cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
FACTORS AFFECTING NEST LOCATION OF PRAIRIE VOLES (MICROTUS OCHROGASTER)

The selection of a suitable nest (den) site should enhance individual survival and reproduction. We examined the effects of forage quality, vegetative cover, presence of preexisting underground nests, vole population density, and presence of conspecific nests on nest-site selection of prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). Vegetative characteristics did not predict the presence of nests; the only significant predictor was population density. Additionally, the presence of other currently occupied nests did not seem to affect placement of nests. In contrast to our expectation, voles did not nest in areas with preexisting underground nests. The presence of preexisting underground nests may have reduced the effects of vegetation on nest-site selection.
Presentation, time to antibiotics, and mortality of patients with bacterial meningitis at an urban county medical center

Our objective was to analyze the presentation, time to antibiotics, treatment, and mortality of patients with bacterial meningitis at a large urban county hospital over a 10-year period. A retrospective chart review of all patients with the diagnosis of bacterial meningitis was done. Information concerning presentation, etiologic organisms, treatment (including time to antibiotics), and outcomes were collected and analyzed. There were 165 charts reviewed with 171 total cases of bacterial meningitis. For adults with community-acquired meningitis, the mortality rate was 14%, for children it was 1.6%. Seventy-six percent of patients received antibiotics in the Emergency Department (ED) with a mean time to antibiotics of 1:08 h ± 13 min. The rest received them as inpatients with a mean time to antibiotics of 6 ± 9 h. The mortality rate for patients with community-acquired disease who received an Emergency Department antibiotic was 7.9%; for patients who received their antibiotics as inpatients the mortality rate was 29%. Our results indicate that the mortality rates from bacterial meningitis at our institution are lower than previously published results. Furthermore, our study supports the concept that the early administration of antibiotics in the ED may reduce mortality and may be an explanation of the lower mortality rates seen here.
A pattern-mixture model for longitudinal binary responses with nonignorable nonresponse.

Frequemment les etudes longitudinales engendrent des non-reponses. Dans cet article nous discutons d'une methode basee sur la vraisemblance pour analyser des reponses repetees binaires quand les donnees manquantes sont des reponses non-observees. Nous decrivons un exemple de modele melant la distribution jointe du vecteur des reponses binaires et des indicateurs de non-reponse. Specifiquement nous proposons une extension du modele logistique a plusieurs variables pour manipuler les non-reponses que nous ne saurions ignorer. Cette methode donne des estimations des parametres moyens sous une variete d'hypotheses a propos de la distribution des reponses non-observees. Comme avec ces modeles les hypotheses, sont inverifiables nous preconisons de conduire des analyses sensitives qui produisent une etendue d'inferences, chacune d'elle etant valide sous differentes hypotheses sur les non-reponses. Cette methode est illustree a partir de donnees provenant d'une etude longitudinale sur l'obesite des enfants.
Hiding in the Ivy: American Indian Students and Visibility in Elite Educational Settings

In this article, Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy explores how the experiences of Tom, Debbie, and Heather, three Native American students attending Ivy League universities in the 1990s, reflect larger societal beliefs and statements about the perceived place of Native Americans in higher education and U.S. society. Brayboy posits that Native Americans are visible in these institutions in ways that contribute to their marginalization, surveillance, and oppression. In response, the three Native American students exercise strategies that make them invisible to the largely White communities in which they attend school. These strategies help to preserve the students' sense of cultural integrity, but further serve to marginalize them on campus. At times, the students in the study make themselves visible to emphasize that they are a voice in the campus community. Brayboy argues that these strategies, while possibly confusing to the layperson, make sense if viewed from the perspective of the students preserving thei...
Classification and Counting of Composite Objects in Traffic Scenes Using Global and Local Image Analysis

Object recognition algorithms often focus on determining the class of a detected object in a scene. Two significant phases are usually involved in object recognition. The first phase is the object representation phase, in which the most suitable features that provide the best discriminative power under constraints such as lighting, resolution, scale, and view variations are chosen to describe the objects. The second phase is to use this representation space to develop models for each object class using discriminative classifiers. In this paper, we focus on composite objects, i.e., objects with two or more simpler classes that are interconnected in a complicated manner. One classic example of such a scenario is a bicyclist. A bicyclist consists of a bicycle and a human who rides the bicycle. When we are faced with the task of classifying bicyclists and pedestrians, it is counterintuitive and often hard to come up with a discriminative classifier to distinguish the two classes. We explore global image analysis based on bag of visual words to compare the results with local image analysis, in which we attempt to distinguish the individual parts of the composite object. We also propose a unified naive Bayes framework and a combined histogram feature method for combining the individual classifiers for enhanced performance.
Surface Effects on PN Junctions

The silicon surface is an abrupt termination of the periodic crystal lattice. The interface between the crystal and the insulator that covers it plays an important role in device characteristics. Since most of the pn junctions that are fabricated in the planar technology intersect the silicon-insulator interface at some boundary, the properties of the insulator and interface may influence, or even dominate the device characteristics.
Extending the size limit of protein nuclear magnetic resonance

Xu et al. have successfully ligated together two independently expressed, folded protein domains under mild conditions in vitro, making it possible to selectively label a given fragment or domain of modular proteins (5). They have done so by taking advantage of protein splicing (6, 7). A small number of proteins are made as precursors that contain motifs called inteins. During the maturation process, inteins are excised from these precursors, and the two resulting fragments or exteins then rejoin. This process has been called protein splicing presumably because …
Private Payers and Cancer Care: Land of Opportunity

The costs of cancer care are unsustainable in the present US health care system. Private payers have taken a leading role in oncology payment reform. This benefits all payers, including the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Private payers' ability to set up systems of measurement and quality improvement is a strategy to support pay-for-value contracting. This facilitates workflow changes in oncology office practice as a way to bend the cost trends while enhancing patient care. Oncology practitioners demand speed and flexibility in deploying customized information technology solutions in exchange for new contracting terms. Pathway and guideline support tools have been proven effective in validating the use of evidence-based medicine and in systematizing office operations to reduce avoidable costs. The future of oncology practice should see further enhancement of these capabilities. A common health information exchange pipeline will allow patients, physicians, and other health care providers to share structured information from multiple electronic medical record/electronic health record platforms. By allowing multiple payers, including CMS, to access commonly accepted clinical decision support rules, any payer can create contracts and relationships with oncology practices. In this manner, future changes in payment for oncology services mandated by CMS can be sustained within the infrastructures being built today through payer-provider collaborations.
A Regression Model for Longitudinal Change in the Presence of Measurement Error

Abstract PURPOSE: The analysis of change in measured variables has become quite popular in studies where data are collected repeatedly over time. The authors describe some of the potential pitfalls in the analysis of change when the variable for change is measured with error. They show that regression analysis is often biased, possibly leading to erroneous results. METHODS: A simple method to correct for measurement error bias in regression models that model change is presented. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The two examples illustrate how measurement error can adversely affect an analysis. The bias-corrected approach yields valid results.
Economic Analysis of Generic Milk Advertising Impacts on Markets in New York State

This article examines the responsiveness of fluid milk sales to generic milk advertising in New York City, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo markets. Fluid milk demand equations for New York City, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo are estimated with monthly data for the period from January 1986 through June 1995. The results indicate that generic milk advertising is positive and statistically significant at the 10% significance level in each market. The highest advertising elasticity is in the Buffalo market, while the lowest is in Albany. The results also indicate that blend prices in the two New York milk marketing orders increased by 5.94 and 8.05 cents per cwt due to advertising, on average; while farmers invested 3.89 and 4.87 cents per cwt (in 1986 dollars) in fluid milk advertising for each market. A major policy implication is that New York dairy farmers should consider some reallocation of advertising expenditures among markets. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Virtual reality for medical applications

Virtual reality (VR) is only a decade old, but medicine is beginning to see the potential for this technology to revolutionize the practice of medicine. On the other hand, robotics and automation have been used in science and industry for over three decades, yet there are precious few applications within the medical field. However, the introduction of laparoscopic surgery, which requires operating inside a patient while observing a video monitor (or a virtual representation of the patient organs), will rapidly and dramatically increase the demand for VR, robotics and telepresence manipulation. Since these technologies have as their basis the use of information to create 3D images, to process the data and distribute this information through networks, there is a commonality among them which ties them all together into an integrated whole. The important concept is the fact that they are electronically mediated, and as such are the centerpiece for the total revolution of medicine.
Soy Isoflavones Increase Latency of Spontaneous Mammary Tumors in Mice

Soy protein, with and without isoflavones, is being added to foods by manufacturers in response to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved health claim for cardiovascular protection. Furthermore, soy isoflavones are increasingly consumed by women in the United States as an alternative to hormone replacement therapy. The role of these phytoestrogens in breast cancer is controversial. Although exposure of rodents to soy isoflavones during the perinatal period appears to reduce mammary cancer formation, exposure in utero or during adulthood may increase tumor growth. The mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV)-neu mouse spontaneously develops mammary tumors due to overexpression of the ErbB-2/neu/HER2 oncogene. This model is comparable with human breast cancer because overexpression of the neu oncogene occurs in 20-40% of human breast cancers. We fed MMTV-neu mice AIN-93G diets containing no isoflavones, 250 mg/kg genistein, 250 mg/kg daidzein or an isoflavone mixture (NovaSoy, equivalent to 250 mg genistein/kg) from 7 wk of age. Mammary tumor latency was significantly delayed in mice fed isoflavones compared with the control. Once tumors formed, however, the isoflavones did not reduce the number or size of tumors such that at 34 wk of age there were no differences in tumor burden among the treatment groups. Hence, in the MMTV-neu mouse, soy isoflavones delayed mammary tumorigenesis. Further studies are warranted to define the cellular mechanisms through which these compounds affect mammary tumorigenesis in this model.
From adorable to worthless: Implicit and self-report structure of highly evaluative personality descriptors

So‐called highly ‘evaluative’ personality judgments (e.g. describing someone as exceptional, odd, or vile,) are an integral component of people's daily judgments of themselves and others. However, ...
A fully differential comparator using a switched-capacitor differencing circuit with common-mode rejection

A fully differential comparator is described. It uses a switched-capacitor differencing circuit that provides common-mode rejection. The comparator has been tested by building a 3-b flash analog-to-digital converter (ADC) in a 2-/spl mu/m CMOS process. With a supply voltage of 3.3 V, a sampling rate of 25 MHz, and full-scale sinusoidal inputs up to 7 MHz, the signal-to-distortion ratio of the ADC when the input is single ended is about 1-2 dB less than when the input is differential. In a 2-/spl mu/m CMOS process, the comparator occupies 0.25 mm/sup 2/ and dissipates 1.05 mW.
ACTIVISMO JUDICIAL EN CHILE. ¿HACIA EL GOBIERNO DE LOS JUECES?

Hace un par de meses se publico este libro. Tuve oportunidad de estar en la presentacion y los autores senalaban que se trataba de una mirada critica a una practica que se estaba produciendo en nuestros Tribunales y que, si bien, no era extensible a todos los jueces y judicatura, hay signos preocupantes que deben ser atendidos, especialmente porque el activismo judicial supone un peligro para el sistema democratico. En la misma presentacion, realizada por Roberto Guerrero y Jorge Correa, junto con celebrar la iniciativa, compartian la tesis del peligro a la democracia que suponen las practicas activistas. Por lo mismo, se trata de un tema actual, polemico y de reciente data en nuestro derecho. El presente comentario consta de dos partes. La primera, una breve descripcion del contenido del libro y sus principales titulos; la segunda, una revision critica del texto y un analisis de ciertos postulados que justifican la hipotesis desarrollada a lo largo del libro. En cuanto a lo primero, el libro esta dividido en cuatro partes. La primera, que tiene un capitulo, trata acerca de la teoria del activismo judicial, origen, defensa, critica y negacion del activismo judicial y algunos criterios que permiten determinar los casos en nos encontrariamos ante esta practica. Este ultimo apartado presenta una suerte de indicadores para la determinacion de sentencias activistas. La segunda parte analiza el activismo judicial en Chile. Desde los capitulos dos a seis presenta diferentes materias –y sus respectivos casos– en que el activis-
Maximum likelihood estimation of multiple frequencies with constraints to guarantee unit circle roots

An approximate maximum-likelihood estimator (MLE) of multiple exponentials converts the frequency estimation problem into a problem of estimating the coefficients of a z-polynomial with roots at the desired frequencies. Theoretically, the roots of the estimated polynomial should fall on the unit circle, but MLE, as originally proposed, does not guarantee unit circle roots. This drawback sometimes causes merged frequency estimates, especially at low SNR. If all the sufficient conditions for the z-polynomial to have unit circle roots are incorporated, the optimization problem becomes too nonlinear and it loses the desirable weighted-quadratic structure of MLE. In the present paper, the exact constraints are imposed on each of the first-order factors corresponding to individual frequencies for ensuring unit circle roots. The constraints are applied during optimization alternately for each frequency. In the absence of any merged frequency estimates, the RMS values more closely approach the theoretical Cramer-Rao (CR) bound at low SNR levels. >
Hormone Whodunit: clues for solving the case of intratumor androgen production

One of the key mechanisms by which prostate cancer cells evade hormone therapy is through intatumor testosterone production. New evidence points toward androstenedione as a potential precursor of intratumor androgen production, and furthers nomination of AKR1C3 as a therapeutic target in advanced disease.
An Experimental Comparison of Three Guiding Principles for the Detection of Salient Image Locations: Stability, Complexity, and Discrimination

We present an experimental comparison of the performance of representative saliency detectors from three guiding principles for the detection of salient image locations: locations of maximum stability with respect to image transformations, locations of greatest image complexity, and most discriminant locations. It is shown that discriminant saliency performs better in terms of 1) capturing relevant information for classification, 2) being more robust to image clutter, and 3) exhibiting greater stability to image transformations associated with variations of 3D object pose. We then investigate the dependence of discriminant saliency on the underlying set of candidate discriminant features, by comparing the performance achieved with three popular feature sets: the discrete cosine transform, a Gabor, and a Haar wavelet decomposition. It is show that, even though different feature sets produce equivalent results, there may be advantages in considering features explicitly learned from examples of the image classes of interest.
Selection of protective action guides for nuclear incidents

Abstract In 1991 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published its revised Manual of Protective Action Guides and Protective Actions for Nuclear Incidents. The protective action guides contained in the manual represent EPA's formal recommendations to Federal, State, and local emergency response officials for protecting public health and safety during a nuclear incident. These guides are expressed in terms of the projected dose at which action(s) should be taken to reduce or eliminate that dose. In determining the appropriate values for the protective action guides, the Agency considered the following four principles: (1) acute health effects should be avoided, (2) the risk of delayed health effects should be minimized, (3) the values should not be higher than justified by a cost–benefit analysis, and (4) the risk to health from implementing the protective action should not be greater than the risk from the dose avoided. This paper examines each of these principles and their application in the selection of the evacuation and sheltering protective action guides for the early, or immediate, phase of a nuclear incident. 1
Improving the Gulf Intracoastal Canal in Texas

As a result of increased traffic, the users of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway have requested that the size of the present canal be increased in the reach extending from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Brownsville, Texas. The United States Congress authorized the Corps of Engineers to study this proposal on 11 June 1952. Enlargement of the section of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in Texas would afford a considerable economy in operation of the typical barge tows that it is anticipated would operate on the waterway. The studies and analyses made of the costs and benefits of enlargement of the waterway are discussed in this paper. The estimates of costs and benefits given in this paper represent only the views of the author and are subject to modification before their inclusion in any report on this waterway that may be made by the Chief of Engineers to Congress.
Neonatal Seizures: When to Consider and How to Investigate for an Inborn Error of Metabolism:

Seizures occur more frequently in the neonatal period than in the remainder of childhood. Neonatal seizures can have different aetiologies. Inborn errors of metabolism are rare causes of seizures in the newborn. However, they are an important cause of intractable neonatal seizures, accounting for 30% of cases. Diagnosis is necessary for timely institution of appropriate treatment and is important in determining clinical outcome. As these are genetic conditions, it allows for appropriate genetic counselling. We describe the clinical presentation of neonatal seizures and the investigation findings in symptomatic neonatal seizures and epilepsy syndromes that arise in the neonatal period. The approach in diagnosis and investigation of an underlying inborn error of metabolism is described and inborn errors of metabolism that are important causes of neonatal seizures are reviewed.
The Role of NADPH Oxidases (NOXs) in Liver Fibrosis and the Activation of Myofibroblasts

Chronic liver injury, resulted from different etiologies (e.g., virus infection, alcohol abuse, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and cholestasis) can lead to liver fibrosis characterized by the excess accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins (e.g., type I collagen). Hepatic myofibroblasts that are activated upon liver injury are the key producers of ECM proteins, contributing to both the initiation and progression of liver fibrosis. Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and to a lesser extent, portal fibroblast, are believed to be the precursor cells that give rise to hepatic myofibroblasts in response to liver injury. Although, much progress has been made toward dissecting the lineage origin of myofibroblasts, how these cells are activated and become functional producers of ECM proteins remains incompletely understood. Activation of myofibroblasts is a complex process that involves the interactions between parenchymal and non-parenchymal cells, which drives the phenotypic change of HSCs from a quiescent stage to a myofibroblastic and active phenotype. Accumulating evidence has suggested a critical role of NADPH oxidase (NOX), a multi-component complex that catalyzes reactions from molecular oxygen to reactive oxygen species (ROS), in the activation process of hepatic myofibroblasts. NOX isoforms, including NOX1, NOX2 and NOX4, and NOX-derived ROS, have all been implicated to regulate HSC activation and hepatocyte apoptosis, both of which are essential steps for initiating liver fibrosis. This review highlights the importance of NOX isoforms in hepatic myofibroblast activation and the progression of liver fibrosis, and also discusses the therapeutic potential of targeting NOXs for liver fibrosis and associated hepatic diseases.
Experiência fotoetnográfica: entre a escrita imagética e as imagens parafraseadas

O presente artigo traz uma breve discussao teorica sobre a perspectiva epistemologica, metodologica e tecnica que a Antropologia Visual desvela para novas possibilidades narrativas no campo da etnografia. Demonstra como o espaco urbano pode ser representado atraves de imagens e como essa representacao esta permeada por um conjunto teorico literario. Palavras-chave: Antropologia visual. Espaco urbano. Fotoetnografia. Photoethnography experience: between imagetic literature and paraphrased images Abstract This article provides a brief theoretical discussion of different perspectives regarding the epistemological, methodological and technical issues related to the Visual Anthropology, which unveils new narrative possibilities in the field of ethnography. It demonstrates how urban areas concepts can be represented through images and how this representation is permeated by a literary theorist set. Key words: Visual Anthropology. urban space. Photoetnography.
“Deterioration to Door Time”: An Exploratory Analysis of Delays in Escalation of Care for Hospitalized Patients

BACKGROUND Timely escalation of care for patients experiencing clinical deterioration in the inpatient setting is challenging. Deterioration on a general floor has been associated with an increased risk of death, and the early period of deterioration may represent a time during which admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) improves survival. Previous studies examining the association between delay from onset of clinical deterioration to ICU transfer and mortality are few in number and were conducted more than 10 years ago.
The American Radio Industry and Its Latin American Activities, 1900–1939.: By James Schwoch., University of Illinois Press, 1990, 176 pp., $29.95, Cloth

(1991). The American Radio Industry and Its Latin American Activities, 1900–1939. American Journalism: Vol. 8, No. 2-3, pp. 203-204.
Sequence Effects on Translesion Synthesis of an Aminofluorene–DNA Adduct: Conformational, Thermodynamic, and Primer Extension Kinetic Studies

The DNA sequence effect is an important structural factor for determining the extent and nature of carcinogen-induced mutational and repair outcomes. In this study, we used two 16-mer template sequences, TG*A [d(5′-CTTCTTG*ACCTCATTC-3′)] and CG*A [d(5′-CTTCTCG*ACCTCATTC-3′)], to study the impact of the 5′-flanking nucleotide (T vs C) on aminofluorene (AF)-induced stacked (S)/major groove (B)/wedge (W) conformational heterogeneity during a simulated translesion synthesis. In addition, we probed the sequence effect on nucleotide insertion efficiencies catalyzed by the Klenow fragment (exonuclease-deficient) of DNA polymerase I. Our 19F NMR/ICD/DSC results showed that AF in the CG*A duplex sequence adopts a greater population of S-conformer than the TG*A sequence. We found that the S conformer of CG*A thermodynamically favors insertion of A over C at the lesion site (n). Significant stalling occurred at both the prelesion (n – 1) and lesion (n) sites; however, the effect was more persistent for the S conform...
A virtual study of shape-based optical reconstruction

We demonstrate the use of a priori knowledge of lesion shape from ultrasound to improve quantitative accuracy of 2D optical tomography. Mean absorption in the lesion can be estimated within 20% of actual value.
Prediction of Service Life of Aviation Hydraulic Fluids Based on Phosphate Esters

The thermal stability and kinetics of change in acid numbers of phosphate-ester-based aviation hydraulic fluids with various dissolved water contents are studied. It is shown that the service life of such hydraulic fluids shortens several times if they are used at temperatures above 100°C and dissolved water contents above 0.5%. The critical concentrations of the anticorrosion additive at which its functional effectiveness is inadequate are determined. Accelerated tests using the proposed method can evaluate the effectiveness of the anticorrosion additive and predict the expected service life of phosphate-ester-based hydraulic fluids under the proposed application conditions.
Bickerstaff Brainstem Encephalitis

Clinical features of brainstem encephalitis (BBE) in 62 cases and a subgroup with Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) are reported from centers in Japan.
Temporal Synergism of Prolactin and Adrenal Steroids in the Regulation of Fat Stores

SummaryDaily variations in fattening responses to prolactin may be phased or driven by injections of adrenal steroids in a fish, Fundulus grandis, a lizard, Anolis carolinensis, and a pigeon, Columba livia. Daily injections of prolactin about 24 hr after injections of adrenocortical hormones favor the accumulation of fat stores; whereas daily injections of prolactin 6 hr after the adrenal steroids cause losses in fat. An experiment on the fish indicated that the rhythm of fat responsiveness to prolactin is capable of self-sustaining circadian oscillations on continuous light following initial synchronization by exogenous hydrocortisone. An experiment on the pigeon indicated that a daily rhythm of cropsac sensitivity to prolactin may also be driven by daily injections of corticosterone, but the temporal pattern of the adrenal steroid and prolactin that favors cropsac proliferation is not in the same phase relations with those that favor accumulation of body fat, liver fat, and increases in intestinal weigh...
The spectrum of metabolic abnormalities in patients with cystine nephrolithiasis.

AbstractTo elucidate the pathophysiology of mixed stone formation in cystinuria, 27 patients with documented cystine nephrolithiasis underwent an inpatient evaluation under a constant dietary regimen. All patients had homozygous cystinuria, since the daily urinary cystine excretion exceeded 250mg. per gm. creatinine. Hypercalciuria was noted in 5 patients (18.5 per cent), 4 of whom had fasting hypercalciuria. Hyperuricosuria was found in 6 patients (22.2 per cent) and it was not caused by a consumption of a diet rich in animal proteins, since urinary pH was higher and urinary sulfate lower than in control subjects. Serum uric acid was slightly lower and uric acid clearance was higher in hyperuricosuric patients than in control subjects. Hypocitraturia was found in 12 patients (44.4 per cent) and it was associated with defective renal acidification in 4 of 5 patients in whom it was tested.Thus, hypercalciuria, hyperuricosuria and hypocitraturia frequently accompany cystinuria in patients with cystine nephr...
The Diagnostic Value of the Immunologic Response in Bacterial and Nonbacterial Prostatitis

AbstractUsing a solid-phase radioimmunoassay that permits quantitation of specific antibodies to infecting bacteria in the prostatic fluid of patients with bacterial prostatitis we measured the immunologic response to common gram-negative urinary pathogens in 6 patients with bacterial prostatitis, 4 with nonbacterial prostatitis and 10 normal volunteer controls. The results show that true bacterial prostatitis is clearly distinguishable immunologically from nonbacterial inflammation of the prostate. Normal volunteer controls, like patients with nonbacterial inflammation of the prostate, have no antigen-specific antibodies to gram-negative urinary pathogens in the prostatic secretion. In clinical situations when bacteriologic localization data are confusing, immunologic analysis provides a specific tool for definitive diagnosis.Data from bacterial absorption studies show that antigen-specific antibodies determined by solid-phase radioimmunoassay can be measured in milligrams per deciliter rather than units...
Diastolic properties, myocardial water content, and histologic condition of the rat left ventricle: effect of varied osmolarity of a coronary perfusate.

BACKGROUND Although myocardial edema is known to impair diastolic filling of the left ventricle, the interrelation of edema, histologic condition, and function has not been quantitated sufficiently for extrapolation to studies of multifactorial influences on diastolic properties. METHODS Accordingly, ACI rat hearts arrested at 4 degrees C underwent coronary artery perfusion with a cardioplegia solution that was either unaltered (288 mOsm/L, P288 group, n = 6), diluted (144 mOsm/L, P144 group, n = 6), or concentrated (380 mOsm/L, P380 group, n = 6). Postmortem left ventricular pressure-volume curves and myocardial water content were measured. Myocardial samples were fixed in varying dilutions of glutaraldehyde. After dehydration and paraffin embedding, edema was graded subjectively (0 to 5), and myocardial interstitial spaces were determined by use of a semiquantitative method. RESULTS Mean normalized left ventricular filling volume at 20 mm Hg filling pressure in the P144 group, 189 +/- 16 microliters (SEM), was reduced versus both the P288 (278 +/- 26 microliters) and the P380 (332 +/- 18 microliters) groups (p < 0.05, ANOVA). Mean myocardial water content in the P144 group, 80.7% +/- 1%, was increased versus the P380 (76.7% +/- 0.4%, p < 0.05) but not versus the P288 group (78.4% +/- 0.8%). In hearts preserved with 2.5% glutaraldehyde, mean edema grade and interstitial space in the P144 group (4.0 +/- 0.3) were increased versus the P380 (1.8 +/- 0.3, p < 0.05) but not the P288 group (2.7 +/- 0.5). Derived linear regressions relate water content to filling volume and histologic condition. CONCLUSIONS Coronary perfusate osmolarity is thus associated with predictable changes in myocardial water content, left ventricular filling volume, and edema. These correlations allow definition of new hypotheses for the study of cardiac allograft rejection in patients and experimental animals.
Why Reducing Taxes for Employers Does Not Raise Employment

The previous chapter showed that development expenditures should be financed from some sort of public funding that avoids international debt. An obvious source of such monies is tax revenue. Thus, in principle, insuring that the state has adequate financial resources to perform its functions would seem to be a fairly high priority. This would imply a commitment to assessing and collecting taxes.
An Improved Position Estimation Algorithm for Localization of Mobile Robots by Sonars

This paper presents a modified localization scheme of a mobile robot. When it navigates, the position error of a robot is increased and doesn 't go to a goal point where the robot intends to go at the beginning. The objective of localization is to estimate the position of a robot precisely. Many algorithms were developed and still are being researched for localization of a mobile robot at present. Among them, a localization algorithm named continuous localization proposed by Schultz [2] has some merits on real-time navigation and is easy to be implemented compared to other localization schemes. Continuous Localization (CL) is based on map-matching algorithm with global and local maps using only ultrasonic sensors for making grid maps. However, CL has some problems in the process of searching the best-scored-map, when it is applied to a mobile robot. We here propose fast and powerful map-matching algorithm for localization of a mobile robot by experiments.
SNX 2112, An Oral Hsp-90 Inhibitor Exerts Antiproliferative Effects in Combination with Bortezomib and Rituximab in Rituximab Resistant Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Abstract 3733 Poster Board III-669 Background Heat Shock protein 90 (Hsp90) is a chaperone that plays an important role in maintaining the stability of various other client proteins involved in cell survival and proliferation. Few client proteins that are dependent on Hsp-90 include Akt, Raf, ERK and NF-κB. Hsp-90 is upregulated in several malignancies and thus serves as an important therapeutic target. SNX 2112 (PF-04928473) is an oral heat shock protein inhibitor that is currently under phase-I clinical trials. Methods and Results We examined the effect of increasing concentrations of SNX 2112 in combination with other active targeted agents in Non-Hodgkin9s lymphoma. In our current work, we exposed rituximab sensitive (RSCL) and rituximab resistant cell lines (RRCL) to varying concentrations of SNX-2112 (500nM, 1μM, μM, 10μM and 20 μM) along with fixed doses of rituximab (10μg/ml) as well as bortezomib (500nM) and performed growth inhibition assays. The growth inhibitory effects of the various agents in Lymphoma cell lines were assessed by measuring 3-2, 5-diphenyl tetrasodium bromide (MTT) dye absorbance. Cells were incubated for 24 hrs and 48hrs. MTT was added to each well the last 4 hrs. Absorbance was measured using spectrophotometer. Accordingly, immunoblotting was performed using lymphoma cell lysates. The whole cell lysates were subjected to polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and nitrocellulose membranes were immunoblotted with phosphorylated Hsp-90 and α-tubulin. In parental raji cell lines, at 48 hrs, and a dose of 10 μM, SNX 2112 demonstrated potent anti-proliferative effects when combined with bortezomib and rituximab 0.23 OD vs. rituximab alone 1.06 OD (p=0.010) 95% CI; 0.47, 1.18. In rituximab resistant cell lines, SNX 2112 with rituximab and bortezomib demonstrated significant antiproliferative effects 0.199 OD vs. rituximab alone 0.86 OD (p=0.023) 95% CI 0.22-1.11. As a single agent neither rituximab or bortezomib nor the combination of these agents was significant in inhibiting cell growth in rituximab resistant cell lines. Cytotoxicity was more significant in the rituximab resistant cell lines that rituximab sensitive raji cell lines. Immunoblotting performed using phosphorylated hsp-90 also demonstrated significant inhibition when treated with SNX 2112. Conclusions Our current research demonstrates that SNX 2112 when added to bortezomib and rituximab has augmented anti-tumor activity (ie, antiproliferation) and demonstrates additive effects. Further in vivo studies are underway to demonstrate this effect. Our promising pre-clinical results of this unique combination support further evaluation in a clinical trial in patients with relapsed Non-Hodgkin9s lymphoma. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Assessment of Abilities of Gastroenterology Fellows to Provide Information to Patients With Liver Disease

Background & Aims Patient education is critical in ensuring patient compliance and good health outcomes. Fellows must be able to effectively communicate with their patients, delivering enough information for the patient to understand their medical problem and maximize patient compliance. We created an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) with 4 liver disease cases to assess fellows' knowledge and ability to inform standardized patients (SPs) about their clinical condition. Methods We developed 4 cases highlighting different aspects of liver disease and created a 4-station OSCE: hepatitis B, acute hepatitis C, new diagnosis of cirrhosis, and an end-stage cirrhotic nontransplant candidate. The SP with hepatitis B was minimizing the fact that she could not read English. The acute hepatitis C SP was a nursing student who is afraid that having hepatitis C might jeopardize her career. The SP with the new diagnosis of alcoholic cirrhosis needed to stop drinking, and the end-stage liver disease patient had to grapple with his advanced directives. Twelve fellows from 4 GI training programs participated. Our focus was to assess the fellows' knowledge about liver diseases and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education competencies of health literacy, shared decision making, advanced directives, and goals of care. The goal for the fellows was to communicate effectively with the SPs, and acknowledge that each patient had an emotionally charged issue to overcome. The SPs used a checklist to rate fellows' performance. Faculty and the SPs observed the cases and provided feedback. The fellows were surveyed on their performance regarding the case. Results The majority of fellows were able to successfully summarize findings and discuss a plan with the patient in the new diagnosis of cirrhosis (76.92%) and hepatitis C case (100%), but were less successful in the hepatitis B case (30.77%) and the end-of-life case (41.67%). Overall, a small percentage of fellows reflected that they did a good job (22%–33%), except at the end-of-life case (67%). The fellows' greatest challenge was trying to cover a lot of information in a single outpatient visit. Conclusions Caring for patients with liver diseases can be complex and time consuming. The patients and fellows' observations were discordant in several areas: for example, the fellows believed they excelled in the end-of-life case, but the SP thought only a small percentage of fellows were able to successfully summarize and discuss the plan. This discrepancy and others highlight important areas of focus in training programs. OSCEs are important to help the fellows facilitate striking the right balance of information delivery and empathy, and this will lead to better patient education, compliance, rapport, and satisfaction.
The Role of Medical Management for Nodular Hyperthyroidism

Toxic multinodular goiter (TMNG) and autonomously functioning thyroid nodules (AFTN) are common causes of hyperthyroidism. We discuss the nonsurgical management of TMNG and AFTN.
Proportionality, Territorial Occupation, and Enabled Terrorism

Some collateral harms affecting enemy civilians during a war are agentially mediated – for example, the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 sparked an insurgency which killed thousands of Iraqi civilians. I call these ‘collaterally enabled harms.’ Intuitively, we ought to discount the weight that these harms receive in the ‘costs’ column of our ad bellum proportionality calculation. But I argue that an occupying military force with de facto political authority has a special obligation to provide minimal protection to the civilian population. As a result, when an occupying military force collaterally enables a harm affecting the civilian population, the weight that the harm ought to receive in the ad bellum proportionality calculation is unaffected by the fact that the harm is agentially mediated – it ought to be weighed at least as heavily as those harms that the occupying force collaterally commits directly. As a result, satisfying the ad bellum proportionality constraint in wars of territorial occupation is more difficult than it has been thought.
Restoration of Puget Sound Rivers

Restoration of Puget Sound Rivers. Edited by D. R. Montgomery, S. Bolton, D. B. Booth, and L. Wall. University of Washington Press, Seattle. 2003. 512 pages. $30.00 (paper). The listing of the nort...
Using Multilinguistic Strategies to Improve Decoding in Older School-Age Students in a Contextualized and Motivational Approach

The multilinguistic skills of phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness codevelop and appear to all be important for reading acquisition in the elementary years. By fourth grade, the ...
Effect of gate choice on backscatter difference measurements of cancellous bone.

A variety of ultrasonic techniques have been developed to detect changes in bone caused by osteoporosis. One approach, called the backscatter difference technique, analyzes the power difference between two different portions of a backscatter signal. Analysis gates with a certain delay τd, width τw, and separation τs are used to define portions of the backscatter signal for analysis. The goal of the present study was to investigate how different choices of τd, τw, and τs affect four backscatter difference parameters: the normalized mean of the backscatter difference (nMBD), the normalized slope of the backscatter difference (nSBD), the normalized intercept of the backscatter difference (nIBD), and the normalized backscatter amplitude ratio (nBAR). Backscatter measurements were performed on 54 cube shaped specimens of human cancellous bone. nMBD, nSBD, nIBD, and nBAR were determined for 34 different combinations of τd, τw, and τs for each specimen. nMBD and nBAR demonstrated the strongest correlations with apparent bone density (0.48 ≤ Rs ≤ 0.90). Generally, the correlations were found to improve as τw + τs was increased and as τd was decreased. Among the four backscatter difference parameters, the measured values of nMBD were least sensitive to gate choice (<16%).
Abstract 21060: The Association Between Post-Resusciation Cerebral Oxygenation and Survival With Favorable Neurological Outcomes: A Multicenter Study

Background: Cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury in the post-resuscitation period contributes to morbidity and mortality following cardiac arrest (CA). Cerebral oximetry is a non-invasive system th...
Inferring Neuronal Network Mechanisms Underlying Anesthesia-Induced Oscillations Using Mathematical Models

Modern anesthetics have been in use since the mid-nineteenth century, yet their mechanism of action on the level of neuronal systems is largely unknown. Anesthetics induce widespread and stereotypic changes in oscillatory patterns in EEG suggesting they operate on the scale of neuronal circuits to produce the anesthetic state. Details of anesthetic-induced alterations to neuronal circuits have only begun to be investigated and one of the main tools used to elucidate these changes is mathematical models. Here we show how biophysically constrained mathematical models help us infer the cellular and network mechanisms underlying the generation of large scale oscillatory behavior. The physiology of both cortical and subcortical regions and the specific targets of various anesthetics inform the network topology that is capable of generating rhythmic activity in anesthetized states. Models not only predict the networks underlying anesthesia-induced oscillations but also guide experiments to further understand the role of these oscillations in the behavioral states that accompany anesthesia.
DOES VENTILATION EVER LIMIT HUMAN PERFORMANCE

Factors which limit human performance have been of interest to both researchers and athletes for many years. While it is well known that human performance is complex and multifaceted, at least in endurance related activities (e.g. running, cycling, etc), success is related to how well an individual is able to introduce, distribute, and utilize oxygen in the body. Maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) is determined by the product of cardiac output and arterio-venous oxygen difference (Fick equation). Specifically, arterial oxygen content is greatly influenced by the effect of pulmonary ventilation and alveolarcapillary diffusion on arterial oxygen pressure (PaO2) and arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2). Therefore, a central question in oxygen transport is whether or not the pulmonary system can serve as a weak link in the oxygen transport chain. Traditionally, oxygen transport is believed to be limited by the heart’s ability to distribute blood and oxygen throughout the body (11). However, in recent years it has been demonstrated that in highly aerobic individuals, the demand of the exercise for O2 transport may exceed the capacity of the respiratory system and therefore lead to impairments in pulmonary gas exchange and consequently lead to exercise induced hypoxemia (EIH). Also, high ventilatory work during intense exercise may contribute to exercise limitation via a high oxygen cost of breathing and therefore “steal” blood flow from limb locomotor muscles. It is the intent of this discussion to focus on some of the possibilities in which the pulmonary system could potentially limit human performance in the young healthy adult.
Women friendly health services--a definite step to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality.

More that 600000 women die each year globally in pregnancy and child birth. For every woman who dies approximately 30 more incur injuries infections and disabilities which are usually untreated and unspoken of. Maternal death means a fatal attempt to generate a new life or in other words it is dying for life. This statement may seem a contradiction in terms but it is a reality experienced by more than half a million women every year world wide. These numbers of maternal deaths have remained unchanged over a period of time especially in India where the maternal mortality ratio is estimated to be 400-450 per 100000 live births. Every time new estimates of maternal deaths confirm that the problem continues to worsen and increasing number of women are denied their basic right to access good quality health care to survive. Many international conference declarations and legal instruments affirm a womens right to timely affordable and a good quality health care as a basic human right. (excerpt)