cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
NMR Observation of Intermolecular Hydrogen Bonds between Protein Tyrosine Side-Chain OH and DNA Phosphate Groups

Hydrogen bonds between protein side-chain hydroxyl (OH) and phosphate groups are one of the most common types of intermolecular hydrogen bonds in protein-DNA/RNA complexes. Using NMR spectroscopy, we identified and characterized the hydrogen bonds between tyrosine side-chain OH and DNA phosphate groups in a protein-DNA complex. These OH groups exhibited relatively slow hydrogen-exchange rates and sizable scalar couplings between hydroxyl 1H and DNA phosphate 31P nuclei across the hydrogen bonds. Information about intermolecular hydrogen bonds facilitates investigations of the DNA/RNA recognition by the protein.
Smoking-Cessation Interventions After Lung Cancer Screening Guideline Change.

Introduction Recent guideline changes for lung cancer screening with low-dose computed tomography recommend smoking-cessation interventions be done in parallel with screening. The purpose of this study is to determine the post-guideline rates of smoking-cessation interventions among patients eligible and ineligible for lung cancer screening. Methods Using electronic health records collected from a large ambulatory care system in northern California between 2010 and 2017, authors identified new patients who were current smokers aged 55–80 years visiting a primary care provider, and grouped patients into lung cancer screening–eligible heavy smokers, screening-ineligible moderate smokers, and screening-ineligible light smokers. Screening-eligible smokers versus screening-ineligible smokers were compared in receipt of smoking-cessation interventions before (2010–2013) and after (2014–2017) the guideline change, overall and by intervention type (formal counseling, informal counseling, pharmacotherapy) using hierarchical generalized linear models. Analyses were conducted in 2018–2019. Results After the guideline change, the likelihood of receiving any smoking-cessation intervention (OR=1.44, 95% CI=1.28, 1.61, p Conclusions Smoking-cessation interventions increased after new lung cancer screening guidelines. Given the sizable adverse impacts of smoking on morbidity and mortality, small increases in the implementation of smoking-cessation interventions could have substantial public health benefits.
Serum CRIPTO does not confer drug resistance against osimertinib but is an indicator of tumor burden in non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract Background Adenocarcinoma is the most common subtype of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and often harbors oncogenic driver mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Osimertinib (AZD9291), a third generation EGFR TKI, has replaced earlier generation EGFR TKIs for first line treatment of EGFR mutant lung cancer due to its improved overall survival, longer progression free survival, and better tolerability compared to earlier generation inhibitors. However, like earlier generation EGFR TKIs, only about two thirds of patients respond, indicating an unknown mechanism of intrinsic resistance for the non-responders. We previously identified overexpression of CRIPTO as a potential mechanism of intrinsic resistance to EGFR TKIs of first and second generation. Objective To determine if CRIPTO could promote drug resistance against the third generation EGFR-TKIs osimertinib. We also wanted to investigate whether this resistance was conferred by both membrane bound and secreted CRIPTO. Finally, we wanted to explore the potential of secreted CRIPTO as a non-invasive biomarker for EGFR-TKI resistance. Materials and methods HCC827 and H1975, EGFR mutant non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) cell lines, were transfected with wildtype CRIPTO, two secreted variants of CRIPTO, a membrane only version of CRIPTO, and the mock backbone vector as the control. Western blotting, immunoprecipitation, and in vitro viability experiments were performed. In vivo work was carried out in athymic nude mice; 2 × 106 CRIPTO overexpressing HCC827 cells were implanted per mouse. EGFR mutant NSCLC patient blood samples were collected before treatment with and EGFR-TKI, during response while on treatment, and at progression while on treatment. Results Although both membrane bound and secreted CRIPTO forms were able to activate downstream pathways such as SRC, CRIPTO was unable to elicit resistance towards osimertinib in vitro or in vivo. CRIPTO serum levels in mice were higher in larger xenograft tumors. Furthermore, CRIPTO serum levels were higher in patients with progressing lung cancer when compared to their CRIPTO serum levels during EGFR-TKI response. Conclusions CRIPTO does not cause resistance against third generation EGFR-TKI osimertinib. CRIPTO levels in serum might be a potentially useful biomarker for tumor burden in NSCLC patients.
Weekends at Mary’s

Rummaging through my desk, a few years ago, I found a notebook of forgotten scribblings, diary entries I’d made more than thirty years earlier, after the last few times my husband and I stayed with...
A Light-weight Text Summarizer for Fast Access to Medical Evidence

Abstract The performances of current medical text summarization systems rely on resource-heavy domain-specific knowledge sources, and preprocessing methods (e.g., classification or deep learning) for deriving semantic information. Consequently, these systems are often difficult to customize, extend or deploy in low-resource settings, and are operationally slow. We propose a fast summarization system that can aid practitioners at point-of-care, and, thus, improve evidence-based healthcare. At runtime, our system utilizes similarity measurements derived from pre-trained domain-specific word embeddings in addition to simple features, rather than clunky knowledge bases and resource-heavy preprocessing. Automatic evaluation on a public dataset for evidence-based medicine shows that our system’s performance, despite the simple implementation, is statistically comparable with the state-of-the-art.
Prognostic value of Cardiac Biomarkers in COVID-19 Infection: A Meta-analysis

Background Multiple Biomarkers have recently been shown to be elevated in COVID-19, a respiratory infection with multi-organ dysfunction;however, information regarding the prognostic value of cardiac biomarkers as it relates to disease severity and cardiac injury are inconsistent Research Question The goal of this meta-analysis was to summarize the evidence regarding the prognostic relevance of cardiac biomarkers from data available in published reports Study Design and Methods PubMed was searched from inception through April 2020 for studies comparing median values of cardiac biomarkers in critically ill versus non-critically ill COVID-19 patients, or patients who died versus those who survived The weighted mean differences (WMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) between the groups were calculated for each study and combined using a random effects meta-analysis model The odds ratio (OR) for mortality based on cardiac injury was combined from studies reporting it Results Troponin levels were significantly higher in COVID-19 patients who died or were critically ill versus those who were alive or not critically ill (WMD 0 58, 95% CI 0 42-0 71, p<0 001) Cardiac injury was independently associated with significantly increased odds of mortality (OR 6 641, 95% CI 1 26 - 35 1, p=0 03) No difference in BNP was seen between the two groups A significant difference in levels of D-dimer was seen in those who died or were critically ill CK levels were only significantly higher in those who died versus those who were alive (WMD 0 47 95% CI 0 09-0 84, p=0 014) Interpretation Cardiac biomarkers add prognostic value to the determination of the severity of COVID-19 and can predict mortality
A super learner ensemble of 14 statistical learning models for predicting COVID-19 severity among patients with cardiovascular conditions.

Background Cardiovascular and other circulatory system diseases have been implicated in the severity of COVID-19 in adults. This study provides a super learner ensemble of models for predicting COVID-19 severity among these patients. Method The COVID-19 Dataset of the Cerner Real-World Data was used for this study. Data on adult patients (18 years or older) with cardiovascular diseases between 2017 and 2019 were retrieved and a total of 13 of these conditions were identified. Among these patients, 33,042 admitted with positive diagnoses for COVID-19 between March 2020 and June 2020 (from 59 hospitals) were identified and selected for this study. A total of 14 statistical and machine learning models were developed and combined into a more powerful super learning model for predicting COVID-19 severity on admission to the hospital. Result LASSO regression, a full extreme gradient boosting model with tree depth of 2, and a full logistic regression model were the most predictive with cross-validated AUROCs of 0.7964, 0.7961, and 0.7958 respectively. The resulting super learner ensemble model had a cross validated AUROC of 0.8006 (range: 0.7814, 0.8163). The unbiased AUROC of the super learner model on an independent test set was 0.8057 (95% CI: 0.7954, 0.8159). Conclusion Highly predictive models can be built to predict COVID-19 severity of patients with cardiovascular and other circulatory conditions. Super learning ensembles will improve individual and classical ensemble models significantly.
Component-wise Adaptive Trimming For Robust Mixture Regression

Parameter estimation of mixture regression model using the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm is highly sensitive to outliers. Here we propose a fast and efficient robust mixture regression algorithm, called Component-wise Adaptive Trimming (CAT) method. We consider simultaneous outlier detection and robust parameter estimation to minimize the effect of outlier contamination. Robust mixture regression has many important applications including in human cancer genomics data, where the population often displays strong heterogeneity added by unwanted technological perturbations. Existing robust mixture regression methods suffer from outliers as they either conduct parameter estimation in the presence of outliers, or rely on prior knowledge of the level of outlier contamination. CAT was implemented in the framework of classification expectation maximization, under which a natural definition of outliers could be derived. It implements a least trimmed squares (LTS) approach within each exclusive mixing component, where the robustness issue could be transformed from the mixture case to simple linear regression case. The high breakdown point of the LTS approach allows us to avoid the pre-specification of trimming parameter. Compared with multiple existing algorithms, CAT is the most competitive one that can handle and adaptively trim off outliers as well as heavy tailed noise, in different scenarios of simulated data and real genomic data. CAT has been implemented in an R package `RobMixReg' available in CRAN.
The Current State of Financial Education in the US: How is Higher Education Helping?

It is a widely held belief that most Americans have a relatively poor understanding of finance, in particular as it relates to their current financial position and future needs. Evidence of this lack of knowledge is supported by numerous surveys on the state of financial literacy in the US. The goal of this chapter is to gain a more thorough understanding of the state of financial knowledge in the general population and to investigate the ways that knowledge is acquired. Using these findings as a base, the chapter presents survey results to evaluate the scope and depth of personal financial education in the nation’s colleges and universities.
CYTOKINE TARGETS IN THE BRAIN: IMPACT ON NEUROTRANSMITTERS AND NEUROCIRCUITS

Increasing attention has been paid to the role of inflammation in a host of illnesses including neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety. Activation of the inflammatory response leads to release of inflammatory cytokines and mobilization of immune cells both of which have been shown to access the brain and alter behavior. The mechanisms of the effects of inflammation on the brain have become an area of intensive study. Data indicate that cytokines and their signaling pathways including p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase have significant effects on the metabolism of multiple neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, and glutamate through impact on their synthesis, release, and reuptake. Cytokines also activate the kynurenine pathway, which not only depletes tryptophan, the primary amino acid precursor of serotonin, but also generates neuroactive metabolites that can significantly influence the regulation of dopamine and glutamate. Through their effects on neurotransmitter systems, cytokines impact neurocircuits in the brain including the basal ganglia and anterior cingulate cortex, leading to significant changes in motor activity and motivation as well as anxiety, arousal, and alarm. In the context of environmental challenge from the microbial world, these effects of inflammatory cytokines on the brain represent an orchestrated suite of behavioral and immune responses that subserve evolutionary priorities to shunt metabolic resources away from environmental exploration to fighting infection and wound healing, while also maintaining vigilance against attack, injury, and further pathogen exposure. Chronic activation of this innate behavioral and immune response may lead to depression and anxiety disorders in vulnerable individuals.
Automatic design of discreet discrete filters

We address the problem of deciding what information a robot should transmit to the outside world, by exploring a setting where some information (e.g., current status of the task) must be shared in order for the robot to be useful, but where, simultaneously, we wish to impose limits which ensure certain information is never divulged. These sorts of conditions arise in several circumstances of increasing relevance: robots that can provide some guarantee of privacy to their users, controllers which safely use untrusted “cloud” services or smart-space infrastructure, or robots that act as inspection devices in information-sensitive contexts (e.g., factories, nuclear plants, etc.) We introduce an algorithm which takes as input an arbitrary combinatorial filter, expressed as a transition graph, and a set of constraints, constituting both upper and lower bounds, that specify the desired informational properties. The algorithm produces a coarser version of the input filter which possesses the desired informational properties, if and only if such a filter exists. We show that determining whether it is possible to satisfy both the distinguishablity and indistinguishablity constraints is NP-hard. The hardness result helps justify the worst-case running time of the algorithm. We describe an implementation of the algorithm along with empirical results showing that, beyond some minimum problem complexity, the algorithm is faster than naive filter enumeration, albeit with greater memory requirements.
Communications Protocol for a Building Automation System

With the advent of microprocessors, it has become economical to distribute some of the building automation system (BAS) functions, once reserved for centralized minicomputers. With this comes a need for an efficient and economical communications protocol. Of chief concern in a BAS system are system response times and information throughput. Standard protocols (e.g. SDLC, HDLC, ADCCP, X.25, CAMAC) are general purpose protocols with high overheads. The high overheads associated with these protocols makes their use inefficient in a BAS. This paper describes the design considerations and tradeoffs in the design of JCI's proprietary BAS protocol. This protocol is a byte oriented, variable length polling protocol intended for use in several levels of distributed BAS networks.
Uncertainty Analysis of Dissolved Oxygen Model

First-order uncertainty analysis was applied to 258 stream segments to determine the relative contributions to scatter, or uncertainty, in dissolved oxygen predictions by each of the parameters of the Streeter-Phelps equation. For very sluggish streams with reaeration rates less than about 0.1 per day (base e), the most important parameters for dissolved oxygen predictions were the initial deficit and the deoxygenation rate constant. For streams having reaeration coefficients greater than 0.1 per day the most important parameter corresponded to the predominant aspect of the oxygen balancing mechanism for the stream segment. On the depletion portion of the dissolved oxygen sag curve, where deoxygenation exceeds reaeration, the deoxygenation rate constant contributed most of the uncertainty in D. O. predictions. However, on the recovery portion of the D. O. sag curve, where reaeration exceeds deoxygenation, the reaeration rate constant contributed most of the uncertainty in D. O. predictions. Application of the uncertainty analysis to identify critical water quality parameters for a given stream would lead to more efficient data collection efforts.
Yield of Follow-Up Imaging in Workup of Intracerebral Hemorrhage--A Retrospective Chart Review (P5.150)

OBJECTIVE To determine if certain ICH (intracerebral hemorrhage) characteristics predict higher yield of delayed imaging in terms of both management and determination of etiology; to determine which patient/ICH characteristics prompt ordering of further imaging. BACKGROUND: In ICH patients, delayed imaging is often obtained after hematoma resolution in order to confirm the etiology of the hemorrhage and guide further management. The yield of such imaging is largely unknown. DESIGN /METHODS: A retrospective chart review was performed on all ICH patients admitted to the University of Rochester Medical Center during calendar year 2011. Patient age, comorbidities (e.g., hypertension, cancer)), use of relevant medications (e.g., antithrombotics), ICH size/location, and types of initial imaging were abstracted. Follow-up charts were reviewed to determine the type of follow-up imaging and whether follow-up imaging changed the proposed ICH etiology or management (e.g., change in medication, referral for intervention). RESULTS: Among 87 patients admitted with ICH, 31 (35.6%) underwent follow-up imaging after discharge (most commonly MRI [43.3%] or MRI/MRA[30%]). The most common reasons for not undergoing follow-up imaging were non-compliance with follow-up (32.1%) or withdrawal of care (42.9%). No significant differences in patient demographics or ICH characteristics were found between patients who did and did not undergo delayed imaging. A change in presumptive ICH etiology was made in 9/30 (30.0%) of patients who obtained follow-up imaging; the most common changes were from unknown etiology to hypertensive bleed (10.0%) or to amyloid angiopathy (13.3%). Changes in medications and plans for additional follow-up imaging were each made in 2/30 (6.7%) patients; 0/30 patients were referred for intervention on the basis of follow-up imaging. CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort, follow-up imaging after ICH occasionally prompted a change in diagnosis, but rarely affected management. Larger studies may help identify patient populations in which imaging is more likely to affect management; thereby improving resource allocation and health care value. Study Supported by: No funding. Disclosure: Dr. Meyers has nothing to disclose.
The Illusion of Due Process for Children in Dependency Proceedings

Allegations of abuse or neglect of children by their parents or legal custodians lead to dependency proceedings in juvenile court. The decisions made in such proceedings have a tremendous impact on the lives of children. Although the child’s welfare is the subject of the court’s adjudication, the child’s due process rights are unclear, as neither Congress nor the Supreme Court has established a right to counsel or any other due process right for the child. When life, liberty, and family integrity are at stake, however, constitutional due process protections should apply. Such protections should include the right to be heard, which for a child, can only be effectuated by the right to counsel.
β-Amyloid regulation of presynaptic nicotinic receptors in rat hippocampus and neocortex

Alteration by β-amyloid (Aβ) of signaling via nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) has been implicated in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. nAChRs function both post- and presynaptically in the nervous system; however, little is known about the functional consequence of the interaction of Aβ with these receptors, particularly those on presynaptic nerve terminals. In view of the strong correlation between loss of synaptic terminals and dementia, together with the reduction in nAChRs in Alzheimer's disease, the possibility exists that presynaptic nAChRs may be targets for Aβ. To explore this possibility, we assessed the effect of Aβ peptides on nicotine-evoked changes in presynaptic Ca2+ level via confocal imaging of isolated presynaptic nerve endings from rat hippocampus and neocortex. Aβ1-42 appeared to inhibit presynaptic nAChR activation by nicotine. Surprisingly, picomolar Aβ1-42 was found to directly evoke sustained increases in presynaptic Ca2+ via nAChRs, revealing that the apparent inhibitory action of Aβ1-42 was the result of an occlusion of nicotine to further stimulate the receptors. The direct effect of Aβ was found to be sensitive to α-bungarotoxin, mecamylamine, and dihydro-β-erythroidine, indicating involvement of α7-containing nAChRs and non-α7-containing nAChRs. Prior depolarization strongly attenuated subsequent Aβ-evoked responses in a manner dependent on the amplitude of the initial presynaptic Ca2+ increase, suggesting that nerve activity or Ca2+ channel density may control the impact of Aβ on presynaptic nerve terminal function. Together, these results suggest that the sustained increases in presynaptic Ca2+ evoked by Aβ may underlie disruptions in neuronal signaling via nAChRs in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.
Using Drell-Yan to Probe the Underlying Event in Run 2 at CDF

We study the event topology in Drell-Yan lepton-pair production in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.96 TeV in Run 2 at CDF. We use the direction of the lepton-pair on an event by event basis to define three regions of η − φ space; toward, away and transverse. The transverse and toward regions are very sensitive to the underlying event. The data are corrected back to the particle level and are then compared with the PYTHIA tune AW. The properties of the underlying event are examined as a function of the lepton-pair transverse momentum. The data are also compared with a previous analysis on the behavior of the underlying event in high transverse momentum jet production. The goal is to improve our understanding and modeling of the high energy collider events.
Ontological Substance and Meaning in Live Electroacoustic Music

Philosopher Stephen Davies has used the terms "ontologically thin" and "ontologically thick" to describe compositions with varying amounts of flexibility under interpretation. Placing these two poles on a continuum of ontological substance , I extend Davies's ideas to shed light on issues concerning meaning in live electroacoustic music. I demonstrate that algorithmic and interactive elements lend an extra dimension to the existence of the musical work and that the apparent obsolescence of live performance caused by new technology is really an opportunity to develop meaning in a new parameter of musical structure.
Understanding Cultures through Their Key Words: English, Russian, Polish, German, and Japanese

Understanding Cultures through Their Key Words: English, Russian, Polish, German, and Japanese. Anna Wierzbicka. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. 318 pp.
Potential Theory in Gravity and Magnetic Applications: Regional Gravity Fields

The reduction of gravity data is an excellent example of the enhancement of “signal” by the removal of predictable “noise.” (Robert W. Simpson and Robert C. Jachens) La gravite est un mystere du corps invente pour cacher les defauts de l'esprit. [Gravity is a mystery of the body invented to conceal the defects of the mind.] (La Rochefoucauld) Introduction Later chapters will focus on techniques to characterize crustal and uppermantle sources on the basis of their associated gravity and magnetic fields. A key initial step in such analyses is the proper separation of the field caused by the target source (the residual or anomalous field ) from the field of the remainder of the universe (the regional field ). This and the following chapter will attempt to characterize these two components for gravity and magnetic studies, respectively. Our objective in this chapter is to reduce a gravity measurement made on or near the earth's surface to an anomaly value that reflects density variations in the crust and upper mantle. This involves a long series of operations with a well-established tradition. These operations account for the mass, shape, and spin of a “normal” earth, elevation of the measurements above sea level, tidal effects of the sun and moon, motion of the instrument, gravitational effects of terrain in the vicinity of the measurement, and effects of isostasy. Each of these operations will be addressed in this chapter. Readers wishing additional information are referred to texts by Heiskanen and Moritz and Stacey and to papers by Simpson and Jachens, Chovitz, and LaFehr.
Poisson Harmonic Forms, Kostant Harmonic Forms, and the S1-Equivariant Cohomology ofK/T

Abstract We characterize the harmonic forms on a flag manifold K / T defined by Kostant in 1963 in terms of a Poisson structure. Namely, they are “Poisson harmonic” with respect to the so-called Bruhat Poisson structure on K / T . This enables us to give Poisson geometrical proofs of many of the special properties of these harmonic forms. In particular, we construct explicit representatives for the Schubert basis of the S 1 -equivariant cohomology of K / T , where the S 1 -action is defined by ρ . Using a simple argument in equivariant cohomology, we recover the connection between the Kostant harmonic forms and the Schubert calculus on K / T that was found by Kostant and Kumar in 1986. By using a family of symplectic structures on K / T , we also show that the Kostant harmonic forms are limits of the more familiar Hodge harmonic forms with respect to a family of Hermitian metrics on K / T .
Mineral bioprocessing and the future

Abstract Microorganisms are proving to be useful in assisting the in situ leaching of low grade sulfide ores. Other microorganisms and their extracellular products are currently being used to assist the remediation of hydrocarbon contaminated soils. Many other uses of microorganisms and their derivatives are potentially possible. These include use of microorganisms in flocculation or flotation of minerals, remediation of organics potentially discharged from mineral engineering operations, removal of heavy metal ions from dilute aqueous streams, degradation of cyanide, the recovery of bitumen from heavy oil reservoirs and tar sands and the solubilization of lignites and low rank coals. There is, thus, great need for extensive fundamental and applied research work exploring the fundamentals, potential and practicality of the various potential uses of microorganisms in mineral engineering.
Microtubule Dependent Mechanisms Regulate the Trafficking Deficient Phenotype of hERG Mutations Linked to Long QT Syndrome

Type 2 Long QT syndrome (LQT2) is caused by mutations in the human Ether-a-go-go Related Gene (hERG), which encodes the voltage-gated K+ channel α-subunit that underlies the rapidly activating delayed rectifier K+ current in the heart. Most LQT2 missense mutations decrease hERG trafficking to the plasmalemma. The trafficking-deficient LQT2 (tdLQT2) phenotype is characterized by a loss of hERG glycosylation and current. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that multiple cellular mechanisms underlie the tdLQT2 phenotype. We studied the tdLQT2 mutations G601S- and R752W-hERG in stably expressed HEK293 cells, and found that G601S-hERG selectively colocalized with the Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) and Golgi apparatus proteins calnexin and 58K. Nocodazole is an antimicrotubule agent that is used to study microtubule dependent trafficking of proteins between the ER and the Golgi apparatus. Nocodazole treatment (20 ∈1/4M, 18-24 hours) did not alter the functional expression of G601S-hERG or R752W-hERG, but it did alter the immunostaining and glycolytic processing of G601S-hERG. After nocodazole treatment the G601S-hERG immunostaining pattern changed from perinuclear to one that consisted of focal aggregates located throughout the cytosol. Nocodazole treatment also increased the glycolytic processing of G601S-hERG similar to that of wild-type hERG. In contrast, nocodazole treatment did not alter the immunostaining or glycolytic processing of R752W-hERG. These data suggest that the tdLQT2 phenotype for G601S-hERG but not R752W-hERG is regulated by microtubule function. We conclude that microtubule dependent and independent mechanisms may regulate the tdLQT2 phenotype.
Posets in which every interval is a product of chains, and natural local actions of the symmetric group

Abstract Consider a graded poset P with maximal and minimal elements. If everey interval of rank three in P is a product of chains, and for everey interval [x, y] of rank at least four, the open interval (x, y) is connected, we show that the entire poset is a product of chains. This proves a conjecture of Stanley concerning the natural local action of the symmetric group on maximal chains in a graded poset. On a product of chains, the natural action is thepermutation action on the multiset corresponding to the chains. The result implies that if every open interval is connected (which holds if the poset is Cohen-Macaulay, for example), the only possible such natural action is this multiset action.
Systemic lupus erythematosus in patients diagnosed with treatment-resistant acne

Background. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) may involve any number of organ systems and varies greatly in the severity and type of involvement. Cutaneous manifestations of SLE are equally numerous and varied throughout the course of the disease within an individual, as well as varying between patients. Cutaneous manifestations of SLE are frequently the presenting symptoms, typically noted in the classic malar “butterfly” rash; however, other cutaneous patterns are frequently observed. Methods. We present here two patients who presented with what was thought to be acne refractory to treatment. Results. These patients actually were found to have a facial eruption associated with SLE as confirmed by skin biopsy. Conclusions. The importance of investigating atypical or treatment-resistant eruptions, especially in patients experiencing other symptoms, is emphasized.
Parity-violating asymmetry in nucleon--nucleon scattering

The weak parity-violating component of the nucleon-nucleon interaction can be studied directly and in detail through the scattering of longitudinally polarized nucleons on nucleons. We use distorted-wave theory to predict the dependence of the differential and total cross sections on the helicity of incident longitudinally polarized protons for elastic proton-nucleon scattering at energies up to \ensuremath{\sim} 300 MeV. The weak force used is parametrized by $\ensuremath{\rho}$, $\ensuremath{\omega}$, $\ensuremath{\pi}$, and $2\ensuremath{\pi}$ exchanges, the strong one by a Hamada-Johnston or Bryan-Gersten potential.[NUCLEAR REACTIONS Weak nucleon-nucleon force. Calculate parity-violating asymmetry for longitudinally polarized nucleon-nucleon scattering.]
Correlations in Social Neuroscience Aren't Voodoo: Commentary on Vul et al. (2009):

Vul, Harris, Winkielman, and Pashler (2009), (this issue) claim that many brain-personality correlations in fMRI studies are "likely … spurious" (p. 274), and "should not be believed" (p. 285). Several of their conclusions are incorrect. First, they incorrectly claim that whole-brain regressions use an invalid and "nonindependent" two-step inferential procedure, a determination based on a survey sent to researchers that only included nondiagnostic questions about the descriptive process of plotting one's data. We explain how whole-brain regressions are a valid single-step method of identifying brain regions that have reliable correlations with individual difference measures. Second, they claim that large correlations from whole-brain regression analyses may be the result of noise alone. We provide a simulation to demonstrate that typical fMRI sample sizes will only rarely produce large correlations in the absence of any true effect. Third, they claim that the reported correlations are inflated to the point of being "implausibly high." Though biased post hoc correlation estimates are a well-known consequence of conducting multiple tests, Vul et al. make inaccurate assumptions when estimating the theoretical ceiling of such correlations. Moreover, their own "meta-analysis suggests that the magnitude of the bias is approximately .12-a rather modest bias.
Pharmacodynamic evaluation of meropenem and cefotaxime for pediatric meningitis: a report from the OPTAMA program.

Objective: To determine the probability of meropenem (Merrem®, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals L.P., Wilmington, DE, USA) and cefotaxime (Claforan®, Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc., Bridgewater, NJ, USA) achieving bactericidal exposures in the cerebrospinal fluid against Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis, and Haemophilus influenzae. Methods: A 5000-patient Monte Carlo simulation in a population of 10-year-old children with meningitis was conducted. Pediatric pharmacokinetic data were derived from the literature. Pathogen minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were obtained from common bacteria that had caused meningitis collected during pediatric clinical trials. Time above the MIC exposures in the cerebrospinal fluid was calculated. Bactericidal exposure or probability of target attainment was defined as 40% and 50% time above the MIC for meropenem and cefotaxime, respectively. High cumulative fractions of responses were defined as >90% probability of target attainment against the populations of bacteria. Results: Meropenem was calculated to achieve 94.7%, 94.3%, and 96.1% cumulative fractions of response against S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae, and N. meningitidis, respectively. Cefotaxime only achieved a high likelihood of bactericidal attainment against N. meningitidis (91.6%). Against S. pneumoniae and H. influenzae, cefotaxime was only calculated to achieve 84.3% and 84.8% cumulative fractions of response, respectively. Conclusion: In a simulated population of 10-year-old children, meropenem had a high likelihood of attaining bactericidal exposures in the cerebrospinal fluid. Cefotaxime had a >90% cumulative fraction of response against only N. meningitidis. Therefore, at the doses simulated, meropenem may be a more appropriate empiric choice for the treatment of bacterial meningitis in pediatric patients presumed to be caused by these pathogens until culture and susceptibility data are available.
On clique relaxation models in network analysis

Abstract Increasing interest in studying community structures, or clusters in complex networks arising in various applications has led to a large and diverse body of literature introducing numerous graph-theoretic models relaxing certain characteristics of the classical clique concept. This paper analyzes the elementary clique-defining properties implicitly exploited in the available clique relaxation models and proposes a taxonomic framework that not only allows to classify the existing models in a systematic fashion, but also yields new clique relaxations of potential practical interest. Some basic structural properties of several of the considered models are identified that may facilitate the choice of methods for solving the corresponding optimization problems. In addition, bounds describing the cohesiveness properties of different clique relaxation structures are established, and practical implications of choosing one model over another are discussed.
Laying the foundation for a virtual department

Advances in telecommunications and networking have potentially as much to offer faculty and educational institutions as they offer to distance students in expanded opportunities and cost efficiency. While academic libraries often take advantage of networking to share a variety of resources and services, academic departments utilize the medium primarily to offer distance courses, collaborate on research, coordinate administrative functions, or to communicate with students and alumni. Distance programs expand a university's reach, but they have yet to challenge the structure of departments or to shift from the traditional paradigm of a “delivery” view of education (Brown and Duguid, 1998). This paper describes an experiment to create a virtual department for international scholars with similar interests who are somewhat out of the mainstream research areas in their own institutions. We describe briefly the evaluation of the project and some of the challenges of sustaining such communities, including the need for administrative support and adequate electronic resources.
Oral medication-induced esophageal injury in elderly patients.

ABSTRACT Although oral medication induced esophageal injury (OMIEI), is a well-known and preventable condition, many cases are still missed, particularly in the elderly patients. Objective To determine the frequency and outcome of oral medication-induced esophageal injury in elderly patients. Methods Records of 390 patients aged over 65 years, with diagnoses of dysphagia, odynophagia, and noncardiac chest pain, over the period of 11 years, were selected for a retrospective review. Patients who had barium studies only, in whom endoscopy was not done or was unsuccessful, and those with incomplete data were excluded, leaving 250 patients for further review. Results Diagnosis of OMIEI was made in 27% (68 of 250) patients. Fifty-one of 68 (75%) patients with OMIEI responded to conservative management, including H 2 blockers, proton pump inhibitors, antacids, or sucralfate. The remaining 17 patients (25%) developed esophageal strictures requiring dilation. Conclusions A high index of clinical suspicion and low threshold for empiric treatment and diagnostic measures (endoscopy, barium swallow study), may be helpful, if indicated, for early diagnosis and prompt therapy of OMIEI.
Juvenile Hormone-Like Effects of a Thiazolylurea on Lepidopteran Larvae

Heliothis virescens maintained on a diet containing 50 ppm of thiazolylurea (5-[[[2-thiazolylamino]amino]carbonyl]-l,3-benzenedicarboxylic acid dimethyl ester) showed symptoms of juvenile hormone overdose in the last larval instar. Increases in development time and weight, as well as larval color changes, were similar in animals fed thiazolylurea or topically treated with the juvenile hormone mimic methoprene. The juvenile hormone esterase titer profile in hernolymph of animals fed thiazolylurea was much broader than in controls, and peaked 2 days later than in controls; the premolt ecdysteroid peak in hemolymph of animals fed thiazolylurea appeared 2 days earlier than in controls. These events are characteristic of high hemolymph JH titers throughout the last larval instar.
Computing in Vietnam: an Asian tiger in the rough

Nguyen Dinh Ngoc and Dang Huu were among the senior technology leaders at the Fourth Informatics Week conference and exhibition held in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) in August 1994, an event that swarmed with teenagers, young techies, and businessmen.
Age-related changes of the somatotrophs of the domestic fowl Gallus gallus

The ultrastructure of the somatotrophs of the caudal pituitary of the domestic fowl was studied quantitatively. Two age groups of male chickens were compared: 4–6 weeks and 24–30 weeks post-hatching. With age, somatotrophs decreased from about 40% to about 30% of the pituitary cell population. Their volume density decreased similarly. Mean volume of a somatotroph was the same in young and adult animals. Because the granule volume density of the somatotrophs was unchanged, but the somatotroph volume density of the gland declined, the granule volume density of the caudal pituitary gland dropped in parallel with that of the somatotrophs. Thus the volume of the gland comprised of somatotroph granules fell about 32%: from 6.57% to 4.45%. This lowered pool of stored hormone may be linked to the lowered circulating levels of growth hormone found in older animals by other investigators.
AMPA-selective glutamate receptor subtype immunoreactivity in the hippocampal dentate gyrus of patients with Alzheimer disease. Evidence for hippocampal plasticity.

Immunocytochemical techniques were employed in order to examine the distribution and relative intensity of immunolabeling of the alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoaxolepropionate (AMPA) receptor subunits GluR1 and GluR2/3 within the hippocampal formation of patients with Alzheimer disease (AD). Within sectors of the hippocampus that are particularly vulnerable to AD pathology (i.e., CA1, subiculum), we observed a variable loss of GluR1 and GluR2/3 immunolabeling correlating with the extent of cell loss and neurofibrillary pathology. In contrast, in less vulnerable sectors of the hippocampus (i.e., CA2/3, dentate gyrus), the intensity of immunolabeling was markedly increased in AD cases, particularly in the molecular and polymorphic layers of the dentate gyrus. Importantly, these latter regions correspond to termination zones of glutamatergic perforant pathway axons and mossy fiber collaterals, respectively. The increase in immunolabeling within these projection fields is hypothesized to occur in response to the deafferentation of selected glutamatergic pathways, and suggests a critical role for AMPA receptor subunits in hippocampal plasticity.
Optimal control of the southern pine beetle (SPB) infestation

Abstract The problem treated is that of the optimal scheduling of aerial inspections to detect SPB infested spots in a forest. We develop a dynamic programming model that permits: (i) decay in the beetle's “virility” with passage of time, (ii) partial recovery of value from an infested tree, and (iii) an arbitrary probability of aerial detection of an infested spot. The resulting model is understandably more complex than that given by [Elmaghraby], but is more realistic. It has been programmed in Basic for the IBM PC family of computers (and compatibles). Its application and sensitivity are illustrated by three examples.
Behind This Structural Boom: The Role of Asset Valuations

We are in the midst of a structural boom the force of which has not been seen in this country since the 1920’s. After the U.S. unemployment rate hit 6 percent in late 1994, following its two-year recovery, many experts assumed that unemployment had regained its naturalrate path. The natural unemployment rate in the second half of the 1980’s had been put at around 6.5 percent in several estimates, and if the trend reduction in the natural rate brought about by the continuing relative decline of high-school dropouts in the labor force and those whose education stopped at the diploma is placed at 0.07 per annum, it would have declined on that account to around 6 percent by 1995 (Phelps and Gylfi Zoega, 1997). Furthermore, we saw in 1995 the end of
Evolution of an [FeFe] hydrogenase with decreased oxygen sensitivity

Abstract [FeFe] hydrogenases catalyze the rapid combination of protons and electrons into hydrogen, but their oxygen sensitivity limits their use in clean renewable hydrogen production applications. The catalytic activity of current [FeFe] hydrogenases is destroyed by oxygen. Here, the discovery of mutant [FeFe] hydrogenases with decreased oxygen sensitivity is described. The new hydrogenases are derived from [FeFe] hydrogenase I of Clostridium pasteurianum (CpI). A cell-free protein synthesis-based screening platform was used to identify an initial mutant from a randomly mutated CpI library. Three mutations were cooperatively responsible for the decreased oxygen sensitivity, and further improvements were identified by saturation mutagenesis at the influential sites. After oxygen exposure under conditions where the enzyme is in the resting state, the mutant hydrogenase retains significantly higher methyl viologen reduction activity than the wild-type enzyme. However, surprisingly, when the enzyme is actively catalyzing hydrogen production during oxygen exposure, the mutant hydrogenase shows no improved oxygen tolerance. This observation highlights the complexity of the oxygen inactivation process in CpI and demonstrates the need to develop a screen that measures hydrogenase oxygen tolerance during catalysis.
Free deepithelialized anterolateral thigh myocutaneous flaps for chronic intractable empyema with bronchopleural fistula.

Abstract Background . Free deepithelialized anterolateral thigh (DALT) flaps have been used for treatment of chronic intractable empyema with bronchopleural fistula at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital since 1997. Methods . Twelve patients with chronic empyema were treated at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital from January 1997 to January 2001. Their age ranged from 31 to 70 years (mean age 48.6 years). Left-sided involvement was predominant (left to right ratio=9: 3). All patients had bronchopleural fistula, and all were cured. The average numbers of previous thoracotomy were 5.4. The ipsilateral DALT flaps were harvested with primary closure of donor site. Results . At a mean follow-up of 1 year, no recurrence was noted. All flaps survived well. The average hospital stay was 25.8 days. Complications after reconstruction included chrondritis, partial muscle necrosis, and wound dehiscence (1 patient each). There was no donor site morbidity. Conclusions . Free DALT flaps can be selected according to different situations during surgery as long as they meet the following requirements: (1) tissue of sufficient volume and good blood supply, and (2) closure of the bronchial leak. Based on this retrospective study, use of free DALT flaps with technical refinement is a reliable method for treatment of chronic intractable empyema combined with bronchopleural fistula.
Evolution and application of the fused silica column

Fused silica is an evolutionary product of continuing efforts to improve our chromatographic capabilities. It offers the normal user new horizons in inertness, chromatographic reproducibility, ease of column installation, and possibilities in on-column trapping. Since this writing, chemically bonded phases in several film thicknesses became available on fused silica columns, and these are especially well suited to on-column injections. The use of fused silica syringe needles to inject directly onto fused silica columns seems particularly interesting. Evolution is, of course, a continuous process and it would appear that we can expect continuing developments in this exciting area.