatment resulted in significant inhibition of LPS and IFN-γ induced iNOS mRNA and protein expression. It also inhibited nitric oxide (NO) and cyclic GMP (cGMP) production in a dose dependent fashion. Sense and random S-oligo had no effect in any of these studies. These data indicate the efficacy and specificity of the antisense oligodeoxynucleotide approach in inhibiting iNOS in glial cells.