cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Case 1: Poor Growth With Presence of a Pituitary Lesion in an 11-year-old Boy

1. Alexander S. Karageorgiadis, MD*,† 2. Charalampos Lyssikatos, MD* 3. Elena Belyavskaya, MD* 4. Georgios Z. Papadakis, MD‡ 5. Nicholas J. Patronas, MD‡ 6. Maya B. Lodish, MD* 7. Constantine A. Stratakis, MD, DSc* 1. *Section on Endocrinology and Genetics, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 2. †Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC 3. ‡Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD An 11-year-old boy presents to his primary pediatrician due to poor growth. His height was at the 25th percentile between ages 6 and 10 years and now has fallen to the 10th percentile. He also complains of fatigue and has a 1-month history of polyuria, polydipsia, and nocturia. Review of symptoms is negative for weight loss, headaches, vision changes, gynecomastia, breast discharge, nausea, vomiting, and cold and heat intolerance. His past medical and family histories are not contributory and his development has been normal. On physical examination, his temperature is 96.8°F (36oC), blood pressure is 86/52 mm Hg, heart rate is 59 beats/min, respiratory rate is 18 breaths/min, and oxygen saturation is 100% in room air. His standing height is 138.23 cm (10th percentile), weight is 31.5 kg (10th percentile), and body mass index is 16.5 (10th-50th percentile). His neurologic examination yields unremarkable results. His pubic hair is at Sexual Maturity Rating stage 2 and testicular volume of both testes is 10 mL. Laboratory evaluation shows free thyroxine (T4) of 0.76 ng/dL (9.78 pmol/L) (normal range 0.93-1.60 ng/dL [11.97-20.59 pmol/L]), total T4 of 4.3 μg/dL (55.35 nmol/L) (normal range 4.5-12 μg/dL [57.92-154.45 nmol/L]), thyrotropin (TSH) of 1.97 mIU/L (normal range 0.45-4.5 mIU/L), and insulinlike growth factor (IGF-1) of 103 ng/mL (13.49 nmol/L) (normal range for …
Gadolinium tracers for enhancement of Sigma-log contrast measurements

ABSTRACTBorehole neutron measurements are routinely used for in situ rock assessment in hydrocarbon reservoirs. We have used gadolinium oxide nanoparticles for enhancing the sensitivity of macroscopic thermal neutron absorption cross-section (Sigma) measurements of rocks. The gadolinium-based doping agent is used due to its exceptionally high neutron absorption cross section, low cost, and availability; it is also shown to preserve or enhance the differentiation between pore fluids. Injected from a pilot well, the doping agent could thus substantially improve the precision of Sigma-derived saturation measurements. Computational modeling verifies that modest gadolinium concentrations in the rock’s pore volume give rise to significant enhancement of reported Sigma: A concentration of 1750 weight ppm is shown to offer superior contrast enhancement across a wide range of rock solid and fluid compositions. Preliminary experimental work confirms the reported effects obtained with computational modeling of gadol...
Clustering and Group Technology

A “cluster” is a group of objects that are “similar” to each other and are “dissimilar” to members of other clusters in terms of their attributes. Clustering is an approach for identifying clusters. Clustering is an essential part of the human cognitive, learning, and discovering processes. Clustering has many applications, including classification of parts and processors in manufacturing systems, categorization of behavior in social sciences, identfication of market segments for marketing, classification of diseases in medicine, classification of animals or plants, and pattern recognition in artificial intelligence. In this chapter, the group technology problem is used to illustrate different clustering methods. However, the clustering methods of this chapter are applicable to a variety of clustering problems. In group technology, different machines (as objects) are clustered for the purpose of processing similar parts (as attributes). Group technology simplifies and streamlines complex operational systems (see Section 12.3). Ideally, each cluster of machines would process an exclusive group of parts (i.e., parts belonging to one cluster are not processed by machines of other clusters). An object is a single entity having a number of attributes. Based on the similarity of attributes, objects are clustered into different groups. For example, in classifying insects, the objects could be grasshoppers, bees, and ants. The attributes could be the number of legs and whether the object has wings. Generally, in clustering problems, the number of objects is much higher than the number of attributes. In most applications, the resulting clusters will be different depending on the designation of objects or attributes. In some problems, objects and attributes can be arbitrarily decided. For example, human races can be objects and skin colors can be attributes, or vice versa; also in group technology, machines can be labeled as attributes and parts as objects or vice versa. In ideal situations, objects based on their attributes should be clustered into mutually exclusive clusters. That is, ideally each cluster should have its own objects and these objects are not common with other clusters. However, exclusive separation of attributes does not occur in many clustering problems. In fact, the clustering problem will be trivial (i.e., it can be easily solved) if such mutual exclusiveness of clusters occurs.
British Landscapes in America

This chapter notes the cultural diversity among the immigrants from the British Isles and concentrates upon the several ethnic landscapes created in the Eastern seaboard states originally colonized by the British. It describes the role of the British in shaping many cultural features that are now often associated with being simply American. Noting the British themselves were culturally diverse, this chapter focuses upon those four British groups identified by Fischer (1989. Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America. New York: Oxford University Press) as having had distinctive contributions to the American landscape: the Puritans from East Anglia, Quakers from the Midlands, gentry and commoners from south central England, and the Scots and Scots-Irish. The influences of these groups upon architecture, community arrangements, toponyms, and land tenure are reviewed. In addition, the distinctive ethnic settlements of several other groups from Great Britain, including the Welsh and Cornish, as well as those from Ireland, are discussed.
Abstract 2271:DNMT1expression is peripheral mononuclear cells is associated with increased breast cancer risk

Loss of global DNA methylation in peripheral tissue has been identified as a biomarker of breast cancer susceptibility in several studies. DNA methyl-transferases or DNMTs are the enzymes in charge of catalyzing the addition of the methyl group to the DNA molecule. Of the different DNMTs described in humans, only DNMT1 has been found to be in charge of adding methyl groups to the newly synthesized DNA strand. Therefore, compromised levels of this enzyme might lead to a loss of global DNA methylation and concomitantly an increase in breast cancer risk. However, to date no study has examined the association between peripheral levels of DNMT1 and breast cancer. To investigate this relation, we conducted a case-control study including sisters in the New York site of the Breast Cancer Family Registry. We extracted mRNA from peripheral mononuclear cells (PMNC) in 196 sister sets, a total of 479 female participants, and assayed DNMT1 gene expression levels using Taqman expression assays. The results were analyzed using generalized estimating equations (GEE). We found that there were no large differences between the mean levels of DNMT1 expression levels of women with breast cancer and controls; mean level in cases was 0.46 ± 0.71 versus 0.63 ± 1.42 in controls (p=0.10). When examining expression levels as a continuous variable, there also were no associations in GEE regression models adjusting for age at blood drawn and smoking status Odds Ratio (OR) = 1.17 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.97 - 1.40 per one unit increase in expression levels), p=0.11). However, when results were analyzed by categorizing DNMT1 expression in tertiles, lower DNMT1 expression (≤ 0.17%) was associated with statistically significantly higher odds of breast cancer (OR = 1.47 (95%CI = 1.02 - 2.10), p=0.04). If replicated in other studies, these findings suggest that low DNMT1 expression in PBMC has the potential to be used as a biomarker of breast cancer risk in women at high risk of the disease. Citation Format: Lissette Delgado-Cruzata, Xinran Ma, Yuyan Liao, Maya Kappil, Regina M. Santella, Mary Beth Terry. DNMT1 expression is peripheral mononuclear cells is associated with increased breast cancer risk [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 2271. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-2271
Suicide and Self-Harm Among Sexual and Gender Minority Youth: Resilience, Coping, and Despair

LGBT youth are at increased risk of psychopathology, self-harm, and suicide. Factors underlying this include stigma, rejection, victimization, and isolation. Outcomes vary widely, with many youth emerging as resilient and highly capable, whereas others are deeply wounded by environmental forces. In these cases, youth and families rely upon clinicians to provide a space for normalizing their experience and helping families on their path to accepting and even embracing their LGBT child. This chapter reviews key features of sexual and gender identity development, with case material highlighting different developmental pathways and outcomes.
Ranked time series matching by interleaving similarity distances

Similarity analytics of time series data are critical for a wide range of applications ranging from medical to financial, and from weather forecasting to image processing. Yet these analytics tasks are known to be prohibitively expensive for large data sets, especially when accounting for varying temporal alignments and lengths. Our proposed framework tackles this challenge by adopting a preprocess-once and query-many-times paradigm. We extend a previous formal model interleaving the inexpensive Euclidean distance with the robust Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) to retrieve the k most similar matches to a given sample sequence. Our extended ONline EXploration of top k time series similarity system (K-ONEX) first encodes similarity relationships by compressing the raw time series into Euclidean-based groups; these groups are further explored using the elastic DTW to find similar sequences of any length and temporal alignment with response times that are almost as fast as retrieving only one best match. Our empirical results illustrate that K-ONEX provides response times that are 2–3 orders of magnitude faster than the benchmark and state-of-the-art methods while achieving 100% accuracy by exploring less than 0.5% of the sequences in each dataset.
Inclusive education in Eastern European countries: a current state and future directions

Inclusive education is key to the development of civic democracy. Its role is to transform schools into platforms of excellence and equality for all students. This literature review aims to summari...
Optically controlled tunable and reconfigurable Terahertz devices

Tunable and reconfigurable terahertz (THz) devices such as modulators/variable attenuators, tunable filters, coded apertures, phase shifters and high-level switches (e.g., DPDT) that are required for advanced imaging and adaptive wireless communication applications are challenging to realize. We report a promising approach to develop the above THz devices based on spatially-resolved optical modulation (SROM) using photo-induced (PI) free carriers in semiconductors. The fundamental mechanism for this approach will first be introduced followed by prototype demonstrations for reconfigurable coded-aperture imaging masks, beam steering/forming antennas and waveguide-based tunable attenuators. The potential to develop more advanced tunable/reconfigurable THz devices (e.g., tunable delay lines, SPDT, DPDT switches) using optically-controlled waveguide architectures such as PI electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structures and dynamically-reconfigurable PI substrate-integrated waveguides (SIWs) will also be discussed on the basis of performance-improved SROM using the so-called mesa-array technique.
Adaptive Strategies to Displacement and Environmental Change Among the Kaiabi Indigenous People of the Brazilian Amazon

Environmental change, geographical displacement, and disputes over land and resources have increased around the world. This article focuses on strategies developed by the Kaiabi indigenous people t...
From the Space Program to Soviet Video Art: The Film Experiments of Bulat Galeev

Abstract The aim of this paper is to highlight the close ties between experiments in Soviet science and art; between the official and the unofficial in Soviet art and culture in the 1960s. I focus on the work of the physicist and filmmaker Bulat Galeev (1940–2009) and the cinematic experiments he conducted under the auspices of the radiomechanics laboratory at the Aviation Institute in Kazan. Inspired by the writings of Aleksandr Skriabin on music, light and synesthesia, Galeev founded the Special Construction Bureau (SKB) Prometei in 1962, where his team engaged in research and experimentation with recorded light and sound, producing films intended officially for Soviet astronauts. I look at Galeev’s early films and his publications on art and science, especially his writing on the early Russian and Soviet Avant-garde, to trace the conceptual and institutional connections that inspired and promoted his work at Prometei. I also look at interviews with Galeev and his later publications to draw attention to the larger community of scientists who created artistic work under the umbrella of the Soviet military-industrial complex.
The impact of brief reflective responses on student performance

One-minute papers allow students to process what they learned during class and improve student performance. However, this activity can become monotonous and takes significantly longer than the name...
Propositional Attitudes and Causation.

Predicting and explaining the behavior of others in terms of mental states is indispensable for everyday life. It will be equally important for artificial agents. We present an inference system for representing and reasoning about mental states, and use it to provide a formal analysis of the false-belief task. The system allows for the representation of information about events, causation, and perceptual, doxastic, and epistemic states (vision, belief, and knowledge), incorporating ideas from the event calculus and multi-agent epistemic logic. Unlike previous AI formalisms, our focus here is on mechanized proofs and proof programmability, not on metamathematical results. Reasoning is performed via relatively cognitively plausible inference rules, and a degree of automation is achieved by general-purpose inference methods and by a syntactic embedding of the system in first-order logic.
Demand as a factor in the industrial revolution: A historical note

The debate on whether the Industrial Revolution was demand- or supply-determined is using a neoclassical framework which seems unsuitable to analyze the more interesting issues of the historical events leading to modern economic growth. Instead, a dynamic and evolutionary framework to analyze “knowledge” as a historical entity is proposed, in which we study the institutional and cultural factors that lead to a sudden and irreversible change in the dynamics of technological progress in Western Europe in the eighteenth century.
The Role of Plutonium-238 in Nuclear Fuel Cycles

The use of a 238Pu “heat spike” has been proposed to render reactor-grade plutonium unattractive as a weapons material. The technical feasibility of nuclear fuel cycles with plutonium containing 5 ...
AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION-ASSOCIATED PERIPAPILLARY CHOROIDAL NEOVASCULARIZATION IN THE ERA OF ANTI-VASCULAR ENDOTHELIAL GROWTH FACTOR THERAPY.

Purpose:To characterize the natural history and response of age-related macular degeneration–associated peripapillary choroidal neovascularization to anti–vascular endothelial growth factor therapy.Methods:This was a retrospective case series of patients with peripapillary choroidal neovascularizati
Pesticides, selected elements, and other chemicals in infant and toddler total diet samples, October 1980-March 1982.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducts Total Diet Studies to determine the dietary intake of selected pesticides, industrial chemicals, and elements (including radionuclides). These studies involve the retail purchase and analysis of foods representative of the diets of infants, toddlers, and adults. The individual food items are separated into a number of food groups, each of which is analyzed as a composite. This report summarizes the results for infant and toddler Total Diet samples collected in 13 cities between October 1980 and March 1982. The average concentration, range of concentrations, and calculated average daily intake of each chemical found are presented by food group. The average daily intakes of the chemicals are similar to those found in the several preceding years and generally are within acceptable limits. The results for samples collected during the same period that represent the adult diet are reported separately.
A Graduate-Level Interdisciplinary Curriculum in CAR-T Cell Therapy.

Abstract Objective To evaluate the impact of a novel interdisciplinary graduate-level course in chimeric antigenic receptor-T cell therapy on students’ knowledge and interests in translational science. Materials/Participants and Methods The course ran November 12 to 16, 2018. Students were surveyed before and after the course. The survey included questions regarding background, self-perceived knowledge/confidence in skills, and interests/predicted behaviors. Students were assigned to work in collaborative interdisciplinary teams to develop a research proposal. Results A total of 25 students taking the course for graduate-level credit were surveyed. Of these, all 25 (100%) completed the surveys. Students came from variable backgrounds and were at different stages of graduate training. After completion of the course, there was a statistically significant increase in self-perceived knowledge of immunotherapy (mean score of 3.6 postcourse vs 2.6 precourse, on a 5-point Likert scale; P Conclusion The structure of this innovative and comprehensive course serves as a platform for educational courses in interdisciplinary translational research and helps trainees build knowledge and interest in the fields of chimeric antigenic receptor-T cells, regenerative sciences, and immunotherapy.
Developmental origins of mechanical homeostasis in the aorta

Background Mechanical homeostasis promotes proper aortic structure and function. Pathological conditions may arise, in part, from compromised or lost homeostasis. There is thus a need to quantify the homeostatic state and when it emerges. Here we quantify changes in mechanical loading, geometry, structure, and function of the murine aorta from the late prenatal period into maturity. Results Our data suggest that a homeostatic set-point is established by postnatal day P2 for the flow-induced shear stress experienced by endothelial cells; this value deviates from its set-point from P10 to P21 due to asynchronous changes in mechanical loading (flow, pressure) and geometry (radius, wall thickness), but is restored thereafter consistent with homeostasis. Smooth muscle contractility also decreases during this period of heightened matrix deposition but is also restored in maturity. The pressure-induced mechanical stress experienced by intramural cells initially remains low despite increasing blood pressure, and then increases while extracellular matrix accumulates. Conclusions These findings suggest that cell-level mechanical homeostasis emerges soon after birth to allow mechanosensitive cells to guide aortic development, with deposition of matrix after P2 increasingly stress shielding intramural cells. The associated tissue-level set-points that emerge for intramural stress can be used to assess and model the aorta that matures biomechanically by P56.
Pre-Abortion Informed Consent Through Telemedicine vs. in Person: Differences in Patient Demographics and Visit Satisfaction.

Abstract Purpose Utah law requires patients to have a face-to-face “informed consent” visit at least 72 hours prior to abortion. Planned Parenthood Association of Utah (PPAU) offers this visit via telemedicine as an alternative to an in-person visit, which can require burdensome travel. This novel study identifies factors associated with using telemedicine for informed consent, patients’ reasons for using it, and experiences with it, compared to in-person informed consent. Methods In 2017 and 2018, patients 18 years and older seeking abortion at PPAU completed a self-administered online survey about their experiences with the informed consent visit. We used linear and logistic regression models to compare participants’ demographic characteristics by informed consent visit type, and descriptive statistics to describe reasons for using each visit type and experiences with the visit. Multivariable logistic regression models examined associations between visit type and satisfaction. Results Responses from 166 telemedicine patients and 217 in-person informed consent patients indicate that telemedicine participants would have had to travel significantly further than in-person participants traveled to attend the visit at the clinic (mean of 65 miles versus 21 miles, p Conclusions Telemedicine offers a convenient, acceptable option for mandated pre-abortion informed consent visits and reduces the burden of additional travel and associated barriers for some patients, particularly those who live further away from clinics.
Experimental warming across a tropical forest canopy height gradient reveals minimal photosynthetic and respiratory acclimation.

Tropical forest canopies cycle vast amounts of carbon, yet we still have a limited understanding of how these critical ecosystems will respond to climate warming. We implemented in situ leaf-level + 3°C experimental warming from the understory to the upper canopy of two Puerto Rican tropical tree species, Guarea guidonia and Ocotea sintenisii. After approximately 1 month of continuous warming, we assessed adjustments in photosynthesis, chlorophyll fluorescence, stomatal conductance, leaf traits and foliar respiration. Warming did not alter net photosynthetic temperature response for either species; however, the optimum temperature of Ocotea understory leaf photosynthetic electron transport shifted upward. There was no Ocotea respiratory treatment effect, while Guarea respiratory temperature sensitivity (Q10 ) was down-regulated in heated leaves. The optimum temperatures for photosynthesis (Topt ) decreased 3-5°C from understory to the highest canopy position, perhaps due to upper canopy stomatal conductance limitations. Guarea upper canopy Topt was similar to the mean daytime temperatures, while Ocotea canopy leaves often operated above Topt . With minimal acclimation to warmer temperatures in the upper canopy, further warming could put these forests at risk of reduced CO2 uptake, which could weaken the overall carbon sink strength of this tropical forest.
Percutaneous Transhepatic Embolization of Ectopic Varices in a Patient With Portal Hypertension Presenting With Hemorrhagic Shock.

Varices secondary to portal hypertension in the setting of liver cirrhosis typically occur in the gastroesophageal region. Management guidelines for bleeding gastroesophageal varices are well established in the literature. Ectopic varices that occur outside of this typical location are an uncommon complication of portal hypertension. Rarely, these varices can result in life-threatening hemorrhage. Management guidelines of ectopic variceal bleeds are not yet standardized as cases are rare and treatment approach in the literature has historically varied. We present an interesting case of a 37-year-old patient with alcoholic liver disease and cirrhosis who developed spontaneous hemorrhage and shock from bleeding ectopic varices. This report exemplifies how coil embolization via a percutaneous transhepatic approach can be used to manage ectopic variceal bleeds in the setting of hemorrhagic shock.
Generic Ellipses as Envelopes

SummaryThe astroid is well known as an envelope both of a family of line segments and a family of ellipses. The relationship between these two families is investigated by asking when two generic ellipses are tangent to each other, where a generic ellipse is described by |x/a|m + |y/b|m = 1 for some a, b, m > 0. Results are illustrated with several examples of envelopes of families of generic ellipses.
An interventricular sulcus guided cardiac motion estimation method

Accurate estimation of cardiac motion from clinical medical images especially motion components parallel to edges has been found to be difficult using the intensity based optical flow algorithm without any prior information. This research aims to develop a new feature guided cardiac motion estimation method for gated myocardial perfusion (MP) PET images whose quality has greatly improved in recent years. A unique anatomical feature of human heart—the interventricular sulcus, which contains important motion information, is becoming visible and can potentially be extracted from MP PET images to guide the motion estimation process. In this work the motion of the extracted anatomical feature was used to create an initial estimate of the cardiac motion vector field (MVF) to be combined with the optical flow motion estimation algorithm to improve the estimation accuracy. To evaluate the proposed cardiac motion method, we simulated cardiac gated MP PET images from the 4-D XCAT phantom. The feature-guided initial MVFs were used in combination with the optical flow algorithm and applied to the simulated gated MP PET images to obtain the estimated cardiac MVF. The results were evaluated quantitatively by comparison with the cardiac MVF of the XCAT phantom which was regarded as the ground truth, and with those from non-feature based motion estimation method. The comparison indicates that our feature-guided method can achieve more accurate estimation of cardiac motion than non-feature-based method.
The Bacillus subtilis σM regulon and its contribution to cell envelope stress responses

The Bacillus subtilis extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma(M) factor is activated by cell envelope stress elicited by antibiotics, and by acid, heat, ethanol and superoxide stresses. Here, we have used several complementary approaches to identify genes controlled by sigma(M). In many cases, expression is only partially dependent on sigma(M) because of both overlapping promoter recognition with other ECF sigma factors and the presence of additional promoter elements. Genes regulated by sigma(M) have a characteristic pattern of induction in response to cell envelope-acting antibiotics as evidenced by hierarchical clustering analysis. sigma(M) also contributes to the expression of the Spx transcription factor and thereby indirectly regulates genes of the Spx regulon. Cell envelope stress responses also include regulons controlled by sigma(W), sigma(B) and several two-component regulatory systems (e.g. LiaRS, YycFG, BceRS). Activation of the sigma(M) regulon increases expression of proteins functioning in transcriptional control, cell wall synthesis and shape determination, cell division, DNA damage monitoring, recombinational repair and detoxification.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Implications for Health Education

Abstract Even though it has been known since Biblical times that alcohol ingestion during pregnancy was harmful to the developing fetus, it was not until the mid-1970s that fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) was described accurately in the medical literature. Since that time, a significant amount of biomedical research has been conducted in order to more clearly define the causal mechanism involved in FAS and to more fully document the effects of alcohol on the fetus. At this point the most critical research and application needs lie in the area of primary prevention. After reviewing the recent literature with regard to the magnitude of the FAS problem and the reported cause and effect relationships, this article attempts to outline a program of primary prevention for FAS. Implications for health educators in a variety of settings are discussed.
Interesting Findings in an Initial Clinical Study of Neuropeptides and Pain

Editorial for: Kilts JD, Tupler LA, Keefe FJ, Payne VM, Hamer RM, Naylor JC, Calnaido RP, Morey RA, Strauss JL, Parke G, Massing MW, Youssef NA, Shampine LJ, VA Mid-Atlantic Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center Workgroup, Marx CE. Neurosteroids and Self-Reported Pain in Veterans Who Served in the U.S. Military After September 11, 2001. Pain Medical. 2010; DOI: 10.1111/j.1526-4637.2010.00927.x. The article by Kilts et al. [1] in this issue of Pain Medicine explores new territory in clinical pain. As has been true for prior exploratory work, the initial maps of an area will likely be modified by additional studies. In addition, as is true for many worthy papers, this manuscript raises as many questions as it resolves. This article [1] is an initial clinical correlation study of pain with levels of neurosteroids. Neurosteroids are extremely interesting pain-modulating molecules that are produced within the central nervous system from cholesterol or progesterone. Neurosteroids join with endogenous opioids, serotonin, and other molecules as key components of the pain modulatory system. Neurosteroids can enhance gamma-aminobutyric–mediated neuronal inhibition, while reducing glycine-induced inhibition [2]. Understanding of …
The Basic Life Table

The basic life table and its extensions have been at the heart of mathematical demography since the first life tables were introduced some 300 years ago. To appreciate the scope and power of life table models, consider a group of newborns. They constitute a cohort, a closed group that shares some initial condition, in this case time of birth. If you were to follow that cohort from birth until the last member died, you could compile a detailed picture of the cohort’s life experience. By recording ages, you would know how many survived to attain each birthday, the probability of surviving from one age to another, the person-years lived at every age (i.e., the number of years lived multiplied by the number of persons living them), the mortality rates, and the expectation of life. You could keep more detailed records, noting the sex, marital status, place of residence, and other characteristics of each member of the cohort. Such information would enable you to examine the nature of their lives with regard to a considerable number of variables, and while the records might become large and the calculations complex, the concept underlying them—fidelity to the actual experience of a real group of people—would remain clear and concrete.
Assessment of Eating Disorder Symptoms In Children and Adolescents

The most recent diagnostic classification system delineated by the American Psychiatric Association (DSM–IV; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) is not sensitive to the expression of disordered eating in children and adolescents (Cooper, Watkins, Bryant-Waugh, & Lask, 2002). The issues are complex. First, symptom expression in children and adolescents may manifest differently than in adults due to developmental influences on cognition, affect, and physical maturation. Second, children and adolescents may require different symptom thresholds for diagnosis given the sensitivity and importance of nutritional health for these age groups. Indeed, malnourishment may have permanent negative effects on cognitive and emotional functioning, sexual maturation, and physical growth, damage that may be particularly pronounced during this sensitive developmental period (Oninla, Owa, Onayade, & Taiwo, 2007). The end result of these challenges is that clinicians may fail to detect children and adolescents in need of intervention, the failure to detect lower symptom thresholds may have permanent negative health consequences, diminished sensitivity to the age-related expression of symptoms may interfere with appropriate treatment formulation, and the failure to consider developmental nuances may prevent the advance of a meaningful research agenda. This chapter is intended to address
Development and validation of an inventory to assess processes in college composition

A series of studies was conducted to design and validate a self-report instrument to assess patterns of strategy use in college composition — composing styles. Factor analysis of items derived from models of student learning yielded five scales: Elaborationist, Low Self-efficacy, Reflective-Revisionist, Spontaneous-Impulsive and Procedural. The Elaborationist scale was marked by personalisation in writing and a dynamic conception of the composing process. Similarly, the Reflective-Revisionist orientation focused on meaning as an emergent process involving the active reworking of written discourse. The Low-self-efficacy style was characterised by little confidence in writing abilities and an overriding concern for surface aspects of composition, grammar and punctuation. The Spontaneous-Impulsive style represented an ‘off the cuff, impromptu orientation, and the procedural profile described a methodological orientation aimed at satisfying a requirement. The scales were found to be independent of a measure of learning styles. Low self-efficacy and Reflective-Revisionist were predictive of grade in freshman composition. Implications for teaching are discussed.
The formation of 2,6-diphenylpyridazine and 2,5-diphenylpyrrole from α-styryl azide

Neat alpha styryl azide transformation into 2-phenylazirine, 3,6-diphenylpyridazine and 2,5-diphenylpyrrole after one month at room temperature in brown glass bottle
Analytical Procedures for Estimating Milk Intake and Yield in Steady-State and Nonsteady-State Systems

A tracer method for determining milk intake, introduced earlier, was based on the transfer of tritiated water from a lactating female to a nuring offspring via milk. The analysis of the tracer data assumed a steady state system, i.e., the total body water of the offspring was assumed to be constant over the measurement period. This paper discusses the potential errors in the milk intake estimates in applications where steady-state does not exist. Three analytical procedures are considered and include the application of 1) steady state equations for a nonsteady-state system, 2) analytical solutions to nonsteady-state equations, and 3) a computer modeling program, SAAM-27. The application of steady-state equations is the simplest procedure and may yield acceptable estimates if the growth rate of the nuring offspring is low. The analytical solution procedure yields acceptable estimates at high growth rates of the nursing offspring but becomes unacceptable at low growth rates. The SAAM program requires sophisticated computer hardware and programming; however, the procedure yields the best estimates of milk intake in applications ranging from steady-state to high growth rates.
Just how involved is ‘involved’? Re-thinking parental involvement through exploring teachers’ perceptions of immigrant families’ school involvement in Cyprus

Parental involvement has been increasingly gaining support among education theorists and policymakers across many countries (Kelley-Laine 1998) as an effective way to improve student academic performance. However, the cultural assumptions underlying calls for parental involvement have received little attention (De Carvalho 2001; Lareau 1987). Drawing on ethnographic data, this paper attempts to explore the culturally specific nature of current practices and ideologies of parental involvement in Cyprus and their effect on the marginalisation of potentially socially vulnerable groups. This endeavour is undertaken through the examination of elementary school teachers’ perceptions of the involvement of immigrant parents in their children's education. In adhering to narrowly conceptualised notions of parental involvement and subsequently perceiving the immigrant parents as ‘disinterested’, teachers at a Cypriot public elementary school perpetuated and furthered the social marginalisation of immigrant families.
Biochemical and Functional Studies of Cortical Vesicle Fusion: The SNARE Complex and Ca2+ Sensitivity

Cortical vesicles (CV) possess components critical to the mechanism of exocytosis. The homotypic fusion of CV centrifuged or settled into contact has a sigmoidal Ca2+ activity curve comparable to exocytosis (CV-PM fusion). Here we show that Sr2+ and Ba2+ also trigger CV-CV fusion, and agents affecting different steps of exocytotic fusion block Ca2+, Sr2+, and Ba2+-triggered CV-CV fusion. The maximal number of active fusion complexes per vesicle, Max, was quantified by NEM inhibition of fusion, showing that CV-CV fusion satisfies many criteria of a mathematical analysis developed for exocytosis. Both Max and the Ca2+ sensitivity of fusion complex activation were comparable to that determined for CV-PM fusion. Using Ca2+-induced SNARE complex disruption, we have analyzed the relationship between membrane fusion (CV-CV and CV-PM) and the SNARE complex. Fusion and complex disruption have different sensitivities to Ca2+, Sr2+, and Ba2+, the complex remains Ca2+- sensitive on fusion-incompetent CV, and disruption does not correlate with the quantified activation of fusion complexes. Under conditions which disrupt the SNARE complex, CV on the PM remain docked and fusion competent, and isolated CV still dock and fuse, but with a markedly reduced Ca2+ sensitivity. Thus, in this system, neither the formation, presence, nor disruption of the SNARE complex is essential to the Ca2+-triggered fusion of exocytotic membranes. Therefore the SNARE complex alone cannot be the universal minimal fusion machine for intracellular fusion. We suggest that this complex modulates the Ca2+ sensitivity of fusion.
Differences between early and late posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorders in solid organ transplant patients: are they two different diseases?

BACKGROUND: The objective of the authors' study was to characterize the clinical and pathologic differences between patients who develop posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD) early or late after transplantation and to assess the overall survival in these two groups. METHODS: One hundred seven adult solid organ transplant patients were identified at the Mayo Clinic between December 1970 and May 2003. RESULTS: Forty-nine patients developed PTLD within the first year (early PTLD, 1-11.8 months) and 58 patients developed PTLD after 1 year (late PTLD, 14 months-17 years). Patients with early PTLD more commonly had the following characteristics: positive Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in situ hybridization status (P < 0.0001), CD20-positive status (P = 0.002), and involvement of the grafted organ (P = 0.02). Overall survival did not differ between the two groups (P = 0.25). PTLD may occur in two different settings with different characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Early PTLD is more commonly EBV in situ hybridization-positive and CD20-positive, and more commonly involves the grafted organ.
Youth and Religion: The Gameboy Generation Goes to "Church"

Using the secularization theory and the Marxistnotion of religion as masking class conscienceone would expect the importance of religion andreligious involvement today to wane and belimited to lower class members. To challenge thisexpectation, using a representative nationaltelephone survey of 2004 youth (ages 11–18) andtheir parents, we attempt to answer thefollowing two questions: How religious areteenagers, and what may explain variation inreligious perception and involvement amongteens. Findings suggest that religion remainsperceived as very important by most teenagersand parents report that about two-thirds ofteenagers attended a place of worship at leastmonthly and that two out of five attended asocial group sponsored by a religiousorganization. These findings do not support thesecularization theory. As expected, parentalattendance of religious worship, teen's age,and teen's ethnicity and gender weresignificantly associated with three variablesof religious behavior and attendance. Incontrast to the Marxist notion of religion,measures of socio-economic status indicatethat, in the contemporary United States,religious participation, but not beliefs, islargely the domain of the middle-upper classes.
The Cell Adhesion Molecule Echinoid Functions as a Tumor Suppressor and Upstream Regulator of the Hippo Signaling Pathway

Summary The Hippo (Hpo) signaling pathway controls tissue growth and organ size in species ranging from Drosophila to mammals and is deregulated in a wide range of human cancers. The core pathway consists of the Hpo/Warts (Wts) kinase cassette that phosphorylates and inactivates the transcriptional coactivator Yorkie (Yki). Here, we report that Echinoid (Ed), an immunoglobulin domain-containing cell adhesion molecule, acts as an upstream regulator of the Hpo pathway. Loss of Ed compromises Yki phosphorylation, resulting in elevated Yki activity that increases Hpo target gene expression and drives tissue overgrowth. Ed physically interacts with and stabilizes the Hpo-binding partner Salvador (Sav) at adherens junctions. Ed/Sav interaction is promoted by cell-cell contact and requires dimerization of Ed cytoplasmic domain. Overexpression of Sav or dimerized Ed cytoplasmic domain suppressed loss-of-Ed phenotypes. We propose that Ed may link cell-cell contact to Hpo signaling through binding and stabilizing Sav, thus modulating the Hpo kinase activity.
Follicular basal cell hyperplasia overlying dermatofibroma

Follicular basal cell hyperplasia (FBCH) overlying dermatofibroma represents aborted or impeded pilar differentiation. Historically, this hyperplasia has been misinterpreted as basal cell carcinoma. In a large series of dermatofibroma (258 cases), those that contained primitive or malformed follicular structures over the lesion (59 cases) were compared with those without such elements (199 cases). Statistical analysis of various clinicopathologic features showed that FBCH was significantly associated with younger age, trunk location, hypercellular dermatofibroma, loss of a Grenz zone, clear cell hyperplasia, and seborrheic keratosis-like change. There was an inverse correlation between epidermal atrophy, lichen simplex chronicus-like change, and lower extremity location with FBCH. Histologic features favoring a diagnosis of FBCH over basal cell carcinoma are the focal nature and superficial location of the lesion, lack of cytologic atypia and mitoses, recognizable components of hair follicle differentiation, focal condensation of mesenchymal cells around basal cell proliferation, and the association of epidermal hyperplasia. Our findings suggest that FBCH, clear cell hyperplasia, and seborrheic keratosis-like change all represent an expression of follicular differentiation overlying dermatofibroma.
Cu2O and Au/Cu2O Particles: Surface Properties and Applications in Glucose Sensing

In this work we investigated the surface and facet-dependent catalytic properties of metal oxide particles as well as noble metal/metal oxide heterogeneous structures, with cuprous oxide (Cu2O) and Au/Cu2O being selected as model systems. As an example of application, we explored the potential of these materials in developing electrocatalytic devices. Cu2O particles were synthesized in various shapes, then used for testing their morphology-dependent electrochemical properties applied to the detection of glucose. While we did not attempt to obtain the best detection limit reported to date, the octahedral and hexapod Cu2O particles showed reasonable detection limits of 0.51 and 0.60 mM, respectively, which are physiologically relevant concentrations. However, detection limit seems to be less affected by particle shapes than sensitivity. Heterogeneous systems where Au NPs were deposited on the surface of Cu2O particles were also tested with similar results in terms of the effect of surface orientation.
Mangrove Retreat with Rising Sea-level, Bermuda

Low island mangroves keep up with slow sea-level rise by peat accumulation. Holocene stratigraphic records show that they maintain the same pace as sea-level rise at rates up to 9 cm/100 years. Tide gauge records from Bermuda since 1932 show sea-level rise at a rate of 28 cm/100 years. The largest mangrove area (6·26 acres) at Hungry Bay has for the last 2000 years been building peat at a rate of 8·5 to 10·6 cm/100 years. Retreat of the seaward edge has caused loss of 2·24 acres of mangroves, commencing in the last few hundred years, with a second dieback between 1900 and 1947, and a third dieback in the last decade. The substrate elevation of the seaward margin of mangroves is below mean sea-level, the normal lower limit for mangroves. Present dieback shows problems of erosion indicating that the Bruun Rule of beach erosion with sea-level rise is also appropriate for mangrove swamps. Stratigraphy shows that before 4000 BP sea-level rose at a rate of 25 cm/100 years, from 4000 to 1000 years BP the rate of sea-level rise declined to 6 cm/100 years during which time mangroves established, and in the last 1000 years there was an increase to 14·3 cm/100 years, during which time the mangroves died back. This study indicates that low island mangroves will experience problems with the rates of sea-level rise predicted for the next 50 years.
Investor information search

Few will disagree that information search is essential in making investment decisions, a high-consequence decision task. Yet, the sources of investor information have never been used as a segmentation base to study investment behavior. We analyze survey results of investors in the US using information search, demographic, psychological, and involvement variables. Cluster analysis shows five typologies for investor information search based on sources of information. We also discover the majority of investors perform moderate- to low-information gathering strategies. The 11 demographics variables were insufficient to describe the typologies, although we did find higher-educated male investors with higher earnings more likely to practice a high-information search strategy, confirming previous studies. Turning to the psychological and involvement variables, we develop distinct typologies and identify several significant predictors for the five investor groups. For the majority of investors, investment decisions present a considerable and unwillingly undertaken challenge, and this study concludes with a discussion of how to target these investor typologies with approaches grounded in behavior-change theory.
Calibrating and Validating TRAF-NETSIM Model of Single-Point Urban Interchange:

A model of a single-point urban interchange (SPUI) was calibrated and validated using the traffic simulation program (TRAF-NETSIM). The model was calibrated on the basis of field observations at several existing SPUIs, and the model was validated on the basis of measures of effectiveness at a prototype interchange. Statistical analyses of several parameters were performed to determine confidence intervals and decile distributions and to compare values and distributions with defaults provided in TRAF-NETSIM. Other parameters were verified by informal field observations at the prototype interchange. The validation of the model demonstrated that TRAF-NETSIM can adequately represent traffic operations at a SPUI. Observations regarding the SPUI will provide additional insight into SPUI traffic operational characteristics. The methodology used to calibrate and validate the model of the SPUI should also be applicable to other modeling applications, ensuring a realistic and accurate representation of traffic operational conditions in a transportation system.