cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Long-Term Risk for Aortic Complications After Aortic Valve Replacement in Patients With Bicuspid Aortic Valve Versus Marfan Syndrome

Abstract Background Bicuspid aortic valves are associated with valve dysfunction, ascending aortic aneurysm and dissection. Management of the ascending aorta at the time of aortic valve replacement (AVR) in these patients is controversial and has been extrapolated from experience with Marfan syndrome, despite the absence of comparative long-term outcome data. Objectives This study sought to assess whether the natural history of thoracic aortopathy after AVR in patients with bicuspid aortic valve disease is substantially different from that seen in patients with Marfan syndrome. Methods In this retrospective comparison, outcomes of 13,205 adults (2,079 with bicuspid aortic valves, 73 with Marfan syndrome, and 11,053 control patients with acquired aortic valve disease) who underwent primary AVR without replacement of the ascending aorta in New York State between 1995 and 2010 were compared. The median follow-up time was 6.6 years. Results The long-term incidence of thoracic aortic dissection was significantly higher in patients with Marfan syndrome (5.5 ± 2.7%) compared with those with bicuspid valves (0.55 ± 0.21%) and control group patients (0.41 ± 0.08%, p Conclusions The much higher long-term rates of aortic complications after AVR observed in patients with Marfan syndrome compared with those with bicuspid aortic valves confirm that operative management of patients with bicuspid aortic valves should not be extrapolated from Marfan syndrome and support discrete treatment algorithms for these different clinical entities.
Highly multiplexed spatial mapping of microbial communities.

Mapping the complex biogeography of microbial communities in situ with high taxonomic and spatial resolution poses a major challenge because of the high density1 and rich diversity2 of species in environmental microbiomes and the limitations of optical imaging technology3–6. Here we introduce high-phylogenetic-resolution microbiome mapping by fluorescence in situ hybridization (HiPR-FISH), a versatile technology that uses binary encoding, spectral imaging and decoding based on machine learning to create micrometre-scale maps of the locations and identities of hundreds of microbial species in complex communities. We show that 10-bit HiPR-FISH can distinguish between 1,023 isolates of Escherichia coli, each fluorescently labelled with a unique binary barcode. HiPR-FISH, in conjunction with custom algorithms for automated probe design and analysis of single-cell images, reveals the disruption of spatial networks in the mouse gut microbiome in response to treatment with antibiotics, and the longitudinal stability of spatial architectures in the human oral plaque microbiome. Combined with super-resolution imaging, HiPR-FISH shows the diverse strategies of ribosome organization that are exhibited by taxa in the human oral microbiome. HiPR-FISH provides a framework for analysing the spatial ecology of environmental microbial communities at single-cell resolution. High-phylogenetic-resolution microbiome mapping by fluorescence in situ hybridization (HiPR-FISH) enables the spatial mapping of hundreds of species of microorganisms and shows how microbial networks in the mouse gut are affected by antibiotic treatment.
A GeV to TeV view of shell-type SNRs

Shock acceleration by the shells of supernova remnants (SNRs) has been hypothesized to be the mechanism that produces the bulk of Galactic Cosmic Rays, possibly up to PeV energies. Some SNRs have been shown to accelerate cosmic rays to TeV energies and above. But which SNRs are indeed efficient accelerators of protons and nuclei? And what is the maximum energy up to which they can efficiently accelerate particles? Measurements of non-thermal emission, especially in the gamma-ray regime, are essential to answer these questions. The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, surveying the northern TeV gamma-ray sky, is currently the most sensitive wide field-of-view survey instrument in the VHE (very-high-energy, >100 GeV) range and has recorded more than five years of data. The Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard the Fermi satellite has been surveying the GeV gamma-ray sky for more than ten years. Combining measurements from both instruments allows the study of gamma-ray emission from SNRs over many orders of magnitude in energy. In this presentation, I will show measurements of VHE gamma-ray emission from Fermi-LAT-detected SNRs with the HAWC Observatory.
Оценка воздействия рекламных кампаний на конверсии пользователей сайта с помощью отчетов по многоканальным последовательностям

В статье раскрывается понятие ассоциированных конверсий и важность их учета для бизнеса, рассматриваются отчеты аналитических систем, в которых можно отследить конверсии, и даются практические рекомендации по их правильной интерпретации.
Rates and Mechanisms of Dissolution of Renal Calculi. III. Mechanisms and Rates of Dissolution of Simulated Oxalate Calculi in Acid and Edta Solutions

A previous communication1 showed that dissolution or urinary calculi sections did not exhibit zero-order (i. e., constant) rates under sink conditions. Since pure calcium oxalate discs did exhibit a constant dissolution rate, it was concluded that controlling processes other than the intrinsic solution properties of calcium oxalate must be operative in the dissolution behavior of real calculi. In this paper we intend to compare models described previously2 with the dissolution behavior of artificial calculi in various media.
Abstract 287: Evidence For Increased Autophagy In Fetoplacental Units Of Bph/5, A Mouse Model Of Pre-eclampsia (PE)

Autophagy, a mechanism of cell survival during times of stress, plays an important role in normal placentation, protecting the fetus during fluctuations in conditions such as nutrient availability. In cases of placental insufficiency, often present in PE, autophagy may be defective. We have shown that BPH/5 mice, in addition to spontaneously developing a PE-like syndrome including late-gestational hypertension and proteinuria, exhibit abnormal placentation and poor feto-placental outcomes. Here we tested the hypothesis that there is increased autophagy in fetoplacental units (FPUs) of pregnant BPH/5 females. RNA was extracted from FPUs (e10.5) of BPH/5 and C57 control mice and analyzed for biomarkers of autophagy. BPH/5 showed a significant increase in both Beclin-1 and LC3-β compared to C57 (1.5-fold for each, n=7; p
The Genetic Algorithms Population Pluglet for the H2O Metacomputing System

This paper describes GAPP – a framework for the execution of distributed genetic algorithms (GAs) using the H2O metacomputing environment. GAs may be a viable solution technique to intractable problems; GAPP offers a distributed GA framework that can lead to rapid and efficient parallel execution of GAs from a variety of domains, with very little effort on behalf of the application scientist. It is premised upon the common phases embodied in GA lifecycles and contains modular implementations to handle each of them, whereas end applications simply provide domain-specific functions and parameters. GAPP is built for H2O, a component-oriented metacomputing system that enables cooperative resource sharing and flexible, reconfigurable concurrent computing on heterogeneous platforms. Experiences with the use of GAPP on H2O are described and preliminary results are very encouraging.
A Regulatory Framework for the 21st Century

The design of public policies aimed at human safety, environmental quality, and mitigation of economic harm--the balance between the role of government and of market forces--is a major challenge facing the 21st century. Two highly successful ideas from the 20th century have been most responsible for limiting and redefining the role of government-Coasian theory and contestability theory. Both theories provide practical corrective policies that, once adopted, allow market forces to beneficially hold sway. Coasian and contestability theories working together enable design of an improved regulatory framework for a broad set of new issues involving harm as we move into the 21st century.
A Review of “Spiritual Formation in Emerging Adulthood: A Practical Theology for College and Young Adult Ministry”

Educators and church leaders with a calling to work with young adults do not have to look far to find a wealth of literature on the trends and challenges of this generation. The trends related to e...
Lunar tidal winds between 80 and 110 km from UARS/HRDI wind measurements

[1] Recent observations and models show the considerable effects of upward-propagating lunar atmospheric tides on many aspects of the ionosphere-thermosphere system. A key aspect of atmosphere-ionosphere coupling is the wind field in the ionospheric E region (circa 100–150 km), where the dynamo generation of electric fields occurs. Yet, global specifications of lunar tidal winds exist only in theoretical predictions although years of satellite observations on atmospheric winds exist with almost global coverage. In the present paper, we report on quasi-global semidiurnal lunar tidal winds up to 115 km from data gathered by the High Resolution Doppler Imager (HRDI) on board the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite during the early years from 1991 to 1999. The observed lunar semidiurnal tidal winds are consistent with global scale wave model (GSWM) simulations in both amplitude and phase, with maximum amplitudes located between about ±40°N–60°N around the solstices. The peak amplitudes of the lunar tidal winds lie in the 10–15 ms−1range, whereas those simulated by GSWM lie between 15 and 25 ms−1. The smaller HRDI amplitudes are likely due in part to amplitude suppression in construction of the climatological mean resulting from year-to-year phase variability in the lunar tide. It is also possible that wave dissipation is underestimated to some degree in the GSWM.
Top Quark and Electroweak Symmetry Breaking Mechanism

After a brief comment on the role of top quark in models of electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB), I shall discuss what we know about top quark interaction and how to improve that knowledge. Since bottom quark is the weak isospin partner of the top quark, its interaction with a scalar boson may also distinguish models of EWSB. We show that Tevatron can provide useful information through the associated production of a scalar with a bottom quark pair.
Labor migration and overeducation among young college graduates

This paper focuses on labor market outcomes of young college graduates in the US, analyzing the nexus between migration, overeducation, and economic conditions. A series of overeducation probit models are estimated, using data from the March Supplements of the Current Population Survey, 2000–2014. We find that labor migrants are less prone to being overeducated as unemployment rates increase. For stayers, in contrast, we find a positive link between overeducation propensities and unemployment rates. As a result of this response divergence, overeducation probabilities of stayers exceed those of movers during times of medium to high unemployment rates. The results are robust to various definitions of overeducation and various sample restrictions.
Optical tests of quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics began with the solution of the problem of blackbody radiation by Planck`s quantum hypothesis: In the interaction of light with matter, energy can only be exchanged between the light in a cavity and the atoms in the walls of the cavity by the discrete amount E = h{nu}, (1) where h is Planck`s constant and {nu} is the frequency of the light. Einstein in his treatment of the photoelectric effect reinterpreted this equation to mean that a beam of light consists of particles (light quanta) with the preceding energy. Hence Einstein changed the meaning of E in Eq. (1) from that of the energy exchanged between atom and light to the energy intrinsic to the particles inside the light beam itself, independent of its interaction with atoms. Later, the name photon was given to these light quanta. The Compton effect supported this particle view point of light by demonstrating that photons carried momentum, as well as energy. Therefore, the waveparticle duality of quanta made its first appearance in connection with the properties of light. It would seem that the introduction of the concept of the photon as a particle would necessarily also introduce the concept of locality intomore » the quantum world, because particles are point-like entities and, and, hence, are seemingly local in nature. However, in light of observed violations of Bell`s inequalities, exactly the opposite seems to be the case. Here we review some recent results in quantum optics that elucidate nonlocality and other fundamental issues in quantum mechanics. 155 refs., 17 figs.« less
Debt dependence and corporate performance in a financial crisis: evidence from the sub-prime mortgage crisis

This study examines the effect of corporate debt dependence on the differential impact of the sub-prime mortgage crisis on corporate performance. We find that the higher the debt dependence the greater the decrease in corporate performance from the pre-crisis to the crisis period. For high-debt firms, we find that the higher the new debt borrowed during the crisis period, the lower the corporate performance. However, we find no significant relation between new debt borrowed and corporate performance for low debt firms during the crisis period.
Dual-beam laser welding of AZ31B magnesium alloy in zero-gap lap joint configuration

Abstract Porosity within laser welds of magnesium alloys is one of the main roadblocks to achieving high quality joints. One of the causes of pore formation is the presence of pre-existing coatings on the surface of magnesium alloy such as oxide or chromate layers. In this study, single-beam and dual-beam laser heat sources are investigated in relation to mitigation of pores resulting from the presence of the as-received oxide layer on the surface of AZ31B-H24 magnesium alloy during the laser welding process. A fiber laser with a power of up to 4 kW is used to weld samples in a zero-gap lap joint configuration. The effect of dual-beam laser welding with different beam energy ratios is studied on the quality of the weld bead. The purpose of this paper is to identify the beam ratio that best mitigates pore formation in the weld bead. The laser molten pool and the keyhole condition, as well as laser-induced plasma plume are monitored in real-time by use of a high speed charge-coupled device (CCD) camera assisted with a green laser as an illumination source. Tensile and microhardness tests were used to measure the mechanical properties of the laser welded samples. Results showed that a dual-beam laser configuration can effectively mitigate pore formation in the weld bead by a preheating-welding mechanism.
Properties of a cell-bound homogeneous murine IgM anti-dextran--IV. Modification of reactions of cell-bound IgM by concanavalin A.

Abstract Concanavalin A (ConA) reacts with O-stearoyl dextran coated erythrocytes (OSD-E) that have been sensitized with MOPC 104E IgM to form ConA-IgM-OSD-E. Complement-mediated lysis of such cells is inhibited in proportion to ConA concentration. Lysis is completely inhibited after incubation with 10 μg ConA per 5 × 108 cells. Dissociation of ConA from ConA-IgM-OSD-E by incubation with methyl-α- d -glucoside restores susceptibility to lysis. The hapten, nigerosyl-α(1 → 4)-nigerose dissociates IgM from IgM-OSD-E, but not from ConA-IgM-OSD-E. Reduction of IgM-OSD-E releases IgM fragments into the supernatant. In the presence of ConA, the IgM fragments are retained on the cell and may be reoxidized to regain up to 60 per cent of the original antigen-binding activity. We suggest that ConA maintains the structure of the IgM molecule during reduction, and functions in a manner similar to J-chain during reoxidation, to enable the appropriate disulfide bonds required for biologically active IgM to reform.
Pluralistic Professional Education: A Modular Curriculum in Clinical Psychology

We describe a pluralistic curriculum for doctoral education in clinical psychology. Two successful curricular innovations are highlighted. First, the usual courses in psychopathology, psychological assessment, and intervention are (offered as 5-week modules. Each module covers a subtopic within the broader area (e. g., introduction to the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory as an assessment module and depression as a psychopathology module). Second, students are introduced to alternative psychotherapeutic approaches in practicum courses that integrate didactic material with supervised practice in a particular approach. Students select the modules and practica that meet their career goals. All students acquire a core but not necessarily the same core.
Long-Term Outcome for Clinically Localized Prostate Cancer Treated with Permanent Interstitial Brachytherapy

Purpose To present the largest series of prostate cancer brachytherapy patients treated with modern brachytherapy techniques and postimplant day 0 dosimetric evaluation. Methods and Materials Between April 1995 and July 2006, 1,656 consecutive patients were treated with permanent interstitial brachytherapy. Risk group stratification was carried out according to the Mt. Sinai guidelines. Median follow-up was 7.0 years. The median day 0 minimum dose covering at least 90% of the target volume was 118.8% of the prescription dose. Cause of death was determined for each deceased patient. Multiple clinical, treatment, and dosimetric parameters were evaluated for impact on the evaluated survival parameters. Results At 12 years, biochemical progression-free survival (bPFS), cause-specific survival (CSS), and overall survival (OS) for the entire cohort was 95.6%, 98.2%, and 72.6%, respectively. For low-, intermediate-, and high-risk patients, bPFS was 98.6%, 96.5%, and 90.5%; CSS was 99.8%, 99.3%, and 95.2%; and OS was 77.5%, 71.1%, and 69.2%, respectively. For biochemically controlled patients, the median posttreatment prostate-specific antigen (PSA) concentration was 0.02 ng/ml. bPFS was most closely related to percent positive biopsy specimens and risk group, while Gleason score was the strongest predictor of CSS. OS was best predicted by patient age, hypertension, diabetes, and tobacco use. At 12 years, biochemical failure and cause-specific mortality were 1.8% and 0.2%, 5.1% and 2.1%, and 10.4% and 7.1% for Gleason scores 5 to 6 and 7 and ≥8, respectively. Conclusions Excellent long-term outcomes are achievable with high-quality brachytherapy for low-, intermediate-, and high-risk patients. These results compare favorably to alternative treatment modalities including radical prostatectomy.
Singularities at the apex of a sharp V-notch in a linear strain hardening material

The strength of the stress singularities at the apex of a sharp V-notch for plane problems are investigated analytically in this paper. Three sets of boundary conditions, namely, free-free, fixed-fixed, and fixed-free, along the two faces of the notch are considered. The material is assumed to be governed by the deformation theory of plasticity with linear hardening characteristic. Results for both plane stress and plane strain conditions are presented.
Acute regulation of hematocrit and blood acid-base balance during severe hypoxic challenges in late chicken embryos (Gallus gallus).

Abstract Acid–base and hematocrit (Hct) responses of vertebrate embryos to severe hypoxia are as yet unknown, but may reveal the maturation process of physiological regulatory mechanisms. The present study elucidated how acute, severe hypoxia (10% O 2 , with and without 5% CO 2 ) affects Hct and blood acid–base balance in late prenatal (days 11–19) chicken embryos. The time-course of the resulting Hct changes and blood acid–base disturbances was examined in detail in day 15 (d15) embryos to further understand the magnitude and time-components of these physiological changes. We hypothesized that Hct of developing embryos increases during severe hypoxia (10% O 2 ) and hypercapnic hypoxia (5%CO 2 , 10%O 2 ), due to increased mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and red blood cell concentration ([RBC]). We additionally hypothesized that 10% O 2 would induce anaerobic glycolysis and the attendant increase in lactate concentration ([La − ]) would create a severe metabolic acidosis. Hct increased in all embryos (d11–d19) during severe hypoxia (2 h) but, with the exception of d19 embryos, the increase was due to increased MCV and was therefore unlikely related to O 2 transport. The time-course of the d15 embryonic Hct response to hypoxic or hypercapnic hypoxic exposure was very rapid with MCV increasing within 30 min. Severe metabolic acidosis occurred in all developing embryos (d11–d19) during 2 h hypoxic exposure. Additionally, respiratory acidosis was induced in d15 embryos during hypercapnic hypoxia, with acid–base status recovering within 120 min in air. Throughout hypoxic exposure and recovery, changes in [HCO 3 − ] were matched by those in [La − ], indicating that anaerobic glycolysis is a key factor determining the metabolic alterations and overall acid–base status. Further, the blood gas and Hct values recovered in air and unchanged embryo mass suggest that the hypoxia-induced disturbances were only transient and may not affect long-term survival.
The Impact of HIV Diagnosis-Related vs. Non-Diagnosis Related Trauma on PTSD, Depression, Medication Adherence, and HIV Disease Markers

The present study examined differences in three groups of people living with HIV (PLWH); those who did not meet post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) criteria, those with HIV-related PTSD, and those with non-HIV-related PTSD. Patients with PTSD reported more PTSD and depression symptoms and lower levels of medication adherence. Participants with HIV-related PTSD were more likely to report reliving the trauma and were more adherent to HIV medications than participants with non-HIV-related PTSD. Results suggest that HIV- and non-HIV-related PTSD have a similar impact on PLWH and in both cases impact their functioning, adherence to medications, and levels of depression.
Kinetics of heterogeneous hybridization on indium tin oxide surfaces with and without an applied potential

The rate of hybridization of oligonucleotide target sequences to chemically immobilized oligonucleotide probes has been studied both with and without an electrical field. The probe size was 20-24 nucleotides (nt) while the target size ranged from 157 to 864 nt. In agreement with previous studies, complete hybridization under normal conditions required 10-30 hours, depending on target size. The kinetics were characterized by a characteristic lag time followed by an asymptotic rise to the final value. In contrast, with an applied electrical field, all but the largest target hybridized in about 10 min while the longest hybridized within 1 h. Deleterious electrode reactions were avoided by close spacing of the anode and cathode and application of very small voltages. Our results suggest that probes and targets orient flat on the surface. A model is suggested to explain the kinetics observed that involves a series of surface states between initial target arrival and final hybridized state. Our results show that the electric field accelerated hybrid capture of solution-phase targets by surface-bound probes. This approach may have implications for enhancing array-based hybrid capture for mutation detection, copy number determination and/or gene expression profiling.
Copper oxide aerosol: reaction with SO2

Abstract Copper oxide aerosol and SO 2 are emitted concurrently from copper smelters. The reactions between copper oxide aerosol and SO 2 could result in the formation of irritant sulfur oxides on the surface of the particles that could affect smelter workers or residents living near the smelter. In this study, we investigate the reactions of an ultrafine copper oxide aerosol (count median diameter = 0.03 μ m) and SO 2 . In a dry furnace, two S(IV) species were formed as determined using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. One S(IV) corresponds to ionic S(IV) with a binding energy of 166.8 eV. The other corresponds to adsorbed S(IV) with a binding energy of 168.4eV. Increasing relative humidity (r.h.) in the mixing chamber to 78% promotes the formation of S(VI). Addition of water vapor into the hot zone of the furnace leads to the formation of only S(VI) on the aerosol and this is not affected by the r.h. in the mixing chamber. Sputtering of the sample by an Ar + beam revealed that these sulfur oxides were on the surface of the aerosol. The concentrations of total S on the particles in the exposure chamber as determined using a flame photometric detector system were 0.24, 0.47 and 0.58 μmole S m−3 for the mixing conditions of dry furnace, dry furnace with high r.h. and water in the furnace with high humidity, respectively.
Sub-Diffraction Optical Lenses for Use in Far-Field Sub-Wavelength Optical Microscopy (FSOM)

We theoretically study a new imaging technique that allows for far-field sub-diffraction imaging. This technique is based on a near-field pre-magnification operated through a properly designed metamaterial crystal acting as a near-field sub-diffraction lens.
Nefiracetam ameliorates learning deficits in older rabbits and may act via the hippocampus

Behavioral and neurobiological parallels between rabbits and humans in eyeblink classical conditioning (EBCC) make this paradigm potentially useful for preclinical and clinical trials. The known involvement of hippocampal pyramidal cells in EBCC in rabbits led us to evaluate the nootropic compound, nefiracetam. In Expt. 1, 56 rabbits of a mean age of 27.9 months received daily doses of vehicle, 1, 3, 10, or 15 mg/kg nefiracetam 15 min before testing in the 750 ms delay EBCC paradigm. Trials to learning criterion (T/C) was significantly better with 10 mg/kg. To investigate whether nefiracetam ameliorated EBCC via the hippocampus, 20 older rabbits received bilateral hippocampal aspirations in Expt. 2. Eleven rabbits of a mean age of 26.8 months had histologically confirmed bilateral hippocampectomy and were dosed with vehicle or 10 mg/kg nefiracetam and tested with EBCC. Hippocampectomized rabbits treated with vehicle and 10 mg/kg nefiracetam had 718 and 996 T/C, respectively, that were not different from 845 T/C of 8 intact older rabbits and vehicle mg/kg nefiracetam, but significantly worse than 473 T/C for 8 intact older rabbits and 10 mg/kg nefiracetam. Nefiracetam ameliorated EBCC in older rabbits only when the hippocampus was intact.
Investigations on the relative effectiveness of some tertiary alkanolamines in the synthesis of large-crystal zeolite NaA

Abstract The relative efficiency of four different tertiary alkanolamines as nucleation suppressors in the synthesis of large-crystal zeolite NaA has been investigated by systematically varying the amount of each in synthesis solutions and following the phase and particle size of zeolites obtained. One additive, 2,2-bis (hydroxymethyl)-2,2′,2″-nitrilotriethanol, was found to be considerably more effective than the best previously known nucleation suppressor, 2,2′,2″-nitrilotriethanol (triethanolamine), yielding large zeolite NaA crystals at appreciably lower solution additive concentrations. In addition, a spherical phase that was formed in competition to large-crystal zeolite NaA was identified as LOSOD, rather than as the previously suggested NaP. The crystallization of LOSOD was found to be suppressed by increased solution NaOH concentration, allowing the synthesis of larger zeolite NaA crystals.
Managing the transfer of technology for development: remote sensing applications for the Caribbean Basin

Abstract Across the Caribbean Basin, scientists and policymakers are becoming increasingly interested in natural resource exploration, development, and conservation. Remote sensing technology can provide large quantities of data about these resources, in a costefficient manner. Satellite systems deploying optical sensors, such as Landsat and SPOT, as well as weather satellites, such as the NOAA-7 Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), have proven invaluable in dealing with the critical issues that continue to arise in marine and coastal zone development. However, Caribbean Basin countries lag behind Latin America in applying remote sensing technologies to such tasks. This paper examines the principal problems involved in managing a significant high technology transfer and applications process. We report the results of an extended Delphi study dealing with ways of overcoming the major obstacles to remote sensing applications in the Caribbean, and with the most promising means of deploying those technologies which are relevant for regional marine and coastal zone development.
Correlation of polymer persistence length with Euler buckling fluctuations

When a polymer is modeled by a long elastic rod of homogeneous and isotropic material, we find that its persistence length is proportional to the cube of the critical length for Euler buckling caused by the root-mean-square contraction force. The proportionality constant involves the radius of the circular cross section of the rod. For paramyosin, the persistence length is larger than the critical buckling length by a factor of about 3.
Use 0of Botu1inum Toxin in Strabismus after Retinal Detachment Surgery

Botulinum toxin was used to treat 20 patients with strabismus after retinal detachment surgery. Preinjection motility deviations ranged from 10 to 60 prism diopters (D). Postinjection deviations ranged from 0 to 20 prism D, with 75% being 10 D or less. Eighty-five percent achieved fusion that persisted, with 73% requiring only one or two injections. Only muscles in the eye that had undergone retinal reattachment surgery were injected. The average period of follow-up was 12 months. Complications were rare and all resolved spontaneously. Botulinum toxin appears to be useful as a primary treatment modality for persistent strabismus following retinal detachment surgery, possibly obviating the need for complicated strabismus surgery.
Checks and balances: the welcomed tension between philosophy and science.

ABSTRACT There is a tension between science and philosophy, but this tension need not engender enmity or derision. Scientists and philosophers can work together, and we argue that working together is beneficial to both, even if it is sometimes uncomfortable. We offer examples of how philosophy can autonomously and effectively inform scientific practice. Science and philosophy share certain methodological concerns and practices; therefore, scientists who disregard philosophy are vulnerable to critical conceptual mistakes. If our arguments are correct, and if it can also be shown that science informs philosophy, then, while it is possible for both disciplines to operate autonomously, each should welcome the checks and balances that each provides for one another in the investigation and explanation of reality.
Pulmonary artery pressure responses to increased cardiac output in chickens with raised metabolic rate

Abstract Previous work has shown remarkable differences in the pressure–flow relations of the pulmonary circulation between birds and mammals. For example several studies suggest that the avian pulmonary blood vessels behave like rigid tubes, very different from the situation in mammalian lung. We therefore speculated that birds would develop high pulmonary artery pressures when the cardiac output was substantially increased during heavy exercise, for example during flight. However because of the technical difficulties of measuring pulmonary artery pressures in flight, the metabolic rate and cardiac output in anesthetized chickens were increased by infusing 2,4 Dinitrophenol (DNP) and the mean pressure was measured by means of a catheter in the pulmonary artery. Although the pulmonary artery pressure rose steadily as cardiac output increased, it remained below the high levels predicted from the previous studies for similar changes in pulmonary blood flow. Furthermore the increase in pressure was less than in mammals where recruitment and distension of pulmonary capillaries are known to occur. The reasons for this unexpected result are not clear.
Efficacy of cyclosporin A in psoriasis: a summary of the United States' experience.

SUMMARY Since its discovery in 1972, cyclosporin A (CyA) has been widely used in the experimental treatment of multiple inflammatory diseases considered to be of immime-mediated aetiology. In dermatology, oral CyA is most effective in the treatment of psoriasis and has been used successfully for plaque-type, pustular and erythrodermic forms of the disease. While dosages ranging from i to 14 mg/kg/day have been used, a starting dose of 4 mg/kg/day gives a rapid response with few side-effects. Nephrotoxicity remains the greatest concern in long-term use of the drug. Although intralesional CyA has proven effective in psoriasis, topical preparations have not. It is hoped that future research will provide effective topical formulations of CyA which are efficacious without the risks inherent in systemic administration.
Isopropanol ingestion: interpretation of blood concentrations and clinical findings.

We evaluated blood concentrations and clinical findings in 17 cases of isopropanol (IPROH) ingestion seen over a 8.5 year period at our institution. Eight ingestions involved IPROH alone (“pure”) w...
Scalable learning of users' preferences using networked data

Users' personal information such as their political views is important for many applications such as targeted advertisements or real-time monitoring of political opinions. Huge amounts of data generated by social media users present opportunities and challenges to study these preferences in a large scale. In this paper, we aim to infer social media users' political views when only network information is available. In particular, given personal preferences about some of the social media users, how can we infer the preferences of unobserved individuals in the same network? There are many existing solutions that address the problem of classification with networked data problem. However, networks in social media normally involve millions and even hundreds of millions of nodes, which make the scalability an important problem in inferring personal preferences in social media. To address the scalability issue, we use social influence theory to construct new features based on a combination of local and global structures of the network. Then we use these features to train classifiers and predict users' preferences. Due to the size of real-world social networks, using the entire network information is inefficient and not practical in many cases. By extracting local social dimensions, we present an efficient and scalable solution. Further, by capturing the network's global pattern, the proposed solution, balances the performance requirement between accuracy and efficiency.
NEP Newspapers and the Origins of Soviet Information Rationing

Newspapers were at the center of Bolshevik culture before and after 1917. Fifteen years before the October Revolution, Vladimir Lenin argued in What Is To Be Done? that the production and distribution of a single newspaper for the entire Russian Empire would help the isolated underground organizations of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party to coordinate their activities. After taking power Bolshevik officials continued to place a very high priority on the distribution of newspapers, above all to their support base (Communist party organizations, major factories, Red Army units), but also to specific target audiences in the population as a whole. Studies of NEP culture and NEP newspapers by Peter Kenez, Jeffrey Brooks, Julie Kay Mueller, Michael Gorham, and Steven Coe have identified the key function of newspapers in communicating with rank-and-file Communist activists and teaching them Bolshevik language and culture.' The importance of newspapers was all the greater because alternative channels of communication were limited. Radio was in its infancy, and the telephone and even telegraph networks did not extend beyond larger cities. Printing the newspapers and getting them to readers were very difficult tasks in the first years of Soviet power. Kenez, Brooks, and Mueller, along with the Soviet authors E. G. Golomb and E. M. Fingerit, have described the immense material difficulties faced by press officials, including newsprint shortages, lack of funds, breakdown of postal services, and poor transport and communications infrastructure.2 At certain crisis points, such as
Entropy rigidity for semisimple group actions

We show for the standard actions of higher rank semisimple Lie groups and their discrete subgroups on compact manifolds that the entropy is invariant under small perturbations.
Long-term intravenous therapy with peripherally inserted silicone elastomer central venous catheters in patients with malignant diseases.

Peripherally inserted central venous silicone elastomer catheters were studied in 81 patients who had malignancy requiring prolonged intravenous therapy. The catheters remained in place from 5 to 171 days, with a median of 30 days. Ninety-one percent of the catheters were unassociated with clinical complications. Six percent of 87 inserted catheters were removed due to peripheral thrombophlebitis. Two patients developed subclavian thrombosis, requiring catheter removal. One patient had catheter-related sepsis with Staphylococcus aureus. Bacteria grew from eleven percent of the cultured catheter tips. Indwelling catheters presence did not appear to influence response to antibiotic therapy. We conclude from this pilot study that long-term central venous access with peripherally inserted silicone elastomer catheters has an acceptably low complication rate in a high risk patient population.
Biogeochemical weathering of serpentinites: An examination of incipient dissolution affecting serpentine soil formation

Abstract Serpentinite rocks, high in Mg and trace elements including Ni, Cr, Cd, Co, Cu, and Mn and low in nutrients such as Ca, K, and P, form serpentine soils with similar chemical properties resulting in chemically extreme environments for the biota that grow upon them. The impact of parent material on soil characteristics is most important in young soils, and therefore the incipient weathering of serpentinite rock likely has a strong effect on the development of serpentine soils and ecosystems. Additionally, porosity generation is a crucial process in converting rock into a soil that can support vegetation. Here, the important factors affecting the incipient weathering of serpentinite rock are examined at two sites in the Klamath Mountains, California. Serpentinite-derived soils and serpentinite rock cores were collected in depth profiles from each sampling location. Mineral dissolution in weathered serpentinite samples, determined by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometry, electron microprobe analyses, and synchrotron microXRD, is consistent with the order, from most weathered to least weathered: Fe-rich pyroxene > antigorite > Mg-rich lizardite > Al-rich lizardite. These results suggest that the initial porosity formation within serpentinite rock, impacting the formation of serpentine soil on which vegetation can exist, is strongly affected both by the presence of non-serpentine primary minerals as well as the composition of the serpentine minerals. In particular, the presence of ferrous Fe appears to contribute to greater dissolution, whereas the presence of Al within the parent rock appears to contribute to greater stability. Iron-oxidizing bacteria present at the soil–rock interface have been shown in previous studies to contribute to the transition from rock to soil, and soils and rock cores in this study were therefore tested for iron-oxidizing bacteria. The detection of biological iron oxidation in this study indicates that the early alteration of these Fe-rich minerals may be mediated by iron-oxidizing bacteria. These findings help provide insight into the incipient processes affecting serpentinite rock weathering, important to the development of extreme serpentine soils and the biota that grow on them.
Secondary bonding interactions observed in two arsenic thiolate complexes.

Treatment of N-(2-mercaptoethyl)-1,8-naphthalimide (HL) with stoichiometric amounts of AsCl3 and base affords AsL2Cl and AsL3 complexes stabilized in part by secondary As···O bonding interactions.
Economic activity of the visually impaired: An evaluation of the successes of the visually impaired with regard to the market economy

Abstract The aim of this paper is to evaluate the participation and the degree of success of the visually impaired in the labor market with regard to the market economy in the Czech Republic. The method used consisted of the application and comparison of statistical information on persons with disabilities, collected by order of the Czech government, the Czech Statistical Office in cooperation with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports. The economic activity of the visually impaired was not a direct focus of the statistical survey. The data was collected for the disabled as a whole. However, at the personal request of the author, the Czech Statistical Office has recalculated the data and provided us with it. This paper briefly describes the situation regarding the workplace activities of the visually impaired before 1989 in the former Czechoslovakia. It recognizes the impact of unemployment and the importance of work for people with disabilities, as well as briefly glossing over the most common hurdles preventing them from finding employment. In other parts, statistical data is compared from a nationwide survey which presented the fact that the Czech Republic has an estimated 1,015,548 persons with disabilities. As seen in the results, the number of people with some form of visual disability is approaching ninety thousand. In the group researched, there were 6331 persons economically active who were visually impaired; from that number, women accounted for less than one-third. Similarly, in the whole group of people with disabilities and even the visually handicapped, information shows that in the group of economically active persons, the majority hold proper employment. Roughly 15% of those economically active are self-employed.
Spontaneous performance of wild baboons on three novel food-access puzzles

Although the technical problem-solving expertise of nonhuman primates has been investigated extensively in captivity, few species have been tested in their natural habitats. Here I examine the physical cognition of wild savanna baboons (Papio anubis), a species that occupies an omnivorous foraging niche in which a variety of embedded food items are extracted and processed. Baboons were tested on three puzzles, each involving high-quality food that required removal from a novel obstruction: (1) a string-pulling puzzle in which food was hung from tree branches, (2) a twig-dipping puzzle in which food was embedded in a vertical tube, and (3) a stick-pushing puzzle in which food was contained in a horizontal conduit. The baboons failed to solve the second and third puzzles even when tools had been appropriately positioned in advance. And although they solved the first puzzle, their actions (running while holding food that was still attached to the string), suggested they did not fully comprehend the string’s connective property. The baboons’ performance might reflect the time constraints of life in the wild, which relative to captivity may provide fewer opportunities for the development of understanding about the physical properties of objects and their potential uses as tools. Further experiments on the physical cognition of baboons and many other primate species in their natural habitats would help test this ontogenetic hypothesis. Such field experiments would be especially fruitful if they continued to target extractive foragers like baboons: these experiments could simultaneously provide a test of phylogenetic hypotheses that invoke extractive foraging as the key stimulus for brain expansion in savanna-dwelling hominids.
Aging and life prediction of cast duplex stainless steel components

Abstract Case duplex stainless steels, used extensively in nuclear, chemical, and petroleum industries because of higher strength, better weldability, higher resistance to stress corrosion cracking, and soundness of casting, are susceptible to thermal aging embrittlement during service at temperatures as low as ∼250°C. Recent advances in understanding the aging mechanisms, kinetics, and mechanical properties are presented, with emphasis on application of the material in safety-significant components in a nuclear reactor. Aging embrittlement is primarily due to spinodal decomposition of ferrite involving segregation of Fe, Cr, and Ni, and precipitation of M23C6 on ferrite-austenite boundaries or in ferrite. Aging kinetics are strongly influenced by synergistic effects of other metallurgical reactions that occur in parallel with the spinodal decomposition, i.e. clustering of Ni, Mo, and Si and G-phase precipitation in ferrite. A number of methods are outlined for estimating end-of-life aging, depending on several factors such as degree of permissible conservatism, availability of component archive material, and methods of estimating and verifying the activation energy of aging.
The Dorset: An Enigma

There has been much discussion on the origin of the Dorset people and their demise. Using genetic, linguistic, archaeological, and ethnographic information, a scenario is presented suggesting that Proto-Dorset separated about 4500 B.P. from other speakers of the Arctic-Siberian Phylum to migrate to the eastern Canadian and Greenland Arctic. About 3500 B.P., they merged with other migrants to form the Pre-Dorset and, beginning around 2500 B.P., with some Proto-Algonquian people to form the Dorset. Further mixing took place with Proto-Siouan peoples about A.D. 700. Between about A.D. 1000 and 1400, population pressures from the Thule Eskimo, Algonquian, and Siouan groups forced the Dorset to migrate into isolated areas. Some, such as those who moved to eastern Greenland, the southern Hudson Bay region, and the Copper River Arctic, adopted Thule Eskimo culture and language. Others moved into the Aleutian Islands where they acquired Paleo-Aleut culture and genes but kept their own language to become the histo...
Human RNase H1 is associated with protein P32 and is involved in mitochondrial pre-rRNA processing.

Mammalian RNase H1 has been implicated in mitochondrial DNA replication and RNA processing and is required for embryonic development. We identified the mitochondrial protein P32 that binds specifically to human RNase H1, but not human RNase H2. P32 binds human RNase H1 via the hybrid-binding domain of the enzyme at an approximately 1∶1 ratio. P32 enhanced the cleavage activity of RNase H1 by reducing the affinity of the enzyme for the heteroduplex substrate and enhancing turnover, but had no effect on the cleavage pattern. RNase H1 and P32 were partially co-localized in mitochondria and reduction of P32 or RNase H1 levels resulted in accumulation of mitochondrial pre ribosomal RNA [12S/16S] in HeLa cells. P32 also co-immunoprecipitated with MRPP1, a mitochondrial RNase P protein required for mitochondrial pre-rRNA processing. The P32-RNase H1 complex was shown to physically interact with mitochondrial DNA and pre-rRNA. These results expand the potential roles for RNase H1 to include assuring proper transcription and processing of guanosine-cytosine rich pre-ribosomal RNA in mitochondria. Further, the results identify P32 as a member of the ‘RNase H1 degradosome’ and the key P32 enhances the enzymatic efficiency of human RNase H1.