cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) Is Associated with Increased Non-Relapse Mortality after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (allo HCT) for Myelofibrosis

Background AlloHCT is the only curative therapy for primary and secondary myelofibrosis (MF). Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) can be seen in 30% of patients with MF. PAH can eventually lead to right heart failure and may be associated with complications after alloHCT. The primary objective was to determine the association of PAH with alloHCT outcome in patients with MF. Secondary objectives included the effect of HCT on the underlying PAH as well as incidence of specific transplant-related complications in these patients. Methods All patients with MF who underwent alloHCT from 2008 to early 2018 at the City of Hope Medical Center with evaluable pre-HCT echocardiography were considered for this retrospective analysis. Pre and postHCT echocardiograms were reviewed to evaluate the pulmonary arterial systolic pressure (PASP). Descriptive statistics were used for baseline patient and transplant related characteristics stratified by PAH. Paired t-test was used to detect the change in the pulmonary vascular pressure after HCT. Kaplan-Meier and cumulative incidence curves were constructed for OS and NRM), respectively. Log-rank test and Gray's test were used whenever appropriate. Results 65 patients with MF that met the inclusion criteria were studied. Median age at HCT was 61 years with 36 (55%) males. 39 (60%) patients had intermediate 2 or high DIPPS score at the time of HCT. 37 (57%) had JAK2 positive MF. . Median PASP was 37.0 mmHg (range: 16.0-57.9) prior to HCT with 37 out of 65 patients (57%) meeting the diagnostic criteria for PAH. With median follow-up of 35.0 months (range: 3.3 – 119.4), PAH was significantly associated with inferior OS (58.9% vs. 88.8%, p=0.025), primarily due to increased NRM (21.6% vs. 7.1%, p= 0.007). 57% of deaths (8 of 14) in patients with PAH occurred within day 100 after HCT. In patients with available post-HCT echocardiogram (n=33) eight patients (24%) had persistent PAH with the median pulmonary artery pressure of 30mmHg. Compared with pre-HCT values pulmonary arterial pressure was significantly reduced after HCT (p Conclusion PAH is associated with inferior survival due to increased NRM in patients with MF undergoing alloHCT. About half of deaths in patients with PAH occurred within 100 days of HCT. PAH appears at least partially reversible after successful alloHCT. Based on our data, PAH should be considered a risk factor for early mortality after alloHCT and surveillance of pulmonary artery pressure in MF patients being considered for alloHCT may be useful.
Dearest mother: first world war letters from a young sapper officer in France and Salonika

Dearest Mother is a new addition to the long list of edited collections of letters written by British soldiers during the First World War. The volume delves into the life of John S. Baines, a sappe...
High glucose increases miR-214 to power a feedback loop involving PTEN and the Akt/mTORC1 signaling axis

The mechanism of PTEN repression by high glucose in diabetic nephropathy is not known. Using proximal tubular cells, we show that inhibition of PI3 kinase/Akt and their inactive enzymes prevents high glucose-induced PTEN downregulation. Similarly, rapamycin (Rapa) and shRaptor block suppression of PTEN by high glucose. In contrast, the constitutive activation of Akt and mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR)C1 decrease the expression of PTEN, similarly to high glucose. Remarkably, PI3 kinase/Akt/mTORC1 inhibition significantly attenuates high glucose-stimulated increase in miR-214, which targets PTEN, while constitutively active Akt/mTORC1 increases miR-214. Furthermore, anti-miR-214 and mTORC1 inhibition block high glucose-induced hypertrophy and fibronectin expression. These results reveal the first evidence for the presence of a high glucose-forced positive feedback conduit between the three-layered kinase cascade and miR-214/ PTEN in tubular cell injury.
Event Detection and Recommendation using Social Media for Promoting Civic Awareness and Engagement for Local Communities

Individuals often rely on newspapers and television to gather information about the communities they live in to be aware of and to engage with their communities. Social media have become increasingly important as a new source of local information. Thus far, the literature on using social media to create desirable societal benefits, such as in civic awareness and engagement, is still in its infancy in the Information System (IS) field. One key challenge in this research stream is to timely and accurately distill local information from noisy Twitter streams to community members. In this work, we develop several machine learning techniques and a mobile application utilizing these techniques to facilitate information seeking of local communities on Twitter. Specifically, we first propose a novel local event detection algorithm which scans spatially and temporally to detect local events as unusual spikes from a large-scale Twitter feeds. Our algorithm significantly improves several competing methods with much higher precision and recall in detecting local events on a real-world dataset of millions of geotagged tweets. Next, the volume of detected local events can be enormous, especially in large and populous local areas. This motivates us to develop a personalized local event recommender system that systematically integrates several contextual cues such as topical, geographical and social proximity in a learning to rank framework. Based on a comprehensive evaluation with two large-scale datasets of local events, the results show that our approach significantly outperforms competitive methods in precision as well as its robustness. Finally, we build a mobile application to demonstrate the practical value of our event detection and recommendation techniques. This application automatically infers and recommends neighborhood-specific information based on Twitter feeds. We test its effectiveness and usefulness through a comprehensive user study. The outcomes demonstrate that most participants prefer it over Twitter as it is easier to use for exploring their neighborhoods and provides better relevant information about their neighborhoods.
Reducing Implicit Bias Toward Non-Native Speakers of English Via Perspective Taking:

Using an independent groups design, an experiment was performed to test the hypothesis that a perspective taking exercise would reduce implicit bias against individuals who speak English as a secon...
Renin-angiotensin system blockade after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) improves intermediate survival.

Introduction: Hypertension is common in patients with severe aortic stenosis undertaking transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Renin-angiotensin system (RAS) blockade therapy with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) has recently been associated with improved outcomes after surgical aortic valve replacement and TAVR, but it is unknown if these findings apply to a more rural patient population. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 169 patients with at least 1 year of post-TAVR follow-up at a single predominantly rural US center was performed to determine if RAS blockade after TAVR affects short- and long-term outcomes. Seventy-one patients were on an ACEI or ARB at the time of TAVR and at 1 year post-TAVR follow-up. Fisher's exact test was used for categorical data and t-test/ANOVA was used to determine the statistical significance of continuous variables. Results: In a well-matched cohort, RAS blockade therapy post-TAVR was associated with significantly improved overall survival at 2 years (95% vs. 79%, P = 0.042). RAS blockade was also associated with a trend towards decreased heart failure exacerbations in the first year after TAVR, which was statistically significant in the 30 days to 6 months timeframe after TAVR (8% vs. 21%, P = 0.032). Conclusion: In a rural patient population, RAS blockade after TAVR is associated with improved overall survival and a trend towards decreased heart failure exacerbations. This study builds upon previous studies and suggests that TAVR should be considered a compelling indication for these agents.
Decomposable Solution Paradigm for Uncertainty-based Transmission and Distribution Coordinated Economic Dispatch

This paper proposes a two-stage formulation and its solution paradigm for the coordinated economic dispatch of transmission and distribution network. The first stage concerns the benefits for a transmission system operator (TSO), which transfers the optimal power injection with locational marginal prices (LMPs) via the boundary node to the active distribution system operators (DSOs), whereas DSOs in the second stage return their optimal nodal power demand back to the TSO. In the distribution network, not only conventional dispatchable distributed generators but the uncertainties of renewable energy and volatile demands are considered, which are tackled via stochastic programming approach in the second stage. Two convexified DistFlow formulations for the branch flow in a DSO are tested and compared in this work. The proposed framework can be effectively solved by a generalized multi-cut L-shaped method. Numerical experiments on test systems support the efficacy of this paradigm.
Vapor Pressure of Caesium by the Positive Ion Method

The positive ion currents from pure tungsten filaments in saturated caesium vapor at bulb temperatures from -35\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}C to +73\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}C were measured for filament temperatures from 1000\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} to 1800\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K. The results were corrected for the cooling effect of the leads and for photoelectric emission from the caesium film on the platinum deposited on the bulb which was used as an ion collector. The vapor pressures in mm of Hg are given for solid Cs ($Tl302$\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K) by ${log}_{10}{p}_{S}=10.5460\ensuremath{-}1.00{log}_{10}T\ensuremath{-}\frac{4150}{T}$ and for liquid Cs ($Tg302$\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K) by ${log}_{10}{P}_{L}=11.0531\ensuremath{-}1.35{log}_{10}T\ensuremath{-}\frac{4041}{T}.$The vapor pressures given by these equations are believed to be accurate to within one percent from 220\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} to 350\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K, within 3 percent up to 600\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} and within about 8 percent at 1000\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K.
The problem of prescribing for pain.

Friends recently sent us, as lockdown entertainment, the boxed set of a BBC series called A Very Peculiar Practice ,1 which may be familiar to many. A satire set in a supremely dysfunctional university practice that ran for two series in 1986 and 1988, it covered many of the challenges and personalities seen in primary care. The second episode has a truly terrifying depiction of a consultation where the patient, aptly named Professor Furie, wants a prescription for an amphetamine-like stimulant and the doctor is reluctant to prescribe it. Despite using textbook consultation techniques and attempting to explore the underlying concerns and issues relating to the request, the doctor is bullied into prescribing against their better judgement and left anxious and scarred by the …
The Promise and Pitfalls of Security Sector Interventions: Examining the Medium-Term Impact of Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone

Development practitioners and scholars have touted security sector reform (SSR) in Sierra Leone as a model for intervention. Twenty years after such reforms began, the West African country presents...
Do Medical Scribes Help Primary Care Providers Respond More Quickly to Out-of-Visit Tasks?

Purpose: Medical scribes are charged with decreasing documentation burden associated with patient visits. Reducing time spent on documentation may afford providers the opportunity to respond to out-of-visit inbox tasks faster. Methods: We compare changes in the time taken to address patient portal messages, prescription requests, and test results from before to after scribe implementation among scribed primary care providers (PCPs), compared with nonscribed PCPs during the same time period. We used generalized estimating equations with robust standard errors to account for repeated measures and the hierarchical nature of the data, and adjusted for provider and patient characteristics. Results: We examined 472,411 tasks, including 27,645 tasks for 5 scribed PCPs and 444,766 tasks of 74 nonscribed PCPs. In unadjusted analyses, we found no change in time to completion for prescription refill requests, results and patient portal messages; the change in time to completion from pre to post intervention among scribed PCPs was 1.02 times that of nonscribed providers (P = .585) for prescription refill requests, 1.06 times that of nonscribed providers (P = .516) for patient portal messages, and 1.02 times that of nonscribed providers (P = .787) for results. Adjustment for provider and patient characteristics did not change these findings. Conclusions: Our study suggests that scribes are not associated with improved time to completion of inbox messages for PCPs. While scribes seem to have many benefits, our study suggests they may not improve time to completion of out-of-visit tasks. Reducing the time to completion for these tasks likely requires other interventions targeted to achieve those outcomes.
Three Weeks of Binge Alcohol Drinking Generates Increased Alcohol Front-Loading and Robust Compulsive-Like Alcohol Drinking in Male and Female C57BL/6J Mice.

Background Current models of compulsive-like quinine-adulterated alcohol (QuA) drinking in mice, if improved, could be more useful for uncovering the neural mechanisms of compulsive-like alcohol drinking. The purpose of these experiments was to further characterize and improve the validity of a model of compulsive-like QuA drinking in C57BL/6J mice. We sought to determine whether compulsive-like alcohol drinking could be achieved following 2 or 3 weeks of Drinking-in-the-Dark (DID), whether it provides evidence for a robust model of compulsive-like alcohol drinking by inclusion of a water control group and use of a highly concentrated QuA solution, whether repeated QuA exposures alter compulsive-like drinking, and whether there are sex differences in compulsive-like alcohol drinking. Methods Male and Female C57BL/6J mice were allowed free access to either 20% alcohol or tap water for 2 hours each day for approximately 3 weeks. After 2 or 3 weeks, the mice were given QuA (500 μM) and the effect of repeated QuA drinking sessions on compulsive-like alcohol drinking was assessed. 3-minute front-loading, 2 hour binge-drinking, and blood alcohol concentrations were determined. Results Compulsive-like QuA drinking was achieved after 3 weeks, but not 2 weeks, of daily alcohol access as determined by alcohol history mice consuming significantly more QuA than water history mice and drinking statistically nondifferent amounts of QuA than nonadulterated alcohol at baseline. Thirty-minute front-loading of QuA revealed that alcohol history mice front-loaded significantly more QuA than water history mice, but still found the QuA solution aversive. Repeated QuA exposures did not alter these patterns, compulsive-like drinking did not differ by sex, and BACs for QuA drinking were at the level of a binge. Conclusions These data suggest that compulsive-like QuA drinking can be robustly achieved following 3 weeks of DID and male and female C57BL/6J mice do not differ in compulsive-like alcohol drinking.
Screening the Whole Social-Emotional Child: Expanding a Brief SEL Assessment to Include Emotional Behavior Concerns

Universal screening of students is increasing as programs are implemented for improving social emotional learning (SEL) skills. Assessments used to conduct SEL screenings focus on social emotional ...
Home-Monitoring Application for Children With Medical Complexity: A Feasibility Trial.

OBJECTIVES: Mobile apps are suggested for supporting home monitoring and reducing emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations for children with medical complexity (CMC). None have been implemented. We sought to assess the MyChildCMC app (1) feasibility for CMC home monitoring, (2) ability to detect early deteriorations before ED and hospital admissions, and (3) preliminary impact. METHODS: Parents of CMC (aged 1–21 years) admitted to a children’s hospital were randomly assigned to MyChildCMC or usual care. MyChildCMC subjects recorded their child’s vital signs and symptoms daily for 3 months postdischarge and received real-time feedback. Feasibility measures included parent’s enrollment, retention, and engagement. The preliminary impact was determined by using quality of life, parent satisfaction with care, and subsequent ED and hospital admissions and hospital days. RESULTS: A total of 62 parents and CMC were invited to participate: 50 enrolled (80.6% enrollment rate) and were randomly assigned to MyChildCMC (n = 24) or usual care (n = 26). Retention at 1 and 3 months was 80% and 74%, and engagement was 68.3% and 62.6%. Run-chart shifts in vital signs were common findings preceding admissions. The satisfaction score was 26.9 in the MyChildCMC group and 24.1 in the control group (P = .035). No quality of life or subsequent admission differences occurred between groups. The 3-month hospital days (pre-post enrollment) decreased from 9.25 to 4.54 days (rate ratio = 0.49; 95% confidence interval = 0.39–0.62; P CONCLUSIONS: MyChildCMC was feasible and appears effective, with the potential to detect early deteriorations in health for timely interventions that might avoid ED and hospitalizations. A larger and definitive study of MyChildCMC’s impact and sustainability is needed.
Analysis of Magnetic Field Emissions and Shield Requirements for Interoperating High-Power EV Wireless Charging System

In this study, the magnetic field emission (MFE) is investigated for matching (identical primary and secondary couplers) and interoperating (different couplers) 11 kW wireless charging systems (WCS). The interoperating charging pads generate higher MFE than the matching charging-pads; hence, using interoperable couplers requires a more effective shielding. In this work, different shield topologies are investigated to suppress the MFE for interoperable conditions. Four 11 kW WCSs with the unipolar (uni) and bipolar (bi) transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) pads has been investigated: 1) uniTx with uniRx, 2) uniTx with biRx, 3) biTx with uniRx, and 4) biTx with bi-Rx. The studied systems are designed for 11 kW WPT3 level with Z2 airgap class (140-150 mm) resembling the standard SAE-J2954. The WCSs are simulated in finite element analysis (FEA) and validated experimentally using a 11 kW biTx-biRx system. The experimental results match with the simulation results with <5% error. The FEA results show that a biTx needs a magnetic shield, and a uniTx needs an aluminum shield to meet the MFE under all interoperability and alignment conditions.
Failure to Guard: Mitochondrial Protein Quality Control in Cancer

Mitochondria are energetic and dynamic organelles with a crucial role in bioenergetics, metabolism, and signaling. Mitochondrial proteins, encoded by both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, must be properly regulated to ensure proteostasis. Mitochondrial protein quality control (MPQC) serves as a critical surveillance system, employing different pathways and regulators as cellular guardians to ensure mitochondrial protein quality and quantity. In this review, we describe key pathways and players in MPQC, such as mitochondrial protein translocation-associated degradation, mitochondrial stress responses, chaperones, and proteases, and how they work together to safeguard mitochondrial health and integrity. Deregulated MPQC leads to proteotoxicity and dysfunctional mitochondria, which contributes to numerous human diseases, including cancer. We discuss how alterations in MPQC components are linked to tumorigenesis, whether they act as drivers, suppressors, or both. Finally, we summarize recent advances that seek to target these alterations for the development of anti-cancer drugs.
Designing Inside the Box or Pitching Practices in Industry and Education.

Pitching, the act of trying to convince others to support the development of a project, has a long, storied tradition in the game industry. This practice has also been adopted by game educators and incorporated into their curricula. In project-oriented classes it is common for students to pitch games to classmates, industry panels, and faculty. Using a series of vignettes, informed by anonymous industry professionals, we explore the mores and myths of pitching. These vignettes reflect a variety of pitching practices in companies both large and small. We also present a pedagogical tool, the Design Box, discuss our experiences using it, including common critiques, and illustrate its use for creative ideation as well as persuasive potential. The Design Box is a method we present for adoption, critique and evaluation. We conclude with a call to explore more practices that find their referent in ‘the industry’ and the development of appropriate pedagogical techniques we can incorporate in game education programs.
On High-Level Inferencing and the Variable Binding Problem in Connectionist Networks

We present a connectionist inference system for Horn logic. The system is based on a unification algorithm for first-order terms and uses Bibel’s connection method. It is restricted in that only one instance of each clause may be used in a proof. But there are no restrictions concerning function symbols or the occurrence of variables. In particular, the inference system handles n-ary function and predicate symbols and multiple occurrences of variables even if these variables are not introduced in the conclusion of a rule. The deductive system has more expressive power than the connectionist high-level inference systems we are aware of. This is elaborated by showing how certain additional restrictions imposed on our system lead to the known inference systems. These additional restrictions are ultimately linked to the way how the variable binding problem is solved.
Volcanic tremor masks its seismogenic source: Results from a study of noneruptive tremor recorded at Mount St. Helens, Washington

On 2 October 2004, a significant noneruptive tremor episode occurred during the buildup to the 2004–2008 eruption of Mount St. Helens (Washington). This episode was remarkable both because no explosion followed, and because seismicity abruptly stopped following the episode. This sequence motivated us to consider a model for volcanic tremor that does not involve energetic gas release from magma but does involve movement of conduit magma through extension on its way toward the surface. We found that the tremor signal was composed entirely of Love and Rayleigh waves and that its spectral bandwidth increased and decreased with signal amplitude, with broader bandwidth signals containing both higher and lower frequencies. Our modeling results demonstrate that the forces giving rise to this tremor were largely normal to conduit walls, generating hybrid head waves along conduit walls that are coupled to internally reflected waves. Together these form a crucial part of conduit resonance, giving tremor wavefields that are largely a function of waveguide geometry and velocity. We find that the mechanism of tremor generation fundamentally masks the nature of the seismogenic source giving rise to resonance. Thus multiple models can be invoked to explain volcanic tremor, requiring that information from other sources (such as visual observations, geodesy, geology, and gas geochemistry) be used to constrain source models. With concurrent GPS and field data supporting rapid rise of magma, we infer that tremor resulted from drag of nearly solid magma along rough conduit walls as magma was forced toward the surface.
Biotechnology for Pollination Control in Crucifer Oilseed Crops

Oilseeds and their products rank among the most valuable commodities in agriculture today. The edible cultivars are used as a source of vegetable oil and of high-protein meal in feed, while several other cultivars are grown for industrial purposes. These crops belong to two botanical species, Brassica napus and B. rapa, which also include members that are grown for their fleshy vegetables, such as rutabaga and turnips. Canola, a B. napus crop developed in Canada in the 1960s–1970s, was bred for seed oils containing less than 2% erucic acid and seed meal containing less than 30 μmol of glucosinolates per gram (Downey and Rimmer 1993). Oilseed crops have become increasingly important in the Northern Hemisphere, especially in Canada, where they are now cultivated in over 5.6 million ha and produce ~9 million tons of seed for a value of ~$CDN 3 billion. Oilseeds have been grown widely in India for centuries, and are mentioned in ancient Sanskrit literature that dates back to ca. 1500 B.C. India ranks first in the world in acreage and production of oilseed brassicas.
Enhanced cloud‐to‐ground lightning frequency in the vicinity of coal plants and highways in Northern Georgia, USA

Lightning amplification has been detected in areas with enhanced aerosol concentrations. Here the authors use cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning strike data across North Georgia to statistically model the lightning frequency as a function of distance from nearest coal plant and distance from nearest highway. Results show a threefold increase in lightning occurrence near coal plants and highways. Lightning enhancement near coal plants extends to distances exceeding 100 km; whereas, the lightning enhancement near highways is limited to a localized spike. The models explain not more than 11% of the spatial variability in flash frequency.
Hydroxycarbamide-induced dermopathy.

Hydroxycarbamide (hydroxyurea) is an agent administered orally for the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia, myeloproliferative disorders, thalassemias, erythrocytosis, and sickle cell anemia [1–3]. An estimated 13% of patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia have mucocutaneous changes with long-term hydroxycarbamide therapy [4]. Myriad cutaneous adverse effects from long-term hydroxycarbamide therapy have been noted in the medical literature, including a dermatomyositis-like erythematous eruption on the hands, mucositis and oral ulceration, hair loss, nail pigmentation, and hyperpigmentation of the face [5]. The most common cutaneous adverse effect of long-term hydroxycarbamide therapy is painful lower-leg ulcers that typically appear spontaneously, involve the lateral malleoli and exhibit poor healing [6,7]. A 62-year-old woman presented with an 18-month history of a painful and pruritic eruption on the dorsum of her hands. The patient’s medical history showed myelodysplasia that had been treated with hydroxycarbamide for the past 5 years. Her hands showed shiny, violaceous papules over her knuckles and erythematous, reticulated, scaly plaques on her fingers and the dorsum of her hands (Image 1), mimicking Gottron papules and mechanic hands of dermatomyositis. Laboratory evaluation showed a negative result for antinuclear antibody and normal aldolase and creatine kinase values. A skin biopsy showed hyperkeratosis and epidermal atrophy. The basal layer showed vacuolar change and cytoid bodies. Direct immunofluorescence testing was negative for a lichenoid tissue reaction or lupus band. The skin eruption improved with use of a midpotency topical corticosteroid and discontinuation of hydroxycarbamide therapy. After 7 months of follow-up, only cutaneous atrophy remained. Unfortunately, the patient’s myelodysplasia had progressed to acute myelogenous leukemia. Several terms have been used to describe the cutaneous changes of the hands associated with long-term hydroxycarbamide therapy, including hydroxyurea dermopathy, pseudoImage 1. Shiny, violaceous papules over the knuckles and erythematous, reticulated, scaly plaques on the fingers and the dorsum of the hands caused by reaction to long-term hydroxycarbamide therapy.
Sorption of Nonionic Organic Compounds by Kentucky Bluegrass Leaves and Thatch

Soil organic matter and plant litter layers are largely responsible for the immobility of organic compounds in agronomic environments. The objective of this research was to determine the sorption of nonionic organic compounds by turfgrass leaves and thatch and to correlate the sorption data with water solubilities (S w ) and octanol/water partition coefficients (K ow ). Batch suspension experiments for phenanthrene, fenarimol (α-(2-chlorophenyl)-α-(4-chlorophenyl)-5-pyrimidinemethanol), 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene, ethoprop (o-ethyl s,s-dipropyl phosphorodithioate), and acetanilide (acetylaminobenzene) with S w from 1 to 5405 mg L -1 were completed on Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L. cv. Touchdown) leaves and thatch. The resulting linear sorption isotherms (r 2 > 0.922) for these organic compounds are consistent with a partitioning mechanism between water and leaves or thatch. The partition coefficients (K) for thatch ranged from 6.32 for acetanilide to 793 for phenanthrene. The K coefficients for leaves ranged from 3.53 for acetanilide to 2520 for phenanthrene. Sorption coefficients normalized for organic C content of the sorbent (K oc ) were smaller for leaves and thatch than K oc values for soil organic C. The sorption coefficients for Kentucky bluegrass leaves had linear relationships with both the S w and K ow of the organic compounds. The K values for Kentucky bluegrass leaves could be predicted from S w and K ow , but values for thatch were highly variable. Both leaves and thatch were strong sorbents for organic compounds and should be expected to have a significant impact on the sorption and fate of chemicals applied to turf.
Latent Variable Models for Teratogenesis Using Multiple Binary Outcomes

Abstract Multiple outcomes are commonly measured in the study of birth defects. The reason is that most teratogens do not cause a single, uniquely defined defect, but rather result in a range of effects, including major malformations, minor anomalies, and deficiencies in birth weight, length and head circumference. The spectrum of effects associated with a particular teratogen is sometimes described as a “syndrome.” In this article we develop a latent variable model to characterize exposure effects on multiple binary outcomes. Not only does the method allow comparisons of control and exposed infants with respect to multiple outcomes, but it also provides a measure of the “severity” of each child's condition. Data from a study of the teratogenic effects of anticonvulsants illustrate our results.
Implementation Of Fast Cosine Transforms With Digital Signal Processors For Image Compression

The use of the discrete cosine transform (DCT) in imaging applications is still not as extensive as it's properties would imply, due to a comparative lack of available hardware for fast computation. Commercially available image processors typically implement the Fourier transform, and most do not have the word size necessary to handle the wide dynamic range required for radiological images with up to 2K x 2K size and 8 or more bits resolution. Efficient and easy to implement algorithms exist for the computation of the DCT. The advent of programmable single chip digital signal processors (DSP's) with fast multiplier-accumulator (MAC) units and large word sizes (24 to 32 bits) allow for hardware solutions that are economical, fast, and flexible. A special module utilizing multiple DSP's for performing the fast cosine transform (FCT) for image compression has been built. The flexibility afforded by DSP programming allows for handling of input data with different formats, dynamical scaling, and any necessary pre- or post-processing operations.
Activation parameters for dislocation glide in α-SiC

Abstract The critical resolved shear stress for activating the 〈211¯0〉(0001) slip system of monocrystalline α-SiC ( 6H and 4H polytypes) has been determined as a function of test temperature and strain rate via constant-displacement compression tests. Tests were conducted at temperatures between 550 and 1300 °C and strain rates between 3.1 × 10 −5 s −1 and 6.5 × 10 −4 s −1 . The current study shows that α-SiC crystals can be plastically deformed via relatively modest resolved shear stresses on the basal plane at temperatures as low as 550 °C. Two different methods to determine the activation parameters for dislocation glide have been examined. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to rationalize some of the results.
Relationship between chronic lymphocytic leukemia and small lymphocytic lymphoma. A comparative study of membrane phenotypes in 270 cases.

Background. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) are considered different tissue expressions of the same disease process, although they are clinically separable nosologic entities. A systematic comparison of the membrane phenotypes in the two entities needs to be investigated. Methods. Cell suspensions from peripheral blood of 184 patients with CLL, bone marrow from 23 patients with CLL, and lymph nodes from 86 patients with SLL were analyzed to compare the membrane phenotypes. Results. There were no significant differences between the three groups in the mean percentages of cells expressing surface immunoglobulin (SIg), CD5, CD19, CD20, and CD2 or in the frequency of cases with weak Sig. Although the mean percentage of mouse rosette-forming cells (MRFC) showed no statistical difference between bone marrow from CLL and lymph nodes from SLL, the mean percentage of MRFC in peripheral blood from CLL (48.02 + 18.23%) was twice as high as that in bone marrow from CLL (25.27 + 21.51%) and lymph nodes from SLL (20.87 + 16.72%) (P < 0.001). Correlation analysis assessing the association of MRFC and residual T-cells showed a negative coefficient (r), and the r was statistically significant in bone marrow from CLL and lymph nodes from SLL but not in peripheral blood from CLL. The mean CD4/CD8 ratios in descending order were as follows: the ratio in lymph nodes from SLL (4.25) was greater than that in peripheral blood from CLL (1.70), which was greater than that in bone marrow from CLL (0.82); this followed the same pattern as the respective tissue controls. The mean ratios were not statistically different from those of their respective control groups. Conclusions. The similarity of membrane phenotypes between CLL and SLL provided evidence that the two are different tissue expressions of the same disease. The alterations in CD4/CD8 ratios were related to the type of tissue analyzed and not to the disease process. The difference in MRFC presumably results from the microenvironment or residual T-cells. Cancer 1992; 70:625–632.
Glycoprotein biosynthesis III. Pool sizes of glucosamine intermediates in the bovine thyroid gland

Abstract 1. 1. The nature and the pool sizes of the acid-soluble glucosamine intermediates were investigated in beef thyroid gland slices after incubation with a tracer amount of [1-14C]glucosamine for 2 h. 2. 2. These radioactive intermediates were separated by ion exchange columns and characterized by paper chromatography, and were identified as N-acetylglucosamine, N-acetylmannosamine, glucosamine-6-P, glucosamine, sialic acid, N-acetylglucosamine-6-P, N-acetylmannosamine-6-P, N-acetylglucosamine-1-P, UDP-Glc-NAc and UDP-GalNAc. The radioactivity associated with these acid-soluble compounds constituted about 14% of the added [1-14C]glucosamine. 3. 3. The major portions of the total acid-soluble intermediates of glucosamine are associated with UDP-N-acetylhexosamines (70%), N-acetylglucosamine-6-P (14%), and N-acetylglucosamine (8.5%).
Multiscale Habitat Selection of Wetland Birds in the Northern Gulf Coast

The spatial scale of habitat selection has become a prominent concept in ecology, but has received less attention in coastal ecology. In coastal marshes, broad-scale marsh types are defined by vegetation composition over thousands of hectares, water-level management is applied over hundreds of hectares, and fine-scale habitat is depicted by tens of meters. Individually, these scales are known to affect wetland fauna, but studies have not examined all three spatial scales simultaneously. We investigated wetland bird habitat selection at the three scales and compared single- and multiscale models. From 2009 to 2011, we surveyed marsh birds (i.e., Rallidae, bitterns, grebes), shorebirds, and wading birds in fresh and intermediate (oligohaline) coastal marsh in Louisiana and Texas, USA. Within each year, six repeated surveys of wintering, resident, and migratory breeding birds were conducted at >100 points (n = 304). The results revealed fine-scale factors, primarily water depth, were consistently better predictors than marsh type or management. However, 10 of 11 species had improved models with the three scales combined. Birds with a linear association with water depth were, correspondingly, most abundant with deeper fresh marsh and permanently impounded water. Conversely, intermediate marsh had a greater abundance of shallow water species, such as king rail Rallus elegans, least bittern Ixobrychus exilis, and sora Porzana carolina. These birds had quadratic relationships with water depth or no relationship. Overall, coastal birds were influenced by multiple scales corresponding with hydrological characteristics. The effects suggest the timing of drawdowns and interannual variability in spring water levels can greatly affect wetland bird abundance.
School Based Sex Education and HIV Prevention in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objectives School-based sex education is a cornerstone of HIV prevention for adolescents who continue to bear a disproportionally high HIV burden globally. We systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed the existing evidence for school-based sex education interventions in low- and middle-income countries to determine the efficacy of these interventions in changing HIV-related knowledge and risk behaviors. Methods We searched five electronic databases, PubMed, Embase, PsycInfo, CINAHL, and Sociological Abstracts, for eligible articles. We also conducted hand-searching of key journals and secondary reference searching of included articles to identify potential studies. Intervention effects were synthesized through random effects meta-analysis for five outcomes: HIV knowledge, self-efficacy, sexual debut, condom use, and number of sexual partners. Results Of 6191 unique citations initially identified, 64 studies in 63 articles were included in the review. Nine interventions either focused exclusively on abstinence (abstinence-only) or emphasized abstinence (abstinence-plus), whereas the remaining 55 interventions provided comprehensive sex education. Thirty-three studies were able to be meta-analyzed across five HIV-related outcomes. Results from meta-analysis demonstrate that school-based sex education is an effective strategy for reducing HIV-related risk. Students who received school-based sex education interventions had significantly greater HIV knowledge (Hedges g = 0.63, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.49–0.78, p<0.001), self-efficacy related to refusing sex or condom use (Hedges g = 0.25, 95% CI: 0.14–0.36, p<0.001), condom use (OR = 1.34, 95% CI: 1.18–1.52, p<0.001), fewer sexual partners (OR = 0.75, 95% CI:0.67–0.84, p<0.001) and less initiation of first sex during follow-up (OR = 0.66, 95% CI: 0.54–0.83, p<0.001). Conclusions The paucity of abstinence-only or abstinence-plus interventions identified during the review made comparisons between the predominant comprehensive and less common abstinence-focused programs difficult. Comprehensive school-based sex education interventions adapted from effective programs and those involving a range of school-based and community-based components had the largest impact on changing HIV-related behaviors.
Tissue distribution of microsomal cytochrome P-450 monooxygenases and their inducibility by phenobarbital in the insecticide resistant LPR strain of house fly, Musca domestica L.

Abstract Cytochrome P -450s, cytochrome b 5 , P -450 reductase, and four P -450 monooxygenase activities were abundant in proximal intestine (PI), Malpighian tubules (MT), and fat bodies (FB) in the insecticide resistant (LPR) strain of house fly. Insecticide resistance in LPR flies was associated with increases in P -450 monooxygenase activities in nearly all of these tissues relative to an insecticide susceptible strain. Cytochrome P -450 lpr was present in all tissues and at higher levels in LPR than in susceptible flies suggesting that the role of P -450 lpr in monooxygenase-mediated insecticide resistance is not due to its higher levels in a single tissue. However, it appears that fat bodies may have a major role in resistance due to their relatively large size and the abundance of P -450 lpr in this tissue. Total cytochrome P -450s, cytochrome P -450 lpr and P -450 monooxygenase activities were generally refractory to phenobarbital (PB) induction in LPR. This contrasts with a previous report in susceptible house flies showing that P -450 monooxygenases were induced by PB. It appears that total P -450 s , cytochrome P -450 lpr and monooxygenase activities were expressed at constitutive high levels in several tissues of LPR house flies.
Book: Environmental Guide to the Internet, Third Edition

Book reviewed in this article: Enuironmental Guide to the Internet, Third Edition, by Carol Briggs-Erickson and Toni Murphy Recycling and Waste Management Guide to the Internet, by Roger M. Guttentag
Normal Resting and Exercising Muscle Blood Flow during Acute Ethanol Infusion

We have examined the effect of ethanol on muscle blood flow at rest and during electrically stimulated exercise in five normal dogs using the isolated gracilis muscle preparation. Under pentobarbital anesthesia and mechanical ventilation, ethanol (15% in 0.9% NaCl) infused at 4 mL/min for 2 hr produced an arterial blood concentration of 268 +/- 10 mg/dL (X +/- SEM). Resting muscle blood flow was 6.3 +/- 0.9 mL/min/100 gm in 8 dogs infused with saline alone. During stimulated contraction using supramaximal voltage at a rate of 5 stimuli/sec, respective mean flows for ETOH and saline dogs at 1, 5, 10, and 30 min were 35.5, 19.9, 27.7, 22.2, and 22.0, 20.0, 23.6, and 19.1 mL/min/100 gm. The 1-min flow rate for ethanol infused animals was significantly greater (P < 0.05) than that observed in saline infused animals. The remainder of the values were not significantly different. Potassium release from contracting muscle was normal. These observations do not support the theory that ethanol induces vasoconstriction in the vascular bed of skeletal muscle nor do they support the postulation that muscle cell ischemia plays a role in alcoholic myopathy.
Strategies for modeling exchange rates and capital flows in multicountry models

Abstract The paper surveys exchange rate models, but in a way that differs from existing surveys because it focusses on alternatives available for inclusion in structural multicountry models. It emphasizes that nonstructural time-series models or reduced forms are not useful in this context: What is needed are structural models that are theoretically consistent with the rest of the model, whether or not they outperform a random walk. Alternative exchange rate and capital flow specifications that are both tractable and satisfy world adding-up constraints are proposed, and the modeling of expectations is discussed.
TEST OF TIME-REVERSAL INVARIANCE IN THE REACTION $sup 16$O(d,$alpha$)$sup 14$N AND ITS INVERSE.

An experiment to test time-reversal invariance by the principle of detailed balance in the reaction $^{16}\mathrm{O}(d,\ensuremath{\alpha})^{14}\mathrm{N}$ and its inverse has been performed. The experiment shows that detailed balance is satisfied with an uncertainty of \ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.5%.
Sources of Negative Peaks in Hadamard Transform/Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry/Mass Spectrometry

Multidimensional approaches to tandem Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometry/ mass spectrometry (MSIMS) have been developed in recent years for structural characterization of species in mixtures. One approach, using Hadamard S-matrix encoding of precursor ions followed by dissociation, often produces data containing anomalous peaks with ‘negative’ intensity. Variations in product-ion abundance between experiments have been cited as the factor leading to the appearance of such negative peaks. Here, the effects of amplitude and frequency differences on the relative amplitudes of peaks for simple magnitude-mode difference spectra of two Lorentzians are simulated and discussed within the context of the negative peaks observed in Hadamard transform FTICRMS/MS. The simulations show that both amplitude and frequency variations in the product-ion peak shapes will lead the appearance of negative peaks. Means of eliminating negative peaks from the Hadamard FTICRMS/MS experiments are discussed and evaluated.
Relative Activities and Characteristics of Some Oxidative Respiratory Enzymes from Conidia of Verticillium albo-atrum.

Conidia of Verticillium albo-atrum Reinke and Berthold, collected from shake cultures grown in Czapek broth, were sonified for 4 or 8 minutes or ground frozen in a mortar to obtain cell-free homogenates. These were assayed for certain enzymes associated with respiratory pathways. Malic dehydrogenase was the most active, glucose-6-P and NADH dehydrogenase were less active, NADH-cytochrome c reductase, NADPH dehydrogenase, and cytochrome oxidase were low in activity, and succinic dehydrogenase and succinic cytochrome c reductase were very low to negligible in activity. No NADH oxidase activity was detected.With the exception of NADH-cytochrome c reductase and possibly succinic dehydrogenase and cytochrome c reductase, there was no evident increase in specific activity of the enzymes during germination. Some NADH-cytochrome c reductase and a small amount of succinic-dehydrogenase and cytochrome c reductase were associated with the particulate fraction from 105,000 x g centrifugation. The other enzymes, including cytochrome oxidase, almost completely remained in the supernatant fraction.Menadione and vitamin K-S(II) markedly stimulated NADH-cytochrome c reductase activity in the supernatant fraction but had much less effect on NADPH-cytochrome c reductase in this fraction or on either of these enzyme systems in the particulate fraction. Electron transport inhibitors affected particulate NADH- and NADPH-cytochrome c reductase activity but had no effect on these in the supernatant fraction.
BRI2 (ITM2b) Inhibits Aβ Deposition In Vivo

Analyses of the biologic effects of mutations in the BRI2 (ITM2b) and the amyloid beta precursor protein (APP) genes support the hypothesis that cerebral accumulation of amyloidogenic peptides in familial British and familial Danish dementias and Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with neurodegeneration. We have used somatic brain transgenic technology to express the BRI2 and BRI2-Abeta1-40 transgenes in APP mouse models. Expression of BRI2-Abeta1-40 mimics the suppressive effect previously observed using conventional transgenic methods, further validating the somatic brain transgenic methodology. Unexpectedly, we also find that expression of wild-type human BRI2 reduces cerebral Abeta deposition in an AD mouse model. Additional data indicate that the 23 aa peptide, Bri23, released from BRI2 by normal processing, is present in human CSF, inhibits Abeta aggregation in vitro and mediates its anti-amyloidogenic effect in vivo. These studies demonstrate that BRI2 is a novel mediator of Abeta deposition in vivo.