cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Une cellule type

The function f(x)=exp(−(x−μ)2/2σ2)/(σ2π) is called the Gaussian distribution or normal distribution with about equal frequency. We have used the two names interchangeably. However, these names reflect the two fundamentally different interpretations of f(x). Karl Frederick Gauss (1777–1855) recognized that f(x)could describe the probability distribution of errors in the measurement of a single entity, say an angle of a star or that of a geodetic triangle [1]. Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874) found that anthropometric measures such as the height of men or the girth of soldiers’ chests could also be described by f(x). From this population distribution Quetelet defined in 1844 “un homme type”, the average man [2]. In Quetelet’s interpretation of f(x), differences from the mean μ were not errors but reflected the natural variation in the population. f(x) quantifies what we mean by normal. “Deviation” in standard deviation (σ) connotes no malevolence but “deviant” has no such neutrality. In studying biological systems, most experimentalists probably do not have the luxury of measuring a single entity multiple times. Instead we measure the Ca2+ current (say) in one myocyte, usually killing the cell in the process and move on to another myocyte. The distribution of Ca2+ currents we get is then like Quetelet’s distribution of heights, a description of the variability of the Ca2+ currents in a population of cells. Yet, we suspect, that for many researchers the first interpretation (and perhaps only interpretation) of the measured distribution is that of a distribution of errors. We cast no stones. For a long time we viewed the deviations from the mean to result from measurement errors: subtle temperature fluctuations, differences in seal resistance, incomplete capacitance compensation, etc. The fault was not in the cells but in ourselves. Viewed from this error perspective our measurements were like the pale shadows cast on Plato’s cave from which we were to infer the ideal value. And what is the ideal value? Assuming that errors are unbiased and random, then the mean would be the most probable estimate of the true value. But notice that we have fallen back to a Gaussian interpretation of the error distribution of measuring a single—in this case, ideal—cell. We doubt anyone consciously subscribes to the notion of a Platonic ideal cell but we do unwittingly use the ideal cell when we use the mean value—and only the mean value—in our computational models. The idea of an ideal cell is valid if (1) the inherent cell-to-cell variability is small and (2) if the variability has only small functional consequence. Now we face the new challenges to determine how variable the cardiac myocytes are and how significantly these variations affect cardiac dynamics and function.
To scan or not to scan? The value of radiologic surveillance in early-stage Hodgkin lymphoma

181 ISSN 2045-1393 10.2217/IJH.13.21 © 2013 Future Medicine Ltd Int. J. Hematol. Oncol. (2013) 2(3), 181–183 Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is widely regarded as one of the major success stories in oncology, and rightly so. Over the last century, it has been transformed from a virtual death sentence, to one of the most curable malignancies, with overall survival rates of ≥90% at 5 years in early-stage disease [1]. Although treatment failures persist, increasing awareness of the long-term side effects of chemoradiotherapy has shifted our focus from blind cure to the prudent application of treatment, designed to optimize outcomes and minimize toxicity based on risk-stratification and, increasingly, tumor biology. The successful impact of therapeutic radiation in those early days has been well-documented. Moreover, combined chemoradiation is still the treatment of choice in the USA and Europe for favorable disease, although chemotherapy alone is now another option [2–4]. In addition, the imaging modalities of computed tomography (CT) and PET have increased in use as accessibility and affordability has improved. Even though the use of CT and PET for diagnostic work-up has become standard, their role in prognostication, as well as interim evaluation, remains to be fully defined. While formal guidelines exist for the use of CT in surveillance, particularly in the USA [2], there are legitimate concerns about its sensitivity/specificity for identifying relapse and the emergence of false negatives, in addition to the potential long-term effects of latent DNA damage secondary to radiation exposure. Interim or early post-therapy imaging can be justified to manage refractory disease or early relapse with salvage therapy, but practically and prognostically, patients with early stage, nonbulky, favorable HL who have achieved a complete PET-negative response to standard treatment appear to derive little benefit from extended CT surveillance. Arguably, a patient’s outcome can already be predicted by the evidence base supporting initial risk stratification, and imaging during and post-therapy. So, why carry out surveillance? What are we trying to achieve? First and foremost, we are trying to identify relapse. However, relapse rates in early-stage, nonbulky HL
Direct ignition and S-curve transition by in situ nano-second pulsed discharge in methane/oxygen/helium counterflow flame

Abstract A well-defined plasma assisted combustion system with novel in situ discharge in a counterflow diffusion flame was developed to study the direct coupling kinetic effect of non-equilibrium plasma on flame ignition and extinction. A uniform discharge was generated between the burner nozzles by placing porous metal electrodes at the nozzle exits. The ignition and extinction characteristics of CH4/O2/He diffusion flames were investigated by measuring excited OH∗ and OH PLIF, at constant strain rates and O2 mole fraction on the oxidizer side while changing the fuel mole fraction. It was found that ignition and extinction occurred with an abrupt change of OH∗ emission intensity at lower O2 mole fraction, indicating the existence of the conventional ignition-extinction S-curve. However, at a higher O2 mole fraction, it was found that the in situ discharge could significantly modify the characteristics of ignition and extinction and create a new monotonic and fully stretched ignition S-curve. The transition from the conventional S-curves to a new stretched ignition curve indicated clearly that the active species generated by the plasma could change the chemical kinetic pathways of fuel oxidation at low temperature, thus resulting in the transition of flame stabilization mechanism from extinction-controlled to ignition-controlled regimes. The temperature and OH radical distributions were measured experimentally by the Rayleigh scattering technique and PLIF technique, respectively, and were compared with modeling. The results showed that the local maximum temperature in the reaction zone, where the ignition occurred, could be as low as 900 K. The chemical kinetic model for the plasma–flame interaction has been developed based on the assumption of constant electric field strength in the bulk plasma region. The reaction pathways analysis further revealed that atomic oxygen generated by the discharge was critical to controlling the radical production and promoting the chain branching effect in the reaction zone for low temperature ignition enhancement.
Morphological and physiological properties of poinsettia leaves and bracts in relation to sulfur dioxide sensitivity

Abstract Four cultivars of poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. ex Klotzch.), belonging to two distinct groups and found previously to differ in sensitivity to SO2, were investigated to determine the possible morphological and physiological bases for differences in SO2 insensitivity. Leaves and bracts (lower and upper surfaces) were examined by scanning electron microscopy to determine the occurrence and frequency of stomata and trichomes. Comparative measurements of stomatal conductance and transpiration rates were made under controlled environments with a diffusive resistance porometer. Both insensitive cultivars (i.e. ‘Ruff and Reddy’ and ‘Paul Mikkelsen’) had leaves characterized by lower stomatal density, higher trichome density, lower stomatal conductance, and lower transpiration rates than those of the two sensitive cultivars examined (i.e. ‘Rudolph’ and ‘Mikkel Rochford Pink’). These findings suggest that stomatal behavior and certain leaf surface properties, e.g. stomatal and trichome density, which influence the rate of SO2 penetration into the plant, may be useful criteria in selecting and breeding cultivars of poinsettia that are insensitive to SO2. Since bracts were found to contain relatively few stomata and variable numbers of trichomes, the surface properties of these organs do not appear to provide a useful criterion for assessing SO2 sensitivity.
The Social Construction of a New Leadership Role: Catholic Women Pastors

Aujourd'hui, pres de 2 % des paroisses catholiques aux Etats-Unis sont tenues par des femmes, un phenomene relativement inconnu mais croissant. L'article propose dans un premier temps une breve description des facteurs qui sont a l'origine de ce phenomene nouveau, notamment l'impact du Concile du Vatican et les changements demographiques internes et externes. Puis il utilise les concepts cles de la theorie de la construction sociale de Berger et de Luckmann, pour analyser le style de conduite collaborative des femmes pasteurs dans vingt paroisses des Etats-Unis
Pregnancy induces persistent changes in vascular compliance in primiparous women

Objective Pregnancy induces rapid, progressive, and substantial changes to the cardiovascular system. The low recurrence risk of preeclampsia, despite familial predisposition, suggests an adaptation associated with pregnancy that attenuates the risk for subsequent preeclampsia. We aimed to evaluate the persistent effect of pregnancy on maternal cardiovascular physiology. Study Design Forty-five healthy nulliparous women underwent baseline cardiovascular assessment before conception and repeated an average of 30 months later. After baseline evaluation, 17 women conceived singleton pregnancies and all delivered at term. The remaining 28 women comprised the nonpregnant control group. We measured mean arterial blood pressure, cardiac output, plasma volume, pulse wave velocity, uterine blood flow, and flow-mediated vasodilation at each visit. Results There was a significant decrease in mean arterial pressure from the prepregnancy visit to postpartum in women with an interval pregnancy (prepregnancy, 85.3 ± 1.8; postpartum, 80.5 ± 1.8 mm Hg), with no change in nonpregnant control subjects (visit 1, 80.3 ± 1.4; visit 2, 82.8 ± 1.4 mm Hg) ( P = .002). Pulse wave velocity was significantly decreased in women with an interval pregnancy (prepregnancy, 2.73 ± 0.05; postpartum, 2.49 ± 0.05 m/s), as compared with those without an interval pregnancy (visit 1, 2.56 ± 0.04; visit 2, 2.50 ± 0.04 m/s) ( P = .005). We did not observe a residual effect of pregnancy on cardiac output, plasma volume, uterine blood flow, or flow-mediated vasodilation. Conclusion Our observations of decreased mean arterial pressure and reduced arterial stiffness following pregnancy suggest a significant favorable effect of pregnancy on maternal cardiovascular remodeling. These findings may represent a mechanism by which preeclampsia risk is reduced in subsequent pregnancies.
On the properties of dielectric elastomer actuators and their design implications

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEA) have been studied extensively under laboratory conditions where they have shown promising performance. However, in practical applications, they have not achieved their full potential. Here, the results of detailed analytical and experimental studies of the failure modes and performance boundaries of DEAs are codified into design principles for these actuators. Analysis shows that the performance of DEAs made with highly viscoelastic polymer films is governed by four key mechanisms: pull-in failure, dielectric strength failure, viscoelasticity and current leakage. Design maps showing the effect of these four mechanisms on performance under varying working conditions are proposed. This study shows that the viscous nature of DEA is very important in their performance/reliability trade-offs. A proper balance of performance and reliability is key to successful design of DEAs.
Flow network analysis of the IBM Power 775 supercomputer Water Cooling System

In 2011 IBM announced the Power 775 Supercomputing node/system which, for the time, was a monumental leap forward in computing performance and energy efficiency. The system was designed from the start with water cooling in mind. The result: a system with greater than 95% of its heat load conducted directly to water and a system that, together with a rear door heat exchanger, removes 100% of its heat load to water with no requirement for room air conditioning. In addition to direct water cooling the processor, the memory, power conversion, and I/O electronics also conduct their heat directly to water. Also included within the framework of the system is a disk storage unit (i.e. disc enclosure) containing an interboard air-to-water heat exchanger. A detailed flow network analysis was undertaken to assure adequate flow to all components in the system while minimizing pump power consumption for a wide range of system configurations. The analysis was validated by both early development experimentation as well as final system verification. The network analysis could therefore be used to establish pump speed tables for normal and abnormal modes of operation. This paper will outline the assumptions and methodology associated with the flow network analysis and demonstrates how the analysis was used for the design and operation of the water cooling system.
Scalable robot fault detection and identification

Abstract Experience has shown that even carefully designed and tested robots may encounter anomalous situations. It is therefore important for robots to monitor their state so that anomalous situations may be detected in a timely manner. Robot fault diagnosis typically requires tracking a very large number of possible faults in complex non-linear dynamic systems with noisy sensors. Traditional methods either ignore the uncertainty or use linear approximations of non-linear system dynamics. Such approximations are often unrealistic, and as a result faults either go undetected or become confused with non-fault conditions. Probability theory provides a natural representation for uncertainty, but an exact Bayesian solution for the diagnosis problem is intractable. Monte Carlo approximations have demonstrated considerable success in application domains such as computer vision and robot localization and mapping. But, classical Monte Carlo methods, such as particle filters, can suffer from substantial computational complexity. This is particularly true with the presence of rare, yet important events, such as many system faults. This paper presents an algorithm that provides an approach for computationally tractable fault diagnosis. Taking advantage of structure in the domain it dynamically concentrates computation in the regions of state space that are currently most relevant without losing track of less likely states. Experiments with a dynamic simulation of a six-wheel rocker-bogie rover show a significant improvement in performance over the classical approach.
Critical behavior of the two-dimensional first passage time

We study the two-dimensional first passage problem in which bonds have zero and unit passage times with probability p and 1 p, respectively. We prove that as the zero-time bonds approach the percolation threshold p~, the first passage time exhibits the same critical behavior as the correlation function of the underlying percolation problem. In particular, if the correlation length obeys ~(p) ~ ]p-p,.I ~', then the first passage time constant satisfies /x(p)~ Ip-p,.['. At p,, where it has been asserted that the first passage time from 0 to x scales as Ixl to a power ~b with 0 < ~ < 1, we show that the passage times grow like log IxJ, i.e., the fluid spreads exponentially rapidly.
Water soluble copolymers: 44. Ampholytic terpolymers of acrylamide with sodium 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulphonate and 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanetrimethyl-ammonium chloride

Abstract Low charge density ampholytic terpolymers of acrylamide with random distributions of sodium 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulphonate and 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanetrimethylammonium chloride have been synthesized by free radical polymerization in 0.5 M NaCl aqueous solutions. Terpolymer compositions were obtained by 13C n.m.r. Low angle laser light scattering provided molecular weights and second virial coefficients which varied from 2.78 × 106 to 6.77 × 106 g mol−1 and 1.31 to 2.95 ml mol g−2, respectively. Dilute solution properties of the terpolymers were measured with respect to composition, concentration and added electrolytes. Polyampholyte behaviour was observed for the polymer with as little as 0.5 mol% of each charged group and became significant when 7 mol% of each charged monomer was incorporated. At 12 and 15 mol% incorporation of each charged monomer, solution behaviour becomes complex consistent with the existence of intermolecular interactions at low ionic strengths and intramolecular associations at medium salt concentrations.
A smart microfluidic affinity chromatography matrix composed of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-coated beads.

The efficient upstream processing of complex biological or environmental samples for subsequent biochemical analysis remains a challenge in many analytical systems. New microfluidic platforms that provide multidiagnostic capabilities on single chips face a similar challenge in getting specific analytes purified or contaminants removed in different fluid streams. Here, stimuli-responsive polymers have been used to construct “smart” beads that can be reversibly immobilized on microfluidic channel walls to capture and release targets. The 100-nm latex beads were surface-modified with the temperature-sensitive polymer poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm). At room temperature, a suspension of these beads flows through a microfluidic channel constructed of poly(ethylene terephthalate). However, when the temperature in the channel is raised above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of PNIPAAm, the beads aggregate and adhere to the walls of the channel. The adhered beads are stable for long durations ...
Environmentally driven epizootics

Environmental conditions can be the driving force behind an epizootic. Environmental changes may favor growth of a particular species, which results in increased contact rates and spread of a disease. We examine this particular phenomenon in SI and SIS models and use it to explain the possible disease outbreaks in nature. Either infected individuals recover from the disease (SIS model) or suffer disease fatalities (SI model). Epizootic models for a single population are examined where contact rate depends on population size. A reproductive number R is defined that depends on environmental carrying capacity. The single-population models are coupled to form three different two-species models with intra- and interspecies contact rates that depend on the population sizes of both populations. The stability results show that it is possible for the disease to drive one of the populations to extinction, the one with disease fatalities. The surviving species serves as a reservoir for the disease. Single- and two-species epizootic models are examined in a particular case where the contact rates are assumed to be constant. This leads to a new definition for the contact rate. A complete global analysis is possible in these latter cases. The results are compared and contrasted with the models with variable contact rates. The prototype for the models is the spread of disease in wildlife populations, which includes such diseases as plague or Lyme disease.
ABC's: AIDS, Biases, and the Community Setting

In this article, I examine how a black community organizes itself to deal with the AIDS epidemic, and the role of bias in both community organizations and an anthropologist's research activities. As creatures of culture we all have our biases, although we may not be aware of them. For the researcher, predispositions towards or away from actions, ideas, and/or persons form a framework for ethnography, event analysis, and network analysis in formal and informal community groups. Similarly, biases that individuals and groups possess influence their awareness, or nonawareness, of AIDS issues. These biases vary across subgroups with different social agendas, and they may undermine the effectiveness of community organizations attempting to heighten AIDS awareness.
Pareto Optimal Pairwise Sequence Alignment

Sequence alignment using evolutionary profiles is a commonly employed tool when investigating a protein. Many profile-profile scoring functions have been developed for use in such alignments, but there has not yet been a comprehensive study of Pareto optimal pairwise alignments for combining multiple such functions. We show that the problem of generating Pareto optimal pairwise alignments has an optimal substructure property, and develop an efficient algorithm for generating Pareto optimal frontiers of pairwise alignments. All possible sets of two, three, and four profile scoring functions are used from a pool of 11 functions and applied to 588 pairs of proteins in the ce_ref data set. The performance of the best objective combinations on ce_ref is also evaluated on an independent set of 913 protein pairs extracted from the BAliBASE RV11 data set. Our dynamic-programming-based heuristic approach produces approximated Pareto optimal frontiers of pairwise alignments that contain comparable alignments to those on the exact frontier, but on average in less than 1/58th the time in the case of four objectives. Our results show that the Pareto frontiers contain alignments whose quality is better than the alignments obtained by single objectives. However, the task of identifying a single high-quality alignment among those in the Pareto frontier remains challenging.
A study of chaos in discrete-time linear systems with quantized state feedback

The authors study the chaotic behavior in a family of linear discrete-time systems with a quantized state feedback. Using the tools of dynamical system theory, they establish a necessary and sufficient algebraic condition for chaos and present a probabilistic characterization of the quasi-random chaotic behavior in this family of quantization systems. >
High rate space-time block coded scheme: performance and improvement in correlated fading channels

In this paper, we study the performance of space-time block coding, also known as space-time transmit diversity (STTD) scheme for high data rate applications with 4 transmit antennas. The scheme consists of two STTD units at the transmitter and an interference-resistant detector at the receiver, termed the double-STTD (DSTTD) scheme. We compare the performance of DSTTD to general multi-input multi-output (GMIMO) signaling for a given data rate and under different channel correlation profiles. It is demonstrated that DSTTD outperforms GMIMO in all cases. In addition, additional performance gain can be attained for DSTTD in correlated channels by selectively ordering the transmit antennas to minimize the average interference terms.
Distinct patterns of chromosome abnormalities characterize childhood non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Summary. We report here cytogenetic studies of a series of 23 childhood non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL), a group that has previously not been subjected to detailed cytogenetic analysis. Combining our results with data from 25 tumours in the published literature, we have performed the first cytogenetic analysis of a large series of childhood NHL. Our results show that the cytogenetic changes encountered in NHL of children are distinct and may be different from those seen in NHL of adults reflecting the previously recognized differences in histological presentation and clinical behaviour of the two entities. Thus, the most frequently occurring translocation in B-cell lesions in children was t(8;14)(q24;1q32). Other translocations frequently seen in adults such as t(14;18)(q32;q21),t(11;14)(q13;q32) and t(3;22)(q27;q11) were either rare or so far not seen in children, although reciprocal translocations appeared to be generally prevalent in childhood NHL. Combining our data with those in the published literature, we have identified two new recurring translocations [t(1;17)(p36;q21) and t(1;14)(p36;q22)], and a recurring duplication [dup(11)(q13;q23)] in this group of lymphomas. In addition, our literature survey identified a third recurring translocation [t(5;14)(q23;q32)] which was previously reported in two cases of childhood NHL. Our analysis also showed differences in the types of nonrandom translocations between childhood NHL and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in children suggesting that biologically these entities are different from one another. This study thus uncovers patterns of chromosome change associated with childhood lymphoma thus providing new opportunities for investigation of their clinical significance by correlation analysis and biological significance by molecular analysis.
Further Evidence That the Majority of Primary Nuclear RNA Transcripts in Mammalian Cells Do Not Contribute to mRNA

Nuclear RNA from Chinese hamster ovary cells was effectively separated into polyadenylic acid (poly(A))-containing (poly (A)/sup +/) and non-poly(A)-containing (poly(A)/sup -/) fractions so that --90% of the poly(A) was present in the (A)/sup +/ fraction. Only 25% of the 5'-terminal caps of the large nuclear molecules were present in the (A)/sup +/ class, but about 70% of the specific mRNA sequences (assayed with cDNA clones) were in the (A)/sup +/ class. It appears that many long capped heterogeneous nuclear RNA molecules are of a different sequence category from those molecules that are successfully processed into mRNA.
Semi-discrete dynamical model for mountain-front recharge and water balance estimation, Rio Grande of southern Colorado and New Mexico.

This research is developing a distributed, dynamical model for esti- mating recharge and partitioning water budgets across the climatic and topog- raphic gradients of the Rio Grande in southern Colorado and New Mexico. The present paper focuses on formulation of finite-volume balance equations and their physical basis; the relation of the model to qualitative characteristics of cli- mate, vegetation and hydrogeologic conditions; and discretization of the model using the natural coordinates of the terrain. Explicit expressions are developed which link the upward and downward flux of water below the root zone (re- charge and evapotranspiration respectively) to the water table position and the in- teraction of groundwater with ephemeral and perennial streamflow. The model- ing strategy, originally proposed by Duffy (1996) for soil moisture and ground- water flow at the hillslope scale, is extended here to the case where major changes in terrain, climate, vegetation and hydrogeologic conditions require a distributed, but low-dimensional, water balance. The complexity or dimension of the model is determined by the choice of support scale of the geospatial data (e.g. terrain, climate, landuse, and vegetation features) and the corresponding relation of the subsurface contributing area to surface streams or ephemeral channels. The model approach is based on a semi-discrete finite volume method, where the par- tial differential equations are formed in terms of a coupled system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The model is demonstrated for a mountain-front setting in central New Mexico, the Llano de Sandia. A simulation scenario ex- plores the long range impacts of abrupt climate change on upland recharge and riparian evapotranspiration through gains and losses of groundwater to the Rio Grande.
The Star Wars Arms Race in College Athletics: Coaches’ Pay and Athletic Program Status

This study focuses on a “star wars arms race” concerning escalating head coaches’ salaries in the biggest of the big-time college sports in the United States, football and men’s basketball. Data ar...
O "pessimismo sentimental" e a experiência etnográfica: por que a cultura não é um "objeto" em via de extinção (parte I)

This article (published in two parts) examines and refutes critiques of the concept of culture. The post-modernist identification of "culture" with colonialism and imperialism is a false diagnosis: marked by its reaction to Enlightenment universalism, the historico-ideological context within which the idea of culture took shape indicates the opposite. In turn, anxieties over the imminent end of human cultural variety are revealed to be groundless: globalisation and other capitalist phenomena, far from imposing a monotonous hegemony on the planet, have generated a historically unprecedented diversity of cultural forms and contents.
A new species of the genus Paramesotriton (Caudata: Salamandridae) from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, southern China

A new species of Asian warty newt, Paramesotriton ermizhaoi, is described from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. This species is easily distinguished from other congeners by external morphology and osteology. Phylogenetic analyses based on mitochondrial data place P. ermizhaoi as a possible sister taxon to P. hongkongensis and P. chinensis. The number of trunk vertebrae varies from 12 to 13 in the new species. The relationship between P. ermizhaoi and a potentially new Pachytriton species (Pachytriton C), and the Guangxi population of P. chinensis is briefly discussed.
Microfluidic assay of platelet deposition on collagen by perfusion of whole blood from healthy individuals taking aspirin.

BACKGROUND: Microfluidic devices can create hemodynamic conditions for platelet assays. We validated an 8-channel device in a study of interdonor response to acetylsalicylic acid (ASA, aspirin) with whole blood from 28 healthy individuals. METHODS: Platelet deposition was assessed before treatment or 24 h after ingestion of 325 mg ASA. Whole blood (plus 100 μmol/L H-d-Phe-Pro-Arg-chloromethylketone to inhibit thrombin) was further treated ex vivo with ASA (0–500 μmol/L) and perfused over fibrillar collagen for 300 s at a venous wall shear rate (200 s−1). RESULTS: Ex vivo ASA addition to blood drawn before aspirin ingestion caused a reduction in platelet deposition [half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) approximately 10–20 μmol/L], especially between 150 and 300 s of perfusion, when secondary aggregation mediated by thromboxane was expected. Twenty-seven of 28 individuals displayed smaller deposits (45% mean reduction; range 10%–90%; P 1 in only 3 of 28 individuals after 500 μmol/L ASA addition ex vivo. At 24 h after ASA ingestion, 21 of 28 individuals displayed poor secondary aggregation ( R 1) displayed insensitivity to ex vivo ASA addition. Platelet deposition was not correlated with platelet count. Ex vivo ASA addition caused similar inhibition at venous and arterial wall shear rates. CONCLUSIONS: Microfluidic devices quantified platelet deposition after ingestion or ex vivo addition of aspirin.
Conducting a Meta-Analysis of Counseling Outcome Research: Twelve Steps and Practical Procedures

A meta-analysis is a quantitative research procedure used to synthesize the results of many similar empirical studies on a topic of interest. A 12-step process for conducting a meta-analysis of cou...
The Specific Role of FAM20C in Dentinogenesis

FAM20C is an evolutionarily reserved molecule highly expressed in mineralized tissues. Previously we demonstrated that Sox2-Cre;Fam20Cfl/fl mice, in which Fam20C was ubiquitously inactivated, had dentin and enamel defects as well as hypophosphatemic rickets. We also showed that K14-Cre;Fam20Cfl/fl mice, in which Fam20C was specifically inactivated in the epithelium, had enamel defects but lacked hypophosphatemia and defects in the bone and dentin. These results indicated that the enamel defects in the Sox2-Cre;Fam20Cfl/fl mice were independent of dentin defects and hypophosphatemia. To determine if the dentin defects in the Sox2-Cre;Fam20Cfl/fl mice were associated with the enamel defects and hypophosphatemia, we crossed Fam20Cfl/fl mice with Wnt1-Cre and Osr2-Cre transgenic mice to inactivate Fam20C in the craniofacial mesenchymal cells that form dentin and alveolar bone. The resulting Wnt1-Cre;Fam20Cfl/fl and Osr2-Cre;Fam20Cfl/fl mice showed remarkable dentin and alveolar bone defects, while their ename...
Challenges to Privacy in Social Networking Mashups: Social TV as a Case Study

Social networking provides opportunities to expand the nature of existing applications and user activities in cyberspace. Consider the idea of "social TV". Along with these opportunities to combine activities such as social networking and TV or entertainment, comes an interesting set of challenges to the privacy of identity information. In this paper we will examine a key set of these challenges. These include issues of merged identities, inference across identities, merged privacy policies, and flow of information among the composition identity management systems involved in a new composite application service. We conclude with a set of observations to keep in mind when designing such a composition or mashup of existing services, especially with respect to identity and privacy.
Enumeration of test sequences in increasing chronological order to improve the levels of compaction achieved by vector omission

We describe a method to improve the levels of compaction achievable by static compaction procedures based on vector omission. Such procedures are used to reduce the lengths of test sequences for synchronous sequential circuits without reducing the fault coverage. The proposed procedure enumerates, in increasing chronological order, test sequences consisting of subsets of the vectors included in a given test sequence that needs to be compacted. The unique feature of this approach is that test vectors omitted from the test sequence at an earlier iteration can be reintroduced at a later iteration. This results in a less greedy procedure and helps reduce the compacted test sequence length beyond the length that can be achieved if vectors are omitted permanently as in earlier procedures.
Does Methylphenidate (MPD) Have the Potential to Become Drug of Abuse

The psychostimulant methylphenidate (MPD) is the pharmacotherapy of choice for the treatment of attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, dementia, chronic fatigue and useful in providing relief from intractable pain. More recently students of all ages use MPD (Ritalin) as a cognitive enhancement to help them study and perform better during exams. Many of them abuse the drug for recreation. This chapter aims to provide a short review of the pharmacological property of MPD. MPD can elicit behavioral sensitization or tolerance – behavioral sensitization and tolerance are experimental markers indicating dependence. Some behavior experiments using an MPD dose response protocol demonstrated that MPD elicits behavioral sensitization and other studies reported behavioral tolerance. Our dose response study of chronic MPD dose response experiment demonstrated that the same dose of MPD in some animals elicited behavioral sensitization and in others animals behavioral tolerance.
How Should the Benefits of Bioprospecting Be Shared

The search for valuable new products from among the world's stock of natural biological resources is mostly carried out by people from wealthy countries, and mostly takes place in developing countries that lack the research capacity to profit from it. Surely, the indigenous people should receive some compensation from it. But we must build a robust defense for this intuition, rooted in the Western moral traditions that are widely accepted in wealthy countries, if we are to put it into practice and enforce it.
Trial by fire: community wildfire protection plans put to the test

Research has found that community wildfire protection planning can make significant contributions to wildfire mitigation and preparedness, but can the planning process and resulting Community Wildfire Protection Plans make a difference to wildfire response and recovery? In case studies conducted in four USA communities with Community Wildfire Protection Plans in place when wildfires occurred, we saw a range of Community Wildfire Protection Plan projects designed to change the path and intensity of the wildfires. In most of our communities, the Community Wildfire Protection Plan and planning process improved relationships among firefighting agencies, clarified responsibilities and improved communication systems, contributing to fire response efficiency and effectiveness. We found that social learning resulting from the wildfire experience motivated communities to revisit and implement their Community Wildfire Protection Plans, changing the planning frame and scale and increasing the plan's relevance for response and recovery. We conclude that Community Wildfire Protection Plans and experience with wildfire can also result in greater community capacity that builds resilience and increases adaptive capacity for future environmental changes and disasters.
Earth-Centered World Views in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

We will now continue our story of how the solar system was conceptualized and mapped in Europe. We left Europe in Chapter 2 with a discussion of Neoplatonism. Although this was an influential philosophy, the dominant world view at the end of Roman times was that of Ptolemy and his Almagest. However, the works of Ptolemy disappeared in Europe over subsequent centuries, along with Greek mathematical astronomy.
Persistent Motor Deficits Predict Long-Term Bladder Dysfunction in Children Following Acute Transverse Myelitis

Purpose: We determined whether motor and bladder recovery are correlated in children with acute transverse myelitis.Materials and Methods: From 1995 to 2004, 14 children (8 males and 6 females) with acute transverse myelitis were retrospectively evaluated to determine if there was a correlation between motor and bladder recovery following disease onset.Results: During the acute phase of the disease, all patients experienced lower extremity motor deficit and bladder dysfunction. Full motor recovery was associated with full bladder recovery, and no motor recovery was related to no bladder recovery. Partial motor recovery was associated with either no or partial bladder recovery.Conclusions: Motor and bladder recovery were related in our patients with transverse myelitis. Children with no motor recovery did not experience bladder recovery. No significant bladder recovery was seen beyond 4 months in our patients.
Sensor Data Collection Through Gateways in a Highly Mobile Mesh Network

Widely distributed sensors must discover paths back to data collection points possibly through sparsely connected and mobile networks. Current addressing and service discovery schemes in mobile networks are not well-suited to multihop disconnected networks. This paper describes an architecture and protocol for sensor data collection through highly mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) that may never experience end-to-end connectivity. Special gateway nodes are described which are responsible for intelligently routing messages to their intended destination(s). These gateway nodes qualify their links and announce their status to the MANET, a simple approach to service discovery that is effective in this implementation. The protocol is implemented and tested in a laboratory and outdoor environment.
Corn distillers' dried grains with solubles and corn distillers' dried grains: dry fractionation and composition.

Corn distillers' dried grains with solubles (CDGS) and corn distillers' dried grains (CDG) at various moisture and fat contents were pin milled and screened. Fractions of CDGS and CDG contained from 11.4–45.7% and 12.5–49.6% protein, respectively (dry basis), compared with 30% for CDGS and 25% for CDG. The highest protein shifts were obtained when CDGS at initial moisture of 21% was ground twice at 14,000 rpm and CDG at initial moisture of 21% was ground once at 14,000 rpm. Fat, ash, dietary fiber contents, and amino acid composition of CDGS and CDG fractions were also determined.
Fuel-efficient navigation in complex flows

In realistic time-chaotic flows, the time-dependent separatrices are revealed by Lagrangian coherent structures (LCS). The LCS surfaces organize complex flows, revealing dynamical channels useful for weakly propelled mobile agents. We propose a feedback control strategy to explicitly incorporate LCS, which are in general evolving. Inane et al. (2005) observed that the fuel optimal trajectory in ocean flow seems to lie on a moving LCS surface. We take this observation a step further by explicitly incorporating the moving LCS location into the control strategy. We have the vehicle track an LCS surface, considering this a time-dependent boundary following problem, with the aim of following lanes of fuel-efficient motion delineated by LCS surfaces. We demonstrate this strategy in a double-gyre flow and find that indeed a strategy using LCS is feasible and uses less fuel than a naive direct targeting approach.
Numerical simulations of radar surface air pressure measurements at O/sub 2/ bands

An active microwave method is investigated for measuring surface air pressure by using radar reflections at frequencies around 53-55 GHz O/sub 2/ bands. The numerical simulation results for homogeneous backgrounds show that with an airborne radar working at these O/sub 2/ absorption bands, the rms errors of the radar surface pressure estimations with 15-dB signal-to-noise ratio can be as low as 4-7 mb. A radar system that covers these wavelengths will have great potentials for weather observations and other meteorological applications.
Video compression based on camera motion

Two classes of algorithms for modeling camera motion in video sequences captured by a camera are proposed. The first class can be applied in situations where there is no camera translation and the motion of camera can be adequately modeled by zoom, pan, and rotation parameters. The second class is more general in that it can be applied to situations where the camera is undergoing a translational motion, as well as a rotation and zoom and pan. The salient feature of both algorithms is that the camera motion is estimated using binary matching of the edges in successive frames. In doing so, it is shown that unlike local motion estimation, edge matching can be sufficient in estimating camera motion parameters. >
Closing the Gender Gap: What does it really mean?

(2001). Closing the Gender Gap: What does it really mean? Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education: Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 119-121.
An Interesting Mesoscale Storm-Environment Interaction Observed Just Prior to Changes in Severe Storm Behavior

Abstract Satellite images are presented to illustrate an interesting interaction that occurred between a severe thunderstorm and a mesoscale feature that originated in its nearby environment. Immediately following that interaction, a series of tornadoes began, starting with a long-lived F5 tornado that produced major damage in Hesston, Kansas. Some speculation is presented regarding the physical processes that may have contributed to the observed changes in thunderstorm behavior.
Ideal Dynamic Route Choice Models

In this chapter, we present both route-based and link-based variational inequality (VI) models for the ideal dynamic user-optimal (DUO) route choice problem. Using a network with two parallel routes, we first present an example to illustrate the ideal dynamic user-optimal concept in Section 5.1. The general definition of ideal dynamic user-optimal state is given in Section 5.2. Then, the route-time-based ideal dynamic user-optimal route choice model is presented in Section 5.3. This model is the most straight-forward formulation of route-time-based, ideal DUO route choice conditions.
Respiratory Diagnostic Pathology

Effective treatment and control of bovine respiratory disease is dependent upon an accurate diagnosis. This article discusses the approach to diagnosis of bovine respiratory disease from the perspective of respiratory pathology. Topics covered include necropsy examination of the respiratory system, sample collection and submission, and the gross, and histopathologic lesions of the upper and lower bovine respiratory system.
Opioid-induced constipation: advances and clinical guidance

Currently opioids are the most frequently used medications for chronic noncancer pain. Opioid-induced constipation is the most common adverse effect associated with prolonged use of opioids, having a major impact on quality of life. There is an increasing need to treat opioid-induced constipation. With the recent approval of medications for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation, there are several therapeutic approaches. This review addresses the clinical presentation and diagnosis of opioid-induced constipation, barriers to its diagnosis, effects of opioids in the gastrointestinal tract, differential tolerance to opiates in different gastrointestinal organs, medications approved and in development for the treatment of opioid-induced constipation, and a proposed clinical management algorithm for treating opioid-induced constipation in patients with noncancer pain.
Repositioning the Marketing Curriculum

An important phenomenon appears to be underway in higher education for marketing. This phenomenon is worth knowing about, worth evaluating, and worth considering as a potential strategy for repositioning existing undergraduate marketing curricula in U. S. colleges and universities. The phenomenon is called "tracking". This paper hypothesizes three distinct positioning strategies for higher education in marketing. Each strategy is presented and placed in its proper chronological setting. The use of tracking to overcome the weakness of previous strategies is discussed. A detailed analysis of tracking including definition of terms, components of a tracked curriculum, along with examples and opportunities is presented. Finally, specific procedures for the organization of tracking, the development of resources to support a tracking program, and implementation are recommended.
Dissociative Adsorption of Dimethyl Sulfoxide at the Ge(100)-2 × 1 Surface

Methods for passivating the germanium surface must be developed in order to fully exploit its electrical properties in devices. Passivation by formation of Ge–S bonds has proven most effective to date, spurring interest in adsorption of sulfur-containing molecules on the germanium surface. In this study, we investigate adsorption of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) on the Ge(100)-2 × 1 surface in ultrahigh vacuum. By a combination of density functional theory calculations, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, we find that DMSO undergoes two dissociative adsorption reactions on the Ge(100)-2 × 1 surface: S–C dissociation and S═O dissociation. The former produces a surface-bound methyl group and CH3SO fragment bound to germanium through the oxygen, while the latter yields adsorbed atomic oxygen and dimethyl sulfide, which desorbs to vacuum. It is shown that the reactivity of DMSO is greatly affected by the dipolar character of the sulfoxide bond, which drives the reaction ...
The Sanctuary of Titicaca: Where the Sun Returns to Earth

In Inka mythology, a large sandstone rock on the Island of the Sun, in Lake Titicaca, was the origin place of the sun. It was there that the sun first emerged and designated the Inka as his children. Under Inka rule, and perhaps before, this rock was a destination of pilgrims who went to worship and make offerings to the sun. We present evidence that a set of solar markers existed on a ridge northwest of the sacred rock. These structures framed the sunset for groups of watchers on the June solstice, near the time of the sun festival, Inti Raymi. Historic information coupled with the organization of archaeological sites within the sanctuary area on the island suggests that elites and common pilgrims may have observed the sunset from different locations.