cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Housing, ease of handling and minimising inter-pig aggression at mixing for nursery to finishing pigs as reported in a survey of North American pork producers

Abstract Inter-pig aggression is a welfare issue that has undergone extensive research. Although management techniques have proven useful in minimising aggression in research settings, it is not known how often these are used on-farm. One objective of an online survey of North American pork producers was to learn about the housing, ease of handling, and management of nursery to finishing pigs, including what techniques were used to minimise aggression, how useful they were perceived to be and what were potential barriers to their use. Respondents were given a list of techniques to select which ones they used, and indicate how useful they perceived them to be on a five-point scale (‘very useful’ to ‘not useful at all’). A step-wise binomial logistic regression was used to analyse the association between other factors and whether or not respondents reported that at least one technique was used. Respondents (n = 298), had nursery (11,604 ± 4032, range: 1–950,000) and/or finishing pigs (18,999 ± 5789, range: 2–1,500,000), or did not currently have pigs but answered the questions, at the time the survey was completed. Some had pigs of both stages (n = 181), and some had just nursery (n = 24), or finishing (n = 89) pigs. When asked if they regularly re-grouped unfamiliar pigs, 36% of all respondents selected yes (33% at nursery, 25% at finishing). Of all respondents, 53% reported using at least one technique to minimise re-grouping aggression. Techniques reported from most to least useful included: pre-weaning piglet socialisation (n = 19), using mixed weight pens (n = 9), night-time mixing (n = 50), mixing all pigs to a new pen (n = 108), barriers (n = 25), using specific mixing pens (n = 21), odour masking agents (n = 38), pre-exposure in a neighbouring pen (n = 45), and enrichment devices (n = 41). After stepwise selection, the best regression model for predicting the odds of using at least one technique included the factor pig stage (nursery, finisher, or both), as farms specialising in either nursery (P
Bismarck and the Secret Uses of the Guelph Fund

Bismarck’s policy against the Guelphs was not only successful in his struggle against the royal family and in winning the allegiance of a large majority of the Hanoverian population, but the situation also allowed him to come into possession of a fortune which he used against Guelph particularism as well as to strengthen the Reich against other anti-national forces. In this sense the Guelph affair affected many more aspects of political life than were ever dreamed of in 1869 when the sequestration order went into effect, for it demonstrated the manner in which Bismarck utilized the opportunities afforded him in a given situation to the advantage of his overall policy.
Motion-based autonomous grounding: inferring external world properties from encoded internal sensory states alone

How can we build artificial agents that can autonomously explore and understand their environments? An immediate requirement for such an agent is to learn how its own sensory state corresponds to the external world properties: It needs to learn the semantics of its internal state (i.e., grounding). In principle, we as programmers can provide the agents with the required semantics, but this will compromise the autonomy of the agent. To overcome this problem, we may fall back on natural agents and see how they acquire meaning of their own sensory states, their neural firing patterns. We can learn a lot about what certain neural spikes mean by carefully controlling the input stimulus while observing how the neurons fire. However, neurons embedded in the brain do not have direct access to the outside stimuli, so such a stimulus-to-spike association may not be learnable at all. How then can the brain solve this problem? (We know it does.) We propose that motor interaction with the environment is necessary to overcome this conundrum. Further, we provide a simple yet powerful criterion, sensory invariance, for learning the meaning of sensory states. The basic idea is that a particular form of action sequence that maintains invariance of a sensory state will express the key property of the environmental stimulus that gave rise to the sensory state. Our experiments with a sensorimotor agent trained on natural images show that sensory invariance can indeed serve as a powerful objective for semantic grounding.
The effect of chronic corneal epithelial debridement on epithelial and stromal morphology in dogs.

PURPOSE. To determine the effect of chronic corneal epithelial debridement on epithelial and stromal morphology and extracellular matrix components, and to compare those changes to those in spontaneous chronic corneal epithelial defects (SCCED) in dogs. METHODS. Axial corneal epithelial wounds, 10 mm in diameter, were created weekly for 8 weeks in five normal adult laboratory beagles. Slit lamp biomicroscopy and corneal pachymetry were performed weekly before wounding. Three days after the last debridement the dogs were killed humanely, and corneas were processed for light and electron microscopy and immunohistochemistry for collagen IV, collagen VII, fibronectin, and laminin. RESULTS. No significant changes in corneal thickness were found. All samples demonstrated epithelial dysmaturation adjacent to the wound edge, and, in four of five, a narrow zone of nonadherent epithelium formed adjacent to the exposed stroma. All samples had a stromal acellular zone in the area of the defect and continuing for a short distance under the adjacent attached epithelium. Experimentally wounded dogs did not form the superficial hyaline acellular lamina found in 92% of dogs with SCCED. Laminin, collagen IV, and fibronectin were present on the stromal surface in all samples, and collagen VII was present in four of five samples. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) demonstrated the presence of basement membrane on the surface of the exposed stroma. CONCLUSIONS. Epithelial changes are similar between experimentally wounded dogs and dogs with SCCED. The stromal acellular zone that forms in experimentally wounded dogs is distinct from the hyaline lamina observed in dogs with SCCED. The difference in the acellular stromal layers between chronically wounded dogs and dogs with SCCED may be of relevance to our understanding of the pathophysiology of persistent epithelial defects.
Development of bile acid biogenesis and its significance in cholesterol homeostasis.

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the development of bile acid biogenesis and its significance in cholesterol homeostasis. Epidemiological studies have indicated that cholesterol is a major risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis. Therefore, studies of the development of a cholesterol homeostatic mechanism and potential means of modulating this process in an effort to improve the handling of cholesterol in adult life are of interest. Because bile acid synthesis is the major pathway of cholesterol degradation and elimination from the body, knowledge about the development of the bile acid synthetic process in early life and factors affecting its course are critical. Bile acid synthesis is fairly underdeveloped at birth in most mammals and more investigations regarding the various pathways of bile acid synthesis in fetal and neonatal life are desired. The significance of the atypical bile acid noted in meconium is not clear, and more studies on the effect of maternal factors in influencing fetal and neonatal bile acid synthesis are needed. Evidence is accumulating to suggest that manipulation of the bile acid biosynthesis pathway in early life maybe beneficial in improving the handling of cholesterol in adult life.
Productive uses of nostalgia in contemporary Slovak fiction: Veronika Šikulová’s and Maroš Krajňak’s experiments with generational memory

This essay examines fictional uses of generational memory and life writing in Veronika Sikulova’s Miesta v sieti (Dwellings in the web) and Maros Krajňak’s Carpathia and argues that the representat...
Deep chronic microvascular white matter ischemic change as an independent predictor of acute brain infarction after thoracic aortic replacement

Background Postoperative brain injury is a cause of mortality and morbidity in patients who undergo thoracic aortic replacement. Chronic microvascular white matter ischemic change (WMIC) has been shown to be associated with acute brain infarction in the general population. WMIC has also been shown to be an independent predictor of non-focal neurocognitive changes, generalized seizures, and temporary neurologic dysfunction in patients who undergo thoracic aortic replacement. The aim of this study is to determine if WMIC is a risk factor for acute brain infarction in patients who undergo thoracic aortic replacement. Methods A case-control study of patients who underwent thoracic aortic replacement between 2001 and 2014 were reviewed for neurological changes after surgery and acute brain infarction on postoperative diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Patients with neurological changes were matched with control patients who underwent thoracic aortic replacement and had postoperative neurological symptoms without acute brain infarctions. Acute infarction was re-assessed by reviewing DWI sequences on postoperative MRI. WMIC was assessed on FLAIR and T2WI sequences on both preoperative and postoperative MRI. Logistic regression was performed assessing the relationship of WMIC and acute ischemic infarction. Results 5171 patients underwent thoracic aortic replacement; 179 had postoperative neurological changes, and of those 53 patients had acute brain infarction on postoperative DWI. Patients with deep WMIC were more likely to have acute DWI infarctions after thoracic aortic replacement (P = 0.023). Conclusion Our matched retrospective case-controlled study shows deep WMIC to be a predictor of acute brain infarction on DWI after thoracic aortic replacement.
Pattern of Use and Outcomes with Donor Lymphocyte Infusion (DLI) and Unmanipulated Stem Cell Boost (SCB) after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant (HSCT): A Single-Center Experience

Introduction Relapse and graft failure continue to be 2 major problems after allogeneic HSCT. DLI and/or SCB are capable of inducing complete remission in relapsed disease. However, DLI and SCB are associated with significant risks such as graft versus host disease (GVHD) or aplasia. There is a paucity of information regarding DLI/SCB safety, efficacy and toxicity. A better understanding of the risks and benefits of DLI/SCB after HSCT is an important unmet need. Objectives Our objectives are to provide descriptive characteristics of patients receiving DLI or SCB and information regarding the provided cell therapy (CD3+ and/or CD34+ cell dose). We also aim to evaluate relapses, donor chimerism, graft failure, GVHD, DFS and OS after cellular therapy. Methods Retrospective chart review was completed on all patients who received either DLI or SCB at University of Maryland from 2005-2018. Data were analyzed using SPSS v.25.0, SAS v9.4, and R-software v3.5.1. Continuous variables were summarized as median (range), and categorical variables were presented using frequencies (%). Qualitative and quantitative differences between groups were analyzed by the chi-square and the Fisher's exact test for categorical and the Mann Whitney test for continuous variables. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the OS and GVHD-free survival with the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI); the log-rank test was used to compare the survival probabilities for different patients' groups. Results A total of 65 patients underwent either DLI or SCB from 2005-2018. Of these, 38 received DLI, and 27 received SCB. Relapsed disease was the most common indication in 78.9% and 61.5% of DLI and SCB, respectively. The average CD3+/kg dose was 5.6 × 10^6 for DLI and 9 × 10^7 for SCB. Average CD34+/kg dose was 3.8 × 10^6 for SCB patients. One-year OS rate was 54.2% for DLI and 37.5% for SCB. Two-year OS rate of OS was 50.3% for DLI and 26.8% for SCB. Remission rates from relapsed disease were 43.4% for DLI and 31.3% for SCB. One-year GVHD-free survival following cell therapy was 51.2% for DLI and 34.4% for SCB. This dropped to 35.3% for DLI and 24.6% for SCB at two years. The differences seen in OS and GVHD between the 2 cohorts were not statistically significant. Conclusion Our overall survival data is favorable compared to recently published data. However, this comes at the expense of GVHD with long-term rates of GVHD-free survival measuring 25-35%. The use of unmanipulated cryopreserved SCB for relapse disease is underreported in the literature. We observed comparable long-term survival and GVHD in both cohorts. Cellular therapy with DLI or SCB remains a viable treatment modality with reasonable long-term outcomes for relapsed/refractory hematologic malignancies after allogeneic HSCT.
Molecular Profiling of Ulcerative Colitis Subjects from the TURANDOT Trial Reveals Novel Pharmacodynamic/Efficacy Biomarkers.

Background and aims To define pharmacodynamic and efficacy biomarkers in ulcerative colitis [UC] patients treated with PF-00547659, an anti-human mucosal addressin cell adhesion molecule-1 [MAdCAM-1] monoclonal antibody, in the TURANDOT study. Methods Transcriptome, proteome and immunohistochemistry data were generated in peripheral blood and intestinal biopsies from 357 subjects in the TURANDOT study. Results In peripheral blood, C-C motif chemokine receptor 9 [CCR9] gene expression demonstrated a dose-dependent increase relative to placebo, but in inflamed intestinal biopsies CCR9 gene expression decreased with increasing PF-00547659 dose. Statistical models incorporating the full RNA transcriptome in inflamed intestinal biopsies showed significant ability to assess response and remission status. Oncostatin M [OSM] gene expression in inflamed intestinal biopsies demonstrated significant associations with, and good accuracy for, efficacy, and this observation was confirmed in independent published studies in which UC patients were treated with infliximab or vedolizumab. Compared with the placebo group, intestinal T-regulatory cells demonstrated a significant increase in the intermediate 22.5-mg dose cohort, but not in the 225-mg cohort. Conclusions CCR9 and OSM are implicated as novel pharmacodynamic and efficacy biomarkers. These findings occur amid coordinated transcriptional changes that enable the definition of surrogate efficacy biomarkers based on inflamed biopsy or blood transcriptomics data.ClinicalTrials.gov identifierNCT01620255.
Chinese women's rhetorical agency in reproduction and social media

This research examines twenty pregnant women's and new mothers' posts on the 2017/2018 number-one childbirth and parenting app in China, named Baby Tree, to see how these women have written their embodied experience of pregnancy and mothering into the online narratives and stories. This study also examines how women respond to China's dominant and hegemonic healthcare and medical discourse and practice while simultaneously asserting their rhetorical agency politically and economically through online writing.
Pelvic Inflammatory Diseases

Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) encompasses infections of the uterus (endometritis or myometritis), fallopian tubes (salpingitis), ovaries (oophoritis), broad ligaments (parametritis), and pelvic peritoneum (peritonitis). PID accounts for up to 2.5 million outpatient visits and 350,000 emergency department visits per year for women. It is the leading cause for hospital admissions among women of reproductive age, though its incidence is decreasing due to more aggressive screening for chlamydial infections. PID is a polymicrobial disorder that results from disruption of the normal bacterial flora of the vagina and cervix, including Streptococcus agalactiae, gram-negative cocci, and anaerobes. The two initiating pathogens are Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis.
Chapter 15 – Oligopoly

Oligopoly behavior is defined and the elements of game theory required to study standard oligopoly behaviors are introduced. The homogeneous products Cournot and Bertrand behavioral postulates are presented. Sequential behavior is introduced via the Stackelberg quantity interaction and the dominant firm/competitive fringe price leadership. Then product differentiation is introduced, first using a representative consumer horizontal demand structure and then using a spatial horizontal demand structure. The chapter concludes with an introduction to vertical product differentiation.
COSMOS Smart Intersection: Edge Compute and Communications for Bird's Eye Object Tracking

Smart-city intersections will play a crucial role in automated traffic management and improvement in pedestrian safety in cities of the future. They will (i) aggregate data from in-vehicle and infrastructure sensors; (ii) process the data by taking advantage of low-latency high-bandwidth communications, edge-cloud computing, and AI-based detection and tracking of objects; and (iii) provide intelligent feedback and input to control systems. The Cloud Enhanced Open Software Defined Mobile Wireless Testbed for City-Scale Deployment (COSMOS) enables research on technologies supporting smart cities. In this paper, we provide results of experiments using bird's eye cameras to detect and track vehicles and pedestrians from the COSMOS pilot site. We assess the capabilities for real-time computation, and detection and tracking accuracy - by evaluating and customizing a selection of video pre-processing and deep-learning algorithms. Distinct issues that are associated with the difference in scale for bird's eye view of pedestrians vs. cars are explored and addressed: the best multiple-object tracking accuracies (MOTA) for cars are around 73.2, and around 2.8 for pedestrians. The real-time goal of 30 frames-per-second - i.e., a total of 33.3 ms of latency for object detection for vehicles will be reachable once the processing time is improved roughly by a factor of three.
Palliative care education and research at US cancer centers: A national survey

BACKGROUND Palliative care (PC) education and research are essential to developing a skilled workforce and evidence base to support the delivery of quality cancer care. The current state of PC education and research at US cancer centers is unclear. In this national survey, the education and research programs of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated and nondesignated cancer centers and the changes between 2009 and 2018 are compared. METHODS Between April and August 2018, PC program leaders at all NCI-designated cancer centers and a random sample of nondesignated centers were sent a survey to examine the structure, processes, and outcomes of their programs on the basis of questions from a 2009 national survey. This preplanned analysis focused on education and research. RESULTS There were 52 of 61 (85%) NCI-designated and 27 of 38 (71%) nondesignated cancer centers that responded. NCI-designated centers were more likely than nondesignated centers to have a PC fellowship program (87% vs 30%; P < .001), training for advanced practice providers (71% vs 44%; P = .03), PC research program (58% vs 15%; P < .001), peer-reviewed funding (43% vs 11%; P = .005), and philanthropic grants (41% vs 7%; P = .002). There were few significant improvements in PC education or research between 2009 and 2018 for both groups, notable exceptions include an increase in PC fellowships (38% vs 87%; P < .001) and mandatory PC rotations for medical oncology fellows (29% vs 55%; P = .02) at NCI-designated cancer centers. CONCLUSIONS PC education and research are more developed at NCI-designated cancer centers. Despite some progress over the past decade, it is relatively slow and suboptimal.
The Statewide Epidemiology of Mucormycosis Among Trauma Patients in Florida.

ObjectivesMucormycosis is a rare angioinvasive infection caused by filamentous fungi with a high lethality among the immunocompromised. In healthy people, the innate immune system is sufficient to ...
Trifluoromethyl peroxygen compounds: a personal review and perspective

Abstract Trifluoromethyl peroxygen compounds are, in general, the most thermally stable examples of fluorinated peroxygen derivatives. In numerous cases, only the trifluoromethyl derivative is known. This chapter describes the synthesis and chemistry of some CF3OO– containing compounds. In addition, some other unusual fluorinated peroxides are included.
ASS1igning purine dependency to cancer

The urea cycle enzyme argininosuccinate synthase 1 (ASS1) is upregulated in some cancer types. A study now shows that tumor cells with elevated urea cycle activity due to high ASS1 expression enhance gluconeogenesis, enabling a metabolic shift toward serine synthesis and causing purine synthesis addiction for growth and proliferation.
Not Just Service Attendance: Associations of Religious Community Social Connections with Alcohol Use among Black Adults Header: Religious Community Social Connections and Alcohol Use among Black Adults.

Background: Religious involvement is a well-documented protective factor against alcohol use among Black adults, but the extent to which social connections to the religious community can explain those effects remains largely unknown. The current study was designed to capture contributions of religious community support and demands - independent of religious service attendance - to alcohol use among three age cohorts of Black adults. Methods: Data were drawn from 18- to 65-year-old Black participants in the National Survey of American Life (n = 4,462; 29.4% Afro Caribbean, 70.6% African American; 63.20% female). Ordinal logistic regression analyses, conducted separately for each age cohort (18-29, 30-44, and 45-65), were used to model frequency of alcohol use as a function of religious community support and demands in two stages: (1) prior to and (2) after accounting for religious service attendance. Results: Religious community support accounted for differences in alcohol use frequency over and above religious service attendance (in Stage 2 models) for adults aged 30-44 (OR = 0.85, CI: 0.74-0.96) and 45-65 (OR = 0.77, CI: 0.64-0.93) but not 18-29 (OR = 0.85, CI: 0.71-1.03). The association of religious community demands with alcohol use frequency was specific to the age 30-44 cohort in both stage models (Stage 2: OR = 1.33, CI: 1.06-1.68). Conclusions: Study findings suggest that in addition to attending religious services regularly, developing supportive social connections to the religious community may reduce risk for frequent drinking among Black adults, particularly during middle adulthood, when demands from the religious community may increase risk.
Hardness of dense beta-Si3N4

The effects of small changes in the concentration of an oxygen content densification aid on the room temperature microhardness of hot isostatically pressed and sintered beta-Si3N4 ceramics are studied. The compositions studied were Si3N4 containing 7 wt. pct BeSiN2, a fixed nonoxide densification aid, and 1.9-3.7 wt. pct oxygen as a second, variable densification aid. A proportional relationship between high density and high oxygen content, regardless of heat treatment type, is noted.
Tidal Disruption Rates from Two-Body Relaxation

In this chapter, we review the standard TDE rate calculation in greater detail than was covered in the introduction. This is meant to provide context for the following two chapters of this thesis, which cover original work on ways in which tidal disruption rates are affected by SMBH recoil.
Studies of the Single Pulser in Various Reasoning Systems

The single pulser is a clocked sequential device which generates a unit-time pulse on its output for every pulse on its input. This paper explores how a single-pulser implementation is verified by various formal reasoning tools, including the PVS theorem prover for higher-order logic, the SMV model checker for computation tree logic, the DDD design derivation system, and the Oct Tools design environment. By fixing a single, simple example, the study attempts to contrast how the underlying formalisms influence one's perspective on design and verification.
Wegener's Granulomatosis in the Pediatric Age Group

Six cases of Wegener9s granulomatosis (WG) occurring in patients younger than 21 years are described. Only 11 other cases in the pediatric age group have been reported, and all 17 of these patients had the onset of the disease during the second decade of life. Wegener9s granulomatosis is a systemic disease characterized by a clinical triad of paranasal sinus and nasal mucosa involvement, pulmonary infiltration and cavitation, and renal disease with hematuria. The most common presenting symptoms are malaise and fever, sinusitis, epistaxis, and hematuria. Most patients have roentgenographic evidence of pulmonary and sinus disease and laboratory evidence of renal involvement on initial evaluation. The prognosis of WG was formerly dismal; more than 90% of patients died in less than two years, but with recent therapeutic regimens, more than 50% of these patients are surviving. The treatment we recommend consists of nitrogen mustard with adrenocorticotropic hormone or prednisone for the induction of remission, followed by cyclophosphamide and prednisone as maintenance drugs. This regimen has proved effective in inducing a remission in four of four patients.
On Stabilizing the Strongly Nonlinear Internal Wave Model

A strongly nonlinear asymptotic model describing the evolution of large amplitude internal waves in a two-layer system is studied numerically. While the steady model has been demonstrated to capture correctly the characteristics of large amplitude internal solitary waves, a local stability analysis shows that the time-dependent inviscid model suffers from the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability due to a tangential velocity discontinuity across the interface accompanied by the interfacial deformation. An attempt to represent the viscous effect that is missing in the model is made with eddy viscosity, but this simple ad hoc model is shown to fail to suppress unstable short waves. Alternatively, when a smooth low-pass Fourier filter is applied, it is found that a large amplitude internal solitary wave propagates stably without change of form, and mass and energy are conserved well. The head-on collision of two counter-propagating solitary waves is studied using the filtered strongly nonlinear model and its numerical solution is compared with the weakly nonlinear asymptotic solution.
Is the Bioterrorism Act a Barrier to Developing Country Seafood Exporters

The United States is one of the largest seafood importers in the world and most of the seafood that is consumed is imported. More strict food safety regulations, such as mandatory HACCP in 1997 and the Bioterrorism Act in 2002, have been established to ensure the safety of products. This has led to debates about the role of food safety regulations acting as technical barriers for developing countries. The HACCP and Bioterrorism Act are used in this study to represent the implementation of stricter food safety regulations to the U.S seafood trade flow. A fixed effects gravity model is used to analyze the panel data of 30 developed and developing exporting from 1992 to 2006. Nineteen of these countries are developing, while 11 countries are developed. Not surprisingly we find the impact on US imports to be positive for the exporting country’s GDP, its export volume, and its membership in regional trade agreements; and negative for distance and time. The results show negative, but statistically insignificant, effects of HACCP and the Bioterrorism Act overall. We reject the hypothesis that these regulations act as de facto barriers to trade and suggest that food safety regulations may not affect the seafood imports to the U.S as a whole.Analyzing developed and developing countries separately reveals negative effects of HACCP and Bioterrorism for developing countries as a group and positive effects for developed countries as a group. However, since the estimates from this analysis are not statistically significant, we must reject the hypothesis that food safety regulations act as technical barriers to impede trade for developing countries.The results from country-level estimates are quite varied. Both developed and developing countries are found with both positive and negative coefficients for HACCP and Bioterrorism with most of them being insignificant. However, we find significant positive estimates for three developed countries and both positive and negative effects among developing countries. These significantly different effects among countries may support the view of food safety regulations as technical barriers for certain countries.Since exporting countries have different levels of market share and different abilities to comply with food safety requirements, the impacts from food safety regulation are different among countries. For example, large exporting countries may have little impact from stricter food safety regulations or even gain from regulations while small exporting countries may face negative impacts. It appears that the role of food safety regulations may be better analyzed on an individual country basis rather than as a group.Our study tended to confirm previous results that found food safety regulations could be either a barrier to trade or a catalyst by enhancing the quality of products and export performance.
Refined repetitive sequence searches utilizing a fast hash function and cross species information retrievals

Searching for small tandem/disperse repetitive DNA sequences streamlines many biomedical research processes. For instance, whole genomic array analysis in yeast has revealed 22 PHO-regulated genes. The promoter regions of all but one of them contain at least one of the two core Pho4p binding sites, CACGTG and CACGTT. In humans, microsatellites play a role in a number of rare neurodegenerative diseases such as spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1). SCA1 is a hereditary neurodegenerative disease caused by an expanded CAG repeat in the coding sequence of the gene. In bacterial pathogens, microsatellites are proposed to regulate expression of some virulence factors. For example, bacteria commonly generate intra-strain diversity through phase variation which is strongly associated with virulence determinants. A recent analysis of the complete sequences of the Helicobacter pylori strains 26695 and J99 has identified 46 putative phase-variable genes among the two genomes through their association with homopolymeric tracts and dinucleotide repeats. Life scientists are increasingly interested in studying the function of small sequences of DNA. However, current search algorithms often generate thousands of matches – most of which are irrelevant to the researcher. We present our hash function as well as our search algorithm to locate small sequences of DNA within multiple genomes. Our system applies information retrieval algorithms to discover knowledge of cross-species conservation of repeat sequences. We discuss our incorporation of the Gene Ontology (GO) database into these algorithms. We conduct an exhaustive time analysis of our system for various repetitive sequence lengths. For instance, a search for eight bases of sequence within 3.224 GBases on 49 different chromosomes takes 1.147 seconds on average. To illustrate the relevance of the search results, we conduct a search with and without added annotation terms for the yeast Pho4p binding sites, CACGTG and CACGTT. Also, a cross-species search is presented to illustrate how potential hidden correlations in genomic data can be quickly discerned. The findings in one species are used as a catalyst to discover something new in another species. These experiments also demonstrate that our system performs well while searching multiple genomes – without the main memory constraints present in other systems. We present a time-efficient algorithm to locate small segments of DNA and concurrently to search the annotation data accompanying the sequence. Genome-wide searches for short sequences often return hundreds of hits. Our experiments show that subsequently searching the annotation data can refine and focus the results for the user. Our algorithms are also space-efficient in terms of main memory requirements. Source code is available upon request.
Assessing Legal Risk

It is one thing to make critical decisions by rumor and innuendo, and quite another to rely on data and analysis. The article by Goldenbaum et al. provides the data required to begin to reasonably assess the statistical risk that a physician's clinical practice will trigger prosecution by a state medical board or the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The study concludes that physicians, including pain specialists, “have little objective cause for concern” about prosecution or disciplinary action, echoing the DEA's own infamous statement in its “The Myth of the ‘Chilling Effect’ ”[1]. The evidence-based approach in this study may lay to rest the persistent notion that legal risk makes good doctors neglect their patients who need effective medications that happen to be controlled substances. It should remove one of the obstacles that is believed to impede doctors in providing adequate care to their patients, and thus improve the care, health, and well-being of patients in pain. Nevertheless, it may be that no …
Acute anti‐inflammatory approaches to ischemic stroke

In preparation for designing and undertaking trials of strategies that can modulate “innate inflammation” to improve outcomes of ischemic injury, consideration of approaches that have managed cellular inflammation in ischemic stroke are instructive. Robust experimental work has demonstrated the efficacy (and apparent safety) of targeting PMN leukocyte–endothelial cell interactions in the early moments following focal ischemia onset in model systems. Four clinical trial programs were undertaken to assess the safety and efficacy of inhibitors to PMN leukocyte interactions with the endothelial cell during ischemic stroke. Experiences in those clinical trial programs indicate specific limitations that halted progress in this line of investigation before an adequate hypothesis test could be achieved. Although innate inflammation is a central part of injury evolution following focal ischemia, great care in the translation from experimental studies to Phase I/II clinical safety assessments and to the design and conduct of Phase III trials is needed.
Efficiency Motives and Normative Forces: Combining Transactions Costs and Institutional Logic:

This paper provides a synthesis of transaction cost economics and institutional theory. It reviews each of these approaches and provides suggestions on how these perspectives might be broadened via this synthesis. It presents an illustrative model of organization theorizing that combines relevant aspects of transaction cost theory and institutional theory in order to strengthen the explanatory power of both. The model explores conditions under which one or both theories may be most appropriate in explaining decision behavior, focusing on two important situational factors--the degree of ambiguity surrounding transaction cost analyses and the organization’s temporal survival orientation.
Evaluating a Measure of Social Health Derived from Two Mental Health Recovery Measures: The California Quality of Life (CA-QOL) and Mental Health Statistics Improvement Program Consumer Survey (MHSIP)

Social health is important to measure when assessing outcomes in community mental health. Our objective was to validate social health scales using items from two broader commonly used measures that assess mental health outcomes. Participants were 609 adults receiving psychological treatment services. Items were identified from the California Quality of Life (CA-QOL) and Mental Health Statistics Improvement Program (MHSIP) outcome measures by their conceptual correspondence with social health and compared to the Social Functioning Questionnaire (SFQ) using correlational analyses. Pearson correlations for the identified CA-QOL and MSHIP items with the SFQ ranged from .42 to .62, and the identified scale scores produced Pearson correlation coefficients of .56, .70, and, .70 with the SFQ. Concurrent validity with social health was supported for the identified scales. The current inclusion of these assessment tools allows community mental health programs to include social health in their assessments.
461 SUBTYPING OF HAEMOPHILUS INFLUENZAE TYPE B BY OUTER MEMBRANE PROTEIN PROFILES: APPLICATION IN DAY CARE CENTER OUTBREAKS

Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) may be subclassified into at least 11 different subtypes based on distinctive and stable outer membrane protein profiles as resolved by SDS-PAGE. We compared the subtypes of Hib isolates obtained from index patients, and their respective day care center (DCC) contacts, in 5 centers with 13 cases of invasive disease and 398 contacts. Subtyping was performed on 10 of the 13 isolates from index patients, and 67 of the 77 nasopharyngeal (NP) isolates from contacts. With one exception, invasive isolates from cases within the same center had homologous subtypes (the exception was in a DCC with 2 cases separated by 2 months). 55 of 67 NP isolates (82%) from contacts had subtypes homologous to their respective index isolates. Strains with heterologous subtypes probably represent background carriage (3.4% of all contacts). In the DCC with 2 cases caused by different strains, 23/67 contacts were colonized with the first strain, and 9/67 with the second strain. Carriage in many of the contacts persisted for 1-6 months, and in each child the subtype remained constant (up to 9 positive cultures). NP isolates from 4 household contacts of DCC carriers had homologous subtypes to those found in their respective DCC contacts. Subtyping of Hib by outer membrane protein profiles is an important epidemiologic tool, and provides a method for distinguishing between epidemic and nonepidemic Hib strains.
Hydrogen gas production of broiler chicks in response to soybean meal and alpha-galactoside free, ethanol-extracted soybean meal

In order to measure broiler chick hydrogen gas production, a sealed atmosphere chamber was constructed and chicks were intubated with soybean meal (SBM), alpha-galactoside free, ethanol-extracted soybean meal (ESBM), and ESBM with alpha-galactosides added to the levels of SBM (ESBMG). Six male broiler chicks averaging 156 g of weight were deprived of feed for 12 h prior to intubation with 6 g of the test soybean meals. Two chicks were used for each treatment. Following intubation, chicks were placed in the sealed atmosphere chamber for 20 min at 2-h intervals for 28 h. At the end of this 20-min period, a sample of the chamber atmosphere was collected with a gas-tight syringe and analyzed for hydrogen gas by gas-solid chromatography. The hydrogen production of the two chicks intubated with SBM peaked 7 h postintubation at 127 ppm. The ESBM produced a peak at approximately 17 h postintubation at 26 ppm. Intubation with ESBMG resulted in peak hydrogen production at approximately 12 h postintubation at an average of 67 ppm. Results indicate that chicks intubated with SBM produced 3.2 times the amount of total hydrogen gas than those chicks intubated with ESBM. Chicks intubated with ESBMG produced 2.2 times the amount of total hydrogen gas than chicks intubated with ESBM. The research indicates the alpha-galactoside oligosaccharides are a major cause of hydrogen gas production from SBM in poultry.
Pressure pain precedes development of type 2 disease in Zucker rat model of diabetes.

Abstract Decreased hind limb pressure pain threshold (PPT) is an early indicator of insulinopenia and neuropathy developing in STZ-rat models of type 1 diabetes and pre-diabetes. To test if pain on pressure is also a hallmark of compensated insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes in this work we measured PPT of Zucker lean (ZL), Zucker fatty (ZF) and Zucker fatty diabetic rats (ZDF; 8 animals per group). Using clinically accepted cut-off values for diagnosis of human diabetes and pre-diabetes, at 6th week of age (the study entry), all animals maintained random blood glucose within a normal range (
Evolution and the Kantian Worldview

Nonhuman animals seem to make inferences and have mental representations. Brandom articulates a Kantian (and Hegelian) account of representation that seems to make nonhuman mental content impossible: animals are merely sentient, not sapient. His position is problematic because it makes it impossible to understand how our cognitive capacities evolved. This essay discusses experimental and ethological work on transitive inference. It argues that to fit such evidence within the Kantian framework, there must be degrees of normativity. This invites us to understand the distinction between sapience and sentience as endpoints of a continuum, not as a dichotomy.
Reactivity of Electrochemically Generated Rhenium (II) Tricarbonyl α-Diimine Complexes: A Reinvestigation of the Oxidation of Luminescent Re(CO)3(α-Diimine)Cl and Related Compounds

The oxidative electrochemistry of luminescent rhenium (I) complexes of the type Re(CO)3(LL)Cl, 1, and Re(CO)3(LL)Br, 2, where LL is an α-diimine, was re-examined in acetonitrile. These compounds undergo metal-based one-electron oxidations, the products of which undergo rapid chemical reaction. Cyclic voltammetry results imply that the electrogenerated rhenium (II) species 1+ and 2+ disproportionate, yielding [Re(CO)3(LL)(CH3CN)]+, 7, and additional products. Double potential step chronocoulometry experiments confirm that 1+ and 2+ react via second-order processes and, furthermore, indicate that the rate of disproportionation is influenced by the basicity and steric requirements of the α-diimine ligands. The simultaneous generation of rhenium (I) and (III) carbonyl products was detected upon the bulk oxidation of 1 using infrared spectroelectrochemistry. The rhenium (III) products are assigned as [Re(CO)3(LL)Cl2]+, 5; an inner-sphere electron-transfer mechanism of the disproportionation is proposed on the ...
Microplitis demolitor polydnavirus infects and expresses in specific morphotypes of Pseudoplusia includens haemocytes.

Microplitis demolitor is a polydnavirus-carrying wasp that parasitizes the larval stage of Pseudoplusia includens. M. demolitor eggs are never encapsulated by host haemocytes when coinfected with its associated polydnavirus (MdPDV) whereas eggs are encapsulated within 36 h when injected into hosts without virus. In this study, infection of specific classes of P. includens haemocytes by MdPDV was examined. Electron microscopic studies indicated that MdPDV entered all haemocyte morphotypes. Northern blot analysis revealed that similar size classes of viral mRNAs were produced in granular cells, plasmatocytes and spherule cells. Expression of a 1.6 kb MdPDV mRNA in haemocytes from parasitized hosts was detectable by in situ hybridization at 2 h post-parasitism (p.p.) and continued through until day 6 p.p. By 12 h p.p., viral expression was detected in greater than 80% of the haemocytes in circulation but thereafter the percentage of haemocytes exhibiting a hybridization signal declined. Similar patterns were observed in haemocytes from larvae injected with calyx fluid or MdPDV plus venom. Granular cells and plasmatocytes from unparasitized larvae were purified on Percoll cushions and maintained in vitro. Both morphotypes were successfully infected with MdPDV and exhibited changes in morphology and adhesiveness very similar to cells from parasitized hosts. Cell-free plasma from parasitized larvae had a variable effect on haemocyte adhesion. Haemocytes cultured in plasma from 1 or 4 day p.p. larvae rapidly spread whereas cells cultured in 7 day p.p. plasma did not. Reciprocally, adhesion of haemocytes from parasitized larvae could not be rescued by cell-free plasma from unparasitized larvae. Together, these data suggest that disruption of the host encapsulation response is mediated primarily by direct infection of granular cells and plasmatocytes by MdPDV.
Mass transport in a Czochralski puller with a strong magnetic field

Abstract This paper treats the mass transport of oxygen in a Czochralski silicon crystal puller with an extremely strong, uniform, axial magnetic field. The problem is intrinsically unsteady and the oxygen concentration of a crystallizing particle depends on its trajectory since the beginning of crystal growth. The results provide the base solution for the mass transport problem with much weaker magnetic fields.
Measuring Speech Recognition in Children With Cochlear Implants in a Virtual Classroom

Purpose To determine the feasibility of using a virtual auditory test material to evaluate reverberation and noise effects on speech recognition of pediatric cochlear implant (CI) users and to comp...
Changes in yellow perch (Perca flavescens) growth associated with the establishment of a walleye (Stizostedion vitreum) population in Canadarago Lake, New York (USA)

Piscivorous fish can affect prey growth in two ways: directly by reducing prey density and indirectly by inducing predator-avoidance be- haviors. We investigated these two pathways in yellow perch (Perca fla- vescens) growth responses to walleye (Stizostedion vitreum) stocking in Canadarago Lake, New York (USA) using a 25-year time series. Before walleye stocking, yellow perch growth rate was low and independent of body size. As walleye abundance increased, yellow perch growth increased and became size-dependent. The switch to size-dependent growth oc- curred in 1 year, indicating a rapid behavioral response to predators.
Constraint Redundancy as a Determiner of Attribute- and Rule-Learning Aspects of Sequential Pattern Recognition

The purpose of this experiment was to assess the manner in which attribute-learning and rule-formation components of schema learning vary as a function of constraint redundancy magnitude. Twenty-four Ss participated in a pattern recognition task involving 70%, 50%, 40%, or 20% redundant Markov sequences sampled from three different schema families. Ss were required to work through the 90 sequences in a manner similar to that encountered in a probability learning paradigm. Results showed that decreasing magnitude of redundancy reduced the degree to which both attribute- and rule-learning occurred. The supposition that constraint redundancy is a necessary condition for and one of the main determiners of the schema-learning process was thus confirmed.
A systematic analysis of symmetric three-electrode electrostatic lenses

A thorough investigation of a class of axially symmetric three-electrode einzel lenses is given. The study is based on the analysis of axial potential distributions. Two different central/outer voltage ratios are examined. The spherical and chromatic aberration coefficients of a large class of lens models are calculated and plotted. For both voltage ratios general conclusions are drawn for the axial potential functions and electrode shapes that have small aberration coefficients. An electrostatic lens with small spherical aberration is given. General criteria are established for the design of symmetric three-electrode lenses.
Character Portrayal: Examining Gender Roles in Television Commercials Targeted at Children in India and the United States

ABSTRACT Children's market has been growing steadily not only in the United States but also globally. Advertisers have been targeting this segment heavily in recent years. Given the impact of this segment having increased rapidly in recent years, it is imperative for the advertisers to understand and develop effective advertising messages to reach this segment successfully. One of the essential components of advertisement content includes decisions regarding the gender portrayal of the characters. This study examines the depiction of self-presentation behaviors of the characters in commercials shown during the times and on the channels that children watch in India and the United States. The findings indicate interesting similarities and differences between the two countries. Managerial implications and future research directions are offered based on the findings.