cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Reducing severe hypoglycaemia in hospitalised patients with diabetes: Early outcomes of standardised reporting and management.

Background Severe hypoglycaemic events (HGEs) in hospitalised patients are associated with poor outcomes and prolonged hospitalization. Systematic, coordinated care is required for acute management and prevention of HGEs; however, studies evaluating quality control efforts are scarce. Objective To investigate the effectiveness of system-based interventions to improve management response to HGEs. Methods System-based interventions were designed and implemented following a root cause analysis of HGE in adult patients with diabetes from two general medical wards with the highest incidence of HGE. Interventions included electronic medical record programming for a standardised order set for basal-bolus insulin regimen and hypoglycemia protocol, automated dextrose order, automated MD notification, and recommendation for endocrine consultation after two critical HGEs. The Pyxis MedStation was programmed to alert nurses to recheck blood glucose 15 min after the treatment. A card with the HGE management protocol was attached to each provider’s ID badge and educational seminars were given to all providers. Main outcomes and measures Primary outcomes were to evaluate median time from HGE (glucose 100 mg/dL), and time from HGE to follow-up finger-stick (FS) testing preintervention and postintervention. Secondary outcomes were cumulative incidence of HGEs, recurrent hypoglycemia, rate of physician notification and use of standardised treatments among adults with diabetes on the two general medical wards. Results Among hospitalised adults with diabetes and HGE, median time from HGE to euglycemia declined from 225±46 min preintervention to 87±26 min postintervention (p=0.03). Median time from HGE to next FS testing also declined (76±14 min to 28±10 min, p Among hospitalised adults with diabetes, incidence of HGE decreased from 12% (35/295) over 3 months (preintervention period) to 6% (37/610) over 6 months (postintervention period) (p Conclusions System-based interventions had a clinically important impact on decreasing time from HGE to euglycemia and to next FS testing. This hypoglycemia bundle of care may be applied and tested in other community hospitals to improve patient safety.
Propuesta de diseño de un sistema continuo para un fotobiorreactor airlift a escala laboratorio

Microalgae has been used as a source for biochemical compounds with a high added value. It implies the need for developing profitable processes with high quality. A continuous system is a good option to be used to improve that kind of process. The objective of this research was to propose a design of a continuous system for an Airlift photobioreactor in a laboratory scale, by means of design variables such as inlet and outlet flows, diameter of the hosepipe, retention time in the storage tanks and power of the pump. The mathematical method begins with mass and energy balances that allowed relating these variables with values already defined for this system. As a result, with these balances not only was it possible to solve these design variables, but it also allowed defining and delimiting the different parts and components of the continuous system.
Numerical Simulation of a Spinning Projectile Using Parallel and Vectorized Unstructured Flow Solver

The finite volume method (FVM) is the most widely used numerical method by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) researchers to solve the compressible Navier-Stokes equations. A successful FVM solver should be accurate, efficient and robust. High-order spatial discretization must be used for accuracy. Implicit time integration is usually adopted to obtain better efficiency, especially for high Reynolds number flows. For large-scale applications, the solver should be parallelized and even vectorized to be able to run on parallel and vector computer platforms.
Intraoral Cone (IOC)

This chapter is included for a historical perspective as intraoral cone is rarely used today.
Exploring issues relating to disability cultural competence among practicing physicians

Abstract Background Many factors contribute to the well-recognized health care disparities experienced by persons with disability, including failure of physicians to understand the lives of individuals with disability. Disability cultural competence considers physicians’ ability to meet the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of this population. Objectives To assess physicians’ understanding of disability cultural competence and attitudes towards patients with disability. Methods Qualitative analyses of open-ended individual interviews averaging 41 min with 20 Massachusetts physicians from 5 different subspecialties, in practice for 8–51 years. Interview recordings were transcribed verbatim for conventional content analysis. Results Most participants defined disability using medically-focused concepts rather than concepts that recognize how social factors contribute to disability. All participants used disability culturally-competent language, such as “person-first language,” at some points throughout their interviews. However, most participants also employed language that is now considered unacceptable or archaic, such as variations on the word “handicap,” “wheelchair-bound,” describing persons with disability as “suffering,” and calling persons by their health condition (e.g., “COPDer”). Participants mentioned persons with mental illness and intellectual disability as particularly challenging, especially around communication and performing even routine tests or examinations. Recommendations for improving care included better listening to patients with disability and seeking their views about their care. Conclusions In this exploratory study, most participants used language that is considered disability culturally competent at times but also employed many terms and concepts that are considered outdated and may be troubling to some persons with disability.
Adolescent Bariatric Surgery: Current Concepts and Future Directions

This review intends to discuss the current status of childhood and adolescent bariatric surgery, including short- and mid-term outcomes, complications, and controversies. Additionally we will highlight potential future directions of pediatric weight loss procedures specifically in regard to procedures. To date, adolescent bariatric surgery appears to be the most effective way to treat adolescent and pediatric obesity in the short term. Not only does surgery offer the benefit of significant weight loss that is sustainable based on adult literature and the short-term data that we have in pediatric and adolescent literature, but there are significant improvements and resolutions to obesity-associated comorbidities. The recent literature converge on the importance and necessity of further studies which follow patients into adulthood in order to provide a better understanding of the long-term effects of surgery on the adolescent population, resolution of comorbidities, the benefits to the patient, and the impact on life expectancy. Adolescent surgical outcomes and comorbidities appear to mimic adult data, and some studies show that children and adolescents respond better to bariatric surgery with better results than the adults in regard to comorbidities. Effective management of overweight and obese pediatric and adolescent patients requires early identification and surgery for those patients who would most benefit from surgical treatment. To date, pharmacotherapy, behavior modification, and dietary changes do not have long-term sustainability in regard to maintaining a healthy weight in these children. Appropriate utilization of bariatric surgery among the pediatric and adolescent population is important in preventing obesity transmission, and its complications, into adulthood. Long-term data will address many questions and concerns of parents, patients, and primary care physicians. Until effective non-surgical options become available, weight loss surgery is the only viable option. Future endeavors and new research favor creation and use of less invasive safer procedures that incur less risk with maximum benefit, and study of the patients’ unique physiology in a search for different treatments as well as prevention options.
A phonetic study of Swahili voiced stops

Despite a rich history of general linguistic research, discrepancy exists within the literature on the phonetic description of voiced stops in Swahili. Polome (1967) reports the voiced stops are phonemically implosive, with plosive allophones in some environments, but which may be strictly egressive for some speakers. Additionally, he states that other speakers have implosives for all stops (i.e., [ɓ], [ɗ], [ɟ]) except the voiced velar plosive [g]. Contemporary descriptions classify all the voiced stops as pulmonic voiced plosives (Mohamed, 2001). This study is an acoustical examination of voiced stops of Swahili speakers from various regions of Tanzania and Kenya to determine the presence of implosives in Swahili and its dialects. The parameters under observation include: (1) voicing onset time (VOT), (2) voicing terminating time (VTT), (3) amplitude, and (4) closure duration as described in several works (Nihalani, 1986; Clements and Osu, 2002; Chavez-Peon, 2005; especially, Cun, 2009). This study discusses preliminary findings on the analysis of five speakers’ productions. Four speakers were found to have implosives in all cases except prenasalized voiced stops. One speaker produced plosives in all instances. The results suggest that variation does occur and further research is needed to establish a better description of the language.Despite a rich history of general linguistic research, discrepancy exists within the literature on the phonetic description of voiced stops in Swahili. Polome (1967) reports the voiced stops are phonemically implosive, with plosive allophones in some environments, but which may be strictly egressive for some speakers. Additionally, he states that other speakers have implosives for all stops (i.e., [ɓ], [ɗ], [ɟ]) except the voiced velar plosive [g]. Contemporary descriptions classify all the voiced stops as pulmonic voiced plosives (Mohamed, 2001). This study is an acoustical examination of voiced stops of Swahili speakers from various regions of Tanzania and Kenya to determine the presence of implosives in Swahili and its dialects. The parameters under observation include: (1) voicing onset time (VOT), (2) voicing terminating time (VTT), (3) amplitude, and (4) closure duration as described in several works (Nihalani, 1986; Clements and Osu, 2002; Chavez-Peon, 2005; especially, Cun, 2009). This study discu...
Assembling the human resectosome on DNA curtains

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are a potentially lethal DNA lesions that disrupt both the physical and genetic continuity of the DNA duplex. Homologous recombination (HR) is a universally conserved genome maintenance pathway that initiates via nucleolytic processing of the broken DNA ends (resection). Eukaryotic DNA resection is catalyzed by the resectosome-a multicomponent molecular machine consisting of the nucleases DNA2 or Exonuclease 1 (EXO1), Bloom's helicase (BLM), the MRE11-RAD50-NBS1 (MRN) complex, and additional regulatory factors. Here, we describe methods for purification and single-molecule imaging and analysis of EXO1, DNA2, and BLM. We also describe how to adapt resection assays to the high-throughput single-molecule DNA curtain assay. By organizing hundreds of individual molecules on the surface of a microfluidic flowcell, DNA curtains visualize protein complexes with the required spatial and temporal resolution to resolve the molecular choreography during critical DNA-processing reactions.
Improving a Genetic Algorithm for Route Planning Using Parallelism with Speculative Execution

A typical United Parcel Service (UPS) route consists of approximately 100 stops. The distance traveled to visit those 100 stops is determined by the order in which they are visited and the paths traveled between consecutive stops. This is an example of a problem we call route planning. The reward for finding short routes is substantial. UPS estimates that reducing each of their 55,000 North American routes by only 1 mile per day results in annual savings of up to $50,000,000, in fuel costs alone [18]. We approach the route planning problem with a novel, parallel genetic algorithm. We demonstrate the utility of parallelism for route planning by showing decreasing run times and solving much more complex problem instances that a non-parallel implementation of the same algorithm. By introducing speculative execution to the algorithm, we further, significantly improve the results.
Inattention in misophonia: Difficulties achieving and maintaining alertness.

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Misophonia is marked by abnormal negative reactions to specific and idiosyncratic sounds. Despite unclear etiology and diagnostic conceptualization, neuropsychology may be abl...
The symbolic effect of minority representation and perceptions of the majority: how majority citizens perceive marriage-based immigrant representation in the South Korean government

This study investigates how minority representation affects the trust and perceived legitimacy of the government among the majority. To that end, this article examines the effect of marriage-based ...
The Dark Side of Holocaust Era Poetry: Nazi Poetry Promoting Antisemitism and Genocide

This chapter opens a window into the world of antisemitic Holocaust poetry by focusing on Third Reich poetry ephemera—cards, postcards, fliers, and posters—a widely neglected but significant topic. Much more than books, Nazi ephemera, which were inexpensive to produce, allowed for mass distribution and thus more notable historical impact. Poem cards, including postcards, offered large numbers of ordinary Germans the opportunity to distribute antisemitic sentiments, to endorse the Nazi project by purchasing the cards cheaply and sending them to others. An examination of these specific verses shows that we cannot fully understand the psychology and motivation of the agents of Nazism, or indeed the history of antisemitism, without reflecting on and studying this poetry.
Incidence of venous thromboembolism among patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy for advanced epithelial ovarian cancer

Objectives Neoadjuvant chemotherapy may be considered for women with epithelial ovarian cancer who have poor performance status or a disease burden not amenable to primary cytoreductive surgery. Overlap exists between indications for neoadjuvant chemotherapy and known risk factors for venous thromboembolism, including impaired mobility, increasing age, and advanced malignancy. The objective of this study was to determine the rate of venous thromboembolism among women receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy for epithelial ovarian cancer. Methods A multi-institutional, observational study of patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy for primary epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or peritoneal cancer was conducted. Primary outcome was rate of venous thromboembolism during neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Secondary outcomes included rates of venous thromboembolism at other stages of treatment (diagnosis, following interval debulking surgery, during adjuvant chemotherapy, or during treatment for recurrence) and associations between occurrence of venous thromboembolism during neoadjuvant chemotherapy, subject characteristics, and interval debulking outcomes. Venous thromboembolism was defined as deep vein thrombosis in the upper or lower extremities or in association with peripherally inserted central catheters or ports, pulmonary embolism, or concurrent deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. Both symptomatic and asymptomatic venous thromboembolism were reported. Results A total of 230 patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy were included; 63 (27%) patients overall experienced a venous thromboembolism. The primary outcome of venous thromboembolism during neoadjuvant chemotherapy occurred in 16 (7.7%) patients. Of the remaining venous thromboembolism events, 22 were at diagnosis (9.6%), six post-operatively (3%), five during adjuvant chemotherapy (3%), and 14 during treatment for recurrence (12%). Patients experiencing a venous thromboembolism during neoadjuvant chemotherapy had a longer mean time to interval debulking and were less likely to undergo optimal cytoreduction (50% vs 80.2%, p=0.02). Conclusions Patients with advanced ovarian cancer are at high risk for venous thromboembolism while receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Consideration of thromboprophylaxis may be warranted.
Impairments of white matter tracts and connectivity alterations in five cognitive networks of patients with multiple sclerosis

Abstract Introduction MS is associated with structural and functional brain alterations leading to cognitive impairments across multiple domains including attention, memory, and speed of information processing. Here, we analyzed the white matter damage and topological organization of white matter tracts in specific brain regions responsible for cognition in MS. Methods Brain DTI, rs-fMRI, T1, T2, and T2-FLAIR were acquired for 22 MS subjects and 22 healthy controls. Automatic brain parcellation was performed on T1-weighted images. Skull-stripped T1-weighted intensity inverted images were co-registered to the b0 image. Diffusion-weighted images were processed to perform whole brain tractography. The rs-fMRI data were processed, and the connectivity matrixes were analyzed to identify significant differences in the network of nodes between the two groups using NBS analysis. In addition, diffusion entropy maps were produced from DTI data sets using in-house software. Results MS subjects exhibited significantly reduced mean FA and entropy in 38 and 34 regions, respectively, out of a total of 54 regions. The connectivity values in both structural and functional analyses were decreased in most regions of the default mode network and in four other cognitive networks in MS subjects compared to healthy controls. MS also induced significant reduction in the normalized hippocampus and corpus callosum volumes; the normalized hippocampus volume was significantly correlated with EDSS scores. Conclusion MS subjects have significant white matter damage and reduction of FA and entropy in various brain regions involved in cognitive networks. Structural and functional connectivity within the default mode network and an additional four cognitive networks exhibited significant changes compared with healthy controls.
Meaningfulness and Superficiality: Joseph Conrad’s Surface Truths

This chapter analyzes Conrad’s 1899 novella Heart of Darkness. Its narrator and protagonist Charles Marlow embodies many of the Decadent attributes discussed previously. He thinks constantly about his surroundings and strives to understand all of the mysteries he encounters. By placing his experiences in a philosophical framework, Marlow believes he can stave off modernity’s most frightening aspects: uncertainty and doubt. He chooses a distinctly Decadent approach to knowledge by scrutinizing the outermost layer of reality. These surface truths let him sidestep the more unsettling elements of his contemplations of the other. His encounter with Kurtz, a man who cultivates the symbolic and dramatically immerses himself beneath the surface of the world, explodes Marlow’s certainty in his perspective. By pitting these two aesthetic positions against each other, the novella exemplifies the capacity of Symbolism to undermine Decadence.
Cefepime Population Pharmacokinetics and Target Attainment in Critically Ill Patients on Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy.

Sepsis causes half of acute kidney injuries in the intensive care unit (ICU). ICU patients may need continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), which will affect their antimicrobial exposure. We aimed to build a cefepime population pharmacokinetic (PK) model in CRRT ICU patients and perform simulations to assess target attainment. Patients who were ≥18 years old, were admitted to the ICU, and received cefepime 2 g every 8 h as a 4-h infusion while on CRRT were enrolled prospectively. Samples were collected from the predialyzer ports, postdialyzer ports, and effluent fluid at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8 h after the first dose and at steady state. Age, sex, weight, urine output, and CRRT parameters were recorded. Pmetrics was used for population PK and simulations. The target exposure was 100% of the dosing interval during which the free beta-lactam concentration is above the MIC (fT >MIC). Ten patients were included; their mean age was 53 years, and mean weight was 119 kg. Seventy percent were males. Cefepime was described by a five-compartment model. The downtime was applied to the CRRT flow rates, which were used to describe the rates of transfer between the compartments. At MICs of ≤8 mg/liter, intermittent infusion of 2 g cefepime every 8 h achieved good target attainment both early in therapy and at steady state. Only extended- and continuous-infusion regimens achieved good target attainment at MICs of 16 mg/liter. In conclusion, 2 g cefepime infused over 30 min followed by extended infusion of 2 g every 8 h achieved good target attainment at MICs of ≤16 mg/liter with different CRRT flow rates and may be considered in resistant bacterial infections.
Moving beyond the direction of climate change to estimating its magnitude: A water budget approach for wetland systems

Abstract Paleoclimate proxy studies of wetland sediment cores often document the direction if not the magnitude of climate change because transfer functions (pollen, diatoms, etc.) are unavailable or imprecise. A water-budget approach, presented here, circumvents the need for transfer functions in wetlands, using the Garden Basin cattail fen (GBC; Fish Lake Plateau, Utah, USA) as a model system. Prior studies of the GBC fen revealed both high and low-frequency oscillations between fen and pond states over the last 12.5 ka. Pollen indicated that pond-like conditions were accompanied by both greater monsoon and annual precipitation rates. However, the magnitude of these changes was not estimated. By synthesizing multiple approaches, including water-level monitoring, remote sensing (normalized difference vegetation index, NDVI), and terrain analysis, limits were placed on precipitation changes required for pond versus fen ecosystems in Garden Basin. NDVI data show that water levels may be controlled by evapotranspiration (ET) instead of spring snowmelt. Water levels increase in mid-winter in response to the decline of photosynthesis of surrounding pinon-juniper (PJ) forest. In late summer through fall, ET drives the fen system into a moisture deficit and water declines below the ground surface. Quantitative limits on both annual and seasonal precipitation changes can be obtained through water budgets. For the GBC model, mean annual precipitation (~350 mm/yr) must double (~700 mm/yr) to sustain perennial standing water for 95% of years. Increases in late summer (monsoon) through fall (cyclonic) precipitation requires lesser rates (100–200 mm/yr) to satisfy PJ ET demands to maintain standing water. Thus, the habitats of many wetlands globally may be particularly sensitive to late-season precipitation where ET is the primary control on water levels. In summary, the GBC fen and its water budget are a template for quantifying the magnitude, rather than just the direction, of precipitation change in wetland systems through time.
U.S. Climate Change Law and Policy in the Time of Trump and Beyond

As the world's second most profligate greenhouse gas ("GHG") emitter, the United States is one of the two keys to any successful global effort to limit global climate change to sub-catastrophic levels, which in turn is a prerequisite for efforts to achieve sustainable development worldwide. The other key is China, the world's most profligate GHG emitter. Yet meaningful, sustained progress toward limiting U.S. GHG emissions, and toward U.S. cooperation with less developed countries such as China to help them to limit their own emissions, remain elusive goals. Domestically, the Obama Administration's Clean Power Plan regulations and new Corporate Average Fuel Economy ("CAFE") standards for passenger cars and light trucks were a step in the right direction. They also paved the way for the executive agreement on limiting GHG emissions signed by U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2015, and for their joint effort to bring the Paris Agreement into being the following year. Donald Trump's surprise election as U.S. President in 2016 has undermined the promise of even these modest steps, however, by empowering further an ideologically radical minority within the U.S. political system. These traditional conservatives are mostly white, Christian evangelicals who are concentrated in the States of the South, Midwest, and Intermountain West. They remain hostile to nearly all laws or policies that would limit U.S. GHG emissions or that would require the United States to provide financial or technical assistance or to make other concessions to less developed countries such as China to help them to limit their own emissions. The predictability of these effects flows ultimately from the Calvinist moral content of American traditional conservatism. Although simmering tensions within the Republican Party inject some uncertainty into the task of making long term predictions, certain structural and other features of the U.S. Government likely mean that even the end of the Trump Administration will not eliminate the resulting barriers to progress in limiting GHG emissions in the United States or anywhere else. Even so, other structural features suggest that the efforts of traditional conservatives to roll back the existing U.S. GHG emissions and related regulations that would provide an indispensable foundation for reviving progress over the long term will be easier said than done. Still other structural features suggest that the most fruitful opportunities for long term progress will revolve less around the U.S. Federal Government than it will around the U.S. States.
On Scheduling Actuator Data Transmission in Discrete-Time Networked Adaptive Systems

We study how to schedule actuator data transmission in discrete-time networked model reference adaptive control systems for reducing wireless network utilization. We propose an event-triggered hedging approach introduced to the reference model, which is constructed by taking the difference between the sampled control signal sent to an uncertain dynamical system and the actual discrete-time control signal computed by the adaptive control algorithm. The advantages of the proposed approach include i) asymptotic convergence of the difference between an uncertain dynamical system state and the reference model state predicated on a logarithmic Lyapunov function-based stability analysis, ii) possibility of convergence of the estimated parameters to the unknown parameters when the closed-loop dynamical system is persistently excited, and iii) direct execution of the proposed approach in an embedded code. Note that i) and ii) are not trivial to achieve without introducing the proposed hedging approach to the reference model and iii) results from our discrete-time framework since existing continuous-time approaches require discretization that may result in loss of stability properties. Finally, an illustrative numerical example is provided for demonstrating the efficacy of the proposed approach.
Factor Analysis of SPACs: Impact on SPACs Performance by Management Factors

Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”) are shell companies formed for the purpose of acquiring an existing operating company. A typical characteristic of a SPAC is that it has no specific business plan at the time of establishment or that it is still unclear of its target company. A SPAC raises capital through an initial public offering ("IPO") process, and the investment of SPACs is related to the credibility, reputation, previous achievement, and other factors of the management team. For that reason, we want to determine whether the performances of SPACs are correlated with various factors of their founders. In our study, we apply factor analysis to analyze and seek a correlation between the management factors and the performance of the SPACs. We have collected by far the largest SPAC data set including information about the management team of each SPAC and quantify that information into factors. The factors include education level, previous financial experience, experience heterogeneity, the average age of the team, size of the management team, and ownership of any patent. To obtain a deeper perspective of the factors' impact on SPACs' performance, we divided the SPACs into 8 sectors based on their target industries and run factor analysis over the management factors for each sector.
Particle foraging strategies promote microbial diversity in marine environments

Microbial foraging in patchy environments, where resources are fragmented into particles or pockets embedded in a large matrix, plays a key role in natural environments. In the oceans and freshwater systems, particle-associated bacteria can interact with particle surfaces in different ways: some colonize only during short transients, while others form long-lived, stable colonies. We do not yet understand the ecological mechanisms by which both short-term and long-term colonizers can coexist. Here, we address this problem with a mathematical model that explains how marine populations with different detachment rates from particles can stably coexist. In our model, populations grow only while on particles, but also face the increased risk of mortality by predation and sinking. Key to coexistence is the idea that detachment from particles modulates both net growth and mortality, but in opposite directions, creating a trade-off between them. While slow-detaching populations show the highest growth return (i.e., produce more net offspring), they are more susceptible to suffer higher rates of mortality than fast-detaching populations. Surprisingly, fluctuating environments, manifesting as blooms of particles (favoring growth) and predators (favoring mortality) significantly expand the likelihood that populations with different detachment rates can coexist. Our study shows how the spatial ecology of microbes in the ocean can lead to a predictable diversification of foraging strategies and the coexistence of multiple taxa on a single growth-limiting resource.
"Undecided" responses on the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire.

Domino's Suicide Opinion Questionnaire was administered to 288 students, along with measures of attitudes and personality traits. The number of "undecided" responses was positively associated with death anxiety scores, suggesting this questionnaire might be improved by eliminating the "undecided" response option. The meaning of this response might be studied. Language: en
Bearing Witness through Fiction

In her article, "Bearing Witness through Fiction," Carolina Rocha explores the ways in which three Argentine writers grappled with their roles as public intellectuals and witnesses to acts of terror, undeniable violence, and human rights abuses during the most recent military dictatorship. By examining three narrative texts written from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s Aqui pasan cosas raras (Strange Things Happen Here) (1975) by Luisa Valenzuela, La casa y el viento (The House and the Wind) (1984) by Hector Tizon, and El arbol de la gitana (The Tree and the Gypsy) (1997) by Alicia Dujovne Ortiz, she argues that because of the public role assigned to writers, their accounts could not be disengaged from a tense sociopolitical reality. Hence, Valenzuela, Tizon, and Dujovne Ortiz provide a testimony of their bearing witness to the political turmoil of the late 1970s blending it with and in their fiction. Rocha focuses on the crucial role played by fictional narrative in bearing witness to catastrophic events. Carolina Rocha, "Bearing Witness through Fiction" page 2 of 9 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 9.1 (2007): Thematic Issue, Representing Humanity in an Age of Terror. Ed. Sophia A. McClennen and Henry James Morello
Subjective estimates of own relative riskiness and risk taking following a group discussion

Abstract Changes in individual risk preferences following a group discussion were examined on six Choice Dilemma Questionnaire items for the three following self-defined groups of subjects—those who saw themselves as riskier (R), the same as (S), or more cautious than (C) their peers. The results indicated that the risky shifts on individual items were primarily the result of subjects in the C group on each item shifting their preferences in the direction of greater risk. Further, the subjects' perceptions of relative riskiness were veridical on each of the items. Both of these findings were counter to the implicit assumptions in the mechanism posited as responsible for the risky shift by the social value hypothesis. The results were interpreted as suggesting that the risky shift might be profitably viewed within the context of Sherif's social judgment-involvement approach to attitude change.
The mass dependence of the spin-orbit splitting in the A = 176–208 mass region

Abstract The mass dependence of the l = 5 proton spin-orbit splitting is essentially due to the tensor component of the effective interaction. It is predicted that this mass dependence changes sign in the odd mass Au and T1 isotopes. The tendency of spin unsaturated shells to invert spin-orbit splittings is also caused by the effective tensor interaction.
Bioeconomic models of marine recreational fishing

Abstract The theory of recreational fishing is developed and conditions are derived for optimal management policy, with special attention given to functional relationships that must be empirically verified. Determinants of the optimal allocation between commercial and recreational fishing effort are derived. The theory is extended to include selected peculiar features of recreational fishing: Some anglers sell their catch; a small proportion of the fishing population accounts for a large proportion of the catch; and anglers throw back a fraction of what they catch. Optimal policies are derived under these more realistic conditions.
Mitral valve prolapse and infective endocarditis

Abstract This study describes the clinical features, laboratory findings and follow-up of 25 patients with bacterial endocarditis found to have mitral valve prolapse. Mitral valve prolapse was confirmed by echocardiography (17 patients), angiocardiography (nine patients) or by pathologic study of the mitral valve (10 patients). There were no associated cardiac lesions except for atrial septal defect in two patients. Physical examination at the time of endocarditis revealed holosystolic murmurs in 22 patients (five with late systolic crescendo) and mid-systolic click with late systolic murmur in three. Six patients with holosystolic murmurs were known to have had only late systolic murmurs prior to endocarditis. Causative organisms included alpha Streptococcus in 12 patients, Strep. group D in five, Staphylococcal aureus in four, and Strep. hemolyticus, Bacteroides, Hemophilus aphrophilus, Strep. pneumoniae and Moraxella in one patient each. Nine patients, six of whom had ruptured chordae tendineae, subsequently required mitral valve replacement. In two additional patients congestive heart failure developed which responded to medical therapy. Cerebral embolism occurred in five patients. Three patients had second episodes of endocarditis. One death occurred from cerebral hemorrhage secondary to thrombocytopenia. Ten of these 25 patients were found in a review of 87 consecutive patients with infective endocarditis seen over a five-year period at Stanford University Hospital. Twenty-eight of the 87 had isolated mitral regurgitation, suggesting that mitral valve prolapse is the basis for about one third (10 of 28) of the instances of bacterial endocarditis associated with isolated mitral regurgitation in our hospital. The high incidence of holosystolic murmurs suggests either that endocarditis leads to more severe mitral regurgitation and ruptured chordae in some instances or that patients with holosystolic murmurs are more susceptible to bacterial endocarditis than those with less striking auscultatory findings.
Open Non-uniform Cylindrical Algebraic Decompositions

This paper introduces the notion of an Open Non-uniform Cylindrical Algebraic Decomposition (NuCAD), and presents an efficient model-based algorithm for constructing an Open NuCAD from an input formula. Using a limited experimental implementation of the algorithm, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach. NuCAD generalizes Cylindrical Algebraic Decomposition (CAD) as defined by Collins in his seminal work from the early 1970s, and extended in concepts like Hong's partial CAD. A NuCAD, like a CAD, is a decomposition of Rn into cylindrical cells. But unlike a CAD, the cells in a NuCAD need not be arranged cylindrically. It is in this sense that NuCADs are not uniformly cylindrical. However, NuCADs, like CADs, carry a tree-like structure that relates different cells. It is a very different tree but, as with the CAD tree structure, it allows some operations to be performed efficiently, for example locating the containing cell for an arbitrary input point.
Retinal Ganglion Cells Lose Trophic Responsiveness after Axotomy

Whereas PNS neurons in culture are intrinsically responsive to peptide trophic factors, retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are not unless they are depolarized, or their intracellular levels of cyclic AMP (cAMP) are elevated. We show here that depolarization increases cAMP in cultured RGCs sufficiently to enhance their responsiveness and that the trophic responsiveness of developing RGCs in intact retinas depends on physiological levels of activity and cAMP elevation. Responsiveness is lost after axotomy but is restored by cAMP elevation. The death of axotomized RGCs can be prevented if they are simultaneously stimulated by several trophic factors together with cAMP elevation. Thus, the death of RGCs after axotomy is not caused solely by the loss of retrograde trophic stimuli but also by a profound loss of trophic responsiveness.
The Ethics of Speculation

Recently there has been an outpouring of consumer frustration over rising food and energy prices. Many politicians railed against “speculators” who allegedly drove up the prices of key necessities. Is speculation unethical? This article reviews the traditional arguments against speculation. Many of the standard criticisms confuse speculation with gambling. In much the same way as ethicists now draw distinctions between usury and normal business interest, we draw a distinction between socially useful speculation and gambling. Gambling involves taking on risk with no plausible expectation of making a profit. Gambling may provide entertainment value to some people, but like other addictive activities causes grave harm to a subset of users. Speculation involves taking on a business risk with a plausible expectation that a profit will result. Speculators provide an important risk bearing service by taking on risks that others do not want. They help markets to function better by helping to incorporate information into prices as well as providing liquidity. Speculators may actually reduce shortages by causing quicker price increases that motivate producers to increase production and consumers to conserve. But even socially useful speculation may have an ethical dark side. Does such speculation cause damage by adding excess volatility to prices? Speculators may contribute to price bubbles. At what point does legitimate speculation become odious “price gouging?” We also draw an ethical distinction between speculation, which seeks to benefit from changing prices, and manipulation, actions taken to push prices away from their economically appropriate levels.
A new RIDDle in DC-mediated cross-presentation

Hyperactivity of a branch of the unfolded protein response in CD8α+ dendritic cells degrades endoplasmic reticulum–associated mRNAs, which leads to a defect in the cross-presentation of dead cell–derived antigens.
Effect of Age and Number of Calvings on Histological Characteristics of the Bovine Uterus

Abstract Uterine tissue sections of 110 repeat-breeding cows were studied for the relationship between age and number of calvings on total uterine thickness, muscle thickness, mucosal thickness, number of gland cross sections per square millimeter, and gland diameter. It was found that 30% of the variation in muscle thickness was due to age, independent of number of calvings. Variation in gland cross section numbers was due to individual cow differences, with no significant effect due to age or number of calvings. Likewise, variation in gland diameter was associated with individual cow differences and differences within an individual cross section. Comment is made on cystic uterine glands, enlarged secretory glands, and elastotic uterine vessels.
Quantum Chaotic Environments, the Butterfly Effect, and Decoherence

We investigate the sensitivity of quantum systems that are chaotic in a classical limit to small perturbations of their equations of motion. This sensitivity, originally studied in the context of defining quantum chaos, is relevant to decoherence when the environment has a chaotic classical counterpart.
Channelled spectrum due to homeotropic nematic samples undergoing electric field induced molecular orientations

We have observed the formation of the channelled spectrum in unpolarized light when a homeotropic nematic liquid crystal sample, undergoing molecular reorientations, is placed in a grating spectrom...
Rapid learning of passive avoidance by weanling rats: Conditioned taste aversion*

Weanling rats were allowed to drink lithium chloride solution, a drug which induces visceral upset, at 22 (conditioning) and 25 (testing) days of age. Intake of lithium chloride in testing was significantly below that in conditioning, indicating that the rats learned not to drink the aversive fluid after one exposure and that weanling rats can rapidly learn to inhibit certain responses.
Ant Assemblages in Intact Big Sagebrush and Converted Cheatgrass-Dominated Habitats in Tooele County, Utah

ABSTRACT. Biological invasions are one of the greatest threats to native species in natural ecological systems. One of the most successful invasive species is Bromus tectorum L. (cheatgrass), which is having marked impacts on native plant communities and ecosystem processes. However, we know little about the effects of this invasion on native animal species in the Intermountain West. Because ants have been used to detect ecological change associated with anthropogenic land use, they seem well suited for a preliminary evaluation of the consequences of cheatgrass-driven habitat conversion. In our study, we used pitfall traps to assess ant community assemblages in intact sagebrush and nearby cheatgrass-dominated vegetation. Ant abundance was about 10-fold greater in cheatgrass-dominated plots than in sagebrush plots. We also noted differences in diversity and evenness between habitat types at both the species and the functional-group levels of organization. At the species level, Shannon's diversity index was...
Role of molecular species catabolism in the temperature-induced restructuring of phosphatidylcholines in liver microsomes of thermally-acclimated rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss).

Most previous studies of the temperature-induced restructuring of phospholipid molecular species composition have examined steps in the biosynthesis of phospholipids to explain the accumulation of unsaturated fatty acids in membranes of cold-acclimated poikilotherms. In contrast, the present study explores the role of phospholipases in this restructuring process by determining the rates of degradation of specific molecular species of phosphatidylcholine, using enzymes (microsomes) freshly isolated from the liver of rainbow trout. (Oncorhynchus mykiss) acclimated to either 5° or 20°C. The substrate preparation employed to assay phospholipase activity possessed a range of molecular species, all radiolabeled with 1-14C-palmitic acid at thesn-1 position, similar to that present in native trout liver microsomes. After defined periods of incubation (120 and 240 min at 5°C; 60 and 120 min at 20°C), phospholipids were extracted from the reaction mixture and the distribution of radioactivity among the molecular species of phosphatidylcholine was determined by HPLC/liquid scintillation counting. In general, molecular species catabolism was not significantly influenced by either assay or acclimation temperature. Only in 20°C-acclimated fish did a reduction in assay temperature (from to 20 to 5°C) result in significantly increased proportions of radioactivity being recovered in one polyunsaturated fatty acid-containing species (16:0/22:6-PC). It is concluded: 1) that phospholipase specificity, assayed under conditions approximating thosein situ, is not significantly influenced by temperature; and 2), that the increased proportions of unsaturated fatty acid-containing molecular species of phosphatidylcholine observed at low temperatures must reflect the specificity of biosynthetic rather than degradative processes.
Long range planning and organizational performance

Abstract The study which is summarized in this article was undertaken with a view to measuring the effects of formal integrated long range planning upon commonly accepted financial performance measures in industrial concerns. Ninety U.S. companies took part in the survey representing five generic groupings (Clothing, Chemicals, Drugs and Cosmetics, Electronics, Food and Machinery). The authors conclude that the top management of any profit seeking organization is delinquent if they do not engage in fully integrated long range planning.
Migration, remittances and development: a study of Caribbean cane cutters in Florida.

The results of a 1981 survey of 302 Caribbean sugarcane cutters who were temporary immigrants in Florida are presented. The focus is on remittances to the islands of origin. The results provide "no evidence that seasonal stateside employment expands agricultural output or enhances the productive capacity of small farmers in the Caribbean." (EXCERPT)
Capture and collection of lampreys: the state of the science

The need for native lamprey conservation, improved lamprey fishery management, and better assessment of non-indigenous lamprey control measures has resulted in increased effort to survey lamprey populations and assess their status. Depending on the study objectives and target species/life stage, collection methods vary dramatically. We therefore provide a comprehensive review of sampling considerations and techniques used to capture, collect, handle, and enumerate both juvenile and adult lamprey life stages. Surveys for lamprey are often constrained by the lack of basic biological information, such as reliable characters for field identification of larvae (ammocoetes), migratory timing of anadromous forms, and spawning/nest building behavior of adults. However, there are a number of studies that have documented habitat preferences of the relatively sedentary ammocoetes. Consequently, existing sampling protocols have focused on the development of stratified sampling that targets optimal ammocoete habitat. In addition to this approach, we discuss methods and gear that can be used to survey migratory life stages, lamprey nests, and difficult-to-sample, deepwater ammocoete habitats.