cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Transport safety and traffic forecasting: an economist's perspective

This paper is concerned with forecasting traffic accidents at a relatively aggregate level and over a long time period; the sort of information that is required as part of a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of a major transportation investment or policy change. It is not so focused on appraising the social value of specific safety measures, although some of the points made seem germane. Whereas there has been much ex ante analysis at the meso- and macro-levels looking at the causes of accidents and ways of reducing both their number and severity, much less ex post has been done considering the accuracy of predictions of accident rates after an investment or policy initiative. Given the evidence that exists on the accuracy of traffic forecasts, especially involving oft over-optimistic predictions of public transit and rail use, there is at least a prima facie case for arguing that many investment and policy decisions are being based, in part, on over favorable assumptions with regard to their aggregate safety impacts.
Possibility of superconductivity in hole-containing valence band

Abstract An approximate calculation for a superconducting energy gap in the hole-containing valence band is presented. The resulting energy gap depends on the covalent bond strength, which plays the role of the Debye temperature in the BCS equation, and can account for T c in the range 100–200 K.
A model for the horizontal directionality of breaking wave noise in the surf zone

A model is presented for the horizontal directionality of the noise generated by individual breaking waves in the surf zone. The model is based on the interaction between sound radiated by ringing bubbles created in a breaking wave crest and the population of acoustically quiescent bubbles left on the seaward side of the wave in the shallow water waveguide. The effect of the quiescent bubbles is to absorb sound from all but the very ends of the breaking crest, resulting in the formation of “acoustic hot-spots.” The model calculations are in good agreement with observations of the horizontal directionality of noise from individual breaking waves in the surf zone.
The role of individual differences in cognitive training and transfer

Working memory (WM) training has recently become a topic of intense interest and controversy. Although several recent studies have reported near- and far-transfer effects as a result of training WM-related skills, others have failed to show far transfer, suggesting that generalization effects are elusive. Also, many of the earlier intervention attempts have been criticized on methodological grounds. The present study resolves some of the methodological limitations of previous studies and also considers individual differences as potential explanations for the differing transfer effects across studies. We recruited intrinsically motivated participants and assessed their need for cognition (NFC; Cacioppo & Petty Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 42:116–131, 1982) and their implicit theories of intelligence (Dweck, 1999) prior to training. We assessed the efficacy of two WM interventions by comparing participants’ improvements on a battery of fluid intelligence tests against those of an active control group. We observed that transfer to a composite measure of fluid reasoning resulted from both WM interventions. In addition, we uncovered factors that contributed to training success, including motivation, need for cognition, preexisting ability, and implicit theories about intelligence.
Host Cxcr2-dependent regulation of mammary tumor growth and metastasis

Host-derived angiogenic and inflammatory tumor supportive microenvironment regulates progression and metastasis, but the molecular mechanism(s) underlying host-tumor interactions remains unclear. Tumor expression of CXCR2 and its ligands have been shown to regulate angiogenesis, invasion, tumor growth, and metastasis. In this report, we hypothesized that host-derived Cxcr2-dependent signaling plays an important role in breast cancer growth and metastasis. Two mammary tumor cell lines Cl66 and 4T1 cells were orthotopically implanted into the mammary fat pad of wild-type and Cxcr2−/− female BALB/c mice. Tumor growth and spontaneous lung metastasis were monitored. Immunohistochemical analyses of the tumor tissues were performed to analyze proliferation, angiogenesis, apoptosis and immune cell infiltration. Our results demonstrated that knock-down of host Cxcr2 decreases tumor growth and metastasis by reducing angiogenesis, proliferation and enhancing apoptosis. Host Cxcr2 plays an important role in governing the pro-inflammatory response in mammary tumors as evaluated by decreased Gr1+ tumor-associated granulocytes, F4/80+ tumor associated macrophages, and CD11b+Gr1+ myeloid derived suppressor cells in Cxcr2−/− mice as compared to control wild-type mice. Together, these results demonstrate that host Cxcr2-dependent signaling regulates mammary tumor growth and metastasis by promoting angiogenesis and pro-inflammatory responses.
Densities, Viscosities, Refractive Indexes, and Surface Tensions for Binary Mixtures of 2-Propanol + Benzyl Alcohol, + 2-Phenylethanol and Benzyl Alcohol + 2-Phenylethanol at T = (298.15, 308.15, and 318.15) K

Densities, viscosities, refractive indexes, and surface tensions for three binary systems (2-propanol + benzyl alcohol, 2-propanol + 2-phenylethanol, and benzyl alcohol + 2-phenylethanol) were measured at T = (298.15, 308.15, and 318.15) K over the whole composition range at atmospheric pressure. Densities were determined using a vibrating-tube density meter. Viscosities were measured with an automatic Ubbelholde capillary viscometer. Refractive indexes were measured using a digital Abbe-type refractometer. Surface tensions were determined by the Wilhelmy-plate method. These results are used to calculate excess molar volumes, , deviations in the viscosity, Δη, deviations in the refractive index, ΔnD, and the deviations in the surface tension, Δσ, at these three temperatures. The calculated quantities of , Δη, ΔnD, and Δσ were fitted to the Redlich−Kister equation to estimate the binary interaction parameters.
Regenerative medicine: Are calcium phosphate ceramics 'smart' biomaterials?

Autologous bone grafts are the 'gold standard' repair strategy for large defects of bone, but a growing body of evidence suggests that synthetic biomaterials designed to have osteoinductive properties could provide an alternative approach.
Motorcycle-Automobile Collision Prevention through Increased Motorcyclist Frontal Conspicuity

The majority of motorcycle-automobile collisions are the result of a violation of the motorcyclist's right-of-way by the automobile driver. The predominating cause of the multiple vehicle collision is a failure of the automobile driver to detect the presence of the motorcyclist in traffic when a traffic conflict develops. Such detection failures are associated with low conspicuity for the motorcyclist, and effective countermeasures have been investigated and applied to reduce accident involvement of motorcycles. However, comparable investigations of culpable automobile drivers have not been done to distinguish the exact nature of these detection failures. Language: en
DNA constraints on transcription activation in vitro

Activators of eukaryotic transcription often function over a range of distances. It is commonly hypothesized that the intervening DNA between the transcription start site and the activator binding sites forms a loop in order to allow the activators to interact with the basal transcription apparatus, either directly or through mediators. If this hypothesis is correct, activation should be sensitive to the presence of intrinsic bends in the intervening DNA. Similarly, the precise helical phasing of such DNA bends and of the activator binding sites relative to the basal promoter should affect the degree of transcription activation. To explore these considerations, we designed transcription templates based on the adenovirus E4 promoter supplemented with upstream Gal4 activator binding sites. Surprisingly, we found that neither insertion of intrinsically curved DNA sequences between the activator binding sites and the basal promoter, nor alteration of the relative helical alignment of the activator binding sites and the basal promoter significantly affected in vitro transcription activation in HeLa cell nuclear extract. In all cases, the degree of transcription activation was a simple inverse function of the length of intervening DNA. Possible implications of these unexpected results are discussed.
Bohmian and quantum phase space distribution expansions and approximations

Abstract Dias and Patra derived an expansion of the Wigner distribution and related it to the de Broglie–Bohm model. We show that the coefficients of the expansion are related to the conditional central moments and cumulants of the Wigner distribution. The even order cumulants depend only on the amplitude of the wave function and the odd order cumulants depend only on the phase. In addition, we give a different expansion of the Wigner distribution from which their expansion can be derived as a special case. Our expansion allows for different approximations for higher order terms. We also give expansions for the momentum representation. We show how the results are applicable to pulse propagation in a dispersive medium.
Building a bridge between neurobiology and mental illness

Abstract GABA (γ amino butyric acid) is the most abundant and important inhibitory transmitter in mammalian CNS. It counterbalances the glutamate mediated neuronal excitation. Abnormalities of the interaction of these two transmitters might change the mechanisms of neuronal group selection that according to Edelman [Neural Darwinism. Basic Books, New York] play a role in mediating several brain functions including cognition processes. Indeed imbalances in GABAergic functions were shown to elicit psychoses. They can be obtained by administration of drugs that affect synthesis, metabolism and uptake of GABA and thereby cause a persistent stimulation of GABAA receptors or perhaps by genetic abnormalities in DNA transcription, pre-mRNA splicing, mRNA translation and posttranslation modifications of GABAA receptor subunits. The complexities in the regulation of GABAA receptor subunit structure, synthesis, assembly and the brain location of specific mRNA encoding for these subunits are investigated with in situ mRMA hybridization specific for subunits of GABAA receptors. The role of the variability resulting from the complexities in the regulation of GABAA receptor allosteric modulation by drugs and putative endogenous allosteric modulators of GABA action at GABAA receptors is discussed. This discussion gives relevance to the possibility that genetic abnormalities in the expression of proteins participating in GABAergic function are to be considered as a possible target of the genetic defects operative in psychoses. In line with this thinking, it is suggested that partial allosteric modulators (partial agonists) of GABAA receptors and the phosphothioate of methylphosphonate analogs antisense to specific mRNA oligonucleotides that mediate the expression of genetic information concerning GABAA and glutamate receptor subunits may become valuable tools in psychiatric research. Perhaps in the future these studies might generate new ideas useful in the therapy of genetically determined psychiatric illness.
Ultrafast laser probe of interband absorption edges in 3-D and 2-D semiconductors

The wavelength of ultrafast laser probes near the fundamental (E0) absorption edge falls in the infrared and visible wavelengths in most diamond and zincblende structure semiconductors. Consequently the time-resolved reflectivity and transmission in a photo-excited sample are influenced by numerous factors: Drude reflectivity and free carrier absorption, in addition to interband saturation and band gap renormalization. In this work we demonstrate the utility of probing the higher (E1 and E2) absorption edges using two-photon absorption spectroscopy or ultraviolet wavelength probes. 1) In silicon we probe the E2 absorption edge by direct two-photon absorption using visible femtosecond pulses above the indirect edge. Longer pulses melt the sample before reaching peak intensities at which two-photon absorption becomes dominant. We extract the direct two-photon absorption coefficient over a wide spectral range, and distinguish other nonlinear absorption channels, and relate these results to the band structure of silicon. 2) Using an ultraviolet probe with visible pump, Drude effects and interband saturation become negligible, leaving renormalization of the E1 and E2 edges as the dominant influence on the probe. Time-resolved experiments compare the renormalization induced by hot carriers, cold carriers and lattice heating in 3D and 2D semiconductors.
Integrated TV tuner design for multi-standard terrestrial reception

Digital TV reception is becoming increasingly important for both fixed and mobile equipment, be it TV sets or cellular phones. However, the continuing analog TV broadcast service poses additional challenges for tuner receivers. This paper presents issues and trends for monolithic tuner design. It describes the reception requirements and possible architectures for various standards and channel conditions. Critical block design is addressed with examples from practical implementations. Primarily, the design is geared toward maximizing the system dynamic range (from -85 dBm to +5 dBm desired input signal power) and multi-standard functionality. In addition, gearing toward mobile reception, trade-offs to reduce power consumption are also discussed.
Performance analysis of a virtual circuit connection in a high speed ATM WAN using the best effort delivery strategy

An analytical approach is provided for determining the performance of a virtual circuit connection for data transmission in high speed asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network buffers at wide area network (WAN) nodes. The analysis assumes that the network operates using the best effort delivery strategy and that the end-to-end virtual circuit is responsible for guaranteeing the integrity of the connection. As the normal Markovian assumptions do not apply, a concise exact solution is impossible to obtain. A hybrid model incorporating finite buffers at the nodes was developed to study the effect on the performance of both link errors and buffer overflow in conjunction with an end-to-end packet loss recovery scheme. >
Enhancement techniques for ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation of composite materials

Etude de l'amelioration des techniques de mesures des defauts dans un materiau composite en resine epoxyde renforcee par des fibres de carbones, pour cinq types differents de defaut: inclusion dans une strate quasi isotrope, degradation par impact, fissuration de la matrice due a une charge statique, degradation par fatigue d'un stratifie a strates croisees, et fissuration induite thermiquement d'un stratifie epais a strates croisees
Toward a Standard Approach to Operationalizing Coercive Control and Classifying Violence Types

Coercive control is central to distinguishing between Johnson's (2008) 2 main types of intimate partner violence: (a) coercive controlling violence and (b) situational couple violence. Approaches to assessing coercive control, however, have been inconsistent. Using data from 2 projects involving divorcing mothers (N = 190), the authors compared common analytic strategies for operationalizing coercive control and classifying types of violence. The results establish advantages to measuring coercive control in terms of frequency versus number of tactics, illustrate the use of both hierarchical and k-means clustering methods to identify patterns of coercive control and evaluate clustering solutions, and offer a suggested cutoff for classifying violence types in general samples of separated women using the Dominance-Isolation subscale of the widely used Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory (Tolman, 1992). Finally, the authors demonstrate associations between types of violence and theoretically relevant variables, including frequency and severity of violence, harassment and violence after separation, fear, and perceived threat.
Power Frequency Electromagnetic Field Interaction with Humans

Electromagentic (EM) fields generated by natural and man-made sources are all around us in every day of life. The man-made fields present in power and communications systems are the ones we will be concerned with in this paper. A critical question in the study of the so-called "effects" of EM fields on humans and other biological systems is often the quantification of EM field strengths induced inside front biological bodies. A volume integral equation approach is presented here and problems associated with the modeling of the complex geometry of a human body is investigated. The work is in the theoretical level at this time and futher experiement investigations will follow the analytical part presented at this international conference.
Integrin α5/β1 Mediates Fibronectin-dependent Epithelial Cell Proliferation through Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Activation

Human integrin α5 was transfected into the integrin α5/β1–negative intestinal epithelial cell line Caco-2 to study EGF receptor (EGFR) and integrin α5/β1 signaling interactions involved in epitheli...
A novel approach for proper name transliteration verification

Proper name transliteration, the pronunciation based translation of a proper name, is important to many multilingual natural language processing task, such as Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) and Cross Lingual Information Retrieval (CLIR). This task is extremely challenging due to the pronunciation difference between the source and target language. A given proper name can lead to many different transliterations. In the past, research efforts had demonstrated a 30–50% error using top-1 reference for transliteration. This error leads to performance degradation for many applications. In this paper, a novel approach to verify a given proper name transliteration pair using a discrete variant Hidden Markov Model (HMM) alignment is proposed. The state emission probabilities are derived from SMT phrase tables. The proposed method yields an Equal Error Rate (EER) of 3.73% on a 300 matched and 1000 unmatched name pairs test set. By comparison, the commonly used SMT framework yields 6.5% EER under the best configuration. The widely used edit distance approach has an EER of 22%. Our new method achieves high accuracy and low complexity, and provides an alternative for name transliteration in CLIR and other cross lingual natural language applications such as word alignment and machine translation.
Effect of ionospheric depth on the ionospheric feedback instability: cutoff and subsequent E || modes

Abstract. The ionospheric feedback instability (IFI), which involves feedback between ionospheric modifications and waves reflected off the magnetosphere, has up to this point been analyzed in terms of field line integrated (FLI) ionospheric quantities, that is, with the assumption that the ionospheric thickness can be ignored. In this work we test this assumption by solving the two-fluid equations for a representative ionospheric slab of finite thickness. We find that the results are for the most part incompatible with a description in terms of FLI quantities, and that their use can easily lead to an order of magnitude overestimation of the growth rate. This occurs because the first eigenmode, which is the one compatible with an FLI description, is cutoff above a certain frequency, leaving only higher order modes with wavelengths along B that are subsumed by the slab. Taking the results at face value, the parallel electric fields associated with the higher order modes are a possible contributor to electron heating and plasma structure in the E-region ionosphere.
Third-Party Labels Bias Evaluations of Political Platforms and Candidates

The current research investigated the role that partisanship plays in evaluations of third-party political policies and candidate evaluations. Democratic and Republican participants read political party and candidate brochures labeled with their own party or with an ideologically similar third party (Green or Libertarian). All other brochure information was identical. Participants evaluated the policies and candidate more favorably and indicated a greater intention to vote for the candidate when the brochure was labeled with their own party than the third party. Study 2 suggested that these effects were not due to strategic voting and that emotion may be a mediating variable.
Comparative structural connectivity spectra analysis (CoSCoSA) models of steroids binding to the aromatase enzyme.

A method that combines NMR spectral and structural information into a constructed three-dimensional (3D)-connectivity matrix is developed for modeling biological binding activity of small molecules. The 3D-connectivity matrix for a molecule is defined by associating the distances between all possible carbon-to-carbon connections with their assigned carbon NMR chemical shifts. In this project we selected from the total 3D-connectivity matrix a subset, the two-dimensional (2D) 13C-13C COSY and a theoretical long range 2D 13C-13C distance connectivity spectral plane. Patterns of 13C chemical shifts observed at these two relative distances for 50 steroids were used to produce a mathematical relationship for the steroids' relative binding affinity (pKi) to the aromatase enzyme. We call this technique comparative structural connectivity spectra analysis (CoSCoSA) modeling. Using combinations of the 2D COSY and 2D long-range distance spectra as modeling parameters, we built four CoSCoSA models. One model was made from the 2D COSY spectra alone and another was developed using only the 2D long-range distance spectra. Then the COSY and long-distance spectra were combined in two different ways: starting with the combined principal components (PCs) from the separately calculated COSY and distance spectra or using the combined raw spectra (3D). The best CoSCoSA model was based on the combined PCs from COSY and distance spectra. This model had an r2 of 0.96 and a leave-one-out cross-validation (q2) of 0.92. In general CoSCoSA modeling combines the quantum mechanical information inherent in NMR chemical shifts with internal molecular atom-to-atom distances to give a reliable and straightforward basis for predictive modeling. The technique has the flexibility and accuracy to outperform not only the cross-validated variance q2 of previously published quantitative structure–activity relationships (QSAR) but also those obtained by related quantitative spectral data–activity relationships (QSDARs) lacking connectivity dimensions. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Designing Programs for Foreign Languages.

Program design in foreign languages has recently become a critical issue for the profession as a whole. Largely as a result of outside influences, including public policy pressures and an explosion of information from diverse fields of investigation, basic questions have emerged as to goals, content, teaching and learning strategies, and evaluation procedures. Until recently, language teachers operated within a relatively well-defined set of principles and conventions. From colonial times, only the "best" students studied languages, and teachers were equipped to follow the practices of intensive grammar analysis laid down by their predecessors. Even with the emergence of the "scientific" audio-lingual method in the 1950s and 1960s, the curriculum was handed down from above by a cadre of experts who designed the textbooks and teacher training manuals detailing the procedures to follow in teaching lockstep dialogues and pattern drills.1 Unfortunately, this movement failed to fulfill its promise that students would learn to speak to native speakers like native speakers. During the 1960s and 1970s language enrollments dropped to an all-time low (to 15 percent by 1980)2 and researchers and professional leaders groped for the answers to questions of how to attract and retain students and meet their needs. With a new demand for demonstrable results, and with the entire program no longer prepackaged for teachers, the need for planning became evident. A
Neglected rotatory knee dislocation: A case report

Abstract We report here a unique case of a 3year neglected rotatory tibiofemoral dislocation associated with a lateral patellar dislocation. The rotational deformity was gradually corrected using a Taylor spatial frame and the patella was realigned by tibial tubercle osteotomy and transfer. The patient also underwent multiple soft tissue releases and quadricepsplasty to improve knee flexion. At nine year follow-up, the patient has good knee range of motion, a congruent knee joint and a good functional result. Clinical relevance : Taylor spatial frame combined with other orthopedic approaches can be a useful tool while dealing with neglected knee dislocations.
OSA: a fast and accurate alignment tool for RNA-Seq

Summary: Accurately mapping RNA-Seq reads to the reference genome is a critical step for performing downstream analysis such as transcript assembly, isoform detection and quantification. Many tools have been developed, however, given the huge size of the next generation sequencing (NGS) datasets and the complexity of the transcriptome, RNA-Seq read mapping remains a challenge with the ever-increasing amount of data. We develop OSA (Omicsoft Sequence Aligner), a fast and accurate alignment tool for RNA-Seq data. Benchmarked with existing methods, OSA improves mapping speed 4-10 fold with better sensitivity and less false positives. Availability: OSA can be downloaded from http://omicsoft.com/osa. It is free to academic users. OSA has been tested extensively on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows platforms.
Covering arrays and intersecting codes

A t-covering array is a set of k binary vectors of length n with the property that, in any t coordinate positions, all 2t possibilities occur at least once. Such arrays are used for example in circuit testing, and one wishes to minimize k for given values of n and t. The case t = 2 was solved by Renyi, Katona, and Kleitman and Spencer. The present article is concerned with the case t = 3, where important (but unpublished) contributions were made by Busschbach and Roux in the 1980s. One of the principal constructions makes use of intersecting codes (linear codes with the property that any two nonzero codewords meet). This article studies the properties of 3-covering arrays and intersecting codes, and gives a table of the best 3-covering arrays presently known. For large n the minimal k satisfies 3.21256 < k/log n < 7.56444. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Florida's Invasive Plant Research: Historical Perspective and the Present Research Program

Abstract During the past 400 years, Florida's natural areas have been invaded by mostly tropical and subtropical nonnative plants; and, during the twentieth century, these invasions have increased with the rise of the ornamental plant industry and through unintentional contaminants of imported commodities. Recognizing that research is the basis of environmentally and economically sound invasive plant management programs, the State of Florida, through the Department of Environmental Protection, began funding invasive plant research in 1971. Early research funding targeted biological control methods using insects, herbivorous fish, and plant pathogens, as well as mechanical control and water level fluctuation control methods. In the 1980s, invasive plant management research in Florida shifted toward developing second-generation effective aquatic herbicides such as fluridone and glyphosate that have low toxicities for fish and invertebrates and are relatively selective in controlling invasive aquatic plants ...
Effect of Trailing-Edge Ejection on Local Heat (Mass) Transfer in Pin Fin Cooling Channels in Turbine Blades

Experiments are conducted to study the local heat transfer distribution and pressure drop in a pin fin channel that models the cooling passages in modern gas turbine blades. The detailed heat/mass transfer distribution is determined via the naphthalene sublimation technique for flow through a channel with a 16-row, staggered 3 × 2 array of short pin fins (with a height-to-diameter ratio of 1.0, and streamwise and spanwise spacing-to-diameter ratios of 2.5) and with flow ejection through holes in one of the side walls and at the straight flow exit (to simulate ejection through holes along the trailing edges and through tip bleed holes of turbine blades). The pin fin heat/mass transfer and the channel wall heat/mass transfer are obtained for the straight-flow-only and the ejection-flow cases
Current status of cell therapy for non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy: a brief overview.

This editorial refers to ‘Multicentre, randomized, double blind trial of intracoronary autologous mononuclear bone marrow cell injection in non-ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy (the dilated cardiomyopathy arm of the MiHeart Study), by Martino et al ., doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehv477. In the burgeoning field of cell therapy trials for heart failure (HF), non-ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy (NICM) has been studied much less frequently than ischaemic cardiomyopathy (ICM), for several reasons. First, the prevalence of ICM is greater than that of NICM. Second, the concept of myocardial regeneration is more readily applicable to ICM, where a well-defined region of myocyte death and scar is usually identified, rather than to NICM, where pathologic examination frequently reveals diffuse fibrosis rather than a confluent scar. Finally, NICM is not one disease, but the final phenotype of many different pathophysiological processes, some of which remain poorly understood, making it difficult to model NICM in animals. Indeed, almost all preclinical studies supporting cell therapy for HF have been conducted in models of post-myocardial infarction HF. While limited preclinical studies of cell therapy have been performed in models of NICM with defined aetiology, such as anthracycline-induced cardiomyopathy1 and Chagasic cardiomyopathy,2 they are lacking in models of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, which is more prevalent than the former two. In this issue of the Journal , Martino et al. 3 report the results of the dilated cardiomyopathy arm of the MiHeart Study, a multicentre, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase I–II trial of bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMNCs) in patients with NICM. A total of 160 patients were randomized to intracoronary administration of placebo or BMMNCs, infused into all coronary arteries without balloon inflation. Subjects had advanced HF with a left …
Thalidomide in cancer: potential uses and limitations

In addition to immunomodulatory and cytokine-modulatory properties, thalidomide has antiangiogenic activity. It has been investigated in a number of cancers including multiple myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes, gliomas, Kaposi’s sarcoma, renal cell carcinoma, advanced breast cancer, and colon cancer. Its role has been best explored in myeloma, where, at daily doses of 100 to 800mg, it is remarkably active, causing clinically meaningful responses in one-third of extensively pretreated patients and in over half of patients treated early in the course of the disease. It also acts synergistically with corticosteroids and chemotherapy in myeloma. Thalidomide produces improvement of cytopenias characteristic of myelodysplastic syndrome, resulting in the reduction or elimination of transfusion dependence in some patients. Responses have also been seen in one-third of patients with Kaposi’s sarcoma, in a small proportion of patients with renal cell carcinoma and high grade glioma and, in combination with irinotecan, in some patients with colon cancer. Thalidomide is being investigated currently in a number of clinical trials for cancer. Drowsiness, constipation and fatigue are common adverse effects seen in 75% of patients. Symptoms of peripheral neuropathy and skin rash are seen in 30%. A minority of patients experience bradycardia and thrombotic phenomena. Despite the high frequency of adverse effects, those severe enough to necessitate cessation of therapy are seen in only 10 to 15% of patients. A therapeutic trial of thalidomide should be considered in all patients with myeloma who are unresponsive to or relapse after standard therapy. In other malignant diseases, the most appropriate way to use the drug is in the setting of well designed clinical trials. In the absence of access to such studies, thalidomide could be considered singly or in combination with standard therapy in patients with no meaningful therapeutic options.
New Insights from Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy into the Interactions of Islet Amyloid Polypeptides with Lipid Membranes

Studies of amyloid polypeptides on membrane surfaces have gained increasing attention in recent years. Several studies have revealed that membranes can catalyze protein aggregation and that the early products of amyloid aggregation can disrupt membrane integrity, increasing water permeability and inducing ion cytotoxicity. Nonetheless, probing aggregation of amyloid proteins on membrane surfaces is challenging. Surface-specific methods are required to discriminate contributions of aggregates at the membrane interface from those in the bulk phase and to characterize protein secondary structures in situ and in real time without the use of perturbing spectroscopic labels. Here, we review the most recent applications of sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy applied in conjunction with computational modeling techniques, a joint experimental and computational methodology that has provided valuable insights into the aggregation of islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) on membrane surfaces. These applications show that SFG can provide detailed information about structures, kinetics, and orientation of IAPP during interfacial aggregation, relevant to the molecular mechanisms of type II diabetes. These recent advances demonstrate the promise of SFG as a new approach for studying amyloid diseases at the molecular level and for the rational drug design targeting early aggregation products on membrane surfaces.
Silhouette texture

Using coarse meshes with textures and/or normal maps to represent detailed meshes often results in poor visual quality along silhouettes. To tackle this problem, we introduce silhouette texture, a new data structure for capturing and reconstructing the silhouettes of detailed meshes. In addition to the recording of color and normal fields in traditional methods, we sample information that represents the original silhouettes and pack it into a three dimensional texture. In the rendering stage, our algorithm extracts relevant information from the texture to rebuild the silhouettes for any perspective view. Unlike previous work, our approach is based on GPU and could achieve high rendering performance. Moreover, both exterior and interior silhouettes are processed for better approximation quality. In addition to rendering acceleration, our algorithm also enables detailed silhouette visualization with minimum geometric complexity.
Killer Cell Immunoglobulin-Like Receptor Alleles Alter HIV Disease in Children.

Background HLA class I molecules are ligands for killer cell immunoglobin like receptors (KIR) that control the antiviral response of natural killer (NK) cells. However, the effects of KIR and HLA (KIR/HLA) alleles on HIV disease of children have not been studied. Methods 993 antiretroviral naive children with symptomatic HIV infection from PACTG protocols P152 and P300 were genotyped for KIR and HLA alleles using the Luminex platform. Linear regression was used to test the association between genotypes and baseline pre-ART HIV RNA, CD4+ lymphocyte count, and cognitive score, adjusting for age, race/ethnicity and study. The interaction between genetic markers and age was investigated. To account for multiple testing the false discovery rate (FDR) was controlled at 0.05. Results Children with the KIR2DS4*ALL FULL LENGTH (KIR2DS4*AFL) allele had higher CD4+ lymphocyte counts. Among children ≤2 years of age, the KIR2DS4*AFL was associated with lower plasma HIV RNA and higher cognitive index scores. KIR Cent2DS3/5_1 had lower CD4+ lymphocyte counts in children ≤2 years of age, while the presence of Tel1, Tel2DS4_2, Tel2DS4_4, Tel8, Tel2DS4_6 had higher CD4+ lymphocyte counts in all children. Presence of Cent2, Cent4 and Cent8 was associated with increased HIV RNA load in children ≤2 years. Presence of KIR3DL1+Bw4 was associated with higher CD4+ lymphocyte counts in all children. Among children >2 years old, KIR3DS1+Bw4-80I was associated with higher plasma HIV RNA, and Bw6/Bw6 was associated with lower plasma HIV RNA compared to children with KIR3DS1+Bw4-80I. Conclusions Presented data show for the first time that specific KIR alleles independently or combined with HLA ligands are associated with HIV RNA and CD4+ lymphocyte counts in infected, antiretroviral naive children; and many of these effect estimates appear to be age dependent. These data support a role for specific KIR alleles in HIV pathogenesis in children.
Consumer Arbitration: The B.B.B. Approach

Services have greater potential for generating consumer unhappiness than do physical goods, yet the marketing literature is sparse on dispute resolution in this area. This paper reviews the phenomena of consumer arbitration. The authors focus on the Council of Better Business Bureaus’ Auto Line, the largest national program of mediation/arbitration for automotive disputes, sponsored by participating automobile manufacturers, and the program’s extension into non-automotive products and services. The authors review consumerism and the history of arbitration. They discuss arbitration principles and procedures, program funding, and consumer satisfaction. Criticisms of the program are addressed, as are suggestions for additional work.
Development of a melanoma-specific adenovirus

Concerns regarding the hepatotoxicity of adenovirus for cancer gene therapy have led to attempts to engineer viruses for tissue-specific gene expression and tissue-specific replication. The Tyrex2 (a tandem murine melanocyte-specific enhancer) system was used to express luciferase, purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP), and the essential adenoviral gene E1A. In nonmelanoma cell lines, the CMV promoter/enhancer (CMV p/e) was 969 times stronger than the Tyrex2 construct, whereas in melanoma cells it was only 2.6 times stronger. An adenovirus with Tyrex2 regulating PNP (Ad2Tyr2-PNP) was tested for cytotoxicity. In melanoma cells, treatment with Ad2Tyr2-PNP plus the prodrug 6-methylpurine deoxyriboside (6-MPDR) resulted in 90% cytotoxicity by day 4. In non-melanoma cell lines, only the CMV p/e resulted in significant cytotoxicity. We compared the intrinsic E1A promoter/enhancer (E1A p/e) system with the melanoma-specific constructs and found that the Tyrex2 system achieved higher levels of luciferase than the E1A p/e in all melanoma lines tested. In non-melanoma cell lines, the E1A p/e is 12.4 times stronger than the Tyrex2 construct. Tyrex2 was then used to regulate adenoviral E1A expression to construct a melanoma-specific replicating adenovirus. We were unable to achieve selective replication. As E1A is a known transactivator of the adenovirus major late promoter (MLP), we studied the ability of the MLP to express a transgene in the context of tissue-selective E1A expression. We were able to demonstrate high levels of luciferase activity with this construct; however, selectivity was lost. Melanoma-specific adenovirus expression was achieved with the Tyrex2 construct, and this led to melanoma-specific cytotoxicity by the potent PNP suicide gene. Selective melanoma-specific replication was not successful. The MLP may be a useful promoter in the context of a tissue-specific replicating adenovirus.
CONTROL OF MINK MYIASIS CAUSED BY THE LARVAE OF WOHLFAHRTIA VIGIL.

Both mechanical and chemical control were attempted against Wohlfahrtia vigil (Walker) (Diptera: Sarcophagidae), a fly that causes myiasis in mink kits. Five percent ronnel dust mixed with the nesting material at a rate of 8 g per 0.2 fts adequately controlled myiasis in young laboratory mice for 2 weeks. During most years a similar treatment should protect mink kits during the period when they are most susceptible. In field tests with 5% ronnel dust, there was no detectible harm to mink kits from treatments as high as 24 g per litter box. Field evaluation of the 8-g treatment against Wohlfahrtia was only partially successful. Untreated litters were left in 1963 but infestations did not occur. In a 1964 test, myiasis occurred prior to, but not after, treatment of all litters. Neither a mechanical device nor a repellent mixture, butoxypolypropylene glycol + 0.6% pyrethrins, prevented Wohlfahrtia myiasis in the laboratory.
In-stent thrombosis and stenosis after neck-remodeling device-assisted coil embolization of intracranial aneurysms.

Background Intrinsic thrombosis and stenosis are complications associated with the use of neck-remodeling devices in the treatment of intracranial aneurysms. Objective To examine the technical and anatomic factors that predict short- and long-term stent patency. Methods We undertook a retrospective review of 161 patients who underwent coil embolization of 168 ruptured and unruptured aneurysms assisted by the use of a neck-remodeling device. One hundred twenty-seven patients had catheter-based angiographic follow-up to evaluate 133 stent-coil constructs (mean, 15.4 months; median, 12.7 months). The technique of microcatheter jailing was used in a majority of patients; nonstandard stent configurations were also used. Results Clinical follow-up for all patients who had catheter-based angiograms demonstrated that among 133 stent constructs, a total of 9 (6.8%) had an in-stent event: 6 acute or subacute thrombosis (4.5%) and 3 delayed stenosis or occlusion (2.3%). Seven of these constructs were associated with a symptomatic event (5.3%). A significantly higher rate of in-stent events was seen with the use of constructs to treat anterior communicating artery aneurysms. When all patients are considered, including those who did not receive catheter-based follow-up imaging, 2 of 168 procedures (1.2%) resulted in the death of a patient, and procedural morbidity was 14.9%. Conclusion From these results and those in the published literature, in-stent complication rates are low in carefully selected patients. The use of dual antiplatelet therapy, sensitivity assays, and glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors may decrease the rate of acute and chronic in-stent complications.
Malignant lymphoma involving the ovaries

Abstract From a review of the literature pertaining to ovarian malignant lymphoma, 4 cases of so-called primary and 24 cases of obviously secondary or “metastatic” disease are cited. In addition, 6 personally studied cases are presented in which clinical features pointed to ovarian participation in a more generalized lymphoblastomatous process. The grim prognosis associated with unilateral or bilateral ovarian tumors of this type, regardless of size, raises questions regarding the validity of the notion that malignant lymphoma is ever a primary process in these organs.
Short-Term Outcomes of Glenoid Bone Block Augmentation for Complex Anterior Shoulder Instability in a High-Risk Population

Purpose To describe the short-term clinical outcomes of glenoid bone block augmentation in a high-demand population, as well as to describe its clinical success and complications at greater than 2 years' follow-up in an at-risk military population. Methods All patients undergoing anterior capsulorrhaphy with coracoid process transfer or anterior bone block augmentation (Current Procedural Terminology code 23662 or 23460) for shoulder instability between 2006 and 2012 were isolated from the Military Health System Management Analysis and Reporting Tool. Demographic and occupational parameters were identified, and multiple surgical factors and clinical outcomes were extracted from the medical record and US Defense Manpower Data Center. Results A total of 64 service members (65 shoulders) underwent anterior bone block procedures, including coracoid transfer (n = 59, 90.8%), distal tibial allograft (n = 3, 4.6%), and autologous or allograft iliac crest bone graft (n = 3, 4.6%). This group was predominately comprised of men (n = 59), and the mean age was 25.9 years (range, 19 to 45 years). A total of 19 perioperative complications, including 8 neurologic injuries, 6 infections, and 4 hardware failures, occurred in 16 patients (25%). At a mean 2.4-year follow-up, 21 patients (32.8%) reported persistent shoulder pain and 15 patients (23.4%) disclosed subjective apprehension or recurrent instability. Secondary surgical procedures were performed in 12 patients (18.8%), including 4 revisions (6.3%). Ultimately, 20 patients (31.3%) underwent a medical discharge for persistent shoulder disability. Univariate analysis showed that the presence of a perioperative complication ( P = .049) and tobacco use ( P = .038) were associated with increased risk of subsequent surgical failure. Conclusions Anterior glenoid bone block procedures for shoulder instability with concomitant bone loss enable a return to high-demand physical function. The short-term complication profile (25%), recurrence rate (23%), and persistence of shoulder pain (33%) should be emphasized during preoperative counseling, particularly in an active military population and revision setting. Although moderately successful in the military, anterior bone block procedures for complex shoulder instability can be associated with significant short-term complications and morbidity. Level of Evidence Level IV, therapeutic case series.
Design of GEF Graphical Editing Framework Based on Flex Technology

GEF is one of the primary frameworks at the Eclipse platform.Its design pattern may be greatly helpful to support visualization design.As a leading technology for the development of rich clients,Flex shows a significant advantage on graphical front-end design.This paper gives a brief introduction to Flex,and then simulates Eclipse GEF to design a lightweight Flex GEF framework using Flex technology.Further,the design ideas and expandability of the proposed framework are depicted in detail.Finally,application of Flex GEF framework to process designer is shown as a typical example.
Managing high-cost biotechnology products

Q: The value of innovative biotechnolgy products is manifest, yet their benefit is sometimes limited to a select patient group. Drotrecogin alfa is one such agent that is being heavily promoted. How can we ensure the appropriate use of this agent?.
Myofascial aspects of low back pain.

Myofascial pain syndromes are an often overlooked but treatable source of pain and discomfort in the low back. They are caused by muscle trigger points that restrict movement and refer pain to distant sites. They often complicate or coexist with other causes of low back pain, and they can mimic other neuromusculoskeletal disorders. Successful management of these syndromes requires the identification of trigger points by manual examination, identification of mechanical or systemic perpetuating factors, inactivation of specific trigger points, and corrective action to prevent their recurrence.
New Cities of Color: Socioeconomic Differentiation between Majority–Minority New Cities and White New Cities

Scholars often portray newly incorporated municipalities as white, wealthy suburbs. Yet this study reveals that 10 percent of new cities (forty-four cities) formed between 1990 and 2010 are black, Hispanic, Asian, and/or Native American majority cities. A careful examination of the data reveals not just racial differences but significant socioeconomic differences between new cities of color (CoCs) and majority white cities. By employing a probit model of statistical analysis, this research reveals that CoCs differ socioeconomically from majority white incorporating communities on variables such as median family income, average household size, and more.