cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Characteristics of paraterphenyl as a detector in the extreme ultraviolet

The performance of a paraterphenyl-coated 1P21 multiplier has been studied in the extreme ultraviolet from 125 to 325 A. The light source was a vacuum spark between aluminum electrodes with a peak current of 30 kA. A number of lines from the fourth, fifth, and sixth spectra of aluminum were observed and the results were compared with those of earlier work in this laboratory in which Kodak SWR photographic plates, a Bendix resistance-strip photomultiplier, and a sodium salicylate-coated photomultiplier were compared. The paraterphenyl, which was vacuum evaporated on a cover glass to a thickness of 2.74 mg/cm2, was found to be stable over a period of at least 10 days in the vacuum spectrograph. Its relative efficiency in the range from 312 to 200 A is more nearly constant than that of the other three detectors. Below 161 A the response of all the detectors decreases. Paraterphenyl appears to be a sensitive and highly satisfactory detector in the region below 325 A.
Correlations between Bond, Backbone, and Side Chain Dihedral Angles Enable Changes Among Different Dipeptide Configurations

Despite recent improvements in computational methods for protein design, we still lack a fundamental understanding of protein structure and interactions even at the scale of individual amino acids. We therefore perform Langevin dynamics simulations of model dipeptides that include only hard-sphere and geometric constraints to gain a predictive understanding of the distributions of backbone and side chain dihedral angles in proteins of known structure. We study alanine, isoleucine, leucine, and phenylalanine dipeptides and identify correlations between bond angles, backbone, and sidechain dihedral angles as the dipeptides change from one backbone configuration to another or between different side-chain rotamers. We also compare our results for the backbone and side chain dihedral angle distributions to those obtained from the latest versions of the CHARMM and AMBER force fields. Finally, we use our hard-sphere dipeptide models to assess the change in stability of staphylococcal nuclease following a number of point mutations. These studies serve as a first step in developing the ability to quantitatively rank the energies of designed protein constructs.
Unions and private wage supplements

Private wage supplements are an important part of total compensation. A model of workers’ supplement expenditures is developed which shows that, although the expenditure determinants sometimes differ between broad industry/occupation subsamples, earnings, price effects of preferential tax treatment and economies of group purchase, unionization, the product market power of the firm, and worker age are usually significant determinants of supplement expenditures. The firm’s goal of reducing turnover costs as well as demographic, locational, and industry variables also systematically affect supplement expenditures. Supplements usually increase progressively with wages, indicating that often made proportionality assumptions are invalid.
Estimating third molar extraction difficulty: a comparison of subjective and objective factors.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to compare and contrast subjective and objective assessments of variables associated with third molar (M3) extraction difficulty. Materials and methods To address the research purpose we implemented a prospective cohort study and enrolled a sample of surgeons removing M3s in an ambulatory care setting. Predictor variables were categorized as demographic, anatomic, or operative. The outcome variables were subjective and objective rankings of the importance of the variables in terms of estimating M3 extraction difficulty. Subjective rankings were made by surveying the surgeons and asking them to rank each variable’s importance on a scale ranging from 0 (not important) to 100 (extremely important). Objective rankings of each variable’s importance were made using the absolute values of coefficients derived from a multivariate linear regression model with extraction time as the outcome. Appropriate uni-, bi-, and multivariate statistics were computed. Results The sample consisted of 14 surgeons who removed 450 M3s from 150 subjects from June 2002 to August 2003. Based on the multivariate linear regression model, variables associated with M3 extraction time were gender, arch location, Winter’s classification, tooth morphology, number of teeth extracted, procedure type, and surgical experience. For these variables, there was a strong, statistically significant correlation ( r = 0.86; P Conclusion There was a large, positive correlation between variables that surgeons consider most important in determining M3 extraction difficulty and those exhibiting the most influence over extraction times in a multivariate model.
New isocyanate-specific albumin adducts of 4,4'-methylenediphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) in rats.

4,4′-Methylenediphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) is the most important of the isocyanates used as intermediates in the chemical industry. Among the main types of damage after exposure to low levels of MDI are lung sensitization and asthma. Albumin adducts of MDI might be involved in the etiology of sensitization reactions. It is, therefore, necessary to have sensitive and specific methods for monitoring the isocyanate exposure of workers. To date, urinary metabolites or protein adducts have been used as biomarkers in workers exposed to MDI. However, with these methods it is not possible to determine whether the biomarkers result from exposure to MDI or to the parent aromatic amine 4,4′-methylenedianiline (MDA). This work presents a procedure for the determination of isocyanate-specific albumin adducts. In a long-term experiment, designed to determine the carcinogenic and toxic effects of MDI, rats were exposed chronically for 3 months, to 0.0 (control), 0.26, 0.70, and 2.06 mg MDI/m3 as aerosols. Albumin was iso...
Evolution of the Orszag-Tang vortex system in a compressible medium. I: Initial average subsonic flow

In this paper the results of fully compressible, Fourier collocation, numerical simulations of the Orszag–Tang vortex system are presented. The initial conditions for this system consist of a nonrandom, periodic field in which the magnetic and velocity field contain X points but differ in modal structure along one spatial direction. The velocity field is initially solenoidal, with the total initial pressure field consisting of the superposition of the appropriate incompressible pressure distribution upon a flat pressure field corresponding to the initial, average Mach number of the flow. In these numerical simulations, this initial Mach number is varied from 0.2–0.6. These values correspond to average plasma beta values ranging from 30.0 to 3.3, respectively. It is found that compressible effects develop within one or two Alfven transit times, as manifested in the spectra of compressible quantities such as the mass density and the nonsolenoidal flow field. These effects include (1) a retardation of growth of correlation between the magnetic field and the velocity field, (2) the emergence of compressible small‐scale structure such as massive jets, and (3) bifurcation of eddies in the compressible flow field. Differences between the incompressible and compressible results tend to increase with increasing initial average Mach number.
Migraine, psychiatric disorders, and suicide attempts: An epidemiologic study of young adults

To determine the prevalence of migraine and the risks for psychiatric disorders and suicide attempts associated with it, we studied a random sample of 1,007 young adults from a large Health Maintenance Organization in the Detroit, MI area. The lifetime prevalence of migraine was 7% in males and 16.3% in females. The rate of migraine was higher in persons with lower education and was equal in whites and blacks. Persons with migraine were at increased risk for affective and anxiety disorders, nicotine dependence, and alcohol or illicit drug abuse or dependence. There was a consistent trend toward higher psychiatric comorbidity in migraine with aura than in migraine without aura. Coexisting anxiety, which generally preceded migraine, was associated with a marked increase in the odds of major depression. Persons with migraine had higher rates of suicide attempts than persons without migraine. The odds ratio for suicide attempts, adjusted for coexisting major depression and other psychiatric and substance use disorders, in migraine with aura was 3.0 (95% confidence interval, 1.4-6.6). The coexistence of migraine with major depression, anxiety disorders, and suicide attempts has important clinical and research implications.
National identity lite Nation branding in post-Communist Romania and Bulgaria

This article examines the efforts of post-communist Romania and Bulgaria to reinvent their national images through the use of nation branding. After the collapse of communism in 1989, former commun...
Apparent activation of the MgATP-dependent protein phosphatase by pp60v-src identification of an activity like that of glycogen synthase kinase 3 in immunoaffinity purified pp60v-src preparations

Abstract Immunoaffinity purified pp60 v-src was found to activate the MgATP-dependent protein phosphatase in the presence of MgATP. Although preliminary evidence suggested that phosphorylation of the inhibitor-2 subunit on tyrosine residues was responsible for the activation, preincubation of the pp60 v-src preparation at 41°C resulted in a rapid loss of its protein kinase activities towards both casein and inhibitor-2 while its ability to activate the protein phosphatase complex was relatively insensitive to this treatment. This result demonstrated that pp60 v-src was not responsible for activation of the MgATP-dependent protein phosphatase. A protein kinase activity which phosphorylated glycogen synthase on serine residues was detected in the pp60 v-src preparation. The protein kinase was active in the presence of inhibitors of phosphorylase kinase, glycogen synthase kinase 5/casein kinase II, and cAMP-dependent protein kinase. It is, therefore, likely that activation of the MgATP-dependent protein phosphatase resulted from the presence of a glycogen synthase kinase 3 like activity in the pp60 v-src preparation. Our results illustrate the importance of applying multiple criteria to link the phosphorylation of a protein with an observed change in its activity.
New tricks for modelers from the crystallography toolkit: the particle mesh Ewald algorithm and its use in nucleic acid simulations.

We thank the North Carolina Supercomputing Center, the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and the National Cancer Institute Supercomputing Center for access to resources. LGP thanks the National Institutes of Health for HL-06350 and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) for access to their facilities.
Distal Femoral Arthroplasty for the Treatment of Periprosthetic Fractures After Total Knee Arthroplasty

Periprosthetic fractures after total knee arthroplasty present substantial challenge if associated with poor bone stock, fracture comminution, and loose or damaged components. Revision total knee arthroplasty with distal femoral arthroplasty is often necessary in these injuries. We reviewed 20 patients (22 knees) with a mean age of 69.5 years who underwent revision with distal femoral arthroplasty fracture. Patients were followed for an average of 58.6 months. At the latest follow-up, the mean Knee Society knee and functional score were 82.8 and 40, and the Short Form 36 mean physical functioning and mental functioning scores were 55.8 and 65.6, respectively. There were 10 postoperative complications with 5 patients requiring additional surgery. Distal femoral arthroplasty seems to be a viable option for complex periprosthetic femoral fractures after total knee arthroplasty. However, considering the relatively high rate of complications, this procedure should be reserved for patients where alternative treatments are not possible.
Cyber security risk assessment for SCADA and DCS networks

The growing dependence of critical infrastructures and industrial automation on interconnected physical and cyber-based control systems has resulted in a growing and previously unforeseen cyber security threat to supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and distributed control systems (DCSs). It is critical that engineers and managers understand these issues and know how to locate the information they need. This paper provides a broad overview of cyber security and risk assessment for SCADA and DCS, introduces the main industry organizations and government groups working in this area, and gives a comprehensive review of the literature to date. Major concepts related to the risk assessment methods are introduced with references cited for more detail. Included are risk assessment methods such as HHM, IIM, and RFRM which have been applied successfully to SCADA systems with many interdependencies and have highlighted the need for quantifiable metrics. Presented in broad terms is probability risk analysis (PRA) which includes methods such as FTA, ETA, and FEMA. The paper concludes with a general discussion of two recent methods (one based on compromise graphs and one on augmented vulnerability trees) that quantitatively determine the probability of an attack, the impact of the attack, and the reduction in risk associated with a particular countermeasure.
Alcohol reduces neurofilament pritein levels in primary cultured hippocampal neurons

High concentrations of alcohol (> or = 1.8%) were shown previously to impair health and viability of cultured hippocampal neurons. Because neurofilament proteins are essential for neuronal process outgrowth and differentiation, the effects of alcohol on these proteins were determined in the neuronal processes of primary cultured gestational day 18 rat hippocampal neurons. At the relatively lower concentrations used in the present study, alcohol caused a concentration-dependent reduction (< or = 47%) in 68 and 200 kDa neurofilament proteins (p < 0.05). Alcohol caused a 32% downward trend in 160 kDa neurofilament protein levels. Alcohol up to 1% (72-h exposure) produced no obvious alterations in neurite extension or explant morphology, and there were no visual signs of cell death. The sensitive MTT dye reduction assay showed no biochemical evidence of decreased cell viability at < or = 0.5% alcohol. The 32-47% reductions in neurofilament protein levels in vitro may hold implications for later hippocampal neuronal differentiation events in animals prenatally exposed to alcohol.
LEVOSIMENDAN, A MYOFILAMENT CALCIUM SENSITIZER, ENHANCES LEFT VENTRICULAR MECHANICAL FUNCTION IN CONSCIOUS DOGS

Introduction : Levosimendan (L; OrionFarmos Pharmaceuticals) is a novel myofilament calcium sensitizer with phosphodiesterase III inhibiting properties which increases contractile state in vitro by stabilizing calcium-induced changes in troponin C. This investigation examined the effects of L on left ventricular (LV) systolic and diastolic function in conscious dogs with intact or blocked autonomic nervous system (ANS) reflexes.
Virologic Features of Sapporo-like Human Calicivirus Infections During an Outbreak in a Houston Child Care Center 432

Virologic Features of Sapporo-like Human Calicivirus Infections During an Outbreak in a Houston Child Care Center 432
A Study Of Porous Cordierite As A Potential Candidate For VLSI Dielectric Substrates

Porous substrates of a low dielectric constant (K) ceramic such as cordierite offer the opportunity to produce substrates with very low composite K values. This is attractive in VLSI packages because a low K allows the package to operate at higher frequencies. However, the porosity causes problems with conduction line integrity and thermal conductivity. These problems could be relieved somewhat if the pores were filled with a second phase such as glass. Various mixing laws are available to predict the resultant K value in a two phase mixture and these have been applied with some success. The research reported here involves a quantitative analysis of the volume fraction of porosity and pore size distribution in several cordierite compositions processed in various ways. These data are correlated with measurements of density and dielectric constant. They are also compared to several mixing laws to evaluate the relative fit between quantitative volume fraction measurements and density measurements. Finally, the results of this research are analyzed with respect to other recent research on porous substrate ceramics to identify the direction for future work.
Hydrologic and topographic variability modulate channel change in mountain rivers

Summary The relationships between flow hydrology, topography, and channel change in mountain rivers is important to understanding landscape evolution, the structure and persistence of aquatic habitat, and also the physiochemical cycling of upstream derived organic and inorganic materials. There is a paucity of detailed studies that analyze the joint roles of hydrology and topography in controlling multiple mechanisms of channel change in mountain rivers. In this study, gravel and cobble channel change in a bedrock river canyon were analyzed in light of a controlled yet natural experiment where 4491 metric tonnes of rounded gravel and cobble was augmented below a sediment-barrier dam in a 1200 m long mountain river reach that had no prior sources of rounded gravel or cobble and still experiences floods above the bankfull discharge. The overall study goal was to investigate how flow hydrology can modulate multiple channel change processes depending on the topographic features engaged by the flow. Channel change was assessed via differencing of high resolution repeat topographic and bathymetric surveys, along with cm-scale aerial photography post injection. Statistical tests used to implicate topographic feature-specific mechanisms of channel change that vary with discharge included analyzing geomorphic covariance structures of flow dependent width, bed elevation, and channel change as well as autocorrelation of flow width spatial series. Stage dependent topographic steering was inferred from associations of erosion and deposition with changes in 2D model derived flow directions at multiple discharges. A variety of mechanisms of channel change were qualitatively and quantitatively confirmed including particle hiding, topographic steering, eddying, and flow convergence. No single mechanism explained the observed patterns of channel change but rather it is thought that process-blending occurs, as modulated by the interactions of flow hydrology with complex topography. Results from this study suggest that both existing channel boundary variability and input hydrologic variability work together to create hydrodynamic spatial patterns that control the fate and transport of sediments in mountain rivers and ultimately their spatial structure.
Numerical and temporal relationships in a three-level food chain

Densities were examined in natural populations consisting of horsenettle (Solanum carolinense), larvae of a horsenettle-specific phytophagous moth (Frumenta nundinella), and a polyphagous parasitoid wasp (Scambus pterophori), that parasitized the moth. Herbivore and parasitoid densities were both positively associated with fruit density, but moth larval density was linear while parasitoid density increased parabolically; thus, optimum moth survivorship was at intermediate moth densities. There was no evidence of escape from herbivory in time by plant populations due to either mean flowering date or a spread of flowering in seasonal time. However, one plant population and one moth population apparently escaped in space due to isolated location. Although plant reproductive success is reduced whether or not moth larvae are parasitized, both presence of a numerical herbivore refuge and parasitoid attack at high fruit and moth densities would be expected to stabilize long-term temporal dynamics of this simple food chain.
Charge Dependence of the Energy Spectra of Cosmic Rays

WHEN the abundance of elements in galactic cosmic rays is compared with the universal abundance1, galactic cosmic rays are found to be very highly enriched in heavier elements. A similar enrichment has been reported recently based on comparisons of solar energetic particles and solar photospheric and coronal abundances (ref. 2 and J. D. Sullivan, P. B. Price and H. J. Crawford at the Solar Physics Division meeting of AAS, Univ. Maryland, April 1972). The high energy universe composed of suprathermal particles is apparently richer in heavy nuclei than the thermal universe. The reason for this has been sought in the possible preferential acceleration of energetic particles of higher atomic number Z (refs 3 and 4). We report new experimental results in the energy range 3 to 50 GeV nucleon−1 which indicate that the well known enrichment of heavy nuclei in cosmic rays is increasing with increasing energy.
Transgenic mice for the study of diabetes mellitus

Several recent studies have utilized transgenic technology to explore basic questions in the pathophysiology of diabetes mellitus. The ultimate expression of altered glucose homeostasis is a theme common to them. The experimental models have been diverse, however, and, in some instances, resulted in unexpected biologic effects. Many of the studies have examined the autoimmune etiology of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus by expressing regulatory molecules of the immune system as transgenes in islet β cells. The molecules have included products of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), cytokines, and other cell surface antigens. Ectopic expression of these transgenes resulted in altered immune responses directed against islets, and these transgenic mice now serve as important models to study mechanisms of immunologic tolerance. Transgenic technology is also being used to explore basic aspects of islet β-cell physiology and insulin metabolism. β-cell function is disrupted by transgenic β-cell expression of molecules such as calmodulin and H- ras . Hyperexpression of insulin as a transgene can result in a syndrome resembling features of non-insulin-dependent diabetes.
Glycoprotein gB of herpes simplex virus expresses type‐common and type‐specific antigenic determinants in vivo

Four monoclonal antibodies directed against glycoprotein B of herpes simplex virus were evaluated for their ability to immunize mice passively against acute virus-induced neurological illness and death when administered intraperitoneally 2 hours prior to footpad challenge with type 1 or type 2 virus. Two monoclonal antibodies, H120 and H157, failed to reduce the severity of neurological disease in infected animals. In contrast, H233 and H368 antibodies provided significant protection in type-common and type-specific fashions, respectively. A direct correlation was observed between in vitro neutralization and in vivo protection. These results provide the first in vivo evidence that glycoprotein gB of herpes simplex virus expresses both type-common and type-specific determinants during the evolution of acute virus-induced neurological disease.
EFFECT OF TEXTILE QUOTA RESTRICTIONS ON U.S. COTTON TEXTILE IMPORTS BETWEEN 1964 AND 1973

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of U.S. cotton textile quotas on cotton textiles imported into the U.S. between 1964 and 1973. The findings showed that cotton imports requiring more processing stages had significantly greater 10-year average prices than other groups. Changes in the dollar value of imported cotton textiles during the decade have mainly occurred because of an increase in the average prices rather than resulting from a redistribution of imports from low to high average price groups. The weakening correlation between changes in the dollar value and in the quantity of high unit value groups indicated that the control on quantity has not precluded increases in total dollar value of imports in higher processing stages, especially since 1970. Since fabrics with a relatively stable average price accounted for the major importation of cotton textiles during the 1964–1973 period, the overall control by quantity in this decade was still quite good, even though average prices of apparel were rising.
Strangeness enhancement in p–A collisions: Consequences for the interpretation of strangeness production in A–A collisions

Published measurements of semi-inclusiveproduction in p-Au collisions at the AGS are used to estimate the yields of singly strange hadrons in nucleus-nucleus (A-A) collisions. Results of a described extrapolation technique are shown and com- pared to measurements of K + production in Si-Al, Si-Au, and Au-Au collisions at the AGS and netproduction in S-S, S-Ag, Pb-Pb, and inclusive p-A collisions at the SPS. The extrapolations can account for more than 75% of the measured strange particle yields in all of the studied systems except for very central Au+Au collisions at the AGS where RQMD comparisons suggest large re-scattering contributions. Strange particle production has long been considered an important experimen- tal probe of heavy ion collisions due to the possibility that strange particle
Transcriptional network structure has little effect on the rate of regulatory evolution in yeast

Studies in evolutionary developmental biology suggest that the structure of genetic pathways may bias the fixation of natural variation toward particular nodes in these pathways. In an attempt to test this trend genome wide, we integrated several previously published data sets to examine whether the position of genes in the whole-genome transcriptional network of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is associated with the amount of cis-regulatory expression divergence between S. cerevisiae and its sibling species Saccharomyces paradoxus. We find little evidence for an association between connectivity and divergence in the global network that combines data from multiple conditions. However, relationships between connectivity and divergence are apparent in some of the smaller subnetworks. Despite a slight tendency for genes with more transcriptional interactions to show greater divergence, these differences explain no more than a small fraction of variation in evolutionary rates. These results suggest that the systems biology focus on large interactomes may miss some critical details of local interactions. More detailed experimental analysis will be needed to define the genetic pathways that control specific phenotypic traits and quantify the rate of regulatory changes at different points in these pathways.
Matchmaking software agents in B2B markets

Software agents, artificial intelligent "representatives" of the interests of supply chain participants, enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of business to business (B2B) e-commerce systems that support modern supply chains. The inter-organizational transaction flow starts with a matchmaking process in which suppliers' agents are matched with demanders' agents. The matched agents then negotiate either directly or with the aid of an arbiter. The deal agreed to by the negotiating agents is then executed. The matchmaking and arbitration processes support the achievement of transactions that benefits both sides over many repeated transactions. Matchmaking pairs agents with the least conflicting interests, and arbitration seeks consensus between the negotiating parties within reasonable time and costs while discouraging insincere behavior by the participants. Both processes require a trusted, honest intermediary to achieve appropriate matchmaking and arbiter consensus among all the parties. In this paper we analyze matchmaking in a stable two sided market, where each seller is matched with a single buyer, and all agents on both sides are matched. We discuss matchmaking in conjunction with arbitration protocols, and analyze their performance through simulation.
Covert texting during simulated driving maneuvers: effects of head-up versus head-down posture

The deleterious effects of distracted driving are pushing lawmakers to enact legal prohibitions against the use of text messaging services while operating a motor vehicle. However, in states where such prohibitions have been enacted the crash rate has actually increased. One possible explanation of this paradox is that prohibition laws may cause many drivers to conceal their text messaging behavior rather than eliminate it. Holding a cell phone out-of-sight to conceal texting behavior may be accompanied by prolonged loss of visual contact with the road resulting in a concomitant reduction in driving performance. An exploratory study was conducted to assess the effects of text messaging upon simulated driving performance. Sixteen participants performed the Lane Change Task (LCT) in a driving simulator under three experimental conditions: (1) baseline driving without texting, (2) texting while holding the cell phone at steering wheel level (head-up condition) and (3) texting while holding the cell phone out-of-view from other drivers (head-down condition). The efficiency of the required lane change maneuvers was significantly degraded while participants were engaged in text messaging behavior relative to the baseline driving condition. However, no evidence was found to support the hypothesis that attempts to conceal text messaging behavior (head-down condition) resulted in greater decrements to driving performance than texting without attempts at concealment (head-up condition). An important limitation of this study was that driving behavior was assessed only in terms of the efficiency of steering maneuvers. More sophisticated simulation protocols that assess hazard detection and avoidance behaviors may be more sensitive to the loss of situation awareness hypothesized to accompany attempts to conceal text messaging behavior while driving. Language: en
A FIBER-OPTIC TECHNIQUE FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF CONTACT ANGLE IN A CLEARANCE-FIT PIN-LOADED HOLE

A fiber-optic technique for measuring contact angle during pin loading of a specimen is proposed. The experimental design and procedures for loading a 49.8-mm-diameter instrumented pin into an quasi-isotropic graphite-epoxy specimen are described. The optical fiber was located just above the surface of the pin outer diameter in order to obtain accurate pin-hole contact-angle measurements at increasing load levels. The movement of the optical fiber through the no-contact, contact, and no-contact regions is discussed; the photodiode output decreased monotonically as the fiber moved from the no-contact to the contact region and then decreased monotonically as the fiber moved from the contact region to the no-contact region. Variations in the contact angle measurements are examined as function of applied load level. The measurements are compared to contact angle values obtained using a finite element analysis and an electrical technique; it is determined that the data correlate well.
Physical Therapists’ Perceptions of Providing Services to Adults With Childhood-Onset Neuromotor Disabilities

ABSTRACTAdults with childhood-onset neuromotor disabilities face problems accessing health care services. There are often challenges finding primary care providers or specialized providers, such as physical therapists, who are knowledgeable about neuromotor disabilities. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of physical therapists regarding (a) barriers to providing therapy to adults with childhood-onset neuromotor disabilities and (b) resources that would be beneficial for improving and/or providing these services. An online questionnaire was sent to 1,250 therapists licensed in Oregon and Southwest Washington. One hundred fifty-two physical therapists responded resulting in a 12% response rate. The top three barriers to providing therapy were extra time for complex patients, lack of insurance coverage, and lack of experience. The three most frequently cited resource needs included information on equipment, continuing education, and written educational materials. These findings sugge...
Similarity of position frequency matrices for transcription factor binding sites

Motivation: Transcription-factor binding sites (TFBS) in promoter sequences of higher eukaryotes are commonly modeled using position frequency matrices (PFM). The ability to compare PFMs representing binding sites is especially important for de novo sequence motif discovery, where it is desirable to compare putative matrices to one another and to known matrices. Results: We describe a PFM similarity quantification method based on product multinomial distributions, demonstrate its ability to identify PFM similarity and show that it has a better false positive to false negative ratio compared to existing methods. We grouped TFBS frequency matrices from two libraries into matrix families and identified the matrices that are common and unique to these libraries. We identified similarities and differences between the skeletal-muscle-specific and non-muscle-specific frequency matrices for the binding sites of Mef-2, Myf, Sp-1, SRF and TEF of Wasserman and Fickett. We further identified known frequency matrices and matrix families that were strongly similar to the matrices given by Wasserman and Fickett. We provide methodology and tools to compare and query libraries of frequency matrices for TFBSs. Availability: Software is available to use over the Web at http://rulai.cshl.edu/MatCompare Contact: [email protected] Supplementary information: Database and clustering statistics, matrix families and representatives are available at http://rulai.cshl.edu/MatCompare/Supplementary
Scale-Up of Agrobacterium-Mediated Transient Protein Expression in Bioreactor-Grown Nicotiana glutinosa Plant Cell Suspension Culture

The reporter gene β-glucuronidase was transiently expressed in a 51-L bioreactor-grown plant cell suspension culture of Nicotiana glutinosa at a yield of approximately 1.1 mg through co-culture with an auxotrophic strain of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The three order of magnitude scale-up involved the investigation of factors contributing to transient expression including the timing of Agrobacterium inoculation relative to the plant cell growth phase, plant tissue culture hormonal triggers and plant cell cycle synchronization. The co-culture process was simplified to facilitate implementation in a pilot-scale bioreactor. At the shake flask scale it was determined that elevated concentrations of oxygen in the headspace were detrimental to transient expression levels and the addition of acetosyringone to the co-culture had a negligible effect. The bacterial preparation process was also streamlined, permitting the direct transfer of the Agrobacterium culture from a bench-scale fermentor to the pilot-scale plant cell culture bioreactor. Increasing expression levels and overcoming batch-to-batch variability despite extensive procedure systemization remain the major technical hurdles.
Disparities in injury death location for people with epilepsy/seizures

Abstract Objective Wide variation has been reported in the proportion of injury deaths occurring during the prehospital phase. Potential disparities in where injured people with epilepsy and seizure disorders die have not been examined. We compared location of death between injured patients with epilepsy and seizure disorders and similar patients without epilepsy/seizures and tested the hypothesis that injured people with epilepsy/seizures are more likely to die outside of a hospital or health care setting. Methods U.S. vital statistics (mortality) data from the multiple cause of death files of the National Center for Health Statistics were analyzed. Patients less than 65 years of age at death who had injury as the underlying cause of death were included. Multinomial logistic regression was used to assess location of death, controlling for patient and injury characteristics. Results Controlling for potential confounders, people with epilepsy/seizures were more likely to die at home from unintentional injuries (relative risk ratio [RRR] = 1.51, P P P P Discussion Disparities in where injured people with epilepsy/seizures die deserve further attention. Identifying the underlying causes of these disparities will allow for the development of targeted prevention interventions.
Efficient Estimation of Nested Logit models

This article examines the sequential, full information maximum likelihood (FIML), and linearized maximum likelihood (LML) estimators for a nested logit model of time-of-day choice for work trips. These estimators are compared using a Monte Carlo study based on specification and data from a previously published empirical study. The sequential estimator is found to be much less efficient than LML or FIML, and its uncorrected second-stage standard-error estimates are strongly downward biased. LML is only slightly less efficient than FIML, but it is often easier to compute. There are cases in which the sequential and LML estimators do not exist, but FIML still performs well.
Effectiveness of commercially-available antibiotic-impregnated implants

The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of antibiotic-impregnated implants in the prevention of bone infection. We used a model of contaminated fracture in goats to evaluate four treatment groups: no treatment, hand-made tobramycin-impregnated polymethylmethacrylate beads, commercially-available tobramycin-impregnated calcium sulphate pellets and commercially-available tobramycin-impregnated polymethylmethacrylate beads. Three weeks after intraosseous inoculation with streptomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus tissue cultures showed no evidence of infection in any of the antibiotic-treated groups. All of the cultures were positive in the untreated group. These results show that effective local antibiotic delivery can be obtained with both commercially-available products and with hand-made polymethylmethacrylate beads. The calcium sulphate pellets have the advantage of being bioabsorbable, thereby obviating the need for a second procedure to remove them.
Implications of sleep and energy drink use for health disparities

The popularity of energy drinks has increased rapidly in the past decade. One of the main reasons people use energy drinks is to counteract effects of insufficient sleep or sleepiness. Risks associated with energy drink use, including those related to sleep loss, may be disproportionately borne by racial minorities and those of lower socioeconomic status. In this review, a brief introduction to the issue of health disparities is provided, population-level disparities and inequalities in sleep are described, and the social-ecological model of sleep and health is presented. Social and demographic patterns of energy drink use are then presented, followed by discussion of the potential ways in which energy drink use may contribute to health disparities, including the following: 1) effects of excessive caffeine in energy drinks, 2) effects of energy drinks as sugar-sweetened beverages, 3) association between energy drinks and risk-taking behaviors when mixed with alcohol, 4) association between energy drink use and short sleep duration, and 5) role of energy drinks in cardiometabolic disease. The review concludes with a research agenda of critical unanswered questions.
Resolution of high and low affinity progesterone receptors from human breast carcinoma T47D cells.

Each of four independent experimental approaches showed that human breast carcinoma T47D cells contain both high and low affinity progesterone receptors. (i) Equilibrium-specific [3H]progesterone binding to adherent cultured cells revealed dissociation constants (Kd) of 1.5 and 60 nM and 0.33 and 2.4 X 10(6) sites/cell, respectively. Both the high and low affinity receptors were specific for progestins as demonstrated by steroid binding competition studies conducted at 5 and 50 nM [3H]progesterone. (ii) Equilibrium [3H]progesterone binding to the resolved soluble and particulate fractions from a cell homogenate sedimented at 40,000 X g.min revealed Kd = 1.4 nM high affinity binding sites exclusively in the supernatant fraction and Kd = 24 nM low affinity sites exclusively in the particulate fraction. Extraction of the particulate fraction with a high ionic strength buffer solubilized the low affinity receptors stoichiometrically; but once solubilized, they displayed Kd = 2.4 nM high affinity progesterone binding. Characterizations of 3H-ligand bound specifically to progesterone receptors in intact cells or resolved subcellular fractions revealed no [3H]progesterone metabolites that could account for the low affinity binding. (iii) Calculations based on the rate constants of [3H] progesterone association with or dissociation from adherent cells revealed the same dissociation constants for both high and low affinity binding as those determined by equilibrium measurements. (iv) Nonionic detergent extraction of cells incubated with a wide range of [3H]progesterone concentrations revealed high affinity progesterone binding to receptors in the detergent-soluble fraction and low affinity binding associated primarily with the particulate residue, consistent with the data on equilibrium progesterone binding to resolved cell homogenate fractions. The rate of extraction of the high affinity receptor-progesterone complex with nonionic detergent (t1/2 = 1 min at 0 degrees C) equaled the rate of extraction of a representative lysosomal enzyme, beta-acetylglucosaminidase.
Externally linear, time-invariant systems and their application to companding signal processors

This paper considers externally linear, time-invariant systems which can be internally nonlinear and/or time-varying. Several examples of the synthesis of such systems are presented, and it is argued that they offer advantages in comparison to internally linear, time-invariant systems. In particular, their use in signal processing is considered, and it is shown that they can be designed to reduce the undesirable effects of overloading and noise corruption through the use of companding. It is shown that a variety of previously proposed schemes for this purpose are all related. Several practical problems are discussed, as are performance criteria and types of measurements needed for the evaluation of the systems discussed.
Bioluminescence Assays for Bile Acids in the Detection and Follow-Up of Experimental Liver Injury

We evaluated the usefulness of recently developed bioluminescence assays for serum bile acids (BA) in the detection and follow-up of experimental liver injury. Liver damage was induced in rats by either D-galactosamine or CCl4, and BA were compared to SGPT and aminopyrine breath test (ABT). In severe liver injury, following D-galactosamine administration, all three methods revealed a significant difference from control values. The degree of abnormality was, however, far greater with SGPT and BA than with ABT. In moderate liver injury, induced by CCl4, the increase in BA was not significant. Values of SGPT and BA showed a very good correlation (3 alpha-OH: r = 0.88; 7 alpha-OH: r = 0.90; 12 alpha-OH: r = 0.83; p less than 0.001 for all correlations). Application of different assays for 3 alpha-OH, 7 alpha-OH and 12 alpha-OH BA allowed us to assess changes in individual BA. A 96-hr follow-up study in D-galactosamine-treated animals showed an increase in BA up to 48 hr and a decrease thereafter. The bioluminescence assays for BA are simple, rapid and require only 10 microliter of serum. Thus, these assays may be the method of choice in detecting and monitoring liver injury in small laboratory animals.
Culture and Dissociation in Toraja

This article examines the extent to which some psychoanalytic ideas about dissociation and its correlates are useful in helping us to understand possession behavior and related phenomena in places such as Toraja, Indonesia. Although some of these ideas can be useful to us, data from Toraja challenge us to modify some key psychoanalytic assumptions about dissociation. The article demonstrates how cross-cultural data can be used to broaden our perspectives on the construction and breakdown of human consciousness.
Implications of Ammonia Production and Emissions from Commercial Poultry Facilities: A Review

Abstract For the poultry industry, concerns about ammonia are multifaceted and include issues of live production performance, animal health, and welfare, and environmental impact. Retail industry marketers, as a component of their evolving animal care audit programs, are issuing guidelines for the control and reduction of ammonia within poultry facilities to address animal welfare concerns. At the same time, pressure is being placed on poultry producers from interested groups and neighbors to reduce ammonia emissions for environmental reasons. Since the current procedure for reducing ammonia levels in houses is to exhaust air as much as possible, this will, in some part, conflict with efforts to reduce ammonia emissions from poultry live production facilities. Research will be needed from the industry and academia to develop methods of reducing nitrogen excreted by poultry, e.g., research in nutrition, genetics, poultry husbandry, and management. Research is needed to improve or develop methods of manure management and treatment that will reduce ammonia emissions. Research is also needed in developing methods of closing the loop, using nitrogen in poultry manures to produce crops that can be fed back to poultry. Importing major quantities of feedstuffs from other regions of the country and depositing manure onto low-productivity pastures or cropland may not be sustainable. Some combination of reducing excess nutrients in manure, alternative uses for these nutrients, shipping excess nutrients back to grain producing areas, or increasing grain production in poultry-producing areas will be required to address environmental concerns and minimize regulatory advances.
THE CASE FOR SOUND SYMBOLISM

▪ Abstract The proposal that linguistic sounds such as phonemes, features, syllables, or tones can be meaningful, or sound-symbolic, contradicts the principles of arbitrariness and double articulation that are axiomatic to structural linguistics. Nevertheless, a considerable body of research that supports principles of sound symbolism has accumulated. This review discusses the most widely attested forms of sound symbolism and the research programs linked to sound symbolism that have influenced linguists and anthropologists most. Numerous reports of magnitude sound symbolism in the form of experimental studies and comparative surveys have been integrated into a biologically based theory of its motivation. Magnitude sound symbolism also catalyzed a number of experimental studies by psychologists and linguists in search of a universal sound-symbolic substrate underlying all languages. Although the search for a sound-symbolic substrate has been abandoned, the success rates of these studies have never been sat...
COMPONENT VALUES FOR MILK USED IN CHEDDAR CHEESE

Interest in valuing the solids components of milk has continued to rise in recent years. A component valuation scheme for milk is devised to be used in cheddar cheese manufacture. Using daily plant-level data, and employing a flexible functional form, a plant-specific cheese yield function is estimated. This yield relationship serves as the basis for a valuation scheme that divides the value of all end products among three solids components of milk. These values are compared to a pricing scheme that recently appeared in the Great Basin Federal Milk Order. The plan presented here places a higher value upon milk of high fat test than does the order plan.
Approaches for real-time computing in biomedical experiments

Many biomedical experiments require precisely-timed real-time computer interface. Because commonly-used multi-tasking operating systems are inherently non-real-time, the authors discuss practical options for real-time computer interfacing.