cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Differential effects of cocaine, alcohol, and nicotine dependence on olfactory evoked potentials

Olfactory evoked potentials (OEP) were elicited by odorous and nonodorous stimuli in 50 adult subjects: 26 subjects with histories of either cocaine (n = 19) or alcohol (n = 7) dependence, 10 with histories of nicotine but no other drug dependence, 2 with clinical anosmia of peripheral origin, and 12 subjects without drug or olfactory disorders. The presentation of nonodorous stimuli (i.e. a nasal air puff) did not elicit OEP component amplitude and latency differences among the groups. However, the presentation of odorous stimuli elicited a significantly smaller P1 component in the cocaine-dependent and alcohol-dependent groups than in the normal control and nicotine-dependent groups. The P1 amplitude deficit in the cocaine-dependent group is consistent with case report data associating cocaine use with lesions of the peripheral and/or central olfactory apparatus.
Ecological Risk Assessment and Ecological Epidemiology for Contaminated Sites

ABSTRACT After 20 years of development, ecological risk assessment is widely accepted. However, it is evolving in response to a variety of technical and societal pressures. First, pressure for greater simplicity and standardization arise from the expectation that risk assessments should require little time and resources but be defensible. Second, the advance of the environmental sciences and increasing awareness of the complexity of ecological responses generate pressure for greater realism. Third, the dominance of human health risk assessment generates a pressure to integrate ecological risk assessment with that dominant field. Fourth, the demand for cost-benefit analysis creates pressure for integration with environmental economics. Finally, the need to connect the practice of ecological epidemiology with risk-based decision-making creates a pressure of the formation of a single integrated ecological assessment practice.
Towards a unified scheme of cortical lamination for primary visual cortex across primates: insights from NeuN and VGLUT2 immunoreactivity

Primary visual cortex (V1) is clearly distinguishable from other cortical areas by its distinctive pattern of neocortical lamination across mammalian species. In some mammals, primates in particular, the layers of V1 are further divided into a number of sublayers based on their anatomical and functional characteristics. While these sublayers are easily recognizable across a range of primates, the exact number of divisions in each layer and their relative position within the depth of V1 has been inconsistently reported, largely due to conflicting schemes of nomenclature for the V1 layers. This conflict centers on the definition of layer 4 in primate V1, and the subdivisions of layer 4 that can be consistently identified across primate species. Brodmann’s (1909) laminar scheme for V1 delineates three subdivisions of layer 4 in primates, based on cellular morphology and geniculate inputs in anthropoid monkeys. In contrast, Hassler’s (1967) laminar scheme delineates a single layer 4 and multiple subdivisions of layer 3, based on comparisons of V1 lamination across the primate lineage. In order to clarify laminar divisions in primate visual cortex, we performed NeuN and VGLUT2 immunohistochemistry in V1 of chimpanzees, Old World macaque monkeys, New World squirrel, owl, and marmoset monkeys, prosimian galagos and mouse lemurs, and nonprimate, but highly visual, tree shrews. By comparing the laminar divisions identified by each method across species, we find that Hassler’s (1967) laminar scheme for V1 provides a more consistent representation of neocortical layers across all primates, including humans, and facilitates comparisons of V1 lamination with nonprimate species. These findings, along with many others, support the consistent use of Hassler’s laminar scheme in V1 research.
Detector and imaging systems for the gamma-ray imager/polarimeter for solar flares (GRIPS) instrument

Hard X-ray and gamma-ray emission during solar flares encode information about electron/ion dynamics and provide a proxy to deduce solar atmospheric parameters. Enhanced imaging, spectroscopy and polarimetry of HXR/gamma-ray are emissions over ~20 keV to greater than or approx. equal to 10MeV is needed to study particle transport; the Gamma-Ray Imager/Polarimeter for Solar Flares (GRIPS) instrument is designed to meet these goals. GRIPS' key technological improvements over the current solar state of the art in HXR/gamma-ray energies (RHESSI) include 3D position-sensitive germanium detectors (3D-GeDs) and a single-grid modulation collimator, the Multi-Pitch Rotating Modulator (MPRM). The 3D-GeDs allow GRIPS to reconstruct Compton-scatter tracks of energy deposition, providing enhanced background reduction and polarization measurements. Each of GRIPS' sixteen detectors has 298 electrode strips, each of which has dedicated ASIC/FPGA electronics. In GRIPS' energy range, indirect Fourier imaging provides higher resolution than focusing optics or Compton imaging techniques. The MPRM grid-imaging system has a single-grid design which provides 2x the throughput of a bigrid imaging system like RHESSI. Quasi-continuous resolution from 12.5 - 162 arcsecs is achieved by varying the grid pitch between 1 - 13mm. This spatial resolution will be capable of imaging the separate footpoints in a variety of flare sizes. In comparison, RHESSI's minimum 35 arcsec resolution at the same energy makes footpoints resolvable in only the largest flares. We discuss GRIPS' science goals, the instrument overall, and recent developments in GRIPS' detector and imaging systems. GRIPS is scheduled for an engineering flight from Fort Sumner in September 2014, followed by two long-duration balloon flights from Antarctica in 2015/16.
Amniochorion: immunologic aspects--a review.

: Exploration of trophoblast cell gene expression may assist in elucidating the mechanisms responsible for allowing genetically disparate maternal and fetal cells to coexist during pregnancy. In the extraplacental membranes, chorionic cytotrophoblast cells are in direct contact with maternal cells. In theory, paternally derived major histocompatibility antigens (HLA) expressed by the chorion cells should stimulate a graft rejection response by the mother, yet there is no evidence for lymphocytic infiltration of the membranes. The results of recent in situ hybridization, Northern blotting, and other molecular studies suggest that failure of maternal immune cells to attack the membranes may be due to the ability of chorion cells selectively to transcribe class I HLA genes and/or to process the products of those genes differently from other types of cells. Inasmuch as some tumor cells exhibit patterns of class I HLA that are similar to those of trophoblast cells, regulation of class I HLA expression may be a general mechanism used by cells expressing non-self antigens (paternally derived HLA, tumor-specific antigens) to establish residency in host tissues.
New morphological operators: BERD and BDRE

The authors briefly describe their new morphological operators of "boundary erosion region dilation (BERD)" and "boundary dilation region erosion (BDRE)". The paper covers definitions, properties, and some of the applications of these operators. BERD and BDRE operations may be used to approximately perform the job of various common morphological filtering operations with lesser computational times. BERD and BDRE operations with 2-D structuring elements may be used to construct robust connectivity preserving filters. Unlike commonly used median closing and opening operators/sup 1,5,6/, these filters do not destroy thin regions which rapidly change their direction or the regions which can not be probed by straight lines in limited directions. They have used these connectivity preserving filters for removing speckle noise from SAR images while retaining thin regions and fine details of regions boundaries. >
The biogenicity of modern terrestrial roll‐up structures and its significance for ancient life on land

Roll-up structures (Roll-ups) are sedimentary structures formed by the desiccation-mediated curling of a surface, cohesive layer into a subcylindrical, coiled shape. Their origin in terrestrial environments has been attributed to the shrinking effect of argillaceous components, while microbes are thought to be the curling agent in intertidal marine settings. Roll-ups also exist in terrestrial environments and the rock record, but their genesis is unclear. Proving a biogenic origin of terrestrial roll-ups would make them excellent biosignatures to track ancient life on land. In this study, we tested the biogenicity of modern roll-ups from arid terrestrial environments, showing that, regardless of their geographic location and textural properties, they invariably contained large and distinct cyanobacterial populations compared to adjacent, non-rolled surface soil. Cyanobacterial populations inhabiting these roll-ups were genetically diverse, but consistently dominated by filamentous, non-heterocystous forms. We could also recreate roll-ups artificially by desiccating clay and organic polysaccharide slurries on sandy substrates, and show that clay roll-ups were less prone to re-form after wetting-and-drying cycles and less resistant to erosion than organically bound or naturally occurring ones. All this evidence suggests that fossil roll-ups found in ancient terrestrial deposits are biogenic features.
Error scrubbing codes for flash memories

Flash memories are the most widely used type of non-volatile electronic memories. Every flash memory cell has q discrete levels for storing information. A prominent property of flash memories is that although it is easy to increase a cell level, to decrease any cell level, a whole block of cells have to be erased and reprogrammed. To minimize the number of expensive block erasure operations and to maintain the data integrity, the data needs to be stored with a strong error-correcting code that can correct enough errors between two erasure operations. In this paper, we introduce the concept of error scrubbing codes. With this new type of error-correcting codes, the cell levels are actively increased when errors appear, even if the errors increase cell levels as well. We show that error-scrubbing codes can outperform conventional error-correcting codes for multi-level flash memories. We present two families of codes based on the L 1 metric and a modular construction.
Positive Feed-Forward control of three-phase voltage source inverter for DC input bus stabilization

A Positive Feed-Forward (PFF) controller is proposed as a new active approach to improve stability of a three-phase DC/AC switching inverter. In particular, the proposed approach solves the source subsystem interaction problem, i.e., a system stability degradation which is commonly observed when the inverter is connected to a DC voltage source subsystem that presents finite Thevenin impedance. The implemented strategy is to combine the PFF control with the conventional Negative Feedback (NFB) control. When properly designed, the PFF control modifies the inverter input impedance in the frequency range where the subsystem interaction occurs. As a result, the PFF control stabilizes the DC bus voltage ensuring overall system stability, while allowing the NFB control to maintain good output voltage regulation performance. The approach results in greatly improved stability and damping of the DC bus voltage with a slight reduction of output feedback control bandwidth. Complete small-signal models are presented on a dq rotating frame using g-parameter representation. The design criteria for the PFF controller as well as the trade-off between dynamic output performance and stability improvement are discussed in detail. An extended analysis of stability based on minor loop gain and passivity concept at the DC input bus is also presented. The approach is validated by simulation results.
Associations among family support, family stress, and personal functional health status

The self-reported family support and stress of 249 ambulatory adult patients, aged 18-49 years, were studied relative to their self-reported functional health. Support from family members was found to be related positively with emotional function. Stress from family members was associated negatively with symptom status, physical function, and emotional function. Patients' severity of illness was related negatively to their symptom status, physical function, and social function, but not to their emotional function. During the study a new self-report instrument, the Duke Social Support and Stress Scale (DUSOCS), was developed to measure family and non-family support and stress. Also, a new chart audit methodology, the Duke Severity of Illness Scale (DUSOI), was designed to assess severity in the ambulatory setting. Reliability and validity of the DUSOCS and the DUSOI were supported. The importance of the patient's perception of health and its family determinants is emphasized.
The Fearful Patient

Ms. Austin is a healthy 21 year-old woman, who appears very anxious in the waiting room. She has a 2-year history of acne vulgaris unresponsive to herbal remedies, topical retinoid agents, and combined topical antibiotic/benzoyl peroxide preparations. She reports that within the past 3 months she has suffered significant discomfort and public embarrassment from the inflamed deep cysts. She is here to get a second opinion about how to improve her acne, stating that her general practitioner has done everything in his power to help her.
Examining Data Driven Decision Making via Formative Assessment: A Confluence of Technology, Data Interpretation Heuristics and Curricular Policy

Although the term data-driven decision making (DDDM) is relatively new (Moss, 2007), the underlying concept of DDDM is not. For example, the practices of formative assessment and computer-managed instruction have historically involved the use of student performance data to guide what happens next in the instructional sequence (Morrison, Kemp, & Ross, 2001). Like many of its sister fields, such as knowledge management, DDDM implementation is reliant on technology, but requires many other components to be successful. This article reports on an exploratory study of preservice teachers’ use of a web-based online tool designed to collect and display student level data. A primary purpose of the data displayed is to facilitate just-in-time formative assessment for instructional decision-making. Findings illuminate the barriers to implementing DDDM in actual classroom practice: a confluence of curricular policy as well as technology and teacher heuristics that result in variations in data interpretation that involve issues with both skill and perspective-taking on the data sets. Recommendations for school leaders and teacher educators alike include the need for the coherent alignment of pedagogy, policy, and supports.
Surface immobilizable chelator for label-free electrical detection of pyrophosphate

A new pyrophosphate (PPi) chelator was designed for surface-sensitive electrical detection of biomolecular reactions. This article describes the synthesis of the PPi-selective receptor, its surface immobilization and application to label-free electrical detection on a silicon-based field-effect transistor (FET) sensor.
All Regular Multigraphs of Even Order and High Degree Are 1-factorable

Plantholt and Tipnis (1991) proved that for any even integer $r$, a regular multigraph $G$ with even order $n$, multiplicity $\mu(G) \leq r$ and degree high relative to $n$ and $r$ is 1-factorable. Here we extend this result to include the case when $r$ is any odd integer. Haggkvist and Perkovic and Reed (1997) proved that the One-factorization Conjecture for simple graphs is asymptotically true. Our techniques yield an extension of this asymptotic result on simple graphs to a corresponding asymptotic result on multigraphs.
Channel Mean Forwarded Regenerative Cooperative Demodulation in OFDM Systems

In this paper, we propose a channel mean forwarded (CMF) relay scheme with gammamin-MRC demodulator at the destination for cooperative OFDM systems. For regenerative cooperative communications, i.e., decode-and-forward (DF) scheme, using the classical MRC demodulator, may not give satisfactory system performance since the channel quality of the source-to-relay (S-R) link is not exploited at the destination. On the other hand, near-optimal lambda-MRC and cooperative-MRC (C-MRC) which are proposed to achieve full diversity, require the perfect instantaneous channel state information (CSI) of the S-R link being available at the destination. In our CMF scheme, the S-R channel is based on the classical first-order auto-regression AR(1) models, where the channel mean can be tracked. Based on the forwarded CSI of the S-R link, the destination can use gammamin-MRC demodulator, which combines signals coming from the source-to-relay-to-destination (S-R-D) link and the source- to-destination (S-D) link by appropriately predicted weights to achieve the full diversity. Simulations show that the performance of this CMF scheme is better than the classical MRC scheme. In slow-fading scenarios, the performance of this CMF scheme can approach the one that the perfect square of the channel norm of the S-R link is available at the destination. Even in fast-fading scenarios, the CMF scheme can also achieve better performance than the classical MRC scheme. In addition, we provide the performance of the direct one-hop scheme for fair comparison as well.
The Instrumental and Expressive Domains of Marital Communication

In order to build a descriptive base for a theory of marital communication, a typology of marital relationships has been developed. Using the Relational Dimensions Instrument, nine couple types may be obtained from combinations of three individual-level relational definitions: traditional, independent, and separate. The current study expanded this descriptive base by examining how the instrumental and expressive behavior of the nine couple types differed. This was accomplished by obtaining measures of both normative and perceptual sex-role orientation from a random sample of 224 couples. The results of the study indicated that normatively most of the couple types subscribed to a conventional allocation of instrumental and expressive behavior according to the sex of the partner. Only the Independents clearly supported communication roles based on the personal preferences of the marital partners. Perceptually, most husbands rated their own behavior as primarily instrumental regardless of their couple type. In contrast, wives' self-perceptions of their instrumental and expressive behaviors depended on the type of relationship they had with their husbands.
Communicating About Prognosis: Ethical Responsibilities of Pediatricians and Parents

Clinicians are sometimes reluctant to discuss prognosis with parents of children with life-threatening illness, usually because they worry about the emotional impact of this information. However, parents often want this prognostic information because it underpins informed decision-making, especially near the end of life. In addition, despite understandable clinician concerns about its emotional impact, prognostic disclosure can actually support hope and peace of mind among parents struggling to live with a child's illness. Children, too, may need to understand what is ahead to manage uncertainty and make plans for the ways their remaining life will be lived. In this article, we describe the ethical issues involved in disclosure of prognostic information to parents and children with life-threatening illness and offer practical guidance for these conversations.
Goodness‐of‐fit based confidence intervals for estimates of the size of a closed population

Methods for estimating the size of a closed population often consist of fitting some model (e.g. a log-linear model) to data with a missing cell corresponding to the members of the population missed by all reporting sources. Although the use of the asymptotic standard error is the usual method for forming confidence intervals for the population total, the sample sizes are not always large enough to produce valid confidence intervals. We propose a method for forming confidence intervals based upon changes in a goodness-of-fit statistic associated with changes in trial values of the population total.
RATIONAL THOUGHT AND RATIONAL BEHAVIOR: A REVIEW OF BOUNDED RATIONALITY: THE ADAPTIVE TOOLBOX

Standard economic theory says that the rational approach to a decision is to weigh all alternatives on all relevant dimensions and then to select the one with the highest weight. Such a procedure would maximize subjective expected utility. But, because of constraints on time and available information, people and other animals often bypass this process by using ‘‘fast and frugal’’ heuristics to make decisions. Rationality is thus said to be ‘‘bounded’’ by time and information constraints. The articles in this book describe and organize common heuristics. They show that use of such heuristics is generally the best approach to many real world problems and therefore not irrational. Heuristics evolved, they say, not as deviations from rationality but as aids to rationality in cases where the standard model would have proved to be too slow or inefficient. Although the approach of almost all of the authors of these papers is that of cognitive psychology—a focus on internal cognitive mechanisms—their findings and even their theories may be interpreted in terms of reinforcement and punishment acting on behavioral patterns.
KEAP1 Is a Redox Sensitive Target That Arbitrates the Opposing Radiosensitive Effects of Parthenolide in Normal and Cancer Cells

Elevated oxidative stress is observed more frequently in cancer cells than in normal cells. It is therefore expected that additional exposure to a low level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) will push cancer cells toward death, whereas normal cells might maintain redox homeostasis through adaptive antioxidant responses. We previously showed that parthenolide enhances ROS production in prostate cancer cells through activation of NADPH oxidase. The present study identifies KEAP1 as the downstream redox target that contributes to parthenolide's radiosensitization effect in prostate cancer cells. In vivo, parthenolide increases radiosensitivity of mouse xenograft tumors but protects normal prostate and bladder tissues against radiation-induced injury. Mechanistically, parthenolide increases the level of cellular ROS and causes oxidation of thioredoxin (TrX) in prostate cancer cells, leading to a TrX-dependent increase in a reduced state of KEAP1, which in turn leads to KEAP1-mediated PGAM5 and Bcl-xL (BCL2L1) degradation. In contrast, parthenolide increases oxidation of KEAP1 in normal prostate epithelial cells, leading to increased Nrf2 (NFE2L2) levels and subsequent Nrf2-dependent expression of antioxidant enzymes. These results reveal a novel redox-mediated modification of KEAP1 in controlling the differential effect of parthenolide on tumor and normal cell radiosensitivity. Furthermore, they show it is possible to develop a tumor-specific radiosensitizing agent with radioprotective properties in normal cells.
Cognitive Diversity in Teams A Multidisciplinary Review

The growing research literature on cognitive diversity in teams has multidisciplinary and international relevance. However, the varied conceptual and operational definitions restrict theory develop...
DNA damage and repair: relevance to mechanisms of neurodegeneration.

DNA damage is a form of cell stress and injury that has been implicated in the pathogenesis of many neurologic disorders, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer disease, Down syndrome, Parkinson disease, cerebral ischemia, and head trauma. However, most data reveal only associations, and the role for DNA damage in direct mechanisms of neurodegeneration is vague with respect to being a definitive upstream cause of neuron cell death, rather than a consequence of the degeneration. Although neurons seem inclined to develop DNA damage during oxidative stress, most of the existing work on DNA damage and repair mechanisms has been done in the context of cancer biology using cycling non-neuronal cells but not nondividing (i.e. postmitotic) neurons. Nevertheless, the identification of mutations in genes that encode proteins that function in DNA repair and DNA damage response in human hereditary DNA repair deficiency syndromes and ataxic disorders is establishing a mechanistic precedent that clearly links DNA damage and DNA repair abnormalities with progressive neurodegeneration. This review summarizes DNA damage and repair mechanisms and their potential relevance to the evolution of degeneration in postmitotic neurons.
Comparison of Wallstent and Ultraflex stents for palliation of malignant left-sided colon obstruction: a retrospective, case-matched analysis.

Background Self-expandable metal stents (SEMSs) are accepted palliation for malignant colon obstruction. Outcomes of different stent types is unknown. Objective Our purpose was to compare outcomes after palliative placement of the Enteral Wallstent (EW) and the Precision Colonic Ultraflex (PCU) stent. Design Retrospective study of all SEMS placement during a 7-year period. Setting Tertiary care academic medical center. Patients Malignant left-sided colon obstruction in which through-the-scope (TTS) or non-TTS stent placement was possible. Main Outcome Measurements Technical and clinical success rates, stent-related complications, reintervention. Results Demographics, degree, site, and cause of obstruction were comparable. Technical difficulties were more frequent with EW than PCU (16% vs 9%, P not significant), insufficient stent expansion and stent misplacement being most common. Relief of obstruction occurred in all patients when placement was technically successful. Mean follow-up was 93 days (range 7-691 days). Early ( P not significant) and migration (4% vs 0%, P not significant) occurred more frequently in the EW group. Self-limited hematochezia was more common with PCU (20% vs 2%, P = .002). Delayed complications (perforation, stent occlusion, migration, and erosion) occurred significantly more often in the EW group (38% vs 20%). Reintervention was needed more frequently for EW, endoscopic (40% vs 17%, P = .01) and operative (46% vs 26%, P = .03). Conclusions Enteral Wallstents and Precision Ultraflex Colonic stents adequately relieve colonic obstruction. Stent dysfunction, stent-related complications, and need for reintervention are higher after EW placement. Precision Colonic Ultraflex stents appear better suited for palliation of left-sided malignant colon obstruction.
Nanominerals, Mineral Nanoparticles, and Earth Systems

Minerals are more complex than previously thought because of the discovery that their chemical properties vary as a function of particle size when smaller, in at least one dimension, than a few nanometers, to perhaps as much as several tens of nanometers. These variations are most likely due, at least in part, to differences in surface and near-surface atomic structure, as well as crystal shape and surface topography as a function of size in this smallest of size regimes. It has now been established that these variations may make a difference in important geochemical and biogeochemical reactions and kinetics. This recognition is broadening and enriching our view of how minerals influence the hydrosphere, pedosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CABBAGE MAGGOT HYLEMYIA BRASSICAE (BOUCHÉ) ON ASEPTIC AND DECAYING RUTABAGA TISSUE1

The cabbage maggot, Hylemyia brassicae (Bouche) was reared from egg to adult under aseptic conditions on rutabaga (Swede; Brassica napus napobrassica). No larvae survived either on contaminated or uncontaminated rutabaga plugs sterilized by heat. A comparison of larval development on rutabaga inoculated with several species of decay-producing bacteria showed that larvae developed best on healthy uncontaminated rutabaga tissue or on rutabaga tissue that decayed slowly. Survival was lowest and puparia were smallest when larvae fed on plugs that were decayed rapidly by virulent soft-rot bacteria. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG DIE ENTWICKLUNG DER KOHLFLIEGE, HYLEMYIA BRASSICAE (BOUCHE), AUF ASEPTISCHEM UND FAULENDEM KOHLRUBEN-GEWEBE Die Kohlfliege, Hylemyia brassicae (Bouche), wurde vom Ei bis zur Imago auf keimfreiem Kohlruben-Gewebe gezogen. Insgesamt verpuppten sich 17 aseptische Larven; und die 6 Mannchen und 7 Weibchen, die spater daraus schlupften, waren ebenfalls bakterienfrei. Die Larven entwickelten sich nicht auf hitzesterilisiertem Gewebe, oder wenn dieses Gewebe mit faulniserregenden Bakterien versetzt wurde. Ein Vergleich der Larvalentwicklung auf aseptischen Kohlruben-Stucken, die mit verschiedenen Arten faulniserregender Bakterien infiziert waren, zeigt, das sich die Larven am besten entwickelten, wenn keine Bakterien anwesend waren oder wenn das Kohlruben-Gewebe nur langsam faulte. Es kamen weniger Larven zur Verpuppung, und die Puparien waren am kleinsten, wenn die Larven mit Kohlruben-Gewebe ernahrt wurden, das infolge Befalls mit Erwinia atroseptica (van Hall) Jennison oder Erwinia carotovora (Jones) Holland rasch faulte. Die Verpuppungs-Prozentsatze der Larven nach Futterung mit Kohlruben-Stucken, die mit E. atroseptica, E. carotovora, einer unbekannten Erwinia-Art (die eine langsame Faulnis verursacht) oder einem Gemisch von E. atroseptica und der Erwinia-Art infiziert waren, sowie in der Kontrolle (ohne Bakterien), betrugen 28, 55, 70, 81, und 75%. Eine unbekannte Erwinia-Art, die durchgangig von verschiedenen Entwicklungsstadien der Kohlfliege von Kohlruben-Feldern isoliert werden konnte, hemmte die von E. atroseptica ausgelosten Faulnisprozesse, wenn ein Gemisch der beiden Bakterien in Kohlruben-Gewebestucke gebracht wurde. Dies vermag zum Teil das geringe Auftreten der Weichfaule auf Kohlruben-Feldern zu erklaren, die von Kohlfliegen befallen sind.
M/M/1 Differentiated Multiple Vacation Queueing Systems with Vacation-Dependent Service Rates

We consider a multiple vacation queueing system in which a vacation following a busy period has a different distribution from a vacation that is taken without serving at least one customer. In addition, the service rate after a vacation taken after a busy period of non-zero duration is different from that of a vacation taken after a busy period of zero duration. This is in keeping with real life experience where the rate at which someone is serving might depend on how much rest he/she had before working. For ease of analysis it is assumed that the service times are exponentially distributed with different means, and the two vacation types are also exponentially distributed but with different means. The steady-state solution of the model is obtained.
Emerging evidence for beneficial macrophage functions in atherosclerosis and obesity-induced insulin resistance

The discovery that obesity promotes macrophage accumulation in visceral fat led to the emergence of a new field of inquiry termed "immunometabolism". This broad field of study was founded on the premise that inflammation and the corresponding increase in macrophage number and activity was a pathologic feature of metabolic diseases. There is abundant data in both animal and human studies that supports this assertation. Established adverse effects of inflammation in visceral fat include decreased glucose and fatty acid uptake, inhibition of insulin signaling, and ectopic triglyceride accumulation. Likewise, in the atherosclerotic plaque, macrophage accumulation and activation results in plaque expansion and destabilization. Despite these facts, there is an accumulating body of evidence that macrophages also have beneficial functions in both atherosclerosis and visceral obesity. Potentially beneficial functions that are common to these different contexts include the regulation of efferocytosis, lipid buffering, and anti-inflammatory effects. Autophagy, the process by which cytoplasmic contents are delivered to the lysosome for degradation, is integral to many of these protective biologic functions. The macrophage utilizes autophagy as a molecular tool to maintain tissue integrity and homeostasis at baseline (e.g., bone growth) and in the face of ongoing metabolic insults (e.g., fasting, hypercholesterolemia, obesity). Herein, we highlight recent evidence demonstrating that abrogation of certain macrophage functions, in particular autophagy, exacerbates both atherosclerosis and obesity-induced insulin resistance. Insulin signaling through mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a crucial regulatory node that links nutrient availability to macrophage autophagic flux. A more precise understanding of the metabolic substrates and triggers for macrophage autophagy may allow therapeutic manipulation of this pathway. These observations underscore the complexity of the field "immunometabolism", validate its importance, and raise many fascinating and important questions for future study.
The Obesity Paradox and Heart Failure: A Systematic Review of a Decade of Evidence

There is scientific consensus that obesity increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, including heart failure. However, among persons who already have heart failure, outcomes seem to be better in obese persons as compared with lean persons: this has been termed the obesity paradox, the mechanisms of which remain unclear. This study systematically reviewed the evidence of the relationship between heart failure mortality (and survival) and weight status. Search of the PubMed/MEDLINE and EMBASE databases was done according to the PRISMA protocol. The initial search identified 9879 potentially relevant papers, out of which ten studies met the inclusion criteria. One study was a randomized clinical trial and 9 were observational cohort studies: 6 prospective and 3 retrospective studies. All studies used the BMI, WC, or TSF as measure of body fatness and NYHA Classification of Heart Failure and had single outcomes, death, as study endpoint. All studies included in review were longitudinal studies. All ten studies reported improved outcomes for obese heart failure patients as compared with their normal weight counterparts; worse prognosis was demonstrated for extreme obesity ( kg/m2). The findings of this review will be of significance in informing the practice of asking obese persons with heart failure to lose weight. However, any such recommendation on weight loss must be consequent upon more conclusive evidence on the mechanisms of the obesity paradox in heart failure and exclusion of collider bias.
Self-Compassion as a Mediator of Maladaptive Perfectionism and Depressive Symptoms in College Students.

ABSTRACTThe purpose of the study was to examine the relationships among maladaptive perfectionism, self-compassion, and depressive symptoms in college students. It was hypothesized that self-compassion would mediate the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and depressive symptoms, with maladaptive perfectionism related to lower levels of self-compassion, and lower levels of self-compassion related to greater endorsement of depressive symptoms. Results supported partial mediation, indicating that self-compassion partially accounts for the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and depressive symptoms. Implications for practice and research are discussed.
Recruitment of GABAergic Inhibition and Synchronization of Inhibitory Interneurons in Rat Neocortex

Benardo, Larry S. Recruitment of GABAergic inhibition and synchronization of inhibitory interneurons in rat neocortex. J. Neurophysiol. 77: 3134–3144, 1997. Intracellular recordings were obtained f...
The Present State of Disarray

In the first chapter several indications of the disarray in world agriculture were briefly noted—the large costs of the present farm policies of the industrial countries, the enormous differences in prices received by farmers in the industrial countries, and the more rapid growth of output than of consumption, and the consequent disruptive effects upon trade in farm products. More fundamentally the disarray is evidenced by the ineffectiveness of the farm and trade policies to accomplish their avowed purposes, namely that of significantly improving the income position of farm families. Instead, as will be argued at length later, these policies are primarily responsible for too many resources being engaged in agriculture, encouraging too large a farm output and impeding changes that are inevitable and cannot be significantly mitigated by the policies being followed. In most cases, the policies being followed are an exercise in futility, albeit a very expensive exercise. And as noted earlier, the stubbornness of policy-makers in the industrial countries with respect to agricultural trade policies may well destroy some significant part of the gains in trade liberalization that has been achieved over the past three decades.
Finite strains in anterior and posterior wall of canine left ventricle

Piezoelectric crystals were implanted in the anterior and posterior midwall of the left ventricle in six anesthetized dogs to compare regional two-dimensional finite deformations. Increasing left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) from 3 to 18 mmHg caused a similar expansion in the end-diastolic configuration (similar end-diastolic principal strains), but maximal lengthening was more circumferential in the anterior wall (-18 +/- 13 degrees) and more longitudinal in the posterior wall (-54 +/- 19 degrees). End-diastolic in-plane shears were negative in both regions, consistent with a left-handed diastolic torsion. As LVEDP increased, maximal shortening strains increased similarly (similar end-systolic principal strains), but there was a preferential increase in end-systolic circumferential strain in the anterior wall and preferential increase in longitudinal strain in the posterior wall. End-systolic in-plane shears were small and positive in both regions. The circumferential strain accurately reflected maximal end-diastolic and end-systolic principal strains in the anterior wall at mid and high LVEDP but underestimated the maximal end-diastolic principal strain by 50% and the maximal end-systolic principal strain by 30% in the posterior wall at all LVEDPs. We conclude that the magnitude of end-diastolic and end-systolic strains is similar for anterior and posterior walls over a wide range of LVEDP. However, there are regional differences in the directions of maximal deformation that should be considered when evaluating regional ventricular function.
Improving DRAM Performance in 3-D ICs via Temperature Aware Refresh

The 3-D integration allows IC designs to stack DRAM directly on the top of execution units, which greatly reduces DRAM access latency and improves memory bandwidth. Unfortunately, the heat generated by the processor unit cannot be effectively dissipated. As a result, DRAM operating temperature is undesirably increased. Due to the fact that 3-D-stacked DRAM operates under a severe thermal condition manifested as escalated hot spots and large temperature gradients, conventional refresh schemes based on the peak temperature lead to high refresh rates, which introduce large performance degradation in 3-D-stacked DRAM. To address this problem, we propose the temperature aware refresh technique for 3-D-stacked DRAM. The goal is to mitigate this performance degradation by adjusting the refresh rates of DRAM banks based on their actual thermal conditions at runtime. As a result, only banks that work in the peak temperature will refresh frequently, while the rest of the banks can be refreshed at a reduced rate. This enables more read and write accesses, which improves the overall memory performance.
Intended persistence: comparing academic and creative challenges in high school

How do high school students approach academic and creative challenges? This study compares the content of academic and creative challenges for 190 high school students, and examines students’ intentions to persist. Students reported experiencing academic and creative challenges in different areas: academic challenges were described primarily in math/science and English, with themes related to time management and striving to improve, while creative challenges were described overwhelmingly in art and music and concerned problem solving difficulties. Students reported more interest and intention to persist in the creative than academic challenges. Interest was the strongest predictor of persistence across both academic and creative challenges. The divergent perceptions of creative and academic challenges suggest that capitalizing on the creative elements of academic assignments could boost student interest and subsequent persistence.
Free Final Time

In this chapter, the optimal control problem is extended to allow the final time to be free, and the conditions for a minimum are developed anew. Allowing the final time to be free gives rise to a natural boundary condition for determining the optimal final time. Next, the Weierstrass condition and the Legendre-Clebsch condition are presented. Then, the conjugate point condition is developed for nonsingular optimal control problems (H uu > 0). Finally, several example problems are solved.
UW-Pesa: A Mobile Money User Experience Experimentation Platform

This paper presents UW-Pesa, a simple web based mobile money sandbox for fast prototyping and demonstration of financial service products. The purpose of UW-Pesa is to enable academic groups to explore issues of privacy, security, and usability within the rapidly growing space of Digital Financial Services for Development and especially mobile money services. Although financial services are an important sector within the broader field of mobile for development, innovating and understanding core concepts within these services is difficult because the ecosystem is complex and dominated by a few mobile operators. Most large scale mobile financial services rely on either SIM Toolkit or USSD based user interfaces with an assortment of smaller scale services introducing Android based mobile money applications. UW-Pesa aims to create a simplified testbed so that smaller projects can quickly prototype ideas without involving large mobile operators. Currently the major components of UW-Pesa are a web interface, transaction API, and a USSD implementation.
IMPACT OF SINGLE VERSUS DUAL ANTI PLATELET THERAPY ON EARLY OUTCOMES IN WOMEN UNDERGOING TRANSCATHETER AORTIC VALVE REPLACEMENT: FROM THE WIN-TAVI REGISTRY

Background: The optimal antithrombotic strategy in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in undetermined. We sought to assess the incidence and outcomes of single (SAPT) vs. dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) post TAVR, excluding patients deemed to require anticoagulation
A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Surgical Treatment Modalities for Chondral Lesions of the Knee: Microfracture, Osteochondral Autograft Transplantation, and Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation.

Background:Numerous surgical options exist to treat chondral lesions in the knee, including microfracture (MFx), osteochondral autograft transplantation (OAT), first-generation autologous chondrocy...
Main and epistatic loci studies in soybean for Sclerotinia sclerotiorum resistance reveal multiple modes of resistance in multi-environments

Genome-wide association (GWAS) and epistatic (GWES) studies along with expression studies in soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] were leveraged to dissect the genetics of Sclerotinia stem rot (SSR) [caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary], a significant fungal disease causing yield and quality losses. A large association panel of 466 diverse plant introduction accessions were phenotyped in multiple field and controlled environments to: (1) discover sources of resistance, (2) identify SNPs associated with resistance, and (3) determine putative candidate genes to elucidate the mode of resistance. We report 58 significant main effect loci and 24 significant epistatic interactions associated with SSR resistance, with candidate genes involved in a wide range of processes including cell wall structure, hormone signaling, and sugar allocation related to plant immunity, revealing the complex nature of SSR resistance. Putative candidate genes [for example, PHYTOALEXIN DEFFICIENT 4 (PAD4), ETHYLENE-INSENSITIVE 3-LIKE 1 (EIL3), and ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR 1 (ERF1)] clustered into salicylic acid (SA), jasmonic acid (JA), and ethylene (ET) pathways suggest the involvement of a complex hormonal network typically activated by both necrotrophic (ET/JA) and biotrophic (SA) pathogens supporting that S. sclerotiorum is a hemibiotrophic plant pathogen.
Effect of planting density on yield, nutritional quality, and ruminal in vitro digestibility of corn for silage grown under on-farm conditions

The objective of this on-farm study was to determine the effect of planting density on yield, nutritional composition, and fiber digestibility of corn silage. This study was performed during the spring and summer seasons of 2014 and 2015 at 2 commercial dairy farms located in Virginia. The study included 7 cornfields with different growing and harvesting conditions. In each cornfield, corn was planted in plots at a theoretical seeding rate of 55,000, 70,000, 85,000, and 100,000 seeds/ha (55K, 70K, 85K, and 100K, respectively). Each seeding rate had 4 replicates within each cornfield. The preceding crop was annual ryegrass that was harvested for silage within 10 d before planting corn. Plant DM biomass decreased linearly (376 vs. 253 g of DM/plant for 55K and 100K, respectively; P < 0.01), but DM yield increased linearly (19.8 vs. 26.0 Mg/ha for 55K and 100K, respectively; P < 0.01) when planting density increased. The number of kernels per ear and the stem width decreased proportionally as corn population density increased. Planting density did not affect, or minimally affected, the concentrations of ash, CP, NDF, ADF, ADL, starch, and sugar of fresh corn and corn silage. Also, planting density did not affect ruminal in vitro NDF digestibility of fresh corn and corn silage. In conclusion, increasing corn planting density increased forage yield when planted in a double-cropping system, minimally affecting nutritional quality and ruminal in vitro digestibility of corn silage.