cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Optimum Linear Array for a Single Main Beam

For a linear array having any given number of elements it is shown that an optimum single-beam endfire pattern can be produced by proper choice of current distribution and element spacing.
A study on decomposition methods

Abstract An innovative decomposition method for the approximate solution of problems is introduced based upon successive projection approximations derived in [1]. The new method provides substantially greater freedom for decomposing a given problem into a collection of subproblems than conventional methods [4]. An approximation can be approached by recursively searching in the collection of subproblems along a chosen search path. When applied to partial differential equations, the partitioning can be made in either the physical domain (domain decomposition) of a partial differential equation or in the associated linear space (space decomposition). The decompositions can be used to solve large-scale problems, to develop parallel algorithms and novel iterative techniques.
The effect of renal perfusion pressure on renal vascular resistance in the spontaneously hypertensive rat

Renal hemodynamics and renal vascular resistance (RVR) were measured in the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) and in the normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rat (WKY). In addition, the autoregulatory response and segmental RVR in the SHR were studied after aortic constriction. Mean arterial pressure (MAP) and RVR were higher in the SHR than in the WKY, but renal blood flow (RBF) and glomerular filtration rate were similar in both groups. Measurement of mean afferent arteriolar diameter (AAD) by a microsphere method showed a significantly smaller AAD in SHR (17.7±0.35 μm) than in the WKY (19.5±0.20 μm). This decrease in AAD could account for a 47% increase in preglomerular resistance. Aortic constriction in the SHR, sufficient to reduce renal perfusion pressure from 152 to 115 mm Hg, did not alter the AAD. Since RBF and glomerular filtration were also well maintained following aortic constriction, these autoregulatory responses suggest that vessels proximal to the afferent arteriole rather than postglomerular vasculature are primarily involved in the changes on intrarenal vascular resistance in SHR.
Does benign prostatic hyperplasia treatment with alpha-blockers affect prostate cancer risk?

PURPOSE OF REVIEW To determine whether alpha-blockers, commonly used for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia, are associated with prostate cancer risk. RECENT FINDINGS Alpha-blockers have been associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer aggressiveness in some observational studies and an increased risk in other studies. However, this relationship is complex as different alpha-blockers have divergent effects in laboratory studies and there are many confounders in daily practice such as differential screening practices. SUMMARY Both benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer are common conditions in the aging male population, such that an interaction between alpha-blockers and prostate cancer risk is clinically relevant. Prospective evidence is necessary to establish a definitive link.
Interleukin-1β but not IL-1α binds to fibrinogen and fibrin and has enhanced activity in the bound form

Fibrin is formed at sites of injury or inflammation and provides the temporary matrix to support vascular cell responses that are also mediated by cytokines including interleukin-1 (IL-1). We have shown previously that fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2) binds with high affinity to fibrin(ogen). Because IL-1 has a structure similar to FGF-2, we have investigated the possible binding of IL-1 to fibrin(ogen). Experiments using IL-1 immobilized on Sepharose beads and soluble iodine 125 ((125)I)-labeled fibrinogen demonstrated no specific interaction of IL-1alpha with fibrinogen, but IL-1beta showed saturable and specific binding. Scatchard analysis indicated a single binding site with an apparent K(d) = 1.5 nM and a maximum molar binding ratio of IL-1beta to fibrinogen of 1.8:1. Binding of (125)I-IL-1beta to Sepharose-immobilized fibrinogen also demonstrated a single binding site with an apparent K(d) of 3.5 nM. IL-1beta also bound specifically to fibrin monomer and polymerized fibrin with apparent K(d)s of 3.4 nM and 2.3 nM, respectively. IL-1beta displaced FGF-2 for binding to fibrin, indicating an interaction with the same or a closely related site. Compared with free form, fibrinogen-bound IL-1beta stimulated increased activation of endothelial cell nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) secretion, and nitric oxide (NO) synthesis. We conclude that IL-1beta binds with high affinity to fibrin(ogen) and demonstrates increased activity in the bound form.
Collective modes in superconductors near Tc

Abstract A phonon-like critical mode is obtained in superconductors near T c as a result of screening due to electron-lattice ion interaction.
The environment of tryptophan in pig pancreatic phospholipase A2 bound to bilayers.

Abstract Binding of pig pancreatic phospholipase A 2 to ternary codispersions of diacylphosphatidylcholine/ lysophosphatidylcholine/fatty acid (100:22:22, mole ratio) is monitored by the increase in intrinsic fluorescence intensity of the single tryptophan residue. The fluorescence is quenched by the brominated fatty acid components in the ternary codispersions. The quenching efficiency is in the order: 11,12-dibromo->9,10-dibromo->6,7-dibromo->2-bromo fatty acid. The quenching efficiency of the 9,10-brominated derivatives of the three components in the ternary codispersions is in the order diacylphosphatidylcholine>fatty acid>lysophosphatidylcholine. Two isomers of diacylphosphatidylcholine with 9,10-dibromo substituents on chain 1 or 2 are equally efficient quenchers. While succinimide also quenches the fluorescence of the free and the membrane bound enzyme, the tryptophan residue in both systems is not accessible to 1-methylnicotinamide. These results are rationalized by a hypothesis that the acyl chains of the substrate interacts with the tryptophan residue of pig pancreatic phospholipase A 2 , which is readily accessible to water soluble neutral quenchers both in the free and the bound state.
Simple Metal Alkoxides as Effective Catalysts for the Hetero-Aldol−Tishchenko Reaction

This paper reports the utility of simple metal alkoxides for the catalytic, stereoselective hetero-aldol−Tishchenko reaction (eq 1). Choice of metal alkoxide is crucial to achieving high efficiency and stereoselectivity. Whereas NaO-t-Bu is an effective catalyst, delivering one product in 68% yield and 99:1 stereoselection, Sm(O-i-Pr)3 is less effective and delivers the same product in 42% yield with 4:1 stereoselection.
Theoretical Study of Addition Reactions of SiX2 to Acetylene (X = H, CH3, t-Bu, Cl, F)

The addition reaction of SiX2 (X = H, CH3, t-Bu, F, and Cl) to acetylene is considered using ab initio calculations. Second-order perturbation theory (MP2) and coupled cluster CCSD(T) calculations confirm there is no barrier for SiH2, Si(CH3)2, and Si(t-Bu)2 additions, while electronegative substituents such as F and Cl have nonzero barriers. It is concluded that electronegativity is more important than steric effects in determining barrier heights for these reactions. The CCSD(T)/6-31+G* barriers for SiF2 and SiCl2 additions are computed to be about 24 and 8 kcal/mol, respectively.
Inhibition of bacterial superoxide defense: a new front in the struggle between host and pathogen

Nutritional immunity is the name given to the sequestration of essential metals by vertebrates to limit growth of invading pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus. While iron sequestration is the canonical example of nutritional immunity, recent work has highlighted the importance of manganese and zinc sequestration by vertebrates in controlling both bacterial and fungal infections. Our laboratories are investigating the biochemical basis for the sequestration of essential metals and the impact of this nutrient deprivation on the physiology of S. aureus and other pathogens. We have shown that during staphylococcal infection the manganese and zinc binding protein calprotectin (CP) is a critical component of nutritional immunity. Furthermore, this neutrophil protein is required to render the staphylococcal abscess devoid of manganese. However, the structural features responsible for binding these metals were unknown as was the impact of this CP-induced nutrient deprivation on S. aureus. In our recently published manuscript, we showed using isothermal titration calorimetry and mutagenesis experiments that CP contains two transition metal binding sites, and is capable of binding two zinc ions or one manganese ion with nanomolar affinity. Moreover, CP was found to reduce staphylococcal superoxide dismutase activity and other antioxidant defenses resulting in the accumulation of intracellular superoxide and increased sensitivity to oxidative stress. The inhibition of superoxide defenses by CP renders S. aureus more sensitive to neutrophil-mediated killing while animal modeling suggests that manganese sequestration by the host during infection reduces staphylococcal superoxide dismutase activity. In total, these results suggest a two hit model for the antimicrobial activity of CP whereby this protein both inhibits bacterial growth and renders microbial invaders more sensitive to other immune effectors.
Cancer's insatiable appetite.

Seemingly unrelated mutations that drive cancer share the ability to promote nutrient uptake and metabolism conducive to cell growth.
The Role of Neighbors and the Government in Neighborhood-Based Child Protection

This paper addresses the policy recommendation that child protection efforts be reoriented to the neighborhood level. Residents of neighborhoods with varying rates of reported child maltreatment were questioned as to the roles of neighbors and/or the government in preventing child abuse and neglect. Residents in all neighborhoods were more optimistic that neighbors could prevent child maltreatment than they were about government action. Actions by neighbors involved reporting and providing assistance. There was less certainty about what the government could or should do. While reporting of child maltreatment was viewed as an important responsibility that could prevent serious harm and even death, neighborhood residents felt this responsibility was compromised by the potential of retaliation from neighborhood adults and children. Because economic and social conditions are inextricably bound together, child maltreatment prevention programs must be embedded within comprehensive efforts to strengthen communities.
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAMMES FOR ALCOHOLISM IN THE U.S. AND AUSTRALIA: DILEMMAS IN TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

Since the early 1970s work‐based interventions to deal with the emotional problems of workers arising from the workplace have emerged from the practitioner community. “Employee Assistance Programmes” (EAPs) have developed principally in the US and other English‐speaking cultures. A descriptive analysis of the emergence of EAPs in the US and the attempt by Australians to transfer this technology to Australia, the structure of that effort and apparent reasons for its eventual stagnation is presented. It points to the relative importance of government agencies, programme development specialists and treatment delivery agencies in programme adoption and implementation. It is evident that employers are working to demonstrate interest in employee health in terms of its impact on productivity and performance and its effects on the costs of health care. These developments are not limited to the USA. As a multinational phenomenon, employer involvement has an open‐ended potential for subtle forms of social control.
Defending the self against identity misclassification

When people perform role-violating behaviors that are diagnostic of membership in a stigmatized group, they risk identity misclassification—i.e., being mistaken for a member of that group. Because false stigmatization raises the possibility of interpersonal punishment, role violators who wish to avoid it must communicate their non-stigmatized status to others. Conversely, self-protective strategies such as self-affirmations (Steele, 1988) that do not communicate non-stigmatized status should fail to reduce role violators' discomfort. Consistent with this assumption, heterosexual men who publicly violated a gender role norm—and thereby risked misclassification as gay—reported heightened discomfort and diminished implicit self-evaluation, unless they directly or indirectly communicated their heterosexual status to their ostensible audience. Moreover, a standard self-affirmation task failed to protect heterosexual role violators from discomfort. Discussion highlights the implications of these findings for re...
I—Robert Audi: Moral Perception and Moral Knowledge

This paper presents a theory of how perception provides a basis for moral knowledge. To do this, the paper sketches a theory of perception, explores the sense in which moral perception may deserve that name, and explains how certain moral properties may be perceptible. It does not presuppose a causal account of moral properties. If, however, they are not causal, how can we perceive, say, injustice? Can it be observable even if injustice is not a causal property? The paper answers these and other questions by developing an account of how moral properties, even if not causal, can figure in perception in a way that grounds moral knowledge.
What about Place? Considering the Role of Physical Environment on Youth Imagining of Future Possible Selves.

Identity research indicates that the development of well-elaborated cognitions about oneself in the future, or one's possible selves, is consequential for youths' developmental trajectories, influencing a range of social, health, and educational outcomes. Although the theory of possible selves considers the role of social contexts in identity development, the potential influence of the physical environment is understudied. At the same time, a growing body of work spanning multiple disciplines points to the salience of place, or the meaningful physical environments of people's everyday lives, as an active contributor to self-identity. Bridging these two lines of inquiry, I provide evidence to show how place-based experiences, such as belonging, aversion, and entrapment, may be internalized and encoded into possible selves, thus producing emplaced future self-concept. I suggest that for young people, visioning one's self in the future is inextricably bound with place; place is an active contributor both in ...
The Capacity of Animals to Acquire Language: Do Species Differences have Anything to Say to Us?

Following the Gardners' discovery that an ape named Washoe could learn to produce and combine a number of hand movements similar to those used by deaf human beings, a variety of 'ape-language projects' sprang up. Some projects used different symbol systems, others used different training techniques, and others used different species of apes. While debate still rages regarding the appropriate way to interpret the symbolic productions of apes, three species of great apes (gorilla, orangutan, and chimpanzee) have now been credited with this capacity while no lesser apes or monkeys have been reported, at present, to have acquired such communicative skills. Among all of the claims made for the various animal species, the philosophers have entered the fray attempting to define the essence of what it is about language that makes it 'human'. This paper will compare and contrast the above positions to arrive at behavioural definitions of symbolic usage that can be applied across species. It will then present new data on a fourth ape species Pan paniscus which is proving to be the first non-human species to acquire symbolic skills in a spontaneous manner.
Popular Speech and Social Order in Northern Mexico, 1650–1830

In recent years historians of Europe and North America have discovered the importance of the spoken word in past times and have explored the ways in which language reflects particular social contexts. Retrieving fragments of popular speech from police reports, court records, and other sources, these scholars have sketched colorful vignettes which reenact such mundane activities of daily life as a game of cards or an argument over a stray calf. Their work has shown that seemingly trivial face-to-face encounters offer valuable clues for understanding social hierarchies and community values of a given time and place. Abstract relationships of class, gender, and social rank take concrete form in the routine conversations of men and women in streets, taverns, and markets, as "ordinary" people tell us about the societies in which they lived-sometimes explicitly, sometimes implicitly, but always in their own words. The historian of popular speech moreover recognizes that the social order, far from being static, remains subject to continuous modification not only by the powerful but also by those in subordinate positions, whose words and gestures may either reinforce or undermine accepted standards of behavior and social precedence.' Forms of oral communication which are the most likely to reach the atten-
High-Temperature Corrosion in Waste-to-Energy Boilers

There are 88 waste-to-energy (WTE) plants in the U.S. and over 600 worldwide. In total, they combust close to 143 million metric tons of municipal solid wastes (MSW) and generate about 45 billion kW · h of electricity and an equal amount of thermal energy for district heating and industrial use. The presence of various impurities, especially HCl and chloride salts, in the combustion gases results in much higher corrosion rates of boiler tubes and has led to the development of special alloys and also metal protection techniques, including high velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) sprayed coatings. This study examines the corrosion mechanisms in WTE boilers and summarizes the findings of a corrosion survey of several WTE facilities in the U.S. The study also examines existing and potential methods for reducing corrosion problems.
Environmental biotechnology: biotechnology solutions for a global environmental problem, hazardous chemical wastes.

Biotechnology has a growing place in the remediation of hazardous waste sites throughout the world, and especially in Asia where population density is high and land and fresh water are scarce. In-situ bioremediation has been demonstrated already to be highly effective for petroleum hydrocarbons (alkanes, aromatics, polychiorophenols) and organophosphate pesticides in soils and for gasoline by-products (benzene, toluene, xylene) and chlorinated solvents (trichloroethylene) in groundwater. Heavy metals and PCBs are not suitable for bioremediation. Environmental biotechnology includes solid-phase and slurry-phase bioremediation for contaminated soils and site-specific bioreactors for contaminated groundwater. Specific examples are presented.From a policy point of view, accumulated wastes must be detoxified, preferably at sites where they already exist. We cannot continue to rely on their removal and disposal “elsewhere”. For current waste streams, we must minimize the volumes and toxicity. Environmental biot...
Use of graphene as protection film in biological environments

Corrosion of metal in biomedical devices could cause serious health problems to patients. Currently ceramics coating materials used in metal implants can reduce corrosion to some extent with limitations. Here we proposed graphene as a biocompatible protective film for metal potentially for biomedical application. We confirmed graphene effectively inhibits Cu surface from corrosion in different biological aqueous environments. Results from cell viability tests suggested that graphene greatly eliminates the toxicity of Cu by inhibiting corrosion and reducing the concentration of Cu2+ ions produced. We demonstrated that additional thiol derivatives assembled on graphene coated Cu surface can prominently enhance durability of sole graphene protection limited by the defects in graphene film. We also demonstrated that graphene coating reduced the immune response to metal in a clinical setting for the first time through the lymphocyte transformation test. Finally, an animal experiment showed the effective protection of graphene to Cu under in vivo condition. Our results open up the potential for using graphene coating to protect metal surface in biomedical application.
Resisting Corporate Multiculturalism: Mapping Faculty Initiatives and Institutional‐Student Harassment in the Classroom

This paper argues that calls for multicultural curricula in universities across the US can be met with strategic curricular interventions that radically confront gendered racisms across regional, national, and international racial formations. Faculty who risk making such interventions should plan for student and institutional resistances. Intersecting consumer and corporate interests desire universities to be socially nonconflictual and economical places of leisure and entertainment, not sites of critical intervention. Accordingly, we theorize how and why faculty committed to oppositional multiculturalism might be cast as transgressive. In so doing, we pay particular attention to how identity politics are quadrangulated through embodiment, performance, time, and place. We additionally discuss ways for systematically working against the grain of gendered racisms and for supporting those who are teaching multiculturalism (critically) or seen to embody it. Working against the grain is particularly important ...
Paths, Trees, and Flowers

A graph G for purposes here is a finite set of elements called vertices and a finite set of elements called edges such that each edge meets exactly two vertices, called the end-points of the edge. An edge is said to join its end-points.
Summary of the Symposium

I will start by summarizing the various international projects that were described during the conference, and the lessons that may be drawn for the JNLT as an international facility operating at a site outside the homeland of the astronomers. Terry Lee emphasized the experience with United Kingdom Infrared Telescope, and Bob McLaren described a somewhat different mode of operation for the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Two presentations then highlighted the experience with the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The conclusion I draw from all three of those presentations is that, apart from the technical aspects of the site and the telescope quality, it is absolutely vital that one takes into account the human resource needed to make a facility like this work. Close attention needs to be paid to putting together a dedicated team and inspiring them to make sure that the conditions are right for the astronomers to get the very best observations. We heard a little about the ESO operation and their upcoming decision about whether to stay with a developed site or whether to undertaken the task of developing another new site in Northern Chile and going to operation of two separate facilities there. Finally there was the delightful presentation on supra-national cooperation and the way that is working out for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope.
Pulmonary function, chronic respiratory symptoms, and health-related quality of life among adults in the United States – National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007–2010

Background We examined the association of impaired lung function and respiratory symptoms with measures of health status and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among US adults.
Prescreening of choice options in ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ decision‐making tasks

Research on prescreening processes in decision making was extended by manipulating task valence in a series of three experiments. In Experiments 1 and 2, half the subjects had the ‘positive’ task of screening and then selecting someone to hire for a job and half had the ‘negative’ task of screening and then selecting someone to fire, where the choice options (worker descriptions) were the same in each task. In Experiment 1 some subjects were instructed to list options they would include for further consideration and some were instructed to list options they would exclude from further consideration. More options were screened out in the inclusion condition than in the exclusion condition and in the firing task than in the hiring task. Subjects in Experiment 2 were allowed to decide for themselves whether to use inclusion or exclusion in screening options. The main results from Experiment 1 were replicated. Also, subjects in the hiring task were more likely than subjects in the firing task to select inclusion as a strategy for prescreening options. In Experiment 3 the positive task involved adding stocks to a portfolio following an unexpected financial gain and the negative task involved disposing of stocks following a financial setback. Again, more options were screened out by subjects selecting the inclusion strategy than by exclusion subjects, but differences between the positive and negative tasks were not found. Results were explained in terms of a ‘status quo’ bias for adding or deleting options that transcends task differences and a positivity bias in judging people that distinguishes judgments in different task domains. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Refractory Phagocytosis by Chicken Thrombocytes during Aflatoxicosis

Abstract The percentage phagocytosis of chicken thrombocytes was insensitive to dietary aflatoxin (10 μg/g diet) while the mean phagocytosis was slightly but significantly (P
Science Since Babylon. Derek J. de Solla Price. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1961. 149 pp. $4.50

The eSCCAN project aims to federate smoking cessation clinics in Europe to share and improve practices. Method: Identification of eSCCAN experts in 26 of the 27 European countries has allowed to organize meetings and internet communication to reach a consensus among the smoking cessation clinics in Europe and to specify their number. Results: The current estimate is that there is about 2500 tobacco cessation clinics in Europe. A minority of them are centers of councelling to stop smoking without the possibility of prescription; a higher number is made of doctors9 offices or paramedics. The vast majority consists of tobacco cessation clinics with several health professionals and all facilities for smoking cessation. Examples of good and bad practices have been described on many topics such as rendez-vous delays, that must be less than 3 weeks for a first appointment. Some definitions have met consensus as the definition of healing, and in particular the period which defines a successful cessation. While waiting to close the debate, the recommendation is to record the cessation at 3, 6 and 12 months, with a particular focus at 6 months. A code and a self-audit in many languages are available on the website for a first evaluation of the activity of the consultations that will enable future improvement. Conclusions: The project provides real rapprochement eSCCAN knowledge to practices for smoking cessation in Europe that support in each country in Europe less than 10% of smokers, but disseminate knowledge and contribute to the assessment for teaching and research.
Verification of a virtual storage architecture on a microprogrammed computer

The verification of a virtual storage architecture shares many commonalities with the verification of any computer architecture. This paper will therefore define an approach to architecture verification in terms which are independent of virtual storage. It will then discuss the application of this approach to a virtual storage architecture. The paper will conclude with a discussion of a method for determining the completeness of an architecture verification process on a microprogrammed computer.
Influence of Pre‐Soaking on Black Bean Cooking Kinetics

Soaking of black beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) and the subsequent effect on cooking kinetics was investigated. Unsoaked beans and beans soaked in water or a salt combination solution were water cooked at temperatures of 90–135°C. Bean softening did not follow first order kinetics. Using DT values (defined as cooking times necessary to reach an “eating-soft” texture: Instron puncture force of 150g), softening activation energies (Ea's) for unsoaked, water, and salt combination soaked were 19.1, 31.3, and 38.9 Kcal/mole, respectively. Z values were calculated as 17, 22 and 36C°, respectively. These relationships suggest ways of safely reducing cooking time and energy expenditures.
Reducing effluent discharge and recovering bioenergy in an osmotic microbial fuel cell treating domestic wastewater

Abstract Osmotic microbial fuel cells (OsMFCs) are an emerging concept that integrates forward osmosis into an MFC for simultaneous wastewater treatment, bioenergy recovery, and water extraction. Previous studies of OsMFCs have demonstrated the proof of concept and examined different draw solutes as catholytes. This study investigated the performance of an OsMFC treating actual domestic wastewater. The OsMFC achieved water flux of 1.06–1.49 LMH and reduced wastewater effluent by 24.3–72.2% depending on hydraulic retention time. Increasing the recirculation rate of the catholyte from 100 to 3000 mL/min slightly improved water flux to 2.15 LMH. The low water flux was likely due to inefficient reactor configuration, membrane fouling, and concentration polarization. The OsMFC constantly produced bioelectricity and achieved a maximum power density of 28.2 W/m 3 from an acetate solution, or 4.5 W/m 3 from domestic wastewater. Preliminary energy analysis suggested the OsMFC has the potential to produce more energy than was consumed by the pumping system, thereby creating an energy-neutral wastewater treatment system. After operating the OsMFC for more than 100 days, the FO membrane was analyzed for fouling using electrochemical techniques, imaging, and water flux tests, and the results revealed microbial fouling and abiotic scaling on the surface and inside the FO membrane.
Community Development Block Grants at 40: Time for a Makeover

This article reviews the origins and evolution of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, the federal government's largest program providing direct assistance to local governments. The article examines the program's changing national policy context over its 40-year history, as manifest in presidential, executive, and legislative deliberations over the program's national goals and objectives, as well as the key components of the program's policy design and administrative structure. The article also explores how the decisions affecting policy design adopted at the national level play out at the local level, through an examination of the choices communities have made regarding uses of CDBG funds and the social and geographic targeting outcomes that have been obtained. The article then revisits the extent to which the CDBG program conforms with the basic characteristics of block grants. The article concludes with several recommendations for revising CDBG that will provide a policy tool better al...
Is There a Role for “Watch and Wait” in Patients With Mantle Cell Lymphoma?

Up to one third of patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) may be observed for a period of months to years before developing indications for therapy. Importantly, observational studies suggest that this approach has no apparent negative impact on their overall survival. Although there is broad agreement on which patients require early therapy, identification of patients with less aggressive disease can be challenging. Clinical tools such as the Mantle Cell International Prognostic Index (MIPI) and Ki67 are effective at predicting survival but may not always correspond with indications for treatment. Research tools such as the proliferative signature are attractive but have yet to be evaluated in this context. Physicians, therefore, must make decisions regarding therapy based on the best available evidence. In the absence of evidence that treatment necessarily influences long-term survival, it may be reasonable to observe selected patients for a period of time prior to making definitive treatment-related decisions. Collaborative efforts are required to better understand the pathophysiology of the disease and potentially identify patients amenable to "watch and wait." Similarly, patients with less aggressive MCL may be an ideal group in which to evaluate novel treatment approaches.
The long-run relationship between stock return dispersion and output

Based on the rational that some industry groups are more closely linked to the business cycle than others, we re-examined a previous analysis on the long-term relationship between stock return dispersion by industry and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which evaluated data until 1987 by extending it to 2008. Using Mean Square Forecast Errors (MSFE) statistics, we find that incorporating the return dispersion in Vector Autoregressive (VAR) models enhances their forecasting power for output (GDP) in the long run. This article also determines that the relationship between stock return dispersion by industry and GDP is tenuous in the recent decade from 1999.
Longitudinal Wave Distribution in Fluid Saturated Granular Media

Ultrasonic wave transmission in a porous material as a function of frequency and incident direction was investigated, both theoretically and experimentally. The aim of this study was to determine the optimal frequency and incidence direction for the most penetrating ultrasonic radiation into sediment. The results can be applied towards the detection of underground objects, in particular, the detection of non-metallic objects such as mines currently undetectable with metal-detectors. Computer software was developed to determine the dispersion characteristics of ultrasonic waves in fluid saturated media of packed spherical grains in the 50μm to 3000μm size range. The wave frequency range was from 0.1 MHz to 10 MHz. The results showed that Biot’s theory could not be used to explain the observations without significant modification. Good agreement between theory and experiment could finally be obtained with the modified theoretical approach.Copyright © 2003 by ASME
Impedance Cardiography Accurately Measures Cardiac Output During Exercise in Children With Cystic Fibrosis

Objectives After validation of impedance cardiography (ICG) in healthy children, this same device was tested in children with cystic fibrosis (CF) to validate its capability of measuring cardiac output (Q) in this population. Design Comparative study of ICG vs the indirect Fick (CO2) method. Setting Tertiary care children's teaching hospital. Patients Twenty-one CF children with mean FEV1 of 77±21% predicted. Measurements ICG results were compared with CO2 rebreathing (RB) measurements of Q with sampling of capillary blood gases at two levels of exercise (0.5 and 1.5 W/kg). ICG measurements were made each minute, and duplicate RB measurements from 6 to 8 min at each workload. Q was regressed against oxygen uptake and results by each method were compared. Results Mean bias ( Q ˙ rb - Q ˙ icg ) was −0.09±0.94 L/min. The largest deviation of Q ˙ icg from Q ˙ rb was +33%, and 83% of corresponding Q ˙ icg values were within ±20% of Qrb result. Conclusions This device gives rapid, accurate, noninvasive Q measurements in children with CF.
Family Cohesion in the Lives of Mexican American and European American Parents

This study investigated similarities and differences in relations between stress and parenting behaviors for 509 Mexican American and European American fathers and mothers in Southern California. Our model posited that family cohesion mediates the relation between stressors and parenting behavior, and we found that family cohesion strongly mediated most of the relations between stress and parenting behaviors. Important ethnic and gender differences were evident. In contrast with other groups, Mexican American fathers reported higher levels of family cohesion when faced with economic pressures. Implications for future research on stress and parenting are discussed.
Concomitant tumor immunity to a poorly immunogenic melanoma is prevented by regulatory T cells.

Concomitant tumor immunity describes immune responses in a host with a progressive tumor that rejects the same tumor at a remote site. In this work, concomitant tumor immunity was investigated in mice bearing poorly immunogenic B16 melanoma. Progression of B16 tumors did not spontaneously elicit concomitant immunity. However, depletion of CD4+ T cells in tumor-bearing mice resulted in CD8+ T cell–mediated rejection of challenge tumors given on day 6. Concomitant immunity was also elicited by treatment with cyclophosphamide or DTA-1 monoclonal antibody against the glucocorticoid-induced tumor necrosis factor receptor. Immunity elicited by B16 melanoma cross-reacted with a distinct syngeneic melanoma, but not with nonmelanoma tumors. Furthermore, CD8+ T cells from mice with concomitant immunity specifically responded to major histocompatibility complex class I–restricted epitopes of two melanocyte differentiation antigens. RAG1 −/− mice adoptively transferred with CD8+ and CD4+ T cells lacking the CD4+CD25+ compartment mounted robust concomitant immunity, which was suppressed by readdition of CD4+CD25+ cells. Naturally occurring CD4+CD25+ T cells efficiently suppressed concomitant immunity mediated by previously activated CD8+ T cells, demonstrating that precursor regulatory T cells in naive hosts give rise to effective suppressors. These results show that regulatory T cells are the major regulators of concomitant tumor immunity against this weakly immunogenic tumor.
Placental Steroidogenesis in the Rat: Comparison of Normal and Giant Placentae

Placental hypertrophy was induced in pregnant rats by daily treatment with estrone (0.5 fig) and progesterone (4 mg) from day 3 through 19 combined with ovariectomy on day 12 of pregnancy. The ratio of basal zone to whole placenta was 47% by weight in these enlarged placentae on day 20 of pregnancy but only 34% in normal placentae. In each case, the basal zone tissue was homogenized and the 10,000 × g supernatant fraction was used for in vitro incubation with [7α-3H]pregnenolone as the added substrate. The normal placental tissue synthesized more progesterone and testosterone but less androstenedione and 5α-pregnane-3,20-dione than the giant placentae. Utilization of the pregnenolone substrate by the giant placentae was subnormal. Addition of 200 IU of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in vitro to normal basal zone placentae sharply increased the production of progesterone, 17α-hydroxyprogesterone, androstenedione and 5α-pregnane-3,20-dione. The giant placentae failed to respond to hCG. Thus, steroid-ind...
Envisioning Next-Generation Online Discussion: Immersive Layered Rich Media for e-Learning and Knowledge Management

Online discussion has been well established as a fundamental tool for collaborative e-learning and by extension for organizational knowledge management. Yet, in its current generation its effectiveness is limited by the enabling technology on which it is based. Applying Media Synchronicity Theory, potential benefits are envisioned, particularly in the case of collaborative learning environments, from incorporating emerging technologies toward a next-generation online discussion facility that provides a more expressive and responsive platform for collaborative learning. The potential benefits of penbased computing, 3-D user interfaces, speech recognition, and layered rich media content are explored. At the same time, a number of challenging issues must be addressed in designing such an environment to ensure user acceptance and to maximize realization of the potential. Exploring this conceptualization serves to help surface both the opportunities and the challenges associated with such environments.
Investigation of kinetics of methotrexate for therapeutic treatment of intraocular lymphoma.

Purpose: Primary intraocular lymphoma (PIOL) provides a therapeutic challenge because of its diverse clinical picture and variable clinical course. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the retinal permeability of methotrexate for rabbit and human eyes and then investigate its kinetics in a human eye following the standard induction–consolidation–maintenance (I-C-M) injection protocols for the treatment of PIOL. Additionally, the therapeutic release rate of a 90-day sustained-release methotrexate implant was also determined for the effective treatment of PIOL. Methodology: The 3-dimensional model of a rabbit eye was adapted from our previous studies and a human eye model was constructed based on its physiological dimensions. The retinal permeability of methotrexate was the only unknown parameter in the numerical calculations and was determined by comparing the model simulated vitreous concentrations for rabbit and human eyes with the available in vivo and clinical data, respectively. Results: The retinal permeability values of methotrexate calculated for an albino rabbit and human eye were 1.1 × 10 −5 cm/s and 9.25 × 10 −6 cm/s, respectively. Given that the dosage above 0.1 µM is considered tumoricidal, the cytotoxic levels of methotrexate were consistently achieved only in the induction phase and the concentration levels dropped below the cytotoxic levels for part of the consolidation and maintenance phases of the treatment following the I-C-M protocols. A sustained-release implant with a mean release rate of 0.2 μg/day–2 μg/day should be designed in order to maintain tumoricidal levels of methotrexate inside the vitreous of the human eye for a period of 3 months. Conclusions: By making use of the results of this study, one could select a dosing interval for serial injections of methotrexate or establish a treatment schedule using a controlled release methotrexate implant for the treatment of PIOL.
The Recent Evolution of Climate on Venus

The present climate of Venus is controlled by an efficient carbon dioxide‐water greenhouse effect and by the radiative properties of its global cloud cover. Both the greenhouse effect and clouds are sensitive to perturbations in the abundance of atmospheric water vapor and sulfur gases. Planetary-scale processes involving the release, transport, and sequestering of volatiles affect these abundances over time, driving changes in climate. We have developed a numerical model of the climate evolution of Venus. Atmospheric temperatures are calculated using a one-dimensional two-stream radiative‐convective model that treats the transport of thermal infrared radiation in the atmosphere and clouds. These radiative transfer calculations are the first to utilize high-temperature, high-resolution spectral databases for the calculation of infrared absorption and scattering in Venus’ atmosphere. We use a chemical/microphysical model of Venus’ clouds to calculate changes in cloud structure that result from variations in atmospheric water and sulfur dioxide. Atmospheric abundances of water, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide change under the influence of the exospheric escape of hydrogen, outgassing from the interior, and heterogeneous reactions with surface minerals. Radar images from the Magellan mission show that the surface of Venus has been geologically active on a global scale, yet its sparse impact cratering record is almost pristine. This geologic record on Venus is consistent with an epoch of rapid plains emplacement 600‐ 1100 Myr ago. Our models show that intense volcanic outgassing of sulfur dioxide and water during this time would have resulted in the formation of massive sulfuric acid/water clouds and the cooling of the surface for 100‐300 Myr. The thick clouds would have subsequently given way to high, thin water clouds as atmospheric sulfur dioxide was lost to reactions with the surface. Surface temperatures approaching 900 K would have been reached 200‐500 Myr after the onset of volcanic resurfacing. Evolution to current conditions would have proceeded due to loss of atmospheric water at the top of the atmosphere, ongoing low-level volcanism, and the reappearance of sulfuric acid/water clouds. We find that the maintenance of sulfuric acid/water clouds on Venus today requires sources of outgassed sulfur active in the past 20‐50 Myr, in contrast with the 1.9 Myr as determined from geochemical arguments alone (B. Fegley and R. G. Prinn 1989, Nature 337, 55‐58). c ∞ 2001 Academic Press
Dilatational Relaxation in Cylindrical Seals

This paper presents a viscoelastic thermal stress analysis which illustrates the importance of dilatational stress relaxation in cylindrical seals. When the core is elastic and the cladding is glass, dilatational stress relaxation has no significant influence on the stresses in the seal. However, when the core is glass and the cladding is elastic, this relaxation has a profound effect. For the latter seal, the setting temperature is weakly dependent on seal dimensions. In fact, stress development during cooling can be accurately predicted from the “fluid core” analysis by Scherer and Cooper, using the fictive temperature of the glass as the setting temperature.
The Agrobacterium tumefaciens T pilus composed of cyclic T pilin is highly resilient to extreme environments

Agrobacterium tumefaciens T pili are long semi-rigid, flexuous filaments of 10 nm diameter that are primarily composed of T pilin cyclized protein subunits. The cyclic character of T pilin apparently confers a high level of structural stability on the T pilus. Purified T pili subjected to extreme environmental conditions such as acid and alkali, including glycerol remained relatively unaffected morphologically. T pili lost their semi-rigidity when subjected to high temperatures and high pH, and dissociated into donut shaped subunits when exposed to Triton X-100. Sodium dodecyl sulfate increased the uptake of uranyl acetate exposing a 2 nm wide lumen running the length of the T pilus filament.
Speech perception with a single-channel cochlear implant: a comparison with a single-channel tactile device.

Suprasegmental and segmental speech perception tasks were administered to 8 patients with single-channel cochlear implants. Suprasegmental tasks included the recognition of syllable number, syllabi...
Using polarization to find a source in a turbid medium

We study multiple scattering of partially polarized light using the theory of radiative transport. In particular, we study the light that exits a half-space composed of a uniform absorbing and scattering medium due to an unpolarized, isotropic, and continuous planar source. We assume that Rayleigh scattering applies. Using only angular integrals of the two orthogonal polarization components of the intensity exiting the half-space, we recover the depth and the strength of this source in two stages. First, we recover the depth of the source through the solution of a one-dimensional nonlinear equation. Then we recover the strength of the source through the solution of a linear least-squares problem. This method is limited to sources located at depths on the order of a transport mean-free path or less. Beyond that depth, these data do not contain sufficient polarization diversity for this inversion method to work. In addition, we show that this method is sensitive to instrument noise. We present numerical results to validate these results.
Multi-stage branch-and-bound for maximum variance disparity clustering

A split-and-merge framework based on a maximum variance criterion is proposed for disparity clustering. The proposed algorithm transforms low-level stereo disparity information to mid-level planar surface information which can be used further to carry out high-level computer vision tasks such as shape classification. Unlike conventional clustering, the proposed algorithm assumes that the number of clusters is unknown. Instead, a maximum variance criterion is applied to extract planar surfaces from the disparity image. The split phase of the algorithm creates clusters based on spatial continuity and the merge phase combines these clusters such that variance per cluster does not exceeded an allowable value. For efficient maximum variance clustering, a greedy branch-and-bound procedure is introduced. Efficiency of the approach is verified through experiments.