cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Calcium Ion Channels: Roles in Infection and Sepsis Mechanisms of Calcium Channel Blocker Benefits in Immunocompromised Patients at Risk for Infection

Immunosuppression may occur for a number of reasons related to an individual’s frailty, debility, disease or from therapeutic iatrogenic intervention or misadventure. A large percentage of morbidity and mortality in immunodeficient populations is related to an inadequate response to infectious agents with slow response to antibiotics, enhancements of antibiotic resistance in populations, and markedly increased prevalence of acute inflammatory response, septic and infection related death. Given known relationships between intracellular calcium ion concentrations and cytotoxicity and cellular death, we looked at currently available data linking blockade of calcium ion channels and potential decrease in expression of sepsis among immunosuppressed patients. Notable are relationships between calcium, calcium channel, vitamin D mechanisms associated with sepsis and demonstration of antibiotic-resistant pathogens that may utilize channels sensitive to calcium channel blocker. We note that sepsis shock syndrome represents loss of regulation of inflammatory response to infection and that vitamin D, parathyroid hormone, fibroblast growth factor, and klotho interact with sepsis defense mechanisms in which movement of calcium and phosphorus are part of the process. Given these observations we consider that further investigation of the effect of relatively inexpensive calcium channel blockade agents of infections in immunosuppressed populations might be worthwhile.
Procalcitonin and Its Limitations: Why a Biomarker's Best Isn't Good Enough.

Sepsis-related conditions remain the leading causes of mortality, morbidity, and expenditures worldwide despite efforts to standardize care and expedite diagnosis and treatment, which are determinants of outcome. As with most syndromes with complex pathophysiology, no gold standard diagnostic test exists. Diagnosis is complicated by nonspecific symptoms and lengthy blood cultures with high false-negative rates. Empiric antibiotic treatment upon signs of sepsis is an increasing concern for antibiotic overuse and resistance. The need for biochemical biomarkers for sepsis diagnosis is well accepted. Several pro- and antiinflammatory biomarkers have been investigated, but only few are incorporated in clinical practice (1). Procalcitonin (PCT)2 is one such molecule that emerged as a biomarker for bacterial infection and sepsis to guide antibiotic therapy. The clinical value of PCT remains questionable and some hesitate to incorporate PCT into routine standard of care. Here we discuss factors limiting widespread use of PCT, particularly in the US. PCT is increased after severe inflammation and bacterial infections until resolution. Its use in the US was not as widespread as that in Europe and other countries until recently. PCT was initially indicated to assess the risk of critically ill patients for progression to severe sepsis and shock and the cumulative 28-day risk of all-cause mortality. Intended uses now include supporting antibiotic …
Influence of dual beam ion irradiation and transient heat loading on tungsten surface morphology and erosion

Abstract Material testing for plasma facing components (PFCs) in future fusion devices reveals important damage mechanisms that impact lifetime and performance. During operation, PFCs in the divertor region will be subjected to high particle fluxes and heat loads. Tungsten (W) is currently the leading candidate material for divertor PFCs, due to its high melting point, high thermal conductivity, and low tritium retention. Laboratory experiments have effectively characterized mechanisms of damage on W due to different forms of radiation. However, understanding how different species of incident plasma particles interact with one another to affect the resultant strength of the material remains in development. In this study, W samples were exposed to simultaneous ELM-like heat loading and high-flux He+ and D+ ion irradiation at different ELM intensities to further elucidate the complex synergistic effects inherent in a fusion environment. ELM-like heat loading was replicated using a 1064 nm Nd:YAG pulsed millisecond laser at different energy densities. Exposures produced a shale-like microstructure with or without concurrent He+ and D+ ion irradiation. However, adding D+ to a simultaneous laser + He+ irradiation reduced pore formation and inhibited early-stage nanostructure formation. Changes in surface morphology with the addition of D+ could be attributed to super-saturation in the near-surface layer. While the addition of He+ and D+ clearly increased W erosion, the laser energy density did not have as clear of an effect. Increasing the ELM intensity reduced the number of pores, but increased the pore size. Future studies need to explore whether near-surface D impacts pore formation and total He desorption. Continued research on the combined effect of high-flux particle irradiation and transient heat loading will help refine predictions of material performance for ITER and beyond.
Privacy Enabled Noise Free Data Collection in Vehicular Networks

Many networked users through their devices are interested in participating in distributed sensing and data collection for the purpose of betterment of human society or for earning rewards. Preservation of their location privacy is an important requirement for users participating and contributing to the data collection. We develop a novel privacy preserving approach for collecting noise-free data from vehicular users. Collection of noise-free, "pure" data, enhances its utility in the applications that use it. Location privacy must be preserved from the entity that we call a central controller, that collects all the vehicular data, and is assumed to be adversarial. We collect the data in a noise-free form by introducing temporal and spatial variations using Random Delays and Indirections. We run simulations using network and vehicle simulators driven by a real-world traffic scenario from the city of Luxembourg to evaluate our approach. Our simulation results show that the adversary cannot localize the uploaders within the thresholds of the number of streets and the length of the region of interest chosen by them.
Hypokalemia associated with mifepristone use in the treatment of Cushing’s syndrome

Summary Mifepristone is a promising option for the management of hypercortisolism associated with hyperglycemia. However, its use may result in serious electrolyte imbalances, especially during dose escalation. In our patient with adrenocorticotropic hormone-independent macro-nodular adrenal hyperplasia, unilateral adrenalectomy resulted in biochemical and clinical improvement, but subclinical hypercortisolism persisted following adrenalectomy. She was started on mifepristone. Unfortunately, she missed her follow-up appointments following dosage escalation and required hospitalization at an intensive care level for severe refractory hypokalemia. Learning points Mifepristone, a potent antagonist of glucocorticoid receptors, has a high risk of adrenal insufficiency, despite high cortisol levels. Mifepristone is associated with hypokalemia due to spill-over effect of cortisol on unopposed mineralocorticoid receptors. Given the lack of a biochemical parameter to assess improvement, the dosing of mifepristone is based on clinical progress. Patients on mifepristone require anticipation of toxicity, especially when the dose is escalated. The half-life of mifepristone is 85 h, requiring prolonged monitoring for toxicity, even after the medication is held.
Large-Scale Cross-Country Analysis of Steam Popularity

Steam is a large digital distribution multiplayer and communication platform for PC games and industry standard software. In ever competitive and expanding business markets, data-driven analysis is becoming an essential tool for analyzing consumers. This is especially true for e-markets that exist entirely online, including the video game market. Game data analysis has mainly been confined to work on single games. However, when considering the increasing number of available online platforms that offer multiple games, the large-scale analysis of game popularity on cross-games is getting important for game industry. This study aims to discover interesting relationship patterns among game ownership, genre and geographical region from a very large Steam database. Heat map analysis is used for this purpose. This paper reports the analysis result and explains in depth the implications of patterns discovered.
Laser-Assisted Therapy for Peri-implant Diseases

Peri-implant disease is a new prevalent biological complication emerged from the popularity of implant therapy. Currently, there is no predictable treatment to manage advanced peri-implantitis lesions. Dental laser has a huge potential for the treatment of peri-implant disease, given that it provides a method to decontaminate implant surface without damaging its microstructures for re-osseointegration. In addition, biosimulation from low-energy laser attenuates the inflammatory status of the peri-implant defect to facilitate re-establishment of homeostasis. There are several wavelengths of dental laser available. Both Nd:YAG and Er:YAG lasers have shown promising results in vitro, and erbium lasers seem to be the most promising one due to its application on hard tissues. Although a few pilot randomized clinical trials did not show conclusive results, more well-designed controlled trials are warranted to optimize the application of laser-assisted therapy in identifying ideal indications and developing evidence-based protocol.
Buprenorphine use for pain and suicidal ideation in severely suicidal patients

ObjectiveChronic pain is frequently comorbid with opioid abuse and severe depression, a combination that greatly compounds suicide risk. In addition to the therapeutic value of buprenorphine in add...
Deaf intermarriage does not increase the prevalence of deafness alleles

Abstract The idea that deaf intermarriage increases deafness was forcefully pushed in the late 19th century by Alexander Graham Bell, in proceedings published by the National Academy of Science. Bell’s hypothesis was not supported by a 19th century study by Edward Allen Fay, which was funded by Bell’s own organization, the Volta Bureau. The Fay study showed through an analysis of 4,471 deaf marriages that the chances of having deaf children did not increase significantly when both parents were deaf. In light of an apparent increase in non-complementary pairings when a recent dataset of Gallaudet alumni was compared with the 19th century Fay dataset, Bell’s argument has been resurrected that residential schools for the deaf, which concentrate signing deaf individuals together, have promoted assortative mating and increased the prevalence of both phenotypic deafness and the commonest recessive deafness allele. Because this hypothesis persists, even though it contradicts classical models introduced by R.A. Fisher and Sewell Wright, it is critically important that this hypothesis be thoroughly re-investigated. In this study, we used an established forward-time genetics simulator with parameters and measurements collected from the published literature. Compared to mathematical equations, simulations allowed for more complex modeling, operated without assumptions of parametricity, and captured ending distributions and variances. Our simulation results affirm predictions from classical equations and show that assortative mating only modestly increases the prevalence of phenotypically deaf individuals, with this effect mostly completed by the third generation. Most importantly, our data show that even intense assortative mating does not increase allelic frequency under reported conditions. These results are not locus-specific and are generalizable to other forms of recessive deafness. We offer alternative explanations for the higher rate of non-complementary pairings measured in the contemporary Gallaudet alumni sample as compared to the Fay dataset.
Adversarial Canonical Correlation Analysis.

Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) is a statistical technique used to extract common information from multiple data sources or views. It has been used in various representation learning problems, such as dimensionality reduction, word embedding, and clustering. Recent work has given CCA probabilistic footing in a deep learning context and uses a variational lower bound for the data log likelihood to estimate model parameters. Alternatively, adversarial techniques have arisen in recent years as a powerful alternative to variational Bayesian methods in autoencoders. In this work, we explore straightforward adversarial alternatives to recent work in Deep Variational CCA (VCCA and VCCA-Private) we call ACCA and ACCA-Private and show how these approaches offer a stronger and more flexible way to match the approximate posteriors coming from encoders to much larger classes of priors than the VCCA and VCCA-Private models. This allows new priors for what constitutes a good representation, such as disentangling underlying factors of variation, to be more directly pursued. We offer further analysis on the multi-level disentangling properties of VCCA-Private and ACCA-Private through the use of a newly designed dataset we call Tangled MNIST. We also design a validation criteria for these models that is theoretically grounded, task-agnostic, and works well in practice. Lastly, we fill a minor research gap by deriving an additional variational lower bound for VCCA that allows the representation to use view-specific information from both input views.
Heme as a Taste Molecule

The sense of taste has evolved to enable the identification of appropriate substances to consume, to acquire nutrients, and to avoid consuming potential toxins. Five basic taste classes have been recognized, although there may be others, including metallic taste, which have not been well defined. The purpose of this review was to survey available data from diverse sources to determine how much was known about the molecular basis for metallic taste. Metallic taste has been studied in the context of dysgeusia, primarily using non-heme iron as an inducer of metallic taste sensation. However, recent efforts by industry to develop plant-based meat substitutes have suggested that iron in the form of heme may be the main molecule underlying the taste of meat. Little work has been done on heme as a taste molecule. Data support a primary role for heme in metallic taste that may have evolved as part of a means to consume and preserve elemental iron for physiological needs.
Efficient Exploration of Protein Conformational Pathways using RRT* and MC

The conformational space of proteins is complex and high dimensional, which makes its analysis a highly challenging task. Understanding the structure and dynamics of proteins is essential in order to understand their cellular function. It is often hard to experimentally characterize intermediate structures as well as conformational trajectory, due to the rapid dynamics of some proteins. Conformational pathways, which describe how proteins transition from one conformation to another as a result of a shift in conditions, are hard to describe experimentally. Computationally it is a challenging problem as well since physics-based simulations are time-consuming and often don't span sufficient time scales to allow capturing a full pathway. In previous work, we combined evolutionary information or rigidity analysis obtained from proteins' sequence and structure with an efficient tree based conformational search to elucidate the conformational trajectory of proteins. We incorporated backbone + C - β resolution and helped limit the search space by identifying mobile regions in a molecule. In this work, we use a hybrid algorithm which combines MC sampling and RRT*, a version of the Rapidly Exploring Random Trees (RRT) robotics-based method, to make the search more accurate and efficient, and produce smooth conformational pathways.
Technology Transfer Virtual Network: Analysis Within the Italian System of Innovation

The National Council of Research (CNR), the largest public research body in Italy, has, from 1995 to 1998, tried a technological transfer (TT) virtual network with the aim of stimulating and coordinating initiatives for matching the supply of public scientific research and the innovation demand of Italian firms. We have investigated which mechanisms in the socio-economic environment could affect the functioning of this network organisation within the Italian national system of innovation. The main results show some limits concerning the internal organisations of the network and some socio-economic barriers that slow down TT activities. These results can be used as the basis for planning and efficiently managing other technology transfer networks.
The Language of Warning: The World Scientists’ Efforts to Communicate and the Challenge of Poignancy

It’s one thing to issue a clarion cry (or multiple clarion cries), and yet another thing to be heard. The world scientists’ warnings about the direness of our climate predicament have offered detailed, authoritative information about the condition of the planet, but they fall short in the critical area of poignancy. The recent warnings are not the first of their kind—prominent climate scientists have been issuing such documents for decades. And yet even as scientists’ knowledge of planetary systems has become more refined, their attentiveness to the language of warning—and what works and what doesn’t—has not progressed noticeably. Psychologists, communication specialists, and humanities scholars in various disciplines (creative writing, literary studies, philosophy) have long noted that humans are vulnerable to psychic numbing when inundated with abstract information, particularly when this information concerns large-scale phenomena—this includes global climate change. While recognizing the importance of the world scientists’ efforts to evoke an “emergency response,” this article attempts to warn against warnings that do not heed the psychological realities of how the human mind processes data. It is important to calibrate warnings to the sensitivities and insensitivities of human readers. The public cannot heed what it cannot hear.
Commentary: The Epistemology of Corporate-Securities Lawyering: Beliefs, Biases and Organizational Behavior

As a full time academic administrator my claims to subject matter expertise are much diminished. Nevertheless, Professor Norman Poser graciously asked for my comments on Professor Langevoort's wonderful Article on the epistemology of corporate and securities lawyering. Professor Langevoort's Article, which I have renamed "When Bad Things Happen to Relatively Good Companies," is a model of the best in contemporary legal scholarship. It begins with a sophisticated review of research from literature that is not often cited in legal scholarship, in particular focusing on the literature of management science (business psychology). Professor Langevoort utilizes this non-legal perspective to generate important insights about substantive law, legal education, and practical issues for corporate lawyers. The Article reminds us of the range of tasks that our graduates who will practice business law will face. It implies that our obligation is to provide a broad range of exposure to different kinds of learning experiences when training corporate practitioners. A principal lesson of the Article is that we are training our graduates to exercise judgment in the context of uncertainty, uncertainty as both law and facts. Moreover, we are training our graduates to practice in a profession that is experiencing ongoing dramatic restructuring. These changes raise questions about whether historic professional values such as lawyerly independence can be sustained. Because the Article is an archetype of the best in contemporary academic legal discourse, I will comment on its implications for legal scholarship, legal education, and the structure of the legal profession.
Deregulation, Competition and the Race to the Bottom

We exploit the OCC's preemption of national banks from state laws against preda- tory lending as a quasi-experiment to study the eect of deregulation and its inter- action with competition on the supply of complex mortgages (prepayment penalties, interest-only, and negative amortization). Following the preemption ruling, national banks signi…cantly increased their origination of loans with prepayment penalties and negative amortization features by comparison with lenders not regulated by OCC and lenders in states without predatory lending laws. Further, we highlight a competi- tion channel: in counties where OCC-regulated lenders had larger market shares prior to the preemption, even non-OCC lenders responded by increasing their use of these riskier terms to the extent permitted by the state predatory-lending laws. Overall, our evidence suggests that the deregulation of credit markets triggered a "race to the bottom"among distressed …nancial institutions, working through competition between lenders.
Changes in transfer ribonucleic acids accompanying encystment in Acanthamoeba castellanii.

Transfer ribonucleic acid (tRNA) from exponentially growing cells (trophozoites) and from precysts of Acanthamoeba castellanii were examined by reversed-phase column (RPC-2) chromatography. This system gave excellent resolution of isoaccepting species of tRNA. The tRNAs for 12 amino acids were studied. A comparison of trophozoite and precyst tRNA elution profiles revealed no apparent differences in the number of isoaccepting species of alanyl-, arginyl-, asparaginyl-, glycyl-, leucyl-, lysyl-, methionyl-, phenylalanyl-, tryptophanyl-, or valyl-tRNAs. Seryl-tRNAs from trophozoites were eluted as three components, whereas precyst seryl-tRNAs were eluted as only two components. Precharged trophozoite and precyst isoleucyl-tRNAs were both eluted as single components; however, post-chromatography charging of trophozoite tRNA resulted in three components of activity for tRNAIle and only one component for precyst tRNAIle. None of the observed changes could be attributed to differences in synthetases or to the presence of altered tRNA lacking the CCA terminus or partially degraded by nucleases. The possible significance of these observations is discussed.
The control of hovering flight for computer animation

By combining control mechanisms and physically-based models of articulated, rigid body systems, we hope to simplify the task of generating realistic articulated motion for computer animations. As an example of this approach, we have developed a control system and a physically-realistic model to animate the hovering flight of a hummingbird. The computer model of the bird is based on the physical parameters of hummingbirds reported in the biomechanics literature. The animator specifies the desired location of the bird and the control system manipulates the model so that the aerodynamic forces acting on the wings propel the bird to satisfy that goal.
Amino Acid Transporters

Amino acid transporters are proteins that recognize and transport free amino acids across the plasma membranes of cells. Different families of transporters are associated with different types of amino acid, for example cationic, anionic and zwitterionic. Keywords: biological membranes; membrane proteins; ion gradients; cystinuria; neurotransmitters
A CMOS-MEMS magnetic thin-film inductor for radio frequency and intermediate frequency filter circuits

RF/IF filter circuits rely on high quality passive devices such as inductors and capacitors. We propose a novel process to integrate magnetic thin-film inductors using CMOS-MEMS and magnetic film processing technologies. When used in IF filters, great power saving and a high degree of integration can be achieved compared with conventional SAW or Gm-C filters at IF. Magnetic thin-film inductors are much more compact than conventional inductors. Since the electromagnetic field is well confined in the magnetic film, cross-coupling is greatly reduced. With thin film (/spl sim/1 /spl mu/m) and thus less eddy current loss it is capable of frequency up to GHz. Prototype CMOS-MEMS inductors with 0.2 /spl mu/m permalloy (NiFe) thin-film were fabricated and tested. A 10X increase in both inductance and Q was observed, and the peak Q was sustained up to 200 MHz.
Accelerated pavement testing of rutting and cracking performance of asphalt-rubber and conventional asphalt concrete overlay strategies

ABSTRACT The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has two primary strategies for overlay of flexible pavements: overlay with dense graded asphalt concrete (DGAC), and overlay with asphalt rubber hot mix gap-graded (ARHM-GG). Caltrans ARHM-GG overlays are typically designed to be about half the thickness of DGAC overlays for a given set of conditions. This paper contains results of two accelerated pavement test (APT) experiments conducted using Caltrans Heavy Vehicle Simulators (HVS). One experiment was conducted at elevated temperatures to study the relative rutting performance of the mixes and the other one at moderate temperatures to study the relative cracking performance of the mixes. In the rutting experiment the effects of overlay type, ARHM-GG overlay thickness, tire/wheel type (dual/bias-ply; dual/radial, wide-base single, aircraft), and pavement temperature (40°C, 50°C at 50 mm depth) on pavement rutting, and the changes in layer thickness and air-void contents were analyzed to eval...
Catching up through developing innovation capability: evidence from China's telecom-equipment industry

Abstract The significance of the innovation capability of domestic firms in late-industrialized countries is highly debated in the literature. This research studies the history of China's telecom-equipment industry from the middle of 1980s to 2002, with a focus on the innovation capability development of four domestic firms: Huawei, ZTE, DTT, and GDT. The research finds that innovation capability and self-developed technologies have been the key to leading domestic firms' catching up with the multinational corporations. This finding is substantiated by both regression analysis between ‘leadership of the telecom-equipment industry’ and ‘innovation capability’ and development experience at the company level. This research emphasizes that domestic firms should prioritize building innovation capability from the very beginning to build up their competitiveness and to survive the competition with the multinational companies as well as other domestic companies. It also suggests that domestic firms should focus on in-house R&D development to build their innovation capability, supplemented with external alliances.
Vitamin D deficiency rickets caused by improper lifestyle in Japanese children

Background: Nutritional rickets is considered rare in developed countries. However, reports on vitamin D deficiency rickets caused by improper lifestyle have recently increased. The clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with vitamin D deficiency rickets treated at Fukuoka Children's Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan, were evaluated to clarify current causes and ways to prevent this disease. Methods: Clinical records were reviewed, and obtained information and data were summarized. Results: Eight patients with vitamin D deficiency rickets (five boys and three girls) were treated during the past 10 years (January 1992 to December 2001). Two infants were referred to the hospital for hypocalcemia and convulsion, and six toddlers (1–2 years old) for bowlegs. One patient lacked exposure to sunlight, and six had an unbalanced diet. The cause of rickets could not be established in one patient. Anthropometric and laboratory data did not indicate malnutrition. Serum alkaline phosphatase was 2518.3 ± 1401.7 IU/l, calcium was 8.2 ± 2.6 mg/dL (including 4.7 mg/dL in one infant and 4.8 mg/dL in another), and phosphorus was 4.9 ± 1.0 mg/dL. High sensitive parathyroid hormone was 1393.1 ± 321.7 pg/mL (reference range, 180–560), 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D was 86.0 ± 61.5 pg/mL (reference range, 20–70), and 25-hydroxyvitamin D was 11.6 ± 5.6 ng/mL (reference range, 10–30). The patients recovered with a change to a balanced diet, the promotion of weaning, and/or an increase in sunlight exposure. Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency rickets remains a common condition that is best managed by education and disease prevention.
A weak collision of two natural-convection boundary layers

Abstract The collision of two natural-convection boundary layers at the tip of a vertical wedge is used to demonstrate that a double-deck flow structure provides a proper description of the heat-convection mechanism which is shared by many convection problems with sudden geometry changes. The present theory differs from previous work which indicate the existence ofrecirculating flow regions. This difference is due to a failure to recognize that recirculating flow structures can only exist for forced flows, but not for natural-convection boundary layers or wall jets. The present solution is obtained by a proper application of Prandtl's transposition theorem for geometries with finite solid displacements and appropriately matches the upstream natural-convection boundary layers and the downstream thermal plume. The interaction of the local pressure development in the main deck (outer layer) and the displacement of the lower deck (inner layer) removes the singularity associated with the boundary-layer equations at the location where the viscous layers leave the solid surface.
A qualitative analysis of male couples' coping with HIV: Disentangling the "we".

Research suggests that optimal couple functioning depends on adopting a “we” orientation to health. Using qualitative data from 20 male couples in which at least one partner was HIV-positive, we examined how couples viewed their health involvement and its relation to social support. One group described their health as highly interconnected; in a second group, at least one partner viewed health as a personal responsibility. Results revealed that there was not a uniform “we” approach toward health; rather, sero-concordance, sero-discordance, and coping with other chronic illnesses strongly contributed to orientations toward health. Orientations toward health were not found to determine social support.
Synthesis and enzymatic incorporation of α-l-threofuranosyl adenine triphosphate (tATP)

Abstract Threose nucleic acid (TNA) is an artificial genetic polymer in which the natural ribose sugar found in RNA has been replaced with an unnatural threose sugar. TNA can be synthesized enzymatically using Therminator DNA polymerase to copy DNA templates into TNA. Here, we expand the substrate repertoire of Therminator DNA polymerase to include threofuranosyl adenine 3 ′ -triphsophate (tATP). We chemically synthesized tATP by two different methods from the 2 ′ - O -acetyl derivative. Enzyme-mediated polymerization reveals that tATP functions as an efficient substrate for Therminator DNA polymerase, indicating that tATP can replace the diaminopurine analogue (tDTP) in TNA transcription reactions.
Governmental accounting and auditing in Thailand: an overview and some suggestions for improvement

Abstract The purpose of national government is to deliver services to its constituents that often do not give rise to revenue. Frequently, governments make such resource allocation decisions with poor quality financial information that is not reliable, not timely, and limited in its data on assets and liabilities. One such government is Thailand, which in May 1997 experienced an economic crisis that required the intervention of the International Monetary Fund, toppled the existing government, and contracted the Thai economy. Thus, the Thai government faces an increasing need for improved government financial information for planning for an economic recovery. This paper will present the current state of governmental accounting and auditing in Thailand. Further, the author will make some suggestions for improving the reporting and auditing of financial information to facilitate government decision making with the existing economic crisis.
Characteristics of physically inactive older adults with arthritis: results of a population-based study

Abstract Background Arthritis is the most prevalent chronic condition among persons age 65 and older in North America. Physical inactivity in this population is linked to functional limitations, increased risk for cardiovascular disease, diminished quality of life, and disability. The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors for inactivity. Methods National data for 6256 community-dwelling older adults with arthritis from the 1996–1997 Canadian National Population Health Survey were examined using logistic regression analyses. The independent variables included sociodemographic characteristics, health status, psychosocial factors, health behaviors, and medication use. Results Inactive persons were significantly ( P 25), have severe pain, or not have prescription drug insurance coverage. The same group was less likely to be unmarried, well educated, from western provinces, attend church frequently, consume alcohol infrequently, have higher levels of social support, have better self-rated health, or use pain medication. Conclusions The profile presented in this study should be fully considered by health care providers when educating patients with arthritis about the adverse health effects of sedentary behavior. Prescription drug insurance coverage may facilitate activity among elders with arthritis.
Improving the length‐fractionation of DNA during capillary electrophoresis

The present study develops a path-lengthening strategy for capillary electrophoresis of short double-stranded DNA molecules, in an aqueous solution of neutral polymer (hydroxypropylmethylcellulose). Tests of the dependence of fractionations on pulse times reveal the operation of at least one mechanism in addition to increase in effective path length. Electrophoresis is performed in the following two-stage cycles (cyclic electrophoresis): The first analysis-stage of each cycle is a constant field (forward) capillary electrophoresis. This analysis-stage reveals the length distribution of the shortest DNA molecules not previously analyzed. The second, enhancement-stage of each cycle is zero-integrated field electrophoresis (ZIFE). The enhancement-stage improves the DNA length-fractionation for the next DNA molecules to be analyzed. A slight reverse migration occurs in the enhancement-stage. Increase in both peak separation and peak sharpness contribute to improvement in the length-fractionation of DNA molecules.
Minimal non-elementary Lie algebras

Minimal non-elementarty finite groups must be nilpotent. The Lie algebra analogue admits non-nilpotent examples. We classify them for complex solvable Lie algebras.
Reinvestigation of the Reactions of 1-Phenyl-3,4-dimethylphosphole with Dimethyl Acetylenedicarboxylate

In contrast with an earlier report, the reaction of 1-phenyl-3,4-dimethylphosphole with an excess of dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate (DMAD) at room temperature affords the phosphole + 2 DMAD ylide 10, whose structure was established by a careful analysis of the 13C NMR spectrum. Its stability is surprising, since the analogous Ph3P + 2 DMAD adduct spontaneously rearranges to other products and has never been fully characterized. When the reaction of phosphole with DMAD was carried out in the presence of AgNO3, the intermediate 1:1 adduct was oxidized to the stable oxo-ylide 13, whose X-ray crystal structure shows the highly zwitterionic character.
Predicting the low velocity impact response of finite beams in cases of large area contact

Abstract An in-depth investigation of low velocity impact response of various beams is performed to study the relationships between impact velocity, beam and projectile material and geometric properties. It is found that impactor curvature has little effect on central beam displacement and total contact force histories but strongly influences the contact pressure distribution and contact area size. Impact velocity is found to strongly affect force and displacement histories as well as contact pressures. New results concerning projectile rebound are presented and discussed. The ratio of beam mass to projectile mass is found to be an important parameter in determining the nature of the response, including the number of sub-impacts that occur during the entire impact process. Mass ratio effects are also found to be strongly coupled with the material anistropy effects. Equations that predict low velocity impact response characteristics in situations where large contact areas are expected to develop are obtained through a regression of analytical data. The validity of the regression equations is demonstrated by comparing experimental and predicted low velocity beam impact response.
An Empirical Investigation of the Value of Integrating Enterprise Information Systems: The Case of Medical Imaging Informatics

This paper identifies and measures the various business value benefits that accrue as a result of implementing and integrating large-scale enterprise information systems. Specifically, we look at the integration of electronic medical records for all patients with the radiology information system and a picture archiving and communication system at a regional medical center. Our work is among the first to carefully study and analyze the impact of enterprise information systems at a large-scale service organization that produces intangible outputs-health. It extends the literature on information economics by quantifying the benefits in process dynamics as a source of ongoing firm-level performance improvements. The key dimensions of measurements include financial revenues, operating lead times, and subjective satisfaction levels by the clinical staff and by the referring physicians. Analyses of longitudinal data suggest that performance levels along a key metric-clinical process lead time-showed a significant improvement immediately after the deployment and integration of the systems. The evidence reveals that performance kept improving for the following 12 months at an impressive learning rate of 63 percent. Moreover, the reported satisfaction level after installation was higher among referring physicians who actively used the full spectrum of technological functionalities at their own clinics or at the hospital's site. Finally, we present a general framework for capturing the actual tangible and intangible benefits of enterprise information systems installation and integration in a clinical context.
Theory of Decaying States

This paper constructs a special perturbation theory which directly describes the alteration of decaying states by an external perturbation. The complex energies of the decaying states appear in this theory. When lifetime effects are taken into account, we find that the criteria for quantum degeneracy are slightly strengthened and sharpened. We also discuss the smooth merger of the properties of decaying states and those of true eigenstates in the case of long lifetimes.
A quality function deployment method applied to highly reusable space transportation

This paper will describe a Quality Function Deployment (QFD) currently in work the goal of which is to add definition and insight to the development of long term Highly Reusable Space Transportation (HRST). The objective here is twofold. First, to describe the process, the actual QFD experience as applies to the HRST study. Second, to describe the preliminary results of this process, in particular the assessment of possible directions for future pursuit such as promising candidate technologies or approaches that may finally open the space frontier. The iterative and synergistic nature of QFD provides opportunities in the process for the discovery of what is key in so far as it is useful, what is not, and what is merely true. Key observations on the QFD process will be presented. The importance of a customer definition as well as the similarity of the process of developing a technology portfolio to product development will be shown. Also, the relation of identified cost and operating drivers to future space vehicle designs that are robust to an uncertain future will be discussed. The results in particular of this HRST evaluation will be preliminary given the somewhat long term (or perhaps not?) nature of the task being considered.
Semiclassical Perturbation Theory of Molecular Collisions. III. Graphical Angular Momentum Methods and the nth Order

A review of graphical angular momentum methods is presented. As an example, the graphical methods are applied to the coupling problem in the semiclassical first and second Born approximations with an electric multipole potential. The general nth‐order Born term is then considered. A simple expression is derived for the matrix elements of the anisotropic terms in the potential. The evaluation of the remaining integrals over time is discussed.
How to make a cardiomyocyte

During development, cardiogenesis is orchestrated by a family of heart progenitors that build distinct regions of the heart. Each region contains diverse cell types that assemble to form the complex structures of the individual cardiac compartments. Cardiomyocytes are the main cell type found in the heart and ensure contraction of the chambers and efficient blood flow throughout the body. Injury to the cardiac muscle often leads to heart failure due to the loss of a large number of cardiomyocytes and its limited intrinsic capacity to regenerate the damaged tissue, making it one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In this Primer we discuss how insights into the molecular and cellular framework underlying cardiac development can be used to guide the in vitro specification of cardiomyocytes, whether by directed differentiation of pluripotent stem cells or via direct lineage conversion. Additional strategies to generate cardiomyocytes in situ, such as reactivation of endogenous cardiac progenitors and induction of cardiomyocyte proliferation, will also be discussed.
Acoustic Energy Harvesting Using Quarter-Wavelength Straight-Tube Resonator

Although there have been significant efforts in harvesting environmental energy, our environment is still full of wasted and unused energy. As clean, ubiquitous and sustainable energy source, acoustic energy is one of the wasted energies and is abundant in our life. Therefore, it is of great interest to investigate acoustic energy harvesting mechanism as an alternative to existing energy harvesters. In this study, in order to harvest acoustic energy, piezoelectric cantilever beams are placed inside a quarter-wavelength straight-tube resonator. When the straight-tube resonator is excited by an incident wave at its acoustic eigenfrequency, an amplified acoustic resonant wave is developed inside the tube and drives the vibration motion of the piezoelectric beams. The piezoelectric beams have been designed to have the same structural eigenfrequency as the acoustic eigenfrequency of the tube resonators to maximize the amount of the harvested energy. With a single beam placed inside the tube resonators, the harvested voltage and power become the maximum near the tube open inlet where the acoustic pressure gradient is at the maximum. As the beam is moved to the tube closed end, the voltage and power gradually decrease due to the decreased acoustic pressure gradient. Multiple piezoelectric beams have been placed along the centerline of the tube resonators in order to increase the amount of harvested energy. Due to the interruption of acoustic air particle motion caused by the beams, it is found that placing piezoelectric beams near the closed tube end is not beneficial. The output voltage of the piezoelectric beams increases linearly as the incident sound pressure increases.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
The role of biotin in carbohydrate metabolism of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract The investigations of the effect of biotin deficiency upon carbohydrate metabolism by washed cell suspensions of Saccharomyces cerevisiae 139 show that biotin stimulates the rate of fermentation and oxidation of carbohydrates by deficient cells. Aspartic acid partially replaces biotin in stimulating the rate of fermentation and oxidation of glucose by biotin-deficient yeast. Biotin or biotin plus aspartic acid elicits a greater response than aspartic alone in the stimulation of glucose metabolism by yeast, suggesting roles for biotin in both fermentation and oxidation other than its role in the metabolism of aspartic acid. The rate of adaptation of biotin-deficient cell suspensions of S. cerevisiae to sucrose fermentation is much more rapid in the presence of biotin, suggesting that this vitamin is concerned in the synthesis of the adaptive enzymes necessary for fermentation of this sugar. It has been found that cell-free extracts with high fermentative ability can be obtained if the synthetic medium is supplemented with 0.5% casein hydrolyzate.
Rarefied aerodynamics and upper atmosphere density from multiple orbiter flight measurements

Flight data from six flights of the experimental High Resolution Accelerometer Package (HIRAP), a micro-g accelerometer system, have been analyzed to produce rarefied flow aerodynamic coefficients of the Orbiter and freestream density in the altitude range from 60 km to 160 km. The direct measurements of the lift to drag ratio (L/D) are used to obtain individual normalized body-axis force coefficients in a least-squares regression scheme. An aerodynamics model based on an exponential function of Knudsen number is used for the individual coefficients. The calculated L/D from the flight determined coefficients agree with the multiple flight data measurements to within about 5 percent. Simultaneously, an upper altitude density variation is also obtained from the data. Density altitude profiles exhibit a wave feature on all flights. The wave has an amplitude of about + or - 25 percent relative to the 1962 Standard atmosphere model.
Atrial induction of ventricular tachycardia: Reentry versus triggered automaticity

Atrial stimulation induced a sustained ventricular tachycardia in two patients with mitral valve prolapse and in one patient who had mild hypertension without cardiac abnormalities. Exercise-induced sinus tachycardia also started the ventricular tachycardia in one patient. Evidence is presented to suggest that the mechanism of ventricular tachycardia in one patient was reentrant excitation and in another patient triggered automaticity. It is likely that the origin of the ventricular tachycardia was confined to a relatively protected small area near the posteroinferior portion of the left ventricle and was not due to macroreentry.
Lithium toxicity in plants

Abstract The toxicity of Li to three plant species was studied to determine if there were interactions with other elements and to determine if a chelating agent modified Li toxicity. Bush beans (Phaseolus vulgarls L. C.V. Improved Tendergreen), grown in solution culture, were sensitive to 0.5 X10‐3Li which resulted in 10 μg/g in leaves, 48 in stems, and 24 in roots. Higher concentrations of Li produced marked reductions in plant yield accompanied by increased Li concentrations in leaf, stem, and root tissues. For most treatments, root concentrations of Li were lower than those in shoots, but those in stems were higher than those in leaves. Higher levels of Li decreased Zn in leaves, increased Ca in stems, and generally increased Fe and Mn in all plant tissues. Ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) resulted in slightly increased Ii levels in leaves, stems, and roots. Bush bean plants were injured slightly with 25 μg Li/g of Yolo loam soil applied as LiCl; 50 μg Li/g soil caused more severe injury. Leaf c...