cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Referral, Enrollment, and Delivery of Cardiac Rehabilitation for Women

Coronary heart disease is the leading killer of women worldwide. Empirical literature documents substantial morbidity and mortality benefits for cardiac rehabilitation participants. Scientific advances have informed the development of evidence-based guidelines for improving the delivery of cardiac rehabilitation yet persistent themes surrounding the substandard referral and utilization rates by women continue unabated in the literature. This review provides an update of the current status of cardiac rehabilitation for women, including a brief overview of the latest findings regarding the unique presentations of heart disease in women. An innovative secondary prevention program, designed exclusively for women is described, and illustrates an attempt to modify a contemporary traditional cardiac rehabilitation program to improve attendance rates and health outcomes in women. Future research with large, diverse samples of women are essential for guiding gender-appropriate referral strategies, effective modifications to traditional center-based programs, and the efficacy of alternative cardiac rehabilitation care models for women.
The antiadrenolytic action of ergotamine

The vasomotor reversal of Dale is generally considered to be due to depression of the vasoconstrictor, but not of the vasodilator sympathetic neuro-effectors, leaving epinephrine free to stimulate the vasodilator, but not the vasoconstrictor sympathetc terminations. This phenomenon, called adrenolysis, may be caused by ergotamine, dibenamine, and other drugs. In dogs under nembutal anesthesia it was shown that ergotamine at certain dose levels not only does not reverse, but actually potentiates, the pressor effect of epinephrine. Moreover, when dibenamine and other powerful “sympatholytic” agents were used to produce vasomotor reversal, ergotamine in doses of 0.05 mg./Kg. or more restored the original pressor effect of epinephrine. Thus, ergotamine under certain experimental conditions reverses the effect of other adrenolytic drugs.
Nonoliguric and oliguric acute renal failure in asphyxiated term neonates.

The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and types of acute renal failure in asphyxiated full-term neonates and to evaluate the accuracy of an asphyxia morbidity score in predicting acute renal failure. Neonates admitted to one institution from 1990 through 1993 with a gestational age > or = 36 weeks and 5-min Apgar score 1.5 mg/dl (133 mumol/l) with normal maternal renal function. Nonoliguric renal failure was defined as renal failure with urine output > 1 ml/kg per hour after the 1st day. An asphyxia morbidity scoring system was used to distinguish severe from moderate asphyxia. The score ranged from 0 to 9 and was based upon fetal heart rate, Apgar score at 5 min, and base deficit in the 1st h of life. The score for severe asphyxia was defined as 6-9 and for moderate asphyxia as 1-5. Sixty-six neonates fulfilled study criteria. Acute renal failure was present in 20 of 33 (61%) infants with severe asphyxia scores and 0 of 33 with moderate asphyxia scores (P < 0.0001). Acute renal failure was nonoliguric in 12 of 20 (60%), oliguric in 5 of 20 (25%) and anuric in 3 of 20 (15%). In conclusion 1) acute renal failure occurred in 61% of infants with severe asphyxia, 2) acute renal failure associated with severe asphyxia was predominantly nonoliguric and 3) an asphyxia morbidity score, which can be determined at 1 h of age, predicted acute renal failure in full-term infants with 100% sensitivity and 72% specificity.
Do we need to vacuum mix or centrifuge cement

In total hip surgery, the goal of porosity reduction techniques in the preparation of acrylic bone cement is to provide a stronger, more fatigue resistant material between the implant and bone. Conventional mixing of polymethylmethacrylate bone cement produces porosity of 5% to 16%, whereas vacuum mixing or centrifugation reduces the porosity to a range of 0.1% to 3.4%. Multiple studies have demonstrated that this results in a cement that has a significant increase in static and dynamic testing to failure. Fracture of the cement mantle has been found as a part of the failure pattern in many total hip prostheses requiring revision for loosening. Vacuum mixing or centrifugation produces a stronger cement to resist the component of loosening caused by fracture of the cement mantle. Where failure occurs at the bone-cement interface, as in cemented acetabular migration, no improvements from porosity reduction would be expected. Along with enhanced femoral designs, improvements in cement technique with modern methods of bone preparation and administration of the cement have resulted in a marked improvement in clinical and roentgenographic loosening rates in cemented femoral components at medium-term follow-up periods of five to ten years. Intact total hip prostheses, retrieved for reasons other than loosening, at longer-term follow-up periods, have shown intact bone-cement interfaces. However, these specimens have also shown incipient cracks in the acrylic cement that emanate from and connect defects in the cement mantle and at the metal-cement interface. The use of a void-free, structurally stronger material is expected to improve the stability and longevity of the cement supporting femoral implants.
The STAT Pathway Mediates Late-Phase Immunity against Plasmodium in the Mosquito Anopheles gambiae

The STAT family of transcription factors activates expression of immune system genes in vertebrates. The ancestral STAT gene (AgSTAT-A) appears to have duplicated in the mosquito Anopheles gambiae, giving rise to a second intronless STAT gene (AgSTAT-B), which we show regulates AgSTAT-A expression in adult females. AgSTAT-A participates in the transcriptional activation of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) in response to bacterial and plasmodial infection. Activation of this pathway, however, is not essential for mosquitoes to survive a bacterial challenge. AgSTAT-A silencing reduces the number of early Plasmodium oocysts in the midgut, but nevertheless enhances the overall infection by increasing oocyst survival. Silencing of SOCS, a STAT suppressor, has the opposite effect, reducing Plasmodium infection by increasing NOS expression. Chemical inhibition of mosquito NOS activity after oocyte formation increases oocyte survival. Thus, the AgSTAT-A pathway mediates a late-phase antiplasmodial response that reduces oocyst survival in A. gambiae.
Modified Trouton's Rule for Predicting the Entropy of Boiling

Simple modifications of Trouton's rule for estimating the entropy of boiling of organic compounds are presented. An empirical equation is developed which expresses the entropy of boiling as a function of molecular flexibility and hydrogen bonding. This equation, which enables the simple yet reasonable estimate of entropy of boiling directly from molecular structure, was generated from a training set of 850 structurally diverse compounds. The average absolute percent error for a test set of 88 compounds is 2.5% which is more accurate than Trouton's rule.
Axial dispersion of inert species in alveolated channels

Abstract Axial dispersion in alveolated channels was studied experimentally. Our motivation was to improve understanding of the physics of gas mixing in the pulmonary acinus. The apparatus consisted of a quasi-two-dimensional central convective channel surrounded top and bottom by dead-end cells (alveoli). Quasi-steady oscillatory bulk flow and a small steady-flow of tracer gas (He, SF 6 ) were introduced upstream of the apparatus. The steady-state axial concentration distribution was measured by mass spectrometry, and its gradient was used to calculate an axial dispersion coefficient ( D *) from a generalized Fick's law. We found that for small Peclet ( Pe ) numbers D * was appreciably smaller than molecular diffusivity of the tracer gas, while for large Pe, D * was substantially greater than the Taylor—Aris result for flow enhanced dispersion in non-alveolated parallel plates. D * was sensitive to the ratio of alveolar volume to central channel volume, which was varied from 0.75 to 4.64. These results are consistent with theoretical predictions. We conclude that the structure of the alveolated channel alters the interaction between lateral diffusion and axial convection, and as a result, conditions axial dispersion phenomena.
Determination of relative transition moment orientations of electronic transitions from polarized azimuthal fluorescence

Abstract A method, termed polarized azimuthal fluorescence, has been developed and successfully applied to two organic molecules. This method, an alternative to the conventional method of polarized fluorescence, allows the determination of relative transition moment orienttions of planar molecules. The second and third moments of malachite green acetate were found to be perpendicular to the first. The second moment of tetramethylparaphenylenediamine was found to be perpendicular to the first. Relative moment orientations of auramine perchlorate could not be determined.
Vibronic surprisal analysis of the dynamics of photodissociation and related reactions

Abstract Comparisons of experimentally observed product vibronic state distributions to statistically expected distributions indicate that intrafragment dynamics have primary importance in photodissociative and predissociative excitation reactions and in collision-induced electronic-to-vibrational energy transfer processes and that collisional dissociative excitation reactions probably involve sequential 2-body interactions rather than a concerted 3-body interaction.
The effect of metal surface treatment on the shear bond strengths of base and noble metals bonded to enamel.

Abstract Adhesive resin luting agents provide a way for bonding metal surfaces to teeth through a combination of micromechanical retention to the rough metal surface and chemical adherence to metal oxides. The purpose of this study was to measure the effect of metal alloy surface treatments that would produce different textures and oxide layers on the shear bond strength of three alloys luted to etched enamel with one adhesive resin luting agent (Panavia). After a simulated porcelain firing sequence, high noble (Olympia), noble (Jelstar), and base metal (Rexillium III) alloy specimens were subjected to one of the following treatments: (1) sandblasting and simulated glazing, (2) simulated glazing only, (3) simulated glazing and sandblasting, or (4) simulated glazing, sandblasting, and tin plating. The specimens were bonded to extracted teeth and subjected to shear testing after water storage for 2 weeks, thermocycling for 500 cycles, and water storage for an additional 2 weeks. Data were analyzed with a two-way analysis of variance (α = 0.05). The base metal specimens and the tin-plated high noble and noble metal specimen groups exhibited similar mean shear bond strengths that were greater than the other groups. Those high noble and noble metal alloys sandblasted after simulated porcelain firing cycles and before the simulated glaze cycle exhibited nonsignificant increases in shear bond strengths compared with the groups that were either sandblasted after the simulated glaze cycle or not sandblasted at all.
Venture team application to new product development

Presents a new product implementation model which is designed to reduce the risk inherent in new product ventures in the industrial marketplace. Show that while there is debate over the number of failures, there is little debate that the new product failure rate is high. Describes a process that gives the industrial firm the ability to exert greater control over internal and external factors critical to the successful new product implementation. Concludes that the model is appropriate for many types of firms.
Secondary chemotherapy for high-risk gestational trophoblastic neoplasia

Abstract Objective. To determine the efficacy of secondary chemotherapy after failure of initial treatment for high-risk gestational trophoblastic neoplasia. Methods Twenty-six patients with high-risk gestational trophoblastic neoplasia based on WHO criteria who failed primary treatment or relapsed from remission and received secondary chemotherapy were identified from the records of the Brewer Trophoblastic Disease Center. Initial chemotherapy consisted of etoposide, high-dose methotrexate with folinic acid, actinomycin D, cyclophosphamide and vincristine (EMA-CO) in 10 patients and methotrexate/actinomycin D-based chemotherapy without etoposide in 16 patients. Secondary chemotherapy consisted mainly of platinum-etoposide combinations with methotrexate and actinomycin D (EMA-EP), bleomycin (BEP), or ifosfamide (VIP, ICE). Adjuvant surgery and radiotherapy were used in selected patients. Clinical response and survival as well as factors affecting survival were analyzed retrospectively. Results The overall survival has 61.5% (16/26). Of the 10 patients who failed primary treatment with EMA-CO, 9 (90%) had complete clinical responses to secondary chemotherapy with EMA-EP (3) or BEP (6), and 6 (60%) were placed into lasting remission. Of the 16 patients who failed primary treatment with methotrexate/actinomycin D-based chemotherapy without etoposide, 10 (63%) had complete clinical responses to BEP (8), VIP (1) and ICE (1), and 10 (63%) achieved long-term remission. Adjuvant surgical procedures were performed on 15 patients as a component of their therapy; eight (73%) of 11 patients who underwent hysterectomy, five (62%) of eight patients who had pulmonary resections, and one patient who had wedge resection of resistant choriocarcinoma from the uterus survived. Survival was significantly influenced by both hCG level at the start of secondary therapy and sites of metastases. Conclusion Patients with persistent or recurrent high-risk gestational trophoblastic neoplasia who develop resistance to methotrexate-containing treatment protocols should be treated with drug combinations employing a platinum agent and etoposide with or without bleomycin or ifosfamide.
Photochemical electrocyclization of α,β-unsaturated anilides to give zwitterionic intermediates which eliminate carboxylate and phenolate leaving groups

α,β-Unsaturated anilides bearing allylic leaving groups undergo photochemical electrocyclic ring closure to produce zwitterionic intermediates which eliminate carboxylate and phenolate leaving groups.
Optical characteristics of contemporary dental composite resin materials

Abstract Objectives Optical and physical properties of dental restorative composite materials are affected by composition. Basic optical absorption and scattering properties have been derived through the use of a corrected reflectance model, but practical and important optical properties are not easily derived from these basic spectral characteristics. The purposes of this study are to derive and compare colour and translucency characteristics of two cured contemporary nanohybrid composites being marketed as universal composites, and to evaluate colour difference between each composite material and published shade guide data. Methods Previously derived optical scattering and absorption coefficients for five diverse shades of these composite materials were used to calculate the CIE colour parameters of L *, a * and b * at infinite thickness under various illuminants and to derive ideal translucency parameters at various thicknesses using two colour difference formulae. Results Differences were found in the inherent colour parameters and in the translucency parameters between the brands for some of the shades studied. The colour differences of the inherent colours from published shade guide data were always higher than the perceptibility limit, and often higher than the acceptability limit. Conclusions Inherent colours and ideal translucency parameters may be calculated from optical coefficients for a variety of illuminants. Different inherent colour parameters of composite materials marked for the same shade indicate the influence of compositional differences between these materials. Clinical significance Since patients are seen under various illuminations, the ability to assess appearance matching characteristics under diverse illuminants will help assure an optimum match for the patient.
Excluded Volume Effects on Polymer Chains Confined to Spherical Surfaces

We present results from extensive Monte Carlo simulations of flexible and semiflexible excluded-volume polymer chains confined to impenetrable spherical surfaces. Our results are compared with the ...
Future computing architectures enabled by optical and nanophotonic interconnects

Integrated CMOS nanophotonics will significantly impact the design of large scale computer systems. By enabling high bandwidth, high radix router components, more flexible, programmable and power efficient computer systems can be developed.
Genetically Modified Foods Get Bad Rap

The thought of using ‘genetically modified’ corn or soybeans in our food brings a nasty connotation for most of us. Think again. In spite of conflicting and confusing media reports regarding the safety of genetically modified foods, everything known about them indicates that these foods are just as safe as the foods grown through conventional methods. So what is ‘genetically modified’ corn or soybean and why do we need them? ‘Biotechnology derived’ (BD) foods is a more accurate term than ‘genetically modified’ because the technique involves transferring the genetic material of a bacterium, known as Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which produces a toxin selectively poisonous to insect pests of plants such as corn. Bt corn does not require pesticide sprays because the corn plant itself produces the toxin that kills the insect pests. To ensure the success of the bacterial gene transfer, markers such as resistance to antibiotics (kanamycin/neomycin or ampicillin) or herbicides are also included. The following important issues have been raised with respect to the potential adverse or untoward effects associated with production and consumption of BD foods.
The duality of speaker meaning: What makes self-repair, insincerity, and sarcasm possible

Abstract Speaker meaning is defined as a speaker's communicative intention about what his or her utterance means in context. However, if we regard speakers’ communicative intentions as individual-level cognitive phenomena, we end up focusing on individuated processes as the basis of speaker meaning that do not account for the achievement of communication. The claim here is that there is, and theoretically must be, a shared, impersonal, basis for forming, implementing, and recognizing speakers’ communicative intentions. This does not subsume speakers’ personal communicative intentions but is intertwined with them to create a duality of speaker meaning. On one hand there is the speaker's personal communicative intention, and on the other, the communicative intention anyone from the speaker's and hearer's community would have in producing that utterance in that context, not just that speaker in particular. What is interesting is when the two sources of communicative intention diverge, the personal and the impersonal, and the generic speaker meaning of an utterance is not one that the speaker stands behind or endorses. This creates a variety of phenomena that only exist because of this divergence. This includes the occurrence and detection of understanding troubles and self-initiated self-repair when the divergence happens by accident, and the social reality of deception, insincerity, sarcasm and joking when the divergence is deliberately produced. Naturally occurring data are examined in which speakers observably attend to the communicative intention of a generic speaker of their utterance with which the utterance credits them.
The need for an evolving concept of validity in industrial and personnel psychology: Psychometric, legal, and emerging issues

The Trinitarian view of validity (namely content, criterion-related, and construct) has dominated psychology for almost a half century. In industrial and personnel psychology especially, content and criterion-related (in particular) forms of validity have served as workhorses. Such a limited focus has lead to a stagnation of the area and the inability to incorporate more theory into the research and practice of personnel psychology. Therefore, we review the evolution of the concept of validity in the psychology discipline, with a particular emphasis on industrial and personnel psychology. We then review the legal and statutory history within industrial and personnel psychology that has helped to shape the concept of validity over the years. Finally, we examine some emerging trends in industrial and personnel psychology, including the issue of graduate training, which may have important consequences on how we conceptualize validity in the future in both our research and practice of personnel psychology.
Enthalpy of formation of CaCl2·2CH3OH and CaCl2·2C2H5OH by solution calorimetry

Abstract Recent thermochemical research on materials suitable for storage of energy has focused on salt hydrates and ammoniates and only limited results exist for the alcoholates of interest in this work. The enthalpies of formation of CaCl 2 ·2CH 3 OH and CaCl 2 ·2C 2 H 5 OH have been determined by solution calorimetry. The values found for ΔH f o (298.15 K) are −(1310±2) and −(1392±2) kJ · mol −1 , respectively.
Generalized orthogonal subspace projection approach to multispectral image classification

Orthogonal subspace projection (OSP) has been successfully applied to hyperspectral image processing. In order for OSP to be effective, the number of bands must be no less than that of signatures to be classified so that there are sufficient dimensions to accommodate individual signatures to discriminate one another via orthogonal projection. This intrinsic constraint is not an issue for hyperspectral images since they generally have hundreds of bands which are more than the number of signatures resident within images. It, however, may not be true for multispectral images where the number of signatures to be classified is greater than the number of bands such as 3-band SPOT images. This paper presents a generalization of OSP, called generalized OSP (GOSP) to relax this constraint in such a fashion that OSP can be extended to multispectral image processing in an unsupervised fashion. The idea of GOSP is to create new additional band images nonlinearly from original multispectral images so as to achieve sufficient dimensionality prior to OSP classification. It is then followed by an unsupervised OSP classifier, called automatic target detection and classification algorithm (ATDCA) for classification. The effectiveness of the proposed GOSP is evaluated by a 3-band SPOT and a 4-band Landsat MSS images. The experimental results has shown that GOSP significantly improves the classification performance of OSP.
Rat brain cells in primary culture: characterization of angiotensin II binding sites.

Summary The binding kinetics of angiotensin II (ANG II) have been studied in primary cultures from fetal rat brain. Binding of [125I]ANG II to rat brain cells in culture is time-, pH- and cell concentration-dependent. The binding is saturable, reversible, and 90–95% specific. Binding follows first-order kinetics, with values for K1 and K−1 of 4.9 × 106M−1S−1 and 3.33 × 104S−1 respectively. Scatchard analysis reveals the presence of a single class of binding sites with Ka of 1.0 × 109M−1 and an average of approximately 6 × 103 sites per cell. [125I]ANG II recovered from incubation medium under the conditions of the binding assay or after dissociation from cells is not significantly degraded as judged by gel filtration on Sephadex G-25 and radioreceptor assay. ANG II analogs compete with [125I]ANG II for binding, with potencies in general paralleling previously established biological activities. Of 5 analogs tested, (Ile8)-ANG II was almost equipotent with ANG II while (Dval3)-ANG II was least potent in the competitive binding assay. These data fulfill criteria for the identification of specific angiotensin II receptors in cells cultured from mammalian brain.
Provider knowledge, attitudes, and treatment preferences for early pregnancy failure

Objective We sought to describe health care provider knowledge, attitudes, and treatment preferences for early pregnancy failure (EPF). Study Design We surveyed 976 obstetrician/gynecologists, midwives, and family medicine practitioners on their knowledge and attitudes toward treatment options for EPF, and barriers to adopting misoprostol and office uterine evacuations. We used descriptive statistics to compare practices by provider specialty and logistic regression to identify associations between provider factors and treatment practices. Results Seventy percent of providers have not used misoprostol and 91% have not used an office uterine evacuation to treat EPF in the past 6 months. Beliefs about safety and patient preferences, and prior induced abortion training were significantly associated with use of both of these treatments. Conclusion Increasing education and training on the use of misoprostol and office uterine evacuation, and clarifying patient treatment preferences may increase the willingness of providers to adopt new practices for EPF treatment.
Accuracy assessment of digitized and classified land cover data for wildlife habitat

Increasing availability of land cover data offers new opportunities for landscape-level environmental research. Accuracy reports for these data are frequently high, but for landscape-level studies, accuracy reports can be misleadingly optimistic. Focusing on land cover classes representing wildlife habitat, this paper compares the extent, size, and shape of land cover classes in two classified data sets and in data digitized by hand for the study areas from aerial photographs. Digitized study areas, selected for use in a study of birds in agricultural landscapes, were distributed across nine counties in southern MN, USA. Classified data sets were created, mainly from remotely sensed imagery, by the U.S. Geological Survey (national landcover characterization data) and the state of Minnesota. Agreement between these layers and digitized data was highest for the most abundant land cover class (croplands) and for water. Agreement was lower than reported in data documentation for woodlands, grasslands, and wetlands. Contrary to expectations, small and rare features were not necessarily lost in remotely sensed data, but some ecologically important features, such as streams, were better retained in the digitized data. Digitized data represented habitat classes best in this study. Growing access to data and remote sensing software could make study-specific classified data a better option in the future.
Short-Run Crude Oil Price and Surplus Production Capacity

This paper shows the effect that surplus crude oil production capacity has on short-term crude oil prices. A simple model using Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) industrial inventories and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) surplus production capacity is introduced. This model provides improved forecasts for the post Gulf War I time period over models without the capacity variable.
Does Behavioral Intention Predict Nutrition Behaviors Related to Adolescent Obesity

The theory of planned behavior (TPB) proposes that the single best predictor of a person's behavior is intention to perform that behavior. Successful application of the TPB supports that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control are predictive factors of behavioral intention (BI). The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which BI pre- dicted nutrition behaviors linked to adolescent obesity. A cross-sectional design obtained a convenience sample of 318 middle school students who completed a 129-item validated instrument. Multiple regression was used to establish predictors for fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption and sweetened beverages (SBs) versus water consumption. The mean BI scores were as follows: FV consumption, M = 12.18, standard deviation (SD) = 5.74, and SB versus water consumption, M = 12.42, SD = 6.07. This denotes a moderate intent to participate in the behavior. Regression showed that BI was predictive for consumption of FV among over- weight and obese students and con- sumption of water versus SB in normal weight students (P < .05). BI was linked to nutrition behaviors related to obesity prevention in adolescents. Differences among those students who were considered normal weight and overweight/obese existed and should be considered when working with these populations and designing future interventions.
Design and analysis of intra-subject variability in cross-over experiments

Recently, interest has grown in the development of inferential techniques to compare treatment variabilities in the setting of a cross-over experiment. In particular, comparison of treatments with respect to intra-subject variability has greater interest than has inter-subject variability. We begin with a presentation of a general approach for statistical inference within a cross-over design. We discuss three different statistical models where model choice depends on the design and assumptions about carry-over effects. Each model incorporates t-variate random subject effects, where t is the number of treatments. We develop maximum likelihood (ML) and restricted maximum likelihood (REML) approaches to derive parameter estimators and we consider a special case in which closed-form expressions for the variance component estimators are available. Finally, we illustrate the methodologies with the analysis of data from three examples.
The NASA rocky moutain space grant high altitude research balloon project

Abstract A group of U.S. universities, under the auspices of NASA's Space Grant College and Fellowship Program, has initiated a super-pressure balloon research project to measure ozone column density in the atmosphere above 20 kilometers, together with stratospheric circulation between 20 km and 40 km, over the continental U.S.A. Data from a balloon-borne ultraviolet spectrometer, together with time, altitude, latitude and longitude information from a Global Positioning System reciever, are recorded at ten-minute intervals during daytime hours in an on-board solid-state data logger. Coded messages are transmitted nightly from selected amateur radio ground stations to a receiver in the balloon gondola to command transmission of packet radio bursts from the data logger to the ground stations, for relay to a central data collection and analysis facility at Utah State University. Discussions are under way with radio amateurs and members of the international scientific balloon community regarding extension of flights to cover the earth's northern hemisphere.
"How will it help me?" Reasons underlying treatment preferences between sertraline and prolonged exposure in posttraumatic stress disorder.

AbstractIndividuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often wait years before seeking treatment. Improving treatment initiation and adherence requires a better understanding of patient beliefs that lead to treatment preferences. Using a treatment-seeking sample (N = 200) with chronic PTSD, q
Neurophysiological evidence for different types of depression

Abstract A brief, selective review of a board range of evidence bearing upon biological distinctions between neurotic and psychotic forms of depression is presented. It includes a somewhat detailed presentation of clinical neurophysiological findings obtained in the author's laboratory over three decades of research. The available evidence is taken to support the discontinuity position of the continuity-discontinuity controversy about neurotic vs psychotic depression. It is concluded that more than one process underlies clinical depression, and that there may be several kinds of depressive disorders.
Two-Thirds Of Primary Care Physicians Accepted New Medicaid Patients In 2011–12: A Baseline To Measure Future Acceptance Rates

As part of the Affordable Care Act, primary care physicians providing services to patients insured through Medicaid in some states will receive higher payments in 2013 and 2014 than in the past. Payments for some services will increase to match Medicare rates. This change may lead to wider acceptance of new Medicaid patients among primary care providers. Using data from the 2011–12 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey Electronic Medical Records Supplement, I summarize baseline rates of acceptance of new Medicaid patients among office-based physicians by specialty and practice type. I also report state-level acceptance rates for both primary care and other physicians. About 33 percent of primary care physicians (those in general and family medicine, internal medicine, or pediatrics) did not accept new Medicaid patients in 2011–12, ranging from a low of 8.9 percent in Minnesota to a high of 54.0 percent in New Jersey. Primary care physicians in New Jersey, California, Alabama, and Missouri were less like...
Comparison of the natural history of ulcerative colitis in African Americans and non‐Hispanic Caucasians: A historical cohort study

Background: There has been an increase in the number of studies on the interaction of African American race and the natural history of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, the results from these studies have been conflicting. We aimed to characterize the natural history of ulcerative colitis (UC) in a cohort of African American patients compared with Caucasian controls. Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review of patients with UC who were seen in our IBD Center from 2000 to 2010. In all, 102 African American patients and 209 Caucasian patients were included. We assessed clinical variables related to the natural history of UC as well as outcome variables that reflected disease severity. Results: African American patients had a shorter median duration (8.0, interquartile range [IQR] = 4.0, 14.0) of UC than Caucasians (10.0, IQR = 6.0, 18.0) (P = 0.006). African American disease patients had more distal disease than controls. African Americans were significantly less likely to use corticosteroids (74.2% vs. 88.8%, P = 0.002), or use immunomodulators (25.8% vs. 69.7%, P < 0.001) than Caucasians. Adjusted multivariate analysis showed that ethnicity was not a risk factor for colectomy (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.6; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.78, 3.3). Conclusions: There appear to be differences in the natural history of UC in our African American patients when compared with Caucasian controls, while ethnicity was not shown to be a risk factor for colectomy. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2011;)
27. Transplantation immunology: Organ and bone marrow

Abstract The discovery of the human MHC in 1967 launched the field of organ and tissue transplantation. More than 800,000 such transplants have been performed during this time. Although matching of donor and recipient for MHC antigens was shown to be of great importance and continues to be so, the development of pharmacologic agents and antilymphocyte antibodies that interfere with the process of graft rejection has had a crucial role in the success of organ transplantation during the past 2 decades. Enormous progress has been made in understanding the immunologic mechanisms of graft rejection and of graft-versus-host disease. The roles of antibodies, antigen-presenting cells, helper and cytotoxic T cells, immune cell surface molecules, and signaling mechanisms and the cytokines they release have been clarified. This understanding is leading to the development of newer immunosuppressive agents targeting various components of the rejection process. Combinations of these agents work synergistically, leading to lower doses and reduced toxicity. Similarly, the development of effective T-cell depletion techniques has been of great importance for bone marrow transplantation when an HLA-identical sibling is not available. The major obstacle to the performance of solid organ transplantation currently is the shortage of donor organs. (J Allergy Clin Immunol 2003;111:S733-44.)
On the unimodality of passage time densities in birth-death processes

It has been shown [2] that for any ergodic birth-death process the p.d.f. of Ton, the passage time from the reflecting state 0 to any level n is log-concave and hence strongly unimodal. It is also known (cf [2]) that the p.d.f. of Tn, n+1 or Tn+1, n for such a process is completely monotone and hence unimodal. It has been conjectured that the p.d.f. for the passage time Tmn between any two states is unimodal. An analytical proof of the result is presented herein, based on underlying renewal structure and methods in the complex plane. It is further shown that the p.d.f. of Tmn can always be written as the convolution of two p.d.f.s, one completely monotone and the second PF and hence log-concave.
Investigation of the parasitic loop counterpoise antenna

The radiation field produced by a parasitic loop counterpoise antenna is investigated. This is a new antenna configuration which consists of a small circular loop in the presence of a large parasitic loop and is placed above a circular ground plane or counterpoise. Geometrical theory of diffraction is applied to obtain the theoretical expressions for the far field produced by such an antenna. Within the range of approximation the agreement between theory and experiment has been found to be very good. The introduction of a parasitic loop, in general, reduces the ground plane edge diffraction effects on the far-field patterns and makes the overall pattern in the half-plane above the counterpoise less directional. Possible application of the antenna is also discussed.
Amino-α-carbolines as mutagenic agents in cigarette smoke condensate

Two mutagenic agents, 2-amino-9H-pyrido[2,3-b]indole and 2-amino-3-methyl-9H-pyrido[2,3-b]indole (amino-α-carbolines) have been isolated from cigarette smoke condensate for this study. The former agent varied in amounts from a low of 25 ng/cigarette in the smoke of flue-cured tobacco, to a high of 258 ng/cigarette in a cigarette of Japanese domestic variety. The latter ranged in amounts from 9 to 37 ng/cigarette. The contents of these mutagens in the smoke condensate were positively related to an increase in mutagenic activity of Salmonella typhimurium TA 98.
Risk Factors for the Development of Bone Metastases in Prostate Cancer

Abstract Objectives Bone health of men with prostate cancer is threatened throughout the disease course. The majority of patients with advanced prostate cancer will develop bone metastases that can undermine skeletal integrity and result in skeletal complications including pathologic fractures, spinal cord compression, and palliative radiotherapy to bone. The early identification of patients who are at a high risk for bone metastases may enable earlier identification and treatment of bone lesions, thereby preserving patients' independence throughout the disease course. Methods Current guidelines for bone health maintenance were reviewed and PubMed key word searches performed to identify risk factors for the development of bone metastases in patients with prostate cancer. Additionally, guidelines and consensus recommendations were reviewed to identify bone health issues and their management in patients with early prostate cancer. Results Current prostate cancer monitoring guidelines recommend bone scans at initial diagnosis for patients with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels >20ng/ml and in patients with chronic bone pain or fractures. Multiple studies have concluded that high baseline PSA levels, rising PSA despite androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT), and high PSA velocity are risk factors for the development of bone metastasis in patients with prostate cancer. In patients with early prostate cancer, bone loss is an emerging concern, and bisphosphonates have been demonstrated to prevent bone loss from ADT. Use of risk factors such as PSA kinetics may optimize screening and enable earlier identification of bone metastases. Conclusions Monitoring bone mineral density may allow for better preservation of skeletal health in patients undergoing ADT.
Laser-tissue soldering with biodegradable polymer films in vitro : Film surface morphology and hydration effects

Background and Objective Previous research introduced the concept of using biodegradable polymer film reinforcement of a liquid albumin solder for improvement of the tensile strength of repaired incisions in vitro. In this study, the effect of creating small pores in the PLGA films on the weld breaking strength is studied. Additionally, the effect of hydration on the strength of the reinforced welds is investigated. Study Design/Materials and Methods A 50%(w/v) bovine serum albumin solder with 0.5 mg/mL Indocyanine Green dye was used to repair an incision in bovine aorta. The solder was coagulated with an 806-nm CW diode laser. A poly(DL-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) film was used to reinforce the solder (the controls had solder but no reinforcement). Breaking strengths were measured acutely and after hydration in saline for 1 and 2 days. The data were analyzed by ANOVA (P < 0.05) and multiple comparisons of means were performed using the Newman–Keuls test. Results The creation of pores in the PLGA films qualitatively improved the film flexibility without having an apparent adverse effect on the breaking strength, while the actual technique of applying the film and solder had more of an effect. The acute maximum average breaking strengths of some of the film reinforced specimens (114.7 g–134.4 g) were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than the acute maximum average breaking strength of the unreinforced control specimens (68.3 g). Film reinforced specimens were shown to have a statistically significantly higher breaking strength than unreinforced controls after 1- and 2-day hydration. Conclusions Reinforcement of liquid albumin solders in laser-assisted incision repair appears to have advantages over conventional methods that do not reinforce the cohesive strength of the solder in terms of acute breaking strength and after immersion in moist environments for short periods of time. Using a film with the solder applied to one surface only may be advantageous over other techniques. Lasers Surg. Med. 28:297–306, 2001. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
On the use of linear programming for spectral estimation

This paper provides an interpretation of linear programming for spectral estimation [1,2] as building an MLM-like data-adaptive filter with separate weights on each pair of sensors rather than on each sensor individually. It is shown that this estimate becomes MLM when a positive semi-definiteness constraint is imposed on the matrix of weights and becomes linear programming when a non-negative response to sinusoids constraint is imposed on the matrix of weights. It is shown that, for some sensor array configurations, linear programming does indeed provide tighter bounds on the spectral power than MLM, linear programming can pick up lower level sources than MLM, and linear programming can reject more interfering sources than MLM.
Blind space-time multiuser channel estimation in time-varying DS-CDMA systems

A multistep linear prediction (MSLP) approach is presented for blind channel estimation for short-code DS-CDMA (direct sequence code division multiple access) signals in time-varying multipath channels using a receiver antenna array. The time-varying channel is assumed to be described by a complex exponential basis expansion model (CE-BEM). We first extend a recently proposed MSLP approach to blind channel estimation for time-varying SIMO (single-input multiple-output) systems, to time-varying MIMO systems in order to define a "signal" subspace. Then the knowledge of the spreading code of a desired user is exploited in conjunction with the signal subspace to estimate the time-varying channel of the desired user. Sufficient conditions for channel identifiability are investigated. An illustrative simulation example is provided.
Electrical field stimulation causes oxidation of exogenous histamine in Krebs-Henseleit buffer: A potential source of error in studies of isolated airways

Electric field stimulation (EFS) relaxes human histamine-precontracted airways in vitro. This relaxation is only partly neurally mediated. Nonneural relaxation has been also shown in blood vessels and is due to the generation of oxygen radicals by EFS. In isolated airways the origin of the nonneural component of the relaxation is not clear. Because exogenous catecholamines are oxidized during EPS of carbogenated Krebs-Henseleit (K-H) buffer, we questioned whether this is also the case for exogenous histamine. Human airways precontracted with histamine or methacholine were exposed to either EFS-stimulated carbogenated K-H buffer that also contained histamine or methacholine or unstimulated buffer. Airways exposed to EFS-stimulated buffer that contained histamine relaxed, whereas airways exposed to buffer containing methacholine or exposed to unstimulated buffer did not. It appeared that the histamine concentrations in the organ baths decreased during 30 min of EFS. This decrease was significantly reduced in the presence of ascorbic acid. We conclude that EFS causes oxidation of histamine in carbogenated K-H buffer, and this may at least partly explain the nonneural component of EFS-induced relaxations of precontracted human isolated airways. Therefore, histamine should not be used to induce precontraction in EFS experiments.
Successful treatment of a saphenous vein graft perforation with an autologous vein-covered stent.

A 52-year-old man with a history of prior coronary bypass surgery suffered recurrent angina and underwent percutaneous placement of a stent within the midportion of the saphenous vein graft to the marginal branch of the left circumflex coronary artery, which was complicated by a significant perforation. The perforation was successfully closed using an NIR stent covered with a segment of autologous antecubital vein. Subsequent surgical exploration confirmed successful closure of the perforation. Cathet. Cardiovasc. Intervent. 48:382-386, 1999.
Intestinal redox status of major intracellular thiols in a rat model of chronic alcohol consumption.

Background: Alcohol consumption is associated with oxidative stress in multiple tissues in vivo, yet the effect of chronic alcohol intake on intestinal redox state has received little attention. In this study, we investigated the redox status of 2 major intracellular redox regulating couples: glutathione (GSH)/glutathione disulfide (GSSG) and cysteine (Cys)/cystine (CySS) in a rat model of chronic alcohol ingestion. Methods: Sprague-Dawley rats were fed the liquid Lieber-DeCarli diet consisting of 36% ethanol of total calories for 6 wecks. Control rats were pair-fed with an isocaloric, ethanol-free liquid diet. Defined mucosal samples from the jejunum, ileum, and colon were obtained and analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for GSH and Cys pool redox status. Mucosal free malondialdehyde (MDA) was measured as an indicator of lipid peroxidation. Results: In the ethanol-fed rats, Cys and mixed disulfide (GSH-Cys) were significantly decreased in all 3 segments of intestinal mucosa. Free MDA was increased in jejunal but not in ileal or colonic mucosa. Chronic ethanol ingestion significantly increased mucosal GSH concentration in association with a more reducing GSH/ GSSG redox potential in the jejunum, but these indices were unchanged in the ileum. In the colon, chronic ethanol ingestion increased oxidant stress as suggested by decreased GSH and oxidized GSH/GSSG redox potential. Conclusions: Chronic alcohol intake differentially alters the mucosal redox status in proximal to distal intestinal segments in rats. Such changes may reflect different adaptability of these intestinal segments to the oxidative stress challenge induced by chronic ethanol ingestion.