cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
VALUES ANALYSIS IN ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

The consideration of values in environmental policy decisions requires attention not only to substantive matters of environmental quality, but also to balancing such broader social values as science, democracy and authority. Current methods for values analysis can be grouped according to their relative emphasis among these values in order to better illuminate the implications of adopting such methods.
Long-term Outcomes After Percutaneous Patent Foramen Ovale Closure

Percutaneous patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure is a treatment for cryptogenic stroke and migraine headache. The goal of this study was to assess long-term outcomes of patients treated with percutaneous PFO closure. Records of patients with percutaneous PFO closure at Emory University Hospital from February 2002 to July 2009 were reviewed. Follow-up telephone questionnaire and chart review assessed recurrent stroke, migraine, and complications. Data was reviewed on 414 consecutive patients. Long-term follow-up was obtained in 207 of patients, and mean follow up was 4.6 ± 2.0 years. Cryptogenic stroke was the primary indication for intervention in 193 (93%) patients. Thirteen (7%) patients had a recurrent neurologic event post closure. In patients with multiple neurological events at baseline, 17% (n = 11) had a recurrent event, compared with 2% (n = 2) of patients with a single neurological event prior to PFO-closure (P < 0.002). Post closure, migraine frequency and severity declined from 4.5 to 1.1 migraine/month (P < 0.01) and 7.2 to 3.6 out of 10 (P < 0.01) in patients with history of migraine (n = 60). Thirty-day mortality was 1% (n = 2). One patient had device erosion 5 years post-procedure requiring emergent surgery. Atrial fibrillation was newly diagnosed in 8 (4%) patients within 6 months. In conclusion, the long-term rate of recurrent stroke after PFO closure is low in patients with a single neurological event at baseline. Serious long-term complications after PFO closure are rare. PFO closure may decrease the frequency and severity of migraine.
iSocial: a 3D VLE for youth with autism

This poster provides an introduction and brief illustration of iSocial, a 3D-Virtual Learning Environment to support social competence development for youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders. We report the results of a field test of a partial implementation of iSocial in the Fall of 2008. Of note are some key lessons learned in how to adapt a successful clinic-based approach to the new medium, as well as lessons in the identification of needed social orthotics and identity representation for supporting social interaction for this special population. Despite numerous challenges in the implementation, the learners and guides were highly engaged in their virtual learning and responded positively to the experience.
Role of N-Acetyltransferase Phenotype in Human Susceptibility To Bladder Carcinogenic Arylamines

N-acetyltransferase activity is species-specific and in animal experiments a determinant of the susceptibility of each species to arylamine bladder carcinogens. The effect of N-acetylation is that of inactivation. In humans, N-acetyltransferase activity is also genetically determined so that two N-acetyltransferase phenotypes exist, a rapid acetylator phenotype and a slow acetylator phenotype. N-acetyltransferase phenotype was determined in 71 bladder cancer patients and in 74 control subjects from Copenhagen. The distribution of the slow acetylator phenotype among the bladder cancer patients was 65% in contrast to 51% among the control subjects, indicating that the N-acetyltransferase phenotype also in humans may be a determinant of the susceptibility of each individual to arylamine carcinogens. In addition, this finding indicates that carcinogenic arylamines also play a role in bladder carcinogenesis in Copenhagen. Such studies may identify risk groups in a population and may reveal geographical areas w...
Self-Esteem, Confidence and Relationship Satisfaction of Men With Erectile Dysfunction Treated With Sildenafil Citrate: A Multicenter, Randomized, Parallel Group, Double-Blind, Placebo Controlled Study in the United States

Purpose: We assessed the change in confidence, relationships and self-esteem, and its correlation with erectile function in men with ED treated with sildenafil citrate in the first United States based, double-blind, placebo controlled, randomized trial assessed by the validated SEAR.Materials and Methods: This 12-week flexible dose (25, 50 or 100 mg) trial determined change scores from baseline to end of treatment for the 5 SEAR components (Sexual Relationship domain, Confidence domain, Self-Esteem subscale [prespecified as the primary end point], Overall Relationship subscale and Overall score), and their correlations with the IIEF and event log data, as well as correlations between SEAR components and a general efficacy question at the end of treatment.Results: Compared with the placebo group (125 patients, mean age ± SD 55 ± 13 years, mean years ED 3.8 ± 4.2), the sildenafil group (128 patients, mean age ± SD 56 ± 12, mean years ED 4.6 ± 4.3) had significantly greater improvements in all 5 SEAR compone...
Radiative corrections in compactified superstring models

Abstract One-loop corrections to the effective potential in models obtained from compactification of ten-dimensional superstring theories are calculated. It is found that no masses are generated for gauge non-singlet scalars even in the presence of supersymmetry breaking terms induced by gauge and gaugino condensation, but that the gravitino mass is determined at one loop. The scales of grand unification, supersymmetry breaking and condensation are fixed by the gauge singlet scalars and are found to be close to Planck scale. Requiring M GUT M Planck restricts the other parameters of the theory. The one-loop effective potential at scales between the condensate and compactification scales is also discussed, with possible implications for the allowed particle content of the effective theory.
Simulated gamma knife head frame placement for radiosurgical pre-planning

The Leksell Gamma Knife (GK) is capable of targeting intracranial lesions with a high degree of accuracy. A headframe is rigidly attached to the patient's skull to establish a stereotactic coordinate system and provide a means for precisely positioning the patient in stereotactic space. After stereotactic target localization and radiosurgical treatment planning the skull and headframe are then moved with sub-millimeter precision to bring a target volume to the radiological focus of the GK unit. However, for GK models 4C and earlier, the treatable intracranial volume may be limited by collisions between the skull/headframe and the GK collimator helmet, or by mechanical travel limits of the skull/headframe within the collimator helmet. Both of these treatment-limiting conditions can be found only after the headframe has been placed on the patient. If the volume of interest cannot be treated with the initial headframe placement, additional headframe placements or a different course of treatment are needed. We have developed a software package that allows for simulated headframe placement and collision checks using pre-treatment day image sets, in order to minimize the need for multiple headframe placements. We performed a small validation experiment with an anthropomorphic head phantom to evaluate the software's capabilities for predicting a clinically useable headframe position. We also used the software in an IRB-approved retrospective review for twenty-five GK image sets for a group of patients that could not be treated with the initial headframe placement, to determine if the software tool could locate an optimized headframe position to enable GK radiosurgery of all identified targets with a single headframe placement. We found that four of the cases could have been completed with a single optimized headframe placement and twenty-four of the cases could not be treated with any single headframe placement.
Amblyomma americanum: Specific Uptake of Immunoglobulins into Tick Hemolymph during Feeding

The passage of immunoglobulins in the blood meal into hemolymph prompts development of vaccines against internal antigens of ticks, but little is known about kinetics and specificity of the immunoglobulin uptake. We used capillary feeding of adult Amblyomma americanum hard ticks to introduce compounds into the midgut and then examined the hemolymph after various times for their presence and concentration. Immunoglobulins of different sources, albumin, choramphenicol acetyltransferase, inulin, and mannitol were labeled with (125)I, (14)C, or biotin. With the exception of the carbohydrate inulin, all the compounds entered the hemolymph of tick during capillary feeding. The small molecule mannitol had the highest rate of entry at 9% after 6 h. Among proteins, the entry of immunoglobulin G (IgG) of different species into the hemolymph was greater at 6% after 6 h than for the smaller proteins albumin or choramphenicol acetyltransferase at 1 and 3%, respectively. The entry of denatured IgG was equal to that of nondenatured protein. There was no evidence of degradation of the IgG or of its binding to cells once it entered the hemolymph. A monoclonal IgG antibody labeled with biotin entered the hemolymph and retained its ability to bind to its specific antigen in an immunoassay. Although different proteins entered the hemolymph after capillary feeding, there was evidence of a specific mechanism for immunoglobulin uptake.
Synthetic speech detection based on selectedword discriminators

Speaker verification (SV) systems have been shown to be vulnerable to imposture using speech synthesizers. In this paper, we extend previous work in detecting synthetic speech by analyzing words which provide strong discrimination between human and synthetic speech. The research is applicable to authentication systems based on text-dependent SV where the user is prompted to speak a certain utterance which can be chosen by the designer. Our results show that this approach to synthetic speech detection leads to higher accuracies than other proposed approaches. Using various corpora to train and test, our results show 98% accuracy in correctly classifying both human and synthetic speech.
Infant mortality and premarital pregnancies.

Abstract It is known that illegitimate births are associated with higher risks of infant deaths than are legitimate births. This paper explores the hypothesis that premaritally (i.e. illegitimately) conceived legitimate births will be associated with higher levels of infant death rates than postmaritally conceived legitimate births. Data on births and deaths of children born to women in the marriage cohort of 1966 in California are examined and the hypothesis is substantiated. Differences in deaths due to immaturity are found to account for almost two-thirds of the differences in infant death rates by conception status.
Somatosensory evoked potentials during whole body hyperthermia in humans

Abstract Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) and body temperature were recorded in patients subjected to induced total hyperthermia for treatment of advanced neoplasms. Elevation of body temperature up to 42°C for 2 h was achieved using a computer-controlled external heating system. SEPs were recorded continuously on-line during the treatment using finger shock stimulation. Evoked potential components later than 160 msec disappeared in the early part of the treatment, but reappeared quickly during cooling. P50 and P50-N70 amplitudes decreased regularly and significantly over the whole duration of the heating period. During the plateau period, no evoked potential peaks could be detected but short latency peaks reappeared as soon as cooling started. The disappearance of SEPs to finger stimulation during sustained hyperthermia at 42°C confirms the findings obtained by EEG recording that a major neuronal dysfunction occurs under these circumstances which subsides quickly as temperature is dropped.
On the functional form of partial masking functions in psychoacoustics

Abstract Partial masking of pure tones is often investigated in terms of matching functions which record the intensity φ ( x , n ) of an unmasked tone which matches, in perceived loudness, a tone of intensity x embedded in a flat, broadband noise of intensity n . Empirically, the following property of “shift invariance” is observed to hold for these matching functions: φ ( λx , λ θ n ) = λφ ( x , n ), for any λ > 0, and some θ φ(x, n) = F 0 [ g 0 (x) (h 0 (x) + k 0 (n)) ] which expresses the idea that the effect of a noise mask is to control the gain of a pure tone signal in a multiplicative fashion, shift invariance proves to be an extremely powerful theoretical constraint. Specifically, we show that only two parametric families of functions ( F 0 , g 0 , h 0 , k 0 ) are possible candidates for interpolating empirical data. These two parametric families are given by the following expressions: φ 1 (x, n) = A( x α (x α′ + Kn α′ θ ) ) 1 (α − α′) , φ 2 (x, n) = A[x α (x α′ − Kn α′ θ )] 1 (α + α′) . Both of these expressions are in good agreement with a large array of partial masking data.
Efficient Methods to Compute Optimal Tree Approximations of Directed Information Graphs

Recently, directed information graphs have been proposed as concise graphical representations of the statistical dynamics among multiple random processes. A directed edge from one node to another indicates that the past of one random process statistically affects the future of another, given the past of all other processes. When the number of processes is large, computing those conditional dependence tests becomes difficult. Also, when the number of interactions becomes too large, the graph no longer facilitates visual extraction of relevant information for decision-making. This work considers approximating the true joint distribution on multiple random processes by another, whose directed information graph has at most one parent for any node. Under a Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence minimization criterion, we show that the optimal approximate joint distribution can be obtained by maximizing a sum of directed informations. In particular, each directed information calculation only involves statistics among a pair of processes and can be efficiently estimated and given all pairwise directed informations, an efficient minimum weight spanning directed tree algorithm can be solved to find the best tree. We demonstrate the efficacy of this approach using simulated and experimental data. In both, the approximations preserve the relevant information for decision-making.
An immortal cell line to study the role of endogenous CFTR in electrolyte absorption.

The intact human reabsorptive sweat duct (RD) has been a reliable model for investigations of the functional role of “endogenous” CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) in normal and abnormal electrolyte absorptive function. But to overcome the limitations imposed by the use of fresh, intact tissue, we transformed cultured RD cells using the chimeric virus Ad5/SV40 1613 ori-. The resultant cell line, RD2(NL), has remained differentiated forming a polarized epithelium that expressed two fundamental components of absorption, a cAMP activated Cl− conductance (Gcl) and an amiloride-sensitive Na+ conductance (GNa). In the unstimulated state, there was a low level of transport activity; however, addition of forskolin (10−5 M) significantly increased the Cl− diffusion potential (Vt) generated by a luminally directed Cl− gradient from − 15.3 ± 0.7 mV to −23.9 ± 1.1 mV,n=39; and decreased the transepithelial resistance (Rt) from 814.8 ± 56.3 Ω.cm2 to 750.5 ± 47.5 Ω.cm2,n=39, (n=number of cultures). cAMP activation, anion selectivity (Cl−>I−>gluconate), and a dependence upon metabolic energy (metabolic poisoning inhibited GCl), all indicate that the GCl expressed in RD2(NL) is in fact CFTR-GCl. The presence of an apical amiloride-sensitive GNa was shown by the amiloride (10−5 M) inhibition of GNa as indicated by a reduction of Vt and equivalent short circuit current by 78.0 ± 3.1% and 77.9 ± 2.6%, respectively, and an increase in Rt by 7.2 ± 0.8%,n=36. In conclusion, the RD2(NL) cell line presents the first model system in which CFTR-GCl is expressed in a purely absorptive tissue. It provides an opportunity to study the properties and role of CFTR in the context of absorptive function in immortalized epithelial cells.
A revised metric for quantifying body shape in vertebrates

Vertebrates exhibit tremendous diversity in body shape, though quantifying this variation has been challenging. In the past, researchers have used simplified metrics that either describe overall shape but reveal little about its anatomical basis or that characterize only a subset of the morphological features that contribute to shape variation. Here, we present a revised metric of body shape, the vertebrate shape index (VSI), which combines the four primary morphological components that lead to shape diversity in vertebrates: head shape, length of the second major body axis (depth or width), and shape of the precaudal and caudal regions of the vertebral column. We illustrate the usefulness of VSI on a data set of 194 species, primarily representing five major vertebrate clades: Actinopterygii, Lissamphibia, Squamata, Aves, and Mammalia. We quantify VSI diversity within each of these clades and, in the course of doing so, show how measurements of the morphological components of VSI can be obtained from radiographs, articulated skeletons, and cleared and stained specimens. We also demonstrate that head shape, secondary body axis, and vertebral characteristics are important independent contributors to body shape diversity, though their importance varies across vertebrate groups. Finally, we present a functional application of VSI to test a hypothesized relationship between body shape and the degree of axial bending associated with locomotor modes in ray-finned fishes. Altogether, our study highlights the promise VSI holds for identifying the morphological variation underlying body shape diversity as well as the selective factors driving shape evolution.
Who Gets the Benefit of the Doubt From Uncertainty

Codes, standards and regulations require compliance with criteria stated as the results of tests or calculations. These results have associated uncertainty. This paper discusses different approaches to the use of uncertainty in the determination of compliance. In particular, most discussion addresses the many ways in which the decision-making protocol, intended to result in a determination of compliance, may shift the benefit of the doubt of the uncertainty between different interested parties.
Experience with daily immunotherapy in 59 adult allergic patients

Fifty-nine adult men with seasonal allergic rhinitis received immunotherapy that was administered five to six times per week until maintenance doses were achieved. Immunologic response was monitored with titrated prick skin tests, which revealed increased sensitivity at 2 wk. followed by progressive decline coinciding with a rise in IgG blocking antibody. Specific serum IgE (RAST) did not change. When compared with a group of receiving conventional weekly injections, these subjects required the same number of injections to reach maintenance and had the same incidence of adverse reactions.
Extending epidemiologic transition theory: a new stage.

Abstract The epidemiologic transition theory focuses on the changing patterns of morbidity and mortality and postulates that mortality by cause will evolve from a predominance of acute and infectious diseases to a predominance of chronic and degenerative diseases. The epidemiologic transition theory comprises three stages: the age of pestilence and famine (lasting until 1875), receding pandemics (from 1875 to 1930), and degenerative and man‐made diseases (from 1930 to the present). Recent information suggests that developed societies have entered a new stage in the transition. This fourth stage, which we term the hybristic stage, is increasingly influenced by individual behaviors and life‐styles. In this paper, we examine the epidemiologic transition theory, substantiate the need for a new stage, and discuss current cause‐specific trends in mortality and the social and demographic implications of such trends.
Structure of metal-electrolyte interfaces: Copper on gold(111), water on silver(111)

Abstract Two examples are presented of the application of in situ structure and composition sensitive techniques to elucidating the nature of the electrode-electrolyte interface. One case is the underpotentially deposited submonolayer of Cu on Au(111). Despite extensive electrochemical, LEED, RHEED, STM, AFM, and EXAFS investigations, the structure of the copper adlayer is still controversial. In situ surface EXAFS, surface X-ray scattering, and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) data lead to the conclusion that the adlayer adopts a (√3 × √3)R30 ° hexagonal honeycomb arrangement of Cu atoms in which the Cu coverage is 2 3 and the sulfate coverage 1 3 . The other case is the structure of water at the Ag(111)-aqueous sodium fluoride interface. Analysis of X-ray scattering shows that the interfacial water molecules exhibit potential dependent layering and reorientation and a markedly increased density (twice bulk water) in the inner layer.
Measurement of arc energy during insulation ignition

A digital arc energy meter was developed for insulation-ignition measurements. The meter takes 54 discrete samples of the current through, and voltage across, the electrodes during each 60-Hz cycle. It multiplies the values, sums the products, multiplies the sum of products by the sampling time (time between samples), and displays the result in Joules. The computation is accurate to 3%. The device is designed to handle arcs that last up to 300 ms, although the typical high-energy arc lasts approximately 75 ms. Tests were run on various NEMA-grade materials. It is concluded that the most satisfying result of the investigation is the consistency in the graphs of arc energies. In spite of the variation from cycle to cycle within the test, these graphs show that each grade of material has a detectable signature. >
Soluble vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-3 suppresses allosensitization and promotes corneal allograft survival

Purpose To investigate the effect of VEGF-C and VEGF-D blockade via soluble VEGFR-3 (sVEGFR-3) on T cell allosensitization, corneal neovascularization, and transplant survival.
Anti-jamming communication in cognitive radio networks with unknown channel statistics

Recently, many opportunistic spectrum sensing and access protocols have been proposed for cognitive radio networks (CRNs). For achieving optimized spectrum usage, existing solutions model the spectrum sensing and access problem as a partially observed Markov decision process (POMDP) and assume that the information states and/or the primary users' (PUs) traffic statistics are known a priori to the secondary users (SUs). While theoretically sound, these existing approaches may not be effective in practice due to two main concerns. First, the assumptions they made are not practical, as before the communication starts, PUs' traffic statistics may not be readily available to the SUs. Secondly and more seriously, existing approaches are extremely vulnerable to malicious jamming attacks. A cognitive attacker can always jam the channels to be accessed by leveraging the same statistic information and stochastic dynamic decision making process that the SUs would follow. To address the above concerns, we formulate the problem of anti-jamming multichannel access in CRNs and solve it as a non-stochastic multi-armed bandit (NS-MAB) problem, where the secondary sender and receiver adaptively choose their arms (i.e., sending and receiving channels) to operate. The proposed protocol enables them to hop to the same set of channels with high probability in the presence of jamming. We analytically show the convergence of the learning algorithms, i.e., the performance difference between the secondary sende and receiver's optimal strategies is no more than O(20k/√e √Tn ln n). Extensive simulations are conducted to validate the theoretical analysis and show that the proposed protocol is highly resilient to various jamming attacks.
SU-FF-T-302: Response of OneDoseTM and TLD100 Dosimeters Over 6MV to Pd-103 Equivalent Energies

Purpose: Two widely available in vivo dosimeters are TLD and MOSFETdetectors. Both detectors are significantly energy dependent, especially in the keV energy region. The purpose of this work is to measure the energy dependence of LiF:Mg,Ti TLD‐100 and OneDose™ (Sicel) MOSFETdetectors with particular emphasis on low energy x‐rays and gamma‐rays. Methods: Eleven beams, covering an energy range 6MV down to equivalent of 103Pd x‐rays have been employed for this work. All detectors were irradiated in air to ∼50 cGy water‐equivalent dose. Other than the 60Co, beams were calibrated with Farmer ionization chambers just prior to detector irradiations. Dose rate for 60Co was based on clinical calibration data. For the 60Co and 137Cs beams, detectors were “sandwiched” between 5mm and 1.2mm buildups respectively. Thicknesses of the detectors were adequate to establish electronic equilibrium for the lower energy beams. To reduce uncertainty in the mean response, twelve samples were irradiated with each beam. The OneDose™ detectors have dimensions 6×33×1mm. TLD samples in the form of flat packs (10×10×0.3mm) were made by sealing ∼22mg powder in thin (0.06mm) poyethylene. Results: Since OneDose™ detectors were factory‐calibrated with 60Co, both OneDose™ and TLD responses were normalized to 60Co. For OneDose™, over‐response relative to 60Co is observed to be largest (3.50±0.04) at 100 kVp beam (HVL 4.14 mmAl), and negligible at high energies (137Cs to 6MV). For TLD, over‐ response at 75kVp beam (HVL 2.09 mmAl) is observed to be 1.53. More data at lower energies and at 192Ir energy are in progress. Conclusion: Response of TLD and OneDose™ relative to 60Co has been measured over a wide energy range (6MV down to equivalent of 103Pd x‐rays). For TLD, our measured results agree with the recently published values fairly closely. OneDose™ results appear reasonable when compared with other type of MOSFETdetectors.
Relativistic quantum mechanics of fermions

We present a modification of the Dirac equation that allows us to formulate a relativistic quantum mechanics for spin-1/2 fermions in an external electromagnetic field, with a probabilistic interpretation similar to that in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics and based on an indefinite charge density. We find that stationary states cannot be interpreted in this manner, and we replace them by quasistationary states. We also include a general discussion of the difficulties and possible generalizations of this approach.
Activity and Travel Changes of Users of Job Access Transportation Service: Analysis of a User Survey

The Job Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) program of the FTA provides funding to improve the access to and from jobs for welfare recipients and low-income individuals. The objective of the study was to develop a comprehensive profile of JARC service riders on several economic, social, perceptual, and travel-related indicators on the basis of a data set that was collected by the authors from riders of fixed-route and demand-responsive services in 23 locations across the country that were funded by this program. The economic indicators considered include incomes of riders, full-and part-time work status, employment tenure, reported changes in employment status (transitioning from unemployment to employment), and changes in wages incurred after using the service. Social indicators include vehicle ownership, driver's license, and educational attainment. Where possible, JARC service riders were compared with a national sample of automobile and transit users; the data for these measures were obtained from the d...
Self-accelerating massive gravity: Exact solutions for any isotropic matter distribution

We present an exact solution to the equations of massive gravity that displays cosmological constantlike behavior for any spherically symmetric distribution of matter, including arbitrary time dependence. On this solution, the new degrees of freedom from the massive graviton generate a cosmological constantlike contribution to stress energy that does not interact directly with other matter sources. When the effective cosmological constant contribution dominates over other sources of stress energy, the cosmological expansion self-accelerates, even when no other dark-energy-like ingredients are present. The new degrees of freedom introduced by giving the graviton the mass do not respond to arbitrarily large radial or homogeneous perturbations from other matter fields on this solution. We comment on possible implications of this result.
Effect of corticosteroids on human in vitro anamnestic response.

Abstract When human peripheral blood lymphocytes were cultured in the presence of the antigens streptodornase (SKSD) and allogeneic lymphocytes (MLC), increased rates of DNA synthesis were observed 4 to 6 days laer. If these cell cultures were continued to 12 days, the rates of DNA synthesis returned to control levels. On rechallenging these cells with the same antigens, an accelerated response was observed. The corticosteroid preparations hydrocortisone and methylprednisolone suppressed both of these responses and also impaired the ability of the 12-day cultures to generate cells responsible for the accelerated secondary response. Although cells cultured for 12 days in the presence of SKSD and hydrocortisone responded poorly to SKSD rechallenge, they responded well in MLC. Hence, the suppressive effect was not completely unselective.
Evaluation of resilient abutment components on measured strain using dynamic loading conditions

Abstract Statement of problem. Factors that affect transmission of strain from prostheses to bone may affect the long-term success of loaded implants. Current in vitro models are theoretically predictive (finite element modeling) or facsimile (photoelastic) in nature. A more clinically relevant in vitro model for strain evaluation should be investigated. Purpose. This study attempted: (1) to validate a human cadaver bone model for in vitro measurement of cortical bone strain, and (2) to evaluate the effect on cortical strain measurements of a resilient plastic component incorporated within a titanium implant in response to variable dynamic loading. Material and methods. Two IMZ (Interpore International) abutment alternatives were used: the titanium Abutment Complete and the polyoxymethylene Intra-mobile Element. The model system consisted of two implants placed in unfixed human cadaver ulna bone to simulate an implant bound edentulous region. Four biaxial rosette strain gauges simultaneously recorded cortical bone strain immediately mesial and distal to each implant. During experimentation a simulated prosthetic framework supported by either titanium or polyoxymethylene abutments was dynamically loaded 6 mm from the terminal abutment along a cantilever extension. Cyclic nominal peak loads were applied with a materials testing machine at 20N intervals from 20 to 200 N at a crosshead speed of 5 mm/minute. The protocol allowed frequency of load application to vary. A Newtonian linear correlation ( r 2 ≥ 0.98) between load application and strain output was determined for each gauge position except for the terminal gauge located opposite the cantilever. Results. Cortical strains recorded were within reported physiologic ranges involved in bone modeling and remodeling. Further, the polyoxymethylene abutment components did not result in reduction of peak microstrain at any gauge position. The Intra-mobile Element abutments, however, did increase the time required to complete 10 loading cycles when compared with the titanium Abutment Complete abutments for the crosshead speed and ultimate loads evaluated. Conclusions. Results indicate the cadaver bone behaved in an elastic manner within the load range evaluated, and as such represents a viable in vitro experimental model. Under these conditions, polyoxymethylene abutment components do not affect measurable bone strain in response to variable loading when compared with titanium. (J Prosthet Dent 1998;80:46-51.)
Fungal elicitors of the phytoalexin response in higher plants

Several types of fungal molecules including cell wall polysaccharides, polypeptides, glycoproteins and lipid molecules have been found to serve as elicitors of phytoalexins in higher plants. Recent work has shown that an extracellular enzyme, endopolygalacturonase, from culture filtrates of the fungusRhizopus stolonifer elicits the biosynthesis of an antifungal antibiotic, casbene, in extracts of treated castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) seedlings. A suggested mode of action of this elicitor in the plant in which fragments of the plant cell wall released through the catalytic action of the enzyme serve as secondary elicitors to trigger the plant response is proposed on the basis of preliminary observations. Possible modes of interaction of other types of fungal elicitors with plants are also discussed.
Does pursuit abnormality in schizophrenia represent a deficit in the predictive mechanism

Although an abnormality of smooth pursuit eye movement has been consistently noted in schizophrenia, the underlying ocular motor pathophysiology is unknown. It is unclear whether the abnormality represents deficits in processing of information provided by the moving target, generation of pursuit eye movements, or other ocular motor and related cognitive processes. To evaluate the ability to process information provided by a moving target, saccadic accuracies were studied in step-ramp and single step tasks. Schizophrenic (with and without tardive dyskinesia [TD]) and normal subjects made equally accurate initial corrective saccades to the moving target. Thus, when the target jumped and then smoothly moved (creating a position and a velocity error on the retina), the patients were able to process retinal motion information and generate a normally accurate saccadic response. After the initial corrective saccade, both groups followed the target with a combination of pursuit eye movements and occasional catch-up saccades. During this period, the retinal velocity error is minimal because the eye approximates the target motion, and the major source of target motion information both for the smooth pursuit and saccadic responses is extra-retinal (i.e., predictive mechanism). The accuracies of catch-up saccades were significantly lower in the schizophrenic patients than in the normal subjects. During this period, overall pursuit performance, measured by pursuit gain, was also significantly worse in the patients. Accuracies of subsequent catch-up saccades, but not initial corrective saccades, significantly predicted the pursuit gain. Low pursuit gain was associated with high numbers of saccades per time spent in pursuit, which were similar in both schizophrenic subgroups (i.e., with and without TD), but were only significantly higher in the patients with TD than in the normal subjects. These preliminary data suggest that schizophrenic patients are able to process retinal motion information but have difficulties in using extra-retinal motion information to generate an appropriate saccadic response.
Finite-amplitude waves in isotropic elastic plates

The propagation of finite-amplitude waves in a homogeneous, isotropic, stress-free elastic plate is investigated theoretically. Geometric and weak material non-linearities are included, and perturbation is used to obtain solutions of the non-linear equations of motion for harmonic generation in the waveguide. Solutions for the second-harmonic, sum, and difference-frequency components are obtained via modal decomposition. Ordinary differential equations for the modal amplitudes in the expansion of the second-order solution are obtained using a reciprocity relation. There are no restrictions on the modes or frequencies of the primary waves. Two conditions for internal resonance are quantified: phase matching, and transfer of power from the primary to the secondary wave.
Acute dissection originating in the abdominal aorta

A primary abdominal aortic dissection was encountered in a 53-year-old hypertensive man who was admitted with a 2-week history of back pain. Treatment with an infrarenal aortic bifurcation graft complemented by reconstruction of the proximal aortic cuff was curative.
Alterations in nuclear ploidy and cell phase distribution of rat liver cells in experimental alcoholic liver disease: relationship to antioxidant enzyme gene expression.

The ability of a cell to withstand oxidative stress has been hypothesized to be related to its ploidy status. We used the intragastric feeding rat model for alcoholic liver disease to evaluate the relationship between severity of liver injury, antioxidant mRNA levels, and DNA ploidy of liver cells. Rats were fed ethanol with different dietary fats (saturated fat, corn oil, and fish oil); pair-fed control animals received isocaloric amounts of dextrose. All animals were euthanized at 1 month and had evaluation of pathologic changes in the liver, DNA content by flow cytometry, and mRNA levels for catalase and glutathione peroxidase. The fish oil–ethanol group exhibited the most severe pathology, the corn oil–ethanol group had intermediate pathologic changes, and no pathologic changes were seen in the saturated fat–ethanol and dextrose-fed controls. Flow cytometric analysis of propidium iodide-stained nuclei revealed that saturated fat–dextrose and corn oil–dextrose groups had about 65% of cells with (diploid) G1DNA content and about 30% of cells with tetraploid (4C) nuclei. The fish oil–dextrose had a significantly higher (p< 0.001) number of 4C cells (67.4 ± 2.1%) compared to the other two dextrose-fed groups. In the animals showing pathologic liver injury, there was a higher percentage of cells with hypertetraploid nuclei. The highest percentage of these hypertetraploid cells was seen in the fish oil–ethanol group. Catalase and glutathione peroxidase mRNA levels correlated significantly with polyploidy. A significant correlation was seen between the number of cells in the greater than G2+ M phase and glutathione peroxidase mRNA levels (r= 0.91,p< 0.01) and catalase mRNA. The different slopes of correlation analysis between catalase mRNA and dietary fats show that the degree of saturation of fatty acids may influence catalase mRNA expression in cells with different ploidy states. We propose that polyploidization of liver cell nuclei may serve as a defense mechanism against ethanol-induced hepatotoxicity. This defense mechanism may also, in part, account for the antiregenerative effect of ethanol on hepatocytes.
Diversity of errantivirus (retrovirus) sequences in two cell lines used for baculovirus expression, Spodoptera frugiperda and Trichoplusia ni

To determine the diversity of retroviruses (errantiviruses) in cell lines used for baculovirus expression, degenerate primers were designed complementary to conserved regions of lepidopteran errantivirus reverse transcriptase genes. These primers were used to PCR amplify sequences from DNA isolated from Spodoptera frugiperda (Sf-9) and Trichoplusia ni (Hi-5) cell lines. Cloning, sequencing, and phylogenetic analysis of over 20 PCR products from each cell line demonstrated the presence of diverse populations of retrovirus sequences comprising at least six major lineages.
Phase equilibria of Ba–R–Cu–O for coated conductor applications (R = lanthanides and Y)

Abstract Phase diagrams of the Ba 2 RCu 3 O 6+ x (R = Nd, Sm, Gd, Y, and Er) superconductors, prepared under 100 Pa O 2 at 810 °C, reflect the trend of the lanthanide contraction. The single-phase regions of Ba 2− x (Nd 1+ x − y R ′ y )Cu 3 O 6+ z for R ′ = Gd, Y and Yb, and of Ba 2− x (R 1+ x − y Y y )Cu 3 O 6+ z for R = Eu and Gd were determined. Using these data, both flux-pinning and melting properties can be tailored and optimized. The presence of a low temperature melt during formation of the Ba 2 YCu 3 O 6+ x phase from barium fluoride amorphous precursor films is deemed important for producing quality tapes, and hence for rapid advancement of second-generation RABiTS/IBAD coated conductor technology. Our search for low melting liquid has focused on compositional vectors within the Ba, Y, Cu∥O, F reciprocal system.
Treatment Patterns in Alpha-Blocker Therapy for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

This study examined treatment patterns and patient characteristics of men initiating alpha adrenergic blocker therapy (alpha-blocker) for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The 2009 Thomson Reuters MarketScan® Database was used to identify the newly initiated alpha-blocker: men ≥40 years old with continuous medical and pharmacy coverage for 12 months before and after alpha-blocker initiation, with no alpha-blocker or 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors in the previous year, and with ≥1 BPH diagnosis within 1 month before and 6 months after alpha-blocker initiation. This study analyzed patient demographics, clinical characteristics, adherence (percentage of men achieving medication possession ratio [MPR] ≥ 0.8), restarting the same alpha-blocker after discontinuation, switching to another BPH medication, and type of alpha-blocker (alpha 1 type selective or alpha 1 subtype selective agents). T tests and chi-square tests compared differences at the .05 significance level. A total of 13,474 men met the study criteria (mean age of 63.1 years). Two thirds of the men discontinued alpha-blocker in the 12-month period, among which restarts or switches were statistically different (p = .036) but numerically similar across cohorts. Adherence for alpha 1 type selective agents versus alpha 1 subtype selective agents at 6 months was 43.3% versus 38.1% (p < .01); at 12 months, 34.4% versus 30.5% (p < .01). Alpha-blocker discontinuation rates were high, which confirms low medication adherence reported among medications for several other chronic conditions; therefore, it is necessary to understand the reasons for alpha-blocker discontinuation.
Stake-Invariant Belief

What can rational deliberation indicate about belief? Belief clearly influences deliberation. The principle that rational belief is stake-invariant rules out at least one way that deliberation might influence belief. The principle is widely, if implicitly, held in work on the epistemology of categorical belief, and it is built into the model of choice-guiding degrees of belief that comes to us from Ramsey and de Finetti. Criticisms of subjective probabilism include challenges to the assumption of additive values (the package principle) employed by defenses of probabilism. But the value-interaction phenomena often cited in such challenges are excluded by stake-invariance. A comparison with treatments of categorical belief suggests that the appeal to stake-invariance is not ad hoc. Whether or not to model belief as stake-invariant is a question not settled here.
On the robustness of rank order tests and estimates in the generalized multivariate one-sample location problem

Abstract : For stochastic vectors, not necessarily identically distributed, the sign invariant permutation distribution theory of rank order statistics is developed and utilized in the construction of a class of conditionally distribution-free tests for diagonal symmetry. The asymptotic multinormality of the rank order statistics, when the null hypothesis of sign-invariance is not necessarily true, is extended to the case when each observation may have different distribution. Some interesting inequalities on the covariance matrix of rank order statistics are obtained. These results are used in studying the robustness of rank order tests and estimates for heterogeneous distributions. (Author)
PECAM-1/IgG attenuates peroxynitrite-mediated extremity reperfusion injury.

Abstract Objective: Neutrophil transendothelial migration, a key feature of skeletal muscle ischemia and reperfusion (I/R) injury, is mediated by the platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 (PECAM-1). Peroxynitrite anion, a toxic product of neutrophil superoxide anion and nitric oxide, contributes to oxidative skeletal muscle injury and can be quantified by measurement of protein tyrosine nitration after I/R. This study hypothesizes that administration of the PECAM-1/IgG antibody chimera will inhibit peroxynitrite-mediated injury after I/R. Methods: The study was composed of five groups: an I/R group (n = 4), a sham treatment group anesthetic control (n = 3), a treatment group receiving the PECAM-1/immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody chimera with I/R (n = 9), a treatment group receiving human IgG with I/R as an antibody control (n = 6), and a treatment group receiving normal saline solution with I/R as a vehicle control (n = 5). The right hind limb in male New Zealand white rabbits was rendered ischemic by occluding the iliac and femoral arteries for 3 hours, followed by 2 hours of reperfusion (I/R). Sham-treated rabbits underwent arterial dissection without arterial occlusion. PECAM-1/IgG–treated rabbits and IgG-treated rabbits received an infusion of 1 mg/kg in normal saline solution 20 mL via an ear vein catheter during the last 5 minutes of ischemia and the first 15 minutes of reperfusion. Saline solution–treated rabbits similarly received normal saline solution 20 mL. The anterior tibialis muscle was harvested after reperfusion. Immunohistochemical staining for nitrotyrosine was performed with monoclonal antinitrotyrosine antibodies and fluorescently labeled secondary antibodies. Computed morphometric study was performed to calculate relative fluorescence scores for each histologic section. Averaged fluorescence scores were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance with Bonferroni post hoc comparison. Results: The averaged fluorescence scores (mean ± SEM) for the sham-treated (2.88 ± 0.78) and PECAM-1/IgG–treated (6.16 ± 0.43) groups demonstrated a significant reduction in quantitative fluorescence compared with the IgG- (15.17 ± 2.01) and saline solution–treated (17.46 ± 3.71) control groups, and the I/R-treated (18.52 ± 3.00) group, ( P Conclusions: These results suggest that PECAM-1/IgG diminishes peroxynitrite-mediated oxidative skeletal muscle injury by inhibiting neutrophil transendothelial migration and may therefore prove a useful therapeutic agent in the treatment of reperfusion injury. (J Vasc Surg 2001;34:555-8.)