cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
O PROCESSO DE IMPLANTAÇÃO DA GESTÃO AMBIENTAL E RESPONSABILIDADE SOCIAL EM UMA EMPRESA DO SETOR METAL-MECÂNICO DA SERRA GAÚCHA

Este trabalho apresenta o processo de implantacao da gestao ambiental e responsabilidade social em uma empresa do setor metal-mecânico da Serra Gaucha. O objetivo desse artigo e mostrar a importância das questoes ambientais envolvidas nos processos produtivos, quantificar as melhorias nas condicoes de trabalho, no desenvolvimento pessoal e profissional dos funcionarios da empresa, alem de ratificar a relacao da empresa com a comunidade onde ela esta inserida atraves de projetos sociais. A empresa, com uma gestao socialmente responsavel, tera melhores condicoes de aumentar a sua competitividade no mercado, pois a ecologia e a integracao da empresa com a sociedade estao influenciando, de forma crescente, os negocios e, com isso, trazendo efeitos economicos cada vez mais profundos. Para a realizacao deste estudo, fez-se necessaria uma abordagem dos conceitos de gestao ambiental e de responsabilidade social. Foram analisados os procedimentos adotados pela empresa na implementacao das acoes nos aspectos ambientais e sociais. Verificaram-se as melhorias obtidas para a empresa, para os funcionarios e para a propria comunidade. Embora sejam necessarias uma maior conscientizacao e atuacao das pessoas, das empresas e dos governos para reduzir a destruicao ambiental, a gestao socialmente responsavel e uma contribuicao importante na melhoria ambiental e social. PALAVRAS-CHAVE : Gestao ambiental. Responsabilidade social. Gestao socialmente responsavel.
Cannabis Use and Consequences

As an increasing number of states legalize cannabis use for recreational and/or medical purposes, it is increasingly important to understand the neural and cognitive consequences of recreational cannabis use in adolescent consumers. Adolescence is marked by ongoing neuromaturational processes, making this a particularly vulnerable period, particularly regarding exposure to drugs, including cannabis. This review highlights evidence from studies documenting the neural impact of cannabis use in adolescence and explores mediating factors related to cannabis use.
DoodlePad: next-gen event-driven programming for CS1

DoodlePad is a next-generation, open source object graphics Java library for CS1 that implements a full range of graphic and other supporting classes. DoodlePad is unique in that each object is capable of triggering a comprehensive suite of shape-specific, pixel-perfect, mouse, keyboard and other events. Students complete programming assignments by defining classes and writing methods that handle object events. In addition to common event handling programming patterns, DoodlePad adds a new style of event handling based on Java's method references, which makes it possible to introduce event-driven programming much earlier in the semester. CS1 students are able to author a wider range of programs that operate in a familiar event-driven style. DoodlePad has been in use by CS1 students for four years, and is freely available under a GPL3 license [1]. A growing body of documentation and supporting material may be found at http://doodlepad.org.
A Rare Case of Simultaneous Evans Syndrome and Primary Antiphospholipid Syndrome.

Evans Syndrome (ES) is a rare autoimmune disorder that presents with simultaneous or sequential development of autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA), thrombocytopenia, and/or neutropenia. This disease may occur in conjunction with other autoimmune disorders. Primary antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is a disorder characterized by thrombosis, which can cause life-threatening complications such as fetal demise, strokes, or deep vein thrombosis. A 67-year-old male with type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and renal insufficiency presented with concomitant ES and APS. His hematological abnormalities began in 2013 after a deep vein thrombosis of the left lower extremity led to a diagnosis of APS and was started on chronic warfarin. In 2014, he was found to have immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) with relapses the following year. Several months later, he was hospitalized and diagnosed with AIHA. In the setting of his previous episodes of ITP and current AIHA, the diagnosis of ES was made. The initial treatment was 100 mg prednisone taper, but rituximab was required to make complete platelet recovery. The severe deterioration and rapid recovery with proper treatment of the patient highlights the importance of a timely diagnosis of ES. Mild thrombocytopenia can be associated with APS; however; severe thrombocytopenia may warrant further investigation for other possible causes. Maintaining ES on the differential diagnosis of patients with APS and thrombocytopenia could enhance health outcomes.
O17.5 Declining trends in anogenital warts since HPV vaccine introduction in a large urban health system, 2013–2017

Background Assessing the extent to which the HPV vaccines are affecting trends of HPV-related diseases is an important public health priority. Diagnoses of anogenital warts (AGW) provide an early indicator of vaccine impact due to its short incubation period compared to other HPV-related diseases. We expand on previous trend studies by including recent data through 2017 that permit more robust assessments since the routine recommendations for male vaccination in 2011 in the United States. Methods Electronic medical record data were abstracted from encounters that occurred in 8 Yale-New Haven Health system clinics between 2013–2017. Visits related to incident AGW were identified for each patient as the first occurrence of either having an AGW diagnosis code (ICD-9 078.11) or ‘genital warts’ as a reason for visit indicated by their medical provider. The annual proportion of visits related to incident cases of AGW was estimated among the number of patients who had at least one visit in that clinic per year. Trends overall, by sex, and by vaccine eligibility were analyzed using Cochran-Armitage tests and p Results A significant decline over time was observed in the proportion of visits for incident AGW overall (p-value Conclusion Diagnoses of incident AGW have declined significantly through 2017, and birth cohort analyses are consistent with expected HPV vaccine impact. Importantly, these trends reflect and extend previous analyses and provide strong evidence of declines in males since their eligibility for routine vaccination in 2011 in the United States. Disclosure No significant relationships.
Towards a Unified In-Network DDoS Detection and Mitigation Strategy

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have terrorized our networks for decades, and with attacks now reaching 1.7 Tbps, even the slightest latency in detection and subsequent remediation is enough to bring an entire network down. Though strides have been made to address such maliciousness within the context of Software Defined Networking (SDN), they have ultimately proven ineffective. Fortunately, P4 has recently emerged as a platform-agnostic language for programming the data plane and in turn allowing for customized protocols and packet processing. To this end, we propose a first-of-a-kind P4-based detection and mitigation scheme that will not only function as intended regardless of the size of the attack, but will also overcome the vulnerabilities of SDN that have characteristically been exploited by DDoS. Moreover, it successfully defends against the broad spectrum of currently relevant attacks while concurrently emphasizing the Quality of Service (QoS) of legitimate end-users and overall SDN functionality. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme using a software programmable P4-switch, namely, the Behavorial Model version 2 (BMv2), showing its ability to withstand a variety of DDoS attacks in real-time via three use cases that can be generalized to most contemporary attack vectors. Specifically, the results substantiate that the mechanism herein is orders of magnitude faster than traditional polling techniques (e.g., NetFlow or sFlow) while minimizing the impact on benign traffic. We concur that the approach's design particularities facilitate seamless and scalable deployments in high-speed networks requiring line-rate functionality, in addition to being generic enough to be integrated into viable network topologies.
A Hands-on Middle-School Robotics Software Program at MIT

Robotics competitions at the high school level attract a large number of students across the world. However, there is little emphasis on leveraging robotics to get middle school students excited about pursuing STEM education. In this paper, we describe a new program that targets middle school students in a local, four-week setting at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It aims to excite students by teaching the very basics of computer vision and robotics. The students program mini car-like robots, equipped with state-of-the-art computers, to navigate autonomously in a mock race track. We describe the hardware and software infrastructure that enables the program, the details of our curriculum, and the results of a short assessment. In addition, we describe four short programs, as well as a session where we teach high school teachers how to teach similar courses at their schools to their own students. The self-assessment indicates that the students feel more confident in programming and robotics after leaving the program, which we hope will enable them to pursue STEM education and robotics initiatives at school.
Impacts of course activities on student perceptions of engagement and learning online

The purpose of the study was to examine the impacts of course activities on student perceptions of engagement and learning in online courses. Using eight interactive course activities as indicators...
Simulation and Experimental Evaluation of Energy Harvesting Circuits with Magnetoelectric Antennas

A magnetoelectric antenna (ME) is a miniaturized device that exhibits the dual capability of energy harvesting and sensing in different frequency bands. In this paper, a behavioral circuit model for the ME antenna is presented to capture the radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting operation during circuit simulations. The ME antenna design of this work is under development for wireless communication with implantable devices, where one role of the antenna is to receive pulse-modulated power from a nearby transmitter. In this application, the proposed behavioral ME antenna model can be utilized during design optimizations of the energy harvesting circuits. The model has been assessed through simulations with an energy harvester design in 65nm CMOS technology. Measurements were performed to validate the results of the wireless power transfer link with an ME antenna having a 2.57 GHz resonance frequency connected to an energy harvester chip.
Transducer-Induced Artifacts

Artificially increased detrusor pressure measurements may occur due to pressure on the micro-transducers from hitting the bladder wall. This occurs more frequently when the bladder is relatively empty and the transducer is in motion. This artifact is usually avoided by placing at least 150 ml of fluid into the bladder prior to introduction of the microtransducer catheter. Even with fluid in the bladder, if there are defects in the support of the bladder wall, the transducer may hit the bladder wall creating a falsely elevated pressure recording due to the force of this contact. This pressure increase must be distinguished from the elevated pressure associated with the unstable bladder.
A Modal Approach to Spiral Structure: Two Examples

Two galaxy models are examined as illustrations of the modal approach to the problem of spiral structure. First a simple model is considered to demonstrate the effect of superposition of modes. Next a possible model for the Milky Way is shown for the purpose of exploring the effect on the unstable modes of three different rotation curves; falling, flat or rising.
Studies on photosystem I. I. Relationship of plastocyanin, cytochrome f and P700.

Abstract Sonication of osmotically shocked chloroplasts in dilute pyridine yields a subchloroplast particle which is completely depleted of plastocyanin. Using dual-wave-length spectroscopy to study the light-induced spectral changes associated with these particles, photooxidation of reduced cytochrome f is not observed in the absence of added plastocyanin. The addition of plastocyanin, however, gives rise to a light-induced spectral change which is due solely to the oxidation of reduced cytochrome f and maximal response occurs in the presence of an equimolar amount of plastocyanin. These results are explained most simply by a strict linear sequence of electron transfer on the oxidizing side of Photosystem I from cytochrome f → plastocyanin → P700. It is found further that the presence of a detergent is required to elicit the light-induced cytochrome f oxidation signal, and that plastocyanin and the subchloroplast particles can be reconstituted by sonication. The reconstituted complex appears to be quite specific; showing a dissociation constant, during sonication, of 4.5 × 10 −7 m . This finding supports the theory that plastocyanin, in situ , is bound to the inner surface of the chloroplast membrane.
Hepatitis C virus infection and pain sensitivity in patients on methadone or buprenorphine maintenance therapy for opioid use disorders

Background Patients with opioid use disorders on opioid agonist therapy (OAT) have lower pain tolerance compared to controls. While chronic viral infections such as HCV and HIV have been associated with chronic pain in this population, no studies have examined their impact on pain sensitivity.
Field Study to Evaluate Driver Fatigue Performance in Air-Inflated Truck Seat Cushions - Subjective Results

Air-inflated seat cushions have been proposed as replacements for traditional foam cushions, leading to the need to develop new methods for evaluating and comparing the ride comfort characteristics of different types of seat cushions. This paper reports the subjective results from a project investigating the effectiveness of several newly proposed metrics to compare fatigue performance between standard foam versus air-inflated truck seat cushions. Some fundamental differences between air-inflated and foam seat cushions based on driver perceptions are highlighted. Road tests were performed using existing commercial trucks in the daily operations of a commercial trucking fleet. A retrofit air-inflated seat cushion was installed in the fleet's trucks, and the drivers were allowed to adjust to the seats over approximately one week. After this adjustment period, twelve drivers rode on both the air-inflated seat cushion and their original foam seat cushion during their regularly scheduled routes. Surveys were collected throughout the test sessions and the truck seats were fitted with instrumentation to capture physical measurements of seat pressure distribution. These results suggest that air-inflated cushions offer advantages in comfort, support and fatigue. Although the adjustability of the air-inflated cushions increased complexity and made it harder for drivers to get in and out the vehicle, air-inflated cushions were preferred over foam cushions by most of the drivers tested.
A Lesson from Ceramics

Understanding the processes in Earth9s lower mantle requires detailed knowledge of the composition, phase, and physical properties of the mantle minerals, chiefly magnesium silicates with a perovskite structure. Navrotsky (page 1788) argues that lessons can be learned from ceramic perovskites that have been studied in more detail than the silicate perovskites. A defect formation mechanism involving oxygen vacancy formation, coupled with facile hydration, may be operative in the mantle perovskites, with significant consequences for flow properties and water transport in the lower mantle.
Blood Memory and the Arts: Indigenous Genealogies and Imagined Truths

For generations (and as some might argue, since contact), American Indian artists have grappled with the varied responses of a consumerist Western audience unversed in the interior logic of indigenous aesthetic impulses.1 The public exchange of Native arts as goods for cash, trade, or opportunity has resulted in a largely object-based academic inquiry in the service of ethnography, voyeurism, and consumer class aspirations. The marked history of these objects and their circulation has to date effectively stood in for serious arts scholarship, obscuring and at times obstructing a more accurate reading of aesthetic expressions informed by the rich legacies of oral history, traditional exchange processes, religious uses, and even metaphysical interventions with the divine that are enacted in the private and often-interior settings of indigenous lifeways. Like Native literary theory, Native arts scholarship is “haunted” by the visionary complexity of indigenous arts practices. The inherent intellectualism of indigenous visual arts, design, performance, and media exceeds the means by which we have to describe them, even in our own contexts of Native arts teaching, learning, and enacting in national and global settings.
An Adaptive Cartesian Detonation Solver for Fluid-Structure Interaction Simulation on Distributed Memory Computers

Publisher Summary The chapter describes the dynamically adaptive solver for compressible flows, including shock and detonation waves with one-step reaction model, that enables highly efficient fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations in the virtual test facility (VTF) on distributed memory machines. The chapter explains the specific implementation of the ghost fluid approach. The Center for Simulating the Dynamic Response of Materials at the California Institute of Technology has constructed a VTF to study the three-dimensional (3D) dynamic response of solid materials subject to strong shock and detonation waves propagating in fluids. While the fluid flow is simulated with a high-resolution Cartesian finite volume upwind method that considers the solid as an embedded moving body represented implicitly with a level set function, Lagrangian finite element schemes are employed to describe the time-accurate material response subject to the current hydrostatic pressure loading. A loosely coupling temporal splitting method is applied to update the boundary's positions and velocities among time steps. The Cartesian finite volume scheme is incorporated into a parallel-structured dynamic mesh adaptation algorithm that allows very fine local resolutions to capture the near-body FSI and incoming waves in the fluid at minimal computational costs.
Data crawlers for simple optical character recognition

Many genetic programming systems have been designed to exploit the use of state information in an indirect fashion. In this article we apply a genetic programming technique that directly incorporates state information to a collection of related optical character recognition tasks. Our recognizers are coded as GP-Automata, finite state machines modified by associating a function, stored as a parse tree, with each state. These functions are called deciders and serve to extract information from a high bandwidth input to drive finite state transitions. The GP-Automata make iterated decisions, requesting additional data in an adaptive fashion. This iterated data processing is a form of "crawling through the data" and so we term the software objects data crawlers. These objects can be thought of as expert systems, produced automatically from data by digital evolution. The states for rules with the deciders supplying the "if" part of these rules. We evolve perfect recognizers for three variations of a character set derived from the set of 4-ominoes.
Loss of enteral nutrition in a mouse model results in intestinal epithelial barrier dysfunction

Total parenteral nutrition (TPN) administration in a mouse model leads to a local mucosal inflammatory response, resulting in a loss of epithelial barrier function (EBF). Although, the underlying mechanisms are unknown, a major contributing factor is a loss of growth factors and subsequent critical downstream signaling. An important component of these is the p-Akt pathway. An additional contributing factor to the loss of EBF with TPN is an increase in proinflammatory cytokine abundance within the mucosal epithelium, including TNF-α and IFN-γ. Loss of critical nutrients, including glutamine and glutamate, may affect EBF, contributing to the loss of tight junction proteins. Finding protective modalities for the small intestine during TPN administration may have important clinical applications. Supplemental glutamine and glutamate may be examples of such agents.
Inner divertor detailed design and manufacturing

This paper covers in detail the design and manufacturing of the new inner divertor for the Alcator C-Mod tokamak. We focus on the complexity of modeling the inner divertor components and the challenges of its fabrication. Analysis of the inner divertor stress and thermal expansion is presented in another paper in this conference. The model and mock-up of the inner divertor are shown.
On the interaction between slip dislocations and twins in HCP Zr

Abstract We investigate the effect of stored prismatic dislocations on the onset and growth of { 1 0 1 ¯ 2 } and { 1 1 2 ¯ 2 } twins in pure Zr. A set of temperature jump tests, some combined with a strain path changes, are performed here to exploit the fact that slip-dominated plastic behavior occurs at room temperature and twin-dominated plastic behavior at lower temperatures. In some of the tests the material is pre-strained to various levels at room temperature to introduce prismatic slip dislocations, and then reloaded at liquid nitrogen. In other tests the material is pre-strained at liquid nitrogen, to different levels and in different directions, to generate either { 1 0 1 ¯ 2 } tensile or { 1 1 2 ¯ 2 } compressive twins, and then reloaded at room temperature. These tests are interpreted with a recently developed dislocation-density based single crystal model in order to elucidate slip-twin interactions operating at the nanometer scale. Our analysis suggests that (1) stored dislocations increase the resistance for further slip and for { 1 1 2 ¯ 2 } twin propagation, but not for { 1 0 1 ¯ 2 } twin propagation; (2) the onset of { 1 1 2 ¯ 2 } twinning is insensitive to the amount of stored dislocations; (3) substantial slip occurs within the twin oriented domains, which can either increase or decrease the hardening rate by comparison to the one without twins.
Faster and easier radiochemical purity testing for [125I]sodium iothalamate☆

A previous method for determination of the radiochemical purity (RCP) value of [125I]sodium iothalamate uses two paper strips and solvents (total developing time is approximately 2.5 h). To simplify and shorten the RCP testing procedure, our laboratory has developed a single-strip chromatography method that not only distributes free 125I and [125I]sodium iothalamate to different relative front (Rf) locations, but is also faster and easier to perform. RCP of [125I]sodium iothalamate was determined with the use of a 10-cm instant thin-layer chromatography strip impregnated with polysilicic acid gel (ITLC-SA) as the solid phase, and a mobile phase of 2-butanol:acetic acid:water (140:2.5:70, v/v). By using autoradiography and counting the strip segments in a gamma counter, our results indicated that free 125I migrated to Rf = 0.89-1.00 while the [125I]sodium iothalamate moved to Rf = 0.44-0.67. The total developing time for the single-strip ITLC-SA system was approximately 1 h.
Structural properties of phenylethylamine derivatives which inhibit transport-P in peptidergic neurones

Transport-P is an antidepressant-sensitive, proton-dependent, V-ATPase-linked uptake process for amines in peptidergic neurones of the hypothalamus. It is unusual in its anatomical location in postsynaptic neurones and in that it is activated by its substrate (prazosin). This study examined the structural properties of phenylethylamine derivatives which are substrates for transport-P, as judged by competitive inhibition of the uptake of prazosin 10−6M in immortalized hypothalamic peptidergic neurones. A basic amine was essential for activity; absence of the amine or neutralization with a carboxyl group abolished activity. Primary, secondary and tertiary amines were active but quaternary and guanyl amines were inactive. A phenyl group was essential for activity at transport-P. Potency at transport-P was reduced by phenolic hydroxyl groups and enhanced by phenolic halogens. Thus, for maximal potency, the phenyl group should be hydrophobic. Phenolic methoxyl groups had no effect on potency at transport-P. A side chain was necessary for activity at transport-P. Potency at transport-P was reduced by β-hydroxyl and enhanced by α-methyl groups. These findings further distinguish transport-P from other amine uptake processes in the brain.
Recent Advances Of Nonlinear Crystals For Frequency Conversions

Features of nonlinear crystals of BBO, LBO, KTP, KNbO 3 , MgO:LiNbO 3 and NYAB are presented and compared for various applications.
Women as Criminal Defendants: a Test for Paternalism:

SOCIAL SCIENTISTS recently have given attention to the effect of gender on the treatment of defendants in the criminal justice process (see Nagel and Hagan 1983 for a review). While some researchers have found few differences (cf. Green 1961; Simon 1975; Katzenelson 1976), most have found that adult female defendants are treated more leniently than male defendants. They are more likely to be released prior to trial (Nagel and Weitzman 1972; Swigert and Farrell 1977), and less likely to be sentenced severely (Engle 1971; Pope 1976; Bernstein et al. 1979) and incarcerated (Babb and Furgeson 1967; Nagel and Weitzman 1972; Simon 1975; Sutton 1978; Bernstein et al. 1979; Spohn et al. 1982; Steffensmeier and Kramer 1982).1 The reasons for this more lenient treatment of female felony defendants are still obscure. Three explanations have been offered: 1. There are real differences in the treatment of male and female
CROSSING BORDERS AND ERASING BOUNDARIES: PARADOXES OF IDENTITY POLITICS*

Abstract This paper explores the problems and dilemmas of creating and crossing identity borders and boundaries. The identities discussed are those of gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity. When these identities fragment or cross-cut each other, a unified politics becomes problematic. If stigmatized identities remain primarily personal, identity-based groups provide support and resources, but do not affect systemic injustices or status inequalities. The paper ends with a proposal for a politics of transformation and a description of some current programs that offer possibilities for structural change. Some of these programs are identity-based and maintain conventional categories; others deliberately integrate categories.
Citizen support for community policing in China

Purpose – This study aims to examine Chinese college students' support for community policing.Design/methodology/approach – Ordinary least squares regression was used to investigate support for community policing based on survey data collected from over 400 college students.Findings – Results showed that college students in general had positive attitudes toward the philosophy and practices of community policing. Support for community policing was significantly related to concerns of crime, perceptions of police, and attachment to conventional society. Individual background characteristics had no significant effect on support for community policing.Research limitations/implications – The use of a college student sample has its weaknesses in that findings of this study have a limited generalizability, and some important predictors in explaining public perceptions, such as neighborhood characteristics, were not included. Future research should collect data from the general public and examine public attitudes...
Failure to detect increases in brain dopamine metabolism in rats sham feeding sucrose and corn oil.

Abstract In a recent study we found that when rats sham fed 6% sucrose, 10% sucrose, and 100% corn oil, the rank order of inhibitory potency for D-1 and D-2 receptor antagonists was 6% sucrose > 10% sucrose > 100% corn oil. In a complementary study, sham-feeding rats preferred 100% corn oil > 10% sucrose > 6% sucrose as measured by two-bottle preference tests. The preferences are evidence for the rank order of reward value of these solutions. In the present study we tested the hypothesis that the relative antagonist potencies were due to differential release of DA, dependent on the reward value of the sham-fed solution. Dopamine metabolism, estimated by the ratio of dihydroxphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) to DA, was measured in forebrain-DA terminal fields during sham feeding of 100% corn oil, 6% sucrose, and 10% sucrose. The results did not support our hypothesis: no increase in DA metabolism was observed after the sham feeding of any solution.
A Web-Enabled Approach for Generating Data Processors

Researchers in environmental sciences work with datasets that have a large variety of data structures and file formats. Consequently, for data and model interoperability, it is essential to have the right tools for converting from a given data structure to another, and from a specific file format to another. In this paper, we propose an original web-enabled approach for generating data processors capable of handling a multitude of data operations, including numerous data conversion and processing activities. The proposed approach emphasizes end-user, direct manipulation-based definition of data processors and automated code generation of their associated code, thus freeing the scientists from specialized and often tedious programming tasks. This, in turn, translates into an increased efficiency of the scientific research work. Details of the proposed approach and its supporting web-based software tool are presented in this paper, together with an application example in which an input dataset in the CSV format is converted into an output dataset in the XML format. The applicability of the proposed approach goes beyond the domain of environmental sciences, for which it was initially created, as it can be used in many other areas of research that emphasize data-intensive exploration and processing.
Using iron metal rods to infer oxygen status in seasonally saturated soils

Abstract The oxygen status in soils is fundamental to a number of earth-science processes including biological, physical and chemical interactions. Since oxygen is time consuming and often difficult to measure in soils, this research explores the use of zero-valent iron rods as a means of estimating oxygen content in soils. Zero-valent iron rods (polished nails) were placed in three soil toposequences and the surface coatings formed by oxidation were compared to measured oxygen concentrations taken every three weeks for one year. When water was present in the soils, the oxygen was measured as dissolved oxygen and in drained conditions it was reported as percent. Coatings on iron metal rods inserted in the soil appear to correlate well with specific oxygen ranges. Rods in soils with O2 concentrations below about 2 mg l− 1 do not develop bright (7.5YR 4/4 to 5/8) oxide/oxyhydroxide coatings, but instead formed black (10YR 2/1–2) coatings. Rods in soils with O2 concentrations between about 2% to 5% develop variegated bright (7.5YR 4/4 to 5/8) oxide/oxyhydroxide coatings indicating soil drainage and microsite differences in O2 concentrations. Rods in soils with O2 concentrations above about 5% with adequate moisture are almost completely coated with bright (7.5YR 4/4 to 5/8) iron oxide/oxyhydroxides. Mineralogy of oxide/oxyhydroxide coatings could not be established by XRD presumably due to the short-range order crystal structure of the metal oxide/oxyhydroxides. This method provides a simple and inexpensive means to qualitatively estimate the ranges of O2 status in soils. This research may have implications in hydric soil determination, horticultural and agricultural applications, as well as, remediation techniques.
Inhibition of Ovulation by Antibiotics

Ovulation can be blocked by the injection of actinomycin D, puromycin, or cycloheximide directly into the mature graafian follicle Puromycin and cycloheximide are effective in 10 μg amounts. They are most effective when administered up to 3 hr after coitus. Beyond this interval they are decreasingly effective. Puromycin caused destruction of the granulosa. Actinomycin D or cycloheximide induced no apparent macroscopic or microscopic changes and these follicles were able to respond to a subsequent dose of HCG 24 hr later by ovulating. After puromycin the follicles became cystic and did not ovulate following injection of HCG. The postcoital inhibition studies support the concept that RNA and protein synthesis are necessary precursors to ovulation. (Endocrinology 79: 858, 1966)
Pretreatment H2 receptor antagonists that differ in P450 modulation activity: comparative effects on paclitaxel clearance rates and neutropenia.

Histamine-2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs) are principal components of the premedication regimen used to prevent major hypersensitivity reactions in patients receiving paclitaxel. Several different H2RAs, including cimetidine, ranitidine and famotidine, have been used in clinical trials of paclitaxel, as well as by clinicians in different geographic regions and hospitals primarily because of differences in the availability of the various H2RAs. However, H2RAs have highly variable cytochrome P450-modulating capabilities, and the P450 system appears to play a major role in paclitaxel metabolism and disposition. Therefore, the use of different H2RAs may result in different pharmacologic, toxicologic and antitumor profiles due to differential effects on paclitaxel metabolism. This study evaluated whether cimetidine and famotidine, which possess disparate P450-modulating capabilities, differentially affect paclitaxel clearance rates and the agent's principal toxicity, neutropenia. Women with advanced, platinum-refractory ovarian carcinoma received two courses of treatment with 135 mg/m2 paclitaxel over 24 h while participating in the National Cancer Institute's Treatment Referral Center Protocol. A crossover design was employed in which consecutive patients received either 300 mg cimetidine i.v. or 20 mg famotidine i.v. before their first course of paclitaxel and the alternate H2RA before their second course. In order to evaluate the differential effects of cimetidine and famotidine on pertinent pharmacologic and toxicologic parameters in the same individual, paclitaxel concentrations at steady-state (Css), paclitaxel clearance rates, and absolute neutrophil counts (ANCs) were obtained during both courses. Paclitaxel Css values were not significantly different in individual patients when either cimetidine or famotidine preceded paclitaxel (p = 0.16). Mean paclitaxel clearance rates were 271 and 243 ml/min per m2 following cimetidine and famotidine, respectively. These clearance rates were not significantly different in paired analysis (p = 0.30). The likelihood of subsequently requiring granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) for severe neutropenia during course 1 did not differ significantly between the two H2RAs (p = 0.9). Among patients who did not require G-CSF, mean percentage decreases in ANC were 87.7% and 84.2% after paclitaxel cycles preceded by cimetidine and famotidine, respectively. These measures of neutropenia did not differ significantly in paired analysis (p = 0.13). These results show that the H2RAs cimetidine and famotidine do not differentially affect the pharmacologic and toxicity profiles of paclitaxel when used in the premediation regimen to prevent major hypersensitivity reactions, and may be interchanged.
Islet autotransplantation for the prevention of surgical diabetes after extended pancreatectomy for the resection of benign tumors of the pancreas

Objective. The objective of this article is to report a single-center experience with islet autotransplantation after extensive pancreatic resection for benign tumors of the pancreas. Materials and Methods. Seven patients underwent extensive left pancreatectomy for benign lesions located at the neck of the pancreas. Once an unequivocal diagnosis of a benign nature was ascertained, the rest of the specimen was processed and the unpurified pancreatic digest was infused into the portal vein. The results were compared with those of 8 autotransplantations performed for chronic pancreatites over the same period. Results. Tumors were 4 cystadenomas, 2 insulinomas and 1 neuroendocrine tumor. Mean islet yields were 275,000 islet equivalents (IEQ) versus 129,000 in chronic pancreatitis (P =.04) or 6700 IEQ/g of tissue versus 1900 (P =.002), resulting in transplantation of 4200 IEQ/kg body weight vs 2150 in chronic pancreatitis (P =.03), respectively at 4-month to 7.5-year follow-up, all patients are alive and 6 of 7 are off insulin. All patients off insulin after at least 1 year currently have a normal IVGTT, with K values ranging between -1.19 and -2.36 (normal < -1.00). All patients, including 1 on insulin, display positive basal and glucagon-stimulated C-peptide levels. Conclusions. Compared with chronic pancreatitis tissue resected for benign tumors is more likely to achieve good islet yields, and thus insulin independence after autotransplantation. Islet autotransplantation should be considered when extensive pancreatectomy is required for resection of a benign tumor, and only if the benign nature of the lesion is demonstrated unequivocally.
Optimal strategies for targeted influence in signed networks

Online social communities often exhibit complex relationship structures, ranging from close friends to political rivals. As a result, persons are influenced by their friends and foes differently. Network applications can benefit from accompanying these structural differences in propagation schemes. In this paper, we study the optimal influence propagation policies for networks with positive and negative relationship types. We tackle the problem of minimizing the end-to-end propagation cost of influencing a target person in favor of an idea by utilizing the relationship types in the underlying social graph. The propagation cost is incurred by social and physical network dynamics such as frequency of interaction, the strength of friendship and foe ties, propagation delay or the impact factor of the propagating idea. We extend this problem by incorporating the impact of message deterioration and ignorance. We demonstrate our results in both a controlled environment and the Epinions dataset. Our results show that judicious propagation schemes lead to a significant reduction in the average cost and complexity of influence propagation compared to naive myopic algorithms.
Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Inadequate Gestational Weight Gain Differ by Pre-pregnancy Weight.

Pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) varies by race/ethnicity and modifies the association between gestational weight gain (GWG) and adverse pregnancy outcomes, which disproportionately affect racial/ethnic minorities. Yet studies investigating whether racial/ethnic disparities in GWG vary by pre-pregnancy BMI are inconsistent, and none studied nationally representative populations. Using categorical measures of GWG adequacy based on Institute of Medicine recommendations, we investigated whether associations between race/ethnicity and GWG adequacy were modified by pre-pregnancy BMI [underweight (<18.5 kg/m2), normal weight (18.5–24.9 kg/m2), overweight (25.0–29.9 kg/m2), or obese (≥30.0 kg/m2)] among all births to Black, Hispanic, and White mothers in the 1979 USA National Longitudinal Survey of Youth cohort (n = 6,849 pregnancies; range 1–10). We used generalized estimating equations, adjusted for marital status, parity, smoking during pregnancy, gestational age, and multiple measures of socioeconomic position. Effect measure modification between race/ethnicity and pre-pregnancy BMI was significant for inadequate GWG (Wald test p value = 0.08). Normal weight Black [risk ratio (RR) 1.34, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.18, 1.52] and Hispanic women (RR 1.33, 95 % CI 1.15, 1.54) and underweight Black women (RR 1.38, 95 % CI 1.07, 1.79) experienced an increased risk of inadequate GWG compared to Whites. Differences in risk of inadequate GWG between minority women, compared to White women, were not significant among overweight and obese women. Effect measure modification between race/ethnicity and pre-pregnancy BMI was not significant for excessive GWG. The magnitude of racial/ethnic disparities in inadequate GWG appears to vary by pre-pregnancy weight class, which should be considered when designing interventions to close racial/ethnic gaps in healthy GWG.
A Method for Finding Structured Sparse Solutions to Nonnegative Least Squares Problems with Applications

Unmixing problems in many areas such as hyperspectral imaging and differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) often require finding sparse nonnegative linear combinations of dictionary el- ements that match observed data. We show how aspects of these problems, such as misalignment of DOAS references and uncertainty in hyperspectral endmembers, can be modeled by expanding the dictionary with grouped elements and imposing a structured sparsity assumption that the combina- tions within each group should be sparse or even 1-sparse. If the dictionary is highly coherent, it is difficult to obtain good solutions using convex or greedy methods, such as nonnegative least squares (NNLS) or orthogonal matching pursuit. We use penalties related to the Hoyer measure, which is the ratio of the l1 and l2 norms, as sparsity penalties to be added to the objective in NNLS-type models. For solving the resulting nonconvex models, we propose a scaled gradient projection algo- rithm that requires solving a sequence of strongly convex quadratic programs. We discuss its close connections to convex splitting methods and difference of convex programming. We also present promising numerical results for DOAS analysis and hyperspectral unmixing problems.
EEG Sleep Measures in Later-Life Bereavement Depression: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Evaluation of Nortriptyline

The authors examined 1) effects of nortriptyline (NT) on electroencephalographic (EEG) sleep measures in elderly patients with bereavement-related depression in remission under randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled conditions, and 2) the effects of clinical remission on sleep after discontinuation of medication. Subjects were classified as responders to placebo (n=9) or NT (n=18) and had EEG sleep studies at three time-points: before treatment (T 1 ), remitted on medication or placebo (T 2 ), and remitted off medication or placebo (T 3 ). As compared with placebo, NT was differentially associated with decreases in REM sleep time and percent and increases in REM sleep density (T 2 ). No changes in EEG sleep measures occurred in placebo responders. REM sleep measures in NT responders reverted to T 1 levels after T 3 , with persistence of robust clinical remission and normal subjective sleep quality. These data suggest that NT alters REM sleep, but that EEG sleep characteristics in bereavement-related depression persist into remission.
An Assessment of the Likelihood, Frequency, and Content of Verbal Communication Between Radiologists and Women Receiving Screening and Diagnostic Mammography

Rationale and Objectives Research on communication between radiologists and women undergoing screening and diagnostic mammography is limited. We describe community radiologists' communication practices with patients regarding screening and diagnostic mammogram results and factors associated with frequency of communication. Materials and Methods We received surveys from 257 radiologists (70% of those eligible) about the extent to which they talk to women as part of their health care visit for either screening or diagnostic mammograms, whether this occurs if the exam assessment is positive or negative, and how they use estimates of patient risk to convey information about an abnormal exam where the specific finding of cancer is not yet known. We also assessed characteristics of the radiologists to identify associations with more or less frequent communication at the time of the mammogram. Results Two hundred and forty-three radiologists provided complete data (95%). Very few ( Conclusions Radiologists are most likely to convey information about diagnostic mammographic findings when results are abnormal. Most radiologists convey risk information using general rather than numeric statements.
Sexually transmitted diseases

There are over 25 diseases primarily spread by sexual means with an annual incidence of approximately 15 million cases in the USA. Site and route of infection determine the symptoms caused by STDs. Infections of the distal anal canal, anoderm, and perianal skin are similar to lesions in other parts of the genitalia and perineum caused by the same organisms. These infections are typically the result of anal receptive intercourse. Proctitis from sexually transmitted organisms is almost always acquired from anal intercourse. Current estimates are that less than 2 % of adult males regularly practice anal receptive intercourse while between 2 and 10 % participate in homosexual activity at some point in their life. Between 5 and 10 % of females engage in anal receptive intercourse “with some degree of regularity,” and females appear to be more likely than men to have unprotected anal intercourse.
Selection of optimal therapy for chronic stable angina.

Patients with chronic stable angina (CSA) seek a medical opinion for relief of their symptoms and because of fear of having a heart attack. The underlying lesion responsible for CSA is often a severe narrowing of one or more coronary arteries. In addition, the coronary arteries of patients with CSA contain many more nonobstructive lesions, which progress at variable rates, and are prone to rupture and may manifest as acute coronary syndromes (myocardial infarction [MI], unstable angina [UA], or sudden ischemic death). Most patients with CSA can be managed with medical treatment. For angina relief, optimum doses of one of the antianginal drugs (s blockers [BBs], long-acting organic nitrates, or calcium channel blockers [CCBs]) should be used. If the patient remains symptomatic, combination treatment of BBs plus nitrates or BBs plus dihydropyridine CCBs, or nondihydropyridine CCBs plus nitrates should be tried. Triple therapy has not been shown to be more effective than treatment with two agents. To reduce the incidence of MI, UA, and sudden ischemic death, treatment strategies should include smoking cessation, daily aspirin, daily exercise, and pharmacologic therapy for dyslipidemias, and for elevated blood pressure. Patients who remain symptomatic despite medical therapy and those not willing to take or unable to tolerate antianginal drugs should be considered for percutaneous or surgical coronary revascularization. Patients who do not respond to medical therapy and are not candidates for a revascularization procedure may be considered for additional treatment with trimetazidine or nicorandil (these drugs are not available in the United States or approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, but are available in some other countries). Ranolazine also looks promising but is not yet available for clinical use. As a last resort, enhanced external counterpulsation, spinal cord stimulation, sympathectomy, or direct transmyocardial revascularization should be considered for symptom relief.