cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Three-dimensional microscopic MRI of maize kernels during drying

Three-dimensional (3D), transient moisture transfer in solid food particles during drying is important information for the evaluation of existing drying theories and the optimization of the drying process. Such information has not yet been obtained. Microscopic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to non-destructively measure the transient moisture transfer in individual maize kernels for two drying conditions. A 3D Fourier transform technique was applied to collect the MRI data. Moisture transfer was analysed from sequential 3D magnetic resonance (MR) images of maize kernels obtained during drying. There were two primary routes for moisture transfer in a maize kernel during drying, through the glandular layer of the scutellum and through the pericarp.
Computed Tomography Using a Cs137 Source

The purpose of this work was to explore the use of a monenergetic gamma ray source and pulse counting techniques for use In a CT device. The ideal source for CT scanning is one with a 100-keV gamma ray, long lifetime and low-cost availabiltly in high specific activity. However, since the attenuation coefficient of tissue-like materials varies slowly with energy a Cs-137 source was used without significant disadvantage. Phantoms consisting of brass, aluminum and low-Z, organic polymers were scanned with 2.0 mm ray spacing and up to 60 angular orientations. The results from 0.1% statistical accuracy data obtained with the prototype scanner have demonstrated that a 2.5% density gradient can be detected. One of the advantages of a Cs-137 source is that the calculated attenuation coefficients are directly proportional to physical densities of the materials scanned.
Electronic structure of defects and impurities in III-V nitrides. II. Be, Mg, and Si in cubic boron nitride

The electronic structure of beryllium (Be), magnesium (Mg), and silicon (Si) impurities in zinc-blende boron nitride $(c\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{BN})$ were studied by using the tight-binding linearized muffin-tin-orbitals technique. Calculations were performed using 64-atom supercells centered on either a boron (B) or a nitrogen (N) lattice site. While Be and Mg impurities were substituted only to the B sublattice, substitutions for both B and N were considered in the case of the Si impurity. In each case, total-energy minimization was used to examine lattice relaxation near the impurity site, and the nature of chemical bonding between the impurity and the neighboring atoms of the host crystal was examined in detail. We find that Be and Mg substituted for B each create delocalized levels merged to the states at the valence-band edge. These partially occupied levels can result in $p$-type conductivity such as that which has been observed experimentally. In contrast to the behavior of isolated Be and Mg impurities in $c$-BN, we find that Si substituted at a B site induces delocalized impurity states that overlap with the conduction-band edge of the host. These levels can contribute to the $n$-type conductivity of Si-doped $c$-BN. Si substituted to the anion sublattice induces sharp, partially occupied, and highly localized levels within the forbidden gap (``deep acceptor levels''). The experimentally observed mixture of $n$- and $p$-type $c$-BN can therefore be accounted for by the presence of impurities of each type. The relaxation of the host lattice near the Be and Mg impurities is outward, as is the relaxation near the Si impurity substituted at a N site. Inward relaxation is predicted in the case of Si substituted for B. The total, orbital, and shell-projected densities of states for the impurity and up to six coordinational shells nearest the impurity are analyzed in detail. Charge-density plots relevant to the impurities are also presented.
Mechanical behavior of damaged trabecular bone

The mechanical behavior of damaged trabecular bone may play a role in the etiology of age-related spine fractures since damaged bone exists in and may weaken the elderly vertebral body. To describe some characteristics of damaged trabecular bone, we measured the changes in modulus and strength that occur when bovine trabecular bone is loaded in compression to various strains beyond its elastic range. Twenty-three reduced-section specimens, taken from 17 different bones, were loaded from 0-X-0-9% strain, where X was one of four strains: 1.0% (n = 7), 2.5% (n = 6), 4.0% (n = 5), or 5.5% (n = 5). We found that modulus was reduced for all applied strains, whereas strength was reduced only for strain levels > or = 2.5%; the percentage changes in modulus and strength were independent of Young's modulus but were highly dependent on the magnitude of the applied strains; modulus was always reduced more than strength; and simple statistical models, using knowledge of only the applied strains, predicted well the percentage reductions in modulus (r2 = 0.97) and strength (r2 = 0.74). The modulus reductions reported here are in qualitative agreement with those for cortical bone in tensile loading, supporting the concept that the damage behaviors of cortical and trabecular bone are similar for low strains (< or = 4.0%). In addition, because modulus was always reduced more than strength, damaged trabecular bone may be stress protected in vivo by redistribution of stresses to undamaged bone.
Compression of high-resolution images with visually transparent techniques

Encoding of images with requirements of high visual quality and post-processing capability requires new approaches to the coding problem. These requirements prohibit the introduction of noticeable degradation and structured artifacts by the coding process. A variable block size coding approach using a spatial structure criteria for segmentation has been found to yield high compression ratios, particularly for images with detail concentrated in limited regions. However, block based techniques, such as transforms, vector quantization (VQ) or a combination of transforms and VQ, by their very nature tend to introduce unacceptable blocking artifacts. In this paper, a modified variable block size approach tailored to yield high quality and no structured artifacts is developed. The technique is used in a two-source coding scheme and in a multi-source scheme i.e., coding of the Laplacian pyramid decomposition. Results of simulations on standard 512 X 512 monochrome images are obtained and compared with those obtained by the baseline JPEG standard and current literature. Results of simulations on 1024 X 1024 digital x rays are also obtained. The proposed two-source scheme is found to yield good compression ratios, high quality and impressive post-processing capability.
The effects of soy on freezable bread dough: a magnetic resonance study.

Hygroscopic soy ingredients were hypothesised to slow the rate of water migration in unleavened bread dough during frozen storage. Thawed soy (18% dry weight) and wheat dough samples were assessed using non-destructive nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for up to 8 wks frozen storage time. MRI suggested a spatially homogeneous, net increase in proton mobility with frozen storage and, with solution state proton NMR, distinct “free” and “bound” states were discerned. T2 relaxation times of the majority proton population suggested increased mobility with frozen storage time, and statistical difference from the fresh sample was seen later for the soy samples than the wheat samples. As seen by 13C-solid state NMR, the crystallinity of the starch was not affected by either soy addition or frozen storage. In conclusion, addition of soy to bakery products led to slightly enhanced preservation of “fresh” characteristics of the dough during frozen storage.
Establishment of Precision of Dynamic Angle Validation Kit with Hot-Mix Simulator for Superpave Gyratory Compactors

Superpave® hot-mix asphalt (HMA) specimens are compacted in the laboratory with the Superpave gyratory compactor (SGC) through the application of pressure and an applied angle of gyration. The original compaction specification for the SGC requires the angle of gyration to be 22 ± 0.35 mrad (1.25 ± 0.02 degrees), measured externally to the compaction mold. Questions concerning the ability of different compactors to produce HMA specimens of the same mix with the same density led to the development of the dynamic angle validation (DAV) kit, which measures the angle of gyration internally (on the inside of the mold). The DAV procedure requires the use of HMA to measure the internal angle of gyration. Because of practical limitations of performing measurements with HMA and questions concerning the proper HMA mix to use in the measurements, a companion device—the hot-mix simulator (HMS)—was introduced, which effectively simulates the load placed on the SGC by an HMA specimen when used in conjunction with the DA...
Rat intermediate lobe in culture: a histological and biochemical characterization.

Abstract The histology, immunohistochemistry, peptide synthesis and secretion as well as proliferation rate of rat intermediate lobe (IL) were studied in primary cultures. The cultures contained two populations of cells: melanotrophs either organized in free floating lobules or in lobules which attached to the dishes and formed a monolayer. Both populations retained their in vivo morphology: polyhedral cells with smooth, ovoid nuclei and a large number of cytoplasmic secretory coated vesicles, a well developed Golgi apparatus, abundant mitochondria and extensive areas of rough endoplasmic reticulum. The melanotrophs stained with varying intensity for α-MSH and in situ hybridization showed the presence of pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) mRNA. 35 S-methionine incorporation combined with 2-D gel electrophoresis demonstrated POMC peptide synthesis and radioimmunoassay confirmed its secretion into the medium. 3 H-thymidine uptake in the attached melanotrophs was considerably higher than that in the free-floating melanotrophs, demonstrating the dependency of proliferation rate on the cytoarchitecture of the explant. The retention of melanotroph morphology, biosynthetic and proliferative capacity in vitro affords a valid model system for studying POMC gene expression.
Effect of compaction conditions on aggregate packing using 2-dimensional image analysis and the relation to performance of HMA

Characterization of the asphalt mixture microstructure using two dimensional (i.e., 2-D) imaging techniques could be an economically efficient approach. However, the features that have been captured and quantified using 2-D imaging techniques in most published research are limited to simplistic analyses of aggregate structure. This paper focuses on introducing a more elaborate method for characterization of the internal structure of aggregates to define performance related parameters that could be used as quality indicators of mixes. These indicators are proposed as important properties that complement the volumetric properties so wide relied on for acceptance of mixture designs. The results of the study show that aggregate structure can be characterized using a combination of newly developed image analysis indices namely: number of aggregate-to-aggregate proximity zones, total proximity zone length, and proximity zone plane orientation. A software developed in a previous study and significantly modified for this study, is used to process digital images of a set of asphalt mixtures with different gradations, binder contents, types of modification, compaction efforts, compaction temperatures, and methods. The results demonstrate that the internal structure indices correlate well with rutting performance, as well as with low temperature thermal contraction of asphalt mixtures. Additionally, the indices can be successfully used to show the effects of compaction effort, compaction method and temperature, gradation of aggregates, and binder modification on the mixture internal structure. The results indicate potential for using this method for quality control of mixtures during production.
Generalized expressions for resonant excitation transfer and retarded dispersion energy shifts obtained using multipolar quantum electrodynamics

Generalized expressions are presented within the framework of molecular quantum electrodynamics for intermolecular interactions arising from the exchange of one or two virtual photons. When one species is excited while the other is in the ground state, the former process corresponds to resonant transfer of excitation. The rate of energy exchange for molecules possessing electric multipole moments of arbitrary order is given in terms of the resonant multipole–multipole coupling tensor. This latter quantity is then used in the calculation of the generalized dispersion energy shift between a pair of ground-state electric multipole polarizable molecules of arbitrary order via the interaction of induced multipole moments at each center. The results obtained offer an efficient alternative means of calculating higher multipole contributions to intermolecular processes. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2005
Unipolarity Without Hegemony

The current power configuration of the world system is unipolarity without hegemony. Nonhegemonic unipolarity is understudied, and deserves study. A few previous instances can be found in the history of the Central world system: they are usually brief, associated with intense warfare, hegemonism, counteralliance, exhaustion, and collapse into multipolarity. In other world systems, however, nonhegemonic unipolarity has been more frequent, more durable, and with more diverse exits. Plausible exit scenarios from the current unipolar nonhegemonic phase exist for U.S. hegemony, for bipolarity and tripolarity (via rise of the European Union and/or China), and for multipolarity (via U.S. introversion), but all entail rather lengthy evolutionary processes. Unipolarity without hegemony is not inherently unstable, and could endure for decades. A unipolar configuration probably has equilibrium rules for its maintenance. Nonhegemonic unipolarity affects the characteristic structure of “deadly quarrels” in the world system, and allows some approaches to the policy issue of “deadly quarrels” not readily available in less centralized system structures. Unipolarity without hegemony deserves further comparative and theoretical attention.
Creeping flow of a Bingham plastic through axisymmetric sudden contractions with viscous dissipation

The effects of the yield number on the steady, incompressible creeping flow of a non-Newtonian Bingham fluid through a four-to-one axisymmetric sudden contraction is studied numerically. The effects of both the yield and Peclet numbers on the thermal field, created due to the viscous dissipation associated with such flows, are investigated. The results demonstrate the dependency of the flow field on the yield number and the strong influence of both the yield and Peclet numbers on the macroscopic and local characteristics of the thermal field. The heat transfer results indicate the significance of heating via viscous dissipation, especially in the vicinity of the contraction plane at high yield numbers.
Oncostatin M induces basic fibroblast growth factor expression in endothelial cells and promotes endothelial cell proliferation, migration and spindle morphology

Oncostatin M (OSM), a pleiotropic cytokine originally isolated from supernatants of the U937 histiocytic lymphoma cell line, has been shown to have regulatory effects on a wide variety of cultured and tumor cells. We investigated the effects of OSM on basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) gene expression in bovine arterial endothelial (BAE) cells. Levels of bFGF mRNA transcripts were low in uninduced BAE cells, were maximal at 8 hours of exposure to OSM, and returned to control levels by 24 hours. Induction of bFGF mRNA transcripts by OSM was dose-dependent. Nuclear transcriptional run-on analysis demonstrated that exposure of BAE cells to OSM stimulated bFGF gene transcription. OSM treatment of BAE cells enhanced the synthesis of bFGF protein as determined by ELISA assays. Immunocytochemistry studies demonstrated the presence of low levels of bFGF protein within the cytoplasm in uninduced cells. After stimulation for 8 hours with OSM there was significant staining for bFGF in the cytoplasm. However, 24 hours after exposure to OSM, bFGF antigen was located only within the nuclei. Western blot analysis demonstrated that OSM stimulated predominantly the synthesis of a 22 kDa form of bFGF. In addition, OSM stimulated endothelial cell proliferation and migration as well as acquisition of a spindle shape. Phosphorothioate antisense oligonucleotide directed against bFGF inhibited OSM induced BAE cell proliferation and spindle shape formation but had only a minimal effect on migration. The levels of the 22 kDa form of bFGF were reduced by antisense treatment indicating that OSM induced proliferation and morphology change is likely to be regulated by intracellular bFGF. Our studies suggest that OSM released at sites of vascular injury could stimulate angiogenesis by inducing bFGF synthesis, endothelial cell proliferation and migration.
Estimation of regional pulmonary perfusion parameters from microfocal angiograms

An important application of functional imaging is the estimation of regional blood flow and volume using residue detection of vascular indicators. An indicator-dilution model applicable to tissue regions distal from the inlet site was developed. Theoretical methods for determining regional blood flow, volume, and mean transit time parameters from time-absorbance curves arise from this model. The robustness of the parameter estimation methods was evaluated using a computer-simulated vessel network model. Flow through arterioles, networks of capillaries, and venules was simulated. Parameter identification and practical implementation issues were addressed. The shape of the inlet concentration curve and moderate amounts of random noise did not effect the ability of the method to recover accurate parameter estimates. The parameter estimates degraded in the presence of significant dispersion of the measured inlet concentration curve as it traveled through arteries upstream from the microvascular region. The methods were applied to image data obtained using microfocal x-ray angiography to study the pulmonary microcirculation. Time- absorbance curves were acquired from a small feeding artery, the surrounding microvasculature and a draining vein of an isolated dog lung as contrast material passed through the field-of-view. Changes in regional microvascular volume were determined from these curves.
Learning and modeling biosignatures from tissue images

Ideally biosignatures can be detected at the early infection phase and used both for developing diagnostic patterns and for prognostic triage. Such biosignatures are important for vaccine validation and to provide risk stratification to a population such as for the identification of individuals who are exposed to biological or chemical agents and who are at high risk for developing an infection. The research goal is to detect broad based biosignature models and is initially focused on developing effective computer-augmented pathology tied to animal models developed at the University of New Mexico (UNM). Using lung tissue from infected and nai¨ve mice, feature extraction from images of the tissue under a specialized microscope, and Bayesian networks to analyze the data sets of features, we were able to differentiate normal from diseased samples and viral from bacterial samples in mid to late stages of infection. This effort has shown the potential effectiveness of computer-augmented pathology in this application. The extended research intends to couple analysis of serum, microarray analysis of organs, proteomic data and the pathology. The rational for the current invasive procedure on animal models is to facilitate the development of data analysis and machine learning techniques that can eventually be generalized to the task of discovering non-invasive and early stage biosignatures for human models.
A preventative intervention for disruptive young boys may reduce adult criminality by reducing antisocial behaviour in adolescence.

QUESTION Question: How does a preventative intervention for disruptive boys reduce adult criminality? Patients: In total, 250 boys of low-socioeconomic status in kindergarten (age 7 years) who scored above the 70th percentile on the disruptiveness scale of the Social Behaviour Questionnaire. Boys had to be born to Canadian born parents who spoke French as their first language and who had 14 or fewer years of education. Setting: Montreal, Canada; intervention performed between September 1985 and June 1987, outcomes assessed in 2003. Intervention: Preventive intervention (n=69), attention control (n=123) or no-treatment no-contact control (n=58) over two school years. The intervention targeted the children, their parents and teachers. Children attended social skills, problem solving and self-control strategies training in a small group format involving prosocial peers (three prosocial children per disruptive child). Parents were trained in fortnightly sessions to monitor their child’s behaviour, positively reinforce prosocial behaviour, punish effectively without being abusive, manage family crises and to generalise what they learnt. Teachers attended meetings aimed at improving their classroom behaviour management skills. The control groups were pooled for analyses as they did not differ on any outcomes. Outcomes: Criminal behaviour at 24 years of age (assessed by criminal records). The potential intervening variables (antisocial behaviour, parental supervision, association with deviant peers and school engagement) were assessed by self-report questionnaires during late childhood/early adolescence (10–13 years of age) and middle/late adolescence (14–17 years of age). Parents’ occupational prestige and boys’ initial levels of disruptiveness were included as control variables. Patient follow-up: Sixty-nine per cent of the randomised families participated; 100% of those randomised were analysed.
Stratospheric measurements of continuous absorption near 2400 cm - 1

Solar occultation spectra obtained with a balloon-borne interferometer have been used to study continuous absorption by N2 and CO2 near 2400 cm^-1 in the lower stratosphere. Synthetic continuum transmittances, calculated from published coefficients for far-wing absorption by CO2 lines and for pressure-induced absorption by the fundamental band of N2, are in fair agreement with the observed stratospheric values. The continuum close to the ν3 R-branch band head of CO2 is sensitive to the CO2 far-wing line shape. Therefore, given highly accurate knowledge of the N2 continuum from laboratory data, high-resolution stratospheric spectra provide a sensitive means for in situ testing of various air-broadened CO2 line shapes at low temperatures.
The influence of chemical interactions at the human surface on breathing zone levels of reactants and products

Using computational fluid dynamics simulations of an occupant in a ventilated room, we find that breathing zone ozone levels can be substantially lower and ozone reaction products associated with human surfaces (ORPHS) levels considerably higher than room levels. For air exchange rates 8/h), the breathing zone concentrations approach bulk air concentrations (rozone > 0.9) with a floor supply, whereas large concentration gradients occur between breathing zone and bulk air with a ceiling supply. At these high air exchange rates, ORPHS levels are 1.6-2.0 and 2.9-6.0 times the bulk air concentrations for floor and ceiling supply, respectively. The extent of depletion of ozone or enrichment of ORPHS is large enough that reliance on micro-environmental measurements alone, to assess the intake of ozone or ORPHS, is undesirable.
Subversion of the Cellular Autophagy Pathway by Viruses

Autophagy is a cellular process that creates double-membraned vesicles, engulfs and degrades cytoplasmic material, and generates and recycles nutrients. A recognized participant in the innate immune response to microbial infection, a functional autophagic response can help to control the replication of many viruses. However, for several viruses, there is functional and mechanistic evidence that components of the autophagy pathway act as host factors in viral replicative cycles, viral dissemination, or both. Investigating the mechanisms by which viruses subvert or imitate autophagy, as well as the mechanisms by which they inhibit autophagy, will reveal cell biological tools and processes that will be useful for understanding the many functional ramifications of the double-membraned vesicle formation and cytosolic entrapment unique to the autophagy pathway.
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN BLOOD GROUP AGGLUTINOGENS: ROLE OF SIALIC ACIDS.

Various sialic acids have been found to inhibit a number of hemagglutinating sera and lectins at pH 7. The observations indicate that N-acetyl neuraminic add may be a functional constituent of the M, N, and D receptors. It is suggested that many, perhaps most, of the different erythrocyte receptors are interrelated structurally. Isolated blood group substances from human erythrocytes should be considered and tested in terms of the complete phenotype of the cells from which they are extracted. Thus, attempts to isolate “pure” specific A, B, M, N, D, etc., antigens from erythrocytes may be based on an unrealistically idealized and simplified picture of the detailed structure of the red cell surface.
Expectations of Word Sense in Parallel Corpora

Given a parallel corpus, if two distinct words in language A, a1 and a2, are aligned to the same word b1 in language B, then this might signal that b1 is polysemous, or it might signal a1 and a2 are synonyms. Both assumptions with successful work have been put forward in the literature. We investigate these assumptions, along with other questions of word sense, by looking at sampled parallel sentences containing tokens of the same type in English, asking how often they mean the same thing when they are: 1. aligned to the same foreign type; and 2. aligned to different foreign types. Results for French-English and Chinese-English parallel corpora show similar behavior: Synonymy is only very weakly the more prevalent scenario, where both cases regularly occur.
Exit Policy Violations in Multi-Hop Overlay Routes: Analysis and Mitigation

The traffic exchanged between two overlay nodes in different autonomous systems (AS) is always subjected to a series of inter-domain policies. However, overlay routing often manages to get around these policy restrictions by relaying traffic through multiple legitimate segments, in order to achieve its selfish goals (e.g., better latency paths between end- systems). We focus on the violation of a generalized exit policy, which specifies the exact next hop AS and the egress inter- domain link for a destination address prefix. We characterize the different types of these exit policy violations and investigate their extent in a Planetlab testbed. It is conceivable that the native ASes will eventually realize the negative impact of the exit violations and adopt stringent strategies to enforce the exit policies, thereby causing deterioration in overlay performance. In this context, based on our findings from a previous study[l], we develop a pricing-based strategy that an overlay service provider can use to obtain permits from a near-optimal set of native ASes, in an effort to regain its routing advantage within a fixed budget. Further, we illustrate the use of this approach on our case study overlay network.
EFFECT OF BORON ON THE ELECTRONIC PROPERTIES OF POLYCRYSTALLINE GRAPHITE

In a polycrystalline material such as the compacted natural graphite flake used in this study, the electronic transport properties of greatest interest are the absolute thermoelectric power (since it is relatively independent of crystalline size and shows the effect of the individual Fermi surfaces), its temperature dependency and the Hall constant. Studies on the undoped compacts in the temperature range 77-550°K show that the absolute thermoelectric power decreases with increasing temperature, passing from positive to negative values at about 250°K. The room temperature value (α300) is-1.5μV/°K.In our work, boron powder was mixed with SP-1 graphite, compacted and annealed to give final B/C atom ratios of -10-6, 10-5, and 5×10-4, 1, 2 and 5×10-3 and 10-2 (1%). The effect of boron on α and its temperature dependence is quite marked, shifting d300 to a positive peak of 20 μV/°K at a B/C ratio of 10-3. There is a strong correlation of the change in behavior of α and Ro vs boronation at a Fermi level shift of 0.02 eV and a B/C atom ratio of -2×10-4, indicating boron's high ionization efficiency. Except at high boron concentrations, these changes are not accompanied by any marked change in the resistivity.
A TECHNIQUE FOR THE QUANTITATIVE SENSORY EVALUATION OF FARM-RAISED CATFISH

. A descriptive analysis panel was trained to use a refined lexicon of flavor descriptors to evaluate farm-raised catfish flavor using a referenced intensity rating scale. To reduce variance due to within sample variability, a procedure using Blended Individual Fish Samples (BIFS) was developed. The reproducibility of the panel performance, utility of the BIFS and the sensitivity of the method to discriminate differences in fish flavor was demonstrated in three experiments.
Cavitation Structures in a Venturi Flow With Various Backward Facing Steps

Cavitation inception and development caused by a backward facing step in a venturi-type test section were studied experimentally for different step heights (0.8―4 mm). High-speed cinematography and particle image velocimetry images were used to demonstrate the cloud shedding process and cavitation development stages. It was found that for small step height (0.8 mm, h/δ 0 = 1. 7) cavitation started in the reattachment region in the form of a reentrant jet, and caused cloud shedding in its developed stage. For high step height (4 mm, h/ δ 0 = 8.5) cavitation started midway downstream of the shear layer and resembled the spanwise vortices in the separated shear layer. This study contributes experimental results for better understanding of cavitation inception and development in the separated shear layer.
Targeting cardiovascular risk associated with both low density and high density lipoproteins using statin-niacin combination therapy.

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular risk might be reduced by targeted changes in both low density and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C and HDL-C). This dual strategy will require a well tolerated, effective regimen, as well as a better understanding of how HDL-C may be targeted. DESIGN An open-label, uncontrolled, retrospective cohort study of combined statin-niacin therapy. METHODS We reviewed all patients ( n= 132) started on this combination in a referral lipid clinic over a 6.5-year period for tolerability, safety and effectiveness. RESULTS Combined therapy was tolerated by 77% of patients. No serious adverse events attributable to medication were encountered. In drug-naive patients (n = 37), moderate doses of statin and niacin (mean 1180 mg/day) reduced LDL-C 31% and increased HDL-C 29% ( P or= 1000 mg/day (mean 1480) added to a constant statin regimen (n=29), HDL-C increased 20% ( P< 0.001). Even at niacin doses < 1000 mg/day (mean 580, n= 23), HDL-C increased 13% ( P< 0.05). Although mean HDL-C increased, the initial and final HDL-C distributions were broad and largely overlapping. Any chosen cutpoint for HDL-C goal would apply to only a minority of patients. The total/HDL cholesterol ratio had narrower distributions, as the percentage of patients with ratio < 5.0 increased from 17% to 67%. CONCLUSION Combined statin-niacin therapy lowers LDL-C and raises HDL-C with acceptable tolerance and safety. If treating LDL-C is the primary goal, consistent with current guidelines, then a strategy of targeting the total/HDL cholesterol ratio as a secondary goal is applicable to more patients than targeting HDL-C itself.
Recommendations for treatment of exit-site pathology

Good local care including measures to prevent trauma keeps healthy exit sites free of infection. Acute infection can be cured with aggressive therapy. Chronic infection may progress to cuff infecti...
Economic models for cloud service markets: Pricing and Capacity planning

Cloud computing is a paradigm that has the potential to transform and revolutionalize the next generation IT industry by making software available to end-users as a service. A cloud, also commonly known as a cloud network, typically comprises of hardware (network of servers) and a collection of softwares that is made available to end-users in a pay-as-you-go manner. Multiple public cloud providers (e.g., Amazon) co-existing in a cloud computing market provide similar services (software as a service) to its clients, both in terms of the nature of an application, as well as in quality of service (QoS) provision. The decision of whether a cloud hosts (or finds it profitable to host) a service in the long-term would depend jointly on the price it sets, the QoS guarantees it provides to its customers, and the satisfaction of the advertised guarantees. In the first part of the paper, we devise and analyze three inter-organizational economic models relevant to cloud networks. We formulate our problems as non cooperative price and QoS games between multiple cloud providers existing in a cloud market. We prove that a unique pure strategy Nash equilibrium (NE) exists in two of the three models. Our analysis paves the path for each cloud provider to know what prices and QoS level to set for end-users of a given service type, such that the provider could exist in the cloud market. A cloud provider services end-user requests on behalf of cloud customers, and due to the uncertainty in user demands over time, tend to over-provision resources like CPU, power, memory, storage, etc., in order to satisfy QoS guarantees. As a result of over-provisioning over long timescales, server utilization is very low and the cloud providers have to bear unnecessarily wasteful costs. In this regard, the price and QoS levels set by the CPs drive the end-user demand, which plays a major role in CPs estimating the minimal capacity to meet their advertised guarantees. By the term 'capacity', we imply the ability of a cloud to process user requests, i.e., number of user requests processed per unit of time, which in turn determine the amount of resources to be provisioned to achieve a required capacity. In the second part of this paper, we address the capacity planning/optimal resource provisioning problem in single-tiered and multi-tiered cloud networks using a techno-economic approach. We develop, analyze, and compare models that cloud providers can adopt to provision resources in a manner such that there is minimum amount of resources wasted, and at the same time the user service-level/QoS guarantees are satisfied.
Clinical Perspective: Electrophysiology in the Young and Patients with Congenital Heart Disease

Young patients and those with congenital heart disease (CHD) manifest all forms of cardiac arrhythmia, but the age of presentation varies considerably, and the indications for intervention differ from adults. Much remains to be discovered about the underlying mechanisms of pediatric and congenital heart arrhythmia and even more about the true indications and benefits of pacemaker, defibrillator, and resynchronization device management strategies. The purpose of this chapter is to review the age-dependent presentation of cardiac arrhythmias, their relation to structural congenital cardiac defects, and the growing implication of the needs of the adult population with CHD for improved heart failure and primary prevention guidelines.
The Containerless Synthesis of Glass

Glasses are commonly synthesized by cooling melts at a rate sufficient to prevent the nucleation of substantial amounts of crystalline phases. In the limit, high cooling rates no longer prevent crystallization. In some of these cases, elimination of container-melt-induced nucleation by using containerless processing (also called levitation) significantly extends the glass-forming composition range. Containerless methods also eliminate contamination allowing the preparation of high-purity materials that can be used to benchmark properties and structure. This article briefly reviews the application of containerless methods to several types of glass. Some examples of glasses formed using containerless techniques are presented and discussed in the context of developing materials. A short commentary on specific issues that relate to the use of containerless processing is presented. This review is intended to provide an introduction to the use of containerless methods in glass research.
The Use of Partial Correlation to Control Halo in Performance Ratings

Landy, Vance, Barnes-Farrell, and Steele (1980) have presented a technique for statistically controlling halo error in ratings by partial correlation procedures. Various writers (Harvey, 1982; Hulin, 1982; Murphy, 1982) have pointed out what they perceive to be deficiencies in Landy et al.'s technique. Landy, Vance, and Barnes-Farrell (1982) have responded to these criticisms, concluding that their technique produces dimensions which, while not appropriate for administrative purposes, do have "several legitimate uses" (for example, test validation). The focus of this paper is to suggest that it is unlikely that dimensions derived from partial correlation techniques will be useful for even the specialized purposes which Landy et al. describe.
Feeding laying hens a bioavailable soy sterol mixture fails to enrich their eggs with phytosterols or elicit egg yolk compositional changes

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death in the United States. Elevated levels of plasma total cholesterol (TC), and particularly plasma low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDLC), are primary contributing factors to CHD. Dietary plant sterols (phytosterols) have been shown to significantly reduce plasma TC and LDLC in humans, primarily through inhibition of intestinal cholesterol absorption, and are potentially effective agents for reduction of CHD risk. Although a variety of phytosterol-containing foods are currently available, phytosterol-enriched eggs, which represent a potential value-added product, are conspicuously absent from the marketplace. Therefore, the objectives of this study were 1) to enrich shell eggs with phytosterols; and 2) to determine if feeding phytosterols to hens elicits egg compositional changes, particularly that of yolk cholesterol content. Sixteen 32-wk-old White Leghorn hens were fed a corn-soy-based layer diet without (n = 8) or with (n = 8) 1 g of supplemental soy sterols/100 g of diet for 28 d.. Hen performance was determined on an individual basis, and 1 egg/hen per week was collected, processed, and analyzed for yolk cholesterol, CP, crude fat (CF), and phytosterol content. There was no effect (P > 0.05) of supplemental dietary phytosterols on 28-d weight gain, feed consumption, feed efficiency, plasma TC, hen-day egg production, egg weights, egg component weights, and yolk cholesterol, CP, and CF contents. Small amounts of campesterol were present in most of the eggs (average of 0.29 and 1.02 mg/yolk for control vs. soy sterol-fed hens, respectively; P < or = 0.05), whereas only 3 of the 80 analyzed eggs contained trace amounts of beta-sitosterol and none contained any detectable stigmasterol. It was concluded that phytosterols are either poorly absorbed from the chicken intestine or, if they are absorbed, they are efficiently secreted back into the intestinal lumen, most likely via as yet uncharacterized adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette transporters.
On the stability of the Bayenv method in assessing human SNP-environment associations

Phenotypic variation along environmental gradients has been documented among and within many species, and in some cases, genetic variation has been shown to be associated with these gradients. Bayenv is a relatively new method developed to detect patterns of polymorphisms associated with environmental gradients. Using a Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach, Bayenv evaluates whether a linear model relating population allele frequencies to environmental variables is more probable than a null model based on observed frequencies of neutral markers. Although this method has been used to detect environmental adaptation in a number of species, including humans, plants, fish, and mosquitoes, stability between independent runs of this MCMC algorithm has not been characterized. In this paper, we explore the variability of results between runs and the factors contributing to it. Independent runs of the Bayenv program were carried out using genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data from samples from 60 worldwide human populations following previous applications of the Bayenv method. To assess factors contributing to the method's stability, we used varying numbers of MCMC iterations and also analyzed a second modified data set that excluded two Siberian populations with extreme climate variables. Between any two runs, correlations between Bayes factors and the overlap of SNPs in the empirical p value tails were surprisingly low. Enrichments of genic versus non-genic SNPs in the empirical tails were more robust than the empirical p values; however, the significance of the enrichments for some environmental variables still varied among runs, contradicting previously published conclusions. Runs with a greater number of MCMC iterations slightly reduced run-to-run variability, and excluding the Siberian populations did not have a large effect on the stability of the runs. Because of high run-to-run variability, we advise against making conclusions about genome-wide patterns of adaptation based on only one run of the Bayenv algorithm and recommend caution in interpreting previous studies that have used only one run. Moving forward, we suggest carrying out multiple independent runs of Bayenv and averaging Bayes factors between runs to produce more stable and reliable results. With these modifications, future discoveries of environmental adaptation within species using the Bayenv method will be more accurate, interpretable, and easily compared between studies.
Still Happy After All These Years: Research Frontiers on Subjective Well-being in Later Life

Objectives. Understanding the factors that promote quality of life in old age has been a staple of social gerontology since its inception and remains a significant theme in aging research. The purpose of this article was to review the state of the science with regard to subjective well-being (SWB) in later life and to identify promising directions for future research. Methods. This article is based on a review of literature on SWB in aging, sociological, and psychological journals. Although the materials reviewed date back to the early 1960s, the emphasis is on publications in the past decade. Results. Research to date paints an effective portrait of the epidemiology of SWB in late life and the factors associated with it. Although the research base is large, causal inferences about the determinants of SWB remain problematic. Two recent contributions to the research base are highlighted as emerging issues: studies of secular trends in SWB and crossnational studies.
Relationships between Hysteresis Measurements and the Constituent Properties of Ceramic Matrix Composites: II, Experimental Studies on Unidirectional Materials

The use of hysteresis loop measurements for assessing the constituent properties of unidirectional CMCs is evaluated, using basic theory described in a companion paper. Results are obtained on SiC/CAS and SiC/SiC composites. These materials exhibit very different hysteresis characteristics, reflected in differences in sliding stress, T, and debond energy, Γ i . These interface properties are manifest in the respective tensile stress/strain curves.
Does Technology Present a New Way of Learning

This reflective essay suggests certain precepts that should be effective in the design of instruction and its evaluation, particularly if advanced or experimental technology is involved. The arguments are based on the assumption that human learning is a biological process that, when reduced to its essentials, is the product of evolution and does not change even as study habits do. The emphasis here is on the aspects of learning that are common to all humans and less on personal preferences for kinds of content or study methods. A brief review of the biological basis of learning is followed by some speculative suggestions on the use of technology and the outcomes of any pedagogy that are of timeless importance.
The Effect of Zinc on Human Taste Perception

Zinc salts are added as a nutritional or functional ingredient in food and oral care products. The 1st experiment in this study investigated the taste and somatosensory effect of zinc salts (chloride, iodide, sulfate, bromide, acetate). The zinc salts had very little taste (bitter, salty, savory, sour, sweet), and the taste that was present was easily washed away with water rinses. The major oral quality of zinc was astringency, and the astringency lingered beyond expectoration. The 2nd experiment combined zinc salts with prototypical stimuli eliciting basic tastes. Zinc was a potent inhibitor of sweetness and bitterness (>70% reduction in taste) but did not affect salt, savory, or sour taste.
Energy Homeostasis: Adiposity Signals

The control of food intake and body weight by the brain relies upon the detection and integration of signals reflecting energy stores and fluxes, and their interaction with other signals related to food palatability and gastrointestinal functioning as well as social, emotional, circadian, habitual, and other situational factors. This article focuses upon the role of hormones secreted in proportion to the amount of fat stored in the body, and on which hormones individually and collectively influence food intake and body weight; emphasis is upon insulin and leptin, as these two hormones collectively comprise the major adiposity signals.
Design and focus group evaluation of a bed-integrated weight measurement system for wheelchair users

ABSTRACTRegular weight monitoring is known to help with weight management, which is an important part of maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle. Unfortunately, weight monitoring is challenging for wheelchair users because the few scales that are available are expensive and very large. Consequently, wheelchair users typically learn their weight at infrequent visits to their healthcare providers, which likely contributes to higher prevalence of obesity-related health risks among this population. In this article, we describe the design and development of the Embedded Scale, or E-Scale, which is a bed-integrated bodyweight measuring system that allows a user to measure and track their weight. The E-Scale team followed a standard product development approach to build the E-Scale prototype. Bench testing results indicate that the performance of the prototype is on par with commercially available wheelchair scales (capacity = 1,200 lbs, accuracy = 1.73 lbs, and precision = ± 0.35 lbs over one-fourth rated capac...
Effect of Macrophages on Primary Immunization of Lymph Node Cells Against Homografts in Diffusion Chambers.

SummaryPrimary immunization of lymph-oid cells by exposure to homologous skin within diffusion chambers was demonstrated by the ability of these cells to produce a transfer reaction in the donor's skin. Addition of peritoneal exudate or alveolar macro-phages to lymph node cell suspensions resulted in significant enhancement of sensi-tization in 5 of 11 experiments. There was no enhancement in 4½ of 11 experiments, and in 1½ sensitization was greater in the absence of macrophages.