cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Factors Influencing Selection of Active Surveillance for Localized Prostate Cancer

Objective To determine how well demographic and clinical factors predict the initiation of Active Surveillance (AS). Methods AS has been suggested as a way to reduce overtreatment of men who have prostate cancer; however, factors associated with the decision to choose AS are poorly quantified. Using the Michigan Urological Surgery Improvement Collaborative registry, we identified 2977 men with prostate cancer who made treatment decisions from January 1, 2012, through December 31, 2013. We used chi-square and Wilcoxon tests to examine the association between factors and initiation of AS. Logistic regression models were fit for D'Amico risk categories. Measures of model discrimination and calibration were estimated, including area under the curve (AUC) and Brier score (BS). Results Patient age, Gleason score, clinical T-stage, urology practice, and tumor volume (greatest percent of a core involved with cancer and proportion of positive cores) were associated with the decision to choose AS in the intermediate-risk cohort (AUC = 0.875, BS = 0.07) and the complete cohort (AUC = 0.89, BS = 0.10). Patient age, urology practice, and tumor volume were significant in the low-risk cohort (AUC = 0.71, BS = 0.22). The addition of urology practice increased AUC in the low-risk cohort from 0.71 to 0.76 and reduced BS from 0.22 to 0.21. Conclusion The urology practice at which a patient is seen is an important predictor for whether patients will initiate AS. Predictions were least accurate for low-risk patients, suggesting that factors such as patient preference play a role in treatment decisions.
Complex fluoroanions in solution—III: Disproportionation and complexing of WF6−

Abstract Tungsten hexafluoride is unreactive towards a variety of binary fluorides and hexafluoroanions. The reactions of WF6− with binary fluorides may be explained may be explained by disproportionation to WF6 and WF4 followed, in some cases, by complexing of the WF4 with the derived fluoroanion.
Jean Gelman Taylor, ed. The Social World of Batavia: Europeans and Eurasians in Colonial Indonesia. 2nd Edition

A compelling study of colonial Indonesia, this second edition of Taylor's Social World emphasizes the role of Asian women in the creation of a distinctly Mestizo culture that emerged from European ...
(Mis)Interpreting SLUSA: Closing the Jurisdictional Loophole in FederalSecurities Class Actions

Over the past fifteen years, Congress has twice attempted to curb frivolous securities class action lawsuits. It first passed the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (“PSLRA”), which fell short of achieving Congress’s goal because plaintiffs were able to avoid the more stringent rules of federal courts by filing securities class action claims in state courts. Congress then sought to close this loophole by passing the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act (“SLUSA”), which amended the Securities Act of 1933 (“1933 Act”) to make federal court the exclusive venue for certain securities class actions. Congress’s effort has been complicated, though, by the multiple district court interpretations of the SLUSA amendments that have developed. This article argues that the correct answer lies in SLUSA’s revision to the 1933 Act’s jurisdictional clause. Unlike other approaches to interpreting the 1933 Act, what I call the “jurisdictional approach” to SLUSA finds strong support in both the text and the congressional intent underlying the statute. This reading leads to a harmonious interpretation of the rest of SLUSA’s revisions, and is therefore the approach judges should use when they apply the 1933 Act in cases involving “covered class actions” to keep federal claims in federal court.
Negotiating Equity Splits at UpDown

Michael Reich is having severe doubts about how he split the equity with his co-founders two months ago, when they completed a one-page "November Agreement." Since then, Michael has found an angel investor and has worked non-stop on the business, while one co-founder was off enjoying the winter break with his family and the other worked on lucrative consulting contracts for other companies. Michael has just sent his co-founders a proposal that would re-allocate the equity within their founding team, and all three founders are getting ready to reopen a negotiation they thought had been finalized.
Anthropology and Law

Anthropology and Law James M. Donovan and H. Edwin Anderson, III (New York: Berghahn Books, 2003)
Social networking: the new computer fluency?

This paper describes a course in online social networking that is flexible enough to meet the needs of most CS0 courses. Two sections of the course were taught at the College of Charleston during the Spring 2009 semester. We describe our experiences, we outline the topics and we offer suggestions on how the topics can meet the objectives of more traditional CS0 offerings.
MEETING THROUGH POETRY: DU FU’S 杜甫 (712–770) “WRITTEN IN ACCORD WITH PREFECT YUAN’S ‘BALLAD OF CHONGLING’”

AbstractIn 764 Yuan Jie (719–772) composed two poems, “Ballad of Chongling” and “After the Raiders Have Withdrawn: To Clerks and Officials,” which portray his attempts to alleviate the sufferings of the people in his district. They inspired Du Fu (712–770) to respond with his own, “Written in Accord with Prefect Yuan’s ‘Ballad of Chongling.’” Du Fu’s poem is a remarkable work with its deep and detailed appreciation of Yuan Jie’s poetry and person. In addition, the example of Yuan Jie caused Du Fu to reflect on his own actions and career so that “Written in Accord” becomes as much an apology for his life as it is a memorial to Yuan Jie. In his poem Du Fu acknowledges his own failures, but also reviews the nature of poetry and finally affirms his place as a poet. This study closely examines one poet’s response to the work of another with a focus on how Du Fu’s concerns are reflected in the structure of his work, be it the framing device with which Du Fu directly contrasts himself to Yuan Jie or the use of a...
Male chimpanzee development focusing on adolescence: Integration of behavioral with physiological changes

Intensive longitudinal behavior observations of male chimpanzees in stable mixed-sex social groups in a semi-natural environment were analyzed by state of development as defined by dental, growth and hormonal signals. Initial increase of sexual behaviors preceded adolescent hormonal changes. Peak prevalence of sexual behaviors coincided with the adolescent period. This period is also characterized by peak activity level and feeding. The major increase in aggression and stabilization of submissive behavior at adult level occurred concomitant with achievement of adult hormone levels and body size, and these were accompanied by increase of grooming affiliative behaviors.
A critical comparison of discrete-state and continuous models of recognition memory: Implications for recognition and beyond.

Multinomial processing tree (MPT) models such as the single high-threshold, double high-threshold, and low-threshold models are discrete-state decision models that map internal cognitive events onto overt responses. The apparent benefit of these models is that they provide independent measures of accuracy and response bias, a claim that has motivated their frequent application in many areas of psychological science including perception, item and source memory, social cognition, reasoning, educational testing, eyewitness testimony, and psychopathology. Before appropriate conclusions about a given analysis can be drawn, however, one must first confirm that the model's assumptions about the underlying structure of the data are valid. The current review outlines the assumptions of several popular MPT models and assesses their validity using multiple sources of evidence, including receiver operating characteristics, direct model fits, and experimental tests of qualitative predictions. We argue that the majority of the evidence is inconsistent with these models and that, instead, the evidence supports continuous models such as those based on signal detection theory (SDT). Hybrid models that incorporate both SDT and MPT processes are also explored, and we conclude that these models retain the limitations associated with their threshold model predecessors. The potentially severe consequences associated with using an invalid model to interpret data are discussed, and a simple tutorial and model-fitting tool is provided to allow implementation of the empirically supported SDT model.
Dimensions of health-related quality of life in persons living with HIV disease.

Dimensions of health-related quality of life in persons living with HIV disease¶ The purpose of this secondary analysis was to test empirically the influence of biological and physiological variables, symptom status, functional status, general health perceptions, characteristics of the individual and characteristics of the environment on overall quality of life in persons living with HIV disease. Path analysis, using multiple linear regression, was used to examine the fit between a health-related quality of life (HRQOL) theoretical model and data from a sample of 142 persons with an AIDS diagnosis. Thirty-two per cent of the variance in overall quality of life was explained by the HRQOL model with symptom status having the greatest influence (β =−0·237, R2Y×2 = 5%). This analysis suggests that symptom status, functional status and general health perceptions are key dimensions of HRQOL. With a focus on prevention, health promotion, symptom management, and the alleviation of acute and chronic illness effects, HRQOL may be appropriate for capturing the outcomes of nursing interventions.
MR elastographic methods for the evaluation of plantar fat pads: Preliminary comparison of the shear modulus for shearing deformation and compressive deformation in normal subjects

MR elastography (MRE) images the intrinsic mechanical properties of soft tissues; e.g., the shear modulus, μ. The μ of the plantar soft tissues is important in understanding the mechanisms whereby the forces induced during normal motion produce ulcers that lead to amputation in diabetic feet. We compared the compliance of the heel fat pad to compressive forces and to shearing forces. The design of prosthetics to protect the foot depends on the proper understanding of the mechanisms inducing damage. In the heel fat pads of six normal subjects, between 25 and 65 years of age, the μ for deformation perpendicular to the direction of weight bearing is similar but not identical to that determined for deformation along the weight bearing axis. The average difference between μ along the weight bearing axis and μ perpendicular to the weight bearing axis, is well correlated with age (Correlation Coefficient = 0.789). The p-value for the data being random was 0.0347 indicating that the observed difference is not likely to be random. The p-value for control points is 0.8989, indicating a random process. The results are suggestive that the high compressive forces imposed during walking damage the heel fat pads over time resulting in softening to compression preferentially over shearing. It is important to validate the observed effect with larger numbers of subjects, and better controls including measures of activity, and to understand if diseases like diabetes increase the observed damage.
Phthalate esters: heartrate depressors in the goldfish

The effect of phthalate esters isolated from carp tissue on the heart rate of goldfish is examined. Di-n-butyl phthalate, benzyl-butyl phthalate, and di-2-ethyl hexyl phthalate were previously isolated from carp tissue. It was found that the di-n-buhyl and the benzyl-butyl phthalate had significant effect on the heart rate. The effect of chloroform extracts of heart, liver, brain, kidney, gut, and remainder of fish were tested and greatest depression activity was found in the liver with some activity noted for the heart and brain. Atropine reverses the effect, so phthalate is presumed to act on the nervous system. Food chain concentration of phthalates represents a potential threat to aquatic organisms and possibly even to man. (JWP)
Plant HMG proteins bearing the AT-hook motif

Abstract The high mobility group (HMG) proteins are non-histone components of chromatin that regulate gene expression via interactions with chromatin and transactivating protein factors. Plants and animals possess a family of HMG proteins that are similar on the basis of a shared motif known as the AT-hook, a domain that preferentially recognizes and binds to DNA with certain structural features, such as those imparted by AT-rich DNA. The animal HMG proteins with AT-hooks, collectively known as the HMGA family, have been studied extensively. As a consequence, much of the information available on the function of the animal HMGA family has been inferred to the plant HMG-I/Y family of AT-hook proteins. While both animal HMGA proteins and plant HMG-I/Y proteins have AT-hook motifs, the overall structure of these proteins is quite different. Nevertheless, both plant and animal AT-hook proteins bind AT-rich tracts of DNA in the minor groove, induce DNA bending, and function in the regulation of gene expression. Based on detailed studies of HMGA-mediated regulation of mammalian genes, analogous mechanisms of HMG-I/Y-mediated gene regulation in plants have been proposed. This review focuses primarily on the expression of the AT-hook HMG proteins and the proposed mechanisms by which these proteins regulate gene expression in plants and animals. An understanding of the variety of interactions of these proteins with chromatin in all eukaryotes is likely to provide insight into the regulatory properties of plant HMG-I/Y proteins.
Glucocorticoid/Glucocorticoid Receptor Inhibition of Surfactant Protein-A (SP-A) Gene Expression in Lung Type II Cells Is Mediated by Repressive Changes in Histone Modification at the SP-A Promoter

Surfactant protein-A (SP-A) gene expression in human fetal lung type II cells is stimulated by cAMP and IL-1 and is inhibited by glucocorticoids. cAMP/IL-1 stimulation of SP-A expression is mediated by increased binding of thyroid transcription factor-1 and nuclear factor (NF)-κB to the TTF-1-binding element (TBE) in the SP-A promoter. This is associated with decreased expression of histone deacetylases (HDACs), increased recruitment of coactivators, and enhanced acetylation of histone H3 (K9,14) at the TBE. In the present study, endogenous glucocorticoid receptor (GR) was found to interact with thyroid transcription factor-1 and NF-κB p65 at the TBE. GR knockdown enhanced SP-A expression in type II cells cultured in serum-free medium, suggesting a ligand-independent inhibitory role of endogenous GR. Furthermore, use of chromatin immunoprecipitation revealed that dexamethasone (Dex) treatment of fetal lung type II cells increased recruitment of endogenous GR and HDACs-1 and -2 and blocked cAMP-induced binding of inhibitor of κB kinase-α (IKKα) to the TBE region. Accordingly, Dex reduced basal and blocked cAMP-stimulated levels of acetylated (K9,14) and phosphorylated (S10) histone H3 at the TBE. Dex also increased TBE binding of dimethylated histone H3 (K9) and of heterochromatin protein 1α. Thus, Dex increases interaction of GR with the complex of proteins at the TBE. This facilitates recruitment of HDACs and causes a local decline in basal and cAMP-induced histone H3 phosphorylation and acetylation and an associated increase in H3-K9 dimethylation and binding of heterochromatin protein 1α. Collectively, these events may culminate in the closing of chromatin structure surrounding the SP-A gene and inhibition of its transcription.
Optimizing a Reconfigurable Power Distribution Network in a Multicore Platform

The emerging trend toward utilizing chip multicore processors (CMPs) that support dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) is driven by user requirements for high performance and low power. To overcome limitations of the conventional chip-wide DVFS and achieve the maximum possible energy saving, per-core DVFS is being enabled in the recent CMP offerings. While power consumed by the CMP is reduced by per-core DVFS, power dissipated by the set of voltage regulators (VRs) that are required to support per-core DVFS becomes critical. This paper focuses on the dynamic control of the VRs in a CMP platform. Starting with a proposed platform with a reconfigurable VR-to-core power distribution network (PDN), two optimization methods are presented to maximize the system-wide energy savings: 1) reactive VR consolidation (VRCon) to reconfigure the network for maximizing the power conversion efficiency of the VRs, which is performed under the predetermined DVFS levels for the cores and 2) proactive VRCon to determine new DVFS levels for maximizing the total energy savings without any performance degradation. Along with the optimization methods for the PDN composed of homogeneous VRs, we also discuss the PDN with heterogeneous VRs, which is proposed to increase the benefits of the VRCon by incorporating VRs with a larger driving capability of load current. Results from detailed simulations based on realistic experimental setups demonstrate up to 36% VR energy loss reduction and 9% total energy saving.
Back to the Future: Re-appropriating Religious Education—A Case Study Using the Black Church

Abstract The article suggests that Religious Education, in practice and as a field, will benefit by exploring the history and practice of Religious Education in the Black church. Using examples from the history, curriculum, and process of Religious Education in the historic Black church, the article argues that the Black church offers a dynamic educational example for religion scholars and religious educators. The importance of reinvigorating Religious Education in the Black church is discussed and recommendations for future practice are made.
FAC1 Expression and Localization in Motor Neurons of Developing, Adult, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Spinal Cord

In this study we report the localization and expression of FAC1 protein in developing, normal adult and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) lumbar spinal cord. High levels of FAC1 protein were detected in cells throughout all areas (gray and white matter) of the developing lumbar spinal cord. FAC1 protein was localized predominately in nuclei and the cell body of motor neurons during early stages of spinal cord development. In contrast, low levels of FAC1 protein were observed in the adult lumbar spinal cord, localized only in the cell body of large alpha motor neurons found in lamina IX. Interestingly, FAC1 protein expression was elevated in surviving motor neurons of ALS spinal cord compared to the controls and was located both in the nucleus and throughout the cytoplasm of motor neurons. FAC1 protein was also observed in white matter cells and fibers in ALS spinal cord. In support of the immunocytochemical results, in situ hybridization studies demonstrated that FAC1 mRNA is also elevated in ALS spinal cord motor neurons. These data describe the developmental regulation of FAC1 protein in the spinal cord by immunocytochemical techniques and provide evidence that this protein is reexpressed in ALS motor neurons.
Oriented extracellular channels and axonal guidance in the embryonic chick retina

Abstract Transmission electron microscopy and serial reconstruction of lum sections were used to determine whether aligned extracellular channels precede the outgrowth of optic fibers in the embryonic chick retina. At stage 16, just prior to the migration of optic axons toward the optic stalk, extracellular spaces bounded by neuroepithelial cell processes, in the superficial (vitread) region of the retina, were aligned toward the optic stalk. The optic axons subsequently entered and grew within these spaces. After formation of the ganglion cell fiber layer (GCFL), the growth cones of new optic axons entered the most vitread portion of that layer. Hypertonic fixatives caused shrinkage of cell processes, resulting in intercellular separation. However, growth cone filopodia retained close contacts with neighboring glial cell endfeet and with optic axons in these solutions. This suggests that growth cones may be adherent to these structures. Transmission electron microscopy in conjunction with the use of hypertonic solutions may become a useful technique for assaying intercellular adhesivity.
Ammodendrine and N-methylammodendrine enantiomers: isolation, optical rotation, and toxicity.

Ammodendrine (1) was found to occur as a mixture of enantiomers in two different collections of plants identified as Lupinus formosus. The ammodendrine fraction was reacted in a peptide coupling reaction with 9-fluorenylmethoxycarbonyl-l-alanine (Fmoc-l-Ala-OH) to give diastereomers, which were separated by preparative HPLC. The pure d- and l-ammodendrine enantiomers were then obtained by Edman degradation. Optical rotation measurements revealed that the d- and l-enantiomers had optical rotations of [α]24D +5.4° and −5.7°, respectively. d- and l-N-methylammodendrine enantiomers were synthesized from the corresponding ammodendrine enantiomers, and their optical rotations established as [α]23D +62.4° and −59.0°, respectively. A mouse bioassay was used to determine the difference in toxicity between these two pairs of naturally occurring enantiomers. The LD50 of (+)-d-ammodendrine in mice was determined to be 94.1 ± 7 mg/kg and that of (−)-l-ammodendrine as 115.0 ± 7 mg/kg. The LD50 of (+)-d-N-methylammoden...
Charting Health Information Technology Futures for Healthcare Services Organizations

As health organizations strive to improve operational efficiencies and increase worker productivity, new forms of health information technologies (HITs) are constantly being developed. This article surveys the extant HIT literature and adopts a case analysis approach to identifying emerging health information technologies. The understanding of HIT trend is further enriched through the applications of technologyforecasting techniques, specifically, scenario analysis and U.S. patent searches. The article focuses on five emerging HITs and their impact on the future of U.S. Healthcare Services Delivery.
CATHETER ABLATION OF VENTRICULAR TACHYCARDIA: TEN-YEAR TRENDS IN UTILIZATION, IN-HOSPITAL COMPLICATIONS, AND IN-HOSPITAL MORTALITY IN PATIENTS WITH ISCHEMIC CARDIOMYOPATHY

Catheter ablation has been used to treat incessant ventricular tachycardia (VT) and also to prevent or reduce the frequency of episodes of VT in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy. However, there are limited data regarding the complications and in-hospital mortality after catheter ablation for
Tick "talk": protein release by tick salivary cells.

Abstract Tick salivary gland proteins involved in exocytosis via soluble N-ethylmaleimide sensitive factor attachment proteins (SNAPs) and their receptor proteins (SNAREs) were recently identified. This new line of research looks at protein trafficking in the salivary glands. How do tick cells ‘talk' in order to move important proteins out of the granular acini and into the saliva?
Blood pressure reduction in patients with essential hypertension through metronome-conditioned relaxation: A preliminary report

Four male patients with essential hypertension served as subjects in an experiment on the effects of a behavioral procedure, metronome-conditioned relaxation (MCR), on blood pressure. In an own-control experimental design three of the four subjects showed a significant reduction in blood pressure when MCR was instituted. Blood pressures rose again when MCR was discontinued. Two of the subjects who responded self-administered a second and protracted period of MCR in their own homes. Their blood pressures fell again, to diastolic levels which were 10 and 11 mm Hg below the levels of the first baseline period. One of these latter subjects discontinued his antihypertensive medication 6 months before the final blood pressures were recorded.
On the method of finding frequencies with large amplitudes

The paper is concerned with the problem of determining unknown frequenciesw1,...w1, using the firstN observed discrete time signals {x(m, I)}m=0N−1 arising from a continuous waveform that is the superposition of a finite number of sinusoidal waves with well-defined frequencieswj,j=1,2,...I. We introduce a refined way of Wiener-Levinson method to determine the unknown frequencies with the rate of convergence 1/Np by using aboutpN samples of the signals, wherep is any given positive integer (cf. [8]). The paper studies the results on the method to determine the frequencies with large amplitudes.
Multileveling the playing field: altering our state of consciousness to understand hypnosis

The state/nonstate controversy involving hypnosis is examined through six principles of explanation. The importance of hypnotizability is emphasized as a moderating factor in studying hypnotic phenomena. Framing discussions of social, intrapsychic and neurophysiological influences on hypnosis in terms of relative contributions to the explanation of variance rather than winner-take-all approaches is recommended. Copyright © 2005 British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis
Computer Simulations of the Blood Flows and the Growth of Stenosis in Arteries With Bends and Bifurcations

Heart attack and stroke are the chief and the 3rd largest causes of death in the United States, respectively. A heart attack occurs when the blood supply to an area of heart muscle is blocked, usually by a clot in a coronary artery; a stroke occurs when the blood supply to a region of the brain is lost. The most frequent cause of loss of blood supply to brain tissue or to heart muscle is atherosclerosis, which involves complex interactions between the artery wall and the blood flow. Caro et al first suggested that the distribution of fatty streaking in human aorta may be coincident with regions in which the shear rate at the arterial wall is locally reduced [1]. After that, intensive research has been conducted to statistically study the role of shear stress in atherosclerosis and to quantitatively determine the correlation between the low shear stress and the development of atherosclerotic plaques [2–8]. It is widely believed that fluid shear stress acting on the artery wall plays an important role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. The objectives of this project are to investigate how the geometrical adaptation of atherosclerotic plaques is related to the wall shear stress (WSS) and to study the influences of the flow parameters on the growth of the atherosclerotic plaque using computational models.Copyright © 2009 by ASME
Charm production in a quark-gluon plasma

Abstract A calculation is made for charm quark production in a longitudinally expanding quark-gluon plasma. A comparison is made with hadronic charm production in ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions assuming an extrapolation from p-p collisions and no plasma formation. The charm yield from a QGP begins to dominate purely hadronic production for plasma temperatures above 315–440 MeV, depending on the bombarding energy of the colliding nuclei and the value assumed for the charm quark mass. Implications for plasma signals, most notably dilepton emission and J/ψ suppression, are discussed.
Scale economics: ecological theory and planning practice in urban landscapes

Abstract Scale economics have had a profound effect on urban and rural planning. Although in urban areas concern often arises over the provision of services, scale and other scale-related spatial variables affecting the functioning of urban ecosystems are not sufficiently well understood to be included in the planning process in a comprehensive way. This paper reviews those areas of urban planning that are sensitive to scale economics and how these have impacted urban ecosystems. It reviews recent research on scale as a factor in urban nature conservation and suggests how biogeographical concepts could be used more widely in urban planning practice.
A study of the transition to instability in a Rijke tube with axial temperature gradient

A horizontal Rijke tube with an electric heat source is a system convenient for studying the fundamental principles of thermoacoustic instabilities both experimentally and theoretically. Given the long history of the device, there is a surprising lack of accurate data defining its behavior. In this work, the main system parameters are varied in a quasi-steady fashion in order to find stability boundaries accurately. The chief purposes of this study are to obtain precise values of the system parameters at the transition to instability with specified uncertainties and to determine how well the experimental results can be explained with existing theory. Measurement errors are reported, and the influence of experimental procedures on the results is discussed. A form of hysteresis effect at stability boundaries has been observed. Mathematical modelling is based on a thermal analysis determining the temperature of the heater and the temperature field in the air inside the tube, which, consequently, affects acoustical mode shapes. Solutions of the linearized wave equation for a non-uniform medium, including losses and a heat source term, determine the stability properties of the eigen modes. Calculated results are compared with experimental data and with results of the modelling based on the common assumption of a constant temperature in the tube. The mathematical model developed here can be applied to designing thermal devices with low Mach number flows, where thermoacoustic issue is a concern.
Selective increase of tetrameric (G4) acetylcholinesterase activity in rat hindlimb skeletal muscle following short-term denervation.

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE; EC 3.1.1.7) isoenzymes in gracilis muscles from adult Sprague-Dawley rats were studied 24-96 h after obturator nerve transection. Results show a selective denervation-induced increase in the globular G4 isoform, which is predominantly associated with the plasmalemma. This enzymatic increase was (a) transient (occurring between 24 and 60 h) and accompanied by declines in all other identifiable AChE isoforms; (b) observed after concurrent denervation and inactivation of the enzyme with diisopropylfluorophosphate, but not following treatment with cycloheximide; and (c) more prominent in the extracellular compartment of muscle endplate regions. Aside from this transient change, G4 activity did not fall below control levels, indicating that at least the short-term maintenance of G4 AChE (i.e., at both normal and temporarily elevated levels) does not critically depend on the presence of the motor nerve. In addition, this isoform's activity increases in response to perturbations of the neuromuscular system that are known to produce elevated levels of acetylcholine (ACh), such as short-term denervation and exercise-induced enhancement of motor activity. The present study is consistent with the hypothesis that individual AChE isoforms in gracilis muscle are subject to distinct modes of neural regulation and suggests a role for ACh in modulating the activity of G4 AChE at the motor endplate.
Interpersonal Lives in the Future: Projections of Undergraduate Women

The present research provided description of interpersonal life projections based on responses to the Interpersonal Future Likelihood Inventory, an instrument for measuring future time perspective, which was administered to a sample of 140 female undergraduates from three majors (Human Services, Nursing, and Child and Family Studies). Female undergraduates do not perceive divorce or alternative lifestyles to be present in their future lives. The three majors, however, differed significantly in their predictions of the kinds of lives they would be living, with nursing students being most traditional.
Effect of abciximab on the outcome of emergency coronary artery bypass grafting after failed percutaneous coronary intervention.

Objective To evaluate the outcome of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for failed percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients who had received abciximab. Patients and Methods In this retrospective study, we analyzed the records of patients who had PCI at our institution between January 1994 and December 1998 and identified those who had urgent or emergency CABG within 48 hours after PCI. CABG was performed for failed PCI in patients who had ongoing ischemia, hemodynamic compromise, or both. These patients were categorized into 2 groups depending on whether they had been given abciximab during PCI. We compared blood product transfusion requirements, bleeding complications, and frequency of in-hospital adverse events of the 2 groups. Results Of 5636 patients who had PCI, 77 (1.4%) had urgent or emergency CABG within 48 hours, including 11 who were given abciximab (abciximab group) during PCI and 66 who were not given abciximab (no abciximab group). The 2 groups had similar baseline characteristics. The mean ± SD time to surgery was 8.4±8.0 hours (median, 6 hours) for the abciximab group vs 12.1±12.5 hours (median, 4 hours) for the no abciximab group. Major bleeding (Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction criteria) occurred in 9 (90%) of 10 patients in the abciximab group vs 48 (77%) of 62 patients in the no abciximab group. The total volumes of intraoperative autotransfusion and transfusion of red blood cells and fresh frozen plasma tended to be higher for the abciximab group. Also, this group received a mean of 13.9 U of platelets vs 3.2 U for the no abciximab group ( P Conclusion Transfusion requirements are higher for patients who undergo emergency or urgent CABG after having received abciximab during PCI. However, in-hospital adverse events are infrequent and comparable to those for patients who do not receive abciximab.
Evaluation of the Universal Geocast Scheme for VANETs

Recently, a number of communications schemes have been proposed for Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs). A promising approach, the Universal Geocast Scheme (UGS), provides for a diverse variety of VANET-specific characteristics such as time-varying topology, protocol variation based on road congestion, and support for non line-of-sight communication. In this paper, the UGS protocol is extended to consider inter-vehicle multi-hop connections in intersections with surrounding obstructions. Since UGS is a probabilistic, repetition-based scheme, it supports the capacity-delay tradeoffs crucial for periodic safety message exchange. The approach is shown to support both vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. This research accurately evaluates this scheme using network (NS-2) and mobility (SUMO) simulators, verifying two crucial elements of successful VANETs, received packet ratio and message delay. A contemporary wireless radio propagation model is used to augment accuracy. Our results show a 6% improvement in received packet ratio combined with a decrease in average packet delay versus a previous, well-known inter-vehicle communication protocol.
Nanogroove array on thin metallic film as planar lens with tunable focusing

Abstract Numerical results for the distributions of light transmitted through metallic planar lenses composed of symmetric nanogroove arrays on the surfaces of a gold film are presented and explained. Both the near- and far-field distributions of the intensity of light transmitted are calculated by using a Greenʼs function formalism. Results for an optimal transverse focus based on a quadratic variation of groove width are obtained. Meanwhile, a significant dependence of the focal length on the wavelength of light incident from the air side through the gold film into a dielectric substrate is found for this detector configuration.
Challenges posed by tick-borne rickettsiae: eco-epidemiology and public health implications.

Rickettsiae are obligately intracellular bacteria that are transmitted to vertebrates by a variety of arthropod vectors, primarily by fleas and ticks. Once transmitted or experimentally inoculated into susceptible mammals, some rickettsiae may cause febrile illness of different morbidity and mortality, and which can manifest with different types of exhanthems in humans. However, most rickettsiae circulate in diverse sylvatic or peridomestic reservoirs without having obvious impacts on their vertebrate hosts or affecting humans. We have analyzed the key features of tick-borne maintenance of rickettsiae which may provide a deeper basis for understanding those complex invertebrate interactions and strategies that have permitted survival and circulation of divergent rickettsiae in nature. Rickettsiae are found in association with a wide range of hard and soft ticks which feed on very different species of large and small animals. Maintenance of rickettsiae in these vector systems is driven by both vertical and horizontal transmission strategies, but some species of Rickettsia are also known to cause detrimental effects on their arthropod vectors. Contrary to common belief, the role of vertebrate animal hosts in maintenance of rickettsiae is very incompletely understood. Some clearly play only the essential role of providing a blood meal to the tick while other hosts may supply crucial supplemental functions for effective agent transmission by the vectors. This review summarizes the importance of some recent findings with known and new vectors that afford an improved understanding of the eco-epidemiology of rickettsiae; the public health implications of that information for rickettsial diseases are also described. Special attention is paid to the co-circulation of different rickettsiae within the same endemic areas and how these observations may influence, correctly or incorrectly, trends and conclusions drawn from the surveillance of rickettsial diseases in humans.
Simultaneous 99mTc-MDP/123I-MIBG tumor imaging using SPECT-CT: phantom and constructed patient studies.

Purpose: Authors’ goal is to evaluate the performance of simultaneous99mTc-MDP/123I-MIBG tumor imaging with fast Monte-Carlo (MC) based joint iterative reconstruction as compared to sequential 99mTc-MDP and 123I-MIBG tumor imaging. Methods: Noise-free99mTc and 123I SPECT projections were acquired separately using an anthropomorphic torso phantom modified to include a fillable tube around the lungs to mimic ribs. Additionally, 99mTc and 123I projections were acquired separately using a 1-cm spherical “tumor” placed at various distances from one detector. Tumor-present data were generated by adding tumor projections to the torso phantom data, which were scaled to the total counts in typical clinical studies. Twenty-five noise realizations were generated by adding Poisson noise to the projection data for each radionuclide. Dual-radionuclide data were synthesized by summing the 99mTc and 123I projections. Image reconstruction was performed using: (1) SR-OSEM, ordered subset expectation maximization (OSEM) without scatter correction (SC) using single-radionuclide (SR) data; (2) SR-MC-OSEM, OSEM with a fast MC-based SC using SR data; (3) DR-OSEM, OSEM without SC using dual-radionuclide (DR) data; and (4) DR-MC-JOSEM, joint OSEM with a fast MC-based SC using DR data. Ten 99mTc-MDP and ten 123I-MIBG data sets, which had tumors mathematically inserted, were also used to evaluate the performance of authors’ approach. For the phantom study, relative bias and relative standard deviation of tumor uptake were computed for each tumor using the tumor uptake in the noise-free single-radionuclide images, which were reconstructed by SR-MC-OSEM, as the gold standard. For both the phantom and constructed patient studies, mean contrast and standard deviation of contrast were computed for each tumor for both the single- and dual-radionuclide images. Additionally, contrast recovery was computed as the ratio between mean contrast and the mean contrast for SR-MC-OSEM. Results: For the phantom study, DR-MC-JOSEM yielded 2.7% on average relative bias of tumor uptake using the images, which were reconstructed from the noise-free SR data with SR-MC-OSEM, as the gold-standard. For both the phantom and constructed patient studies, DR-MC-JOSEM yielded 94.7% and 95.2% tumor contrast recovery on average using SR-MC-OSEM as the reference, in the phantom and constructed patient studies, respectively. DR-MC-JOSEM yielded comparable relative standard deviation of bias and standard deviation of contrast to SR-MC-OSEM. Conclusions: Simultaneous99mTc-MDP/123I-MIBG tumor imaging using authors’ dual-radionuclide reconstruction approach yielded comparable image quality to sequential 99mTc-MDP and 123I-MIBG imaging. For patients who need to undergo both scans, authors’ approach offers perfectly registered dual-tracer images under identical conditions without compromising image quality, and reduces the imaging cost while increasing patient throughput.
Small Molecule Screening with Laser Cytometry Can Be Used to Identify Pro-Survival Molecules in Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Differentiated cells from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) provide an unlimited source of cells for use in regenerative medicine. The recent derivation of human induced pluripotent cells (hiPSCs) provides a potential supply of pluripotent cells that avoid immune rejection and could provide patient-tailored therapy. In addition, the use of pluripotent cells for drug screening could enable routine toxicity testing and evaluation of underlying disease mechanisms. However, prior to establishment of patient specific cells for cell therapy it is important to understand the basic regulation of cell fate decisions in hESCs. One critical issue that hinders the use of these cells is the fact that hESCs survive poorly upon dissociation, which limits genetic manipulation because of poor cloning efficiency of individual hESCs, and hampers production of large-scale culture of hESCs. To address the problems associated with poor growth in culture and our lack of understanding of what regulates hESC signaling, we successfully developed a screening platform that allows for large scale screening for small molecules that regulate survival. In this work we developed the first large scale platform for hESC screening using laser scanning cytometry and were able to validate this platform by identifying the pro-survival molecule HA-1077. These small molecules provide targets for both improving our basic understanding of hESC survival as well as a tool to improve our ability to expand and genetically manipulate hESCs for use in regenerative applications.
Polarization of neutrons from the D(d,n)He3 reaction below 200 keV

Abstract The polarization of the neutrons emitted from the D(d,n)He3 reaction, at an angle of 45° in the laboratory system, has been determined to be (−11.1±1.5)%, (−7.8±1.4)% and (−6.0±1.8)% at average deuteron energies of 99.0 keV, 81.5 keV and 67.5 keV, respectively. The neutron polarization was calculated from measurement of the right-left asymmetry in scattering from carbon. The C12(n,n)C12 phase shifts of Meier, Scherrer and Trumpy were used to compute the carbon induced polarization at an average neutron energy of 2.7 MeV. The magnitude of the neutron polarization is higher than that predicted by an extrapolation of the theoretical expression given by Blin-Stoyle.
Optimization of Propulsion Kinematics of a Flexible Foil Using Integrated CFD-CSD Simulations

A computational simulation methodology, which combines a computational fluid dynamics technique and a computational structural dynamics technique, is employed to design a deformable foil of which kinematics is inspired by the propulsive motion of a fin or a tail of fish and cetacean. The unsteady incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved using a second-order accurate finite-difference method and an immersed-boundary method to effectively impose boundary conditions on complex moving boundaries. A finite-element-based structural dynamics solver is employed to compute the deformation of the foil due to interaction with fluid. A phase angle between pitching and heaving motions as well as the flexibility of the foil, which is represented by the Youngs modulus are varied to find out how these factors affect the propulsion efficiency.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
An analytical characterization of the error in the measured equation of invariance

In previous publications, the authors have numerically shown that the measured equation of invariance (MEI) is not invariant to excitation. The major implication is that an appropriate set of metrons should be selected for each geometry and excitation in question. An argument, however, can be raised against these findings. One can claim that the MEI is indeed invariant, and that any discrepancies are entirely due to the mesh discretization error. The authors disprove this claim by a counterexample. They perform an analytical study of the MEI as applied to a perfectly conducting circular cylinder with a fixed choice of metrons. They then investigate the behavior of the MEI when the electrical radius of the cylinder becomes large and when the nodal separation goes to zero. They prove that even as the MEI residual goes to zero the error in the MEI solution remains finite and cannot be reduced below a certain limit. >
Effective analgesic modalities for ambulatory patients

The introduction of government-mandated standards for pain management has focused our attention on postoperative pain. With the recent JACHO standards' for ambulatory surgery, it is imperative that all health care workers who care for these patients are familiar with appropriate pain management. Developments in our understanding of the pathophysiology of acute pain have further enhanced our ability to improve pain management for postoperative ambulatory patients. This has led to the concept of preventive analgesia (inhibition of physiological and pathological secondary inflammatory pain). Extensive work has shown that this is best achieved using a multimodel approach usually consisting of an NSAID, opioid, and local anesthetic. NMDA antagonists (ketamine, dextromethorphan) and alpha-2 agnoists (clonodine) show potential supplements to further enhance pain management, especially if given preemptively. Nonpharmacological intervention such as cold therapy or acupuncture may also be considered. The armanentarium for effective pain management has improved substantially over the past few years. The challenge is for health care workers to implement these therapies to obtain optimum pain management in ambulatory surgical patients.
The visual control of landing and obstacle avoidance in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster

Landing behavior is one of the most critical, yet least studied, aspects of insect flight. In order to land safely, an insect must recognize a visual feature, navigate towards it, decelerate, and extend its legs in preparation for touchdown. Although previous studies have focused on the visual stimuli that trigger these different components, the complete sequence has not been systematically studied in a free-flying animal. Using a real-time 3D tracking system in conjunction with high speed digital imaging, we were able to capture the landing sequences of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) from the moment they first steered toward a visual target, to the point of touchdown. This analysis was made possible by a custom-built feedback system that actively maintained the fly in the focus of the high speed camera. The results suggest that landing is composed of three distinct behavioral modules. First, a fly actively turns towards a stationary target via a directed body saccade. Next, it begins to decelerate at a point determined by both the size of the visual target and its rate of expansion on the retina. Finally, the fly extends its legs when the visual target reaches a threshold retinal size of approximately 60 deg. Our data also let us compare landing sequences with flight trajectories that, although initially directed toward a visual target, did not result in landing. In these ‘fly-by’ trajectories, flies steer toward the target but then exhibit a targeted aversive saccade when the target subtends a retinal size of approximately 33 deg. Collectively, the results provide insight into the organization of sensorimotor modules that underlie the landing and search behaviors of insects.