cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Development of a Green Peach Aphid Natural Enemy Sampling Procedure

The relative diurnal and weekly abundance of the most common natural enemies of the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulzer, was determined in a potato field in 1977. Two sampling methods were also compared for use in sampling the natural enemies. Groundcloth samples were taken 4 times a day, twice weekly, for 7 wk during the growing season. A natural enemy sampling scheme was developed from the informatlon collected. Coleomegilla maculata (DeGeed adults (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) and coccinellid larvae were the most abundant green peach aphid natural enemies collected. Linear models significantly explained the relationship between counts for C. maculata adults and degree days, and between counts for coccinellid larvae and degree days. The 0900–1115 period was the least variable sampling period tested for sampling C. maculata adults according to the results of a chi-square analysis on the ranks of the diurnal means. The groundcloth sampling technique was chosen for use in future studies because it is an absolute and non-destructive sampling method, and because it more accurately estimated the size of the larval coccinellid population peak than the other method tested. The between samples variance was the largest component of the variation in the experiment according to a variance component analysis. Coccinellid larvae were aggregated on a stem on 3 of 4 sample dates near the larval population peak according to a chi-square analysis on the variance:mean ratios. C. maculata adults were aggregated on a stem on only the last sample date, when many mating pairs were observed.
Doctor-Patient Communication, Health Outcomes and Health Disparities

Effective communication between doctor and patient forms the foundation of high-quality medical care. The best physician is one who provides state-of-the-art pharmacological and technological interventions to the patient in the context of a working relationship marked by information exchange, acknowledgement that the patient's views of the illness and its optimal treatment may differ from the physician's, and negotiation toward the achievement of shared goals.
False-positive MRI detection of recurrent or metastatic pediatric infratentorial tumors.

Gadolinium-DTPA enhanced MRI is the modality of choice when imaging central nervous system infratentorial tumors in the pediatric population. The detection of a new enhancing lesion following initiation of therapy is typically considered pathognomonic for recurrent or metastatic tumor. We report two pediatric patients with infratentorial central nervous system tumors who demonstrated new areas of enhancement with gadolinium-DTPA enhanced MRI following initiation of multimodality therapy. Both patients had surgical biopsy of the new lesions with histologic review failing to demonstrate viable tumor. These studies suggest caution in considering new enhancing lesions detected by MRI in a child with a brain tumor pathognomonic for new sites of active tumor. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Gender and courtship entitlement: Responses to personal ads

Dating and courtship through personal advertisements have been studied only in an extremely limited fashion. Few researchers have sought information about the responses ad placers have received, and only one has placed a bogus ad in order to receive and examine responses. I placed ads in four personal columns in part to determine the relative importance of attractiveness and occupational/financial success in attracting potential dating partners. Men are far more influenced by looks and women, by success. So much is this the case that it is entirely possible that for some men, lower socioeconomic attributes among women are actually seen as desirable. Men are more likely to see dates with more desirable partners as their courtship entitlement; that is, they are more likely to put themselves forward as potential dates for my (fictive) ad placers when, an independent panel of judges determined, they would not be deemed sufficiently desirable partners for them. Moreover, men are more likely to be “minimalists” and “blitzers” in personals-generated courtship, that is, to put forth little effort, and to answer more than one ad. I suggest that a sense of inappropriate entitlement constitutes a form of role overreach — that is, is a feature of the masculine role that clashes with the gender role of women.
Does patient-centered care improve provision of preventive services?

OBJECTIVES: While patient-centered care (PCC) is desirable for many reasons, its relationship to treatment outcomes is controversial. We evaluated the relationship between PCC and the provision of preventive services. METHODS: We obtained facility-level estimates of how well each VA hospital provided PCC from the 1999 ambulatory Veterans Satisfaction Survey. PCC delivery was measured by the average percentage of responses per facility indicating satisfactory performance from items in 8 PCC domains: access, incorporating patient preferences, patient education, emotional support, visit coordination, overall coordination of care, continuity, and courtesy. Additional predictors included patient population and facility characteristics. Our outcome was a previously validated hospital-level benchmarking score describing facility-level performance across 12 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force-recommended interventions, using the 1999 Veterans Health Survey. RESULTS: Facility-level delivery of preventive services ranged from an overall mean of 90% compliance for influenza vaccinations to 18% for screening for seat belt use. Mean overall PCC scores ranged from excellent (>90% for the continuity of care and courtesy of care PCC domains) to modest ( 90% of care from a VA hospital. CONCLUSION: Improved communication between patients and providers, and continuity of care are associated with increased provision of preventive services, while other aspects of PCC are not strongly related to delivery of preventive services.
Isolation of ascorbic acid 2-sulfate from selected rat organs.

Abstract Rats were injected subcutaneously with 35SO42− and [1-14C]ascorbic acid. A compound was isolated from rat liver and spleen which had chromatographic properties identical to synthetic ascorbic acid 2-sulfate (AAS). This compound gave a positive methanolic FeCl3 reaction, contained radioactive sulfur, and on hydrolysis it degraded to 35SO42t- and [14C]ascorbic acid. The isolated compound possessed identical λmax ultraviolet absorption to that of AAS and co-crystallized with standard AAS to constant specific activity. These data collectively indicate the isolated compound was AAS. Quantitation by ultraviolet techniques indicated the liver possessed a concentration of 369 μM AAS. Radiochemical and chromatographic evidence is also presented for the presence of AAS in rat urine and adrenal glands.
Regional hemodynamic effects produced following application of L-glutamic acid to the ventral medullary surface of the cat.

Abstract The neuronal stimulant l -glutamic acid (GA) was applied to the ventral medullary surface and diastolic arterial blood pressure (DBP), heart rate (HR), renal and femoral arterial blood flow were measured in the chloralose-anesthetized cat. GA (1.0 M) increased DAP by 27 ± 6.6 mmHg ( P , n = 6 ), but heart rate was not affected ( P>0.05 ). Renal arterial resistance (RR) increased by 15 ± 5.8% ( P ) and femoral resistance (FR) increased by 46 ± 10% ( P ). The difference in the change in RR and FR was statistically significant ( P ). These effects were dose-dependent and could be blocked by prior intravenous administration of the α-blocker prazosin. These data indicate that neurons in the intermediate area of the ventromedullary surface may have a greater control over femoral flow than renal flow.
Hagiographic Ambition, Fabliau Humor, and Creature Comforts in The Book of Margery Kempe

This article examines the comedic qualities of The Book of Margery Kempe in light of Henri Bergson’s writings about humor. The Book’s humor emerges, in part, from Margery’s adherence to a mechanized hagiographic script from an idealized past regardless of the ever-changing demands of her late medieval context, and in part from the tendency of that script to take on the tropes of fabliau. Kempe uses the interplay of martyrology and fabliau, surprisingly complementary genres that share an interest in the nature and function of desire, to call into question devotional practices based upon imitatio and their effects upon human companionship. Readers, both medieval and medievalist, are invited to laugh at Margery, to ally with her, and to acknowledge their shared interest in the satisfyingly unpredictable results of a creature’s attentive engagements with a complex emotional and physical environment.
Skin infections in Minnesota high school state tournament wrestlers: 1997-2006.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the clinical diagnostic skills of healthcare providers treating skin infections in Minnesota high school wrestlers. DESIGN AND SETTING Collected data from the Minnesota State Wrestling 3-class tournament over a 10-year period from 1997 through 2006. PATIENTS Male wrestlers 13 to 18 years of age who have qualified by placing first or second in their section tournaments. INTERVENTIONS On-site physicians screen athletes that have suspicious lesions and review those who have already been seen by their local healthcare providers. Athletes are allowed to compete if their lesions are considered noninfectious. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS After review of the data, a distinct difference was noted with the number of skin infections seen in the larger schools compared to the smaller ones. Review of the Minnesota Medical Association's data base for available healthcare providers was correlated with the communities these infected wrestlers were from. RESULTS Each of the 3 classes had 238 participants each year. A total of 299 skin infections were recorded over this 10-year period. Analysis of class comparison and number of skin infections reveals a significant difference, with class A (smaller schools) having 81 infections compared to class AAA (larger schools) having 119, P=0.0076. Comparison of healthcare providers finds a distinct difference with the smaller communities having 1.5 providers per town compared with larger schools having 66.4 providers per town. CONCLUSION Continuity, not availability, of healthcare is necessary to properly control skin infections in high school wrestling.
Use of Cell-Specific PAM-Fluorometry to Characterize Host Shading in the Epiphytic Dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus

Cell-specific fluorescence characteristics were used to characterize the light tolerance of the toxic benthic dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus. The fluorescence parameter F v : F m was measured using pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) fluorometry on individual cells collected from foliose red algae growing in the sub-tidal margin of South Water Cay, Belize. Samples were collected over several days during sunny and cloudy conditions and compared to samples incubated in situ. The data from individual cells were used to generate both F v : F m frequency histograms and averages. Maximum individual cell values of F v : F m reached 0.81 in pre-dawn samples, a value near the theoretical maximum for PAM fluorometry. In field samples from macroalgal hosts, average F v : F m values declined only slightly during the day, but cells incubated in bottles under 47 % incident sunlight showed a significant mid-day depression. In freshly collected samples, near-maximum F v : F m values could be found in individual cells during the entire day; however, the frequency histograms indicated a greater range in F v : F m values during the afternoon than in the morning. In contrast, cultures of G. toxicus showed a tight distribution around a mean. Field samples showed a rapid recovery to near-maximum F v : F m within 2 min when assayed using a standardized actinic light series. Similar results were obtained in laboratory cultures of G. toxicus grown at 73 μmol photons.m -2 . s -1 , but not at 383 μmol photons m -2 . s -1 . These data provide empirical support for suggestions that G. toxicus exploits the three-dimensional structure of the algal host thallus to minimize light exposure. This strategy permits G. toxicus, a high-light intolerant species in culture, to thrive in shallow, well-lit tropical seas. It may also partially explain the observed preference of G. toxicus for complex, foliose macroalgae as hosts.
Groundwater flow with free boundaries using the hodograph method

A new procedure is presented to obtain exact solutions to groundwater flow problems with free boundaries in the vertical plane. The solution procedure makes use of the hodograph method in combination with conformal mapping. The complex discharge function and the reference function are used as auxiliary functions. The function that maps the upper half plane onto the domain in the complex discharge plane is obtained by integration of the differential equation of Schwarz. The final solution is a linear combination of infinite series and consists of two functions: the conformal map of the upper half plane onto the physical plane and onto the complex potential plane. As an example, the problem of flow over a horizontal base to a straight seepage face is solved. Flow nets are presented for two inclinations of the seepage face and rules are derived for the specification of boundary conditions along seepage faces in Dupuit-Forchheimer models.
Comparison of the Energetics of Avidin, Streptavidin, NeutrAvidin, and Anti-Biotin Antibody Binding to Biotinylated Lipid Bilayer Examined by Second-Harmonic Generation

A comparison of the binding properties of avidin, streptavidin, neutrAvidin, and antibiotin antibody to a biotinylated lipid bilayer was studied using second-harmonic generation. Protein binding assays were performed on a planar supported lipid bilayer of 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) containing 4 mol % biotinylated-cap-1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine (biotin-cap-DOPE). The equilibrium binding affinities of these biotin–protein interactions were determined, revealing the relative energetic contributions for each protein to the biotinylated lipid ligand. The results show that the binding affinities of avidin, streptavidin, and neutrAvidin for biotin were all strengthened by protein–protein interactions but that the stronger protein–protein interactions observed for streptavidin and neutrAvidin make their binding more energetically favorable. It was also shown that neutrAvidin has the highest degree of nonspecific adsorption to a pure DOPC bilayer, compared to avidin and stre...
Stimuli-Responsive SERS Nanoparticles: Conformational Control of Plasmonic Coupling and Surface Raman Enhancement

Stimuli-responsive surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanoparticles have been developed by using colloidal gold nanocrystals and a class of thiolated block copolymers consisting of a pH-responsive polymer segment, an amphiphilic polyethylene glycol segment, and a lipoic acid anchoring group. The results demonstrate that SERS signals can be switched on and off by molecular conformations in response to pH. An important finding is that neutralized polymethacrylic acid (PMAA) molecules are able to interact with amphiphilic polyethylene glycol (PEG) chains, leading to highly compact and intermingled copolymer structures on the surface of nanoparticles. This type of molecular conformation change provides a new strategy for controlling plasmonic coupling and electromagnetic Raman enhancement and raises the possibility of using SERS nanoparticle tags for biomolecular binding and enzymatic cleavage studies.
Face Support in Controlling Poor Performance

The purpose of this study was to describe the use of face support in managerial communication on controlling poor performance. Face support was defined according to the degree of approval (positive face) and the degree of freedom given to poor performers to define a course of action (autonomy). Seventy bank branch managers were interviewed about a recent performance problem they had at tempted to control. Managers' use of positive face and autonomy strategies suggested punitive and problem solving styles of control. Further, an overall performance rating of the employee was positively correlated with use of positive face support and use of autonomy was positively correlated with the length of time between problem recurrence.
‘Routinizing’ cooperation and changing narratives: The security and prosperity partnership of North America

Abstract March 2005 witnessed the heads of state of Canada, Mexico, and the United States signing the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), a new international framework for cross‐border cooperation in North America. The SPP features two important agendas relevant for the post‐September 11th era: one revolving around national security and the other around economic prosperity. In this paper, we explore how the SPP impacts the dominant narrative of the U.S.‐Canada border. After tracing the historical trajectory of the border, we suggest the emergent narrative eschews the notion that security and trade at the frontier are incompatible and instead maintains that regulatory policies can achieve both through bilateral and trilateral cooperation. The SPP agreement, and related accords such as ‘Smart Borders,’ signals, at least for a time, a new way of perceiving and managing the border. That vision has been recently set back for reasons discussed in this article. This paper analyzes the SPP...
Structure of a novel fluxional molecule: 1,2,3-trithia-[3]-ferrocenophane

The crystal and molecular structure of 1,2,3-trithia-[3]-ferrocenophane has been determined from three-dimensional X-ray data collected by counter techniques. The molecule consists of two nearly parallel, eclipsed cyclopentadienyl rings linked by an S3 bridge. The material crystallizes in the monoclinic space groupP21/c with unit cell parametersa = 9·628(3),b = 9·347(4),c= 11·408(4) A, β = 96·70(3) °. The structure was solved by standard techniques and the least-squares refinement converged to a conventionalR factor of 9·6 %.
Treatment of opioid-induced delirium with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors: a case report

A 55-year-old woman with advanced ovarian cancer and severe pain developed hypoactive delirium after an increase in her opioid dosage. Myoclonus and delirium improved dramatically with the intravenous injection of the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor physostigmine, and this improvement was maintained following the administration of donepezil, an oral medication with similar pharmacodynamic properties. Evidence for a disorder of cholinergic neurotransmission in opioid-induced delirium is discussed, as is the rationale for treatment with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and other cholinomimetic agents.
Geochronology and geochemistry of Putnam-Nashoba terrane metavolcanic and plutonic rocks, eastern Massachusetts: Constraints on the early Paleozoic evolution of eastern North America

The Nashoba Block, the northern portion of the Putnam-Nashoba terrane, is a fault-bounded fragment of Late Proterozoic to early Paleozoic crust located in eastern Massachusetts. The Marlboro and Nashoba gneisses of the Putnam-Nashoba terrane are composed of a sequence of mafic, intermediate, and felsic volcanic, volcanogenic, and probable plutonic rocks. This sequence was intruded by plutons ranging in composition from granite to gabbro. Major and trace element data for the Marlboro and Nashoba gneisses and some of the granitic plutons are consistent with formation in a calc-alkaline arc setting; some of the later granitic plutons are probably the result of crustal anatexis. The gabbroic plutons are slightly alkaline. U-Pb zircon age determinations for the Marlboro and Nashoba gneisses indicate ages ranging from 584 ± 8 to 425 ± 2 Ma, but most are in the range 473 to 430 Ma. These ages indicate that significant arc volcanism occurred during Late Ordovician and Silurian time in an ocean basin separating Laurentia and Avalonia as Avalonia progressed toward its eventual collision with and accretion to Laurentia. A metamorphic and deformational event, interpreted to record the docking of the Putnam-Nashoba terrane (volcanic arc) with Laurentia as the Boston–Rhode Island terrane (Avalonian fragment) impinged upon it, is constrained by a 425 ± 3 Ma monazite age for the Fish Brook gneiss and the ca. 390 Ma ages of the Straw Hollow diorite and Salem gabbro-diorite. These mildly alkaline mafic plutons, which intrude the Putnam-Nashoba terrane and the Boston–Rhode Island terrane, respectively, are members of a group of roughly contemporaneous intrusions that yield ages from 430 ± 5 to 385 ± 10 Ma. The ages and chemical similarity of these intrusions support the interpretation that the two terranes were proximal to each other by Early Silurian to Late Devonian time. The 360 ± 9 Ma syntectonic, peraluminous Andover Granite and the 349 ± 4 Ma calc-alkaline phase of the Indian Head Hill granite indicates additional igneous activity in Early Mississippian time. Later metamorphism of rocks of the Putnam-Nashoba terrane was presumably due to changing pressure-temperature conditions during oblique overthrusting and subsequent unroofing of the Putnam-Nashoba terrane during tectonic shuffling of the accreted Nashoba and Boston–Rhode Island terranes outboard of the Laurentian margin during the approach and collision of Gondwana. An important event was the migmatization of the Fort Pond and Beaver Brook members of the Nashoba gneisses about 340 Ma.
Variation in the position of the upwelling front on the Oregon shelf

[1] As part of an experiment to study wind-driven coastal circulation, 17 hydrographic surveys of the middle to inner shelf region off the coast of Newport, OR (44.65°N, from roughly the 90 m isobath to the 10 m isobath) were performed during Summer 1999 with a small, towed, undulating vehicle. The cross-shelf survey data were combined with data from several other surveys at the same latitude to study the relationship between upwelling intensity and wind stress field. A measure of upwelling intensity based on the position of the permanent pycnocline is developed. This measure is designed so as to be insensitive to density-modifying surface processes such as heating, cooling, buoyancy plumes, and wind mixing. It is highly correlated with an upwelling index formed by taking an exponentially weighted running mean of the alongshore wind stress. This analysis suggests that the front relaxes to a dynamic (geostrophic) equilibrium on a timescale of roughly 8 days, consistent with a similar analysis of moored hydrographic observations. This relationship allows the amount of time the pycnocline is outcropped to be estimated and could be used with historical wind records to better quantify interannual cycles in upwelling.
Emotional Expression Online Emoticons Punctuate Website Text Messages

Laughter “punctuates” speech, occurring during pauses, at phrase boundaries, and before and after statements and questions—the places where punctuation would be placed in a transcript of a conversation. Such punctuation indicates that language is dominant over laughter in competition for the vocal tract because laughter seldom interrupts spoken phrases. The punctuation effect is shown here to extend to emoticon placement in website text messages, a nonvocal linguistic medium. As in earlier studies of speaking and manual signing, the phrase structure of language was preserved, indicating the regulation of emotional expression by a common, higher-order linguistic process.
Risk based incremental survivable network design

This paper presents a new approach for incremental survivable network design based on the use of risk analysis techniques. The objective of the design approach is: given a fixed budget, determine how to incrementally improve the network survivability in order to reduce the risk from network failures. Risk is defined as the product of the failure probability and the damage resulting from the failure. The design approach consists of two parts: a risk assessment and a risk reduction investment strategy. Fault tree models, which depict causal relationships among failure events in the network are used for the risk assessment. The risk-reduction investment strategy is used to determine an allocation of budget for implementing a survivability technique (e.g., link protection) in different parts of the network to minimize the network risk. Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) formulations and greedy-based heuristics are proposed for solving the minimum-risk design problems. Numerical results illustrating the investment strategy for link and path protections, using an MILP approach and proposed heuristic algorithms, along with the comparisons of different capital investment alternatives on the basis of risk consideration are presented and discussed.
Moments of lepton spectrum in B decays and the m b - m c quark mass difference

It is argued that the quark mass difference ${\mathit{m}}_{\mathit{b}}$-${\mathit{m}}_{\mathit{c}}$ can be extracted with a high accuracy from experimental data on ratios of moments of the lepton energy spectrum in semileptonic decays of B mesons. Theoretical expressions for the moments are presented, which include perturbative as well as nonperturbative corrections.
Comparisons of Mayan forest management, restoration, and conservation

Abstract Numerous communities associated with at least five distinct ethnic Mayan groups in southern Mexico and Central America continue to rely upon forested areas as integral components of their agricultural systems. They carefully manage these areas so that forests provide food, raw materials, and animals. Management practices include removing and planting of woody and herbaceous species, apiculture, and seed harvest. Mayan agroforestry systems in geographically and ecologically distinct areas of Mesoamerica were evaluated to better understand traditional agroforestry system components and how indigenous Mayan agroforestry could be a part of regional forest conservation and restoration. Systems were within Mexican land grant areas ( ejidos ) or on contested land. Although these systems rely upon different woody species and management techniques, common among them are: (1) the use of multi-stage and successional pathways with forest as a part of the larger system, (2) species that are believed by traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) to accelerate forest regeneration – more than 30 tree species are recognized and managed as potential facilitators of forest regeneration and (3) direct human consumption of forest products at all stages of regeneration.
Effects of the 5th and 7th grade enhanced versions of the keepin' it REAL substance use prevention curriculum

This study assessed the outcomes of adapting the culturally-grounded, middle school, substance-use prevention intervention, keepin ' it REAL (kiR), to target elementary school students and to address acculturation. At the beginning of 5th grade, 29 schools were randomly assigned to conditions obtained by crossing grade of implementation (5th, 7th, 5th + 7th, and control/comparison) by curriculum version [kiR-Plus vs. kiR-Acculturation Enhanced (AE)]. Students (n = 1984) completed 6 assessments through the end of 8th grade. The kiR curricula generally appear no more effective than the comparison schools' programming. Students receiving either version of the kiR intervention in only the 5th grade report greater increases in substance use than did control students. Receiving the kiR-AE version twice (both 5th and 7th grades) has benefits over receiving it once.
Empirical privilege profiling

The well-known Principle of Least Privilege states that a program should run with the minimal authority that it requires to get the job done, and no more. However, application of the principle has been left to software developers, developers of installation procedures, and system administrators with few tools to assist them. How much privilege does a given program need? How do you know if you write a program that uses too much privilege or install a program with too little? Empirical privilege profiling provides a partial answer to this question by tracking a program's actual use of resources, which can be used as a guide during program development and installation, as well as for detecting intrusions and providing assurance for mobile code. In this paper, we introduce the concept of dealing with privilege as a measurable quantity, rather than in terms of a "rule of thumb."
Kinetics of short- and long-range B2 ordering in ternary alloys

The kinetics of disorder{r arrow}B2 order transformations in ternary alloys were studied in the pair approximation. The predictions of two sets of rate equations were compared, one based on an atom-atom interchange mechanism and the other based on an atom-vacancy interchange mechanism. Examples are presented to show how the evolution of order is affected by differences in interatomic potentials, differences in activation barrier heights, and effects of vacancy ordering. A wide variety of states of order are possible during the disorder{r arrow}order transformation in ternary alloys, and qualitative features of the sequences of these states are discussed. The sequences of states, or kinetic paths,'' are much less intuitive than for binary alloys.
Domestic Violence in India: Insights From the 2005-2006 National Family Health Survey

This article assesses the prevalence and risk factors of domestic violence in India. The study uses the 2005-2006 India National Family Health Survey-III (NFHS-III) and focuses on the 69,484 ever-married women ages 15 to 49 from all regions, who were administered the domestic violence module. The results show that 31% of respondents experienced physical violence in the past 12 months before the survey; the corresponding figure for sexual violence was 8.3%. The multivariate logistic regression results show key determinants of physical and sexual violence. Some of the most salient findings are that urban residence, household wealth, affiliation with Christian religious denominations, wife’s age at marriage and education are associated with lower risk of physical and sexual violence. In contrast, being employed and being the wife of a man who drank alcohol increased the odds of experiencing both physical and sexual violence. Moreover, respondents who believed that wife-beating was justified under certain cir...
In vitro detection of differential and cell-specific hepatobiliary toxicity induced by geldanamycin and 17-allylaminogeldanamycin in rats.

Abstract The differential toxicity of two anticancer agents is described using the in vitro rat liver slice culture model. Liver slices from F-344 rats were cultured for 5 days in Waymouth’s-based medium with exposure to a range of geldanamycin (GEL) or 17-allylaminogeldanamycin (17-AAG) concentrations. GEL induced concentration-dependent reduction of alkaline phosphatase and of γ-glutamyl transferase levels, which are indicators of biliary epithelial cell(s) (BEC) viability, and exhibited hepatocellular toxicity at higher concentrations. Histologically, BEC cell injury was evident at the lowest GEL concentration (0.1 μM) and progressed to overt bile duct necrosis at 5 μM, a level at which hepatocellular damage was also more prominent. Slices exposed to the same concentrations were more sensitive to toxic effects of GEL than of 17-AAG. 17-AAG at the lowest concentration had more slice biomarker retention than GEL, and histological analysis revealed minimal toxic effect on BEC. With increasing concentration, BEC were progressively lost, and BEC proliferation was completely inhibited at 5 μM 17-AAG. Hepatocellular injury was evident only at high dose exposures. This is believed to be the first use of an in vitro liver tissue model to accurately predict the differential and concentration-dependent toxicities of these compounds.
Recovery of pine beauty moth (Panolis flammea) nuclear polyhedrosis virus from pine foliage

Abstract The persistence and viability of Panolis flammea nuclear polyhedrosis virus (NPV) over winter on Pinus contorta foliage collected from NPV-sprayed plots in northern Scotland were assessed. NPV polyhedral inclusion bodies (PIBs) were recovered by sonication and bioassayed in a laboratory culture of an alternative host, Mamestra brassicae. Infective NPV was found to persist at least until the time of hatch of the following year's P. flammea generation. The infectivity of PIBs recovered did not vary significantly with time over the sampling period. Larvae dying of NPV disease following spraying probably contributed strongly to the presence of PIBs on new foliage.
World of wordcraft: on scientific editing.

Objective The author reflects on lessons in becoming and being a psychiatry journal editor.
Cycle-accurate macro-models for RT-level power analysis

In this paper, we present a methodology and techniques for generating cycle-accurate macro-models for register transfer (RT)-level power analysis. The proposed macro-model predicts not only the cycle-by-cycle power consumption of a module, but also the moving average of power consumption and the power profile of the module over time. We propose an exact power function and approximation steps to generate our power macro-model. First-order temporal correlations and spatial correlations of up to order three are considered in order to improve the estimation accuracy. A variable reduction algorithm is designed to eliminate the "insignificant" variables using a statistical sensitivity test. Population stratification is employed to increase the model fidelity. Experimental results show our macro-models with 15 or fewer variables, exhibit <5% error for average power and <20% errors for cycle-by-cycle power estimation compared to circuit simulation results using Powermill.
Seizure activity induces PIM‐1 expression in brain

We recently identified KID-1, a previously undescribed protein kinase induced by depolarization in PC12 cells and brain (Feldman et al., 1998). KID-1 shares a high degree of sequence homology with PIM-1, a proto-oncogene previously reported to be expressed in hematopoietic and germ cells. We examined PIM-1 expression in stimulated PC12 cells, brains of kainic acid-treated rats, and a number of tissues from untreated rats. We now report that forskolin, but not depolarization or growth factors, induces PIM-1 expression in PC12 cells. PIM-1 is an immediate early gene induced in response to forskolin stimulation. We detect PIM-1 mRNA in a number of unstimulated tissues and at low levels in unstimulated brain. Systemic kainic acid administration to adult rats induces PIM-1 expression in the dentate gyrus region of the hippocampus.
Electronic and optical gap renormalization in carbon nanotubes near a metallic surface

Renormalization of quasiparticles and excitons in carbon nanotubes (CNTs) near a metallic surface has been studied within a many-body formalism using an embedding approach newly implemented in the GW and Bethe-Salpeter methods. The quasiparticle band-gap renormalization in semiconducting CNTs is found to scale as $\ensuremath{-}1/(2{h}_{a})$, with ${h}_{a}$ the apparent nanotube height, and it can exceed half an eV. Also, the binding energy of excitons is reduced dramatically---by as much as $75%$---near the surface. Compensation between quasiparticle and excitonic effects results in small changes in the optical gap. The important role played by the nanotube screening response in establishing these effects is emphasized and a simple electrostatic model with no adjustable parameters explains the results of state-of-the-art calculations and generalizes them to a large variety of CNTs.
Increasing the response rates of reluctant professionals to mail surveys

M AXIMIZING response rates and substantiating the validity of research findings are important issues in survey research. These issues are of particular concern when one is interested in eliciting the participation of professionals to respond to such surveys. The reluctance of professionals to respond to mail surveys has been documented by several authors (Deutscher, 1956; Lang, 1981; Shosteck & Fairweather, 1979; Sudman 1985). Professionals are unlike members of the general population, thereby requiting different incentives and information to elicit their cooperation. Although only a few studies have examined the effectiveness of specific strategies for gaining the cooperation of specific professional populations, these studies do provide some guidance for survey researchers. Those choosing to survey health care professionals may find that incorporating these techniques will increase response rates and increase the validity and credibility of their research results. Even after employing well-planned strategies to maximize the participation rate of professionals in a mail survey, a response rate less than 100% is generally expected. To identify a potential systematic response bias, the data of both respondents and nonrespondents should be examined. Maximizing response rate and decreasing response bias are extremely important within the larger context of the generalizability of research findings. The purpose of this article is to identify and describe empirically supported strategies that can be used to address these issues.
"Prostitutes as pariah in the age of AIDS": a content analysis of coverage of women prostitutes in The New York Times and the Washington Post September 1985-April 1988.

Misrepresentation in the media portrays women prostitutes as sexual transmitters of AIDS to men. Yet careful study of the available data shows male-to-female transmission of the HIV virus is the overwhelming mode of hetereosexual transmission of AIDS. Content analysis is performed to analyze the role newspaper coverage played from 1985 through early 1988 in the social construction of prostitutes as a new target group for AIDS. The results show little concern for the health of prostitutes at risk for AIDS, but rather for their role as possible disease vectors. That women prostitutes were eagerly singled out as a target group despite a dearth of evidence points in large measure to their precarious position in society. And it highlights the impact media has when it acts as an uncritical sounding-board for government and medical press releases about a disease with dire social as well as physical consequences.
Shooting Methods for Numerical Solution of Nonlinear Stochastic Boundary-Value Problems

In the present investigation, shooting methods are described for numerically solving nonlinear stochastic boundary-value problems. These stochastic shooting methods are analogous to standard shooting methods for numerical solution of ordinary deterministic boundary-value problems. It is shown that the shooting methods provide accurate approximations. An error analysis is performed and computational simulations are described.
Supporting Technology Integration within a Teacher Education System

The purpose of this case study was to examine a teacher education system relative to the degree of performance support for the use of technology to support learning. Performance support was measured by the presence of factors such as clear expectations, feedback, tools, rewards, incentives, motivation, capacity, skills, and knowledge within the system. Major stakeholders within the teacher education system at the target institution included teacher education faculty, teacher education students, and cooperating teachers in local schools. While results were specifically interpreted relative to the requirements of teacher education students, several areas of performance support were found to be required within and across stakeholder groups. Results of the study are discussed with a particular focus on the degree of alignment of supports across the system. Recommendations for the allocation of system resources related to technology integration are also discussed.
Dopant and defect energetics: Si in GaAs.

We calculate the formation energy of Si donors, acceptors, and defect complexes in GaAs. From these energies we obtain the equilibrium concentrations of native defects and Si-defect complexes as well as the total solubility of Si in GaAs. The calculated equilibrium solubility limit of Si is in good agreement with experiment. The (${\mathrm{Si}}_{\mathrm{Ga}}$-${\mathit{V}}_{\mathrm{Ga}}$${)}^{2\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ complex occurs in relatively high concentrations under As-rich conditions and may therefore mediate Si and Ga diffusion. The donor-vacancy complex is found to be an important mechanism for compensation in heavily doped GaAs.
The Role of Isopod Crustaceans in the Reef Crest Community at Carrie Bow Cay, Belize

. The species composition and numbers of specimens of isopod crustaceans from the rubble of a Belizean reef crest were obtained. Four sets of 30 samples were taken from three rubble zones (rubble with algal turf, rubble between Thalassia plants, and pure rubble), in four different collecting periods. Twenty-four species of isopods were identified, sexed and counted. By means of a Likelihood Ratio Chi-square Contingency Table Analysis the presence of 13 species was shown to be positively correlated with habitat, 15 species with season, and nine species with habitat and season combined. From the spread of total numbers and of ovigerous females it is proposed that the isopods may be grouped into three patterns: a) those present and breeding in the reef crest rubble throughout the year, i. e. stress-tolerant species; b) those showing a breeding peak in summer and a population decrease in winter-spring, i. e. opportunist species; and c) those showing a breeding peak in the fall, and a second peak in spring, and a decrease or complete avoidance of the habitat, especially by ovigerous females, in the summer. The diversity of the Belizean reef crest isopod fauna is compared with the published report of the isopod fauna of a coral reef in Madagascar. Several similarities in composition are noted. The multiplicity of microhabitats is invoked as a possible explanation for the relatively high diversity of anthuridean isopods in coral reefs.
Automated framework for formal operator task analysis

Aberrant behavior of human operators in safety critical systems can lead to severe or even fatal consequences. Human operators are unique in their decision making capability, judgment and nondeterminism. There is a need for a generalized framework that can allow capturing, modeling and analyzing the interactions between computer systems and human operators where the operators are allowed to deviate from their prescribed behaviors for executing a task. This will provide a formal understanding of the robustness of a computer system against possible aberrant behaviors by its human operators. We provide a framework for (i) modeling the human operators and the computer systems; (ii) formulating tolerable human operator action variations(protection envelope); (iii) determining whether the computer system can maintain its guarantees if the human operators operate within their protection envelopes; and finally, (iv) determining robustness of the computer system under weakening of the protection envelopes. We present Tutela, a tool that assists in accomplishing the first and second step, automates the third step and modestly assists in accomplishing the fourth step.
An information infrastructure for coordinating Earth science observations

Earth scientists require timely, coordinated access to remote sensing resources, either directly by requesting that the resource be targeted at a specific location, or indirectly through access to data that has been, or will be acquired and stored in data archives. The information infrastructure for effective coordinated observing does not currently exist. This paper describes a set of capabilities for enabling model-based observing, the idea of linking scheduling observation resources more directly to science goals. Model-based observing is realized in this paper by an approach based on concepts of distributed planning and scheduling. The problem raises challenging issues related to planning under uncertainty, monitoring and repair of plans, and reasoning about human objectives and preferences.
Different levels of overnutrition and weight gain during pregnancy have differential effects on fetal growth and organ development

Background Nearly 50% of U.S. women of child-bearing age are overweight or obese, conditions linked to offspring obesity and diabetes.
HIGHWAY ACCIDENTS IN SWEDEN: MODELLING THE PROCESS OF DRUNKEN DRIVING BEHAVIOUR AND CONTROL

This research is an investigation into the effect of sanctions imposed for drunken driving on the control of fatal and serious injury accidents in Sweden. The analysis makes use of lagged relationships to avoid alleged shortcomings of other investigative techniques. This approach facilitates sorting out cause and effects among such influences on accidents as levels of alcohol consumption, distance driven, vehicle mix and rainfall on the one hand and arrests for drunken driving, jail, fines and licence withdrawal on the other. The data are based on individual records of accidents and persons arrested for drunken driving from 1976 to 1979. Criminal histories are available for all such drivers back to 1970. These data have been used to construct a monthly time series for each of the three major cities of Gotenborg, Malmo, Stockholm and for the rest of the country. The statistical analysis lends support to the hypothesis that control efforts work in Sweden to reduce accidents below what they might otherwise have been. The combination of apprehension and jail is shown to be effective in reducing serious injury accidents that represent close to 80% of all serious accidents, whereas for fatal accidents jail appears to be less effective than fines. A surprising result is that licence withdrawal is found to have a uniformly positive effect in reducing accidents, irrespective of the investigative technique used. This result is of particular interest since licence withdrawal is not regarded as a sanction in Sweden and its use receives much less attention than the much more costly use of jail as punishment.
Protein names precisely peeled off free text

Motivation: Automatically identifying protein names from the scientific literature is a pre-requisite for the increasing demand in data-mining this wealth of information. Existing approaches are based on dictionaries, rules and machine-learning. Here, we introduced a novel system that combines a pre-processing dictionary- and rule-based filtering step with several separately trained support vector machines (SVMs) to identify protein names in the MEDLINE abstracts. Results: Our new tagging-system NLProt is capable of extracting protein names with a precision (accuracy) of 75% at a recall (coverage) of 76% after training on a corpus, which was used before by other groups and contains 200 annotated abstracts. For our estimate of sustained performance, we considered partially identified names as false positives. One important issue frequently ignored in the literature is the redundancy in evaluation sets. We suggested some guidelines for removing overly inadequate overlaps between training and testing sets. Applying these new guidelines, our program appeared to significantly out-perform other methods tagging protein names. NLProt was so successful due to the SVM-building blocks that succeeded in utilizing the local context of protein names in the scientific literature. We challenge that our system may constitute the most general and precise method for tagging protein names. Availability: http://cubic.bioc.columbia.edu/services/nlprot/