cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Chronic Achilles Tendon Ruptures

Chronic Achilles ruptures present a significant challenge for the treating physician. These patients often have marked impairment of functional activities and usually require surgical treatment to optimize outcome. This article reviews some of the methods that have been described to treat the chronic or neglected Achilles tendon rupture. The methods that have been used include gastrocnemius advancement, fascial turndown flaps, local tendon transfers, free tissue transfer, and use of synthetic grafts. There are no comparative data to guide evidence-based decision making in regard to choosing between treatment options.
Pyruvate carboxylase deficiency: Mechanisms, mimics and anaplerosis

Pyruvate carboxylase (PC) is a regulated mitochondrial enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of pyruvate to oxaloacetate, a critical transition that replenishes citric acid cycle intermediates and facilitates other biosynthetic reactions that drive anabolism. Its deficiency causes multiorgan metabolic imbalance that predominantly manifests with lactic acidemia and neurological dysfunction at an early age. Three clinical forms of PC deficiency have been identified: an infantile form (Type A), a severe neonatal form (Type B), and a benign form (Type C), all of which exhibit clinical or biochemical correlates of impaired anaplerosis. There is no effective treatment for these patients and most, except those affected by the benign form, die in early life. We review the physiology of this enzyme and dissect the major clinical, biochemical, and genetic aspects of its dysfunction, emphasizing features that distinguish PC deficiency from other causes of lactic acidemia that render PC deficiency potentially treatable using novel interventions capable of enhancing anaplerosis.
Initial stages of retinofugal axon development in the hamster: evidence for two distinct modes of growth.

In order to characterize differences in growth patterns of axons as they elongate toward their targets and during the initial stages of terminal arbor formation within the targets, we examined the primary visual system of fetal and newborn hamsters using three morphological methods: the Cajal-deCastro reduced silver method, the rapid Golgi technique, and anterograde transport of HRP. Axons emerge from the retina between the 10th and 11th embryonic days (E10–E11). The front of retinal axons crosses the chiasm, extends over the primitive dorsal nucleus of the lateral geniculate body (LGBd) by E13, and advances to the back of the superior colliculus (SC) by E13.5–E14. The rate of axon growth during this advance is nearly 2 mm/day. Collateral sprouts appear on axons around E15.5. In the LGBd and SC, these sprouts arise from multiple sites along the parent axons. Only one or a few of the sprouts continue to grow and branch, while others are eliminated. The net rate of axon collateral advance in this second phase is an order of magnitude slower than during the stage of axon elongation. Thus, formation of CNS projections may involve two qualitatively distinct modes of axon growth. The arborization mode contrasts with the elongation mode by the presence of branching, a lack of fasciculation and a slower average rate of extension. The Stereotypic direct advance of axons during elongation also differs from the remodelling which occurs during arborization. The delay between axon arrival at targets and onset of arborization could be a reflection of axons “waiting” for a maturational change to occur in the retina or in targets. Arborization in the LGBd and SC is initiated around the same time, implicating the former possibility. However, a slower differentiation of retinal arbors in the SC, in addition to morphological differences of arbors in the two structures, suggests that alterations in substrate factors also play a critical role in triggering the early stages of arbor formation.
Wire or coated balloon? Searching for an optimal source for intravascular brachytherapy with beta emitters using (32)P as an example.

This study identifies basic dosimetric differences between two designs for intravascular brachytherapy (IVBT) in current clinical practice and ongoing trials and their clinical implications within beta emitting systems using P-32 as an example. The two designs are (i) the wire-type source, where the radioactive source material is confined to a wirelike structure within the vessel lumen, and (ii) the balloon-surface source, where the radioactive source material is distributed over a surface area (balloon-wall) which is brought in close proximity with the vessel wall. Using Monte Carlo simulations with the EGS4 code, the target coverage, the influence of centering errors, and the perturbation of the dose distribution caused by metallic stents have been compared. The radial dose fall-off in the target region was found to be steeper for balloon surface systems compared with wire systems. The inner lumen wall dose for a balloon surface source was 25 higher than that for a wirelike source (2.5 mm vessel diameter). However, the comparably shallower fall-off from wire-type systems is very sensitive to centering uncertainties. A 0.5 mm displacement, for example, will cause the dose to change by a factor of 2 at the inner vessel wall and by a factor of 1.8 at the prescription point. It is shown that the interference from metallic stents is more significant for wire-type systems than it is for balloon-surface-type systems, where double the dose variation beyond the stent at the radial prescription distance may occur. Centering uncertainties dominate the dose perturbation effects for wire-type systems. Balloon-surface-type designs show a more predictable dose distribution that features, however, a higher inner vessel surface dose. Since a direct clinical comparison of systems of both types is not likely, these findings should be considered when interpreting clinical results from treatments with either type of source and, possibly, for future source design. 2003 American College of Medical Physics.
GLOBAL VIEW OF THE ORIGIN OF TROPICAL DISTURBANCES AND STORMS

Abstract A global observational study of atmospheric conditions associated with tropical disturbance and storm development is presented. This study primarily uses upper air observations which have become available over the tropical oceans in the last decade. Climatological values of vertical stability, low level wind, tropospheric vertical wind shear and other parameters relative to the location and seasons of tropical disturbance and storm development are discussed. Individual storm data are also presented in summary form for over 300 development cases (with over 1,500 individual observation times) for four tropical storm genesis areas. Results show that most tropical disturbances and storms form in regions equatorward of 20° lat. on the poleward side of doldrum Equatorial Troughs where the tropospheric vertical shear of horizontal wind (i.e., baroclinicity) is a minimum or zero. Storm development occurring on the poleward side of 20° lat. in the Northwest Atlantic and North-west Pacific takes place unde...
Estimating the Effect of Regression to the Mean in Health Management Programs

Most health management programs, such as disease management or health promotion/wellness interventions, implement targeted interventions for an identified high-risk group, leaving the remaining non-managed lower-risk population as controls. This is problematic from an outcomes perspective because individuals initially identified by their high-risk scores will inevitably have lower average scores on remeasurement, even in the absence of a health management program. This statistical phenomenon is called regression to the mean (RTM). This article presents actual examples of RTM, describes the classic method for estimating the impact of RTM in a pre-post study, and provides suggestions for designing health management program evaluations to mitigate the effects of RTM.
Efficient PAC Learning for Episodic Tasks with Acyclic State Spaces

This paper considers the problem of computing an optimal policy for a Markov decision process, under lack of complete a priori knowledge of (1) the branching probability distributions determining the evolution of the process state upon the execution of the different actions, and (2) the probability distributions characterizing the immediate rewards returned by the environment as a result of the execution of these actions at different states of the process. In addition, it is assumed that the underlying process evolves in a repetitive, episodic manner, with each episode starting from a well-defined initial state and evolving over an acyclic state space. A novel efficient algorithm for this problem is proposed, and its convergence properties and computational complexity are rigorously characterized in the formal framework of computational learning theory. Furthermore, in the process of deriving the aforementioned results, the presented work generalizes Bechhofer's "indifference-zone" approach for the ranking & selection problem, that arises in statistical inference theory, so that it applies to populations with bounded general distributions.
Lomofungin inhibition of allophanate hydrolase synthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The RNA polymerase inhibitor, lomofungin has been used to determine the half life of specific synthetic capacities (invertase and α-glucosidase) as well as that for gross protein synthesis. In both cases the studies conclude that cognate messenger RNAs decay with a half life of approximately 20 minutes. This antibiotic has been used to determine the half life of allophanate hydrolase specific synthetic capacity. We find that it decays with a half life of about three minutes; a value that agrees with the decay rates of allophanate hydrolase synthetic capacity following removal of inducer. These observations argue that mRNA may be metabolized by two separate routes in Saccharomyces.
Studies on the endogenous phospholipids of chick embryo myocardium and their in vitro hydrolysis by endogenous phospholipases during embryogenesis

The phospholipid profiles of the myocardium (from 10- and 18-day old chick embryos and 13-day old chick) and their in vitro response to the endogenous lipolytic enzymes (mainly of the phospholipase group) at pH 7.4 and 38 degrees C for 60 min were analyzed by TLC technology and densitometry. Cardiolipin (CL) was shown to be one of the major phospholipids of the chick embryo myocardium and its concentration increased as the chick embryo advanced in development. Monolysocardiolipin (MLCL) was produced subsequent to in vitro incubation of whole tissue homogenates in all myocardia studied as well as a concurrent reduction in CL. This deacylation of CL increased in magnitude as the chick embryo advanced in development indicating its age relatedness. The level of phosphatidyl ethanolamine (PE) plasmalogen was also high in all myocardia studied. Lyso alkenyl PE (LPE) was produced subsequent to in vitro incubation and its level increased as the chick embryo advanced in development, indicating PLA(2) action on the sn-2 fatty acid of PE. Phosphatidyl choline (PC) plasmalogen was also present in the chick embryo myocardium and its level increased gradually as the chick embryo advanced in development. In contrast, yolk-sac membrane contains very minute amounts of CL and PE. No PC was detected and no LPE was formed following in vitro incubation. The yolk of the unfertilized chicken egg has no CL and has very minute amounts of PE, no PC and no lysophospholipids were detected following in vitro incubation in all samples analyzed.
Bandwidth reservation on a commercial router

In this paper we present the development experience of implementing a protocol supporting Quality of Service guarantees. We believe that this work is of interest to researchers and engineers who are interested in real-life experience with such a protocol on a high-performance commercial router. The emphasis of this paper is the study of queueing algorithms intended to support QoS guarantees in a mixed traffic environment. We present practical results that demonstrate the feasibility as well as some limitations of the idea of mixing real-time traffic with traditional data traffic in a commercial router.
The capacity for multistability in small gene regulatory networks

Background: Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the use of mathematical modeling to gain insight into gene regulatory network behavior across many different organisms. In particular, there has been considerable interest in using mathematical tools to understand how multistable regulatory networks may contribute to developmental processes such as cell fate determination. Indeed, such a network may subserve the formation of unicellular leaf hairs (trichomes) in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Results: In order to investigate the capacity of small gene regulatory networks to generate multiple equilibria, we present a chemical reaction network (CRN)-based modeling formalism and describe a number of methods for CRN analysis in a parameter-free context. These methods are compared and applied to a full set of one-component subnetworks, as well as a large random sample from 40,680 similarly constructed two-component subnetworks. We find that positive feedback and cooperativity mediated by transcription factor (TF) dimerization is a requirement for one-component subnetwork bistability. For subnetworks with two components, the presence of these processes increases the probability that a randomly sampled subnetwork will exhibit multiple equilibria, although we find several examples of bistable two-component subnetworks that do not involve cooperative TF-promoter binding. In the specific case of epidermal differentiation in Arabidopsis, dimerization of the GL3-GL1 complex and cooperative sequential binding of GL3-GL1 to the CPC promoter are each independently sufficient for bistability. Conclusion: Computational methods utilizing CRN-specific theorems to rule out bistability in small gene regulatory networks are far superior to techniques generally applicable to deterministic ODE systems. Using these methods to conduct an unbiased survey of parameter-free deterministic models of small networks, and the Arabidopsis epidermal cell differentiation subnetwork in particular, we illustrate how future experimental research may be guided by network structure analysis.
Immunohistochemical localization of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHRP) in normal human skin

Human keratinocytes secrete large amounts of a parathyroid hormone-related peptide (PTHRP) in vitro. Because recent studies indicate that PTHRP could have a number of autocrine or paracrine functions in the skin, localization of this peptide in vivo is important. A monoclonal and two affinity-purified polyclonal antibodies were employed to locate PTHRP in normal human skin and cultivated human keratinocytes. PTHRP is present throughout the viable portion of the epidermis, in adnexal epithelial cells, and in all cultivated keratinocytes. These findings do not support the provocative suggestion that PTHRP is a marker for squamous differentiation.
Cavity design of nanomembrane MR-VCSELs on silicon

The creation of silicon based light sources has been a major research and development effort world-wide. Among various approaches to silicon based light sources reported thus far, the hybrid gain-medium approach (especially integrated with group III–V materials) seems to be the most promising one due to its higher efficiencies than any others. [1]
The expression profile of the H19 gene in cattle

The expression of the H19 gene has been well studied in fetal human and mouse tissues but not in cattle. It is generally believed that H19 is abundantly expressed in the early stages of embryogenesis and is repressed postnatally. We report the expression pattern of this gene in cattle in a total of 120 fetal-organ combinations and in a total of 108 adult-organ combinations using quantitative real time PCR. In fetal tissues, H19 was abundantly expressed in amnion, chorion, and allantois. Fetal liver, lung, heart, spleen, eye, rib, mammary gland, and cotyledon showed moderate expression, while intestine and brain showed lower expression levels. For some organs examined in this study, the expression pattern in cattle fetal organs was similar to that of human, mouse, and sheep. For adult organs, H19 was highly expressed in muscle and moderately expressed in liver, lung, heart, kidney, pancreas, and ovary. Low expression levels were observed for adult spleen, caruncle, and endometrium. Of considerable interest was the observation that H19 transcripts have not been detected in the mouse and human kidney or in the mouse spleen. In contrast, we observed significant expression levels in adult kidney and low expression levels in adult spleen. In a comparison of adults and fetuses, significant differences in H19 expression levels were found for liver, lung, heart, and spleen. The expression pattern in adults implies that, in addition to possible roles in embryogenesis, the H19 gene may have other functions.
Warped resolved L(a,b,c) cones

We construct supergravity solutions describing a stack of D3-branes localized at a point on a blown-up cycle of a resolved L{sup a,b,c} cone. The geometry flows from AdS{sub 5}xL{sup a,b,c} to AdS{sub 5}xS{sup 5}/Z{sub k}. The corresponding quiver gauge theory undergoes a renormalization group flow between two superconformal fixed points, which leads to semi-infinite chains of flows between the various L{sup a,b,c} fixed points. The general system is described by a triplet of Heun equations, which can each be solved by an expansion with a three-term recursion relation, though there are closed-form solutions for certain cases. This enables us to read off the operators that acquire nonzero vacuum expectation values as the quiver gauge theory flows away from a fixed point.
NVH Performance of Lightweight Glazing Materials in Vehicle Design

Fuel economy and NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) performance of vehicles are important parameters in a customer’s vehicle purchase decision. Lightweight vehicle designs are necessary to help with fuel economy improvements. In this research work, the weight saving potential and NVH performance of different lightweight glazing materials are investigated to help the lightweight design effort. The lightweight glazing materials included in this study are “Material A”, “Material B”, “Material C” with regular lamination, and “Material C” with acoustic lamination. The results of this research work indicate that the lightweight glazing materials have 30% to 40% weight saving potentials without NVH penalty. These materials have much higher damping properties than conventional tempered glass so they can compensate for the mass reduction influence on vehicle NVH. The tire patch noise reduction, vehicle transparency, and wind noise results of “Vehicle A” tested with different lightweight backlight designs indicate that there is almost no acoustic response difference between the tempered glass and other lightweight alternative backlight designs. Damping loss factor measurements indicate that “Material C” with acoustic PVB (polyvinyl-butyral) has the highest damping loss factor value of 37%. The “Material C” backlight with acoustic PVB is the best among all the lightweight alternatives and brings 29% weight reduction without any NVH degradation. Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) results also indicate that it is possible to eliminate the NVH degradation by using glazing material having high material damping properties or using laminated panels having damping loss values in the range of 6% to 20%. In this paper, we only address the weight reduction and NVH performance of light weight glazing materials but not the costs or any potential assembly procedure changes.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
Ten Psychometric Reasons Why Similar Tests Produce Dissimilar Results.

Abstract Significantly different results frequently exist between two or more tests that purport to measure the same skill when the same child is tested on both instruments. The reasons for these discrepancies may be related to the examinee, examiner, examinee-examiner interactions, environment, or psychometric characteristics of the tests employed. Since the more human-related reasons for test performance instability receive considerable treatment in assessment training and in the literature, this article cites 10 major psychometric reasons why similar tests may produce disparate scores when a single child is tested.
Counting of States in Higher Derivative Field Theories

A canonical approach shows that conformal gravitons have six states and conformal gravitinos have eight states. These results differ from previous counts which yielded four and six states, respectively, and solve a puzzle in $N=2$ extended conformal supergravity. They agree with results of Fradkin and Tseytlin based on a path-integral approach.
A perspective for considering the risks and benefits of spinal manipulation in patients with low back pain

The purpose of this study was to determine if patients who do not receive manipulation for their low back pain (LBP) are at an increased risk for worsening disability compared to patients receiving an exercise intervention without manipulation. One hundred and thirty-one consecutive patients with LBP were randomly assigned to receive manipulation and an exercise intervention (n = 70) or an exercise intervention without manipulation (n = 61). Patients were classified as to whether they had experienced a worsening in disability upon follow-up. Relative risk and number needed to treat (NNT) statistics and associated 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Patients who completed the exercise intervention without manipulation were eight (95% CI: 1.1, 63.5) times more likely to experience a worsening in disability than patients who received manipulation. The NNT with manipulation to prevent one additional patient from experiencing a worsening in disability was 9.9 (95% CI: 4.9, 65.3) and 4 weeks with manipulation was 11.6 (95% CI: 5.2, 219.2). The results of this study offer an additional perspective for considering the risks and benefits of spinal manipulation and help to inform the integration of current evidence for spinal manipulation into healthcare policy.
Cytokines in cancer pathogenesis and cancer therapy

The mixture of cytokines that is produced in the tumour microenvironment has an important role in cancer pathogenesis. Cytokines that are released in response to infection, inflammation and immunity can function to inhibit tumour development and progression. Alternatively, cancer cells can respond to host-derived cytokines that promote growth, attenuate apoptosis and facilitate invasion and metastasis. A more detailed understanding of cytokine–tumour-cell interactions provides new opportunities for improving cancer immunotherapy.
May Eve in the Concilium Romarici Montis

In the Concilium Romarici Montis the nuns of the royal abbeyof Remiremont participate in a poetic debate that parodies a formalchurch council. Their topic is love, and they enthusiastically arguewhether scholars or soldiers are the better lovers. The short (241lines) poem is linguistically simple but remarkably witty. In line 50the speaker refers to the delectatio Aprilis cum Maio, which isto be understood as a specific and clever reference to the licentiousbehavior that occurs on May Eve. Four lines later April and May againfigure in the verse: Sic Maius disposuit et Aprilis monuit.Both the hysteron-proteron and the prosaic et are problematic,and the sentence is virtually meaningless. By emending et tout, however, we can explain the order of May and April, breakup the monotonous sequence of three successive lines with et,and restore the intended correlative sense: Sic Maius disposuit utAprilis monuit ("Thus May disposed as April proposed"). The key toemending the text is to notice that delectatio Aprilis cum Maioin line 50 refers to May Eve ("April's dalliance with May").
Ambient and 550 °C tribological behavior of select MAX phases against Ni-based superalloys

Abstract In this paper, we report on the tribological behavior, at 25 and 550 °C of the following layered (MAX phase) ternary carbides: Ti 2 AlC, Cr 2 AlC, Ta 2 AlC, Ti 3 SiC 2 , Ti 2 AlN, Ti 4 AlN 3 , Cr 2 GeC, Cr 2 GaC, Nb 2 SnC and Ti 2 SnC, tested against Ni-based superalloys, SA (Inconel-718 and Inconel-600). The tests were performed using a pin-on-disc method at 1 m/s and 3 N. At room temperature, the wear rates, WRs, were relatively high (≥10 −4 mm 3 /N-m) and no correlation was found between the WRs and the friction coefficients, μ . Third body abrasion is believed to be responsible for the high WRs at this temperature. At 550 °C, oxidized transfer films were identified on both contact surfaces. The tribofilms comprised mostly of Ni, Cr, Fe and O and resulted in low ( −6 mm 3 /N-m) WRs and μ 's
Schedule-dependent antitumor and toxic effects of thymidine and 5-fluorouracil in AKR and L1210 leukemias

The effect of thymidine (dThd) on 5-fluorouracil (FUra) toxicity to both leukemia stem cells (LCFU) and hematopoietic stem cells (NCFU) was examined. A dose of 10 mg/mouse of dThd given within 1 h before FUra enhanced FUra cytotoxicity to NCFU by a factor of about 4. This effect was also reflected in the reduction of the LD10. The dose-survival curve of FUra in AKR leukemia was modified by the prior administration of dThd 10 mg/mouse: the cytotoxic effect of FUra was enhanced by a factor of between 100 and 1000 throughout the dose range studied. These findings were reflected in the ILS studies. When given by ‘high dose’ infusion dThd had only a slight antitumor effect on AKR leukemia, and no effect on L1210. When large doses of dThd were infused concomitantly with FUra they ptoentiated its cytotoxicity against NCFU, AKR LCFU, and L1210 LCFU in a dose-dependent manner and by a maximum factor of about 70.
Reactive power management for distributed systems

Distributed computing allows users to better utilize and share resources. Having this advantage currently requires a large amount of energy. In this paper we propose a solution for reducing power consumption in distributed computing, called Limited Reactive Power Management (LRPM). By monitoring the current usage of nodes, our solution will power down unnecessary nodes to conserve energy. This allows for power savings with minimal impact on performance. The overall goal is to obtain a lower energy consumption requirement by various distributed systems without sacrificing computing performance.
A technical and economic assessment of ammonia-based post-combustion CO2 capture at coal-fired power plants

Abstract An ammonia-based post-combustion CO2 capture system processing flue gas from a supercritical coal-fired power plant was modeled, and its estimated performance and cost were compared to an amine-based capture system. For the ammonia system the absorber CO2 capture efficiency, NH3 slip, and solids precipitation were evaluated for changes in lean solution NH3 concentration, NH3/CO2 ratio, and absorber temperature. Reductions in NH3 slip were also assessed for changes in absorber temperature and water wash flow rate. For 90% CO2 capture the levelized cost of electricity generation (annual revenue requirement) for the plant with ammonia-based capture was estimated at $US 105/MWh, which is comparable to the levelized cost of electricity generation for the plant with an amine-based capture system. The cost of the ammonia-based system was found to depend strongly on the fraction of CO2 captured as well as on key process design parameters such as lean solution NH3 concentration. Uncertainties in system performance and cost also were estimated probabistically. Assumptions about plant financing and utilization, as well as uncertainties in cooling costs and reaction rates that affect absorber cost were found in particular to produce a wide range of cost estimates for ammonia-based CO2 capture systems, and as a result the importance of reducing these uncertainties is emphasized.
A possible storage form for tyrosinase substrates in Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract A new species of macromolecule extracted from Drosophila melanogaster is discussed. This molecule (PPF) was observed to induce pigmentation in vivo in the pharate pupal and adult stages. Sedimentation analysis indicated that PPF existed in multiple polymeric forms with high sedimentation values. PPF activity is resistant to nucleases, proteases, amylase, and lipase and is stable to high temperatures. It does not contain sulphur or phosphorus as indicated by the failure to incorporate 35 S and 32 P. Chromatographic analysis indicated that PPF can be broken down to compounds that react with Ehrlich's reagent. The molecule is found in the particulate fraction of the cell and may be nuclear in origin. PPF shows a definite relationship to tyrosine metabolism and it is suggested that PPF may be a storage form for tyrosinase substrates.
A multidimensional deconvolution method for evaluating the absorption of drugs undergoing reversible metabolism and presystemic metabolite formation

A general multidimensional deconvolution method is developed primarily for application to the bioavailability assessment of drugs with reversible metabolism. The proposed approach involves fitting continuous functions to the experimental data and then applying a numerical deconvolution algorithm to the fitted curves. It is shown how the method may be used to determine the rates and extends of drug absorption and presystemic formation of interconversion metabolites. The proposed method is implemented as a FORTRAN subroutine called DCVSYS for the general multidimensional deconvolution problem involving any continuous functions and as a user-friendly PC-compatible program called NDCREV for evaluating the absorption of drugs undergoing reversible metabolism. The methods and computer programs are demonstrated by application to simulated drug and metabolite concentrations for a drug with reversible metabolism.
Modeling N2O flux from an Illinois agroecosystem using Monte Carlo sampling of field observations

We modeled the expected range of seasonal and annual N2O flux from temperate, grain agroecosystems using Monte Carlo sampling of N2O flux field observations. This analysis is complimentary to mechanistic biogeochemical model outcomes and provides an alternative method of estimating N2O flux. Our analysis produced a range of annual N2O gas flux estimates with mean values overlapping with results from an intermodel comparison of mechanistic models. Mean seasonal N2O flux was 1–4% of available N, while median seasonal N2O flux was less than 2% of available N across corn, soybean, wheat, ryegrass, legume, and bare fallow systems. The 25th–75th percentile values for simulated average annualized N2O flux rates ranged from 1 to 12.2 kg N ha−1 in the conventional system, from 1.3 to 8.8 kg N ha−1 in the cover crop rotation, and from 0.8 to 9.3 kg N ha−1 in the legume rotation. Although these modeling techniques lack the seasonal resolution of mechanistic models, model outcomes are based on measured field observations. Given the large variation in seasonal N gas flux predictions resulting from the application of mechanistic simulation models, this data-derived approach is a complimentary benchmark for assessing the impact of agricultural policy on greenhouse gas emissions.
SECONDHAND SMOKE REDUCES CORTICAL BONE FRACTURE TOUGHNESS

Cigarette smoking is commonly recognized for its carcinogenic effects. Clinical studies have found that smoking also increases the risk of stress fracture and decreases the fusion rate during bone healing. Nicotine is the most well-known chemical found in cigarettes, and has been implicated in the debilitating effects of smoking. This study investigated the effect of nicotine and secondhand smoke on the fracture resistance of cortical bone taken from rabbit tibias. Nicotine was delivered via a transdermal nicotine patch and a smoking chamber. There were three groups in this study: the control group, a 5-week nicotine patch group, and a 5-week smoking group. The results of this study showed that rabbits exposed to secondhand smoke for 5 weeks had a significant reduction in cortical bone fracture toughness compared to control rabbits, while the fracture toughness of rabbits exposed to nicotine alone was not significantly different than the fracture toughness of the control group.
Seal‐borne sensors are valuable for studies of Southern Ocean conditions

Icy conditions make it difficult to monitor the southern part of the Southern Ocean using floats or ship-based sampling. For about a decade, scientists have been mounting temperature and salinity sensors on the heads of seals from several colonies around Antarctica. There is now a fairly large data set of seal-derived hydrographic data.
Intra-population Differentiation of Physiological Response to Flooding in a Population of Veronica peregrina L.

WHEN a plant population grows in a patchy environment, it can be exposed to a variety of selective pressures. If the resulting disruptive selection is strong enough, intra-population differentiation can occur over distances of a few metres, in spite of the absence of any barriers to gene flow1,2. We wish to report an example of such differentiation within a population of the annual forb Veronica peregrina L.: the differentiation is with respect to physiological responses to varying regimes of soil moisture.
Model for Evaluating Turbidity in Cloudy Beverages

A model was developed to simulate diluted emulsions of clouding agents in beverages using uniform latex particles (ULP) at different concentrations and particle sizes ranging from 0.10 to 5.85 μm. The model allows determination of optimum concentration and diameter of suspended particles in diluted suspensions. Turbidity measurements showed that, for a given particle concentration, the haze of a diluted suspension reached a maximum when the diameter of the ULP was decreased to 0.2-0.3 μm. A comparison of typical citrus oil in water beverage emulsions with diluted ULP suspensions showed that, when size of suspended oil globules was varied, a similar optimum particle size was found.
Mitral valve repair: to slide or not to slide-precardiopulmonary bypass echocardiogram examination.

s ( p r g a 4 m d m t t n d ( t ( C YSTOLIC ANTERIOR MOTION (SAM) and left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO) occur in 2% to 4% of cases of mitral valve repair for myxomatous disease.1,2 he risk of SAM/LVOTO is greater when the excessive mitral eaflet tissues coapt closer to the LVOT during systole.3-5 recardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) echocardiographic meaurements consistent with this include a shorter distance beween the mitral coaptation point and the ventricular septum C-Sept 2.5 cm) and a relatively large coapting posterior eaflet (PL-syst: posterior annulus to the coaptation point) when ompared with the anterior leaflet (AL-syst: anterior annulus to oaptation point), resulting in an AL-syst/PL-syst ratio 1.44,5 Fig 1). Resection of the posterior leaflet, reattachment of the remainng leaflet tissues, and performance of a mitral ring annulolasty reduce the coapting length (systole) of the posterior eaflet.2-5 For patients at high risk for SAM/LVOTO, greater eduction of the posterior leaflet is accomplished by performing posterior sliding leaflet technique2,3,6 (Fig 2). The authors present 2 cases in which the prerepair assessent showed a large prolapsing or flail middle posterior scallop P2) and increased risk of SAM/LVOTO. In the first case, a liding leaflet technique, to prevent SAM/LVOTO, may have ontributed to postrepair mitral incompetence. In a second imilar high-risk case, a sliding leaflet technique was not perormed and the repaired valve was competent.
Effect of paclobutrazol on abscisic acid levels in wheat seedlings

Contradictory results have been reported for the effects of triazoles on abscisic acid (ABA) levels in plants. Paclobutrazol reduced the height, fresh weight, and ABA levels of wheat seedlings. The magnitude of the inhibitory effect of paclobutrazol on ABA levels was dependent on the length of time after application. ABA levels in plants as determined by gas chromatography-selected ion monitoring-mass spectrometry (GC-SIM-MS) were reduced by 50–60% 2 days after soil application. A further 15% reduction occurred by the seventh day after treatment. ABA level analyses began at the time of treatment with 4-day-old seedlings and continued until 21 days after treatment when only a 20% reduction was detected. These determinations using GC-SIM-MS should increase the understanding of triazole effects on ABA levels.
Alfalfa Leaf Protein and Stem Cell Wall Polysaccharide Yields under Hay and Biomass Management Systems

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) has been proposed as a biofuel feedstock in which the stems would be processed to produce ethanol and the leaves sold separately as a livestock feed. Our objectives were to evaluate the effects of management strategy on leaf crude protein (CP), and stem carbohydrate concentrations and yields of alfalfa germplasms differing in genetic background. Two hay-type and two biomass-type alfalfas were established at 450 plants m −2 and harvested at early bud (hay management system) and at 180 plants m −2 and harvested at green pod (biomass management system) in three environments. The biomass-type alfalfas under the biomass management had lower leaf CP, higher stem cell wall polysaccharide, and higher stem lignin concentrations, comparable leaf CP yield, and 37% greater stem cell wall polysaccharide yields compared to the hay-type alfalfas under the hay management treatment. The impact of altered stem cell wall composition and increased stem dry matter yield of a biomass-type alfalfa under the biomass system compared to a hay-type alfalfa under the hay system increased the theoretical potential ethanol yield by 99%.
Effect of citrate-bicarbonate-dithionite treatment on fine-grained magnetite and maghemite

Mineral magnetic properties of soils and parent materials have been interpreted in terms of paleoclimate and rates of soil formation but it is important to understand which minerals contribute to the mineral magnetic signal. Citrate-bicarbonate-dithionite (CBD) treatment has been used to determine the amounts of fine-grained, often pedogenic, ferrimagnetic minerals relative to coarse-grained, often inherited, magnetic minerals. However, questions have been raised about the effect of particle size on the efficacy of CBD in dissolving magnetite and maghemite grains. In this paper we use magnetic susceptibility and its frequency dependence, and the low-temperature behavior of a saturation isothermal remanent magnetization, to track the dissolution of carefully sized magnetite grains. We found that the standard CBD procedure dissolves fine magnetite particles (ca. 1 etm) essentially intact. Thin oxidized coatings, presumably maghemite, are also dissolved by the CBD procedure. These results support previous interpretations that the CBD procedure can be used to distinguish between pedogenic and lithogenic magnetic grains, assuming that most pedogenic magnetic grains are sufficiently small (ca. 1 /im). These results also show that the standard procedure is too harsh to differentiate between 1 grm grains of magnetite and maghemite. A modified CBD extraction that uses half as much dithionite reduces the magnetic susceptibility of 1 Jam magnetite grains by only 10%. This method may be useful in distinguishing between magnetite and maghemite grains in this size range.
Closing the loop in cortically-coupled computer vision: a brain–computer interface for searching image databases

We describe a closed-loop brain–computer interface that re-ranks an image database by iterating between user generated 'interest' scores and computer vision generated visual similarity measures. The interest scores are based on decoding the electroencephalographic (EEG) correlates of target detection, attentional shifts and self-monitoring processes, which result from the user paying attention to target images interspersed in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) sequences. The highest scored images are passed to a semi-supervised computer vision system that reorganizes the image database accordingly, using a graph-based representation that captures visual similarity between images. The system can either query the user for more information, by adaptively resampling the database to create additional RSVP sequences, or it can converge to a 'done' state. The done state includes a final ranking of the image database and also a 'guess' of the user's chosen category of interest. We find that the closed-loop system's re-rankings can substantially expedite database searches for target image categories chosen by the subjects. Furthermore, better reorganizations are achieved than by relying on EEG interest rankings alone, or if the system were simply run in an open loop format without adaptive resampling.
Lymph node status after resection for gallbladder adenocarcinoma: prognostic implications of different nodal staging/scoring systems.

Background and Objectives Several lymph node (LN) staging/scoring systems have been proposed to stratify the prognosis of patients with gallbladder adenocarcinoma (GBA). We sought to define the prognostic performance of the most commonly utilized LN staging/scoring systems including AJCC/UICC N stage, lymph node ratio (LNR), log odds (LODDS), and N score, among patients with GBA. Method Between 2004 and 2010, 1,124 patients with GBA were identified from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. The discriminative ability of each LN staging/scoring system was assessed using the Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) and the Harrell's concordance index. Results When assessed using categorical values, LNR had a modest, improved ability to discriminate patients with regard to prognosis (C-index: 0.615; AIC: 2118.2) compared with AJCC/UICC N stage or N score and a prognostic discrimination comparable to LODDS. Among patients who had a total number of LN examined (TNLE) of 1 or 2, all the staging/scoring systems performed comparably. In contrast, among patients who had ≥4 TNLE, LODDS performed the best (C-index: 0.613; AIC: 303.2). Conclusion The performance of the different LN staging/scoring systems varied based on the TNLE. In particular, for patients who had ≥4 TNLE, LODDS out-performed the other staging/scoring systems. J. Surg. Oncol. 2015 111:299–305. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Quinolone antibiotics in therapy of experimental pneumococcal meningitis in rabbits.

Using a rabbit model of pneumococcal meningitis, we compared the pharmacokinetics and bactericidal activities in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of older (ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin) and newer (levofloxacin, temafloxacin, CP-116,517, and Win 57273) quinolones with those of the beta-lactam ceftriaxone. All quinolones penetrated into the inflamed CSF better than ceftriaxone, and the speed of entry into CSF was closely related to their degrees of lipophilicity. At a dose of 10 mg/kg.h, which in the case of the quinolones already in use in clinical practice produced concentrations attainable in the sera and CSF of humans, ciprofloxacin had no antipneumococcal activity (delta log10 CFU/ml.h, +0.20 +/- 0.14). Ofloxacin (delta log10 CFU/ml.h, -0.13 +/- 0.12), temafloxacin (delta log10 CFU/ml.h, -0.19 +/- 0.18), and levofloxacin (delta log10 CFU/ml.h, -0.24 +/- 0.16) showed slow bactericidal activity (not significantly different from each other), while CP-116,517 (delta log10 CFU/ml.h, -0.59 +/- 0.21) and Win 57273 (delta log10 CFU/ml.h, -0.72 +/- 0.20) showed increased bactericidal activities in CSF that was comparable to that of ceftriaxone at 10 mg/kg.h (delta log10 CFU/ml.h, -0.80 +/- 0.17). These improved in vivo activities of the newer quinolones reflected their increased in vitro activities. All quinolones and ceftriaxone showed positive correlations between bactericidal rates in CSF and concentrations in CSF relative to their MBCs. Only when this ratio exceeded 10 did the antibiotics exhibit rapid bactericidal activities in CSF. In conclusion, in experimental pneumococcal meningitis the activities of new quinolones with improved antipneumococcal activities were comparable to that of ceftriaxone.
Accurate Zygote-Specific Discrimination of Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms Using Microfluidic Electrochemical DNA Melting Curves†

We report the first electrochemical system for the detection of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that can accurately discriminate homozygous and heterozygous genotypes using microfluidics technology. To achieve this, our system performs real-time melting-curve analysis of surface-immobilized hybridization probes. As an example, we used our sensor to analyze two SNPs in the apolipoprotein E (ApoE) gene, where homozygous and heterozygous mutations greatly affect the risk of late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Using probes specific for each SNP, we simultaneously acquired melting curves for probe-target duplexes at two different loci and thereby accurately distinguish all six possible ApoE allele combinations. Since the design of our device and probes can be readily adapted for targeting other loci, we believe that our method offers a modular platform for the diagnosis of SNP-based diseases and personalized medicine.
Re: HER2 Status and Efficacy of Adjuvant Anthracyclines in Early Breast Cancer: A Pooled Analysis of Randomized Trials

Gennari et al. ( 1 ) report an interaction between HER2 status and anthracycline chemosensitivity, but they do not mention tumor grade. Multivariable analysis has revealed that Scarff – Bloom – Richardson grade III tumors respond better to neoadjuvant treatment than Scarff – Bloom – Richardson grade I tumors ( P < .0001) ( 2 ). A recent study suggests that an interaction between HER2 and estrogen receptor pathways may lead to higher proliferation rate and thus a higher tumor grade ( 3 ). Therefore, inclusion of tumor grade might have increased the relative predictive value of HER2 status and grade in predicting anthracycline chemosensitivity ( 2 ). Moreover, among patients who have HER2negative, estrogen receptor – positive breast cancer, those with higher tumor grades may benefit from anthracycline ( 2 ). Furthermore, among patients who have HER2-negative, estrogen receptor – negative, and progesterone receptor – negative breast cancer, we have demonstrated a high rate of pathological complete response ( 4 ), which is an accepted surrogate of improved survival ( 5 , 6 ). Of the 15 patients who re ceived four cycles of dose-dense anthracycline (doxorubicin) and cyclophosphamide followed by three cycles of paclitaxel (cremophor or albumin-bound paclitaxel) plus or minus carboplatin (both at 3 weeks on, 1 week off for one cycle) plus or minus six doses of bevacizumab every 2 weeks, 9 (60%; 95% confidence interval = 32% to 84%) achieved pathological complete response ( 4 ). Specifically, with anthracyclines given biweekly compared with every 3 weeks, there is a higher pathological complete response and, as a result, improved survival ( 7 ). Therefore, the pooled analysis needs to be replicated or refuted in the biweekly anthracycline setting, specifically in estrogen receptor – negative breast cancer.