cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Healing of Er:YSGG laser-induced holes in bone

Erbium lasers have been shown to effectively cut both bone and soft tissue leaving minimal thermal damage to tissue remaining at the cut edge. In a comparison of skin cuts made with either an Erbium laser or a scalpel, significant differences between healing were not found.1 A study comparing the healing of bones cut in situ with a saw and an Erbium laser indicated delayed healing at the laser cut sites. This delay may have been caused by the destruction of osteocytes on the endosteal surface.2 Our goal was to investigate the healing process in bone allografts
Abstract 3849: The antidiabetic drug metformin increases pro-apoptotic effect of TRAIL therapy by reducing X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP) levels in triple-negative breast cancer cells

Most metastatic tumors, such as triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) respond poorly to conventional chemotherapy. We have previously demonstrated that targeting TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand receptor-2 (TRAIL-R2) might be an effective pathway against metastatic TNBC. However, many TNBCs are resistant to TRAIL receptor agonists. Here we demonstrate that diabetes drug metformin, previously linked to preventing and treating several types of cancer, enhances sensitivity of TNBC cells to recombinant TRAIL and TRAIL-R2 agonistic humanized monoclonal antibody (lexatumumab)-induced apoptosis. We have demonstrated that combination of metformin with lexatumumab or TRAIL augments response to TRAIL therapy and reduce cancer cell viability via induction of apoptosis and inhibiting long-term survival of three different metastatic TNBC cell lines. Intriguingly, metformin treatment also sensitized transformed MCF10A-RasV12 cells, but not untransformed MCF10A-Vector cells, to TRAIL agonist therapy. This effect was associated with reduction of X-linked Inhibitor of Apoptosis Protein (XIAP) levels after metformin treatment. Similar to metformin treatment, inhibition of XIAP by small interfering RNA sensitized breast cancer cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Moreover, metformin treatment in combination with TRAIL more efficiently inhibited primary tumor growth and lung metastases in orthotopic model of TNBC. Overall, our results demonstrate that metformin treatment in combination with targeting TRAIL receptors may be a good strategy to augment the antitumor effects of TRAIL receptors agonistic therapy and provide the foundation for a clinical trial combining dietary metfomin and TRAIL agonists. Citation Format: Elena Strekalova, Dmitry Malin, Vincent Cryns. The antidiabetic drug metformin increases pro-apoptotic effect of TRAIL therapy by reducing X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP) levels in triple-negative breast cancer cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 3849.
Plate-Based Assay for Measuring Direct Semaphorin-Neuropilin Interactions

The semaphorins are an essential family of axon guidance molecules that can be either secreted or are transmembrane proteins. Class 3 semaphorin (Sema3) family members are secreted and provide long-range guidance cues through two receptor families: neuropilins (Nrp) and plexins. Nrp is uniquely required for high-affinity Sema3 binding and signaling. Therefore, characterizing the molecular details of the Sema3/Nrp interaction is important for understanding the broader physiological and pathological role of the Sema3 family of proteins. Here we describe an in vitro plate-based binding assay for characterization of the Sema3/Nrp interaction. This assay utilizes Nrp-affinity plates and an alkaline phosphatase (AP)-Sema3 fusion to rapidly measure direct Sema3/Nrp binding. This assay can be used to measure receptor-ligand binding, the contribution of different domains, and exogenous factors, and to characterize competitive ligand binding.
Patronizing Mega-events to Globalize Identity: The Olympic Opening Ceremony as a Cultural Policy

The international global sports spectacle, an integral part of the Olympics (as well as the World Cup), has become a vehicle for the political exploitation of identity within a globalized context. “The growth of these organizations, and their major events, has provided a platform for national pride and prestige” (Tomlinson and Young 2006: 1). These spectacles, “a physical display of the body politic,” attract large followings as they serve to define the overall character of a particular Olympic Game (Tomlinson and Young 2006: 3). The competition to host the Games has become a media event in itself as the merits of the various contenders are evaluated. The benefits of hosting these events are clear as one recognizes the forum that is provided to celebrate national identity. “The international profile of the media event has produced recurrent discourses of identity and globalization” (Tomlinson 1996, 2000).
Wireless solution to prevent decubitus ulcers: Preventive weight shifting guide, monitor, and tracker app for wheel chair users with spinal cord injuries (phase II)

Pressure ulcers pose a huge financial burden on the economy. Pressure ulcers cost between $9.1 to 11.6 billion a year in the United States. Each individual pressure can cost from $20,900 to $151,700 per pressure ulcer. Wheelchair users with spinal cord injury have a higher risk of developing pressure ulcers due to limited mobility and the countless hours they spend in the wheelchair, exerting pressure on the points of interface between the bony structure and the wheelchair cushion. The areas of interface that are under prolonged pressure lack blood flow, causing the tissue to breakdown, leading to a decubitus or pressure ulcer. Approximately 28.9 % wheelchair users in communities, 27% in nursing homes, and between 5 and 30% of hospitalized patients develop pressure sores. Nearly 70% of elderly patients develop pressure ulcers, which in turn significantly increase the healthcare management and costs and can be a cause of pain, discomfort, loss of independence and mobility in not only the elderly but also the younger patients. Mobile technology can be exploited to provide a technological solution to preventing pressure ulcers. An app was designed and developed to notify, walk through the process of weight shifting and also track the movements of the patient performing weight shifting using the accelerometer. The app was tested to find that the forward lean movements can be tracked accurately using the accelerometer but the lateral movements although tracked could not verify that the weight shifting was correctly performed. In order to fix this issue the pressure map is used as an additional sensor to track and monitor the weight shifting accurately. This paper discusses the design and development of the app in two phases.
Kaposi's Sarcoma of the Oral Cavity.

A 33-year-old man presented with fatigue, skin lesions, and multiple, firm, nontender violaceous plaques in the oral cavity. He had a history of HIV infection and a low CD4 cell count.
The spectrum of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lesions in pediatric patients infected with HIV : A clinicopathologic study of six cases

Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lesions in nonimmunocompromised individuals include reactive lymphoid proliferations and both low- and high-grade lymphoid neoplasms. These lesions occur at extranodal mucosal sites, such as the gastrointestinal tract, bronchus, salivary gland, and other locations. The spectrum of MALT lesions in children with HIV infection had not been previously described. In this study, six cases that demonstrated the spectrum of MALT lesions in pediatric patients, aged 28 months to 23 years, who had HIV infection were described. Half the patients acquired the infection perinatally, and half acquired it by transfusion. Mucosal sites of involvement included the salivary gland (4 patients), bronchiolar mucosa (2 patients), and oropharyngeal mucosa (1 patient). One patient had lesions in lung and oropharynx sequentially; all others had involvement of solitary sites. The histologic diagnoses included myoepithelial sialadenitis (MESA), MESA with low-grade MALT lymphoma, typical low-grade MALT lymphoma, diffuse large cell lymphoma (DLCL), and atypical pulmonary lymphoid hyperplasia and lymphoid interstitial pneumonitis complex. The two cases of high-grade DLCL were confined to mucosal sites (tonsil and parotid); in one of these patients, a previous biopsy specimen showed a MALT lesion with low-grade features. In two cases, quantitation of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genome by the polymerase chain reaction showed a very high copy number in peripheral blood mononuclear cells but a low copy number in the MALT lesion, which suggested that MALT lesions may not be directly associated with EBV infection. Two patients who had high-grade tumors (DLCL) were successfully treated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The remaining patients, all of whom had low-grade MALT lesions, received either corticosteroids or alpha-interferon or no specific therapy; in all patients, the lesions followed an indolent clinical course. Clinicians and pathologists should be alert to the possibility that MALT lesions, including MALT lymphomas, may be present in children who have AIDS.
Synchronous and asynchronous multi-agent coordination with cLTL+ constraints

Planning trajectories for multiple agents in a way to guarantee that their collective behavior satisfies a certain high-level specification is crucial in many application domains. Motivated by this problem, we introduce a new logic called counting linear temporal logic plus (cLTL+). This logic enables specifying multi-agent tasks over possibly infinite horizons in a compact manner. We then propose an optimization-based method that generates trajectories for individual agents that, when implemented together, guarantee the satisfaction of a given cLTL+ formula. In the second part of the paper, we discuss how these results can be extended to generate trajectories that can be asynchronously implemented by the agents while preserving the satisfaction of the desired cLTL+ specification. In particular, we show that when the asynchrony between agent trajectories is bounded, it is possible to generate trajectories robust against such asynchrony with an appropriate modification of the optimization problem. Finally, we demonstrate these ideas on selected examples.
The role of NAFLD in cardiometabolic disease: an update.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of chronic liver disease in the world, yet the complex pathogenesis remains to be fully elucidated. The prevalence of NAFLD has risen precipitously in recent years and is now a leading indication for liver transplantation. New waitlist registrants with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis–induced cirrhosis increased by 170% from 2004 to 2013. In addition, patients with NAFLD are at increased risk of both cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes. In this update, recent studies contributing to the understanding of the place of NAFLD in cardiometabolic disease will be discussed.
A decision support system for real-time scheduling of multiple patient classes in outpatient services

We propose a methodology to provide real-time assistance for outpatient scheduling involving multiple patient types. Schedulers are shown how each prospective placement in the appointment book would impact a day’s operational performance for patients and providers. Rooted in prior literature and analytical findings, the information provided to schedulers about vacant slots is based on the probabilities that the calling patient, the already-existing appointments, and the session-end time will be unduly delayed. The information is updated in real-time before and after every new booking; calculations are driven by each patient type’s historical consultation times and no-show data, and implemented via a simulation tool based on the underlying analytical methodology. Our findings lead to practical guidelines for dynamically constructing templates that provide allowances for different consultation durations, service time variability, no-show rates, and provider-driven performance targets for patient waiting and provider overtime. Extensions to healthcare batch scheduling applications such as radiology, surgery, or chemotherapy—where patient mixes may be known in advance—are suggested as future research opportunities since avoiding session overtime and procedures’ completion time delays involve similar considerations.
Channelized front-ends for broadband signal processing with sub-band dynamic range control

A frequency-folded analog-to-digital converter (FF-ADC) simultaneously channelizes and digitizes a broadband input signal, while using a single LO. The broadband signal is downconverted and aliased in polyphase signal paths. The aliased signals are band-limited and are individually digitized using low-frequency sub-band ADCs. Channelization is performed using harmonic rejection after digitization. In this work an FF-ADC architecture is described wherein the sub-bands can be individually attenuated before the ADCs. This helps to relax the dynamic range requirement of the ADCs in the presence of a large variation over frequency in power spectral density in the broadband input signal. It is also shown that sub-band rejection better than 15 dB can be achieved for selected bands, without calibration, while the rest of the sub-bands are downconverted with equal gain. The approach is verified in simulation.
A preliminary report on the use of robots with elementary school students

Computing with robots has become a popular educational activity at several different levels for several different educational purposes. This paper examines the use of mobile robots in learning about computing at the fifth and sixth grade level. The authors have conducted several robot programming sessions with elementary school students over two semesters. This paper is a preliminary report of those activities.
Small Vessel Cerebrovascular Pathology Identified by Magnetic Resonance Imaging Is Prevalent in Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Potential Target for Intervention.

Background There is evidence that Alzheimer's disease (AD) has significant cerebrovascular etiopathogenesis. Understanding potentially modifiable risk factors for vascular disease can help design long-term intervention strategies for controlling or preventing cognitive dysfunction attributable to cerebrovascular disease. Objective To evaluate the presence and severity of markers of cerebrovascular pathology, its relationship to diagnostic categories of dementia, including AD, and association with the metabolic biomarker homocysteine. Methods In a cross-sectional observational study, 340 community-dwelling elders received a clinical evaluation including brain MRI and neuropsychological tests. Dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) were diagnosed by consensus committee. Fasting total plasma homocysteine was measured. Statistical analyses were adjusted for demographics and cerebrovascular risk factors. Results Nearly 25% of those diagnosed with AD had small vessel infarcts (SVI). Periventricular white matter hyperintensity (pvWMHI) was prevalent in participants with AD (61%) or MCI (amnesic 61% and non-amnesic 54%, respectively). Participants with SVI and/or pvWMHI also had greater brain atrophy. Homocysteine concentrations were higher in individuals with cerebrovascular findings than in those without. In individuals with cerebrovascular disease, homocysteine was inversely related to executive function (p = 0.022) and directly related to degree of brain atrophy (p = 0.009). Conclusions We demonstrated a significant prevalence of small vessel markers of cerebrovascular pathology in individuals diagnosed with AD, with a significant concurrence between cerebrovascular disease and brain and ventricular atrophy. While current research on AD has focused on amyloid-βpeptide deposition, tau-pathology, and microglial activation and inflammation, greater attention to the cerebrovascular contribution to this neurodegenerative disease presents an additional target for therapeutic prevention and intervention.
Management Algorithm for Acute and Chronic Diaphragmatic Injuries

Diaphragmatic injury remains an elusive diagnosis for many clinicians as these injuries are often asymptomatic or masked by more severe concomitant injuries at time of presentation. A management algorithm focusing on expedient diagnosis and treatment of these injuries is essential to minimize the long-term morbidity and potential mortality associated with untreated diaphragmatic injuries. The most crucial diagnostic tool in diaphragmatic injury diagnosis is a high degree of suspicion. This can be supplemented with adjunctive imaging though management is primarily operative. Clinical presentation of diaphragmatic injury can be stratified based upon chronicity of injury. In the acute setting, most diaphragmatic injuries are often found during intervention for concomitant injury. These injuries are primarily via an abdominal approach. Chronic injuries typically present with symptoms of obstruction or respiratory compromise and are conversely repaired through a thoracic approach. Variations on repair technique depend on additional findings at time of intervention.
Current genetic counseling practice in the United States following positive non-invasive prenatal testing for sex chromosome abnormalities.

The purpose of this study was to describe current genetic counseling practice in the United States following a non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) result positive for a sex chromosome abnormality (SCA). Screening for SCAs can be confounded by confined placental mosaicism, natural loss of the X chromosome from maternal cells during aging, and undiagnosed maternal SCA or copy number variant (CNV). Furthermore, with the exception of 45,X, individuals with SCAs usually have no ultrasound or postnatal findings. This makes follow-up for unresolved positive NIPT necessary; however, there are currently no clinical guidelines. This study used a cross-sectional design with an anonymous questionnaire to survey 176 genetic counselors. The majority of prenatal respondents always offered diagnostic testing (>88%) and anatomy ultrasound (~90%), but the percent consistently offering maternal karyotype (22%-52%) and postnatal evaluation (28%-87%) varied. Maternal karyotype was offered more often when NIPT was positive for 45,X or 47,XXX and patients had normal prenatal diagnostic testing (p 72%) but the percent offering maternal karyotype (6%-46%) varied widely. With the current inconsistencies, many newborns with undiagnosed SCAs who could benefit from growth hormone therapy, early intervention, and/or targeted surveillance may be missed. Therefore, there is a need for professional guidelines to help improve the consistency of clinical care for patients with NIPT results positive for SCAs.
Ebola-Related Health Information Wanted and Obtained by Nurses and Public Health Department Employees: Effects of Formal and Informal Communication Channels.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to (1) understand types and amounts of Ebola-related information that health organization employees wanted and obtained through formal, informal, internal, and external organizational communication channels; (2) determine potential discrepancies between information wanted and obtained; and (3) investigate how organizational structure might affect information wanted and obtained through these communication channels. Methods: Primary data were collected from 526 health workers in 9 hospitals and 13 public health departments in Texas from June to November 2015. Survey data were collected for 7 types of Ebola-related information health organization employees wanted and obtained through various types of organizational communication channels. Descriptive statistical analyses, mixed design analysis of variance, regression analyses, and multilevel analyses were used to analyze the data. Results: Hospital employees (mostly nurses in our sample) received more self-care information than they wanted from every communication channel. However, they received less about all other types of information than they wanted from every communication channel separately and combined. Public health department employees wanted more information than they received from every communication channel separately and combined for all 7 types of information. Conclusions: Discrepancies existed between the types of Ebola-related information wanted and obtained by employees of hospitals and public health departments.
Implementing distributed graph filters by elementary matrix decomposition

In this letter, we consider the implementation problem of distributed graph filters, where each node only has access to the signals of the current and its neighboring nodes. By using Gaussian elimination, we show that as long as the graph is connected, we can implement any graph filter by decomposing the filter into a product of directly implementable filters, filters that only use the signals at the current and neighboring nodes as inputs. We have also included a concrete example as an illustration.
Creating interdisciplinary collaborative teaching/learning praxis with design thinking, communication, and composition

In this paper, we discuss the point of view of three instructors who teach the integrated courses in the first-year program at Purdue University. The first-year integrated program launched by Polytechnic institute (College under Purdue University) combines three departments: English, Communication, and Technology. The instructors representing these departments teach technology students about Design Thinking, Composition, and Communication, thereby providing students an opportunity for designing and developing multimodal compositions geared towards solving global issues via interdisciplinary interactions.
Data Interoperability: Infrastructure, Historical Artifact, or Science Meme? Examples from the Geosciences

This poster provides an overview of an initial effort to examine the development of data interoperability from an infrastructural perspective applied to two geoscience examples, the International Geosample Number (IGSN) and EarthCube. Both activities represent efforts to develop data interoperability as part of computer supported cooperative work. In the case of the IGSN, the data interoperability provided by the cyberinfrastructure is arguably reaching the point of becoming a substrate for scientists. In the case of EarthCube, data interoperability through the envisaged cyberinfrastructure remains elusive. Recent themes in CSCW literature examine questions of infrastructure and infrastructuring [17]. A goal of this poster is to illustrate the potential to use analysis of geoscience infrastructure to add to these discussions. The relevance of data interoperability is significant given the large amounts of funding and effort being put towards this goal and the potential for data interoperability to foster new scientific insights. Finally, examining this topic is even more salient given the recent emphasis on "FAIR data."
Femoral and Above-Knee Popliteal Injuries

The simultaneous management of peripheral vascular injuries in the pursuit of life and limb is very challenging. The decision to amputate or reconstruct an ischemic requires sound judgment that often comes with experience. These patients have significant transfusion requirements and the resuscitation should not be separated from the surgery. Tibial vessels can be ligated when a Doppler signal is obtainable in the distal extremity. Systemic heparin is not necessary; however adequate intimal debridement and liberal flushing with heparinized saline during the repair is essential. A well-covered interposed saphenous vein graft is a durable conduit and favored over prosthetic materials, even if the bypass will occur above the knee. Venous reconstruction should be performed when time permits. Completion arteriography is not usually necessary, but a pulse exam should be confirmed with a continuous wave Doppler signal and ABIs.
Effect of Fibril Length on the Ice Recrystallization Inhibition Activity of Nanocelluloses.

Ice recrystallization inhibition (IRI) activity has been recently discovered on nanocelluloses, which enables potential applications in several fields. This study focused on the effect of fibril length on the IRI activity of nanocelluloses. The 2, 2, 6, 6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl oxidized cellulose nanofibrils (TEMPO-CNFs) with similar surface charge densities (SCDs) and fibril widths, but with different fibril lengths were prepared by sonication treatment. The IRI activity of nanocelluloses was enhanced in TEMPO-CNFs receiving sonication less than 30 min because of the reduction of fibril aggregation. Further increase of sonication time to 60 and 120 min led to a decreased IRI activity due to the reduction of fibril lengths. Our results indicate longer nanocelluloses are more IRI active. The IRI activity was not correlated with the viscosity or gelling properties of nanocellulose dispersions. Research findings are useful in producing nanocelluloses with enhanced IRI activity and in understanding the underlying IRI mechanism.
The Antarctic sea ice cover from ICESat-2 and CryoSat-2: freeboard, snowdepth and ice thickness

Abstract. We offer a view of the Antarctic sea ice cover from lidar (ICESat-2) and radar (CryoSat-2) altimetry, with retrievals of freeboards, snow depth, and ice volume that span an 8-month winter between April 2019 and November 2019. Snow depths are from freeboard differences. The multiyear ice in the West Weddell sector stands out with a mean sector thickness > 2 m. Thinnest ice is found near polynyas (Ross Sea and Ronne) where new ice areas are exported seaward and entrained in the surrounding ice cover. For all months, the results suggest that ~ 60–70 % of the total freeboard is comprised of snow. The remarkable response of the ice cover to mechanical convergence in the coastal Amundsen Sea, associated with onshore winds, was captured in the correlated increase in local freeboards and thickness. While the spatial patterns in the freeboard, snow depth, and thickness composites are as expected, the observed seasonality in these variables is surprisingly weak likely attributable to competing processes (snowfall, snow redistribution, snow-ice formation, ice deformation, basal growth/melt) that contribute to uncorrelated changes in the total and radar freeboards. Broadly, evidence points to biases in CryoSat-2 freeboards of at least a few centimeters from high salinity snow (> 10 psu) in the basal layer resulting in lower/higher snow depth/ice thickness retrievals although the extent of these areas cannot be established in the current data set. Adjusting CryoSat-2 freeboards by 3/6 cm gives a circumpolar ice volume of 14,700/12,400 km3 in October, for an average thickness of ~ 1.09/0.93 m. Validation of Antarctic sea ice parameters remains a challenge, there are no seasonally and regionally diverse data sets that could be used to assess these large-scale satellite retrievals.
Distress evaluation in a veteran affairs oncology clinic

Distress in oncology patients (pts) has a negative impact on quality of life, survival, and healthcare satisfaction. Higher distress leads to lower compliance with treatment and follow-up [1–8]. The 2012 American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC) standard of care for oncology pts included an assessment for distress [1]. A screening process for distress allows the healthcare team to address these issues early and refer to appropriate resources [2–9]. This project was initiated to meet National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and CoC standard of care, identify distress in veterans with cancer, and address these concerns. Patients who attended the Tuesday oncology clinic at the Dayton VAMC were given the NCCN Distress Thermometer (DT) during triage. The treating physician addressed problems identified. The Wilcoxon signed rank test and the Friedman test were used. DTs were completed by 296 pts from March to December 2016. Mean age was 68, 93% male, 83% white, 55% married, and 93% without PTSD. The distress level was not different from T1 through T3. Number of problems decreased over three time periods. Referrals to nutrition, mental health, and social work services increased over time. Although over time periods we found no decrease in distress scores, there was a decline in number of problems. The mean distress score at all but time 4 was < 4, which is considered mild distress. The mean distress score at T4 was 4.36 (n = 14), suggesting that the few pts who return to clinic more than three times may be experiencing more difficult personal and environmental circumstances. Patient sample ranged from those undergoing intensive cancer treatment (e.g., chemotherapy) to less intensive treatment (e.g., hormone injections) to those who completed treatment.
Joint Modeling and Risk Simulation Analysis Based on Cyber-Physical System in Distribution Network

With the development of intelligent distribution network construction and transformation, the traditional distribution network has gradually evolved into a closely related integration system composed of electric power physical network, information communication network and information control network, which has typical characteristics of Cyber-Physical System (CPS). This paper studies the the overall architecture and Information-Physical coupling characteristics of CPS in distribution network, constructs a CPS simulation framework consisting of RT-LAB, OPNET and control platform, and proposes a method of joint modeling and risk simulation analysis of distribution network considering network attack based on CPS. Finally, an example is given to verify the rationality of the platform and the effectiveness of the simulation method.
Can Disclosure of Pharmaceutical Industry Payments Induce Cost Conscious Prescribing? Evidence from New Jersey

This paper examines whether disclosure of pharmaceutical industry payments to physicians reduces branded prescribing by disclosed physicians in hospital care. The basis of disclosure is the threat of reputational consequences; however, it is not clear that reputational incentives (either social or financial) will be particularly strong in the hospital context. Using hospital discharge data from the New Jersey Department of Health, I exploit a unique natural experiment in which physicians are observed after receiving payments but before they are aware that they will be disclosed. Using differences-in-differences to compare within-physician prescriptions of branded drugs before and after their payments were disclosed, I find that disclosure does not induce cost consciousness as hoped: disclosure led to a 0.8 percentage point increase in the share of branded drugs by disclosed physicians relative to undisclosed physicians.
The Pay Gapper

The feminist move for equal pay is dead from the neck up. To be sure, legislatures are continually enacting this idea into law. But as the evidence continues to pile up, its intellectual foundation is crumbling. The first nail in the coffin is that there is no wage gap between never-married males and females. That much ballyhooed statistic according to which women’s pay is only a fraction of mens’ stems to great degree from the asymmetrical effects of marital status. Marriage enhances the husband’s income, and reduces that of the wife. Why? There is an enormous divergence between male and female contributions to the household: shopping, cooking, cleaning, child care, etc. When the incomes of people who have never been married are compared, and thus marriage asymmetry can play no role, the gap disappears. Often, depending upon the country, the year, the educational attainments, it reverses itself. Never-married women sometimes earn more than never-married men. As for the ever-marrieds (widowed, divorced, separated, presently married) the gap is far greater than that which prevails for all males and females.
HRD in a Complex World

Introduction Reviewing the Bases of HR: The Depth 1. The Complex Roots of HRD 2. Complexity, HRD and Organization Development: Towards a Viable Systems Approach to Learning, Development and Change 3. Worldviews that Enhance and Inhibit HRD's Social Responsibility 4. Strategic Quest and the Search for the Primal Mother Reflections of HR: The Width 5. Human Resource Development in the Arab Middle East: A 'Fourth Paradigm' 6. The Ethics of Human Resource Development 7. Reconciling Autonomy and Community-The Paradoxical Role of HRD 8. The Urge to Destroy is a Creative Urge Realities of HR: Applying the Theories 9. Clarifying the Complexity of Emotion in HRD: The Use of Visualisation Technology 10.Complexifying Organisation and Development 11.A New Perception for a New Millennium 12.Individual and Collective Experiential Learning in Periods of Major Change Realities of HR: Aspects of Practice 13.Leadership Principles and Reflections for Unravelling the Stranglehold of Organisational Boundaries Challenges for Health Service 14. Propositions for Incorporating a Pedagogy of Complexity, Emotion and Power in HRD Education 15.The LIne Manager as a Facilitator of Team Learning and Change 16.A Practitioner's Reflections on HRD Research: a Case of Internalised Complexity?
Dissecting CD8+ NKT Cell Responses to Listeria Infection Reveals a Component of Innate Resistance

A small pool of NK1.1(+) CD8(+) T cells is harbored among the conventional CD8(+) T cell compartment. Conclusions drawn from the analysis of immune responses mediated by cytotoxic CD8(+) T cells are often based on the total population, which includes these contaminating NK1.1(+) CD8(+) T cells. An unresolved question is whether NK1.1(+) CD8(+) cells are conventional T cells that acquire NK1.1 expression upon activation or delineation into memory phenotype or whether they are a distinct cell population that induces immune responses in a different manner than conventional T cells. To address this question, we used the Listeria monocytogenes model of infection and followed CD8(+) NK1.1(+) T cells and NK1.1(-) CD8(+) T cells during each phase of the immune response: innate, effector, and memory. Our central finding is that CD8(+) NK1.1(+) cells and conventional NK1.1(-) CD8(+) T cells both contribute to the adaptive immune response to Listeria, but only CD8(+) NK1.1(+) cells were equipped with the ability to provide a rapid innate immune response, as demonstrated by early and Ag-independent IFN-γ production, granzyme B expression, and degranulation. More importantly, purified conventional CD8(+) T cells alone, in the absence of any contaminating CD8(+) NK1.1(+) cells, were not sufficient to provide early protection to lethally infected mice. These results highlight the role of CD8(+) NK1.1(+) T cells in mounting early innate responses that are important for host defense and support the therapeutic potential of this subset to improve the effectiveness of protective immunity.
Repatriation of expatriate employees, knowledge transfer, and organizational learning: What do we know?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the topic of repatriation and the potential benefits of the use of repatriated employees to enhance global knowledge and organizational learning in multinational corporations.Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides an integrative literature review of articles published on repatriation, knowledge transfer, and organization learning 1999‐2009.Findings – The literature review revealed that repatriation is a growing field of study in international human resources, and must be addressed as a multidimensional phenomenon in order to capture a clear picture of the challenges and potential benefits resulting from repatriation.Originality/value – This paper suggests practical measures to address repatriation and identify gaps for future research.
Overview of biological mechanisms and applications of three murine models of bone repair: closed fracture with intramedullary fixation, distraction osteogenesis, and marrow ablation by reaming.

Fractures are one of the most common large-organ, traumatic injuries in humans, and osteoporosis-related fractures are the fastest growing health care problem of aging. Elective orthopedic surgeries of the bones and joints also represent some of most common forms of elective surgeries performed. Optimal repair of skeletal tissues is necessary for successful outcomes of these many different orthopedic surgical treatments. Research focused on post-natal skeletal repair is therefore of immense clinical importance and of particular relevance in situations in which bone tissue healing is compromised due to the extent of tissue trauma or specific medical co-morbidities. Three commonly used murine surgical models of bone healing, closed fracture with intramedullary fixation, distraction osteogenesis (DO), and marrow ablation by reaming are presented. The biological aspects of these models are contrasted and the types of research questions that may be addressed with these models are presented.
Reconstrucing the systems development organization

Today's typical information systems (IS) organization clings to the belief that it is primarily in the new system development business, a notion based increasingly on substantial self-deception. In reality, many IS development staffs now devote the majority of their efforts to the repair and enhancement of currently installed systems. This "maintenance" task, as it is commonly termed, is widely misunderstood, misrepresented, and undervalued. A reconstruction is necessary, one in which the repair and ongoing development of installed systems is given proper emphasis and strategic recognition.
Normal- and superconducting-state properties of La 1.85 Sr 0.15 CuO 4

We report results of resistivity, magnetoresistance, transition-temperature, and upper-critical-field measurements for La/sub 1.85/Sr/sub 0.15/CuO/sub 4/. We derive values for the coherence length, mean free path, and electronic specific heat and compare our results with Ba(Pb,Bi)O/sub 3/. We conclude that phonon-mediated superconductivity can explain the high transition temperatures in these materials.
Effectiveness of combined interleukin 2 and B7.1 vaccination strategy is dependent on the sequence and order: a liposome-mediated gene therapy treatment for bladder cancer.

We have developed a novel liposome-mediated immunogene therapy using interleukin 2 (IL-2) and B7.1 in a murine bladder cancer model. A carcinogen-induced murine bladder cancer cell line, MBT-2, was transfected with cationic liposome 1,2-dimyristyloxypropyl-3-dimethyl-hydroxyethyl ammonium bromide/dioleolylphosphatidylethanolamine and IL-2 plasmid. The optimized transfection condition generated IL-2 levels of 245-305 ng/10(6) cells/24 h, 100-fold higher than the levels seen with retrovirus transfection. Ninety percent of the peak level of IL-2 production was maintained for up to 11 days after transfection. Animal studies were conducted in C3H/HeJ female mice with 2 x 10(4) MBT-2 cells implanted orthotopically on day 0. Multiple vaccination schedules were performed with i.p. injection of 5 x 10(6) IL-2 and/or B7.1 gene-modified cell preparations. The greatest impact on survival was observed with the day 5, 10, and 15 regimen. Control animals receiving retrovirally gene-modified MBT-2/IL-2 cell preparations had a median survival of 29 days. Animals receiving the IL-2 liposomally gene-modified cell preparation alone had a median survival of 46 days. Seventy-five percent of animals receiving IL-2 followed by B7.1 gene-modified tumor vaccines were the only group to show complete tumor-free survival at day 60. All of these surviving animals rejected the parental MBT-2 tumor rechallenge and survived at day 120 with a high CTL response. In conclusion, liposome-mediated transfection demonstrates a clear advantage as compared with the retroviral system in the MBT-2 model. Multi-agent as opposed to single-agent cytokine gene-modified tumor vaccines were beneficial. These "targeted" sequential vaccinations using IL-2 followed by B7.1 gene-modified tumor cells significantly increased a systemic immune response that translated into increased survival.
Dietary factors of one-carbon metabolism and prostate cancer risk

Background Folate is hypothesized to be inversely associated with the risk of several cancers, but such a potential association has not been well studied for prostate cancer. Vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12, methionine, and alcohol can influence folate-related metabolism. Objective The objective was to investigate the associations between dietary factors of one-carbon metabolism and prostate cancer risk within the alpha-Tocopherol, beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study. Design Of the cohort's 27 111 Finnish male smokers aged 50-69 y who had complete dietary data, 1270 had a diagnosis of incident prostate cancer between 1985 and 2002. Folate, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12, methionine, and alcohol intakes were estimated from a 276-item modified dietary history questionnaire. Cox proportional hazard models, adjusted for age and vitamin supplement use, estimated relative risks (RR) and 95% CIs. Results Vitamin B-6 intake was inversely associated with prostate cancer risk (RR for highest versus lowest quintile: 0.88; 95% CI: 0.72, 1.07; P for trend = 0.045), whereas vitamin B-12 intake was associated with significantly increased risk (RR = 1.36; 95% CI: 1.14, 1.96; P for trend = 0.01). No association between folate or alcohol intake and prostate cancer risk was observed. No differences were found in the above associations according to stage of disease or subgroups of several potential effect modifiers. Conclusions We found no convincing evidence for a protective role of one-carbon metabolism against prostate cancer, although these observations can be generalized only to smokers. The possible modest protective association with vitamin B-6 and the significantly elevated risk with vitamin B-12 intake warrant further investigation.
Generational differences in response to desiccation stress in the desert moss Tortula inermis.

†Background and Aims Active growth in post-embryonic sporophytes of desert mosses is restricted to the cooler, wetter months. However, most desert mosses have perennial gametophytes. It is hypothesized that these life history patterns are due, in part, to a reduced desiccation tolerance for sporophytes relative to gametophytes. †Methods Gametophytes with attached post-embryonic sporophytes of Tortula inermis (early seta elongation phenophase) were exposed to two levels of desiccation stress, one rapid-dry cycle and two rapid-dry cycles, then moistened and allowed to recover, resume development, and/or regenerate for 35 d in a growth chamber. †Key Results Gametophytes tolerated the desiccation treatments well, with 93 % survival through regenerated shoot buds and/or protonemata. At the high stress treatment, a significantly higher frequency of burned leaves and browned shoots occurred. Sporophytes were far more sensitive to desiccation stress, with only 23 % surviving after the low desiccation stress treatment, and 3 % surviving after the high desiccation stress treatment. While the timing of protonemal production and sporophytic phenophases was relatively unaffected by desiccation stress, shoots exposed to one rapid-dry cycle produced shoots more rapidly than shoots exposed to two rapid-dry cycles. †Conclusions It is concluded that sporophytes of Tortula inermis are more sensitive to rapid drying than are maternal gametophytes, and that sporophyte abortion in response to desiccation results from either reduced desiccation tolerance of sporophytes relative to gametophytes, or from a termination of the sporophyte on the part of the gametophyte in response to stress.
Coastal landslide material loss rates associated with severe climatic events

Deep-seated landslides along the California coast deliver large amounts of material to the nearshore littoral environment. Landslide movement, a combined result of slope base undercutting by waves and ground saturation, is highly episodic. Movement occurs primarily during periods of high rainfall and large waves, such as those associated with El Nino events. This analysis applies remote-sensing techniques to quantify the volumetric net loss rates at three specific landslide sites along the Big Sur coast over three approximately decadal time periods, two of which contained the largest El Nino events of the twentieth century. High-resolution historical terrain models were compared in order to provide surface- elevation change data for each landslide complex. To determine the material influx to the littoral system, the landslide complexes were divided into upper and lower slopes, and the surface-elevation change was converted to a volume loss. Some material lost from the upper slope was deposited at the slope base, not into the littoral system. We describe a method to calculate the net loss that omits the deposition volumes from the upper slope. Loss rates were found to be substantially higher during the periods in which El Nino events occurred. This is especially true during the period of the 1997–1998 El Nino, when 75% of the total material volume was lost, and loss rates were as much as sixteen times higher than during non–El Nino periods.
ADVOCATING FOR COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENTS IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CASES

Many jurisdictions handle domestic violence cases on a one-size-fits-all basis, with a presumption in favor of a finding of child neglect and removal when children are exposed to domestic violence. Such a standard fails to recognize that not all domestic violence is the same and not all families are equally affected. The impact of domestic violence depends on several factors such as the different types of domestic violence the frequency and intensity of the violence, the frequency and extent of the child's exposure, and each family member's unique experiences and characteristics. This view takes the position that parents’ capacity to participate in counseling and services promoting the health and safety of their children varies, as does the appropriateness of children being removed from the home as a result of exposure to domestic violence. Therefore, this Note proposes that states develop a standard for both courts and child protective agencies that carefully examines each domestic violence case using an individualized factual analysis and attempt to mitigate the effects of a child's exposure to domestic violence by means other than a presumption for or against removal (temporary or permanent) in every case.
A model of heat-induced clonogenic cell death*

When cells are exposed to elevated temperatures, clonogenicity decreases in a temperature-dependent manner displaying non-linear kinetics. In this report we show that the survival of synchronized cell populations after heat exposure can be characterized by a parameter e , which is normally-distributed throughout the population. Cells whose corresponding e -value lies below an arbitrary threshold value e min are unable to form a colony. Upon transfer of a cell culture to an elevated temperature, the mean value of the e distribution decreases exponentially over time with a rate dependent upon the difference between the current and final mean value, until reaching a final value e ¯ f dependent on the particular temperature used, thus representing a larger proportion of cells with e e min which are non-clonogenic. The analyses evaluate a temperature-independent parameter k which is presumed to be dependent upon the growth conditions of the cell population, and a temperature-dependent parameter e ¯ f , which is characteristic of the new temperature-perturbed steady state. Comparison of the results of analysis of synchronized G 1 cell survival data to that for S phase cells obtained over a range of temperatures shows that it is sufficient to ascribe the increased thermal sensitivity of S phase cells to a different k value, the temperature-dependence of e ¯ f being identical in the two cases. Linear regression analysis of the temperature-dependence of e ¯ f , when expressed as ln (− e ¯ f ) = a 0 + a 1 / T demonstrated strong linearity ( r 2 = 0·99) for either the individual ( G 1 or S ) or combined data sets. This description of heat-induced cytotoxicity may be of use as the basis for a dose concept for the clinical administration of hyperthermia.