cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A family with extrinsic allergic alveolitis caused by wild city pigeons: A case report

We describe a family in which the mother died of unresolved lung disease and whose 5 children, some of whom had previous signs of asthma, were subsequently affected by extrinsic allergic alveolitis caused by contact with wild city pigeon antigens. The children received systemic corticosteroids for 1 month and inhaled steroids for 24 months, while antigen exposure was reduced as much as feasible. This was followed by a quick clinical recovery and a slow normalization of chest radiographs and pulmonary function indices, especially of diffusion capacity, during a follow-up of 24 months. Because pigeon-breeder9s lung caused by free-roaming city pigeons has not been previously described, it remains unclear whether this family developed the disease because of high antigen exposure or because of increased susceptibility. None of the supposedly high-risk human leukocyte antigen types were found in the children. Whether human leukocyte antigen B7 in 1 child played a role in the course of the illness remains speculative. It is unknown to what extent pigeon-breeder9s lung caused by nondomestic birds remains undetected and misdiagnosed as difficult or steroid-resistant asthma. The question remains whether free-roaming city pigeons are indeed a public health risk. We suggest that atypical outdoor antigens be considered in all patients with nonresolving chest disease or therapy-resistant asthma.
DEVELOPMENT OF EXTRUDED TAR0 PRODUCTS

A study was made of the effect of protein supplementation on the extrudability of tare flour. The tare flour was prepared from Bun-long taro corms by washing, peeling, slicing, air drying, and grinding prior to extrusion into rice, noodle, and macaroni. To improve the extrudability and nutritional qualities of these tare products, mung bean flour or soy protein were added to the dough before extrusion. Prepared with dough moisture content of 30% and 40% w/w, and dough temperatures of 21° and 82°C, extruded taro products were measured for their organoleptic (color, surface smoothness, and eating qualities) and objective (color, texture, protein level, and energy value) qualities. Results showed that the addition of 15% mung bean flour to taro flour improved the firmness, of the rice and noodle. Soy protein also improved the texture of taro rice with 30% and 40% dough moisture and macaroni with 30% dough moisture. The addition of either mung bean flour or soy protein improved the smoothness of taro rice only very little. Product color intensity (measured with extracts as the absorbance ratio of 520 nm/422 nm) decreased considerably in taro rice after the addition of soy protein or mung bean flour, but only slightly in taro noodle and macaroni. Hunter color measurements indicated we similar color in all the cooked, extruded taro samples. Protein supplement can be incorporated into the extruded taro samples to make them comparable in protein and energy level to conventional wheat products and rice. It was concluded that taro flour can be extruded successfully into rice, noodle or macaroni by proper adjustment of initial dough temperature and moisture content. Protein enrichment improved to a limited extent the overall quality of extruded tare samples.
Hamstring activation during lower body resistance training exercises.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate differences in hamstring activation during lower body resistance training exercises. This study also sought to assess differences in hamstring-to-quadriceps muscle activation ratios and gender differences therein. Methods: A randomized repeated measures design was used to compare six resistance training exercises that are commonly believed to train the hamstrings, including the squat, seated leg curl, stiff leg dead lift, single leg stiff leg dead lift, good morning, and Russian curl. Subjects included 34 college athletes. Outcome measures included the biceps femoris (H) and rectus femoris (Q) electromyography (EMG) and the H-to-Q EMG ratio, for each exercise. Results: Main effects were found for the H (P < 0.001) and Q (P < 0.001). Post hoc analysis identified the specific differences between exercises. In addition, main effects were found for the H-to-Q ratio when analyzed for all subjects (P < 0.001). Further analysis revealed that women achieved betwe...
Application of interval analysis techniques to linear systems. I. Fundamental results

The authors establish results for continuous and rational interval functions which are of interest in their own right and which may find future applications. These results are used to study interval matrix exponential functions and to devise a method of constructing augmented partial sums which approximate interval exponential functions as closely as desired. The results are used to develop an algorithm. The authors demonstrate the applicability of their results by considering three specific examples: an RLC circuit; an instrument servomechanism; and the design of a minimum plant sensitivity optimal regulator. >
Early Anterior/Posterior Patterning of the Midbrain and Cerebellum

▪ Abstract Transplantation studies performed in chicken embryos indicated that early anterior/posterior patterning of the vertebrate midbrain and cerebellum might be regulated by an organizing center at the junction between the midbrain and hindbrain. More than a decade of molecular and genetic studies have shown that such an organizer is indeed central to development of the midbrain and anterior hindbrain. Furthermore, a complicated molecular network that includes multiple positive and negative feedback loops underlies the establishment and refinement of a mid/hindbrain organizer, as well as the subsequent function of the organizer. In this review, we first introduce the expression patterns of the genes known to be involved in this patterning process and the quail-chick transplantation experiments that have provided the foundation for understanding the genetic pathways regulating mid/hindbrain patterning. Subsequently, we discuss the molecular genetic studies that have revealed the roles for many genes i...
Physical Therapy Management of Peripheral Vestibular Dysfunction: Two Clinical Case Reports

We describe the treatment of two patients with peripheral vestibular dysfunction using a novel, staged exercise program. Response to treatment was documented. The first patient, a 62-year-old woman with unilateral vestibular dysfunction (UVD) and a 6-month history of disequilibrium following herpes zoster oticus resulting in damage to the right inner ear, was treated with an 8-week course of vestibular physical therapy. During the 8 weeks, the patient attended weekly physical therapy sessions and was trained to perform vestibular adaptation exercises on a daily basis at home. The second patient, a 53-year-old woman with progressive disequilibrium secondary to profound bilateral vestibular hypofunction (BVH), was treated with a 16-week course of vestibular physical therapy. During the first 8 weeks, the patient attended weekly physical therapy sessions and was trained to perform vestibular adaptation and substitution exercises on a daily basis at home. During the second 8 weeks, the patient continued performing vestibular physical therapy exercises at home independently. Vestibular function (sinusoidal vertical axis rotation testing), postural control (clinical tests and posturography), stability during the performance of selected activities of daily living (ADLs), and self-perception of symptoms and handicap were measured prior to and at the conclusion of treatment for both patients and at the midpoint of treatment for the patient with BVH. After 8 weeks of treatment, both patients reported improvements in self-perception of symptoms and handicap and demonstrated objective improvements in clinical balance tests, posturography, and several kinematic indicators of stability during the performance of selected ADLs. Further improvements were noted in the patient with BVH after 16 weeks of treatment. Improvements in postural control were noted after 8 weeks of treatment for the patient with UVD and after 16 weeks for the patient with BVH. Vestibular function improved during the course of treatment for the patient with UVD only. These case reports describe two different individualized treatment programs and document self-reported and laboratory-measured functional improvements in two patients with vestibular deficients--one with unilateral damage and one with bilateral damage.
Human auditory evoked response intensity functions from monopolar and bipolar scalp recordings

Average evoked brain responses (AER) were computed from two simultaneous recordings during binaural tone stimulation for three Ss. Linear regressions were then fitted to the data, and correlation coefficients also were computed. The results showed that, for the monopolar (C3-A2) recording, a linear relationship between sound level and size of AER was found when the Ss’ data were pooled, with both components showing this relationship. The bipolar recording (Cz-Oz) showed a linear relationship for one component but not for the other. The slope of the AER component showing an intensity function was the same for both recording sites.
THE CALORIGENIC ACTION OF THYROID AND SOME OF ITS ACTIVE CONSTITUENTS

One of the outstanding advances in the study of the thyroid during the past two decades has been the recognition of definite organic odine-containing compounds in the gland, and their chemical isolation. The possibility of a dual hormone has been considered before but this chemical progress for the first time has offered a definite basis for testing this hypothesis. The far-reaching importance of such a condition is apparent from both clinical and pathological viewpoints. It follows that a clear understanding of the metabolic effect of all the organic iodine compounds is essential. Only through this information can one appreciate the true nature of the thyroid hormone and its variations in nature and in disease.
Fast area-efficient VLSI adders

In this paper, we study area-time tradeoffs in VLSI for prefix computation using graph representations of this problem. Since the problem is intimately related to binary addition, the results we obtain lead to the design of area-time efficient VLSI adders. This is a major goal of our work: to design very low latency addition circuitry that is also area efficient. To this end, we present a new graph representation for prefix computation that leads to the design of a fast, area-efficient binary adder. The new graph is a combination of previously known graph representations for prefix computation, and its area is close to known lower bounds on the VLSI area of parallel prefix graphs. Using it, we are able to design VLSI adders having area A = 0(n log n) whose delay time is the lowest possible value, i. e. the fastest possible area-efficient VLSI adder.
Wound-induced ethylene production, phenolic metabolism and susceptibility to russet spotting in iceberg lettuce.

Mechanical wounding by cuts or punctures caused a brief increase in ethylene production by iceberg lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) leaf tissue. Wounding increased phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL, EC 4.3.1.5) activity, which was a function of the degree of injury. Wound-induced PAL activity appeared after 4 h and reached maximum activity in about 24 h before slowly declining to normal levels in about a week. A signal for PAL induction was transmitted at about 0.5 cm h−1 from the site of injury to cells up to 2.5 cm away. Treatment with 100 μ2-aminoethoxyvinylglycine prevented wound-induced ethylene production but did not affect induced PAL activity. Injury increased the concentration of several soluble phenolic compounds that were easily oxidized to brown substances by polyphenol oxidase (EC 1.10.3.2) isolated from lettuce tissue. Wounding also increased peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.7) activity and lignin content, with cell wall lignification localized in wounded and adjacent cells. Although wounding alone did not induce russet spotting, it did greatly increase susceptibility to ethylene-induced russet spot development. In the presence of 3 μ1−1 ethylene, the russet spot score increased as the degree of injury increased.
CT scanning in psychiatric inpatients: Clinical yield

Abstract The authors surveyed CT scan use in 4,600 psychiatric admissions over a period of 2½ years. Attending psychiatrists with free access to CT scanning requested scans in 165 (3.6%) of the cases. Review of 156 scans showed a positive result in 50 of them. Scans were ordered most often to rule out pathologic conditions: approximately 86.5% of use. Scan results altered diagnosis in 18% of cases and confirmed suspected diagnoses in 11%. Of the 50 abnormal scans, 28 (56%) showed focal pathology. Preliminary indications are that mental status testing was more useful in predicting abnormal scan results than were focal neurologic findings. The authors present illustrative cases.
Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Electroencephalography: A Multimodal Imaging Approach

Although neuroimaging has greatly expanded our knowledge about the brain-behavior relation, combining multiple neuroimaging modalities with complementing strengths can overcome some limitations encountered when using a single modality. Valuable candidates for a multimodal approach are functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG). fNIRS is an imaging technology that localizes hemodynamic changes within the cortex. However, hemodynamic activation is an intrinsically slow process. On the other hand, EEG has excellent time resolution by directly measuring the manifestation of the brain electrical activity at the scalp. Based on their complementary strengths, the integration of fNIRS and EEG may provide higher spatiotemporal resolution than either method alone. In this effort, we integrate fNIRS and EEG to evaluate the behavioral performance of six healthy adults in a working memory task. To this end, features extracted from fNIRS and EEG were used separately, as well as in combination, and their performances were compared against each other.
A comparison of using the internet versus lectures to teach social work history.

ObjectiveThis study's goal was to determine the effectiveness of using the Internet as a primary teaching method.MethodIntroduction to Social Work students in three different class sections were ta...
Structural insights into the cubic–hexagonal phase transition kinetics of monoolein modulated by sucrose solutions

Using DSC (differential scanning calorimetry), we measure the kinetics of the cubic–HII phase transition of monoolein in bulk sucrose solutions. We find that the transition temperature is dramatically lowered, with each 1 mol kg−1 of sucrose concentration dropping the transition by 20 °C. The kinetics of this transition also slow greatly with increasing sucrose concentration. For low sucrose concentrations, the kinetics are asymmetric, with the cooling (HII–cubic) transition taking twice as long as the heating (cubic–HII) transition. This asymmetry in transition times is reduced for higher sucrose concentrations. The cooling transition exhibits Avrami exponents in the range of 2 to 2.5 and the heating transition shows Avrami exponents ranging from 1 to 3. A classical Avrami interpretation would be that these processes occur via a one or two dimensional pathway with variable nucleation rates. A non-classical perspective would suggest that these exponents reflect the time dependence of pore formation (cooling) and destruction (heating). New density measurements of monoolein show that the currently accepted value is about 5% too low; this has substantial implications for electron density modeling. Structural calculations indicate that the head group area and lipid length in the cubic–HII transition shrink by about 12% and 4% respectively; this reduction is practically the same as that seen in a lipid with a very different molecular structure (rac-di-12:0 β-GlcDAG) that makes the same transition. Thermodynamic considerations suggest there is a hydration shell about one water molecule thick in front of the lipid head groups in both the cubic and HII phases.
A cooperative course in quality methods

A course in quality methods was given at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology during the spring of 1991. Since the material of the course involves not only statistical topics but topics from production engineering as well, the course was given by two instructors and jointly listed under mathematics and mechanical engineering. The authors discuss the content of the course, laboratory experiments, and student projects. Alterations in the course based on the authors' experience and future plans are discussed. >
Disposition of captopril in normal subjects

The disposition of captopril, an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor with antihypertensive properties, was studied in 10 normal male subjects after a single 100-mg tablet of 35S-labeled drug. Average absorption parameters for unchanged captopril in blood were Tmax 0.93 +/- 0.08 hr and Cmax 800 +/- 76 ng/ml. For total radioactivity in blood the values were Tmax 1.05 +/- 0.08 hr and Cmax 1,580 +/- 90 ng/ml (as captopril equivalents). Because of the curvilinearity of the semilogarithmic plots of blood concentrations of captopril:time, elimination half-life (t1/2) of unchanged drug could not be determined. At 1 hr unchanged captopril accounted for about 52% of total radioactivity in blood, and the dimeric disulfide metabolite of captopril accounted for about 10%. In the first 5 days after dosing, an average of about 68% of the radioactive dose was recovered in urine and 18% in feces. The distribution of radioactivity in the first 24-hr urine sample (66% of the dose) was 58% captopril (38% of dose), 2% captopril disulfide (1.5% of dose), and 40% unidentified polar metabolites (26% of dose).
Phylogenetic and physiological diversity of Arthrobacter strains isolated from unconsolidated subsurface sediments

Forty strains of Gram-positive, aerobic, heterotrophic bacteria isolated from saturated subsurface lacustrine, paleosol and fluvial sediments at the US Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in south central Washington State were characterized by phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences and by determination of selected morphological, physiological and biochemical traits. Phylogenetic analyses of 16S rDNA sequences from subsurface isolates in the context of similar sequences from previously described bacterial species indicated that 38 of the subsurface strains were most closely related to Arthrobacter. The other two strains appeared to be most closely related to Kocuria. The subsurface isolates fell into seven phylogenetically coherent and distinct clusters, indicating that there was a significant degree of diversity among them. Additional diversity was detected by analysis of cellular fatty acids and physiological traits. The general morphological, physiological and biochemical traits of the subsurface strains were consistent with those of Arthrobacter, Micrococcus and genera recently separated from Micrococcus, such as Kocuria. Some of the subsurface strains were phylogenetically closely related to certain species of Arthrobacter (16S rDNA sequence similarities >99%). However, most of the subsurface isolates did not cluster with previously established species in phylogenetic analyses of 16S rRNA gene sequences or with hierarchical cluster analysis of cellular fatty acid profiles. Moreover, many of the subsurface isolates that were most closely related to Arthrobacter also differed from all established species of that genus in several of their specific physiological characteristics. Most of the subsurface isolates, then, are likely to be novel strains or species of Arthrobacter.
Evidence of Seasonal Changes in Evapotranspiration in Eastern U.S. Hydrological Records

Abstract Hydrologic records provide some of the most widespread, long-term data available that can be expected to contain signals of climate variation over time. Yet such data have not been used to identify the widespread effects of spring onset in the forested eastern United States, where streamflow is strongly influenced by vegetation. Three independent runoff characteristics are affected by the enhanced evapotranspiration (ET) that occurs with annual leaf emergence: (i) P − R, the difference between precipitation and runoff, returns to dormant season values and increases due to ET; (ii) the streamflow recession time constant (a measure of the time required after rainfall for streams to return to their baseflow levels) shortens; and (iii) the diurnal streamflow amplitude increases. The smallest watersheds in our dataset (area <200 km2) exhibit the diurnal streamflow signal most often and with the greatest amplitude, in accord with accepted relationships between channel length and watershed area. The dyn...
Natural Presettlement Features of the Ashley County, Arkansas Area

The General Land Office (GLO) survey records of the Ashley County, Arkansas, area were analyzed for natural attributes including forest composition and structure, prairie communities and aquatic and geomorphological features. Almost 13,000 witness trees from at least 23 families were extracted from the surveys. Most (68% of the total) witness trees were black oak (Quercus velutina), pine (Pinus spp.), post oak (Q. stellata), white oak (Q. alba), hickory (Carya spp.) and sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), with 60% of the taxa having fewer than 20 individuals and 26% represented by a single tree. Witness trees were usually moderate sized with very few small or large individuals noted. The distribution of presettlement grasslands, bottomland forests and upland mixed pine/hardwood forests was approximately mapped across the study area. Catastrophic disturbances mentioned in the GLO records included windthrow, floods, fire, timber harvest and earthquakes. Even during this early period, European settlers were altering the Ashley County landscape with trails, homes, farms, cotton gins and small-scale land clearing. Other notable ecological features in these survey records included large woody debris, wetlands, unique terrain conditions and wild game.
Universal Properties of Bonding at Metal Interfaces

Our knowledge of the fundamental properties of surfaces and interfacial bonds has improved considerably over the last decade. While the fracture process is complex, it is dependent in part on these properties. Thus it is of interest to consider current theoretical understanding of metal surfaces and bimetallic interfacial bonds.
DiscreteTime Model Reference Adaptive Control

This chapter develops a model reference adaptive control theory for discrete-time linear time-invariant plants. A unique plant-model matching equation is derived, with unique controller parameters specified to ensure exact output tracking after a finite number of steps. A stable adaptive control scheme is designed and analyzed which ensures closed-loop signal boundedness and asymptotic output tracking. Robust adaptive laws are derived for discrete-time adaptive control in the presence of bounded disturbances.
Northward Extension of the Kangaroo Rat in Washington

For many years kangaroo rats, Dipodomys ordi , have been blocked in their northward dispersal in Washington by the Columbia and Snake rivers. It was 100 years ago that Baird reported kangaroo rats in the Northwest. At the present time they are common over the sagebrush plains of eastern Oregon, occurring all along the south bank of the Columbia from The Dalles eastward for 140 miles to the Snake River (Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna 55: 235,1936). In southeastern Washington they have been observed in western Walla Walla County only as far north as the Snake, and have been reported along the south bank of the river from its mouth for about 5 miles upstream. Kangaroo rats also occur in considerable numbers on Blalock Island in the Columbia River. This large island is several miles southwest of Paterson, Benton County, Washington. The northern limits of the range of D. o. columbianus have been given by Miller and Kellogg (U.S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 205: 403, 1955), Setzer (Univ. Kans. Publ., Mus., Nat. Hist, 1: 544, 1949) and Dalquest ( ibid ., 2: 300, 1948). Kangaroo rats now occur north of the Snake River in the triangle formed by the Snake and Columbia. I first observed signs of Dipodomys there in April of 1956, along the road leading east of Pasco to Levey. There were many burrows in the sandy soil along the right of way. The last of the dens were about 6 mi. ENE Pasco. On April 28 specimens were obtained a few miles north of the Snake River east-northeast of Pasco. Twenty live traps were set on a small isolated sand dune about ¼ mile north of the highway; 6 Dipodomys ordi and 9 Perognathus parvus were captured. The surrounding country was rolling plains covered with a fairly …
Purification of the major substrate for palmitoylation in rat adipocytes : N-terminal homology with CD36 and evidence for cell surface acylation

We previously reported that incubating rat adipocytes with [3H]palmitate predominantly labeled an 85-kDa protein. The labeling was more intensive in the presence of insulin and had characteristics consistent with covalent fatty acylation (Jochen et al. 1991. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 177: 797-801). In order to determine the significance of this finding we purified the 85-kDa protein, determined its N-terminal sequence, and further characterized its interactions with long-chain fatty acids. The [3H]palmitate-labeled 85-kDa protein was purified from rat adipocyte membranes using the following sequence of procedures: i) affinity chromatography with wheat germ agglutinin-agarose, ii) ion exchange chromatography with DEAE-Sepharose, and iii) SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The resulting labeled protein was sequenced through 30 amino acid residues. With the exception of one conserved substitution, the sequence was identical to CD36 (platelet membrane glycoprotein IV). Further characterization of the 85-kDa protein revealed it was heavily N-glycosylated and possessed a cell surface domain. Labeling of the 85-kDa protein with palmitate was compared in control cells, insulin-treated cells, and cells whose energy was depleted with 2,4-dinitrophenol. Insulin and energy depletion increased labeling approximately 3-fold and 12-fold, respectively. Labeling performed in the presence of energy depletion possessed all of the characteristics of covalent protein acylation. In addition, there was a close association between the ability of energy depletion to increase labeling of the 85-kDa protein and its ability to inhibit depletion of [3H]palmitate from the extracellular incubation media. These results suggest that the major substrate for fatty acylation in adipocytes is a cell surface membrane protein related to CD36 and that this acylation has the unusual properties of being independent of intracellular metabolic energy and of occurring on an exofacial epitope of the protein.
The Effect of Histamine on the Human Fingertip Circulation

1. The effect of intra-arterial histamine on fingertip blood flow (FBF) and vascular resistance (FVR) was studied in normal subjects during reflex sympathetic vascoconstriction induced by body cooling and vasoconstriction caused by intra-arterial noradrenaline. 2. In a room at 20°C, FBF increased from 15.3 ± 35.5 (sd) to 28.3 ± 55.9 ml min−1 100 ml−1 of tissue and FVR decreased from 23.7 ± 17.7 to 11.9 ± 9.9 mmHg·min−1 100 ml−1 ( P < 0.01) during infusions of histamine (0.5–4 μg/min) in 14 subjects. In nine of these subjects, the disappearance half times of local injections of Na131I were measured and decreased from 19.8 ± 10.9 to 12.9 ± 7.3 min during histamine infusions, indicating an increase in nutritional flow. Arteriovenous shunt flow was also probably affected, for increases in FBF were sometimes large and FBF increased without a change in the radioisotope half time in two subjects. 3. Neither cimetidine nor pyrilamine (mepyramine) consistently prevented the FBF responses to histamine. Administration of both antihistamines together attenuated the response. 4. During noradrenaline infusions in four subjects, a large increase in FBF (8.9 ± 10.9 to 39.0 ± 8.2 ml, P <0.005) occurred at the smallest dose (0.5 μg/min) of histamine. 5. It is concluded that histamine can vasodilate fingertips and increase nutritional blood flow during reflex sympathetic vasoconstriction. This vasodilatation may be mediated via both histamine H1 and H2 receptors.
Capacitation of mammalian spermatozoa.

The need for a physiological change in mammalian spermatozoa in the female genital tract as a prerequisite for fertilization was first recognized by Austin (1951) and Chang (1951) in the rabbit, and the change was termed “capacita­tion” (Austin, 1952). They found that if epididymal or ejaculated spermatozoa were introduced into the oviduct of the female rabbit before ovulation, eggs were fertilized. However, when the spermatozoa were introduced into the female after ovulation, few-if any-eggs were fertilized. In other words, the eggs lost the ability to be fertilized before the spermatozoa became capacitated.
Polyamide Nanogels from Generally Recognized as Safe Components and Their Toxicity in Mouse Preimplantation Embryos

Safe delivery systems that can not only encapsulate hydrophobic drug molecules, but also release them in response to specific triggers are important in several therapeutic and biomedical applications. In this paper, we have designed a nanogel based on molecules that are generally recognized as safe (GRAS). We have shown that the resultant polymeric nanogels exhibit responsive molecular release and also show high in vitro cellular viability on HEK 293T, HeLa, MCF 7, and A549 cell lines. The toxicity of these nanogels was further evaluated with a highly sensitive assay using mouse preimplantation embryo development, where blastocysts were formed after 4 days of in vitro culture, and live pups were born when morulae/early blastocysts were transferred to the uteri of surrogate recipients. Our results indicate that these nanogels are nontoxic during mammalian development and do not alter normal growth or early embryo success rate.
Understanding Orgasmic Difficulty in Women.

Abstract Introduction Women's primary issue with the orgasmic phase is usually difficulty reaching orgasm. Aims To identify predictors of orgasmic difficulty in women within the context of a partnered sexual experience; to assess the relation between orgasmic difficulty and self-reported levels of sexual desire or interest and arousal in women; and to assess the interrelations among three dimensions of orgasmic response during partnered sex: self-reported time to reach orgasm, general difficulty or ease of reaching orgasm, and level of distress or concern. Methods Drawing from a community-based sample using the Internet, 866 women were queried on a 26-item survey regarding their difficulty reaching orgasm during partnered sex. Four hundred sixteen women who indicated difficulty also responded to items assessing arousal and desire difficulties, level of distress about their condition, and their estimated time to reach orgasm. Main Outcome Measures Answers to a 26-item survey on surveyed women's difficulty reaching orgasm during partnered sex. Results Age, arousal difficulty, and lubrication difficulty predicted difficulty reaching orgasm in the overall sample. In the subsample of women reporting difficulty, approximately half reported issues with arousal. Women with arousal problems reported greater difficulty reaching orgasm but did not differ from those without arousal problems on measurements of orgasm latency or levels of distress. Slightly more than half the women experiencing difficulty reaching orgasm were distressed by their condition; distressed women reported greater difficulty reaching orgasm and longer latencies to orgasm than non-distressed counterparts. They also reported lower satisfaction with their sexual relationship. Conclusion This study indicates the importance of assessing multiple parameters when investigating orgasmic problems in women, including arousal issues, levels of distress, and latency to orgasm. Results also clarify that women with arousal problems do not differ substantially from those without arousal problems; in contrast, women distressed by their condition differ from non-distressed women along some critical dimensions. Although orgasmic problems decreased with age, the overall relation of this variable to distress, arousal, and latency to orgasm was essentially unchanged across age groups.
Abstract B27: Socioeconomic influences on survival in adolescents and young adults diagnosed with lymphoma in California

Purpose: Lymphoma (including Hodgkin9s Disease and Non-Hodgkin9s Lymphoma (NHL)) represents the most common type of cancer in adolescents and young adults (AYA) in the U.S. In California, lymphoma represents 17.28% and 10.37% of all cancers in AYA, ages 15–29 and 30–39, respectively. Although poorer survival has been previously attributed to individuals residing in residing in lower socioeconomic (SES) neighborhoods at diagnosis, it is difficult to determine whether the variability in survival is primarily the result of SES itself, or due to later stage at diagnosis, insurance status, or other unmeasured factors. We explored the California Cancer Registry (CCR), a large, population-based database, to investigate this. Patients and Methods: A case-only analysis of CCR data including first primary cases diagnosed from 1996–2005 was conducted along with a descriptive analysis of related clinical variables and neighborhood SES. The neighborhood SES variable used was derived from principle component analysis of census block-level CCR data that aggregated seven indicators of SES. Univariate analyses of overall survival (OS) were conducted using the Kaplan-Meier method. Multivariate survival analyses using Cox proportional hazards methods were performed to calculate hazard ratios (HRs). Results: A total of 7,042 incident patient cases of first primary lymphoma in individuals age 15–39 at diagnosis were analyzed, including 3,907 non-Hispanic Whites (NHW), 506 African Americans (AA), 1,953 Hispanics (H), and 590 Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders (API). Median overall survival time in months for the five SES categories was 31 for the highest SES group, 38 for the second highest SES group, 38 for the middle SES group, 41 for the second lowest SES group, and 45 for the lowest SES group. In the multivariate analysis, overall survival was reduced in males compared to females (P Conclusions: In addition to a reduction in survival for AYA lymphoma cases with later stage at diagnosis, reduction in survival was also associated with a reduction in SES. These findings warrant further investigation and intervention. An approach for identifying possible social determinants of barriers to care will be discussed.
The Professional Writer, 1809–1817

When Austen arrived in Chawton on 7 July 1809, she was 33 and unpublished, a condition that she was determined to alter. Her enquiry in April to the publisher Crosby and Company testifies to this determination. She had written then that ‘from particular circumstances’ she would not be able to produce a fair copy of Susan until August (L 263; 5 Apr. 1809). No doubt she simply meant that she would have no time to make a fair copy until after the move to Chawton. Once settled there, Austen evidently began her efforts to achieve publication by looking over all her extant work. She examined even her longer juvenilia, for she made alterations in Volume the Third, containing ‘Evelyn’ and ‘Catharine, or the Bower’, that date from 1809.1
Gifts from orthodontists to general dentists

ABSTRACT Objectives: To determine how often general dentists receive gifts from orthodontists, the value and number of the gifts they receive, and how they perceive the motivation behind the gift. ...
Distributed optimization for shipboard smartgrid

Shipboard smartgrid (SSG) requires optimized power delivery under faults. This is essentially achieved by reconfiguring the switch states (ON/OFF) in a manner that ensures maximal power to be delivered to loads after the occurrence of one or more faults. This paper seeks to investigate (1) the quality of the SSG reconfiguration solution without complete knowledge of the overall system state, and (2) Communication costs that may affect the quality of the reconfiguration. To this end, a dual decomposition based distributed optimization method for shipboard smartgrid system is proposed. The shipboard system is decomposed into multiple separable subsystems with agents. The agents locally maximize the power delivery to loads for a subsystem. Specifically, each agent solves a concave dual function of the original objective subject to convex constraints. Neighboring agent subsystems interact through convex coupling constraints and fuse the local optimizations into a globally optimal state. The reconfiguration results of the proposed implementation compared to the conventional centralized methods of reconfiguration demonstrate its effectiveness. We further investigate the convergence of the proposed approach under varying network delays and quantization noise. A theoretical lower bound on convergence due to the impact of communication network is presented.
Speaker diarization using deep neural network embeddings

Speaker diarization is an important front-end for many speech technologies in the presence of multiple speakers, but current methods that employ i-vector clustering for short segments of speech are potentially too cumbersome and costly for the front-end role. In this work, we propose an alternative approach for learning representations via deep neural networks to remove the i-vector extraction process from the pipeline entirely. The proposed architecture simultaneously learns a fixed-dimensional embedding for acoustic segments of variable length and a scoring function for measuring the likelihood that the segments originated from the same or different speakers. Through tests on the CALLHOME conversational telephone speech corpus, we demonstrate that, in addition to streamlining the diarization architecture, the proposed system matches or exceeds the performance of state-of-the-art baselines. We also show that, though this approach does not respond as well to unsupervised calibration strategies as previous systems, the incorporation of well-founded speaker priors sufficiently mitigates this shortcoming.
Abstract 092: Novel Mechanism of Salt-sensitive Hypertension: CD8+ T Cells Stimulate Sodium Chloride Co-transporter NCC in Kidney

Recent studies suggest a role for T lymphocytes in hypertension. However, whether T cells contribute to renal sodium retention is an important question, which if answered, could reveal a critical relationship between adaptive immunity and pathogenesis of salt-sensitive hypertension. In the present study, we propose a novel mechanism of salt-sensitive hypertension via the distal nephron: that in salt-sensitive hypertension, renal infiltrating T cells interact with distal convoluted tubule cells (mDCTs), which leads to up-regulation of the sodium-chloride-co-transporter (NCC), and thus enhancement of sodium retention. In vivo tests used DOCA-salt mice (SBP~190mmHg on a high salt diet) and T cell-adoptive transferred mice (SBP~170mmHg on a high salt diet). Results confirmed enhanced NCC & p-NCC expression (>2.5X) in the kidneys of both mouse models. We found significantly more T cells infiltrating the kidneys of DOCA-salt & T cell-transferred mice compared to their controls. It is noteworthy that in both models a great number of CD8 + T cells (CD8Ts) in the renal tubulointerstitium surround DCT segments which have higher levels of NCC expression. Direct contact between these two cell types was confirmed by super-resolution structured illumination microscopy. In vitro, we co-cultured mDCTs with T cells, and found that CD8Ts, but not CD4Ts, significantly increased NCC expression (>3X) in mDCTs via “direct cell-cell contact”. An intracellular sodium-indicator detected higher NCC-mediated sodium uptake (>1.5X) in mDCTs treated with CD8Ts compared to untreated controls. Moreover, these effects were mediated by increased (>2.2X) functional chloride channel Clc-k in the cell membrane. Clc-k knockdown by siRNA blunted chloride efflux and abolished CD8T-induced NCC activation and sodium retention in mDCTs. Taken together, our findings suggest a novel role for CD8 + T cells in enhancement of salt retention contributing to salt-sensitive hypertension: that CD8 + T cells directly contact mDCTs, stimulate NCC by upregulating the chloride channel Clc-k on the mDCT plasma membrane, thereby increasing chloride efflux, which leads to compensatory chloride influx via NCC activation at the cost of increasing sodium influx.
Retrieval-Enhanced Suggestibility: A Retrospective and a New Investigation

Eyewitnesses are often repeatedly interviewed about the same crime, and they might be exposed to misleading information between these interviews. Taking a memory test before being exposed to misinformation can ironically increase the likelihood that an eyewitness would fall prey to the misinformation effect—a finding termed Retrieval-Enhanced Suggestibility (RES). In this paper, we outline the motivation behind the original research on RES, summarize the theoretical explanations that have been used to explain this finding, and provide a review of the extant empirical findings. We then report the results of two new experiments that examined whether participants, upon being informed that they had provided inconsistent responses during the prior recall tests, could overcome the RES effect during a final recognition test in which the correct event detail and the misinformation were offered as response options. The results showed that RES persisted in this recognition test, and the level of inconsistencies shown by participants during the prior recall tests predicted their final recognition performance, such that more inconsistent witnesses were also more error-prone during the final recognition test—but this relation was stronger for misinformation-induced inconsistencies than for spontaneously-produced inconsistencies.
Postoperative cognitive dysfunction: A case report and literature review

Background: Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is loss of cognition especially in memory and executive function that can extend from a few days to a few weeks after surgery. It is more common in older adult patients. We present a case featuring a typical progression of POCD along with its associated preoperative risk factors. Case report: A 65-year-old male patient with an extensive past medical history including generalized anxiety disorder, hypertension and hyperlipidemia initially presented to the emergency department for chest pain. Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) was performed under general anesthesia with Propofol, Fentanyl, Rocuronium and Midazolam. The patient tolerated the procedure well. After the procedure, his stay was complicated by delirium and altered mental status. All reversible causes were investigated and eliminated as likely causes. Later, the patient was sent home after a prolonged hospital stay. Following discharge, he had multiple admissions to the hospital for altered mental status, and his mental status has not reached baseline again. Family has been confident that the patient’s psychological and cognitive symptoms began following the CABG. Conclusion: We present this case to highlight the heightened incidence of postoperative cognitive decline in patients over sixty undergoing major surgery. We also present a comprehensive review of the current literature on the risk factors, clinical manifestations, and pathogenesis of POCD.
The effects of child care subsidies on children’s health and developmental outcomes

Using a subsample of the Fragile Families and Child Well-being data set of 1430 low-income families with young children, the present study examines the direct and indirect effects of child care sub...
Kinetics and inhibition studies of the L205R mutant of cAMP-dependent protein kinase involved in Cushing's syndrome.

Overproduction of cortisol by the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal hormone system results in the clinical disorder known as Cushing's syndrome. Genomics studies have identified a key mutation (L205R) in the α‐isoform of the catalytic subunit of cAMP‐dependent protein kinase (PKACα) in adrenal adenomas of patients with adrenocorticotropic hormone‐independent Cushing's syndrome. Here, we conducted kinetics and inhibition studies on the L205R‐PKACα mutant. We have found that the L205R mutation affects the kinetics of both Kemptide and ATP as substrates, decreasing the catalytic efficiency (k cat/K M) for each substrate by 12‐fold and 4.5‐fold, respectively. We have also determined the IC 50 and K i for the peptide substrate‐competitive inhibitor PKI(5–24) and the ATP‐competitive inhibitor H89. The L205R mutation had no effect on the potency of H89, but causes a > 250‐fold loss in potency for PKI(5–24). Collectively, these data provide insights for the development of L205R‐PKACα inhibitors as potential therapeutics.
Predicting pharmacy syringe sales to people who inject drugs: Policy, practice and perceptions

Abstract Background Pharmacies have much to contribute to the health of people who inject drugs (PWID) and to community efforts in HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) prevention through syringe access. However, little is known about what predicts pharmacy syringe sales without a prescription. Objective To identify factors predicting pharmacy syringes sales to PWID. Methods A hybrid staggered online survey of 298 Indiana community pharmacists occurred from July-September 2016 measuring pharmacy policy, practice, and pharmacist perceptions about syringe sales to PWID. Separate bivariate logistical regressions were followed by multivariable logistic regression to predict pharmacy syringe sales and pharmacist comfort dispensing syringes to PWID. Results Half (50.5%) of Indiana pharmacies sold syringes without a prescription to PWID. Pharmacy syringe sales was strongly associated with pharmacist supportive beliefs about syringe access by PWID and their comfort level selling syringes to PWID. Notably, pharmacies located in communities with high rates of opioid overdose mortality were 56% less likely to sell syringes without a prescription than those in communities with lower rates. Pharmacist comfort dispensing syringes was associated with being male, working at a pharmacy that sold syringes to PWID and one that stocked naloxone, having been asked about syringe access by medical providers, and agreement that PWID should be able to buy syringes without a prescription. Conclusions As communities with high rates of opioid overdose mortality were less likely to have pharmacies that dispensed syringes to PWID, a concerted effort with these communities and their pharmacies should be made to understand opportunities to increase syringe access. Future studies should explore nuances between theoretical support for syringe access by PWID without a prescription and actual dispensing behaviors. Addressing potential policy conflicts and offering continuing education on non-prescription syringe distribution for pharmacists may improve comfort distributing syringes to PWID, and therefore increase pharmacy syringe sales.