cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Disseminated cryptococcosis in an immunocompetent patient.

Abstract Cryptococcosis is an important opportunistic infection. It is the third most common invasive fungal infection in solid organ transplant recipients. The primary organ affected is the lungs, but infection of the central nervous system and other organ systems are also seen. Here we reported a case of disseminated cryptococcosis in a healthy patient who presented with severe pneumonia, a left upper lobe nodule and enlarged mediastinal lymphadenopathy on a chest computed tomography scan.
Potential Probiotic or Trigger of Gut Inflammation – The Janus-Faced Nature of Cannabidiol-Rich Cannabis Extract

Cannabidiol (CBD) is the major non-psychotropic phytocannabinoid present in Cannabis sativa. In 2018, Congress designated certain C. sativa plant material as “hemp,” thus removing it from the DEA’s...
Store-and-forward teledermatology impact on diagnosis, treatment and dermatology referrals: Comparison between practice settings.

IntroductionStore-and-forward (SAF) teledermatology involves non-dermatologists sending clinical images to dermatologists. This improves patient care while reducing unwarranted face-to-face (FTF) s...
A KM-Based Strategic, Global Current Awareness Service

This presentation focuses on a global current awareness service entitled, "IWS DOCUMENTED NEWS SERVICE." It was designed to meet the knowledge needs of the institution from which it originates. In so doing, it also meets the needs of journalists, researchers, faculty, students, professional practitioners, and policymakers concerned with the same issues globally. It provides the institutional links between partnering institutions that sustain the relationships for the future. This serves as a model for how libraries can become supporting pillars of their organizations by tapping into and meeting KM needs.
Filter clotting with continuous renal replacement therapy in COVID-19

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) appears to be associated with increased arterial and venous thromboembolic disease. These presumed abnormalities in hemostasis have been associated with filter clotting during continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT). We aimed to characterize the burden of CRRT filter clotting in COVID-19 infection and to describe a CRRT anticoagulation protocol that used anti-factor Xa levels for systemic heparin dosing. Multi-center study of consecutive patients with COVID-19 receiving CRRT. Primary outcome was CRRT filter loss. Sixty-five patients were analyzed, including 17 using an anti-factor Xa protocol to guide systemic heparin dosing. Fifty-four out of 65 patients (83%) lost at least one filter. Median first filter survival time was 6.5 [2.5, 33.5] h. There was no difference in first or second filter loss between the anti-Xa protocol and standard of care anticoagulation groups, however fewer patients lost their third filter in the protocolized group (55% vs. 93%) resulting in a longer median third filter survival time (24 [15.1, 54.2] vs. 17.3 [9.5, 35.1] h, p = 0.04). The rate of CRRT filter loss is high in COVID-19 infection. An anticoagulation protocol using systemic unfractionated heparin, dosed by anti-factor Xa levels is reasonable approach to anticoagulation in this population.
Expanded Genomic Sampling of the Desulfobulbales Reveals Distribution and Evolution of Sulfur Metabolisms

The reconstruction of modern and paleo-sulfur cycling relies on understanding the long-term relative contribution of its main actors; these include microbial sulfate reduction (MSR) and microbial sulfur disproportionation (MSD). However, a unifying theory is lacking for how MSR and MSD, with the same enzyme machinery and intimately linked evolutionary histories, perform two drastically different metabolisms. Here, we aim at shedding some light on the distribution, diversity, and evolutionary histories of MSR and MSD, with a focus on the Desulfobulbales as a test case. The Desulfobulbales is a diverse and widespread order of bacteria in the Desulfobacterota (formerly Deltaproteobacteria) phylum primarily composed of sulfate reducing bacteria. Recent culture- and sequence-based approaches have revealed an expanded diversity of organisms and metabolisms within this clade, including the presence of obligate and facultative sulfur disproportionators. Here, we present draft genomes of previously unsequenced species of Desulfobulbales, substantially expanding the available genomic diversity of this clade. We leverage this expanded genomic sampling to perform phylogenetic analyses, revealing an evolutionary history defined by vertical inheritance of sulfur metabolism genes with numerous convergent instances of transition from sulfate reduction to sulfur disproportionation.
Hyperbolic surface wave propagation in mid-infrared metasurfaces with extreme anisotropy

Hyperbolic metasurfaces are characterized by an extreme anisotropy of their effective conductivity tensor, which may be induced at visible frequencies by sculpting metals at the subwavelength scale. In this work, we explore practical implementations of hyperbolic metasurfaces at mid-infrared wavelengths, exploiting devices composed of metals and high-index semiconductor materials, which can support the required field confinement and extreme anisotropy required to realize low loss hyperbolic surface waves. In particular, we discuss the role of broken symmetries in these hybrid metasurfaces to enable large and broadband hyperbolic responses spanning the entire mid-infrared wavelength range. Our findings pave the way to the development of large scale nanophotonic devices to manipulate mid-infrared light, with applications in nonlinear optics due to the high field confinement, light routing at the nanoscale, thermal control and management, and sub diffraction imaging.
Recruitment, Retention, and Intervention Outcomes from the Dedicated African American Dad (DAAD) Study.

A significant proportion of African American (AA) fathers live in households apart from their young children. This living arrangement can have detrimental effects for children, families, and fathers. One hundred seventy-eight (n = 178) AA fathers, not residing with their 2–6-year-old children, were enrolled in a randomized trial to test the Building Bridges to Fatherhood (BBTF) program against a financial literacy comparison condition. BBTF is an intervention that was developed collaboratively with a fathers’ advisory council of AA fathers who oversaw all aspects of program development. Based upon advisory council feedback, short video scenes captured fathers interacting with their children, their children’s mothers, and other fathers. These video scenes were used to jump start the discussion around fatherhood, parenting, communication, and problem solving during the intervention group meetings. The actors in the video scenes were recruited from the community. Two trained group leaders, using a standardized group leader manual, delivered the intervention. The Money Smart Financial Literacy Program (MSFLP), which served as the comparator, was also delivered by AA men. Program satisfaction was high in both conditions. Even so recruitment and retention challenges influenced the ability to detect father and child outcomes. This study informs the participation of vulnerable urban AA fathers in community-based fatherhood intervention research and provides insight into bolstering engagement in studies focused on this population.
A reflection from a polio patient at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas

Similar to the current coronavirus pandemic, the polio pandemic during the early 20th century impacted the entire world, leaving many children permanently disabled. The Texas Scottish Rite Hospital...
Ecological Responses and Interactions with Drought in the Southwestern United States

The effects of droughts on ecological systems can be dramatic with wholesale change to biotic community composition and marked alterations in ecosystem functioning that may be sustained after drought conditions are alleviated. Several recent advances in understanding ecological responses to drought are leading to improved theories of ecosystem functioning and the coupling between ecosystems and societies. An ecohydrological framework provides a comprehensive approach to understanding these effects through the coupling between ecological and hydrological processes. A key feature of many ecohydrological systems is their characteristic pulsed behaviors in response to moisture variability. An ecosystem services framework has recently been developed that can help quantify the potential impacts of droughts on society. By evaluating ecosystem services in the context of their required water uses, the effects of droughts can be better quantified and potentially mitigated. These paired frameworks of ecohydrology and ecosystem services are used to better understand historic, current and, likely, future consequences of droughts in the southwestern United States.
Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience

FINALIST FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE IN SCIENCE What can't neuroscience tell us about ourselves? Since fMRI--functional magnetic resonance imaging--was introduced in the early 1990s, brain scans have been used to help politicians understand and manipulate voters, determine guilt in court cases, and make sense of everything from musical aptitude to romantic love. But although brain scans and other neurotechnologies have provided groundbreaking insights into the workings of the human brain, the increasingly fashionable idea that they are the most important means of answering the enduring mysteries of psychology is misguided--and potentially dangerous. In Brainwashed, psychiatrist and AEI scholar Sally Satel and psychologist Scott O. Lilienfeld reveal how many of the real-world applications of human neuroscience gloss over its limitations and intricacies, at times obscuring--rather than clarifying--the myriad factors that shape our behavior and identities. Brain scans, Satel and Lilienfeld show, are useful but often ambiguous representations of a highly complex system. Each region of the brain participates in a host of experiences and interacts with other regions, so seeing one area light up on an fMRI in response to a stimulus doesn't automatically indicate a particular sensation or capture the higher cognitive functions that come from those interactions. The narrow focus on the brain's physical processes also assumes that our subjective experiences can be explained away by biology alone. As Satel and Lilienfeld explain, this "neurocentric" view of the mind risks undermining our most deeply held ideas about selfhood, free will, and personal responsibility, putting us at risk of making harmful mistakes, whether in the courtroom, interrogation room, or addiction treatment clinic. A provocative account of our obsession with neuroscience, Brainwashed brilliantly illuminates what contemporary neuroscience and brain imaging can and cannot tell us about ourselves, providing a much-needed reminder about the many factors that make us who we are.
Open Access and the Public Library of Medicine, Summary of a Presentation by Dr. Harold Varmus

Dr. Varmus opened his comments with a vignette regarding his own foray into the publishing world. Based upon his exposure to Cornell's arXiv.org, (the evolutionary result of Ginsbarg's "e-print archives" for electronic research publications for physics materials), he eventually pursued similar means of electronic research publishing in the areas of biology and medicine. Though challenged by the academy, these efforts guided by accompanying constructive criticisms led to the development of PubMed Central(tm). ...
Affordable Housing v. Open Space: A Proposal for Reconciliation

This Article describes the friction in Massachusetts-largely inspired by controyersy surrounding the State's affordable housing law, Massachusetts General Laws chapter 40B-between housing advocates and open space adyocates. The sources of this breach are embedded in the State's land use statutes. This Article reyiews the current law and the symptoms of the feud, and it suggests yarious legislatiye proposals for the reconciliation of these progressiYe forces.
Decision-Theoretic Learning in an Action System

Abstract The Optimizing Opportunistic Planning System (OOPS) is an action architecture designed to propel a purposeful agent through an environment that is rich with opportunities and threats. It meshes the ethological model of drive hierarchies with connectionist-like perception networks, in order to achieve a smooth integration of perception and action selection. The architecture embodies the idea of computational economy, which yields a uniform procedure for allocating resources to promising perceptual and action hypotheses. This paper discusses the use of tools from decision theory to tune this attention-focusing process, and thereby learn the reliability of, and correlations between, complex features. QOPS's representation scheme applies this learning process to the creation, testing, and identification of cheap features, which predict more expensive internal features, and, ultimately, opportunities in the world.
Fat metabolism in higher plants: XXXII. Control of plant acetyl-CoA carboxylase activity

Abstract Intact lettuce chloroplasts readily utilize acetate-14C for incorporation into long chain fatty acids in the presence of HCO 3 − , ATP, Mg++, and light. However, disrupted chloroplasts no longer utilize either acetate-14C or acetyl-CoA-14C as a substrate. Present investigations show an almost complete absence of acetyl-CoA carboxylase activity in preparations of disrupted chloroplasts. Attempts to stimulate this activity by employing the allosteric effectors of mammalian and yeast acetyl-CoA carboxylase gave negative results. Further study showed the presence of an inhibitor in preparations of disrupted chloroplasts which markedly depressed the activity of wheat germ acetyl-CoA carboxylase. Its general properties are described. In addition, wheat germ acetyl-CoA carboxylase, unlike its counterparts in other tissues, is not stimulated by phosphorylated sugars, dicarboxylic and tricarboxylic acids.
The right to identity: Implications of using subjectively-assigned race in US healthcare

In the US, so-called race descriptors have historically been used to ensure control over enslaved and immigrant groups and classes. This paper examines historical, clinical, statistical, and human rights implications for subjectively-assigned race in US healthcare. When compared to other patient descriptors such as age and sex, race is far inferior in terms of method of acquisition, accuracy, precision, and clinical importance. Examination of current US government documents soliciting race reveals categories inconsistent with existing federal guidelines, thereby confounding data at the origin of collection. Subjective and inaccurate labeling can endanger patients who are subjected to race-based disease diagnoses and/or treatments when a more complete ancestry is not elucidated. As an aggregated collection of ethnic groups, racial categories are intrinsically open to statistical confusion, and complete ancestral data should be collected for analysis. The inaccuracies inherent in racial categories can result in study design bias, decreased data quality, and possible corrupted conclusions. The subjective assigning of a person’s race – “race-labeling” or “medical race-profiling” – is properly a human rights issue, as the right to accurately define one’s individual or group ancestral heritage is a fundamental right supported by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Trimethylenemethane: Activation energy for ring-closure of the diradical

Abstract The energy of activation for ring-closure of ground state triplet trimethylenemethane (I) to methylenecyclopropane has been measured by following the rate of dissappearance of the electron spin resonance spectrum over the temperature range –155° to –140°, in a series of frozen solid matrices. The experiments described make use of 3-methylenecyclobutanone and methylenecyclopropane as precursors to trimethylene-methane. Kinetic results obtained starting from methylenecyclopropane were most satisfactory and lead to an energy of activation for ring-closure of 7 kcal/mole. This value is significantly smaller than the aprpox. 20 kcal/mole barrier estimated on the basis of theoretical models. Truncation of the barrier by a tunnelling mechanism is made unlikely by the finding that trimethylenemethane-d6(I-d6) undergoes ring-closure with the same 7 kcal/mole energy of activation as the parent I.
Aging and the distribution of resources in working memory

Summary While limitations in human information processing capacity have long been acknowledged, the conceptualization of these limitations in experimental psychology has evolved from that of a passive storage system to one of an activated subset of an extended knowledge net; rather than a unitary system, this working memory is thought of as a group of distributed capacities or modules, both dynamic and flexible in their operation. The focus of the present chapter has been on age differences in how resources are distributed within this working memory system, particularly in the course of language comprehension. Brinley analyses of reading times do not appear to conform to the patterns observed in response times for correct responses in discrete-trial tasks, e.g., lexical decision, mental rotation. While similar to discrete-trial data in showing an orderly relationship between the latencies of younger and older adults, the slope of the resulting functions appear to be routinely close to unity rather than to the 1.5 typically found in discrete-trials tasks in which time is measured for successful performance. Unlike those of discrete-trial tasks, the Brinley plots of reading time are not directly relevant to the Slowing Hypothesis. Rather, because any individual reading time does not necessarily correspond to a unit of successfully completed processing (e.g., orthographic decoding, lexical access, contextual instantiation, intraconstituent organization, interconstituent integration, integration with world knowledge, etc.), Brinley plots of reading times reflect the relative allocation of processing resources by young and old as text demands increase. The slope of unity suggests a large measure of similarity between resource allocation strategies of younger and older readers. Subsequent memory and comprehension performance, however, often reveal age differences favoring the young, suggesting that age constancy in reading strategy may not be adaptive. The Brinley approach was augmented by the use of regression analyses of reading time in which specific cognitive constructs underlying the reading times could be identified. These analyses substantially supported the Brinley analysis in showing great similarity between how younger and older readers responded to specific text demands, but also suggested that older adults were allocating somewhat less time to developing a cognitive representation of the text-based meaning of the discourse. Older adults who showed high levels of memory performance were those who used a more top-down approach, thus implicating the importance of developing new styles of resource distribution to accommodate processing declines.
Amphiphilic Cyclic Peptoids That Exhibit Antimicrobial Activity by Disrupting Staphylococcus aureus Membranes

There is a significant unmet need for new antimicrobial agents that can address antimicrobial resistance. One promising group of antimicrobials is the antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and their synthetic mimics. In particular, synthetic sequence-specific oligomers of N-substituted glycine, termed “peptoids”, have been found to show potent antimicrobial activity against bacterial pathogens in vitro and can act against the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. In this study, we evaluate the antimicrobial activity of cyclic peptoid oligomers against clinical isolates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The presence of the macrocyclic constraints can enforce a globally amphiphilic organization of the peptoid side-chains. Several of these new amphiphilic compounds show potent and selective antimicrobial activity. Electron microscopy experiments demonstrate that the peptoids target and damage the MRSA cytoplasmic membrane through the formation of pores. These results substantiate the potential of peptoids as antimicrobial therapeutic agents for the treatment of S. aureus infections.
Plasma/Liquid-Metal Interactions During Tokamak Operation

One of the critical technological challenges of future tokamak fusion devices is the ability for plasma-facing components to handle both normal and abnormal plasma/surface interaction events that compromise their lifetime and operation of the machine. Under normal operation plasma/surface interactions that are important include: sputtering, particle implantation and recycling, He pumping and ELM (edge localized modes)-induced erosion. In abnormal or off-normal operation: disruptions and vertical displacement events (VDEs) are important. To extend PFC lifetime under these conditions, liquid-metals have been considered as candidate PFCs (Plasma-Facing Components), including: liquid lithium, tin-lithium, gallium and tin.Liquid lithium has been measured to have nonlinear increase of physical sputtering with rise in temperature. Such increase can be a result of exposure to ELM-level particle fluxes. The significant increase in particle flux to the divertor and nearby PFCs can enhance sputtering erosion by an order of magnitude or more. In addition from the standpoint of hydrogen recycling and helium pumping liquid lithium appears to be a good candidate plasma-facing material (PFM). Advanced designs of first wall and divertor systems propose the application of liquid-metals as an alternate PFC to contend with high-heat flux constraints of large-scale tokamak devices. Additional issues include PFC operation under disruptions andmore » long temporal instabilities such as VDEs. A comprehensive two-fluid model is developed to integrate core and SOL (scrape-off layer) parameters during ELMs with PFC surface evolution using the HEIGHTS package. Special emphasis is made on the application of lithium as a candidate plasma-facing liquid-metal.« less
Expression of a homeobox gene product in normal and mutant zebrafish embryos: evolution of the tetrapod body plan.

An antibody was used to detect antigens in zebrafish that appear to be homologous to the frog homeodomain-containing protein XlHbox 1. These antigens show a restricted expression in the anteroposterior axis and an anteroposterior gradient in the pectoral fin bud, consistent with the distribution of XlHbox 1 protein in frog and mouse embryos. In the somitic mesoderm, a sharp anterior limit of expression coincides exactly with the boundary between somites 4 and 5, and the protein level fades out posteriorly. A similar, graded expression of the antigen is seen within the series of Rohon-Beard sensory neurons of the CNS. We also immunostained the mutant spt-1 (‘spadetail’), in which the trunk mesoderm is greatly depleted and disorganized in the region of XlHbox 1 expression. The defects stem from misdirected cell movements during gastrulation, but nervertheless, newly recruited cells that partially refill the trunk mesoderm express the antigen within the normal span of the anteroposterior axis. This finding suggests that the mutation does not delete positional information required for activation of the XlHbox 1 gene.
Vitamin K-dependent carboxylase: synthesis of an inhibitor of the glutamyl binding site.

Abstract Liver microsomes contain a vitamin K and O 2 -dependent carboxylase that converts peptide-bound glutamyl residues to γ-carboxyglutamyl residues. The peptide Boc- O -phospho—Ser- O -phospho—Ser—Leu-OMe has now been synthesized. This peptide inhibits the carboxylation of endogenous protein precursors by a detergent-solubilized preparation of the carboxylase and is an apparent competitive inhibitor of the carboxylation of Phe—Leu—Glu—Glu—Leu.
Differentiation of tracheal epithelium during fetal lung maturation in the rhesus monkey Macaca mulatta

Of the eight categories of epithelial cells identified in pulmonary conducting airways, four are found in the trachea of adult primates: basal, mucous goblet, intermediate, and ciliated cells. While their ultrastructure is well characterized, little is understood about their origin or differentiation. This study describes the pattern of differentiation of the tracheal luminal epithelium in a species of nonhuman primate, the rhesus monkey, Macaca mulatta. Tracheas of 57 fetal and postnatal rhesus were fixed with glutaraldehyde/paraformaldehyde: ten at 29-54 days gestational age (GA), ten at 59-80 days GA (pseudoglandular stage), sixteen at 82-130 days GA (canalicular stage), ten at 141-168 days GA (saccular stage), eight at 1-134 days postnatal, and three adults (2 yr 11 months to 11 yr 11 months). Slices taken proximal to the carina were processed for electron microscopy by a selective embedding procedure. In the youngest fetuses, essentially one population of cells lined the tracheal epithelial surface. These cells were columnar in shape with a central nucleus, few organelles, and large amounts of cytoplasmic glycogen. At 46 days GA, ciliated cells were observed on the membranous side of the trachea. Some nonciliated cells had concentrations of organelles in the most apical portion of their cytoplasm. At 59 days GA, membrane-bound cored granules were intermixed with organelles in the apices of some glycogen-filled cells. They were observed first on the cartilaginous side. Between 59 and 100 days GA, a large number of cell forms which appeared to be transitional between ciliated, secretory, basal, and undifferentiated cells were present. These included ciliated cells with electron-lucent inclusions resembling mucous granules. Mucous secretory cells were more numerous and had more granules and less glycogen in older fetuses. By 105 days GA, few of the secretory cells had significant amounts of glycogen and the cytoplasm was condensed. Secretory granules were very abundant in some cells and minimal in others. The Golgi apparatus was prominent. In animals 120 days GA and older, small mucous granule cells and basal cells resembling these cells in adults were present. By 134 days postnatal age, the epithelium resembled that in adults. We conclude that most of the differentiation of tracheal epithelium in the rhesus monkey occurs prior to birth; the cells differentiate in the following sequences: ciliated, mucous goblet, small mucous granule, basal; and basal and small mucous granule cells do not play a role in ciliated and mucous cell formation in the fetus.
Urinary aldosterone and hypertension.

cortex in the genesis of clinicalhypertension has been recognized since Gold-blatt's demonstration in 1937 that adrenalec-tomy prevents the expected development ofhypertension following bilateral renal arteryconstriction.' Recently, interest in this possi-bility has been intensified by reports thatsome hypertensive patients excrete2-6 and se-
100 W, single frequency, low-noise, diffraction-limited beam from an Nd:YAG end-pumped slab MOPA for LIGO

We describe a 104 W master oscillator power amplifier system for LIGO. This design based on an endpumped Nd:YAG slab amplifier topology is single-frequency, single-polarization and diffraction limited with 89% power in the TEM00 mode.
Testosterone, diabetes mellitus, and the metabolic syndrome

Metabolic syndrome is characterized by insulin insensitivity, central obesity dyslipidemia, and hypertension. It is recognized as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease in men; by the time metabolic syndrome is diagnosed, however, most men already have entrenched cardiovascular disease. A reliable early warning sign is needed to alert physicians to those at risk for metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. Low serum testosterone level has emerged as a reliable prognosticator of metabolic syndrome in men whose testosterone deficiency is genetic (Klinefelter syndrome), iatrogenic following surgery for testicular cancer, pharmacologically induced by gonadotropin-releasing hormone during prostate cancer treatment, or a natural consequence of aging. One third of men with type 2 diabetes mellitus are now recognized as testosterone deficient. Emerging evidence suggests that testosterone therapy may be able to reverse some aspects of metabolic syndrome.
Noninvasive thrombolysis using histotripsy beyond the intrinsic threshold (microtripsy)

Histotripsy has been investigated as a noninvasive, drug-free, image-guided thrombolysis method that fractionates blood clots using acoustic cavitation alone. In previous histotripsy-mediated thrombolysis studies, cavitation clouds were generated using multi-cycle pulses and tended to form on vessel wall. To avoid potential cavitational damage to the vessel wall, a new histotripsy approach, termed microtripsy, has been recently discovered in which cavitation is generated via an intrinsic-threshold mechanism using single-cycle pulses. We hypothesize that microtripsy can generate and confine cavitation in vessel lumen without contacting the vessel wall, which results in recanalization within the clot and potentially eliminating vessel damage. To test our hypothesis, microtripsy was investigated for clot recanalization in an in vitro flow model. Clots were formed inside a vessel phantom (6.5 mm inner diameter) in line with a flow system. Microtripsy was applied by a 1-MHz transducer at a pulse repetition frequency of 50 Hz with a peak negative pressure (P−) of 30 MPa or 36 MPa. To create a flow channel through a clot, the cavitation focus was scanned through the clot at an interval of 0.3 or 0.7 mm. The treated clots were 3-D-scanned by a 20-MHz ultrasound probe to quantify the channels. Restored flow rates were measured and clot debris particles generated from the treatments were analyzed. In all treatments, the cavitation cloud was consistently generated in the center of the vessel lumen without contacting the vessel wall. After each treatment, a flow channel was successfully generated through and completely confined inside the clot. The channels had a diameter up to 60% of the vessel diameter, with restored flow up to 500 mL/min. The debris particles were small with more than 99.9% < 10 μm and the largest at 153 um. Each clot (2 cm long) was recanalized within 7 min. The size of the flow channels increased by using higher P− and was significantly larger by using the 0.3 mm scan interval than those using 0.7 mm. The results in this study show the potential of this new microtripsy thrombolysis method for fast, precise, and effective clot recanalization, minimizing risks of vessel damage and embolism.
Evaluation of a Curriculum for Intimate Partner Violence Screening in a Pediatric Emergency Department

Objective We sought to describe the assessment of course participant changes in attitudes, self-efficacy, and behaviors after completion of the Its Time to Ask training curriculum for screening for intimate partner violence (IPV) in a pediatric emergency department (PED). Methods A 22-item Likert scale questionnaire was administered at baseline (before training), after training, and at 6-month follow-up to PED employee participants in a 2-hour IPV education program. Mean participant responses were compared between baseline/posttraining and baseline/6-month follow-up. Participants also completed a course-satisfaction survey. Results A total of 79 PED staff completed the baseline questionnaire before the training. Eighty-seven participants completed the posttraining questionnaire, and 48 completed the 6-month follow-up questionnaire. Participants had consistent, positive changes in attitudes after training that persisted at the 6-month follow-up for 5 items on the questionnaire. Attitudes that did not change showed baseline means already in disagreement with questionnaire statements. Participants reported significant, positive changes for all 7 self-efficacy statements at 1 or both of the posttraining evaluations. The only changes in behavior were observed at 6 months. The majority of participants were satisfied with the training and would recommend it to colleagues. Conclusions Significant, self-reported changes in attitudes, self-efficacy, and behaviors/clinical practice regarding screening for IPV in a PED can be achieved through participation in a brief training curriculum.
RELIGION, ATTRIBUTION STYLE, AND PUNITIVENESS TOWARD JUVENILE OFFENDERS*

A growing body of research shows that adherents to conservative Christian beliefs are more punitive than others in their response to crime. A frequently offered but still untested explanation is that such beliefs promote a dispositional attribution style—the idea that crime results from the offender's character, not from unfortunate or unjust environmental influences. With punitiveness toward juvenile offenders as the dependent variable, the present study directly tests the hypothesis that a tendency to attribute crime to dispositional factors is the intervening variable linking conservative religious beliefs to punitiveness. The analysis provides strong support for the hypothesis.
Individual differences in mental animation during mechanical reasoning

In three experiments we tested the effects of spatial visualization ability on performance of a motion-verification task, in which subjects were shown a diagram of a mechanical system and were asked to verify a sentence stating the motion of one of the system components. We propose that this task involves component processes of (1) sentence comprehension, (2) diagram comprehension, (3) text-diagram integration, and (4) mental animation. Subjects with low spatial ability made more errors than did subjects with high spatial ability on this task, and they made more errors on items in which more system components had to be animated to solve the problem. In contrast, the high-spatial subjects were relatively accurate on all trials. These results indicate that spatial visualization is correlated with accuracy on the motion-verification task and suggest that this correlation is primarily due to the mental animation component of the task. Reaction time and eye-fixation data revealed no differences in how the high- and low-spatial subjects decomposed the task. The data of the two groups of subjects were equally consistent with a piecemeal model of mental animation, in which components are animated one by one in order of the causal chain of events in the system.
The first line of therapy in a girl with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy: Should it be valproate or a new agent?

Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy is a common idiopathic generalized epileptic syndrome that includes generalized myoclonic seizures and commonly generalized tonic-clonic and generalized absence seizures. Before the emergence of the newer antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in the 1990s, valproate was the usual first-line treatment in both men and women. However, the frequent adverse effect of weight gain and the risk of teratogenicity have resulted in a search for alternative first-line therapies in women. Four new AEDs- lamotrigine, topiramate, levetiracetam, and zonisamide-have been used as monotherapy or adjunctive therapy for juvenile myoclonic epilepsy in small patient series. Because they are not associated with weight gain and because they may have less risk of teratogenicity than valproate, they have been proposed as alternative first-line agents in women who have childbearing potential. However, the new AEDs may not be effective for all the seizure types of juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, and valproate appeared overall more effective in a large comparative trial in idiopathic generalized epilepsy. In addition, valproate is often effective at lower doses that have less teratogenicity, and an extended-release preparation may be less likely to produce weight gain. The current review presents evidence and arguments supporting the use of a new AED and those supporting the use of valproate as the first-line treatment in a girl with newly diagnosed juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. The review then concludes with a compromise approach.
The structure of inverses in schema mappings

A schema mapping is a specification that describes how data structured under one schema (the source schema) is to be transformed into data structured under a different schema (the target schema). The notion of an inverse of a schema mapping is subtle, because a schema mapping may associate many target instances with each source instance, and many source instances with each target instance. In PODS 2006, Fagin defined a notion of the inverse of a schema mapping. This notion is tailored to the types of schema mappings that commonly arise in practice (those specified by “source-to-target tuple-generating dependencies”, or s-t tgds). We resolve the key open problem of the complexity of deciding whether there is an inverse. We also explore a number of interesting questions, including: What is the structure of an inverseq When is the inverse uniqueq How many nonequivalent inverses can there beq When does an inverse have an inverseq How big must an inverse beq Surprisingly, these questions are all interrelated. We show that for schema mappings M specified by full s-t tgds (those with no existential quantifiers), if M has an inverse, then it has a polynomial-size inverse of a particularly nice form, and there is a polynomial-time algorithm for generating it. We introduce the notion of “essential conjunctions” (or “essential atoms” in the full case), and show that they play a crucial role in the study of inverses. We use them to give greatly simplified proofs of some known results about inverses. What emerges is a much deeper understanding about this fundamental and complex operator.
Monotone semiflows generated by functional differential equations

Abstract : This obtains sufficient condition for an autonomous functional differential equation to generate a strongly monotone semiflow on a suitable state space. This allows the application to functional differential equations of very powerful recent results on strongly monotone semiflows due to Hirsch and Matano. In addition, a very striking relationship is established between such functional differential equations and corresponding ordinary differential equations. An example, involving a biochemical feedback loop is considered. Keywords: stability; steady states.
Intense, Variable Mixing near the Head of Monterey Submarine Canyon

Abstract A microstructure survey near the head of Monterey Submarine Canyon, the first in a canyon, confirmed earlier inferences that coastal submarine canyons are sites of intense mixing. The data collected during two weeks in August 1997 showed turbulent kinetic energy dissipation and diapycnal diffusivity up to 103 times higher than in the open ocean. Dissipation and diapycnal diffusivity within 10 km of the canyon head were among the highest observed anywhere (e = 1.1 × 10−6 W kg−1; Kρ = 1.0 × 10−2 m2 s−1). Mixing occurred mainly in an on-axis stratified turbulent layer, with thickness and intensity increasing from neap to spring tide. Strain spectra showed a gentler than k−1z rolloff, suggesting that critical reflection and scattering may push energy into high wavenumbers. Dissipation dependence on shear appears to be much weaker in the canyon than in the open ocean, with indications that the dependence maybe as low as e ∝ S. Coastal canyons may account for a small but significant fraction of the int...
Optimal RCPC channel rate allocation in AWGN channel for perceptual video quality using integer programming

For videos transmitted in an error-prone network, it is necessary to protect the source bitstream. Based on our packet loss visibility model, we minimize the end-to-end video quality degradation when transmitted in an AWGN channel using Rate-Compatible Punctured Convolutional codes for a given channel rate budget. We transform the original problem into a binary-decision problem, then we solve this integer program by the Branch and Bound method. Experimental results show that our visibility-based unequal error protection can improve the received video quality compared to equal error protection.
Studies on phosphomutases III. The phosphoribomutase of bovine uterus

Abstract A study of the substrate and coenzyme specificity of phosphoribomutase of bovine uterus has been made, and the affinity of this enzyme for ribose-1-phosphate determined. The probable α-configuration for R-1-P is proposed. The product of the reaction has been identified as ribose-5-phosphate. At equilibrium the ratio of ribose-5-phosphate to ribose-1-phosphate is 93:7. The optimum pH for the enzyme is near 7. The effects of various cations and of thiol blocking agents have been investigated. The significance of these findings has been discussed.
Calculating the shear strength of a sliding asymmetric block under varying degrees of lateral constraint

The rock foundations of major gravity structures are seldom uniform, and often include large-amplitude roughness. When foundation topography is strongly asymmetric, sliding cannot occur without significant lateral dilation. An individual failing monolith is thus forced to interact with neighboring blocks, which resist its tendency to dilate. In this paper, we examine quantitatively the intuitive notion that increased lateral constraint leads to higher monolith effective friction angles. A simple asymmetric monolith is subjected to Lagrangian dynamic analysis under varying types of lateral confinement. Failure envelopes are compared for the laterally unconstrained, one-side constrained, and fully constrained cases, and it is shown that the combination of asymmetric foundation topography and two-sided lateral constraint yields a powerful strengthening mechanism. The frictional properties of the model dam foundation and monolith sides are then varied to investigate their influences on the overall monolith friction angle. It is shown that in some cases, a comparatively minor increase in frictional resistance along the monolith sides produces markedly improved sliding shear strength. This has important practical ramifications, since the interfacial shear properties of neighboring concrete monoliths are easier to control than the foundation petrology.
Ascorbic Acid Reduces Accumulation of [3H]Spiperone in Mouse Striatum in Vivo:

(/sup 3/H)Spiperone was administered to mice. In agreement with other published reports, 2 hr later the accumulation of tritium was three to four times greater in the corpus striatum than in the cerebellum. Ascorbic acid (100, 1000, 2000 mg/kg, ip, 30 min) reduced the 2-hr accumulation in the corpus striatum 16, 42, and 63%, respectively, with only the highest does producing any significant reduction in the cerebellum. The effect was still evident in striatum 18 hr after a single dose of 1000 mg/kg. Striatal minces taken from mice treated 1 or 2 hr earlier with ascorbic acid showed no reduction in (/sup 3/H)spiperone binding. However, preincubation of striatal minces for 2 hr with ascorbic acid (10/sup -3/ M) produced an 82% reduction in specific binding while not having any effect on nonspecific binding. While it cannot be certain that the reduction of striatal (/sup 3/H) spiperone concentrations after ascorbic acid in vivo was not a result of some nonspecific alteration in the pharmacokinetics of (/sup 3/H)spiperone, the in vitro observation strongly suggests that it resulted from an alteration of binding characteristics at the receptor level.
Using a Gis in Market Analysis for a Tourism‐Dependent Retailer in the Pocono Mountains

The role of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology in retail market area analysis and site selection is well established. Though approaches range from simple rings to complex multivariate models of customer loyalty patterns, they share the common understanding that market areas for retailers are relatively compact geographically. This assumption is much less appropriate for retail operations in tourist destinations, where stores rely heavily on visitors to the area who spend most of the year far removed from the retailer's location. Though location is still an important factor for such retailers, market area analysis based on geographic proximity is not as useful. However, GIS tools can still play a major role in market analysis for tourism‐dependent retailers. This study uses Pocono Mountain Treasures, a hypothetical retailer in Pennsylvania, to describe how a GIS application, Environmental Systems Research Institute's (ESRI) ArcGIS 9.2 system, can be used to help tourist‐dependent retailers serv...
Anhydrous Halogen Acid Interaction with Polyaniline Membranes: A Gas Permeability Study

Anhydrous halogen acids react with polyaniline films in a very different manner than aqueous halogen acids. While aqueous acid-doped films can be readily undoped in aqueous base leaving little residual halide behind, some anhydrous acid-doped films, undoped with anhydrous ammonia followed by sublimation of the ammonium halide, leave a significant amount of residual halide behind. This varies from approximately 2.8% Cl for HCl(g), to 1.3% Br for HBr(g), to 0.4% I for HI(g) to <0.02% F for HF(g) doped/NH3(g) undoped films. Reflectance Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy confirms the presence of C−Cl and C−Br bonds, while no C−F bonds are observed. Gas permeability data are consistent with the residual halide content observed by elemental analysis and FT-IR, in that HF and HI doped/undoped polyaniline films show increased permeability to all gases (He, H2, CO2, Ar, O2, and N2) tested, while HCl and HBr doped/undoped films show lower permeabilities. The decreased permeabilities for HCl and HBr dop...
Effects of mood on lacrimal flow: sex differences and asymmetry.

After baseline assessments or mood and lacrimal flow in each eye, 80 subjects participated in either a sadness or happiness mood manipulation. They were requested to generate imagery of sad or happy events in their lives and (o reexperience the associated affect. Self-reports of mood and lacrimal flow were then reassessed. For both sexes, the sadness condition was associated with reports of greater dysphoric affect than the elation condition. In females, lacrimal flow tended to increase following the sadness manipulation and significantly decreased following the happiness manipulation. Mood did not significantly influence flow values in males. Among females, the left eye showed larger changes than the right as a function of mood condition. The nature of the sex differences, the implications of the findings for theories of lateralization of emotion, and the utility of the lacrimal flow measure as an index of mood are discussed.
Clifford algebra and the propagation of Kähler spinors

The Kahler equation for an inhomogeneous differential form is analyzed in some detail and expressed in a set of coordinates called Riemann normal coordinates. A class of solutions to the Kahler spinors is constructed. It is shown how we can perturbatively decouple the Kahler equation and write its solution as a sum of spinors by considering the isomorphism between Clifford and the total matrix algebras.