cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Evolution of Sagittal Imbalance Following Corrective Surgery for Sagittal Plane Deformity.

BACKGROUND Sagittal balance in adult spinal deformity is a major predictor of quality of life. A temporary loss of paraspinal muscle force and somatic pain following spine surgery may limit a patient's ability to maintain posture. OBJECTIVE To assess the evolution of sagittal balance and clinical outcomes during recovery from adult spinal deformity surgery. METHODS Retrospective review of a prospective observational database identified a consecutive series of patients with sagittal vertical axis (SVA) > 40 mm undergoing adult deformity surgery. Radiographic parameters and clinical outcomes were measured out to 2 yr after surgery. RESULTS A total of 113 consecutive patients met inclusion criteria. Mean preoperative SVA was 90.3 mm, increased to 104.6 mm in the first week, then gradually reduced at each follow-up interval to 59.2 mm at 6 wk, 45.0 mm at 3 mo, 38.6 mm at 6 mo, and 34.1 mm at 1 yr (all P < .05). SVA did not change between 1 and 2 yr. Pelvic incidence-lumbar lordosis (PI-LL) corrected immediately from 25.3° to 8.5° (16.8° change; P < .01) and a decreased pelvic tilt from 27.6° to 17.6° (10° change; P < .01). No further change was noted in PI-LL. Pelvic tilt increased to 20.2° ( P = .01) at 6 wk and held steady through 2 yr. Mean Visual Analog Scale, Oswestry Disability Index, and Short Form-36 scores all improved; pain rapidly improved, whereas disability measures improved as SVA improved. CONCLUSION Radiographic assessment of global sagittal alignment did not fully reflect surgical correction of sagittal balance until 6 mo after adult deformity surgery. Sagittal balance initially worsened then steadily improved at each interval over the first year postoperatively. At 1 yr, all clinical and radiographic measures outcomes were significantly improved.
Of Friction Points and Infrastructures: Rethinking the Dynamics of Offering Online Education in Technical Communication in Global Contexts

AbstractInternational interest in technical communication education is growing as more individuals gain online access worldwide. This factor means technical communication educators might find themselves developing online classes for students located in other nations. Doing so requires an understanding of aspects affecting international interactions in such educational contexts. This article examines central factors—or friction points—that technical communication instructors must understand and address to offer effective online educational experiences to globally distributed students.
Bone Marrow Transplantation in Children with Acute Leukemia: A 1990 View

Since the first case report in 1959 of total body irradiation and bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in a child with acute leukemia, the popularity of this approach has steadily increased [1]. The introduction of human leukocyte antigen typing and mixed leukocyte cultures and improved methods of supportive care made BMT a successful way of treating certain immunodeficiency disorders, severe aplastic anemia, chronic myeloid leukemia, and certain other blood dyscrasias as well as acute leukemia [2]. The purpose of this essay is to examine critically the practice of myeloablation and marrow transplantation in children with acute leukemia.
Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio as predictive of prolonged progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with second-line PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitors.

e14530Background: Baselinehigh neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been associated with inferior overall survival in patients with stage III/IV NSCLC. Inflammation and neutrophilic infiltrates...
Rethinking the Boundaries of 'Criminal Justice' (Book Review)

This review of The New Criminal Justice Thinking (Sharon Dolovich & Alexandra Natapoff, eds.) tracks the shifting and uncertain contours of “criminal justice” as an object of study and critique. Specifically, I trace two themes in the book: (1) the uncertain boundaries of the “criminal justice system” as a web of laws, actors, and institutions; and (2) the uncertain boundaries of “criminal justice thinking” as a universe of interdisciplinary scholarship, policy discourse, and public engagement. I argue that these two themes speak to critically important questions about the nature of criminal justice scholarship and reform efforts. Without a firm understanding of what constitutes the “criminal justice system,” it is difficult to agree on the proper targets of critique or to determine what legal, social, and political problems are properly the province of “criminal justice thinking.” And, deciding which voices to accept and privilege in these discussions in turn shapes the face of the reform movement and the types of proposals and critiques that are treated as legitimate.
Using natural gas reserves to mitigate intermittence of renewables in the day ahead market

We formulate and analyze a day-ahead (DA) electricity market in which a thermal power plant and a renewable generator compete with each other in their commitments to the market. The market price of energy is affected by the commitments of the generators. The renewable generator faces a settlement cost if it cannot meet its commitment due to unpredictable generation. As a hedge against this cost, it is equipped with a natural gas reserve that can either be used to compensate generation shortages or be sold in the natural gas market. We model the problem as a Stackelberg game, in which an independent system operator (ISO) sends a price signal to the generators. In response, the generators decide on their commitments to maximize their own profit. The ISO decides on the price such that the total commitment will be equal to the energy demanded by the (estimated) load. We develop sufficient conditions for the uniqueness of Nash equilibrium and obtain a quantitative solution for the Nash equilibrium. It is observed that the market price of energy is lower when the renewable generator is equipped with natural gas reserves. Furthermore, when the renewable generator is equipped with natural gas reserves, the commitments of the generators to the market are less affected by the variance of the renewable energy generation. It is also shown that a larger portion of the natural gas reserves are used for electricity generation when the renewable energy generation has higher uncertainty. Thus, the natural gas reserves act as an effective hedge against the variance in the generation of renewable energy.
What are the Effects of Uv-B Radiation on Marine Organisms?

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the effects of UV-B radiation on marine organisms. Various experiments have demonstrated that UV-B radiation causes damage to fish larvae and juveniles, shrimp larvae, crab larvae, copepods, and plants essential to the aquatic food web. These damaging effects include decreases in fecundity, growth, survival, and other functions of these organisms. In natural marine plant communities a change in species composition rather than a decrease in net production is the probable result of enhanced UV-B exposure. A change in community composition may result in a more unstable ecosystem and would likely have an influence on higher trophic levels. A decrease in total atmospheric ozone would shorten the season of greatest abundance for near-surface zooplankton. The direct effect of UV-B radiation on food-fish larvae closely parallels the effect on invertebrate zooplankton. The usual effects of many environmental stresses are changes in overall productivity and reductions in species diversity. Diversity is often associated with stability in ecosystems, allowing alternate routes and choices within food webs. In field situations under slight stress, one often cannot measure changes in productivity or size of specific populations, but sometimes changes in species diversity can indicate that adverse effects are occurring. With loss of species an ecosystem may lose some of its natural resiliency and flexibility. In aquatic ecosystems one must consider a great number of species, with different life stages and different trophic levels.
PM—Power and Machinery: Development and Evaluation of Kenaf Harvesting Technology

Laboratory and field tests have demonstrated that a component approach to harvesting kenaf and separating the fibre and core has a lot of potential. Machines used for harvesting kenaf required only minor, if any, modification. The straw-walker from a combine harvester proved to work very well to separate the kenaf fibre and core. More work needs to be performed to expand the prototype separator into a production unit. Transportation of the whole stalk material from field sites to the processing facility proved to be expensive due to the low density of the material. In-field separation could reduce this cost by 50 per cent.
Vascular Regulation in Atherosclerosis

Physiologically, requirements for increased organ perfusion are met acutely by vasodilation, and chronically by the growth of pre-existent and new vascular channels. Current evidence indicates that the arteriosclerotic circulation undergoes several alterations that limit acute and chronic hyperemic responses. Macrovascular occlusive disease (atheroma, thrombosis) is not the only factor that may limit flow. Vasomotor tone, the sum of dilating and constricting influences, may be altered in favor of constriction, both at the macrovascular and microvascular levels. Major mechanisms that have been demonstrated include sensitization of arterial smooth muscle to specific endogenous constrictors (histamine, serotonin), and impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilation. The latter appears to affect particularly the arterial microcirculation which importantly determines organ perfusion to a large extent. Chronic adjustments include increases in macrovascular arterial diameter, and the generation of new arterial pathways (collateralization, microvasularization, angiogenesis). Recent experiments in our laboratory have demonstrated that arterial growth evoked by chronic increases in arterial flow is dependent on the presence of a normally functioning endothelium. After mechanical de-endothelialization of large arteries, or in the presence of hypercholesterolemic endothelial injury, vascular growth is impaired. Ongoing experiments focusing on the microcirculation further indicate that the growth of new small vessels (angiogenesis) may likewise be impaired in the presence of hypercholesterolemia. The results suggest that atherosclerosis may affect acute and chronic flow adjustments by multiple mechanisms. It is hoped that an understanding of these mechanisms will provide a new basis for the treatment of ischemic syndromes.
Proceedings of the ACM/IFIP/USENIX 11th International Conference on Middleware

We are pleased to welcome you to the eleventh edition of the Middleware conference. The program this year is a sign of the robustness, activity, and continued growth of the Middleware community. As computing technology around us has evolved rapidly over the past decade, our notions of middleware have also adapted so that we stay focused on the most challenging and relevant problems for the present and future. As a result, this year's program features papers that belong to both traditional areas as well as new directions. Cloud computing, social middleware, and transactional memory are some of the vanguard areas that you will find in this year's selection of papers. In addition, topics that have always been central to the community are also prominent this year, including publish-subscribe, multicast, reliability, legacy, location-awareness, trust, and security. The community's wise evolution reflects the dynamic role that middleware continues to play in the development of current software systems. The program underscores the competitive selection process applied by us and the technical program committee: out of 116 papers submitted this year, we accepted 18 for regular publication. In addition Middleware 2010 also includes a new category of "Big Ideas Papers," which are bold white papers with the potential to drive longer-term innovation in the field. We selected one "big ideas" paper this year. Our industrial track once again brings forth papers that explore middleware foundations in the context of industrial practice. Finally, multiple workshops and a doctoral symposium round off Middleware this year, making it an attractive conference for students, faculty, researchers, and practitioners.
A code generator for high-performance tensor contractions on GPUs

Tensor contractions are higher dimensional generalizations of matrix-matrix multiplication. They form the compute-intensive core of many applications in computational science and data science. In this paper, we describe a high-performance GPU code generator for arbitrary tensor contractions. It exploits domain-specific properties about data reuse in tensor contractions to devise an effective code generation schema, coupled with an effective model-driven search, to determine parameters for mapping of computation to threads and staging of data through the GPU memory hierarchy. Experimental evaluation using a set of tensor contraction benchmarks demonstrates performance improvement and/or significantly reduced code generation time over other state-of-the-art tensor contraction libraries and code generators.
Deeply rooted in the present (heritage, memory, and identity in Brazilian quilombos)

This volume is divided into three chapters, an introduction and a conclusion, as well as a syllabus designed as a teaching-tool. The single spacing in combination with an overwhelming amount of inf...
Potential allergenicity of commonly sold high SPF broad spectrum sunscreens in the United States; from the perspective of patients with autoimmune skin disease.

Abstract Background Lack of established criteria for sunscreen product recommendations and potentially allergenic ingredients in sunscreens pose an issue for physicians and patients with autoimmune skin conditions. Objective We reviewed popular sunscreens for effectiveness and potential allergenicity for recommendation and use in the autoimmune skin condition population. Methods In this cohort study, we selected sunscreens from the bestseller lists of Amazon, Target, and CVS. Of those, sunscreens with sun protection factor of 50 to 99 and 100 that met our effectiveness criteria (52 sunscreens) were analyzed for allergenic ingredients. An allergen list was developed from the North American Contact Dermatitis Group core data and stratified into low-prevalence and high-prevalence allergens. Results The allergenicity of popular sunscreens that met our effectiveness criteria are organized in a table by number of tiered potential allergens. Although no sunscreen was allergen-free, several products contained a minimal number of low-prevalence allergens. The most common low-prevalence allergens were chemical sunscreen ingredients avobenzone, octocrylene, and oxybenzone, and the most common high-prevalence allergen was fragrance. A limitation is that not all U.S. sunscreens were analyzed. Conclusion With the wide range of sunscreens available, physicians and patients should be aware of the effectiveness and potential allergenicity of sunscreens and make recommendations and consumption choices accordingly.
Cruel State Punishments

The Supreme Court has almost systematically expanded the Eighth Amendment over the past decade and a half, proscribing categorical limitations to the death penalty and juvenile life without parole. With Justice Kennedy’s recent retirement, this expansion seems like it might be ending. As this door is closing, however, another door may be opening for restricting excessive punishments — state constitutional analogues to the Eighth Amendment. A close examination of such provisions reveals that some of the provisions use “or” instead of “and,” a linguistic difference that suggests many state constitutions might be broader than the Eighth Amendment. This article explores the consequences of linguistic differences between the Eighth Amendment and its state constitutional analogues, focusing in particular on the effect of disjunctive state constitutional provisions. Specifically, the article argues that these linguistic differences open the door to broader application of state Eighth Amendment analogues to rein in excessive punishment practices of state governments. In Part I, the Article begins by providing an overview of Eighth Amendment doctrine and the importance of the conjunction in its application to criminal sentences. Part II surveys the state constitutions and examines the language of the provision analogous to the Eighth Amendment, grouping these provisions into three broad categories. In Part III, the Article advances its core claim — state constitutional prohibitions against “cruel” punishments should limit the ability of states to impose disproportionate punishments. Part IV concludes the Article by exploring the many practical consequences of limiting the imposition of cruel punishments.
Impact of epithelial basement membrane dystrophy and Salzmann nodular degeneration on biometry measurements.

Purpose To determine the effects of epithelial basement membrane dystrophy (EBMD) and Salzmann nodular degeneration (SND) on optical biometry measurements. Setting Department of Ophthalmology, Duke University Eye Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA. Design Retrospective case series. Methods Cataractous eyes with EBMD or SND scheduled for superficial keratectomy (SK) or phototherapeutic keratectomy (PTK) had baseline biometry. Repeat biometry was performed 30 days or more postoperatively and compared with baseline. The primary outcome measures were keratometry (K) values, axial length and magnitude, and axis of corneal astigmatism. Secondary outcome measures were the change in intraocular lens (IOL) power, toricity, and axis. Results In the EBMD group (26 eyes), the mean absolute intersession difference showed an increase in mean K values (P 1.0 D). In toric IOL–eligible eyes, the recommended IOL toricity changed for 16 of 24 eyes, with a mean cylinder power change of 1.2 D. In the SND group (13 eyes), the mean absolute intersession difference showed an increase in mean K values (P = .023) and a change in IOL spherical power predicting a postoperative SE closest to zero (P 1.0 D). The recommended IOL toricity changed for 10 of 11 eyes (mean cylinder power change 1.5 D). Conclusions Both EBMD and SND altered K measurements as evidenced by clinically significant changes in keratometry after SK or PTK. These changes affected the spherical and toric IOL power. Appropriate management of EBMD and SND before cataract surgery can yield more reliable biometric data for surgical planning.
Enantioselective Mannich Reactions with the Practical Proline Mimetic N-(p-Dodecylphenyl-sulfonyl)-2-pyrrolidinecarboxamide

A highly enantioselective and diastereoselective protocol for performing Mannich reactions has been developed by using a p-dodecylphenylsulfonamide-based proline catalyst. This catalyst facilitates the use of common, nonpolar solvents and increased concentrations as compared to alternative methods. A series of syn-selective Mannich reactions is reported, including the rapid access of α- and β-amino acids surrogates. The use of the industrially attractive nonpolar solvents, such as 2-methyl-tetrahydrofuran, is also demonstrated.
Nutrition and Inflammation

There are multifaceted relationships between nutrition, inflammation, and oral health Nutrient deficits and malnutrition can modulate immune function which in turn impacts oral and systemic health Dietary fat and fatty acid composition can affect metabolism and inflammation; their impact on systemic inflammatory conditions with oral manifestations and oral diseases merits consideration Obesity may be the common denominator that links periodontal disease to systemic inflammatory conditions The basis of the links between malnutrition and periodontal disease may be the impact on the inflammatory response
Factors Affecting Recovery Trajectories in Pediatric Female Concussion.

Objective:Up to one-third of children with concussion have persistent postconcussion symptoms lasting beyond 4 weeks. Females have been shown to have prolonged concussion recovery compared with males. This study examined characteristics in pediatric athletes with concussion to investigate the underl
Zero-inflated Poisson factor model with application to microbiome read counts

Dimension reduction of high-dimensional microbiome data facilitates subsequent analysis such as regression and clustering. Most existing reduction methods cannot fully accommodate the special features of the data such as count-valued and excessive zero reads. We propose a zero-inflated Poisson factor analysis model in this paper. The model assumes that microbiome read counts follow zero-inflated Poisson distributions with library size as offset and Poisson rates negatively related to the inflated zero occurrences. The latent parameters of the model form a low-rank matrix consisting of interpretable loadings and low-dimensional scores that can be used for further analyses. We develop an efficient and robust expectation-maximization algorithm for parameter estimation. We demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method using comprehensive simulation studies. The application to the Oral Infections, Glucose Intolerance, and Insulin Resistance Study provides valuable insights into the relation between subgingival microbiome and periodontal disease.
Evaluation Framework for Input Layer Preprocessing in a Radial Basis Function Neural Network

The need for immediate situational awareness updates in a military environment can be partially mitigated by employing machine learning (ML) at the edge of the network, where the warfighter operates. Technical challenges for edge computing, like limited power and data, require unique hardware and software implementations for viable solutions. Low power neuromorphic processors running radial basis function artificial neural networks (RBFNN) makes ML at the edge more practical but can introduce limitations in the data throughput. This power and data limitation can be moderated using preprocessing of the input space to magnify the most pertinent data features. This paper presents a framework for evaluating different input space paradigms in a systematic manner. Using a representative small dataset for a pyroshock event, common in the military environment, several input preprocessing paradigms are evaluated. The correlation coefficient across the dataset, between the number of neurons and inference accuracy for the RBFNN has a p-value of 1 x 10-7.
Notes on the Case of Orangutan Sandra, the Non-Human Subject of Rights

Depending on religion or legal philosophy, an animal may be considered a “non-human person” whose welfare rights should be acknowledged and protected by people. Law enforcement authorities and courts address cases of treatment of animals by people, including shared by them natural habitat—“Mother Earth,” to use the term of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda. This chapter discusses the philosophical and legal underpinnings for welfare rights of animals, prompted by the case of the retired orangutan Sandra. She became the first non-human subject of such rights, granted by a ground-breaking Argentinian jurisprudence with the first-ever court-backed her transfer to an animal sanctuary in the United States, where her relative welfare and freedom has been secured.
First Somatic PRKAR1A Defect Associated With Mosaicism for Another PRKAR1A Mutation in a Patient With Cushing Syndrome.

Context Primary pigmented nodular adrenocortical disease (PPNAD) is a rare cause of ACTH-independent Cushing syndrome (CS) associated mostly with Carney complex (CNC), a rare autosomal dominant multiple neoplasia syndrome. More than two-thirds of familial cases and approximately one-third of sporadic cases of CNC harbor germline inactivating PRKAR1A defects. Increasingly sensitive technologies for the detection of genetic defects such as next-generation sequencing (NGS) have further highlighted the importance of mosaicism in human disease. Case description A 33-year-old woman was diagnosed with ACTH-independent CS with abdominal computed tomography showing bilateral micronodular adrenal hyperplasia with a left adrenal adenoma. She underwent left adrenalectomy with pathology demonstrating PPNAD with a 1.5-cm pigmented adenoma. DNA analysis by Sanger sequencing revealed 2 different PRKAR1A variants in the adenoma that were absent from DNA extracted from blood and saliva: c.682C > T and c.974-2A > G. "Deep" NGS revealed that 0.31% of DNA copies extracted from blood and saliva did in fact carry the c.682C > T variant, suggesting low-level mosaicism for this defect. Conclusions We present a case of PPNAD due to low-level mosaicism for a PRKAR1A defect which led to the formation of an adenoma due to a second, adrenal-specific, somatic PRKAR1A mutation. The identification of mosaicism for PRKAR1A, depending on the number and distribution of cells affected has implications for genetic counseling and tumor surveillance. This is the first recorded case of a patient with PRKAR1A mosaicism, PPNAD, and an adenoma forming due to complete inactivation of PRKAR1A in adrenal tissue from a second, somatic-only, PRKAR1A coding sequence mutation.
Regulation of Chondrocyte Matrix Metalloproteinase Gene Expression

Matrix metalloproteinases also known as MMPs are zinc-dependent endoproteases which process extracellular matrix proteins at neutral pH to regulate normal macromolecular protein turnover as well as those cellular events associated with the remodeling of tissue architecture. The MMP superfamily of proteins include the classical MMPs, MMP-1, -8, -13, and -18, the gelatinases, MMP-2, -9, stromelysins, MMP-3, -10, -11, matrilysins, MMP-7, MMP-26, membrane-type MMPs (MT-MMPs; MMP-14, -17, 24/25) the ADAMS (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase) also known as adamlysins and the ADAMTS (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motif). MMP genes are regulated principally via the activation of transcription factors induced by various growth factors and cytokine/cytokine receptor interactions which are pertinent to the tissue allostasis, but which are most critical to the pathophysiological progression of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. The most important transcription factors known to be involved in regulating MMP gene expression include the synthesis and/or activation of NF-κB, Cbfa1, AP-1, Nmp4/CIZ, ELF3, c-Maf, KLF5 and Sp1 which interact with specific known sequences in the promoter region of MMP genes. In arthritis, protein kinase pathways are generally activated by pro-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-1β, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, and other members of the IL-6 protein family. The transcription factors activated by these signaling mechanisms have traditionally been considered “undruggable.” However, recent experimental evidence indicates that inhibition of transcription factor synthesis and/or activation may be achieved which could be employed to suppress MMP gene activity.
Woody Biomass Supply, Economics, and Biofuel Policy: Maine and Northeastern Forests

The amount of woody biomass available for biofuel production depends on tree growth rate, harvesting techniques, harvest cost, government policies, and established traditions within the industry. Comparing estimates of biomass availability across studies is difficult because of different methodologies for estimating biomass supply, compounded by inconsistent and often unspecified assumptions. Studies differ in their definition of biomass (i.e., tree size, parts of tree) and consideration of ecological and economic factors (i.e., harvest productivity and costs, competing demand, compliance with existing regulations). In particular, existing restrictions on biomass harvesting for biofuels under the Federal Renewable Fuel Standard often are not included. Additionally, because most biomass availability studies ignore current biomass uses, an overestimation of available biomass for future uses results. Presented are new estimates for the amount of economically available biomass in Maine, taking into considerat...
The Role of Interleukin-10 and Hyaluronan in Murine Fetal Fibroblast Function In Vitro: Implications for Recapitulating Fetal Regenerative Wound Healing

Background Mid-gestation fetal cutaneous wounds heal scarlessly and this has been attributed in part to abundant hyaluronan (HA) in the extracellular matrix (ECM) and a unique fibroblast phenotype. We recently reported a novel role for interleukin 10 (IL-10) as a regulator of HA synthesis in the fetal ECM, as well as the ability of the fetal fibroblast to produce an HA-rich pericellular matrix (PCM). We hypothesized that IL-10-mediated HA synthesis was essential to the fetal fibroblast functional phenotype and, moreover, that this phenotype could be recapitulated in adult fibroblasts via supplementation with IL-10 via an HA dependent process. Methodology/Principal Findings To evaluate the differences in functional profile, we compared metabolism (MTS assay), apoptosis (caspase-3 staining), migration (scratch wound assay) and invasion (transwell assay) between C57Bl/6J murine fetal (E14.5) and adult (8 weeks) fibroblasts. We found that fetal fibroblasts have lower rates of metabolism and apoptosis, and an increased ability to migrate and invade compared to adult fibroblasts, and that these effects were dependent on IL-10 and HA synthase activity. Further, addition of IL-10 to adult fibroblasts resulted in increased fibroblast migration and invasion and recapitulated the fetal phenotype in an HA-dependent manner. Conclusions/Significance Our data demonstrates the functional differences between fetal and adult fibroblasts, and that IL-10 mediated HA synthesis is essential for the fetal fibroblasts' enhanced invasion and migration properties. Moreover, IL-10 via an HA-dependent mechanism can recapitulate this aspect of the fetal phenotype in adult fibroblasts, suggesting a novel mechanism of IL-10 in regenerative wound healing.
Halo: managing node rendezvous in opportunistic sensor networks

One vision of an opportunistic sensor network (OSN) uses sensor access points (SAPs) to assign mobile sensors with sensing tasks submitted by applications that could be running anywhere. Tasked mobile sensors might upload sensed data back to these applications via subsequent encounters with this SAP tier. In a people-centric OSN, node mobility is uncontrolled and the architecture relies on opportunistic rendezvous between human-carried sensors and SAPs to provide tasking/uploading opportunities. However, in many reasonable scenarios application queries have a degree of time sensitivity such that the sensing target must be sampled and/or the resulting sensed data must be uploaded within a certain time window to be of greatest value. Halo efficiently, in terms of packet overhead and mobile sensor energy, provides improved delay performance in OSNs by: (i) managing tasking/uploading opportunity, and (ii) using mobility-informed scheduling at the SAP.
A Cross-Cultural Environmental Education Model.

(1970). A Cross–Cultural Environmental Education Model. Environmental Education: Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 32-35.
Macromolecular synthesis in human diploid fibroblasts. A viral probe examining the effect of in vivo aging.

The replication of vesicular stomatitis virus was examined in early-passage skin fibroblast cultures from old and young human donors. The production of virus was analysed by measuring synthesis of viral RNA in actinomycin D-treated cells, and by determining the yield of biologically-active viral progeny by plaque assay. Although no statistically significant differences (P < 0.05) were observed between old and young cultures, our assays were shown to be capable of detecting impaired macromolecular synthesis induced by incorporation of amino acid analogues. These results indicate that macromolecular synthesis does not appear to be significantly altered in cells from older donors.
The Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998: The Sun Sets on California's Blue Sky Laws

This Article discusses the developments that led to the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 and provides a summary and analysis of the Uniform Act. It also discusses recent developments in securities fraud class actions governed by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and how the new national standard created by the Uniform Act is likely to affect federal securities class actions.
A novel hash-based streaming scheme for energy efficient full-text search in wireless data broadcast

Full-Text Search is one of the most important and popular query types in document retrieval systems. With the development of The Fourth Generation Wireless Network (4G), wireless data broadcast has gained a lot of interest because of its scalability, flexibility, and energy efficiencies for wireless mobile computing. How to apply full-text search to documents transmitted through wireless communications is thus a research topic of interest. In this paper, we propose a novel data streaming scheme (named Basic-Hash) with hash-based indexing and inverted list techniques to facilitate energy and latency efficient full-text search in wireless data broadcast. We are the first work utilizing hash technology for this problem, which takes much less access latency and tuning time comparing to the previous literature. We further extend the proposed scheme by merging the hashed word indices in order to reduce the total access latency (named Merged-Hash). An information retrieval protocol is developed to cope with these two schemes. The performances of Basic-Hash and Merged-Hash are examined both theoretically and empirically. Simulation results prove their efficiencies with respect to both energy consumption and access latency
The role of glucocorticoid action in the pathophysiology of the Metabolic Syndrome.

Glucocorticoids are stress hormones that modulate a large number of physiological actions involved in metabolic, inflammatory, cardiovascular and behavioral processes. The molecular mechanisms and the physiological effects of glucocorticoids have been extensively studied. However, the involvement of glucocorticoid action in the etiology of the Metabolic Syndrome has not been well appreciated. Recently, accumulating clinical evidence and animal genetics studies have attracted growing interest in the role of glucocorticoid action in obesity and insulin resistance. This review will discuss the metabolic effects in the context of glucocorticoid metabolism and establish the association of glucocorticoid action with the features of the Metabolic Syndrome, especially obesity and insulin resistance. Special discussions will be focused on corticosteroid-binding globulin and 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1, two proteins that mediate glucocorticoid action and have been implicated in the Metabolic Syndrome. Due to the complexities of the glucocorticoid biology and the Metabolic Syndrome and limited space, this review is only intended to provide a general link between the two areas with broad rather than in-depth discussions of clinical, pharmacological and genetic findings.
Predictors of Condom Use With Main and Casual Partners Among HIV-Positive Men Over 50

Objective: Sexual health among the growing population of older adults living with HIV has garneredincreased research attention. Previous studies have identified alcohol and drug use as factors increasingrates of sexual activity and sex risk behavior in this population. However, the influence of partner type(whether main or casual) on the links between substance use and sexual behavior in older men living withHIV remains understudied and was the focus of the current study. Method: Data were collected fromtelephone interviews with 378 men, aged 50 years or older, living with HIV and residing in the New YorkCity area. The sample included 224 (59%) men who identified as gay or bisexual and 154 (41%) whoidentified as heterosexual. The majority of the sample identified as Black (66%), and the average age was55 years. Participants reported on recent sexual behavior, substance use, and viral load/detectabilitystatus. Results: Results of multinomial logistic regression analyses found that substance use wasassociated with increased rates of condomless sex with casual partners but not with main partners,whereas self-reported viral load (perceptions of immunological health) was a factor associated withcondomless sex with main partners but not with casual partners. Conclusions: The findings indicate thatdifferent factors are involved in instances of condomless sex depending on whether the partner is a mainor casual partner. Research and intervention efforts aimed at reducing risk factors for older men livingwith HIV and their partners need to take into account the relational context of sexual behavior.Keywords: sex risk, substance use, older adults, HIV and aging
THE EFFECTS OF NERVE GROWTH FACTOR ON SPATIAL RECENT MEMORY IN AGED RATS PERSIST AFTER DISCONTINUATION OF TREATMENT

Nerve growth factor (NGF) infusion significantly reduces spatial recent memory deficits in aged rats, an effect that has great relevance to the treatment of memory impairments characteristic of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The present study was designed to examine whether this NGF-induced improvement in spatial recent memory persists after the discontinuation of NGF treatment, an issue of crucial importance for the potential clinical use of this compound. Spatial recent memory was tested in a Morris water maze delayed nonmatch-to-position task. In addition to memory, sensorimotor skills were also examined. Four- and 22-month-old rats were tested preoperatively, infused intraventricularly with recombinant human NGF or vehicle, and tested both during the 4 week infusion period and during the 4 weeks after discontinuation of the infusion. NGF significantly improved spatial recent memory in 22-month-old rats only, during the 4th week of infusion and for up to 4 weeks after discontinuation of the infusion. Although NGF did not affect overall sensorimotor skills during infusion in either age group, sensorimotor skills were significantly improved both 2 and 4 weeks after discontinuation of infusion in 22-month-old rats. These findings demonstrate that the beneficial effects of NGF on spatial recent memory can persist for up to 1 month after discontinuation of infusion and suggest that NGF can be used intermittently for the treatment of age-associated memory dysfunction and Alzheimer’s disease.
Magnetic neural stimulation of peripheral nerve: A study for optimum spatial and temporal electric field distribution

Magnetic stimulation of peripheral nerves is an evolving research that leads to contactless activation of the axons. Traditionally, this technique was applied for the design of transcranial stimulators and was subsequently used in clinical studies for the treatment of epilepsy, chronic pain and mood disorder. Despite its success, the large dimension of the magnetic stimulator and the significant energy requirement to elicit neural activity hindered the ability of magnetic stimulators to become a viable candidate for the implantable systems. Compared to electrical neural stimulation, magnetic stimulators require ∼108 times higher energy and ∼50 times larger electrode (or coil). Therefore, there is a need to research strategies to minimize the energy and dimensions of magnetic stimulators.
Alaskan Renewable Schools- Burning Wood into Educational Dollars☆

Abstract With the sharp increase of heating oil prices in Alaska this past half decade, and with no substantial tax base for many Alaskan school districts to levy from, many districts have no recourse to recoup lost resources for educational delivery without considering a cheaper fuel source for heating their schools. A half dozen districts in Interior and Southeast Alaska have successfully switched to burning wood, which has resulted in cutting fuel costs by at least 50%, and in some cases up toward 75%. What community ‘capitals’ or assets did these locations that made the switch, have? This interview-based research looks at the resulting benefits of these biomass efforts in light of the Community Capitals Framework, which looks at a utility/heat project from the point of view of community development, sustainability, and resiliency.
Effect of short-chain fatty acids on plasma insulin in ruminant and nonruminant species.

Regulation of plasma insulin levels in the sheep, cow, rat, rabbit and pig was investigated utilizing a double antibody radio-immunoassay. In the sheep, infusion of the rumen metabolites, propionate and butyrate, increased plasma insulin levels approximately 4-fold and 14-fold, respectively, without affecting plasma glucose. All fatty acids containing 3–8 carbon atoms stimulated insulin production, valerate being the most effective. Acetate, aceto-acetate and beta-hydroxybutyrate had no effect on plasma insulin. Infusion of glucose was much less effective than propionate, butyrate or valerate and there was no correlation between fasting glucose levels and fasting plasma insulin. Infusion of propionate into rats, rabbits or pigs had no effect on the plasma insulin, whereas both propionate and butyrate provoked a rise in plasma insulin in the cow. It was concluded that propionate and butyrate are stimulators of insulin secretion in the sheep and cow but not of nonruminant species. (Endocrinology 83: 118, 1968)
Spectroscopic and perfusion magnetic resonance imaging predictors of progression in pediatric brain tumors.

BACKGROUND In vivo biomarkers to predict progression of brain tumors are of great value in clinical practice. Therefore, the authors tested the hypothesis that changes in choline ratios by magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopic imaging and/or relative tumor blood volume (rTBV) can differentiate clinically stable from progressive pediatric brain tumors. METHODS MR spectroscopic imaging examinations were performed on 27 children with neuroglial brain tumors during therapy on a 1.5-Tesla MR system. Normalized rTBV values were measured in 11 of 27 patients. Each examination was rated as stable or progressive by clinical and imaging criteria. RESULTS The percent change in normalized choline (Cho) was significantly greater in patients who had progressive examinations compared with patients who had stable examinations (P = 0.03). The percent change in Cho/N-acetylaspartate (Cho/NAA) was significantly higher in patients who had progressive outcomes (n = 18 patients) compared with patients who had stable outcomes (n = 32 patients; P < 0.001; sensitivity, 0.89; specificity, 0.88) and was identified as the most important prognostic indicator of tumor progression by logistic regression (likelihood ratio test, 33.4; P < 0.001). The odds of tumor progression were approximately 55 times greater for patients who showed at least a 20% change in Cho/NAA. rTBV distinguished between progressing and stable tumors (P = 0.03), and Cho/NAA and rTBV values showed interaction to predict the probability of a progressing clinical outcome. CONCLUSIONS The percent change in Cho/NAA by proton MR spectroscopic imaging, assisted by rTBV, was useful in predicting tumor progression in children with brain tumors. Cancer 2004. © 2004 American Cancer Society.
Ultrafast Time-Resolved Spectroscopy of Self-Assembled Cyclic Fe(II)−Bisterpyridine Complexes

Femtosecond time-resolved absorption spectroscopy has been used to study the excited-state charge transfer dynamics in a set of self-assembled cyclic Fe(II)-bisterpyridine compounds with different π-conjugated ligands. By analyzing the dynamics, the internal conversion process involving a ligand-centered π-π* state to a lower lying metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) state was investigated. This is followed by intersystem crossing to the lowest MLCT state, which was found to occur at the ∼100 fs time scale. Vibrational cooling in the lowest MLCT state was found to occur on the 10s of femtoseconds time scale. The lowest MLCT state had an excited-state lifetime longer than 5 ns, indicating the possibility of light-induced excited-state spin trapping (LIESST).
SUMMARY OF THE WORKSHOP ON X-RAY AND GAMMA RAY BURST SOURCES*

New contributions dealing with the relationship between the X-ray burst sources and the gamma ray burst sources are summarized. The different types of X-ray and gamma ray burst sources are described along with their parameters, including the 'rapid burster' X-ray source and the gamma ray burst of Mar. 5, 1979 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The theoretical interpretation of type I X-ray bursts and of gamma ray bursts is detailed, and suggestions for further research in the gamma ray burst area are made.
Lactobacillus plantarum undecaprenyl pyrophosphate synthetase: Purification and reaction requirements

Abstract Undecaprenyl pyrophosphate synthetase was partially purified from Lactobacillus plantarum by DEAE-cellulose, hydroxyapatite, and Sephadex G-100 chromatography in Triton X-100. The enzyme has a molecular weight between 53,000 and 60,000. The enzyme demonstrated a fivefold preference for farnesyl pyrophosphate rather than geranyl pyrophosphate as the allylic cosubstrate, whereas dimethylallyl pyrophosphate was not effective as a substrate. Polyprenyl pyrophosphates obtained using either farnesyl or geranyl pyrophosphate as cosubstrate were chromatographically identical. Hydrolysis of these polyprenyl pyrophosphates with either a yeast or liver phosphatase preparation yielded undecaprenol as the major product. Incorporation of radioactive label from mixtures of Δ 3 -[1- 14 C]isopentenyl pyrophosphate and Δ 3 -2R-[2- 3 H]isopentenyl pyrophosphate into enzymic product indicated that each isoprene unit added to the allylic pyrophosphate substrate has a cis configuration about the newly formed double bond. The removal of detergent from enzyme solutions resulted in a parallel loss in enzyme activity when analyzed with either farnesyl or geranyl pyrophosphate as cosubstrates. Enzymic activity was restored on addition of Triton X-100 or deoxycholate. The enzyme exhibited a pH-activity profile with optima at pH 7.5 and 10.2. It also demonstrated a divalent cation requirement, with Mg 2+ , Mn 2+ , Zn 2+ , and Co 2+ exhibiting comparable activities.