cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Role of epidural and intrathecal narcotics and peptides in the management of cancer pain

The spinal administration of opioids may provide analgesia of long duration to patients with bilateral or midline lower abdominal or pelvic cancer pain. However, cross-tolerance to orally and parenterally administered narcotics and the rapid development of tolerance to spinal narcotics have limited their usefulness. Opioids have extensive distribution in the CSF and plasma when administered into the epidural or intrathecal space, and delivery of drug to brain stem sites may account for many of the toxic and therapeutic effects of spinal opioids. Further clinical and pharmacokinetic studies are required to provide the information regarding: the optimal opioids for use as spinal analgesics; equieffective dose ratios of spinal opioids in comparison to parenteral or oral opioids; strategies useful to forestall the development of tolerance of spinally administered opioids; the analgesic efficacy of this therapy in opioid-tolerant patients; and the role of spinally administered nonopioid analgesics in the management of cancer pain in the tolerant patient. These questions will need resolution before this therapy can be recommended for routine use in the management of cancer pain.
Blood sugar level and autonomic balance.

Summary1. The hyperglycemic effect of lowered barometric pressure (anoxia) on normal rats of different age groups is less in animals subjected to a 4-hour fast than in those fasted for 22 hours. 2. Similar results are obtained for hypophysectomized rats fasted for 4 and 12 hours respectively. 3. In contradistinction to the findings reported in 1 and 2, different durations of fasting have no effect on the vago-insulin system as shown by observations on adreno-demedullated animals.It is concluded that the reactivity of the sympathetico-adrenal system increases with rising blood sugar level.
Serum Factor Requirements for the Initiation of Cellular Proliferation

The regulatory events in the G0/G1 portion of the cell cycle are believed to control, at least in part, the rate of cellular proliferation. When quiescent density-arrested fibroblasts are stimulated to initiate proliferation, for example, by the addition of fresh serum, they begin DNA synthesis after a defined G0/G1 phase lag. Such stimulation of density-arrested cells provides a population of cells that can be useful in the investigation to elucidate the biochemical events that regulate the traverse of G0/G1. Serum is a complex heterogeneous mixture of proteins, hormones, growth factors, and other components. This complexity has made it difficult to characterize the necessary events leading to proliferation because other cellular reactions, not required for the control of proliferation, are also stimulated by the addition of serum.
Training Basic, Clinical and Translational Investigators

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on advanced training for clinical and translational investigators, including physician-scientists and other doctorally trained clinical and translational researchers. Translating recent advances into better health requires the training of scientists equipped to make discoveries in humans, to develop and test new diagnostic tools and treatments safely in people, to evaluate the effectiveness of clinical interventions, and to implement the most effective approaches to improve health. The optimal training of clinical and translational scientists shares many characteristics with the training of other biomedical scientists. Clinical and translational researchers, however, also require a unique knowledge base and skill set. Whether dealing with individual human subjects or populations, clinical and translational investigators must understand how to study complex and integrated systems, in which there is considerable variability. Clinical and translational research spans a wide spectrum from first-in-human studies conducted in a small number of subjects to health outcomes research conducted in large populations. The skills required to conduct these types of research differ, as does the infrastructural support. The study also discusses the training of successful clinical and translational investigators, including participation in a core didactic curriculum, immersion in a scientific field through a mentored research apprenticeship, participation in formal career development, and leadership development activities.
Share and Share Dislike: The Rise of Uber and AirBNB and How New York City Should Play Nice

Follow this and additional works at: http://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/jlp Part of the Administrative Law Commons, Business Organizations Law Commons, Commercial Law Commons, Consumer Protection Law Commons, Contracts Commons, Housing Law Commons, Labor and Employment Law Commons, Organizations Law Commons, Property Law and Real Estate Commons, State and Local Government Law Commons, Taxation-State and Local Commons, and the Torts Commons
Consensus and conflict: Exploring moderating effects of knowledge workers on industry environment and entrepreneurial entry relationship

Abstract This article examines how knowledge workers in the labor force moderate the relationship between industry environmental conditions and entrepreneurial entry by using two competing streams of research: the consensus theory of employment and the conflict theory of employment. The two distinct literature streams provide competing predictions about knowledge workers' opportunity cost of entrepreneurial entry. Empirical analyses indicate that neither theoretical framework wholly explains the relationships for both munificent and complex environments. Rather, the application of each theory varies for different industry environments; the consensus theory applies to the complex environment, but the conflict theory is consistent with the munificent environment. Findings indicate that the characteristics of industry environments determine whether predictions from the consensus theory of employment or the conflict theory of employment are supported. This study also suggests that the two theoretical frameworks can be integrated to explain the relationships between industry environments and entrepreneurial entry in the knowledge-based economy.
Minimum uncertainty latent variable models for robot recognition of sequential human activities

Recognition of sequential human activities, such as “sitting down” and “standing up”, is a common but challenging problem in human-robot interaction, which requires modeling their underlying temporal patterns. Although previous sequence modeling methods, such as Hidden Conditional Random Fields (HCRFs), demonstrated satisfactory recognition accuracy, they do not explicitly model the uncertainty in underlying temporal patterns, which can provide valuable information to characterize sequential activities. To address this problem, we introduce a novel Minimum Uncertainty HCRF (MU, or μHCRF). Different from traditional HCRF-based techniques that only utilize the negative log-likelihood of the categories' conditional probability as the loss function, the proposed μ-HCRF also introduces a regularization term to model the underlying temporal pattern of the latent variables. As another theoretical contribution, we provide a derivation to show that the formulated problem has a closed-form solution, and prove that inference of the proposed μHCRF is tractable. Extensive empirical study is performed to evaluate our approach, using four public benchmark datasets. Experimental results have shown that our μHCRFs outperform previous techniques and achieve state-of-the-art performance on human activity recognition, especially on sequential activities.
Response to Phillips and Smith

My response to Phillips and Smith’s, ‘Comparative approaches to gentrification’ begins by acknowledging that the piece represents an important step toward greater clarity within the discussion of g...
Using Social Media and Scholarly Text to Predict Public Understanding of Science

People often struggle to understand scientific texts, which leads to miscommunication and often to inaccurate and even sensationalistic reports of research. Identifying and achieving a better understanding of the factors that affect comprehension would be helpful to analyze what improves public understanding of science. In this study, we generate features from scientific text that represent some common text structures and use them to predict the semantic similarity between the scientific text and the textual content posted by the general public about the same scientific text online. In this endeavor, we built regression models to achieve this purpose and evaluated them based on their R-squared values and mean squared errors. R-squared values as high as 0.73 were observed, indicating a high chance of a relationship between certain textual features and the public's understanding of science.
Decision Making and Evaluation in Program Administration

Program administrators are decision makers. Others may set program goals, gather information, carry out policy, or deliver services, but it is the administrator who must make the decisions as to who will be served and how they will be recruited, screened, and enrolled; what services will be provided over what time period and through what means; and who will staff the program and provide specific types of services. These are the types of decisions administrators make and remake as programs are initiated and then operated over time.
Linking Genomic and Clinical Data for Discovery and Personalized Care

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are a powerful tool to improve health care quality while reducing its costs. As a longitudinal repository of patient diagnoses, treatments, and responses to treatment, EHRs are also being increasingly recognized as an important tool for research as well as clinical care. By coupling EHRs with DNA biobanks, EHRs can also provide clinical phenotypes for genomic studies. This chapter summarizes the role and needed methods to use EHR data for genomic discovery and its implementation into clinical care. There are a number of challenges to accurate interpretation and repurposing of EHR data for clinical and genomic research. Typically, investigators employ multimodal “phenotype algorithms” to find accurate cases and controls. Such algorithms integrate billing codes, medication records, laboratory and test result data, and clinical notes to achieve necessary recall and precision. Since much of the content in the clinical record is in unstructured (narrative) clinical documentation, use of natural language processing is often required. Despite these challenges, researchers have been successful in replicating known genetic associations and making new discoveries using EHR data. Early demonstration projects show that the EHR, coupled with advanced genome-enabled decision support, may be the ideal repository to operationalize genomic data for clinical use.
Reproductive Justice and the Social Work Profession: Common Grounds and Current Trends:

Reproductive rights and justice frameworks, which take an intersectional and social justice approach to reproductive health, are compatible with social work’s philosophical and theoretical foundati...
DIFFERENTIALLY PRIVATE SPARSE INVERSE COVARIANCE ESTIMATION

In this paper, we present the first results on the sparse inverse covariance estimation problem under the differential privacy model. We first gave an e-differentially private algorithm using output perturbation strategy, which is based on the sensitivity of the optimization problem and the Wishart mechanism. To further improve this result, we then introduce a general covariance perturbation method to achieve both e-differential privacy and (e, δ)-differential privacy. For e-differential privacy, we analyze the performance of Laplacian and Wishart mechanisms, and for (e, δ)-differential privacy, we examine the performance of Gaussian and Wishart mechanisms. Experiments on both synthetic and benchmark datasets confirm our theoretical analysis.
Gravity-current-induced test gas stratification and its prevention in constrained reaction volume shock-tube experiments

The constrained reaction volume (CRV) method for shock-tube experiments makes it possible to conduct chemical kinetics studies at nearly constant pressure while inhibiting remote ignition. The application of end-wall imaging revealed, however, that CRV experiments are susceptible to vertical stratification at the interface of the test and buffer gases. This work identifies gravity currents as the mechanism leading to the test gas stratification, providing both a theoretical development and experimental investigation of their behavior in a shock tube. Parametric studies are conducted with both the gate valve and stage-filled CRV methods using a novel beam-split laser absorption diagnostic. The speed of gravity-current-induced mixing in both gate valve and stage-filled CRV experiments is shown to depend on the molecular weight matching of the gases and the fill pressure. Mixing velocity in gate valve experiments is shown not to depend on the gate valve speed. In stage-filled experiments, mixing time is seen to be a strong function of the test gas length. Recommended practices for avoiding gravity-current-induced mixing and stratification are described, including gas density matching, utilizing double diaphragms, increasing test gas length in stage-filled experiments, and implementing a gas interface diagnostic.
IL2-STAT5 immune signatures to predict responses to PD-1 inhibition and azacitidine treatment in acute myeloid leukemia (AML): A subset analysis of a phase 2 study.

7041Background: Combining PD-1/PD-L1 blockade with hypomethylating agents (HMA) shows encouraging preliminary efficacy in AML, but immune features predictive of response are lacking. Methods: We tr...
An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Evidence-Based Psychotherapies for Depression to Reduce Suicidal Ideation among Male and Female Veterans.

Abstract Background Although most suicide-related deaths occur among male veterans, women veterans are dying by suicide in increasing numbers. Identifying and increasing access to effective treatments is imperative for Department of Veterans Affairs suicide prevention efforts. We examined the impact of evidence-based psychotherapies for depression on suicidal ideation and the role of gender and treatment type in patients’ responses to treatment. Methods Clinicians receiving case consultation in interpersonal psychotherapy, cognitive–behavioral therapy for depression, and acceptance and commitment therapy for depression submitted data on depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation while treating veterans with depression. Results Suicidal ideation was reduced across time in all three treatments. A main effect for wave was associated with statistically significant decreases in severity of suicidal ideation, χ2 (2) = 224.01, p = .0001, and a subsequent test of the Gender × Wave interaction was associated with differentially larger decreases in ideation among women veterans, χ2 (2) = 9.26, p = .001. Within gender-stratified subsamples, a statistically significant Treatment × Time interaction was found for male veterans, χ2 (4) = 16.82, p = .002, with levels of ideation significantly decreased at waves 2 and 3 in interpersonal psychotherapy and cognitive–behavioral therapy for depression relative to acceptance and commitment therapy for depression; the Treatment × Wave interaction within the female subsample was not statistically significant, χ2 (4) = 3.41, p = .492. Conclusions This analysis demonstrates the efficacy of each of the three tested evidence-based psychotherapies for depression as a means of decreasing suicidal ideation, especially in women veterans. For male veterans, decreases in suicidal ideation were significantly greater in interpersonal psychotherapy and cognitive–behavioral therapy for depression relative to acceptance and commitment therapy for depression.
Discrete Optimal Control, Mathematical Programming and Variational Inequality Problems

In this chapter, we present more mathematical background which is necessary for modeling and solution of dynamic transportation network problems. This chapter will cover discrete optimal control, mathematical programming and variational inequality problems. First, we introduce the discrete optimal control problem (OCP). To simplify our presentation, we consider discrete optimal control problems with fixed end times as examples in Section 3.1. The discussion is focused on the analysis of optimality conditions. Then, some mathematical programming (MP) problems are presented in Section 3.2. Specifically, nonlinear programming (NLP) problems with equality and nonnegativity constraints are presented for comparison. Similarities between discrete optimal control problems and mathematical programming are emphasized.
Our Baby Is Turning Blue

In this chapter, we will explore the case of a home birth involving a neonate with a life-threatening cardiac anomaly. This case will prompt learners to reflect on the meaning of patient autonomy with regard to nonconventional healthcare choices, such as home birth, while also weighing the obligations of beneficence and non-maleficence that are incumbent upon all healthcare practitioners, regardless of setting or credentials. By the conclusion of the case discussion, learners will be able to discuss the ethical and professional responsibilities of clinicians to provide care that both respects autonomy and promotes patient safety and optimal birth outcomes.
N-Alkynyl Pyrrole Based Total Synthesis of Shensongine A

A copper-catalyzed N-alkynylation of pyrrole and a gold-catalyzed spiroketalization were key steps in the total synthesis of the pyrrole spiroketal alkaloid shensongine A. The preparation of this alkaloid is concise and amenable to the rapid synthesis of a diverse library of compounds.
Temporal Dynamics of Transdermal Alcohol Concentration Measured via New-Generation Wrist-Worn Biosensor.

BACKGROUND The development of a transdermal alcohol biosensor could represent a tremendous advance toward curbing problematic drinking. But several factors limit the usefulness of extant transdermal technology, including relatively lengthy delays between blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and transdermal alcohol concentration (TAC), as well as the large/bulky designs of currently available transdermal sensors (e.g., ankle monitors). The current research examined the lag time between BAC and TAC using a prototype of BACtrack Skyn-a new-generation wrist-worn transdermal sensor featuring a compact design and smartphone integration. METHODS Participants (N = 30) received either a dose of alcohol (target BAC 0.08%) or a nonalcoholic beverage in the laboratory while wearing both the AMS SCRAM ankle monitor and a Skyn prototype. Participants were monitored in the laboratory until breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) dropped below 0.025%. RESULTS Device failure rates for Skyn prototypes were relatively high (18 to 38%) compared with nonprototype SCRAM devices (2%). Among participants with usable data, both Skyn- and SCRAM-measured TAC showed strong correlations with BrAC, and both Skyn and SCRAM devices detected alcohol within 30 minutes of first alcohol administration. Skyn-measured TAC peaked over 1 hour earlier than SCRAM-measured TAC (54 versus 120 minutes after peak BrAC, respectively), and time-series models suggested that, on average across all measured portions of the BrAC curve, Skyn TAC lagged behind BrAC by 24 minutes, whereas SCRAM TAC lagged behind BrAC by 69 minutes-all differences statistically significant at p < 0.001. CONCLUSIONS Results provide preliminary evidence for the validity of a new-generation wrist-worn transdermal sensor under controlled laboratory conditions and further suggest favorable properties of this sensor as they pertain to the latency of transdermal alcohol detection. The prototype version of Skyn employed here displayed a higher failure rate compared with SCRAM, and, in future, more reliable and robust Skyn prototypes will be required suitable to field testing across diverse environmental conditions.
Frequency and Evolution of New Postoperative Enhancement on 3 Tesla Intraoperative and Early Postoperative Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Background Intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (IO-MRI) provides real-time assessment of extent of resection of brain tumor. Development of new enhancement during IO-MRI can confound interpretation of residual enhancing tumor, although the incidence of this finding is unknown. Objective To determine the frequency of new enhancement during brain tumor resection on intraoperative 3 Tesla (3T) MRI. To optimize the postoperative imaging window after brain tumor resection using 1.5 and 3T MRI. Methods We retrospectively evaluated 64 IO-MRI performed for patients with enhancing brain lesions referred for biopsy or resection as well as a subset with an early postoperative MRI (EP-MRI) within 72 h of surgery (N = 42), and a subset with a late postoperative MRI (LP-MRI) performed between 120 h and 8 wk postsurgery (N = 34). Three radiologists assessed for new enhancement on IO-MRI, and change in enhancement on available EP-MRI and LP-MRI. Consensus was determined by majority response. Inter-rater agreement was assessed using percentage agreement. Results A total of 10 out of 64 (16%) of the IO-MRI demonstrated new enhancement. Seven of 10 patients with available EP-MRI demonstrated decreased/resolved enhancement. One out of 42 (2%) of the EP-MRI demonstrated new enhancement, which decreased on LP-MRI. Agreement was 74% for the assessment of new enhancement on IO-MRI and 81% for the assessment of new enhancement on the EP-MRI. Conclusion New enhancement occurs in intraoperative 3T MRI in 16% of patients after brain tumor resection, which decreases or resolves on subsequent MRI within 72 h of surgery. Our findings indicate the opportunity for further study to optimize the postoperative imaging window.
Neuroendocrine and Biobehavioral Influences on Diabetes in Youth

Childhood and adolescence are marked by continuous physical and emotional development; these developmental stages also mark common periods when youth may be diagnosed with diabetes. This chapter explores multiple neuroendocrine and biobehavioral factors related to the onset and early progression of both type 1 diabetes (T1D) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). The development of T1D and T2D is multifactorial, with influences varying from genetics to the environment to behavior. Additionally, these influences may interact to affect the onset and progression of diabetes in different ways, at different times during childhood and adolescence. In this chapter, we describe the incidence and prevalence of T1D and T2D in youth, followed by sections detailing the following factors related to the onset and disease progression: genetics, environmental and pregnancy-related factors, stress and trauma, family history and family involvement, diet- and exercise-related lifestyle behaviors, the physical and psychosocial effects of puberty, depressive symptoms, and adaptation to treatments.
Baraitser-Winter syndrome in a male patient with a uterus

Introduction Baraitser-Winter syndrome (BRWS) is a rare autosomal dominant disorder with fewer than 50 cases reported in the literature. Features include facial dysmorphism, ocular coloboma, brain abnormalities, hearing defects, intellectual disability and kidney abnormalities. We describe a case of a male infant with de novo mutation for BRWS with a new and unexpected finding of a uterus and vagina in the pelvis. This is the first reported case of a …
Overview of the Nontyphoidal and Paratyphoidal Salmonella Vaccine Pipeline: Current Status and Future Prospects

Nontyphoidal Salmonella and Salmonella Paratyphi are responsible for significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. To date, no vaccine has been licensed against these organisms. The development of effective vaccines remains an urgent priority. In this review, the rationale for and current status of various vaccine candidates against S. Paratyphi and nontyphoidal Salmonella are presented, with a focus on the research findings from the 2019 International Conference on Typhoid and Other Invasive Salmonelloses. Additionally, other vaccine candidates that are currently undergoing clinical development are highlighted. Future approaches, which may include antigens that are genetically conserved across Salmonella and confer broad, non-serotype-specific protection, are also discussed.
Impact of Measured Turbulence on Laser Beam Propagation

This study investigates the effects of atmospheric turbulence on laser beam propagation. It compares the effects of Kolmogorov turbulence to those of measured turbulence. A previous experiment took measurements of atmospheric turbulence using thermosondes beneath a weather balloon. The data shows elevated layers of increased turbulence strength. Within each layer, the power spectral density of the turbulence exhibits a power law differing from the -11/3 power law of Kolmogorov theory. To understand how these departures from theory impact optical propagation, we import the turbulence data into a wave-optics model. Additionally, we simulate two common types of turbulence measurement devices to test their usefulness against the non-Kolmogorov turbulence. One device is a scintillometer, while the other measures the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF). These simulated measurements produce a much simpler and lower resolution description of the turbulence compared to the data from the thermosondes, which we consider to be truth in this work. The wave-optics model uses the traditional split-step propagation method with phase screens that represent the turbulence for each segment of the path. We generate the phase screens using either the thermosondes' truth measurements or the Kolmogorov statistics derived from the scintillometer and the MTF method. We propagate laser beams and point sources through both types of phase screens and compare the results. The metrics for the comparisons include scintillation index, Strehl ratio, and power-in-the-bucket. The results show that the Kolmogorov turbulence prescribed by the MTF method underestimates the strength of the turbulence. On the other hand, the scintillometer prescribes turbulence that is a good surrogate for the true non-Kolmogorov turbulence. These results will lead to a better understanding of optical turbulence, how it can be measured, and how it affects optical beams during propagation.
Modify Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Sepsis Core Measure (SEP-1) Now to Optimize Care for COVID-19.

In the commentary, the authors urge the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to remove lactate measurement from the national Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock Early Management Bundle (SEP-1) during the COVID-19 crisis.
COVID-19 in 2021-Continuing Uncertainty.

More than a year has passed since the first confirmed case of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the US was reported on January 20, 2020 What followed was an unprecedented year with nearly 30 million documented infections and more than 500 000 excess deaths in the US due to SARS-CoV-2 Alongside this devastation is the successful development and deployment of multiple safe and effective vaccines To date, almost 80 million doses of vaccine have been administered in the US with some experts suggesting that the extent of disease, including the number of deaths, will continue to decline between now and summer Yet moving to the next phase of the pandemic remains a challenge;clinicians and patients have many questions that may not have clear answers This Viewpoint summarizes the current best evidence to some of these complex questions
Effects of Chain Length on the Structure and Dynamics of Semidilute Nanoparticle–Polymer Composites

We use molecular dynamics simulations to study how the chain length affects the structure and segmental dynamics of polymer–nanoparticle (NP) composites at semidilute NP concentrations. For NPs hav...
Assessment and Monitoring of Sleep in the Intensive Care Unit

Sleep affects physiologic and psychological recovery throughout critical illness. Patients often describe poor sleep as a major source of distress while hospitalized in an intensive care unit. The intensive care unit environment poses unique challenges for sleep assessment and monitoring. The purpose of this literature review is to discuss methods of assessment and monitoring of sleep within the intensive care unit setting. The advantages and disadvantages of physiologic monitoring of sleep (eg, polysomnography, bispectral index, and actigraphy) are compared with those of subjective measures of sleep quality (eg, validated patient-oriented sleep questionnaires, and informal nursing assessments).
Learn Proportional Derivative Controllable Latent Space from Pixels.

Recent advances in latent space dynamics model from pixels show promising progress in vision-based model predictive control (MPC). However, executing MPC in real time can be challenging due to its intensive computational cost in each timestep. We propose to introduce additional learning objectives to enforce that the learned latent space is proportional derivative controllable. In execution time, the simple PD-controller can be applied directly to the latent space encoded from pixels, to produce simple and effective control to systems with visual observations. We show that our method outperforms baseline methods to produce robust goal reaching and trajectory tracking in various environments.
Biotransformation of 2,4,6-tris(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)-1,3,5-triazine (TTBP-TAZ) can contribute to high levels of 2,4,6-tribromophenol (2,4,6-TBP) in humans.

Abstract 2,4,6-Tribromophenol (2,4,6-TBP) is a brominated flame retardant that accumulates in human tissues and is a potential toxicant. Previous studies found 2,4,6-TBP levels in human tissues were significantly higher than those of brominated flame retardants measured in the same samples. In contrast, the levels of 2,4,6-TBP in the environment and foodstuff are not elevated, suggesting a low potential for direct intake through environmental exposure or diet. Here, we hypothesized that high levels of 2,4,6-TBP in human tissues are partially from the indirect exposure sources, such as biotransformation of highly brominated substances. We conducted in vitro assays utilizing human and rat liver microsomes to compare the biotransformation rates of four highly brominated flame retardants, which could potentially transform to 2,4,6-TBP, including decabromodiphenyl ethane (DBDPE), 2,4,6-tris-(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)-1,3,5-triazine (TTBP-TAZ), 1,2-bis(2,4,6-tribromophenoxy)ethane (BTBPE), and tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA). Our results show that TTBP-TAZ rapidly metabolizes in both human and rat liver microsomes with a half-life of 1.1 and 2.2 h, respectively, suggesting that TTBP-TAZ is a potential precursor of 2,4,6-TBP. In contrast, 2,4,6-TBP was not formed as a result of biotransformation of TBBPA, BTBPE, and DBDPE in both human and rat liver microsomes. We applied suspect and target screening to explore the metabolic pathways of TTBP-TAZ and identified 2,4,6-TBP as a major metabolite of TTBP-TAZ accounting for 87% of all formed metabolites. These in vitro results were further tested by an in vivo experiment in which 2,4,6-TBP was detected in the rat blood and liver at concentrations of 270 ± 110 and 50 ± 14 μg/g lipid weight, respectively, after being exposed to 250 mg/kg body weight/day of TTBP-TAZ for a week. The hepatic mRNA expression demonstrated that TTBP-TAZ significantly activates the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) and promotes fatty degeneration (18 and 28-fold change compared to control, respectively) in rats.
A Low-Heat-Leak, Temperature-Stabilized Support

The ideal low-temperature structural support member would conduct negligible amounts of heat to the cold mass, exhibit no thermal distortion when cooled, and have good load-carrying capability. The support member described here which approaches this ideal can be constructed using normal shop practice and common laboratory equipment.
Introduction to Smooth Manifolds

Preface.- 1 Smooth Manifolds.- 2 Smooth Maps.- 3 Tangent Vectors.- 4 Submersions, Immersions, and Embeddings.- 5 Submanifolds.- 6 Sard's Theorem.- 7 Lie Groups.- 8 Vector Fields.- 9 Integral Curves and Flows.- 10 Vector Bundles.- 11 The Cotangent Bundle.- 12 Tensors.- 13 Riemannian Metrics.- 14 Differential Forms.- 15 Orientations.- 16 Integration on Manifolds.- 17 De Rham Cohomology.- 18 The de Rham Theorem.- 19 Distributions and Foliations.- 20 The Exponential Map.- 21 Quotient Manifolds.- 22 Symplectic Manifolds.- Appendix A: Review of Topology.- Appendix B: Review of Linear Algebra.- Appendix C: Review of Calculus.- Appendix D: Review of Differential Equations.- References.- Notation Index.- Subject Index
Surrogate and reduced-order modeling: a comparison of approaches for large-scale statistical inverse problems [Chapter 7]

Solution of statistical inverse problems via the frequentist or Bayesian approaches described in earlier chapters can be a computationally intensive endeavor, particularly when faced with large-scale forward models characteristic of many engineering and science applications. High computational cost arises in several ways. First, thousands or millions of forward simulations may be required to evaluate estimators of interest or to characterize a posterior distribution. In the large-scale setting, performing so many forward simulations is often computationally intractable. Second, sampling may be complicated by the large dimensionality of the input space—as when the inputs are fields represented with spatial discretizations of high dimension—and
Escape time formulation of state estimation and stabilization with intermittent communication

The problems of state estimation and feedback stabilization of an unstable system including a communications channel are quantified as escape or survival times, which yield stochastic processes describing the time of first exit of the state estimate error or of the state itself from a specific domain. The system complications introduced by communications - intermittency, channel noise, etc - are evaluated using a Markov hitting time formulation. This is compared to and contrasted with earlier analyses which considered: the behavior of Kalman filters with intermittent data, the evaluation of the minimal number of bits required for mean square stabilization, and the Large Deviations analysis of probability theory. The main result shows the the escape time is characterized by a Markov chain which is amenable to explicit analysis in the linear gaussian case.
Effect of Beta-Blocker Dose on Survival After Acute Myocardial Infarction

Background Beta-blocker therapy after acute myocardial infarction (MI) improves survival. Beta-blocker doses used in clinical practice are often substantially lower than those used in the randomized trials establishing their efficacy.
Thermal environments for Space Shuttle payloads

The thermal environment of the Space Shuttle payload bay during the on-orbit phase of the STS flights is presented. The STS Thermal Flight Instrumentation System and various substructures of the Orbiter and the payload are described, as well as the various on-orbit attitudes encountered in the STS flights (the tail to sun, nose to sun, payload bay to sun, etc.). Included are the temperature profiles obtained during the on-orbit STS 1-5 flights (with the payload bay door open), recorded in various substructures of the Orbiter's midsection at different flight attitudes, as well as schematic illustrations of the Space Shuttle system, a typical mission profile, and the Orbiter's substructures.
Treatment of a pentachlorophenol- and creosote-contaminated soil using the lignin-degrading fungus phanerochaete sordid a: A field demonstration

The feasibility of large-scale fungal bioaugmentation was evaluated by assessing the ability of the lignin-degrading fungus Phanerochaete sordida to decrease the soil concentrations of pentachlorophenol (PCP) and 13 priority pollutant polynuclear aromatic (PNA) creosote components in a field-demonstration study. Inoculation of the contaminated soil with the fungus (fungal treatment) at a rate of 10% (dry wt fungal hyphae and inoculum substrate dry wt soil−1) was compared to amending the soil (amended control) with sterile inoculum substrate also at a 10% rate (dry wt substrate dry wt soil−1) and no treatment (non-amended control), for their effects on PCP and PNA concentrations over 20 wk. The initial soil PCP and total measured PNA concentrations for the three treatments averaged 1058 and 1210mg kg−1, respectively. Despite very low initial amounts of fungal biomass, determined from ergosterol concentrations in the inoculum and inoculated soil, there was a 64% PCP decrease to a residual concentration of 362 mg kg−1 in the fungal-treated soil after 20 wk of treatment. This residual concentration was statistically less than the 715 mg kg−1 (26% decrease) and the 985 mg kg−1 (18% decrease) PCP concentrations observed in the amended control and the non-amended control soils, respectively. There were significant decreases in the concentrations of 3- and 4-ring PNAs in all treatments. With the exception of acenapthene, decreases in the concentrations of 3-ring PNAs were significantly greater in the non-amended control soil than in either the amended control or fungal-treated soils. Conversely, decreases in the concentration of 4-ring PNAs tended to be greater in the fungal-treated and amended control soils than in the non-amended control soils. The concentrations of 5- and 6-ring PNAs were not decreased significantly by any of the treatments.
Choosing and leaving science in highly selective institutions

This study sought to discover some of the causes of initial interset in and atrition from the natural sciences and engineering among the students (N=5320) who entered four highly selective institutions in 1988, with particular attention to possible special causes for the disproportionate attrition of women from science. Though a smaller proportion of women (35 percent) than men (49 percent) were initially interested in science, gender added little to the prediction of such initial choice when preadmission measures of developed abilities were taken into account in regression analysis. Of the group of 2,276 students initially interested in science, 40 percent did not finally concentrate in science, and smaller proportions of women (48 percent) than of men (66 percent) persisted. The most significant cognitive, factor predicting these losses was low grades earned in science courses taken during the first two years of study. With grades held equal, gender was not a significant predictor of persistence in engineering and biology; gender added strongly to grades, however, as a factor associated with unusually large losses of women from a category that included the physical sciences and mathematics. Responses to a questionnaire administered in the fall of 1991 showed that science majors regarded their instruction as too competitive, with too few opportunities to ask questions, taught by professors who were relatively unresponsive, not dedicated, and not motivating. Students who defected from science did so largely because of the attraction of other fields, but many shared the criticism of overcompetitiveness and inferior instruction, along with the view that the work was too difficult. Several items were about elements of classroom instruction and atmosphere thought to be especially difficult for women (i.e., the chilly climate), but except for perceived competitiveness, women did not rate their classroom experiences as being more unpleasant than did men.
Using profile information to assist classic code optimizations

This paper describes the design and implementation of an optimizing compiler that automatically generates profile information to assist classic code optimizations. This compiler contains two new components, an execution profiler and a profile-based code optimizer, which are not commonly found in traditional optimizing compilers. The execution profiler inserts probes into the input program, executes the input program for several inputs, accumulates profile information and supplies this information to the optimizer. The profile-based code optimizer uses the profile information to expose new optimization opportunities that are not visible to traditional global optimization methods. Experimental results show that the profile-based code optimizer significantly improves the performance of production C programs that have already been optimized by a high-quality global code optimizer.
Depressing effects of calcium antagonists on oxygen consumption in isolated skeletal muscle during potassium depolarization.

The effects of two Ca2+-antagonizing drugs, dantrolene sodium (DAN) and TMB-8, on subcontracture, K+-induced increased oxygen consumption were studied in isolated frog sartorius muscles. Incubation in Ringer's solution +18 mM KCl caused a marked increase in averaged resting oxygen uptake (52.8 ± 4.1 to 278.2 ± 20.0 mm3∙g−1∙h−1). Incubation in Ringer 's +18 mM KCl containing either 0.116 mM TMB-8 or 0.035 mM DAN resulted in a significant reduction in the averaged metabolic response (264.4 ± 30.8 (control) vs. 142.3 ± 19.0 (TMB-8) vs. 72.2 ± 3.4 (DAN)). The results suggest that the enhanced metabolic rate observed upon elevating extracellular [K+] to just below contracture levels is due to increased intracellular Ca2+ release.
Phosphate salts facilitate the electrospinning of hyaluronic acid fiber mats

Electrospinning is a cost effective and facile method to manufacture fiber mats appropriate for biomedical applications. Due to its high molecular weight and charged backbone, hyaluronic acid (HA) fiber mats with consistent fiber morphology have been difficult to electrospin from neutral pH solutions. Here, we present that the electrospinning of HA fibers in aqueous dimethylformamide solutions is facilitated by the addition of three phosphate salts. The salts—glycerol phosphate (GP), sodium phosphate (SP), and tripolyphosphate (TPP)—facilitated electrospinning of the solutions as characterized by conductivity measurements and fiber morphology. From tensile experiments, HA mats electrospun with SP demonstrated improved Young’s modulus (12 MPa) over HA mats spun with either GP or TPP (5 and 3 MPa, respectively). This work demonstrates that a new neutral solvent system can be employed to spin HA fibers, which offers the potential for using the fibers for biomedical applications, such as a bone biomimetic.
Intrastate peace agreements and the durability of peace

The article debunks the conception that peace agreements are all equal. Distinct from the conventional monocausal assessment, I view the peace agreement as a cohesive whole and evaluate its strengt...
A tale of two isomerases: compact versus extended active sites in ketosteroid isomerase and phosphoglucose isomerase.

Understanding the catalytic efficiency and specificity of enzymes is a fundamental question of major practical and conceptual importance in biochemistry. Although progress in biochemical and structural studies has enriched our knowledge of enzymes, the role in enzyme catalysis of residues that are not nearest neighbors of the reacting substrate molecule is largely unexplored experimentally. Here computational active site predictors, THEMATICS and POOL, were employed to identify functionally important residues that are not in direct contact with the reacting substrate molecule. These predictions then guided experiments to explore the active sites of two isomerases, Pseudomonas putida ketosteroid isomerase (KSI) and human phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI), as prototypes for very different types of predicted active sites. Both KSI and PGI are members of EC 5.3 and catalyze similar reactions, but they represent significantly different degrees of remote residue participation, as predicted by THEMATICS and POOL. F...
A directed approach to improving the solubility of Moloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase

One of the difficulties that can impede structural work on a molecule of interest is limited solubility. Although functionally similar to the human immunodeficiency virus type-1 reverse transcriptase (HIV-1 RT), the Moloney murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase (MMLV RT) differs both in architecture and solubility properties. Reverse transcriptase is an essential retroviral enzyme that replicates the single-stranded RNA genome of the retrovirus producing a double-stranded DNA copy, which is subsequently integrated into the host's genome. We have introduced a single amino acid substitution in the connection domain of an N-terminally truncated MMLV RT (L435K) that significantly improves the solubility of the enzyme eliminating the need for nonionic detergents in buffering storage solutions. The substituted enzyme retains near wild-type polymerase activity. An important consequence of the improved solubility of the L435K MMLV RT has been the ability to obtain diffraction quality crystals.
Hispanic parents of overweight and obese children and their outcome expectations for children's television viewing: a qualitative study.

Abstract Objective Explore parental outcome expectations (OE) regarding children’s television (TV) viewing among parents of overweight or obese children. Methods Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with 20 parents of 5- to 8-year-old overweight or obese children. Results Parent’s positive OE for allowing TV viewing were the convenience of using TV for entertainment or as a babysitter. Hispanic parents would limit children’s TV viewing to improve their children’s health, restrict content, and promote other activities. Negative OE such as children misbehavior and the loss of positive OE for allowing TV emerged as reasons parents may not limit TV. Conclusions and Implications Although Hispanic parents expected to improve their child’s health by limiting TV, the negative OE may prevent them from doing so. Interventions targeting children’s TV viewing, as a strategy to fight childhood obesity, may be more effective if they promote parent’s positive OE and address parent’s negative OE for children’s TV viewing.
Effect of dietary protein intake on albumin homeostasis in nephrotic patients.

Effect of dietary protein intake on albumin homeostasis in nephrotic patients. Animals with experimental renal disease maintained on diets restricted in protein develop less severe renal lesions and less proteinuria than do animals maintained on a normal or high protein diet. To determine whether restriction of dietary protein will reduce urinary albumin excretion in patients with established nephroses and whether such dietary restriction will result in decreased albumin pools, we performed paired studies on nine nephrotic patients. They were fed sequential diets with a protein content of 1.6 and then 0.8 g/kg body wt, each for 2 weeks. Caloric intake remained constant at 35 Kcal/kg. In six patients the high protein diet was fed first; in three the order of dietary administration was reversed. Urinary albumin excretion was reduced on the low protein diet in all patients regardless of dietary order. Both the renal clearance of albumin and the fractional renal albumin clearance were reduced significantly on the low protein diet. The rate of albumin synthesis was greater on the high protein diet, but so was the rate of albuminuria. Despite the higher rate of albumin synthesis during the period of high protein intake, serum albumin concentration and plasma albumin mass were both less than during the period of low protein intake. Thus, dietary protein restriction in patients with established nephrosis results in decreased urinary albumin excretion in excess of any reduction in creatinine clearance. Total albumin mass is preserved and plasma albumin mass is actually increased during the period of dietary protein restriction. Protein restriction may be feasible in nephrotic patients. The strategy of increasing serum albumin concentration in these patients by feeding them a high protein diet may fail because of the effect of high protein diets on renal albumin excretion.