cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Use of Statin Therapy to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk in Older Patients

Background. Cardiovascular disease is the principal cause of mortality in older individuals, and more than 80% of deaths due to coronary heart disease or stroke occur in patients over 65 years of age. Hyperlipidemia is one of the main modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Current guidelines recommend the use of statins to reduce low-density lipoprotein cholesterol to appropriate targets based on an individual's cardiovascular risk, and clearly state that older age should not be a barrier to treatment. Despite extensive evidence demonstrating clear benefit with statin therapy in older individuals, this population remains chronically undertreated. Scope. This paper provides an overview of the current evidence available regarding the efficacy and safety of statin therapy to reduce cardiovascular risk in older patients. We use hypothetical case studies to address some of the questions frequently posed by physicians responsible for the cardiovascular health of older patients. Conclusions. Various factors may account for the failure to provide appropriate treatment, including a lack of awareness of clinical benefits and perceived safety issues. However, if current guidelines are followed and older patients treated to appropriate LDL-C goals, the likelihood of cardiovascular events will be reduced in this high-risk population. Employing an evidence-based approach to the management of cardiovascular risk in older patients is likely to yield benefits in terms of overall cardiovascular burden.
Quality of life variables in surgical trials.

Abstract Clinical trials are commonly performed in surgery to assess the efficacy of one or more treatments. Many therapies result in only partial or temporary improvement, rather than cure. Others sharply affect the quality of patients' lives or of their deaths. For most interventions, it is important to document effects on quality of life as well as morbidity and mortality rates. Yet, a review of the literature reveals that very few surgical trials consider quality of life variables as outcome measures. Surgical investigators in areas like cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, end stage renal disease, and cardiac disease have examined quality of life issues extensively using a variety of scales and indices. However, most studies on quality of life are hampered by poor design and inadequate methods of assessment. Failure to evaluate quality of life variables prevents the recognition and full use of potentially beneficial therapies and the rejection of potentially harmful ones.
Ohmic contact characterization of AlGaN/GaN device layers with spatially localized LEEN spectroscopy

Abstract Low energy electron-excited nano-luminescence (LEEN) spectroscopy has been used to correlate higher intensities of deep level emissions with higher ohmic contact values on AlGaN/GaN device layers. Deep level defect emissions in the AlGaN layers have also been identified by LEEN as a signature of uncharacteristically high sheet resistances for a given wafer. The spectral features observed locally at the ohmic contact region are compared with direct electrical measurements of the same device structures. Ohmic contacts formed by annealing Ti/Al/Ni/Au at 800 °C for 30 s in nitrogen range from 1.0×10−6 to 1.0×10 −4 Ω cm2 (0.2–3.9 Ω mm), with average sheet resistance values ranging from 650 to 2275 Ω /□ as Al mole fraction decreases. The depth dependent characterization capacity of LEEN allows the density of defect emissions to be assigned to particular interfaces. For these samples, the deep level emissions found at 2.20 and 2.60–3.15 eV found near the surface of the sample while the defect emissions associated with high sheet resistance are found to be in the AlGaN layer itself. Unprocessed material shows that samples with the lowest amounts of midgap luminescence produce the lowest contact resistance. This information can be used to determine the outcome of device fabrication prior to contact formation.
Serological Studies of Peptostreptococci Using an Indirect Fluorescent Antibody Test

Members of the genus Peptostreptococcus are frequent isolates from periodontal lesions. A study was undertaken for determination of the serological relationships of oral and non-oral strains of several species of this genus. Eighty-nine strains of peptostreptococci representing seven species were tested by means of an indirect fluorescent antibody technique (IFA), with rabbit antisera to Peptostreptococcus anaerobius ATCC 27337, Peptostreptococcus micros VPI 2618-A, and Peptostreptococcus productus ATCC 27340. Each antiserum showed positive fluorescence when reacted with homologous cells. When anti-P. micros VPI 2618-A serum was added to suspensions of P. micros ATCC 33270 and clinical isolates of P. micros in the IFA, positive fluorescence was observed to a titer of 1:64 with 26 out of 29 strains. Positive fluorescence was also seen when P. anaerobius VPI 5737 and clinical isolates of P. anaerobius were tested with anti-P. anaerobius ATCC 27337 serum; a titer of at least 1:64 was observed in 10 out of 14 strains. These results support the presence of two serological groups of P. anaerobius, rabbit anti-P. anaerobius ATCC 27337 serum reacting with Group II organisms. No interspecies cross-reactivity was observed except with four strains of Peptostreptococcus magnus, which reacted with several antisera as well as with normal rabbit serum and the saline controls. These results indicate that rabbit antisera and the use of an IFA are useful in the identification of P. anaerobius and P. micros from oral lesions.
Frequency shifts in emission and absorption by resonant systems ot two-level atoms

Abstract The frequency shifts in emission and absorption arising from resonant many-body interactions in a system of two-level atoms are discussed from several points of view: (1) in the language of superradiance, Dicke states, quantum electrodynamics and perturbation theory; (2) in the classical-path treatment of gaseous emission, with emphasis on the impact approximation; (3) by means of diagrams related to the temperature-Green's function formalism; (4) in the semiclassical model using the macroscopic Bloch vector; (5) through ordinary classical electromagnetic theory in a linear medium.
Physician and enrollee knowledge of Medicaid coverage for tobacco dependence treatments.

Abstract Background The 2000 Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guideline, Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence , recommends health insurance coverage for tobacco-dependence treatments proven effective in helping smokers to quit. Two states with comprehensive coverage for tobacco-dependence treatments in their Medicaid programs were selected to document awareness of coverage for tobacco-dependence treatments among primary care physicians who treat Medicaid enrollees and Medicaid-enrolled smokers. Methods In 2000, surveys were conducted among Medicaid smokers ( n =400) and physicians ( n =160) to document knowledge of covered tobacco-dependence treatments under state Medicaid programs in two states with comprehensive coverage. Results Only 36% of Medicaid-enrolled smokers and 60% of Medicaid physicians knew that their state Medicaid program offered any coverage for tobacco-dependence treatments. Physicians were more than twice as likely to know that pharmacotherapies were covered compared to counseling. Conclusions Greater effort is needed to make Medicaid smokers and physicians aware that effective pharmacotherapies and counseling services are available to assist in treating tobacco dependence. Additionally, future research should explore the methods that are most effective in informing patients and providers regarding covered benefits.
A constrained integration (CINT) approach to solving partial differential equations using artificial neural networks

This paper presents a novel constrained integration (CINT) method for solving initial boundary value partial differential equations (PDEs). The CINT method combines classical Galerkin methods with a constrained backpropogation training approach to obtain an artificial neural network representation of the PDE solution that approximately satisfies the boundary conditions at every integration step. The advantage of CINT over existing methods is that it is readily applicable to solving PDEs on irregular domains, and requires no special modification for domains with complex geometries. Furthermore, the CINT method provides a semi-analytical solution that is infinitely differentiable. In this paper the CINT method is demonstrated on two hyperbolic and one parabolic initial boundary value problems with a known analytical solutions that can be used for performance comparison. The numerical results show that, when compared to the most efficient finite element methods, the CINT method achieves significant improvements both in terms of computational time and accuracy.
Detection of environmental viruses in sludge: enhancement of enterovirus plaque assay titers with 5-iodo-2'-deoxyuridine and comparison to adenovirus and coliphage titers

Abstract Enteroviruses present in the primary sludge of two wastewater treatment plants were quantitated by plaque assay using a continuous African green monkey kidney cell line (BGM). Incubation of BGM monolayers with 5-iodo-2′-deoxyuridine (50 μg ml−1) for 4 days prior to use enhanced the number of PFU detected in 10 of 10 concentrated sludge samples. Coliphages also present in these samples were detected using as hosts E. coli C and E. coli A-19, an Hfr strain. E. coli C coliphage titers were consistantly higher than E. coli A-19 titers, and were 102-103 times higher than the enterovirus titers obtained with BGM cells. Adenoviruses present in the sludge samples were detected by immunofluorescence assay. Interestingly, those results suggested that adenoviruses were also more numerous than enteroviruses (as detected by either IDU-treated or untreated BGM plaque assay).
Validity and reliability of an oral care practice survey for the orally intubated adult critically ill patient.

Background Oral care is proposed as key to preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia, yet little work has been done to measure reliably current oral care practices nationwide. Five critical care oral care surveys are described in the literature; however, their usefulness is diminished because of insufficient validity or reliability measures and sampling limitations that limit generalizability. Objectives The aim of this study was to present a survey instrument for oral care practices for the orally intubated adult critically ill patient and the attendant psychometric properties. Methods The oral care survey items were designed to elucidate information on the type and frequency of each specific task for oral care (toothbrushes, foam swabs, suctioning, and chlorhexidine gluconate oral rinse). The oral care survey was evaluated for face validity, content validity, and stability reliability psychometric properties. Results Face validity was established by an expert panel. Content validity was assessed using content validity index (CVI) and pairwise comparison. The overall CVI score was 97.5% agreement. A pairwise comparison for the three raters was computed. The strongest rating agreements were between Rater 1 and Rater 2 (.86) and Rater 1 and Rater 3 (.83). Given these interrater reliability scores and the overall 97.5% CVI score, minor revisions were made for survey items as recommended by the reviewers' comments. Test-retest reliability (.82-.86) showed a less than 10% difference between all items from Time 1 and Time 2. Implications This survey, tested for validity and reliability, can be used in future critical care settings as an audit tool for oral care practices performed by nurses.
Cholinergic receptors of the central nervous system of insects

Abstract Concentrated particulate preparations were made from housefly heads and the nerve cords of the American and Madagascar cockroaches. Macromolecules present in these preparations bound 3 H-nicotine reversibly and with high affinities (3, 1.1, and 1.5 μ M , respectively). Binding of ACh to the macromolecules in the preparation of houseflies and Madagascar cockroach was determined by inhibition of 3 H-nicotine binding, and was found to be of much lower affinity than that of nicotine. There was a 2 × purification of the nicotine-binding macromolecules in this particulate preparation of housefly heads as compared to an earlier preparation of supernatant of 100,000 g . Nicotine binding to this particulate preparation was blocked also by d -tubocurarine and atropine demonstrating the nicotinic and muscarinic nature of these nicotine-binding macromolecules. Prior exposure of the preparation to trypsin and chymotrypsin reduced nicotine binding by 58 and 68%, respectively. The relationship of these nicotine and ACh binding macromolecules to ACh-receptors is discussed.
Consent and equipoise, the crucial ethical issues in randomised clinical trials.

Randomised clinical trials are widely accepted as the gold standard of clinical research. They seem to be the only means of conclusively establishing a relationship between an intervention and an observed outcome. However, randomisation by definition rules out individual choice of a treatment option. The justification of randomising is that the different options are in equipoise, and therefore no patient is at a disadvantage in the trial. There is concern whether equipoise, in a strict sense, is at all possible. This would require that there is no evidence as to the comparative efficacy of the treatments to be tested. This condition is in contrast to an honest null hypothesis. Several suggestions have been made to solve the tension of the equipoise requirement and are discussed in this paper. The second important condition for randomised clinical trials is to obtain informed consent from the patient. Valid consent requires that it is given voluntarily by a competent person who is adequately informed.
Vitamin E in the treatment of chemotherapy-induced mucositis.

Abstract purpose: To determine the efficacy of vitamin E in the treatment of chemotherapy-induced mucositis in patients with malignancy. patients and methods: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of topical vitamin E in the treatment of oral mucositis in patients receiving chemotherapy for various types of malignancy. A total of 18 patients, 17 of whom had solid tumors and one with acute leukemia, were included in this study. Lesions were observed daily prior to and 5 days after topical application of either vitamin E or placebo oil. results: Six of nine patients receiving vitamin E had complete resolution of their oral lesions. In eight of nine patients who received placebo, complete resolution of their oral lesions was not observed. This difference is statistically significant ( p = 0.025 by Fisher's exact test). No toxicity was observed in this study. conclusion: These results suggest that vitamin E may be an effective therapy in patients with chemotherapy-induced mucositis.
The effect of oligomycin and factor C on respiration linked transhydrogenase in depleted submitochondrial particles.

Summary The stimulation of the energy dependent transhydrogenase (reduction of NADP by NADH) driven by oxidative energy was linear with oligomycin in the ammonia-EDTA depleted (AE) submitochondrial particle but sigmoidal in the more severely depleted ammonia-Sephadex-urea (ASU) and silicotungstate (STA) particles. The optimal activities were quite high even in the more depleted particles. The mitochondrial energy transfer factor C (Factor C) stimulated this activity of the AE particle alone and in combination with oligomycin. Oligomycin also induced substantial activity in the ASU particle in NAD reduction by succinate driven by ascorbatetetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine oxidation in the presence of antimycin. The results show that these particles are not significantly depleted in components involved in the production of the non-phosphorylated high energy intermediate from respiration.
Exclusive representation in public employment: A public choice perspective

Public sector unionization has grown rapidly in recent years, and research has suggested that among the reasons for such growth is legislation granting special privileges to public employee unions. This paper examines one form of legislative privilege, exclusive representation, from a public choice perspective. It is shown that exclusivity reduces employees’ freedom of choice, increases the welfare of union leaders at the expense of union members, limits employment opportunities to “outsiders,” entrenches the monopoly provision of public services, and generates conflict and instability in labor relations.
Corn leaf nitrate reductase--a nontoxic alternative to cadmium for photometric nitrate determinations in water samples by air-segmented continuous-flow analysis.

Development, characterization, and operational details of an enzymatic, air-segmented continuous-flow analytical method for colorimetric determination of nitrate + nitrite in natural-water samples is described. This method is similar to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency method 353.2 and U.S. Geological Survey method 1-2545-90 except that nitrate is reduced to nitrite by soluble nitrate reductase (NaR, EC 1.6.6.1) purified from corn leaves rather than a packed-bed cadmium reactor. A three-channel, air-segmented continuous-flow analyzer-configured for simultaneous determination of nitrite (0.020-1.000 mg-N/L) and nitrate + nitrite (0.05-5.00 mg-N/L) by the nitrate reductase and cadmium reduction methods-was used to characterize analytical performance of the enzymatic reduction method. At a sampling rate of 90 h(-1), sample interaction was less than 1% for all three methods. Method detection limits were 0.001 mg of NO2- -N/L for nitrite, 0.003 mg of NO3-+ NO2- -N/L for nitrate + nitrite by the cadmium-reduction method, and 0.006 mg of NO3- + NO2- -N/L for nitrate + nitrite bythe enzymatic-reduction method. Reduction of nitrate to nitrite by both methods was greater than 95% complete overthe entire calibration range. The difference between the means of nitrate + nitrite concentrations in 124 natural-water samples determined simultaneously bythe two methods was not significantly different from zero at the p = 0.05 level.
Modern Medicine and Traditional Culture: Confrontation on the Malay Peninsula

It has become commonplace to say that the world today is characterized by change. Naturally, people in previous ages have also had to adapt to changed circumstances, but the changes today seem more violent — there are more changes per unit of time.
Bis‐Pyrazolones as azodienophiles

Lead tetraacetate oxidations of 2,3,3a,4,6,7,7a,8-octahydrobenzo[1,2-c:4,5-c']dipyrazolo-3,7-dione and 2,3,3a,4,5,5a,6,7-octahydrobenzo[2,1-c:3,4-c']dipyrazolo-3,6-dione in the presence of 1,3-cyclopentadiene, 1,3-cyclohexadiene, 2,3-dimethyl-1,3-butadiene or 1,4-diphenyl-1,3-butadiene have yielded octahydrodipyridazino[1,2-a:1,2-a']benzo[1,2-c:4,5-c']dipyrazolo-6,14-diones and octahydrodipyridazino[1,2-a:1,2-a']benzo[2,1-c:3,4-c']dipyrazolo-6,9-diones. In one of the eight Diels-Alder reactions two isomeric products were isolated.
Age-related hearing loss: the status of Schuknecht's typology.

Purpose of review Recent developments in age-related hearing loss (ARHL) are reviewed with an emphasis on their relation to the framework advocated by Schuknecht. More than a classification scheme, Schuknecht's typology incorporates testable hypotheses about the bases of ARHL. Since there is presently no widely accepted competing framework, research in this area should be aimed at supporting, modifying, or replacing Schuknecht scheme. Only recently has our understanding of cellular changes and gene/environment interactions in ARHL achieved the level needed for hypothesis-driven experiments in this area. Recent findings New findings largely support or amplify aspects of Schuknecht's framework. Consideration of the kinds of cells involved in ARHL has broadened to include more nonsensory and supporting cells. This should provide more complete criteria for comparing models, and for diagnosing particular forms of ARHL. Newly discovered genetic effects and more detailed comparisons have imparted mechanistic significance to the often-noted similarity between sensory ARHL and noise injury. Recent comparative studies, and studies of cell replacement in the cochlear lateral wall, suggest variations in the relation between strial and ligament pathology, and indicate why cell loss occurs during aging. Mouse models carrying mutations affecting processes that may give rise to ARHL are receiving increased attention, even as detailed studies bolster support for mice as valid ARHL models. Summary Using Schuknecht's framework as a guide, basic research can now seek to model specific forms of ARHL by combining genetic defects and appropriate environmental conditions. Identification of distinct risk factors for age-related degeneration of organ of Corti, afferent neurons, and stria would verify a key tenet of Schuknecht's scheme, and point the way to interventions.
Capillary electrophoresis for drug analysis

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a high resolution separation technique which is amenable to a wide variety of solutes, including compounds which are thermally degradable, non-volatile and highly polar, and is therefore well suited for drug analysis. Techniques which have been used in our laboratory include electrokinetic chromatography (ECC), free zone electrophoresis (CZE) and capillary electrochromatography (CEC). ECC, which uses a charged run buffer additive which migrates counter to osmotic flow, is excellent for many applications, including, drug screening and analyses of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine samples. ECC approaches include the use of micelles and charged cyclodextrins, which allow for the separation of complex mixtures. Simultaneous separation of acidic, neutral and basic solutes and the resolution of optical isomers and positional isomers are possible. CZE has been used for the analysis of small ions (cations and anions) in heroin exhibits. For the ECC and CZE experiments performed in our laboratory, uncoated capillaries were used. In contrast, CEC uses capillaries packed with high performance liquid chromatography stationary phases, and offers both high peak capacities and unique selectivities. Applications include the analysis of cannabinoids and drug screening. Although CE suffers from limited concentration sensitivity, it is still applicable to trace analysis of drug samples, especially when using injection techniques such as stacking, or detection schemes such as laser induced fluorescence and extended pathlength UV.© (1999) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
The OAI-PMH NASA technical report server

The NASA technical report server (NTRS) is now based on the open archives initiative protocol for metadata harvesting (OAI-PMH). This metadata harvesting version of NTRS represents a significant improvement over the previous distributed searching implementation of NTRS. In addition to being an OAI-PMH service provider, the new version of NTRS is also an OAI-PMH aggregator. This allows NTRS to serve as a one-stop shop for harvesting of NASA metadata.
Adaptive connection admission control for mission critical real-time communication networks

We report our work on adaptive connection admission control in real-time communication networks. Much of the existing work on connection admission control (CAC) specifies the QoS parameters as fixed values and does not exploit the dynamic fluctuations in resource availability. We take an innovative approach. First, we allow an application to specify QoS over a range, rather than fixed values. Second and more importantly, we design, analyze, and implement CAC modules that, based on QoS specified over a range, adaptively allocate system resources to connections. Delay analysis is an integral part of connection admission control. Our adaptive CAC uses an efficient delay analysis method to derive a closed form solution for end-to-end delay of messages in a connection. Our adaptive CAC improves the system's performance in terms of the probability of admitting connections and the QoS offered to the connections.
““America's Chinese””: Anti-Communism, Citizenship, and Cultural Diplomacy during the Cold War

With the onset of the Cold War, the federal government became concerned with the impact that the status and treatment of Chinese Americans as a racial minority in American society had on perceptions of the United States among populations in the Asian Pacific. As a response, the State Department9s cultural diplomacy campaigns targeting the Pacific Rim used Chinese Americans, including Betty Lee Sung (writer for the Voice of America) and Jade Snow Wong and Dong Kingman (artists who conducted lectures and exhibitions throughout Asia). By doing so, the government legitimated Chinese Americans9 long-standing claims to full citizenship in new and powerful ways. But the terms on which Chinese Americans served as representatives of the nation and the state——as racial minorities and as ““Overseas Chinese””——also worked to reproduce their racial otherness and mark them as ““non-white”” and foreign, thus compromising their gains in social standing.
Quantitative studies on the production, destruction, and elimination of chorionic gonadotropin in normal pregnancy

Abstract The levels of chorionic serum gonadotropin in normal pregnancy have been determined in 112 patients in terms of International Units. A characteristic curve for this hormone has been obtained, agreeing in both pattern and absolute values with those reported by others. An analysis of the factors which might influence the characteristic hormonal pattern indicates that the renal function with respect to the hormone remains constant during normal pregnancy, that the extrarenal disposal of the hormone accounts for more than 90 per cent of the circulating hormone, and that probably the fluctuating character of hormonal level in serum or urine depends entirely on changes in rates of production of hormone during pregnancy.
Operation of X-Cell — an intelligent cell control system

Abstract Cell control forms an important layer in a hierarchy of control. A cell will typically contain several machine tools, robots and allied material handling equipment. The function of a cell controller is to co-ordinate and control the equipment within the cell so as to achieve high degrees of efficiency. A requirement is that the cell controller should function in real-time. The need to maintain high cell efficiency while having relatively low computation times poses a severe requirement on the design of a cell controller. Previous cell controller predominantly either suffer from relatively long computation times or else handle only a portion of the cell control functions. The aim of this paper is to give a detailed description of the operation of X-Cell, a cell control system that uses object-oriented programming to map cell control functions onto objects. The language used is Scheme, with Scheme Object Oriented Programming System (SCOOPS) providing the object-oriented paradigm. The paper gives a brief overview of the architecture of X-Cell, together with a more detailed description of each of the three main modules: the scheduler, operation dispatcher, and monitor. A brief description of the X-Cell emulator is then given. Finally, an example scenario using X-Cell is given. The overall result is a cell control system that can be adapted for use in a wide variety of manufacturing cells.
Double–Single Stuck-at Faults: A Delay Fault Model for Synchronous Sequential Circuits

In this paper, we describe a new transition fault model for synchronous sequential circuits. Similar to previous models, it addresses the fact that delayed signal-transitions span multiple clock cycles when a test sequence is applied at-speed. It addresses this issue in a different way than earlier models. The model requires the activation of single stuck-at faults with opposite stuck-at values on the same line g at consecutive time units. In addition, it requires the detection of both faults (as single faults) at the same or later time units. Due to the activation of the faults at consecutive time units, there is a 1 rarr 0 or 0 rarr 1 transition at the fault site g. Since both faults are eventually detected, a deviation from the expected value at either the first or second time unit due to a delay fault on g or due to transitions that started earlier and did not settle will be (or is likely to be) detected. The model can be used together with other models to increase the confidence that delay defects will be detected. As an added advantage, the model helps detect other types of faults that require two-pattern tests, such as transistor stuck-open faults.
Teaching “trans issues”: An intersectional and systems‐based approach

The author advocates teaching trans issues from an intersectional systems-based perspective. This framework helps students to understand that “trans issues” are about more than individual identity, body modification, and a need for tolerance. This perspective can also help to move “trans issues” out of its current position as a “special topic” within the margins of a few select disciplines.
Corrigendum to the paper ‘Typical limit sets of critical points for smooth interval maps’

In the second paragraph on page 30 [ 1 ], we wrote ‘Making a critical point precritical decreases the number of points about which we have to worry’. Indeed, we stopped worrying about these points so much, that we forgot to mention them in several statements. This includes Lemma 3.13, Theorem 3.14 and the Main Theorem. Thus, the possibility of critical points being precritical (not only sinking or recurrent) has to be added to those statements. In particular, the Main Theorem should read as follows.
Temporal patterns of atrial arrhythmia recurrences in patients with implantable defibrillators: implications for assessing antiarrhythmic therapies.

Temporal Patterns of Atrial Arrhythmias.Introduction: The statistical measures commonly used to assess therapies for recurrent atrial arrhythmias (such as time to first recurrence) often assume a uniformly random pattern of arrhythmic events over time. However, the true temporal pattern of atrial arrhythmia recurrences is unknown. The aim of this study was to use linear and nonlinear analyses to characterize the temporal pattern of atrial arrhythmia recurrences in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators. Methods and Results: The time and date of atrial tachyarrhythmias recorded in 65 patients with combined atrial and ventricular defibrillators were used to construct a probability density function (PDF) and a model of a Poisson distribution of arrhythmic events for each patient. Average patient age was 66 ± 10 years and follow-up was 7.8 ± 4.8 months. A total of 10,759 episodes of atrial tachyarrhythmias were analyzed (range 43 to 618 episodes per patient). The PDF fit a power law distribution for all 65 patients, with an average r2= 0.89 ± 0.08. The PDF distribution differed significantly from the model Poisson distribution in 47 of 65 patients (P = 0.0002). Differences from the Poisson distribution were noted for patients both taking (30/43 patients; P < 0.015) and not taking (17/22 patients; P < 0.017) antiarrhythmic drugs. Median time between atrial arrhythmia detections for all 65 patients was 10.8 minutes. Conclusion: In implantable cardioverter defibrillator patients, the temporal pattern of frequent recurrences of atrial tachyarrhythmias usually is characterized by a power law distribution. The unique statistical properties of this type of distribution should be considered in designing outcome measures for treatment of atrial tachyarrhythmias.
The design of fuel efficient automotive hypoid gear lubricants

Synthesised lubricant base stocks and the performance additives used in hypoid gear lubricants can both be chemically designed to give improved hypoid gear efficiency and, therefore, better vehicle fuel economy than provided by conventional lubricants In this paper, the authors review, relative to a widely used SAE 90 grade mineral oil-based lubricant, the changes in gear efficiency which have been documented using certain classes of synthesised lubricants. These advantages are described in terms of (a) EPA City and Highway Cycle efficiencies, (b) absolute data over a wide temperature range under four selected speed/torque combinations, and (c) absolute changes in inefficiency compared to the mineral oil product. Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids have been studied. The bulk oil temperature at which a specific lubricant gives maximum efficiency is dependent on both gear operating conditions and on the chemical composition of the lubricant.
Young Humeans: the role of emotions in children's evaluation of moral reasoning abilities.

Three experiments investigated whether children in grades K, 2, and 4 (n = 144) view emotional comprehension as important in solving moral dilemmas. The experiments asked whether a human or an artificially intelligent machine would be best at solving different types of problems, ranging from moral and emotional to nonmoral and pragmatic. In Experiment 1, children in all age groups indicated that a human would be superior to a computer not only at comprehending emotions, but also at solving moral dilemmas. In Experiment 2, older children also indicated that a human could solve moral dilemmas better than a ‘robot’ with human-like perceptual and physical abilities. Experiment 3 further demonstrated that these effects were not solely due to a bias towards humans. Thus, children as young as age 5 view emotional understanding as an important element for moral, but not for nonmoral, reasoning, suggesting that the basis for Humean intuitions emerges early in life.
Fived: a service-based architecture implementation to innovate at the endpoints

Security functions such as access control, encryption and authentication are typically left up to applications on the modern Internet. There is no unified system to implement these critical features. The access control that does exist on the network doesn't integrate well with user authentication systems, so access control decisions are based on the network location of a computer rather than the privilege level of its user. Just about every layer of the Internet provides optional encryption, yet most data on the Internet continues to be sent in the clear. Application developers routinely make mistakes in security critical code leading to bugs that manifest in worms, malware or provide a doorway for actively malicious attackers. We propose a unified session layer that integrates trustworthiness features into the core of the network. This would reverse the fortunes of security on the Internet and lead us toward a safer, more secure global network.
An enhanced deconvolution procedure for retrieving the seismic moment tensor from a sparse network

Summary In theory, a single horizontally polarized seismometer can be used to find the six independent elements of the seismic moment tensor of a buried point source, provided that the instrument is neither longitudinally nor transversely polarized. Also, two vertically polarized seismometers can be used, provided that the epicentre does not lie on the great circle through the two instruments. These results form the theoretical basis for a procedure for retrieving the source mechanism from a sparse seismographic network.
RAS, FLT3, and TP53 mutations in therapy-related myeloid malignancies with abnormalities of chromosomes 5 and 7.

Oncogenic mutations in the KRAS2, NRAS, or FLT3 gene are detected in more than 50% of patients with de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML). RAS mutations are also prevalent in de novo myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), especially chronic myelomonocytic leukemia and juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia. However, few studies have examined these genetic lesions in therapy-related myeloid malignancies. Monosomy 7/del(7q) and monosomy 5/del(5q) represent the most common cytogenetic abnormalities in therapy-related MDS and AML (t-MDS/t-AML) and are strongly associated with prior exposure to alkylating agents. Mutational analysis of bone marrow specimens from a well-characterized cohort of 26 t-MDS/t-AML patients with abnormalities of chromosomes 5 and/or 7 revealed 3 with RAS mutations. Further analyses of 23 of these cases uncovered one FLT3 internal tandem duplication and five TP53 mutations. The four patients with RAS or FLT3 mutations had monosomy 7, including one with abnormalities of chromosomes 5 and 7. One specimen demonstrated mutations in both KRAS2 and TP53. RAS and FLT3 mutations, which are thought to stimulate the proliferation of leukemia cells, appear to be less common in t-MDS/t-AML than in de novo AML, whereas TP53 mutations are more frequent. (C) 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Special infant formulas.

Breast-feeding is still the optimal mode of feeding for the normal full-term infant. At the present time, no infant formula has been developed that can reproduce the immunologic properties, digestibility, and trophic effects of human milk. The nutritional content of infant formulas has come a long way since 1849 when Baron Justus van Liebig stated that all living tissue, including food, was composed of different proportions of carbohydrate, fat, and protein. This resulted in the first commercially available human milk substitute, Baron von Liebig9s Soluble Food, which was available in the United States by 1869.1 In 1884 Dr A.V. Meigs of Philadelphia published the chemical analysis of human and cow9s milk that has served as the basis for modern infant formulas.2 The stimulus for this early research for a substitute for human milk was based upon the recognition that not all infants have access to human milk. Infants fed with substitute foods did not thrive well, so attention was turned to the nutritional content of infant feeding mixtures. This emphasis remains to the present time, even though technology has developed in this past decade so that investigators are beginning to understand the importance to the growing infant of other factors such as the immunologic and trophic components of milk.
Pax3 and Hippo Signaling Coordinate Melanocyte Gene Expression in Neural Crest

Summary Loss of Pax3, a developmentally regulated transcription factor expressed in premigratory neural crest, results in severe developmental defects and embryonic lethality. Although Pax3 mutations produce profound phenotypes, the intrinsic transcriptional activation exhibited by Pax3 is surprisingly modest. We postulated the existence of transcriptional coactivators that function with Pax3 to mediate developmental functions. A high-throughput screen identified the Hippo effector proteins Taz and Yap65 as Pax3 coactivators. Synergistic coactivation of target genes by Pax3-Taz/Yap65 requires DNA binding by Pax3, is Tead independent, and is regulated by Hippo kinases Mst1 and Lats2. In vivo, Pax3 and Yap65 colocalize in the nucleus of neural crest progenitors in the dorsal neural tube. Neural crest deletion of Taz and Yap65 results in embryo-lethal neural crest defects and decreased expression of the Pax3 target gene, Mitf . These results suggest that Pax3 activity is regulated by the Hippo pathway and that Pax factors are Hippo effectors.
Habituation of glomerular responses in the olfactory bulb following prolonged odor stimulation reflects reduced peripheral input

Following prolonged odor stimulation, output from olfactory bulb (OB) mitral/tufted (M/T) cells is decreased in response to subsequent olfactory stimulation. Currently, it is unclear if this decrease is a function of adaptation of peripheral olfactory sensory neuron (OSN) responses or reflects depression of bulb circuits. We used wide-field calcium imaging in anesthetized transgenic GCaMP2 mice to compare excitatory glomerular layer odor responses before and after a 30-s odor stimulation. Significant habituation of subsequent glomerular odor responses to both the same and structurally similar odorants was detected with our protocol. To test whether depression of OSN terminals contributed to this habituation, olfactory nerve layer (ON) stimulation was used to drive glomerular layer responses in the absence of peripheral odor activation of the OSNs. Following odor habituation, in contrast to odor-evoked glomerular responses, ON stimulation-evoked glomerular responses were not habituated. The difference in response between odor and electrical stimulation following odor habituation provides evidence that odor response reductions measured in the glomerular layer of the OB are most likely the result of OSN adaptation processes taking place in the periphery.
Student Perceptions of Auditor Responses to Evidence of Suspicious Activities: An Experimental Assessment

This study assessed student perceptions of auditor responses to evidence that a client failed to respond appropriately to suspicious activities that could indicate money laundering. Subjects were presented with a series of randomized cases in which partner type (new vs. experienced), firm type (regional vs. international) and audit fee materiality (not material, material to the local office only, material to the firm) were manipulated asked to indicate their perceptions of the likelihood that an audit partner would discuss such evidence with the client, and the likelihood that the issue would be disclosed by the auditor. Both partner type and audit fee materiality was found to have significant effects on perceived likelihoods.
Psychosocial Issues, Sexuality, and Cancer

It is well-documented in the literature that psychosocial factors play a significant role in the development and progress of, adaptation to, and survival from cancer. Cancer and its treatment often lead to psychiatric co-morbidity, precipitate spiritual crisis, compel lifestyle changes, and disrupt family and social relationships. One area most affected by cancer is quality of life, including sexual functioning. Cancer treatment may increase risk of infertility, difficulty with intimacy and sexuality, employment discrimination, increased general distress, and fear of recurrence. In addition to describing the psychosocial impact of cancer and its treatment, and discussing how psychosocial factors affect sexuality and sexual functioning, this paper concludes with options available to manage the sexual problems and related psychosocial issues in order to restore optimal sexual functioning.
Cultural democracy in an era of internationalism and subnationalism: a new model for effective cultural integration in Korea

The context for this paper is the rapid globalization and international migration occurring across the globe. An insightful metaphor for this era is “the death of distance”. The influx of new migrants into countries such as Korea, Japan, Thailand, and the United States presents many challenges for those societies. In Minnesota, people of Karen culture from Myanmar (Burma) are arriving daily and the state currently has over 100,000 individuals of Hmong ethnicity. With its incredibly low fertility rate (lowest among OECD countries), Korea is necessarily needing to import large numbers of workers from diverse countries of the Asia-Pacific region such as Vietnam and the Philippines which presents many challenges for Korean educators and policy-makers. In the first part of the paper as background, the different genres of people moving across national borders are carefully differentiated. Among the major groups are so-called gastarbeiter (guest workers) and those working in another country for a defined period,...
Perspective of understanding for Children’s Privacy and Security

The thirteen years of age requirement to open any social network account does not guarantee that children under this age would not have access to social networks such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, or YouTube just to mention some. The reason for this is that children want to be a part of this technological revolution, and create these accounts by lying about their age, or are aid by their parents without realizing the consequences this action might bring. While these social networks disclose that they delete information belonging to children under 13 from their databases as soon as they are aware of it, it is questionable if they are doing enough to protect children’s privacy , and if they should be liable for any incident related to this issue since such is widely known, but apparently neglected. Unfortunately, by social network administrators not reinforcing the age requirement policy, and launching features that makes its user’s personal information available to third parties, are indirectly exposing children with fraudulent accounts at risk of being victims of more serious ethical and social issues such as cyber bulling, and sex crimes. While it is determined that social network has little control over this issue, all which is left to do, is to provide parents with education and control of their children’s social network activity interaction to protect their privacy and keep them safe.
Application of membrane separation technique in brewing industry

Membrane separation has many advantages compared to traditional separation methods, such as energy-economic, pollution-free, safety, with no needs of filter aids, easy to use and so on. Therefore, it has many prospective applications in brewing industry. The application of membrane separation technique in the aspects on production of alcohol-free or low-alcoholic beer and draft beer, improvement of non-biological stability and replacement of diatomite for filtrating was introduced.
Habitat Use by Telemetered Alabama Shad During the Spawning Migration in the Lower Flint River, Georgia

AbstractThe Alabama Shad Alosa alabamae is an anadromous clupeid that lives in the northern Gulf of Mexico and ascends freshwater rivers in spring to spawn. Populations have experienced substantial range-wide declines due to habitat alteration. The largest known population of Alabama Shad is found in the Apalachicola River in northwest Florida. To assess their movement during the spawning migration, 250 Alabama Shad were fitted with acoustic or radio transmitters, depending on year, and transported upstream from Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam during 2010–2014. The 153 relocations from 126 individual fish revealed congregation areas that were suspected to be spawning locations. Alabama Shad selected limerock boulder substrate, avoided limerock fine and rocky substrates and used sandy substrate in the same proportion as its availability. Alabama Shad upstream movement was greatest during April through mid-May. Movements ≥ 20 km were generally clustered together over a period of a few days, with ~90% of such move...