cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Depopulation of Caged Layer Hens with a Compressed Air Foam System

During the 2014–2015 US highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak, 50.4 million commercial layers and turkeys were affected, resulting in economic losses of $3.3 billion. Rapid depopulation of infected poultry is vital to contain and eradicate reportable diseases like HPAI. The hypothesis of the experiment was that a compressed air foam (CAF) system may be used as an alternative to carbon dioxide (CO2) inhalation for depopulating caged layer hens. The objective of this study was to evaluate corticosterone (CORT) and time to cessation of movement (COM) of hens subjected to CAF, CO2 inhalation, and negative control (NEG) treatments. In Experiment 1, two independent trials were conducted using young and spent hens. Experiment 1 consisted of five treatments: NEG, CO2 added to a chamber, a CO2 pre-charged chamber, CAF in cages, and CAF in a chamber. In Experiment 2, only spent hens were randomly assigned to three treatments: CAF in cages, CO2 added to a chamber, and aspirated foam. Serum CORT levels of young hens were not significantly different among the CAF in cages, CAF in a chamber, NEG control, and CO2 inhalation treatments. However, spent hens subjected to the CAF in a chamber had significantly higher CORT levels than birds in the rest of the treatments. Times to COM of spent hens subjected to CAF in cages and aspirated foam were significantly greater than of birds exposed to the CO2 in a chamber treatment. These data suggest that applying CAF in cages is a viable alternative for layer hen depopulation during a reportable disease outbreak.
Estimation and validation of patient-specific liver elasticity distributions derived from 4DMR for radiotherapy purposes

Liver diseases, such as liver cancer and cirrhosis, are commonly associated with changes in the biomechanical properties of liver tissue. Functional imaging techniques such as elastography have shown great promise in measuring the biomechanical properties of liver tissue; however, current liver elastography techniques require additional equipment that is conventionally not available within the radiotherapy setup. We present a novel methodology for estimating liver elasticity derived from deformation observed during 0.35 T 4DMR ViewRay (MRIdian System™, ViewRay™, Cleveland, OH, USA) scans within a radiotherapy setup. Phase 1 and phase 8 datasets, categorized by diaphragm position, were first deformably registered. The resulting displacement maps were considered ground-truth. A GPU-based biomechanical model was then assembled from the segmented phase 8 liver dataset and, along with patient-specific boundary constraints, used to iteratively solve for the liver elasticity distribution. The liver elastography process presented here was performed for a set of 11 4DMR patients. Maximum liver deformation was observed to be between 3.99 and 9.04 mm. On average, 95% convergence within 1 mm was observed. A validation study using phase 4 liver datasets illustrated an accuracy of 86%. Normalized cross-correlation quantified high similarity between the results of the estimation and validation studies with their respective ground-truths. Overall, the results suggest that liver elasticity can be measured with approximately 95% convergence using 4DMR scans acquired within the radiotherapy workflow, indicating the potential for the implementation of liver elastography within the clinic.
Nazareth, L. (2007). The Leisure Economy: How Changing Demographics, Economics and Generational Attitudes Will Reshape Our Lives and Our Industries

(2009). Nazareth, L. (2007). The Leisure Economy: How Changing Demographics, Economics and Generational Attitudes Will Reshape Our Lives and Our Industries. SCHOLE: A Journal of Leisure Studies and Recreation Education: Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 171-172.
The Politics of American and Canadian Carbon Pricing

A vast economics literature embraces taxation of the carbon content of fossil fuels as the superior policy approach for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pursuing other major energy policy goals. However, national government experience around the world suggests that carbon taxes face exceedingly difficult political hurdles. Federal experience in the United States and Canada confirms this pattern. This paper reviews sub-federal policy development among American states and Canadian provinces, a great many of whom have been active in climate policy development. With one notable exception, it concludes that explicit carbon taxation appears to remain a political non-starter. At the same time, states and provinces have been placing indirect carbon prices on fossil fuel use through a wide range of policies over the past fifteen years. These tend to strategically alter labeling, finding different ways to characterize new or expanded policies by avoiding the terms of "tax" and "carbon" in imposing costs. The paper offers a framework for considering such a diverse set of strategies and examines common design features, including direct linkage between cost imposition and fund usage to build political support.
The role of serotonin in modulation of nociceptive reflexes

During the past fifteen years, a variety of evidence has accumulated which is consistent with the Brodie and Shore (1957) hypothesis that serotonergic neurons in the central nervous system serve a tropotrophic role (Hess, 1954) in inhibiting an animal’s response to diverse arousing stimuli (Harvey et al., 1975). This role for serotonin is, perhaps, most thoroughly documented in studies dealing with an animal’s response to painful stimuli. The results of numerous studies suggest that decreases in serotonergic activity result in hyperalgesia while increases produce analgesia (Harvey et al., 1975; Mayer and Price, 1976; Messing and Lytle, 1977). Thus one can assume that painful stimuli normally lead to increased activity within the serotonergic system which partially inhibits or diminishes the intensity of the nociceptive reflex. This view of the role of serotonin in determining an animal’s response to painful stimuli has resulted from the application of a wide variety of techniques for altering serotonergic function in the central nervous system and for assessing pain sensitivity. Such a convergent approach is important, since no single technique can be relied on to produce an alteration in serotonergic function without also having additional effects, some of which are known and others yet to be discovered. Similarly, since pain is not a unitary phenomenon, there is no a priori reason for assuming that serotonin should have an equivalent inhibitory effect on all nociceptive reflexes. In fact, since different nociceptive reflexes involve different portions of the central nervous system, it would be more surprising if some form of selectivity did not exist. Most investigators, including ourselves, have sometimes ignored these caveats by placing too great a reliance on a single procedure for altering serotonergic function or for assessing pain sensitivity. As a result the precise role of serotonin in determining an animal’s response to painful stimuli has recently been obscured by conflicting conclusions and apparently contradictory data. Accordingly, this paper will review the evidence concerning the role of serotonin in nociception, with special attention given to the means employed for altering serotonergic function and assessing pain sensitivity.
The Evaluation of Creatinine Clearance in Spinal Cord Injury Patients

The parameters of age, height, weight, serum creatinine and 24-hour urinary creatinine production were measured in 101 consecutive spinal cord injury patients (79 men and 22 women, 43 quadriplegics and 58 paraplegics) admitted to a rehabilitation hospital. Creatinine production was significantly lower than that of age and sex-matched hospitalized controls, upon whom commonly used nomograms for evaluation of endogenous creatinine clearance are based. Therefore, these nomograms grossly overestimate the creatinine clearance in paralyzed patients, which often results in aminoglycoside overdosage. Regression analysis identified the interval since injury and age as important determinants of creatinine production. We propose 2 simple equations and nomograms that should allow more accurate prediction of creatinine clearance in spinal cord injury patients.
PI-RADS Version 2 Category on 3 Tesla Multiparametric Prostate Magnetic Resonance Imaging Predicts Oncologic Outcomes in Gleason 3 + 4 Prostate Cancer on Biopsy.

Purpose:Three Tesla multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging with PI-RADS™ (Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System) version 2 scoring is a common tool in prostate cancer diagnosis which informs the likelihood of a cancerous lesion. We investigated whether PI-RADS version 2 also predicts adverse pathology features mainly in patients with biopsy Gleason score 3 + 4 disease.Materials and Methods:We reviewed the records of 326 consecutive men with a preoperative template and/or magnetic resonance imaging-ultrasound fusion biopsy Gleason score of 6-7 from a prospectively maintained database of men who underwent robotic radical prostatectomy. The primary analysis was done in patients with biopsy Gleason score 3 + 4 to assess the primary outcome of adverse pathology features on univariate and multivariate logistic regression. The secondary outcome was biochemical recurrence-free survival using the Kaplan-Meier method. Similar analysis was done in patients with a biopsy Gleason score of 6-7.Results:Of men w...
Algorithm to Predict Which Children With Chronic Abdominal Pain Are Low Suspicion for Significant Endoscopic Findings.

Chronic abdominal pain (CAP) is a common and challenging problem in pediatric primary and specialty care. We developed a diagnostic algorithm to organize workup for gastrointestinal causes of CAP a...
Building a career planning course for STEM PhDs.

Incorporating career development into PhD course offerings can help biomedical students better understand themselves, as well as the job market, and to adopt a 'can-do' attitude in developing their own paths.
Public vs. private: the early history of school choice in America, by Robert N. Gross

The most scandalous part might be the fact that there was nothing scandalous about it. When former U.S. President Barack Obama sent his children to an elite private school in Washington DC, he did ...
Abstract 5109: National cyberinfrastructure and bioinformatic analysis support available to the cancer research community

National Center for Genomic Analysis Support (NCGAS) is an NSF-funded center whose goal is to help biologists optimize their bioinformatic pipelines to best address their research questions. To help reach these goals, NCGAS provides a range of services based on the researchers needs. We currently host gateways, Trinity Galaxy and Genepattern, with built-in workflows to support cancer researchers who have little background in command line work. Both these gateways are projects funded by the Information Technologies in Cancer Research (ITCR) program of NIH, NCI, to aid in the genomic and transcriptomic characterization of cancers. NSF-funded researchers comfortable in command line can gain access to IU cyberinfrastructure (HIPAA compliant), to run or develop bioinformatic workflows. Bioinformatic packages are already installed system wide, with reference databases, and new programs are always added upon user’s request. NCGAS is also an ambassador of Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) resources, providing access to other HIPAA compliant national cyberinfrastructure (Texas Advanced Computing Center, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, etc.), available to the entire research community. XSEDE resources include the Jetstream cloud, based at IU and TACC, allowing researchers to use preconfigured virtual machines (VMs) already setup, create custom VM environments for their own work, and to share with classes and collaborators. Data can be transferred and managed between all of these resources securely with already available Globus endpoints which allows transfer for terabytes of data quickly. Additionally, NCGAS hosts workshops to help researchers get started. These training events can be scheduled online or at your local university upon request. NCGAS currently supports projects working on transcriptome, genome-level assembly, phylogenetics, metagenomics, and meta-transcriptomics analysis through providing a range of compute resources that best serve the research project. Citation Format: Bhavya Papudeshi, Carrie Ganote, Sheri Sanders, Thomas G. Doak. National cyberinfrastructure and bioinformatic analysis support available to the cancer research community [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5109.
Longitudinal Patterns of Multiple Tobacco and Nicotine Product Use Among Texas College Students: a Latent Transition Analysis

Diverse tobacco and nicotine products have altered the terrain of tobacco use behaviors. Limited research has examined contemporary patterns of use among young adults. This study identified tobacco and nicotine product use groups and examined changes in young adults’ use patterns, across a 1.5-year period. Participants were 5,482 18–29-year-old students (M age = 20.5, SD = 2.36; 63% female) from 24 Texas colleges who completed a four-wave bi-annual online survey. Latent transition analysis was used to identify groups from 10 items (ever and current use of cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, e-cigarettes, and hookah) and to examine probabilities of transitioning between groups over four waves. Five groups were identified: Non-users (30%), Poly-experimenters (26%), Hookah experimenters (18%), E-cigarette & hookah experimenters (15%), and Poly-cigarette users (11%). Few students transitioned between groups over time. Poly-cigarette users had the highest average probability of remaining stable over time (1.00), followed by E-cigarette & hookah experimenters (.97), Non-users (.94), Poly-experimenters (.93), and Hookah experimenters (.92). All groups became more stable over time except Hookah experimenters whose members were most likely to transition to Poly-cigarette users or other experimenter groups. The greatest transition was from Poly-experimenters to Poly-cigarette users with probabilities of .10, .08, and .03 for transitioning between waves one and two, two and three, and three and four, respectively. There was substantial poly-use and experimentation, which may explain little movement between groups over the 1.5-year time period and underscores the need for prevention programs targeting multiple product use among college students.
Pathophysiological and clinical aspects of narcolepsy: a disorder associated with hypocretin abnormalities

Narcolepsy is a frequent sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and abnormal manifestations of REM sleep such as cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucinations and sleep paralysis. Human narcolepsy is genetically complex and HLA associated, suggesting a possible autoimmune etiology. Recent studies have shown that narcolepsy can be caused by genetic alterations of the hypocretin (also called orexin) neuropeptide system in dogs and mice. Human narcolepsy does not involve frequent hypocretin gene mutations but is, in most cases, frequently associated with undetectable hypocretin levels in the cerebrospinal fluid. Our current understanding of the neuroanatomical and functional aspects of hypocretin neurotransmission suggests a critical role for this neuropeptide in sleep regulation and narcolepsy.
Generalizable physics-embedded deep learning for recovering complex 3D biology with intensity diffraction tomography

We present a physics-embedded deep learning architecture for improving the intensity diffraction tomography’s (IDT) 3D quantitate phase recovery of complex biological samples. Our approach utilizes both convolutional neural networks and IDT’s model-based volumetric reconstructions to provide accurate, physically-constrained predictions of multiple-scattering object volumes. We train and validate this learned IDT pipeline on simulated natural image datasets and show it generalizes well to recovering unseen complex biological specimens from experimental data.
Enterprise Crowdsourcing for Innovation in the Big 4 Consulting Firms

This paper investigates the use of crowdsourcing for innovation in the Big 4 consulting firms. Information about each of the five firms’ is captured in a case study developed for comparison purposes. Those cases are used to examine emerging intra-enterprise characteristics, to analyze some of the key emerging dimensions, and to begin to understand some of the primary concerns and research issues regarding crowdsourcing in consulting. This paper focuses both on internal enterprise use and issues related to developing crowdsourcing for others as part of advisory activities.
Impact of Time to Endoscopic Resection on Outcomes for Stage I Esophageal Adenocarcinoma

Abstract Background Endoscopic resection (ER) is the preferred treatment for superficial esophageal cancer; however, a safe timeframe for performing ER has not been established. The aim of this study was to evaluate the period in which ER can be performed for patients with stage I esophageal adenocarcinoma without compromising outcomes. Methods The 2004-2015 National Cancer Database was used to identify patients with cT1N0M0 esophageal adenocarcinoma who underwent upfront ER. The primary outcome was overall survival, which was evaluated using Kaplan-Meier and multivariable Cox Proportional Hazards methods. The secondary outcome was rate of margin-positive resection, which was evaluated using a multivariable logistic regression. Results A total of 983 patients met study criteria. The median time from diagnosis to ER was 34 days (IQR 5-70). Patients in the highest quartile of time to ER were more likely to be treated at a high-volume center and at a center different from that of diagnosis compared to those in the lowest quartile. Increasing time to ER was not independently associated with survival (adjusted HR per 10 days 1.02; 95% CI 0.98-1.05; p=0.32) nor margin-positive resection (OR per 10 days 1.01; 95% CI 0.96-1.06; p=0.60) Conclusions In this NCDB analysis, increasing time to endoscopic resection, up to 180 days from diagnosis, was not associated with worsened survival or increased odds of margin-positive resection in patients with cT1N0M0 esophageal adenocarcinoma. Given these findings, patients may be afforded time to be seen in specialty centers without risk of tumor progression.
Geometry of Multiprimary Display Colors II: Metameric Control Sets and Gamut Tiling Color Control Functions

Multiprimary displays reproduce colors by using combinations of four or more lights that are referred to as primaries. A display control vector defines the relative intensities of the primaries and determines the rendered color. For multiprimary displays, a color may be reproduced using multiple alternative control vectors. We provide a complete characterization of the Metameric Control Set (MCS), i.e., the set of control vectors that reproduce a given color on the display. Specifically, we show that MCS is a convex polytope whose vertices are control vectors obtained from (parallelepiped) tilings of the gamut, i.e., the range of colors that the display can produce. The mathematical framework that we develop: (a) characterizes gamut tilings in terms of fundamental building blocks called facet spans that we identify and define, (b) establishes that the vertices of the MCS are fully characterized by the tilings of the gamut, and (c) introduces a methodology for the efficient enumeration of gamut tilings. The framework reveals the fundamental inter-relations between the geometry of the MCS and the geometry of the gamut developed in a companion Part I paper, and provides insight into alternative strategies for color control. Our characterization of tilings and the strategy for their enumeration also advance knowledge in geometry, providing new approaches and computational results for the enumeration of tilings for a broad class of zonotopes in ${\mathbb {R}}^{3}$ .
The Influence of Streptomycin on the Ecology of the Intestine and Resistance to Infection

Streptomycin administration increased the susceptibility of Swiss white mice to intestinal colonization with Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella typhimurium and facilitated translocation of these organisms extraintestinally. The antibiotic altered the composition of the mouse cecal flora, caused an increase in the pH and Eh of cecal contents and a decrease in the concentration of volatile fatty acids. In addition, the passage of contents was slower through the cecum of antibiotic treated than untreated animals. P. aeruginosa failed to multiply, under anaerobic conditions, in cecal contents from treated (T) or untreated (U) animals. A population decline was apparent in contents from untreated animals. S. typhimurium multiplied in contents from both groups of animals but its multiplication rate and total population were greater in contents from treated animals. P. aeruginosa multiplied in T-VFA broth, containing concentrations of volatile fatty acids detected in cecal contents of streptomycin treated mice, but failed to multiply in U-VFA broth, which contained acids in concentrations found in untreated mice. S. typhimurium multiplied in both types of broth but its multiplication rate and total population were greater in T-VFA broth than in U-VFA broth.
Erythema ab igne secondary to repeated heating pad use: an image case

No abstract available. (Published: 1 September 2015) Citation: Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives 2015, 5 : 28335 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/jchimp.v5.28335
Keeneland Conference Plenary Sessions: Thomas R. Frieden

One of the leading challenges in public health today is moving forward as one whether we are part of academia, a clinical health setting, or a public health department, in order to improve health outcomes. Right now in the United States, the leading causes of death are caused from diseases that are preventable. We also face a steady rise in health inequalities among those citizens with a lower socioeconomic status. Director of the CDC, Thomas Friedan addressed the Keeneland conference audience on the impact that public health initiatives have had on the health of our nation. Public health interventions have a potential impact in all levels and the challenge is to identify areas where we can work systematically to improve health outcomes. Six key areas for potential impacts are smoking, obesity, health care associated infections, HIV, teen pregnancy, motor vehicle accidents. Major initiatives that need to be undertaken are heart attack and stroke prevention, electronic health records, and clinical innovations that involve improving quality of care and reducing prices. It is also vital that we come up with ways to bridge the gaps in program implementation.
The Issue of Time in Quantum Geometrodynamics

Standard techniques of canonical gravity quantization on the superspace of 3--metrics are known to cause insurmountable difficulties in the description of time evolution. We forward a new quantization procedure on the superspace of true dynamic variables -- geometrodynamic quantization. This procedure takes into account the states that are ``off-shell'' with respect to the constraints and thus circumvents the notorious problems of time. In this approach quantum geometrodynamics, general covariance, and the interpretation of time emerge together as parts of the solution to the total problem of geometrodynamic evolution.
New paradigms in sepsis: from prevention to protection of failing microcirculation

Sepsis, also known as septicemia, is one of the 10 leading causes of death worldwide. The rising tide of sepsis due to bacterial, fungal and viral infections cannot be stemmed by current antimicrobial therapies and supportive measures. New paradigms for the mechanism and resolution of sepsis and consequences for sepsis survivors are emerging. Consistent with Benjamin Franklin's dictum ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’, sepsis can be prevented by vaccinations against pneumococci and meningococci. Recently, the NIH NHLBI Panel redefined sepsis as ‘severe endothelial dysfunction syndrome in response to intravascular and extravascular infections causing reversible or irreversible injury to the microcirculation responsible for multiple organ failure’. Microvascular endothelial injury underlies sepsis‐associated hypotension, edema, disseminated intravascular coagulation, acute respiratory distress syndrome and acute kidney injury. Microbial genome products trigger ‘genome wars’ in sepsis that reprogram the human genome and culminate in a ‘genomic storm’ in blood and vascular cells. Sepsis can be averted experimentally by endothelial cytoprotection through targeting nuclear signaling that mediates inflammation and deranged metabolism. Endothelial ‘rheostats’ (e.g. inhibitors of NF‐κB, A20 protein, CRADD/RAIDD protein and microRNAs) regulate endothelial signaling. Physiologic ‘extinguishers’ (e.g. suppressor of cytokine signaling 3) can be replenished through intracellular protein therapy. Lipid mediators (e.g. resolvin D1) hasten sepsis resolution. As sepsis cases rose from 387 330 in 1996 to 1.1 million in 2011, and are estimated to reach 2 million by 2020 in the US, mortality due to sepsis approaches that of heart attacks and exceeds deaths from stroke. More preventive vaccines and therapeutic measures are urgently needed.
Listening, Hearing, Sensing: Three Modes of Being and the Phenomenology of Charles Sanders Peirce

This article accepts Lipari's invitation to continue rethinking communication along the lines of artful listening as understood through the lens of phenomenology. However, we trace out the implications following a different phenomenological tradition than the one stemming from the German tradition of Heidegger and Husserl—specifically, the phenomenology of Charles Sanders Peirce, who allows us to see listening differently and perhaps more clearly. The primary contribution from Peirce's phenomenology is the logos he uses to extract 3 fundamental categories of thought and nature: Firstness (Quality), Secondness (Relation), and Thirdness (Mediation). As we shall show, listening is characterized by a plural consciousness sensitive to Mediation as it reveals itself through Relation and Quality.
Reactions of Diverse Groups to Politics in the Workplace

The central research question examined in this study focused on whether diverse groups react differently. to politics in the workplace as a function of understanding. Understanding moderated the relationships between dimensions of politics perceptions and employee reactions for white males but not for racial/ethnic minorities, as hypothesized. The results for white females were mixed with significant moderating effects of understanding found for the Coworker Political Behavior-Outcomes relationships, and for the Political Organization Policies and Practices-Outcomes relationship. Implications of these results for theory and research are discussed.
Technique for Rapidly Separating Drugs from Biological Samples

With use of a sample/solvent ratio of 8.5 ml to 100 µl, certain drugs may be extracted efficiently from urine that has been saturated with a solid buffer. An aliquot of this extract may be injected directly into a gas chromatograph. We show how this procedure is applied to confirmation of some drugs of abuse.
Luke, Stephen, and the Temple in Luke-Acts:

The still widely held view that Luke takes an antagonistic position toward the Jerusalem Temple has little solid support in the text of Luke-Acts. The four texts from the Gospel usually cited in this vein all yield, on closer study, to a more nuanced interpretation; the three key similar texts from Acts also reveal Lucan emphases in which the Temple is not the direct object of criticism. Neither in Paul's speech on the Areopagus, nor in Stephen's trial and subsequent speech, does Luke deny the value of the Temple or of any shrine made by human hands. For Luke, the Temple stands as a time-honored, traditional place for teaching and prayer in Israel, which serves God's purpose but is not indispensable; the attitude with which worshipers use the Temple makes all the difference.
Direct visual input to the limbic system: crossed retinal projections to the nucleus anterodorsalis thalami in the tree shrew.

Evidence for a direct projection from the retina to the nucleus anterodorsalis thalami in the insectivore, Tupaia glis, is presented. 100 μCi tritiated amino acid or amino acid/monosaccharide cocktail were administered as two separate intravitreal injections of 50 μCi each. Fibers were traced using thawmount autoradiography in which tissue is frozen in liquid propane, cryostat-cut, and mounted on photographic emulsion precoated slides (Conrad and Stumpf, 1974). From the dorsolateral geniculate body, contralateral retinal fibers continue as a dorsomedial extension of the optic tract. When traced rostrally from this point, the fibers form a thin fascicle coursing medially under the third ventricle. In the anterior thalamus the bundle arborizes within the n. anterodorsalis, infiltrating its caudal pole completely but only encapsulating the nucleus anteriorly. This new retino-anterodorsal thalamic projection, together with the known anterior thalamic-retrosplenial projection, represents a third visual pathway in Tupaia glis distinct from the retino-geniculo-striatal and retino-tecto-pulvinarperistriatal systems. It is significant that each of these thalamic relay nuclei projects to an architectonically different cortical region, with the nucleus anterodorsalis sending afferents to the phylogenetically most primitive of the visual cortices, the retrosplenial proisocortex or prostriata (Vitzthum and Sanides, 1967). It is proposed that the retino-anterior thalamic-retrosplenial circuit forms an anatomical substrate by which light cues may affect emotional behavior and corresponding neurovisceral responses.
Postnatal corneal transparency, keratocyte cell cycle exit and expression of ALDH1A1.

PURPOSE. Recent studies have shown that rabbit corneal keratocytes abundantly express two water-soluble proteins, transketolase (TKT) and aldehyde dehydrogenase class 1A1 (ALDH1A1), in vivo and that these proteins may contribute to corneal transparency at the cellular level. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the expression of these proteins and the development of postnatal corneal transparency. METHODS. Rabbits 1 day to 42 days of postnatal age were evaluated by in vivo confocal microscopy (CM) to measure corneal epithelial thickness, stromal thickness, and corneal haze. Selected corneas were then processed for immunocytochemistry and Western and Northern blot analyses, to determine stromal cell density, cell cycle entry, and expression of ALDH1A1 and TKT. RESULTS. Quantitative measurement of corneal haze showed that the postnatal cornea was hazy after birth and became transparent during the first weeks after eyelid opening. Development of transparency was associated with decreased cytoplasmic light-scattering from postnatal corneal stromal cells, with the appearance of nuclear light-scattering after eyelid opening. Four days after birth, stromal cell density decreased rapidly, and the cells became quiescent, showing decreased staining by Ki67, a cell cycle marker. Whereas expression of TKT showed a gradual increase after birth, ALDH1A1 showed a marked increase after eyelid opening, and the combined expression significantly correlated with the reduction in lightscattering by postnatal stromal cells. CONCLUSIONS. The data suggest that development of postnatal corneal transparency is associated with decreased keratocyte density and quiescence and the expression of TKT/ALDH1A1. (Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2007;48:4061‐4069) DOI:10.1167/ iovs.07-0431
Characterization of property variation in ultra-thin polymer films from molecular simulation

Molecular simulations of atactic poly(propylene) films were carried out to characterize the general behavior of ultra-thin supported polymer films. Insight into the origin of property changes as a function of film thickness was obtained from these simulations. These property changes are of critical importance in light of the ever decreasing dimensions of polymer constructs in photolithography. These simulations were focused on the seemingly contradictory results obtained from experimental measurements. Specifically, the observed decrease in the glass transition temperature (T g ) seems to be explained by increased mobility at the free surface of simulated films, but this explanation contradicts the observed decrease in diffusivity with decreasing film thickness. The simulations, like previous simulations, indicate that increased mobility at the free film surface occurs on a length scale commensurate with the decrease in T g . However, a redistribution of the fractional free volume (FFV) also occurred in the simulated films as a function of film thickness. These results suggest that the FFV distribution becomes more homogeneous as films become thinner. This reduces the amount of FFV accessible to various diffusing molecules and may explain the observed decrease in diffusivity that occurs as film thickness decreases. Both the simulated redistribution of FFV and the observed decrease in diffusivity occur on a larger length scale than simulated mobility changes and the associated decrease in T g . The theory that a redistribution of FFV is the origin of the observed behavior of diffusivity as a function film thickness is a new one that ultimately requires further validation from Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy experiments and more extensive film simulations.
Predicting Other-cause Mortality: The Minimalistic Approach

For the better part of the history of medicine, physicians have relied on clinical judgment to estimate a patient’s odds of benefiting from an intervention. On the one hand, there is little doubt that a healthy 50-yr-oldman should be treated for locally advanced prostate cancer (PCa) or that an 89-yr-old man would best be kept on watchful waiting for very-low-risk PCa. On the other hand, for anything in between these outliers, clinicians rely on their intuition, which essentially amounts to a quasisubjective assessment and understanding of life expectancy weighted against the severity of comorbidities. Clinical judgment will vary between individual providers (interobserver variation) and may also vary within the same provider (intraobserver variation), depending on arbitrary criteria such as the time of the day and the cultural context. Such observations are troublesome, as patients deserve a more systematic and objective evaluation of their likelihood to benefit from a given treatment. Enter predictive tools, such as nomograms, lookup tables, and risk stratification models. Relying on weights attributed according to regression modeling, these predictive schemes can accurately estimate odds of end points such as the likelihood of other-causemortality. Nomograms in particular have been shown to have high accuracy and to provide superior risk stratification compared with any other prediction tool [1]. As such, a plethora of investigators have created predictive models for PCa outcomes. As of 2007, during what was described as the golden age of nomograms [2], there were already >40 published tools addressing a variety of clinical scenarios related to PCa and predicting outcomes ranging from the risk of PCa based on the Prostate Health Index [3] to the odds of disease recurrence and mortality after radical prostatectomy [4].
Late Quaternary Sea-Level Change and Crustal Rise at Boston, Massachusetts, with Notes on the Autocompaction of Peat

The compression of peat beneath its own weight (autocompaction) is discussed, and it is shown that because of this process radiocarbondated samples of salt-marsh peat or peaty sediment, other than very thin samples cut from the base of the deposit, cannot be correlated with sea level without construction of a sea-level change curve from other types of data. With rising sea level there is a maximum thickness of salt-marsh peat for any given productivity of marsh grass. Because of this limitation, most marshes older than about 5500 years B.P. have been drowned. An important effect of peat autocompaction is the intrusion of wood into older peat horizons and the juxtaposition of wood of different ages. Wood, therefore, should be avoided in the dating of peat profiles. The roots of salt-marsh plants generally descend a foot or more beneath the rhizomes, contaminating older horizons insofar as radiocarbon dating is concerned. This contamination tends to make dates from marsh samples err on the young side. Sixteen radiocarbon dates from the Boston area are used to construct a sea-level curve going back to 14,000 years B.P. Relative sea level was at +60 feet or higher 14,000 years B.P., dropping sharply to approximately −70 feet about 10,000 years B.P. From a low of −70 feet, sea level rose steadily to about −2 feet approximately 3000 years B.P. Since then sea level appears to have kept close to its present level, probably fluctuating about a foot during the course of the stillstand. A crustal movement curve, based on the relative sea-level curve for Boston and the eustatic curve, indicates that about 290 feet of crustal rise occurred between 14,000–6000 years B.P., with a maximum rate of uplift of about 0.2 foot per year at 12,750 years B.P., and that from 6000 to 3000 years B.P., crustal subsidence occurred at Boston.
Nicotine and cotinine elimination pharmacokinetics in smokers and nonsmokers

Published research suggests that smokers metabolize nicotine and its major metabolite cotinine more rapidly than nonsmokers. To evaluate this possibility, we studied the disposition pharmacokinetics of intravenous deuterium-labeled nicotine in 11 smokers (administered 2.0 and 0.5 µg/kg/min × 30 minutes) and in 11 nonsmokers (0.5 µg/kg/min). Smokers did not metabolize nicotine more rapidly; the clearance of nicotine normalized for body weight was significantly slower in smokers than in nonsmokers. Cotinine elimination rates were similar in the two groups. The disposition pharmacokinetics of nicotine was similar for the low and high doses in the smokers, indicating that metabolism is dose-independent. Our findings argue against “metabolic tolerance” as a mechanism for the dose escalation observed in smokers after initiation of smoking. Our findings suggest that nicotine and cotinine kinetic parameters for smokers may be extrapolated to nonsmokers for estimating exposures to environmental tobacco smoke in nonsmokers. Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (1993) 53, 316–323; doi:10.1038/clpt.1993.27
The application of optimal control methodology to nonlinear programming problems

Dynamic programming techniques have proven to be more successful than alternative nonlinear programming algorithms for solving many discrete-time optimal control problems. The reason for this is that, because of the stagewise decomposition which characterizes dynamic programming, the computational burden grows approximately linearly with the numbern of decision times, whereas the burden for other methods tends to grow faster (e.g.,n 3 for Newton's method). The idea motivating the present study is that the advantages of dynamic programming can be brought to bear on classical nonlinear programming problems if only they can somehow be rephrased as optimal control problems. As shown herein, it is indeed the case that many prominent problems in the nonlinear programming literature can be viewed as optimal control problems, and for these problems, modern dynamic programming methodology is competitive with respect to processing time. The mechanism behind this success is that such methodology achieves quadratic convergence without requiring solution of large systems of linear equations.
Posterior interosseous nerve palsy after brachiocephalic arteriovenous fistula construction: report of two cases.

TWO CASES OF delayed posterior interosseous nerve palsy after brachiocephalic arteriovenous fistula creation are presented. Both patients suffered from end-stage renal disease, necessitating chronic hemodialysis. After fistula construction, both developed progressive weakness of the muscles innervated by the posterior interosseous nerve. One patient also demonstrated sensory loss in the distribution of the superficial radial nerve. Electrophysiological studies confirmed posterior interosseous mononeuropathies in both cases. Surgical exploration demonstrated posterior interosseous nerve continuity, with severe compression from the hypertrophied venous limb of the arteriovenous fistula. The superficial radial nerve was also compressed in one patient. After neurolysis and fistula revision, both patients recovered neurological function.
Highly Viscous Coatings from Archaea-Inspired Lipids Improve Single Protein Characterization with Nanopores

Despite the importance of proteins, nanopore sensing has so far been mostly focused on single molecule DNA and RNA characterization. One factor that limited experiments with proteins were nonspecific interactions of proteins with the walls of synthetic nanopores. We showed recently, that nanopores with fluid coatings of phospholipid bilayers circumvented this problem. In addition, anchoring proteins to lipid anchors slowed down protein translocation through nanopores and enabled determination of parameters such as the shape, volume, and dipole moment of individual non-spherical proteins. To slow down the translocation time of lipid-anchored proteins further, we have recently formed highly viscous coatings from archaea-inspired lipids. These synthetic lipids are composed of two hydrophilic head groups connected by a long hydrophobic chain; each head group is also attached to an acyl chain that spans half of the membrane thickness. As these lipids contain -in one molecule- the components of a typical lipid bilayer, a single layer is sufficient to form a stable membrane. Monolayers of these new lipids have a two to twenty-fold increased viscosity than typical phospholipid bilayers. The Archaea-inspired lipids discussed here show promise in terms of slowing translocation times and the resulting data made it possible to characterize individual proteins with increased accuracy than coatings from standard phospholipid bilayers.
Effects of Gestational Age, Birth Weight, and Hypoxemia on Pharmacokinetics of Amikacin in Serum of Infants

The serum pharmacokinetics of amikacin were studied in 36 infants treated for suspected bacterial infection. A prolonged serum half-life was associated with the related variables of birth at an early gestational age, low birth weight, and hypoxemia. A postnatal age effect was not apparent when hypoxemic infants were excluded.
The speed of halo Coronal Mass Ejections and properties of associated active regions

Abstract In this study, we looked for any correlations between speed of active region-related halo Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) and the energy contained in active regions. Twenty one CMEs from the Coordinated Data Analysis Workshops (CDAW) event list are chosen to carry out this research. The solar sources of the CMEs have been carefully determined by the CDAW source identification team using various methods. This study shows that (1) there is no correlation between potential energy of active regions and the associated CMEs’ speed; (2) there is no correlation between net magnetic flux of active regions and the associated CMEs’ speed. Net magnetic flux of an active region is defined here as sum of the positive and negative magnetic fluxes of this active region, and may thus represent the large-scale magnetic flux that connects this active region and the remote areas. Based on a limited sample of eight events that could be adequately modeled for analysis of free energy of the active regions, this study further shows that there is a correlation between free energy density of active regions and speed of the associated CMEs.
Consolidated method to predicting pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient for both subcooled and saturated flow boiling in micro-channel heat sinks

Published studies concerning transport phenomena in micro-channel heat sinks can be divided into those concerning saturated boiling versus those focused on subcooled boiling, with the vast majority related to the former. What has been lacking is a single generalized method to tackle both boiling regimes. The primary objective of the present paper is to construct a consolidated method to predicting transport behavior of micro-channel heat sinks incurring all possible heat transfer regimes. First, a new correlation is developed for subcooled flow boiling pressure drop that accounts for inlet subcooling, micro-channel aspect ratio, and length-to-diameter ratio. This correlation shows excellent predictive capability against subcooled HFE 7100 pressure drop data corresponding to four different micro-channel geometries. Next, a consolidated method is developed for pressure drop that is capable of tackling inlet single-phase liquid, subcooled boiling, saturated boiling, and single-phase vapor regimes as well as inlet contraction and outlet expansion. A similar consolidated method is developed to predict the heat transfer coefficient that is capable of tackling all possible combinations of heat transfer regimes. The new consolidated method is shown to be highly effective at reproducing both data and trends for HFE 7100, water and R134a.
Transorbital neuroendoscopic surgery.

Background Transorbital neuroendoscopic surgery (TONES) pathways attempt to address some of the technical challenges of accessing laterally placed anterior skull base lesions or paramedian lesions that cross neurovascular structures. TONES approaches allow simultaneous coplanar visualization and working space above and below the skull base. Objective To present an anatomic study, a description of the surgical techniques, and an analysis of the safety and efficacy of 20 consecutive procedures using TONES for a variety of pathological conditions. Methods Sixteen patients underwent 20 TONES procedures for anterior skull base pathology, including repair of cerebrospinal leak, optic nerve decompression, repair of cranial base fractures, and removal of 3 skull base tumors. Ten patients were male, and 6 were female. The mean age at presentation was 44 years. Follow-up was 6 to 18 months with a mean of 9 months. Results There were no significant complications or treatment failures in any of the 20 procedures. A variety of pathological conditions were treated, including cerebrospinal fluid leaks, fractures, mass lesions, and tumors. The TONES approach provided up to 4 separate access ports with ample exposure for manipulation and correction of the pathology. Conclusion This anatomic and prospective outcome study demonstrates that TONES provides safe and effective coplanar endoscopic access to the anterior and middle cranial base. These novel TONES approaches may be added to the wide range of published minimally invasive armamentarium when approaching challenging skull base pathology.
Understanding and Managing Neurally Mediated Syncope in the Adolescent

Syncope and near-syncopal symptoms are common events in the adolescent population. Syncope is defined as the transient loss of postural tone and consciousness with spontaneous recovery. Although most syncopal events are benign, they can generate extreme anxiety in the adolescent and his or her family. The re-occurrence of these events can have a negative impact on an adolescent's participation in daily activities. Understanding the process of assessment, diagnosis, and management of these teens can enable the school nurse to augment initial assessment and to support the prescribed treatment plan. This knowledge then can be used to help allay the adolescent's anxiety and to support efforts at self-management. This article explores current literature in regards to etiology, diagnosis, and medical treatment, and advocates a self-management protocol for neurally mediated syncope in the adolescent population with support of that plan by the school nurse.