cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Half-cycle pulse ionization of Ba+ rydberg ions

Nearly unipolar, subpicosecond half-cycle pulses (HCPs) have been used to ionize Ba{sup +} ng Rydberg ions. The double ionization probability vs HCP field strength data are compared with analogous single ionization measurements for neutral Ba 6snd Rydberg atoms prepared in the same apparatus. We find that neutral and ionic Rydberg states with the same binding energies follow approximately the same ionization curves. Our findings are in agreement with the predictions of an impulsive ionization model and classical trajectory Monte Carlo simulations.
Italian ryegrass and nitrogen source fertilization in western Oregon in two contrasting climatic years. I. Growth and seed yield

Abstract Prescription based nitrogen (N) fertilization of crops in a given local environment begins by understanding factors affecting crop N use and relating these factors to a time scale most directly related to crop growth. For these reasons the following objectives were sought for an economically important grass seed crop in western Oregon, Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.). One, to determine the influence of N source (NH4‐N and NO3‐N) on crop growth and seed yield. Second, to determine the relationship between accumulated growing degree days (GDD) and plant ontogeny and relate these findings to N‐source effects on growth and seed yield parameters. Field plots were established in 1991 and again in 1992. Five N‐source treatments were applied: calcium nitrate (CN), ammonium nitrate (AN), ammonium sulfate (AS), ammonium chloride (AC), and urea‐dicyandiamide (DCD). Nitrogen‐source treatments had no effect on root and shoot dry mass accumulation in either year. Ammonium‐N fertilization increased t...
Financing for innovative technologies and best practices to reduce persistent organic pollutants

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) threaten human health and the global environment. Recognizing their dangers many countries began to limit or ban POPs production, use, and release in the 1990s. Eventually the Stockholm Convention on POPs, was adopted in 2001 and entered into force in 2004. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) provides financial support to developing country Parties for the implementation of the Stockholm Convention. The GEF’s POPs investment portfolio focuses on: 1) strengthening the capacity of developing country Parties to implement the Stockholm Convention; 2) establishing and supporting partnerships to develop and implement National Implementation Plans (NIPs), and 3) demonstrating and deploying best technologies and practices to reduce POPs emission, including development of safe alternatives. Since 2001 the GEF has committed US$568.8 million to POPs projects and leveraged some US$1474.5 million in co-financing from partners in the public and private sectors, bringing the total value of the GEF POPs portfolio to over US$2 billion. With GEF support, 108 developing country Parties have developed their NIPs. The GEF also financed 109 projects for the implementation of the Convention. Upon completion, these GEF POPs investments will contribute to the disposal of more than 70,000 tons of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) oil, contaminated equipments, and waste, more than 40,000 tons of obsolete POPs pesticides and associated waste, and reducing dioxin/furan and mercury emission by introducing environmentally sound technologies and best practices. This paper summarizes: 1) direct and indirect GEF investments to support the goals of the Stockholm Convention; 2) investment case studies on PCB, DichloroDiphenylTrichloroethane (DDT), chlordane and mirex, medical waste, obsolete POPs and engaging civil society; and 3) lessons learned in terms of GEF financing strategies, best technologies and environmental practices to address POPs.
INTERACTION BETWEEN CRYPTOCHROME AND PHYTOCHROME IN HIGHER PLANT PHOTOMORPHOGENESIS

At least three photoreceptors are involved in the mediation of light action in higher plant photomorphogenesis: cryptochrome (UV-A/blue light photoreceptor), UV-B photoreceptor, and phytochrome. The degree of photoreceptor interaction in photomorphogenesis can apparently vary depending on the response, the species, and the stage of development of the biological system. In most cases of interaction studied so far, Pfr, the physiologically active form of phytochrome, is apparently required for the final expression of the response. In some systems, the cryptochrome and/or UV-B photoreceptor mediated action of UV/blue radiation is required to establish/enhance/maintain responsiveness toward Pfr. There is no evidence for photoreceptor interaction in some response-system combinations. It is not known for sure if this apparent lack of photoreceptor interaction represents a real situation or just a failure to detect it because of experimental limitations. Practically nothing is known about the mechanism of photoreceptor interaction at the molecular level. LIGHT iS the ultimate source of energy for virtually all life on earth. For plants, light supplies the energy used in photosynthesis and signals used in the photoregulation of growth and development (photomorphogenesis). In photosynthesis, an energy transduction process, the bulk of which is carried out in the chloroplasts of higher plants, light energy is converted to and stored as chemical energy of photosynthetic products. Photosynthesis is the
Effects of vitamin D on insulin and glucagon secretion in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

Vitamin D has been shown to increase insulin release from pancreatic islet cells in vitro, and to improve insulin secretion in vitamin D-deficient animals. Few attempts have been made to evaluate this issue directly in humans. We studied 35 otherwise healthy diabetic subjects in the early spring at the seasonal nadir of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations (mean 35 +/- 7 nmol/L). Fasting glucose, insulin, C-peptide, and glucagon concentrations, and their responses to Sustacal stimulation were not related to indexes of mineral metabolism. In 20 subjects, a double-blinded, placebo-controlled, crossover trials of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D[1,25](OH)2D] treatment (1 micrograms/d for 4 d) had no effect on fasting or stimulated glucose, insulin, C-peptide, or glucagon concentrations. However, insulin and C-peptide responses to Sustacal after 1,25(OH)2D treatment were related to duration of diabetes (r2 = 0.28, P = 0.052 and r2 = 0.25, P = 0.002, respectively) in that short duration correlated with improvement after 1,25(OH)2D treatment. Hence, vitamin D nutrition, or 1,25(OH)2D therapy, had no major effect on glucose homeostasis in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.
The effect of information technology on learning in professional service organizations

Abstract This study examines the relationship between organizational experience and productivity in a professional service organization. The research addresses a gap in the existing literature with respect to organizational experience models in service organizations. Our findings confirm a significant, positive relationship between organizational experience and productivity. In addition, we investigate the effect of information technology on the relationship between organizational experience and productivity. The findings indicate that information technology which becomes a part of the production process is associated with productivity improvements, while information technology which merely documents or collects information is not.
Victim management in a cache hierarchy

We investigate directions for exploiting what might be termed pattern locality in a cache hierarchy, based on recording cache discards or victims. An advantage of storing discard decisions is the reduced duplication of pertinent information, as well as the maintenance of information on the current location of discarded lines. Typical caches are designed to exploit combinations of temporal and spatial locality. Temporal locality, the likelihood that recently referenced data will be referenced again, is exploited by LRU-like algorithms. Spatial locality is the property that causes larger cache lines to yield improved miss ratios. Here we consider the exploitation of pattern locality--the property that lines accessed in temporal proximity tend to be re-referenced together. We describe some new cache structures including pattern-recording features, along with their miss ratio and transfer traffic performance as determined via simulations on traces drawn from several benchmark applications. We show that pattern locality information, based on discard statistics, can be useful in enhancing the quality of prefetch decisions.
The Effect of Glatiramer Acetate Therapy on Functional Properties of B Cells From Patients With Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis

Importance This study describes what is, to our knowledge, the previously unknown effect of glatiramer acetate therapy on B cells in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS). Objective To determine whether glatiramer acetate therapy normalizes dysregulated B-cell proliferation and cytokine production in patients with MS. Design, Setting, and Participants Twenty-two patients with MS who were receiving glatiramer acetate therapy and 22 treatment-naive patients with MS were recruited at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center MS clinic. Cell samples from healthy donors were obtained from HemaCare (Van Nuys, California) or Carter Blood Bank (Dallas, Texas). Treatment-naive patients with MS had not received any disease-modifying therapies for at least 3 months before the study. Exposures Glatiramer acetate therapy for at least 3 months at the time of the study. Main Outcomes and Measures B-cell phenotype and proliferation and immunoglobulin and cytokine secretion. Results A restoration of interleukin 10 production by peripheral B cells was observed in patients undergoing glatiramer acetate therapy as well as a significant reduction of interleukin 6 production in a subset of patients who received therapy for less than 32 months. Furthermore, proliferation in response to high-dose CD40L was altered and immunoglobulin production was elevated in in vitro–activated B cells obtained from patients who received glatiramer acetate. Conclusions and Relevance Glatiramer acetate therapy remodels the composition of the B-cell compartment and influences cytokine secretion and immunoglobulin production. These data suggest that glatiramer acetate therapy affects several aspects of dysregulated B-cell function in MS that may contribute to the therapeutic mechanisms of glatiramer acetate.
Lysophosphatidic acid and sphingosine 1-phosphate stimulate endothelial cell wound healing.

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) and sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) are potent lipid growth factors with similar abilities to stimulate cytoskeleton-based cellular functions. Their effects are mediated b...
The Role of Tubulin in Steroidogenesis of Mouse Adrenal Y-1 Cells and Rat Leydig CCL 43 Cells

The mechanisms of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)-induced steroid secretion in the adrenal cortex have not been clearly elucidated. However, it has been demonstrated that ACTH acts in the regulation of the steroidogenic pathway by controlling the conversion of cholesterol into pregnenolone. Cellular-fractionation studies have demonstrated that the enzymes necessary for this conversion are located in the mitochondria, whereas the cholesterol is stored in the cytoplasm. Kowal (1970) demonstrated that all the enzymes necessary to synthesize steroids are present prior to ACTH stimulation, and he concluded that steroidogenesis was regulated by controlling the transport of cholesterol to the mitochondria. Temple and Wolff (1973) showed that colchicine, and other drugs that depolymerize microtubules, could induce steroidogenesis independent of ACTH, and from these data they hypothesized that microtubules prevented the transport of cholesterol to the mitochondria and that the mechanism of ACTH-induced steroidogenesis involved the removal of this restriction.
A NEW STRUCTURAL FORM FOR A PENTAOXYPHOSPHORANE. DIEQUATORIAL RING FORMATION IN A TRIGONAL BIPYRAMID

Abstract Previous studies2–8 of structural preferences of cyclic pentaoxyphosphoranes have led to trigonal bipyramidal geometries with the ring systems, which varied from five- to eight-membered, occupying axial–equatorial positions. Although inferences in mechanistic studies of reactions of cyclic phosphates and variable-temperature NMR studies of ligand-exchange behavior of oxyphosphoranes support intermediates with diequatorial ring placement, no X-ray investigations have yielded this structural form. For example, the activation of protein kinases by c-AMP has been proposed9.10 to result from attack by a functional group of the enzyme to yield a covalent complex, A. Diequatorial ring formation has also been proposed11.12 in the course of hydrolysis of epimeric phosphoranes. Only in the case of a NMR solution study by Denney and co-workers13 of monocyclic pentaoxyphosphoranes containing seven- and eight-membered rings has it been concluded that these rings reside in diequatorial position.14 This is indi...
Markers of Systemic Bacterial Exposure in Periodontal Disease and Cardiovascular Disease Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Recent meta-analyses reported a weak association between periodontal disease (PD) on clinical examination and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Systemic bacterial exposure from periodontitis, which correlates poorly with the clinical examination, has been proposed as the more biologically pertinent risk factor. The purpose of this study was to review and analyze the association between PD with elevated systemic bacterial exposure and CVD. Methods: We searched in the PubMed, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, EMBASE, and SCOPUS databases for all literature examining PD and CVD. From 10 selected publications, we extracted 12 cohort (N = 5) and cross-sectional (N = 7) studies and included 11 of these in a meta-analysis. With stratified analyses, this resulted in 14 analyses of coronary heart disease (CHD; N = 7), stroke (N = 4), and carotid intima-medial thickening (CIMT; N = 3) as a measure of early atherosclerosis. Systemic bacterial exposure was measured by periodontal bacterial burden (N = 1), periodontitis-specific serology (N = 12), or C-reactive protein (N = 1). Results: Periodontal disease with elevated markers of systemic bacterial exposure was associated strongly with CHD compared to subjects without PD, with a summary odds ratio of 1.75 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.32 to 2.34; P < 0.001). This group was not associated with CVD events or with stroke but was associated with a significant increase in mean CIMT (0.03 mm; 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.04). Conclusion: Periodontal disease with elevated bacterial exposure is associated with CHD events and early atherogenesis (CIMT), suggesting that the level of systemic bacterial exposure from periodontitis is the biologically pertinent exposure with regard to atherosclerotic risk. J Periodontol 2007;78:2289-2302.
Exploring bidding strategies for market-based scheduling

A market-based scheduling mechanism allocates resources indexed by time to alternative uses based on the bids of participating agents. Agents are typically interested in multiple time slots of the schedulable resource, with value determined by the earliest deadline by which they can complete their corresponding tasks. Despite the strong complementarities among slots induced by such preferences, it is often infeasible to deploy a mechanism that coordinates allocation across all time slots. We explore the case of separate, simultaneous markets for individual time slots, and the strategic problem it poses for bidding agents. Investigation of the straightforward bidding policy and its variants indicates that the efficacy of particular strategies depends critically on preferences and strategies of other agents, and that the strategy space is far too complex to yield to general game-theoretic analysis. For particular environments, however, it is often possible to derive constrained equilibria through evolutionary search methods.
Immunocytochemical and Scanning Electron Microscopic Studies of Atherosclerosis in Japanese Quail

Abstract The major cellular components of atherosclerotic lesions in several species have been shown to be smooth muscle cells (SMC) and macrophages. Many studies suggest the composition of a lesion varies depending on the stage of lesion development. For example, macrophages are believed to be involved in the initial events of fatty streak formation in many animals. This communication presents the first cellular study of quail atherosclerosis and demonstrates the alteration of cellular structure during the process of the disease in quail fed a cholesterol diet. Monoclonal antibodies to alpha-actin and chicken macrophages effectively identified the presence of SMC and macrophages, respectively, as constituents of the atherosclerotic lesions. Macrophage presence, as well as SMC proliferation, was observed in early lesions. Although the first cell type to be involved in the initial stages of atherogenesis cannot be defined, the results suggest early intervention of macrophages and SMC. Scanning electron microscopic examination of the aortic arch demonstrates the obvious differences in appearance of the endothelial surface of normal and diseased quail. The accumulation of subendothelial foam cells causes the lumen surface to bulge irregularly into the lumen. The results of the present study are important to the evaluation of the key cellular events of atherogenesis.
Group Decision Making in Nest-Site Selection Among Social Insects

The choice of a new nest site is ecologically critical for an insect colony. In swarm-founding social insects, or those that move as colonies from one site to another, this choice is one of the best-available examples of a distributed, nonhierarchical decision-making process in animals. In the few species of ants and bees that have been studied in detail, the main features of this collective decision making are strikingly similar, although some differences occur. Individual scouts discover potential nest sites and integrate multiple properties of these sites into assessments of their quality. The discovered sites then compete for a limited pool of nest-site scouts, and attrition of less-favored sites occurs by several mechanisms. Finally, the mass movement of the colony to the new site is triggered by a quorum-sensing mechanism when sufficient scouts are present at one of the alternatives. Movement itself is coordinated by different mechanisms in different insects.
A Simple New Visualization of Exercise Data Discloses Pathophysiology and Severity of Heart Failure

VCO2/˙E were recorded for 10 individuals from each group: Those of healthy subjects were significantly higher than those of patients with Class II heart failure, and those of patients with Class II heart failure were higher than those of patients with Class IV heart failure. These values differentiated heart failure severity better than peak ˙ VO2, anaerobic threshold, peak oxygen pulse, and ˙
PHOTOLYSIS OF CYSTINE IN THE PRESENCE OF AROMATIC AMINO ACIDS

Resumen Se dan evidencias para explicar los distintos rendimientos cuanticos de fotolisis con lux u.v. para distintos residuos de cisteina en lisozima e insulina. En sistemas modelos de mezclas de aminoacidos, el aminoacido triptofano muestra un marcado aumento en el rendimiento cuantico en la fotolisis de la cisteina. La fotosensibilidad de los residuos de cisteina en la lisozima se interpretan usando la conformacion terciaria de la enzima la cual provee una relacion espacial entre los residuos de triptofano y cisteina.
Nonlinear Identification and Control of a Building Structure with a Magnetorheological Damper

This paper proposes an approach to identification of a nonlinear model of a building equipped with a magnetorheological (MR) damper. The nonlinear model is identified via a multiple model approach based on an autoregressive exogenous (ARX) modeling framework. The so called Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy model is used to accomplish this process. Furthermore, a control strategy is developed to compensate for the nonlinearity in the structure/damper system so as to enhance the response of the system to earthquake type inputs. In particular it is shown that the proposed control strategy offers a reasonably effective approach to semi-active control of structures. The research team intends to verify these results in comparative studies using benchmark building structures in near future.
Doing Bioethics: Challenges for Anthropology

Anthropological participation in bioethics, especially in the area of policy-making, has been limited for a number of reasons. This paper explores the anthropological critique of bioethics and considers reasons why anthropologists are not more visible in bioethics debates. Reflections on the author’s own participation on two ethics boards illustrate both the potential contributions of the anthropological perspective to bioethics and the challenges for a more effective engagement.
Becoming a “True Blues Fan”: Blues tourism and performances of the King Biscuit Blues Festival

Helena, Arkansas’ King Biscuit Blues Festival is a mass-produced event, where detailed schedules outline musical performances and regulate most aspects of the festival experience, yet many blues fa...
Acculturation of Second- and Third-Generation Mexican American Children Field Independence, Locus of Control, Self-Esteem, and School Achievement

Measures of field independence, locus of control, self-esteem, and school achievement were obtained for 144 Anglo American and Mexican American fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children from a "traditional" Mexican American community. From second to third generation, Mexican American children increasingly approach Anglo American norms with respect to field independence, reading achievement, and math achievement. Opposite trends were obtained with regard to self-esteem; no significant effects of generational level were found with regard to locus of control. Several possible explanations of the apparent paradox of decreasing self-esteem alongside increasing achievement levels with generation are suggested.
A SWOT analysis of mobile electronic banking: the Zimbabwe case

Zimbabwe is presently undergoing a transformative shift from a prevalently cash-based economy, to one using mobile electronic payments. The cash economy had the unintended consequence of excluding a large portion of the population from financial services, particularly banking services. This shift is significant for the economy because it has enabled the informal sector to tap into banking services. The Zimbabwean informal sector has gradually emerged as a major employer owing to economic challenges that have shrunk the formal sector. This reality has motivated mobile telephony companies to introduce innovative financial products targeting this sector. In this paper we use the SWOT framework to analyse the mobile banking sector in Zimbabwe. Our investigation seeks to inform stakeholders about the sector's potential and to caution about weaknesses that impact on stability and growth. We also characterise the processes involved in mobile banking to enable easy comparison of offerings from different service providers.
A low cost MCM-D process for flip chip and wirebonding applications

Multi-chip modules using deposited dielectric materials (MCM-D) have been produced at IBM Microelectronics Packaging Facility for over a decade. To take full advantage of this package, IBM uses flip chip technology to minimize the required substrate and silicon active area. The terminal or bonding metals for chip to substrate interconnection have been deposited by a variety of methods including electroplating and electroless plating combinations, and recently, stencil lift-off (L/O) of evaporated film. Here, the Cr/Cu/Ni/Au metallurgy was deposited not only on the interconnecting pad areas, but also on the redistribution lines. A selective deposition process was developed to eliminate the metal on the lines. Two terminal metallurgies were evaluated by this selective process, namely Cr/Cu/Ni/Au and Cr/Cu/Co/Au. This paper will cover interconnection aspects with respect to material/solder interaction of the IBM Controlled Collapse Chip Connection (C4) process with 97 Pb/3 Sn solder and wire bonding as practiced on terminal metal pads fabricated by a selective deposition process. Reliability evaluation of this new process and Co metallurgy will also be discussed.
Implications of an automatic lexical acquisition system

Camille, the Contextual Acquisition Mechanism for Incremental Lexeme LEarning, was implemented as an addition to Lytinen's LINK parser for use in an information extraction task, automatically inferring the meanings of unknown words from context. Unlike many previous lexical acquisition systems, Camille was thoroughly tested within a complex, real-world domain. The implementation of this system produced many lessons which are applicable to language learning in general. This paper describes Camille's implications for evaluation, for knowledge representation, and for cognitive modeling.
Design of Women’s Center Service Processes

A community hospital’s Women’s Center recently moved into a new facility to respond to the exponential growth of women’s health care needs in their market area by redefining, refocusing, reconfiguring, and expanding its women’s health services line. They had an existing smaller center, with fewer services that was part of their outpatient facility. The goal of the new facility is to create a “one stop shopping” model where women can receive a comprehensive range of services conveniently, comfortably, efficiently, and with speed and ease. A similar case was originally published in Cudney and Furterer (2012) and Cudney et al. (2013).
Plug-in electric vehicle readiness: Rating cities in the United States

Abstract In order to accelerate the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (PEV), many municipalities, along with their parent states, offer a variety of benefits to owners and operators of PEVs to make PEV adoption easier and more affordable. Example benefits include financial incentives, infrastructure perks, such as access to high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, and streamlined processes for installing charging equipment. Additionally, some cities are making investments in PEVs and PEV infrastructure for both municipal and public use. However, the policies of states and cities are by no means uniform, and some jurisdictions are doing more than others to promote PEVs. This study presents an index that identifies and ranks the “readiness” of 36 major U.S. cities to deploy electric vehicles. Readiness is the degree to which adoption of electric vehicles is supported, as reflected in the presence of various types of policy instruments, infrastructure development, municipal investments in PEV technology, and participation in relevant stakeholder coalitions. The study also compares cities within states that participate in the Zero Emission Vehicle program, with those that do not, with the objective to understand whether participation in that program has a meaningful impact on PEV readiness.
Discussion: The Poverty Problem in American Agriculture

The paper by Upchurch is very workmanlike. It includes a brief history of governmental intervention towards solution of the "farm problem," an identification of some causes for rural poverty as distinguished from the general policy problem of agricultural abundance, an attempt to measure the extent of such poverty, and a tentative suggestion for a solution to the problem. At least, I hope that it is only a tentative suggestion. When one looks at American agriculture today, where $7.5 billion of the federal budget annually goes toward the creation of farm income of $18.5 billion, in a program which has changed in only minor
Falls in the elderly.

Finally, we conclude with a reminder that the causes of falls in the elderly are multifactorial and that some of these factors may be summative. Most falls result from interaction of intrinsic and extrinsic (environmental) factors. In the Emergency Department, it is very important to take a detailed history of the circumstances leading to the fall and to perform a thorough physical examination. Every attempt should be made to identify predisposing factors for the fall and for preventive measures to be initiated. These may include geriatric consultation or a home visit to evaluate home environment. There is a great need for additional research in this field. Falls are one of the syndromes common in the elderly that deserve more careful attention and are considered amenable to both primary and secondary prevention measures. Language: en
Examining Conceptions of How People Learn Over the Decades Through AERA Presidential Addresses: Diversity and Equity as Persistent Conundrums

The mission statement of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) articulates the following goals: “improving the educational process,” “advancing knowledge about education,” “[encouraging] scholarly inquiry related to education,” and “[promoting] the use of research . . . to serve the public good.” I examine AERA presidential addresses from 1948 to 2010 as windows into how the research community has conceptualized learning and explore the following questions: (a) What has evolved in the science of learning? (b) With what persistent questions has the field wrestled? (c) In what ways has the field addressed broader factors—social, cultural, political, economic—that represented the ecological contexts in which education in formal and informal settings played out in each decade?
P1-S4.03 Using organism load of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae in clinical specimens as an epidemiologic tool

Background The Abbott Realtime m2000 system (m2000) is a qualitative real-time PCR assay for the detection of CT and NG that has the capability to provide a relative measure of target DNA. Results from the m2000 were used to determine CT and NG organism load by comparing the delta cycle (DC) value of each specimen to a set of lab developed standards containing known concentrations of each organism. Methods Vaginal swabs and male urine specimens were evaluated. Six standards of each organism were prepared by inoculating collection tubes with lab strains in concentrations ranging from 0 to 4×105 organisms. The log10 organism load for each positive specimen was determined by comparing the DC value to the calibration curve. Self-reported symptoms were available for each patient. Results A total of 99 vaginal and 284 urine specimens were available for analysis. There was no statistical difference in DC value of mean organism load by gender. Neither was there a difference based on the presence or absence of symptoms in people infected with CT. For NG, there was a significant difference in mean DC value and organism load by gender (p Conclusions Advantages to using this methodology include being able to quantify organism load from specimens obtained for routine diagnostic testing, using standardised test reagents that can be purchased commercially, and using an automated platform. Even in those settings that do not have the capacity for calibration, the DC values may provide useful relative loads. This exploratory study demonstrated the feasibility of using this method to obtain relative quantitation measures. Application of this tool to epidemiologic questions using larger data sets may prove useful.
Über die Beeinflussung Hyperthyreotischer Zustände Durch Oestromon (Dioxydiäthylstilben)

Wir berichteten uber die Behandlung der Hyperthyreosen mit Dioxydiathylstilben, wobei vor allem der Grundumsatz beachtet wurde. In der Halfte aller Falle konnte er gunstig beeinflust werden; in 3 Fallen wurde eine vollige Normalisierung erzielt. Auch andere subjektive und objektive Anzeichen der Besserung (z. B. Gewichtszunahme) konnten beobachtet werden.
Viral gastroenteritis in children.

Gastroenteritis is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in children worldwide and accounts for 2 to 3 million deaths per year with most occurring in young children in developing countries. The causes of gastroenteritis in children vary with the location, time of year, and population studied. Bacterial and parasitic gastrointestinal infections have decreased in frequency as a result of the provision of safe drinking water and disposal of sewage. However, viral gastroenteritis has not declined in a comparable fashion. Viruses are the most common pathogens causing gastroenteritis in the United States. Before universal rotavirus immunization was adopted in the United States, approximately one half of all hospitalizations for nonbacterial gastroenteritis in children were caused by rotaviruses. Currently, noroviruses are the most important cause of nonbacterial acute gastroenteritis. In children, other viral pathogens that have been proven to cause gastroenteritis are sapoviruses, astroviruses, and enteric adenoviruses. The viral gastroenteritis pathogens all infect the intestine and cause gastrointestinal symptoms. In contrast, enteroviruses may infect the intestine but predominantly produce manifestations at extraintestinal sites.
Light Absorption by Charge Transfer Complexes in Brown Carbon Aerosols

Recently, it has become apparent that a fraction of the organic species in ambient aerosols absorbs ultraviolet–visible light with a potential impact on climate. It is believed that this light-absorbing, sometimes called “brown”, carbon originates from biomass and biofuel burning and could be formed through secondary processes in particles or clouds. Here, we identify for the first time charge transfer (CT) complexes as a significant source of light absorption by organic compounds in aerosols. A dense manifold of these complexes, formed from interactions between alcohol and carbonyl moieties, accounts for approximately 50% of the absorption (300–600 nm) observed for water-extracted ambient particulate matter collected in Athens, GA. Corresponding fluorescence emission spectra with broad, overlapping long-wavelength tails are consistent with efficient energy transfer among a near continuum of such coupled excited states. We postulate that a wide variety of CT complexes are formed as a result of a supramole...
The [European] Other in Medieval Arabic Literature and Culture: Ninth-Twelfth Century AD

Extrapolating from the feminist concept of the male “gaze,” Nizar Hermes asks the compelling question “Can the Oriental ‘gaze’?” (1), when discussing the pertinent—especially for today—subject of t...
Investigation on AIDS and STD Knowledge and Health Care-seeking Behavior among MSM group in Nanning City of Guangxi

[Objective]To understand the attitude and requirements of Men who have sex with men (MSM) towards AIDS and STD knowledge and health care-seeking behavior in Nanning City, so as to promote the prevention of AIDS and STD among MSM in Nanning.[Methods]Random sampling and anonymous questionnaire survey were adopted to perform investigation in MSM venues.[Results]A total of 300 MSM were investigated. The level of AIDS and STD knowledge was low. Only 41.33% of them answered correctly on "Scabies can be transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, bed sharing, handshaking and gloves, clothing or bedding patients used". In terms of STD treatment, 47.67% of them selected the STD clinics in general hospital; 68.33% of them thought consulting room should be wide; 72.67% of them preferred to having a face-to-face interview with doctor; 67.33% of them believed that charge waiver on STD treatment (100RMB) was effective promote on active treatment.[Conclusion] STD knowledge among MSM is low, it is necessary to strengthen propaganda and improve medical environment and ways according to MSM wishes and needs of STD care-seeking behavior.
Capillary hemodynamics in hemorrhagic shock and reperfusion: in vivo and model analysis

A computer network model and in vivo measurements of microcirculatory blood flow in skeletal muscle were used to study the mechanisms responsible for low flow in hemorrhagic shock and reperfusion, ...
Postpartum behavior in the mouse: The contribution of suckling stimulation to water intake, food intake and body weight regulation

Rockland-Swiss (R-S) Albino female mice that receive suckling stimulation from young consume significantly more water and food and gain significantly more weight than dams without young. Excision of nipples (thelectomy) prevents postpartum increases in these consummatory behaviors and in body weight gain even in dams with extensive prior suckling exposure. Thus, both the initiation and maintenance of postpartum ingestive behaviors depend primarily upon suckling stimulation from young.
Effect of human recombinant superoxide dismutase on canine myocardial infarction

To determine whether human recombinant superoxide dismutase (h-SOD) produces sustained reduction of infarct size, anesthetized dogs underwent a 2-h coronary occlusion followed by either 48 or 4 h o...
Conclusion: Anti-Chinese Populism and the Emergence of China’s Adaptive Engagement with Africa

Investigating the cases of Zambia, Ghana, South Africa, Ethiopia, and Angola has informed our collective understanding of Sino-African relations and the diverse popular reactions that have emerged in response to Chinese engagement. In popular media and many academic works, China’s growing influence across sub-Saharan Africa initially generally followed a binary debate between China optimists and skeptics. The former lauded the merits of China’s approach to development and the potential of a China model in African states; the benefits of China’s business-is-business noninterference approach to aid, which dispensed of the paternalistic conditionalities often associated with structural adjustment programs and provided assistance and investment without preconditions; and the opportunities presented by China’s ability to provide much-needed low-cost infrastructure projects. Skeptics anguished over Beijing’s lack of concern for human rights and political development, the poor working conditions and environmental practices of Chinese firms, and the tendency of Sino-African economic relations to reinforce African states’ dependence on natural resource extraction while also eroding their nascent manufacturing sectors with low cost import. These views on Sino-African relations have often shaped assessments of China’s impact on the development of its African partners. Optimists expect that China’s aid, assistance, investment, and demand for African goods will stimulate further growth and development in Africa, playing an important role in the high levels of economic performance seen in “emerging” African states since the mid-1990s, whereas others fear that the emergence of rising power competitors such as China may undermine these positive trends.
Exploring cancer genomic data from the cancer genome atlas project

The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) has compiled genomic, epigenomic, and proteomic data from more than 10,000 samples derived from 33 types of cancer, aiming to improve our understanding of the molecular basis of cancer development. Availability of these genome-wide information provides an unprecedented opportunity for uncovering new key regulators of signaling pathways or new roles of pre-existing members in pathways. To take advantage of the advancement, it will be necessary to learn systematic approaches that can help to uncover novel genes reflecting genetic alterations, prognosis, or response to treatments. This minireview describes the updated status of TCGA project and explains how to use TCGA data. [BMB Reports 2016; 49(11): 607-611].
Multiscale Approximation with Graphical Processing Units for Multiplicative Speedup in Molecular Dynamics

The timescales and structure sizes accessible via simulations of atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) can be advanced substantially by two independent techniques: (1) many-core parallelization with graphics processing units (GPUs) and (2) multiscale approximation with hierarchical charge partitioning (HCP). Achieving efficient many-core parallelization on the GPU generally requires highly synchronized and regular computation across the GPU. However, multiscale methods can result in highly asynchronous and irregular processing. Thus, one might expect that realizing such multiscale algorithms on the GPU would result in an overall loss of performance and that the total speedup obtained would be less than the product of the individual speedups for the two techniques separately, i.e., less than multiplicative speedup. To test this expectation in the context of atomistic MD, we designed and implemented our HCP multiscale method on NVIDIA GPU platforms. The HCP code was implemented in NAB, short for nucleic acid builder, and tested using the distance-dependent-dielectric, implicit solvent model. (NAB is the molecular dynamics module in the open-source Amber-Tools v1.4.) We show that for the HCP multiscale approximation and the common MD simulation model considered here, the degradation in performance due to asynchronous and irregular processing is mostly offset by a corresponding reduction in other asynchronous operations and slow global memory accesses. As a result, we realize near multiplicative speedups. For example, for a 475,000-atom virus capsid we were able to achieve a 11,071-fold combined speedup, only slightly less than the 11,706-fold multiplicative limit speedup -- 48.0-fold from the parallelization on the GPU times 243.9-fold from the multiscale approximation. The overall speedup depends on structure size, with smaller structures having lower speedups. An additional benefit of the HCP implementation on the GPU is the reduced memory requirement, which allows the processing of much larger structures that would otherwise be impossible on the limited memory GPU platform.
Allele-specific expression in the human heart and its application to postoperative atrial fibrillation and myocardial ischemia

Allele-specific expression (ASE) is differential expression of each of the two chromosomal alleles of an autosomal gene. We assessed ASE patterns in the human left atrium (LA, n = 62) and paired samples from the left ventricle (LV, n = 76) before and after ischemia, and tested the utility of differential ASE to identify genes associated with postoperative atrial fibrillation (poAF) and myocardial ischemia. Following genotyping from whole blood and whole-genome sequencing of LA and LV samples, we called ASE using sequences overlapping heterozygous SNPs using rigorous quality control to minimize false ASE calling. ASE patterns were compared between cardiac chambers and with a validation cohort from cadaveric tissue. ASE patterns in the LA were compared between patients who had poAF and those who did not. Changes in ASE in the LV were compared between paired baseline and post-ischemia samples. ASE was found for 3404 (5.1%) and 8642 (4.0%) of SNPs analyzed in the LA and LV, respectively. Out of 6157 SNPs with ASE analyzed in both chambers, 2078 had evidence of ASE in both LA and LV (p < 0.0001). The SNP with the greatest ASE difference in the LA of patients with and without postoperative atrial fibrillation was within the gelsolin (GSN) gene, previously associated with atrial fibrillation in mice. The genes with differential ASE in poAF were enriched for myocardial structure genes, indicating the importance of atrial remodeling in the pathophysiology of AF. The greatest change in ASE between paired post-ischemic and baseline samples of the LV was in the zinc finger and homeodomain protein 2 (ZHX2) gene, a modulator of plasma lipids. Genes with differential ASE in ischemia were enriched in the ubiquitin ligase complex pathway associated with the ischemia-reperfusion response. Our results establish a pattern of ASE in the human heart, with a high degree of shared ASE between cardiac chambers as well as chamber-specific ASE. Furthermore, ASE analysis can be used to identify novel genes associated with (poAF) and myocardial ischemia.
Kinesthetic Empathy, Dance, and Technology

I argue that when we use email, text messaging, or social media websites such as Facebook to interact, rather than communicating face-to-face, we do not experience the best kind of empathy, which is most conducive to experiencing benevolence for others. My arguments rely on drawing interdisciplinary connections between sources: early modern accounts of sympathy, dance theory, philosophy of technology, and neuroscience/psychology. I reflect on theories from these disciplines which, taken together, suggest that to empathize optimally, we must see or hear each other’s bodily gestures, vocal intonations, and facial expressions.
Barriers to Quitting Smoking Among Young Adults: The Role of Socioeconomic Status.

Purpose:The aims of this analysis were to explore how self-reported barriers to quitting vary by socioeconomic status (SES) among young-adult smokers and to assess their relationship to quitting.De...
Fast neutron background characterization with the Radiological Multi-sensor Analysis Platform (RadMAP)

In an effort to characterize the fast neutron radiation background, 16 EJ-309 liquid scintillator cells were installed in the Radiological Multi-sensor Analysis Platform (RadMAP) to collect data in the San Francisco Bay Area. Each fast neutron event was associated with specific weather metrics (pressure, temperature, absolute humidity) and GPS coordinates. The expected exponential dependence of the fast neutron count rate on atmospheric pressure was demonstrated and event rates were subsequently adjusted given the measured pressure at the time of detection. Pressure adjusted data was also used to investigate the influence of other environmental conditions on the neutron background rate. Using National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) coastal area lidar data, an algorithm was implemented to approximate sky-view factors (the total fraction of visible sky) for points along RadMAPs route. Three areas analyzed in San Francisco, Downtown Oakland, and Berkeley all demonstrated a suppression in the background rate of over 50% for the range of sky-view factors measured. This effect, which is due to the shielding of cosmic-ray produced neutrons by surrounding buildings, was comparable to the pressure influence which yielded a 32% suppression in the count rate over the range of pressures measured.
Critique of the National Evaluation of Response to Intervention: A Case for Simpler Frameworks:

In 2010, the Institute of Education Sciences commissioned a much-needed national evaluation of response to intervention (RTI). The evaluators defined their task very narrowly, asking “Does the use ...
Preparation of protoplasts of plant cells

Publisher Summary The chapter discusses the preparation of protoplast from two different plant cells—namely, pea root cortical cell and white tobacco leaf. The techniques used for the isolation of higher-plant protoplasts require plasmolysis of the tissues from which the protoplasts are isolated. In both mechanical and enzymic protoplast isolation systems, this plasmolysis provides stability to the otherwise fragile protoplast. Extensive plasmolysis (0.6-1.0 M) is required in mechanical isolation systems to provide space between the cell wall and the protoplast for passage of the cutting tool. In enzymic isolation systems, lower levels of plasmolysis (0.3-0.6 M) are usually effective. Osmotic concentrations nearer 0.6 M are required in tissues with limited intracellular spaces, apparently to provide a pathway for diffusion of the wall-degrading enzymes into the tissue. The most commonly used osmotic agents are mannitol and sorbitol, employed separately or in combination. The number of different protoplast isolation systems indicates that a pragmatic approach is essential to the isolation of viable populations of protoplasts from any given tissue. The healthiest protoplasts is produced in systems which have appropriate osmotic conditions, relatively short enzyme incubation times at the lowest effective level of wall-degrading enzymes, and the least damaging but most effective techniques to remove exogenous enzymes from the medium in which the protoplasts are cultured.