cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Allograft of Primary Cutaneous Mucormycosis in a Preterm Neonate: A Case Report.

INTRODUCTION Primary cutaneous mucormycosis (PCM) is a fungal infection of the skin that can affect compromised hosts. Skin lesions evolve from an indurated area to a necrotic ulcer. Preterm neonates are at increased risk due to poorly developed skin, immature immune function, and invasive devices. Antifungals and debridement with grafting have been reported as primary treatments. CASE REPORT The authors report allografting in addition to systemic antifungals as an option for critically ill preterm neonates to decrease blood loss and risk of donor site infection. A female triplet was born to a 35-year-old G1P0211 mother; the triplet developed PCM (Rhizopus genus) and was treated with systemic liposomal amphotericin B in addition to debridement and allografting. Surgery was delayed initially, given concerns over the depth of invasion into the chest. As the wound began to contract and separate over the next few weeks, the decision was made to excise the lesion and reconstruct the chest wall with an allograft. The graft had good take and remained in place for 11 weeks until the patient succumbed to a third recurrence of bacterial sepsis. CONCLUSIONS While PCM can be fatal for many preterm infants, debridement with allografting may serve as a valuable treatment option with fewer associated complications for neonates as they are stabilizing clinically.
Quantifying streamflow regime behavior and its sensitivity to demand

Abstract This paper presents a new framework for quantitatively identifying, characterizing and analyzing systematic hydrological cycles resulting from streamflow variability in a way that integrates water supply and water demand. The hydrological cycles in question are measures of the most severe drought and pluvial events in a historical record of streamflow, along with their respective durations. The metrics developed here to quantify such episodes are based on an extended sequent peak algorithm that tracks the dynamic shifts in hydrological behavior of streamflow by accounting for water supply and demand with respect to streamflow. In the interest of being able to analyze the largest possible scope of hydrological cycles and behavior, we apply the quantitative methods developed in this paper to streamflow reconstructions in the Upper Missouri River Basin (UMRB) as a case study. We find that the duration of dry periods increase conspicuously as a function of increasing demand levels, the duration of pluvial events decrease as a function of increasing demand levels, and that the general tendency is for streamflow gauges on or near the main stem of the river to have shorter dry spell durations and typically lower drought severity. On the other hand, being on or near the main stem tends to result in longer-duration pluvial events, though these pluvials are typically less severe than those off the main stem. Persistence and spatial variability of streamflow reconstructions were also analyzed to shed further light on the spatial patterns identified earlier, and to see if this variability and persistence may have an influence on the behavior of the streamflow as quantified by the metrics defined in this paper. Finally, it was found that there is a stochastic dependence between the length of a drought and the time to recovery from that drought, and this dependence is used to create simple conditional probability curves to help water managers prepare for future extreme events.
The Dissent of Play: Lotahs in the Museum

Sa’dia Rehman’s Lotah Stories was an art installation that was exhibited in the bathrooms of Queens Museum of Art in New York during the 2005 Fatal Love show, the first exhibition on South Asian Am...
Subtle subversions: resisting colonialism through religion

Each focusing on a different geographical region and time period, the articles in this volume examine the different ways that colonised peoples used religious expression to subtly subvert colonial ...
Xenorhabdus bovienii strain jolietti uses a type 6 secretion system to kill closely related Xenorhabdus strains

Xenorhabdus bovienii strain jolietti (XBJ) is a Gram-negative bacterium that interacts with several organisms as a part of its life cycle. It is a beneficial symbiont of nematodes, a potent pathogen of a wide range of soil-dwelling insects and also has the ability to kill soil- and insect-associated microbes. Entomopathogenic Steinernema nematodes vector XBJ into insects, releasing the bacteria into the insect body cavity. There, XBJ produce a variety of insecticidal toxins and antimicrobials. XBJ's genome also encodes two separate Type Six Secretion Systems (T6SSs), structures that allow bacteria to inject specific proteins directly into other cells, but their roles in the XBJ life cycle are mostly unknown. To probe the function of these T6SSs, we generated mutant strains lacking the key structural protein Hcp from each T6SS and assessed phenotypes related to different parts of XBJ's life cycle. Here we demonstrate that one of the T6SSs is more highly expressed in in vitro growth conditions and has antibacterial activity against other Xenorhabdus strains, and that the two T6SSs have a redundant role in biofilm formation.
Computational Drug Recommendation Approaches toward Safe Polypharmacy

Abstract Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) induced from high-order drug-drug interactions (DDIs) due to polypharmacy - simultaneous use of multiple drugs - represent a significant public health problem. Unfortunately, computational efforts to facilitate decision making for safe polypharmacy, particularly to assist safe multi-drug prescribing, are lacking. We formally formulate the to-avoid and safe drug recommendation problems for multi-drug prescriptions. We investigate preliminary computational approaches to tackling these problems, utilizing a minimum set of available prescription data from a large population, and demonstrate their potentials in assisting safe-polypharmacy decision making once richer data (e.g., electronic medical records, omics data and pathology data) are available. We develop a joint model with a recommendation component and an ADR label prediction component to conduct to-avoid and safe drug recommendation. We also develop real drug-drug interaction datasets and corresponding evaluation protocols to facilitate future computational research on safe polypharmacy.
A-posteriori Estimation of Random Uncertainty for the Reflection Type Q-factor Measurements

A frequently used Q factor measurement procedure consists of determining the values of the input reflection coefficient vs. frequency with the use of a network analyzer, and processing the measured values with a data-fitting procedure to evaluate the location and the size of the corresponding Q-circle. That information is then used to compute the value of the loaded and unloaded Q factors and the coupling coefficient of the resonator being tested. This paper describes a novel method of post-processing the measured data, which also provides information on the uncertainty of the obtained results. Numerical examples show that this a-posteriori procedure can not only provide the uncertainty estimates but also improve the accuracy of results, even in the presence of a significant level of random measurement noise.
Enhancement in external quantum efficiency of AlGaInP red μ-LED using chemical solution treatment process.

To investigate the effects of their surface recovery and optical properties, extremely small sized (12 µm × 12 µm mesa area) red AlGaInP micro light emitting diodes ( $$\upmu$$ LED) were fabricated using a diluted hydrofluoric acid (HF) surface etch treatment. After the chemical treatment, the external quantum efficiencies (EQEs) of $$\upmu$$ -LED at low and high injection current regions have been improved by 35.48% and 12.86%, respectively. The different phenomena of EQEs have a complex relationship between the suppression of non-radiative recombination originating from the etching damage of the surface and the improvement of light extraction of the sidewalls. The constant enhancement of EQE at a high injection current it is attributed to the expansion of the active region’s sidewall surface area by the selective etching of AlInP layers. The improved EQE at a low injection current is related to the minimization of the surface recombination caused by plasma damage from the surface. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) revealed physical defects on the sidewall surface, such as plasma-induced lattice disorder and impurity contamination damage, were eliminated using chemical treatment. This study suggests that chemical surface treatment using diluted HF acid can be an effective method for enhancing the $$\upmu$$ -LED performance.
Social network dynamics predict hormone levels and behavior in a highly social cichlid fish

Abstract Group living confers many benefits while simultaneously exposing group members to intense competition. An individual's rise to prominence within a group may conflict with the overall functioning of the group. There is therefore a complex and dynamic relationship between the behavioral displays that directly benefit an individual, the consequences of these actions for the community, and how they feed back on individual-level fitness. We used a network analysis approach to study the link between behavior, social stability, and steroid hormone levels in replicate communities of the cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni, which live in social groups with a dominance hierarchy. We demonstrate that individual behavior can have direct and indirect effects on the behavior of others while also affecting group characteristics. Our results show that A. burtoni males form stable social networks, where dominant individuals act as hubs for social interactions. However, there was variation in the temporal stability in these networks, and this variation in stability impacted hormone levels. Dominant males had higher testosterone levels, however, the differences in testosterone levels between dominant and subordinate males were greatest in stable communities. In sum, our analyses provide novel insights into the processes by which individual and community properties interact.
Effect of low-cost transcranial magnetic stimulation navigation on hotspot targeting and motor evoked potential variability in the biceps brachii.

BACKGROUND Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can monitor or modulate brain excitability. However, reliability of TMS outcomes depends on consistent coil placement during stimulation. Neuronavigated TMS systems can address this issue, but their cost limits their use outside of specialist research environments. OBJECTIVE The objective was to evaluate the performance of a low-cost navigated TMS approach in improving coil placement consistency and its effect on motor evoked potentials (MEPs) when targeting the biceps brachii at rest and during voluntary contractions. METHODS We implemented a navigated TMS system using a low-cost 3D camera system and open-source software environment programmed using the Unity 3D engine. MEPs were collected from the biceps brachii at rest and during voluntary contractions across two sessions in ten non-disabled individuals. Motor hotspots were recorded and targeted via two conditions: navigated and conventional. RESULTS The low-cost navigated TMS system reduced coil orientation error (pitch: 1.18°±1.2°, yaw: 1.99°±1.9°, roll: 1.18°±2.2° with navigation, versus pitch: 3.7°±5.7°, yaw: 3.11°±3.1°, roll: 3.8°±9.1° with conventional). The improvement in coil orientation had no effect on MEP amplitudes and variability. CONCLUSIONS The low-cost system is a suitable alternative to expensive systems in tracking the motor hotspot between sessions and quantifying the error in coil placement when delivering TMS. Biceps MEP variability reflects physiological variability across a range of voluntary efforts, that can be captured equally well with navigated or conventional approaches of coil locating.
Clinical Outcomes of Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treated With MR-guided Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy With Online Adaptive Planning.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE(S) Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for primary liver tumors may be limited by proximity to organs-at-risk (OAR). MR-guided SBRT (MRgSBRT) with online adaptive planning has shown promise in delivering ablative doses to the liver safely. We reported the clinical outcomes of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with MRgSBRT with online adaptive planning. MATERIALS/METHODS Patients with unresectable HCC treated with MRgSBRT between 2015 and 2019 with minimum 3 months of follow-up were retrospectively reviewed at a single institution. Local progression was defined by mRECIST. Survival analysis was performed with the Kaplan-Meier method. Toxicity was assessed using Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events Version 5. RESULTS Thirty-five patients with a total of 41 HCC lesions, all treated to 50 Gy in 5 fractions, were analyzed. The median tumor size was 2.9 cm (IQR: 2.0-4.5). Barcelona-Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) Staging was 0, A, B, C, and D in 2 (6%), 8 (23%), 18 (51%), 6 (17%), and 1 (3%), respectively. Twenty-seven (77%) patients had previous liver-directed therapy (chemoembolization, radioembolization, cryoablation) to the target lesion with evidence of residual disease or progression on follow-up imaging. The median follow-up from completion of MRgSBRT was 21 months (IQR, 10-34). Online adaptive planning was performed for 19% of all fractions. It was done due to exceeding dose constraints to OARs in 26/33 (79%) fractions, and to improve tumor coverage in 7/33 (21%) fractions. Clinical response assessed at a median of 2.4 months (IQR: 2.0-3.0) after MRgSBRT revealed a complete response in 26% (9/35), partial response in 23% (8/35), stable disease in 40% (14/35), and progressive disease in 9% (3/35). One (3%) patient did not have repeat imaging at the time of initial clinical follow-up. The 1- and 2-year freedom from local progression (FFLP) rates were both 91% (95% CI: 83-100%). The 1- and 2-year freedom from progression elsewhere in the liver (FFELP) rates were 58% (95% CI: 44-78%) and 50% (95% CI: 35-72%), respectively. The 1- and 2-year overall survival were 83% (95% CI: 71-96%) and 58% (95% CI: 43-77%), respectively. The most commonly noted acute grade ≤2 clinical toxicities were fatigue, abdominal pain, and nausea. Four patients had grade 3 toxicity: 1 (3%) ascites, 1 (3%) portal hypertension, 2 (6%) hepatic failure. One patient (3%) had grade 4 gangrenous cholecystitis. Eleven (31%) patients later underwent an orthotopic liver transplant. CONCLUSION MRgSBRT with online adaptive planning allows delivery of ablative doses to HCC with excellent local control and acceptable toxicity. Additional studies evaluating the role of MRgSBRT in the treatment of liver tumors are warranted.
Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Pulmonary Disease: A Clinical and Radiologic Update

Abstract Nontuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease (NTM-PD) is increasingly recognized in the U.S. and worldwide as a debilitating disease that is challenging to diagnose and manage. Beyond the principle task of recognizing the protean imaging manifestations of NTM-PD, radiologists will need to appropriately communicate with pulmonology and infectious disease colleagues in multidisciplinary management discussions. This update on nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) species, their clinical significance, and imaging features aims to support these roles. Terminology mirrors that laid out by the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) published guidelines on NTM-PD. 1
A deep learning approach to identify and segment alpha-smooth muscle actin stress fiber positive cells

Cardiac fibrosis is a pathological process characterized by excessive tissue deposition, matrix remodeling, and tissue stiffening, which eventually leads to organ failure. On a cellular level, the development of fibrosis is associated with the activation of cardiac fibroblasts into myofibroblasts, a highly contractile and secretory phenotype. Myofibroblasts are commonly identified in vitro by the de novo assembly of alpha-smooth muscle actin stress fibers; however, there are few methods to automate stress fiber identification, which can lead to subjectivity and tedium in the process. To address this limitation, we present a computer vision model to classify and segment cells containing alpha-smooth muscle actin stress fibers into 2 classes (α-SMA SF+ and α-SMA SF-), with a high degree of accuracy (cell accuracy: 77%, F1 score 0.79). The model combines standard image processing methods with deep learning techniques to achieve semantic segmentation of the different cell phenotypes. We apply this model to cardiac fibroblasts cultured on hyaluronic acid-based hydrogels of various moduli to induce alpha-smooth muscle actin stress fiber formation. The model successfully predicts the same trends in stress fiber identification as obtained with a manual analysis. Taken together, this work demonstrates a process to automate stress fiber identification in in vitro fibrotic models, thereby increasing reproducibility in fibroblast phenotypic characterization.
The Nature of the Metal Surface

In investigating the interaction of an atom, molecule, or ion beam with a metal surface, one must consider the actual structure of the metal. An ideal crystal can be pictured as an infinitely extended three-dimen sional array of points whose homogeneity requires that the elementary cells of the space lattice be precisely placed relative to one another. The arrangement of the lattice points in space must have the symmetry of one of the 230 space groups. In describing the deviations of an imperfect crystal from the strict periodic arrangement of the ideal crystal we can, according to Correns [126], distinguish between defects and dislocations.
Age-Mate or Peer Affectional System

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the age-mate or peer affectional system. The most pervading and important of all the affectional systems in terms of long-range personal-social adjustment is the age-mate or peer affectional system. This system begins through interaction between infants and children and continues throughout preadolescence, adolescence, and adulthood. Age-mate or peer affectional relationships may exist between members of the same sex or members of opposite sexes, but there are certain basic physical and behavioral differences conducive to sexual separation insofar as the age-mate affectional system is concerned. The age-mate affectional system begins when the intimate physical bonds between the mother and child weaken and the infant is permitted to wander beyond the range of the maternal body and maternal arms. The separation is normally as much or more a function of the infant's behavior as it is a function of changes by the mother. The chapter discusses the developmental stages, including the (1) stages of intimate object play, and (2) stages of age-mate affection. The age-mate affectional variables are also reviewed in the chapter.
Varieties of Reasons/Motives Internalism

Under what conditions do you have a reason to perform some action? Do you only have reason to do what you want to do? Reasons-motives internalism is the appealingly simple view that unless an agent is, or could be, motivated to act in a certain way, he has no normative reason to act in that way. Thus, according to reasons-motives internalism, facts about an individual’s motivational psychology constrain what is rational for that agent to do. This article canvasses several ways of formulating the view and considers some advantages and disadvantages of each.
Hazards of Verification

Great progress has been made in software verification. One has only to look, for example, at the growth in power of SAT and its widening class of applications to realize that concerns early on that verification was fundamentally intractable and that it would remain a largely manual activity were mistaken. Nevertheless, despite many research advances, verification is still not widely applied to software. In order to make verification practical, some fundamental obstacles will need to be addressed. This talk outlined a sample of these obstacles, in three categories: technical obstacles in the mechanism of verification itself; engineering obstacles related to the problem of establishing confidence in a system rather than a single component; and social and managerial obstacles related to the process of verification. These obstacles are known and have been fairly widely discussed. It is useful, however, to remind ourselves of them since otherwise, as a research community, we risk focusing on technical details that may be overwhelmed by these larger factors. In explaining some of the obstacles, I also sought to question some assumptions that are often made in the verification community that make sense in a narrower, mathematical context but are not defensible in the larger system context. One example of this is the notion of conservatism. It is often assumed that a 'conservative' analysis that never misses bugs, but which may generate false alarms, is necessarily superior to an analysis that is 'unsound' and may fail to report real errors. In practice, however, this superiority is not inevitable, and in many cases, an unsound analysis is preferable. First, the need to be conservative can result in a dramatic increase in false positives, so that the unsound analysis may actually be more accurate (in the sense that the probability of missing a bug is low, whereas the comparable conservative analysis produces a report full of erroneous claims). Second, the presence of false alarms may increase the burden of reading the report so dramatically that bugs may be overlooked in the filtering process, so that the conservative analysis becomes, in its context of use, unsound. Similarly, in a software design context, the assumption that checks should be conservative is often not justified in engineering terms. In air-traffic control, for example, it has long been recognized that a conflict detection tool must not generate false alarms. The catastrophic accident in Guam in 1997, in which a 747 flew into the ground, might not have occurred had a safe-altitude-warning system not been disabled because of its over-conservative error reporting.
Licenses and Copyright

What's the difference between a license and a copyright? It's important for those who program for Linux to know.
A Web-based requirements analysis tool

The Goal Based Requirements Analysis Tool (GBRAT) is designed to support goal based requirements analysis. We discuss the GBRAT prototype which provides procedural support for the identification, elaboration, refinement and organization of goals to specify the requirements for software based information systems. GBRAT employs interactive Web browser technology to support the collaborative nature of requirements engineering. We illustrate the features of the tool and close the paper with a discussion of future anticipated research.
A CAE design system for digital signal processing

A completely integrated environment for digital signal processing system design is introduced. This design system provides facilities for algorithm development, simulation and system verification. A graphics entry capture system enables designer interaction at each level of the development process. By high-level software simulation, it is possible to verify whether a design meets system requirements. By fine-grain simulation, system operation and algorithms can be tested. This design environment offers a closed-loop approach for development and implementation of a high-performance signal processing system. It provides a method for a functional migration from algorithm specification to system integration. The target methodology for this design environment is ALPS (alternate low-level primitive structures), a self-synchronizing, self-scheduling, distributed control architecture. >
Control of Interferon Synthesis: Effect of Diethyl-aminoethyl-Dextran on Induction by Polyinosinic-Polycytidylic Acid

Interferon production in cultures of rabbit kidney cells (RKC) stimulated with 10 to 250 mug of polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (poly I.poly C) per ml peaked at 3 to 4 hr after the exposure of cells to inducer and rapidly declined thereafter. On the other hand, RKC stimulated with poly I.poly C (10 or 2 mug/ml) in the presence of diethylaminoethyl (DEAE)-dextran (100 or 20 mug/ml, respectively) produced a protracted interferon response, with the release of interferon continuing for over 24 hr. The kinetics of interferon production in RKC stimulated with lower concentrations of the mixture of poly I.poly C and DEAE-dextran were similar to the response produced by poly I.poly C alone (10 to 250 mug/ml). Only the responses that terminated early were paradoxically enhanced by treatment with low doses of actinomycin D or with cycloheximide. Cells stimulated with 50 mug of poly I.poly C/ml showed hyporesponsiveness to a second interferon induction with poly I.poly C when restimulated 7 hr after primary induction. This hyporesponsiveness could be overcome by restimulating with higher concentrations of the poly I.poly C-DEAE-dextran complex. The results are compatible with the hypothesis that the early termination of interferon production and hyporesponsiveness to repeated induction with poly I.poly C are due to a cellular repressor exerting negative control on interferon synthesis, and that the increased cellular uptake of poly I.poly C in the presence of DEAE-dextran may effectively neutralize the repressor. These results also suggested that the often observed different kinetics and the varied effects of inhibitors of ribonucleic acid or protein synthesis on interferon responses in various cells and in cells stimulated with different inducers (such as with viruses as compared with polynucleotides) need not imply the existence of fundamentally different mechanisms of interferon production.
Development of apparent presynaptic elements formed in response to polylysine coated surfaces

Formation of apparent presynaptic elements on polylysine-coated surfaces was examined with both scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Neurons from 2- or 8-day-old rat cerebellums were used in dissociated cell cultures as a source of growing neurites. An apparent presynaptic element is a defined swelling on a neurite with 40 nm diameter vesicles accumulated at the membrane which has a slight thickening. Apparent presynaptic elements do not have a normal postsynaptic element. In place of the postsynaptic element was the polylysine-coated surface of a large diameter Sepharose bead. The first apparent presynaptic elements were seen at 2 h of incubation, suggesting that morphologically identifiable synapses may form in this short a time. The number of apparent presynaptic elements on beads increased from 2 h to 24 h incubation and decreased from 5 to 9 days incubation. At all times non-neuronal cells grew up on to the beads and often covered both neurites and apparent presynaptic elements. In the longer incubations degenerating apparent presynaptic elements were seen engulfed by non-neuronal cells, suggesting that non-neuronal cells may have the ability to remove presynaptic elements that are not functioning. The number of synaptic vesicles per apparent presynaptic elements increased continuously between 2 h and 9 day incubation, eventually surpassing the number of synaptic vesicles seen in other presynaptic elements in cultures. This result suggests that an interaction between presynaptic and postsynaptic elements may be necessary to limit the number of synaptic vesicles found in presynaptic elements. Cultures grown for only 5 days in vitro (DIV) and incubated for 1 day with coated beads had the most apparent presynaptic elements, while those at 28 DIV and incubated for 1 day had the least. In the cultures at 5 DIV, neurons formed many apparent presynaptic elements, but these neurons could form only a very few normal synapses between themselves. Thus the beginning of the formation of synaptic contacts may depend on the availability of future postsynaptic elements and not on the lack of future presynaptic elements.
Paleohydrology and growth of a desert cienega

A ∼7000-year record of sediment accumulation from the San Bernardino cienega in southeastern Arizona/northeastern Sonora records changes in effective moisture. Periods of rapid sedimentation between ca. 700 to 1100 cal yr BP and ca. 4100 to 4400 cal yr BP at San Bernardino are associated with a highstand at pluvial Lake Cochise, the presence of aquatic pollen taxa in New Mexican packrat middens and periods of incision in river channels in the San Pedro and Santa Cruz river valleys. These results suggest that cienega deposits represent records of hydrological change and, as such, are important but under-utilized repositories of paleoclimatic information. These results also inform cienega restoration efforts by highlighting the importance of subsurface and surface water flow through these environments. Effective restoration requires the development of conditions where groundwater maintains surface vegetation and seasonal floods are allowed to inundate the surface.
First significant image improvement from a sodium-layer laser guide star adaptive optics system at Lick Observatory

Atmospheric turbulence severely limits the resolution of ground-based telescopes. Adaptive optics can correct for the aberrations caused by the atmosphere, but requires a bright wavefront reference source in close angular proximity to the object being imaged. Since natural reference stars of the necessary brightness are relatively rare, methods of generating artificial reference beacons have been under active investigation for more than a decade. In this paper, we report the first significant image improvement achieved using a sodium-layer laser guide star as a wavefront reference for a high-order adaptive optics system. An artificial beacon was created by resonant scattering from atomic sodium in the mesosphere, at an altitude of 95 km. Using this laser guide star, an adaptive optics system on the 3 m Shane Telescope at Lick Observatory produced a factor of 2.4 increase in peak intensity and a factor of 2 decrease in full width at half maximum of a stellar image, compared with image motion compensation alone. The Strehl ratio when using the laser guide star as the reference was 65% of that obtained with a natural guide star, and the image full widths at half maximum were identical, 0.3 arc sec, using either the laser or the natural guide star. This sodium-layer laser guide star technique holds great promise for the world's largest telescopes.
How Venture Capital Became a Component of the U.S. National System of Innovation

Venture capital (VC) is a relatively recent addition to the U.S. national system of innovation (NSI). Tracing the history of the VC industry in the U.S. provides an interesting example of how NSIs can add new institutions and in the process be transformed. The history encompasses important exogenous events, endogenous developments, and actions by individual actors. The story of the development of VC is set in the technological trajectories where it has experienced its greatest success, the ICT and biomedical industries. The emergence of VC is intimately related to various government actions, and yet the paper does not attribute a deus ex machina role to government actors. While NSI theory provides the framework, it is also recognized that VC is geographically localized in a few regions, and a regional innovation system perspective is also valuable.
Melanin-concentrating hormone receptor antagonists as potential antiobesity agents

Melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) has been regarded as an appetite-stimulating peptide since the mid 1990s. The recent discovery of two receptors for this orexigenic peptide has prompted efforts to block the effects of MCH through the development of receptor antagonists. Pharmacological evidence supports the use of melanin-concentrating hormone receptor 1 (MCH1R) as an important receptor for mediating the effects of MCH on appetite and body weight. The cloning of the MCH1R has enabled high-throughput screening to identify ligands for this receptor. Subsequent medicinal chemistry efforts have lead to the disclosure of several structurally diverse MCH1R antagonists. Many of these molecules appear drug-like and two have shown impressive effects on reduction of feeding and/or body weight in animal models of obesity. The reports of such drug-like molecules, coupled with the strong evidence for MCH1R as an important regulator of body weight, suggest that inhibitors of MCH1R may soon be investigated as therape...
Injury mechanisms and therapeutic advances in the study of electrical shock

For 300 years, sporadic progress has been made toward understanding the underlying mechanisms of electrical trauma. Recently, to advance the care provided electrical injury patients, the University of Chicago Hospitals established a national treatment center. The new Electrical Trauma Program is dedicated to developing techniques for the accurate diagnosis and localization of tissue damaged by electrical shock and to refining drug therapies that will minimize cellular degeneration.
Adult tissues contain chemo-attractants for vascular endothelial cells

New blood vessel formation, or angiogenesis, occurs through the migration of endothelial cells in elongated sprouts. These sprouts are directed preferentially towards the inciting stimulus1–3. Several studies have demonstrated that certain chemical substances can stimulate angiogenesis4–7. In these cases, endothelial cell migration towards the chemical stimulus may be due to a preferential migration of cells from lower to higher concentrations of the mediator. Such concentration gradient-dependent cellular migration has been termed chemotaxis8. Using a modification of the Boyden chamber technique9 to measure chemotaxis in vitro, we have now found that extracts of various adult bovine tissues have potent chemotactic activity for vascular endothelial cells. Adult bovine serum lacks similar chemotactic activity.
A developmental genetic analysis of the gene Regulator of postbithorax in Drosophila melanogaster

We report the characterization of loss-of-function alleles of the homoeotic mutation Regulator of postbithorax (Rg-pbx) in Drosophila melanogaster. Rg-pbx is a dominant gain-of-function mutation which shows a transformation of posterior haltere to wing in the adult cuticle. This mutant phenotype mimics that of the bithorax complex lesion postbithorax (pbx). Loss-of-function alleles described here are lethal in the embryonic stage and affect the pattern of segmentation of the embryo. Examination of the terminal phenotype of null and hypomorphic alleles of Rg-pbx has shown that inactivation of the Rg-pbx gene leads to loss of the thoracic segments and the adjacent labial segment of the Drosophila embryo. An effect of the mutations is also seen in the seventh and eighth abdominal segments of embryos. The loss-of-function phenotype is similar to that described for the segmentation mutant hunchback (hb). Complementation tests show that Rg-pbx and hb are allelic. Temperature shift experiments using a temperature-sensitive loss-of-function allele show that the Rg-pbx gene product is required early in embryogenesis. We further report that the dominant Rg-pbx phenotype is sensitive to the gene dosage of another segmentation-controlling gene, fushi tarazu (ftz). Flies carrying a mutant copy of the ftz gene in trans to Rg-pbx show a dramatic enhancement of the penetrance of the homoeotic mutant phenotype. We were also able to demonstrate a suppression of the Rg-pbx phenotype by the addition of a duplication for the ftz+ gene to an Rg-pbx stock. Examination of the phenotype of ftz Rg-pbx- double-mutant embryos did not reveal a clear pattern of epistasis between the genes nor was absolute additivity of phenotype seen. A possible formal relationship between Rg-pbx, ftz, and the postbithorax (pbx) locus is proposed.
Regular Kn-free graphs

Abstract Triples ( p , n , r ) for which there exists an r -regular K n -free graph on p points are determined.
Screening and detection of blunt vertebral artery injury in patients with upper cervical fractures: The role of cervical CT and CT angiography

Abstract Objective To evaluate the clinical utility of nonenhanced CT (NECT)-based screening criteria and CTA in detection of blunt vertebral artery injury (BVAI) in trauma patients with C1 and/or C2 fractures. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of all blunt trauma patients with C1 and/or C2 fractures between 8/2006 and 9/2011. Cervical CTA was prompted by cervical fractures involving/adjacent to a transverse foramen, and/or subluxation on NECT. Two neuroradiologists independently reviewed the CTA studies, and graded the BVAI. Results 210 patients were included; of these, 124 underwent CTA (21/124 with digital subtraction angiography, DSA), and 2 underwent DSA only. Overall, 30/126 suffered BVAI. Among 21 patients who underwent both CTA and DSA, there was 1 false negative and 1 false positive (both grade 1). There was strong interobserver agreement regarding CTA-based BVAI detection (kappa = 0.93, p p p = 0.039), simultaneous C3–C7 comminuted fracture increased the overall BVAI risk ( p = 0.011). Conclusion CTA reliably detects symptomatic BVAI in patients with upper cervical fractures. Utilization of NECT-based screening criteria such as transverse foraminal involvement or subluxation may be adequate in deciding whether to perform CTA, as no patients who were not selected for CTA suffered a symptomatic stroke. However, CTA may miss lower grade, asymptomatic BVAI.
Adsorption Modelling for Building Contaminant Dispersal Analysis

Two families of macroscopic adsorption models are formulated, based on fundamental principles of adsorption science and technology, that may be used for macroscopic (e.g., whole-building) contaminant dispersal analysis. The first family of adsorption models – the Equilibrium Adsorption (EA) Models – are based upon the simple requirement of adsorption equilibrium between adsorbent and room air. The second family – the Boundary Layer Diffusion Controlled Adsorption (BLDC) Models – add to the equilibrium requirement a boundary layer model for diffusion of the adsorbate from the room air to the adsorbent surface. Two members of each of these families are explicitly discussed, one based on the linear adsorption isotherm model and the other on the Langmuir isotherm model. The linear variants of each family are applied to model the adsorption dynamics of formaldehyde in gypsum wall board and compared to measured data. These applications and a more general consideration of the dynamic character of adsorption provided by these models indicate that simple physical adsorption and desorption transport processes h e the potential to significantly affect the dispersal of contaminants in buildings.
Effects of within-chain response delay upon post-delay operant performance

Operant responding of rats was delayed by withholding the response levers between the two components of a response chain. Latency and rate of responding in the second component were facilitated by a 10 sec delay with respect to a 4 sec delay. When the delay was increased to 50 sec. the facilitation of latency declined whereas the facilitation of response rate increased.
Glasses and glass-ceramics from naturally occurring CaOMgOAl2O3SiO2 materials (II) crystallization behavior

Although shale glasses exhibit surface devitrification when heat treated, the addition of Cr2O3 to the glass enables volume crystallization to occur. The mechanisms and kinetics of crystallization for both processes are presented and found to correlate well with existing theories; the Swift equation for surface crystallization and the Johnson-Mehl equation for volume crystallization. Phase separation in the Cr2O3-containing glasses promotes the formation of an iron-chrome spinel as nuclei and leads to the development of a fine-grained glass-ceramic.
Cultivation Techniques for Terrestrial Clubmosses (Lycopodiaceae): Conservation, Research, and Horticultural Opportunities for an Early-Diverging Plant Lineage

Clubmosses (Lycopodiaceae) represent the closest living counterparts to early vascular plants, but inability to culture terrestrial taxa has made much of the clade inaccessible to ex-situ conservation, experimental research, and horticulture. In an attempt to identify conditions conducive to repeatable ex vitro culture, the utility of clayey and sandy loams amended with pumice as a medium was observed for 20 terrestrial species spanning all three subfamilies of Lycopodiaceae. Using this media class, a series of effective sporophyte cultivation and propagation techniques were developed for all 9 North American genera. Strategies are described for selection of appropriate propagules, establishment, propagation, and long-term maintenance for each genus. Sporophytes of all taxa established readily in oligotrophic, largely inorganic media under high humidity. Large clonal colonies were maintained with frequent application of weak fertilizer solution under bright light, high humidity, and year-round moderate temperatures in two greenhouses, a growth chamber, and laboratory.
Survival 15 to 20 years after coronary bypass surgery for angina

AbstractObjectives. The aim of this study was to determine the 15- to 20-year outcome of coronary bypass surgery in patients with angina.Background. Coronary bypass surgery has been performed for >...
Development of coherent Raman measurements of temperature in condensed phases

We report theoretical considerations and preliminary data on various forms of coherent Raman spectroscopy that have been considered as candidates for measurement of temperature in condensed phase experiments with picosecond time resolution. Due to the inherent broadness and congestion of vibrational features in condensed phase solids, particularly at high temperatures and pressures, only approaches that rely on the ratio of anti-Stokes to Stokes spectral features are considered. Methods that rely on resolution of vibrational progressions, calibration of frequency shifts with temperature and pressure in reference experiments, or detailed comparison to calculation are inappropriate or impossible for our applications. In particular, we consider femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS), femtosecond/picosecond hybrid coherent Raman spectroscopy (multiplex CARS), and optical heterodyne detected femtosecond Raman induced Kerr Effect spectroscopy (OHD-FRIKES). We show that only FSRS has the ability to measure temperature via an anti-Stokes to Stokes ratio of peaks.
A cytopathogenic agent isolated from naval recruits with mild respiratory illnesses.

SummarySeveral agents producing the same type of cytopathology have been isolated in monkey kidney cultures from men of a recruit company in training at Great Lakes in the fall of 1954. These isolates were obtained at the onset of mild respiratory infections and rises in neutralization titers to the prototype, 2060, followed each episode. Other increments in neutralizing antibody occurred in this and another company studied during the spring of 1955. Frequency of infection by 2060 was demonstrated by titers of neutralization found in children's sera from another locale and in pooled human gamma globulin. Characteristics of the isolate indicate that it is a relatively stable virus propagable in cultures of monkey kidney and testis and human embryo kidney with a slow rate of growth. Evidence has been presented which suggests that this agent may not have been previously described. The possibilities of etiological relationship to mild respiratory illnesses have also been discussed.
Shop un á Son Gout

An analysis of a number of books that deal with various aspects of shopping and marketing, offering insights into the way consumers are targeted by marketers and curious and fascinating aspects of consumer behavior.
Racial opportunity structures and black fertility

This paper develops and tests hypotheses about the impact of opportunity structures on black fertility across local labor markets. US Vital Statistics and Census of Population data are combined and then examined with regression techniques to estimate the effect of both race-specific and relative measures of opportunity structure on black fertility in the United States. The results show that relative female opportunity structure has a negative relationship with black total fertility rates as well as with birth rates for specific points along the reproductive age structure. However, the hypothesized relationship between relative male opportunity structures and black fertility is not supported. We discuss these results as they relate to minority fertility theory and as they relate to public policy concerns.
The Devil's in the details: Mental institutions and proper engagement

In the ''Socially Extended Mind,'' Shaun Gallagher further develops the theory, introduced in ''Mental Institutions'' (Gallagher & Crisafi, 2009), that social institutions can become part of a cognitive system. Building on first wave theories of the extended mind, Gallagher (2013) argues that just as our minds are capable of coupling with artifacts in the environment to form larger cognitive systems, our minds are also capable of coupling with social institutions. In this paper we argue that whether extending cognition in this way is fruitful comes down to the details. Systems are incredibly complex, and must be addressed at the local level where components concretely link up. Only after such work is done can we confidently claim that something as abstract as the ''legal system'' constitutes the mind.
Interactive segmentation based on the live wire for 3D CT chest image analysis

Object The definition of regions of interest (ROIs) such as suspect cancer nodules or lymph nodes in 3D MDCT chest images is often difficult because of the complexity of the phenomena that give rise to them. Manual slice tracing has been used commonly for such problems, but it is extremely time consuming, subject to operator biases, and does not enable reproducible results. Proposed automated 3D image-segmentation methods are generally application dependent, and even the most robust methods have difficulty in defining complex ROIs.
Epidemiological investigation of expressive language delay at age two

Two studies are presented investigating the feasibility of using the Language Development Survey (LDS), a vocabulary checklist completed by parents, for the epidemiological investigation of the pre...
The structure of a poly(ethylene) opposed flow diffusion flame

An opposed flow diffusion flame was used to study the burning characteristics and flame structure of high purity poly(ethylene) near extinction conditions. Special attention was paid in the experimental design to insure a uniform oxidizer velocity profile which is essential for burning conditions near extinction. The influence of the sampling probe on the location of the flame was studied through the use of shear interferometry. Structural measurements were obtained and compared with other investigations of diffusion flames. Departures from the commonly assumed collapsed flame model of laminar diffusion flames were observed in terms of excessive CO concentrations and oxygen penetration into the fuel side of the flame. An upper bound on the importance of oxygen diffusion to the fuel surface and subsequent surface oxidation was placed at twenty percent of the energy required for fuel pyrolysis, with the remainder of the energy being delivered to the surface from the flame through heat transfer processes. As the oxygen concentration in the oxidizer flow was decreased and extinction conditions approached, the CO/CO2 ratio at the flame increased slightly, the oxygen concentration at the liminous flame zone decreased, the flame stand-off distance decreased, and the flame temperature decreased. Radial similarity in the composition and temperature profiles was established experimentally which confirms predictions and greatly simplifies the modeling of the opposed flow diffusion flame.