cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Surveying the online landscape: social media, search engine, and provider review use among new gynecologic oncology patients

Objectives: Patients navigating a new cancer diagnosis and the complex experience of cancer treatment may turn to internet-based resources and social media (SM) for information and support. To understand how gynecologic oncology patients research diseases and providers, we surveyed patients on their internet and SM use. Methods: Institutional review board (IRB) exemption was obtained and informed consent was implied by participation in this anonymous survey. All new patients to the gynecologic oncology clinic at an academic cancer care center were invited to participate. A 20 question study-specific survey was developed which included a variety of different question formats. Baseline characteristics as well as use of SM, search engines, and online review sites to learn about their diagnosis and choose a provider/clinic were assessed. Results: Over a 3 month period, 241 new patients were seen at the clinic with 107 surveys completed (44% response rate). Most patients (68%) were over the age of 50. 78% of patients had at least one social media account, Facebook being the most common (84%). The majority of patients (81%) reported at least daily SM engagement. Only 17% of patients had ever completed an online physician review, while 35% reported having filled out a hospital-provided review. 84% of patients had used the internet to research a medical condition before and 62% had used the internet or social media to research their current problem. The most common online resources were Google (70%), WebMD (35%), American Cancer Society (34%), other medical institutions (26%) and our own website (22%). Only three patients used SM as a resource to obtain information about their disease. With regard to provider choice, 39% of patients did not research their provider prior to their visit. Among those that did, 54% talked to their referring provider, 49% reviewed provider profiles on our website, and 35% used a search engine. A total of 45% felt they would be swayed towards or away from seeing a provider based on their online reviews. 29% felt that their providers SM content would affect their decision to see a provider or not, but only 28% of patients would follow their provider or clinic on a SM outlet. Of the types of resources patients would prefer to be given, 55% wanted online access to videos, 53% wanted paper information, 37% wanted written online resources, 36% wanted an in-person support group and 27% wanted an online support group. Conclusions: Regular use of the internet and SM is prevalent among gynecologic oncology patients to research their conditions but significantly less used to investigate their providers. As SM and internet-based resources become more ingrained in how people interact with healthcare, there are increasing opportunities for providers and institutions to engage and inform their patients, including older adults, through such platforms.
Optimal Sparse Sampling for Detection of a Known Signal in Nonwhite Gaussian Noise

We address the problem of sparse sampling pattern design to maximize detection for a deterministic signal in colored noise. We model a colored noise as a continuous-time autoregressive process, which is obtained by passing a white noise through a causal linear-time invariant filter. This noise modeling is crucial to the development of the optimal sampling pattern design for a given number of sensors. We obtain a closed form expression for the whitening filter and consequently, for the Kullback-Leibler divergence at the whitening filter output, which is the detection index. The optimum sampling pattern is obtained by evaluating the detection index at Nyquist sampling rate, rank ordering the samples, and selecting the maximum values. We present some examples to illustrate the proposed procedure. We also extend our method to two-dimensional sampling. The advantage of our approach is its low computational complexity for both one-dimensional and two-dimensional cases and that optimality is guaranteed.
Renewal of conditioned responding to food cues in rats: Sex differences and relevance of estradiol

Cues associated with food can stimulate food anticipation, procurement, and consumption, independently of hunger. These and other behaviors driven by learned cues are persistent and can reappear after extinction, because the original learned associations continue to exist. Renewal, or reinstatement, of extinguished conditioned behavior may explain the inability to change maladaptive eating habits driven by food cues, similar to the mechanisms of drug use relapse. Here, we investigated sex differences in context-induced renewal of responding to food cues, and the role of estradiol in females in a Pavlovian conditioning preparation. We compared adult male and female rats because there is evidence for sex differences in learning and memory and in the control of feeding. Context-induced renewal involves conditioning and extinction in different contexts and the renewal of conditioned behavior is induced by return to the conditioning context ("ABA renewal"; experimental groups). Control groups remain in the same context during conditioning, extinction, and test. In Experiment 1, male and female rats were trained to associate a tone with food pellets during acquisition, and after extinction with tone only presentations, were tested for renewal of responding to the tone. Learning was assessed through the expression of the conditioned response, which included approach and activity directed at food receptacle (food cup behavior). Males and females learned the acquisition and extinction of tone-food associations similarly, but there were sex differences during renewal of the conditioned responses to the food cue. Males showed robust renewal of responding, while renewal in intact females was inconsistent. Males in the experimental group had significantly higher food cup behavior compared to males in the control group, while females in both groups showed similar levels of food cup behavior during the tone. In Experiment 2, we examined a potential role of estradiol in renewal, by comparing intact females with ovariectomized females with, and without, estradiol replacement. Rats in all groups acquired and extinguished tone-food associations similarly. During the test for renewal, the ovariectomized rats with estradiol replacement in the experimental group showed renewal of responding, evidenced by significantly higher food cup behavior compared to the control group. Intact and ovariectomized rats in the experimental groups had similar rates of food cup behavior as their corresponding control groups. These results provide novel evidence for sex differences and relevance of estradiol in renewal of responding to food cues and more broadly in contextual processing and appetitive associative learning, potentially relevant to maladaptive eating habits and eating disorders.
The Upper Floor

THE UPPER FLOOR, ignored, inexistent, lies above my head in the dusty quiet of disuse. At the rent I am paying for the cottage, Mrs. Hardy told me, I could not expect them to clean it. And I don't need an inch beyond the downstairs. The downstairs could not be better. The sort of parlor to the left of the entry has become my studio, to work and sleep in. The rented piano I ordered from Paterson is only an old upright, but it is a good one. There is a bedcouch, and a chest of drawers for the washable, foldable things that are all I wear here. My city clothes hang out of sight in the closet under the stairs, in a plastic bag that keeps them separate from the broom and mop. The kitchen, on the other side of the entry, is living space, too?a proper kitchen, as big as the parlor, and the bathroom is built off it. And then there's all outdoors?woods and fields and not another house in sight. Enough space, certainly, for one person to live in, for two months that I hate to think will end. After my initial, renter's, look, the upper floor has just been the steep flight of stairs that cuts the downstairs in two. I bragged, however, and mentioned its existence to Mary when I wrote. And at first she hinted?said things like, "You lucky dog," and "If we had your luck," which I can ignore, because I scrimped for a year to take the summer off, and this cottage, in a remote corner of New Jersey, did not turn up of its own accord. The Hardy s let me have it cheap; evidently, they like renting to a single girl?a teacher?with a declared purpose but without a car or pets. They can't worry about pets, there is nothing to wreck in the cottage. But when they found I had none, in their peculiar country style they used that as a reason for coming down with the rent. It pleases them that, having no car, I am dependent upon them, that in a way they have to keep an eye on me. Aside from the storekeepers in the village, where I shop with Mrs. Hardy, they are the only people I see, and then only when I go to the farm for milk, butter, eggs, or to have washing done. In New York, in the music school where I teach, I am broken to schedules, methods, meetings, superiors, the vagaries of students, the anxieties of parents. Even in the evening, pupils come to my apartment. I see people all the time. And there are my neighbors, whom I don't see but can never forget?they hear me, I hear them. I hear the cat run across the floor in the apartment above mine. Being here went to my head, at first. I would get up in the night to send chords crashing. I thought the pale dawn was the moment to try out a new passage. I couldn't bear to cook. I lived on cold cuts, cheese, eggs, fruit, and the white, factory-baked bread, tasting like soft cardboard, that is the only kind sold in the village (or that people like, for that matter?the Hardy s
Introduction: consequences of terrorism

Recent acts of terrorism have ranged from the dissemination of anthrax spores to intentional contamination of food to the release of chemical weapons to suicide attacks using explosives. The prediction of such events is difficult, if not impossible. The recent attacks that have generated massive numbers of injured and dead may signal the crossing of a new threshold from multi-casualty events to the use of weapons of mass destruction. Consequently, the medical and healthcare infrastructure must be able to prevent and treat illness and injury resulting from such events. Thus, a first step in improving the preparation for and responses to such events must include a sustained commitment to training physicians, nurses, identification specialists, pathologists, and other first responders. The rapid spread of SARS gives reason to believe that the distribution of such agents has potential advantages over the use of other weapons. Investments in the public health and healthcare systems provide the best defense against terrorism.
Capsaicin induces apoptosis in human pancreatic cancer cells by activating mitochondrial death pathway

2469 Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. It is one of the most aggressive human malignancies with an extremely poor prognosis and is highly resistant to radiation and chemotherapy. Recently, considerable efforts have been made to evaluate the chemotherapeutic potential of dietary agents against human malignancies. Moreover, epidemiological and experimental studies have demonstrated that several dietary agents are effective against breast, prostate, lung and colon cancers. Capsaicin, an active ingredient of red chili pepper (∼0.1-1%), is one such dietary agent that has been shown to exhibit significant chemopreventive activity against experimentally induced mutagenesis and tumorigenesis. Accordingly, current studies revealed that capsaicin inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis in various cancer cells, however, its therapeutic effects against pancreatic cancer has never been investigated. In the present study, we demonstrate that capsaicin is antiproliferative and induces apoptosis in AsPC-1 human pancreatic cancer cells. Treatment of AsPC-1 cells with capsaicin increased both the expression of pro-apoptotic protein bax and cytochrome c release into the cytosol, in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, we observed the generation of reactive oxygen species (measured by the oxidation of DCFDA by flow cytometery) and disruption of mitochondrial membrane potential (determined by flow cytometery using JC-1) in AsPC-1 cells following exposure to capsaicin for 24h. Our results also demonstrate that exposure of AsPC-1 cells to capsaicin causes activation of caspase-3 and its downstream target PARP, thus resulting in apoptosis. Interestingly, all of these effects were significantly attenuated upon pretreatment of cells with the antioxidant, N-acetyl cysteine (NAC). This strongly suggest that capsaicin induces apoptosis in AsPC-1 cells by altering redox homeostasis and targeting the mitochondrial death pathway. Taken together, our results demonstrate for the first time, the anticancer activity of capsaicin against human pancreatic cancer cells and its potential use as a novel chemotherapeutic agent. [Supported in part by RO1 grant CA 106953 (to S.K.S.) awarded by the National Cancer Institute].
Multichannel nonlinear scattering theory for nonintegrable equations

We consider a class of nonlinear equations with localized and dispersive solutions; we show that for a ball in some Banach space of initial conditions, the asymptotic behavior (as t → ±∞) of such states is given by a linear combination of a periodic (in time), localized (in space) solution (nonlinear bound state) of the equation and a purely dispersive part (with free dispersion). We also show that given data near a nonlinear bound state of the system, there is a nonlinear bound state of nearby energy and phase, such that the difference between the solution (adjusted by a phase) and the latter disperses to zero. It turns out that in general the time-period (and energy) of the localized part is different for t → ±∞from that for t → −∞.Moreover, the solution acquires an extra constant phase eiγ±.
Association of the Insulin Receptor with Phospholipase C-γ (PLCγ) in 3T3-L1 Adipocytes Suggests a Role for PLCγ in Metabolic Signaling by Insulin

Phospholipase C-gamma (PLCgamma) is the isozyme of PLC phosphorylated by multiple tyrosine kinases including epidermal growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, nerve growth factor receptors, and nonreceptor tyrosine kinases. In this paper, we present evidence for the association of the insulin receptor (IR) with PLCgamma. Precipitation of the IR with glutathione S-transferase fusion proteins derived from PLCgamma and coimmunoprecipitation of the IR and PLCgamma were observed in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. To determine the functional significance of the interaction of PLCgamma and the IR, we used a specific inhibitor of PLC, U73122, or microinjection of SH2 domain glutathione S-transferase fusion proteins derived from PLCgamma to block insulin-stimulated GLUT4 translocation. We demonstrate inhibition of 2-deoxyglucose uptake in isolated primary rat adipocytes and 3T3-L1 adipocytes pretreated with U73122. Antilipolytic effect of insulin in 3T3-L1 adipocytes is unaffected by U73122. U73122 selectively inhibits mitogen-activated protein kinase, leaving the Akt and p70 S6 kinase pathways unperturbed. We conclude that PLCgamma is an active participant in metabolic and perhaps mitogenic signaling by the insulin receptor in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.
THE PEDIATRICIAN AND THE PUBLIC AN OPEN FORUM

IT IS a pleasure and a great honor to come to the Old North State from a daughter state, Tennessee, to speak to you on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the foundation of your Medical Society. The conventional address for such an occasion would be a historical one. Certainly, old records of this Society provide extraordinarily rich and attractive material for the historian. Your current program of medical education, medical research and medical administration in relation to the improvement and extension of medical care, both preventive and curative, is a source of pride and stimulation for all of the southern states. North Carolina is leading the way in the South. But I do not plan to review in detail the past or current accomplishments of the profession in North Carolina. This has just been done for us in a scholarly and inspiring address by Dr. Hubert A. Royster. Suffice it to say that the membership of your Society has exhibited a capacity, unusual in organized medicine, for self examination and self evaluation and has been alert to change. Your membership has been judged courageous and progressive, and the country in general and the South in particular has become accustomed to look to North Carolina for guidance and example. Perhaps some of you hardly recognize yourselves as I talk! Maybe there are a few of you like the thieving, prowling, lying and intemperate colored man on judgment day who read, as he arose from his grave at the sound of the trump, the inscription on a tombstone—provided by the faithful, generous wife who survived him—"Here lies an honest man, a faithful husband, a truthful citizen and a temperate, devoted churchman." "Scuze me, Lord," said our friend, "I done come up outer the wrong grave!"
Police Interrogation and American Justice

"Read him his rights." We all recognize this line from cop dramas. But what happens afterward? In this book, Richard Leo sheds light on a little-known corner of our criminal justice system - the police interrogation.Incriminating statements are necessary to solve crimes, but suspects almost never have reason to provide them. Therefore, as Leo shows, crime units have developed sophisticated interrogation methods that rely on persuasion, manipulation, and deception to move a subject from denial to admission, serving to shore up the case against him. Ostensibly aimed at uncovering truth, the structure of interrogation requires that officers act as an arm of the prosecution.Skilful and fair interrogation allows authorities to capture criminals and deter future crime. But Leo draws on extensive research to argue that confessions are inherently suspect and that coercive interrogation has led to false confession and wrongful conviction. He looks at police evidence in the court, the nature and disappearance of the brutal "third degree," the reforms of the mid-20th century, and how police can persuade suspects to waive their Miranda rights.An important study of the criminal justice system, "Police Interrogation and American Justice" raises unsettling questions. How should police be permitted to interrogate when society needs both crime control and due process? How can order be maintained yet justice served?
Salivary gland disorders

Salivary gland disorders include inflammatory, bacterial, viral, and neoplastic etiologies. The presentation can be acute, recurrent, or chronic. Acute suppurative sialadenitis presents as rapid-onset pain and swelling and is treated with antibiotics, salivary massage, hydration, and sialagogues such as lemon drops or vitamin C lozenges. Viral etiologies include mumps and human immunodeficiency virus, and treatment is directed at the underlying disease. Recurrent or chronic sialadenitis is more likely to be inflammatory than infectious; examples include recurrent parotitis of childhood and sialolithiasis. Inflammation is commonly caused by an obstruction such as a stone or duct stricture. Management is directed at relieving the obstruction. Benign and malignant tumors can occur in the salivary glands and usually present as a painless solitary neck mass. Diagnosis is made by imaging (e.g., ultrasonography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging) and biopsy (initially with fine-needle aspiration). Overall, most salivary gland tumors are benign and can be treated with surgical excision.
Rev3 Update of Requirements for NIF Ignition Targets

Targets intended to produce ignition on the National Ignition Facility are being simulated, and the simulations are used to set specifications for target fabrication. Recent design work has focused...
Internal Rate Of Return Revisited

Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) includes the present value (PV) (or net present value (NPV)) and the internal rate of return (IRR) methods of analyzing cash flows. DCF provides insight into financial management not possible using other techniques. The NPV of the time-phased costs over the economic life of an investment project is the best single-number measure of its life-cycle cost. NPV is used extensively. IRR is used much less so, then only with considerable unwarranted caution. The major reason for IRR not being used centers on the extensive criticism of IRR found in corporate finance and financial management textbooks. These criticisms overstate the minor difficulties associated with IRR, understate the coexistent difficulties with NPV, and are the focus this paper. The aim is to put the criticisms of IRR into perspective and put the two DCF measures into balance. This paper critically examines the professed reasons for the superiority of NPV over IRR in financial decision making.
UV-Resistant and Superhydrophobic Self-Cleaning Surfaces Using Sol-Gel Processes

Inorganic superhydrophobic, low-surface energy silica coatings have been prepared using sol–gel processing with tetraethoxysilane and trifluoropropyltrimethoxysilane as precursors. When trifluoropropyltrimethoxysilane was incorporated into silica, hydrophobic trifluoropropyl groups were present on the surface, yielding hydrophobicity. When combined with the rough surfaces from a sol–gel process, superhydrophobic surfaces can be generated. The surfaces were characterized by contact angle measurements, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Thermogravimetric analysis was used to determine the thermal stability of the as prepared silica materials. In order to measure the surface hydrophobicity retention of the silica surfaces under UV irradiation, UV accelerated aging tests were conducted according to ASTM D 4329.
Negotiated capital: conflict, its resolution, and workplace social capital

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of conflict and conflict resolution on employee perceptions of unit social capital. The paper aims to test the overarching proposition that social capital is affected by different types of conflict and by organizational methods used to manage them.Design/methodology/approach – The paper's hypotheses were tested using survey data collected as part of a case study conducted in a large Ohio hospital that had adopted a conflict management system. Survey data from 791 hospital employees were used to test hypotheses regarding the relationship between conflict and its management and social capital.Findings – Analysis of the data supports the paper's proposition that different forms of conflict affect perceptions of social capital differently. Relationship and task conflict were significantly and negatively related to employee perceptions of social capital. Conflict regarding patient care issues, on the other hand, was significantly and positively rela...
Coulomb-blockade dominated transport in patterned gold-cluster structures

In this paper we present the fabrication and near-room temperature electrical transport properties of structures made from the gold-cluster material Au55[P(C6H5)3]12Cl6. We discuss the use of electron-beam lithography to define the structures laterally and compare the direct current-voltage characteristics of non-patterned and patterned structures. In both cases non-linear behavior is observed with features that are consistent with Coulomb blockade dominated transport in disordered arrays of clusters. Radio frequency induced plateaus in the current-voltage characteristics demonstrate coherent tunneling. Finally, we show that other ligand stabilized gold-cluster materials can be used to form ordered gold-cluster arrays.
Sensitization Resistance of AISI 308 Stainless Steel Welds with Widmanstatten Austenite

Abstract Seven autogenous tungsten inert gas (TIG) welds were produced in each of 2 plates of AISI 308 stainless steel (SS). The chromium-to-nickel equivalency ratios [(Cr/Ni)eq] of the plates were...
Econometric modeling of competition: A multi-category choice-based mapping approach

Both the recent advances in econometric analysis of panel data in economics and the availability of scanner panel data in marketing have motivated marketing researchers to conduct internal analysis of market structure based on revealed preference data. This kind of analysis allows the analyst to infer brand positions in an attribute space from preference and choice data, given a market in which consumers have heterogeneous tastes for attributes. Extant market structure models based on disaggregate panel data are probabilistic models that provide spatial representations of market structure but if a few products share the same brand name across product categories, consumer perceptions of product locations sharing the same brand name may be interdependent. The main contribution of this paper is to present a probabilistic spatial panel data model that allows the positions of products sharing the same name to be correlated across product categories.
Nonlinear effects on shoaling surface gravity waves

Two nonlinear models that describe the shoaling of unidirectional surface gravity waves are developed. Based on variants of Boussinesq’s equations, the models are cast as a set of coupled evolution equations for the amplitudes and phases of the temporal Fourier modes of the wave field. Triad interactions across the entire wind wave frequency band (0.05-0.25 Hz) provide the mechanism for cross spectral energy transfers and modal phase modifications as the waves propagate shoreward through the shoaling region (10-3 m depth). A field experiment, designed to test the operational validity of the nonlinear shoaling models, provided data on wave parameters over a wide range of conditions. Three representative data sets illustrating different initial spectral shapes and subsequent evolutions are compared with predictions of the nonlinear shoaling models and linear, finite-depth theory. Power spectral comparisons, as well as spectra of coherence and relative phase between model predictions and data, indicate that the nonlinear models accurately predict Fourier coefficients of the wave field through the shoaling region sets. Differences between the predictions of the various models are related to differences in the models9 dispersion relations. Although generally inferior to the nonlinear models, linear, finite-depth theory accurately predicts Fourier coefficients in regions of physical and frequency space where nonlinear evolution of the power spectrum is not observed, thus verifying the validity of the linear, finite-depth dispersion relation in limited portions of physical and frequency space in the shoaling region.
A three-diode-laser, terahertz-difference-frequency synthesizer and its applications toward far-infrared spectroscopy of ammonia and water

Upcoming astrophysical and atmospheric investigations using space/air-borne submillimeter remote sensing demand robust, compact, power-efficient, narrow-linewidth, and tunable THz local oscillators; moreover, such a source is highly desirable for laboratory far-infrared spectroscopy as well.
PERIODIC SOLUTIONS OF THE RESTRICTED THREE BODY PROBLEM REPRESENTING ANALYTIC CONTINUATIONS OF KEPLERIAN ELLIPTIC MOTIONS.

Periodic solution of restricted three body problem as analytic continuation of keplerian elliptical motions
Effect of ethanol, bourbon and various ethanol levels on Y-maze learning in the goldfish.

Large goldfish, 15–20 cm long, were trained in a continuous Y-maze in two continuous and concomitant experiments. In the first experiment synthetic ethanol solutions of 400 mg/100 ml (400 mg-%), and 650 mg-% were compared with water controls as to the rate of learning after 2 hours exposure to the same ethanol solutions, respectively. In the second experiment synthetic ethanol solutions, with a low congener content, of 400 mg-%, 550 mg-% and 650 mg-% and a bourbon solution of 650 mg-% with a high congener content, were compared to water controls as to rate and retention of learning after varying time intervals. Four major results were obtained. First, large amounts of ethanol generally interfere with performance. Second, that subjects after 6 hours of continuous exposure had “adapted” to high levels of ethanol and performed similar to water controls or subjects after 72 hours of continuous exposure. Third, that the reduction in the observed pharmacological effect of ethanol is due more to the prolonged presence of ethanol in the brain than to whether the level is rising or falling. Fourth, that there is a difference between the behavioral effect of ethanol, with a low congener content (similar to vodka) and bourbon with a high congener content. That is, the fish with bourbon learned more poorly than fish in ethanol solutions. The goldfish with its simple neuroanatomy and behavior is offered as a heuristic model to further delineate the variables of dose level, previous experience with alcohol at a given or rising level, initial exposure to alcohol or “adaptation” of the C.N.S. to its continuous presence and the type of beverage as to its congener content.
Antigenicity of Bovine Milk Xanthine Oxidase in Guinea Pigs

Six female and four male albino guinea pigs were immunized with active purified xanthine oxidase of bovine milk mixed with equal volume of Freund's complete adjuvant. One male and one female were immunized with heat-inactivated xanthine oxidase mixed with equal volume of adjuvant. Two males and four females were controls and received a phosphate buffer mixed with equal volume of adjuvant. The mixtures were administered intradermally and subcutaneously at weekly intervals for 6 consecutive wk and blood samples collected weekly. The enzyme was antigenic by the coated tanned red blood cell method. After the third weekly immunization, precipitating antibodies were in the sera of animals that received the active enzyme. Hemagglutination titers increased during subsequent weeks and reached a maximum after the sixth weekly immunization. Antisera from animals immunized with heat-inactivated xanthine oxidase gave a positive response similar to that with animals immunized with the active enzyme. However, when the same antisera were tested with sheep red blood cells coated with heat-inactivated enzyme, no hemagglutination was observed. Ouchterlony double gel-diffusion tests showed that it may be possible to differentiate between antibodies elicited to active and heat-inactivated xanthine oxidase.
Improved 3D live-wire method with application to 3D CT chest image analysis

The definition of regions of interests (ROIs), such as suspect cancer nodules or lymph nodes in 3D CT chest images, is often difficult because of the complexity of the phenomena that give rise to them. Manual slice tracing has been used widely for years for such problems, because it is easy to implement and guaranteed to work. But the manual method is extremely time-consuming, especially for high-solution 3D images which may have hundreds of slices, and it is subject to operator biases. Numerous automated image-segmentation methods have been proposed, but they are generally strongly application dependent, and even the "most robust" methods have difficulty in defining complex anatomical ROIs. To address this problem, the semi-automatic interactive paradigm referred to as "live wire" segmentation has been proposed by researchers. In live-wire segmentation, the human operator interactively defines an ROI's boundary guided by an active automated method which suggests what to define. This process in general is far faster, more reproducible and accurate than manual tracing, while, at the same time, permitting the definition of complex ROIs having ill-defined boundaries. We propose a 2D live-wire method employing an improved cost over previous works. In addition, we define a new 3D live-wire formulation that enables rapid definition of 3D ROIs. The method only requires the human operator to consider a few slices in general. Experimental results indicate that the new 2D and 3D live-wire approaches are efficient, allow for high reproducibility, and are reliable for 2D and 3D object segmentation.
Functional analysis of deletion mutants of cucumber mosaic virus RNA3 using an in vitro transcription system

Abstract Full-length DNA copies of RNAs 1, 2, and 3 of CMV Y strain (CMV-Y) were cloned downstream of modified phage T7 promoter sequences to obtain infectious RNA transcripts. The small number of extra nonviral nucleotides at the 5′ ends considerably decreased the specific infectivity of the transcripts of RNAs 1 and 2 but did not affect that of the RNA3 transcripts. Using the most infective transcripts, up to 45% of tobacco protoplasts could be infected. Various cDNA mutants were constructed from the full-length RNA3 cDNA to give RNA transcripts having deletions in the coding region of the 3a protein or the coat protein. These mutants replicated in tobacco protoplasts but did not produce systemic symptoms on tobacco when inoculated together with transcripts of RNAs 1 and 2. One of the mutants having a small in-frame deletion near the N-terminal region of the coat protein produced local lesions on cowpea and local chlorotic spots on the inoculated leaves of tobacco. These results suggest that both the 3a protein and the coat protein are involved in virus transport, and that viral assembly is associated with long-distance movement of CMV.
Barbara Kingsolver and Keri Hulme: Disability, Family, and Culture

(2004). Barbara Kingsolver and Keri Hulme: Disability, Family, and Culture. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction: Vol. 45, No. 4, pp. 405-420.
The Laplace transform of the digamma function: An integral due to Glasser, Manna and Oloa

The definite integral M(a):= 4 π∫ π/2 0 x 2 dx x 2 +ln 2 (2e -a cos x) is related to the Laplace transform of the digamma function L(a):= ∫ ∞ 0 e- as ψ(s+1)d s , by M(a) = L(a) + γ/a when a > ln 2. Certain analytic expressions for M(a) in the complementary range, 0 < a ≤ ln 2, are also provided.
Effects of memory size on melody recognition in a simulation of cohort theory

This research models human performance in Dalla Bella, Peretz, and Aronoff (2003) melody recognition study. They compared performance between musicians and nonmusicians in the perception and recognition of isolated melodies. Inspired by cohort theory, they used a gating task to identify three cognitive events in the melody perception/recognition process. These events were the familiarity emergence point (FEP), the isolation point (IP), and the recognition point (RP). Dalla Bella et al. explain their results using cohort theory. In the present research, we develop a simulation based on a sequence recognition neural network (SRN) that is compatible with cohort theory. We use it to model the hypothesized cognitive processes underlying the occurrence of these events. Two separate networks with different stored memory sizes are used to model musicians and nonmusicians. Our simulations capture the qualitative pattern of results in Dalla Bella et al. and show how stored memory size may affect the melody recognition process. The IP is modeled using the core SRN that contains a winner-take-all (WTA) mechanism. The FEP and RP are modeled by introducing meta-level readout units that monitor the dynamically evolving state of the WTA network. The unit that models the FEP plays a causal role in determining the RP. Therefore, the FEP is not an epiphenomenon in our simulation. It was not previously known whether the core SRN contained enough information to allow simple meta-level readout of dynamic cognitive states. Our simulations show that such readout is in fact possible.
Cross-cultural variations in adolescents' perceived maternal expectancy and sexual initiation.

Purpose: This study built on previous findings and compared the effects of maternal influences on adolescents’ sexual initiation among four racial and ethnic groups: Asian American Pacific Islanders, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Caucasians. Design/Method: An exploratory, comparative secondary analysis of longitudinal data from 433 Asian American Pacific Islanders, 1,367 African Americans, 1,241 Hispanic Americans, and 4,567 Caucasian adolescents between the ages of 15 and 17 years at Wave 1 was conducted using structural equation modeling. Bronfenbrenner’s Social Ecological Model guided the modeling and analyses. Results: Adolescents’ sexual initiation was significantly associated with mother–adolescent interactions and adolescents’ perceived maternal sexual expectations. Cross-cultural variations are noted and discussed. Conclusions: Nursing interventions designed to delay adolescents’ sexual initiation need to focus on familial and cultural variations associated with mother–adolescent inte...
Mechanism of inhibition of aldehyde dehydrogenase by citral, a retinoid antagonist.

Low concentrations of citral (3,7-dimethyl-2,6-octadienal), an inhibitor of retinoic acid biosynthesis, inhibited E1, E2 and E3 isozymes of human aldehyde dehydrogenase (EC1.2.1.3). The inhibition was reversible on dilution and upon long incubation in the presence of NAD+; it occurred with simultaneous formation of NADH and of geranic acid. Thus, citral is an inhibitor and also a substrate. Km values for citral were 4 microM for E1, 1 microM for E2 and 0.1 microM for E3; Vmax values were highest for E1 (73 nmol x min-1 x mg-1), intermediate for E2 (17 nmol x min-1 x mg-1) and lowest (0.07 nmol x min-1 x mg-1) for the E3 isozyme. Citral is a 1 : 2 mixture of isomers: cis isomer neral and trans isomer, geranial; the latter structurally resembles physiologically important retinoids. Both were utilized by all three isozymes; a preference for the trans isomer, geranial, was observed by HPLC and by enzyme kinetics. With the E1 isozyme, both geranial and neral, and with the E2 isozyme, only neral obeyed Michaelis-Menten kinetics. With the E2 isozyme and geranial sigmoidal saturation curves were observed with S0.5 of approximately 50 nM; the n-values of 2-2.5 indicated positive cooperativity. Geranial was a better substrate and a better inhibitor than neral. The low Vmax, which appeared to be controlled by either the slow formation, or decomposition via the hydride transfer, of the thiohemiacetal reaction intermediate, makes citral an excellent inhibitor whose selectivity is enhanced by low Km values. The Vmax for citral with the E1 isozyme was higher than those of the E2 and E3 isozymes which explains its fast recovery following inhibition by citral and suggests that E1 may be the enzyme involved in vivo citral metabolism.
Peace Research and the United Nations: A Role for the World Organization

When the United Nations General Assembly decided in 1971 that it was "desirable to bring to the notice of the international community the work done in the field of peace research by national and international institutions,"2 it underscored the importance of communication to the peace research movement. The fact that this was the first such resolution to be adopted by the assembly of the world organization created in 1945 "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war"3 is indicative of the same problem of inadequacy of communication confronting peace research. Coupled with this problem, and in fact a manifestation of it as well, is the lack of cohesion within peace research. Such fluidity has direct bearing not only on the question of peace research communication,
Relationships between U.S. and Canadian Wheat Prices: Cointegration and Error Correction Approach

This paper examines relationships between U.S. and Canadian wheat prices using the cointegration and error correction approach. The use of the error correction model is appropriate because U.S. and Canadian wheat prices are first-differenced stationary and cointegrated. The results suggest that both U.S. durum and hard spring wheat prices respond to restore equilibrium relationships with the corresponding Canadian price, while the Canadian prices do not. That is, the structure of the respective policies is such that the Canadian markets are largely insulated from influences flowing directly from the U.S., while U.S. markets are not insulated from Canadian influences. These results could be interpreted to support the contention that Canadian production subsidies and the implicit export subsidies would tend to undermine the U.S. price support program. The results also support the price leadership role for Canada in the durum and hard spring wheat markets. The implication is that with respect to durum and spring wheats, U.S. policies to artificially support domestic prices are not effective over the long run. Les rapports entre les prix de ble canadiens et americains sont etudies a partir des analyses basees sur la cointegration et la methode de correction des erreurs. L'emploi de la methode de correction des erreurs est approprie car les prix de ble canadiens et americains sont cointegres et stationnaires quand Us sont exprimes en changements (first differences). Les resultats montrent que les prix du ble dur (durum) et du ble panifiable du printemps (hard spring) aux Etats- Unis reagissent a l'evolution des prix canadiens pour retablir le rapport d'equilibre tandis que ceux du Canada ne sont pas influences par les desequilibres. Ce resultat est explique par les differences entre les structures des politiques agri-coles quifont que les marches canadiens sont largement isoles des influences en provenance des Etats-Unis, ce qui n'estpas le cas pour les marches americains. Ces resultats pourraient vouloir dire que des subventions canadiennes a la production et a l'exportation ont mine les programmes americains de sou-tien des prix. Us sont egalement compatible avec l'idee que le Canada etablit les prix sur ces marches.
Fault tolerant distributed systems using Ada

This paper discusses the use of Ada on distributed systems in which failure of processors has to be tolerated. It is assumed that communication between tasks on separate processors will take place using the facilities of the Ada language, primarily the rendezvous. It is shown that there are numerous aspects of the language which make its use on a distributed system very difficult. The issues are raised from the desire to be able to recover, reconfigure, and provide continued service in the presence of hardware failure. For example, if a rendezvous takes place between two tasks on different processors, failure of the processor executing the serving task will cause the calling task to be permanently suspended because the rendezvous will never end. Extensive modifications to the execution support required for Ada are proposed which provide all the necessary facilities for programs written in Ada to withstand arbitrary processor failure. Mechanisms are suggested to allow processor failure to be detected and for tasks which would be permanently suspended to be released. Provided the required program structures are used, continued processing can be provided.
A pacific culture among wild baboons: its emergence and transmission.

Reports exist of transmission of culture in nonhuman primates. We examine this in a troop of savanna baboons studied since 1978. During the mid-1980s, half of the males died from tuberculosis; because of circumstances of the outbreak, it was more aggressive males who died, leaving a cohort of atypically unaggressive survivors. A decade later, these behavioral patterns persisted. Males leave their natal troops at adolescence; by the mid-1990s, no males remained who had resided in the troop a decade before. Thus, critically, the troop's unique culture was being adopted by new males joining the troop. We describe (a) features of this culture in the behavior of males, including high rates of grooming and affiliation with females and a “relaxed” dominance hierarchy; (b) physiological measures suggesting less stress among low-ranking males; (c) models explaining transmission of this culture; and (d) data testing these models, centered around treatment of transfer males by resident females.
Pretransition phenomena in first-order order-disorder transitions

Experimental evidence for regions of heterogeneous and homogeneous nucleation and continuous ordering is reviewed; a number of effects have been detected just aboveTc in Cu3Au which appear to be due to heterophase fluctuations: 1) an increase in the Debye Waller factor and the diffuse intensity due to the variance in atomic displacements, 2) the presence of optical phonon modes, 3) phonon mode broadening, and 4) diffuse intensity due to anharmonic interactions. The analysis of these results indicates that there are large quasistatic mean square displacements of Au atoms near Tc for Cu3Au. A model for the heterophase regions consistent with this result is that the regions contain a high density of intersecting anti-phase domain boundaries.
Arsenic risk assessment: the importance of speciation in different hydrologic systems.

The processes impacting arsenic toxicity are a function of molecular speciation, where risk from chronic exposure to the reduced arsenic species is estimated to be four orders of magnitude higher than many oxidized arsenic species. While the adverse health effects of arsenic are generally well known, the impact of speciation on carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic adverse health effects has rarely, if ever, been considered in traditional chronic arsenic exposure risk assessments. Utilizing standard Environmental Protection Agency protocol, lifetime cancer risk and hazard quotient are calculated for chronic arsenic exposure at the local, regional, and national scale to characterize potential risk as a function of arsenic speciation. Additionally, the antagonistic and synergistic impacts of biogeochemical processes on arsenic bioavailability and bioaccessibility are discussed and show chronic exposure risk is likely to be reduced below some maximum value calculated for reduced arsenic species.