cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mammary Tumor-Associated Growth Factors Origins and Possible Functions

At least seven well characterized growth factors have been isolated from breast cancer cell lines or from breast cancer tissues. These include transforming growth factors α and β (TGFα, TGFβ), insulin-like growth factor I (IGFI), mammary derived growth factors I and II (MDGFI, MDGFII), human mammary tumor derived growth factor (h.MTGF) and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF). Additionally, it has been shown that similar (or identical) growth factors are present in rat mammary tumor tissue. For example, some rat mammary tumors contain collagen synthesis stimulating factor (CSSF), a peptide that is physically and biologically like MDGFI. The same rodent tumors also contain peptides that are biologically and/or immunologically related to TGFα and TGFβ. Northern blots of rodent mammary RNAs have revealed the presence of poly A+ RNA species that are hightly homologous to the TGFα and TGFβ mRNAS present in human breast tumor samples. The key question is whether one or more of the tumor-associated factors is important for tumor initiation, growth or progression. The evidence for and against involvement of the human breast tumor-associated factors will be considered in turn. It is appropriate to indicate here, however, that an irrefutable case cannot be made for an essential role of any of the above growth factors at this time. TGF-ALPHA (TGFα)
Transfer RNA-like structures in viral genomes.

Publisher Summary The occurrence of aminoacylatable transfer RNA (tRNA)-like structures in several groups of plant viruses strongly suggests that they have a biological function. Indeed, in the case of brome mosaic virus (BMV), a relatively simple 3′-specific modification of the RNA results in loss of infectivity. However, currently, no metabolic role for the tRNA-like structures has been demonstrated, and the likelihood of functions related to translation or viral assembly processes seem to be remote. Thus, a role in transcription events currently appears to be the most attractive suggestion. This is despite the fact that other RNA viruses, such as pea enation mosaic virus, which lacks a functional tRNA-like 3′ structure or even a 3′ poly(A) sequence, are efficiently transcribed in their hosts. Because of the analogous levels of specificity for aminoacylation, despite their very different structures, it is possible that comparative studies of viral and tRNAs may yield an insight to the features of RNA, which permit aminoacylation to occur. Comparisons of infective properties of native and chemically modified forms of aminoacylatable viral RNAs may reveal if the tRNA structure is related to transcription or translation events; alternatively, they may reveal a novel metabolic process.
James Raymond Vreeland and Axel Dreher (eds.): The political economy of the United Nations Security Council: money and influence

Does money buy political support? This question is common in general discourse about domestic policy matters. Political conservatives accuse progressives of being beholden to labor unions while political progressives complain that big business sways conservatives. While the scholarly literature disagrees about the effect money has in influencing political outcomes, the rent seeking literature shows that money can be traded for political support. This type of trading, however, does not have to be confined to interest groups and politicians in a domestic policy setting. Trades can also occur between different countries who have different needs or preferences. The politics of the United Nations provides a perfect setting for this type of behavior. In The Political Economy of the United Nations Security Council James Vreeland and Axel Dreher examine whether there are financial perks to serving on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The authors find that certain key countries, particularly Germany, Japan, and the United States, trade development aid for the votes of temporary members of the UNSC. These trades are common, especially in years with heightened international geopolitical dispute. Vreeland and Dreher argue that these trades occur for two basic reasons. First, wealthier countries care more about UNSC votes because international issues are normal goods and development aid is a relatively small part of their overall budget. In general, the opposite is true for poorer countries. Less developed countries care more about development aid than about broad international issues. This is because development aid can provide these countries with a significant amount of addition resources, relative to their overall budgets. In addition, less developed countries often have a small role in influencing international issues.
Interleukin-1β gene variants are associated with QTc interval prolongation following cardiac surgery: a prospective observational study

We characterized cardiac surgery-induced dynamic changes of the corrected QT (QTc) interval and tested the hypothesis that genetic factors are associated with perioperative QTc prolongation independent of clinical and procedural factors. All study subjects were ascertained from a prospective study of patients who underwent elective cardiac surgery during August 1999 to April 2002. We defined a prolonged QTc interval as > 440 msec, measured from 24-hr pre- and postoperative 12-lead electrocardiograms. The association of 37 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 21 candidate genes –involved in modulating arrhythmia susceptibility pathways with postoperative QTc changes– was investigated in a two-stage design with a stage I cohort (n = 497) nested within a stage II cohort (n = 957). Empirical P values (Pemp) were obtained by permutation tests with 10,000 repeats. After adjusting for clinical and procedural risk factors, we selected four SNPs (P value range, 0.03-0.1) in stage I, which we then tested in the stage II cohort. Two functional SNPs in the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β (IL1β), rs1143633 (odds ratio [OR], 0.71; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.53 to 0.95; Pemp = 0.02) and rs16944 (OR, 1.31; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.70; Pemp = 0.04), remained independent predictors of postoperative QTc prolongation. The ability of a clinico-genetic model incorporating the two IL1B polymorphisms to classify patients at risk for developing prolonged postoperative QTc was superior to a clinical model alone, with a net reclassification improvement of 0.308 (P = 0.0003) and an integrated discrimination improvement of 0.02 (P = 0.000024). The results suggest a contribution of IL1β in modulating susceptibility to postoperative QTc prolongation after cardiac surgery.
Community violence exposure and generalized anxiety symptoms: does executive functioning serve a moderating role among low income, urban youth?

Although community violence exposure (CVE) confers risk for generalized anxiety symptoms, not all youth who are exposed to violence exhibit such symptoms, suggesting that other factors moderate this relation. One candidate for moderation is executive functioning (EF), which is linked to both CVE and generalized anxiety symptoms. Nevertheless, little research has examined whether EF moderates the CVE-anxiety relation. To address this gap, we examined associations among CVE (i.e., direct victimization and witnessed violence), EF abilities (i.e., emotional control and shifting), and parent- and child-reported generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms among low income, urban youth (N = 104, 50 % male, M = 9.93 ± 1.22 years). In terms of main effects, lower levels of emotional control were associated with increased parent-reported GAD symptoms, whereas lower levels of shifting abilities were associated with increased parent- and child-reported GAD symptoms across both subtypes of CVE. EF abilities moderated the relation between direct victimization and both parent- and child-reported GAD symptoms, but did not moderate the relation between witnessed violence and GAD symptoms. Post-hoc probing indicated that when youth were exposed to higher levels of direct victimization, those with lower EF abilities exhibited elevated GAD symptoms. However, the level of direct victimization did not impact the level of GAD symptoms among youth with higher EF abilities. Findings have implications for prevention and intervention programs among at-risk youth who are exposed to community violence.
Georges Seurat, The Art of Vision

Despite his brief career and relatively scant output, Georges Seurat has earned premier status within the art historical canon, deemed the benchmark and originator of the short-lived movement, Neo-...
Bone scintigraphy screening in stage I-II breast cancer: is it cost-effective?

SUMMARY It is recommended that routine bone scans not be adopted for follow-up of patients with stage I—II breast cancer. Bone scintigraphy should be reserved for evaluation of patients presenting with symptoms suggestive of bone metastases.
Chronic meningitis--a clinical dilemma.

Lumbar puncture should be performed promptly and carefully on the patient with even a trace of meningeal irritation. The best approach to the clinical dilemma of chronic meningitis is a methodical, stepwise assessment of diagnostic possibilities as indicated by the cell count and sugar concentration of the cerebrospinal fluid. An approach to management based on categorization of patients according to these variables is outlined, and antimicrobial treatment schedules are presented.
Effectiveness of Restraining Concentration Seal of K_1n_(1-2) Mudstone Caprock in Gulong Sag

The dark mudstones in the K1n1-2 were the major source rocks of oil-bearing assemblage in the middle of Gulong Sag, and the regional caprocks of Sa'ertu, Putaohua and Gaotaizi oil layers. To study the effectiveness of restraining concentration seal of K1n1-2 and gas dispersed from the source rocks if Qingshankou Formation was great significance of studying the gas accumulation and preservation. On the basis of studying overpressure formation and evolution, the formation and evolution of the restraining concentration seal in the sag were studied. It was considered that the restraining concentration seal was formed in the early sedimentary period of Sifangtai Formation, it was the weakest at the end of Quaternary sedimentary period. The 1st sedimentary evolutional period stopped and it was in the secondary evolutional period. Study of matching relation between sediment and evolution of the restraining concentration seal and hydrocarbon generation history of Qingshankou Formation shows that the formation of restraining concentration seal of caprocks in K1n1-2 of Gulong Sag was earlier than that of maximum gas diffusion period, it can be used for restraining maximum gas diffusion from the source rock of Qingshankou Formation at the weakest point, the loss of dispersed gas is not severe at the late stage of Quaternary sedimentation, it is beneficial for gas accumulation and preservation in Sa'ertu, Putaohua and Gaotaizi oil layers.
Intestinal dysmotility in intestinal atresia

Intestinal atresia is one of the most common surgical disease in neonates.Intestinal dysmotility,which usually has been encountered,is an important problem in postoperative management of patients with intestinal atresia.Changes of enteric nerves,intestinal smooth muscle,interstitial cells of Cajal and neuromuscular junction in the distended proximal segments and the pathological changes in distal segments of intestinal atresia,for example intestinal neuronal dysplasia,were considered to be the reason of motility disorders in intestinal atresia.The choice of surgical methods will also affect the recovery of intestinal motility.
Soft decision-directed modified constant modulus algorithm

A hybrid adaptive channel equalization technique for high-order quadrature amplitude modulation(QAM)signal was proposed.The proposed algorithm(MCMA+SDD)with the cost function that included both amplitude and phase of the equalizer output,the soft decision-directed(SDD)would operate concurrently,which would take place of PLL.Extensive simulation shows that it has a state equalization performance and a faster convergence speed as the concurrent CMA and SDD algorithm.
Simultaneous determination of 5 benzotriazole ultraviolet stabilizers in food simulants by gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry

A method procedure for the simultaneous determination of 5 benzotriazole ultraviolet( UV) stabilizer residues in food stimulants was established. Analytes were extracted by acetonitrile from water,ethanol 20%( V/V) and acetic acid 3%( w/v); olive oil samples were cleaned up by gel permeation chromatography( GPC). The samples were separated on a ZB-5MSi column,and subsequently determined by triple quadruple mass spectrometry in the multiple reaction monitoring mode. The quantification was achieved by external standard method. The correlation coefficients of 5 linear equations exceeded 0. 997. The mean recoveries were from71. 7% to 108. 7% at 3 different spiked levels,and the relative standard deviations( RSD) were between 2. 4%and 11. 2%. The method was sensitive and reproducible,and successfully applied to the analysis of benzotriazole stabilizer residues in food stimulants.
Urodynamic features of pelvic plexus injury.

AbstractBenign and malignant neoplasms arising in and around the pelvic structures may cause urinary obstruction by mechanical compression of the bladder or proximal urethra. These neoplasms less commonly cause neurogenic voiding dysfunction. Herein we describe the urodynamic abnormalities in a young man with massive involvement of the true pelvis with choriocarcinoma. Destruction of the pelvic plexus produced deficits of parasympathetic, sympathetic and somatic innervation of the bladder and urethra. The value of urodynamic evaluation as a neurologic test of thoracolumbar and sacral cord function is demonstrated.
The Effect of Round Window vs Cochleostomy Surgical Approaches on Cochlear Implant Electrode Position: A Flat-Panel Computed Tomography Study.

Importance The round window insertion (RWI) and cochleostomy approaches are the 2 most common surgical techniques used in cochlear implantation (CI). However, there is no consensus on which approach is ideal for electrode array insertion, in part because visualization of intracochlear electrode position is challenging, so postoperative assessment of intracochlear electrode contact is lacking. Objective To measure and compare electrode array position between RWI and cochleostomy approaches for CI insertion. Design, Setting, and Participants Retrospective case-comparison study of 17 CI users with Med-El standard-length electrode arrays who underwent flat-panel computed tomography scans after CI surgery at a tertiary referral center. The data was analyzed in October 2015. Exposures Flat-panel computed tomography scans were collected between January 1 and August 31, 2013, for 22 electrode arrays. The surgical technique was identified by a combination of operative notes and imaging. Eight cochleae underwent RWI and 14 cochleae underwent cochleostomy approaches anterior and inferior to the round window. Main Outcomes and Measures Interscalar electrode position and electrode centroid distance to the osseous spiral lamina, lateral bony wall, and central axis of the modiolus. Results Nine participants were men, and 8, women; the mean age was 54.4 (range, 21-64) years. Electrode position was significantly closer to cochlear neural elements with RWI than cochleostomy approaches. Between the 2 surgical approaches, the RWI technique produced shorter distances between the electrode and the modiolus (mean difference, −0.33 [95% CI, −0.29 to −0.39] mm in the apical electrode; −1.42 [95% CI, −1.24 to −1.57] mm in the basal electrode). This difference, which was most prominent in the first third and latter third of the basal turn, decreased after the basal turn. Conclusions and Relevance The RWI approach was associated with an increased likelihood of perimodiolar placement. Opting to use RWI over cochleostomy approaches in CI candidates may position electrodes closer to cochlear neural substrates and minimize current spread. These findings need to be interpreted in light of the increased potential for osseous spiral lamina trauma with reduced distances between the electrode array and modiolus.
Reproductive Health and Bipolar Disorder

The presentations and clinical courses of patients with bipolar disorder differ greatly by gender. In addition, medical therapy must be tailored differently for men and women because of emerging safety concerns unique to the female reproductive system. In November 2005, these topics were explored by a panel of experts in psychiatry, neurology, and reproductive health at a closed roundtable meeting in Dallas, Texas. This clinical information monograph summarizes the highlights of that meeting.Compared to men with bipolar disorder, women have more pervasive depressive symptoms and experience more major depressive episodes. They are also at higher risk for obesity and certain other medical and psychiatric comorbidities. Mood changes across the menstrual cycle are common, although the severity, timing, and type of changes are variable. Bipolar disorder is frequently associated with menstrual abnormalities and ovarian dysfunction, including polycystic ovarian syndrome. Although some cases of menstrual disturbance precede the treatment of bipolar disorder, it is possible that valproate and/or antipsychotic treatment may play a contributory role in young women.Pregnancy does not protect against mood episodes in untreated women. Maintenance of euthymia during pregnancy is critical because relapse during this period strongly predicts a difficult postpartum course. Suspending therapy in the first months of pregnancy may be an option for some women with mild-to-moderate illness, or those with a long history of euthymia during pre-pregnancy treatment. However, a mood stabilizer should be reintroduced either in the later stages of pregnancy or in the immediate postpartum period. Preliminary data suggest that fetal exposure to some mood stabilizers may raise the risk of major congenital malformations and neurodevelopmental delays. For women planning to become pregnant, clinicians may consider switching to other drugs before conception. The value and drawbacks of breastfeeding during treatment must be considered in partnership with the patient, with close monitoring of nursing infants thereafter. The risks and benefits of medical treatment for women with bipolar disorder should be carefully reconsidered at each stage of their reproductive lives, with a flexible approach that is responsive to the changing needs of patients and their families.
Defining common aspects of undergraduate instructional laboratories for control systems

Course objectives, like research objectives or product requirements, help provide clarity and direction for everyone involved. Unfortunately, course and instructional laboratory objectives are not always clearly stated. Without a clear set of objectives, it can be hard to design course materials and determine if students are achieving the intended outcomes of the course or laboratory. This study seeks to define a common set of laboratory objectives, concepts, and components of a laboratory apparatus for undergraduate control systems instructional laboratories. A group of control systems faculty, from a variety of institutions, completed a multi-round survey in order to bring them toward consensus on the common aspects of their laboratories. While there will be variation between control systems courses and laboratories, defining the common aspects will form a basis of comparison for experiments and equipment going forward. These common aspects can also be used as a guide to develop new equipment and experiments with wide applicability, which will aid in sharing and reapplication at other institutions.
Perception, communication and educational research: A transactional view

We have not presented a transactional theory, since, so far as we know, there is no one such theory to present. Instead, we have outlined some transactional viewpoints which we consider potentially useful in audiovisual communication, learning resources development, and research in these areas. We have suggested some implications and advantages of transactional assumptions.
A survey of 3,874 routine full-mouth radiographs: II. A study of impacted teeth

Abstract In a comprehensive study of 3,874 routine full-mouth radiographs, the following findings concerning impacted teeth were noted: 1. The incidence of patients with at least one impacted tooth was 16.7 per cent. 2. The teeth most often impacted, in order of frequency, were the maxillary third molar, the mandibular third molar, the maxillary cuspid, and the mandibular premolars. 3. The incidence of impaction was 21.9 per cent for maxillary third molars and 17.5 per cent for mandibular third molars. 4. The incidence of impaction among maxillary cuspids was 0.92 per cent. 5. No sex differences were noted in the impaction of third molars, but maxillary cuspid impactions were found more frequently in female patients than in male patients. 6. No statistically significant predisposition toward bilateral impaction was noted among third molars, while a definite tendency toward unilateral impaction was found in maxillary cuspids. 7. Thirty-seven per cent of mandibular and 15 per cent of maxillary impacted third molars were found to have areas of radiolucency around their crowns.
Fast discovery of influential outcomes for risk-aware MPDM

In the Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) framework, a robot's policy is elected by sampling from the distribution of current states, predicting future outcomes through forward simulation, and selecting the policy with the best expected performance. Electing the best plan depends on sampling initial conditions with influential (very high costs) outcomes. Discovering these configurations through random sampling may require drawing many samples, which becomes a performance bottleneck. In this paper, we describe a risk-aware approach which augments this sampling with an optimization process that helps discover those influential outcomes. We describe how we overcome several practical difficulties with this approach, and demonstrate significant performance improvements on a real robot platform navigating a semi-crowded, highly dynamic environment.
Playing with fire: effects of negative mood induction and working memory on vocabulary acquisition

We investigated the impact of emotions on learning vocabulary in an unfamiliar language to better understand affective influences in foreign language acquisition. Seventy native English speakers learned new vocabulary in either a negative or a neutral emotional state. Participants also completed two sets of working memory tasks to examine the potential mediating role of working memory. Results revealed that participants exposed to negative stimuli exhibited difficulty in retrieving and correctly pairing English words with Indonesian words, as reflected in a lower performance on the prompted recall tests and the free recall measure. Emotional induction did not change working memory scores from pre to post manipulation. This suggests working memory could not explain the reduced vocabulary learning in the negative group. We argue that negative mood can adversely affect language learning by suppressing aspects of native-language processing and impeding form-meaning mapping with second language words.
1994 student writing contest winner: nonoperative rehabilitation of an isolated posterior cruciate ligament rupture.

Abstract This case study describes the history, diagnosis, rehabilitation, and prognosis of an isolated posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) rupture seen in a collegiate soccer player. The occurrence of an isolated PCL rupture is rare in athletics. An accurate diagnosis is important and can be obtained by using techniques such as: passive tests, active tests, X rays, and magnetic resonance imaging. Rehabilitation from this injury is controversial because of the lack of documentation clearly showing the natural pathology of a PCL-deficient knee. There is research indicating that if chronic joint degeneration occurs, it will most likely be medial compartment or patellofemoral arthritis. Currently, the options are reconstructive surgery or participation in a nonoperative rehabilitation program. Because of this athlete's strength, age, and the nature of his sport, reconstructive surgery was not chosen. The rehabilitation program was progressive and modeled after the five stages of rehabilitation as described by Prentice. It emphasized strengthening the quadriceps and increasing hamstring flexibility. The athlete experienced minimal pain and inflammation after the injury. Results of rehabilitation were outstanding. The athlete was released for return to full contact 4–1/2 weeks postinjury. He demonstrated excellent performance without any abnormal knee symptoms. The ratio of quadriceps to hamstring strength was bilaterally stabilized to 87%, and the ratio of quadriceps strength of the injured knee to the healthy knee was 102% when the athlete returned to sports activities. The athlete will have to wait to see if the chronic damage that may develop will be symptomatic.
Variability-aware double-patterning layout optimization for analog circuits

The semiconductor industry has adopted multi-patterning techniques to manage the delay in the extreme ultraviolet lithography technology. During the design process of double-patterning lithography layout masks, two polygons are assigned to different masks if their spacing is less than the minimum printable spacing. With these additional design constraints, it is very difficult to find experienced layout-design engineers who have a good understanding of the circuit to manually optimize the mask layers in order to minimize color-induced circuit variations. In this work, we investigate the impact of double-patterning lithography on analog circuits and provide quantitative analysis for our designers to select the optimal mask to minimize the circuit’s mismatch. To overcome the problem and improve the turn-around time, we proposed our smart “anchoring” placement technique to optimize mask decomposition for analog circuits. We have developed a software prototype that is capable of providing anchoring markers in the layout, allowing industry standard tools to perform automated color decomposition process.
Association of Tricuspid Regurgitation With Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Outcomes: A Report From The Society of Thoracic Surgeons/American College of Cardiology Transcatheter Valve Therapy Registry

Background The purpose of this study is to evaluate the association of tricuspid regurgitation (TR) severity with outcomes after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). Methods We analyzed data from 34,576 patients who underwent TAVR at 365 US hospitals from November 2011 through March 2015 submitted to The Society of Thoracic Surgeon/American College of Cardiology Transcatheter Valve Therapy Registry. We examined unadjusted mortality and heart failure readmission stratified by degree of preoperative TR and used multivariable models for 1-year mortality and heart failure readmission. Results Tricuspid regurgitation was present in 80% (n = 27,804) of TAVR patients, with mild TR in 56% (n = 19,393), moderate TR in 19% (n = 6687), and severe TR in 5% (n = 1,724). Increasing TR severity was associated with a number of comorbidities and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons predicted risk of mortality increased ( p p Conclusions Tricuspid regurgitation was common among patients undergoing TAVR. Increasing TR severity was associated with higher risk patients and increased mortality and readmission—particularly for patients with severe TR and left ventricular ejection fraction greater than 30%. The effectiveness of TAVR alone in patients with aortic stenosis and concomitant severe TR may warrant further consideration, particularly for lower risk patients.
Parody as Genealogy and Tradition in Nazi Literature in the Americas

This chapter examines three interrelated aspects of the production of Nazi Literature in the Americas. First, Nogueira shows how Roberto Bolano intentionally constructs his literary genealogy, selecting not only the Spanish American authors that precede him, but also the main traits they offer him through the parodic genre of imagined biographies created by Schwob. She then studies how the word “Nazi” is disseminated by the various symbols of Fascism, the historical figure of Adolph Hitler, Neo-Nazi ideology, and the figure of the mediocre artist. Finally, upon relating parody to the critical feature of postmodernist literature, Nogueira argues that Neo-Nazi parodic criticism is the main technique employed by Bolano to criticize a bland, neutral, and institutionalized literary production.
Is the operative autonomy granted to a resident consistent with operative performance quality.

Abstract Background We investigated attending surgeon decisions regarding resident operative autonomy, including situations where operative autonomy was discordant with performance quality. Methods Attending surgeons assessed operative performance and documented operative autonomy granted to residents from 14 general surgery residency programs. Concordance between performance and autonomy was defined as “practice ready performance/meaningfully autonomous” or “not practice ready/not meaningfully autonomous.” Discordant circumstances were practice ready/not meaningfully autonomous or not practice ready/meaningfully autonomous. Resident training level, patient-related case complexity, procedure complexity, and procedure commonality were investigated to determine impact on autonomy. Results A total of 8,798 assessments were collected from 429 unique surgeons assessing 496 unique residents. Practice-ready and exceptional performances were 20 times more likely to be performed under meaningfully autonomous conditions than were other performances. Meaningful autonomy occurred most often with high-volume, easy and common cases, and less complex procedures. Eighty percent of assessments were concordant (38% practice ready/meaningfully autonomous and 42% not practice ready/not meaningfully autonomous). Most discordant assessments (13.8%) were not practice ready/meaningfully autonomous. For fifth-year residents, practice ready/not meaningfully autonomous ratings (9.7%) were more frequent than not practice ready/meaningfully autonomous ratings (7.5%). Ten surgeons (2.3%) failed to afford residents meaningful autonomy on any occasion. Conclusion Resident operative performance quality is the most important determinant in attending surgeon decisions regarding resident autonomy.
Choices without backtracking

Artificial Intelligence problem solvers are frequently confronted with the necessity to make choices among equally plausible alternatives. These may concern the choice of which goal to try lo achieve next, which priority to assign lo a task or which plausible inference to draw from incomplete data. Choices can be wrong: later problem solving may determine that an earlier choice was incorrect. In such cases most problem solvers invoke some form of backtracking lo undo the faulty choice, retract the inferences that were made from that choice and make some other choice. This paper discusses a method of dealing with choice that docs not involve any backtracking yet explores no more alternatives than the best backtracking schemes. It has an additional advantage over backtracking schemes that it is possible lo easily compare two alternative incompatible choices — this cannot be done in backtracking schemes because of their necessity of requiring a globally consistent set of assertions.
Progress in Digital Sound Synthesis for Physically Based Animation (Invited Talk)

Natural sounds are all around us. The sound of my son struggling to get out of his wet rain coat, or rain boots squeaking across the floor. The sound of lemonade pouring into an ice-filled glass, or the ocean crashing at your feet. In this chapter I describe progress toward the sound synthesis goals by our group at Cornell, and mention some of the many remaining challenges.
Broadband and linear polarization metasurface carpet cloak in the visible

In the past few years, carpet cloaking has attracted interest because of its feasibility at optical frequencies and potential in stealth technologies. Metasurfaces have been proposed as a method to engineer ultra-thin carpet cloaking surfaces due to their abilities to manipulate wavefronts, polarization, and phase at subwavelength scale. However, achieving broadband carpet cloaking with a significant bandwidth is one of the key remaining challenges for metasurface designs. To date, broadband carpet cloaking based on metasurfaces has not been achieved, and operation has been limited to discrete wavelengths. Here, we propose and numerically demonstrate a novel metasurface design for broadband carpet cloaking with linear polarization at visible wavelengths from 650 nm to 800 nm. Our proposed method is a promising approach for broadband structured interfaces.
Late froms of Psychologism and Antipsychologism

Etude des formes tardives du psychologisme et de l'antipsychologisme qui ont perdu leur importance dialectique en meme temps que les positions de Frege et Husserl. Examinant la distinction entre les lois invariantes de la pensee et les lois universelles de la nature chez J. N. Mohanty et M. Dummett, l'A. mesure la reception du psychologisme chez Carnap et Quine, d'une part, et montre que l'interet pour la necessite et l'objectivite mathematiques a ete substitue par le paradigme de la conscience de soi, d'autre part
Cyanobacterial growth and morphology are influenced by carboxysome positioning and temperature

ABSTRACT Cyanobacteria are the prokaryotic group of phytoplankton responsible for a significant fraction of global CO2 fixation. Like plants, cyanobacteria use the enzyme Ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxidase (RuBisCO) to fix CO2 into organic carbon molecules via the Calvin-Benson-Bassham cycle. Unlike plants, cyanobacteria evolved a carbon concentrating organelle called the carboxysome - a proteinaceous compartment that encapsulates and concentrates RuBisCO along with its CO2 substrate. In the rod-shaped cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC7942, we recently identified the McdAB system responsible for uniformly distributing carboxysomes along the cell length. It remains unknown what role carboxysome positioning plays with respect to cellular physiology. Here, we show for the first time that a failure to distribute carboxysomes leads to a temperature-dependent decrease in cell growth rate, cell division arrest, cell elongation, asymmetric cell division, and a significant reduction in cellular levels of RuBisCO. Unexpectedly, we also report that even wild-type S. elongatus undergoes filamentous growth at the cool, but environmentally-relevant, growth temperature of 20°C. The findings suggest that carboxysome positioning by the McdAB system functions to maintain the carbon-fixation efficiency of RuBisCO by preventing carboxysome aggregation, which is particularly important at temperatures where rod-shaped cyanobacteria adopt a filamentous morphology. IMPORTANCE Photosynthetic cyanobacteria are responsible for almost half of global CO2 fixation. Due to eutrophication, rising temperatures, and increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations, cyanobacteria have recently gained notoriety for their ability to form massive blooms in both freshwater and marine ecosystems across the globe. Like plants, cyanobacteria use the most abundant enzyme on Earth, RuBisCO, to provide the sole source of organic carbon required for its photosynthetic growth. Unlike plants, cyanobacteria have evolved a carbon-concentrating organelle called the carboxysome that encapsulates and concentrates RuBisCO with its CO2 substrate to significantly increase carbon-fixation efficiency and cell growth. We recently identified the positioning system that distributes carboxysomes in cyanobacteria. However, the physiological consequence of carboxysome mispositioning in the absence of this distribution system remains unknown. Here we find that carboxysome mispositioning triggers temperature-dependent changes in cell growth and morphology as well as a significant reduction in cellular levels of RuBisCO.
Automated construction of clear-sky dictionary from all-sky imager data

Abstract All-sky imagers (ASIs) have substantial promise as scalable sensors for short-term solar irradiance forecasting. Many of the current computational techniques that use ASIs for this purpose rely on collections of clear-sky images indexed by time of day, solar angle, or both, called clear-sky dictionaries (CSDs). These CSDs act as baselines against which images can be compared to locate and classify clouds within the image frame. CSDs are often compiled by hand, where individuals visually inspect collections of images one at a time to find clear-sky images. This process is not scalable, and it is prone to error. This paper proposes an automated, nonparametric alternative that uses the principles of digital image processing to find clear-sky images within a set of images taken over several days. We use ground-truth measurements of the clearness index to assess the performance of our method, and we show that the images it selects accurately correspond to clear-sky images. We also compare our proposal, which is nonparametric, with a state-of-the-art parametric method. The numerical results indicate that the performance of the method proposed here is superior.
The PrEP Cascade in a National Cohort of Adolescent Men Who Have Sex With Men.

BACKGROUND Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has been an available biomedical intervention for at-risk adolescents for over 2 years; however, progression from awareness to uptake and adherence has been slow. In response, we map adolescent men who have sex with men (AMSM) onto the PrEP Motivation Cascade to identify stages for intervention. METHODS We analyzed PrEP-related attitudinal and behavioral data from a US national cohort of 1398 AMSM. RESULTS A majority of the sample (53.9%) were identified as appropriate PrEP candidates. Of those identified as appropriate candidates, 51.8% were precontemplative (stage 1; unwilling to take or believing they were inappropriate candidates for PrEP), and 48.2% reached contemplation (stage 2; willing and self-identified as appropriate candidates). Only 16.3% of candidates reached preparation (stage 3; seeing PrEP as accessible and planning to initiate PrEP), and 3.1% reached PrEP action (stage 4; prescribed PrEP). Although few of the AMSM identified as appropriate candidates were on PrEP, most users (87%) reported high adherence to 4+ doses per week (stage 5; PrEP maintenance). Factors associated with reaching later stages were being older, being out to parents, and engaging in previous HIV/sexually transmitted infection testing. CONCLUSIONS AMSM PrEP use falls short of recommended levels. PrEP campaigns are needed to raise awareness by targeting key AMSM subgroups that underestimate the appropriateness of use. Equally important, parents and health providers of AMSM should serve educational roles to help facilitate potential PrEP uptake, by motivating adolescents and giving them the skills needed to request, fill, and adhere to a prescription.
Sympathetic ophthalmia

Background Sympathetic ophthalmia (SO) is a rare, bilateral, non-necrotizing, granulomatous uveitis that occurs after ocular trauma or surgical procedures to one eye threatening sight in the fellow eye. The pathophysiology is not clearly understood, but it appears that the disrupted integrity of the inciting eye leads to an autoimmune hypersensitivity reaction against the exposed ocular antigens in the injured eye as well as in the sympathizing eye. More recently, vitreoretinal surgery has been noted to be a risk factor for the development of SO.
Simple Rules for Simple Courts: Specific Performance, Expectation Damages and Hybrid Mechanisms

Arguments for and against property rules (roughly equitable remedies) and liability rules (legal remedies) have been largely based on efficiency considerations. Courts can clearly determine efficient remedies when they are sufficiently informed about the valuations of parties. However, courts are rarely so well informed and thus they guess (often incorrectly) which remedy will lead to an efficient outcome. This research presents conditions where uninformed courts can reach efficient outcomes using simple direct mechanisms, mechanisms that are essentially hybrids of equitable and legal remedies. The principal result here is that a court does not have to guess when it can effectively harness the private information possessed by other parties. This result holds even though the court does not actually acquire the private information, though it does require that one of the litigating parties observe some of the other party's information.
Science on a large scale

The TeraGrid, the U.S. National Science Foundation's multi-year project to build a distributed national cyberinfrastructure, entered full production mode in the fall of 2004, providing a coordinated set of services for the science and engineering community. TeraGrid operates a unified user support infrastructure and software environment across its eight resource partner sites, which together provide more than 40 teraflops of computing capability and mass storage capability in the petabytes, linked by networks operating at tens of Gigabit/sec. This unified environment allows TeraGrid users to access storage and information resources as well as over a dozen major computing systems via a single allocation, either as stand-alone resources or as components of a distributed application using Grid software capabilities. Many lessons can be drawn from the dual pursuit of high performance and close integration. The next phase will be even more exciting, with the roll out of a wide range of science gateways and additional advanced applications. Science gateway projects are aimed at supporting access to TeraGrid via web portals, desktop applications or via other grids. An initial set of 10 gateways will address new scientific opportunities in fields from bioinformatics to nanotechnology as well as interoperation between TeraGrid and other Grid infrastructures. TeraGrid is also enabling an impressive array of large scale science applications, where researchers can perform complex simulations and manipulate enormous data sets in novel ways to gain new insights into research questions and societal problems, for example, finding the most efficient and least expensive ways to clean up groundwater pollution. Effort in these and other related areas will allow more researchers and educators access to TeraGrid capabilities and advance compatibility between TeraGrid and other major Grid deployments such as Open Science Grid, Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), and major European and Asian Grid deployments.
Degradation of degradable starch-polyethylene plastics in a compost environment.

The degradation performance of 11 types of commercially produced degradable starch-polyethylene plastic compost bags was evaluated in municipal yard waste compost sites at Iowa State University (Ames) and in Carroll, Dubuque, and Grinnell, Iowa. Masterbatches for plastic production were provided by Archer Daniels Midland Co. (Decatur, Ill.), St. Lawrence Starch Co. Ltd. (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada), and Fully Compounded Plastics (Decatur, Ill.). Bags differed in starch content (5 to 9%) and prooxidant additives (transition metals and a type of unsaturated vegetable oil). Chemical and photodegradation properties of each material were evaluated. Materials from St. Lawrence Starch Co. Ltd. and Fully Compounded Plastics photodegraded faster than did materials from Archer Daniels Midland Co., whereas all materials containing transition metals demonstrated rapid thermal oxidative degradation in 70°C-oven (dry) and high-temperature, high-humidity (steam chamber) treatments. Each compost site was seeded with test strips (200 to 800 of each type) taped together, which were recovered periodically over an 8- to 12-month period. At each sampling date, the compost row temperature was measured (65 to 95°C), the location of the recovered test strip was recorded (interior or exterior), and at least four strips were recovered for evaluation. Degradation was followed by measuring the change in polyethylene molecular weight distribution via high-temperature gel permeation chromatography. Our initial 8-month study indicated that materials recovered from the interior of the compost row demonstrated very little degradation, whereas materials recovered from the exterior degraded well. In the second-year study, however, degradation was observed in several plastic materials recovered from the interior of the compost row by month 5 at the Carroll site and almost every material by month 12 at the Grinnell site. The plastic bags collected from each community followed a similar degradation pattern. To our knowledge, this is the first scientific study demonstrating significant polyethylene degradation by these materials in a compost environment.
Differences in hemodynamic effects of nitroprusside and prazosin in severe chronic congestive heart failure: evidence for a direct negative chronotropic effect of prazosin.

Abstract To compare the hemodynamic effects of prazosin and nitroprusside in patients with severe congestive heart failure, nine patients with heart failure refractory to conventional therapy received oral prazosin and intravenous nitroprusside administered so as to produce a similar decrease in left ventricular filling pressure in each patient. By this comparison, both drugs produced similar decreases in mean right atrial pressure, mean pulmonary arterial pressure and systemic and pulmonary vascular resistance. However, with nitroprusside, cardiac index increased more (+ 0.97 versus +0.73 liters/min per m 2 , P P 2 with nitroprusside and +12.5 with prazosin) and stroke work index (+8.1 g-m/m 2 with nitroprusside and +6.6 with prazosin). Therefore, the differences In the hemodynamic responses observed with the two agents were due to the significantly greater decrease in heart rate with prazosin (−8 beats/min) than with nitroprusside (−2 beats/min, P
Estimating Implicit Marginal Prices of Quality Characteristics of Tomatoes

ducing losses of over $10 million annually to the apple industry. A hedonic price function is developed for he apple industry. estimating the implicit prices for selected Pierson et al. examined the general magestimating the implicit prices for nitudes and locations of food losses occurring quality characteristics of fresh tomatoes at ites and locations of food losses occurring three points in the marketing season. The in transportation wholesaling, and r estimation of this function, proposed as a tailing stages of the postharvest process in method of evaluating changes in the post- the United States food distribution system. harvest system, is accomplished using a flex- Losses in fresh beef, produce, dairy products, ible functional form. Those quality char- dry groc rocery, frozen foods, bakery goods, and acteristics that most affect the price of to- foods sold through delicatessen departments matoes can help determine the economic were estimated. The report suggested that feasibility of alternative handling techniques between 9.04 percent and 16.61 percent of or new technologies. the dollar value of United States produce was lost, accounting for a value of $.64 to $1.26