cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Free methylidyne? CCC-NHC tantalum bis(imido) reactivity: protonation, rearrangement to a mixed unsymmetrical CCC-N-heterocyclic carbene/N-heterocyclic dicarbene (CCC-NHC/NHDC) pincer tantalum bis(imido) complex

Abstract The coordination sphere of the reported (1,3-bis(3-butylimidazol-1-yl-2-idene)-2-phenylene)( tert -butylimido) CCC-NHC Ta (V) bis(imido) pincer complex 2 (Helgert et al., 2016, doi: 10.1021/acs.organomet.6b00216 ) has been observed to spontaneously rearrange to yield X-ray quality crystals of a CCC-NHDC/NHC pincer Ta (V) bis(imido) complex ( 3 ). Preliminary computations were consistent with a step-wise mechanism for the formation of the N -heterocyclic dicarbene pincer complex. Over time the CCC-NHC Ta (V) bis(imido) pincer complex 2 reacted with adventitious protons sources to form CCC-NHC Ta(V)( tert -butylamido)( tert -butylimido)iodo complex ( 4 ). The reaction of bis(imido) 2 with excess lithium tert -butylamide at elevated temperatures, in an effort to find a direct synthesis of 3 , yielded methylidyne species 5 .
Evaluation of the appropriate use of a CIWA-Ar alcohol withdrawal protocol in the general hospital setting.

Background: The Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment-Alcohol, Revised (CIWA-Ar) is an assessment tool used to quantify alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) severity and inform benzodiazepine treat...
Empire of Chance: The Napoleonic Wars and the Disorder of Things. By AndersEngberg-Pedersen. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015. Pp. i, 336. $45.00.) : Book Review

This intriguing study of the Napoleonic Wars contributes to the argument that places war at the center of the revolutionary era and the transition to modernity. Unlike David Bell's study on the eme...
Inference About Independence

In this chapter we address the following questions: (1) How do we test if two random variables are independent? (2) How do we estimate the strength of dependence between two random variables?
The Effects of Oxidized Lipids and Lipoproteins on Arterial Growth, Remodeling and Restenosis

Studies of restenosis after angioplasty, and more generally studies of arterial responses to injury, have revealed that the variety of potential outcomes includes proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells, what appears to be a chronic constrictive response, or vascular remodeling. These are not mutually exclusive of one another and they are detailed more fully in other chapters of this book. They are mentioned here to point out that a mechanical arterial injury such as is inflicted by angioplasty, the inflammatory response to that injury and the stimuli for remodeling emanating from flow and pressure alterations caused by the injury, may compete in mediating changes in vascular tone and in the cell migration, proliferation and death that govern the healing process. Thus, basic mechanisms controlling cell death, mitogenesis or vascular relaxation that are mediated by factors already present in atherosclerotic lesions, factors induced by vascular injury or the injury response, and factors elicited by changes in flow or pressure are important to understand. Our purpose in the following pages is to describe a subcategory of the influences on cell growth and vascular reactivity that have been identified in vitro, that is, those resulting from the actions of lipid and lipoprotein oxidation products known to reside in atherosclerotic plaques or enter the angioplasty injury site.
Inequalities for Mean Circumscribing Simplices

The aim of this note is to strengthen and generalize an inequality of Sangwine–Yager regarding means of various quantities associated with the simplices circumscribing a convex body.
Test methods for exoskeletons—lessons learned from industrial and response robotics

Exoskeletons are devices that can assist the human wearer's limbs to provide functional, normal, or amplified human capabilities. Research on exoskeletons has dramatically increased recently. However, measurements of these devices have yet to show long-term safety and other effects on humans. Safety standards now allow, through risk assessment, both manufacturing and wearable robots to be used, although performance standards for both systems are still lacking. Much can be learned from industrial and response robot safety and performance research and standards activities that can cross over into the exoskeleton arena. For example, ongoing research to develop standard test methods to assess performance of manufacturing robots and emergency response robots can inspire similar test methods for exoskeletons. This chapter first lists exoskeleton performance metrics and standards for collaborative industrial robots, response robots, and also physical assistance robots (i.e., exoskeletons). Then, it describes measurements ofjoint axis rotation location using an industrial robot simulating a human arm, as well as mobile manipulator and response robot test method developments that could also apply to exoskeletons. These methods and others are then integrated into recommendations for exoskeleton test methods.
Locating SQL Injection Vulnerabilities in Java Byte Code Using Natural Language Techniques

With so much our daily lives relying on digital devices like personal computers and cell phones, there is a growing demand for code that not only functions properly, but is secure and keeps user data safe. However, ensuring this is not such an easy task, and many developers do not have the required skills or resources to ensure their code is secure. Many code analysis tools have been written to find vulnerabilities in newly developed code, but this technology tends to produce many false positives, and is still not able to identify all of the problems. Other methods of finding software vulnerabilities automatically are required. This proof-of-concept study applied natural language processing on Java byte code to locate SQL injection vulnerabilities in a Java program. Preliminary findings show that, due to the high number of terms in the dataset, using singular decision trees will not produce a suitable model for locating SQL injection vulnerabilities, while random forest structures proved more promising. Still, further work is needed to determine the best classification tool.
Hysteresis analysis of nitrate dynamics in the Neuse River, NC.

Abstract Anthropogenic activities have caused N saturation in many terrestrial ecosystems. The transfer of nutrients and sediments to freshwater environments has resulted in water quality impairments including eutrophication, increased turbidity, ecosystem acidification, and loss of biodiversity. Storm events account for the transport of a large proportion of nutrients and sediments found in watersheds on an annual basis. To implement effective water-quality management strategies, the importance of surface and subsurface flow paths during storm events and low flow conditions need to be quantified. The increased availability of optical in-situ sensors makes high-frequency monitoring of catchment fluxes practical. In this study, we present a high-resolution nitrate monitoring record over a 10-year period in the Neuse River Basin near Clayton, North Carolina. The relationship between discharge and nitrate concentration for 365 storm events are categorized into hysteresis classes that indicate different transport mechanisms into the river. Storm events over the entire period of this study are divided between clockwise, counter-clockwise, and complex hysteresis patterns, indicating multiple nitrate flow paths during different seasons and years. Logistic regression of a suite of environmental variables demonstrates that antecedent soil moisture is a significant factor in determining the storm hysteresis class, with the odds of counter-clockwise hysteresis increasing by 10.3% for every 1 percentage point increase in the soil moisture. There is also an overlying seasonal effect, which indicates that dry soil conditions and frequent small storms during summer leads to greater nitrate transport on the rising limb, in contrast to slower, groundwater-driven inputs during the rest of the year.
Differences in Social Isolation and Its Relationship to Health by Rurality.

PURPOSE Social isolation is an urgent threat to public health. Meanwhile, health outcomes across multiple measures are worse in rural areas, where distance to neighbors is often greater and opportunities for social interaction may be scarcer. Still, very little research examines rural-urban differences in social isolation. This study addresses that gap by examining differences in social isolation by rurality among US older adults. METHODS Using Wave 2 of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project data (n = 2,439), we measured differences between urban and rural (micropolitan or noncore) residents across multiple dimensions of social isolation. We also conducted multivariable analysis to assess the associations between rurality, sociodemographic characteristics, and loneliness, overall and by rurality. Finally, we conducted multivariable analysis to assess the association between social isolation and self-rated health, adjusting for rurality. FINDINGS Compared to urban residents, rural residents had more social relationships and micropolitan rural residents were more likely to be able to rely on family members (95.8% vs 91.3%, P < .05). Micropolitan rural residents reported lower rates of loneliness than urban residents after adjusting for sociodemographic and health characteristics (b = -0.32, P < .05), whereas noncore rural, non-Hispanic black residents had a greater likelihood of reporting loneliness (b = 4.33, P < .001). CONCLUSIONS Overall, noncore and micropolitan rural residents reported less social isolation and more social relationships than urban residents. However, there were differences by race and ethnicity among rural residents in perceived loneliness. Policies and programs to address social isolation should be tailored by geography and should account for within-rural differences in risk factors.
Synthesis and Reactivity of Several Stable 1-Silaallenes

Three stable 1-silapropadienes 1a−c were prepared by the intermolecular addition of organolithium reagents at the carbon−carbon triple bond of fluoroalkynylsilanes 3a,b followed by LiF elimination. The structure of 1a and of the intermediate α-lithiated fluorosilane 2a were determined by X-ray diffraction. The chemical behavior of 1-silapropadienes 1a−c differs greatly depending on the substituents on the silicon atom. When two triisopropylphenyl groups were present (1a), typical addition reactions of the SiC double bond were observed. Thermolysis of 1a yielded benzosilacyclobutene 7. For the more hindered 1-silapropadienes 1b and 1c, no reaction was observed with dioxygen, benzaldehyde, 2,3-dimethylbutadiene, or trimethylchlorosilane at room temperature. However, thermolysis of 1b or treatment with excess ethanol under neutral or acidic conditions produced 8b, the product of an intramolecular insertion of the SiC double bond into an adjoining primary C−H bond of one tert-butyl group in an ortho-position ...
Kosher and halal regulations for nutraceutical and functional foods

Abstract The kosher and halal food regulations govern the food requirements of practicing Jews and Muslims. These laws require food companies and foodservice providers that wish to serve these markets to also meet these regulations. In return, most seek to obtain a certification that allows them to advertise that the products and services they are offering have met the relevant requirements of the certifier. Although in some cases certification requires complete and continuous coverage of a facility, most certification is done on a random visit inspection system. Nutraceuticals and functional foods will need to be halal certified to serve about one-quarter of the world's population. Kosher certification also expands the market in some countries such as the United States, where it is required for many ingredients, because probably half of the ingredient market requires kosher certification.
The arithmetic fundamental lemma: An update

This is an expository article on the recent progress on the arithmetic fundamental lemma conjecture, based largely on Zhang (2019). Beside stating the local conjecture, we will present three global intersection problems along with some constructions of algebraic cycles.
Gender, Millennials, and leisure constraints: exploring golf’s participation decline

This paper addresses the dearth of research regarding why the golf industry, specifically in the United States, is stagnating and, in some cases, losing participants. We focus on why Millennials ar...
Scalable Data-structures with Hierarchical, Distributed Delegation

Scaling data-structures up to the increasing number of cores provided by modern systems is challenging. The quest for scalability is complicated by the non-uniform memory accesses (NUMA) of multi-socket machines that often prohibit the effective use of data-structures that span memory localities. Conventional shared memory data-structures using efficient non-blocking or lock-based implementations inevitably suffer from cache-coherency overheads, and non-local memory accesses between sockets. Multi-socket systems are common in cloud hardware, and many products are pushing shared memory systems to greater scales, thus making the ability to scale data-structures all the more pressing. In this paper, we present the Distributed, Delegated Parallel Sections (DPS) runtime system that uses message-passing to move the computation on portions of data-structures between memory localities, while leveraging efficient shared memory implementations within each locality to harness efficient parallelism. We show through a series of data-structure scalability evaluations, and through an adaptation of memcached, that DPS enables strong data-structure scalability. DPS provides more than a factor of 3.1 improvements in throughput, and 23x decreases in tail latency for memcached.
Once More with Feeling: The Absence of Research on Teacher use of Microcomputers:

This article presents a brief overview of research relating to teacher use of microcomputers. Emotional responses to microcomputers are compared with those that accompanied the advent of previous t...
An existence result for conservation laws having BV spatial flux heterogeneities - without concavity

Abstract We prove existence for an initial value problem featuring a conservation law whose flux has a discontinuous spatial dependence. For the type of flux considered here, where the spatial dependence occurs in a very general form, a uniqueness result is known, but the existence question was open until the recent work of Piccoli and Tournus (2018) [22] . Piccoli and Tournus proved existence using approximate solutions generated by the wave front tracking algorithm. A concavity assumption plays a simplifying role in their analysis. The main contribution of the present paper is an extension of this existence theorem in the absence of the concavity assumption. We accomplish this via finite difference approximations.
Self-reported sleep quality is associated with central hemodynamics in healthy individuals.

Insufficient sleep is associated with arterial stiffness and elevated cardiovascular disease risk. Central hemodynamics are influenced by arterial stiffness, yet independently predict cardiovascular risk. Relationships between sleep characteristics and central hemodynamic parameters are largely unexplored. We aimed to characterize the relationship between self-reported sleep quality and central hemodynamics in healthy individuals. To explore the secondary hypothesis that impairments in glucose metabolism may underlie relationships between sleep and central hemodynamic variables, we also explored associations between self-reported sleep quality and fasting blood glucose values. Thirty-one healthy study subjects (20 to 69 years, 17 men) were free from metabolic or cardiovascular disease and did not take sleep medication. Self-reported sleep quality was obtained using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) with normal sleepers defined by PSQI scores 0–5 and poor sleepers by PSQI score > 5. Relationships were assessed between PSQI, central hemodynamic profiles (systolic and diastolic blood pressures, pulse and augmentation pressures, augmentation index) estimated from oscillometric pulse wave analysis, and blood glucose values. Central pulse pressure was significantly elevated in poor (PSQI score > 5) compared with that in normal (PSQI scores 0–5) sleepers (P 0.05). Significant relationships between central pulse and augmentation pressures and self-reported sleep quality highlight the importance of considering sleep when examining lifestyle contributors to central hemodynamics.
Corticotropin-Releasing Factor Neurons in the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis Differentially Influence Pain Processing and Modulation in Male and Female Mice

Abstract The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) plays an emerging yet understudied role in pain. Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is an important source of pain modulation in the BNST, with local pharmacological inhibition of CRF receptors conditionally impacting the sensory and affective-motivational components of pain. Knowledge on how pain dynamically engages CRF neurons in the BNST and is influenced by intra-BNST production of CRF, however, remains unknown. In the present study, we utilized in vivo calcium imaging to show robust and synchronized recruitment of BNSTCRF+ neurons during acute exposure to noxious heat. Distinct patterns of recruitment were observed by sex, as the magnitude and timing of heat responsive activity in BNSTCRF+ neurons differed for male and female mice. We then established the necessity of CRF for intact pain behaviors by genetically deleting Crf in the BNST, which reduced thermal and mechanical nociceptive sensitivity for both sexes, and increased paw attending in female mice, suggesting a divergent role for CRF with respect to active coping responses to pain. Together, these findings demonstrate that CRF in the BNST contributes to multiple facets of the pain experience and may play a key role in the sex-specific expression of pain-related behaviors.
Effect of the School-Based Asthma Care for Teens (SB-ACT) program on asthma morbidity: a 3-arm randomized controlled trial.

Urban adolescents with asthma often have inadequate preventive care. We tested the effectiveness of the School-Based Asthma Care for Teens (SB-ACT) program on asthma morbidity and preventive medica...
Building a Compelling Underdog Consumption Experience

While recognizing the marketing potential of a company’s underdog status, existing research on underdog businesses has typically focused on how to effectively communicate about the underdog story. This study departs from prior research by formulating a theoretical framework to guide managers on systematically building and strengthening the underdog consumption experience as well as communicating about it. Recent research on motivational bases of consumers’ underdog affection shows that drivers for underdog affection are much more than empathy and they also include feelings of dissatisfaction with dominant industry players, need for market balance maintenance, desire to be different and need for unique consumption experiences, admiration for perseverance, hope for hard-earned triumphs, and extension of oneself also as an underdog. Guided by the contingency framework of strategic decision-making, we apply the above notable findings to key areas of a company’s marketing strategy, specifically translating the motivational bases identified in existing research into pertinent company actions, which will in turn generate rewarding customer benefits. By formulating a series of innovative perspectives to guide underdog businesses on building as well as selling a compelling underdog consumption experience, this current article represents a significant addition to past research on underdog businesses.
Noise complaint patterns in New York City from January 2010 through February 2021: Socioeconomic disparities and COVID-19 exacerbations.

Abstract Background Excessive environmental noise exposure and noise annoyance have been linked to adverse physical and mental health outcomes. Although socioeconomic disparities in acoustically measured and geospatially estimated noise have been established, less is known about disparities in noise complaints, one of the most common sources of distress reported to local municipalities. Furthermore, although some studies have posited urban quieting during the COVID-19 pandemic, little empirical work has probed this and probed noise complaints during the pandemic. Objectives Using over 4 million noise complaints from the New York City (NYC) 311 database, we quantified census tract-level socioeconomic disparities in noise complaints since 2010 and examined how such disparities changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Using data from January 2010 through February 2020, we fit linear mixed-effects models, estimating monthly tract-level noise complaints by the proportion of residents who were low-income, time in months since January 2010, categorical month, their interactions, and potential confounds, such as total population and population density. To estimate COVID-19 pandemic effects, we included additional data from March 2020 through February 2021 and additional interactions between proportion low-income, month of year, and an indicator variable for COVID-19 pandemic onset in March 2020. Results Census tracts with a higher proportion of low-income residents reported more monthly noise complaints and this increased over time (time × month × proportion low-income interaction p-values Discussion Since 2010, noise complaints have increased the most in the most economically distressed communities, particularly in warmer seasons. This disparity was particularly exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, contrary to some theories of urban quieting. Community-based interventions to ameliorate noise and noise annoyance, both public health hazards, are needed in underserved communities.
Cryopreservation of Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells

The use of cryopreserved peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) for the studies of immune reconstitution in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients permits the selection of samples from well-characterized study subjects. The goal of the cryopreservation is to freeze and thaw the PBMC without compromising cell viability. Both glycerol and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) can provide this function, but only DMSO has been extensively studied for cryopreservation of PBMC. Other critical steps of the cryopreservation procedure include inhibition of cell metabolism while in the presence of DMSO, rate-controlled freezing to avoid cell dehydration, rapid thawing, and resuspension in serum-containing medium, which protects the cells against osmotic trauma. Lymphoproliferative responses measure mainly CD4-dependent immune responses. Severely impaired CD4 responses confer broad immunodeficiency. Natural killer (NK) cell activity, in contrast to cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), is more liable to freezing and thawing. Enumeration of PBMC subsets by flow cytometry provides important information on the immune capacity of the host. As such, flow cytometry-based immune phenotyping is a standard procedure in the evaluation of immunodeficiency disorders. The distribution of major surface markers, such as CD3, CD4, CD8, CD19, and CD14, is essentially unchanged by cryopreservation. Definition of the T-cell receptor repertoire has become increasingly prevalent in studies of the maturation and senescence of the immune system. The two techniques seem to yield similar results when performed with fresh and cryopreserved PBMC.
A Minimal Model Of Metamorphosis: Fat Body Competence to Respond to Juvenile Hormone

The ontogeny of larval forms of invertebrates and vertebrates has fascinated embryologists and volutionary biologists for centuries (Gould, 1977). We are now at a stage when appropriate choices of models of metazoan developmental phenomena may allow us to understand them on a mechanistic and molecular level. Success in this venture may depend on the ultimate complexity of the model chosen to study and for this reason potential models of minimal complexity should be sought.
The G20 After Eight Years: How Effective a Vehicle for Developing-Country Influence?

To what extent has eight years of participation in the Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (G20) strengthened the influence of developing countries in global governance? This paper tries to answer this question by assessing the degree to which the G20's annual communiques reflect the policy preferences of the G20's developed and developing country members. Nine policy issues are selected in which developed and developing countries have expressed significant differences of opinion in forums outside the G20. Then, consensus on those issues is compared systematically across the G20, the G7, and the G24. The G7 and the G24 communiques are used as proxies for the policy preferences of the developed and developing countries of the G20, respectively. The results of this exercise suggest that the G20 has primarily served as a vehicle for mobilizing support for G7 policies, especially on issues about which the G7 governments cared most strongly. Endorsement by the G20 has given these G7-driven policies a broader base of legitimacy and support. At the same time, positions favored by developing countries - especially those that would have imposed large costs on G7 firms and governments - have made little headway in the group. Developing countries have become more active and assertive in the G20 as the network has matured, and in two instances they made original contributions to the global policy agenda. But so far, the benefits of these initiatives have been modest. After eight years, the G20 has done little to enhance developing-country influence. Yet, the paper also identifies a several reasons why it may too early for developing countries to give up on the G20.
Clinical evaluation of violence in couples : The role of assessment instruments

Initial efforts to develop a battery of self report measures that could be used in assessing violent couple subtypes are presented. The goal was to determine whether such data could be used as a basis for treatment planning and assignment of clients to differing treatment approaches. Preliminary results and several case examples are presented to illustrate the utility of the approach.
Confinement from Center Vortices I

We have already seen a number of indications that the center of the gauge group has something to do with confinement. For one thing, the existence of a non-vanishing asymptotic string tension is tied to the existence, and unbroken realization, of a global center symmetry. Moreover, two of the order parameters for confinement, namely the ‘t Hooft loop B(C) and vortex free energy, are explicitly associated with center vortex creation. But perhaps the strongest motivation for the center vortex mechanism of confinement, to be discussed below, comes from the fact that the asymptotic string tension depends only on the N-ality of the quark charge. Whatever vacuum fluctuations of the gauge field are responsible for an asymptotic string tension for quarks in the fundamental representation, those same fluctuations should not also give rise to an asymptotic string tension for quarks in the adjoint representation, or in any other zero N-ality representation of the gauge group.
The Internal Transformation of Community-Controlled Implementation Organizations:

Community-controlled implementation organizations are necessary to initiate redevelopment in many urban areas, but because of their dependency on external sources of capital they may be transformed...
A REVIEW OF THE NEARCTIC SPECIES OF CHLOROPISCA (DIPTERA, CHLOROPIDAE),

Some recently discovered changes in nomenclature led to the preparation of a synopsis of the Nearctic species of Chloropisca , which is presented with notes upon the distribution as checked by the writer and a key to the eleven known species. Chloropisca sulfurifrons Duda is included with some doubt. It is rather remarkable that among a group as common as Chloropisca so little is known regarding the life history and habits. Chloropisca glabra is the only species in which the life history is well known. Its larvae are predaceous upon root aphids,and are especially important predators of the sugar beet root aphis, Pemphigus betae Doane.
Teen Use of Flavored Tobacco Products in New York City

Introduction Teen use of flavored tobacco products is a concern. Menthol cigarettes have been found to influence teen smoking; however, less is known about the association between teen use of other flavored tobacco products, such as cigars and dip, and cigarette smoking. Methods The New York City 2010 Special Communities Putting Prevention to Work Youth Risk Behavior Survey data (N = 1,800 aged 13-17 years) were analyzed to examine the association between ever trying flavored tobacco products and current smoking, after we adjusted for demographics and ever-use of menthol cigarettes. Results Twenty percent of teens reported ever trying flavored tobacco products; youth who were current smokers (58%) were more likely to have tried flavored tobacco products than youth who were not current smokers (16%). Controlling for menthol cigarette use, teens who had ever tried flavored tobacco products were nearly 3 times more likely to be current smokers than those who had never tried flavored tobacco products (odds ratio = 2.70, 95% confidence interval = 1.47-4.98). Conclusions Ever trying flavored tobacco products was strongly associated with current smoking among teens. The findings from this study suggest that regulations prohibiting sales of flavored tobacco products could decrease youth smoking.
The Rhetorical Construction of the AD/HD Subject: Managing the Self

As the diagnosis of AD/HD becomes more frequent in our schools, and as many individuals across ages embrace an AD/HD identity, scholars need to account for the lived experience of the disorder to understand the meanings individuals give to it. This paper analyses the relationship between ethical practices of self-formation, power, and knowledge (subjectification) in the case of the North American AD/HD subject. Specifically, it builds on recent medicalization scholarship to analyze how individuals make meaning of their disorder and its corresponding drug regimen in light of the “cultural meanings” made available by an increasingly prevalent neuropsychological discourse and ontology. By examining the first-person online accounts of AD/HD subjects from popular Internet message boards, this essay demonstrates how these individuals position themselves on the side of knowledge (the officially sanctioned AD/HD discourse) in creating self-interested and productive identities within newly emergent discursive conf...
Characterization of distribution system interruption duration

There is significant interest in improving distribution system reliability and power quality. As a result, there is a strong interest in improving the tools and models that predict future system performance in these areas. The duration of interruptions is a significant factor in system reliability/quality, both in documenting the system performance and in modeling the system for the purpose of evaluating competing design options. This paper presents interruption duration operating data for a large utility over an eight year operating period. It examines the potential of the Weibull and Burr probability distributions for modeling the durations.
Artistic narratives of self-concept during pregnancy☆

Abstract This article explores how a woman's self-concept, as expressed in art, changes during her journey toward motherhood in her first pregnancy. The event of pregnancy was examined through verbally framed artistic narratives of a woman's experience of self during her pregnancy with her first child. The three women interviewed all had their first child within the 2 years before the qualitative interview. As part of the interview process, participants created artistic self-symbols to explore changes in self-concept. The narratives created in this study show a definite change in self-symbols as the pregnancy progressed. Symbols move from abstract to concrete, representations of the baby all become larger or more prominent, and colors move from cooler to warmer. There are specific indications of the child within from the beginning of the pregnancy. Jungian theory of archetypal symbols was utilized in the analysis of artistic data. The art suggests that the mother-identity is formed at the earliest stage of pregnancy, and grows in the woman's concept of self throughout the entire pregnancy. This researcher utilized artistic analysis to come to a deeper understanding of the symbolic meaning of a woman's transition to motherhood during a first pregnancy.
Relationship of Broken Root Canal Instruments to Endodontic Case Prognosis: A Clinical Investigation

Opinion has differed on the prognosis of endodontically treated teeth in which intracanal instrument breakage has occurred. Clinical and radiographic examination of 53 cases completed two or more years before the study showed that in most cases the broken instrument had not resulted in failure. Consequently, tooth extraction or corrective surgery after instrument breakage is thought inadvisable.
Curvatures of the DIP joints of the hand

Background The distal interphalangeal (DIP) joints of the hand are highly susceptible to osteoarthritis and trauma. Surgical treatment options mandate accurate characterization of their osseous anatomy; however, there are few studies that describe this. We describe the curvatures of the DIP joints by measuring the bone morphology using advanced imaging and modeling methods.
Studies on the transport mechanism of 5-methyltetrahydrofolic acid in freshly isolated hepatocytes: Effect of ethanol

Abstract The effect of ethanol on the transport of 5-methyltetrahydrofolate in freshly isolated hepatocytes in vitro resulted in about a 30% increase in accumulation of substrate. It was shown that this was not due to differences in metabolism, nor to an inhibition of efflux. Preincubation with 40 m m ethanol for 45 min resulted in a significantly increased rate of entry of 5-methyltetrahydrofolate into the cells. The stimulatory effect was specific to 5-methyltetrahydrofolate since ethanol inhibited uptake of folate and methotrexate. The increased uptake was due to metabolism of ethanol as shown by studies with pyrazole. Also, the n -alkanols, propanol through pentanol, and sorbitol but not methanol were stimulatory. Anaerobiosis and sodium azide stimulated uptake of 5-methyl-tetrahydrofolate but were inhibitory to methotrexate uptake. These data, taken together, suggest that the ethanol effect is due to increased entry of 5-CH 3 -H 4 PteGlu into the cells possibly as the result of an increased cellular NADH NAD ratio.
RNA degradation in cell extracts: Real-time monitoring by fluorescence resonance energy transfer

Short noncoding RNAs are increasingly recognized as key regulators of essential cellular processes such as RNA interference. A better understanding of the processes by which such RNAs are degraded is necessary to expand our knowledge of these processes and our ability to harness them. To this end we have developed a novel fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) assay to monitor in real-time the degradation kinetics of short RNAs by a purified RNase and S100 cytosolic HeLa cell extract. An unstructured RNA is found to be degraded more rapidly than a stem−loop RNA under all conditions tested except for low concentrations of cell extract, showing that secondary structure confers protection against RNase activity. The assay also allows for the quantitative comparison of inhibitors such as Contrad70 and aurin tricarboxylic acid (ATA). Finally, gel electrophoretic FRET analysis confirms that HeLa cell extract is dominated by 5‘ to 3‘ exonucleolytic activity.
108 HIF‐I and VEGF Regulation in Ischemia

Epithelialization and vascularization are key elements involved in the repair of cutaneous wounds. One method of regulation for these pathways is expression of a signaling molecule known as Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), which, in turn, is regulated by the transcription factor Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1 (HIF-1). It has been suggested that chronic wounds, which are most commonly located in ischemic tissue among the elderly, may be the result of a loss of function in the VEGF regulation pathway. Using our rat back flap model, which demonstrates the negative influences of age and ischemia on wound healing, we examined the relative expression of HIF-1 and VEGF in aged and young rats at 3,7, and 10 days post-wounding. Four full-thickness biopsy punches (7 mm) were made on the back of each aged and young rat. The rostral wound pair was made ischemic by raising a transverse flap (1.8 cm wide × 8 cm length). The caudal wound pair served as a non-ischemic control. Inserting a sterilized polyethylene sheet under both ischemic and nonischemic wounds prevented wound contraction. RNA was extracted from the tissue at the specified time points, and run on Real-Time PCR to determine relative expression of VEGF and HIF-1. Preliminary data suggest that, at the 3 day time point, there is a significant increase in both HIF-1 and VEGF expression in young rats under ischemic conditions and a significant increase in VEGF expression in aged rats under ischemia with a strong (but not significant) trend towards increase in HIF-1 as well. While the rat model does not produce significant differences between aged and young animals, this upregulation under ischemia indicates that HIF-1 and VEGF expression may play a vital role in the early signaling of ischemic wound repair.
Computationally efficient deblurring of shift-variant highly defocused images

A localized and efficient iterative approach is presented for deblurring images that are highly defocused with arbitrary shift-variant point spread functions (PSF). This approach extends a recently proposed local technique, the RT technique, which works only for medium levels of blur to work for significantly higher levels of blur. The RT technique is used to localize the blurring kernel at each pixel, and a region around the pixel with size comparable to the size of the blurring kernel is divided into several smaller regions (intervals). The blurred image in each interval is modeled separately by truncated Taylor-series polynomials. This step improves the accuracy of the image model for low order truncated Taylor-series expansions. The blurred image value at each pixel is expressed as the sum of multiple partial blur integrals with each integral term corresponding to one interval. Then an expression is derived for the focused image value at a pixel in terms of the derivatives of the blurred image in the central image region and solutions in the surrounding regions. This expression is solved iteratively at each pixel in parallel to obtain a focused image. The starting solution is assumed to be either zero or the blurred image itself. It is found that this new technique can effectively invert large blurs for which the original RT method failed. In our experiments the truncated Taylor series expansion was limited to third order. Theory and algorithms as well as experimental results on both simulation and real data are presented.
Ozone destruction and bromine photochemistry at ground level in the Arctic spring

RECENT Arctic field studies in the spring at Alert, Canada (82.5° N, 62.3° W), show that ground-level ozone concentrations fell from 30–40 parts per 109 (p.p.b.) to almost 0 p.p.b. in a period of time ranging from a few hours to a few days (Fig. I)1,2. Simultaneously, the concentration of brominated species collected on cellulose filters increases dramatically, with 50% or more of this bromine attributed to gaseous compounds such as HBr1,3. The dramatic change in surface ozone and increase in filterable bromine seem to be due to advection of air below the inversion layer off the polar ice cap; in this air mass, surface ozone has been depleted and filterable bromine formed from photochemical reactions involving bromine compounds1. Here we report laboratory experiments and computer kinetic modelling studies which indicate that the photochemically active bromine compound may be nitryl bromide (BrNO2), formed in the reaction4 of N2O5 with NaBr found in sea-salt particles. BrNO2 will photolyse rapidly at sunrise, forming ozone-destroying bromine atoms. We propose key field experiments to test this hypothesis.
CROSSLINKING OF AMINOPHOSPHOLIPIDS IN CELLULAR MEMBRANES OF LENS BY OXIDATIVE STRESS IN VITRO

Abstract We have previously demonstrated by TLC an additional phospholipid spot between phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and phosphatidylserine (PS) in human cataract. This was furtheridentified as a fluorescent Schiff-base conjugate resulting from crosslinking of reactive carbonyl groups of malondialdehyde (MDA) with the primary amino groups of membrane phospholipids. Evidence presented here shows that such an adduct could be formed in rabbit lens subjected to oxidative stress in vitro. TLC analysis of a lipid extract of a crude membrane fraction obtained from the lens homogenate incubated with 1 mM H 2 O 2 , tert -butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) or MDA for 1–6 h at 25°C, showed that the oxidants and MDA produced time-dependent crosslinking of aminophospholipids. Under identical conditions of incubation with TBHP or MDA, development of the Schiff-base lipid fluorochrome in lens with peak emission at 470 nm when excited at 360 nm also showed a time-dependent increase. The PE · MDA · PS produced in cellular membranes of the lenses cultured for 3 h in Krebs-Ringer medium was 151 nmol/μmol PE, and addition of 1 mM H 2 O 2 , TBHP or MDA, increased it to 881, 610 and 375 nmol/μmol PE, respectively. Adduct was also formed when authentic samples of PE and PS were reacted with pure MDA. From the results it is clear that oxidants viz., H 2 O 2 and TBHP, or MDA were effective in promoting crosslinking of lens membrane aminophospholipids by Schiff-base conjugation of primary amino groups with the carbonyl groups of the aldehyde, a breakdown product of lipid peroxides.
Current trends in the analysis of co-management arrangements in coral reef ecosystems: a social–ecological systems perspective

Co-management refers to various power sharing and participatory decision-making arrangements between government(s) and marine resource users for managing marine resources, such as fisheries. Marine co-management arrangements have proliferated across the globe since ca. 1970s, and recently Elinor Ostrom's [ 1• ] social–ecological framework has been used to evaluate their efficacy for sustaining social–ecological systems (SES). We review Ostrom's framework and recent studies that use it to evaluate marine co-management arrangements, and comparatively review the findings and discuss their importance. Our review illustrates the evolving nature of Ostrom's framework, shows promise for using it to evaluate marine co-management arrangements, and provides summative evidence showing both positive and negative implications for using marine co-management in coupled social–ecological systems.
The state of somatosensory cortex during neuromodulation

During behavioral quiescence, such as slow-wave sleep and anesthesia, the neocortex is in a deactivated state characterized by the presence of slow oscillations. During arousal, slow oscillations are absent and the neocortex is in an activated state that greatly impacts information processing. Neuromodulators acting in neocortex are believed to mediate these state changes, but the mechanisms are poorly understood. We investigated the actions of noradrenergic and cholinergic activation on slow oscillations, cellular excitability, and synaptic inputs in thalamocortical slices of somatosensory cortex. The results show that neuromodulation abolishes slow oscillations, dampens the excitability of principal cells, and rebalances excitatory and inhibitory synaptic inputs in thalamocortical-recipient layers IV–III. Sensory cortex is much more selective about the inputs that can drive it. The source of neuromodulation is critically important in determining this selectivity. Cholinergic activation suppresses the excitatory and inhibitory conductances driven by thalamocortical and intracortical inputs. Noradrenergic activation suppresses the excitatory conductance driven by intracortical inputs but not by thalamocortical inputs and enhances the inhibitory conductance driven by thalamocortical inputs but not by intracortical inputs. Thus noradrenergic activation emphasizes thalamocortical (sensory) inputs relative to intracortical inputs, while cholinergic activation suppresses both.
Continuous cartogram construction

Area cartograms are used for visualizing geographically distributed data by attaching measurements to regions of a map and scaling the regions such that their areas are proportional to the measured quantities. A continuous area cartogram is a cartogram that is constructed without changing the underlying map topology. We present a new algorithm for the construction of continuous area cartograms that was developed by viewing their construction as a constrained optimization problem. The algorithm uses a relaxation method that exploits hierarchical resolution, constrained dynamics, and a scheme that alternates goals of achieving correct region areas and adjusting region shapes. It is compared favorably to existing methods in its ability to preserve region shape recognition cues, while still achieving high accuracy.
Alzheimer's disease and other dementing illnesses in a defined united states population: Incidence rates and clinical features

In this study, for the first time to our knowledge, all new cases of Alzheimer's disease and other dementing illnesses have been documented in a well-defined United States community. A total of 178 patients in an average annual at-risk population of 18,991 persons over age 29 developed dementia during 1960 through 1964 in Rochester, Minnesota, yielding an average annual incidence rate of 187.5 new cases/100,000/year. The corresponding rate for clinically and/or pathologically diagnosed Alzheimer's disease (the most common cause of dementia in this community) was 123.3 new cases/100,000/year, based on 117 cases. The incidence rates for both dementia in general and Alzheimer's disease in particular rise dramatically with age. All patients were followed to death or to 1982, and the median survival was 63 months. These data include only those in the community who came to medical attention, but they yield higher rates than studies in Scandinavia, indicating a relatively high level of case ascertainment.
A Method for Occlusal Reshaping

A method for occlusal reshaping is described using a step-by-step analysis starting from the articulation of models to the completion of the clinical procedures. Several newly introduced definitions are provided to help the reader understand the procedures. This article is divided into three parts: (1) the preliminary procedures, (2) the occlusal reshaping of the study casts, and (3) the clinical occlusal reshaping. The advantages of this particular method include establishment of anterior guidance before initiating posterior reshaping procedures, maintenance of maximum cusp height and fossae depth, the placement of forces along the mid vertical axis of the teeth, and the establishment of simultaneous even contact of the posterior teeth, while providing the desirable anterior guidance.