cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Neonatal Hepatobiliary Disorders

Neonatal hepatobiliary disorders are now better understood due primarily to new discoveries in molecular genetics, virology, and immunology. Because they are almost always pathologic and require early intervention, the neonatologist must recognize infants with these hepatocellular and ductal cholestatic problems occurring in the first few weeks of life. This article focuses mainly on new developments regarding neonatal metabolic disorders and their potential for gene therapy; perinatal infections, especially those caused by hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and CONTENTShuman immunodeficiency virus; and recent concepts of neonatal hepatitis and biliary atresia, including a review of predictors that influence outcome for infants undergoing Kasai portoenterostomy and liver transplantation.
The STRATegy COLUMN for Precollege Science Teachers--Learning From the Fossil Record

Fossils can be used to teach students not just about ancient life but also about the nature and practice of science. The Paleontological Society special publication Learning From the Fossil Record offers many excellent activities for using fossil evidence to develop student scientific problem-solving skills. Other information and classroom activities are available on the World-Wide Web.
Heart-Focused Anxiety and Chest Pain in Postangiography Medical Patients

The present cross-sectional study sought to examine the extent to which heart-focused anxiety is associated with the co-occurrence of coronary artery disease (CAD) and a history of regular smoking in a sample of 148 postangiography patients from a cardiology unit. Individuals with CAD who regularly smoked demonstrated significantly greater heart-focused attention, but no greater degree of avoidance and fear of heart-focused sensations, than did nonsmoking persons with CAD and smokers without CAD. We also found evidence that heart-focused attention and fear incrementally predicted (above and beyond demographic variables and body mass index) intensity of average chest pain. Overall, this study provides some of the first empirical evidence that the co-occurrence of regular smoking and CAD is associated with specific dimensions of health anxiety. We discuss these findings in relation to models of panic pathology and anxious responding to bodily sensations.
Hospital reputation and individual patient decisions.

A commentary exploring a physician's role in educating patients about hospital safety and expertise when negative media coverage presents possible misleading information. Virtual Mentor is a monthly bioethics journal published by the American Medical Association.
FUNDAMENTALS OF TIME DOMAIN MODAL IDENTIFICATION

Identification of modal parameters in the time domain offers an attractive alternative to the more classical approaches in the frequency domain. The elimination of the need to perform frequency transformation on the inputs and responses and the associated errors of leakage, truncation, frequency resolution and lengthy time records, among other errors, enhances the accuracy and practicality of the time domain approaches.
Unusual mercury accumulation in Lichen Flora of Montenegro

Specimens of Cladonia, Collema and other lichens collected near Kotor, Montenegro were found to be far higher in Hg content than samples of the same genera from Alaska, Greenland, Hawaii, Iceland and other locations. In contrast, Rhacomitrium and other moss genera from the same collection site yielded Hg contents similar to those found elsewhere.
Social Network Structure as a Predictor of Social Behavior: The Case of Protest in the 2016 US Presidential Election

This research explores relationships between social network structure (as inferred from Twitter posts) and the occurrence of domestic protests following the 2016 US Presidential Election. A hindcasting method is presented which exploits Random Forest classification models to generate predictions about protest occurrence that are then compared to ground truth data. Results show a relationship between social network structure and the occurrence of protests that is stronger or weaker depending on the time frame of prediction.
Opportunities to encourage mail order pharmacy delivery service use for diabetes prescriptions: a qualitative study

Medication non-adherence is a major contributor to poor outcomes in diabetes. Previous research has shown an association between use of mail order pharmacy delivery and better medication adherence, but little is known about the barriers and facilitators to mail order pharmacy use in diabetes patients. This qualitative study examined factors related to mail order pharmacy use versus traditional “brick and mortar” pharmacies to refill prescriptions. We conducted four 90-min focus groups in 2016 among 28 diabetes patients in the Hawaii and Northern California regions of Kaiser Permanente, a large integrated health care delivery system. We queried participants on their preferred mode for refilling prescriptions and perceived barriers and facilitators of mail order pharmacy use. One researcher independently coded each focus group transcript, with two of these transcripts double-coded by a second researcher to promote reliability. We employed thematic analysis guided by the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behavior (COM-B) framework using NVivo 11 software. A total of 28 diabetes patients participated. Participants’ average age was 64.1 years; 57% were female; and racial/ethnic backgrounds included Asian/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (36%), Black/African-American (21%) Hispanic/Latino (7%), and non-Hispanic White (36%). Analysis uncovered 26 themes related to the decision to use mail order pharmacy, with each theme representing a barrier or facilitator mapped to the COM-B framework. Most themes (20/26) fell into the COM-B category of ‘Opportunity.’ Opportunity barriers to mail order pharmacy use included unpredictability of medication delivery date, concerns about mail security, and difficulty coordinating refill orders for multiple prescriptions. In contrast, facilitators included greater access and convenience (e.g., no need to wait in line or arrange transportation) compared to traditional pharmacies. Motivational facilitators to mail order pharmacy use included receiving a pharmacy benefit plan incentive of a free one-month supply of prescriptions. This study found that while patients with diabetes may benefit from mail order pharmacy use, they perceive numerous barriers to using the service. These findings will inform the design of interventions and quality improvement initiatives to increase mail order pharmacy use, which in turn may improve medication adherence and outcomes in diabetes patients, across health care systems.
Sub)lexical changes in iconic signs to realign with community sensibilities and experiences

Sign language lexicons include iconic items, where phonological form is somewhat representative of sense. As experiences of individuals change, the mapping from form to meaning may become inappropriate (as when technological or environmental changes occur) or may be considered incongruous with perceptions of reality (as when culture shifts). Many misalignments of form and sense are tolerated, with the result that a sign's original iconicity is lost. Other misalignments are obliterated; signers make sublexical changes or entire lexical substitutions. We call these (sub)lexical changes ‘corrections’. We argue that misalignments that are regrettable are more likely to be corrected, where regrettable misalignments are those that are not true to realities/experiences of profound importance to deaf individuals.While the focus here is on American Sign Language, corrections should be apparent in any sign language and might occur in those spoken languages with a high frequency of nonarbitrary relationships between form and sense. (Sign language, variation, taboo terms, euphemism, iconicity, identity)*
The intestinal regionalization of acute norovirus infection is regulated by the microbiota via bile acid-mediated priming of type III interferon

Evidence has accumulated to demonstrate that the intestinal microbiota enhances mammalian enteric virus infections1. For example, we and others previously reported that commensal bacteria stimulate acute and persistent murine norovirus infections2-4. However, in apparent contradiction of these results, the virulence of murine norovirus infection was unaffected by antibiotic treatment. This prompted us to perform a detailed investigation of murine norovirus infection in microbially deplete mice, revealing a more complex picture in which commensal bacteria inhibit viral infection of the proximal small intestine while simultaneously stimulating the infection of distal regions of the gut. Thus, commensal bacteria can regulate viral regionalization along the intestinal tract. We further show that the mechanism underlying bacteria-dependent inhibition of norovirus infection in the proximal gut involves bile acid priming of type III interferon. Finally, the regional effects of the microbiota on norovirus infection may result from distinct regional expression profiles of key bile acid receptors that regulate the type III interferon response. Overall, these findings reveal that the biotransformation of host metabolites by the intestinal microbiota directly and regionally impacts infection by a pathogenic enteric virus.
SoftSense: Collaborative Surface-Based Object Sensing and Tracking Using Networked Coils

Object sensing and tracking using electric and magnetic fields allow intelligent interaction, automation, and adaptation in cyber-physical systems. Our approach, called Softsense, uses a software-defined collaborative sensing technique for detection of the type of object and where it is placed on a large surface. Unlike RF based sensing approaches that are generally dependent on channel conditions, capacitive sensing that detects only low conductive objects, and Qi-based inductive sensing that is effective at few mm in range, Softsense is designed to operate without the above limitations. Softsense is cost effective, low power and scalable, which allows extension over large surfaces. First, we introduce a dual-coil inductive sensing architecture based on nested coils, i.e., passive (outer) and active (inner) coils, for low-power contact-less sensing. A data driven support vector machine-based approach helps to classify different materials using the voltage readings obtained at the passive coil. SoftSense combines sensed voltage information from multiple different coils spread over the surface for collaborative sensing. We validate our design on a real sensing prototype with customized coils, fabricated sensing circuit, and a network software controller. Experimental results show that each sensing coil only consumes few milliwatts, i.e., 18x less than the inductive sensing and 15x less than classical magnetic resonance sensing, extends sensing depth to 3 cm, and enables coverage of large surface sensing.
Implications of non-genetic heterogeneity in cancer drug resistance and malignant progression

Abstract Nongenetic heterogeneity in cancer plays a critical role in disease progression and response to therapy. While variability in cellular phenotypes results from both gene expression noise and different stable phenotypic states, in this chapter we will focus on theory and evidence for nongenetic heterogeneity due to phenotypic plasticity of cancer cells. To elucidate the theory that allows for heterogeneous populations of cells regardless of the genomic state, we incorporate the concept of the phenotypic landscape—in which cells reside in stable “attractor” states. Cells have the ability to transition to different states, and the probability of these transitions may be in part dependent on environmental conditions and independent of the genome. Mathematical models allow us to build a simplified understanding of heterogeneous states and the transition rates between states within a cancer cell population. Here we discuss ways that cell states are identified and measured to investigate nongenetic heterogeneity in various empirical settings. For example, we describe one of the most well-characterized cell state transitions, the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) observed in cancer cells in response to environmental cues. Because EMT is a physiological process in development and tissue repair, the accompanying cell state transitions are well defined and can be confirmed by multiple readouts. Additionally, we describe instances of nongenetic heterogeneity and phenotypic state switching defined by other cell states with functional relevance to cancer progression and drug response. To make progress in preventing the seemingly inexorable onset of chemoresistance, it is necessary to elucidate how drug exposure directly induces cell state transitions between sensitive and resistant cell states. We discuss here the evidence that exposure to cytotoxic or targeted therapeutic treatments may cause cells to activate transcriptional or cell signaling programs that render them insensitive to treatment via a variety of different resistance mechanisms.
Unraveling the role of MUC5B in idiopathic interstitial pneumonias (IIPs).

ABSTRACT As many as 22 of the 45 coral species on the Florida Reef Tract are currently affected by stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD). The ongoing disease outbreak was first observed in 2014 in Southeast Florida near Miami and as of early 2019 has been documented from the northernmost reaches of the reef tract in Martin County down to Key West. We examined the microbiota associated with disease lesions and apparently healthy tissue on diseased colonies of Montastraea cavernosa, Orbicella faveolata, Diploria labyrinthiformis, and Dichocoenia stokesii. Analysis of differentially abundant taxa between disease lesions and apparently healthy tissue identified five unique amplicon sequence variants enriched in the diseased tissue in three of the coral species, namely an unclassified genus of Flavobacteriales and sequences identified as Fusibacter (Clostridiales), Planktotalea (Rhodobacterales), Algicola (Alteromonadales), and Vibrio (Vibrionales). In addition, several groups of likely opportunistic or saprophytic colonizers such as Epsilonbacteraeota, Patescibacteria, Clostridiales, Bacteroidetes, and Rhodobacterales were also enriched in SCTLD disease lesions. This work represents the first microbiological characterization of SCTLD, as an initial step toward identifying the potential pathogen(s) responsible for SCTLD.
Suppression of spastin Mutant Phenotypes by Pak3 Loss Implicates a Role for Reactive Glia in AD-HSP

Neurodegenerative mechanisms due to mutations in spastin currently center on neuronal defects, primarily in microtubule and endomembrane regulation. Spastin loss in Drosophila larvae compromises neuronal microtubule distribution, alters synaptic bouton morphology, and weakens synaptic transmission at glutamatergic neuromuscular junction (NMJ) synapses. Pak3, a p21-activated kinase that promotes actin polymerization and filopodial projections, is required for these spastin mutant defects; animals lacking both genes have normal NMJs. Here we show that Pak3 is expressed in central and peripheral glial populations, and reduction of Pak3 specifically in subperineurial glial cells is sufficient to suppress the phenotypes associated with spastin loss. Subperineurial glia in the periphery ensheathe motor neuron axons and have been shown to extend actin-based projections that regulate synaptic terminals during normal NMJ development. We find that these subperineurial glial projections are Pak3-dependent and nearly twice as frequent in spastin mutants, while in Pak3, spastin double mutants, neither glial projections nor synaptic defects are observed. Spastin deficiency thus increases Pak3-dependent subperineurial glia activity, which is in turn required for neuronal defects. Our results demonstrate a central role for Pak3-mediated, altered glial behavior in the neuronal defects due to spastin loss, and suggest that a similar reactive glia-mediated mechanism may underlie human AD-HSP pathogenesis.
Experimental determination of the effect of Cr on Mg isotope fractionation between spinel and forsterite

Abstract We report the results of spinel-magnesite Mg isotope exchange experiments at 600, 700, and 800 °C and 1 GPa to establish the equilibrium Mg isotope partitioning between magnesite (MgCO3) and spinel as a function of Cr substitution for Al in the spinel phase. We used the three-isotope method to obtain equilibrium fractionation factors between MgAlCrO4 and magnesite and MgCr2O4 and magnesite. The experimentally-determined temperature-dependent Mg isotope fractionations are Δ 26 Mg MgAlCrO 4 - Mgs = 0.96 ± 0.22 × 106/T2 and Δ 26 Mg MgCr 2 O 4 - Mgs = 0.55 ± 0.08 × 106/T2 (2 s.e.). When combined with the previous experimentally determined fractionation between forsterite and magnesite (Macris et al., 2013), the corresponding Mg isotope fractionations between these two Cr-bearing spinel compositions and forsterite are Δ 26 Mg MgAlCrO 4 - Fo = 0.84 ± 0.23 × 106/T2 and Δ 26 Mg MgCr 2 O 4 - Fo = 0.43 ± 0.10 × 106/T2. The experimentally determined isotopic fractionation relationship between magnesiochromite and magnesite agrees with theoretical predictions based on the crystal chemical environment of Mg in these minerals. By combining these new results with the existing experimental calibration of equilibrium Mg isotope exchange between pure spinel and forsterite, we arrive at the temperature-dependent Mg isotope fractionation between spinel and forsterite as a function of Cr concentration in the spinel: Δ 26 M g Mg Al 1 - x Cr x 2 O 4 - Fo = - 0.67 ± 0.26 x + 1.10 ± 0.23 10 6 / T 2 When applied to natural samples, the combination of measured Mg isotope fractionation between spinel and forsterite, the Cr concentrations of the spinels, and estimates of temperature from independent geothermometers can be used to identify differences in closure temperatures between Mg isotope exchange and cation exchange, or the presence of disequilibrium in these systems.
Electric polarization and depolarization of solder, and their effects on electrical conduction

This work provides the first report of the effect of the dielectric behavior on the conduction behavior of solder. The lead-free solder studied contains 96 wt% tin and 4 wt% silver. The electric polarization stems from the interaction of the valence electrons with the atoms. The fraction of valence electrons that participate in the initial polarization is of the order of 10–9. The injected electrons play a minor role compared to the valence electrons of the solder in the polarization. The efficiency of the injected electrons in promoting the polarization decreases with the increasing number of injected electrons. Due to the polarization under a constant applied DC current (30–100 mA), the apparent electrical resistivity increases beyond the true resistivity. The rate of apparent resistivity increase diminishes as the time of current application increases. The fractional increase is 0.10% at 130 s of 100-mA current application. The higher is the current, the greater are the degree and rate of polarization at a given time. The current effect saturates above ~ 90 mA. Upon reversal of the polarity of the applied current, depolarization (followed by reverse polarization) occurs. The rates of depolarization and reverse polarization, as indicated by the rate of apparent resistivity increase, increase with increasing current. These rates decrease with increasing time. At the same current and respective time, the rates of polarization and depolarization are essentially equal, but the rate of reverse polarization is much below that of the initial polarization. Furthermore, the nearly saturated degree of reverse polarization is much below that of the initial polarization. This indicates a partially irreversible effect of the initial polarization that hinders the reverse polarization.
How do I transfer liquid nitrogen freezers to a new home safely

BACKGROUND Our cell processing facility was planning to transfer more than 20 Liquid Nitrogen (LN2) freezers to a new location. Moving LN2 freezers is a complex task that can pose potential risk to the storage units' integrity as well as to the products that they hold. Careful planning is required, especially when moving multiple freezer units at once. METHODS To achieve the task, we put together a detailed project plan, collaborated with all the involved partners, hired qualified professionals to perform the project-specific tasks, and put together a detailed risk assessment and risk mitigation plan. RESULTS A facility was chosen and prepared according the project plan and safety department recommendations. Risk mitigation strategies were developed and implemented, and all freezers were transfered uneventfully to a new location. CONCLUSIONS By performing detailed planning and engaging the appropriate partners, LN2 freezers can be successfully transferred to a new home.
"Normalizing the Fed Funds Rate: The Fedâs Unjustified Rationale"

In December 2015, the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) initiated the process of "normalization," with the objective of gradually raising the federal funds rate back to "normal" -- i.e., levels that are "neither expansionary nor contrary" and are consistent with the established 2 percent longer-run goal for the annual Personal Consumption Expenditures index and the estimated natural rate of unemployment. This paper argues that the urgency and rationale behind the rate hikes are not theoretically sound or empirically justified. Despite policymakers' celebration of "substantial" labor market progress, we are still short some 20 million jobs. Further, there is no reason to believe that the current exceptionally low inflation rates are transitory. Quite the contrary: without significant fiscal efforts to restore the bargaining power of labor, inflation rates are expected to remain below the Federal Open Market Committee's long-term goal for years to come. Also, there is little empirical evidence or theoretical support for the FRB's suggestion that higher interest rates are necessary to counter "excessive" risk-taking or provide a more stable financial environment.
A Technique for Comparing Soil Colors in the Forensic Laboratory

The implementation of a simple aid that facilitates the designation and comparison of color in forensic soil cases is presented. The aid, a mount for forensic soil samples, when used in conjunction with the Munsell® Soil Color Charts allows the color of forensic soil samples to be accurately described and compared.
Mental Health and Family Status

In this entry we apply a life course perspective to examine the ways in which family status shapes mental health. We provide an overview of contemporary research on the effects of marriage and parenthood on mental health as well as the ways in which parents shape their children's mental health. Although some evidence suggests that married people, children raised in two-parent families, and the childless have better mental health than the unmarried, children raised in other family forms, and parents, contemporary research also suggests that the quality of family relationships is as important for mental health as the presence or absence of family ties. In addition, a variety of other factors, including age, gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and social norms and meanings, also matter in determining the mental health costs and benefits of particular family ties. Finally, contemporary research suggests that the costs and benefits of particular family ties on mental health are cumulative over the life course. Keywords: caregiving; children; family; marriage; sociology of mental health
The Rise and Fall of Managed Care: A Predictable Tragic Choices Phenomenon

Once touted as the answer to defects in fee-for-service health care insurance, managed care has seen its fortunes rise and fall over the past decade. Initially, managed care techniques became widespread, and they slowed the growth in health care costs. Indeed, premiums for health care insurance went from double-digit increases in the late 1980s to a less than two percent increase in 1996. More recently, however, public dissatisfaction with managed care has led insurers to jettison key cost-containment strategies of managed care, including closed panels of doctors, primary-care gatekeeping and pre-admission authorization. As insurers abandoned these hallmarks of managed care, health care costs have resumed their rapid growth. Scholars have attributed the fall of managed care to a number of factors, including imperfections in the market for health care insurance, the use by some managed care plans of egregious strategies for cutting costs, and a lack of consumer choice or voice in the operation of managed care. This article offers a different explanation for the rise and fall of managed care. Managed care has failed not because of market imperfections, a bad design, or because its design was poorly executed. Rather, the United States's experience with managed care illustrates what happens when society tries to ration health care resources, regardless of the mechanism used for rationing. In this view, problems with the health care market or the design and implementation of managed care might have affected how quickly managed care failed, but they did not affect whether managed care would fail. As a method for making the "tragic choices" involved in health care rationing, managed care's failure was inevitable, as predicted by the analysis of Guido Calabresi and Phillip Bobbitt in their book, Tragic Choices. Calabresi and Bobbitt explain that the difficult life-and-death choices entailed in rationing can only be made by hiding them from public scrutiny. Managed care provided a method for disguising rationing. However, when the hidden "tragic choices" were exposed, the method for making those choices became discredited, and the public had demanded a new method for allocating health care.
Fat Soluble Vitamins: XXXIII. The Determination of Vitamin a and its Stability in Butter Fat to Ultra Violet Radiations

Summary Different techniques for determination of vitamin A have been discussed. The Evans-Bishop technique was found to have no advantage over those techniques which depend upon the reinitiation of growth or the cure of ophthalmia. Of these latter the ophthalmic method was preferred, because of the specific nature of its reaction, and its rapid responsiveness. The growth method was also found reliable and correlated closely in results obtained with the ophthalmic method when the animals were taken for test shortly after growth ceased. Furthermore, with animals of variable weight we experienced difficulty in deciding just when they should be taken for the growth test. Vitamin A is destroyed by ultraviolet treatment even when the irradiation is carried out in an atmosphere of CO 2 , nitrogen, or hydrogen. However, these gases apparently do retard the destructive reaction somewhat. It is still possible that our preparations of butter fat may have contained a sufficiency of oxygen in solution to have allowed destruction by oxidation. This hypothesis appears tenable when one takes into consideration the very small amounts of vitamin A which can produce cure of ophthalmia or reinitiation of growth. The destruction of vitamin A was found to be proportional to the time of exposure and inversely proportional to the thickness of the layer of fat exposed. The irradiation necessary to secure maximum activation was found to cause some destruction of vitamin A. Practically, however, maximum activation may not be desirable from the dietetic standpoint, so that the antirachitic activation of butter fat by direct irradiation is a practical possibility without danger of destroying vitamin A. Butter fat, antirachitically activated, was found to have retained most of its vitamin A even after storage for seven months at room temperature.
The gap between small group theory and group support system research

Small group research and the development of small group theory have flourished in recent years, yet most group support systems (GSS) research is conducted without regard to theories of small groups. Here we contrast the richness of small group theory with the theoretical poverty of most experimental group support systems research. We look first at the state of small group theory, contrasting it with the state of theory in GSS work, using 10 recently published GSS studies as examples. Looking to small group theory as the basis for GSS research would add a great deal to GSS work, the topic of the next section in the paper. Absent a reliance on small group theory, however, we propose an alternative approach: Drop the GSS term altogether and return to a term that better describes what GSS research has always been about, supporting meetings, as captured in the phrase Electronic Meeting Systems.
One company's guideline for hazardous area classification

Historically, hazardous area classification was the responsibility of the plant electrical engineer. Reality, however, was that many projects were being designed with minimum input from plant engineering. Most consulting firms would use an ultra-conservative approach with little input from process engineers and no consideration for potential cost savings. The existing national standards and guidelines are written to provide safety and flexibility of design and are difficult for the inexperienced engineer to interpret. Even for the experienced engineers, this flexibility often leads to different interpretations for similar situations. In 1993 a small group of electrical engineers recognized a need for standardization without compromising safety, and formed a technical committee to address this issue. This paper presents the result of the committee's work as a corporate Engineering Technical Guideline which is being used by Eli Lilly and Company.
High-volume elution chromatography of dichlorobenzenes on a polyurethane foam—tenax sandwich cartridge

Abstract Dichlorobenzene (DCB) vapors were introduced as a pulse to an adsorbent sandwich cartridge containing 10 g Tenax-GC between two 2.5-cm thick polyurethane foam plugs, and eluted with 30–600 m 3 air. Breakthrough of DCBs from the sampling cartridge was monitored with a backup Tenax trap that was changed and analyzed after every 25–50 m 3 air. The resulting elution bands were fairly symmetric for 1.4-DCB, but showed considerable tailing for 1,2-DCB and 1,3-DCB. Retention volumes per g Tenax at 20°C ( V g , m 3 /g) observed from the elution bands were: 1,2-DCB = 9.7; 1,3-DCB = 12.5; and 1,4-DCB = 22. These V g values were not in the order expected from the gas chromatographic (GC) retention times of the DCBs, which followed the sequence: 1,3-DCB V g values were also calculated using the Conder-Young equation. The calculated V g (m 3 /g), which followed the GC retention time order, were: 1,3-DCB = 23; 1,4-DCB = 23.5; and 1,2-DCB = 25. Laboratory simulated collections and sampling experiments in urban air showed that DCBs could be quantitatively collected from 30–165 m 3 air using the adsorbent sandwich cartridge.
Labor costs incurred by anesthesiology groups because of operating rooms not being allocated and cases not being scheduled to maximize operating room efficiency

Determination of operating room (OR) block allocation and case scheduling is often not based on maximizing OR efficiency, but rather on tradition and surgeon convenience. As a result, anesthesiology groups often incur additional labor costs. When negotiating financial support, heads of anesthesiolog
On the discrimination between symmetric pentapeptides.

Patchornik has pointed out that identification of the dipeptides AC, GC, GA, and AG is insufficient information to allow one to distinguish between the pentapeptide sequences ACGAG and AGACG. The present study proposes a probabilistic approach which will sometimes allow one to distinguish between the parent pentapeptides when all the dipeptides have been determined quantitatively. For the case when the free amino acids have also been quantitatively determined, necessary and sufficient conditions are established for unambiguous discrimination.
Kinetic evaluation of the direct synthesis of ethers from alcohols over sulfonated resin catalysts

Abstract The acidic Amberlyst-35 sulfonated resin effectively catalyzes the coupling of methanol + isobutanol and ethanol + isobutanol mixtures in the gas-phase to give methyl isobutyl ether and ethyl isobutyl ether, respectively. The reaction occurs via a SN2 reaction pathway involving two adsorbed alcohol molecules and is successfully described by a simple Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetics.
Na+ effects on transitions of DNA and polynucleotides of variable linear charge density

A range of linear charge densities of the ordered and disordered forms of DNA or polynucleotides can be obtained experimentally by acid or alkaline titration, or by the investigation of unusual complexes involving protonated bases or three-stranded helices. The variation of melting temperatures with Na+ concentration for various of these systems is known and in some cases is complemented by structural and thermodynamic information. We have extended the condensation–screening theory of Manning [Biopolymers, 11, 937–955 (1972)] to these systems. The stabilizing and destabilizing effects of Na+ (condensation and screening, respectively) and be independently varied, and the theory is successful in predicting the qualitative (in some cases, quanittative) behaviour that is observed. Comparison of theory and experiment indicates that the axial phosphate distance b for single-stranded polynucleotides increases with increasing pH. Values of the critical parameter ξ are obtained for the various polynucleotide structures. These values are essential for an understanding of ionic effects on charged ligand–polynucleotide interactions.
A simulation-based assessment of strategies to control Clostridium difficile transmission and infection

Background: Clostridium difficile is one of the most common and important nosocomial pathogens, causing severe gastrointestinal disease in hospitalized patients. Although "bundled" interventions have been proposed and promoted, optimal control strategies remain unknown. Methods: We designed an agent-based computer simulation of nosocomial C. difficile transmission and infection, which included components such as: patients and health care workers, and their interactions; room contamination via C. difficile shedding; C. difficile hand carriage and removal via hand hygiene; patient acquisition of C. difficile via contact with contaminated rooms or health care workers; and patient antimicrobial use. We then introduced six interventions, alone and "bundled" together: aggressive C. difficile testing; empiric isolation and treatment of symptomatic patients; improved adherence to hand hygiene and contact precautions; improved use of soap and water for hand hygiene; and improved environmental cleaning. All interventions were tested using values representing base-case, typical intervention, and optimal intervention scenarios. Findings: In the base-case scenario, C. difficile infection rates ranged from 8–21 cases/10,000 patient-days, with a case detection fraction between 32%–50%. Implementing the "bundle" at typical intervention levels had a large impact on C. difficile acquisition and infection rates, although intensifying the intervention to optimal levels had much less additional impact. Most of the impact came from improved hand hygiene and empiric isolation and treatment of suspected C. difficile cases. Conclusion: A "bundled" intervention is likely to reduce nosocomial C. difficile infection rates, even under typical implementation conditions. Real-world implementation of the "bundle" should focus on those components of the intervention that are likely to produce the greatest impact on C. difficile infection rates, such as hand hygiene and empiric isolation and treatment of suspected cases.
Paradoxical Response to the Vasodilators

A 52-year-old male was admitted to the hospital in congestive heart failure. Mitral stenosis as well as an aortic valve prosthesis were the underlying cardiac abnormalities. A Swan-Ganz catheter was inserted and various vasodilators were administered. Phentolamine, nitrates, nitroprusside, and hydralazine all produced an unexpected and at times an alarming increase in the pulmonary artery pressure. The explanation of this paradoxical hemodynamic response is unknown but demonstrates the importance of hemodynamic monitoring with vasodilator therapy
Intramolecular isotope effect in laser multiphoton dissociation of CH2DCH2Cl

The ratio r = [HCl]/[DCl], for the decomposition of ethyl 2d_1 chloride, CH_2DCH_2Cl, induced by intense CO_2 laser beams, has been measured under different experimental conditions. Changes in beam energy, beam geometry, rotational lines, irradiation time and pressure have no discernible effect on r. It is shown that a narrow distribution with an average excess energy of E+V = 15 ± 2 photons (35–46 kcal/mole) and RRKM theory are mutually consistent with the observed value of r = 2.6 ± 0.1. The implications of these results for the mechanism of multiphoton absorption are analyzed.
A Unique Approach to Outbreak Control: Partnership with Infection Control (IC) Fostered Compliance and Control of a Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Outbreak in an Intensive Care Nursery (ICN)

ISSUE: The ICN at Duke University Hospital is a 49 bed Level 3 tertiary care nursery, with 679 admits yearly. In March 2005, a baby was identified with MRSA by clinical culture. Concentric surveillance cultures found 1 additional baby. Unit-wide surveillance cultures revealed 6 more cases, with an incidence rate of 17.6%. Despite stringent control measures, a total of 15 babies had been detected by week 8, with a prevalence rate of 20%. PROJECT: Interventions including contact isolation for all MRSA positive babies and daily IC monitoring did not control the outbreak. In week 8, IC and ICN leadership met to discuss the outbreak and together the teams partnered and identified other control measures which included: 1) The Transitional Care Nursery (ICN step-down) was converted to an isolation unit for MRSA babies only, 2) The nursing staff, respiratory therapists and medical providers caring for the isolated babies had no patient contact with ICN patients, 3) Surveillance cultures began on all new admissions from outside hospitals, 4) A “Back-to-Basics” program taught by the ICN educator was done for all persons involved in the care of neonates. This included reviews pertaining to isolation precautions, hand hygiene and equipment cleaning, 5) Hand hygiene observations were done by the ICN educator, using an IC observation tool. The results were shared with nursing, physicians and IC. While IC assumed an advisory role with this outbreak, no measure could be halted without IC approval. Primary enforcement of these measures was the responsibility of the ICN. New cases were sporadic from week 9-12, with no new cases after week 12. RESULTS: The measures employed by the ICN were essential in controlling the outbreak. Taking ownership of the outbreak, the ICN leadership improved staff compliance to isolation precautions and helped empower the nursing staff to enforce the control measures. Violators of the IC measures were brought to the attention of ICN leadership and IC and were educated. LESSONS LEARNED: A critical piece in the control of this outbreak was IC assisting the unit leadership in developing and overseeing the interventions to improve compliance with IC practices. While the initiation and enforcement of control measures in outbreak investigations has always been thought to be the responsibility of IC, this novel approach to an outbreak led to increased compliance, empowerment and a positive relationship between IC and ICN staff.
Production of an antibody to mouse salivary androgen binding protein (ABP) and its use in identifying a prostate protein produced by a gene distinct from Abp

We previously demonstrated polymorphism of a mouse salivary protein which, because of its ability to bind androgen, we designated androgen binding protein (ABP) and its structural gene, Androgen binding protein (Abp). This report describes the purification of salivary ABP and presents the amino acid composition of its subunits. Using an antibody raised against the purified protein, we demonstrated the presence of cross-reactive material (CRM) in mouse parotid, submaxillary, sublingual, and prostate glands by double immunodiffusion. Immunohistochemical detection of proteins on electroblots of polyacrylamide electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing gels, however shows that the prostate CRM is a protein with electrophoretic and isoelectric focusing behavior distinct from that of salivary ABP isoproteins. Because the DBA/2J strain has a variant of salivary ABP, that strain was analyzed to determine if a prostate ABP-CRM variant was present. The approach was hampered by an inability to detect CRM in the prostates of DBA/2J mice. Prostate CRM was detected, however, in some progeny from repeated backcrosses of DBA/2J × C3H/St hybrids to the C3H/St and DBA/2J parental strains. The prostate CRM detected in samples from animals heterozygous for salivary Abp appears to be identical to C3H/St prostate CRM, suggesting that the gene controlling prostate ABP-CRM is related to, but distinct from, Abp. The reason for reduced or absent CRM in the prostates of DBA/2J males is unknown but this finding suggests that there are strain-related differences in the expression of this prostate protein.
A typology of transsexualism: gender identity theory and data.

An analysis of postoperative data obtained from 42 male-to-female transsexuals showed them to fall into three distinct categories: homosexual transsexuals, asexual transsexuals, and heterosexual transsexuals. Additional data covering the areas of gender vs. sexual dysphoria, surgical details, background characteristics, sexuality-related behaviors, and postoperative adaptation further differentiated these groups and suggest that the categorization is theoretically meaningful and relevant to understanding the causes and course of the transsexual phenomenon. An extensive developmental theory is suggested to account for both differences and commonalities among the different subgroups of transsexuals, as well as among these and related groups, such as effeminate homosexuality and transvestism. The theory is sufficiently specific for making empirical predictions.
Properties of the complexes formed by 1-anilinonaphthalene-8-sulfonate with phosphorylase kinase and calmodulin.

Phosphorylase kinase contains four approximately equivalent binding sites for 1-anilinonaphthalene-8-sulfonate (1,8-ANS). Measurements of the time decay of fluorescence anisotropy have failed to give any indication of internal degrees of rotational freedom involving a significant portion of the tertiary structure. In the presence of 1 mM Ca2+, calmodulin binds one molecule of 1,8-ANS. No binding occurs in the absence of Ca2+. The binding is strongly temperature-dependent, a decrease in binding occurring with increasing temperature. Determinations of the time decay of fluorescence anisotropy indicate the presence of internal rotations, which become more important with increasing temperature. Complex formation between phosphorylase kinase and calmodulin reduces the binding of 1,8-ANS.
EEG-intracellular potential relationships in isolated cerebral cortex

Abstract EEG-intracellular relationships were investigated in isolated cerebral cortex. Visual analysis of unprocessed data showed that EEG activity was associated with spike discharges of the neuron as well as EEG-like fluctuations of the membrane potential. EEG silent periods were accompanied by a sustained relatively high polarization of the membrane without fluctuations. Although visual analysis did not indicate wave-for-wave correlation of EEG and intracellular oscillations, an electronic averaging procedure, utilizing the spike discharges as trigger points, revealed consistent, similar wave forms in both EEG and intracellular activity. The most typical result was an intracellular depolarizing wave associated with a negative-going EEG deflection. The results provide evidence for intracortical neuronal synchronizing mechanisms, active particularly at the time of neuronal discharge.
Distilling critical attack graph surface iteratively through minimum-cost SAT solving

It has long been recognized that it can be tedious and even infeasible for system administrators to figure out critical security problems residing in full attack graphs, even for small-sized enterprise networks. Therefore a trade-off between analysis accuracy and efficiency needs to be made to achieve a reasonable balance between completeness of the attack graph and its usefulness. In this paper, we provide an approach to attack graph distillation, so that the user can control the amount of information presented by sifting out the most critical portion of the full attack graph. The user can choose to see only the k most critical attack paths, based on specified severity metrics, e.g. the likelihood for an attacker to carry out certain exploit on certain machine and the chance of success. We transform an dependency attack graph into a Boolean formula and assign cost metrics to attack variables in the formula, based on the severity metrics. We then apply Minimum-Cost SAT Solving (MCSS) to find the most critical path in terms of the least cost incurred for the attacker to deploy multi-step attacks leading to certain crucial assets in the network. An iterative process inspired by Counter Example Guided Abstraction and Refinement (CEGAR) is designed to efficiently guide the MCSS to render solutions that contain a controlled number of realistic attack paths, forming a critical attack graph surface. Our method can distill critical attack graph surfaces from the full attack graphs generated for moderate-sized enterprise networks in only several minutes. Experiments on various sized network scenarios show that even for a small-sized critical attack graph surface (around 15% the size of the original full attack graph), the calculated risk metrics are good approximation of the values computed with the full attack graph, meaning the distilled critical attack graph surface is able to capture the crucial security problems in an enterprise network for further in-depth analysis.
Inactivation of adrenocorticotropic hormone in vitro by tissues.

The fact that frequent injections of adrenocorticotropic hormon (ACTH) are necessary in order to achieve a maximum physiological or clinical effect, along with the rapid disappearance of adrenocorticotropic activity from plasma which has been demonstrated to occur after intravenous injection of the hormone (Sayers et al 1949; Greenspan el al. 1950), and the inability of Richards and Sayers (1951) to find hormonal activity in the urine indicate that the hormone is rapidly destroyed or utilized in the organism. In order to determine the contributions of various tissues to the loss of ACTH activity, a study was made of theinactivation of the adrenocorticotropic hormone in vitro by organ slices and homogenates. METHODS The data reported here were obtained in two separate series of experiments**. The first series was conducted in 1947–1948, and some of the results of these experiments have been reported elsewhere in a preliminary note (Li, 1948).