cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
ECT Effects on Mineral Metabolism and Neuroendocrine Function

ABSTRACT This chapter reviews the current status of studies in calcium metabolism in depression treated by ECT. Metabolic balance studies, urinary calcium excretion, blood and cerebrospinal fluid calcium concentrations are discussed in relation to pre, immediately post and late post-ECT measurements. Inadequate and somewhat conflicting data make a definitive conclusion impossible at this time. There is a general consensus that calcium metabolism tends to be negative during depression and moves toward a positive balance, with decreased urinary calcium, after successful treatment. Reported serum calcium changes are contradictory, with earlier results from several studies showing an immediate and transient increase in serum levels (in some reports followed by an immediate rebound decrease) with return to pretreatment values within hours. A single more recent (and apparently better controlled) study of seven cases reports an immediate post-ECT decrease in serum and cerebrospinal fluid calcium but apparently only after a few ECT and coinciding with lessening of depression. Late post-ECT values appear to return to or toward normal. All data are consistent in finding pretreatment serum and cerebrospinal fluid calcium levels within normal limits. Potential neuroendocrine and non-hormonal mechanisms which could contribute to these changes are discussed.
Conundrums, Paradoxes, and Surprises: A Brave New World of Biodiversity Conservation

Anthropogenic activity is altering the global disturbance regime through such processes as urbanization, deforestation, and climate change. These disturbance events alter the environmental conditions under which organisms live and adapt and trigger succession, thus setting the biota in motion in both ecological and evolutionary space. The result is the mixing of species from different biogeographic regions and formation of novel communities of plants and animals. In this essay I present the point of view that this mixing and remixing of species is a natural response to the changing condition of the biophysical environment. The assembly of novel ecological systems reflects a healthy biota changing and adapting to acute and chronic anthropogenic disturbances. These anthropogenic disturbances add uncertainty to the state of the environment by inducing directionality and unpredictability to the disturbance regime, as opposed to the cyclic and predictable patterns of historical natural disturbances. If this view is correct, the paradoxes and surprises that are being recorded in the scientific literature should not surprise us nor appear paradoxical. Rather, they reflect normal responses to the uncertainty and magnitude of change of condition generated by anthropogenic activity. The current conditions under which we must manage tropical resources confront us with conundrums that must be approached with caution. Land managers need to consider their options in terms of cost and opportunities of success when they focus attention and resources on restoring natural conditions that can no longer exist on the planet.
The Objectives of Mathematics Education.

MATHEMATICS educators are once again engaged in a vigorous debate. This time the subject is behavioral objectives. Are they good or are they bad? The arguments pro and con have been rather thoroughly presented. See, for example, the articles of Walbesser (1972), Nichols (1972), Allendoerfer (1971), and Forbes (1971). Before proceeding, however, I would like briefly to remind the reader of the events and debates leading up to the current debate. Soviet space achievements in the 1950s signaled the end of the era of rote learning of elementary mathematics?the "old math." This brought mathematicians and teachers of college-level mathematics into school mathematics (for better or worse). Addition facts, multiplication tables, and time-honored jargon like "invert and multiply" and "minus times minus equals plus" gave way to the concepts and the new jargon of sets, additive inverses, the distributive property, and the empty set. There was much debate in teaching circles (and also among mathematicians) over the pros and cons of the new mathe matics. Nonetheless, the new mathematics greatly changed the curriculum as well as the methodology for all of us. In the late 1960s, the pendulum began to swing again?not back to the old
Sempa Studies of Oscillatory Exchange Coupling

We have used scanning electron microscopy with polarization analysis (SEMPA) to investigate the magnetic exchange coupling between an Fe film and an Fe whisker separated by either a Cr or Ag spacer layer. The thickness dependence of the oscillatory coupling in these atomically well ordered, epitaxial films was precisely measured. The periodicity of the exchange coupling is consistent with predictions based on Fermi surface spanning vectors of the interlayer material.
Miscellaneous and Unusual Types of Thyroid Tumors

The majority of epithelial thyroid tumors maintain some degree of thyroid follicular cell function, as shown by thyroglobulin production and the ability to concentrate iodine. They also have typical histological appearances, such as those seen in papillary and follicular carcinomas. This chapter discusses a group of unusual primary thyroid neoplasms characterized by limited, or the absence of, differentiated thyroid cellular function and structure. In general, these tumors have more aggressive clinical courses than differentiated carcinomas. The term “poorly differentiated” is relatively nonspecific. To a pathologist, it might refer to the cellular architecture, whereas a clinician might believe a tumor is “poorly differentiated” when it traps radioiodine poorly. To both groups, however, the implication of more aggressive disease and poorer prognosis applies. This chapter also reviews tumors that metastasize to the thyroid gland. The thyroid tumors discussed in this chapter have been classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) under the category of ‘other’ thyroid carcinomas, nonepithelial tumors, and in the case of several histological types to be discussed, variants of papillary and follicular carcinoma (1,2).
Role of transfusions in the development of hospital-acquired urinary tract-related bloodstream infection among United States Veterans.

Background Urinary tract–related bloodstream infection (BSI) is associated with substantial morbidity, mortality, and financial costs. We examined the role of red blood cell (RBC) transfusions on developing this condition among US Veterans. Methods We conducted a matched case-control study among adult inpatients admitted to 4 Veterans Affairs hospitals. Cases were patients with a positive urine culture result obtained 48hours or longer after admission and a blood culture obtained within 14days of the urine culture, which grew the same organism. Controls included patients with a positive urine culture result who were at risk for but did not develop BSI (control group 1) and patients without a positive urine culture result who were present in the facility at the time of case diagnosis (control group 2). Results Compared with the findings in control group 1, receipt of RBCs was not significantly associated with urinary tract–related BSI (odds ratio, 1.03; 95% confidence interval, 1.00-1.07; P = .07). However, we found increased odds of urinary tract–related BSI compared with the results in patients without infection (control group 2) (odds ratio, 1.11; 95% confidence interval, 1.06-1.17; P Conclusions Given the heightened risk of urinary tract–related BSI associated with receiving a greater number of RBC transfusions, adhering to recommendations to transfuse the minimum amount of blood products necessary may minimize the risk of this infection among Veterans.
A Forward Chemical Genetic Screen Reveals Gut Microbiota Metabolites That Modulate Host Physiology

The intestinal microbiota produces tens of thousands of metabolites. Here, we used host sensing of small molecules by G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) as a lens to illuminate bioactive microbial metabolites that impact host physiology. We screened 144 human gut bacteria against the non-olfactory GPCRome and identified dozens of bacteria that activated both well-characterized and orphan GPCRs, including strains that converted dietary histidine into histamine and shaped colonic motility; a prolific producer of the essential amino acid L-Phe, which we identified as an agonist for GPR56 and GPR97; and a species that converted L-Phe into the potent psychoactive trace amine phenethylamine, which crosses the blood-brain barrier and triggers lethal phenethylamine poisoning after monoamine oxidase inhibitor administration. These studies establish an orthogonal approach for parsing the microbiota metabolome and uncover multiple biologically relevant host-microbiota metabolome interactions.
Impact of Hurricane Harvey on Galveston Bay Saltmarsh Nekton Communities

Coastal saltmarshes are a unique habitat at the interface of tidal coastal waters and freshwater inflow providing foraging and nursery habitat for a dynamic nekton community. Saltmarshes are particularly exposed to natural disturbances such as tropical storms, which can cause shifts in water chemistry and nekton community composition. Hurricane Harvey resulted in widespread flooding and record freshwater inflow into Galveston Bay in late August 2017. This study examined the influence of the hurricane on nekton community composition of two saltmarshes in Galveston Bay, TX. Nekton were monitored from February to December 2017 using minnow seines and Breder traps. Reduced abundance and increased diversity, despite the overall reduced number of taxa of the nekton community, were documented following the hurricane. Exacerbating these differences were reduced catches of the numerically dominant daggerblade grass shrimp, Palaemonetes pugio, following the event. For some key dominant species, a significant reduction in length was measured between pre- and post-disturbance; therefore, it is likely that new recruits, rather than the return of displaced adults, drove the community recovery. A complete recovery to a pre-disturbance state will likely require at least a full year due to seasonal recruitment patterns of many of the saltmarsh nekton species. Short-term but large-scale natural disturbances can significantly impact saltmarsh nekton communities, but because of their dynamic nature, they are generally resilient.
Insights from Educational Psychology Part 12: Interventions and Collaborations

Educational interventions are manipulations implemented to change students’ thoughts, emotions, or behaviors. Brief, easily implemented interventions have been shown to have long-lasting positive e...
Sequential Treatment of Estrogen Deficient, Osteopenic Rats with Alendronate, Parathyroid Hormone (1–34), or Raloxifene Alters Cortical Bone Mineral and Matrix Composition

Anti-resorptive and anabolic treatments can be used sequentially to treat osteoporosis, but their effects on bone composition are incompletely understood. Osteocytes may influence bone tissue composition with sequential therapies because bisphosphonates diffuse into the canalicular network and anabolic treatments increase osteocyte lacunar size. Cortical bone composition of osteopenic, ovariectomized (OVX) rats was compared to that of Sham-operated rats and OVX rats given monotherapy or sequential regimens of single approved anti-osteoporosis medications. Adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were OVX (N = 37) or Sham-OVXd (N = 6). After 2 months, seven groups of OVX rats were given three consecutive 3-month periods of treatment with vehicle (V), h-PTH (1-34) (P), alendronate (A), or raloxifene (R), using the following orders: VVV, PVV, RRR, RPR, AAA, AVA, and APA. Compositional properties around osteocyte lacunae of the left tibial cortex were assessed from Raman spectra in perilacunar and non-perilacunar bone matrix regions. Sequential treatments involving parathyroid hormone (PTH) caused lower mean collagen maturity relative to monotherapies. Mean mineral:matrix ratio was 2.2% greater, mean collagen maturity was 1.4% greater, and mean carbonate:phosphate ratio was 2.2% lower in the perilacunar than in the non-perilacunar bone matrix region (all P < 0.05). These data demonstrate cortical bone tissue composition differences around osteocytes caused by sequential treatment with anti-osteoporosis medications. We speculate that the region-specific differences demonstrate the ability of osteocytes to alter bone tissue composition adjacent to lacunae.
Armed Spiders Phoneutria Perty (Arachnida: Araneae: Ctenidae)

Phoneutria are nocturnal hunters that actively forage and overcome prey with potent venom rather than relying on a web for prey capture. Members of the genus are among the most medically important spiders in the world (Vetter and Isbister 2008).https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in1207 Also available at: http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/URBAN/SPIDERS/armed_spider.html
Comparative Analysis of PWM Power Losses in IPM Machines with Different Modulation Schemes Using Wide-Bandgap-Based Inverters

This paper investigates the total PWM power losses in interior permanent magnet (IPM) machines excited by voltage-source inverters using wide-bandgap (WBG) power devices with different pulse-width modulation (PWM) schemes and a wide range of switching frequencies. The PWM current ripple characteristics are predicted and compared using an accurate analytical model. Three enhanced power loss estimation models are utilized to determine the PWM-induced power losses in each of three major machine materials: the stator form-wound windings, the stator and rotor iron cores, and the permanent magnets in rotor cavities. The variation trend of each loss component versus PWM frequency and modulation scheme is provided. Experiments have validated the model accuracy in two IPM machines designed for traction applications. Both measured and predicted results suggest that adopting the WBG-based inverter holds appealing potential for increasing the machine efficiency.
Thermodynamic inference of data manifolds

The author presents a dimensionality reduction method, thermodynamic manifold inference, that approximates arbitrary data as Gibbs-Boltzmann distributions. This allows the use of the statistical physics tools in data analysis.
Pancreatic, but not myeloid-cell, expression of interleukin-1alpha is required for maintenance of insulin secretion and whole body glucose homeostasis.

Abstract Objective The expression of the interleukin-1 receptor type I (IL-1R) is enriched in pancreatic islet β-cells, signifying that ligands activating this pathway are important for the health and function of the insulin-secreting cell. Using isolated mouse, rat, and human islets, we identified the cytokine IL-1α as a highly inducible gene in response to IL-1R activation. In addition, IL-1α is elevated in mouse and rat models of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Since less is known about the biology of IL-1α relative to IL-1β in pancreatic tissue, our objective was to investigate the contribution of IL-1α to pancreatic β-cell function and overall glucose homeostasis in vivo. Methods We generated a novel mouse line with conditional IL-1α alleles and subsequently produced mice with either pancreatic- or myeloid lineage-specific deletion of IL-1α. Results Using this in vivo approach, we discovered that pancreatic (IL-1αPdx1−/−), but not myeloid-cell, expression of IL-1α (IL-1αLysM−/−) was required for the maintenance of whole body glucose homeostasis in both male and female mice. Moreover, pancreatic deletion of IL-1α led to impaired glucose tolerance with no change in insulin sensitivity. This observation was consistent with our finding that glucose-stimulated insulin secretion was reduced in islets isolated from IL-1αPdx1−/− mice. Alternatively, IL-1αLysM−/− mice (male and female) did not have any detectable changes in glucose tolerance, respiratory quotient, physical activity, or food intake when compared with littermate controls. Conclusions Taken together, we conclude that there is an important physiological role for pancreatic IL-1α to promote glucose homeostasis by supporting glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and islet β-cell mass in vivo.
Microscale Photopatterning of Through-thickness Modulus in a Monolithic and Functionally Graded 3D Printed Part.

3D printing is transforming traditional processing methods for applications ranging from tissue engineering to optics. To fulfill its maximum potential, 3D printing requires a robust technique for producing structures with precise three-dimensional (x, y and z) control of mechanical properties. Previous efforts to realize such spatial control of modulus within 3D printed parts have largely focused on low-resolution (mm to cm scale) multi-material processes and grayscale approaches that spatially vary the modulus in the x-y plane and energy dose-based (E = I0texp) models that do not account for the resin's sub-linear response to irradiation intensity. Here, we demonstrate a novel approach for through-thickness (z) voxelated control of mechanical properties within a single-material, monolithic part. Control over the local modulus is enabled by a predictive model that incorporates the observed non-reciprocal dose response of the material. The model is validated by an application of atomic force microscopy to map the through-thickness modulus on multi-layered 3D parts. Overall, both smooth gradations (30 MPa change over ≈75 μm) and sharp step-changes (30 MPa change over ≈5 μm) in modulus are realized in poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate based 3D constructs, paving the way for advancements in tissue engineering, stimuli-responsive 4D printing and graded metamaterials.
Jools Gilson and Nicola Moffat, eds, Textiles, Community and Controversy: The Knitting Map

Textiles, Community and Controversy: The Knitting Map is a collection of papers dedicated to one artwork — The Knitting Map — envisaged as a conceptual, community-based project that took a year to ...
The Wicked and the Logical: Facilitating Integrative Learning Among Introductory Computing Students

Higher education has embraced integrative learning as a means of enabling students to tackle so-called “wicked” problems, i.e. problems that are sufficiently complex, contested, and ambiguous that conventional, disciplinary specific approaches are inadequate to address. However, challenges remain in defining integrative learning consistently and effectively, especially because the cognitive processes that make up an integrative learning experience are not understood fully. This mixed-methods study was designed to help understand how students perceive, navigate, and resolve challenges that require them to integrate knowledge of one “wicked” subject (sustainability) with the skills of a practice rooted in mathematical logic (computer programming); how they express their integrative learning through reflective writing; and how we gain a stronger understanding of this process through linguistic analysis. The findings suggest that some students demonstrated the ability to integrate computational reasoning skills into socially relevant contexts more successfully, confidently, and in more well-rounded ways than others, though success required ways of thinking that extended beyond programming. The findings also underscore the potential need for reconceptualizing integrative teaching and learning in fields that have problem-solving traditions rooted in less “wicked” solutions.
High Mobility Group Box 1 enhances ADP-mediated platelet activation by increasing platelet surface P2Y12 localization

Thrombosis and inflammation are intimately linked and synergistically contribute to the pathogenesis of a number of vascular diseases. On a cellular level, while the platelet is central to thrombus formation as well as an active mediator of inflammation, the molecular mechanisms of cross-talk between thrombosis and inflammation remain elusive. High-Mobility Group Box 1 protein (HMGB1) is an inflammatory regulator that also stimulates platelet activation through its interaction with toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). However, it remains unclear whether cross-talk between HMGB1 and traditional thrombotic agonists exists to modulate platelet activation. Using isolated human platelets, we tested whether HMGB1 treatment affects platelet activation mediated by traditional agonists. We found that HMGB1 enhances ADP-mediated platelet activation, but not platelet activation stimulated by thrombin or collagen. Further, inhibition of the canonical ADP purinergic P2Y12 receptor attenuates HMGB1-dependent platelet activation. Mechanistically, we discovered that HMGB1 activates platelet surface TLR4 to release ADP from the platelet and concomitantly increase the localization of P2Y12 on the platelet membrane. These data demonstrate that ADP-dependent P2Y12 activation contributes to HMGB1 mediated platelet activation, while HMGB1 primes platelets for an enhanced activation response to ADP. These novel findings further our understanding of thrombo-inflammatory signaling and provide new insight for therapeutic P2Y12 inhibition. Key PointsO_LIHMGB1 enhances ADP-mediated platelet activation but not platelet activation stimulated by collagen or thrombin. C_LIO_LIHMGB1 stimulates platelet ADP release and increases platelet surface localization of P2y12 receptors via TLR4-dependent mechanism(s). C_LI Visual Abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=163 HEIGHT=200 SRC="FIGDIR/small/436776v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (12K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@ba4381org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@a60813org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@5c1de1org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1add44d_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG Caption: HMGB1 activates TLR4 to activate platelets, release platelet ADP, and upregulate P2Y12 at the platelet surface. C_FIG
Cyber Warfare and Implications

Cyberwarfare encompasses the actions by any international organization to attack and try to cause damage to another nation's infrastructure, computers or information systems through computer viruses or denial-of-service (DOS) attacks. Cyberwarfare is also known as the use or affecting in a battlespace or warfare in the background of computers, online control systems (IoTs), and networks. It comprises both aggressive and distrustful operations relating to the danger of cyberattacks, espionage, and collateral/ other damage. There are controversy and argument over whether such operations can be termed as a "war". Transnational cyber-security is an increasingly persistent issue for leading national world powers. Existing professionals are not well-resourced to deal with the continuous change in the cybersecurity field, due to an absence of detailed knowledge in the field. The United States is not only just a gigantic target for these cyber-attacks but also a leading offender. Regardless of several cyberattacks also, the nation is failed to take the appropriate measures to defend against the modern age crime - cyberwarfare.
Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project: Project Management Methods

To leap past the limitations of existing propulsion, the NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics (BPP) Project seeks further advancements in physics from which new propulsion methods can eventually be derived. Three visionary breakthroughs are sought: (1) propulsion that requires no propellant, (2) propulsion that circumvents existing speed limits, and (3) breakthrough methods of energy production to power such devices. Because these propulsion goals are presumably far from fruition, a special emphasis is to identify credible research that will make measurable progress toward these goals in the near-term. The management techniques to address this challenge are presented, with a special emphasis on the process used to review, prioritize, and select research tasks. This selection process includes these key features: (a) research tasks are constrained to only address the immediate unknowns, curious effects or critical issues, (b) reliability of assertions is more important than the implications of the assertions, which includes the practice where the reviewers judge credibility rather than feasibility, and (c) total scores are obtained by multiplying the criteria scores rather than by adding. Lessons learned and revisions planned are discussed.
Renal cell cancer histological subtype distribution differs by race and sex

Objectives To examine racial differences in the distribution of histological subtypes of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and associations with established RCC risk factors by subtype. Materials and Methods Tumours from 1532 consecutive patients with RCC who underwent nephrectomy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (1998–2012) were classified as clear-cell, papillary, chromophobe and other subtypes. In pairwise comparisons, we used multivariate logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the associations between race, sex, age, end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and body mass index at diagnosis according to histological subtype. Results The RCC subtype distribution was significantly different in black people from that in white people (P < 0.001), with a substantially higher proportion of patients with papillary RCC among black people than white people (35.7 vs 13.8%). In multivariate analyses, compared with clear-cell RCC, people with papillary RCC were significantly more likely to be black (OR 4.15; 95% CI 2.64–6.52) and less likely to be female (OR 0.60; 95% CI 0.43–0.83). People with chromophobe RCC were significantly more likely to be female (OR 2.32; 95% CI 1.44–3.74). Both people with papillary RCC (OR 6.26; 95% CI 2.75–14.24) and those with chromophobe RCC (OR 7.07; 95% CI 2.13–23.46) were strongly and significantly more likely to have ESRD, compared with those with clear-cell RCC. Conclusion We observed marked racial differences in the proportional subtype distribution of RCCs diagnosed at a large tertiary care academic centre. To our knowledge, no previous study has examined racial differences in the distribution of RCC histologies while adjusting for ESRD, which was the factor most strongly associated with papillary and chromophobe RCC compared with clear-cell RCC.
Surfactant assisted synthesis of aluminum doped SrFe10Al2O19 hexagonal ferrite

M-type aluminum doped SrFe10Al2O19 were synthesized via co-precipitation method using cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) as a surfactant. The effects of CTAB content (x = 0, 1, 3, and 9 wt. %) on the formation, structure, morphology, magnetic, and dielectric properties of the SrFe10Al2O19 nanoparticles were investigated. X-ray diffraction results show elimination of α-Fe2O3 phase from samples prepared using CTAB. Morphological changes including grain and crystallite size was noticed with the increase in the CTAB content. With the increase in CTAB, powder particles grew in hexagonal plates. A linear increase in saturation magnetization, Ms, with CTAB content was observed from 56.5 emu/g at 0% CTAB to 66.4 emu/g at 9% CTAB. This is a net increase of 17.5% in Ms. The coercivity (Hc ∼ 5700 Oe) of sample reached maximum at 1% CTAB and reduced with further CTAB content reaching to a minimum value of 4488 Oe at 9% CTAB. A slight increase in Curie temperature (735 K) was also observed for samples synthesized ...
A 2.5-V 14-bit /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ CMOS SOI capacitive accelerometer

This paper presents a 2.5-V 14-bit fully differential /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ interface circuit in 0.25-/spl mu/m CMOS technology for a high-resolution silicon-on-insulator capacitive accelerometer fabricated using a simple CMOS-compatible stictionless process. The integrated circuit is based on programmable front-end back-end first-order /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ architecture and provides a 1-bit pulse-width modulated digital output. Using correlated double sampling, the low-frequency noise is suppressed by 10 dB. Capacitive resolution is 22 aF at 75 Hz (resolution bandwidth = 1 Hz), equivalent to 110 /spl mu/g with a dynamic range of 85 dB (14-bit resolution) and a sensitivity of 500 mV/g. The chip occupies 2 mm/sup 2/ and consumes 6 mW.
Excision repair of bulky lesions in the DNA of mammalian cells

Although the excision of pyrimidine dimers from UV-irradiated human cells has been known since 1968 (1) and excision has been the subject of a number of symposia and recent reviews (2–4), the details of the process still elude us. We assume that the excision of pyrimidine dimers is of the nucleotide excision type, (a) by analogy with bacteria, (b) because it is of the large patch type, (c) because although few single strand breaks accumulate during excision in normal human cells, the numbers that accumulate in excision defective cells are much less, (d) because the introduction of an exogenous UV endonuclease enhances repair and survival in excision defective cells and (e) because inhibitors of the polymerization steps such as hydroxyurea and cytosine arabinoside result in the accumulation of single strand breaks (5, 6). (However, the number of breaks observed is much less than the number of dimers removed in uninhibited cells, indicating that the various steps in excision repair act as if they are linked to one another (7).) The various measures of excision repair of pyrimidine dimers — the best studied lesion to date because they are easy to identify and measure in a number of ways — give general agreeement (8)but different investigators obtain conflicting results in details such as the dependence on time, dose and the method of measurement (9–11). Nevertheless, the various techniques indicate that excision repair of dimers varies widely among cell lines and strains. For example, rodent cells are low excisers compared to normal human cells (12), and among humans the cells of most of the individuals with xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) are defective in excision repair (13).
A nonsimilar boundary layer on a moving wall

This paper is concerned with an analysis of viscous flow through a varying cross sectional area, typical of application in a Wankel Engine. The analysis models flow past a variable moving boundary. Dimensionless temperature, velocities, friction factor and Nusselt numbers are obtained and evaluated for the inside of a Wankel engine channel for different fluid properties. Research has indicated such application has not been previously performed.
Existence of the Time Optimal Control for Robotic Manipulators

The minimum time control problem with bounded control has long been of interest to control engineers. There has been some attention on studying this problem in the context of the robotic equation of motion. The exact solution involves solving a highly complex two-point boundary value problem. Before any numerical algorithms are devised, the question of existence of the optimal solution needs to be answered first. In linear systems, well known results exist that provide not only the existence condition but the uniqueness condition and the form of the solution as well. In nonlinear systems, more conditions are required for the existence of the optimal solution. In this paper, we will apply these conditions to the robotic equation of motion and establish a single existence condition. It is found that this condition hinges on the size of the coriolis and the centrifugal terms. If these terms are zero, the domain of existence of time optimal solution can be made arbitrarily large by using suitable bounds on the control.
SU-E-I-15: Comparison of Radiation Dose for Radiography and EOS in Adolescent Scoliosis Patients.

Purpose: To estimate patient radiation dose for whole spine imaging using EOS, a new biplanar slot-scanning radiographic system and compare with standard scoliosis radiography. Methods: The EOS imaging system (EOS Imaging, Paris, France) consists of two orthogonal x-ray fan beams which simultaneously acquire frontal and lateral projection images of a standing patient. The patient entrance skin air kerma was measured for each projection image using manufacturer-recommended exposure parameters for spine imaging. Organ and effective doses were estimated using a commercially-available Monte Carlo simulation program (PCXMC, STUK, Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, Helsinki, Finland) for a 15 year old mathematical phantom model. These results were compared to organ and effective dose estimated for scoliosis radiography using computed radiography (CR) with standard exposure parameters obtained from a survey of pediatric radiographic projections. Results: The entrance skin air kerma for EOS was found to be 0.18 mGy and 0.33 mGy for posterior-anterior (PA) and lateral projections, respectively. This compares to 0.76 mGy and 1.4 mGy for CR, PA and lateral projections. Effective dose for EOS (PA and lateral projections combined) is 0.19 mSv compared to 0.51 mSv for CR. Conclusion: The EOS slot-scanning radiographic system allows for reduced patient radiation dose in scoliosis patients as compared to standard CR radiography.
Discord and Collaboration between Allies Managing External Threats and Internal Cohesion in Franco-British Relations during the 9/11 Era

Why did France and Great Britain cooperate in Operation Enduring Freedom after September 11, 2001, and fail to achieve cooperation in Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003? Operational code analysi...
The toxicity of brominated sesame oil and brominated soybean oil in miniature swine

Miniature swine were fed brominated sesame oil at dietary levels of 0, 5, 25, 50 or 500 mg/kg of body weight for 17 weeks and brominated soybean oil at levels of 0, 5, 50 or 500 mg/kg of body weight for 28 weeks. Growth rate and food intake were decreased only at the high dose level in the brominated sesame oil study. In both studies, signs of lethargy and ataxia occurred in pigs fed the highest dose, and were probably due to a dose-related increase in serum bromine concentrations. Marked elevations in lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), serum glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase (SGOT) and serum glutamicpyruvic transaminase (SGPT) values were seen at the highest dose level with both substances and these enzyme activities were increased at the 50 mg/kg dose level in the brominated sesame oil study. Histopathologic lesions were confined to animals given the highest dose level of either oil. Marked fatty degeneration of the hepatic plate cells and renal tubular epithelial cells were seen in both studies. In the brominated sesame oil study, neutral fat was moderately increased in the myocardium of the pigs fed 500 mg/kg. However, marked diffuse accumulation of LDH, marked diffuse fatty degeneration and focal degeneration, and/or necrosis of individual or small groups of cardiac muscle fibers were seen in the group fed brominated soybean oil at 500 mg/kg. A moderate to marked testicular atrophy was also observed in this group. A dose-related accumulation of total and hexane-soluble bromine was observed in all tissues examined in both studies; the highest concentrations occurred in adipose tissue of the pigs given the highest dose level. Kidneys, livers, hearts and thyroids of these groups also contained large amounts of bromine. In pigs given the 50 mg/kg dose level, total and hexane-soluble bromine concentrations were higher in the brominated sesame oil study than in the longer brominated soybean oil study and may be responsible for the elevations in LDH, SGPT and SGOT activities in this group.
Carcinogenic Responses of Transgenic Heterozygous p53 Knockout Mice to Inhaled 239PuO2 or Metallic Beryllium

The transgenic heterozygous p53+/- knockout mouse has been a model for assessing the tumorigenicity of selected carcinogens administered by noninhalation routes of exposure. The sensitivity of the model for predicting cancer by inhaled chemicals has not been examined. This study addresses this issue by acutely exposing p53+/- mice of both sexes by nose-only inhalation to either air (controls), or to 1 of 2 levels of 239PuO2 (500 or 100 Bq 239Pu) or beryllium (Be) metal (60 or 15 micrograms). Additional wild-type p53+/+ mice were exposed by inhalation to either 500 Bq of 239PuO2 or 60 micrograms of Be metal. These carcinogens were selected because they operate by differing mechanisms and because of their use in other pulmonary carcinogenesis studies in our laboratory. Four or 5 of the 15 mice per sex from each group were sacrificed 6 mo after exposure, and only 2 pulmonary neoplasms were observed. The remainder of the mice were held for life-span observation and euthanasia as they became moribund. Survival of the p53+/- knockout mice was reduced compared to the p53+/+ wild-type mice. No lung neoplasms were observed in p53+/- mice exposed to air alone. Eleven of the p53+/- mice inhaling 239PuO2 developed pulmonary neoplasms. Seven p53+/+ mice exposed to 239PuO2 also developed pulmonary neoplasms, but the latency period for pulmonary neoplasia was significantly shorter in the p53+/ mice. Four pulmonary neoplasms were observed in p53+/- mice exposed to the higher dose of Be, whereas none were observed in the wild-type mice or in the heterozygous mice exposed to the lower dose of Be. Thus, both p53+/- and p53+/+ mice were susceptible to 239Pu-induced carcinogenesis, whereas the p53+/- but not the p53+/+ mice were susceptible to Be-induced carcinogenesis. However, only 2 pulmonary neoplasms (1 in each of the 239PuO2 exposure groups) were observed in the 59 p53+/ mice that were sacrificed or euthanatized within 9 mo after exposure, indicating that the p53+/- knockout mouse might not be appropriate for a 6-mo model of carcinogenesis for these inhaled carcinogens.
Mother–Adolescent conflict in African American and European American families: The role of corporal punishment, adolescent aggression, and adolescents' hostile attributions of mothers' intent

The present study examined mothers' use of corporal punishment and adolescents' aggression as predictors of mother-youth conflict during early adolescence. Particular attention was given to the potential mediating role that adolescents' hostile attributions of intent (HAI) regarding mothers' behavior might play in connections between corporal punishment, youth aggression, and mother-adolescent conflict for European American (EA) and African American (AA) youth. Data were collected from 268 12- to 14-year-olds (154 European American; 114 African American; 133 girls; 135 boys) and their mothers over a period of 2 years. Questionnaires completed by both mothers and adolescents were used to assess maternal corporal punishment and adolescent aggression, and interviews concerning hypothetical situations were used to assess adolescent HAI in year one. In both year one and year two mother-adolescent conflict was observed in a laboratory interaction session. Data revealed that adolescent HAI mediated the link between maternal corporal punishment and mother-adolescent conflict for EA, but not AA youth. Adolescents' HAI mediated the link between adolescent aggression and mother-adolescent conflict for both EA and AA families.
Composite distance metric integration by leveraging multiple experts' inputs and its application in patient similarity assessment

In the real world, it is common that different experts have different opinions on the same problem due to their different experience. How to come up with a consistent decision becomes a critical issue. As an example, patient similarity assessment is an important task in the context of patient cohort identification for comparative effectiveness studies and clinical decision-support applications. The goal is to derive clinically meaningful distance metric to measure the similarity between patients represented by their key clinical indicators. It is desirable to learn the distance metric based on experts' knowledge of clinical similarity among subjects. However, often different physicians have different understandings of patient similarity based on the specifics of the cases. The distance metric learned for each individual physician often leads to a limited view of the true underlying distance metric. The key challenge will be how to integrate the individual distance metrics obtained for a group of physicians into a globally consistent unified metric. To achieve this goal, we propose the composite distance integration (Comdi) approach in this paper. Comdi first constructs discriminative neighborhoods from each individual metrics, then it combines all discriminative information in those neighborhoods to learn a single optimal distance metric. We formulate Comdi as a quadratic optimization problem and propose an efficient alternating strategy to find the solution. Besides learning a globally consistent metric, Comdi provides an elegant way to share knowledge across multiple experts without sharing the underlying data, which lowers the risk of disclosing private data. Our experiments on several benchmark data sets show approximately 10% improvement in classification accuracy over baseline methods, which suggests that Comdi is an effective and general metric learning approach. We also demonstrate two case studies on applying Comdi to real-world clinic data sets. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Statistical Analysis and Data Mining 5: 54–69, 2012 © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Thickness of medial layers of arteries prior to and during hibernation

The thickness of the media of the aorta and the carotid, iliac, and renal arteries was measured in hibernating and nonhibernating marmots. A positive correlation was found between body weight and the thickness of the media of carotid and iliac arteries. The relation noted apparently was not due to the mean arterial pressure prior to and during hibernation, since there was no difference in the thickness of the media between nonhibernating and hibernating females. The difference due to gender could be accounted for by the greater average body weight of males. The media of the renal arteries demonstrated no relation between their thickness and body weight.
The synthesis of (±)-cycloprodigiosin

Abstract The cycloprodigiosin isolated from the marine bacteria, Beneckea gazogenes and Alteromonas rubra has been synthesized from the fused ring pyrrole (9) and the methoxy formyl bipyrrole (10).
A miniaturized matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometer with mass-correlated acceleration focusing.

Mass correlated acceleration (MCA) has now been integrated into a 4 in (10.2 cm) matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometer to achieve high resolving power across a broader mass range, without sacrificing detection of higher mass ions. The goal was to combine MCA with a custom-built miniaturized instrument such as those that might be used for field-portable applications. Unlike other pulsed extraction methods, MCA is not mass dependent and mass spectra can be achieved with a single tuning of instrument parameters. Additionally, the multi-channel recording advantage is better realized because ions of all masses can be brought into focus simultaneously. The MCA dual-stage ion source compensates dynamically for the mass dependence by incorporating an extraction pulse region followed by an acceleration region that contains a time-dependent waveform correlated with mass. The technique was validated with applications in peptide mixtures and protein digestions. Diagnostic studies for the instrument include m/z range and limits of detection.
Reflective Practice in the Civil Society: The contribution of critically systemic thinking

The contemporary notion of professional competence is not grounded in an adequate notion of civil society. Professional practice tends to put citizens in a situation of incompetence, even when it is supposed to serve them. In a civil society, this is not an acceptable state of affairs. In a civil society, the ultimate source of legitimacy lies with the citizen; hence a reflective professional practice that is grounded in an adequate concept of civil society should give citizens a meaningful, and competent, role to play. Reflective practice, then, depends on competent citizenship. There is a need for a simultaneous revision of the contemporary concepts of professional competence and of citizenship. Professional practice and the practice of citizenship need to be understood in such a way that professionals and citizens can meet as equals, though not necessarily as equally skilled individuals. Methodologically speaking, this is possible if we can show that there exists a common core of competencies that both...
An integrated model for crossdock operations including staging

Crossdock operations are designed to consolidate and quickly move goods from a variety of origins to a variety of destinations. The key performance characteristics used to measure crossdock performance are outgoing truck cube utilisation and load dwell time in the crossdock. These two measures are at odds with each other, and satisfying one comes at the expense of satisfying the other. The paper develops an integrated crossdock operations model that optimises this trade-off and accounts for incoming and outgoing truck door assignment, staging allocation/location, and load scheduling. The problem is further explored experimentally to determine factor contributions to maximising overall operations revenue. Finally, a genetic algorithm is developed to solve large-scale problems.
A comparison of multi-frame blind deconvolution and speckle imaging energy spectrum signal-to-noise ratios

An analytical signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) expression is derived for unbiased estimates of energy spectra obtained using multi-frame blind deconvolution (MFBD) algorithms. Because an analytical variance expression cannot, in general, be derived, Cramer-Rao lower bounds are used in place of the variances. As a result, the SNR expression provides upper bounds to the achievable SNRs that are independent of the MFBD algorithm implementation. The SNR expression is evaluated for the scenario of ground-based imaging of astronomical objects. It is shown that MFBD energy-spectrum SNRs are usually greater, and often much greater, than their corresponding speckle imaging (SI) energy-spectrum SNRs at all spatial frequencies. One reason for this SNR disparity is that SI energy spectrum SNRs are proportional to the object energy spectrum and the ensemble-averaged atmosphere energy spectrum, while MFBD SNRs are approximately proportional to the square root of these quantities. Another reason for this SNR disparity is that single-frame SI energy-spectrum SNRs are limited above by one, while the MFBD energy-spectrum SNRs are not.