cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Methadone maintenance and the cost and utilization of health care among individuals dependent on opioids in a commercial health plan.

Abstract Background Few health plans provide maintenance medication for opioid dependence. This study assessed the cost of treating opioid-dependent members in a commercial health plan and the impacts of methadone maintenance on costs of care. Methods Individuals with diagnoses of opioid dependence (two or more diagnoses per year) and at least 9 months of health plan eligibility each year were extracted from electronic health records for the years 2000 through 2004 (1,518 individuals and 2,523 observations across the study period—some individuals were in multiple years). Analyses examined the patterns and costs of health care for three groups of patients: (1) one or more methadone visits during the year (n = 1,298; 51%); (2) no methadone visits and 0 or 1 visits in the Addiction Medicine Department (n = 370; 15%); (3) no methadone visits and 2 or more visits in addiction medicine (n = 855; 34%). Results Primary care (86%), emergency department (48%) and inpatient (24%) visits were common. Mean total annual costs to the health plan were $11,200 (2004 dollars) per member per year. The health plan's costs for members receiving methadone maintenance were 50% lower ($7,163) when compared to those with two or more outpatient addiction treatment visits but no methadone ($14,157) and 62% lower than those with one or zero outpatient addiction treatment visits and no methadone treatment ($18,694). Conclusions Use of opioid maintenance services was associated with lower total costs of care for opioid-dependent members in a commercial health plan.
Mid-IR Laser Spectrometers for Breath Analysis

Mid-IR laser spectrometers suitable for use in clinical settings have been developed. Initial results with measuring exhaled NO for assessing airway inflammation show that such spectrometers are promising instruments for medical diagnostic applications.
Effect of Alkaline Treatment on the Dispersibility of Soy Protein Isolates and Properties of Milk Clots formed from Nonfat Milk and Treated Soy Protein Mixtures

Dispersibility of soy protein isolates was improved by adjusting pH to 12 and acidifying to pH 6.5. Alkaline treated isolates added to reconstituted nonfat milk reduced rennet induced coagulum firmness and syneresis more than did untreated soy protein isolates. Treated soy protein added to reconstituted nonfat dry milk reduced coagulum firmness and syneresis more than untreated soy protein. Soy protein interference with coagulum firmness and syneresis increased with an increase in pH becoming most severe at pH values above 11. Adjusting the pH of reconstituted NFDM in the absence of soy protein to pH 8 and holding for 30 min before adjusting it back to pH 6.5 had no effect on coagulum firmness or syneresis. However, higher pH treatments (pH 10 and above) caused reduction in coagulum firmness and in syneresis.
Effects of endotoxin on regional blood flow in the unanesthetized guinea pig.

Abstract Regional distribution of blood flow was determined using labeled microspheres in control and endotoxin-treated guinea pigs. In control animals, blood flow for all tissues and organs remained constant throughout the experiments. The endotoxin-treated guinea pigs that survived for 3 hr demonstrated an early depression in cardiac output and heart rate. With these cardiovascular effects there was a fractional redistribution of blood flow favoring hepatic artery, organs drained by the hepatic portal system, diaphragm, and adrenal glands. The brain, caecum, adipose tissue, heart, kidneys, and stomach did not have altered fractional flow but did demonstrate a reduced absolute blood flow. Blood flow was compromised to the spleen, pancreas, skin, and skeletal muscle, due to both the reduced cardiac output and a decrease in the fractional distribution. Guinea pigs that died early had an increased fractional blood flow to the heart and brain with no increase in distribution to the organs drained by the portal vein. The different responses of animals dying early from those living for at least 3 hr were probably a result of a more depressed cardiovascular system.
Renal nitric oxide and angiotensin II interaction in renovascular hypertension.

In two-kidney, one clip (2K1C) renovascular hypertension, blood flow is reduced to the clipped but not to the nonclipped kidney, despite elevated angiotensin II. To determine possible interactions between endothelium-derived nitric oxide and angiotensin, we studied bilateral renal blood flow using radioactive microspheres in anesthetized 2K1C hypertensive rats 4 weeks after clipping. We studied the response to nitric oxide synthesis inhibition with 10 mg/kg body wt NG-nitro-L-arginine- methyl ester (L-NAME) in hypertensive rats untreated (n = 5) or treated (n = 5) with 10 mg/kg body wt of the angiotensin II antagonist losartan. 2K1C rats had a blood pressure of 159 +/- 9 mm Hg, and renal blood flow to the clipped kidney was reduced 87% compared with the nonclipped kidney. L-NAME increased blood pressure 36 +/- 5 mm Hg and decreased renal blood flow in the nonclipped kidney 61% (4.9 +/- 0.5 to 1.9 +/- 0.4 mL/min per gram kidney weight, P < .001). Renal vascular resistance increased 200% (33.4 +/- 2.2 to 100.7 +/- 15.0 resistance units [RU], P < .005). Renal blood flow and resistance in the clipped kidney were unchanged by L-NAME. Treatment of 2K1C rats with losartan reduced blood pressure (154 +/- 8 to 116 +/- 11 mm Hg, P < .01), did not change blood flow in the nonclipped, but normalized it in the clipped kidney (4.8 +/- 0.8 mL/min per gram kidney weight).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Helping students to find biological inspiration: Impact of valuableness and presentation format

Analogy and bioinspired design have demonstrated applicability as effective tools for innovation, but they can be very difficult to implement. One challenge faced by students and other novice designers is their lack of knowledge to base analogies on. This challenge is also faced by engineers making distant-domain analogies to biology. Other open research questions surround effective strategies for students attempting to implement analogies. When students seek analogies should potential analogues be presented one at a time or should multiple analogues be presented simultaneously (presentation format)? This study implements a 2×2 between-subject factorial design to further explore the impact of presentation format and students' perceived valuableness of passages. Impact is measured in terms of the quality, novelty, and variety of ideas generated. Two additional control conditions were also included, one with no passages and another with random passages. The results from this study have shown that quality is significantly affected by valuableness of passages, novelty is not affected by any factor, and variety is significantly affected by both factors.
Transmission and reflection coefficients of carriers at an abrupt GaAs-GaAlAs (100) interface

We present calculations of reflection and transmission coefficients for electrons and holes at an abrupt (100) interface for the GaAs-${\mathrm{Ga}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Al}}_{x}\mathrm{As}$ system. We consider semi-infinite crystals of the two semiconductors joined at a perfect atomically abrupt interface. The calculations are performed using the empirical tight-binding approximation. The transport coefficients were computed as a function of the components of the incident carrier wave vector normal and parallel to the interface. We have investigated the transport coefficients for incident states near various band minima into different final-state channels. The transmission into states with qualitatively similar character to the incident state is found to be much greater than transmission into states of different character. For example, an electron near the $X$ minimum normal to the interface in ${\mathrm{Ga}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Al}}_{x}\mathrm{As}$ transmits into the $X$ valley of GaAs with much greater probability than it transmits into the $\ensuremath{\Gamma}$ minimum of GaAs. The dependence of the transport coefficients on the alloy composition has also been investigated.
Label free cell-tracking and division detection based on 2D time-lapse images for lineage analysis of early embryo development

In this paper we report a database and a series of techniques related to the problem of tracking cells, and detecting their divisions, in time-lapse movies of mammalian embryos. Our contributions are (1) a method for counting embryos in a well, and cropping each individual embryo across frames, to create individual movies for cell tracking; (2) a semi-automated method for cell tracking that works up to the 8-cell stage, along with a software implementation available to the public (this software was used to build the reported database); (3) an algorithm for automatic tracking up to the 4-cell stage, based on histograms of mirror symmetry coefficients captured using wavelets; (4) a cell-tracking database containing 100 annotated examples of mammalian embryos up to the 8-cell stage; and (5) statistical analysis of various timing distributions obtained from those examples.
In situ fracture monitoring of plasma-sprayed MoSi2-Ta composites

Initial work has shown that the ambient toughness of brittle silicide intermetallics such as MoSi2 have been toughened by incorporating irregular pancake-shaped Ta phases via deposition of powders by plasma-spray processing techniques. The mechanisms of toughness enhancement were observed in situ by conducting fracture toughness tests in an instrumented loading stage situated in a scanning electron microscope. It was observed that increases in toughness were obtained via ductile-phase toughening and the development of bridgedzones. The initiation and peak toughness of the composites varied with testing orientation, with the highest values measured when the crack plane intersected the Ta particles perpendicular to their edge. The shape of the resistance curve, however, was independent of Ta orientation.
Approximation algorithms for multi-agent scheduling to minimize total weighted completion time

We consider a multi-agent scheduling problem on a single machine in which each agent is responsible for his own set of jobs and wishes to minimize the total weighted completion time of his own set of jobs. It is known that the unweighted problem with two agents is NP-hard in the ordinary sense. For this case, we can reduce our problem to a Multi-Objective Shortest-Path (MOSP) problem and this reduction leads to several results including Fully Polynomial Time Approximation Schemes (FPTAS). We also provide an efficient approximation algorithm with a reasonably good worst-case ratio.
Species differences in the renal toxicity of the antiarthritic drug, gold sodium thiomalate.

Two gold compounds, gold sodium thiomalate (AuTM) and auranofin, are presently in clinical use in therapy of rheumatoid arthritis. In these studies, AuTM administered to Sprague-Dawley rats and three strains of mice, Swiss-Webster, C3H/HeJ, and DBA/2J, were studied with regard to its effect on liver and renal monooxygenases, metallothionein contents, and serum levels of alanine aminotransferase and urea nitrogen. These effects of AuTM were compared to those of cadmium, since the latter metal has exhibited tissue and species differences in the induction of metallothionein. Benzo(a)pyrene hydroxylase and benzphetamine N-demethylase activities were not altered by AuTM in livers of rats and the three strains of mice. Benzo(a)pyrene hydroxylase activity was significantly decreased in rat kidney, whereas this enzyme activity was not affected in the kidneys of mice. In rats, AuTM caused a sevenfold induction in liver metallothionein, while in mice, liver metallothionein was induced twofold in Swiss-Webster mice and about fivefold in the inbred strains. AuTM caused minimal changes in renal metallothionein contents in the three strains of mice studied. Serum alanine amino-transferase, an indicator of hepatotoxicity, was not altered by AuTM in rats and mice studied. Blood urea nitrogen, an indicator of kidney dysfunction, was increased threefold in rats, but not in AuTM-treated mice. These data demonstrate that AuTM, a nephrotoxic agent in rats and humans, showed no nephrotoxic effects in the mouse strains studied here. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Interdisciplinary undergraduate research in microelectronic materials and processing

Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) was a program on Microelectronic Materials and Processing in a cooperative research program funded by the National Science Foundation. This program has had ten summer participants in each of 1992, 1993, and 1994. The focus of the REU site has been the synthesis, processing, properties, structure, and performance of microelectronic materials. To date, more than 90% of all the participants that have graduated are presently attending graduate school.
Pituitary adenomas in man and mouse: oncogenic potential of a truncated fibroblast growth factor receptor 4.

Despite their prevalence and significant morbidity, the etiology of most pituitary adenomas remains an enigma. Hypotheses that regard the growth factor milieu as a primary cause of pituitary oncogenesis have seesawed with others that maintain the primacy of cell-autonomous transforming events. Like other endocrine glands, the pituitary has a remarkable capacity to respond to physiological demands by either hyperplasia or hypoplasia of specific cell types. These reversible changes, mediated by a diverse set of signaling molecules and their corresponding receptors, could set the stage for pathological overgrowth of clonal cell populations within this tissue. Particular interest has settled on members of the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family as tumorigenic factors. However, very few bona fide molecular pathogenic mechanisms of pituitary adenoma development and progression have stood the tests of time, causality, and replication in independent clinical populations (Table ​(Table11).
European Melody, African Rhythm, or West Indian Harmony? Changing Cultural Identity Among Leaders in a New State

We compare a re-study of the cultural identities of 83 leaders in 1974, twelve years after Jamaica's political independence, with a study completed just before independence in 1962. With a largely slave-descendant, black population, Jamaica has a mixed Creole culture with Anglo-European and African features combined with local modifications and innovations. Historically, cultural domination followed political domination, and the Anglo culturalfeatures were most influential and positively correlated with social class. Over the last several years, however, the African elements have been asserted by a number of groups, including Black Power advocates. From 1962 to 1974, Jamaican leaders became dramatically less Anglo-European and more West Indian in their cultural identities. Also, a smaller increase in favorable attitudes toward the African heritage may have occurred among the leaders. In 1962, West Indian identified leaders were younger; light brown or medium brown in skin color; less well educated; political or labor leaders; relatively not wealthy; and favorably disposed toward political democracy, political independence, a large role of the state in the economy, and social equality. In 1974, only age maintained its correlation; others were smaller. Path models were constructed explaining 55 percent of the variance in West Indian cultural identity and 57 percent in attitudes toward the African heritage in 1962, but only 12 and 11 *We gratefully acknowledge financial assistance from the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant No. 5-TO1-MH12133) that supported the Yale Comparative Sociology Training Program, of which this study is part; from the Concilium on International and Area Studies, Yale University; and the American Philosophical Society for a small grant to the first author (Penrose Fund, Grant No. 7454). We also thank our colleagues Juan J. Baldrich, J. William Gibson, Jr., and David L. Stevenson for their important contributions, including some of the interviewing of Jamaican leaders. Finally, we thank Professor Charles C. Moskos, Jr., Northwestern University, who kindly made his 1961-62 data available to us; Jamaican Vernon L. Arnett who gave us advice throughout the project; and Leonard W Doob and Carol S. Holzberg who made comments on a preliminary draft. This is a revised version of a paper we gave at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, 1977. C) 1979, University of North Carolina Press. 0037-7732/79/010249-79$03.10
Thermodynamic problems in structural molecular biology

The most essential feature of living biological systems is their high degree of struc- tural organization. The key role is played by two linear heteropolymers, the proteins and nu- cleic acids. Under environmental conditions close to physiological, these biopolymers are folded into unique native conformations, genetically determined by the arrangement of their standard building blocks. In their native conformation, biological macromolecules recognize their partners and associate with them, forming specific, higher-order complexes, the "molecular machines". Folding of biopolymers into their native conformation and their as- sociation with partners is in principle a reversible, thermodynamically driven process. Investigation of the thermodynamics of these basic biological processes has prime impor- tance for understanding the mechanisms of forming these supra-macromolecular construc- tions and their functioning.
Failure of autologous bone—assisted cranioplasty following decompressive craniectomy in children and adolescents

Object. The authors have routinely performed primary autologous cranioplasty to repair skull defects after decompressive craniectomy. The high rates of subsequent bone resorption occurring in children prompted this study. Methods. In an institutional review, the authors identified 40 (32 male and eight female) children and adolescents ranging from 4 months to 19 years of age in whom autologous cranioplasty was performed after decompressive craniectomy. The defect surface area ranged from 14 to 147 cm2. In all cases, the bone was fresh frozen at the time of the decompression. Symptomatic bone resorption subsequently occurred in 20 children (50%) in all of whom reoperation was required. The incidence of bone resorption significantly correlated with an increased skull defect area (p < 0.025). No significant correlation was found with age, sex, or anatomical location of the skull defect, number of fractured bone fragments, presence of a shunt, cause for decompressive craniectomy, method of duraplasty, or inte...
Finite Element Analysis of Aluminum Nitride Bimorph Actuators – The Influence of Contact Geometry and Position

In this work, the results of 3-dimensional finite element analysis (FEA) of Aluminum Nitride (AlN) homogeneous bimorphs (d31 mode) are shown. The coupled-field FEA simulations were performed using the commercially available software tool ANSYS. The effect of altering the contact geometry and position on the displacement, electric field, stress, and strain distributions for the static case is reported. Piezoelectric beams are commonly used in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and also have many possible applications in smart sensor and actuator systems. For example, they have been used as the active element in microfluidic and microactuator MEMS devices. In the actuator mode, they employ the converse piezoelectric effect to couple electrical energy into mechanical deformation. Aluminum Nitride (AlN) based devices have attracted much interest because AlN is a piezoelectric material with high thermal stability, high dielectric strength, a reasonable electromechanical coupling coefficient, and a perfect compatibility with standard silicon processing techniques.
Dye-doped silica nanoparticle labels/protein microarray for detection of protein biomarkers.

We report a dye-encapsulated silica nanoparticle as a label, with the advantages of high fluorescence intensity, photostability, and biocompatibility, in conjunction with microarray technology for sensitive immunoassay of a biomarker, interleukin-6 (IL-6), on a microarray format. The tris(2,2′-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) chloride hexahydrate (Rubpy) dye was incorporated into silica nanoparticles using a simple one-step microemulsion synthesis. In this synthesis process, Igepal CA520 was used as the surfactant, therefore, no requirement of cosolvent during the synthesis and the particle size was reduced comparing to the commonly used Triton surfactant system. The nanoparticles are uniform in size with a diameter of 50 nm. The microarray fluorescent immunoassay approach based on dye-doped silica nanoparticle labels has high sensitivity for practical applications with a limit of detection for IL-6 down to 0.1 ng mL−1. The calibration curve is linear over the range from 0.1 ng mL−1 to 10 ng mL−1. Furthermore, results illustrated that the assay is highly specific for IL-6 in the presence of range of cytokines or proteins. The RuDS dye-labeled nanoparticles in connection with protein microarrays show the promise for clinical diagnosis of biomarkers.
Phase-Shift High-Speed Valve for Switch-Mode Control

Hydraulic applications requiring a variation in the speed or torque of actuators have historically used throttling valve control or a variable displacement pump or motor. An alternative method is switch-mode control that uses a high-speed valve to rapidly switch between efficient on and off states, allowing any hydraulic actuator to have virtually variable displacement. An existing barrier to switch-mode control is a fast and efficient high-speed valve. A novel high-speed valve concept is proposed that uses a phase shift between two tiers of continuously rotating valve spools to achieve a pulse-width modulated flow with any desired duty ratio. An analysis of the major forms of energy loss, including throttling, compressibility, viscous friction, and internal leakage, is performed on a disk spool architecture. This analysis also explores the use of a hydrodynamic thrust bearing to maintain valve clearance. A nonoptimized design example of a phase-shift valve operating at 100 Hz switching frequency at 10 l/min demonstrates an efficiency of 73% at a duty ratio of 1 and 64% at 0.75 duty ratio. Numerous opportunities exist for improving this efficiency including design changes and formal optimization. The phase-shift valve has the potential to enable switch-mode hydraulic circuits. The valve has numerous benefits over existing technology yet requires further refinement to realize its full potential.
EXAFS analysis using FEFF and FEFFIT.

Some of the advanced EXAFS analysis features of FEFF and FEFFIT are described. The scattering path formalism from FEFF and cumulant expansion are used as the basic building blocks of EXAFS analysis, giving a flexible and robust parameterization of most EXAFS problems. The ability to model EXAFS data in terms of generalized physical variables is shown, including the simultaneous refinement of two different polarizations for Co K EXAFS data of \rm CoPt_{3}.
NDSU EarlyGEM: Incorporating Tropical and Temperate Elite Exotic Germplasm to Increase the Genetic Diversity of Short-Season Maize

The NDSU EarlyGEM or the Early Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (Zea mays L) is a long-term incorporation program designed to increase the genetic diversity of US northern maize hybrids. Exotic GEM breeding crosses derived from two temperate accessions, three tropical accessions and a tropical hybrid along with temperate US lines B73, Mo17, and Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic (BSSS) used as checks, were adapted to short-seasons and incorporated via a modified backcross (BC) procedure. The objective of this research was to test whether exotic derived crosses could be quickly adapted and incorporated to increase the genetic diversity of early maturing maize hybrids as compared to temperate US check lines. Exotic testcrosses with testers belonging to opposite heterotic groups were tested in five North Dakota environments and two years (2009 and 2010). Among 236 experimental testcrosses, 64 were statistically not different (LSD, 0.05) to industry hybrids for grain yield. BC derived lines from BR52051, CHO5015, DKB844 produced hybrids with low grain moisture at harvest (<87 RM) and high yield as compare to US lines. The derived lines of accessions SCRO1, BR52051, CHO5015 and CUBA117 produced hybrids with high grain oil (49 g kg-1 vs. 41 g kg-1) and grain protein (102 g kg-1 vs. 91 g kg-1) contents compared to checks. These results clearly showed that the exotic incorporations are the sources of unique new alleles for adaptation, yield, and quality traits for early maturing maize not present in existing US commercial germplasms and genome sequences (e.g. B73, Mo17, and BSSS). The NDSU EarlyGEM program is a source of unique and elite alleles and products.
The current and future role of sequence-based analysis in prostate cancer treatment

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed, nondermatologic malignancy in US men. Localized disease can be managed through active surveillance or curative, locally directed therapies, but 30% of men treated with surgery or radiation will need additional (often systemic) treatment for relapsed disease. While spectacular advances in medical treatment of advanced prostate cancer have improved the quality and duration of patients’ lives, metastatic prostate cancer remains an incurable, lethal disease that requires additional therapies and better treatment strategies. The advent of ultra-high-throughput sequencing technology provides an opportunity to comprehensively assess the constellation of genetic and molecular events underlying each patient’s tumor, and promises to enhance our ability to deliver specifically tailored personalized treatment to men with prostate cancer. The known biological and clinical heterogeneity of prostate cancer presents both opportunities and challenges to the application and u...
Preexisting Knowledge Versus On-Line Learning What Do Young Infants Really Know About Spatial Location?

Contemporary knowledge of infant cognition relies heavily on violation-of-expectation experiments. However, there are two ways to conceptualize what occurs in such studies. Babies may react to anomalous test events because of preexisting world knowledge. Alternatively, they may react because they have learned about events during the familiarization period. One way to distinguish these possibilities is to contrast familiarization with everyday versus anomalous events. In the studies we report here, we used this method to probe the nature of 5-month-olds' expectations about the locations of objects hidden in sand and later revealed. In Experiment 1, infants who initially saw everyday events did react to anomalous ones, as found previously, whereas infants who initially saw anomalous events did not react to everyday events. In Experiment 2, two alternative explanations of this pattern were ruled out. We conclude that by the age of 5 months, infants have expectations regarding the location of objects in conti...
Clean Cities Annual Metrics Report 2006

Report summarizes Clean Cities coalition accomplishments, including membership, funding, sales of alternative fuel blends, deployment of AFVs and HEVs, idle reduction initiatives, and fuel economy activities.
Large-Scale Syntactic Language Modeling with Treelets

We propose a simple generative, syntactic language model that conditions on overlapping windows of tree context (or treelets) in the same way that n-gram language models condition on overlapping windows of linear context. We estimate the parameters of our model by collecting counts from automatically parsed text using standard n-gram language model estimation techniques, allowing us to train a model on over one billion tokens of data using a single machine in a matter of hours. We evaluate on perplexity and a range of grammaticality tasks, and find that we perform as well or better than n-gram models and other generative baselines. Our model even competes with state-of-the-art discriminative models hand-designed for the grammaticality tasks, despite training on positive data alone. We also show fluency improvements in a preliminary machine translation experiment.
Postprandial effec ts of resistant starch corn porridges on blood glucose and satiety responses in non-overweight and overweight adults

Background: Diabetes and obesity are major health concerns in the United States. There are several lifestyle factors that contribute to the development of these conditions and diet plays a large role in both etiology and treatment of these diseases. Poor carbohydrate quality and excess caloric intake can contribute to obesity and the development of insulin resistance, eventually progressing into Type 2 diabetes (DM2) and its associated comorbidities. Resistant starch (RS), a type of dietary fiber, is thought to be a tool for prevention and treatment of obesity and DM2 due to its slow release of glucose post prandially, low energy density, and colonic health benefits from fermentation in the colon. Methods: Twenty healthy non-overweight/obese weight (n=10; BMI 18.5-24.9 kg/m) and overweight/obese (n=10; BMI > 25.0 kg/m) consumed, in random order, 3 breakfast corn porridges providing 25 g starch derived from corn lines varying in levels of resistant starch. The porridges contained 3.1%, 8.4% and 28.9% RS of total starch. Post-prandial blood glucose was measured using a glucometer at baseline, 15, 30, 60 and 120 minutes. Postprandial satiety using a 100 mm Visual Analog Scales (VAS) was measured at baseline, 30, 60, 120, and 180 minutes. Subjects recorded 24 h food intake and gastrointestinal symptoms upon completion of each visit. Results: There were no differences in post-prandial blood glucose, satiety, or food intake responses between non-overweight/obese and overweight/obese participants with
Discretized light-cone quantization: Solution to a field theory in one space and one time dimension

In the preceding paper, the field-theoretic bound-state problem in 1+1 dimensions was mapped to the problem of diagonalizing a strictly finite-dimensional Hamiltonian matrix by quantizing at equal light-cone time. In this paper, we calculate the invariant mass spectrum for the Yukawa theory \ensuremath{\psi}\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{}\ensuremath{\varphi}\ensuremath{\psi}. The spectrum is shown to be independent of the momentum cutoff in the limit \ensuremath{\Lambda}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty} and more complex with increasing harmonic resolution K. The results are compared with the recent work of Brooks and Frautschi, who apply conventional space-time quantization. Because of incompatible cutoffs, we reproduce their results only qualitatively, for a rather small value of \ensuremath{\Lambda}. We propose an explanation for their nonunique mass renormalization. We also discuss the straightforward application of the discretized light-cone quantization to non-Abelian field theories in 1+1 dimensions, and the generalization to 3+1 dimensions.
Dose-escalation with proton/photon irradiation for Daumas-Duport lower-grade glioma: results of an institutional phase I/II trial

Abstract Purpose : The role of dose escalation with proton/photon radiotherapy in lower-grade gliomas was assessed in a prospective Phase I/II trial. We report the results in terms of local control, toxicity, and survival. Materials and Methods : Twenty patients with Grade 2/4 (n = 7) and Grade 3/4 (n = 13) gliomas according to the Daumas-Duport classification were treated on a prospective institutional protocol at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory between 1993 and 1996. Doses prescribed to the target volumes were 68.2 cobalt Gray equivalent (CGE, 1 proton Gray = 1.1 CGE) to gross tumor in Grade 2 lesions and 79.7 CGE in Grade 3 lesions. Fractionation was conventional, with 1.8 to 1.92 CGE once per day. Eligibility criteria included age between 18 and 70 years, biopsy-proven Daumas-Duport Grade 2/4 or 3/4 malignant glioma, Karnofsky performance score of 70 or greater, and supratentorial tumor. Median age of the patient population at diagnosis was 35.9 years (range 19–49). Ten tumors were mixed gliomas, one an oligodendroglioma. Results : Five patients underwent biopsy, 12 a subtotal resection, and 3 a gross total resection. Median interval from surgery to first radiation treatment was 2.9 months. Actuarial 5-year survival rate for Grade 2 lesions was 71% as calculated from diagnosis (median survival not yet reached); actuarial 5-year survival for Grade 3 lesions was 23% (median 29 months). Median follow-up is 61 months and 55 months for 4 patients alive with Grade 2 and 3 patients alive with Grade 3 lesions, respectively. Three patients with Grade 2 lesions died from tumor recurrence, whereas 2 of the 4 survivors have evidence of radiation necrosis. Eight of 10 patients who have died with Grade 3 lesions died from tumor recurrence, 1 from pulmonary embolus, and 1 most likely from radiation necrosis. One of 3 survivors in this group has evidence of radiation necrosis. Conclusion : Tumor recurrence was neither prevented nor noticeably delayed in our patients relative to published series on photon irradiation. Dose escalation using this fractionation scheme and total dose delivered failed to improve outcome for patients with Grade 2 and 3 gliomas.
Diversification of search results using webgraphs

A set of words is often insufficient to express a user's information need. In order to account for various information needs associated with a query, diversification seems to be a reasonable strategy. By diversifying the result set, we increase the probability of results being relevant to the user's information needs when the given query is ambiguous. A diverse result set must contain a set of documents that cover various subtopics for a given query. We propose a graph based method which exploits the link structure of the web to return a ranked list that provides complete coverage for a query. Our method not only provides diversity to the results set, but also avoids excessive redundancy. Moreover, the probability of relevance of a document is conditioned on the documents that appear before it in the result list. We show the effectiveness of our method by comparing it with a query-likelihood model as the baseline.
Projecting terrestrial carbon sequestration of the southeastern United States in the 21st century

How terrestrial ecosystems respond to future environmental change in the 21st century is critically important for understanding the feedbacks of terrestrial ecosystems to global climate change. The southeastern United States (SEUS) has been one of the major regions acting as a carbon sink over the past century; yet it is unclear how its terrestrial ecosystems will respond to global environmental change in the 21st century. Applying a process-based ecosystem model (Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model, DLEM) in combination with three projected climate change scenarios (A1B, A2, and B1 from the IPCC report) and changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide, nitrogen deposition, and ozone pollution, we examined the potential changes of carbon storage and fluxes in the terrestrial ecosystems across the SEUS during 2000–2099. Simulation results indicate that SEUS's terrestrial ecosystems will likely continue to sequester carbon in the 21st century, resulting in an increase in total carbon density (i.e., litter, vegetation biomass and soil carbon) from 13.5 kg C/m2 in the 2000s to 16.8 kg C/m2 in the 2090s. The terrestrial gross primary production and net primary production will probably continuously increase, while the net carbon exchange (positive indicates sink and negative indicates source) will slightly decrease. The carbon sequestration is primarily attributed to elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide and nitrogen deposition. Forests, including both deciduous and evergreen, show the largest increase in carbon storage as compared with other biomes, while cropland carbon storage shows a small decrease. The sequestered carbon will be primarily stored in vegetation for deciduous forest and in soil for evergreen forest. The central and eastern SEUS will sequester more carbon, while the western portion of the SEUS will release carbon to the atmosphere. The combined effects of climate and atmospheric changes on carbon fluxes and storage vary among climate models and climate scenarios. The largest increase in carbon storage would occur under the A1B climate scenario simulated by the NCAR climate model. Generally, the A1B scenario would result in more carbon sequestration than A2 and B1 scenarios; and the projected climate condition by the NCAR model would result in more carbon sequestration than other climate models.
Apoptosis and the liver: Relevance for the hepato-biliary-pancreatic surgeon

Cell death by apoptosis is thought to be involved in various pathophysiological situations involving the liver. Indeed, an understanding of apoptosis is becoming increasingly helpful for understanding disease and for patients' care. In this article, we review current scientific and clinical concepts of apoptosis, including death factors such as Fas ligand and tumor necrosis factor, apoptotic signal transduction mechanisms, and the role of intracellular proteinases called caspases. We also discuss apoptosis in the liver, as related to ischemia/reperfusion injury, cholestasis, and cancer, circumstances which physicians often face in the field of the liver surgery.
Heterogeneous Integration of Silicon and AlGaInAs for a Silicon Evanescent Laser

We report a novel laser architecture, the silicon evanescent laser (SEL), that utilizes a silicon waveguide and offset AlGaInAs quantum wells. The silicon waveguide is fabricated on a Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) wafer using a CMOScompatible process, and is bonded with the AlGaInAs quantum well structure using low temperature O2 plasma-assisted wafer bonding. The optical mode in the SEL is predominantly confined in the passive silicon waveguide and evanescently couples into the III-V active region providing optical gain. This approach combines the advantages of high gain III-V materials and the integration capability of silicon technology. Moreover, the difficulty of coupling an external laser source is overcome as the hybrid waveguide can be self-aligned to silicon-based passive optical devices. The SEL lases continuous wave (CW) at 1568 nm with a threshold of 23 mW. The maximum single-sided fiber-coupled CW output power is 4.5 mW. The SEL characteristics are dependent on the silicon waveguide dimensions resulting in different confinement factors in the III-V gain region.
Assisting Scientists with Complex Data Analysis Tasks through Semantic Workflows.

To assist scientists in data analysis tasks, we have developed semantic workflow representations that support automatic constraint propagation and reasoning algorithms to manage constraints among the individual workflow steps. Semantic constraints can be used to represent requirements of input datasets as well as best practices for the method represented in a workflow. We demonstrate how the Wings workflow system uses semantic workflows to assist users in creating workflows while validating that the workflows comply with the requirements of the software components and datasets. Wings reasons over semantic workflow representations that consist of both a traditional dataflow graph as well as a network of constraints on the data and components of the workflow.
On the Information Content of Diagnostic Ultrasound

Echo signals in medical ultrasound are rich in information about tissue composition and structure. But not all of this information is readily apparent from the image. For example, the average size, density and organization of microscopic tissue structures which may be obtained from the first- and second-order statistical properties of the data are difficult to visualize directly from the image. Yet these acoustic parameters have been shown to be sensitive indicators of changes brought on by disease processes in the liver and spleen (Fellingham and Sommer 1984, Insana et al. 1987), and therefore make good classifiying features for tissue characterization. Realizing the full potential of these features requires the use of pattern recognition techniques in order to minimize classification errors due to measurement uncertainty and patient variability.
Aestivation of Phrydiuchus spilmani, a Weevil Attacking Salvia verbenaca

A small weevil, Phrydiuchus spilmani Warner, that attacks the crowns of Salvia verbenaca L., aestivates near the trunks of small trees among graminaceous plants sheltered from the sun.
STUDIES ON TRANSLOCATION OF IMMUNOGLOBULINS ACROSS INTESTINAL EPITHELIUM

We adapted the peroxidase-labeled antibody method to localization of immunoglobulins and the secretory component (SC) in human intestinal mucosa at the light and electron microscopic levels. Modifications of the method included (1) the use of digitonin in the first wash step of tissues fixed in periodate-lysine-paraformaldehyde; (2) double coating of glass slides with gelatin and egg albumin before application of cyostat sections, and (3) inactivation of endogenous peroxidase by periodic acid treatment of cyostat sections. With these improvements, tissue morphology was well preserved; antigenicity of immunoglobulins and SC was retained; penetration of labeled antibodies into cellular compartments was complete; and confusion at the light microscopic level between peroxidase-containing cells and cells stained with peroxidase-labeled antibodies was avoided.
Supporting Reform-Oriented Secondary Science Teaching Through the Use of a Framework to Analyze Construction of Scientific Explanations

The Next-Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for a different approach to learning science. They promote three-dimensional (3D) learning that blends disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts and scientific practices. In this study, we examined explanations constructed by secondary science teacher candidates (TCs) as a scientific practice outlined in the NGSS necessary for supporting students’ learning of science in this 3D way. We examined TCs’ ability to give explanations that include explicit statements of underlying reasons for natural phenomena, as opposed to simply describing patterns or laws. In their methods courses, TCs were taught to organize explanations into a what/how/why framework, where what refers to what happens in specific cases (data or observations); how refers to how things usually happen and is equivalent to patterns or laws; and why refers to causal explanations or models. We examined TCs’ ability to do this spontaneously and in a resource-rich environment as a first step in gauging their preparedness for NGSS-aligned teaching. We found that (1) the ability of TCs to articulate complete and accurate causal scientific explanations for phenomena exists along a continuum; (2) TCs in our sample whose explanations fell on the upper end of this continuum were more likely to provide complete and accurate explanations even in the absence of support from explicit standards; and (3) teacher candidate’s ability to construct complete and accurate explanations did not correlate with cross-course performance or academic major. The implications of these findings for the preparation of teachers for NGSS-based science instruction are discussed.
Modeling the cost and performance of early identification protocols.

This is the first in a series of three papers concerned with the early identification of hearing loss. In this paper, a simple model is presented that permits the calculation of the performance and cost of early identification protocols. In the second paper (Turner, in press), this model is used to compare four early identification protocols that differ in hearing screening strategies. The third paper (Turner, in press) examines the factors that influence the early identification protocol. The model described in this paper is sufficiently general to accommodate most early identification strategies including those that meet the goal of identification and habilitation by 6 months . The model measures protocol performance using hit rate, false alarm rate, and selected posterior probabilities . The model also calculates two measures of the financial cost. One measure reflects the cost of implementing the protocol; the other reflects the cost-effectiveness of the protocol. The parameters required by the model are also specified and are based on published clinical data. The model is provided to help audiologists design and select early identification protocols that are optimum for their particular clinical situation .
Intracellular pH modulates cytosolic free magnesium in cultured chicken heart cells.

To assess the role of pH in cellular Mg homeostasis, cytosolic pH (pHi) was manipulated by the NH4Cl prepulse technique; pHi, cytosolic Mg2+ (Mgi), and cytosolic Ca2+ (Cai) were measured fluorometr...
CHEMOTHERAPY AND RADIATION FOR THE TREATMENT OF NON–SMALL-CELL LUNG CANCER: A Critical Review

SUMMARY Lung cancer remains the most common fatal malignancy, so even modest therapeutic advances are potentially beneficial to large numbers of patients. For patients with regional nodal metastases identified at thoracotomy, adjuvant chemotherapy may be of benefit and additional clinical trials are in progress. Locally advanced disease is present in over a third of patients at diagnosis. For patients with marginally resectable tumors, the preliminary results of the neoadjuvant chemotherapy trials are encouraging and may result in an improvement in the 15% 5-year survival in this group. For patients with locally advanced and unresectable tumors, several but not all studies suggest that the combination of chemotherapy and radiation produces better results than radiation alone. Additional trials are needed to clarify these results. In addition, better methods are needed to maintain local control of unresected tumors. Hyperfractionated radiation schedules and concurrent administration of radiosensitizing chemotherapy drugs appear to be the most promising leads. Effective systemic treatment for patients with disseminated disease remains elusive. Several new classes of drugs, especially taxol and the topoisomerase I poisons, are being introduced and have rekindled hope for improved treatment of this large group of patients.
Exposure to flood hazards in Miami and Houston: are Hispanic immigrants at greater risk than other social groups?

Although numerous studies have been conducted on the vulnerability of marginalized groups in the environmental justice (EJ) and hazards fields, analysts have tended to lump people together in broad racial/ethnic categories without regard for substantial within-group heterogeneity. This paper addresses that limitation by examining whether Hispanic immigrants are disproportionately exposed to risks from flood hazards relative to other racial/ethnic groups (including US-born Hispanics), adjusting for relevant covariates. Survey data were collected for 1283 adult householders in the Houston and Miami Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and flood risk was estimated using their residential presence/absence within federally-designated 100-year flood zones. Generalized estimating equations (GEE) with binary logistic specifications that adjust for county-level clustering were used to analyze (separately) and compare the Houston (N = 546) and Miami (N = 560) MSAs in order to clarify determinants of household exposure to flood risk. GEE results in Houston indicate that Hispanic immigrants have the greatest likelihood, and non-Hispanic Whites the least likelihood, of residing in a 100-year flood zone. Miami GEE results contrastingly reveal that non-Hispanic Whites have a significantly greater likelihood of residing in a flood zone when compared to Hispanic immigrants. These divergent results suggest that human-flood hazard relationships have been structured differently between the two MSAs, possibly due to the contrasting role that water-based amenities have played in urbanization within the two study areas. Future EJ research and practice should differentiate between Hispanic subgroups based on nativity status and attend to contextual factors influencing environmental risk disparities.