cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Initiating a Couples Group

Couples-group therapy is thought of as a helpful treatment for most couples, and as a primary treatment for married couples who have longstanding problems of a rigid and chronic nature. It is most useful for couples for whom blaming, power plays, and suppression of anger are prominent modes of interaction. Couples-group therapy is helpful to these couples because the group is a microcosm of society, provides a wide variety of coping styles, and offers observable alternatives to dysfunctional behaviors. A group dynamic also decreases the couple's sense of isolation. Issues relevant to starting a couples group--indications, contraindications, policies and balancing a group--are discussed. Clinical vignettes from ongoing open-ended couples groups are presented to illustrate the points made.
Tryptamine, Tryptophan and Nociception

Rats implanted with a permanently indwelling intrathecal (IT) cannula and naive mice were injected IT with tryptamine (TA) or tryptophan to determine their effects on nociception using various nociceptive tests. Tryptamine IT in rats has been found to decrease the nociceptive threshold measured using the tail flick assay. This effect is also elicited by tryptophan and is potentiated by coadministration or pretreatment with methysergide. In mice, TA IT enhanced the number of writhes evoked in the writhing assay but did not alter the latency of response in the hot plate assay. Tryptophan IT in mice also enhanced the number of writhes, but only after pretreatment with methysergide.
An improved method for the sealed-tube zinc graphitization of microgram carbon samples and 14C AMS measurement

Abstract Advances in accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and environmental chemistry techniques have increased demand for the natural abundance 14C analysis of ultra-small (
Moving Between Conjunctive and Disjunctive Normal Forms

As discussed in Chap. 1 (on inequality systems with logical connectives), disjunctive sets have many equivalent forms, of which the two extremes are the conjunctive normal form (CNF) and the disjunctive normal form (DNF). Although these two normal forms are at the opposite ends of the variety of equivalent forms, they share a property not common to all forms: each of them is an intersection of unions of polyhedra.
Design and Implementation of a Lifestyle Medicine Curriculum in Undergraduate Medical Education

While scientific evidence demonstrates conclusive associations between unhealthy lifestyle behaviors and increased morbidity and mortality related to noncommunicable chronic diseases (NCDs), most physicians are not formally taught the root causes of NCDs nor how to counsel patients regarding their lifestyle behaviors for disease prevention and treatment. Since its inception in 2012, the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville has designed, developed, and implemented an innovative, formalized lifestyle medicine curriculum to provide required undergraduate medical student training with a graduating program-level goal to "Deliver total health care using lifestyle medicine to prevent and treat morbidity and mortality related to chronic diseases." The process was guided by the Association of American Medical Colleges' Core Entrustable Professional Activities (required for graduates entering residency) and aimed to satisfy the Quadruple Aim components of better outcomes, lower cost, improved patient experience, and improved physician experience. Four essential instructional design phases, Analysis, Design, Development, and Evaluation, were used as systematic steps to create and deploy the curriculum. This article describes the evidence-based approach used and offers guidance to other undergraduate medical schools that may wish to implement lifestyle medicine training to improve physicians' medical knowledge and clinical skills for optimum health care.
Integrated molecular and clinical staging defines the spectrum of metastatic cancer

The elimination of metastases remains one of the major challenges in the curative treatment of patients with cancer. Therefore, most patients with metastatic disease typically receive systemic agents, which prolong survival and alleviate symptoms but are rarely curative. The oligometastatic paradigm challenges the prevailing view of metastasis as a disseminated process and proposes the existence of a spectrum of biological virulence within metastatic lesions. In this Perspectives article, we present evidence supporting our hypothesis that integrated clinical and molecular classification of metastases along the spectrum of disease influences the staging and treatment of patients with cancer.
Strategic Storytelling: When Narratives Help Versus Hurt the Persuasive Power of Facts:

Stories are known to be powerful persuasive devices. Stories can capture attention, evoke emotion, and entrance listeners in a manner that reduces resistance to a message. Given the powerful persuasive potential of stories, one might deduce that it is best to embed one's facts within a story. In contrast to this perspective, the present research suggests that coupling facts with stories can either enhance or undermine persuasion. Specifically, to understand when facts benefit from the use of stories, this work provides a deeper examination of how counterargument reduction-a common explanation for the unique persuasive capabilities of stories-operates. Across three experiments, evidence is found for when it is more effective to embed facts within a story versus to use facts alone.
Gas chromatography system constant database for 52 wall-coated, open-tubular columns covering the temperature range 60–140 °C

Abstract The solvation parameter model is used to characterize the separation properties of 52 fused-silica, wall-coated, open-tubular columns at 5 evenly-spaced intervals over the temperature range 60 to 140 °C. Statistical and principal component factor analysis are used to identify stationary phases of similar separation characteristics considered near selectivity equivalent and stationary phases with specific differences in selectivity for method development. The column database includes examples of all common stationary phase chemistries and manufacturing processes (surface preparation, deactivation, surface bonding, and immobilization). The influence of monomer composition on the separation properties of poly(siloxane) and poly(ethylene glycol) stationary phases is fully characterized and used to demonstrate where gaps in the selectivity space exist in the column database. Interfacial adsorption was observed as an important retention mechanism for biscyanopropylsiloxane-containing stationary phases for n-alkanes but for other compounds and stationary phases gas-liquid partition appears to be the dominant retention mechanism. There is poor agreement between McReynolds phase constants and the system constants of the solvation parameter model for the characterization of stationary phase selectivity.
Rectus femoris intrasubstance tear in a collegiate football kicker and its mechanism.

Rectus femoris muscle belly tears have not been reported in the literature to our knowledge. This is a case of an isolated rectus femoris intrasubstance tear in a healthy college football kicker po...
A phytosterol-enriched saw palmetto supercritical CO 2 extract ameliorates testosterone-induced benign prostatic hyperplasia by regulating the inflammatory and apoptotic proteins in a rat model

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a pathological condition affecting older men. BPH complications often lead to deterioration in the quality of life. Serenoa repens (Saw Palmetto) is used for treating lower urinary tract infections in traditional medicine. This study was performed to compare the efficacy of β-sitosterol enriched saw palmetto oil (VISPO) and conventional saw palmetto oil (SPO) extracted using supercritical fluid extraction, in alleviating the BPH complications using testosterone-induced BPH model rats. The animals received testosterone (5 mg/kg s.c.) with or without SPO and VISPO (200 and 400 mg/kg b.w.) or Finasteride (1 mg/kg b.w.) p.o. for 28 days. At the end of the experiment, overnight fasted animals were euthanized, blood samples collected for serum analysis of testosterone. Prostate tissue histomorphology was examined by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. Western blot analysis was performed using prostate tissue homogenates. VISPO exhibited superior efficacy compared to SPO as evident from the significant decrease in prostate weight to body weight ratio, serum testosterone level and increase in growth inhibition of prostate tissue compared to BPH group (p < 0.001). Histological examination of prostate tissue samples showed that VISPO treatment was comparatively better than SPO in improving the hyperplastic patterns. Further, VISPO significantly regulated the expression of inflammatory and apoptotic marker proteins in BPH rats. Our data provide experimental evidence that β-sitosterol enriched saw palmetto oil could be higher efficacious in treating the BPH complications compared to the conventional saw palmetto oil preparations.
High-throughput quantitation of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in a single-dilution homogeneous assay

Abstract SARS-CoV-2 emerged in late 2019 and has since spread around the world, causing a pandemic of the respiratory disease COVID-19. Detecting antibodies against the virus is an essential tool for tracking infections and developing vaccines. Such tests, primarily utilizing the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) principle, can be either qualitative (reporting positive/negative results) or quantitative (reporting a value representing the quantity of specific antibodies). Quantitation is vital for determining stability or decline of antibody titers in convalescence, efficacy of different vaccination regimens, and detection of asymptomatic infections. Quantitation typically requires two-step ELISA testing, in which samples are first screened in a qualitative assay and positive samples are subsequently analyzed as a dilution series. To overcome the throughput limitations of this approach, we developed a simpler and faster system that is highly automatable and achieves quantitation in a single-dilution screening format with sensitivity and specificity comparable to those of ELISA. One sentence summary Protein complementation enables mix-and-read SARS-CoV-2 serology that rivals sensitivity and specificity of ELISA but excels in throughput and quantitation.
Spinal Cord Injury/Disorder Function, Affiliate Stigma, and Caregiver Burden in Turkey.

Introduction How spinal cord injury and disorder (SCI/D) function, caregiver affiliate stigma, and caregiver depression and burden are associated has not been adequately studied. In Turkey, a region with a developing healthcare infrastructure, SCI/D caregivers may have a higher responsibility of care given limited resources and may experience greater psychological distress associated with caregiving than in more developed healthcare systems. Objective To examine whether SCI/D function, caregiver affiliate stigma, and caregiver burden and depression in Turkey are associated with each other. Design Cross-sectional survey design. Setting Participants were recruited from the Turkish Spinal Cord Injury Foundation and from the SCI/D service at Istanbul Physical Rehabilitation Hospital. Participants 82 SCI/D caregivers in Turkey. Interventions Not applicable. Main outcome measures Barthel Index, Affiliate Stigma Scale, Zarit Burden Interview, and Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Results In an initial path model using bootstrapping, SCI/D function did not predict affiliate stigma, and once this path was trimmed, a final path model suggested that SCI/D function and affiliate stigma predicted caregiver burden, which in turn predicted caregiver depression. Burden partially mediated the effects of both SCI/D function and affiliate stigma on caregiver depression. All paths in the final model were statistically significant, and the fit indices suggested good fit. Conclusions Because affiliate SCI/D function and stigma exerted a cascade of statistical effects across caregiver burden and depression, interventions should be developed and tested to help caregivers cope with low SCI/D function and combat affiliate stigma, preventing it from exerting harmful effects. Previously developed caregiver interventions should be translated and culturally adapted for a Turkish context, given that the burden and depression outcomes these interventions target are highly relevant for Turkish SCI/D caregivers. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
U.S. v. Davis and Prof. Cain’s Rewritten Opinion: An Intersectional Argument for Capping Section 1041

Tax cases are about rich people. Given the demographic distribution of income and wealth in the United States, that means tax cases are mostly about rich White people. The tax issue in Davis can be stated simply: when shall transfers of appreciated assets incident to divorce be taxed? But thinking about these rules only from the point of view of the taxpayers themselves, and what is “fair” inter se or as compared to others similarly situated, may distract us from seeing broader issues also properly considered in tax policy. When we take into account not just sex/gender and marital status, but also race and class, the focus on one sort of inequality (between divorcing couples in different states) obscures another that is larger and more far-reaching (race-based wealth inequality). To address this, I suggest an amendment to Section 1041, a limit on tax-free transfers of appreciated assets incident to divorce. The cap is intended to balance desirable flexibility and asset preservation at divorce with legitimate fiscal and equity concerns in what at least aspires to be a progressive tax system.
The relationship between spatial access and modern contraceptive use: is proximity to a healthcare facility a determinant of use among women in Kinshasa, DRC?

Background: Spatial access has a direct effect on health service utilization in many settings. Distance to health facility has proven to affect family planning (FP) service use in many Sub-Saharan countries. Studies show that women who reside closer to facilities offering family planning services are more likely to use modern contraceptives. However, researchers often test the theory of distance decay. This study analyzed the significance of proximity to family planning services, service availability, and quality of family planning services on modern contraceptive use in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Methods: We used a pool of four rounds of facility- and population-based survey data in Kinshasa from PMA2020 between 2014 and 2016. We used GPS coordinates to calculate the distance between the health facilities and households. We tested if women who live closer to service delivery points with higher level of availability and quality are more likely to use modern contraceptives or less likely to have unmet need for contraceptive services. Results: 10,968 women were interviewed over four rounds of data collection. Our findings show that living closer to an SDP is not a determinant of modern contraceptive use or having unmet need for FP services. Lack of cognitive access, economic barriers, bypassing the closest facility, and sociocultural norms are strong barriers for women in Kinshasa to use modern contraceptives. Proximity to quality services did not necessarily result in increased FP use among women of reproductive age living in Kinshasa, thus suggesting that a bypass phenomenon may occur when obtaining modern contraceptive services. Conclusions: This study notes that barriers other than proximity to access may be substantial determinants of contraceptive use or unmet need. More research should be conducted that directly measures multidimensional components of access in order to interpret women’s contraceptive seeking behaviors in urban areas of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Competitive Control

We consider control from the perspective of competitive analysis. Unlike much prior work on learning-based control, which focuses on minimizing regret against the best controller selected in hindsight from some specific class, we focus on designing an online controller which competes against a clairvoyant offline optimal controller. A natural performance metric in this setting is competitive ratio, which is the ratio between the cost incurred by the online controller and the cost incurred by the offline optimal controller. Using operator-theoretic techniques from robust control, we derive a computationally efficient state-space description of the the controller with optimal competitive ratio in both finite-horizon and infinite-horizon settings. We extend competitive control to nonlinear systems using Model Predictive Control (MPC) and present numerical experiments which show that our competitive controller can significantly outperform standard $H_2$ and $H_{\infty}$ controllers in the MPC setting.
Coverage is Not Binary: Quantifying Mobile Broadband Quality in Urban, Rural, and Tribal Contexts

Cellular network performance does not cleanly generalize. A variety of factors, such as location, terrain, signal quality and network load, affect the performance of services delivered over LTE networks. As a result, the presence of LTE coverage does not always equate to usable service; coverage can be of poor quality, or it can be congested and difficult to access. Given that reliance on LTE networks for Internet connectivity has exploded, it is critical to understand the quality of experience for applications delivered over these networks in a variety of scenarios. To this end, we develop a robust measurement suite that we use to conduct a unique measurement campaign in tribal, rural, congested urban and uncongested urban regions, representing a variety of under-provisioned, congested, and well-provisioned operational LTE networks run by four major providers. Our analysis confirms that the performance of LTE networks in tribal and rural areas is typically worse than even heavily congested urban networks. More specifically, in the regions that we study, LTE networks in under-provisioned (tribal/rural) areas have $ 9\times$ poorer video streaming quality, $ 10\times$ higher video start-up delay, undergo more than $ 10\times$ the number of resolution switches, and lead to more than $ 2\times$ slower Web browsing experience as compared to urban deployments. We show that throughput and latency are $ 11\times$ and $ 3\times$ worse in tribal and rural locations, despite identical LTE carrier subscription plans.
Acetylcholine transporter--vesamicol receptor pharmacology and structure.

Publisher Summary Acetylcholine (ACh) is stored by synaptic vesicles at about 100-fold higher concentration than present in the cytoplasm. As vesicular ACh is free in solution, energy input is required to establish the gradient of concentration. This is accomplished in a process having at least two macromolecular components that reside in the vesicular membrane. The first component is a proton-pumping ATPase known as a V-type ATPase. It pumps protons into the synaptic vesicle, thus acidifying the vesicle core to about pH 5.4. The enzyme is found in the vacuolar-type intracellular organelles, and it is evolutionally related to the mitochondria1 ATPase. The second component is the ACh transporter (AChT). It exchanges one or more vesicular protons for cytoplasmic ACh, thus accomplishing secondary active transport of ACh. The ACh exhibits a transport Michaelis dissociation constant (KM) of about 0.3 mM, which is less than the 4 mM that can be estimated for the concentration of ACh in the cytoplasm. Proton-exchanging transporters appear to account for vesicular storage of all of the classical neurotransmitters. As a class, these transporters are poorly characterized. A structure-activity study has demonstrated that the potency of vesamicol analogues, as assessed by inhibition of active transport, is highly dependent upon the structure of the analogue. This chapter reports the results of the recent ligand-interaction experiments that were directed toward making a choice between models 1 and 2, and toward the identification of the macromolecular structures of the AChT and VR.
Chapter 22 Limits on the Role of Rhodopsin and cGMP in the Functioning of the Vertebrate Photoreceptor

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses limitations in the role of rhodopsin and cyclic guanosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cGMP) in the functioning of the vertebrate photoreceptor. A number of chemical changes and reactions are initiated by light in the vertebrate rod photoreceptor. Some of these include multiple conformation changes in rhodopsin, decreases in the cGMP concentration of the photoreceptor, the phosphorylation of rhodopsin and the dephosphorylation of other protein components of the cell, and possible changes in the internal calcium concentration of the cell. Except for the known role of rhodopsin as the first step in the visual process and the proven role of calcium in the process of adaptation in the invertebrate photoreceptor, there is no widespread agreement on the physiological role of any of the listed chemical changes and reactions. The simplest interpretation of the data obtained on the light-induced concentration changes in cGMP is that these changes are not directly involved in any of the electrophysiological processes of the photoreceptor, but they are more likely to be involved in some of the maintenance processes.
El espejo en la cruz. Una reflexión medieval sobre las cruces atriales mexicanas

Hasta ahora, la interpretacion habitual acerca de la iconografia de las cruces atriales mexicanas del siglo xvi las relacionaba con la misa de San Gregorio Magno. La frecuente presencia de Arma Christi en la decoracion de las cruces, sin embargo, podria relacionarlas mas bien con las doctrinas escatologicas de la baja Edad Media europea. Este articulo muestra muchos casos en que tal conexion, mas que verosimil, es francamente notoria.
Crafting the Witch: Gendering Magic in Medieval and Early Modern England

Preface Acknowledgments Chapter One: "Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?": An Introduction to Medieval and Early Modern Magic Chapter Two: Gender-Blending: Transformative Power in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Arthurian Literature Chapter Three: From Rags to Riches, Or the Step-Mother's Revenge: Transformative Power in Late Medieval Arthurian Romances Chapter Four: The Lady is a Hag: Three Writers and the Transformation of Magic in Sixteenth-Century England Chapter Five: Hags on Film: Contemporary Echoes of the Early Modern Wicked Witch Notes Bibliography Index
Can Your Spouse Accurately Report Your Activities? An Examination of Proxy Reporting

The 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and was conducted as a supplement to the May 2008 Current Population Survey (CPS). A big challenge in being a supplement to the CPS is that respondent selection procedures for the SPPA supplement differ from the CPS procedures. The CPS is administered to any person 16 or older who is able to report employment information on all persons 16 years or older in the household. While the SPPA collects information on all adults 18 or older, it is felt that many of the questions on the survey require self reports rather than proxy reports. In 2002, the Census Bureau interviewers attempted to complete the SPPA supplement with all persons 18 or older, but after 4 call attempts they accepted proxy reports. To make the SPPA a better fit for the CPS protocol, rather than attempt to interview all adults in the household, the 2008 SPPA accepted proxy responses for spouses or partners (for many of the questions). This change in design makes it much easier to measure the impact of proxy reports, given that they were collected by design rather than out of necessity. This research explores the extent to which proxy reporting may have resulted in over or under reporting participation.
Movement and Recovery Analysis of a Mouse-Replacement Interface for Users with Severe Disabilities

The Camera Mouse is a mouse-replacement interface for users with movement impairments. It tracks a selected body feature, such as the nose, eyebrow or finger, through a web camera and translates the user's movements to movements of the mouse pointer. Occasionally, the Camera Mouse loses the feature being tracked, when the user moves quickly or out of frame, or when the feature is occluded from view of the web camera. A new system has been developed to recognize when the tracked feature has been lost and to locate and resume tracking of the originally selected feature. In order to better understand the directions of movement which are most and least comfortable for users with disabilities, a game interface was developed to test the accuracy and speed of users across different trajectories. The experiments revealed that trajectories most comfortable for a user with severe cerebral palsy were along diagonal axes.
“Economic Stabilization of the Family: The Standard of Living”: Harry L. Lurie’s Call for an Adequate Family Income in the 1920s

The 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty, initiated by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, provides an occasion for reflection on social workers’ efforts to address poverty in past years. The 19...
Interfacing Laboratory Instruments to Multiuser, Virtual Memory Computers

Incentives, problems and solutions associated with interfacing laboratory equipment with multiuser, virtual memory computers are presented. The major difficulty concerns how to utilize these computers effectively in a medium sized research group. This entails optimization of hardware interconnections and software to facilitate multiple instrument control, data acquisition and processing. The architecture of the system that was devised, and associated programming and subroutines are described. An example program involving computer controlled hardware for ultrasonic scan imaging is provided to illustrate the operational features.
A calibrated fracture process zone model for thin film blistering

The purpose of this work was to examine the feasibility of using fracture process zone models for extracting the adhesive fracture energy of thin films on a thick substrate from circular blister experiments that involve a substantial amount of inelastic deformation in the thin film. The interface produced by vapor depositing polyimide on aluminum formed the basis of the experiments that were conducted. The experiments were conducted in volume control while the pressure history and the corresponding three dimensional blister shape were measured. The analysis accounted for the nonlinear kinematics and material behavior of the polyimide film and included a traction-separation law for the interface. The traction-separation law for the interface was calibrated in an iterative manner by comparing measured pressure-volume responses and crack opening displacements. The adhesive fracture energy obtained from the selected traction-separation law was reasonable considering that fracture occurred in an interphase region. It was bounded by values that were obtained from elastic analyses (with updated kinematics) of the type performed by Gent and Lewandowski (1987) and Chu et al. (1992 a, b).
Polycrystal plasticity as applied to the problem of in-plane anisotropy in rolled cubic metals

A fundamental property of cubic metals is that slip occurs on close-packed planes in close-packed directions, which for the f.c.c. case results in 12 /111/ slip systems. This crystallographic restriction on the plastic behavior causes significant crystallographic preferred orientation (texture), hence anisotropy, to develop once a large strain has been imposed. Moreover, whereas annealing can generally ''reset'' the flow stress and ductility, it does not generally randomize the texture: therefore most metallic materials have some degree of texture and consequent anisotropy. The problem of earing in deep drawing can be simply related to the variation of r-value with angle from the rolling direction, i.e. the in-plane anisotropy of the sheet. The r-value can be calculated from a given texture with the use of a polycrystal plasticity model. The Los Alamos polycrystal plasticity (LApp) code is based on the Bishop-Hill single crystal yield surface (SCYS) but with a mildly strain-rate sensitive modification where the stress exponent is of order 30. This modification of the SCYS removes the ambiguity of slip system selection inherent in the Bishop-Hill formulation and permits other phenomena to be treated such as latent hardening and pencil glide. The use of LApp to simulate texture formation and consequentmore » anisotropy is described. Experimental textures in the form of X-ray pole figures are analyzed with a Williams-Imhof-Matthies-Vinel (WIMV) code, as implemented by Kallend, to give full orientation distributions (OD's). The OD obtained this way contains approximately 5000 points on a 5/degree/ by 5/degree/ lattice; this is used to assign weights to approximately 1000 discrete orientations for calculations with LApp. 11 refs., 2 figs.« less
Improving instruction locality with just-in-time code layout

This paper describes Just-In-Time code layout (JITCL), a new method for improving the locality of an instruction reference stream by selecting the order of procedures in the text segment during program execution. By determining procedure placement dynamically, this method provides an optimized procedure layout without requiring profile data. For UNIX-style workloads, JITCL provides improvements in instruction cache performance comparable to profile-based layout strategies, while avoiding the requirement of profile data. The late nature of this optimization makes it possible to implement procedure orderings across executable and DLL boundaries, overcoming a limitation of current profile-based techniques. Simulations using Etch [RVL97] on Windows NT show that inter-module JITCL commonly reduces the memory footprint of executable text by 50%.
Use of Protamine for Anticoagulation During Carotid Endarterectomy: A Meta-analysis.

Importance Protamine sulfate can be administered at the conclusion of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) to reverse the anticoagulant effects of heparin and to limit the risk for postoperative bleeding. Protamine use remains controversial owing to concern for increased thrombotic complications with its use. Objective To review the evidence for and against protamine use, both in its association with increased thrombotic complications and with decreased bleeding. Data Sources We searched Medline (1946-2014), EMBASE (1966-2014), Cochrane Library (1972-2014), clinical trial registries (World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry and clinicaltrials.gov), and abstracts from conferences of the Society of Vascular Surgery (2002-2014) and American Heart Association Scientific Sessions (1980-2014) in November 2014. No language restrictions were applied. Study Selection We included clinical trials and observational studies comparing reversal of heparin with protamine sulfate vs no reversal in patients undergoing carotid revascularization and reporting stroke during hospitalization. Of 360 records screened, 12 studies (3%) of CEA were eligible for data pooling. Data Extraction and Synthesis Two reviewers extracted data and assessed quality. Random-effects models were used to summarize relative risks (RRs). Main Outcome and Measure Stroke after CEA. Results We included 12 observational studies involving 10 621 patients in the meta-analysis. Event rates did not differ significantly between patients who received protamine vs those who did not for the following outcomes: stroke (RR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.55-1.29; I 2 = 15%; 9 studies), myocardial infarction (RR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.53-1.51; I 2 = 0%; 3 studies), or mortality (RR, 0.9, 95% CI, 0.62-1.29; I 2 = 0%; 7 studies). The use of protamine was associated with a significant decrease in major bleeding complications requiring reoperation (RR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.39-0.84; I 2 = 32%; 10 studies). Conclusions and Relevance Based on available evidence, the use of protamine following CEA is associated with a reduction in bleeding complications, without increasing major thrombotic outcomes, including stroke, myocardial infarction, or death.
Post-liberation Feminism and Practices of Freedom

Most feminist theorists over the last forty years have held that a basic tenet of feminism is that women as a group are oppressed. The concept of oppression has never had a very broad meaning in liberal discourse, however, and with the rise of neo-liberalism since 1980 it has even less currency in public debate. This article argues that, while we may still believe women are oppressed, for pragmatic purposes Michel Foucault’s concept of practices of freedom is a more effective way to characterize feminist theory and politics.
Dietary Copper Deficiency Reduces Iron Absorption and Duodenal Enterocyte Hephaestin Protein in Male and Female Rats

The mechanism for reduced Fe absorption in Cu deficiency is unknown, but may involve the intestinal Cu-dependent ferroxidase, Hephaestin (Hp). A 2 x 2 factorial experiment was designed to include Cu-deficient (CuD) and Cu-adequate (CuA) male and female rats. Weanling rats of both sexes were randomly divided into 2 groups each and fed an AIN-93G diet with low (<0.3 mg/kg; CuD) or adequate Cu (5.0 mg/kg; CuA). After 19 d, rats were fed 1.0 g each of their respective diets labeled with 59 Fe. Retained 59 Fe was monitored by whole-body counting for 12 d. Then, rats were killed for 59 Fe and Fe measurements in blood and various organs. Duodenal enterocytes were isolated for Western blot analysis of Hp. Signs of Cu and Fe deficiency were evident in both sexes. CuD male rats absorbed 60% as much Fe as CuA male rats (P < 0.001), whereas CuD female rats absorbed 70% (P < 0.001) as much as CuA females, with no difference between the sexes. Hp protein in enterocytes of CuD rats of both sexes was only 35% of that in CuA rats. The biological half-life of 59 Fe in CuD rats was only 50% (P < 0.001) of that in CuA rats, suggesting that Fe turnover was faster in CuD rats than CuA rats. Serum, spleen, and kidney Fe were lower (P < 0.001) in CuD rats than in CuA rats. Duodenal mucosa and liver Fe were higher (P < 0.01) in CuD male rats than CuA rats. Duodenal Fe but not liver Fe was higher in CuD female rats than CuA rats. Liver Fe was much higher (<0.001) overall in females than males. The data suggest that Cu deficiency reduces Fe absorption in rats through reduced expression of duodenal Hp protein.
Mechanisms for epigallocatechin gallate induced inhibition of drug metabolizing enzymes in rat liver microsomes.

Abstract Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) inhibits drug metabolizing enzymes by unknown mechanisms. Here we examined if the inhibition is due to covalent-binding of EGCG to the enzymes or formation of protein aggregates. EGCG was incubated with rat liver microsomes at 1–100 μM for 30 min. The EGCG-binding proteins were affinity purified using m-aminophenylboronic acid agarose and probed with antibodies against glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), actin, cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A1, CYP1A2, CYP2B1/2, CYP2E1, CYP3A, catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and microsomal glutathione transferase 1 (MGST1). All but actin and soluble COMT were positively detected at ≥1 μM EGCG, indicating EGCG selectively bound to a subset of proteins including membrane-bound COMT. The binding correlated well with inhibition of CYP activities, except for CYP2E1 whose activity was unaffected despite evident binding. The antioxidant enzyme MGST1, but not cytosolic GSTs, was remarkably inhibited, providing novel evidence supporting the pro-oxidative effects of EGCG. When microsomes incubated with EGCG were probed on Western blots, all but the actin and CYP2E1 antibodies showed a significant reduction in binding at ≥1 μM EGCG, suggesting that a fraction of the indicated proteins formed aggregates that likely contributed to the inhibitory effects of EGCG but were not recognizable by antibodies against the intact proteins. This raised the possibility that previous reports on EGCG regulating protein expression using GAPDH as a reference should be revisited for accuracy. Remarkable protein aggregate formation in EGCG-treated microsomes was also observed by analyzing Coomassie Blue-stained SDS-PAGE gels. EGCG effects were partially abolished in the presence of 1 mM glutathione, suggesting they are particularly relevant to the in vivo conditions when glutathione is depleted by toxicant insults.
Continuous monitoring of plant growth using fiber-optic interferrometric sensing

Dendrometers, dendrographs and dry weight measurements have been successfully used for measurements of plant growth. These sensors have been used with Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT) based data logging systems for continuous monitoring. In this paper the preliminary results for a prototype technique is presented as a proof of concept for the continuous monitoring of plant growth using an approach based on fiber-optic interferrometric sensing. The advantage of this sensing technique over the others is the ability to measure and analyze with very high sensitivities such as micron changes in dimensions allowing measurements over short time spans. The sensor was mounted on a Dracaena Sanderiana (Lucky Bamboo) shoot and the change in shoot length dimensions resulted in changes in the output signal display which is in the form of interferrometric fringes. The data acquisition is performed over a long duration using labVIEW based data logging. Filtered output of the data has been presented where an attempt has been made to relate the fringes to length changes. The sensing system is nondestructive and noninvasive and has been targeted to respond to changes in stem length due to changes in plant growth parameters. The objective is to provide a measurement system to do research in optimizing plant growth in greatly reduced time spans. This form of sensing application is also applicable for monitoring the growth of plants growing at much slower rates.
Studies of electronic stopping powers using time of flight spectrometry

Electronic stopping powers have been determined by measuring the energy loss of He, O and Al particles using a time of flight (ToF) elastic recoil detection analysis set-up. In transmission geometry, the energy loss of particles in self-supporting foils of C and SiC is measured over a continuous energy range using the ToF spectrometer. By calibrating the Si detector for each channel over the measured energy region based on ToF spectrometry, the current approach eliminates much of the error associated with pulse height defects in Si detectors, and measurement uncertainties of less than 4% are achieved.
The effect of interdiffusion on the interfacial microstructure of Au-Pd

Abstract The interfacial microstructure of {001} twist interphase interfaces in gold-palladium bicrystal thin film couples has been investigated by transmission electron microscopy. Experimental results demonstrate that the character and spacing of the interfacial dislocations change with annealing. In particular the dislocations become progressively screw dominated with increasing annealing time and/or temperature, indicating that the lattice parameters change at the interface. These values approach each other due to interdiffusion with concomitant compositional changes. The structural evolution of the interfaces due to annealing was also studied. In gold-palladium couples, evidence was found for the presence of two intermediate phases. A model for the possible stages of the structural evolution during annealing is proposed, based on detailed considerations of both microstructure and diffraction observations.
Lake trophic state change and constant algal composition following dilution and diversion

Abstract As a result of adding low-nutrient dilution water and diverting sewage effluent, the trophic state of 2790 ha Moses Lake in eastern Washington, USA, changed from hypereutrophic to slightly eutrophic. Total phosphorus and chlorophyll a decreased by over 70% and apparently reached an equilibrium in 1986–1988, following the start of dilution in 1977 and diversion of sewage effluent in 1984. Transparency increase was greater than expected from chlorophyll a reduction, due to dilution of non-algal matter. However, the lake segment that received sewage is shallow and turbid due to entrainment of particulate matter by wind and carp, and therefore showed only a slight increase in transparency. In spite of the substantial trophic-state change, algal species composition remained about the same as before treatment; blue-green algae averaged more than 60% for the spring-summer period. Green algae also unexpectedly remained dominant in the lake segment that received sewage even though there was a large decrease in biomass. Persistence by green algae may be due to removal of blue greens by attachment to clay particles and sinking, thereby interfering with their buoyancy control mechanism. On the other hand, continued blue-green dominance in other segments of the lake may be due to low average free CO2 content and N/P ratios remaining at N-limiting levels. Large sediment-to-water inoculations of blue greens probably continue as well.
More Lowenheim-Skolem results for admissible sets

It is shown that ifA is a countable, admissible set and o ∈{ie53-1}, then under certain conditions, o has a model inA. In general, however, ifT is a consistent theory of {ie53-2}, Σ-definable onA, then there is an admissible setB⊇A, with the same ordinals asA, containing a model ofT.
APPRECIATING DIFFERENCE: ROY SCHAFER ON PSYCHOANALYSIS AND WOMEN

The author describes and appreciates Roy Schafer's critique of Freud's view of female psychology and his other contributions to the psychoanalytic literature on women, noting his then-novel emphasis that took into account social and cultural factors in analytic treatment. She relates the influence on Schafer's work of his ambiance in that era: the Yale University Student Health Services during the social turmoil of the 1970s (where she was his supervisee), with the university becoming coed, as well as the theoretical plurality even in the early days of the Western New England Psychoanalytic Institute.
Effect of Phosphorylated Compounds and Inhibitors on CO2 Fixation by Intact Spinach Chloroplasts

A 2-fold increase in the rate of CO9 fixation following the addition of fructose-1,6-diP. ribose-5-P, glucose-l-P, glucose-6-P, fructose-6-P or glyceric acid-3-P to a fragmented spinach chloroplast system was demonstrated by Arnon et al. (1) and Whatley et al. (22). However, there are no reports on the effect of these compounds on the rate of COO fixation by intact spinach chloroplasts. It became important to extend the work of Arnon,Whatley. and Allen to the intact chloroplast using these and other phosphorylated substances after the demonstration by Havir and Gibbs (14) that the intact chloroplast in sharp contrast to the broken chloroplast preparation possesses the complete reductive pentose-P cycle. In the present work, we report on the varying effects of a number of phosphorylated compounds, principally phosphorylated sugars, upon the uptake of COO fixation by intact spinach chloroplasts.5 We also report the effects of some of these compounds on CO, fixation in the presence of arsenite and iodoacetamide, 2 substances which inhibit the carbon cycle but appear to have little influence upon the photochemical act (8, 11). Preliminary reports of this investigation have been published (2,12).
Equivalence of the continuum limit of the generalized Rössler system and the chaotic transmission line oscillator

Abstract We demonstrate the formal equivalence of the continuum limit of the generalized Rossler system (GRS) with a chaotic transmission line oscillator. To establish the connection between these systems, we first present an electronic circuit implementation of the GRS with finite phase space dimension. The circuit consists of a ladder of discrete inductors and capacitors terminated at one end by a negative resistor and at the other with a nonlinear device. In the continuum limit, we find that the ladder of inductors and capacitors becomes a transmission line. The negative resistance and nonlinear termination produce a chaotic transmission line oscillator. This result connects two lines of inquiry in the literature on delay dynamical systems where hitherto no obvious relation was evident. We exploit this connection to confirm predictions of the divergence of the Lyapunov dimension and metric entropy for the continuum GRS made based on extrapolation from finite dimension cases [Th. Meyer, M.J. Bunner, A. Kittel, J. Parisi, Hyperchaos in the generalized Rossler system, Phys. Rev. E 56 (1997) 5069–5082].
Anatomy of a dark network: the case of the Turkish Ergenekon terrorist organization

Dark networks refer to organizations that are covert and illegal in nature. Terrorist networks, organized crime groups, arms smugglers, and conspiracy organizations can all be classified as dark networks. This paper analyzes Turkey’s Ergenekon Terrorist Organization (ETO) which is a political conspiracy network that has played a significant role in the terrorist activities within the country in the last few decades. It has features of organized crime enterprises, terrorist organizations, and Gladio type clandestine armies, but it exceeds the scope of these three. This study examines the structure of the ETO using network analysis tools and court documents as the data source. Findings indicate that the network has a concentrated structure which consists of a core and periphery group of actors. The core group has a strong connectedness with each other while the density of the relationship gets lower in the periphery group. Peripheral actors are separated into subgroups which are necessary for operational purposes and also prevalent in the literature of dark networks. An efficiency-security tradeoff, which is also widely discussed in the literature, does not take place in the ETO network because the political and legal conditions of the country allow members of the network to act comfortably as opposed to being under the threat of counter-terrorism or law enforcement efforts.
Effects of ion irradiation on thermally formed silicides in the presence of interfacial oxide

Abstract Near-noble metal (nickel, platinum and palladium) films were evaporated onto silicon substrates, the surfaces of which were slightly oxidized in an oxygen plasma. The samples were irradiated with Si + to different doses to break up the interfacial oxide. The samples were then annealed in vacuum at 400°C. For the low dose irradiated samples, the silicides formed after thermal annealing are laterally non-uniform. The interfacial oxygen profiles were found to be quite broad and to be located in the silicide. For the high dose irradiated samples, the silicides are laterally uniform. The interfacial oxygen profiles were found to be narrow and were located at the sample surface for the cases of nickel and platinum and at the silicon-silicide interface for the case of palladium. A model is proposed to explain the experimental results.