cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Comparison of Student Outcomes from Two Different Formats of Phlebotomy Education

This study aimed to investigate if delivery of instruction is a direct contributor to students9 psychomotor and affective skills in phlebotomy practicum. In the Department of Medical Laboratory Technology and Phlebotomy, students are enrolled in HSPC 1234 Comprehensive Phlebotomy (8 week class that is delivered in a traditional in class setting for Phlebotomy students) and HSML 1221 Comprehensive Phlebotomy (Interim class delivered in a hybrid format for Medical Laboratory Technology students). Both classes have the same content for objectives, lecture materials, skills training and assessments. After successful completion of the didactic phlebotomy classes, students are enrolled in a clinical rotation containing the same evaluation standards for psychomotor and affective skills. Student preceptors are given an evaluation checklist that assess the students9 psychomotor and affective skills during their clinical rotation in phlebotomy. These preceptor evaluations were compiled and reviewed. Comparison studies was accomplished by performing a 3 year retrospective review of clinical evaluations from both deliveries of instruction. It was determined based on the comparison studies that no significant difference was observed on the psychomotor and affective skills of the two sets of students; preceptor evaluation shows congruence in their evaluation between the hybrid students and the traditional in-class students. The researchers conclude that there is no significant impact on psychomotor and affective skill on students enrolled in phlebotomy clinical rotation despite method of delivery.
MRI brain lesions in asymptomatic boys with X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy

Objective To describe the brain MRI findings in asymptomatic patients with childhood cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (CCALD). Methods We retrospectively reviewed a series of biochemically or genetically confirmed cases of adrenoleukodystrophy followed at our institution between 2001 and 2015. We identified and analyzed 219 brain MRIs from 47 asymptomatic boys (median age 6.0 years). Patient age, MRI scan, and brain lesion characteristics (e.g., contrast enhancement, volume, and Loes score) were recorded. The rate of lesion growth was estimated using a linear mixed effect model. Results Sixty percent of patients (28/47) showed brain lesions (median Loes score of 3.0 points; range 0.5–11). Seventy-nine percent of patients with CCALD (22/28) had contrast enhancement on first lesional or subsequent MRI. Lesion progression (Loes increase of ≥0.5 point) was seen in 50% of patients (14/28). The rate of lesion growth (mL/mo) was faster in younger patients (r = −0.745; p Conclusion We provide a description of CCALD lesion development in a cohort of asymptomatic boys. Understanding the early stages of CCALD is crucial to optimize treatments for children diagnosed by newborn screening.
Share-n-Learn: A Framework for Sharing Activity Recognition Models in Wearable Systems With Context-Varying Sensors

Wearable sensors utilize machine learning algorithms to infer important events such as the behavioral routine and health status of their end users from time-series sensor data. A major obstacle in large-scale utilization of these systems is that the machine learning algorithms cannot be shared among users or reused in contexts different from the setting in which the training data are collected. As a result, the algorithms need to be retrained from scratch in new sensor contexts, such as when the on-body location of the wearable sensor changes or when the system is utilized by a new user. The retraining process places significant burden on end users and system designers to collect and label large amounts of training sensor data. In this article, we challenge the current algorithm training paradigm and introduce Share-n-Learn to automatically detect and learn physical sensor contexts from a repository of shared expert models without collecting any new labeled training data. Share-n-Learn enables system designers and end users to seamlessly share and reuse machine learning algorithms that are trained under different contexts and data collection settings. We develop algorithms to autonomously identify sensor contexts and propose a gating function to automatically activate the most accurate machine learning model among the set of shared expert models. We assess the performance of Share-n-Learn for activity recognition when a dynamic sensor constantly migrates from one body location to another. Our analysis based on real data collected with human subjects on three datasets demonstrates that Share-n-Learn achieves, on average, 68.4% accuracy in detecting physical activities with context-varying wearables. This accuracy performance is about 19% more than ‘majority voting,’ 10% more than the state-of-the-art transfer learning, and only 8% less than the experimental upper bound.
Trends in Dietary Sodium Intake in the United States and the Impact of USDA Guidelines: NHANES 1999-2016

Abstract Background Moderation in sodium consumption is recommended to reduce morbidity and mortality; however, trends in intake and the impact of guidelines have not been examined. Methods Sodium intake data collected from 1999-2016 in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys were analyzed. Trends in sodium intake for individuals aged 18 years or over and in subgroups based on age, sex, race and ethnicity, and sodium-sensitive chronic diseases were examined. Adherence to US Department of Agriculture guidelines was assessed. Multivariable regression analysis was performed to identify predictors of sodium intake from 2011-2016. Results A total of 47,509 individuals (median age = 44.0 years, 48.3% male) were included in the study. Median sodium consumption was 3232 mg per day (95% confidence interval [CI], 3210-3255), increasing from 3156 mg per day (95% CI 3,038-3,273) in 1999-2000 to 3273 mg per day (95% CI, 3218-3328) in 2015-2016 (P Conclusion Sodium intake has remained above recommended levels in all segments of the adult population and adherence to guidelines is poor. Novel interventions are needed to reduce sodium intake.
Psychotherapies and Non-pharmacological Interventions

This chapter provides an overview of therapeutic modalities that may be useful for geriatric patients within inpatient settings including, but not limited to, medical units, skilled nursing facilities, and acute psychiatric units. Despite the time and resource limitations inherent in each of these settings, there are psychotherapeutic approaches that may be adapted to the environmental and staffing resources while also being individualized for the patient. Several approaches discussed here may be also used in groups. Inpatient settings also offer the opportunity for team members to make direct interventions throughout the day, which can facilitate early readjustments based on each patient’s needs, potentially accelerating improvement. Team members of various experience levels can undergo training in specific therapeutic modalities and coordinate appropriate interventions with the primary or consulting psychiatrist. Despite the logistical and environmental challenges to implementation, the targeted use of a thoughtfully chosen psychotherapeutic approach has the potential to not only improve the patient’s mental health but also enable him/her to participate more fully in medical care, with better treatment outcomes and quality of life.
Special Issue Review Essay: The Intelligentsia In Dissent: Palestine, Settler-Colonialism and Academic Unfreedom in the Work of Steven Salaita

This review essay constitutes an attempt to outline the main conceptual concerns reflected in the cumulative, book-length scholarly output of Steven Salaita to date, with particular emphasis on what the reviewer presumes to be his original contributions to American Indian/Indigenous Studies.
Neuroimaging of Small Vessel Disease in Late-Life Depression

Cerebral small vessel disease is associated with late-life depression, cognitive impairment, executive dysfunction, distress, and loss of life for older adults. Late-life depression is becoming a substantial public health burden, and a considerable number of older adults presenting to primary care have significant clinical depression. Even though white matter hyperintensities are linked with small vessel disease, white matter hyperintensities are nonspecific to small vessel disease and can co-occur with other brain diseases. Advanced neuroimaging techniques at the ultrahigh field magnetic resonance imaging are enabling improved characterization, identification of cerebral small vessel disease and are elucidating some of the mechanisms that associate small vessel disease with late-life depression.
Total Synthesis of (±)-Sceptrin

A four-step synthesis of the dimeric pyrrole–imidazole alkaloid sceptrin is reported. The brevity of the route is based on a simple solution developed for selective assembly of the cyclobutane core...
Restaurant Reviews and Neighborhood Effects

The advent of Web 2.0 created new digital platforms in which consumers, by definition, both consume and generate information. In general, people, as well as platform providers, assume that informat...
After-Hours and Weekend Phone Calls by Urological Subspecialty at a Tertiary Care Institution

AbstractIntroduction:Many urology practices offer after-hours answering services through which patients or outside providers may access an on-call provider. These lines of communication are often u...
Intramedullary Spinal Cord Metastasis from Primary Lung Neuroendocrine Carcinoma: A Case Report and Operative Video.

Background Intramedullary spinal cord metastasis (ISCM) account for a minority of all spinal cord tumors. Rarely, symptoms from ISCM may be the initial presentation of an unknown primary carcinoma. Intramedullary metastasis from a second malignancy or from an unknown neuroendocrine malignancy is extremely rare and has never been reported in the literature. Because of the rarity of these tumors and the low volume of cases, well-defined treatment guidelines do not exist for the management of ISCM. Here we present a rare and one of the first reports of an intramedullary metastatic neuroendocrine tumor. Case Description A 66-year-old woman with a history of breast cancer presented with worsening bilateral lower extremity numbness for 2 months. Imaging revealed an intramedullary spinal cord tumor at the T4 level. The patient underwent microsurgical resection of the intramedullary spinal cord tumor. At operation, the tumor had an exophytic component. Subtotal resection was achieved. Pathology revealed a neuroendocrine metastasis, likely pulmonary in origin. She achieved partial resolution of neurologic symptoms at follow-up. Conclusions Neuroendocrine ISCM are rare and lack well-defined treatment guidelines. Care should be individualized in these cases. Whenever feasible, surgical resection should be considered. Despite multidisciplinary care, the prognosis is dismal with limited life expectancy. Larger, multiinstitutional, or national database studies are needed that compare treatment modalities in the management of ISCM to identify the therapy with the best outcomes.
Deconstructing witnessed suicide: A portrait of those who die by suicide in front of others

Witnessed suicides can have devastating effects on the individuals who observe them. McDowell et al. (Suicide and Life-threatening Behavior, 24(3), 213–223, 1994) have been the only researchers to create a taxonomy for the motivations of individuals who died by suicide in front of witnesses, and the role played by those witnesses. Their categories, based on 50 cases within a military population, included reciprocal abandonment, violent divorce, Russian roulette, and homicidal rage. The present study examines 100 witnessed suicides that occurred between the years 2000 and 2009 in a non-military population. In general, the taxonomy created by McDowell et al. was applicable to decedents in the present study, except for the category of Russian roulette. Some of the terminology was updated and a new category of legal entanglement was created. The creation of this new taxonomy of witnessed suicide permits further understanding of the characteristics of individuals who end their lives in front of a witnesses, and their communications behind the suicidal act.
ReTransformer: ReRAM-based processing-in-memory architecture for transformer acceleration

Transformer has emerged as a popular deep neural network (DNN) model for Neural Language Processing (NLP) applications and demonstrated excellent performance in neural machine translation, entity recognition, etc. However, its scaled dot-product attention mechanism in auto-regressive decoder brings a performance bottleneck during inference. Transformer is also computationally and memory intensive and demands for a hardware acceleration solution. Although researchers have successfully applied ReRAM-based Processing-in-Memory (PIM) to accelerate convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and recurrent neural networks (RNNs), the unique computation process of the scaled dot-product attention in Transformer makes it difficult to directly apply these designs. Besides, how to handle intermediate results in Matrix-matrix Multiplication (MatMul) and how to design a pipeline at a finer granularity of Transformer remain unsolved. In this work, we propose ReTransformer - a ReRAM-based PIM architecture for Transformer acceleration. ReTransformer can not only accelerate the scaled dot-product attention of Transformer using ReRAM-based PIM but also eliminate some data dependency by avoiding writing the intermediate results using the proposed matrix decomposition technique. Moreover, we propose a new sub-matrix pipeline design for multi-head self-attention. Experimental results show that compared to GPU and Pipelayer, ReTransformer improves computing efficiency by 23.21× and 3.25×, respectively. The corresponding overall power is reduced by 1086× and 2.82×, respectively.
Savor the moment: Willful increase in positive emotion and the persistence of this effect across time.

Savoring is an emotion regulation technique that aims to increase, sustain, and deepen positive emotion. It has been incorporated into several novel, "positive affect" interventions for anxiety, depression, and chronic pain, but has not been studied in a laboratory setting. As such, it is unknown whether savoring can modulate subjective and neural correlates of emotion-processing and whether savoring might exert a persistent effect on stimulus processing (i.e., modulating response at subsequent encounter). Here, 49 participants savored or viewed positive and neutral pictures, before seeing the same pictures again approximately 20 min later without instructions to savor (or view) pictures. Subjective valence and arousal ratings and the picture-elicited late positive potential (LPP) were assessed during both tasks. Results showed that savoring increased participant ratings of picture pleasantness and arousal as well as a picture-elicited LPP. Moreover, pictures that had previously been savored continued to elicit higher ratings during the subsequent picture viewing task. A larger LPP was observed for previously savored positive and neutral pictures during an early portion of picture viewing; later on during picture viewing, this effect was limited to positive pictures only (i.e., it was not evident for neutral pictures). Results validate savoring as an effective and durable means of increasing positive emotion and are discussed in the context of a broader emotion regulation literature, which has primarily examined the downregulation of negative picture processing.
The Role of Intermittent Pneumatic Compression in the Treatment of Lower Extremity Chronic Wounds

Intermittent pneumatic compression devices (IPC) are often used as noninvasive adjuncts in patients with lymphedema, and more recently with venous stasis disease, to promote flow and reduce the adverse effects of interstitial edema associated with both disorders. We will be focusing on lower extremity wounds associated with venous and/or lymphatic disease, the combination often referred to as "lymphophlebitic" disease, and the treatment effect of IPC on this disease process and its sequelae. The function and purpose of pneumatic compression is closely examined along with a variety of pneumatic compression devices that currently exist in the market. A thorough review of the literature was conducted to evaluate the utility of intermittent pneumatic compression in the treatment of lower extremity venous stasis ulcers. Additionally, the author describes personal experience with the use of pneumatic compression on 10 patients with venous stasis ulcers at a single center. There is significant data supporting the use of IPC in patients with lymphophlebitic disease. Overall, ideal patient selection may be crucial. Previous data has shown that patients with high body mass index (>33 kg/m2) and poor functional status (walking less than 200m a day) are related to poor ulcer healing. Therefore, a study that looks primarily at this group (as our small quality assurance [QA] project did) may show increased benefit in this population. It is clear that IPC is of benefit to some patient cohorts with lymphophlebitic disease. This advanced therapy would help patients who have failure of their calf muscle pump and an inability to improve it through other means. However, it is only part of an algorithm that includes: direct wound bed management, moisture control, possible primary venous disease intervention, physical therapy, weight loss, and improved nutrition.
Estimated prevalence of lameness in 53 Northwest US dairy herds

Lameness is an important disease that can be quantified subjectively by locomotion scoring. The prevalence of lameness in dairy cattle has been measured in some areas of North America, but has not previously been measured in the northwest United States. In this study, 53 dairy farms in Washington and Oregon were visited, and herd lameness prevalence was estimated by locomotion scoring (using a 5-point system) using a systematically obtained sample of the lactating herd, distributed across the lactating cow pens. Over all herds, the prevalence of any gait abnormality was 21%, and just over 4% for cows that limped or refused to bear weight. Jersey herds had lower prevalence than Holstein herds, and the eastern part of the region had lower prevalence than the western part of the region. Estimating lameness prevalence on dairy farms can serve as a point of comparison or starting point for making herd and regional progress.
Strengthening the Information Quality Act to Improve Federally Disseminated Public Health Information

Information that can undermine public health can be widely disseminated. But what should be done when the federal government is the source disseminating this misinformation? The Information Quality Act (IQA), enacted in 2000, makes it possible for the public to serve as a check on government dissemination of information and the soundness of agency science. The text of the IQA requires federal agencies to “issue guidelines ensuring and maximizing the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information (including statistical information) disseminated by the agency.” The IQA can help to ensure the accuracy and credibility of the information disseminated by agencies. Unfortunately, the IQA has not achieved its potential, in large part because of excessive agency discretion and insufficient agency accountability.This Article explains the importance of ensuring the accuracy and credibility of federally disseminated information, provides background on the IQA, and explains how the law can be strengthened to achieve better information and policy outcomes.
A Critical Examination for the Pricing of Eculizumab and Efgartigimod in Myasthenia Gravis

The recently released Institute for Clinical an Economic Review’s (ICER’s) final evidence report for eculizumab and efgartigimod in myasthenia gravis is one more example of a commitment to the invention of evidence to support pricing and formulary decisions. This is the ICER business model where the practitioners cling to a belief system that rejects the standards of normal science and, more spectacularly, a passionate belief in the mystical ratio properties of ordinal scales that denies the axioms of fundamental measurement. Without these beliefs ICER’s business model would collapse. This is pseudoscience: a collection of beliefs or practices mistakenly regarded as being based on scientific method. Unfortunately there are many who share ICER’s beliefs, including academic research centers and health decision makers who should know better; in this case the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Pharmacy, Center for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomic Research who, under contract to ICER developed the imaginary assumption driven simulation model to support invented claims for pricing and reimbursement for eculizumab and efgartigimod. Whether this shared belief is by accident, ignorance or design is an open question; the fact is that it is widely held to the detriment of patients where insurers and health system fall upon ICER pronouncements as support for pricing and denial of care; in particular the absurd Health Benefit Price Benchmark (HBPB). This HBPB amounts to a neo-eugenic application of a bankrupt methodology. The purpose of this commentary is to focus on two aspects of the ICER-Illinois invented evidence modeling: the first aspect, the downside of assumption driven simulation modeling, the potential creation of a multitude of competing models, the mathematically impossible quality adjusted life year (QALY) and the misguided attempt to deny the axioms of fundamental measurement in mapping ordinal EQ-5D-5L preferences from the ordinal Quantitative Myasthenic Gravis (QMG) score. The second aspect of this commentary is to propose rejecting the analytical dead end of imaginary simulation modeling by proposing standards that should be set for the creation and evaluation of value claims in health technology assessment, in particular need fulfillment quality of life (QoL), that meet the demarcation test to distinguish science from non-science (or pure bunk). The result is that the ICER pricing claims for eculizumab and efgartigimod in myasthenia gravis are nonsense and should be rejected out of hand. Not only should the respective manufacturers ignore them, but this message needs to be transmitted to health system decision makers before care is denied and patients harmed in myasthenia gravis.
A Shared Epitope of the Interphotoreceptor Retinoid-Binding Protein Recognized by the CD4+ and CD8+ Autoreactive T Cells

We previously demonstrated that cultures of rat uveitogenic T cells rapidly become dominated by CD4 + cells, but activation of CD8 + autoreactive T cells also occurred during the in vitro culture of in vivo-primed T cells. In the present study, we show that the commonly used uveitogenic peptide, interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein (IRBP) 1–20, generated both CD4 + and CD8 + autoreactive T cells in the C57BL/6 (B6) mouse and that this 20-mer contains at least two distinct antigenic epitopes. To determine whether the CD8 response was Ag-specific and whether CD4 + and CD8 + IRBP1–20-specific T cells recognize distinct antigenic epitopes, we prepared highly purified CD4 + and CD8 + T cells from IRBP1–20-primed mice and tested their proliferative response to a large panel of truncated peptides derived from IRBP1–20. The results showed that both CD4 + and CD8 + T cells recognized the same spectrum of peptides. In addition, peptides P10–18 were found to bind effectively to CD8 + IRBP1–20-specific T cells when complexed with recombinant H-2K b and also stimulate the proliferation and cytokine production of CD4 + IRBP1–20-specific T cells. Our results document for the first time that CD8 + and CD4 + autoreactive T cells display characteristic epitope recognition and they both recognize the same core epitope.
All-wheel drive vehicle energy efficiency evaluation

All-wheel drive (AWD) vehicle performance considerably depends not only on total power amount needed for the vehicle motion in the given road/off-road conditions but also on the total power distribution among the drive wheels. In turn, this distribution is largely determined by the driveline system and its mechanisms installed in power dividing units. They are interwheel, interaxle reduction gears, and transfer cases. The paper presents analytical methods to evaluate the energy and, accordingly, fuel efficiency of vehicles with any arbitrary number of the drive wheels. The methods are based on vehicle power balance'equations analysis and give formulas that functionally link the wheel circumferential forces with slip coefficients and other forces acting onto an AWD vehicle. The proposed methods take into consideration operational modes of vehicles that are tractive mode, load transportation, or a combination of both. The methods are applicable to any type of AWD vehicles including agriculture and military applications when evaluating the energy efficiency and designing a driveline system. Theoretical achievements are followed by examples of computation and experimental data.
Petri Nets with Marking-Dependent Ar Cardinality: Properties and Analysis

We discuss P/T-nets where the arc cardinalities are allowed to be marking-dependent expressions of various types, resulting in a hierarchy of subclasses. Some of the language and decidability properties of these classes have been studied before, but we focus on the practical implications in systems modeling, adding some new insight to the known results about the relative expressive power of the subclasses.
EXTRAOVULAR PRESSURE--ITS DIAGNOSTIC VALUE.

Abstract An extraovular rather than intra-amniotic, method has been developed for the recording of the amniotic pressure of pregnant and parturient patients. The technique is simple, safe, and accurate. The patients do not object to it, not even to its repeated application. Because of its diagnostic and prognostic potential, the method is recommended for routine use, aiding the management of spontaneous and induced labor.
On the containment and equivalence problems for GSMs, transducers, and linear CFGs

We explore the boundaries between decidability and undecidability of the containment and equivalence problems for restricted classes of nondeterministic generalized sequential machines (NGSMs), nondeterministic finite transducers (NFTs), nondeterministic pushdown transducers (NPDTs), and linear context-free grammars (LCFGs). We believe that our results are the sharpest known to date concerning these devices.
Labor Unions and Charity

Drawing on two independent datasets, the author examines organized labor's role as a benefactor for community-based charity. A population-level analysis of Michigan data indicates that union member density and union local density are positively associated with per capita donations to regional United Ways. An individual-level analysis of CPS data corroborates the Michigan findings, and in addition reveals that unionists are more likely than non-unionists to be engaged in community affairs and volunteer for charitable organizations. Unionists disproportionately volunteer to provide medical care, fire/EMS, or protective services; collect and distribute clothing, crafts, or nonfood goods; coach or referee sports; volunteer in music or other arts; tutor or teach; and mentor youth. The findings suggest that unions function in part as vehicles for collectivizing asset and volunteer resources among their members for redistribution to community-based charitable causes, thereby reducing social inequity.
Made in Germany: The German currency crisis of July 1931

The Great Depression reached a turning point in the currency crises of 1931, and the German banking and currency crisis was a critical event whose causes are still debated. We demonstrate in this paper that the crisis was primarily domestic in origin; that it was a currency crisis rather than a banking crisis; and that the failure was more political than economic. German banks failed in 1931, but the problem was not primarily with them. Instead, the crisis was a failure of political will in a time of turmoil that induced a currency crisis.
Law and Society Approaches to Cyberspace

Cyberspace and Intellectual Paradigms: Shery Turkle (2004), How computers change the way we think Richard Ross (2002), Communications revolutions and legal culture: an elusive relationship. Cyberspace and Metaphor: Dan Hunter (2003), Cyberspace as place and the tragedy of the digital anticommons. Cyberspace and Globalization: Gunther Teubner (2003/04), Societal constitutionalism: alternatives to state-centered constitutional theory Paul Schiff Berman (2005), Towards a cosmopolitan vision of conflicts of law: redefining governmental interests in a global era. Cyberspace and Legal Realism: Margaret Jane Radin & R. Polk Wagner (1998), The myth of private ordering: rediscovering legal realism in cyberspace James Boyle (1997), Foucault in cyberspace: surveillance, sovereignty, and hardwired censors. Cyberspace and Freedom of Expression: Lawrence Lessig (1998), What things regulate speech: CDA 2.0 vs. filtering Jack L. Balkin (2004), Digital speech and democratic culture: a theory of freedom of expression for the information society. Cyberspace and Copyright: Jane C. Ginsburg (2001), Copyright and control over new technologies of dissemination Jessica Litman (2004), Sharing and stealing. Cyberspace and Privacy: Julie E. Cohen (2000), Examined lives: informational privacy and the subject as object. Cyberspace, Identity, and Community I: Anupam Chander (2002), Whose republic? Jerry Kang (2000), Cyber-Race. Cyberspace, Identity and Community II: Jennifer L. Mnookin (1996), Virtual(ly) law: the emergence of law in LambdaMOO James Grimmelmann (2004-05), Virtual worlds as comparative law Index.
Space qualification of the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) laser transmitters

Summary from only given. We have completed the manufacture, space-qualification and delivery of three flight, diode pumped solid-state lasers for the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS), the sole instrument for the ICESat (ice, cloud and land elevation satellite) mission scheduled to launch in early 2002.
Schauder Fixed Point Theory

The purpose of this chapter is to extend the Brouwer fixed point theory of maps of euclidean spaces to results about maps on normed linear spaces in general. Then, in the next chapter, we will combine the Ascoli-Arzela theory with this material to draw conclusions about fixed points of maps, specifically on those C k spaces we discussed in Chapter 2.
The central residues of a T cell receptor sequence motif are key determinants of autoantigen recognition in murine experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

The autoreactive response in murine experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is dominated by an oligoclonal expansion of Vβ8+ CD4+ T cells. These T cells recognize the immunodominant N-terminal nonapeptide of myelin basic protein (MBP1–9) associated with the MHC class II molecule, I-Au. Amongst the autoreactive cells, T cells bearing TCR containing the CDR3β motif Asp-Ala-Gly-Gly-Gly-Tyr (DAGGGY) play a dominant role in the disease process. Here we have investigated the molecular basis for antigen recognition by a representative TCR (172.10) that contains the DAGGGY motif. The roles of the three glycines in this motif in the corresponding TCR-peptide-MHC interactions have been analyzed using a combination of site-directed mutagenesis and surface plasmon resonance. Our data show that mutation of either of the first two glycines (G97, G98) to alanine results in soluble, recombinant TCR that do not bind to recombinant antigen at detectable levels. Mutation of the third glycine (G99) of the 172.10 TCR results in a substantial decrease in affinity. The importance of the triple glycines for antigen recognition provides an explanation at the molecular level for the recruitment of T cells bearing the DAGGGY motif into the responding repertoire during EAE induction.
When Business and Science Clash, How Can We Avoid Harming Patients?: The Case of AVOID-HF.

The ethics of using randomization to figure out what works in medicine have been aggressively debated since the first randomized trials were performed, more than 60 years ago [(1,2)][1]. Traditionally, the practicing physician has a duty to put the best interests of the patient above all else.
mNIR: diversifying search results based on a mixture of novelty, intention and relevance

Current search engines do not explicitly take different meanings and usages of user queries into consideration when they rank the search results. As a result, they tend to retrieve results that cover the most popular meanings or usages of the query. Consequently, users who want results that cover a rare meaning or usage of query or results that cover all different meanings/usages may have to go through a large number of results in order to find the desired ones. Another problem with current search engines is that they do not adequately take users' intention into consideration. In this paper, we introduce a novel result ranking algorithm (mNIR) that explicitly takes result novelty, user intention-based distribution and result relevancy into consideration and mixes them to achieve better result ranking. We analyze how giving different emphasis to the above three aspects would impact the overall ranking of the results. Our approach builds on our previous method for identifying and ranking possible categories of any user query based on the meanings and usages of the terms and phrases within the query. These categories are also used to generate category queries for retrieving results matching different meanings/usages of the original user query. Our experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can outperform state-of-the-art diversification approaches.
Effect of pulsed electric fields on micro-organisms: experiments and applications

Previous studies on the effect of pulsed electric fields of ten's of microsecond duration on bacteria have shown that the lethality increases less with pulse duration than with electric field strength. Consequently, it should be possible to minimize the required energy for debacterialization by applying shorter pulses with higher electric fields. Experimental studies of the effects of 60 ns, 300 ns and 2 /spl mu/s electric field pulses on the viability of E. Coli have confirmed this hypothesis. The experimental observations indicate also that lysing of bacteria for nanosecond pulse durations may be due to damage of the cell interior rather than the cell membrane. The effect of electric field pulses on more complex organisms was studied using marine crustaceans. It could be shown that for a certain pulse duration the required energy for stunning or killing is minimum. The observed dependence of micro-organism lethality or temporary damage on field strength and pulse duration allows us to improve the energy efficiency of systems which make use of the effect. Examples are sterilizers (e.g. for drinking water) and electrical filters for the prevention of biofouling in cooling systems.
Ambivalent anxieties of the South Asian–Gulf Arab labor exchange

This essay explores the contradictions unleashed by che heavy reliance of Oulf Arab countries 00 South Asian expatriate labor. While worker remittances sigoificantly boost the liviog standards of borne country households, the presence of surpius labor both stimuiates the emergence of a labor permita market that facilitates the annual extraction of bulbos of doliara and allows a modero form of indentured servitude. Oespite this reality, unfavorable economic conditinos cause South Asian workers to seek employment lo the Gulf.
Surface Acoustic Wave-Driven Active Plasmonicsbased on Dynamic Patterning of Nanoparticles in Microfluidic Channels

The nanoparticles redistribution in a microfluidic channel through a dynamic patterning process will locally change the refractive index of the medium around the nanodisk arrays, as well as the LSPR. The dynamic patterning of nanoparticles was achieved by a standing surface acoustic wave (SSAW), from which the acoustic force generated and force the particles to the pressure nodes. The SSAW were formed through two parallel interdigital transducers (IDTs) on a LiNbO 3 substrate, on which the gold nanodisk arrays were fabricated through a nanosphere lithography. A PDMS microchannel was aligned with the IDTs and bonded with the substrate to cover the nanodisk arrays. A solution of fluorescent polystyrene beads (diameter: 320 nm) was injected into the channel through a pressure driven flow. When SSAW was on, the original peak (?=694 nm) is split into two peaks at ? 1 = 662 nm and ? 2 = 746 nm, respectively.
On estimation of the wavelet variance

SUMMARY The wavelet variance decomposes the variance of a time series into components associated with different scales. We consider two estimators of the wavelet variance: the first based upon the discrete wavelet transform, and the second, called the maximal-overlap estimator, based upon a filtering interpretation of wavelets. We determine the large sample distribution for both estimators and show that the maximal-overlap estimator is more efficient for a class of processes of interest in the physical sciences. We discuss methods for determining an approximate confidence interval for the wavelet variance. We demonstrate through Monte Carlo experiments that the large sample distribution for the maximal-overlap estimator is a reasonable approximation even for the moderate sample size of 128 observations. We apply our proposed methodology to a series of observations related to vertical shear in the ocean.
Analog electronic model of the lobster pyloric central pattern generator

An electronic circuit intended to simulate the nonlinear dynamics of a simplified 3-cell model of the pyloric central pattern generator in California spiny lobster stomato gastric ganglion is presented. The model employs the synaptic phase locked loop (SPLL) concept where the frequency of oscillations of a postsynaptic cell is mainly controlled by the synaptic current which depends on the phase shift between the oscillations. The theoretical study showed that the system has a stable steady state with correct phase shifts between the oscillations and that this regime is stable when the frequency of the pacemaker cell is varied over a wide range. The main bifurcations in the system were studied analytically, in computer simulations, and in experiments with the electronic circuit. The experimental measurements are in good agreement with the expectations of the theoretical model.
Exchange rates and international adjustment

Abstract The moral of this paper is that even though the effects of the dollar depreciation to date have been disappointing, changes in real exchange rates remain a key part of the international adjustment process. It is a fallacy to suppose that fiscal adjustment can serve as a substitute for exchange rate adjustment — just as it is a fallacy to suppose that exchange rate changes can avert the need for a fall in real expenditure in deficit countries, and a rise in surplus countries. Properly understood, world payments require both real exchange rate changes and a redistribution of world expenditures.
Calculation of the Potential Energy Surface for Intermolecular Amide Hydrogen Bonds Using Semiempirical and Ab Initio Methods

The dependence of hydrogen-bond interaction energies between identical amides (two formamides and two N-methylacetamides) on the hydrogen bond length (rO···H), the two hydrogen bond angles (θCOH an...
Studies on the transition to ureotelism in the earthworm Lumbricus terrestris L.

The hypothesis that anatomically distinct endocrine centers control the production of urea and ammonia in the earthworm has been examined. This hypothesis is not supported by the present data. Ammonia output is markedly increased by a high protein diet, while the urea output is reduced by digestible carbohydrates.
Mechanisms of lipid peroxidation: iron catalyzed decomposition of fatty acid hydroperoxides as the basis of hydrocarbon evolution in vivo.

Ethane and pentane are evolved during peroxidation of tissue lipids in vivo and are believed to be derived from ω3 and ω6 fatty acids respectively. We present evidence supporting a scission mechanism as the means of forming these hydrocarbons during hydroperoxide decomposition. A fatty acid ω6 hydroperoxide (methyl 13-hydroperoxy-6,9,11-octatrienoate), when incubated with a ferrous ion, yielded pentane as the major hydrocarbon (98%). Reaction with ferrous ion results in an alkoxy radical capable of undergoing scission to an aldehydic fatty acid and a hydrocarbon.
Measurement of human myocardial perfusion by double-gated flow alternating inversion recovery EPI

This paper presents a flow-sensitive alternating inversion recovery (FAIR) method for measuring human myocardial perfusion at 1.5 T. Slice-selective/non-selective IR images were collected using a double-gated IR echoplanar imaging sequence. Myocardial perfusion was calculated after T1 fitting and extrapolation of the mean signal difference SI(Sel - SI(NSel). The accuracy of the method was tested in a porcine model using graded intravenous adenosine dose challenge. Comparison with radiolabeled microsphere measurements showed a good correlation (r = 0.84; mean error = 20%, n = 6) over the range of flows tested (0.9-7 ml/g/min). Applied in humans, this method allowed for the measurement of resting myocardial flow (1.04+/-0.37 ml/g/min, n = 11). The noise in our human measurements (SE(flow) = 0.2 ml/g/min) appears to come primarily from residual respiratory motion. Although the current signal-to-noise ratio limits our ability to measure small fluctuations in resting flow accurately, the results indicate that this noninvasive method has great promise for the quantitative assessment of myocardial flow reserve in humans.
Projection of jaw‐muscle spindle afferents to the caudal brainstem in rats demonstrated using intracellular biotinamide

Intracellular staining with biotinamide was used to study the axonal projection and synaptic morphology of rat jaw-muscle spindle afferents. Intracellular recordings in the mesencephalic trigeminal nucleus (Vme) were identified as spindle afferent responses by their increased firing during stretching of the jaw-elevator muscles. Biotinamide-stained axon collaterals with boutons were found in the trigeminal motor nucleus (Vmo), Vme, the region dorsal to Vmo including the supratrigeminal region, the dorsomedial portion of the trigeminal principal sensory nucleus, and the dorsomedial part of the rostral spinal trigeminal subnucleus oralis. Additional, previously undescribed projections of jaw-muscle spindle afferents were found to the dorsomedial portiori of the caudal spinal trigeminal subnucleus oralis (Vodm), the dorsomedial part of the spinal trigeminal subnucleus interpolaris (Vidm), the caudal parvicellular reticular formation, laminae IV and V of the spinal trigeminal subnucleus caudalis (Vc), and the dorsal division of the medullary reticular field. Labeled spindle boutons in Vodm formed predominately axodendritic synapses. Some of these boutons received presynaptic inputs from unlabeled P-type boutons containing clear, spherical, or flattened vesicles. In Vidm, labeled collaterals and boutons were densely clustered into glomerular-like structures. Labeled boutons in Vidm made axodendritic, axosomatic, and axoaxonic synapses and received synaptic contacts from unlabeled boutons containng clear, spherical, or flat and pleomorphic vesicles. Unlabeled presynaptic boutons in Vidrn occasionally contained dense core vesicles. Labeled boutons in Vc mainly formed synaptic contacts with large diameter dendrites. This projection of jaw-muscle spindle afferents to caudal brainstem regions may play a significant role in masticatory-muscle stretch reflexes and in the integration of trigeminal proprioceptive information and its transmission to higher centers. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Early development of cytotoxic T lymphocytes in neonatal foals following oral inoculation with Rhodococcus equi.

Rhodococcus equi is an important respiratory pathogen of young foals for which a vaccine has long been sought. Two major impediments to effective vaccination are the functionally immature type I immune responses of neonatal foals and early exposure to the bacterium via the environment. Despite these obstacles, it appears that under specific circumstances foals can develop a protective immune response. In this study we investigated the protective mechanisms behind oral inoculation of foals with virulent R. equi bacteria. Two foals receiving an oral inoculum demonstrated accelerated development of R. equi specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) as evidenced by significant lysis of R. equi infected, ELA-A mismatched cells at 3 weeks of age. As in a previous study, CTL were not detected until 5–6 weeks of age in two control foals. At each time point the ability of foal peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) to produce IFN-γ following stimulation with live R. equi or extracted cell wall lipids was similar to that of an adult horse control and between foals, regardless of treatment. These results provide a potential mechanism of protection which has previously been shown to occur following oral inoculation, and suggest that the early detection of CTL may be a useful marker for induction of protective immunity.
Software system documentation process maturity model

Low quality or missing documentation is a major cause of errors in software development and maintenance. We address this problem by proposing a 4-level Documentation Process Maturity model based on the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Software Development Maturity model. We believe our model will be a useful tool in assessing an organization's documentation level and identifying improvement areas to move the organization to the next level.
Rapamycin enhances the activity of oncolytic herpes simplex virus against tumor cells that are resistant to virus replication

Oncolytic herpes simplex virus (HSV) is currently in phase III clinical trials for development as a novel therapeutic agent against a broad range of human tumors. Although results have been promising, clinical outcome is likely to be compromised by intrinsic and acquired resistance to HSV replication, leading us to test agents that may overcome this obstacle. We found that, despite showing no effect on HSV replication in tumor cells fully permissive to the virus growth, the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin markedly increased the yield and dissemination of oncolytic HSVs in semipermissive tumor cells. Similar results were obtained in tumor-bearing mice. Co-administration of rapamycin with an HSV-derived oncolytic virus either blocked or reversed the growth of tumor xenografts established from semipermissive human tumor cells, while use of either agent alone produced only transient inhibitory effect. Together, our results suggest that rapamycin could be used to potentiate the activity of oncolytic HSVs against difficult-to-treat human tumors or perhaps to prevent the emergence of resistant tumor cells during virotherapy.