cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Direct effects of medroxyprogesterone acetate, danazol, and leuprolide acetate on endometrial stromal cell proliferation in vitro.

Objective To assess the direct effects of three endometriosis chemotherapeutic agents (medroxyprogesterone acetate [MPA], danazol, and leuprolide acetate [LA]) on endometrial cell proliferation. Design Analysis of cell proliferation in vitro. Setting Proliferative phase endometrial stromal cells isolated from biopsy specimens and grown in short-term culture served as a model for stromal components of endometriotic implants. Patients Biopsies obtained from volunteers with regular cycles and without endometriosis or endometrial pathology. Interventions Medroxyprogesterone acetate, danazol, and LA were added to nutrient media with the following supplements: 2.5% calf serum (CS) only; 2.5% CS + estradiol (E 2 ) 110 pmol/L; 2.5% CS + E 2 550 pmol/L; 10% preovulatory serum (net E 2 624 pmol/L). Main Outcome Measures Cumulative [ 3 H]-thymidine incorporation as a reflection of cell proliferation. Results Medroxyprogesterone acetate and danazol exerted significant antiproliferative effects on stromal cell proliferation ( P 2 . Leuprolide acetate exerted no consistent effects. Conclusions These data imply that MPA and danazol but not LA exert direct effects, suppressing growth of endometriotic implants.
Some Results from Direct Methods Applied to Optimum Rocket Trajectories

Solutions for various problems arising in the study of optimum rocket trajectories are given by direct methods. These methods have the advantage of simplicity in showing both the necessity and sufficiency of the conditions. Emphasis is placed on the interception of a ballistic target with minimum fuel consumption, above the sensible atmosphere, as a typical problem.
A synthetic diagnostic for beam emission spectroscopy in the helically symmetric experiment stellarator

The Helically Symmetric Experiment (HSX) has a number of active spectroscopy diagnostics. Due to the relatively large beam width compared to the plasma minor radius, it is difficult to achieve good spatial resolution at the core of the HSX plasma. This is due to the fact that the optical sightline cuts through many flux surfaces with varying field vectors within the beam. In order to compare the experimental results with theoretical models it is important to accurately model the beam width effects. A synthetic diagnostic has been developed for this purpose. This synthetic diagnostic calculates the effect of spot size and beam width on the measurements of quantities of interest, including radial electric field, flow velocity, and Stark polarization.
What Bad Is Not: Breaking Bad, Apophatic and Dramaturgic Continua from Creator to Viewer, and a Poetics of the Philosophy of Religion

In this chapter, I argue that Walter White can teach us about spiritual realities in terms of their phenomenological and textural aspects. I show that there is an overlap of scientism and religious literalism that can be found in Breaking Bad stories, and I further describe the fact that we have moved into discourse about a postmodern universe in which both Werner Heisenberg and Walter White/Heisenberg can hold court.
Broadcast television flow scheduling and the viewers’ zapping: conflicting practices

Broadcast television and its audiences live a paradoxical situation: on the one hand, channels still schedule according to the concept of flow; on the other hand, viewers’ zapping counters it. This paper wishes to ascertain the audiences’ practices regarding their fidelity to flow. The research tries to answer these questions: how many viewers watch the same channel during a long consecutive period? How many viewers watch a complete programme? Are there significant differences in zapping versus flow faithfulness according to sex, age, socio-demographic class and cable TV access? Is “companionship television” still a viewers’ consume practice? The research verifies the effectiveness of flow scheduling, which, while being an ideology and a scheduling and self-promotion practice, is not a practice of most viewers. The results show that flow faithfulness flow is a minority behaviour mainly of older people, women, lower classes and viewers without occupation.
Gating Motions and Stationary Gating Properties of Ionotropic Glutamate Receptors: Computation Meets Electrophysiology

ConspectusIonotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) are tetrameric ligand-gated ion channels essential to all aspects of brain function, including higher order processes such as learning and memory. For decades, electrophysiology was the primary means for characterizing the function of iGluRs and gaining mechanistic insight. Since the turn of the century, structures of isolated water-soluble domains and transmembrane-domain-containing constructs have provided the basis for formulating mechanistic hypotheses. Because these structures only represent sparse, often incomplete snapshots during iGluR activation, significant gaps in knowledge remain regarding structures, energetics, and dynamics of key substates along the functional processes. Some of these gaps have recently been filled by molecular dynamics simulations and theoretical modeling.In this Account, I describe our work in the latter arena toward characterizing iGluR gating motions and developing a formalism for calculating thermodynamic and kinetic pr...
Herpes Simplex Encephalitis: An Update

The goal of this review is to provide an update on current thinking regarding herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE), emphasizing new information about pathogenesis, diagnosis, and immune responses. Specific questions to be addressed are the following: (1) Is there a genetic predisposition to HSE? (2) What clinical approaches have the greatest impact on improving the long-term outcomes in patients with HSE? And (3) are there immune-mediated mechanisms that may account for relapsing HSE? Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR 3) plays an important role in innate immune responses, including generation of interferons. Multiple single-gene errors in TLR 3 interferon pathways have recently been described in children that result in increased susceptibility to HSE. Conversely, studies in both animal models and humans indicate that both cytolytic viral replication and immune-mediated responses (including cytotoxic T lymphocytes and immune mechanisms mediated by TLR 2) contribute to the pathology of HSV, suggesting possible new therapeutic approaches. In terms of treatment, data clearly indicate that a longer duration between onset of symptoms and initiation of effective antiviral therapy correlates directly with less favorable clinical outcome. Recurrent or relapsing HSE may occasionally occur, but recent observations indicate that many instances of “relapsing HSE”, especially in children, are more often anti-N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis triggered by the antecedent HSV infection. Innate immune responses are critical for defense against HSV; genetic defects in this system may predispose patients to HSE. During acute HSE, exuberant immune responses may contribute to the CNS pathology, suggesting that selective immunosuppressive therapy, coupled with potent antiviral drugs, may eventually play a role in the therapeutic management of HSV. While overall clinical outcomes of HSE remain suboptimal, the initiation of high-dose acyclovir therapy as early as possible in the course of the illness provides the best chance for a patient to survive with minimal neurologic damage. Distinguishing relapsing HSE from autoimmune anti-NMDAR antibody encephalitis is critically important because therapeutic approaches will be very different.
Embracing academic elitism

This note began as a conversation at the South Asian History and Culture Roundtable of 2016. The conversation had started out as an attempt to explore ways of being ‘differently academic’, but soon...
Randomly Perturbed Mechanical Systems

An important aspect of mechanical systems is that they often experience bifurcations. For example, in a conservative system, as the energy increases through a local maximum of the potential energy, the system can pass through a saddle-saddle connection and go from having two possible oscillations to having only one. On the other hand, when dissipation is present, local minima of the potential function become stable equilibria. For example, in the case of a two-well potential function, which is the basis of binary quantum-mechanical devices, movement between the two states due to random fluctuations is of great interest. Such systems are difficult to study. We present in this chapter a method for studying these kinds of behaviors in two-dimensional systems that is based on graphs.
Know thy Cyborg-Self

There are no doubt many good reasons to encourage a general technological literacy. Here is one: U.S. society purports to aspire to democracy. Insofar as we live in a technologically-mediated society, if we want that democracy to amount to more than the rule of an ignorant mob, the “people” need to have some understanding of the technologies surrounding them. At one level, this is clearly a political question, and questions about the limits of popular knowledge, how much technical skill is necessary to qualify as technologically literate, what sorts of reference frames can and should be brought to one’s understanding of technology, and so forth, immediately present themselves.
The importance of nursing research design and methods in cancer pain management. Enhancing care

Cancer is diagnosed currently in more than 1 million Americans every year and cancer pain is experienced by patients in all stages of the disease. Even though research indicates that optimal pharmacologic management alone can provide adequate relief for 70% to 90% of these patients, and additional relief can be obtained from nonpharmacologic interventions, the problem of pain continues to exist. This article focuses on the contributions of nurse scientists to the study of cancer pain during the last 5 years. Selected contributions of nursing research designs and methods to the understanding of pain caused by cancer and cancer treatment modalities are reviewed. Limitations of present methodologic approaches to the study of cancer pain and gaps in nursing knowledge are examined. Recommendations for future nursing research designs and methods used to study nursing management of cancer pain and the implications of projected future treatment modalities also are discussed.
Improved image quality of I-123 MIBG with medium energy collimators

2012 Objectives To optimize image quality of 123I MIBG scans by using Medium Energy (ME) Collimators to reduce high-energy photon septal penetration. Methods In addition to the 159 KeV gamma ray, 123I has a small abundance of energies above 500 KeV that can compromise the image quality of MIBG studies because of septal penetration. Using a low energy ultra high resolution collimator (LEUHR) and ME we obtained and compared SPECT and planar images of the Data Spectrum SPECT phantom filled with 123I. These studies were acquired at a count level comparable to clinical MIBG images, 24K counts per view for SPECT and 300K counts for planar imaging. Also we evaluated the sensitivity of the two collimators at 0 and 10cm using the NEMA protocol. Results The image quality for both SPECT and planar 123I images using the ME collimators was determined to be substantially better than when using the LEUHR collimators. The septal thickness of ME collimators is much thicker than for the LEUHR collimators (1.14 vs 0.13mm). This significantly reduces the septal penetration of the high energy gamma rays, leading to a marked improvement in image quality. The sensitivity for the ME collimators did not change with distance (323cpm/μCi), as opposed to the LEUHR collimators (226 and 208cpm/μCi for 0 and 10cm, respectively). This variation and sensitivity for the LEUHR is again due to the presence of high energy photons. Conclusions Use of the ME collimators substantially improves the quality 123I images of both planar and SPECT. We recommend ME collimators routinely be used for 123I MIBG imaging.
Single or mixture halogenated chemicals? Risk assessment and developmental toxicity prediction on zebrafish embryos based on weighted descriptors approach.

Abstract Halogenated chemicals including perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) represent an emerging class of endocrine-disrupting pollutants for human populations across the globe. Distress related to their environmental fate and toxicity has initiated several research projects, but the amount of experimental data available for these pollutants is limited. The objective of this study is to assess the toxicity of potentially “safer” alternatives, in relation to their existing counterparts. Developmental toxicity data on zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos of single and tertiary halogenated mixtures were modeled employing quantitative structure-toxicity relationship (QSTR) tool. The computed models are then employed for toxicity prediction of theoretically generated binary and tertiary mixtures (which have no experimental data) to check their possible threshold and mode of toxicity for future risk assessment. Further, for toxicity screening, we have prepared a huge external dataset consists of single (24), binary (276) and tertiary (2024) mixtures of PFASs. It was accomplished by combination method and predicted through developed models for interpretation of toxicity threats for individuals and mixtures along with identification of diverse range and combination of toxicity thresholds. We found that chemicals in mixtures displayed concentration addition of individual chemical suggesting a similar mode of toxic action and non-interaction of chemicals. Not only that, mixtures of halogenated compounds including PFASs showed less toxicity than their single counterparts and the obtained toxicity trend is: Single chemical > Binary mixture > Tertiary mixture.
Trans-labyrinthine Infra-trigeminal Approach for Recurrent Pontomedullary Cavernoma: A Step-wise Technical Note.

Recurrent brainstem cavernoma is a challenging lesion due to the neurological risks associated with different surgical approaches. In this technical report, we present a 35-year-old female with a history of multiple brain cavernomas. She underwent midline suboccipital craniotomy and trans-fourth ventricle approach for resection of the brain stem cavernoma following two major bleeding episodes, one year prior to the presentation. Following the trans-labyrinthine infra-trigeminal approach, the patient recovered well postoperatively with a baseline neuro exam and was discharged to acute rehab on postoperative day 5 (POD5). The translabyrinthine approach is a safe and effective corridor for pontine or pontomedullary lesions in carefully selected patients. Appropriate selection of surgical approach (based on location), meticulous surgical technique, and intraoperative neuromonitoring help in maximizing surgical resection while minimizing neurological deficits.
Contracts, markets, and justice

Peter Benson’s Justice in Transactions offers a compelling internal, non-instrumental Hegelian conception of the law of contracts. It also connects this non-instrumental conception with broader iss...
pH swing adsorption process for ambient carbon dioxide capture using activated carbon black adsorbents and immobilized carbonic anhydrase biocatalysts

Abstract Adsorbent-based carbon capture is only feasible if adsorption-desorption cycles are both fully regenerating and efficient. This work proposes a regenerative pH swing process and a pH swing regenerative adsorbent that are inspired by natural CO2 conversion by carbonic anhydrase biocatalysts found in mammalian red blood cells. The main objective is to develop, test and analyze a synthetic pH Swing Adsorption (pHSA) system as well as a pHSA compatible solid adsorbent to capture CO2 from a simulated ambient air gas stream. The lead developed adsorbent is a carbon black co-activated with potassium carbonate and nitrogenous copolymer that is impregnated with immobilized bovine carbonic anhydrase and thereby deemed “BCA/KN-CB”. BCA/KN-CB has preliminarily demonstrated both competitive CO2 adsorption capacity and limited regenerative ability under experimental pHSA conditions. In addition, BCA-based adsorbents achieved higher adsorption capacities than non-BCA adsorbent counterparts. The BCA/KN-CB adsorbent displayed both large point of zero charge (PZC) swings and regenerative stability. The proposed pHSA system requires essentially zero energy expenditure to achieve intended environments for capture and regeneration. With 1 kg of adsorbent, pHSA has the ability to capture 1 kg CO2 in less than 4 h of cycling. The tested pHSA adsorbent can also capture more than 96% of total CO2 in a given raw gas stream flowing through the capture chamber. This proof-of-concept study of a pH swing adsorption/biocatalytic adsorbent system suggests the potential to effectively operate under ambient conditions and exhibit advantageous operational efficiencies to other high-profile CO2 capture systems.
Human leukocyte antigen class II quantification by targeted mass spectrometry in dendritic-like cell lines and monocyte-derived dendritic cells

The major histocompatibility complex II (HLA-II) facilitates the presentation of antigen-derived peptides to CD4+ T-cells. Antigen presentation is not only affected by peptide processing and intracellular trafficking, but also by mechanisms that govern HLA-II abundance such as gene expression, biosynthesis and degradation. Herein we describe a mass spectrometry (MS) based HLA-II-protein quantification method, applied to dendritic-like cells (KG-1 and MUTZ-3) and human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs). This method monitors the proteotypic peptides VEHWGLDKPLLK, VEHWGLDQPLLK and VEHWGLDEPLLK, mapping to the α-chains HLA-DQA1, -DPA1 and -DRA1/DQA2, respectively. Total HLA-II was detected at 176 and 248 fmol per million unstimulated KG-1 and MUTZ-3 cells, respectively. In contrast, TNF- and LPS-induced MUTZ-3 cells showed a 50- and 200-fold increase, respectively, of total α-chain as measured by MS. HLA-II protein levels in unstimulated DCs varied significantly between donors ranging from ~ 4 to ~ 50 pmol per million DCs. Cell surface HLA-DR levels detected by flow cytometry increased 2- to 3-fold after DC activation with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), in contrast to a decrease or no change in total HLA α-chain as determined by MS. HLA-DRA1 was detected as the predominant variant, representing > 90% of total α-chain, followed by DPA1 and DQA1 at 3–7% and ≤ 1%, respectively.
Affirmative action in a competitive economy

Abstract We consider a model of endogenous human capital formation with competitively determined wages. Discrimination is sustainable in equilibrium in the presence of two distinguishable, but ex ante identical groups of workers. An affirmative action policy consisting of a quota may ‘fail’ in the sense that there still may be equilibria where groups are treated differently. However, the incentives to invest for agents in the discriminated group are improved by affirmative action if the initial equilibrium is the most discriminatory equilibrium in the model without the policy. The welfare effects are ambiguous. It is possible that the policy makes the intended beneficiaries worse off: even if the starting point is the most discriminatory equilibrium the expected payoff may decrease for all agents in the target group.
The importance of early diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

Abstract To describe the current understanding of the diagnosis and treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) and to explore the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assessment as a prognostic tool and an indicator in the diagnosis of MS. MS is a chronic, progressive, demyelinating disease of the central nervous system that is associated with a significant economic burden. At this time, immunomodulatory agents (interferon beta-1a (IFNbeta-1a) [Avonex], IFNbeta-1a [Rebif], IFNbeta-1b [Betaseron], and glatiramer acetate [Copaxone]) are first-line agents, which are reported to reduce relapse rates. The diagnostic criteria for MS have evolved over time to include MRI findings as an integral part of the diagnosis. However, the most recent criteria (McDonald) are focused on the diagnosis of definite MS and do not address the status of patients with a first demyelinating event (clinically isolated syndrome [CIS]). This is an important issue because a CIS is highly predictive of developing further inflammation and definite MS when the episode occurs in conjunction with lesions on the initial MRI. Many times, MRI findings do not correlate with clinical symptoms, and clinically silent lesions are identified. Therefore, the use of MRI is salient to the early diagnosis of high-risk patients. The evolution of thought concerning early treatment in MS is based on an increased understanding of the pathology of the disease. Axonal loss occurs early in the disease process, and both white matter and gray matter are affected. Studies that have analyzed early treatment in patients highly likely to have MS (clinically isolated events with evidence of lesions on MRI) report significant benefits in delaying further changes on MRI and further attacks. Patients who begin treatment later do not reap the same benefits as those who begin treatment earlier during the disease course. Patients with clinically isolated events should be referred promptly to a neurologist for assessment, including MRI scans. An early recognition of the inflammatory process enables patients to begin treatment with an immunomodulatory agent even before the technical diagnosis of definite MS so that the degenerative progression of MS can be retarded.
Reporting the expected exploration outcome: When, why and how the probability of geological success and success-case volumes for the well differ from those for the prospect

Abstract Some petroleum explorers and exploration companies do not distinguish the probability of geological success (PoS) and the success-case volumes estimated and reported for the prospect from those for an exploration well. This may mislead decision-makers and investors and may result in disappointments with drilling outcomes. When the well is positioned downdip from the highest closure point(s) of explored segment(s) (also called target(s) or zone(s)) in a prospect in order to penetrate larger than the minimum assumed petroleum column(s), the geological PoS for the well is smaller than the geological PoS for the prospect. Conversely, the expected success-case volumes for such a downdip well are larger than for the prospect. This paper discusses a simple fictitious prospect with three segments and the exploration well that penetrates these segments downdip from highest closure points. The results demonstrate the key differences in geological PoS and success-case volumes between the well and the prospect. Proper reporting of the expected exploration outcomes from planned exploration wells will result in better-informed drilling decisions. Modeling outcomes of drilling the well at various locations within the prospect would help to understand if the well can discover the minimum economic field size, estimate the volumes that may remain untested updip, and maximize the expected monetary value of the exploration project. During postmortem evaluations (look-backs), it is important that well outcomes are compared with relevant pre-drill well assessments.
Application of the Salient Practices Framework for Undergraduate Research Mentoring in Virtual Environments

Undergraduate research is an excellent example of student engagement that leads to numerous benefits for the student and faculty. However, for students to gain the most from the experience, high-quality mentorship is needed. This article introduces readers to the Salient Practices framework, which is based on a comprehensive review of the research on undergraduate research mentorship as well as models of mentoring applied to the undergraduate research context. This article outlines how a group of faculty applied a mentor constellation model and adapted the Salient Practices framework to the virtual environment that resulted from COVID-19, creating a rich professional development experience for all participants. Lessons learned from initial efforts to mentoring in the virtual environment are also discussed. Implementation of mentoring in a virtual context opens up opportunities for increased access and broadening of research teams and mentoring constellations.
Asymmetric Ciphers—RSA and Others

The notion of an asymmetric encryption system dates to the 1970s, with the first and still primary version of asymmetric encryption being the RSA algorithm of Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman. In asymmetric encryption, an encryption key that is made public is used to encrypt a message that is sent to the owner of the public key. That owner then uses a privately held key to decrypt. The RSA algorithm relies on a choice of two large primes p and q, multiplied together to produce a modulus \(N = pq\). The public encryption key e and private decryption key d are chosen so that \(e d \equiv 1 \pmod {\phi (N)}\). Current knowledge of the mathematics is that if N and e are public, but p, q, and d are kept private, then decrypting a message requires factoring N into p times q, and that is computationally hard. In this chapter we lay out the foundation of the RSA process, with an example, and we comment on the current records in factoring as a estimate of the security of RSA.
Legal Disputes, and Their Resolution

While going to trial is always an option for settling a legal dispute, settlement prior to trial is the more common response. Settlement allows the parties to avoid the expenses entailed in going to trial, leaving both parties potentially better off than had they gone to trial. Such legal procedures as deposition and discovery tend to reduce divergence between disputants in the outcome they think a trial might produce. This similarity in expected outcomes weakens when the plaintiff is a political entity because those entities do not own their legal expenses. Political entities operate through budgetary appropriations. While a political entity cannot pocket legal expenses through settling a case, those expenses can be appropriated in different ways that nonetheless matter to the appropriator, and from reasons ranging from pursuing ideological goals to seeking higher political office. Almost surely, a rational defendant would rather face a private plaintiff than a political plaintiff.
An optimization-based undeflated PLS (OUPLS) method to handle missing data in the training set

Advances in sensory systems have led to many industrial applications with large amounts of highly correlated data, particularly in chemical and pharmaceutical processes. With these correlated data sets, it becomes important to consider advanced modeling approaches built to deal with correlated inputs in order to understand the underlying sources of variability and how this variability will affect the final quality of the product. Additional to the correlated nature of the data sets, it is also common to find missing elements and noise in these data matrices. Latent variable regression methods such as partial least squares or projection to latent structures (PLS) have gained much attention in industry for their ability to handle ill-conditioned matrices with missing elements. This feature of the PLS method is accomplished through the nonlinear iterative PLS (NIPALS) algorithm, with a simple modification to consider the missing data. Moreover, in expectation maximization PLS (EM-PLS), imputed values are provided for missing data elements as initial estimates, conventional PLS is then applied to update these elements, and the process iterates to convergence. This study is the extension of previous work for principal component analysis (PCA), where we introduced nonlinear programming (NLP) as a means to estimate the parameters of the PCA model. Here, we focus on the parameters of a PLS model. As an alternative to modified NIPALS and EM-PLS, this paper presents an efficient NLP-based technique to find model parameters for PLS, where the desired properties of the parameters can be explicitly posed as constraints in the optimization problem of the proposed algorithm. We also present a number of simulation studies, where we compare effectiveness of the proposed algorithm with competing algorithms. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Mechanisms in a Humanoid Robot Hand

We have constructed and tested a robotic hand that is a part of a humanoid being developed at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. It is a human-scale cable-driven tool containing four actuators, thirty-six sensors, and computing tools on board. The combination of its conciseness and sensing capability allows an integration with other anthropomorphically scaled systems. This paper presents a detailed description of the mechanical design and its implementation, including the structure of the physical hand, tendon cabling strategy, actuators, sensors and computing tools.
Operation mapping: Cartography, intelligence, and the 3rd battle of Gaza, 1917

World War I saw numerous innovations in military cartography. In the Palestine theater as elsewhere, the British and Dominion forces leveraged new technologies, including aerial photography and wireless intercepts, to supplement their use of intelligence to map enemy troop positions. The creation and distribution of these position maps by the 7th Field Survey Company for the Third Battle of Gaza in late 1917 represented an innovative process of intelligence-gathering, map production, and knowledge distribution. This paper not only examines the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) along with its subordinate intelligence assets and cartographic organizations as a comprehensive mapping system, but also elaborates upon David Woodward’s cartographic framework to study the creation of the 7th Field Survey Company’s position maps as well as their utility, accuracy, and effectiveness. Woodward’s framework divides the map production process into four phases: information gathering, information processing, document distribution, and document use. Elements of the EEF were involved in each of these phases during the Third Battle of Gaza. This mapping system was cyclical insofar as the operations that these maps helped to facilitate also gathered further information that fed into the next cycle’s product. As the condition of the battlefield and the nature of the operations changed, so too did the value of various modes of intelligence gathering, with varying effects on the accuracy and utility of the position maps. The utility of the position map technique is apparent in its reintroduction prior to the EEF’s final offensive in 1918.
Oral use of 19-nor-17α-ethinyltestosterone to control fertility

Abstract Two hundred and fourteen indigent, fertile patients ranging in age from 17 through 38 years were given norethindrone from 2 to 35 months each for a total of 3,050 cycles of 28 days' duration or for a total of 234 patient-years. None of the patients conceived during treatment with the exception of one, who is recorded as a questionable failure. In contrast, an untreated group of women, used as a control for the fertility index, reproduced at a rate similar to that of the treated women before they received therapy. Sixty-four treated women withdrew from the study mostly for social reasons. Side reactions were not a problem. Twenty-three of the treated women conceived after or immediately prior to therapy. Nineteen have been delivered of 21 normal infants, and the remaining 4 are near term. Cervical cytologic studies were made on all patients. 17-Ketosteroid and blood cholesterol determinations and endometrial biopsies were procured on many of the women treated more than 2 years. These data were within normal limits.
A new neural architecture for homing missile guidance

We present a new neural architecture which imbeds dynamic programming solutions to solve optimal target-intercept problems. They provide feedback guidance solutions, which are optimal with any initial conditions and time-to-go, for a 2D scenario. The method discussed in this study determines an optimal control law for a system by successively adapting two networks - an action and a critic network. This method determines the control law for an entire range of initial conditions; it simultaneously determines and adapts the neural networks to the optimal control policy for both linear and nonlinear systems. In addition, it is important to know that the form of control does not need to be known in order to use this method.
Outcomes in operative management of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal malignancy that often presents at an advanced stage. Surgical resection can prolong survival and offers the only potential for cure. However, pancreatectomy is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. This article reviews perioperative outcomes, post-resection long-term survival, and innovations in the surgical management of pancreatic cancer. J. Surg. Oncol. 2014 110:592–598. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Feature based image registration using non-degenerate pixels

Image registration (IR) aims to geometrically match one image to another. It is extensively used in many imaging applications. Among many existing IR methods, one widely used group of methods are feature-based. By a feature-based method, a number of relevant image features are first extracted from the two images, respectively, and then a geometric matching transformation is found to best match the two sets of features. However, proper identification and extraction of image features turns out to be a challenging task. Generally speaking, a good image feature extraction method should have the following two properties: (i) the identified image features should provide us proper information to approximate the geometric matching transformation accurately, and (ii) they should be easy to identify by a computer algorithm so that the entire feature extraction procedure is computer automatic. In this paper, a new type of image features is studied, which has the two properties described above. Together with the widely used thin plate spline (TPS) geometric transformation model, it is shown that our feature-based IR method works effectively in various cases.
Dendritic Cells In Vivo: A Key Target for a New Vaccine Science

Dendritic cells (DCs) are the antigen presenting cells that initiate and regulate immunity. By studying these cells in vivo, we will be able to move beyond standard approaches and design vaccines that directly harness the elaborate properties of DCs to control immunity.
Behavior of Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Pecan Orchards

Pecan, Carya illinoensis (Wangenh.) K. Koch, orchards provide an important habitat for the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren, and orchards from middle to southern Georgia were heavily infested. Honeydew produced by blackmargined aphids, Monellia caryella (Fitch), on pecans was an important source of carbohydrate food for S. invicta , which were found foraging at 9-m heights in trees. Mowing of orchard ground cover caused a change in the ratio of S. invicta on the ground to that in trees but was not correlated with outbreaks of M. caryella in trees. S. invicta was a major predator of eggs, larvae, and pupae of a green lacewing, Chrysoperla rufilabris (Burmeister), and of the pupae of Allograpta obliqua (Say) in pecans but had little effect on the eggs of Hippodamia convergens Guerin-Meneville. A close mutualistic relationship between S. invicta and the mealybug Dysmicoccus morrisoni (Hollinger) was discovered. S. invicta promoted the development of colonies of D. morrisoni on callus tissue located on the main stem of trees by covering the colony with soil and debris, by defending the colony, and by collecting honeydew.
The Attributor's Unprompted Use of Strength and Direction of Consensus Information.

The attributor’s unprompted use of consensus information in judging behavior was studied. By examining the context, attributors were able to estimate the degree of consensus to expect for the actor’s behavior. Participants read vignettes that described real-life situations and imagined themselves or an acquaintance performing a socially desirable or undesirable action in the situation. The vignettes varied according to expected direction of consensus (a majority would be expected to act in desirable or undesirable manner) and expected strength of consensus (strong, moderate, or weak majority). Higher situational attributions were found when the actor’s behavior was congruent with, rather than in contrast to, the expected consensus, particularly when the behavior was undesirable. Furthermore, higher situational attributions were evoked by expected majority performance of undesirable acts than desirable acts. Attributors did not distinguish among strengths of consensus; nor was there differential attention to consensus for self-versus other-attributions.
The epidemiology of upper extremity injuries presenting to the emergency department in the United States

Background The epidemiology of upper extremity injuries presenting to emergency departments in the USA is not well studied. The purpose of this investigation was to estimate the incidence rates of upper extremity injuries presenting to emergency departments.
Bond graphs for spatial kinetics analysis of nuclear reactors

Abstract This work proposes a simple and effective approach to modeling nuclear reactor multiphysics problems using bond graphs. The bond graph formalism is a technique for modeling engineering systems as combinations of connected elements. After the bond graph representation of a multiphysics system is constructed, it can be automatically converted into a state derivative vector and integrated. Bond graphs are a flexible way of presenting coupled physics problems by automating the computer science aspects of modeling and lettings the modelers focus on the physics. Additionally, the representation of a multiport resistive element is presented, which is necessary for coupling more than two types of physics. Bond graph representations of 2D multigroup neutron diffusion, delayed neutrons and thermal feedback were presented and tested using an LRA BWR control blade drop benchmark problem with a coarse mesh. The code demonstrated 3rd-order convergence in time, a very desirable property of fully coupled time integrators.
Business Patterns in the Growth of a Midwestern City: The Kansas City Business Community Before the Civil War

The Western traders who made centers like Kansas City their base soon found that urban development offered greater, safer investment opportunities than did trade. Bonanza real estate earnings became a major source of capital for the further development of the West.
Moving toward crisis preparedness: Factors that motivate organizations

Abstract This article proposes that factors such as the experience of a crisis, new members on the top management team, regulation, expectations of the industry association, and the potential threat of media scrutiny motivate organizations to make changes in their crisis preparation practices and move toward greater preparedness. It describes how each of these factors motivate organizations to make changes, and explains specific characteristics that are critical in creating fundamental versus superficial changes.
Intravenous regional guanethidine in the treatment of reflex sympathetic dystrophy/causalgia: A randomized, double-blind study

This double-blind, randomized, multicenter study was designed to determine the short-term and long-term efficacy of intravenous regional block with guanethidine in patients with reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD)/causalgia. Sixty patients were enrolled to receive four intravenous regional blocks at 4-day intervals with either guanethidine or placebo in 0.5% lidocaine. Each patient was randomized to receive either one, two, or four blocks with guanethidine. Follow-up visits were scheduled for 4 days, 1 mo, 3 mo, and 6 mo after their final block. At 4 days after the initial block, the group treated with placebo experienced a greater decrease in pain scores than those treated with guanethidine, although this difference was not statistically significant. On long-term followup there was no difference in pain scores between groups receiving one, two, or four guanethidine blocks. Overall, only 35% of patients experienced clinically significant relief on long-term followup even though all were treated early in the evolution of RSD.
Behavioural role of individual components of a multichemical attractant system in the Oriental fruit moth.

IN most moths, location of the female for mating is mediated by pheromones1, which are operationally defined as attractants, although their ability to elicit upwind orientation has been demonstrated in only a few species2. Intrinsically unattractive chemicals which modify this process by increasing or decreasing trap catch have been termed synergists and inhibitors1, respectively, although their behavioural and neurophysiological roles have remained unresolved. In the Oriental fruit moth, Grapholitha molesta (Busck), cis-8-dodecenyl acetate (c8-12:Ac) is a primary pheromone component3 and recently the requirement for attractancy of an isomeric mixture containing about 8% trans (t8-12:Ac) was demonstrated4,5. Additionally, male trap catch has been reported to be enhanced about two fold by the simultaneous release of dodecyl alcohol (12:OH) (ref. 5). Specific behavioural functions, however, had not been ascribed to individual attractant components or combinations.
Microstructure and mechanical properties of Mo–Mo3Si–Mo5SiB2 silicides

Abstract Molybdenum boron silicides consisting of 20–50 vol.% of α-Mo and different ratios of the intermetallic phases Mo5SiB2 (‘T2’) and Mo3Si were prepared by arc-melting followed by dropcasting into Cu chill molds. For α-Mo volume fractions of ≈50% sound castings were obtained. For lower α-Mo volume fractions such as 25% macroscopic cracks were often observed. Preliminary oxidation tests verified the expected increase in the oxidation resistance as the B-concentration increases and the α-Mo volume fraction decreases. Also, the formation of glass films was observed. Depending on composition and heat treatment, the room temperature flexure strengths varied usually between 300 and 600 MPa. To some extent, these variations could be rationalized by differences in the microstructures. Annealing for 1 day at 1873 K in vacuum caused distinct microstructural coarsening. Annealing was sometimes accompanied by microcracking in the Mo3Si and the T2 phases. Cooling curves suggest that the liquidus temperature of the T2 phase is above 2400 K. Depending on the composition, final freezing of Mo–Si–B alloys was found to occur at temperatures as low as 2200 K. Care is therefore required during thermomechanical processing to avoid the formation of liquid phases.
Expectancy of panic in the maintenance of daily anxiety in panic disorder with agoraphobia: A longitudinal test of competing models

Although panic expectancy and the experience of anxiety are clearly related, their causal relationship remains unclear. A series of autoregressive latent trajectory models was used to evaluate the relationship between the highest level of daily anxiety and panic expectancy over time. Participants (N = 45) who met criteria for panic disorder with agoraphobia filled out daily diary measures over a 10-day period. It was hypothesized that expectation of panic (measured in the morning) would be primarily responsible for the maintenance of daily anxiety (measured in the evening). Daily anxiety was found to be influenced by a traitlike anxiety component, anxiety from the previous day, and morning expectation of panic. Panic expectancy was found to be influenced by a traitlike expectancy component, but not by the previous day's anxiety. Limitations of the model and future applications are discussed.
Frequency-dependent alteration of enolase activity by ELF fields

Abstract Frequency-dependent effects of electromagnetic radiation have been reported at microwave and other r.f. ranges. The present study determined frequency-dependent alteration of enolase (EC 4.2.1.11, a cytoplasmic enzyme in the glycolytic pathway) activity by extremely low frequency (ELF) electric (E), magnetic (H) and combined electric and magnetic ( E & H ) fields in a Crawford cell exposure system. A clone, pNGE7, containing the mammalian neuron-specific enolase (NSE) gene, was used as the biological material. Results showed the existence of a “window effect”, i.e. an alteration of enolase activity, at specific ELF frequencies flanked only by non-effective frequencies. Ten different ELF frequencies from 10 to 72 Hz were used. Enolase activity was reduced when cells were exposed to a 60 Hz E field. In combined E & H fields, alteration of enolase activity was decreased at 15, 55, 65 and 72 Hz. These data show a field-specific effect of ELF. We have also observed that some physical factors, such as slight vibration of the cells which may occur while the cells are being exposed, can show false negative results.
Evaluating Social Cognitive Theory in Action: An Assessment of the Youth Development Program's Impact on Secondary Student Retention in Selected Mississippi Delta Communities.

This study evaluates the Youth Development Program (YDP), a component of the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA). We examine whether the YDP reduced dropout rates among youth in secondary school...
Subduction and accretion of sedimentary rocks in the Yakutat collision zone, St. Elias orogen, Gulf of Alaska

Abstract The collision of the Yakutat Block with the continental margin of North America in the Gulf of Alaska has intensified exhumation and erosion in the Chugach–St. Elias orogen over the last few million years. The resultant sediment flux and deposition of the glaciomarine Yakataga Formation on the continental shelf has filled a deep sedimentary basin offshore, where the Pamplona fold-thrust belt first deforms these strata. It is presently unclear whether the older sedimentary rocks of the Poul Creek and Kulthieth Formations are also accreted in the Pamplona Zone, or whether they are underthrusting the margin. In this paper we use marine seismic and well logging data to show that in the offshore Yakataga strata, porosity loss and lateral compaction can account for half of the convergence between the Yakutat Block and North America over the last 2 Myr. A lateral seismic velocity gradient in these syn-orogenic strata suggests that this layer-parallel shortening starts approximately 100 km outboard of the deformation front. Beneath the fold-and-thrust belt, where the seismic velocity is as high as 4.7 km/s, we image a large low-velocity zone (2.0–2.5 km/s) at 5 km depth. The dramatic decrease in seismic velocity with depth coincides with the boundary between the Yakataga and Poul Creek Formations in well data. Fine-grained and organic-rich Poul Creek strata possibly accommodate slip, such that older sedimentary rocks are entrained with the subducting Yakutat Block. Alternatively, the imaged low-velocity zone may have formed by increased fluid pressures in the hanging wall. In that case the decollement would lie beneath this low-velocity zone, possibly within the coal-bearing layers of the older and deeper Kulthieth Formation.