cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Influence of mist pH and acid anion on cation efflux from pinto bean foliage

The cation content of droplets collected from Phaseolus vulgaris (pinto bean) leaf surfaces during misting was more strongly influenced by mist pH (2.5, 4.0, or deionized water) than by source of acidity (HCI or H2SO4 + HNO3). Concentrations of Ca2+, Mg2+, and K+ were highest in droplets from leaves treated with the pH 2.5 mists, but there were often no differences between the pH 4.0 and deionized water treatments. Cation content and pH of droplets from leaves treated with pH 2.5 mists increased across the three days of treatment, while those from leaves treated with less acidic mists decreased or did not change across the days of treatment. Source of acidity often affected foliar concentrations of Mg2+, K+, and Na+, but in inconsistent directions, and foliar concentrations of Mg2+ and K+ were unaffected by mist pH. Foliar Ca 2+ concentrations were often highest in leaves treated with pH 2.5 mists, in contrast to expectation, perhaps because of effects of acidic mist on foliar carbohydrate status. Despite the large efflux of cations from leaves treated with pH 2.5 mists, foliar cation concentrations in nonmisted foliage were sometimes lower than in misted foliage (Ca2+), but were higher in other cases (Na+) or indistinguishable in still others (K−). While exposure of plants to highly acidic mists appeared to cause accelerated efflux of foliar cations, effects on foliar chemistry are probably dependent on soil nutrient status and on other aspects of plant vigor.
Informative-frame filtering in endoscopy videos

Advances in video technology are being incorporated into today’s healthcare practice. For example, colonoscopy is an important screening tool for colorectal cancer. Colonoscopy allows for the inspection of the entire colon and provides the ability to perform a number of therapeutic operations during a single procedure. During a colonoscopic procedure, a tiny video camera at the tip of the endoscope generates a video signal of the internal mucosa of the colon. The video data are displayed on a monitor for real-time analysis by the endoscopist. Other endoscopic procedures include upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, enteroscopy, bronchoscopy, cystoscopy, and laparoscopy. However, a significant number of out-of-focus frames are included in this type of videos since current endoscopes are equipped with a single, wide-angle lens that cannot be focused. The out-of-focus frames do not hold any useful information. To reduce the burdens of the further processes such as computer-aided image processing or human expert’s examinations, these frames need to be removed. We call an out-of-focus frame as non-informative frame and an in-focus frame as informative frame. We propose a new technique to classify the video frames into two classes, informative and non-informative frames using a combination of Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), Texture Analysis, and K-Means Clustering. The proposed technique can evaluate the frames without any reference image, and does not need any predefined threshold value. Our experimental studies indicate that it achieves over 96% of four different performance metrics (i.e. precision, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy).
Dnmt1-Independent CG Methylation Contributes to Nucleosome Positioning in Diverse Eukaryotes

Dnmt1 epigenetically propagates symmetrical CG methylation in many eukaryotes. Their genomes are typically depleted of CG dinucleotides because of imperfect repair of deaminated methylcytosines. Here, we extensively survey diverse species lacking Dnmt1 and show that, surprisingly, symmetrical CG methylation is nonetheless frequently present and catalyzed by a different DNA methyltransferase family, Dnmt5. Numerous Dnmt5-containing organisms that diverged more than a billion years ago exhibit clustered methylation, specifically in nucleosome linkers. Clustered methylation occurs at unprecedented densities and directly disfavors nucleosomes, contributing to nucleosome positioning between clusters. Dense methylation is enabled by a regime of genomic sequence evolution that enriches CG dinucleotides and drives the highest CG frequencies known. Species with linker methylation have small, transcriptionally active nuclei that approach the physical limits of chromatin compaction. These features constitute a previously unappreciated genome architecture, in which dense methylation influences nucleosome positions, likely facilitating nuclear processes under extreme spatial constraints.
Moisture diffusion in poltimide films in integrated circuits

This paper reports the use of planar aluminum-PI-aluminum capacitors, in which the variation of low frequency dielectric permittivity is shown to be proportional to absorbed moisture, to carry out in-situ studies of moisture uptake and diffusion in PMDA-ODA device-grade polyimide films. It is found that the equilibrium amount of moisture uptake depends on ambient relative humidity in the temperature range 20-80‡C, and that the diffusion kinetics obey a Fickian model with a diffusion coefficient in the range 3-5 x 10-9 cm2 /sec at room temperature. The diffusion coefficient is temperature dependent, with an activation energy of 0.32-0.34 eV, and is weakly dependent on absorbed moisture at fixed temperature. An asymmetry is observed between absorption and desorption kinetics which correlates with the moisture-dependent diffusion coefficient.
5-Fluoroorotate: a new liposome-dependent cytotoxic agent

The potency of 5-fluoroorotate for inhibition of L929 or CV1-P cell growth is increased by encapsulation in negatively charged liposomes. The optimal liposome composition is dipalmitoylphosphatidylglycerol: cholesterol, 67:33. Unextruded large unilamellar liposomes are the optimal size for delivery. This compound is the second transport-negative drug which we have found to exhibit liposome-dependent delivery.
Finger-based multitouch interface for performing 3D CAD operations

The area of multitouch interaction research is at its infancy. The commercial sector has seen an exponential growth in this area with ubiquitous products like Apple i-Phone, i-Pad, and Microsoft surface table. In spite of their popularity, developers are still finding it difficult to extend this novel interface to engineering applications such as computer aided design (CAD), due to insufficient understanding of the factors that affect the multitouch interface interaction when applied to CAD operations. The objective of this research is to (1) outline the key elements of the multitouch interface for CAD, (2) identify the factors affecting the performance of a multitouch enabled CAD modeling environment, and (3) lay a foundation for future research and highlight the directions for extending the multitouch interface for CAD and other engineering applications. To demonstrate specific results we have conducted mouse emulation experiments. We compared the performance of two finger touch-based interaction techniques (drag state finger touch and track state finger touch) and a standard mouse device for 3D CAD modeling operations. The results indicated that both the task completion time and error rates are statistically the same for both the finger touch-based techniques. However, the error concentration observed from the experiments revealed that for the edge selection tasks, the track state technique is more suited than the drag state technique. Both the finger touch-based techniques suffered from precise dimension control while executing the tasks. The inclusion of a grid on the design space for modeling purpose reduced user errors. The mouse device outperformed both the finger touch-based techniques and yielded statistically better results in terms of task completion time and error rates.
Effects of Dystocia, Retained Placenta, and Metritis on Milk Yield in Dairy Cows

The effects of dystocia, retained placenta, and metritis on milk yield were studied in 37,776 Finnish Ayrshire cows that calved during 1993; cows were studied for one lactation. Monthly test day milk yields were treated as repeated measurements within a cow in a mixed models analysis. Index categories were created to relate the time of disease occurrence to the test dates and to capture the short-term effects of diseases on milk yield. Diseases other than dystocia, retained placenta, or metritis were categorized into two groups: diseases occurring within 42 d after calving or diseases occurring later than that. The statistical models for each parity included calving season, stage of lactation, and disease variables as fixed effects. For parities 2, 3, and 4 or higher, the cows were grouped into four categories based on previous lactation milk yield, and the disease effect was studied separately for each yield level. An autoregressive covariance structure was used to model the association among the repeated measurements. Models with a 305-d yield as the outcome were also run; the diseases were treated as binary covariates in these models. Dystocia, retained placenta, and early metritis significantly affected milk yield, as indicated by monthly test day milk yields. Late metritis was not associated with milk loss. The impact of the diseases differed across parities and also across different levels of milk yield. Using 305-d milk yield as the milk measure, no diseases were associated with reduced milk yield.
Pathophysiology of antithrombin III deficiency

This article focuses on the pathophysiology of thrombosis in patients with acquired antithrombin III deficiency. Antithrombin III is an important natural inhibitor of the hemostatic mechanism, and a hypercoagulable state is often induced in diseases causing antithrombin III deficiency. Laboratory determination of antithrombin III activity is particularly useful in the clinical evaluation and therapeutic management of patients with disseminated intravascular coagulation, nephrotic syndrome, and severe hepatopathy.
The effect of stress on glycemic control in patients with type II diabetes during glyburide and glipizide therapy.

Stress adversely affects glycemic control in patients with type II diabetes mellitus. In addition, stress reduction with relaxation techniques or medication use in the management of hyperglycemia has been recommended. This study examined the relationship of glycemic control to self-reported stress in 19 patients with type II diabetes mellitus who were randomly allocated to receive either glyburide or glipizide for 16 weeks in a double-blind crossover design. Each treatment phase was preceded by a 2-week washout period. A previously designed and validated nine-item stress questionnaire was used to assess areas such as safety, financial wellbeing, energy level, health, etc. These areas were evaluated as more/less, better/worse, or no change. The stress questionnaire, fasting blood glucose (FBG), and glycosylated hemoglobin (GHb) concentrations were completed or measured at the end of glyburide and glipizide treatment periods. By assigning a value of 1, 2, or 3 to a positive, no change, or negative response, respectively, a composite stress score was computed and compared with glycemic control as assessed by FBG and GHb. Regression analysis showed highly significant correlations (P < .05) between stress scores and FBG (r = .70) as well as GHb (r = 0.84) with glipizide therapy. No such correlation was noted with glyburide (FBG: r = 0.29; GHb: r = 0.29). These findings suggest that during glyburide treatment, in contrast to glipizide, an increase in stress was not associated with a corresponding rise in blood glucose or worsening of metabolic control.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Prevention and Management of Stroke in Sickle Cell Anemia

As the overall health of patients with sickle cell anemia (SS) improves and diagnostic techniques become more sensitive, physicians are seeing patients with an increasingly wide range of subtle and not-so-subtle brain injury. The major breakthrough in the field of sickle-related brain injury has been the unprecedented success of transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (TCD) to identify asymptomatic patients at high risk of stroke, coupled with chronic transfusion therapy to prevent it. The evidence for TCD screening and preventive treatment is strong and compelling, but there are still important unanswered questions regarding the implications of "silent infarcts" found in the magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of asymptomatic individuals, and the growing awareness of the burden of neuropsychiatric dysfunction in otherwise apparently healthy individuals.
Modeling of surface stress effects on bending behavior of nanowires: Incremental deformation theory

Abstract The surface stress effects on bending behavior of nanowires have recently attracted a lot of attention. In this letter, the incremental deformation theory is first applied to study the surface stress effects upon the bending behavior of the nanowires. Different from other linear continuum approaches, the local geometrical nonlinearity of the Lagrangian strain is considered, therefore, the contribution of the surface stresses is naturally derived by applying the Hamilton's principle, and influence of the surface stresses along all surfaces of the nanowires is captured. It is first shown that the surface stresses along all surfaces have contribution not only on the effective Young's modulus of the nanowires but also on the loading term in the governing equation. The predictions of the effective Young's modulus and the resonance shift of the nanowires from the current method are compared with those from the experimental measurement and other existing approaches. The difference with other models is discussed. Finally, based on the current theory, the resonant shift predictions by using both the modified Euler–Bernoulli beam and the modified Timoshenko beam theories of the nanowires are investigated and compared. It is noticed that the higher vibration modes are less sensitive to the surface stresses than the lower vibration modes.
Special issue: Corporate culture and disability

Researchers, policymakers, business leaders, and the disability community must engage in meaningful dialogue about the examination of disability rights law and policy in general, and the implications of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 for persons with disabilities and their families and employers in particular. In June of 2004, a Blue Ribbon Panel meeting was convened to help address these issues. The meeting was hosted by Merrill Lynch, at their world headquarters in New York City, and co-sponsored by the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Workforce Investment and Employment Policy for Persons with Disabilities, at the Law, Health Policy and Disability Center of the University of Iowa College of Law. 2 The purpose of the symposium was twofold: (1) to increase dialogue among corporations, persons with disabilities, policymakers, and researchers; and (2) to enhance study of corporate culture and the employment of persons with disabilities. Included in the symposium round-table discussions were experts on corporate culture and disability studies, corporate leaders, government representatives, and members of the disability community and their families. Peter Blanck moderated the symposium discussion. Papers were prepared for the symposium from leading experts and distributed to the panel and audience to focus the discussion. Those papers form the core of this special issue. Understanding the impact of civil rights legislation such as the ADA on the corporate culture and business practice is critical to employers and policymakers, as well as employees with disabilities (Blanck, Hill, Siegal, & Waterstone, 2003). Similar to other diversity issues that corporations have addressed to their benefit, employment of persons with disabilities is an important issue to many stakeholders. Researchers have studied a continuum of employment settings for persons with disabilities, from
Antenatal Prediction of Fetal pH in Growth Restricted Fetuses Using Computer Analysis of the Fetal Heart Rate

We tested the accuracy of a mathematical model based on computer analysis of the fetal heart rate tracing in predicting umbilical artery pH at birth. In a previous report based on data on 38 growth-restricted fetuses, the second-order polynomial regression equation, umbilical artery pH = 7,28 + 0.002 (duration of episodes of low variation in minutes) + 0.00009 (duration of episodes of low variation in minutes)2, was retrospectively found to be the best model for the prediction of umbilical artery pH at birth. In the present study, this formula was prospectively tested in 29 growth restricted fetuses between 26 and 37 weeks of gestation from pregnancies with abnormal uterine and/or umbilical artery Doppler velocimetry. Computer analysis of the fetal heart rate tracing of 1 hour duration was performed within 1.5–6 hours of cesarean birth prior to the onset of labor. Umbilical artery cord blood was collected at birth with pH determined within 5 minutes of collection. Acidemia was defined as umbilical artery ...
Maximal-Ratio Diversity Combiners

A diversity combiner with a structure which is common to many communication systems is described. When the combiner inputs are independent and identically distributed narrowband Gaussian random processes and the reference signals are timeinvariant, it is found that the combiner output can be conveniently represented as a function of a Gaussian random process, a chisquare variate, Gaussian variate, and known time functions. This representation clearly indicates the performance gain from diversity. In addition, it simplifies the evaluation of expectations of functions of the combiner output; recursion relations, with respect to the order of diversity, are found for these expectations. The results of this paper thus serve to unify and generalize many other results dealing with maximal-ratio diversity combiners; extensions of many well-known results can also be found by using the recursion relations.
Automated support for recovery

Transactions have traditionally been applied to database systems in order to guarantee data consistency in the face of failures. We propose to expand the role of transactions into a general model for application recovery. To achieve this goal, we use dynamic metaprogramming in order to inject the transactional recovery code at runtime, thus ensuring the system's portability through the use of a standard execution environment. Since this recovery method does not require programmer intervention, but, rather, transforms the code automatically, we believe it can potentially simplify the design and implementation of self-healing autonomic systems and reduce the potential for failure in large-scale distributed applications, thus realizing a central tenet of autonomic computing.
IMPACT OF TRAFFIC CONGESTION ON BUS TRAVEL TIME IN NORTHERN NEW JERSEY

Traffic congestion in Northern New Jersey imposes a substantial time operational penalty on bus service. The purpose of a project was to quantify the additional travel time that buses need because of traffic congestion. A regression model was developed to estimate the travel time rate (in minutes per mile) of a bus as a function of car traffic time rate, number of passengers boarding per mile, and the number of bus stops per mile. The model was used to estimate the bus travel time rate if cars were traveling under free-flow conditions, and the results were compared with the observed bus travel times.
Detection of a large-scale mass redistribution in the terrestrial system since 1998.

Earth9s dynamic oblateness (J2) had been undergoing a decrease, according to space geodetic observations over the past 25 years, until around 1998, when it switched quite suddenly to an increasing trend that has continued to the present. The secular decrease in J2 resulted primarily from the postglacial rebound in the mantle. The present increase, whose geophysical cause(s) are uncertain, thus signifies a large change in global mass distribution with a J2 effect that considerably overshadows that of mantle rebound.
THERMODYNAMICS OF KOJATE COMPLEXES OF THE LANTHANIDES

Abstract The thermodynamic parameters have been determined for the formation of the lanthanide monokojate complexes at 25° C in aqueous solutions of 2.00 M and 0.10 M ionic strength (NaClO4). The stabilities are comparable to those of the analogous acetylacetonates. The variation of the enthalpies and entropies of formation as a function of lanthanide atomic number are discussed in terms of possible hydration and bonding effects.
Teacher Hiring Practices: Illinois Principals' Perspectives

Abstract A growing body of research has confirmed the link between excellent teachers and increased student achievement and school success. Consequently, selecting outstanding teachers is critical. This study examines Illinois principals' teacher hiring practices as well as their perceptions of what teachers do to enhance or hinder their selection. Included also is advice from principals on how candidates can best prepare and present themselves during the job search process.
The Geographic, Political, and Economic Context for Corporate Social Responsibility in Brazil

This paper provides an overview of corporate social responsibility in Brazil, a country of vast regional and economic differences. Despite abundant natural resources and centers of advanced technology, large numbers of Brazilians live in poverty. Historical factors, which to some extent explain Brazil’s social and economic inequalities – a long period of colonialism, followed by populist reform, repressive military measures, foreign debt, unfair trade agreements, and problems of corruption – have persisted into the current period of democratic reform, marked by economic and political trends toward democratization and corporate social responsibility. This paper considers the civic and business organizations that have been developing strategies to encourage social responsibility and government policies aimed at alleviating poverty. Despite progress, the complexity of the Brazilian context presents challenges for social and economic equality.
CD44 — A molecule involved in leukocyte adherence and T-cell activation

The study of cell surface molecules that are involved in interactions between immune and non-hematopoietic cells in various microenvironments is currently an area of great interest. One molecule that appears to be involved in multiple steps of normal immune cell function is now called CD44 and has been known previously as Pgp-1, In(Lu)-related p80, Hermes, ECM-III and HUTCH-I. Within the past year, the co-identity of all of these independently discovered molecules has become apparent, and the role of the CD44 molecule in T-cell activation has been discovered. In this review, Barton Haynes and his colleagues bring together numerous divergent lines of investigation on the CD44 molecule, review the many functional roles attributed to it, and present a unifying view of how, with numerous ligands, it may participate in several areas of normal immune cell function.
High-spin electronic states of the rhodium trimer (Rh3)

Abstract Ab initio studies employing complete active space multi-configuration self-consistent field followed by large-scale multi-reference configuration interaction calculations which included more than 3 million configurations on high-spin sextet, octet, decret and low-spin doublet states of rhodium trimer (Rh3) are carried out. Our computations yield three nearly degenerate sextet states as candidates for the ground state confirming the recent ESR spectra of Rh3 which have revealed that the ground state of Rh3 has S = 5 2 . The geometries of all high-spin sextet and octet states are very acute isosceles triangles. The Mulliken population analyses confirm the ESR spectral inference that the unpaired electrons reside on the 4d orbitals of Rh atoms.
Metabolic Reduction in the Posterior Cingulate Cortex in Very Early Alzheimer's Disease

This study investigated cerebral glucose metabolism in very early Alzheimer's disease, before a clinical diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's disease is possible, using [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography. First, 66 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease with a spectrum of dementia severity (Mini-Mental State Examination score, 0-23) were recruited and studied. Cortical metabolic activity was analyzed topographically using three-dimensional stereotactic surface projections. Regression analysis was performed for each brain pixel to predict metabolic patterns of very early disease. Predictions were tested prospectively in a group of 8 patients who complained only of memory impairment without general cognitive decline (Mini-Mental State Examination score, 25 +/- 1) at the time of scanning but whose condition later progressed to probable Alzheimer's disease. Both results were compared to cerebral metabolic activity in 22 age-similar normal control subjects. Prediction and analysis of actual patients consistently indicated marked metabolic reduction (21-22%) in the posterior cingulate cortex and cinguloparietal transitional area in patients with very early Alzheimer's disease. Mean metabolic reduction in the posterior cingulate cortex was significantly greater than that in the lateral neocortices or parahippocampal cortex. The result suggests a functional importance for the posterior cingulate cortex in impairment of learning and memory, which is a feature of very early Alzheimer's disease.
An extension of Bloom’s treatment of the spin relaxation in alkali metal vapors

The treatment of the spin relaxation of an optically oriented alkali metal vapor given by Bloom is extended to include the effects of spin-exchange collisions in a polarized system. It is shown that if the spin-exchange collision time is short compared to the spin-lattice relaxation time then the system is described by a spin temperature. In this spin temperature approximation the observed signal and the decay of the polarization of the sample are easily related. If the polarization of the sample is not too large it is shown that the observed decay is exponential with a single relaxation time.
Recombination Shapes the Structure of an Environmental Vibrio cholerae Population

Vibrio cholerae consists of pathogenic strains that cause sporadic gastrointestinal illness or epidemic cholera disease and nonpathogenic strains that grow and persist in coastal aquatic ecosystems. Previous studies of disease-causing strains have shown V. cholerae to be a primarily clonal bacterial species, but isolates analyzed have been strongly biased toward pathogenic genotypes, while representing only a small sample of the vast diversity in environmental strains. In this study, we characterized homologous recombination and structure among 152 environmental V. cholerae isolates and 13 other putative Vibrio isolates from coastal waters and sediments in central California, as well as four clinical V. cholerae isolates, using multilocus sequence analysis of seven housekeeping genes. Recombinant regions were identified by at least three detection methods in 72% of our V. cholerae isolates. Despite frequent recombination, significant linkage disequilibrium was still detected among the V. cholerae sequence types. Incongruent but nonrandom associations were observed for maximum likelihood topologies from the individual loci. Overall, our estimated recombination rate in V. cholerae of 6.5 times the mutation rate is similar to those of other sexual bacteria and appears frequently enough to restrict selection from purging much of the neutral intraspecies diversity. These data suggest that frequent recombination among V. cholerae may hinder the identification of ecotypes in this bacterioplankton population.
Lanosterol 14α-demethylase expression in the mouse ovary and its participation in cumulus-enclosed oocyte spontaneous meiotic maturation in vitro

The expression of lanosterol 14alpha-demethylase (LDM) in the mouse ovary after gonadotrophin administration was examined and the action of follicle fluid meiosis activating sterol (FF-MAS), derived from lanosterol by the action of LDM, on oocyte spontaneous maturation was also evaluated in cumulus cell enclosed oocytes (CEOs). Expression of LDM was primarily in oocytes in primordial and secondary follicles prior to administration of gonadotrophins, but obvious LDM expression was apparent in ovarian somatic cells 48 h after administration of equine chorionic gonadotrophin (eCG), especially in luteal and cumulus cells 54 h after eCG or 48 h after eCG plus 6 h after human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG). The LDM expression in oocytes was only slightly elevated in larger growing follicles after eCG treatment. On the contrary, 48 h after hCG treatment, the elevated expression of LDM was only detected in interstitial cells. Therefore, eCG may be the primary gonadotrophin for LDM expression, and furthermore for production of FF-MAS in mouse cumulus cells (which are indispensable for oocyte maturation in vivo). Conversely, inhibitors of LDM, either 40 microM azalanstat or 50 microM RS-21745, significantly inhibited oocyte germinal vesicle breakdown (GVB) after 4h of in vitro culture; GVB rates decreased to 14 or 20%, compared to 90% in spontaneous maturation, respectively. There was no significant increase in GVB in CEOs following specific inhibitor of sterol Delta14-reductase and Delta7-reductase, AY9944-A-7 (5-100 microM), until marked oocytes degeneration appeared (50 microM). The phenomena may be ascribed to slow, passive accumulation of FF-MAS by AY9944-A-7, which cannot be associated with fast spontaneous progression. Furthermore, in spontaneous-matured CEOs, LDM was expressed preferentially in cumulus cells instead of oocytes. Therefore, FF-MAS may have a positive role in the spontaneous maturation of CEOs. In conclusion, there was an eCG-dependent dual LDM expression pattern on both oocytes and somatic cells in growing follicles in vivo, which may increase LDM expression and FF-MAS production in cumulus cells for oocyte maturation. For the first time, the inhibitory effect of LDM inhibitors on spontaneous maturation, together with the strong LDM expression in spontaneous matured CEOs, indicated that FF-MAS produced by cumulus cells might participate in spontaneous maturation of mouse CEOs.
Comparison of cook loss, shear force, and sensory descriptive profiles of boneless skinless white meat cooked from a frozen or thawed state

Four replications were conducted to compare quality measurements, cook loss, shear force, and sensory quality attributes of cooked boneless skinless white meat, broiler breast fillets (pectoralis major) prepared directly from a frozen state or prepared from a thawed state. In each replication, fresh broiler fillets (removed from carcasses 6-8 h postmortem) were procured from a local commercial processing plant and stored in a -20°C freezer until use. On the sensory evaluation date, fillets were cooked to an endpoint temperature of 78°C either directly from the frozen state (thawing during cooking) or after the frozen samples were thawed in a refrigerator (2°C) overnight (thawing before cooking). Cook loss and Warner-Bratzler (WB) shear force were used as indicators for instrumental quality measurements. Sensory quality measurements were conducted by trained descriptive panelists using 0 to 15 universal intensity scales for 8 texture and 10 flavor attributes. Results show that there were no differences (P > 0.05) in measurements for sensory descriptive flavor attributes of cooked fillets between the 2 sample thawing methods, indicating that the sensory flavor profiles of both methods were similar to each other. However, WB shear force (36.98 N), cook loss (21.2%), sensory texture attributes of cohesiveness (intensity score was 5.59), hardness (5.14), rate of breakdown (5.50), and chewiness (5.21) of the breast fillets cooked directly from the frozen state were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than those of the breast meat cooked after being thawed (30.56 N, 19.0%, 5.19, 4.78, 5.29, and 5.02, respectively). These results indicate that cookery directly from frozen boneless skinless white meat can result in different measurement values of cook loss, shear force, and sensory descriptive texture attributes compared with cookery after frozen fillets are thawed.
Optimum Housing Allocation Model for Urban Areas

Systems engineering techniques have been developed for the optimal allocation and financial planning of new and rehabilitated residential units for urban renewal areas. In order to carry out the preliminary optimal design of the urban renewal project a computer program, CURE, has been provided as a planning tool to improve the efficiency of the planning process. With the aid of the digital computer, complicated and interrelated variables are considered with increased versatility and greater depths of understanding and in a much shorter period of time. The program optimizes by use of random search techniques, nonlinear as well as linear object functions and constraints. A definitive solution is ultimately presented which specifies numbers and locations of new and rehabilitated units, types of new units, and costs for all land parcels in the area considered. Increased efficiency in the allocation of land, materials, and residents, realized by the users of this program should greatly enhance the value of the urban renewal projects while reducing costs to acceptable limits and providing some degree of acceptance by the recipient community.
Creating three-dimensional channel bodies in LiDAR-integrated outcrop characterization: A new approach for improved stratigraphic analysis

In light detection and ranging (LiDAR)–integrated outcrop characterizations, coupled utilization of LiDAR-generated virtual outcrop models and the ArcGIS platform has been rarely pursued. As a consequence, there exists a limited appreciation of this coupled approach in stratigraphic analysis. This study presents a novel approach of three-dimensional (3-D) mapping of fluvial channel sand bodies in the Cretaceous Blackhawk Formation outcrops in Utah by exporting quantitative information from a high-resolution (∼10 cm) virtual outcrop model into ArcGIS. The adjoining and near-circular character of six contiguous cliff faces in our virtual outcrop model provided both upstream and downstream data sets, allowing us to gather adequate spatial data points ( x , y , and z coordinates for each point) for both basal and top bounding surfaces of individual channel sand bodies. For each sand body, these data points were manipulated in ArcGIS to generate a 3-D geobody, which is a realistic reconstruction of the stratigraphic preservation of that channel sand body in a sedimentary basin. The high resolution of our data set allowed the creation of this 3-D channel body down to individual channel-story level (single-story vs. multilateral). By creating and then populating all channel sand bodies of the entire Blackhawk Formation for our studied outcrop window, this technique generates a robust set of results that is useful for improved understanding of fluvial sand-body organization at a range of spatial scales, over both the short- (single to tens of thousands of years) and long-term (hundreds of thousands to millions of years). Our results are also important for improved reservoir and aquifer exploration and production strategy.
Cross-lingual bridges with models of lexical borrowing

Linguistic borrowing is the phenomenon of transferring linguistic constructions (lexical, phonological, morphological, and syntactic) from a "donor" language to a "recipient" language as a result of contacts between communities speaking different languages. Borrowed words are found in all languages, and--in contrast to cognate relationships--borrowing relationships may exist across unrelated languages (for example, about 40% of Swahili's vocabulary is borrowed from the unrelated language Arabic). In this work, we develop a model of morpho-phonological transformations across languages. Its features are based on universal constraints from Optimality Theory (OT), and we show that compared to several standard--but linguistically more naive--baselines, our OT-inspired model obtains good performance at predicting donor forms from borrowed forms with only a few dozen training examples, making this a cost-effective strategy for sharing lexical information across languages. We demonstrate applications of the lexical borrowing model in machine translation, using resource-rich donor language to obtain translations of out-of-vocabulary loanwords in a lower resource language. Our framework obtains substantial improvements (up to 1.6 BLEU) over standard baselines.
MYTHICAL APPROACH TO MODERN AFRICAN DRAMA: A STUDY OF SUTHERLAND’S EDUFA

In Sutherland’s Edufa, an indebtedness of oral tradition in the area of sacrifice is shown, and this is made to counter the potency of the charm by washing and rites of purification. The play is based on a very popular African mythical belief that a man can live longer by substituting his death with another person’s life. In other words, one can die for another person thereby postponing the death of the person he has died in his place. And in this case, the help of diviners to ascertain what the future holds for a person and that of medicine men to prepare the charms, are needed. It is from this belief system that Efua Sutherland has successfully developed a new art form, which is deeply rooted in the tradition of the Akan people of Ghana. She has succeeded in blending the elements of African myth to achieve dramatic success.
Common Sense Sociology and Analytic Sociology

(1972). Common Sense Sociology and Analytic Sociology. Sociological Focus: Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 1-15.
Varenicline for 4 weeks prior to target quit date reduces prequit date smoking and increases 12-week abstinence

Commentary on: P Hajek, HJ McRobbie, KE Myers, et al.. Use of varenicline for 4 weeks before quitting smoking: decrease in ad lib smoking and increase in smoking cessation rates.Arch Intern Med2011;171:770–7.
FACTORS AFFECTING THE DRYING RATE CONSTANT IN THE FALLING RATE PERIOD

The rate constant in the falling rate period of drying process was considered by assuming an equilibrium sorption condition in the materials. The rate constant, k, was expressed by the following equation: k=αn/Vo where, α, n and Vo were the coefficient determined by temperature and water vapor pressure, the constant in Halsey equation described the sorption isotherm, and the water regain after drying, respectively. The experimental k values were in good agreement with the calculated values for the natural fibers having small k values. In the case of synthetic fibers and low humidity which gave large k values, the experimental k values were smaller than the calculated ones.
Preservation of relational timing in speech of persons with Parkinson's disease with and without deep brain stimulation.

Background—Initial shortening of stem vowels in three-word derivational paradigms (e.g., zip, zipper, zippering) was studied in persons with Parkinson’s disease (PWPD) with and without deep brain stimulation (DBS), and in normal speakers. Method—Seven PWPD without DBS, 7 PWPD with DBS ON (DBSN) or OFF (DBSF), and 6 healthy control (CON) persons were studied. Stimuli were 7 three-word paradigms consisting of a stem word and two derived longer forms created by adding the suffixes er (+1), and er+ing (+2). Results—Vowel durations decreased across word forms of increasing length (initial shortening) for DBSF, DBSN, PWPD, and CON. Vowel shortening did not interact with group. For each word form, CON vowel duration was shorter than those for PWPD, DBSN and DBSF but word duration did not differ between groups. DBS did not have a significant effect on either vowel or word duration. Conclusion—These results agree with previous findings for a PWPD with accelerated speech and faster rates of speech in DBS-ON. Observations that vowel duration patterns are maintained in subcortical and cerebellar but not left hemisphere damage suggest that cortical control factors play a primary role in relational timing.
Simultaneous Versus Staged Bilateral Hip Arthroscopy in the Treatment of Femoroacetabular Impingement.

Purpose To compare the clinical outcomes and complication rates of patients undergoing simultaneous versus staged bilateral hip arthroscopy for bilateral symptomatic femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). Methods Between 2010 and 2013, a total of 1,800 hip arthroscopy cases were retrospectively reviewed for cases of simultaneous bilateral hip arthroscopy. All patients with minimum 1-year follow-up were included. This group was matched 1:2 for age, sex, and alpha angle, to a control group of patients who underwent staged, bilateral procedures. Patient-reported outcome scores, including the Modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS), the Hip Outcome Score–Activity of Daily Living (HOS-ADL), and the Hip Outcome Score–Sport-Specific Subscale (HOS-SSS) were obtained preoperatively at 6 months and 1 and 2 years postoperatively. Results Eighty-one patients (162 hips) were identified who underwent bilateral hip arthroscopy for symptomatic FAI. Twelve patients (24 hips) who underwent simultaneous bilateral arthroscopy with minimum 1-year follow-up were compared with a matched cohort of 24 patients (48 hips) who underwent staged bilateral procedures. Mean preoperative alpha angle was 65.3° ± 9.6° in the simultaneous group and 65.9° ± 11.2° in the staged group ( P = .6). At a mean follow-up of 17.8 months (range, 12 to 33 months), there were comparable improvements in simultaneous versus staged patient-reported outcome scores (mHHS 90.8 ± 11 v 88.9 ± 12.5, P = .662; HOS-ADL 97.3 ± 3.8 v 92.6 ± 10.3, P = .057; HOS-SSS 93.3 ± 10.2 v 86.5 ± 16.6, P = .203). The mean single anesthetic traction time was 90.8 ± 21.9 minutes (sum of both hips) in the simultaneous group, compared with a combined 2-anesthetic traction time of 85.7 ± 27.2 minutes in the staged group ( P = .579). There were no traction-related complications in either group. No patients in the simultaneous group required revision surgery, whereas 1 patient in the staged group required lysis of adhesions at 24 months postoperatively. Conclusions In a small sample, simultaneous bilateral hip arthroscopy is shown to be safe and effective, resulting in similar improvements in patient-reported outcomes at 1-year follow-up compared with staged bilateral procedures. Level of Evidence Level III, case-control study.
Network Performability Evaluation for Vehicle-to-Vehicle Short Range Wireless Communication

In this paper,we present an analytical method based on the SMP(SemiMarkov Process) model to evaluate the Performability(Performance Reliability) o f the dedicated short range communication network(DSRC Network) between vehicle s due to the MAC layer protocol based on the IEEE802.11 standards,and then app l ied fixed-point iterative algorithm to calculate the Network Performability.We select the transmission delay,packet delivery ratio(PDR) as the network parame ters.We also proposed a simulation procedure to verify the accuracy of the anal ytical model through a large number of simulation experiments.The results show that: with the increasing density of the vehicle,transmission delay substantial ly no increase,packet delivery ratio decrease a bit;the analytical results coi ncide with the simulation results.Thus: DSRC network performability is in a goo d shape;the given analytical model and method can be used for the evaluation of the DSRC network performability more accurately and easily.
Factors Impacting the Selection of Antidepressant Treatment in Patients With Major Depressive Disorder at Risk for Nonadherence

Treatment with the newer generation antidepressants is considered generally effective for most patients with major depressive disorder when taken in accordance with treatment guidelines. However, multiple clinical studies have demonstrated that rates of patient adherence to antidepressants are inadequate, specifically with regard to long-term maintenance treatment. Tolerability issues associated with antidepressants can increase the risk for patient nonadherence and result in subsequent relapse of depressive symptoms. Comorbid symptoms of anxiety also influence psychiatrists' choice of antidepressants for patients with depression. Physicians can improve long-term patient outcomes for patients with major depressive disorder by considering the possibility of drug-drug interactions before prescribing a specific antidepressant.
Five-year experience with implantation and follow-up of transvenous implantable cardioverter defibrillators: placing postimplant defibrillation threshold testing in perspective.

Background The rapid technological advancement in transvenous implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) has resulted in heterogeneous and often controversial approaches to follow-up procedures. The efficacy of postimplantation defibrillation threshold (DFT) testing with new-generation biphasic ICDs is unknown. Objective In this retrospective study, predischarge and postdischarge DFT protocols were compared to evaluate their safety and effect on adverse clinical events. Methods The study population consisted of 89 patients with 92 ICDs and 103 endovascular lead systems. Forty-four patients had DFT tests during implant and the predischarge period. Thirty patients had DFT tests during implant and the postdischarge period. Sixteen patients had only implant DFT data available. The follow-up period ranged from 3 days to 5.6 years. Results Ninety-nine percent of patients had successful implants. Postimplant DFT tests detected potential problems in only 1% of asymptomatic patients. Thirty-six percent of patients with normal predischarge DFT tests had adverse clinical events compared with 18% in the postdischarge group. Patients with postimplant DFTs > 25 joules (J) and safety margins > or = 10 J had a lower incidence of adverse clinical events (p = 0.03) compared with those with safety margins Conclusions DFT testing after implant is safe; however, routine postimplant DFT testing has limited value in assessing abnormalities in patients with the current generation of biphasic transvenous ICD devices. A 10-J safety margin was associated with a lower incidence of adverse clinical events in patients with DFTs > 25 J. Endovascular lead failure remains a significant problem with ICD systems requiring vigilant follow-up.
Design and Testing of a Mesocosm-Scale Habitat for Culturing the Endangered Devils Hole Pupfish

AbstractCaptive propagation of desert spring fishes, whether for conservation or research, is often difficult, given the unique and often challenging environments these fish utilize in nature. High temperatures, low dissolved oxygen, minimal water flow, and highly variable lighting are some conditions a researcher might need to recreate to simulate their natural environments. Here we describe a mesocosm-scale habitat created to maintain hybrid Devils Hole × Ash Meadows Amargosa Pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis × C. nevadensis mionectes) under conditions similar to those found in Devils Hole, Nevada. This 13,000-L system utilized flow control and natural processes to maintain these conditions rather than utilizing complex and expensive automation. We designed a rotating solar collector to control natural sunlight, a biological reactor to consume oxygen while buffering water quality, and a reverse-daylight photosynthesis sump system to stabilize nighttime pH and swings in dissolved oxygen levels. This system su...