cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Identifying Patient Strengths Instruments and Examining Their Relevance for Chronic Disease Management: A Systematic Review.

INTRODUCTION Most health care focuses on patients' deficits to encourage behavior change. A strengths-based approach, which relies on identifying patient strengths, has great potential to facilitate behavior change for chronic disease management. Little is known about instruments used to assess patient strengths. We conducted a systematic review to identify validated instruments that assess personal strengths by using a theory elaboration approach. METHODS We searched 8 databases including Web of Science, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL), and PsycINFO (through July 2019) to identify peer reviewed, English-language studies that described strength-based instruments. Thereafter, we evaluated the validity and reliability of the instruments according to 18 Scientific Advisory Committee of the Medical Outcome Trust (SACMOT) criteria, and used an inductive, iterative editing process to identify constructs measured by the instruments. RESULTS We identified 26 instruments that met our inclusion criteria. The instruments were validated in various clinical and nonclinical populations. Only 4 instruments met most of the SACMOT criteria for validation. We extracted 91 unique constructs that fell into 3 domains: inner strengths (49), external strengths (13), and personality constructs (29). CONCLUSION A limited number of reliable and valid instruments are available to assess strengths for the adult population, particularly for clinical populations. Internal strengths can be leveraged to improve patient health; however, the development and validation of additional instruments to capture personal strengths is necessary to examine the multilevel influence of external strengths on individual behaviors and well-being.
DOAC-Stop in lupus anticoagulant testing: Direct oral anticoagulant interference removed in most samples.

Background The use of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) is a convenient therapeutic option for patients at risk of thrombosis. DOACs interfere with clot-based testing for the identification of lupus anticoagulant antibodies (LACs) in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), a common cause of acquired thrombotic disease. Objectives To evaluate a commercially available reagent DOAC-Stop for the removal of DOAC interference encountered in LAC testing. Patients/Methods We collected a cohort of 73 test samples from patients on DOAC therapy identified at a large institutional coagulation laboratory from March to December 2019, along with samples from 40 LAC positive and negative control patients not on therapy. Samples were treated with DOAC-Stop and tested for anti-Xa activity and thrombin time for the removal of apixaban, rivaroxaban, argatroban, and dabigatran activity from patient samples. Treated and untreated samples were tested using the activated partial thromboplastin time, silica clotting time, and dilute Russell's viper venom time to evaluate the reliability and utility of DOAC-Stop. Results DOAC-Stop markedly reduced DOAC interference from test samples (P < .05). DOAC-Stop had no effect on LAC testing in the absence of DOAC therapy, permitting the identification of all LAC positive and negative controls. DOAC-Stop removed false positives and false negatives resulting from DOAC interference and allows the identification of patients meeting criteria for the diagnosis of APS by LAC testing, as well as the detection of patients on rivaroxaban who are triple positive for APS. Conclusions DOAC-Stop is an effective adjunct for the clinical laboratory faced with DOAC interference in LAC testing.
PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION: Characterisation of an elective course on climate change for health professional students

Context: A 10-week elective course, designed by students and supported by faculty, was developed to raise awareness about climate change and health among graduate health professional students. This article aims to characterise the course design, implementation, and student feedback gathered over three years. Description of Course: Course topics aligned with United Nations General Assembly Sustainable Development Goals and were sequenced to first introduce students to basic climate change concepts, followed by examples of human activities with environmental and health consequences. Speakers held diverse roles in health care, research, public health organisations, and advocacy groups. Students evaluated both individual speakers and the course. Evaluation: 152 health professional students enrolled in the course over 3 years. The course was well-received with favourable speaker ratings and course evaluations across all years. Students commented on the importance and relevance of the course topics taught by a diverse group of speakers. Students also requested examples of ways to address climate health issues. Future plans: A 10-week elective course on climate change and health, designed by students and supported by faculty, resulted in favourable evaluations among health professions students. The authors plan to conduct an assessment of student knowledge gained from the course and delayed assessments of students’ attitudes and behaviours to evaluate changes over time and achievement of course goals.
The Suicide Instigator

Suicide is a personal tragedy. A life that could have gone on for days, weeks, months, years, decades, is, instead, cut short. All human life is precious. Every second of all lives is also treasurable. (I make exceptions, of course, for murderers and others of that ilk who are serious violators of the NAP).
Aristotle and distributed language: capacity, matter, structure, and languaging

Abstract Non-representational views of language require non-Cartesian concepts. Some in this vein have looked to philosophers such as Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and Peirce, but none so far have looked to Aristotle. This paper argues that Aristotle's metaphysics offers an attractive and powerful set of concepts to scaffold the distributed language approach. I provide a brief exposition of the central commitments of Aristotelian metaphysics and of the distributed approach to language. After drawing connections between these two sets of concepts, I offer two advantages of this synthesis. First, it allows for a natural incorporation of causal pluralism, which acknowledges that events at different timescales are causally efficacious in different ways. Second, it enables reinterpretation of findings from orthodox linguistics; insights about the structure of language are preserved but the ontological commitments to internal representations are abandoned.
Symposium on Macro and Microeconomics: Microeconomics and Macroeconomics

Publisher Summary The essential difference between microeconomics and macroeconomics is in the nature of the abstractions made in the two approaches to compare the complexities of reality. In microeconomics, the attention is focused on a part of the economic system. It is recognized that what happens in a part of the system can affect the rest of the economy outside the part studied, but microeconomics is not concerned with these. In macroeconomics, the attention is focused on the economic system as a whole, and it is complexities within the system that are abstracted from or disregarded. The present interest in macroeconomics, and in its relation to microeconomics, is primarily an indirect result of the recent Keynesian emphasis on the effect of expenditure by an entity on the income received by it. Economics hopes for fruits from refinements at the microscopic as well as at the macroscopic extremes. But it might occasionally also be useful to leave the microscope as well as the telescope for a while and use one's normal eyesight to observe such phenomena as rising prices together with substantial unemployment that are not less important for normal economics, because they do not fit into the familiar models, micro or macro.
Race and cultural production: Responses to the birth of a nation

(1993). Race and cultural production: Responses to the birth of a nation. Critical Studies in Mass Communication: Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 184-190.
The Stability of a Disequilibrium IS-LM Model

A disequilibrium version of the standard IS-LM model is constructed and used to analyze the stability of the model. The main feature of the disequilibrium behavior turns out to be a spillover from the money market to the output market; if there is an excess demand for loanable funds (or an excess supply of bonds) firms will be unable to finance all of their desired investment, and aggregate demand will therefore be smaller than would otherwise be the case. This spillover has certain implications for the dynamic behavior of the model.
Pathways for abiotic organic synthesis at submarine hydrothermal fields

Arguments for an abiotic origin of low-molecular weight organic compounds in deep-sea hot springs are compelling owing to implications for the sustenance of deep biosphere microbial communities and their potential role in the origin of life. Theory predicts that warm H2-rich fluids, like those emanating from serpentinizing hydrothermal systems, create a favorable thermodynamic drive for the abiotic generation of organic compounds from inorganic precursors. Here, we constrain two distinct reaction pathways for abiotic organic synthesis in the natural environment at the Von Damm hydrothermal field and delineate spatially where inorganic carbon is converted into bioavailable reduced carbon. We reveal that carbon transformation reactions in a single system can progress over hours, days, and up to thousands of years. Previous studies have suggested that CH4 and higher hydrocarbons in ultramafic hydrothermal systems were dependent on H2 generation during active serpentinization. Rather, our results indicate that CH4 found in vent fluids is formed in H2-rich fluid inclusions, and higher n-alkanes may likely be derived from the same source. This finding implies that, in contrast with current paradigms, these compounds may form independently of actively circulating serpentinizing fluids in ultramafic-influenced systems. Conversely, widespread production of formate by ΣCO2 reduction at Von Damm occurs rapidly during shallow subsurface mixing of the same fluids, which may support anaerobic methanogenesis. Our finding of abiogenic formate in deep-sea hot springs has significant implications for microbial life strategies in the present-day deep biosphere as well as early life on Earth and beyond.
Inclusive Particle Production at LEP

New results on inclusive production of Sigma^- and Lambda(1520) and on proton production in quark and gluon jets are presented. These results are based on 2 million hadronic Z decays collected with the DELPHI detector at LEP. They are compared with the results of other LEP experiments and with models. It has been shown that the total production rates of all light-flavour hadrons measured so far at LEP 1 follow phenomenological laws related to the spin, isospin, strangeness and mass of the particles. A significant proton enhancement in gluon jets is observed, indicating that baryon production proceeds directly from colour objects.
TESTING FOR UNEQUAL RATES OF MORPHOLOGICAL DIVERSIFICATION IN THE ABSENCE OF A DETAILED PHYLOGENY: A CASE STUDY FROM CHARACIFORM FISHES

This study develops the random phylogenies rate test (RAPRATE), a likelihood method that simulates morphological evolution along randomly generated phylogenies, and uses it to determine whether a considerable difference in morphological diversity between two sister clades of South American fishes should be taken as evidence of differing rates of morphological change or lineage turnover. Despite identical ages of origin, similar species richness, and sympatric geographic distributions, the morphological and ecological diversity of the superfamily Anostomoidea exceeds that of the Curimatoidea. The test shows with 90% confidence (using variance among species as the measure of morphological diversity) or 99% confidence (using volume of occupied morphospace) that the rate of morphological change per unit time in the Anostomoidea likely exceeded that of the Curimatoidea. Variation in the rate of lineage turnover (speciation and extinction rates) is not found to affect greatly the morphological diversity of simulated clades and is not a likely explanation of the observed difference in morphological diversity in this case study. Though a 17% or greater delay in the onset of diversification in the Curimatoidea remains a possible alternative explanation of unequal morphological diversification, further simulations suggest that two clades drawn from the possible treespace of the Anostomoidea and Curimatoidea will rarely differ so greatly in the onset of diversification. Several uniquely derived morphological and ecological features of the Anostomoidea and Curimatoidea may have accelerated or decelerated their rate of morphological change, including a marked lengthening of the quadrate that may have relaxed structural constraints on the evolution of the anostomoid jaw.
An ultrasonic ranging system for the blind

A mobile ultrasonic ranging system was developed for the blind. Currently, the most common method of range detection used by blind people is the walking stick. The limitation of the walking stick is that a blind person must come into close proximity with their surroundings to determine the location of an obstacle. In this project, a commercially available ultrasonic sensor, the Sona Switch 1700 (Electronic Design and Packing, Livonia, Michigan) was used to expand the environmental detection range of blind individuals. This sensor has a DC voltage output proportional to distance measured and an internal solid state switch. The DC voltage changes inversely with respect to changes in object distance. By using a monolithic voltage-to-frequency (V/F) converter, the DC voltage from the sensor is converted into an AC frequency that produces an audible frequency of chirps in two small headphones. The larger the DC voltage input into the V/F converter, the higher the frequency of chirps output. The result is a system that produces a varying frequency of chirps that is inversely proportional to the distance measured. The sensor is mounted on a lightweight helmet allowing the user to obtain a reading in whichever direction their head points. The power source and corresponding circuitry are each encased in a plastic experimenter's box and attached to the user's belt. The ultrasonic ranging system has been tested on a blind student. The blind student's response was that the system enhanced his visualization of the surrounding environment, and further improved his ability to maneuver in a general environment.
IOTA, a new computer controlled thin film thickness measurement tool

Abstract IOTA is a very simple high-speed scanning spectrophotometer. A computer, an essential part of the tool, controls data acquisition, corrects systematic errors, normalizes data, and provides data reduction for the specific problem of measuring the thickness of thin oxide films on silicon semiconductor wafers. Data reduction techniques used with this computer-controlled measurement are different from those conventionally used with manually acquired data. Independence from operator induced bias and error is obtained with fully automatic measurement.
Superplastic Deformation of Magnesium Alloy AZ31 Under Biaxial Loading Condition

Accurate constitutive modeling of superplastic deformation is critical for successful simulation and optimization of superplastic forming. The selection of the forming pressure profiles in gas blow forming of superplastic materials is still based on trial and error due to the limited predictive capabilities of current models describing superplastic deformation. In general, these models are based on uniaxial loading condition, assuming isotropic behavior. In this work, we examine the biaxial bulge forming of AZ31 magnesium alloy using pressure profiles derived from different available analytical models. The results clearly show the need for more accurate description of superplastic deformation to improve predictive capabilities. In addition, a pressure profile that is generated using FE in conjunction with a microstructure-based constitutive model is used and the results indicate better ability to predict the height of the bulged sheet.
Fast surface-fitting algorithm for 3D image registration

The surface-fitting method is one of the most promising techniques for 3-D image registration. It accurately registers two tomographic scans by matching the surface of a common object appearing on both scans. However, the goodness-of-fit measure used in the original algorithm is difficult to compute. We have developed a more efficient method that measures distance between surfaces in 2-D along the tomographic planes. Through a series of simulation studies, we demonstrate that the new method does not compromise the accuracy of the original algorithm.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Interactions of Choleragenoid and GM1 Ganglioside with Enterotoxins of Vibrio cholerae and Escherichia coli in Cultured Adrenal Cells

The heat-labile enterotoxins of Vibrio cholerae and Escherichia coli induce morphologic changes and steroidogenesis in clonal lines of adrenal tumor cells in tissue culture; these effects are preventable by prior incubation of either toxin with GM1 ganglioside (galactosyl-N-acetylgalactosaminyl [sialosyl] lactosyl ceramide; GGnSLC) but are not preventable by prior incubation of adrenal cells with choleragenoid. Choleragenoid, however, is capable of interfering with the ability of GM1 ganglioside to neutralize the effects of either toxin. These results suggest that the GM1 ganglioside may not be the true receptor for the toxins on adrenal cells, but that it is acting as a pseudoreceptor. The ability of a subunit (A) of the cholera enterotoxin molecule to induce in adrenal cells morphologic changes and steroidogenesis similar to those effects inducible by the whole toxin indicates the possibility that separate receptor sites on these adrenal cells may exist for the binding and active fragments of the molecule.
Chiral monolithic columns for enantioselective capillary electrochromatography prepared by copolymerization of a monomer with quinidine functionality. 2. Effect of chromatographic conditions on the chiral separations.

The effect of chromatographic conditions on the performance of chiral monolithic poly(O-[2-(methacryloyloxy)ethylcarbamoyl]-10,11-dihydroquinidine-co-ethylene dimethacrylate-co-2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) columns in the capillary electrochromatography of enantiomers has been studied. The flow velocity was found to be proportional to the pore size of the monolith and both the pH and the composition of the mobile phase. The length of both open and monolithic segments of the capillary column was found to exert a substantial effect on the run times. The use of monoliths as short as 8.5 cm and the “short-end” injection technique enabled the separations to be achieved in ∼5 min despite the high retentitivity of the quinidine selector. Very high column efficiencies of close to 250 000 plates/m and good selectivities were achieved for the separations of numerous enantiomers using the chiral monolithic capillaries with the optimized chromatographic conditions.
A qualitative study of young adults’ perceptions of modified-risk tobacco products for smoking cessation

Study Design: • 8 focus groups (n=59;) with 18-25 year old young adults attending 2 public colleges in Connecticut. • Groups were stratified by gender (n=28 (55%) female) and smoking status (n=29 (49%) daily cigarette smokers; n=31 (51%) non-smokers). • A standard focus group guide was used to ask participants about their knowledge of MRTPs (electronic cigarettes and dissolvables) and usefulness in smoking cessation.
Implementation of an Interactive Programming System

Design and implementation experience with an Interactive Programming System are described. Reflections are made on various design decisions and on the effect of using a Tree Factored Interpreter as the core of the system.
Effects of ethinyl estradiol on intestinal membrane structure and function in the rabbit.

Abstract Structural and functional properties of the small intestinal microvillus membrane were evaluated in the rabbit after administration of ethinyl estradiol, a synthetic estrogen with a demonstrated propensity to alter hepatic membrane lipid fluidity, and promote cholestasis. In the jejunum, no estrogen-induced changes in microvillus membrane total lipid, cholesterol or phospholipid content were observed. However, the ileal microvillus membrane in estradiol-treated animals demonstrates significant reductions vs. controls (per mg protein) in total lipid (0.55 μg vs. 0.89 μg) and phospholipid (206.7 μg vs. 304.91 μg) (p
Explicit-and implicit-solvent simulations of micellization in surfactant solutions

In this article, we focus on simulation methodologies to obtain the critical micelle concentration (cmc) and equilibrium distribution of aggregate sizes in dilute surfactant solutions. Even though it is now relatively easy to obtain micellar aggregates in simulations starting from a fully dispersed state, several major challenges remain. In particular, the characteristic times of micelle reorganization and transfer of monomers from micelles to free solution for most systems of practical interest exceed currently accessible molecular dynamics time scales for atomistic surfactant models in explicit solvent. In addition, it is impractical to simulate highly dilute systems near the cmc. We have demonstrated a strong dependence of the free surfactant concentration (frequently, but incorrectly, taken to represent the cmc in simulations) on the overall concentration for ionic surfactants. We have presented a theoretical framework for making the necessary extrapolations to the cmc. We find that currently available atomistic force fields systematically underpredict experimental cmc's, pointing to the need for the development of improved models. For strongly micellizing systems that exhibit strong hysteresis, implicit-solvent grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations represent an appealing alternative to atomistic or coarse-grained, explicit-solvent simulations. We summarize an approach that can be used to obtain quantitative, transferrable effective interactions and illustrate how this grand canonical approach can be used to interpret experimental scattering results.
Passive Monitoring Software Tool for Evaluation of Deployed WirelessHART Networks

Deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks in real-world control and monitoring applications may reveal performance problems caused by several factors. To track down such problems, it is necessary to inspect the conditions of network and nodes after deployment. In this paper, we discuss a monitoring software architecture for inspection of WirelessHART networks. Capture of information is done in a passive way using sniffers deployed in the network area. Messages are decoded, decrypted, filtered and then visualized in a graphic interface. A WirelessHART network was deployed in a laboratory for performance evaluation using the developed tool.
Pile-of-plates polarizer for the vacuum ultraviolet.

A pile-of-plates polarizer and analyzer for the spectral region 2000 A to 1200 A have been constructed from cleaved LiF plates 13 mm in diameter and 0.3 to 0.8 mm thick. Both polarizer and analyzer consist of identical cylinders with 0.48-cm apertures and contain eight 1-mm slots cut at an angle of 30° to the axis of the cylinder. The slots are arranged in two opposing groups of four each, to give an on-axis emergent beam. Measurements with a six-plate polarizer gave polarizations of 82% and 65% at 1200 A and 1600 A, respectively. The effective transmission of the polarizer was 4.3% and 21.5% at these two wavelengths. Performance characteristics of the polarizer are presented and discussed.
Utilization of Renal Mass Biopsy in Patients With Renal Cell Carcinoma

Objective To examine the patient, tumor, and temporal factors associated with receipt of renal mass biopsy (RMB) in a contemporary nationally representative sample. Methods We queried the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare data set for incident cases of renal cell carcinoma diagnosed between 1992 and 2007. We tested for associations among receipt of RMB and patient and tumor characteristics, type of therapy, and procedure type. Temporal trends in receipt of RMB were characterized over the study period. Results Approximately 1 in 5 (20.7%) patients diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma (n = 24,702) underwent RMB before instituting therapy. There was a steady and modest increase in RMB utilization, with the highest utilization (30%) occurring in the final study year. Of patients who underwent radical (n = 15,666) or partial (n = 2211) nephrectomy, 17% and 20%, respectively, underwent RMB in advance of surgery. Sixty-five percent of patients who underwent ablation (n = 314) underwent RMB before or in conjunction with the procedure. Roughly half of patients (50.4%) treated with systemic therapy alone underwent RMB. Factors independently associated with use of RMB included younger age, black race, Hispanic ethnicity, tumor size Conclusion At present, most patients who eventually undergo radical or partial nephrectomy do not undergo RMB, whereas most patients who eventually undergo ablation or systemic therapy do. The optimal use of RMB in the evaluation of kidney tumors has yet to be determined.
Potassium channel inactivation peptide blocks cyclic nucleotide-gated channels by binding to the conserved pore domain

Cyclic nucleotide-gated (CNG) channels in photoreceptors and olfactory neurons are activated by intracellular ligands (cAMP and cGMP) rather than voltage. Surprisingly, these channels share amino acid sequence homology with voltage-gated channels. Here we show that the distinct gating mechanisms exhibited by CNG and voltage-gated channels share features that reflect this structural homology. Thus, a 20 amino acid peptide ("ball peptide") derived from the Shaker-type K+ channel and responsible for its rapid inactivation also blocks CNG channels. Moreover, the peptide selectively blocks open CNG channels and prevents channel closure, showing that CNG channel activation, like activation of voltage-dependent K+ channels, involves the opening of a gate located on the intracellular side of the peptide-binding site. Amino acid substitutions in the peptide cause similar changes in blocking affinity of CNG and K+ channels, suggesting a conserved binding site. Using a chimeric retinal/olfactory channel, we show that the difference in the peptide affinity of the two CNG channels is due to a difference in the amino acid sequence of the conserved pore-forming region, demonstrating that this domain forms part of the peptide receptor.
Saliva cortisol levels following dexamethasone administration in endogenously depressed patients.

Abstract Saliva and serum cortisol levels were measured in 11 patients with primary major depression, endogenous subtype, and in 9 control subjects before and 8, 16, and 24 hours after dexamethasone administration (1.0 mg p.o.). Six of the 20 subjects had post-dexamethasone serum cortisol concentrations greater than 50 ng/ml and thus were considered “escapers” from dexamethasone suppression. These six subjects also had saliva cortisol concentrations which were significantly elevated compared to those of the suppressors. Measurement of saliva cortisol holds promise as a non-invasive technique for assessing CNS-pituitary-adrenal function in endogenously depressed patients.
The fibrinolysin-antifibrinolysin system in serum; mechanism of its endocrine control.

EARLIER studies have indicated that fibrinolysin (FL), a proteolyticenzyme, appears in blood as a result of the activation of its inactive precursor, profibrinolysin (PFL), by certain stimuli such as the antigen-antibody reaction (Ungar and Mist, 1949). Evidence was presented that the rate of inactivation of fibrinolysin by its inhibitor, antifibrinolysin (AFL), is accelerated by hormones from the pituitary gland and the adrenal cortex. This action appears to be mediated by the spleen since it is absent in splenectomized animals and can be reproduced by a substance present in the spleen, splenin A (Ungar, 1945). In contrast to this accelerating effect of splenin A, a retarding influence was shown by another substance found in the spleen and bone marrow, splenin B (Ungar and Damgaard, 1951). The present paper deals mainly with endocrine factors which retard the fibrinolysin-antifibrinolysin (FL-AFL) reaction. In view of the close correlation
Verbal Memory Span in Children: Speech Timing Clues to the Mechanisms Underlying Age and Word Length Effects

Abstract According to the prevalent articulatory loop hypothesis of memory span (Baddeley, 1986), subjects recall items from a decaying phonological store that is refreshed by a covert articulatory process. The rate of covert articulation is said to determine memory span. The present research indicates that this account underemphasizes effects of (1) other covert mnemonic processes and (2) overt pronunciation in recall. Memory span and maximal speech rate for sets of one-, two-, and three-syllable words were examined in groups of children with mean ages of 4;5 and 8;8. Although the usual linear relation between the maximal speech rate and memory span was replicated, speech timing measurements based on the memory responses revealed that age and word length effects had different effects on the timing of responding. Whereas word length affected the duration of words in the response but not silent intervals, age affected the duration of silent, preparatory and interword intervals in the response but not the duration of words. These results are discussed in light of the hypothesis that the speeds of multiple, mnemonically relevant covert and overt processes affect memory span.
Formulating large-scale quantity¿quality bilinear data reconciliation problems

Abstract This short note describes the relevant details of formulating and implementing general bilinear quantity–quality balances found in industrial processes when data reconciliation is applied. The modeling also allows for the straightforward generation of analytical first-order derivatives. Quantity–quality balance problems are those that involve both extensive and intensive stream variables such as flows and compositions, respectively and are related through laws of conservation of material, energy and momentum. The balance equations involve both linear and bilinear terms (multi-linear) of quantity and quality where quantity times quantity and quality times quality are not germane although they can be included easily. Two numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the new formulation technique.
Purification of the cAMP receptor protein by affinity chromatography

Summary 8-(6-aminohexyl)-amino-adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate coupled to agarose has been utilized as affinity chromatography media for separation of the subunits of cAMP-dependent protein kinase and for purification of the regulatory cAMP receptor subunit. Quantitative recovery of highly purified cAMP receptor protein has been achieved using this method. The purified cAMP receptor protein is fully functional in binding cAMP and in reversibly combining with protein kinase catalytic subunits to generate the cAMP-dependent enzyme.
Current applications of advanced cross-sectional imaging techniques in evaluating the painful arthroplasty

Patients with a painful arthroplasty can present a clinical diagnostic dilemma. Aspirates are often negative for infection and alignment of the prosthesis on conventional radiographs is usually satisfactory. These patients can have a myriad of soft tissue as well as osseous pathologies, which may be clinically unsuspected or radiographically occult. The ability of advanced cross-sectional imaging to diagnose osseous and soft tissue injuries has been well documented, but applications to arthroplasty imaging are often limited by regional metallic artifacts. Adjustment of standard imaging parameters can make CT and MR imaging useful adjuncts in imaging the painful arthroplasty, especially in the setting of normal radiographs. Ultrasound can be used to evaluate the periprosthetic soft tissues and provide a real-time method of evaluating the dynamic relationship of the periprosthetic soft tissues to the arthroplasty components, and it also can be used as a guide for diagnostic and therapeutic interventions.
Rest in mediated peace: how Entertainment Tonight’s coverage of Natalie Wood’s and John Belushi’s deaths helped shape celebrity death coverage today

Today a celebrity’s death becomes a media event. Television, print, and online news sources can spend weeks covering these deaths, many times reporting the same information in different ways to keep the story alive. But how did celebrity death coverage take on such a life of its own? This article uses historical research to suggest that television entertainment/news magazine Entertainment Tonight’s coverage of Natalie Wood’s and John Belushi’s deaths in 1981 and 1982 respectively helped create a televised style of celebrity death coverage that informs how today’s media covers celebrity death. This is examined through personal interviews with those behind Entertainment Tonight’s coverage of Wood and Belushi, as well as analysis of the actual episodes that aired. The resulting information opens a historical window into how Entertainment Tonight and its early coverage of celebrity death became a driving force behind this type of television news coverage.
Obtaining polynomial coefficients from intercept points of RF power amplifiers

The RF power amplifier is a critical component in 4G wireless communication systems. One of the main concerns of RF power amplifier design is its nonlinearity, which is more severe in OFDM modulation widely used in LTE and WiMAX systems. Nonlinearity is typically described in terms of the intercept points. It is very useful for the design to obtain coefficients of the memoryless polynomial of the power amplifier model from those intercept points. Previously, the expression of the fifth-order coefficient from the fifth intercept point IP5 was derived. This expression is low generalised to arbitrarily high order. A downlink LTE advanced signal is used for experimental verification. This result could be used for the design of power amplifiers or predistorters.
Effects of Minocycline Plus Tissue Plasminogen Activator Combination Therapy After Focal Embolic Stroke in Type 1 Diabetic Rats

Background and Purpose—Poststroke hyperglycemia is associated with resistance to tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) reperfusion, higher risk of intracerebral hemorrhage, and worse neurological outcomes. In this study, we asked whether minocycline combined with intravenous tPA may ameliorate inflammation and brain injury after focal embolic stroke in type 1 diabetic rats. Methods—Type 1 diabetic rats were subjected to a focal embolic stroke. Three treatment groups were used: (1) saline at 1.5 hours after stroke; (2) tPA alone at 1.5 hours after stroke; (3) combined minocycline (intravenously) at 1 hour plus tPA at 1.5 hours, and second treatment of minocycline (intraperitoneally) at 12 hours after stroke. Acute brain tissue damages were assessed at 24 hours after stroke. Inflammatory biomarkers interleukin-1β and matrix metalloproteinases 2 and 9 were examined in plasma. Neutrophil infiltration, microglia activation, matrix metalloproteinase activation, and degradation of the tight junction protein claudin...
The applicability of acceptance sampling with respect to process stability and control

This article examines the applicability of acceptance sampling and the effectiveness of Deming's kp rule in relation to the degree of process stability achieved through statistical process control techniques. A discrete-event simulation model is used to characterize the correlation between the number of defective units in a randomly drawn sample versus in the remainder of a lot, in response to a number of system and control chart parameters. The model reveals that such correlation is typically present when special causes of variation affect the production process from time to time, even though the process is tightly monitored through statistical process control. Comparison of these results to an analogous mixed binomial scenario reveals that the mixed binomial model overstates the correlation in question if the state of the process is not necessarily constant during lot production. A generalization of the kp analysis is presented that incorporates the possibility of dependence between a sample and the unsampled portion of the lot. This analysis demonstrates that acceptance sampling is generally ineffective for lots generated by a process subject to statistical process control, despite the fact that the number of defectives in the sample and in the remainder of the lot are not strictly independent. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Quantifying Cell-Surface Marker Expression Through Imaging of Transient Interactions

Characterizing cells in terms of their surface-marker expression is an indispensable tool for cell biology, disease diagnosis, and drug discovery. Flow cytometry, the most commonly used method, though invaluable, requires exogenous labelling of cells, is not tractable for small sample sizes, and is limited in the number of unique markers that can be measured simultaneously. Recently, node-pore sensing (NPS) has emerged as a label-free method for surface-marker characterization. In NPS, the Coulter principle is utilized to measure the transit time of cells as they flow through a microfluidic channel functionalized with antibodies for multiple surface-markers of interest. Cells transiting functionalized regions of the channel that express the corresponding surface-marker have longer transit times when compared against a control region due to transient and specific interactions with the functionalized surface. In this manner, NPS can screen label-free for multiple surface markers at the single-cell level. The sensitivity of NPS is dependent on the ratio of the cell's volume to the volume of the channel, which limits the length of the channel and thus the number of possible unique markers. Furthermore, since the current through the channel is dependent on its total resistance, only one cell may be present in the channel at a time. Here, we show that these limitations can be overcome if the transit time is measured optically rather than electrically. Imaging the channel allows for tracking individual cells, which enables multiple cells to be measured simultaneously. Moreover, the total number of markers is only limited by the size and speed of the CCD camera that is used for imaging. We utilize this approach to measure the surface-marker expression profile of single MCF-7 and SKBR3 cells.
Development of a flow-through system for cleaning and dissolving foraminiferal tests

A novel flow-through method for cleaning and dissolving foraminiferal shells is presented. Using automated chromatographic equipment, the system chemically removes contaminant phases from the shells. The cleaned calcite is then dissolved in a stream of weak acid for minor and trace element analyses. The system operates at elevated temperature (80 °C) and pressures (850–900 psi) and is extremely reproducible. This method has several advantages compared to traditional batch method cleaning done in centrifuge vials. The most important of these is that nothing is lost from the flow-through system, permitting complete monitoring of and greater insight into the effects of cleaning and dissolution. Development of this method revealed that it is necessary to remove two contaminant phases from the shells: an oxide coating phase that is rich in Mn, Cd, and Mg, and a refractory phase that is rich in Ba and the rare earth elements (REEs). This cleaning is accomplished through the use of basic hydroxylamine and basic diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid (DTPA) solutions, respectively. Time-resolved analysis (TRA) of shell dissolution demonstrates that Orbulina shells are composed of high-Sr and low-Sr calcite types. Other minor (e.g., Mg) and trace (e.g., Cd, REEs, Ba) elements show the same distribution during dissolution as Sr. In Orbulina shells, the high-Sr (high-Mg) calcite always dissolves first, similar to observations of natural dissolution in the ocean. Consequently, this flow-through system may provide a simple solution to dissolution problems in proxy work. Further, since flow-through can provide several measurements of elemental composition for each calcite type, the method allows for true statistical evaluation of homogeneity during growth of the shell. Most significantly, this flow-through method fully cleans calcite, and provides information about the calcite and contaminant phases and thus should prove to be valuable in advancing geochemical proxies as tools for paleoceanographic investigations.
Switching Places: Why College Teachers Should Teach High School Students

AbstractIn this article, I argue that if college teachers are to teach well the diverse young people who will enroll in our classes in the coming years, we must stop blaming the students and their high schools for the academic difficulties that students who are “underprepared” present us with. I reflect on the experience of learning to teach again, after many years of successful college teaching, in the context of a collaborative project that brought high school students from Central Part East Secondary School (CPESS) to my classroom at Lang College.One critical outcome of “switching places” has been my realization that university teachers virtually never face an untracked group of students. This is a significant hidden privilege. CPESS, like others of the small new high schools that are pioneers in the school reform in New York City, is an educational community built on the absence of tracking. This article unpacks the complex dimensions of class and race that embed the lives of underprepared students, a...
Effect of weak uniform frustration on the resistive transition in a Josephson junction array

Abstract We have measured the temperature dependence of the resistive behavior in a square proximity-coupled Josephson junction array as a function of the perpendicular magnetic flux. The array was made using a novel ion-beam sputtering technique. We compare both the Ohmic and non-Ohmic resistance as a function of temperature for f=0, f=0.05 and f=1 where f= O Oo ,the ratio of the applied flux, O, to the superconducting flux quantum, Oo= hc 2e . We find that the transitions for f=0 and f=1 resemble Kosterlitz- Thouless transitions while the transition for f=0.05 is not descibed by the Kosterlitz- Thouless theory. Instead, we find evidence of flux pinning for ∝=0.05 at low temperatures.
Sir Arthur Gordon and Fiji: Some Gordon‐Gladstone letters

(1958). Sir Arthur Gordon and Fiji: Some Gordon‐Gladstone letters. Historical Studies: Australia and New Zealand: Vol. 8, No. 31, pp. 281-296.
Statistical analysis of very high‐dimensional data sets of hierarchically structured binary variables with missing data: An application to marine corps readiness evaluations

Abstract : The present analysis deals with very high-dimensional data sets, each one containing close to nine hundred binary variables. Each data set corresponds to an evaluation of one complex system. These data sets are characterized by large portions of missing data where, moreover, the unobserved variables are not the same in different evaluations. Thus, the problems which confront the statistical analysis are those of multivariate binary data analysis, where the number of variables is much larger than the sample size and in which missing data varies with the sample elements. The variables, however, are hierarchically structured and the problem of clustering variables to groups does not exist in the present study. In order to motivate the statistical problem under consideration, the Marine Corps Combat Readiness Evaluation System (MCCRES) is described for infantry battalions and then used for exposition. The present paper provides a statistical model for data from MCCRES and develops estimation and prediction procedures which utilize the dependence structure. The E-M algorithm is applied to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters of interest. Numerical examples illustrate the proposed methods.
Blood and Liver Concentrations of Vitamins A and E in Children with Cystic Fibrosis of the Pancreas

Extract: The median vitamin A level in plasma of patients with cystic fibrosis of the pancreas (CFP) (18 μg/100 ml) was less than half that of a control group (39 μg/100 ml), whereas the median vitamin A level in liver (57 μg/g) was nearly 3.5 times higher (Table II.). Concentrations of vitamin E in both the plasma and the liver of the patients were less than one-third those of the control group. The data suggest that vitamin A-supplemented children with CFP are unable to maintain normal circulating levels of vitamin A because of a defect in mobilization or transport from storage tissue, rather than because of tissue depletion. Low blood levels of vitamin E, however, reflect tissue depletion and not defective transport. Speculation: The cause of the apparent defect in ability to mobilize or transport vitamin A from the liver in children with CFP may be due to a limited ability to synthesize transport proteins or to a reduced activity of hepatic retinyl ester hydrolase enzymes These alternatives are under investigation.
Thermionic power generation

A method is outlined for the combination of thermionic converters and steam turbines to obtain more electricity from future nuclear central station power plants. Various types of converters are described and evaluated