cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Function and Ultrastructure of Transfused, Surviving, Human Platelets in Patients with Thrombocytopenic Complicating Disease

Platelet concentrates prepared from freshly drawn blood were infused into patients with thrombocytopenic complicating disease. All exhibited a prolonged bleeding time, no clot retraction of a whole blood clot, platelet counts between 20,000 to 100,000 per cu. mm., usually, abnormal platelet ultrastructure and prothrombin consumption times under 15 seconds. Detection of platelet antibodies was attempted and the ultrastructure with a differential platelet count under the electron microscope of the patient's own platelets was documented. The platelet concentrates were given and it was possible to follow the fate of the donor's platelets by ultrastructural changes. Parallel studies of the coagulation mechanisms of the patients were followed serially. We found that some platelets survived up to seven days, although in some patients, platelets circulated but did not survive. Therefore immediate circulation of platelets cannot be equated with survival. In one patient with hypersplenism and a positive platelet agglutinin test no transfused platelets appeared to circulate. The ultrastructure of transfused platelets is greatly altered in bleeding patients. In the two patients with aplastic anemia and one with leukemia surviving platelets circulated which did not enter into the mechanisms of prothrombin activation, but which continued to circulate for some days with no improvement in the prothrombin consumption time over the pretransfusion level. Ultra-structural studies of these platelets showed that the circulating platelets possessed their granules which contain platelet factor 3 activity. The differential platelet count under the electron miscroscope becomes abnormal as the donor platelets are stored. Our work suggests that the ultrastructure and differential platelet count of a platelet concentrate must be essentially normal for survival to be achieved. We confirmed the work of others indicating that donor platelets do not survive if stored or, if the recipient has detectable platelet antibodies. Donor platelets did not survive in some patients for reasons we could not explain. This may be dependent on utilization of platelets in hemostatic plugs, in thrombin production or for the endothelial supporting function but to date we cannot estimate to what extent or in what fashion a thrombocytopenic patient utilizes donor platelets.
Cropping Systems for Clay Soil: Crop Rotation and Irrigation Effects on Soybean and Wheat Doublecropping

(...) Field experiments were conducted from 1984 to 1989 to evaluate alternate cropping systems for a Tunica clay soil (clayey over loamy, montmorillonitic, nonacid, thermic Vertic Haplaquept) in the lower Mississippi River Valley. Specific objectives were to (i) determine the seed yield response of monocrop soybean and doublecrop soybean and wheat grown in rotation in irrigated and nonirrigated environments, and (ii) determine the increase in gross income for soybean due to irrigation. Seed yields of monocrop soybean averaged over the 6-yr test period exeeded yield from doublecrop soybean in the irrigated (41.3 vs. 32.5 bu/acre) and nonirrigated (18.0 vs. 9.2 bu/acre) environments, respectively. (...)
Inhibition of β-catenin/Tcf activity by white tea, green tea, and epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG): Minor contribution of H2O2 at physiologically relevant EGCG concentrations

Abstract Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is the major polyphenol present in white tea and green tea. Recently, it was reported that the addition of EGCG and other tea polyphenols to cell culture media, minus cells, generated significant levels of H2O2, with the corollary that this might represent an `artifact' in cell culture studies which seek to examine the chemopreventive mechanisms of tea. We show here that in cell growth media with and without serum, and in growth media containing human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells plus serum, physiologically relevant concentrations of EGCG (⩽25 μM) generated H2O2 with a peak concentration of the order of 10–12 μM. However, addition of 20 μM H2O2 directly to HEK293 cells transiently transfected with wild-type or mutant β-catenin constructs and TCF-4 had no significant effect on β-catenin/TCF-4 reporter activity or β-catenin expression levels. In contrast, 2–25 μM EGCG inhibited β-catenin/TCF-4 reporter activity in a concentration-dependent fashion and there was a concomitant reduction in β-catenin protein levels in the cell lysates without changes in TCF-4 expression. The inhibition of reporter activity was recapitulated by white tea and green tea, each tested at a 25 μM EGCG equivalent concentration in the assay, and this was unaffected by the addition of exogenous catalase. The results indicate that physiologically relevant concentrations of tea and EGCG inhibit β-catenin/TCF-4 reporter activity in HEK293 cells due to reduced expression of β-catenin and that this is unlikely to be an artifact of H2O2 generation under the assay conditions used here. These data are consistent with the findings from in vivo studies, showing the suppression of intestinal polyps by tea, via an apparent down-regulation of β-catenin and Wnt target genes.
Induction of gut in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos

Two types of developmental events can cause an embryonic cell to adopt a fate different from that of its neighbours: during a cell division particular contents may be segregated to only one daughter cell and cells may experience different external cues, commonly in the form of inductive cell interactions. Work on development in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans suggests that most cell fates are specified without a need for cell interactions. In particular, the gut cell lineage of C. elegans has been used as a primary example of specification by differential segregation of determinants. Here I re-examine the role of induction in gut specification by isolating early blastomeres. In C. elegans, the gut derives from all the progeny of a single blastomere (E) of the eight-cell stage. When a gut precursor cell (EMS) is isolated during the first half of the four-cell stage, gut does not differentiate. Gut differentiation is rescued by recombining EMS with its posterior neighbour (P2), but not by recombining EMS with one or both of the other two cells of the four-cell stage. These results demonstrate that P2 induces EMS to form gut in C. elegans.
Models of the Upper Atmosphere for a Wide Range of Boundary Conditions.

Upper atmosphere model giving composition, density and temperature of neutral atmosphere as function of altitude correlated with satellite drag data
Analysts' Forecasts of Taiwanese Firms' Earnings: Some Empirical Evidence

This study examines the accuracy and bias associated with the analysts' earnings forecasts of Taiwanese firms. Using the forecast data of individual analysts over 1991–1997 from the I/B/E/S database, we find that analysts' forecasts of earnings are generally more accurate than the predictions of a naive forecasting model. However, this superiority seems to be largely confined to shorter forecast horizons. We also find that the analysts' earnings forecasts of Taiwanese firms are optimistically biased and that the bias depends on the nature of the earnings news. In addition, analysts' forecasts appear to be more accurate for larger firms and the bias also decreases with firm size. We find some variation in forecast accuracy and bias across industries but the overall results are not driven by any specific time period.
Real matrix homotopies based on Householder reflections

Abstract Anexplicithomotopyisconstructedbetweentheidentitymatrixandanarbitraryrealmatrixwithpositivedeterminant.Theconstructionrequiresnoeigenvalueinformationandyieldsasmoothparameterizationforwhichthematrixdeterminantremainspositiveandvariesas a monotonic or unimodal function of the parameter. The key idea of the construction is that a simple formula smoothly transforms any product of two Householder reflections to the identity.
Chloroplast senescence in nongrowing tissue in darkness: Effects of temperature and age

Summary The senescence of chloroplasts in the leaf apical tissue was studied after transferring light-grown wheat plants to continuous darkness. In this system chloroplast senescence is uncoupled from chloroplast formation and can be followed as chlorophyll loss. This chloroplast senescence also occurs in absence of both cell division and expansion. The temperature-dependence for this chloroplast senescence was similar but less pronounced than the temperature dependence of senescence reported for invertebrate animals. The relative increase in rate per 10°C temperature rise was about 1·7 using different levels of chlorophyll loss as arbitrary, independent criteria of chloroplast senescence. In another series of experiments the temperature in darkness was always 20°C and the experimental variable was the age of the light-grown plants when transferred to darkness. The very youngest leaves showed an initial lag before chloroplast senescence set in, whereas the very oldest showed a slight acceleration of senescence within the first few days in continuous darkness. Over a wide range of middle-ages, however, the time-course of chloroplast senescence in darkness was the same. These results fail to support “Minot's paradox” as a generalization of an inverse relation between age and rate of senescence.
Asthma Control and Cognitive Function in a Cohort of Elderly Adults

Background Asthmatics are at increased risk for cognitive impairment. The association of asthma control with cognitive performance, however, has not been rigorously assessed among older adults.
Range calculations using multigroup transport methods

Several aspects of radiation damage effects in fusion reactor neutron and ion irradiation environments are amenable to treatment by transport theory methods. In this paper, multigroup transport techniques are developed for the calculation of particle range distributions. These techniques are illustrated by analysis of Au-196 atoms recoiling from (n,2n) reactions with gold. The results of these calculations agree very well with range calculations performed with the atomistic code MARLOWE. Although some detail of the atomistic model is lost in the multigroup transport calculations, the improved computational speed should prove useful in the solution of fusion material design problems.
Defective T Cell Chemotaxis to Sphingosine 1-Phosphate and Chemokine CCL21 in Idiopathic T Lymphocytopenia

T cell chemotaxis to sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) and the chemokines CCL21 and CCL5 was studied in ten adults with T lymphocytopenia, other immunological abnormalities (nine of ten), and frequent bacterial infections (seven of ten). Mean chemotactic responses to S1P of CD4 T cells from CD4 T lymphocytopenic patients and of CD8 T cells from CD8 T lymphocytopenic patients were significantly lower than those of healthy matched controls. Chemotaxis to CCL21 was lower than that of controls for CD4 T cells of three CD4 T lymphocytopenic patients and for CD8 T cells of three CD8 T lymphocytopenic patients, but none of the T cells of patients had diminished chemotaxis to CCL5. Defective T cell chemotactic responses to S1P and some chemokines may lead to subset-selective abnormal T cell trafficking and chronic T cell lymphocytopenia.
A Laguerre Voronoi based scheme for meshing particle systems

We present Laguerre Voronoi based subdivision algorithms for the quadrilateral and hexahedral meshing of particle systems within a bounded region in two and three dimensions, respectively. Particles are smooth functions over circular or spherical domains. The algorithm first breaks the bounded region containing the particles into Voronoi cells that are then subsequently decomposed into an initial quadrilateral or an initial hexahedral scaffold conforming to individual particles. The scaffolds are subsequently refined via applications of recursive subdivision (splitting and averaging rules). Our choice of averaging rules yield a particle conforming quadrilateral/ hexahedral mesh, of good quality, along with being smooth and differentiable in the limit. Extensions of the basic scheme to dynamic re-meshing in the case of addition, deletion, and moving particles are also discussed. Motivating applications of the use of these static and dynamic meshes for particle systems include the mechanics of epoxy/glass composite materials, bio-molecular force field calculations, and gas hydrodynamics simulations in cosmology.
Superconducting fluctuations in specific heat in a magnetic field: Dimensional crossover.

The fluctuation specific heat of layered superconductors in zero and finite magnetic fields and above the transition temperature is studied in the Ginzburg-Landau (GL) scheme. The dimensional crossover behavior is explored. Estimates and consequences for experiments are presented for $\mathrm{Y}{\mathrm{Ba}}_{2}{\mathrm{Cu}}_{3}{\mathrm{O}}_{7\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\delta}}$. The effect of including the quartic order-parameter term in the GL free energy is investigated for the layered case.
A formal decision analysis identifies an optimal treatment strategy in a resource-poor setting.

Abstract Objective Decision analytic techniques use formal specifications of utility for the four fundamental decision events: true positives, false positives, true negatives, and false negatives. An optimal policy is the one with the lowest expected net cost. In this paper, decision analytic techniques for treatment selection based on patient characteristics are applied to a resource-poor setting. Study Design and Setting A cohort of 986 female sex workers in Antananarivo and Tamatave, Madagascar were tested for cervical infection at baseline and again 2 months later after presumptive treatment for gonorrhea and chlamydia. Results Three equivalent approaches to identify the optimal policy based on patient characteristic subgroups are demonstrated. Two of them require exhaustive searches of all possible alternatives. The third identifies the optimal policy as an analytic expression that compares a decision function with a threshold and leads to a closed-form solution. With this approach, the optimal policy can be expressed in four equivalent forms using basic epidemiological measures: likelihood ratio, predicted probability of disease, logistic regression parameters, and total risk score. Conclusion These methods illustrate the application of a decision analysis to clinical epidemiology. Management of cervical infection for sex workers in Madagascar occurs under severe resource constraints, and therefore requires an algorithm for identifying optimal treatment regimens.
Multiparameter analysis of human epithelial tumor cell lines by laser scanning cytometry.

Laser scanning cytometry (LSC) is a relatively new slide-based technology developed for commercial use by CompuCyte (Cambridge, MA) for performing multiple fluorescence measurements on individual cells. Because techniques developed for performing four or more measurements on individual lymphoid cells based on light scatter as a triggering parameter for cell identification are not suitable for the identification of fixed epithelial tumor cells, an alternative approach is required for the analysis of such cells by LSC. Methods for sample preparation, event triggering, and the performance of multiple LSC measurements on disaggregated fixed human cells were developed using normal lymphocytes and two human breast cancer cell lines, JC-1939 and MCF-7, as test populations. Optimal conditions for individual cell identification by LSC were found to depend on several factors, including deposited cell density (cells per unit area), the dynamic range of probe fluorescence intensities, and intracellular distribution of the fluorescent probe. Sparsely deposited cells exhibited the least cell overlap and the brightest immunofluorescent staining. Major advantages of using DNA probes over a cytoplasmic immunofluorescent protein marker such as tubulin for event triggering are that the former exhibit greater fluorescence intensity within a relatively sharply demarcated nuclear region. The DNA-binding dye LDS-751 was found to be suboptimal for quantitative DNA measurements but useful as a triggering measurement that permits the performance of simultaneous fluorescein isothiocyanate-, phycoerythrin-, and indodicarbocyanine-based measurements on each cell. A major potential advantage of LSC over flow cytometry is the high yields of analyzable cells by LSC, permitting the performance of multiple panels of multicolor measurements on each tumor. In conclusion, we have developed and optimized a technique for performing multiple fluorescence measurements on fixed epithelial cells by LSC based on event triggering using the DNA-binding dye LDS 751. Although not ideal for quantitative measurements of cell DNA content, the large Stokes shift of this dye permits the performance of three or more additional fluorescence measurements on each cell. Cytometry (Comm. Clin. Cytometry) 42:347–356, 2000. © 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Stiffness matrix integration rules for contact-friction finite elements

Abstract Penalty contact finite elements are effective for modeling discontinuities in finite element analyses. A key ingredient in the evaluation of contact element matrices is numerical integration. Computational experience has shown that use of full integration sometimes gives rise to spurious, annoying oscillations in contact stresses, while some reduced integration rules do not. In this paper we thoroughly investigate the effects of numerical integration on element behavior by comparison to an equivalent mixed method. Conclusions are drawn regarding desirable characteristics that an integration rule should have and an effective local stress averaging scheme for use at contact interelement boundaries is developed.
A chemically-defined medium supporting growth and providing cells converting compactin to pravastatin

sp strain 2966, which converts compactin to pravastatin, requires vitamins to support its growth. Addition of folic acid, thiamine and cyanocobalamine allowed growth in chemically-defined medium. Cells grown in a chemically-defined medium were as capable of converting compactin to pravastatin as cells grown in a complex medium.
Scattering of an eddy advected by a current towards a topographic obstacle

Contour dynamics is used to compute the two-dimensional (f-plane) motion of an initially circularly symmetric barotropic eddy with piecewise-uniform vorticity as it is advected around a circular obstacle by a uniform upstream current. For grazing incidence of this ‘shielded’ eddy (compensating positive and negative vorticity) the main effect of the vortex images (inside the obstacle) is to change the speed of those particles in the outer portion of the eddy that are closest to the obstacle; a lesser velocity is induced on the oppositely signed vortices near the eddy centre. The result is a systematic separation of the centroids of the ± vortices in the eddy, and the eddy emerges far downstream with an invariant dipole moment (m = 1 azimuthal mode). This causes the eddy to move with a constant velocity V normal to the uniform basic flow. The ratio of the numerically computed V to the accompanying far-field dipole moment agrees with a previous analytical theory for a completely isolated eddy subjected to a small-amplitude m = 1 initial disturbance. The scattering effect might be realizable in a rotating homogeneous fluid by translating a cylinder relative to an otherwise stationary eddy. Application to a density-stratified model is suggested.
HIV-associated lymphoma sub-type distribution, immunophenotypes and survival in an urban clinic population.

HIV-infected patients have an increased risk for both Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas. A retrospective cohort of all HIV-infected patients diagnosed with lymphoma in urban clinics from 2000–2013 was evaluated to characterize the distribution and determine effects of sub-type and immunophenotype on survival. Of 160 cases identified, 131 (82%) had complete information and were analyzed. The most common sub-types were diffuse large B cell (41%), Burkitt (21%) and Hodgkin lymphoma (18%). Advanced (78% stage III/IV) and extranodal disease (82%) at presentation were common. CD20 was the most commonly expressed immunophenotypic marker (89%). Overall mortality rate was high (26.1 per 100 person-years). Lower mortality was noted in CD10 + and CD20 + lymphomas, but differences were not statistically significant. After adjustment, low CD4 count (≤ 200) at diagnosis was associated with higher mortality (adjusted hazard ration (AHR) = 1.75; 95% CI = 1.00–3.61). Mortality in this cohort of patients with HIV-associate...
Vehicle wheel detector using 2D filter banks

Detecting vehicles from a moving vehicle is an important task. In this paper a new vehicle detector is introduced. The new vehicle detector employs the use of the ubiquitous wheel. Every car has wheels; this wheel detector finds wheels and infers vehicle location from the wheel detection. Views from an omnidirectional camera are used to generate side view images. These images are processed using a difference of Gaussian filter bank. The responses from the filter bank are applied to a precomputed set of principle components. The principle component responses are compared against a Gaussian mixture model of wheels and Gaussian model roadbed. Wheel candidates are chosen and tracked. Initial experimental results along with analysis are shown.
Advantages of slowed electromagnetic waves

The features of slowed electromagnetic waves and their advantages are considered. Examples of new methods and devices combining the advantages of relatively high and relatively low frequency bands are shown. Concentration of an electromagnetic field caused by wave deceleration leads to a significant increase in parameters of processes and devices based on slowed wave application. It is shown that coupled slow-wave structures application allows electric and magnetic fields to split in transverse direction which leads to an additional improving in parameters and characteristics (the sensitivity and interaction efficiency increase, new processes developing, etc.). The possibilities of slowed wave application for micro-miniaturization of RF and microwave passive elements, for measurements, electromagnetic heating, and for physiotherapy are considered.
The Design of Sampling Transects for Characterizing Water Quality in Estuaries

Abstract The high spatial variability of estuaries poses a challenge for characterizing estuarine water quality. This problem was examined by conducting monthly high-resolution transects for several water quality variables (chlorophyll a , suspended particulate matter and salinity) in San Francisco Bay (California, U.S.A.). Using these data, six different ways of choosing station locations along a transect, in order to estimate mean conditions, were compared. In addition, 11 approaches to estimating the variance of the transect mean when stations are equally spaced were compared, and the relationship between variance of the estimated transect mean and number of stations was determined. The results provide guidelines for sampling along the axis of an estuary: (1) choose as many equally-spaced stations as practical; (2) estimate the variance of the mean y by var ( y )=(1/10 n 2 )Σ n j =2 ( y j − y j −1 ) 2 , where y 1 , . . ., y n are the measurements at the n stations; and (3) attain the desired precision by adjusting the number of stations according to var( y )α1/ n 2 . The inverse power of 2 in the last step is a consequence of the underlying spatial correlation structure in San Francisco Bay; more studies of spatial structure at other estuaries are needed to determine the generality of this relationship.
Differences in mucosal reaction related to Candida albicans isolates

In order to examine the behavior of Candida albicans in an oral mucosal model, 16 isolates of the organism were collected from a variety of clinical settings and were inoculated weekly, in equal numbers and concentrations, into the mouths of separate groups of 20 female Sprague-Dawley rats. Oral swabs were taken bi-weekly in order to monitor the presence of the yeast. After 16 weeks, the animals were killed and the tongues were examined grossly and histologically. Six isolates demonstrated the ability to produce characteristic dorsal tongue lesions to varying degrees (1/20; 1/20; 1/20; 2/20; 3/20; and 12/20). Of the remaining 10 isolates, 5 showed hyphal penetration of the keratin layer of the dorsal tongue epithelium, yet no mucosal reaction was elicited and no lesion was produced (1/19; 2/19; 4/20; 5/20 and 5/20). These findings support the concept that C. albicans exhibits a spectrum of mucosal pathogenicity for dorsal rat tongue.
Hacking with Chinese Characteristics The Promises of the Maker Movement against China’s Manufacturing Culture

From the rising number of hackerspaces to an increase in hardware start-ups, maker culture is envisioned as an enabler of the next industrial revolution—a source of unhindered technological innovation, a revamp of broken economies and educational systems. Drawing from long-term ethnographic research, this article examines how China’s makers demarcate Chinese manufacturing as a site of expertise in implementing this vision. China’s makers demonstrate that the future of making—if to materialize in the ways currently envisioned by writers, politicians, and scholars of the global tech industry—rests on taking seriously the technological and cultural fabrics of professional making outside familiar information technology innovation hubs like Silicon Valley: making-do, mass production, and reuse. I trace back to China’s first hackerspace, documenting how a collective of makers began to move away from appropriating Western concepts of openness toward promoting China as source for knowledge, creativity, and innova...
Sequential Involvement of Distinct Glutamate Receptors in Domoic Acid-Induced Neurotoxicity in Rat Mixed Cortical Cultures: Effect of Multiple Dose/Duration Paradigms, Chronological Age, and Repeated Exposure

The increasing occurrence of poisoning accidents in marine animals caused by the amnesic shellfish toxin, domoic acid (DOM), necessitates a better understanding of the factors contributing to DOM neurotoxicity. Here we evaluated the contribution and temporal involvement of NMDA, non-NMDA- and metabotropic-type glutamate receptors (GluRs) in DOM-induced neuronal death using rat primary mixed cortical cultures. Co-application of antagonists for AMPA/kainate- (NBQX) and NMDA-type GluRs (D-AP5) but not for metabotropic GluRs reduced DOM toxicity induced by either of three EC50 dose/duration exposure paradigms. Maximal protection offered by D-AP5 and NBQX either extended or not to the 30- to 60-min period after DOM exposure, respectively. Antagonists were ineffective if applied with a 2-h delay, indicating the presence of a critical time window for neuronal protection after DOM exposure. Early effects correlated with neuronal swelling was seen as early as 10 min post-DOM, which has been linked to non-NMDAR-mediated depolarization and release of endogenous glutamate. That DOM toxicity is dictated by iGluRs is supported by the finding that increased efficacy and potency of DOM with in vitro neuronal maturation are positively correlated with elevated protein levels of iGluR subunits, including NR1, GluR1, GluR2/3, GluR5, and GluR6/7. We determined the time course of DOM excitotoxicity. At >10 microM maximal neuronal death occurs within 2 h, while doses < or = 10 microM continue to produce death during the subsequent 22-h washout period, indicating a quicker progression of the neuronal death cascade with high DOM concentrations. Accordingly, NBQX applied 30 min post-DOM afforded better protection against low dose/prolonged duration (3 microM/24 h) than against high dose/brief duration exposure (50 microM/10 min). Interestingly, prior exposure to subthreshold DOM dose-dependently aggravated toxicity produced by a subsequent exposure to DOM. These findings provide greater insight into the complex properties underlying DOM toxicity, including the sequential involvement of multiple GluRs, greater potency with increasing neuronal maturation and protein levels of iGluRs, varying efficacy depending on dose, duration, and prior history of DOM exposure.
The Calculation of Harmonic Production in Thermionic Valves with Resistive Loads

Formulas are obtained for the amplitudes of harmonic components and the direct-current change in the anode current of thermionic valves operating with resistive loads. These expressions for components up to the sixth harmonic are given in terms of points taken from the load line on the anode-voltage-anode-current characteristics at equally spaced intervals of grid voltage.
Pacemakers and Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators: Software Radio Attacks and Zero-Power Defenses

Our study analyzes the security and privacy properties of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). Introduced to the U.S. market in 2003, this model of ICD includes pacemaker technology and is designed to communicate wirelessly with a nearby external programmer in the 175 kHz frequency range. After partially reverse-engineering the ICD's communications protocol with an oscilloscope and a software radio, we implemented several software radio-based attacks that could compromise patient safety and patient privacy. Motivated by our desire to improve patient safety, and mindful of conventional trade-offs between security and power consumption for resource-constrained devices, we introduce three new zero-power defenses based on RF power harvesting. Two of these defenses are human-centric, bringing patients into the loop with respect to the security and privacy of their implantable medical devices (IMDs). Our contributions provide a scientific baseline for understanding the potential security and privacy risks of current and future IMDs, and introduce human-perceptible and zero-power mitigation techniques that address those risks. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first in our community to use general-purpose software radios to analyze and attack previously unknown radio communications protocols.
Pediatric Infectious Disease

1. The Clinical Presentation and Outcomes of Children Infected with Newly Identified Respiratory Tract Viruses (Williams) 2. Acute Diarrheal Disease in Children: Epidemiology, Prevention and Treatment (Dennehy) 3. Neonatal Candidiasis: Treatment and Prophylaxis (Benjamin) 4. Fluoroquinolone Antibiotics in Infants and Children (Schaad) 5. The Future of Conjugate Pneumococcal Vaccines 6. Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology: A Pediatric Perspective (Zaoutis) 7. The Link Between Bronchiolitis and Asthma (Ruuskanen)8. Influenza Vaccines in Children (Harper) 9. The Risks and Benefits of Amoxicillin as an Antibiotic for Infants and Children (Toltzis) 10. The Expanded Spectrum of Bartonellosis in Children (Massei) 11. Drug Tolerability and Survival Among Children Receiving HAART for HIV/AIDS (McComsey) 12. The Treatment of Children Exposed to Pathogens Linked to Bioterrorism (Markenson) 13. Implications of MRSA as a Community-Acquired Pathogen in Pediatric Patients (Kaplan)
EFFECT OF MONOCLONAL ANTIBODY ON THE ADHESION OF PLATELETS TO AORTIC SEGMENTS

Abstract A purified monoclonal antibody raised against a purified platelet 65 kDa protein that binds to type I collagen receptor was used to see if the antibody can block the adhesion of platelets to damaged aortic segments. The purified antibody binds to the surface of human platelets by flow cytometry. The adhesion of platelets to the damaged aortic segments was significantly reduced by the preincubation of the platelet-rich plasma with the antibody, suggesting that the antibody binds to platelets and blocks the adhesion of platelets to the aortic segments. Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd
A Geometric Formulation of Occam's Razor For Inference of Parametric Distributions

I dene a natural measure of the complexity of a parametric distribution relative to a given true distribution called the razor of a model family. The Minimum Description Length principle (MDL) and Bayesian inference are shown to give empirical approximations of the razor via an analysis that signican tly extends existing results on the asymptotics of Bayesian model selection. I treat parametric families as manifolds embedded in the space of distributions and derive a canonical metric and a measure on the parameter manifold by appealing to the classical theory of hypothesis testing. I nd that the Fisher information is the natural measure of distance, and give a novel justication for a choice of Jereys prior for Bayesian inference. The results of this paper suggest corrections to MDL that can be important for model selection with a small amount of data. These corrections are interpreted as natural measures of the simplicity of a model family. I show that in a certain sense the logarithm of the Bayesian posterior converges to the logarithm of the razor of a model family as dened here. Close connections with known results on density estimation and \information geometry" are discussed as they arise.
Proposed Serum Cholesterol Reference Measurement Procedure by Gas Chromatography–Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry

BACKGROUND: Our purpose was to establish a mass spectrometry reference measurement procedure (RMP) for cholesterol to use in the CDC's standardization programs. We explored a gas chromatography–isotope dilution mass spectrometry (GC-IDMS) procedure using a multilevel standard calibration curve to quantify samples with varying cholesterol concentrations. METHODS: We calibrated the mass spectrometry instrument by isotope dilution with a pure primary standard reference material and an isotopically enriched cholesterol analog as the internal standard (IS). We diluted the serum samples with Tris-HCl buffer (pH 7.4, 0.05 mol/L, 0.25% Triton X-100) before analysis. We used 17 serum pools, 10 native samples, and 2 standard reference materials (SRMs). We compared the GC-IDMS measurements with the CDC's modified Abell–Levy–Brodie–Kendall (AK) RMP measurements and assessed method accuracy by analyzing 2 SRMs. We evaluated the procedure for lack of interference by analyzing serum spiked with a mixture of 7 sterols. RESULTS: The mean percent bias between the AK and the GC-IDMS RMP was 1.6% for all samples examined. The mean percent bias from NIST's RMP was 0.5% for the SRMs. The total %CVs for SRM 1951b levels I and II were 0.61 and 0.73%, respectively. We found that none of the sterols investigated interfered with the cholesterol measurement. CONCLUSIONS: The low imprecision, linear response, lack of interferences, and acceptable bias vs the NIST primary RMP qualifies this procedure as an RMP for determining serum cholesterol. The CDC will adopt and implement this GC-IDMS procedure for cholesterol standardization.
Ubx promotes corbicular development in Apis mellifera

The key morphological feature that distinguishes corbiculate bees from other members of the Apidae family is the presence of the corbicula (pollen basket) on the tibial segment of hind legs. Here, we show that in the honeybee (Apis mellifera), the depletion of the gene Ultrabithorax (Ubx) by RNAi transforms the corbicula from a smooth, bristle-free concave structure to one covered with bristles. This is accompanied by a reduction of the pollen press, which is located on the basitarsus and used for packing the pollen pellet as well as a loss of the orderly arrangement of the rows of bristles that form the pollen comb. All these changes make the overall identity of workers’ T3 legs assume that of the queen. Furthermore, in a corbiculate bee of a different genus, Bombus impatiens, Ubx expression is also localized in T3 tibia and basitarsus. These observations suggest that the evolution of the pollen gathering apparatus in corbiculate bees may have a shared origin and could be traced to the acquisition of novel functions by Ubx, which in Apis were instrumental for subsequent castes and behavioural differentiation.
Coupled transport and reaction kinetics control the nitrate source-sink function of hyporheic zones

[1] The fate of biologically available nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) in stream ecosystems is controlled by the coupling of physical transport and biogeochemical reaction kinetics. However, determining the relative role of physical and biogeochemical controls at different temporal and spatial scales is difficult. The hyporheic zone (HZ), where groundwater–stream water mix, can be an important location controlling N and C transformations because it creates strong gradients in both the physical and biogeochemical conditions that control redox biogeochemistry. We evaluated the coupling of physical transport and biogeochemical redox reactions by linking an advection, dispersion, and residence time model with a multiple Monod kinetics model simulating the concentrations of oxygen (O2), ammonium (NH4), nitrate (NO3), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). We used global Monte Carlo sensitivity analyses with a nondimensional form of the model to examine coupled nitrification-denitrification dynamics across many scales of transport and reaction conditions. Results demonstrated that the residence time of water in the HZ and the uptake rate of O2 from either respiration and/or nitrification determined whether the HZ was a source or a sink of NO3 to the stream. We further show that whether the HZ is a net NO3 source or net NO3 sink is determined by the ratio of the characteristic transport time to the characteristic reaction time of O2 (i.e., the Damkohler number, DaO2), where HZs with DaO2 < 1 will be net nitrification environments and HZs with DaO2 ≪ 1 will be net denitrification environments. Our coupling of the hydrologic and biogeochemical limitations of N transformations across different temporal and spatial scales within the HZ allows us to explain the widely contrasting results of previous investigations of HZ N dynamics which variously identify the HZ as either a net source or sink of NO3. Our model results suggest that only estimates of residence times and O2uptake rates are necessary to predict this nitrification-denitrification threshold and, ultimately, whether a HZ will be either a net source or sink of NO3.
UDP-Galactose: N-Acetylglucosamine Galactosyltransferase in Fluids from Rat Rete Testis and Epididymis

Galactosyltransferase enzyme is present as a soluble protein in fluids collected from the rete testis and from the epididymis of the rat. The enzyme is simlar in some respects to rat serum galactosyltransferase, but differs with respect to its heat stability, Km, and substrate specificity. The activity of the enzyme in RTF from different animals is variable, and the possibility that this variability may be due to hormonal influences is discussed. The enzyme found in epididymal fluid has higher activity per unit volume than that in RTF. The possibility that the enzyme may be involved in the glycosylation of the surface proteins of spermatozoa is discussed.
Predictors of Technical Skill Acquisition Among Resident Trainees in a Laparoscopic Skills Education Program

Administrative and financial pressures on surgical education have created a need for efficient training curricula. Predictors of innate technical ability, which would guide the optimization of such a curriculum, are not well described. The goal of this study was to identify student characteristics predictive of innate pretraining skill level and response to training during the course of a four-week laparoscopic skills development program. Laparoscopic skills in 35 first-year surgical residents were assessed with the McGill Inanimate System for Training and Evaluation of Laparoscopic Skills (MISTELS) before and after a four-week skills training program and after an interval of approximately 1 year. The correlation between trainee characteristics, including age, sex, designated surgical specialty, and laparoscopic skill level was assessed by using Pearson’s correlation and paired t-test studies. Intake MISTELS scores showed no significant correlation to age, sex, or designated field. Interns designated for the general surgery training program had significantly higher final scores than those entering other fields (p = 0.02). There was a negative correlation between trainee age and both degree of improvement during training and final scores (p = 0.02 and 0.05). A history of video game use correlated with significantly higher initial scores and better skills retention (p = 0.03 and 0.04). A laparoscopic technical curriculum can achieve basic proficiency even when taught to a diverse group of trainees. Older residents beginning their surgical careers may be slower to develop technical skills. Choice of subspecialty seems to predict higher level of proficiency after completion of a skills training program among resident students.
Dosage Effects Between Dietary Niacin and Other B Vitamins on Larval Development of Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae)

The nutritional interaction between niacin (nicotinic acid) and a group of nine other B vitamins in the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann), larval diet was evaluated. Four doses of niacin (0, 0.2, 2.0, and 20 ppm) and four doses of a mixture of nine other B vitamins (0, 7.07, 70.7, and 707 ppm) in the diet were cross-tested. The other B vitamins consisted of thiamin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, folic acid, biotin, inositol, choline chloride, and p-amino benzoic acid. Diets with high doses (≥70.7 ppm) of the other B vitamins and low doses (≤0.2 ppm) of niacin resulted in no pupal recovery. However, a delayed larval duration and reduced pupal recovery resulted when no niacin and 7.07 ppm or lower of the other B vitamins were compared with those from a complete diet that contained 20 ppm niacin and 707 ppm of the other B vitamins. With omission of the other B vitamins, larval duration was delayed but was not dose dependent on niacin. Pupal recovery was not affected if niacin levels were maintained at or >0.2 ppm and the other B vitamins were absent. With 20 ppm of niacin in the diet, the larval duration and pupal recovery were dependent on the dose of the other B vitamins. Larval durations were shortened with elevated doses of the other B vitamins, whereas pupal recoveries increased with elevated dose of the other B vitamins. Therefore, the other vitamins reduced the larval duration when niacin was maintained at ≥2 ppm. When the niacin levels decreased to ≤0.2 ppm, doses of the other vitamins has to be reduced <7.07 ppm to maintain normal larval development.
Case History: Toxicology Biomarker Development Using Toxicogenomics

Toxicology biomarkers are structural or functional measurements that correlate with an adverse change in the physiology of an organism. A familiar example is elevated serological alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity as a biomarker of hepatic injury. Toxicology biomarkers such as ALT help us select compounds with desirable margins of safety in the lead optimization (LO) phase of drug development, and allow us to identify target-organ toxicities that should be monitored in patients during clinical drug development. Unfortunately, useful clinical and pre-clinical biomarkers are not available for many compound-induced pathologies. Promising new molecular techniques that can address this gap by finding candidate biomarkers include genomics, proteomics, and metabonomics. Successful application of these technologies to develop toxicology biomarkers could increase the quality and number of clinical candidates selected during LO, and improve our ability to monitor drug safety in patients. In this chapter we present a case history using toxicogenomics in which DMBT1 was developed as a transcriptional biomarker of bile duct hyperplasia induced via oval cell proliferation, a toxicologic pathology for which biomarkers are needed.
The minimal number of solutions to φ( n ) = φ( n + k )

In 1958, A. Schinzel showed that for each fixed k ≤ 8.1047 there are at least two solutions to φ(n) = φ(n + k). Using the same method and a computer search, Schinzel and A. Wakulicz extended the bound to all k ≤ 2 ċ 1058. Here we show that Schinzel's method can be used to further extend the bound when k is even, but not when k is odd.
Hodgkin's disease with a mediastinal mass greater than 10 cm: Results of four different treatment approaches

Summary Background Management of Hodgkin's disease (HD) and large mediastinal adenopathy (LMA) usually includes intensive chemotherapy (CT) with or without radiation therapy (XT) regardless of stage. Patients and methods One hundred and eighteen evalu-able patients received one of four treatment regimens: (1) 6 cycles of MOPP or similar CT and XT; (2) 2 of MOPP followed by XT; (3) 6 of CVPP/ABDIC (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, prednisone/doxorubicin, bleomy-cin, decarbazine, prednisone, lomustine) followed by XT; or (4) 3 of NOVP (mitoxantrone, vincristine, vinblastine, procarbazine) and XT. XT doses included 30–40 Gy to areas of nodal involvement noted prior to therapy. Results Complete remission (CR) rates for groups 1, 2, 3, and 4 were 100%, 85%, 87%, and 96%. Respective 3-year freedom from progression (FFP) results were 88%, 66%, 82%, and 88%, and 3-year freedom from tumor mortality (FTM) results were 100%, 84%, 84%, and 100%. The presence of B symptoms and stage IV disease was correlated with lower CR and 3-year FFP rates but similar 3-year survival. Conclusions Results of this study suggest that patients with stage I-III Hodgkin's disease and LMA greater than 10 cm treated with 3 NOVP and XT have results similar to those obtained for a similar group of patients treated with 2 to 6 MOPP or 6 CVPP/ABDIC and XT. NOVP has also been reported to produce limited toxicity in this trial and should be considered as an alternative to MOPP or doxorubicin-con-taining regimens in treatment of patients with early-staged disease and LMA greater than 10 cm.
Injection-Locking and Self-Injection-Locking of Pulsed Single-Longitudinal Mode Alexandrite Lasers

We will describe our results in obtaining high power single-longitudinal mode operation with alexandrite by two injection-locking techniques, conventional injection-locking and a novel self-injection-locking method which requires only a single laser cavity. An alexandrite laser for water vapor DIAL investigations near 727 nm, designed using this self-injection-locking technique, will also be described.
Wellsperrholz im Ingenieur-Holzbau

Die Erweiterung der Anwendungsgebiete von Holz als Rohstoff und von seinen Veredelungsprodukten, den Holzwerkstoffen, ist ein standiges Anliegen der angewandten Forschung. Die Entwicklung von Wellschichtholz, das in Form von Tafelelementen als neuer Bauwerkstoff eingesetzt werden kann, wird beschrieben. Als wesentliches Merkmal ist die, gegenuber Sperrholz gleicher Dicke sehr viel hohere Biegesteifigkeit anzusehen, die durch eine Erhohung des TragheitsmomentesI mit der Wellung erreicht wird. Formbestandigkeit und gleichzeitiger Oberflachenschutz werden durch beidseitige Beschichtung mit folienartigen Werkstoffen erzielt. Hauptanwendungsgebiete sind Dachabdeckungen und Wandelemente bei der Leicht-und Schnellbauweise. Die Herstellbarkeit im industriellen Masstab sichert einen Preis, der das neue Erzeugnis mit vergleichbaren Baustoffen wettbewerbsfahig macht.