cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Expanding Role of Rock Engineering in Developing National and Local Infrastructures

Publisher Summary Whether an underground facility is built in rock or soil is a function of the nature of the facility and the local or regional geological conditions. This chapter discusses the expanding role of rock engineering in developing national and local infrastructures. If topographic issues are set aside, urban underground space use is principally a response to two major issues governing a new facility decision—an operational or environmental advantage afforded by isolation below ground in the location considered and/or a need or desire for proximity of the facility to a development or a particular region. Major underground projects are characterized by requirements for massive initial investments that are difficult for governments to undertake in the face of many competing demands for the public purse. The utility infrastructure in many older cities is in need of substantial replacement and upgrading. The research and development investment in the technology improves the competitiveness of the tunneling options for infrastructure work, which increases the demand.
Heated tobacco products: another tobacco industry global strategy to slow progress in tobacco control

There has been a global decline in tobacco consumption that, if continued, will negatively impact the tobacco industry's profits. This decline led the industry to invent and market new products, including heated tobacco products (HTP). HTP are an extension of the industry's strategies to undermine government's tobacco regulatory efforts as they are being promoted as part of the solution for the tobacco epidemic. Under the moniker of 'harm reduction', the tobacco companies are attempting to rehabilitate their reputation so they can more effectively influence governments to roll back existing tobacco control policies or create exemptions for their HTP. Rolling back tobacco control policies will make it easier for the companies to renormalise tobacco use to increase social acceptability for all their products. When regulations are absent or when loopholes exist in classifying HTP as a tobacco product (thus subject to all tobacco control regulations), the industry's marketing of HTP is making these products more visible to the public and more accessible. Governments need to ensure that HTP are regulated as tobacco products or drugs and reject partnerships with the tobacco companies to promote 'harm reduction'. The tobacco companies remain the vector of the tobacco-caused epidemic and cannot be part of the global tobacco control solution.
Design and Implementation of an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Program for Minimally Invasive Lumbar Decompression Spine Surgery: Initial Experience.

Study Design.A retrospective cohort study of prospectively collected data.Objective.The aim of this study was to describe the development of and early experience with an evidence-based enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) pathway for lumbar decompression.Summary of Background Data.ERAS protocols h
Vulnerability Assessment, Remediation, and Automated Reporting: Case Studies of Higher Education Institutions

Scientific advances of higher education institutions make them attractive targets for malicious cyber-attacks. Modern scanners such as Nessus and Burp can pinpoint an organization’s vulnerabilities for subsequent mitigation. However, the remediation reports generated from the tools often cause significant information overload while failing to provide actionable solutions. Consequently, higher education institutions lack the appropriate knowledge to improve their cybersecurity posture. In this study, we conduct a large-scale vulnerability assessment of 272 higher education institutions. From the results, we identified vulnerabilities that fail to provide comprehensive remediation strategies. Selected flaws are recreated and remediated in a virtual environment to develop enhanced, automated reporting mechanisms that provide succinct reports to enable the efficient vulnerability remediation. Our enhanced reports address 27.80% of vulnerabilities found in scanned higher education institutions.
Hands-on Gross Anatomy Instruction Improves Clinical Imaging Skills Among Cardiovascular Fellows.

Introduction:Multi-modality imaging is a crucial component of cardiovascular (CV) fellowship training and requires knowledge of CV anatomy for interpretation. We hypothesized that hands-on anatomy ...
‘The San Antonio River Doesn’t Start in San Antonio, It Now Starts in Burleson County’: Stakeholder Perspectives on a Groundwater Transfer Project in Central Texas

AbstractWater insecurity concerns drove San Antonio, Texas to pursue a controversial $3.4 billion groundwater transfer project from central Texas aquifers. The 228 km Vista Ridge Pipeline (VRP) wou...
Depot Buprenorphine Injection In The Management Of Opioid Use Disorder: From Development To Implementation

Buprenorphine has pharmacologic advantages over methadone, especially buprenorphine's better safety profile. The true significance of buprenorphine's introduction lies in returning the care of those suffering from opioid use disorder (OUD) to the hands of the physician. The clinical success of buprenorphine has been meager, in part because most physicians have not been exposed to treating these patients. For physicians inclined to treat OUD, the barriers to buprenorphine's implementation have been onerous and largely counter to the norms of medical practice. Some notable concerns pertain to buprenorphine's clinical pharmacology like street diversion, unintended use and accidental poisoning. Recently, injectable buprenorphine preparations have been introduced to mitigate these latter shortcomings. Yet, the injectable preparations' clinical and commercial success has fallen far short of expectation. Here, we review the clinical pharmacology of these products and their expected clinical advantages for the manufacturers, clinicians, policy makers and patients, and offer our perspective, as clinicians and researchers, on how things can improve. Questions remain whether clinicians are willing to overcome barriers to treat OUD using these medications.
The history and future prospects of open data and open source software

Abstract Open data for all New Yorkers is the tagline on New York City's open data website. Open government is being promoted at most countries of the western world. Governments' transparency levels are being measured by the amount of data they share through their online public repositories. Additionally, open source software is promoted at governments, academia, and the industry—this is the new digital story of this century, and the new testament between the Gods of technology and there users; data and software openness will redefine the path forward and aim to rekindle our collective intelligence. Data and software openness can redefine Data Democracy and be the catalyst for its progress. This chapter provides a historical insight into data and software openness, the beginnings, the heroes, prospects for the future, and all things we cannot afford to negotiate or lose.
Computed Tomography (CT) for the Horse

The veterinarians of the University of Florida Equine Lameness & Imaging Service specialize in the treatment and rehabilitation of poor performance in sport horses. This series of one-page full color fact sheets describes various diagnostic and imaging services available for diagnosing and treating lameness issues in horses. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/topic_series_equine_lameness_and_imaging_service
Modification of the self-regulated strategy inventory-self report for blended and team-based learning.

Abstract Introduction One of the primary missions of pharmacy education is to produce graduates with the foundations to develop into expert practitioners through continuous learning and reflection upon traditional and clinical experiences. This reflection process and the use of effective strategies to meet specific learning goals can be considered a form of self-regulated learning (SRL). The following study validates an inventory to assess SRL strategies in blended and team-based learning (TBL) environments. Methods A SRL strategy inventory was developed based upon the Self-Regulated Strategies Inventory-Self-Report (SRSI-SR) and new items designed for blended and TBL environments. Sixteen new items focused on leveraging the team to learn content, the use and misuse of video lectures and slides, and interaction with social media and the learning management system. Two hundred and thirty doctor of pharmacy students in the third professional year participated in the study. Twenty-eight items from the SRSI-SR and 16 new items were examined through a principal components analysis (PCA). Results The PCA indicated three distinct components; managing learning environment, maladaptive learning strategies, and seeking and learning information. The total inventory accounted for 46.36% of the score. Maladaptive learning strategies scores were moderately predictive of poor academic achievement in didactic coursework. Conclusions The following study demonstrates the importance of reexamination and adaptation of educational inventories such as the SRSI-SR. This study provides specific insight into what maladaptive strategies may be limiting underperforming students from achieving greater success and mastery in the didactic curriculum.
Prediction of the development of islet autoantibodies through integration of environmental, genetic, and metabolic markers.

Background The Environmental Determinants of the Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) study has prospectively followed, from birth, children at increased genetic risk of type 1 diabetes. TEDDY has collected heterogenous data longitudinally to gain insights into the environmental and biological mechanisms driving the progression to persistent islet autoantibodies. Methods We developed a machine learning model to predict imminent transition to the development of persistent islet autoantibodies based on time-varying metabolomics data integrated with time-invariant risk factors (eg, gestational age). The machine learning was initiated with 221 potential features (85 genetic, 5 environmental, 131 metabolomic) and an ensemble-based feature evaluation was utilized to identify a small set of predictive features that can be interrogated to better understand the pathogenesis leading up to persistent islet autoimmunity. Results The final integrative machine learning model included 42 disparate features, returning a cross-validated receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (AUC) of 0.74 and an AUC of ~0.65 on an independent validation dataset. The model identified a principal set of 20 time-invariant markers, including 18 genetic markers (16 single nucleotide polymorphisms [SNPs] and two HLA-DR genotypes) and two demographic markers (gestational age and exposure to a prebiotic formula). Integration with the metabolome identified 22 supplemental metabolites and lipids, including adipic acid and ceramide d42:0, that predicted development of islet autoantibodies. Conclusions The majority (86%) of metabolites that predicted development of islet autoantibodies belonged to three pathways: lipid oxidation, phospholipase A2 signaling, and pentose phosphate, suggesting that these metabolic processes may play a role in triggering islet autoimmunity.
Acute Appendicitis: Computed Tomography for Diagnosis in Adults.

In a nonpregnant adult with clinical signs and symptoms of appendicitis, computed tomography has a sensitivity of 95% and specificity of 94%.
Probabilistic Reconstruction of Spatio-Temporal Processes Over Multi-Relational Graphs

Given nodal observations that can be limited due to sampling costs or privacy concerns, several network-science-related applications entail reconstruction of values on all network nodes by leveraging topology information. Such a semi-supervised learning (SSL) task has been tackled mainly for graphs capturing a single class of inter-dependencies (or relations) among nodal variables. Faced with multi-relational graphs (MRGs), which emerge in various real-world networks, the present work introduces a principled framework to extrapolate spatio-temporal nodal processes that could be stationary or nonstationary. Broadening the scope of graph kernel-based approaches to MRGs, stationary graph processes are modeled first using a Gaussian mixture (GM) prior, where the covariance matrix of each Gaussian component describes one of the relations in the MRG. To further cope with nonstationary nodal processes, a first-order topology-dependent Gaussian transition prior is considered per relation, what gives rise to a GM transition density that accounts for all relations. In both cases, adapting the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm yields two novel graph-adaptive solvers that not only reconstructs nodal features over unobserved nodes, but also quantifies the contribution of each relation. To enrich expressiveness of these novel EM-based approaches, multiple kernels per relation are also explored. Experiments with real data showcase the merits of the proposed methods relative to the existing alternatives.
A Semester-Long Study of Magnetic Fields Using Smartphones to Engage Non-Physics Majors

To help engage non-physics majors in a General Physics II (Electricity & Magnetism) course at the University of Indianapolis, students used their smartphones to detect magnetic fields on campus in a semester-long data collection project. This paper discusses details about the design of the project, previous studies that utilize smartphones for scientific data collection, the specific smartphone application that was used, an overview of findings, and future iterations of the project.
Immunogenicity and inflammatory properties of respiratory syncytial virus attachment G protein in cotton rats

Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of lower respiratory tract infection in infants and young children worldwide. The attachment (G) protein of RSV is synthesized by infected cells in both a membrane bound (mG) and secreted form (sG) and uses a CX3C motif for binding to its cellular receptor. Cell culture and mouse studies suggest that the G protein mimics the cytokine CX3CL1 by binding to CX3CR1 on immune cells, which is thought to cause increased pulmonary inflammation in vivo. However, because these studies have used RSV lacking its G protein gene or blockade of the G protein with a G protein specific monoclonal antibody, the observed reduction in inflammation may be due to reduced virus replication and spread, and not to a direct role for G protein as a viral chemokine. In order to more directly determine the influence of the soluble and the membrane-bound forms of G protein on the immune system independent of its attachment function for the virion, we expressed the G protein in cotton rat lungs using adeno-associated virus (AAV), a vector system which does not itself induce inflammation. We found no increase in pulmonary inflammation as determined by histology and bronchoalveolar lavage after inoculation of AAVs expressing the membrane bound G protein, the secreted G protein or the complete G protein gene which expresses both forms. The long-term low-level expression of AAV-G did, however, result in the induction of non-neutralizing antibodies, CD8 T cells and partial protection from challenge with RSV. Complete protection was accomplished through co-immunization with AAV-G and an AAV expressing cotton rat interferon α.
Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy as a tool for evaluating lateral flow assays

Lateral flow assays (LFAs) are immunochromatographic point-of-care devices that have greatly impacted disease diagnosis through their rapid, inexpensive, and easy-to-use form factor. While LFAs have been successful as field-deployable tools, they have a relatively poor limit of detection when compared to more complex methods. Moreover, most design and manufacturing optimization is achieved through time- and resource-intensive brute-force optimization. Despite increased interests in LFA manufacturing, more quantitative tools are needed to study current manufacturing protocols and therefore, optimize and streamline development of these devices further. In this work, we focus on a critical LFA component, colloidal gold conjugated to a detection antibody, one of the most commonly used reporter elements. This study utilizes inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) in conjunction with a lateral flow reader to quantitatively analyze colloidal gold distributions at the read-out test and control lines, as well as residual gold on the conjugate pad and other flow through regions. Our goals are to develop a more rigorous understanding of current LFA designs as well as a quantitative understanding of shortcomings of operational characteristics for future improvement. To our knowledge, this is the first time that ICP-OES has been used to study the initial distribution of colloidal gold on an unused LFA and its redistribution after a test is performed. Using three different brands of commercially available malaria LFAs, gold content was measured within each section of an LFA at varying parasite test concentrations. As expected, the total mass of gold remained unchanged after LFA use; however, the total mass of initial gold and its redistribution varied among manufacturers. Importantly, there are also some inherent inefficiencies that exist in these commercial LFA designs; for example, only 30% of the total gold deposited onto Brand A LFAs binds to the test and control lines, sections of the test that contain interpretable signal. Using information gathered with this method, future devices could be more purposefully engineered to focus on improved binding efficiency, resulting in reduced costs, improved limit of detection, and diminished test-to-test and manufacturer-to-manufacturer variability.
Crowd-sourced hospital ratings are correlated with patient satisfaction but not surgical safety.

Abstract Background Hospital reviews posted online by patients are unsolicited and less structured than Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems surveys. The differences between online review platforms and their degrees of correlation with validated satisfaction and safety measures are unknown. Methods We identified 515 large acute care teaching hospitals in the United States. We collected patient satisfaction results and postsurgical patient safety indicators from Hospital Compare. We also collected hospital star ratings (1–5) from Facebook, Google, and Yelp. Mean ratings were compared with paired t tests. Concordance between ratings websites, Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems scores, and surgical safety indicators were assessed with Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Results Mean Facebook ratings (3.81, interquartile range 3.5–4.3) were more favorable than Google (3.26, interquartile range 2.8–3.6) or Yelp (2.59, interquartile range 2.3–2.9). Facebook ratings were least strongly correlated with the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems recommended hospital score (ρ = 0.356). Google was modestly correlated (ρ = 0.479), and Yelp was most strongly correlated (ρ = 0.500). The negative correlation between crowdsourced rating and composite safety indicator was too small to be meaningful on any platform. Conclusion There is variation between platforms in consumer ratings of hospitals. Ratings on Facebook are more favorable than Google or Yelp. These are independently correlated with Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems scores. These findings suggest that unstructured consumer reviews generally reflect similar directionality as Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems satisfaction scores. Users should be aware of the significant difference between platforms. Consumer ratings platforms are not consistently correlated with postsurgical patient safety indicators, so online ratings may not reflect the safety of surgical care received.
Service Placement and Request Scheduling for Data-Intensive Applications in Edge Clouds

Mobile edge computing provides the opportunity for wireless users to exploit the power of cloud computing without a large communication delay. To serve data-intensive applications (e.g., video analytics, machine learning tasks) from the edge, we need, in addition to computation resources, storage resources for storing server code and data as well as network bandwidth for receiving user-provided data. Moreover, due to time-varying demands, the code and data placement needs to be adjusted over time, which raises concerns of system stability and operation cost. In this paper, we address these issues by proposing a two-time-scale framework that jointly optimizes service (code and data) placement and request scheduling, while considering storage, communication, computation, and budget constraints. First, by analyzing the hardness of various cases, we completely characterize the complexity of our problem. Next, we develop a polynomial-time service placement algorithm by formulating our problem as a set function optimization, which attains a constant-factor approximation under certain conditions. Furthermore, we develop a polynomial-time request scheduling algorithm by computing the maximum flow in a carefully constructed auxiliary graph, which satisfies hard resource constraints and is provably optimal in the special case where requests have homogeneous resource demands. Extensive synthetic and trace-driven simulations show that the proposed algorithms achieve 90% of the optimal performance.
TextPool: Visualizing Live Text Streams

In today's fast-paced world it is becoming increasingly difficult to stay abreast of the public discourse. With the advent of hundreds of closed-captioned cable channels and internet-based channels such as news feeds, blogs, or email, knowing the "buzz" is a particular challenge. TextPool addresses this problem by quickly summarizing recent content in live text streams. The summarization is a dynamically changing textual collage that clusters related terms. We tested TextPool with the content of several RSS newswire feeds, which are updated roughly every five minutes. TextPool was able to handle this bandwidth well, and produced useful summarizations of feed content.
Components of systems software for parallel systems

Systems software for clusters and other parallel systems affects multiple types of users. End users interact with it to submit and interact with application jobs and to avail themselves of scalable system tools. Systems administrators interact with it to configure and build software installations on individual nodes, schedule, manage, and account for application jobs and to continuously monitor the status of the system, repairing it as needed. Libraries interact with system software as they deal with the host environment. In this talk we discuss an ongoing research project devoted to an architecture for systems software that promotes robustness, flexibility, and efficiency. We present a component architecture that allows great simplicity and flexibility in the implementation of systems software. We describe a mechanism by which systems administrators can easly customize or replace individual components independently of others. We then describe the introduction of parallelism into a variety of both familiar and new system tools for both users and administrators. Finally, we present COBALT (COmponent-BAsed Lightweight Toolkit), an open-source, freely available preliminary implementation of the systems software components and scalable user tools, currently in production use in a number of environments.
Human cytomegalovirus maturational proteinase: expression in Escherichia coli, purification, and enzymatic characterization by using peptide substrate mimics of natural cleavage sites.

Abstract The proteolytic processing of the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) assembly protein, resulting in truncation of its C terminus, is an essential step in virion maturation. The proteinase responsible for this cleavage is the amino-terminal half of the protein encoded by the UL80a open reading fame. We have obtained high expression levels of this 256-amino-acid HCMV proteinase, assemblin, in Escherichia coli. In addition to the 28-kDa proteinase, a 15-kDa protein comprising the first 143 amino acids and a 13-kDa protein comprising the last 113 amino acids of the 28-kDa HCMV proteinase were present. Both the 28-kDa proteinase and the 15-kDa protein were purified by a two-step chromatographic procedure utilizing anion exchange in urea and dithiothreitol and size exclusion in NaSCN and dithiothreitol. Activation of the purified 28-kDa proteinase required denaturation in urea as well as complete reduction of all five cysteine residues in the molecule. Removal of the urea by dialysis with retention of the reducing agent yielded an active proteinase. Addition of glycerol to 50% enhanced the activity. The HCMV proteinase cleaved the peptides RGVVNASSRLAK and SYVKASVSPE, which are mimics of the maturational (M)- and release (R)-site sequences, respectively, in the UL80a-encoded protein. The cleavage site in the peptides was at the same Ala-Ser scissile bond as observed in the UL80a protein. The Km value for the cleavage of RGVVNASSRLAK (M-site mimic) by the proteinase was similar to that for SYVKASVSPE (R-site mimic), but the turnover (kcat) of the M-site peptide mimic substrate by the proteinase was six to eight times faster. The peptide homologs of the herpes simplex virus type 1 M- and R-site sequences in the UL26-encoded protein were also cleaved by the HCMV proteinase, although at rates slower than those for the HCMV substrates. The HCMV proteinase was inhibited by Zn2+ and by alkylating agents, but only at very high inhibitor concentrations. The purified 15-kDa protein, subjected to the same activation conditions as the 28-kDa proteinase, had no enzymatic activity against the HCMV M- and R-site peptide substrates.
Determination of strength and specificity of membrane-bound G protein--phospholipase C association using fluorescence spectroscopy.

As biochemical assays are identifying more and more interacting proteins, questions as to which interactions predominate under particular conditions need to be addressed because their relative strengths will determine the route a particular signal will be transduced. There are several techniques to measure affinities between proteins that freely diffuse in solution. However, when proteins are confined to membrane surfaces, the methods to measure their interactions are limited. Fluorescence spectroscopy is one of the few techniques that can monitor the association between membrane proteins in real time and allows the quantification of the energy of these interactions. It should also be considered that analysis of these quasi two-dimensional interactions poses particular problems. This chapter focuses on the use of fluorescence spectroscopy to measure membrane protein affinities.
One-Pass, Optimal Tree Parsing - With Or Without Trees

This paper describes the theory behind and implementation of wburg, a code-generator generator that accepts tree grammars as input and produces a code generator that emits an optimal parse of an IR tree in just a single bottom-up pass. Furthermore, wburg eliminates the need for an explicit IR tree altogether. The grammars that wburg-generated parsers can parse are a proper subset of those that two-pass systems can handle. However, analysis indicates that uburg can optimally handle grammars for most instruction sets (e.g., SPARC, MIPS R3000, and x86).
Body Position and the Strength and Endurance of Manual Pull

Response strength and the duration of a sub-maximal holding response (endurance) were measured at twenty body positions. The magnitude of the holding response for each subject was 80 per cent of his maximum response strength at the poorest of the twenty positions. A corrected r of 0.88 (p < 0.01) was obtained between the measures of strength and endurance. Thus, it may be assumed that a change in body position, control placement, or body stabilization which increases strength will reduce the effort required to maintain a given force on the control, and that the endurance of the holding response will be proportionately increased. Further, available data on strength may be used to estimate the effect of body stabilization, etc., on the endurance of iometric muscle tensions.
Computer simulation of a motor-pump unit to aid in interpreting vibration data

An approach for predicting vibration signatures due to component failures or changes under operating conditions is discussed. Using a dynamic computer model of the rotating machine, a variety of natural modes of oscillations can be simulated. Results are analyzed using a fast Fourier transform code to generate spectra that show changes in spectral shapes caused by the simulated anomalies. >
Resonances in the angular distribution of xenon photoelectrons

Measurements are reported of the resonant structure, caused by autoionization, in the angular distribution of xenon photoelectrons. The measurements were made within the autoionizing structure lying between the $^{2}P_{\frac{3}{2}}$ and $^{2}P_{\frac{1}{2}}$ ionization thresholds for the wavelength range 956 to 1015 \AA{}. The results show a periodic variation in the asymmetry parameter $\ensuremath{\beta}$ with maximum excursions of about + 0.9 to - 0.9. The overall variation and magnitude of $\ensuremath{\beta}$ is in accord with the recent theoretical predictions of Dill.
Nonverbal Skill, Personal Charisma, and Initial Attraction

The study of initial attraction has given insufficient attention to the influence of nonverbal expressiveness. This study examined the relative effects of expressive nonverbal skills and physical attractiveness on impressions made in initial encounters. Physical attractiveness is of known importance in the initial stages of a relationship; yet dynamic nonverbal cues of emotion may also have a significant impact. Fifty-four undergraduates were administered standard measures of nonverbal expressiveness, self-monitoring, and extroversion, and they were surreptitiously videotaped while entering a laboratory and meeting new people. Subjects were rated by separate groups of observers on scales of likability and physical attractiveness. The results indicated that emotionally expressive, extroverted, and physically attractive subjects were evaluated more favorably in these initial encounters than were subjects scoring low on these dimensions. The relationships between expressivity/extroversion and initial likabil...
Radiological Background Levels Found in Glass Fiber Filters Used for Low-Level Environmental Surveillance Air Sampling

Environmental surveillance monitoring of low-level radioactive particles in air requires a thorough understanding of low-level techniques and air sample collection media. High-volume air sampling for radioactive particles around Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) currently employs glass-fiber filters that are analyzed for gross alpha and gross beta activity and for specific isotopes. This study was conducted to determine the activities of radionuclides contained in blank glass-fiber filters. Data from this study provided a partial explanation of differences between current reported concentrations of radionuclides in air and those reported historically when cellulose filters were used in the LLNL monitoring effort.
Methyl Testosterone IV. Observations on the Hypermetabolism Induced by Methyl Testosterone1

A RISE IN THE BASAL METABOLIC RATE has been reported to occur in human subjects receiving testosterone propionate by Kenyon et al. (1, 2, 3), Thompson and Heckel (4), and Eidelsberg and Ornstein (5). Kochakian and Murlin found a slight increase in energy metabolism of a castrated dog treated with testosterone propionate (6), but failed to corroborate this in subsequent studies (7, 8). McCullagh (9), Byron and Katzen (10), and McCullagh and Rossmiller (11) found an increase to occur in the B.M.R. of patients receiving methyl testosterone orally. The 10 patients studied by McCullagh and Rossmiller (11) showed increases in B.M.R. ranging from 12 to 54% of normal. This paper deals with additional studies on 5 of these patients, and on 6 others in whom a similar metabolic increase was induced by methyl testosterone. Studies have been made, with and without therapy, on the blcod cholesterol, blood iodine, respiratory quotient, circulation time, the nitrogen balance and urinary excretion of various electrolytes.
Visual processing of depth information in stereoscopic displays

This paper discusses the perception of depth in stereoscopic displays, with an emphasis on the validity of depth perception. The paper presents the idea that stereoscopic depth perception involves a number of processing steps such as detecting disparity and perceptual rescaling of disparity for different viewing distances to yield perceived depth. The paper concludes with several ideas relating to the design of stereoscopic displays.
Flexure across a continent–ocean fracture zone: the northern Falkland/Malvinas Plateau, South Atlantic

Bathymetry, satellite-derived gravity, and interpreted seismic reflection data across the northern Falkland/Malvinas Plateau fossil continent–ocean transform rim may record the degree of mechanical coupling across the boundary after ridge–transform intersection time. The rim comprises a broad microcontinental block in the east and a continental marginal fracture ridge 50–100 km wide elsewhere. Free-air gravity anomalies tentatively suggest that the fracture ridge is locked against oceanic elastic lithosphere both to the north (Argentine Basin) and south (Central Falkland Basin).
AN AVOIDANCE LEARNING SITUATION. A NEURAL NET MODEL.

A simple avoidance situation is considered in terms of a neural net learning model. Data for the control situation can be represented by an expression having three parameters which determine the initial and the steady state activities together with the transient aspects. The introduction of a learning parameter then allows one to calculate satisfactorily the results obtained in the experimental situation in which shock is applied.
“I Don’t Want to Go Back to That Town:” Incarcerated Mothers and Their Return Home to Rural Communities

The increased representation of women in prisons and its consequences has been constructed as an urban, inner-city problem. Lost in this conversation, is the acknowledgement of how the limited socioeconomic opportunities, spatial isolation, and stigma which characterize rural America, lead to the vulnerabilities that mark the lives of rural women (Pruitt in Utah Law Rev 2:421–488, 2007). Through the lens of the Vulnerability Conceptual Model, this study explores the ways that community context shapes women’s experiences of mothering, the effect of incarceration on their children, and plans for returning home. Results of the study contribute to the limited research dedicated to rural women, usually obscured by society’s dominant urban perspective.
Measuring γ with CP-Tagged Bs and Bd Decays

We propose a new method for measuring the CKM phase γ using the partial rates for CP-tagged Bs decays. Such an experiment could be performed at a very high luminosity symmetric e+e- collider operating at the ϒ(5S) resonance, where the state is produced in a state of definite CP. We also discuss CP-tagging in the Bd system at the ϒ(4S), where a time-dependent analysis is required to compensate for the anticipated large CP violation in mixing.
Colon Ischemia Following Aortic Reconstruction

Ischemic colitis following aortic reconstruction, although uncommon, has potentially devastating consequences. While clinically apparent after only about 2% of aortic reconstructions, subclinical episodes undoubtedly occur much more frequently. The mortality associated with transmural colonic infarction can exceed 50%. Colon ischemia is usually due to a watershed phenomenon, wherein the collateral blood flow to the sigmoid colon from the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) or hypogastric arteries (HGA) is inadequate after inferior mesenteric artery (IMA) occlusion occurring incident to aortic reconstruction. This collateral blood flow is through either the meandering mesenteric artery (for SMA to IMA flow) or the marginal artery of Drummond. Certain criteria are useful in predicting individuals at risk for postoperative colon ischemia. Early postoperative diagnosis is crucial to minimize morbidity and mortality associated with ischemic colitis. While diarrhea, fever, severe postoperative abdominal pain, or signs of sepsis and peritonitis all suggest colonic ischemia, flexible sigmoidoscopy is essential to establish the diagnosis and can be performed at the bedside. Nonoperative management, including broad spectrum antibiotics and careful attention to fluid and electrolyte administration, is the preferred treatment for mild cases of colon ischemia involving only the mucosa. However, at the first signs of advanced ischemia, whether noted endoscopically or clinically, resection of all necrotic bowel with
Retinal Ganglion Cell Damage in an Experimental Rodent Model of Blast-Mediated Traumatic Brain Injury

Purpose To evaluate retina and optic nerve damage following experimental blast injury. Methods Healthy adult mice were exposed to an overpressure blast wave using a custom-built blast chamber. The effects of blast exposure on retina and optic nerve function and structure were evaluated using the pattern electroretinogram (pERG), spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT), and the chromatic pupil light reflex. Results Assessment of the pupil response to light demonstrated decreased maximum pupil constriction diameter in blast-injured mice using red light or blue light stimuli 24 hours after injury compared with baseline in the eye exposed to direct blast injury. A decrease in the pupil light reflex was not observed chronically following blast exposure. We observed a biphasic pERG decrease with the acute injury recovering by 24 hours postblast and the chronic injury appearing at 4 months postblast injury. Furthermore, at 3 months following injury, a significant decrease in the retinal nerve fiber layer was observed using OCT compared with controls. Histologic analysis of the retina and optic nerve revealed punctate regions of reduced cellularity in the ganglion cell layer and damage to optic nerves. Additionally, a significant upregulation of proteins associated with oxidative stress was observed acutely following blast exposure compared with control mice. Conclusions Our study demonstrates that decrements in retinal ganglion cell responses can be detected after blast injury using noninvasive functional and structural tests. These objective responses may serve as surrogate tests for higher CNS functions following traumatic brain injury that are difficult to quantify.
Theoretical Explanation of Mountain Pine Beetle Dynamics in Lodgepole Pine Forests

Sample data from 215 infested lodgepole pines from 11 separate locations in the United States and Canada were analyzed to determine the relative effect of the measured variables on mountain pine beetle emergence density (production). From this analysis a model was developed which expresses production as a function of attack density and basic habitat suitability. The measured variables having the most influence on basic habitat suitability were lodgepole pine phloem thickness, cortical resin canals, host resistance, and predation by woodpeckers. Host resistance was also found to influence the intensity of attack. A theoretical model was constructed to examine the relative effects of lodgepole pine phloem thickness, and resistance to attack, on the dynamics of the beetle population. Analysis indicated that mountain pine beetle outbreaks are triggered by rapid declines in stand resistance resulting from climatic disturbances, insect defoliation, etc.
More about dicriticals

This paper attempts to characterize the dicritical set of a rational function which generates a special pencil at a simple point of an algebraic or arithmetical surface.
Membrane Fusion: Five Lipids, Four SNAREs, Three Chaperones, Two Nucleotides, and a Rab, All Dancing in a Ring on Yeast Vacuoles

Although fusion mechanisms are highly conserved in evolution and among organelles of the exocytic and endocytic pathways, yeast vacuole homotypic fusion offers unique technical advantages: excellent genetics, clear organelle cytology, in vitro colorimetric fusion assays, and reconstitution of fusion from all-pure components, including a Rab GTPase, HOPS (homotypic fusion and vacuole protein sorting complex), four SNAREs [soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor (NSF) attachment receptors] that snare (bind) each other, SNARE-complex disassembly chaperones, and vacuolar lipids. Vacuole fusion studies offer paradigms of the interdependence of lipids and fusion proteins to assemble a fusion microdomain, distinct lipid functions, SNARE complex proofreading through the synergy between HOPS and the SNARE disassembly chaperones, and the role of each fusion protein in promoting radical bilayer restructuring for fusion without lysis.
TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL CHANGES IN PEROXIDASE ACTIVITY DURING FRUIT DEVELOPMENT IN ENCYCLIA TAMPENSIS (ORCHIDACEAE)

A B S T R A C T Peroxidase activity in the fruit of Encyclia tampensis (Lindl.) Small was investigated at various stages of growth and correlated with the histological changes of megasporogenesis and ovule development. Sites of peroxidase activity in the developing fruit were demonstrated histochemically and soluble proteins were resolved electrophoretically at progressive stages of growth. Peroxidase activity increases linearly with fruit diameter and wet weight and is highest in the portion of the fruit containing the developing ovules. While activity is initially confined to the ovulary walls, the ovules show a marked increase in peroxidase activity which is correlated with the lignification of the integuments in the later phases of development. The peroxidase activity initiated by pollination appears entirely to be that of a single isozymic form. UNLIKE those of most angiosperms, the ovulary
An Experimental Study of Homophily in the Adoption of Health Behavior

How does the composition of a population affect the adoption of health behaviors and innovations? Homophily—similarity of social contacts—can increase dyadic-level influence, but it can also force less healthy individuals to interact primarily with one another, thereby excluding them from interactions with healthier, more influential, early adopters. As a result, an important network-level effect of homophily is that the people who are most in need of a health innovation may be among the least likely to adopt it. Despite the importance of this thesis, confounding factors in observational data have made it difficult to test empirically. We report results from a controlled experimental study on the spread of a health innovation through fixed social networks in which the level of homophily was independently varied. We found that homophily significantly increased overall adoption of a new health behavior, especially among those most in need of it.
SU-C-19A-05: Treatment Chairs for Modern Radiation Therapy Treatments

Purpose: Treating patients in a seated position has potential advantages including improved comfort, increased lung volume, and reduced respiratory motion. We compared chair designs for head and neck, thoracic and breast patients for use with either IGRT linacs or a proposed low-cost fixed horizontal beam-line machine. Methods: Three treatment chairs were designed and constructed. Two of the chairs are based on a massage-chair, with the patient angled slightly forwards and knee rests used to minimize intra-fraction slouch. The third chair design is more conventional; the patient is angled backwards, with indexed positioning devices and the ability to attach thermoplastic masks. Patient geometries, including PTV location and patient sizes, were extracted from 137 CTs of past patients were used to model the probability of collision between the patient and the linac for various seated positions. All chairs were designed around the weight limits for couches on our linacs. At the time of writing we have just received IRB approval for imaging studies to evaluate comfort, and intra- and interfraction reproducibility. Results: The geometric analysis showed that head and neck patients and thoracic patients could be treated without collision. However, there is very limited space between the patient and the treatment/imaging devices,more » so careful design of the chair is essential. The position of the treatment target and extended arm positioning means that this is a particular concern for thoracic and breast patients. This was demonstrated for one of the prototype chairs designed for breast treatment where the arm holders would collide with the kV detector. The extra clearance of a dedicated fixed-beam linac would overcome these difficulties. Intra- and inter-fraction reproducibility results will be presented at the meeting. Conclusion: To take advantage of the clinical advantages of seated treatments, appropriate treatment chairs are needed. A dedicate fixed-beam linac may enable more options. This work was partially funded by Varian Medical Systems.« less
Postcontractile blood flow as a window to cardiovascular disease

a historically important topic in physiology is the control of arterial blood flow ([1][1]). Numerous studies have shown that multiple vasodilatory mechanisms exist and that there is enough redundancy and compensatory interaction to make studying the control of blood flow a difficult topic ([5][2
Incomplete response to endoscopic sphincterotomy in patients with sphincter of Oddi dysfunction: evidence for a chronic pain disorder.

Incomplete response to endoscopic sphincterotomy in patients with sphincter of Oddi dysfunction: evidence for a chronic pain disorder
Generation of targeted retroviral vectors by using single-chain variable fragment : An approach to in vivo gene delivery

We report the generation of a retroviral vector that infects human cells specifically through recognition of the low density lipoprotein receptor. The rationale for this targeted infection is to add onto the ecotropic envelope protein of Moloney murine leukemia virus, normally trophic for murine cells, a single-chain variable fragment derived from a monoclonal antibody recognizing the human low density lipoprotein receptor. This chimeric envelope protein was used to construct a packaging cell line producing a retroviral vector capable of high-efficiency transfer of the Escherichia coli beta-galactosidase gene to human cells expressing low density lipoprotein receptor. This approach offers a generalized plan to generate cell and tissue-specific retroviral vectors, an essential step toward in vivo gene therapy strategies.
Effect of norethandrolone, acetohexamide, and enovid on α-naphthylisothiocyanate-induced hyperbilirubinemia and cholestasis☆

Abstract Potentiation of α-naphthylisothiocyanate (ANIT)-induced hyperbilirubinemia and cholestasis was demonstrated in mice after pretreatment with norethandolone, acetohexamide, or Enovid. Studies involving the components of Enovid showed that the ANIT-potentiating activity resided in the progestational component, norethynodrel, and not mestranol. Serum glutamic-pyruvic transminase levels after norethandrolone, acetohexamide, or Enovid pretreatment were elevated in accordance with the degree of potentiation of ANIT. In the absence of ANIT, norethandrolone, acetohexamide, or Enovid treatment alone had no significant effect on any of the parameters studied. Additional studies on hexobarbital sleeping time and metabolism showed that norethandrolone and Enovid, but not acetohexamide, significantly shortened sleeping time and increased metabolism of hexobarbital in vivo . The potentiation of ANIT may be due to enhanced biotransformation of ANIT to an active metabolite. However, it is noted that numerous drugs associated with cholestasis in man have been found to stimulate microsomal enzyme systems. It is suggested that these agents and ANIT may also affect bilirubin secretion into bile. Until the mechanisms involved are resolved, definite conclusions cannot be made regarding the application of ANIT-potentiation as a laboratory tool for detecting cholestatic drugs.